The Holdovers - with Special Guest Brinker Harding

**SPOILER ALERT**

The soon to be Christmas movie classic, The Holdovers is discussed in this episode.  While major plot lines are not exposed, certain scenes are discussed.

***********************

Sam and his guest, lifelong friend of renowned movie director Alexander Payne,  Brinker Harding, discuss Mr. Payne's latest movie, The Holdovers..  

They discuss the shared  experience of attending a private boarding school  during their high school  years. They do a deep dive on some specific scenes of the movie that struck them in an emotional way.

Some off the record type stories are shared as they reminisce about the subculture of attending a boarding school in their formative years.  

Transcript

The Holdovers with Brinker Harding
Sat, Dec 09, 2023 1:30PM • 1:19:11
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
deerfield, people, omaha, class, interesting, year, movie, thought, boarding school, remember, campus, reunion, scene, dorm, kid, knew, sam, prep, experience, brinker

00:00
Greetings, listeners and Merry Christmas. This episode is a movie review and thoughts and then stories of my experiences of going to a similar situation.

00:11
private boarding school, I am going to give you a spoiler alert, the movie is called the holdovers. And if you're the kind of person that doesn't want to be the plot to be a little bit exposed, then you probably should not listen to this episode until after you've seen the movie. Highly recommend movie. It's very good. I would call it exceptional. We don't expose a lot of the plot, but certainly we talk about specific scenes and so forth. So hope you enjoy the episode. And just a reminder if you need to give me feedback. Instagram is kind of the place where I hang out these days. So check out cowboys not eggheads on Instagram. You can always send me a private email to cowboys, not eggheads@gmail.com Thanks. Welcome. Good cowboys. Not a good home of the brief, not home of the fearful. The world needs more cowboys and fewer acreage. We're everywhere podcasts are found. So tell your fellow cowboys and let's keep the conversation alive on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Remember to subscribe rate review and share and now cowboys not a gets we have Sam Fisher

01:34
excited to welcome my longtime friend and former client and Omaha city council member Brinker Harding to the podcast today I

01:46
thought about this one after I saw the movie The holdovers and the holdovers is an Alexander Payne film and we'll talk about brinker's relationship with Alexander here in a second but it's it's a movie about a private boarding school that in Britain and I have that shared experience of attending a private boarding school for high school. So I thought I'd bring bring her on

02:17
the basically real quickly and I would recommend anyone go see this film. I think it's I think it's really good. I'm talking about what he thinks about it, but I've seen it three times and I think it's an it's an it's going to be a Christmas classic probably set 1970 It's it follows a curmudgeon admittedly, curmudgeon Lee history teacher, an old curmudgeon, it follows an old curmudgeon of a history teacher at a New England boarding school, who was forced to chaperone the handful of students who have nowhere to go over Christmas break. And this is a very personal and striking kind of a thing for me going to a boarding school

03:01
by itself is

03:04
in and of itself. That is a subculture I believe it's a different Brinker   is not in his head. It's a different experience.

03:15
Then being a holdover on a holiday is even a different subculture. It's it's it's it's much different. Whenever everybody else leaves town and you're the only one there, it's different. And that actually did happen to me once in my time at the boarding school that I went to, I guess it's no secret we've talked about Michael.

03:39
When it actually happened to me on the very first holiday, I rolled in Mount Michael in August 1982. And the first Labor Day 1982 I was only I was one of I think one or two guys there.

03:54
And you have the whole run of the mill of the campus and as a 14 year old kid that's that that that was homesick, you know, you know, till he's blue in the face. That's a interesting experience.

04:10
And so I thought we talked a little bit about our shared experiences today  Brinker. I appreciate you being on. Tell me why. Tell me why you went to a private boarding school. Well, first of all, Sam thing, thanks for having me here today. And that's gonna be fun. I record. Last week we had my favorite person on earth on the podcast, and this week we have my second you're in a tough fight. Okay.

04:34
Sincerely my good dude. I'll see if I move up or down after this. Yeah, me too.

04:42
Yeah, so I was born and raised in Omaha and

04:47
not a lot of people from Omaha. I go to boarding schools and especially are where I went was the massachusetts school called Deerfield Academy. And it was kind of interesting. I became

05:00
Wear of it mostly through friends of my my parents who had lived in New York and Connecticut but had relocated to Omaha. And in New England, it's much more common for people to be going to boarding schools and certainly in the Midwest. Yeah. And so my, my older brother actually went there.

05:23
And we did not overlap. But so when it came time for Yeah, he was he had graduated in going to age myself here, but he graduated in 1975. Yeah. And I graduated in 1979. So

05:39
he was gone a year before I even got there. Gotcha. But it was, it was something that, you know, my parents,

05:47
you know, it was it was an opportunity that they presented to me, it was I was not required to go. And it was not a military school, which a lot of my friends wondered what I had done wrong to be sent away to a military school that was not a military school. And, but it was it was a tremendous opportunity. And, and I took them up on the offer, and it was a great experience. At the time, did you were you excited when you got accepted to deer? I bet that was I assume that the admission standards there, you have to qualify, you have to get in? Were you excited? Absolutely. No, I was excited. You know, the obviously mixed emotions. I mean, I was going to be going away to school and, you know, new experiences, but leaving my old friends, you know, that I'd grown up with and gone to high school with and played in the neighborhood with.

06:40
So, and missing out on the high school experience here in Omaha, but I did have some of that. And we can get into that later. Were you kind of a hero when you came out or not a hero? That's that's not the right word. That's not the right word.

06:55
Were you a sort of a celebrity or not a celebrity? It'd be the right word. But Enigma, and Nygma. First for Yeah, for sure. But people were excited to see you when you got home. Right? Well, I think yeah, I'll bet maybe my family.

07:14
And you came home during the summers

07:17
came home summer break, Christmas break and spring break? Oh, but you know, it's interesting in your lead up to the introduction here. You talked about being left at Mount Michael for a holiday.

07:32
I remember. And for the record, just my parents are not here to speak for themselves. So I don't I don't want anybody to think that I was quote unquote, left there or abandon i this. It was a practicality matter. They live five hours away. They had stuff to do. I never anticipated the day I would be going home for Labor Day. Yeah, it was a matter of circumstance. Sure. That was I, you know, it's part of growing up. Yeah. Yeah. So I started at Deerfield, my sophomore year of high school, and sophomore, sophomore, and that's how most people I would say most people do. So in Oh, see in my I'm sorry to interrupt. Not to interrupt, but about Michael. At the time. It was kind of like the Hotel California, you can? Well, actually, it wasn't that it wasn't even like that. There's a line from hotel called, you can check in anytime you want. Never leave. In this case, you had to check in when you were a freshman. And if you you started back then there were 45 a class of 45. And once you dropped out, you can't come back. Now that has changed over the years. You can you can now you can come and go my Michael. Which and you know, in less than less than half of the schools population is now boarding students are day students. So you know, I'm kind of the majority. I'm kind of like curmudgeon, in the sense of the Alumni Board is how the hell can this be but it's you know, things have changed and financial. So if the freshman class started out at 45, yeah, and so and chose not to come back are gone. So but no one knew could come in, though. So So by the time you got to your senior year, how many people were in your graduating class?

09:22
are sort of 32 which I was shocked at that. When I was there. I think it went as low as 27. Wow. So but that's interesting that if like being a seal, Navy Seal, buddy, you get the train.

