Pod Insights Unsubscribe Podcast 213 - Growing Up In Germany During WWII ft. Brandon’s Oma | Unsubscribe Podcast Ep 213 About this episode We are super excited to bring you this very special episode with Brandon’s Oma!
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Transcript 14,549 words · 8 speakers
Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:00 Speaker 00 Progressive's Accident Response can contact emergency services if you're in a major accident. The only thing worse than someone you love being in an accident is not being able to help them. So Progressive is here to help when you can't. So get peace of mind knowing your loved ones are protected with Progressive's Accident Response. Learn more at progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. Limited availability in California. Driver is responsible for emergency and towing charges not covered by the policy. Coverage subject to policy terms and conditions.
0:30 Speaker 01 You on a date, how about Schindler's List?
0:32 Speaker 02 Unexploded ornament.
0:34 Speaker 03 Dude, all I'm saying is me and my friends would have thrown rocks at it.
0:37 Speaker 01 Why do women live longer than men?
0:39 The Fat Electrician? Well, she matched her nails to her shirt and her necklace. I don't know what you're doing.
0:46 Speaker 05 Say hi to Eli. He's racially ambiguous and random. His hair is fucking fabulous. Donut, a dark joke disposition. And there's a fat electrician who'll come to unsubscribe.
1:06 Speaker 03 And then you're gonna drink all of it.
1:08 Speaker 02 Down it, yeah.
1:09 Speaker 01 You can take a little sip if you want. Just if you want.
1:14 Speaker 03 Y'all ready?
1:15 Speaker 01 Ready to go?
1:16 Speaker 03 Yeah, three, two, one.
1:21 Speaker 03 Hi, everyone. Welcome to Unsubscribe Podcast. We are joined today in a very special episode. We have Brandon Herrera. Brandon Herrera's Oma. Eli Double-Tat, myself, Donut Operator. Thank you so much for joining us.
1:35 Speaker 02 It feels so weird being on this side. I usually sit there every time.
1:39 Speaker 01 Oh, is this throwing you off a little bit? This is normally Eli's seat, on the left side.
1:45 Speaker 02 This is the first time ever in 200 episodes. I was so excited to have you. Thank you for coming. You're welcome. Are you excited? Yes.
1:56 Speaker 06 You're excited?
1:57 Speaker 01 I'm really excited. I teased this, I don't know, maybe twenty, thirty episodes ago. I thought like, I just thought about it during, while we were recording. I'm like, oh man. You know, my, my oma's lived a lot of life and she's, she's got some crazy stories and you know, I think the, our audience might be interested in hearing some of them. And I pitched it by the guys. They said they'd love to come out here and talk to you. And here we are.
2:19 Speaker 06 Why you wanna hear an old lady's childhood experience?
2:25 Speaker 02 Yes, of course. Amazing stories. Brandon has given us a brief glimpses of your history. And it is phenomenal. And I think that's where we start is you were, where were you when you were a kid? Where did you grow up at?
2:40 Speaker 06 I was in Mannheim. And I remember I was about six years old. I went to school. And everything was still quiet. So I don't know if I was in school for one or two years. I'm not sure. And then when the sirens went off more often, we have less in the school. But then they bombed the surrounding areas, so the school were closed. And then we had an organization in Mannheim where they send children,
3:24 Speaker 06 they wanna get out of the danger areas. They send them away to safe places.
3:32 Speaker 01 So get them out of Germany and to other places that...
3:34 Speaker 06 Yep, right.
3:35 Speaker 03 So just real quick, when you were six years old, like what time period was that? Like nineteen forty...
3:45 Speaker 01 Well, what year were you born?
3:47 Speaker 06 Thirty-two.
3:48 Speaker 01 Nineteen thirty-two. Okay, so this would have been like thirty-eight, thirty-nine.
3:50 Speaker 03 Gotcha.
3:51 Speaker 06 So...
3:54 Speaker 06 My mom say you got both of my brother, my youngest brother and myself. So about the first one to get picked, of course, I was tiny and you know.
4:06 Speaker 01 You were the, you were the pretty one is what you, that was the way I always heard the story.
4:10 Speaker 06 Yes, and I really had good people. They took me in. They were rich people. Okay.
4:19 Speaker 01 And this was in France?
4:20 Speaker 06 Yes, it was outside France, you know, small town. I've forgotten the name of. And I had a maid because they had only one son and he was a baker. Boiled a good cakes he brought home. And I really should have been happy there, but I wasn't. Because she wouldn't let me go see my friends, surrounding friends, you know. She wanted me to be more with her friends. And I got more and more homesick and my mom came and visit.
5:02 Speaker 06 And everything was still okay then, but then they mentioned you adopt me. That was it. I saved my money up. I had allowance every week from them. And one day I went on the train and I went home. I left everything behind.
5:22 Speaker 02 So this is you going from France back to Germany during this time?
5:25 Speaker 01 Okay, because they, they said they wanted to adopt you, right?
5:29 Speaker 06 Yeah, they wanted to adopt me and that scared me. So I took off.
5:34 Speaker 02 Because you were at six years old at this time?
5:36 Speaker 06 No, I was little older, maybe eight, nine, I would say, you know.
5:43 Speaker 02 And then what time did you separate from your parents? At eight or nine is when they separated you from, and moved you to France from your parents?
5:52 Speaker 06 Yeah, and I didn't stay too long in France. I would say my, maybe six, eight months.
6:00 Speaker 02 Okay.
6:00 Speaker 06 And then I went back home.
6:02 Speaker 02 But still at eight, that's wild.
6:04 Speaker 06 And my mom was so mad.
6:07 Speaker 01 And you, you went back alone?
6:10 Speaker 06 Yeah.
6:10 Speaker 01 Yeah, so alone at, from France to Germany alone?
6:15 Speaker 06 Alone.
6:16 Speaker 02 And you bought a ticket by yourself? You saved up?
6:18 Speaker 06 Yes. I was every day on the train station, I said, I wanna go home, but I don't have enough money, you know? So I said, I'm gonna save all my money, all my allowance. And one day, I did it. I just went. So like I said-
6:39 Speaker 01 Most eight-year-olds today don't know how to order a pizza on the phone.
6:42 Speaker 06 That's true.
6:44 Speaker 02 I take my nine-year-old to the bus, cuz I don't think he can make it. And that's two blocks away.
6:52 Speaker 06 Even when I went home, she was pretty upset, my mom. And I said, "Don't send me back, please, you know? I don't wanna go back. I wanna be with you." So that was number one. Then, they were bombing Menheim for the first time. And we had, at the time, we had a room in the underground bunker.
7:24 Speaker 06 Every night, we spent the night there.
7:27 Speaker 02 Okay.
7:27 Speaker 06 Yeah. Daytime, we went home. But sometimes, the siren went off, so we go to different cellars, you know, whatever we were close by. And that one day, we were looking for food, because we were rationed at the time.
7:49 Speaker 06 And we had about half a little bread a week, you know? Yeah? We even eat, I hate to say that, horse meat. It was pretty good at the time.
8:02 Speaker 06 And we had nothing, right?
8:04 Speaker 02 Meat's meat.
8:06 Speaker 01 If you've ever had Taco Bell, then you've had it too.
8:08 Speaker 02 Yeah.
8:10 Speaker 06 So, um, where was I?
8:14 Speaker 01 I said, uh, the bunkers.
8:16 Speaker 06 Yeah.
8:17 Speaker 02 This is 1940-ish, or-
8:20 Speaker 06 Oh, don't ask me for this.
8:21 Speaker 02 Oh, you're good, girl. You're good.
8:23 Speaker 06 I remember the years.
8:24 Speaker 01 It's alright.
8:27 Speaker 01 I don't- Early 40s, I would say.
8:28 Speaker 06 Yeah. I don't know, 100% the H-E, you know?
8:32 Speaker 02 Yeah, you're good.
8:33 Speaker 06 But pretty close. So, that day-
8:39 Speaker 06 We went to bunker and there was a bomb. Matter of fact, one of the bombs hit the bunker. But it didn't injure nobody.
8:48 Speaker 02 Okay.
8:48 Speaker 06 And it was pretty close, but it was okay. And I don't know if I should tell you that story. We had bunk beds, two, four, six bunk beds in that room. There was my mother on the bottom. I was on the second. My brother was right on the second one, on the other one. And friends of ours were with us. They were good friends. And we always left the door open, but like this, so we get little light into the room. And I-
9:27 Speaker 02 And that's the door to like the outside hallway in the bunker or to the-
9:31 Speaker 06 Yeah, there was light on the outside.
9:33 Speaker 02 Because this is underground. This is no light. It's just pitch black if that door is closed.
9:38 Speaker 06 No, there was light.
9:39 Speaker 02 Okay, there is light, okay.
9:40 Speaker 06 Yeah. But because we didn't want to sleep with the light on, we left the door open to get light from the hallway. So I woke up. You ever smelled somebody that smokes a lot? I mean-
9:54 Speaker 02 Connor, yeah Connor, yeah.
9:56 Speaker 06 No. What can I do? I mean, heavy.
10:02 Speaker 02 Connor.
10:04 Speaker 06 I smoke a lot of cigarettes online, sorry. And I woke up and there was a tall guy standing right in front of my bed. I was uncovered, okay? I had pajamas on though. And I thought, I was scared. Of course, I was a young girl, you know? And I didn't want to scream, so I just moved back from the bed to the wall. And I tried to wake my brother up. And my brother said, ah, there she goes again. She got a nightmare, because I did have nightmares sometimes, you know, from the-
10:47 Speaker 06 And I said, please, I beg somebody. No, he meant to close the door. See, and it was pitch black. And that's what really scared me. And I said, please, somebody get up and turn the light on. There's somebody in here, you know? Like I said, my brother says she's got nightmares. But the lady that we know, she's, I get up here, she says, I turn the light on. So he was laying on a bench in the room, right? Like he was sleeping, but he wasn't sleeping, you know, I know better.
11:28 Speaker 06 And they called the, what they called the manager from the undercover bunker and the preacher. And they came in and they say, sir, you don't have a place to stay or you, you need, you know? He wouldn't answer, like he was sound asleep. I said, he's not sleeping. He was just standing here, you know? And so my dad, the guys, they were across the hall, my dad and other guys. They came over and they say, they got then shook him, you know, and says, look,
12:10 Speaker 06 you need some places to stay or what is it, you know? And all of a sudden he jumped up and he ran out of the room. And he said something in a different language. We didn't know what it was. But he had a German uniform on, but it was not complete. He only had a jacket on, you see?
12:32 Speaker 03 Ah.
12:33 Speaker 06 And even right, we were, we were right next to the exit and the entrance. He took off and we never seen him again, you know?
12:43 Speaker 03 Who do you think he was, Brandon? Like a deserter?
12:48 Speaker 01 The way I'd heard the story before, I would have assumed deserter, but the other language was, it's interesting. I don't, I don't really.
12:54 Speaker 06 I don't know what, like, people cussing us out or some, you know, something like this.
12:59 Speaker 01 You had no idea what language? You just, you knew it was different?
13:03 Speaker 06 He was kind of, yeah. He was not sure.
13:06 Speaker 02 And he just snuck, snuck in in the middle of the night? And thankfully, was it the smell that woke you up?
