Why 90s Kids are More Resilient: The Science of Boredom

Think quicksand was your biggest threat? Think again. Discover how 90s myths actually built your resilience.

In this episode of The Well, Andrew Leff and Kathryn Ikle peel back the curtain on the "analog childhood" that defined a generation. Using Entity-Based SEO, we explore the shift from Information Scarcity (where parents were the ultimate source of truth) to the Instant Gratification of the 2026 digital landscape. We analyze specific cultural "Entities" like quicksand legends, storm drain adventures, and the 30-minute post-meal swimming rule. This isn't just a trip down memory lane; it’s a strategic look at how social rituals, makeshift technology (like can-telephones), and prank calls fostered the problem-solving skills required in today's high-tech professional world.


Cognitive Resilience: Why "silly" childhood rules created better adult problem-solvers.

Tech Evolution: How the transition from analog to digital changed the way we trust information.

Authentic Connection: Practical ways to reclaim face-to-face warmth in a digital-obsessed era.

Creativity Hacks: Using "childhood boredom" as a tool for modern innovation.


00:00 - The Mystery of 90s Childhood Myths

02:15 - Why Every Kid in the 90s Feared Quicksand

05:30 - Prank Calls: The Original Social Media Training?

08:45 - The Truth About the "30-Minute Swimming Rule"

12:10 - How Makeshift Toys Fostered Early Innovation

16:20 - Adults vs. Google: The Death of the "Ultimate Truth"

20:45 - Reclaiming Authentic Connection in 2026

25:30 - Why Boredom is Necessary for Creative Success



:90s childhood, vintage toys, childhood myths, quicksand legends, analog vs digital.
Authentic connection, digital-obsessed era, social evolution, resilience, fact-checking culture.
Creative problem solving, childhood habits, societal norms, mindset shifts, parenting in the digital age.

Show Notes (Podcast Specific):
From storm drains to smartphone apps, Drew and Kat explore how the "dangerous" fun of the 90s created a foundation for modern resilience. Learn why our childhood misconceptions were actually the best training for today’s fast-paced world.

Hashtag Strategy:
#90sNostalgia #TheWellPodcast #DigitalEvolution #ChildhoodMemories #HumanConnection

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome in to another episode of The Well. Yay! I'm Drew. Yay. I'm Drew.

SPEAKER_00 0:05

I'm Drew. I'm Kat.

SPEAKER_01 0:09

Wow. That was that was a lot. I don't I don't know how we recover from that one. But we always Today's gonna be a mashup. So we've been talking a lot about the 90s. Thinking a lot about the 90s. Kinda kind of feeling the 90s lately. So it's gonna be a mishmash of 90s stuff. Where were we? So I got a question for you. And it'll tie back into the first topic. Did the internet make us smarter or just less bold? And what I mean by that is back in the day, let's say in the 90s, middle school, high school, you were so adamant when you knew something or thought you knew something. And do you remember what you used to say? Like when someone's like, that's not true, or that's in a way, that's right. You'd say, Well, that's my dad knows that. That's that's what my dad knows. He told me. That's what my mom told me, or my uncle, right? They were the source of all knowledge, Colts were the source of all knowledge. So did you remember those experiences where literally we had like you had a work for information? So there it wasn't readily available at your fingertips, as as convenient as it is now, you know, has it made us, I don't want to say dumber, but you know, has it has changed us when it's sourcing information? But literally, we were so brazen back then with no way to back it up unless you actually produced articles documents.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

No one could. I mean, what were they gonna do? Challenge you? They could challenge you, but it always ended in a deadlock. I mean, prove it, okay. I will, and then that was it, and then you go play.

SPEAKER_01 1:48

I don't know. Maybe that's why our generation is so argumentative, like everything's an argument. Because literally, everything's an argument. That's not true. No, you didn't. You're lying, false, cat. So I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 2:02

I feel like it's more we're we we learned how to be stubborn and resilient.

SPEAKER_01 2:06

See, always with the with the bright spots with you.

SPEAKER_00 2:08

I try.

SPEAKER_01 2:09

Always, always with the bright spots.

SPEAKER_00 2:10

Not all the time. I try.

SPEAKER_01 2:12

Most of the time. Most of the time. You have any good stories about you know being really confident about something and and then really just kind of shit in the bed? Not literally.

SPEAKER_00 2:24

Yeah. Well, overall in the past, I've like if it didn't know the answer to something, or if someone asked me, Hey, did you hear about this? Actually, I do have a story. As a kid growing up, I always got information last. I don't know why. I had an older sister, but for some reason I just didn't get any information ever. I got all my information from my friends at school or friends in the neighborhood.

SPEAKER_01 2:49

I don't think that's abnormal.

SPEAKER_00 2:50

I don't know. I mean, some I feel like a lot of kids probably have like older siblings, maybe a year or two years, and they overhear conversations, and that's how you picked up a lot of information, right? From conversation. You didn't really have, you know, your Apple phone with your mobile apps and Google and Chrome.

SPEAKER_01 3:08

You just say Apple phone. Did you just age yourself like 40 years? Apple phone.

SPEAKER_00 3:13

Apple phone, iPhone, iPhone.

SPEAKER_01 3:15

My Apple phone.

