Mimi + Aaron

have to listen to it. That's right, That's right. So, Allen, who's coming on the podcast today? Well? I believe that it is me, Me and our grandson Aaron, And from what I understand, they have a tremendous relationship and she has got a very colorful life and a very colorful way of describing it. So we're in for a very interesting set today. Hard do you want to talk to them and say, Hi? Do you want to sing? Change? Change? Chane? No sing a song? I'm no woo woo woo. He's

an African gray. The other ones a parrot, mca are you there? Yeah, we're here. Could my hair be any higher? Okay? Are you gonna ask me hard questions? You'll find out. Hi. I'm Aaron and this is my grandma Emi. She lives probably half an hour away from me in somers New York. I don't want to give up your age. I'm still alive. He's the Messiah. He can do no wrong, and he's

never done anything wrong. My first grandchild, who I said, after spending time with him, if I had known grandchildren with this delicious, I would have bypassed my kids altogether. It makes it a little hard for some of the others to live up to his standard. He has two younger cousins of both boys, both good ball players. They

have a role model to look up to. I think it may have been Christmas and you gave everyone like twenty dollars and then you snuck me the same amount again, and you like put it in my hand and you're like, just just hold onto this. Don't tell anyone else, though I said to you, shut up and don't say anything. I just said it the nicer way. But he's nicer than I am. He's more thoughtful than I am, and more tactful than I am. Whatever she's thinking about is

coming out. She's not gonna hold anything back. If I have to guess, when I get a little bit older and I get less shy, I'm sure I'll be in the same exact spot and just kind of call people out for whatever is going on. I hope so. And I'll be looking I'm watching you, guiding you the whole way. Okay, I'm reading these pet titles for Mimmy and end this episode and part one says unfiltered baseball advice. What could

that be? We text each other all the time. After my games, she would text me and she would just kind of fire me up and throwing a few curse words in there and make me feel better about myself and then say I love you at the end, some motivational stuff for sure. Do you remember Sean fo Piano? Grandma? You would always ask about you. He always how's Mimi? How's Mimi? And he would always when we were big into Facebook, he would always see your posts and be

asking about you. Any time I'd say Grandma, he would be like, oh, Mimi, are you talking about me? I think you may have sent a friend request to my friend. I sent a friend request to one of your friends. That's not what happened. I know, I know what you're talking about. No, he read the post that you were and I sent to each other, and he sent me a friend request. Oh was it? Okay? I believe you. I believe you. And that was when they first started

to check me out as a pedophile. Don't believe everything I say. They would all come over and talk to me, and then you know, they'd say, hi, Grandma, how did I do today? How do I look today? And you know, it was funny how the parents would say to me. You know, my son really likes coming over and talking to you. I'm very comfortable, you know, with kids in sports,

and I'm a big promoter of kids. I think my friends and especially kids my age, would expect grandparents to be more like polite and just like very formal about everything, and I'd say, you're definitely a little far from that. So I think that can get her into trouble, even in our own family. Her whole life, she hasn't filtered herself, even when me and the other grandchildren were really young.

I treat all of you like grown ups. Yeah, And sometimes they're shocked and I said, I did a pretty good job raising all of you, didn't I why should they miss out on me? I think it's a lot more impactful than if you're just like sugarcoat and how you say everything. Maybe sometimes I crossed the line, but already, thank god. You think I've crossed the line a few times, Yeah, I have, and I admit it. I definitely agree with it.

A lot of people in our family are very, very very nice, and like, we'll never say anything bad about anyone, and you kind of need someone to like say it. How it is, if someone's doing something wrong, you gotta say they're doing something wrong. It's a very sweet relationship. They seem like good buddies. She's crazy about him that you could see, and he's gonna get kicked out of her,

which is nice. Sometimes with a grandson, it's a little harder, because I think that that where you have more in common with our granddaughters, they'll come to you about clothes or boyfriends or something like that, and boys don't necessarily do that. But it seems that this young man and his grandmother have a lot in comment, and the fact that that his friends gravitate toward her is lovely. And

it's lovely for him. She's outrageous, Let's let's face it, she's a little the grandmother is a little bit outrageous in her language and her but that's okay, that's who. But he seems to enjoy it too. But that's what I'm saying. He appreciates it, and that his friends get a kick out of it is sort of a reflection on him. You know, your grandmother is a cool cat, so that's that's a good thing for him, Oh reader, a cool cat? Yeah? Well yeah, how do you like that?

