PILTDOWN MAN AND THE CARDIFF GIANT
Two longtime friends, one a former comedian and the other a world traveler, riff on life, the arts, music, sports, travel and Horehound candy, and follow rabbit holes on just about anything. Much of it tongue in cheek while entertaining themselves and hopefully you. Future plans are interviews and at least one listener.
PILTDOWN MAN AND THE CARDIFF GIANT
(45) "Sunny And Shade, Relationship Phases, A Brutal Strikeout, An Alligator Named Oscar, And More"
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A single sentence can reframe a whole marriage: “She does the sunny parts, I do the shade.” We start with small talk about rain, yard work, and the kind of weekend chores that leave you sore, then we stumble into that line and realize it explains more about relationships than most advice ever does. Who gets the spotlight, who carries the quiet load, and how do those roles shift when life changes?
Along the way, we revive our ongoing comfort food argument about the perfect easy baked potato. Listener feedback puts bacon bits on trial, and we defend the idea that dinner can be satisfying without becoming a project. It’s funny, but it also gets at something real: the way we judge effort, taste, and “doing it right,” even when we’re just talking about toppings.
From there, we trade stories we’ve somehow never fully unpacked, even after decades of friendship: a childhood pet alligator, a brutal little-league strikeout that still stings, the humbling math of aging when you can’t jump like you used to, and the strange pride of running races alongside big names. We wrap with memories of sleeping outside, camping misery, fear of water, and that kid impulse to jump off anything tall just to see what happens.
If you like conversations about friendship, marriage, nostalgia, personal growth, and the everyday moments that shape us, hit play. Subscribe, share this with a friend who would argue about bacon bits, and leave us a review with your answer: are you the sunny part or the shade?
Please leave us your comments, text me, DM me, give me your thoughts. what works and what doesn't land? We want to improve.
thanks for listening
Joe
Rainy Day Yard Work Talk
SPEAKER_01Hey, everybody, it's Piltdown Man and the Cardiff Giant, and we're in episode 45. I'm Joe Flush, and this is my partner Edward Penn.
SPEAKER_00And I'm remote today, and it's uh 20 minutes after 3 o'clock in the afternoon in central Kentucky.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And it's raining. And it's raining, yes.
SPEAKER_00We need it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we did. I mean, last I think one of the last times we talked, we talked about how much flooding we were having.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it hadn't stopped. It hadn't stopped.
SPEAKER_01And then it went just completely dry. And uh and when I saw what the weather was gonna be, man, I worked my butt off the last two days.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I did the same yesterday in the yard.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I pulled weeds until I just couldn't hardly pull them anymore and uh put down weed and feed and did all that good stuff. It was just fun days, you know. Now I'm killed.
SPEAKER_00I kind of enjoy it. Don't you kind of kind of enjoy that work? I think we've talked about it.
SPEAKER_01Don't you kind of get a I don't enjoy I don't enjoy any part of that. What I do like I do like seeing the flowers and the see the some of the work like all the bees and birds and stuff that I'm bringing into the yard. I like that. Right. But actual work on it, no, it just it and it's hard on an old man. It's really hard.
SPEAKER_00Oh, what old man was helping you?
SPEAKER_01Who was that? Yeah, well.
The Baked Potato Debate Returns
SPEAKER_00Was that you?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it was me and the and me and the old man, which is me. Uh hey, I gotta start with uh something that uh we've gotten some comments on the baked potato episode, which was Well, let me tell you, I imagine why.
SPEAKER_00Let me tell you why I think why.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00Because it's so controversial, and we took a stand.
SPEAKER_01Oh, well, you know, I I guess I did take a stand because I think no more work. You know, it was kind of my stand. Let's let's make it as it's a baked potato, let's make it as easy as possible. But but I've had uh my my friend Deborah from back in Hendry County, one of my high school friends, and another high school friend, Dina, both said they did not like uh the bacon bits. And uh I the the problem is for the ease of the thing, I'm not gonna make my own bacon bits. I'm not gonna fry them up, I'm not gonna do it.
SPEAKER_00Chewy, that's a job. Yeah, I get that. I might that's an all-day uh.
