Martin County Star Newsmakers
Everything you want and need to know about what is going on in Martin County Minnesota.
We look at the paper and talk to the Newsmakers.
Mayor's, City Council members, Coachs, Police, Concerned Citizens, and everyday folk with a story to tell.
Tune in each Friday for a new episode.
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Martin County Star Newsmakers
Santa's Secrets and Whimsical Holiday Memories
Imagine the surprise of having all three of your sons show up unannounced for your birthday! That's exactly what happened, and it led to an unforgettable podcast episode brimming with laughter and heartfelt stories. Shawn, Ricky, and Chris each brought their own unique flair to our conversation. Shawn, from Wyoming, shared his passion for critiquing films, while Ricky from Houston opened up about his impactful charity work and even surprised me with a one-of-a-kind AI-generated book celebrating my life. Meanwhile, Chris, the eldest from Delaware, entertained us with tales from his dual career as a radio disc jockey and audiobook narrator.
Things took a whimsical turn when Gabriella, our eight-year-old guest bursting with creativity, joined us to unravel the mysteries of Santa Claus and his off-season antics. With her curious mind, we ended up in stitches over Santa's cookie preferences and the curious case of elf labor at the North Pole. Our chat about favorite cookies then sparked nostalgic memories of a beloved pudding-filled cake, leaving us all with cravings and chuckles as we recalled quirky family communication habits.
As we wrapped up, the magic of Christmas traditions and the innocence of childhood wishes took center stage. We marveled at the story of Santa's iconic red suit and read touching letters from children like Paige and Weston. These memories blended with our own family traditions, like drawing lots for Thanksgiving dishes, created a tapestry of stories that warm the heart. And just when you think it couldn't get better, we leave you on the edge with a teaser of an amusing childhood story featuring my aunt from California. Join us for this festive ride, and get ready for more holiday cheer in our next episode!
You have two microphones no Like just even 58?
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, I have one of those, but I don't have, and I have a headphone mic, but would that work? Let's do that. We're on, by the way, I mean.
Speaker 3:I could do like the hey. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2:This is Martin Gatti Stars Newsmakers Podcast. I'm Mike Ennis, I'm your host and if you listened to last week's podcast, if you listened to last week's podcast, if you listen to last week's podcast, you know that it was my birthday and my three sons came from Wyoming, Delaware and Houston and they made a surprise visit and, since they're here, I made them be on the podcast with me and we had a lot of fun. Sean, go ahead. 10 points to Gryffindor.
Speaker 4:Where is Houston? What state is Houston? Well, it's in Texas, all right. Well, youryffindor, where is Houston? What state is Houston? Well, it's in Texas, all right. Well, you always have said this Wyoming Delaware and Houston. Well, houston's like a state. Did you just follow him out. Yeah, he did.
Speaker 2:And that was Sean. Sean's the youngest of the three boys. He's from Wyoming. Sean is the one that you guys, when you read the movie reviews. He's the one who writes them. That is correct, sir. That is correct, sir. And then we have Ricky, from Houston, texas. Hello yeah, rick is the one who has a son, zach, that we do to Haiti with love. And, in fact, your wife, diane. She writes for us and she's got another episode coming. I think it's going to be. It may be in the paper this week.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we're excited about that.
Speaker 2:We're recording this a little before so it could be in the paper this week. Yeah, we're excited about that to see kind of Wait. Let me finish. Shai just took the mic from Ricky cut him off, said that's enough.
Speaker 3:Cut him off, so that's enough. We're excited about that, just to be able to share with everybody the updates we're wearing with that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know, and I'm excited to hear it too. And then we have Chris, the oldest of the three. Chris is from Delaware. I don't know what town he lives in, I just know it's Delaware.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm not going to tell you.
Speaker 2:I don't want people to look. I could Well, you can.
Speaker 1:What can?
Speaker 2:I send you I don't know what specialty. Chris actually is a radio disc jockey and he also works for a Christian station, so he plays gospel. Hey, plug your station online. Folks can go in and listen if they wanted to.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we've got an app available, so you can just look there wherever you get apps, or you can come online. Come on over wwwwearethebridgeorg.
