This is episode six of the Ask Dad Labs podcast recorded on April 8 2021. It's simple you ask questions and dad's answer. When we need actual answers, we will find the experts. Today we have Fritz from St. Louis, Missouri. He has four daughters. And we have Nick from Louisville, Kentucky. He has two kids aged six and 13. And I'm Ben and I'm in the Detroit River just south of Detroit, Michigan. My boys are 11 and 12. Let's get to the show. Well, hi there, Nick. How you doing today? How is Louisville in
Louisville, Kentucky.
Doing all right. Kids, the 14 year old 13 year old is going back into classes now and seems to like it. He's not.
You know, it's still school. He still hates it. But he only has to do work on two days. The other three days the teachers are doing
it's all going all right.
Excellent. Excellent. And Fritz, you're joining us. Welcome to Ask Dad Labs. You're joining us from St. Louis. How is life in St. Louis?
Oh my goodness, it is nuts. The weather here is absolutely indecisive. Like it was hot as nords the other day and I'm actually down a jacket and it's just it's like pick a season. Come on. We're supposed to be in spray. No, no, it's actually it's it's really good here. I mean, I've been in St. Louis my whole life. And the pandemic has been pretty wild. Here is still the whole cities kind of influx. There's different pockets of restrictions and things but we're getting by, as far as our girls are concerned. It's like, things are the status quo. We were homeschooling since before it was cool. So you know, it's not, it's not super new for them. But we've had to kind of change things up because we're living history right now. So
yeah, yeah. We'll, we'll probably touch back on that a couple times here. Cool. Um, and and of course, I'm Ben and I'm just south of Detroit. And I'll tell you it's, it's crazy. My kids are loving it, but but we're starting to have some closures with The Resurgence. Michigan's going nuts. The High School shut down for a week right after spring break. In middle school. We've got I think, 50 kids in quarantine right now. In the middle school. It's it's touch and go with that. But I get my vaccination tomorrow. So I am looking forward to that. Yeah. Now speaking of, you know, the Detroit, we've got it's, it's the beginning of the of like muskie, and and while I season up here, the Detroit River is a huge place for that. And the thing is, is that with COVID and everything, these fishing tournaments, they don't have spectators anymore. Instead, they're live streamed.
You mean they didn't? Ah.
You got me? Yeah, got me. I'm used to hearing dad jokes from my, from my kids. I give them a quarter of one dad joke per day. And they didn't cash any in for a while. So I'm kinda
Yeah, but now Now you've got one for yourself.
Ah, you just it's like I got punched in the face. Oh, I got it. I gotta use it. Now I was legit think and I'm like, well, man, what do they do like what they do? But the cardboard cutouts and play some songs of like, yeah,
catches fish or whatever. Let
me let me tell you. Let me tell you the truth of the matter is that it has always been live streamed it. These these bass tournaments are usually covered by ESPN. A they show it live on TV. There is no place to watch. And so they're they're never worse spectator. So there you go. Okay. So starting out with this. I everybody knows by now I work in a museum. I work at one of the greatest museums in the world. The Henry Ford and I work in Greenfield Village was which is an outdoor museum. I start back to work at the beginning of our season on April 17. It's got me thinking, what are great things about museums, what museums have you seen? Have you been to that are great for families? Both of you live near some really incredible museums. Thought I'd get your opinion on what makes a really good museum.
We do have some good museums around here. We've got got the Art Museum, and unfortunately, I've never been to it. I've never been to what I feel like, if you like a tool, there are some really cool installations which I'm gonna I'll consider that a museum. For the purposes of this conversation, but there's a sculpture park called laumeier Sculpture Park. And it's a sprawling, like mostly outdoor park that has just pieces of art. There's like a giant eyeball that's like 15 feet tall, you can stand next to it and just like, have it stare into your soul. It's awesome. You know, highly recommend. It's like a staring contest. You never win. But yeah, I mean, there's there's all kinds of places around here that have a lot of character. The Science Center is really awesome. So I guess you can consider that a science museum? Sure. Yeah. You're in St. Louis. There's all kinds of cool things. But I've never been to the Art Museum, I need to go. People keep saying I need to go.
