February 18, 2025 • 37 mins
Ever struggled to keep up with the whirlwind of modern slang and wondered if "skibidi" is a trendy new dance move or a state of mind? Join us as we untangle the web of generational communication! We laugh at our attempts to decode today's lingo while reminiscing about our own ridiculous phrases from back in the day. With humorous anecdotes and enlightening reflections, we explore how language both connects and divides us, especially when it comes to connecting with Gen Z and Gen Alpha. It's a fun-filled exploration of how our communication styles have transformed alongside the digital age, leaving us to ponder how to stay relatable to the younger crowd.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Half-century hangout.
Here we are again, and you knowwhat I am hearing, this new
language, and I do not know whatit is.
Yeah, there it is Can somebodyplease explain to me what the
skibbity.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
I'm half-century.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Cap bro, what that's cap Skibbity what's a skibbity?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
That's a cap.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Oh wow, I've never heard that term.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
We have to determine who Alpha Sigma is.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Oh my goodness, Alpha Sigma.
I tell you, I think that's afraternity, isn't it?
I tell you, alpha Sigma.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
It's Gat all the way.
What's Sigma?
It's Gat all the way.
What's Sigma?
It's Gat, it's Gat.
It's there sus, it's all sus.
Man, it's all sus.
Everything it's sus, that's allwe're, that's all we're talking
about.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Here's the thing you got a lot of rears.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Right now we've talked what we have talked so
much about learning, right, sowe're gonna do a little learning
today.
We're gonna figure this out alittle bit.
We're gonna try to decide wherewe fit into this lingo that I
have no idea what it is, becauseback in the day we said things
(01:08):
like Wasteoid.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Gag me with a spoon Gag me with a spoon.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
I mean it's like eat my shorts.
I mean, come on.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Well, those made sense, right, Cool beans,
remember that.
You know how?
About this Nice?
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Yep, nice, back in detroit, we did noise, noise,
yep n-o-i-c-e, n-o-i-c-e noiseand it was it meant the same
thing, but I read something theother day that that if you, if
you watched the breakfast clubokay, and you were, you know,
like a teenager or 20s thatright now you're older than the
(01:47):
principal that was in the showoh my god, I'm like oh yeah, I'm
there.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
So we all have our, our little sayings, don't we?
And so, so what are we talkingabout with the uh, sus and all
that stuff?
I?
Speaker 1 (01:59):
think that one of the things we're we're laughing
about it today and it was justsomething that's come up, but
we've talked about it a lot.
You know, just in passing.
I'm sure that our listenersmust realize that we do not
limit our talking to the timethat we are recording ourselves.
These are things that happenevery day, that we've had
experiences throughout our life,throughout our daily work day.
(02:21):
You know, whatever it is,Things that make us go huh, yeah
you know, and and today it justso happened.
Today we just kind of laughedabout it because we have a
coworker who brought somethingup.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
who you know, maybe a little bit younger than us?
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Yeah, she's definitely younger than we are
and she brought up somethingthat one of her kids said and
she had to look it up.
She's kind of in that middle,so she's like a millennial.
She's not a Z or an alpha right.
She's a millennial.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Yeah, kind of what we're talking about is a Gen Z,
Gen Alpha talk.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Right, yeah, we're talking about that, but she was
kind of there so she had to lookit up.
And the word that her son who's.
How old is he?
He's probably 11,.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Yeah, fifth grade, fourth grade, something like
that.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
And the way that he said it, you know, and then
bringing it out, it's like, ohyeah, that doesn't really mean
what you think it does, so youprobably shouldn't say that
anymore.
But I think that when we lookat this, we're looking at the
idea of how is it that we asgenerations different
generations communicate, right?
(03:26):
Yeah, and for us in the halfcentury hangout, I don't know
about you guys, but if we walkedinto a bar, okay, at our age,
three guys walk into a bar.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Yeah, yeah and one duck yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
And one duck right, yeah, okay.
So the thing is is, if youwalked in or if I walked in, or
John, if you walked in andthere's people that are younger
than you are, can you fit in?
Can you talk with them?
Can you get conversation withthem?
Can you figure it out?
I think there's some peoplethat can.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
And I think all three of us would probably fall into
that category.
There's others that really wouldshy away from it, sure like, oh
my gosh, I don't know whatthey're saying.
I have no idea what they'resaying, you know whatever it is
right, like, I think, that beingraised I shouldn't say raised
growing up, like in the highschool ages, if you want to say
in the 80s there was a lot ofdifferent things going on right.
There was a lot of things thatdifferent sayings, the way that
we spoke, the way that thingswere happening.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
The way we grew up.
Right.
It's so much different than itis.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
And for me, the number one thing and I say this
to a lot of people as we laugh,and there are students that will
tell this too and they laughabout it.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
So in college, so that's like mid-80s for you to.
You know to yeah, when did yougrow up there?
Yeah, so my college years were90 to 95.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Okay so so you graduated in from high school,
high school, high school 90.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Oh, thank you 90.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Yeah, so you grew up in the 80s yeah I grew up in the
80s.
Yeah, I grew up, grew up in themid-70s to the mid-80s Right.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
So the idea is that if you look at the way that it
was, communication now is somuch electronics.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
It blows me away.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Like I remember thinking, and I just remember
thinking like the first.
I don't even remember what yearit was the first cell phone I
got, it was I was, I was, I wasmarrying that kids?
I mean, I don't I was like comeon now.
This is, this is crazy.
What are we doing with thisthing?
Right, and then I happened toget a job that they gave me a um
(05:40):
, what was that old phone withthe, the blackberry?
Speaker 3 (05:43):
oh wow and I thought that, I thought that was it.
But then I was like I don'tknow.
You know, I got that when I wasactually a teacher.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
I mean it's crazy, and I think that the way that we
communicate, and not just theelectronic part but the verbal
part, it's always a morph inprogress, right, I mean?
obviously I mean things from the50s, the 60s, the electronic
part, but the verbal part it'salways a morph in progress,
right, I mean obviously I meanthings from the 50s, the 60s,
the 70s.
I mean every decade changes alittle bit in how it goes.
By the way, did you see TravisKelsey at the Super Bowl, what
he was dressed like?
(06:15):
Did you see that?
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Yeah, I thought he looked sharp.
He did look sharp.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
But guys our age thought he did.
Yeah, but guys, our age thoughthe did, but then others thought
that he should have beenselling me a 1977 Buick Regal
off of a used car lot.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Oh, no man, I thought he looked hot.
I mean not that I would youknow, not that way, but I
thought he looked good.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
No, I hear you, I hear you.
Some people thought maybe hewas an adult film director too.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Oh no, that didn't even come to my mind, I saw a
meme about that.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
I don't know, but I think that we talked about the
80s.
We talked about things thatwere going on then and as the
half century club sometimes welook at the past and we'll be
like, oh, you know, back in theday.
And how many kids look at usnow when we say back in the day
and they roll their eyes andthey're like, oh.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
So how do you know?
You grew up in the 80s.
What are some of the thingsthat are Atari?
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Atari If you know, atari, you probably grew up in
the 80s.
Which one?
2600?
No, no, no, the original.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
I mean the 2600 for sure.
I think the 2600 was theoriginal right.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
No, there was one before the 2600,.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
I think Pong.
Are you talking about Pong?
Yeah, no, I'm talking about theoriginal.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Atari With like four.
Let me fact check myself here.
All right, you guys keeptalking, I'm going to fact check
myself the original.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Atari I think this is where I thought it was the 2600
.
In our introduction we talkabout three guys who grew up
differently.
Right, we talk about we grew upin different areas.
