School's Out for Summer (We Had Three Months Off and Nobody Died)

Remember when summer lasted forever? Megan and Lesley take you back to those glorious days when school let out on Memorial Day and didn't resume until after Labor Day—a true three-month break that today's kids can only dream about.

The hosts share their wildly different summer experiences, from Megan's structured daycare and camp life to Lesley's rural gardening adventures and theater camps. They reminisce about the sensory touchstones of Gen X summers: the distinctive sound of approaching ice cream trucks, orange sherbet push-ups that defined childhood happiness, and those plastic sleeve popsicles that inevitably cut the corners of your mouth (but you'd still eat ten of them).

Food memories dominate the conversation as they recall homemade ice cream in giant electric makers that "they don't even make that size anymore," fresh strawberry shortcake, and corn so sweet it needed cross-pollination by hand (which Megan admits to facilitating while serenading her corn plants with Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On").

The conversation wanders through drive-in movies, State Fair adventures, and the incredible freedom children once had—being sent outside until dinner with minimal supervision. Both hosts lament how summer break has shrunk over the decades, with schools often starting in late July and stealing away weeks of traditional summer freedom.

Whether you spent your summers at camp, working a summer job, or just riding bikes until dusk, this episode will transport you back to a time when summer meant freedom, discovery, and seemingly endless possibilities. What summer traditions do you miss most? Connect with us and share your memories!

Transcript

Episode Introduction

Megan 0:00

I'm Megan Bennett,

Lesley 0:01

I'm Lesley Meier

Megan 0:02

and this is Gen X Women Are Sick of this Shit. Hi Lesley,

Megan 0:11

How the hell are you?

Lesley 0:12

I'm blowing out a microphone currently I don't I don't know how far away to be. It's so well positioned right now. I'm like, ah, hey, producer Tim.

Megan 0:25

Lesley is blowing a microphone.

Lesley 0:29

Yeah, so, and I'm having to like kind of assist someone on the Internet at the same time.

Megan 0:35

Yes, you are recording some interwebby things at the same time, so that's cool. So, how you been. I'm going to do that.

Lesley 0:43

Moderately good. I'm trying to think how have I been Fine? I had a birthday.

Lesley 0:47

I got older,

Megan 0:48

you did have a birthday. Yep, how's that feel?

Lesley 0:50

We had an episode in between, like right before my birthday and right after my birthday. It's like still going.

Megan 0:55

You know what? What Next week is my birthday.

Lesley 0:59

It's Megan's birthday next week. Yes, that's exciting.

Megan 1:04

Friday the 13th baby.

Lesley 1:07

Oh, you are Friday the 13th and it's on Friday for real. It is this year. Yeah, what are you going to do for your lucky birthday?

Megan 1:14

Well, it was not my plan to do this, but we are going to the fourth game in the Pacers and Oklahoma.

Lesley 1:22

Holy shit, sister, yeah, fuck, yeah, yeah, fuck, yeah, yeah, I'm sorry if they lose.

Megan 1:28

Well, they better not, I don't.

Lesley 1:31

And here's the thing my 20 somethings. And I'm going to Said it was a miracle that we won, it was amazing. I'm going to spill some tea. Spill some tea.

Megan 1:38

Because I know my husband doesn't listen to this.

Lesley 1:40

Okay.

Megan 1:49

Well, to this, okay, well, that's wise, maybe he, he bought tickets to this I love the pacers. Yes, I have. No, I have no problem you're like I'm a season ticket holder. Yes, sir, I. I like them very much, I love cheering them on indiana pacers friends if you don't know right who that?

Lesley 2:00

who?

Megan 2:00

we're talking about indiana pacers, because we're in indiana yeah, you may not have heard of them before, but you probably know them now. So he bought these tickets and I asked him how much he spent and he said you do not want to know. And I said, well, mother fuck how much? Did you spend? Okay. And now, after they won the first game, now the tickets are even more. They actually went up $500 per ticket.

Lesley 2:28

Holy fuck balls, and you're going to be in Oklahoma.

Megan 2:32

No, it's here. Oklahoma, oklahoma, oklahoma, it's here. It's here. Okay, you'll be here. The wind will not be sweeping down the plains.

Lesley 2:38

Okay, well, oh, oklahoma.

Megan 2:42

I was never in that musical.

Lesley 2:47

I wasn't either. I never did that one um. But I know people who did and I see I assume they're okay, I assume they're fine, I'm sure they're fine um, so yeah, okay so anyway, birthday went away for I had a birthday dinner went to dinner went. We'll make this hyper-local and hyper-specific to our own experiences. I think that was my favorite critical review ever. We went to dinner at Tinker Street, which was really excellent.

Lesley 3:18

It's always a wonderful time

Megan 3:19

you were walking distance from my house.

Lesley 3:21

Yeah, oh, that's right. I kind of just walked down and like toilet papered your trees.

Megan 3:27

you coulda going crazy, 52 got a tp. Thing just knocked on the door and I would have let you know. I mean, that's true too.

Lesley 3:34

Fair, fair um and then we came back to the east side and we went to strange bird, our favorite tiki bar, saw some other friends and then went home because I had to get up the next fucking morning, get on a plane. And I went to strange bird, our favorite tiki bar, saw some other friends and then went home because I had to get up the next fucking morning, get on a plane.

Birthday Plans and Pacers Tickets

Lesley 3:48

And I went to floride uh, floride, duh floride duh uh, from saturday until tuesday, a friend of mine was going to be there with some extended family and said I have space in my bed for you, nice. And I said, cool, let me buy a plane ticket. That's exactly how it went. I'll come hang out, yep, and so flew down with her, which was fun, and we hung out for a couple of days and got real sunburned on the first day and then it was kind of cloudy the second day, which was perfect, and we went wandering around and um went to a fun tiki bar and they on the beach, ish. They were inland a bit, but we were like an eight minute golf cart ride less seven minutes golf cart ride from the beach we were oh okay, like 30a super bougie, poshlandia, nice.

