What Are The Pickles For?

As Wide Open As A Locked Gate

• Kayla Bonger & Dana Smith

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0:00 | 47:13

This week it’s just us! We take a trip down memory lane and compare what growing up looked like in two completely different generations. From childhood adventures and family stories to how real estate, technology, and everyday life have changed over the years, this episode is full of laughs, nostalgia, and a few “I can’t believe that actually happened” moments.

We share some of our favorite family memories, poke fun at each other, and discover that while a lot has changed, some things never do. Whether you grew up riding bikes until dark, burning CDs, or scrolling TikTok, there’s something in this episode that’ll make you laugh and probably say, “I remember that!”

Grab a pickle and come reminisce with us—we think you’ll have a few stories of your own by the end.

SPEAKER_00

Hey Dana. Hey baby.

SPEAKER_01

What were the pickles for? I'm thinking the pickles are I'm thinking they're for anxiety. Good help for you. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's a helper to create. Oh, I feel like well, I was thinking help, but maybe I feel like it's anything.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Creating anxiety. Well, welcome to What are the pickles for? The podcast where real estate meets real life. We're a mother-daughter team sharing stories from business, family, faith, and all the unexpected moments in between. Hey, hey, here we are. And so I feel like some unexpected things are like when you're born. You know, like you don't, it's not expected. Like you just shove out and you're in the world. You know, like you're just, you're here. Here I am, world. Okay. Take me. And so like I didn't choose to be, you know, moved around a thousand times. I didn't choose. You know, like there's a lot of things. I didn't choose to be born. I just kind of was. Yeah. Unexpectedly. Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_01

I'm gonna try to see where you're going. You were too. Like I was born unexpectedly, but I was born in like a completely different generation. Like my generation and your generation are so totally different.

SPEAKER_00

That's really true. You had your life was in black and white, and mine got introduced to the internet. I had color. Thank you. Our televisions had color. It wasn't all black and white. Did you know that when I was little, I literally thought that when TV shows were black and white, like life was black and white back then. So I thought grandma grew up in black and white. Oh my gosh. True story. I where have you failed me?

SPEAKER_01

I don't know. I didn't I'm just learning so many things about you even now. Well that I don't even know. I have an avenue.

SPEAKER_00

I have an avenue to explore those things. Okay. Right now. Okay, but that's actually cool because you've lived in like lots of different generations or, you know, like is that like a what what are the different ones? All right.

SPEAKER_01

So are you a baby boomer in 71? I'm not a baby boomer. No. What's your generation? I don't I don't know. What is it? I was born in 71. I don't know what that makes in my head. I'm a millennial. You should know what you are. I'm a I'm a Gen X. Okay. I don't know. Maybe I'm a Gen X. I don't know what it is. Jared, do you know what I am? Okay. I was born in 71. I grew up like in the 70s. Was that Woodstock? No, that was 60s. That was before me. Yeah. I grew up in the 70s and the 80s. Like there we did have television. Atari Games came out when I was a kid. Am I a Gen X? Yeah. I thought I was. Yeah. People don't ask me that regularly, so it's not like on the tip of my tongue, but I'm a Gen Xer. We didn't, I mean, I remember when Atari came out, like we got that. Mark and I got that for Christmas one year. I mean, graphics were crap. Yeah, comparatively, but they were so awesome then. MTV started when I was a kid. Really? Yeah, like I don't know exactly the year, but like the music videos or they really had music videos. Like it was only music videos. Yeah. Like that's when music videos were a thing. No, it was no shows. It was just videos all day long. Just music all day long. Hold on. Were you allowed to listen to music? Yeah. So I I was raised in a pretty strict home. Um yeah, I wasn't really allowed to listen to like rock music. I wasn't supposed to do that. I wasn't and like 80s is prime time. Well, I didn't always follow those rules. Like I am a Van Halen girl. Bon Jovi. You're like, we're living on a prayer. I'm all, yeah, I'm living on a prayer. Um like Brian Adams, like some of those, like, you know, true rocker, like I, yeah. John Bon Jovi, like I was convinced. Well, actually, my my best friend in high school, Lee Daniels, was convinced that she was gonna marry him. You know what?

SPEAKER_00

I just that just made me think. I was like, oh, I saw him at the LA airport, but I didn't see him. I saw Steven Tyler.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. I wasn't a huge Aerosmith fan. I love some Steven Tyler. Yeah, nobody believes me that I saw him, but I did. You did. His mouth is enormous. It is, but he just, yeah. We had like we had landlines, that was it. So were they um were they the ones where you go like we did have those, like rotary? We did have those, yeah. And and we had like busy signals, so there was no like call waiting came as I don't remember what maybe that was like.

SPEAKER_00

What does call waiting mean?

SPEAKER_01

Call waiting is like you'd be on the phone and you'd hear a beep, and it would mean that there was a call on the other line, and you'd be like, Oh, hold on a second, I've got another call. And you would click over and you could answer that call.

unknown

Oh.