We did different.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
We're still kind of, but not western to a degree.
A little bit different eras toowe're still a little bit
graduated.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
90 a little bit after us a little a little bit.
John's an 85, I'm an 86, yeah,yeah you're a 90, so so we're,
you know, similar, but it's alittle bit of a jump because at
the end of that that 80s andwhen you were the 90s, it's
going.
It's a little bit different andI know that for me and this
certainly isn't like a statusthing I think that well, I think
(08:14):
and you guys can correct me ifI'm wrong growing up in the 80s
and when I was in high school, Iwas in the largest city out of
the three of us you were, it wasdefinitely larger.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
I'm a little bit more of a.
Mine was like 700 people.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Yeah, I mean you're in a, I was in a big city.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
I was in a very small town.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
I was in a big city but a small school because it
was a private school in thattown.
So there's different things aswe go, and I think that this
always you learn things as yougo like wow, that part of the
country was doing this or thispart of the country, even though
it was the same time, and oneof the things that I've laughed
at since I've been to this area,which you said, like the Omaha
(08:52):
metro area.
One thing that cracks me upwe'll talk about just for a
second is fashion.
They're a year behind If I'm inChicago or I'm in Detroit and
maybe you see it.
And then you come here and it'slike people like oh, look at my
new digs, man, look at this,look at this, and it's like I
saw that last year it'shilarious it's just, and I think
(09:12):
that it's just a microcosm ofhow the country works and how
things are and where people are.
But nowadays, with electronics,it's a little bit different
because, you see, see,everything, everything, yeah,
you see the world differentlythan when you did when local
news in omaha back then was justseeing what was happening,
right?
Speaker 2 (09:32):
here correct.
You know, the original ataricame out in 1977 77 what was it?
Uh, it was the original atari.
And then the 20, what's itcalled, uh it?
And then the 2600 came out 82,80.
So you know what?
1977.
So it's the same thing thereyou go.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Yeah 2600 was the original yeah it looks like it
yeah.
So, Pong was a little bitbefore that and Pong was the one
with the paddles.
Do you ever remember that?
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Yep pong was the one with the paddles.
Do you ever remember that?
Speaker 3 (10:06):
yep, and it had four, four, um like games you could
play.
You could play hockey, youcould play pong, you could play
pong off of a of a wall and youcould play double pong or
something like that.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Shout out to my friend Patrick Green, who had
the original Atari that weplayed in probably 1980, 81, 82,
something like that.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
And we played pong.
Did you have Pitfall?
Speaker 1 (10:35):
I don't remember Pitfall until later on what year
did cable TV come out?
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Man, I remember cable TV coming out.
Probably the very first thing Ithink I watched on Cable TV was
MTV and it was Phil Collins'you Can't Hurry Love.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
You Just have to Wait , but what year-ish was that?
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Probably 83, 84 maybe , because I know that.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
So for me.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
For me, anyway, that's when our house was able
to afford it.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Well, that's what I'm saying and I don't remember the
exact year, but what I doremember is that there's a
picture in the archivessomewhere of my dad getting a
color TV for us.
And it actually wasn't from mydad, it was from some guys that
he was doing some midnight workfor as a printer, and they
brought us one and we thought wewere pretty cool right, yeah,
(11:26):
we finally had this color tv.
But my friend down the street,they were already there and then
they got cable, which I didn'treally quite understand.
But what I found out in a hurrywas they had a remote control
yeah oh my god what was thatremote control like?
The, the remote control wasprobably like what's the biggest
phone now like big one,whatever like a samsung
(11:49):
something, yeah, some big oldthing.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
It was probably twice the size of that thing yeah,
and it was this big clunky.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Did it have clickers on it?
It had little clickers on it,but I remember that they got two
of them and his parents got itand I remember going like, wow,
this is, I don't have to standup and go over to the tv and
turn the channel and my dadyelling at me to hold the rabbit
ears, you know like, hold itthis way or put the foil on the
end and hold it, but the biggestthing was is that they had all
(12:19):
these channels.
And so his older brother, myfriend, jerry Moore he's his
older brother, ken, who welearned everything from because
of course he knew jerry moore.
He's his older brother, ken,who we learned everything from
because of course he kneweverything right of course he's
an older brother, he's.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
How could we not think?
You gotta know, by the way,everything if you drove.
You guys talked about a buickregal.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
I drove a 1977 buick regal sky blue he, he told us
about this remote and we werethere, and then we realized that
there was one of those channels, the risque channel, uh-oh so
risque we took one of theremotes outside.
I was a little mischievous whenI was back then you gotta be
(12:58):
kidding me.
We stood outside the windowstill a little bit jerry's dad
and his mom were sitting therewatching a movie and she got up
to go to the kitchen to get somesnacks or something and we
switched it to the Playboychannel from the window.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Oh no, I thought it was the Risque channel.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
It was Risque at the time and he was in there
smacking the remote and shecomes in and she's like
backhanding him, you know, likemad, and he's looking at it like
what is going on.
And then she left again, liketo go to the bathroom.
We did it, oh it's great.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
So our remote was probably a two by three by maybe
inch and a half little box andit had one, maybe three little
buttons, I don't know.
But the one button that youpushed would uh, you'd hear it
clink, clink, clink, clink.
Yeah, and it was a mechanicalsignal as opposed to an
electronic signal.
And then, my friends, we neverhad HBO, but it used to be,
(13:50):
where, if you grew up in the 80syou know this HBO used to be a
box that was actually on the topof the television Home box
office.
That's what that stands for.
So if you grew up in the 80sAtari, that box on top HBO, I
think our cable was ContinentalCablevision and there was a
(14:13):
little slider that you wouldhave to slide each channel to,
and there I think there were 44channels.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
So I grew up in a small town and our remote
control was hey, john, get upand turn the channel.
Oh yeah, and why don't you turnthat up a little bit and hold
the rabbit ears?
And yes, we had black and whiteTV.
I don't think anybody todayknows what black and white TV is
(14:44):
.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Well, it's funny because you look at it through
the TV eyes and the electronicpart and everything that we're
looking toward, and you tellkids these days, you tell them
these things, whether it's yourown kids or whether it's
somebody somewhere else, andthey just look at you kind of
funny, like what?
And I remember we didn't have,we didn't have.
(15:14):
So when I went to college, um,I got a like as I I want to say,
if I remember right, it was afamily group present and it was
a dual cassette deck.
Okay, yep, only because I waslike, oh, I can transfer music
from this tape to this tape, orI could even do like almost like
I'm a dj and I could make some,you know whatever, and make a
mixtape, mixtape.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
How about that?
Speaker 1 (15:34):
maybe two years in cds came out and the only reason
we knew about it.
So now I'm in chicago.
So I went from detroit, went toschool in chicago.
My friend had a job at a, at astore, and it was like beta
tapes, right, not even VHS, itwas beta, okay.
And he's like, hey, these newthings are coming out, these
(15:57):
circular things, and I'm likerecords.
No, not records, they'resmaller and they're like chrome
and I'm like what?
And he brought one home and I'mlike, well, what do we do with
it now?
Where do you play it in?
And then he bought a CD playerand all of a sudden we were
there and we were one of the andit was hilarious because I
(16:18):
didn't think of myself asobviously wealthy or anything
else, but we were the first oneson the football team and the
thing to have a CD player in ourapartment.
People came from miles aroundto listen to it.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Well, you can back the bus up from the CDs and the
Walkman.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
With the mixtapes.
I don't know how many nights Iwent to sleep listening to my
Walkman that I got for Christmas.
That's what I did beforepregame.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Absolutely Pregame and football.
