Dec 9th: Spit Happens

December 9th is National Llama Day!  What better way to learn more about these wonderful creatures than to spend time with a llama farmer?  Hear some fun llama facts and touching stories from Donna Justice of the Ellaberry Llama Farm.  Make time to explore the richness that occurred on this day in history: 

• The “birth” of an American Pie (so to speak),
• A possible UFO sighting (or not?!?!), and then
• Let’s celebrate National Llama Day with Donna Justice.   

If it's a special day for you or for someone you care about, make time to learn a little more about today by listening to some fun, engaging stories.  AND, if you need some great gift ideas, we have those too (along with links to where you can find them on Amazon).

I mentioned two fun places to visit in this episode, here they are (these links worked in late 2023 - not sure how long they will remain available):

• Find out more about Ellaberry Llama Farms - and even book a visit
• Find out more about the UFO Store in Kecksburg - and plan a trip to visit

Gift ideas for folks who celebrate December 9th for any reason:

• Domino’s Pizza has gift cards available, so you can share a pizza and the story behind it!  And remember that spoodle I mentioned?  Or the Noid himself would be a funny little gift!
• A book about the Kecksburg UFO could be an interesting read?  Not the reading type?  Perhaps a UFO t-shirt would fit better!
• Llama Day provides a world of opportunity for gift ideas.  From stuffed animal llamas to llama pj’s.  There’s also llama socks and shirts and llama jewelry.  The world is your llama!
• December 9th is Gingerbread Decorating Day - and it’s the perfect time of the year to decorate gingerbread houses to display for the holidays, or any other gingerbread decor as well.
• It’s also Pastry Day.  Local pastries would be best - but if time or distance is an issue, there are delivered pastry options available.

Full disclosure:  If you use these gift idea links and make a purchase, I will make a small commission.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 1:16 The First Domino's Pizza Sale
• 9:30 UFO Sighting in Kecksburg - or not?
• 19:16 Celebrate National Llama Day - Spit Happens
• 34:48 Gift Ideas for December 9th

