Park Bench Perspectives - The Older Sister Perspective: Tom Petty, Twins, and a Broken Tibia

In this episode of Park Bench Perspectives, hosts Mike and Carlos welcome a special guest to the bench: Mike’s older sister, Michelle. Bringing her "older sister female perspective" to the show, Michelle joins the conversation while recovering from a broken tibia after slipping in the shower, an injury that currently has her miserably confined to a straight-leg boot for six weeks.

The trio swaps hilarious and intense stories about dealing with unruly crowds at live events. Michelle shares a memorable post-divorce anecdote where she pinned a harassing "troll" against a column at a Tom Petty concert at the Target Center and threatened to have her brother put a hit on him. Not to be outdone, Mike recounts his own near-brawls with shushing audience members at a Simon & Garfunkel concert and a performance of The Lion King. They also discuss the varying intensity of sports fans across different NFL stadiums.

The conversation then takes a nostalgic turn into Minnesota Twins baseball. Michelle shares her deep love for the game, describing baseball as a "romantic sport" defined by the smell of the grass and the crack of the bat. She also expresses her lingering frustration that her father made her pitch in softball instead of letting her play Little League because she was a girl. The group reminisces about the magical 1987 and 1991 World Series championships and the shared pain of being a Minnesota sports fan.

Finally, they revisit their high school years in St. Louis Park, discussing the awkwardness of prom dates, Sadie Hawkins dances, and the stark differences between how teenage boys and girls communicate and process relationships due to their developing frontal lobes.

The episode concludes with an exciting tease for next week: the hosts plan to take the show on the road and record from a physical park bench somewhere in St. Louis Park.

00:00 Welcome to the Bench
01:22 Special Guest Michelle Hammer
01:48 The Shower Incident
02:45 Setting the Record Straight
05:12 Tom Petty Concert Confrontation
08:46 Simon and Garfunkel Rumble
09:54 Lion King Theater Drama
12:00 Sports Fan Encounters
15:04 Growing Up Baseball
17:27 Women in Baseball
18:09 The Romance of Baseball
20:23 Minnesota Sports Heartbreak
21:47 Building Championship Teams
22:56 High School Prom Memories
25:58 School Dance Traditions
27:08 Gender Differences Growing Up
29:18 Summer Recovery Plans
33:13 Future Show Plans

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:32

Are you doing Mike Hammer? Carlos Figaro, I'm doing wonderful. How the heck? Are you?

SPEAKER_05 0:43

I'm doing really well. I'm really happy to be here on the bench with you. It's been a while since we've uh done a show, so I'm excited to record.

SPEAKER_04 0:53

What was it last week? I can't remember. Time. Time doesn't fly by. It kind of goes by each second, but seems like sometimes there's points where it felt like yesterday and it was a week ago, but it seemed like it could have been a month ago. But I think it was a week ago.

SPEAKER_05 1:10

You were either profound or lost in space. Yeah, you're kind of like Ringo.

SPEAKER_04 1:16

Ringo would come up with a yeah, Ringo or Yogi. The hate Ashberry days come back sometimes. They make appearances.

SPEAKER_05 1:23

I got a surprise for you and the fans today.

SPEAKER_04 1:27

Yeah, you got I like surprises. It's like Cracker Jack box. This is Cracker Jack box stuff.

SPEAKER_05 1:32

I think, yeah, I think we can build it up that much. We have a special guest on the show, somebody you may know. I know her as Michelle Hammer, but I'm gonna mispronounce your name, Michelle Baudary.

SPEAKER_01 1:44

You said it right.

SPEAKER_05 1:45

Hey, how are you, Michelle?

SPEAKER_01 1:48

I'm doing as well as can be expected after breaking my tibia.

SPEAKER_04 1:53

Sister Christian fell down. Sister Christian fell down and went boom. In the shower.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

And I've got to have old bars. I'm gonna be getting them. It's a move that I've made several times in the shower and never slipped, but this time I slipped. And she doesn't only sing in the shower, she sings and dances. Yeah, I danced. It was that dance move from Dances with a Star that I screwed up.

SPEAKER_05 2:22

But I will just say to your baby brother to not have so much glee because we have now entered hip breaking age, okay? So I okay.

SPEAKER_04 2:33

That's what I said. I said hey, I said to her, at least it wasn't a hip. We got time. But it was funny.

SPEAKER_05 2:39

Any day that I can get in my underwear without falling is a good day for me.

