The Dale Jr. Download - Our Earliest Childhood Memories & Dale’s Military School Experience

Episode Date: September 11, 2025

We’re taking a trip down memory lane with Amy Earnhardt and Dale Earnhardt Jr. On today’s episode of Bless Your ‘Hardt, Dale and Amy share some of their earliest childhood memories, food our parents gave us as kids that we hated, and is Dale Jr. a blonde? In #AskAmy, we talk Halloween decorations, if Gus and Junebug could talk, and rank fall activities. Plus, we debate a new game presented by Bass Pro Shops called“Critter Karaoke,” where Dale and Amy hear an animal sound and have to guess which animal is making that sound. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. Oh, yeah, this is the way it's going to be, girl, if we're going to hang out. Open a bunch of jars, you've got big strong hands. Are you suffering from High Craft? I'm working. Working that mouth. Hey, everybody. It's Dale and Amy for another episode here of Bless Your Heart in the Dirty Mo Media Studio.

Thanks for tuning in yet again another week. as we motor through this season, our first season doing this podcast. It's not that bad, Ralph. You have a hard time over there? No, feel good. It's been fun. I mean, I don't know.

Have we talked about when we're not going to end the season? No. Maybe we should go to the listeners on their feedback on. On the show? When are you going to get tired of us? Yeah, when we can quit. When has our quit date? I kind of like, I think it would be fun to drop in and do like a couple holiday episodes.

We're probably in, I mean, I'm just guessing we'd end this right around the same time. We stopped doing the, you know, the racing ones, which is right around Phoenix. Yeah. But we could come in here and do some holiday episodes around or before or after. Christmas. Yeah. Just to give you an update. But, you know, hopefully like you guys, we have a lot of great experiences throughout the holidays.

drink of the week for high rock vodka and as you probably can guess by looking at this thing it's a traditional bloody merry Dale's is not so traditional his action packed with beef jerky one only one kind of beef jerky jerky boys he had one piece and he thought that wasn't enough so he has now half the bag in there well I had a piece in there and it fell down into the bottom so I wanted to garnish as they say the only garnish Dale approves of Yep. And so when I opened the bag and smelled it, I couldn't stop putting more in there. But we have a lot of jerky boys here at the store at the Junior Motorsports.

But anyways, it's two ounces of high rock vodka. Obviously, Bloody Mary mix. You can put a little Worcestershire sauce in there. You say Worcestershire? I guess. Wishchester. Hey, this is Dale Jr. The latest bless your heart gear.

Go to shop. DirtymoMobedia.com. Wistreshire. We got playing options for everybody. Hesda. Go to shop. Dirtymobedia.com. I don't even think that spelled correctly.

I don't either. It's Worcester on the... It's Worcestershire. Wistichshire. Half a teaspoon of horseradish. Who doesn't love that? You're going to stir all that up and then garnish it

with your choice of toppings. And I like olive. I like that little block of cheese. What kind of cheese is that? We always get those. It's some special... No, no, no. The ones we have at home?

I know. You asked me this and every time I blink. It's... It's a fun. It's not a cheddar and it's not a parmesan, but it's kind of a blend of both, but it's a good cheese cream. It is like a parmesan.

I would otherwise, it has this, you see this little orange tomato. You don't like the tomato? I don't think it adds much. It's already got tomato. I'd probably put one of those peppercini. Pepper chineas?

I think you got, oh, you got a pickled okra in there. Pickled okra. That's okay, but the pepper cheese. I love those. I think she was trying to brighten it up. Yeah. It looks amazing.

Yeah, it does. Yeah, thank you, Hi Rock. Some celery. Yeah, some celery. You got a little lime in there. You're fascinated. All right. Please go visit Hirockbodka.com to find a bottle near you.

They have a bottle locator on their website. You must be 21 years or over, so you must drink responsibly. So I was thinking about we were having a conversation last night about our childhood and things we remember and things we don't. It's hard. Those are hard conversations because it makes me feel so weird that I can't. What's your, what is, do you have the earliest memory? What's your earliest memory?

My earliest memory is from church preschool. Like every, every memory I have from like my younger years is like going to the first day of school. It's in a classroom for whatever reason. Your age. What was my age? Like how early can you? That was probably four? Yeah.

Yeah. So that's probably common for most people is around the age of four. My earliest memory, like is your memory from four? Is it in video form? Is it images? It's in video form. In video form. Yeah.

Like I remember walking into the classroom. I remember where I sat. I remember circle time, like sitting on the floor and eating snacks. I remember where in the church building because it's been renovated so much. Like I remember where that hallway was. The way it smelled even. and then kindergarten too. I remember the first day of school.

I had the same kindergarten teacher. My dad did, ironically, Mrs. Torres. And so I remember where that classroom was, where I sat. I remember nap time and never being able to nap. I was one of those kids that couldn't nap during nap time, so I'd never got a gold star. Like, I just remember those things. It was always a classroom.

I don't remember too much else. You know what I mean? I guess it was just a scary, you know, they say trauma is what sticks in your mind. Until you're nervous that day. I think I was just nervous. So it kind of stuck. out, yeah. My earliest memory is four as well, and it's my fourth birthday.

And the weirdest thing about it is it makes me wonder if it's really a memory, or did I build this vision in my head? But from the old memory, because my memory of my fourth birthday is from the point of view of someone in the room, not me. Oh. Yeah. So, like, my memory isn't, like, so the, the, the memory itself is if I could build this set, if you're thinking about it, like a play or something. Mamaw's Kitchen.

I'm turning for, or it's my fourth birthday. For some reason, I was, for some reason, there was a thought that dad wouldn't be there. and he would then in turn be the surprise because he rides into the kitchen on a big tonka truck. Oh, how cute is that? And he's in a black pair of pants and a white t-shirt like he wore in like I see him in all the photos from the 70s

when he was racing a local race car to short track. He was dressed like a greaser? Just like a greaser. And exactly. And so, but that memory, mammals in the room, my mom, there's another person or two that I don't recognize or remember

and then dad comes in and I'm surprised and happy obviously that he's there and he's the surprise but also the toy. The toy is a surprise but you were surprised because your dad wasn't there when the party started. Oh he wasn't supposed to be there. Yeah like he wasn't I guess yeah

well I guess when we got that's probably what it was when we gathered and when we gathered I'm like he's not here and boom and you were sad yeah and so But the memory that I invoke, is that the right word?

