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Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, welcome back to shop Talk number sixteen, which

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Speaker 1: is I'm calling why can't everybody have a yard person

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Speaker 1: like normal folks. But Alex is the one that actually

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Speaker 1: produces and titles this thing. So if the title that's

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Speaker 1: on your prompt to get to this is not the

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Speaker 1: title I just said, that's because Alex doesn't allow me

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Speaker 1: to title anything. He's very controlling over that, aren't you, Alex, Yes,

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Speaker 1: you're also very busy busy. Yeah, so shop Talk number

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Speaker 1: sixteen right after these brief messages from our general sponsors.

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Speaker 1: So one of the decisions Lisa and I made early

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Speaker 1: on is that we were going to make our kids

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Speaker 1: cut some grass. Now, I want to explain why I

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Speaker 1: was broken. I couldn't afford yard man. No, I'm kidding,

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Speaker 1: Actually I was at first. But when we moved to

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Speaker 1: what we thought was going to be a for ever house,

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Speaker 1: which we've moved from because there's no such thing as

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Speaker 1: a forever house, I found that out. We lived on

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Speaker 1: a couple acres with a little pond in the back.

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Speaker 1: Out in the out in the rural area. It was

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Speaker 1: a lot of grass and there are a lot of trees,

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Speaker 1: and it was a lot of weed eating, and Lisa

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Speaker 1: wanted English ivy growing up the trees eight feet Well,

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Speaker 1: that stuff grows. He got a trim it and there

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Speaker 1: were bushes all over the place that she had to trim,

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Speaker 1: and then there was trees everywhere, so she had to

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Speaker 1: break the leaves. It was just a nightmare to keep up.

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Speaker 1: But I had for little yard people named Maggie, Molly,

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Speaker 1: Will and Mix and so uh, it was a rite

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Speaker 1: of passage in our family that every Sunday after church

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Speaker 1: we came home and put our work clothes on, and

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Speaker 1: it was yard day. And I'm telling you, with me

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Speaker 1: and the four kids and Lisa providing lemonade, water and

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Speaker 1: moral support, we uh, we were five hours every day.

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Speaker 1: Now as the kids got a little older into high school,

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Speaker 1: we reduced that time to three or four hours because

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Speaker 1: they got older and stronger. It could work quicker. And

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Speaker 1: by that time it had been trained pretty well and

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Speaker 1: knew what to do. But I'll never forget Maggie was

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Speaker 1: in eighth grade, Miley seventh, Will six, and Max fifth.

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Speaker 1: And it was a typical Memphis summer August day, which

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Speaker 1: if you don't know the Memphis world in summer, it

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Speaker 1: is never under ninety seven degrees and the humidity is

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Speaker 1: never under seventy five percent. Heat index is typically one

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Speaker 1: oh five one ten, and it's just miserable. And then

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Speaker 1: when you're out in the yard cutting grass, and dirt

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Speaker 1: and grass clippings are still into your sweaty arms, your

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Speaker 1: sun burnt, you're tired. It's a lot of work, it

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Speaker 1: really is. But I just couldn't ever see paying a

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Speaker 1: guy to cut my grass while my four kids sat

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Speaker 1: on their ass and ate bond bonds like a bunch

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Speaker 1: of entitled, spoiled kids. So we did it, but that

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Speaker 1: required me to get off my butt and go out

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Speaker 1: there with them, which sucked. But it was just something

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Speaker 1: we did. And I gotta be honest with you this

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Speaker 1: particular August, after three or four years of doing this,

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Speaker 1: I was starting to think, you know, Bill, you've made

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Speaker 1: enough money you could pay I got to cut the grass,

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Speaker 1: and you really want to be out here every Sunday

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Speaker 1: and being sunburnt, and you know, the kids are going crazy,

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Speaker 1: they're sick of it, And I was really questioning whether

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Speaker 1: or not requiring my kids to do those chores was

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Speaker 1: worth it, really, and if it was having any impact

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Speaker 1: other than just me getting some free child labor. And

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Speaker 1: it was then that Molly came around the corner with

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Speaker 1: a big black bag full of clippings that she was

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Speaker 1: going to put in the clipping pile. Red faced, hair

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Speaker 1: pulled back in a ponytail, and she's got her mom's disposition.