We've got the local Science Center. And as a kid, I loved it. As an adult, when I first took my kid there, I was like, crazy disappointed. All there were so many things that were broken, it was just rundown, I was like, This is off. Now. In the last, I'd say probably six years, they have ramped it up quite a bit. The last time we took both kids and they had lots of things. There weren't there weren't broken things, lots of new things for the kids to run around and very interactive exhibits. I still think it's a little expensive for what it is. But it is, you know, it is it is much more kid friendly, family friendly now. And they had presentations and things where the kids could do crafts and different kinds of painting and all of that. So that was really cool. I think the coolest one I've ever seen was in Hartford, Connecticut. I think it's the Connecticut Science Center. And it was just this. I don't know if it was just fairly new or what I mean, it's been, I don't know. He's 13. So it's been six years since we've been there. It was just amazing. I mean, the exhibits were just everything just seemed really high end wasn't very expensive at all. We spent an entire afternoon there and still I don't think we saw and did everything that they had. And the Children's Museum Indianapolis, which is not phenomenal. Yeah. If you get a chance,
right there for it's it's awesome.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Giant dinosaurs hanging out on the outside of the building sticking its head. I mean, it's
got like a six story. Bumblebee the from from transformers. Yeah. The entryway. Yeah, it's it's stunning from the movie.
I mean, they've got four storey glass sculpture. They've got down all the stories that they do parade at the end of the day. Every little exhibit has some sort of button pushing for interaction. I think the Children's Museum in Indianapolis is a little better for younger kids. The local Science Center, still elementary school, not quite maybe sixth grade. The Science Center in Connecticut was, I think, a good range up to middle school. One other museum. I just remember. There's a I don't know what rhythm center or rhythm Oh, yes. Yes, Atlas. Yeah, which is just basically about drums and shit. And it's crazy. They have these little soundproof rooms you can go in and the kid can just wail away on a giant stage size kit. Yeah, that's, that's the headquarters of I believe it's the American percussion society. Is it? Yeah. And so they have a museum there that highlights percussion. So it's, it's amazing. And I mean, I played drums in high school. I was never very good at it. But that place was just phenomenal. Just lots and lots of fun. And it's not big, short afternoon trip. But and it wasn't too expensive. Kids love banging on drum. cymbals and just wailing away it was great, man.
Yep. Our five year old would go nuts. She would just yeah, go in there like animal just
did exactly what they do. They every single kid in there did that at some point. It was it was so much fun to watch. And that's that's an Indianapolis.
Yes. Just for reference. And well, I'll make sure to get links in into the into the Episode Notes for all of these things. The Detroit is a museum Mecca. The thing about having all these titans of industry gathered together. I mean, St. Louis has a ton of that too. They take their money. And you know, they've got plenty of it and they put it into the things they like. And so the Detroit Institute of Arts is a phenomenal, some would say top 10 Art Museum in the country in the world. They have paintings that you recognize because they get quoted in other places. They've got you just every turn yourself. prize because you've seen that before, which, in the smaller regional art museums, you know the name, but not really the piece for the most part. But places like the Chicago Art Museum, the the Chicago Art Institute, and the Detroit Institute of Art have paintings that you recognize right away, even if you don't remember who the artist is. And, and so it is really amazing to see that and then, and then they have over 100 galleries within the museum. And so everywhere you turn, there's something my favorite thing is to get into this giant golden elevator that they use for, for moving their statues. So it's super tall. But we take that up to like the second or third floor, and we come out and I've got, you know, my boys are twins. So we walk out of this in the hallway in front of us, like I said, these were this is what they use for the statues. It's just all butts, it's it's sculptures, just naked sculptures. And so we're walking through and it's just nude nude, nude, new nude, and then off to the side. If we try to get away from those. It's the Italian paintings. And it's nude afternoon afternoon there too. And so they just glow bright red, and it is a blast. But they have, they have all the traditional things that an art museum in the in the comics have, and they have art or they have, you know, the paintings, but then they also have suits of armor. They have weapons, they have furniture, they have they have these giant murals. There's one, Diego Rivera did this giant mural fresco, and it's permanent. And it's huge. It's this giant room. And it's all about industry and how American labor came together to create good and bad. So it has references to war and peace and manufacturing in it. And it's just an amazing piece. And so I can't say enough about that museum. But I can also not say enough about all the other museums because it's right next to a giant science museum. It's cross from a Big History Museum. And it's also next to a great classic African American History Museum too. And then you go over to Dearborn where I work. And the Henry Ford is just an amazing, amazing museum started by Henry Ford 1929 mostly as a school. And so he started