Brace yourself for a hilarious ride as we reminisce about our favorite Christmas memories and mishaps, debate on bench usage in the shower, and even give the accountant a mini heart-attack with a simple financial request.
Hit us up on Instagram and give our hotline a call at 864-982-5029. Happy listening! And remember to leave us a rating and review.
We mentioned The Nested Fig App in this episode. You can Tap Here to get our app and join our live sales on Sundays and Thursdays at 8pm est. Use Code Fig10 for 10% Off.
Follow Steven on Instagram at @Keepinupwithsteven and follow Wesley on Instagram at @Farmshenanigans. Shop our online store at TheNestedFig.Com Use Coupon Code Fig10 for 10% Off Your Purchase. Find The Nested Fig on Instagram at @TheNestedFig
Brace yourself for a hilarious ride as we reminisce about our favorite Christmas memories and mishaps, debate on bench usage in the shower, and even give the accountant a mini heart-attack with a simple financial request.
Hit us up on Instagram and give our hotline a call at 864-982-5029. Happy listening! And remember to leave us a rating and review.
We mentioned The Nested Fig App in this episode. You can Tap Here to get our app and join our live sales on Sundays and Thursdays at 8pm est. Use Code Fig10 for 10% Off.
Follow Steven on Instagram at @Keepinupwithsteven and follow Wesley on Instagram at @Farmshenanigans. Shop our online store at TheNestedFig.Com Use Coupon Code Fig10 for 10% Off Your Purchase. Find The Nested Fig on Instagram at @TheNestedFig
I'm here, let's go. It's time for another episode of who's Driving. Welcome to who's Driving. I'm Wesley Turner and I'm Stephen Merk. We're Two Best Friends and Entrepreneurs. Who's Driving is an entertaining look into the behind the scenes of our lives, friendship and business.
Speaker 2:These are the stories we share and topics we discuss, as Two Best Friends would on a long road trip.
Speaker 1:Along the way, we'll check in with friends and offer a wide range of informative topics centered around running small businesses, social media and all things home and garden.
Speaker 2:Buckle up and enjoy the ride.
Speaker 1:You never know who's driving or where we're headed. All we know is it's always a fun ride and on this week's episode it's Tiz the Season. Christmas is almost here. Can you believe? It's like the middle of December, it's crazy.
Speaker 2:I can't believe this year has just gone.
Speaker 1:It has flown by and we're coming up on the end of the year. This is podcast episode. I'm not even sure like 36, 37. Can you believe we've been stuck with it that long? I mean?
Speaker 2:this is a big deal for us.
Speaker 1:I know I love it. So much is the thing I do. I love it. We are coming up on the end of the year, so we're going to take a little break. Coming up, we have a couple more episodes, we have this episode and one more and then we're going to take a break for the holiday season. But we'll do some replays in case you join us later. Didn't hear the beginning. We'll have some fun things Just be hard.
Speaker 2:You're traveling home to Tennessee, Then we're both traveling to Florida the Florida house and then we have the Atlanta market.
Speaker 1:We have.
Speaker 2:Atlanta market. We've just got so much going on. We're not going to literally, we're not going to have time to record.
Speaker 1:So we'll pick back up in the middle of January, but we'll have a lot of fresh new things to talk about. I'm sure some maybe family drama, market trends, maybe some drama there, who knows?
Speaker 2:I mean, who knows we might get, we may get arrested in Florida for something you never know.
Speaker 1:You never know what can happen between now and then. It's crazy. Before we get to Tis the season and some of our holiday things, I have a few things to talk about with you, oh okay, I know I don't know where to start that sounds very pointed.
Speaker 2:Oh, does it, it does. I have a few things to talk about with you. Oh Do you have a beef.
Speaker 1:No, no, no, no beef. I just have some things I've made notes that have spark little conversations in my mind. Well, first of all, I don't know where to start, so I'm going to start with this. One is I was thinking the other day talking about this is episode number like 36. I don't even know where we are, but somewhere in 36, 37, 38, how I'm starting to not be able to remember what we've talked about on the podcast, so we may have a problem developing in that.
Speaker 2:In that department I had never thought about that, but we that could be a bit of an issue because, you know, I can't remember my middle name on a daily basis.
Speaker 1:So so what I was giggling about, and I don't even know how this came up, but I was giggling about it to myself and I don't know if we've talked about it on the podcast, but do you remember? And if you remember talking about it, you can we can change the subject. But do you remember the time you gave your accountant an anxiety attack and they thought they were having a heart attack? Oh my God.
Speaker 2:So it was. I don't know if we talked about that, but this makes me sound bad, but it was okay, I have to. I have to give the background here.
Speaker 1:Yes, you do. First of all, I don't know why.
Speaker 2:I find it funny. He worked under my accountant. He was like I guess he has an accounting degree but he's not a CPA, he's like the bookkeeper type and he's a very nice guy, very nice person, but, right, I can be very excitable. No, I know, I know it's a shocker, but it's true. So I had purchased the McDonald's in Newberry, which that's an hour from my home in Greenville, one hour. So they are in back two hours, right? Well, so the guy that I purchased the restaurants from, we used the same CPA firm in Atlanta but we had different partners where our CPAs. So to go through that process, you have to sign a legal document saying that each of us could share our financials to get through the program or through the transaction. So that was done. Obviously, I purchased the stores. They're mine. Well, I was in Newberry and I didn't. I had to. I guess it was the spring Is spring when we do business license.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:I think so. So it was the year after I purchased. Well, I needed the 12 month sales, which I didn't have because I didn't own the restaurants.