SPEAKER_01Well, then you've got to crumble them up and to the proper size. And I tried to explain, I try to explain to Deborah, the bacon bits are there just to add a little saltiness to this potato. It's not like a main ingredient. And and hey, by the way, I use real bacon bits. They're it's real bacon, it's not the faux bacon stuff. Oh, of course they are, yes. Yeah, and they are a little, you know, it's a little salty, and that helps the potato along.
SPEAKER_00Well, let me ask you this question: is it the frying of the bacon or the crumbling of the bacon that's a problem for you?
SPEAKER_01It's a part two thing, you know, it's a part two work episode, and and then I have to buy bacon, uh, you know, I have to have refrigerator space in there for bacon and stuff. I'm not gonna do this. So I asked, I asked Deborah, uh, you know, tried to explain to her that this is an easy potato, and she said, well, she d all she does, because I think we were talking about my laziness, is kind of the point of the thing. And uh she said, when she does a baked potato, she just does uh butter and salt.
SPEAKER_00Well, that's a don't happen in thing, too, I I suppose.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, who's lazier? Who's lazier? I I I contend she's lazier because at least you know I'm adding onions and peppers and bacon bits and cheese and all the stuff. I'm making a meal with them. She's got lousy potato sitting there with pepper and and butter, which is okay. And salt. And salt. But if Guy Pierre was looking at those two potatoes, he might not like it that I used bacon bits like that, but I think that I win over Deborah's potato. What do you think?
SPEAKER_00Uh probably. I'd be interested in what he thinks about my potato if that's not too uh that sounds a little bit uh off-color to me what when I say it. I don't really want Guy Fierry looking at my potato, but if he did, but if he did, I'd be interested in his uh his judgment or his opinion of it.
SPEAKER_01And do you realize do you realize that baked potatoes have become a focus of this uh podcast?
SPEAKER_00I mean Well, that's one focus. Yeah, that's one of those.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we did we did that. We talked about uh uh past the potatoes. You remember that?
SPEAKER_00Oh, I do, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we had another one about uh see what was we've had several that have dealt with baked potatoes, and I don't know what keeps bringing us back, but I guess obviously it's a a popular subject, and we're the ones on the cutting edge of deciding, you know, what what's a good baked potato. I'd say I'd say yours is probably better, but Ed, you have to factor in the time as well.
SPEAKER_00I'd backing up a little bit, I'd argue that it's one of our folki. If folki is really the plural focus, and I think might it might be, I'd argue that it's just one of our folci. And one of our other folki is, of course, Clint Howard, you know, because we we like him. And um the Pinky the elephant.
SPEAKER_01Pinky the elephant.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's another one. That's another one. So it's one of our foci.
SPEAKER_01And then we have the Wolverine girl who's coming, uh she's gonna be coming back on Father's Day with an episode. Okay, good. I like the Wolverine girl.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I do remember her. Yeah.
Sunny Parts And Shade In Love
SPEAKER_01Well, I don't know. That's what I'm up to, Ed. What do you what do you have to say?
SPEAKER_00I don't know. Nothing's been going on with me a little bit, but I have, you know, periodically or intermittently or a word like that, I guess, we hit on relationships and things like that, and which I think are good or is good, hitting on those relationships. I heard a I was talking to a friend of mine the other day and uh close friend, and uh he said something interesting, and he didn't mean for it to be a metaphor, because he said he didn't. I asked him if he did. I said, Do you mean that to be a metaphor for something? But anyway, he we were talking about working in the yard and mowing and and doing the things that you and I have just previously discussed. And he said uh he was talking about his wife and what she does around the house a little bit and what he does, but specifically about the yard work, and he and he uttered this sentence that I thought was really interesting. He said, She does the sunny parts, I do the shade. And I thought he didn't mean anything particularly deep about that, I'm sure, but I'm gonna stop him right there and say, hey, that I think that's a fairly good um way to look at relationships, whether they're marital or otherwise. Most of the time that's gonna be uh marital relationship where you're taking turns doing different um chores in the house. But I thought it was a real interesting thing.