Transcript

SPEAKER_03: 0:01

If December 9th is your special day, or if it is special for someone you care about, then come stride with me. I've got some great stories to share with you about some things that happened on this day in the past. This special day in history witnessed the revolution of food delivery, a possible UFO sighting, and we are celebrating one of today's national holidays with our very first guest interview. That's some great company to be in, my friend. Welcome, seekers, to the enchanting world of Daystrider, the podcast where we embark on a daily journey through history. I'm your travel guide, Truman Pastworthy, and together we'll explore some fascinating stories that happened on this exact day, but from some time in the past. From groundbreaking inventions to remarkable birthdays and extraordinary events to quirky national holidays, we've got it all. So kick back, relax, and open your mind for some lighthearted stories that'll leave you saying, huh, I never knew that happened on this day. Alrighty then, let's get to it. Normally, we start off each segment with taking you back in time. But today, we're going to flip the script. And we're actually going to talk about what things are like today, and then we'll go back in time and learn how the food delivery industry was revolutionized starting on this day in 1960. So as I talk you through this next scene, where you're going to be ordering some dinner to be delivered tonight, I'd like you to listen for this special sound. And pay close attention so you don't miss it. I want to make sure you note the time you hear it and what I'm talking about. All right? Here we go. So it's late in the afternoon, maybe early evening, and you're starting to get hungry and everybody you're with is getting hungry and nobody wants to cook food tonight. Nobody wants to go get anything and make it. And nobody wants to go pick it up either. So you're like, all right, let's have some food delivery. So you get out your phone, open up the app. And you put in your order, pass the phone around. Everybody clicks and gets their order taken. Then they hand it back to you, of course. And then you got to go click the button to pay and put in your credit card information. Put the phone down, go back to the Netflix show that you've been binging and you enjoy watching. And somebody says, man, I'm hungry. And you're like, yeah, I'm hungry, too. Let's find out where our food is. So you go back to the phone, open up the app, and there's a little progress bar and it tells you that your food was already cooked and now it's out in the delivery car ready to be delivered. All right, that's exciting. And somebody said, how far away are they? Let's check. So you click on another button on the app and bam, it's like an Uber or Lyft scene where now the little car is making its way to your house and you can see they're getting close. So someone jumps up, runs over to the window, and sees the driver coming down the street. And they can tell it's them because the car topper sign. And the driver walks up to the door and pulls out the food out of a big, huge, insulated bag. You can tell that some of the food is in a corrugated cardboard box, which you're thankful for because it kept your food warm and protected it from getting smushed. Now, you just heard a lot of ding-dongs, and I told you to listen carefully. You probably weren't expecting that many ding-dongs in just one story. But I'm telling you, the pioneer of food delivery was responsible for coming up with all of those features as they innovated their business. So I'm curious, do you have any guesses about who started their company back on this day in 1960? Let's continue with this mystery. The franchise has almost 20,000 locations all around the world. They're in over 90 countries today. They have been experimenting with unmanned delivery vehicles. They even had a contest to have people help design an unmanned delivery vehicle. In Australia, they were lucky enough to experiment with drone delivered food. How about that? But for the most part, their food is still delivered by a driver everywhere around the world. Anyway... This company is also responsible for some other interesting innovations that aren't specifically related to food delivery. One of those being their bricks and mortar locations actually don't have any seating for indoor dining. It's a carryout only, which is kind of unheard of if you think back to the 1960s or 1970s. Also, as they grew, they standardized their recipes for all their main ingredients. in one location and then distributed those to all of their franchises as they grew. They also changed how franchising works by making new franchisees prove their worth running stores before they could become full-fledged owners. As they grew, they added their locations near college towns. They determined quickly that their best customers were in college towns, and so that's how they picked where to grow next. And they invented this thing called a spoodle. But I'm not going to tell you what a spoodle is. That'll give the secret away. Okay, so if you think you've figured out who I'm talking about, let me give you two final clues and then you'll be certain. Their national advertising in the 1980s included the Noid, as in avoid the Noid. The Noid was a villainous little mascot. He wore a red suit with big floppy ears and it was his job to ensure that the food delivery didn't happen fast enough or it got messed up along its way. And their national advertising in the 1970s included a fun little jingle where they sang, 30 minutes fast or free. I apologize for my horrible singing. I tried to find the actual jingle for you, but I guess that recording is lost to history. But by now, I'm sure you know that I'm talking about Domino's Pizza Delivers. That's right, Domino's Pizza. They sold their very first pizza on this day in 1960. So you're probably scratching your head trying to figure out if you really believe that they invented all of those things. Maybe they didn't invent them, but they innovated them significantly. They really were the first to change the corrugated cardboard boxes away from that waxy-covered paperboard box. So if you think about an in-store pizza experience where you might have had some leftovers, when they give you the leftover container, it's usually that waxy paperboard box. No. And all pizza companies used to deliver in those kind of boxes. Domino's changed that to a corrugated board so it would protect the pizza when you stack them and keep it warm. They really did introduce the insulated pizza bag. Now, it was invented in 1983 by Ingrid Kosar, who will be featured in an upcoming Daystrider episode. And her very first contract was with Domino's Pizza in 1984. And away we went. And they actually didn't invent the lighted rooftopper signs on the cars, but they did bring lots of innovations to them, including the magnets to make them temporary and transfer from one car to the other, and many unique designs. The most interesting to me is the one shaped like a shark fin. So Domino's Pizza was owned by Tom Monaghan for a long time. He was the founder and initial innovator of many of those ideas. Now, of course, he wasn't the founder of pizza, and he wasn't the founder of pizza restaurants or delivering pizza. But when he bought that store in 1960 for about$25,000 in today's money, he really put in a lot of hard work and made some great changes. And on this day in 1960, they sold their very first pizza in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Now, as a child, Tom told anyone who would listen that he'd be rich one day, and he'd be a professional baseball player. I'm sure that got chuckles from all of his friends and adults. But he accomplished the first one by growing Domino's Pizza to one of the largest franchises in the world and selling it in 1998 for a billion dollars or almost$2 billion in today's money. So$25,000 in today's money in,$2 billion out. I'd say that's pretty wealthy. And the second claim, well, he kind of did that