I don't know. The memory that I like recall. Recall. Yeah. Is from a perspective of someone of what you might have seen if you were standing in the room. I see me here. Like that's a bizarre thing to happen. Right.

And so it makes me wonder if. Was Kelly there? I don't know. In the memory, when I recall it. I'm sitting here or standing, and then mom and mamma, and then dad comes around this corner. Yeah, so you're in that corner of the kitchen. And I'm watching it in my memory. When I recall it, I watch it happen.

It's not from my point of view. And so I'm wondering if I don't truly remember my point of view and what I experienced that day, but I were... Somebody else for calling it for you? No, but I've preserved it in this sort of... sort of movie like format? Movie like format. I don't know. That's weird.

I didn't know that you could do that with your mind. Yeah, because I've lost the memory itself. But I've built this sort of alternative. Sure. Right. And it's been recalled to me. I've shared it with people that were in the room. My mom and my grandmother and they were like, yep, that's what happened.

Yeah. Surely like your aunt or somebody. And so my mind sort of build out. What do you know when you build a scene? Your mind's just piecing all the puzzles of the stories you've heard together. But like in school you might build a scene in a box. You know, and so that's kind of what my mind did through my own recall and my family helping me reminding me. Yep, that's what happened that day.

And so I know it's not like this thing, it's not this fantasy. It's a real memory, but it's not from the old original perspective. It's so weird. That is really weird. Yeah. We were talking about this last night. Like I remember that. And then everything from four years old up until I went to military school,

the memories, a lot, there's a lot of memory. Yeah. But they're all very spaced out and not, like military school was a year and a half. And I remember a ton of things that I experienced in that little. 18 month period but and there's more memories packed into that 18 months than than I think I can recall from

all the years before all the years after How old were you when you went to military school? Because you look like you were five I was four foot three shortest person in the school by a lot and Were you like 12? I'm trying to remember I was in the

fifth grade Fifth grade. Okay, so you were not. You were like 10 or 11. Yeah. Yeah, maybe. I was, um, dang, I don't know why I can't remember. I was, uh, I was in the fifth. You were just saying this is the most memorable part of your life. I was in the fifth grade, I think, um, fifth or sixth. Okay. No, no, sorry. I was in the seventh grade because when I left military school, I finished the eighth grade and went into, uh, as a, freshman ship. So you're like 12. Yeah.

You're 12ish. Well, probably. But, yeah, I was, I've told the story many, many times, but I, Oak Ridge, it's like. We've driven past it. Yeah, we have. It's on the way to Martinsville. And I've stopped by there a couple times. And I went there.

I was going to a South, I was going to Southview Christian School, which is on the way to State'sville Airport. And I got a little, I got, I was just talking in class. and got in trouble when they were going to, I was told or led to believe that I would be expelled after the Christmas break because of some infractions, just talking in class and being a silly kid. Yeah. And I've met a son. I've met the son of one of my classmates from Southview. Oh. And so in the past, it's, I'm rambling. You met him recently? Oh, okay. When I went and did that shoot with Steve LaTart for Amazon.

where we're driving that Chavelle around the racetrack and pushing the buttons. There was a kid working in the set and he's like, my dad went to Southview with you. His name was blah, blah, blah. I'm like, I remember that name, but I can't pick your face. He said, he's got some of the yearbooks.

I said, I don't want to see the yearbooks. Can I see the yearbooks? Do you have the yearbooks? I did, find it. Somebody posted it on Twitter. And so I was able to see all of the kids that I was in class with for those six months or four months, right?

Did that help you bring that in a number? Yes. Yes, it was awesome. Yeah. I don't remember anything about Southview, but I remember that little Christian school that I went to for four months, I never felt more regular. And like, that was, yeah.

But I was, I was like, they, that group of kids, they'd been going there for a couple years probably in my class. And there were probably about 20 kids in the classroom, it felt like. and they all were like, hey, come on. Everybody was friends right away. All the guys were like, hey, come over here. We'll show you this is where we sit. This is where we eat.

It's what we do. And so it was awesome. Instead, you know, my previous experiences and every experience after that was very like on an island. A couple of people that you had to talk to. And that's what schools typically like for most kids. Yeah. But, yeah, so Southview, I had a really great experience. And I hate that I didn't get to finish going there.

because I really liked. I couldn't keep it together. Yeah. I was having too much fun. Yeah, you were. You were too loose. Yeah. But they sent me to military school after that.

And I didn't know it. I came home from Christmas break. I knew I had this thought. I had this belief in my mind that once we went back after the break, I was going to get expelled. And I'm thinking in my mind, boy, I'm going to enjoy this Christmas break, but after that, I'm going to get my ass whooped. So you thought it was going to take the whole Christmas break

for your parents to find out? Yep. So I thought after Christmas. So you lived with this stress. No. No. So after, so I'm coming home from Christian school, going on Christmas break,

and I know, and in my mind, they're going to expel me when I go back. When I go back, it's going to take a couple days of process, and they're going to go, you got these infractions in this period of time, and that's the next bell and automatic. So I walk into the room. I get home from school later that evening.

I go up in the living room. Dad and Teresa are laying on the floor, and they have pamphlets all laid out across the floor. Oh. And I walk up. Yeah, they're just laying on their bellies looking at pamphlets. That's so weird. Yeah.

And dad's like kind of sitting in Indian style. And they've got them all laid out. And I walk over and I'm like, what are y'all looking at? And they're like, we're looking at schools for you to go to. And I was like, schools. And they said, yeah, military schools. This one and this one and this one. We're looking at all of them.

Do you remember the other schools that they didn't send you to? Yeah. There was a real strict one that was up in Virginia. I forget the name of it. But they weren't all close. Yeah, there was the Virginia Military Institute. It was one of them, I think. But we played that other school in basketball.

And we went there and it was like, I'll tell that story in a minute, but like naturally, thinking back, I should have been mortified. Like, what? You're sending me at military school? That's scary as hell. Yeah, right. But I was more like, oh, yeah, let's go to a different school real quick. Because then I'll never get expelled.