Lesley 4:42

I did not pay to be there myself, but I appreciate having friends who have family who do that's cool.

Megan 4:52

And so that was super fun.

Lesley 4:53

And then I came back Tuesday and then went to work on Wednesday and worked Wednesday and Thursday nonstop and worked today. Here I am.

Megan 4:58

Sitting here with you.

Lesley 4:59

Recording this fucking show Whoop.

Megan 5:02

Here we are Recording a show. Yeah cool. I'm glad you got to get away for a little bit, was it like balls hot?

Lesley 5:08

uh, it was moderate, it was nice, it was like the low 80s. It was perfect. That's cool. Sandy beaches, blue waters, nice, I like it. You know tequila, eat tequila. And, uh, some whiskey. Whiskey, no, irish whiskey. I tried, I looked hey question.

Megan 5:23

Irish whiskey yes ma'am, how are your tariff issues with anything yet? I mean not yet Okay.

Lesley 5:31

Good, good, because everything keeps getting devoid Because of tacos. There might be an extra 10% right now, I don't know, but the tariffs are all due when everything arrives in port. And then there's all this confusion about like did it apply from the date that your container on?

Lesley 5:51

the container ship left port. Does it matter if they happened while they were crossing the ocean? Gotcha, nobody knows nothing. So who knows? Okay, who knows what the hell is going on there? That's fair. Yeah, okay. Who knows what the hell's going on there? That's fair, um, yeah. So if you could pick a birthday experience like select one.

Megan 6:11

Oh, if I got custom decide what I wanted to do, yeah if the pacers hadn't like, co-opted your birthday and made it all about this. It's all about them. I mean that's okay, because I'm. I mean it's been 25 years and beating the knicks was like just truth. So fun, it's been a minute, we don't. The Knicks was like just Truth.

Lesley 6:25

So fun, it's been a minute. We don't want to say how old we were. Well, no, I could do the math really quick. I was 27 last time we won.

Megan 6:31

Yeah, I would have been. I didn't have children.

Lesley 6:34

I was Childless, childless cat lady.

Megan 6:37

Yeah, this is the first time the Pacers have ever led in a playoff series, so maybe this is the time.

Lesley 6:46

Maybe my 20-something kids say don't hold my breath, but they were super psyched about the win last night Well they need to get on board. I mean they just want to manage their expectations. Well, that's fair.

Megan 7:00

It is the Pacers Crushing defeat. Yeah, I understand, I understand it's either going to go very, very well or not, so great, very very poorly, but so far it's yeah. I mean, we're guaranteed, you know, to have a few more games.

Lesley 7:15

I was like hanging in there with you. I was like what's?

Megan 7:18

she going to say what are?

Lesley 7:19

we guaranteed. So this is we're kind of bullshitting and just hot local goss.

Megan 7:24

Yeah, is what we're talking about today.

Lesley 7:29

Did anybody die this week, Gosh?

Megan 7:31

probably. I just don't remember, I mean as one representative. Oh no, who was it it was? Was it Kristi Noem, somebody? Oh, I think I'm talking out of my ass. No, you're right, was it her? We all die someday. We all got to die someday.

Lesley 7:46

No, it wasn't her.

Megan 7:47

It wasn't her, it was somebody. But yeah, who would win?

Lesley 7:51

It was a local like rep representative.

Megan 7:54

Was it local here?

Lesley 7:55

No, no, no, no, no. I saw it though.

Megan 7:57

Okay.

Lesley 7:58

It was like some other state going after her for cuts to Medicaid and like well, we all have to die sometime.

Megan 8:05

Right, we're all going to die sometime, I mean true. I guess Did you hear then that she apologized.

Lesley 8:11

Oh, no, except she didn't really.

Megan 8:14

She just did a video where she said well, I'm sorry that people didn't realize that they were mortal and I hope I don't have to explain to them about the tooth fairy.

Lesley 8:24

They were mortal and I hope I don't have to explain to them about the tooth fairy.

Megan 8:29

What a snarky bitch. See you next.

Lesley 8:31

Tuesday Yep, that's cool, yeah, anyway, sorry, you didn't know you were immortal. Fuck off, right. We have a warning on this show for a reason, fuck all the way off Over the edge of the cliff. Yes, um so no one from the 70s or 80s in terms of iconic musicians I know died in the past two weeks. I looked earlier and I also saw that, so I think that we are good there.

Summer Break Memories Begin

Megan 9:04

You mean we had an entire two weeks without. I mean there's always six degrees of separation.

Lesley 9:11

Oh, I guess we could say this this is kind of sad, because here we go. Alf Clausen, composer for the Simpsons, died on June 3rd, right, so the Simpsons came on in the 90s sometime, yes, college land 89, maybe that feels 89, I think really when we were in high school. Well, you were, I didn't graduate I was in the college.

Megan 9:40

I am pretty sure. I am pretty sure it launched in 89 the simpsons is forever.

Lesley 9:46

I used to love it. Okay, this is a great segue.

Megan 9:49

Boom baby, Was it 1989?. What a hooker you rung that bell Look at you. December, muncie, indiana. That's fucking hilarious. It said the Simpsons roasting on an open fire, or something like that Okay, and I do remember the shorts.

Lesley 10:19

I used to love the shit out of the Tracy Ullman show. Producer Tim is showing us information so that we sound slightly less stupid, of the Tracy Ullman show. Producer Tim is showing us information so that we sound slightly less stupid. The family debuted as shorts on the Tracy Ullman show on April 19th 1987. So you know, we grew up with that and then when I was a oh, I'm going to repeat myself because I just said this sentence and we'll say it again this is a nice segue into our topic today about summer break. This is a nice segue into our topic today about summer break, when I was a day camp counselor.