in 1983 when he bought the Detroit Tigers. So he didn't get to play professional baseball, but he got to own a team. And then, a really funny side note about that story, he sold the team in the 90s to the owner of Little Caesar's Pizza. Anyway, remember when I mentioned the spoodle? So a spoodle is a cross between the spoon and a ladle, and it was designed to make spreading pizza sauce easier for Of course, it was deep enough to get the exact amount of pizza sauce needed. And then the bottom of the spoodle was flat enough or just round enough to make it easy to spread that sauce all over the pie. My goodness, all this talk about pizza has made me hungry. Are you hungry for some pizza? Well, I'll tell you what. The first 10 subscribers are eligible for a free Domino's pizza on me. All you got to do is subscribe and then email me at daystriderstories at gmail.com and we'll make it happen. Now some of you are going to love to hear this next segment about a UFO sighting that occurred on this day in the past. And others of you are going to roll your eyes and click away. Now I'm asking you to hold on with me for a few minutes and learn something interesting about an event that occurred in Kecksburg, Pennsylvania on this day in the early evening of 1965. Now depending on who you ask, what you read or watch, something happened that night, or it didn't. People know what they saw out there that night, while the federal government, the military, and other local authorities continue to say that nothing occurred that night. Of course, there were no mobile phones in 1965, and so no one had a chance to get a video record of what happened and post it out on social media before the government could shut everything down. Would the government really actually do that? Who knows? But let's take a few minutes and walk ourselves through the story. Let me introduce you to Kecksburg, a small town southeast of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that has a population of 11,000 people. It's the self-proclaimed alien capital of Pennsylvania, but more on that in a few minutes. So many eyewitnesses reported that night that they saw a fireball flash across the sky and crash into the woods. What's interesting is some people said it had orange flames, while others said it had blue flames. Some folks say they heard it crash into the woods and they could hear the hissing and burning sound. Others claim they saw the smoke coming from the woods and even could smell it. The next day when they went down into the area, they were able to see the trees were damaged and the ground was all smashed up. One eyewitness claimed that he got close enough to be able to see hieroglyphics on the glowing object. Those were his words. Some of these eyewitness accounts differ and that's what you'd expect when something like this happens. But many eyewitnesses claim they saw the military drive into the area within an hour of the crash and then begin quarantining the woods and forcing people back. A local reporter was able to sneak into the woods and try to take pictures, and allegedly those were confiscated by the military. Everyone there that night says they couldn't get close enough to see what the military was doing, but they do remember seeing a convoy show up with an empty flatbed truck. And the convoy headed into the woods, and a couple hours later, they remembered seeing drive back out of the woods, and there was a payload on the flatbed truck, now covered with a tarp. The payload was bell-shaped or acorn-shaped, and apparently several people saw this, including a local news reporter from a nearby town. Now what these folks claim they saw could have been anything. It could have been a fireball meteor. It could have been a satellite, because satellites were in space back then. It could have been some sort of space junk debris, or it could have been a UFO. In situations like this, when there's no answers and people come asking questions and they get denied and claims that nothing happened, they don't like it. People just don't like not knowing what happened or why. And so over the years, when a situation like this happens, many people try to put together their theories and do documentaries about what they think happened that night. And what adds fuel on this fire is the fact that all official organizations deny that anything happened. Local fire authorities deny. State police deny. The military and NASA all participated in the there's nothing to see here game. So let's explore some of these investigations into this Kecksburg event. The very first one of these was a radio documentary that was being produced in December of that same year. John Murphy, a local radio journalist, was interviewing all the eyewitnesses, considering the pictures that he had taken and were confiscated, and putting all those together to come up with a great documentary about the object in the woods. A few days before that documentary was going to air, something strange happened. But let's come back to that one in a moment. Now, it wasn't until 25 years later that the Unsolved Mysteries television series came along, And they did an entire episode on this event. They went into the town, interviewed all the folks who were eyewitnesses, and speculated on a number of things that could have happened that night. And check this out. The Unsolved Mysteries production crew even built a prop for the show as a replica of the unidentified flying object. They made it to the specifications of the eyewitnesses from that night who saw that tarp on the flatbed truck. They built an acorn-shaped object about seven meters tall, and they scratched in some unusual hieroglyphics on the side and around the base of the prop they made. Now, here's the funny part. After the show aired, what do you do with the prop? Well, the mayor asked to keep it, so they left it in the town, and funny enough, it's proudly on display today, right near the UFO store in town. And you can see all these things at the annual UFO festival in July of each year in Kecksburg. That's right. They have an annual festival, and you should consider checking it out. About 13 years after Unsolved Mysteries did their thing, the Sci-Fi Channel got involved. They have sponsored a lawsuit being filed by Leslie Keen, who's a freelance reporter, and she believes that citizens have the right to know what happened, and so she filed a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act, forcing or trying to force NASA to turn over documents about the event. Now, believe it or not, she eventually won her case, and NASA did have to turn over a document. And it was basically a mega-long document that said nothing happened that night. So no answers means what? People are going to keep asking, and they did. So another 15 or so years later, the History Channel came along, and they made a documentary. and they explored the Sci-Fi Channel events, and they went back and explored the Unsolved Mysteries documentary, and then they went all the way back to that John Murphy radio documentary about the object in the woods. And here's where it gets interesting. They brought a person onto their show who worked at the radio station that John Murphy worked at, and she claimed that one night while John was working on his documentary, two unusual nondescript men in dark suits came into the radio station, found their way to John's office, closed the door, and had a 30-minute conversation behind closed doors. Now, she tried to eavesdrop, of course, but couldn't make out anything they were saying. But after that conversation, John was a changed man. Before, he was excited about his documentary, and afterwards, he no longer wanted to talk about it, he no longer wanted to air it. Eventually, he did, and when his friends heard it, they could tell that something was wrong. They remember hearing his excitement and what this thing was going to be about, and it was very much not that. So obviously the question here is, did the government compel him in some way to not air information he discovered?