SPEAKER_01You know what that really reminded me of? It reminded me of that old song uh you got the money, honey. I got the time. I got the time, yeah. It almost sounds the same. I think you could probably take those words and write your own song.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's got the same uh sort of rhythm to it, I suppose. Some meter. I think they call that meter, don't they, Joe? Um but but do you do you do you have anything like that in your in your head where you're talking about relationships that you remember from your past or something like that that he said? I've got two or three others.
SPEAKER_01Okay, well, I I was just thinking about my own marriage here, and uh, you know, suppose I I don't know how I don't know which is which. What should you say with me and MK? Did you think I'm the sunny one or am I the shade? Oh, you're the shade. Yeah, well, I know that part, but then I was thinking about uh who gets the most attention, like with me doing the stand-up and all that kind of stuff. I was kind of out front on that.
SPEAKER_00She was well, yeah, that that makes sense. That is a sunny part. You can't do that.
SPEAKER_01So maybe maybe but yeah, in real life outside of comedy, uh, I'm definitely a shade.
SPEAKER_00Oh, it you're a big old shade tree. But I was also thinking about, I guess that's better than there's an old saying of uh I let her drive the boat, or I let him drive the boat in relationships. And that means that you you allow them to do pretty much what they they want to do, and and you're along for the for the ride. Why a boat, Ed? Well, it could be a it could be a bus. We've talked about buses on here before.
SPEAKER_01Uh I think that's more likely. I've never driven a boat before. Well, let's say it's a bus, but have you driven a bus? I haven't driven a bus either, so uh we're you know, can we do use a car? Can it be a bus?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I I guess she drives the car, yeah. And here's one that my my grandfather used to do uh to use, and it was because the other person was doing the opposite thing while he was doing the thing. It's uh it's old an old-timey sort of um sort of uh thing to say. Um when she g's or when I G, she haws.
SPEAKER_01Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_00Do you do you do you want me to explain that or do you have to be able to do that?
SPEAKER_01Oh no, go ahead and go ahead. I mean, I don't know that anybody out there has a mule or not.
SPEAKER_00No, so you you so yes, you have to have a horse or a mule. And uh back in the mid-1900s, they were still, and it's probably still true in some places in uh Appalachia and rural Kentucky and West Virginia and even elsewhere, uh, that if you're plowing a garden, you might not have a tractor, but you've got a horse or a mule. You might have two mules and uh or two horses, two work horses. And when you're pulling a plow behind a workhorse or two or set of mule, a pair of mules, you give them directions. And I can't remember whether the G is left or or G is right. But anyway, those are the two commands that those horses hear. And my grandfather would yell G as loudly as he could yell, and the horse would turn one way or the other, and then he'd yell haw, H A W, and the and the mule would turn the other direction, the opposite direction. But but I think she does the sunny parts and I do the shade is better than I G and she haws because that that that insinuates or says that you're going opposite directions and you're not working direct maybe uh in tandem.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, you you know the thing I mean, I'm we're not I'm certainly not one to tell people about marriage because I'm only third, but uh uh it's not a 50-50 deal. It's it could be 80-20 sometimes, and sometimes it could be 10, 90 the other direction.
SPEAKER_00It vacillates, doesn't it? I think it vacillates in marriages, maybe.
SPEAKER_01Um but but you are you are you the sunny part is or Emily the sunny part?
SPEAKER_00You know, I have a little bit of a personality uh problem in that uh I'm I'm slightly I can be slightly bipolar, although I've never been diagnosed that, but I can go from the shade to the sunny and the sunny to the shade pretty uh on a dime. I really can pretty much.
SPEAKER_01So you're saying you're saying you could be both sides of that. And then what's the thing? Yeah, I could be I couldn't what's she supposed to do?
SPEAKER_00I don't, she's supposed to guess what I am that day, so well, those guesswork things usually don't work out all that well. No, it's that that makes it difficult for both parties. But uh I think we were gonna talk. Go ahead.
SPEAKER_01No, I I I thought you said you had other examples.
SPEAKER_00You I gave the G in the haul, and I had the drive, the boat, three is all I want, three is all I have.
SPEAKER_01But Yeah, I s the drive and the boat I just still don't like.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, okay. You just don't like boats.
SPEAKER_01But but the one with the mules, you said maybe one, maybe two mules, and I think are those for Sister Sarah.