09:37
You don't bring anyone at? That's interesting. It's not that way anymore. Okay. But that's the way it was when I was there. So at Deerfield, and I would I would say that at least the pretzels I was familiar with. Usually the freshman class was by far the smallest. Like for example, I think in my graduating class

10:00
There were 60 people in the freshman class at Deerfield. And in my, in my class graduating class, I think there were about 180. But oh, so population at least at that time? Well, yeah, everyone came in sophomore year. Hmm. So, so you had three years there. Yeah. So I had three years there.

10:20
You're You're older than I was when you went?

10:24
Well, I'm I'm just talking about ages. I mean, it seriously when you're 40 is different. I was 14, I just turned 18 in July. Okay. Oh, I see you and you and you would have been 15 Go right. Yes. Which, you know, nowadays dozen years? Not much. But when you're a teenager it is. Yeah. Well.

10:45
And what and what's more interesting, and I know maybe you and I talked a little bit about this, but they're up the hill from Deerfield is school called Eagle Brook. And Eagle Brook

10:58
was also a boarding school. But it was for basically a middle middle school.

11:06
And then there was a That's That's it. That's incredible, folks. I mean, you think about that? I mean, when did you start sixth grade? 678. Yeah. And then there was also another one. Yeah. As a sixth grader, you gotta you gotta roommate, or you got a door? What do you got? They had about 250 students, I think maybe half of them were boarding students. Yeah. And then there was but Sam, there was another school, right nearby, called the men and the men started in second grade. I don't think they had but had they had some borders, but they weren't borders until like, fourth, fifth or sixth or something like that. But, you know, it's interesting to me. You know, why? Why have kids if you're sending them off to boarding school, and you know, fourth grade or something? Was Yeah, so the folks that are there, had

11:59
they had a little bit of means. Yeah. I mean, and so they just kind of dusted those kids off. Now. So when you get there as a sophomore, are you there are kids that that are, you know, had been freshmen or had gone to all these schools? Were they were they were you an outsider them? Or were you How did that now know? You got mixed? Mixed in? Okay. Oh, yeah. Interesting. Interesting. Well, for me, it was it was, I was definitely an outsider. I mean, every most most of my classmates knew somebody simply because 85% of the kids were probably they were from the Omaha parish school. So they went to grade school with those kids are they at least knew somebody I knew absolutely zero. Number one. Number two, I wasn't Catholic.

12:50
Well, ours was a lot different. It may be in that respect, because, I mean, we had people not only from all across the country, but international students as well, too. So when you have a mixture, yeah, so when you have that influx of people coming in from New York and Florida and California, and Washington State and

13:11
Japan and Argentina, so, you know, everyone kind of, you know, brought their, their identities with them, and we all kind of just mixed together. Yeah, yeah. So me it was a little different because it wasn't that way. I mean, most people from Omaha most most everybody was Catholic. Most of them had not been to a large branch and the Sandhills majority of them had Yeah, so I was absolute. I've described myself as a proverbial proverbial turd in the touch Punchbowl doing the backstroke. I was different. So it was it was an interesting experience. But you know, it's interesting. I mean, they, everyone, I would say kind of everyone at Deerfield was kind of different two. I mean, we were like you. I mean, no one. You just said, you know, no one else had been on the ranch in the Sandhills. And there was actually one other person in my class from Omaha that went to Deerfield at the time. But what was interesting is, you remember the old New Yorker magazine cover where it showed, you know, the United view of the United States from the East Coast. And it was like, you know, the New York and Connecticut and everything right? And then they showed California and then this great void in the middle fare shoot on it. So why Oregon? So the question I got asked probably the most, you know, when you're just chatting when introducing it, like, oh, well, you know, you're from Nebraska, you're from, you know, what does your dad work for Mutual of Omaha? Oh, of course, because that was a massive presence or Yeah. Is your dad a farmer? Oh, yeah. Are you Yeah. Do you live in with cows or yeah, do paved streets right now. Some of them some of those mean spirited questions. They were I think they were actually

14:59
there

15:00
Glee. Exactly, yeah. Interesting.

15:04
So you have

15:07
to kind of tie the listeners wise Brinker on the show. Well, not only did he go to a small boarding school, he's also been friends with the director of this film Alexander Payne for your whole life essentially. And

15:23
I think that's interesting now Alexander Payne went to prep is that right? Creighton prep he did. I thought he went to Deerfield but he did not do it shot and so but this movie was one of five locations was Deerfield where Brinker went to school. Now you saw the movie and

15:43
and so and just so people know if you if you look at the trailer of this movie, just go to youtube look at it or in the movie itself.

15:51
Mr. Payne gave a little tribute to his friends from Omaha and Brinker is one of them. And so when when this guy is the history teachers handing out the test results, says Brinker  Harding d plus. So now I only got a D, was it a D? I didn't even get the deep. Yeah. And I had a private conversation with Mr. Payne about that. I wasn't happy about it, but I won't I won't reply. What he unless you want me to. Yeah, I know. And so, Alexandra, and I, I kind of said when my friend Brinker deserves better than a D. And he just looked at Mr. Payne looked at me and said, well, not until he changes his politics.

16:30
Well, and that's where maybe, maybe friendship supersedes politics because Alexander has contributed to my campaign before so yeah, I just I definitely took it with a grain of salt. But he so he and I have, you know, break our heart into the How does break or No, Alexander. So he and I met I think it was in kindergarten. So we went to, we went to grade school together.

16:55
Up until I think sixth grade. And then he went to Lewis and Clark for I think 678 And then he went to prep. And I stayed at I was at brown owl and I said at Brown L through eighth grade and then knowing I was going to be going to Deerfield my sophomore year and so let's there's no no brown out is Talbot is not a public school. It's a private school and it's one of the best private schools in the city for middle school, I would think. Right? Yeah, I think as a good reputation interesting. I didn't know that. Okay, so knowing knowing that I was going to go to Deerfield my sophomore year, and we had very small classes at Brownell and most of the guys in my class we're gonna be going into prep because no one really stuck around Brownell for they have high school, but no one in my class was really going to stick around for for high school. So I thought, okay, you know what?

17:55
I'm gonna go to prep to even though I know, I'm gonna leave after my freshman year. So I actually went to prep for a year for a year my freshman year, but, but before that, after Alexander left to go, even to Lewis and Clark, which is a public school here, right? You know, we've stayed in contact, and I do remember, there was one time

18:16
we were probably in seventh or eighth grade, somewhere in there. And he calls me up and he's like, Hey, I'm going over to to UNO. There's a Fellini film festival going on. You want to go and I'm like,

18:28
I don't we can't swear here. Can't We? Sure you can. Oh, okay. Like I don't know what that was. Felina you know?

18:35
I'm like, but okay, they got popcorn. I'll go. So I remembered the movie. I don't know it was on record. I think I pronounced pronounced that right. But

18:46
I was I was looking at this sam I'm like, what, what is this stuff and but my point is, I mean, he had a very, very early he Yeah, he absolutely did and incredibly talented guy he loves

19:02
He He just I think he loves Omaha and and he likes to put out about Omaha references in in his movies and

19:12
and the scene that you described or Giamatti who plays the teacher, he's handing back the blue books, the exam books, right blue books, yeah. And in my name is on one of them and how Coke or Harry Coke is another name and how and how's probably Alexander's best friend. But how who's also from Omaha? You get an F did he? What do you give Him? He got the f plus.

19:39
I don't know how you get up plus.

19:42
So he so how and Alexander and I all call each other. We still to this day call each other on our birthdays. Yeah, that's cool.

19:52
And Alexander lives here in town

19:56
or has a place in town here and he's here a lot his mom

20:00
Um, is still alive she's 100 years old.

20:03
And you know it's so those little things that he throws in are kind of fun he told me

20:12
so you mentioned too so the the film was filmed at a number of locations Deerfield was was one of them. And in the movie, I would tell you and I've only seen it once. But so I need to see it again too, because I was probably probably busy trying to look for the scenes that were at Deerfield right maybe right paying attention.

20:32
But

20:34
a number of the outside campus scenes were at Deerfield and exterior shots. Yeah, I think most of the interiors were at at some others. Okay, so you didn't I was gonna ask you if you recognize those dorm rooms or those classroom No, those weren't those were not our dorm. Okay, now so when they're out doing the exercise thing and then the glove and the water shot.

21:01
You think goes that was all Deerfield my man the glove in the water? Trying to remember that? Well, the older kid Oh, we threw in the Yeah. That one. That one was not an airfield. Okay. I mean, I know for for example, like the opening scene, I hope I'm not blowing it for the opening scene where the guy is shoveling the snow in front of the building that airfield? That's our that was our administrator while you've walked down that sidewalk? I don't know, that's actually like creeps a little bit.

21:29
No, because it No, it didn't was last time you were there. I was gonna say because I have actually gone back. So it's kind of interesting. So our class

21:40
was was we were told by our headmaster at the time that we were the worst class that had ever been.

21:48
Our class took pride in that fact. Well, so we started wearing it as a badge of honor. Yeah. And it was, by the way, that's probably not something that reverse psychology that or just just doesn't work at a boarding Yeah, yeah. So it got to the point where Mr. Pynchon was was the headmaster when I was there, and I think he said something about we were tearing the fabric of the community or something like that. So that became one of our,

22:18
I guess, logos or slogans was to, you know, tear the fabric and, and it was, we were, we were kind of a rambunctious group as a whole to the point where, even after we graduated

22:35
there's, you have your reunions every fifth year. So every every class on that five year rotation is there. So you're back there with the kids on the fifth year reunion and 25th reunion and they're all there at the same time. But what they do is they have this award called the agree cup.

22:55
And the cup is given to the class with the highest percentage of participation at the reunions. Okay, so we started we're like, you know, they, they don't like us, but we're gonna start showing up at the reunions and we've won the augury cup. I don't know how many. Everybody's there. Yeah. So then, right before COVID Was that so that was last time I was there. It was. So what's sprint? 19? Yeah. 1919. Okay.

23:26
So we have 24. Yeah, I'm going back to spring. So we want it in 19. And then COVID kicks in, but I forgot to say you're only you're given the cup that night. And then you're supposed to give it back? Well, of course we kept it.

23:44
Right. You did so. So then

23:50
COVID heads, and they don't they don't even have reunion next year on for well, they they're like he got to bring it back before the next. You know, reunion. So we can award it, they finally figured out we had it. And so then it was like, Okay, well, we've had it for a year. And we're gonna have it for another year because there aren't, you know, there aren't any reunions this year because of COVID. So someone got the wise idea of

24:16
you remembered Flat Stanley,

24:18
where Flat Stanley was this thing where kids would you know, it was kind of a flat piece of paper or a piece of paper that had this caricature of someone named Stanley. And they would give it to kids in school grade school or something, wherever they went, they were supposed to take a picture of, you know, like if they were going on a trip or something on the shelf kind of a thing, kinda kind of. So someone got the wise idea of, you know, someone had taken a picture of it when they were like at Fenway Park or something like that, right? And someone said, hey,

24:50
if anyone wants to take a picture of the agri cup, wherever you are doing whatever you're doing, we'll send it to you. So

25:00
The cup made its way around the world basically.

25:06
And so when I had them send it to me, and the picture I took was, was on the deck at the US swim trials. Nice, you know, I had the cup sitting on one of the starting blocks and had the Olympic rings and everything behind it. And people would take it to, like I said, to Fenway, or to you know, you name it, but it basically it really went around the world, I think, you know, it went to Japan. And then, so they took only if only your class members had it, right, and we had to take the picture and send it back. Well, then, then they made a book out, you know, I did the whatever. They're the I forget what the pictures you send into the book company, and they make the book and everything so.

25:53
So we finally did give it back to him afterwards. But that's funny. That's a great story. Yeah, our class was.

26:01
Yeah, we were peaches. In our reunions. We don't and 2016. Nobody went. Is that right? And the alumni guy at the time called me or gal, they called me. So can you hustle some of your classmates up for nobody's? RSVPed? I'm like, Well, no.

26:18
I mean, if they you know, and they we have in past years, but yeah, and one year we I think our 25th 2011 There was a big prep, like a prep Marion reunion going on at the same time. And that weekend, and we all we basically all we all ate and then just left, I mean, just totally rude. Yeah, very dislike

26:41
characteristic of our class. But anyway, that was so the other

26:47
the other, I guess, monetarily lived by was, we'd rather be routed and be on come Laude was was another one that I ice. And, and again, it was like, you know, they they said we were you know, such a horrible group. And I mean, they called us in had like a special assembly, you know, just for our class and, and the headmaster is going on about, you know,

27:10
how derelict we were. And, you know, probably our grades weren't good and whatever, but, but I would tell you, Sam, that really, it really kind of became

27:20
we became a lot closer. And to this day,

27:24
we just a good friend of mine from from Deerfield just just passed away a long three year battle with with cancer.

27:33
And our class agents are great. I mean, there's, they're basically three of them who do this, anytime someone's you know, need something, or there's passed away or, you know, there's, we all get the email right away, and actually, in our last reunion, because, you know, we're getting older and some people are passing away and not going to be able to make it back.

28:04
We didn't want to wait for the 50th

28:07
and so that's why on this last one was our 40th Why we tried to, you know, make it was like, Okay, those are

28:14
not going to be much of you know, be fewer around. So let's make 40 The new 50 Or wait, let's make 5040 the new 50. Right. And, and I was I was you know, that's one of the reasons why we had such good turnout then, and now it's like, you know, after this rich diver just passed away.

28:35
You know, that's like, Hey, by the way, we got another reunion coming up anyone pray to go and just like that, you know, there are probably 50 people have already responded that Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So the Renegades are actually made a

28:51
deeper maybe a little tighter fraternity. Yeah, and there's I mean, there are a lot of people in you know, in different markets or cities that you know that they're around more of, you know, the classmates you know, I'm here in Omaha and there are no you know, none of my classmates here but but we all stay in touch to some to some degree some level

29:13
which is which is really cool. And when I went there it was it was single sex. i Yeah, I actually was on your alumni site today. It's all these like women like on the alumni board i Wait a minute. Yeah, that so yeah, I would say wait all male. Which we?

29:30
Which Yeah, I mean, enhances the experience when you're that young and your

29:38
girls are out

29:40
the movie the kind of what did you think of the movie? I need to get it? I did I get it first on the first take? Is no one. I would tell you though, my reaction was it was

29:52
I'm not sure what the word I really want is but I think it was more emotional than I thought it was. Yeah, to be. I mean, I gotta tell you, I mean, there

30:00
Some, there's some great lines in there. There's some funny scenes that are saying are some prep things there? Are there are. Yeah. Did you? Did you recognize them? Or names that were thrown out? Or no, I think there was some reference. Well, there are a lot of I think there's some references to his Latin class, right that prep.

30:22
But it was

30:24
it Well, first of all, I think that I'm not a movie critic or anything, but I mean, the character development was absolutely incredible. I mean to it was in the main student, the one hold over. No, there were, like six or seven at first and there were goes down to one. Yeah, he was an he's an actual student at Deerfield. He is no acting experience. Well, no, no. Yeah. I mean, he was

30:51
in front of a camera. No, no. Unbelievable. Yeah. So and paint himself pick the kid out. He did. So which is interesting if you think back, and now I can't remember the kid's name or Angus. No, no, no, no, no. No. In in the movie election. Oh, election. Remember the the Reese? Witherspoon's? Yeah, opponent. I can't. He was Chris Klein, Chris Klein. Chris Klein was from Omaha. Yeah, it was Yeah. And million. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Little known fact maybe the I wasn't really the first kind of Harding. That ended up in one of Alexander's movies. My brother's stepdaughter was one of the students in one of the classes she actually had a line in intellection. But very nice. That was that was kind of cool. My gym Buddies is in the is in the gym scene. And he

31:48
true story. He has his back in his drinking days. He's been sober for 15 years now. But anyway, he was like in college and there was a radio call. There's no radio, like if you wanted to go to the you know, being a movie go down to the gym or pillion today, and he was they were they were on it on a bender. And, and it's like 18 or 19. And he's he's in a movie election too. And they aren't they got they filmed them. And you can see them and then they got thrown out. But anyway, yeah. Interesting. Yeah. I mean, it's pretty cool. So I paint ties all that stuff. Yeah. I mean, when you say emotional, I did, too. I mean, there's there's three or four sneezes actually want to talk about? What do you what do you mean by that? I mean, it was just, it was moving. I mean, yes. I thought the story itself is moving. Yeah. And but the other thing is,

32:39
you know, it's, I would say that it's probably pretty predictable where the film is going to go. Sure. But

32:47
it's the way the characters are developed and interact with with each other that I think is, that's more important than where, you know, everyone knows the movie is probably going to go right. I agree. And it's slow. I mean, I will tell you, it's slow. It's not fast. It's slow. And that's that's one of his,

33:06
he makes really no apologies for that. I mean, it does his part. And that's, that's why you get that character development, I think. Well, and that's why he filmed it that way, too. I mean, if you actually think they filmed it, in some movie houses still have 35 millimeter projectors. They filmed it on 35. So what were you probably saw it? It was it was not it was, you know, the no other format. Yeah, the normal format. But, you know, it's kind of grainy. I mean, that's an elders field for sure. I mean, they did a really good job with the, with the cars and the interior, all of it.

33:47
When the Pops, you know, I remember when you're younger, and you go the movies and you hear the Pops and the things like right, I mean, it was they did the way they use the filtering, they use the lighting they use kind of the graininess of you know the scenes

34:03
you felt like an even when you saw the trailer youth that was like a trailer that no one's seen in 15 years, because there's no big flashing and I actually think the trailer is poor, but really, I do I love filmmaker friend of mine, who is actually the producer of this podcast also thinks is for but

34:25
I mean, it gives you what makes you think it's a comedy film. I mean, you think you think it's pure comedy, it's anything but anything but

34:34
it's a deep movie. It's very deep. So there there are a couple scenes that I just I just wanted to talk about one was

34:41
can you and I make I think I already told you this. But do you remember I told you I think there's there's there's a scene in there where I've seen the movie three times. I'm glad I have because I couldn't quite once the scene happened I couldn't quite get past it.

34:56
For me, I call it the scene of devastation. Do you know what scene that that

35:00
would have been?

35:01
No.

35:03
It was when everybody

35:07
focused Star Wars screwed up the plot here, but

35:11
it's basically when the other five fly off or the other six fly off and Angus can't get ahold of his parents and he's stuck in this flat. The helicopter is going off and there he is. Yeah. Devastated that scene. Fricking crushed me, crushed me.

35:27
Because I, I I know what I know what he was feeling rancor, feelings on this podcast. But I mean, I knew where he was coming from, you know? Yeah. I don't know if that trail at all. It did it. Well, I'll tell you what, it did conjure up kind of a memory. And when you were talking about your labor day experience.

35:52
So when I was a sophomore, I mean, the original plan was, you know, I'd come home for Christmas break. And I was I was supposed to do Thanksgiving break, which wasn't that long. I was gonna go with one of my dorm mates to his parents house and but then all of a sudden, everyone that's it's like, the first time everyone's getting away from school, right? At being a boarding school. Right. And everyone's you know, happy and getting ready to leave and the whole bit as like, holy shit. I'm not going home. Right. I'm going to some stranger say I have no right God. Well, I knew the guy. Yeah. And I remember.

36:36
Kinda hope no one uses this against me at some point. But I remember going to my my dorm master and saying, I need to go home. I need to call my parents home sicker than Oh my god. I cried on the phone long enough that my dad finally gave in and Oh, you went I went? Wow. See, I must be a good crier.

37:01
I don't. That's interesting that the crying thing I never there were the other scene that got to me was that the Japanese kid who cried him was upset at night. Yeah, that's rough. Yeah, because that's real. Yeah, absolutely real. I didn't happen to me. I don't recall crying myself to sleep. I don't recall in our freshman year we had.

37:24
It was a big dorm room, big dorm room. It had 45 deaths and 22 bunk beds and a single bed holies all in the same room. And so everybody was in the same room. And so you didn't want to be I know, there were guys. I heard guys cry it and but I didn't. I didn't want to be that guy. And I, I didn't cry myself asleep. And I thought to myself, did I ever cry there and I remember one time I did. I remember calling home on a weekend. It was on a weekend everybody else's. There's like maybe three or four of us there a holdover for the weekend. Because everybody went home on the weekends.

37:59
Where I call my call my mom and these pay phones, which by the way, there was four pay phones, right? And if you're a freshman, you're not going to get on that frickin phone on the weekend. I could have them because nobody's there. But those seniors the class at three. Those jokers, there's no way you're going to. I mean, there's a lot of haters. It's

38:21
there's no way I was gonna get on that phone. And so I didn't. I couldn't help call home during the week because I couldn't I couldn't get a phone. Yeah. But I remember getting a phone I was by myself in the student unit mount Michael. It's still there. And where these phones are. There's there's now a trophy case. But

38:40
yeah, I remember calling home and just talking to my mom and just normal. But then I just started just I just broke down. Yeah, I mean, it's rough. The. And then just recently, my brother brought up some I can't believe I'm telling people this, but what the hell. There should be a couch in here for this what this podcast is, but it's my therapy. It truly is.

39:00
My brother recently discovered some letters that I'd written home in 1982.

39:05
I mean, so I went through though. I went through those and you're like, Whoa, did I really write? Did I really write that? I mean, I just I said some of the effect of

39:17
I only cried once today. I only cried once today, and it was the middle of Spanish class or something?

39:24
I don't know. But I don't remember writing that. Nor do I remember crying in the middle of the day. But I gotta tell you, I mean, I talked to guys in our class.

39:35
Years later, I mean, it's Doctor guy a couple years ago and this guy was the you know, he was the most athletic guy in our class. He was the starting quarterback and he told me Oh, I got up at six o'clock every morning. So like he was from out of town today. He lived from he was from Gothenburg, but he he called his mom at 6am. He goes I cried every morning. Wow. I'm like, Well, you did I mean like I think

40:00
I thought had it all together now. And that's kind of going to boarding school all these years and the COVID thing we've there's a chain of us like four or five of us, that all sudden we're going on text chain here for last five years drives me crazy. Sorry, guys, but

40:15
we start talking and we talk about other guys we've talked to and so forth. And then end of the day, we're all bunch of scared, kids were scared to death, all of us were the same. And so that's kind of what that culture is all about. I mean, the real deep side of it. And so that's why it hit me those two scenes hit me that the helicopter scene and that kid, you know, cryosleep those that that that shit is real. Those are real deals. But were there you said you had foreseen? I thought so far, I'm graduating, okay.

40:49
Oh, this isn't really a scene. But it was a note that I wrote down immediately. I mean, the interaction in the dorms the first opening, 510 minutes. Square on what?

41:03
square off? That's how those guys talk to each other. And all of it. I mean, it's just square on. I mean, there's guys that are, that are the jocks that have got, you know, a little standing, you know, you wouldn't want to mess with them. There are guys that are that are clearly a little more vulnerable, or more weak in stature. When you're 14, you could be five feet tall, or you could be six feet tall. Yeah, you know, and I was lucky enough that I was I was among the top fourth as far as being my size. And but it has everything to do with it. It really does, you know, in the pecking order of things, and all the other part of the pecking orders we had to a class and the B class and a guys were the real smart guys. And the B classes, which I was in weren't quite as smart. And so

41:49
they there's just all of that, that's how they had to get divided up was so Wait, yeah, if you only had so there was basically 2223 in each class. Right. Right. So are any room so to speak was Yeah, okay. Was was half right. So all your classes, whether you were in algebra or biology, I was in the beat, but you were always

42:10
okay, whatever. Yeah, yeah. See, ours was ours was kind of different. I mean, we had some, you know, we had core classes that we had to take, but we also had some electives we had to take alright. I don't know if if you've lease on part of the campus, but that probably didn't show a lot of the newer buildings because the it's like, the facilities at Deerfield today. And back then were great. But today they are I mean, its rivals, you know, probably in the mount micromolar game right now. I mean, I'm just like, What do you know? It's, well, we didn't have those great facilities out there at all. I mean, I'm an alumni board. Association. I learned in a meeting one day that the freshmen have air conditioning. I'm like, What do you know what the hell is this?

42:55
You were talking about your room arrangements. Ours was a lot different. Like Well, we it sophomore is you're an upperclassman you get a roommate. Yeah, room and a roommate. So well, ours was, I mean, most of the time I was there. Most of the rooms were individual rooms. And but they were you know, they're fairly small.

43:18
You know, there's basically room for a bed. That's, you know, kind of a five by five closet or something like that. Yeah. And, and a desk and yeah,

43:29
it was interesting, too, so, and our dorms being in Deerfield, in a historic village. And, and a lot of the buildings had been repurposed over time, like, my senior year, I was a proctor in a dorm that was called Dean Hall. And Dean Hall originally was a sheep barn.

43:51
This is real folks.

43:53
I mean, the movie when they moved them out when they like, We're not staying in your regular where you were going to the infirmary.

44:00
Real

44:04
Infirmary was horrible. And I was there on the weekends, they just shut the lights off. Yeah. So I mean, it's insane. You're 14 years old. There's no lights on in this humongous facility. You've been out to be a little daunting. Yeah. The

44:19
the and then I think every dorm that I lived in is gone. Now. They've all been raised and replace. And now most of them are probably a little more like college setups or like suites with a common area and a bags of change. Believe it or not, things have changed last 40 fams. So one of the things I did want to tell you about to going back I'm sorry, I'm taking the weight now. Yeah.

44:44
Was I talked about? I think I teased a little bit earlier saying something I'll talk about my senior year or going to high school in Omaha later.

44:58
So as a senior

45:00
You're, we could do a project in the winter or spring semester, you weren't required to, but you could submit a project and a board would approve it or not. And as I said, it was single sex at the time, but they were experimenting with CO education. So the winter term of my senior year, they they were shipping 60 girls from I think it was Emma Willard or I can't remember which prep school it was, it was an all girls school. Yeah. To Deerfield. And they were just so they had to find a place for you know, those 60 girls who and and some guys went, you know, it was like an exchange, they went to Emma Willard or whatever. And some guys, you know, went on their projects, and my dorm was, was being displaced, because that's where they're gonna have, you know, some of the girls. And I thought to myself, you know, okay, I've been out here for a couple of years. My father had passed away during, during my junior year. Shan and I thought, You know what,

46:11
I'm gonna have to move dorms. And you don't, I might, I might think about spending some time in Omaha. So I came up with this idea that I would I submitted a proposal that said I would go to the high school, that I would have gone to have not been at Deerfield and compared public education and private education at the high school level.

46:36
And they're like,

46:38
genius, they frickin bots. Love that. Go Brinker gone to the a bot that Well, here's the here's, here's the one hook. Here's my dear mother paying good money

46:54
for me to go to this nice prep school in Massachusetts. And here I am back in Omaha going to West Side. But she's still paying my tuition to go to Deerfield have. So I was an exchange student at Westside. I hope they made you write a paper. So I did. I was an exchange student website from basically Chris and the Christmas break until beginning of spring break. And then I went back for my spring semester and 79 McNulty had already been there. Now. God, he's a lot older.

47:24
But it was. Yeah. So I had to. I had to send a weekly well, back then, you know, there wasn't a faxing or text or email. I mean, I had to mail weekly report back to my my sponsor did this for a year. No. Why was it for two and a half months? Okay, two months? Yeah, it was from Christmas, right. And Christmas, basically, first of January until,

47:48
you know, March or somewhere in March or something like that. And it was what's interesting, too, that I there. I used to swim. And so.

47:59
So it was a I swam for West Side my senior year. And we beat prep by the Deerfield, swim team. Oh, yeah, we did. But I You know what it was, again, it was like, I just I just thought I needed a little, you know, break at the time. And I came up with a good idea. I thought and, but it's really no, it's interesting, though, because I still to this day, you know, that was almost 45 years ago, I still to this day, remember a lot of my concluding paper that I that I had to submit? And, you know, it was it was interesting. I mean, it I would say, you know, at West Side, you know, there were there was if you were motivated, self motivated, or you're helped to be motivated by your parents. There were all the opportunities in the world to take advantage of the curriculum and extracurriculars at a place like West Side are really quite frankly, you know, most public schools in Omaha or any high school in Omaha, but if you weren't, you can slide by.

