Latest / Revisionist History / Welcoming Heavyweight
Transcript
- 0:15Speaker 1: Pushkin.
- 0:18Speaker 2: Hello, Hello Revisionist History listeners. We're having a very exciting
- 0:21Speaker 2: week here at Pushkin. You know that I'm Canadian, right,
- 0:24Speaker 2: We actually fly a big maple leaf flag here at
- 0:26Speaker 2: Pushkin HQ. Well, this week we added another Canadian. The
- 0:31Speaker 2: great Jonathan Goldstein, native of Quebec, has brought his acclaimed
- 0:35Speaker 2: narrative series Heavyweight to the Pushkin Network.
- 0:39Speaker 3: Oh Canada, our home and native land, true patrid love,
- 0:48Speaker 3: in all our hearts command.
- 0:52Speaker 2: Jonathan and the Heavyweight team represent everything we believe in
- 0:55Speaker 2: here at Pushkin. The power of storytelling, the value of
- 0:58Speaker 2: intelligence and emotion, the belief that Canadians can and should
- 1:02Speaker 2: dominate all aspects of American culture. Heavyweight examines personal histories
- 1:07Speaker 2: and resentments. It tries to heal old wounds, and then
- 1:09Speaker 2: the process reminds us of our shared humanity. Yes, it's
- 1:14Speaker 2: that good. We're dropping the first ever episode here in
- 1:17Speaker 2: the feed about Jonathan's quest to reconcile his father with
- 1:21Speaker 2: his estranged brother Buzz Enjoy And there is much, much,
- 1:25Speaker 2: much more to come. And if you want to listen
- 1:27Speaker 2: to more Heavyweight, which I'm sure you do, check out
- 1:30Speaker 2: the show notes for the Revisionist History team's favorite episodes.
- 1:41Speaker 4: Yell from Gimblet Media. This is Jonathan Goldstein. Your old
- 1:44Speaker 4: pal is that.
- 1:47Speaker 5: Was called Gimblet Gimblet Media.
- 1:49Speaker 4: That's correct.
- 1:49Speaker 6: It sounds like giblets, the inside of a chicken, like
- 1:52Speaker 6: all the innerds.
- 1:53Speaker 4: Well, everybody loves giblet.
- 1:54Speaker 6: You Oh shit, they're my kids.
- 1:56Speaker 2: Hey guys, I'm up here.
- 1:59Speaker 4: Do you know what my new podcast is about.
- 2:01Speaker 6: I know, I don't know anything about it.
- 2:03Speaker 4: Each week, I travel into people's past to help them
- 2:06Speaker 4: repair something that's been troubling them. I'm sort of like
- 2:10Speaker 4: a therapist, like a therapist. So yeah, do you find out?
- 2:20Speaker 4: Do you find that funny? I supportive? That's the laughter
- 2:22Speaker 4: of support.
- 2:23Speaker 6: I think it's great.
- 2:24Speaker 4: I think it's great. Do you have any questions for
- 2:27Speaker 4: me about what my show is and what it's going
- 2:29Speaker 4: to be? Like, what's the name of your show?
- 2:33Speaker 6: What's the name of your show?
- 2:34Speaker 2: Yes, we're gonna go now, but Johnson's just about tell
- 2:36Speaker 2: me the name of his new show.
- 2:38Speaker 6: As soon as he tells me, I'm going to bang
- 2:39Speaker 6: down on him in five Remember to do that, Yes.
- 2:44Speaker 4: To hang up the phone on each other? Okay, ready, Yes,
- 2:47Speaker 4: the name of the show is Heavyweight Heavyweight, you get
- 2:52Speaker 4: it too one. Hello. Hello from Gimblet Media. I'm Jonathan
- 3:03Speaker 4: Goldstein and this is Heavyweight today's episode.
- 3:08Speaker 6: But hello, hey Dad, Hi Johnny.
- 3:15Speaker 4: Hey, how you doing good? You good good good yum
- 3:19Speaker 4: tiv Shanapova oximea O.
- 3:23Speaker 6: What's that meaning?
- 3:24Speaker 4: I'm not sure. Oh, this is my father Buzz. I'm
- 3:28Speaker 4: calling him at his home in Montreal. And the reason
- 3:31Speaker 4: we're talking crazy talk is because it's young Kipper the
- 3:34Speaker 4: Jewish day of Atonement, which seems as good a day
- 3:37Speaker 4: as any to talk with him about forgiveness. So I
- 3:42Speaker 4: wanted to I wanted to ask you something and I
- 3:45Speaker 4: just wanted to gauge your interest. Yeah, how how would
- 3:50Speaker 4: you feel about paying your brother Sheldon a visit?
- 3:55Speaker 6: I have no feelings by I'm not really interested. You're not. No.
- 4:02Speaker 4: My father Buzz is eighty and his brother, Sheldon, his
- 4:05Speaker 4: only sibling, is eighty five, and for the past forty
- 4:09Speaker 4: they've pretty much been on the outs. My father lives
- 4:14Speaker 4: in Montreal and Sheldon lives in Florida, and the last
- 4:18Speaker 4: time they saw each other over twenty years ago was
- 4:20Speaker 4: at their mother's funeral when they had a fight over
- 4:23Speaker 4: the details of the arrangements. Since then, they've hardly spoken.
- 4:29Speaker 4: It worries me because there's not a lot of time left,
- 4:32Speaker 4: and I don't want my father to have regrets. When
- 4:35Speaker 4: the subject of his brother comes up, as it often
- 4:37Speaker 4: has over the years, my father feels competing things. He
- 4:40Speaker 4: grows angry or defensive, but other times he'll become sad
- 4:44Speaker 4: and remorseful. And it's the sorrow and the remorse that
- 4:47Speaker 4: I like best, because it's these feelings that I believe
- 4:50Speaker 4: speak to his better self, the self I want to encourage.
- 4:55Speaker 4: I'm not surprised that you're not jumping at the idea,
- 4:57Speaker 4: but I'm a little surprised at yours against the idea.
- 5:01Speaker 6: Yeah, time's passed. He hasn't shown much interest, so I'm
- 5:05Speaker 6: respecting that and I leave them alone.
