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This is our third episode on our elementary school years. Unsurprising but just like our first episode, on First Grade, we covered several areas that were not part of the script! The review of our report card revealed to us that we were both under a more focused attention on books we were reading’. It was interesting giving how topical books and schools are in the US right now. Nevertheless and  as you might expect, Eden was a far more accomplished reader than her ‘Old Man’. We also uncovered our memories of our first experiences with standardized testing which were the same but different at the same time. We do get back on script to discuss our introduction to Social Studies and specifically learning about the United State’s 50 states and the impact that had on our future selves. Lastly, we spend time discussing traumatic events that occurred in the Third Grade that would be the start of our experiencing significant emotional and physical pain and how to deal with it.   As usual, topics are covered with humility, personal experience and tenderness.   Hope you enjoy! Email us at DadStoriesPodcast@Gmail.com Visit our website at DadStoriesPodcast.com Download our podcast from where ever you get your favorite podcasts Music written and performed by Tom Knutilla

This is our second episode on our elementary school years. To keep us honest, we invited Mom back to join us for this episode.  Just like our first episode, on First Grade, we covered several areas that were not part of the script! The review of our report card would suggest that we both had school in the second grade figured out. Our report cards indicated very little about little Tommy and Eden. However, that conclusion soon is modified as we dive into our first tastes or creative writing, dealing with bullies, working through school solutions to overcrowded classrooms, explore how corporations work to get their products in front of kids, among other topics that seem more adult related than something that a second grader would have to confront. The good news is that we also experienced some wonderful and unique things like our favorite teacher and split classrooms and all of the benefits that come from those experiences! As usual, topics are covered with humility, personal experience and tenderness.   Hope you enjoy! Email us at DadStoriesPodcast@Gmail.com Visit our website at DadStoriesPodcast.com Download our podcast from where ever you get your favorite podcasts. Music written and performed by Eden Knutilla on a Kantele, a Finnish five string lyre, which Eden is learning how to pla y.

We have decided to go back further in time and explore stories from our elementary school years. We were a little worried that our memories couldn’t go back that far. After recording our first episode, on First Grade, we realized our worries were for naught. In this episode we explore our experiences from First Grade. As luck would have it, our moms had saved our report cards from our elementary school years. We start with a review of our report card highlights. That gets us going on other topics such as teacher relationships, learning how to do arithmetic, issues with learning how to read and forms of punishment among other topics. By now, no one should be surprised when Eden compares first grade punishments to our modern problems with criminal justices. As usual, topics are covered with humility, personal experience and tenderness.   Hope you enjoy! Email us at DadStoriesPodcast@Gmail.com Visit our website at DadStoriesPodcast.com Download our podcast from where ever you get your favorite podcasts Music performed by Tom and Bobby Knutilla and written/arranged by Bobby Knutilla and Brian Roberts.

This episode takes us back to our original model of comparing and contrasting our childhood experiences. In this episode, we discuss a question that adults frequently ask children, “So, what are you going to be when your grow up?”. It turns out that we had a lot to talk about. While Fireman, Policeman and Nurse were the most common jobs for children in the 60s, it turns out that a lot has changed.  For us, future job considerations i included Gas Station Attendant, Politician, Veterinarian, Journalist and others. We discuss how our situations influenced our career pursuits, things we did (or didn’t do) to figure out if we really wanted to be that, why we changed our minds and influences from family members.  As usual, we had some things in common and, also, not.  Hope you enjoy! Email us at DadStoriesPodcast@Gmail.com Visit our website at DadStoriesPodcast.com Download our podcast from where ever you get your favorite podcasts Music performed by Tom and Bobby Knutilla and written/arranged by Bobby Knutilla and Brian Roberts.  

