So I don't know, did you want to do any kind of a special
intro or trampled underfoot? All right, guys, so this is our Christmas
special, our first Christmas special Mark and I, uh, well, we're
gonna see what we talk about here. I think it's gonna be Christmas related,
but we never know where it goes. Right, Well, we just
had the luck of the draw. You know. We put out a new
episode every Tuesday, and it just so happens at Christmas is Tuesday this year.
So Merry Christmas everyone. Hope you got what your little heart desired.
You didn't have any unfortunate surprises in your stocking? Yeah, and if I
hope it's not what I'm thinking, you and me both Cole. Okay,
I was just getting ready to ask you that now. I was going to
ask you about when you were a kid growing up, what did your parents
threaten you with? Mine? Was you know, Santa Claus at call in
your stock? That is exactly what my folks would Um, well, not
my folks. My dad he'd spring that one up on me and um he'd
say, if you're not good, you're getting a sack of coal. And
I'm like, oh, yep, that's exactly a sack of coal. Wow,
it's got the whole sack. Man. See, only we only got
a My mother was Santa Claus is gonna put coal in your stocking. And
my dad was, you know, trying to be the joker. Yeah,
it's right, Santa Claus and leave rocks in your socks. Yeah. Um,
that one too was you know, these are things that that come from
the Old world to the New World. Yeah. And although my family were
Spanish, um, these same traditions, you know, moved over to the
Americas. So apparently that coal thing, I've not thought of it much until
you just brought it up now, But apparently it migrated here as well,
from um, from Spain to Cuba, and from Cuba to here, because
I got it here in Miami. To me, honestly, the only as
a kid, I was like coal, it's only it's to me. The
impression was that you can't do anything with it as a kid, so I
thought of it as a negative thing. But I could imagine where the origins
of that came from. In fact, I'll check it. I'll look it
up here. Just for giggles here, we'll say I never I didn't understand
that either, because I don't know if I was maybe seven, eight,
nine years old before I even found out what coal was. All I knew
was that if they were threatening me with that, it couldn't be good.
So if I was bad, Santa was gonna put coal in my stocking,
that couldn't be a good thing. Yeah, exactly. Well, here's the
answer to that. At least on the Google searches, it says Holland.
Some people say that the lumps of coal story started in Holland in the sixteenth
century. Before Christmas, children would put their clogs by the fireplace before the
stockings were used, and when a kid was bad, they got lump of
cool but if they were good, they get small toys, cookies or candy.
So that's what they're saying. Um, where that originated? Very interesting?
Okay, I'd never heard that before. Yeah, well, that's what
they're saying here. So it originated from Holland. Okay, Well, a
lot of our traditions came from that area, Holland, Germany. Now,
on the subject of stockings, Lenny ask you this, did you ever have
was there any kind of recurring theme as far as what you got in your
stocking? Well, could you count on at least you know, every year,
you knew you were going to have a couple of things. There were
gonna be a couple of things in your stocking. Yeah. Usually for us
in the stocking was candy or for me like candy canes and whatnot. They
wouldn't stuff the presence in the stocking. The presence would be put under the
tree. But we actually had a fireplace. Our fireplace was made of marble,
okay, and it was a real honest to goodness fireplace in Florida.
In Miami, oh figure um because the people that built here um back in
the day. And we're the second owners of that house that was built in
nineteen forty eight. So the people that that built that back back in the
day, and this place was like being built. There was nothing here on
the outskirts of Miami. They came from the north or from out west where
it was cold, and I guess they figured, well, what kind of
house is it without a freaking fireplace? Gotta have heat. Yeah, so
they included it that. But by the time I was born, that had
been close. Folks had figured it out. Yeah, it's funny you say
that. When we were stationed in Hawaii. The house we lived in there
on the airfield, the government housing, you know, army housing. It
had a fireplace. There was no heat or air conditioning in it. If
you're you know, cold, closed the window. If you're hot, opening
yea. And because it was it was such a constant, consistent temperature,
you didn't need heat or air conditioning. But it had a fireplace. And
we found out that the building that we lived in was built in like nineteen
seventeen or something like that, up on a Wheeler airfield, and everybody in
the neighborhood had one. But when you moved in, they had a list
of dudes and don'ts and here's the rules and here the regulations. And the
first thing they said was don't use the fireplace. And I was like,
Okay, that's not going to be a problem because I don't think it's going
to get cold enough to need one. And so we never used it,
not once, you know, So why would that be, Well, they
hadn't been maintained. You know, there aren't a whole heck of a lot
of chimney sweeps in Hawaii, so they just they hadn't been cleaned, they
hadn't been maintained. I'm sure bricks need to be repointed in everything else,
right, So yeah, it just wasn't needed. It was not needed.