Lesley 10:47

I was like in my teens but also in my 20s and 30s and 40s, because I love day camp that much I used to laugh when kids would come to me and they'd just be like, have you ever seen the Simpsons? I couldn't live without the Simpsons. I love the Simpsons so much. Take a seat, junior, and like this kid did this whole presentation. Oh much, take a seat, junior, and like this kid did this whole presentation. Oh, it might have been when I was trying to teach speak. I mean, I was a speech teacher for a minute and he may have done like a position paper or something about how, like the simpsons raised him and like these are like seventh and eighth graders, and so I was probably my very late 20s, early 30s at this point and I was just like, oh my god, I feel old if, if the simpsons raised him, then his parents were gen x right I mean they've got to be.

Lesley 11:30

And then, unless he was just like abandoned, in a box somewhere.

Megan 11:33

Way to go. Gen x parents, let the simpsons raise your children.

Lesley 11:37

It's fine they're they're smart they love each other, they're probably fine. And lisa's like sassy feminist. You go, girl, they're probably. They're probably fine. They're probably fine and Lisa's like sassy feminist.

Megan 11:44

You go girl. They're probably fine.

Lesley 11:45

They're totally fine. That kid is probably in his late. He's probably in his early 30s right now, actually Mid 30s. That's hilarious. Anywho, there we go.

Megan 11:57

I love the Simpsons they're still very funny and South Park, oh my God.

Lesley 12:04

So that is sad. Yes, and that is who died a couple days ago, three days ago um, but mostly we kind of got off without like, like you know like a major like a lot of star from the 70s and 80s, yeah uh well, watch out next week.

Megan 12:26

Hold your breath on your butts and we'll see what happens lots of people dying. Gen x women are sick of the shit is supported by lilas love you like a sis, a gen x women's social club. What's lilas, megan? Lilas is our uh off platform, off, uh, the books of faces, off all of the other traditional social media. Uh, it is our off platform, off the books of faces, off all of the other traditional social media. It is our space and place for Gen X women to come together, have conversations, meet each other.

Lesley 12:55

It's a social club. It is a social club. It's a membership-based club. Memberships are $10 a month. That does help support us in growing the platform. We purchased a platform that would host a network of women so that you could come together and meet each other in real time.

Megan 13:15

In a safer space than a traditional social media platform and a much more personal space. So what do we do there, Leslie we?

Lesley 13:26

host movie nights where we live stream some of our favorites as they are available to us for group watches of films from the 70s, 80s and 90s. We host a space for a monthly book club. We host trivia nights once a month we have a live text chat.

Megan 13:48

Four prizes even.

Lesley 13:49

Four prizes. That's true. The space is able to host weekly text chats so that you can kind of check in in real time with people. I would say the critical difference between kind of what this space is and any other social media space that I've experienced is that it is active. You will have to engage in it or be engaged in it by other people, so it's not like a passive consumption thing.

Megan 14:18

It's like making connections, yep, and if that's what you're looking for the opportunity to meet other people, to find people who are maybe in the same similar spaces as you are.

Lesley 14:28

Like-minded, same time phase of life, navigating all of those transitions then this might be the right place for you.

Megan 14:37

So check out, lylas. You can learn more about it at genxwomenpodcom. That's mxwomenpodcom. Hey, we're back.

Lesley 14:48

We are back.

Megan 14:48

What are we going to talk about today?

Lesley 14:50

We are going to talk about a greatly anticipated time of year for parents and children and teachers everywhere.

Megan 15:00

School teachers, definitely school teachers.

Lesley 15:04

We're going to talk about summer break, summer break, summer, summer, summer time, specifically summers in the 70s and 80s when you actually got a summer break.

Megan 15:15

Yeah, yeah. My friend who teaches fourth grade is out now, thankfully. She's very glad, but she's got to go back already at the almost end of july.

Lesley 15:29

Yeah, dude, it's stupid. When my kids our kids, I think were in school, I think july 31st, like that, like last few days of july, became the day that they yeah, I think my daughter was later.

Megan 15:43

I want to say like she got out like the first week of June and wouldn't go back until like mid-ish August, I think. But for us but for us, like it was, you'd get out memorial day weekend or like right before yeah, my fucking birthday uh-huh, time to get out of school, bitches, uh-huh. And then you would have that entire.

Lesley 16:09

You'd have like three months basically off you would a heathen and a hellion memorial day through labor day we would go back to school like the monday after labor day, right? So it'd be like the 10th or 11th, just depended.

Megan 16:22

Well, and now it's like I mean now like fuck, I don't even know that, like the retail stores, that they're gonna immediately go back to the back to school shit.

Lesley 16:29

Oh it's awful yeah, like, like there might be now but you're gonna have like pencils in the aisles in a week. Sorry kids school's out back to glue car construction paper. I, contrary to the reasons that we did it, I don't think it's fucking helped at all.

Megan 16:45

No, I don't think so either.

Lesley 16:47

We don't learn more, and all these kids have all the fucking testing. They're like I read and blah, blah, blah.

Megan 16:54

And all the teachers have to get so much shit done and try to. I mean, you've got to remember that feeling when you look at the calendar and you would know like yes we've got like three weeks left. Yeah, and it's lord of the flies in your classroom yeah, and kids, everybody's losing their mind checked out and the first really warm day, when they have to open the windows at school because you know most of them didn't have.

Lesley 17:21

There was no h back absolutely so you open the windows at school because you know most of them didn't have.

Megan 17:23

There was no h back, absolutely so you open the windows and then there's like shit going on outside and all the kids are staring out the window instead of paying attention to anything that's going on yes, uh-huh, and it also didn't get like 100 degrees hot like no I don't think so maybe maybe we don't remember it, I don't remember there was.

Lesley 17:44

I think that's another valid reason to not have school in the summers, because nobody had hvac I think that's why they didn't well, and it was farming had to go farm, yeah like my elementary school was. When I went to what we would call normal school was out in the middle of fucking nowhere and everybody did farm yeah, a lot of the kids did farm were they detasseling corn and stuff?