- 5:07Speaker 4: What he did do was he called you on your
- 5:11Speaker 4: eightieth birthday not so long ago, and you felt good.
- 5:15Speaker 6: About it to him on his eightieth birthday.
- 5:18Speaker 4: This kind of tit for tat accounting is what always
- 5:20Speaker 4: gets in the way. There's been a competition between the
- 5:23Speaker 4: brothers since I was a kid. I remember how in
- 5:26Speaker 4: my grandmother's small New York kitchen, Sheldon and Buzz got
- 5:29Speaker 4: into an argument about who could do the most push ups,
- 5:32Speaker 4: and the next thing I knew, my father was pulling
- 5:34Speaker 4: off his shirt and dropping to the kitchen floor in
- 5:37Speaker 4: his undershirt. My mother, not used to seeing the side
- 5:41Speaker 4: of him, stood over my father, flapping a dishtowel hysterically
- 5:45Speaker 4: while begging him to the point of tears to please stop.
- 5:49Speaker 4: Now you go, my father said, rising from the floor
- 5:52Speaker 4: when he was done. But Sheldon shook his head with
- 5:55Speaker 4: a smile. It was like he didn't even think my
- 5:57Speaker 4: father was worth the effort.
- 6:00Speaker 6: You know what it is at this point with him,
- 6:01Speaker 6: I'll tell you what it is. I don't think it's
- 6:03Speaker 6: even anger. He's past anger, and he's past any feelings
- 6:07Speaker 6: of Animosity's he just doesn't care. Yeah, you know, that's apathy.
- 6:14Speaker 6: I mean, sometimes at least hate or love their emotions.
- 6:18Speaker 6: Apathy is nothing. Yeah, you know what. Johnny as a child,
- 6:24Speaker 6: even when I was ten, when I was nine and eight,
- 6:27Speaker 6: I was crazy about him. We had a great you know,
- 6:30Speaker 6: I loved him. He was the older brother.
- 6:32Speaker 4: He was hello, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm listening.
- 6:36Speaker 7: You know.
- 6:38Speaker 6: I just looked up to him, and he had older friends.
- 6:40Speaker 6: Sometimes he'd take me along with him and he was good.
- 6:44Speaker 6: Somebody trying to somebody trying to call here, binging me here.
- 6:49Speaker 4: Don't you see, Buzz, it's father time? Who is bringing
- 6:52Speaker 4: you here? And Buzz loses track of time. Air Conditioners
- 6:56Speaker 4: remain boxed all through July, and expired coupons from the
- 7:00Speaker 4: mid nineties make plump his wallet, so I worry he'll
- 7:04Speaker 4: put off reaching out to Sheldon until it's too late.
- 7:11Speaker 4: The most complicated question, the one I keep coming back to,
- 7:15Speaker 4: is how did the bad blood begin? And there are
- 7:18Speaker 4: many versions. An ill fated trip to Montreal where Sheldon
- 7:21Speaker 4: felt slighted about having to stay in my father's basement,
- 7:24Speaker 4: an ill fated trip to New York where my father
- 7:27Speaker 4: felt slighted about having to stay in Sheldon's attic, rude
- 7:30Speaker 4: words spoken to each other's wives. In one version of
- 7:33Speaker 4: the story, Sheldon's refusal to bring a table to my
- 7:36Speaker 4: brists almost resulted in my being circumcised on an ironing board.
- 7:41Speaker 4: But in the version being told today, my father was
- 7:44Speaker 4: asked by Sheldon to pay more than his fair share
- 7:46Speaker 4: for their mother's funeral, and I.
- 7:48Speaker 6: Said, you always working some kind of an angle, So
- 7:52Speaker 6: he got furious. He got furious, He started screaming into
- 7:55Speaker 6: the phone, go to hell, drop dead, bye bye bye.
- 7:59Speaker 6: Was that was how that ended? But I feel he's
- 8:02Speaker 6: the kind of guy that the gun he has angles
- 8:05Speaker 6: like that, you know he has angles. I always felt
- 8:09Speaker 6: I was on the up and up with him and
- 8:11Speaker 6: he wasn't with me.
- 8:12Speaker 4: If you've got a stronger sense that he was interested
- 8:15Speaker 4: in seeing you, then would you yet?
- 8:19Speaker 6: Yeah, you would be my I wouldn't stay at house though,
- 8:22Speaker 6: that's out of the question.
- 8:23Speaker 4: Okay, quick sidebar. Anytime I've ever raised the prospect of
- 8:27Speaker 4: visiting Sheldon, no matter how hypothetical the scenario, my father
- 8:31Speaker 4: always makes a point of insisting, how no matter what,
- 8:34Speaker 4: he would not stay in Sheldon's house, even if he
- 8:37Speaker 4: was invited to which I should point out he never is.
- 8:42Speaker 6: I wouldn't stay it his house. How come you I
- 8:45Speaker 6: wouldn't stay there? I mean, not my thing?
- 8:48Speaker 4: How come you always bring that up? I mean, normally,
- 8:51Speaker 4: when someone goes to visit someone that they haven't seen
- 8:53Speaker 4: in decades, don't stay at a hotel, you know.
- 8:57Speaker 6: I would stay at a motel or somewhere near ATel.
- 9:00Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 9:00Speaker 4: No, we'd get a place, you know, with an ice machine,
- 9:03Speaker 4: and uh, you know why you want.
- 9:05Speaker 6: To you're interested in making a trip.
- 9:09Speaker 4: I mean, I'm interested. Do you think that there's anything
- 9:14Speaker 4: to be gained in in seeing him?
- 9:19Speaker 7: Hmm?
- 9:21Speaker 6: I guess there's something then, you know, you share your
- 9:25Speaker 6: common experience and talk about the old days, and there
- 9:29Speaker 6: are things that only he and I can remember, you know, yeah,
- 9:34Speaker 6: you know you What you could do is you could
- 9:37Speaker 6: call him and see what what what? What his attitude is?
- 9:40Speaker 6: You know, it depends on you, know how how how
- 9:43Speaker 6: how you feel, what kind of receptions you get.
- 9:46Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I would. I would be happy to
- 9:49Speaker 4: do that.