49:05
Whereas I would say you know, and in an environment like Deerfield Eden, you can slide by by slip off. Yeah. I mean, yeah, that's Yeah, he'd slip off. Yeah, you're right. There's a slider was also kind of the easy, easy, kind of,

49:25
I guess, points to bring up about well, Deerfield was single sex and you know, Westside obviously wasn't so then, you know, it was like, you know, nice to be around the girls. Everyone's doing. Yeah, well, you're right. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it. I was I was in college, and in my first I can't remember what it was like, English class and like five girls sat around, where I was sitting like,

49:52
you know, and I'm freaking, you know, 18 years old. I didn't know how to handle it. So you know, crazy. Well, one of the things

50:00
was going to ask you about was it's not a scene but

50:04
I wrote down a note and that was there's always one guy. There's always one guy breaker. There's always one guy said he could and then see there you go. I mean your class on like Renegades anyway.

50:17
Where do you fit in that? Where you like, go along to get along kind of guy where you're wherever like, hey, we might want to three think this kind of guy or did you cheer Teddy on go Teddy go? There's always one guy. Yeah. And that's the culture that develops.

50:34
Obviously, you know,

50:36
what's the book Lord of the Flies? I mean, think about in Dead Poets Society, all these movies. There's always one guy. Yep.

50:45
I don't know exactly what I mean by that. Right. I know what you mean. But I don't know if I fit into any of the three categories you just threw out? I was.

50:56
Huh, that's interesting. Now I'm gonna have to get on the couch and bare my soul. Yeah.

51:04
Wow, what a great question. I you know, Sam, I was

51:10
I think part of going there. Certainly, I guess, cactuses getting the my family dynamics. I'm the I'm the third kid of four. And it went, you know, oldest boy, right? Only girl, me? youngest kid, right. youngest boy.

51:31
And I always I was always kind of the black sheep of the family. I was the more independent one and maybe the one who was your own tested the limits and, and, and took that as a badge of honor as well. Right. So I think when I went there, you know, I already had kind of a, an independent streak. And and I think that helped me a lot in in acclimating into the environment and the people. Yeah.

52:02
So I guess another way to ask that would be like, Were you trying to stay out of trouble or did you like, Ah, we're gonna get in trouble. Moon will be okay.

52:12
Yeah, I have a look. I was that was not an angel.

52:16
You know, we got I was, I was so there was stuff that went on there. I didn't know about. I know we were we all.

52:27
Did you smoke cigarettes a year? No. You know, I was never a smoker. Really? Okay. But there were kids there the dead. Oh, god. Yeah. I mean, but actually, I think he got in the shower. I mean, it was just fricking. Everybody knew he was think you could if you had permission from your parents. There is 70 Still, yeah.

52:46
No, there was never booze. Was there ever booze? Oh, god. Yeah, I had no clue there was booze on our campus. It was so frightened. I would have been like, Oh, my God, we can't have this in our room, or I was I would have been very square about it. There. There was. I would tell you, it was probably I wish it would have. I mean, honestly, it was a couple of days there and I would have liked to have.

53:12
Well, that's okay. I was gonna bring that up beers were kind of, if you think about it, that was probably what most people probably would have drank. But getting a case of beer onto the campus was a lot harder than getting a bottle of Jack Daniels on the campus.

53:31
Because, you know, so usually when you had a lot of people, what if you had 180 in your graduating class? That means that there was six or 800 people or one time, right? Yeah, I think I think the opportunity stuff would have been a lot bigger. Yeah. But but we never had more than 150 on campus that I recall. Is that right? Yeah. So usually after, you know, Christmas break or spring break, you know,

53:57
pantries get restocked. Well, God, what are the things that people used to do to? As I mentioned, Deerfield is in this historic village.

54:06
And it's in the middle of come tuck Valley. And in the fall, I mean, it's quintessential, you know, New England foliage in the in the tour buses that line up the mile road that runs through the historic village, just bumper to bumper. So one of the things that they have up there too, are a lot of apple orchards. And so we used to take the apple cider. I've racked my mind because I know it gives back to the class I know exactly where this is going. And wait, you know

54:40
25 days chemistry.

54:44
Word That's a surprise. None of us to hide from it. But we Yeah, but we see you kind of buzz once or twice at Deerfield. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it was.

54:54
I don't know. It was. It was. We even had we had

55:00
We had a Jack Daniels club

55:04
I don't know how we got away with this but we actually in our was it our senior Junior here anyway you could put your Will my group pictures in there or something like that is in addition to you know the you know the other headshots and things like that we actually got them to allow us to put our Jack Daniels club picture in there it was obvious is the sky is blue right now there was were there a big rules about that kind of stuff. Would you get thrown out of school? Oh, God. Yes. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I mean, Michael rules were like, No, we should at the time they were rigid. I mean, I read them and I was like, petrified, I was petrified of the rules.

55:49
There was no I mean I

55:51
did is I took the Lord's name in vain and a freakout of yelling at another kid who was jacking around with me. And I told him that did you get demerits? No, but the Father Charles was the principal at the time happened to be in that stairway at the stairwell. Oh, and I'm like, Oh, I thought, Oh, boy. I'm like, I'm done for you know, he let it go. But that's like the worst thing that I remember ever doing about Michael. I

56:16
think statute of limitations is probably run off by now.

56:21
My, like, I would say maybe your as your former political adviser. That's not Yeah.

56:27
Two weeks, probably two weeks before two or three weeks before graduation.

56:33
A bunch of us went up this place called the hill which was up the hill. There was an old there was a house that on campus or off campus off campus to go off campus. No, yeah, but let me tell let me let me remind me to tell you the story about Sam sock. Alaskey. All right. Okay, so we'd go we went up to the hill.

56:55
We had a bunch of beer we're trying again, you know, just shooting the shit and reminiscing about our years at Deerfield and, and got back to the dorm again, where I was at Proctor. And one of the other guys I was with was probably like the leader of lace. But yeah, so we show up and we're supposed to do check in the door master knew. And he I mean,

57:18
he could have he could have ended it all for us there. Yeah. And he didn't. But that was that's about as close as I came to getting caught. That was. But the SAM Sokolowski story was Sam was a swimmer, too. And we did. We did have some day students, not very many. And Sam lived in Greenfield, Massachusetts, which is five miles away.

57:45
And I can't remember why but swim practice or something got cancelled that day. And so Sam had driven to to campus that day. And then Dan Goss and Tim Jenkins and I wanted to get away for a little bit. So Sam's like, Okay, I'll take you somewhere. So we got into Sam's car totally against the rules. Put like blankets or coats or whatever over how did you get the keys? No, Sam. Sam had the car. Sam was a day student all a day guy. Okay. Sam was a day. So I mean, because I couldn't get the keys. If I wanted to. I could have to break into a priests room to get on the keyboard. Yeah, you know it as they said, every Friday they'd have the key. That's how you got your GIS that every Friday all the keys are there so I couldn't even get in the keys. So anyway, so since this is a wild adventure, yeah, you're you know, you got the keys to somebody's car B you're taking that car off campus like this is total danger for me. Now there were so anyway, we just, we were like laying down on the floorboards or blankets over us and got away from campus that day. The other then you were also allowed to leave campus on weekends, but you're limited to how many you could do that. But you're also limited by your you had you had to do a sport every semester to so you might have had games on the weekend. Right? You're busy.