SPEAKER_00Uh you'd have to be a Clint Eastwood fan to know anything about two mules for Sister Sarah, but uh Well, that'll send that'll send my friend Deborah to the Google again.
SPEAKER_01Look up Deborah, look up two mules for Sister Sarah.
SPEAKER_00It's a good Western. It's a good one. Can you name, can you name the co-star in that movie? I can. Without looking it up.
SPEAKER_01Uh no, I do not know.
SPEAKER_00Her name, that actor was named Sarah Miles. Oh Sarah Miles was the co-star in that movie. If I remember correctly, and I might not, somebody might check me on it and say he didn't remember that at all, but I think I'm correct. I think I'm right.
SPEAKER_01You remembered it, but you might have remembered it wrong. That's that's true. That's true. Yeah, but yeah, well, well, you know, uh, yeah, I think you're right. I think both of us uh can be either or. I I would see you, she seems to be more quiet and reserved, and uh you seem to be the like the lightning bolt that that hits. Uh and I think generally Mary Kay is the one that leads the way for us. So I yeah. I don't know. Maybe uh maybe something to think about, maybe not.
SPEAKER_00I said that, you know, I I was telling my stepson Jack one day, he said, you'll enter into any conversation. I said, Yeah, whether I I'm invited or not, I'll enter into any conversation. But a lot of times he said, I think that's he said, I think that's an asset. And I said, I think it can be a double-edged sword because a lot of my conversation is uh nervous anxiety, you know, and I'm just talking. I'm just talking, you know.
SPEAKER_01And and Ed, you're not alone. I mean, just you see all kinds of relationships all over the place, and I don't think either one of us are the jealous type about somebody taking a you know taking the shade.
SPEAKER_00No, I don't think so either.
SPEAKER_01Uh but I have seen that. Well, I have seen it for you, and you know the relationship is probably hidden for the rocks when somebody insists on being the the sunny part all the time.
SPEAKER_00And sometimes I'm relieved, aren't you? I'm relieved that somebody's gonna take part of the conversation. Yeah and either and either drive that boat or that bus or that car for a while. So anyway.
SPEAKER_01Well, I don't know where we're going with all this, but it it tells me something about you. And uh there's still things. I mean, we've but we've known each other for 40 years or somewhere along that line. 40, isn't it?
Weird Facts Friends Still Miss
SPEAKER_0140. Yeah. And and there's still things I I don't know. Now, you don't know this about me. You know, you do know that I ran in Pamplona with the Bulls.
SPEAKER_00How do I know that?
SPEAKER_01Well, you were with me.
SPEAKER_00Oh, that's right. That's right, that's right.
SPEAKER_01But but how many people do you think ran with the bulls in Pamplona and visited the Galapagos Islands in the same year? I don't know of any. I don't know of any.
SPEAKER_00Well, there's gotta be some, though, it Well, chances are, but I just don't happen to know who they are. Yeah, of course.
SPEAKER_01How many of them, how many of them ran with the bulls in Pambloma, visited the Galapagos Islands, and own a spiro T Avenue watch? I'm gonna guess three.
SPEAKER_00I'm gonna guess three.
SPEAKER_01Probably Well, I've that uh some of the things that I don't know. I know a lot of things about you, but I don't know everything. But I want to tell you one more about me is did you know I own the pet alligator? Currently? Presently? No, no, no. Uh, no. And people that own uh reptiles and stuff uh, uh good for you. I they don't seem to me be the my only experience, and they didn't seem to be the warmest pets to have. Um I've had chameleons. Have you ever had chameleons? Uh yes, yes. As a kid I had chameleons. Yeah. We used to get them at the fair.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And uh, you know, they had a little collar on them, and you put them on the windowsill or something, let them live for eight days, and then you find them dangling one day. Uh I'm not sure.
SPEAKER_00Go ahead.
SPEAKER_01No.