13:12 Speaker 06 Yeah. He had a real bad smell, like real heavy smoker and maybe drinking, who knows? But in a way, from that day on, they closed the doors in the bunker. So nobody could go in and out, you know, after a certain time.
13:27 Speaker 01 If only the Buffalo Public School System could take some notes.
13:30 Speaker 02 It was Connor, dude.
13:32 Speaker 03 I really don't like the comparisons being made between me and this predator.
13:40 Speaker 02 But you look great for your age.
13:45 Speaker 02 That would have been terrifying, especially when you're eight to 10 years old at that time.
13:50 Speaker 06 Maybe a little older, maybe 10.
13:52 Speaker 02 That's still.
13:54 Speaker 01 Cause you would have been, so if you were born in 32, you would have been 12 to 13 when the war ended?
14:00 Speaker 06 I think I was almost 50, 14.
14:04 Speaker 01 14, okay.
14:05 Speaker 06 Yeah.
14:06 Speaker 01 Gotcha.
14:06 Speaker 06 Yeah.
14:06 Speaker 01 So that, within that time span?
14:08 Speaker 06 Right.
14:10 Speaker 02 And you'd go down there, so in that, it was the evening, so during the day you would be up and then?
14:15 Speaker 06 We'd be home, you know, when the sirens went off, we said, I was going to which place? Depends if we were out looking for food, of course. My mom and I, we used to go to the farmers and trade the clothes or cheat stuff, you know, for food. Cause we didn't have enough food, you know? And, well, anyway, my brother and I, we used to look if our house was still standing, you know? So we walked home, of course, looking, the houses were burning, you know? That nothing came down on us. And we came to this giant hole, I'll never forget that.
15:01 Speaker 06 Giant hole. Now, so what's this? And the closer we got, we seen that big bomb, I mean, big one. That was not exploded, you see? I don't know what they say in English, but we say blind ganger, you know? It didn't explode it.
15:19 Speaker 02 Unexploded ordinance.
15:20 Speaker 06 And my brother, smart brother, he was only a year older than I. He said, don't move. And I was freezing there. What do you want me to do? You know? He took off. He left me standing there.
15:35 Speaker 03 Dude, all I'm saying is me and my friends would have thrown rocks at it.
15:40 Speaker 06 Dink, dink.
15:41 Speaker 03 Let's see what happens.
15:42 Speaker 01 Why do women live longer than men?
15:45 Speaker 02 Let's light this candle.
15:47 Speaker 05 Hey Brandon, you ever wake up in your bed feeling like you just fought in a war? Walk in.
15:54 Speaker 01 Yeah, what do you ask?
15:55 Speaker 05 You ever wake up and feel like you slept in a sauna?
15:57 Speaker 01 Yeah, I believe that's called night sweats.
15:59 Speaker 05 Me, you got a trash mattress, Brandon.
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16:47 Speaker 05 Oh, yeah. And you know what, brother? They don't just sell mattresses. They have pieces, pillows, sheets, the whole empanada. Just pick your mattress and grab a bundle.
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17:20 Speaker 06 And I said, why did you do that? I was tiptoeing backwards, you know.
17:25 Speaker 02 Yeah.
17:27 Speaker 06 He says, I tried to get help. I say, yeah, you tell me to stop. But anyway.
17:34 Speaker 02 That's a funny explanation.
17:36 Speaker 06 Yeah, so.
17:38 Speaker 02 That big bomb just sitting in the middle of the road, especially at that age.
17:42 Speaker 06 Yeah, that was.
17:46 Speaker 02 Well, how, how was your view at that time? Like with, what was your understanding at that age of what's going on? Like you understood there was a war going on.
17:55 Speaker 06 Yeah.
17:56 Speaker 02 But was it just like, we're civilians, we're scared, we're just trying to get out of the war?
18:01 Speaker 06 My mind, well, it was how long is it gonna be? When is it over? Right? That's what I always said. But it was long, long, long.
18:11 Speaker 06 In a way, that day. Then my mom got keine Westlasse gehe. She says, the thron bombs now in our city, they get closer and closer, it get more and more. You know? So she says, you need to go to our friends in the Black Forest. We had friends in the Black Forest. And it was safe there, there didn't bomb there, you know? Now, the mom don't send me away again, you know? I didn't wanna go. But meanwhile, before she sent me anyway.
18:52 Speaker 06 We went to, like I said, looking where we get some food. And the sirens went off and say, it's too late to go to a bunker where we want, we want a different place. Let's go home. I said, Mom, I'm hungry, you know? Let's get something to eat. And we're going outside. And we did. And there was another funny story. It was on the 10th of May, the day before my birthday. I said, oh, they're sending me a birthday gift early.
19:28 Speaker 02 There's that dark humor. Yeah, I love it.
19:32 Speaker 02 It's generations deep.
19:36 Speaker 06 And, well, we made it through this one. But afterwards, we found out that cellar we used to go to when we were
19:48 Speaker 06 out, that supposed to be bomb booth, okay? So they said.
19:56 Speaker 06 And now, we found out the bomb that came from the back into the cellar and killed so many people.
20:08 Speaker 06 And we went there, of course, terrified, I remember that. When then I found that baby, you know, and I grabbed that baby and I cleaned the sand and the dirt and everything out, you know? And the mother screaming for her babies. She had half of her face missing. I seen that like yesterday. And the baby died in my arms, you know? But, there were no doctors, you know? Hospitals, nothing, everything was a mess. So we had to tell the lady, we okay, we got your baby, you know?
20:50 Speaker 06 Just to get her calm down, you know? And the rest of the bodies, they brought them to school areas or restaurants and they lined them up and covered them, you know? And my brother was always gone, my dad. They had to help, help them, stupid Nazis to build a wall. By the water, we lived right by the water, you see? And they were putting like a safety wall or something, I don't know. So they were always gone. So we didn't know what happened to them.
21:30 Speaker 06 So we looked at everybody, hoping we don't find them, you know? And...
21:41 Speaker 06 Thank you so much. It's okay. And then it was, everything was filled up. They put the bodies up in trucks, just, you know, put them up in trucks. We don't know where they went or what. And now, in a way, another day, another alarm, right? So we went back to, I think it was our cellar, yeah. And we heard commotions. There were, an English plane was shut down over our city.
22:21 Speaker 06 And the parachute, the guy came down in our street, you know, where we live. And of course, some people, oh, there's one of them. You know how it was, it was war.
22:33 Speaker 01 Do you remember if it was American or British or who it was?
22:37 Speaker 06 It was not Americans.
22:38 Speaker 01 It was British?
22:39 Speaker 06 The English came in first, the English. And so my mom, she was more outspoken than I am. But she went over there and she said, you leave that young man alone. You know, she said, I got a son. And he's in Africa in El Alamein.
23:01 Speaker 01 Yeah.
23:02 Speaker 06 He got prisoner in El Alamein and then shipped to the States, right? And she tried to protect that young, and there were two SS guys right there. And they arrested my mom. They said, she's a country traitor. She was taken to the, I don't know where they were, you know, their offices or whatever. And they put the sign out with other people that she was a country traitor.
23:38 Speaker 06 But I'm jumping ahead there because meanwhile there were more stuff going on me at back traffic.
23:46 Speaker 01 Absolutely, but to finish that out real quick, I think what, and correct me if I get any of this wrong, because I've, this is over the course of years here in, you know, stories, some of them secondhand, but they said that they were, I was told that they were about to ship her off to a concentration camp.
24:01 Speaker 06 Right.
24:02 Speaker 01 And then they were liberated.
24:04 Speaker 06 That's why I jumped ahead, I just thought about it because the English, they came, that's why they didn't have time to ship my mom out, see, because the.
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24:42 Speaker 06 Nazi was scattering, they took off, you know, that's a little bit too far. Because I forgot the second trip to the Black Forest.
24:55 Speaker 01 What is the Black Forest?
24:57 Speaker 06 It's an area close to Switzerland.
25:01 Speaker 01 Okay.
25:02 Speaker 06 And they lived there, but they were good friends of ours, they moved there. And I felt good there because I knew them, you know.
25:12 Speaker 01 A town inside a forest, or is it just a city?
25:16 Speaker 06 It's a region. No, it's a little city.
25:18 Speaker 01 Oh.
25:19 Speaker 06 Called Black Forest.
25:20 Speaker 01 Okay.
25:21 Speaker 06 And so I went to school there, you know, and.
25:29 Speaker 06 Then my mom came to visit again. And she got sick. So.
25:38 Speaker 01 The Black Forest.
25:39 Speaker 02 Oh, okay.
25:40 Speaker 06 It's real pretty.
25:41 Speaker 02 Beautiful. Oh my God, yeah.
25:43 Speaker 06 It's real pretty.
25:44 Speaker 02 Gorgeous.
25:45 Speaker 06 Yeah. So my mom got sick. She had a gallbladder attack. And they didn't have a doctor in that little town, you know. So they took her, but I would say,
26:03 Speaker 06 I don't know, about four miles away to the hospital.
26:10 Speaker 06 She had surgery there.
26:13 Speaker 06 And I walked, I think, I can't do, I couldn't do it again. I don't think I could. I walked through the woods by myself with smelling the boars. You know what a boar is?
26:31 Speaker 02 The big pigs?
26:32 Speaker 06 Pretty bad animal, you know.
26:34 Speaker 02 Yeah, yeah, boars do, yeah. Very aggressive.
26:37 Speaker 06 And when I smelled them, I was going just looking, you know, and see which tree can I climb, you know.
26:46 Speaker 01 Just walking through the Black Forest alone as a child.
26:48 Speaker 06 Alone that time. My shoes, I had holes in. Honestly, by the time I got to that hospital.
26:56 Speaker 01 You said every time you smelled a boar, you were ready to climb a tree?
26:59 Speaker 06 Yeah, yeah.
27:00 Speaker 02 And this is like 12 years old?
27:03 Speaker 01 Probably younger.
27:04 Speaker 06 Yeah, yeah.
27:06 Speaker 06 In a way, they were all nice in the hospital. They let me stay there because my mom, you know, and till she could travel. And then we took her back to the friends of ours, you know, but by train. And she stayed till she felt better. And then she said, honey, I gotta go home. That's your partner, that's her husband, you know. So she left. I said, okay. It was hard thinking she wasn't completely healed, you know.
27:45 Speaker 06 But I stayed a while and then I said, no, I gotta go home. You know, I gotta take care of her. And I did it again. I saved my money and I went on the train, hidden from Mannheim. And on the way to Mannheim, I heard sirens in the distance. And the train stopped and they said, everybody out. Go to the woods, there were a lot of woods, you know. Because they used to target the butchers, the trains, you know, all this.
28:25 Speaker 02 So all the infrastructure that they could damage.
28:27 Speaker 06 Yeah, yeah. So we had to stay there for a while till we got the clear to go back, you know. So by the time I reached Mannheim, we couldn't go into the, what do they call it? Barnhop, you know.
28:44 Speaker 02 Train station.
28:45 Speaker 06 Yes, the train station because they was bombed. So I had to have a mile ladder to walk, you know, to go home. And I was glad I went home because mom's wounds didn't look good, you know, they were infected. So I had to take care of my mom, clean the wounds and just take care of her, you know. And then one day, the sirens went off again. So I said, Mom, where are we going now? We don't wanna go to our cellar, it's getting pretty bad, you know, the bombing a lot lately. So I said, there's a underground bunker across the bridge, you know.
