Pod Insights The Moth The Moth Podcast: Traveling Together About this episode Summer has us thinking about travel… about vacations, beach trips, BBQs and picnics, starry nights in the great outdoors, and exploring other countries. But also, it has us thinking about what makes travel special - the people you visit, and the people you travel with. So, in this episode, two stories about trips and sojourns in which the meaning and memories are made because of friends and family.
This episode was hosted by Sarah Austin Jenness.
Storytellers:
Caroline Connolly spends a summer with her grandma - drinking coffee, strolling the mall and making memories.
Marjory Cohen goes on a special trip to Vegas with a friend.
Podcast # 931
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1:03 Speaker 01 Welcome to The Moth. I'm Sarah Austin Genes. Summer has us thinking about travel, about vacations, beach trips, barbecues and picnics, starry nights in the great outdoors, and exploring other countries. I'm also thinking about what makes travel special. It's not just about the places you visit, but the people you visit and the people you travel with. So in this episode, two stories about trips and sojourns in which the meaning and memories are made because of friends and family. Caroline Connolly is our first storyteller. She told this at a Boston Grand Slam, the show that's filled with past winners of our open mic story slams. Here's Caroline, live at The Moth.
1:48 Speaker 02 I spent the summer of my freshman year in college, living with my then 75-year-old grandmother in Boca Raton, Florida. If you don't know Boca Raton, it is a place with a lot of 75-year-olds. That's what my grandmother told me when I called to ask if I could stay with her while I was interning at a company nearby. Now, my grandmother goes by Lala in our family because we couldn't pronounce abuela when we were little, and she is the ultimate Cuban matriarch. A 4th grade teacher who raised four kids, some of her nine grandkids, and never left the house without lipstick, earrings, and should you ever need it, at least five packets of Splenda in her purse.
2:31 Speaker 02 It's worth noting that Lala is begrudgingly a diabetic, and by begrudgingly, I mean, she just doesn't feel like being one.
2:41 Speaker 02 That's really the best way I can describe it. And that summer, she had been directed to change her diet and do something that absolutely horrified her: exercise. And because I was there, it became my responsibility to oversee all of this. So, we established a routine. I would wake up early in the morning and make us two cups of Café Bustelo. I would take mine black, and Lala would take hers with milk and a huge fistful of cornflakes that she would cram into the mug every day. This is a recipe she concocted to, quote, "trick the blood sugar level test."
3:20 Speaker 02 Now, I was a communications major in college, so I wasn't, like, questioning her science. And the levels, for the most part, seemed fine. We would take our coffee out onto her back patio table where there was a small pool, and we would just chat about life. She would ask me questions that had been troubling her, like, "Why do so many white women do yoga now?"
3:48 Speaker 02 And she would dispense love advice, like, "Marry someone who you can have a conversation with for the rest of your life." And in the same breath, "Do not marry someone who does yoga."
4:02 Speaker 02 And as for the physical activity, Lala had decided, allegedly with her doctor, that cleaning around the house and the occasional light stroll were sufficient forms of cardio activity. So when I would point out to her she had an exercise one day, she would get up from the couch with a smirk on her face, walk over to her kitchen counter and casually wipe it down. It was Lala's way of saying, "Go to hell, granddaughter." And on the weekend to meet our strolling goals, we would drive to the local mall and do laps inside Nordstrom. And so we would start in the shoes section and then make our way over to cosmetics and jewelry and eventually work our way to the second floor
4:47 Speaker 02 where they had the higher-end designer stuff. And we would walk around like two of the most lethargic robbers casing a joint. And we would reward ourselves for our effort. At night, we would lay in her bed, side by side, chowing down on sugar-free wafers, watching a movie from her extensive VHS collection. And these were films, by the way, that Lala had bought on sale at big-box stores all around Florida in the 90s. So the genres ranged from Air Force One kind of action to "Not Without My Daughter," that controversial Sally Field film. And this was us, week to week. And I found myself, a single 20-year-old with no friends in the area,
5:31 Speaker 02 getting so excited about a sugar-free Jell-O night and a third viewing of The First Wives Club. But several weeks into my visit, Lala wasn't feeling well one day. Her blood sugar had spiked, and we thought it was best she go to the hospital. And so while she was being driven there, I was asked to look after my then-10- to 12-year-old male cousins. And generally speaking, I am somebody who relates more to a 75-year-old than I do a 12-year-old boy. And that is true at like every stage of my life. And so, when I went outside to check on them, it was no surprise that things weren't going as planned. They had taken all of Lala's patio furniture and thrown it into her pool.
