1
00:00:00,640 --> 00:00:03,559
Speaker 1: Hey, everybody. I don't know if you've heard, but we

2
00:00:03,680 --> 00:00:07,040
Speaker 1: have a book coming out finally, finally, after all these years.

3
00:00:07,520 --> 00:00:10,120
Speaker 1: It's great, it's fun. You're gonna love it. It's called

4
00:00:10,119 --> 00:00:14,600
Speaker 1: Stuff You Should Know Colon, an incomplete compendium of mostly

5
00:00:14,840 --> 00:00:19,760
Speaker 1: interesting things. Ye. And it's twenty six jam packed chapters

6
00:00:19,800 --> 00:00:22,640
Speaker 1: that we wrote with another guy named Knowls Parker, who's

7
00:00:22,640 --> 00:00:27,720
Speaker 1: amazing and is illustrated amazingly by our illustrator Carl Manardo.

8
00:00:28,120 --> 00:00:30,560
Speaker 1: And it's just an all around joy to pick up

9
00:00:30,600 --> 00:00:32,960
Speaker 1: and read. Even though we haven't physically held in our

10
00:00:32,960 --> 00:00:35,360
Speaker 1: hands yet, it's like we have Chuck in our dreams

11
00:00:35,360 --> 00:00:38,480
Speaker 1: so far. I can't wait to actually see and hold

12
00:00:38,520 --> 00:00:41,040
Speaker 1: this thing and smell it. And so should you, so

13
00:00:41,120 --> 00:00:43,800
Speaker 1: pre order now. It means a lot to us. The

14
00:00:43,880 --> 00:00:46,720
Speaker 1: support is a very big deal, So pre order anywhere

15
00:00:46,720 --> 00:00:50,519
Speaker 1: books are sold. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a

16
00:00:50,600 --> 00:00:59,200
Speaker 1: production of our Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey, and

17
00:00:59,240 --> 00:01:02,240
Speaker 1: welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, and there's Charles

18
00:01:02,320 --> 00:01:06,040
Speaker 1: w Chuck Bryan over there, and there's Jerry there figuring

19
00:01:06,040 --> 00:01:10,000
Speaker 1: out all the new contrivances of modern life. Yeah, I

20
00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:11,600
Speaker 1: mean we should tell people what's going on. I think

21
00:01:11,640 --> 00:01:17,120
Speaker 1: it's interesting, right, No, well, I'm gonna tell him. So

22
00:01:17,240 --> 00:01:21,120
Speaker 1: Jerry has figured out now how to operate the studio

23
00:01:22,440 --> 00:01:28,400
Speaker 1: McIntosh recording system and not be in the office. It's

24
00:01:28,400 --> 00:01:32,560
Speaker 1: pretty great. It's it's covid riffic actually. And so she

25
00:01:32,680 --> 00:01:34,920
Speaker 1: was just up on our skype on video and she's

26
00:01:34,959 --> 00:01:37,400
Speaker 1: still there. But when she switched it to mute, it

27
00:01:37,440 --> 00:01:42,000
Speaker 1: went to the distressing picture. Do you see that thing? No,

28
00:01:42,160 --> 00:01:44,640
Speaker 1: I just see j R. Like the letter J and

29
00:01:44,640 --> 00:01:47,360
Speaker 1: the letter are. Oh see there she is. She's back.

30
00:01:48,600 --> 00:01:50,600
Speaker 1: When she turned it off, there was I get a

31
00:01:50,640 --> 00:01:54,440
Speaker 1: photograph of Jerry that looks like she's like sick in

32
00:01:54,520 --> 00:01:57,600
Speaker 1: bed or something. It's weird. This is uh, well, it's

33
00:01:57,640 --> 00:02:01,760
Speaker 1: just Jerry's look maybe. So no, that's that's a diet

34
00:02:01,800 --> 00:02:04,560
Speaker 1: of nothing but me. So for fifteen twenty years, we'll

35
00:02:04,560 --> 00:02:06,640
Speaker 1: do for you. The weirdest thing is this is as

36
00:02:06,720 --> 00:02:09,360
Speaker 1: close as we've come to normal in the four months.

37
00:02:10,240 --> 00:02:12,639
Speaker 1: I know. Not only is it like normal, it's almost

38
00:02:12,639 --> 00:02:14,960
Speaker 1: like a throwback. Remember when we had the studio where

39
00:02:15,040 --> 00:02:18,359
Speaker 1: we would look out the window and she was there. Yeah,

40
00:02:18,440 --> 00:02:20,280
Speaker 1: that was great. That's kind of like this again. She

41
00:02:20,360 --> 00:02:25,520
Speaker 1: was a window creeper. Yep, professionally and in her personal

42
00:02:25,560 --> 00:02:29,400
Speaker 1: life too. So this is stuff you should know everybody.

43
00:02:29,440 --> 00:02:31,320
Speaker 1: I don't know if I said it. There are probably

44
00:02:31,320 --> 00:02:34,720
Speaker 1: a few people who are confused and aren't anymore. Um,

45
00:02:34,760 --> 00:02:37,120
Speaker 1: but we haven't gotten started yet, so prepared to be

46
00:02:37,160 --> 00:02:43,400
Speaker 1: confused again when we explained something in particular, Chuck, miniature golf,

47
00:02:43,440 --> 00:02:47,720
Speaker 1: I gotta ask, are you a fan? Uh? This made

48
00:02:47,800 --> 00:02:49,919
Speaker 1: me want to play again? Like I grew up playing

49
00:02:49,960 --> 00:02:52,920
Speaker 1: putt putt charm and have very fond memories of all

50
00:02:52,960 --> 00:02:57,280
Speaker 1: the different colored golf balls, you know, all like the

51
00:02:57,320 --> 00:03:00,239
Speaker 1: water trap that was really just a stagnant little pull

52
00:03:00,800 --> 00:03:04,600
Speaker 1: of concrete. You know. Put Pa was wonderful and great,

53
00:03:04,600 --> 00:03:08,240
Speaker 1: and there were arcades and birthday parties there that featured

54
00:03:08,280 --> 00:03:11,000
Speaker 1: heavily with g I. Joe action figures and stuff like that,

55
00:03:11,080 --> 00:03:14,639
Speaker 1: the good kind of three and three quarter inch ones. Um.

56
00:03:14,680 --> 00:03:19,920
Speaker 1: And yeah, I am a fan, if not just nostalgically, um,

57
00:03:20,520 --> 00:03:24,640
Speaker 1: in general. Yes, and which style And as you as

58
00:03:24,680 --> 00:03:27,120
Speaker 1: a listener will see soon, there are a couple of

59
00:03:27,160 --> 00:03:30,399
Speaker 1: different things. But did you grow up playing just sort

60
00:03:30,440 --> 00:03:33,679
Speaker 1: of the bare bones putt putt or the more miniature

61
00:03:33,680 --> 00:03:40,320
Speaker 1: golf clown's mouth windmill volcano. Well, Chuck. If you ask

62
00:03:40,480 --> 00:03:43,440
Speaker 1: me if I had a rich childhood, I will always

63
00:03:43,440 --> 00:03:46,280
Speaker 1: tell you, yes, sir, Yes I did. And the reason

64
00:03:46,320 --> 00:03:49,320
Speaker 1: why is because I grew up having putt putt close

65
00:03:49,360 --> 00:03:51,720
Speaker 1: by and Toledo when we played that a lot. And

66
00:03:51,760 --> 00:03:54,480
Speaker 1: then when my family would vacation in the summers on

67
00:03:54,760 --> 00:03:58,120
Speaker 1: Cataba Island on Lake Erie, and this is like pre

68
00:03:58,240 --> 00:04:01,680
Speaker 1: cleaned up like Gary, there was a like a run

69
00:04:01,760 --> 00:04:06,040
Speaker 1: down little like mini golf with like clowns, bows and

70
00:04:06,080 --> 00:04:09,160
Speaker 1: windmills and all that stuff right by the place where

71
00:04:09,160 --> 00:04:11,880
Speaker 1: we used to stay, like walking distance, and so we'd

72
00:04:11,920 --> 00:04:13,800
Speaker 1: play there a lot too. So I had the best

73
00:04:13,840 --> 00:04:16,960
Speaker 1: of both worlds, a really great, just top notch childhood.

74
00:04:17,440 --> 00:04:20,520
Speaker 1: So I grew up playing putt putt at Stone Mountain Park,

75
00:04:20,640 --> 00:04:23,960
Speaker 1: which we went to a lot because it was near

76
00:04:24,000 --> 00:04:25,800
Speaker 1: our church, and the youth group would go and do

77
00:04:25,839 --> 00:04:29,000
Speaker 1: put putt nights and stuff. So that was a lot

78
00:04:29,000 --> 00:04:31,640
Speaker 1: of fun. Uh. And I was sort of partial to

79
00:04:31,680 --> 00:04:35,360
Speaker 1: those that were like, you know, the real put putt

80
00:04:35,400 --> 00:04:38,640
Speaker 1: where it requires a little bit of skill. But I

81
00:04:38,720 --> 00:04:46,160
Speaker 1: am also a sucker for the beach town uh volcano, waterfall,

82
00:04:47,520 --> 00:04:56,239
Speaker 1: uh go kart bumper boat arcade scene Yep, don't forget

83
00:04:56,240 --> 00:04:59,200
Speaker 1: a laser tag. I never really did laser tag that.

84
00:04:59,279 --> 00:05:01,240
Speaker 1: I think that came around a little after I was,

85
00:05:02,279 --> 00:05:05,760
Speaker 1: you know, in my prime years for this kind of thing. Yeah,

86
00:05:05,760 --> 00:05:08,360
Speaker 1: it wasn't the same here, but I was looking up.

87
00:05:08,360 --> 00:05:11,240
Speaker 1: Now they have laser tag at Putt putt places. But

88
00:05:11,360 --> 00:05:13,400
Speaker 1: I still love those go carts. Man. When we go

89
00:05:13,480 --> 00:05:16,960
Speaker 1: to Aisle of Palms last year, I found a place nearby,

90
00:05:17,000 --> 00:05:18,440
Speaker 1: I was like, we gotta go, and everyone was kind

91
00:05:18,440 --> 00:05:20,000
Speaker 1: of oh, I don't know, and the kids are sort

92
00:05:20,040 --> 00:05:21,200
Speaker 1: of like, yeah, I guess I'll do it. And I

93
00:05:21,240 --> 00:05:23,839
Speaker 1: was like, guys, we gotta go right, Like, what is

94
00:05:23,839 --> 00:05:27,040
Speaker 1: wrong with all of you? Who are you vacation? Man?

95
00:05:27,080 --> 00:05:29,600
Speaker 1: It was so much carbon monoxide bleak at the house.

96
00:05:29,600 --> 00:05:32,159
Speaker 1: You read no theo's go carts. I could do that

97
00:05:32,240 --> 00:05:35,039
Speaker 1: all day long, Yeah, for sure. And of course I

98
00:05:35,040 --> 00:05:39,120
Speaker 1: got the guy, you know, the teenager squeaky boys, teenager,

99
00:05:39,960 --> 00:05:41,960
Speaker 1: and I said, hey, man, which which one? Which was

100
00:05:42,040 --> 00:05:46,480
Speaker 1: Which is the fast one? And he was like number eight? Really?

101
00:05:46,640 --> 00:05:49,560
Speaker 1: Oh yeah? And sure enough it was really fast. He

102
00:05:49,760 --> 00:05:52,560
Speaker 1: just rain circles around everybody. I did such that I

103
00:05:52,640 --> 00:05:54,279
Speaker 1: even laid off on the gas a little bit, just

104
00:05:54,320 --> 00:05:56,440
Speaker 1: to catch up and let people, you know, act like

105
00:05:56,480 --> 00:06:02,279
Speaker 1: they outrace What a what a sportsman? Oh my goodness.

