December 20, 2024 • 10 mins
On the Friday December 20 edition of The Armstrong & Getty One More Thing Podcast...
- Jack asks--what kind of person embraces outdoor holiday decorations?
Stupid Should Hurt: https://www.armstrongandgetty.com/
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ah, yes, the Christmas Dinosaur. It's one more thing.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
I'm one more thing.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Did you, Joe Getty put up any outdoor Christmas decorations
this year? No, not really, But in the past, when
your children were younger, you did, if I remember correctly.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Yeah. Oh, absolutely different hood now And they actually have
like rules on inflatables and that sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Oh really, I can believe that.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Huh.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
I've seen them flouted somewhat, which is fine with me.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
God, you are a certain sort of person if you
would go complain about somebody putting up something for Christmas.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
But it's undignified.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Uh, what the hell ever?
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Uh? But you used to put stuff up? Oh yeah, yeah,
we had. My favorite one was a h an inflatable carousel.
It was like a big like, you know, cylinder inside
of which was a carousel in which Santa, a penguin,
and an elf I believe were riding the carousel and
(01:06):
it actually rotated.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Oh that's pretty cool. That's fantastic.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
It was fantastic. Hey, and it was lit from within
for a nighttime news.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
It was lit. You were lit. Everyone was lit. Katie.
Do you have stuff outside? Yes?
Speaker 2 (01:18):
I do?
Speaker 4 (01:19):
Oh you do?
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (01:20):
I have a little light up candy canes and an
inflatable snowman.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
I see, I wouldn't have been able to guess whether
you'd be outdoor Christmas decorations or not. I have not
found that that is a trait that goes along with
any other traits that I can identify. And I don't
know if there've ever been any like psychological surveys the
kind of person that does this stuff or the kind
of person that doesn't, But I've not seen any consistency.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
For the record, I would like to go full Clark Griswold.
That would make me happy. I would like to go nuts.
It's just a question of logistics and timing. And I
just didn't really come together this year because I've got
the standard stuff, because because I've.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Known people with very outgoing personalities who do nothing and
people who are like quiet into themselves who do a lot,
and vice versa. So I just I don't know what
is what makes you a I'm gonna dedicate the time
and money to this or not, I don't. I haven't
done anything for Christmas. I did a fair amount for Halloween.
My dad never did anything when we were kids, and
(02:23):
then when he got older before they retired and moved away.
His thing was they in front of the garage, Like
a lot of garage, you get two little floodlights that
are white year round, but like two weeks before Christmas,
he'd replace one with a green bulb and one with
a red bulb, and then he changed again the da
that was it. It was this old and people would
say can you geta b up the red and green
(02:44):
light bulb and says here, oh, you know, I am,
but my son and I have started collecting as anecdotes.
Where did when did this become a thing like the
gym we go to. First they had an inflatable Santa
playing the guitar. Okay, Santa, why is he playing the guitar?
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Ry? Fine? Then it doesn't play the guitar.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Then then then it was added to it a robot
with a Christmas hat. So you got a robot and
a Christmas hat playing the drums, and I guess they
were putting together the band slowly. Then it was a dinosaurs.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Like a white stripes thing there for a while, drums
and guitar.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Then it was a dinosaur in a Christmas hat playing bass,
and I don't know why a dinosaur or why a
robot or any of these things. I'm missing the theme. Yeah, well,
it has become very clear to me that there is
everything is okay now, just any character of any sort
you put it in a Santa hat and it's part
of Christmas. I guess.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Well, of course Dickens classic at Christmas Carol, he does
mention the rock and roll Christmas dinosaur. No wait a minute,
no he doesn't.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Man, the people that really go big. We've got a
couple of houses in our neighborhoods that are the how long,
not not to mention what it costs, but just how
much work would it be to put that up and
take it down? Talking many, many, many hours? And yeah,
do you do you have a guess as to what
the personality trait is that makes you want.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
To do that? Oh goodness, that's an interesting question. You
love Jesus the obvious answer when it's all Santa stuff. Yeah,
that's right. Uh, I don't know exactly. I don't know
how to describe it. I've met people like that, and
they're usually like jolly people who are open, they want
(04:42):
to talk to their neighbors, they want to interact with people.
