This is “Dispatches From Myrtle Beach” with Charles Neal and my son Link, from “Good Mythical Morning.” How you doing, Link? I’m doing pretty good. I’m loosened up. Ready to get another dispatch. How are you feeling? Oh, yeah, I’m ready. I, I’m always ready to do some dispatches for our “Dispatches from Myrtle Beach.” Yeah. Let ’em keep bringing them in. See what’s going on with ’em. Let us, let them know what’s going on with us. So, there it is. That’s what I’m doing. Yeah. Do you get loose of a morning? Do you like to, do you stretch? Well, when you do what I do for a living, I don’t stretch much because when I get out and get a paintbrush out and climb it up and down a ladder, it don’t take but about five minutes and I’m stretched out with the way high to twist and turn. So, no, I don’t, I, and you know, that might, you know, that might, that might be a good idea to, Link. I think it is, because- Before I start, kind of like, when I play golf, I always stretch and do some stuff and get ready to hit that first golf ball. Maybe I ought to stretch a little bit to get myself ready to go to work and paint with whatever I’m doing. I think you should, when you get to be my age, you gotta stretch every morning, you’re gonna pull something, so. That’s what you gotta look forward to. Your age? I already stretch every morning to prevent some sort of injury. I would think. I, I, let’s see. Me and you both just had a birthday and I was 72. And I don’t hardly, I don’t never stretch, and- You need to. Dad doesn’t believe in stretching. I don’t. You don’t believe in it. I just don’t believe. All right. I ain’t playing football no more. Hell, I’m working, I stretch out enough working. Okay. All right. But… So, I’m sorry, You bet. Listen. Don’t apologize to me. Apologize to your own body. If you pull something. Whatever, whatever’s good for you, if it makes you feel better and you don’t want to get a cramp or pull a muscle or do something, you get up and you keep right on stretching and working out. You just, you just keep, keep up the good work. I wouldn’t call it working out. I would just call it, I turn, here’s what I do. I, I turn the hot water on if I shower, I turn the water on and I have to wait for it to get hot. Yep. And that’s the moment that I go over to my bath mat. I use it kinda like a yoga mat and I do some stretches. Your bath mat for your yoga mat. So that means, that means you lay down in the bathroom on your bath mat to do your stretches. Yeah. Well, I’m usually on my knees. I’m like, I’m on my hands and knees. Okay. I don’t lay on my back, but I’ll like, I’ll do some cat and I’ll do some cow. You don’t know what cat and cow is? That’s how you stretch your back. You make your back go like this and you make your back go like that. You arch it and you bulge it. Oh, okay. Alright. You really gotta I just see it. You ain’t never too old to learn something- You need to stretch out your vertebrae. Yeah. If you knew how my vertebrae was, ain’t much help in stretching it out. But it’s- Okay. And yes, I am completely naked when I’m doing these. And sometimes Christy walks in. Well, if you’re getting ready to get in the shower, you ain’t supposed to have no clothes on. That’s right. That’s what I tell Christy. She’s like, “Why you down here contorting on the floor all naked?” And there and there’s a full length mirror that just happens to be across from the bath mat. Oh my goodness. And I, sometimes I’ll look at myself, you know? Just to make sure everything’s still there. Yep. Then I get in the shower- Hanging like it ought to be. Yep. I mean you just, yeah, just gotta keep a check on that too. Make sure it’s hanging like it ought to be. Yep, that’s right. So you do do that. You strip down the naked and you look in the mirror every morning to see if it’s hanging like it ought to be? No, I don’t look in the mirror. I ain’t got a mirror where I can just look at it. But you know, when, when I, when I take a shower once in a while, I, when I’m washing that thing down there, I wanna make sure it’s still hanging like it ought to be. Okay. Yeah, that’s right. Dad, if you ever release an album, I think that’s what the name of the album. “Hanging like it ought to be.” Charles Neal, “Hanging Like It Ought To Be.” Well, maybe I need to pick my guitar up and learn how to play it and do me a album, “Hanging Like It Ought To Be.” There you go. Yeah. We might ought to go ahead and get a copyright for that. Somebody else will probably steal it now. I think we should, we could at least make a T-shirt like, it looks like an album, but it’s just like, it’s just a T-shirt for an album that doesn’t exist, “Hanging Like It Ought To Be.” Okay. What else you got? Gimme more of this dispatch. Well, I’ve been, you know, you know me, I went in Lowe’s the other day to get some stuff and there was three guys sitting in the, on some garden furniture they were trying to sell. And they, boy, they was relaxed and one of ’em was even up under the umbrella and he said, I said, “Well, how you guys doing?” And he said, “We’re doing pretty good, waiting, waiting up here to get something.” And I said, “Well, you guys ever watch anything on YouTube?” And one of the guys said, well, some, all of ’em said, “Some, once in a while.” And uh, I said, I asked, asked, I said, “Well, have you ever heard of Rhett & Link on “Good Mythical Morning”? One of the guys’ ears just perked up and said, “Oh yeah,” and they were a little older, but said, “Yeah, I used to watch ’em all the time, still watch ’em some.” I said, “Well here.” And I just snatched three dispatches from Myrtle Beach cards outta my pocket and handed them, handed them three of ’em. And I said, “Well, my name’s Charles Neal and I got a podcast with my son called, “Dispatches from Myrtle Beach.” And y’all need to look that up and see how it’s going. I said, “Because Rhett & Link don’t need much more help, no more for the peoples.” You know, I want ’em to keep watching them, but I’m the one that trying to get up to where they’re going. Them boys said, “They sat down right there in them chairs and pulled up and signed on to subscribe to “Dispatches from Myrtle Beach.” Yeah! I’m still trying to do my job. Yeah, that’s good. Going around Lowe’s. Just as you’re going, as you’re going along, you’re in Lowe’s. You’re just gonna hand out the cards. A little bit goes a long way. Yeah. There you go. Can’t never tell. Yeah. Did you get their names? Do you want give ’em a holler out right now? ‘Cause I guess they’re still listening. I didn’t… They’re no doubt hooked. They was busy and I was too. But the three guys at Lowe’s, I’m hollering out to you, yeah. Yeah, there you go. Thanks for, thanks for, thanks for tuning in, fellers. Thanks for tuning in and I hope you did follow through and look us up. The guy, I give a holler out to the guy who is painting the water tower at the end of my dog walk. They finally finished another one back there and he’s really into the show. I didn’t have a business card, but I did take a selfie with him. Darn, he painting a water tower? Yeah. I wouldn’t, well it’s not really a tower. Out here, I know back home, they’re like, they’re up on, you know, big stilts and it’s got the big water tower up there, but out here in like the mountains in like the lower foothills, they use the gravity of the, they use elevation to their advantage. And it’s just the- Reservoir. It’s a water, it’s a water tank that’s not on stilts because they don’t need stilts. Oh yeah. Yeah. So I, I, I met a guy who’s like, big fan. Well that’s great. