2024 RAP-Up
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Here's the story of how you can win a trip for two to LA to visit the iconic Brady Bunch house. Not only visit the home, but spend the day there, exploring and brunching with members of the Brady Bunch cast. If you remember, Kristen, Michelle and I had the time of our lives when we got to visit the home back in September, it was truly a magical experience. And now you can have an experience like that too, alongside cast members from the show. Simply visit the Brady experience.com to enter the Brady brunch sweepstakes and from now through January 31 PCPs listeners can get four entries for the price of one. All you have to do is put PCPs in the Add order note section of the shopping cart, and the goodness doesn't stop there. For every 10 purchases you make, you'll have the opportunity to tour the house on your very own. Just remember to put PCPs in the Add order note section of your shopping cart, you can feel good knowing that a portion of your purchase goes to No Kid Hungry, a campaign to help end childhood hunger in America. So get those entries in and cross your fingers. Good luck everybody.
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And maybe you guys know this, the icing on the cake so far this whole decade might have been getting to put my arms around the one and only James Vincent McNichol,
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hello world is a song that we're singing.
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Come on, get
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happy.
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We'll make you happy.
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Welcome to the pop culture Preservation Society, the podcast for people born in the big wheel generation, whose idea of the perfect New Year's Eve is watching Barry Manilow perform on Dick Clark's New Year's rock and Eve, we believe our Gen X childhoods gave us unforgettable songs, stories, characters and images, and if we don't talk about them, they'll disappear, like Marshall will and Holly on a routine expedition. And today, we're wrapping up 2024 with our memorable moments and looking forward to a new year. I'm Carolyn, I'm Kristen, and I'm Michelle, and we are your pop culture preservationists. It's just
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another old
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but when we're through this new year, you'll
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see we'll be
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just
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fine. Can you believe we're saying goodbye to 2024 and on the cusp of the year that I Carolyn rich Cochrane turned 60. Oh my gosh. You guys, that's amazing. That is amazing. Oh yes, amazing. I guess I'm not quite sure how I'm going to be handling this. Okay, you guys, I am counting on you too, as well as our listeners and followers and everybody to help me, kind of, I guess, basically carry me over this new threshold. And I know I'm not alone, because, you know, 1965 The experts say, is the first year of Gen X. And so there are probably a good chunk of us that are turning 60, yes, and probably many of our listeners who have already turned 60. So any advice you all have is welcome, because I'm not quite sure how I'm going to handle this. Well, it's a big month, because the right, when you turn 60, like two weeks later, my sister in law turned 60, and then two weeks later, my sister turned 60, so I've got 365 was, boom, boom, boom. Yeah, it's great. It's like, there's a quote. I'm going to get it wrong, but it's by Jane Fonda about getting older and how much more like it's just being so grateful to get older, to grow older. She says something like, being younger is so boring, right? Like,
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but, but I know what you're saying. I sometimes I put too much value on the number of our age, and I just have started to just be grateful for every aging thing. And it's scary because we're dealing with outmoded concepts of what it means to turn 60. And I am going to put my neck out there, and I'm going to say that our generation, we Gen Xers, are the ones who have single handedly changed the definition of what these ages mean. It started when we turned 40, and everyone was like, 40 is the new 30. And then when we turned 50, we're like, 50 is the new 40. What is 60? It does not mean what it used to and we've talked about this before, where, if you watch movies from the 60s, you'll have these old.
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Ladies with their tight little perms and their and their little pumps and everything, and they are grandmothers and they're 50. Yes, we are not those No, we are not those women. We have changed the definition. And it is not about, you know, trying to be younger. That's not what we're doing. We're not trying to look different. It's just that we have a different spirit about us. We dress differently, we wear our hair in a more youthful way, because we're not and we're not going off into the into the sunset yet, right? We're not letting the culture define who we are and what we should be. I think our generation is willing to take some of those chances and say, I'm going to tell you who I am. I'm not saying, let you tell me who I am, yes. And really, I can say I embraced that idea and that concept in my 50s, yeah, because I'll, I'll admit I dreaded going into my 50s. Okay? And to think that right now, it really makes me laugh, because imagine, imagine me sitting down, you know, 49 year old Carolyn, on the cusp of her 50th birthday, and telling her, listen up girl, that by the end of this decade, you will have done these things. You will have met Sean Cassidy. You will have interviewed Melissa Gilbert several times. Actually, you will have hugged Donny Osmond. You will have talked with Christopher Atkins Wesley. Youre and Greg evigan, you will have toured the NBC Universal lot, where you got to frolic on the set of The Good Place. And that list goes on and on and on. And maybe you guys know this, the icing on the cake so far this whole decade might have been getting to put my arms around the one and only James Vincent McNichol, okay, like, let's just let that sink in for a minute. If you had told 50 year old Carolyn that, I mean, I'm not sure what she would have done, she might have had a heart attack and just lived especially because she was a teacher, right? Yes, Carolyn was a teacher. If you had told 49 year old Carolyn that she would be like, but I'm not in media, how does that even correspond to my life? And you guys, it all goes back to how I used to think of my kids. Like, say, when my, one of my daughters was turning 10, and I was like, Oh, I can't even believe it. This is she's so old, she's so big, she's so and then when she was turning 15, I was like, I can't believe I thought 10 was old, you know, like, now she's 15, and then she was 20, and then she was 25 and every time I was like, and I feel the same way about myself. Like, you go back and say, I can't believe I'm turning 60. Well, one day, God willing, you're going to be turning 70. Don't go back and go. I wasted all that time thinking that was old, right, right? Because look what we can do. And I would say that, you know, we have some really good role models right now from the boomer generation, as far as but people that as Gen Xers we loved, like Melissa Gilbert and
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Brooke Shields, who are turning, you know, 60, and have turned 60 and are just embracing it and embracing the changes, not trying to do weird things, and, you know, to their faces or whatever. And like we always say, if you want to do that, go for it. It's fine, not for us, but like, you know, they're embracing the aging process and saying, look how fabulous we can be, and don't discount us. And so that's why I feel like every age instead of I'm done thinking now I'm old. I'm old because you're gonna, God willing, keep getting older, exactly, and then that's gonna seem young, and look at all the time you wasted, right, right? Women that you mentioned right there. They're not denying their age in any way, shape or form. They are very out there with I'm this old, I'm this oldest, almost like they're advertising it, and then they're also being open about the changes that come with being that age. Both Melissa Gilbert and Brooke Shields, let's just stick with those two examples. Are very open about their struggles with menopause and what comes with that, and they're not pretending. They're not trying to distract the people from their age right. In years past, they would have been like, I can't talk about menopause, then they'll know how old I am. But they're letting people know we are all in this together, right? I'm not the only one who's in my 60s. I'm not the only one who's going through this. Let's do it together and support each other instead. Yeah, and I think that's the gift I can say that my 50s gave me is really the willingness to just be who I am. Because I can tell you, 50s was the year or the decade that I decided I would take some chances. And that started with, and I think I've shared this before, but I went to this writing retreat in Ojai, California. I didn't know a soul, and it was life changing. And then I came back, and that, because I went to that writing retreat, I ended up in a writer's group with, eventually, these two women sitting in front of me or on the screen. But, you know, I went to this writing group in here not knowing a soul like taking this chance. I would have never done that in other times in my life. And so that just then fed into other things. Like, hey, let's start a podcast. Like, you know, let's take this chance.
