Getting to Know You 45:01

Gracious, good day everyone. You are listening to the Jan Arden Podcast. I'm with Caitlin Green, Adam Karsh, as always. We are your faithful and dedicated and loyal servants. We are here to talk to you, to entertain you, to bring you insights about life on the planet Earth. We're your ear buddies.

You guys have been my ear buddies. Listen, you know, everyone's kind of heard our voices over the last four or five months. The thing of it is, who is Caitlin Green? Who is Adam Karsh? I was inspired by an old Peter Zowski, kind of a podcast thing that I listened to when I was driving.

And he sort of spent some time getting to know or letting us get to know the people that he's been working with. So I was like taking notes as I was driving. I'm like, oh my God, I want to ask Adam and Caitlin, like all these questions. So I want to start with some questions for the first half of the show. Okay. Caitlin Green. Hello. What is one of your, and I'm going to ask you guys both the same question. So Adam, you have a chance to think about your answer.

What is your favorite meal, Caitlin? What is your desert island meal or your very last meal? I mean, what is something that you just, that fills your soul?

So I love food, all kinds of foods. So, so underline so much that this is a very difficult question for me because I think I probably would answer something different, you know, depending on whenever you ask me, but I will always tend towards, I love butter chicken. I love chicken.

um they have another there's another Indian dish I really love called aloo gobi which is like potatoes and cauliflower um I love a curry I really love a curry and I love it in a roti like um I love I like I like I like Jamaican and Caribbean roti a lot I love Indian roti as well so much so you wrap anything in soft fluffy kind of thin bread and if you've got a curry in the

So I think that would be high on my list. I also love sushi. I love sushi. I love Japanese food. I love their kind of like izakaya style restaurants. I mean, fried prawns, you're never going to go wrong with. So yeah, I'm happy with all that. Now, what would be your drink of choice on a, it doesn't need to be hot summer day, but what drink would go with that? A cold beer? Yeah. So if I was going to have, so if I was having a,

A roti. I would probably do some kind of a rum cocktail, I'm guessing. I really like what's called a dark and stormy. And it's sort of the national drink of Bermuda, which is actually where my brother-in-law lives. So I've spent quite a bit of time there. And it's ginger beer and really dark rum and a ton of lime. And it's delicious. Right.

Okay. I'll take your word for it. I might do that. I love a beer. I really just like a cold beer. And I love soda water. So I'd have soda water with anything. And in Britain, they would say, and your pud. What would be your pudding? And a pudding in the UK, it's a descriptive word that just covers desserts in general. Like when the UK folk talk to me about, what do you want for pudding? I'm like, I don't want a freaking pudding. No, no, like a dessert. What?

So what, what would your dessert be? Oh, this is, I'm a, I'm a traditionalist for desserts. I love pie and ice cream together. Can't go wrong. Any kind of pie, frankly, pie and ice cream, or frankly, another one, warm chocolate chip cookie with a glass of ice cold milk or, or milk related beverage, big old thing of oat milk. You got me.

Adam, I'm going to ask you the same question. Adam Karsh, father of two, been married for 15 years, 14 years? 16. 16 years. This is our 16th anniversary. Hey, no way. So you're a meal that brings you so much joy. What would it be, Adam?

Double cheeseburger and fries. Oh my gosh. Like I can keep going, but that would be at the top of the list. I love Chinese food. Chinese food. I love, I love like beef and broccoli. Cantonese chow mein. Wonton soup. I love that. I like pizza. I like chicken wings. I mean, you name it, I'll eat it. But the double, the double cheeseburger fries, uh,

What drink would you have with that? Honestly, just a Coke. Like a Coke Zero. I think, it's not that I don't drink beer. I would drink a beer. So you'd want a full fat Coke, right? Yeah. I probably could go full fat Coke. You know what I do sometimes? I like Grape Crush. Like a full fat Grape Crush. I'm with you. I'm with you all the way. The Grape Crush root beer. Do you guys remember, well, first of all, just as a sidebar, when I was a kid, one of my fondest memories

sort of memories that just takes over my heart and soul once in a while. And I just drove a little bit through BC to see my friend for a couple of days is the old timey pot machines that were the glass bottles that you pulled up through the steel. I guess it would be a harness that would flip up. You put your coins in and the bottles were demolished. They were scratched, but you reuse them.

