DayStrider: Tales from a Time Traveler

Feb 2nd: Sometimes Crazy is Genius

• Truman Pastworthy • Episode 7

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We celebrate all kinds of fun and interesting holidays on February 2nd.  Some are traditions that go back thousands of years, while others are kinda new - but all are worth making a few minutes to learn something you didn’t know before: 

  • You’ve heard of Groundhog Day - but why do we celebrate it?
  • You’ve had tasty po-tater treats - but how did they come to be?
  • It’s World Ukulele Day - learn from Kamuke all about the uke!   

If it's a special day for you or for someone you care about, why not learn a little more about today by listening to some fun, engaging stories.  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 ways to get in touch with Kamuke, here they are (these links worked in early 2024 - not sure how long the links will be available):


Gift ideas for folks who celebrate February 2nd for any reason:

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

 My promise:  Every penny will be reinvested into this podcast to help it grow and flourish . . . or perhaps even to help spawn new podcasts (many ideas are bubblin').



Text me your favorite time travel movie!!!


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Do you want to be mentioned here in the podcast? Or do you want me to do a shout-out for a loved one? All you need to do is send me an e-mail: daystriderstories@gmail.com


Better yet, you can record your own shout-out by leaving me a voice message using this SpeakPipe link


Do you have a story that you wish to share? Join me as a guest and let’s tell the world together! Once again, just send me an e-mail or find me here on Facebook: Truman Pastworthy


If you had as much fun listening as I did creating this episode, please click "follow" in your favorite podcast platform . . . oh . . . and even better - why not share it with a friend (or three)! I’m betting you know just the perfect person who would enjoy today’s stories!


If you feel adventurous, how 'bout writing a great review? :-)



SPEAKER_05:

