Three Guys Around a Table and The Best Of…
Three buddies sitting around a table debating the best of everything and discussing what is on their minds
Three Guys Around a Table and The Best Of…
The Stuff We Grew Up With
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Waterbeds needed heaters, phone numbers lived in a book, and Radio Shack was basically a rite of passage. We sit down as three friends with three very different backgrounds and start pulling on a simple thread: what did we grow up with that today’s kids barely have words for?
We go deep on waterbeds, from the “burping” process to the misery of a dead heater and the weirdly perfect sleep that made people swear they’d come back. From there we detour into the golden age of Radio Shack and DIY electronics, when buying capacitors, speaker parts, and off-brand gadgets felt like exploring the future one aisle at a time. We also remember chemistry sets that were basically a box of chemicals and questionable decisions, the kind of hands-on learning that would get shut down instantly today.
Then it’s all about pre-smartphone communication and culture: phone books, landlines, rented phones from the phone company, wired remotes, answering machines with cassette greetings, and the pranks you could pull when everyone shared a single line. We finish with pure childhood nostalgia, arcades, drive-in movies, biking to a corner market for a soda and baseball cards, listening to Tradio on Saturday mornings, wiffle ball with ghost runners, plus milkman and Schwan truck memories that scream small-town life.
If you’ve ever missed the analog era, retro tech, or the freedom of being gone until sundown, you’ll feel right at home. Subscribe for more, share this with a friend who will argue about waterbeds, and leave a review with the one childhood thing you’d bring back first.
Three Friends Set The Premise
SPEAKER_01Three guys around a table. By three guys, we're talking about three friends a lawyer, an engineer, and a school superintendent.
SPEAKER_03And just like our personalities, our opinions vary, and we certainly don't always agree. Whether we're discussing the best of or giving our tips and tricks of things in everyday life, you're sure to learn something if you stick around. If you stick around. Keeps getting better and better and better. I'm still with you. I still like listening to how I used to sound, but it's cool, whatever. It's close. You know what? It's very similar. Very similar. My my future in um in audio uh voiceovers and commercials and and uh radio commercials are well, they've come to a screeching halt.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, produ producer Mellon reached out this week and said that you know we might want to consider replacing you because of the voice.
SPEAKER_03I've gathered that. And you know what? I I appreciate uh Dr. Mellon's opinion. Doctor, doctor. Um and we shall continue to do this as long as we can. So today was a topic I wanted to bring up. Uh something that's pretty pretty fun for me because I don't know, the guy that looks back and say, Oh my gosh, that was so cool.
SPEAKER_01Can we guess what it is? Can we can Greg and I have guesses?
SPEAKER_03I just told you guys before we started.
SPEAKER_01I don't remember. I was gonna guess circus animals. Is it about circus animals?
SPEAKER_03Close.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Close.
SPEAKER_02I assume it was reminiscing on his childhood when he had the golden toilets and things like that in the butler suit.
SPEAKER_03That would have been that would have been the bidet, not the toilet.
SPEAKER_02Oh, right, right.
SPEAKER_01You had a bidet 40 years ago, I agree. It is this is this is no joke. This is fact that when Trump designed the new ballroom at the White House, he reached out to Chris's family. No surprise. Anyhow, that doesn't surprise me.
SPEAKER_03So, what we're gonna talk about today are things from our childhood that people, you know, our kids' age don't really have any knowledge of.
SPEAKER_02Well, the problem with that topic is Mark's is gonna be like refrigeration in a house.
SPEAKER_01Actually, I was going to mention uh the surrey with the fringe on the top.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. All right. Um is anything like the boots with the fur? Oh.
Waterbeds And Why They Ruled
SPEAKER_02So things that were big in our childhood that are no longer around. Yes.
SPEAKER_01All right, I got one.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Waterbeds.
unknownThank you.
SPEAKER_01Waterbed, baby. The I want them to come back. I think it's a million dollar idea.
SPEAKER_02We we had a waterbed for a while in the house. Yeah, and uh you could heat it. Yes, it was awesome. It was amazing.
SPEAKER_03Hold on, hold on. That's the problem. If you didn't eat it, you couldn't sleep on it when it was so cold.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. But no, eat that thing up, it was awesome. Look, my brother Mike, that was uh I think he was 16 years old. Now uh the good one. Oh, yeah. Uh he asked for a waterbed for Christmas, and and that was his Christmas present. And then when he went to college a year later, he went like when he was 17. The waterbed had to stay. So guess who got it? Yeah, let's go. Let's go.