They didn't even have prints on them, but I remember how cold they were, those glass bottles that you pulled up through the steel. Tasted better, too. Yes. And so your dessert, Adam, you've had your cheeseburger, you've had a full fat Coke. Now you're going to have something sweet. Probably at the top of my list would be warm pecan pie with vanilla ice cream on top. Oh, yes. Yes.

Like a butter tart too. I love butter tarts. Is anybody else's mouth watering right now? I'm drooling and I just ate lunch. And I'm having my healthy smoothie in the background as I'm telling you all the heart clogging things I'd like to eat. I also love brownies. Like I'm not a candy guy. I don't do jujubes and gummy bears and sour keys. Like it's not that I wouldn't eat it. It just does nothing for me. I love rich fudgy brownies. I like the combination of chocolate and peanut butter. I like seven layer chocolate cake. I love all that stuff.

The richer, the better. Food is such an extraordinary part of human life, making it for people. Would you consider yourself a cook, Caitlin? Like is cooking something you like to do? Yeah, I really, really like it. I just love food so much. I love learning a new dish. I love discovering like a whole new, you know, culture's cuisine for the first time and testing out the recipes. If I find like a new spice, I'm excited.

So yeah, I like to cook and my husband's a really good cook too. And it's fun to cook kind of for each other and for your friends. Okay. New topic, Caitlin, can you think back to your first experience with having a crush on somebody and how

If that was a scary thing, an enjoyable thing, a confusing thing, how old were you? Don't have to name names. Maybe what grade you were in and what the circumstances were of who that was. I can get real specific. Okay, go. I had a huge crush in grade one. I was in Mrs. Carr's class, and I had a huge crush on Adam. Shout out to Mrs. Carr.

She was an angel. And the kid I had a crush on was Adam Hobbins Lockett. Okay, one more time, just so he knows we're talking about him. Adam's Hobbins Lockett? Adam Hobbins, plural, Lockett, singular. Also just the world's most adorable last name. Like it sounds like it's like Teddy Ruxpin or something. No, I swear to God. Was he in Lord of the Rings? I'm just putting that out there.

He was just like a sweetheart, even back in, you know, like grade one. He was just the nicest guy. And he was friends with a little nearby neighbor of mine whose name was Sinead. And the two of them would hang out and I would walk over and play with them. And he was just so sweet and kind. He just had a nice vibe about him. And he had like, I think like a kind of thick relationship.

at the time, very cool, like mushroom cut. And he came to my birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese and he wore like a little tie and suspenders. And I just was like, gosh, Caitlin, I was just like, I really liked this guy. Like right away. I was like, okay. So was it an, can you recollect if it was like a, a foreign feeling that, you know, came from the tips of your toes and rose up through your torso? Like, was it like, I feel a physical thing for this boy?

Kind of. It was mostly just like, I want to spend time around you. And I always, you feel like you always want to be nice to them. And you're just like excited. Like I would just be excited if we were together on like a project or if it was like, ooh, sit next to each other at reading circle or like, you know, the parachute thing where you'd flick the parachute up over you in gym class. And everyone would, if I was like, oh, me touching Adam Hobbins Lockett under the parachute, that was as good as it got in grade one. Did you ever...

Did you go to school with him for the next few years? Did you ever get to kiss him on the smackers? No, he moved away. He moved away. Sinead and his family moved back to Japan. And I was just like, that's it. This stinks. And I don't think I really liked anyone after that for a while. We're going to cast a net out there. Adam's Hobbit Locket. No, what's his name? Adam Hobbit Locket. Yeah. Yeah.

Adam Hobbins Lockett, if you are out there, Caitlin Greene is very happily married. She sends you her best salutations and love. Adam, I'm going to ask you the same question. First crush. I can do this. As much or as little detail as you would like to offer.

Grade five. She was in grade five too. Her name's Stacy. We were in The Wizard of Oz, a play. I was the wizard, believe it or not. And she was the tin man. And oh, super cute. Stacy was super cute. I really liked her. She did not return the love. But we were friends. We're still friends. I think we're friends on Facebook today. Unrequited love is always so...

