June 13, 2025 • 33 mins
If you’re a Boy Meets World completist, you’ve probably seen “My Date with the President’s Daughter,” studied the crossover episode of “You Wish” and even seen Danielle rap along to Busta Rhymes. But if you haven’t read “Chicken Soup for the Kid’s Soul,” then we’re here to help!
Danielle and Rider both wrote stories for this 1998 anthology of essays that promised to give you courage, hope and laughter, but now - it’s giving us a bonus episode!
Hear all about Rider and his “first cigar” and Danielle’s reaction to finding a postcard from her co-host that started with the line,“Hey sexy…”
Here’s some Chicken Soup for the Podcaster’s Soul, right now on a surprise Pod Meets World!
Follow @podmeetsworldshow on Instagram and TikTok!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yeah, all right, I have a sequel story to the
(00:24):
Uh that's how they that's how they get you.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
I wish everybody else got you again.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
You've gotten again, gotten again. So if everyone remembers that
was the story where I went to Mount Rushmore with
my family. Uh. I was ready, really happy to just
drive past it and uh my wife was like, why
are you not willing to pay for the parking? And
you know, I said, that's how they get you. And
I realized I had become my father because when I
was a kid, this is every trip with my dad
(00:51):
was about us getting screwed over by the hotel or
to pay for something, right, Like, we just never it
was never easy, right, yeah, and every city was just
a disaster if we were traveling. Okay, So Indy, we
were gone for a weekend and usually Indy will stay
with his grandparents. But then this time Uncle Shiloh was like,
(01:16):
I'll take Indy for twenty four hours. We're like, that's
amazing this uncle the past time and he's like, I'll
take them to the movies, We'll go to the beach,
you know, and he got his whole plant. I'm like, great,
So we don't you know, we're gone. We were this
is back when we were at south By Southwest, I think.
So anyway, uh didn't really stay in touch other and
then a couple like texts here and there of like
(01:36):
oh you got him, Okay, have fun. So we get
back and we're like, so, Indy, how was how was
the weekend? How was it?
Speaker 3 (01:42):
You know?
Speaker 1 (01:43):
And talks about being with the grandparents were like how
was it with Uncle Shiloh? And you know, i mean
kids always like pulling teeth, just get them to like
tell anything anything. So he's like, yeah, we went to
the trampoline park. I'm like, you went to the trampoline park?
Oh my god? Did you make it to the beach?
And then he like kind of just said yeah, we
went here and there, and I'm like okay, I'm like quiet, quiet,
(02:03):
And then he goes and we kept getting scammed though,
and I'm like, what do you mean, well, what's going on?
Well He's like, well, I mean like Shiloh came and
picked me up and then we went to the Trampline parking.
You know the parking like the way the sign is
for the parking and how much it costs and they
said there was only ten dollars. So Uncle Shalloh got
(02:23):
out and he was like, but you said it was
you know, and they charged him fifteen. So then he
was yelling at the guy and I'm like oh, and
I'm like, how else did you get scammed?
Speaker 4 (02:31):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Then we get to the trampoline park and you know,
they make you buy socks, and I'm like, yeah, that's
that's that's that's how they get you.
Speaker 5 (02:37):
Huh.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
And I realized that my brother, having never been a
parent in this situation, is be all completely my dad
and is living out all my dad through my son now.
And so yeah, Shirda, I was like, idy, please tell
me every time you got scammed, and so he went
through and it was literally any time they went to
get ice cream or anything. Everything. I could not believe.
(03:01):
I was dying. And so I finally I went over
to Shiloh's and you know, we were hanging out with everybody,
and then everybody went to bed. It was him and
me just thought. I was like waiting you here, and
then he was like, oh my god, I've become our death. Yes, dude,
you and I feel you man, It's He's like yeah,
but but we really did keep getting scared, like I'm
sure you did, Shilah. I'm sure you did. I'm sure
(03:24):
everybody to get you.
Speaker 5 (03:27):
Yes, you're scammed, so.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
That's how they get you. Still running strong in the
Strong family. I'm fighting the urge on a daily basis.
Now it's become a joke and hopefully Shiloh will be
able to laugh at himself because oh yeah, I'm right.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
I have a question. You can't bring your own socks
to the trampoline part.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
You have how you can bring your ones that you
got the last time you came, but we always forget.
So you show up and you have to get the
like their socks with like the little nubbies.
Speaker 5 (04:00):
You have your own grippy socks.
Speaker 6 (04:01):
You have grippy socks from another place that made you
buy grippy socks. Can't use those grippy socks here. You
have to use you really are grippy socks. Oh, you're
at Off the Wall the trampoline park, You're gonna have
to use off the wall socks. You're at Chucky Cheese
where they now have a trampoline, You're gonna have to
use Chucky Cheese grippy socks.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
That's lame.
Speaker 4 (04:21):
I mean, even you go bring your own shoes. You
don't have to rent them like my own shoes. Okay,
you're good to go.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
That's lame.
Speaker 6 (04:28):
Now, I will say the liability at a trampoline park
is probably very high, and like their insurance is probably
very high. Same thing for even for the Chuck E
cheese I just mentioned, Like, I guess if I think
about the idea that they're like, listen, we're letting your
kid bounce on our trampoline. A part of our insurance
deal is that we know the grippy socks are approved
(04:52):
and you have to.
Speaker 5 (04:53):
Wear these, but it really is very annoying.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
There was also there were layers. It was like, oh,
you have to buy socks. I already paid for Indy
to get in. Now I have to buy them socked.
Oh and I have to buy socks. Okay, fine, well
I want those green ones with the green ones are
an extra feecific. There was like three layers. He was like, fine, fine,
don't get it.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
Yeah, I want to combine a trampoline park and paintball.
Speaker 5 (05:14):
Yes, that's a good idea.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Sounds like that around dude.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
We went paintballing like a couple of weeks ago and
had so much fun.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
You still go paved kind of. But I think since
I was a.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Kid, but I was Hindy would love this. And I
took him and his friend and Shiloh and Alex and
we all we had so much fun. So I'm totally boring.
I'm back into it. Like you get a hit, Yeah
it hurts. It's so funny because otherwise it wouldn't be live. Yes, no,
you're like, I mean, it is a workout. You're running
around and crouching the whole time.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
It's intense.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
But yeah, you don't want to get hit. That's why
it's fun. If it's okay to get hit. That's why
laser tag is always kind of boring to me because
you're like to buy your.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
Own laser tag socks, which is like the worst.
Speaker 5 (05:59):
Laser tag gear.
Speaker 6 (06:00):
Your story writer reminds me of the fact that Adler
once said to me in the car it was me, Jensen,
Addler and Keaton, and Adler goes, who everybody in the
city is a bad driver? And I said, what why
are you saying that? He goes, because you say it
every day.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Every day exactly. We become our parents, just their version
of the world. So if you present to your kid
that the world is full of this whole city is
full of only everywhere. You're true. It's literally, you're true.
He does not have any reason to not believe that.
And the evidence just keeps coming. And if you believe
(06:35):
that everybody's out to screw you and take your money, right,
you're you know it. Actually I realized it goes back.
My dad's father was a very very big gambler, a cheat.
He was a card cheet. So he would go around
and he would he made a living cheating slot machines
and cheating at poker. Oh, it's a crazy story. And
my grandmother used to me, yes, it's a great story.
(06:56):
I have so many great stories. I got to write
them down. My my grandmother used to distracked the people
behind the counter, and he would have a spoon which
he would use to it's called it was called the
spoon that he would hide under his arm and he
would tip the bucket inside slot machines like old slot machines.
Speaker 5 (07:10):
Oh my god.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
And then he sheat at poker and like literally he
because he was a card shark. And he taught my
dad some of the tricks so he could, like one
of the interesting people, I've written, I've written some stuff
about it. I will eventually probably write a novel version
of this life, because it's pretty crazy. My dad grew
up with like his the chest in his house, like
where they got all their money was a chest of
(07:32):
coins from stolen stolen from slot machines.
Speaker 5 (07:35):
I want to swim in it.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
But it makes sense that my dad, because he always
thought his dad was a horribly unethical person for stealing
all this money, that he feels like everybody's out to
get him because he watched his dad get people all
the time constant. So yeah, so he was like, I'm
going to take a stand, and I'm not going to
you know, but I'm also not Yeah, but.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
By the way, I just saw of your car going like, man,
everybody in this town is such bad drivers. And you're
like why, and he's like, well, look, everybody else but
you is going the wrong way on the freeway.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
That's how I thought.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
They can't drive with their knee like you.