Speaker 2:Okay, org, all right. And then Chris also, he narrates books.
Speaker 1:I do. Yeah, I just got into that, just started doing that. So I've done a trilogy and a couple of other things, but working on maybe some more, and it's a lot of fun, you know, being able to tell somebody else's story.
Speaker 2:We listened to a little excerpt. Ricky's actually listened to one book or two, Ricky.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I've listened to one. I'm hoping to listen to the second one. Okay, yeah, here in the next, probably within the next week.
Speaker 2:Yeah, all right, and so anyway, it's a lot of fun. Ricky got me a very unusual gift for Christmas. Rick, tell them what you did. It's kind of wild.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I went online to a place called Books by Anyone, and basically what you do is you go and you put in the books for so for my case it's my dad and then you have to answer at least three questions, but I did all 10. Anything from what were his dreams to what does he do, or what any careers he's had over his lifetime, to best friends, to any funny memories or you know anything funny and so anyway. So then you submit it and then AI writes the book, and so Took like a week to write the book.
Speaker 3:It took about five minutes. It took about a week for me to get it.
Speaker 1:It's a 240 page.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's a 240 page book that took two minutes to write.
Speaker 3:I mean that's nuts man, yeah, and it's, it's pretty funny. I've read most of it and you know, just kind of brings back some memories and so it's great. Did you just say you read?
Speaker 1:most of it. You are a big liar. There are 240 pages. You read 12. That, in my mapping, is not most of it.
Speaker 3:Well, I mean, it was kind of like the. Clipstone's version.
Speaker 1:That's not even the Clipstone's version, that's not even the For Dummies version. That's the. I'm lying to you.
Speaker 3:I did read the back of the cover. I created it, I mean, I picked the title and all that. So it was kind of like reading the whole book.
Speaker 2:So I've skimmed it. Obviously, I've only had it for like two hours.
Speaker 4:Not like Ricky, who's had it for 10 days.
Speaker 2:And I've skimmed it and some of the stories are real things. That happened to me, yeah, and when you read it, the best thing to do, guys, is leave your blinds down. It's probably better read that way, yeah, but some of the stories are actual things that happened to me. That wouldn't make sense to hardly anybody else. But you know I've told the boys stories over the years.
Speaker 1:Or we've lived them.
Speaker 2:Or we've lived them. Yeah, okay, so leave the blinds down. Let me explain that for just a second. When I was a kid growing up, I was sitting at my aunt's house in California. And we're sitting there and she starts telling me this story about how these people went by and they had a drive-by shooting and the blinds were open and they could see in. And I turned around this was the 1960s. Yeah, this would be no, this would be in. Yeah, 69, 70. Okay, and I looked around and the blinds in the whole house were all open, scared me to death. Ever since then, I've had this phobia about having blinds open at night from drive-by shootings and I've always told the boys close your blinds.
Speaker 1:It's a little bit of an obsession.
Speaker 2:It is an obsession and I'm okay with it. I'm still alive.
Speaker 1:Here's what I need to know, though. So we've got here at the Martin County Star, you've got all kinds of like the archives of papers from the 1800s all the way through. Will this book be in there so that folks can come in like a public file? They can just come in and read your story.
Speaker 2:That would be interesting. That would be interesting. I'd be happy to let them read it. That would bother me. Now, some of the stories are fictional. You know, AI wrote it. Ai does not know me, but some of them are pretty close. Wait, do I want Sean to talk or not? Whenever Sean talks, I get nervous.
Speaker 4:What I'm keeping my P's and Q's. You never know what Sean's going to say.
Speaker 2:Well, so I was going to say when they come to read this, it only costs what $35.99?.
Speaker 1:I love the idea.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, I'm looking for it. So what we're going to do, this show will come out. Well, you guys know it because you're listening to it.