29:30 Speaker 06 We lived right by the Neckar River. And we thought we could make it good, but it was kinda late. So half of the bridge, my mom walked down, she couldn't walk. She said, I can't walk no more. I said, you have to, you got to get up because we gotta make it, you know.
29:52 Speaker 02 You're pushing your mom, so you're trying to, you're motivating her to do.
29:56 Speaker 06 And I tried to pull up, nobody helps you, they all run for their lives, you know. And we finally made it, but I seen already the bombs, you know.
30:09 Speaker 06 And it seems like I'll never forget it going down the steps with my mom. And like, close the door, like they're coming right at us, you know, the sound of it and all this.
30:23 Speaker 06 So that went okay, I guess.
30:27 Speaker 06 And I already told you the story with that young man coming down and, you know.
30:37 Speaker 06 So.
30:37 Speaker 01 Well, while we're there, we kind of, if we could backtrack even a little bit more, because you mentioned in that story that your mom was saying, look, I have a son who was captured as well.
30:48 Speaker 06 Exactly.
30:48 Speaker 01 I want you to treat him well because I want my son to be treated well.
30:52 Speaker 06 Right.
30:52 Speaker 01 Can we talk a little bit about your brother?
30:54 Speaker 06 Oh, my brother, he was drafted to the army.
30:57 Speaker 01 What was his name?
30:58 Speaker 06 He was drafted.
30:59 Speaker 01 What was his name?
31:01 Speaker 06 Hans.
31:01 Speaker 01 Hans.
31:02 Speaker 06 Yeah.
31:02 Speaker 01 It was Hans and Willie, right?
31:04 Speaker 06 Willie, yeah. He was my oldest brother. He was 10 years. You don't know. Hey, guys, who's gonna get the next triple double in the WNBA?
31:12 Speaker 01 Is it Katelyn Clark? None of us watch that.
31:14 The Fat Electrician? It's Katelyn Clark, for sure.
31:17 Speaker 01 I don't know what the f any of those letters mean.
31:19 The Fat Electrician? Just use the Hall of Fame app. It's got all the data on everything, all the analytics.
31:24 Speaker 02 What's WNBA?
31:26 Speaker 01 It's what they play in hell.
31:29 The Fat Electrician? It's like basketball, but nobody can dunk.
31:31 Speaker 01 I can't wait to bet on layup after layup after layup.
31:34 The Fat Electrician? Check the app. Can I bet on how many rebounds Angel Reese gets that are from her own missed layups? Is there a parlay for that?
31:40 Speaker 01 Wait, the Hall of Fame app, was that the one that was started by two Ivy League grads? This is not your buddy's group chat full of hot takes. It's a full analytics engine. And it's built for the average, everyday sports fan, so it's easy and intuitive to use. No big words that are hard to pronounce.
31:54 The Fat Electrician? Well, there's MLB, NBA, NFL, Hall of Fame has all the analytics. And with over 6,000 five-star reviews, it's safe to say that HOF has already helped a lot of people.
32:03 Speaker 01 Unlike my HOA, who I am actively fighting with. Fuck you, Betty.
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32:22 Speaker 01 Just download the HOF app on iOS or Android, use the code UNSUB, and you're all set.
32:27 Speaker 02 My senior.
32:29 Speaker 06 Yeah, and like I said, he was in Africa and then he got captured in El Alamein. And.
32:38 Speaker 01 So he fought under Rommel with the North African campaign until.
32:43 Speaker 06 And first he came to the States. I forgot where he was, but he came to the States and he didn't have it as good, you know, in person. But then he got transferred to England.
33:02 Speaker 06 And he had a mate. He was striving for the higher colonel or mayor, whatever he was, you know, he was a striver. He loved it. He had a mate.
33:16 Speaker 02 Way better than war.
33:18 Speaker 01 Were you allowed to talk to him at all, like any letters or correspondence? Okay.
33:22 Speaker 06 Well, when he was in Africa, we did before he got captured.
33:27 Speaker 01 Right.
33:27 Speaker 06 You know, that little bit we got, I'll never forget it. We always put a little bit of our food, not food, but candy or chocolate or something in his package. And we sent him real thin scarves because of the sandstorms they had, you know.
33:46 Speaker 02 Oh, yeah.
33:48 Speaker 01 You know.
33:50 Speaker 02 I know.
33:51 Speaker 06 They had sandstorms, yeah. Anyway.
33:58 Speaker 06 The other story was, where were we?
34:03 Speaker 01 So we were, uh, we were just talking about your brother being captured and then driving for the Colonel and whatnot.
34:08 Speaker 06 Right. And, uh, well, little later on, like I said, my, uh, dad were never there, my brother were never there. It was just me and my mom.
34:21 Speaker 01 They were off doing labor? They were off being forced to do labor?
34:25 Speaker 06 Yes, they were forced to. And, uh, so we had to look out for ourselves, you know?
34:32 Speaker 01 Cause your, your father was a lot older, right?
34:34 Speaker 06 Yes. Twenty-five years older than my mom.
34:40 Speaker 02 Oh, okay.
34:41 Speaker 01 Cause, no, I'm recounting a little bit of family history that I think I know about. Please tell me if I'm wrong.
34:46 Speaker 06 No, you're not.
34:47 Speaker 01 I think that, so he was, uh, he was kind of a little on the older side during World War I, but he was part of like the, the militia that they used for like, not the young men, but it was called the, the Lüngewer, which was basically like a militia of like older people that they won't send to the front lines, but still like ready to fight.
35:06 Speaker 02 Gotcha. So they're reserves, army, like army reserves almost.
35:10 Speaker 01 Do you remember when your, when your father was born? What year?
35:14 Speaker 06 You had, uh?
35:17 Speaker 01 Sorry, I know there was, I'm not putting you on the spot, but you said he was 25 years older than your mom.
35:22 Speaker 06 Okay, my mom were born in 01.
35:24 Speaker 01 Okay, so he would have born, he would have been born in the 1870s?
35:28 Speaker 02 Yeah, 1876, 1875.
35:31 Speaker 06 Yeah, he was.
35:33 Speaker 01 And so at this point in the war, he would be in his 70s?
35:35 Speaker 06 No, he was young, I think he was in.
35:39 Speaker 01 You think? Okay.
35:41 Speaker 06 Yeah.
35:42 Speaker 01 But still not a, not a spry young man.
35:43 Speaker 06 No. But, uh, oh goodness, then, yeah, like I said, my mom were there, whole person, there was still the energy I got them all, yeah. And, uh, my dad came finally home and, uh...
36:05 Speaker 06 We decide we'll go to the bunker that's closer to us. Because it was too far to go. Because you couldn't wait the bomb. You know, you can't say wait till we get there. It's impossible. So we went to the bunker by the water. That's the upright bunker, the tall one. You know, supposed to be bomb safe. So me and my brother, me and my dad, we were going and get some food. And mom were already in the bunker. And my brother, I don't know where he was. So we went home, we got food.
36:48 Speaker 06 And on the way to the riverside, we heard them cannons, you heard the, you know.
36:57 Speaker 01 Like artillery.
36:58 Speaker 06 Yeah, you can hear and you don't know where it hits. And one of them came, went in and out. And we went into the doorway, you know, just covered ourselves. But we had to cross the field to get to the bunker. And the English were across the river already by then, you see. So they were shooting guns and everything. So we were calling on the floor, on the ground, get into the bunker, you know. And they were shooting, I just. We made it somehow. And they already closed the bunker, you know.
37:42 Speaker 06 And we were banging on them steel doors, open the doors. We need to get in, you know. Finally, they decided it was us, you know. And we made it in. But there was really, really scared, really scared.
38:00 Speaker 01 Being shot at is terrifying.
38:03 Speaker 06 Totally. So. What else we can?
38:10 Speaker 01 Well, there was, there was one story I found really interesting too about your younger brother, which would have been Willie.
38:18 Speaker 01 About him surrendering to the British?
38:21 Speaker 06 Oh, afterwards, okay. Then the British came across. Before they came across, they were right across the river. Okay, then we went to the bunker, my dad and I. And my youngest brother, we didn't know that till afterwards, you know, he was always gone. The mayor from a city, two other gentlemen and my brother, for some reason, they went in the boat. And they went across the river. Two with the white flag, of course. And to give the city to...
39:01 Speaker 01 Surrender, surrender.
39:05 Speaker 06 And my brother forgot he had a gun, I mean, a knife in his side pocket, you know. And just before he got all the way across, he realized that. So he grabbed the knife and let it go in the water.
39:20 Speaker 03 Dang, I bet you missed that one, don't you, Brandon?
39:22 Speaker 01 Right.
39:23 Speaker 03 A knife? That would have been kind of cool.
39:26 Speaker 01 That would have been a cool heirloom.
39:27 Speaker 03 Yeah.
39:28 Speaker 01 But the, yeah, we've done that many a times at TSA. For the same, for the same reason.
39:34 Speaker 03 Yeah, tossed a couple of knives at the airport.
39:37 Speaker 01 Yeah.
39:39 Speaker 06 And the Germans, of course, they disappeared from the riverfront, of course, right? Or my mom would have been shipped out, but she was in a time where she was just lucky, you know?
39:52 Speaker 01 Yeah.
39:53 Speaker 06 I forgot to tell you the story. When I was, I was back, I was maybe
40:02 Speaker 06 eight years old, something like this. Where I thought, what is going on? You know, they were getting people out of their apartments. And a lot of Jews had stores and everything. I said, what's going on, you know, we didn't know what was going on. So they told the people, they're gonna send the Jews to a new colony where all the Jews get together, their own, you know.
40:36 Speaker 01 Little Jew colony.
40:37 Speaker 06 Yes. And while they were gone, that's my clock.
40:43 Speaker 01 Means it's six o'clock.
40:44 Speaker 06 Yeah.
40:46 Speaker 06 And while they were gone, they burned everything. I remember they torn furniture out of the windows. You know, it was terrible. There was a sight I never forget either. You know, they shipped them out and we didn't know where they were going.
41:03 Speaker 01 At eight years old, you have no concept for what's going on?
41:06 Speaker 06 You know?
41:07 Speaker 02 You're just seeing stuff thrown out one day.
41:09 Speaker 06 We did not heard about the concentration camps till the war was over. Honestly, we didn't know. And I couldn't believe it. Matter of fact, later on, when I met your Oprah, we went to a movie, the first movie we went, they showed concentration camps and all this. I was shocked. I was shocked and I said, and my mom would have been there too, you know? After all you go through.
41:51 Speaker 06 It was miserable. It was not a good childhood, put it this way, you know?
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42:31 Speaker 06 And even my mom and my dad, I shouldn't say that, but 25 years is too much different in a marriage, you know? It was good in the beginning because she was young, he was still in his 50s, you know, it was okay.
42:55 Speaker 06 But laying it on is when it started, you know, because my mom wanted a new dress laying it on and, you know, she wanted to look good. My dad wore chillas. It's crazy. Because my mom were a good-looking woman, you know. So there were always fights and where was I? Under the table, you know. So from small kid, it was, you know, we didn't have no gratulations or stuff like that, you know.