That's phrase that dates us. Boy. Well, now we're into part two and this is about freedom. The first thing that comes to mind, of course, is hippies freedom. I'm taking off my bro Ellen. Just don't do it, though, forget it. If you and I take off my bras, forget it. I'm very careful about what hits my feet lately. Is there anything from your childhood that you'd say you miss? Yeah? Being young? You want to know what I really miss?

The freedom, the freedom we have that you don't have now, to be able to go out and explore and walk in the streets and be with your friends and not have to look over your shoulder that I'm hobbs, You're gonna come to you. We all grew up in the Bronx, in this little neighborhood where everybody knew each other, every mother watched out for each other. Parents didn't worry. When I went to high school in Manhattan, we would go to parties and walk at twelve o'clock at night from

one side of Manhattan to the other. Nobody was going to stop you in the park. You didn't have to be afraid of anything. There was nothing to be afraid of. From what I've heard, it definitely seems like things have changed. I always knew to stay at a central park when the sun went down. Absolutely, yeah, at different times. Did your parents influence your personality at all? They made me the rebel bitch I am now, Yeah, yeah they did. Oh God, how much am I going to go into

I had parents that suffocated me. That generation was much more controlling, and so I would get more of a reaction out of them if I was a rebel. If I had to raise a kid like me, I'd kill myself. But they should have been more aware of what I was like and why I was doing it. So while I'm copping out. I'm kind of blaming them, but some of the actions that I had, and that's what I want to say, fair enough, I was much closer to my grandparents than I was to my parents. I could

go to my grandparents and talk to them. I don't think I really had to rebel because I was very I still am very close my parents. I basically told them anything I was doing, and we would just talk everything through having children of my own and realizing the things that I wanted to do with them, and finally having the balls to say, back off, these are my kids. You had your chance, Now give me that same chance.

I'd said. My parents definitely have that same philosophy, free thinking, and you have your own opinions, and they're not gonna interject unless there's something like drastically important. Even in those situations, they were just talk us through all the options instead of just telling us what to do. It definitely helps. I think if that's the case, then I've done my job too, for sure. It was very interesting to him Mimi the explanation of her her rebel nuts and her

grandson fully understands how he understands his parents. They're very free and letting him do his own thing, make his own choices, and that's what Mimmi wanted. And she said now she feels they decayed for her actions. And this went on very in tune with her. I think that there's a freedom in that relationship. There's such a sympathic o there. Well, today, you know that the thinking is let the kids be what they have, you know, what they wanted, which is the right way to be today

you have to be accepting. Yes, absolutely, it's not as easy as when we were young. I think the kids today come out into a world that's very stressful. Generally speaking, I agree totally. It's a very stressful world for these kids. I mean I remember going into the city on the subway late at night, meeting friends. Nobody thought of what's going on today. I used to take my sister once a week to the orthodontist to have her bike place or whatever it was Titan, you know, we'd go down

the subway and we'd walk around downtown Brooklyn. I could not have been more than twelve or thirteen years old, and my sister is five years younger than I am. And you didn't rebel. I didn't rebel. If you did, you kept it in. I was sort of rebellious. Okay, Ellen, you know it's time for commercial break. Okay, everybody go to the kitchen and graba soda at a sandwich. The next one is part three, Mimi comes into her own. So did anyone encourage you to have a career when