This episode takes some unexpected turns as we start out discussing our experiences travelling in the Pacific Northwest and end up spending most of our time talking about Eden’s experience working at Animal Shelters in Michigan and California. In this episode we discuss Eden’s time in the woods of the Olympic Peninsula and Tom’s experiences while on a sea kayaking trip in the San Juan Islands. This discussion quickly turns to the issues of traveling especially after not having traveled much during the pandemic. One of the biggest issues we had to deal with was what we do with our pets given that our old support mechanism for dealing with this problem may no longer exist. This conversation morphed into a very detailed experience regarding working at an Animal Shelter. Topics covered include the kinds of tasks you might be expected to do, what do new volunteers get to do with the animals, what are the animals like, do you risk getting bitten or scratched, among other associated topics. We even get surprised to hear about Eden’s award while working there! This episode didn’t go the way we planned but we still had a lot of fun.  Hope you enjoy! Email us at DadStoriesPodcast@Gmail.com Visit our website at DadStoriesPodcast.com Download our podcast from where ever you get your favorite podcasts

After taking a few months off we are back with a new season! During part of our time off we spend some time travelling and being out in the woods. In this episode, we discuss some ideas that bubbled up while we were communing with nature including some stories about our experiences with bears and inconvenient places to sleep. We share experiences regarding running into bears while camping and bike riding. We also discuss how we tried to prevent bears from getting into our food. Since we were on the matter of inconvenience, we some how segue into discussions on our experiences trying to sleep mostly while camping but we also discuss falling asleep just before jumping out of an airplane … unbelievable as that sounds. I am sure that many will see themselves in at least some of these stories.  As with all of our episodes, you do not need to start from the beginning to listen to our episodes. Each episode stands on its own. Hope you enjoy! Email us at DadStoriesPodcast@Gmail.com Visit our website at DadStoriesPodcast.com Download our podcast from where ever you get your favorite podcasts   Music performed by Tom and Bobby Knutilla and written/arranged by Bobby Knutilla and Brian Roberts.  

This episode is an old fashioned BS session. It has been awhile since we spent time discussing exploits from our past. For this session, we unintentionally focused on some of our lesser stories from our travels in Europe. We share such experiences as seeing John the Baptist’s Skeleton, driving tips and tricks while on a long drive,  taking up-close pictures of the pope, and getting in an accident while driving an formula race care in Belgium. While none of these stories were significant enough to become their own episode, it was fun to see how several of them flowed into each other as you would expect while sharing a casual conversation with others. The result is a complete episode. A nice way to end up the summer and ease into Fall. By the time you finish this episode, you will have the answer to our title question! Hope you like it.    As with all of our episodes, this is a standalone episode, which means that you don’t have to listen to any other episode to enjoy this one. We hope you find this short conversation interesting. If you would like to share your comments and questions please  Email us at DadStoriesPodcast@Gmail.com Visit our website at DadStoriesPodcast.com Download our podcast from where ever you get your favorite podcasts Music performed by Bobby Knutilla and Tom Knutilla  

This previously promised episode compares concerts and dancing between Boomer Parents and their Millennial Children. If one were to think that this topic is ripe for discomfort between generations or that participants would be talking right past each other due to complete unfamiliarity with each generation’s music and dance preferences, they would be partially right. If one were to suspect that this might lead to angst and anger resulting in argument and emotion, they would be totally wrong. This episode serves to show how people with two different perspectives on a topic, can have a mostly civil conversation (all profanity has been deleted) and still come out with the same level of love, respect and confusion about the other’s generation. One missing topic that was cut due to a lack of interest is a discussion about our Proms. Turns out, no one really had a bad time or a great time, the stories just weren’t that interesting. At any rate, hopefully this episode with conjure up memories of your own concerts and dance experiences. Hopefully, that is a good thing. Enjoy.    As with all of our episodes, this is a standalone episode, which means that you don’t have to listen to any other episode to enjoy this one. We hope you find this short conversation interesting. If you would like to share your comments and questions please …     Email us at DadStoriesPodcast@Gmail.com Visit our website at DadStoriesPodcast.com Download our podcast from where ever you get your favorite podcasts Music performed by Bobby and Tom Knutilla. Music written by Bobby Knutilla and Brian Roberts. 