Lesley 18:06

yeah, just shit like that. You know helping out, planting things, picking things. Don't need that anymore. You know farming. Yeah, who needs food? We don't need anybody to pick or plant food. There's no underlying political commentary here at all oh yes, there is I don't know what you're talking about.

Megan 18:24

Oh no, oh no, yeah, there is. We don't need food. We don't need food. Forget that shit.

Lesley 18:29

Tomatoes. Good luck with that. Strawberries. So yes, Good luck with that.

Megan 18:37

Taters.

Lesley 18:38

Oranges. Good luck with that. Piss off. What else do we need to eat? Nothing. Nothing you get frozen shit and that's it. This is why Ozempic exists. Actually, it was all a grand conspiracy. There's just not going to be any food.

Megan 18:53

Just stop being hungry. Inject ourselves. Inject yourself and you'll be fine.

Lesley 18:58

Talk about starving a whole population.

Megan 19:08

Wow the humor. Talk about starving into submission a whole population.

Lesley 19:10

wow the humor, the humor gets darker the longer this goes on. Don't get me wrong. Yeah, right, no, but I do miss tomatoes. There's this grand conspiracy that like we're actually.

Megan 19:14

I think you're onto something.

Lesley 19:14

Yes no hate, no shade. Uh, all the um glp ones have been like wonderful lifesavers for many, many people. Yes, and there could be a nefarious underside no more tomatoes and corn for you.

Megan 19:27

Are you big o' zempic?

Lesley 19:29

Big o', are you big o'? That's a different kind of o'. We've gone a long, long way away from summer.

Megan 19:36

We are nowhere near it, but we can get back.

Lesley 19:38

Here we are.

Megan 19:39

So pull in, but we can get back here we are. So pull in, did you so? Do you remember when you were a kid and that whole like ramping up to summer break? Did you? Did your teachers like pull out the AV cart and like oh geez, yeah, absolutely, just got to watch.

Lesley 19:54

We had AV carts, that had, you know, we had reel to reel, yeah yeah, slideshows, okay, you know, we had reel-to-reel film yeah, yeah, slideshows set to music, like you could have sort of audio tracks or like music.

Megan 20:07

Sure.

Lesley 20:07

And they would just shuffle through slides. We still had the overhead projectors with transparencies.

Megan 20:15

Yes, you could ride on those, in case we needed to draw something or write out math equations.

Lesley 20:20

We had those, but the AV cart would come out. I don't remember what we watched, though, leading up to like the holidays I mean, I feel like it was movies like the summer holiday watch whatever I don't know what would we have seen. I don't know what did they do with us. We don't have any memories.

Lesley 20:38

I don't have any memories that's, but I mean, I remember yes this happened I feel like it was you know cartoons and shit like that probably probably so, or like dumb educational films like how to play safely on metal playground equipment. Don't bash your brains out, be careful. I honestly think like the closer it got they just the more they just threw us outside.

Megan 21:00

Yes, Really, yes, like suddenly recess was like four hours Learn to play dodgeball and yeah, catch with your face. And we were just running around like insane people.

Lesley 21:10

And then it was done.

Megan 21:12

And then we were home and I loved summer.

Lesley 21:15

Like in my heart and like from a sensory embodied perspective, I can still feel the feeling of what a long summer was.

Camp Experiences and Visiting Grandma

Megan 21:27

No, didn't have to do anything, didn't have to go anywhere, you were just a kid and you got to go play and yeah. Yeah, get up kind of on your own terms, and yeah, for sure.

Lesley 21:36

That was totally true and, like I don't, I don't know what your we'll get into your experience. True, and like I don't, I don't know what your we'll get into your experience. I know my summer experience up until, uh, up until d-day. That was like we gardened and we had a huge yard and we were in the middle of nowhere, so I did have labor that I had to do like pulling weeds, picking vegetables, pulling worms off of tomato plants exciting things like this sure, but it was just like put on your bathing suit.

Lesley 22:04

You're just kind of wearing the same stinky terry cloth shorts all summer and maybe the same little like tube top or halter top all summer and just like running in the sprinkler and like picking stuff and just sort of like laying around, yeah, just entertaining yourself, yep and hanging out we had.

Megan 22:26

Uh, I went to like a daycare for a lot of my young, young life, so like one was in a woman's home oh, like a daycare in her home that that's when you know watching like. I remember sitting in the living room and watching like Janie and Cowboy Bob and all that.

Lesley 22:47

Oh my gosh. Yes, those are hyper-local too, cowboy Bob's.

Megan 22:50

Corao. So I remember that. And then after my parents divorced I went to a different daycare, kind of on the east side.

Lesley 23:00

East side represent.

Megan 23:04

And it was, was. That was kind of fun because there were a few kids there that were about my age and we, you know, oh that's cool play stuff together, which was great but, um, yeah, like the not, I didn't get to stay home by myself for really until I was a little bit older. I want to say it was probably like I don't know, 13.

Lesley 23:27

Yeah, that seems reasonable.

Megan 23:29

Yeah, and I had my little sister with me, so yeah, oh, you were in charge of her. God help us.

Lesley 23:35

Remind me how. What was the Five?

Megan 23:38

and six years, depending on what time of year, but yeah, oh man Different.

Lesley 23:41

So you really had like some responsibility.

Megan 23:45

I did which is insane, you know, but it was so normal.

Lesley 23:50

Yeah, it was just like oh, you're a woman now you can stay home. Yeah, you know how to warm up SpaghettiOs on the stove top.

Megan 24:00

Try not to get her killed, okay.

Lesley 24:02

Great See, great See you later.

Megan 24:03

You have my number at work.

Lesley 24:05

Where do you work? Ah, it's like 30 minutes away.

Megan 24:07

You're going to be fine.

Lesley 24:08

It's fine. It's fine, call 911.

Megan 24:12

Mm-hmm, learn how to yeah, learn how to do 911 on a rotary dial phone, and you get this.