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And I'm all about the chance taking now, and I'm not, as you know, afraid to do it or anything like that. So I am grateful for my 50s, and I am going to trust that I will saunter into my 60s just as happy as, oh, you're gonna. You are you're gonna, well, you know, what else falls into that category of taking chances, which I have fully embraced, is fashion choices. And I think traditionally, as women age, their clothing got more and more conservative, and mine is getting more and more outlandish, and that because I can just be whatever I want, and before, there is a dividing line. And I think menopause might be that dividing line where? Well, let me give you an example. I just bought a new pair of pants. I'm wearing them right now. I'll stand up and show you, if you like, they are so cool, they are so unflattering, and yet. And so I really toyed with this, like, Am I really gonna buy these super unflattering pants? But look at how cool they are. And in that moment, standing in the store, I realized, if you let go of being pretty, you can wear these super cool pants. And when you're in this age group, you have the freedom to do this. I am not here to be pretty for you. I am here to be distinctive and interesting. Show you my pants. Yeah, please do. They're made by a magnolia pearl. Some of you out there gonna be like, oh, yeah, I know, Magnolia pearl.
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Okay, so they're super baggy. They've got just like they look super they've got patches all over them. You're not showing up well on the screen, but there, I wear them every single day?
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Well, we're gonna definitely pick a little link, yeah, also Kristen, just so you know, if I saw you and didn't know you and we were, you know, out somewhere in a store, and I saw you in those pants, I am immediately admiring you. I'm gonna, I am like, look at those cool pants. I'm not looking at your face, or I'm like, That is a fashion statement. I love that that I mean, I may, I'll make some assumptions about who you are based on your pants, maybe for good or for bad. And they're all positive assumptions. So all of that is to say that as we get older, the freedoms that we have are so much greater to be who we are and to be distinctive and interesting, and to do things that we never imagined we could even do. It used to be that that your life was winding down as you turned 60, and we are amping, oh,
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because, don't you think not to keep prolonging this conversation. Listeners, this is still in there. This is not at all what we had
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but, what I was gonna say is, don't you also think it's because in the decades prior to your 50s, you had so many other roles you had to fill for us. It was not just being a wife and a mother and a daughter, but it was also whatever career we were in. So we also had to be a professional in whatever we were doing. And all of a sudden, we all got to 50. Our kids were grown for the most part, Carolyn still had, you know, Grace was still in high school, but like
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we all, were able to start shedding those other roles that we made define made M, A, D, E, we made define us like so we chose kind of to define us, and we all of a sudden, got to this where we could shed those roles. And it was like, ah, guess who I get to be again. You know, you get to go buy the pants that you want to buy, because they're you. You're not trying to be like, well, this Kristin, can't wear those pants. You just get to be Kristin again. I can do whatever I want. People can judge me however they want. So when I think about this past year, the last year of my 50s, I have to say that if I had to look at a highlight reel, especially when it comes to the podcast, particularly, I think the ultimate moment was skipping down dilling Street in my flower bell bottom. Hands with my holding hands with these co hosts as we approached the Brady Bunch house and then walked through that iconic front door and immediately were in an episode of The Brady Bunch it, oh yeah, there were so many levels to that experience that I can't even put into words, but I couldn't have done it with Two more amazing people who get me and who were right alongside me, swinging on the swings and teetering on the teeter totters,
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sipping our George glasses. It was, it was amazing. So I've got to say, in so many ways, that was probably a big highlight for me. For 2024
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there is no I'm gonna steal Carolyn's catch phrase without a doubt, like that's that's the biggest number one. I have so many things on my list that I want to share with you, but there's no doubt that that was, by far and away, the number one highlight of the year for all of us. And you're right, the people that you're with matter because if I had been with somebody.
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Who wasn't as enamored with the Brady Bunch as me, or who didn't honor me in the same way it would have been very difficult. Yeah, we all, we all our level of not just enthusiasm for it, but just we what we got, like all the little details, and we got it and again. So grateful then through this podcast to have met people like Susie, who and Tina, who, you know, and I think that you know, I'll piggyback on you guys that for me, for sure, PCPs wise, that was my highlight. But I would also like to say that making the new friends and we were friends with Susie before, but really getting to spend that good quality time with her in California, and then meeting Tina. And then, you know, part of that trip too, that for me was a huge highlight, was getting that personal tour of the Jim Henson Company studio lot from Susie's sister, Nicole. So meeting Nicole was a huge highlight for me, and then getting to meet Hallie Stanford in person, the president of television at Jim Henson studios, who we had on the podcast in 2023 but yet, meeting her in real life on that trip, just this this past fall of 24 was just tremendous. She was every I mean, these are new people that have come into our lives because of the podcast and I just, it's, I don't know, it's just so soul filling for us. I think that's a great way to describe it. And so listeners, if you can tell that trip affected us deeply. I mean, on so many levels, we're excited to remind you guys that there is a sweepstakes currently going on that you and a friend can have that same experience, and you can have it with some of the cast members. So here's what you need to know right now, there is a sweepstakes going on called the Brady brunch sweepstakes. I get it wordplay. Love it. And it is a sweepstakes that's benefiting No Kid Hungry. And if you don't know what they do, that's an organization that works to end childhood hunger. So it's this great feel good sweepstakes where you and a friend can win a trip to LA there are five winners. You get an all expenses paid trip. So that's hotel, ground transportation, meals, all the good stuff. And then you get to have what we had plus, okay, you get to spend the day at the house. You get to have pork chops and applesauce. You get to do that with cast members. I mean, I can't even like, I'm excited. I want to have that experience. And right now, through January 31 is when the sweepstakes ends. If you go on to the Brady experience.com
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and you purchase one entry into the sweepstakes, you can actually get three extra entries by simply putting PCPs in the notes section. There's a little note box in the shopping cart. All that information is in the Weekly Reader every Friday and and will continue to be until the end of January, until the sweepstakes is over, perfect. So if you're not already subscribed to our Weekly Reader, this is a great reason to do it. And then winners will be announced in February, and then you'll get more information, because we know one of you is going to be the winners. You'll get the information on when you'll be headed out to LA. So go on and do that. It's a it'll make you feel good. It helps a good cause. It's just really worthwhile. And from three people that have walked over that threshold, we can tell you it's it's worth it. So hopefully you'll do that. Yeah, what do you have to lose? Nothing, everything to gain. Like this was not just a PCPs highlight for us this year. It was a personal highlight, like lifelong highlight for us. And you guys like Carolyn just said, you know, what have you got to lose because you're donating money to a good cause anyway, that you can feel good about, and you have a chance to have this all expenses paid trip with you and a friend. It's, it's insane. It's, it's like, it's, it's such a no brainer to me. So I hope, if you listen to our episode after we returned from California on that trip, we had a little wrap up episode. And I just want to reiterate that this is the this is the culmination of Tina, the owner of the Brady Bunch house, trying to figure out how to make this house available to the public. The reason that she bought the house was because she wanted to preserve that legacy for us. And then she really struggled with how to make it available without, without putting the house in danger, right? You can't just open the doors and let people in, turning it into a museum. Didn't seem like a good idea, either. And so this is she's just experimenting with this, like, let's, let's get people in. How can we do this in small numbers, in a special way targeting the people who really care, and that's you guys
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so Well, besides the Brady Bunch, the trip to the Brady Bunch house being my highlight of 2024
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I have another highlight that we also devoted the entire episode to, because it was such a highlight for I know Carolyn as well, but you.