Yeah. Right? So if I'm going to change schools in this break, then the expel will never happen. So that ass whoopin won't happen because that's an ass whoopin. I was trying to avoid that. But they take me. to military school and I think we went up there and walked around for a day and it looked fine. Nothing alarming.

They have one, I mean, it's a big campus. They have, there's kids walking around in full uniform. It looks like a small college. Yes, it's like a little small college, but with dorms, you know, where you could actually live. And so they have kids walking around and dressed uniform and like brown or dark charcoal pants. black um sweaters

white collars brass shiny shoes and then these these hats um not the not the captain like um like a barret kind of like it was this

sharp pointed yeah like a newsboy hat what they gave to new kids were these very you got brand new shoes they had to lick a shine on them they were just black

shoes. You had your outfit, your base outfit was just green pants, green shirt. So you stuck out. You had a belt, you had a brass buckle, you had to shine that. And you didn't have any metal. You were not even a private, I don't believe. But they had rank, you know, that you wanted to acquire. And so for all the new kids, there was a bunch of us that ended up, I mean, every, Christmas break, I imagine there's a lot of families that send their kids to military schools because I wasn't the only new kid, right? There were a chunk of us. That's surprising to me. Right. There were a couple dozen of us that showed up. And they put you in a room. You room with another child your age. And they put me in a room with this kid. And was he also new?

Yeah. All of us are new. And you're in a room. You have a desk. It's a square. brick building square room big long rolling door a big heavy steel rolling door and there's two beds two two small

box cubicles to hang your clothes put your toothbrush and all that stuff in there and two desks in a corner to do work school work and that's it you had a foot locker with all your stuff in it at the end of the bed I do remember your footlocker because I was in the house for a while.

I still had that foot locker. I'll never get rid of it. That foot locker was like a, I survived this experience kind of thing. Like I hang on to that foot locker like it's a, like we went through this together. We made it through, buddy. But the first, the kid, so you learn right away, I think we were there for two weeks and we weren't allowed to go home for the first two weeks. You couldn't go home. And all of the new kids cried every night, all of us.

And, you know, you were crying because... That's terrible. It was terrible. You cried the first night you cried because you couldn't believe that your family had left you there. And then the next couple of nights, you cried because you were missing home and missing all of your things. You know, and then over a portion of that... Did you get mad? Yeah, you got...

Oh, yeah. I'm sure, yeah. Oh, yeah. Then you, you know, I was already kind of in angst with dad. Teresa and being being difficult to deal with. And so you have a spell of, you know, being, you know, sort of angry about it. And, uh, but then, you know, you're quickly trying to like befriend people, like find out who to trust. And, um, and so you're, you know, and then you learn, like you pick the wrong people sometimes, especially some of the new kids. Because they're coming, all of the new

kids are coming in and they're all they all need direction they're flawed yeah right we're all in trouble the kids that have been going there are starting to be positively affected by the reform of you know handling things for yourself

being responsible brushing your teeth handling your mail getting your clothes pressed shining your brass your shoes being presentable doing all being on time and you're starting to get some uniformity responsibilities but the new kids are like complete you know, wildcats

and not doing and every, and there's a lot of chaos because when somebody's not doing what they're supposed to do it was, you would have the traditional like 2 o'clock in the morning everybody on the hall would get woken up. Good Lord, why?

To bring the kid out that's not doing what he's supposed to do and yell at him in front of everybody. Is this office? Like is this the teachers? No, these are kids. These are like seniors. So they'd get all you all out of bed with like a horn? Like how did that? They would just holler.

They would turn the lights on, knock on all the doors. Hey, this person, you know, and then you wouldn't know why we were being woken up. You would learn, you know,

they'd go into this kid's room. They'd turn his locker, they'd turn his foot locker upside down. They would tell, you know, your bed's not, your bed, you know,

isn't the way it's supposed to be. Yeah, everything is not the way it's supposed to be. And this is a problem because you're a problem. Because you're a problem is our problem. And the halls were all graded on cleanliness. I learned how to do nurses' corners on beds.

Yeah, don't I know it. Like you had to have your toothbrush upright, bristles upright, two fingers away from the toothpaste. Like it was in your, all of the, in your closet, in your hangars had to be two fingers or one finger apart, all your hangars. And like it was very detailed and specific. And not a speck of dust and your shoes every day had to be mirror polished. And so, I mean, most of us spend an hour a day shining our shoes.

Every single day. Every day. Shining our shoes. It took that long? Shining our shoes and our brass. Well, when you were a new kid, you got a pair of shoes that didn't even have a base on it. And so you would take the shoe like this and you would cover it with, with polish very, very thick.

And then you would take a t-shirt, cotton t-shirt, and do this very lightly. And you would cake more and more on lightly, lightly, lightly, cake more and more on lightly, lightly, lightly, and you use your own spit. Gross. And mix your spit into it.

And you could shine the shoe, and the base on the shoe was literally just hardened shoe polish that could be a 16th or an eighth-inch thick. Does it ever, like, kink? can crust off. Yeah. And so that was the work you had to do every day was to keep it from drying out to where it would crack. Once it cracked, you're screwed. You had to start over. And so there were people there. There were some older kids and stuff that had worked on their shoes and you had to literally

take care of these things every day to make sure they had the proper amount of moisture, but yet the perfect shot. It was a mirror. Some kids, you could look in their shoes and it was And it was so perfect. Yeah. It was amazing. It's such an odd thing to make kids put their focus into, to keep it from getting into the wrong things, you know what I mean? Yeah, some guys got to the shine the heel, the back of the shoe, the side of the shoe.

Some guys really got after it. The whole shoe. The whole shoe. Yeah. And you got graded on how well you did on shining your shoes, your brass. We had brass-o. Everybody, you smell of brasso through the dorms. Everybody's shining their shoes, shining their brass every day.