Welcome Seekers! If February 2nd is your special day, or if it's special for someone you care about, then come stride through history with me. Today we're going to change it up a little bit. Instead of traveling to the past and learning about something that happened on this day in history, we're going to talk about some things that are celebrated today and learn a little bit about the past of each of those. And I've got some great stories to share with you about those things, and they include celebrations of a Woodchuck Weathercaster, a tasty Poe tater treat, and the wonderful little instrument that is featured in our very own podcast music. That's some great company to be in, my friend, so let's get to it. 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. Rise and shine, folks. It's time to get your day started. And something you do first every time you wake up is to check the weather. It's what folks have been doing for thousands of years when they awake. And we've got lots of folklore that has given us sayings to help us predict what weather is going to be. For example, you might have heard red sky at night, shepherds delight. Red sky at morning, shepherds take warning. Or you might have heard when halo rings the moon or sun, rain's approaching on the run. And then my favorite, when windows won't open and salt clogs the shaker, the weather will favor the umbrella maker. And not only do we have sayings from our folklore that help us predict tomorrow's weather, we've got sayings that help us predict entire seasons. For example, if March comes in like a lion, it will go out like a lamb. Or another saying, if onion skins are thin, mild winter coming in. If onion skins are rough, the coming winter will be tough. Not only do we try to predict the daily weather using these signs, we also rely on burrowing animals to help us with our predictions. In fact, the Germans started this tradition by observing the badger on Candlemas Day and whether or not that badger could see its shadow. When Germans immigrated to America, they brought this tradition with them. All right, rise and shine. It's time to get our day started. Didn't... Didn't I just do that? Where was I? I think it was weather, thousands of years of folklore. Yes, so thousands of years of folklore comes from monitoring the sun and the daylight that comes with it. Yeah, that's where we were. So a few thousand years ago, before electricity and before most machines were around, pretty much everyone was a farmer. Everyone was growing food or animals to ensure that we could sustain ourselves. And so monitoring and measuring the sun was everything. I mean, it was pretty much the only thing. Yeah, so this was even before religions like Christianity came into being and God became the only thing. It was the sun. And we track the shortest day of the year, the winter solstice, and the longest day of the year, the summer solstice. And then we track the equinox, the halfway point between the shortest and longest day of the year. That's the day where we get the same amount of sun as we do amount of darkness, hence the term equa. And we celebrated those days. And then we decided to track the halfway point between those. So February 1st, bam, we have something to celebrate. We're halfway between the shortest day of the year and the spring equinox where the days in light, the day and night are going to be equal. And that means the days are getting longer. And the weather's going to get warmer. And so now we decided to look for signs on how quickly that warm weather will arrive. All right, folks, rise and shine. Okay. I was talking about February 2nd. I don't know why this keeps happening, but I was celebrating something. I talked about Burrowing Animals Groundhog Day. Yes, today is Groundhog Day. And Punxsutawney Phil, he's being celebrated today. Why? Because he predicts the weather for us, of course. When he emerges out of his hole and he sees his shadow, he gets scared and he dives back into the hole for safety. And that retreat signifies that we have six more weeks of winter. Of course, if it's cloudy out and he doesn't see his shadow, guess what? That means an early coming of spring. Spring's right around the corner. So, yes. I'm telling you that we determine the remaining length of winter depending on whether it's sunny and a shadow is likely or cloudy and no shadow is likely on the morning of February 2nd. That's right. And guess what? People have done studies. And the groundhog is nearly 90% accurate. And others have done studies saying the groundhog is less than one-third accurate. So who knows? It's random. You could probably start your own Groundhog Day weather prediction, flip a coin or use your coin flipper app on your device, and be just as accurate as Punxsutawney Phil. Some people think that's what real meteorologists do, but pfft. Okay, so one quick note. Why is it six weeks of winter instead of some other amount of time? Well, the tradition is actually 40 more days of winter, but people decided that was too hard to say or think about, so they changed it to six weeks. Rise and shine. It's time to get our day started. You know what? It feels like I'm in one of those movies where the main character wakes up and repeats the day over and over again. Huh. I feel like we were talking about Punxsutawney Phil. No. No, wait a minute. Maybe it was Milltown Mel from northern New Jersey. Or Gertie the Groundhog from Peoria, Illinois. Yeah, that's it. No, no, no. We were talking about woodchucks, I think, such as Buckeye Chuck from Ohio, Staten Island Chuck from New York, or Chattanooga Chuck from Tennessee, or maybe it was Chesapeake Chuck from Virginia. No, no, we weren't even talking about burrowing animals, were we? No, it was Mojave Max, a desert tortoise from Nevada, or Snohomish Shlew. A bullfrog from Washington. Or Sunset Sam, a guinea pig from Utah. No, no, no, no. I'm sure we were talking about groundhogs, yes. And the weathercasting groundhog with the coolest name is from Louisiana. I think he speaks French. His name is Pierre C. Chateau. Pierre C. Chateau. Love it. And guess what? There's even a groundhog that's up and forecasting the weather a whole hour before Punxsutawney Phil. His name is Shobhenakati Sam from Nova Scotia. In all, we've got about 38 weather forecasters around the U.S. and Canada. So statistically, at least one of them is going to get the guess right on how long winter is going to last. Rise and shine. No, no. Enough rising and shining. I'm done. Done goofing around. I want to get back to the real essence of the history of Groundhog Day, and I want to get back to these halfway points between the solstice and the equinox. So our pagan ancestors, right, I said that we've been coming up with this folklore even before Christianity got here. We celebrated these halfway points between the solstice and the equinox for a thousand years before Christianity came along. And when the Christians wanted to convert the pagans, they had to adopt some of the pagan holidays and traditions and observances and integrate them into the Christian calendar so they could get folks to get on board. And so you've heard of all these. You just probably didn't know it or think about it. In doing my research, the one that seems to be the least popular is on August 1st, which is halfway between the summer solstice and the fall equinox, is Lammas or Lunasa. And it's the celebration of the beginning of harvest season. I think it doesn't have much popularity these days because it's August 1st and everybody's out on vacation and getting ready for going back to school. But one you are more familiar with is May Day on May 1st, which is halfway between the spring equinox and the summer solstice. That's a little more popular, right? We have the Maypole dance, the Maypole celebration. If you think about the Maypole, it's a tall pole with the ribbons around it, and then the children or the ladies hold onto the ribbons and dance intertwining circles around it, and that wraps the ribbon around the pole. It's beautiful. It's a fun day. So May Day. And then, of course, we get to February 1st, and that's Groundhog Day. Yeah. So what happened here is the Christian calendar celebrates Candlemas, which is 40 days from the birth of Christ. What the Christians did was move the February 1st celebration to Candlemas and put them together and bam. So now Groundhog Day or the observance of this midway point between the solstice and