Lesley 24:18

So did you ever do like camps? Did you have to go to camp in the summertime? I had.

Megan 24:25

No, not really we did. I did a camp, see, I'm like it's all fuzzy, super fuzzy. I feel like, yes, but not like it wasn't a thing that we did regularly.

Lesley 24:41

Okay.

Megan 24:41

Like it was. You know, if I did it did it, it was like one off kind of thing Anyway, but I know you were a camp kid.

Lesley 24:48

Oh my God, so much camp. I was a Girl Scout. I too, was a Girl Scout. I went to Dudley Galahue Girl Scout camp. Gillian went to Dudley. Galahue Girl Scout camp Every summer and I did sleepaway camp and I did two weeks of shocker grease paint theater camp Nice yes. Every summer. I think my first time. I was probably a little bit younger and I just did a week and then I did two weeks. My fantasy brain says maybe up to three weeks, but I think it was just a solid two weeks.

Lesley 25:19

And we did acting and put on a performance at the end of the week. So I loved going away to day camp or to some sleep away camp. I did not so much love local day camps like. That was less fun. I didn't like the like hustle and bustle and like having to run and do 47 million activities. Um, so I didn't love that. That was a really good time. And then often I would go like visit my grandmother. I would stay with her. She was in Kentucky so I'd go visit my grandmother for a couple of weeks and hang out.

Lesley 25:51

And I had tons of freedom there. I could just like kind of wander the earth in Elizabethtown, kentucky, which then was significantly smaller, and like I had a couple of aunts, who one went in walking distance. I don't know if I should have been allowed to walk, but I did, yeah, and there was like go to your aunt gloria's. And I knew that she was like on main street, and so I would walk.

Megan 26:14

And then when I got into high school but you were armed with things- like with with words of wisdom like don't take candy from strangers, don't get in unmarked vans yeah, if a stranger asks you to help them find your cat or dog.

Lesley 26:30

That one was not a thing yet. Oh, that wasn't a thing.

Megan 26:32

Had not happened. Maybe that was one that I taught my daughter. I was like 11, 12, 13.

Lesley 26:39

That one didn't exist, yeah. So I would go there and I, when I was in high, like that teetering year between like eighth grade and freshman year, I remember being old enough to go to the local pool by myself and I had like a friend there and we would walk and like go to the pool, and so it was sort of this, like you know, quintessential small town thing, and then I would hear all these stories about how my mom had been a lifeguard at the pool. But that was sort of fun, did you?

Megan 27:07

you did that you followed in her footstep in high school.

Lesley 27:10

Yes, along, along with the synchronized swimming I also lifeguarded. So that was all through high school I was a lifeguard and then into college and then I also taught swimming lessons and I also did day campy stuff. But for high school and college I definitely lifeguarded the whole time. And then, like post college, when I went out to try to like find a job, I did tons of theater camps. So I read camp, ran camps and created camps for probably 20 years there were.

Ice Cream Trucks and Summer Treats

Megan 27:44

Uh, I'm trying to think like what you know, like the things that pop up in my mind about summer, you know, like ice cream trucks yes, like that they were everywhere, and I think it's a pretty rare thing. Now I don don't know that you they show up near our house sometimes. Do you still have them? We'll hear them in the summer.

Lesley 28:05

They'll go. The sound. We laugh because of the quality of the music. It indicates whether or not we're going to go outside. But when the kids were young, absolutely we would run out there and they would come through every once in a while. I was way too rural to have the ice cream truck experience, so I always missed out on that.

Megan 28:24

But I do remember I definitely had that. That was a thing in my neighborhood for sure.

Lesley 28:29

Oh, that's cool. So did you have a favorite treat?

Megan 28:33

I would say an orange sherbet push-up kind of gal Fuck yes, best ice cream ever so good.

Lesley 28:42

There's so much enthusiasm about orange sherbet push-ups. If you have a Dairy Queen. By the way, near you, there is a summer special thing right now the ones with the colorful dots.

Megan 28:53

Yep, there's a special at Dairy. Queen right now that is like an orangey kind of milkshake-y thing. And my husband says it tastes exactly like the orange push-ups.

Lesley 29:01

Like the old push-ups. It seemed like there were two solid camps. You would either do the push-ups or the rocket pops.

Megan 29:08

Like the red, black and blue. Yeah, they were okay, but I always felt like they tasted like they were frostbitten.

Lesley 29:14

And it was mostly the lemon and, like I wanted, the cherry. Yeah, so just get a fucking cherry popsicle, right right, yeah, like uh, push-ups man, so the other like hated and beloved dessert of summer. Uh, those fucking like plastic popsicles with the edges that cut the corners of your mouth, like the push, the pops that you just you buy oh, like the plastic in the yes, yeah, and you'd like have to tear off the thing with your teeth and like squirt it up.

Megan 29:41

Yes, yes.

Lesley 29:42

And then you'd suck on them and the edges of the plastic would like cut the corners of your mouth. I'm showing you all listening audience, so you can you know what I'm talking about. You feel it.

Megan 29:51

I know you do.

Lesley 29:52

You currently feel it right now, but you would eat like 10 of them and little slices in the corner of your mouth from eating not push-up pops, I guess I don't remember what they were called flavor ice flavor.

Megan 30:02

Is that what it?

Lesley 30:03

is that's exactly it. Yep, I'll take it flavor ice some people would also talk about getting the. Um, I've heard told, heard told, the little jugs drinks yes, I remember those I didn't have. They had like a little foil top on them yeah, you could peel off, and that was drink out of your pre capri suns, before those ever existed they were called like little hugs, little jugs or something like that, was that a precursor to my boobs?

Megan 30:35

look at her little jugs. Little jug, I feel like Flavor Ice.

Lesley 30:41

It sounds like a hip hop artist, flavor.

Megan 30:45

Ice. I want Flavor Ice to be a hip hop song.

