Book Club: The Babysitters Club Super Special #5, California Girls

SMNTY is California dreamin' and revisiting childhood memories with a super special jet-setting episode with the Babysitters Club.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this Sanny and Samantha.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
I'm welcome to stuff. I ever told your prediction to
buy her radio?

Speaker 1 (00:18):
And today for the Feminist Book Club? Is this gonna
be out on Friday? Annie, I can't remember.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
It comes out on Wednesday?

Speaker 1 (00:26):
Was it coming on Wednesday? So Feminist Book Club? Wednesday? Oh,
we don't have days for this one. Doing No, I
just blurred all of them together. That's fine, We're fine.
I'm fine, y'all. But with that, I think I'm just
really excited because we're doing a childhood classic, a favorite
of mine and probably quite a lot of you, especially
if you're around my age, our early millennial's millennial era people.

(00:51):
We are talking about The Babysitters Club, and we're specifically
doing this super special edition the Thick Ones, number five
California Girls. This is one of the ones. There's two
special editions that stick out in my head. It's this one,
and then there's a New York trip, And you know,
I guess I just really love the fact that they're

(01:11):
going on trips. And I don't know for sure, but
I'm pretty positive that this book made me really want
to go to California as a Georgia girl. Teenager and
in my senior year of high school, my best friend
at the time and I went and visited family I
do have out there and had the best time. Y'all
shout out to that California family. This is written by
the creator of the series and Im Martin. Although okay,

(01:33):
so we're going to kind of go into the breakdown
of this series specifically. The series is giant and it
started in nineteen eighty six and was written by Ann
and Martin who was a writer herself, and she was
with newspaper specifically writing different articles, decided to do this
only four I think she had like little stories in
there with similar ish ideals, not specific about Babies Club.

(02:00):
Apparently this is based on another Babysitters Club a book,
and she was like, you know what, let's let's do this,
and now I'm gonna take it and do something different,
and she did. I will say she wrote the first
twenty two novels herself, but soon after that they ended
up having ghostwriters. I think by book number fifty eight,
the series was completely taken over by different ghostwriters, so

(02:20):
she was not a part of that after the fact,
and they have over two hundred and something books and
that's like they have spinoff series. They have graphic novels,
which I believe is still going bt dubs. Wow. Yeah.
And we know they had some movies. I was very critical,
I will say of the movie when I saw When

(02:41):
I because I was very specific of my characters in
my head. But I liked it. I'm like, okay, okay, okay.
And also because I can't remember what age I was
when I started reading these. I can't remember if I
was older or younger about that age, so in my
head they seemed more mature than the ages they actually are.
I was like, oh, there are eleven and thirteen. Yeah,

(03:01):
oh dang. And this is obviously in the era of
when kids were riding bicycles and around the cul de Sac,
staying out and like being able to do whatever they
want without any supervision until they came home some you
know what I mean, like going out in the neighborhoods
and everything was seemingly safe. Type of thing is that
they would have babysitters at thirteen years old, and it

(03:24):
is I've talked about the legalities. They have age ranges
in the state of Georgia. The how many hours that
you can babysit, and I think after the age of
fifteen you can babysit for however long. But I know
that I think a twelve is when you can babysit
for like three hours. Here in Georgia, there's specific laws.
I had to go back and look and I'm pretty
sure that's correct. But all that to say is so

(03:45):
it was during a time where this was not seemingly
as dangerous as it is today, social media, all that stuff,
and we know that it happens. You need babysitters and
sometimes the only people available are young teenagers, and you
hope and pray to God that they're responsible. And if
you have a whole club that has a whole organization,

(04:08):
you think, yeah, shoot, they're very responsible. We love to
see it. Anyway back into yes, so the Super Special
were like others where Anna Martin may have written the
earlier editions of the book, but eventually it would be
handed off to the ghostwriters. In one article I read,
it says that she called she being Anne, and Martin
called the ghostwriters the League of Superwriters. So at least

(04:32):
they had a fun name or something along those lines.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
That's something.

Speaker 1 (04:36):
And there was a giant crew of them, so I
believe the one we're reading, which is again number five
California Girls, she was a part of at the very
least she oversaw the chunk of it and it is
credited to her specifically and alone, which I didn't see
on too many of those. And again according to different

(04:58):
fan sites and Wikipedia sites, they actually give you the
structure of how the novel goes and it's pretty correct.
So from the Wikipedia side, they write, with the exception
of Super Specials and Super Mysteries, the novels are written
and narrated from one character's point of view. The novels
generally follow this format. Chapter one introduction to character, beginning
of plot, chapter two, description of the club and its

(05:18):
members along with the characters family, and chapters three to
fifteen continuation of plot and conclusion, usually accompanied with a subplot.
So for the Super Specials though, you get different characters
point of view, so each chapter is a different characters
a point of view or whatever they're going through, and
I actually really appreciate that. Maybe that's why I liked
the Super Specials the most. Also, again it was thickest,

(05:41):
the more pages, so I enjoyed that. Also, I forgot
about the postcards. I love that each of those stories though,
do have a journal entry, because that's what Christy makes
them do, and it gives a journalist and I believe
that's at the beginning of those this though, they have postcards,
and they were really fun to read.

Speaker 2 (05:59):
Also, they were fun to read. I have to say,
two weeks in California. My goodness, what a trip they've won.
But I really appreciated the postcards because I've never read
The Babysitters Club. I did buy you the board game,

(06:19):
which I'm we need to play that game. I want
to play it. But the postcards were really useful for
me because I could keep track of whose point of
view it was per chapter. So I would say, about
halfway in, I've figured out, oh, this character is the
one the dancer of this one is the you know what?

(06:40):
You know what I mean. But at first the postcards
are really useful for me.

Speaker 1 (06:45):
You're right. So I will say in each of the
books that they give you a breakdown of each character
and those are the parts. After like book four, You're like, okays,
get this part, which I did. But sometimes there's like
important information I'm like, oh, I didn't realize because it
kind of gives you a hint, Yeah, something's changing or
something's coming up. So but yes, and from what I read,

(07:08):
this series was the first children's series to hit the
New York bestsellers list, so this kind of became like, ooh,
I'm trying to remember when Judy Bloom and the Romona
series came out.

Speaker 2 (07:19):
I'm not sure, but I was reading it. I read
the Romona series, Yeah he did?

Speaker 1 (07:28):
I read one or two?

Speaker 2 (07:30):
Yeah, no, I read them.

Speaker 1 (07:32):
I still have uh so, Babysitters Club, Nancy Drew Hardy Boys.
I didn't get into Sweet Valley High because my mother wouldn't.

Speaker 2 (07:39):
That mean why they were getting up to shenanigans in there?

Speaker 1 (07:45):
Yes, they were naughty according to my mom. I don't
really think she's ever read them. I don't know why
she said. I couldn't read them to be honest, city
Girls whatever apparently, but I could read Gone with the Wind.