SPEAKER_00 3:16

That's not the point here. I went to the Google The point is we had limited sources to get our information. So I always felt extremely stupid as a kid when someone would ask me if I knew about something and I never had an answer. And I would always say, Oh yeah, I know, I know, I know what that is.

SPEAKER_01 3:36

And then So you'd lie because I did.

SPEAKER_00 3:38

Yeah, I lied because I felt left out. Not that there's a good excuse for that. I was literally like six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Probably between the age of six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Probably between the ages of eight and thirteen. I grew out of it. I stopped doing that. But I did. I didn't get a lot of information. But I would say, yes, I do know about that brand designer back in the 80s or 90s, or I did know that TV show, or I have watched that movie. And I will never forget one of the friends. Because it repeatedly happened to me, you know. So I finally got to the point where I was like, you know what? I'm not gonna say no anymore. And they would make me feel stupid for not knowing. I would say, yes, actually, I do know, yeah. And then they would say, Okay, basically prove it. And I'd be like, okay, go to the bathroom, and then it made me feel stupid either way. But now it's like, oh my gosh, people will say, Hey, uh, cat, cat, do you, you know, have you ever heard of XYZ or someone will use a term in a conversation? And you know how fast you can get online now and literally research it, and like during a conversation, no, and it's like, oh, uh, I gotta check my phone and see if I have any text messages. What is da-da-da-da-da, you know? And then you're like, oh yeah, and then you start contributing the conversation. Um that's hypothetical. This is all hypothetical, of course. I'm not not saying I do that now, but I mean, it's a lot easier to get information, you know. You like you said, you really had to work. I mean, you got it on the news at particular times of the day. Half the time, your information was second hand, you know? So I don't think I was very confident back then like I am now, because I research like nobody's business.

SPEAKER_01 5:25

You're giving yourself a pat on the back right now.

SPEAKER_00 5:28

No, I'm just saying that I do my due diligence.

SPEAKER_01 5:30

It's a fact. That's what you're saying. It's a fact. It's a fact.

SPEAKER_02 5:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:35

I think I perfected the ability to bullshit like really well during the city. Yeah, I know what you're doing. Like, literally, yeah, I could will it will the unknown into the known and make it like statement worthy, like truth, turn complete bullshit into truth, even though there was very little truth to it. I feel like I really perfected that craft, and it has you still are great at that. Yeah, it's it's served me well in my years of existence. So, yes, I I feel like that's why did you feel the need to do that? Why like I kind of wonder I guess it's a you know, at that age, it's an insecurity thing. Yeah, you know, you don't want to be known as stupid or doesn't know something, and I wasn't the brightest bulb, so you know, that definitely felt a bit not intimidated, but insecure about just people knowing more than me. So that was always kind of a I don't know, it was a weird emotion. I used to feel that, but now everybody knows everything.

SPEAKER_00 6:39

That is true.

SPEAKER_01 6:39

You can fact check it all you want now. You better be spot on.

SPEAKER_00 6:43

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 6:44

Better be spot on. So speaking of spot on, the phone, you know, this is before cell phones, going back to when you had, you know, you called your friends, you had to memorize everybody's phone number, which was crazy, right? Like literally, oh yeah, you knew everybody's phone number. So or you had the you know, the Rolodex or the little black book, or something used to jot your numbers down in. So but you had to know people's numbers, and that was a feat within itself. Yeah, but calling people's houses, I feel like that was the next, it was a layer of manners you had to learn, right? You had to learn how to talk to other kids' parents, or gosh, if you were calling a girl or a boy, man, like that was scary, real scary. Now you can text, right? That's super easy. There's there's you know, not a lot of commitment to when you called somebody, you were committed. You were committed to to contact.

SPEAKER_00 7:39

Do you remember what you what you said when you first would call someone's house? Let's say you're calling a friend and the dad answers or the mom answers.

SPEAKER_01 7:50

Yeah. Hi, Mr. Smith. Can I talk to Hi, Mr. Smith? Can I talk to so-and-so?

SPEAKER_00 7:54

Okay. Interesting. I would say, Hi, this is Rebecca, because they they used to call me Rebecca. Is is so-and-so, can I please speak to so-and-so? That's how that's how I was trying to say it. May I please speak with to so-and-so? Like, I actually don't remember being trained that way, but I remember the anxiety to a certain degree of calling someone's house. But you know, it's funny. I think, like, to your point, that's how we learned. We talked we talked about this on a different episode, Courtesy and Manners. Like, we had we were kind of forced to do that. I mean, you could call someone and say, yo, hey, is so-and-so home? I need to speak to so-and-so, you know, but the majority of people were, you know, there was an etiquette going back to kind of what we talked about.

SPEAKER_01 8:41

Yeah, but I also feel like it was the gatekeeper. Because if you called up and you didn't address things properly and the parent answered the phone, that was a bad sign. Right?

SPEAKER_02 8:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:51

You know, so it was a it was a bad sign if you were you didn't appropriately ask for the person you were calling. Because then you're, you know, you can't go out and play, or no, no, yeah. There's something wrong with them. They're not polite.

SPEAKER_00 9:07

Do you think that the fact that we can now text has hindered people from learning how to interact with each other?

