Ear Biscuits with Rhett & Link - 158: Is Back-To-School A Feeling? | Ear Biscuits Ep. 158

Episode Date: August 27, 2018

R&L look back on their grade school antics, their kids' back-to-school preparations, and the emotional significance of the Fall season on this week's episode of Ear Biscuits. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This, this, this, this is Mythical. Today's episode is brought to you by our new presenting sponsor, Vitamin Water. Woo woo! Welcome to Ear Biscuits, I'm Link. And I'm Rhett. This week at the round table of dim lighting, we are exploring the question,

is back to school a feeling? Interesting, because it's that time of year. Actually today is that time of day for our families. This morning. It's our kids' first day of school today. This morning all of our kids went back to school. Wait, it's really, it brought up a lot of experiences I've had

because every year for a lot of my life, I'd go back to school. Me too. And was there a. I didn't drop out. Was there a specific. Kids, don't drop out, don't drop out. Was there a specific feeling associated with that? If there was, what was it?

Or what also now still is it? Does it still happen even though we are no longer going to school? And I don't just mean vicariously through our kids. I think we can take a journey through the kids but also through our own experiences. We'll be talking about even, we're gonna get into a little bit, just a little bit, not too much,

science as to why you may still feel that back to school feeling even after you no longer go to school. And we're going to be recollecting, can you use that term in that way, recollecting? Yeah. Reminiscing about some of our specific Recalling.

Back to school experiences that we had which of course many of those were shared because we went to school and back to school basically every year that we back to school experiences that we had which of course many of those were shared because we went to school and back to school basically every year that we went to school with the exception of like one. But yeah, but let's talk about the children because. Well I think before we do we have to issue an apology. Oh yeah, fact check.

We have to do, what do you call it, an error correction? We gotta do a correction moment here on Ear Biscuits. You know what, we never said that everything that I say is perfect. I think Rhett tends to imply by his tone of voice very frequently. Yeah but you didn't say that, I said it. That you were saying something

that you only speak truth. No, if you recall, I don't wanna have to cut to a clip. No, no. But if you recall, I don't wanna have to cut to a clip. No, no. But if you recall, I specifically said, I think Dyson is from Australia. But then I was like, at least I think it's from Australia and then we said, Jacob, check that. Because we had the wherewithal in the moment to know that,

and I had the wherewithal. And you know what, I respect you for that. You did do that. To fact check and say, you know what, I don't wanna say, I really thought they were from Australia and then he did the fact check and you know, he's actually not in here to defend himself. I'm gesturing to where he normally would be,

he's not in here right now. He came back with. You know why he's not in here? Because he was wrong. He's been shamed. He used his keyboard, he used his laptop and Jacob doesn't like to speak audibly. While in here, I mean he's not mute.

He does speak when he works. But only when spoken to. No, well we spoke, he likes to just type so as not to interrupt the flow of our conversation. And I appreciate that. And he said something to the effect of James Dyson is from Australia. But the fact is he's not and that's why he's not here.

Jacob no longer works here. So this is. That's what happens around here. When you make a mistake like that, when you make us look bad, you get fired. You gone. Actually he's just on a phone call. He still works here.

He's doing something more important than just sitting here. We don't do that. And I will put this in quotes, fact check us. Because it's actually a British company. We are sorry to everyone in England. We know that you are actually responsible for Dyson, well at least your country is, you're not. And maybe you are, listen, if you are actually a Dyson,

and we apologize, but there are manufacturing. But you colonized Australia, so. And we learned while we were in Australia that. Australia. You like the way I did that? There is still a connection. Technically, they're still under the authority. Right.

Of the United Kingdom. They're not independent. There's something else. Jacob, can you, what are, oh he's not in here. Why is he not, okay yeah. If Jacob were here right now, he would be typing out. They are independent but it's not quite. I'm sorry guys.

Perfect independence. He doesn't, he looked, he very quickly, you know we put him on the spot, he was acting like he was listening but he was doing something more important and then we put him on the spot and he like, he did some Google but he did it in a faulty way, apparently because something came up that talked about

all of these production facilities and things in Australia but the headquarters is in the UK. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think there's a better way to apologize. So we are sorry. We took a while to do that. For Jacob. Usually they say, on last week's podcast, we incorrectly stated that Dyson was from Australia.

We are sorry, we now know that it is from England. And then you just move on. We could have just done that. Punitive measures were taken but we're not gonna go into details and we're not gonna ridicule someone who's not here, we wouldn't do that. Let's talk about the fact that we just sent our children

off to school and again, last year was their first time ever going to public school, they were all homeschooled. So last year was huge, I mean, we were worried about so many things. Big transition. Lily was going into being a freshman in high school and how many students are at that high school? 3,000?

Almost 3,000, yeah. 3,000 students at one high school. Which is three times the number that we had at HCHS Harnett Central High School. Can you imagine just being, I mean she wasn't physically just schooled at home up until through eighth grade. There was like.

They went to other schools. There were classes taken and charter school type situation. There was social interaction. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we didn't keep them in a cage. But it was not a public school setting and it was nowhere near 3,000 kids there. So a big transition for them. And of course, I mean it was not a public school setting and it was nowhere near 3,000 kids there. So a big transition for them. And of course, I mean it was the first time

Lando being seven years old at the time. I mean all the kids, your kids too, it was like, there was a lot of wigging out happening. Like Locke was, you know it was a big deal for him and Lincoln and Shepard. Yeah it was just you know they were trying to find their way in the world and they all adjusted incredibly well.

They had a really good first year. They, you know, it wasn't super easy. Found hobbies. But they got plugged in and they were, you know, it wasn't about the unknown this year. Now it was a little bit for my oldest, Locke, because he was beginning his freshman year at high school but you know, he knows a lot of the people

who are from the school because it's mostly the one school going to the next school. So it's not like for us, which we'll talk about in a little bit where it was all a bunch of schools coming together. So last year a whole bunch of worries. This year the only worry that I could discern was what are we gonna wear on the first day of school? Last night I got home from work

and the whole place was a buzz. Everyone was running around, getting all their stuff straight and Christy was packing the lunches and she was clandestinely writing a note to each of them. She's a noter, huh? She wrote a note and then she. My mom was a noter. She was like, I walked through the kitchen

and she was like, wouldn't you like to write a little note to Lando? Oh, pressure notes. Yeah, pressure me into writing the notes. I wrote him a little note. What'd you say? I said, this signature's probably worth something on eBay. And then I stuck it inside of his.