Speaker 2:It came out right before Christmas. So what I was going to do is we don't have the next week's issue yet when we're recording, but I do have some Dear Santa letters from some of the third and fourth graders at Martin County West, all right, so I thought I'd read one. We can comment on these, okay, and yeah, yeah, yep, we can comment on these letters. And you, and yeah, we can comment on these letters, and you guys come up with whatever you want to say. So first one says Dear Santa and Mrs Claus, thank you for the doll you gave me. I love playing with it. So she's kissing up, that's good.
Speaker 1:Good start. My name is.
Speaker 2:Gabriella, I'm eight. I'm going to turn nine on December 15th.
Speaker 1:So just a few days ago.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah. And then it says I go to my dad's house. Wait, wait, I live with my mom. I go to my dad's house sometimes. My mom likes to bake, my dad loves to farm and my cat is lazy, lazy cat.
Speaker 1:That's every cat in the world. Cats are plotting to take over the world.
Speaker 2:They're evil Santa. What do you do with your free time? You know, seriously, santa's got a lot of free time. Does he Think about it?
Speaker 1:He's the factory runner, he's got to keep the elves in line. I mean, they're a little bit of a mischievous, okay, december 27th he goes to bed.
Speaker 2:He gets a couple of weeks sleep, sure, and then what does he do? Until December the next year? He's got to work out. We don't know. I've seen Santa. He doesn't work out.
Speaker 1:He works out during the year.
Speaker 3:Yeah, hold on.
Speaker 4:So a question for Santa would be do you weigh yourself before, start and await yourself after? From all the cookies you're eating? Magic? Oh, good point. I always like to think of Santa as like Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk, Just for the simple fact that he's the head right, he's got the elves doing all the work, pays them good wages and then he just hangs out. Goes to Bora Bora or wherever.
Speaker 2:See, I think the elves are some kind of a cult. No, I think it's some sort of forced labor. They're not allowed to leave. Have you ever heard?
Speaker 1:the elf song by Crowder. This is the elf song. Okay, you should if you haven't listened to it since you're already online. You're listening to the podcast a little bit later. Write it down the elff Song Crowder. You'll laugh Will you cry. I mean you might cry a little bit for the elves. But, it'll explain a little bit of what goes on at the North Pole.
Speaker 2:All right. So next question this Gabriella writes is do you prefer chocolate chip cookies or sugar cookies, and what's your favorite color? So let's do the cookies first. I'm chocolate chip, I prefer chocolate chip or sugar.
Speaker 4:Are we just doing chocolate chip or sugar?
Speaker 2:That was a question from Gabby.
Speaker 4:I would say chocolate chip.
Speaker 3:I'll go sugar cookie.
Speaker 2:Just to be different, or do you really like the sugar?
Speaker 4:cookie.
Speaker 2:No, so okay, now let's widen it. What is your favorite cookie, though? Personally, I like oatmeal raisin or oatmeal raisin with chocolate chip in it.
Speaker 3:I'll go with the no-bake cookie all day. Oh, I like those.
Speaker 1:You're one of the first person I've ever met that actually says oatmeal cookie or oatmeal raisin is their favorite. Most people when I bring that up because I love that cookie when I bring it up, they're like oh, that's the worst cookie you can ever have, really, yeah. So that's an interesting thing. I guess that's something we have.
Speaker 4:I guess. So how about that? Okay, there you go. Chocolate chip with pudding in it.
Speaker 1:I'm sorry. You use pudding, Are you saying that no?
Speaker 4:no, no, you use pudding and pudding in with it, so it keeps it with the mixture, keeps it. Yeah, it keeps it moist and fresh, so you, when you pull it out later on, it's like you just baked it we.
Speaker 2:We do that with cake. We put a box of pudding in the cake and it keeps the cake moist.
Speaker 4:Okay, speak can we, can I, can? I divert for just a second yeah yeah, okay do.
Speaker 1:do you guys remember because, uh, my brothers, dad, do you remember a cake that either mom or somebody would make and it had holes in it but they filled the hole?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, do you remember that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, okay, I'm not going crazy. No, I mentioned that to somebody the other day and they were like oh, we don't remember that. Do you remember if it had a name? I mean, I don't even know where to find it. It's candy. You think Candy would know?
Speaker 2:I guarantee you she would.
Speaker 1:Okay, so explain it the way it is.