SPEAKER_01 9:17

So it's a tough I feel like that question might not be fair in the grand scheme of things. I just think communication has changed. It's it's I mean, drastically changed. I mean, honestly, I'd much rather text than talk on the phone. But I'm finding myself wanting to talk on the phone more. I don't know, because I'm confused, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 9:36

I that's a good answer.

SPEAKER_01 9:39

I do feel like it has altered communication, and uh it makes me a little bit sad because I I feel that that connection, that personal interaction is you know, you can build a rapport different now. Everything is very transactional and fast. Yeah, so you don't you learn at a faster pace as opposed to getting to know somebody, like literally, you know somebody in a couple days now. It's so fast. You get you get everyone's life story, I feel like. Well, maybe it's just me. Everyone tells me their life story.

SPEAKER_00 10:11

Actually, you're not wrong, but there's a magnetism to you, that's why. But you are I think you are right. Things were slower back in our day, and everything is just so much faster now. So you can get like if you meet someone, you can look them up online, you can find out a whole bunch of information, you can do your research, you know. But it wasn't like that during that time.

SPEAKER_01 10:35

No, because to your point, you had to have that conversation. You actually had to go through experiences together to get to know people. So I feel like that was a good part of our time. I guess, you know, ironic not ironically, but interestingly enough, I mean, it's probably why I have had my friends, like my friend group, as long as I've had. I mean, I've I've had the same set of friends since literally kindergarten.

SPEAKER_02 11:01

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01 11:02

So I because we all know each other so well. It's just weird. Like we've experienced so much. So I feel like there was a different level of bonding back then. Like you bonded with people differently. Now it just feels very transactional, right? Like I can let this person go, I can just block them on my phone. I never have to interact with them again. So it just kind of was weird. It's weird now, but it's not bad, not good. It just feels off.

SPEAKER_00 11:29

Different. Yeah, it's definitely different. And I I think that's a good thing to bring up is it's not it's not a bad thing, it's just different.

SPEAKER_01 11:37

It definitely is different. Just trying to trying to think if there was any crazy moments on well, so as little boys, I don't even want to say that, as kids, prank calls. The phone was a oh yeah, yep. We would prank call everybody and consistently. We used to get in so much trouble, so much trouble for all the prank calls we used to do.

SPEAKER_02 12:02

Right.

SPEAKER_01 12:02

That was huge for us. Like me and my friends, all we want to do is prank call people. It was so dumb.

SPEAKER_00 12:08

That's funny. I did that as well, and we would prank call. We would actually I you just triggered a memory. I would be with a friend and we would open up the phone book and we would pick a random phone number and we would dial it. And granted, this is before the caller ID. Do you remember caller? Star 69. It was before star 69. Although I'm actually curious what the origin date of star 69 is, because I'm pretty sure that we made all these prank calls before people could do that. That way they had no clue who was calling them. Because I never remember my parents like disciplining me because I was doing prank calls. But we would do the heavy breathing and then we'd hang up. The biggest prank was let's order pizzas and have them delivered to people's house. But I really think I picked that up from a movie, and I can't remember what movie that was. I don't know if it was Incino Man or something, some classic. Oh, I love that movie. Loved it so much. Yeah, so we would use the phone for multiple reasons, and they were to RSVP for birthdays, talk to grandma and grandpa, call our friends, but my sister stayed on the phone way more than I did ordering pizza because they didn't have like an app where you could order pizza, you know, and actually we didn't have a website, so you had to call the number. And they would advertise it on the commercials, call yeah, 544-7739 or whatever. I don't know where that came from.

SPEAKER_01 13:44

You know, so I'm gonna call that later.

SPEAKER_00 13:47

Now I want to I want to Google search that, but yeah, it was it was crazy. We would call I hi, could we order two large pizzas, please? And my parents would always get the ones with all the veggie pizza. They'd get veggie pizza, and then I would get the meats, which is really so uh you really have to stop saying that. So then what else did we use? The phone. Oh, then I tried dialing like one of those hot, like psychic hotlines. It was either a psychic hotline or it was Miss Cleo. Oh yeah, we were talking about that. Miss Cleo, and like the like I can even remember the essence of the commercial where it's like crystals and it's like very ethereal, and there's Miss Cleo on the on the screen, and it's like dial the number, and then down below it's like$5.99 per minute, you know, or whatever it is. Well, obviously, as kids, we don't pay attention to the fine print. So I know I called, I didn't call Miss Cleo, but I think I probably called like a sex hotline or something and didn't really realize what it was because they would advertise stuff like that. Maybe it wasn't a sex hotline, it was something risque like that. So that I thought that was kind of funny, but yeah, it's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 15:00

Yeah, we I remember, I don't know if you'll remember this, but there was a TV station called The Box and it played music videos, and you could call up, and I forget it was like a dollar ninety-nine or three ninety-nine to get your video played. And man, you literally, if you got you felt on top of the world, it's kind of like calling into a radio station and then picking up the phone. Other, you know, phenomenal moment in phone.

