Christmas Wish Lists

Speaker

Transcript

Jon

Welcome back, Gen X Grown Up Podcast listener to this backtrack edition of the Gen X Grown Up Podcast. I am John. Joining me as always, of course, my buddy George. Hey, George.

George

Hey, how’s it going, everybody?

Jon

You know it is not a show without Mo. Mo, how are you?

Mo

Hey everybody.

Jon

In this episode, in this episode, do you remember when crafting a Christmas wish list felt like one of the biggest decisions of the entire year?

Mo

she

Jon

Well, this episode, we’re taking a trip back to those times when the Sears catalog, a handful of crayons, or a carefully written letter to the North Pole were all it took to dream big. I hope you’ll join us as we reminisce about the toys we circled, the treasures we hoped for, and the ways we let Santa know exactly what we wanted waiting under the tree.

Jon

Yeah. This is, ah as we’re preparing for this episode, it actually started talking specifically about ah catalogs, Christmas catalogs.

Mo

Right. Nice.

Jon

And then it kind of, the scope kind of expanded because there was a bigger topic there we didn’t want to miss, which was the other things that weren’t the catalog. And so it kind of became Christmas wishlist. we’re going to get into that.

Jon

We have several interesting angles to take on this. We hope you’ll stick around for But first, it’s time for some fourth listener email. And this fourth listener is a brand new patron who dropped us a line over on Patreon.

Mo

nice

Jon

This is Matthew B. He fired off a note. So whenever someone joins, I always make it a point to hop in and just send a quick note to thank them for their pledge of support, appreciate them and whatever.

Jon

So Matthew wrote me back like in three minutes. He saw my response and this is what he shared. Matthew matthew says, You guys are very welcome. I’ve been trying to get things figured out and I’m finally able to do my part, he said, which, which by the way, Patreon is not doing your part.

Jon

That’s doing extra. So Matthew, thank you so much.

Mo

Yeah.

Jon

Everyone does their part just to listen. You’re doing extra. we appreciate you. It says, I’ve been a fan of you guys ever since you run laser time with Chris and Tista years ago. and I think, I think that was you and Jason maybe over in Tallahassee who visited it.

George

yeah no way longer than that that’s probably seven

Jon

That had to be six years ago, seven years i don’t know.

Mo

Wow. That was a while.

Jon

It’s long time ago.

Mo

Oh, really? Really?

Jon

Yeah. Yeah. So, but he’s been following us ever since then. It says, I’ve been listening since, and I only have missed a few episodes.

George

wow

Jon

I do, however, have a comment to state. Here we go.

Mo

u Oh.

Jon

About 90% of the time, you guys say George is wrong when he’s right or has a valid reason for having been right or correct.

George

ah

Mo

Yeah.

Jon

I 100% support George of the time.

Mo

ah

Jon

ah Anyways, keep up the good work. And I love the show. Fourth listener forever, Matthew. ah

Mo

Nice.

George

hell, Matthew can have third listener spot status for that 90% of the time, 10% of the time I’m going to keep it.

Jon

you could

Mo

That’s true.

Jon

are Are you giving away Mo’s chair or are you vacating your own? What are you doing?

George

I mean, we all know I don’t listen anyway, so.

Jon

Oh, you’re right.

Mo

that’s true

Jon

That’s fair. Matthew, thanks for your patronage. of so Of course, thank you for your note. ah Since it was specifically about the show, i wanted to share it here. So look, look fourth listener. If you want to drop us a line, become a patron and fire off a note over there like Matthew did. Or you can always hit us up with email, podcast at genxgrownup.com. We read every single one and most of them, like Matthew’s, will eventually make the show.

Jon

Okay. With that good business in the rear view mirror, it’s time to jump into this backtrack all about Christmas wish list after this quick break.

Jon

It’s that time of the year, guys. it’s meant And the holidays this year, did you notice how Thanksgiving was so late in the month that there’s not even a full month between Thanksgiving and Christmas?

Mo

so yeah

George

Mm-hmm.

Jon

It’s like three and a half weeks. Yeah, and it it got me thinking about… I had people asking, what what what do you want for Christmas? What’s on your wish list? You’re hard to buy for and things like that. And and that feeds right into this backtrack where we were thinking about the way it’s changed so much. i thought in early backtracks, we talked about things that are gone now or things that are changed dramatically. This is kind of a throwback to that era, how things have changed so dramatically.

Jon

So i what thought we would start by looking at the ways that we have seen historically, like in media and books and television and pop culture.

Mo

Thank you.

Jon

How did kids let their parents know? I guess it could be anybody, but mostly kids. How did they use used to at least let their parents know what they wanted for Christmas? And one that I mentioned in the the lead end to this was,

Jon

Having that Christmas catalog, you know, and maybe you circle things or rip out the page or point out to your parents, you know, these are the things that I want because otherwise, you know, they might not know exactly what it is that you want. And that’s that’s that’s maybe the most clinical way. Look, here’s the item number. Here’s the price. You can find it at Sears or Toys R Us.

Jon

But it’s certainly not the only way that historically kids let their parents know.

Jon

Anybody want to grab letter to Santa?

George

Okay, I’ll go from there.

Jon

Sorry. Yeah, we didn’t grab it. figured somebody would grab it.

Mo

Okay.

Jon

You’re good.

George

that’s fine. Yeah, I mean, obviously, the big one that’s portrayed in media, TV shows, cartoons, everything else is writing a letter to Santa or possibly sitting on Santa’s lap at the mall and telling some stranger what you wanted while, you know, who knows when on on that lap.

Jon

Oh, yeah.

Mo

Oh, yeah. There you go.

Jon

Mm-hmm. Right.

Mo

Tell him.

Jon

Right.

George

But anyway…

Jon

Oh, come on, George.

Mo

Ha ha

Jon

This is that 10% Matthew was talking about.

George

This 10%.

Mo

ha ha ha.

Jon

You’re wrong.

George

Exactly.

Jon

You’re wrong.

Mo

but

George

I think the letters to Santa are still popular. I know there are even services out there now where Santa will write back to the kids and stuff like that.

Mo

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Jon

Really? didn’t know that.

George

Oh, yeah. Yeah, that’s pretty popular. um Matter of fact, we got one for Michael when he was like so five or six or something like that.

Jon

Mm-hmm.

George

Um, I always found the whole Santa thing very interesting because it was the devious way that parents would find out what their kids wanted without directly asking them because you would like a parent would say to the child, if they were at the mall, Oh, you’re going to sit on Santa’s lap.

Jon

Mm-hmm.

George

What are you going ask for a little Johnny? And little Johnny would say, Oh, I’m going ask him for a bike and a doggy and a horsey and all.

Jon

Mm-hmm.

Jon

Mm-hmm.

George

And so the parent would get that information without the kid realizing they just spilled the beans on their whole wishlist to the person buying it for them.

Mo

Right.

George

So I, yeah,

Jon

Or committing mail fraud, ripping open Santa’s letter secretly.

George

Yeah. ah

Jon

Mm-hmm.

Mo

Actually, in New York, know they still do it. You could go to the main post office there and answer Santa Claus letters. They used to do that every year.

George

Oh, wow.

Jon

Can you? Like a volunteer to go and do that for kids?

Mo

Volunteers would go there and answer letters.

Jon

That’s cool.

Mo

It was pretty neat.