Speaker 3 (07:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:00):
Moving on.

Speaker 1 (08:11):
Okay, So with that, let's get into it, shall we.
For this series, we're going to do it a little
differently than other book clubs. Instead of doing the whole
plot and in themes, I'm gonna break this down the
plots by character, and then we're also gonna go ahead
and do the themes within that character, because each character
have their own things happening, so they're learning their own

(08:33):
different lessons. There's a lot of good things, So we're
just gonna do it that way instead of trying to
do it a cohesive plot line. That makes sense because
this is one of those that you could read different
chapters and it kind of gives you a follow up
or a preview of what the next character is about
to get into. But they're all in its own stuff,

(08:54):
in its own stuff, linked but not linked type of thing,
you know what I'm saying. So that's how I'm gonna
do it. We're going to start it with Don, who
is kind of the pinpoint of the beginning of the
story because they end up going to her parents' house,
So Don who is an alternate, and I'm gonna go
ahead and let you know the positions in the Babysitters Club. Actually,
you know what, let me pause. I'm gonna tell you

(09:16):
about the Babysitters Club because I guess if you don't
know what they are and who they are, this doesn't
all make sense. So essentially a breakdown of this is Christy,
who is the president and founder of the Babysitters Club,
was going through this whole thing of trying to arrange
babysitters for her siblings and it was big ordeal. But

(09:36):
she had a group of friends and they all came
together and decided they're going to start this organization in
Stony Brook, Connecticut, which he has is fictional and in
this area there's all these kids, and who's going to
watch all of these kids? And Christy said, I got it.
It's gonna be me. So she is the founder. She
has some strict rules. She is a leader, she is

(09:57):
a coach. She is the old oldest child in her family.
That should make that little more sense. So with that,
she is the president. Created at the Babysitters Club and
the way it runs, we have VP Claudia, who is
an Asian American girl, I believe she's Japanese, who is

(10:18):
very artistic, very like type B, all about like styles
and earrings and being a little bit eccentric, not the
most academic, unlike her sister Janine, who is very very academic.
So she you will see her writings always misspelled, always
always misspelled, and kind of messy handwriting, but her artwork

(10:41):
is on point. And she loves a good snack. Also,
she is the only one in the group that has
her own private line and phone. That's very important because
the landlines at the times, if you all were like
connected together, you couldn't get the calls you need. So
she became VP mainly because the location of the meetings
were held at her house and that is the headquarters

(11:03):
and center area. So that and then we have Stacy
who is the treasurer because she's wonderful with money. She
is actually really good with math, so she is the
one responsible in getting the dues, and they get dues
so they can pay off for snacks, for supplies because
they all come in with babysitter supplies and get it together,
and then also paying for the bills like the phone bill.

(11:26):
Very nice of them. We have Mary Anne, who is
very Type A and very shy, very very shy. She
is a club secretary because she is really organized, like
during the strip she has already planned for everything, which
is funny because I like to be ahead and plan
for everything, but I am not Type A in any
way at place way. Anyway, moving on, she also has

(11:48):
a boyfriend, Logan that's one of the earlier books. And
he is an alternate member. He's not really big hair,
but just so you know, she's the one of the
few that has the boyfriend here. Actually, Christy has a
boyfriend too. His name is Bart. He's not a part
of it though, he's not a part of the club anyway.
Moving on, then we have Jesse, who is a junior officer.
She is an eleven year old. She is also African American,

(12:12):
of the only black members of this group. And she
is also a ballerina, really really really good dancer from
what I understand as an eleven year old, though she
cannot babysit after dark, so there's very limited that's why
she's a junior officer. Her best friend is Mallory, who
is a redhead, very descriptive of being a redhead, also

(12:33):
a junior officer, also eleven years old, also cannot do
past dark, so they do the daytime babysitting only. So
those are the babysitters clubs. So they all came together
formed this amazing club. Very organized because they have to
keep notes, they have to journal their every client. They
have f twit. Marianne is the one that knows everybody's

(12:53):
schedule and so is able to arrange the weekly schedules
for different people, and yeah, you're very successful, so successful
that they inspire others to create similar clubs. Back to
that later, but there you go. So that's the setup
of the Babysitters Club. Again. There are some alternates. I

(13:15):
believe Shannon is one of them, who is a friend
of Stacy. Again, Logan who is the boyfriend he also
helps babysit. And a girl named Abigail or Abby at
least she is Christie's friend. We don't see hoo much
with them, but every now and then they come into play.
So there you go. For the series, Dawn is going
to be the beginning of the story because at this
point she's telling how they had won the lottery. They

(13:37):
didn't exactly win the lottery, but it had come up
pretty high in number, so they decided to buy tickets
through their parents because you're not supposed to buy tickets
unless you're eighteen, I think, but hey, whatever, and they
end up winning, like they ended up getting five numbers
out of the six, and so they all won like
a thousand and something bucks, and they're very excited and
decided they wanted to go on vacation with it, and

(13:58):
their vacation would be to California, which is where Don
is originally from and where her father still lives with
her brother Jeff. So they're like, you know what, let's
go down there for a couple of weeks and enjoy
our time. Got on an airplane, got their bad airplane food,
watched the movie from a projector in the front. By
the way, Oh my god, the old days, and they

(14:23):
jetted off. It's a good old California, all right. So
we're in California, right. Don arriving, oh, finds that there's
another person with this family, and her name is Carol.
Carol and her dad have been dating for a little while,
and Carol had volunteered to help out because her dad

(14:45):
was not able to take more than a week off.
So for that first week, Carol is transporting about to California,
showing them what they want to see, taking them to
the beach. But Don is not a happy camper, and
to be fair to so surprize your daughter with a
girlfriend that you have not mentioned.

Speaker 2 (15:05):
That's not cool, bro, No, that's truly not cool.

Speaker 1 (15:08):
It's not cool, bro, especially when you're like, oh, I'm
spending a whole week with this woman that I don't
know that just infiltrated my life. What is happening? So again,
Don is kind of feeling that same vibe. She's like,
what is happening? Why is this going down? I hate
this situation? And the more she's getting to know Carol,
the less you like. She feels like Carol is trying
to act cool, like she's a part of the young

(15:31):
crew when she's an adult and should be acting like
an adult. There are moments when she thinks that Carol
should be intervening in what some of the other girls
are doing because this is not a great idea in
her mind, and yet she just lets it go. I
will say there are some obvious miscommunications that Don is

(15:52):
having because she won't let Carol be a part of things.
So it does seem kind of like if here. So
we're having a whole time with trying to figure Carol out.
Carol's being the cool woman taking them to the beach,
giving dating advice. Maybe not so great dating advice according
to Dawn to Claudia about you know, you should go

(16:16):
and get to know them and then change your ways.
But that's not what she was trying to say. But
in her mind, Carol just told Claudia to be different
for this dude who we'll talk about in an arlaiter time.
She also allows for Stacy to get into assumptionad against
with some older folk that Dawn introduced her to BT dubs,
but she's like okay and being like, are you sure

(16:39):
she should be allowed to do that? Okay whatever. Coming
back to Stacy's thing later, there's also a moment in
which it seems Carol has kind of encouraged Mallory to
completely change her looks and do things that in Dawn
and the rest of the crews knows that her mom,
Mallory's parents would not be happy about and let Carol

(16:59):
let her do that seems like a no no, but
okay whatever. So we have all of these interactions and yes,
Dawn's not the whole time, but a big chug of
the time is trying to figure out how to get
away from Carol. Yes, but as we go through it,
she starts kind of realizing maybe Carol is not so bad.
There are moments that we will talk about later times

(17:21):
when Carol actually steps up and acts as a responsible
quote unquote responsible adult and she starts to gain a
little more respect for her and she starts to realize
that maybe her opinions are biased.