SPEAKER_04 2:43

Yeah. I I know this is a surprise because I mentioned to Carlos about you, Michelle, mentioning that listening to these podcasts, hearing the same voice of mine for 60 years. Sometimes you feel like I'm there in a like a conversation present with you to that the conversation, and you sometimes start talking at the phone and realize that I'm not there. And I and trust me, I know we're both blonde, but I know we're not that blonde, so everybody can make assumptions but get on with it. Right.

SPEAKER_05 3:19

So I I've heard that you've said that Mike doesn't always portray things accurately, or at least something your perspective is different sometimes with some of his yeah, I come from an older sister girl perspective.

SPEAKER_01 3:33

And I don't no offense to men, but men think have different perspectives than women.

SPEAKER_00 3:39

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 3:40

They just do.

SPEAKER_05 3:42

Yeah, no, and that's that's actually what I made a career out of. You got a bunch of people that were there, but they all have different versions of what happened, and so then we've got to have rules to figure out what happened. But you're on the bench at this equal time, so you know if you need to set the record straight on anything your brother has said now or in the future, you just know how to get hold of us.

SPEAKER_04 4:00

Yeah, and we are sitting, yeah, we are sitting on the bench of perspective bench of perspective. So yes.

SPEAKER_03 4:14

Okay, a lot of it, yes. We've we're doing good there. It's nice when you can. This is the great time of year when you can.

SPEAKER_04 4:21

I feel bad because Michelle now her leg has to be straight in one of those bootkin leg contraptions. And remember those when we used to get the the game where the kicker, the field goal kicker had a straight leg and you bang them on the head?

SPEAKER_05 4:37

Yeah, yeah, the thing on the that was the the the magnet, the electronic football game that would shake. I don't know why hand signals were.

SPEAKER_04 4:43

Well, that one, but we're but that one, but we also had the one that was like it was about a five-inch high figure, and you'd put the goal post down, and so remember my house. Yeah, and he would kick from the kitchen to mom's room, and uh put the goal post on her and you hit him, and it was the old Freddie Cox, straight straight foot kick. So I I picture like that with the straight leg just kicking things.

SPEAKER_01 5:07

Kind of a that's what kind of what I'm doing kicking people, kicking things, kicking a dog. No.

SPEAKER_05 5:13

So we we were gonna talk about today concert injuries, and I know that you weren't prepared for this, but your brother started telling me a story where you got some tickets from your baby brother to a show and there was some kind of dispute. Do I want to share that story?

SPEAKER_01 5:30

Yeah, so I was shortly divorced or maybe not divorced yet. So just take so I had a lot of anger. I understand. When you go through divorce, you have a lot of anger stored up. Some that you didn't even know you had. But I was so excited because Tom Patty loved Tom Patty's, my favorite. Got me through so many bad times. So Marty got better seats, so he gave me the seats that he had. And they were good seats, they were on the side, and I it was good seats, you could see, but he got eight rows, so I don't blame him. But I wouldn't want him. And but he gave them to me for my birthday, and I went with my friend Kelly from work, and there is this dude that was like standing there next to us and wouldn't shut up. He kept saying, These aren't your seats, and I go, Yes, they are. And he, we even, I think, I believe we even showed him ours, and he goes, Then you stole them. And I'm like, talking about talking about and when I I kept I wanted to watch the concert because I'm like, don't be messing with my Tom Petty listening thing. And he's oh and he kept and then he was insulting my friend, and I the whole concert, he was trolling us. Whole concert.

SPEAKER_04 6:41

Did we use that word back then? We did not use trolling. No, a troll was under the bridge still, or jolly troll, go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 6:47

No, but that's what he was doing in modern stations.

SPEAKER_05 6:49

He was trying to get to the goat, as they used to say back in the day. He's trying to get under your skin. Gaslighting.

SPEAKER_01 6:56

And I had anger issues, so it's like, don't be messing with me. And I kept saying, My brother gave me these tickets, and then he's so we're leaving the concert because we were at the Target Center. Okay. And you know, they had those big column the whole for supports.

SPEAKER_00 7:10

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 7:11

Yep. So we're walking by then the guy said one more frickin' thing to me, and I said, I grabbed him by the collar and I just pushed him through that column and I said, Sorry, sorry, folks. I said, if you say this to me one more F and time, I'm gonna have my brother Marty have someone kill you because he knows people who can kill you.

SPEAKER_05 7:36

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 7:38

Don't know why that came out of my mouth.