I mean that's an incredible not down there. Yeah, So same story with
you people just simply build what's home to them in in new areas climates,
right exactly. And now there were areas of Hawaii that you did need heat.
Uh you know, you get up in the higher elevations, but we
were we were about maybe one hundred and fifty feet above sea level, so
you know, it wasn't really necessary for us. But on the on the
Christmas stocking thing, I don't know why, and I don't know where it
started, but I could be guaranteed every year we would have candy too,
and we would have little small presents. And as I grew older, at
the little presence in my stocking became the batteries to operate whatever it was I
got that was under the tree, you know. But I could always be
guaranteed there would be at least one orange and a handful of uncracked in the
shell nuts, you know what. I skipped that part. I just want
to say the same thing. Um there would be some like um what are
the big ones, the not macadamia. I'm not familiar with my with my
my nut categories. Um, we'd get brazil nuts and um, hazel nuts
and walnuts and pecans and stuff like that. Yeah, and I still don't
know why, but there was always you know, I think it was like
filler because you had, you know, a whole bunch of nuts down in
the toe and then a few things you know, running up the body of
the stocking, then an orange up on top and a couple of candy canes
hanging out. Yep. That's exactly the story. So yeah, that was
the case with me as well. I didn't want to mention it because I
did think in that case, um, like you know those it's in a
moment when when you're talking flash now, I'll leave let that out because it
sounds so weird. I thought it was just something that that that my folks
did. But yeah, they would add as well nuts and in fact,
that was very traditional. We'd have a bowl on the table yep, with
the nutcracker, well the nuts, and throughout the holiday season as well.
There's not a lot of big, big difference because I know you've been curious
before with like what what does a Cuban family, you know, Well,
it's not so much Cuban, it's East Coast in Miami because I can only
go I've been. I've been on the West Coast most of my life.
Um, there was about a twenty years stretch where I was all over the
place, but most of my life has been on the West Coast and especially
up here in the Pacific Northwest. There's a lot of things that are local
here that I don't see us being local down there and up here. Oranges
in the wintertime are a big thing because it's cold. You know, you
don't get oranges up here. And the orange, the orange thing, you
know, we didn't we didn't get Yeah, And you know, I was
I'm trying to think of how old I was before I had my first pomegranate,
and that was when we moved down to California. So I was probably
seven or eight before I had my first pomegranate because it just wasn't something you
got up in Oregon. Yeah, you know, now we get everything,
you know, all year long, but back then, there's a lot of
similarities. I mean, it's funny how traditions stick, and they stick good.
Yeah, and some things go away. And I think we've discussed this
before. I don't remember if it was in a hangout or if it was
on one episode or not. I guess it was about five years ago.
Six years ago. I was Christmas Day and I was out on the front
porch, you know, to let the dogs out, and I was just
suddenly struck by how quiet it was. It was silent. Now, my
neighborhood isn't overrun with kids anyway, but there's a few. But I can
remember on Christmas, you get up in the morning, you do the family
thing, you do breakfast, the presents, and you know, calls to
Graham on this, that and the other. And then we were I mean,
we couldn't wait to go outside and play with the new stuff we got
for Christmas, whether it be you know, bicycle, skateboard, roller skates.