Speaker 4 (17:34):
Yeah, she had a a real let me introspective moment, like,
let me think about where I was coming from and
why I've been acting this way towards Carol.

Speaker 2 (17:46):
And I have to say she really what turned her
around was, in her view, Carol acting like an adult,
like stepping in and taking care of a situation as
she thought in it adults should. It reminded me a
lot of kind of the evil stepmother trope. Yeah, yeah,

(18:07):
especially like in the nineties, we had so many examples
of that. But in this case it turned out for
the better in my opinion that that wasn't what was
going on. She just right was maybe scared of change
and a little resentful no one had told her, and
that that person is kind of inserting herself into her

(18:30):
friend group in all of these ways that she didn't appreciate.
So it was growth, It was a it was a
moment of growth.

Speaker 1 (18:36):
It was growth we did. And she even tells her
younger brother, who ends up having like she, he feels
the same way, essentially not want to be around her
kind of He doesn't seem as vocal, but we don't
see his perspective as much, but she tells him give
her some space, give her a chance. And I did
really love seeing that for her and for Dawn to

(18:56):
grow into that as well. As she finally tells her
dad and has his conversation with her dad about what
was going on, and he tells her I do love her,
and you're like, whoa again. I still have a small
problem with the father never mentioning this woman if you're
in love with her, right, like, bro, what are you doing?
But that's a whole other story. But with that, Dawn

(19:17):
really gives permission essentially and the go ahead for him
to move on. If the next steps are for them
to be engaged, then wonderful. To that point, she also
writes a letter to Carol explaining and apologizing for her
behavior and attitude beforehand and telling her she's really excited
to get to know her and that she really respects her.

(19:37):
Love to see it. We love good ending to the
point at the end they end up with like a
lot of postcards or letters that they have as an epilogue,
and she's like, please write to me. I would love
to write to you. So they're talking on the phone
getting to know each other. So we love to see it.
We love to see growth. That's the theme growth. Next,
we're going to talk about Christy. Christy I loved because

(20:00):
she is very matter of fact. She's a bossy know
it all, but for the most part, she gets down.
She knows how to handle things. The Babysitters Club is
success to the point that Dawn had introduced them to
her group of friends, The Babysitters Club to the group
of friends that she has in California who created their
own club called We Heart Kids. We heard Kids, except

(20:22):
there's only three of them, and there's not a big demand,
and they're a little less organized, and they don't have
like our office hours, and they don't have journals. Oh,
Christy was not a friend a fan. Christy who likes
control and Christy, who likes to make sure that everything
is exactly as is, was unhappy and she was very

(20:46):
judgmental of this entire crew to the point that she
got really competitive, which, by the way, she's very, very,
very very competitive. That's one of the books. And that's
how she met her boyfriend, perhaps part because they both
have software teams that compete against each other, and you know,
is the hate the enemies to Lever's trope right there,

(21:08):
teenage level. But yeah, so she was like, you know what,
We're going to show them up. So not only does
she have Mary Anne who would come back to babysit
one of the kids because they didn't have a babysitter
for that time, but they also she decided to babysit.
Apparently the nightmares of all the children's to the point

(21:29):
where they are like the members of Wee Heart Kids
were like, Eh, you might not want to do this,
you might not want you They're really just trying to
give advice, and she was not having it because she
was like, how dare these amateurs tell me how to babysit?
I am the president of the babysitters Club. And not

(21:51):
only does she say, you know, I can handle it,
she's like, you know what, let me take them on
the Universal Studios, which, by the way, no, there's no
way in hell I would take strange people to Universal,
strange kids that I've never met.

Speaker 2 (22:07):
To my part, when I read that, I was shaking
my head, stunned. I would never ever take kids I've
never met before and had been warned were kind of troublesome.

Speaker 1 (22:23):
Kind of theme parts, right, they were like, they're nightmares,
they're nightmares that no, don't do it. They actually told her,
don't do that, don't do this, but she was not
having it, and she took these boys, and boy did
she have to like do some apologizing because she figured
out real quick that, yeah, you know what, maybe I'm

(22:44):
not the most expert of all children, and I should
probably listen to other people, and I should also recognize
that different people have different ways of doing things, and
just because it's different from me doesn't mean it's wrong.
So she does come come around eventually saying never mind.
But boy, that judgmentalness high up there.

Speaker 2 (23:06):
She was ready, she was ready to prove them wrong.
And I was worried for her. I was like, I
think this is terrible.

Speaker 1 (23:17):
It didn't end horribly, but she definitely to be honest
with you, right, but did you read some Okay, now
we're gonna go towards the end because like the rides
of the Six Flags, that like hits them. Yeah, but anyway, well,
they they did bay fun, but that's that was Christie's
time and she's learned her lessons, so we love to

(23:38):
see it. Moving on to Mary Anne are very organized
person who has a lot of little fears here and there,
like he was very reticent about doing too many rise

(23:59):
and too many things. One of the things that she
didn't want to do was the like Hollywood and go
see the stars home, and they did all that and
it was very cute. One of the other things that
she ended up volunteering to babysit Stephie, who is an asthmatic,
and she was a little bit worried about that situation,
but the girls from the Wee Hard Kids were like, now,

(24:21):
you'll do great. She's wonderful. These other things don't need
to worry. The only things that really set her off
her emotional moments or something that's like too much that
she can handle. So she was ugh. Now when she
came in, Steffie was very shy, and it turned out that,
you know, the reason she needed babysitters is because it
was just her father taking care of her, who had

(24:42):
to work. Her mother had passed away and with all
of her ailments, her father was very protective of her,
which is similar to what Marianne had grown up. Now
she doesn't have the ailments, but she did have. Her
mother did pass away at a very young age, and
her dad was very protective of her, and she was
very shy as well, much like Stephie, so she kind
of understood where Steffie was coming from. They connected on

(25:05):
this level that was just like amazing, to the point
that Steffie was like, I wish you were my mother,
and Mary I was like, I'm thirteen. Yeah, no, thank you.
It were good, but no, but they did have a
great bonding time and Steffie really loved being with her.
I'm really excited. Marianne the whole time was really kind

(25:25):
of overprotective as well, because she was worried about the
asthma and what would trigger her. And with the encouragement
from the Wee Heart Kids that she took Stephie as
well to the Universal Studios, which again at least she
actually knew her and had met her and had hung
out with her. But still, huh, who are these parents

(25:47):
a lot? I know, let thirteen year olds take kids too, I.