SPEAKER_04 7:45

Does that fall under don't underestimate the wrath of a woman scorn?

SPEAKER_00 7:51

Wow, wow.

SPEAKER_01 7:52

I was so angry because he was trying to ruin my concert, and I don't know. So then we my I was meeting my little brother after the concert at Glix downtown, went down there, and then I Marty goes, how was the concert? I goes, Great, but the stupid guy next to us, and Marty knew him, and he goes, I don't even really like that guy. I thought maybe that guy's listening.

SPEAKER_05 8:13

Yeah, sorry, guys. If you're not, you were a dick to Michelle and you were not allowed on the bench.

SPEAKER_01 8:19

Truth, truth from the heavens. But then it's I told Marty, Marty went over to him and just reamed him, I don't know, new butthole, and then he came. He didn't kill him. He came over and he goes, I'm so sorry. He's cracked with me in tears. And I'm just like, Do you think I like you? Do you think I make up stories?

SPEAKER_05 8:38

Oh, geez, that's funny.

SPEAKER_01 8:41

But yeah, that was that was one of my anger moments. But I didn't ever do that again to a person.

SPEAKER_05 8:47

This this good for the rest of us. I have a concert fighting story I'd like to share now, since this isn't really injury, but I wanted this one to include this one. Post divorce area for me. I was dating someone, we're not gonna say her name, but she has a very similar name to you. She worked for a very large company where they would get access to tickets, so she'd always be getting tickets to concerts. And so we all go see Simon and Garfunkel at the X. It was awesome, Sermon and Garfunkel. It's classic, right? And so she was chatty, okay? She was annoying me being so chatty, but the guy in front of us at once again a Simon and Garfunkel concert, like turns around and is like, You guys shut up and shut up. And then there's an intermission, and he goes, Am I gonna have to take you outside and make you shut up? And I'm like, sir, did you really just ask me to step outside and rumble at a Simon and Garfunkel concert? I get it. She wouldn't shut her damn mouth that bugged me too. And I was trying, right? I was trying to get her to shut up, but come on, come on now. Hey, you might rip your members only jacket, sir.

SPEAKER_04 9:50

Oh my gosh. So that's funny. It brings up it wasn't a concert, it was a play at the R field.

unknown 9:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 9:58

The Lion King.

unknown 10:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 10:00

So I'm with my first wife, my only, whatever. Your ex and my ex, but yeah. So we're there with the three kids, and my daughter, Georgia, was about three.

SPEAKER_03 10:10

And the boys would have been we're doing simple seven and nine, whatever.

SPEAKER_04 10:16

And we're watching the Lion King, and that's where they came down the aisles and stuff. We were somewhere else. But so Georgia was kind of sitting, I think, like on my on Monique's lap or on my lap, and or standing there time, like watching it like in amazement, like a three-wood, three-year-old would and making comments, and wow, look at that. And behind us, this guy kept saying, shh, whispering, going doing the shhh, quiet down, whatever. And uh, we weren't, she wasn't the Georgia wasn't that loud.

SPEAKER_05 10:43

It was just right there.

SPEAKER_04 10:45

And this person was in their forties, and yeah, and it kept going on. And at the intermission, he got up and he said something to the effect of if you don't get your daughter to be quiet and we're gonna have issue. And I said, Did you just challenge me to a fight? Because my three-year-old daughter was having the time of her life watching this show and not very loud, and we're at the Lion King. I said, Let's go. Let's this is gonna, and he's and I'm like, You just sit there and live your miserable life and shut up. The talking isn't bad, and I get you don't want to interrupt anybody, but it wasn't but it's little kids.

SPEAKER_05 11:33

What do you expect?

SPEAKER_04 11:35

It's a place of little kids for God, exactly.

SPEAKER_05 11:38

You expect them to react. Everything is exciting, the exciting or boring.

SPEAKER_04 11:42

Nothing's I was just like, I can't believe I turned off. You really just challenged me to a fight at the Lion King, something else, and then the wife was sitting there, his wife could not slink down far enough to hide, and he started, and people around were watching this, they're all looking at him like that shameful everyone stares at you.

SPEAKER_05 12:04

Look, and he's also like I would you had a not similar, but uh similar incident. You were with your kid. I wasn't there, but the one year where I thought that I was I wanted to have Viking season tickets, which I did, and I ended up going to two of the ten games. Yeah, I gave you the Viking Packer game. And I know which of one of your sons is the Packer fan.