They're extroverts and generally fairly light hearted. I just like
the way lights look, Yeah, I just I think it
looks beautiful.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Yeah, the lights.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
And then also my neighbors were putting out decorations and like, ah,
I can't be that one house.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Yeah, I'm that one house in our little cul de sac. Oh,
I'm new to the neighborhoods, so they're already looking sideways
at me.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
Yes, Michael, there's the neighborhood in where I live where
they actually decorate full sized trees. They go to home
depot and get a lift and put the Christmas lights
on top of them.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
And has the neighborhood risen to the point of people
drive from other places to go down the street. And yeah,
which is its own thing. You either want to be
in a neighborhood like that or you don't.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Right right, I know, just speaking for myself, it reminds
me almost of the relationship between like a performer and
the audience. That anything I did, the energy would be
returned by my kids.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
And they would be ensused.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
And so I think this is fun, and I'd add
more or come up with crazier show ups and surprise
them with something. It was just big fun. Now it's
mostly just for me and I guess the neighbors in
a way, and it's like.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
And the home depot, for instance, the giant category where
they have a ten foot looks like Frosty the Snowman
ten feet tall, different snowman, ten foot angel. If you
want to go with that ten feet ten foot gateway
with Grinch on top, so people would have to walk
through your arch to get your house, that's pretty cool.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Lots of stuff, of course, is mentioned only in the
Book of Matthew. Interesting.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
I remember that part. That's right, Doctor Susan evented the Grinch,
and it's been my around my whole life. So it
kind of seems christmasy, but it's not by nature anymore
christmasy than a robot or a dinosaur.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Right, a rock and roll Christmas dinosaur.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Twelve foot giant sized motion led pre lit cone tree.
What I like about this one is it looks like
you take it out of the box, stick in the
ground done. All you need is electricity, Yeah, perfect. Ninety dollars.
Giant stuff has become very positive.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
How big is the tree?
Speaker 1 (06:53):
That thing was twelve feet, which is pretty tall.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Now ninety bucks, that's change. Book back on your general grant.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Huh, I also think these that is that.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
No, Benjamin's Benjamins are the hundreds, Grant is the fifty.
I don't throw cash around much.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
He only deals with the big bills.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
No.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
I think the inflatables are probably popular because they're so easy. Yeah,
you know, you unplug it and the thing deflates and
you roll it up and stick it back in the box.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
It's not that is an advantage. Like my giant Jack o' lantern. Man,
it took me like five minutes to set that up.
But the tethering, you gotta tether it, or your neighbors
knock on your door and say, hey, you're pumpkins down
the street. That's happening to me. That a couple of times.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
So yeah, that's a good point. So to put up
Christmas lights, especially if you go beyond the basics, is
time consuming, frequently dangerous as you're dangling out over ladder
reaching for the in the corner of the gutter and
the rest of it. That's a hell of a lot
of time and effort to get the wow. Or you
could just go down to the home despot or the
(07:53):
lows and spend one hundred and fifty dollars on some
sort of fifteen foot tall rock and roll Frankenstein or
robot or whatever it was with a Santa hat on inexplicably,
and you'd get that same wow.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Mm hmm. You missed out on this, Katie because you're young.
And they started wiring all Christmas tree lights in parallel.
But before they started wiring them in parallel, they were
they were wired in a single line, and so if
one bulb went out, the whole thing didn't work. Oh
and the only way you could find out where the
problem was is go socket by socket with a bulb
(08:29):
you knew worked until you found the dead one. And
it was really a pain in the ass. And it
was just part of the Christmas tradition every year at
my house anyway, growing up.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
I'm not I'm not too young for that. That's actually
how I learned a majority of my cuss words from
my dad around Christmas time.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
When you would oh yeah cool, yeah, he'd plug.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Well, we made the mistake when you're putting them up
before checking them and wow, was that some Christmas cheer?
Speaker 3 (08:54):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (08:54):
God dang it.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
You know.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Oh yeah, that's one of the famous lines from a
Christmas story with Ralphie his dad. One goes out, they
all go yes.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Dad, Oh man, Oh that stresses me just to remember it. Yeah,
you get all the lights up on the tree. We
did that I think one year without testing them and
it was fed up.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Oh, it's like, oh, yeah Christmas. My mom, who is
very frugal because she grew up in a rough part
of the country depression wise, was big on saving the
tinsil every year. We weren't gonna buy new tinsil every year.
So after we put all the tensil on the tree,
(09:37):
then we had to pull it all down, one strand
at a time and put it back in the box
for next year. And that was like a two hour job, boy,
to save us a dollar.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
That's frugality.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
That was part of the Christmas tradition. Oh you know,
stock market crashes, the Nazis bar on the march. You're
gonna wish you had that tintil back and goes the
way she looked at it.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
I don't know if you guys remember back the late
seventies how hot outdoor light bulbs used to get. You
could put your hand on and you would burn yourself,
serious burns.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Oh yeah, people would have a just completely desiccated, dried
out Christmas tree by the twenty sixth, running incandescent bulbs
on it that got super hot, with the obvious result
in many a household. Mmoof.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Well, I guess that's it.