I sat in the wrestling room inthe basement of Concordia
University, chicago Illinois,and sat there and listened to my
Walkman with my headphones on,listening to a little lunatic
fringe and letting it rip.
That's the way it went.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
So you know, you grew up in the 80s, when you know a
lotty-dotty we like to party.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
We don't cause trouble, we don't bother nobody,
we're just a man that's on themic and when we rock upon the
mic.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
We mock the mic, right, yeah.
So I mean, that is like classicslick rick, yeah, slick rick
and dougie fresh.
You know, you grew up in the80s, if you know that particular
maybe it's funny.
I don't know, john, did yougrow up in small town iowa?
Did you know that?
Speaker 1 (17:24):
they were a year behind.
I didn't know that that we werelike five years behind at that
time, and it's funny that yousay that, because so you were in
the Ohio area which is close toDetroit, I mean you were there
and that music that was there.
It's kind of funny because this, what was that thing that
happened last weekend, the SuperBowl.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Yes, the big game.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
And that thing at the halftime like we laugh about it
a little bit.
But once I got past my halfcentury ears trying to figure
out what he was saying the wholetime, there was a lot of stuff
that was going on there that wasactually.
There was some meat to it yeah,there's a lot of some things
that were there and and I ittook me back to those songs like
(18:08):
that that there was always amessage behind it.
And there were so many thingsthat were going on.
And now it's like you listen tosome of the music and we laugh
because we play warm-up musicfor our teams when they come out
, and half the time I'm likethis is awful, I can't handle
this, this is just terrible.
How can this be getting themexcited and going?
(18:30):
But you know what it does.
Somehow the message thatthey're getting out of it is the
same as it was when we weretheir age, getting the message
out of some music.
And I think that's where thecommunication piece that
sometimes and I'll be the firstto admit it that I kind of
dismiss the newer generation.
I'll be like ah, they don'tknow what they're talking about,
but you know what.
(18:51):
It's so similar to what it waswhen we were there.
It's just a different mode, it'sjust a different thing, but
it's similar.
Everybody does that.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Yeah, and I think that's you know, we can talk
about the differences between,like, like today's music.
We started off talking aboutthe language and, like you know,
gag me with a spoon versus what?
The skibbity or Alpha Sigma,and then you know, we kind of in
, you know, talking now aboutthe music stuff.
But I think, like we're each inour 50s and I think the onus to
(19:24):
bridge the gap betweengenerations, I think it's on us
not to get too deep because wewanted to kind of keep this
light.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
How do we continue to bridge the gap between you know
, the next generation and us sothat, like, we all see value, we
all can relate, we all canconnect, we all can succeed and
(20:01):
pass on some of those maybe moreimportant values, and we're
sitting in a wonderful time inhistory where we've got four
generations maybe fivegenerations of people working in
the same place, and it's anamazing time.
It really is an amazing time andwe've got such an opportunity
(20:25):
to help these young kids get towhere they need to be.
And we've talked aboutexcellence before.
We've talked about being, youknow, great and helping and
mentoring these kids to be great.
Right, One of the things thatthat I think about and I don't
(20:48):
know if you've ever watched thethis show, soccer show about Ted
Lasso.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Ted, yeah, that's one of my favorites, so so you
haven't great show, but but hetalks about not being judgmental
.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
Be curious, not judgmental, I think you hitting.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
that is what I was going to say to your question,
chuck, was that?
I think this goes to what we'vesaid in our intro is that we
need to be open and listen andlearn, because you know what the
students, the kids, whatever itis your own kids, your
grandkids, your students,whatever it is that you have.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
People you work with.
You have young people aroundyou.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
It is always good to listen to them and not just
dismiss them, because you knowwhat they have a voice.
They have a voice, whether welike it at the initial or not,
and I think it needs to be atwo-way street where they can
not only respect or listen towhat we say, but we really need
to engage with them and listento them and hear what they're
(21:58):
saying and how, because we can't.
You know, it's one of these,these discussions that I have a
lot is that you know there's adifference between sympathy and
empathy.
Right, it's hard for us, I feellike anyway, it's hard for us
to empathize all the time withthe youth of today, because, you
(22:19):
know, we didn't grow up in thesame world, so I can't walk a
mile in their shoes.
I mean I can think about it andthey can't walk a mile in their
shoes.
I mean I can think about it andthey can't walk a mile in mine
either.
You know what I mean, but itbehooves both of us to listen
and say, wow, that's a reallycool viewpoint or that's
something.
At least, even if I don't agreewith them.
At least I get perspective thenand I can hear where this kid
(22:41):
is coming from, or what they'refeeling or what they're
passionate about.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
Because that's what it was when we were.
What they're trying to say,right?
What they are trying to conveyLong-haired, freaking people may
not apply right.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
That goes from back in the 70s.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
It's the same thing it's the same message, but it's
a different sign.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
Sign everywhere, everywhere, and you need to
understand that.
And I think for us, and I knowfor the three of us, I know that
we do this, probably even notas much as we should, but I know
that we do and I think that wewould encourage anybody to do it
.
And I know it's hard becausesometimes you do it and you're
like, oh my gosh, this isridiculous, these people are
crazy, this is ridiculous orwhatever.
(23:21):
But you know what it's?
Just, it's a gift and adifferent wrapper.
That's really all that.
It is.
And it's just something that weneed to be able to look at and
to say, hey, you know,500 rentis what $300 rent was when we
were.
You know what I mean.
It's like it's the same thingbut it's different, but it's
(23:56):
still the same basic idea andall the things that go behind
that.
I mean I get it, but we to keepprogress and positivity going.
It helps us to communicate withthose kids to understand.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
So, Luke, are you saying we've got two ears for a
reason and one mouth?
We need to listen a little bit,I've got headphones on.
Try to understand what peopleare saying.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
I really think the onus when I say the onus and
that's the weight of theconversation lies on dudes and
ladies and people that are older, older, because what tends to
happen, I think, and I've seenit happen multiple times is
(24:47):
people that, as we get older, wetend to think oh man, this is
the only way and we maybe alittle bit disenfranchise
ourselves from or separateourselves probably a better word
from a younger generation andwe become irrelevant to any
conversation that results inchange.
(25:07):
And so I think we really haveto, as we get older, we really
have to make it a focus and bevery intentional about relating
to the younger generation,whether it's connecting with
them, like with the, theSkibbity or Gat, or that was
(25:29):
savage bro.
There you go.
We got to relate to them sothat at least we have some type
of an audience, so that we canmaybe pass on some of those
values.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
It's kind of funny and I know this is a different
way of looking at it.
I think it was over.
I want to say it wasThanksgiving.
It might have been Thanksgivingand I was out here in the very
garage we're in right now, hadmy kids here and we were
enjoying holiday time and asthey've gotten older, I always
(25:59):
wanted them to be exposed togreat music.
Okay, yeah.
So there was a lot of greatclassic rock or that was going
on or things that were alwaysthere was great now did I always
expect them that as they grewolder they were going to listen
to that, maybe in the back?
Speaker 2 (26:14):
of my head.
I thought it was hope for itright, realistic at some point
you get it.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
So I was in my son's car and of course you jump in
and I wasn't driving, whichdoesn't happen very often and he
you know his music comes on andit's whatever it is I'm like
huh, okay, and I can't follow it.
I don't know what's going on,but we sat out here and they
were like, so, dad, what aboutmusic with this?
And we started talking about it.
(26:38):
So I've got the tv out here andwe're doing youtube videos of
old stuff like old run dmc orold sugar hill gang or whoever
it was Like all these things.