I got roller skates for Christmas until I got my driver's license. But
you were outside showing off the stuff that you got for Christmas to your friends,
and it struck me as to how absolutely silent it was. There wasn't
a kid to be heard outside all day long. Same story here, yeah,
you know, And I don't know if that's because the presence they got
were all electronic or if you know, people were out of town or what
have you. So I listened, and every year since then I've tried to
pay attention to what's going on. And last year, little girl lives across
the cul de Sac from us. She's about maybe six something like that,
she got her two wheeler bicycle with the training wheels and the whole thing,
and she was up and down the sidewalks, and that kind of made me
feel good. You know, Okay, maybe it's not dead. The kids
are getting outdoor things to play with. Well, I think that in our
case here. I don't know about your case, but where I live,
there was a big boom right about the time that I was born and grew
up. So I enjoyed certain traditions that were normal, things that were normal
for people. I don't even want to say that. Let's put it this
way. I grew up in a time when there was a boom of kid
of folk getting married and moving out here, and there was a lot of
people my age. In fact, during my time the elementary school was built
in Sweetwater, we did not have a school, and um, well I
moved to that school before we'd have to bus are in my case was driven
to downtown Miami or Little Havana, which on the is on the outskirts of
to go to school, right, although there were schools in the area,
but I was going to a private school, Catholic private school. But there
was a lot of kids playing on the streets and just like you said,
with bikes and toys and and all that here in Sweetwater, and well you
don't see that anymore at all at all. So those people that had kids,
well they've started to either retire or have reach well retired and if not
passed on like you know my folks did. And it's a new and it's
a new error. Like this place was built up with that sort of family
oriented theme and now it's become something other. And I'm sure there's towns out
there in America that are having that same process occur. It's just not here
anymore. Trampled underfoot. Well, you're you're in kind of a unique situation
in that you basically live in the house you grew up in and you've been
there most of your life, well on the property. Yeah, and so
you've watched everything the neighborhood's gone through since the day you were born. You've
seen it happen. Yep. So you've seen the demographic change. You've seen
the kids you grew up with, you know, grow and graduate and gone,
get married whatever, have kids of their own. And you've seen the
changes come and go. Watch the university, you know, expand across the
street from you. And now I imagine that entire demographic has changed and it's
mainly students or retirees anymore. Oh yeah, there's a lot of people that
have moved in here. And now the mixes, well, you traditionally had
mostly Cuban so that entails the adults that came from there, adults that came
from there a long time ago, kids that were born there in the sixties
here in the sixties of those parents, kids that were born in the seventies
of those parents, and in the eighties, like myself, of those parents.
And then you had Nicaraguans with the same story. Yeah, from the
late seventies on. And you have Colombians, and you have Venezuelans, and
you have so like anything that happens in South America and Central America, you
get, for lack of a better word, the people with means or the
ability to whether that's economically stable or not, but slightly able to migrating here.
Yeah, and you get that mix. And now you have the mix
of students coming from all parts of the United States and the world, and
then that includes faculty and so it's the demographics is now quite metropolitan. Well,
now, is there anybody there still in your neighborhood that you remember from
growing up? Or is everyoneor is it or have all of the faces and
names changed. No, there's two neighbors which I happen to stay away from.
One of them lives next door, and it's a nosy Cuban neighbor.
Nosy and malevolent is the word for some reason, just total I stay away
from them, very negative stuff. The neighbors you don't want living next to
you. While they're there, well, yeah, as of late they've been.
And then another group, same story, that have been here forever.
Yeah, up until recently, maybe three four, maybe five years ago,
I still had two other neighbors. A kid which is like eleven to twelve
years my senior, so he's probably like fifty six or fifty something. He
used to cut grass from my my father, Like yeah, when I was
a baby, he'd come over and cut the lawn, and my dad would
pay him for the He moved out with his mom three or four years ago.
I moved down south and sold off the place, and the lady that
used to babysit me lived here too till up until four years ago. Oh
wow, and she moved. I had about a well, I ticked it
back, not twenty years. I had about a thirty year break. I
left this valley in eighty two and came back in twenty twelve, and a
lot of things had changed. So there was an element of familiar familiarity plus
an element of newness. And they say you can never go home once you're
gone. I don't know how true that is or not, because there's enough
here that it is home. But there were so many change is that I
didn't see happen. It was to me it was a drastic change, while
everybody else that I know that has been here while I was gone said no,
it was very it was very gradually. They didn't even notice that the
changes. They just this is still so small of a town. I'll put
it to you this way. They opened a cracker barrel restaurant down on the
Interstate earlier this year. And to this town. That's a big thing.