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You know, in 2024, we got to meet Donnie Osmond, and for my five, six and seven year old self, that was, that was her highlight. That was, that was my, you know, professional but yet also a big personal highlight, just to stand there and and get to sing some of the umbrella song with him, and we got to meet, you know, PCPs listeners in the wild, like we like to say when we just run into people who say, Hey, I know your podcast. So that was, that was crazy amazing. That was one of my experiences that I love, of getting to see somebody that I really care about meaning Michelle have this experience, so it's like double for me, because, of course, I loved seeing him, but watching her see him, and the tears and just the I was with little Michelle at the same time, and that's such a gift of this podcast. I gotta say this is a good exercise for people. I think you should try and do this before the year is over, in order to sort of get my thoughts together, to talk with you guys, I went through the year month by month just to say, what was the highlight of that month? What did that month bring to me? And I was surprised, because there were so many things that felt so long ago, they felt so far in my past. And no, they were 2024,
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and one of the highlights of my year was teaching a class for fourth and fifth graders at my local school, an eight week long class. It was a long term commitment called Creative journaling, inspired by Taylor Swift. As you know, I am this podcast, pro Crush ologist, like this is my area of interest. If you've read worldwide crush, you know that that was inspired by my childhood crush on Sean Cassidy, and we're having a moment in our culture right now with Taylor Swift, and so teaching these fourth and fifth graders and being a part of their crush or their big feelings for this pop culture icon was beyond fulfilling for me, it was so great, not to mention the fact that they're adorable and funny. They're just 11 year olds. Or my jam you guys, I just, I love hanging out with 11 year olds. One thing I really wanted to expose them to was that this phenomenon, this this love that we have for people, is something that happens to everybody in every generation. And so we would play this game where I would have these if they had these chocolates that had faces of crushes on them throughout history, if you came to any of the worldwide crush events around the country last year, you probably got some of these chocolates. And so they would stick their hand, close their eyes, and stick their hand into my Hardy Boys lunch box, and they would randomly pick out a chocolate, and most of the time it would be a person. They were like, Who's this? They had no idea. And so it would turn into a little history lesson. And it was so interesting to see who they knew, who they didn't know, who they got excited about. And the thing that was so interesting to me was watching how they responded to culture from the past. So for instance, one person pulled out a chocolate with Hanson on it. And I'm like, All right, everybody, do you know the song M Bop, sit down. We're gonna watch the video for mbappe. And then they would take it in and, like, analyze it. How old is he? What is his name? Did the girls like him too? What is this about? And here's something I did not know. Somebody pulled out a chocolate with Justin Bieber on it, and I said, Okay, we're gonna watch one of the best crushy videos of all time. Are you ready? It's called Baby. They all knew baby. Remember, baby came out before these kids were born. That's how old these kids are. They know all the words. They know this video by heart, and they know that this little boy is the grown man today. That was just so interesting to me. Then the other thing that I wanted to do is tell them about vinyl, because I listened to Taylor Swift on vinyl. So I'd bring my little portable record player and I'd set it up, and I just want to stop for just a quick second interrupt. Gosh, you guys. How fun is that? How amazing would that have been if we could have had a class where, you know, all about Sean or Donny Osmond or something, just honoring where they are, right, and showing them that it matters, and then it's mattered for a long time. So you know, this record, album is very foreign to them, and they're looking at it, and I'm trying to explain what it is. And one little girl goes, oh, oh, is it one of those spinny things?
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Yes, it is. It is one of those things.
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And then another little girl says, Oh, we have those too, but I have, I have the little ones that are silver,
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a CD, I'm guessing. Yeah, it was a CD. Then I also had a magazine that I brought in that had Taylor Swift on the cover. And it occurred to me that they have not seen this magazine, even though, in our day, you would have run right out to the store to get the magazine that had Sean Cassidy on the cover.
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Or they don't really have access to this. They don't know. And so I shared with them this ancient artifact called a magazine. And I said, Wait, do Do you guys know what this is? Like? It's not junk mail or anything. Do you know what this is? And one girl said, my parents, my parents have these in the bathroom.