SPEAKER_03So my parents, I remember back in the day, you had a couple of waterbed stores. You had um waterbeds and stuff. You had Big Sur, Big Sur waterbeds in Lexington, and you had another one. And I remember my parents, like 81, 82, went uh went to buy one, and they're like, Okay, here's your options. Do you want the mirror in the wall and headboard? Do you want the padded rails on the sides? We had the padded rails, yeah. And and what motion or how much flotation or how much baffling do you want to and and and I remember mom and dad got one, and I thought, okay. Of course, when you fill the thing up, you had to remember you had to burp it. Oh, yeah. So when I was a senior in college, guess who took the waterbed? That would be me. Filled it up, this queen size waterbed, it was great. They ended up with no mirror, they didn't have the padded rails, and they had the semi, whatever they call, the baffling, whatever. And I'm, you know, I'm I'm sleeping on the saying, it's great. It's the greatest thing in the world. I didn't burp its oil, so you get the sloshing around, yeah, and my heater goes out. That's bad. That's cold. And what the problem is when the heater goes out, you gotta drain the thing to replace the heating element because it was just a pad that went underneath that memory. It warmed it up, yeah. Yeah. So I remember doing that. I'm like, you know what, I don't like all this sloshing. So I ended up ordering another mattress, quote unquote mattress for it that had like no baffling whatsoever as a firmer mattress with a with a super duper heater. And I still had that thing, and for the longest time, that was a spare bed in our house with a regular mattress in it. So we know we bought a house and didn't have enough furniture.
SPEAKER_02Did you see something somewhere a few years ago that somebody was trying to bring waterbeds back?
SPEAKER_01No joke. I really seriously think it would be a fantastic idea to bring it back. Everything vintage is back, right? Why don't we open a waterbed store? How well did you sleep on a waterbed? Oh, fantastic. I slept like a baby.
SPEAKER_03You think about it, it would fit anybody's body. I mean, it was just perfect.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah. Look, and that's a good one, Greg.
SPEAKER_03I didn't even think about waterbeds.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I thought about that the other day. In Ohio, we had a store called Waterbeds and Stuff. And you can look what was the stuff? Well, that's what I'm gonna get to uh you can you can Google it right now. There was one in Chillicothe, and in the front section, there were all the different waterbeds. I'm far away. It is South of Lima, yeah. And you could buy lava lamps, uh you could buy a lot of like Spencer gift type things. Spencer's was a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.
SPEAKER_03I'm I'm still going now. Wait a minute, no, you mean like Spencer gifts like are in the back corners? Yes.
SPEAKER_01Oh, and that was in the main section, but then which made the store awesome, but they had another room. Was that close to the black light posters? But they had another room. Oh, and you could buy corn. Corn? So that's the in stuff. Yes. Come on, did you say corn? I I said porn with a pee. Oh, look, I'm I'm just stating facts here. I'm I'm just porn, you know.
SPEAKER_03That's true.
SPEAKER_01Did you say it was in the boom boom room? I am fair and balanced in sharing this information. Pretty much like stuff. That's right. Shout out, by the way. Um so so yeah, waterbeds and stuff. And uh yeah, that was just how many times did you go look at the stuff?
SPEAKER_02Well, I was really he was really a big waterbed concept.
SPEAKER_01Mom, can we get to the waterbeds? I heard they got a new model in this week. Yeah, waterbeds, that's a good one. And I swear to goodness, if you know that could be a million-dollar idea. Or we could lose our shirts.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, waterbeds did a great job on the other. That's a good one. You did good, man. Yep. Well, that's you. Oh man, besides in-home plumbing. Okay.
SPEAKER_01I got nothing on that. Okay, I I'm literally, I'm gonna give you one of my favorite stores I used to go to maybe a couple of times a week as a kid that doesn't exist anymore. Spencer's kids.
SPEAKER_03Waterbeds in touch. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Radio Shack.
SPEAKER_03Yes. But why do they have to always ask for your address and your phone number? Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Well, so annoying. So Radio Shack was just so cool. Yeah. And when you lived in a small town and you actually had a Radio Shack, it's the only place you could go where they sold record players and early, early computers, and they had some remote controlled like cars and stuff. You're not talking about the TRS-80, are you?
SPEAKER_03Uh I could be. So I could be. So first computer I ever worked on was a TRS-80 for Texas instruments.