Speaker 5 (08:14):
Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
It's better than driving with Jensen. Producer Jensen. Oh my god, don't.
Speaker 5 (08:19):
Even yeah, don't even get me started on driving with Jensen.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
No, I can't. I get nauseous thinking about driving with Jenson.
Speaker 5 (08:26):
Welcome to Pond Meets World.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
I'm Danielle Vishel, I'm rather Strong, and I'm Wilfordell.
Speaker 5 (08:43):
Well.
Speaker 6 (08:43):
We have another fun little bonus episode for you. We
are going to recap, for lack of a better word,
the Chicken Soup for the Kid's Soul book and franchise,
which writer and I both wrote stories for.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Are we in the same book. We're in the same book, right, Uh?
Speaker 5 (09:03):
Yes we are.
Speaker 6 (09:03):
This one is called Chicken Soup for the Kid's Soul,
one hundred and one stories of courage, hope, and laughter.
Speaker 5 (09:10):
Here's what it looks like.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
This is I'm so excited to just sit back and
let you entertain me this book.
Speaker 5 (09:15):
So just wait.
Speaker 6 (09:17):
But before we get into the Chicken Soup for the
Soul Book, I did want to Can I share the postcard?
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Writer? Oh? Yes, of course?
Speaker 2 (09:27):
What postcard? What is this?
Speaker 6 (09:28):
So I opened up the book to go through it
and find our stories, and this fell out. It's a Washington,
DC postcard, even though I don't live there anymore. I'm
going to cover up the address because it's my old
my parents old address. But it's a postcard from writer
(09:49):
Strong to me, addressed in my parents' house, and.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
I sign it with my little face too that I used.
Speaker 5 (09:55):
To be with your little face.
Speaker 6 (09:56):
It's like I got an autograph and I'd like to
share it with you because I opened it.
Speaker 5 (10:03):
I opened the book this fell out and was like,
oh my gosh.
Speaker 6 (10:07):
And then I took a picture of it and I
sent it to writer and I said, this is so
fun because it just felt like I plucked a random
day out of my life and.
Speaker 5 (10:14):
Like went right back to it.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
That's cool.
Speaker 5 (10:17):
So here's what writer wrote. Hey, they're sexy. Well I'm
doing it. I'm in the third.
Speaker 6 (10:25):
Week of a seven week cross country road trip, loving
every minute. We're doing a documentary, interviewing and meeting all
kinds of crazy cats.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Crazy cats, guys, are we are? We are.
Speaker 6 (10:41):
Thinking about you. It's been a while since we've talked.
Hope you're loving hiatus. I have a bad feeling I
might just get lost out there on the road and
never show up for the table read smiley face. Anyway,
we have tons to talk about. Life gets more and
more dramatic. Call my mom and get our voicemail number
for this trip and give me a call when you
(11:02):
get a chance. Give my love to your family. Nate says, Hi,
I miss you all, my love writer with his little
face so here, Okay, I'll zoom in so that people
can see in case they've never seen the writer strong
autograph face.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Yeah, it is, guys, Like it's more and more dramatic.
Speaker 5 (11:20):
I thought it was so interesting that I came across this.
I thought it was interesting. I came across this right
after you just told us about the road trip trip.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Yeah, so that would have been ninety eight, so that
was that was between Yeah, but I have no idea
that I wrote to you. That's so cool. It actually
just makes me feel so great because, like, you know,
when you were writing your journals that you read, you know,
that was like.
Speaker 5 (11:41):
Two years before this, correct.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
So I'm so glad that we were still because I
feel like by the end of Boy, I felt way
less closer to you than I did in the middle
of Boy.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Yeah, but I feel it's so cool.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
I was like, oh wow, even at the time when
I don't remember like you and me hanging out, you
were still very much in touch. I was sending you
postcards from the road like It's just so it was like,
oh wow, I don't think of like ninety eight as
like a big year that I was hanging out with Danielle.
Speaker 5 (12:03):
But it's so cool, We're so cool that we were
still in touch.
Speaker 6 (12:05):
That it was like it's been a couple of weeks
since we had been on hiatus and you were sending
me a postcard.
Speaker 5 (12:09):
I love that.
Speaker 4 (12:10):
I actually think you set me one too. Oh well,
from your road trip, I think you did. I don't, Yeah,
it'd be somewhere, but I think from your road trip,
I think at one point you sent me a postcard
as well.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
You used to do that, used to.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Keep in to send. I used to send letters all
the time, and that's I love physical letters.
Speaker 5 (12:26):
What's this voicemail number thing?
Speaker 1 (12:29):
So that was how we stay how we stayed in
touch with people while we were on the road. We
set up a voicemail and then we hand it out
cards and when we interview people, we meet people, we
hand them cards and had like an eight hundred number
that you could call to leave a voicemail and then
we could check that and then call you back from
our pay from a payphone. Because we didn't have cell phones,
you know, we had course, we had pagers among us,
(12:49):
but we didn't want to give out our pager number,
you know, we had, so we had like a we
had we had we set up a voicemail eight hundred
number that anybody could call, and so like when we
would pull into a town, we would like, if we
call somebody, we leave a message and be like, all right,
if we can hang out and hopefully we can see you.
We're gonna be here from these days to these days,
call this one hundred blah blah blah. And then they
would leave a voicemail and we'd be like, okay, we'll
(13:11):
be there on Tuesday and meet up in New Orleans
at this place. And it was crazy, it was so
much fun.
Speaker 5 (13:15):
I mean you we still have access to the messages there.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
No. I would love that though, wouldn't.
Speaker 5 (13:19):
It be fun?
Speaker 6 (13:20):
Because like, I wonder you didn't give me the eight
hundred number, which makes me think you didn't like have
it memorized or something, or maybe it was just.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
One eight hundred, hey sexy, or maybe I just didn't
want it on the postcard.
Speaker 5 (13:31):
So I'm saying maybe we didn't want it on the
postcardind to put it out. But I wonder, like, did
I call your mom and dad and get that number
and then leave you a message. Did I do that?
I probably did.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
I'd love to hear that in ninety eight? Were we?
Speaker 4 (13:43):
I mean, page, you're still all the rage, but we're
ninety eight. We had car phones by ninety eight?
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Did we not?
Speaker 5 (13:49):
Because I had a car phone when I started.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
I think we had an emergency car phone, but it
was like so expensive I just didn't use it.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Yes, thirty seven dollars a minute.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Yeah, and wouldn't work in so many places. And we
were like camping, and you know, we were we went backpacking, like,
so we were out. You know, it was like having
a voicemail where people could just leave us messages. And
I kind of missed that level of communication because it
was always a little fly by night. You'd pull into
a city and be like, who's a available? Where can
we meet up? And it's so fun. Man.
Speaker 6 (14:15):
No, I do miss the idea too, of like you
could go out, go for your work day, or go
spend a day outside doing whatever you were doing, and
then you'd have to come home at night and check
your voicemail oh and just be like, oh, I hope
they called, instead of like at any point in time
knowing exactly how many minutes it's been since someone.
Speaker 5 (14:31):
Has ghosted you.
Speaker 6 (14:34):
Okay, let's jump into our Chicken Soup for the Kid's Soul.
It's the nineteen ninety eight installment of the immensely popular
book series Chicken Soup for the Soul. This one specifically
is titled Chicken Soup for the Kid Soul one hundred
and one stories of courage, hope and laughter. Now for
our younger listeners who might not be aware of this
book phenomenon, Chicken Soup for the Soul was a collection
(14:55):
of self help related, inspirational true stories from every people's lives.
It was the idea of two motivational speakers, Jack Canfield
and Mark Victor Hansen, who compiled stories from their audience members,
then had the idea rejected by every big publisher.
Speaker 5 (15:13):
In the business.
Speaker 6 (15:15):
They eventually landed on a very small publisher in Florida,
and the rest is history. The original series held a
spot on the New York Times bestseller list continuously from
nineteen ninety four to nineteen ninety eight, never leaving the chart.