Jon

oh neat. My, uh, I remember when my daughter was little, uh, she was writing letters to Santa because of course you’d, you know, I was encouraged her to do that as it was fun.

Jon

And because I wanted the Intel, of course, which is why.

Mo

Yes.

Jon

okay And one year, i don’t know, she had to be six or seven or eight. I forget what it was. And she was asking Santa because of course I read the letter for, do you remember the leap pad?

Jon

It’s like this really low tech tablet.

George

Mm-hmm. Leapfrog.

Mo

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

George

Yep.

Mo

A lot of learning games on it and stuff.

Jon

Leapfrog, LeapPad. Okay. Right.

George

Well, no, it was called the LeapPad, but Leapfrog was the company.

Jon

Yeah. it was the company. It was a company.

Mo

This.

George

Yeah.

Jon

Okay. And they had cartridges you plug in that like expanded the games. But it was it was really rudimentary. And I remember that she wanted it really, really badly. And to to make sure she wasn’t upset, she didn’t get it.

Jon

Because I thought it was too babyish for her. Santa wrote a letter back to her. that, uh, that made it very clear that he thought she was a little too mature for that. And that she thought he thought probably she should get a Nintendo DS instead.

George

he he

Mo

So it’s a

Jon

So we want to upgrade her and get her this cause we need to have more fun with it, but we want to make sure Santa that she knew Santa heard her wish and thought she was a bigger girl. So maybe that’s what she needed to get.

Mo

so it’s is’s a positive.

Jon

It was a positive in the end. She loved the DS too. So I also committed mill fraud.

George

I think one year I did that for Michael and I found like a Santa written font that I used to print out a letter.

Jon

Oh, cool. Like candy canes and crap in the fonts.

Mo

I

George

Yeah, exactly.

Jon

and Oh, like I can see that.

George

That kind of thing. I mean, parents are very devious when it comes to hiding shit from their kids, or at least we were.

Jon

Yeah.

Jon

Mm-hmm.

George

I don’t know about the current generation, but.

Jon

Yep.

Mo

kind of had to be, like you said, because we had no other way of really getting that information. You know, like there wasn’t the modern stuff or the things that, you know we use communicate. like unless you directly asked them or somehow sneakily got them like, you know,

Jon

Mm-hmm.

Mo

They told their grandparents or they told somebody else he played telephone to figure out what they wanted, you know?

Jon

The other very typical one that we see, especially in movies, I think a Christmas story is probably the biggest example of this is just wearing your parents down. Remember that kid, Red Ryder BB gun with but bolt action, whatever, you know, the stock and everything.

George

o

Mo

You’ll take your eye out.

Jon

and but Right. What did they have a yeah a compass in the stock and all these things? And every time he had a chance, he would have a script he would just wrote out. And I remember pestering your parents was a pretty good go to because they wanted to shut you up.

George

Yeah.

George

it It was a solid method. I mean, it didn’t work in my house, but I know it worked in others.

Mo

Yeah, it didn’t work at mine either.

Jon

but right. Well, to that end, George, since you brought that up, I want to kind of round out this first segment by going around and talking about how did each of you create a Christmas wish list? Or how did you let your parents know when you were a kid? Now, this is had to be 70s, 80s era. How did you let your parents know what you wanted under the tree? Let me start with you, Mo. What was your your M.O.?

Mo

So, I mean, my dad was very, like… he his theory is that he should know like what to get us like like for him it’s like if he had to ask it wasn’t personal enough like he should know us well enough he should so he like wouldn’t even i mean the best i could do was like if i saw a tv commercial or something that i really wanted i’d like wow that’s really cool huh dad did you just happen to see that thing on there right that’s really awesome

Jon

Okay.

George

Sure.

Jon

So you’re trying to fulfill his thing of he should know, and you’re trying to make sure he knows, right?

George

he

Mo

but Exactly. Like, you know, like, wow, who knew that? You know, ah oh, look at 2XL.

Jon

You thought of it yourself, dad. Great job.

Mo

You know, and but sometimes like i because I knew if I asked for something too directly, it would be guaranteed I’m not getting it.

Jon

Okay.

George

he

Jon

Uh, yep.

Mo

You know, because his thing is also he thought that as a kid, I should be surprised. You know, a and he he didn’t want me to know what I was going to get for Christmas.

Jon

I like that too. Yeah.

Mo

he owe And and. 80% of the time, he was pretty good with it. yeah He got me something like I didn’t even know I wanted, and I wound up having a lot of fun with it.

Jon

Yeah. Yeah.

Mo

you know But that was like really the best could do.

Jon

Mm-hmm.

Mo

Now, with my mom, it was completely different. I mean, she’s Korean, and she was very practical. And it was like, what do you want?

Jon

Mm-hmm.

George

ah

Jon

Just tell me.

Mo

Yeah, and I would tell her, she’s like and she’s like, I want da-da-da.

Jon

Save me the trouble. I don’t want to waste money. Yeah.

Mo

No, what else do you want? ah So, yeah you you learn that you learn to work with it.

Jon

ha yeah

Mo

How about you, George?

George

ah Well, honestly, for me, it was very direct, kind of like what you’re talking about with your mother there, Mo. um i After probably the age of like six or maybe seven, I basically just told them what I wanted. I did learn a lesson after the first time that if you asked for something that you really, really wanted as your first request,

George

chances were I wasn’t going to get that thing. um So I would purposefully ask for something that was crazy, fantastically expensive for my first request, knowing I wouldn’t get it, and then would ask for something that I really wanted, but sounded more reasonably priced later on.

Jon

Oh.

Jon

oh Oh. Sneaky. Mm-hmm.

Mo

Right.

George

So if I really wanted the Atari 2600, I would say something like, I really want to go to Disney World for a month.

Jon

Mm-hmm.

George

And then exactly.

Jon

And so so the Atari was the compromise now, right? ah ah

George

I was engineering them very early on.

Jon

Sneaky. Sneaky. That all tracks, George.

George

What about you?

Jon

That makes great sense for you.

George

Yeah. Yeah.

Jon

yeah

George

You know, I had my little Excel spreadsheets back before there was an Excel.

Jon

Did you? Yeah.

George

Yeah. What about you, John?

Jon

You know, for as long as I can remember, when I was probably old enough to know things were available for sale and it was just magically going to appear, that I had to let my parents know. And i even even when I think I was still pretty well steeped in…

Jon

I’m not convinced yay or nay on Santa. I still knew my parents needed to know what I wanted in order for somehow Santa to get the memo or so. So it was no secret. that You were asking your parents and your parents had to know, but I, and the way we did it in my house. And I even recall this was shared amongst the family, but several years I would have a three by five sheet of poster board.

Mo

Feet, three by five feet.

Jon

hanging, yes, yeah, it was big three by, three or two by three, what’s a poster board? Maybe he’s two by three.

Mo

It’s big, big.

Jon

What, a big poster board on the wall, pinned up, with columns, with people’s names at the top. So like a public forum where you could go and hear John’s list, you know, and there was always, you know, my grandmother and she had like three things and my dad had three things, i’m um and I had 50 things, right, i had this list, I had to, all the way down, and I was drawing boxes to like co-op some of my dad’s space for whatever.

George

ah

Jon

But they encouraged me to write…

George

little arrows that say, turn over here. And…

Jon

See page two, appendix four, right.