They would get their brass shining and it looked like gold. It was so bright. But that was, that first two weeks was tough. So we, we are, I've told this story before, but you learn like some of the new kids are okay. And then some of the new kids are truly troubled. Not to be trusted. Yeah. And they're going to take advantage of you.

and we go to the first weekend that we had to stay we didn't go home the first weekend we're not allowed for the first two weekends which really sucked and we're coming up on you know Saturday all the other kids are gone like the only people there are the new kids and and so they're it's a dead it's a ghost town and it's very cold outside cold and lonely and you know just they're very stark yeah but uh There wasn't nothing to do. And so they had a 15-past-your-van. They said, man, you know, we're going to go to, we've got a group that, we can go to the mall and you can get in this van.

You've got to be in the van at this time, and it'll pick you up, take you to the mall. You get out and you're on your own. And then you get back to the van and go back to school at this hour. And I don't even know how we knew what time it was. We didn't have phones or beepers or nothing. I didn't know. I don't remember having a watch. You should stop and ask someone.

Yeah. And so we get in this 15-pastor van, and I'm with my roommate. And we go into the first store we go into when we get them all is a drugstore. And they always have the drugstore right at the exit of the mall. We're walking around in there. And I got 10, 20 bucks, right? And I'm trying to do the math in my head of what I can buy. I'm really, you know, working hard to try to think about what do I really want to take back with me with this $20.

and this kid that's my roommate comes walking up and he's got he's opened like a cracker with the dipping into the Nucela kind of thing. It was kind of like a cracker chocolate situation and he's eating it. And I'm yeah

and we've been there about 10 minutes and I'm like, dang, you already checked out? And he goes, no. And he set it on the shelf and walked away. And I was like, holy shit. He just stole it, ate it in the store Like he didn't give it crap Yeah

And I'm thinking Damn man I mean he just picked that up Walked around with it Opened it ate it a little bit Got done with it and set it on the shelf And just kept on walking around in the store And I'm like

My gosh You know um Noted flagged Yeah like wow that was a And I um And so then I was like Did moments like that start interrupting But the moments like that make you think like

Okay he probably deserves to be in military school I'm not going to do anything like that. Why am I here? A little bit, yeah. But I mean, I kind of also felt like I had been pretty, you know. I mean, we talked about it. We talked about it a little bit. I know, but it's funny that you think that because you're just a kid, you know.

Yeah. Well, I just knew I was like, all right, man, I got a, that was just a, I didn't want to be guilty by association kind of thing, right? Because nobody, I'm a new guy. They don't really know my story. they don't know why I'm in there I'm learning about what he's willing to do and how brazen he's willing to be but I don't want to be

guilty and get in trouble I don't know what trouble might come did you tell anybody else about that I didn't tell nobody no no no sir and so no but we we went on about our day he did not get caught but it made me like more Uber aware I guess and

you know and after after two weeks it was like you got your clothes, your regular clothes. They finally, you know, they tailor made these pants and all these clothes. And so you finally got your real gear and got to dress like the rest of the kids. And it started to feel better. It started to feel less like prison. Yeah.

The dorms, there was a Holt dorm, which was the older dorm from the 50s. And some of the older students, the ones that really took it serious. There's a lot of kids that go to the military school and they're going to leave there and go to the Citadel. Their path is going to be a military path. They've chosen that life. And so there's some kids there that actually trying to really get a true military experience. Experience. And so those kids are at the Holt dorm.

We're in the Armory dorm, which was a newer dorm. And it was a bit of more of the misfits. You know, when we were out to prove that we weren't a bunch of goofballs, it couldn't do anything. And so there was a lot of competition I played basketball I tried out and played basketball and made the JV basketball team I remember scoring a goal one time in a game

I think I only scored one goal the entire season but I've got this picture of me on the team I don't know you play basketball I've got a picture of me on the team and it's like all these kids and then tiny me over here I was super super short

tiny tiny and I remember just rambling here but one winner we were getting ready to come up on our Christmas break and we were going to get Holt dorm, we were going to get them. There had been a bit of a groundswell of camaraderie in the dorm I was living in to to show those guys, you know, and we were going to go, we went through, about a dozen of us, went through the entire dorm and collected toilet paper to go over to Holt in the middle of the night and toilet paper TP the dorm.

So even in military school, you were doing things like that. Yeah. We were sure that we wouldn't get found out. How? Of course we were going to get found out. Of course it wasn't going to work. But in our young minds, you know, 13, 14-year-old minds were like, we're covert. Right, yeah, we're going to figure, we're going to go over there and figure us out.

And so somebody tipped them off. And this may have been brewing for a couple days and planning for a couple days. And somebody tipped them off. It was snow on the ground. We are sneaking over this, you know, there was a field between us in the four-lane highway and then Holt Dorm across the street. we're going to creep over there and we get to this highway and there's a regular ditch

the officers and the upperclassmen out of the whole dorm were hiding in that ditch. In the snow? Yep, and they whooped all of us. And there was this hill and I remember all of us that eventually What do you mean? Wipped you up?

Yeah. Oh. Like a little bit attacked you. A little bit of a But I remember Yeah. This is ridiculous. It is. I remember there being a hill off to the side and all of us eventually ended up at the bottom of that hill they like

chucked us all down there we we all rolled down there and played dead you know yeah you got me good i'm done i don't want to i don't want to more this play awesome yeah but um yeah it was uh it was i remember watching the washington commanders win the super bowl in the break room we had a break room where everybody kind of gathered we have mike tyson punch out the video game console at the that is in our house because that Mike Tyson punch out console was the most popular thing that was on the campus in the break room and it was like a connection to the outside world. Yeah. And you would go in there and buy you a Recy Cup and a soft drink and then go over and watch

somebody try to beat Mike Tyson, right, or go really far. And we didn't really want to play. We love to stand around and watch. the good ones. There was a couple guys to beat it. Yeah. And there were about

three video games, a pool table, and kind of a gathering room with some couches and so forth. And you needed to be a corporal to be able to divvy out

demerits. Can I ask a dumb question? What are the rankings? Where does it start? The rankings were private, private first class. corporal, I think sergeant was next, staff sergeant maybe, all the way up to lieutenant or something like that. And if you went there, you know, if you went to that school as a seventh or eighth grader,

it would take you through the majority of your high school age to achieve some of the higher rank. But you could get corporal within a year. and corporal was enough to be able to divvy out demerits, which is crazy to me now, but when you're living it, it was real. If you were a peon or a private first class or a private, you couldn't divvy out any punishment. You couldn't tell anybody anything to do,

and you often were the target of punishment and so forth, drop and give me push you. shipups and do stuff like that. Yeah. Really? Just anywhere? If you, if you walked by a sergeant or an upperclassman and forgot to salute,

they would stop you and give you demerits. You'd have like a 10th grader who was a sergeant just, you know, giving out demerits. Just because he could. On the least little, you know, thing or reason, right? And there's kids that were like sophomores, juniors and seniors that were like, you know, they took their authority serious. That would be hard to deal with. Yeah.