And they're playing new stuff.
And I'm like well, I can kind ofdig that guy.
You know, I like him, I likethat.
And they're asking me like well, why do you like him?
Well, it's because he's tellinga story or he's doing it like
(26:59):
you can tell Sure, and it wasreally cool because it was like
I'm actually listening to whatthey're saying and they're
listening to some of the stuffthat I grew up with.
And they're like well, I'veheard this before a hundred
thousand times.
And I remember driving toFlorida and we played I can't
remember, but just listening toit and it was kind of new music
at the time.
It wasn't classic, but it waskind of in the middle somewhere
(27:21):
and it was just like this bridgebetween the generations to see
it and to hear it.
And I remember going back withmy dad and now it's kind of
hilarious because, okay,self-laying it out here,
all-star.
Sundays.
Thank you, Smash Mouth.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
Smash Mouth All-Star.
There you go, and I listened onSundays.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
every Sunday it's like 10 to 3 o'clock Yacht Rock.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
Love it.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
And as I go, I'm listening to it.
I'm like you know what?
My dad listened to this Becausethat was the time when he was
like in his 40s, you know, inhis 50s, you know whatever.
And he was listening to itbecause it's just kind of cool,
grooving, just kind of get avibe.
You know, do your thing.
And I'm like I get it.
I'm feeling it In some of thesongs I knew anyway.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
Early 70s to early 80s.
Oh, it's good stuff.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
But you can find a lot of that in the new music
today.
You have to search for guys inthe half century hangout.
You have to search for it, butyou can find it.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
And you have to want to connect with it.
Yes, absolutely.
If you don't want to connectwith it, if you don't like the
groove or the style or whatever,then you're never going to
connect with it.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
So, chuck, I'm going to ask you a question.
Sure, so you said that we haveto make the concession for
helping kids and understandingkids.
Right, kids and understandingkids Right.
What do you think that we haveto do to help them get to maybe
(28:57):
understanding us a little bit?
But what do you think we haveto do?
Speaker 2 (29:02):
I think one of the things that I mean they have to
like us.
There's a guy that I golf with.
His name is Dean.
I just like Dean, why he was ateacher over at Walnut Grove
Elementary and a great, greatcouple.
I just like Dean.
Dean's 35 years, my no, 25years, 28 years, my senior I
(29:25):
just like hanging out with himand I want to know more about
Dean because I like him.
So I think making thatconnection is the most important
part between us and othergenerations.
But my point is, I think theonus, I think the responsibility
lies with us to connect if weever want to pass anything on,
if we ever want to pass onvalues, if we want to pass on
(29:46):
values, if we want to pass onyou know whether it's music, you
know, and I think it startswith I loved your example
talking with your kids in thisgarage.
You know that's a moment andwhat I would like to see happen
and maybe it's unrealistic isthose moments turn into
movements.
Sure, happen.
(30:06):
And maybe it's unrealistic isthose moments turn into
movements, sure, where people ona broader scale connect with
younger generations so they canpass on things that we value.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
So you're talking a little bit both of you about
mentorship, leadership, yeah,and values, which kind of is a
little bit about the way ourpodcast is going.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
We've talked about that quite a bit.
It's cyclical.
I mean, we come back to thesame things, we come back to
them, and it's so centered onthe idea that we feel and we
agree to be a better person, tobe a better culture, to be a
better society.
(30:58):
These things we need to be opento things.
Yeah, we need to be able tolook and you know what, as much
as there was things in lastweekend's Super Bowl, things
about political stuff, and therewere some commercials that were
those commercials with SnoopDogg and Tom Brady, they were
good, Because you know what it'slike, you know what?
(31:18):
Yeah, you can't just look atsomebody or listen to somebody
and say I don't like it becauseyou can't do that.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
No.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
I mean, it's not that you can't, it's that you really
shouldn't, because you knowwhat they have something to say,
whatever it is I don't knowwhat it is Even if you don't
agree with it.
Like for us.
We've had disagreements aboutthings, but here we are still,
sitting here doing the samething, talking with each other,
laughing about it, figuring outways that we can meet in the
middle.
(31:44):
It doesn't mean that I'm alwayschanging my opinion to John's or
to yours.
It's just the fact that Johnthinks a little differently than
I do and I can accept that andit's okay.
There's nothing wrong with it.
It doesn't make him wrong or mewrong or me right.
Speaker 3 (31:59):
It doesn't matter, I don't have to be right all the
time.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
Yeah, and we've developed this relationship.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
That hits different.
That hits different.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
That hits different, exactly Boom.
One of the things that I thinkwhy we started this podcast was
because each of us stood aroundat one point and the three of us
talked and we disagreed, butyet we still really like each
other.
And so we are of the samegeneration but we differ in some
ways ideology.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
Ideologically.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
That's the word.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
You're the educated one, the way we think, the way
that maybe 90s, 85, 86, you knowthose.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Things differ, right, 85, 86, you know those things
differ, right, and so what we'rekind of talking about today is
bridging that gap generationally, and I think there's another
step where we can bridge gapsand that's both racially and
(33:03):
gender-wise maybe, sure, whenyou're talking about women or
whatever.
Yeah, so I think there'sdifferent areas.
I think we can expand this ididea of bridging the gap and
reaching out and making thoseconnections.
I think that that's.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
That's great that you say that, because probably out
of all the college courses thatI've taken, having a master's
degree and going through, I'mgoing to tell you right now the
most powerful class that I everhad was the multicultural
education class, because I thinkthat listening to that
professor and going through andhaving these open now granted,
(33:40):
it was a grad level class whichare always much better than
undergrad, because you engagedin conversation Right always
much better than undergrad,because you engaged in
conversation, right, and thatwas the best, because, not that
we don't like to do that, right,but listening to it and saying,
hey, you know what, luke, yougrew up in the first culturally
diverse workforce in the countrybecause of the big three, yeah,
(34:02):
because of Detroit, and that'swhat it was.
Because they needed people andthey needed to come in and they
did, and there was such amelting pot of people and
cultures.
And going to a school that wasculturally diverse that I was at
, and racially diverse, andliving in Detroit, and going
through all the things ofhearing from generations about
different stuff, there's so manythings that we can learn.
(34:22):
So many things that we canlearn from anybody that is
different than we are, I mean,and it doesn't have to be
racially or culturally, it couldbe anything but we can learn
from people that are differentthan we are.
Speaker 3 (34:37):
Hey, you know, we gotta listen, learn and change
our minds sometimes.
And that's where we are, andthat's what we have to do and
change our minds sometimes yeah.
And that's where we are.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
And that's what we have to do.
So anything to kind of wrapthis up a little bit, yep, I got
a great quote from MartinLuther King.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
Oh, I love it.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
And I think kind of what we're talking about is like
giving each other hope, rightBuilding those relationships and
building hope that there'ssomething can be different
tomorrow than what it is today.
And so Martin Luther King, in asermon that he was preaching
back after the I have a Dreamsermon, this is his quote.
(35:24):
So if you lose hope, somehowyou lose the vitality that keeps
moving, you lose that courageto be, that quality that helps
you go on in spite of it all.
And so today I still have adream.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
Very good.
Speaker 3 (35:40):
That is awesome.
I want to thank everybody forhanging out with us here at Half
Century Hangout.
Absolutely, and you know, keeptuning in.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Yeah, check in with us on Facebook, apple, google,
wherever you find your….
Speaker 3 (35:58):
By the way, I'm Half Century so.
I say tune in, but you knowit's different right.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
Yep, by the way, chuck, yeah, that hat is drip
boy.
