March 18, 2025 • 33 mins
The threads of tradition weave through our lives in ways we often don't recognize until we pause to examine them. What makes a tradition meaningful? When should traditions evolve? How have the customs of our childhood shaped who we are today?
The conversation begins with nostalgic tales of St. Patrick's Day celebrations in Chicago, complete with insider tips about the authentic South Side Irish Parade where "Guinness is flowing at 7 o'clock in the morning." These cultural experiences form lasting connections that transcend whether or not we actually have Irish heritage—they become part of our story simply through participation.
As the hosts share their vastly different upbringings, a fascinating contrast emerges. From small-town Swedish community celebrations to deeply Lutheran family rituals to a childhood relatively free from traditions, each background has uniquely shaped how they approach life today. One host admits to resisting the very word "tradition," preferring to think in terms of "rhythms" rather than following practices simply because they've always been done.
We discover how food binds generations together through holiday meals and special recipes passed down through families. The hosts reflect on how their family traditions have transformed as children grow up and form families of their own, revealing that meaningful traditions don't disappear entirely—they adapt while maintaining their core purpose of connecting us to something larger than ourselves.
Whether it's carving initials into a bar top that will be preserved for future generations or returning to deer camp after years away, our traditions reveal what we truly value. As Gustav Mahler wisely noted, "Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire." Join us as we explore how to keep that fire burning brightly while still making room for changes that come with each new season of life.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
yeah, here we go.
It's great to be back.
Welcome back to the halfcentury hangout.
We're here in luke's garagethis weekend or this week and,
uh, you know we record a littlebit before the podcast comes out
.
So it's almost saint patrickDay and we're looking at maybe
(00:26):
looking at some traditions.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
I love St Patrick's Day.
I am not in any way shape form,anything, as far as the lineage
has ever proven to be a bit ofIrish, but I just love it and I
think it comes back to the pointthat I lived in Chicago for
such a long time and it's justthe place to be at St Patrick's.
(00:51):
So anybody that's listening,including you guys, obviously
it's a bucket list kind of thing.
The St Patrick's Dayfestivities in Chicago, yeah,
choice, great stuff, place to be.
And I will just say this, thisI'll give one travel bit of
advice if you're gonna go, youcan go watch them die the river
(01:12):
green, you know that's finethat's fine.
It's the river run, that's finebut then don't go to that parade
, the one that's, you know, theone that they would play on tv
and all that.
Right, you go to the south sideirish parade.
That's where all the police,the fire.
You know they're down there onthe Southside.
You go down there.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Guinness is flowing at 7 o'clock in the morning.
You're out there and that is mynext bucket list item is kilt,
cable knit sweater Guinness.
7 o'clock am and I will be ableto play the bagpipes by then.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
That's the South Side O'Chicago.
Yeah, we're going to have somefun.
Baddest part of town.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
We're going to have some fun.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
There you go.
That'll be fun.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
I'm not going there this weekend, but you know.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
There's a lot of traditions that go on around St
Patrick's Day, aren't thereQuite?
Speaker 2 (02:01):
a few.
Yeah, day, aren't there?
Speaker 3 (02:06):
quite a few.
Yeah, you gotta have somecorned beef, right, you know
you're gonna do that corned beefcabbage, yeah carrots, potatoes
, I will tell you I'll.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
I'll say this here's my shout out.
I'm doing my shout out a littleearly, yeah, because my wife
becky makes the best reubensandwiches around.
So that's our reuben.
Our saint patrick's day is thereuben sandwich, with the
sauerkraut, the corned beef, themarble rye bread, and she makes
it Ah, choice.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
I love a good Reuben sandwich, but you know I just
can't hardly get past thecabbage.
I love cooked cabbage.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Oh yeah, really, we still do Cooked cabbage.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Absolutely 100%.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Well, you, know, without the sauerkraut, right?
I mean it's just regular cookedcabbage, because obviously
that's what sauerkraut is, butit's, like you, the cabbage in
the, the boiled dinner, as theycalled it, right, you know you
do that with new red potatoes.
Yep, yep, you know you do that.
It's great stuff.
Great stuff.
That's what I had like growingup and then kind of, as I was in
chicago, kind of still did thata little bit and you would go
(02:59):
to bars, taverns, irish pubsaround, and they always had it
out.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
I don't know if you guys had it or not, but one of
the best places around here thatI've had cabbage and corn, beef
, carrots and potatoes wasCaddy's down on the block.
Now it's only brunch, only now,I know.
So that kind of sucks.
Maybe they'll do somethingspecial for corn beef.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
I saw somewhere.
I don't remember where theplace was, but somebody is
making Reuben egg rolls thisweek.
Oh wow, that's not some, someestablishment.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
I remember where it was, but I should research that
I have seen those and I've had afew Reuben egg rolls.
They're pretty good.
They're pretty good.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
So I found out that I actually I didn't find out till
later in life.
I always wanted to be Irish,because the Irish traditions, I
think, are so cool and theaccent's freaking amazing, right
.
But I didn't find out till liketwo years ago that I actually
have a like a good percentage ofIrish in me.
Mcmahon, mcmahon, mcmahon yeah,that's a, that's, that's my.
Where I came from, dublin, iswhere my great granddaddy, great
(03:59):
, great great granddaddy camefrom, or whatever nice.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
I grew up down in stanton, iowa, and, uh, very
swedish very swedish and yeah, Iwas gonna say nothing to do
with going down the irish road.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
I'm like I don't think stan's got a ton of irish.
I got no, no irish whatsoever Idon't think so at all no, no
irish in no Irish in me.
Very, very Swedish in German.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Schultz, yeah, very German yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
I know nothing Nein.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
That's it.
You know, it's great to be aprincipal when you're Schultz,
yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
So what's our shout outs this week?
What do we got?
Who do we got?
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Man we have got a lot of good things, I think.
I think, going on one of theshout outs I'd like to give out,
we got new listeners in newyork city.
Wow, um, in a suburb of um,london, it's like I want to say
higginbotham, but that's not it.
It's like higdon or somethinglike that, but we don't even
know how to pronounce.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
It's a suburb of london which I thought was cool,
kind of cool they found this.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
I didn't even know london had suburb yeah, and then
, uh, there was a lady on apretty big town on spotify that
actually gave us a a good shoutout about our, uh, about our
logo, samantha mccart.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
There you go, that's cool samantha mccart, and that's
a great.
I love the new name too, right,mccart, yeah I think um.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
my shout out goes to Bert Cooper.
He's over in Omaha, listen tous.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
All right, Bert.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Gotta love Bert.
He's a friend of mine.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Was Bert over here last night?