Wow and also they branched into sequel titles like Chicken
Soup for the Teenage Soul, Chicken Soup for the Couple's Soul,
(15:37):
Chicken Soup for the pet Lover's Soul, and the list
goes on and on, with two hundred and seventy five
releases with its name and resulting in more than five
hundred million copies sold worldwide. And yes, it's just them
collecting other people's stories, so I guess really they're just
good at editing. I wonder if people got paid for
(16:00):
their contributions.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
I don't think I did.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
I don't think.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
I feel like it was like an honor to be included. Yes, like,
oh cool, you know you get to write something for
chicken soup, and it was like cool. But yeah, so
I don't think we got paid.
Speaker 5 (16:11):
No, we did not.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
I got to write a blurb saying I liked chicken soup.
Speaker 4 (16:14):
You guys got to actually write a story like I
have the one where you open it.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
No, it's like Wilfredell says, this is the best book
he's ever read. I have that for one of the
chicken soups. Yeah, oh, you've got a blurb I do.
I have, like a hey, you guys are there's a bunch.
Speaker 6 (16:27):
Of blurbs in this one that we can hit too.
So yeah, well, they'd eventually branch out of books. They
branched into food, pet Food, a production company, and company
takeovers of random media companies like Crackle and Red Box,
and in twenty twenty four, the publicly traded company was
forced into bankruptcy with accusations of misusing the business and
failing to pay employees. Over one thousand employees were laid off,
(16:51):
and in case you were wondering, good, twenty six thousand
red Box kiosks were shut down forever.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
Wait wait wait, they were the box. They owned all
of Reddy.
Speaker 5 (17:03):
They bought, they bought Crackle and Red Box.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Yeah, chickens for that, I can't rent this movie.
Speaker 6 (17:09):
Well, at least twenty six thousand red Box kiosks we
still have.
Speaker 5 (17:13):
There's still a Red Box in our roofs.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
The Red Box are still, right, is there?
Speaker 3 (17:16):
Well, just so you know, I follow the Red Box
trauma and they all closed. But some of the Red
Boxes have not been picked up, right, Okay?
Speaker 5 (17:25):
Yeah, the one, the one at our Ralphs will.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
But there's I'm looking online. It says there's one open
on Ninth Street in Los Angeles. What does that mean?
Speaker 3 (17:34):
They haven't been updated? It's not that's not up web.
They're all gone.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
So you if you went there and actually grabbed the
you could rent like the first Jumanji movie and that
would be it because everything else is.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
There are people, there are people who have been like
stealing the Red Boxes, breaking into them. It's a whole thing.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
Oh my god, I can't, no, I do This was
a chicken soup for the Soul out to do all
this stuff, and thousand employees did buy it after the fact,
like after.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
The kind of recently, not that long ago.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
They failed with it.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Because red Box was also it was always like super conservative, right,
because they would they.
Speaker 5 (18:09):
Will have to edit chicken soup for the Soul it fits.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Yeah, no, but they would. I just I thought it
was like a either a really Christian organization. But I
just remember you had to have separate edits sometimes for movies,
like some movies had to edit for the Red Box
because red Box from Kerry's sexually explicit or like so
movies that were like on the bubble, they would have
a Red Box edit sometimes because they were concerned. They
were like more conservative than the you know, the ratings board.
Speaker 6 (18:35):
I'm not sure how many of their books included celebrities,
but this specific installment included stories from their normal array
of diverse voices, but also famous people like Wright or
Strong and myself, Chuck Norris, Keenan and Kel, former Boy
Meets World co star Kathy Ireland, Shaquille O'Neill, and Jessica Stroup.
Speaker 5 (18:52):
And the foreword was from Muhammad Ali.
Speaker 4 (18:55):
Cool when, by the way, to go along with this,
when chicken Soup is sick, it has Chuck Norris.
Speaker 5 (19:05):
Just say you know, Charles, Charles, please, how dare you
so writer?
Speaker 6 (19:23):
As you mentioned, you remember feeling like this was a
big honor to get to write something for them.
Speaker 5 (19:29):
What do you remember about about this process?
Speaker 1 (19:32):
I think I talked about it on the show before.
I remember getting asked and being excited, and then I
had written my college application essay, which this is a
version of, so this I just adjusted. I forget. I
would love to find my original essay because it was different,
but I just kind of took that essay, you know,
the idea of this poem and my grandfather and my
(19:54):
relationship with him, and sort of made that into the
chicken soup. And then I remember them coming back and
making me change a bunch because they thought the vocabulary
was too complicated or hard for kids. And I pushed
back a little bit, and I remember David Combs, and
I liked debating and discussing and then settling with what's
in there? Which I hadn't read since I saw And
(20:15):
I was it's so, I don't know, it's okay.
Speaker 5 (20:17):
I can't wait. I can't wait. I want to hear it.
Speaker 6 (20:19):
I want you to read it for us, please. It's
called my grandfather's gift.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Oh God, so painful that the voice itself is just
so boring, Oh writer, my grandfather's gift. A child's life
is like a piece of paper on which every person
leaves a mark Chinese proverb. When I was a child,
storytelling was an active part of my upbringing. My parents
(20:43):
fostered any activity that might exercise my imagination. As a
result of this encouragement, I have indeed become the modern
version of a storyteller, an actor. Surprisingly, not one relative
on either side of my family has ever taken up
this profession before. The only person to whom I can
trace a storytelling gene is my grandfather on my mother's side.
This grandfather, in the great tradition of grandfather's everywhere, has
(21:05):
always been a source of wisdom in my life. When
I was younger, my entire family would go camping, and
as it grew dark, we would roast marshmallows around a
fire and listen to my grandfather recite a poem. It
was always the same poem that my grandfather would recite
from memory. When my grandfather was fourteen, he discovered the
poem in a book of verse. He was working with
horses at the time, and he had read the poem
only two or three times. When one of his horses
(21:27):
had gotten loose, he was forced to chase the horse
for miles, and somewhere in the course of the chase,
he lost the book after only committing the first half
of the poem to memory. He tried for years to
find another copy of the poem, but not knowing the
author's name, he gave up his search, content to have
memorized only the beginning. My First Cigar is a poem
about a child's first attempt at smoking. Neither my grandfather
(21:48):
nor I have ever smoked, but the poem contained such
an endearing quality of innocent introspection that I was always
thoroughly entertained by it. It was not just the poem
that got to me. It was the light in my grandfather,
the lilt in his speech, and the sweeping movements of
his arms that would passionately involve me in the verse.
Each one of these performances would be cut short when
my grandfather would shrug and say, that's as far as
(22:11):
I memorized, and we would all nod and be left
wondering how the poem ended. We accepted his inability to
finish because we all knew why he could not. Last year,
about seventy years from the time my grandfather had originally
found the poem, he installed a computer system in his
local library free of charge. As a return favor, he
asked the library researchers to try to find my first cigar.
(22:32):
Several months later, one of them sent him the poem
through the mail. I remember reading the rest of it
for the first time with joy. My grandfather has never
recited the poem since, and I have never asked him to. Perhaps,
now that my grandfather knows the poem's ending, his personal
involvement with it is complete. For me, the story was
better when it was incomplete, when it still had a future.
(22:52):
I've since become actively involved in poetry, both reading and writing,
and I credit my interest in my grandfather entirely. It
was a wonderful moment not long ago when I was
meming Wordsworth's poem My heart leaps up aloud, and my
grandfather surprised me when he said, I know that poem
and was able to recite it with me. He had
enjoyed the poem many years ago. I was memorizing it myself,
(23:12):
and it was here that our two generations were bridged.
After seventeen years of knowing my grandfather better than most
people I know in my life, every now and then
he still decides to open the treasure chest that is
his mind and surprise me with a gift of wisdom.
Speaker 5 (23:26):
So beautiful, I love it. Do you want to do
you want to read the poem?
Speaker 3 (23:32):
Then?
Speaker 5 (23:32):
My first cigar?
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Sure? Okay, my first cigar? Actually does it say who
it's by? It doesn't have the author's name on here.
Because they finally found it. We should probably get that.
Twas just behind the woodshed. One glorious summer day far
o'er the hills, the sinking sun pursued its western way,
and in my safe seclusion, removed from or the jar
(23:54):
and dim of Earth's confusion. I smoked my first cigar.
It was my first cigar. It was my worst cigar, raw, green, dank,
hide bound and rank. It was my first cigar, ah bright,
the boyish fancies, wrapped in smoke, wreath blue. My eyes
grew dim, My head was light. The woodshed round me
(24:15):
flew dark night closed in around me, black night without
a star, grim death. Methought had found me and spoiled
my first cigar. It was my first cigar, a six
for five cigar, no violer torch, the air could scorch.