There are cracker barrels all over this country. Some people like it, some
people hate it. But the place is always jam packed because it's new.
Yeah, they get something new and exciting. It actually makes the evening news.
It's even the opening. Yeah, the opening of a new restaurant that's
never been here before makes news. Living here all this time, I haven't
seen that vantage point that you have. There were buildings here that are now
gone, like the bank tore down. Now there's a huge fifteen story building
there. Yeah. The bar. There was a bar here called the Bonfire
or Jimmy's Lounge back in the day. Yeah, that was tore down.
This is where people would come enter the bar and have bar fights before they
made their way out West Post of Florida and bikers and it was it was
what you would expect from a little town outside of you know, the main
sort of hub of Miami. And there used to be things like we didn't
have a strip mall. They built a strip mall back in the eighties and
said, well all these changes. There used to be a Lums, which
is like a diner, like a Denny's style diner. But when I was
a baby. I would see it driving through. I didn't know what it
was other than a restaurant, but i'd see it as a as a baby,
and then it would tore down, and then the hardies was put there,
and then that was tore down, and then you know, and just
things. Well, I don't have perspective because I've lived here all this time.
I'm sure if I would have left and come back, this would be
a totally shocking place trampled underfoot. Okay. I don't know if you notice
or not, but just about every time you say when it's my edit,
just about every time you say, well, don't worry, we'll edit this
out, I purposely leave it in. Yeah. Yeah, I've seen that.
So that's how you know. That's how you can remember if I did
the editor not because he's oh no, we'll let it this out. I'm
like, no, that's damn lets it's something like really embarrassing. Yeah,
that's that's hilarious. I have heard it. I never put it in context
of that you're doing it on purpose. Oh yeah, and if well you
told the first time Steve was in you you we were telling him, Okay,
this is what we do. This is how we normally do it.
Don't worry, We'll let it this out. And I jumped in. I
said, no, I'm gonna leave it in. Yeah, and I did,
And that was what we opened with. That was the opening before the
introduction. This is still a small enough town to where things like that generate
excitement, and they still do have Christmas light and Christmas display contests here and
it makes the news. You know, they'll have they'll put up this neighborhood
is doing this, and this neighborhood is doing that, and they'll actually on
their websites, they'll put up little walking tours that they suggest that you take
to see some of the best Christmas displays, and people will go look and
just see how folks are decorating their houses in their yards and what have you.
Very nice. You know, it's kind of cool. I've not mentioned
this before, but you're kind of blowing my mental image I've always had about
And I know you don't live in Miami, but the image I've always had
of Miami was a hell of a lot more glamorous than you're portraying it to
be. And the reason I say that is because I grew up we had
the Jackie Gleason Show on TV, and they filmed The Jackie Gleason Show in
Miami, well Miami each yeah, and the opening shot with the you know,
helicopter rushing up, it was from the helicopter's point of view, rushing
up on the hotels, down on the beach, and everything live from Miami
Beach. The Jackie gleas you know, yeah, from the Fountain Blue and
it was always Miami was portrayed as the height of glamor, fun, sophistication,
party central with the beautiful people. Just like any Western town in the
mid to late eighteen hundreds, you had the gambling and the and the whatnot.
And um, I'm I'm using that analogy because I've been watching some westerns.
Um, you have you have people that work the railroad, for instance,
and then you have the big spenders that come to visit and stuff.
So, you know, people that live in Miami, unless you're on the
high end of the of the of the of the scale, you know,
with great fortunes and whatnot, you're living a normal life. And particularly the
for the you know what. Now you could go with your girlfriend, as
one has done, you know, and go to the beach and enjoy and
partake of the festivities, and there is always fun to be had in downtown
and on the beach, just like you would imagine, like you know,
but you can't do that as a regular joe because you'll break the bank.