Speaker 1:For a full 12 month. Yeah, I needed some of his sales, some of your sales, so you knew your business license.
Speaker 2:I'm at City Hall in Newberry and I call. I'm like, oh, I don't have that. I can't drive home to my office. That's an hour hour back, that's two hours wasted. So I called my CPA firm and I was like hey, can I? You know, I need sales for this store number and this store number you know previous year, you know I didn't own it that whole year, but I don't have access to that. Can I get those sales? And he replied well, in order for me to give you that information, we would have to have a signed release from that owner.
Speaker 2:And you're on the phone with him, right, I'm on the phone In City Hall, in City Hall, and I'm like I understand that. But if you recall, I purchased these stores from him and we had to sign that legal document when we had, you know, that transaction and he just could not see it and I said, I said well, call Heidi, that's my CPA, one of the partners. Call Heidi and then call me back and give me my numbers.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And call me back and he said I called Heidi and she said, yes, we do need that. And I flipped out. I'll never forget I go. I walked to the corner of the room I met in City Hall. I walked to the corner of the room and I get into the corner and I have my hand over my mouth like this, and I'm like what's in here? You blank, blank, blank, blank blank. You stupid, blank, blank blank. I don't have time for this blankety blank, which I was very frustrated. It was stressful, you know. I mean I just bought and he got really upset, of course. So I ended up calling her on the cell phone. I ended up getting Right. I just got the numbers I needed after all of this because when he called her he didn't he left out the information that it's.
Speaker 2:This is Steven Merck on the other line.
Speaker 1:Cause she would have then known that all of it had been signed and on file in your clinical.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:He just said I have someone that needs volleyball.
Speaker 2:Bless his heart. He's a really good guy and we still work together to this day. I do y'all. We still work together to this day and he's a really good guy. He's someone I would consider a friend. We just had a little blip, so like a year later, or maybe six months later, and I'm I'm mad. You know, I have the memory of an elephant, cause you're like I'm never talking to him again Stupid, yeah, yeah, cause.
Speaker 2:I remember I'm at a McDonald's meeting in Florida I think Florida or Vegas, I don't remember so hotties at their booth, their CPA firm. So I walked by and she's like, how's everything, how's everything going? I was like good, good, she's like everything's fine since your little, you know blip with Kurt. I'm like yeah, it's good. And she started laughing and I was like what? And she just shook her head like no, I just, I can't tell you. Then she told me that I caused him to have an anxiety attack and he thought he was having a heart attack and they had to call the EMS.
Speaker 1:That is crazy and I felt so bad cause.
Speaker 2:I truly do like him, yeah, and he was having a moment, and I was having a moment.
Speaker 1:Obviously, y'all both had a moment.
Speaker 2:We both had a moment oh my gosh, he shouldn't have handled it that way and honestly I shouldn't have. But I was tired, stressed, frustrated, but yes, and I felt so bad.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know why it popped in my head and it made me giggle, cause I was like can you imagine being on the receiving end of something like that that gives you an anxiety attack where you think you're?
Speaker 2:having a heart attack.
Speaker 1:Although I've had anxiety where I thought I mean, you know, I thought I was having a heart attack for like three years and that- was having a lot of anxiety but the funny thing is is they always told me I was so different than other McDonald's owners and
Speaker 2:how, you know, I was always so nice and see, I knew I understood, I understood accounting Right, so they were not used to, I guess, having somebody with an accounting background. So we really got along very well and we've never had an issue, except for that day. But on it, you know, I have to say, and I told her, I said, well, thank goodness it wasn't face to face, because I would have punched him in his throat At that moment, I would have kicked his ass.
Speaker 2:That is crazy, I was like you know, I was intense and so, yeah, that happened.
Speaker 1:Yeah, speaking of McDonald's, I have another question. You may not know anything about this because you have not mentioned it to me. We have not talked about it, but I think I know what you're going to bring up. Did you see they opened Cosmic? Yeah, a new restaurant. Have you heard anything about it? I mean, I know you're not in the world anymore, but I don't know.
Speaker 2:Well, I have I've heard a rumble, so I saw it on social media.
Speaker 1:They just opened. Cosmics is what it's called. It's a spin-off from McDonald's, but what is it about? Like, do you know what it's about?
Speaker 2:Well, first of, all, let me share some backstory. Mcdonald's has. Mcdonald's has done this in the past and people don't realize it. So Boston Market, which I personally love.
Speaker 1:Are they still?
Speaker 2:around, not around here I think they're around some places, but that was McDonald's, mcdonald's own Boston Market, and then they spun that off. And then the other that you can really tell that McDonald's was behind it was Chipotle. So if you go into a especially like right when they transitioned, because it was the same decor companies and everything, so I could, it was real obvious, so for a small blip. And then there was Donato's Pizza. So McDonald's has had other brands. And for a moment, you had the option of being an owner of those.