This episode covers stories about the oldest members of our family that we personally knew, Eden’s Great Grandparents. This episode brings to light some of the most interesting personal stories of our family tree. As appropriate, mom joins us for this episode to represent her side of the family.  It turns out that both mom and dad’s ancestral folks that grew up in the early 1900s had experiences that rivaled anything us youngsters could ever contrive. We learn about our glamourous ancestors, divorce, The Depression, gun play, hunting and fishing stories, quirky sayings and ways they all made their way through life’s challenges. Many of these stories are about how they overcame obstacles, found ways to survive, and manage to make things better for their future generations. And, upon reflection, we some insight into how life was for people back in the day. Hope you enjoy it.   As with all of our episodes, this is a standalone episode, which means that you don’t have to listen to any other episode to enjoy this one. We hope you find this short conversation interesting. If you would like to share your comments and questions please …     Email us at DadStoriesPodcast@Gmail.com Visit our website at DadStoriesPodcast.com Download our podcast from where ever you get your favorite podcasts Music performed by Bobby and Tom Knutilla. Music written by Bobby Knutilla and Brian Roberts. 

With all of the excitement that happened in Washington D.C. this year, it reminded us of our time living in Washington D.C. To us, the most important thing was that is where we started our family. Of course, we were no D.C. movers and shakers, we were just working stiffs trying to raise a family. However, upon reflection, we were able to take advantage of quite a few opportunities to float amongst the ‘powerful and famous’. We just qualified as ‘fly’s on the wall’. In this episode, you will hear some of those stories of our experiences with Members of Congress which included a personal tour of the capitol among other experiences. We also visited with Members of the Executive Branch which resulted in a personal tour of the White House where we got to see the bowling alley and, of course, a visit to the door of the Oval Office as we weren’t allowed into the Oval Office. We also include our experience with president’s including shaking Jimmy Carter’s hand just before he entered the bathroom and going to Bill Clinton’s inauguration where we froze. In hindsight, I guess we didn’t completely waste the time that we lived in Washington D. C. and in this episode we tell these stories and others to show you why. Hope you enjoy. 

Spring is right around the corner. For some of us that means bicycling is back. This episode was made in hopes of conjuring up your own memories of learning to ride a bike and the  independence that cycling brought you. Do you remember your first bike? This episode discusses the difference between people that remember their first bike and those that don’t. We also discuss our personal evolutions with the bicycle. As we discussed our cycling experience we were surprised as we both realized that we had both experienced a love/hate relationship with bikes over the course of our lives. Some of the reasons for that relationship seem trivial and others were definitely not. Yet, they were all real. Included is a discussion about falling off bikes and other bike safety concerns. While this episode was definitely not intended to be a love story about bicycles, I think in the end, for better or worse, richer or poorer, that is where we end up. Hope you like it.  As with all of our episodes, this is a standalone episode, which means that you don’t have to listen to any other episode to enjoy this one. We hope you find this short conversation interesting. If you would like to share your comments and questions please … Email us at DadStoriesPodcast@Gmail.com Visit our website at DadStoriesPodcast.com Download our podcast from where ever you get your favorite podcasts Music performed by Tom Knutilla and Queen

If you ever reflected on your childhood and wondered why your parents did certain things, this may be the episode for you. If you are a parent of adult age children and you wondered how certain misadventures impacted your kids, this may be the episode for you. Mom and Bobby make what has become a regular visit to participate in the discussion. For this episode, we have taken the gloves off to discuss several sensitive topics that occurred in our family’s past. Topics like ‘why did you make me do this” and “why did you always interrupt my tv shows”, among other topics are discussed. As you might expect, all topics are discussed with great sensitivity, love and humor. It is our suspicion that all family’s deal with a lot of similar idiosyncrasies, this is just a snapshot of some of ours. Hope you find the conversation interesting and use it to bring up your own memories of your relationship with your parents or your kids. Hope you like it.   As with all of our episodes, this is a standalone episode, which means that you don’t have to listen to any other episode to enjoy this one. We hope you find this short conversation interesting. If you would like to share your comments and questions please  Email us at DadStoriesPodcast@Gmail.com Visit our website at DadStoriesPodcast.com Download our podcast from where ever you get your favorite podcasts Music performed and written by Tom Knutilla and Bobby Knutilla