Speaker 2:And what they did was they poured the pudding in they poured the pudding over the top but it filled in the holes. Yeah, it dripped in.
Speaker 3:Okay, I'm not going nuts no no, no, was that primarily in a Bundt cake? Oh, because I was thinking Bundt cake is mainly where you would do that kind of recipe.
Speaker 1:I just remember it being one of my favorites right.
Speaker 2:And then it's just a Bundt cake. Sean went and asked Andy and she said Bundt cake. Okay, Was it pudding? Oh, you didn't ask that.
Speaker 3:Okay, so if you know the answer, and you want to send a message in.
Speaker 1:How do they get a hold of?
Speaker 2:us PO Box 253 in Trimont, 56176. Or they can email me at MCSTAR M-I-C-H-A-E-L. So it's MCSTARMichael at Gmail.
Speaker 1:Okay, all right, okay, so that's a good yeah. So, send in the message, Dad.
Speaker 2:you'll forward it to us so we can know what the name of the cake is, or I'll call you.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, I can do that could do that too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't call very often. I know, we know I'm the world's worst. That's why we're here, the boys, they call they call me, okay, wait wait, here's the way it works. Chris calls at least twice a year. Yeah, sean calls at least once a month. Ricky calls at least once a week, and it worked out that way.
Speaker 1:I call more than twice a year, but it's pretty no, you call more than I do.
Speaker 2:That that's true. I'm terrible Literally every time I'm fixing to pick up the phone and call one of you guys call me, so I always think I don't need to. I don't need to, they're going to call me.
Speaker 1:I could call the other son that didn't call me. But why would I do that? That's just nuts. Why do?
Speaker 2:I want to talk to the other two. I was looking for a way out of this.
Speaker 1:Sorry, you guys. You're getting this family trauma that we're healing right now this is the healing session.
Speaker 2:Hi, I'm Dr John, this is Delilah. Okay, so what's your favorite color? They asked. Your favorite color Purple.
Speaker 1:My favorite color is purple, really, yeah, why did you give that?
Speaker 4:look, salmon Salmon, or like black.
Speaker 2:Salmon's a color that was a fish.
Speaker 1:Well, it is a fish, but it also has a color.
Speaker 4:It's a cool looking color, yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:Have you never seen it?
Speaker 2:Well, I've seen a salmon fish with kind of an orange thing. Right, it's like pink, it's like yeah, but orange is pink.
Speaker 1:Orange is definitely part of the pink family.
Speaker 4:No, it's just different. It looks different. Usually I say black or dark blue to be funny, but salmon is a nice color, it is a good color.
Speaker 2:I'll probably go with blue. Oh, that's a nice color. Yeah, yeah, I'd probably go with blue.
Speaker 3:Blue, I'd go with or whatever color my wife says looks good that day.
Speaker 1:Whatever color my wife tells me I like it when I like it, because I don't have a favorite color.
Speaker 2:This brought to you by your marriage can be good, All right. So here's the next thing she said is Santa, please bring me a cup with my name on it?
Speaker 3:You know, hey, you know what she's talking about there, talking about Santa Claus bringing stuff. I remember one year I was looking for you know, ask Santa for the Ninja Turtles right back in the 90s. And sure enough, santa came through and I got my Ninja Turtles.
Speaker 2:Yes, I remember that. Remember, I convinced Santa of that. You talked him into it, I did.
Speaker 4:I remember one year I wanted a Nintendo 64 because that just came out and I was like, oh man, this is going to be gnarly. You guys got me that and then Santa got me Laser Tag. Sure enough, I was like this is amazing. And I asked Santa for laser tag and it was the coolest thing ever. I went out and played that for hours and you guys were like, you want to play with the 64? I was like, yeah, later on I can do that when it's dark outside. I got laser tag so it was super cool. So Santa's amazing, he can do whatever.
Speaker 2:Okay, chris, what do you got? What was the question? I forget.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, wait, wait, wait. Let me tell a story about Chris, Okay, okay. So I got a story to tell about Chris. No matter what we bought or, excuse me no matter what Santa brought right and wrapped before Christmas I'm not sure exactly how that happens, but it does Chris always knew what every present was under the tree. Can you reveal your secret to me now, Because for years I've always wondered how do you know every present under the tree?
