An Army of Normal Folks - Everyone Needs a Yardman

Episode Date: July 12, 2024

Like normal people. So said Coach Bill's daughter... and just wait until you hear his response on the latest Shop Talk. Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/premiumSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey everybody, welcome back to Shop Talk number 16, which is I'm calling, why can't everybody have a yard person like normal folks, but Alex is the one that actually produces and titles this thing. So if the title that's on your prompt to get to this is not the title I just said, that's because Alex doesn't allow me to title anything. He's very controlling over that. Aren't you, Alex? Yes. You're also a little busy. Oh, I'm busy.

You only got 140 employees. Yeah. So, shop talk number 16, right after these brief messages from our generous sponsors. I'm Andrea Gunning, host of the all new podcast, There and Gone. It's a real life story of two people who left a crowded Philadelphia bar, walked to their truck and vanished.

Nobody hears anything. Nobody sees anything. Did they run away? Was it an accident or were they murdered? A truck and two people just don't disappear. The FBI called it murder for hire. It was definitely murder for hire for Danielle, not for Richard. He's your son and in your eyes he's innocent, but in my eyes he's just some guy my sister was with. In this series I dig into my own investigation to find answers for the families

and get justice for Richard and Danielle. Listen to There and Gone South Street on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, from Wonder Media Network, I'm Jenni Kaplan, host of Womanica, podcasts. Hello from Wondermedia Network. I'm Jenni Kaplan, host of Womanica, a daily podcast that introduces you to the fascinating lives of women history has forgotten. This month, we're bringing you the stories of

athletes. There's the Italian race car driver who courted danger and became the first woman to compete in Formula One, the sprinter who set a world record and protested racism and discrimination and became the first woman to compete in Formula One. The sprinter who set a world record and protested racism and discrimination in the U.S. and around the world in the 1960s. The diver who was barred from swimming clubs due to her race

and went on to become the first Asian-American woman to win an Olympic medal. She won gold twice. The mountaineer known in the Chinese press as the tallest woman in the world. And the ancient Greek charioteer who exploited a loophole to become the first-ever woman to compete at the Olympic Games. Listen to Wamanica on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Last season, millions tuned into the Betrayal podcast to hear a shocking story of deception.

I'm Andrea Gunning, and now we're sharing an all-new story of betrayal. Stacey thought she had the perfect husband. Doctor, father, family man. It was the perfect cover for Justin Rutherford to hide behind. It led me into the house, and I I mean it was like a movie. He was sitting at our kitchen table. The cops were guarding him. Stacey learned how far her husband would go to save himself.

I slept with a loaded gun next to my bed. He did not just say I wish he was dead. He actually gave details and explained different scenarios on how to kill him. He, to me, is scarier than Jeffrey Dahmer. Listen to Betrayal on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So, one of the decisions Lisa and I made early on is that we were going to make our kids cut some grass.

Now I want to explain why. I was broke and I couldn't afford a yard man. No, I'm kidding. Actually I was at first, but when we moved to what we thought was going to be a forever house, which we've moved from because there's no such thing as a forever house, I found that out.

We lived on a couple acres with a little pond in the back out in the rural area. It was a lot of grass and there were a lot of trees and there was a lot of weed eating. And Lisa wanted English Ivy growing up the trees eight feet. Well, that stuff grows. You got to trim it. And there were bushes all over the place that you had to trim. And then there was trees everywhere. She had to rake the leaves. It was just a nightmare to keep up.

But I had four little yard people named Maggie, Molly, Will, and Max. And so it was a rite of passage in our family that every Sunday after church, we came home and put our work clothes on and it was yard day. And I'm telling you, with me and the four kids church, we came home and put our work clothes on and it was yard day. And I'm telling you, with me and the four kids and Lisa providing lemonade, water, and

moral support, we were five hours every day. Now as the kids got a little older into high school, we reduced that time to three or four hours because they got older and stronger, could work quicker, and by that time, had been trained pretty well and knew what to do. But I'll never forget, Maggie was in eighth grade, Molly seventh, Will sixth, and Max fifth. And it was a typical Memphis summer, August day, which if you don't know the Memphis world in summer, it is never under 97 degrees.

And the humidity is never under 75%. Heat index is typically 105, 110. And it's just miserable. And then when you're out in the yard cutting grass and dirt and grass clippings are sticking to your sweaty arms, your sunburn, you're tired. It's a lot of work, it really is. But I just couldn't ever see paying a guy to cut my grass while my four kids sat on their ass and ate bonbons like a bunch of entitled, spoiled kids. So we did it, but that required me to get off my butt and go out there with them, which sucked, but it was just something we did it, but that required me to get off my butt and go out there with them, which sucked,

but it was just something we did. And I gotta be honest with you, this particular August, after three or four years of doing this, I was starting to think, you know, Bill, you've made enough money, you could pay a guy to cut the grass, and do you really wanna be out here every Sunday

and be in sunburn, and the kids are going crazy. They're sick of it. And I was really questioning whether or not requiring my kids to do those chores was worth it really. And if it was having any impact other than just me getting some free child labor. And it was then that Molly came around the corner with a big black bag full of clippings that she was going to put in the clipping pile, red faced, hair pulled back in a ponytail and she's got her mom's disposition.