It was my first cigar. All pallid was my beaded brow.
The really night was late. My startled mother cried in fear,
(24:37):
my child, What have you ate? I heard my father's
smothered laugh. It seemed so strange and far. I knew
he knew. I knew he knew. I'd smoked my first cigar.
It was my first cigar, a giveaway cigar. I could
not die. I knew not why it was my first cigar.
Since then, I've stood in reckless ways. I've dared what
(24:59):
men can dare. I've mocked a danger, walked with death.
I've laughed at pain and care. I do not dread
what may befall neath my malignant star. No frowning fate
again can make me smoke my first cigar.
Speaker 4 (25:16):
Now I'm curious how far into the poem did did
he recite?
Speaker 1 (25:20):
How pretty far? There's what he actually did now that
I'm looking at it. He actually he he remembered the
mom and the dad part and put that stanza earlier.
So he actually was missing about half the palm. But
he had remembered the parents reaction and that was where
he ended it. But there was also a part of
above that that that was also.
Speaker 5 (25:42):
So he had like yeah, he just he just remembered his.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
Favorite parts and then he couldn't remember how it ended,
which is too bad because the ending is hysterical, you know,
the idea that like I'm now the greatest, bravest person
because I can survive my cigar. But it was always
just about you know, he would stand up and swing
his arms and it would just get us all laughing,
and you know, you know, but yeah, it was so funny,
like it's and it's crazy that they let me include
(26:06):
because it's about smoking. Like now, I don't think they
would ever do that, but you know, I mean, I
guess in a way. It's a it's anti smoking, it's.
Speaker 5 (26:14):
Kind of anti smoking. It sounds pretty awful.
Speaker 6 (26:18):
The poet is Robert J. Burdette. By the way, Robert J.
Burdette my first cigar. Well, from that beautiful story of
of you and your grandfather and poetry, I'd like to
give you a sharp contrast to to who you.
Speaker 5 (26:39):
Were as people and I.
Speaker 6 (26:41):
My story that I wrote was called a Friend by
Danielle Fischell, and it starts with a quote friendships multiply
joys and divide grief by Thomas Fuller.
Speaker 5 (26:55):
Here we go.
Speaker 6 (26:56):
Recently, one of my best friends, whom I've shared just
about everything with since the first day of kindergarten, spent the.
Speaker 5 (27:02):
Weekend with me.
Speaker 6 (27:03):
Since I moved to a new town several years ago,
we've both always looked forward to the few times a
year when we can see each other. Over the weekend,
we spent hours and hours staying up late into the
night talking about the people she was hanging around with.
She started telling me stories about her boyfriend, about how
he experimented with drugs and was into other self destructive behavior.
Speaker 5 (27:24):
I was blown away. She told me how she had been.
Speaker 6 (27:27):
Lying to her parents about where she was going, and
even sneaking out to see this guy because they didn't
want her around him. No matter how hard I tried
to tell her that she deserved better, she didn't believe me.
Her self respect seemed to have disappeared. I tried to
convince her that she was ruining her future pooh and
heading for big trouble. I felt like I was getting nowhere.
(27:48):
I just couldn't believe that she really thought that it
was acceptable to hang with a bunch of losers, especially
her boyfriend. By the time she left, I was really
worried about her and exhausted by the experience. It had
been so frustrating. I had come close to telling her
several times during the weekend that maybe we had just
grown too far apart to continue our friendship, but I didn't.
(28:10):
I put the power of friendship to the ultimate test.
We'd been friends for far too long. I had to
hope that she valued me enough to know that I
was trying to save her from hurting herself. I wanted
to believe that our friendship could conquer anything. A few
days later, she called to say that she had thought
long and hard about our conversation, and then she told
me that she had broken up with her boyfriend. I
(28:32):
just listened on the other end of the phone with
tears of joy running down my face. It was one
of the truly rewarding moments in my life. Never had
I been so proud of a friend. And then after
the story, there are small submissions from teens and preteens
about what they believe a friend is like. A friend
never blames everything on you or helps you get up
(28:54):
when you fall at the roller skating rink. But before
we get into theirs, I kick it off with some
of my wisdom. A friend won't allow you to self distract,
will take all the time that's needed, no matter what
time of day, to listen to your problems and give
you her best advice. Is someone who can open up
and be herself around you, will swallow her pride to
(29:16):
take your advice, will never write you off.
Speaker 5 (29:19):
By Daniel Fish, So, I mean.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Do you remember I'm a nark?
Speaker 4 (29:25):
So you're the one who had had my girlfriend break
up with me just because I was doing drugs.
Speaker 5 (29:29):
That was me and I was a very good little nark.
If you or anyone you.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
Know you did not knark on anybody.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
That's show you gave advice.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
I thought, and the first time through I was like, oh, wait,
is this about her giving an ultimatum to her friend
because you said I made the ultima sacrifice. But then
I reread it was like, oh no, she actually is
a very mature point, which is like, I'm not going
to not be your friend. I'm going to love you
and trust you, but I'm also going to be straight
with you. Y how old were you?
Speaker 6 (30:00):
Nineteen ninety eight, so, I mean at this point, by
the time it was printed, I was seventeen. But this
conversation did happen when I was around fifteen?
Speaker 1 (30:07):
Yeah, because I was seventeen. I said, I said something
about seventeen in mine, so I thought, I figured.
Speaker 5 (30:11):
Yeah, this conversation. I remember this conversation.
Speaker 6 (30:13):
I remember the situation and we were we were to
fourteen or fifteen?
Speaker 2 (30:16):
What kind of drugs?
Speaker 5 (30:19):
I don't really remember. I don't remember.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
I mean, did this guy like smoke a joint once
or was certain smack?
Speaker 6 (30:24):
No, I don't, I don't remember. I don't remember what
it was. I also remember that what I didn't include
in the book is I think he had also like
grabbed her by the arm. He had gotten he'd even
gotten like physical with her, and it was like, I,
really this was a This was not somebody that and
I was really shocked that she was. She had never
(30:45):
been the type to seem like this would be somebody
she would be attracted to. So it was like a
really shocking weekend. But yeah, it's.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
Too bad you can't get specific because you know, I
feel like left in the generic terms of he was doing,
he was a loser. It's kind of like, you know,
you could just go the goody two shoes who sucks,
But if you know, the specifics are kind of the
point in this sex. You know, like your judgment should
be based on actually what you were judging, and we
(31:14):
should be able to hear that. Otherwise it's kind of.
Speaker 5 (31:16):
Like exactly, And that's what I think.
Speaker 6 (31:18):
My biggest takeaway from the story was was like, either
I either didn't because I felt like it was a
personal story of my friend and so I didn't want
to give the details, or they.
Speaker 5 (31:29):
Wouldn't allow me to give the details. They may not
have wanted me to.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Are you still friends with this person?
Speaker 5 (31:36):
No, I haven't seen her in forever.
Speaker 6 (31:38):
Unfortunately she's dating a loser because she was dating a loser.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
She was dating. This is what happens.
Speaker 5 (31:43):
I said, you know what, we've just grown too far apart.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
There's no one phrase other self destructive behavior. That's just
doing a lot of work in this exactly what does
others self destructive? What are other things you.
Speaker 5 (31:55):
Don't need to know?
Speaker 6 (31:57):
Just trust me, he's a loser not going to church,
for instance, saying nighttime prayers.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
You know, who knows what Danielle was.
Speaker 6 (32:06):
Upsets what Danielle could have been so curious about? But
I yeah, anyway, we writer and I were very different teens.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
It's a difficultween seventeen and fifteen too, Like.
Speaker 5 (32:16):
Yeah, that's true, that's true.
Speaker 6 (32:18):
Well, thank you for taking this trip down memory lane
with the chicken soup for the soul with us. If
you need any advice on how to not you know,
be an arc, or how to call your friend's boyfriend's losers, or.
Speaker 5 (32:30):
If you I'm also looking your first cigar.
Speaker 6 (32:33):
Or if you want to, we're figuring out how to
get rid of your first cigar the taste in your mouth.
You can email us and the show at podmeets World
Show at gmail dot com.
Speaker 5 (32:42):
Writer send us out.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
We love you all. Pod dismissed. Pod Meets World is
an iHeart podcast producer hosted by Danielle Fischl, Wilfordell and
Rider Strong. Executive producers Jensen Karp and Amy Sugarman Executive
in charge of production, Danielle Romo, producer and editor, Tarasubash producer,
Mattie Moore engineer and Boy Meets World Superman Easton Allen.