- 9:50Speaker 6: I like your initial suggestion that you call him, feel
- 9:54Speaker 6: him out, and see what he's like.
- 9:56Speaker 4: Okay, I didn't suggest that, but you you suggested that.
- 10:00Speaker 6: Yeah. I like that just because you'll give me an
- 10:03Speaker 6: honest you'll give me an honest reaction.
- 10:05Speaker 4: I'm happy to do it. But I mean, what what
- 10:09Speaker 4: what are you looking for from? What do you want
- 10:12Speaker 4: to hear from him?
- 10:13Speaker 6: I missed my brother. I would like to see him. Okay,
- 10:16Speaker 6: that's all. Okay, you understand, and you come back on
- 10:21Speaker 6: me with an honest evaluation.
- 10:33Speaker 8: Hello, Sheldon, yes speaking Hi. That was quite a shock
- 10:40Speaker 8: getting a phone call, you said, Johnath. Yeah, my hearing
- 10:45Speaker 8: is not that great, okay, And when I heard the
- 10:49Speaker 8: first message, I'm saying, who the heck is that? I
- 10:52Speaker 8: don't know anybody by that name.
- 10:55Speaker 4: Sheldon now lives outside of Fort Lauderdale, but my few
- 10:58Speaker 4: memories of him are from when he lived in upstate
- 11:00Speaker 4: New York. I remember he lived in a trailer. I
- 11:03Speaker 4: remember that he worked at a local prison, that he
- 11:06Speaker 4: smoked cigars, that he looked a little like my father,
- 11:09Speaker 4: but was hunched, like the world was weighing down on him.
- 11:12Speaker 4: And he always wore this expression on his face that
- 11:14Speaker 4: seemed to say, you gotta be kidding me. You're keeping okay,
- 11:19Speaker 4: you're keeping occupied.
- 11:20Speaker 8: Yeah, I read a lot. I going to gym. I
- 11:26Speaker 8: go shopping, you know, here and there, little things here
- 11:30Speaker 8: and there.
- 11:31Speaker 4: And so you still go. How often you go to.
- 11:33Speaker 1: The gym three times a week?
- 11:36Speaker 6: Wow?
- 11:36Speaker 4: And what kind of stuff do you do there?
- 11:39Speaker 8: Well? I do him about twenty minutes of aerobics, uh huh,
- 11:46Speaker 8: and then I do a little weight training. I try
- 11:49Speaker 8: to flirt a little with the women there.
- 11:52Speaker 4: Oh yeah. My father also goes to the gym. That's
- 11:58Speaker 4: a part of his routine. Also, he was happy to
- 12:03Speaker 4: hear from you on his eightieth birthday.
- 12:07Speaker 7: Yeah.
- 12:07Speaker 8: Well he didn't call me on my eighty.
- 12:11Speaker 4: Fifth though, tit meet tat Yeah, like, so you know,
- 12:17Speaker 4: maybe we could uh go out for dinner. I don't
- 12:21Speaker 4: know that kind of thing.
- 12:22Speaker 8: Uh huh uh. Well, what what kind of time frame
- 12:28Speaker 8: are we talking about here?
- 12:40Speaker 7: I don't know. Our lives have been much different. I
- 12:44Speaker 7: don't know how much we have to have in common anymore. Yeah,
- 12:52Speaker 7: we don't have. We don't have much in common anymore
- 12:55Speaker 7: except the fact that we're elderly and retired. Other than that,
- 13:01Speaker 7: I don't know what we have in common.
- 13:04Speaker 4: You have your past in common?
- 13:07Speaker 7: Yes, uh, I'll tell you honestly. I'm not a very
- 13:12Speaker 7: sentimental person, and I being a pragmatist, I take things
- 13:20Speaker 7: the way they are. I try not to dwell upon
- 13:24Speaker 7: the past, and I try not to take people the
- 13:31Speaker 7: way I remember them, but as they are.
- 13:36Speaker 4: Do you think that makes things easier?
- 13:40Speaker 7: Makes things easier for me?
- 13:42Speaker 4: Yeah? Do other people around you? Sometimes? Doesn't make it
- 13:50Speaker 4: harder for other people around you ever.
- 13:54Speaker 7: To be honest with you, I've been in the last
- 14:00Speaker 7: few years. I've been a loner. You would basically almost
- 14:05Speaker 7: call me a recluse. I don't social eyes with many people,
- 14:12Speaker 7: and I really don't give a damn what anybody thinks. Yeah,
- 14:19Speaker 7: and contrary to popular believe, I like being alone by myself.
- 14:28Speaker 7: I get along with myself very well.
- 14:31Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 14:32Speaker 7: Look, I don't want to be rude. Yeah yeah, but
- 14:37Speaker 7: I want to go have my lunch.
- 14:39Speaker 4: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, that's fine. That's fine, Sheldon. I
- 14:41Speaker 4: appreciate your talking to me, and you would be amenable
- 14:46Speaker 4: to spending some time.
- 14:50Speaker 7: Why not? We are brothers. I mean, we're not closer
- 14:54Speaker 7: or anything, but you know we're not going to have
- 14:58Speaker 7: a chance to see each other much in the future.
- 15:04Speaker 4: Yeah, is that anything that you think about?
- 15:11Speaker 7: Not much more?
- 15:16Speaker 4: And so I call my father back and let him
- 15:18Speaker 4: know that Sheldon is amenable. And because I know that
- 15:22Speaker 4: from my father, the days tend to pile up like
- 15:24Speaker 4: unboxed air conditioners. I have my mother get on the
- 15:27Speaker 4: phone to help nail down a firm travel.
- 15:29Speaker 6: Date and Dad. He wants to go, if.
- 15:33Speaker 4: Dad wants to go, if he wants.
- 15:34Speaker 6: To go next weekend.
- 15:38Speaker 4: We don't have to go on the weekend. We can
- 15:39Speaker 4: go during the week.
- 15:41Speaker 6: Yeah. Comes, as you know, you caught me off. God,
- 15:51Speaker 6: how about it. I'll call you Wednesday or Thursday.
- 15:54Speaker 4: How's that today's Monday? Or yeah, or even if you
- 15:57Speaker 4: feel like calling tomorrow, you can call me.