SPEAKER_00Let's back up to the alligator if you don't mind. Okay, the alligator.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Are you are you one of those people that eventually flushed that alligator into the sewage system and and it you know it stayed there and occasionally come out?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. It would be a better better story than mine. Uh no, we what happened was, and I don't know if you remember this, it used to be when you went to the south in the late 50s, mid mid to late 50s, or maybe even in the early 60s. Uh, when you go to the south and go to some of the places we went, like Augusta, Georgia's where I get this alligator. Really?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and it's from disasters and cr uh alligators.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, they they were uh there were there were a lot of little African American boys running around, and what they would do is they would uh hunt alligator, and then they'd bring the small ones up, the babies, and sell them for like two bucks. And we thought, oh, that's kind of cool. Uh so we bought one, and they're the baby ones are not easy to keep because they want to eat a lot. They the babies need to eat a lot, and I got a hamburger meat and everything, and mine, his name was Oscar, by the way. My my first pet named Oscar, uh he didn't eat very well, and after uh I would say two weeks, uh, I found him dead. And so that's when I realized later that owning an alligator is not a great idea. And if it did eat uh and grew and everything, owning an alligator is not really a good idea.
SPEAKER_00No, no. We hadn't like you think he might have been anorexic or bulimic, Joe? You think that's a possibility? I don't know, but you think not to make fun of bulimia or anorexia, but you know, he could have he could have been watching his weight, you know, could have, but you think about that whole I mean that would never happen today. No. Uh one one quick observation about your little alligator story there. It uh several years ago, uh 50, uh, which is several, isn't it? 50 years ago, um, I was reading a uh New Yorker magazine, and in that New Yorker magazine was a cartoon. And in that cartoon uh was a guy with an alligator on a leash standing on a street corner, and uh two people who had uh dogs on leashes standing beside him, and they were having a conversation, and he said to them, he said, Yeah, I know he's not much to look at, but he's a heller in a dog fight. Oh god.
SPEAKER_01There was an old Flip Wilson joke too about that. Uh uh and it had to do with I don't want to do the joke, and if I don't remember it, that would be the best. Uh but it but it had to do with uh uh a guy that uh found this old dog that was he was dog fighting everybody, and this dog was came into the bar and was very short, and he said, and then he of course won. And uh the guy goes, Man, that's a that's a strange looking dog you got there. He said, Yeah, before I pruned his nose, he was an alligator. Yeah, and I yeah, so I remember a little bit about it, but well, let me tell you a little something that you don't know.
SPEAKER_00About me. First I'll start with the good, I guess. Or maybe I should start with the bad. Which one do you want me to go with first?
SPEAKER_01You were in a porn uh film.
SPEAKER_00No, that's uh I gave up on that. Okay. So you so good or the bad? Tell me.
SPEAKER_01Uh give me I I always like the bad news first.
A Childhood Strikeout That Stings
SPEAKER_00The the bad news, oh goodness, because you know I like to dwell in that a little bit. So I'm I'm a nine-year-old baseball player um who's played some baseball before he got to the small fry league, which is right before little league. And the small fries are made up of uh mostly nine-year-olds. There might have been some eight-year-olds and maybe some ten-year-olds, but mostly nine-year-old boys. And um anyway, we had a pretty good team, um, just as local news, we had a pretty good player on our team who was later um a pretty good basketball player named Jimmy Dan Connor from Lawrenceburg. He played, he played, he was a pitcher for us, and he he, even though he lived in Lawrenceburg, he visited his grandparents in Georgetown all summer and he would play baseball, summer baseball. But anyway, that's that's just an aside. Uh we we were coming down to the end of the season and we were playing the best team. And uh it wasn't the last game of the season, but um I was up to bat um and there were two men on, it was the bottom of the inning, and and they were ahead. The other team was ahead. And I was at the plate with two men on and two outs. And I stood there at the plate as a nine-year-old, watched three three baseballs fly by into the glove behind me without ever getting the bat off my shoulder to even attempt to swing at the ball. And it was the call strikeout with two men on, two men out in the bottom of the inning, and uh, and uh one run behind. So you can imagine how I felt as a nine-year-old, and I I will tell you this, um, and I still remember today, it was about as humiliating as I could find the situation as I could find myself in as a nine-year-old. And even now, as I talk about it as an almost 74-year-old, but we there was a fellow in Georgetown that everybody knew, and he he was an umpire part of the time. Not an umpire for this game, but an umpire for other games and other types of games. And his name was Monk Lucas. Gene Lucas, and his nickname was Monk, M-O-N-K. And anyway, in any way, Gene Lucas slash Monk Lucas came up to me after the game and he said, Listen, let me tell you something. He said, You're gonna have these occasions. And he said, This is not the last one. We're all gonna have we all have them that we look back on, and he said, somehow we can make something out of it that's makes um that's a little bit better somehow or another. But you're gonna have these, everybody does. Everybody has these kinds of things. So try to get through this and on to the next thing. You think you can do that? And at the time, I'm nine. And I go, nope, don't think so. But I remember it like it was yesterday.