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Oh,
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that's so funny. Oh, I love that. And you know what else? Just let me interrupt about magazines, because I'm just thinking as you're talking about it. You know, granted, they've got social media. They can see a zillion pictures of Taylor or whoever, but one, they can't, like, take that out and immediately hang it on their wall like no, we did get some immediate gratification with those magazines. It's not an eight and a half by 11 glossy that they're looking at. Most likely it's a whatever two by four. I don't know what phone screen is, but you don't get the same impact. It doesn't hit the same as you look
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onto it. It's not tangible. You don't keep it. And so I was promoting this. I'm like, promoting the past for these kids. I'm showing them the magazine. Like, look, you can tear this out. You can put it on your wall, even in the record albums. I don't know if you guys know this, but when you buy a Taylor Swift album on vinyl, oftentimes it will come with a full size, full color photographic insert with extra photos in it. It has all the lyrics in it. They were fascinated that they had access to all of the lyrics. They were fascinated with this tangible thing they could hold in their hands. And I was like, Why isn't this something that we can give them, you know, these 11 year olds, 12 year olds, they can go to the you know, target or the grocery store with their parents now, and you see the Taylor Swift magazines, but they're like those people special editions or the Rolling Stone ones. So these are ones that, if you handed that to an 11 year old, it's words. It's a lot of words when they're missing
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and oh, they're 15 bucks. They're $20 yeah, what the younger kids are missing are the that. And maybe they're not. Maybe I just don't go to places where they sell Tiger beats anymore. But like the Tiger Beat, where it's 60% posters, right? And 40% just bullet point things, favorite color, favorite, whatever. And these are things that we had at age 11, and we could read and we could absorb, and we could just, you know, obsess over now, when they see a magazine with Taylor Swift on it, it's like, that's a book. I can read it, right? Exactly. It's a history lesson. It's not for them, it's for their parents, right? It's for adults. Well, yeah, and it's for the over, you know, 18, 1718, year old. So I was super happy to be able to do this and and sort of bridge the generation gap, as it were, all in the name of Taylor Swift. Well, that's so cool. They probably went home, and that was a great conversation starter for their own with their own parents, right? I pulled a chocolate today, and Miss Christian told me someone named, you know, Andy Gibb although we have to understand their parents could probably be our kids. That was, that was a big discussion, actually, because there they were sort of fascinated with with my generation. What generation are you? I say I'm Gen X. Okay, what is Gen X? Are my parents Gen X? And then they would then everyone had to tell the ages of their parents, and trust me, what their generation was, and I think the youngest one was once one one woman, one girl, said, my mom is 38 and I did the math, I was like, Yeah, I could be that woman's mom. And I think of me as the mom age. I'm mom age, yes, but no, I'm really my grandma age. Of course we are. When we have a lot of listeners that are grandparents that are younger than we are, we could all be grandparents. With the ages of our kids, or that's all a mindset that's all again, back to our original conversation, like we have assumptions we make about what a grandma is and we are not those people well. And this school where I'm teaching is the school where my son went to middle school, and so and I used to work in this library. And so I show up in the library and I say, Oh, are you and the parent volunteers are in there? Oh, are you parent volunteers? I'm a parent volunteer, too. Oh, how old is your kid? 22 Yeah. Like, and they're looking at me like, you're not a parent volunteer. You have not been here for 10 years. I'm a parent and I'm a volunteer. Yeah, I'll tell you what, though, as much as I was like, I don't put value on numbers or whatever. There's nothing that floors me as to when I have to say to someone, well, I have two daughters. 129's and then I'm just like 29 Well, one of the things I wanted to talk about that personally, that was a huge highlight for me in 2024 it actually started at the very, very, very end of 2023 but I'm going to count it as 2024 was that at age 54 I learned to ski. Yes, I learned to snow ski. And you guys a little back story when I was when I lived in Ridgefield, Washington, which long time listeners know, was really the biggest chunk of time I lived anywhere. And one of the winters are.
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Parents put my sister, me and our next door neighbors, Barbara and Kathy, in a little ski school on Mount Hood. So every Saturday morning for six weeks, we had to get on a school bus and ride to Mount Hood, which was, I don't even remember. I'm gonna say it was like an hour and a half away or something. And we were a little ski group called the Mogul busters. My sister still has our little hats that say mogul busters on him and everything. And you guys, of the four of us, I was the youngest, and of the entire class, I was the worst. I was horrible. And we have some really funny stories of me. I never made it off the chairlift upright a year ago. You know, we moved to Denver in August of 2023 and my husband grew up skiing, and he's a good skier, and he's like, I think you would love it. I'm like, hell no. Like, I'm gonna be on a knee scooter for, you know, six months, or I'm gonna have a triangular shaped, you know, traction thing where I'm gonna be, like, in bed with my leg hanging on it. And I was like, No, but I love the mountain so much, and I thought, If I don't take this chance and at least give it a shot, I'm gonna be missing a whole bunch of beauty in my life, and maybe even something that's kind of fun and thrilling. And I did, and I was terrified, and I learned to ski, and I can do it, and I have so much fun. And you guys, it's exhilarating and it's terrifying at the same time. And I skied a whole bunch in 2024
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I've already been skiing this season, and it's just something that I'm so proud of myself that I did. And it goes back to Carolyn, like you said, taking chances in your 50s, and it's so soul filling for me,
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even though I'm 50% terrified and 50% exhilarated every time I'm doing it should be because, you know what it is point Carolyn, yeah, but it is because I don't I feel the most alive even when I'm hiking in the mountains. I do, but there's something about skiing, and I think it's that terrifying aspect of it that makes me feel the most alive. And so that was a huge highlight for me. And then, very quickly, my other big highlight is, you guys, I became a parent again in 2024 she had a baby at age 55 I had another, another girl. Yeah, we adopted our sweet, sweet pop Frankie in May. And that's something I mean, how weird that I'm a dog mom, and I have fully thrown myself into it, embraced it. Her original name was peach, and so we named her Frankie, but now we call her Frances peach, but she is my child. She is my third. And it doesn't, you know, being an empty nester, it's very easy to make your dog right. You guys are dog moms and have been for a long time. Can you say it's a little bit different being an empty nester than it was when your kids were home? All of the love, all of the love is aimed at this dog who just is, like, pet me more pet. Oh yes. Oh yeah. The dogs are so just a grateful recipient, especially Frankie, because she came from such terribly sad conditions, and now she is the recipient. I just say that, especially with my girls being all the way in Chicago, she is all are displaced my attention and my need to also buy things for her, like she is the luckiest pup. And you guys, she goes hiking with us. She goes to tell your ride. She goes skiing with us. It's a story. It's like it could be a movie. I'm like getting Benji feels to this, like we see Frankie in this awful life, and like, this montage, and then income,
Unknown Speaker 33:31
you know, the Newman's just looking and then, you know, kind of want a dog. Yeah, we love her. She said, That's too the empty nest thing. I just put this together now, but I think this makes a lot of sense. You know, as your children get older, your physical relationship with your child starts to wane, especially if you have a boy. I hate to stereotype, but you know, getting a hug from my kid is when I demand it pretty much, and it's gonna be quick, it's gonna be a squeeze, and that's done, and that's it, and I crave more. And so all of my physical affection goes toward my dog, and my dog is pretty, like, lying on the ground. My dog and I are about the same size.
Unknown Speaker 34:11
We spoon a lot. There's a lot of spooning, and I'm just realizing now how, like, Oh, I'm getting my physical affection needs. I mean, not that I don't get physical affection for my husband, to be clear, but because we're visualizing that, yes,
Unknown Speaker 34:27
it's but because your your physical relationship wanes over time. And we're not really done. We're never done. They're done, but we're never done. Well, I will tell you, there's nothing. I want to say there's nothing, but I get, I can't even describe the type of joy and how my heart bursts when we go to the dog park and she's off leash and she's way far away from me. Say she's 30 yards away from me, and I call her name, and she turns and and she's, she's mostly Australian cattle dog. So you guys.