43:33 Speaker 03 When did you make your way to the United States?
43:38 Speaker 06 Well, I was, I was eighteen and a half when I met her dad.
43:47 Speaker 01 All this time in Germany and she shacks up with the first Texan she meets.
43:54 Speaker 03 You met a Texan boy?
43:56 Speaker 01 Yeah.
43:57 Speaker 06 Yeah, he was from Laredo.
44:00 Speaker 03 Laredo? Where did you meet him at?
44:02 Speaker 06 Frey, really. You know where Frey is?
44:06 Speaker 01 It's like Dilly?
44:07 Speaker 06 Oh, Dilly.
44:08 Speaker 01 Yeah. Frey County.
44:10 Speaker 03 How did you meet a Texan boy?
44:13 Speaker 06 Well, my brother and I, we went to, what do you call it? Gestags, we called it, okay, west one. And they started first, the guy was playing the harmonica.
44:28 Speaker 03 Accordion?
44:28 Speaker 01 Accordion.
44:29 Speaker 06 Accordion. And we go there on a Saturday, you know. But my brother didn't let me go alone. I was almost nineteen.
44:39 Speaker 01 It's a protective brother.
44:40 Speaker 06 Yeah. And I met really my husband's friend first. You know, they were all in the same company. And he was a darn good-looking guy, I tell you. But he was, he likes to fight. When there were a fight going on in the place, he was involved and I didn't like that, you see. So I said, no, that's not the guy for me. And one day, he brought that with him. And now.
45:21 Speaker 06 We were talking when he was gone, you know, and I said, "Yeah, I know he want me to be his girlfriend, but I don't like it when somebody get involved in somebody else's fights," you know? And he said, "Yeah, he's kind of fighter," you know, we were talking. He said, "Well, you want go movie with me next week?"
45:42 Speaker 02 He slid in and DMs.
45:46 Speaker 03 She would have hated us.
45:49 Speaker 01 Like, "He likes to fight," and we're just all like...
45:54 Speaker 02 "Want to go see a movie, though?"
45:56 Speaker 01 That's funny.
45:59 Speaker 02 What movie did he take you to?
46:01 Speaker 06 You know, I don't remember. I think the first movie, one of the movie from the concentration camp. I believe so. It could be.
46:10 Speaker 01 It's a hell of a thing for a first date.
46:12 Speaker 02 I know.
46:12 Speaker 01 A little heavy. Harsh first date. "Love to take you on a date. How about Schindler's List?"
46:19 Speaker 06 Do what?
46:22 Speaker 01 Oh, yeah, he didn't speak German at the time.
46:24 Speaker 02 Oh.
46:25 Speaker 06 No. I didn't speak English.
46:27 Speaker 02 Oh, my God.
46:28 Speaker 01 Yeah, yeah.
46:29 Speaker 03 Were you guys using hand signals to talk to each other?
46:33 Speaker 06 No.
46:34 Speaker 01 Pointed cinema?
46:39 Speaker 01 That guy?
46:41 Speaker 01 No good.
46:43 Speaker 06 Yeah, so I said, "Okay, I go to English school," you know?
46:48 Speaker 02 Yeah.
46:49 Speaker 06 And I did for a couple of weeks. And every time I came home and I learned something, and he said, "What did you say?" I couldn't understand.
47:01 Speaker 03 So, wait, wait, you, you were living with him?
47:04 Speaker 06 No.
47:04 Speaker 03 Oh, okay.
47:05 Speaker 06 No.
47:06 Speaker 03 I thought you said you came home.
47:08 Speaker 06 To my mom's side.
47:09 Speaker 03 Oh, okay.
47:11 Speaker 01 Hey, Brandon. You know what I can tell you about Surf Shark, brother? We are not doing this bit again. What bit are you talking about? Go ahead, Eli. What, what is Surf Shark? It's a VPN, Brandon. Oh, that's what the porn people use, right? And the servers offer the best speeds around. By default. It's easy to un-
47:34 Speaker 07 And you can run unlimited uses on a single subscription.
47:39 Speaker 01 Did you know you can overcome location-based price discrimination on plane tickets and car rentals by changing your VPN location? For real? Yeah, no, no, I didn't even know that. It's always a good sign in the ad when that happens. I genuinely didn't know that, but that's really good to know. Surfshark. Surfshark. Plus, you can be safe on public Wi-Fi because Surfshark encrypts your data, making it useless for anybody who steals it. Again, very important.
48:04 Speaker 07 Identity theft is not a joke, brother. Encryption ciphers scrambles that data so no one can make sense of it. Kind of like my thoughts. It's so scrambled, nobody can make sense of it.
48:23 Speaker 07 It just sounds like the horny Kool-Aid Man.
48:25 The Fat Electrician? Head over to surfshark.com/ unsubscribe and use code unsub10 to get an additional four months of Surfshark VPN.
48:34 Speaker 01 That's surfshark.com/ unsubscribe using code unsub10.
48:39 Speaker 06 And he says, "I don't know what you're saying." And I said, "Why I go to school for?" You know? I stayed another week or so, and every time I come home, he says, "I don't know." It was a school English, and he just couldn't understand it, you know? And I said, "Forget it." So I quit, and I said, "Now you're gonna teach me," you know? It's amazing how much you can communicate when you have to.
49:09 Speaker 02 Oh, yeah.
49:09 Speaker 06 Isn't that true? Right?
49:12 Speaker 01 Depends on what you're communicating, I guess.
49:15 Speaker 01 Certain things go beyond words, I assume.
49:18 Speaker 03 I live with a Mexican opa. I don't understand half of what she's saying to me, but I understand it. I don't know the words, but I know what she's saying.
49:29 Speaker 01 She's even crazier because she speaks perfect English.
49:34 Speaker 02 She hits me with flip flops. She'll take her shoe off and she'll hit me with her shoe. Chocolates. The chocolates. There's one, oh, sorry.
49:43 Speaker 06 Yeah, I drove my husband crazy with TV. Every time we watch TV, I say, what she says, what she said. You know, I ask questions. That's how I learn. But by me tried to learn how to speak English.
50:02 Speaker 06 My kids never kept to German because, you know, I wanted to learn English. So I wanted him to keep speaking English. So I learned.
50:13 Speaker 02 First generation, it's.
50:15 Speaker 06 Oh, they understand words, you know. Especially the ones they're not supposed to say. That's the worst.
50:22 Speaker 02 Wow. Scheiße. Scheiße?
50:28 Speaker 06 Yeah, they learned the bad things first.
50:31 Speaker 02 You had, Brandon told a story during war that you went. There was a bomb, you were supposed to go into a different shelter. And then it got bombed, or someone was saying, come in. Oh, like a house. Yeah, come in the house, but then you didn't go in the house and then something happened to the house.
50:48 Speaker 06 Oh, the back of a house got bombed.
50:51 Speaker 02 Yeah, can you tell that story?
50:54 Speaker 06 Well, there was, when we checked, my brother and I, you know. The front were okay, then there is a, what they called it, between the back house. And this is not a garden, but a.
51:09 Speaker 02 A common area.
51:10 Speaker 06 Yeah. And that was bombed. And our apartment, we lived on the second floor. The wall, the wall was that much, we could look up to the third floor. It was just, you know, so we were lucky, didn't think, we're very lucky, I tell you.
51:33 Speaker 06 And I don't know, I have so much more, I know, but I can't.
51:39 Speaker 01 There is one that I thought was really funny that I heard of where I can't remember. I think it was your mother, but it was when the British came in and they busted into the house, you know, when they were first taking the city.
51:52 Speaker 03 They had some hot Texans with them.
51:55 Speaker 01 Apparently so.
51:56 Speaker 03 Very good looking Texans with them.
51:58 Speaker 06 You know, when the first English came in, right? We were on the second floor. I was in the corner, I was scared stiff, you know, because they were with guns, of course, and they came, looked at apartment, you know, and my mom tried to say, "Hi Hitler."
52:18 Speaker 03 Wrong crowd, wrong crowd. Were they just like?
52:22 Speaker 06 He did.
52:24 Speaker 01 How did they react?
52:26 Speaker 06 I think they didn't pay too much attention. They took all our jewelry, you know, and stuff, the English. And I thought I died when she did that. I said, "Mom, I hope they didn't hear you."
52:43 Speaker 06 But she was scared because she was taking, you know, and she thought, I don't know what she was thinking.
52:48 Speaker 01 Six years under.
52:50 Speaker 03 Yeah, she thought they were Nazi Germany type soldiers.
52:54 Speaker 06 They were scared. Oh my goodness.
52:57 Speaker 01 Yeah, you're just covering down.
52:58 Speaker 06 It was really scary.
52:59 Speaker 01 Yeah. How does your family feel about the Nazis coming to power?
53:04 Speaker 06 Do what?
53:05 Speaker 01 How does your family feel about the Nazis coming to power?
53:08 Speaker 06 You know, I'm gonna tell you something. I shouldn't say that, but I say it.
53:14 Speaker 06 First, Hitler was okay. When he first started, he was okay. We had food, everything, everything great.
53:23 Speaker 03 A good economy, like that's a very good economy.
53:25 Speaker 06 Everything was great. And then it started slowly, you know? He got greedy in other parts. Then he wanted to take other...
53:40 Speaker 06 Countries like France.
53:42 Speaker 03 Poland.
53:44 Speaker 06 You know, Poland and all this, he went slowly. He wanted more and more and more. He got greedy. And then when they went into Russia,
53:57 Speaker 06 that's when they made a big boom boom.
53:59 Speaker 03 Yeah.
53:59 Speaker 06 Okay. Because the German army were not prepared for that cold weather. You know, the Russians were used to it, you know. So most of these people, the soldiers died, they froze, you know. That's when he lost it. And.
54:18 Speaker 01 Well, so if if I recall correctly, there is a there was an instance where Hitler came to your town, right?
54:28 Speaker 06 He was, yeah.
54:28 Speaker 01 Yeah.
54:29 Speaker 06 He was in a.
54:29 Speaker 01 You you you got to see Hitler in person?
54:31 Speaker 06 Yeah.
54:32 Speaker 01 And what abouts was that? Was that that was before the war?
54:36 Speaker 01 Or was it?
54:36 Speaker 06 Yeah.
54:36 Speaker 01 Okay.
54:36 Speaker 06 No, I think it was. I don't quote me on that. I know. I remember all the people lined up and he came in the big Jeep or whatever it was, you know.
54:47 Speaker 01 A Volkswagen.
54:48 Speaker 03 Yes, it was a Volkswagen, yeah.
54:50 Speaker 02 Parade.
54:50 Speaker 06 Yeah. Kind of, yeah. And
54:56 Speaker 06 there, my mom could have got in trouble there. She couldn't keep her mouth shut, you know.
55:02 Speaker 06 I said, Mom.
55:03 Speaker 01 It seems to be a recurring theme.
55:06 Speaker 03 Generational.
55:09 Speaker 06 Oh gee, we told her, you better do what the others do or you'll be picked up, you know. That was before she got picked up, you know.
55:16 Speaker 01 Yeah.
55:17 Speaker 06 And.
55:18 Speaker 03 So you actually saw Hitler.