the equinox, instead of happening on 1st, it happens on February 2nd. And then the most popular of all these holidays is the Halloween on November 1st. Wait a second, pump the brakes again. The Christian calendar has All Saints Day on November 1st, and so they didn't want to have people dressed up as ghosts and goblins and ghouls on that special day. So they adopted it by sliding it a day forward. So October 31st can now be All Hallows' Eve, Halloween, and pagans would say, okay, we can do that. So there you go. That is getting deeply behind the scenes of why and when we celebrate Groundhog Day. No, no, no. I'm not going there. I'm done. All righty. How about we plan a trip? We need to get from a town called Ontario, Oregon to Miami Beach, Florida. After thinking for a second, you might say, wow, that's about as far apart as you can get in the lower 48. And your first step would be to open up your app. And figure out flights from, where do people from Ontario, Oregon fly out of? So actually that town is nestled on the tippy eastern edge of Oregon right next to Idaho. And is closer to Boise than it is to Portland. So we look up some flights from Boise to Miami Beach and bam! We can be there in, ooh, wow that's a long way. With a layover we're talking a 13 hour trip. Flying. Okay, well, guess what? This is a time-traveling podcast, and so we aren't actually making this trip today. We're doing it in 1954. And we're going to drive. Yeah, I know. Google Maps says this 2,900-mile drive would take 43 hours, and that's just the driving time. We've got to stop and eat and get gas. Truman, why would we want to do something like that? That's insane. Well... We have a very special brand new invention that we think everybody's going to love. And we need to get it from Ontario, Oregon to Miami Beach, Florida. And we're going to pack it in a suitcase full of dry ice to keep it frozen. And FedEx, FedEx wasn't born until 1971, so we can't use them. And UPS, yeah, they were around, but they didn't do personal package deliveries in Oregon in 1954 like they do today. So we're driving it ourselves, people. Okay, okay. What's this big secret? What is our invention? Well, before I tell you that, I want to tell you about a little term called waste valorization. Yeah, I know, nerdy. So think about it this way. It's holiday time, and you're making your sugar cookies, getting ready for Santa. You get your batch of dough, you roll it out with a rolling pin, and then you take your cookie cutters and stamp out the cookies. Put those aside on the baking tray, and then you mush up together all that extra cookie dough. You mush it all back together, and then you roll it out again, and you stamp out some more cookies. You have a little bit extra, so you smash all that together again and roll it all back out. What you're doing is recycling your waste, and that's called... waste valorization. So lots of times when companies make things, they have leftover waste as well. And most of the time they can't mush all that back together and recycle it into more of whatever it is they're making. So a lot of times they throw it away, but sometimes they take that waste and they create value out of it by selling it to someone else and that someone else uses it in their product. So one person's trash is another person's treasure. So let's talk about a real example here, and we're going to use my favorite food, the French fry. Let's picture the McDonald's French fry, long and skinny and straight. Oh, and when it's hot, it tastes so good. It smells good when you get it out of the bag. So potatoes that the fry is made out of, potatoes aren't straight, they're round. And when you cut them up to make those wonderful McDonald's French fries, you have leftover bits of potato. And it's basically waste. Well, in the early 1950s, the Grigg brothers had this exact problem. The waste from their Ontario, Oregon French fry making plant was being packed up and shipped to the cows and pigs on their farm just across the river in Idaho. There it is again, Oregon and Idaho. The Grigg brothers liked that ring so much, they called their company Orida. The first three letters of each state. How about that? Yep, so the Griggs were Idaho potato farmers in the 40s, and they bought a blast freezer plant in 1949 over the river in Ontario, and they began blast freezing their french fries and shipping them to grocery stores all over. And they were popular, and the Griggs were successful, but it wasn't incredibly successful because lots of people were making french fries and freezing them and selling them to grocery stores. So Neif Grigg, his full name was Francis Nephi Grigg, And if you want to picture him, he looked a little like a young John Candy with thicker, darker hair. He did not like having to waste all those potato fragments. And so he decided to do some experimenting with his own waste valorization. And he came up with chipping the scraps of the potatoes that were wasted from those french fries and squishing them together and making a glop and turning it into a cylinder shape. and cutting those down into bite-sized pieces that you're familiar with today, and then flash freezing them. And everybody loved them. And of course he needed a cool name for this fancy little product that he just made. It's a wonderful potato treat. And I bet you're a fan of the tater tot as well, right? Well, the Grigg family claims that the story goes that they had a naming contest, and one of the employees came up with that name because they used a derivation of potato, potator, shortened it to tater, because it was made from a potato, and tot, because it was a cute little bite-sized morsel. So bam, tater tot, and they copyrighted that name immediately. Now the big question was, how do we get this tater tot mainstream? If we just start putting it on the shelves, it could take forever to get across to America. We need the world to notice right away. And so that's where Neve had a crazy idea. He said, let's pack them into a suitcase and drive a whole bunch down to the National Potato Convention taking place in Miami Beach in 1954. Then all the bigwigs can try it and bam, we'll be out there for everyone to know about. Yeah, yeah, that's crazy. But sometimes crazy is genius. So he took his crazy idea to heart. He packed up 15 pounds of flash frozen tots, put them into a suitcase full of dry ice and hit the road. And about a week later, he rolled up to the Fountain Blue Hotel in Miami where the convention was taking place. And he was faced with his next challenge. How do I actually get these in front of all these people? I can't just walk in with my suitcase and unzip it and say, here they are. That's not going to work. So, Neve took his suitcase full of frozen tots around to the back into the kitchen. And then he negotiated with the head chef to cook them up and serve them as part of breakfast that day. There's probably some bribery, maybe some threatening. You know how big a John Candy-looking guy might have been, right? But the head chef did it, and they served small helpings of tater tots to every member of the convention for breakfast that day, and they loved it. Crazy is genius. And that was how the tater tots started going viral. The tater tot is what propelled Orida to the frontrunner of frozen food sales, because they were a hit worldwide. All around America and eventually the world. The stats vary if you do a Google search on it. So either we eat 3 billion tater tots each year or 30 billion tater tots each year. I'm not sure which, but let's just say it's billions of tater tots are consumed every year. But here's an actual interesting tidbit about all that. The tater tot, since it was made out of waste, right, waste valorization, when Arita first put them on the shelves, they used a very low price point. And so they didn't sell right away. The price was so low that people thought that they were no good. They were junk. And so Arita decided to raise the prices, and then consumers started buying them. Way to go, our fellow consumers. We wait till the price goes up, and then we send it viral. Oh, my goodness. So I mentioned that Tater Tot is copyrighted. It's actually a brand name. And these treats go by many other names as well, like Tater Puffs, Baby Taters, Oven Crunchies, Potato Gems, Spud Puppies, and a whole lot more. In fact, Arida even had a funny ad campaign a while back, and they called all of these different names Imitators.

