Grown Ass Dads – Episode 8: Backpacks, Bus Stops & Nintendo Finger???

Grown Ass Dads – Episode 8: Backpacks, Bus Stops & Nintendo Finger???

Back-to-school season hits different when you're the dad… and your kids have better tech than NASA.

This week, the Grown Ass Dads catch their breath as the kids head back to school—and reflect on everything that’s changed (and hasn’t). From awkward bus stop drop-offs to the gear anxiety of kids who already know how to use ChatGPT, we unpack the shift in family rhythm and technology that comes with a new school year.

🗣️ In this episode, the dads discuss:
• The emotional reset of back-to-school season—for dads
• Old-school tech vs. today’s devices (RIP dial-up modems)
• Childhood video game memories vs. what kids are playing now
• The strange evolution of what’s considered “normal” screen time
• Why organizing backpacks is suddenly the most fulfilling task ever

🆒 Tune in if:
You're feeling both relief and whiplash as routines return—and wondering how in the hell kids today are better at tech than you are at parenting.

🔔 Like the show? Subscribe, share, and leave a rating to help other grown ass dads find us.

Transcript

0:00

Welcome to the Grown Ass Dads podcast. Boop boop boop boop boop boop boop. And we're back. Yeah, buddy. Welcome to the Grown Ass Dads podcast. Bones. Good to see you. Good to see you. I'm Adam Bunder and here with Jay Hilson and Mr. Jason Byrne. So this, this is an important episode, I think. We have talk about what? We can talk about when we talk about, back to school kids going back to school. It's time. Vital part of my life. Seriously. And I hate it, but it's a vital part of my life. I think this is something that all I mean, certainly, all of us are dealing with, but I would imagine a lot of other dads and moms are dealing with their kids going back to school, so why not talk about it? I feel super guilty because, summer's the greatest time ever for a kid, and it's a blast for me. And the boys. I need them to go back to school like yesterday. Help me understand why. I mean, you said you hate it. Why do you. Why do you hate it? Why do I hate that? I feel this way. No. Like we said, it was time to go back to school. And you said I hate it, but I need this. Yeah. So I feel that I hate that I feel this way because I, I feel like I miss out on a little bit of the experience and the journey and fun of summer, but with my kids not yet being old enough to kind of watch themselves or get themselves anywhere. But I like the the summer is just an absolute clusterfuck, and it's who's going where and to what camp and who's getting them there. What am I doing? Who's watching them today? How fast do I gotta get home from work? What do I do? It's a constant just sprint. Seeing that, I guess that's why it's it's a little bit different for me because I'm. I'm excited about school getting back in session. Well, I'm not excited because now I gotta get up. Really early in the morning again, but which is probably a good thing. But I, I, I agree judgment but but at the same time my kids don't spend summer bouncing around from camp to camp to camp and yada yada yada. My kids sit at home for the most part. Other than Aiden, who's in a lot of plays, Blake plays golf. Carter just does a whole lot of VR. So I'm excited about school coming around so they can finally be social again. I just wanted to get out of the house and spend some time with other people. I'm not. I'm not even talking about the whole let's get back on a regiment and have a schedule and have a structure and all that stuff. Again, it's just go see humans 100%. Yeah. Yeah. So man, for me, also different because right now. So I mean, from late March until right now is my busy season professionally. I mean, this is, you know, like the the real estate season is, is right now. And if people say there's no seasonality, that's bullshit. There is. And so it's a little bit more different for me because I am working like crazy right now. And so, you know, my wife has to kind of pick up the slack for me throughout the entire summer. So I, I feel guilty. And then she feels guilty because the kids aren't doing, you know, we're not going on these lavish trips or doing all this stuff. But I kind of came to a realization, a couple of weeks ago when we were having this conversation. She's like, you know, we haven't gone anywhere. We haven't really done anything. Now we go visit my brother in Omaha, which is awesome. Like we spend a week up there. It's great, but we haven't done anything significant. You know, we haven't gone on any vacation, per se. But I realize that our, our kids summer, their ideal summer, isn't hanging out with mom and dad at all. It's doing what they want to do. It's going to the buddies houses and playing VR, swim in or going up the street or riding bikes or that's what they want to do. And so I was we're kind of having this conversation I can came to this realization of, like, they had a great summer. They had the summer of their dreams as long as done in school. It's a great summer. Yeah. It just wasn't what we think they want to do, which is all just bullshit that we're projecting upon everybody else. But we are getting ready to go to table Rock, not Branson table rock. Good answer. To go fishing. Yeah. It's, I think my kids had a great summer, and it's. I more of it is, I guess a little selfish on my part that I'd like to spend some more time with