SPEAKER_02: 16:45

Who knows?

SPEAKER_03: 16:47

But when you couple this with other items uncovered in those various documentaries, for example, one person tried to get the Air Force to turn over logbooks of activities that occur in our U.S. airspace every single day, and when they finally got a hold of those logbooks from that night, There was indications that nothing happened. But it also looked like these logbooks may have been doctored after the fact. Who

SPEAKER_02: 17:09

knows?

SPEAKER_03: 17:11

But here we are, a few years later. Now I'm doing this podcast and we're talking about Kecksburg all over again. We're walking through the same story and trying to decide if there was a conspiracy or government cover-up. And maybe this will inspire someone to go out and keep looking more for information. Well, here's what I think. Definitely something happened that night. Something flew through the air, and here's why. There's no way that many different eyewitnesses would call in saying they see something, either from Kecksburg or from other towns in Pennsylvania or other towns in Michigan or folks in Canada. They all reported seeing a fireball flash through the sky that night. That is just too many folks to believe that something did not happen. Clearly it did. And apparently... One of the documentaries covered some people taking pictures of the sky that night in Canada, and they were able to capture images of something glowing as it flew across the sky. Now, the most compelling piece of evidence that I heard listening to all these documentaries was the discovery by a forestry professor from the West Virginia University, go Mountaineers, where he came in and studied the rings of the trees near the crash site, and he was able to prove that something did injure those trees in 1965 by counting those rings. So something did crash down from the sky that night, and maybe it was a fireball meteor, or maybe it was a satellite, or maybe it was space junk. But officials wouldn't go out of their way to deny anything like that. They would just explain it. What they would go out of their way to deny is if a military aircraft crash-landed, either U.S. or Russian, and they wanted to observe that or document that without letting the rest of America know, you know, invoking national security. Of course, others might say they would also go out of their way to cover up an actual UFO sighting. So that could be what happened that night. Maybe. If we wait long enough, it'll become public information someday. Instead of striding to the past, for this segment, we're going to stay right here in the current year. And what happens on December 9th every year?

SPEAKER_00: 19:24

Llamas and spitting. Yes, spit happens.

SPEAKER_03: 19:27

That's right. Spit happens because it's National Llama Day. And to celebrate, we're going to bring a guest on to the show for the very first time, Donna Justice, and she's going to share some great stories about llamas.