Speaker 2:So, it didn't completely surprise me. The backstory with Cosmix is the cosmic figurines came about when I was in McDonald's in the 80s and 90s. They were Happy Meal figurine toys. So what they're trying to reach are those basically those adults that grew up playing with the Cosmic Happy Meal toys. And that's where the name came from and it's meant to be a direct competitor of, like Starbucks.
Speaker 1:So is it? I saw that it had well, just again, I just saw a couple of social media posts. I saw that it had a lot of drinks. But is it coffee? Is it more coffee? Or just all types of drinks.
Speaker 2:All types of drinks, but then it has food as well, yeah, okay. To me, the best way I kind of have it in my head to me is like a combination of Starbucks, mcdonald's and Sonic. But it's targeted to reach the TikTok people Social media sensation.
Speaker 2:The younger crowd yes for all the drinks and the hype which kind of oddly kind of goes along with what you and I've talked about, what McDonald's needed to do. But I don't think they needed to do a new brand. I personally, if I were still an owner, I would see that as a mistake. I think they should have used it with their existing restaurants to try to reach those people.
Speaker 1:Okay, you know just my opinion. I find that this one's interesting because it is McDonald's branded too.
Speaker 2:I mean it's Cosmix.
Speaker 1:It has like half of an arch, but then they put the full McDonald's arch under it. So it's not like some of the others you mentioned. Was not McDonald's, was not branded, as like he would have never really known that they were backing it or owners or whatever, whereas this one feels more like a second brand for McDonald's.
Speaker 2:It was, and the only other brand that McDonald's did was McAfee. So when I was in McDonald's they started McAfee stores and they were standalone restaurants.
Speaker 1:Oh, they had standalone.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, they started out as McAfee's and they were really nice. I mean a place we would go, like you and I would go at market to get dessert. I mean really high in cheesecakes and eclairs, all kinds of desserts, and high in coffees. But they quickly realized that from a food cost standpoint that wasn't working, because you know they had to waste so much dessert and stuff like that. So then they realized it was better to combine it with put the McAfee as part of the McDonald's.
Speaker 1:Okay, I didn't realize that was ever its own thing.
Speaker 2:So this was the. This is the second time they've co-branded something different like that. Be interesting the way and I hope for the company. I hope it works out really well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's just crazy. So they've opened their first one and evidently they already have plans for more.
Speaker 2:It's right. To my understanding, it's in Illinois which makes sense because Home office, home offices in the old Harpo building over Winfrey's.
Speaker 1:Oh is it? Yes, you didn't know that. No, so when I was in. I mean, I knew it was in Chicago, but I didn't know Well, it wasn't it was in.
Speaker 2:Oakbrook.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:It was in the suburbs. We had a whole campus which was quite beautiful. It had a lake, Fred Turner Lake. It was an entire campus. And then, um, McDonald's decided they wanted to. I think, I think they want to be looked at as more cool. Yeah, so they bought, uh, Oprah Winfrey's building in downtown Chicago on Michigan Avenue and they moved headquarters downtown.
Speaker 1:Okay, but that's not. That's not where she filmed, that's not the it was. Oh, it was, it was.
Speaker 2:Well, who knew? Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 1:I can't imagine.
Speaker 2:How much Isn't that expensive. I can't imagine what that cost.
Speaker 1:I know.
Speaker 2:I mean, I guess I could have looked that up, but yeah, that's interesting, so yeah, Uh.
Speaker 1:Another thing that I saw on social media this week is well, I saw that it came out. But Dolly Parton one of your favorites you've listened to him sing.
Speaker 2:Love.
Speaker 1:Dolly has a new album and it was like Huge yeah, Rockstar yeah, but it like I don't. I don't know if it was her highest debut album. It may have been like it was crazy.
Speaker 2:It's amazing, I mean. I've listened to like a couple of songs that have yeah, it's amazing, Paul McCartney's on there, Elton John is on there and the funny thing is Elton John has kind of semi-retired and is not touring Right. But she was saying I was reading in an interview that I guess Elton John recently reached out to her and he's working on a new album. Oh, and he said you know, I did a song with you, so now you need to do one with me. And she was like absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah so.
Speaker 2:I love the, I love the way she did it when I knew and you know, it's just true dolly fashion to do it, right, right. But when I knew, when I heard she was doing it, I was like, ooh, I don't know about this.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because you know I love her. I love country music, but I'm also a huge rock and roll person. I was like I just don't know, but the way she did it was just amazing yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean, is she 77?
Speaker 2:77.
Speaker 1:So that's awesome, Because I always get nervous for people like that when they try to do things. You know, because your voice changes and sometimes some people have tried to do some things and it's like you should have just, you know, stuck with what you've done, sort of thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because some people have voices, have not or they're just worn out.
Speaker 1:They're worn out, yeah.
Speaker 2:Like Mariah Carey's one. You know, bless her heart, she had an amazing voice, but it's just gone. Yeah, but yeah, dolly, I don't know how she did it, but she pulled it off.
Speaker 1:I thought that was just so cool because I mean, that's like how Martha Stewart earlier in the year was on the swimsuit edition.
Speaker 2:I love it.
Speaker 1:You know what I'm saying so. I just see that and then dolly 77, I'm like, oh, maybe we can stick around to. You know, we'll probably be 77 and doing some live sales or something. I hope so.
