Dad Stories: a multi-generational podcast about childhood and growing-up

Send a text Welcome back to our continuation of Eden’s pilgrimage on The Camino! Our second episode will pick up from the first, starting in Southern France and heading into the Pyrenes and into Spain.  Along the way we will see how Eden got the passport needed before the start of the trip that is used to identify one as a Pilgrim. We will also hear about some of the nitty gritty points of living...

Send a text Well, we’re back! We have taken a significant break in our podcast this year and soon you will know why! We have already recorded several episodes that will fill in the blanks on our break. The main reason is that this year Eden was experiencing a significant change in life that has resulted in a move from the west coast to the east coast! Along the way, Eden took an extended trip to E...

Send a text This episode continues discussing the question, What Does It Mean to Be a Man? We start by trying to complete some of the discussions in Part 1 around the definitive definition of Masculinity. We discuss societal definitions caused by Movies, TV and Commercials. We then discuss the impact of Chivalry on masculinity. We introduce a satirical book that came out in the early 80s called Re...

Send a text This episode starts with the question, What Does It Mean to Be a Man? Since, it is a topic too big and nuanced to be addressed by a couple of story tellers, this episode focuses on personal experiences. What did ‘My Old Man’ teach me about being a man? How did society influence the definition of manhood? What does ‘No Homo’ mean anyway? How does the Feminism influence the definition of...

Send a text This episode continues the discussion about events that led us to becoming an Adult or, more accurately, becoming more like an adult. From when we were in our twenties going into the thirties, we both experienced a lot of growth based on being exposed to ‘adult life’. In this episode, we discuss topics centered around family situations such as partners, marriage and babies. We take a l...

Send a text Eden turns thirty! Recently Eden celebrated their 30th birthday. In light of that momentous event, we thought we would discuss events that led us to becoming an Adult or, more accurately, becoming more like an adult. From the twenties into the thirties, we both experienced a lot of growth based on being exposed to ‘adult life’. This will be a two-part series. In this first episode, we...

Send a text This is the fifth and last episode on our elementary school years. With this episode, we share memories about starting school academically behind, coping with overcrowded schools and the changes that caused, senseless vandalism and other shenanigans, working for lunch money, being on safety patrol , spelling bees and school assemblies as well as other topics. Lastly, we talk about beco...

Send a text This is the fourth episode on our elementary school years. With this episode, we share memories about our first memories of experiencing the natural world as well as realizing diversity in the classroom. We also discuss our special school pressures when it came to dealing with math especially math competitions and the pros and cons of counting with your fingers! We also talk about chil...

Send a text This is our third episode on our elementary school years. Unsurprising but just like our first episode, on First Grade, we covered several areas that were not part of the script! The review of our report card revealed to us that we were both under a more focused attention on books we were reading’. It was interesting giving how topical books and schools are in the US right now. Neverth...

Send a text This is our second episode on our elementary school years. To keep us honest, we invited Mom back to join us for this episode.  Just like our first episode, on First Grade, we covered several areas that were not part of the script! The review of our report card would suggest that we both had school in the second grade figured out. Our report cards indicated very little about little Tom...

Send a text We have decided to go back further in time and explore stories from our elementary school years. We were a little worried that our memories couldn’t go back that far. After recording our first episode, on First Grade, we realized our worries were for naught. In this episode we explore our experiences from First Grade. As luck would have it, our moms had saved our report cards from our...

Send a text This episode takes us back to our original model of comparing and contrasting our childhood experiences. In this episode, we discuss a question that adults frequently ask children, “So, what are you going to be when your grow up?”. It turns out that we had a lot to talk about. While Fireman, Policeman and Nurse were the most common jobs for children in the 60s, it turns out that a lot...

Send a text This episode takes some unexpected turns as we start out discussing our experiences travelling in the Pacific Northwest and end up spending most of our time talking about Eden’s experience working at Animal Shelters in Michigan and California. In this episode we discuss Eden’s time in the woods of the Olympic Peninsula and Tom’s experiences while on a sea kayaking trip in the San Juan...

Send a text After taking a few months off we are back with a new season! During part of our time off we spend some time travelling and being out in the woods. In this episode, we discuss some ideas that bubbled up while we were communing with nature including some stories about our experiences with bears and inconvenient places to sleep. We share experiences regarding running into bears while camp...

Send a text This episode is an old fashioned BS session. It has been awhile since we spent time discussing exploits from our past. For this session, we unintentionally focused on some of our lesser stories from our travels in Europe. We share such experiences as seeing John the Baptist’s Skeleton, driving tips and tricks while on a long drive,  taking up-close pictures of the pope, and getting in...

Send a text This previously promised episode compares concerts and dancing between Boomer Parents and their Millennial Children. If one were to think that this topic is ripe for discomfort between generations or that participants would be talking right past each other due to complete unfamiliarity with each generation’s music and dance preferences, they would be partially right. If one were to sus...

Send a text This episode covers stories about the oldest members of our family that we personally knew, Eden’s Great Grandparents. This episode brings to light some of the most interesting personal stories of our family tree. As appropriate, mom joins us for this episode to represent her side of the family.  It turns out that both mom and dad’s ancestral folks that grew up in the early 1900s had e...

Send a text With all of the excitement that happened in Washington D.C. this year, it reminded us of our time living in Washington D.C. To us, the most important thing was that is where we started our family. Of course, we were no D.C. movers and shakers, we were just working stiffs trying to raise a family. However, upon reflection, we were able to take advantage of quite a few opportunities to f...

Send a text Spring is right around the corner. For some of us that means bicycling is back. This episode was made in hopes of conjuring up your own memories of learning to ride a bike and the  independence that cycling brought you. Do you remember your first bike? This episode discusses the difference between people that remember their first bike and those that don’t. We also discuss our personal...

Send a text If you ever reflected on your childhood and wondered why your parents did certain things, this may be the episode for you. If you are a parent of adult age children and you wondered how certain misadventures impacted your kids, this may be the episode for you. Mom and Bobby make what has become a regular visit to participate in the discussion. For this episode, we have taken the gloves...

Send a text With winter here and lots of time by ourselves due to the pandemic, we realized that we were listening to a lot more music than we usually do. Just like with streaming video, we are expanding our music interests so we thought this would be a good time to do the music episode that we have threatened to do for quite awhile. Given that this is another family discussion, we invited Mom and...

Send a text With this episode we go back to our pattern of talking about things we know very little about. For this episode we focus on our memories of the US Space Program. We will review memories about the “Race to the Moon” that occurred in the 60s and early 70s. The danger and consequences of travelling to space are highlighted. We also discus everything we know about space garbage which turne...

Send a text With this episode we add another generation to our multi-generational podcast! Because we have not been able to get out and visit friends and family, we have mostly been staying in touch by phone and video calls. We decided that we would add some spice to our phone calls to grandparents by recording a podcast with them. We convinced Eden’s grandparents to participate in a podcast where...

Send a text Since many kids of all ages are now getting their formal education remotely, we were wondering how they were going to do their extracurricular activities. It brought to mind many memories of the extracurricular activities that we participated in during college. Some activities centered around extending our knowledge of our chosen career choices, others were more athletic in nature. Clu...

Send a text Most of us have gone to Amusement Parks during our college years . In this episode, we share our memories and opinions of Amusement Parks based on our individual and shared experiences.  While there are many similarities in our inter-generational stories one of the things that was definitely different is that Eden and Bobby had some of their college year Amusement Park experiences with...