Family Trips with the Meyers Brothers - Haunted Houses, A Christmas Tree Costume, & the Christopher Columbus Classic: Listener Episode #17

Episode Date: October 30, 2025

Seth and Josh are back with our monthly listener episode and this time...it's centered around the fall holidays! From Halloween to Thanksgiving, you're in for a fun ride! Seth and Josh laugh through stories including one man's haunted house gig for rich drunks that ended in a police shutdown, a heartwarming yet cringeworthy Halloween memory involving a Christmas tree costume, and a muddy low-scoring football game in Ireland that turned into one family's favorite adventure. Want to submit your family trips story for our next listener episode? Or send a question in to Seth and Josh? Submit your voicemail to speakpipe.com/familytripspod! Interested in contributing to the Grand Canyon Fundraiser? Visit tinyurl.com/familytripsfundraiser " Watch more Family Trips episodes: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlqYOfxU_jQem4_NRJPM8_wLBrEEQ17B6 Support our sponsors: Tovala For a limited time, save up to $300 on the Tovala smart oven when you order meals 6+ times, by visiting Tovala.com/TRIPS and using code TRIPS. Fabric Join the thousands of parents who trust Fabric to help protect their family. Apply today in just minutes at meetfabric.com/trips. Policies issued by Western-Southern Life Assurance Company. Not available in certain states. Prices subject to underwriting and health questions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey, Paghi. Hey, Sufi. How are you? I'm good. I'm better than you, I would say. Because I stayed up late and watched the Steelers lose to the Bengals. Yeah. And you were out socializing and having a life.

I actually, I was not socializing. I was at a concert, but I was there alone. Oh. Yeah. Yeah. Still, I mean, it's definitely a IRL as opposed to what I was doing. Yeah. You know.

And I was getting a lot of, I was on a text chain with you and, our friend Kevin and our friend Stradley, but you and Kevin were really going back and forth. And I could tell. We didn't text too much, but we were in a terrible mood. Yeah, I mean, every time my phone buzzed, I had a sense of what was going on. And it looked for a minute that it was going to be very exciting

and what a great finish. And, man, it just turned south. And I will just say, I know that, like, I feel like you almost take a sort of obscene, pride about like how much you love the Steelers and i love the Steelers but it is here for you it is available to you to not get so wound up yeah i take no pride okay i i think it's absolutely a burden and uh and so uh yeah i mean uh it'll be interesting like uh i wonder you know because every time they lose i start daydreaming about what i'm going to be in the future and it was a

Thursday night game, so they don't play for another 10 days. And I'm like, you know what? I'm already in the future, and I don't care. And it's Sunday, and maybe we're picking apples, and I don't even bring my phone. So we'll see. Like, let's check, let's loop back in on that. Because I'd like to maybe, you know, 10 days from now, try a different thing. Yeah.

Yeah, that sounds good. I did last night. I stayed up too late. Also, back-to-back nights, we've had some musical beds at the old Myers household. Oh, yeah? You're getting some fresh bodies in your bed? So two nights ago, Ash had a nightmare. Okay.

And he woke up and told us that his stuffed Ellie, which is an elephant. I'm assuming most you could get there. Interestingly, Ellie is a boy. I kind of assumed it was a girl's name. And then he told me, no, it's just short for elephant. I'm like, okay. So Ellie, it was full of people. Oh.

Yeah. Like a Trojan horse kind of situation. Trojan horse. And obviously you can't, you know, it's hard to sleep once that's in your head. Yeah. So Ash went and slept with Alexi, and then I went and slept in the top bunk in Axel's room. Right, in the boy's room. Then at 5.30 in the morning, all the lights went on.

And I was just like, just try to sleep through it. Just try to sleep through it. And then I just like, open my eyes. And Axel was standing at the top of the ladder of the bunk bed, just staring up. And he's like, Wales Ash, why you heal? And then it turned out that Addy was having a hard morning, which is very rare. So at like 545, Alexi came in with the most, I've never seen her look more tired. Oh.