Hey, it's drip you know,maybe's different right.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
Yep, by the way, chuck, yeah, that hat is drip
boy.
Hey, it's drip.
You know, maybe I'm Alpha Sigma.
All right guys Nice jobeverybody, yep, thanks, We'll
see you later.
Peace out, peace out, peace out, peace out, peace out.
Half-century hangout.
Here we are again, and you knowwhat I am hearing, this new
language, and I do not know whatit is.
Yeah, there it is Can somebodyplease explain to me what the
skibbity.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
I'm half-century.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Cap bro, what that's cap Skibbity what's a skibbity?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
That's a cap.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Oh wow, I've never heard that term.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
We have to determine who Alpha Sigma is.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Oh my goodness, Alpha Sigma.
I tell you, I think that's afraternity, isn't it?
I tell you, alpha Sigma.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
It's Gat all the way.
What's Sigma?
It's Gat all the way.
What's Sigma?
It's Gat, it's Gat.
It's there sus, it's all sus.
Man, it's all sus.
Everything it's sus, that's allwe're, that's all we're talking
about.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Here's the thing you got a lot of rears.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Right now we've talked what we have talked so
much about learning, right, sowe're gonna do a little learning
today.
We're gonna figure this out alittle bit.
We're gonna try to decide wherewe fit into this lingo that I
have no idea what it is, becauseback in the day we said things
(01:08):
like Wasteoid.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Gag me with a spoon Gag me with a spoon.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
I mean it's like eat my shorts.
I mean, come on.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Well, those made sense, right, Cool beans,
remember that.
You know how?
About this Nice?
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Yep, nice, back in detroit, we did noise, noise,
yep n-o-i-c-e, n-o-i-c-e noiseand it was it meant the same
thing, but I read something theother day that that if you, if
you watched the breakfast clubokay, and you were, you know,
like a teenager or 20s thatright now you're older than the
(01:47):
principal that was in the showoh my god, I'm like oh yeah, I'm
there.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
So we all have our, our little sayings, don't we?
And so, so what are we talkingabout with the uh, sus and all
that stuff?
I?
Speaker 1 (01:59):
think that one of the things we're we're laughing
about it today and it was justsomething that's come up, but
we've talked about it a lot.
You know, just in passing.
I'm sure that our listenersmust realize that we do not
limit our talking to the timethat we are recording ourselves.
These are things that happenevery day, that we've had
experiences throughout our life,throughout our daily work day.
(02:21):
You know, whatever it is,Things that make us go huh, yeah
you know, and and today it justso happened.
Today we just kind of laughedabout it because we have a
coworker who brought somethingup.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
who you know, maybe a little bit younger than us?
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Yeah, she's definitely younger than we are
and she brought up somethingthat one of her kids said and
she had to look it up.
She's kind of in that middle,so she's like a millennial.
She's not a Z or an alpha right.
She's a millennial.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Yeah, kind of what we're talking about is a Gen Z,
Gen Alpha talk.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Right, yeah, we're talking about that, but she was
kind of there so she had to lookit up.
And the word that her son who's.
How old is he?
He's probably 11,.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Yeah, fifth grade, fourth grade, something like
that.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
And the way that he said it, you know, and then
bringing it out, it's like, ohyeah, that doesn't really mean
what you think it does, so youprobably shouldn't say that
anymore.
But I think that when we lookat this, we're looking at the
idea of how is it that we asgenerations different
generations communicate, right?
(03:26):
Yeah, and for us in the halfcentury hangout, I don't know
about you guys, but if we walkedinto a bar, okay, at our age,
three guys walk into a bar.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Yeah, yeah and one duck yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
And one duck right, yeah, okay.
So the thing is is, if youwalked in or if I walked in, or
John, if you walked in andthere's people that are younger
than you are, can you fit in?
Can you talk with them?
Can you get conversation withthem?
Can you figure it out?
I think there's some peoplethat can.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
And I think all three of us would probably fall into
that category.
There's others that really wouldshy away from it, sure like, oh
my gosh, I don't know whatthey're saying.
I have no idea what they'resaying, you know whatever it is
right, like, I think, that beingraised I shouldn't say raised
growing up, like in the highschool ages, if you want to say
in the 80s there was a lot ofdifferent things going on right.
There was a lot of things thatdifferent sayings, the way that
we spoke, the way that thingswere happening.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
The way we grew up.
Right.
It's so much different than itis.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
And for me, the number one thing and I say this
to a lot of people as we laugh,and there are students that will
tell this too and they laughabout it.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
So in college, so that's like mid-80s for you to.
You know to yeah, when did yougrow up there?
Yeah, so my college years were90 to 95.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Okay so so you graduated in from high school,
high school, high school 90.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Oh, thank you 90.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Yeah, so you grew up in the 80s yeah I grew up in the
80s.
Yeah, I grew up, grew up in themid-70s to the mid-80s Right.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
So the idea is that if you look at the way that it
was, communication now is somuch electronics.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
It blows me away.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Like I remember thinking, and I just remember
thinking like the first.
I don't even remember what yearit was the first cell phone I
got, it was I was, I was, I wasmarrying that kids?
I mean, I don't I was like comeon now.
This is, this is crazy.
What are we doing with thisthing?
Right, and then I happened toget a job that they gave me a um
(05:40):
, what was that old phone withthe, the blackberry?
Speaker 3 (05:43):
oh wow and I thought that, I thought that was it.
But then I was like I don'tknow.
You know, I got that when I wasactually a teacher.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
I mean it's crazy, and I think that the way that we
communicate, and not just theelectronic part but the verbal
part, it's always a morph inprogress, right, I mean?
obviously I mean things from the50s, the 60s, the electronic
part, but the verbal part it'salways a morph in progress,
right, I mean obviously I meanthings from the 50s, the 60s,
the 70s.
I mean every decade changes alittle bit in how it goes.
By the way, did you see TravisKelsey at the Super Bowl, what
he was dressed like?
(06:15):
Did you see that?
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Yeah, I thought he looked sharp.
He did look sharp.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
But guys our age thought he did.
Yeah, but guys, our age thoughthe did, but then others thought
that he should have beenselling me a 1977 Buick Regal
off of a used car lot.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Oh, no man, I thought he looked hot.
I mean not that I would youknow, not that way, but I
thought he looked good.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
No, I hear you, I hear you.
Some people thought maybe hewas an adult film director too.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Oh no, that didn't even come to my mind, I saw a
meme about that.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
I don't know, but I think that we talked about the
80s.
We talked about things thatwere going on then and as the
half century club sometimes welook at the past and we'll be
like, oh, you know, back in theday.
And how many kids look at usnow when we say back in the day
and they roll their eyes andthey're like, oh.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
So how do you know?
You grew up in the 80s.
What are some of the thingsthat are Atari?
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Atari If you know, atari, you probably grew up in
the 80s.
Which one?
2600?
No, no, no, the original.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
I mean the 2600 for sure.
I think the 2600 was theoriginal right.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
No, there was one before the 2600,.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
I think Pong.
Are you talking about Pong?
Yeah, no, I'm talking about theoriginal.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Atari With like four.
Let me fact check myself here.
All right, you guys keeptalking, I'm going to fact check
myself the original.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Atari I think this is where I thought it was the 2600
.
In our introduction we talkabout three guys who grew up
differently.
Right, we talk about we grew upin different areas.
We did different.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
We're still kind of, but not western to a degree.
A little bit different eras toowe're still a little bit
graduated.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
90 a little bit after us a little a little bit.
John's an 85, I'm an 86, yeah,yeah you're a 90, so so we're,
you know, similar, but it's alittle bit of a jump because at
the end of that that 80s andwhen you were the 90s, it's
going.