Lesley 30:48

I think Saturday Night Live should do that sketch. There it is. They are Lil Hug. Oh, they're Lil Hugs. Oh, isn't that cute. Why are they hugs? They're barrels.

Megan 30:59

I don't know, is somebody trademarked little jug?

Lesley 31:04

little, little hugs or they anticipated that people would be like I can't give little jugs to tiny girls. That would not be appropriate little jugs somebody somewhere was like listen marketing person.

Megan 31:20

As cute as that is, this is a poor decision. This is a bad everyone's part.

Lesley 31:26

Uh, so that was, you know, summer, summer, summer. What did you do? What did you do in the summers in high school? Like, when did you get your first gig? I know we've talked about jobs before, but did you have like fuck?

Megan 31:36

it around summer jobs? Uh no, I'm. I mean, my first job job was at clear's boutique. Oh okay, yeah, and you know, just fucking around okay, I don't know.

Lesley 31:49

So you didn't do like the seasonal employment thing.

Megan 31:52

No, I, you know I probably was. I left my own devices way too much. Got you heard, probably should I. I just wanted to crack a whip on me, no, me too I need to, I need to, I needed money.

Lesley 32:06

I was like I'm gonna figure out how to get the hell out of here, so that's gonna take some cash, gotta go. I just needed the money because I didn't have a car, so somehow I made it all work. I don't know exactly how that went down.

Megan 32:18

I was looking at like things that people well. So my husband was talking about. I was telling him that we were going to do the pod on this and he goes. Oh my God, he goes. I remember the first day of summer when I was in second grade.

Megan 32:32

I was like okay, and he goes. I was all excited I was riding my bike. I was looking behind me to talk to somebody who was also riding their bike and I smacked into the back of a car and left a giant dent and had to go to the hospital and had my face all sewn up. Oh no, I was like shit. But then I was thinking you know, yeah, that's the way to start a summer, that sounds about right.

Lesley 32:57

That sounds about right. Oh, that's so tragic sounds about right.

Megan 33:01

That sounds about right. Oh, that's so true. I was looking at all the things that, like you know, kids supposedly in the 80s did, like playing red light, green light, tag and stuff like that, with their friends for sure, um, you know, like when you're, when we were older, like playing laser tag and stuff like that, water sprinklers and uh, and all this stuff, the sprinkler in the yard, and I think like, oh, do you have pictures of yourself like as an infant in a baby pool?

Lesley 33:31

Did you get that?

Megan 33:32

Yeah, I think everybody does.

Lesley 33:35

I think you're supposed to the metal-edged kind of baby pools, because it was before there was any plastic stuff, so there were these metal edge baby pools. And inevitably we were just like in saggy ass diapers we were naked like with the hose in the thing I do remember, like the big. I mean we'll probably talk about this in a month or so too, but like the big summer party would have been like fourth of july. Yes, um, I do remember we made ice cream every summer. We had like a big they don't even make ice cream makers this large anymore.

Lesley 34:10

I hate that. We threw shit away from the 70s, quite honestly, because it was so amazing yeah, I mean the cool, all the cool stuff. They were giant they don't make two gallons of ice cream. I agree, and it was so good so now did you you had to manually do that. We had one that was electric oh it was in like a five gallon bucket and the like metal cylinder. Was it made like two gallons? When you made it was huge, I don't know it was my dad like, did it get like thick enough?

Lesley 34:37

like, oh yeah, for sure, everything like yeah it was kind of like that, but our bucket was like orange. It was orange and plastic. It was just like a piece of industrial equipment. It wasn't like super quaint. And then they have the metal cylinder and it was just like. You know, my job was like pouring the rocks out and putting more ice in, and then we would check it every once. I love making vanilla ice cream in the summer. I have one now.

Lesley 35:01

It just makes a lot less and it's just not as magical it would have to be like packed with towels and it was like a big thing. I don't know, it was messy. Uh, I miss strawberries in the summer, oh yeah do you remember that?

Megan 35:14

yep, yep, we used to make, uh, like the strawberry, uh, you get those um shells that were like uh, I don't know, like angel food cake kind of shell oh, yeah, yeah, short, and then yep, and then you stick some strawberries in there and some throw some whipped cream on top and you got yourself something it was so good and fresh corn. I do remember that so being in indiana, that is kind of a rite of passage it is Like we do have.

Megan 35:44

But God help you if you get the wrong ear, like if you buy like the feed corn. You are fucked. Yeah, bitter, not good Really good sweet corn, sweet bicolor corn and everybody knows like the one, like farm stall, like on the street, that you could go to.

Lesley 36:02

Oh yeah, that would have like the best because we were, because we were out so far in a rural area, we didn't. You know, we grew a ton but like, yeah, who had really good?

Megan 36:10

I tried to, had really good tomatoes I tried to grow corn um a number of years ago, like in my backyard.

Lesley 36:16

Yeah, so I had it go it was fine.

Megan 36:19

It was fine okay.

Lesley 36:20

I actually got ears like hey hey, corn that we then ate, and it was delicious farmer, but the thing about corn is you have to cross-pollinate it.

Megan 36:30

Yes, so I would go out at night when nobody was looking and I would have corn sex, make my corn have sex, and I'd like. I'd be singing like let's get it all, like you know, that's how you got your ears to enlarge.

Homegrown Corn and Summer Foods

Lesley 36:49

Yes, I need to get bigger ears.

Megan 36:51

I sang to them so that they would have good sex so that they would pollinate. That's the hard thing about growing corn in the city yeah, you gotta let I mean, if you, if you only have like three or four stalks or whatever you have to you gotta work it really good.

Lesley 37:03

You gotta make sure the pollination happens and um, let's get it on, and you and you serenade your corn so that it comes to full maturation. I understand it's fine.

Megan 37:17

You do what you have to do it's fair To make summer as fabulous as summer can be.

Lesley 37:23

Speaking of summer fabulousness and corn and Indiana, the end of summer is the Indiana State Fair. Oh yes, Now this could be a whole other conversation, or we can just kind of tag it in here a little bit.