And because I guess she had, I guess for the last hour, she'd had both Addy and Ash in her bed. Oh, wow. And so she just brought in Addy. And she's like, Addy's up and they're going to both hang out with you. And I was like, great. And then at some point, Axel was playing, he's got like, if you picture it's like a Rubik's cube type thing with buttons all over it. and you like it's a little bit like

Simon says do you remember where you're like you have to follow with the beeps yeah so this cube will like beep different colors

and then you have to hit it so Axel was playing that Addie was listening to a Peppa Pig story full blast and like the music on Axel's box is like pinkle binko binkum pinko

and then also it's like Peppa do not step in a muddy puddle and it's just like it was like and all the lights were on it felt like a child's nightclub. So that was brutal. And then last night, Addy had another bad night and came into bed and she so wouldn't stop talking to Alexi. So Alexi said, you're going to stay here with Daddy.

I'm going to go sleep in your bed. So Alexi left me and Addy. And then I just got like dreamtown Addie. Oh, great. Because she had like, I think ultimately she just like doesn't want to talk to me as much, but she's perfectly happy to hold my hand. So I just had this, her little girl hand in my hand and we slept like the sleep of angels. Oh, that's great. And then this morning, Alexi's like, oh, did she never stop yapping? I'm like, the minute you left,

she fell asleep and it was the best night of my life. You're rocking a hat this morning, which... Have you not seen this one? No, I haven't. Friselli Jones. Yeah. What's Friselli Jones? I know that your dog was...

Yeah, Frisely Jones is one of the things we called Frisbee. And then a friend of Alexi made us these. Memorial hats. Oh, that's sweet. That's kind of nice because it's, I think it's, you know, because it looks like it could also be like a cool new restaurant.

Or a band. I was thinking that's a musician. So, yeah, but it's a homemade hat for Zilli Jones with a little hard on it. And I like, you know, it's subtle as opposed to giving me a hat that said, you know, my dog just died. Yeah.

I, uh, I also kind of sweet story. You know the hats that I wear? Yeah. Like a trucker hat. And then the front is just, like, cork. And when we were away at our anniversary weekend, we're driving, and I'm wearing one of these things. And McKenzie's like, so what's the deal with these cork hats?

Mind you, I've been wearing them for, like, three-plus years. Yeah. It's just, like, a very basic trucker hat. I like that it doesn't say anything on it. I got a blue one, and I got a black one. Also, I just, I do want to circle back. Like, the times where you remind me that you are newly married is the fact that you're driving your car with your spouse and they say, tell me something about you. Mackenzie always wants to know something new about me.

She really is. And then it's always a struggle. I'm like, ooh, something new about me. I don't know. Yeah, yeah. She's like, what's the deal with these hats? And I was like, what do you mean? She's like, like, why do you wear them?

And I was like, I don't know, because they're not advertising anything. And she's like, well, you look like a real cork dork. That's really good. Okay. And then I like it, though. The other day I came down and I was wearing some outfit. I was not wearing my cork hat. And she's like, oh, you look like a real cork dork dork tonight.

I'm like, what's the deal? I mean, this is, these are shots fired because she is truly, you know, I don't know a nicer person than McKenzie. So you've got to really be cork dorking it for her to call it out. No, she'll needle me for sure. we're going on a this is a really cool farm that's near us and they do like this Halloween walk that we didn't go do last year but did the year before

and it's just like when you have kids and like adults put time into something and you just like walk around the farm and the theme like two years ago was pirates it wasn't even like haunted house it was just like there's a pirate story and you would just sort of walk around and you know and this year it's wizards

So I'm doing that on, I'm doing that on Saturday. Very excited about that. And yeah, I mean, it's really, it's really good times. Yeah. I do want to call it real quick. Just we have this fundraiser going for the Grand Canyon. And we've raised a bunch of money so far. I feel like we're like in the $4,000 range, which is awesome.

We do have, we're putting up sort of a $10,000 match. So if you're interested in checking out this fundraiser, go to tiny URL.com slash family trips fundraiser. We made it as easy as possible. Perfect. And again, that match thing, so every dollar you spend is $2 to the Grand Canyon. Yeah, because we're going to match up to 10 grand. So I and then, but I also, I'm doing a double match. So whatever total we raise, I'm going to double it for a fundraiser I'm doing to bring the Grand Canyon down forever.