Our theme song is by Kyle Morton of Typhoon. Follow
(33:06):
us on Instagram at podmets World Show or email us
at podmeatworldshowat gmail dot com
Yeah, all right, I have a sequel story to the
(00:24):
Uh that's how they that's how they get you.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
I wish everybody else got you again.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
You've gotten again, gotten again. So if everyone remembers that
was the story where I went to Mount Rushmore with
my family. Uh. I was ready, really happy to just
drive past it and uh my wife was like, why
are you not willing to pay for the parking? And
you know, I said, that's how they get you. And
I realized I had become my father because when I
was a kid, this is every trip with my dad
(00:51):
was about us getting screwed over by the hotel or
to pay for something, right, Like, we just never it
was never easy, right, yeah, and every city was just
a disaster if we were traveling. Okay, So Indy, we
were gone for a weekend and usually Indy will stay
with his grandparents. But then this time Uncle Shiloh was like,
(01:16):
I'll take Indy for twenty four hours. We're like, that's
amazing this uncle the past time and he's like, I'll
take them to the movies, We'll go to the beach,
you know, and he got his whole plant. I'm like, great,
So we don't you know, we're gone. We were this
is back when we were at south By Southwest, I think.
So anyway, uh didn't really stay in touch other and
then a couple like texts here and there of like
(01:36):
oh you got him, Okay, have fun. So we get
back and we're like, so, Indy, how was how was
the weekend? How was it?
Speaker 3 (01:42):
You know?
Speaker 1 (01:43):
And talks about being with the grandparents were like how
was it with Uncle Shiloh? And you know, i mean
kids always like pulling teeth, just get them to like
tell anything anything. So he's like, yeah, we went to
the trampoline park. I'm like, you went to the trampoline park?
Oh my god? Did you make it to the beach?
And then he like kind of just said yeah, we
went here and there, and I'm like okay, I'm like quiet, quiet,
(02:03):
And then he goes and we kept getting scammed though,
and I'm like, what do you mean, well, what's going on?
Well He's like, well, I mean like Shiloh came and
picked me up and then we went to the Trampline parking.
You know the parking like the way the sign is
for the parking and how much it costs and they
said there was only ten dollars. So Uncle Shalloh got
(02:23):
out and he was like, but you said it was
you know, and they charged him fifteen. So then he
was yelling at the guy and I'm like oh, and
I'm like, how else did you get scammed?
Speaker 4 (02:31):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Then we get to the trampoline park and you know,
they make you buy socks, and I'm like, yeah, that's
that's that's that's how they get you.
Speaker 5 (02:37):
Huh.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
And I realized that my brother, having never been a
parent in this situation, is be all completely my dad
and is living out all my dad through my son now.
And so yeah, Shirda, I was like, idy, please tell
me every time you got scammed, and so he went
through and it was literally any time they went to
get ice cream or anything. Everything. I could not believe.
(03:01):
I was dying. And so I finally I went over
to Shiloh's and you know, we were hanging out with everybody,
and then everybody went to bed. It was him and
me just thought. I was like waiting you here, and
then he was like, oh my god, I've become our death. Yes, dude,
you and I feel you man, It's He's like yeah,
but but we really did keep getting scared, like I'm
sure you did, Shilah. I'm sure you did. I'm sure
(03:24):
everybody to get you.
Speaker 5 (03:27):
Yes, you're scammed, so.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
That's how they get you. Still running strong in the
Strong family. I'm fighting the urge on a daily basis.
Now it's become a joke and hopefully Shiloh will be
able to laugh at himself because oh yeah, I'm right.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
I have a question. You can't bring your own socks
to the trampoline part.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
You have how you can bring your ones that you
got the last time you came, but we always forget.
So you show up and you have to get the
like their socks with like the little nubbies.
Speaker 5 (04:00):
You have your own grippy socks.
Speaker 6 (04:01):
You have grippy socks from another place that made you
buy grippy socks. Can't use those grippy socks here. You
have to use you really are grippy socks. Oh, you're
at Off the Wall the trampoline park, You're gonna have
to use off the wall socks. You're at Chucky Cheese
where they now have a trampoline, You're gonna have to
use Chucky Cheese grippy socks.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
That's lame.
Speaker 4 (04:21):
I mean, even you go bring your own shoes. You
don't have to rent them like my own shoes. Okay,
you're good to go.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
That's lame.
Speaker 6 (04:28):
Now, I will say the liability at a trampoline park
is probably very high, and like their insurance is probably
very high. Same thing for even for the Chuck E
cheese I just mentioned, Like, I guess if I think
about the idea that they're like, listen, we're letting your
kid bounce on our trampoline. A part of our insurance
deal is that we know the grippy socks are approved
(04:52):
and you have to.
Speaker 5 (04:53):
Wear these, but it really is very annoying.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
There was also there were layers. It was like, oh,
you have to buy socks. I already paid for Indy
to get in. Now I have to buy them socked.
Oh and I have to buy socks. Okay, fine, well
I want those green ones with the green ones are
an extra feecific. There was like three layers. He was like, fine, fine,
don't get it.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
Yeah, I want to combine a trampoline park and paintball.
Speaker 5 (05:14):
Yes, that's a good idea.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Sounds like that around dude.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
We went paintballing like a couple of weeks ago and
had so much fun.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
You still go paved kind of. But I think since
I was a.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Kid, but I was Hindy would love this. And I
took him and his friend and Shiloh and Alex and
we all we had so much fun. So I'm totally boring.
I'm back into it. Like you get a hit, Yeah
it hurts. It's so funny because otherwise it wouldn't be live. Yes, no,
you're like, I mean, it is a workout. You're running
around and crouching the whole time.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
It's intense.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
But yeah, you don't want to get hit. That's why
it's fun. If it's okay to get hit. That's why
laser tag is always kind of boring to me because
you're like to buy your.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
Own laser tag socks, which is like the worst.
Speaker 5 (05:59):
Laser tag gear.
Speaker 6 (06:00):
Your story writer reminds me of the fact that Adler
once said to me in the car it was me, Jensen,
Addler and Keaton, and Adler goes, who everybody in the
city is a bad driver? And I said, what why
are you saying that? He goes, because you say it
every day.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Every day exactly. We become our parents, just their version
of the world. So if you present to your kid
that the world is full of this whole city is
full of only everywhere. You're true. It's literally, you're true.
He does not have any reason to not believe that.
And the evidence just keeps coming. And if you believe
(06:35):
that everybody's out to screw you and take your money, right,
you're you know it. Actually I realized it goes back.
My dad's father was a very very big gambler, a cheat.
He was a card cheet. So he would go around
and he would he made a living cheating slot machines
and cheating at poker. Oh, it's a crazy story. And
my grandmother used to me, yes, it's a great story.
(06:56):
I have so many great stories. I got to write
them down. My my grandmother used to distracked the people
behind the counter, and he would have a spoon which
he would use to it's called it was called the
spoon that he would hide under his arm and he
would tip the bucket inside slot machines like old slot machines.
Speaker 5 (07:10):
Oh my god.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
And then he sheat at poker and like literally he
because he was a card shark. And he taught my
dad some of the tricks so he could, like one
of the interesting people, I've written, I've written some stuff
about it. I will eventually probably write a novel version
of this life, because it's pretty crazy. My dad grew
up with like his the chest in his house, like
where they got all their money was a chest of
(07:32):
coins from stolen stolen from slot machines.
Speaker 5 (07:35):
I want to swim in it.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
But it makes sense that my dad, because he always
thought his dad was a horribly unethical person for stealing
all this money, that he feels like everybody's out to
get him because he watched his dad get people all
the time constant. So yeah, so he was like, I'm
going to take a stand, and I'm not going to
you know, but I'm also not Yeah, but.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
By the way, I just saw of your car going like, man,
everybody in this town is such bad drivers. And you're
like why, and he's like, well, look, everybody else but
you is going the wrong way on the freeway.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
That's how I thought.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
They can't drive with their knee like you.
Speaker 5 (08:14):
Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
It's better than driving with Jensen. Producer Jensen. Oh my god, don't.
Speaker 5 (08:19):
Even yeah, don't even get me started on driving with Jensen.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
No, I can't. I get nauseous thinking about driving with Jenson.