them, you know, make some more memories. Yes. What have you. We just got back from a float. It was great. But it's it's a situation. So the next week is going to be conditioning them to go back to school, because. Right now it's kind of a go to bed when you're tired and get up when you're not. Yep. And now we're going to go back to, you know, 9:00 930. Bedtime. Get up at 630, quarter seven. And you have to condition them to do that. And so it's going to suck a little bit. What's been the summer bedtime? Somewhere around 1030. And my kids are nine and 13 now. And so 1030 ish. I've got a super, super stubborn ass nine year old who, needs to go to bed earlier than my 13 year old. But, when I do put him to bed, he will, on purpose stay up and force himself to stay awake until his brother comes into the room 100% of the time. And, he could I could put him in there at 8:00, and Joe can go to bed at 11, and I walk in there and dance like, what do you guys been doing? Whatever. You're waiting. Whenever we want, bro. Yeah. But he refuses. And so this is we're going to, That's another thing that we're going to work through because he needs more sleep than Joe does right now. And Joe is a morning person. So even when Joe goes about at 11, he's still awake by 830 at the latest, and Dan could go to bed at

10:00 and sleep until 11: 6:33

00 the next day. Yeah. My guy. Yeah. Yeah. So, man, after your own heart, but it's, I'm. I'm anxious for them to go back to school. It the the regiment, that I know where they're going to be from 8 a.m. to three and from 8 to 3, I don't I I'm good. I can just focus on what I need to do. And also, my 13 year old has a phone now and I get 3 to 4 calls a day. Hey, dad, what are you going to come home when I'm done working? But when's that going to be? Probably around 530 or so. Can you bring me lunch? No. Talk to the babysitter. She will take care of lunch for you. I don't want anything at home. Okay, cool. Dude, I got to get back to doing this. I'm going to meet. Oh, sorry. In an hour later. Hey, can we go get my Xbox for mom's? Sure. When I get home. Why? Why, when you get home? Why can't we go get it now? Because dad's in the middle of fucking working. What do you. What do you stop? Stop fucking calling me. But I can't say you stop fucking calling me because I, like, talk to him and I want to see what's going on. But hey, dude, call me when there's something that's not fucking absurd, right? But it's, I'm excited for them to go back. They're excited to see their buddies as much as they enjoy summer. And they say, I don't want to go back there. They're they're they're getting a little anxious to see everybody. They're pretty active and they get they do a lot of sleepovers and they hang out with their friends fairly frequently over the summer and see them at camps and sports stuff. But yeah, I think they're I think they are unknowingly excited to go back to see their friends. Not to get homework, though. Yeah, I love to tell you what time my kids been going to bed, but I have no idea because you're in bed before them. I'm in bed way before they are my 17 year olds and my 13 year old. No clue. All I know is I could wake up at two in the morning to go to the bathroom and at least one of my kids is still awake because I can hear a television or I can hear video games going on still. Whatever. Yeah, I, I, I don't know, I it could be Carter, my 13 year old. I have no idea. Yeah. I mean our kids are up late in the summertime. I mean, it's, to say that they go to bed at ten is a dream. I mean, they're it's it's probably midnight ish most of the time. Unless there's a sleepover and then you know, like, the Carter was over sleeping over last week or whenever it was. And, you know, they weren't in bed anytime early. In fact, I, I could hear him scheming down there, and I'm like, all right, just don't burn anything down. Yeah. Yeah. I to be honest, I think technology has allowed for such a different experience in the summer. Sure. Then I mean, certainly when we were kids, because they're connected. I mean, he's playing video games and on, voice calls or FaceTime or whatever the hell it is. Every day, multiple times a day. So it's almost like they haven't really left the classroom. I mean, you know, there's kids that obviously they haven't seen, but the group of friends that they have, they're still they remain. Yeah. I mean, our two boys have, have a, have a group of people that they do the Oculus, the Oculus peeps. Yeah. They've actually gotten together in the not in the IRL. Right. In real life. Okay. To go to Six Flags. Yeah. And all that kind of stuff. So it's, it's I, I agree with you. It's, it's, it's provided an opportunity for them to stay connected. And there's at least a group of six of them. I think that that still stay connected. It's just it's just an odd dichotomy. Oh I think it's right where it's not a real world. I think I think I used it right. Did you spell that for me? I don't think any of us are going to try and spell that one out, but yeah, there's a way for them to stay connected. But it's still just. It's so weird that my kid is at home all day long and yet still interacting with other people. Yeah, it's it's it's weird even. All right, here's the question then. Better or worse or just different than we were growing up. Here's the scenario. We were 13 years old, like Carter, Joe and Harry, and we wanted to play video games with our buddies. We wanted to hang out. How did you do that? Well, you could only play. Let's see. So for 13, you could only play probably Super Mario Brothers. You had Nintendo. Yeah. So you had to sit. And so it was GoldenEye. No. Not out yet. No, no. Not 13. No way. In 1980 or 1991, 1993. Yeah. 1993. Sega was probably around. No way. Yeah, Sega was. Sega was right. 