Well, okay. eBay still happened? Playing off of the narcissism joke that you just made, I will say that as a fellow narcissist, I have found myself, I didn't, actually I didn't write a note, I wrote a note yesterday to Shepard because it was his birthday,

so we usually get them a book and we write in, we take a page in the book and write in the book and that's like their card and their thing and we talk about things that happen in them. But multiple times that I've been writing notes to my children, I get to the end and I begin to sign it, Rhett, you know? It's like, because I feel, I end up signing my name

quite a bit. Why do you do that? Yeah, because I'm super popular and people just demand to have my signature, that's where the narcissism comes in. But no, but then I started, I'm like, no, no, no, I'm not Rhett, I'm Dad. An R is easily turned into like a D. A D with legs.

Yeah, I've made it work many times. You make that D walk. Okay, but anyway, so this, yeah, I'm moving right on, right along. The same thing was happening at my house. It was, there was a lot of hustle and bustle because, you know, on Sunday they had gone out and they had done their back to school shopping.

Mm-hmm. Oh, you gotta shop. The clothes that they wanted. That's the first thing about back to school is that it's a commercial event. I mean, it's like freaking Black Friday. Yeah, well it's kinda like when we get ready for a, I got a pencil or two but I gotta get 12 more today.

We get ready for a new season of Good Mythical Morning we're like we gotta get some new clothes. We can't be wearing too many, some shirts too many times. You don't wanna do that at school either. Case in point, okay, the back to school feeling. I think that's a good data point right there that we still live it. Well because we have started our show

at the same time that back to school happens. Right. It's just the way that it's worked out. And so I think that's one of the reasons that we've continued to ingrain that pattern in our brains for years. But because the show is so structured around being a part of the daily routine of the viewers.

Right, we wanna be in sync with that. We try to take a little break and then bam, bring it back around that same time when people are adopting their scheduled rhythm, you know? Right, well I will say that I, it sounds like you were more involved last night than I was and that's just where I got into a little trouble.

Well I mean I wrote the notes. You wrote notes, you wrote pressure notes but you wrote notes. Oh you got in trouble? Yeah this is what happened with me is that I got home and there's lots of, first of all it was Shepherd's birthday so we did a birthday dinner,

I grilled the steaks, I mean I thought that was pretty noble and so and then Jessie's like, all right you guys gotta get ready, you gotta get your clothes out and it just kinda seemed like everything was under control. It just sorta seemed like everything was working like a well-oiled machine and so I was like, I'm going to get in the hot tub.

Oh no, you didn't. Yeah, yeah, because I was like, my legs were sore. My legs are sore, man. I did one-legged squats on Monday. You know, shout out to the gym that I go to. No, I'm just kidding, no. It was first workout since being back since from Australia and Fiji.

Okay, so see, you're adopting that school. Getting back in the routine. Routine. But so I was like I wanted to soak my sore legs. I go out into the hot tub, I have you know, just sort of some moments with myself and then I come back in less than an hour later and she's like where have you been?

And I was thinking well isn't it obvious? I'm soaking wet and very relaxed. I've been in, but that was like, I've been in, no I said, I've been in the hot tub. But at that point you were like, what can I say? No no, I said, Shepherd told me to turn it on because we've been playing, the whole day was about Shepherd and his birthday and you do whatever Shepherd wants.

Shepherd told me to get in the hot tub. Shepherd told me to turn the hot tub on. I thought he would come out. And get in alone. He didn't. She wasn't happy with me. I apologize, baby. I'm sorry I didn't participate as much.

You were apologizing now? Not then? No, no, I apologized multiple times last night but I was kinda met with an icy stare because she just continued to do things. Now here I'm faced with a decision because I could decide to say at this point, I actually got in my hot tub last night

but then what would happen is I would be, yes, I would be admitting. You got in your hot tub. Here's the thing, I would be admitting that I own a hot tub. Yeah right. And you know, whenever you said, and you be admitting that I own a hot tub. Yeah, right. And I, you know, whenever you said, and you've already admitted to having a hot tub

in like another podcast, I think, and I just kinda. You have a bigger hot tub. I get, I got scared. You have a hot tub, hold on. I'm really self-conscious about people knowing that we have hot tub. You have a hot tub that changes color while we all sit in it.

Like it goes from like green to blue to orange. It's like an alien abduction. Yeah, you have a hot tub that's bigger and cooler than mine. Of course, I am getting my backyard redone so mine will be bigger and cooler than yours in the not too distant future. We're gonna have to keep going back and forth. I made the narcissism joke a few minutes ago

and then we start talking about our kids and then you make, you're self-deprecating, you're talking about how, you know, you're telling this story, I'm just really self-conscious about making a joke about being a narcissist but then like being a narcissist while telling that joke. If people are gonna not like us because we have hot tubs and we are constantly trying to make them bigger

and better than each other's, they can just move on. There's other people who do things on the internet. It's fine. Okay. What I will say is I remember the time that our friend Michael growing up called our friend Eric growing up and Eric's dad answered the phone. I remember Michael telling us this story

and he said he called him and he was like, "'Hello, Mr. So and So, can I speak to Eric? And he was like, oh I'm sorry Michael, Eric's in the hot tub. And so for, I remember for years feeling that like, someone being in the hot tub and not being able to come to the phone was a huge douche move. So I completely understand your aversion to douchey vibes.

Yeah, a lot of douchey vibes. I mean, because when you drop, just like, oh, I was in my hot tub last night and blah blah blah. It's like name dropping. It's like a big bathtub. Really, it's just like a big bathtub. Outdoors with lights that change. Now. Mine stays the same.

My light does not change. It's pretty low rent, actually. Here's how I'm gonna defend my hot tub. This is what's gonna make me feel better about it and this is true. It's one of my favorite places to be. I'm like a king in there. So you had some special moments to yourself

as well last night. Actually no, a great thing about our hot tub is we're like at dinner and I'm like, you guys, you want me to heat up the hot tub? And I have to get agreement from the majority of the family and then. Tell him how easy it is for you to heat the hot tub up, Link. It's on my phone, I can do it right here.