SPEAKER_02So Frankfurt had a radio shack. About how long ago?
SPEAKER_03Uh, probably 15 years ago.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I remember it was over there uh where like hibits and stuff is. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01So that used to, it used to be over behind Casa. Well, the one, you know, I had uh my great uncle Pete rest his soul. Uh was kind of like a second father to me. And he taught me how to build radios, uh shortwave radios. Oh, yeah, you still have one of those, right? I do. And so I used to go over there and look at all the radio stuff and buy, you know, capacitors and circuits and you know, all kinds of little things, and you know, uh, but over the course, you know, when when you go over there, you your eye gets distracted by the remote control four-wheel drive truck. That's right, that's right. And uh, oh man, Radio Shack was just that was a part of my childhood that was truly special that for some reason we'll never be around again.
SPEAKER_02Radio Shack was good. I mean, it was here when we moved to Frankfurt, so it's been you know what they had a great Super Bowl commercial.
SPEAKER_03We're bringing it back. We're bringing back the Shack. Do y'all remember that? I don't remember that. It's probably been like 10 years ago. They were talking about doing a resurgence of Radio Shack.
SPEAKER_01It didn't work out.
Chemistry Sets And Risky Fun
SPEAKER_03No. My problem with Radio Shack. Awkward. Yeah. My problem with Radio Shack is, you know, I was the little I was the kid that liked the chemistry sets. That's one, right there. Yeah. All right, Kim, I'm gonna go with chemistry sets, then I'll come back to the Radio Shack. Yep. One of my favorite quote unquote toys as a kid was a chemistry set. And for those of you who are listening that don't realize that are too young, it was basically a box full of chemicals. Yes. That you could and a Bunsen burner and you can mix this stuff and just make all kinds of crap. But you can make acids and bases, and you had litmus paper, and and basically I would take this thing out back and just blow up crap with it.
SPEAKER_01See, my my chemistry set had a thing of sand in it and a cup that you put with water, and that was the only experiment you could do.
SPEAKER_02My chemistry set was you got a cup and you went out in the creek in the backyard to see what came up in it. And then and then you could burn coal or slate, whichever one you want.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, did you not have a chemistry set? Yeah, we we had a chemistry set.
SPEAKER_03How awesome was that?
SPEAKER_01It was amazing.
SPEAKER_03And by the way, can you imagine selling that today?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, I look, I remember as a kid, not to verify because I do want to come back to one thing about Radio Shack.
SPEAKER_03I do too.
SPEAKER_01But I remember as a kid, we used to take mercury and pour it on the table. This was in high school, and we used to play with mercury because you could, you know, because it's what's the issue? Yeah, exactly. Uh I mean, literally, our chemistry teacher would say, Hey, let's get the mercury out. We pour it around, and then you slide it around with your hands. Oh, this is cool. So now it would shut down the city.
SPEAKER_03So my chemistry set, I love the chemistry set, which I cannot, it came from service merchandise, I'm sure, but you can't have those anymore because it was full of acids and stuff. But back to Radio Shack. I was the kid that always liked all the little circuit things. You build the stuff and the erector sets, and but I remember really wanting a Mr. Microphone when they came out.
SPEAKER_01Yep.
SPEAKER_03Well, I got the generic one from Radio Shack. Yeah, yeah. It was blue and white, much smaller. Yep. Had a big antenna you had to extend. And then another year I wanted a metal detector. And I got the generic one from Radio Shack that had one button on it, on and off. And then I remember, you know, wanting something else, and I got the generic one from Radio Shack. And I thought, man, this is just shafted here. It's terrible. So when I was in college, I had um I had some bookshelf speakers that I kept blowing the tweeters on playing Beastie Boys. And I remember going to Radio Shack and trying to find tweeters, and the guy goes, I got you, don't worry about it. And he told me, he goes, I want you to do me a favor. He said, Go open any of our big speakers over here. Look at our speakers, look at the Radio Shack speakers. He took me over there and he took the back off of a speaker. Do you know the back of that speaker said Bows on it? Oh, really? He goes, You gotta remember, Radio Shack doesn't have a factory. We don't build anything.
SPEAKER_02It's interesting, man. That's interesting.
SPEAKER_01But they're gone. So going back to Radio Shack, one other thing. I used to, like I said, I I would always wanted a remote controlled car. And I asked for one for Christmas. And so I opened up a Christmas present, and it's a remote control car from Radio Shack. And I was so excited until I looked a little further. My mom got the one that had the wire attached to the thing. And I'm like, are you kidding me? I mean, you gotta walk around with it. Right. And oh, I'm too far from the wire, hold on. Right.