So yeah, yeah, it was always kind of sort of portrayed as everything
Vegas is trying to be now, you know. I mean, God,
Jackie Gleeson was on for years and years and years and years. Miami has
a reputation and it is true. It's just that I am not. You
know, on the weekends, you might go to the beach, right and
you might bite yourself a twelve dollars for you and your girlfriend, a twelve
dollars freaking b two bomber with you know, Irish cream and special liqueur mixtures
and a little umbrella. You might do that for twelve bucks a thing.
But you can't do that, you know. But there are people that are
big, you know, deep pocketed, and they enjoy all the extravagance that
Miami has to offer. We have Star Island and that's millionaires and just in
Coral Gables and Miami Beach itself, and all my continues and continues, but
yeah, I mean, you can't do that because you'll you'll break the bank,
you know. So yeah, well, you know, yeah, I'm
I'm sure there are high roller areas in every major metropolitan area, but the
way it was portrayed, because you gotta remember Jackie Gleason, they moved that
show to Miami and I think sixty four, so I was about three years
old, So that's I don't really remember much before that, TV wise,
but I do remember those opening shots from the Jackie Gleason Show, and they
always talked about how glamorous, and that's the words that that stuck in my
brain. Those were that was word glamorous Miami wise, if you look at
those old movies from the rat Pack, the Frank Sinatras, when they'd come
down here, you could be in the thick of it, gambling or parttering,
and then all of a sudden they're driving out to the beach somewhere that's
open and there's a few little places, but it kind of feels like a
margharita Ville type thing. Yeah, that was when I was growing up.
So I was born in the mid seventies and by the time it was nineteen
eighties, I was five years old. And well, as a kid,
you're taking all over the place because that's what it is, right and you
pick up all the scents and you know, visuals and all around you as
you're growing. And there was a feel of like pretty awesome growing up where
the beach is right there and you can go into the water and the water
does not freezeier but in fact it's like as warm as stepping into a bath
at home, for instance. I mean things like that leave an impression,
you know. And yeah, plenty of stores and bars and all the cool
things. But life has also changed in general and technology, and I think
that all that has effective. But no, right now, I can get
in the car. It's just I'm what's the point? Like imagine right like
I now I'm thinking to myself, well, what the heck I should enjoy
a little bit of that. I could get in my I could dress up
right now and head towards the beach and there's no lack of entertainment. Dude,
that would be an interesting experiment. I know how you like to experiment
and push things on your YouTube channel. That would be an interesting experiment to
see you, you know, go out and enjoy some of the just go
experience some of the Miami quote unquote scene for folks who have never been there,
folks who have never seen it, you know, because yeah, I
mean you you know as well as I do that if you bring up a
camera on a selfie stick or something like that with a group of people behind
you, they're gonna hoot and aller and wave at the camera for you and
stuff like. Yeah, you get part people to participate. Yeah, boy,
travel to the beach. Yeah, you know. Now, I know
it's really easy to become jaded when you see it every single day. But
you just mentioned something about getting into the water, that it's like stepping into
the bath. I experienced that when we lived in Savannah, Georgia, and
the Gulf Stream came right up around and right up the shoreline there, and
it was that way. I mean the water was in the eighties versus the
entire West Coast where the water is too cold to get into unless you get
down into Mexico Goods Mark, and I mean it's just frigid here. The
water is just frigid. It'll draw the life from your your the ence of
life from your body. Because I jumped in. I told you this before.
I don't mean I just a little interjection. I decided, I'm on
the West coast, I might as well jump in the Pacific. I was
aware that it was cold, because it's a different story, but I said,
I'm jumping in and right off of santam No, not off of Santa
Monica, right off of what do you call that? North of Santa Monica,
just about um sort of malibuish area. Okay, um. We went
down. You know how they have those parking you park and stuff and then
you can walk down. And I walked down. It was rocky and my
girlfriend at the time, all right, go for it, and we had
some blank some towel, and so I jumped in and I could feel the
ocean sucking my life force a wave and pins and needles. I got out.
I was like, I couldn't. It was horrible. It's painful again.