SPEAKER_02 15:26

I was gonna bring that up. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 15:28

But literally calling up the box, we used to have this friend, he looked just like vanilla ice. I'm telling you, he looked exactly like him. He drove a white convertible Ford Mustang, and we used to put that video, we used to put the video on of Ice Ice Baby, and we'd invite all these girls over and say that this was vanilla ice. And yo, they bought it for a bit. I mean, he looked that much alike. So we loved calling in and order, and we would just play that video nonstop. We loved loved calling in, loved calling into the box and spending way too much money to watch the same video.

SPEAKER_00 16:06

That's actually really cool. I've never even heard of that, and like that was definitely not something in our area.

SPEAKER_01 16:13

You were probably younger. I mean probably we're talking like 90s. 90.

SPEAKER_00 16:19

I probably would have done that too.

SPEAKER_01 16:20

90, 91, maybe 89, 90, 91.

SPEAKER_00 16:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 16:25

But yeah, for me it was the 900 numbers, the only 900 numbers I wanted to call were the dirty ones. I mean, that was just okay.

SPEAKER_00 16:33

900 you had to pay, right? The 800 was not the paid ones.

SPEAKER_01 16:37

Yeah, but correct.

SPEAKER_00 16:38

Right. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 16:39

Correct.

SPEAKER_00 16:39

Well, I mean I forgot about that.

SPEAKER_01 16:42

Yeah, the 900 numbers were typically pay numbers. And then I I you would always get in trouble. You know, as soon as the phone bill at least you had like a if you if you were intelligent and really were, I shouldn't say intel devious, yeah, you would get all the calls in on like the second of the month.

SPEAKER_02 16:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:59

So you had at least 20, you know, eight days to get away with it before the phone bill showed up.

SPEAKER_00 17:06

Uh-huh. Right. That your parents checked.

SPEAKER_01 17:12

And they'd be like, who's calling 900 numbers? What is this charge for? Who's spending$55 on a 900 number? Right, right. So it's I remember those.

SPEAKER_00 17:25

So speaking of commercials with phone numbers, I when I was I probably was around five when this happened. I don't think I've talked about this before with you or on here, but I saw an ad for 911 and I called 911.

SPEAKER_01 17:42

Boy.

SPEAKER_00 17:42

And I hung up. I like I think I sat on the phone and someone answered. I'm sure someone answered and they were like, What's your emergency? And I was like, click. You know, they sent the police over.

SPEAKER_01 17:55

And my parents were like to, I think, by law, they do, they do send somebody out.

SPEAKER_00 18:00

And they were like, My parents, all I remember them is being confused, and they answered the door and they talked to the two police officers. And then I vaguely remember my mom saying, Don't ever dial 911 unless it's an emergency. But I remember the police officers were like, Oh, she's little, it's okay, you know, she just didn't know, you know, da da da. But it it's so funny how all these ads had call to actions. Call this number, you know. It's it's from a marketing perspective, it's kind of funny. But I feel like that's all kids do this.

SPEAKER_01 18:36

Yeah, but then the magic of radio. I loved radio. I was huge, hugely into music. Music has influenced my life in many ways. So I was always listening to the radio or tapes or CDs or records back then. But when they had a contest or you wanted to win tickets or get on the radio, yo, nobody better be on the phone. Like you're you're gonna cut someone if they were on like my sister, like she got abused for if she was on the phone and there was a radio contest. Call in now.

SPEAKER_00 19:11

Because only one person could be on the phone at the same time.

SPEAKER_01 19:13

Correct. And you know you had rich friends if they had their own phone line. When you had your own phone line, you were like upper, upper.

SPEAKER_00 19:22

I liked my parents for one. Finally, in high school, they got me one.

SPEAKER_01 19:25

So, and I think it was it's psychological warfare at that point because your parents probably want to get you the additional phone line so the phone isn't ringing nonstop and you're not tying up the line, or they just they want to make you suffer, right? So everyone's gonna suffer. I never, yeah, I never had a separate phone line. I never did.

SPEAKER_00 19:47

I did for a very brief period of time. I was going to to mention that the equivalent of kids nowadays. Well, think about kids calling phone phone numbers and having to pay. You know, the parents are having to pay for calling 900 numbers. The equivalent is kids now downloading apps and like getting these subscriptions, because that's definitely happened, or these games, you know, and now it's like, what is this charge for? So it is kind of funny that that is an equivalent.

SPEAKER_01 20:18

I hadn't actually thought about that. I was kind of past my kids were older at that point, so I didn't really have that issue.

SPEAKER_00 20:26

Yeah. Going back to the news channel, I remember the contests. So do you remember what the contests were?

SPEAKER_01 20:33

You had to the news channel, the radio, the radio?

SPEAKER_00 20:36

Oh, yeah, sorry, radio. Radio channels. They would play a snippet of a song, like the big very beginning of it, and you had to there was like three or four of them, and you had to get them all right, and it was the seventh caller or the ninth caller or whatever. You know, I got through one time and I actually won something. I have no idea what I won. I can't remember that, but I remember thinking that I mean, we would call my sister and I would call non stop.

SPEAKER_01 21:02

Prove it.

SPEAKER_00 21:04

I remember it was like, you know, where the radio station was, and I remember going to the radio station to pick up tickets for something. It was probably very lame, but it it was so like the challenge of doing that was so exhilarating because it's like there's the chance that you could be the seventh caller. Yeah, and and they were always like, Hey, you know, we're doing our challenge today, and you know, the first seven the seventh caller to call duh and tell us the answers, the right answers, da da da da. We'll win XYZ. And it was always like tickets to something. I don't even remember what what what it was we were winning. Or the chance. It was usually tickets. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:45

I never heard that, but it was tickets or well, they would take your call on the air. Yeah. Yeah. You would or get a shout out or something.