Speaker 5 (08:26):
Welcome to Pond Meets World.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
I'm Danielle Vishel, I'm rather Strong, and I'm Wilfordell.
Speaker 5 (08:43):
Well.
Speaker 6 (08:43):
We have another fun little bonus episode for you. We
are going to recap, for lack of a better word,
the Chicken Soup for the Kid's Soul book and franchise,
which writer and I both wrote stories for.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Are we in the same book. We're in the same book, right, Uh?
Speaker 5 (09:03):
Yes we are.
Speaker 6 (09:03):
This one is called Chicken Soup for the Kid's Soul,
one hundred and one stories of courage, hope, and laughter.
Speaker 5 (09:10):
Here's what it looks like.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
This is I'm so excited to just sit back and
let you entertain me this book.
Speaker 5 (09:15):
So just wait.
Speaker 6 (09:17):
But before we get into the Chicken Soup for the
Soul Book, I did want to Can I share the postcard?
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Writer? Oh? Yes, of course?
Speaker 2 (09:27):
What postcard? What is this?
Speaker 6 (09:28):
So I opened up the book to go through it
and find our stories, and this fell out. It's a Washington,
DC postcard, even though I don't live there anymore. I'm
going to cover up the address because it's my old
my parents old address. But it's a postcard from writer
(09:49):
Strong to me, addressed in my parents' house, and.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
I sign it with my little face too that I used.
Speaker 5 (09:55):
To be with your little face.
Speaker 6 (09:56):
It's like I got an autograph and I'd like to
share it with you because I opened it.
Speaker 5 (10:03):
I opened the book this fell out and was like,
oh my gosh.
Speaker 6 (10:07):
And then I took a picture of it and I
sent it to writer and I said, this is so
fun because it just felt like I plucked a random
day out of my life and.
Speaker 5 (10:14):
Like went right back to it.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
That's cool.
Speaker 5 (10:17):
So here's what writer wrote. Hey, they're sexy. Well I'm
doing it. I'm in the third.
Speaker 6 (10:25):
Week of a seven week cross country road trip, loving
every minute. We're doing a documentary, interviewing and meeting all
kinds of crazy cats.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Crazy cats, guys, are we are? We are.
Speaker 6 (10:41):
Thinking about you. It's been a while since we've talked.
Hope you're loving hiatus. I have a bad feeling I
might just get lost out there on the road and
never show up for the table read smiley face. Anyway,
we have tons to talk about. Life gets more and
more dramatic. Call my mom and get our voicemail number
for this trip and give me a call when you
(11:02):
get a chance. Give my love to your family. Nate says, Hi,
I miss you all, my love writer with his little
face so here, Okay, I'll zoom in so that people
can see in case they've never seen the writer strong
autograph face.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Yeah, it is, guys, Like it's more and more dramatic.
Speaker 5 (11:20):
I thought it was so interesting that I came across this.
I thought it was interesting. I came across this right
after you just told us about the road trip trip.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Yeah, so that would have been ninety eight, so that
was that was between Yeah, but I have no idea
that I wrote to you. That's so cool. It actually
just makes me feel so great because, like, you know,
when you were writing your journals that you read, you know,
that was like.
Speaker 5 (11:41):
Two years before this, correct.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
So I'm so glad that we were still because I
feel like by the end of Boy, I felt way
less closer to you than I did in the middle
of Boy.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Yeah, but I feel it's so cool.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
I was like, oh wow, even at the time when
I don't remember like you and me hanging out, you
were still very much in touch. I was sending you
postcards from the road like It's just so it was like,
oh wow, I don't think of like ninety eight as
like a big year that I was hanging out with Danielle.
Speaker 5 (12:03):
But it's so cool, We're so cool that we were
still in touch.
Speaker 6 (12:05):
That it was like it's been a couple of weeks
since we had been on hiatus and you were sending
me a postcard.
Speaker 5 (12:09):
I love that.
Speaker 4 (12:10):
I actually think you set me one too. Oh well,
from your road trip, I think you did. I don't, Yeah,
it'd be somewhere, but I think from your road trip,
I think at one point you sent me a postcard
as well.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
You used to do that, used to.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Keep in to send. I used to send letters all
the time, and that's I love physical letters.
Speaker 5 (12:26):
What's this voicemail number thing?
Speaker 1 (12:29):
So that was how we stay how we stayed in
touch with people while we were on the road. We
set up a voicemail and then we hand it out
cards and when we interview people, we meet people, we
hand them cards and had like an eight hundred number
that you could call to leave a voicemail and then
we could check that and then call you back from
our pay from a payphone. Because we didn't have cell phones,
you know, we had course, we had pagers among us,
(12:49):
but we didn't want to give out our pager number,
you know, we had, so we had like a we
had we had we set up a voicemail eight hundred
number that anybody could call, and so like when we
would pull into a town, we would like, if we
call somebody, we leave a message and be like, all right,
if we can hang out and hopefully we can see you.
We're gonna be here from these days to these days,
call this one hundred blah blah blah. And then they
would leave a voicemail and we'd be like, okay, we'll
(13:11):
be there on Tuesday and meet up in New Orleans
at this place. And it was crazy, it was so
much fun.
Speaker 5 (13:15):
I mean you we still have access to the messages there.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
No. I would love that though, wouldn't.
Speaker 5 (13:19):
It be fun?
Speaker 6 (13:20):
Because like, I wonder you didn't give me the eight
hundred number, which makes me think you didn't like have
it memorized or something, or maybe it was just.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
One eight hundred, hey sexy, or maybe I just didn't
want it on the postcard.
Speaker 5 (13:31):
So I'm saying maybe we didn't want it on the
postcardind to put it out. But I wonder, like, did
I call your mom and dad and get that number
and then leave you a message. Did I do that?
I probably did.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
I'd love to hear that in ninety eight? Were we?
Speaker 4 (13:43):
I mean, page, you're still all the rage, but we're
ninety eight. We had car phones by ninety eight?
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Did we not?
Speaker 5 (13:49):
Because I had a car phone when I started.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
I think we had an emergency car phone, but it
was like so expensive I just didn't use it.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Yes, thirty seven dollars a minute.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Yeah, and wouldn't work in so many places. And we
were like camping, and you know, we were we went backpacking, like,
so we were out. You know, it was like having
a voicemail where people could just leave us messages. And
I kind of missed that level of communication because it
was always a little fly by night. You'd pull into
a city and be like, who's a available? Where can
we meet up? And it's so fun. Man.
Speaker 6 (14:15):
No, I do miss the idea too, of like you
could go out, go for your work day, or go
spend a day outside doing whatever you were doing, and
then you'd have to come home at night and check
your voicemail oh and just be like, oh, I hope
they called, instead of like at any point in time
knowing exactly how many minutes it's been since someone.
Speaker 5 (14:31):
Has ghosted you.
Speaker 6 (14:34):
Okay, let's jump into our Chicken Soup for the Kid's Soul.
It's the nineteen ninety eight installment of the immensely popular
book series Chicken Soup for the Soul. This one specifically
is titled Chicken Soup for the Kid Soul one hundred
and one stories of courage, hope and laughter. Now for
our younger listeners who might not be aware of this
book phenomenon, Chicken Soup for the Soul was a collection
(14:55):
of self help related, inspirational true stories from every people's lives.
It was the idea of two motivational speakers, Jack Canfield
and Mark Victor Hansen, who compiled stories from their audience members,
then had the idea rejected by every big publisher.
Speaker 5 (15:13):
In the business.
Speaker 6 (15:15):
They eventually landed on a very small publisher in Florida,
and the rest is history. The original series held a
spot on the New York Times bestseller list continuously from
nineteen ninety four to nineteen ninety eight, never leaving the chart.
Wow and also they branched into sequel titles like Chicken
Soup for the Teenage Soul, Chicken Soup for the Couple's Soul,
(15:37):
Chicken Soup for the pet Lover's Soul, and the list
goes on and on, with two hundred and seventy five
releases with its name and resulting in more than five
hundred million copies sold worldwide. And yes, it's just them
collecting other people's stories, so I guess really they're just
good at editing. I wonder if people got paid for
(16:00):
their contributions.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
I don't think I did.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
I don't think.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
I feel like it was like an honor to be included. Yes, like,
oh cool, you know you get to write something for
chicken soup, and it was like cool. But yeah, so
I don't think we got paid.