Phone Books And Memorized Numbers
SPEAKER_03That reminds me of my story with my dad in the which, okay. So when you would buy a waterbed back in the day, going back to your waterbed thing, the places in Lexington, there was Big Sur waterbeds and uh California waterbeds, I think it was the other one. If you bought a waterbed, they'd either give you a telephone, which was a cobra telephone that would fold up and would just hang on your wall. It was a very slim line phone, not like the big ones we were used to. Or they would give you a VCR. Wow. Yeah. And the VCR, we got the telephone. When we got our first VCR though, and I've told this story before, they asked my dad, they said, Would you like to have a remote control? And he goes, That is the future. Absolutely. They said, Do you want it wireless or wired? He said, Wireless will never work. So we had a remote that all you could do was change the channel, and it was you wrapped this big cord around it and stow it. But when you wanted, you had to plug it in and unwind the cord on the way back. Oh yeah. Alright, so I'm gonna go with another one. Okay. Take the chemistry set away, which I loved by the way. Telephone books. Telephone books. Yeah. And with a telephone. So I always I told you guys the stories before we started.
SPEAKER_01When's a what year is the last time you actually got a telephone book?
SPEAKER_03You used to throw them out by the mailbox all the time. I know. They kept getting smaller and smaller. Yeah. Probably been 10 years ago now. Yeah. Yeah. But you know, when I was a kid, number one, if you were unlisted, you were high society. Oh yeah. We were definitely not unlisted. Oh yeah. Right. But we were the only of my last name in the phone book.
SPEAKER_02Well, but was the which phone was that?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Which line in your palatial.
SPEAKER_03If you had two lines, you were somebody.
SPEAKER_01And you had four.
SPEAKER_03Okay. Right, right. Right. I got it. But I remember skitting the phone book out. I'm like, I'm gonna call this girl and talk to her. And you gotta look, and you're like, oh, what's her dad's name? Because it's always under whose ever name was, you know, most times the dad's name. But I'm like, oh, that would be uh okay, let me flip through here. And uh course I didn't I'm not as old as you, so our phone numbers here had seven numbers. Ours did too. You were probably like star 23 or something like that.
SPEAKER_01No, no, uh, it was uh uh uh Klondike 56400.
SPEAKER_03Did you have party lines?
SPEAKER_01Did you have a party line? Uh so did you have a party line? No. Do you remember your home phone number from when you were a kid? Yeah, 100%. Yep. 606-478-5311. 614-947-2319.
SPEAKER_03502-223-7383. And by the way, there was Herod's towing in town. I don't know if they're still around or not. Our number was 223-7383. They were 227-7383. And the state police was giving everybody our number, not Harrod's. So people would call, yeah, I called for a record. Well, finally, my dad got really irritated one day. He's like, Yeah, yeah, we'll be right there. Just keep waiting and hang up the phone.
Landlines Stories And Wired Remotes
SPEAKER_01That's funny. Yeah. Well, so while you're on the subject of phone books, let's talk about uh the the good old landline. So there you go. So when um we we um we had a phone in the in the main room in the parlor, in the main room in the in the home that's you know um, but my mom, when we got I got a little bit older, I was probably s eight, maybe. Um my mom got a second telephone in her bedroom that was the black phone from the phone company that you rented. Correct. Okay, it was black at the black cord, and it was just a dial. Right. Yeah. So um one time, and this was right after she got it. Now, my my brother, of course, the good one. Oh yeah, yeah, he we're so this is so bad. So my mom was there at the house, and she was in the other room in the main room, and she was talking on the phone to a teacher friend of hers named Roxy Nisley. And so my brother, my brother convinces me we need to go in the in the bedroom, pick up the phone, and listen in on the conversation and cover up the you know, where the this mouth goes, okay. So we're listening, and he goes, Okay, what you need to do when I go three, two, one is you need to scream, Roxy, real loud, and being impressionable. How old were you? Uh eight, probably. Three, two, one. I just screamed, Roxy. You little son of a memory, you know. Yeah, that's that's the good one.