you were young? But you have to understand, when I grew up, there weren't very many Jewish young girls who had careers. No nobody encouraged me to do anything. Truthfully, it wasn't until I grew up a little bit and I wanted to make more of myself than I was that I had the confidence that my children gave me and my husband gave me that enabled me to have

different careers. How did you and Grandpa meet? We all grew up in the same neighborhood, and he was in the older group of boys, and they hung out at the pool room, and in those days, pool rooms were acceptable,

and I was friendly with his sister. I guess I was fortunate, you know, a fift team, and he took me along they were going to Fire Island, and then I didn't see him because I went off to school and everything, so I didn't see him for a few years and then we all belonged to the Speech club and I asked him if he would give me a ride up to the club. And I'll never forget, he said to me. And I'll be in the bar. If you don't get lucky, come and get me and I'll

drive you home. And I had to come and ask him to drive me home because I didn't get lucky. And we started going out and then we got there and that was it. What was he like? I haven't really gotten a whole ton of details. Very handsome, very good ballplayer, very good business man. I remember hearing that he had to work out with the Dodgers once. He was invited to sprint training for one year, which I thought was really cool. I think it would have been really cool for him to watch me play. I wish

I could have learned from him too. He would have been so goddamn proud of you. Okay, asked me another question. I'll come back to it because I'm Dr Grig. What was it like having so many kids? Oh my god, I loved it. I really did. I don't think i'd be able to. And I have no idea how you did it. And I give you so much respect for it. So how did the two of you approach parenting together? You know, we both came from upper middle class Jewish families and it was a different time. We both had

our parents to pull back on. I think Artie was more stripped and more structured than I was, and I think the two of us balanced each other, so it was good. Sometimes we talked about it and nice say I was really the strict one. They said, are you out of your mind? You laughed at everything we did. Can you tell me what happened that day that grandpa died. We were we were in Israel, the whole family was there. We were on a boat and he went into the water.

He swung off the rope and he came back up this rope thing and he said, I don't feel good. I said, go lie down, and he had a heart attack and died. I just wish I could have met him. Honestly, it's pretty upsetting because I know how highly my dad and my uncle and aunts talked about him, and obviously you. I just wish I could have experienced what you guys did when it first happened. I think it was such

a shock that I really didn't notice in transition. And it was about three months after all he died and I was on the couch and I said, oh my god, I have to get up and make dinner. And then I realized, no, I don't have to make dinner, and there's nobody here to make dinner for. And that's where it hit me that I was on my own and there was nobody going to be in this big pass except me. And that's when I decided that I had to do more with my life. They just sit around

and be a widow. And then I met Jim, and I decided it was time to stop being a widow and to change my life. And I moved away from Neuroshelle and we bought a huge home in Pennsylvania. And he was much much younger than I, but of course I was much younger and much thinner too, And so I was with him for six years and then I came back. I thought it was really cool where you lived. I loved going there and seeing all the dogs and the horses and the river and everything. He was a

really nice guy. And there have been people who have asked me out for dinner. I would no more go out for dinner with anybody or have anything to do with another man. As long as I live, I've had my fill. I've been wined and dined by the best. I don't have to do it anymore. I hear a tremendous strength in this woman. Absolutely, she knows what she wants, and she she does what she wants, and she doesn't feel sorry for herself. She just moves right along. And

you know, I, thankfully have still got my husband. He's not well, but but he's here. He goes three days a week for dialysis and drives himself. But I I have this fear in my heart all the time, what if something happens to him and all? But I know that I'll be okay. You'll be okay. You're a strong lady, because I'm tough, and because I have a wonderful family. I have a very supportive family, and obviously she does too. Yeah.