SPEAKER_00: 19:39

Yeah, for sure. Well, thank you very much for having me. Excited to always talk about llamas. My name again is Donna Justice, and I am a lifelong native of Hendersonville, North Carolina. Allie raised my oldest daughter, and when she first saw a llama, she was hooked. We had the ability to have property to put them on, and that's how we started our herd. We initially just had them as pets. Everyone was like, you have what animal now? Because there just very unique and we very quickly went from two to like six and then when we had our first baby born on the farm two years after we had llamas that's I think when we all kind of fell in love with the llamas you know baby anything is super cute so here we are eight years later and 26 llamas later So I guess I can tell you a little bit about llamas themselves because they're pretty cool animals. Llamas and alpacas and camels, they all belong to your camelid species. The camelid species, of course, your llama and alpacas are native to South America. And your camels, of course, are native to the Middle East. Llamas and alpacas don't store water like a camel does, but they don't require water to the degree of like a horse or other livestock animals. They have no front top teeth. So they do have teeth in the back, on the top and the bottom. But if you look at the face of a llama or an alpaca, they have a split upper lip and then they just have a gum in the front.

SPEAKER_03: 21:17

Interesting. So you said llamas aren't native to North America. How and when did they get here?

SPEAKER_00: 21:23

So they started being imported to the United States back in the 70s and used for a lot of the ways that they're used in South America. In South America, llamas are very awesome animals. They're very sacred to them. They not only use them for fiber, so their wool is able to be spun into sweaters and hats and all those kinds of things. So that's very useful. The second way is for pack. So as much as you want to ride a llama, they're the fraction of a weight of a horse. So you can't really ride a llama, but they can carry about 25% of their body weight. You know, anywhere between 60 to 100 pounds of stuff that they can carry in a pack. A lot of the indigenous areas in South America, they use the llamas and the alpacas for transportation of goods. In general, they have great eyesight, great hearing. When something infiltrates their pasture they're on it like white on rice let me tell you and they're spitting at whatever it is because they're trying they're saying get away from us and spitting is unusual to predators it's unique and smells horrible it's not poisonous it's just chewed up grass

SPEAKER_03: 22:44

sounds horrible but hey let's come back to spitting and for the moment Let's meet some of your llamas, shall we?

SPEAKER_00: 22:49

Yeah, so we have lots of llamas. I associate them more with the personality of a cat than a dog. They're a little bit more standoffish, kind of like a cat. They want you when they want you. And when they're done, they're done. I feel like when you look at a llama, they're very judgmental, which I know is silly when you think about it. But if you just look at their face, they just have a seriousness to them. Llamas are a pack animal, so they do have an order within their pack. When a baby is born, it's very, very early on that you know whether they're going to be a pack leader or or middle of the pack, or maybe more of a passive. Yes, it's crazy.

SPEAKER_03: 23:36

Now, do they fight each other?

SPEAKER_00: 23:37

They can fight each other. Llamas actually neck wrestle. It's something that they'd be doing in the wild. It's playfulness, but it's a little scary when you look at it, or when you're watching them do it.

SPEAKER_03: 23:51

Have you ever been involved in a neck wrestle separation?

SPEAKER_00: 23:55

I've had to separate some that I feel like were playing two rows. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. I have some that are very much lovers. They want to be touched and hailed, but, you know, just touched and rubbed on. And then I have others who could care less. You know, they might want to come near you to get a treat and they might do what I want. But then other than that, they want no interaction with me at all.

SPEAKER_03: 24:21

So I'm looking at your website

SPEAKER_00: 24:22

and

SPEAKER_03: 24:23

I see Barb.

SPEAKER_00: 24:24

Barb is quite personable, let me tell you. She actually is my oldest llama on the farm. Let's see. Four of the llamas on our farm were, she's their mother. She definitely means a lot to us. She's been here quite a while. She's 18 years old. So they live about 20 to 25 years. So even though she's done with her baby making days, she still will live on the farm.

SPEAKER_03: 24:49

Talk to me about Jelly Bean.