Yep, trampled underfoot. Back to Christmas, Well, yeah, interesting
juxtaposition. I'm trying to imagine a Miami Christmas because I don't picture palm trees
decorated up with lights and stuff like that. They do that, you know,
Oh, I'm sure they do. Oh yeah, I mean we saw
it in Hawaii and seeing a Hawaiian sata with the long beard in the Santa
Claus hat, and that's about all the rest of it was, you know,
board shorts and Aloha shirt and sandals. You know, it's amazing.
It is. Well, you got to remember that m Florida, the name
itself was was given by one of the Spanish explorers, which one I don't
know, Yeah, I'm not sure, but um, that started settling here
and whatnot. And you know they had their little not monasteries what do you
call those things, like the missions? Yeah, like missions, So you
had all these traditions coming over and stuff and turn of the century or like
eighteen hundreds coming this way, like right into the nineteen hundreds started to be
built up and be built up. But um, you know, I mean
just like any other place. It's just that our temperature is that of a
tropical wonderland with hurricanes included, and people adapt just like the fireplace we were
talking about and all that. But it's funny because you can go up and
down, I guess, and a currently east and west and you can find
those tie those binding um threads right like the nuts and the stockings and all
these things. You know, it's not so strange of the world, although
there are slight differences that might cause a West Coaster like yourself to say,
oh, well, wait a second, that's quite different. But you know
what, I dig that kind of thing. I mean that, and that's
one of the things that I loved so much about the traveling that I was
fortunate enough to do. I mean, people talk about, oh, why
do we always have to focus on the differences, and why can't we all
just you know, remember that we're all the same on the inside when actually
we're not. I mean, revel in those differences, man, I mean,
good grief. People forget just how big this country really is. It's
huge, and we have regions. Me from the west coast, you from
the from the southeast. And although I never really thought of Florida as quote
unquote the south, you know, a lot of people will say that,
Yeah, I have some things to talk about about that, which we've talked
about apart from it, but go a go ahead. But yeah, just
the differences. I hesitate to say in culture because I don't think it has
anything to do with culture. I think it has everything to do with environment
and resources, you know. I think it does have to do with at
least the last part that you said does have to do with culture, because
let me see if I can unpack this it so, you know, throughout
I'm watching Western railroad expansion right now, and you have like the Chinese workers
from the west, and then you have the Africans Americans from the East coast
coming out west building. Sure, you have your Irish coming out off the
boats and getting on trains and wagons and walking out west to join the railroads,
and just a bunch of stuff. Um. So you have all these
different cultures which Melbye, we've heard of of a well down here. You
know, you have the access to all of South America, you have Central
America access the Caribbean, which are thorough ways for shipping from heck, from
Europe, and you had the Spanish control of Florida, and you had the
British also controlled Florida for a short while back and forth between Cuba. And
there were things going on here that weren't going on that weren't part of that
we're kind of part of, but not necessarily of things that were happening in
New England and whatnot. And so you have people here that are uniquely Florida
uniquely Miami the at this point, and I think there is a difference between
Anglo right and say Spanish, you know, traditions and a lot of I've
heard it all my life, well Miami. In fact, Steve Nielan mentioned
a lot of people and even people from here mentioned that, well, you
know, Miami, I don't considered it the South. And in a way,
people from Miami throughout history were very much disconnected from the rest of the
country because everything from here north until you reach northern Florida and then Georgia is
under water and swamp originally a lot of it, and full of Indians and
jungle Ish, so you couldn't necessarily or pine rock, pine land, you
know, tropical and whatnot, and you couldn't have access unless it was via
a ship or boat to get here, and so it was disconnected. And
yes, Florida was part of the South, but it was isolated like you
would not believe. So there are those things do affect plus the culture for
the people that would settle here. So I think all those influences made it
so that Miami, for instance, is its own uni. You won't get
that, by the way, if you go out west towards Naples or Fort
Myers. You won't get that once you hit Broward. You get that here
because it's so darned close to the Caribbean, and so you get that here.
