Podcast 503

Slipping Into Summer. Hard to believe, after a long upper midwestern winter, that we are Slipping Into Summer. As the Memorial Day Weekend approaches, some thoughts about the origins of ‘Decoration Day’, Arlington National Cemetery, the Civil War, and our modern day commemoration of those who have given their lives in service to the United States. This is not a national holiday of celebration. It might be suggested it is in fact supposed to be a sober, if not somber day to reflect on the sacrifice of those who did not return home. Some people confuse Memorial Day with Veterans Day. If you’re on the radio, or in public media that is a mistake you will make once. On Veterans Day we honor all those who have served. On Memorial Day we remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice. With all that, it is still the beginning of summer — even though summer doesn’t start until June 21st — and for kids still in school it means a week or so of school left, depending on how many snow days may have accrued during the brutal winter. It brings back memories for this podcaster. Memories of summers that stretched out like a sea of opportunity and ended all too quickly on Labor Day. In the Upper Midwest, this time is ‘GO’ time, especially for kids, because our summers are so short and sweet. The end of May can be cold, rainy and unfriendly and quite uncomfortable if you are opening the lake cabin and putting in the dock. The end of May can also be warm, sunny and friendly, and Memorial Day kicks it off with its ad hoc parades, and BBQ’s … the first three day weekend of the summer. So people might be forgiven for not remembering some of us will be privately thinking about those they lost, who will not be able to enjoy the great spring weather, the parades and BBQ’s. Here’s to them. Sponsored by X Government Cars and Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul. (Editor’s Note: In describing the mast of the USS Minneapolis, which is at Lake Calhoun, I confused the Cruiser, USS Minneapolis with two US Navy Submarines currently in service. The USS Minnesota is a Virginia Class Submarine, and the USS Minneapolis-Saint Paul is a Los Angeles Class submarine.)

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Podcast 484

The Fort. Boys need independence and Freedom. This is the story of my quest for independence and freedom in the form of my own ‘fort’. The Fort. A place where I could go with my friends. To dream. To Talk. To Plan. You know, boy stuff. As adults we spend a lot of time thinking about what we want, or need, or those moments in life when we could have been better, the mistakes we’ve made as well as the hard won victories. Sometimes, though, it doesn’t take much to experience true bliss. It’s also a story of manifesting the things we desire most in our lives. The story of an stubbornly independent boy, with this idea of a ‘fort’, who spent months scavenging lumber from all over town, and started building without any idea of where he was going or how to get there. And, a story about a father who did not share the same temperament as his son. A father who’s personality was introverted, a man who valued action over words. A story of a father and son who didn’t have very much in common but came together one summer to build something great; The coolest fort in town, by far. Dreams and acting individually can get you pretty far down the road, but that summer my father taught me how to accept help, how to work together, to create something far more than I could have by myself. It’s also the story of how that perfect moment fades as we reach adolescence. Sometimes when we look back, we realize that there was a perfect moment back there when we had much more than we realized at the time. Then again, maybe I did realize it. Sponsored by Brush Studio at The West End in Saint Louis Park, Minnesota and by Hydrus.

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Podcast 408

Falling Off The Wagon. Today, for some reason, I felt the impending approach of fall and thought, “I should end the unofficial, half assed ‘News Cleanse’ and start printing up stories and reading them”. Boy, was that a mistake. It does feel like climbing back into the bottle, or falling off the wagon, going back to the crack, or going back to the woman you love, who happens to be a disaster … for you. Oh I had the best of intentions. I was, in fact, very excited about the prospect of reading a hundred or so pages of news stories and bringing to you the most significant of all the stories, just like old times. When I got through the screening process, there was nothing left to talk about because I had thrown out all the stories I’d read, even the ones I saved because I thought, “This might make a good bit of content for the podcast.” Nope. Why? After a summer of peripheral examination of the news, with an emphasis on actually covering real events rather than reading rehashed versions of someone else’s story and then talking about that … after a summer of glorious discussions about the unconscious mind, or trips to Sturgis and across the country for this or that reason … I discovered today that nothing really has changed since the first day of summer dawned. Oh yes there have been developments, but what serves as ‘journalism’ in this country is basically crap. We’re not getting the information we need to make informed decisions about the 18 or 19 clowns running for higher office. Want more bad news? We aren’t even talking about candidates for Congress, Senate, and state races. So in this podcast, I took a little time to vent my frustrations with what is turning into darkest days of ‘journalism’ in our country. Maybe you share them, maybe you don’t. Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul and welcome to the newest sponsor of the Bob Davis Podcasts, the Husband and Wife team of Eric and Erum Lucero at PrideOfHomes.com and Luke Team Real Estate in the North Metro Corridor. 

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