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Bert was over here last night.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
That's awesome, His wife.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Kathy's there and Haley and Hope the daughters are
there and good folks over thereright over near brian high
school right on.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
I love brian high school.
I I spent a lot of time down bybrian high school.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
That's one of the places that we're going to go on
.
Saturday is darby's darbydarby's okay, shout out for
darby, kind of over that way but, speaking, we kind of went down
the road a little bit, but wewere talking about traditions,
right?
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Yeah, traditions.
They're kind of threads thatconnect our past to our present
and our future, really, andtraditions are help to shape us
as individuals and organizations, our cultures.
We could talk about habitsmaybe.
And it's Easter time, it'sspringtime and there's always a
(06:30):
lot of traditions that go on.
It might be passed through ourfamily or companies or even
educational institutions.
We got colors and songs and allkinds of things that happen
with traditions.
So that's what we are going todiscuss today A little bit of
(06:53):
tradition.
Got some questions for you, ifyou got some answers.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
I think, if you guys have kind of picked up on it a
of times, obviously our ourprevious topics lead over into
the next, right?
So those connections that johntalked about with traditions are
part of.
What we spoke about last timewas those connections of
friendships and how we buildthose and how that works, and
sure so, when we were talkingabout this, this is kind of
(07:20):
where the tradition part came in, because we know that that
connects us not just to a groupof people but just to kind of
where the tradition part came in, cause we know that that
connects us not just to a groupof people but just to kind of
life in general.
It might hook us up to family,it might be friends, it might be
times of the year, like Chuckwas talking about holidays.
I mean, there's so many thingsthat we can talk about.
Traditions, um, and I thinkthat it's important for us to
(07:45):
see them and to know that theyexist and to acknowledge them.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Yeah, and I think there may be a certain
percentage of people out there,if they're like me, that may
buck at that word tradition,because I'm not, like, proud of
traditions, but I think stilleverybody falls into them them.
What I tend to use is the wordrhythms.
You know those types of that.
That's a word that I use.
I have these normal rhythms ofmy life.
(08:12):
But most probably, most peopleprobably call those traditions
right habits well, why do youbalk at the word traditions,
though?
Speaker 2 (08:19):
what is, what's that?
Speaker 3 (08:19):
so for me, tradition speaks of dead Like it's just
dead Really, like it's justsomething that is normal.
Check the box, no effort putinto it, that I have to follow
the expectations of people longbefore me Rules.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
You're talking about rules.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Yeah and traditional.
You know about rules.
Yeah and traditional.
Sometimes, you know, I don't, Itend not to be very traditional
, but I don't, maybe I am in awhole different way, right?
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Possible.
Yeah, I think the difference,though and I and I hear what
you're saying, there's actuallya quote that that I had seen
about it it was blindlyfollowing tradition does not
mean the dead are living, butthat the living are dead.
Yeah, okay, Very true.
And I think, though, thattradition can change as the
(09:15):
years go right, like, forinstance, the Bible.
Okay, the Bible has a lot ofstories in it that we can look
at that story in black and whiteand really not understand how
it applies to now, but you haveto mold it a little bit right to
be able to make it applicablein our day and age.
And I think traditions are thesame way.
I think that we look at it,maybe when it was put into place
(09:38):
by whoever it was, or whateverit was and whatever their
surroundings were, but we canlook at it now and say, okay,
you know we could still do that,but we have a little more focus
on this.
You know what I mean?
Like there's somethingdifferent.
So I hear what you're saying,that you don't want to just
follow a tradition, just tofollow it, just to say that you
are.
But some of them, I think youknow, kind of like the Michigan
(10:02):
Fight song.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
That's a traditional thing played in the last game of
the football season of collegewhen that song is played when
they defeat the uh, that teamdown south.
You know over there thebuckeyes, yeah, so when I think
of tradition, um, it'sinteresting that you actually
had that quote that mentionedthe word dead, and I was how I
described, because I didn't talkabout this no, no I.
I know, and so tradition.
I think it has to be like thewhat has to be explained by the
why, Like why do you do thisthing, why do you feel like this
(10:35):
is important?
And I think once I can get tothe why and I agree with the why
, then the what becomes moremeaningful for you.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Sure, well, and we've all been in companies or
organizations that havetraditions, right, and what you
got to find, I think, is andwhat you two are talking about
you got to find the ones thathelp you get to where you want
to be, to where you want to be,so the values, the goals of that
(11:15):
company, of that organization,whatever it is, and you got to
find the ones that fit that.
And so, really, I thinktraditions help you get to some
of those values that anorganization should have.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
So we talked about St Patrick's Day, right.
It's kind of like how we kickedoff this show.
Do you guys know the story ofwho St Patrick was?
I might a little bit.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
I'm sure I remember some of it.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Share it with us, John.
I figured you probably would,John, but share it with us.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Well, St Patrick was actually the saint who brought
the Catholic Church to Ireland.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
Right, and I would not say the Catholic church,
though that that was what he did.
I would say the gospel.
He brought the truth of thegospel to Ireland.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Yes, and and you know we can disagree on that, but
also there's some you knowtraditions around there.
He also got rid of all thesnakes in which may be I didn't
know this piece there's some youknow traditions around there.
He also got rid of all thesnakes in Ireland.
Yeah, which may be a folk tale,but who knows?
Speaker 2 (12:34):
I almost got one of those shirts the other day.
Like the snakes are gone, let'shave a beer.
You know what I mean.
Like it was one of those things.
Yeah, you didn't know that.
Oh yeah, that was like that'sone of the big things that he
did, was he got rid of thesnakes?
Speaker 1 (12:45):
and got rid of all the snakes in ireland.
But you know, ireland may nothave had a whole lot I don't
know if there was a whole, it'san island he basically got rid
of both of them, right?
Speaker 3 (12:53):
yeah, all three of them.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Yeah, maybe they were , but anyway that's, he brought
the gospel to ireland absolutelyand became a saint because of
it.
So the Catholic church made hima saint.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
Right, and so what?
It's what that tradition hasevolved into today a lot of
people don't even realize.
They just think it's a time toparty, when we're actually
celebrating the gospel movinginto new places around the world
, Right.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Way back in what?
But isn't that why you'recelebrating?
Heck?
Yeah, Because the gospel isthere.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
Yeah, but people forget about it, oh, I know.
So that why makes more sensefor me, for the what?