George

yeah

Jon

They would encourage me to just write it on the wall. they’ They wanted to know what I wanted. They didn’t want to pick up on subtle hints.

Mo

Okay. okay

Jon

They said, yes, you find what you want. And even if there are notes about, you know, what size or, you know, I want i want the version for the Atari 2600 want, you know…

Jon

Or maybe where what store you can get it at that’s only available at Hallmark or whatever. Any shopping information you can put on there. And that was great, but it wasn’t until probably three or four years into that that I figured out a secret code, which was they would often come in and somehow put a dot or a line to tick off what they had already gotten me.

Jon

So they all kind of knew they had gotten it. And then it it was was that was it last episode, George, you were talking about the surprise of, of ah you know, and and and Mo, you were saying that your dad, what you thought kids to be surprised.

Mo

Right.

George

Yeah, right.

Jon

And I kind of lost some of that surprise. I definitely got gifts that I wanted.

Mo

Right.

Jon

And I got gifts that I was surprised by, but I could always like i go to the list and before Christmas, I could go, well, no special mark next to that or this. So I didn’t get that, but I can look forward to these because I see the little, whether it’s a highlighter or something they would secretly do.

Mo

I could

Jon

So they were always well-informed. They knew what I wanted because the poster board method.

Mo

jump in this one.

Jon

So it it worked. I had great Christmases. I had great stuff. So. Okay, when we get back from this break, we’re gonna talk about the ways we, the inspiration, the things that got us to put things on our Christmas wish list. Stick around.

Mo

So having a list is all well and good, but knowing what to put on the list is really important thing, right? Like, how do you know what’s out there? Like, we didn’t have internet. We didn’t have all these things. Like, how did we figure out, you know, what to what was out there available to even, you know, for us to even get for Christmas?

Mo

And one for me was really kind of like just walking through like Sears. You know, like for especially around Christmas time, you know, because one, all the toys, everything was pushed right to the front.

Jon

Mm-hmm.

George

Mm-hmm.

Mo

Right. So it wass always like visible.

Jon

Mm-hmm.

Mo

But just sort of like, again, like that subtle, like, oh, like you’re looking at a box and, you know, hurry up and catch up. You’re like, oh, just look at this thing. That’s kind of cool. And you put it back on the shelf and, you know,

Mo

Hopefully, hopefully they caught a glimpse of it and they realize what it is, you know, subtle hints like that.

Jon

Dropping hints.

Mo

You know, again, as a kid, I wasn’t that subtle. But, you know, but really that was probably like the like the kind of the first kind of like get the idea in their head of something that I want.

Jon

Yeah. And if you didn’t go to Sears, I always know the Sears catalog worked really well for me because it had a huge toy section.

Mo

Oh, yeah.

Jon

Do you ever look back any of those old Sears catalogs, like from 83, 82, 84 in that era, and two pages full of like VFD and handheld and tabletop. There’s Tron and there’s the Donkey Kong Coleco. And there’s the, and they were all like 2495 and like, son of a bitch.

Mo

ah

Jon

And I’d go through and I would literally, you know, sometimes circle pages. Sometimes, they know, tape them up on the poster board, things like that. The Sears catalog was great.

Mo

you

Jon

And plus the air, there was always the, the lingerie section of the Sears catalog. You can enjoy when you’re done looking at toys. But I would even go to like, I had a little desk that was a hand-me-down desk.

Jon

And I would go like to the, the, the housewares section that had cool like blotters and pin wells could put on your desk. And I asked for crazy stuff like that to make my little desk look cool.

Jon

Cause the catalog was full of stuff. Like you said, Mo, you didn’t even know was out there until you went browsing. Like, Oh, that’s a thing. Of course I want a Dukes of Hazzard play tent. I didn’t know you could get one of those.

Jon

Yeah.

George

he

Jon

right Somebody grab the dream book?

Mo

I like to do it because you guys got stuff right after it right?

George

i I got nothing for that.

Mo

Okay.

Jon

Okay, yeah, yeah.

Mo

Yeah. You know, as speaking of catalogs, you guys saw the Toys R Us, the dream book, I think they called it every year.

Jon

Oh, yeah.

Mo

It got mailed to your house, like whether you wanted it or not.

George

m

Jon

You didn’t, George?

Mo

You know, you didn’t get that.

George

Nope.

Jon

No? No dream book?

George

We didn’t have a Toys R Us in town, so they didn’t market to this area.

Mo

dr Oh, my God. Oh, so you wouldn’t bother and you couldn’t do online, obviously, back then.

Jon

Oh. Ow.

George

Yeah.

Jon

m

Mo

No, for us, it was like it took up a huge space in the in their mailbox know every year because it was like 40 pages of just stuff.

Jon

Ouch.

Jon

Mm-hmm.

Mo

Yeah.

Jon

It was the Sears toy section, but the whole book.

Mo

Yeah. But the whole book and they covered everything in every price range, every possible thing.

George

Yeah.

Mo

I mean, it was it was like almost like information overload.

Jon

Yeah. And you know what else the dream book would do that I loved is because it was all toys, they would drill down into the minutiae. You know, like a Sears book might go, look, we have the Millennium Falcon and we have this selection of three action figures.

Mo

yeah

Jon

but the star Wars section of the dream book would be like four pages of star Wars, the ride on toys, the, the the gliders that you can build, the everything, you’ right?

Mo

Pages of just Star Wars.

George

he

Mo

Action figures.

Jon

All the figures, all the ships and everything. So even more so you’d find about, find out about crap that you had no idea was even available. yeah we were That kind of leads right back to the origin of this this backtrack, which was initially going to be ah you know the the catalogs that we would look at, the Christmas catalogs.

Mo

Right.

Jon

But another periodical, is a periodical? I guess a printed catalog that I always capitalized on was computer magazines.

Mo

Yeah.

Mo

Really?

George

Oh.

Jon

Well, yeah, you know, George gets it. you don’t Like the one that we would type stuff into.

George

I mean, as we got older, not when we were little kids, maybe, but yeah.

Jon

Yes. Well, I was 12, 13.

Mo

OK. OK.

Jon

I had a computer by then.

Mo

ah okay okay

George

Yeah.

Jon

Right. Yeah, yeah. But in there, it would say, oh, look, Synapse is coming out with this new game or whatever. Because you’d go to YouTube and see what are the 20 best new Atari games coming out on your computer. You had no idea.

Jon

And those things were not in Sears catalogs. They were not in the dream book because they didn’t deal with computers, video games back then. So computer magazines were a away. And I think I know of at least one time that my parents had to mail away to get a game for my Atari computer because nobody in town had it.

Jon

The only way to do was, you know, mail it in with shipping and handling and wait four to six weeks. And God knows how they got it back on time. But computer magazines were a big source of that. What about you, George?

Mo

Oh,

Jon

Anything come to mind?

George

I mean, being the avid couch potato that I was and still am to this day, TV commercials back during appointment TV era, you couldn’t skip forward.

Mo

yeah.

Jon

ah

Mo

oh Yeah.

George

You couldn’t pass them by you and your parents. If they were in the living room with you watching television, everybody was inundated, especially from like Halloween on with just every toy commercial on everything before 8 PM TV show that you could watch.

Mo

yeah

Jon

Mm-hmm.

George

Like, after 8 or 9 p.m. there may not be so much but that’s because the kids were supposed to go to sleep but from after school until like 8 or 9 p.m.