Oh man. So that when I get home. What a douche. It's hot. What a douche, can just pick his phone up and change the temperature of his hot tub. 95, 96 degrees. I can't even do that. I have valves that I have to maneuver. Now, I will be able to control it with my mind come January.

But so, if the majority says yes, we'll get in the hot tub, then I'm like okay, we're all getting in the hot tub, and it becomes like, it's like. It's great family time. It's like gathering around the campfire. We do it all the time. Which of course, I also have one of those.

You do, yeah, you have a frickin' fire pit. You have two fire pits! You have a fire pit next to your hot tub that's just a bowl of fire that you light just for effect. You have pyrotechnics in your backyard. I'm getting embarrassed, man. Don't embarrass me about my fire. Listen, hold on. Just let go, man. Enjoy it. I know. I'm just... This is my show? It's the fruits of your labor, man. You've worked hard for over a decade. If I want a fire room around my backyard.

You can have a freaking fire pit. And this side and that side. Can't a man have his fire? Yeah, I'm getting four fire pits. You gonna have, I'm gonna have gargoyles that breathe fire all around the entire perimeter of my property. Use them as towel dryers.

Ugh, man. I've stood over that cauldron of fire next to my hot tub. Naked, in fact. Naked. I wasn't there, I just guessed. I would have a towel and I'd be drying off. I'd be drying off and then I would just open the towel. And receive the flames. Like a creepy watch salesman on a street corner

in New York City. Yeah, that's where they do that. And I would just like, I would corral the fire around my region. Yeah, yeah, nothing like that. And just to dry it off that way, heat dry it. Can't wait to do that with the gargoyle. Okay, get the right angle on that.

I'm gonna ride the gargoyle. Like I'm spittin' fire. So last night, they all agreed and we all got in the hot tub and we, and it's, because it's a great time, it's kind of like the dinner table. You're sitting there, no screens allowed, you're not in front of the television or whatever. So all you can do is hold your breath

or talk to each other. Right, two options. So it's a great place for us to connect as a family and talk to each other and not be narcissistic or a douche. Right, yeah. So we did that last night, we talked about everyone's expectations, what they were looking forward to but again, it just came back to what they were gonna wear.

Like Lincoln ordered these shoes off Amazon. Shoes are such a big deal. Get out the right shoes. Locke really got Lincoln into the shoes. He's very aware. Locke is kind of like an older brother in that way that like okay, tell me what's what and what I should be into.

He didn't tell me that, I'm just kind of reading between the lines but anyway, there were shoes and then he was like, dad, I don't have socks that are just the right amount of no-show to go with my shoes for the first day of school. Emergency trip to the store. No, I was like, I got you covered, son. I got two different options in my sock drawer

that I wanna lend you for this. I really came through. Did he go with low tops? Low tops, yeah. Yeah, Locke went with the low top, low top Vans. And he said I'm gonna wear my shorts which are, they're white, they're like cool shorts with like a white base is what he said. So he's like, he thought about all this.

Yep. So then the next morning, this is what happens. So they're also, everybody's scrambling to get ready and then everybody's getting rushed out the door and Christy's like oh no no no, we gotta take the picture. We gotta take the picture. You gotta have the picture. And so they go out at the front door

to take the picture outside because Jesse is coming with Locke and Shepard to pick up Lily to take Lily to high school with Locke for Locke's first day. Like Lily will be there and kind of show him a little bit of the ropes. Right. She's been there a year. So I go out the front door, I mess up the picture

because they were already trying to take it and then I'm, because I wanted to watch. I watch them take the picture and I notice about the same time that Jesse pulls up and rolls down the window, the same thing that Locke noticed which is my son's hair is huge. Like he spends a lot of time on it and he like poofed it up and I mean it's like my hair kinda but like twice as tall and blonde. And Locke rolls down his window and he's like,

Lincoln, your hair is insane. And then Christy starts taking the pictures, Lily gets in the car, they drive off, we wave goodbye. You go back in, we're going back in the house and I hear Lincoln say to himself, he's like, I gotta do something about my hair, I gotta tame it down. He thought he had taken it too far. Too insane, I think Locke meant it as a compliment,

like insane is good. Yeah. He had a big grin on his face but like, you know, you're so self-conscious on that first day, everything's gotta be peak and perfect. So I'm like, I'll help you out, son. So like, he goes back in there for a second blow drying session. And I'm like trying to help him get it right and stuff.

You brought it down, you toned it down a little bit? Took it to the side a little bit. We'll have to see how it turned out. We worked it, we haven't gotten home yet. I've done some texting with the family and I've got some updates on how they did. Maybe I'll save that for the end. Before I get in the hot tub.

Yeah my kids. Which will be after I'm done with this. My kids didn't, Locke actually ended up getting a haircut. His hair has been. I cut Lincoln's hair last night too. Oh yeah. By the way, but just the sides. I don't do that.

I have a small sort of humble hot tub and I also don't cut my children's hair. As if that would be a douche thing to do. I cut Chrissy's hair too. No you don't. I use a bowl, put it on top and just shave the sides. But Locke ended up cutting his hair because he's been kind of growing it out

and he's been doing, you know, he's been like kind of putting it, when it gets a little bit long because he's playing basketball and stuff, he's like kind of puts it back almost, it's not really a man bun but it's the beginning of one. Well it's a pre-man bun. But the basketball coach saw that and said uh-uh. Is that right? Nope.

Don't even think about it. They don't allow it. And while he could have protested because you can't, I mean I don't really know what the rules are, he was like I just, I got it cut because I didn't wanna, you know. I mean they talked about it a little bit but ultimately he was like I don got it cut, because I didn't wanna, you know. I mean, they talked about it a little bit, but ultimately, he was like, I don't, you know,

trying to establish myself, and so made it a little bit shorter, so. So they both had to tone their hair down a little bit. Yeah, had to tone it down, you know, going into the next year, you gotta tone it down a little bit. Do you wanna make a statement on that first day, I mean, your clothes do matter?

Because it's that part of that confidence, because you wanna be able to slide in there with a little strut in your walk. You gotta bring your best on day one. Well you don't have to. No you could set expectations low and be like day two it's like who is that? I don't remember him from yesterday.