SPEAKER_00: 24:51

So Jelly Bean is probably a fan favorite. I'll tell you that. He's actually only eight years old. So he's not very old. He just has the look of a grouchy old man, no matter what. We have had him since he was a Kriya. We got him when he was maybe eight months old and he's been here ever since. He is what you call a Suri Lama, which that word pertains to his fiber. So he actually has like a dreadlock of a fiber and it's called Suri. And his personality is... I'll do what you want me to do. Give me a treat. But otherwise, leave me alone. He don't want any hugs. No hugs. Let's see. Who else do I got on there? Squatch. Squatch is a great guy. Squatch is... one of those gelded llamas who still has the personality of the top of the pack, honey. He loves to boss everybody around. He's the first to spit on the other llamas if they're getting in his way.

SPEAKER_03: 25:55

Does he spit on you?

SPEAKER_00: 25:56

So that's kind of funny. Llamas and spitting. Yes, spit happens at our farm. That's for sure. But in general, just like you train bad behavior out of other animals, you kind of teach them that you're the pack leader. And they really shouldn't be looking at you and spitting at your face, okay? We don't tolerate that. I actually squirt them with a water bottle.

SPEAKER_03: 26:19

You spit back.

SPEAKER_00: 26:20

I spit back. So generally, once they realize that you're kind of the pack leader, they're not going to just look at you and spit from a human perspective. But now within their pack, oh yes, they spit on each other. There's no fixing that. That's how they show their dominance.

SPEAKER_01: 26:36

Nature.

SPEAKER_00: 26:37

Nature,

SPEAKER_03: 26:38

yep. So now speaking of spitting, I think you mentioned your alpaca, Max, likes to spit.

SPEAKER_00: 26:44

He doesn't have the greatest public relations skills, but people love him. People want to get spit on, which is beyond me.

SPEAKER_01: 26:55

No

SPEAKER_00: 26:55

way. I'm serious. People are like, can you make them spit on me? And I'm like, you don't want that. Believe me, you don't. But people, it's just unique. It's different. And they want to experience that. you know, how they are. And, you know, occasionally they will spit at each other or, you know, generally Max don't spit on anybody, but occasionally they'll spit on each other while we're running a tour. So that's always a good show. My favorite llama on our farm is Image. He has traveled with me the most. He's probably done the most weddings. He's done a lot of the nursing homes. He's so gentle, but he's a giant. He's probably 370 pounds. He's close to maybe probably 6'3", 6'4". Wow. And fluffy and silver. He is beautiful. And his little personality, he loves to hum.

SPEAKER_03: 27:49

Hum? What's that sound like?

SPEAKER_00: 27:51

Yeah, it does. It sounds just like a hum. Like, hmm, hmm. Llamas and humming. We always say that they hum because they don't know the words.

UNKNOWN: 27:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 27:59

He hums, which is just, you know, I think you think they're talking back to you, right? They're communicating with you. And then he absolutely is so intelligent. He knows where his treats are in which pocket. And if I'm not giving him a treat, he will get my telephone, my cell phone. He'll pull it out of my pocket.

SPEAKER_03: 28:19

Take it hostage.

SPEAKER_00: 28:20

He does. And it just... And he knows that annoys me more than

SPEAKER_03: 28:25

anything. You can read your body language.

SPEAKER_00: 28:26

He can. I definitely have the most rapport with Image.

SPEAKER_03: 28:30

Well, National Llama Day is coming soon. So what do you all do to celebrate National Llama Day?

SPEAKER_00: 28:36

Besides all of our guys getting extra treats that day, of course. All

SPEAKER_03: 28:40

right.

SPEAKER_00: 28:40

Party time. Yeah, party time. We have the city of Hendersonville that I live in, they have us contracted to come and do llama Christmas pictures downtown. So we have many opportunities through the month of December that you can come for free and get a picture taken with your llama. I'm going to have one dressed up as Santa, one dressed up as elf and then we'll have a sleigh there for you to be able to get in and have your picture taken with the llamas so hopefully we'll get to be on a lot of christmas cards this year

SPEAKER_03: 29:10

so now what i want to do is get into my speed round

SPEAKER_00: 29:13

okay

SPEAKER_03: 29:13

all right so donna what famous person shares your birthday

SPEAKER_00: 29:17

you know my birthday is this thursday november oh

SPEAKER_03: 29:19

happy birthday

SPEAKER_00: 29:21

yeah you know i don't know of any people that do no one's ever said hey you share a birthday with da da da do you have anybody on your list that you know of

SPEAKER_03: 29:28

billy idol

SPEAKER_00: 29:29

oh that's that That's pretty special.