SPEAKER_01

Before that, though, it was just a busy signal. So like you could my dad used to get so mad if he needed to call my mom because I'd be on the phone all night and he would just hear bm, bm, bm, like all the time. Busy signal. Okay. That's what it was. So you were only allowed like so much time. Sounds like to be on the phone. Phones were connected. Yeah. Dial-up was it, like, that was when I think like the first computers were coming out, like as I was graduating from high school. I mean, no, no, college. Like college, like early 90s. Does that seem about right? I graduated in 93. Um, and I feel like they were maybe there was like a desktop computer in the dorm, or maybe they were putting like one in each room. I can't remember, but it was all rallied.

SPEAKER_00

What did you do in college without a computer? Yeah, we had typewriters. No. Yeah, for real.

SPEAKER_01

Did you also use dictionaries and encyclopedias? Yes, we did. Yes, all of our information was outdated. Fiction. No, that's not fiction. That's like real life. That's what we did. It took me forever to like think about even looking something up online. Like that, it just wasn't a thing because we had to go to the dictionary. We literally had the Britannica-American dictionary.

SPEAKER_00

How did you cook your food?

SPEAKER_01

Did you have an oven? Yes, we had yes.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. I remember I don't know history.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, well, my dad was a seller, um, and he won a contest and we won a microwave when they first came out. The microwave, I kid you not, was like huge. You could fit a whole pizza in there. Well, yeah, but I mean, you couldn't microwave pizzas at the time. There was only so many things that you could do with a microwave. They didn't have microwave meals and stuff. It was all new. Well, they had pizza. Yeah, but you can't cook just a general pizza in the microwave. Well, you can heat it up, is what I'm saying. Well, we could heat anything up, yes.

SPEAKER_00

But you can say you could put a whole pizza in there. Like it's so big you put a whole pizza. I ha I only had a couple pizzas of my pizza last night. I could put the rest of it in there. The rest of it, not a whole pizza.

SPEAKER_01

The whole pizza is what you cook. You cook it and then you could warm it up. It wasn't so much that the inside cooking area was large, but the m mechanism itself was huge. Oh. So it was so large. Like everything has gotten smaller. Like phones used to be giant. A cell phone, like the first cell phones that plugged into your car were like huge. And my mom had one because she worked for the school system and they wanted all their principals to have one so that they could reach them if they need to. It had to plug into your lighter. Also, have you ever been burned by a cigarette lighter from a car? I don't think I've ever owned a car that had a light. Well, that's a cigarette lighter.

SPEAKER_00

Like you literally like put your little cigarette in there. Yes, you could like push it in.

SPEAKER_01

Cigarettes are called in England. No, they're called fags. Okay. Moving on. You could push it in and it would like start like a little fire on the inside, and you take it out and you'd like to do it.

SPEAKER_00

Did they allow those in national parks?

SPEAKER_01

I wasn't into that like you are. So I would imagine. Or like in fire areas. Yeah, it was really difficult for me because I'm so allergic. But that's a totally different topic. We didn't have like Google Maps, we had atlases, which I still cannot read. And then we went to like the big one.

SPEAKER_00

So like you're on a trip and like you have to open it all up and it's like all in your front, and you're like, oh, here's this. And we have I wouldn't survive.

SPEAKER_01

Yes. And my dad would like map out, like highlight the route.

SPEAKER_00

What about like whenever I was growing up and like you would print the directions?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that was um what was that called? Map map quest. We would map quest stuff, and that was a big deal.

SPEAKER_00

Like we could go for like this exit, right, this street.

SPEAKER_01

It printed out all the turn by turn directions. That was huge. That was like on the way to Google Maps. Okay. Or Apple Maps or whatever. Yeah. Wow. We had an answering machine at the house. I've seen those in TV shows. Yeah. We had like an answering machine, and we should bring those back. That's cool.

SPEAKER_00

You think? I mean, we have it. It's a voicemail. I don't want it on my phone. Like if I I can choose to accept a call or not. If I don't accept your call, I certainly don't want to hear your message. Well, caller ID was not a thing either. So like you had to answer, like you answered. Were there like people who were like that called and were like, pay off your student loans that you don't have? Not there weren't as many telemarketers.

SPEAKER_01

Wow, that was because there weren't as many phones. I mean, if you think about it, it was just like per household. Now it's like per person everywhere. So there's like so much. That's like a big thing. There's so much more access to people now than what there was when I was growing up. Like there, you know, you just couldn't you had to.

SPEAKER_00

Did you know there were other countries?

SPEAKER_01

Yes, I did. Okay, cool. I visited some. How? There were airplanes. Oh, good for you. Yes. You are such a hey, I just I grew I don't know about this. We watched cartoons every Saturday morning. Yeah. We also watched hee-haw every Saturday night. Oh, what? Hee-hee, hee-haw ha. Hee-haw. Hee-haw. I'm a pickin' and I'm a grinin. Yeah. Cool. We loved it. Neat. Hee-haw was great. Yeah. Um, we recorded songs straight off the radio. What a design. It wasn't illegal. We had cassette tapes and we could we could put a blank tape in and press record and record a song that was playing on the radio. Yeah. Maybe it was illegal. I don't know, but everyone did it. I don't I don't think people see each other.