- 16:00Speaker 6: Yeah, okay, I'll probably I'll call you at the latest Thursday.
- 16:08Speaker 4: To get the Thursday.
- 16:09Speaker 6: At the latest, that's three.
- 16:12Speaker 4: Days from today. Yeah, okay, all right, you do what
- 16:17Speaker 4: you want to do.
- 16:17Speaker 6: You call me, but I'll call you Thursday.
- 16:20Speaker 4: Coming up after the break Thursday, and so on Thursday,
- 16:27Speaker 4: possibly with a little nudging from my mother, Buzz agrees.
- 16:30Speaker 4: And then my father and I are off to Florida
- 16:34Speaker 4: to visit my uncle Sheldon.
- 16:36Speaker 9: And then you have an address, Yeah, I do, okay.
- 16:40Speaker 4: My dad and I meet up at the Fort Lauderdale Airport.
- 16:43Speaker 4: I flew from New York and my dad from Montreal.
- 16:46Speaker 4: My father's all dressed up, wearing a faux Swaede sports
- 16:49Speaker 4: jacket that I've never seen him in. We grab our
- 16:52Speaker 4: airport rental and prepare for the two hour drive to
- 16:54Speaker 4: Sheldon in the ninety degree heat. It's immediately made clear
- 16:58Speaker 4: that faux swayed might not have been the best fashioned choice.
- 17:01Speaker 6: It's like we're on a safari.
- 17:06Speaker 4: On the road to Sheldon's. My father will experience a
- 17:09Speaker 4: spectrum of feelings as we first set out, there's excitement.
- 17:13Speaker 10: You know, my brother was funny in a lot of ways.
- 17:15Speaker 1: I could laugh.
- 17:16Speaker 10: We're gonna have laughed with him, you know what I mean.
- 17:18Speaker 1: He's a very funny man.
- 17:20Speaker 4: A half an hour in and there's bitterness.
- 17:23Speaker 10: We invited him to your Moments and he returned a
- 17:26Speaker 10: very cold card. Sorry, we will not be attending.
- 17:31Speaker 9: You know, it's so mean, you know.
- 17:34Speaker 1: What I mean? Even the writing.
- 17:37Speaker 4: An hour in and how is Buzz feeling.
- 17:39Speaker 6: I'm relaxed.
- 17:40Speaker 9: I'm kind of old to get anxious, you know.
- 17:43Speaker 1: What I mean.
- 17:44Speaker 4: Half an hour to Sheldon's a.
- 17:46Speaker 1: Little bit apprehensive.
- 17:49Speaker 4: Yeah, ten minutes to Sheldon's and Buzz is feeling all right, Yeah,
- 17:56Speaker 4: he's feeling a little.
- 17:57Speaker 1: Uh.
- 17:58Speaker 9: It's gonna be strange. Yeah, it's gonna be very strange.
- 18:02Speaker 9: I mean, the man is a stranger to me now,
- 18:05Speaker 9: and yet he's my brother.
- 18:06Speaker 1: You understand.
- 18:06Speaker 9: It's a very strange feeling.
- 18:09Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 18:11Speaker 9: I wonder if he's getting nervous, maybe because he's waiting
- 18:16Speaker 9: for us.
- 18:17Speaker 11: Right, Yeah, yell sat, Oh it's hot, it's really hot.
- 18:31Speaker 4: Yeah. Sheldon lives in the corner house on a quiet
- 18:34Speaker 4: suburban street ring the bell.
- 18:37Speaker 1: I guess is this his door?
- 18:42Speaker 4: I'll double check, maybe because there is.
- 18:53Speaker 10: Yeah, thank you, I smell the good smell of cigar.
- 19:02Speaker 1: There I become a monk me.
- 19:04Speaker 4: And after all the years and the worry and the dread,
- 19:09Speaker 4: things seemed to be going swimmingly. We sit down at
- 19:12Speaker 4: Sheldon's kitchen table and my father gets right into it.
- 19:15Speaker 1: Now, there's things I want to know. You said that
- 19:18Speaker 1: Rainy died.
- 19:20Speaker 4: The dead are a good place to begin as a subject. There,
- 19:23Speaker 4: easily agreed upon and not likely to spark a fight.
- 19:27Speaker 1: The uncle died. The uncle died. He was the youngest brother. Oh,
- 19:31Speaker 1: he died long ago.
- 19:32Speaker 4: He died.
- 19:33Speaker 1: Oh you know who died? Offfman, real prick. Yeah, I
- 19:38Speaker 1: didn't know him that well, we didn't know. Yeah, nish shocking. Yeah,
- 19:46Speaker 1: he was fat. He was fat, red head, red head right, yeah, nish.
- 19:52Speaker 6: Yeah.
- 19:53Speaker 1: Remember Johnny.
- 19:54Speaker 10: Johnny was a sex man.
- 19:55Speaker 1: Ye, john He would fuck a dog on the street,
- 19:58Speaker 1: if you sort of dog. He tried to the dog.
- 20:07Speaker 1: Can I get your guys a cold? I'd like a beer,
- 20:11Speaker 1: olive beer.
- 20:12Speaker 4: Even though they're in their eighties, Sheldon and Buzz still
- 20:15Speaker 4: possessed voices and temperaments suited to shouting out Brooklyn tenement windows,
- 20:19Speaker 4: while my voice olive beer is best suited to asking
- 20:23Speaker 4: a waitress if there will be a sharing charge the
- 20:27Speaker 4: fight forgot about that.
- 20:29Speaker 7: Sorry.
- 20:30Speaker 4: Case in point this is Sheldon accidentally swiping a portable
- 20:34Speaker 4: microphone receiver off the kitchen table and me trying to
- 20:37Speaker 4: smooth things over like this.
- 20:39Speaker 1: It's annoying.
- 20:40Speaker 4: No, he just put it in the in your pocket.
- 20:42Speaker 1: There, just stake it off.
- 20:46Speaker 4: Over the next couple of days, my testes will flee
- 20:49Speaker 4: like frightened cockroaches upward, ascending to heights not seen since
- 20:54Speaker 4: the bar Mitzvah that Sheldon was not attending. And while
- 20:59Speaker 4: we're on the subject of testes, here's Sheldon reminiscing about
- 21:03Speaker 4: the time he was examined for a rupture by their
- 21:05Speaker 4: family doctor.