Mo

Mm-hmm.

George

every commercial was oh the new G.I. Joe action figure or you know the Red Rider BB gun and

Jon

he

George

like we’ve probably talked about a million different times or ways on this podcast, the commercials would of course make the product seem far better than it might actually be when you got it in person.

Jon

So

George

But that was part of the addictive, you know, consumer thing that they were trying to hook us with.

Jon

how did you…

George

And it worked for me. i was,

Mo

Hell yeah.

George

Man, you see that commercial four or five times and it was just like just in your brain like the Halloween 3 season of The Witch movie just bombarding you with gamma rays into buying whatever it was they were selling.

Mo

ah

Jon

ah

Mo

ah

Jon

so how did you I get it. I use commercials too. How did you leverage the commercial that was on TV into making sure your parents knew it was a thing you wanted? Did you just get super interested or you you pointed me want that?

George

I pointed…

George

It’s like, you don’t want to give up the Disney World trip. This is what you can give me to appease me instead.

Mo

brought about the commercials because one thing that was like also kind of like a sign that the holidays were coming was that the toy commercials would go later and later. you know, because non-holiday season, after like four o’clock, you wouldn’t see a toy commercial.

George

and True. Yep.

Jon

Oh.

Mo

Right. All a evening news, there’s a toy commercial on, you know, at this right before the weather.

George

Mm-hmm.

Mo

There’s a toy commercial on, you know, and that’s why I do like holidays were coming.

Jon

ah

Jon

You know when they show up the most, man? So you know Rudolph was sponsored by Norelco. You didn’t see a damn Norelco commercial once in Rudolph.

George

Right.

Jon

It was all toy commercials because they knew you’re watching and your parents are watching.

George

Mm-mm.

Jon

You’re both in front of the TV watching Rankin Bass. So it’s going to be the latest G.I. Joe, the latest Barbie, and the latest whatever. So that’s why those things aired forever because they, the the advertising rates were so high for people that bought toy commercial spots in there because everybody, all the kids were watching.

George

Yeah.

Mo

Yeah. Yep. I

Jon

So that’s how you knew you wanted it.

George

Yep.

Jon

Damn. Yep. Okay.

Jon

like I can get this to you, George.

Mo

and don’t know

Jon

I figured talk about the comic books. I’ll get this to you.

George

Sure.

Jon

Yep. Now, one you haven’t mentioned yet. And George, I know what ah how big you have been in comic books as a kid. What about ads in comic books? Was that ever something that you utilized?

George

I mean, to a smaller degree, not quite as much as television commercials, because the ads in comic books tended to be for cheaper, gimmicky kind of items.

Jon

Okay.

Jon

Okay. Yeah.

George

There were a few comic books that were dedicated to toy lines, though.

Mo

Yeah.

George

Things like ah the Thundercats had their own comic book, or G.I.

Jon

Oh, right.

George

Joe, of course, He-Man and the Masters of Universe.

Mo

Right.

George

those comic books for sure sold the crap out of those action figure lines. Cause that was a whole point of producing them. It wasn’t to create some great literary device or anything like that.

Jon

Mm-hmm.

Mo

Right.

Jon

Mm-hmm.

Mo

ah

George

They were designed to sell you the toys that they wanted you to buy from whichever manufacturer.

Mo

Sure.

George

So ah in those cases, I could use those and say like, Oh look, battle cat mom, battle cat is out this year. But for the the ads that you typically think of, like the back of the book, 99 cent x-ray glasses, no, not those kind of ads, but the books that were designed to sell you toys, yes.

Jon

Mm-hmm.

Jon

Okay. Yeah, yeah. Okay. You know, the one that I always found in comic books to be very useful around Christmas time and making lists was not the specific ads for the things in there, but the Olympic sales club, right?

Jon

So the thing where you’d sell greeting cards or something and you’d earn points and they had the full page diorama of all the things you could win with the points.

George

Hmm. Right.

Mo

oh right.

George

write the prizes and stuff.

Jon

ah Right. I knew I’d never accomplished that, but they had some great prizes on there all the way up to a BMX bike and a telescope.

George

True.

Jon

And and I remember looking at you know microscopes and cre nerdy crap like that. That was a source of inspiration, too, for me, because I would, again, I don’t need the cheapo army men or crap, but, oh, I’m not going to sell 8000 boxes of g greeting cards in order to get this particular thing.

Jon

cool gizmo or maybe it’s a tent or what neat but i could point it out and circle it like any catalog because because it was already stuff kids wanted so it made good sense

Mo

Sure. So don’t know about you guys, but kind a, don’t know inspiration is the right word for this, but ah a little bit of peer pressure, a little bit of a go to a friend’s house and they have something pretty awesome.

Mo

And know mean?

George

Oh, yeah.

Mo

Like, you know, Oh, so-and-so’s got this, ah you know, ah got a Nintendo or they got ah or an Atari or, you know, or something like that, you know, Oh, I was just over their house.

Jon

oh

Mo

I was playing with their, and it was amazing. Yeah.

Jon

Oh, so you’re bringing back intel from the neighbor’s house to kind of…

Mo

Yeah.

Jon

So it’s it’s almost like parent peer pressure. its like, well, his parents got him one. You don’t want to be any worse.

Mo

They must love him more than…

George

Yeah. Yeah, my parents had a good answer for that. I’d say, yeah, Gene across the street has a whole bunch of Star Wars toys. My dad would go, well, go play with them.

Jon

You want to go live with Gene?

George

I

Jon

Problem solved.

George

think we kind of already did this first one when Moe did the Sears thing.

Mo

Yeah, sort of kind of. I mean, talked about Sears, but not…

Jon

Yeah, we kind of did. Yeah. um What was the… what was You mentioned a movie where people were walking around windows shopping.

Mo

Thank

Jon

Was it in Christmas Story? When we were talking the other day.

George

I did.

Jon

The other day, on Monday, we were taught planning this.

George

Well, I mean, there’s Jingle All the Way with Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Jon

Anyone like that? Yeah.

George

Christmas Story, he kind of did that.

Jon

Yeah, let let the yeah let let me touch on out one more time just as a way to get out of this segment, and then we’ll use it.

George

I don’t remember talking about it, but. All right.

Jon

Because we you did we did kind of allude to it with Sears. Yeah, that’s true. Yep. Yep. <unk> draw

Jon

it You know, one that I thought you would bring up, Mo, being that you grew up in the city, because this was always so prototypical in movies and TV that I would see, is when you’re walking down a big metropolitan area, looking in the windows of the stores where they would decorate it and do stuff, and they would put the most famous toys out front.

George

Yeah.

Mo

Yeah.

Jon

Now, I never really got that. I did the Sears shopping like you did, right? Walking around the stores and stuff. Growing up in in the big city of Manhattan, did you do the like the… the traditional looking in the windows that were decorated and see stuff you wanted.

Mo

Oh, yeah, he did.

Jon

And yeah.

Mo

But they generally had like just the really expensive or the really trendy toys ah usually made the windows.

Jon

The biggest. ah Okay.

Mo

And that’s the stuff we never got.

George

yeah

Jon

o

Mo

It was like because one is usually the most expensive.

Jon

ah

Mo

i mean, that’s why they’re pushing it but um but yeah, but definitely.

Jon

That’s why. Yeah.