SPEAKER_00

They did. They said, put kill your computer.

SPEAKER_01

I don't know. Yeah, but it's not the same. And this was like boom boxes. Do you know what a boom box is? Yeah, I've seen it in a movie. That guy who's like Yeah, and the bigger the better. Like those things were enormous, and people would like skate around with them, have them on their shoulders. I do.

SPEAKER_00

I do think like 80s clothes, 80s style. Oh yeah. It's fantastic.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Listen, big hair, I'm about it. I'm not. Oh my gosh. My hair is so thick, even now. It I mean, I I could rock the 80s and 90s hair.

SPEAKER_00

You couldn't listen to rock, but could you rock the hair? Or like really really like to get big hair? Yeah. I was allowed to do that. Was that like size down? No. It couldn't get this big because it was okay.

SPEAKER_01

No, I should show you pictures. Okay. Also, glamour shots was a thing. Oh, you mean like the Yeah, like they had this place in the mall. Jared's like. We've done those. It wasn't that. Like this was a legit like go in, they do your hair and makeup. This was glamour shots. And they do your hair and makeup, the whole thing. And I've got like a photo of myself, like.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, yes, I've seen that. Like this. I have some.

SPEAKER_01

Is that what Madonna's picture with the rat is? I don't know about that. Okay. But yes, Oland Mills is where we had all of our family photos taken. Yeah. My mom didn't like JCPenney photos. So we were I like them now. We were like kind of bougie and went to Olin Mills for that. But they had giant packages. So we have like 700 teeny tiny photos of our family. Why? Because that was like part of the package. That's what you got.

SPEAKER_00

Like microscope. Like what how teeny tiny are you talking about?

SPEAKER_01

Like that could go like in a in a charm. Do people actually do that? Oh, I don't know. But if they did, we had enough to share with them. Cool. You could send these microscopic photos to your friends. I don't know. Can I get leg warmers for a thing? Tattooed. Leg warmers. Do you know what those are? Yeah, I've dressed up as 80s nights before. Yeah. That was a really big deal. I just don't understand. Oh. It was just a fashion trend. It's not about understanding. What about wearing banana pants?

SPEAKER_00

What are the MC hammer pants?

SPEAKER_01

Oh, those are great. Those are parachute pants. I love those. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Hammer time. I am wearing banana pants. Thank you for noticing.

SPEAKER_01

Um, something that you bought that I was like so pumped that you got that they came back was a members only jacket.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, yes, I love that.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Yeah. That I mean, like if you had that and the limited is like where you're supposed to go for all your clothes. And we just didn't have enough money for limited clothes all the time. So I if I got like an outfit from the limited for Christmas, I was so excited. Wow. But there were like tight leg pants that like ballooned out at the top, and then you'd tuck your shirts like all the way and you flip up your collar, all that. I mean, we we knew fashion. It was impressive. Compare that to yours. I'm literally growing up. I'm wearing banana pants. Like, I know you are, but compare that like to you growing up. Oh, we had Pizza Hut Dine In. That was a big I had that too. And you missed that. If you read enough books, then you got a free personal pan pizza. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Those were the generation started that.

SPEAKER_00

You got to do that. You know what I remember? When we used to go like a vacation and we did like that kids' night thing, kids' night, where you were now. They had personal pan pizzas every single time. And I would be pumped because of that personal pan pizza. Because they'd get you that personal pan thing. So good. So good. Yeah. I feel like clothing now is better than what you had, honestly, because it a lot of that stuff's just kind of bizarre. Like the big A lot of that stuff's coming back. Well, in a better way. Okay. I can for now.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Back then it was really cool.

SPEAKER_00

I mean, when I was younger, I feel like you cut my hair really short once and I looked really weird. I can only remember that. And uh the limited two. Yeah. I all your clothes came from there. They were great. Yeah. And then you know, they were all like sporty things. Yeah. And then it's like you everything you had to buy was from like Abercrombie or Hollister. That was it. That was it. And really, some people still like I think like Austin still wears Abercrombie stuff.

SPEAKER_01

Well, I think Abercrombie's making a comeback. Like I think they're That was just Rocky. Oh my gosh. I was thinking about Grant and the Snakes. Bless her heart. Abercrombie, I think, is making a comeback for real. Like there, there's a lot of influencers that I watch on the Instagram reels that I don't watch that because I influence myself. Get things from Abercrombie.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Well, I haven't purchased anything as of yet, but I do think they're making a comeback.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Okay. You you got the tiniest little phone.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, my first phone? Yeah. That I begged and begged and begged for. Yeah, that thing was like this.

SPEAKER_01

And I'm going to interrupt you like I do, but I if you were, I would not, you would not get a cell phone today until you graduated high school. I'm confident in that.

SPEAKER_00

Well, let me tell you. Oh.

unknown

What?

SPEAKER_01

If you How are you going to reach out to me? If we were, I wouldn't. If we were growing up, if we were growing up right now, I might get you a flip phone for emergencies, but you would not have social media.