59:11
I remember one time we there were four of us. And we were going down to Amherst, which was just, you know, 2025 minutes down the road to visit some guy. Some graduates from Deerfield. They're in the class in front of us and are older than us. And so we wanted to go down there and maybe experienced a little college life. So you were you had to submit your plans for the weekend if you're going and how we're getting there and who was responsible and I don't remember exactly how we got away with it, but we we ended up hitchhiking, we went out to like the highway

59:52
that we took we took a cab to like the you know up the road a little bit so no, none of the teachers would would see us

1:00:00
We get out and we hitchhiked down to Amherst. And then the the bet we had was we're like, okay, four of us can't go together. That's no one's going to pick us up. We'll go to and two, but the deal was, whoever, whoever got to Amherst, last the twosome had to buy the beer for the weekend.

1:00:25
See, that's, that's, that's dangerous for me that all that sounds very dangerous and like, I wouldn't have the Gunas I don't think to do that. So did you? Are you surprised to hear these words coming out of my mouth? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. I mean, this is what this culture kind of does to you in a way. I mean, I'm not saying I'm a victim, you're not a victim. No, no, no. I'm glad I went there made me man in a hurry. It was when I was a man a lot quicker. And most people are an age, you know, 18 year old, you know, so I go to college, 18 and UCLA. So you know, friends of mine are like homesick as hell. And they like what are you? It's time to party. I mean, I was I was way past all that. Yeah. So I mean, it forces you to grow up quickly. No, it doesn't. I mean, no, this No. I mean, I was no angel, too, I guess. You know, I usually stay with a couple of families, friends of mine, or whatever. And so that's majority during the weekend, you know,

1:01:23
and

1:01:25
sometimes I might not have a place to go. So I had to finagle where I was no way I was gonna stay at that place. Yeah. And so I had to finagle away to get off campus and so I would lie and say, I'm going to so and so's house and then I wouldn't go there and I was I slept in my car. Wow.

1:01:45
I mean, I belonged to the west ribs club. So I

1:01:50
Yeah, shower that shower there. I was good. And sometimes my friends it was an adventure for them. So they they say well, I'm going you know I'm saying Tom's house well I'm saying it Ron's house or whatever. And so we would they stay with me in my car. Oh my God. And so

1:02:08
and I would I would be very I was very safe about it. I was very methodical about where we're in the hell am I gonna park this car for the night where I safe? That's crazy. And so I would I would park the car in like a parish parking lot somewhere. Marriott queen was always my favorite place. Well, the problem was one Saturday morning we woke up I mean, I think I woke up on the horn.

1:02:33
I get up and the entire parking lot is full of cars. It's like an All Saints Day. Now I can't believe that somebody nowadays have you will see for high school kids in a car sleeping. You would think you'd somebody went out we were fine. Nobody gave us you're off. We're fine. And and I was at one time was it was 120,000.

1:02:54
Maples, a tranquility? Yeah. Tranquility. Yeah. I was out there. In the soccer field. I was like one of the dangerous place I go, because at that time that's on the edge of town. Right. But it was dark. And it was great. And one night, I had a blanket over me and I heard this.

1:03:12
And I just didn't move. I didn't move. And you know, and also you could see this light is flashing on me. And I'm just like, Oh, God, please. Yeah, it was the police. They drove off. I was lucky. They apparently just thought I was. Yeah, they couldn't see me because that blanket. Yeah, but I did not move. But that's about the craziest thing. Now years later, my parents found I did that my dad I think physically vomited.

1:03:39
But I don't think it was an adventure. It wasn't.

1:03:43
You know, it isn't think about it, you know, or you're surviving or you're just, you know, I just, I just didn't want to stay at that frickin school. Yeah, it just didn't want to do you find ways to survive? You do? I mean, and that's the lessons you get out of them. So

1:03:58
if I could touch for a second about the academia standards, Michael clearly it was very, it was tough. And we had guys dropped simply because they couldn't make grades or the Watermaker age or whatever. And I was, you know, I, I'm not the smartest, that was not the smartest guy there. I made the honor roll like four times, which is like the highlight of my existence about Michael. But I graduated 3028 out of 32 Guys, you know, 2.8 GPA. And so that was a big part of it and amount Michael, there was a there was super study hall every single night. You know, you were mandatory to be in a study hall every single night. And

1:04:39
you know, we had homework every night and it was some of the times it was it was it's it wasn't easy, I mean physics and you know, it's college prep school physics and what was its junior year was a toughest year academically it was physics and calculus and you know, like, econ. It was yeah, all that stuff I was better at but

1:05:00
Anyway, did they did you have homework every night? Did they? Did they assign homework over the weekends? Did they? Yes, they did over the weekend. Yeah, we'd never I don't ever remember where we had that was the one freedom we had. We did not have homework. Not only that I bought over holiday break like they didn't this movie.

1:05:20
Yeah, no, I know. Because our semesters ended at you know, classrooms at heart. It was a heartbreak. Yeah. So, no, we didn't know we had we had homework. Every night, we had homework over the weekends, I'll tell you one of the other things we added on the weekends, which it was called sing.

1:05:39
And on Sunday night, after dinner, you had to attend sing, it was basically a kind of a campus assembly. And it was usually like they'd bring a speaker in, or they'd bring maybe

1:05:55
some, you know, some traveling musical show than have them do a couple scenes or something like that. But you are you are required to go to sing if you are if you are not away for the weekend, and you were on campus, you got to go to sing after after dinner on Sunday night.

1:06:14
And actually, you know, so

1:06:17
I don't know how they do it now. But when I was there, I mean, we had, you know, the dining room, which was where we all ate. And there were tables of 10. And you would rotate who had to serve. So everyone would be seated and one person had to get up and go to the kitchen and get all the the shepherd's pie for the whole, you know, eat family style and the you know, the outsides and everything and,

1:06:49
and we had sit down dinners that you had back then that was sit down dinners Monday, Tuesday, Thursday. Wednesday was a lot of the times where he had sporting where he had games and Saturdays.

1:07:04
So, but we had home yeah, we had homework all the time. Yeah, I mean, it was it was pretty rigorous. The serving thing we never had to do that. Well, we as far as serving other students, we had to serve our MERV we had to

1:07:18
remember we had to serve it out it was sophomores had to serve it like the and I think it's the the academic artists to the athletic awards banquet or so. It doesn't matter but I remember I was not it was like gravy and Scott and I said some of the graveyard minutes stay at Salisbury steak with gravy honors. Like, like idiots like me, you're gonna serve right? And I remember

1:07:46
I I tipped my plate wrong and the scraping went right down into this lady's open purse. And she God bless her I don't know who she is, if I'll send you a t shirt out there if you know you're she's so kind or she'll don't worry about hey, I own a restaurant but that my dad went to the skip a beat here. My dad went to a military. You talk about military academy, my dad was a Hellion. And they his parents sent him all from Valentine ranch to Lexington, Missouri to Wentworth Wentworth Academy. And he talks about I mean, I've heard lots of stories about that too you know?

1:08:22
That actually box at Wentworth I never knew he box until one time I found out found out

1:08:31
he talked about

1:08:34
to this day I won't if I haven't given someone my plate after I've finished. I don't have like, you know, a lot of people put their fork or some halfway on off the plate. My dad would he would dump the dishes in frickin kid's lap if they did that to him. Wow. And so he

1:08:55
my little life lessons because of that little experience. I I've always put my my my make sure it's aware of when to play. Yeah, so anyway, I don't know why I thought I'd share. Yeah, go crazy. I'm bringing this for fun. Is there anything else you wanted to cover any other good stories you got out there? I mean, we we have a whole different for my listeners we and you did so was Brother mill monitor prep when you were there he was okay, so brother Wilmont is we had a guy that name a killer Kane, Jim Kane. We have a whole different podcasts on that. Which when actually I was what do you throw somebody with that high caliber discipline, that high caliber discipline into that where you're scared kid

1:09:39
trying to find your way. It just it just makes the whole mix a little more.