Megan 37:37

We could tag it in. I didn't go to the fair until my until my husband and I got married.

Lesley 37:43

Oh, his family were fair people okay, we were not fair people, okay, so I was, it was a whole new thing for me and holy crap I you it is in some way, I have missed out on a little bit of a rite of passage and I'm glad that your spouse has indoctrinated you into the indiana state fair. My dad was insane about the fair.

Lesley 38:05

Like 5 am getting up loading the car to get in when it opened so that we could go see all the animals and I'm sure there was some sort of like car load, like get an early kind of thing. Yes, and, uh, it was a whole situation like I don't know what his joy was. We all went as a family many years and then, as I got older, I had much greater resistance to it and in my angsty teens I was like hell, no.

Lesley 38:34

But then, as soon as I hit my 20s, you're like I, gotta go we gotta go to the fair and we gotta go in the morning and I gotta go see the bunnies and I gotta go see the chickens and I gotta go see all the baby.

Megan 38:43

Yeah, no, we weren't we weren't fair people, but we did. We would do like in the summertime we would do, uh, drive-ins oh yeah, oh, that's fun, that was super fun so that was when you said like you could get in with a car load oh, that triggered that.

Lesley 38:58

There you go of course the drive-in movies. I follow that. Do you remember any of the movies that you ever saw at the drive-in?

Megan 39:05

I absolutely. Yes, we saw, I know we saw ET at the drive-in, and the one that really sticks in my mind is Disney's Fox and the Hound. Oh, that's adorable but those are so sad, we all it was my mom, my grandmother and my sister and I, and we all bawled our eyes out and we're passing around a box of clean eggs absolutely sobbing like oh my lord summer joy like no other.

Lesley 39:38

I have some vague memory pre-sibling so I had to be younger than four of going to see the great raft race, Charlie Brown, or the great boat race Charlie.

Megan 39:52

Brown.

Lesley 39:52

Okay, sure, I just remember. I have this vague memory of them being in this raft and falling off of a waterfall. So for my three or four-year-old little heart, that must have been like oh my God, charlie Brown's gonna die. What's happening to Charlie Brown? I do remember that that's the only drive-in movie that I remember as a kid. I don't know why we're being made to look at Footloose. Because, that's mine.

Megan 40:21

Oh, that was your drive-in movie.

Lesley 40:22

Footloose Because that's mine that was your drive-in movie Footloose.

Megan 40:26

Did you have a date?

Lesley 40:28

No, because I was seven.

Megan 40:35

Oh wow, I forget that you're younger than me, but I do remember sitting there and watching it and telling my mom and my sisters like I gotta get out of the car.

Lesley 40:47

I gotta dance, I gotta dance.

Megan 40:52

I gotta go move. I mean, they were telling you that everybody should cut loose. Foot loose Kick off your Sunday shoes.

Lesley 41:01

Sunday shoes Sunday shoes. You know what I thought? That word was Sundance, your Sundance shoes. Your Sundance shoes forever it was like kick off your Sundance shoes, wee Ooey Shake and shake my feet. That's literally what I thought they were saying. That's literally what I thought they were saying.

Megan 41:25

As far as we know because I'm not fact checking this shit no, that is exactly the lyrics. For now and forever and ever. Please don't ever tell us otherwise.

Lesley 41:38

I'm okay with that it's pretty fucking funny. I bet we could come up with like a whole episode's worth of stuff about like lyrics that we misremember. Oh for fucking sure we should get people to like write in and we'll just like read through them and laugh our asses off. That could just be like a little reel of hilariousness. Oh, my God so fun, oh mercy, but here we are yeah here we are. So we're at the beginning of summer now and we get to 2025,.

State Fair and Drive-In Movies

Megan 42:22

You know now, yeah, and now that we're older, you know, now in my head, I look at the calendar and I'm like, okay, well, it's already past Memorial Day. That makes me sad. And then I've got my birthday, so I got that to look forward to.

Lesley 42:35

And then that's gone.

Megan 42:36

I'm like, okay, now, oh shit, it's already past my birthday. And now, oh crap, it's already my past my birthday. And now, oh crap, it's already past fourth of july. And then you know, and then it just feels like next thing, you know, it's the state fair and then gen con and then, well, that's true that's gen con.

Lesley 42:50

But gen con is like the it signals the end, yeah, the bleeding into the end of summer. At this point it's just kind of gone.

Megan 42:58

It's just like and then never, you know. Granted, halloween is cool, but yeah, I don't know. Halloween is super sad when it disappears. So, fast.

Lesley 43:07

At least we do get to kind of enjoy the full season like, I think, like mid-may through september now, because being boundaried by like the current school year, yeah, was torture.

Megan 43:21

I mean, just like what it's oh as a because it's august first we're done that's it.

Lesley 43:26

So you miss like six more weeks of wonderful weather right, right.

Megan 43:31

You know of arguably the hottest part of the summer absolutely so if you were in a school that didn't have air conditioning, which was much of ips right and definitely definitely buses Right.

Lesley 43:41

Oh my God.

Megan 43:42

And you're sending your kids back out into sweltering conditions, torture.

Lesley 43:48

Yeah, misery, it shouldn't be. So we're getting ready. We're on the cusp of enjoying summer. I'm sure during our summer recording we will chime in about certain events and we will celebrate our one year anniversary this summer of our first episode dropped like first full calendar year.

Megan 44:09

That is awesome we are in our second season of the pod, but look at us, look at our little love love project I know it's pretty cool, we're just chugging right along. Yeah, I like it, it's super fun. Hopefully it's fun for people to listen to this silliness and hopefully remember some of their childhood and their summer send us your summer stories.

Lesley 44:33

If you send us fun things, we'll read them on the internet. We have some stories waiting. We're probably going to do an episode with like just some five minutes of fame stories and just funny anecdotes that people have shared with us but if you have them, you can call them in and we will absolutely entertain those and share them with the whole wide world and we read all of the texts that people send.