Unknown Speaker 35:00
They are fast the way she leaps as she runs to me, and I swear to god, she's smiling and the tongue is out. She's running so fast, like, back to me, Okay, does she know that she's going to get a treat for coming to her name? Yes, I don't care, because sometimes she doesn't, you guys, I feel like I'm going to cry with just the love, because here, because our kids are grown, aren't we? You? When we used to call our kids as names at a park and they came running, Mom, mommy, mommy to us, it's that same exact feeling inside, and I feel like I'm gonna
Unknown Speaker 35:36
cry every time I do it, and sometimes she's running off playing, having the best time with the other dogs, and I call her name, and I'm like, Oh, I just have to make sure she knows to come. No, it's just so. It's self serving. It's just so that I can get that feeling her come to me so excited. Yeah, right. Well, Kristen, I want to just jump on something you said, because when I turned 50 and I was at that writing retreat I was just talking about earlier. I wrote all about the fact that I thought I was losing my son. I was losing Andrew. He was going off to college. And in my mind, you go off to college, you do your own thing, then you probably move away, and then at some point, you get a wife, and you just don't keep in touch with your parents or whatever, and you'll probably, if you call, you'll just talk to your dad, whatever. And I mean, I bawled at this writing retreat about that, and I wrote and wrote and wrote, and I've got to say, one of the gifts of being 50, besides the other things I said, is that I got to watch this decade of my son mature and evolve. So yeah, at the beginning of my 50s, college, all of that stuff went for him, you know, early, mid 20s. It was all about him that has changed. I've got to tell you. Have something to look forward to, at least for me, he kind of took this turn where he became this adult, and he'll come up and hug me, he'll call me, I'm the one he calls you know, he asked his advice. I know he does the dishes like without my asked, Oh, what, yes, or like,
Unknown Speaker 37:08
I know, and he left my mouth as like a perfect Oh, right now, but I'm telling you, you have something to look forward to. I know that Liam will be that, yeah, boy too. And I think that's just how boys are. And so what I dreaded the most, like this anxiety that, honestly, you guys, I cried about, it's a great lesson now that I think about about anxiety is that you first see I totally projected this future that has not come to be, that I mourned this future, yeah, that it wasn't that It wasn't that it was storytelling. It was just
Unknown Speaker 37:41
storytelling. He is 27 Okay, so, and I think that 25 mark is important, right? They say that's when a boy's brain, you know, when you're when their frontal lobe is officially formed. Yeah, 25 all that love and all that love and care that he's felt and received from you and Mike is there. It's still there. It's just going to start coming out more. When you said it's all storytelling, that's all what that's what worrying is. That's worrying is only storytelling. You're worrying about things that you do not know, right? Are gonna have not happened, things that have not happened. Yeah? So, yeah. Can I share one low light that you made me think of this. Debbie downer, it's just a sharing, it's just a sharing of news, and it's not and it's something that I'm that I'm dealing with, and it's and it's fine, but when you were talking about skiing, Michelle, and I've never been a skier, I mean, I have skied, but there was a time in life when I'm like, I don't think I'd like this. I'm not gonna do it, because there's peer pressure. If you grew up in Minnesota, there's peer pressure to ski, like all the church trips, all the school trips. And you're not gonna say, I'm not going right, right, and let me just say real quick, is that that was something else that being 54 and learning to ski gave me is my husband's like, I want you to ski. I know you're gonna love it. And I said to him right away, I do wanna try it, but I'm just gonna tell you right now, there is no pressure. I don't want to feel pressure to have to love it. And he was so supportive of that, oh yeah, if you hate it, and he could go, but I know you're gonna love it, but he's like, but if you hate it. And then I had friends who are skiers that were like, Yeah, let's we should ski together. And I was like, nope, nope. Because I want no pressure. I want to ski for me. And you guys, I still do. I'm gonna ski those green runs till I die, and I love it
Unknown Speaker 39:27
on a green run, I don't agree,
Unknown Speaker 39:30
although now you guys, I can get on blue runs. So that's kind of fun. And I'm not scared, because I've had enough confidence. But that was it. Kristen too. It's like, yeah, at 40 something, I would have felt like, oh, I have to be good, like I felt when I was on the Mogul busters when I was 5/5 grade. I had to keep up with everybody, and I felt bad for holding everybody back. I'm like, no, no, this is how I'm gonna ski. I tell, I tell, I'm like, you can ski with me if you want, but this is where I'm skiing Well, and that's I'm scared on this run, because you've so you've put up a very strong boundary about what this is. Because I.
Unknown Speaker 40:00
I think most skiing is not that. I think most skiing is social, and we're doing it together, and somebody's always trying to keep up and feeling bad. And I guess I'll just go to the chalet and drink hot chocolate, which is, that's why I quit. That's why I do it, because I can't keep up. But here's my low light that even if I were to try and get over that hump skiing is now out of the picture for me, because I can't write a gondola, because in June, I got about of vertigo. I know I'm a person with vertigo, and it happened after a night at a New Kids on the Block concert. So we're calling it New Kids fever. I literally woke up with new kids fever and and it's now under control, and I have a normal life, and I can walk around and thrive and everything like that, but it's not gone. And when I do even going up an escalator, I have to think, all right, Kristen, hold on. Do this. And you do this. Don't go to the edge. Don't look over the edge. And and so there's no there's nothing with heights. There's nothing with like, I'm not even gonna go see a show and get the nosebleed seats anymore. That's not that's over for me. How are you with flying now,
Unknown Speaker 41:11
that seems to be fine. I'm trying to think how many times I've flown, yeah? Cuz you're not looking out the you know, you're just, you're in an enclosed space, yeah? And I get that still, and I will say that for people listening, I mean, we're all sitting in a great place of privilege, and that we have our health, we have our you know, and we're able to do these kinds of things. I am in physical therapy right now strengthening because my quads, man, tell you what skiing the kills and my knees, because I'm not an idiot. I know I'm getting older, and I know that if I want to be able to do these things or bend over. I have to keep stretching, and I have to keep doing things. So I also know that I'm in this moment of my life where I'm like, I'm gonna appreciate all the things I can do while I'm doing them, because you're right. I could fall, I could I could twist a knee, I could be out. That new scooter is always at the back of my mind, you guys. But you know what? I'm gonna decorate it with Hello Kitty stickers if I get it, if I end up on a knee scooter, it's gonna be so cute. I'm gonna have hand I'm gonna have streamers from the handlebars.
Unknown Speaker 42:08
Oh, gosh. But think, how would you have gotten up that? I guess you would have had to crawl up the Brady stairs like you know, don't, don't do anything that might jeopardize your That's right, the things that you want to do. But I know I'm gonna live my life and do that. Yeah, I've written the story of Carolyn. So Carolyn King, she's a safety oriented person, as long as she's alone, right? Like, until she's not, until something happens. And, you know, I don't like, yeah, Carolyn sends me texts when I'm skiing with little crutches
Unknown Speaker 42:40
and I'm like, you just changed me. Jinxed me? Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 42:46
I have two more highlights that I want to share just quickly, because this podcast has grown, has grown my life in ways that go beyond the podcast. It includes the book worldwide crush. It includes my job as an author, and it's just another testament to how things get bigger when you're when you're over 50, more things are happening to me now than have ever happened to me in my entire life. So as a result of worldwide crush coming out last year, if those of you who have read it know that there's a very important part of the story that takes place in the little town in northern California called Bodega Bay. It's tiny. It's a little town, and I love it. And I just thought, you know, the kids of Bodega Bay should probably have a copy of this book, because how many people in small towns have a book that features their hometown? So I sent a copy of the book to the principal of the Bodega Bay School, and she read it to the to the kids in the school, and they loved it, and we arranged for me to come to Bodega Bay and meet the kids. So what I didn't know is that she wasn't telling the children that I was coming. And instead, what she did was she set me up in the library on Zoom, and she told the kids that we were going to have a zoom with the author of worldwide crush. After about two minutes talking with them over zoom, one of the kids says, Hey,
Unknown Speaker 44:10
that poster is in our library. And the next thing I know, 24 children come bursting through the library door. And I always say it's like a clown car exploding. It was like joy coming. They shot out the door, and then they mobbed me like Santa Claus, and it was this moment of, oh my god. This is why I do this. This is why I wrote this book. These children are mobbing me. Well, now I've become friends with the teachers at this school. The principal of the school has become a very important person to me. These kids have formed a worldwide crush fan club, and I have to mention, most of these kids are boys. And so all of you who think that books about love or stories about love are girl books. That is BS, it is.