55:21 Speaker 06 Yeah.
55:22 Speaker 03 Two degrees of separation away from Hitler, Brandon Herrera.
55:26 Speaker 01 One degree for me, two degrees for you guys.
55:28 Speaker 03 Oh, dang it.
55:30 Speaker 01 Yeah. Six, so what is it? Six, seven degrees from Kevin Bacon?
55:34 Speaker 06 Your mom didn't salute them, did she? I remember one of the German army. I don't know if it was Gobels, Gobels or.
55:46 Speaker 01 Yeah, Kirbels.
55:47 Speaker 06 Or was the other one? One of them were good guy, you know.
55:53 Speaker 01 Is it Rommel?
55:54 Speaker 03 Got it.
55:55 Speaker 06 Rommel?
55:55 Speaker 03 What was it?
55:56 Speaker 06 Yeah, one of them.
55:57 Speaker 02 The good one.
55:57 Speaker 01 Rommel, because I think Rommel.
56:03 Speaker 01 Because I think Rommel was kind of one of those, he was just a really good general, but I don't think he was exactly pro Hitler.
56:09 Speaker 02 Connor, come here, come here, come here, step in for a second, I'll be over here.
56:13 Speaker 01 Hess, was it Hess?
56:15 Speaker 06 No.
56:16 Speaker 01 Oh.
56:16 Speaker 06 Was Scoppers, Scoppers or, or Rommel, one of the other.
56:22 Speaker 01 Yeah, I think Rommel was one of the ones that was not, he was, he was a good general and he loved Germany, but I don't think he was a Nazi necessarily.
56:29 Speaker 06 Yeah.
56:30 Speaker 01 He wasn't super down with the program. If I'm remembering correctly, this is all just, you know, history.
56:36 Speaker 06 He was really, really good too.
56:38 Speaker 01 There is one thing I thought was kind of funny that I wanted to bring up. Because it was a funny story, I remember we, we took a road trip at some point. And I, I played a song for you. And it was Erica.
56:51 Speaker 06 Yeah.
56:52 Speaker 01 That, that song from, from World War II, you know, the soldiers would sing it a bunch and such.
56:57 Speaker 06 I was there, I had a blue eye, I'm trying to see.
56:59 Speaker 01 Yep, yep. I was just, I was curious to know if you, to see if you knew it, and you started singing along with it, and I thought that was very funny, and, because the song's about, you know, a flower back in my hometown that is, you know, singing about a girl.
57:12 Speaker 06 Yeah.
57:12 Speaker 03 Are they singing about Rommel?
57:14 Speaker 01 Well, so funny enough, what, what was your story? You said you heard the, the soldiers walking through town singing the song, or you were a little, little girl?
57:23 Speaker 06 What do you mean?
57:23 Speaker 01 I ju, I remember you, you saying at one point that the, the soldiers would be walking through town and you hear them singing the song.
57:30 Speaker 06 Yeah.
57:30 Speaker 01 And as a little girl, you're like, that's me.
57:32 Speaker 06 Yeah.
57:35 Speaker 06 I said, they're singing my song.
57:39 Speaker 02 With your, your two brothers, were they, when they got, they got drafted, correct?
57:43 Speaker 06 Yes, only one got drafted.
57:46 Speaker 02 Okay.
57:46 Speaker 06 My oldest brother.
57:48 Speaker 02 Oldest brother got drafted, and then your other one?
57:50 Speaker 06 He had to do what the, what they call it, SS, the Nazi told him to do.
57:57 Speaker 01 The assassin.
57:59 Speaker 06 He had to help build the war, the war, by the river, all kinds of stuff, we never know what it meant.
58:05 Speaker 01 So it would have been like Gestapo?
58:06 Speaker 06 Yeah.
58:08 Speaker 01 Because I think you guys had to do like kind of Hitler Youth kind of stuff, right? Or he did at least.
58:14 Speaker 06 Yeah, yeah.
58:15 Speaker 02 Oh, so he was told, hey, you have to do that. Now, when he surrendered for the town, you said, right?
58:20 Speaker 06 Yeah.
58:21 Speaker 02 So they were just, that would be terrifying. So it's just like go across the river on a boat and then just hope they don't shoot you?
58:28 Speaker 06 Yep.
58:29 Speaker 01 Yeah.
58:30 Speaker 02 That's wild.
58:31 Speaker 06 Of course.
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58:59 Speaker 06 The Nazi were gone by then, you know.
59:03 Speaker 01 But the British who had just fought all the way to that point, they don't know that.
59:06 Speaker 02 Yeah.
59:07 Speaker 01 Yeah.
59:08 Speaker 06 That was, yeah.
59:11 Speaker 01 But I think he was later recognized by the city for that, wasn't he?
59:14 Speaker 06 Yeah. Matter of fact, I wish I had a letter from the governor, you know, what a brave and young man he was, you know, to do this, you know. I don't know if I ever find it, I have it somewhere, you know? And they even wrote to me while I was here, you know?
59:39 Speaker 01 In the US?
59:40 Speaker 06 Yeah.
59:41 Speaker 01 Oh, wow.
59:41 Speaker 06 Yeah. And my father, he wasn't scared of nothing.
59:48 Speaker 01 How did you feel about the British coming in? Were you afraid of them or?
59:51 Speaker 06 Of course I was afraid. And look, I was still a young kid, right? And the first black man I seen, I was hiding. I'd never seen a black man, you know, at the time. I never did. And we were scared of them, you know?
1:00:09 Speaker 01 You've just never seen any? Anything like it?
1:00:10 Speaker 06 No.
1:00:11 Speaker 02 Were you told they were gonna hurt you?
1:00:13 Speaker 06 Yeah, well, not your stories. They're gonna you, they're gonna do, you know, stuff like this. And then later on, the tea eyes, the English told Candace to the kids, you know, there was later. And there was something, I never forget seeing the black guy, he said, my god, how did he get black?
1:00:39 Speaker 02 Just confused.
1:00:45 Speaker 02 That would be wild if you've never seen that, you're like, what the fuck?
1:00:49 Speaker 01 Tell that, tell that to Netflix.
1:00:54 Speaker 02 So what, what age was it when you decided to move? Oh, you moved at eighteen to America, but what, what made you to decide?
1:01:02 Speaker 01 Or was it, did you move to America at eighteen or was it years later?
1:01:06 Speaker 06 No, no, it was, I was twenty, I think, twenty?
1:01:12 Speaker 01 So you'd been dating Oma for?
1:01:14 Speaker 06 Yeah.
1:01:14 Speaker 01 A year and a half?
1:01:15 Speaker 06 Yeah.
1:01:16 Speaker 01 So?
1:01:16 Speaker 06 Yeah.
1:01:17 Speaker 02 Oh, so he was over in?
1:01:19 Speaker 01 Yeah, he was in Germany.
1:01:20 Speaker 02 Oh, okay.
1:01:21 Speaker 01 He was occupational for us.
1:01:22 Speaker 06 Yeah.
1:01:22 Speaker 02 Mannheim was in West Germany?
1:01:28 Speaker 02 Yeah, well, you met an American, so you're in West Germany, right?
1:01:32 Speaker 03 Can I ask a question real quick?
1:01:34 Speaker 01 Yes.
1:01:34 Speaker 03 We call, we call her Oma.
1:01:37 Speaker 01 Oma, oma. Oma means grandmother and Oma is grandfather.
1:01:42 Speaker 03 Okay.
1:01:42 Speaker 06 Yeah.
1:01:43 Speaker 03 Okay, gotcha.
1:01:44 Speaker 06 Oma and Oma.
1:01:46 Speaker 02 Gotcha, so both, and did he bring you stateside together? Did you move to America together?
1:01:53 Speaker 06 Well, there was another big story.
1:01:57 Speaker 01 I may not know this one.
1:01:59 Speaker 03 Was it another one of his friends you'd like to find?
1:02:06 Speaker 01 My mom might not know this story. She just looked over and asked her mom for confirmation.
1:02:28 Speaker 07 Hi Eli.
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1:03:59 Speaker 06 We wanted to get married, right? I said, "I'm not going to States not being married." See? But he said he's gotta go to States first.
1:04:12 Speaker 06 Because of his father or some, I don't know, something. He probably was sick or some, I forgot. And I said, "Oh, there we go." He goes to States, he never come back, right? That's what she think. And I'm in the work and one day up work I got I was my husband you know he won my husband and I said I can't believe it you did come back he said of course I told you I'll be back you know
1:04:43 Speaker 01 Running out on a family in the 50s was so easy
1:04:48 Speaker 01 You could move a town over and change your name
1:04:51 Speaker 03 You didn't have a family yet that's adorable How long was that before he came back?
1:04:56 Speaker 06 He was in the States maybe
1:05:01 Speaker 06 I would say three weeks four weeks something
1:05:03 Speaker 01 Oh okay and then he just showed back up in Germany and knocked on your door? All right and tell the truth you waited on him?
1:05:10 Speaker 06 No I thought he'd never come back
1:05:15 Speaker 01 She found the fighters You started going back out with the fighter?
1:05:19 Speaker 06 No I didn't go out no
1:05:22 Speaker 03 But
1:05:30 Speaker 03 Omar was an attractive young lady
1:05:33 Speaker 01 I'm here I'm learning some family history today
1:05:38 Speaker 06 Yeah no I'm in the work and like I said he came and he surprised me at work And then he asked me you wanna marry me? And I looked at him I said I gotta think about it
1:05:53 Speaker 06 I was a bad girl
1:05:57 Speaker 06 I gotta admit I wasn't teeth set
1:06:05 Speaker 01 You get one sip of claw in this one
1:06:08 Speaker 03 Omar likes to party
1:06:11 Speaker 06 I told him I gotta think about it you know And he said why I told you you know
1:06:17 Speaker 03 He flew back out here he's like I'm here so?
1:06:22 Speaker 03 I don't care.
1:06:25 Speaker 06 You know what I did? He was on CQ. You know what CQ is?
1:06:30 Speaker 01 What is that?
1:06:34 Speaker 03 CQ is when you're on guard. CQ. Yeah, CQ. Yeah, you're on duty.
1:06:39 Speaker 06 He was there. So I used the towel around my face and I called his number. And he answered and I said, "Oh, I heard about you. You wanna go to movie with me?" I pretended I was somebody else, okay?
1:06:57 Speaker 01 1950, relationship testing.
1:07:00 Speaker 03 Yeah, trying to see if he's gonna go out with another girl.
1:07:03 Speaker 01 We are the same.
1:07:07 Speaker 01 We are the same people, just 75 years later.
1:07:11 Speaker 05 A girl sliding into like your DMs, like the best friend sliding into your DMs to see if you'll answer back. That's what Omar was doing.
1:07:22 Speaker 03 Did he say yes?
1:07:23 Speaker 06 No.
1:07:23 Speaker 03 Oh.
1:07:24 Speaker 06 He said, "Oh, I'm sorry. I'm taking..."
1:07:29 Speaker 03 Hung up. I know that was Eric. That German accent I know from anywhere.
1:07:37 Speaker 01 You'd never believe this. My girlfriend just called me through a towel.
1:07:41 Speaker 03 Oh, he threw me off.