SPEAKER_03: 29:31

Ben Stiller.

SPEAKER_00: 29:32

Oh, Ben Stiller. That's kind of cool.

SPEAKER_03: 29:34

Okay, Donna, what's your favorite time travel movie?

SPEAKER_00: 29:37

Oh, I definitely like Back to the Future.

SPEAKER_03: 29:39

The first one, the third one?

SPEAKER_00: 29:41

You know, I actually love that first one. I think that's what got me hooked. And yeah, my family and I, we love to watch those movies together. My kids are actually in a Christmas play this year at our church, and it is a time travel play. So I'm quite excited to see them in.

SPEAKER_03: 29:58

No flux capacitor, though, at church.

SPEAKER_00: 30:00

No, no flux capacitor, for sure.

SPEAKER_03: 30:03

All right, if you could invite anyone, living or dead, to dinner, who would you invite?

SPEAKER_00: 30:08

Well, I'm definitely going to go biblical here on you. That's fine. I think it would be super cool to have met Paul. Just the life that he led prior and after and the change that occurred in his life.

SPEAKER_03: 30:23

Transformation.

SPEAKER_00: 30:24

Transformation. I think it would be so neat to go back and just listen to what it was like living during those times.

SPEAKER_03: 30:30

All right, so now we're going to play a game called First Name, Last Name.

SPEAKER_00: 30:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 30:34

So I'm going to say a first name like Elvis. Uh-huh. And then you could fill in the blank, Presley.

SPEAKER_00: 30:39

Okay. Let's do it.

SPEAKER_03: 30:41

So Albert.

SPEAKER_00: 30:42

Einstein.

SPEAKER_03: 30:44

Florence.

SPEAKER_00: 30:45

Nightingale.

SPEAKER_03: 30:46

Mary.

SPEAKER_00: 30:46

Bethlehem.

SPEAKER_03: 30:48

Michael.

SPEAKER_00: 30:49

Jackson.

SPEAKER_03: 30:50

Very nice. Okay, good. Now we're going to play a game called This or That. So I'm going to name two things and then you pick what you like better.

SPEAKER_00: 30:57

Okay.

UNKNOWN: 30:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 30:58

Famous inventors or unsung heroes?

SPEAKER_00: 31:01

Oh, unsung heroes.

SPEAKER_03: 31:03

The Age of Enlightenment or the Industrial Revolution?

SPEAKER_00: 31:06

Ooh, Age of Enlightenment.

SPEAKER_03: 31:08

Ancient ruins or modern marvels?

SPEAKER_00: 31:11

Oh, ancient ruins.

SPEAKER_03: 31:12

Okay. Man-made wonders or natural phenomena?

SPEAKER_00: 31:16

Natural phenomena.

SPEAKER_03: 31:17

I knew you'd say that. All right, and then here we go. Pen and paper or digital notes?

SPEAKER_00: 31:23

Oh, pen and paper.

SPEAKER_03: 31:25

Boom. Okay, and then my last question for you is, what would your time travel machine look like?

SPEAKER_00: 31:32

You know, I mean, I think a really cool-looking sports car would be quite ideal. Something

SPEAKER_03: 31:39

better than the DeLorean?

SPEAKER_00: 31:40

Something better than the DeLorean. I think I need a little bit more fancy or maybe something a little bit more Tesla-looking. Yeah, those Teslas look, time travel look anyway to them if there ever was anything.

SPEAKER_01: 31:51

They do?

SPEAKER_03: 31:51

Yeah. That's awesome. Thanks, Donna, for doing that with me. I appreciate it. Before we wrap up and let you go, we'd love to hear some stories about llamas. Do you have anything funny or interesting or maybe touching that you could share about your llamas?

SPEAKER_00: 32:05

There actually is a golf course called Shearwood Forest here locally in North Carolina, and they actually use llamas for golf caddies.