I think that she feels that love and that support from her family, and I think that that's one of the ways that she's able to to move on. Look, you know what we all have to learn. Life hands you a deck of cards, and what you pick up it's how you play it. All right, I'm now reading What's coming up next Part four, Maybe gets lucky. H Do you have any unusual hobbies that I don't know about. I don't know what. What's a hobby? You used to pool around with young guys? Was that a hobby? I

like gambling, that's a hobby. I didn't know that side you play? I played and craps. And you heard the story when Jamie and I went to that big hotel in the Bahamas. At any rate, we went down there and it started to rain at the pool, so I said, I put on my little schmata and I went inside to the casino and took a hundred dollar bill with me. I put the hundred dollar bill in the slot machine and the bells went off. It was crazy. So I

said to this woman, how much shod I win? And she said, I said, are you out of your mind? How much did I win? She said two dollars. I had smoked in years. I said to her, I'd like a Scotch on the rocks and could have one of those cigarous plates. And I sat right up smoking, and I went over and I called Jamie there. I was so nonchalant, and the minute I saw that, I started jumping up and down like a lunatic. That was excited. Then while we were waiting, there was a machine right

next to it. I put a ten dollar billing and I wont undred hundred dollars. I sent to Barbara and Jamie, here you take this, this is yours. That was the last time I hit like that. I gotta go to the casino with you. We had a friend who used to go regularly to Atlantic City and he got camped downe everything. So one of a few times they would invite us we play a little. I used to play a little twenty one. But you know what, you never win.

If you play long enough, you never win. I went through ang face and growing up in Brooklyn it wasn't mar Young it was. And when I lived in Showy Hill it was a whole brand new community. And one day a girl knocked at my door and she said to me, do you play Majong? I said, I know how to play. She says, a group of the girls are getting together and would like you to come. So we go to her house. We go, we play mang and after one hand, she says, anybody want to smoke?

And she takes out a box and it's loaded with pot I had never had that in my life, but everybody else was doing it, so I did it too. Every Wednesday night we went to the house, we played one hand to ban and got stoned out of our mind that I would I would come home. I would eat anything that wasn't nailed down and go to sleep. My husband never knew. Never. They don't know if anything in fun in them? What are you talking about? You

could have an orgasm in front of them. They would never know what I mean, you know, mend them on another planet. How can I tell you? Okay? Later, time to go to commercial. Okay, somebody has to pay the bills. Part five. Judge Me, Me Me. My daughter Jamie was an excellent gymnasism. Matter of fact, my daughter has the biggest gymnastics school in the East. It's called Galaxy Gymnastics. I actually had more than one birthday party at Galaxy.

It was so much fun there. So I would take her to gymnastics every single day, and then I would sit on the floor and one day I said to her coach, what would happen if you put this move with that move? And she said, damn, you've been watching gymnastics way too long. There's a course being given just for high school gymnastics. Why don't you just take it?

So I took that course, and then I took another course, and then I took another test and another test, and that started in nineteen four and I have been judging now. I'm just doing high school. Of course, I'm not going to travel or anything like that. I wish I could be able to see you do that. It would have been really cool. But I'll tell you how interesting it is. I was judging this girl on the floor and these two women came over to me and they said to me,

Mrs Winkler, and I said yes. They said, you judged me. The mother said you judged me, and then the granddaughter said you judged me. So that was three generations of my judging them. And all the traveling you did to judge gymnastics led to another big change in your life. Right judging a meat in Germany and seeing this little white dog. I've always loved dogs, and I asked her what kind of dog is that and they said, up be Shaan Fries And I said, God, I think I

like that dog. And we always had old English sheep dogs, so they were big. I came home I went to a dog show and I stopped a breeder and I asked her about her dog. She said, I will sell you this one that you seem to be in love with, but she's a show girl, and will you show her and always haven't been competitive? I said absolutely, And then she said and then you'd have to have a litter and I get a puppy back, and she explained what all that meant to me, and I kind of like

the idea. Then here I am thirty three years later, with having n champions, top dogs all over the world, a winner at Westminster Kendle Club, and judging in Japan and China. That's a major accomplishment that I've done all on my own. I'm proud of myself and doing all that. I think that she's so open to what life brings her and she grabs it, she takes it, and she runs with it. I think that that's a tremendous way to be. It's amazing how she becomes judges so easily