So go to fill it up, go to fill it up with rocks. Dot family trips dot enough's enough. No, no, no. Terrible fire on the north rim of the Grand Canyon. We're trying to help them out. We're trying to help out our buddies. Oh, I know. I'm just doing the Grand Canyon Conservancy. I know.

So tiny URL.com slash family trips fundraiser. We would really appreciate it. And so with the Grand Canyon. Yeah. I know a lot of you are like, ah, I don't want to do it for Seth and Josh. It's not for us, guys. No. But it's a listener episode today, Sufi.

I love a listener episode. So do I. I think, you know, I put a call out. for some October stories. And I didn't necessarily say, also they got to be trips. This is, I mean, what a, what a, I mean, really, the tables are turned

that you blew it and forgot to remind people that the show was about trips. Yeah. And you accidentally said, like, October stories about your favorite S&L episode. So they might not all be trips stories today, but at least they're going to be thematic

to the season. for the most part, or loosely. You know, trip it and rip it. You know, I think it'll be great. I'm very excited. So Sam is with us this morning. Morning, Sam. Good morning, Sam.

I have some really fun listener stories. Great. And yeah, like you said, they're not all trips, but they all are really funny. So we should play some. Awesome. I'm going to play our first one. Hello again, Myers Brothers.

Jeff from Illinois once more with a different haunted house story. I'm a struggling. actor who's only had three professional jobs, the most recent of which, was a haunted house for rich drunks in 2023. Halloween was on a Tuesday that year, so the plan was to do the haunted house every night from Friday until Tuesday the 31st, and it was being organized by a professional company for some sort of corporate event, meaning after five nights we were going to get a big payday. The house used legitimately looked like a creepy old haunted house on the outside, but on the inside,

renovations were being done, so there were no walls up, just wooden frames. We each got assigned a role, given cheap store-bought costumes, and I was told I would be a zombie. Professionals were there to apply zombie makeup on me and everything. I have pictures, if you'd like. The room the other zombies and I were set up in was on the second floor and was missing an entire back wall to the outside. All that was there was a loosely tied-down tarp. during the evening itself the zombies and I would chit-chat when no one was walking through our room and would snap into character when we heard anyone approaching about an hour into the house being opened

some people with flashlights were coming down the hall my first thought was they were scared cats who needed a light then i worry they were drunk jerks who wanted to shine lights in our faces and ruin the fun as it turns out they were a different kind of jerk chicago police officers had arrived i couldn't tell if they were there to enjoy the haunted house or were called in to investigate something. So somewhere on a computer drive is Chicago PD body cam footage of me as a zombie, unsure if I should break character or not. They were there to investigate because the people in charge did not get a permit for any of this. And the state of the haunted house was deemed an unsafe hazard. You recall the missing wall in the second floor room I was standing in. We were all ushered outside. And

and one of my fellow zombies went off on the guy in charge, screaming about how he had put us in an unsafe environment that could have killed us, probably hoping to get some money out of him, because, of course, we were only going to get paid for the one night now. Unsurprisingly, a Google search revealed the company has a history of feeling like a scam. But they did eventually pay me

at the last possible second they said they originally would, so I guess it worked out. The moral of this story is, I should give up on my creative dreams if this and two TikTok videos are all I can book. I hope you're still both well and having a nice day.

Thank you for listening. Thank you for that great story. Posh, please don't make a super cut of the moment during that story when I spilled my coffee with. It was really good. You leapt up. I did.

It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Do you think it's hard to make the argument you could have killed me when you were dressed like a zonabbit? Yeah, I think it's very hard. At some point you're like, I think that, I think we've crossed that bridge. Yeah, you're undead. Yeah.

That's a great story. Haunted House work is noble work. Let me just say that. Yeah. And the difference between going to one where the actors care about it versus the one where they're just there for a paycheck is a massive difference. Yeah. I mean, there's a real love of the game aspect to a lot of these people that work at these haunted houses. Like, there are these big things now, like at Universal.

They do the, like, Halloween Horror Nights. We have the Knottesbury Farm out near L.A. that's called the Not Scary Farm, which is a, maybe they've changed that name because that implies that it is not scary. But it is scary. It is scary. The first time I went to that, I had never been to one of these sort of maze-based Halloween spectaculars. And I remember I was walking in and I was with three other people and we were like, how many, how many scares do we think we're going to get? And I was like, I don't know, like two. And it was like 24.