That was. It didn't. It wasn't hard to, it wasn't hard to do. Well, if you knew they were doing it just because they could, that would be hard. They were doing it because they could, but they weren't, you weren't allowed to, they were not allowed to just give demerits on frivolous things. But if you walked by them and didn't salute, they were going to get you. Gotcha.

You know, that it's pretty frivolous. But they, they were, they were, they worked to get that rank and they wanted that recognition. Yeah, the system has to stay in place. And they thought you little, you know, seventh grade piece of. crap, you're not going to, you're, you're, you're not going to not salute me. Golly. Yeah. It was crazy.

It's crazy to think about it now, but when it was happening, it felt, well, I guess this is what it is. Yeah. You know. And we had, we were all assigned a company. I think I was in Delta for a while and in, in a couple, echo, I can't remember, in a couple different companies, Charlie, your company competed against the other companies. every morning we had to stand at attention at like 6.30 in the morning.

You had to get up and you had to be out on the, there's this big paved blacktop in front of the school. And every morning you had to be in uniform with all your shined up, standing at attention in line in formation. You had like four or five rows in each company. And you had the highest ranked individual on the end of each row. were in charge of that row. And so I would be standing on the end as the shortest and youngest person.

And each person beside me would be higher ranked. And the guy on the end was in charge of me. And then there was a company commander in charge of him. It was just like, you know. March? Oh, yeah. Really? Oh, yeah.

March everywhere. Like knees up kind of marching? Yes. Well, like regular marching, regular military marching. Needs up. No, we didn't, like, no U.S. military marches with their knees up. I mean, they all have like this specific look. Yeah.

Well, we had, we marched a lot. But we had to, you had to be there in the morning. That is why you stomp so hard. Maybe, yes. If I am outside, I can hear him walking around. If I'm outside by the pool, I can hear him walking around in the living room. Yeah. That's how hard he walks.

Boom, boom, boom, boom. Yeah. We, um. It's from all the marching. Yeah. That's crazy. We had to get there every morning and they would check your brass and your shoes. They would, our leader on the end of my line, walked down and looked at all of us.

And he'd look at it. He wanted you to do good. He wasn't going to be a jerk. And he'd look at you and go, all right, man, your brass was good. Your shoes need a little work. All right, man, your shoes are great. Brass is good. Good job.

And because he would get, you know, he didn't want you to fail because he didn't. Yeah. Yeah. And so that was pretty cool. you wanted to get out of the I think the Delta might have been the baby company

you know and you wanted to get out of that one to get into like a regular company and Alpha and Charlie and all that but there were some there were some officers always at the very front

facing us and they were like it was like seniors and they had all the rope and all the things they tip, dude, they were freaking, they were seniors in high school. But you looked at them and you're like, wow, they're badass. They're so weird.

Yeah. I know. And they were good people, right? They were very. They were people to look up to. Yeah. Yeah. They were very, they were the ones that were going to leave and go to the Citadel.

Yeah. Like they had a plan. And you were like, damn, man, I just want to get out here and go home. They're going to leave here. and go to more. You know, they're going to go do more. More of this. Like, I've, I've had enough.

But it was, we did a lot of marching. We had, we had AFI week, which is Army Federal inspection. The Army is going to come to the school and inspect everything, all of our rooms. Wow, that's intimidating. And we competed with all of the schools in the area for a student. star. Okay. And there was a school. So only one school got the star. We, there once, there was like a gold blue, you know, different colors. And if you got blue, you're second. You got gold. You were top, top school. We lost the gold star one year because of one person's toothbrush. What? A toothbrush?

Yeah. And so. What happened to that kid? So what, so to be, to make this. Did he get in the trench? I don't know what happened to that kid. But Army Federal Inspection Week is the week leading up to the inspection. And so all week long, everything we're doing is in preparation for when the Army will come and look at our stuff. And so everybody on every hall in every room is being tested and practicing and making sure everything is the way it's supposed to be. And our hall leaders, dorm leaders are all coming in and looking at our stuff and going, no, no, no, you got to have this like this now. Can you have it like that? You got to put this like this.

That's good. Oh, that hanger. You know, just different stuff. And they would find a lot of flaws. And all week long we would inspect ourselves over and over and over and over and trying to be perfect. And so by the end of that week, every room and every toothbrush and every pencil and every desk and everything, everything, would be exactly the way it's supposed to be. And one person had their toothbrush laying on its side or something like that, right?

It feels like it could have happened when somebody shut the door too hard. And that would fail us. And we would finish second and not get the gold star. We never got the gold star either year I was there. You know, there'd be a couple things in one room or somebody's. But AFI week was a serious, serious deal. We buckled down. Military school sounds intense.

I can't, I can imagine now why you remember it so vividly because there was a lot of very intense moments. Yeah. Hey, this is Dale Jr. And for the latest, bless your heart gear, go to shop. Dot dirtymomedia.com. We've got plenty of options for everybody and adding new stuff every day. Go to shop. Dot dirtymomedia.com.

This is similar in the timeframe, but growing up with, you know, not being able to choose what you got to eat and having to eat some gnarly things. Or even if it was just something that you were forced to eat over and over and over again, what was like the meal that you were. like can't eat anymore because you ate it so much as a kid. Yeah. I feel so bad about this. Why?

Well, so Teresa and I had a, had a dynamic relationship. And, you know, when I think back, when I think back, there was a long period of my adult life where I put it all on, Teresa. And it was like, you know, it was her, it was, it was bad because it was her fault. And as I've gotten older, and especially now they've had kids, like trying to get our kids to eat stuff sometimes, it's impossible. I know. Like Kyla and the spaghetti the other day. Yeah.