SPEAKER_04 12:22

Brady.

SPEAKER_05 12:22

Brady and Brady had his big number one foam finger, and some Viking fan was being an asshole saying, get that out of here, or something like that to him. It's seriously, come on.

SPEAKER_04 12:32

Yeah, it I one we're all Michelle can laugh at it more because she grew up with brothers that were sports fanatics, and the first kids are, but it you look back at it, you get older, and you're like, wasting so much time, especially having dislike, spending energy and effort and wasting time in your life disliking a team of men playing or girls, playing children's sports and getting paid millions of dollars, now close to billions of dollars. It's it's well, I can get it. Have your alliances, have fun. But you want to see some really good, fun neighboring.

SPEAKER_05 13:18

Here's the thing, I will tell you though, having with with Pam, we traveled to a fair number of Vikings games, and we had a blast at Lambeau. Packers fans are awesome, they just want to have fun.

SPEAKER_04 13:28

It's a great stadium.

SPEAKER_05 13:30

Bear fans are like vicious and mean and stuff. Packers, they just want to have fun. Vikings just want to have we obviously you got the percentage of dicks in every grouping, but most of them just they're not like that. I've parted stage alive.

SPEAKER_04 13:43

Yeah, every stage life in Lambo, it is the hollowed grounds of Lambo. It is it was a blast.

SPEAKER_05 13:48

I'm a Viking fan, but you can chill like a bucket list item going there and seeing a Vikings game there. It was amazing. And once again, we parted with a bunch of Packer fans, and it was a blast.

SPEAKER_04 13:57

The only one that I've seen really bad, scary to the point of I don't want to be here. We were in Denver and we watched the Denver Bronco, I think it was LA Raider game at the time. Oh wow, and we weren't wearing colors. We just happened to be in Denver and went to the game. Me and Todd, and I can't remember who else, I think Lionel. And we were like getting a cost yelled at in the line of fire, and we're like, they're like almost forcing who do you side with? The Warriors. Who do you side with? And we're like going, man, those guys, those Raider fans, they're not just nuts, they're uh nuts, but yeah.

SPEAKER_05 14:37

I've once again I've I wrote about this past week about 1998 as a Vikings fan, and my heart has never been ripped out nearly as much as it was there. I feel like the entire state of Minnesota could have been on pseudo suicide watch right after that happened. And even that, though, it's like you're sad for them, but I don't know. I guess I've never wanted to rumble with somebody because they like a different team. And then I don't gamble on sports, so I don't have that element of psychoticness that some people have to sports, they got their mortgage writing on it. That's good.

SPEAKER_04 15:04

So Michelle was funny while I was over there. My daughter went over this week because Steve or Hugby is gone during the week for work. And I always forget my mom would too, but my sister really gets into the twins games, and she's speaking me and Carlos's language, and uh, she's always she it doesn't surprise me, but it sometimes it slips my mind maybe because I'm frustrated with the twins and where I wander and where they are, but she's knows all the info, and we have gone to a number of games. We used to go with my mom once a year, and and that's fun. But I we were sitting there and I went over to visit her and my daughter, and and she is the game's on, and I'm like, that's right, you are you like this is something that you enjoy as background.

SPEAKER_05 15:47

I think there were kind of the prior generation was the radio because I was always my dad's sister, Luz, who really didn't speak English, but she'd always have the twins on because she was always so excited. Uh her daughter Virginia may married a man with last names Blake, and they had a son named Casey. So back in the whatever the 80s or 90s when the twins had a third baseman named Casey Blake, she's like, Oh, that's my grandson's name. She was all excited. I'm like, How do you know that? I'm like, Oh, yeah, she listens to all the twins game.

SPEAKER_04 16:11

Michelle, how do you remember remembering uh getting in into the twins?

SPEAKER_01 16:16

Your kids played ball, but me and you. Dad, you, me. It was we had a baseball family, it was all about baseball. It was always baseball. And I was, to be honest, I was very jealous that I couldn't play little league. Dad made me play softball, and yes, I was good at it. I don't care. I wanted to play little league, and he goes, No, that's not for girls. And what girl did got to play at your age?

SPEAKER_05 16:41

Teresa Harold played.

SPEAKER_01 16:43

Yeah, I was so mad. Dad would not let me. Minor played completely.

SPEAKER_05 16:48

Teresa Harold was really good, though. She was like in the majors, she was really good.