UNKNOWN:

Imitators.

SPEAKER_05:

February 2nd is World Ukulele Day, and what better way to celebrate than to hang out with a lifetime uke artist, teacher, and podcaster. I'd like to introduce you to my new friend Cameron Murray, who goes by the name Kamuk. He's from Sydney, Australia, and he has performed his ukulele there as well as in Hawaii and Los Angeles. He even has an endorsement deal with Romero Creations Ukuleles. If you get the chance to listen to his latest album, Mixed Business, you will discover that he loves lightning-fast drumming, akin to his idol, George Forby. Up next are some highlights of our conversation together, but you can hear the entire 40-minute chat in the very first Daystrider bonus episode. That one includes bits of several songs that Kamuk played for us on his ukulele, as well as a few extra stories about his journeys and experiences. Check it out when you can, but first... Let's get to the uke. All right, so it's really nice to meet you, Cameron. So you go by Kamuk, is

SPEAKER_01:

that right? Kamuk or Kamuke, people say, you know, and it's kind of a long story because for a long time, my email address was Kamuk, so C-A-M from Cameron and uke for ukulele. Right. And so I thought that might be a good name to use. And then, you know, just to make it sound a little bit more kind of Hawaiian, I made it a K instead of a C and I became Kamiuk. And since then, I've been Kamiuk.

SPEAKER_05:

That's fantastic.

SPEAKER_01:

I love

SPEAKER_05:

it. It's creative.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Well, look, yeah. And it's a different kind of name and it's kind of memorable. Love it. It's creative. I

SPEAKER_05:

like it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Thank you.

SPEAKER_05:

Do you say ukulele like a U or ukulele? How's it pronounced?

SPEAKER_01:

There's a bit of debate here. All right. So the Hawaiians say ukulele, and a lot of people on the mainland where you are say ukulele as well. You can say ukulele. Grammatically, you can do it. And so I do it that way just because it feels more natural to me. I mean, my parents are English and Scottish. I live in Australia. I'm not Hawaiian, so it just feels more natural to say ukulele. You know what? In the ukulele world, anything is right. So anything

SPEAKER_05:

goes. Choose which one you want. Yeah. That's because everybody's easy to get along with, right?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_05:

Perfect. So what got you into the uke? How did you get inspired by that? Like, were you a young child or talk to me about your journey?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. So I was young. It goes back to my dad, actually. My dad plays guitar, acoustic guitar, has played for a long time, plays sort of Scottish folk music and bluegrass music. country. And when I was a kid, I always loved playing around with his guitars. And I always wanted one of my own. So my dad bought a tiny little soprano ukulele, wooden ukulele for me. And then it turns out my step grandfather is an Englishman who plays banjo ukulele.

SPEAKER_05:

There we go.

SPEAKER_01:

So yeah, so here's the connection. So he was a member of the George Formby Society. So I don't know if your listeners might not know George Formby in America as much as in England. But he was a huge star in the 20s to 50s and was an incredible banjo ukulele player. So I asked my step-granddad one day, can you teach me a few chords? And just went from there. And away you went. Yeah, exactly. So I was about

SPEAKER_05:

9 or 10

SPEAKER_01:

probably at that time.

SPEAKER_05:

What's your favorite thing about playing the ukulele? singing, writing songs for it,

SPEAKER_01:

teaching others, all the above? Kind of all of the above. I actually started out just playing instrumental stuff because I wasn't really confident enough to sing until I got to a point where I actually started writing songs. And then I just thought, well, I'm going to have to sing them now because there's no one else to sing them. So I guess it's me. You've got to do it. But I've actually grown to really enjoy that. And yeah, songwriting has really taken over as... sort of my main passion recently. But, you know, just playing is fun and just meeting people, you know, meeting you, meeting so many people around the world through the ukulele and having so many friends online and I've been to Hawaii sort of seven times. I've got friends over there and it's just a lovely place to be.