It's precarious, but it has been the source of so much literature, so much music, so much art for thousands of years is the unreachable love. How much time do we have left, Adam? We have one minute. One minute, so the quick fire round. Okay. We can go two if you want. Yes or no answer from both of you.

If you saw your, let's say your best friend, your neighbors that you've known for years, you see him in a grocery store, arms around another woman, kissing the nape of her neck. Do you tell your neighbor or is it something that you bury away? I ask these types of questions at dinner parties with my friends. Do you just like, not my problem, not saying anything to her, or do you say something at him?

I don't think I would. I think I would. I wouldn't want to get involved. All right. A neighbor. If it was a neighbor, they would get an email from anonymous friend at hotmail.com. I wouldn't, I wouldn't, I wouldn't own it, but I'd put it out there and be like, okay, I'm not responsible for, I can't like, yeah, I don't want to see them in the hall after that.

I just feel like being a tattletale is such a difficult thing, but I feel like I would say something. Anyway, we're having a fun show today. This is Get to Know Adam Karsh, Get to Know Caitlin Green. And it's one of those conversations that you just want to jump in and go, oh my God, my first time was... Anyway, you're listening to the Jan Arden Podcast. Getting to know you. Getting to know all about you.

Getting to like you, getting to hope you like me. Welcome back to the Jan Arden Podcast. It's Get to Know Your Coworker Day with Caitlin Green, Adam Karsh. We've been doing so much of this remotely, which is what got me thinking about all of this. And what also got me thinking about getting to know people is that

Whenever we go in between these breaks, everybody, Caitlin and Adam and I inevitably end up having these quick fire chats about things that don't end up in the podcast. And we often say to each other, oh my gosh, this is the damn podcast. Save it. Don't talk about it now. Let's talk about it at the podcast. And don't you guys find there's something very unusual that happens when you hit that record button and we start recording? As much as we're very candid about

There really is a different tone and a different thing that happens when the record button comes off. So having said that, I wanted to ask you guys about shame and about embarrassment. And it's kind of a weird thing to go back to, but shame and embarrassment are things that linger with us for our whole lives. We can recall things and be right back standing in that pool of, ugh, shame.

So is there something that you're willing to share an experience that was just like, Oh my God, that's so embarrassing. Um, from childhood or from adulthood or from overhearing somebody say something about you from Caitlin, anything, does anything come to mind? Um,

I had a bathroom, like with the bathroom stall, like the cliche bathroom stall movie thing where it was like me and like two friends talking about one girl who we didn't like. And like, she was in the bathroom stall and it's just like, yeah.

And you feel terrible afterwards and forever. So I just want to tell everybody, you really need to check the stalls. It's not a joke. How old were you, Caitlin? I think we were in grade 7 or something. You're at school. So 12, 13? I think like 12. And this is at the point in life where talking about people behind their back at this age is like a hobby.

Right. And you don't really like think about it. This again, this is all like pre bullying awareness and all this stuff. Like I just think kids are nicer. I hope kids are nicer now. But yeah, so I felt terrible about that. I think I'm trying to remember when I felt really, I know that I felt really embarrassed about not knowing the correct answer to something like not knowing what

I've had a really difficult time telling time in school. Like I have issues with numbers. So like looking at a clock and being able to tell time was not easy for me getting started. And our teachers had this sweat inducing game where they would just randomly turn to someone and be like, Paul, tell us the time right now in front of the whole class. I think I must've like that. I remember really not enjoying. I'm trying to remember other times. Like there have been some, I hate not knowing something. That's a lot. Yeah. It was stressful as a kid.

It is so stressful. And it's funny how you can relive those things. I don't think animals do it. They say human beings are the only species on the planet that can recollect something that happened. They can punish themselves over and over in real time for something that's 30, 40 years old. Animals don't do it. You know, they screw up, they F up.