SPEAKER_01 16:53

Teresa Harold was good, yeah. I know. But yeah.

SPEAKER_05 16:56

Well, I have originally you know what? If you don't give people a chance, how do you know, right? That's the problem with it.

SPEAKER_01 17:02

My dad said that's not for girls. You have to play softball. And so I was the pitcher, and I pitched some no-hitters. And Teresa Harold was on my team too.

unknown 17:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:11

But yeah, she was better than me and other things like fielding and stuff. And dad would always go, Why aren't you like her? Why aren't you like her? I'm like, I'm pitching a no-hitter. What else do you want for me, old man? I didn't say that to him at the time. But but it was just like, and my dad had back then they had very strict rules, what I could play and what I couldn't. Like Georgia, Mike's daughter, was a lot luckier. Yeah. That she got to play. It was more acceptable for girls to do stuff. And even like when my boys were growing up, yeah, the same age, but even my older boys got to, they had girls on their team. And I'd always look at those girls going, Oh, I wish I could have been you.

SPEAKER_05 17:51

Yeah. You know what? It's more acceptable. There actually is a professional women's baseball league that is starting in 2027. So that's exciting. Bring bringing that back. But I love baseball. The more people that play baseball, the better, from my perspective.

SPEAKER_01 18:06

Oh, I love borders. I love borders. Here's one funny thing about baseball. So Georgia, Mike's daughter, asked me, Why do you love baseball so much, Michelle? Especially the twins lose. And I go, baseball is like a romantic sport. Yes. It's the romance of it. It's the smell of the grass. It's the crack of the bat. It's the it's all the sounds and all the and if it's a beautiful day, it just makes it all better. And it's like baseball is it's like a romantic sport. The other sports are like gladiator type stuff, and then like eh, whatever. But baseball, there's something romantic about it.

SPEAKER_05 18:46

There is. I'm I've always been kind of like the way Bob Costas is the one who talks about kind of the game. And the baseball has such a rich history, and it's played on a field. I always, you know, I I get it. The pitch clock the pitch clock is good, it makes the game faster, but I always like the fact that baseball didn't have a clock. It ends when it ends. But one of the things I've learned as I've gotten older is that you gotta be careful of being about being romantic about stuff because it's a business. The business does not get much money out of your life. I used to be very romantic about Apple computers, and I'm like, oh, therefore, the rebels and this and that. I'm like, no, they're just a company that wants to get my money, and that's how they decided to market themselves. And so I believe all the the poetry and the pastoral stuff about baseball, but at the same time, when I'm like, oh no, I I need eight different streaming services to be able to watch it.

SPEAKER_01 19:36

But it's sad now that because I was telling my niece this weekend about the 1987 and 91 World Series and how oh my gosh, it was the funnest thing, and it was they were a young team that had no chance but did beat all odds, and it that I think kept me hooked on it. Yeah and because everyone's like they're a losing team, and I'm like, I don't care. I I go I can be fickle about that.

SPEAKER_05 20:06

I just said devil, just one championship, and I don't ever have to have anything again.

SPEAKER_04 20:11

That's right, yeah. Michelle, you're right about the it's a 162-page book or chapter book. And if you didn't like today's chapter or today's romance, you can put in tomorrow. There's another chapter romance. But if you look at the twins over the last 10, 12 years, they're one of the more regular season consistent winning teams. Just like you go back in the Vikings over history, like top three regular season win percentage.

SPEAKER_05 20:38

It's just the Vikings are the best franchise never to win a Super Bowl by far. And if you go by wins percentage, by far, they're the team that has won the most percentage and has never won a Super Bowl.

SPEAKER_04 20:50

We are a state of that old Charlie Brown and Lucy scene where the ball gets pulled away all the time.

SPEAKER_05 21:01

If you think about the era when 87 happened, Mondale had lost, Humphrey had lost, the Vikings had lost Super Bowls. We were all too damn young to remember the Lakers or the Gophers when they were good, right? All weight was losing in the big game, Minnesota loses, and then 87 just took that monkey off the back, and now I realize we're now on the list of the city with all four franchises that's gone with the longest without winning a championship. I don't care. We got 87 and we got 91.

SPEAKER_04 21:27

Yeah, we got away from that. We had 90, we had 80, like one of the most losing years in baseball history, and we had Miller time. What was his first name? He was the manager, and it was just terrible, and he left, and we had the Ray Davis or whatever. And then Brunanski, herbeck.