106
00:06:02,760 --> 00:06:05,000
Speaker 1: Well we'll talk about go carts one day more in depth,

107
00:06:05,040 --> 00:06:07,039
Speaker 1: but today we're just going to focus on the miniature

108
00:06:07,080 --> 00:06:10,720
Speaker 1: golf Okay. Yeah, this is a pretty interesting history, I think. Yeah,

109
00:06:10,800 --> 00:06:12,839
Speaker 1: I had no idea how far back it went until

110
00:06:12,839 --> 00:06:15,479
Speaker 1: we started researching this, and actually it goes all the

111
00:06:15,480 --> 00:06:18,120
Speaker 1: way back to the nineteenth century. And this is one

112
00:06:18,160 --> 00:06:20,520
Speaker 1: of those rare things that's been around a while, but

113
00:06:20,560 --> 00:06:23,840
Speaker 1: you can actually pinpoint like the first one and the

114
00:06:23,880 --> 00:06:27,520
Speaker 1: first miniature golf course in the world as far as

115
00:06:27,560 --> 00:06:31,360
Speaker 1: anybody knows, is that St Andrew's. It's the Ladies Putting

116
00:06:31,360 --> 00:06:34,080
Speaker 1: Club of St Andrew's Um and it was built in

117
00:06:34,200 --> 00:06:38,599
Speaker 1: eighteen sixty seven strictly for the women members of the

118
00:06:38,720 --> 00:06:41,680
Speaker 1: Ladies Putting Club. Yeah, there's a couple of things that

119
00:06:41,960 --> 00:06:45,600
Speaker 1: play here. Actually really just one thing, which is, uh,

120
00:06:46,480 --> 00:06:51,160
Speaker 1: not letting women do things, because there was a decree

121
00:06:51,240 --> 00:06:54,760
Speaker 1: basically that women shall not take the club back past

122
00:06:54,800 --> 00:06:59,880
Speaker 1: their shoulder, um commandment. Yeah, like a real golf swing.

123
00:06:59,880 --> 00:07:02,760
Speaker 1: In other words, was I guess improper for a for

124
00:07:02,800 --> 00:07:06,640
Speaker 1: a lady to do. The Victorian era was just so

125
00:07:06,720 --> 00:07:10,640
Speaker 1: stupid when it came to social constraints. I'm trying to

126
00:07:10,640 --> 00:07:14,760
Speaker 1: figure out why does that? I don't know, do trichy,

127
00:07:14,840 --> 00:07:17,080
Speaker 1: I would guess, well, I just wonder why a full

128
00:07:17,120 --> 00:07:20,880
Speaker 1: golf swing would it make their their dress rate rise

129
00:07:20,960 --> 00:07:24,160
Speaker 1: a little above the ankle or like, I just wonder why.

130
00:07:24,640 --> 00:07:27,160
Speaker 1: I think also, women were expected to not over exert

131
00:07:27,200 --> 00:07:31,720
Speaker 1: themselves physically, especially in public. Two could kind of construe

132
00:07:31,760 --> 00:07:35,080
Speaker 1: that as over exertion. Well, and then there's this, which

133
00:07:35,120 --> 00:07:40,880
Speaker 1: is from a book by Scottish baron Lord Wellwood talking

134
00:07:40,920 --> 00:07:44,119
Speaker 1: about women and when they should golf, when they shouldn't golf,

135
00:07:45,000 --> 00:07:46,920
Speaker 1: if they choose. I was going to do a Scottish accent,

136
00:07:46,960 --> 00:07:49,800
Speaker 1: but I'm just not feeling it. Uh. If they choose

137
00:07:49,840 --> 00:07:53,760
Speaker 1: to play at times when male golfers are feeding or resting,

138
00:07:54,400 --> 00:07:57,480
Speaker 1: no one can object, But at other times, must we

139
00:07:57,560 --> 00:08:01,400
Speaker 1: say it? They are in the way. It was kind

140
00:08:01,400 --> 00:08:04,160
Speaker 1: of snarky to add even the must we say it? Like,

141
00:08:04,200 --> 00:08:06,880
Speaker 1: do I even need to write this next sentence? It's

142
00:08:06,920 --> 00:08:11,560
Speaker 1: so just dripping lee obvious. But the long the upshot

143
00:08:11,560 --> 00:08:14,840
Speaker 1: of this is that's why they created the Ladies Putting Club.

144
00:08:14,960 --> 00:08:17,520
Speaker 1: Is just sort of get rid of them, Yeah, to

145
00:08:17,520 --> 00:08:19,480
Speaker 1: get them out of the way of the men. But

146
00:08:19,560 --> 00:08:22,360
Speaker 1: the joke was on the men, because this putting Green,

147
00:08:22,440 --> 00:08:26,800
Speaker 1: this first miniature golf course in the world, is still

148
00:08:26,840 --> 00:08:29,360
Speaker 1: around and it's still considered one of the finest. That's

149
00:08:29,360 --> 00:08:32,600
Speaker 1: actually nicknamed the Himalayas because it has all these kind

150
00:08:32,600 --> 00:08:35,719
Speaker 1: of mountains and hills and hillocks all built into it

151
00:08:36,320 --> 00:08:38,560
Speaker 1: um and they really kind of stand out from what

152
00:08:38,600 --> 00:08:42,600
Speaker 1: I understand against like the Scottish Seascape um and it's

153
00:08:42,600 --> 00:08:46,319
Speaker 1: a really revered miniature golf course. But it is exactly

154
00:08:46,360 --> 00:08:49,719
Speaker 1: what it sounds like. It is a golf course in miniature,

155
00:08:49,960 --> 00:08:53,080
Speaker 1: Like just like you take a classic golf course of

156
00:08:53,120 --> 00:08:56,000
Speaker 1: the variety that was born in Scotland and you just

157
00:08:56,120 --> 00:08:59,920
Speaker 1: kind of hit it with a shrink ray and then

158
00:09:00,320 --> 00:09:03,360
Speaker 1: you have a genuine, bona fide miniature golf course. And

159
00:09:03,360 --> 00:09:05,880
Speaker 1: that's how the whole thing started out. Yeah, I mean,

160
00:09:05,960 --> 00:09:08,280
Speaker 1: that's that's what we would call like a par three today,

161
00:09:08,400 --> 00:09:12,000
Speaker 1: right kind of it seems like par three courses are

162
00:09:12,320 --> 00:09:17,040
Speaker 1: um a little different. So this is like, yes, I

163
00:09:17,080 --> 00:09:21,000
Speaker 1: think it does require more than just a putter, and

164
00:09:21,080 --> 00:09:23,360
Speaker 1: a part three would require more than a putter, but

165
00:09:23,400 --> 00:09:25,720
Speaker 1: there seems to be a few different other kinds of

166
00:09:25,760 --> 00:09:30,719
Speaker 1: golf courses aside from the miniature golf course. There's the

167
00:09:30,800 --> 00:09:33,920
Speaker 1: part three, the pitch and put, and executive course is

168
00:09:33,960 --> 00:09:37,040
Speaker 1: all kind of qualified technically as miniature golf courses in

169
00:09:37,080 --> 00:09:40,000
Speaker 1: different ways. Yeah, the executive course they got the name

170
00:09:40,200 --> 00:09:45,960
Speaker 1: because evidently an executive could go player quick ground during lunch. Uh,

171
00:09:46,000 --> 00:09:48,360
Speaker 1: a lot of part three's, you might have a like

172
00:09:48,440 --> 00:09:51,480
Speaker 1: one par five and a couple of part four's. Is

173
00:09:51,520 --> 00:09:55,680
Speaker 1: that right on a part three on an executive course? Okay, Yeah,

174
00:09:55,720 --> 00:09:57,760
Speaker 1: that's what. That's really the only thing from what I

175
00:09:57,760 --> 00:10:00,880
Speaker 1: can tell, that differentiates it from a par three course. Yeah,

176
00:10:00,920 --> 00:10:03,800
Speaker 1: it's it's it's a golf course. It's a shorter and

177
00:10:03,880 --> 00:10:06,559
Speaker 1: therefore doesn't take as long. Yeah, And it's not like

178
00:10:06,600 --> 00:10:09,000
Speaker 1: the hole is smaller and the ball is smaller and

179
00:10:09,080 --> 00:10:11,920
Speaker 1: the clubs are smaller, like just just start get out

180
00:10:11,920 --> 00:10:15,800
Speaker 1: of your fantasy land there. Instead, it's just the distance

181
00:10:15,880 --> 00:10:19,080
Speaker 1: from the tea to the whole is shorter. There's fewer

182
00:10:19,200 --> 00:10:24,480
Speaker 1: bends and and stuff like that, so the actual experience

183
00:10:24,520 --> 00:10:26,720
Speaker 1: takes less time and less energy, and you can just

184
00:10:26,800 --> 00:10:28,839
Speaker 1: kind of fit it in in a shorter amount. Of time,

185
00:10:29,240 --> 00:10:31,960
Speaker 1: and I think that's the popularity of those things generally.

186
00:10:32,200 --> 00:10:35,360
Speaker 1: Although pitch and put courses I also saw there. Um

187
00:10:35,440 --> 00:10:37,680
Speaker 1: they usually consist of a wedge and iron and a

188
00:10:37,720 --> 00:10:40,360
Speaker 1: putter of what you need to play on those um,

189
00:10:40,720 --> 00:10:43,280
Speaker 1: And they're all about the focus on the short game.

190
00:10:44,240 --> 00:10:47,360
Speaker 1: And as a result, the men and women, just average

191
00:10:47,400 --> 00:10:50,200
Speaker 1: men and women who play golf can kind of compete

192
00:10:50,240 --> 00:10:52,719
Speaker 1: pretty evenly because it's all about the short game. It's

193
00:10:52,720 --> 00:10:55,960
Speaker 1: all about finesse rather than you know, just cheer power

194
00:10:56,040 --> 00:10:58,080
Speaker 1: of driving as far as you can on like a

195
00:10:58,160 --> 00:11:01,600
Speaker 1: traditional golf course. Yeah, I mean I'd love golf. I

196
00:11:01,679 --> 00:11:03,920
Speaker 1: just don't play anymore. Like I grew up playing golf

197
00:11:04,000 --> 00:11:08,360
Speaker 1: and it was not good, but I wasn't terrible for

198
00:11:08,400 --> 00:11:10,640
Speaker 1: as much as I played, and I still like it.

199
00:11:10,679 --> 00:11:12,360
Speaker 1: I just don't, you know, have the time or the

200
00:11:12,400 --> 00:11:16,280
Speaker 1: inclination anymore. But I like the big boy courses with

201
00:11:16,320 --> 00:11:18,920
Speaker 1: the big part fives. But I also love a fun

202
00:11:18,960 --> 00:11:21,400
Speaker 1: little part three like Florida has a lot of these

203
00:11:21,440 --> 00:11:25,120
Speaker 1: beautiful part three's, including some you can play at night

204
00:11:25,240 --> 00:11:27,760
Speaker 1: that are all lit up. Um, And that's always a

205
00:11:27,800 --> 00:11:30,960
Speaker 1: lot of fun too. Yeah. I tried to get acquainted

206
00:11:31,000 --> 00:11:35,040
Speaker 1: with golf as a youngster. Um my family had weirdly

207
00:11:35,160 --> 00:11:36,880
Speaker 1: enough because this is not like my family at all,

208
00:11:37,200 --> 00:11:42,880
Speaker 1: had um membership at heather Downs Country Club. Well yeah,

209
00:11:42,920 --> 00:11:45,400
Speaker 1: and I love the pool because they had like, you know,

210
00:11:45,640 --> 00:11:48,680
Speaker 1: tons of slush puppies and the best like nasty hot

211
00:11:48,679 --> 00:11:51,560
Speaker 1: dogs you can imagine. Um, and there was a pool

212
00:11:51,640 --> 00:11:53,320
Speaker 1: and all that. I think I told you the story

213
00:11:53,320 --> 00:11:55,480
Speaker 1: about Swim League, the swim team where I was the

214
00:11:55,520 --> 00:11:58,320
Speaker 1: worst swimmer on it. But I also tried to golf

215
00:11:58,400 --> 00:12:00,680
Speaker 1: for a couple of summers and it just did didn't

216
00:12:00,720 --> 00:12:03,000
Speaker 1: take it up. But I was back in Toledo like

217
00:12:03,160 --> 00:12:06,079
Speaker 1: a couple of years ago, I think right before Cleveland Show,

218
00:12:06,480 --> 00:12:08,880
Speaker 1: and I visited the country level. I just drove by

219
00:12:09,640 --> 00:12:12,839
Speaker 1: and I looked, and the pool is now just like

220
00:12:12,920 --> 00:12:16,720
Speaker 1: a green field. It's been filled in, like the little

221
00:12:16,840 --> 00:12:20,000
Speaker 1: the little um snack shop has been torn down. I'm like,

222
00:12:20,559 --> 00:12:22,880
Speaker 1: something really bad must have happened there for them to

223
00:12:22,920 --> 00:12:26,040
Speaker 1: do that to the pool. You know. Yeah, there's uh

224
00:12:26,160 --> 00:12:27,920
Speaker 1: the And I didn't get to go here much because

225
00:12:27,920 --> 00:12:30,480
Speaker 1: it was private. But Hidden Hills was a big neighborhood

226
00:12:30,520 --> 00:12:34,440
Speaker 1: near my house that had a country club that's still around.