SPEAKER_02So so my funny story with phones, yeah, uh, cause most people that's I mean, like my kids, we've never had a we've not had a home phone in years and years and years. So they don't even when we had a home phone, they don't know anything about it having the cord attached to the wall. Right. Um at my house on a little mud, the phone was right beside the door that went out to the back deck. So it had a cord on it. So if you wanted privacy, you went on the back deck, shut the door. Yep. I remember this like it was yesterday. Hunting season. I'm on the back deck, it's starting to get dark. I hear a deer coming down the the hill down to the creek. The creek with the couch in it. And I'm on the phone talking to this special lady friend, uh-huh. And I say, Hold on. You did not. I went in the house, it was rival season, got my 30 seconds come back up on the phone still. Got a turd, got a deer, it went about 10 yards, fell over. I was like, all right, I gotta go. Oh my god.
SPEAKER_01You know what goes along with television? Did you say excuse me while I whipped this out? Excuse me while I whipped this out.
SPEAKER_02So I remember She was happy to get some jerky, though.
SPEAKER_03I guarantee some what?
SPEAKER_02Jerky. So I remember being a kid. Come again.
SPEAKER_03And the uh and the uh the phone company would come along, give me the phone book, and Dad's like, whatever they do, you tell them we only have two phones because you back then you rented the telephone. See, that's something I don't know anything about. Well, you rented the telephones from the phone company, but the river had flooded in 78 and flooded Hex, which was like a Walmart back then. And he had gone and bought a phone for like two bucks or something like that. And we had one in our basement, which means we had three phones, and they would charge you if you had extra phones.
SPEAKER_02I mean, they were making it rain. Absolutely. What what what did you how did you get a hold of the servants?
SPEAKER_01Uh did you have one that run back and forth? Did you have one that just manned the switchboard? Yeah, like the old phone ladies.
SPEAKER_02How awesome of a job would that have been back today? Hold on, please.
Answering Machines And Message Pranks
SPEAKER_03Uh Sarah, uh uh, I need to talk to all right. So uh besides telephones and phone books, what about answering machines?
SPEAKER_02Loved it. Oh, yeah, yeah. I had one of those in college those.
SPEAKER_01Do you remember? Okay, on the same on the same vein or in the same vein, when they came out with the little cassette tape with the different messages on the I ain't home.
SPEAKER_03You gotta call back on your own home.
SPEAKER_01I still remember that almost every pre-made. I don't remember. Yeah, it was the commercial, and I used to hear it all the time, but uh because one of them was the doo-wop one. But I'll be back when I again I don't I don't remember that at all. Yeah, and there was a rap one. I'm glad you called, but I'm not home, but I'll be back before too long.
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah. Uh I I don't remember the pre I don't remember the pre uh made before the beep.
SPEAKER_03You gotta leave your name, you gotta leave your number. I had one that I picked up at Big Lots, it was Porky Pig. But it bleep leave a message. That's hilarious. Uh so when I was in college, lived in an apartment with three other guys. It was a four-bedroom apartment. And uh one of the guys we picked on all the time. He came he was he came from he came from Louisville. You know, we we perceived him to be high falluting. And I'm about to.
SPEAKER_02Until he came and saw your estate.
SPEAKER_03I'm not gonna say his name because he is now the county attorney of a county around here. But he f he he figured himself to be better than the rest of us. So he leaves to go home for Christmas. So my buddy and I leave a voice message that said, Hello, you've reached the you've reached the home of, and we name the guy's name. If you'd like to talk to him, please leave a message. If not, you'd like to talk to the rest of us, well you can go to hell. And that was the message. That was the message. And apparently for some reason he didn't show up on time and his parents called and that didn't go so well because Mr. I'm not gonna mention his name gave us gave us a pretty good chew and out. But he's now a county attorney, but we're not gonna mention and his he and his wife owned their own law firm. Oh, well, there you are. Yeah, there you go.
SPEAKER_01I had a little uh when I would leave college and and go home, uh, I had a little boomer as I uh starting lineup figure on my desk because I was a big Bengals fan. And, you know, I was pretty like I I like my stuff where I have my stuff. And every time I'd come back, like on a Sunday night or whatever, those guys would take his hell, they would have taken his helmet off and put it on backwards, or they would put his arm backwards, or they'd move him, and I'd be like, Did you ever pick it up and sniff it by chance?
SPEAKER_02So were you always a get off my lawn kind of guy?
SPEAKER_03Pretty much. Yeah. I mean, I'm okay with it. You know, um uh again on the telephone, think about this. Remember when you would, you know, buy now, you can order a year's subscription to Sports Illustrated. And if you buy now, we give you a football telephone. Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's how they they pull you in.