collecting stuff. He collected stuff with some of his friends. Well, when you're Henry Ford, your friends are some pretty Notable people. And so he's got the, the building that that the Wright brothers developed their airplane. Orville Wright donated it to Henry Ford to let him put it in this village. He was great friends with with Thomas Edison. So the building that the light bulb was developed in at the phonograph was developed in that the telephone was improved in is there, even though Edison only used it for about five or six years. The building that no Webster wrote the dictionary in is there, because it was about to be torn down in New Haven, Connecticut. And so Henry Ford collected all these things and put them in, in a museum. That's something like 95 acres in Dearborn surrounded by by the Ford campus, but we're independent. And so it's a great place to go. It's got a little bit for everybody. We just opened a giant, a giant racing in America exhibit that's been put on hold for two years. Because of COVID. We've got we've got a big, I mean, it's it's great. It's interactive. You can be a pit team. So you can change NASCAR tires, and fill the fuel and all that kind of stuff. Nick, you'd love it. I would ask her experience. Yeah. And there's, there's just all sorts of stuff and movies and all that. And we have to two TV shows that get filmed out of the museum. And it's it's just amazing. We are one of the biggest maker fairs in the world, when we can have it. We're not having it this year. It's disappointing. But it's just an amazing place. It's got a little bit of everything. Hopefully, I'll be able to include, if not this episode in a future episode, talking with some of our exhibit coordinators and curators about what it takes to put together a nice program for families. And so I'm really excited about that. But
I want to toss out a few others not necessarily give you more work, Ben for finding links, CIT, but I've been to several I don't know the names of them. Air history museums.
Oh, yeah, there's a great one in Kalamazoo.
There's one in Tucson and to get to the one in Tucson you actually drive around some of the military aircraft graveyards. Oh, right. I remember hearing about that amazing. Just to drive by them is just the coolest thing. Yeah, we went to one when we were in Connecticut. I don't know what it is. I'm pretty sure there's one up there. That has a b 52. You know, that's a big plane, but just stand there next to it and just, it's just crazy. And they have a warehouse hype building that is just jam packed with all of these crazy looking planes. They have like bicycles and little race cars and all these different vehicles, boats, everything in this, this just and they're like, there's a plane here. They'll be a Cessna right here, and they'll be a boat right here and a bicycle right here. I mean, it is just jam packed. So there's so much to see visually, the boy I think was six, six or seven and just loved it. So absolutely, highly recommend. If you have something like that nearby you even you know, hour, two hours away. It's worth the drive, I think.
But halfway between you and me is one of the best aircraft museums in the world. And that is at Wright Patterson Air Force Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.
I think my dad is actually going up to there next week with one of his grandkids. Yeah, it's a man who is going to be an aviator of some sort. He's already like, 90% of the way through to his pilot's license. He's a high school senior. Yeah. So yeah,
I think that's the one they're going and that's, that's a free museum run by the Air Force. And it is just amazing. It's super big. They've got a B two bomber that spans this massive the wingspan on that thing is amazing. They also have a space shuttle that you can go into.
So that's even bigger than a b 52. Van.
Yeah, they actually have a trainer. So that's why you can go in it. All the rest of them. They chose that they chose to have the trainer space shuttle, because they could let people go in if they had one of the other ones, their artifacts and can't let people touch it. Hmm. So, so pretty interesting. I
get that. I guess
they also have they also have the Air Force once they have a collection of the presidential aircraft. So the really cool thing if you're around Dayton
Yeah, the one in the one in Tucson has JFK is Air Force One. I think it's the last not sure I think is the last prop Air Force One before they went to jets, and that was really cool for my dad, he got all misty eyed walking on that was
that was really not far from there to is the the Neil Armstrong Museum, where he details how he got into aviation and then got to the moon.
I was gonna say there was a there was another museum that I totally forgot about. And it's like one of my favorite ones. I guess I hadn't considered it a museum here in St. Louis. But it's more like a children's museum called the magic house. And it's really cool. I mean, even as a kid thinking back, it's like, Man, this place seems to be bigger on the inside than it appears, you know, it's almost like a, like a doctor who thing but they've got it. Yeah, they got a big basement. They got like, it's like three floors. And they've expanded on it. And they've got all kinds of stuff. They keep their stuff fresh. nothing's broken. I haven't run into any broken stuff. But they still have some of the stuff they had years ago, when I was a kid. They got this special room that you can go in where the walls are. Like, they glow a little bit like they have a light that flashes every, like 15 seconds or whatever. She can do karate moves or whatever. And it like leaves your shadows up on the wall. Yeah. And it's like, through this Reagan. Cool. I'm gonna do a jump kick. I go there when I'm 40. And I'm like, Nah, can't do that. I'm gonna let the girls try that.