1990s for sure. I got the original Nintendo with my First Communion money, so it was for sure long enough for Sega to come out. Okay. So nonetheless, let's just say at the time Nintendo and Nintendo 64 was out, Sega was out. And you if you were going to play, you were going to play a two man game. Yeah. Because it was only two, man. Because there were two controllers and the only there was a save button back then, and you were going to go ride your bike. Yeah. To buddy's house, and you were going to sit next to one another and yell at each other and fight. Yes. In the game and literally whether, you know, you were playing Mortal Kombat, you're playing NBA jam, you're playing. Yes. What? You know, one of the better than anything else that you're going to say, okay, that wins those those are those who I'm also going to vote for that already. Okay. So you that was the thing. Okay. So what would happen for me is I would go to one of my friends houses, they would come over to my house, whatever it was, we'd ride our bikes so we get, I don't know, a mile to two miles on our bike that day. We would play video games. If it was nice out, we might go play wiffle ball or fudge ball or something like that. We might play basketball in the driveway. We might come back in and play video games. If it's raining, we're playing video games, watching a movie on VHS or whatever, damn right. And and sitting next to and sitting next to one another, interacting. Is it better or is it worse than the kids right now that never have to leave their house? Still interact with their friends via online gaming or on FaceTime or what have you? Do similar things playing video games, doing that, but they don't have any time that they have to ever leave their bedroom or living room. I don't think that there's anyone on this planet that will be able to make a solid argument that the way that it is now is better than what we just expressed was our reality in the 80s and 90s. Let me let me give it a try. Please do. Because I see zero. I don't I, I still prefer the way it was for us getting out of the house, riding the bike. In fact, I was having a down day the other day and I literally drove my car through the streets that I used to ride my bike on because I just was going down memory lane, like, yeah, there's, there's there's something to be said for that getting out and riding your bike and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah. What I will say is the, the, the vast ability to connect now. So I don't necessarily have lasting relationships or deep relationships with any of my cousins or extended family. Some of my some of my cousin ish, we've we've hung out our whole whole lives and so on and so forth. But like my direct cousins love them to death. But we never we interacted on holidays, right? Two of my son's best friends or their cousins who lived on the Lake of the Ozarks. Why? Because they can game together all day, every day if they choose to. So the technology has given them the ability to stay in contact with people that back in the day, we couldn't have stayed in contact with. So if I had cousins that lived on the Lake of the Ozarks, I had no way to interact with them unless we were gonna have a phone call. But, I mean, I'm not going to sit on the phone with my boy cousin for hours. Right? But, the ability to connect that way has been awesome to see, because now when we get together all as a family, it's a completely different dynamic because everybody is just so tight and connected because of the ability to do so over electronic means. Okay, so what I'm hearing you say is that the the geographic diversity of connection is more readily available. That's a deep way of saying it. But then than it was when we were kids, same. I had cousins in Arkansas and I would we would spend two weeks every summer and Thanksgiving in Arkansas every single year. And I loved them. Yep. But coming down to Arkansas twice a year was like reconnecting for two days, four days, six days, whatever it was. And then wait til next year and holy shit, you're a foot taller and oh, now you like girls and not like all different, you know what I mean? All different types of growing up happening. Whereas if I had, a direct connection to them, maybe it would have been different or deeper or something like that. This and what we're talking about is better than what? Like social media provides. Social media is a completely different concept. It is allows you to stay in tune with and aware of things that are going, going on long distance. But now, because of the the vase of the world and, and facetimes and video games and discord and all that kind of stuff. I mean, it's, it's it is almost other than the ability to reach out and actually touch the person next to you, it's as if they're at each other's house playing games together, which is right. Which is bizarre, which is pretty cool. I mean, that's that's what I dreamed of being able to play seven GoldenEye with three of my friends from their houses and me sitting on my couch. So it's hard for me to to look at the