Speaker 2:I mean that is my goal, but I feel like you have to keep going. And in that interview that I was reading, they asked dolly when she was going to retire and she said I'm never, yeah, she's like I don't want to retire. Yeah, she's slowing down from touring.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Mainly, I think, not for her, but for her husband.
Speaker 1:And that's how we. We always say that like we'll never fully retire, unless we had to, We'll be doing a little something. We'll probably still be doing this podcast, but can you imagine what it would be in like 30 years?
Speaker 2:I mean, I just can't imagine, like when I sold McDonald's and I had in my head well, I'm going to partially retire and just work part-time.
Speaker 1:Lasted all about three months?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that is not who I am Right. That's the first time I truly realized I am meant to be very busy.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, you know we both have the ADD problem, so you got to stay. I would end up in jail or something because I would be like, oh, I'm bored.
Speaker 2:You know, I would, I would, my brain would carry me. Yeah, who knows where I?
Speaker 1:think if I've retired I mean obviously I would like to be in the position to be able to retire but then not retire If I think I'm one of those people I need I have to have something that keeps me going. You know what I'm saying? Like, I feel like I would get very just lethargic if I retired and had absolutely nothing to do. Well, and that's kind of the way my family is.
Speaker 2:I feel like everyone has worked and been productive. Yeah, even if they didn't work a job, they continued to farm heavily, farm to the point where it was a job. Yeah, and it did produce income. But I feel like in my family we're just kind of in our genetics, meant to work and be busy.
Speaker 1:And I think it's also like we're business owners so we can shift, like as we look down the road, we can shift things to give us different lifestyles. Like we may not work as consistently or we might have you know what I'm saying and our businesses are already very seasonal, so we have ups and downs throughout the year. Like we are counting down the days until late December because it slows down dramatically so that we can go and enjoy the holidays. We can go to Florida, we go to market, which is work, but it changes things up so we'll be working a long time.
Speaker 2:I plan on it as long as I'm on this side of the grass.
Speaker 1:The only thing I'll always worry about is staying like ahead of trends, like I don't want to be a washed up old gay person that's doing the plastic flower. The plastic flower. Yeah, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:But I don't think that's us. There's a market for everything. Yeah, I don't think that's us, because I think one thing is that's really beneficial to us is going to the markets like we go, so much it keeps us ahead and ahead of the trends and you realize that's out, right, that is out, yeah, and we're good about moving on from that.
Speaker 1:Okay, this next question or topic is just a completely random. These are all things that I was scrolling through social media this week and I was like, huh, that's an interesting thing. So this is completely.
Speaker 2:I'm shocked we hadn't talked about the McDonald's thing.
Speaker 1:I know the Cosmics.
Speaker 2:That really.
Speaker 1:I was like has this slipped under Stephen's radar?
Speaker 2:No, it didn't. Two owners had already sent it to me, yeah, and we'd had conversations about it.
Speaker 1:Because he hadn't mentioned it this one was talking about, which made me think it was a girl talking about discussing. She was, I think, remodeling a shower, maybe building a house, and it made her realize and I never thought about this. When you're in the shower, do you? Because you may be standing there, I mean, obviously you're washing everything and turning around, one hopes, one hopes. But if you're standing there enjoying it or whatever, which way do you face? Do you face the shower head and the water runs like?
Speaker 2:hits you in the chest. No, my back yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm the back person.
Speaker 2:I like to stand there with it on my back. I do too.
Speaker 1:And I like a hot shower.
Speaker 2:I look like I'm burned when I get out of the shower. I do too. I like it. Dylan always says you know that's not good for you. That dries out your skin. I'm like I don't care.
Speaker 1:It feels good Feels, really good yeah.
Speaker 2:I don't care. He said that dries out your skin and makes you itchy. I said I'll be itchy Because if that is a moment I enjoy, oh, me too.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. It heats me up from the outside.
Speaker 1:But I guess some people do maybe, but that's what she was saying she was, she's saying the girl that I saw. The post stands with her back to the shower. But her mom was like no, you stand with your face towards the shower. And I was like mm-mm, first, I don't like it splashing on my face.
Speaker 1:So when I get in the shower, first of all I'm going to stand there. It's a pre-rents. I'm going to stand there with my back to the shower and it has to heat me up. Like I will not get my face or head wet until my body is warm, correct. Like I stand there I don't know what temperature that is, but all of a sudden I'm like, okay, I can. I think it's like 180 degrees, yes, but like I literally will stand there. And then all of a sudden I'm like, okay, I can dip my head and I do my head backwards, like first I wet my head from the top, leaning my head backwards into the shower, and then I can turn around and face the shower. But I'm only facing the shower when I need to wash and rinse the front side.
Speaker 2:Now, do you use bar soap and shower gel? Because I use both.
Speaker 1:I use both, sometimes not both in the same shower, but sometimes I do use both in the same shower.
Speaker 2:I use both.
Speaker 1:Because sometimes what I'll do is I'll use a good shower gel Like we use, like Henry's or something, because it gets me good and clean. But then sometimes I'm like but I really like the way this bar soap feels or smells, so I'll do a Henry's in all the hot spots and then I'll do a bar soap everywhere.