SPEAKER_00

Well, praise God, I was born when I was. Yeah, well, be even more deprived. Yeah, that first one was like little bitty. It was that tight, it was small. And I remember I got it before the IU Soccer Camp. Okay. Do you remember this? No. And you could change the covers.

SPEAKER_03

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

And it was like, I had a green one on it.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

And I went to IU Soccer Camp and then like we got in the car and we lost it.

SPEAKER_01

Like me?

SPEAKER_00

I lost it. Oh. Yeah. But I was like, I'm a hundred percent confident like I have brought it back. And so it was just gotten had to get like a something else. And months later, you slammed on your brakes with Cody in the back seat and that phone came out.

SPEAKER_01

Oh my God. Do you remember those? Not a like. No. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um, Jackie and I were talking the other day about like a razor. Do you remember like the razor phones? Oh, yeah. I got this razor. And like we were watching somebody like, you know, putting putting their phone like just tucked in your pants, but the razor, you could clip it. Flip it open. So it was like, you're totally clipped. And that was that was crazy. And we had text limits. Yes. And you had to text on like the keyboard that's really hard to like click the one seven times to get the letter that you needed. Yeah. Yeah. And they had that snake game. You could play the snake game on it. I don't remember that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. We had pagers before cell phones. Like doctors. Yeah. Like everybody had like a pager, like where you could just like send a message.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

To that. Like you didn't have a cell phone. You could page somebody from your home phone.

SPEAKER_00

I'm like going back to what you said about like if I was born now, I wouldn't have one until like after high school. But I'm I'm assuming that's like social media stuff. Okay. Social media like wasn't. I remember Facebook was big was I when I was in high school and MySpace. And like it took forever for you to say yes to a Facebook page. And then like after that, like Instagram. There were like some great apps though. Do you remember Vine? That was huge when I was in college. It was like these six-second clips of videos, and they were hilarious. Like, do you know, what are the chickens for? Or look at all these. That was a vine. Yeah, I got it confused with the pickles. Yeah. Okay. That one was that was primetime college. Was that one where um Charlie ate my no? That was a YouTube video. What was that one? Charlie bit me. Oh. Oh, Charlie. That really hurt. Oh, Charlie Bad. We had some like classic. Do you remember I'm a snake? I'm a little sneaky snake. Jared, you know that one? Oh my god. Snake. That was catching me a mouse.

SPEAKER_01

You were like really into lunchables.

SPEAKER_00

Was I?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And dunkaroos.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, I still would hit a dunkaroo. Yeah. You loved those dunkaroos. Those things are incredible. And do you remember the yogurt like in the in the cane? No, it was go-urt. It was go-gurt. It was go-gurt. It wasn't like, yeah. Go-gurt was great. And yeah, when you packed my lunch, because you packed my lunch. Um, fun fact, I never once ate a school lunch. Thank you, Dana, because we wouldn't even go there. Yeah. But you packed my lunch every day. And when I was in elementary school, you would either like write on my napkin or my spoon something. And like I was like, I was so excited to like get to lunch to see what you would write. Oh and like all my friends were like, what'd you say today? I love that.

SPEAKER_01

That was incredible. I did enjoy doing that. That was a good time. I I wasn't like the creative mom that had like cookie cutter sandwiches that looked cute and all that kind of stuff. You had basic stuff, but I did write genera.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it was awesome. Okay, so I'm thinking like this reminds me like those days were on me of like second grade, and 9-11 happened when I was in second grade. That was like a really big thing. I was too young to know really anything. I just remember getting home from school at the bus stop and no one was there. And there was always like a crowd of parents. So like I went in and I was like shushed upstairs, which didn't ever happen. And I remember you shushed me into your bedroom and were like, here, just watch TV. And I I don't know if it's like fake or real, but I remember like flipping through and it's George Bush on every single one. And I'm like in second grade, I'm like eight years old, irritated. And then the only thing on was Ed and Netty, and I wasn't allowed to watch Ed and Netty because you wouldn't let me. I think because they said stupid and I wasn't allowed to say stupid, which is stupid. Um, but anyway, I remember why I watched that all night and I was laughing and I and I kept like looking at the door, like she's gonna come, she's gonna come. And I'm watching Ed Ed Netty. I was like ready to go back to Bush. But okay, so that I feel like that was that and COVID have probably like been like the two biggest things. Did a big thing like that that was like yeah, the space shuttle blew up with the teachers?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. The one teacher, Krista McAuliffe was her name, the first teacher to go into space. And I was like, it was like a I feel like it was maybe I don't know where I was when I watched it, but I remember watching it on TV. It was a big deal and everyone was super excited for it to go up and it took off. I mean, you may have seen the videos, but it took off and then like seconds later it exploded and no one like no one knew what to say. Like what yeah, they it was terrible. Yeah, that was like a that was a really big deal. That was like one of those traumatic things. Can we go back to 9-11 though? Because funny story on that, my birthday is September 10th, and I actually turned 30 um the day before the attacks on September 11th. And we lived in Chicago in north northern suburb, and it was a super cute neighborhood and had all these mom friends, and we all had little kids. And that night before my 30th birthday, they came out and they strung together great big giant mama nursing bras and they hooked them together. Oh, the greatest friends. They hooked them together, 30 of them, all across our front. That's a lot of. I mean, those are big honk honkers. They were big honkers because they don't have the cute things like what they have now. These were like mega things, and they hooked them all together and they made this big banner and put it in our front yard and it said, Happy 30th birthday, Dana, we support you. Isn't that incredible? That's incredible, it's amazing, yeah. And so, and they made me leave it up all day. So when the next morning, when we go to the bus stop, and all this is happening because your school started a little bit later. It started like nine ish, something like that. All these things are going on, and we're like ducking under all. the bras like to get in and out of the house. Like I have that like permanently edged in my mind. And it felt like so disrespectful in that moment. Like we were celebrating, but you know, anyway. Yeah, that was like a thing. I will always remember. And I can remember that I was 30 years old when it happened because of that. Yeah. Like I had literally just turned 30. Yeah. We support you. Is that not great? It's yeah. That's entirely okay. I thought of something else that I remember. Okay.