With winter here and lots of time by ourselves due to the pandemic, we realized that we were listening to a lot more music than we usually do. Just like with streaming video, we are expanding our music interests so we thought this would be a good time to do the music episode that we have threatened to do for quite awhile. Given that this is another family discussion, we invited Mom and our own music man, Bobby, to join the discussion. With this episode we discuss the changes to the music listening devices we have used over the years  from stereo consoles to our phones. This conversation gets expanded to discuss our relationship to listening to music while in the car. We also discuss our personal favorite genres. We compare and contrast how we have acquired music over the years. Dad reveals himself to be a poser by pretending that he knows the music of Billie Eilish. All this and more is discussed as we end up realizing that the evolution of music shows some significant differences between Boomers and Millennials. It is all good fun. Hope you enjoy it. As with all of our episodes, this is a standalone episode, which means that you don’t have to listen to any other episode to enjoy this one. We hope you find this short conversation interesting. If you would like to share your comments and questions please … Email us at DadStoriesPodcast@Gmail.com Visit our website at DadStoriesPodcast.com Download our podcast from where ever you get your favorite podcasts Music performed by Tom Knutilla and written by Tom Knutilla and Brian Roberts (brianrobertsguitar@gmail.com)

With this episode we go back to our pattern of talking about things we know very little about. For this episode we focus on our memories of the US Space Program. We will review memories about the “Race to the Moon” that occurred in the 60s and early 70s. The danger and consequences of travelling to space are highlighted. We also discus everything we know about space garbage which turned out to be more than we thought. In this episode, you will also get a chance to learn what to say to an astronaut when you happen to be sitting next to one at a Charity Casino Night event. We also mention a few other memories when we were up close and personal with current and future astronauts. Naturally, we slip in a few words about social issues surrounding how earthlings are interacting with space. Last but not least, we ask the age old question, “Really, why do we need to walk in space anyway.” Hope you enjoy the episode and that it reminds you of your own memories about Space.   As with all of our episodes, this is a standalone episode, which means that you don’t have to listen to any other episode to enjoy this one. We hope you find this short conversation interesting. If you would like to share your comments and questions please …     Email us at DadStoriesPodcast@Gmail.com Visit our website at DadStoriesPodcast.com Download our podcast from where ever you get your favorite podcasts Music performed by Bobby Knutilla and written by Bobby Knutilla

With this episode we add another generation to our multi-generational podcast! Because we have not been able to get out and visit friends and family, we have mostly been staying in touch by phone and video calls. We decided that we would add some spice to our phone calls to grandparents by recording a podcast with them. We convinced Eden’s grandparents to participate in a podcast where Eden could ask them questions from their past. Questions like how did you meet each other, what did you do to earn money, what was living in World War II like and, most importantly, what was mom like when she was a little girl. Both grandparents were good sports and we had a lot of fun. We later realized that we may have set a record for having a pair of the oldest guests ever to appear on a podcast as Grandpa is 96 years old and Grammy is 91 years old.    As with all of our episodes, this is a standalone episode, which means that you don’t have to listen to any other episode to enjoy this one. We hope you find this short conversation interesting. If you would like to share your comments and questions please …     Email us at DadStoriesPodcast@Gmail.com Visit our website at DadStoriesPodcast.com Download our podcast from where ever you get your favorite podcasts Music performed by Tom Knutilla and written by Brian Roberts (brianrobertsguitar@gmail.com)

Since many kids of all ages are now getting their formal education remotely, we were wondering how they were going to do their extracurricular activities. It brought to mind many memories of the extracurricular activities that we participated in during college. Some activities centered around extending our knowledge of our chosen career choices, others were more athletic in nature. Club sports and intramurals were a common pursuit between both Eden and Tom. However, there were plenty of cases where we did not follow the same path. Also discussed are the ways to get involved with extracurricular activities. We discuss approaches for getting the courage to walk into a group of strangers and quickly make friends and enjoy your common interests. Some worked but most didn’t  😊.  Turns out, that problem can be a high hurdle to clear in enjoying an after-school club or activity. In the end, we learned quite a lot about each other’s non academic college lives while being exposed to quite a few of the options available for students to do while not in school. This episode was a lot of fun to make and we hope that you enjoy it! As with all of our episodes, this is a standalone episode, which means that you don’t have to listen to any other episode to enjoy this one. We hope you find this short conversation interesting. If you would like to share your comments and questions please … Email us at DadStoriesPodcast@Gmail.com Visit our website at DadStoriesPodcast.com Download our podcast from where ever you get your favorite podcasts Music performed by Tom Knutilla and written by Brian Roberts (brianrobertsguitar@gmail.com)