Speaker 2:See, I do it opposite. I do bar. I use bar soap in the hot spots and then I use shower gel everywhere else.
Speaker 1:So it just depends. It's not interesting, I know, but sometimes I'll just do one. Yeah, that's what I do. Yeah, I mean, we all have our habits going on. Just don't forget the feet Right. Pick your feet up and wash them, or have a bench for safety. That's what the girl was saying they were, that's what it was. She was saying they were talking about where to place the bench, and that's when it came up about the direction that you stand in the shower.
Speaker 2:Oh, my bench has to be on the other end Away from the water? No, no no water on me. Yeah, that's really funny, so that's some good and I want my bench so I can wash my feet and stick them straight out and rinse them because you stand up.
Speaker 1:Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You sit on the bench. That's what the bench is for. I thought that. I mean, we listen, we don't have a bench in our shower.
Speaker 2:You need one, there they are. We could put one in there.
Speaker 1:I put one, it's a put a round teak. Oh yeah, you put just a teak in there. Yeah, we could have one, but we don't have one because I was like we don't want. We don't sit down or anything, so you sit like I sit my ass on the teak bench. Okay, that's where it goes wrong. I see the okay. I see benches in the showers, but I just assume ladies use it to put their like, they stand up, put their feet up on the bench and like, shave their legs.
Speaker 2:And I'm sure they do, but maybe I'm going to shave my leg.
Speaker 1:But why do? You sit down in your, your tea bag in it. Yeah, I mean, I'm sitting on the bench.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my naked ass is on that bench. So if you ever take a shower in mind, you don't want, probably don't want, to sit there. I sit on that bench and I wash my aloofa and scrub my feet, uh-huh, and then my floor is um marble. So then I stick my feet under the water and rinse them very well, because if you stand up with that soap on your feet, you will. That's a good way to break a hip. Oh, okay.
Speaker 1:Well, I just never pictured you like actually sitting down in the shower. I don't know why that's weird, but I just all of a sudden now, I didn't.
Speaker 2:when I was young, I didn't.
Speaker 1:I just stand up and I pick my feet up behind me. I bend my leg backwards, wash my foot. That is a broken hip and then, see, I do that, and then I just stick my foot under the water to wash it off. You need a bench, and then I'm buying you a.
Speaker 2:You're getting a teak stool. I have to buy your teak stool. That's dangerous. Okay, Let us know on our hotline which we haven't been washing for a while.
Speaker 1:Our hotline number is 864-982-5029. By the way, the hotline number is in the show notes of every episode. Whether we tell you to text or call us or not, it's down there. If you have a bench in your shower, do you only use it to put your feet up on, or do you actually sit down on the bench? Or how do you wash your feet? Do you just stand up and pick your feet up or whatever? I need to know this. I need to know how people wash their feet. That's just too crazy to me. Okay, so let's get into Tis the season. We are in the middle of December. Do you realize? Two weeks from today and Christmas will be over. I know, over, done with.
Speaker 2:So is here and gone. So quickly Let me ask you I don't think we've ever talked about this in all of our friends, yours are friendship. If you had to choose one Christmas out of all 86 Christmases, you've only had what 40, something 42?. What was your favorite like? When you think about favorite Christmas.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, that is really hard. And because I can't relate to like what ages they are, because there are so many, I mean our Christmases and I think every kid hopefully has that magical, you know, christmases, or?
Speaker 2:whatever, every kid should.
Speaker 1:Yeah, or at least a few. I'm trying to think which one. Oh see, okay, here's my thing. When I think about Christmas memories I don't there's only a few Christmases like I remember getting like certain things, but most of mine go back to whatever it was that season. Like I can remember being excited to go to the tree farm and cutting down the Christmas tree. I can remember being excited, Like I think I mentioned, like we had a train that would go around our tree, you know, and it was just a plastic, you know, holiday, but to me that was magical.
Speaker 1:I loved trains, so having it go around the Christmas tree, or like we had Disney, I don't know, you know set from Walmart, I'm sure that I think they were almost like clocks or something. They were all connected and like each character would come out and sing holiday things. So like that's what I remember is magical, like Christmas moments or whatever. But getting things like. I definitely remember when we got a trampoline because that was like crazy big, and one year I got a go-kart sort of thing.
Speaker 2:Oh, I always wanted a trampoline, but I would have probably broken something Probably. Yeah, I've never been on one. I still want to do a trampoline.
Speaker 1:You've never been on a trampoline. We are going to the trampoline park. You know they have the big. They have one in Greenville Like we're the whole inside trampolines.
Speaker 2:We're going to do that. We are going, I would love to do that.
Speaker 1:We will Instagram that. I can't believe you never been on someone else's trampoline A neighbor's someone.
Speaker 2:We didn't have those out in the country. Really Back in my day it was that that was that trampolines came about like after.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I've never been on one. That's great. That's one thing I've always wanted to do. Yeah, isn't that weird.
Speaker 1:And one year I got a go-kart. That was a big, you know, like a really big item to get for Christmas. I got a dirt bike, I just remember the and so I don't know what years those you know translate into, but I remember my mom always made Christmas really fun, like we would bake things, so that was really fun to me, like I remember those memories like doing the baking or making cookies or gingerbread house.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my mom did too, and like and even with your mom when she was single. I don't know how they pulled it off.