George

Like the diamond encrusted Hot Wheels set was not something on your parents’ radar, right?

Mo

Exactly, exactly. um But yeah but for sure in the city, like, yeah, I mean, just walking past, you know, just seeing all the the again, just the stuff that’s out there.

Jon

i’m not, I want that.

Mo

And it was more also making you aware of stuff that you never knew existed. Like, you know, oh, I didn’t know they made a erector set based on Star Wars.

Jon

Sure.

Mo

I never knew they did this.

Jon

Diamond encrusted Hot Wheels or whatever crazy stuff.

Mo

and Yeah. Diamond Crescent Hot Wheels with Emerald wheels.

George

Right. Right.

Mo

you know, you never knew these things.

Jon

Right. That was at the Louis Vuitton store. You had the special Hot Wheels with. ah

Mo

had a motor in it so you have to pedal.

Mo

I was just like…

Jon

but Now it’s just a car.

George

Yeah.

Jon

was going to let that go there. You need transition.

Mo

Yeah.

George

Yeah.

Jon

That’s great. Yeah, it’ll pick up.

Mo

Okay.

Jon

Okay. All right. So this is, it’s changed a lot. How is it done now?

George

Yep.

Jon

Can you get into this one, George? Give me shot.

George

Sure.

Jon

Yeah. Okay.

George

I’ll go ahead and take the first one then.

Jon

Okay.

George

Five, four, three. Well, we kind of alluded to this here and there throughout the episode, and that’s that What we used to do back then is completely different from what we do now.

George

And that’s kind of what we do with these backtrack episodes.

Jon

Mm-hmm.

George

That’s kind of the motif going through all of them. So if we’re going to talk about how modern gift giving and discovery is done, i think at least today, we’re not going to get out of this episode without talking about Amazon wishlist.

George

Jesus fucking Christ with this stuff.

Jon

Oh, yeah.

Mo

Yeah. Oh my God.

Jon

Oh, my goodness. Yeah.

Mo

i mean, they’re a godsend, but yeah.

George

That is like the crack of the click shopping world. It’s, would I mean, I do it to myself. Like I’ll put stuff on my own wishlist and then buy it for myself later.

Jon

Sure.

George

It’s how I got three damn pinball systems coming in because, you know, it’s there, it’s on sale.

Jon

hmm.

Mo

ah

Jon

ah

George

They’re flashing all kinds of notices at you when you do go to Amazon because you’re like, oh, my kid wants this thing.

Jon

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

George

Let me see if I can find it. It’s a little sad because, like we talked about with innocence and mystery and things like that in last week’s show when we were answering that really good patron question.

Mo

yeah

George

There’s none of that with this. Like, what’s the discovery for Amazon? Let me see if I could type the right keywords to get up a list of things I want to add to another list that somebody can then generically click on and send to me.

George

Jesus Christ, what the hell are we?

Jon

yeah

Jon

Yeah. i had to found I had to do what you were talking about, George, which is I used to… when they first started wish lists, which probably was 30 years ago, I’ve not long ago this it’s been forever, it seems, but I would put stuff on a wish list and forget about it.

George

he

Jon

And then at Christmas I’d get, oh what the hell is this? What was on your wish list? Oh shit. I didn’t want that for the last two years.

Mo

I changed my mind. i didn’t want that anymore.

Jon

I didn’t know I, you know, or something don’t need anymore.

George

Right.

Jon

I already bought it for myself or something. So I’ve had to now curate my own, like I have my private wish list, my public wish list, my aspirational wish list. If I get a whole bunch of money, maybe I’ll go look at this list of stuff.

Jon

And mostly I do it because they’ll go, Hey, this thing on your wish list just dropped by a dollar to you know motivate you to go do it. Cause I know they read those cookies and they go, well, let’s see if I could spur him by, oh it’s 10% off.

Jon

maybe you’ll buy it now kind of thing. So I only do a public wish list. If, if, if I know it’s stuff I right now want, otherwise I move it to another one because I’m most afraid somebody’s going buy it for me. so

Mo

for me, the wish list is like… it’s It’s good and bad in a way. I mean, I like the convenience, like wanting know like what my kids want, you know, like, you know, it’s helpful sometimes like, oh, I didn’t know they wanted this or I didn’t know they needed this or, you know, whatever.

Jon

Helpful.

Mo

But again, it’s kind of like you’re taking out the.

Jon

the Mystery, the surprise.

Mo

The special part of it, you know, like I didn’t have to think about it, you know, and and that’s the part that’s tough.

Jon

Yeah. oh

Jon

Right. Yeah.

George

I think it’s kind of funny that you’re the one saying that Mo, because that’s the direct opposite of what you said. Your father was, it was very important to him to know what you wanted without having to ask.

Mo

Yeah.

George

And now we’re at the point where either society has just worn us the fuck down so much,

Mo

ah

George

Or something else happened that we just don’t even feel like we have the energy to put out the effort to figure out what somebody wants. Now, I’ll give an example of something that happened to me years ago. This was way pre-pandemic.

George

Like, I think ah this was probably 10 years ago or so, but I still remember it to this day. My wife, who knows zilch about computers, like she knows where the keyboard is, right? That’s about as far as she’ll go.

George

She heard me talking to somebody or saw me saying something months and months and months before about a video card that I wanted for the PC I was building. And she remembered it, wrote it all down, and then bought that video card for me for Christmas. And to this day, I still remember getting that video card.

Jon

Because you were surprised.

George

Didn’t come from an Amazon wishlist. Yeah, I was totally shocked.

Jon

Yeah. Yeah.

George

Not just that I got something I really wanted, but that she researched and thought enough and went through the effort.

Mo

Remembered.

Jon

h

George

That’s to me what we’re missing so much.

Jon

Yeah.

George

And fucking Amazon is just killing that.

Jon

that’s That’s part of the gift is the giving feeling. Like you went through all this work for me. Amazon lists are not work. It’s just i’ll click, click, click.

George

No.

Jon

Yeah.

George

Yeah.

Jon

Yeah. Now they had added for it. Maybe they still do that. But of course, they encourage you to buy stuff off Amazon. But they used to have this feature where you could link to things off of Amazon. But I think they have gotten rid of that or they diminished it.

Mo

Oh, did they?

George

Yeah.

Jon

greatly.

Mo

Yeah, I’m surprised.

Jon

And so like, so my daughter just this year, you know, she’s not using an Amazon wishlist because so much of the stuff she wants is not there and it just isn’t efficient. And you could just give, here’s a, like she likes the mechanics of the wishlist.

Jon

So she found this site that I’ll give you a link to Mo.

Mo

Okay.

Jon

It’s called things to get me.com.

Mo

Okay. Okay.

George

ah

Jon

And it’s basically a free public Amazon-esque wishlist. And you could put links to any site out there and put notes about it. But the key thing that makes it better than just here’s a document out in the cloud, like Amazon, you can reserve it.

Jon

You could say, okay, I’m getting that. Let me tick off reserve.

Mo

Oh, like a registry.

Jon

Right. So the user doesn’t know you did it, I guess, but you have committed that you’re going to get it.

George

but everybody else does.

Jon

So when someone else is going to buy it and you click on reserve, it warns you, oh, someone else already did it.

George

Nice.

Mo

Interesting.