SPEAKER_01And uh well, uh and you know, it I mean, I think everybody does have those, but uh it doesn't mean they're any less devastating for you when you're a kid.
SPEAKER_00No, it was just a killer for me. It really was. But uh, but that's the bad one. That's the one that I think of uh.
SPEAKER_01Well before you don't before you go on to the good one, uh I think you should mention Jimmy Dan Conner might have had another life after Little League Baseball.
SPEAKER_00He did have another life. He was a great basketball player for the University of Kentucky, and uh he I I think he was at least second team all SEC, Southeastern Conference selection, at least once, and was on a heck of a team, if you recall. He had several good players around him, Kevin Greavy.
SPEAKER_01Um didn't weren't they runner-up by the UCLA?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, the the the that entire team was not, I don't think, but they are the ones that beat Indiana when Indiana was unbeaten and headed to the national finals. We beat them in 1975 in Dayton, 92 to 90 in the Mideast regional, I'm pretty sure.
SPEAKER_01See, I think Jimmy Dan was on that team.
SPEAKER_00You think he was on that one? I know that Greavy was. I know that for he was for sure, he was the top score. So I I'd have to guess Jimmy Dan was because they were the same age. So yeah, you're right. He was on that national championship runner-up team, and that was in 1975, I guess. That was in 1975, and it was John Wooden's last game.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, heck of a game.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it was John Wooden's last game. But but let do you mind if I get to the good one that get to the good one, yeah. We have yeah. I sort of like to, I sort of like to wallow in the good, but
Grabbing The Rim Then Losing It
SPEAKER_00you want to end with you want to end with the sunny. Yeah, I do want to end with the sunny. Maybe it's not an end. We've got a little while. We've got some minutes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So um I don't think you know this about me, and some people are surprised about it, and some people are not, because I played sports, I played basketball all my life, but uh by the time I was 20, by the time I was 19 years old, I could take one step and jump up and grab the rim with both hands and hold on to it. And and I could do that until I was 35 or so, until I was 35 years old probably. That I could take one step under the goal, jump up and grab at the rim uh on a 10-foot basketball goal and hold on to it and swing on it. I could do that, and uh I can't now. Why would you think I could do it now?
SPEAKER_01Well, you haven't tried, haven't tried though, have you?
SPEAKER_00Uh kind of.
SPEAKER_01Oh you oh oh man, why would I you know it, you know, it's always better to say I could do it and and not attempt it, because you know why not? I I've already done that. You know, why should I show up?
SPEAKER_00I've done that. I was at the Y one day, uh YMCA one day, and I thought, I wonder how far I can jump up on that toward that rim right now. And I could touch sort of the bottom of the net a little bit, but that was yeah, that was about it.
SPEAKER_01But man, yeah, it really humbles you, doesn't it? That the ravages of old age. But uh, what else were you gonna do? I mean, how many podcasts had you done by then?
SPEAKER_00I'd done zero podcasts.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so see you have an accomplishment since do you call that evolving?
SPEAKER_00Is it is that some more sort of evolution, or would you call it anything like that? Uh it's it's something.
SPEAKER_01Uh you know, I get excited every every time on this, though. When I see like uh I see our numbers going up, up, up, up, and then when I see something like uh we have a listener from Serbia now. Uh we had we had one from Kazakhstan uh uh last week. And uh so now we have 38 different countries that listen to some of this, and that you know, that gives me a little bit of a bump.
SPEAKER_00And they like to hear about our good and bad things that have occurred to us over the course of our lifetimes, too, don't they? Probably. Yeah, yeah, well, at least at least once. That's right. So can you tell me anything else that I don't know about yet? I bet you can.