current scenario in a negative light because I'm like, My God, I wish I had. Yeah, yeah, okay, so you didn't completely convince me, but you took the sting out of my resistance on that minor day. Boop boop boop on that minor opportunity to be able to connect with somebody that lives a far distance away. Better. Other than that, worse and and worse for a lot of different things. Just just to Claire, I agree with you. So you would have like, I, I love you. Can you imagine what how big of a hermit you would be right now if you never had to leave your house growing up? I mean, it's hard to be a bigger hermit than I am, but, we got to this. This is what I'm. This is what I'm saying. I also thought that growing up and one of the things that I think is funny now is these kids can say anything that they want to their bodies and they can, you know, talk shit to one another and whatever. And when you were sitting next to your buddy and talking shit to him, I mean, how many times in your life was something going a little awry in NBA jam? And as your buddy was going to go fire, go on fire, stick it in your eye, you would slap his controller out of his. Oh yeah. And then what? Then? And then there'd be a rumble in the in the room of wherever that was going to be. And you'd get, you know, you're leaning on your buddy because you're trying to keep your controller in your hand, like there there's other interpersonal things. And actually having to sit in front of somebody and make conversation. And just a lot of the other stuff and I things are very vastly different now. But, that's one thing that I have noticed as a difference. And I don't know if it was just a way that, you know, I was raised or the way I'm raising my kids. I don't know, but I have noticed that kids today really struggle with, eye contact, something as simple as making eye contact. And I think one of the things that is a contributing factor, other than the fact that I might be lacking in my parenting and someone enforcing it, is they can have full cognitive conversation without needing somebody to have it sitting in front of them. They're either doing this or they're doing this, or they're doing this, and they're able to communicate in a way thoroughly where they don't need a, a representation of who I'm conversing with sitting in front of them. Yeah. To where if, you know, I was trying to talk to somebody and I was looking down or mumbling or looking over, there would be a, you know, hey, yeah, look at somebody when you're talking to them. Yeah. So, so two things really quickly, first of all, the hermit thing. Yes, I, I've turned into one of those, but that's actually my biggest fear about my children because of the current scenario. Right. Like, we're looking at colleges right now. Scary shit. We're looking at colleges. And one of my sons, who spends a lot of time playing games, is looking at a technical college that is out of this world. I mean, this place is amazing. It's a year and a half program, and he's into the into the working world. Where's the like? That's not even going to give him enough time to get out and interact and meet. Like the biggest moment for me in my life to get out and meet people and expand my horizons and come out of my shell. Was college and a year and a half program in the class with the same 20 people is not going to do it anymore. So then the video games are today, right? So it's it's hard. The other point that you brought up was this whole not being able to make eye contact, right? So little bit different. But question for you guys, because of this video game nature that my kids have grown up in and the YouTube concept of watching other people play. But yeah, which still blows me same. Do your kids have the ability to narrate their life as if people are listening and watching, whether or not there's actually anybody listening or watching or not? So my son Blake. Yeah, love you. But he will narrate every ounce of his life as if he's one of those YouTubers who's playing video games and has to tell people what's happening. Give me an example. So he's he's getting ready to go play golf with you or with with Kevin. He'll come up here to the office. It's hilarious. Right? Right. Right behind me. You guys can't see it. It's like a side of this other side of this little, drape. But we have a golf simulator here in the office. He'll come up here in golf, and I will know every shot where the ball went, what the next shot's going to be, what he felt about that shot. Because it's as if at all times he has a camera on him, and people are watching to the point that he'll actually say, oh, that was rough chat. What? I don't I don't know if I don't know. I mean, certainly I don't think Carey does that. Gus might Gus could, I think Gus is a really good candidate for the Truman Show type situation, because he is he he is the most comfortable when he's hanging out with his friends, and he's the most comfortable when he is sitting in a room by himself for six hours, drawing or making a book, creating a book or or organizing houses or whatever he's doing at that moment. I mean, I've never seen someone at that age so comfortable in their own skin. It is one of the coolest things and also one of the most terrifying things in the world, because I'm like, boy, I wish I had that confidence at that age. And also, man, it's going to be rough. They're going to be you're they're going to be some kids who are so uncomfortable that are going to see you in want to choke you down. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know about the narration thing. I might try it. I it's it's Adam's getting ready to go to the lake, but but and he caught a I. Adam caught a bass today. I'm going to I want to send you guys videos. Look for this, there's going to be a grown ass dad video of Adam narrating himself catching a fish. Adam draws back the rod and lets it fly. I got one Fisher got one fish on. Oh, we're going to battle. We're going to battle. Oh, you should absolutely 1,000% do that and send it to me, because I'm gonna have to edit it. Put it up because you don't have social media. That's her. It's that that is something you should do for sure. All right. So I would say my kids don't narrate their life, but my oldest does do a similar thing that I used to do. And I for a long time was, going to the NBA and, no one told me that I was six secure. Yeah, I was, I was going to the NBA back a year ago. They're still talking about it last week. National basketball, the national National basketball Association. Yeah. That I mean I, I definitely fit into at 62. And you kind of feel like big country Brian Reeves. But I do just like 8 to 10in shorter. And less talented. But ultimately after I, I think we're that actually belongs in the NBA. Yeah. Or a police officer. 1 or 2. It's a it's really an authoritarian thing. But I would I always thought, okay, if I don't go to the NBA, I want to be an announcer for the NBA. And so I would announce play by play when I would be training and on the court. And that is where Blake belongs, 1,000%. And I and I would do that and very it was it was a daily thing that, you know he gets the ball in the post five four. He makes a move. Shoot three good hits the rim of overtime, turn one and then and then I and then my most favorite thing in the entire world was the, Michael Jordan era of, the the the Bulls intro. And I can I could probably recite the starting five and what that was and and that was and I used to do that a lot, by myself because I was embarrassing. But that was really fun. But I will do that in the living room playing shinny hockey and talk about, you know, passes over to hills and hills and roofs. It's sick. And you're like, oh. And I mean, if I hear sick or gross one more time, I'm going to have to punch him. But, you know, he he shoots, I don't know, 100 shinny balls a day and and then gets mad when he misses and I'm like, it's just you. You're the only guy playing against you. Bowling against you. Why are you yelling about this right now? So? So I'm glad you brought that up, okay? Because from the age, I don't know, six, eight, an uncomfortable age. Yesterday, I narrated myself playing baseball. I mean, for hours. Okay. And I thought I was going to be an announcer. That's a that's right. When I was a kid, I thought I was gonna be a baseball announcer. But, I mean, the entire line up of the 1992 Saint Louis Cardinals, throw the ball up. Oh, left handed batter. Now I'm let, like, the whole thing. Play the whole game. Game seven of the World series. I don't think my kids do that, but I remember. Did you do the whole gambler thing, though? Like, that was not gambler. What song? I definitely did some gambling, but nothing to get the care of your. So one day, Rodgers, where you throw it up three times. Yeah. I was like, oh my God, I'm such a good pitcher. Yeah. Yeah, I probably did that. So what I what I don't see any kids doing now and I this used to be really commonplace with at least my friends growing up. We play wiffle ball. We were somebody. So we used. So we used to play, Mike, my cousin Kyle and I used to play one on one wiffle ball. Yeah. And we would pick a team and then we would have to bat. Yes. The way that stance that that right handed left handed, that whole thing. And then we also added up where we would have a pitcher that we would be, and then we would have to pitch in a similar version to that friend, neighbor Hagan. Well, the hilarious habit that that's that's insensitive. What's wrong? I'm sorry, everybody, but that's as bad as wearing jeans and saying you got good jeans and oh, I, I've, I've always had a pretty good self-awareness other than the NBA thing. But I, I, I had a dog shit arm like my cousins. My friends could throw gas, and I everything I had was, was a was a muffin. And so forever I was Bob Tewkesbury. Come on now, I'm not I was Bob Tewkesbury because I was just a control guy that threw junk. And if I really gassed somebody, I was throwing 89 miles an hour. And so it was that as a kid, love and and, you know, my cousin me, like Nolan Ryan toes the rubber and I'm like, I can't even say that out loud because it's embarrassing. But these kids now, they'd like if you said, hey, show me Aaron Judge's stance and hit like Aaron Judge. They would be like, what are you talking about? I don't even know how to do that. Blake does. Okay. That's awesome. So what? Blake. But Blake has, like, a massive passion for baseball, but also for the longest time, had a huge passion for wiffle ball in particular. So we actually built a stadium and everything on it. My my dad's soccer field and stuff, and he would. He is one kid that would do that. He does the same thing and he would do certain stances and certain pitching methods. And I'm like, I have no idea what you're talking about, but sounds good, buddy. Yep. Same thing. We