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Chuck, I think what I'm going to say is that the
tradition part there's lots oftraditions that people have and,
like you talked about holidaytradition, right, okay, yeah, so
you might not think of thosenegatively because it's stuff
that your family did over theyears or you know whatever it is
(13:51):
, and so I think there's there'smight almost be like, um, like
categories of traditions, if youwant to say, okay, like if
we're just doing something to doit, because some people 100
years ago did it you know,whatever that's more ritualistic
, yeah yeah, I would say thatI'm not into that rhythm word
that you use because it sends mesomewhere else, but I think
(14:14):
that ritual might be a littledifferent.
It's kind of like there'sanother ridiculous ritual,
chicago thing, which is thatbottle over there.
It's called malort.
Have you ever heard of this?
uh-uh, anyway, I lost fantasyfootball league and the loser
has to drink this malort, andthat's the stuff, right there
(14:39):
okay and if you google itsometime and check it out, this
is like the worst drink on theface of the earth, and malort
even admits that it is.
They know that it is okay, butit's like a chicago thing and
and actually on their website oron youtube or somewhere they
actually have a contest formalort face, which is what your
(15:00):
face looks like after you drinksome.
Because it's so bad.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Oh, wow, so and some traditions should die.
You know what I?
Speaker 2 (15:06):
mean right, but now I'm curious but well, when the
show is over, if you'd like totry, I would be more than happy
to pour you one.
Anyway, I think that, like yousaid, it might be a little
semantics as we look at it.
You know, with traditions, likewith Christmas or you know,
whatever it is, and I think thatsome of those things we pass
(15:29):
down in our families, you knowfrom one generation to the next,
not necessarily like thisglobal thing from a bunch of
people that we probably nevereven knew before.
You know what I mean.
So some of it, I think, iscompartmentalized a little bit.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
So this is a good question what family or culture
or traditions from yourchildhood have had the most
impact or significant impact onyour adult life, oh my goodness.
And how do they continue toshape your values and decision?
(16:03):
What things Now?
Like I said, I grew up inStanton, iowa, very small town,
very Swedish.
We learned Swedish songs inschool.
We learned Swedish dances inschool.
We learned Swedish dances inschool.
We had a lot of traditions thatwere handed down and a lot of
(16:30):
the things that were handed downwere community.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
So this was a family.
This was more of Stanton as acommunity.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
Community but also a family.
This was more of Stanton as acommunity.
Community but also a family.
I kind of look at community asa family and that's what I
remember and has shaped me intomy adult life.
I remember that community andthat feeling of being a part of
(17:03):
something bigger than me and andthat has shaped me as a, as an
adult and has helped me want tobe that person for other people.
So that might be something tothink about.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Well, and I think for me, and it's, and it's
difficult because you guys knowsome of the stories and I'm not
going to bore you with it, butit's, it's, my life's gone a lot
of different ways over theyears, right, and I and I, I
think I probably I think Iprobably missed some of that,
like there's some of that whereI wish that, like where I live
(17:42):
now, like I had that group ofpeople or that, I don't know.
I could call it traditions, butit's more of, like you said, the
family part of things that youdo or things that you always
talk about, or things that youalways do on this date or
whatever it is, whatever that.
(18:03):
And I think that growing upwhen I was little, I remember a
lot of those things and a lot ofit was tied with the church.
As Lutheran, we go throughthese things.
There's a lot of differentstuff that we did and my folks
were super involved in thechurch, which meant that my
sister and I were super involvedin the church, which was great,
but we were always at thechurch.
We lived across the street andif somebody needed to get into
(18:25):
the building, they came to ourhouse to get the key from my dad
.
You know, I mean it was alwayssomething right and my parents
served great for their wholelife.
They were very, very wellinvolved in the church and they
did a lot of things for thechurch and I think that growing
up, like I was centered aroundthat, almost to the point that
(18:46):
you know, going to a Lutherangrade school and then a Lutheran
high school and then a Lutherancollege, right, do I want to
say, I kind of got burned outfrom a little bit, cause, you
know, as a teenager and thengrowing up I was kind of like,
well, you know, I don't know ifI want to go a different route
or if I want to do this,whatever it was, but I think now
as an adult, like you said,john, it kind of still has
formed you into the person thatyou are.
(19:06):
So the things that you thinkabout, maybe at particular times
of the year or in certaincircumstances that you recall,
maybe even not consciously, youknow, like it's subconsciously,
that huh yeah, this is howyou're supposed to feel about
that.
Huh, yeah, this is how you'resupposed to feel about this, or
this is how you're supposed tothink about this, or this is how
(19:27):
I'm supposed to react to this,or you know, whatever it is
right.
Like I don't know if you guyshave these, but there's those
moments where for me, a lot oftimes it happens to be like a
song or something comes up orsomething is talked about and it
might take me back and I get alittle, you know, a little
emotional about it, which and Idon't, and I have to sometimes
maybe later sit back and go whydid I feel emotional about that?
(19:49):
And then it kind of takes me toit.
I'm like oh, now I remember itwas because of this or because
of this, and I think that that'show, at least for me, some of
those things things have haveformed me as a person, if you
want to say right, probably hadmore of an impact on my life
than I even know that they have.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
yeah, that makes sense I think the reality is
that sometimes our you are, theway we grew up, does form us,
you know, either in a negativelyor a positive way, kind, just
it's part of our story as we, aswe journey through life.
But I grew up very differentfrom you guys.
I really didn't have much of acommunity up until I was
(20:30):
probably 13, 14, maybe 15 yearsold that I would like identify
as a, as a community.
We weren't like your littlesmall town of Stanton, iowa,
nothing like the East end ofDayton, ohio, like nothing like
it.
You know, um, I mean, there'sstill people, they're probably
mostly blue collar but still avery different.
(20:52):
You know more urban setting, forsure, and, um, you know I
didn't grow up in in church, uh,so we didn't have those normal
rhythms of going to you knowthose gatherings, you know, for
church or anything like that.
So a lot of my traditions, ifyou want to call them that
rhythms, really didn't startuntil later, in my late high
(21:15):
school years and then, after Imet my wife Jen, we started a
few traditions.
But it's interesting, as I waslistening to you guys talk, I'm
seeing my kids developtraditions.
It's almost like they have athirst.
It'll be interesting, afterthey listen to this, to talk to
them and see what their thoughtsare around it.
(21:37):
But it's almost like they havea thirst for more traditions,
because I don't know that we hada whole lot of those.
It's kind of funny that you saythat, because this year.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
This year finally came up that um, some of the
traditions that we've had, thatum with our kids.
They're older now, right, andsome of them are like, oh, do we
, are we still gonna do that?
Like some of the new generationdoesn't think the same way
about it.
They don't necessarily bringall those things in and we're
like, oh, do we, are we stillgonna do that?