Jon

So it it kind of adds that. I’m sure it’s not the only one. It’s just the one that she found, but it works great. It does what it needs to. Like you said, though, George, it’s not the same as spending enough time with someone and learning their habits to surprise them with something super thoughtful.

Jon

But the flip side of that for me is not so much that I’m i’m not being thoughtful, is I want to make sure that what I get is something you really, really want and need.

Jon

Because I used to be in the habit of just, well, I haven’t gotten 20 presents for you let yet. Let me go find a few more. You know, I’d rather do four or five focused, very much desired things to make sure you love it.

Jon

Versus the avalanche approach, because especially these days, I can’t afford the avalanche approach.

George

Yeah. yeah

Jon

And I’d rather have a smaller, more appreciated set of gifts than the big mountain of gifts.

Mo

Yeah.

Mo

Yeah.

Jon

So it’s it’s it’s give and take, isn’t it? It’s there pros and cons. Yeah.

Mo

um don’t know if your kids do this. Do they do just text you what they want?

Jon

happened.

Mo

Just to say you’re a link in a text message and.

Jon

It’s happened.

Mo

Yeah.

George

I mean, for for my kids, so one of them still lives with us, which is good because he helps out with his mother. The other two that live outside of the house, they get the same gift every year, and that’s a free month of rent in the house that I bought for them. So

Jon

That’s nice.

Mo

that’s a good ri That’s a good gift.

Jon

That’s huge. That’s, yeah.

George

it’s a good amount for them, and they like it.

Jon

Yeah.

George

so But yeah, we don’t like they don’t really ask for anything, and we don’t really ask for anything back. So like gift giving is not a big thing in our house at all, really.

Jon

Hmm. Wow. And if, I mean, it’s nice to have that rent free. So you would think, I guess you wouldn’t really with kids, but you would think like, oh, they know they’re going to have no rent next month.

Jon

They can really get mom and dad something good because they’re going to have extra money in the budget.

George

Well, I mean, that would be true if they didn’t spend every dime they made already. So that rent money like buys them another month of being…

Jon

Okay. Well, they’ve, it’s pre-spent.

George

a Yeah, it’s already… And, you know, one thing that um I would say that we do give them and other people are the gift cards.

George

I mean, that’s that’s pretty pretty prevalent for us, um but it it feels very generic, just like anything else does.

Mo

Yeah.

Jon

It is.

George

Like, you know, here, I’ve seen you drink coffee. Here’s a Starbucks gift card.

Mo

Yeah. Yeah.

George

Or I’ve heard you talk about donuts. Here’s one for Krispy Kreme. You know, I… and Those are okay, but they they’ve to me, they feel a little shameful when I do it.

Jon

It is that double-edged sword again, isn’t it?

Mo

actually yeah

Jon

Where it’s like, oh, we we know you’ll get something you want, but it’s less personal because we didn’t have to put as much thought in.

George

Yeah.

Jon

and So it’s give and take.

George

Yep.

Mo

yeah One thing I started doing with gift cards that I learned from you, John, this is when we first met. I think we we were friends for a while. And for Christmas, I got you a Steam gift card. And it was like a couple months later, you said, hey, i want to let you know what I got with that gift card.

Jon

Yes, I like doing that. Yeah.

Mo

yeah know which I’ve never ever heard of or done or anything. And I was thinking about that. i was like, wow, that’s actually really thoughtful in a way. Because it’s like now it’s like it it turns, a ah a I guess, a virtual gift into like a real thing.

Jon

he

Mo

Like, OK, he got this.

Jon

I like people to know what I spent their money on. Yeah.

Mo

Right.

Jon

Like you got me a this. Yeah. i Yeah.

Mo

Right.

Jon

So do you still do that?

Mo

Oh, I do that now.

Jon

Do you?

Mo

yeah. If I get a gift card, I always tell the person what I did with it.

Jon

That’s cool.

Mo

You know, I got, yeah, yeah.

Jon

I got coffee. I got coffee.

Mo

Hey, yesterday i was, didn’t have, you know, what’s the Starbucks? I use your gift card. Thank you. know, whatever, you know?

Jon

That’s nice because it makes the, it makes the giving last a little longer because you get the feedback a week or a month later.

Mo

Yeah.

Jon

Yeah. It’s nice.

Mo

So that’s cool. So I have a just a general question for you guys.

Jon

Okay.

Mo

Now we all have older kids, right? And we’re most at this point. At what point did you start asking them what they wanted? Because I know we all do it at some point, right? um And for me, I mean, i’ll start for me, it was probably when they were probably so juniors in high school.

Jon

Really? That late?

Mo

Yeah.

George

Oh, that seems late. Wow.

Jon

Yeah.

Mo

No, that’s why i started asking. Like, I mean, they would just tell me, but I was actually at this one like, hey, what do you want for Christmas this year?

Jon

Mm-hmm.

Mo

what do you want for your birthday? Because one, I have no idea what they wanted. i had no clue.

Jon

Especially as they got older, yeah.

Mo

Especially the teenage years. I have no idea what’s cool, what’s not, what’s whatever, you know. But yeah, it was about as about high school when I started asking.

Jon

Hmm.

Mo

How about you guys? Mm-hmm.

Jon

Well, I think for me it was… we used all those other methods we talked about, right? yeah The Santa ploy and the go to the store and see what you’re interested ploy. And my daughter was hip to that. She knew it was an Intel gathering mission. You know, when you’re, hey, let’s walk through the toy section. Nobody ever does that until November, right? So we knew, but I think probably by,

Jon

You know, like the, what are the, like the, the YA, the young adult years, like when you’re 12, 13, something there, which is probably late elementary school, things like that. I think by then i was just flat out like, what do you want for Christmas? What are you hoping for? What do and so you can start that bargaining process of like, well, I don’t, not sure a pony is in our future, but let’s say, you know, because i you want to make sure i wanted to make sure that I got, I, it was ah a fun Christmas for her, but I didn’t,

Jon

I didn’t want to shot in the dark. I didn’t want to go. Everybody seems to like tickle me. I’ll get your tickle me. I don’t want to just go with the trends. I want to make sure I got again, something that I knew somebody wanted rather than just an avalanche of stuff.

Jon

Yeah. You thought that was late, George. What about for you early? Like me or even earlier?

George

yeah, I wanted to start asking as soon as they could comprehend.

Jon

Really early on.

George

Yeah. Cause I’m just old and tired and I didn’t feel like figuring shit out. No. Uh, I mean, honestly, I think we started asking probably around 12 or 13, but we would do the thing where we would ask them for a multitude of like, give us several choices.

George

So that way we could still surprise them a little bit. um

Jon

Okay. Oh, yeah, right.

George

And that that’s kind of a double-edged sword as well because the kid automatically knows they’re not getting all of it.

Jon

Right. It’s not gonna be all of these.

George

But at least they know they’re going to get something they want and they won’t know what it is until that morning.

Jon

Mm. Yeah.

George

So I think around the age of like 10 to 13, somewhere in that area, because that’s kind of when the Santa Claus mythos kind of plays itself out.

Jon

Mm-hmm.

Mo

Mm hmm.

Jon

starts to fade, you know?

George

And I think these days it’s probably even earlier just because of what I talked about before with all the screens and everything else.

Mo

That’s what I’m thinking too.

Jon

kids are so connected. Yeah.

Mo

Yeah.

George

Yeah.