- 21:06Speaker 5: Me and Wilie Rosen were joining the yep, say you
- 21:10Speaker 5: how to be tested for a rupture?
- 21:13Speaker 6: Hey?
- 21:13Speaker 5: I remember he put his hand under my balls. I
- 21:17Speaker 5: started left and so hot I pissed right.
- 21:19Speaker 7: In his hand.
- 21:26Speaker 4: Over the years, I've seen my father in the role
- 21:28Speaker 4: of husband, uncle, and grandfather, but I've never really seen
- 21:31Speaker 4: him in the role of younger brother. How odd to
- 21:34Speaker 4: see it now at eighty. He sits beside Sheldon with
- 21:37Speaker 4: this expression I've never seen on his face. It's wide eyed,
- 21:41Speaker 4: sweet and deferential. But as the day wears on, Sheldon
- 21:48Speaker 4: and Buzz begin to squabble over their memories, fighting over
- 21:52Speaker 4: every little detail.
- 21:53Speaker 10: Remember to Hallabaloo he had with the die haad dye,
- 21:56Speaker 10: that heavy set.
- 21:57Speaker 1: Girl a manicurist. She was a head dying manicurist. No,
- 22:02Speaker 1: she was a head dying. Here's what happened. She went
- 22:04Speaker 1: over to earth.
- 22:04Speaker 4: They even argue over the death of their grandmother.
- 22:07Speaker 10: I have found her body.
- 22:09Speaker 1: I opened the door. No, I My mother was across
- 22:11Speaker 1: the street at Greenborough. I remember walk and I knew she
- 22:15Speaker 1: was dead.
- 22:16Speaker 10: I never saw a dead body of my life, but
- 22:18Speaker 10: I knew she was dead.
- 22:20Speaker 4: Sure, so wait till you found her, or you found her.
- 22:24Speaker 10: I remember looking in on a room to see how
- 22:25Speaker 10: she do. I said it was awfully crop.
- 22:27Speaker 1: Quite I found them, but let him No, I'm not
- 22:31Speaker 1: some credit.
- 22:36Speaker 4: The whole afternoon is like this. Every subject, even their
- 22:40Speaker 4: dead grandmother, somehow becomes fodder for another pissing match. They're
- 22:44Speaker 4: burning up all this time with small talk when what
- 22:47Speaker 4: they need is some big talk. In particular, they need
- 22:50Speaker 4: to address a story that I know who It's a
- 22:52Speaker 4: great deal of meaning for my father. It took place
- 22:55Speaker 4: in nineteen thirty nine, on the day their mother left them.
- 22:58Speaker 4: I've only ever heard the story from my father, never
- 23:01Speaker 4: from Sheldon. I wanted to ask what you remember, what
- 23:05Speaker 4: your perspective?
- 23:06Speaker 5: Well, I remember that time was one Pop was smacking
- 23:11Speaker 5: Iran and she ran out in the hole in her.
- 23:13Speaker 10: Slip fighting in the hole.
- 23:16Speaker 1: He was smack smacking around. She ran out. Yeah, So
- 23:20Speaker 1: what happened the next morning? In the next morning, Yeah,
- 23:24Speaker 1: they look in the closet, her clothes were gone. She left.
- 23:28Speaker 4: Oh what happened after this? And my father's telling is
- 23:33Speaker 4: that his mother returned soon after she left with a
- 23:36Speaker 4: policeman in tow.
- 23:37Speaker 10: And they came back to try to get you. They
- 23:40Speaker 10: wanted you to come back with them, and where were you?
- 23:46Speaker 1: I was there, but she was. They were trying to
- 23:48Speaker 1: drag you out of the.
- 23:48Speaker 10: House and you weren't trying to grin Now, no, no,
- 23:53Speaker 10: I could say my father.
- 23:54Speaker 1: And grandmother mother.
- 23:56Speaker 4: This is the point of the story. For my father.
- 24:00Speaker 4: It proves once and for all how his mother loved
- 24:03Speaker 4: Sheldon more than she loved him. Sheldon didn't move out
- 24:06Speaker 4: with her, and after a year their mother returned earned
- 24:09Speaker 4: and together, Buzz and Sheldon grew up under the same
- 24:12Speaker 4: roof in the same bedroom, often sleeping under the same blanket,
- 24:17Speaker 4: each knowing who the mother had chosen, and each having
- 24:20Speaker 4: to do their best to carry on and live life
- 24:23Speaker 4: with the burden of that knowledge. A couple times during
- 24:36Speaker 4: the day I ask them why they haven't spoken in
- 24:38Speaker 4: so long, and they both insist, maybe out of embarrassment,
- 24:42Speaker 4: that they do talk, just not often. But it isn't true.
- 24:47Speaker 4: In fact, my father learned of Sheldon's wife's death many
- 24:50Speaker 4: years after the fact, and then only from me. Sheldon's
- 24:54Speaker 4: daughter got in touch through Facebook and we made a
- 24:57Speaker 4: phone date where she caught me up on her life
- 24:59Speaker 4: in Sheldon's and a few nights later, while over at
- 25:02Speaker 4: my parents for dinner, I told my father of his
- 25:04Speaker 4: sister in law's death. There was a terrible look that
- 25:07Speaker 4: fell across his face, one of sadness, but something else too,
- 25:12Speaker 4: maybe shock over just how far he and Sheldon had drifted.
- 25:17Speaker 4: I found out about Judy about her death.
- 25:21Speaker 1: Who your wife? I didn't know about it either until
- 25:25Speaker 1: you told me. Yeah, I didn't.
- 25:27Speaker 5: I tell you.
- 25:30Speaker 7: Didn't know about it.
- 25:31Speaker 1: No, we didn't know. We didn't know.
- 25:37Speaker 5: She was sick about two years. Judy well, when she
- 25:45Speaker 5: got the diagnosis, she was already stage four. What did
- 25:51Speaker 5: I know about cancer? So the surgeon, so he said, So,
- 25:56Speaker 5: I said, well, doc, how did the surgery go? I
- 25:59Speaker 5: always show you went very well? But the kansas in
- 26:04Speaker 5: her living now spread.