227
00:12:34,480 --> 00:12:36,680
Speaker 1: Isn't it, well, the neighborhoods there, but you know, the

228
00:12:36,679 --> 00:12:39,839
Speaker 1: neighborhood has seen its better days, and the country club

229
00:12:39,840 --> 00:12:43,120
Speaker 1: and golf course is completely just shut down and grown over.

230
00:12:43,160 --> 00:12:46,679
Speaker 1: It's really it looks well, it is an abandoned place.

231
00:12:47,480 --> 00:12:50,280
Speaker 1: That's so cool. It is kind of cool. And and

232
00:12:50,320 --> 00:12:53,360
Speaker 1: then I had the idea of a movie, like a

233
00:12:53,440 --> 00:12:55,640
Speaker 1: old school type thing where a bunch of old a

234
00:12:55,640 --> 00:12:57,560
Speaker 1: bunch of like middle aged men that grew up there,

235
00:12:58,200 --> 00:12:59,880
Speaker 1: go back and raise some money and try and like

236
00:13:00,000 --> 00:13:02,880
Speaker 1: clean the place up and get it going again. Yeah,

237
00:13:03,000 --> 00:13:06,360
Speaker 1: to hilarity, there has to be like a greedy developer

238
00:13:06,400 --> 00:13:10,160
Speaker 1: that they're battling, right, So is that the neighborhood that

239
00:13:10,160 --> 00:13:12,160
Speaker 1: we got kicked out of when we tried to go

240
00:13:12,520 --> 00:13:16,520
Speaker 1: shoot like without a license once around that area? Remember

241
00:13:16,520 --> 00:13:18,600
Speaker 1: the security guard came up was like, stop what you're doing.

242
00:13:19,080 --> 00:13:22,080
Speaker 1: I don't remember that. Yeah, it happened one day. Was

243
00:13:22,080 --> 00:13:25,240
Speaker 1: it on the Gorilla? Now? It was like when we

244
00:13:25,240 --> 00:13:28,280
Speaker 1: were shooting shorts? I think I don't remember that. Yeah,

245
00:13:28,880 --> 00:13:31,920
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure that was the one. Should we take

246
00:13:31,960 --> 00:13:37,640
Speaker 1: a break already? Sure? Okay, all right, we'll get back

247
00:13:37,640 --> 00:13:39,920
Speaker 1: and we'll talk about where many golf went from here

248
00:13:40,000 --> 00:14:03,560
Speaker 1: right after this definite sk SK should know alright, so

249
00:14:03,600 --> 00:14:06,640
Speaker 1: we're back. Nothing we've talked about right now constitutes miniature

250
00:14:06,640 --> 00:14:09,400
Speaker 1: golf in the mind of anybody who here's the words

251
00:14:09,440 --> 00:14:13,079
Speaker 1: miniature golf, right like, what what comes to mind are

252
00:14:13,360 --> 00:14:16,320
Speaker 1: things like putt putt or goofy golf, or windmills or

253
00:14:16,360 --> 00:14:21,600
Speaker 1: clowns or happy Gilmore or something like that. Right. So, um,

254
00:14:21,720 --> 00:14:26,000
Speaker 1: that all started. Actually, that didn't quite start yet. I

255
00:14:26,080 --> 00:14:28,120
Speaker 1: was really leading up to that, and then I realized

256
00:14:28,160 --> 00:14:31,080
Speaker 1: we had to keep going with regular miniature golf one

257
00:14:31,120 --> 00:14:34,280
Speaker 1: more time because it has to spread to America. And

258
00:14:34,360 --> 00:14:37,920
Speaker 1: it did, and we can actually trace that too, um

259
00:14:37,960 --> 00:14:40,760
Speaker 1: to the house of a guy named James Barber who

260
00:14:40,800 --> 00:14:43,440
Speaker 1: was an immigrant from England who was familiar with the

261
00:14:43,480 --> 00:14:46,480
Speaker 1: course the Ladies Pudding Club at St. Andrew's UM. And

262
00:14:46,560 --> 00:14:48,880
Speaker 1: he was rich enough that he said, you know, I

263
00:14:48,920 --> 00:14:52,520
Speaker 1: want a miniature golf course built on my estate, UM

264
00:14:52,600 --> 00:14:55,680
Speaker 1: at Pinehurst, North Carolina. And he did. He had like

265
00:14:55,720 --> 00:14:58,280
Speaker 1: an eighteen whole miniature course built right there in his

266
00:14:58,280 --> 00:15:02,000
Speaker 1: his formal gardens. And it's just beautiful. It is nice.

267
00:15:02,200 --> 00:15:05,080
Speaker 1: And uh, this was the first one in the United States,

268
00:15:05,800 --> 00:15:08,800
Speaker 1: and as it's called thistle dow u t h I

269
00:15:09,120 --> 00:15:12,920
Speaker 1: s t l e d h u and supposedly, as

270
00:15:13,000 --> 00:15:15,080
Speaker 1: legend goes, he when he first saw it, he said,

271
00:15:15,120 --> 00:15:19,360
Speaker 1: this will do. I guess he was. Uh, he was

272
00:15:19,440 --> 00:15:21,880
Speaker 1: not blown away maybe, I don't know. It sounds sold under.

273
00:15:22,200 --> 00:15:24,960
Speaker 1: He wasn't one of those spoiled brand you know, Robert Barons,

274
00:15:25,000 --> 00:15:27,160
Speaker 1: and instead was like, this will do. This will do

275
00:15:27,280 --> 00:15:30,640
Speaker 1: quite nicely. And they just left off the second part,

276
00:15:30,720 --> 00:15:34,440
Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, but it's called thistle do And uh.

277
00:15:34,480 --> 00:15:38,960
Speaker 1: They started hosting competitions a couple of years later, and

278
00:15:39,080 --> 00:15:41,680
Speaker 1: I think this is the first time miniature golf was

279
00:15:41,720 --> 00:15:45,080
Speaker 1: ever used, like those words wherever he used to describe

280
00:15:45,280 --> 00:15:49,600
Speaker 1: the Pinehurst outlook. Uh was that the newspaper? I guess, yeah,

281
00:15:49,680 --> 00:15:54,320
Speaker 1: it's there one claim to fame. Oh you know it's

282
00:15:54,360 --> 00:15:57,480
Speaker 1: true though it's probably true. Yeah, but they were the

283
00:15:57,560 --> 00:16:01,080
Speaker 1: one in the in a account of the competition, they

284
00:16:01,280 --> 00:16:04,080
Speaker 1: coined the term miniature golf. Up to that point, a

285
00:16:04,080 --> 00:16:09,240
Speaker 1: lot of people had called the Litliputian golf after the uh,

286
00:16:09,400 --> 00:16:13,040
Speaker 1: the little people in Goliver Guliver's travels, and that actually

287
00:16:13,080 --> 00:16:16,360
Speaker 1: that name actually stuck for quite a while. Um, so

288
00:16:16,680 --> 00:16:21,680
Speaker 1: we've got James Barber, who hosted or built the first

289
00:16:22,040 --> 00:16:25,880
Speaker 1: miniature golf course in America. But still this thing is

290
00:16:25,920 --> 00:16:29,960
Speaker 1: like directly connected to the Ladies Putting Club of St. Andrews.

291
00:16:30,160 --> 00:16:33,440
Speaker 1: It's a golf course in miniature. We still haven't quite

292
00:16:33,480 --> 00:16:36,800
Speaker 1: reached what we would consider miniature golf, and that wouldn't

293
00:16:36,840 --> 00:16:40,480
Speaker 1: happen until n which turned out to be a really

294
00:16:40,600 --> 00:16:43,480
Speaker 1: big year for miniature golf in America. It was like

295
00:16:43,520 --> 00:16:45,800
Speaker 1: there was something in the air and a few different

296
00:16:45,800 --> 00:16:48,160
Speaker 1: people kind of tapped into it around the same time

297
00:16:48,440 --> 00:16:50,960
Speaker 1: and it suddenly just took off like a rocket. Yeah.

298
00:16:51,000 --> 00:16:54,560
Speaker 1: Two of the guys were some entrepreneurs named Drake de

299
00:16:55,680 --> 00:17:00,760
Speaker 1: uh Delinois, I guess named John Ledbetter another good name.

300
00:17:01,400 --> 00:17:03,960
Speaker 1: And it's okay. He sounds like he'll he'll shoot you,

301
00:17:04,400 --> 00:17:08,520
Speaker 1: he'll lead better. Yeah, yeah, I can see that. Uh.

302
00:17:08,560 --> 00:17:10,680
Speaker 1: They did a pretty cool thing, which is they opened

303
00:17:10,760 --> 00:17:13,720
Speaker 1: up a course on top of a rooftop in the

304
00:17:13,760 --> 00:17:18,119
Speaker 1: Financial District in New York and that kicked off a trend.

305
00:17:18,160 --> 00:17:21,880
Speaker 1: There were I think about a hundred of those on

306
00:17:22,480 --> 00:17:24,440
Speaker 1: top of roofs. I guess it is before the big

307
00:17:25,440 --> 00:17:28,920
Speaker 1: rooftop bar hotel scene. They had golf courses up there. Yeah,

308
00:17:29,000 --> 00:17:33,640
Speaker 1: miniature golf courses again though those were like miniature golf courses,

309
00:17:33,640 --> 00:17:35,600
Speaker 1: so that I mean, that was a big deal in

310
00:17:35,640 --> 00:17:39,600
Speaker 1: New York. Just a hundred rooftop golf miniature golf course

311
00:17:39,840 --> 00:17:42,840
Speaker 1: loan in the twenties. That's that's a tremendous amount. Um

312
00:17:42,880 --> 00:17:46,080
Speaker 1: And I don't think there's a single one left actually, um,

313
00:17:46,440 --> 00:17:49,440
Speaker 1: there should be. There's there's so that kind of makes

314
00:17:49,520 --> 00:17:51,280
Speaker 1: the whole you know, there's one on on top of

315
00:17:51,320 --> 00:17:55,240
Speaker 1: Pont City Market where the house Stuff Works office is. Um,

316
00:17:55,440 --> 00:17:57,840
Speaker 1: is there golf up there? There's a miniature golf course

317
00:17:57,880 --> 00:17:59,800
Speaker 1: up there, and it makes a lot more sense now. Yeah,

318
00:17:59,840 --> 00:18:03,199
Speaker 1: it's kind of like a whole mini Coney Island up there. Yeah.