Speaker 2 (25:52):
Know, And just the difference in the times is also
starking the cost of the tickets, Like, no, you would
not be taking these kids to get into these parks
for that price. No, no, no, no, no no.

Speaker 1 (26:09):
No.

Speaker 2 (26:10):
Asthmatic child on the rides.

Speaker 1 (26:13):
Uh right, right, I'm like, are you kidding anyway, But
they did and it went well, It went really well.
Marianne was a little like nervous the whole time, but
finally figured out that Steffie was okay and Stephie knew
the limits that she had and was very aware of
how to handle things. So very mature of Steffie as well.

(26:33):
So we got to see Stephfie having a great time,
the best time with Marianne, Maryanne having a good time
and really bonding with Stephie on their last together times
essentially last time that Marianne babysat. Everything was amazing. They
had fallen into a routine. Steffie was so different from
the first day, excited to see Marianne, excited to do things.

(26:56):
They decided to do a picnic, which they had done
the first day, as a way of, you know, saying goodbye.
We see that Stephanie is very sad and very emotional
about Marianne not being there anymore and how much she
loved Marianne. And unfortunately this causes a n asthma attack
and a little bit with just a little bit of panic,

(27:16):
but everybody doing the right thing between Stephanie knowing how
to use the inhaler and Marianne coaching her through it,
bringing her in to giving her her pills, letting her relax,
and then just letting her calm down, calling the father
to letting him know what was happening. Very responsible, irresponsible kids,
and sitting with her and working through why Stephanie had

(27:39):
an asthma attack, and just understanding that just because they
might not see each other that much doesn't mean they
had to lose touch, and promising that they would write
to each other and keep in touch as pen pals,
and that she might even come back over because she
and Dawn are actually step siblings, which I didn't explain earlier,
but essentially Don's mother married man Arianne's father, who were

(28:01):
high school sweethearts from way back when, and so their
step siblings. So with that that Marianne may be back
with Dawn and she could see Steffie. So very sad
but very sweet ending. Yeah, I think there's so many
themes to that. Again, when you I think part of
the reason I thought they were older is because when
I was reading these types of interactions, I at that

(28:23):
age would have never been okay.

Speaker 2 (28:25):
Oh yeah, she had thrown me into it in that
situation park at the age of thirteen with another kid,
an eight year old. I can't say what would have happened,
but I'm not sure it would have been good.

Speaker 1 (28:42):
Well, i'd say thirteen, I did start working on the
dairy Queens.

Speaker 2 (28:45):
I feel like, you know, I was responsible. I was
a responsible kid. But there's just like yeah, snars like that.
It's a lot to keep track of into your mind.

Speaker 1 (28:56):
Yeah, right. I had a lot of supervision when I
was working at There's no supervision in baby saying anyway.
But Marianne did a great job, and she learned a
lot about like trusting and understanding about asthma and how
to navigate that with specialities like that, and being able
to communicate well, and also understanding and talking to children
who had a lot in common with her. So it

(29:18):
was a beautiful ending and they also are corresponding at
the end of the book and it's really sweet. Then
we move on to Stacy our treasurers Slash thrill Seeker,
who two facts, She's actually from New York and she
is severe type one diabetes, which I learned a lot
about diabetes thanks to her character. As well as the

(29:39):
fact that they did go to a doctor specifically about
consultation about this character. So from what I understand, it's
right on point. Some of the descriptors on when she
goes through, like episodes of having too high of a
blood sugar are too low. It's really interesting because I
was like, Wow, it was very vivid. So I will
say kudos to teaching so many people about diabetes. So

(30:02):
many young girls about diabetes are like dang. But she
is also our THREELL seeker. She loves a good adventure,
this one and she decided coming to California meant surfing.
So their first day at the beach, she saw a
sign for surf lessons and immediately jumped up with the
approval of Carol, to learn to surf. And she was

(30:24):
pretty good at it, like she was able to get
up and do the things and really feeling that high
and being able to do this type of sport. She
did it again and again and again, and then came
back the next day did it again. And this is
when she's like, I can't get enough, and Dawn says, oh,
she's got the surf bug because she was having so

(30:44):
much fun even trying to do it on her own.
She didn't listen to her instructor. He was like, you
could have gotten really hurt. But she's like, no, no, no,
I'm good. I'm good. So she was really excited and
chasing that high. From then, Dawn decided to introduce her
to some of her older friends, who are seeing seventeen
eighteen white too old to be hanging out with a
thirteen year old. I'm very concerned about the situation. By
the way, why is Dawn friends with a seventeen eighteen

(31:07):
year old? I digress. Moving on, she introduces to them
and they are excited and allow her to join them
to go for surfing. So has she becomes kind of
mia with a group and starts hanging out with older kids.
And we automatically should understand when you're coming around older kids,
especially when it's from a different area, you try to

(31:28):
be cool. You gotta prove yourself as cool, especially if
you're thirteen. You want you don't want to look like
a kid.

Speaker 2 (31:34):
You know.

Speaker 1 (31:35):
This is definitely stacy as well as loving the surfing.
So the day one she gets picked up, dude name
Paul is driving and has a little reckless but it's
not too bad. They get there, they're having fun, She's
getting encouragement from them, having the best time. After the
third or fourth lesson, she's like, nah, I got this,
watch me and decides to hang with them. I guess

(31:57):
she's good enough because we don't really hear about any
really big incidents outside of that one time we talked about,
so she's loving it, having a cool time, great time
with the crew. The next day, she gets picked up
again while everybody else does their thing. Different driver name
is bo b Eau. I'm sorry, that's a red flag move,

(32:21):
but he is peeling out there to the point that
she's like, oh my gosh, I hope none of the
adults saw, because they're gonna be like who is that?
What are you doing? Type of thing, And they were
kind of like who is this and she's like, no, no, no,
she's a's school. They're friends with them, so whatever, whatnot.
He is a little bit of a reckless driver to
that point that Stacy's like, oh, even, I know this
is bad, but I can't tell him anything because you know,

(32:42):
I can't be that child, and then realizes that maybe
he is a good driver because we didn't die. Oh
this is thrilling type of thing, so she continues to
do adventures with him. Bo comes back and he is driving,
and at this point Paul, who was like, oh no,
he's doing too much, reprimends Boat, being like, dude, you
need to calm down. BO was talking about slow drivers

(33:04):
and all this and peeling about and uh oh get
into a car accident. Yet obviously that he had caused
pretty big car accident, like five cars are involved, thinking
it's nobody seriously injured. Stacy had her seatbelt on. Seatbelt
saved lives, and she feels like that really did help
her to the point though that she got stuck, couldn't