- 26:08Speaker 1: I said, it's in No, I said what.
- 26:13Speaker 5: And on top of that, I'm driving home, I'm all
- 26:17Speaker 5: fucked up, and I'm space style and my driver windows open,
- 26:21Speaker 5: and some kids pull up alongside me, a flip a
- 26:25Speaker 5: lit cigarette into my car.
- 26:37Speaker 1: You know where I usually eat? I come in and
- 26:40Speaker 1: buy myself by the ball. They got a waitress, Stair
- 26:44Speaker 1: always waits on me.
- 26:46Speaker 4: He takes cook care for dinner. Sheldon takes us to
- 26:50Speaker 4: a local outback steakhouse. As people walk by, he provides
- 26:54Speaker 4: a running commentary of an elderly couple.
- 26:57Speaker 1: Don't get like that couple. Whatever you did, it's time.
- 27:00Speaker 4: For the execution of an overweight couple.
- 27:06Speaker 1: People are fat today.
- 27:09Speaker 4: It's as though he's sharpening his wit, readying it for
- 27:12Speaker 4: the main event. Teasing my dad about Canada.
- 27:16Speaker 5: I don't know how you could take Canada on your wife,
- 27:19Speaker 5: so he got nice.
- 27:20Speaker 1: Neighbor's nice. It's okay.
- 27:23Speaker 10: Uh.
- 27:24Speaker 5: I wasn't gonna have to say, you're living in the
- 27:26Speaker 5: same place for am.
- 27:28Speaker 10: Oh about thirty five, thirty eight years, something like that.
- 27:32Speaker 1: I'm happy here. Yeah. Yeah.
- 27:35Speaker 4: For my father, I know this is a touchy subject,
- 27:38Speaker 4: believing as he always has, that Sheldon looks down on
- 27:40Speaker 4: him for the dinkiness of his Canadian life and home.
- 27:44Speaker 4: It's like a constant reminder of just who is second best. Later,
- 27:48Speaker 4: my father will repeat Sheldon's words. You're still living in
- 27:52Speaker 4: that same place, He'll say, for how many years? But
- 27:56Speaker 4: just then I watch my father clench and unclench his
- 27:59Speaker 4: jaw as he does when he is brooding. I know
- 28:02Speaker 4: he's trying to take the high road, trying not to
- 28:04Speaker 4: ruin the evening, what.
- 28:06Speaker 1: Two hundred dollars and thirty cents.
- 28:11Speaker 4: Sheldon invites us back to his place for cookies, but
- 28:14Speaker 4: my father says he isn't up for it, thank you,
- 28:22Speaker 4: and I'll get cold. As we walk through the restaurant
- 28:26Speaker 4: parking lot to the car, my father is silent. I
- 28:30Speaker 4: find myself feeling protective of him. After midnight, lying awake
- 28:33Speaker 4: in our hotel. My father insisted we stay at one.
- 28:37Speaker 4: I lay in bed thinking about that day in nineteen
- 28:39Speaker 4: thirty nine when my grandmother came back for Sheldon, not
- 28:42Speaker 4: my father. For my father, not only did it push
- 28:46Speaker 4: him away from Sheldon, making him feel jealous and resentful,
- 28:49Speaker 4: but it also cast a shadow over the rest of
- 28:51Speaker 4: his life, causing him to always feel passed over. He's
- 28:55Speaker 4: mellowed with age, but as a kid, I saw it
- 28:58Speaker 4: come out in all kinds of ways, always sensitive to slights,
- 29:01Speaker 4: ready for a fight at the smallest perceived defense. I
- 29:05Speaker 4: wonder if there's a different way for my father to
- 29:07Speaker 4: see things. If there is is, the only living person
- 29:10Speaker 4: in this world who can help is Sheldon. When their
- 29:14Speaker 4: mom left, Sheldon was nine, my father five. Sheldon would
- 29:18Speaker 4: have understood a lot more than my father. Yesterday, Buzz
- 29:22Speaker 4: and Sheldon talked like a couple of kids who used
- 29:24Speaker 4: to play stickball in the old neighborhood. Today, if me
- 29:28Speaker 4: and my big fat meddling Yap have any sway, they'll
- 29:31Speaker 4: have a chance to talk as men, as brothers, even
- 29:35Speaker 4: because if not. Now when day two, this is a
- 29:44Speaker 4: damn good cigar he sent me well.
- 29:46Speaker 1: Dominica Republic.
- 29:47Speaker 10: They make a damn good cigar in Dominical Republic.
- 29:50Speaker 4: Despite the difficulties of last night, the coin is flipped
- 29:52Speaker 4: back to the good side. Sheldon offers my father a cigar,
- 29:56Speaker 4: and with the cigar some cigar talk, some pretty foul
- 30:00Speaker 4: cigar talk.
- 30:01Speaker 5: We'll ride Mount Queen's Boulevard. Johnny's in the back seat
- 30:05Speaker 5: with the who. He's got his naked ass up in
- 30:08Speaker 5: the and he's well. The funny thing, we had to
- 30:13Speaker 5: stop for a light and there's a truck driver sitting
- 30:17Speaker 5: in the cab bump high.
- 30:26Speaker 4: So if you guys missed each other, what do you
- 30:29Speaker 4: miss each other?
- 30:31Speaker 6: You know?
- 30:32Speaker 1: He asked the weirdest question. What is he abroad?
- 30:37Speaker 4: No, I mean, I don't know. That's you know, eager
- 30:40Speaker 4: to prove to my uncle Sheldon that in spite of
- 30:42Speaker 4: the fact I'm wearing my wife's travel deodorant, I am
- 30:45Speaker 4: indeed not abroad. I allow them to return to more
- 30:48Speaker 4: pressing matters. They're prostates, that said Jesus.
- 30:52Speaker 1: He says, your prestate feels like the moon craters in there.
- 30:57Speaker 1: He said, I said, thank you, doctor, complimenting me.
- 31:03Speaker 4: So if I could steer this away from the prostrates,
- 31:05Speaker 4: and so my father said that it's significant to him
- 31:08Speaker 4: to have what do you say?