319
00:18:03,320 --> 00:18:05,000
Speaker 1: I mean I think I've only been up there when

320
00:18:05,000 --> 00:18:06,560
Speaker 1: we had at work events and the only thing I

321
00:18:06,600 --> 00:18:11,360
Speaker 1: did was the slide. I didn't know there was a slide. Yeah,

322
00:18:11,400 --> 00:18:13,200
Speaker 1: there's like a you know, you sit in a potato

323
00:18:13,200 --> 00:18:15,840
Speaker 1: sack and go down this big slide. Yeah, yeah, I

324
00:18:16,040 --> 00:18:17,800
Speaker 1: did that. That was fun. Yeah, there's a there's a

325
00:18:17,840 --> 00:18:20,399
Speaker 1: miniature golf course up there. We'll have to play sometime

326
00:18:20,440 --> 00:18:24,720
Speaker 1: when the whole pandemic passed totally. Uh And then later

327
00:18:24,760 --> 00:18:26,200
Speaker 1: that same year you said it was kind of a

328
00:18:26,240 --> 00:18:30,960
Speaker 1: boom yere for mini golf. Lookout Mountain Tennessee in Chattanooga,

329
00:18:31,400 --> 00:18:33,719
Speaker 1: which is a place where I think everybody should go

330
00:18:33,800 --> 00:18:37,000
Speaker 1: to see Ruby Falls in Rock City. It is a

331
00:18:37,040 --> 00:18:40,800
Speaker 1: tourist trap, but it's actually kind of neat. I mean,

332
00:18:40,840 --> 00:18:43,600
Speaker 1: the greatest of the great tourist traps, and it still

333
00:18:43,640 --> 00:18:48,320
Speaker 1: holds up too. Yeah. Get a a pecan log. Oh

334
00:18:48,359 --> 00:18:51,560
Speaker 1: my god, those are so good. They are so good.

335
00:18:51,800 --> 00:18:55,119
Speaker 1: There's that's what. That also supports my theory that candy

336
00:18:55,240 --> 00:19:01,800
Speaker 1: was perfected in the nineteenth century. Never remember honeycom conlogs

337
00:19:03,760 --> 00:19:05,159
Speaker 1: was that. I didn't know if the con lungs were

338
00:19:05,160 --> 00:19:07,640
Speaker 1: from way back then, but I believe it. Yeah, for sure,

339
00:19:07,640 --> 00:19:13,879
Speaker 1: they're definitely old timing. So these people, uh Garnett and FRIEDA. Carter,

340
00:19:14,560 --> 00:19:19,600
Speaker 1: they built a resort called fairy Land Club and it

341
00:19:19,640 --> 00:19:22,920
Speaker 1: was part of that whole sort of interconnected scene there

342
00:19:23,359 --> 00:19:25,639
Speaker 1: with Rock City and Ruby Falls. And they built a

343
00:19:25,680 --> 00:19:29,240
Speaker 1: miniature golf course and they said, you know what, Uh,

344
00:19:29,280 --> 00:19:32,240
Speaker 1: if you like golf, maybe you should try mini golf

345
00:19:32,280 --> 00:19:35,280
Speaker 1: because it doesn't take very long. It'll kind of scratch

346
00:19:35,359 --> 00:19:37,400
Speaker 1: that itch if you're not able to play a real

347
00:19:37,520 --> 00:19:40,760
Speaker 1: round and that's sort of how they marketed it at first.

348
00:19:40,880 --> 00:19:43,280
Speaker 1: And they they were the first people, I think, to

349
00:19:43,320 --> 00:19:47,440
Speaker 1: start adding the obstacles, right they did. Yeah, and um,

350
00:19:47,480 --> 00:19:50,199
Speaker 1: they used as they were building, like the n and

351
00:19:50,240 --> 00:19:54,080
Speaker 1: the resort complex. They used some of the construction materials

352
00:19:54,119 --> 00:19:58,439
Speaker 1: like train pipes and you know, barrels and things like that,

353
00:19:58,480 --> 00:20:01,840
Speaker 1: and you build them as hazards. And then because they

354
00:20:01,840 --> 00:20:05,239
Speaker 1: had this whole like fairytale theme going up there, they

355
00:20:05,280 --> 00:20:07,320
Speaker 1: also built rock City. They were the ones who built

356
00:20:07,400 --> 00:20:10,240
Speaker 1: Rock City, and that has like a cool, little weird,

357
00:20:10,520 --> 00:20:16,000
Speaker 1: weird but also very neat fairytale theme kind of hidden throughout. Um,

358
00:20:16,080 --> 00:20:18,800
Speaker 1: they they added that to their miniature golf course. So

359
00:20:19,160 --> 00:20:23,040
Speaker 1: they had these stationary obstacles and hazards that they added,

360
00:20:23,480 --> 00:20:27,200
Speaker 1: and then they also added the statuary of cute little

361
00:20:27,280 --> 00:20:30,680
Speaker 1: you know, mother goose type stuff. And they actually called

362
00:20:30,720 --> 00:20:34,080
Speaker 1: the whole thing Tom Thumb Golf and Tom Thumb, from

363
00:20:34,080 --> 00:20:38,040
Speaker 1: what I understand, is the earliest recorded English fairy tale

364
00:20:38,160 --> 00:20:41,520
Speaker 1: character from back in one and he was a little

365
00:20:41,520 --> 00:20:44,359
Speaker 1: tiny guy the size of his father's thumb, which is

366
00:20:44,400 --> 00:20:46,200
Speaker 1: where he got his name. So it was a pretty

367
00:20:46,200 --> 00:20:49,840
Speaker 1: appropriate name. They must have really like been pretty pleased

368
00:20:49,880 --> 00:20:52,240
Speaker 1: with themselves when they decided to call it Tom Thumb

369
00:20:52,280 --> 00:20:56,359
Speaker 1: Golf because it really it checked all the boxes. Yeah,

370
00:20:56,400 --> 00:20:58,760
Speaker 1: and we should mention too. We keep saying Rock City,

371
00:20:58,840 --> 00:21:00,560
Speaker 1: and if you're not from the South East, you might

372
00:21:00,560 --> 00:21:04,080
Speaker 1: think it's just some like redneck area with a bunch

373
00:21:04,080 --> 00:21:08,240
Speaker 1: of rocks. It's actually a very sweet natural wonder. It's

374
00:21:08,280 --> 00:21:12,760
Speaker 1: it's caves that you walk through caves. It's huge boulders

375
00:21:12,800 --> 00:21:15,960
Speaker 1: being held up by much much smaller boulders. That's really

376
00:21:16,000 --> 00:21:19,560
Speaker 1: neat way for probably tens of thousands of years that

377
00:21:19,640 --> 00:21:22,880
Speaker 1: you walk under. There's like yeah, there there's little cave

378
00:21:22,920 --> 00:21:25,080
Speaker 1: areas that you kind of duck into and they have

379
00:21:25,400 --> 00:21:30,480
Speaker 1: little fairy tale scenes with fluorescent day or fluorescent um yeah,

380
00:21:30,480 --> 00:21:34,359
Speaker 1: I guess kind of day glasses dark weird like gnomes

381
00:21:34,440 --> 00:21:37,200
Speaker 1: and in fairy tale scenes like that's the weird part.

382
00:21:37,440 --> 00:21:42,120
Speaker 1: It's like if Carl's Bad Caverns had you know, some

383
00:21:42,280 --> 00:21:46,840
Speaker 1: corny fairy theme. Mm. And then Ruby Falls is really

384
00:21:46,840 --> 00:21:50,560
Speaker 1: neat too. Yeah, it's a very cool like natural attraction

385
00:21:50,600 --> 00:21:53,000
Speaker 1: that they've done a good job of like underground water

386
00:21:53,080 --> 00:21:56,520
Speaker 1: making it easy to to make your way to. But yeah,

387
00:21:56,520 --> 00:21:58,720
Speaker 1: it's it's the whole thing is definitely worth going to.

388
00:21:58,960 --> 00:22:00,960
Speaker 1: And then of course they have this the very famous

389
00:22:01,000 --> 00:22:04,760
Speaker 1: like Sea Rock City barn sides that everybody's right of

390
00:22:05,119 --> 00:22:08,480
Speaker 1: and that was that was Garnet Carter who painted one man,

391
00:22:08,640 --> 00:22:11,119
Speaker 1: or paid one man to go around and offer to

392
00:22:11,680 --> 00:22:14,000
Speaker 1: give a fresh coat of paint to barnes all throughout

393
00:22:14,040 --> 00:22:17,399
Speaker 1: the southeast in exchange for letting them paint Sea Rock

394
00:22:17,480 --> 00:22:20,520
Speaker 1: City on the side. Yeah, it's um. If you've ever

395
00:22:20,600 --> 00:22:23,840
Speaker 1: driven around the North Carolina South Carolina area and south

396
00:22:23,880 --> 00:22:27,840
Speaker 1: of the border, you know I'm talking about south of

397
00:22:27,880 --> 00:22:30,439
Speaker 1: the Mason Dixon line. No, south of the border is

398
00:22:30,520 --> 00:22:33,480
Speaker 1: the name of this, uh sort of highway tourist trap.

399
00:22:34,560 --> 00:22:36,440
Speaker 1: I haven't heard of that. Yeah, it's it's it's the

400
00:22:36,480 --> 00:22:38,240
Speaker 1: same deal. I think it's I want to say it's

401
00:22:38,240 --> 00:22:41,919
Speaker 1: North Carolina, but it's basically like a glorified rest stop

402
00:22:42,080 --> 00:22:45,480
Speaker 1: with that has a Mexican theme where you can go, like,

403
00:22:45,680 --> 00:22:48,040
Speaker 1: I don't know, see mariachi band and eat good food

404
00:22:48,080 --> 00:22:52,480
Speaker 1: and by cheap. Jot skis the only mariachi band in

405
00:22:52,520 --> 00:22:55,160
Speaker 1: all of North Carolina. But what made me think about

406
00:22:55,200 --> 00:22:58,280
Speaker 1: it it might be was that they had the same

407
00:22:58,320 --> 00:23:01,560
Speaker 1: thing for like hundreds of miles in any direction. For

408
00:23:01,600 --> 00:23:04,040
Speaker 1: South of the Border and Rock City, they're very famous

409
00:23:04,040 --> 00:23:06,879
Speaker 1: for these billboards that tell you like, oh, it's coming,

410
00:23:07,000 --> 00:23:10,280
Speaker 1: You're getting closer, You're getting closer. That's really strange that

411
00:23:10,320 --> 00:23:12,800
Speaker 1: I've never heard of that. Then South of the Border

412
00:23:12,880 --> 00:23:15,879
Speaker 1: checking it's not have been paying attention. So so the

413
00:23:15,960 --> 00:23:18,680
Speaker 1: Carter's built like this Tom Thumb golf course. And again,

414
00:23:18,720 --> 00:23:21,000
Speaker 1: originally they just did this as kind of an amenity

415
00:23:21,040 --> 00:23:26,080
Speaker 1: at their Fairyland in in Fairyland um club. Uh. But

416
00:23:26,160 --> 00:23:29,560
Speaker 1: it was such a smash hit and Garnet Carter was

417
00:23:29,640 --> 00:23:34,480
Speaker 1: such a like born businessman that, um, they were like,

418
00:23:34,520 --> 00:23:37,080
Speaker 1: I think there might be something to this and they

419
00:23:37,119 --> 00:23:39,560
Speaker 1: saw either they saw it out or he sought them.

420
00:23:39,760 --> 00:23:41,800
Speaker 1: I'm not quite sure how it happened. But there was

421
00:23:41,800 --> 00:23:46,080
Speaker 1: another guy who really factors Bigley into this whole story,

422
00:23:46,760 --> 00:23:49,439
Speaker 1: but he's very frequently overlooked, and his name is Thomas

423
00:23:49,560 --> 00:23:56,439
Speaker 1: McCulloch Fairburn. McCullough Fairburn. Yeah, um, and he invented a

424
00:23:56,480 --> 00:24:00,720
Speaker 1: really cheap and easy technique for creating art ficial putting

425
00:24:00,720 --> 00:24:04,440
Speaker 1: greens that could be used for miniature golf courses. Yeah.