1:07:44 Speaker 06 And then when he came home, he told me about it. He said, "Would you believe some girl called me?"
1:07:49 Speaker 01 Oh, he knew. He knew. He had...
1:07:53 Speaker 03 Some German girl called me. It sounded like she was talking through a towel.
1:07:58 Speaker 06 I said, "What? What did you say?"
1:08:01 Speaker 01 You told him the story later, right?
1:08:04 Speaker 03 How long after that did you accept his proposal? How long after that did you accept his marriage proposal?
1:08:11 Speaker 06 Oh, it was... Then I started lying to him, okay?
1:08:15 Speaker 03 Wait, what?
1:08:18 Speaker 06 I said, "I don't know." I said, "You don't know? I have a kid."
1:08:24 Speaker 03 She was testing him?
1:08:27 Speaker 02 What kind of tests are these? I have a child. I just came back to Germany for it.
1:08:34 Speaker 06 You know what he said? He said, "Really? You didn't tell me that in the beginning, you know? But can I see the kid then? When I got in trouble, I didn't have a kid."
1:08:46 Speaker 06 I finally had to admit that I was, you know, testing him. I finally told him, "Yeah, I'm marrying you."
1:08:53 Speaker 03 Oh my gosh.
1:08:54 Speaker 01 He's like...
1:08:55 Speaker 03 You put him through hell.
1:08:56 Speaker 06 Yes. Before that, she met several guys at the same corner. Oh, yeah.
1:09:01 Speaker 02 Wait, what?
1:09:02 Speaker 06 I was a teaser.
1:09:07 Speaker 02 Her excuse is, "I was a teaser." I love it.
1:09:11 Speaker 07 I'm just a girl.
1:09:15 Speaker 06 You have so many guys who wanted to go out with me, you know?
1:09:19 Speaker 03 Oma is a hottie.
1:09:21 Speaker 02 Well, she matched her nails to her shirt and her necklace. I know what you're doing.
1:09:26 Speaker 06 So I used to say, you know, good-looking guys, right? And I'd say, "Okay, I'll meet you over there on the..."
1:09:36 Speaker 06 Wherever, on the corner of the restaurant. And then I went over there and see if he really showed up. And then I go home.
1:09:44 Speaker 06 I didn't ever...
1:09:44 Speaker 03 Oh my god. You were breaking hearts.
1:09:48 Speaker 06 I did.
1:09:49 Speaker 03 You broke so many hearts, Oma.
1:09:50 Speaker 02 Just for fun?
1:09:52 Speaker 06 One day I got caught.
1:09:55 Speaker 02 Doing what?
1:09:57 Speaker 01 Like, just standing him up, essentially.
1:10:00 Speaker 06 Yes.
1:10:01 Speaker 02 That fool? In the restaurant across the street. She runs across the street. Why did she do this to all of us? We can see her.
1:10:11 Speaker 01 Look, that asshole did what he said he was gonna do.
1:10:16 Speaker 02 Now to wait for the one to come back from America and tell him I have a child.
1:10:22 Speaker 01 But was it Oma that caught you?
1:10:24 Speaker 06 Ruthless. Yes.
1:10:24 Speaker 01 Yeah. Oma was the one who caught you.
1:10:26 Speaker 02 No, he caught you.
1:10:27 Speaker 06 Yes, he did. Before we were my heart, okay?
1:10:31 Speaker 01 Well, I hope so.
1:10:33 Speaker 03 What was special about Oma? Out of all the hearts you broke.
1:10:38 Speaker 06 He was not a fighter like some of the guys I met. But the only thing, I was a good dancer when I was young, you know? He couldn't dance, he did it for nothing. So I had to teach him how to dance, you know? He stepped on my feet all the time.
1:11:01 Speaker 06 But he learned the poker and, you know, a couple of things. And if somebody, your daddy was very chill. When somebody asked me to dance, right? He was okay the first time, but he came back a second time.
1:11:18 Speaker 02 Now he's a fighter.
1:11:22 Speaker 06 She's not dancing right now, he said.
1:11:27 Speaker 06 He was very chill.
1:11:30 Speaker 02 And then you moved back to the United States after that? Or how long did you live in Germany?
1:11:38 Speaker 06 We left Germany, like you said, in the seventy-two, right? That was way later, you're talking about first. Oh, the first time. First time was fifty, uh, let me see, fifty.
1:11:57 Speaker 06 I'll say fifty-three. Fifty-three, fifty-four. Something like that. Yeah, around that. You know, we went to Oklahoma, you know? But meanwhile, we had a couple of kids, you know, after we were married. We got married, I was twenty-one.
1:12:17 Speaker 06 All grown up.
1:12:19 Speaker 02 Yeah, very grown up, everything.
1:12:21 Speaker 03 You have real kids, not the fake one. You told them that you had.
1:12:24 Speaker 06 Right.
1:12:27 Speaker 06 I had real kids.
1:12:31 Speaker 06 So my oldest, Henry and Robert, were born in Germany, okay? But we had problems getting married, you never believe why? We wanted to get married by church. My church were baptized in Germany.
1:12:53 Speaker 06 I wish I wouldn't marry us because he didn't have a baptism paper.
1:12:59 Speaker 01 So he's- Germany very big on papers.
1:13:01 Speaker 06 Yeah. And then I had to get a paper from the court that I'd never been in jail or in trouble, right?
1:13:11 Speaker 01 To marry you? To get married. That's wild.
1:13:13 Speaker 06 Yeah. So, he sent to Texas that he get a birth certificate, right? But we had a date set when we want to get married. Everything was arranged. And paper never came in, you know? So we got married in a way, but not in church. We got married in the-
1:13:38 Speaker 01 Courthouse?
1:13:39 Speaker 06 Yeah.
1:13:40 Speaker 01 In Germany?
1:13:41 Speaker 06 In Germany, yeah. And so we never got married by church, you know?
1:13:48 Speaker 03 So was he still on duty with the army in Germany? When you guys got married at the courthouse?
1:13:55 Speaker 06 Yeah.
1:13:55 Speaker 03 Okay.
1:13:57 Speaker 01 I think he stayed through, he was active duty with the military until after the Korean War.
1:14:04 Speaker 03 Ah, okay.
1:14:06 Speaker 06 But then,
1:14:09 Speaker 06 what I wanted to say, then,
1:14:13 Speaker 06 when he had to go back, right?
1:14:17 Speaker 06 I wasn't ready to go with him because my papers didn't, were all together from the courthouse, you know? And,
1:14:29 Speaker 06 so he went
1:14:32 Speaker 06 to the States and I stayed with the kids, two kids I had then. And talking about scared, I couldn't speak English. And-
1:14:45 Speaker 06 I had to go on a certain time. I had to go over to meet him. And I was tempted not to go, I'll be honest with you. I was scared to death, you know? And no. So I went in a way and.
1:15:01 Speaker 01 To a country whose language you don't speak.
1:15:03 Speaker 06 Right.
1:15:05 Speaker 01 Alone with two kids.
1:15:06 Speaker 06 I arrived in New York. Didn't know. He always told me, he said, if I cannot make it to pick you up in New York. Ask for the Red Cross to help you, you know? And I had this in my head. So I came to New York. I stood looking for him. He wasn't there. I said, oh, my gosh.
1:15:31 Speaker 01 He gave you an address in New York, right?
1:15:34 Speaker 06 From the Red Cross.
1:15:35 Speaker 01 OK. So I just, go to New York, I'll find you.
1:15:40 Speaker 06 Yeah.
1:15:40 Speaker 02 I mean, there's no text. You're not texting anyone. And it's all snail mail. It's literally like, oh, I'm here.
1:15:48 Speaker 06 It was the 50s.
1:15:50 Speaker 02 That's it. I'll wait.
1:15:53 Speaker 06 They didn't notify him on time to catch the plane to New York in time, you see? So that's why he went there.
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1:16:30 Speaker 06 So I said, well, he told me to go to the Red Cross. Where's the Red Cross, you know?
1:16:35 Speaker 01 He was off asking women on dates and just seeing if they.
1:16:38 Speaker 06 Show up.
1:16:42 Speaker 06 So, um, he said, go to the bus takes you to the Red Cross. So I'm in the bus, suitcase, two kids. And then there were other girls to get married, you know, and one French girl, I never forget. She said, oh, you're traveling by yourself? I said, yeah, my husband can make and blah, blah, blah. And she said, where are you going? And I said, he told me to go to the Red Cross, they will help me. She said, you're in the wrong bus. I was in the wrong bus. So I had to get take the kids again, suitcase and go to the other bus, it was in front.
1:17:20 Speaker 01 Were you speaking her in French?
1:17:22 Speaker 06 She spoke with English.
1:17:24 Speaker 01 Or English, okay.
1:17:24 Speaker 06 She could speak good English.
1:17:26 Speaker 01 Okay, so you knew a little English at this time, then?
1:17:29 Speaker 06 No, I didn't even know the money. The guy on the airport, you know, that had my luggage. I said, oh my God, so I grabbed my money and I just put the hand, I not to the day, I know what he took.
1:17:45 Speaker 01 Take what you need.
1:17:47 Speaker 02 Very trusting.
1:17:49 Speaker 01 It's the, the, the meme, is this enough?
1:17:55 Speaker 06 I didn't know.
1:17:56 Speaker 03 Have you watched nineteen twenty-three yet?
1:17:58 Speaker 01 I've seen the first season.
1:18:00 Speaker 03 So like his wife is trying to come to England.
1:18:02 Speaker 01 Yeah.
1:18:02 Speaker 03 It's the same, it's the same thing. You don't know like what you're doing, you're just arriving in a foreign country. You don't know what's going on.
1:18:10 Speaker 06 Right.
1:18:12 Speaker 06 Now, I, I, the bus, she told the bus driver, please tell him to get off, you know? So I got up, it was coming down rain. You can imagine with two kids, one little wrestler that liked to run off right on my head.
1:18:29 Speaker 03 How old were they at the time?
1:18:32 Speaker 06 Let me see, Henry, he was about.
1:18:36 Speaker 06 I don't know, two years old. And the other one was still a baby, you know. And a big suitcase, you know. I was open, but I looked like a wet rat. Anyway, we got to the Red Cross.
1:18:54 Speaker 01 You gotta work on that self-talk, Oma.
1:18:58 Speaker 06 We, we didn't know it was closed, you know. So that French girl happened to be there. And she says, well, we gotta wait till they open up. And I'm pretty sure they give you room upstairs to clean up, you know, and get the kids changed. And they were screaming, Robert was screaming, my baby. And he wanted milk, of course. And they were used to want milk. Where do I get milk? I couldn't get milk. Oh, my goodness. And then I'm gonna change the kids in the restroom. I lost the key to the suitcase.
1:19:42 Speaker 06 So I had to break the suitcase open, right? And so I changed them, you know. Meanwhile, the Red Cross opened up. And that French girl helped me a little bit. She asked if they have milk or can get milk for the baby, you know. And they did. And I wanted the milk in the bathroom because they were used to want milk, you know. So I said, no.
1:20:08 Speaker 01 If I can just interrupt for a second. It is amazing to me how vividly you remember this 70 years later.
1:20:16 Speaker 06 I'm amazed at myself.
1:20:17 Speaker 01 Well, this is your first time in America, right? This was your first time in America.