Wow. It was like just because I had never experienced that people. jumping out at you through the mist and even when you're like between mazes uh it was pretty fun there was when we were at boom chicago i wasn't there for it but there was a a very famous uh haunted house night yeah i was and you dressed up it's one of my favorite pictures of you but can you explain real quick what your role was yeah uh well i was i was just sort of a creeper um and i was in uh in this room But I had bought one of those like very blank white masks, almost like a doll, like a doll, a dead doll's face sort of a mask. But it was just, I mean, there wasn't anything scary to it.

It was just a white mask. So I took that and I had some white body paint and I painted my face and my entire body, legs, torso, back, arms, legs. You know, you get it. I had some white underpants on, and I had the mask on the top of my head, so I tipped my head down, and I could be like as if I was looking at you out of that face, and then I would tip my face up,

and I would have second white face that was just my face. Really good. Yeah. It was very, it was sort of like shades of Pan's Labyrinth, I want to say, but just all white. And obviously, no. balls in the hands but um pan's labyrinth real quick because there's a new giermo out he's got a Frankenstein movie i saw pan's labyrinth and just couldn't i was so blown away yeah and then i feel

like a week later i liked it so much that i brought a girl i was dating to pan's labyrinth and uh she did not care for it and i looking back it was like massive miscalculation on my part yeah well i mean i just watched the substance with my wife on our anniversary. I think I just did a bad job judging the person I brought. Oh, okay. I see. Hey, are you wondering how I cleaned up the coffee? Yeah. I put a sock on my hand.

Something else I like about Jeff's story is the zombies that are just talking when people aren't there, the chit-chat. And it reminds me of I was an extra in the planet of the apes that Mark Wahlberg was in. Not anybody, does not make the list of anybody's like top five. No, apes. But there was, I was a human survivor in that movie. That was my role. And so there were a bunch of like, you know, humans. And then there were a bunch of apes.

And just the apes, like, you naturally would sort of, like, section off in terms of, like, who you hung out with. Like, you know, those people playing the apes were in makeup trailers for a lot longer, you know. And, but just to be sitting around and watching all these apes just, like, talk about auditions they might have or, like, what their day job was, was really, really funny. Did you, I feel like, just because we were talking about how many scares and I know how much. you love scary movies and I went and I know we've talked about this I saw weapons this summer and it was just so fun to be in a movie where there were scares yeah I think the same is true of the old haunted house like being with people just the constant of taking taking stock of who's the most scared at any given moment yeah yeah yeah yeah um I saw have you seen one battle after

another no I'm desperate to I might I might try to go today but I got another concert to go to tonight so god i hope i'm not repeating myself i do a lot of podcast posh um but i uh i think you would have been proud of me i had a uh because we almost well we're almost always working on fridays you and i yeah and uh last friday we didn't have one oh i dropped off the kids and i was like i'm gonna go see a 10 20 in the morning one battle after another great it was great it was so bunch fun oh awesome and completely like you know what i mean like you go in a movie like that like it's dark and you immediately forget what time it is yeah no i love i love an early movie um yeah all right uh thank you so much for that story thanks jeff josh let's do the uh real quick will you do

a chicago cop talking to a zombie hey so uh you guys are in this house and it's just not safe I there's not even a wall there. Whoa, hey, that one spooked me. I didn't realize you were even here. What's scary is the condition of the house that you guys are operating a haunted house in. Hey, guys, we're coming in. Chicago PD, nobody spook or scare us. We got flashlights and they're strong.

So don't let them blind you and then you fall out the second floor where there's no wall. But also like no, you know, walk out slow. With your regular face. Put your arms down. Stop moaning and groaning. Yeah. No, you know, the game's over, okay? All right.

So I think we'll probably get a call from a casting director pretty soon. Maybe Dick Wolf will get us for Chicago. Yeah, Chicago Med, Chicago PD, Chicago Fire. Yeah. All the Chicago's. Hey, we're going to take a quick break and hear from some of our sponsors. Support comes from Cayman Jack, America's number one, a Margarita. What's up, Bob.

