Gratitude is an Attitude

We talk Scouts, Dave's anniversary, and things we collected as children. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Minnesota. Goodbye. Let's dive into the emails and here we go.
Jenny writes in Hello friends, I wrote in a few
weeks ago asking about a Biday. Well we got one.
My husband and two of our three kids are not
convinced and won't try it, but me and my one
daughter absolutely love it. So thanks for your thoughts on that.

(00:21):
It gets a little bit different here, but I'm gonna
go ahead and read this, Dave. I have another question,
since I know that Carson did Scouts. My son is fifteen,
has been doing Scouts since kindergarten. In the last year
he's really resisted going to the meetings and doing activities,
although he had a blasted summer camp as usual this summer.
They love going to many point that's the summer camp here,
there's other ones too. He now says Scouts is full

(00:43):
of weird kids. Did Carson go through this phase? If so,
how did you push him through it? My son is
over halfway to earn his eagle and we are struggling
to get him to push through and finish it up.
I would hate seeing him being so close and giving
it up before he earns EA. He went to Filmont
last summer that's the one I went to where I

(01:03):
was up two weeks in the mountains hiking. He had
the time of his life. So I don't know if
being in Scouts is just not cool to other kids
in high school or where this is even coming from.
I would appreciate any advices. I think Scouting is such
a great program. Now I understand the focus on this.
The appeal to this story is kind of narrow, but
I will say, yeah, Scouts is it is not necessarily

(01:24):
the cool kid organization. Once you get to about fourteen
years old. The cooler kids, if you want to call
him that, some of them still stay in Scouts. Carson
was a cool kid and he had some cool friends
in there, but they get about fourteen and now they're
dealing with squirrely twelve year olds, and the squirrely twelve
year olds are really annoying to the fourteen to sixteen

(01:46):
to seventeen year old kids. And Carson's like, God, these
kids are annoying, and I'm like, you used to annoy
all of the older kids, and I reminded him of that.
But I will say Scouting gets all kinds of kids,
and you could say the weird kids too, because the
weird kids are not always accepted into basketball, football, track, wrestling, baseball,

(02:07):
that type of thing because they might be smaller, they
might be a little bit like like out there like
woo woo. You know, they.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
Belong where they feel like they belong there.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
So the great thing about Scouts is anybody can succeed
in Scouts. I knew some kids who were super squirrely
and I wanted to backhand them a couple of times.
But they can succeed in Scouts. And that's the great
thing about it is there's no height requirement, there's no
speed requirement, there's no size requirement. Yeah, and you can
be a little bit different in being Scouts, so push

(02:38):
them through.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:40):
I think too that like there are weird kids in
every single activity. And because I think it's because when
you are fourteen fifteen, you were weird. Like those kids
are just weird regardless like you don't because I feel
like weird sometimes gets like synonymous with they probably have
some kind of like they're not neurotypical, and so they'll

(03:01):
be like, oh, they're weird, but all kids are weird.
Like hanging out with high school students and hearing what
they talk about I'm like, you guys are so cringey.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
This is so embarrassing, and they're the cool kids.

Speaker 3 (03:10):
So I think any any child like who's in that
age range is gonna be weird and you just have
to like push through it until they're not weird anymore.
But like I think he can maybe he can be
like a role model to the younger kids and help them,
you know, be better.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
There's something there. Yeah, I know. There were three boys
in my Scout troop, the Wroth Boys, and they were
all from a wonderful Catholic family. The dad was very handsome,
the mom looked like a model. They were all very gorgeous, great, wonderful,
high achieving kids, and I drove them crazy. I drove
them nuts because I was a little asshole and that
was my job. They definitely would have thought I was

(03:47):
a weird kid. Yeah, when I was in Scouts too,
and I was, but havingim keep going, Okay, moving on
from Scouts. Congratulations, says Crystal. Oh I'm not sorry, salutation,
says Crystal. I was listening to the Minutes Goodbye before
bed and Dave, I could not agree with you. More
gratitude is an attitude more people need to adopt. Acts
of kindness and generosity are not a given for anyone.