1:20:24 Speaker 06 So.
1:20:27 Speaker 06 How do I close the suitcase? You know, I say, oh my, oh, I took the belt off. I had a and I strapped it on my suitcase. And then the lady from the Red Cross said, come on, there's a room upstairs. You can stay there till your husband comes. Can let the kids rest and all this. We made it up to the stairs, right? And I heard my husband's voice. He said, this is not my wife. And I turned around, looked down the stairs, and there was a French girl.
1:21:08 Speaker 07 So he could have gone bride shopping.
1:21:10 Speaker 02 Honey, hi.
1:21:13 Speaker 06 And then she said, if you're looking for your wife, she's right up there, you know? And we were still soaking wet, you know? And he came up and we changed, like I said, the kids and I changed and all this good stuff. We stayed there for a couple of hours.
1:21:32 Speaker 03 What'd you do that couple of hours?
1:21:34 Speaker 02 Oh, come on.
1:21:43 Speaker 06 Made Brandon's mom.
1:21:48 Speaker 06 So.
1:21:51 Speaker 03 You were happy to see.
1:21:55 Speaker 02 They read the Bible.
1:21:58 Speaker 02 They sang hymns.
1:22:02 Speaker 06 So he said.
1:22:06 Speaker 07 I need another claw.
1:22:08 Speaker 03 So you're in New York City. You're at the Red Cross. Your husband has just showed up.
1:22:13 Speaker 06 We had only two hours left, I believe. And then we had to leave, you know, there was just. So we were all tired. So my husband went into the hotel room. And it was so amazing. The bed had a box on the back. I'll never forget it. You put a quarter in and the bed goes.
1:22:40 Speaker 06 And I said, great, I can put the kids there. They're going to sleep.
1:22:49 Speaker 02 What flavor would you like, buddy?
1:22:52 Speaker 06 Anything, thank you.
1:22:54 Speaker 02 Look at this baby nap machine.
1:22:56 Speaker 01 I was told it's also a funny, funny story of you learning to drive stick.
1:23:01 Speaker 06 Oh yeah, that's a good story too. But I'm not finished with it. I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
1:23:07 Speaker 02 Go on with the bed story.
1:23:11 Speaker 02 Yeah, please continue with the.
1:23:15 Speaker 02 Yeah, continue with the vibrating bed story. I'm excited.
1:23:17 Speaker 06 I've never seen that before.
1:23:22 Speaker 01 There you go.
1:23:25 Speaker 02 Brandon, thank you for inviting us here. I hope you're having a grand old time.
1:23:31 Speaker 06 And then next day, next morning,
1:23:36 Speaker 06 we were relaxed. We went to train station.
1:23:45 Speaker 02 Oh man. Oh, stress melted away.
1:23:49 Speaker 01 See, nobody who started the first 20 minutes of this episode thought it was gonna be anything like this.
1:23:54 Speaker 02 This one. So you were well rested, a little dehydrated when you went to the train station.
1:24:00 Speaker 01 About 30 years too early for Gatorade.
1:24:09 Speaker 06 So we went in the train to Oklahoma. And halfway the train stopped, let everybody out to eat. They get started. And there was another shock for me. I was looking at a couple, you know, one was white, one was black, you know, it was so new for me. And the waitress said, you can come in here. That's only for whites. That's excuse me. They can come in here. I didn't say that, but I was thinking that.
1:24:46 Speaker 01 There's still segregation.
1:24:49 Speaker 01 Early mid 50s.
1:24:51 Speaker 06 Fifty-five. There was, I was in shock. She said, "You can come here and he gotta go in that place." Well, it's black scope, you know.
1:24:59 Speaker 01 What, what state was this? Oh, well.
1:25:02 Speaker 06 It was halfway from New York to Oklahoma.
1:25:05 Speaker 01 Well, it was one of those states. How about that?
1:25:07 Speaker 02 One of the twenty-five on that, out of the country. That would be so crazy, because if you've never seen that.
1:25:13 Speaker 06 Never seen that. And I, I couldn't believe it. They had to eat outside because he don't want to separate from her, you know? That was crazy. And then we got to Oklahoma. And.
1:25:28 Speaker 01 Was that, was that Fort Sill? Was he stationed there, or do you remember?
1:25:35 Speaker 06 Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Yeah, yeah. Lot, matter of fact, Lot, Oklahoma. So, right away, they didn't have quarters for us, you know? So, we rented a house on the outside, had a tornado bunker and everything, boy, the works. And, and then we moved to a little town. I've forgotten the name of it, too. And I learned how to drive, right? I couldn't drive then.
1:26:19 Speaker 06 And my husband, he had no patience. Every time I did something, it was stick, you know? I did something wrong, he, "Don't you get it?" You know? I said, "Okay." So one day he was at work, and I went in the car. I said, "Learn myself," right? So I went in the car.
1:26:45 Speaker 02 Honey, I am proficient at stick driving.
1:26:48 Speaker 01 Good news.
1:26:48 Speaker 02 The transmission's gone.
1:26:50 Speaker 01 Good news, I learned how to do it. Bad news. Car's smoking now.
1:26:56 Speaker 06 And I drove, I mean, I put it in the back and I chirped.
1:27:04 Speaker 06 And forward too, and I said, I hope I don't get in the garage.
1:27:10 Speaker 06 But I did pretty good. And I said, hmm, I'm gonna visit my girlfriend. She was halfway between London and, you know, that little town. And I did great and I drove, you know, was fine. But I had problem every time I stopped, the motor shut off.
1:27:28 Speaker 01 Install it.
1:27:30 Speaker 03 Release the clutch.
1:27:32 Speaker 06 So I said, oh, well, just start it again right now.
1:27:35 Speaker 01 Oh, no.
1:27:36 Speaker 06 Those curbs are probably.
1:27:39 Speaker 02 Well, how many, so you had your kids home alone. You took all your kids with you, I'm guessing?
1:27:44 Speaker 06 Of course.
1:27:46 Speaker 02 Do you remember what kind of car it was?
1:27:48 Speaker 06 No.
1:27:50 Speaker 01 A manual.
1:27:53 Speaker 06 I went to a friend I met, you know. And now, my husband had to go by the highway to go home, you see. And he seen the car, you know. And he stopped and he said, who drove the car over here? And I said, they said, what? The rims were destroyed.
1:28:14 Speaker 06 Yeah, there's another story.
1:28:18 Speaker 06 Then, anyway, this, we stayed there for a while and then when we got orders to go to Panama.
1:28:29 Speaker 06 We went to Panama. No matter of fact, this was the first time I drove a ship. The other one was not a ship.
1:28:37 Speaker 06 I don't think. Anyway, so Oklahoma, well, we got there and I died almost with heat. They had no air conditioning. They had a giant fan and at them years I had migraines, you know. And that wasn't very good with the fan, you know.
1:29:00 Speaker 06 But again, I learned how to drive. We went to the commissary. It was up the hill. Oh, God.
1:29:09 Speaker 02 In Panama?
1:29:10 Speaker 06 Panama. And I drove up. Everything good. My girlfriends were with me. And we had a babysitter then, you know. And there were guard houses before you get into the commissary, you know. And we had to show our ID. And, okay, I got my ID, you know. And I was on the guard house. I said, oh, my God, the car is going backwards.
1:29:41 Speaker 02 That's not real.
1:29:44 Speaker 06 And I told the guard, I said, I'll be right back.
1:29:54 Speaker 03 Just look at it real quick.
1:30:00 Speaker 06 Even the guard.
1:30:05 Speaker 06 Oh, gee.
1:30:06 Speaker 02 Oh, my God.
1:30:07 Speaker 06 Panama, it was so hot over there. Oh, my God.
1:30:10 Speaker 02 Yeah, that's tropical heat. That's that humid, humid, humid.
1:30:14 Speaker 06 And six months of rain. That was terrible. And the crabs, they had crab season. I never seen anything like it. The whole, everything patio, everything full of crabs. The fire department came and, you know. Yeah.
1:30:35 Speaker 03 Oh, dude, the documentaries with the crab migrations, where they just go across the island.
1:30:40 Speaker 06 Yeah.
1:30:41 Speaker 02 Snow crabs?
1:30:42 Speaker 03 Yeah, that's crazy.
1:30:43 Speaker 06 And they go in your tires, you know. When you come apart, they want your tires.
1:30:49 Speaker 01 Everything infested with crabs. Kind of reminds me of a fable, actually.
1:30:53 Speaker 03 So Panama, where they're vibrating beds?
1:30:59 Speaker 01 We're not gonna let that one die, huh?
1:31:02 Speaker 02 Kenny's like, I have an opportunity.
1:31:07 Speaker 01 Germany, Oklahoma, Panama, did you go anywhere else after moving around for the
1:31:12 Speaker 06 No, my husband went to Vietnam, Korea, and I had to take care of all of the kids by myself. That was not easy, you know, and I had to take the car to buy my house in Germany. I mean, yeah, Germany, you know, that was hard.
1:31:31 Speaker 01 You had to take what now? Sorry, I didn't.
1:31:32 Speaker 06 My car. I always had to take it on, how do you explain that?
1:31:38 Speaker 01 Ship it, like transported?
1:31:41 Speaker 06 Yeah.
1:31:42 Speaker 01 Okay, transported to Germany.
1:31:44 Speaker 06 And, oh, Lord, it was hard times, you know, it was always hard times, but still funny when you think about it.
1:31:52 Speaker 01 You know, something that is also, you just spurred my memory, we have some family, like family, well, family of yours, family of mine, but that were on the other side of the Berlin Wall in East Berlin.
1:32:05 Speaker 06 It was my dad's family. I never met, I never met, because the war were going on, they built it a wall, you know, and for me, as an American, my husband said, you're not going across, you're not coming back.
1:32:23 Speaker 01 I know.
1:32:25 Speaker 06 My part of it, but for me, it was too dangerous, you know, being married to an American.
1:32:31 Speaker 01 Right, those guns pointed inward.
1:32:32 Speaker 06 Yeah, and so I never met.
1:32:35 Speaker 02 That's amazing. You have lived quite the life, ma'am.
1:32:39 Speaker 06 Oh, my goodness, I tell you, there's probably more I can remember more.
1:32:46 Speaker 01 No, I've always been impressed by, always, always been impressed by just how sharp you are and just how much you remember.
1:32:53 Speaker 06 You know, that I still got my mind, actually.
1:32:57 Speaker 03 I have a question, though. Do you have any funny stories about Brandon? Like, growing up as a little boy?
1:33:06 Speaker 06 He was a cute little boy.
1:33:08 Speaker 03 Of course, he's cute. Do you know, do you have any funny stories, though, about Brandon?
1:33:13 Speaker 06 I used to pick him up from school, right?
1:33:15 Speaker 01 Yeah.
1:33:16 Speaker 06 And I'd take him home, and he didn't want to go home, he wanted to stay with me.
1:33:20 Speaker 01 Why?
1:33:21 Speaker 06 I don't know.
1:33:22 Speaker 01 Yeah, I'll wrap myself out on that one. The, I was always sneak into Oma's house because she'd have Nutella.
1:33:30 Speaker 06 Oh, Nutella.
1:33:31 Speaker 01 Which you always called the Nuket.