That's why the school uniforms, I mean that's why a lot of schools do the uniforms because you just take that completely out. There is no opportunity to express yourself in that way. I don't know, there's advantages, there's disadvantages. That's not what we're gonna talk about. We're talking about back to school and we're gonna talk about us going back to school

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So that's HelloFresh.com slash E-A-R-6-0 and enter code E-A-R-6-0. And now back to the biscuit. So we were just talking a second ago because we have so many things that we remember together about the way that we remember back to school, but the cool thing is is that one of my earliest back to school experiences ever that I remember vividly

is our first day of first grade, which is when we actually met. Yeah. That was like the ultimate back to school is like the basis of our friendship. Yeah, because I mean, well here was the thing, at Buies Creek, of course I was there for kindergarten, which wasn't great for me.

It wasn't as good, I wasn't there. I'm sure that the first day of school was always laced with anxiety for me because I mean, that's just, I know enough about myself even though I can't remember specifics. I do know that my mom would take the first day of school picture. At the end of the hallway, there was the closet

that had the towels in it. Nice white background. Yeah, she would put me against that and she'd take my photo with like my lunchbox. I remember you had a Qbert lunchbox. I remember the Qbert lunchbox. That must have been first grade. I'm pretty sure I had a He-Man Masters of the Universe

lunchbox. I remember your lunchbox. It was blue and I was holding it in my first day of school shot and I think I can see the anxiety in my eyes in all of those pictures. I remember, now for me, I was coming from California and yeah, because I lived in California for three years down the road in Thousand Oaks before moving

to North Carolina in first grade. And I, I don't know, I wasn't an anxious kid. I never dealt with a lot of anxiety and I actually remember, especially in subsequent years, always the only time I was excited about school was the first day of school. That was when I was like, this is, I'm gonna make my way, I'm gonna establish myself, and this is,

I saw this excitement, not anxiety, but just anticipation and excitement, and then it's like day two, I'd be like, ah, school sucks. And I was one of those school sucks kinda guys from then on. But I do remember. You love a newness, man. I remember anxiety over that because I was this new kid

in this small town, it was very different from where I'd come from. I do remember thinking that my Qbert lunchbox said something about me though. I had never played Qbert. These small town kids, they don't know about Qbert. I did not know about Qbert. I'm gonna blow their minds with Qbert.

This little guy with a snout and he goes up the pyramid. Oh, they're gonna be blown away by this. No one mentioned it. Was that on Atari? Because I think that was just in arcades. I had Qbert, I feel like I had Qbert on a home system of some kind. I don't think you did.

It was on Atari, wasn't it? I don't think it was. See, Phil was looking that up right now. We're gonna see what kind of fact checker he is. But the thing about Buies Creek School. Nintendo. Definitely. That was a new, the version on Nintendo I think

was a new iteration, but like the arcade version that was on his lunchbox was like a. Yeah brought us some arcade games to y'all. Arcade. It was just arcade. Arcade, all right. Yeah just arcade, see you didn't play it at home, man. Yeah I just had the lunchbox at home,

it made me think I had a console. Thing about Buies Creek was such a small town, such a small school, every year you would specifically anticipate who's gonna be the new kid. You know, because there's usually only one or two, maybe three if things got crazy. Right. But I mean, people were not pouring into this town.

And when they moved in, it was like, And everybody knew it when you guys showed up. Oh, this girl's from Nebraska, what? That's crazy, there's somebody from another state. Like that was what it was like when people moved in. But the most significant year for me when you talk about new students was sixth grade,

Miss Lanier's class, when both, both, Leslie and Amber, who carry great significance in both of our lives. Here we are talking about them again. Leslie, our first girlfriend, Amber, our first kiss, different times. They both came to the school in the same year. And boy, first of all, from about first grade on,

I thought about girls most of the time. First of all, from about first grade on, I thought about girls most of the time. Most of my brain was being devoted towards women. Oh you can get it for $12? I can get a, is that a Qbert lunchbox? No this is the game for our top Atari. Okay so you can get it. Oh for the Atari, okay I'm wrong. No that's the Atari 2600.

I had the Atari 2600. Oh you did? I did, I had that before Nintendo. So you cared about girls with like 99.9% of your being and with that last. Well it increased slowly but sixth grade. .1%, it was Cuber. Sixth grade, my body was beginning to change.

I changed a little bit earlier. So that didn't So that made the reception of two new interesting ladies, it was doing things to me. It was different, it was more intense than it had been before. I was beside myself. And that's the year that Miss Lanier decided to put us into, I was like this is weird, but she decided to seat us.

Clusters. In clusters of four facing each other. So like you got four kids and they're all facing each other and their desks are kind of touching at the top. Group work. And that was when I did the, I've told this story before, I'll tell the abbreviated version, but that was when I just decided one day,

she had shorts on, I had shorts on. I was like I'm going to connect my knee to her knee as a show of affection, which I do not recommend. It was sixth grade, I didn't ask for consent. It was also like 1986, it was a different time, whatever, I don't know what year it was. That's not an excuse, I'm going on the record to say it.

I don't know what you were going for That's not an excuse, I'm going on the record to say it. I don't know what you were going for there. It was just knee to knee contact. I just feel like I have to, you know. You just brushed your kneecap against her kneecap. I, well, I brushed my knee against her kneecap but when she pulled back, I brushed it again. I got long legs, I got a lot to give. Did she repulse and recoil or did she just think that, oh, he did that by accident. I brushed it again, I got long legs, I got a lot to give.

Did she repulse and recoil or did she just think that, oh, he did that by accident. She did not repulse, she did not recoil, she just moved away gently. And then after the third or fourth time of contact, she was like, wow Rhett, you got some long legs. She said that. And I kinda gave her a look like, you bet I do. And then you like kept your knee grazed,

like that's no longer grazed, that's a rest. At that point I pulled back and then within a week we were dating. Oh okay. It worked. Again, I don't recommend it, I'm just telling a story. News of this trickled to the library where I was being very bookish one day

because I was in Miss Campbell's class. It was Miss Campbell's class, right? Or Miss Rand's? You were in Miss Campbell's class. Sixth grade, yeah. Yeah, had to wait a whole year to date Leslie after that. Yeah, yeah. Okay, I know what I gotta do, it's just a matter of time.