SPEAKER_00 21:54

Yeah, and that was super cool. Right.

SPEAKER_01 21:56

You were running around trying to find a tape recorder to record it.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

Oh yeah, that's right. I forgot about that.

SPEAKER_01 22:02

Because you needed proof. No one would believe you, right? I was on the radio. No, you couldn't. If I wasn't there, it didn't happen. That's right. That's right.

SPEAKER_00 22:09

That's so funny.

SPEAKER_01 22:10

Yeah. And then I for me, it was always busy. I could never get through.

SPEAKER_00 22:14

So yes, so true.

SPEAKER_01 22:18

I won't forget the first phone that we had that had redial. Oh my God. Yeah. Like you hit that. That was a great pull.

SPEAKER_00 22:26

I remember that button. Isn't it so funny that they were like nowadays, it's crazy how like we came up with all these inventions, you know, these i concepts and ideas and executed them in the most crude ways. It was like a button that had that redial on it, you know, or it's just it was high tech back then.

SPEAKER_01 22:46

I mean it really was. And then you had call waiting, right? Like call waiting would pop in. Yeah. You know, and that would always be terrible for anyone that was gaming or on a computer, right? Like doing downloading something, it would boot you off the internet. AOL was like, I don't remember that.

SPEAKER_00 23:03

That's funny.

SPEAKER_01 23:04

Yeah, so I think what was it? Star 67, you had to hit star six six seven, you had to hit star six seven to uh block like disable call waiting. I think that's what it was. So yeah. And then your your sibling would always get mad because you were tying up the phone line if you had siblings or your parents.

SPEAKER_00 23:22

I thought you had to dial a number to block caller ID. I kept learning all these things from my phone.

SPEAKER_01 23:29

Maybe that's it. Star 67 might have been to block caller ID. Yes. There was a way to disable call waiting, I thought, but maybe I'm I don't remember that.

SPEAKER_00 23:37

That's too far back for me.

unknown 23:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:41

It's too far in the memory bank.

SPEAKER_01 23:43

Yeah, the elderly is kicking in. But yeah, I phones were just the way we had a conversation, and I remember not really it was short conversation. Hey, you want to go out and play? Or hey, you want to meet at the park? Or hey, you want to go shoot some hoops, or hey, you want to play ball, right? Like there was no conversating. So it was which is also kind of interesting to the point.

SPEAKER_00 24:06

So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:07

So anyway. Yeah. Brief distraction. There's something going on outside the house right now. We don't really know what we're doing. We're having a rock concert. Yeah, it's awfully loud, but uh oh yeah. I bet you it's the Amazon driver.

SPEAKER_00 24:20

So usually the Amazon or the UPS driver will have it on.

SPEAKER_01 24:24

And shout out to the Amazon drivers. Yo, right on one that is having the best time of his life when he pulls up. Actually, there's two. There's a a guy and a there's a man and a woman.

SPEAKER_00 24:34

Yeah, I remember.

SPEAKER_01 24:36

The girl also does the same thing. They have the music blasting, and they are singing, running up to the door, uh-huh, not missing a lyric, literally, just so can you imagine if everybody worked like that?

SPEAKER_00 24:49

Like we're all like, hey, let's go crank it up, let's get those products out.

SPEAKER_01 24:55

Yeah. No one, no one, no one in IT works that way. So the phone was just a wild experience, and and maybe that was the primer for us to learn how to conversate differently. Like, literally, like a job interview. Like you could show up for a job interview because you asked someone out on the phone.

SPEAKER_02 25:14

That's true.

SPEAKER_01 25:15

Well, another episode we'll have to get into when you showed up at the door. That was always fun.

SPEAKER_00 25:20

Oh, yeah. Yeah. I actually you kind of sparked some other thoughts around job interviews, how we used to do job interviews.

SPEAKER_01 25:28

Yeah, like that would be a future episode.

SPEAKER_00 25:31

Yes. I have so much I could share on that.

SPEAKER_01 25:34

All right. Put a pin in that one and we'll come back to it. So another thing about the 90s, I'm gonna kind of jump around here as we kind of close out on the phone conversation. The rules. These these rules that never made any sense. Like literally, there's statements that you that are probably embedded in your brain that have become like folklore as far as as you know having to follow rules. The the biggest and brightest everyone will will have an aha moment right now is hey, you can't swim in the pool after you eat. You have to wait at least 30 minutes.

SPEAKER_00 26:12

Oh yeah, I always heard that one. And then I got to Why where I was like, Did you ever get sick? No.

SPEAKER_01 26:18

So it was this I don't know what drove parents to make that rule. Maybe it was I don't know. Honestly, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 26:27

But that that literally Well, it is a medical thing. I mean, I did look it up back in the day that water, like the pressure in the pool could make you throw up. I mean you can fact check me. I'm sure that I don't know. What's the risk? I don't know. It's funny how we pass on these. It's like you with the hat on the bed. Is it the hat on the bed?