SPEAKER_05 21:46

But you know what? Here's the thing here's the thing that they did with that team that they don't allow anymore is that team lost a hundred games together before, and they stayed together, and they lost together, and they learned to play baseball together. And now it's rookie instant. Is he out there? Is he producing? Okay, we got this wave, we got to open the window, this and that. And it's like going, they just let these guys get some experience when you just wonder how many guys, if they'd have given them a chance, they could have found their but they don't anymore. Now it's like you're in. If you don't produce, you're gone.

SPEAKER_01 22:16

They don't give people a chance. And that's the sad. Like I've always said about the team, it was a young team, nobody thought they were gonna go anywhere. But they disconnected. Like so, my son Hunter, he did the best in baseball, and he had a team that they put together and they won a couple state champions, go for state, and all that. They were the team, and I mean it made me love baseball more even more. Watching these young kids, and they were a great team. But when they got to high school, they broke let's see, we probably ninth grade ball. They broke the team up, and they had won three years consecutively.

SPEAKER_05 22:56

So let me let's get some of the demographics out. Because one of the things we're trying to do is expand out our our who this show is for. And I realize you you grew up in the same place as your brother did.

unknown 23:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 23:08

But you are a couple years you were a class of 82. Correct? Correct? Correct. So we really, you Mike was around you because you had your friends over and stuff like that. But you guys, to me, 82, that was like completely different.

SPEAKER_01 23:21

I didn't interact with 82s because I was only I hang out with a lot of Mike's friends, so where were you, Carlos?

SPEAKER_05 23:29

I was probably at home watching Hogan's Heroes. But did you go to a did you go to your prom?

SPEAKER_01 23:34

Yes, but I went with an older guy out of high school. I don't know if I loved it.

SPEAKER_05 23:40

Okay. Where was it at? Where'd you go to dinner?

SPEAKER_01 23:42

It was at what is now the Sheraton by West End.

SPEAKER_05 23:46

Sure, okay. What was the development tree originally, I think? Maybe.

SPEAKER_04 23:50

I don't know. I don't remember. Yeah. Somebody'll call in. One of the callers will let us know.

SPEAKER_05 23:55

Jamie, look at it.

SPEAKER_01 23:58

Back then. And parents don't let their kids do this, which is smart. We rented hotel rooms at the holiday. We could they wouldn't let us rent them there, but we did it at the Holiday Inn, a little around there. And then we're supposed to have a pre-party and after party and all of that. And I don't know. It just got so convoluted, and I just eh. And then my boyfriend, because he was older, was bored with the whole thing. And so it just kind of the whole thing was ruined. So girls out there.

SPEAKER_05 24:27

Pick your prom day because I'll ruin it.

SPEAKER_01 24:30

Pick one at your age because you'll have a lot more fun, especially when at your school, even if it's just a friend, because people who you bring in from the outside, they're not going to have fun, and they just kind of try to ruin it for you.

SPEAKER_04 24:40

That's weird. You might have heard it, but I don't know, Carl, if you know this. A lot of times girls go together like five or six together to prom as a group.

SPEAKER_03 24:48

Yeah. And I guess that's a thing.

SPEAKER_01 24:49

I wish they would have done that back then. I think that's gone together to my prom because nobody asked me.

SPEAKER_05 25:00

Yeah, that sucks because I actually did that. I try, you know, I'm trying to get engagement for the show. But I'm also I love St. Louis Park. That's the reason I do this show, and that's why I post on stuff. I love hearing stories about St. Louis Park and other people's lives in it. To me, that that's what I'm trying to get. But I ask people about okay, what'd you do? Y'rom and I got so many, and nobody asked me. Nobody asked me. I asked this boy, and he told me that I wasn't on his league. I'm like, holy shit, I'm sorry I said anything. I feel bad. It is funny. A lot of it's the memories for people. I'm just trying to get conversation going. A lot of it isn't the Hollywood style thing.

SPEAKER_04 25:32

For a lot of people you find out, I didn't go to my senior prom. I went to my prom as a junior. I don't know, junior problem. I don't know. I don't know. Just got whatever. There was Sadie Hawkins and there was homecoming. But I just remember having to put a suit on a few times and go.

SPEAKER_03 25:46

But I think our homecoming was at the rec center because the gym floors were getting resurfaced.

SPEAKER_04 25:52

And it was cold out there, but we at least had jackets and pants on. Remember the girls in dresses were freezing. Freezing. Yeah, but talking about it.