(33:24):
get out of the car because one side of the
car the door was like jammed into the rail guard.
So all these things. But during this time, Bo's like, hey,
y'all need to lie for me because I don't want
to get in trouble. We're going to say that dude
in front of us slammed down his brakes and I
had to move out the way. Everybody but she and
Paul were like yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Weirdly, she was like,
I'm not cool with lying to cop Sollo, especially coming

(33:47):
out and seeing how bad the wreck was like she
understood how the situation was and it was Bo's fault
and he could have killed someone. So she comes in
and she tells the police the truth. Oh the crew
does not like it and give her dirty looks. She
knows she's never gonna see them again. Feels kind of bad,
but at the same time, she ain't gonna lie. She went
to the hospital because she started crying. First, they checked

(34:08):
her out, no serious injuries outside of the bruising and
the aching, which you know. And then she called and
the person who answered the phone at Don's house was Carol,
and Carol's like, yes, I'll be there in just a
few minutes. So she and Dawn come rushing to the
hospital to pick her up, crying and hugging each other,
and Carol lets her know, you know what I have
to tell Don's dead. We can't hide this, and they're

(34:31):
all mad that they go. But that's how you were
one of us. And this is the point that Dawn
starts realizing, oh, maybe she is respectful of and she
is an actual responsible adult. Cool Cool, Cool comes back.
They tell the father. They do it in a great way.
Carol does a good job in handling the situation. I
will also agree, Down is kind of watching and Stacy's
really upset and embarrassed at this point, but it has

(34:53):
to be done. And this is when the father, Don's
father is like, we have to call your parents.

Speaker 2 (34:58):
Oh.

Speaker 1 (34:58):
That did not go well well in Stacy's minds. She
did not want that to happen. But as they did
it where they explained to the parents for ours and
she talked to them, everything was fine and they were
accepting of everything. And also he was like, you and
I had never see those kids again, rightly so and again,
like I said, it was during this time that Stacy
was really upset with Carol, but Down understood and explained

(35:20):
the situation. Was like, hey, it's kind of like if
we were babysitting and we try to lie to the parents,
we can't be doing that. And they're like, oh, yeah,
you're right. And everybody came together with a consistence of
like okay, cool, cool cool. All that to say is
Stacy kind of realized, mmm, maybe being cool. And when
those little kids were not the best and I missed
my friends.

Speaker 2 (35:39):
Yeah, there was a lot of themes when I was
reading it, and I was like, I remember this point
in my life too, but the point where I usually
was the person who was jealous. I wasn't a person
making cool friends, but I was jealous of my friend for,
in my mind, making cool friends and abandoning me. But

(36:02):
having that, you know, she's got these cool older surfer friends.
Although if you turn it around, it's not so cool
they're hanging out with a thirteen year old, But.

Speaker 1 (36:13):
Okay, that's what I was like, why are they hanging
out at.

Speaker 2 (36:15):
Thirteen When you're the thirteen year old? You think this
is very very cool. I've been accepted, yes, yes, But
having that that kind of dynamic of finding a new
a new group and then realizing actually I'm good, Yeah,
actually this is the one to be. Yeah, I thought

(36:37):
it was cool. It's not cool.

Speaker 1 (36:41):
She's gonna be eighteen. We're looking back and be like,
would I hang out with at thirteen year old? Yeah?
I was like having your little sibling around.

Speaker 2 (36:49):
Yep, yep, I don't know. There's just something about them,
like picking her up in their car and driving her.

Speaker 1 (36:58):
A stranger, complete strangers, like even the sibling part of
like at least like they know each other and they
know they this. I love the I love the sibling
crews that really want to hang out together, because I
feel that's rare, but still like their siblings, that makes
more sense than this. Yeah, it's weird. Well, Stacy learned

(37:20):
her lesson, and I will say she was kind of
obnoxious to her best friend Claudia, which kind of was
like a whole thing, and we're going to get into
that now. So Claudia, she ugh found a boy. She
was the one that found a handsome young Asian dude
sitting on the beach reading by himself, and she was like,

(37:42):
could not stop staring. And Carol suggested that she go
to invite him over for lunch. She's like, okay, and
they bring them over and he's talking and it's during
this time Claudia was like, oh, he's smart, smart, like
the book he was reading, the things that he liked,
the things that he studied, just did not mesh with her.
She was like, as, in fact, he reminds her of

(38:04):
her older sister Janine, who as much as she loves her,
they don' won't get along. They don't have a lot
in common. This is not her thing. And she's like,
I can't I can't complete this. I think it's over
unbeknownst to Stacy. She thinking Stacy's like, oh, she's just shy.
She's just trying to be this way that way. Gives
him her number against her will, like against like not

(38:26):
even her will, Like she didn't give permission, So she
was like what. So he calls to ask for a date.
Claudia is horrified but accepts and is very upset with Stacy.
Stacy's kind a very dismissive of everything. Claudia says, to
be fair, it did work out well, but still not cool, bro,
not cool friend. Stacy was in her own mind and

(38:49):
that one all that to say. They went on a
few days, A lot of missteps happened. She just didn't
talk much. She just kept saying yes. She was trying
to pretend like she knew French. Ended up ordering Escargo,
which she really hated. I like escargo is getting a
bad rap.

Speaker 2 (39:05):
I think if you have bad escargo, then it's bad.
But if it's good, it's really good. It's buttery, garlic.

Speaker 1 (39:12):
Buttery, and yeah, that's just tastes like buttery and garlic
is delightful anyway, So that was a horror moment. She's like,
I've embarrassed myself and I can't see him. It's to
the point that she's crying in their car, talking about
how he'll never see her again because she is not
smart and g he's just too smart for her. And

(39:32):
that's when we come to the advice of like, you
know what, just be yourself. Finally, her sister who she
talks to, Jannine, She's like telling her what's going on,
and Jenny's like, you know what, you are interesting, you
are cool, bring up what you like. Take him on
something that's different. Do you set up the date? And
she was like, you know what, you're right. So she
invites him to go to their tour of Hollywood stars

(39:56):
and all of the you know, touristy things, and they
have the best time, to the point that she gets
to finally let herself be herself. They're enjoying things. They
held hands and he kisses her in the car, which,
by the way, I was like, what you know, like

(40:17):
he got to take his campus and he did in
front of everybody, apparently no one noticed, which I found interesting. Well, okay,
but all that just say is that she finally gets
to the point that she understands that she could be
herself and She's feeling like she's in love, sharing her
love for art, listening to him about movies. She chose

(40:38):
a movie that they went to that she wanted to see,
so really feeling like they connected. Yes, thirteen year.

Speaker 2 (40:44):
Old in love the summer. Fine, the summer.

Speaker 1 (40:48):
It's not Summer's forever or any is the first love.