Unknown Speaker 45:00
Not true. These little romantics were so involved in this story and in the question and answer period, one little boy named Emiliano, he said he was very disappointed about one aspect of the ending, and he said, How come Millie and Rory couldn't get married at the end? I was like, Well, dude, because she's in seventh grade.
Unknown Speaker 45:22
So they Yeah, there's no getting married, yeah. But he was, he was like, We, like we did as kids. When you're reading about it, you suspend reality. You just he was so invested. He was invested. They're just such a little romantics, and so this, so this relationship with this school is continuing, and I'm so grateful for that moment with them that I had in April. The other thing that happened to me was that there was a new bookstore that opened up in Minneapolis, and because I have worked in bookstores and libraries for 30 years, essentially, and these guys were brand new, every once in a while, I would go over and I would offer my help if they were doing an author visit or something like that. And eventually the owner said, Kristen, do you just want to work here? And you know, you guys know enough. The last thing I need is another job, right? I have too many jobs as it is, and and I was like, I want, I want you so badly, but that would be such a bad idea, I can't add something more to my plate. But I said, How Little can I work? And it turns out that she was super open to me working like minuscule numbers of hours. And now I've become a part of this bookstore team, and this bookstore team is all women. It's a skeleton crew. It's like five of us, and we're all from different generations, so it's mostly Gen Xers and Gen Z ers, and there's this very there's a real mother daughter vibe amongst this little group. And because I work alone, because I work at home, I had forgotten what it was like to be part of a workplace, and I feel like we are part of our own workplace, ensemble comedy, sitcom. It's, it's so, so interesting. But also being a part of this bookstore world, besides loving being on the floor and selling books to people, it has had so many opportunities come my way. I've been on on Minnesota Public Radio. I've been on the local news station. I'm going to be on public radio again, because people want information about books. And when they call the bookstore and they're like, Do you have anybody who could come on the radio and talk about x and they're like, Kristen, do you want to go on the radio? And the answer is, yes, I do. I do. But also, Kristin, this all goes back to being in your 50s and letting go of a lot of expectations that you think are on you, or just kind of getting into a place where you're just like, I'm going to do what I want to do. Again, we're all fortunate that we're able to do that, and none of us are the breadwinners and our family. So let's just put that out there, that we all realize that. We realize that so listeners, right now, after like, well, most be nice, we realize that we're fortunate in that situation, but, but like you, just by letting go of a lot of stuff and taking chances and, you know, saying I don't, I don't have time to work here, but this is what I really want to do, and doing things that you want to, yeah, and honoring that that led to more opportunities for you that fit with you well. And it's also letting go of the striving, because, you know, I started my career in bookstores, and then the idea you're told when you're in your 20s is that you're supposed to climb the ladder of success, right? And this would be coming in at the same exact place where I started as a bookseller. And instead of saying, Well, you know, I've done this for a long time, and I should really be, like, management material or something, no, I'm like, I just want to, I just want to talk about books with people. I just want to be here on the floor and be one of you guys. And so it's letting go of that striving and just doing exactly the thing that you want to do. And it's been what fulfills you, you know, what fulfills you? Yeah, and when you say yes and take those chances, you'll be amazed at what happens. It's like you're in your flow, or whatever they talk about. It's like, once you're doing these things that you're loving, like the podcast, we had no idea what would come from this. We just kind of said yes to it, and we loved it, and we kept taking the next step. And we couldn't have dreamed what was going to happen. And I don't think Kristen could have dreamt that she literally, you guys, she's a star on TV. I don't know if we put the link up or not. It was both in our it was in our weekly, yeah, a couple weeks ago, and our story, thank you. That's and it was, what a gift to the viewers of that station to get to hear you talk about some books and get exposed to some new books. It's, it's just what I guess the message I want to say is by saying yes to things that scare you a little bit.
Unknown Speaker 50:00
Like Michelle said,
Unknown Speaker 50:02
You won't believe. You can't even script the gifts that can come from That's right. So worth it. You cannot foretell that, right? No. And that can be, that can be me being at the top of a mountain and be and being so grateful that I took that, that I said yes to that, and took that chance, because look what I would have missed, right? Or it can, you know, if I wouldn't have it, can be saying yes to a job, and then look what you would have. You were scared to say yes to that, because I don't know if, at the time, look what you would have missed, and understand too, like we all have the still have it doesn't mean we can't still say no, right? Still say no to things you think. Carolyn, yeah. And also, I feel really now confident that even if I've said yes to something and I'm in it, I can change my mind, and I don't have to feel bad or guilty or what are people going to think of me? Yeah, exactly, exactly. And to your point, Kristen, about success, I feel like that's something else I've kind of redefined in my 50s. You know? What is success? And I think our generation was made to think it was more money, more prestige, a bigger house, a bigger car, whatever. And I think even when people ask us, Well, do you think the podcast is successful? How much money are you making? A lot of money. And we won't lie, we went into it thinking, Oh, that would be great. But I wouldn't say that was our mission. And I would say now we are a super successful podcast. I'd say, in my mind, in the top 1% of a successful podcast,
Unknown Speaker 51:36
and based on my now definition of success, which is you guys, the listener, the connections that we have made. The fact that our social media has grown to 70 over 75,000 followers across social media. We celebrated our 500th follower, which was great. And we love you. 500th follower, and we love our first 500 followers. We were so excited. We were at out to lunch. Just coincidentally, the three of us, you would have thought we won the lottery.
Unknown Speaker 52:08
Followers, yes, we were so excited. And again, I think we did win the lottery based on, again, our listeners and our followers, and the genuine care that you have about us, the connections that we've made. You're sharing our podcast with others, the comments and the reviews that you guys give us, that is the payment that is success to me, and we get those all the time, and they fill our buckets, they do. And you know what? It's It's so true. And like, when we started it, Carolyn, like you said, I think we were all like, oh, we could have a successful podcast, and we'll make all this money four years in over 200 episodes, like you said, now over 75,000
Unknown Speaker 52:50
followers across social media. We don't make any money working
Unknown Speaker 52:55
on it.