426
00:24:04,640 --> 00:24:08,320
Speaker 1: It was a crushed cotton seed holes oil you would

427
00:24:08,320 --> 00:24:11,520
Speaker 1: diet green and they would come in these big roles

428
00:24:11,520 --> 00:24:13,960
Speaker 1: and you just roll it over this foundation of sand

429
00:24:14,760 --> 00:24:18,040
Speaker 1: and boom. You've got an easy way basically to sort

430
00:24:18,080 --> 00:24:22,439
Speaker 1: of franchise these things with these prefab kits that they had,

431
00:24:23,200 --> 00:24:27,439
Speaker 1: and people loved it UM because it was you know,

432
00:24:27,480 --> 00:24:29,480
Speaker 1: when it was they called it midget golf for a

433
00:24:29,520 --> 00:24:31,680
Speaker 1: little while, not a term we would use today, but

434
00:24:31,760 --> 00:24:34,480
Speaker 1: that's what they called it in the nineteen twenties. And

435
00:24:34,920 --> 00:24:37,200
Speaker 1: this factors into a lot of stuff we've been talking

436
00:24:37,240 --> 00:24:40,320
Speaker 1: about the nineteen twenties lately, just these weird fads that

437
00:24:40,359 --> 00:24:43,560
Speaker 1: would pop up, and Tom Thumb golf was one of them.

438
00:24:43,600 --> 00:24:45,679
Speaker 1: It was UM. And part of the reason that it

439
00:24:45,760 --> 00:24:50,200
Speaker 1: got out from Lookout Mountain is because the Carters and

440
00:24:50,359 --> 00:24:54,840
Speaker 1: Um Fairburn kind of joined forces and used his technique

441
00:24:54,880 --> 00:24:58,520
Speaker 1: for making these greens very cheaply and used their kind

442
00:24:58,520 --> 00:25:02,359
Speaker 1: of like touch of whimsy, packaged it together and started

443
00:25:02,359 --> 00:25:07,600
Speaker 1: selling it prepackaged sets or prefabricated sets UM that could

444
00:25:07,640 --> 00:25:09,959
Speaker 1: be franchised out to anybody who wanted to start their

445
00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:13,359
Speaker 1: own Tom Thumb golf course. And so they spread really

446
00:25:13,440 --> 00:25:16,640
Speaker 1: really quickly, and like you're saying, like the twenties, they

447
00:25:16,640 --> 00:25:20,160
Speaker 1: were just looking for whatever craze could come along, crossroad puzzles,

448
00:25:20,359 --> 00:25:25,199
Speaker 1: dance marathons, flagpole sitting. Well, apparently miniature golf was the

449
00:25:25,320 --> 00:25:28,800
Speaker 1: king of them all as far as the twenties crazes went. Yeah,

450
00:25:28,840 --> 00:25:33,800
Speaker 1: this is a pretty startling statistic. Uh. In August of

451
00:25:34,560 --> 00:25:37,439
Speaker 1: the Commerce Department said that there were and apparently this

452
00:25:37,480 --> 00:25:40,880
Speaker 1: could be low by even as much as half five thousand,

453
00:25:41,400 --> 00:25:44,720
Speaker 1: twenty five thousand mini golf courses in the US, half

454
00:25:44,720 --> 00:25:47,800
Speaker 1: of which were built in that previous six or eight

455
00:25:47,840 --> 00:25:51,800
Speaker 1: months of the year. Yeah, that's a boom right there.

456
00:25:51,840 --> 00:25:55,199
Speaker 1: Can you imagine like in eight months, like twelve to

457
00:25:55,280 --> 00:25:58,520
Speaker 1: fifteen thousand mini golf courses being built in US? M hm,

458
00:25:58,640 --> 00:26:00,920
Speaker 1: it's crazy. I can just imagine. Aren't and freed to

459
00:26:01,000 --> 00:26:03,919
Speaker 1: Carter just rolling around on a bed of money in

460
00:26:03,960 --> 00:26:06,880
Speaker 1: their suite at the Fairy Landing? Yeah? And I mean

461
00:26:07,280 --> 00:26:12,000
Speaker 1: in a legit like job boosting market. Yeah. No, Well

462
00:26:12,000 --> 00:26:14,040
Speaker 1: that's a that's another thing too, write. I mean like

463
00:26:14,440 --> 00:26:18,720
Speaker 1: there was um uh, like flagpole sitting didn't make the

464
00:26:18,720 --> 00:26:22,080
Speaker 1: transition into the depression, and dance marathons did, but they

465
00:26:22,119 --> 00:26:25,400
Speaker 1: got kind of grim um apparently miniature golf, and I've

466
00:26:25,440 --> 00:26:28,280
Speaker 1: seen both, but but miniature golf seems to have made

467
00:26:28,320 --> 00:26:33,040
Speaker 1: the transition from twenties craze too, you know, kind of

468
00:26:33,440 --> 00:26:37,399
Speaker 1: national pastime that that made sense in the depression because

469
00:26:37,400 --> 00:26:39,920
Speaker 1: you could take your whole family out to play miniature

470
00:26:39,960 --> 00:26:45,960
Speaker 1: golf for pretty cheap um. So that was a big attraction. Um.

471
00:26:46,040 --> 00:26:48,680
Speaker 1: And then also if you were like a golf junkie,

472
00:26:49,000 --> 00:26:50,840
Speaker 1: but all of a sudden you didn't have the money

473
00:26:50,840 --> 00:26:54,159
Speaker 1: to afford greens fees any longer, at the very least,

474
00:26:54,160 --> 00:26:57,240
Speaker 1: you could go play a miniature golf somewhere. So it

475
00:26:57,359 --> 00:27:00,119
Speaker 1: kind of scratched that itch to a certain um, a

476
00:27:00,160 --> 00:27:02,960
Speaker 1: certain degree. So there was like a lot of popularity

477
00:27:03,000 --> 00:27:06,320
Speaker 1: that even after the craze kind of crested and waned

478
00:27:06,359 --> 00:27:09,919
Speaker 1: a little bit, um, it's still carried on pretty pretty

479
00:27:09,960 --> 00:27:13,240
Speaker 1: thoroughly through the nineteen thirties. And as a matter of fact, Chuck,

480
00:27:13,720 --> 00:27:16,760
Speaker 1: some some people were like that Tom Thumb Golf, the

481
00:27:16,880 --> 00:27:19,800
Speaker 1: official franchise Tom Thumb Golf, it's a little rich for

482
00:27:19,920 --> 00:27:24,960
Speaker 1: my blood. What else you got for me? Well, yeah, exactly.

483
00:27:25,000 --> 00:27:28,280
Speaker 1: Local entrepreneurs were like, I got exactly the thing, buddy,

484
00:27:28,400 --> 00:27:31,320
Speaker 1: you want to play half half priced miniature golf. Come

485
00:27:31,320 --> 00:27:33,800
Speaker 1: on in, like I've got a bunch of PVC pipe

486
00:27:33,880 --> 00:27:37,760
Speaker 1: laying around, yeah or yeah, so just basically whatever found

487
00:27:37,760 --> 00:27:40,880
Speaker 1: objects you could find, you you could you could come

488
00:27:40,920 --> 00:27:44,760
Speaker 1: across what we're called rinky dink miniature golf courses that

489
00:27:44,800 --> 00:27:49,800
Speaker 1: were basically knockoff Tom Thumb courses that used whatever found

490
00:27:49,840 --> 00:27:53,400
Speaker 1: objects the person who built it had lying around. Yeah.

491
00:27:53,440 --> 00:27:55,360
Speaker 1: New York had about a hundred and fifty of them,

492
00:27:56,080 --> 00:27:58,640
Speaker 1: Washington d C Had thirty. One of those is still

493
00:27:58,680 --> 00:28:03,560
Speaker 1: around the East Potoma Park course. Ye, and uh yeah,

494
00:28:03,680 --> 00:28:05,600
Speaker 1: the whole family could get involved. And I think one

495
00:28:05,600 --> 00:28:08,520
Speaker 1: of the the keys then and now too many golf

496
00:28:08,560 --> 00:28:11,680
Speaker 1: being popular and then putt putt, which will see you

497
00:28:11,680 --> 00:28:14,479
Speaker 1: here in a minute, is that you don't even have

498
00:28:14,560 --> 00:28:18,679
Speaker 1: to like golf at all. You can hate golf and

499
00:28:18,800 --> 00:28:23,440
Speaker 1: still go do putt putt and probably have a good time. Yeah,

500
00:28:23,720 --> 00:28:25,520
Speaker 1: as long as you do take it too seriously. Don't

501
00:28:25,520 --> 00:28:29,040
Speaker 1: take it too seriously. Please don't just relax. Don't be

502
00:28:29,119 --> 00:28:32,439
Speaker 1: that guy. That's what it's for. Um, you want to

503
00:28:32,440 --> 00:28:35,200
Speaker 1: take a break and then talk put putt? Yes, okay,

504
00:28:35,280 --> 00:28:51,640
Speaker 1: let's do that. Everybody shouldn't know if large sks, sks.

505
00:28:55,360 --> 00:29:03,240
Speaker 1: You should know are we there? Who me? But but

506
00:29:03,760 --> 00:29:05,360
Speaker 1: I thought you said are you there? I'm like, yeah,

507
00:29:05,360 --> 00:29:08,760
Speaker 1: I'm here, we are there, chuck, because UM, let me

508
00:29:08,800 --> 00:29:13,080
Speaker 1: set the set the table. Here you ready. H America

509
00:29:13,200 --> 00:29:16,719
Speaker 1: got a little burned out on miniature golf, especially the

510
00:29:16,760 --> 00:29:20,600
Speaker 1: tom thumb and rinkyding varieties, UM, and so a lot

511
00:29:20,680 --> 00:29:24,360
Speaker 1: of it died out, but some remained, some hopped along,

512
00:29:24,720 --> 00:29:30,000
Speaker 1: some are still around today. Actually, and by the nineteen fifties, UM,

513
00:29:30,160 --> 00:29:32,480
Speaker 1: there was a guy who was playing at one of

514
00:29:32,520 --> 00:29:37,200
Speaker 1: these courses in Fayetteville, North Carolina, which remembers the home

515
00:29:37,240 --> 00:29:40,840
Speaker 1: of miniature golf in the United States North Carolinas, and

516
00:29:41,120 --> 00:29:43,960
Speaker 1: UM he happened to have just gotten a prescription from

517
00:29:43,960 --> 00:29:46,600
Speaker 1: his doctor saying, you're about to have a nervous breakdown.