And so I think back and I'm like, man, that's me. Like I did that. And Teresa would sit me down in front of a chicken pot pie. I would tear up a chicken pot pie right now. I know. My dad used to make those for me and they were good. Well, I hated them. I look at it now and I go, why did I not want to eat that?

the crusts, the chicken, the pot, all the... So good. It's fine. Yeah. But she put it in front of me and I would refuse to eat it. And I hated her for it, you know. And in my mind, she's making me eat something she knows I don't like and she's making me do it because she knows I don't like it, right?

She's not sitting... She's just trying to have control over me. Yeah. And it's not... She's trying to give you some vegetables. It's perfectly fine food. Yeah. Yeah.

How dare you feed me Brussels sprouts? you know, what kind of cruel person are you? I think all kids feel like that. I know. And now that I'm this, now that I've gotten on this side of it, I'm like, yeah,

she's just trying to get me something in my belly. Yeah, 100%. My mom was a great cook, but she, there was a couple things that she would make every once in a while that made me want to, like,

vomit. Yeah. She used to make chicken, like grilled chicken, and she'd put pineapple on the top. Weird. And it was something she found in like a Better Homes and Gardens

cookbook. And it had like a ring of pineapple and a cherry. Like it was like Hawaiian chicken. Weird. But the flavor combination for me was like not happening. And like boiled squash.

She used to try to make me eat squash. Every once in a while she was like, I'm not frying everything, y'all. You're going to eat something healthy. And I just couldn't fathom swallowing it. Like I would gag. Yeah. Yeah.

So we tried to make, we made spaghetti the other night. And Ila, who doesn't like eating compound foods. She's kind of weird with meat anyway, but she like literally had full-blown tears over us trying to make her eat spaghetti. And I thought, I was trying not to laugh at her face. You totally laughed at her, and then she starts crying harder because dad's laughing in her face. Nicole's over there and has tore up a bowl with this stuff. That's a very frustrating thing for me with the kids is...

I think that made Isle mad too that Nicole was enjoying it so much. And now she's like, damn it, now I really have to do this. I'm like, man, I can't... I'm not patient enough to be like, okay, you're not eating the spaghetti today. the day you eat it will all, you know, we'll all enjoy how much you like it because you'll eventually eat spaghetti. It's not happening today.

I should do that. Instead, I'm sitting there going, swallow it. God, just get some in your mouth and you're going to have a breakthrough, you know. Quit pretending to get it on the fork and then spilling it out of the side on the bowl, so now it's on the counter that you can't put it in your mouth. Like the whole process was very, here's why you don't want to be so patient is because if she doesn't eat that,

that means we're going to have to make her something else. And you and I didn't grow up like that. They have to just eat food. I'll tell you one of the things I did one time, and this was stupid. Teresa brought one of them chicken pot pies in there for me to eat, and she left the room. And I chewed the whole, oh, I'm so sorry for everybody that's got to hear this. I chewed the whole thing up and spit it back in my plate. The whole thing?

Every single piece of the pot pie. And then I made blow-up noises and acted like I puked it up. Like a dog, the whole freaking thing at once? And then I thought she would come in there. That's crazy. In my mind, I thought she would come in there and realize that she had made me eat the chicken pop pie and then I vomited it up. And I was like, see, I have thrown it up. See, I told you.

That sounds just like something I would do. Yeah. Yeah. And that's so stupid. She's like gets it in her mind. She walked in and like red. She's like, no, I can tell you're fine. And of course you didn't throw it all up back in the same bowl.

after you ate the whole thing God That's okay I see now where I really gets it I was a problem Yeah That's why I got sent to military school Yeah so you said

I don't know if that's a reason to send a kid To military school But it's pretty damn funny That you thought you were so sneaky I forged Did you ever forge your parents' name On a report card? No I got good grades Ralph

I forged dads Caught immediately I mean duh His autographs available to be checked. Well, no, I mean, maybe this was back in the 80s. Oh, okay. They didn't have technology.

I thought I was going to get it done. You just thought your excellent handwriting was going to pass. I think I even had Kelly help me. Oh, no. Don't throw her under the bus. I think she might have helped you. But we failed. Yeah.

They know better. Yeah. All parents know better. So we have, we have something we're going to do today called Critter Karaoke. Oh, yeah. Yeah, this is, um, Bass Pro Shops is a partner of ours. And so we thought we're, we'd come up with a segment.

And basically, Bass Pro Shops, North America's premier outdoor and conservation company. And we do a lot of shopping at Bass Pro Shops and online at the BassPro.com. So Tim's is going to play some weird, wacky animal sounds.

And we have to guess, I guess, which animal makes the sound? Well, at least we don't have to make the sound. for each other. That would be painful for everyone. I can if you want. No, no, thanks.

So let's go for the first one. All right. Here's number one. Oh, you know that one. That's that a stag? No, no. Just an animal. Like a deer?

Do it again. You got to know this one. I do? Yeah. This happens. Is it you? No, I'll play it again. You with your man cold?

Mm-mm. It's a buffalo. Oh, really? I had never heard our girls make a noise. Never. Not really. That's it. I mean, they've snorted at me, but nothing like that.

A buffalo. All right, number two. Well, that's a donkey. Yeah, we have that. You ought to know that one. All right, number three. Is that a lion? No.

Can you turn it up? Yeah. Oh, emu. What? Yep, that's an emu. They make sounds? Yep. You got a cheat sheet over there, don't you?

No. Yeah, you do? I don't. You know what an emu sounds like? Yes, that second part is very distinct. Oh. Quail? No. It's some kind of bird.

Sounds like a dove. That's coo. No. That's a dove? I dove hunted with my dad. We used to dove hunt opening day every year. And it sounds like a dove. Yep.

It's a type of dove, yeah. It's an Inka dove bird. Oh, well, it's a special kind of dove? Yeah, but a dove bird. Those don't sound like the doves that I grew up with. side of the window. Yeah, that coo.

Okay, next one. I think you get this one. I have no idea. What is it? Do you have an idea? I'm not a bird expert, but that sounds like a sparrow. That's sparrow. Wow.