6:15 Speaker 02 So, her white table and matching white chairs were all underwater. And by the time she came back from the hospital, I had only managed to drag out one of the chairs. I was someone, after all, who had spent the summer exercising at Nordstrom.
6:32 Speaker 02 And, at first, I could not tell what she was feeling. Lala is someone who has always looked just as shocked by a car crash as she does the discovery that my boyfriend doesn't speak Spanish. And so, I wasn't sure how mad she would be. But as she looked from the pool to her white chair, she started laughing. Because the chlorine from the pool had cleaned that chair.
7:01 Speaker 02 It had never looked better. Lala is now 92 years old. And she no longer lives in that house. But I will always remember all the trips I took there, all the ridiculous, funny things she said, and all the advice she gave me. But I will especially remember how we spent the rest of that summer, which was, once a week, we would take our café con leche and cornflakes out onto her patio. And we would throw all of that furniture into the pool. Because that was exercise.
7:45 Speaker 01 That was Caroline Connolly. Caroline grew up in Massachusetts and spent a decade reporting for news stations across the country. She lives in Boston with her husband and their dog. Her grandmother, Lala, will turn 94 years old this fall. Caroline says Lala now lives with family who dote on her regularly. And, if you're wondering, she still doesn't like yoga. Speaking of traveling together, last summer I visited my friend Julie and her family in San Diego. When she picked me up from the airport, she said, "You'll be so excited. We are gonna be in a flash mob dance sequence in a movie that's filming, or puppeteers." One of her director friends needed folks for a dream sequence in her
8:27 Speaker 01 new film, and Julie had signed us up. I was thrilled, but I told Julie I was nervous about learning the dance. And honestly, I would love to puppeteer. So Julie agreed. She relayed the news to the team, but the puppeteer spots were already taken. We showed up anyway. Julie and I are old friends from theater, and we were just happy to be spending time together. We figured we'd just be extras in this movie, and that would be the adventure. But secretly, I was thinking, "This will happen. We will be puppeteers somehow." So we pulled up to the set location, and there's a big pickup truck next to us with bigger-than-life-sized puppets in the back. These are the kinds of puppets that a human
9:08 Speaker 01 needs to be inside of to operate. The man next to the truck says, "I have one small handheld puppet left that needs a puppeteer. Do you know anyone?" And I said, "I do." I happened to be wearing a blue jumpsuit with birds on it, and the puppet was a bird of the exact same color. Julie and her daughter grabbed the wings and led the puppet parade, and we joined the professional puppeteers for another adventure in the history books. For photographic evidence, go to themoth.org. After the break, we take another trip. Be back in a moment.
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11:41 Speaker 01 Welcome back. Marjory Cohen is our next storyteller. She told this at an open mic story slam in Detroit. Here's Marjorie live at the mall.
11:55 Speaker 04 I met Ruby first when I represented her in a wrongful death action. Ruby's mother had died as a result of malpractice at a nursing home. Her mother had been her best friend and her loss was devastating.
12:11 Speaker 04 Ruby settled the case and she bought a little house that was really very close to my own house. Later, my own mother passed away, and I called Ruby because I knew that she, of all people, would understand what it's like for a daughter to lose a mother that she was so very close to. And Ruby was kind, and it was a good decision to talk to her about it. Sometime after that, Ruby told me that she had been diagnosed with stage four breast cancer. You know, I was, I married late, I lived alone for a long time, and I liked living alone unless I was sick, and then I didn't like it at all.