Lesley 44:54

We read all of the notes and we were also going to maybe just like do a little episode. I mean we'll include all that stuff. We want to like say thank you to everybody that, like, we do read your texts. We can't respond to them for some reason, but we do read them and it's super sweet when they text in from the pod itself.

Megan 45:12

Oh yeah, Like the links in the pod.

Lesley 45:14

People send us notes and we super appreciate them. They're always awesome.

Megan 45:18

They're very fun.

Lesley 45:19

We just want to do like a thank you to people and maybe we'll talk about just kind of the business of being hobby podcasters and what that really looks like, because people ask all the time oh, you guys got sponsors. Megan has a. Oh, no, that'd be nice. If there is cash at the end of the year, we do pay our producer a little bit of money, we do, and we take a small stipend and we donate to charities of which we are yes.

Lesley 45:47

Oh, that's a great. Okay, we're rambling on, but we're going to give you this information for this month. For May and June, we are donating to Indie Pride and our minimum donation for each two month period is $200. But if we sell more merch during that time period, we do donate more. I am quickly looking for our list of donations that we are doing for the year, because I think that's an important thing to talk about For 2025,. January and February, we donated to the Center of Reproductive Rights that actually started in December. March and April we donated to Planned Parenthood of Central Indiana. May and June IndyPride. July to August we're going to be raising money to donate to WFII local public broadcasting. September and October it's kind of open, open so I don't want to say yet um. And then november, december we're going to be donating to second helpings that's awesome.

Lesley 46:50

I like that organization very much, I know, because we want to um feed people in central indiana and beyond who need it during the holidays.

Megan 47:00

So I think that's too. I will throw in that I think at some point we should give to the Southern Poverty Law Center. Thank you there you go.

Lesley 47:11

Thanks for being the other half of my brain.

Megan 47:12

I picked that up, so we'll do that too, yeah. I think we've summered. It have we summered? I want more summer.

Lesley 47:20

I do.

Megan 47:20

It was summer. I wish we were kids. I wish I could go back knowing what I know now, and redo summer.

Lesley 47:27

Ah, that'd be amazing.

Megan 47:29

Yeah, I'd be like I would fucking party it up, not party party, but you know what I mean, just like really savor it.

Lesley 47:35

Savor it.

Megan 47:36

Take it in, yeah.

Lesley 47:37

I would go back to one of those summers where I was so grumpy about having to like, garden and help and I would be like all in this, like little dressed, bonneted child going, oh, just floating over all the plants. So I didn't realize how like lucky I was to have that experience yeah, it was wild and just everything that went along with it. I said we were going to stop, but then this is a really good story. The other part of summers for me and gardening was canning season.

Lesley 48:13

And so a few summers I had the experience of, like my grandmother would come, my aunts would come, their spouses would come, come. We would do this kind of like end of season harvest and all of the women would be canning in our kitchen. That was really magical and cool and I didn't realize how special it was until, like, I grew up and didn't do that, yeah you know, and I was like, oh, that's really magical, like, and everybody would leave with stuff and we would like very fabulous and witchy off the cherry trees and like made in cherry preserve.

Lesley 48:46

It was insane, like we just lived in this little gift of land that has now been eaten up by what is geist yeah um, but it was really magical. That was pretty special. That's very cool thank you.

Megan 48:57

Yeah, I think I'd go back and I'd do some serious uh, playing in the yard and riding my bike with some friends.

Lesley 49:03

Nice.

Megan 49:04

And maybe the slip and slide.

Lesley 49:06

Hell yeah, fucking slip and slide. How did we?

Megan 49:08

forget that, yeah, so fun.

Lesley 49:10

Well, we're going to slip slide on out of here. I need to pick that up, oh yeah. Have a great weekend, everybody. We'll see you back here in two weeks.

Megan 49:22

Yes, ma'am, I don't know what we're going to talk about then?

Lesley 49:24

Nope, we won't now, until two minutes before we get on these microphones.

Megan 49:28

But it'll be great. Oh, producer Tim just gave us the big apples. We promise you the big roll of those apples all the way back in his head. Have a good night, Megan. Bye, Leslie.

Lesley 49:51

Talk to you later. See you later. See you later.

Megan 49:52

Alligator after wild crocodile, you have been listening to gen x women are sick of this shit. Hey megan, hey leslie. What do people do if they want to find us? Well, we have a website that people can find us on, and that is gen x women podcom. We also have a Facebook page. We have an Instagram account as well. We have a YouTube account where we put YouTube shorts and other little tidbits up there. We have a TikTok account.

Lesley 50:14

I don't talk the dick or tick the tock.

Megan 50:16

You don't tick the tock, I do not, I barely talk the tick, but I did put a TikTok up. We're explaining the internet. That's okay, though it's great.

Lesley 50:25

We need to know how the internet works.

Megan 50:34

Can people buy merch? They absolutely can. We have a merch store on the website itself, and we also have an Etsy store too, so that was just pretty easy to find. It's just Gen X women on Etsy.

Lesley 50:41

And if you are listening to this podcast, presumably you found it somewhere. And while you're there, give us a review. Yeah, let us know what you think. Throw some stars at us, that'd be great.

Megan 50:53

We'll take one, two, three, four or five, ooh five, maybe ten, and also make sure that you are hitting subscribe so that you're notified whenever a new episode drops.

Lesley 51:04

Most important.

Megan 51:05

We also have a five minutes of fame that I think we should tell people about too.

Lesley 51:08

Hell, yes, we want to know your stories, your five minutes of fame stories. You can send those stories in on the website or you can call 1-888-GEN-X-POD and leave your story for us and we will play it live in our next episode.

Megan 51:25

Yep, we'll listen to it on a little red phone, just like Batman, that'd be cool, let's get a bat phone, a bat phone.

Lesley 51:35

I think that's it. I think you're right.