- 31:10Speaker 1: I agree with whatever he said?
- 31:12Speaker 4: But what about you?
- 31:14Speaker 1: I said, I agree with whatever he said. Do you
- 31:17Speaker 1: want to written?
- 31:18Speaker 10: I know.
- 31:19Speaker 1: I'm happy.
- 31:20Speaker 4: It feels like I'm getting a taste of what growing
- 31:22Speaker 4: up with Sheldon might have been like. So again I
- 31:26Speaker 4: make my move. So I have some questions just about
- 31:30Speaker 4: because the stories that I know from my father. But
- 31:33Speaker 4: I'm curious what your take is because you were older?
- 31:37Speaker 4: Do you remember what was going on when your mom
- 31:44Speaker 4: when your mother left? Originally like what?
- 31:47Speaker 1: What? Why?
- 31:48Speaker 4: And what was going on?
- 31:49Speaker 1: Didn't you cover this ground before yesterday?
- 31:53Speaker 4: But from my father's perspective, the way I understood it
- 31:56Speaker 4: was always you were the favorite. Did you did you
- 31:59Speaker 4: feel that way? At this point, Sheldon's face suddenly softens.
- 32:04Speaker 1: I always felt that I got the short end of
- 32:07Speaker 1: the stick.
- 32:09Speaker 10: You were you were kind of a favorite with my mom.
- 32:13Speaker 5: Yeah, maybe with mom because maybe temperamentally we were closer
- 32:18Speaker 5: than I was with my father. My father never gave
- 32:23Speaker 5: me spit. Did you ever get any money from my father?
- 32:28Speaker 5: I can't remember.
- 32:30Speaker 1: You never got a line?
- 32:32Speaker 5: Now, I can't remember you never one time I sprained
- 32:35Speaker 5: my ankle so bad.
- 32:37Speaker 1: That was that was terrible.
- 32:39Speaker 5: I laid in that bed my ankle. He was He
- 32:41Speaker 5: says to me, you lazy bum. Yeah, man, he went
- 32:47Speaker 5: off on me that time.
- 32:50Speaker 10: He took Sheldon once Sheldon happened to say the word fuck.
- 32:55Speaker 1: He came in with that fucking strap, swinging with.
- 33:00Speaker 10: The bucket, and you know, I can understand it, leaving
- 33:03Speaker 10: a feeling of resentment and dislike.
- 33:06Speaker 1: Hey, yeah, that was his way of.
- 33:10Speaker 5: Communicating with us. Smack smack, and then what a way?
- 33:16Speaker 1: Yeah? Was he easier on you? You think it wasn't that?
- 33:21Speaker 10: But he was tough on Sheldon.
- 33:22Speaker 5: Was I know you were closer to him than I was.
- 33:27Speaker 5: A lot of things that went on you didn't understand really.
- 33:31Speaker 10: Well it did going on, So you had a different take.
- 33:34Speaker 4: Well are you surprised.
- 33:36Speaker 1: By But I was a kid. I didn't understand it.
- 33:38Speaker 4: But you didn't know that Sheldon was getting it so bad.
- 33:44Speaker 4: In Buzz's telling, their father was always more or less benign,
- 33:47Speaker 4: childish figure, incapable of expressing his feelings and so given
- 33:52Speaker 4: to temper tantrums. For Buzz, it was their mother who
- 33:55Speaker 4: was the manipulator, the woman who played the brothers off
- 33:58Speaker 4: each other, but hearing Sheldon's take, it sounds like maybe
- 34:01Speaker 4: their mother didn't come to take Sheldon because she loved
- 34:04Speaker 4: him best, but simply because he needed more protecting from
- 34:08Speaker 4: their father. For the first time during our trip, I
- 34:18Speaker 4: can see my father considering Sheldon's point of view, actually
- 34:22Speaker 4: taking it in. I know it's intense for him because
- 34:25Speaker 4: he can't even meet Sheldon's eyes. Instead, he looks at
- 34:29Speaker 4: me addresses his comments to me.
- 34:32Speaker 10: You know, it said that my father had such a
- 34:34Speaker 10: negative impact on him, you know, just.
- 34:36Speaker 1: Awful because he had so much going for me. He
- 34:40Speaker 1: was a wonderful son.
- 34:41Speaker 10: He worked hard, he was a good boy.
- 34:44Speaker 1: He went to school talking like I'm a failure in life. No,
- 34:48Speaker 1: you aren't a fail that I'm saying. You weren't a faide.
- 34:52Speaker 10: But all I'm saying is that emotionally he left an
- 34:54Speaker 10: impact on you.
- 34:56Speaker 5: It took a long time for me to get out
- 34:59Speaker 5: of that emotion.
- 35:01Speaker 1: And now I'm at peace to it myself. I can
- 35:06Speaker 1: talk about him and laugh about it.
- 35:10Speaker 7: Now.
- 35:11Speaker 5: I want peace quiet. I'm happy living by myself.
- 35:17Speaker 6: Are you lonely?
- 35:18Speaker 10: Sheldon O?
- 35:26Speaker 4: The last time my father saw my grandfather in full health.
- 35:29Speaker 4: My dad was visiting from Canada. My grandfather asked my
- 35:32Speaker 4: father to drive him to the cemetery to visit his parents' grave,
- 35:36Speaker 4: and once there, my grandfather wept inconsolably. Later that day
- 35:41Speaker 4: he would succumb to a stroke and shortly after be
- 35:44Speaker 4: moved to a nursing home. With Sheldon being more local,
- 35:47Speaker 4: the burden of my grandfather's care fell mainly to Sheldon.
- 35:51Speaker 4: It seems like a lot of the family's burdens fell
- 35:54Speaker 4: to Sheldon.
- 35:55Speaker 10: They put a lot of the responsibility on him. That
- 35:58Speaker 10: my dad should have been taking that responsibility, and he
- 36:02Speaker 10: shoulded that.
- 36:03Speaker 1: Well, who is going to take car of you? Who's
- 36:05Speaker 1: going to take you to school?
- 36:08Speaker 6: Meet ya?
- 36:08Speaker 1: I remember one time, hours later or something, you stood
- 36:11Speaker 1: outside that cry. I said, mosy, I'm here, I'm here.