Oh,
it's a fun place is really fun.
That's awesome. And that wall reminds me of another Museum, the speed museum here in the wall. They just did a major overhaul. Three years ago, I think. And they have they started doing art sparks is what they call it. And that was a kid friendly thing. Because this was a much more even as a kid. I've been there several times. And it's on the campus in U of L. It was a much more paintings and, and old furniture and sculptures and things. It was a much more Don't touch anything type museum to me, because that was my experience with it as a kid. I'm like, Oh, what's that, you know, a suit of armor, don't touch. Okay, whatever. But they they have done a lot more community outreach and events there now and bringing the kids in the art sports is kind of like all the science kids children's museums in the science museums. They have much more interactive exhibits down in the basement for that area. And one of their things was this funky screen where it's showing all rainbow late. It almost looks like a laser light show. But it's taking the shadows of the people dancing around in the room moving around in the room and then it moves around on the screen and stuff and the kids just love that. They will go in there. dance around and spin with hula hoops and ribbons and things for hours. But they also have all of the other crafty stuff and special tables and things set up with paints and clay and all that. Now, that was all before pandemic. We haven't been there since. But also one of the local breweries route and farming have made it have paid for it to be free every Sunday for everybody in the community. So
drink that whiskey, everybody. Yeah, right. Go.
free drinks around the house. Yeah, right. Yeah, which make it a lot easier to get through that with kids.
Keep having fun, Daddy's gonna keep drinking. There was a new thing that I saw recently. And I'm like, how cool this is a cool idea is they have a room. There's like floor to ceiling TVs in there, like screens. They may project stuff on the screen and how it works. But they have a table where you get like crayons and markers. And you can pick airplanes or cars or trucks or whatever. And color the picture. It's like a it's like a flat cutout of the vehicle that you picked. So you can put all kinds of designs on there and stuff. And then when you take it over, there's a little hole in the wall and it takes a picture of your picture. And then it builds the thing as a 3d model. So then you got your truck or your car or your helicopter like driving or flying around the cityscape, like down streets. And every once in a while. They've got this dragon that flies out and just roasts some of the vehicles just burns them up. And it's like, well, I guess that's one way to free up computer memory so that you can have more kids making trucks and cars and stuff. Absolutely. But I was like, Oh, that's so cool. And like the airplanes will shoot it the dragon and try to kill it. And they never win. They never win. I don't think the dragon ever crashes and burns. It just raw. Just you know, the programmer gave me was like, that's a really cool way to you know? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, the
dragon killed you.
Oh, that's so sad.
Let's go to the next thing.
Alright, well, moving on. NCAA Tournament basketball. The women's tournament ended the day before the men's tournament. So that's good. They came in first, I guess is that how it works? I have no idea. The tournament finishes first wins.
Right.
But so so there were a lot of a lot of comparisons between the two tournaments this year, a lot of discrepancies between how the women were treated with like bagged lunches when the men got catered dinners and that sort of stuff. Us men's soccer team failed to qualify for the the next world cup. But the women's team is still a superpower in in women's soccer. Just Just recently, Michigan pays a lot more attention to hockey than soccer. And the women's US, US National Hockey Team basically had to go on strike to get even paid for their practices as a hockey team. What is going on? with women's sports? And I I've got I've got boys. And so I'm not really facing this very often. But you guys both have girls that I don't know if they're getting into sports or not. But But how do you handle that as a dad?