That's all I was thinking about. But what started with Leslie is now about hot tub size. You know, I mean. But Leslie and Amber were both new kids and I think that's what, they were very close friends, I think that was the factor, but they assimilated. Yeah. But that's the type of thing you were looking for

every year was who's gonna be new? Where are they gonna come from? What's their kneecap gonna feel like when my kneecap touches it? Yeah, it could be anything, really. Freshness, new beginnings, the ability to start over I think was so great. I remember thinking with every new school year, I can be somebody else.

I can reinvent myself. But not really because you were the same kid that had been going to school with the same kids. But you know who did it? One person was able in the the tight-knit community of Buies Creek, from one school year to the next, reinvented himself. Chip.

Oh yeah, he was Chip and then he was Peter. Yes. Into one school year he was Chip, beginning of the next school year, call me Peter. Yeah, and it took a while to stick. I called him Chip for, he was my neighbor so. And this is. I held onto Chip for two years.

And this is the Peter Dinklage that if you came to our show this is the Peter Dinklage that was Rhett's neighbor. Yeah and not that Peter Dinklage that you're thinking about. My Peter Dinklage. The one that was formerly known as Chip Dinklage. Which first of all, I understand that. He reinvented himself. Because I didn't understand until later in life,

maybe like a couple years later, that Chip is a nickname. It's like Junior. It's like Junior. Chip off the old block. And so when a boy wants to become a man and establish himself, he wants to become a man and establish himself, he wants to become Peter. The problem is is his dad was also named Peter.

So I mean, it's sort of like, you know, but at least he was his first name. Well his dad didn't go to school with him. He didn't, right. Stayed at home a drunk Capri Sun. But the biggest. You remember what year that was? When Chip became Peter?

Because you're saying he became a man, but this was like. No it was like fourth or fifth grade. Fourth or fifth grade. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I mean you know, right before he became a man. Depends on what culture you're in and what your experience is. Eighth grade, I wanna talk about eighth grade.

Well he was your neighbor, so. I have a spotty memory. He didn't live in the outback. about eighth grade. Well he was your neighbor so. I have a spotty memory. He didn't live in the outback. Eighth grade, first of all, we went to Buies Creek School, it was K through eighth which is not very common anymore. In fact, we were the last, yeah this is us, the last eighth grade class ever at Buies Creek Elementary School.

After that, it turned into Harnett Central Middle School where all the schools that didn't go to Harnett Central High School come together. Yeah so then Buies Creek Elementary School. After that, it turned into Harnett Central Middle School where all the schools that didn't go to Harnett Central High School come together. Yeah, so then Buies Creek Elementary then and now still does only goes through fifth grade. Fifth grade, yeah. So we had spent all this time, in fact, I remember in first grade going to the talent show

in the Buies Creek Auditorium and watching the eighth graders at the time perform Brass Monkey. That was the peak, man. And it was Brad Inman, shout out to Brad Inman wherever you are up there playing the trumpet during Brass Monkey and it was unreal. It was, I remember sitting there watching this happen and thinking you cannot get any cooler than this group

of eighth graders up there right now doing this song. Brass trumpet. They did it, they changed it to brass trumpet. Brass trumpet. And then he did a trumpet solo. Brass trumpet. It literally, it blew my mind. Well not literally.

That's why I stopped myself from saying literally because I don't want to misuse the term literally. It figuratively blew my mind. Yeah, the bookends to the year, the best moments of the year, the feelings that if you just wanna bottle up and just binge drink is that first day of school and then the day of the talent show

because everything after that, it was only like maybe another week of school. Maybe some exams and stuff which sucked but yeah. So your point is, the whole student body goes and watches the talent show to end the school year and you got these eighth graders, man. Well I'm thinking about the way that we perceived eighth graders and the way that impacted

my first day of eighth grade. Yes. Do you remember when we, yearbook day, it was a big thing for the kids. You wait in line to get a. To get a, Chris Stewart, I remember Chris Stewart. Yes. Who was in eighth grade when,

I think when we were in. He was four years older than us, no. He was a senior when we were freshmen in high school so he was three years older actually, he wasn't that. Chris Stewart was older than my brother. You're right, I'm thinking of the other Chris. You're thinking Chris Johnson. Chris Johnson.

No Chris Stewart was in eighth grade or when we were like in first grade. Yep, yep, yep. And so I remember going up to him and standing in line waiting for him to sign my yearbook and he just like signed. Like a celebrity. Chris Stewart.

Even his younger sister Natalie, you had to stand in line to get her autograph. Chris Stewart just signed my yearbook. It was like Tom Cruise had signed my yearbook. And so when I walked into Buies Creek Elementary. Side note, Tom Cruise does sign all of his own yearbooks. He does. When I walked into those halls,

those hallowed halls of Buies Creek Elementary as an eighth grader, I realized that all of these kids were seeing me the way that I saw Chris Stewart. As a god. And I was like, I can do anything. I own this place. We're gonna do the talent show,

we're gonna do Digital Underground, it's gonna be incredible. And I mean I don't know if this. Ruled the school, man. If it lived up to those expectations that we set. I remember signing kids yearbooks. Yeah. And I think there's, I can draw a direct line

from that to the hot tub I now own. You know, it's like trying to recapture that feeling, man. Constantly. You know, just trying to get back in it. The biggest transition, the back to school moment, was going into high school because, I mean, now you're not ruling campus anymore, you're not an eighth grader at a school

that you spent basically your entire life going to but you're going off to this high school. It was nerve wracking because it was huge. It was a melting pot of all of the elementary schools because there were no middle schools in the county. So you had Buies Creek Elementary where we came from and we had the reputation as being the smart kids. Well and let me explain that a little bit.

Just the Buies Creek mentality was that we were in the middle of this county, Harnett County, and we were where the university was, where Campbell University was. And a lot of us, like me and my dad taught at the law school, still does. And so. So you weren't from a farming vibe.

We had this sense that we were better than everybody just because we were like, we knew we were in the middle of nowhere but we were like, but at least we have a university. We are this bastion of education. And so we kinda looked down on all the other little towns that were just normal southern towns around us. Because you had Lafayette School,

which I always thought of them as, they were kinda good old boys, they were all really nice, more farmer-oriented. Lots of farmers. But they had a really good band. I knew some of the band members, like I'd met them in, we did some cross-pollination band thing. A good band,, like I'd met them, we did some cross pollination band thing.