and felt quickly. She she's got a very modern way of thinking. She really filled her life beautifully and she's a terrific example for our grandchildren. I love that she's a dog person, because having dogs opened a big door in my life. When I first got into using a computer and I found this whole group of women who had cavaliers. Your friends, my doggie friends. You know, to me, the fact that this woman had dogs, I immediately love her. I know you have the most adorable dog. Reader, I

love your dog. Oh, thank you. Okay, read to get ready. This is it the end Grandma's philosophies something which we all seem to have. There's really no feeling like the joy that I get from my grandchildren. And I mean that sincerely. I'm gonna start to cry, so I can't do this. But when I see him, and I'm watching Aaron Pitch, and I'm watching him with his friends and watching how he relates, and what a wonderful man he's turning into, There's nothing that gives me more joy in

this world. Okay, so now my COEs are running. How do you think your life has changed since becoming a grandmother. It's changed for the better. Everything is for the better. It's a legacy. When I look back and and I doubt myself and think that I could have done things better. When I see what my grandchildren are with the help of the children that I raised. There's nothing better in this world. Everybody has to screw up at times, but that's part of living. I think that's the only way

to learn. You mess up, and then you learn you don't do it again, and that's how you grow as a person. So I totally agree with that, Steamon. The thing is that when you're doing it with your children, you have to do it in a constructive way because you're guiding their lives. When you're doing it with your grandchildren, it's a much freer way of thinking. As a grandparent,

I've gained knowledge and wisdom that your parents haven't experienced yet. Yeah, and I think my guiding you comes from that place because I've seen so much more. I never really thought of it like that. That's that's pretty awesome. And the only thing you can really do is just have conversations with them and tell them about your experiences. And I think it's a really good way to teach your grandchildren. Definitely work for me. I just want all of you

to reach your potential. You know, I've always said that the definition of a true man or a true woman is somebody who can stand on their own two feet without stepping on anybody's toes. Putting somebody else down, does that make you smarter, It's sinking to their level. That's what I hope to instill. And I want your all to be happy. I want you to see the bright side of everything and be and be able to cope

because about no I've had to do that. Well, what I've noticed what you do is, no matter what's going on with you, whenever you see me and the rest of the grandchildren, you're smiling and you're happy to see us, and you just leave that stuff at the door. That's what I think I need to do, like whether whether I'm with my friends or my family or teammates, whoever it is, and just focus on the moment as much as I can, no matter what's going on. And that's

definitely something that you do. So would you say that overall you've enjoyed your life, Yeah, of course I have have. I had ups and downs, just like everybody else. What you put into making relationships with other people, you hope you get back. My philosophy has already been the glass is not half full or half empty. If you don't like that glass, go get a new one. You just have to make the best of what of the cards that you're dealt well. I certainly agree with her that

grandchildren are a bonus. I think that when you're bringing up your own children, you're so involved in doing the right thing and putting them on the right path that you're not into the joy and the fun of the extraneous things. Actually, when you think about it, that is our legacy, our grandchildren. Not each one has everything. They're all not perfect, they're all not brilliant, they're all not talented. But I love them and I take each one from

what they are. But they all bring something to the table, every one of them. They have basic good traits, and they have good character, and they're honest, hard working people that will all turn out all of a sudden. Every stop it it's a big bird. But that's He'll stop in one second. You know who you look like? What's what's that soccer player from England? Um, the one that has the great ass um married to one the Spice girls. For one second, that's what you look like. I'll take that.

Thank you. Core Your Grandmother is a production of I Heart Radio and Superb Entertainment. The hosts of the show are Me Rita Kay and me Ellen Bernstein. Grodski created by Merrow Poster, produced and directed by Anna stump with producer Abu Zafar and associate producer Emily Marinoff Managing producer Lindsay Hoffman. The executive producers are Merrow Poster, Nikki Ichore and Mangesh Hachi Kadulla. Music and mastering by Hamilton's Lighthouser and Annie stump Hey. Can you do me a favor

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