SPEAKER_05:

Yep. So I've listened to some of your songs and I like the Strikes and Gutters.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I actually wrote that last year for a friend of mine who sadly passed away.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, that's what I guessed from the lyrics. Yep. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm glad you like

SPEAKER_05:

that one. I did. So Ukulele Day is coming up. Yes. How are you going to be celebrating?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I'll probably just be playing my ukulele almost like every other day. You play every day. As much as I can. As much as I can. Well, I try to, but I mean, work and other things get in the way. Yeah, work always gets in the way, doesn't it? It does. It's annoying like that. It is. But yeah, I mean, World Ukulele Day is kind of interesting in itself. You know, it didn't used to be a thing, and it's just recently become... sort of become a thing, which, you know, there's a day for everything now, isn't there, really?

SPEAKER_05:

There is. If you follow me on Facebook, you'll see every day it's something unusual. It's like, what? That's a day? It's a day for everything.

SPEAKER_01:

But yeah, no, so I'll just be playing. I'll probably, maybe I'll put up a video. I might put something on all my social channels about it.

SPEAKER_05:

So while you mention that, what are all the ways we can get a hold of you and learn about your music and all the things you're doing?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, you can go to my website, which is kamuke.com, so K-A-M-U-K-E.com I had a print magazine. So a lot of the articles from that I've actually put online on that website and some new ones as well. So you can go there and there's also a hall of fame about famous ukulele players people should know about. Nice. And there's a link as well to all my music. You can buy the CD of Mixed Business there at cammy.com. And yeah, Mixed Business is also available on all the streaming

SPEAKER_05:

services. I've listened to it.

SPEAKER_01:

So that's

SPEAKER_05:

the main places. Fantastic. So when I was researching the ukulele I discovered and surprisingly discovered that it was not invented in Hawaii. Correct. It was brought to Hawaii by Portuguese sailors. So do you know anything about that background, that story? I

SPEAKER_01:

certainly do. It's a great story. So before the ukulele arrives in the islands, they actually, the Hawaiian people don't have any stringed instruments. It's all just percussion. Right. So they have drums and, you know, which follows. Makes sense, right? Yeah, it makes sense. The instrument actually comes from the island of Madeira, which is a Portuguese island off Portugal itself. And in Madeira at that time, Madeira wine was a big export of theirs. But in the 1870s, they actually had a terrible famine and the wine industry was ruined. So a lot of people from Madeira just wanted to get out of there and they started looking for other opportunities. And they found out that the Hawaiians were looking for workers for the sugar plantations. So lots of ships left Madeira to sail for Hawaii. And on this one particular ship called the Raven's Crag, which pulled into Honolulu in August 1879, there just happened to be four people who would go on to create the ukulele. So three woodworkers... There was Manuel Nunez, Augusto Diaz, and Jose do Espirito Santos. So they were talented cabinet makers who also made instruments in their spare time. And, of course, this is a long voyage, so they had brought some folk instruments with them, including one that's called the machete, which is kind of a five-string, steel-strung, mandolin-type instrument. And legend has it that another... So the fourth guy in the story, a guy called Juan Fernandez... jumped off the ship and so happy to be off the ship and in Hawaii safely, started playing a machete on the dock. He's excited to finally be on land. Exactly, yeah. So he thought, I'll do a celebratory jig here. And the Hawaiians were fascinated by this. And the legend says that that's how it got the name ukulele, which actually in Hawaiian means jumping flea. Okay. Because they thought... his fingers jumping up and down the fretboard looked like jumping fleas because he was going so fast and then that fascinated the people as the ukulele takes shape so these cabinet makers they don't really have the materials to make machettes as such so it just evolves into what becomes known as the ukulele the string drops off they start using catgut instead of steel and the shape sort of slightly changes and it becomes the ukulele. Fantastic. And so it becomes a Hawaiian thing. So it is a Hawaiian thing, but an adopted one.

SPEAKER_05:

I don't know. It sounds like it, you know, if you think of chicken or egg, it sounds like this is the, this is actually really, it was invented in Hawaii. It evolved in Hawaii. Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, without Hawaii, it wouldn't exist for sure. The jumping flea. That's fantastic. Thank you for that story.

SPEAKER_01:

Pleasure.

SPEAKER_05:

So do people consider the ukulele a serious instrument or Or is it more of a fun, engaging instrument? How would you characterize that?

SPEAKER_01:

It's

SPEAKER_05:

both.