Well, I mean, I'm still before that. And I honestly don't know that my daughter will get into sports simply because we are not into sports. So she's not exposed to it. She very well may. And you know, she wants to play basketball and crap. I got to learn how to play basketball and learn the rules and all that to help her out. The disparity is just insane. You can argue that, well, the men bring in more money and they're more popular to watch blah, blah, blah. And that's all just, that's just media bullshit. They they are lucky that the men do that, for the school for the broadcast stations or whatever. The reason men get more coverage is because or better ratings is because the men get more coverage if you start covering things more often. I mean, and it's not just like the big sport like basketball. I mean, there's women's softball, there's field hockey, there's there's so many other sports that students are just forgotten about. And it's it sucks. I mean, I was never good at sport so I never got into them. So I don't really have a dog in that fight. But yeah, the women need to be taken those sticks and clock in some administration's over the head with them because it's Ridiculous. I mean, it really is, particularly in college, let alone when you get to the pro level, but in college, even the men, those student athletes are all taken advantage of. And in a, I think kind of a horrible way. You know, that's because we have governments that you know, state governments and things that keep cutting education budgets. So you kind of need those high end sports, they are a revenue generator for the school. And that's stupid. That's part of the problem. So that's, that's where you can always, always, always follow the money.
Yeah, I think what you're what you're hitting on there with, they're going to cover what they're going to cover, they're probably they're probably looking at what is going to generate the most revenue. And with our girls, it's like, they're inclined to sports. Like when I was in high school, I ran cross country. And that was never, that was never a sport that was really big. Like the people that wanted to play a sport that they would get recognition for, they'd go off for football, the school I went to was a football school. And as far as our girls are concerned, I think they've, like I said, they've got, they've got some leaning in different directions. They like soccer. They like baseball a little bit. They tend to her, you know, freak out when the ball comes at them and stuff, but they'll play. But they also, when we have them play with other kids. We don't do or say anything to indicate like, oh, they're boys, you know, so they're going to be a little bit rough. You know, they'll, they'll just get in there and mix it up. And it's just kids playing. Right. So we're trying to, I guess at the outset, try to make sure, like, there's always a quality there. Yeah, I mean, we don't, we like I said, we've been homeschooling, we plan to homeschool all through high school. So it's not like we're gonna have to, we're not gonna have to pimp them out to get funding, you know, like,
games, you know, right. It's a lot of what it's do what it is what, what sports does is like, hey, yeah, we want the best player here because he's gonna bring in, he's gonna help us win, which will help bring in money. The money that I have seen in, in printing for university that comes in for football and basketball, men's is insane. It's crazy. Yeah. blows my mind.
Yeah. And capitalism. Fun,
right?
I mean, I'm participating in it, you know, myself as trying to be an entrepreneur. But yeah, this stuff is just, I'm doing it myself. I'm trying not to do it on the backs of, you know, 20 year old athletes,
right? You know, with without girls, I have no, you know, I don't have a dog in that fight for sure. But my wife is a rabid, rabid, rabid Purdue sports fan. And the thing is, is that Purdue does not have that many sports. And so, you know, Title Nine makes it so that so that women's sports, the ratio has to be maintained. So they don't have like a men's soccer team. Because because they they don't have enough women's sports to do to do all that, for whatever reason. But she is a rabid basketball fan. And her heart was absolutely shattered when they lost in the first round in the tournament this year. But she's already ready for next season. Football less so. But I'll tell you, she likes the men's sports because she likes looking at men. And she will absolutely tell you that.
Well, and that's another thing too, and it's like, Is it a little bit creepy? Well, I think there's a there's a point where, particularly as a dad now where there's that line that it and that's was our dad, our society that we you know,
I can't decide that we're just I'm gonna take my boys and we're gonna go watch girls basketball at the high school. Yeah, that seems semen. Yeah, without that creep factor
that weird. I mean, and even if it's totally innocent, I mean, you know, right. There's there's that creeping thought in my head about it, and then keeping thought about what other people think about it, you know, yeah.
It but but that also leads to that, that issue is that if we're not supporting them at the high school level, it's hard to support them higher up, you know, we don't we don't know what girls from our school went on to play at Michigan State or, or Michigan or university a little. You know, we can't we can't figure that out because they don't get the attention but we haven't been paying attention. And so so there's all sorts of levels of that. That's not to excuse any of it. No, not at all. Give him all the money. That's all. That's all. I gotta say.
You haven't half Yeah. How I mean,
now, is
that not just the starting point? You know, if I don't know, I don't have an answer. And I know it's not a in our society, the way things work is, you know, like I said, follow the money. I know, it's not as simple as 5050. But it should be. Well, I think that's what we should. That's what we should strive for. Right? again.
But again, for all the talk about equality and stuff, right? It's like, right, it would make the most sense.