When things are great, she's the funnest, nicest, funniest person in the world to be around, but when she is not happy, she is an ogre. And yes, that is Lisa. Well, it's also Molly. Molly is a mini Lisa. So Molly comes around the corner and she's not happy and she's an ogre and she's carrying a bag and she's in seventh grade, which means she's, you know,

gotten to the age where it's okay to question your parent. And she looks at me, squinted eyes, sun- down on her, red face, sun beamed, grass in her hair, just mad as hell and says, Dad, this is getting ridiculous. Why can't we have a yard man like normal people? Normal people with a yard man. It was then that I decided, as long as I lived under my roof, they were gonna cut my grass.

And literally, all the way through college, I never had anybody work in our yard but our kids. Because my daughter was going to school with people who had some means. And thank God that she did. She went to better schools than I did. It was in a better neighborhood than I did. And it was very common for her to look around her little insulated piece of the world and

see everybody's well-manicured long being done by people that didn't live in that neighborhood. And we were very uncommon. And some of the kids thought we were maybe, Lisa and I were even a little neurotic. But to Molly's limited world, to Maggie, Molly and Wills, and Max's limited insular world, everybody had a yard man. And we were just weird for not having one. They never understood at that age that most people don't have the ability. Most people don't even have a yard. I never grew up with yard.

But then the people that are fortunate enough to have a yard, the vast majority of those people can't afford a yard man. They buy a lawn mower and gas and they spend the weekends taking care of their yard. That wasn't their reality in their little insulated world because they hadn't seen beyond their world. And my concern was that a yard man, because of subservient human being in their mind's eye, and therefore people working outside sweating, earnest or hard living were somehow beneath their station in the world because they were the quote, yard man that normal people quote have.

Why can't we have a yard man like normal people? That question in and of itself reeks That question in and of itself reeks of things that I fear for my family and my children. Do you have a yard man? Or do you have a kid with a lawnmower? I just think that we need to understand that getting hot and sweaty and skin and knees and having to do chores and being grounded and having to do stuff you don't want to do is a really good lesson because I guarantee you every one of you listening to me right now as adults on a weekly basis are required to do some things you just don't want to do, but you do them anyway.

What is wrong with our kids learning that lesson? What is wrong with kids learning that not everybody is blessed enough to have a nice house with a yard and not everybody is blessed with enough resources to be able to have a yard man and just because you have those blessings doesn't mean you should have one. Maybe you should do it yourself to remain connected to the reality of the world and Do in a weird way give thanks for the blessings you have So Lisa and I Decided our kids were our yard man and

That we were in fact going to show our kids what normal folks really did do on weekends And made our children our yard men. So that's Shop Talk number 15 and maybe that's 16. That's Shop Talk number 16 I think. Anyway, it's Shop Talk number something teen and it's a challenge for me today to you to think about your children and grandchildren and ask yourself, are they worthy of being your yard man? Both literally and metaphorically. I want to thank Ironlight Labs for producing this show. I also want to tell you if you have some cultural thought or idea or something in pop culture you want to talk about or just some kind of tenant or characteristic or current event that

you might want me to discuss if I think I have any value to it I'll do it. So write me anytime at bill at normalfolks us. And if it's something I think I might have a reasonable thought on, I'll call your name out, shout out to you and tell you this is for you and we'll cover it. Beyond that, I'm Bill Courtney. I'll see you next week. I'm Andrea Gunning, host of the all new podcast, There and Gone. It's a real life story of two people who left a crowded Philadelphia bar, walked to their truck and vanished. A truck and two people just don't disappear.

The FBI called it murder for hire. But which victim was the intended target and why? Listen to There and Gone South Street on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Last season, millions tuned into the Betrayal podcast to hear a shocking story of deception. I'm Andrea Gunning, and now we're sharing an all new story of betrayal.

Justin Rutherford, doctor, father, family man. It was the perfect cover to hide behind. Detective Weaver said, I'm sure you know why we're here. I was like, what in the world is going on? Listen to betrayal on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Back in 96, Atlanta was booming with excitement around hosting the Centennial Olympic Games. And then a deranged zealot willing to kill for a cause lit a fuse that would change my

life and so many others forever. Rippling out for generations. Listen to Flashpoint starting July 25th on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.