Well, it's also the major city. It's also the huge city,
and that's that's where people tend to gravitate when they're first coming to a new
place. I mean, that's why they went to New York. Yeah,
you know, there were other ports of entry, but they went to New
York because that's where everybody. That's where you went, you know, Yeah,
that was the place to go. And heck, it's an old Jimmy
Buffett song, Everybody's got a cousin in Miami. Oh he also said I
made enough money to buy Miami, but I wasted pistas. Yeah, but
that is the title of one of his songs, Everybody's got a cousin in
Miami, by the way, And by the way, that's almost probably al
yeah, exactly. But but we were remote out here as well, because
you have to remember where you had folks coming down from up north and going,
you know, coming down from Georgia through northern Florida get to Miami.
We had an entire continent people had to come across, and it wasn't until
the railroads were made that they could come across in less than a year.
Basically, I mean, it took it took months if they left Jefferson,
Missouri or Saint Joseph's Missouri. Excuse me, it took months to get here.
And your alternative was to get on a ship back east and go all
the way down around down around South America and come up the Pacific coast if
you were lucky made Yeah, And so it took months to get here until
the railroads were completed. So we were isolated as well out here, I
say, a week as my ancestors came out here in the eighteen sixties.
Well, some cousins came out in the eighteen forty three migration, but that's
a different story anyway, So we were fairly isolated as well that And I
didn't mean to discount culture. What I'm getting at, though, is the
way certain things are done up here are related to our environment and the resources
that we have here, just as I'm sure certain things down there, you
know, not counting the Caribbean and the South American and the Spanish heritage that
goes along with it, just the resources that you have there, the environment,
the weather. You're not out having snowball fights. Yep, you know
you've never made snow ice cream, which a fabulous thing. I do want
to just mention this that I was involved in a snowball fight in Miami in
the nineteen eighties because for Miami, what they would do back then, not
so much anymore that I'm aware of, is that they would ship in ice
or make ice with ice machines. I don't know. I was a kid,
and they would pilot at the Orange Bowl so that kids could come down
and play in the ice in Miami, which by end of the day would
be mud and straw. Now you know, Okay, Now, I don't
like to be in the snow unless I want to go up and be in
it. I don't like it in town. But that just sounds like fun.
It was it does. It sounds like fun by the time I got
there because my dad, I don't remember. I remember being there, and
I remember the activity, but I don't remember every point of the day.
But knowing my dad, he slowly worked his way to getting us there.
So by the time we got there, there was a lot of slush,
icy slush, going on, yeah, I haven't, haven't have had it,
Son, have had it? This is slush like a snow cone without
the flavor exactly. Well, okay, yeah, there's that, um that
that. But I'm telling you that sounds like fun. And my eight year
old self would have been right in the middle of it. My fifty eight
year old self is like, oh, I don't want to drive in this
traffic to get there. Something else trampled underfoot. Would it be fair to
say that growing up, my perception of Miami was what I saw Jackie Gleason
with a blonde on his arm, going how sweet it is? And your
perception was Don Johnson in Miami vice, Uh, yeah, pretty much?
Well, yeah, pretty much Don Johnson And listen man, Yeah, what
can I tell you? Uh there, there's a little bit of all of
that in Miami. We're a bit basically a big, big tourist, please
you know? Yeah, well no, So along those lines though, what
I was gonna get at. Can you think, because you because you've traveled
a little bit anyway for a while anyway, are there any specific Miami or
Florida or Cuban Christmas traditions that you didn't notice anywhere else in any of your
travels something that is specific. Maybe your family did that other folks didn't do,
or what have you. Um, there was outwardly nothing that was different.
Christmas wise, we'd have either pork or a ham, same thing for
Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving to by the time I came around in existence, my parents
were probably in their thirties, mid thirties, my mom probably in her early
twenties, and that was by the time I come around, Thanksgiving was basically
a turkey or at best or at worst a ham, and with stuffing and
all the So no, oh, well, well your pies might be might
be different. There might be pies. Well no, no, not really,
there might be some little you know what, it's not an awful You
wouldn't notice too much of a difference, really, because when I thank Christmas
growing up, the one of the first things that pops into my brain is
the spices and seasonings. Oh, okay, a lot of cloves, allspice,
nutmeg, things like that in a lot of things. Okay, now
we're talking about a young age eggnog with nutmeg in it, maybe a little
bit of brandy or rum. We that's what we would do spiced wines than
hot spiced wine. Sangria. We'd have sangria because that's a very Spanish thing.