Well, I think in a way, it's not, we're not saying equality, for women sports to take away from them in, we're saying, Let's raise the women up to the same level.
And well, so what I would say is actually very different. And that is, take the sports out of the schools. You know, I mean, that's the European model. You know, soccer is the thing in England, and you don't play for a college. Right? You don't play for high school. You play for your club. Yeah. And, and if you're any good, you're recruited to the club system, as you know, an 11 year old.
But again, the reason that doesn't happen here is the sports are a revenue machine for their mechanism for bringing in money into the school, because we do not fund it from the government from our taxes. Enough. And yeah, I'd love that idea. I love that idea.
So there you go. But that that means that we'd probably lose a lot of girls sports, too. That's the thing.
Well, would we or would you just form new clubs? Yeah, I
don't I don't think we would i do think field hockey would exist without 20 years ago.
20 years ago? Absolutely. Absolutely not. No, absolutely not. Do you think so? Absolutely. Yes, I think it would. Okay, because I think half of our population is women. You know, and, and all of the dads out there. Well, girls,
but here's, here's the part. I don't dispute that at all. I'm not gonna go count or anything. But the issue is that is his field hockey that interesting to watch. I would watch women's curling 24 hours a day. I love watching women yell. just freaking anything. Especially at a big stone rolling down the ice. Women's curling by far beats men's curling any day. But I don't think I would want field hockey. It's too bad clay is in here because I think he would watch field hockey,
right? I mean, yeah. And he has a girl who's who's going through all of this in college now. Right? I would love to hear his thoughts on this. But there's people who watch NASCAR. But don't watch Formula One. There's people who watch field hockey and like field hockey. And I do understand that there are a lot of people that watch and are enthusiast for basketball, and football that are not basketball players. They are not basketball parents. In band, the only people in the stands that ban competitions, or other bands and their parents, nobody else. If you did not have a kid there. Nobody was watching that stuff. Yes, there will be people who would watch field hockey. But there's not people watching field hockey now.
So to the audience if you're a field hockey fan, definitely chime in. Definitely, definitely let us know.
Seriously, I mean, I don't know I've never watched a field hockey game. I don't know if it be exciting or not. ever seen one either. It might be. I've heard them yelling and screaming when they're when there we go.
Okay, I declared now the first ask Dad Labs live event, we're gonna go to a field hockey game somewhere. Clay, Clay teunissen. on that. We got to find a place I don't know, somewhere around like, I don't know, somewhere near like Kansas City. So if you've got out there at home, if you've got a field hockey game somewhere in your Kansas City, that'd be pretty central for us. And we'll all go We'll watch field hockey together and probably have some beer. So it's got to be a place where we can watch field hockey and have a beer. I think that's gonna be a tall order just tall enough that we don't have to do that. But there we go. All right.
So moving on. This is one of Clay's topics that he really wanted, which was minivans. Are you pro or con on minivans
AB Pro on minivan.
So you're sitting in a vehicle that's that's the thing is is Nick and I are in these little studios, you're actually in the studio that you use to record your podcast. Yeah. So what vehicle Are you in? Well, this
is a Ford F 150. Amen. So this is my dad truck. But when I'm driving around town like a soccer mom, I choose Honda Odyssey. So and they're both white. You know, we like to call it coordinate. But yeah, I'm
all about minivans we actually had. Do you have the Do you have the added feature of the vacuum in the hunt Honda Odyssey? Well, they come with vacuums. At least it used to be
Oh, man,
I know you have one in the back. Yeah,
shoot. Well, we bought it us so Okay, I'm gonna have to look at the instruction manual. But no, we we shop back this thing out like every year I Baca a family thing. Get all the french fries and clean x's and hair bands and everything and it's like,
pull the seats out. So you can do it. Ah,
yes, yeah, we we get like, a cat's worth of hair out of this van. Every girls just drop hair everywhere. It's like What in the world? Like I said, we're iron in your diet or something. I don't know you're losing your hair. But yeah, we we had for the longest time we had like a Dodge Grand Caravan.
The original.
Yeah, we fill the thing up man like it we were running out of room or like, they're going to have to sit on the floorboard is something we need to we need a short bus like the Partridge Family. And she's like, Nah, I did some research. She's like, we'll get this Honda Odyssey. It's got magic seats. They get bigger. It's like awesome. Oh, went with it. Man. We've had it for three or four years now.