SPEAKER_01 26:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:51

It's like, where did that come from? You don't want to put it someone told me that.

SPEAKER_01 26:54

Someone told me that that if you put a hat on the bed, it's bad.

SPEAKER_00 26:58

Or no shoes in the bathroom, or don't put your keys somewhere. I can't remember.

SPEAKER_01 27:02

No shoes in the bathroom. I never said that.

SPEAKER_00 27:04

You made me move my shoes out of the bathroom one time.

SPEAKER_01 27:07

No, that wasn't me.

SPEAKER_00 27:09

That was you. I can prove it.

SPEAKER_01 27:11

All right. Well, I won't prove because I have no problem. I'll I have no problem with shoes in the bathroom.

SPEAKER_00 27:16

With keys?

SPEAKER_01 27:17

Keys and hats can't go on the bed.

SPEAKER_00 27:19

Yeah. So but why? Or the table. Why do we keep it in the back of the battery?

SPEAKER_01 27:24

Someone told me one time that you go broke. I don't know, because I'm stupid. But but yeah, so but growing up, these were like big deals. Like you listened to that and never swam in the pool. It was at least 30 minutes. And then if you sit too close to the TV, you'll go blind.

SPEAKER_00 27:43

Well, that's a good one, too. I forgot about that.

SPEAKER_01 27:46

Really? I mean, look at the size of the TVs we have now. 100 inches, right?

SPEAKER_00 27:51

Or our phones in our face constantly.

SPEAKER_01 27:54

You're literally sitting in front of screens or your computer at work. You are sitting in front of screens very close to your face, nonstop.

SPEAKER_00 28:02

That's actually really funny.

SPEAKER_01 28:03

Why isn't that a rule anymore? Can't we make that rule? If we sit too close, we'll go blind. Like I wonder. Can we bring that rule back? We need to bring that one back. We need to bring it back. Calling for a petition to bring it back. Please, please. And do you remember quicksand being like a scary thing? Like everything.

SPEAKER_00 28:22

Oh yeah. It was always quicksand.

SPEAKER_01 28:25

Yes. Like we're just surrounded by quicksand all the time.

SPEAKER_00 28:29

Actually, I'm curious how many movies back in the 80s and 90s had quicksand. Indiana Jones, Romancing the Stone.

SPEAKER_01 28:37

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:38

Princess Bride. Okay, I'm out. That's those are the only three I can think of. But that's a lot. There is a trend. There it was a huge trend. I mean, you don't see quicksand in shows and movies anymore now. You know, like that, no one ever includes that. But it's funny how people are like sitting around with the screenplay and they're like, ooh, we should include a quicksand scene.

SPEAKER_01 29:01

What about uh don't go outside with your hair wet, you'll get sick. I say that's you now.

SPEAKER_00 29:06

That is true. Yeah. I mean it's warm. Yeah, that's true. Or don't sleep with wet hair at night because you get a crick in your neck. But that's also.

SPEAKER_01 29:16

I've never heard that. That must be a southern thing.

SPEAKER_00 29:18

A crick.

SPEAKER_01 29:19

I don't even like what's a crick? That's a weird word. Crick is like has water and it's like creek.

SPEAKER_00 29:25

That's a creek.

SPEAKER_01 29:26

Yeah, I'm from Philly. You say crick. But cracking your knuckles will give you arthritis. Parents used to always say that. It could be, but they didn't want you cracking your knuckles, so they beat that into your freaking head that it's gonna cause arthritis.

SPEAKER_00 29:39

Yeah, you got some more?

SPEAKER_01 29:40

Yeah, I do I got more. You want me to keep going?

SPEAKER_00 29:43

Yeah, keep going. Bring them along.

SPEAKER_01 29:45

Swallowing gum will stay in your stomach for seven years.

SPEAKER_00 29:48

Oh, yeah. I remember that was that was funny. I remember that very well.

SPEAKER_01 29:52

That was a weird, like, is it true? I mean, I have to fact check some of these.

SPEAKER_00 29:56

I don't actually don't swallow gum now. Like, for example, today I had coffee and then I had gum, and I I was walking around doing those artist interviews, and I was chewing the gum and I couldn't find a trash can. And I was like, if I swallow this, is it gonna stay in my stomach forever? I mean, how old am I? And I still am thinking about that.

SPEAKER_01 30:17

It's crazy, right? Like that's why I said it's it's these, it's like it's it's been coded in our brain.

SPEAKER_00 30:23

Right.

SPEAKER_01 30:24

Did you do this? Did you hold your breath when you drove past the cemetery?

SPEAKER_00 30:27

No, we did that all the time.

SPEAKER_01 30:29

I always had to hold your breath. Oh, yeah, hold your breath. We're driving past cemetery all the time.

SPEAKER_00 30:34

Why? What would happen? Or is that one of those you don't know that just so there's no science to any of this?

SPEAKER_01 30:40

Like, literally, this was just like fear and vibes. Like, there was no science to this. It was because your parents told you, or your friends were doing it, right? Yeah, you were either influenced or forced. That's kind of the the the the point of entry. So here's a here's a good one. I wrote a bunch down, so that's why I'm looking. But uh, don't turn on the car light, right? Like if you put the center light on, your parents don't have to like a heart attack and you crash instantly. You're gonna kill everybody in the car if you turn that light on. Everyone's gonna die. Absolutely. It's like a laser beam. Yes, at night.