Like some of the new generationdoesn't think the same way
about it.
They don't necessarily bringall those things in and they're
(22:06):
super receptive.
This is corny or this is youknow, whatever.
So you kind of like, well, wedid, we adjusted it a little bit
, sure, and we just say, oh well, you know, we don't have to go
as full as we did last, you knowbefore, when we used to, yeah,
but I think that that's wheretraditions.
For me it's kind of like if Ididn't have lasagna on christmas
(22:29):
eve, something's wrongsomewhere.
Like something wouldn't fit.
You know, like the world'sspinning in the opposite
direction yeah, which it isn't,and we all know that, but I
think that it's just.
It's little things like that.
It seems for me, like with myfamily I mean, we're norwegian
and german is that a lot of it'scentered around food and
celebrations of some sort?
(22:50):
Yep, um, obviously the churchpart was part of it, but you
know it involves I mean, I knowit's hard to believe but around
alcohol sometimes.
Okay, as I get older.
But even with my, with the kids, you know we sit at these
tables and you can see the barJohn, where we're sitting.
You know my kids come out andthat's like a tradition we have
now that we started.
(23:10):
They're going to come out andthey're going to carve their
names or their things into thisbar and as the years have gone,
at least for a couple of them,their initials changed right,
because they got married, sothey changed them and they you
know, which is cool.
It's just kind of neat to seelike a family progression of
stuff and makes you proud as aparent, and then you want to see
your grandkids do it and allthese things.
(23:31):
And as I repurpose this barover the years, this part's
never going away up on top.
It'll get put into whatever barthat comes in here.
But I think those are the type.
like you said, you're startingnew things because your kids are
kind of yearning for somethingyou know, like they hear you
tell stories about something oryou know whatever it could be,
(23:52):
but they might be yearning forit.
So what you know?
I think it's a way for us toconnect with our kids on a
different level, because they'rea different, obviously,
generation than we are Right,and we try to listen to what
they're saying.
It's, it's fun.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
they always listen to what we're saying.
But they're, you know, they'retrying and as we get older I
think you know, I you know,entering the 50s, you guys are
empty nesters.
I'm empty nester kind of.
But uh, as we become emptynesters, those traditions change
.
So it's like, whatevertraditions we have, we had had
(24:30):
to stop because our kids gotmarried or moved out, got
married, whatever, and we'rejust hoping at some point they
include us in some of theirtraditions.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Right, well and maybe didn't stop, but but just
changed, I mean.
I mean life does change andyour traditions change with life
, because your kids get older,they get married and they have
other families.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
That they have to be a part of.
And I think and I think Imentioned it before, but like
some of those connections, right, we talked about people right
in your life in a previousepisode, like my cousin Eric
who's up North in Michigan.
Right, I hadn't been up therein five years.
We used to go to deer campevery year.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Every November 15th.
I was there Right.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
Well, it's been a while.
That's a tradition.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
I went back this year .
Speaker 2 (25:28):
It's like we never missed a beat.
It was the same thing.
Nothing's changed, you know.
I mean we still talk and westill message each other and
whatever, and we talk about deerseason when it's deer season.
But some of those things wereembedded so hard when you were a
kid and growing up in yourfamily and it wasn't just him
and I was my dad and my grandpa,you know it was.
I have pictures all the waydown the line of stuff, the ones
(25:50):
that form you the most, likethey don't change, the ones that
formed you, that most are thesame.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
You might not experience them as often, but
it's still there yeah, it'sstill part of you and it does
form you.
It forms you as a person, and Ithink I grew up in a very
church family too, and we wespent a lot of time at church.
(26:16):
My dad was the organist, thechoir director did all the
decorating and all that, and so,you're right, my sister and I
spent a lot of time at church,and church was a big part of the
tradition that we grew up with,and family was a big part of
(26:38):
the tradition that we grew upwith, and family was a big part
of it.
So I grew up in a small town,our small town.
One of the kids that I grew upwith talked about we grew up in
a box.
What's in the box?
Yeah, what's in the box?
But anyway, we grew up in a boxof.
We had borders we had, we hadjust, everybody kept you within
(27:06):
that box.
They sheltered you from some ofthe world.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
That was going on because of the traditions that
you you grew up with and thatbox was kind of hemmed in by
cornfields, right, yes, yes, Imean, is that kind of the
direction you're going.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
Interesting enough, my wife went to a football game
in my hometown and said I'venever been to a football game
where I've seen a cornfieldbehind the football field.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
And it's different and it's coming here here.
You know not having lived hereobviously my whole life, but
friday night lights was always abig thing for me no matter
where?
right, yeah, and I remember, um,taking my oldest son, we went
to a uh, a town in morris,illinois, who, with this, was
just a great little footballtown, great, great little town.
(27:55):
It's kind of a southwest, farsouthwest suburb of Chicago
Always had a really toughfootball program.
It was great.
But we went to a playoff gamethere on a Friday night and we
wound up putting Nathan I don'tremember how old he was, he
wasn't very old Put him up ontop of the concession stand.
It was closed down because theyran out of food because people
(28:16):
got there at 5 o'clock and atedinner, so there was nothing
left.
So the concession stand waslike a barn.
It was closed down and I puthim on top of the roof so he
could see the game because therewas just so many people.
But then coming here and seeingcornfields in the background of
some of our games like even someof the games we go to there's
corn there, you know, and it's'slike you got to make sure those
(28:36):
guys aren't cutting stocks downin the in the fall and putting
dust all over the field, right,but I think one of the things,
as we're sitting here and I andit's up on the tv screen right
now and in this time of the year.
For me, around saint patrick'sday has always been since I've
grown up a little, you know, andthis wasn't a thing when I was
a kid, necessarily, but it'slike traditions for me of
(29:01):
watching things or doing thingsare about people, right, it's
about spending time with peopleand being around, people that
you enjoy being around.
I mean, that's just kind of athing where I think that and, as
I look at it as the other onesthat we talked about, like the
family ones, that's what it'sabout, I mean, the act of
(29:25):
whatever the tradition actuallyis, whether it's hiding a pickle
in a Christmas tree or whateverit is.
Those things it's not about theactual act.
It's about the actual act.
It's about the people thatyou're with.
It's your kids, it's yourparents, it's your grandparents,
it's your friends, it's your.
(29:46):
Whatever it is, yeah, whateverit is.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
Well, gentlemen, that might be enough for this week.
We probably can pick this upagain next week about traditions
.
We've talked a little bit aboutit.
What a great discussion, huh?
Absolutely Wonderful discussion.
Thanks, Luke and Chuck.