Yeah,
I am. I am not in a minivan but I am absolutely pro minivan. I do not have any of these macho bullshit qualms about driving
one masculine. Yes. If
I ever have one, though, I do. I have always told my wife that if we ever get one, I want the red stripe, like from the a team on it. And I'm not in any way shape or form kidding about that. Very inexpensive little vinyl wrap thing to put that on there and get it get it black and put that red stripe on it no matter what it is. Yeah. Every friend that I've known that has had as a dad that has had or driven a minivan. absolutely loves it, because you can fit everything in it. Even when it's bad weather. It's not like a pickup truck. Where you can't put things in the back of a train. You know, you can still help your buddy move if it's raining that day. I have a station wagon I have an Audi a4 avant I'm all about station wagons. I had an Outback for the longest time. I wanted one of those was the Chrysler main Magnum or whatever. Oh, look at those did
that I questioned your taste now. Yeah, whatever. I never got one it's like a first wasn't it because
they they were not very mechanically sound and everything I read about them. So I never got one but I absolutely loved those things are station wagons. I'm all about the station wagon. Yeah. So I know that if when we ever get a minivan I will be all about.
Well I last time I was at the museum. I took some took some pictures of the family car section. There's actually one of the I don't remember what year it is, but they've got a green or a caravan from like the first generation. When when Iacocca took those who had to do it for Ford, by the way, that had to be late. 80s Oh, I think it was mid 80s I think we got our minivan in like 84 Yeah, I mean, our brown one at my house. We had a brown one with wood trim.
Yes. Oh, I remember how was wondering why they never did Woody.
Yeah,
you know how like old 70s bands, you know, they put them shag carpet and stereos and the sink in them and everything. I remember my high school senior year, thinking, I want to do that with a minivan. I want to make the minivan camper and never got a chance to do that.
Well, you know, Nikki, you may get your chance because because now is the time that the camper conversion. Van thing is taken off like crazy.
Yep, tiny houses and school bus conversions and all that. Yeah, the information that the builds are out there.
Now I'll tell you what this is this is my thought on minivans is that they generally like so maybe they work for smaller people, but they do not work in a family like mine. My 13 year old I talk about this all the time but my 13 year old, my his his big. My 11 year old is enormous. I mean, he's taller than his well, Duncan's not 13 yet, but, but he will be at the end of the month. And, you know, he's, they're both getting close to six foot right now at at fifth grade, and saying they do not fit in anything smaller than, you know, it's got to be a pretty big vehicle. And for my money for getting my kids around town, it's got to be something the size of an F 150. The backseat, and that thing is the only thing that will help hold these kids. We're just going to have to deal with that. But if I were to try to get if we had more than two kids, I wouldn't be able to do that. You know, and, and actually, it's gonna start getting tight with a dog. But what would I move up from there, I'd be moving up to an economy line, man, I'd be going for like 12 passenger van, we'd be driving that, that thing all over, fill up my entire driveway. But that's what we'd be, we'd be going around and I would be proud of that big 12 passenger van. And it would, it would suck up like a gallon every half mile. And that's just the way it's gonna be. That's, that's my take. And I also you know, I hurt my back plenty trying to get car seats into equinox. And that's not a low vehicle. But I'm dreaming, you know, if I was to have a kid now, I would love being able to strap that car seat into the back of the truck. Because I'd rather have to lean over. Oh, it'd be it would just be beautiful.
But that that's a big thing. I was driving a Ford 500 for a while. It was just you know, you just get in it. Yeah. Now the Audi is you climb down into it sits on the floor. Even though it's a station wagon. It's still like, I think it's listed even as a comeback. I mean, it's not a big car. But yeah,
yeah, it took me the longest time to get used to this truck. And like when you're driving around in this thing, it's it's like you forget your size. Like you're bigger than you think. And I used to drive it. So this is like culture shock for me. I used to drive a Chevy Aveo. I called it the clown car. Oh my God, we have one. Oh, seriously. It's like, and we were able to fit everybody in there, but it was tight. But then you go from that to an F 150. And it's like, okay, go from four cylinders to eight. All right. But I mean, I still I hate parallel parking in this thing. It's like trying to park a battleship. It's like, yeah, I'll just drive around and I'll I'll find a place in walk. I'm just I'm scared. I'm gonna, like, destroy some of these other cars. But thank God for the backup camera and those things. Now we don't have one. This is 1001 there's no okay. No cheat codes, man. I can't there's nothing I just gotta. I gotta feel it. I gotta feel the vehicle. Crunchy. Okay, that
little bit now I know our listeners can't see this. But what little I can see. Holy shit. That truck looks Chris. Look. 2020 year old truck.