Unknown Speaker 52:57
We still thank goodness for our supporters on Patreon, because they pay our bills, and that and they truly are what keeps us what allows us to keep on going, because we do have a lot of bills that have to be paid, but we we get so much fulfillment, and it's so cliche. I tell people this all the time, on the joy that these conversations have brought you, and that you let us know, and you let us know so many different ways, through emails to us or DMS on social media, but also through the reviews that so many of you leave on Apple podcasts and Spotify and and you guys, they make us so just so grateful for you for listening, and then just so happy that we're these silly conversations we have, and I don't want to say silly. They're actually not silly, because they're very meaningful to the three of us. And I think that comes across to you guys, and then you guys are able to connect these, the topics, you know, to your own lives. But I wanted to just read you some of the more recent reviews we've gotten on Apple podcasts. And it's really easy to do if you haven't left a review and you love the podcast. Go where you listen apple. I know you can leave reviews and Spotify, I believe, and you'll find where, where to leave it. You're smart.
Unknown Speaker 54:10
We have one. And I love the subject line says, PCPs is the bomb diggity. It says, Thank you, PCPs. I am a 58 year old female truck driver who listens to your podcast regularly, and I love it. All caps brings back a lot of memories growing up as a latch key kid in the 70s and 80s. Hello, we I hear you. I feel you there. I see you. Every episode has me laughing and feeling nostalgic for my idyllic and fear. Old child.
Unknown Speaker 54:38
Keep it up. I love that. I also love this one just says the best. This is just two cent three sentences, but this means the world to the three of us. I know I can't say how much I love this podcast. I feel like I'm reliving my youth with my best friends with me. Please don't ever stop. And here's one that says I love this podcast. I love reliving my job.
Unknown Speaker 55:00
Gen X childhood and teenage memories with these ladies. Every episode makes me smile, laugh and sometimes cry. We we hear you there, right? I am in other Gen X groups on social media, but lately, there has been so much negativity, not on this podcast, so much positivity and good vibes. Here I find myself saying I remember that, or me too. So many times as I am riding in the car by myself, I look forward to every new episode. Keep on trucking. And then lastly, I just want to read you a little bit of this was a very long review that we meant so much to us. If you wrote this, this meant so much to us. And she starts by saying, I learned about your podcast from my sister in law in late July. I started at the beginning, and I am up to episode 104
Unknown Speaker 55:43
to which I think we replied to this person like that's a lot of us.
Unknown Speaker 55:49
She says, I enjoy very much listening to the three of you. You are able to disagree with each other without getting mad. You have an easy camaraderie with each other, and the respect you have for one another is obvious. Listening to this podcast helps quiet my mind. I quite often smile while listening. Thank you for all the time you put into your research. Thank you for brightening my days. Thank you. Oh, sorry. Thank you for brightening my days. Your podcast has given me a feeling of belonging to a group of people that I have never met but have a connection with through shared experiences. Thank you for that. I hope you were able to continue your podcast for a long time, and may the Force be with you. I love that. And you guys, for those of you listening, who have reached out to us with either by leaving a review somewhere which we read, every one of them, I know we joke that we do readers theater at night.
Unknown Speaker 56:42
But every single time we get a new review that one of us finds, we screenshot it and send it to the other two immediately, because it just fills our heart so much payment. Essentially, that's what sounds so cliche. And I tell people that who ask me, do you make a lot of money with that? And I say, No, zero. We get paid in our comments and DMS. We get paid from people who tell us they save our episodes to listen to during chemo, or that these conversations got them through the, you know, the death of a parent that was there, you know, through through all these things and and by that last review, saying your podcast has given me a feeling of belonging to a group of people that I have never met but have a connection with through shared experiences. That was our why from the very beginning when we decided to start a podcast, we never said, let's just do it to talk. We said, there has to be a why and a higher reason for this, and that's exactly what it is. And to think that people feel that is truly our payment well, and nor was it a business decision. I think a lot of people start podcasts as a business decision, like, Wouldn't this be a good business for us? And, you know, maybe this wasn't a good idea, but maybe never on our list of why we never or goals. We never put a monetary goal or making money by this date, maybe we should have done that. Yeah, we're
Unknown Speaker 58:02
still working on it, but it's just, it just shows you that our hearts are pure, and the authenticity that we bring to you is is probably real to a fault, in that we need to work on the business part of it, which we are doing right we are, I would say that, you know, all of this being said, one of our goals for the coming year is to grow the podcast in a way that allows us to give ourselves some compensation for for a job well done, right? That's only fair. We don't exactly know how to do that yet.
Unknown Speaker 58:36
We're trying to figure that out, yes, so that that does sort of take us to 2025 as I'm talking about, one of our goals for the new year. We have a lot of things happening in 2025 that we want to make sure that you know about. A lot of these are things that are in the works. They're not written in pen, they're only written in pencil. But I want to make sure that you guys know that you might have an opportunity to come see us at some point. One of the reasons is that in July of 2025, my second book will be released. It's the sequel to worldwide crash. It's called the Scott Fenwick diaries. And if you happen to know Scott Fenwick,
Unknown Speaker 59:13
yeah, he's actually, I mean, it's not about him, it's not about him. But, you know, his name is in the title. I don't want him to go to Barnes and Noble one day and go, What the fuck What the fuck so I need to contact Scott Fenwick at some point. So like a lot of you who came out for events to meet us when worldwide crush crush was released, the same will be true for the Scott Fenwick diaries. We will be out and about with the Scott Fenwick diaries, and we're gonna give you some opportunities to come meet us. Okay, so let's start at the beginning. The first one that I have on my list is in April of 2025, April 6, to be exact, the three of us will be appearing at the Eric Carle Museum of picture book art in Amherst, Massachusetts, for a celebration of their exhibit about we've told you this before. Free to be you and me. I.