SPEAKER_01Well, I I I do have things, and and I don't know if you know that uh, you know, I was doing a lot of running. You know, you know that I ran four marathons.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you're the marathon man. Yes, I know that.
SPEAKER_01So, and I try to get you to do it. And uh before I'd run even one, I kept kept trying to get you to do it, and you said, no way. No, you said absolutely no, no. And I said,
Running Stories And Famous Racers
SPEAKER_01Well, it's you know, I'll help you train. No, it was you weren't gonna do it. Uh, but I I ran a lot of races uh around the 5K, 10K, half marathons, ran a ton of half marathons, because that was my favorite distance, actually. But uh nothing, nothing compared to New York City, uh all parts of that. I mean, that's that's probably an episode right there talking about the New York City marathon. But uh what you might not know is I uh while I was doing all that, I defeated uh a gold medal winner, uh six uh 10K gold medal winner, Billy Mills. I defeated him. I defeated him in a 15K race. And uh what makes him significant, I I don't know if you remember him, but Billy Mills was uh called the running brave. And uh it if you do want to go back and watch something, that watch his 10K finish to win that gold medal. I mean, it will make the hair on your back your neck stand up. He was not considered one of the guys at all.
SPEAKER_00And uh What Olympics was that, Joe?
SPEAKER_01Do you recall the you know I I should know before I start telling this story, but I uh no, I'm not sure. Well, let's just say this when I beat him, he was already old.
SPEAKER_00Well, he was our age, he was probably 74, still trying to touch the game on a basketball goal.
SPEAKER_01And and he's he's still around, Ed. Billy Millis. Yeah, he's still around.
SPEAKER_00Tell the people why he was called the running brave requires some background.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. He was a he was a Native American. Oh and and uh again, I think he was like the third best guy that we had in the race. And there were many other really top-notch runners in the thing. And the the the finish of that race that I think is remarkable is there was a lot of traffic. There were there were guys being lapped and everything, right like at a critical time. And he kind of comes out of nowhere. You don't even realize that he went by uh all the favorites at the end. It was it was something to see. Um the other thing that I want to mention about the running, I also defeated uh Mary Decker Slaney uh up in Cincinnati, same place, actually.
SPEAKER_00Oh, really?
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I did not know that.
SPEAKER_01She was at the time I beat her, she was the world's fastest run runner. But yeah, there might have been a little bit of a kicker in there. She she was only training and she wasn't gonna run the entire distance. So she led me for probably 12 12k. And the last three, she just kind of got out of the line. So I still count it as a victory. Well, I think I would. Yeah, and I didn't and I didn't have to trip her to beat her.
SPEAKER_00Uh Zola Bud. Zola Bud.
SPEAKER_01Another one for Deborah to look up. Zola Bud tripping Mary Decker Slaney.
SPEAKER_00And later she became uh Mary Decker Tabb, didn't she? Didn't she? After she either was she single or married by that time. Wasn't there well I thought I thought Sl Slaney was his her married name. It could be, but she was Mary Decker Tabb if uh I think at one point in her career. Again, that might be just me misremembering, but it seems like that's right. Somebody will correct me on it, if not you.
SPEAKER_01So well, as long as they're not talking about baked potatoes, I'm fine with correct address.
SPEAKER_00I've got one more if you don't mind, and yeah, we're getting a little long on time, but and and maybe I can sort of combine them um the three of them. Uh as a as I don't know whether you knew this about me, but um as a kid, particularly during the summer, in fact, just during the summer, um, I slept outside a good part of the time. I slept out in a tent. Um from the time I was 10 or 11 years old, most a good part of each summer I slept in a tent out in a field next to our house. And I can't remember whether my father uh required me to do that or or I just volunteered to do that. But nevertheless, that's uh that's what as a country kid, that's that's what I did each summer. And uh, but did you do anything like that? Were you you weren't an outside guy necessarily, were you?