Speaker 5 (16:11):
No, we did not.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
I got to write a blurb saying I liked chicken soup.
Speaker 4 (16:14):
You guys got to actually write a story like I
have the one where you open it.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
No, it's like Wilfredell says, this is the best book
he's ever read. I have that for one of the
chicken soups. Yeah, oh, you've got a blurb I do.
I have, like a hey, you guys are there's a bunch.
Speaker 6 (16:27):
Of blurbs in this one that we can hit too.
So yeah, well, they'd eventually branch out of books. They
branched into food, pet Food, a production company, and company
takeovers of random media companies like Crackle and Red Box,
and in twenty twenty four, the publicly traded company was
forced into bankruptcy with accusations of misusing the business and
failing to pay employees. Over one thousand employees were laid off,
(16:51):
and in case you were wondering, good, twenty six thousand
red Box kiosks were shut down forever.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
Wait wait wait, they were the box. They owned all
of Reddy.
Speaker 5 (17:03):
They bought, they bought Crackle and Red Box.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Yeah, chickens for that, I can't rent this movie.
Speaker 6 (17:09):
Well, at least twenty six thousand red Box kiosks we
still have.
Speaker 5 (17:13):
There's still a Red Box in our roofs.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
The Red Box are still, right, is there?
Speaker 3 (17:16):
Well, just so you know, I follow the Red Box
trauma and they all closed. But some of the Red
Boxes have not been picked up, right, Okay?
Speaker 5 (17:25):
Yeah, the one, the one at our Ralphs will.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
But there's I'm looking online. It says there's one open
on Ninth Street in Los Angeles. What does that mean?
Speaker 3 (17:34):
They haven't been updated? It's not that's not up web.
They're all gone.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
So you if you went there and actually grabbed the
you could rent like the first Jumanji movie and that
would be it because everything else is.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
There are people, there are people who have been like
stealing the Red Boxes, breaking into them. It's a whole thing.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
Oh my god, I can't, no, I do This was
a chicken soup for the Soul out to do all
this stuff, and thousand employees did buy it after the fact,
like after.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
The kind of recently, not that long ago.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
They failed with it.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Because red Box was also it was always like super conservative, right,
because they would they.
Speaker 5 (18:09):
Will have to edit chicken soup for the Soul it fits.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Yeah, no, but they would. I just I thought it
was like a either a really Christian organization. But I
just remember you had to have separate edits sometimes for movies,
like some movies had to edit for the Red Box
because red Box from Kerry's sexually explicit or like so
movies that were like on the bubble, they would have
a Red Box edit sometimes because they were concerned. They
were like more conservative than the you know, the ratings board.
Speaker 6 (18:35):
I'm not sure how many of their books included celebrities,
but this specific installment included stories from their normal array
of diverse voices, but also famous people like Wright or
Strong and myself, Chuck Norris, Keenan and Kel, former Boy
Meets World co star Kathy Ireland, Shaquille O'Neill, and Jessica Stroup.
Speaker 5 (18:52):
And the foreword was from Muhammad Ali.
Speaker 4 (18:55):
Cool when, by the way, to go along with this,
when chicken Soup is sick, it has Chuck Norris.
Speaker 5 (19:05):
Just say you know, Charles, Charles, please, how dare you
so writer?
Speaker 6 (19:23):
As you mentioned, you remember feeling like this was a
big honor to get to write something for them.
Speaker 5 (19:29):
What do you remember about about this process?
Speaker 1 (19:32):
I think I talked about it on the show before.
I remember getting asked and being excited, and then I
had written my college application essay, which this is a
version of, so this I just adjusted. I forget. I
would love to find my original essay because it was different,
but I just kind of took that essay, you know,
the idea of this poem and my grandfather and my
(19:54):
relationship with him, and sort of made that into the
chicken soup. And then I remember them coming back and
making me change a bunch because they thought the vocabulary
was too complicated or hard for kids. And I pushed
back a little bit, and I remember David Combs, and
I liked debating and discussing and then settling with what's
in there? Which I hadn't read since I saw And
(20:15):
I was it's so, I don't know, it's okay.
Speaker 5 (20:17):
I can't wait. I can't wait. I want to hear it.
Speaker 6 (20:19):
I want you to read it for us, please. It's
called my grandfather's gift.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Oh God, so painful that the voice itself is just
so boring, Oh writer, my grandfather's gift. A child's life
is like a piece of paper on which every person
leaves a mark Chinese proverb. When I was a child,
storytelling was an active part of my upbringing. My parents
(20:43):
fostered any activity that might exercise my imagination. As a
result of this encouragement, I have indeed become the modern
version of a storyteller, an actor. Surprisingly, not one relative
on either side of my family has ever taken up
this profession before. The only person to whom I can
trace a storytelling gene is my grandfather on my mother's side.
This grandfather, in the great tradition of grandfather's everywhere, has
(21:05):
always been a source of wisdom in my life. When
I was younger, my entire family would go camping, and
as it grew dark, we would roast marshmallows around a
fire and listen to my grandfather recite a poem. It
was always the same poem that my grandfather would recite
from memory. When my grandfather was fourteen, he discovered the
poem in a book of verse. He was working with
horses at the time, and he had read the poem
only two or three times. When one of his horses
(21:27):
had gotten loose, he was forced to chase the horse
for miles, and somewhere in the course of the chase,
he lost the book after only committing the first half
of the poem to memory. He tried for years to
find another copy of the poem, but not knowing the
author's name, he gave up his search, content to have
memorized only the beginning. My First Cigar is a poem
about a child's first attempt at smoking. Neither my grandfather
(21:48):
nor I have ever smoked, but the poem contained such
an endearing quality of innocent introspection that I was always
thoroughly entertained by it. It was not just the poem
that got to me. It was the light in my grandfather,
the lilt in his speech, and the sweeping movements of
his arms that would passionately involve me in the verse.
Each one of these performances would be cut short when
my grandfather would shrug and say, that's as far as
(22:11):
I memorized, and we would all nod and be left
wondering how the poem ended. We accepted his inability to
finish because we all knew why he could not. Last year,
about seventy years from the time my grandfather had originally
found the poem, he installed a computer system in his
local library free of charge. As a return favor, he
asked the library researchers to try to find my first cigar.
(22:32):
Several months later, one of them sent him the poem
through the mail. I remember reading the rest of it
for the first time with joy. My grandfather has never
recited the poem since, and I have never asked him to. Perhaps,
now that my grandfather knows the poem's ending, his personal
involvement with it is complete. For me, the story was
better when it was incomplete, when it still had a future.
(22:52):
I've since become actively involved in poetry, both reading and writing,
and I credit my interest in my grandfather entirely. It
was a wonderful moment not long ago when I was
meming Wordsworth's poem My heart leaps up aloud, and my
grandfather surprised me when he said, I know that poem
and was able to recite it with me. He had
enjoyed the poem many years ago. I was memorizing it myself,
(23:12):
and it was here that our two generations were bridged.
After seventeen years of knowing my grandfather better than most
people I know in my life, every now and then
he still decides to open the treasure chest that is
his mind and surprise me with a gift of wisdom.
Speaker 5 (23:26):
So beautiful, I love it. Do you want to do
you want to read the poem?
Speaker 3 (23:32):
Then?
Speaker 5 (23:32):
My first cigar?
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Sure? Okay, my first cigar? Actually does it say who
it's by? It doesn't have the author's name on here.
Because they finally found it. We should probably get that.
Twas just behind the woodshed. One glorious summer day far
o'er the hills, the sinking sun pursued its western way,
and in my safe seclusion, removed from or the jar
(23:54):
and dim of Earth's confusion. I smoked my first cigar.
It was my first cigar. It was my worst cigar, raw, green, dank,
hide bound and rank. It was my first cigar, ah bright,
the boyish fancies, wrapped in smoke, wreath blue. My eyes
grew dim, My head was light. The woodshed round me
(24:15):
flew dark night closed in around me, black night without
a star, grim death. Methought had found me and spoiled
my first cigar. It was my first cigar, a six
for five cigar, no violer torch, the air could scorch.
It was my first cigar. All pallid was my beaded brow.
The really night was late. My startled mother cried in fear,
(24:37):
my child, What have you ate? I heard my father's
smothered laugh. It seemed so strange and far. I knew
he knew. I knew he knew. I'd smoked my first cigar.
It was my first cigar, a giveaway cigar. I could
not die. I knew not why it was my first cigar.