SPEAKER_00

So when I was in like middle school and high school, it was a really big thing to like go to the midnight preview, the midnight showing of new movies. Oh yeah. Yeah. That was so big. It was so fun. And I remember I loved all the Harry Potter movies were coming out around that time. Yeah. But do you remember I wasn't allowed to watch Harry Potter? Yeah. You say that. I don't remember it. You didn't let me watch Harry Potter until I was like influenced. Everybody talked about it was like evil.

SPEAKER_01

Well it wasn't. Okay, well I was influenced. I think some people still feel that also I'm changed. Okay.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah but that was it though.

SPEAKER_01

You weren't allowed to say hate. I wasn't allowed to say fart. No you weren't you weren't allowed to say stupid. You weren't allowed to say God. Oh my gosh this is so funny too that we got to tell this story. So Cody's like three years old and he had all these rules as well and he wasn't allowed to say these words. He was very angry with me in the back seat like buckled in his car seat. He was very angry I don't know what it was about. He was told no for something and we are driving along and I had like one of those little mirrors now they have cameras like where you can watch the kids but I had like one of those little mirrors that clipped onto your rear view mirror so that you could see him. And I look and he's just back there just like this and he starts saying like the worst thing he could possibly think of in that moment. And he knew I couldn't do anything to him and he goes to God and I just remember like cracking up but being like Cody you should not say that stupid God was like worst the the worst thing he could think to do. That's so funny. I mean that's pretty bad. I know it's not good. He wasn't really saying it but that just hysterical yeah that's incredible. No there were some weird rules like that for sure.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah I know remember when I was in high school and I had to if I wanted to do something I had to give you seven business days before you would say yes. That was your dad.

SPEAKER_01

No honey that was you dad yeah honey honey yeah we're taking this all the way back yeah I don't remember that well that's convenient I don't remember a lot of things dad made he had a 20 minute rule for a date my father yeah yeah like they had to come in for 20 minutes before you could leave it was torturous yeah we can that's a whole one time that is another one time we were catching a movie yeah and we didn't like have the time. Yeah because he made you sit there. Yeah and most of the time he wouldn't even speak to the boy.

SPEAKER_00

And I like ignored it and was like hey he's here I've got to leave and dad he came to the door and dad's like looming presence with his buzz cut fake military vibes. He's looking out so handsome one of the doors had like the doors had like those small mirror or those small windows to either side and he's just like staring out at one and I'm like what the crap just let's go and Jody walks marches he's got pep in his step all the way out to this car and the poor guy had a crank window and he's like cranking the window down and I'm like drive drive drive you know what dad says yeah I know because you've said this so many times he goes do you know what you didn't do for my princess and I'm just like looking forward like please drive please drive please drive and he's like um uh uh no you didn't open her door and I'm like oh my god he didn't open the door for you like I'd never seen that before and all of a sudden he thinks he's gonna do that thinks he's gonna be funny yeah that little turd probably marched back in the house with a big old grin on his goofy face and he did yeah that was infuriating he did he was very protective of you no had some rules I don't think it was protection I think it was embarrassment I think he just thought it was funny well he wanted you to be treated appropriately that was the thing and it embarrassed you the his methods that's fair and he knew it and he he thrived in it yeah he he loved every moment all right we're realtors so let's talk about like the differences in so we've talked about all the other differences like your generation of our yeah okay so like my parents talk about when we moved to Georgia I was I turned we moved in August and I turned four in September in our house on Beachwood Drive the interest rate was 18% that they that they had I mean that's what it was that was the rate 18% oh my gosh I mean we have people that still have the two and a half and three percent interest rates they're at six and a half now people have kind of settled into that like understanding it but 18% 18% yeah and there's I meet a lot of people actually I was talking to some people at the Parade of homes last week that was talking about they remember their first home being like 14 and 15%.