SPEAKER_03: 32:15

Really? That'd be neat.

SPEAKER_00: 32:16

That's cool.

SPEAKER_03: 32:17

Can the llama read the green and tell you?

SPEAKER_00: 32:19

That would be quite awesome. I'm sure they'd be eating the green. That's what I assume they do. But free mowing, I suppose. Believe it or not, I have taken llamas to so many weddings. I cannot even count.

SPEAKER_03: 32:33

A wedding?

SPEAKER_00: 32:33

Weddings. People want llamas in their wedding.

SPEAKER_03: 32:36

Do they catch the bouquet? What's the...

SPEAKER_00: 32:38

I dress them up like a bride and groom and they're just kind of like the little novelty things that the guests take pictures with while they're waiting on the bride and groom to finish up with their pictures. I travel to a lot of colleges and they do some like anxiety therapy.

SPEAKER_03: 32:55

Very nice.

SPEAKER_00: 32:56

So I will tell you that the one thing thing that has truly blessed my heart is how many times I've taken llamas to nursing homes, special needs centers, daycares. We've had those different groups and organizations to our farm. Actually, just today, I had seven kids who were autistic to come to the farm today. And they were all of them were nonverbal, but seeing how amazing it was for them to touch this large animal and for the animal to, you know, kind of nuzzle them with their nose. It was really neat. And I think one of my other favorite stories was we had the privilege of allowing a, I want to say this correctly. It was families of children who were either partially or fully blind. They were able to come to our farm this summer and it was the coolest thing. These kids that were completely blind, they would touch a llama and they would feel down it. And I would tell them this is, you know, blue, the llama blue. And then 15, 20 minutes later, they would come back to this llama and they would immediately know that it was blue. They all do have a little bit of a different feel to their fiber, just like all of us have a different feel to our hair and a different shape to our face. And it was just amazing. It was amazing. So those are the things that I had no idea I would be able to be blessed with when we got into doing this business. And to hear people say that this is the best day of their life, it's well worth it.

UNKNOWN: 34:46

Wow.

SPEAKER_03: 34:47

And there you have it, folks. Some great stories to share with your someone special to celebrate December 9th. Once again, those were the birth of Domino's Pizza, a fun story about a UFO sighting, and some facts and stories about llamas to celebrate National Llama Day. But perhaps you're unfulfilled because you haven't gotten anything for your loved one. Of course, you'd love something tangible to go along with these great stories, right? Well... Today happens to be Gingerbread Decorating Day. I bet you can find some gingerbread cookies or even gingerbread houses at this time of the year. And that would be a great gift for a loved one on this day. And maybe gingerbread isn't the best tasting food. You can also celebrate desserts because today is National Pastry Day. Surely you can find some local pastries or you can order some online for your loved one. Of course, as you know, it's also National Llama Day. You could buy an article of clothing or a coffee mug or anything with a picture of a llama on it. Or even better, find a local llama farm and book a trip. Even though it's December, maybe the weather will warm up. Or you can book a trip for the spring or summer and take your loved one there. That would be fun, wouldn't it? And as always, if those things aren't cool enough, why don't you plan ahead for next time and get a hold of me at daystriderstories at gmail.com. Share with me your loved one's name and something interesting you'd want to say, and I'll do a few shout-outs to a random selection of folks right here on the podcast. For example, happy birthday, Kevin. Kevin who? Kevin William, also known as Fat Daddy to some friends and Bleep Pile to others. This is a kid-friendly podcast. And sounds like, Kevin, you've got some nice friends who call you that kind of a nickname. And if you want more than being shouted out to on a podcast, why not reach out and share a story with me? If you have a great story to share about something that happened in the past and it lines up with my show calendar, we can get you or your loved one or both on the podcast as a guest. How cool would that be? So while you're thinking about what you might be able to do with that, how about clicking the like button and the share button or leave a comment for me and let me know what things interest you. If you had half as much fun listening as I did creating this episode, then your like, comment, or share would be incredibly and sincerely appreciated. Thanks so much for listening. Until next time, this is Truman Pastworthy reminding you that every day has a great story. And we'll be striding through them all to find some more goodies for you. Now get out there and make your own great story today.