Jon

Yeah. yep Yeah. Kids are probably convinced on TikTok to create their, you know, record a TikTok, ask you for Christmas, send it to your parents.

George

All right.

Jon

Who knows, right? Crazy stuff like that. So nobody do that. Nobody, if you send a Christmas list on TikTok, guarantee you get none of those things. So don’t do that to me.

Mo

Yes, absolutely.

Jon

So, yeah.

Mo

Yeah,

Jon

We’re coming into the last segment here and we thought it would be fun. We’ve talked about making these lists. We’ve talked about getting our parents to know what we wanted. And in the course of planning out this episode, it occurred to us, we started coming up with stories of things we asked for and wanted desperately and either did or didn’t get and how it affected us.

Mo

Every

Jon

And I want to start with you, George. I think this is probably going to expand on a story we’ve heard part of before, but now i think we might hear it in its totality. What’s something that you asked for and either did or didn’t get or have an experience with?

George

Yeah, well, I mean, I don’t know if I haven’t told it all the way through or not, but the big thing, and it wasn’t just for one Christmas, it was for every Christmas from the time i was 10 until I or so.

Mo

Wow.

George

um

Jon

okay

George

i wanted a tenpeed bike

Jon

Right.

Mo

Okay.

George

Now that’s not to say that I didn’t have a bike. I did have a Kmart Huffy dirt bike, um, with the little like motocross placard on the front with the number seven and the banana kind of seat.

Jon

Yeah.

George

Well, wasn’t really banana seat, but it was the long, you know, like a motorcycle style seat.

Jon

Yeah.

George

Um, I did not know, no, I did not have tassels.

Jon

you have the tassels on the handlebars? Please tell me had the tassels. Oh, damn it.

George

Um, but

Mo

Missed opportunity.

Jon

Missed opportunity.

George

What I really wanted was 10-speed bike. um

Jon

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

George

And I think I really wanted it more than anything because I’d seen it in the movie Breaking Away. And ah then um there was this Christmas party that my father would hold every year at our grocery store that we owned for the neighborhood.

George

and every year he would give away two 10-speed bikes, one for a boy, one for a girl, and he always did it the same way. The kids would write their names as many times as they wanted on scraps of paper and put them in a box, and then Santa would draw the names out at the neighborhood Christmas party, and that was the kid who got the bike, and pictures were taken, and everybody was happy, but me.

Mo

Almost everybody.

George

Yeah,

Jon

ah

George

because I was the schmuck standing there handing out little candy gift bags to all these little ungrateful bastards. And I never got the goddamn bike that my father would buy for all these anonymous children.

George

Um, and I know that’s very jaded and cruel and sounding and everything, but as a young kid, when you don’t understand, you know, what giving is really about, it’s just about taking, I guess, a lot of times, um,

Mo

Oh, no, absolutely.

George

I just really wanted 10 speed bike and I asked for it every single year. And I would see two shiny brand new 10 speed bikes every year at my house around Thanksgiving that would then get transported to the store and put up.

Jon

Oh.

Mo

just.

George

I would like, as I got older, I was the one having to put them on display, you know, putting them up on, you know, hanging them from the ceiling or whatever he wanted done with them.

Jon

Ooh.

George

I still didn’t get one. And I had that same old rusty, huffy Kmart dirt bike until I was 18 when I broke the metal in the seat and everything.

George

And it just finally fell apart. And I didn’t get another bike until I was 30 when I moved out to l LA and got a bike to go to work on.

Jon

Wow.

George

So

Mo

Wow.

Jon

o Damn.

Mo

So George, you ever?

Jon

Was it a 10 speed?

Mo

No,

Jon

is that what you got? Sorry.

George

which, which one am answering?

Mo

good.

Jon

You go ahead Mo. You go ahead, Mo.

Mo

ah was to say, so George, did you ever find out why they never got you a bike?

George

I think it was, i never found out officially. No, I’ll say that right off.

Mo

OK.

Jon

Okay.

George

But I think it was more than likely just my father than it was my mother. My mother would give me anything I wanted. You know, we talked about She gave me pork chops for lunch.

Jon

Okay.

Mo

Poor

George

So, you know, a bike was not out of the question with my mother, but my father was in control of all of the money and all that those kinds of decisions.

Jon

Mm-hmm. That’s right. We know.

George

And my guess is more that he saw it as a way to…

George

control and penalize a little bit because that was kind of his parenting technique.

Jon

Mm.

George

Um, and yeah, well, you know, was just his whole thing was about, you know, just about being in charge and control and,

Jon

Ouch.

Mo

It is what it is, right?

Jon

Yeah. A little gruff. I remember your dad well. Yeah.

George

Yeah. Uh, so that’s fine. You know, i I’ve learned to, to not be that way to the large or degree, not completely, but, um, I, I just, he was never going to give me that bike for years. I remember being in my twenties and that was still a joke for him.

George

Not realizing that I was always pissed about it.

Jon

Oh, damn.

Mo

Oh

Jon

ah

George

And he was, yeah, did you get that 10 speed yet?

Jon

Yikes.

Mo

oh my god.

George

Nope.

Mo

ha oh

George

Fucker.

Jon

Damn it, Dad. You son of a bitch.

Mo

Just poke the bear, why don’t you?

George

but I’m about to knock out 10 of your fucking teeth right now. I’ll tell you that much.

Jon

Speed one, speed two, speed three.

Mo

ah

Jon

Just keep punching.

George

ah John, what about you? Was there an item that you did or didn’t get as a young person?

Jon

Yeah. Oh yeah. So I totally got this one and then I got it good. So had to be the Christmas, I guess, trying to do the math.

Mo

Okay. Okay.

Jon

I remember Christmas 82, think it was 82, 83.

Jon

Anyway, the Atari 2600 game Raiders of the Lost Ark had just come out and I wanted it so bad.

Mo

okay

Jon

I explained how bad I wanted it because I loved Indiana Jones. I loved the movie. It was an adventure game. It was on my Atari. The screenshots were awesome. I wanted it so bad.

George

Mm-hmm.

Jon

And ah plus, i had we had the poster and I’d seen the little secret highlighter mark next to Raiders, so I know they’d gotten it for me.

Mo

Uh

Jon

And I was often a latchkey kid left alone in the house with the wrapped presents for hours on end.

Mo

we see where this is going.

Jon

I found the Atari cartridge shaped red wrapped box. And with the help of a razor knife and some more tape, I was able to surgically open it. I saw the end of it was the Raiders, a silver box with the red letters, you know,

Jon

<unk>m like, oh, I am the master of this. And I carefully opened a shrink wrap, had to cut the shrink wrap on the end. Didn’t open it just for the end. Opened up the lid, pulled the cartridge out, put like, i don’t know, combat or something in there for the weight, for the weight.

Jon

you It’s like Indy with the idol.

George

ah

Jon

Bag of sand for the, right? So I had to have the weight in there.

Mo

oh

Jon

And taped it all back up. And like I am the master of this. So now I had a secret Raiders of the Lost Ark cartridge to play. If you’ve ever played Raiders of the Lost Ark on the Atari 2600,

Jon

It’s very complicated and difficult to understand without the instruction manual and the little guidebook to know what the hell every little icon was, what you had to do when you had to take the idol to the right place and to the sunrise and everything.

George

Mm-hmm.