Speaker 1:I had a spy in Santa's workshop, paid him good money, they gave me the secrets. Okay, so, honestly, I would go grocery shopping with my mom. Back then we had a grocery store in the town one of the towns we lived in that had gifts and things in an aisle. So when she would go shopping I would go look at things. When we went to Walmart, I would go look at toys and I would hold them, I would fill the boxes, I would put them up against my arm how long is this box and where does it go? And I would hold all of these things close and dear and near to me and then I would figure it out.
Speaker 2:Okay, that makes sense, except for the fact that I got wind of that One of your brothers ratted on you one year. I can't remember which one.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they're both white to each other. Of course they are.
Speaker 2:But anyway. So we started wrapping your presents in other boxes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm really good. I'm really good To this day. My wife won't pack something that she's gotten me, because I'm too old now for Santa to bring me stuff, the expensive stuff. So my wife will bring it to me and I still figure it out, I still know what it is.
Speaker 2:I attest to that. He knows what it is, anyway. Alright, so the last thing was this child, gabriella, wants Santa to bring her cat a bed and a blanket. We were talking earlier about the cats being lazy. And that's all it needs his own bed and blanket. It's like it can't just lay down somewhere and sleep Anyway all right, let's go to the next letter.
Speaker 2:Okay, I got one here. This is from. This is from Dear Santa. Thank you for the gift from last year. Oh, that was nice. That is nice, right? My name is Paige and I am eight years old and I live in the county by Donnell. I have one brother, Jace, and I have two sisters, Ava and Maya. Jace is in second grade and he's seven years old. Ava is in twelfth grade. She's 17 years old, and Maya is in second grade and she's seven years old. My mom works at the church, my dad works at Vita Plus, I like to play outside. Santa, why do you wear red? Right to it, Right to it. She told Santa all about her. Why do you wear red? Why does Santa wear red?
Speaker 1:So red is a very, very familiar color. It's a very friendly color and when people see somebody in red they usually will say, hey, how's it going? You feel like you want to be able to say that. That's why fire trucks are red, so you'll notice them, say hi, and so Santa wears red, so that when he's out and about you'll notice him. You might even say hey, and it's a very friendly color.
Speaker 4:It doesn't evoke any kind of like ooh, he's scary, or anything like that. Well, and red is also like when you think of colors, and red's like love, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:And that's what Santa is. St Nicholas right, he's love.
Speaker 2:He brings love.
Speaker 4:He's the embodiment of bringing love to people.
Speaker 2:You guys both did that with a straight face. I'm actually buying this nonsense. It's true. It's true. Yeah, I mean, why not? I think he did red because that's what the wife had when she made the suit for him.
Speaker 1:Actually, red is because of Coca-Cola. Santa didn't wear red before the Coca-Cola. Santa came out Once, santa on the Coca-Cola, and he didn't look the way that he does now.
Speaker 1:Is this for real now, yeah, yeah, so when Coca-Cola came out with their marketing campaign it's actually true when he came out with their marketing campaign they made him a jolly fat guy. He wasn't originally like this. The St Nicholas was not a fat guy wearing red. He like that. The St Nicholas was not a fat guy wearing red, he was actually a priest and so he would have worn maybe priestly colors, maybe black and brown, kind of like that. But they made him a jolly fat guy. They put him in a red suit because Coca-Cola's colors red and white and that's why we have a red Santa.
Speaker 2:Wow, I'm impressed that was Chris. That's what I do, santa. What's your favorite color? Wait, I already asked that. Excuse me. Oh no, he asked what's your favorite color. I guess I would assume it's red, I would say red. Santa, what do you do for fun?
Speaker 3:so yeah. So I'd say that Santa Claus, you know, after being in North Pole all the time, he probably flies down to a warm climate and does a little surfing.
Speaker 2:I mean, I was going to say he probably just like sits there and watches TV or something, but what do I know? That's what's in show. Santa, please, may I have Legos for Christmas? Yes, please, would you bring my family something that they would like that was signed by Paige?