It's a little bit different andI know that for me and this
certainly isn't like a statusthing I think that well, I think
(08:14):
and you guys can correct me ifI'm wrong growing up in the 80s
and when I was in high school, Iwas in the largest city out of
the three of us you were, it wasdefinitely larger.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
I'm a little bit more of a.
Mine was like 700 people.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Yeah, I mean you're in a, I was in a big city.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
I was in a very small town.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
I was in a big city but a small school because it
was a private school in thattown.
So there's different things aswe go, and I think that this
always you learn things as yougo like wow, that part of the
country was doing this or thispart of the country, even though
it was the same time, and oneof the things that I've laughed
at since I've been to this area,which you said, like the Omaha
(08:52):
metro area.
One thing that cracks me upwe'll talk about just for a
second is fashion.
They're a year behind If I'm inChicago or I'm in Detroit and
maybe you see it.
And then you come here and it'slike people like oh, look at my
new digs, man, look at this,look at this, and it's like I
saw that last year it'shilarious it's just, and I think
(09:12):
that it's just a microcosm ofhow the country works and how
things are and where people are.
But nowadays, with electronics,it's a little bit different
because, you see, see,everything, everything, yeah,
you see the world differentlythan when you did when local
news in omaha back then was justseeing what was happening,
right?
Speaker 2 (09:32):
here correct.
You know, the original ataricame out in 1977 77 what was it?
Uh, it was the original atari.
And then the 20, what's itcalled, uh it?
And then the 2600 came out 82,80.
So you know what?
1977.
So it's the same thing thereyou go.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Yeah 2600 was the original yeah it looks like it
yeah.
So, Pong was a little bitbefore that and Pong was the one
with the paddles.
Do you ever remember that?
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Yep pong was the one with the paddles.
Do you ever remember that?
Speaker 3 (10:06):
yep, and it had four, four, um like games you could
play.
You could play hockey, youcould play pong, you could play
pong off of a of a wall and youcould play double pong or
something like that.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Shout out to my friend Patrick Green, who had
the original Atari that weplayed in probably 1980, 81, 82,
something like that.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
And we played pong.
Did you have Pitfall?
Speaker 1 (10:35):
I don't remember Pitfall until later on what year
did cable TV come out?
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Man, I remember cable TV coming out.
Probably the very first thing Ithink I watched on Cable TV was
MTV and it was Phil Collins'you Can't Hurry Love.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
You Just have to Wait , but what year-ish was that?
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Probably 83, 84 maybe , because I know that.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
So for me.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
For me, anyway, that's when our house was able
to afford it.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Well, that's what I'm saying and I don't remember the
exact year, but what I doremember is that there's a
picture in the archivessomewhere of my dad getting a
color TV for us.
And it actually wasn't from mydad, it was from some guys that
he was doing some midnight workfor as a printer, and they
brought us one and we thought wewere pretty cool right, yeah,
(11:26):
we finally had this color tv.
But my friend down the street,they were already there and then
they got cable, which I didn'treally quite understand.
But what I found out in a hurrywas they had a remote control
yeah oh my god what was thatremote control like?
The, the remote control wasprobably like what's the biggest
phone now like big one,whatever like a samsung
(11:49):
something, yeah, some big oldthing.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
It was probably twice the size of that thing yeah,
and it was this big clunky.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Did it have clickers on it?
It had little clickers on it,but I remember that they got two
of them and his parents got itand I remember going like, wow,
this is, I don't have to standup and go over to the tv and
turn the channel and my dadyelling at me to hold the rabbit
ears, you know like, hold itthis way or put the foil on the
end and hold it, but the biggestthing was is that they had all
(12:19):
these channels.
And so his older brother, myfriend, jerry Moore he's his
older brother, ken, who welearned everything from because
of course he knew jerry moore.
He's his older brother, ken,who we learned everything from
because of course he kneweverything right of course he's
an older brother, he's.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
How could we not think?
You gotta know, by the way,everything if you drove.
You guys talked about a buickregal.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
I drove a 1977 buick regal sky blue he, he told us
about this remote and we werethere, and then we realized that
there was one of those channels, the risque channel, uh-oh so
risque we took one of theremotes outside.
I was a little mischievous whenI was back then you gotta be
(12:58):
kidding me.
We stood outside the windowstill a little bit jerry's dad
and his mom were sitting therewatching a movie and she got up
to go to the kitchen to get somesnacks or something and we
switched it to the Playboychannel from the window.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Oh no, I thought it was the Risque channel.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
It was Risque at the time and he was in there
smacking the remote and shecomes in and she's like
backhanding him, you know, likemad, and he's looking at it like
what is going on.
And then she left again, liketo go to the bathroom.
We did it, oh it's great.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
So our remote was probably a two by three by maybe
inch and a half little box andit had one, maybe three little
buttons, I don't know.
But the one button that youpushed would uh, you'd hear it
clink, clink, clink, clink.
Yeah, and it was a mechanicalsignal as opposed to an
electronic signal.
And then, my friends, we neverhad HBO, but it used to be,
(13:50):
where, if you grew up in the 80syou know this HBO used to be a
box that was actually on the topof the television Home box
office.
That's what that stands for.
So if you grew up in the 80sAtari, that box on top HBO, I
think our cable was ContinentalCablevision and there was a
(14:13):
little slider that you wouldhave to slide each channel to,
and there I think there were 44channels.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
So I grew up in a small town and our remote
control was hey, john, get upand turn the channel.
Oh yeah, and why don't you turnthat up a little bit and hold
the rabbit ears?
And yes, we had black and whiteTV.
I don't think anybody todayknows what black and white TV is
(14:44):
.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Well, it's funny because you look at it through
the TV eyes and the electronicpart and everything that we're
looking toward, and you tellkids these days, you tell them
these things, whether it's yourown kids or whether it's
somebody somewhere else, andthey just look at you kind of
funny, like what?
And I remember we didn't have,we didn't have.
(15:14):
So when I went to college, um,I got a like as I I want to say,
if I remember right, it was afamily group present and it was
a dual cassette deck.
Okay, yep, only because I waslike, oh, I can transfer music
from this tape to this tape, orI could even do like almost like
I'm a dj and I could make some,you know whatever, and make a
mixtape, mixtape.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
How about that?
Speaker 1 (15:34):
maybe two years in cds came out and the only reason
we knew about it.
So now I'm in chicago.
So I went from detroit, went toschool in chicago.
My friend had a job at a, at astore, and it was like beta
tapes, right, not even VHS, itwas beta, okay.
And he's like, hey, these newthings are coming out, these
(15:57):
circular things, and I'm likerecords.
No, not records, they'resmaller and they're like chrome
and I'm like what?
And he brought one home and I'mlike, well, what do we do with
it now?
Where do you play it in?
And then he bought a CD playerand all of a sudden we were
there and we were one of the andit was hilarious because I
(16:18):
didn't think of myself asobviously wealthy or anything
else, but we were the first oneson the football team and the
thing to have a CD player in ourapartment.
People came from miles aroundto listen to it.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Well, you can back the bus up from the CDs and the
Walkman.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
With the mixtapes.
I don't know how many nights Iwent to sleep listening to my
Walkman that I got for Christmas.
That's what I did beforepregame.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Absolutely Pregame and football.
I sat in the wrestling room inthe basement of Concordia
University, chicago Illinois,and sat there and listened to my
Walkman with my headphones on,listening to a little lunatic
fringe and letting it rip.