would play, wiffle ball in the backyard and and he's a who are you going to be, dad? I mean, like, I'm going to be the, 97 Cardinals. All right? I'm going to be this. I'm going to be the 2023 card or whatever it was. And he knew every stance left handed, right handed. And that, to be honest, that's how I learned how to hit left handed was being, you know, yeah, it being Jim Edmonds or something and playing wiffle ball in the backyard. So, my cousin used to be the Cubs and I was the Cardinals all the time, and he loved Andre Dawson. All right. And, Andre Dawson, basically drove over the plate and had this big vicious swing and so anytime that he would tell me, okay, Andre Dawson's up, I would throw a curveball up into his face. Yeah. And because I knew he was going to lean into it, and then he'd get pissed at me, and then I could throw low and away and strike him out. And it was. It was hilarious because he wasn't exactly a super deep thinker. And so we played this game for years. This wasn't like a one time thing for years. And every single time that would happen, it'd be like Andre Dawson up and I'd be like, here comes in your fucking chin. And then how about another hole? Then I would strike him out lone away, and he, because he was afraid to get hit in the face again. And then I was like, I don't know, but we're, we're 17 years old. I've been doing this to you for five straight years and you still don't know this is what's going to happen. But we had a play. I mean, we we played a ton of that stuff, but we played a ton of video games, too. But we. Well, I don't know. Well, I do know the controllers now are more ergonomic than those old school Nintendo controllers. How much Nintendo thumb did you get? Oh, it sucked tons. However, I have a friend, actually going to go with him at table Rock. He had Nintendo Finger, which was where your fingers turn yellow from holding cigarets, you know. Oh yeah. So now if we're like, ever on the golf course or something and somebody smoking a lot of cigarets like, oh, you got Nintendo finger. Okay. We apparently we did different things. We were playing Nintendo. True. Yeah. But a little different. Yeah. I just remember like, actually having the the imprint of the arrow. Yeah. My thumb. Yep. Sure. And and rolling that and you'd be like hey my my thumbs hurt. We should go play wiffle ball or we should go play basketball or we'll come back to this. Yeah. Favorite Nintendo game? Oh, so, Mike Tyson's punch, the legend of Zelda. Yeah. Okay. That's an okay. Yeah. Good one. Mike Tyson's punch out, Mike Tyson's punch out, and contra contra loved contra. What about, what about Surfside? DMV, Surfside or something like. That was good. That was good. I actually really enjoyed, RBI baseball. Yeah, I liked RBI, and I like Tecmo Ball, like all that stuff, but, my mom. So my mom, used to play Zelda, so my mom would yell at us like, you gotta turn that shit off. You know, whatever. And then we would. You said earlier, why was there a save button? Well, there was a save button on Nintendo's. When you turn the TV off and leave the Nintendo. Yes. We didn't tend to run it because my mom used to play Zelda in the middle of the night with my Aunt Donna, and the cord to the to the phone would go around the house into wherever the fucking thing was, and you'd come in and she'd be like, nobody touch a thing. Your mom was a nerd. Yeah, I love it. Oh, yeah. All right, so in that situation, Tech Mobile had cheat codes, and it was on a cheat code that you could put in. It was basically Bo Jackson, Bo Jackson, and, Lawrence Taylor. Nobody knew about that. Nobody. Nobody knew Bo Jackson was. Nobody could block Lawrence Taylor, Lawrence Taylor. You just use the arrow and guys would just go flying off of them. And then Bo Jackson was a cheat code. But, you know, I have not played contra in 30 ish years, but you still know the code. I can still get me 30 guys right now if you put it in front of me. I need to play contra. Up, up, down, down, left right left right. BA ba ba. Select start 30. Guys. That was only necessary if you're playing two player. That is correct. And but one of my favorite t shirts that I've ever seen last week I was the code and the code was on a t shirt, and I was like, that's fucking brilliant, I need that. Yeah, that was the majority of people are walking past that person going, what the hell is that? But you were like, bro, I appreciate you. Let me let me buy you a drink. But yeah, you know, you you it was if kids saw that and they'd be so pissed because, like, dude, you're cheating. You're using Lawrence Taylor or you're doing whatever and it you know, it. Wow. You had to get to the game. You had to call it. Oh. You know, they're cheating today because they have checkpoints they get to and they can turn their game off like my kids. My kids don't understand this concept of if I was playing Super Mario Brothers and I died, it's over. The game was over. Start from square one. Game was over. Yeah, well, it got to it got to the point. So playing Mike Tyson it it became how fast can you beat the game. Because everybody had beat in the game. You're like okay well I it took me you know 30 minutes or 40 minutes or whatever because you were, you were trying to knock the guy out in the first round in every guy that you had a face. But all together we played tons of video games. Yeah, I played tons of video games, but we had guys that were watching, and