(04:09):
Nobody is entitled to any of these things. People do
things out of kindness and because they were thinking of you.
The simplest thing you can do is acknowledge it. It's
not that hard. I'm not trying to preach here, but
we're all busy and it's so important to acknowledge when
anybody does as a kindness. I deliver mail, and during
the Christmas season, when customers thank you thank me, I

(04:30):
write a thank you that note I've had a long
day this time of the year, I worked ten to
thirteen hours a day. But I always write them at
the end of the day because I think about how
excited someone was to do something nice and thank me.
They're wondering if I got it. I know anytime I
do something randomly nice, the biggest excitement is to know
how it affected the person you did it for. By

(04:50):
me doing the simplest task of writing a thank you
card that night, they know I got it and how
they brighten my day because people will leave like a
little gift card or something for their mail carrier. Yeah,
thank you to the four of you for brightening my
day on a regular basis and giving me things to
look forward to. Bailey, your song yesterday was by the
Lake Street Drive.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
Yeah, Lake Street Dive. Yeah?

Speaker 1 (05:11):
Okay, you said drive it choke.

Speaker 2 (05:13):
An overspit during that? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (05:15):
Do you know their song good Kiss Her? I think
you'd like it.

Speaker 2 (05:18):
I will look it up.

Speaker 1 (05:18):
Okay. Lastly, I've asked this before, but it got lost
in the shuffle. When you make a bit, do you
butter the bread before putting mayo on it? I'm not
sure what she means by make a bit? Make a bit?
It was conversation my friend group had last year. You
think that everybody does something or doesn't until you talk
about very specific things in life. All right, I wonder

(05:41):
she's making a sandwich. When you make a sandwich? Maybe
she wrote a bit because we've all done that. Do
you butter the bread before you put the mayo on it?
I don't know how to answer that question. Maybe if
you want to rephrase that yeah in another email, Curio.

Speaker 4 (05:55):
Yeah, I'm not sure either.

Speaker 1 (05:56):
Here's one. When you make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
Do you put peanut butter on one slice and jelly
on the other, or do you put both ingredients on one.

Speaker 2 (06:04):
Flier, one one on one, one on the other. That's
how you do it.

Speaker 4 (06:06):
Oh, I do like half an half, so half on
one side, a peanut butter half on the other one,
and then I folded in half.

Speaker 1 (06:13):
Oh, okay, fold it. That makes sense. Can you just
make a half of a sandwich? Okay? Gotcha. Back to
the gratitude thing. I was having a shitty day yesterday
because I told the story earlier on the radio about
how it was our twenty fifth anniversary and we were
both guilty of not preparing or planning anything. So I
got her twenty five roses and I got her a card.

(06:33):
She got me a card, and I was on my
way home from work and she texted me about eleven
o'clock or eleven thirty. Hey, I'm going to the Mall
of America with Carson. And I thought, well, that's weird
that I wasn't invited, and then she's like, yeah, we
met with Allison and she brought her new baby along
and we walked around the mall, and three hours later
they were still home, and I was really hurt about it.
It was like I felt like I deliberately wasn't included

(06:56):
in the family plan, like don't I bring enough to
a family event that I would be included too? And
then then Carson comes home, and Carson's on the couch
and he's you know. I come downstairs and I'm like, oh,
you went to the mall. What'd you buy? He looks
up and he goes, huh. And I know he knew
what I said. He just didn't feel like answering because
it would have taken effort. So I said, never mind,

(07:19):
and I walked away kind of poudy. Then I talked
to my daughter Beth for forty five minutes. We had
such a great conversation, and she cheered me up, for sure.
She didn't try to cheer me up. It just put
me in a better mood.

Speaker 2 (07:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (07:28):
And her son's birthday is today, and I sent him
fifty dollars and I know I won't get a thank you,
and it just that is that that is the way
the kids are. And I said, Beth, they never say
thank you, And She's like, yeah, that's just the way
they are.

Speaker 2 (07:43):
How old is he now?

Speaker 1 (07:44):
He's going to be he's fourteen years old today.

Speaker 4 (07:46):
See, yeah, I mean.

Speaker 1 (07:48):
And I sent him fifty dollars.

Speaker 3 (07:49):
Yeah, see I'd say like, yeah, it's not the way
he is, but that she and her husband should enforce it.

Speaker 4 (07:56):
I was gonna say you probably I probably was a
selfish kid at fourteen and probably would haven't not called
someone and said thank you, But my mom always made me.

Speaker 2 (08:04):
Yeah, no matter what, got made to do it.

Speaker 4 (08:06):
Did you call and thank your aunt Linda for that card?

Speaker 1 (08:10):
No, ma' mom? Yeah, well you will do it.

Speaker 2 (08:12):
And to call Grandma. Don't forget to call grandma. Call Grandma, like,
oh my gosh, Okay.

Speaker 1 (08:17):
Yeah, so again, I mean fifty dollars is you know
it's not a fortune, but to a fourteen year old
it's fifty.