Thank you for listening andhanging out with us here at Half
Century Hangout.
We certainly want you to followus on your favorite podcast
(30:16):
apps.
Take a look at us out onFacebook and what other
platforms are we on?
Speaker 3 (30:23):
We are on Twitter.
We are on TikTok and Instagram.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
All right.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Hey, Luke, you got a quote for us this time I do my
old buddy Gustav Mahler.
Gustav Gustav, I love the name.
He was a composer back in the1800s.
Tradition is not the worship ofashes, but the preservation of
fire, that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Thanks again for hanging out with us here at Half
Century Hangout.
Come back next week.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
Peace out, peace out guys.
Bye, hang out, come back nextweek.
Peace out, peace out guys.
Thank you.
yeah, here we go.
It's great to be back.
Welcome back to the halfcentury hangout.
We're here in luke's garagethis weekend or this week and,
uh, you know we record a littlebit before the podcast comes out
.
So it's almost saint patrickDay and we're looking at maybe
(00:26):
looking at some traditions.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
I love St Patrick's Day.
I am not in any way shape form,anything, as far as the lineage
has ever proven to be a bit ofIrish, but I just love it and I
think it comes back to the pointthat I lived in Chicago for
such a long time and it's justthe place to be at St Patrick's.
(00:51):
So anybody that's listening,including you guys, obviously
it's a bucket list kind of thing.
The St Patrick's Dayfestivities in Chicago, yeah,
choice, great stuff, place to be.
And I will just say this, thisI'll give one travel bit of
advice if you're gonna go, youcan go watch them die the river
(01:12):
green, you know that's finethat's fine.
It's the river run, that's finebut then don't go to that parade
, the one that's, you know, theone that they would play on tv
and all that.
Right, you go to the south sideirish parade.
That's where all the police,the fire.
You know they're down there onthe Southside.
You go down there.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Guinness is flowing at 7 o'clock in the morning.
You're out there and that is mynext bucket list item is kilt,
cable knit sweater Guinness.
7 o'clock am and I will be ableto play the bagpipes by then.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
That's the South Side O'Chicago.
Yeah, we're going to have somefun.
Baddest part of town.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
We're going to have some fun.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
There you go.
That'll be fun.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
I'm not going there this weekend, but you know.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
There's a lot of traditions that go on around St
Patrick's Day, aren't thereQuite?
Speaker 2 (02:01):
a few.
Yeah, day, aren't there?
Speaker 3 (02:06):
quite a few.
Yeah, you gotta have somecorned beef, right, you know
you're gonna do that corned beefcabbage, yeah carrots, potatoes
, I will tell you I'll.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
I'll say this here's my shout out.
I'm doing my shout out a littleearly, yeah, because my wife
becky makes the best reubensandwiches around.
So that's our reuben.
Our saint patrick's day is thereuben sandwich, with the
sauerkraut, the corned beef, themarble rye bread, and she makes
it Ah, choice.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
I love a good Reuben sandwich, but you know I just
can't hardly get past thecabbage.
I love cooked cabbage.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Oh yeah, really, we still do Cooked cabbage.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Absolutely 100%.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Well, you, know, without the sauerkraut, right?
I mean it's just regular cookedcabbage, because obviously
that's what sauerkraut is, butit's, like you, the cabbage in
the, the boiled dinner, as theycalled it, right, you know you
do that with new red potatoes.
Yep, yep, you know you do that.
It's great stuff.
Great stuff.
That's what I had like growingup and then kind of, as I was in
chicago, kind of still did thata little bit and you would go
(02:59):
to bars, taverns, irish pubsaround, and they always had it
out.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
I don't know if you guys had it or not, but one of
the best places around here thatI've had cabbage and corn, beef
, carrots and potatoes wasCaddy's down on the block.
Now it's only brunch, only now,I know.
So that kind of sucks.
Maybe they'll do somethingspecial for corn beef.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
I saw somewhere.
I don't remember where theplace was, but somebody is
making Reuben egg rolls thisweek.
Oh wow, that's not some, someestablishment.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
I remember where it was, but I should research that
I have seen those and I've had afew Reuben egg rolls.
They're pretty good.
They're pretty good.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
So I found out that I actually I didn't find out till
later in life.
I always wanted to be Irish,because the Irish traditions, I
think, are so cool and theaccent's freaking amazing, right
.
But I didn't find out till liketwo years ago that I actually
have a like a good percentage ofIrish in me.
Mcmahon, mcmahon, mcmahon yeah,that's a, that's, that's my.
Where I came from, dublin, iswhere my great granddaddy, great
(03:59):
, great great granddaddy camefrom, or whatever nice.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
I grew up down in stanton, iowa, and, uh, very
swedish very swedish and yeah, Iwas gonna say nothing to do
with going down the irish road.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
I'm like I don't think stan's got a ton of irish.
I got no, no irish whatsoever Idon't think so at all no, no
irish in no Irish in me.
Very, very Swedish in German.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Schultz, yeah, very German yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
I know nothing Nein.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
That's it.
You know, it's great to be aprincipal when you're Schultz,
yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
So what's our shout outs this week?
What do we got?
Who do we got?
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Man we have got a lot of good things, I think.
I think, going on one of theshout outs I'd like to give out,
we got new listeners in newyork city.
Wow, um, in a suburb of um,london, it's like I want to say
higginbotham, but that's not it.
It's like higdon or somethinglike that, but we don't even
know how to pronounce.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
It's a suburb of london which I thought was cool,
kind of cool they found this.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
I didn't even know london had suburb yeah, and then
, uh, there was a lady on apretty big town on spotify that
actually gave us a a good shoutout about our, uh, about our
logo, samantha mccart.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
There you go, that's cool samantha mccart, and that's
a great.
I love the new name too, right,mccart, yeah I think um.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
my shout out goes to Bert Cooper.
He's over in Omaha, listen tous.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
All right, Bert.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Gotta love Bert.
He's a friend of mine.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Was Bert over here last night?
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Bert was over here last night.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
That's awesome, His wife.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Kathy's there and Haley and Hope the daughters are
there and good folks over thereright over near brian high
school right on.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
I love brian high school.
I I spent a lot of time down bybrian high school.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
That's one of the places that we're going to go on
.
Saturday is darby's darbydarby's okay, shout out for
darby, kind of over that way but, speaking, we kind of went down
the road a little bit, but wewere talking about traditions,
right?
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Yeah, traditions.
They're kind of threads thatconnect our past to our present
and our future, really, andtraditions are help to shape us
as individuals and organizations, our cultures.
We could talk about habitsmaybe.
And it's Easter time, it'sspringtime and there's always a
(06:30):
lot of traditions that go on.