That's the way it went.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
So you know, you grew up in the 80s, when you know a
lotty-dotty we like to party.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
We don't cause trouble, we don't bother nobody,
we're just a man that's on themic and when we rock upon the
mic.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
We mock the mic, right, yeah.
So I mean, that is like classicslick rick, yeah, slick rick
and dougie fresh.
You know, you grew up in the80s, if you know that particular
maybe it's funny.
I don't know, john, did yougrow up in small town iowa?
Did you know that?
Speaker 1 (17:24):
they were a year behind.
I didn't know that that we werelike five years behind at that
time, and it's funny that yousay that, because so you were in
the Ohio area which is close toDetroit, I mean you were there
and that music that was there.
It's kind of funny because this, what was that thing that
happened last weekend, the SuperBowl.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Yes, the big game.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
And that thing at the halftime like we laugh about it
a little bit.
But once I got past my halfcentury ears trying to figure
out what he was saying the wholetime, there was a lot of stuff
that was going on there that wasactually.
There was some meat to it yeah,there's a lot of some things
that were there and and I ittook me back to those songs like
(18:08):
that that there was always amessage behind it.
And there were so many thingsthat were going on.
And now it's like you listen tosome of the music and we laugh
because we play warm-up musicfor our teams when they come out
, and half the time I'm likethis is awful, I can't handle
this, this is just terrible.
How can this be getting themexcited and going?
(18:30):
But you know what it does.
Somehow the message thatthey're getting out of it is the
same as it was when we weretheir age, getting the message
out of some music.
And I think that's where thecommunication piece that
sometimes and I'll be the firstto admit it that I kind of
dismiss the newer generation.
I'll be like ah, they don'tknow what they're talking about,
but you know what.
(18:51):
It's so similar to what it waswhen we were there.
It's just a different mode, it'sjust a different thing, but
it's similar.
Everybody does that.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Yeah, and I think that's you know, we can talk
about the differences between,like, like today's music.
We started off talking aboutthe language and, like you know,
gag me with a spoon versus what?
The skibbity or Alpha Sigma,and then you know, we kind of in
, you know, talking now aboutthe music stuff.
But I think, like we're each inour 50s and I think the onus to
(19:24):
bridge the gap betweengenerations, I think it's on us
not to get too deep because wewanted to kind of keep this
light.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
How do we continue to bridge the gap between you know
, the next generation and us sothat, like, we all see value, we
all can relate, we all canconnect, we all can succeed and
(20:01):
pass on some of those maybe moreimportant values, and we're
sitting in a wonderful time inhistory where we've got four
generations maybe fivegenerations of people working in
the same place, and it's anamazing time.
It really is an amazing time andwe've got such an opportunity
(20:25):
to help these young kids get towhere they need to be.
And we've talked aboutexcellence before.
We've talked about being, youknow, great and helping and
mentoring these kids to be great.
Right, One of the things thatthat I think about and I don't
(20:48):
know if you've ever watched thethis show, soccer show about Ted
Lasso.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Ted, yeah, that's one of my favorites, so so you
haven't great show, but but hetalks about not being judgmental
.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
Be curious, not judgmental, I think you hitting.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
that is what I was going to say to your question,
chuck, was that?
I think this goes to what we'vesaid in our intro is that we
need to be open and listen andlearn, because you know what the
students, the kids, whatever itis your own kids, your
grandkids, your students,whatever it is that you have.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
People you work with.
You have young people aroundyou.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
It is always good to listen to them and not just
dismiss them, because you knowwhat they have a voice.
They have a voice, whether welike it at the initial or not,
and I think it needs to be atwo-way street where they can
not only respect or listen towhat we say, but we really need
to engage with them and listento them and hear what they're
(21:58):
saying and how, because we can't.
You know, it's one of these,these discussions that I have a
lot is that you know there's adifference between sympathy and
empathy.
Right, it's hard for us, I feellike anyway, it's hard for us
to empathize all the time withthe youth of today, because, you
(22:19):
know, we didn't grow up in thesame world, so I can't walk a
mile in their shoes.
I mean I can think about it andthey can't walk a mile in their
shoes.
I mean I can think about it andthey can't walk a mile in mine
either.
You know what I mean, but itbehooves both of us to listen
and say, wow, that's a reallycool viewpoint or that's
something.
At least, even if I don't agreewith them.
At least I get perspective thenand I can hear where this kid
(22:41):
is coming from, or what they'refeeling or what they're
passionate about.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
Because that's what it was when we were.
What they're trying to say,right?
What they are trying to conveyLong-haired, freaking people may
not apply right.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
That goes from back in the 70s.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
It's the same thing it's the same message, but it's
a different sign.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
Sign everywhere, everywhere, and you need to
understand that.
And I think for us, and I knowfor the three of us, I know that
we do this, probably even notas much as we should, but I know
that we do and I think that wewould encourage anybody to do it
.
And I know it's hard becausesometimes you do it and you're
like, oh my gosh, this isridiculous, these people are
crazy, this is ridiculous orwhatever.
(23:21):
But you know what it's?
Just, it's a gift and adifferent wrapper.
That's really all that.
It is.
And it's just something that weneed to be able to look at and
to say, hey, you know,500 rentis what $300 rent was when we
were.
You know what I mean.
It's like it's the same thingbut it's different, but it's
(23:56):
still the same basic idea andall the things that go behind
that.
I mean I get it, but we to keepprogress and positivity going.
It helps us to communicate withthose kids to understand.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
So, Luke, are you saying we've got two ears for a
reason and one mouth?
We need to listen a little bit,I've got headphones on.
Try to understand what peopleare saying.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
I really think the onus when I say the onus and
that's the weight of theconversation lies on dudes and
ladies and people that are older, older, because what tends to
happen, I think, and I've seenit happen multiple times is
(24:47):
people that, as we get older, wetend to think oh man, this is
the only way and we maybe alittle bit disenfranchise
ourselves from or separateourselves probably a better word
from a younger generation andwe become irrelevant to any
conversation that results inchange.
(25:07):
And so I think we really haveto, as we get older, we really
have to make it a focus and bevery intentional about relating
to the younger generation,whether it's connecting with
them, like with the, theSkibbity or Gat, or that was
(25:29):
savage bro.
There you go.
We got to relate to them sothat at least we have some type
of an audience, so that we canmaybe pass on some of those
values.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
It's kind of funny and I know this is a different
way of looking at it.
I think it was over.
I want to say it wasThanksgiving.
It might have been Thanksgivingand I was out here in the very
garage we're in right now, hadmy kids here and we were
enjoying holiday time and asthey've gotten older, I always
(25:59):
wanted them to be exposed togreat music.
Okay, yeah.
So there was a lot of greatclassic rock or that was going
on or things that were alwaysthere was great now did I always
expect them that as they grewolder they were going to listen
to that, maybe in the back?
Speaker 2 (26:14):
of my head.
I thought it was hope for itright, realistic at some point
you get it.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
So I was in my son's car and of course you jump in
and I wasn't driving, whichdoesn't happen very often and he
you know his music comes on andit's whatever it is I'm like
huh, okay, and I can't follow it.
I don't know what's going on,but we sat out here and they
were like, so, dad, what aboutmusic with this?
And we started talking about it.
(26:38):
So I've got the tv out here andwe're doing youtube videos of
old stuff like old run dmc orold sugar hill gang or whoever
it was Like all these things.
And they're playing new stuff.
And I'm like well, I can kind ofdig that guy.
You know, I like him, I likethat.
And they're asking me like well, why do you like him?
Well, it's because he's tellinga story or he's doing it like
(26:59):
you can tell Sure, and it wasreally cool because it was like
I'm actually listening to whatthey're saying and they're
listening to some of the stuffthat I grew up with.