Sorry. And I think we caught that. And they move on, but we punish ourselves over and over. Adam, any shameful... I mean, I don't expect you to dig into the nude files of Adam Karsh. No, I actually don't have any crazy shameful stories. But I guess when you're saying you're tying embarrassment into the...

into that as well. Like, I just remember I was picked on a lot as a kid and I was overweight. So, you know, to be made fun of in front of people. I'm going to beat the crap out of those people, Adam. I want names and addresses. But you know what? Those people are probably all miserable, Adam. They're miserable and they're in miserable lives and their kids are horrible and they hate their job. Let's just imagine it that way. But it does bring embarrassment, doesn't it, when you think about...

not being able to defend yourself. You feel bad it's in front of other people and everyone laughs at you. And it's just like, I wasn't brutally bullied, but just I was made fun of and picked on. Well, you turned out to be one of the nicest, most professional, kind-hearted people

filled with joy. One thing I'll say about being around both of you guys is your attitudes, like even through this entire process, which has been hair raising, anxiety filling. It's just been a really crap time. You guys have been so consistent and positive. I think our conversations have been meaningful and I'd never have heard you guys say, woe is me, whether it's for work or

So you guys turned out to be frigging awesome. Well, you're pretty optimistic yourself. You always say how you're like, I am very optimistic, but you are, I think it's, you know, and everyone, you can tell when, when you get together with people and you, they're positive and they kind of see, they see the glass half full most of the time and not in the cliche, like fake way. Like they really mean it. I think it's nice. Cause you wind up sort of in a way, like you follow their lead on that. Like it feels good to not be bummed out all the time.

It really does. Just in the last few minutes, I know we're going back to food. Maybe that's my theme of the day. But I want to know really quickly what a favorite meal was that your mom cooked for you or your grandmother as a child. Adam, can you recall? For me, it was my grandma's molasses ginger cookies. They were soft and chewy.

and her cream puffs. Like I just, my mind got blown off. I remember till I was in my twenties by her, her ginger snap cookies and her cream puffs. So is there something that your grandma or your mom made for you that is just like transcendental? My mom's a really good cook. She makes these like,

crusted veal chops that are just phenomenal. They're to die for. And what else? She makes a really good coleslaw. She does that really well. Yeah. What did I grow up as a kid? Shepherd's pie. She made, I love the shepherd's pie. She made this tortellini. I could never create it. I don't know what sauce she used. It was like veal stuffed or tortellini stuffed with veal. And I don't know what sauce that was just amazing.

delicious we're not italian by the way but it was amazing the beginning of your culinary journey any faves from your grandma your mom mom would be pineapple glazed ham like a big roast with scalloped potatoes huge potatoes were the best and then uh also she would do a prime rib roast with mushroom gravy yorkshire pudding mashed potatoes she could nail a creamed spinach like a

Oh, yeah. To get your kids to eat spinach. And my grandmother was this expert baker. She was like a little scientist in the kitchen. And at her house, Granny Green's house and PEI, you'd wake up every morning, there'd be probably two different kinds of bread. She'd make biscuits, and you'd have them with molasses and butter. And she also did the ginger snap cookies, which I adored.

I'm going to send you guys my grams recipe when we get off the podcast today. I'm going to send it to you. And I want our little thing is to make them this week. I want you guys to, all this stuff is easy to get and let's make them. Cause I really want you to try one of my grams cookies. You're listening to the Jan Arden podcast. We'll be right back.

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Go right now. Oh, gosh. This has been good. My mouth has been watering since we started this. I'm getting to know Caitlin Green and Adam Karsh, who have been with me for this entire journey, and hopefully when we are still doing this podcast 30 years from now, From the Grave. It'll be called Jan Arden Podcast, From the Grave. And we'll have like a creaky door sound effect and some spooky words. Oh, yes. Yes. Yes.

I guess we have been talking about food and favorite meals. My grandma, my mom's mom, was one of 17 kids. So I think she grew up, she was raised by one of her older sisters because her mom died when she was just a little girl. But anyway, they all learned to cook so well back then. I mean, this would have been the 20s and the 30s, which seems so weird to even say that.

