Podcast 401

Back To School. At some point in our childhood, most of us remember looking up somewhere around the middle of August and realizing we only had two or three weeks left in the summer. We’re getting that old back-to-school feeling at the Bob Davis Podcasts. Somewhere around this time, you’d end up at The Gap, or JC Penny, or Sears buying your new sneakers, jeans and shirts. You’d bring them back home, and try them on, and they’d feel like cardboard, and you’d be grateful for the few waning days or weeks of summer. This has been a great summer of events in the Mobile Podcast Command Unit, covering some politics in Wisconsin and Iowa, the EAA Air Show, Sturgis and heading up to North Central Wisconsin to hang out with old friends. Now it’s time to re-engage in the political sphere. And yet, it feels … dirty. In this walk and talk podcast late on a Sunday night, with the buzz of bugs and power lines in the neighborhood, some final thoughts about summer and some thoughts about what awaits us ahead. That feeling that we are at the end of a political and social era, perhaps even the end of a cycle of history is almost … palpable. Scanning and reading up on the news brings the conclusion that despite the carnival barkers in the echo chamber who urge you to follow the bouncing ball (which is what they’re doing), we may remember this time as that moment before … rather than a time that contained anything of any real lasting value. While the circus rages on, and the ‘pundits’ work harder and harder to predict the future based on someone’s email, or someone’s blathering on yet another Sunday morning talk show no one watched, or someone getting shouted off the stage, or someone’s latest studied plan to solve some earth shattering national problem, one gets the impression 99 percent  of this isn’t going to matter this time next year. One thing is for sure, something is coming and no one can predict it. Thank God there’s still time to sit in the sun and read a book about something … anything else. Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul. 

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Podcast 400

Scoutmaster Tribute. Live from North Central Wisconsin, best friends who grew up together pay tribute to a father to one, and a scoutmaster to the other. Both friends are eccentric enough, as was the father and scoutmaster. Their conversation takes place at a rural hideaway built with anything that could be scrounged, or used. The setting sparks a conversation about what they learned in scouts. In ‘Stand By Me’ Stephen King’s narrator says that the friendship’s he forged around twelve or thirteen were the strongest of his life, that he never had friends like that again, and wondered if anybody does. Through thick and thin, on and off through the years two friendships have been the most important to me, largely because of our experiences camping with the Boy Scouts, and for me, especially because of our scoutmaster, who also happened to be my best friend’s dad. Sure he was eccentric, but he taught us all so many great lessons. Later he built a complex of crazy quilt cabins — where this podcast was recorded — which are packed with every kind of thing you can imagine, from every kind of era, and who knows where he got most of them. He never said no to anyone who offered something they didn’t want anymore — and most of that stuff is up in Wisconsin. Given the current situation, all commentary on politics these days sounds like an echo chamber. It’s nice to sit outside on a classic hot summer day in the middle of nowhere in North Central Wisconsin, and talk about things that are, or were real. Friendships that last a lifetime, friends who are as much family as they are friends, experiences we’ll never forget, and people we met over the years who were real characters. After all, aren’t friendship and family the most important things anyway. Sponsored by X Government Cars. 

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Podcast 399 – Sturgis Part 2

Sturgis Part 2. If you listen to this podcast with headphones, you’ll be right in the middle of the biggest motorcycle rally in the world. Heading into Sturgis, South Dakota, on a warm August morning we are surrounded by every kind of motorcycle you can imagine. The highways are literally chock full of bikes, coming and going to the 75th Anniversary of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Despite its reputation as a rough event, Sturgis can sometimes feel like any other state fair, or big city event in late summer. What makes it unique are motorcycle enthusiasts who come from all over the United States and the world to convene. Sturgis is a town of 6600 people, and once a year the population swells to hundreds of thousands. This year, there were a million bikers. Some rode their motorcycles out, others trucked their bikes out and rented, or drove RV’s, still others camped in tents or trailers. Who comes and why? What are some of the drawbacks to the size of the event this year? For some, the the roots of what this rally means to them goes very deep. For others, motorcycling is part of family life. Others have just come for a good time and to hang with their best friends. From the big motorcycle manufacturers like Harley, Indian, Victory, and the after market companies like Ciro as well as people selling t-shirts, art, tattoos, leather goods, as well as the fun stuff like Body Painting, beer, and women who dance, this is a singular event. If you spent the week in Sturgis, you had no idea there was a big debate between Republican candidates for their party’s presidential nomination, and you didn’t care. From Main Street to the concerts and after hours partying, to the bikes, to the companies who come here to serve and sell to this singular cultural tribe of motorcycle enthusiasts, it is the people who make this very American, very real event what it is. Despite the inherent danger in motorcycling and its outlaw image, they are great people. And…Sturgis is really fun. Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating Of Saint Paul. 

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