1:09:45
Interesting, a little more fabric? Yeah, as your headmaster would say. I don't.

1:09:52
I don't. We really didn't. I mean, our Dean of Students wasn't kind of like that heavy handed, like brother Wilmont kind of

1:10:00
like you described there, too, but yeah, we didn't really have any of that. Like, when I was at prep, it was Father Lachlan, who was also his nickname was pork

1:10:13
it was a little heavy Yeah.

1:10:16
I don't know one of the one of the things you are asking I'm gonna Okay I just sorry a story just came oh my god sorry listeners.

1:10:24
And now going back to my freshman year in the dorms so imagine at 10 o'clock lights out every night we send our prayers and so forth and father Leo and father Eugene, led the prayers every night the lights were out and and father Richard was a big guy. God rest his soul. He passed away last five years, but I they said we'd like to just pray for father Richard who is dieting? dieting. Everybody started laughing just for little Sam. Poor little Sam didn't hear that. Poor little Sam heard dying. Oh, gosh. And so I'm in bed all night long.

1:11:03
Awake. Like why would these assholes laugh at the man who's dying? That's a true story. Oh, my God. Anyway, sorry to

1:11:13
I think one of the things we talked a little bit about too was you would like any any alarm that you know, people might know. And yeah, I told you the story of and this this actually kind of ties a little bit back to Eagle Brook.

1:11:28
There was a kid who went to Eagle Brook who then went to Deerfield. And his name is Abdullah Hussein. And at the time, a doula was the Crown Prince of Jordan. No big deal. No big deal.

1:11:47
And he but he actually had a security detail. I'm sure he did. It would. And no one else on it. I mean, no one else on campus as a security detail, but no, so but these guys were pretty cool. Because they would always stay like, you know, 3040 feet 50 feet behind him and you know, kind of give him his space and things like that. It was pretty secure environment. Nobody went up to him with a knife though. No, no, he was actually a wrestler and really, really good. Yeah. So.

1:12:17
So Abdullah, then became when his father passed away VHS, and is now the King of Jordan. And so my, I think I referenced to my younger brother went there. He was a year behind me. So he was in the same class with with Abdullah Hussein. And so at their 10th year their 10th year reunion.

1:12:44
Abdullah wasn't there but he sent his emissary to talk to his classmates to give him a class present in the class president was that he was inviting his classmates in a class and a guest of theirs to be his you know, to be his guest in Jordan for week

1:13:06
everything can afford that brake rack as well. No everything paid for except the only thing is you had to be like at JFK on such and such a day by itself to JFK. Yeah. And then we fly you over you we currently do we fly up and wine and dine and I and my brother didn't go I'm like, You're crazy and I be I'll be you for the week. I mean, I would take advantage or aspirants so but But King

1:13:36
you know King Hussein was so enamored with with Deerfield that he actually built a building a school no, he built a school Oh, in Jordan similar that to model Deerfield. And then just to cap it off, went and hired the headmaster at the time, away from Deerfield, to be the headmaster at a race. Well, yeah, I'm sure he did. But but it I mean, I think that's that's the impact you know, certainly specifically here Deerfield or a school like that can can have on people I mean, yeah, it's a fraternity. It's mean it's interesting. I mean, we you know, I don't see a lot of these guys at all, but maybe every five years when if I go back for a reunion, but there are many times where

1:14:24
and that's why you know, maybe emails and you know, texting and things like that help and Facebook or whatever, social media to keep those connections a little tighter, but I really feel like when you go back you don't miss too many beats. No picking up the conversation. You know, there's a guy that I

1:14:43
I saw in 19 He was my he was my roommate senior year, and I hadn't seen him since 1986. And we pick absolutely just pick right back up. Yeah, it's amazing. Now third, I mean, you're still the same person. I mean, it's well

1:15:00
maybe a little different, but not really. I mean, it's the same. I'm sure we're all a little heavier and a little grayer. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. He looks pretty good. Sort of right at the time, but yeah.

1:15:13
But yeah, that's absolutely true. Absolutely true. Well, my friend appreciate your time. This is a good episode. I well, I feel better breaker. No, I feel better sharing stories of my inner psyche. I feel lighter. But I mean, it's, yeah, I had, I had the opportunity to talk there. There was a showing at Dundee theatre here in town. And, and Mr. Payne was there and took questions and night. I did. I asked him, you know, I, I said, I just made the remark that it's, this is a subculture within a subculture that this movie is about, and there's not very many people that can identify with what that anger is totally was going through. I said, but I could, I was a holdover and then the entire 300 people, I wouldn't say they gasp, but there's an audible reaction

1:16:02
to that. And so where'd you go to school? I said, my Michael. And there was another like, Oh, shit. I mean, but it's real. But But I would say that regardless of you or me going to, you know, school like that. It doesn't just appeal to people. No, I mean, it's, I think, like them. Yeah, the movie. I mean, like, I know, I'm biased. But again, I said it earlier. I mean, just the character development and the interaction between characters. Is, is amazing. I mean, I really, I'm a little surprised. One of your scenes wasn't the last scene. And I and so we don't ruin it for everyone. I mean, oh, I thought the last scene was

1:16:54
I'm getting a little choked up thinking about the last scene, the last scene.

1:16:58
It was really moving. It was. It's apropos. It was it was so now maybe maybe teasing it that way. Maybe some people will go out and see. Yeah, and they'll get to the end. Yeah, hopefully, I'm starting talking. They haven't blown the plot here too much. But yeah, it's a good movie. Go see it. I get

1:17:17
this give us give us a see and share with your pals. Well, yeah, I honestly. So again, going to Texas episode in Kenya, when you could text if I send you a link to this podcast episode, will you? Will you text it, Alexander? Yeah. Well, sweet. Don't fall asleep after about two minutes. No, no way. Well, there was I don't know if you remember when

1:17:39
they did the test books and things like that. And I got a D and I hadn't seen the movie yet. So someone told me then I get into the movie. And I see them talking when Angus is they're trying to figure out if they can get it regraded or curbed? I think and and he said no, but then he gave him some options. And I thought, oh my god, I honestly sam I'm sitting there thinking oh my god, my grades gonna get exactly like a movie you idiot. Yeah. No.

1:18:10
There are there. There are scenes in there where I went to immediately. I mean, that's yeah, it's absolutely but no, I thought I thought he was gonna so because everyone who sees me that right? Yeah, yes, we got

1:18:23
breakers. Yeah, I wanted redemption. That's hilarious. I get that now. That's awesome. Well, I don't want you to change your politics. So well. Thank you just stick with that. D It's fine with me. Yeah, I It's

1:18:38
I'll wear that as a badge of honor to I know I've said that term a lot today, but it's I appreciate you chatting with me. And it was I know we did this mostly because of the the movie but I know we got into some other things. Oh, I knew I knew I'd get my claws into you because it's just it's a shearing spirit. You start talking about it. So yeah, we didn't we really didn't think I talked about politics at all. No, I don't need to. I know that's not shows about politics. Okay. Thank you. Thank you.