518
00:29:46,840 --> 00:29:51,280
Speaker 1: I prescribe you a month's rest from work. And this guy,

519
00:29:51,360 --> 00:29:54,600
Speaker 1: Don Clayton said, can do and he started playing miniature golf,

520
00:29:54,680 --> 00:29:57,160
Speaker 1: but he wasn't quite satisfied with it. Yeah. I imagine

521
00:29:57,160 --> 00:30:00,440
Speaker 1: if you were, UM on the verge of a nervous breakdown,

522
00:30:00,920 --> 00:30:04,400
Speaker 1: then tom thumb golf is a nice save for that

523
00:30:04,560 --> 00:30:09,000
Speaker 1: kind of kind of experience. Sure, if if you're charmed

524
00:30:09,040 --> 00:30:11,520
Speaker 1: by all the whimsical stuff and you don't take it

525
00:30:11,560 --> 00:30:14,479
Speaker 1: too seriously. Right from what I understand that, Don Clayton

526
00:30:14,520 --> 00:30:18,160
Speaker 1: was like, this whimsy sucks. We need something better than this,

527
00:30:18,240 --> 00:30:20,720
Speaker 1: and I think I'm just the person to build it. Yeah,

528
00:30:20,760 --> 00:30:26,000
Speaker 1: so he had the idea to to basically make miniature golf,

529
00:30:26,120 --> 00:30:30,920
Speaker 1: but without all the garbage, um, no clowns, amounts, no windmills,

530
00:30:31,120 --> 00:30:34,520
Speaker 1: and have a little, like I have, have a little

531
00:30:34,520 --> 00:30:36,720
Speaker 1: skill involved, Like you can go out there and if

532
00:30:36,720 --> 00:30:40,520
Speaker 1: you're like a good putter, you can actually compete and

533
00:30:40,560 --> 00:30:43,520
Speaker 1: have a good time. And it's still for fun, but

534
00:30:43,640 --> 00:30:47,520
Speaker 1: it's just not a silly kids game anymore. Yeah, Like

535
00:30:47,600 --> 00:30:50,840
Speaker 1: anybody who's been to an actual put put course can

536
00:30:50,920 --> 00:30:53,760
Speaker 1: tell you that it's I mean, there's a lot of obstacles,

537
00:30:53,760 --> 00:30:56,240
Speaker 1: and it's interesting and fun and there's some neat stuff,

538
00:30:56,720 --> 00:30:58,720
Speaker 1: but it does it just does not have all of

539
00:30:58,840 --> 00:31:02,040
Speaker 1: like the the moving bells and whistles that you're gonna

540
00:31:02,120 --> 00:31:04,960
Speaker 1: see on like other kinds of miniature golf, like goofy golf,

541
00:31:05,520 --> 00:31:08,400
Speaker 1: Like the obstacles are usually just like some blocks in

542
00:31:08,440 --> 00:31:12,000
Speaker 1: the way and stuff like that. Yeah, you have to

543
00:31:12,040 --> 00:31:16,479
Speaker 1: head around or bankingated elevated rombusses or things like that,

544
00:31:16,640 --> 00:31:19,880
Speaker 1: or like a labyrinth, you know, built into it. Um,

545
00:31:19,920 --> 00:31:22,480
Speaker 1: it's not like a clown's mouth or anything like that,

546
00:31:22,680 --> 00:31:25,440
Speaker 1: which is kind of like the go to description for

547
00:31:25,480 --> 00:31:28,640
Speaker 1: goofy golf, isn't it really? Yeah? And I think like

548
00:31:28,800 --> 00:31:31,080
Speaker 1: the craziest thing you'll see on a putt putt course

549
00:31:31,160 --> 00:31:34,400
Speaker 1: is where you those that are like two levels and

550
00:31:34,560 --> 00:31:36,600
Speaker 1: you can hit it into three different holes at the

551
00:31:36,640 --> 00:31:39,640
Speaker 1: top and you're like, you kind of take a little

552
00:31:39,680 --> 00:31:41,080
Speaker 1: bit of a gamble as to where it's going to

553
00:31:41,160 --> 00:31:43,520
Speaker 1: come out on the bottom. Uh, It'll either come out

554
00:31:43,520 --> 00:31:45,000
Speaker 1: close to the hole so you can get that part

555
00:31:45,000 --> 00:31:47,640
Speaker 1: two and I think they're all part twos on a

556
00:31:47,720 --> 00:31:51,000
Speaker 1: real put put course, or it'll spit you out way

557
00:31:51,040 --> 00:31:53,000
Speaker 1: far away, but you still have a chance to hit

558
00:31:53,040 --> 00:31:56,240
Speaker 1: that long putt for the for the two. Sure, there's

559
00:31:56,240 --> 00:31:58,560
Speaker 1: always a chance for you a second chance at putt

560
00:31:58,560 --> 00:32:03,600
Speaker 1: putt goes the motto, so um yeah. But so this

561
00:32:03,640 --> 00:32:05,880
Speaker 1: was Don Clayton's vision. He was like, I want to

562
00:32:05,920 --> 00:32:08,600
Speaker 1: make this a little less goofy. I want to make

563
00:32:08,600 --> 00:32:15,200
Speaker 1: it a little more interesting and skillful. Yeah yeah, chuck man,

564
00:32:15,240 --> 00:32:17,680
Speaker 1: he just sat up from his grave going I wish

565
00:32:17,720 --> 00:32:20,520
Speaker 1: I thought of that, because he did. Yeah, he died

566
00:32:20,520 --> 00:32:23,720
Speaker 1: in Okay, but he had a good run. I mean,

567
00:32:23,720 --> 00:32:25,680
Speaker 1: this is nineteen fifty four, when he was a twenty

568
00:32:25,680 --> 00:32:29,080
Speaker 1: eight year old man that he decided to try this. So, uh,

569
00:32:29,120 --> 00:32:31,200
Speaker 1: he went to his dad and said, hey, I've got this.

570
00:32:31,240 --> 00:32:33,959
Speaker 1: I've got this idea. Rather than basically, as a New

571
00:32:34,040 --> 00:32:37,480
Speaker 1: York Times obituary put it, um, rather than basically basically

572
00:32:37,680 --> 00:32:41,680
Speaker 1: making a human sized pinball machine for golf, We're gonna

573
00:32:41,680 --> 00:32:44,280
Speaker 1: make this a little more interesting. How about we cobble

574
00:32:44,320 --> 00:32:47,800
Speaker 1: together fifty bucks and we're going to build our own

575
00:32:47,840 --> 00:32:50,640
Speaker 1: little miniature golf course. And he did, and like a

576
00:32:50,720 --> 00:32:55,880
Speaker 1: shaded little lot. And with that they opened for business,

577
00:32:56,320 --> 00:32:59,200
Speaker 1: and within twenty nine days he and his father had

578
00:32:59,240 --> 00:33:03,800
Speaker 1: made one percent of their investment back. And Don Clayton said,

579
00:33:03,920 --> 00:33:07,360
Speaker 1: I think there might be something to this whole thing. Yeah,

580
00:33:07,440 --> 00:33:11,160
Speaker 1: so he, uh, he was initially gonna call it. He

581
00:33:11,200 --> 00:33:13,040
Speaker 1: went to the bank to open a business account and

582
00:33:13,040 --> 00:33:15,000
Speaker 1: he had to fill out the paperwork, and he was

583
00:33:15,000 --> 00:33:17,920
Speaker 1: going to call it the Shady Veil Golf Course. But

584
00:33:19,280 --> 00:33:21,840
Speaker 1: as the story goes, he didn't know how to spell veil.

585
00:33:21,960 --> 00:33:24,480
Speaker 1: I guess if it was v A I L or

586
00:33:24,600 --> 00:33:30,080
Speaker 1: v A L E. So he just said, uh, putt

587
00:33:30,080 --> 00:33:35,600
Speaker 1: putt and wrote down Putt. But it wasn't something he brainstormed. Apparently,

588
00:33:35,600 --> 00:33:38,160
Speaker 1: it was just sort of on a whim. And it's

589
00:33:38,160 --> 00:33:42,960
Speaker 1: a name that really really stuck. It's kind of brilliant

590
00:33:42,960 --> 00:33:47,160
Speaker 1: and its simplicity, I think divine inspiration. It almost feels like,

591
00:33:47,520 --> 00:33:49,800
Speaker 1: UM did that. It just kind of happened on a whim.

592
00:33:49,920 --> 00:33:54,160
Speaker 1: That's just absolutely great. But Um, he started to kind

593
00:33:54,160 --> 00:33:56,800
Speaker 1: of build the whole thing into like this enormous industry

594
00:33:56,800 --> 00:33:59,480
Speaker 1: pretty quickly because he was right. You know, there's I

595
00:33:59,520 --> 00:34:02,640
Speaker 1: did the man. If they made their dollars back in

596
00:34:02,640 --> 00:34:05,280
Speaker 1: twenty nine days, that means that over that month they

597
00:34:05,280 --> 00:34:11,480
Speaker 1: had twenty thousand, eight hundred paying customers a game. Yeah,

598
00:34:12,160 --> 00:34:15,120
Speaker 1: And so when they really got together and started Putt

599
00:34:15,160 --> 00:34:18,480
Speaker 1: Putt like they he was right. He was onto something

600
00:34:18,520 --> 00:34:21,359
Speaker 1: and it started to take off pretty quickly. Apparently at

601
00:34:21,400 --> 00:34:25,080
Speaker 1: its peak, Um, when you and I were going to

602
00:34:25,120 --> 00:34:28,799
Speaker 1: Putt putt, Uh, they were. They had something like two

603
00:34:28,840 --> 00:34:32,960
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty six courses throughout the world. Um, mostly

604
00:34:33,000 --> 00:34:36,000
Speaker 1: in the US and Canada, but also in Australia and

605
00:34:36,080 --> 00:34:41,319
Speaker 1: South Africa and New Zealand. Um, and it was. It

606
00:34:41,440 --> 00:34:43,880
Speaker 1: was definitely a thing. Like you said, all of the

607
00:34:43,920 --> 00:34:46,759
Speaker 1: holes were part two's right, yeah, And this was just

608
00:34:46,880 --> 00:34:49,160
Speaker 1: to be clear to fifty six doesn't sound like a

609
00:34:49,160 --> 00:34:52,600
Speaker 1: lot compared to the fifty thousand that uh they had

610
00:34:52,640 --> 00:34:56,120
Speaker 1: in the nineteen thirties. But this was his his own

611
00:34:56,200 --> 00:35:00,000
Speaker 1: putt putt golfin Games franchise. There was plenty of more

612
00:35:00,080 --> 00:35:05,200
Speaker 1: putt putt going on in the United States than that, right, right, right, yeah,

613
00:35:05,440 --> 00:35:08,000
Speaker 1: like knockoff putt putt right yeah, like the one in

614
00:35:08,040 --> 00:35:10,160
Speaker 1: Stone Mountain Park. Wudn't a put putt golfin Games. It

615
00:35:10,239 --> 00:35:13,320
Speaker 1: was just putt putt, but it was. It was great.

616
00:35:13,760 --> 00:35:18,840
Speaker 1: It's called Tap Tap. They also had trail skate across

617
00:35:19,000 --> 00:35:22,640
Speaker 1: from the putt putt, which was a roller skating trail

618
00:35:22,760 --> 00:35:26,319
Speaker 1: through the woods. What Yeah. It was like this two

619
00:35:26,360 --> 00:35:30,080
Speaker 1: mile paved you know, just basically like a big paved

620
00:35:30,120 --> 00:35:32,920
Speaker 1: sidewalk through the woods, and they rented roller skates and

621
00:35:32,960 --> 00:35:35,839
Speaker 1: you would just skate through the woods. It was really cool, man,

622
00:35:35,880 --> 00:35:38,560
Speaker 1: that's awesome. Country folk just have some of the best

623
00:35:38,600 --> 00:35:41,279
Speaker 1: ideas for businesses, you know what I mean. I didn't

624
00:35:41,280 --> 00:35:42,800
Speaker 1: think of us as country folk, but I guess it

625
00:35:42,880 --> 00:35:47,040
Speaker 1: kind of was roller skating through the woods country. I

626
00:35:47,080 --> 00:35:51,960
Speaker 1: guess it is. That's like Dolly Parton level country. So yeah,

627
00:35:52,000 --> 00:35:55,279
Speaker 1: they're all part two's um and it is. It is tough.

628
00:35:55,320 --> 00:35:59,040
Speaker 1: It's challenging. Apparently, in the sixty five year history of

629
00:35:59,080 --> 00:36:01,920
Speaker 1: putt putt, the have only been three perfect games where

630
00:36:02,480 --> 00:36:05,319
Speaker 1: you walk away with a score of eighteen, which is

631
00:36:06,080 --> 00:36:09,560
Speaker 1: that's that's really tough to do. I mean, like of

632
00:36:09,680 --> 00:36:13,279
Speaker 1: the millions and millions of games that of putt putt

633
00:36:13,400 --> 00:36:17,000
Speaker 1: that people have played, only three people have ever ever

634
00:36:17,440 --> 00:36:19,960
Speaker 1: gotten a perfect game, which kind of shows you how

635
00:36:19,960 --> 00:36:23,520
Speaker 1: like deceptively hard. The putt putt courses, you know, like

636
00:36:23,560 --> 00:36:25,759
Speaker 1: each one of those each one of those courses made

637
00:36:25,760 --> 00:36:27,960
Speaker 1: of um. I think they have something like a hundred

638
00:36:28,000 --> 00:36:33,600
Speaker 1: and eight uh trademarked holes like uh lanes I think

639
00:36:33,680 --> 00:36:36,560
Speaker 1: is what they're called, and miniature golf um where you

640
00:36:36,600 --> 00:36:38,920
Speaker 1: can just kind of take them and reconfigure them into

641
00:36:39,000 --> 00:36:42,800
Speaker 1: different different configurations. But they have a hundred and eight total,

642
00:36:42,880 --> 00:36:47,280
Speaker 1: and I guess each one of them is very, very difficult.