Um, but they, my, my grandma could make things taste so great. I have an orange, it's kind of like a Le Creuset, is it Le Creuset pot? Yeah, Le Creuset, yeah. Le Creuset. Well, I don't think it's called that, but it is an orange iron pot that I got from my grandmother. I don't have a lot of her things, but I have this pot. I bet you I ate, you know, 400,000 meals out of that pot.

but she could do, she did those one pot things of a, back when I ate meat, a couple of little roast pearl onions and potatoes, but the gravy was just, I can't even express it. I don't, it was like pepper and it had a bit of balsamic vinegar in it. And it had a bit of sugar in it. I don't even know what it was. She's gone long since gone now, my gram, but

Meals like that, even in my darkest hours, it's funny. That's the kinds of stuff I think back to is those memories that are so comforting and they usually always involve a meal. Yeah.

That's why I sort of, there's a, like, I have some friends who watch what they eat to a degree where they, I don't really think enjoy food that much. Because they're so, so careful. And I certainly understand if you have dietary restrictions, allergies, all that. But then I do think that sometimes it's like, they're so obsessed with not consuming too much.

too much food that I think it's kind of like robbed them of some of the joy of eating and those childhood meals. And it is a, it's a joy, like it really is. And you don't have to go, you know, overindulge and make yourself sick or anything, but there is a way to moderate your food and still really enjoy it that I think like the whole obsession with diets and everything has taken some of that away from people. And it's so simple and so fun. All right.

I really look forward to the holidays because, and we were talking before mentioning my mom's food. I got to give my mom's brisket a shout out because her brisket is phenomenal. So we always have that for the, for at holiday times. And just to what you were saying, like I look forward to the holidays because I truly don't restrict or limit myself in any way. It is a free for all of everything. I eat it all dessert. I want to leave the meal being very upset with myself. Well,

I just remember any kind of holiday meal around our house when my parents were here and, you know, we had a house full of kids and we all just were sleeping after a meal. And my mother standing with her pineapple apron tied around her waist and

You know, thank God they always sort of make houses with a kitchen sink window to look out. I have yet to see a house where the woman who's usually doing the dishes is staring into a brick wall. Like they've at least always given women a window to look out of when they're doing the dishes. Yeah.

But I just, I have a memory of mom standing there and she wouldn't, no, you guys sit down. I'll do it. My mom was not a good cook. And I've talked about her crock pot meals before. And okay, here's my next question for you.

We all had to go to school. And for the most part, I'm assuming you guys had to take lunches once in a while. Yeah. Caitlin, what was in your lunchbox on an average day? I can remember my most common lunch, and it was every day. And my dad made lunches, actually. And I went to school with a little cooler, and it had an ice pack in it to keep everything cool inside. And it was...

It was a sandwich. Clever. And the sandwich was usually black forest ham and Havarti cheese. Oh, yeah. Fancy. Yeah, my dad took great care in this lunch. So it was Havarti cheese, black forest ham, mayo, mustard, some lettuce. And it was always on like a dusty Italian roll. Kind of like a...

Like a softer. What is going on here? Oh, it doesn't stop. It doesn't stop there. Always a chocolate milk, sometimes a milk, but mostly a chocolate milk. Oh, Caitlin. And then cut up honeydew melon and blueberries and some kind of a really great dessert, like a passion flaky or a Joe Louie.

Oh, Joe Louie's. Oh, yeah. What in the actual H-E double hockey sticks? Again, only child. And this was kind of my dad's area. My mom did like weekend breakfast and dinners. But he really took pride in a lunch. And he packed his own lunch to go to work. And so this was his thing. He knew how to do it. A dusty flowered bun.

Yeah, there was a great little bake. With black forest ham and Havarti cheese. There was a great bakery deli combo place in the beach where I grew up called the Hasty Market. And they had the best bread. And you'd go there and get the fresh bread and the buns, the deli meat, the cheese, and everything, one-stop shop. Adam, I don't know if you can talk. It's ridiculous. I don't think you can have her on the podcast anymore. Ha ha.