SPEAKER_01I I wasn't, but I mean I I've slept out in tents a few times, and you know, when I did it with the uh we didn't have uh scouts at the time that I was doing it. We had royal
Sleeping Outside And Camping Misery
SPEAKER_01ambassadors. Do you know the royal ambassadors? I do not know I do not. Yeah, yeah. Well, I'm gonna give you a side here. Uh the royal ambassadors, they were uh akin to the scouts, but it was tied to the Baptist Church. And so we were Royal Ambassadors for Christ. Oh, okay. And what that meant for us, the little boys, uh, is that we got together uh periodically, I don't maybe it was once a month or something, and uh listened to a lesson from an adult, usually my dad, and then uh and then just played football or roughhoused or did whatever he did. But every now and then we would go camping, and uh the last time I went, uh I was the only kid that couldn't swim and was terrified of the water. So we we so I just walked around all day kind of bored. And uh did you ever learn to swim?
SPEAKER_00Did you learn to swim eventually?
SPEAKER_01And I can if you drop me in a pool and I can go sideways, I can get there without hitting the bottom. But I don't even count that as swimming. It's like a retarded dog pedal thing going on. Yeah, yeah. And and I'm not I'm not uh talking about retarded dogs. They they do their best. Challenged, challenged. No, I I was terrified of the water and still don't like it. Um so uh but yeah, we did we did that. I drank about 15 Pepsi's on the day. I think we were having a contest. And that's that's a little bit of a contest you don't want to win. No, that's right. Uh so it was pretty pretty darn sick. Uh and it and then we got in the pup tent to sleep and everything, and it started pouring down raining so much that the the tent held the rain off, but nobody bothered with the what the rain was gonna come in. So I was soaked, I was sick, and I walked out with gum in my hair. We had to end up cutting my hair because big water.
SPEAKER_00That sounds like a fun time. That sounds like a fun time. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01So so uh no, I don't, I don't camp out. That's one I decided not for me.
SPEAKER_00You know, I said I was gonna combine the last two. I want to I and because I said that, I've already prefaced it. Even though we're running along, I feel like I have to say it, otherwise our listeners will say, hey, he said he was gonna combine a couple. He didn't do that at all. So here it is. Uh when
Jumping Off Roofs And Wrapping Up
SPEAKER_00I was a kid, from the time I was five years old, I thought it was a good idea to jump off things higher than my head. And I started out with things in the house, you know, if if there was a ladder around and in outside, I'd jump off a ladder, but then it it evolved into uh jumping out of trees and off the roof of houses and stuff like that. I jumped off the roof of our grade school. Uh I jumped uh off a uh I had a friend who lived up the road, Doug Bailey, and he had a had a uh um uh a building out out back that I jumped off of and nearly killed myself, knocked myself out. But for some reason or another, I was I was enamored with those heights and jumping off those kinds of heights to see if I could. Now I don't know what I haven't even talked about this with my therapist, and I might show. What do you think? Well, I think you should. And I still sort of like the idea of of jumping off things, and uh and and I remember my mother saying uh and my dad too, uh, why are you doing this? And and uh, you know, my only response as a five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten-year-old kid was just because I'm I want to, just because I'm interested in it for whatever reason. And I would find things that that had some height and decide to jump out of it or from it.
SPEAKER_01And well, we did we did that a bit too, and uh but you eventually stopped when you got to be like a teenager, didn't you? It did, and and and it kind of came to a stop after, like I it's mentioned in a previous episode, my cousin uh broke his legs. Ah, that's right. I didn't think that's a good one. Saying he he didn't jump, he ricocheted. So maybe now maybe you can just kind of gravitate toward ricocheting.
SPEAKER_00Maybe. But anyway, that's some of the things that you probably know or don't know about me, and um but but not surprising to you, maybe. Same for for me with you, right?
SPEAKER_01Well, yeah, and uh and I don't really have anything to add to this. It's getting to be around 40 minutes, and yeah, people people that want to tell me some people tell me they use this for leg day. Uh they lit while they're doing their leg exercises, they listen to a uh podcast. But uh, so we're making it to where their leg day is gonna be a little on the long side.
SPEAKER_00Well, I can top that. Uh I I have several friends who told me that they were prepping for colonoscopies while listening to to the uh to the podcast. So oh boy.
SPEAKER_01That seems that seems like the shade to me.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it is the shade. All right. All right, then get out of here.
SPEAKER_01All right.
SPEAKER_00Talk to you later.
SPEAKER_01All right. Bye.