Most of us have gone to Amusement Parks during our college years . In this episode, we share our memories and opinions of Amusement Parks based on our individual and shared experiences.  While there are many similarities in our inter-generational stories one of the things that was definitely different is that Eden and Bobby had some of their college year Amusement Park experiences with their parents. In this episode, we discuss our many experiences both as a family and with our friends while at several of the different amusement parks available today. We explore, through our experiences, some of the more subtle aspects of being at an amusement park like: Foods we ate, meeting Cast Members (or not), losing things while on the roller coaster, where we stayed, favorite rides, being stuck at the top of Space Mountain, what to do while standing in line and others. The hardest part of this episode was figuring when to stop! This episode will surely kindle memories from your own experiences at amusement parts. Have fun! As with all of our episodes, this is a standalone episode, which means that you don’t have to listen to any other episode to enjoy this one. We hope you find this short conversation interesting. If you would like to share your comments and questions please …     Email us at DadStoriesPodcast@Gmail.com Visit our website at DadStoriesPodcast.com Download our podcast from where ever you get your favorite podcasts Music performed by Bobby Knutilla and Tom Knutilla

EP 28: Study Abroad-College Kids On Their Own in Europe, What Could Go Wrong? College is, theoretically, a place of higher learning and represents a period of time where one might learn many things. For some, college includes an opportunity to travel outside of their home countries resulting in meaningful experiences and memories that last the rest of their lives. In this episode, we explore the experiences that we had with our college aged international travel. We don’t spend much time talking about the Louvre, Eiffel Tower, Prague’s Charles Bridge or the Crown Jewels of Germany. Instead, we discuss getting sick, running out of money, and where we slept. We also discuss the impact that a plane crash in Chicago may have on a college student traveling on a tight budget in Germany! In the end we both agree that the experience of living over seas for a period of time in college played a significant part in our growth and development.   As with all of our episodes, this is a standalone episode, which means that you don’t have to listen to any other episode to enjoy this one. We hope you find this short conversation interesting. If you would like to share your comments and questions please   Email us at DadStoriesPodcast@Gmail.com Visit our website at DadStoriesPodcast.com Download our podcast from where ever you get your favorite podcasts. Now available on Amazon! Music written by Tom Knutilla (intro) and Brian Roberts (outro) Music performed by Tom Knutilla

College is a place of higher learning and theoretically represents a period of time where one might learn many things in the classroom. For this episode, we challenged ourselves to think about some of the best things we learned during our college experiences. As you might have guessed, none of them came from a classroom. We chat about Tom’s experience getting in trouble with a Sargent Major and Eden learning about what happens when you ask for help. Hope you enjoy! As with all of our episodes, this is a standalone episode, which means that you don’t have to listen to any other episode to enjoy this one. We hope you find this short conversation interesting. If you would like to share your comments and questions please …   Email us at DadStoriesPodcast@Gmail.com Visit our website at DadStoriesPodcast.com Download our podcast from where ever you get your favorite podcasts Music performed by Bobby Knutilla and Tom Knutilla

This episode continues our discussion of college and young adult years. This second episode discusses our unique experiences that occurred during our summers while in college. For Eden, the summers were all about internships.  For Tom, it was military preparation. In both cases, summer experiences were about preparing for the first job after college. Having the most recent experience, Eden also shares information about internships in general including difficulties in finding an internship, internships as a conduit to a full time job and the value of an unpaid internship. Tom shares experiences gained while learning how to be an Army Paratrooper, a Drill Cadet and a tank platoon leader in Germany. By comparing and contrasting our experiences we uncover a very surprising observation about our college summer experiences and how our careers panned out after leaving college.  As with all of our episodes, this episode is standalone, which means that you don’t have to listen to any other episode to enjoy this one. We hope you find this short conversation interesting. If you would like to share your comments and questions please …   Email us at DadStoriesPodcast@Gmail.com Visit our website at DadStoriesPodcast.com Download our podcast from where ever you get your favorite podcasts Music performed by Bobby Knutilla and Tom Knutilla