A good band, huh, I didn't know that. Yeah they had a good band. I never noticed the Lafayette band quality. Speaking of trumpet, Keith Sears. Keith Sears. He played, I played trumpet, he played trumpet. Great guy. Great guy, one of the best guys.

Once you got to know those Lafayette boys, they were great. Joseph Revels. Oh man, ha! He had a mustache. He had a mustache in like fourth grade. You just look at him. I didn't even know him. Just look at him.

Legs like tree trunks, man. Yeah, I just walk up to him and talk to his mustache. He had huge calves. I wouldn't even talk to him. And he was so nice about it. That was Lafayette. Then you had Lillington. Lillington was like Buies Creek adjacent, right? So we kind of were like, okay, you guys, you have like, you've got your own like town hall

and you are the county seat. Right. So you have that. You're the county seat, that's where the courthouse is, you've got some bragging rights, you know, you're not Buies Creek, but you're good, you're good. You'd walk, you'd always eat. We'd go to Lillington to eat,

like to go to the McDonald's once that, but for the Hardee's. That's where they had fast food. That's where food existed. We had no place to eat except Lil Dino's. Right. And that was only open for a while. You'd pass by the Sexton Ford car lot. Yeah.

And then, lo and behold, you start going to the high school and you realize Chad Sexton goes to the high school. There's an actual Sexton that I now go to school with. I don't just drive past the used car lot anymore. And you know there's a connection. I knew there was a connection. A Sexton connection.

Sexton is probably one of the best last names of anybody, any kid who would have to be in a middle school. Well, I don't know, it's a lot to live up to in high school. But then you had Anger. And what can I say about Anger? Tread lightly. Watch yourself with Anger because. Scrappy, they were scrappy.

Scrappy. I'm trying to, yeah. They knew stuff and they. They knew stuff that we didn't. They knew, and they had substances that we didn't. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, Anger was a little rougher. Little rougher around the edges.

Yeah, yeah. But Jason Keenan was a great friend of mine. He was. Great good guy to meet. Taught us a lot. But Anger was where Harnett Central High School was. So we had to basically go to Anger. I mean it was like, you know. Gotta give him some respect.

West Anger in order to go to school. So all of a sudden we're grouped together and there's all these ideas, again for me. It feels like gang warfare, it's like going into, you know how it is, your first day in prison and you're figuring out the different gangs. And I will say that for the majority of our entire high school career,

we kinda stayed with that Buies Creek group. We let a few other people in. We had a very tight knit group. I'm not proud of this. No. It was almost, it wasn't purposely clicky but the school was as clicky as most 90s schools were. I think it probably is still the same.

But it was a pretty tightly knit group. But again, the only thing. As opposed to a nightly tit group? The nightly tit group is. That only happened in Anger. No, that's just breastfeeding babies. Oh. The nightly tit group is a totally different thing.

Redeem it, that's good, that's good. So what I remember thinking, again, I was thinking, I was in complete over drive by this time thinking about girls going into my freshman year. And I remember we would get together, we would go to the river, we spent a lot of time in the Cape Fear River. Swimming.

And we would have some of our deepest, most significant conversations while just swimming in the river. They weren't all about women. A lot of them were. But the ones that I'm thinking about when I'm thinking about anticipating what high school was gonna be like. And of course, the way I talk and think about things,

I have a way of sensationalizing things and trying to make things seem like they're gonna be incredible. Future things, yes. I was like, the thing you don't understand is like sure, we've been here with this group, but now we're gonna go, the thing you don't understand is like sure, you know, we've been here with this group but now we're gonna have, there's gonna be Anger girls. Let me tell you about Anger girls.

There's gonna be Lafayette girls. There's gonna be Lillington girls. The girls that we have not been able to see because we go, we can't go to those public pools. You know what I'm saying? Right. We go to Keith Hill's pool. We can't go to these other pools.

Right. And so I was really building it up in my mind. That was the only thing that I was thinking about. And I was thinking, what's the structure of this? I mean, this is a big place. How do I know how to get around? Am I gonna, I'm gonna print out my schedule and put it in multiple places because I don't know

if I'm gonna, I don't wanna get lost. Print it out? How would you have done that? Well they mailed it to you, I don't, it was a mentality, okay? I understand. I'm not trying to poke holes into your. I don't think I had a printer.

I'm trying not to poke holes into your dot matrix life. I still, I mean I know that I still have my class schedule from every year because I was very anxious about going to the wrong class at the wrong time. You still have them? I have like an envelope that has stuff from every year of my school. That is wild.

And it has my. Including your class schedule. Because I would keep it even though I would eventually master it. But there was like a commons area and there were places where you could buy drinks. Yeah, vending machines outside. Yeah, and you could go in the cafeteria

and there were multiple lines. It's like this was crazy. You wanna just get pizza? You just want a chicken sandwich or do you want the daily offering? There was a pit outside. It was like, picture an amphitheater that only has three steps.

That's what I call a pit, because they called it a pit where you could smoke. Yeah, we had a smoking pit. Designated smoking area right beside, everyone who walked into the school walked right past it. Yeah. And of course any direction you looked literally was a tobacco field.

Yeah, so we were just supporting the local industry. I mean I did not partake, I did not smoke. I didn't either. In high school but there were quite a few that did. It was a very new world and it was, you know, you looked at it with so much promise and a chance to connect with, in a love life kind of way. Well I specifically remember not the first day of school

but before the first day of school, there was some sort of sports banquet or raffle or something that my brother was going to because my brother was already on the basketball team and of course I knew I was gonna play basketball and baseball and I was gonna do all the sports, whatever. And so I went with him to this banquet. Of course he could drive, he was already gonna be a senior.

And I was like, this is my first exposure to the group of people that I will be going to this school with, at least the athletes. Even more pressure here. And I remember what I wore. I had on this T-shirt tucked in to khaki shorts and the khaki shorts were very long and big, I'm sure it went down to,

but still preppy, it was a preppy look. Pleated. Pleated khaki shorts that went to just above the knee, maybe just below the knee, it was right around the knee. And then I had a braided belt that was, you know, purposely about 14 inches too long, such that it could be rolled around one time and then put down the left leg and struck me about mid-thigh.

Put down the leg? I know what you're talking about. You would like tie a little knot in it. And then it comes down at a 90. It goes south. It comes down at a 90 degree angle, perpendicular to your waistline. Those are great.