SPEAKER_01:

It really, you know, for a long time, and especially in this, what we call the third wave of ukulele popularity. So since the 90s and the internet and people starting ukulele groups all over the world, it did start just as a fun kind of distraction for people and, you know, an easy distraction. kind of path to music making, which is fantastic in itself. But there always has been, well, since then, at least, there's been a bit of a to and fro between, you know, is it a serious instrument? But a lot of my friends, you know, who are virtuoso players would argue that it absolutely is a virtuosic instrument.

SPEAKER_05:

How often do you play cover songs or whatever that other bands already do, but in the ukulele? Because they don't use that, but you do.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I play more original stuff than I ever used to. So I started out doing a lot of covers, but they were kind of more 1920s, 30s covers of ukuleles. hawaiian and george formby uh stuff from the yeah england and hawaii i kind of gravitate towards uh i guess like old country type stuff so old crow medicine show and if you've heard of them i have not um there's actually a ukulele a song that's become a ukulele song because of them called a wagon wheel which is very popular amongst the youth groups and it actually it sometimes gets banned by Ugrus because it's too popular. People don't want anything to do with it. But I love playing it. It's overplayed? Yeah, it's very overplayed. It is. But I still love doing it. I actually have a bit of a personal connection with it too because I interviewed the lead singer of Old Crow Medicine Show for

SPEAKER_05:

a

SPEAKER_01:

mainstream magazine. And of course I had to tell him that i was teaching people at that time how to play wagon wheel his biggest song on the ukulele and he loved that when i told him in the interviews that he couldn't believe people play on the ukulele but this is before it became overplayed

SPEAKER_05:

what's uh i don't know how many listeners might know that song maybe you want to give it a few seconds for us

SPEAKER_01:

yeah sure okay so

SPEAKER_00:

I'm headed down south to the land of the pines, thumbing my way into North Carolina, staring up the road, and pray to God I see headlights. Well, I made it down the coast in 17 hours, picking me a bouquet of dogwood flowers, and I'm hoping for Riley I can see my baby tonight. So rock me, mama, like a wagon wheel. Rock me, mama, any way you feel. Hey, Hey, mama, rock me. Rock me, mama, like the wind and the rain. Rock me, mama, like a cell phone train. Hey, hey, mama, rock

SPEAKER_05:

me. Fantastic. Thank you. That's a whole sample. That's fantastic. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01:

Pleasure.

SPEAKER_05:

I like that song. I could see myself driving down the country road, putting the windows down and just enjoying the breeze. playing that song. I'm going to have to try to find that and

SPEAKER_01:

download it. Yeah, find the Old Crow version. It's been covered by a few people since then, but Old Crow Medicine Show.

SPEAKER_05:

And then I kind of threw down a little challenge for you to see if you could consider playing the opening strings of an ACDC song called Thunderstruck. I mean, I can try and do it for you, but... Give it a try anyway. Let's hear what you have now.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. All right, go for it.

UNKNOWN:

Oh, hang on.

SPEAKER_06:

There it is.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, that's it. That's it. It's right there. It's right there. It's so close. I was about ready to say. Thank you. I appreciate that. So you have a podcast where you interview other ukulele players. What's your favorite experience with one of those podcast episodes? Talk to me about that experience of interviewing other ukulele players.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, well, it's called Ukulele Stories. And once I stopped publishing the magazine, I kind of thought about it. I thought, you know, the most enjoyment I got from doing the magazine was actually the interviews. Daniel Ho was an excellent episode. Daniel is an incredible professional Hawaiian musician, plays pretty much every instrument and is a virtuoso on the ukulele. And he's been a bit of a mentor to me and a great help. We did a little ukulele tour around Australia together a few years ago. And yeah, he's just an incredible person as well as the greatest musician I've ever met.

SPEAKER_05:

Wow. Now we want to ask, what famous person shares your birthday?

SPEAKER_01:

Paul McCartney.

SPEAKER_05:

Hey, very nice. That's a good one.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's not bad. I'll take it. Yeah,

SPEAKER_05:

take it. All right, what about, what's your favorite time travel movie?

SPEAKER_01:

Back to the Future.

SPEAKER_05:

Yep, of course. And did you like the first one, third one? Which one was your favorite?

SPEAKER_01:

You know, I mean, you've got to say the first one really is the best, but I enjoyed both of them. I know there are a lot of people who don't. like the third one, but I like them all. I think they're, you know, it's all a narrative. I love it.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, they're good movies. You should check them out if you haven't seen them. Now, if you had the power to invite anyone you wanted, living or dead, to dinner with you, who would you invite and why?

SPEAKER_01:

Ordinarily, I would say Martin Short because he's hilarious. I think that would be a great time, but because we're talking about ukuleles, I think I'd have to go with George Formby because he kind of inspired me to play and I could pick his brains and get to the bottom of his infamous split stroke technique, his strumming technique, which is incredible if you hear it. So yeah, George Formby.