SPEAKER_01

Oh my God. Yeah inflation was crazy high in the 80s like 70s and 80s yeah like and interest rates were were nuts. What did it mean what did they buy their first house for I remember our first house I don't rem I don't know their first house was like in Alabama. I feel like it was I don't know I'm afraid to say I don't know how much it was our first house was in Cleveland Tennessee and we bought it and Jody and Papa fixed it up and did a lot of stuff with it I remember we sold it for maybe like seven I don't know maybe we bought it for what was the interest rate there? 65 seven or eight I think is what it was at that point.

SPEAKER_00

Mine was like four and a half.

SPEAKER_01

But I remember we sold that house at street doesn't matter but we sold that house we thought Jody got a huge pay increase he went from like $28,000 to $3500 a year. This was in 1994 yeah and we moved um to Schaumburg Illinois to the suburb Northwest suburb of Chicago and we sold our house that was on like three quarters of an acre or something like that. Three bed, two bath probably 16 1700 square feet. It's a pretty good first house it was a nice little first house two car garage like all that stuff and we bought an 890 square foot townhome two bed a bath and a half with a one car garage and we did not own the slab that it was built on and our property taxes quadrupled. So all of that increase was gone like it was we were like pumped and then totally deflated when we because there was no internet like to look up housing and see what things cost, right? So when we get there, oh my gosh right how do you even find houses? Right. So they printed off seriously well there used to be an MLS like a book that was kept at the office. You're joking. No I'm not kidding and that's what you went through. So like look when you like a new buyer you're like oh let's go look at the book. Well the realtor was the one that was like looking in the book and pulling out based on what you liked. So only like since the websites and stuff have come about have people even have had access. Homes magazine was a big thing. So like people they it was all in print nothing was digital. So everything was printed so you could find something in a magazine's way better than yours or well it's a lot easier for sure in a lot of ways but I don't know the cost of homes like has you know let's talk about your house like the derp oh your first one.

SPEAKER_00

Well that's funny because I when I graduated from college I moved home for a year like I lived there because I was a teacher and made diddly squat and saved up and I was actually on a mission trip. I was in Myanmar and I had before I'd like hey I think I want to like get an apartment like do something and you were realtor like closer to freshly you were closer to the beginning of the career than your end. And you're like okay think about like what if you just get pre-proof see what's going on. Fun fact actually I had zero credit.

SPEAKER_01

Oh yeah absolutely zero because this is important this is an app this is a factual deal here and we've come across it since then like if you have a kid that has not had anything like in their own name I didn't I didn't have a car payment.

SPEAKER_00

I didn't I didn't have student loans I didn't have I mean and what didn't count was uh like well even when we rented the house in college like we paid the owner like directly for like yeah the water company and different things. So I had like no established financing.

SPEAKER_01

Like that came out it came out of your checking account which you had yeah your stuff and did that but that's right. It did but you you paid that directly to them so there was you had no credit history. I had no history right yeah and so when you had the internet went to pull it the internet bill.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah and that wasn't enough.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. So the thing that you have to do for your kids is make them an authorized user on a credit card. And we learned that to get it quick. To get a quick if you have a good credit score.

SPEAKER_00

Like you don't want to give them have a good credit score or like another thing because sometimes people don't want to like do an authored authorized user. Just get a credit card early yeah and like have them put gas on it and then pay for it to establish credit for actually have a but if you need it quickly within 30 days that's what you can do.

SPEAKER_01

You can make them an authorized user. So we had to do that and you had to wait 30 days. That's why you were in Myanmar. That's when I was in Myanmar. Right. So then things I was looking on your behalf while you were gone.

SPEAKER_00

You were gone like a month I think yeah yeah and I uh like the week that I was gonna come home because I mean it takes like a an entire day plus you know 36 hours to you know come home from there. And in the few days leading up to that you're like hey I found a house we should go look at and I was like okay so I'm still freshly jet lagged very pleasant probably because I'm usually pretty pleasant when I'm tired and you know like you need to the opposite and anyway so you were like okay let's go look at this house and I go look at this house and I'm like this is terrible and you were like actually it's not and I was like oh okay well it's still terrible and you were like okay well we're gonna like here here's your vision and I could not see a vision nor did I care and I was like no she was like okay but like look at the numbers look at this price point it was like eight I think I paid $84,000 for it. Look at this one you're pre-approved up to like $140 and so if you go $140 here's your mortgage if you go 80 here's your mortgage and I was like oh okay I guess I'll do it. And so then I did it and my mortgage was like $480 a month which was like absolutely it was a beautiful thing. And you're right we fixed it up we painted it cabinets painted put maybe five or six thousand dollars in that little yeah patio home two bed one bath you were 900 square feet flooring paint the kitchen well just like painting the cabinets I painted the bathroom cabinets and then the countertops in the kitchen and that was pretty yeah yeah and then I mean throughout the course like I put a roof on it new HVAC system that water heater held strong when I sold it all the way through but I loved that place.

SPEAKER_01

That was in what year was that that would have been you graduated in 2016.

SPEAKER_00

So probably 20 no 2017 it was 2017 because there's a recurring in my phone.