Yeah, we didn't have sangria. We had red wine, um,
and I don't know what kind of wine it was, but it was very
sweet and it had you had, I mean, whole clothes floating around in
it, and it was steaming hot. Nice because it's cold here. Yeah,
well we we'd have we marinade our pork in a very delicious way,
which I might probably bet on the side that that you don't do that,
uh in your area or in many parts of the United States. But maybe,
Yeah, they will add orange. They would squeeze the orange and a
mixture. I guess it's like a like a sassoon, uh, sort of
a mixture of stuff, so the it ends up being a very tasty,
tasty thing. I don't know. Do you guys do that out there?
No. In fact, I was in my thirties before I knew what a
sazone was. Like I said, it's it's pretty white bread out here,
and I tell people and it's the God's to honest truth. I'm so local.
I'm related to myself. You know. It's a small town, and
we've been here a lot of years, voarning all the grandkids. You know,
be careful who you date because you may be related. Well, heck,
this has been a journey. Well there've been one heck of a Christmas.
I'll tell you what. But I do have one more Christmas related question
to you, because it's something I've never understood. So let me ask you
this straight up. I think when you think back of all your Christmas presents,
your Christmas gifts, what have you were you ever given a pet for
Christmas? An animal? I can't remember being given an animal for Christmas me
either, And the reason I ask is because it's one of those things that
I have seen. It's been around for a while, Oh a puppy,
yo, kitty or whatever, And it's one of those things I have just
never understood. You know, how you could give an animal as a gifted
to me? It's just I don't know. I'm a softy when it comes
to critters. You know. I'm a dog lover, always have been.
That would be a beautiful Christmas gift. I don't think so. I think
that's a family thing. I don't think I could choose a dog for my
wife or a cat or a parakeet for that matter. I don't I think
that that's a family. I think the whole family has to kind of be
involved in that. Oh, I see what you're saying. So in the
context of it has to be something that the family all chooses together. Yeah,
there's got to be some sort of a connection there, you know,
to me anyway, And I say that as a dog loving guy. I
mean, everybody knows that one person at a party who just avoids people and
is over and corner playing with a dog. I'm that person. Yeah,
you know, I like animals more than I like most of the folks that
I've met. I've never understood how I wouldn't have assumed to been able to
pick out a pet for my girls growing up. You know. Yeah,
it's you know, they don't want rott Wiler's, they don't want Dobies,
they don't want German shepherds. I mean, she wants something soft and fluffy.
Let her go pick out the dog she wants. You know that I
think is fine. But I think you do that as a family because there
should be a connection there. So I don't know, I probably just cheesed
off everybody that breeds animals in you know, the Western hemisphere. But just
my opinion, I think it's kind of strange, you know, you know,
I wish there was a way people could get a hold of us and
let us know what they think. Well, yeah, dude, we have
a website, Trampled Underfoot Podcast dot Com. Yeah, I forgot all about
that. Yeah, well can't can't they like find past episodes there too?
Yeah, you can find past episodes. We have a long list of awesome
including one of my favorites, which was the Atom Smasher. But you've probably
heard that before. Next thing, you know, you're gonna be telling me
we have a YouTube channel too. Well, you guess what we do.
There's a there's a link on a website, isn't there. M You could
go right to the website Trampled Underfoot podcast dot Com, catch up on past
episodes, episodes that debut each week, and the link to the YouTube channel
Trampled Underfoot podcast dot Com. Dang, it's almost like somebody knew what they
were doing when they set us up. Not me. Yeah either, So
you want to do a closer Yeah, we could do that, right,
So something like, hey, so thanks for checking out the episode. That's
right, and we'll be back again next week with another and Merry Christmas to
everyone. Yes, very merry Christmas to everybody. It's easy to do when
we don't plan anything. Yeah, maybe i'll add that at the very tail
end. Well, we're all about, you know, the the outtakes as
well, trampled underfoot.