Ah, yes, the Christmas Dinosaur. It's one more thing.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
I'm one more thing.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Did you, Joe Getty put up any outdoor Christmas decorations
this year? No, not really, But in the past, when
your children were younger, you did, if I remember correctly.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Yeah. Oh, absolutely different hood now And they actually have
like rules on inflatables and that sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Oh really, I can believe that.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Huh.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
I've seen them flouted somewhat, which is fine with me.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
God, you are a certain sort of person if you
would go complain about somebody putting up something for Christmas.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
But it's undignified.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Uh, what the hell ever?
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Uh? But you used to put stuff up? Oh yeah, yeah,
we had. My favorite one was a h an inflatable carousel.
It was like a big like, you know, cylinder inside
of which was a carousel in which Santa, a penguin,
and an elf I believe were riding the carousel and
(01:06):
it actually rotated.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Oh that's pretty cool. That's fantastic.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
It was fantastic. Hey, and it was lit from within
for a nighttime news.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
It was lit. You were lit. Everyone was lit. Katie.
Do you have stuff outside? Yes?
Speaker 2 (01:18):
I do?
Speaker 4 (01:19):
Oh you do?
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (01:20):
I have a little light up candy canes and an
inflatable snowman.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
I see, I wouldn't have been able to guess whether
you'd be outdoor Christmas decorations or not. I have not
found that that is a trait that goes along with
any other traits that I can identify. And I don't
know if there've ever been any like psychological surveys the
kind of person that does this stuff or the kind
of person that doesn't, But I've not seen any consistency.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
For the record, I would like to go full Clark Griswold.
That would make me happy. I would like to go nuts.
It's just a question of logistics and timing. And I
just didn't really come together this year because I've got
the standard stuff, because because I've.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Known people with very outgoing personalities who do nothing and
people who are like quiet into themselves who do a lot,
and vice versa. So I just I don't know what
is what makes you a I'm gonna dedicate the time
and money to this or not, I don't. I haven't
done anything for Christmas. I did a fair amount for Halloween.
My dad never did anything when we were kids, and
(02:23):
then when he got older before they retired and moved away.
His thing was they in front of the garage, Like
a lot of garage, you get two little floodlights that
are white year round, but like two weeks before Christmas,
he'd replace one with a green bulb and one with
a red bulb, and then he changed again the da
that was it. It was this old and people would
say can you geta b up the red and green
(02:44):
light bulb and says here, oh, you know, I am,
but my son and I have started collecting as anecdotes.
Where did when did this become a thing like the
gym we go to. First they had an inflatable Santa
playing the guitar. Okay, Santa, why is he playing the guitar?
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Ry? Fine? Then it doesn't play the guitar.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Then then then it was added to it a robot
with a Christmas hat. So you got a robot and
a Christmas hat playing the drums, and I guess they
were putting together the band slowly. Then it was a dinosaurs.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Like a white stripes thing there for a while, drums
and guitar.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Then it was a dinosaur in a Christmas hat playing bass,
and I don't know why a dinosaur or why a
robot or any of these things. I'm missing the theme. Yeah, well,
it has become very clear to me that there is
everything is okay now, just any character of any sort
you put it in a Santa hat and it's part
of Christmas. I guess.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Well, of course Dickens classic at Christmas Carol, he does
mention the rock and roll Christmas dinosaur. No wait a minute,
no he doesn't.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Man, the people that really go big. We've got a
couple of houses in our neighborhoods that are the how long,
not not to mention what it costs, but just how
much work would it be to put that up and
take it down? Talking many, many, many hours? And yeah,
do you do you have a guess as to what
the personality trait is that makes you want.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
To do that? Oh goodness, that's an interesting question. You
love Jesus the obvious answer when it's all Santa stuff. Yeah,
that's right. Uh, I don't know exactly. I don't know
how to describe it. I've met people like that, and
they're usually like jolly people who are open, they want
(04:42):
to talk to their neighbors, they want to interact with people.