Mo

ah

Jon

So I got my cartridge about three weeks early and couldn’t play it because I couldn’t figure it out and then had to fake surprise on Christmas morning. Wow, I was surprised and excited to get the instructions out of the box.

Jon

So I can play this game that I’d only ever looked at because I couldn’t figure out to play.

Mo

Oh my god.

George

And now everyone who has ever watched John unbox a product on GenXGrownUp.com understands why he takes such great care with those boxes.

Mo

You’re safe, man.

Jon

but That’s surgical precision from 82 Christmas.

George

Ha ha ha ha.

Jon

Yeah, yeah.

George

Ha ha ha.

Jon

So yeah, I’ve told the story to other people before. My mom knows this, the statute of limitations on Christmas violations are expired, thankfully.

Mo

you safer

Jon

Yeah, but it’s it was, ah the lesson I could have learned was, oh, be sure you get the manual out next time. That’s what I could have learned. What I actually learned was it did sap away some of the surprise on Christmas.

Jon

Not some of the surprise. Even though I knew it was under the tree, the fact that I had snuck around and got my hands on it, it did diminish the fun of getting it on Christmas morning.

Mo

Played it.

Jon

Although I couldn’t play it really until Christmas morning. but so Mo, how about you?

Mo

Oh, man.

Jon

Particular gift you got or didn’t get on your list?

Mo

Oh, yeah. I mean, this is probably… I’m sure I’ve told this before, but you know my dad, you know again, he was one that he would never ask what we wanted.

Jon

Okay.

Mo

like He had to just…

Jon

o

Mo

yeah And as a result, and he also shopped really late. like a few days for Christmas.

Jon

Okay.

Mo

Like he was one of these last minute shoppers.

Jon

Yeah,

Mo

So generally a lot the good stuff was gone, you know? And so when you’re though at Christmas, ah you know, me brothers were all, oh, G.I. Joe. Yay. You know, like we always got G.I. Joe’s. We always got these things.

Mo

Open it up a box.

Jon

OK.

Mo

And my dad pulls this box out after we’d open all the other gifts. is Oh, I got something for you and your brothers. It was like a group gift.

George

Ah.

Mo

We’re like, oh, gave it to me to open. It was an Atari pong set. They just come out.

George

Oh, wow.

Jon

yeah

Mo

I mean, just come out.

Jon

okay Yeah.

Mo

was he even we weren’t even… wasn’t our radar at all that this was going to happen, you know, because this was like this was like the hot item that Chris was.

Jon

Okay.

Mo

You couldn’t find these things. Apparently he bought it like a month early. Don’t know why, which is like shocked the hell out of all of us.

Jon

Wow.

George

Mm.

Mo

um Kept it secret from us, which also was like really odd. And then, you know, and he kind of just went through the trouble of kind of making it like this. Oh, by the way, you know, one more gift for everybody.

Jon

One more present. Oh, look, what’s, what’s over there by the fireplace.

Mo

one more. Exactly.

Jon

right

Mo

you know, the one that without the label on it. Let’s pull that one out.

Jon

Hmm.

Mo

You know, and ah let me tell you one, we were the we were the house to visit that whole holiday season.

Jon

Hmm.

Mo

Like we had people constantly in their place. Yeah. I mean, had Pong, it had the had the hockey thing, the stupid hockey thing.

Jon

Yeah. Yeah. Foosball crap like that.

Mo

It had the soccer, which was just Pong with two paddles.

Jon

Yeah.

George

Right. Hmm.

Mo

I mean it was ridiculous. ah You played four-player, though, which was cool.

Jon

but

Mo

um But yeah, that was like, it just blew us away because we it just didn’t seem like something was in my dad’s realm to do. you know And so it just surprised the hell of all of us.

Jon

Yeah.

Jon

And looking back now, how do you think he knew? so we talked about the ways you would let people know.

Mo

Yeah.

Jon

This was not even on your radar.

Mo

Yeah, we never mentioned it.

Jon

How do you think he knew you would want it?

Mo

I don’t i have no idea, actually. No, I never even asked him.

Jon

Really?

Mo

It’s one of those things that hindsight, maybe I should have.

Jon

Was it for him? Did he like it he want it, you think?

Mo

No, he never played it.

Jon

No, wasn’t for him.

Mo

He never played.

Jon

I’ll be damned.

Mo

mean, played a couple of times, just, you know, oh, Chris was all play a little bit.

Jon

Right. Right.

Mo

But it really is like, you know, but between me my brothers, we were on it like 24 seven for months, you know. um But yeah, i know I don’t know. I have no idea how he even knew because it wasn’t.

Jon

Still no idea.

Mo

and none of us had it on their list at all.

Jon

o

Mo

It was just because it was just so, you know, it was pricey, you know, at the time. And, know, is that something, you know, is definitely frivolous as far as expense, you know, um but and at all, you know, it ruined his TV time.

Jon

Not practical. It’s not shoes. It’s not underpants, right?

Mo

So it was like a lot of negatives all around.

George

Right. right

Mo

um But he, yeah, it was it was a big shock to all of us. But he said we played. I mean, now I can’t believe I played Pong that long, but we did.

Jon

Huh.

Jon

It must have just been like he knew it was somehow that it was a big deal for other kids and figured his kids would like it and and did the advanced planning like he hadn’t done.

Mo

I guess.

Mo

Yeah, that’ that’s the only thing i could figure out.

Jon

That’s amazing.

Mo

Yeah, it was definitely a shock to all of us.

Jon

that’s That’s great.

Mo

We’re like, who where’s our dad? And what have you done with them?

Jon

Made for a great Christmas.

Mo

Oh, did.

Jon

Wow. Wow. So what we have? George didn’t get his gift. I got mine and cheated and Mo got something he didn’t even want.

Mo

Did you what didn’t we expect?

George

Right?

Jon

that’s that’s That’s quite the spectrum there. Oh, well, that’s about to wrap up this backtrack, but I’ll tell you, you guys and fourth listener, I hope you get everything on your wishlist.

Jon

hope you have a great holiday season. It’s been a great year at Gen X growing up. We’ve had a lot of growth, a fast year that’s blazed by, ah so much support.

Mo

fast year.

Jon

In fact, I want to thank a brand new patron. You’ll never guess it’s Matthew B from the beginning of the podcast.

George

ah

Mo

All right.

Jon

Um, Yeah, he had just signed up a couple weeks ago, as I said, and I want to read his email when I welcomed him and I wanted to thank him for joining us over on Patreon and supporting us with a financial pledge. We say all the time, everything we do costs a little bit of money and it would drain us. But for the support of our patrons who generously put in a regular monthly pledge. It’s a holiday season and you listen to us all year. Think about maybe on our wish list is maybe a couple more patrons. Maybe you go and sign up, head over to patreon.com slash Gen X grown up, open up your heart and your wallet. We would love to have you as a supporter to keep us cooking away into the new year 2026.

Jon

That is going to wrap it up for this backtrack all about the Christmas wish list. We hope you enjoyed it. Don’t worry. be back in a couple weeks with a new one. Next week is the standard edition of our show. Until then, I am John. George, thank you so much for being here.

George

Yes, sir.

Jon

Mo, you know I appreciate you.

Mo

Always fun, man.

Jon

Fourth listener, it’s you. We all appreciate most of all, though, and we cannot wait to talk to you again next time. Bye-bye.

George

See you guys.

Mo

Take care, everybody.