Arcades Drive Ins And Being Gone
SPEAKER_02You know, you know something else from childhood that I miss a bunch? Yeah, or uh probably not uh arcades.
SPEAKER_03A couch in the river. Uh arcades were castle, something castle that was in the malls. Uh oh.
SPEAKER_01Oh yeah. You know, castle with a K. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um yeah, I don't know anything about that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no, there was one at one at East Castle. Aladdin's Castle. Aladdin's Castle. There was one at East Cape.
SPEAKER_02I actually do remember Aladdin's Castle. But I I loved video games back then. I mean, that's like Fanny Farkles. They used they had video games. Right.
SPEAKER_01I loved them. I could sit there and play video games all day. Seriously, you need to buy one of those arcade things and put it in your base. I do. Uh the one I want Golden T. Yeah. Yeah. Um they have they have some now that have like 400 different games, or you know, 30 different games.
SPEAKER_03So I know a guy that's got a vintage pole position. That was an awesome game. And a pinball machine.
SPEAKER_02Oh. A vintage pole position was awesome.
SPEAKER_01Loved it. You can come over anytime. Have you have you seen the the new place in town? Uh I do know about. I have not been there, but I haven't either.
SPEAKER_03I think my buddy Randy Wright's part owner in that place. That's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's I I kind of like it.
SPEAKER_02I could be interested in going.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Cary Asbill, I think.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's who's running it. Yep, yep. Yeah. I could totally be interested in going. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_03What else do you remember from your childhood?
SPEAKER_02I just did the last one. Oh, you did?
SPEAKER_01Oh, it's my turn again. Uh okay, let's see. Arcades. They were awesome.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Drive-in movie theaters. Oh, gosh, yeah.
SPEAKER_03You know the last uh so Starway right over here. The last movie I saw at the drive-in was Predator.
SPEAKER_01Uh-huh. Can I can I name one that's not a thing? It's more of just a way of life. Yeah, uh, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um when it politicians got along and didn't just hate each other on such a true um little kings.
SPEAKER_01When it was when it was summertime or when we weren't in school or whatever, basically just leaving the house. Yeah, coming back in sundown and saying to my my mom, hey, I'll I'll be back at dinner time. Okay.
SPEAKER_03Okay, that didn't happen in my neighborhood. Oh, it did in my neighborhood.
SPEAKER_01Get on my bike and I was gone.
SPEAKER_02It did happen on in your estate. Now, I mean, when you got past you, your mom wouldn't let you go past the 5,000 acre mark. Exactly. That's true. Look, I mean, when you get past the third orchard, right, when you've hit Fayette County, turn around and come back.
SPEAKER_03Look, I know where you grew up. Yeah, but all my family lived on that. Right. So we could go wherever. And you had a four-wheeler that you rode over the hill and about died on. Yep. Facts. But I was the only one here that rode. Grew up on an estate, rode his bicycle in the yard next door to him. Because you couldn't get my neighborhood and hang out. You didn't want to be in my neighborhood past dark.
SPEAKER_01I lived in the projects. Thank you. That's what it was called.
SPEAKER_03Okay. You couldn't ride your bike in my neighborhood at noon.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, every one of the houses in our in our all of the neighborhood. We've been there. They were all exactly the same. Yep. Okay. Yeah. The projects.
SPEAKER_03We didn't ride a bike in my neighborhood. Right. Although I could they had buggies. They had buggies. Exactly. We could ride. I'd ride to my grandparents' house up the street, which was up these big hills, and then ride back down. But there was no going riding around the neighborhood. Is that just house on the hill? It was my grandfather's house on the hill.
SPEAKER_01As soon as I was old enough to to uh have my brothers hand me down 10 speed. I never owned my own bike. That was cool. Because then you could go longer distances. Because when you was just the little, you know, the little bike, you know, I mean you you couldn't go very far. That 10 speed now I could get it everywhere in town.
SPEAKER_03I got a new bike when I was 15 for my birthday. And uh it was a 12 speed because we'd go camping all the time. We'd take bicycles to ride as a family at night. And that was pretty cool. Good thing is in my neighborhood, it made it easy going to my grandparents' house because I could put it down in one or two and get up the hill. But yeah.
