Episode 4 : the Ozarks

The speaker begins episode 4 of the Alaska Dub Chronicles by mentioning that it will be a shorter episode. They apologize in advance for any sound issues while they refer to their notes. They give a brief overview of their parents' backgrounds, mentioning specific details such as their father's musical talents and their mother's gardening skills. They also talk about their parents' love for auctions and finding treasures. The speaker describes their childhood home, a five-acre farm with various animals and a barn. They mention their father's truck and the advice he gave about driving. They also talk about their mother's love for gardening and her knowledge of plants. The speaker mentions that their father recently passed away and their mother now lives in a retirement home. They conclude by discussing the open-mindedness and lack of prejudice in their upbringing due to their parents' experiences in the military and exposure to different cultures. The speaker reflects on their own color Alright, welcome back for episode 4 of the Alaska Dub Chronicles. Today's episode is going to be a little shorter to try to even things out. I'm trying to say about a half hour per episode. It's also strange in that I've done my research for this one, but it being my biography, I've just been listening to the past three episodes and wanted to yet further uncover points that I think are relevant. And many play key roles in my personality that I don't think should be overlooked. So I do want to ask for your forgiveness if the sound goes in and out while I'm looking down at my notes. It's something that won't occur very often, hopefully. And also just a disclaimer I should have thrown out at the very beginning. All of this is to the best of my recollection. If any facts are in error, it is purely by mistake rather than design. I'm not going to apologize about things that I don't really remember. If anyone hears this and wants to fact check me, I'm totally open for that. So that being said, on with the facts. So just quick bullet points. I guess starting with my parents. Some specifics. My dad was born in Brennerade, Cook County, Kentucky. Besides the banjo, guitar, fiddle, he also played the mandolin and the dulcimer. Was wicked good with calligraphy and had a huge fountain pen collection. Probably every time I mention his work and the corporation of Hershey, I should have been saying Nestle. So if I say that in the future, it's probably Nestle. His green thumb was being a vegetable gardener. And my whole homestead, I can't believe I just called it a plot. We lived on a little organic farm, little five acre farm. We had goats, chickens, sheep. We had a cow and a calf for a little bit, but they're kind of out of that scale. We had a little barn. When I was a kid and bored, what do bored kids do? The roof of a barn. For something to do. That's what bored country kids do before they start drinking and smoking weed. But, oh gosh, I'm getting lost in my notes here. I have to mention his truck, which was what I learned to drive on. It was a forest green, 54 Chevy Stepside, five window. It was a little nicer, had the good chrome and fat rubber. It had the inline six and the three on the tree. And the best advice that he gave me in regards to driving is basically, the car drives itself, you're just there to correct it. You don't have to death grip and control everything. You're just there to correct it. Keep it going. There you go. To catch up with my mom, she was born in Travis County, Texas, and raised in San Joaquin Valley, outside of Modesto, in a little town called Manteca. She was a housewife. She was a house manager. She was a finance manager. She was a child bearer and raiser. She was a loving wife. She was a cook. The only outside employment that I was aware of was when my dad actually was, when we lived in Denver, my dad was still in the Air Force and got deployed to Thailand. I guess it would be 70, 71, something like that. And Vietnam War was still going on. And she worked in a greenhouse. And that green thumb totally carried over. She was a world-class gardener. I don't mean to speak of her in the past tense, but my father just passed away. I'm recording this in 2023. My father just passed away. My mother still is living in a retirement home in Springfield at the moment. Just sold this homestead that I'm describing last year. So that's fresh. But when they always had a green thumb, the house has always been full of plants. It's on in and out. And I get sort of the manic side of my personality by her. When she's busy, the energy goes up and throws herself so full into a task that then just gets exhausted and flops. It's like low blood sugar. Kind of flops. Anyhow, plants going in and out seasonally. Repotting. All these were major endeavors. Oh, my gosh. Another thing that we kind of did as a family, I just remembered this, is we'd go to auctions. State auctions, farm auctions, any sort of auctions. We used to go around to the neighboring communities and always looking for deals. And you just never know what you find. And they ended up sort of, well, my dad was always looking for instruments. A lot of fiddles. And fountain pens. But my mom loved refinishing antique furniture. The house was just like a folk museum of just pre-refrigeration, practical kitchen. It was like their appliances. A pie safe. A cabinet with punched, a wooden cabinet, oak, punched tin sides for ventilation. A Hoosier, which was like a bread making station with a smooth surface to do your kneading stuff at waist level. But above was like a cabinet with a tin storage for your flour. So you've got like easy dispensation of your flour. Stuff like that. They'd find them all crapped out, covered in six, seven layers of paint. Not looking like anything. But just after hours and days of work, stripping it down with navel jelly and a lot of steel wool, brushes. But you can't go like super crazy, especially when you start getting close to it. But when you start seeing that wood come out, the grain. And then when you actually see what had so much paint on it that you couldn't see any pattern, is actually some super cool punched tin, which is literally what it sounds like, but done in a decorative pattern. And besides its beauty and history, they also are valuable. So little treasures like that, I can't believe I hadn't thought about that. But their little five acre corner plot, their house sat on one acre. And besides some big trees, and kind of actually a cool selection of trees, mulberry trees, which had silkworms, and a weeping willow, which I'd have to go cut my switches when I misbehaved. From the weeping willow, and then a mimosa tree with the little seed pods, like propellers. And as they would fall, they'd do a little helicopter thing. And these were like fern fronds. Anyhow, someone imported all these cool trees, but