Speaker 2 (40:53):
I'm just saying, like the thematically again, when I was
that age, I believed I would find the perfect boy
over the summer. Whenever I was like at the beach
or whatever, it was, never.

Speaker 1 (41:09):
Happened, never, never happened. I will say again, I think
I loved series like this because it included characters like Claudia,
like she and I had nothing in common to be honest,
like she is artistic and all those things, and like
had cool parents that gave her her own phone line,
did not have that, and she also kind of like

(41:32):
I believe if one of the things that she did
have were tiger parents as it was because they were
very proud of Janine, but like her grandmother and she
had the same spirit. It was really sweeten. Also, I
believe there's one of the stories where she loses her grandmother,
so like does grief in these books so really good stuff.
But like I really loved her because it was an

(41:53):
Asian girl being represented and that was so far view
between tween and she had her own stories and she
got to be the main characters and it was like, yes,
so I need more of this. So I think she
was one of the characters that really drew me into
this book. It was because she had an Asian American
in the stories, and though I didn't know everything like that,

(42:13):
we didn't have a lot of commonalities, it still had
representation and that's what I desperately wanted and having her
in the book, having her on this like cover, seeing
her picture on the cover, like it just made everything
for me growing up in a very white neighborhood and
white family. So seeing her she was one of the
reasons I loved this series. But yeah, like her being

(42:37):
able to meet another boy her like she is. I
will say her and Stacy are the most boy crazy
quote unquote in these books. So I didn't remember that
Dawn had a story with an older boy. Oh anyway,
moving on, We're going to Jesse, who is the ballerina

(43:07):
who's in ballet. Like she's really good. It's not just
like she likes ballet. She's actually very talented. There's a
whole future. They're talking about her being like sent academies
because she is so good and how much she loves it.
In this one, she goes to California and gets to
meet up with an old client of hers from Stonybrook
who ended up being on TV. I believe it's probably

(43:29):
like a teenage show that's on weekly ps one nine two.
Was that the name of it? That sounds right? It's
pretty close, right, So they are in that segment and
she gets to hang out with them because they were
really close. He brings her onto the studio show what
it's like and what it looks like to be on
the studio. She gets called up very cool to be

(43:51):
an extra and they're like, we like your Look what
a compliment. She was floating up for the days. They
were even talking about she needs to get an agent.
She would do really well, they should look into it,
and she started thinking about maybe this is my future.
At the same time, she and Mallory are starting to
have some conflicts. Mallory is her best friend, but Malori
is not acting like herself, so this kind of blends

(44:11):
in and so this causes a lot of conflict, to
the point like she's getting really frustrated and annoyed with her,
but she tries to include her into things like bringing
her to the studio and letting her look at these things.
And Jesse's trying to navigate a couple of things like
should she move to California, should she become an actor?

(44:31):
Should she give up ballet? Is this the future for
her at eleven years old, as well as the fact
that her and Mallory are not getting along and she
feels really upset about this and she doesn't know how
to confront this. Later, she's still going through it. She
and Mallory do make up after Mallory has to go
through some realizations of her own. But you know, Jesse
comes into understanding that she was really impatient and not

(44:54):
understanding her really well, so they needed to have like
a breakdown in conversation. So she was like, okay, and
she was being very critical without actually giving her any
good advice. So, you know, being too critical you could
be upset, but always criticizing someone is not the way
to go. And this is kind of where Jesse was like, oh,
I did this wrong, let me let me apologize and

(45:15):
then we all can come together and they do makeup,
they do makeup, they do get come back together. And
but Jesse also decides, you know what, I don't want
to be an actor. I want to be in ballet.
I miss ballet. And she starts stretching and doing her
warm ups so that she can be ready when she
returns and that her teacher does not get upset with

(45:35):
her instructor. Then she's like, I need her to know
that I've been working even when I'm on vacation.

Speaker 2 (45:41):
Yeah, good for you, I.

Speaker 1 (45:44):
Guess, really good. Dedicated to eleven year old. Maybe I'm
just really not giving myself or in any eleven year
old's credits because I'm like, well, if you're forced into it, yes, yeah, honest,
you want something true if.

Speaker 2 (45:59):
You are in a field like that, if you have
the passion and all that, it's more that and you
and I struggle with this too, not being able to
take a vacation, yeah, like having that, Well, I don't
want the instructor to think that I wasn't right. Maybe
you know, if it's your body and you want to
keep limber and.

Speaker 1 (46:20):
Your muscles, you got care eleven at eleven.

Speaker 2 (46:24):
Yeah, so that's more of my hesitation than anything else.
It's that idea of you can't even on vacation.

Speaker 1 (46:34):
Like what is this teacher telling her that she feels
like she'd better not be or mad? I'm like, right,
are you? Are you okay? But yeah, she but she
knows that she knows what she loves in that ballet
you Gotta Love dedication That brings us to Mallory. Mallory
has decided she is going to be a California girl,

(46:56):
and that means tons of makeup and blonde hair, no freckles,
no freckles, which is interesting because I think it's not
too big of a trope because I've seen and being
best friends with like redheads and who have like freckles
and such which I wanted they didn't want, Like that's
kind of that level. And she Malorie decides that she

(47:19):
needs to be a California girl. Every time where she turned,
they were all blondes and they were perfectly made up.
I guess maybe she was on Beverly Hills, who knows,
and on the beach. So immediately she decides that she
needs to invest in makeup, and Carol decides to take
her to one of the beauty museums where she learns
a lot more about makeup, and then she gets to

(47:40):
go to the mall. They go to the mall a
few times, but the mall is the place to be,
Like that's one of the things that they were looking at.
They're like, the mall here in California is completely different
from Stony Book, which is probably absolutely true. So we
need to go take a giant trip to the mall.
And they go and she goes into a place where

(48:00):
she asked for the full treatment and apparently the woman
we had the counter really excited to the point that
she has just been in their entirety on makeup. But yeah,
let's talk about the mall. Any the mall, Like I'm
telling you, that was one of the moments of like
excitement that they had planned to go to this it

(48:22):
was the place to.

Speaker 2 (48:23):
Be when you were this age. Me and my friends
we would just go on the weekends meet up at
the mall. There was a smaller mall that was closer
to my home, and even on the weekdays we would
sometimes go to that mall and hang out and I
would get smoothie and it was the best. But yeah,
it was that mall culture was big. Especially, Yeah, I

(48:47):
feel like with young girls because there were stores like Players.

Speaker 1 (48:51):
And you go in Disney Store, the Disney Store.

Speaker 2 (48:54):
I love the Discovery Store, but that's kind of a
separate but yeah, the Disney Store was cool, but yeah,
you would get you try to find these super cute clothes.
In my case, I usually could not pull whatever and
I was off, but I thought I could and then
you'd get makeup that It was just like music and consumerism.