SPEAKER_00 31:17

And I remember actually as a kid thinking, what's the big deal in my mind? I remember thinking that, thinking, that doesn't make any sense. And I kept trying to figure out why they kept telling me that. I mean, I do kind of get it, but I think they just didn't want you messing with the light.

SPEAKER_01 31:35

Yeah, but it is blinding in a dark corner if you hit the light.

SPEAKER_00 31:38

Like those lights are that bright. I mean, come on back in the day, you know, come on now.

SPEAKER_01 31:44

Do you remember your parents telling you not to touch the TV screen? I don't know. My my parents just don't touch the screen. Don't touch the screen.

SPEAKER_00 31:52

Not often, but I vaguely remember that.

SPEAKER_01 31:54

But we had no problem smacking the side of the TV to get it to, you know, yeah, or shaking the static off, right? But don't touch that screen. Don't touch that screen. That was good. Here's one. Did you do this? We can close it out on this. Wait three days before calling someone you like.

SPEAKER_00 32:14

Yeah, actually. Yeah, again, etiquette. How much time do you give? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:19

Don't let the phone ring. You know, let the phone ring a few times before you picked it up, so you it doesn't seem like you were waiting.

SPEAKER_00 32:25

Uh-huh. Yeah, I remember that. Gosh, I do remember that from high school.

SPEAKER_01 32:29

You know, you had all these like idiosyncrasies that you followed that had no scientific fact or basis. Scientifical. I'm getting like you, I'm making up words.

SPEAKER_00 32:39

It's more fun that way.

SPEAKER_01 32:40

It was more fun that way. It was more fun that way. Okay, so boredom. There was a lot of days, and I I remember I wasn't allowed to use that term quite often. Like my it would really make my parents mad. So you had to get creative with boredom. But boredom was a thing. I mean, it's still a thing, but you have way more things you can occupy your time with now. But boredom back then, you had to get real creative. Yes, you had to get real you would make up games, like the dumbest stuff just to entertain yourself. You were just talking about staring at the ceiling. Like in the morning, you would stare at the ceiling, and the sunlight would just start to come in, and you know, it would go through the trees and it would make like a pattern on the ceiling, and you'd kind of dream into that, or maybe it would inspire something. So boredom was like a real challenge. It was it was like you had to really get creative and figure stuff out because there's only so much ball you can play. I guess there's I mean, for me, we were either skateboarding or on our bikes, but even then, we you know, there's only so much you can do. So I literally feel like creativity came from nothing. We we created so much crazy stuff. So like what whether we were always architecting some way to kill ourselves, whether it was we were gonna make a ramp, never forget. We my friends and I wanted to make a bike ramp so we could jump off the ramp.

SPEAKER_00 34:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:08

Well, we I guess going back to me be not being all that bright, we would get the wood and we would build the frame, and the thing we never figured out is how to support the middle.

SPEAKER_00 34:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:20

So you would hit the ramp and it would just kind of fall in, and then you'd either not have enough speed and you'd hit the pedals, like the derailer or the sprocket in the middle, and you just kind of topple forward, or the ramp would just crack in half. So yeah, we we weren't very good at creating ramps, but we were creative. We found ways to find Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:47

That was that was what no go ahead. I spent a lot of time. We spent a lot of time as a kid exploring. Like there were so crazy. I get snippets of memories. I remember staring at the ground a lot, watching the ants, you know, especially during the summer. You know, you didn't have like we didn't have I didn't I wasn't at camp all summer. Like we we just didn't do that. Like I my parents never enrolled me in stuff for the summer. So I was home all summer, unless we went on a trip to see like my grandmother or something. But I would always spend a lot of time outside. So we would I would come up with games with like rocks and sticks, or I'd stare at the gravel and watch the ants, you know, or I'd dig in the grass and like what can I find?

SPEAKER_01 35:41

Did you used to use the magnifying glass to try and start?

SPEAKER_00 35:44

Oh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:46

I did try that, or like little camping techniques with the you remember the where you what is that the stick in your hand and you try to start the fire?

SPEAKER_01 35:55

Well, and you had the little stick and then you put it in the other stick and you you would get the friction going and you'd have to clear a little spot and then put little rocks around like a little s'mores kit, you know? Little s'mores kit.

SPEAKER_00 36:09

I did, I never could get it, and I gave up.

SPEAKER_01 36:11

We wouldn't just fascinated with fire, but uh that magnifying glass, when I learned that trick, that was a game changer because we used to do it in school. So you would if you could sit by the window at the perfect spot, you could just get that right beam on somebody and start to burn their neck or burn their hand. Yeah, well, that's we were seditious. Or, you know, kids would always want to, you know, burn an insect, see if it could kill an insect.

SPEAKER_00 36:38

So I never want I so your use of the magnifying glass and mine was very different. I like to look through it. Yeah, but memory triggered. You remember getting cups and putting the string through the like connecting them? So you can't.

SPEAKER_01 36:56

I never understood that. I'd never really yeah, we did it with.