Unknown Speaker 1:00:00
Yeah, like, we cross ourselves, right? I mean, I start to cry imagining the song exactly. I started to tear up just thinking about it, especially because this is a free to be you and me sing along, and we're just dying. So it is for sure that we will be there on April 6. We do not have the details of what our event will look like. It might be, you know, we might get a little conference room for for a meet and greet with us and our listeners. And we might get a private tour for our listeners. We might have it be a pre order party for the Scott Fenwick diaries. Maybe we'll have a little bit of a reading cake. Oh, that's a great idea. We're gonna have a cake, a Scott cake. If people right now. We're like, I don't know. I'm on the fence if I can go right now. They're now. They're, wait, well, there's, oh, wait, there's cake you happen to know a good baker in the Amherst, Massachusetts area or good caker? Yeah, we love that. And we have heard from some of you about good places to stay. And so we'll be making that information known as soon as we as soon as we can. I want to reiterate the importance of free to be you and me
Unknown Speaker 1:01:03
as we know how we all know how important it was to our generation. But I just had a meeting with a woman from the millennial generation. She is 39 years old, and we were having a meeting because she listens to our podcast, because she wants to do a podcast in a similar fashion for people of her generation, and we have found ourselves to be real kindred spirits. It's so much fun to talk with this woman about what she listened to and watched when she was growing up, and how important it is to her. And one thing that she brought to me that just gave me goosebumps, she listened to our free to be you and me episode, and she said she just started to cry because that was the record that her preschool teacher put on when it was nap time. Oh, my God, goosebumps, but it also I feel like I've just been punched in the gut, like that's so think about how that got into her, yeah, how she was sleeping, right? And then, as she grew older, in middle school, they did a stage performance of free to be you and me, so she knows all the words in the same way that we do, and she didn't, because of the generation in which she was born. She didn't have the opportunity to pick it apart the way we did, because we were, you know, in the throes of second wave feminism in the 90s, there was no feminism, right? That was not a thing. It was like the opposite in the 90s. So for her to rehash what that record meant to her and how it got into her soul was super fun. Okay, so free to be you and me. That's on April 6 in Amherst, Massachusetts, the next thing that we've had thrown our way that we don't have, we've not made plans for yet, but we've had an invitation from a roller rink in Southern California. Carolyn, do you want to? Do you want to give us the details of that one? Yeah, well, I'm not sure we have a whole lot of details, but yes, indeed what you said, yeah. So we have shared some messages with dirty Deborah. Harry, that's her IG account handle, I guess. And she is a great follow you guys because she roller skates. Her family owns a roller rink in Fountain Valley, California, and we have grand ideas of doing a fun, PCPs, roller rink, disco, whatever, all the things with Debbie at Debbie's rink, and we'll keep you posted on that. We'll see how we can make that into something really fun, that people can come out and skate around with us, which I'll be pushing one of those, like, things made out of PVC pipe, probably across the around the rink. And Kristen and I are shooting the duck. I've got, I've got, like, you know, Christians in, like, the down position with one leg out, and I'm the one behind, pushing, yeah, yeah. Oh my god. I could never lift my leg like that anymore. There's no way. I don't have that kind of
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quality so heavy. Yeah,
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that is crazy. It would be fun. I think we should have come take a roller skating lesson with the PCPs, yeah, because
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she gives lessons, yes, safety first. I think that would be a great way to approach it, because a lot of people out there were like, I don't know if I remember how to roller skate. I haven't been on skates since the late 70s. Oh, no, I took Liam in kindergarten one time, and that was a little iffy, but I would love to have a lesson again. Oh, it's so fun. We used to go when my girls were little, like with their brownie troops and stuff like that. But what I want to say goes back to everything we've been talking about for the majority of this episode. You don't have to it's up to you. Nobody's gonna judge you if you don't get on skates, or if you do and you can't skate, who cares? Come hang out with us. If you're in the area. I also have you on my way past No, there's gonna be no judgment, right? If you want to skate on one of those little, those little boards with the four wheels that we used to do in gym, and just push yourself around as long as Debbie's okay with it on her on her radio. So fun. Remember, didn't you play da.
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Ball on those little on those breakers rolled,
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but, but what I'm saying is like, this is a say yes, if you want to say no, if you want to see it together, no matter what, and the music will be good, all I want is the atmosphere of the roller rink. Do I need to be on space? I don't know. I don't know that I need to. But I want the atmosphere. I want the music and the lights and everything, and this would be a great opportunity to do that. A local orthopedic practice to sponsor.
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They're giving those chair massages as you get off the ring, wrapping our ankles, all the good stuff. Okay, here's another event that I'm not even sure I might be surprising Carolyn and Michelle with this one, we will see. And this is also one to be penciled in. And I don't have a date, but I know that it's in April, and that is that Anderson's bookshop in Downers Grove, Illinois has invited me to come and lead their discussion of their book group. For Are you there? God, it's me. Margaret. Oh, and don't you think this should be like a PCPs event? And this is for adults, to be clear. This is not children. This is adults coming together to revisit. Are you there? God, it's me, Margaret, and they've invited me down to be the leader of that book group discussion. I think it should be the three. We're there. We are kids. Live in Chicago, in any excuse to go to that book prize this? Totally, yes. This needs to get media attention. This is a huge thing, the gift of being able to talk about this. Yes, other people, oh, I may. And I think they're gonna bring merch. I'm just picturing stickers and, like, we'll bring all the things you guys. This is why we're not making money, because we like to give things away. We like to make cute things and give them away to people like, like stickers and notebooks and things like that. So I just feel like this, this book group deserves some merch. Okay, so that is that is penciled in somewhere in April. We don't exactly know where, so keep a watch out on our Instagram and sign up for our email newsletter so we can let you know when that will actually be taking place. And then, like I said, Before, there are going to be more events when Scott Fenwick comes out, I'm hoping we can visit the goat farm again. Don't you think we need another goat farm book
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event? Yes, Michelle deserves to go to the goat farm for sure. And also, there's the possibility of doing a book event in the Bodega Bay Area. Maybe I'm there this time, right there, this time, they're eager to have me come back. I really want to go back. So, you know, these are just things that are in the work. So if you're a Northern California person, we would love to see you. We would love to see you. Just keep an eye on where we're going to be. I think that, for me, is kind of a bucket list item for 2025 is to get to meet in person, in real life, or IRL, as the kids say, our listeners and our followers. So I love the fact that we have some West Coast ideas out there, some Midwest, some east coast. Maybe we'll get to meet some of you who we feel like we know, but we've never actually seen you in 3d and the truth is, when we went on this book tour with worldwide crush last year, and we got to meet some of you listeners, those listeners have become our friends. It's just amazing, and they've become friends. Yes, people become friends. Yes, it's crazy, like they become good friends. We talk to each other on a regular basis. It's a beautiful thing to watch. So 2025, has some great things in store for us. And when I say us, I mean the three of us, plus you listening. Yeah, yeah. So all of this is to say that we have had an amazing 2024 with all of you, and we're going to have another amazing 2025 things just keep getting better the older we get. Who says that? The older we get, the better it gets. Thank you all for listening to all of the episodes through some of you are going way back in time and listening to the ones with the super shitty audio, and you don't even care, and we love you for that. Thank you so much for being with us through 2024 and we really look forward to being with you in 2025
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in the meantime, let's raise our glasses for a toast for the last time in 2024 courtesy of the cast of Three's Company, two good times, two Happy Days, Two Little House on the Prairie. See you next year. Cheers. Happy New Year, everyone. You
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the
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information, opinions and comments expressed on the pop culture Preservation Society podcast belong solely to Carolyn the crushologist and hello Newman, and are in no way representative of our employers or affiliates. And though we truly believe we are always right, there is always a first time the PCPs is written, produced and recorded in Minneapolis, Minnesota, home of the fictional wjm studios and our beloved Mary Richards, Nanu. Nanu, keep on truckin and May the Force Be With You. You.