otherwise it was just all lawn. A lot of lawn. And within a very short time, there's nothing but paths through flower beds and terraces of plants. So that was definitely a talent. And the kid here put in a lot of yard work time. And like eat that splitting wood, doing farm chores. So that kind of work thing. But my mom, the scholarly side to my deep diving, is she's basically taught herself the Latin name of every plant that she has ever come in contact with. And has the library. The love of reading definitely has, from both of them, I have it to the squared power. So I want to include that. Milking goats, fresh veggies, salads. That sort of thing. Mom would be cooking. Dad would come home. Change from his spicy clothes. But she'd say, OK, we need two carrots and whatever she wanted for the salad that day. And he'd walk out to the garden and pluck whatever and rinse it off. And we had a well with icy, cool water. And so that was their old routine. That was saying, my mom's lemon meringue pie is the best in the world. Just stating that. Oh, and an important thing that I touched upon prior. I'm not trying to... Other than everything I've spoken referring to the last three prior episodes. I'm not going to try. I'm trying not to say. Back in episode blah blah blah blah blah blah. But part of the reason why my parents are... Why I was raised in a radically more open-minded environment than a lot of my neighbors and school friends. So I think my father, who was in Kentucky, was probably raised in a very similar rural attitude towards people of color. But the military is... I'm sure when you get to a certain... Nothing is without its sort of political and social influences. But generally speaking, the military is a meritocracy. People aren't judged on their appearance or background or beliefs. It's, can I do the job? Okay, well then you get the promotion. Then you're the one in charge. You rise by your merit. And so... It would be difficult to maintain a prejudiced attitude. I'm just saying that's a huge factor in developing his attitude, which was passed on to me. And then my mom was... Her whole childhood... Being born in Texas. And then being in the agriculture industry in Southern California. She knew a lot of Mexicans. And she is... Again, with the enthusiasm... One of these people that so embraces another culture that if they could, they would be Mexican. She's... It goes far beyond her, as she says, her affinity for tortillas. Which is one of the cutest things she's ever said. But, so you have that. And then when I was a kid... I was... As far as I could remember, I was pretty colorblind. One of my best friends was black. It sounds dumb to say, but... That... Being in contrast to where we moved in Pleasant Hope... There was... I'm not sure of the... The demographics of today. But in the early 80s, there was one black family in the entire school district. In the entire school district. They were a lovely family from Barbados. Just as a snapshot for you folks... One morning, when our school bus drove past their house to pick them up... There was a charred cross in their front yard. So... I guess, between my folks and that charred cross... You have the ends of the spectrum that your boy here was exposed to. I'm glad I fell and was raised on the side that I was. And, you know, that... That kind of attitude... The horse farm across the road from my parents' place... Had this little... What was a wooden cabin built out to be just a little home... With a big root cellar. And when it got demolished... It kind of went through the rubble before they burned the rubbish. And it was so old that it was put together with wooden pegs. My dad salvaged some of those wooden pegs from it. But... This... In the basement, there were shackles... Shackle rings... Embedded in the wall. So... There were... They... There were slaves... Where I was raised. Not at the same time. And then... Another huge oversight. I can't believe I was describing the Missouri Ozarks. And... Describing what a cursed region was. In that... I didn't... I didn't even say the word cave. I said crystal cave. Missouri's got 300 caves per county. You... Close your eyes and walk into the woods. You're almost... There's a huge likelihood of stepping into a sinkhole which leads into a cave. And there'll be a lot more about that later. Because... Spelunking... Or caving... Became a huge hobby... At a later time. Gosh... I'm flying through this. I'm not even progressing in the... In point one. Me... On my... On my... Consulate report of birth abroad. Which is the closest thing I have to a birth certificate. I'm actually... Born on Lake Neath Air Force Base. In Suffolk County. England. The... My folks always... Again with this embracing sort of attitude. They could have lived on base. And a few places they did live on base where my dad was stationed. But they... They usually like... Find in a small community. It's just a little bit outside. The... The base area. And trying to like assimilate into the community. And then really... You know... Really get a flavor for the place. So... Hence the avenue in France. Where... I was conceived. And then when I was born. It was in... Ludgate. Ludgate, England. So I had to mention that. Besides not mentioning caves. I can't believe I didn't mention tornadoes and thunderstorms. Which were a huge component of living where I did. Some about thunderstorms. I mean... The ozone. The change in barometer. I... It's always affected me. To where I have a difficult time keeping my clothes on. And... Stripping down in a downpouring thunderstorm. Has been some weird primal compulsion. Since I can't remember when. And... I also wanted to mention that... There in Arkansas. The... The nuclear bomb shelter. Most likely was a storm shelter. They... With... That locale being closer to Tornado Alley. Through Kansas and Oklahoma. So I had to mention that. And then the coolest relatives that we have. My mom's sister and her husband. Who actually flew their little Cessna. Single engine Cessna. From California to Missouri. Visited us for a week or something. But... My uncle took me up. Just the two of us. And it's fine. Flew over our property. And let me take control of the stick. And so... At age... I don't know. Maybe like 10 maybe? 10 maybe? I flew a plane over our homestead. In the Missouri Oval. So there you go. Besides that accomplishment. I was into comics and reading a lot. I got obsessed with Conan. The Barbarian. And really everything that Robert E. Howard ever wrote. That was probably the first uber scholastic deep dive I did. I played the trombone for like six years. And my nickname in high school was a beast. So. 25 minutes. I think I'm going to wrap it up with those bullets. I'm sorry we didn't progress further. But. Everything. We've gotten everything now. And we are stepping out on a new foot. On next episode. Until then. Be good.