You know a great thing about a braided belt? It's unlimitedly adjustable. Yeah, because you can stick the through any part. Yeah, any place can stick the, through any part. Yeah, any place. I can't believe they're not back in. Maybe they will be. I do remember that.

You wanted it to be long so you could take it from east and flip it over and turn it south. Yes, and we also, I had the Docksiders, we called them, those leather shoes that you wore without socks. And I remember, I'm so tan right now. You know, we had no regard for sunscreen or anything so at the end of the summer in the North Carolina summers, you were just as, you were so tanned and.

You wanted to show that off all the way up to the ankle? I remember just thinking about how tanned my legs were. You did? Yes, I was, and listen, you know how skinny I was. I was so skinny, I was so scrawny. I was 6'4 at the time and I guarantee you, I did not weigh more than 145 pounds. I mean it was.

I mean there's truth in the photos. But I had all, I had completely, no reason to have it but all kinds of confidence. All unfounded confidence. And I was the exact opposite. I had every reason to be. I was not confident. Did you get feedback on the dock siders,

the tan or the belt or anything? I don't recall, I don't recall specifically. I just remember feeling good about myself. I mean, it didn't change. If I work it out, because the girls that you were obsessed with, I do remember swimming in our secret spot in the Cape Fear River and just talking for hours going into our junior year,

so fast forwarding two years later, and you were still obsessing about like the next class, the upcoming class of freshmen. Yeah, it sounds dirty to talk about it now. But you, I mean it wasn't, it was just to date, to be in a relationship with a woman. I know but it's like. With a girl but you were.

Thinking about it, I just, I don't know. But you would just, you'd say hey there's this girl, Melissa, there's this girl Stephanie. It's like man one of them can be your man, one of them can be your girlfriend, one of them can be my girlfriend. It's like it was that easy. It's not like you can just touch a girl on the knee with your knee and then a week later

you're gonna be dating her. Well that did work successfully one time. But you would talk, we would talk, because you would really get, you'd get me fired up about it. We were swimming, I remember it like it was yesterday. And we would, it was, your confidence was so contagious. I became convinced that this girl Melissa

was going to be my girlfriend. I'd never heard of her, I'd certainly never seen her. And I never had met her. Yeah it was like double dates, man. I was like we can drive now, double dates, man. I was like, we can drive now. Double dates, man. And of course I'm on the soccer team. You're in the soccer team before.

You practice before school starts. And so there's freshmen that are trying out for the soccer team, one of which turned out to be Melissa's boyfriend. So that kinda, that kinda informed how I moved forward which was to not move forward at all. I mean, he was a freshman which made me upset but I respected the boundaries, I wasn't gonna.

You gotta push through that. My philosophy was you gotta push through that. This is high school, these relationships are. And how did that go for you? These relationships are not going to last, okay? They're not gonna last. Don't get too bent out of shape about this. Stephanie was dating somebody too, man.

She never dated you. Listen, I told you my confidence was unfounded. I have seen the pictures of myself from that time. But the great thing is is that I had this incredible self-image I had no reason to. It's so weird, we're 40 years old. I mean it was, let's see, I think it was last Christmas when I was at home and I was in the Zaxby's

and Stephanie walked in. Oh. I saw Stephanie. You did. At the Zaxby's. How was she? With her mom and all of her kids. Her husband wasn't there.

But I went up and I was getting a refill on the drink, you can do that exactly, I was there before she was. She sat down, didn't see me and I saw her when I was coming back with my drink and I went over there and I was like, hey, she recognized me immediately. We chatted it up for a few minutes, I met her kids. You didn't come up once.

Good. But it is funny. It's simpler that way. It's funny that I immediately went back to us swimming in the river and like obsessing about like, oh she's gonna be my girlfriend and Melissa's gonna be your girlfriend. I tried man.

I tried a whole lot more than I was successful. I've told the story and again, I don't like talking about it now because it. Well these are real people that still exist. Well no. And now we're 40. I don't know how to say this in a way that will make sense. The times have changed significantly since that time and to think that I was so focused on just getting

a girlfriend and not, and again, I was doing other things. We both excelled at our academics and to some degree our athletics. You had that game with the two goals with your left foot. It was amazing, I'll never forget it. Thank you. We did other things. We had really good friends.

We did a lot of cool things that we wrote about in the book and we spent a lot of time camping and all that. We did a lot of other cool stuff but it was kinda always, I was always distracted by this thought that I needed to be in a relationship with somebody and I just wish that I could have, I could go back and tell myself, don't think about that so much, you're gonna think

about it because of who you are but just don't, it's not all that's cracked up to be, don't worry about this, don't wish that you're in a relationship and forget about just enjoying this time because when I think about it, I think, oh, that was, it was just this, it sort of clouded every single thing that I experienced at the time.

Well, are you talking to me right now or are you talking to the Ear Biscuiteers or are you talking to your kids? Because I do think that's, in a good way I think that's. My kids are I believe significantly healthier in this regard and I do think part of it is we have constantly reminded them about not, because I know the way my kids think

and I can already see the patterns of the way their brains work. Yeah. My wife can see. We see ourselves in them and we know kinds of the things that like, oh, this is the kind of thing I wish I had told myself. And so who do I have to tell now? I've got my kid, yeah.

I think that's a really cool thing about parenting in general is when you can see the wheels turning in your kid's brain, I mean I've mentioned anxiety a lot in this episode from my childhood and I can see when that pops up in my kids' lives and so it's cool to be able to kind of speak the code because well we know that it's our fault, right? Whatever it is, it's like, okay,

there's this obsessive quality about fill in the blank or an anxious interaction with something. And we are responsible for it, whether directly, genetically, or something that we screwed up as a parent. But it's cool to be able to kinda, you know, we have talks and it's kinda like you're speaking, they're shortcuts because,

and you can see them light up like, whoa, you're kinda reading my mail, so to speak. You know how my brain works. Yeah. So I think that's pretty cool. I mean, I think it, and it's also cool to relive vicariously their newness of school, you know?

And I think that it is the type of thing that I do find myself getting charged up this time of year. Like I know the traffic's gonna be worse again. I know my kids aren't sleeping in and I gotta help them get out of the house. There are some negatives but then there's this energy. It's kinda, it's the energy that precedes the next energy which is fall energy.