then, you know what? I. And then this is a super fucking odd ass parallel video games taught me to share. Because if you're playing Mike Tyson's Punch-Out! Can anybody else play? No. See your buddy sitting next to you, watching you play and doing fucking nothing because there's no phone. There's no other TV that. So you're there just hanging out and you're talking or you're doing whatever. And so you had to figure out a way to make it equitable to, to show otherwise. You're like, hey, dude, come over, hang out, and then dude, hang out, watch you play video games, be like, fuck off, I'm going back home. So then you had to trade guys, or you had to trade like you could like throw a cash ball in the air or like, do one of those fucking kush ball, do one of those. One of the things that was like had the it was like a sat ring, a Saturn they could stand on. I think that's been reversed now though, because like, my kids don't look at it as I got to take a turn, then you got to take a turn. You need to get your own console. Well, this is the whole thing. Like this is it just pisses me off so fucking much. My kids won't play to player because the screen gets cut in half and it's harder to play. Oh for sure, we're playing two player on a fucking 28 inch color tube, and they're pissed because they got a 16 on. It's 16 inch high and I'm like, no, I'm not. You fuck off. Let's play two players. Yeah. Okay. I won one argument there that I'm that I'm thinking about here. So yes, I agree that dividing the screen is frustrating with, I'm siding with the kids a little bit when we used to play, and I'm going to go back to it. GoldenEye. Yeah. Okay. For four, there's, there's four of us sitting around on the same television. You can't tell me that you weren't looking at those other three player screens knowing where people are respawning. I knew where they were. We knew where they're going. We knew where they were. You know what? That's that. That's what's so awesome about the way they play today. Yeah. Is you can't see the other player screen. Right? So I wasn't a great video gamer. I wasn't so too busy training for the NBA. This is correct. This is this is this is very true. It's very true. But I would like to I would like to give a very heartfelt chibi, go fuck yourself because he was a legendary GoldenEye player. And when you would play he had the the levels memorized. He knew all the spawn points where you would come back to life. So if you got killed once. So when you would play to ten kills and you would get killed once the game was over, and that was the scenario where I just slapped a controller out of his hand because right before I would respawn, he was going to kill me. I would slap the controller out of his hand so I could get away and go get a gun and have a chance to actually win. And you know that. But that was that. You could watch and see where they were and what was happening. But, you know, more strategy to it. You had it. You had to know the other dude saw where you were going. You had to be real fucking sneaky about it at some. So you're two pieces of homework. One, you're going to film a narration of fishing while you're done. Table rock. I'll do it. The second one is I think we need to have a GoldenEye. I would love it. Like recorded podcast of us playing GoldenEye. I have it set up in my house right now. I played last week because I found it in my basement, and I showed the kids and the kids freaked out because, like, dead. What is this like? Oh, it's a video game. And they're like, this is terrible. You can't even see what it is. Another video. It is not V it is the video game. And so I played for a little while and I'm a little rusty, but, you know, I snipe some guys in the head. It was great. And I still remember where you got to go and collect the different you know, stuff that you had to get to pass a level. And we could absolutely do that. We could pull it. We could throw it up on this TV right here, and we could play, level. You know what? I love our listeners. But like everybody at home right now, listening, watching it the whole time. I love all you guys. I don't care whether you're going to like this episode or not. Right. Because we're going to have this damn fun, right? Playing GoldenEye, we we actually at the house, if I'm not mistaken, we have it on the Wii and we have guns that you put the Wii controller on the front, and you actually play as if it's first person gun, right? Yeah. I'm going to do old school. Do you have a Nintendo? So, I, I, I guarantee you my mom still has every console that we've ever had. All right. I think we should do an episode where we play Nintendo, Sega and 64 Dreamcast. I'm going to need. Yeah, I'm gonna need a you and I playing NHL, Dreamcast. Who I was the Ottawa Senators, and I don't remember who you were, but man, we played a shitload. I was the you seem like a Vancouver Canucks, kind of, you know, I was a buffalo. I was the Buffalo. You and I, Dominic Hasek and the amount. Oh, my God, the Alexander McGill Mceleney. Yes and yes. And who who was your guy that I used to fucking yell at? Because Radic bonk, bonk. And we would go, well, that was the thing. We. This is where we started our first company together and pitched it to my dad when we were fucking 16 years old, and all the rest of the cool guys were out smoking weed and drinking and going, trying to sleep with the girls. And you and I are sitting in your