Speaker 1:I don't know either. I have no idea. She did my mom was awesome. Yeah, Well, my and see, I will say, looking back, and obviously we don't have kids or whatever. But maybe you are a mom that's struggling or dad that's struggling or single and it just seems overly complicated Now that I'm an adult. The gifts aren't what's stuck, no, it's the memories, the holiday memories. So if you feel like you can't give what you want to give, it's not, it's really when your kids get older they're going to remember how they felt and the experience and it felt, you know, magical or whatever.
Speaker 1:It was just fun to do things and maybe as a kid it was, you know, getting that extra time baking the cookies or making a gingerbread house or going to the tree farm and cutting down, like we went and cut down the tree. That's what I remember Were those put it in the net yeah, tree the net.
Speaker 2:You put it on the top of the car. With us we did it at the back of the truck.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that sort of thing is what now thinking as an adult? Those are the memories that I have, one of my sweetest probably when I think of Christmas and little.
Speaker 2:I guess it was the last Christmas my parents were married so I would have been very young, because they got divorced when I was four, so I would have been like three, but I remember it.
Speaker 2:I remember that. I remember how being happy and excited, and we had do you remember those artificial trees? They were really hideous. They would look like bottle brush trees they were. They looked cone shaped. I guess you got them at Kmart they were. They look white pun, but they were like blue green, dark, dark green. Everybody had one. Everybody had the same damn tree. So we had that tree with the big lights and the lights would get so hot it would melt a little. The tree would, yeah, and the I don't even. It's funny. You mentioned Christmas gifts. I don't even remember like the big things I got. I do remember I got Superman foaming soap and I had never seen foaming soap, oh I remember stuff like that too.
Speaker 1:Now that you say it, you play with it in the bathtub, and when it come out in colors, Sometimes yeah. You could get it in colors.
Speaker 2:Yes, so I got that. And you know, Steven being Steven, I can remember sitting in the bathroom, on the bathroom sink we had avocado green sink and just I emptied that whole tube in the sink. I don't know why, I remember that, but.
Speaker 1:Oh, my goodness, I remember one year thinking about that. I wanted a and I saw it in the catalog. Which we talked about was Lily and Vernon, is that what it was? You were saying you had to heard of it. But anyway, they had a at home ice skating rink and so that's what I wanted. So it was basically like a big tart, but around the edge it had, I guess I don't know if you filled the edge up with water or if you blew it up, so it had like a bumper around it. So basically a big tart with a blow up bumper around the outside, and so it was low, you know, it was probably like six inches or whatever, and then you could fill it up and it would freeze.
Speaker 2:Okay, it didn't get hard enough, did it.
Speaker 1:That year we got it. It never. We never got cold enough to freeze ever, like ever. The whole thing. It sat out there all year, never froze. One time that was the end. I remember that being. You were like damn, yeah, never froze. Do you remember? I remember it came with like little ice skates that you could like put on your shoes or something. I can't remember now, but I was like okay. But now thinking back, like if you lived up north that would work. It was actually would have been a great thing. But here it was like I mean, well, I was in Tennessee, yeah, but it's the same it is.
Speaker 1:But the funny thing is is.
Speaker 2:Tennessee and Memphis in particular, gets a lot of icy weather.
Speaker 1:Yes, some years they get a lot of snow and it can be really cold, and not that year, you know, by the next year it was dry, rotted in the attic.
Speaker 2:And you remember Spiegel catalog? Uh-uh, it was nice. It was a fancy catalog. It was a different shape than the others and they had like cool clothes and stuff it wasn't. It was when I got to order pick stuff out for Christmas. There it was, you know we weren't as poor, but I can remember going through there and circling. I want this sweater.
Speaker 1:Oh, we did that. I mean, I did that with the Sears catalog I could not wait for the Sears catalog to arrive and remember when like um. I mean, I would look through that Sears catalog for two weeks.
Speaker 2:Anything music I wanted.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:Anything like stereos, boombox, anything that had to do with music. I had to have it. Yeah, because you know how I am with my music, right, I was even worse then Mm-hmm. So it was all about About music and that sort of thing.
Speaker 1:But it was just so magical.
Speaker 2:I mean it was so fun and the way my mom did my Santa like, I always asked people like how did they? How was Santa?
Speaker 1:Yeah, like I didn't realize until later that everyone's Santa's do it different. Or like Santa may do it and I think it's the mix at your house, like if your only child, santa, might just throw them out there, or maybe Santa wraps them. If, like I had two brothers, so ours um it. Like I was older when I realized like well, what did Santa do for you, what did Santa do for you, ours?
Speaker 2:was not wrapped. Santa didn't wrap Ours, mine wasn't either, but I thought that's the way everybody's Santa was, but it's not.
Speaker 1:Yeah, some some get Santa Santa wraps, for some yeah.
Speaker 2:But no, my mother grew up with Santa doing, doing Santa the same way. Yeah, where you. You know where everything is placed out. He set everything up like it was Santa's workshop that's how mine was and it was so magical and it was so magical yes To walk in.