Knowles Market Tradio And Small Town Nostalgia
SPEAKER_01Well, so I'm gonna w go along with that and say something that still exists today that I didn't even know still existed until about a week ago. Journals. When we would uh you know, me and my buddies would ride our bikes and we would uh go all the way across town to Knowles Market. And Knowles Market was this little tiny You'd ride your bike across town. Yeah, to go to the market. And in Knowles Market, you go inside and it was kind of a dank place. It's kind of smelled a little mildewy. Dank. And they had uh they had a a fridge full of like grape knee hives and AW Root beers. You'd I could buy a a a can of pop or a bottle of pop or a nickel and a pack of baseball cards for a quarter. I could get a uh a pack of ball cards for a quarter and a soda for a quarter. So 50 cents, and it was the greatest freaking day.
SPEAKER_03I hope I get Honus Wagner in this package.
SPEAKER_01So um anyway, I looked last week just to be like, man, I miss Knowles. I can still smell Knowles Market. Like right now, just sitting here. I can hear the sound of the door opening to it, and I can smell it, and it still exists, and it is still in business and doing great. There you go. That's awesome. I'm ready. Yep. Knowles market. I'll I'll pull it up and show it to you.
SPEAKER_03So I got one for you guys. Yeah. I was uh I had to drive to Paducah last week for a buddy of mine's um mother's visitation, and uh so I'm rolling early, right? I'm rolling early. And I'm always listening to talk radio in the mornings. And some things I have not heard in years that I remember every Saturday morning as a kid on W 1490 W F K Y here in Frankfurt. Tradio was on. Oh yeah. I remember that. It was on, and the guy goes, Yeah, I got uh I got four chickens, four BF Goodridge all train TAs are about 50% trade on them that I'd like to trade for a set of 15-inch rims. Yeah. Uh or I'll take$100. I got four chickens. Here's my number, and then you know, five minutes later, yeah. Can you give me the number of that guy with them tires? And then it's like, I got a washing machine I'd like to sell. It's uh$25. It don't work, it's on the front porch. You can come pick it up. Oh, that must have been a little mud. Whatever. No, it's a couch in the creek. Uh, but tradio was on, and I used to love tradio. I don't know that mom or dad ever bought anything off tradio, but that was the coolest thing on Saturday morning sitting there having breakfast listening to tradio.
SPEAKER_02You know what else was good back then?
SPEAKER_03Sweet. That's still now. That guy drives me crazy.
SPEAKER_01So uh in glass. So Oh my god, are you kidding me? I've just pulled up a picture of Knowles Market for you guys to see. Check this out.
SPEAKER_03So seven days a week. Hi, neighbor.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Oh my god.
Wiffle Ball Nerf Games And Basement Legends
SPEAKER_014.9 out of five stars for Knowles Market. Look at this. That's awesome. Yeah. I'm totally down. We gotta get some Cardo's pizza again. I like Cardo's. All right, so what you got? What else you remember? So, how about this? Another activity that you just don't see kids do much of. Uh there wasn't a day there wasn't a day that went by in the summertime where we we didn't play wiffle ball. Yep. I mean, we played a lot. Every football day. Yes. Like in the we were always outside playing some type of video games and phones now that drew their watch stuff and do stuff.
SPEAKER_03Time out. What was the best part about you know I didn't have buddies I grew up with in my neighborhood again that didn't. Right.
SPEAKER_02You had the servants.
SPEAKER_03What's the best part? So my brother and I would play, but what's the best part about playing wiffle ball when you get up here to hit? Who's the best player on the team?
SPEAKER_01What are you talking about? The ghost. Oh, ghost runners. Tell me you didn't have ghost runners. Oh, yeah. Ghost runners legit. My brother and I had set up this whole you know system and uh you know, we played in the backyard, and if you hit the house in the air and it uh you know and it bounced back and you didn't catch it off of the house, it was a single. If you hit it above the the row of windows, it was a double. If you hit the gutter in the air as a triple, if you hit it over the house, it's a home run.
SPEAKER_02Where'd a ghost come in?
SPEAKER_01Uh well you you know, you have ghost runners. That's right.
SPEAKER_03So if you hit a single and you gotta get back up there. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01The ghost never got tagged out. The ghost was legit.