Since then, I've stood in reckless ways. I've dared what
(24:59):
men can dare. I've mocked a danger, walked with death.
I've laughed at pain and care. I do not dread
what may befall neath my malignant star. No frowning fate
again can make me smoke my first cigar.
Speaker 4 (25:16):
Now I'm curious how far into the poem did did
he recite?
Speaker 1 (25:20):
How pretty far? There's what he actually did now that
I'm looking at it. He actually he he remembered the
mom and the dad part and put that stanza earlier.
So he actually was missing about half the palm. But
he had remembered the parents reaction and that was where
he ended it. But there was also a part of
above that that that was also.
Speaker 5 (25:42):
So he had like yeah, he just he just remembered his.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
Favorite parts and then he couldn't remember how it ended,
which is too bad because the ending is hysterical, you know,
the idea that like I'm now the greatest, bravest person
because I can survive my cigar. But it was always
just about you know, he would stand up and swing
his arms and it would just get us all laughing,
and you know, you know, but yeah, it was so funny,
like it's and it's crazy that they let me include
(26:06):
because it's about smoking. Like now, I don't think they
would ever do that, but you know, I mean, I
guess in a way. It's a it's anti smoking, it's.
Speaker 5 (26:14):
Kind of anti smoking. It sounds pretty awful.
Speaker 6 (26:18):
The poet is Robert J. Burdette. By the way, Robert J.
Burdette my first cigar. Well, from that beautiful story of
of you and your grandfather and poetry, I'd like to
give you a sharp contrast to to who you.
Speaker 5 (26:39):
Were as people and I.
Speaker 6 (26:41):
My story that I wrote was called a Friend by
Danielle Fischell, and it starts with a quote friendships multiply
joys and divide grief by Thomas Fuller.
Speaker 5 (26:55):
Here we go.
Speaker 6 (26:56):
Recently, one of my best friends, whom I've shared just
about everything with since the first day of kindergarten, spent the.
Speaker 5 (27:02):
Weekend with me.
Speaker 6 (27:03):
Since I moved to a new town several years ago,
we've both always looked forward to the few times a
year when we can see each other. Over the weekend,
we spent hours and hours staying up late into the
night talking about the people she was hanging around with.
She started telling me stories about her boyfriend, about how
he experimented with drugs and was into other self destructive behavior.
Speaker 5 (27:24):
I was blown away. She told me how she had been.
Speaker 6 (27:27):
Lying to her parents about where she was going, and
even sneaking out to see this guy because they didn't
want her around him. No matter how hard I tried
to tell her that she deserved better, she didn't believe me.
Her self respect seemed to have disappeared. I tried to
convince her that she was ruining her future pooh and
heading for big trouble. I felt like I was getting nowhere.
(27:48):
I just couldn't believe that she really thought that it
was acceptable to hang with a bunch of losers, especially
her boyfriend. By the time she left, I was really
worried about her and exhausted by the experience. It had
been so frustrating. I had come close to telling her
several times during the weekend that maybe we had just
grown too far apart to continue our friendship, but I didn't.
(28:10):
I put the power of friendship to the ultimate test.
We'd been friends for far too long. I had to
hope that she valued me enough to know that I
was trying to save her from hurting herself. I wanted
to believe that our friendship could conquer anything. A few
days later, she called to say that she had thought
long and hard about our conversation, and then she told
me that she had broken up with her boyfriend. I
(28:32):
just listened on the other end of the phone with
tears of joy running down my face. It was one
of the truly rewarding moments in my life. Never had
I been so proud of a friend. And then after
the story, there are small submissions from teens and preteens
about what they believe a friend is like. A friend
never blames everything on you or helps you get up
(28:54):
when you fall at the roller skating rink. But before
we get into theirs, I kick it off with some
of my wisdom. A friend won't allow you to self distract,
will take all the time that's needed, no matter what
time of day, to listen to your problems and give
you her best advice. Is someone who can open up
and be herself around you, will swallow her pride to
(29:16):
take your advice, will never write you off.
Speaker 5 (29:19):
By Daniel Fish, So, I mean.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Do you remember I'm a nark?
Speaker 4 (29:25):
So you're the one who had had my girlfriend break
up with me just because I was doing drugs.
Speaker 5 (29:29):
That was me and I was a very good little nark.
If you or anyone you.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
Know you did not knark on anybody.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
That's show you gave advice.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
I thought, and the first time through I was like, oh, wait,
is this about her giving an ultimatum to her friend
because you said I made the ultima sacrifice. But then
I reread it was like, oh no, she actually is
a very mature point, which is like, I'm not going
to not be your friend. I'm going to love you
and trust you, but I'm also going to be straight
with you. Y how old were you?
Speaker 6 (30:00):
Nineteen ninety eight, so, I mean at this point, by
the time it was printed, I was seventeen. But this
conversation did happen when I was around fifteen?
Speaker 1 (30:07):
Yeah, because I was seventeen. I said, I said something
about seventeen in mine, so I thought, I figured.
Speaker 5 (30:11):
Yeah, this conversation. I remember this conversation.
Speaker 6 (30:13):
I remember the situation and we were we were to
fourteen or fifteen?
Speaker 2 (30:16):
What kind of drugs?
Speaker 5 (30:19):
I don't really remember. I don't remember.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
I mean, did this guy like smoke a joint once
or was certain smack?
Speaker 6 (30:24):
No, I don't, I don't remember. I don't remember what
it was. I also remember that what I didn't include
in the book is I think he had also like
grabbed her by the arm. He had gotten he'd even
gotten like physical with her, and it was like, I,
really this was a This was not somebody that and
I was really shocked that she was. She had never
(30:45):
been the type to seem like this would be somebody
she would be attracted to. So it was like a
really shocking weekend. But yeah, it's.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
Too bad you can't get specific because you know, I
feel like left in the generic terms of he was doing,
he was a loser. It's kind of like, you know,
you could just go the goody two shoes who sucks,
But if you know, the specifics are kind of the
point in this sex. You know, like your judgment should
be based on actually what you were judging, and we
(31:14):
should be able to hear that. Otherwise it's kind of.
Speaker 5 (31:16):
Like exactly, And that's what I think.
Speaker 6 (31:18):
My biggest takeaway from the story was was like, either
I either didn't because I felt like it was a
personal story of my friend and so I didn't want
to give the details, or they.
Speaker 5 (31:29):
Wouldn't allow me to give the details. They may not
have wanted me to.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Are you still friends with this person?
Speaker 5 (31:36):
No, I haven't seen her in forever.
Speaker 6 (31:38):
Unfortunately she's dating a loser because she was dating a loser.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
She was dating. This is what happens.
Speaker 5 (31:43):
I said, you know what, we've just grown too far apart.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
There's no one phrase other self destructive behavior. That's just
doing a lot of work in this exactly what does
others self destructive? What are other things you.
Speaker 5 (31:55):
Don't need to know?
Speaker 6 (31:57):
Just trust me, he's a loser not going to church,
for instance, saying nighttime prayers.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
You know, who knows what Danielle was.
Speaker 6 (32:06):
Upsets what Danielle could have been so curious about? But
I yeah, anyway, we writer and I were very different teens.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
It's a difficultween seventeen and fifteen too, Like.
Speaker 5 (32:16):
Yeah, that's true, that's true.
Speaker 6 (32:18):
Well, thank you for taking this trip down memory lane
with the chicken soup for the soul with us. If
you need any advice on how to not you know,
be an arc, or how to call your friend's boyfriend's losers, or.
Speaker 5 (32:30):
If you I'm also looking your first cigar.
Speaker 6 (32:33):
Or if you want to, we're figuring out how to
get rid of your first cigar the taste in your mouth.
You can email us and the show at podmeets World
Show at gmail dot com.
Speaker 5 (32:42):
Writer send us out.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
We love you all. Pod dismissed. Pod Meets World is
an iHeart podcast producer hosted by Danielle Fischl, Wilfordell and
Rider Strong. Executive producers Jensen Karp and Amy Sugarman Executive
in charge of production, Danielle Romo, producer and editor, Tarasubash producer,
Mattie Moore engineer and Boy Meets World Superman Easton Allen.
Our theme song is by Kyle Morton of Typhoon. Follow
(33:06):
us on Instagram at podmets World Show or email us
at podmeatworldshowat gmail dot com
Hosts And Creators
Will Friedle
Danielle Fishel
Rider Strong
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