When Playboy Found The Spirit Of Christmas | The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe

7 minutes in and I'm thinking about Paul Harvey and his lunch time pearls of wisdom. But this is Paul.

I do so love this channel. It’s the way media used to be.

In 1982 or so, I was partner teaching second grade with a young man who also had a second grade class. Both of us had very young children and neither of us had ever heard of or seen A Christmas Story. A student brought the video tape in for the two classes to watch at Christmas time. He told us that there were some "bad words" and he would tell us when to turn off the sound. He did. We both laughed so hard at this movie, along with the 60 kids. As my own kids grew, we watched it on television every year. Now those grown kids and my grandchildren watch it every year. The story is timeless.

How wonderful! I've never heard this before. One of my favourites. I loved the way Jean Shepherd sounded, much as I love the way Mike Rowe does. ❤

Aaaah , Fragile’ … Must be Italian!!!😂😂😂😂❤

I simply cannot get tired of this podcast.

I'm fairly certain that my grandfather knew Jean- he was also a ham radio operator. He even had a 30 or 40 foot tall tower antenna he made and put up in the side yard where the wires entered the house into his attic radio room. I remember being around 8 or 9 years old, quietly climbing the stairs, hoping he'd have the Radio Shack door open, inviting me to enter his sanctuary. I'd squeeze into the small space in the middle of mountains of equipment and I'd be given the honor of being allowed to sit with him up in that room late in the evening as he began calling out through the microphone, turning lighted dials with numbers and hash marks that remain meaningless to me to this day. The amplifier would come to life as it delivered squeels and whistles until he settled the wild thing down when he finally zoomed in on what he was looking for- one of the mysterious, ghostly voices I knew he would respond to, now coming through the wires from places like Chicago, San Francisco, Paris France, Edmonton Canada, northern Australia, Phoenix Arizona, Big Sur California, and many other exotic places around the globe which I will never be able to visit in life. The bumper-sticker sized strips of paper with letters and numbers on them tacked all over the walls and ceiling of his Radio Shack were the call signs of most of the other operators he'd made contact with over the years- so many I don't think even he was sure how many there were by the time he could no longer make it up those stairs to his sanctuary, and the room he then spent most of his time in was the sun room. It's where he would watch the Weather Channel on the television while napping before dinner. It's where he died, the day after Thanksgiving in 1991, sometime between 3 and 5 pm during his before dinner nap. I regret not having the patience or confidence to have allowed him to teach me to be an operator when I was young, but the memories of the magic my grandfather George Thole Sr. could manifest up in that tiny attic room filled with electronics that were new in the 1930s and 40s are still some of the best I can recall, even as I approach my 59th birthday next month. Merry Christmas, everyone.

And now I know why my late husband LOVED this movie. We watch it every year and have the DVD. This has been an interesting conversation, as always.

While Darren McGavin rose to wide spread fame with this movie I knew & loved his Horror Show Kolchak: The Night Stalker televised a decade earlier!

Man, thanks Mike. I'm a contractor and listen to your show on the jobsite often. Today I finished hand texturing drywall with a huge smile on my face and a few outloud chuckles. Great story about great story telling! This episode made my day!