Wow. However,
for girls carted around in there, how do you not have like markers and tears in that headliner? Oh, my gosh.
I just duct taped them everywhere in the seats. And I'm like, don't touch anything. You know, but actually, we like I rarely have them in here. Like every once in a while or something wrong with the van or whatever. We'll all pack in here. But, you know, they're just so excited about the novelty of being able to be in dad's truck. You know? They don't want to screw anything up. They don't think about it. You know, in the van. They're comfortable. They're like, yeah, we're gonna throw Cheetos all over the place. Why not? We're we're here all the time. Whoo. Let's treat it like our house.
Man. Because that looks amazing for a 20 year old truck even but little bit weakened. See that? That's awesome.
You want to you Do you want to tour? Do you want to you want to just take this camera? And I mean, yeah, there's not.
Yeah. Oh, you've got the format worn through a little bit?
Yeah, a little bit. Yeah. And then there's like, there's like a cigarette hole in the seat. But everything else, you know, there's the extension cords coming in the window. They're
Yay. breakfast of champions. You know, punk out in the middle. So
since you guys are the big fans of the minivans, it's you're probably sad that I think Honda and is it Honda and Chrysler and maybe Toyota still have them but everybody else has kind of let them go. And so it's getting harder and harder to find them.
Yeah. Everybody's about the the big crossover SUV or the SUVs. I'm torn on that because I see a lot of the young people going to all electric, you know, mobile's going total electric, I think fairly soon. And I did see. Now I'm not a big fan of Hummers as a family vehicle or anything, I used to be really big fan of them just because you know, that was the cool thing to be a fan of when you were in your 20s. But I did just see a commercial for them for their electric version that has the crab walk, where all the wheels turn. Yeah, and it's like, slide sideways. That's pretty cool. That's, that's, you know, alright. Okay. But yeah, I got, I got to have four doors for me now, at the very least, and sliding doors would be awesome.
Yeah. But why I realized in the middle of this conversation that we all live near a Ford truck plant. There's one in St. Louis, there's one in Louisville, and there's definitely one here. I think we got into who don't we, you might think we got to, but that means that you're very likely to start seeing a lot of electric f 150s. Here, I'm still not driving it.
I'm still a big old voice. I do not want to drive a car that big. And Alice would not touch it. She She wouldn't touch it. She didn't belt driving the 500. What's interesting is, is
as I was looking at I was looking at those family cars, and it's got the it's got the caravan. And then right next to it is a suburban. But it's a Plymouth suburban. So it's not even, it's not even the General Motors product. It's not a Chevy. It's, it's a Plymouth suburban, that was sort of like a station wagon. But from like the 19. I'm gonna guess it was in the 40s or 50s. And so I've got a photo of that at all, but I'll share here. It's pretty awesome. So we'll take a look at some of those and want to hear everybody's thoughts on all that, of course. Well, hey, guys, it was great talking to you today. And thanks for coming and joining me on astete Labs today.
Thanks for having me, man. Appreciate it. I'll see you again for it. It would be fun, man.
Absolutely. And especially when we do that, especially when we do that. That field hockey game.
We're either gonna love it or hate it, man.
Sports ball. points.
You've already resolved you're going to hate it. You're like I don't care how it
works ball, not because it's field hockey just because it's sports ball. I you know,
you know what, I can't say anything about this because it'll sound creepy,
right? athletes work their asses off or whatever game they're playing whatever sport they're doing,
even if it's Scrabble.
I mean, they think they foster on a regular basis and go to class. And then a lot of them have jobs too. So you know, more power to them. They deserve to get paid.
Yes. And they deserve to be in a museum. And that ties all our topics are all together. It was great talking to you guys. All right later, thanks to Nick Dawson and Michael fritzy. And they're awesome families for sharing them with us. As grad Labs is produced and edited by me Ben foods and food media productions, LLC. Like follow subscribe and share across the social media landscape. Wherever you find that lads. Talk to you next time.