Speaker 1 (49:21):
The bright light, the escalators, the cinnamon, yeah, anti or
the antims like those were the two things that I
went for. With the Chinese food, the Chinese samples every time,
every time, and I will say, like for me, and
apparently this culture is back going to the Disney Store
getting because they usually same stuff in there, which was

(49:43):
interesting I think about it. But like the cookie Mansta
T shirts, so like wait that was big, the big
bird T shirts or whatever. Now I've seen high school
seniors with kindergarten backpacks. Have you seen this trend? They
want the animated small backpacks that are of some kind
of cartoon character or like children's show character, And I'm like,

(50:06):
what's happening. I can't say anything because again, when I
was in high school. I was wearing cookie monster shirts.

Speaker 2 (50:13):
Yeah, I mean that was the thing. You would just
go to the mall and find the shirt of your dreams.

Speaker 1 (50:21):
Maybe and if it was no or no fear.

Speaker 2 (50:25):
I loved hot topics. My place too hot topic, Hot topic.
It does still exist, but it got bought out by
some something. But for listeners who don't know, this was
like your goth emo store. I loved it.

Speaker 1 (50:41):
I had with cool lunch cards.

Speaker 2 (50:44):
Because I could go so often. It was also one
of the one of the few places that I recall
that had this sort of freedom that we've been talking
about in this story. Where my parents would drop me
off at the mall. Yeah, they they would usually like
sometimes my mom would go to her own store, so

(51:05):
she'd be there, but I was on my own with
my friends in the mall.

Speaker 1 (51:10):
Right. I did that with my parents. Uh, Castalia is
where we would like where I went to the mall
and she would go to the Christmas store Carlon's, while
I went to the Disney Store or Walden's. I went
to the bookstore more. Yes, Walden's Bookstore was my place.
Dalton Bookstore my spot.

Speaker 2 (51:32):
Yes, And we've actually talked about this before with Bridget
that used to be a thing too. You would get
like you'd go to Books a Million in the mall
and you'd get a coffee inside or probably an overly
sweetened frappuccino situation, and you would hang out with your
friends in the bookstore this.

Speaker 1 (51:52):
Yeah, well, I think you were younger than me on
this one, so I didn't do that. I wasn't right there.

Speaker 2 (51:58):
Yeah, that's what we did, was right there.

Speaker 1 (52:00):
I was already gone, I think outside of that. But yeah,
for me too, it became like going to the mall
was our escape because our mall was forty minutes away,
thirty minutes away, and it was us driving, but it
was not quite getting to Atlanta, like we didn't have
to go off the small roads, but it was far
enough away that we could do that because there was

(52:21):
no other spots like that. But the mall was that spot.
And now looking back, it's a dying thing. Yeah, I
don't know, because it's kind of now changed into like
what you see so outdoor shopping, where there's shopping around
with all the stores. It's just not a mall, but

(52:41):
there's all the shopping locations that you can go to.
We have a spot called Atlantic Station and that's exactly
what it is, which also against there will have anybody
under eighteen past seven pm without adult supervision. Interesting, those
use have been getting into.

Speaker 2 (52:56):
Trouble, that's true. Yeah, I've heard tell that.

Speaker 1 (53:02):
They've been. They've been like daring each other to co
and like ransack some places. Yeah, just for the like
video of it all interestingly.

Speaker 3 (53:14):
Yeah, yeah, which is just sad because that that like
kills the experience for so many other of the young
uns who are just there because that's the spot that
they can be just be with their friends.

Speaker 1 (53:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (53:25):
And I mean that's the other thing about them all
is that usually it has like a movie theater and
maybe bowling alley, Like there's entertainment options and food options
and shopping options, so there's a lot for you to do.

(53:47):
And and yeah, the lighting is very like I wouldn't
say it's pleasing, but it's just a gott it's stimulating.
It's stimulating.

Speaker 1 (53:58):
Yeah, oh I would gets so exhausted about well.

Speaker 2 (54:01):
You could not, like it's because it exhaust your You're
getting too stimulated.

Speaker 1 (54:08):
Like I would quit. This is also why I hate shopping,
though I think that might be why equal to him like,
I hate this.

Speaker 2 (54:13):
Yeah, yeah, but I remember being this age and I
loved Mary Kate Nashley and they had like a whole
mall series of whole experience.

Speaker 1 (54:24):
But it just.

Speaker 2 (54:25):
Felt like one outfit could change your life, one like
piece of makeup could totally alter your future.

Speaker 1 (54:35):
You've become someone you need yeah or perfect yeah, And
that is exactly what Mallory is going for here. She
wants to be that California girl carols to just temporary die.
Not the greatest of suggestions, but she's like, go for it.
You'll be your kid, You'll be you. And so she
gets a temporary dye for blonde and apparently really dyes

(54:57):
our hair to the point everybody's like, oh no, the
amount of makeup she's wearing. It takes her hours to
put on, which at eleven I did pick for makeup.
My mother gave me face powder when I turned thirteen,
face powder, light, lip gloss, clear mascare. That was my
makeup till I was sixteen fifteen.

Speaker 2 (55:18):
My mom, now I know what she meant, but she
told me when I was about the saying, she said,
I'm worried what people will think of you if you
wear too much makeup, and I was so young the
whole episode. I was kind of like, what are you
talking about? But now I'm looking back and like, oh,

(55:41):
that's what she was trying to say.

Speaker 1 (55:44):
Yeah. Unfortunately, all that say is Mallory's really feeling herself
after doing all of these changes, looking good and to
the point again she has used all her money. In
any of the events that she plans to do, she
has to borrow from Jee, which is not going well
for their relationship. She knows that Jesse's judging her and
being snied about our comments, but Mallory's like, I'm gonna

(56:07):
do me. She's just jealous, kind of a understanding, and
then they decide, Jesse trying to be less judgmental, being like, hey,
you want to come with me to the studio experience
so you can see what it's about, and Malory's ready.
She's like, oh, this is my day. I'm gonna be discovered,
I'm gonna be an actress and no one can tell
me nothing. So they go together and just like before,

(56:30):
they need more extras and Jesse's like, I'm good, I
did my thing. I don't need it anymore. So Mallory's like, oh,
then I'm gonna try, and Mallory's absolutely sure this is
her moment. And as she goes up and says me, me, me,
the director's like, I'm sorry, you just don't have the
look that we're looking for, that we need. And oh.
She is crushed so much so that she could quiet

(56:53):
on the way home. Decides not to go on a
couple of things because she is crushed, and then she
starts figuring, like trying to figure it out, and they
confront her. Christie's like being Christie was like, Hey, the
problem is you're trying to change about yourself and there's
no reason for you to change, and now you've become
like everybody else and you're not special, Liam, damn Christy,

(57:16):
and they all kind of encourage her to say, you're
amazing as you are. There's no need for this. We
were all kind of worried because we know that this
is something your parents would not like, and you did
this kind of lying to your parents about what you're
doing and wasting your money, and she realizes they're right,
and also her parents are not going to be happy
when they see her blonde hair and it's not coming

(57:36):
out fast enough. So they all come to her rescue.
Stacy and Claudia, who love makeup and wear makeup and
have permission to wear makeup, buy her makeup from her
and we'll be using that giving her some money bag
so that she gets to pay jesse back with as
well as they go to a drug store, find the dye,
another temporary dye that's closer to her red hair, fix

(57:56):
her up, and fairly they did a great, great job
because no one knows. Once Day got back and she
decides that she does enjoy being as who she is,
and her and Jessie makeup and they live happily. No,
they are great friends, and she has learned to appreciate
who she is.