Speaker 1:Oh, we used to get it so earlier, so, like, so early. So, like I said, I have two older brothers and so ours would be set up and it just looked like Santa's little workshop. You could see everything and Santa would place the stocking in front of each grouping. See, there was multiple of us. So that probably didn't happen with you because you're only child.
Speaker 2:It was all mine. Yeah, you knew the whole room was yours right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, no. So our stocking would be with our grouping. So you immediately knew. You know what was what.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I missed those days.
Speaker 1:That was the good old days of good old Santa, but yeah. It's not ever going to be that way again, I know, and so then I remember talking about like the experiences or whatever, because that's truly what I remember in baking stuff. But this one time my mom and I got on. We wanted to make divinity. Have you ever had that? I can't stand it.
Speaker 2:What With egg whites? Yes, it's so good, it is so gross. That is old lady candy.
Speaker 1:I love divinity. I think that makes some.
Speaker 2:Don't make it. No one likes it. I do. You're going to drop it off at the nursing home? No, everybody that's who likes it. Nobody likes divinity.
Speaker 1:Text us and let us know if you like divinity. It's good, yes.
Speaker 2:But that goes along with your marshmallow. So you love marshmallow and that it's all a can.
Speaker 1:So one year we were like, because our neighbor an older lady, I told you. A couple of doors down made the best divinity. So we were going to make divinity and it's basically egg whites and sugar, maybe some corn syrup, I can't remember exactly.
Speaker 1:Thanks to that little corn syrup, I think so in there. Well, we were going to make it, my mom's like we can make this. We're going to make it and to know my mom, she will get into anything and she goes along with it and it all becomes. That's the way. Mine was A production.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, it turns into Christmas vacation.
Speaker 1:Well, let me tell you, we got into making the divinity and there's a few little tips with the divinity. First of all, you have to beat the hell out of it, like to get at that texture, if you know what divinity is. You have to whip it. Whip it Like it takes a lot and you can't. I don't think you're supposed to use a mixer. Maybe you can now with the plastic, the fancy stuff, one or whatever, but I don't think you're supposed to use metal in it. You're supposed to use a wood spoon, or maybe that's just an old way of doing it, maybe I don't know, I think it can affect it. So we started out, we're going to do it. And you got to get to the right temperature or it gets too hard, girl. We went to the grocery store. Literally there was like a little market mile down the road, like a gas station. We ended up. I know we went through 50 pounds of sugar trying to make that.
Speaker 2:It never, could we couldn't get it.
Speaker 1:Well then it turns out you cannot make divinity if it's moist outside Like damp at all.
Speaker 1:So like the humidity affects it, In the winter, if it's a cloudy like rainy day, you cannot make divinity. The humidity definitely kills it. Then we could know I think we may have finally gotten it right, but I swear to you, it took us and we did it on one day Like we were laughing. We're like, well, this one's not going to work. Well, we need to go get some more sugar. We're going to figure this out. So that's truly the memories that I remember with Christmas. Well, I have a good one and it's when.
Speaker 2:well, two things were good about this. My mom was like. Your mom was like your mom is just a nut, a grown child, which made it so fun because there's not a lot of boundaries with those people. Right, it's like oh, you want to fly to the moon. Let's build a jet.
Speaker 1:You know it's what that's, exactly how that's what.
Speaker 2:that's the reason. All my professional success, I feel like, came from that, yeah, from that upbringing.
Speaker 1:Because that goes back to me opening a store back when I was in college and I told my mom I had gone to market. I want to do yeah, you can do that. Oh, let's do this immediately on board.
Speaker 2:There was never a yeah when I said I want to buy McDonald's at 15. Oh yeah, let's plan that, let's figure it out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, very encouraging.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we were driving along and this is after my parents divorced and we were in a tiny apartment, mm-hmm. And then my mom bought a house and there was this, the prettiest. You know how in the country, everybody grows Cedar along fence lines.
Speaker 1:Well mr Gaines, mr Jim Gaines had Pasture, don't tell me y'all stopped and cut down.
Speaker 2:It was the prettiest cedar at the top, uh-huh was, and it didn't look big Mm-hmm. So we asked mr Gaines, can we cut the top of that off? You know, because it would be for he. Could you still use it as fence posts because it wished out at the top, because these were typically wild growing cedars.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was the kind of spoke the shit.
Speaker 2:Oh, tear you just a torture, yeah. So I was like, oh, it's the perfect size, it's the perfect shape, because it he just like blossomed at the time, it was just beautiful. Yeah, he was like absolutely, cut it, cut it down. We cut that thing down, mm-hmm, and we took it home, mm-hmm, you could not walk. You had to walk all the way. It was enormous. I thought, oh, it's gonna be small because it was high, mm-hmm, it was so big you could hardly get around it.
Speaker 1:That is and.
Speaker 2:I was like, um, um, I won't snow, like I had seen something with snow, mm-hmm. My mom was like, oh, we'll make it I. We used to make this when I was little and we got Todd yeah we talked about that.
Speaker 1:I meant to do that. This season we got powder.
Speaker 2:I'd, and she got out her mixer Mm-hmm, and we put powdered Todd and water in that and whipped it make a paste. It made a paste and then you, you just put it on the limbs where you want snow. I still need to see it. It was so pretty.
Speaker 1:It's getting too late to do that. It was sad that in my we should do that. I know I had it in my brain to try it.