SPEAKER_01

Oh okay and it's coming up yeah it's coming up in July yeah 2017 so you bought it for 84000 and then after you and Cam got married you you leased it for a year.

SPEAKER_00

We rented it for six months. Okay yeah okay um and that was with like because I still had the mortgage on it and we still needed to like make money after like the rental companies and all that good stuff. And so um we did it six months and then we didn't have anybody like any bites for like three months and I was like Cam I think we should just sell it. Yeah you wanna know what I sold that sucker for yeah 170,000. Isn't that nuts? I walked out of the title company I You did the rich I mean I don't understand how movie stars I know why they walk the way they do you yeah yeah you experienced because of that it was it was powerful it was moving I was brought to tears and then it went to my next house and then I was brought to tears for a different tears again. Yeah but it was a good investment. That was the best investment.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah it really was yeah COVID came and really shook the housing market you know nationally like all around for sure um but it really did hit our area too and the cost of things like we were talking I was talking to some people again last week in a um I have a home on the market for Hirsch custom homes out in Victoria Woods and it's beautiful. And I was talking to people about the cost of building and the cost of building a custom home as opposed to us back home, you know, all those kinds of things like the cost is just significantly more like most people are not making a significant more amount of money you know when it comes to the building because I mean your dad and I kind of when we bought some property during COVID and had three homes built and from one to the next to the next the cost just continued to increase.

SPEAKER_00

Okay when we moved to Evansville and we lived in Cambridge did you that house was like being built yes okay it doesn't really matter because like that was just my segue to get us to start talking about what I wanted to talk about. And do you remember when we lived there and I had that whole like primary suite upstairs with like the bathroom that was awesome. There was like all sorts of crazy but I had a flashback of do you remember that uh earthquake that happened oh yeah and I remember you had that big wrought iron thing and it just like came crashing to the ground yeah and we were like terrified because dad was traveling there was some craziness that happened at that house and that we had do you remember the kamikaze rat?

SPEAKER_01

Oh my gosh yes that's another story too we had aftershocks like my my classroom I was still teaching then and my classroom was in a basement and we couldn't be in the basement for the whole day because of the aftershocks from that earthquake. We had to be upstairs because you had to be like on a higher floor was a thing.

SPEAKER_00

And I I mean and you're supposed to be like between a doorway I do remember making you and Cody stand in the doorway I remember that too you were screaming for us to to run down the stairs was I yeah I remember my face like waking up being like okay talking about another house the cabin oh yeah so the cabin was in the North Georgia Mountains and y'all had it for far too short of a time. You decided to sell it broke my heart changed my life's trajectory I might never recover but I have very great memories I don't even know where all this drama is coming from today.

SPEAKER_01

Like I know that you're full of it but it's it's like I loved that cabin.

SPEAKER_00

We all loved the cabin. Then why just sell it anyway so there was um we it the dad did a lot of work like y'all did a lot of work like to that and there was there was a bat what was a true log cabin like Lincoln logs like legitimately like they were like set in and like when they're like this bats can find their way in the tiniest of holes. They're like flying rats. That's why they named bats because yeah that's it and anyway there was one this was like a terrible night when Rocky and I were sleeping in an upstairs bedroom and there was a bat and it you know squirted its way out. Um but then there were other times where that had happened but my favorite was it was just you and me and Rocky and we had that sectional and then there was a TV and the ceiling or the ceiling was like big and all of a sudden uh this is probably like we were sitting like catty corner. Yeah because you were in the chair this bat like comes swooping dive bombs your face. It I'm in acne dive bombs it did Rocky Rhodesmith bonger did nothing. She didn't move at all she didn't she didn't give a single I love you in the world. Yeah but anyway like I was just looking in horror zoom in on her face and mom this is what she did. I'm gonna look into the camera she screamed without her eyebrows she went well that I don't know what you're supposed to do when a bat's coming out your head I've never seen anybody with such sheer panic and terror in their face that their eyebrows have frozen.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah it's like oh I don't know I don't even know how I did it.

SPEAKER_00

It was it was incredible it was incredible.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah that's fun yeah we bought that during COVID too that was like one of those things. Yeah. Yeah but housing has changed significantly I mean we deal with this on a daily basis like even like starter homes are significantly more expensive. Like it's it's made it more difficult for the some first time buyers for sure to even enter the market.

SPEAKER_00

I can't I just have things just frolicking in Cam and the newest triplex that he has he had like this side building and it was like the home of this possum. Oh my God. And this possum would be there like every single day and it would like hiss at Cam like what what about housing being more expensive? I'm just thinking of all the places I'm just thinking of places. Wild animals and things yeah okay yeah sometimes I get bored just talking about real estate so I gotta like you gotta get in my flavor think about like what's what's funny and then I start laughing and I feel crazy so I have to tell it.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. Well that's good because just laughing is kind of crazy with no one else involved. Yeah I just think um I think our market has significantly changed and I think that's just something like you got to have a realtor that like is on top of that and like understands like I don't know. And then good lenders and understanding exactly where you are financially so that you I still think real estate is the best investment. It's been proven year after year after year you just cannot beat that. But at the same time you have to be wise when you're starting and making investments. And you know we're at the point now where people are starting to give up their 3% rate they have so much equity in their homes you know they've had 3% rate for six years and you know they're like sitting on a pretty penny. Their houses have also gone up so it's encouraging you know and the six percent rate's not terrible six and a half I think we're gonna hang out there for a minute.