I remember as a kid, it was a lot of like bologna sandwiches. So good though. I'm with you. Bologna. I mean, beaks and butts. That's what they called it in my house. I don't care what's in it. Bologna is, it's like, I heard it described as like,

hot dog pancakes or something because it's just a giant basic right and then another favorite sandwich and I could literally eat this every day for lunch I love a tuna sandwich is this is this what was in your lunch kit yeah I would have so did the tuna not absorb the freaking bread into it by the time you got there like yeah you'd have to have you'd have to have a very thick

butter barrier is what we called it to keep the mayo from getting liquidy and soaking into the bread yeah so you had tuna or bologna no no not now but back in the day then what else was in your lunch kit probably like carrot sticks or celery cucumber and a juice box always a juice box did the other kids look at you caitlin with disdain

Kind of. It was, I mean, like at the time, like kids didn't really care that much about like the sandwich. They weren't that into the sandwich, like, you know, cut up fruits or whatever. But it was the, it was the pastry. It was the pastry at the end and the chocolate milk because a lot of kids, you know, they'd get like maybe around Halloween, they'd get like the Halloween sized treat. And other than that, it was like an old dried granola bar. So to get like a passion flaky daily at school, I mean, I had it pretty good. Yeah.

Do you remember speaking of granola bars? I think they only sold them in the States. So when we would go to Buffalo, we'd bring back boxes of them. They were called Kudos. Do you remember Kudos? No, no. They were like granola bars, but on steroids. A Kudo? Kudo. Like Kudos to you. Kudo. I do not know that. They were the best granola bars. They might still even make them. I don't know. But they were like granola bars, but dipped in chocolate. They were like one notch below Kudos.

chocolate bars but I'm like oh it's healthy it's a granola bar and I ate a lot of them

as a kid. I like Dunkaroos. I would trade a passion flaky for Dunkaroos sometimes. Those were pretty good. I'm not familiar with Dunkaroo. They're like little, they're, you know, they're like cookies and they were always a kangaroo and you would dip them in frosting. So it'd be like a Betty Crocker style frosting in one end and then a little container of these cookies and you dip it in. And it was great. It was like little graham crackers with icing. I love those things. Well,

I mean, I know I'm a slightly tad older than you guys and going to Springbank Community High School, but before that in junior high, Springbank Junior High, such clever names for these schools. I mean, my lunches were just much like Adam, bologna or like tomato slices in white bread, never, ever traveled well.

We had dad's cookies almost every day of my life. I love dad's cookies. Well, they took the skin off the roof of my mouth. So if you ate a bunch of dad's cookies, it would take the skin off the roof of your mouth. But seriously, I know we've talked about wagon wheels on this show, but I can't eat them to this day.

And further to that, they were generic wagon wheels. And so they weren't even like, and that was devastating to me as a kid because we didn't have a lot of money and mom bought a lot of generic stuff. And when we were talking about shame earlier in the show,

I was a little bit embarrassed about having no name brand stuff. I know that sounds so stupid. I get it. I get it. But when you're a kid, your world is so small and food is such a big part of it. And, and the weird little things that matter as kids, like they seem silly when you look back as an adult, but that was your, like, that was your whole world. Like opening up that lunchbox, opening up my Barbie lunchbox was a big deal. We're going to talk more about that when we come back for the final episode

installment of today's Jan Arden, Caitlin and Adam podcast. Welcome back. You've been listening to the Jan Arden podcast. Get to know Adam Karsh and Caitlin Green Day. Not Green Day, the band, but Caitlin Green. Yes. When you were children, we're still going back in time. We've talked about favorite foods. We've talked about things that your grandmother made for you. And

Grandfathers, any specific things to them that you can remember? I used to sit with my legs around my grandpa's chair, his armchair, with this steel comb that he had from the Second World War, this army that must have been in his army kit, and he would let me comb his hair for

forever he wasn't a real kid's kids he was my step granddad but he was the only granddad I ever knew but he would let me comb his hair it seemed like for days but I would sit there with my little legs hanging over his shoulders sitting on the back of his chair like a big arm chair combing his hair so and that's a really great memory for me I was thinking about it a couple of weeks ago and I just thought oh my god he was didn't really like kids but he put up with it

Anything from grandpa's side of the fence. Adam? Oh, so this was my mom's dad. And my grandparents, except for my grandmother on my mom's side, they all died fairly young. But I absolutely have memories. I have a really fond memory of my grandfather. When I went to go visit them at their house, we would walk to the variety store and he would buy me a Kit-Kat. Oh, God. It's awesome, right? Yeah.