Dang. They're very common. I had no idea. You're so in tune with nature. All right, next one. That's so long. Ralph? What are we?

Is it a parakeet? Not parakeet, no. You know what again? Yeah. Sounds like a baby something. It's a baby something. A baby alligator? No.

Alligator's no one. They do too. They have noise? Yeah. Squirrel? Not a squirrel. Close. A chipmunk?

Not a chipmunk. Closer. Bunny, baby bunny. Is it a baby bunny? Is it patch? It's a baby bunny. A baby bunny. Baby bunny.

All right. One more for you. That's an elk or dear. Yeah, that sounds like an elk. No, not an elk. That sounds like three different animals. This one's the toughest one. Is it a gibbon?

It's a given, yeah. Wow, I don't even know what a gibbon is. It's like in the monkey family, I think. Bravo. Good job. Way to go, Gold Star. You're really like taking it back by yourself right now, aren't you? Yeah. He's good.

Good job. Your and Hart family's always relied on bass pro shops for outdoor adventures, and that tradition continues with us today. be sure to check out all BassPro shops and what they have to offer, whether you go fishing, camping, hunting, you can find everything you need. That's right. That's right. At the nearest BassPro shop store, also shop online

at BassPro.com. He did give me answers. Before we go to asking, it. It's his fault. He did it to you. Now I know. I'm sizing you up. How was my acting, though? Dale sold it. Yeah, he sold it. You being a good liar is not a good quality. Good point.

Kind of like on your fake ID. Let's talk about that for a minute. Fake ID. What color would, your fake ID, sorry, your real ID. What color would you say that Dale Jr.'s hair is? Now? I just got my IDD. Yes.

Correct, right now. Take that hat off. I just got the new, I just got a new driver's license. I would say gray. Gray? Yeah. It says blonde. Blonde.

Yeah. I'm like, Dale, have you ever really been blonde? Like, since you were a tiny kid? Because I think you're a ginger. Yeah. Like every picture that I Google, this man's gingery, and he refuses to accept it. Refuses. This is reddish hair.

Yeah. The beard is way more reddish, but yeah. That's when I met you was when your hair looked like this. Don't look that way more. So you told him blonde? No, they just left it what it was. It's always been that on his driver's license that he's had blonde hair. Since when I was 16, it was blonde.

So I guess they just never changed it. All right, let's get ready for some Ask Amy. Yeah, sounds good. All right, first question. Jamie is from Jamie. Y'all ranked holidays last week. How about ranking these fall activities? Smoors, pumpkin picking, and a corn maze?

Corn maze. Smoors, pumpkin picking and a corn maze favorites in order. Pretty easy. Pumpkin picking would be last. I've never picked pumpkins. I'm never going to probably pick pumpkins. I've done this with the kids every year. I take it to the Patterson Farm.

I mean, I can walk up to a stack and grab it. grab one. Is that picking pumpkins? No, we go to the patch. Yeah, I'm not going out in a patch. Yeah.

The kids are obsessed with doing that. It's so fun. I definitely want to do s'm going to do s'm to the maize above picking a pumpkin. So I'm going to do maize

because I love mazes. And a smores, second. What about you? I would probably put the maze first also because I'd just like the thrill of the like trying to get out.

But I don't know. I feel like pumpkin and s'm about the same for me. Smoors are delicious. They're just so messy. But, I'll go the same order. Okay.

Anything else you'd add maybe to that that would go above it? Like apple picking or maybe? So the last time I took the kid's apple picking, I swear I'd never do that again. I'd take them, I'd just go by myself. Because it's usually still a little bit warm and they don't want to walk by themselves. They want to be carried. So now that you've got like two pecks of apples and two kids on your back. Oh, geez. It's too much.

Yeah. The only thing I would put in there is seeing the leaves change. Oh, yeah. The leaves changing is always nice. They're starting to change around the farm already. Why are you staring at me like that? No, just listening. What's our next question?

All right, next one from Shannon. She wants to know if Junebug or Gus could talk, what would you ask them? If Junebug could talk, I would want to know why he can't stop peeing on my carpet. Yeah. He decorates it like it's his. I'm kidding. He does. He pees all over the floor.

That's really his only flaw. I spend every day of my life probably multiple times a day seeing if there's pee on the floor. Yeah, there's certain areas of the house, too. He does it. now that he's gotten older, he will just pee on the hardwoods or the tile, too. He just sprays it all over the house. Yeah, he's not peeing in the... Which I prefer, you know, like instead of peeing all over the carpet, it's easier to clean up.

But you have to be careful walking through any transition space in our house that he might have peed there just because you're getting ready to leave. Like you put your shoes on. He's like, okay, peeing on the floor. One out of ten days you're stepping in him. Yeah. Yeah. And it's... Then you're hopping on one leg to try to get to the towel.

Oh, boy. I would ask Gus. Why he growls at you? Why he growls. Yeah. Specifically at you. Yeah. Yeah.

That's a good one. If Gus is tired, he's like, go, get away from me. Moody. Like most times, I can pet him, hug on him, love on him, and he likes it. And he wags his tail. And then the other times, at 40% of the time, you'll go over there and go, yeah. It's kind of low, grumble.

Like, grumpy. I just love to know, like, hey, what's the deal? He's always been, like, a very vocal dog. Like it's almost like they used to talk to each other. He is not a dog. He would like, oh, like he'd howl and make his noises. And now he didn't do that. He just growls at you.

He used to. He's not a dog that's going to run in. Like if you came in the door, he's not going to run up to you. And greet you. And greet you and lick your hand or like, you know, hey, who are you? Yeah. He's going to bark, get mad. He's attacking the door to see, make sure you're intruding.

You're intruding. he's coming after you. Yeah. But then as soon as you're not, he recognizes you're okay, you know, thread, he's back to the couch.

Yeah, he's just, unbothered. And I can't, like, he, this is the only thing I don't, the one thing I wish

was different about him is like he, I want him to jump on me. Like, I want to, if he was, he was a hundred pound dog if he's in the floor

and I said, come here, Gus, I want him to come climb up on me. Yeah. Or, you know, the other night,

I was going to tell you, I got this head cold when I was with my buddies. So Amy's been sleeping downstairs. Because I don't have time to get sick. She don't want to get sick. So Gus tried to get in the bed the night. And my spot? What?

