MFM Minisode 500

**Karen Kilgariff** (0:16)
Hello and welcome to the Minisode. It's our 500th Minisode.

**Georgia Hardstark** (0:23)
How is that even possible?

**Karen Kilgariff** (0:25)
It's quite an accomplishment.

**Georgia Hardstark** (0:26)
It is. I'm proud of us. I'm breaking the little 500

**Karen Kilgariff** (0:30)
I'm proud of Corey for this design.

**Georgia Hardstark** (0:32)
So cute.

**Karen Kilgariff** (0:33)
Incredible.

**Georgia Hardstark** (0:33)
All of it.

**Karen Kilgariff** (0:34)
But we're doing a very fun thing for it, like especially for this episode. Our producers thought it would be fun to take all of the different subcategories of Minisodes that we've asked you all to send in over the years.
And the ones that they know we like the best, they've tried to get two for ones, two subjects in one email for us.

**Georgia Hardstark** (0:55)
So like a random hero pet meets treasure in the wall kind of a thing.

**Karen Kilgariff** (1:00)
A grandma meets Al Capone. That's the only example I ever give. Grandma and Al Capone.

**Georgia Hardstark** (1:05)
Grandma and Al Capone. But then you have to have another one meets a deathbed confession.

**Karen Kilgariff** (1:10)
Glitch in the Matrix.

**Georgia Hardstark** (1:11)
Glitch in the Matrix. Those are my favorite.

**Karen Kilgariff** (1:15)
But here's an even more fun part is that these are complete surprises to us. Usually we pick our own emails to read to each other. But this time they've been chosen for us by us.

**Georgia Hardstark** (1:26)
Right. So I'm going to read three from Karen, that Karen chose specifically for me and vice versa. So I've never seen these. So they better not be embarrassing. That would be really.

**Karen Kilgariff** (1:36)
There are three emails about your butt. I don't know how I did it, but I did it.

**Georgia Hardstark** (1:40)
I'm proud of you. Okay. So yeah, let's do it. Let's get into it. Who goes first?

**Karen Kilgariff** (1:45)
What do you think? You want to go first?

**Georgia Hardstark** (1:47)
Sure.

**Karen Kilgariff** (1:47)
They're pure surprises, so we can't even-

**Georgia Hardstark** (1:49)
Wait, hold on, because I have a good one for your last one. So if I go, then you go, then I go, then you go, then I go, then you go. So yeah, me.
Counting. I can count to 500

**Karen Kilgariff** (2:00)
Because you're so good at this.

**Georgia Hardstark** (2:01)
That's right.

**Karen Kilgariff** (2:02)
You've done it. Also, just for everyone at home, Georgia thought this up the first week we did this podcast.

**Georgia Hardstark** (2:08)
What? Minisodes?

**Karen Kilgariff** (2:09)
Minisodes were an immediate. It was a great idea.

**Georgia Hardstark** (2:11)
Thank you. I'm so happy that we did it.
It's brought so much joy, I think, into our lives.

**Karen Kilgariff** (2:17)
Oh, yeah.
It's my favorite. What better than to read other people's grandma's adventures?

**Georgia Hardstark** (2:22)
Totally.

**Karen Kilgariff** (2:23)
Or whatever.

**Georgia Hardstark** (2:23)
We've read so many great stories over the years.

**Karen Kilgariff** (2:26)
The Latchkey Children.

**Georgia Hardstark** (2:28)
Dude, there's just everything that we learn about ourselves and our listeners has been so much fun. So the first one that you picked for me is a grandma vengeance story with cats. So it's the sassy grandmas and cats, those two topics as one.

**Karen Kilgariff** (2:43)
One sassy grandma's chocolate, cat's vanilla.

**Georgia Hardstark** (2:45)
And you get us?

**Karen Kilgariff** (2:46)
We.

**Georgia Hardstark** (2:47)
I love that. I want that. Okay. Hi, y'all, but especially cats for reasons that will soon be clear. Before I begin, my sincerest apologies to anyone I know, IRL, who listens to this podcast because I've definitely already told you this story. Anyways, onwards. My grandmother grew up on the beach in Tampa, Florida, and every kid in her neighborhood had their own little rowboat.
It was the 30s, so child safety was not a thing. How fun would that be?

**Karen Kilgariff** (3:13)
How old did you have to be to get your own rowboat?

**Georgia Hardstark** (3:15)
Eight, probably.

**Karen Kilgariff** (3:16)
What if it's five?

**Georgia Hardstark** (3:17)
Five.

**Karen Kilgariff** (3:18)
That'd be so great.

**Georgia Hardstark** (3:20)
One day when she was about eight or nine, she looked outside and saw another kid out in his rowboat, holding a cap by the tail and swinging it over the water. Filled with her righteous rage, my grandmother jumped into her boat, rode out to the void with the cat, stood up and started beating him over the head as hard as she could with one of her oars. I thought I was going to say with one of her cats.
This apparently went on for quite a while, but eventually my grandmother decided that the boy had been suitably punished and she grabbed the cat and rode back to the shore. A new home was found for the cat and the story of the boy and the oar passed into family legend. That is amazing. Now, my grandmother was known to exaggerate things, so my mom and her siblings always took the story with several grains of salt. But years and years later, my grandparents decided to retire back down to the Tampa area. My mom being the youngest and the only kid still at home got dragged along on various errands.