I saw that 40 years ago. I remember it like it was yesterday. Caitlin? So my grandfather on my mom's side, he was kind of the strong, silent type. You know, 10 kids, built his house with his bare hands. You know, he also was like a traveling salesman. He was in the army. He fought in World War II. Like just, you know, like that kind of guy. Loved Hockey Night in Canada, loved boxing, and loved the three tenors. Like loved the Pavarotti. Yeah.

Um, so he was a cool guy. And Placido Domingo. Exactly. Oh, okay. I remember that. He was cool. He had a strong silent type vibe, but he, he was always like a warm kind of like presence, but you know, he'd seen some things in his life and like, you got the sense that he was like, can I just watch hockey night in Canada? So, so that's, that was, I remember him, he had his chair in the living room and that's kind of like, that's what he did.

And, and my dad on or my grandfather on my dad's side, I knew a bit better. He was actually where he worked in government. He was a deputy minister in Prince Edward Island for social services. And he really spent a lot of his life kind of trying to like

I guess like improve the lives of other people, people who had disabilities, single moms, kids with learning disabilities, that kind of thing. He was a real social causes guy. He loved when we would come to visit to the island and he would always take us to go to Wendy's. That was like the first stop or Smitty's. You'd go right from the airport there. Smitty's. Smitty's. And he would always take me to the quick food. Smitty's, you can sponsor us. Smitty's, please sponsor us. Come on, Smitty's.

We'd go to the Quick Pick and, you know, go to the beach. And he loved Scrabble. He lived under a stack of books and newspapers. And every time he'd go visit them, they would have a caricature artist on the island draw up, like, me as my current year. So it's like if I was into, like, roller skating or whatever. Aww.

It was so cute. And he had racehorses. So he loved racehorses. And so we'd always go to the track and watch his horses. And if they won, you could go into like the winner's circle and take photos and stuff with the big horses. And it wasn't like a fancy thing at all. It was like small town Prince Edward Island. But it was just cool. Like he was just a very smart. It will stick with you your whole life. Oh.

Walking to get your Kit Kat, Adam, or the racetrack. There's something that we don't think about a lot, and that is any kind of smell, scent. I've been thinking a lot about, we used to drive to Lethbridge once in a while, well, more than once in a while, probably a couple of times a year.

That was where my dad was from. His father died in 1962, and his mother continued to live on her own pretty much up to her death, but we would drive up to see her

And it was the house that my dad grew up in. Not a lot had been done to it. But I can remember the smell of that house. Let me get that. Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention? Do you hear this? Ladies and gentlemen, your attention. What is it? It's Caitlin's... Fire alarm system. Fire alarm will be activated.

This is real. This is real life, folks. Do they know we're recording a podcast right now? This is very rude of Toronto Fire Services. It's only a test, everyone. Thank God it's only a test. It's a test.

That's the, this is the creepy big brother thing about living in a condo building is you have these speakers in your unit for this purpose and it can just come on without any warning. Anyways. Well, you don't want, you don't want anyone, you know, coming into your bedroom at two o'clock in the morning saying you're doing it wrong. Anyway, let's hope that doesn't come on again. That was Caitlin's house. It was, at least you have a fire department that cares, a building that cares, but the smell in my grandma's house.

was like nothing I've ever smelled since. It had its own thing. I've never forgotten, and I only thought about it a little while ago. And even thinking about it, you guys, just brought back this memory. I didn't get along that well with that grandmother, although she really liked me. I remember her saying to me one day, you know, you're one of my favorites. And she had a lot of grandchildren.

But she had jars of water on all the radiators, which would have been probably the humidifier of the 60s. So all these jars were sitting there. And they kind of gave me the creeps. So when you're seven or eight years old, there are all these things that just they weren't like they were at home. My grandmother's fridge, for instance, was probably a fridge, an old Frigidaire from the 50s.

And it was a big handle that you pulled down and the latch would open. It was like a commercial. And it was just this little white, it looked like porcelain. And it was off in the corner and it just buzzed. It made a sound that you could hear from other rooms in the house was this refrigerator going. And inside that refrigerator, there was nothing packaged. It was everything that was made by a homemaker. Like it was jars of

I mean, it was the first time in my life I saw a pickled egg. I saw, you know, preserves and ferments and milk that was from a cow that had three inches of cream on top of it sitting in the container. And it just kind of gave me willies as a kid. So it's so funny how different the grandmothers were, but just, I don't know why I've been so...