They're extroverts and generally fairly light hearted. I just like
the way lights look, Yeah, I just I think it
looks beautiful.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Yeah, the lights.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
And then also my neighbors were putting out decorations and like, ah,
I can't be that one house.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Yeah, I'm that one house in our little cul de sac. Oh,
I'm new to the neighborhoods, so they're already looking sideways
at me.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
Yes, Michael, there's the neighborhood in where I live where
they actually decorate full sized trees. They go to home
depot and get a lift and put the Christmas lights
on top of them.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
And has the neighborhood risen to the point of people
drive from other places to go down the street. And yeah,
which is its own thing. You either want to be
in a neighborhood like that or you don't.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Right right, I know, just speaking for myself, it reminds
me almost of the relationship between like a performer and
the audience. That anything I did, the energy would be
returned by my kids.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
And they would be ensused.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
And so I think this is fun, and I'd add
more or come up with crazier show ups and surprise
them with something. It was just big fun. Now it's
mostly just for me and I guess the neighbors in
a way, and it's like.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
And the home depot, for instance, the giant category where
they have a ten foot looks like Frosty the Snowman
ten feet tall, different snowman, ten foot angel. If you
want to go with that ten feet ten foot gateway
with Grinch on top, so people would have to walk
through your arch to get your house, that's pretty cool.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Lots of stuff, of course, is mentioned only in the
Book of Matthew. Interesting.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
I remember that part. That's right, Doctor Susan evented the Grinch,
and it's been my around my whole life. So it
kind of seems christmasy, but it's not by nature anymore
christmasy than a robot or a dinosaur.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Right, a rock and roll Christmas dinosaur.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Twelve foot giant sized motion led pre lit cone tree.
What I like about this one is it looks like
you take it out of the box, stick in the
ground done. All you need is electricity, Yeah, perfect. Ninety dollars.
Giant stuff has become very positive.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
How big is the tree?
Speaker 1 (06:53):
That thing was twelve feet, which is pretty tall.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Now ninety bucks, that's change. Book back on your general grant.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Huh, I also think these that is that.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
No, Benjamin's Benjamins are the hundreds, Grant is the fifty.
I don't throw cash around much.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
He only deals with the big bills.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
No.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
I think the inflatables are probably popular because they're so easy. Yeah,
you know, you unplug it and the thing deflates and
you roll it up and stick it back in the box.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
It's not that is an advantage. Like my giant Jack o' lantern. Man,
it took me like five minutes to set that up.
But the tethering, you gotta tether it, or your neighbors
knock on your door and say, hey, you're pumpkins down
the street. That's happening to me. That a couple of times.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
So yeah, that's a good point. So to put up
Christmas lights, especially if you go beyond the basics, is
time consuming, frequently dangerous as you're dangling out over ladder
reaching for the in the corner of the gutter and
the rest of it. That's a hell of a lot
of time and effort to get the wow. Or you
could just go down to the home despot or the
(07:53):
lows and spend one hundred and fifty dollars on some
sort of fifteen foot tall rock and roll Frankenstein or
robot or whatever it was with a Santa hat on inexplicably,
and you'd get that same wow.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Mm hmm. You missed out on this, Katie because you're young.
And they started wiring all Christmas tree lights in parallel.
But before they started wiring them in parallel, they were
they were wired in a single line, and so if
one bulb went out, the whole thing didn't work. Oh
and the only way you could find out where the
problem was is go socket by socket with a bulb
(08:29):
you knew worked until you found the dead one. And
it was really a pain in the ass. And it
was just part of the Christmas tradition every year at
my house anyway, growing up.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
I'm not I'm not too young for that. That's actually
how I learned a majority of my cuss words from
my dad around Christmas time.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
When you would oh yeah cool, yeah, he'd plug.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Well, we made the mistake when you're putting them up
before checking them and wow, was that some Christmas cheer?
Speaker 3 (08:54):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (08:54):
God dang it.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
You know.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Oh yeah, that's one of the famous lines from a
Christmas story with Ralphie his dad. One goes out, they
all go yes.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Dad, Oh man, Oh that stresses me just to remember it. Yeah,
you get all the lights up on the tree. We
did that I think one year without testing them and
it was fed up.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Oh, it's like, oh, yeah Christmas. My mom, who is
very frugal because she grew up in a rough part
of the country depression wise, was big on saving the
tinsil every year. We weren't gonna buy new tinsil every year.
So after we put all the tensil on the tree,
(09:37):
then we had to pull it all down, one strand
at a time and put it back in the box
for next year. And that was like a two hour job, boy,
to save us a dollar.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
That's frugality.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
That was part of the Christmas tradition. Oh you know,
stock market crashes, the Nazis bar on the march. You're
gonna wish you had that tintil back and goes the
way she looked at it.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
I don't know if you guys remember back the late
seventies how hot outdoor light bulbs used to get. You
could put your hand on and you would burn yourself,
serious burns.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Oh yeah, people would have a just completely desiccated, dried
out Christmas tree by the twenty sixth, running incandescent bulbs
on it that got super hot, with the obvious result
in many a household. Mmoof.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Well, I guess that's it.
Hosts And Creators
Joe Getty
Jack Armstrong
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.