SPEAKER_00 37:00

What movie? What yes, cans. That's right. It wasn't cubs, it was cans. Do you remember do you remember making those? There was a movie, I think, that had it. I can't remember if it was the Sandlot or if it was the Wonder Years, but I got into the Wonder Years was a TV show. I know. I'm I just don't remember if it was a show or a movie, but I remember seeing that. Maybe it was little rascals, and I was like, that's a great idea. I want to do this with my neighbor, you know, and it never worked. And then my mom was like, Hey, why don't you make those Quaker oat oatmeal canisters, the cardboard ones, the round cylinders.

SPEAKER_01 37:43

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:43

The one the what I still eat today. She would say, make two of the like we would make I would make things out of those, and I would make stilts out of them.

SPEAKER_01 37:53

I remember that. We used to use it.

SPEAKER_00 37:55

And I would put string on them. Cans were good to like the pineapple juice cans, the big ones, or there were other can big cans you could use.

SPEAKER_01 38:03

We did the in the kitchens, you call them 10 cans. Like literally, they're these big, just big, bigger cans. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 38:10

Oh, like Costco ones?

unknown 38:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:13

Like the the industrial size.

SPEAKER_00 38:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:16

Gosh, those stupid things. Stilts. Homemade. So you'd have the string and you could never you were never strong enough to like hold it to your feet as you were walking or coordinated enough.

SPEAKER_00 38:26

That's true. It didn't work very well. Paper airplanes, looking at the stars.

SPEAKER_01 38:32

Yeah, just laying in the grass and the clouds. Like the clouds were always yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:38

I feel like you know, actually, question. As a kid, along the same lines, when you're, you know, we used to imagine the clouds were different animals, things like that. You remember?

SPEAKER_01 38:49

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 38:49

Okay. Do you ever go out and look at the clouds anymore?

SPEAKER_01 38:52

I do.

SPEAKER_00 38:53

You do?

SPEAKER_01 38:54

I do.

SPEAKER_00 38:54

I like that. That's nice. But I feel like a lot of people don't do that much anymore. But maybe that's just my perception.

SPEAKER_01 39:02

Well, I'm just definitely afraid of tornadoes, so I'm always on the watch for a tornado. Being an East Coaster, I'm not used to these this Texas weather. No, I do, I feel like that cloud that that had that's like an imprint on my brain, those moments, because they were really I was I imagination ran wild, and I really do equate that to a lot of staring at clouds. I don't know, it's weird. But that it I still remember some of like I can watch the movie reel in my head, and I would stare at the same cloud and it would change. So literally, I would create a story in my head from all these changing kind of cloud configurations, and it would create a story.

SPEAKER_00 39:46

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 39:47

It was it was uh could you still do it?

SPEAKER_00 39:49

Those are I don't know, maybe that would actually be really cool to do and like actually be kind of a cool art installation. So I like that.

SPEAKER_01 39:58

But yeah, uh those are very I think because those were good times in life, so I remember certain things about the good times in life, and those were good when you or they were bad times in life, and I was escaping and using imagination and writing these stories because things were tough, so it kind of was comforting on both sides, so yeah. But the boredom curse kind of was a gift in a lot of ways because it made you explore, it made turned you into an adventurer. Yeah, and it kind of shaped a lot of things. You were everyone got a chance to be a leader when you were bored. Because if you came up with the cool idea, you were leading the charge.

SPEAKER_00 40:42

That's true.

SPEAKER_01 40:42

There was it didn't matter. Of course, there's mean kids who were like, that's stupid. But for the reality check, yeah. If you were in your friend group, you could usually debate for someone had an idea, yeah, and then you'd run with it.

SPEAKER_00 40:57

So hey, it was something to do. All right, you got a better idea? No, okay, let's go.

SPEAKER_01 41:02

We used to so there was a pond by my house, and there was it had a like a storm drain.

SPEAKER_00 41:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:09

So and it would cause it like a go under the street. No, it was or is like a big big tube, and you would walk through it, or you could walk through it. It was this huge storm drain. We used to hang out in there, and it was just weird. I don't know why, but that was like a magical place. Like, hey, let's go hang out in this dirty ass storm drain that stinks like duck shit and rotten fish. That was a great, great time, yeah. We used to smoke cigarettes down there too.

SPEAKER_02 41:40

So Yeah, that's good.

SPEAKER_01 41:43

That's when the imagination turned into deviant behavior.

SPEAKER_00 41:47

But anyway, that's where imagination will lead you, sonny boy.

SPEAKER_01 41:51

I think our imagination has run out, and it's run out for this episode. No, I don't think I have a lot more imagination.

SPEAKER_00 41:57

I think we we covered a lot of great I think we covered a lot of great memories and things actually that I had forgotten about, and I'm sure you had too.

SPEAKER_01 42:06

So I want to ask the audience, what unwritten rule or what rule, illogical rule, or what did you grow up with just following, like like not swimming for 30 minutes after eating? Something similar. Let us know in the comments. Again, we appreciate all the engagement. Subscribe, like, and follow. It really helps the channel. And that's that's this episode of the well. I'm Drew.

SPEAKER_00 42:30

And I'm Kat.

SPEAKER_01 42:31

We'll see you later. No, we won't. We'll talk to you later. See you next time. Bye.