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Join the movement and donate now at Movember.com. All right, let's listen to our Sam. Let's roll the next one. Hi, Josh. Hi, Seth. This is Cole and Perry. And I have a submission for your October episodes. And I saw you both last October.

So this October, I'm just going to visit you with my voice. So I have noticed that October tends to mark the moments when in our younger years, we realize we're growing. up and that we don't want to be perceived as little kids anymore. And most often, I've noticed this happens around the holiday of Halloween. So for me, let's go back to October of 1997. I was 12 years old in seventh grade in Ross Moyne, Ohio. And I remember I began the month like fully rooted in my childhood, but I ended the month desperate to leave it behind. The first week of October went like they usually did. There were lots of discussions about what everyone was going to be for Halloween. I remember talking about this in school. In that year, I had a grand vision of being a resplendent Christmas tree for Halloween. I just had this sense that if this vision were able to be fully realized, that I would win the all-school Halloween costume contest. My mom, who looking

back was probably sensing that this would be one of the last Halloween's where I was like fully a kid really got into making my Halloween costume that year. She sewed me a full body Christmas tree suit with a hole at the top for my head to stick through. It had ribbons and it had ornaments dangling from all the branches. She put on jingle bells. So anytime that I moved, it would jingle. And my mom even figured out how to wire lights into the costume. So it truly had everything. It looked good. It made noise. It emitted light. By the end of that October, it was the all-school Halloween costume contest. And I noticed that several of my classmates, these were all kids that I had been in school with since first grade. They seemed to suddenly not be enthusiastic

about this. I remember one of my classmates said, it's for little kids, and that was painful. I remember hearing this sitting at lunch in my little Christmas tree costume, eating a P.B&J sandwich, and learning that this was not cool. Then it was Halloween night, and I remember putting on the Christmas tree costume, and that it was suddenly a painful act to put this thing on over my body. I couldn't wear that because I was not a kid. I'm older. I had become older. I had become wiser. And I mean, I was basically a high schooler at this point. And I can still feel the discomfort of pulling this gigantic costume on over my head. I can hear the jingle bells that were suddenly like way louder than they were a day ago and the lights that were so bright and you couldn't dim them. I knew that I had to wear it to go trick-or-treating because my mom worked so hard. But, Somehow, like, I had become a totally different human being. I became someone who would literally never fucking wear a Christmas tree costume on Halloween. Oh, Cole.

Thank you. I like somebody finding the conclusion of, like, I'm never going to dress up like a Christmas tree for Halloween ever again. Without acknowledging no one else had ever done it. You know what I mean? Like, and that was the day. Yeah. I realized I would no longer do the thing that no one else had. ever done. It was like for Halloween one year I was an oven. I think I've maybe mentioned on this

show, but we had like some, we got new burners for the stove and the old burners were in the garage. And so I just got a cardboard box. And I was like, oh, this is going to be great. I'll just be like, I'm going to stick my head through this box. I'm going to put these burners on the top. I'm going to paint it like an oven. And it was just such a, such a dumb costume and like to walk around like with your arms out of a box is just so uncomfortable and there's nothing cool about it and I was sort of on that cusp of going from like little kid to preteen where there was there was some stock and being a little bit cooler um yeah man I will say I you know this will not surprise anybody who listens that I'm not a big Halloween guy but you know

there were like my New York SNL years where I there were fucking super cool Halloween parties happening and I knew people who made great costumes and I'd put a little thought into it. I think I would have had a rad time at a lot of parties. Yeah. I mean I, you know, classically out in L.A., there's this costume shop on Hollywood Boulevard and I would like have no idea what to do for a costume and I would end up going there on October 30th or October 31st when they were sold out of a lot of You were guaranteed to have to wait in the line forever. Yeah. It was a nightmare.

And then I'd always end up getting a sort of terrible costume. Well, we got to learn to do better. Here's where the boys are at this year. Ash, Captain America, which is a huge disappointment to Alexi, who hates IP. Axel, that's intellectual property, in case anybody's wondering what IP means, which is a pre-existing character. Axel, a Ninjago character. And then he also is pretty confident it's not going to fit because Alexi said, I think this isn't going to fit. So he's spinning out and he wants to be a baseball catcher because he saw a league of their own and now he just is obsessed with catchers because the star of that movie is the catcher.