1:33:33 Speaker 06 Nuket.
1:33:34 Speaker 01 Yeah. Drink sugar water. Yup, just fattening me up.
1:33:40 Speaker 06 The fun time I had in my life is, I think, when we had all the campers. My son had a camper, they had camper, we had a camper, and we parked kinda, you know, all together. And that's when Brandon, every morning, disappeared, came to drink. And look at.
1:34:04 Speaker 01 My parents would be looking for me, I'm just waving from the window with. Chocolate, red.
1:34:10 Speaker 02 Alright, guys.
1:34:13 Speaker 02 Brandon's got a drum.
1:34:16 Speaker 02 It's all chubby Brandon.
1:34:17 Speaker 01 Little fat kid.
1:34:22 Speaker 06 Oh my goodness. Then, we got. Born in Germany. She's a German too.
1:34:30 Speaker 01 Oh, she's German? You were born on a army base, right? On a base in Germany?
1:34:34 Speaker 06 Sure. Yeah.
1:34:37 Speaker 06 She remembers.
1:34:38 Speaker 01 She's like, I don't remember.
1:34:41 Speaker 02 American.
1:34:46 Speaker 02 Well, thank you so much for sharing your story. We truly, truly appreciate your time.
1:34:51 Speaker 06 I never doubt I would tell you. Because I'm not a. How do you say?
1:34:58 Speaker 02 Storyteller?
1:34:59 Speaker 06 She can, she can talk, but I can't.
1:35:02 Speaker 01 Yeah, not. Not like braggadocious or a storyteller or?
1:35:07 Speaker 06 No.
1:35:09 Speaker 06 Like a preacher, right, in church, he came.
1:35:12 Speaker 02 Charismatic, yeah.
1:35:14 Speaker 06 He said, "Don't you wanna tell your story?" I said, "What?" I said, "No, my daughter can talk, not me."
1:35:23 Speaker 01 Lies?
1:35:23 Speaker 02 You killed this. You did amazing.
1:35:26 Speaker 01 I think you did really good, I'm sure the audience will agree, but I've always said that, you know, the stories that I've heard growing up, and just, you know, picking this up piece by piece and hearing bits of your story. When I was six, eight, 12, 15, you're, you've got an awesome story, and you're, you're one of the most inspirational women I've ever met.
1:35:48 Speaker 06 Well, like, like I said, I, I see everything like it was, but I can't think of dates or how old I was, you see? That's.
1:35:58 Speaker 01 I can't remember what I had for breakfast yesterday.
1:36:01 Speaker 06 Oh, yes.
1:36:03 Speaker 02 Well, we truly appreciate your time. Thank you so, so freaking much.
1:36:06 Speaker 06 I'm showing you guys, and nice have met you, okay?
1:36:12 Speaker 03 Very nice to meet you.
1:36:14 Speaker 02 Even you, Cody.
1:36:18 Speaker 03 Cut it a little bit.
1:36:19 Speaker 06 And got the glasses on, I couldn't tell on one picture, he said, wait a minute, which one?
1:36:26 Speaker 03 That was Eli's fault.
1:36:30 Speaker 03 He put, he put my face on Brandon, and Brandon's face on my face, and people couldn't tell the difference.
1:36:36 Speaker 02 Nope.
1:36:37 Speaker 01 On first glance, it was a little confusing.
1:36:39 Speaker 03 Yeah, it was confusing.
1:36:41 Speaker 02 I was laughing.
1:36:41 Speaker 06 How many pictures was that you showed me?
1:36:44 Speaker 03 While we're still filming.
1:36:45 Speaker 06 And I had to look twice. I said, which one is mine?
1:36:48 Speaker 01 I have a, I have a question. One last question for you. If you could give any piece of advice, living the life that you've lived, if you could give any piece of advice to young people, what would it be?
1:36:58 Speaker 03 It's a great question.
1:36:59 Speaker 06 That they're very lucky today, what they got, you know, really. And a lot of kids today do not appreciate what they got, you know? We appreciate every little thing. Let me tell you, we were hungry. And when we get our ration for the week, depends how many the family was, when the potatoes ran out, we peeled all the potatoes and we fried them. There was another meal, you know, for us. I forgot something. Yeah.
1:37:38 Speaker 06 When, when the British came in, you know, and there were still the rifles and all this. But by then, we were so hungry. All the stores were gone, you know, I'm sorry, I have a cramp.
1:37:54 Speaker 01 You okay?
1:37:55 Speaker 06 A cramp.
1:37:57 Speaker 01 Do you want some water or something?
1:37:58 Speaker 06 No, I'm fine.
1:37:59 Speaker 01 Okay.
1:37:59 Speaker 06 And so I said, well, let's go to the stores. They were bombed. We find some food, you know, canned food or something, you know. So me, my brother, we went across the street. There were big, what do you call it? Not a warehouse, but where they sell everything.
1:38:25 Speaker 01 Like a general store?
1:38:26 Speaker 06 Yeah, big store. And they also had food store in there. We went in there and there was that English guy with machine gun, you know? And he just looked at us and we looked at him and we keep on going, you know? Hoping he don't shoot us, you know? But he didn't. He understood, I guess, you know?
1:38:47 Speaker 03 Yeah.
1:38:48 Speaker 06 And...
1:38:49 Speaker 03 So you're saying kids should be grateful for what they have now?
1:38:53 Speaker 06 Yeah. They do not. They don't know I would go take out a channel. They not appreciate. Mm-mm.
1:39:02 Speaker 02 I agree fully, Oma.
1:39:04 Speaker 06 Yeah.
1:39:04 Speaker 03 Well, Oma, on a lighter note, I want to show you. So this is our faces swapped. So this is me and Brandon swapped.
1:39:16 Speaker 06 You're kidding?
1:39:17 Speaker 03 No.
1:39:19 Speaker 06 Wow.
1:39:21 Speaker 03 That's my face on Brandon's head.
1:39:23 Speaker 06 That's not, that's Brandon.
1:39:33 Speaker 03 So that's me with Brandon's face and that's, that's Brandon with my face.
1:39:39 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:39:40 Speaker 03 Yeah.
1:39:41 Speaker 02 Oh, yeah. Wait, no, that's Brandon. That's Brandon.
1:39:46 Speaker 03 Oh, yeah. Brandon, we're talking about my...
1:39:48 Speaker 02 Cody's like, that's me.
1:39:49 Speaker 03 Even I'm confused. But yeah, that's, that's Brandon with my face.
1:39:54 Speaker 06 Wow.
1:39:54 Speaker 03 So that's my head with Brandon's face.
1:39:57 Speaker 01 Am I the only person who thinks that you don't look similar at all?
1:40:01 Speaker 02 I mean, when you do the face swap, the face swap's pretty.
1:40:04 Speaker 01 The face swap, that one I get.
1:40:06 Speaker 02 Even that one, I was like, wait.
1:40:08 Speaker 06 Certain picture, not so much, but you know, he's got some in there, he had me.
1:40:13 Speaker 03 I know.
1:40:14 Speaker 02 Yeah. The other one's better.
1:40:16 Speaker 01 We tricked Oma. Cody's gonna be over in Oma's camper with Nutella.
1:40:22 Speaker 02 Only if she has a vibrating bed.
1:40:26 Speaker 02 Oh, no.
1:40:31 Speaker 06 I enjoy you guys.
1:40:33 Speaker 02 I love you. Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure. Cody, you wanna close us out, you beautiful son of a gun?
1:40:39 Speaker 06 I hope I live a little longer so I can enjoy all you guys. I've been saying that, you know, I said, on my life was hard, you know? I had my grains for 25 years, you know, and had to take care of five kids, you know? My husband were always grown. Because, what is coughing?
1:41:02 Speaker 02 You said six kids. Is she the imaginary kid?
1:41:07 Speaker 01 She's making all sorts of confessions today.
1:41:10 Speaker 02 Five kids plus the other one.
1:41:14 Speaker 01 No, I'm sorry, continue.
1:41:16 Speaker 06 So I enjoy life a little bit. I'm grateful that I can live still on my own in my age, you know? That I'm grateful for. She wants me moving with her, I know, but as long as I can do for myself, I'm gonna be here.
1:41:34 Speaker 06 And I think everyone feels that way, don't you think?
1:41:38 Speaker 01 Yeah, no, you're in better shape than I will be in five years. So I, I think you're doing great.
1:41:46 Speaker 06 I try, I mean, I got my problems.
1:41:48 Speaker 01 You just turned 93, four days ago.
1:41:50 Speaker 06 Four days?
1:41:52 Speaker 02 Oh, happy belated birthday.
1:41:54 Speaker 06 One month or so.
1:41:56 Speaker 02 Happy belated Mother's Day, too.
1:41:58 Speaker 06 Did my grandson call me? No.
1:42:00 Speaker 01 I did.
1:42:01 Speaker 02 Oh, my.
1:42:02 Speaker 01 I absolutely did.
1:42:03 Speaker 02 God.
1:42:03 Speaker 01 I will pull up the receipt right now.
1:42:06 Speaker 06 Did he call?
1:42:08 Speaker 01 Look at that, look at that right here, hold on.
1:42:12 Speaker 01 I'm gonna pull that up, Sunday. We talked for 22 minutes.
1:42:16 Speaker 06 Don't.
1:42:19 Speaker 01 She wanted to yell at me.
1:42:25 Speaker 01 I can't believe I almost got shade for that.
1:42:28 Speaker 02 You did not leave a memory.
1:42:32 Speaker 01 Apparently, I'm sorry I bored you.
1:42:35 Speaker 02 Ugh. Hangs up.
1:42:40 Speaker 02 Just like, oh. Back to the vibrating bed. Cody calling.
1:42:47 Speaker 03 They all look the same. She's sort of said Brandon's calling again.
1:42:53 Speaker 01 Yeah, is that why you declined my first three calls?
1:42:58 Speaker 03 She's gonna smack the hell out of you, Brandon.
1:43:01 Speaker 01 She probably will. But seriously, Oma, thank you so much.
1:43:04 Speaker 03 Thank you, Oma.
1:43:05 Speaker 02 Thank you, thank you.
1:43:07 Speaker 06 You take care of yourself. Oh, all right. And I really enjoyed you guys, okay?
1:43:13 Speaker 03 We enjoyed hanging out with you.
1:43:15 Speaker 02 My pleasure. Thank you so, so much.
1:43:18 Speaker 06 I never thought I don't can do that. Talking to you, dude, she said you can't.
1:43:23 Speaker 02 Killed it.
1:43:24 Speaker 01 Amazing.
1:43:25 Speaker 02 Cody, you wanna close this out?
1:43:26 Speaker 03 We're gonna kill this one?
1:43:27 Speaker 02 Yes.
1:43:28 Speaker 03 Everyone, thank you for joining the Unsubscribe Podcast. I was joined today by Oma. Oma, Oma? Um, Oma? Oma, Oma, Oma. Oma. Brandon Herrera, Eli Double Tap, King Trout's here with us, and myself, Donut Operator. Thank you so much for joining the Unsubscribe Podcast.
1:43:46 Speaker 02 We love you.
1:43:48 Speaker 06 Thank you, guys.
1:43:49 Speaker 03 Thank you, thank you.
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