Like just ruminating on these old memories. I don't know if you guys do that. I think you do it more now. You know, I don't know, Adam, if you agree, but like, I've been doing it more now. I think maybe because maybe because of the pandemic. So you're just sitting alone with your thoughts.

I'm very nostalgic and I reminisce and I hold on to things and all those memories are really important to me. And I like talking about them with my family. I like sharing the stories like, Dan, when you were describing your grandmother's fridge, like that was exactly my grandmother's fridge. And they didn't have a lot of money. So like, I remember walking into their house and it was like walking. They didn't buy processed foods at them.

No, it was real stuff. And but their house, like even when I was a kid, even when I was a teenager in my early 20s going into because my grandmother lived till I was 26. And my grandfather passed away when I was like seven or eight. But like her house was a time warp. Everything was from like the 40s. It was maybe she got a new fridge. But like when I was a kid, oh, that fridge was I think it was turquoise or teal and had the big honking whatever handle to open it.

frost all over the place. It was amazing. Her house was stuck in the 40s and I can...

I can still smell it. I can still remember it. I know the color of the walls and color of the carpets. I remember like going into my grandmother's house, my grandparents' house on my mom's side, they were in Port Dover and there were two weeping willows at the entryway. And the weeping willows would like tickle the car kind of thing, almost like a car wash. Yeah. And I just loved it when you were pulling up, like, you know, going down the highway, it was like

rural route eight or something and you'd see those willow trees I loved it it was such a cool thing that you just remember all the time as a little kid and they grew up in like the green belt so there was always fresh produce I mean always strawberries always Ontario peaches and plums like it was it was awesome how do we create that solitude for ourselves as we go forward

And I think it also, you know, it makes us think about what we are creating for younger people, what you're creating for your kids, Adam, and even who you're mentoring, Caitlin, like young kids in your life, whether it's, you know, your friends' kids or... Nieces and nephews, yeah. Yeah. Like how, you know, I think what has come into my mind is that

The way we carry ourselves, the way we talk to these kids, the glass of milk that we give them on the counter, the snacks we make for them, the things that are in our fridges, the smell of our cars, walking someone to a convenience store, taking five minutes out of our day to go get a Kit Kat bar. I think what...

I guess the lesson here, or if there's a moral to any of this, is that these memories, these indelible memories stick to kids. We don't think they're going to remember. And things my mom said to me as a teenager, those words are what carry me on my hardest, toughest days, is my mom's simple things. Well, of course you can do it. Well, don't worry about that. There's nothing wrong with your arms.

you know, you, it, things will get better. It won't like, so we, we have to keep that in mind, I think of what are these young people are hearing and seeing us do. Right. Yeah. I mean, I think too, like, I love, there was a famous quote from Maya Angelou, you know, to the effect of that people aren't going to necessarily remember everything you do or your accomplishments, but they'll remember how you make them feel.

Yes, I love that, Caitlin. It's so true. And you really remember how people, especially as a kid, you remember how certain adults made you feel just their presence, sort of what they were about. And it's the little details about buying you the Kit Kat or giving you some kind words or having the pickled eggs in their fridge. All that stuff really sticks with you. And so when you're spending time with young people, it's easy to forget about all those things. But when you look back

into your own library of reference. It's like, yeah, that all those little things really mattered when you were young. Well, this has been a blast for me. I want to thank Adam and Caitlin for humoring me. I just wanted to get to know you guys a little bit better and we're going to continue to do that.

One thing I'd like you to watch for this week, just quickly as we wrap up, please go on to the Jan Arden podcast, Twitter handle, easy to find, fire us off a question or a quandary that you might want us to tackle next week. Uh,

We'd love to hear from you. Anything that you are worried about or concerned about or that there's a scruple issue that you want us to solve, we're going to start doing that on a weekly basis. We're going to start taking a question or a quandary of the week. We haven't decided what to call it yet. But once again, thanks for coming along on the Jan Arden Podcast. Adam Karsh, Caitlin Green. We'll see you next week. Thanks for listening to 2D.

This podcast is distributed by the Women in Media Podcast Network. Find out more at womeninmedia.network.