Speaker 3:That's really nice.
Speaker 2:One more. Dear Santa, thank you for the Goalie patch you bought me last year. I love going hunting with my dad. Hunting with your dad. We weren't hunters, were we? No, I didn't grow up hunting. My dad died when I was young, so I never went hunting. Sean, you should do some hunting.
Speaker 1:I may have gone hunting, but never with you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, more trauma healing right now, more trauma. Yeah, I live outside. Weston is his name. He's eight years old. He lives outside Tremont. He has two brothers, asher and Levi, and they're both into hockey. He has a twin sister named Tinley. She likes hockey also. His mom works at the Tractor Plus and she likes to keep the house clean. Dad works on the farm and he loves that. I help him and I love to play inside. Santa, what's your favorite cookie? What's your favorite elf and who's your favorite reindeer? Well, we've covered cookies already, elf. We haven't covered any elves.
Speaker 1:Buddy, buddy, the elf, that's my favorite Buddy.
Speaker 2:All right, what do you got? You got an elf favorite Bartholomew. Bartholomew.
Speaker 4:That's a great and receiving. He ensures all the books are great.
Speaker 2:Sure.
Speaker 4:Yeah he's got a really tough job. You'd think Santa's job is tough, bartholomew man. He's got to make sure all their expenses are paid every year. It's amazing. It's just. Everything he can do is just magical.
Speaker 1:Ricky, you got a favorite elf? Not really, no, I mean. I'll just concur with what they said what about the one in Rudolph that wants to be a dentist? Oh yeah, what was his name? I don't remember. I don't remember the one in Rudolph that wanted to be a dentist. That was kind of a weird name.
Speaker 2:Chris, okay what he says. Here you look that up For Christmas, I would like a gold necklace that is sparkly. Ooh, here you look that up for christmas, I would like a gold necklace that is sparkly. Oh, and I'm sure my sister told you in her letter that she'd love for chris what she'd like to have for christmas. So western was like okay, she's on her own on this one. Uh, so anyway, that's her, me. I just brought in three christmas letters. Is all her, me, her me the elf.
Speaker 1:Was that his name for real? Yeah, he's the one that wanted to be a dentist.
Speaker 4:Favorite reindeer Chris. Oh yeah, I forgot about that.
Speaker 2:I'm not a Rudolph fan Overrated. I think, so Way overrated. No, I like Comet. That's a cool name, comet. You don't like Rudolph? No, you said he was overrated. You can't like Rudolph, I like Rudolph. He was overrated.
Speaker 1:You can't say you like somebody and tell them that they're overrated.
Speaker 2:He is overrated.
Speaker 4:Ricky looks like son of the years. Good luck.
Speaker 2:I like Cupid Cupid. Ricky's the man of love, that's right Blitzen.
Speaker 4:That's a good name too. Did you know all the reindeer are female.
Speaker 2:No I didn't know that Even Comet.
Speaker 4:Yep, look it up, except Rudolph, obviously.
Speaker 2:Those are not all female, then?
Speaker 4:But look it up, all the females.
Speaker 2:There's Donner and Wait, what are their names? Donner and.
Speaker 1:Bonner, it's Dasher Dancer Prancer Vixen Comet Cupid Donner.
Speaker 2:Brinson and.
Speaker 1:Rudolph.
Speaker 2:Wow, you knew them all. Well, I love Christmas. You do love Christmas Go ahead Sean.
Speaker 4:Oh, that's it.
Speaker 2:That's all I had. Okay, hold on.
Speaker 3:Do you know why, though, that all the reindeer are likely female? No, I do not, Because only the female reindeer keep their antlers during the winter. The male shed them. Didn't know that, I didn't.
Speaker 2:See, not only is this fun, but it's educational. You know, this is the kind of stuff that you can take and you can go win bets on. I actually won trivia on that question.
Speaker 4:That's right. That's how I knew it. Oh, is that it? Yeah?
Speaker 2:Okay, that'll work. Anybody else got anything for this episode?
