The Moth - The Moth Podcast: Bug Juice and Slushies

Episode Date: August 29, 2025

On this episode… liquid nostalgia. We’ve got two stories about those fountains of childhood sugar highs and summer memories - bug juice and slushees. This episode was hosted by Michelle Jalowski. Storytellers: Stacey Bader Curry goes to sleepaway camp, and is faced with a sticky situation. Denzell Jobson makes an unexpected friend because of anime. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Terms and conditions apply. Learn more at Amex.ca. slash Y Amex. Welcome to The Moth. I'm Michelle Jalowski, and on this episode, Liquid Nostalgia. We've got two stories about those fountains of childhood sugar highs and summer memories. Bug juice and slushies. First up is Stacey Bader Curry, who told this at a New York City Grand Slam where the theme was without Annette.

Also, a quick side note, if your childhood didn't include bug juice and you're wondering what it is, think water down Kool-Aid. Here's Stacy, live at the month. Thank you. I am in the lake. I am in water up to my chest, and I have a dilemma. In the middle of the lake, there is a floating dock, and on that dock is Kyle Peters. Now, in fifth grade, Kyle Peters came up with us. The perfect nickname for me, Master.

Stacey, Master Bader. But now we're in sixth grade. and I don't know why, but I love him and I want to go on this dock with him but all I know how to do is tread water and float on my back nothing that will actually propel me forward but I decide I'm going to float on my back and hope some kind of lake current will take me there

and as soon as I flip onto my back I forget all about Kyle Peters because that water it's so warm It's so relaxing. But then I start to hear this sound, and it sounds like, beep, beep, and I'm ignoring it, but it gets louder and louder, and finally I open my eyes, and I realize I'm in my bed, and I am ignoring my alarm clock, and I am not lying in this luscious lake,

but in a pool of my own pee. and this is not good because later that morning I am to go with my entire grade on our first school overnight to Fairview Lake and everyone is very excited about this there's going to be a bonfire and smores and there's rumors that they have bug juice at Fairview Lake

and I don't know what bug juice is but it sounds delicious and I have never gone one night of my entire life without wetting the bed. And I just know that Kyle Peters is not going to want to marry a chronic bedwetter. So I try everything to combat this bedwetting and nothing works. But it's too late. I'm on a bus with a bunch of sixth graders singing centerfold and I've got no plan B. I am just going to not wet the bed at a sheer determination.

and a commitment to not drink the bug juice. Friends, I drank the bug juice. I blame the samores. They were overrated and dry. And I wake up the next morning, and I'm in the lower bunk of a cabin with 15 of my female classmates, and they're running around and laughing and cleaning up and packing up as we were instructed to do before breakfast. and I am lying in a pool of my own pee

and I don't dare move from my sleeping bag. I play possum and I just want everyone to leave so I can clean up on my own. But there are two stragglers and I hear from across the cabin, hey master, get up, you're going to miss breakfast. And I say, ah, I'm not feeling well. And they say, oh, we'll go get the teacher.

And I say, no. no one can know about my bedwetting and there's a tinge of fear in my voice which peaks are curiosity and they move closer to me and they say well get out of bed then and i don't know what to do i feel trapped i hate myself i hate my frizzy hair i hate that i'm bow-legged i hate that we're poor I hate that I'm Jewish because none of my friends are Jewish, and I hate that I am 11, and I still wet the bed. And if I could go back in time, I would tell myself, it's all going to be fine. One day, you'll actually like your curly hair and being Jewish, and one day you'll get this

random follow request on Instagram from Kyle Peters, and you'll accept it, and he'll proceed to like every single one of your pictures and you'll never like one of his and uh yeah and uh and one day you will wake up and you won't have done a thing but you'll be dry you'll be 14 and a half but it's okay middle school sucks for everyone. But I'm glad future me wasn't there to swoop in and rescue me because I figured something out. I figured out that I can MacGyver my way out of any situation with a little fucking creativity. Because I realize that I can use being weird and different. And none of my friends were Jewish, which meant that none of my friends had any idea of what it meant to be Jewish, except for what I told them. So before I lost my nerve, I slid out of that sleeping bag,

and with my back to the bunk, I said to those two girls, did you guys know that in the Jewish faith, it is tradition that you flip your mattress when you sleep someplace new? And they just looked at me, like, really? And I was like, yeah. And with one depth movement, I lifted up that blue ticking striped mattress and thank God it did not leak through. And then with the other hand, I whipped out my sleeping bag and flipped the mattress all the way over. And they just went, weird. And they left, and I crumbled my sleeping bag and shoved it into my duffel bag, and I cleaned up, and I joined all my classmates for pancakes and bug juice.

Thank you. That was Stacey Bader Curry. Stacey is a 10-time Moth slam winner, teacher, mother, wife, and writer living in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. And she wants you to know if you're wondering that she still hasn't liked any of Kyle Peters' Instagram posts. After the break, a story about slushies and unexpected friendship. Be back in a moment. Summer's here, and you can now get almost anything you need for your sunny days, delivered with Uber Eats. What do we mean by almost? Well, you can't get a well-groom lawn delivered,

but you can get a chicken parmesan delivered. A cabana? That's a no, but a banana, that's a yes. A nice tan, sorry, nope. But a box fan, happily yes. A day of sunshine, no. A box of fine wines? Yes. Uber Eats can definitely get you that. Get almost, almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. Order now. Alcohol and select markets. Product availability may vary by Regency app for details. Welcome back. Denzel Jobson told our next story at a New York City StorySlam where the theme of the night was happy accidents. Here's Denzel, live at the Moth.