12:54 Speaker 04 So I said to Ruby, "What if I come over and we'll watch some TV or something?" So she and I started watching the first season of Survivor on Wednesday nights. It was a great icebreaker for us as friends, you know, we had lots to gossip about and talk about. But the irony that Ruby was fighting for survival was never lost on me. We used to go out to lunch, I'd take her out to lunch, we'd talk about everything, we learned so many things. She told me that she had once gone on a date with Muhammad Ali. She said he was a perfect gentleman. And she loved to gamble, so she had rewards points from the local casino, so she'd take me out to lunch, and we'd talk for a long time.
13:35 Speaker 04 And when she found out that I'd never been to Vegas, she said, "We are going." So we made reservations, but Ruby was getting sicker and sicker, and I wasn't at all sure that she'd be able to make the trip. I came to her house one day, three weeks before, she showed me she had completely and meticulously packed for this trip, three weeks in advance. And when we got on the plane, she was so sick that she had her head down on the tray the whole time. I was worried sick. When we got to Vegas and checked in, she perked up and she rented one of those scooters. And I literally trotted along next to her down the strip and she showed me everything and it was great.
14:16 Speaker 04 We were going out to dinner with a friend of mine and Ruby said that she didn't feel well enough to go. And that we should go and when we came back, we had tickets to a Gladys Knight performance in the Flamingo Hotel where we were staying. And I thought, she's never gonna be well enough to go. Now, I should mention, Ruby was a very big woman. Tall and large, but she owned it. She always dressed beautifully and looked so put together. She was featured in an article in the Detroit News about large women who are fashionable. And she gave me a few pointers that I don't know if I follow, but...
14:58 Speaker 04 Anyway, so when we come back from the hotel, from dinner, much to my amazement, Ruby is dressed to the night. Her hair, the makeup, she was gorgeous. And because she was handicapped, we had priority seating in the first row. And Gladys Knight was phenomenal in this small theater about the size of this one. And at one point, she leaned forward and acknowledged Ruby. And they had a moment. When we came home, Ruby went right into the hospital. And I was with her one day and she said to me, "Didn't we have a great time?" And I was thinking, it was such a stressful time for me. I'm so glad it was wonderful for her.
15:46 Speaker 04 And one day, a social worker came in and said to Ruby, "Who is this?" And Ruby said, "This is my best friend." And the social worker looked at my face and she said, "Are you okay?" And I said, "No." She said, "Do you want to talk to me?" I said, "Yes." We went into her office and I cried and cried. You know, when this started, I was just trying to do what the Jewish people call a mitzvah. I was just trying to be kind to someone. I had no idea that Ruby's love would touch me to my core and that I would suffer so much pain when I was losing her, which I did, just a couple of days later. And I sobbed and sobbed. So, does love hurt? Yes.
16:31 Speaker 04 But if you know someone who's alone and sick, you could say to them, "Please let me know if there's anything I can do." You could send them a card that said, "Thinking of you." But if you call them and say, "What if I come over and we'll binge-watch something on Netflix?" You have no idea what you might gain.
16:51 Speaker 01 That was Marjory Cohen. Marjorie is a retired trial attorney, a recovering video game enthusiast, adult fan of Lego, and surrogate grandma to several sweet kiddies. She began telling stories at The Moth two years ago, since in retirement, she, quote, "missed running her mouth in front of an audience." That's it for this episode. From all of us here at The Moth, wherever you go this summer and whoever you go with, we hope you have a wonderful trip.
17:30 Speaker 05 Sarah Austin Jenness is a director, The Moth's executive producer, and a co-author of the bestselling How to Tell a Story: The Essential Guide to Memorable Storytelling from The Moth, which is available now wherever you get your books. Caroline Connolly's story was coached by Meg Bowles. This episode of The Moth Podcast was produced by Sarah Austin Jenness, Sarah Jane Johnson, and me, Mark Sollinger. The rest of The Moth's leadership team include Sarah Haberman, Christina Norman, Marina Clujay, Jennifer Hickson, Jordan Cardinalle, Kate Tellers, Suzanne Rust, and Patricia Uranya. The Moth Podcast is presented by Odyssey. Special thanks to their executive producer, Leah Reese Dennis.
18:13 Speaker 05 All Moth stories are true, as remembered by their storytellers. For more about our podcast, information on pitching your own story, and everything else, go to our website, themoth.org.
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