- 36:18Speaker 1: He was good to meet at times me, you know,
- 36:23Speaker 1: just you were.
- 36:24Speaker 9: My older brother used to knock the ship out of
- 36:26Speaker 9: me sometimes, but you know that's the way it is
- 36:29Speaker 9: with brothers.
- 36:31Speaker 5: Well, yeah, I was good in some way some way
- 36:34Speaker 5: that I was mean.
- 36:35Speaker 1: Who's who was not? Who's not who is not?
- 36:39Speaker 4: So if you feel like you were compelled to see
- 36:43Speaker 4: each other now because you knew that you know it's
- 36:45Speaker 4: an hour and never kind of thing. Then it means
- 36:48Speaker 4: that it was important to you both right to see
- 36:50Speaker 4: each other.
- 36:54Speaker 10: You want to take that easy answer, yes, yes, because
- 37:00Speaker 10: we're not getting any younger. I mean, what's what's down
- 37:03Speaker 10: the road?
- 37:04Speaker 1: I'm eighty he's eighty five. I mean because the there's.
- 37:09Speaker 10: A lot of water under the bridge, and we want
- 37:10Speaker 10: to close that bridge. Now, I want to feel easy. Now,
- 37:14Speaker 10: I want to say, now he's going to be eighty six,
- 37:16Speaker 10: I want to call him on his birthday and say
- 37:17Speaker 10: happy birthday to him. Now, I'm not going to stand
- 37:19Speaker 10: any fucking ceremonies anymore.
- 37:22Speaker 4: As my father speaks, as per his brother's example, dropping
- 37:25Speaker 4: f bombs like he's in a Guy Ritchie film, Sheldon
- 37:28Speaker 4: keeps his arms crossed and his eyes shut tight. He's
- 37:32Speaker 4: quiet for several seconds, and then he reaches out to
- 37:35Speaker 4: pet his cat.
- 37:36Speaker 1: Should I leave you a cat in my will if anything.
- 37:39Speaker 10: Happen, if anything out, I'll take care of the cat.
- 37:42Speaker 1: I'll take care of the cat.
- 37:45Speaker 10: I'm happy I can't to see you.
- 37:47Speaker 1: That I am. I'm happy it can't here. That's good,
- 37:50Speaker 1: very good.
- 37:54Speaker 6: Why me I want to buy a house.
- 37:59Speaker 4: When it's time to leave. Sheldon walks us outside, but
- 38:02Speaker 4: before we get into the rental, he points across the
- 38:05Speaker 4: lawn to his neighbor's house. He tells my father that
- 38:08Speaker 4: it's for sale, and then he tells him the asking price,
- 38:11Speaker 4: and my father says that doesn't sound bad at all.
- 38:14Speaker 4: And Sheldon says that, what with Canada being so bloody cold,
- 38:18Speaker 4: my father should consider moving to Florida, and my father
- 38:21Speaker 4: says maybe he will. They don't get too emotional, they
- 38:25Speaker 4: don't even hug it by, They just shake hands. And
- 38:29Speaker 4: with that, it feels like Buzz has forgiven Sheldon, and
- 38:32Speaker 4: Sheldon has forgiven Buzz.
- 38:35Speaker 5: All right, you take care of the bridge, sank trip
- 38:40Speaker 5: both this.
- 38:41Speaker 1: Thank you, Yeah, thank you. We'll speak.
- 38:44Speaker 10: We'll speak.
- 38:53Speaker 1: Turn right on Northwest, man drawn. Oh my god, it
- 38:55Speaker 1: feels so different now.
- 38:58Speaker 10: You know that this has taking a lot off my
- 39:00Speaker 10: shoulders idea.
- 39:03Speaker 6: You know.
- 39:06Speaker 4: As we ride to the airport, my father says that
- 39:08Speaker 4: the thought of Sheldon all alone in that house with
- 39:11Speaker 4: just a cat makes him sad. Do you really think
- 39:14Speaker 4: he isn't lonely, my father asks. I assure him that
- 39:17Speaker 4: Sheldon seems okay with being alone. But my father doesn't
- 39:20Speaker 4: seem so sure. After all these years, the burden of
- 39:24Speaker 4: having lost his brother has been replaced by a new burden,
- 39:27Speaker 4: one that might be heavier to bear.
- 40:09Speaker 3: Now that the furnitures returned to its goodwill.
- 40:15Speaker 6: Home, now that the last month's raft is scheming.
- 40:23Speaker 7: With the damage, the possum take this moment to do so.
- 40:29Speaker 4: If we ment, If we talk.
- 40:34Speaker 6: Were felt around for.
- 40:35Speaker 8: Far too.
- 40:38Speaker 3: From the thaus it accidentally Talk.
- 40:46Speaker 4: Heavyweight is hosted and produced by me Jonathan Goldstein. This
- 40:49Speaker 4: episode was also produced by Wendy Dore, Chris Neary, and
- 40:52Speaker 4: Khalila Holt, editing by Alex Bloomberg and Peter Clowney. Special
- 40:56Speaker 4: thanks to Caitlin Kenny, Starle Kine and Rachel Ward. The
- 40:59Speaker 4: show was mixed by Hailey Shaw. Music in this episode
- 41:02Speaker 4: by Christine Fellows, with additional music and ad music by
- 41:05Speaker 4: Hailey Shaw. Our theme song is by The Weaker Bands,
- 41:07Speaker 4: courtesy of Epitaph Records. A version of the story appeared
- 41:11Speaker 4: on This American Life, and we had a lot of
- 41:13Speaker 4: help from the folks there, Ira Glass, Julie Snyder, Jonathan
- 41:16Speaker 4: men Heavar, Sean Cole and Robin Semeon a very special
- 41:20Speaker 4: thanks to Emily Condons follow us on Twitter at heavyweight.
- 41:24Speaker 4: We'll have a new episode next week.
- 41:37Speaker 1: We used to call him Mitchie, little bitchy, the older brother,
- 41:41Speaker 1: the oldest one.
- 41:42Speaker 6: He was.
- 41:43Speaker 1: Hey, well lucky we turned out as good as we did.