Speaker 2 (58:17):
Yeah, and I have to say, that's a brutal that
was a tough lesson.

Speaker 1 (58:24):
You have hurt.

Speaker 2 (58:27):
That's not the look we're going for. When you're like
an eleven year old girl and you've put on the makeup,
you've done all the things people have told you to do,
and they are like, still know, actually.

Speaker 1 (58:40):
Yes, actually know, especially if you are comparing yourself to
your friend who was told they had the perfect look,
they had the right look, which exactly what happened. So
all of those things being I said, Mallory took a
hard lesson at eleven years old and has really learned
that she should really like who she is. We love

(59:00):
that for her, love that she didn't get in trouble
with her parents. We love that for her she got
the experiment a little bit and now she knows she
Later in life, I'm sure she does a better job
with the makeup and doesn't need to dye her hair,
which I know there's all back and forth, but people,
I feel like we love like red hair is so

(59:20):
unusual to have it. But all that to say, all
the girls finally come to a point where they come
back together because for the first week they were going
through so many adventures Almo their own. They all kind
of get whatever is out of their system that bug,
whether it's the surfing bug, whether it's the California girl bug,

(59:42):
whether it's the I'm better than you at babysitting bug.
They all get that out and come together as a
group and start doing all the activities together, including going
to six Flags. And by the way, their description of
six Figs is funny to me because I'm like, oh man,

(01:00:03):
those are the ninja being the best ride ever. I
was like, that was the most painful ride outside of
the cyclone.

Speaker 2 (01:00:10):
It was.

Speaker 1 (01:00:11):
I loved it, but it hurt. It hurt me greatly.
If you had earrings on, oh you probably blow.

Speaker 2 (01:00:18):
Yes, they were rough roller coasters listeners, if you haven't,
so hard.

Speaker 1 (01:00:24):
To do I have to say the waiting line. Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:00:28):
Six Flags could be a whole other spiel because it
used to be we have one near Atlanta, and it
used to be I would go every year because of
school or for some reason. So I'm just very familiar
with all the rides at six Flags up until like
pre pandemic. I loved about this too. This it really

(01:00:52):
reminded me of the time I went to Disney World
with Marching Bands when I was in I was in
middle school and I was going with high schoolers because
I was a band aid. I wasn't in band yet,
and I joined marching band to go to Disney World
because my parents told me we will never take you,
so I had to find my own way and I did.

(01:01:15):
But it just this story had so many of the
things that I was like, oh my gosh, this, I
connect with this, I connect with this, I connect with this.
But one of the things that really made me laugh
is when they were talking about all of the attractions
they wanted to see, and they said Disneyland Universal, not
Sperry Farm, which if you've been in California, the ads

(01:01:38):
were not Spvery Farm on the radio during like Christmas
time off the charts. But the one that really cracked
me up Medieval Times. Yes, I went to Medieval Times
during that Disney World trip and it just made me
laugh so hard.

Speaker 1 (01:01:57):
I've never been there was one in Atlanta. Outside of Atlanta, yeah,
because it still happen and it's a pretty big deal.
People love these things and I'm like, I don't. I know,
I don't want to eat old food will yelling at
people with horse maneuver. I can't.

Speaker 2 (01:02:15):
I made a lot of mistakes at Medieval Times. I
have to say, you're not supposed to touch the bowl
because it's really hot. I did, You're supposed to use
the bread?

Speaker 1 (01:02:27):
Oh? I heard that as b U L L. By
the way, it's like, why would you touch a bull bowl? Uh?

Speaker 2 (01:02:35):
Also, every time I've been, which is only three, my
night is always the trader. He's always the one that
turns out bad at the end. What I say, you,
my friend, I don't know, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:02:48):
Well, we'll dig into that later. I think that's like,
that's an analysis that we need to have. No, but
this book, Yeah, every time I have fun memories again,
it like opened up memories about other books. As I'm
talkt thinking, I'm like, oh, yeah, the New York Trip,
and then The Dawn and the Elder Boy, and when

(01:03:10):
Marian met Logan, and when I do remember reading the
first story about Christy starting this club and then meeting Bart.
I have a lot of good memories about these books,
and I found it interesting that it's still kind of
going with the graphic novels. I think, even though it

(01:03:30):
is very like manufactured obviously, at this point it felt
it was just good vibes, like it just made me
happy and wished I could have that kind of group
of friends. And that freedom took because also I lived
in the po dunk areas. You're not walking anywhere to
see your friends. That doesn't happen. If I try to
walk to my neighbors, I would have been ran over.

Speaker 2 (01:03:50):
Yeah, And there's something very comforting about having a friend
group where they have their misunderstandings and they get angry
at each other, but really they'd talk it out and
resolve it, Yeah, which is not how it often goes
in real life. But it was nice.

Speaker 1 (01:04:07):
It was nice. Well, thank you Annie for going down
memory lane with me. What did you think about this
book overall? Oh, I thought it was fun.

Speaker 2 (01:04:15):
I thought it was a very big throwback for me
of a specific time in my life of when I
when I, Yeah, I was going to the mall and
I thought, like, these new outphanits makeup, they could do
something for me. I love the plotline kind of tickles
me that they won the lottery and they go to California.

(01:04:38):
I think that's pretty fantastic. But no, it was very
I also really enjoyed that they had a lot of
elements I wasn't expecting, Like there was more than one
divorced situation that wasn't super negative, but it was like
a prominent situation in their lives diabetes asthma, like there

(01:05:00):
were there were just a couple of things that I
wasn't expecting that I liked that they put in there.

Speaker 1 (01:05:07):
I think I think it's great. I am interested in
wondering if, like any of the youth today have read
these and how it translates, like, how does it hold
out for them because obviously again like talking about landlines
and talking about like mall, so what what are these perspectives?
So if any of y'all have nieces, daughters, nephews, youngin's

(01:05:27):
who have read this, let us know that, like what
are their thoughts?

Speaker 2 (01:05:32):
Yes, as well as let us know well, you can
email us at Hello Stuffannever Told You dot com. You
can find us on Blue Scott Momsuff podcast or on
Instagram and TikTok Stuff Whenever Told You. We're also on YouTube.
We have some merchandise at comp here, and we have
book you can get where if you get your books.
Thanks is always too our superduced Suprima and our executive

(01:05:54):
pruceer I have thank you and thanks to you for
listening Stuff I Never Told yousprediction by her Radio. For
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