SPEAKER_03That's pretty awesome.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's uh Yeah, I would uh that wiffle ball was I mean golly. Kids today now they they count pitches. Yeah I mean I I probably threw uh eight hundred thousand pitches in my that's a that's quite a lot. Yeah, uh because that's all we did. You just you just got there and play, you know, and get off my lawn. Yeah, yeah. I wonder where you're going with that. Yeah. So anyway, that was uh that was a good mess. Oh, and I got I got another one for when you were when it was like frigid outside and you couldn't go outside. Yeah I would always I always had at least one nerf ball, a round little baseball size nerf ball, and I would pitch inside in our uh like in the kitchen. Uh I would stand like in the living room and I set up a little home plate by where the sink was, and I would work on my pitches throwing nerf balls inside. That's pretty impressive.
SPEAKER_02You know something we did when I was growing up that me and Craig did? We would put a baseball cap in the little gap above a door, yeah, turn it upside down, roll socks down, and use that as a basketball. Oh, yeah. And we'd play basketball in the hallway doing it. Yeah, I'll I'll I'll do a we could we couldn't afford a uh like a little indoor goal. Nah, we we didn't have a goal.
SPEAKER_01So when we would get to go to my grandma's house, she had a basement. Which grandma? Uh this was on my mom's side. This was my my greatest. Oh, that one? Yeah. What did your grandpa ever say about that? Well, I won't say, but uh my my brother and I would play one-on-one football in the basement, and we rolled up two stocks together, and that was our football. Right. And you'd say HUD, and then you try to he's five years older than me. And so he would uh you know, he Which brother? This was the good one. Oh, yeah. And so he would pretty much dominate, but there was this one particular time, and you know, they had that uh this was where those stairs that came down. So we're playing, and it was an unfinished basement. So uh so we're playing, and I faked and I threw the sock up, and he went and he tipped it, and it came and I caught it, right? This is like the only time I ever like got one past him, basically, and I turned around to yell at him to be like ha ha ha. And I hit head first into the stairs that were coming down here, and my feet went in front of me, and I went down and knocked myself out. My head hit the concrete and my brother freaks out, and I was out. So I don't remember this, but he was, I guess, saying, He thought I was dead. Right, it was fantastic.
SPEAKER_02But what where was your grandma and grandpa at?
SPEAKER_01Well, grandpa at that point upstairs. He unfortunately was gone at that point, but I thought they were upstairs. Well, you know what he always said. He had some he had some good sayings, yes.
Milkman Schwan Truck And Mailman Memories
SPEAKER_03Um you know, I brought this one up before. Things when I was a kid that were different now. Can you still buy one of those coffin deep freezes that's like eight feet long and can hold 24 bodies? I don't know. I've not seen one of those. I haven't looked for one. Did you guys have those? We did not, we did not. And we froze everything.
SPEAKER_01We we just had the ice man that came by and brought the blocks of ice and the and the bottles of milk. We did have the milkman. Are you serious? Yeah, how old are you? I we did have a milkman. You were a hundred gazillion years old.
SPEAKER_02We had a milkman that's always probably that reminds me of something I liked from my child childhood. Yeah. We only did it like two or three times, but when the Schwan truck comes. Oh, yeah. Did you ever have the Schwann truck come?
SPEAKER_01Schwan truck, baby. It was awesome.
SPEAKER_03We never scared of Thornhill.
SPEAKER_01No, we never got to order anything. My mom would not, you know, does awesome. But but the milkman, I pretty much think that my disliking. I pretty much think that my oldest brother was the milkman's kid. Which one's the oldest brother? Uh, the not good one. Oh, I was curious. Yeah, yeah. Uh, but you know, until I was probably seven or eight years old, we had we had a milkman. Are you serious? I'm 100% serious.
SPEAKER_03That is crazy.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And uh our mailman delivered the mail, you know, with the around his shoulder every day. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03It was actually uh my cousin's uncle that was our mailman, and he always had a white beard and looked like Santa Claus. And he would carry his mailbag, and at that time they'd park their car at you know, the little Jeep thing, and they'd park it and they'd walk the whole neighborhood.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_03And at Christmas, he would always hang candy candy canes out on the mailbox.
Closing Thoughts And Next Time
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah. Well, um, we we will do another one of these because this was enjoyable. This was cool. We there's no way we don't we there's no way we can cover everything in one episode.
SPEAKER_02Well, I mean, if you think about it though, we're talking about the 1800s for you. Well and the 90s for me. Right. And me, you know. Yeah. Well, we were 90s.
SPEAKER_03We were way back in the 1900s. Cop way early 1990s.
SPEAKER_01Just because we had a little surrey with the fringe on the top.
SPEAKER_03You had a milkman. Who has a milkman in the 1900s?