And so now he wants me to get him a whole catcher's outfit, which I'm like, that's going to be a bad thing to go walk around him. But he doesn't care. Yeah. Well, I mean, you're just going to be carrying the mask. But also, there's a lot of pads involved in being a catcher. A lot of pads, a lot of stuff, knee pads, everything. But he likes gear. There was, I do have on my aura frame that pops up every now and again.

When was he an old lady? Last year. And that's like the best. And his cousin, cousin Agnes was an old man. And he walked around all day. Like, he's a really good, like, little performer. So he was, like, humping around all day, like an old lady. and like multiple teachers because I think teachers too are like they're not impressed by like somebody going like buying a Deadpool costume for 200 bucks right and so they're like best costume I've ever seen best persona I've ever seen and uh it's really it's a real bummer that doesn't want to do anything like that again like he doesn't it's so funny because like we're like everybody loved it he's like yeah I want to be uh dinjago um we had a moment yesterday which is as you can imagine um a

parents dream. And hopefully, because I definitely, I like, choked up with a teacher calls Alexi, the assistant principal. And, you know, when anyone calls about Axel, you're like, here we go. Yeah. You know what I mean? And basically was a story about how he kind of stood up for a kid who was getting bullied. Oh, good for him.

And, you know, to some degree. Like, I won't go into the details. But, like, he behaved really well. And basically they were just calling to share it. And talked about how after the incident, Axel went into her office to talk to her about it. And she just said, like, the way he talked about it was so thoughtful. And anyway, you then hear that. You hear your kids capable of talking thoughtfully and so you just want to get it.

You know what I mean? And so I'm walking him home and I'm like, so I heard you talk to, you know, the assistant principal? He's like, yeah, she got a new couch. I'm like, okay. But when you talked about, he goes, it used to be chales and now it's a gween. couch. I'm like, fuck. He's just all he cares about is a couch. And then I saw it, so I dropped him off today

and I saw, this is the principal, and she was like, I hope you heard. I was like, I did her. All he wanted to talk about was your couch. And she was like, oh, it's a nice couch. I was like, oh, well, maybe this couch is more of a conversation topic that I thought. Yeah, I mean, a nice couch. There's a lot

to be said for it. Yeah. Mom was, I don't recall, and this is not a discise. son, you mother. I don't recall mom, like, making us costumes when we were little. I think that's accurate. Yeah. Well, I mean, we're going to find out. Yeah. But I do remember dad being a little bit more. If you had a plan, dad was very happy to help you make it. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. But that's just skill set, you know. Well, then why did my Pine Car Derby car never went? That's true. Yeah, that's true. You know what would have been a good costume if you wanted mom's help?

What's that? Gin and tonic. Well, I just know she knows that to make it. Because she'd carry you around all night. Hey, I had a really fun morning with the boys today because I was telling them stories about mom as a French teacher. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Because our mom... Do they kind of clock that or is that sort of new information to them?

They know that. They just didn't understand that we had her as. was a teacher. Oh, yeah. And also that, you know, our house was the house that all the kids came to. Like, we were the sleepover house. Every kid, by the time it was sixth grade, so many of our friends knew mom as like the fun mom. Yeah. And then all of a sudden she was a teacher who had to also have like, you know, you know, discipline. And yet, like, there were like nine to 10 kids in my class. We were like, she ain't going to discipline me. No. It was a, it was, I mean, until she got, I think it was easier for her to be a teacher once she was no longer teaching friends or her, you know what I mean? Yeah, because she liked all those, all our friends.

She liked them a lot. It was the Wild West, though. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Well, it was when, and they, uh, we went to, I brought, when I brought Axel home, we went out to lunch and, and, uh, I have two friends. Um, these are not their real names, but, uh, it's Hendo and Bubba. Hendu is a man and Bubba is a girl Yeah And Bubba is her parents Her family has called her Bubba since she was Yes

This is a baby It's a baby name that has survived Anyway We Axel came to lunch with them And it was that thing of like I was catching up with them Mom and Dad were there

And Axel was just kind of like eating everybody's bread and french fries And I would have said that like He had no Memory of the meal at all Uh-huh. And so anyway, I'm telling this story about how Hendo behaved in mom's French class.