SPEAKER_00

I think I'm right above six and a half.

SPEAKER_01

Are you right now we still have some people that are at eight that are you know trying to figure out the right time to refinance refinance and all that kind of stuff because we were there for six or I don't know six or seven months something like that. Oh six seven yes you did it not me I did yeah but that's definitely a difference in our in the generation now for sure like we've seen we've just seen so many things progress. What do you think like it what's one thing that you would gonna want to go back to like if we could give up something and go back to the way it was when you were a kid what would it be?

SPEAKER_00

Uh I think social media is my answer. I mean I have so many fond memories of like you get home from school and you go play outside. Yeah and like we lived in a lot of really cool neighborhoods with like other kids and you go outside and you have a whiffle ball game or you're catching lightning bugs. Like and I know it's funny because like kids of these days are like oh I watched a movie you know where they caught lightning bugs but they never have right and it's I mean it's all these iPads and phone but that is like core memories just and I think like lifestyles were healthier I think people were more active just because of that yeah that's what I would do.

SPEAKER_01

I think the whole internet thing has I mean it's just obviously we knew when it was when it was like invented not what did Albert Einstein say Al Gore he said Albert Einstein I said Albert Einstein okay but Al Gore said he invented the internet. Did he really yeah but that's yeah he did go ahead what about Einstein yes go ahead I think he said that like technology will be the world's downfall okay which I mean kind of see it happening right and you can't slow that role like it just continues right and I mean we take advantage of all of them I mean we we use AI we're obviously hosting a podcast like we you know you do those kinds of things but it's just I think in moderation you have to really find balance in your life we had more margin and balance in life when I was a kid that's for sure. Like we had more I mean it feels like we have more things that provide freedom now but we really were more free then because we're tied to so many things now. We're tied to to our phones and our computers and email and all those kinds of things that we just really were not tied to then. I don't know. It's just funny how like you you do things for improvement and then over time you see how it's really not improved your life maybe yeah I think so so I don't know interesting but I feel like um like you talk about coming home and playing outside and lightning bugs and all that for us it was just like riding our bikes and knowing that at dark it was time to come in. Like that was it. Like at dark you needed to be home. It was um I remember like being out with I was maybe like a a freshman in high school and my boyfriend played football and I went with he and his family um to Pizza Hut like after the game and I had a strict curfew of I don't know let's say it was 1130 and I was with his parents and thought it was safe like it was okay. We had payphones and I went to the payphone at Pizza Hut and someone had yanked it out of the wall like the wire so it didn't work. So I didn't have an option and I was late coming home and Danny O was not excited about that and I came around I came through the living room just bebopping in because I knew it was fine because I was with his parents and my dad was in his recliner and he grabbed my arm like as I walked past him scared me to death and he just said you're late yeah anyway go to bed and we discussed it the next morning I was in a lot of trouble. So it turns out it doesn't matter if you are with someone's parents good and the phone has been pulled out of the wall there is no excuse good enough. No there's no excuse good enough. Yeah be better be better like they say yeah they do say you or you say that I have been known to say that yeah for sure do you think your generation or mine was better growing up or now I mean like if you're comparing it do you would you say yours was better or mine was better?

SPEAKER_00

I I think mine is yeah because um I remember going to like a New Year's Eve party on 2000 hitting yeah and that was so cool. Okay and we thought the world was gonna end. Right and like you're playing outside like the computers were just coming into being a thing and it was really fascinating and really cool. Things were easier to get a hold of and I think that's just I don't know. You just a lot of people in my generation are medicated so maybe not.

SPEAKER_01

Maybe that's because of people in my generation. I don't know I didn't say it. I read a book where she said we have been saving money for our kids therapy because we know we're messing them up like oh yeah perhaps we should therapy I don't know yeah for sure. I don't know I think it's really interesting though I'd be curious like what other people think about like their generations and kids today like what they think about like what's most important in theirs or things that have changed. Like we had Audrey and Allie Heck on and like I wonder like from when they were little to where they are now like I just think it's interesting like to see how the world has changed. And then I wonder like for Charlie in Dallas like what's it going to be like in 20 years.

SPEAKER_00

I have like the greatest memories of like growing up in the early 2000s. Yeah like I have the best memory. So if you're tying it to a pickle it's better bread and butter. That was your bread and butter bread and butter it's all good back then. It is yeah that's good to have good talk with you today babe. It's always a pleasure it's a pleasure um it is hosting a podcast with you. It is and I do have some um speaking of Albert Einstein I'm gonna leave us with some more words of wisdom from him because we talked about crazy hair. Yes. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity catch you next time see ya