It might be passed through ourfamily or companies or even
educational institutions.
We got colors and songs and allkinds of things that happen
with traditions.
So that's what we are going todiscuss today A little bit of
(06:53):
tradition.
Got some questions for you, ifyou got some answers.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
I think, if you guys have kind of picked up on it a
of times, obviously our ourprevious topics lead over into
the next, right?
So those connections that johntalked about with traditions are
part of.
What we spoke about last timewas those connections of
friendships and how we buildthose and how that works, and
sure so, when we were talkingabout this, this is kind of
(07:20):
where the tradition part came in, because we know that that
connects us not just to a groupof people but just to kind of
where the tradition part came in, cause we know that that
connects us not just to a groupof people but just to kind of
life in general.
It might hook us up to family,it might be friends, it might be
times of the year, like Chuckwas talking about holidays.
I mean, there's so many thingsthat we can talk about.
Traditions, um, and I thinkthat it's important for us to
(07:45):
see them and to know that theyexist and to acknowledge them.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Yeah, and I think there may be a certain
percentage of people out there,if they're like me, that may
buck at that word tradition,because I'm not, like, proud of
traditions, but I think stilleverybody falls into them them.
What I tend to use is the wordrhythms.
You know those types of that.
That's a word that I use.
I have these normal rhythms ofmy life.
(08:12):
But most probably, most peopleprobably call those traditions
right habits well, why do youbalk at the word traditions,
though?
Speaker 2 (08:19):
what is, what's that?
Speaker 3 (08:19):
so for me, tradition speaks of dead Like it's just
dead Really, like it's justsomething that is normal.
Check the box, no effort putinto it, that I have to follow
the expectations of people longbefore me Rules.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
You're talking about rules.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Yeah and traditional.
You know about rules.
Yeah and traditional.
Sometimes, you know, I don't, Itend not to be very traditional
, but I don't, maybe I am in awhole different way, right?
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Possible.
Yeah, I think the difference,though and I and I hear what
you're saying, there's actuallya quote that that I had seen
about it it was blindlyfollowing tradition does not
mean the dead are living, butthat the living are dead.
Yeah, okay, Very true.
And I think, though, thattradition can change as the
(09:15):
years go right, like, forinstance, the Bible.
Okay, the Bible has a lot ofstories in it that we can look
at that story in black and whiteand really not understand how
it applies to now, but you haveto mold it a little bit right to
be able to make it applicablein our day and age.
And I think traditions are thesame way.
I think that we look at it,maybe when it was put into place
(09:38):
by whoever it was, or whateverit was and whatever their
surroundings were, but we canlook at it now and say, okay,
you know we could still do that,but we have a little more focus
on this.
You know what I mean?
Like there's somethingdifferent.
So I hear what you're saying,that you don't want to just
follow a tradition, just tofollow it, just to say that you
are.
But some of them, I think youknow, kind of like the Michigan
(10:02):
Fight song.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
That's a traditional thing played in the last game of
the football season of collegewhen that song is played when
they defeat the uh, that teamdown south.
You know over there thebuckeyes, yeah, so when I think
of tradition, um, it'sinteresting that you actually
had that quote that mentionedthe word dead, and I was how I
described, because I didn't talkabout this no, no I.
I know, and so tradition.
I think it has to be like thewhat has to be explained by the
why, Like why do you do thisthing, why do you feel like this
(10:35):
is important?
And I think once I can get tothe why and I agree with the why
, then the what becomes moremeaningful for you.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Sure, well, and we've all been in companies or
organizations that havetraditions, right, and what you
got to find, I think, is andwhat you two are talking about
you got to find the ones thathelp you get to where you want
to be, to where you want to be,so the values, the goals of that
(11:15):
company, of that organization,whatever it is, and you got to
find the ones that fit that.
And so, really, I thinktraditions help you get to some
of those values that anorganization should have.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
So we talked about St Patrick's Day, right.
It's kind of like how we kickedoff this show.
Do you guys know the story ofwho St Patrick was?
I might a little bit.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
I'm sure I remember some of it.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Share it with us, John.
I figured you probably would,John, but share it with us.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Well, St Patrick was actually the saint who brought
the Catholic Church to Ireland.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
Right, and I would not say the Catholic church,
though that that was what he did.
I would say the gospel.
He brought the truth of thegospel to Ireland.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Yes, and and you know we can disagree on that, but
also there's some you knowtraditions around there.
He also got rid of all thesnakes in which may be I didn't
know this piece there's some youknow traditions around there.
He also got rid of all thesnakes in Ireland.
Yeah, which may be a folk tale,but who knows?
Speaker 2 (12:34):
I almost got one of those shirts the other day.
Like the snakes are gone, let'shave a beer.
You know what I mean.
Like it was one of those things.
Yeah, you didn't know that.
Oh yeah, that was like that'sone of the big things that he
did, was he got rid of thesnakes?
Speaker 1 (12:45):
and got rid of all the snakes in ireland.
But you know, ireland may nothave had a whole lot I don't
know if there was a whole, it'san island he basically got rid
of both of them, right?
Speaker 3 (12:53):
yeah, all three of them.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Yeah, maybe they were , but anyway that's, he brought
the gospel to ireland absolutelyand became a saint because of
it.
So the Catholic church made hima saint.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
Right, and so what?
It's what that tradition hasevolved into today a lot of
people don't even realize.
They just think it's a time toparty, when we're actually
celebrating the gospel movinginto new places around the world
, Right.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Way back in what?
But isn't that why you'recelebrating?
Heck?
Yeah, Because the gospel isthere.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
Yeah, but people forget about it, oh, I know.
So that why makes more sensefor me, for the what?
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Chuck, I think what I'm going to say is that the
tradition part there's lots oftraditions that people have and,
like you talked about holidaytradition, right, okay, yeah, so
you might not think of thosenegatively because it's stuff
that your family did over theyears or you know whatever it is
(13:51):
, and so I think there's there'smight almost be like, um, like
categories of traditions, if youwant to say, okay, like if
we're just doing something to doit, because some people 100
years ago did it you know,whatever that's more ritualistic
, yeah yeah, I would say thatI'm not into that rhythm word
that you use because it sends mesomewhere else, but I think
(14:14):
that ritual might be a littledifferent.
It's kind of like there'sanother ridiculous ritual,
chicago thing, which is thatbottle over there.
It's called malort.
Have you ever heard of this?
uh-uh, anyway, I lost fantasyfootball league and the loser
has to drink this malort, andthat's the stuff, right there
(14:39):
okay and if you google itsometime and check it out, this
is like the worst drink on theface of the earth, and malort
even admits that it is.