Speaker 2 (08:23):
Dollars a lot of moneys, a ton.

Speaker 1 (08:25):
Yeah, and well, I'm going to be honest with you.
I used to send one hundred dollars, but I don't anymore. Yeah,
because it's like, you don't say thank you. Why would
I send one hundred dollars if I don't get a
thank you? And do I expect him to like write
me a novel and tell me how wonderful I am? Yes, No,
I don't know. But you want them to be happy

(08:45):
enough with the gift that they say thank you. Yeah,
and I won't get a tax. I'll let you know
tomorrow whether I get a tax. Remind me you don't
think so, I don't think I will. Next one, Teres
writes in Hey there, folks, been meaning to respond to
somebody's question from a couple of week to go. They asked,
what is something stupid you tried to get away with
as a kid? Well, this is gross, but I immediately

(09:06):
remembered being probably between four and seven, and wiping buggers
on my wall by my bed as I was trying
to go to sleep. I'd leave them down where the
bed would hide them, and I thought nobody would see.
I didn't consider the fact that a parent could occasionally
change the sheets and surely discover this disgusting crime, nor
the fact that I literally would be the only suspect.

(09:28):
To my parents' credit, they never confronted me or shamed
me about this, probably assuming i'd grow out of the habit,
which I did. The irony is that thirty years later,
my own child would do the same thing, and I
can confirm, Okay, this is gross. Boogers to me are
just gross. Yeah, she said, those suckers dry like cement
on the wall. Now, my question for today is what

(09:49):
was something you collected as a child that you're low
key missing collecting now? For me, it's key chains. Even
though as a kid I was annoyed that I mentioned
them once in my family bought them for me for
the next ten years. That's adorable. I can just picture
her keychains in a little rubber made bin or all

(10:09):
over her backpack. Yeah, it's like, Oh, you like key chains,
so I'm going to get you a key chain. Oh look,
here you go, little Teresa, here's a keychain.

Speaker 3 (10:17):
I had keychains all over my backpack too, but I
did it specifically because I wanted to appear quirky and different.
So I was like, I'm going to put a million keychains.
I had no idea what the key chains meant, but
they were all over my backpack. So I feel your
girl with the keychains much.

Speaker 1 (10:33):
I collected stamps, and I had a pretty cool stamp collection.
In probably fifth grader. I used to being a stamp club,
and me and my nerdy buddies would meet and exchange
stamps and sell stamps to each other. And with the
money that I earned from selling stamps, I would go
to the convenience store and get like a dreamsickle and

(10:53):
a mountain dew or whatever, and I thought it was
really cool.

Speaker 3 (10:56):
Didn't you just like come into a bunch of stamps recently,
like someone gave you like books and books of stamps.

Speaker 1 (11:01):
No, it doesn't ring a bell. But I had this
great stamp collection that for a fifth grade, sixth grade
kid was probably worth, you know, a couple hundred dollars.
And I would like use my allowance money to go
down to the coin and stamp store in the mall
and I would order them through the mail. And I
was pretty proud of my stamp collection. Well then I
was probably about twenty three, twenty four years old. I

(11:21):
went to look for it one time and it was gone.
Oh and it was in a box in a closet
at my apartment, and all of a sudden it wasn't there.
And for years I thought, maybe it's in another box,
And all these years later, I've never found it. I don't,
to this day know what happened to this stamp collection.

(11:42):
And I really it was like, you know, it's not
like i'd be passionate about it, but I don't know.
Something I used to collect, what did you used to
you collected key.

Speaker 2 (11:50):
Rings, chains, and black and white postcards. I did have
a lot of those.

Speaker 1 (11:53):
There are cool.

Speaker 2 (11:53):
They had those at the Mall of America and it
was great.

Speaker 4 (11:55):
I'm gonna be honest, I think the only thing for
me was Beanie Baby.

Speaker 1 (11:58):
I was gonna say Beanie Babies.

Speaker 2 (11:59):
Yeah, bar Is.

Speaker 4 (12:00):
I wanted all the barbies I could get.

Speaker 2 (12:02):
Oh, I loved my barbies.

Speaker 1 (12:05):
Let's see if we have one more. Maybe we do,
maybe we don't. No, I think that is gonna kind
of do it. Yeah, that does it for the Minnesota Goodbye.
There's a couple of more that I bet, like Briannon
Waneda wrote in, but we're not gonna get to those today,
So we will get to those another time. On the
Minnesota Goodbye. Always love getting your emails. Send those in

(12:25):
to Ryan Show at KTWB dot com.