And I'm like, and then I have this friend named Hendo. He's like, oh, yeah, I had lunch with him. It's like, okay. He's literally like telling me like, oh, yeah, I know that guy. Anyway, it was a very nice moment. He's like, Bubba with a goal. I'm like, yeah, Bubba's a girl. Hey, we're going to take a quick break

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story, Sam. Hi, Seth and Josh. This is Tracy from Indianapolis. I was just listening to your Brian Baumgartner interview where in the beginning, Josh was talking about a trip to Ireland, and it made me think of a story that I thought you might all appreciate. I have actually, it's been over 30 years, but I went to Galway a very long time ago. I've heard that it has changed a lot. Sounds like maybe Josh kind of experienced some of the things that I've heard about it recently, where it's just a lot bigger city and a lot more touristy, but it used. But it used to be this, you know, really cute, smaller city with just like stereotypical, really cute streets and pubs. And I had a great time there. But the backstory of why we were there, so my brother

was a football player at Tufts University, which, you know, small college. I'm sure you're familiar with it being from the Northeast, but not exactly like a powerhouse of football in America. But he was a football player there. And every four years in Galway, Ireland, they had something called the Christopher Columbus Classic. And they would choose schools from that conference to play each other. And while my brother was in college, they chose Tufts to play Bowden. So that was pretty cool. And the whole family had an opportunity to go, which was awesome. So I think I was 15 at the time in high school in the 90s. And we went to Galway. It was my first time going to Europe. So just a really exciting and cool opportunity. But a couple funny things happened while we were there. So the first thing

was that we were there over our Thanksgiving, which is obviously not a big holiday in Ireland, but they were really lovely and nice in this hotel that we were staying at, had a dinner planned for all the families of the football players and the football team for Thanksgiving. And when we got there, it was 100% decorated like New Year's Eve. It was poppers on the table. Everything was black and gold and sparkly. And it was just really cute and funny. I don't know, you know, who thought that that's how we saw. celebrated Thanksgiving in the United States, but it was, it was really fun and just kind of a funny, funny memory, but very cool the way they treated us. And just the entire time, they really

treated the football team like they were celebrities. It was just kind of, you know, really funny and also fun, obviously, at the same time to be a part of that. They had a parade through downtown Galway, you know, kids wanting autographs from the football players and just really treated them like celebrities and leading up to the game. It was just such a big deal. in Galway. It was very fun and very cool to be a part of that. And again, I just, you know, kind of seemed funny even then. I remember thinking how funny it was

because, again, not exactly two powerhouses, you know, Tufts and Bowden football teams. But it was really nice. And so then we get to the weekend of the game and it was raining the entire weekend. And it had rained all the way up to the point

of the game. I can't remember if it was a Saturday or Sunday, but let's just say it was the stereotypical Irish, you know, gray skies, muddy. It had been raining for so long that there was just mud everywhere and it was actively pouring down rain the entire game. And it was not a big, huge stadium. It was kind of like what you'd think of maybe a high school having for a football stadium. So it wasn't like an arena by any means. But, you know, tons of people there, again, just really supportive, excited to have American football at, you know, for that weekend.

And so there were a lot of people there. And it was just the worst game. It was, I think, the ultimate score ended up being something like three to seven. I think Bowden maybe won. Bowden might have gotten the touchdown and Tufts got a field goal. There were all kinds of missed field goals and fumbles. And I just remember it being such a bad game. In fact, I think my little brother pulled up a story a couple years ago and posted on Facebook, which was really funny. You know, something to the effect of they put it all on the line that day for this game that ended up being seven to three. But it was such a cool experience and so fun. It's a shame that it ended up being just really rainy and not a fun football game,

but definitely an awesome experience. And just thought you would enjoy that story. Thanks and love listening to the pod. Can't wait to hear the other listener stories. Bye. Thank you so much. What a great story. I also wonder if, like, if you, like, love,

if you've grown up in Ireland watching, you know, some mix of, like, soccer and rugby and, like, I feel like they have a weird sport called hurling, or a normal sport, weird to us. Maybe 7 to 3 is just kind of like, yeah, this seems about right. You know what I mean? There's no like high scoring sports in Europe.