SPEAKER_05:

Sounds good to me. Yeah, you guys could play after dinner and he could enlighten you in some way.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah. Maybe he'd give me some tips. I'm

SPEAKER_05:

sure he would love to do so. All right, we're going to switch gears and play a game called First Name, Last Name. So I'll say a first name like Elvis, and then you would respond with Presley. Sound good?

SPEAKER_01:

Sure.

SPEAKER_05:

All right. All right. First name is Alfred.

SPEAKER_01:

What was Alfred?

SPEAKER_05:

Yep, Alfred.

SPEAKER_01:

I can't remember his surname, but I'm thinking Alfred from Batman.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, that's Alfred Pennyworth. Okay, Florence.

SPEAKER_01:

Nightingale.

SPEAKER_05:

And Mary?

SPEAKER_01:

Fowler.

SPEAKER_05:

Very

SPEAKER_01:

nice. Who's Matilda, a football

SPEAKER_05:

player. Right,

SPEAKER_01:

right. That's it.

SPEAKER_05:

And then Michael.

SPEAKER_01:

Jackson.

SPEAKER_05:

Okay, very nice. Now we're going to play a game called This or That. I'm going to read a couple things, and then you pick one of the ones that you like better.

SPEAKER_01:

Sure.

SPEAKER_05:

All righty, here we go. Famous inventors or unsung heroes?

SPEAKER_01:

Famous inventors.

SPEAKER_05:

All right. The Age of Enlightenment or the Industrial Revolution?

SPEAKER_01:

Age of Enlightenment.

SPEAKER_05:

Okay. Ancient ruins or modern marvels? Modern

SPEAKER_01:

marvels.

SPEAKER_05:

Very nice. Man-made wonders or natural phenomena?

SPEAKER_01:

Natural phenomena.

SPEAKER_05:

All right. And then here's my favorite question. You ready? Pen and paper or digital notes?

SPEAKER_01:

I do both, but pen and paper. I've actually just this year, it wasn't a resolution, but I've got much more into writing again.

SPEAKER_05:

Very nice. Perfect.

SPEAKER_01:

Let's go with that.

SPEAKER_05:

Yes, I like it. All right. Thank you. And of course, what would your time travel machine look like? That's tricky.

SPEAKER_01:

I actually used to be Kind of a hobby pilot, so it would have to be a plane of some description.

SPEAKER_05:

Okay, airplane.

SPEAKER_01:

That's good. Yeah, maybe a Spitfire.

SPEAKER_05:

Uh-oh,

SPEAKER_01:

an aggressive airplane. I'm thinking a Spitfire.

SPEAKER_05:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Why not?

SPEAKER_05:

Right? Why not? What the heck? It's your time machine. So we've heard you play, and we've learned a little bit about the history of the ukulele. And so the question now is, how does somebody new like me or any of our listeners go out and get started playing?

SPEAKER_01:

So it's a lot easier now. You know, when I started in the 1990s, it was virtually impossible to go into a music store and find a ukulele. But nowadays, it's not so hard. Just go into a music store and maybe talk to the staff there. And just play around with it. You don't have to know anything. You don't have to know one single chord. Just get the feel of the ute because that's a big part of it. There are a lot of manufacturers out there. I would go entry level. There's a great brand out of California called Ohana, O-H-A-N-A. Ohana. And also a big one called Kala, K-A-L-A. Kala. Yeah. I think Ohana make a slightly superior product at the entry

SPEAKER_05:

point. All right. So now that we have our ukulele, is it hard to learn to play?

SPEAKER_01:

No, absolutely not. I mean, nowadays there's so many resources online. There's so many YouTube videos on how to play. Right. I've seen them out there. It's so easy. And virtually every city in the Western world now has a ukulele group. So just look those up on Facebook or online and go along and You'll be playing in no time. It takes half an hour to learn how to play a simple tune on ukulele. A lifetime to master it, but very easy to begin with.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, a lifetime to master, I'm sure. Well, listen, Kamuk, it's been a pleasure talking with you today. You've been great. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01:

My pleasure. Thanks very much for inviting me.

UNKNOWN:

Thank you.

SPEAKER_05:

And there you have it. Some great stories to share with your someone special to celebrate February 2nd. Once again, those are Today is Groundhog Day. It's also Tater Tot Day. And it's also World Ukulele Day. Let's reflect a moment on the crazy is genius lesson from the Tater Tot story. Sometimes you might have an idea that you just feel like needs to be out there. You feel like others should know about it. And maybe you're thinking, I could share it in a way that would just be crazy. It's just too crazy for me to fathom. Well, be bold, my fellow seeker, because sometimes crazy is genius. All right, so after you share these special stories, you can also mention the following famous folks who celebrate their birthday today. We'll start with Shakira. She's the highest-selling music artist from Colombia and the first musical act to perform at the FIFA World Cup three times. And she can belly dance like a beast. There's Tom Blythe, who played Billy in the Billy the Kid television series. You should check that out. It was also President Snow in The Hunger Games prequel movie. And then other famous folks who were born today include Barry Diller, He was the CEO and founder of 20th Century Fox, the Mexican OT, a social media rapper from Texas who's now going mainstream, and George Papa Bear Hallis, a famous football coach and one of the founders of the NFL. And according to famousbirthdays.com, the 50th most famous person born on February 2nd is Christy Brinkley. She was a supermodel who has been on the cover of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Editions. She was Clark Griswold's fantasy lady driving that red Ferrari in the vacation movies. And she was once Billy Joel's uptown girl. All right, so if you're looking for a gift idea for your loved one, and you've already shared these great stories, you can get them a customized gift tailored to February 2nd. I have some great gift ideas for you today. And if you check out my show notes, you can find links for all those on the Amazon website. So yeah, that means if you make a purchase, I would get a small commission. But I would invest that right back into this podcast. All right, so since it's Groundhog Day, a DVD of the movie Groundhog Day starring Bill Murray would be a great one if you can't find it already on your streaming apps. Since it's Tater Tot Day, you can have Tater Tots delivered. But if you don't feel like packing them in dry ice and driving them 2,900 miles, you could also get a Tater Tot cookbook. There are lots of cookbooks out there with great tater tot recipes, and that could be lots of fun. And you could stop by and make some tater tot casseroles with your loved one. And, of course, since it's Ukulele Day, a starter ukulele could be a great idea, perhaps along with a beginner's lesson book as well. And I just mentioned some famous birthdays. There are great gift ideas that pair nicely with those. For example, if you like Tom Blythe as President Snow in the Hunger Game movie, There's a throw blanket that big fans can use to snuggle up with him and get warm in a Tom Blythe hug. I also found some fancy Shakira perfumes where the bottle is actually in the shape of Shakira's belly dancing body. And I found a National Lampoon's magazine cover with Christy Brinkley on it, spoofing her swimsuit issues. So there's lots of good things you can get on February 2nd. But as always, if those things aren't cool enough, you can always give them a shout out right here on the podcast. You can do it the old fashioned way where you can email me and tell me their name and something interesting and I'll do the shout out for you. Or you can get crazy because crazy is genius. You can try out the new feature we've added. You can record your very own shout out to your loved one using the Tellbee app. And that might sound something like this.

SPEAKER_04:

Happy 23rd birthday, Rose. I'll always cherish our friendship, and I'm so grateful for all of the memories we've made. From weekly sleepovers at your house, playing Just Dance, to being on the Blue Angels together, performing in Lipstock, and being my lifelong swing dance partner, you've been a teammate for my whole life. You're one of the very first friends I ever made, and you've cheered me on in every venture ever since. I'm so grateful to have had you in my life all these years. Happy, happy birthday, Rosie!

SPEAKER_02:

My favorite memories with you. In sixth grade, your Instagram name being I Love Kira. Our middle school basketball picture. Singing karaoke at the beach. Making you watch Gone With the Wind with me for four hours. Lip syncing to each other at every class. Teaching frat boys how to dance. Our Dunkin' Ice coffee with almond milk and vanilla swirl. Your mom marrying my uncle. Going to Blessing the Hounds together hungover and spending Christmas night together a month later. Ravens games any weather, any score. Always taking one more photo with me and comparing our Instagram feeds aesthetic afterwards. Being equally messy eaters and working out every day in quarantine. Waitressing at Coconuts, our Penn State day, enough said. My dad being more proud of your sports accomplishments than mine. Playing quiplash after the Super Bowl this year. Chipping your teeth in Indiana. Looking like a couple every time we leave the house. And my favorite memory, being your best friend for 10 years now. Happy 23rd!

SPEAKER_03:

Happy 23rd to one of the most beautiful, kind-hearted, charismatic, and hilarious people I have been blessed to know. You are truly one of a kind, Rose Patricia, and I am so thankful to have called you my best friend for over 10 years. That's over half of our life, by the way. We're really old. I can't wait to celebrate you. Cheers to your Jordan, your sis. Enjoy your birth month. I love you. All

SPEAKER_05:

right. Very nice, ladies. You can find the link to do that in the show notes. And as always, if you have a story that just needs to be shared about any day in the past, Send me an email, connect with me on Facebook, and let's get it told. And of course, while you're thinking about all that, how about clicking the follow button on your podcast so you get notifications at the next episode and sharing it with a friend. Why do that? Well, let me tell you something special. Are you listening? We have pushed our podcast into the top 75% of all podcasts in the whole world. That's right. Thanks to you listening. So, hey. Let's set our sights into getting into the top half. Who's with me, huh? All you got to do is share with a friend. That's it for today, folks. 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.