The transition to middle school is pretty shitty. And so starting sixth grade in Brooklyn, if you're from New York, First of all, you go from taking the cheese bus that picks you up at your house to take in the MTA. And the MTA is scary as an adult. So imagine when you're doing that at 11 years old. Also, at 11, I was really skinny and I wasn't athletic, and I didn't play any sports, which is how a lot of boys bond. And I was really into Japanese comics.

Cool now, not cool in 2005. And then the final thing that really put the nail in the coffin was, I had horrible acne in sixth grade, and every time, like, the teacher called on me in class, my classmates would shout out pizza face, and the teachers would laugh. So, like, they weren't wrong. So sixth grade was, like, really lonely, and I was nerdy, and I didn't really have any friends. But the reprieve came in the spring, you know, it's hot in New York in the spring, and every day after school, the ice cream truck, Mr. Softie, shout out, would be like.

like posted outside the school, which in retrospect is maybe a little creepy, but school would let out and like all the kids would bumrush Mr. Softie and we'd just like, it'd be chaos around the truck and we're trying to get our money out, but also not get robbed and get ice cream. And I'm like, one day it's in the spring, I'm like finally make to the front of the line and I get a cherry slushy because it's just liquid sugar and that's all you want at 11. And I'm getting out of line. I have this red slushy and I turn around and I spill. the entire slushy on a guy behind me who's wearing a black leather jacket. So it's just this black jacket and like red cherry puree like falling down his jacket.

It literally looks like he just murdered someone. And then I know it's just silent. And then like the school, you know, all of our classmates form a circle around us, which is always a bad sign in middle school. And so I look up and the guy, I spilled the slushy. was Raphael and Raphael was a school jock he was the boy

that like every boy wanted to be and every girl wanted to be with and I'm looking at him and I'm scared of shit because I think he's going to beat my ass and then as per middle school fashion someone shouts out beat his ass, Raff, fuck him up and so

he's got like his school rep to protect and I'm looking at him and he's looking at his jacket and I ran home. I'm Jamaican. My Usain Bolt came out. I had never run home before. I didn't know I could find my way home,

but I ran home. And like no one's behind me. So I turned around and Raff is still in the same spot looking down at his jacket and I'm thinking he's going to kill me tomorrow. So I'm like, I get home, I tell my mom what happened. I'm like, I don't want to go to school tomorrow. Obviously I'm going to school.

And so the next day I'm thinking, okay, but there are teachers at school, like they'll protect me, right? It'll be fine. So I walked to the bus stop and Raphael's at the bus stop. Right? And so I'm thinking either he like tracked me down or he just lives in the neighborhood. And I don't know which one's worse. And so he sees me and, you know, I just pretend I don't see him. But he starts walking towards me and he gets, up into my face, and I just turn out, I apologize. I'm like, man, I'm so sorry, like, it was an accident. I'll buy you another jacket. And he's just just, like, looking at my hand, and he's, like, just staring at what I have in my hand. And then he asked me a question that just, like, changed the course of my life forever.

He says, you fuck with Naruto? Because I had a Naruto comic in my hand, and I answer him, I'm like, do I fuck with Naruto? I am Naruto. Way cooler, or not nearly as cool in retrospect, when you remember that. But we go to school together, and on a 15-minute bus ride, we just talk about Naruto and anime, and it's awesome. And for the rest of the school year, we go to school together and go home together every

single day, just like talking about anime and life and girls and all the stuff you do. And at the end of the school year, I realized, like, I've made a friend. And over the next three years of middle school, we become best friends. There are sleepovers at each other's houses. Our parents become best friends. And then we're there for the best and worst moments in each other's lives. Somehow through Raff, I become cool. I'm prom king at the end of middle school, which is weird but awesome.

And like our duo turns into a trio, then a quartet. And then it's like, motley crew of prepubescent boys just like taking on the world. It's like very stranger things-esque, minus the monsters. And then, you know, like life goes on. And Raphael and I aren't in each other's lives anymore. But I think back to just like that moment where these two boys who probably never would have been friends, but just like happenstance, like running outside Mr. Softie's ice cream truck leads to some of my happiest childhood memories. So shout out to Raphael and Mrs. Softie.

Thank you. That was Denzel Jobson. Born and raised in Canarsie, Brooklyn, where everyone makes it up as they go, Denzel loves a good story. He's been going to Moss StorySlam since 2018, and his name was finally picked out of the hat in 2025. He believes wholeheartedly that the happy accidents of life

are where we discover our best sons. ourselves. That brings us to the end of our episode. Thanks so much for joining us. From all of us here at the Moth, we hope your summer is filled with wonderful memories and that you avoid brain freeze. Michelle Jolowski is a director at the Moth, where she helps people craft and shape their stories for stages all over the world. This episode of the Moth podcast was produced by Sarah Austin Janice, Sarah Jane Johnson, and me, Mark Salinger. The rest of the Moss leadership team includes Sarah Haberman, Christina Norman, Marina Clucay, Jennifer Hickson, Jordan Cardinali, Kate Tellers, Suzanne Rust, and Patricia Urreña. The Moth podcast is presented by Odyssey. Special thanks to their executive producer, Leah Reese Dennis.

All Moth stories are true, as remembered by their storytellers. For more about our podcast, information on pitching your own story, and everything else, go to our website, the moth.org.