They know that it is okay, butit's like a chicago thing and
and actually on their website oron youtube or somewhere they
actually have a contest formalort face, which is what your
(15:00):
face looks like after you drinksome.
Because it's so bad.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Oh, wow, so and some traditions should die.
You know what I?
Speaker 2 (15:06):
mean right, but now I'm curious but well, when the
show is over, if you'd like totry, I would be more than happy
to pour you one.
Anyway, I think that, like yousaid, it might be a little
semantics as we look at it.
You know, with traditions, likewith Christmas or you know,
whatever it is, and I think thatsome of those things we pass
(15:29):
down in our families, you knowfrom one generation to the next,
not necessarily like thisglobal thing from a bunch of
people that we probably nevereven knew before.
You know what I mean.
So some of it, I think, iscompartmentalized a little bit.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
So this is a good question what family or culture
or traditions from yourchildhood have had the most
impact or significant impact onyour adult life, oh my goodness.
And how do they continue toshape your values and decision?
(16:03):
What things Now?
Like I said, I grew up inStanton, iowa, very small town,
very Swedish.
We learned Swedish songs inschool.
We learned Swedish dances inschool.
We learned Swedish dances inschool.
We had a lot of traditions thatwere handed down and a lot of
(16:30):
the things that were handed downwere community.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
So this was a family.
This was more of Stanton as acommunity.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
Community but also a family.
This was more of Stanton as acommunity.
Community but also a family.
I kind of look at community asa family and that's what I
remember and has shaped me intomy adult life.
I remember that community andthat feeling of being a part of
(17:03):
something bigger than me and andthat has shaped me as a, as an
adult and has helped me want tobe that person for other people.
So that might be something tothink about.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Well, and I think for me, and it's, and it's
difficult because you guys knowsome of the stories and I'm not
going to bore you with it, butit's, it's, my life's gone a lot
of different ways over theyears, right, and I and I, I
think I probably I think Iprobably missed some of that,
like there's some of that whereI wish that, like where I live
(17:42):
now, like I had that group ofpeople or that, I don't know.
I could call it traditions, butit's more of, like you said, the
family part of things that youdo or things that you always
talk about, or things that youalways do on this date or
whatever it is, whatever that.
(18:03):
And I think that growing upwhen I was little, I remember a
lot of those things and a lot ofit was tied with the church.
As Lutheran, we go throughthese things.
There's a lot of differentstuff that we did and my folks
were super involved in thechurch, which meant that my
sister and I were super involvedin the church, which was great,
but we were always at thechurch.
We lived across the street andif somebody needed to get into
(18:25):
the building, they came to ourhouse to get the key from my dad
.
You know, I mean it was alwayssomething right and my parents
served great for their wholelife.
They were very, very wellinvolved in the church and they
did a lot of things for thechurch and I think that growing
up, like I was centered aroundthat, almost to the point that
(18:46):
you know, going to a Lutherangrade school and then a Lutheran
high school and then a Lutherancollege, right, do I want to
say, I kind of got burned outfrom a little bit, cause, you
know, as a teenager and thengrowing up I was kind of like,
well, you know, I don't know ifI want to go a different route
or if I want to do this,whatever it was, but I think now
as an adult, like you said,john, it kind of still has
formed you into the person thatyou are.
(19:06):
So the things that you thinkabout, maybe at particular times
of the year or in certaincircumstances that you recall,
maybe even not consciously, youknow, like it's subconsciously,
that huh yeah, this is howyou're supposed to feel about
that.
Huh, yeah, this is how you'resupposed to feel about this, or
this is how you're supposed tothink about this, or this is how
(19:27):
I'm supposed to react to this,or you know, whatever it is
right.
Like I don't know if you guyshave these, but there's those
moments where for me, a lot oftimes it happens to be like a
song or something comes up orsomething is talked about and it
might take me back and I get alittle, you know, a little
emotional about it, which and Idon't, and I have to sometimes
maybe later sit back and go whydid I feel emotional about that?
(19:49):
And then it kind of takes me toit.
I'm like oh, now I remember itwas because of this or because
of this, and I think that that'show, at least for me, some of
those things things have haveformed me as a person, if you
want to say right, probably hadmore of an impact on my life
than I even know that they have.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
yeah, that makes sense I think the reality is
that sometimes our you are, theway we grew up, does form us,
you know, either in a negativelyor a positive way, kind, just
it's part of our story as we, aswe journey through life.
But I grew up very differentfrom you guys.
I really didn't have much of acommunity up until I was
(20:30):
probably 13, 14, maybe 15 yearsold that I would like identify
as a, as a community.
We weren't like your littlesmall town of Stanton, iowa,
nothing like the East end ofDayton, ohio, like nothing like
it.
You know, um, I mean, there'sstill people, they're probably
mostly blue collar but still avery different.
(20:52):
You know more urban setting, forsure, and, um, you know I
didn't grow up in in church, uh,so we didn't have those normal
rhythms of going to you knowthose gatherings, you know, for
church or anything like that.
So a lot of my traditions, ifyou want to call them that
rhythms, really didn't startuntil later, in my late high
(21:15):
school years and then, after Imet my wife Jen, we started a
few traditions.
But it's interesting, as I waslistening to you guys talk, I'm
seeing my kids developtraditions.
It's almost like they have athirst.
It'll be interesting, afterthey listen to this, to talk to
them and see what their thoughtsare around it.
(21:37):
But it's almost like they havea thirst for more traditions,
because I don't know that we hada whole lot of those.
It's kind of funny that you saythat, because this year.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
This year finally came up that um, some of the
traditions that we've had, thatum with our kids.
They're older now, right, andsome of them are like, oh, do we
, are we still gonna do that?
Like some of the new generationdoesn't think the same way
about it.
They don't necessarily bringall those things in and we're
like, oh, do we, are we stillgonna do that?
Like some of the new generationdoesn't think the same way
about it.
They don't necessarily bringall those things in and they're
(22:06):
super receptive.
This is corny or this is youknow, whatever.
So you kind of like, well, wedid, we adjusted it a little bit
, sure, and we just say, oh well, you know, we don't have to go
as full as we did last, you knowbefore, when we used to, yeah,
but I think that that's wheretraditions.
For me it's kind of like if Ididn't have lasagna on christmas
(22:29):
eve, something's wrongsomewhere.
Like something wouldn't fit.
You know, like the world'sspinning in the opposite
direction yeah, which it isn't,and we all know that, but I
think that it's just.
It's little things like that.