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Speaker 1: When things are great, she's the funnest, nicest, funniest person

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Speaker 1: in the world to be around. But when she is

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Speaker 1: not happy, she is an ogre. And yes, that is Lisa,

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Speaker 1: well it's also Molly. Molly is a mini Lisa. So

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Speaker 1: Molly comes around the corner and she's not happy, and

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Speaker 1: she's an ogre, and she's carrying a bag, and she's

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Speaker 1: in seventh grade, which means she's, you know, gotten to

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Speaker 1: the age where it's okay to question your parent. And

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Speaker 1: she looks at me, squinted eyes, sunbaaten down on her

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Speaker 1: red face, sunbeamed grass in her hair, just mad as

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Speaker 1: Helen says, Dad, this is getting ridiculous. Why can't we

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Speaker 1: have a yard man like normal people, normal people with

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Speaker 1: a yard man. It was then that I decided, as

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Speaker 1: long as they lived under my roof, they were going

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Speaker 1: to cut my grass. And literally, all the way through college,

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Speaker 1: I never had anybody work in our yard, but our kids.

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Speaker 1: Because my daughter was going to school with people who

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Speaker 1: had some means, and thank God that she did. She

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Speaker 1: went to better schools than I did, It was in

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Speaker 1: a better neighborhood than I did, and it was very

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Speaker 1: common for her to look around her little insulated peace

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Speaker 1: of the world and see everybody's well manicured throng being

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Speaker 1: done by people that didn't live in that neighborhood. And

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Speaker 1: we were very uncommon, and some of the even kids

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Speaker 1: thought maybe Lisa and I were even a little neurotic.

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Speaker 1: But to Molly's limited world, to Maggie, Molly and Wills

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Speaker 1: and Max's limited insular world, everybody had a yard man,

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Speaker 1: and we were just weird for not having one. They

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Speaker 1: never understood at that age that most people don't have

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Speaker 1: the ability. Most people don't even have a yard. I

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Speaker 1: never grew up with yard. But then the people that

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Speaker 1: are fortunate enough to your yard, the vast majority of

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Speaker 1: those people can't afford a yard man. They buy a

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Speaker 1: lawn more in gas, and they spend the weekends taking

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Speaker 1: care of the yard. And that wasn't their reality and

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Speaker 1: their little insulated world because they hadn't seen beyond their world.

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Speaker 1: And my concern was that a yard man, because of

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Speaker 1: subservient human being in their mind's eye, and therefore people

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Speaker 1: working outside, sweating, earnest, hard living, were somehow beneath their

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Speaker 1: station of the world because they were the quote yard

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Speaker 1: man that normal people quote have. Why can't we have

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Speaker 1: a yardman like normal people? That question, in and of

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Speaker 1: itself reeks of things that I fear for my family

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Speaker 1: and my children. Do you have a yard man or

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Speaker 1: do you have a kid with a lawnmower? I just

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Speaker 1: think that we need to understand that getting hot and

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Speaker 1: sweaty and skinning knees and having to do chores and

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Speaker 1: being grounded and having to having to do stuff you

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Speaker 1: don't want to do is a really good lesson because

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Speaker 1: I guarantee you, every one of you listening to me

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Speaker 1: right now, as adults on a weekly basis, are required

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Speaker 1: to do some things you just don't want to do,

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Speaker 1: but you do them anyway. What is wrong with our

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Speaker 1: kids learning that lesson? What is wrong with kids learning

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Speaker 1: that not everybody is blessed enough to have a nice

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Speaker 1: house with a yard, and not everybody is blessed with

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Speaker 1: enough resources to be able to have a yard man,

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Speaker 1: and just because you have those blessings doesn't mean you

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Speaker 1: should have one. Maybe you should do it yourself to

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Speaker 1: remain connected to the reality of the world and do

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Speaker 1: in a weird way to give thanks for the blessings

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Speaker 1: you have. So Lisa and I decided our kids were

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Speaker 1: our yardmen, and that we were in fact going to

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Speaker 1: show our kids what normal folks really did do on

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Speaker 1: weekends and made our children our yardmen. So that's shop

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Speaker 1: Talk number fifteen, and maybe that's sixteen. That's shop Talk

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Speaker 1: number sixteen. I think anyway, shop Talk number something team

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Speaker 1: and it's a challenge for me today to you to

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Speaker 1: think about your children and grandchildren and ask yourself are

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Speaker 1: they worthy of being your yard man? Both literally and metaphorically.

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Speaker 1: I want to thank Iron Light Labs for producing this show,

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Speaker 1: and I also want to tell you if you have

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Speaker 1: some cultural thought or idea or something in pop culture

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Speaker 1: you want to talk about, or just some kind of

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Speaker 1: tenet or characteristic or a current event that you might

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Speaker 1: want me to discuss. If I think I have any

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Speaker 1: value to it, I'll do it. So write me anytime

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Speaker 1: at Bill at normal folks dot us. And if it's

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Speaker 1: something I think I might have a reasonable thought on.

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Speaker 1: I'll call your name out, shout out to you and

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Speaker 1: tell you this is for you, and we'll cover it.

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Speaker 1: Beyond that, I'm Bill Courtney. I'll see you next week.

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Speaker 1: Do you do