643
00:36:47,320 --> 00:36:49,799
Speaker 1: I don't ever remember getting a perfect game or even

644
00:36:49,840 --> 00:36:52,000
Speaker 1: imagining that I was going to get a perfect game,

645
00:36:52,600 --> 00:36:55,440
Speaker 1: you get a two or three holes in one and

646
00:36:55,480 --> 00:36:59,080
Speaker 1: that's a that's a good day for sure. So eighteen

647
00:36:59,160 --> 00:37:01,479
Speaker 1: there's actually a short, i think seven and a half

648
00:37:01,520 --> 00:37:05,200
Speaker 1: minute grant Land documentary on the most recent perfect putt

649
00:37:05,200 --> 00:37:09,000
Speaker 1: put game by a guy named Rick Baird who had

650
00:37:09,040 --> 00:37:14,719
Speaker 1: his perfect game in two thousand eleven. They capture it

651
00:37:14,760 --> 00:37:17,920
Speaker 1: really well in this in this documentary. It's really well done.

652
00:37:18,239 --> 00:37:21,960
Speaker 1: They've got like like a cartoon version of him putting,

653
00:37:22,239 --> 00:37:25,040
Speaker 1: and he's got like cartoons sweat just running down his face.

654
00:37:25,080 --> 00:37:29,799
Speaker 1: Oh man. Yeah, it was very nervous and he did it.

655
00:37:29,840 --> 00:37:33,400
Speaker 1: And he's actually a miniature golf pro um in his

656
00:37:33,480 --> 00:37:36,600
Speaker 1: spare time, which we'll talk about later. But there's so

657
00:37:36,680 --> 00:37:41,960
Speaker 1: he's from Charlotte, um Don Clayton was from Fayetteville, and

658
00:37:42,000 --> 00:37:47,400
Speaker 1: then um Joseph Barber was from Pinehurst. So it seems

659
00:37:47,440 --> 00:37:51,799
Speaker 1: pretty clear that North Carolina is the ancestral home of

660
00:37:51,920 --> 00:37:55,080
Speaker 1: miniature golfer at least the spiritual home of miniature golf

661
00:37:55,160 --> 00:37:57,279
Speaker 1: in the world. Frankly, I'm just gonna say it, in

662
00:37:57,280 --> 00:38:00,680
Speaker 1: the world. Yeah, And if you're looking for the creators

663
00:38:00,719 --> 00:38:04,759
Speaker 1: of the kind of mechanized courses, you can go to

664
00:38:05,840 --> 00:38:09,400
Speaker 1: and Scranton p A with Ralph and al loma Um.

665
00:38:09,440 --> 00:38:11,520
Speaker 1: Previously this you know, you had the putt putt, which

666
00:38:12,040 --> 00:38:14,759
Speaker 1: just had the sort of regular obstacles. You had the

667
00:38:14,800 --> 00:38:19,000
Speaker 1: tom thumb, which had kind of more outrageous whimsy, but

668
00:38:19,440 --> 00:38:21,719
Speaker 1: still things weren't moving. And that these are the guys

669
00:38:21,760 --> 00:38:25,600
Speaker 1: that brought in these rotating windmill blades or ramps that

670
00:38:25,719 --> 00:38:28,040
Speaker 1: moved back and forth, and they really kind of kicked

671
00:38:28,080 --> 00:38:32,120
Speaker 1: that to the next level. And uh, they you know,

672
00:38:32,160 --> 00:38:34,440
Speaker 1: they went into business big time. They started mass producing

673
00:38:34,840 --> 00:38:38,479
Speaker 1: these things, like the actual components and sold a ton

674
00:38:38,560 --> 00:38:41,520
Speaker 1: of them all over the world. Yeah, I think like

675
00:38:41,640 --> 00:38:45,879
Speaker 1: five thousand courses. Just pretty impressive. They're the ones who

676
00:38:45,920 --> 00:38:47,840
Speaker 1: came up with what we think of now is like

677
00:38:47,880 --> 00:38:50,640
Speaker 1: manature golf and goofy golf with the moving stuff, not

678
00:38:50,680 --> 00:38:53,040
Speaker 1: a fan, the clown mouth, don't forget the clown mouth

679
00:38:53,520 --> 00:38:56,400
Speaker 1: that opens and closes or yeah, like you said, a

680
00:38:56,440 --> 00:39:01,240
Speaker 1: windmill um. So it's kind of interesting that Don Clayton

681
00:39:01,400 --> 00:39:06,680
Speaker 1: brought miniature golf back to its roots of being a

682
00:39:06,719 --> 00:39:09,880
Speaker 1: lot more like regular golf, and then very shortly after

683
00:39:09,920 --> 00:39:13,120
Speaker 1: that branched off the Lomas who brought it back to

684
00:39:13,200 --> 00:39:16,520
Speaker 1: their that tom thumb roots. So that whole thing, the

685
00:39:16,600 --> 00:39:20,279
Speaker 1: evolution of miniature golf happened twice in just the same

686
00:39:20,320 --> 00:39:23,960
Speaker 1: way and that interesting. Yeah, and it also came back

687
00:39:24,000 --> 00:39:27,080
Speaker 1: full circle in the nineties with a return to the

688
00:39:27,120 --> 00:39:31,680
Speaker 1: sort of that original miniature golf because real golfers, people

689
00:39:31,680 --> 00:39:35,040
Speaker 1: like Jack Nicholas started to get involved. Uh. I'm sure

690
00:39:35,080 --> 00:39:39,080
Speaker 1: there were dollar signs, you know, in his eyes, but

691
00:39:39,160 --> 00:39:41,320
Speaker 1: he also probably loved it. I don't want to be cynical,

692
00:39:41,719 --> 00:39:46,080
Speaker 1: but I'm sure he made some money. But they have competitions,

693
00:39:46,080 --> 00:39:49,480
Speaker 1: you know, they are actual um prize purses. There is

694
00:39:49,520 --> 00:39:52,600
Speaker 1: a U S Pro Mini Golf Association. They have their

695
00:39:52,640 --> 00:39:54,719
Speaker 1: own Little US Open. I don't think they call it

696
00:39:54,719 --> 00:39:59,200
Speaker 1: the Little US Open. Uh they should, They totally should.

697
00:39:59,600 --> 00:40:03,920
Speaker 1: There's the World Mini Golf Sports Federation in Germany and

698
00:40:04,160 --> 00:40:08,120
Speaker 1: they sort of are the body that standardizes the obstacleson

699
00:40:08,239 --> 00:40:10,920
Speaker 1: stuff like that. On I guess what you can have

700
00:40:10,960 --> 00:40:13,400
Speaker 1: and what you can't have, yeah, which is kind of

701
00:40:13,400 --> 00:40:15,680
Speaker 1: funny when you think about it. It is, but it's

702
00:40:15,680 --> 00:40:18,080
Speaker 1: a pretty interesting list. You're like, oh, that'd be tough.

703
00:40:18,120 --> 00:40:21,839
Speaker 1: Oh that's hard. The slope circle with a v obstacle, Yeah,

704
00:40:22,040 --> 00:40:25,160
Speaker 1: that's just playing difficult. Um, and I think they should

705
00:40:25,239 --> 00:40:30,080
Speaker 1: call it the teeny weeny US Open. Welcome back to

706
00:40:30,160 --> 00:40:33,319
Speaker 1: the teeny weenie What's open? I was looking at the

707
00:40:33,440 --> 00:40:38,680
Speaker 1: UM the uh US Pro Mini Golf Association's website, and um,

708
00:40:38,719 --> 00:40:42,600
Speaker 1: there was a Tennessee State Open, and man, the picture

709
00:40:42,680 --> 00:40:45,840
Speaker 1: that they have of that course, it looks serious. Dude.

710
00:40:46,120 --> 00:40:48,000
Speaker 1: So like if you if you go to pup putt

711
00:40:48,040 --> 00:40:50,239
Speaker 1: and you always were like, I love this. This is

712
00:40:50,280 --> 00:40:53,840
Speaker 1: so challenging. I can score like a sixteen some or

713
00:40:54,239 --> 00:40:57,319
Speaker 1: I guess not a sixteen. I just don't play the

714
00:40:57,360 --> 00:41:00,279
Speaker 1: last two holes when I'm on a streak. Um, you know,

715
00:41:00,360 --> 00:41:02,839
Speaker 1: like a twenty or a twenty two or something like that.

716
00:41:03,120 --> 00:41:06,480
Speaker 1: You might actually have fun being a miniature golf pro.

717
00:41:06,840 --> 00:41:10,120
Speaker 1: And there are some serious courses out there for you

718
00:41:10,200 --> 00:41:14,160
Speaker 1: to play that are a couple of notches above your

719
00:41:14,200 --> 00:41:16,720
Speaker 1: average put putt course. I'd like to play one of those,

720
00:41:17,560 --> 00:41:20,120
Speaker 1: would you? I don't know if I would have fun? Club?

721
00:41:21,400 --> 00:41:27,080
Speaker 1: Should we talk about some of these famous courses? Yeah? So? Um.

722
00:41:27,280 --> 00:41:29,719
Speaker 1: From what I can tell, the United States is the

723
00:41:29,920 --> 00:41:33,440
Speaker 1: home of miniature golf. It's the capitals of miniature golf.

724
00:41:33,560 --> 00:41:36,399
Speaker 1: I don't believe there's any country. Like I was looking.

725
00:41:36,400 --> 00:41:38,880
Speaker 1: I was like, maybe Thailand is like even more into

726
00:41:38,920 --> 00:41:41,160
Speaker 1: it than the United States. I don't think so. I

727
00:41:41,200 --> 00:41:43,839
Speaker 1: think the United States is the place that has the

728
00:41:43,880 --> 00:41:47,720
Speaker 1: most miniature golf courses and has probably the most paying

729
00:41:47,760 --> 00:41:53,080
Speaker 1: customers for miniature golf courses. I could and I didn't

730
00:41:53,120 --> 00:41:55,600
Speaker 1: see anything like that. Yeah, I didn't see anything like it.

731
00:41:55,719 --> 00:41:58,160
Speaker 1: So the United States is the home of miniature golf

732
00:41:58,400 --> 00:42:02,600
Speaker 1: and the world capital of miniature golf than is Myrtle Beach,

733
00:42:02,640 --> 00:42:05,640
Speaker 1: South Carolina, which is ironic that it's not North Carolina,

734
00:42:05,719 --> 00:42:08,560
Speaker 1: but it's not everybody, I'm sorry, Yeah, I mean Myrtle

735
00:42:08,600 --> 00:42:10,400
Speaker 1: Beach is sort of one of those classic old school

736
00:42:10,440 --> 00:42:13,400
Speaker 1: beach towns that has all of the go carts and

737
00:42:13,440 --> 00:42:16,279
Speaker 1: the bumper boats and the mini golf. And they have

738
00:42:16,400 --> 00:42:20,120
Speaker 1: one called Molten Mountain. Uh, that's pretty cool. Like you

739
00:42:20,120 --> 00:42:21,920
Speaker 1: should go check out pictures of some of these places.

740
00:42:21,920 --> 00:42:24,520
Speaker 1: There are a lot of fun that has a volcano,

741
00:42:24,960 --> 00:42:29,000
Speaker 1: a working volcano that erupts every half hour, and it's

742
00:42:29,000 --> 00:42:30,759
Speaker 1: sort of an inside and an out thing, like I

743
00:42:30,800 --> 00:42:35,080
Speaker 1: think it's both indoors and outdoors, right it is. Yeah,

744
00:42:35,239 --> 00:42:37,280
Speaker 1: it's a pretty it's a pretty great one. And the

745
00:42:37,400 --> 00:42:39,920
Speaker 1: whole volcano thing. They're not the only one that's how

746
00:42:40,040 --> 00:42:42,960
Speaker 1: nuts So Myrtle Beaches, there's another one called Hawaiian Rumble.