It seems for me, like with myfamily I mean, we're norwegian
and german is that a lot of it'scentered around food and
celebrations of some sort?
(22:50):
Yep, um, obviously the churchpart was part of it, but you
know it involves I mean, I knowit's hard to believe but around
alcohol sometimes.
Okay, as I get older.
But even with my, with the kids, you know we sit at these
tables and you can see the barJohn, where we're sitting.
You know my kids come out andthat's like a tradition we have
now that we started.
(23:10):
They're going to come out andthey're going to carve their
names or their things into thisbar and as the years have gone,
at least for a couple of them,their initials changed right,
because they got married, sothey changed them and they you
know, which is cool.
It's just kind of neat to seelike a family progression of
stuff and makes you proud as aparent, and then you want to see
your grandkids do it and allthese things.
(23:31):
And as I repurpose this barover the years, this part's
never going away up on top.
It'll get put into whatever barthat comes in here.
But I think those are the type.
like you said, you're startingnew things because your kids are
kind of yearning for somethingyou know, like they hear you
tell stories about something oryou know whatever it could be,
(23:52):
but they might be yearning forit.
So what you know?
I think it's a way for us toconnect with our kids on a
different level, because they'rea different, obviously,
generation than we are Right,and we try to listen to what
they're saying.
It's, it's fun.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
they always listen to what we're saying.
But they're, you know, they'retrying and as we get older I
think you know, I you know,entering the 50s, you guys are
empty nesters.
I'm empty nester kind of.
But uh, as we become emptynesters, those traditions change
.
So it's like, whatevertraditions we have, we had had
(24:30):
to stop because our kids gotmarried or moved out, got
married, whatever, and we'rejust hoping at some point they
include us in some of theirtraditions.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Right, well and maybe didn't stop, but but just
changed, I mean.
I mean life does change andyour traditions change with life
, because your kids get older,they get married and they have
other families.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
That they have to be a part of.
And I think and I think Imentioned it before, but like
some of those connections, right, we talked about people right
in your life in a previousepisode, like my cousin Eric
who's up North in Michigan.
Right, I hadn't been up therein five years.
We used to go to deer campevery year.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Every November 15th.
I was there Right.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
Well, it's been a while.
That's a tradition.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
I went back this year .
Speaker 2 (25:28):
It's like we never missed a beat.
It was the same thing.
Nothing's changed, you know.
I mean we still talk and westill message each other and
whatever, and we talk about deerseason when it's deer season.
But some of those things wereembedded so hard when you were a
kid and growing up in yourfamily and it wasn't just him
and I was my dad and my grandpa,you know it was.
I have pictures all the waydown the line of stuff, the ones
(25:50):
that form you the most, likethey don't change, the ones that
formed you, that most are thesame.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
You might not experience them as often, but
it's still there yeah, it'sstill part of you and it does
form you.
It forms you as a person, and Ithink I grew up in a very
church family too, and we wespent a lot of time at church.
(26:16):
My dad was the organist, thechoir director did all the
decorating and all that, and so,you're right, my sister and I
spent a lot of time at church,and church was a big part of the
tradition that we grew up with,and family was a big part of
(26:38):
the tradition that we grew upwith, and family was a big part
of it.
So I grew up in a small town,our small town.
One of the kids that I grew upwith talked about we grew up in
a box.
What's in the box?
Yeah, what's in the box?
But anyway, we grew up in a boxof.
We had borders we had, we hadjust, everybody kept you within
(27:06):
that box.
They sheltered you from some ofthe world.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
That was going on because of the traditions that
you you grew up with and thatbox was kind of hemmed in by
cornfields, right, yes, yes, Imean, is that kind of the
direction you're going.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
Interesting enough, my wife went to a football game
in my hometown and said I'venever been to a football game
where I've seen a cornfieldbehind the football field.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
And it's different and it's coming here here.
You know not having lived hereobviously my whole life, but
friday night lights was always abig thing for me no matter
where?
right, yeah, and I remember, um,taking my oldest son, we went
to a uh, a town in morris,illinois, who, with this, was
just a great little footballtown, great, great little town.
(27:55):
It's kind of a southwest, farsouthwest suburb of Chicago
Always had a really toughfootball program.
It was great.
But we went to a playoff gamethere on a Friday night and we
wound up putting Nathan I don'tremember how old he was, he
wasn't very old Put him up ontop of the concession stand.
It was closed down because theyran out of food because people
(28:16):
got there at 5 o'clock and atedinner, so there was nothing
left.
So the concession stand waslike a barn.
It was closed down and I puthim on top of the roof so he
could see the game because therewas just so many people.
But then coming here and seeingcornfields in the background of
some of our games like even someof the games we go to there's
corn there, you know, and it's'slike you got to make sure those
(28:36):
guys aren't cutting stocks downin the in the fall and putting
dust all over the field, right,but I think one of the things,
as we're sitting here and I andit's up on the tv screen right
now and in this time of the year.
For me, around saint patrick'sday has always been since I've
grown up a little, you know, andthis wasn't a thing when I was
a kid, necessarily, but it'slike traditions for me of
(29:01):
watching things or doing thingsare about people, right, it's
about spending time with peopleand being around, people that
you enjoy being around.
I mean, that's just kind of athing where I think that and, as
I look at it as the other onesthat we talked about, like the
family ones, that's what it'sabout, I mean, the act of
(29:25):
whatever the tradition actuallyis, whether it's hiding a pickle
in a Christmas tree or whateverit is.
Those things it's not about theactual act.
It's about the actual act.
It's about the people thatyou're with.
It's your kids, it's yourparents, it's your grandparents,
it's your friends, it's your.
(29:46):
Whatever it is, yeah, whateverit is.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
Well, gentlemen, that might be enough for this week.
We probably can pick this upagain next week about traditions
.
We've talked a little bit aboutit.
What a great discussion, huh?
Absolutely Wonderful discussion.
Thanks, Luke and Chuck.
Thank you for listening andhanging out with us here at Half
Century Hangout.
We certainly want you to followus on your favorite podcast
(30:16):
apps.
Take a look at us out onFacebook and what other
platforms are we on?
Speaker 3 (30:23):
We are on Twitter.
We are on TikTok and Instagram.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
All right.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Hey, Luke, you got a quote for us this time I do my
old buddy Gustav Mahler.
Gustav Gustav, I love the name.
He was a composer back in the1800s.
Tradition is not the worship ofashes, but the preservation of
fire, that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Thanks again for hanging out with us here at Half
Century Hangout.
Come back next week.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
Peace out, peace out guys.
Bye, hang out, come back nextweek.
Peace out, peace out guys.
Thank you.
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