Yeah, but if you're going to a football game, I think that you have, you've gathered that the scores can be higher. Perhaps, but again, it's 30 years ago. So, you know, I bet there was like less, you know, international sports on in Ireland. Yeah. But they definitely, I mean, again,

Even it was a high-flying affair between Bowdoin and Tufts. Also, any disparagement I might have made of Galway sort of should be seen through the lens of that I made no plans whatsoever. And I paid a price for that. It was way more your fault than Galway's. Yeah, yeah. That's a nice you to own it. Yeah, I just don't want people to be like, oh, maybe we should not go to Galway. I would say go, but maybe book a hotel and have a plan for a restaurant.

That's a good idea. Yeah, I love, you know, we went to, the first time I ever went to Ireland was because of an American football game. And, you know, a week after I was there this year, the Steelers were playing. And I forgot to tell you this, but I was on a hike, you know, probably 10 days before the game in this national park. And, you know, we give dad a hard time for seeing somebody in a, in Steelers gear and just always talking to him. So McKenzie and I are walking. And then there's these two guys and this woman, a little older than us, passing us. When my, when dad says, when dad sees the word Steelers printed on a piece of clothing, he's, he reads the words, Larry, I want you to talk to me.

Yeah. So this, this dude was wearing a steel. shirt and I get right up next to him and I'm just like don't say anything and then I'm like here we go and he's like where are you from I'm like oh my god I went down the road yeah he was like you sticking around for the game and I'm like no we're here for a wedding he's like ah can't wait and yeah I just I became dad in that moment I couldn't help myself it's pretty fun yeah it's pretty fun to to talk Steelers with the Steelers fan yeah especially one there yeah but then i mean as soon as that conversation's over mackenzie's you know rolling her eyes at me like what are you doing yeah i don't know

i just i also love the Steelers and so does that man yeah we have so little in this world that we can all agree on um i wonder how much uh tickets were for the old tufts bowden bowl at the i think they gave you a little bit of money the christopher columbus classic yeah Did Columbus, I wonder if Columbus, did he pit stop in Galway before he? I don't think so. I think he went around the other way. Maybe afterwards he went, stopped there on the way home. Yeah.

And they were like, how to go? He's like, crushed it. He was like, you got a hotel I can stay in? And they were like, oh, you didn't book ahead. We got to book ahead. What are you doing, Chris? Well, another successful listener story. And we do look forward to listening to Mom.

explain whether or not she helped make our Halloween costumes. Yeah. And happy Halloween, everybody. Happy Halloween. Yeah. I mean, from two guys who aren't really into it, we hope you guys are into it and enjoy it. Just because we don't like something doesn't mean we don't want other people to like it. You know, we're going to do, we're going to decorate our house for Halloween.

It sounds like you were swinging back around. Well, we're going to dress the house up like the Grand Canyon. Which, the only thing we have to do is not have candy because then people will come all the way there and be a little disappointed. Oh, boy. All right, love you, Paji. Love you, Zofi. Thanks for the stories, everybody. Illinois worked at a haunted house that was for rich drunks.

Flashlights in the hall made Jeff wonder if these were just some teen punks. Cops haunted in and said we are making a call. You gotta stop because you got no wall. Zombies had to go home and the ghost never got to. Never got to say boo. Well, what about Bill Wall? He's a vampire. Doesn't he count?

Cole was a preteen. When she looks back, she doesn't know what she was thinking. Christmas tree for Halloween complete with jingled bells and lights and twinkling. At first she was siked, but then her plan hit the skills when someone said, Costume contest. It's for little kids still wore it trick-a-treat, Mom that made it so she just had to. Sprucy, yeah.

Tracy's older brother had an opportunity to go to Galway. Chris Columbus Classic meant that Irish people get to see the boys play. Signed autographs treated like celebrities within the score. Oh! Seven, two, three, even if you love football, then this was a bad game for you. Footy, yeah. It was bad footy. I wish they'd say footy, such bad footy.

I'm going to be able to be.