747
00:42:43,000 --> 00:42:46,720
Speaker 1: They also has a functioning volcano too, And in fact,

748
00:42:46,920 --> 00:42:50,520
Speaker 1: on Highway seventeen there's a thirty mile stretch of it

749
00:42:50,640 --> 00:42:54,600
Speaker 1: that goes through Myrtle Beach where there's fifty more than

750
00:42:54,760 --> 00:42:58,719
Speaker 1: fifty miniature golf courses in a thirty mile stretch and

751
00:42:58,719 --> 00:43:01,279
Speaker 1: I'm sure a lot of opinions on which ones are good,

752
00:43:01,360 --> 00:43:04,880
Speaker 1: and yep, um, there's one I want to go to

753
00:43:05,040 --> 00:43:07,880
Speaker 1: in Palatine, Illinois. I think I said a couple of

754
00:43:07,880 --> 00:43:11,319
Speaker 1: these from Travel and Leisure maybe. Um. This one's called

755
00:43:11,360 --> 00:43:14,920
Speaker 1: al Graham Acres a L. G. H R I m Acres.

756
00:43:15,200 --> 00:43:18,520
Speaker 1: It's in Palatine, Illinois, Illinois, and it's a funeral home

757
00:43:18,719 --> 00:43:23,320
Speaker 1: like for real in real life. Yeah, like you know, uh,

758
00:43:23,480 --> 00:43:27,239
Speaker 1: they they take care of dead bodies and you can

759
00:43:27,280 --> 00:43:30,400
Speaker 1: also play nine holes on their death themed course in

760
00:43:30,400 --> 00:43:33,640
Speaker 1: the basement in the basement. First of all, the basement

761
00:43:33,640 --> 00:43:36,040
Speaker 1: of a funeral home is just creepy on its own,

762
00:43:36,480 --> 00:43:40,440
Speaker 1: but a death themed miniature golf course in a funeral

763
00:43:40,480 --> 00:43:45,319
Speaker 1: home that actually functions, that's that's just done right. Interesting. Yeah,

764
00:43:45,320 --> 00:43:47,879
Speaker 1: there's this one in Las Vegas to the Kiss themed win,

765
00:43:48,000 --> 00:43:51,680
Speaker 1: which I checked out on YouTube. I would I would

766
00:43:51,680 --> 00:43:54,279
Speaker 1: play this, even though it goes against two things for me,

767
00:43:54,360 --> 00:43:58,239
Speaker 1: which is not into indoor miniature golf. I really would

768
00:43:58,280 --> 00:44:01,360
Speaker 1: like to be outside. Uh, and I think Kiss sucks.

769
00:44:03,000 --> 00:44:06,120
Speaker 1: What I thought you were a Kiss fan? Oh man,

770
00:44:06,160 --> 00:44:08,239
Speaker 1: I thought you were a Kiss fan. No, not a

771
00:44:08,280 --> 00:44:10,520
Speaker 1: Kiss fan never. I mean, you know, I get it,

772
00:44:10,680 --> 00:44:13,560
Speaker 1: and I think it's kind of fun and funny. But

773
00:44:13,600 --> 00:44:16,080
Speaker 1: I never thought Kiss was like played good rock and

774
00:44:16,160 --> 00:44:19,279
Speaker 1: roll songs. Really, that's very surprising. I know Kiss fans

775
00:44:19,280 --> 00:44:20,680
Speaker 1: are gonna be so mad at me for saying their

776
00:44:20,760 --> 00:44:23,040
Speaker 1: music is not good, but I mean there's a reason

777
00:44:23,080 --> 00:44:27,480
Speaker 1: they dressed up in spit, blood and stuff, so there's

778
00:44:27,520 --> 00:44:29,520
Speaker 1: a but it's still it would be worth playing. I

779
00:44:29,880 --> 00:44:32,720
Speaker 1: agree it looks fun. The one that I would actually

780
00:44:32,760 --> 00:44:38,719
Speaker 1: travel to go play um is called Parking. It's in Lincolnshire, Illinois,

781
00:44:38,760 --> 00:44:40,640
Speaker 1: so I'd probably go there and then I dip down

782
00:44:40,719 --> 00:44:42,840
Speaker 1: or dip up. I'm not sure it's a palatine to

783
00:44:42,880 --> 00:44:48,040
Speaker 1: play Alga Makers, but Parking is like exactly what it is.

784
00:44:48,160 --> 00:44:51,440
Speaker 1: It's the pinnacle of a miniature golf course. If you

785
00:44:51,520 --> 00:44:54,239
Speaker 1: ask me, it's got it all. It's difficult, and it

786
00:44:54,280 --> 00:44:59,280
Speaker 1: has all the amazing obstacles and weird traps in um

787
00:44:59,320 --> 00:45:03,840
Speaker 1: functioning problems. To figure out that that a miniature golf

788
00:45:03,840 --> 00:45:06,040
Speaker 1: course should have, it looked pretty cool. I mean, I'm

789
00:45:06,080 --> 00:45:08,200
Speaker 1: a putt putt guy, but I was checking out pictures

790
00:45:08,200 --> 00:45:10,200
Speaker 1: and stuff. I would I would go. I would go

791
00:45:10,239 --> 00:45:13,040
Speaker 1: to parking with you for sure. Okay, we'll go. It's

792
00:45:13,040 --> 00:45:15,480
Speaker 1: gonna be a summer trip in two thousand and twenty

793
00:45:15,480 --> 00:45:19,319
Speaker 1: two or three. Fantastic um. And then if you want

794
00:45:19,360 --> 00:45:21,239
Speaker 1: to play, so I think, chuck, this one would be

795
00:45:21,360 --> 00:45:24,520
Speaker 1: up your alley. It's called Golf Gardens and on Catalina

796
00:45:24,600 --> 00:45:28,960
Speaker 1: Island in SoCal Alley. This one is like considered the

797
00:45:29,000 --> 00:45:33,239
Speaker 1: hardest miniature golf course in the United States. Um, not

798
00:45:33,360 --> 00:45:37,760
Speaker 1: just because uh, it's difficultly laid out, but also because

799
00:45:37,760 --> 00:45:39,640
Speaker 1: it's been played so much that's got all sorts of

800
00:45:39,680 --> 00:45:42,000
Speaker 1: weird notches and stuff that's not supposed to be there

801
00:45:42,560 --> 00:45:44,560
Speaker 1: in the playing surface. So that makes it all the

802
00:45:44,600 --> 00:45:47,839
Speaker 1: more difficult, which is kind of neat. And then if

803
00:45:47,880 --> 00:45:49,440
Speaker 1: you want to go retro, I think that one's been

804
00:45:49,480 --> 00:45:52,440
Speaker 1: around a while. Um, you can go down to Florida

805
00:45:52,440 --> 00:45:55,520
Speaker 1: and they have a historic mini golf trail that takes

806
00:45:55,560 --> 00:45:58,640
Speaker 1: you from miniature golf course and miniature golf course, all

807
00:45:58,640 --> 00:46:03,600
Speaker 1: of which have been around for at least fifty years. Amazing. Uh.

808
00:46:03,640 --> 00:46:06,560
Speaker 1: And if you like weird old stuff that's not in

809
00:46:06,760 --> 00:46:09,799
Speaker 1: use anymore, look up abandoned miniature golf courses. That's a

810
00:46:09,840 --> 00:46:12,440
Speaker 1: fun thing to do. And since I said it's a

811
00:46:12,440 --> 00:46:14,320
Speaker 1: fun thing to do, everybody, that means it's time for

812
00:46:14,360 --> 00:46:18,400
Speaker 1: a listener mail. All right, I'm gonna call this dad.

813
00:46:18,520 --> 00:46:21,160
Speaker 1: Male I got this very sweet email. I love it

814
00:46:21,160 --> 00:46:24,799
Speaker 1: when the families listening, you know, sure, especially when they're not.

815
00:46:25,040 --> 00:46:26,960
Speaker 1: I mean, I like families with young kids that listen,

816
00:46:27,040 --> 00:46:29,279
Speaker 1: but I also like it when the it's adults and

817
00:46:29,320 --> 00:46:32,920
Speaker 1: then older parents that are listening. Right. Hey, guys, hope

818
00:46:32,920 --> 00:46:34,880
Speaker 1: you're hanging in there. These are such tricky times. I

819
00:46:34,920 --> 00:46:36,920
Speaker 1: know you're I'm not the only listener that turns to

820
00:46:36,920 --> 00:46:40,000
Speaker 1: your show for a distraction or a soundtrack to washing dishes,

821
00:46:40,160 --> 00:46:42,680
Speaker 1: or background noise while trying to run, or just something

822
00:46:42,719 --> 00:46:45,480
Speaker 1: that feels normal during these abnormal times. A couple of

823
00:46:45,560 --> 00:46:47,399
Speaker 1: years ago, my now husband and I took a road

824
00:46:47,400 --> 00:46:50,400
Speaker 1: trip with my parents to stay with my now in laws.

825
00:46:50,760 --> 00:46:52,400
Speaker 1: As we pulled out of the driveway, we put on

826
00:46:52,400 --> 00:46:55,080
Speaker 1: Stuff you Should Know and spent the entire journey sharing

827
00:46:55,080 --> 00:46:57,799
Speaker 1: your catalog with them, and they were immediately hooked. My

828
00:46:57,920 --> 00:47:01,239
Speaker 1: parents continue to love your podcast, but every time my

829
00:47:01,320 --> 00:47:03,920
Speaker 1: dad refers to it, he mixes up the name I

830
00:47:04,080 --> 00:47:07,920
Speaker 1: love this stuff. So far, he's called you guys, you

831
00:47:07,920 --> 00:47:12,280
Speaker 1: should know, Sure, stuff you ought to know? Yeah, things

832
00:47:12,280 --> 00:47:17,560
Speaker 1: you need to know, and stuff guys. Stuff guys is

833
00:47:17,800 --> 00:47:20,840
Speaker 1: that's a good nickname. Lately he's just been referring to

834
00:47:20,880 --> 00:47:25,120
Speaker 1: you as the guys podcast, which is close enough for me. Eventually,

835
00:47:25,120 --> 00:47:29,000
Speaker 1: we're just going to get to the Yeah. Thanks for

836
00:47:29,040 --> 00:47:30,880
Speaker 1: all the amazing work and the thoughtful approach you have

837
00:47:31,000 --> 00:47:34,239
Speaker 1: to podcasting. So grateful to have multiple episodes to listen

838
00:47:34,280 --> 00:47:37,279
Speaker 1: to every week. That is from Merabeth, and she says

839
00:47:37,280 --> 00:47:39,920
Speaker 1: p s. I should add that the episode on fractals

840
00:47:40,480 --> 00:47:44,799
Speaker 1: is now infamously nap inducing in my family, but I

841
00:47:44,880 --> 00:47:48,319
Speaker 1: blame the long stretch of highway on that. Thank you.

842
00:47:48,440 --> 00:47:51,279
Speaker 1: That was very kind of you really pulled it out

843
00:47:51,320 --> 00:47:55,799
Speaker 1: at the end there. Um, who's that, Marabeth? Well, if

844
00:47:55,800 --> 00:47:57,799
Speaker 1: you want to be like Marabeth and get in touch

845
00:47:57,840 --> 00:48:00,719
Speaker 1: with us. UM we would appreciate that. Right now, you

846
00:48:00,800 --> 00:48:02,799
Speaker 1: can send it to us via email. It's the best

847
00:48:02,800 --> 00:48:05,680
Speaker 1: way to reach us at Stuff podcast at iHeart radio

848
00:48:05,760 --> 00:48:10,880
Speaker 1: dot com. Stuff you Should Know is a production of

849
00:48:10,880 --> 00:48:13,680
Speaker 1: iHeart Radio's How Stuff Works. For more podcasts for my

850
00:48:13,719 --> 00:48:16,480
Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or

851
00:48:16,520 --> 00:48:25,040
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H