Yeah. You lie. I swear. Did you help him? No. He put both balls up there. Are you sure he wasn't just looking for me? I mean, I don't think so.

He was trying to get up. And he was, you know, he's doing that thing where he's trying to figure out what to do his back leg. how to get it to where he can get into a bed. And he couldn't get up there. I should have helped him get in, but I thought he'd go and growl at me. I'd go over there and try to help him and go, I don't know.

Yeah. I was like, dang, there's a little bit of old Gus. Yeah, a little bit. You know, young Gus trying to get into bed. He used to jump in the bed and sleep at the end of the bed. He's so tall. He used to just, like, stick his butt up there first and then push his front legs off and then just like he'd be spouting with you.

Yeah. But he can't do that anymore. He's arthritis in his back legs. That's probably what. Both of our dogs are old. Yeah. Both of them. Damn.

They're great. But I'm glad they can't talk, to be honest. I don't think Junebug would ever shut up. Sure. That's pretty accurate. Junebug, though, has lost his hearing. Really? Entirely.

Really? Entirely. Wow. He can sneak right up on him. He's not like got any left. And so his barts changed. So he had a stroke and he lost his hearing. I don't know that he lost anything else, but we do know his hearing's gone entirely.

And so his barks changed. pitch. Wow. Because he can't hear himself. Yeah. That's funny actually. So his barks have like a little back end. A little raspyer. His barks, he used to bark like a regular dog and now he goes,

Barar. It's weird. He's got a bat. It's in. Yeah. It doesn't he? Yeah. That's awesome.

Yeah. Oh, man. All right. Our next question from Bill. He wants to know what your thoughts are about the giant inflatables for Halloween decorations or like Christmas decorations. Inflatables? Yeah.

the Thanksgiving turkeys are popular. I think they're all right. I think they're all right too. We have some. It's hard to organize that though. Yeah. I like how in Halloween and I think in Christmas too, the decorations, the yard decorations have gotten larger.

Yeah, I do like that. Physically larger. Like because I guess to your point, like they found a way to make them easier to store. Yeah. With the inflatable stuff, like you put it away. It's a tiny little box. You want to get it out. it's this big giant thing.

Like, you know, kids love it. Yeah. We had, we had like a Frankenstein or something. We have a Frankenstein. We have a,

we have a few of cats. The Frankenstein's got to be nine foot, 10 foot tall. Wow. Yeah. And then we got one of the, you see the big giant, giant skeletons there are the hard skeleton.

We've got one of those two. Plastic guys. Yeah. And we had one of them. We had him in the living room. He was in the living room. Really? Yeah.

He's not for the neighbors. He's not for the neighbors. He's for us. That's some weird. I know. He's facing the TV. like he's one of the family. This is like a frat boy's decision right here

to put the skeleton in the living room. What are we doing? When it comes to Christmas decorations, I like it classy and like tasteful. I mean, even if there's a lot of it, like it's not, what's the word? Kitchy. It's not as kitchy,

but with Halloween, like the kitchier, the better for me. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. We have a lot of, Amy did some decorating while I was gone.

She's only got half of it out. We've had a lot in there. There's a lot of boxes still sitting. Yeah. But there's every, every, like, When you go into Nicole's bathroom, right, and where the girls brush your teeth, there's a little, there's a little skeleton sitting on the shelf, and then another little skeleton.

And then you're, you know, they're little, everywhere you go, there's like, oh, little skeleton sit right there. I went to home goods yesterday, and I found a home, a skeleton Elvis. So he's going in the Elvis back there. That's cool. He's holding a bone for a microphone. I'm like, this was meant for me. Yeah.

There you go. Yeah. That's awesome. But everywhere you go, man, there's like little Easter eggs. Yeah. That's cool, though. Did you guys ever, like, during Christmas time, like, hop in the car when you were a kid and just go see Christmas lights. Absolutely.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. We still do that. Yeah. Oh, yeah. It's a great little. Charmer Speedway does a pretty good one. Yeah, the light show.

That's really cool. They go all out. They do. There's some in South Carolina, too. Yeah, there's a really good one in South Carolina. We used to drive in Texas, like, there's great spaces in certain parts of town. Like, everybody went to. So, like, the neighborhood just knew it was their job.

job to do the Christmas lights. And so we drive around. And then one year we went to Austin. There's a street. I forget what the street name is, but it's pretty famous. And there's like everything is so draped. It is like lit up. It's almost day light outside because there's so many lights.

And it is the coolest thing. Yeah. But yeah. If your neighbors are going all out, I feel like you kind of have to like do something. Yeah. Extravagan. You can't be the one dark house on the block. No, you can't.

Didn't light their house. But I think one more question for you. um Kenneth wants to know how you uh you went to the super motocross uh event this past weekend Charlotte how was it I did I took the girls it was fun I saw all of my NASCAR friends that weren't at the racetrack all of like the other girls were there and um it was really cool so they had it at the drag strip and they pulled in all the dirt I didn't know how high they actually jumped those those bikes get high and then the finish line is like this ramp up it was like a video game it was really cool yeah and they're all so fun and laid back yeah

I got Timmy and Aaron. Yep, Plessinger. Yeah, he was really, really fun. He was on the podcast, rides for Red Bull. Yeah. Super, super nice. So nice. Very tall.

My kids were intimidated because there was a lot of people coming at him, and so they were not interested in pictures or whatever, but I got a picture with him. He was very nice. That's cool. The whole experience was cool. Yeah, girls liked it too. They had fun. Yeah.

That's awesome. Yeah, they liked it. It's hard, sometimes it's hard to tell with them. Yeah. They were worn out, but they had a great time. That's awesome. It's a good place to stop asking me for today. All right.

Thank you guys for your questions. If you haven't already, hit the subscribe button on our YouTube page. And don't forget to check out shop. Dot dirtymo Media.com for all the merch. We'll see you next week. Thank you, y'all for tuning in. Check out, check out, dirty Mo Media. Check out, Dirty Mo Media.

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