Speaker 2:This it's it was just, uh, it was a economical way because you know there wasn't a lot of money for decorations and stuff.
Speaker 1:But I think that's great because also, when you compost the tree, the Todd's just gonna wash off.
Speaker 2:It was, it was great and back where, where I come from, you take the tree and you put it in the lake. Where you're fit where you gonna fish, right. So we literally would take trees and put them in our fishing spots. You know it's yeah, when you grow up on the lake. But yeah, that was fun.
Speaker 1:One more funny thing thinking about Christmas, um is, my mom had and I don't know where she's gotten it from because it wasn't for our tree, but I guess back in the day they had the tinsel trees and you would set up a light on them that would reflect it, turned, it turned different colors, had a little little screen in front of it and it would project different colors. Well, we had just that thing. So I love you know that thing. So somehow we had set it up, I think I guess outside on our house. I don't remember exactly some or maybe it was on, I don't remember exactly where it was else, but it was outside, it was raining and I wanted to plug in the Christmas lights and my brothers assholes were there and I don't. I feel like I remembered Saying like, oh, cannot, and they were like, yeah, plug it in. But we were in the rain.
Speaker 1:Plug it in. Plug it in and it electrocuted me. It's shot, Well it shocked you.
Speaker 2:It didn't electrocute you or you would be dead.
Speaker 1:Well, it shocked me.
Speaker 2:Shocked the shit out of me. See back, then they didn't have outdoor.
Speaker 1:No, no, it wasn't outdoor safe. Nothing, I mean the whole light probably wasn't outdoor.
Speaker 2:And the other thing is this is funny because my aunt go ahead. I'm sorry. I was just saying, they just laughed and yeah, yeah well, I mean, in the country you know, we had electric fences.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, yeah you learn quick on those yeah, but I can remember you can climb under it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, me and my mom would do beautiful trees.
Speaker 2:Our trees were so Pretty and we always did like hand tied bows. You know, when bows were real, a big thing, we did hand tied bows with real ribbon. And then my aunt, her sister, was cheap and tacky and I can't remember I mean this is funny. As a child and I can remember me and my mom talking about it I was like, oh, their tree is just tacky. And my mom's like I know they would buy those pre-made, the little red yeah those old little yes, and they put them in lines?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so my mom and dad were divorced and when I would go to my, to my dad's house I mean we went every weekend that my stepmom, she always had the ugliest tree you could tell people that I know and they would always get. It would be really wide and squatted and it would be like everyone else got pretty trees and theirs would be like I don't even know what kind of scrappy just wrong but like Hi, I don't even know what it was, but they all it wasn't like oh, we got a bad tree this year.
Speaker 1:That their tree was always like that. It was always really wide and shorter, just like a big, like her. She kiss Shake, but a tree. You know what I'm saying In my aunt would do and she would put those ugly-ass red bows all over it with the little gold A match and went on top it looked so stupid.
Speaker 2:Yes, and see our tree was was very curated with collected ornaments and we would tie it all together with rib.
Speaker 1:I mean, it was just magazine quality and our tree, like at my mom's house, was very Kid. It had very I mean, even for them probably like vintage. It had a lot of just color and but it was pretty and it was pretty, and theirs was literally the red bows and glass Balls of whatever color one red.
Speaker 2:Yeah too, that's it. And that was it boring as hell yeah and then my aunt, just like her so cheap. Yeah, like her so cheap that they would got by the white pine with the big root ball. And that would be sitting there living room and then playing it after I'm like, yeah, that looks good, yeah, and yet they would put it up and they'd be like, oh, hell, yeah this looks good and I'm.
Speaker 1:We're probably offending some people right now. Well, if you do that don't, but it was a lot of people like the one with the root ball, so they can play it Well and that's fine.
Speaker 2:But dress it up a little, make it look good. I mean, those bows were just. I know they were, I can picture they were.
Speaker 1:They were tiny. You got them at like Um, I think they came like 12 on a paper, like a cardboard thing. I can picture the gold little twist ties.
Speaker 2:We would have never put that in there.
Speaker 1:My mother was like that I forgot about there. I probably tried to block that out or something. Isn't it funny like short squatty and always just that yeah, and I may have also hung candy canes on there with the red bows. It was wrong.
Speaker 2:It was. Oh, they did do that, it was just it was. It was so plain, jane. It looked like a tree that would be in a dentist office.
Speaker 1:Yes, very commercial at the bank. Yes, at the bank, the bank lobby yes.
Speaker 2:There was no warmth and Personality or nothing.
Speaker 1:Just like on that, just like no.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they should probably be friends. They're both as crooked as each other.
Speaker 1:Okay, I think that's a nice little trip down memory lane. That's gonna wrap up this week's episode of who's driving. I remember, wherever you're listening to our podcast, to leave us a review or a star rating. That really helps us get discovered. I mean Don't, don't you think everyone should be listening to this crazy?
Speaker 2:show Seriously, and I mean, you'll either laugh or you will improve on your Christmas tree.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh. All the show notes are below, with links to our online store. The Podcast number is there as well, so you can text or call us. We'd love to hear from you and, uh, we're in the thick of it, but we will see you next week, see you.
Speaker 2:Bye, bye, bye.