And they're like well, I'veheard this before a hundred
thousand times.
And I remember driving toFlorida and we played I can't
remember, but just listening toit and it was kind of new music
at the time.
It wasn't classic, but it waskind of in the middle somewhere
(27:21):
and it was just like this bridgebetween the generations to see
it and to hear it.
And I remember going back withmy dad and now it's kind of
hilarious because, okay,self-laying it out here,
all-star.
Sundays.
Thank you, Smash Mouth.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
Smash Mouth All-Star.
There you go, and I listened onSundays.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
every Sunday it's like 10 to 3 o'clock Yacht Rock.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
Love it.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
And as I go, I'm listening to it.
I'm like you know what?
My dad listened to this Becausethat was the time when he was
like in his 40s, you know, inhis 50s, you know whatever.
And he was listening to itbecause it's just kind of cool,
grooving, just kind of get avibe.
You know, do your thing.
And I'm like I get it.
I'm feeling it In some of thesongs I knew anyway.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
Early 70s to early 80s.
Oh, it's good stuff.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
But you can find a lot of that in the new music
today.
You have to search for guys inthe half century hangout.
You have to search for it, butyou can find it.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
And you have to want to connect with it.
Yes, absolutely.
If you don't want to connectwith it, if you don't like the
groove or the style or whatever,then you're never going to
connect with it.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
So, chuck, I'm going to ask you a question.
Sure, so you said that we haveto make the concession for
helping kids and understandingkids.
Right, kids and understandingkids Right.
What do you think that we haveto do to help them get to maybe
(28:57):
understanding us a little bit?
But what do you think we haveto do?
Speaker 2 (29:02):
I think one of the things that I mean they have to
like us.
There's a guy that I golf with.
His name is Dean.
I just like Dean, why he was ateacher over at Walnut Grove
Elementary and a great, greatcouple.
I just like Dean.
Dean's 35 years, my no, 25years, 28 years, my senior I
(29:25):
just like hanging out with himand I want to know more about
Dean because I like him.
So I think making thatconnection is the most important
part between us and othergenerations.
But my point is, I think theonus, I think the responsibility
lies with us to connect if weever want to pass anything on,
if we ever want to pass onvalues, if we want to pass on
(29:46):
values, if we want to pass onyou know whether it's music, you
know, and I think it startswith I loved your example
talking with your kids in thisgarage.
You know that's a moment andwhat I would like to see happen
and maybe it's unrealistic isthose moments turn into
movements.
Sure, happen.
(30:06):
And maybe it's unrealistic isthose moments turn into
movements, sure, where people ona broader scale connect with
younger generations so they canpass on things that we value.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
So you're talking a little bit both of you about
mentorship, leadership, yeah,and values, which kind of is a
little bit about the way ourpodcast is going.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
We've talked about that quite a bit.
It's cyclical.
I mean, we come back to thesame things, we come back to
them, and it's so centered onthe idea that we feel and we
agree to be a better person, tobe a better culture, to be a
better society.
(30:58):
These things we need to be opento things.
Yeah, we need to be able tolook and you know what, as much
as there was things in lastweekend's Super Bowl, things
about political stuff, and therewere some commercials that were
those commercials with SnoopDogg and Tom Brady, they were
good, Because you know what it'slike, you know what?
(31:18):
Yeah, you can't just look atsomebody or listen to somebody
and say I don't like it becauseyou can't do that.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
No.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
I mean, it's not that you can't, it's that you really
shouldn't, because you knowwhat they have something to say,
whatever it is I don't knowwhat it is Even if you don't
agree with it.
Like for us.
We've had disagreements aboutthings, but here we are still,
sitting here doing the samething, talking with each other,
laughing about it, figuring outways that we can meet in the
middle.
(31:44):
It doesn't mean that I'm alwayschanging my opinion to John's or
to yours.
It's just the fact that Johnthinks a little differently than
I do and I can accept that andit's okay.
There's nothing wrong with it.
It doesn't make him wrong or mewrong or me right.
Speaker 3 (31:59):
It doesn't matter, I don't have to be right all the
time.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
Yeah, and we've developed this relationship.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
That hits different.
That hits different.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
That hits different, exactly Boom.
One of the things that I thinkwhy we started this podcast was
because each of us stood aroundat one point and the three of us
talked and we disagreed, butyet we still really like each
other.
And so we are of the samegeneration but we differ in some
ways ideology.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
Ideologically.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
That's the word.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
You're the educated one, the way we think, the way
that maybe 90s, 85, 86, you knowthose.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Things differ, right, 85, 86, you know those things
differ, right, and so what we'rekind of talking about today is
bridging that gap generationally, and I think there's another
step where we can bridge gapsand that's both racially and
(33:03):
gender-wise maybe, sure, whenyou're talking about women or
whatever.
Yeah, so I think there'sdifferent areas.
I think we can expand this ididea of bridging the gap and
reaching out and making thoseconnections.
I think that that's.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
That's great that you say that, because probably out
of all the college courses thatI've taken, having a master's
degree and going through, I'mgoing to tell you right now the
most powerful class that I everhad was the multicultural
education class, because I thinkthat listening to that
professor and going through andhaving these open now granted,
(33:40):
it was a grad level class whichare always much better than
undergrad, because you engagedin conversation Right always
much better than undergrad,because you engaged in
conversation, right, and thatwas the best, because, not that
we don't like to do that, right,but listening to it and saying,
hey, you know what, luke, yougrew up in the first culturally
diverse workforce in the countrybecause of the big three, yeah,
(34:02):
because of Detroit, and that'swhat it was.
Because they needed people andthey needed to come in and they
did, and there was such amelting pot of people and
cultures.
And going to a school that wasculturally diverse that I was at
, and racially diverse, andliving in Detroit, and going
through all the things ofhearing from generations about
different stuff, there's so manythings that we can learn.
(34:22):
So many things that we canlearn from anybody that is
different than we are, I mean,and it doesn't have to be
racially or culturally, it couldbe anything but we can learn
from people that are differentthan we are.
Speaker 3 (34:37):
Hey, you know, we gotta listen, learn and change
our minds sometimes.
And that's where we are, andthat's what we have to do and
change our minds sometimes yeah.
And that's where we are.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
And that's what we have to do.
So anything to kind of wrapthis up a little bit, yep, I got
a great quote from MartinLuther King.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
Oh, I love it.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
And I think kind of what we're talking about is like
giving each other hope, rightBuilding those relationships and
building hope that there'ssomething can be different
tomorrow than what it is today.
And so Martin Luther King, in asermon that he was preaching
back after the I have a Dreamsermon, this is his quote.
(35:24):
So if you lose hope, somehowyou lose the vitality that keeps
moving, you lose that courageto be, that quality that helps
you go on in spite of it all.
And so today I still have adream.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
Very good.
Speaker 3 (35:40):
That is awesome.
I want to thank everybody forhanging out with us here at Half
Century Hangout.
Absolutely, and you know, keeptuning in.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Yeah, check in with us on Facebook, apple, google,
wherever you find your….
Speaker 3 (35:58):
By the way, I'm Half Century so.
I say tune in, but you knowit's different right.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
Yep, by the way, chuck, yeah, that hat is drip
boy.
Hey, it's drip you know,maybe's different right.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
Yep, by the way, chuck, yeah, that hat is drip
boy.
Hey, it's drip.
You know, maybe I'm Alpha Sigma.
All right guys Nice jobeverybody, yep, thanks, We'll
see you later.
Peace out, peace out, peace out, peace out, peace out.
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