bedroom playing Sega Dreamcast, drinking Mountain Dews, conjuring up business plans for fucking chicken wings, sports bars. And we had a few Buffalo Wild Wings. We had some really good ideas, but, turns out not enough money when we were 16 years old. But we we did some. We had some cool shit. Actually, Buffalo Wild Wings reached out to us as the first sponsorship we we them down. We had to. Well, they they stole our idea. Right. Well I actually, you know, Saint Louis pizza wings is really more along the lines of what we were looking to do other than the fact that they don't have a sit down restaurant. We were looking to do pizza, wings and a variety of wings, like a whole bunch of them. And it was based off of a place that my dad had been to at Hilton Head that had like 75 different wing types or something. Great. All right. Genius ideas. We we pitched my dad and, said, hey, that because my dad at the time was in the restaurant industry and he was like, yeah, I love it. This could be awesome. He's like, we're going to get $50 million. That's where you come in, dad. And I said, sir, why the hell do you think I'm talking to you right now? But no, we we should definitely do it. We should play the evolution of video games because it's. I'm. I'm too stupid. And my dexterity is not good enough to play video games now because there's too many fucking buttons. There's a lot. And I feel like the old man yelling at kids to get off my lawn because I can't, like, I, I can't remember which button does what. And so I figure out one combination of buttons, and then I just do that over and over again. I just need to know how to aim and how to shoot. I'll be fine. Yeah, I think so. I can handle that. I got one last question. It's a super pressing. Oh, boy. When you played ice hockey, what was your strategy on Nintendo when you could pick the size of guys that you had? Oh, that's a good question. When you could pick like a you create your own person. And the game was actually called ice hockey. Oh, you had four guys and you could pick skinny, neutral or fat neutral all four guys. Yeah. No you lose. Oh that's terrible speed baby. No because the skinny guys for the fat guys for consistency. No I had I only had two mediums a skinny and a fat. Yeah. I went to fat and two skinnies and I. And that's how that's how I rolled. And then I would try and smash the guys with the fat guys and then stick handle around everybody with the skinny guys. I think it's a fair approach. So do you remember Blades of Steel? Yeah. Yeah. I mean that's the game that that was the first first game with fighting. I love that game. It's all we did. That was all. That was the whole game was based upon how quickly you could get in a fight. It was awesome. Great game. All right. So how the fuck did we say, let me let me let me close this out here. Aren't the kids going back to school? Kids are going back to school. We miss out. We think the kids are going to shit because they're playing video games. But boy, do we miss them. Yeah, we we miss them so much. We're going to we're going to be sad about video games. You're listening to the Grown Ass Dance podcast. We so appreciate everybody that that listens and comments. We have grown ass dads.com. You go to our YouTube channel, subscribe. Please just comment, tell us what you want to hear, reach out to, to us. I think we have an email address. Stay. Dads. Hey, I want to throw something out real quick. This glass right here is given to me from a guy named Brian Paschal who runs dogs for our brave And the whole thing is basically placing, support animals with, military veterans with some sort of PTSD or medical issue that has stemmed. And it is an incredible organization. They just had their, yearly golf tournament raised an unbelievable amount of money, but just a little bit closer to your camera, too, because that show how cool that we get an actual bullet that goes in on this. So this thing is bad to the bone. So, if it's something that you're interested in, go look it up. Donate if you can, be a part of something, but keep an eye out. They're growing like crazy. They're doing awesome stuff. So, shout out to BP. Yeah, same at the same time. Three and four print Co, the official sponsor of the show. Be on the lookout. I think, I'm hoping by our next episode we'll have some of this swag that we're actually wearing. I think I'm I got a shirt on. What we got Jay's got a shirt on up there, too, I think. Let me zoom in on him. And then we got a hat here that Adam's wearing. We got all kinds of stuff. Hoping to have all that stuff available here shortly, because I actually, I was at a, a play, one of my son's plays at, Wycliffe Park, and he goes, dad, pretty much everybody backstage wants grown ass dads merch. They only want it because got a bad word on it. It has stars. It's h you're our star and all of us. Because I was wearing it that night and I just looked at that good. Or it wasn't. Yeah, I think it was. I think it was that button. The fact that we're running into people who are recognizing us now and people who want our merch, we'll make the merch available and hopefully we'll have that on Grown dads.com here in the next couple of weeks. So cool. Cool, everybody. Thanks for listening to the nonsense tonight. Yeah, this was cool. We we went on a couple of, tangents, but that was fun. It was good. Hey, school, great to see you. Yeah. Good to be seen throwing test ads out.