SPEAKER_01 25:59

Remember, it was homecoming dance a big thing. I don't remember. I almost think it was.

SPEAKER_05 26:06

It wasn't really a dance from, but I don't remember homecoming other than the game itself.

unknown 26:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:11

And then remember we had those sororities in school?

SPEAKER_05 26:16

I don't remember that.

SPEAKER_01 26:17

We had that she dance. That was the other formal. Instead of, I think they did that instead of Valentine's Dance. I went to one of those. But yeah, Sadie Hawkins was certainly more important than the homecoming dance.

SPEAKER_05 26:31

Sadie Hawkins were the girls to be a good one. Yes, it is. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 26:35

Yeah, and I got I got in trouble. No. Because I was dating somebody and I didn't ask him yet. And these girls who liked him told me if I didn't ask them, they were going to, and I'm like, okay, we're dating, so I just figured we were going, but okay, I'll ask him formally. Interesting. Isn't that weird? Did he say yes? Oh, yeah, because we were dating. I wouldn't why would you have a big thing?

SPEAKER_05 27:01

I can guarantee that.

SPEAKER_01 27:04

I was like, why are you what's wrong with you people? I don't know. I guess because I grew up with brothers and they only birthed boys, I just think more. I'm a tomboy. I mean, I it's not like I didn't like to dress up or all that stuff, but I thought more logically. So a lot of the girls and their stupid, sorry girls.

SPEAKER_05 27:28

Well, going after your hearts and letters to Michelle. That's Michelle.

SPEAKER_01 27:33

Why are you guys doing this? Why are you I felt like they were just twisting themselves in knots over silly things? That's what I thought.

SPEAKER_04 27:42

Yes, boys do see black and white a lot clearer. You know what?

SPEAKER_05 27:46

It's actually a very famous scene from uh Sex in the City where the guy from Office Space, she's wait a minute, he didn't ask me out, but he's been busy, he's been this and that. And he's just he's just not that into you. Yeah. And he's like it's like going, what? He's like going, yeah, if he if all that other stuff, if he was India, he'd have called. So it's just like oh, it blows my mind. We've been trying to read these tea leaves and clues for years and decades, and it's he's just not that into you.

SPEAKER_04 28:13

It's this is how I looked at it. I was having uh two of one, one of the other, and they come out. When they come out, they're different from the get-go. But how I noticed it, and I'm thinking back uh on me and Carlos, you might say the same, and then looking back on girls. We ran into walls a lot longer into our ages. We were in our teens, maybe even 20, we kept running into walls. Girls at eight, nine, ten, they get running, they see a wall, they stop, and they go around the wall. But no, we run with our heads down right into the wall, going duh, and then we do it again. It that's just uh then you start talking about the frontal lobe of the boy, and I'm like, no, we just don't care as much.

SPEAKER_05 28:52

Ex-wife number two was a high school teacher, and she says the two things that at 14 and 15. It's like the girls can't shut up, and the boys can't keep their damn hands off each other. Swim around and shit like that, and the girls just can't shut up. And she goes, it's just innate. And obviously, you have people that differ from that, but as a general rule, that's the kind of stuff that happens as hormones are flooding our systems and our brains aren't quite ready to handle it all.

SPEAKER_04 29:18

So, Michelle, as we're getting towards the end here, no, it wouldn't be nice if I didn't pick on you a little bit because it wouldn't be me being your little brother.

SPEAKER_05 29:26

I'm your attorney, I'll protect you.

SPEAKER_04 29:27

All right. So, what would you advise people to do when they if they had to sit at the beginning of summer with their legs straight? And what are you gonna okay? How about nicely? Yes, at the beginning of summer. Yes, you've mentioned this sucked, but yes, you've mentioned, I don't know, look at it from a standpoint of it happened for a reason, I just can't figure it out yet, or whatever. Maybe it's just a chance for me to sit back and watch others do stuff for me. What you're looking forward to is perfect for being on the bench and having perspective because you don't need to bend your knee.

SPEAKER_05 30:06

You're welcome on the bench anytime now that you've got some time on your hands.

SPEAKER_01 30:10

I know I have time on my hands. Yeah, it kind of sucks. I'm not I'm a lot like my brother. I'm a doer, yeah, not a sitter. Yeah, it's not like I don't like my downtime, but yeah, this is excruciating watching everybody do stuff for me. I'm like, ugh, I can't take it. And it's kind of funny. As a human, you think that you want people to wait in you hand in foot and bring you this, you're like, oh, wouldn't it be nice? But when you get there, you're like, oh, this sucks. It's fun for a day or two, and then you're like, I don't want to do this anymore. But when you have a six-week jail sentence, you're like, What am I gonna do for six weeks? I guess I have all those shows I was supposed to watch. I'm gonna have to watch them now.