Remembering how leaves would fall back east but still the air gets a little crisper. And then you got the holiday magic. So it's like you're moving from one thing to the next in that newness but. I said that we would talk a little bit about the science of why we still feel this and why you, even if you don't go to school anymore,

you may feel this back to school feeling. And so there's this article on NBC News that talks about, there's a number of reasons for this. so there's this article on NBC News that talks about, there's a number of reasons for this. One of them is the fact that your brain has sort of ingrained this pattern of that you may not even be conscious of, of like, okay, summers, the days are naturally longer,

you fill those days with more leisure time and they kind of shape themselves in a different way because just the amount of light in the a different way because just the amount of light in the day and then when the amount of light begins to decrease as summer is coming to a close, it actually changes your circadian rhythms and actually changes your melatonin levels and stuff. You sleep differently and if you reinforce

that every single year there's this very transitional thing that is happening where you're starting anew, fresh, and it's in sync with the changing of the seasons. Your brain has become accustomed to that. And it's just the way our culture is also in that rhythm. And you see it in the back to school ads and that kind of thing. And so you've got those thoughts and those feelings

and all the stuff that we kind of hinted at that continues to come back and so it's actually the plasticity of your brain, it's ingrained in there. And then if you continue to do things like we do, like whether it is you've got a show that comes back and is on that same cycle, you've got children who start school at the same time, you're gonna feel that feeling even before

you've actually registered what's going on. That's kind of the very high level level. Well that's cool because it goes beyond just feeling it vicariously through kids if you've got them or just reminiscing or, and it's something that you've built. It's also an argument for not doing those year-round schools because they're stripping kids these days of the back-to-school sensation.

Yeah, well, I don't know. I don't know either. Even then, they do have, I think there is, isn't there a longer break during the summer, even for those kids? I don't know, I haven't even, I hate it so much I haven't looked into it. No, I just never experienced it in either it so much I haven't looked into it.

No, I just never experienced it in neither of my kids but I know that a lot of people do. But I think it's a great thing to embrace. You know, if there's any way to embrace newness, to assess and expect. You know, I think any moment when you can do that is great. You know, I feel like even professionally, we're kind of in a moment where we've geared back up

with Good Mythical Morning, we're starting to get back into the rhythm of that, but we're also buckling down on other things that we're working on. It's like, okay, everybody, you know, this is that sweet spot to get some stuff going. So you know those, you're out of that lackadaisical summer thing, so I think it's something that if it's in your brain you can harness.

You know, this is the time. This is the time to make that change. It's like, it kind of feels like the New Year's resolution vibe but it doesn't have all that weight of the anticipation of breaking the resolution. It's much, it's looser than that and it's more about, it's more about the energy, man. Well and you think about, you know, especially,

especially that time between middle school, from middle school to the end of high school, you think about how much a person changes. I mean you just look at pictures of kids, I look at my kids, I look at Locke and how much he's changed in the past couple years. Yeah. And it's mind blowing.

And think about how much we have changed in one sense but haven't changed over the time. Like when you say, oh fall again, I'm like, I'm gonna turn 41. Like I'm gonna be, I was just having my awesome 40th birthday. You remember that one, you know? Yeah. The band, the band,

the one that everybody talked about. Yeah. And now I'm gonna be 41. Am I gonna have some awesome party for my 41st? No, because I'm 41. Who cares? 41, what? No significance there.

But it happened so quickly. Whoa, whoa, whoa, man, whoa. What? Tap back into that, let's try it right now, okay? Tap into what? Don't tap into your 41-ness. Yeah, but you started talking about the years and I just started, I'm gonna be 41, man.

No, no, no. And there's that Merle Haggard song. I'm 41 years old and I ain't got no place to go when it's over. So I'll hide my age and make the stage and try to kick the footlights out again. Again, this is the best album. Hide my age, Link.

It's what I'm gonna keep doing. How did this podcast? Just try to kick the footlights out again. How did it turn into this? Embrace the newness that is back to school, man. I think I need to go back to school. I think I need to go to community college. I think ultimately that is what I've just decided.

What about real estate school? Much shorter. I think I need to take a class. You could drive a nice car. At Pasadena Community College. All the ads say that it's the best community college in the nation. What would the ads say?

We're a pretty good community college when you consider the nation. We're not the best but. PCC, man. Can you see me at PCC? Just go to real escape school, it's short. Real escape school? Is that for escape rooms?

Yes. It's how to get out of escape, I need to go to that school. I get so frustrated Real escape school. Is that for escape rooms? Yes. It's how to get out of escape, I need to go to that school. I get so frustrated in escape rooms. Listen, buy the Groupon with me. You and me, we're going to the real escape school. Hey. And like we can, just a couple of days, we can get out of any escape room.

We need to teach that class because there are so many people whose nights are ruined because they get stuck at some part of an escape room. First of all, I need to take the class. We need to invent the class. I just did. We need to take the class. We need to invent the class. I just did. We go to all the escape rooms and we get all the secrets. We have to pay for that but then we get our investment back

when we charge people to come learn how to get out of these escape rooms. I think it's as simple as setting up a booth outside of escape rooms. With a map? With a map. Well, just a little guide. We could do it in an app.

We don't have to be there, we just sell it as an app. You click on the app, we want to go to this escape room. They don't let you use your phones in escape rooms. It's gonna have to be printed. Okay. Dot matrix, just like you said. It's PDFs, it's PDFs. Right, we can laminate them.

We sell PDFs. I wanted people to download it. I want a paid download. No, because. Does it take all the fun out of an escape room if you have a PDF? They can pirate that. You need a folded yet laminated brochure level.

Here's the cool thing though. We get better at selling the secrets to the escape rooms, they change, they adapt, they become better. It's like co-evolution. I get it, do you hear that? They started playing the music. Oh. I think it's... Okay.

They've been fading us out slowly. Okay. As we've continued to talk about it. So let's just do that. I'll take this idea back to the drawing board. Share with a friend of yours this episode of Ear Biscuits if you want to. That's a big help to us.

Let's continue this conversation using hashtag Ear Biscuits. Reminisce about your back to school feeling. Even if you're still having it now and you're not in school, even better. Let us know. Yeah, if you wanna see me, I'll be on campus at Pasadena Community College teaching the Real Escape class.

So what were you saying? So let's keep going, just me and you. Yeah. Good luck with that.