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're talking about Reindeer. Do you guys know the story behind Rudolph and where it originated from?
Speaker 3:and how it got there, uh-uh.
Speaker 1:All right, so sit back, relax. It was 1939. Robert L May. He was a copywriter for Montgomery Ward and he was supposed to create a Christmas story for the department store, and so May was inspired by his own childhood, including being shy and treated like Rudolph. He also drew inspiration from his daughter's love of reindeer at the Chicago Zoo, and so he was inspired to create Rudolph's red nose. After seeing a thick fog from Lake Michigan, it was blocking the view while he was thinking about the story and he imagined that this bright red nose would shine through the fog like a spotlight.
Speaker 1:And so Montgomery Ward distributed 2.4 million copies of the story in his first year. And the story was written with anisectic I don't know what this word is with anisectic. I don't know what this word is anapestic tetrameter, the same meter as A Visit from St Nicholas. I don't know what that is. But in 49, johnny Marks wrote the song May's Brother-in-Law, and he adapted the story into a song recorded by Gene Autry, and the song was the second best-selling record of all time until the 1980s so what did this guy get paid by?
Speaker 1:well I I have no idea how much he got paid, I just know he's the guy that kind of started the whole Rudolph um lore. Now of course we'd have to ask the real Rudolph if any of that is true. But since no one has actually talked to the real Rudolph, Well, wait, wait, wait, we got more.
Speaker 2:I just got to think about it. We were talking earlier about. We wanted to cover a couple of things that we do. Chris has a real interesting family tradition with his kids and his wife. Every Thanksgiving you guys draw names. Explain it, chris, with your dinner.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we have five kids. We have a daughter in love, and then we have one of our sons has a fiance, and so we will soon have two daughters-in-law. But we do a thing where we have two appetizers, two side dishes, an entree and two desserts, and so that's seven. And so we put those names of those items in a hat and then everyone draws an item. The deal is you can have anything you want for whatever you draw, and we have to eat it in order. So for the appetizers, one year we had chocolate pudding cake or chocolate pudding pie and popsicles. Those are the appetizers, and so you had to eat those first. And then you went to the side dishes, and one of the side dishes was biscuits and gravy, and another side dish was something else. And then the entree one year ended up being ice cream floats. So we had root beer floats for the entree, and you have to eat it in that order.
Speaker 1:And the reason why we did that was we were living in Maine, I was working at a radio station in Maine and we weren't going to have any family come to visit and I was tired of having the same dinner that we had just had on Thanksgiving at Christmas time and so my wife and I got together and we were like, well, what do we want to do? And I was like, I don't know, let's just do this little fun thing where you can have anything you want, and it's kind of a yes day for food. Do whatever you want and it'll be a lot of fun. My family is really big. If you meet my children, you know you'll meet them.
Speaker 1:When you say, what are your traditions? And they say, well, if my soon-to-be husband or wife doesn't accept this tradition, they're not getting married to me. So traditions are very important to my kiddos and it's kind of a big deal. It's a lot of fun. We're still doing it this year. Even though we have three of the kids living outside of the house, we're still doing all seven of the things at our house and that's what we do, I know. And you have to try a little. You have to try all of it. You can't say, oh, I would not like to have this or that or this. You have to have a little bit of everything.
Speaker 2:I know we get a kick out of when you guys post it on Facebook, yeah, and when you post the menu, candy and I are always going. We actually were at your house one year and we partook of that. It was a lot of fun. Okay, hold on. We're not actually going to tell you about that story right now. What we're going to do is that's it for this episode, and this is a to be continued, so you have to tune in next week to hear the rest of the story. All right, anybody want to say goodbye?
Speaker 3:See you guys later, merry Christmas.
Speaker 4:Oh that's a good idea.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Merry Christmas everybody, I'm going to wait to tell you Merry Christmas on Christmas Day.
Speaker 2:Okay, so you're going to come back To tell them Merry Christmas.
Speaker 1:Apparently, I'm the only one good enough to come. Everybody else is like no, I'm out.
Speaker 2:That does it for us. We'll see you guys next week. Adios.