SPEAKER_03 30:55

That's a crazy.

SPEAKER_04 30:55

And I know I mentioned to you, I mentioned to you when I was young and had my motorcycle crash and was laid up, and it was only a couple weeks, but it seemed that at a younger age you didn't you weren't in the position of always doing stuff, especially if you had kids and stuff. You always ready, you always had something to do. So I remember back then I go, I just laid there and it was pretty chill, pretty cool.

SPEAKER_05 31:16

But nowadays at this stage of my life, you'd be like, and part of it is no matter what, I think for me would be like you were pretty young still, you had not raised human beings at that point.

SPEAKER_04 31:26

No, I didn't really have a we we were young, and my mom being divorced, we kind of all pitched in, but it wasn't like I had to be responsible at that age for my sister, would never have to, and my brother by that time was we looked after him, but by that time he was a late teens, so he was fine. But I I you know I think we also too at our age kind of think of how would you not say this is not uh a doom or gloom. This is we are at the back nine of life, and we're like, I don't know if I have 20, 30, 40, 50 years summers left. I don't when you're 20, you're like, I got a bunch more. When you're ours, you're like, I don't want to waste one summer. Yeah. Sitting on my butt. So you're probably going, I hope that the rain was.

SPEAKER_05 32:17

I won't change it. I don't like the back line. I like kind of the paraphrasing the Beatles, which is you and I have memories that stretch out farther behind us than the road ahead.

SPEAKER_04 32:26

Yes, this is true. And and Michelle's just hoping for a rainy summer so she kind of look at the rest of the people go your summer suck too.

SPEAKER_01 32:36

No, I'm not like that. I just I don't want it to be rainy now summer, but I'm just annoyed. I'm extremely annoyed, and I'm trying to come up with ways to get around. That's more a lot.

SPEAKER_05 32:49

Coming on the bench was one of the things that you could do, and you're welcome back. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 32:56

I just want you to know I need your perspective, and it's a good perspective, both of you. I just I want you to know I fully enjoy your conversations, and you're a good match. And Michael I sometimes when I listen to you, I want to talk to you, and I'm like, oh wait, it's recording.

SPEAKER_04 33:13

Carlos, we could possibly, because this just happened when we do our role reversal sessions. She was obviously me and her, and grandma and mom and Judy. So that might be a good point to have you on there since it's still fresh in the water mind.

SPEAKER_05 33:32

Is that what you're saying?

SPEAKER_04 33:33

No, I'm saying we took care of the old lady.

SPEAKER_05 33:36

Oh, okay. That's inverse.

SPEAKER_04 33:38

We took care of grandma, Judy, and it's fresh, and it's still less than a year. So she'll have a lot of her perspectives on role reversal. And two, she's getting to the point where soon our kids will be doing what we just did for our mother.

SPEAKER_05 33:57

And hopefully later rather than sooner. But Michelle, thank you so much for joining us here.

SPEAKER_01 34:01

Um for having you. Having me to your show, it's awesome. It was fun.

SPEAKER_04 34:09

Carlos, yes, if we put this in written, then so let it be written, so let it be done. Next week, we're doing a real bench.

SPEAKER_05 34:18

We are gonna find a bench bench perspective. We are gonna we are gonna start roaming around St. Louis Park starting next week and doing if anybody has a bench in mind, yeah. Let us know. In St. Louis Park. Or if you'd like to be interviewed or you want to be on the show, please. We definitely want guests. We want guests that went to the high school in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s. We want to hear everybody's experiences in St. Louis Parks.

SPEAKER_01 34:45

That sounds good. There's lots of guys in St. Louis Park.

SPEAKER_05 34:48

There are, yeah. All right, everybody. Thank you, Michelle.

SPEAKER_01 34:52

Thank you, Michelle, Carlos, Michael, good talking.

SPEAKER_05 34:56

Out, everybody. Carlos and hammer out.

SPEAKER_02 35:01

Watching all the world go by now. Underneath the hazy sky now. Got my ticket for the long ride. Yeah, from my park bench perspective. I got that wide-eyed view of the line. Park bench perspective. Open me to the window.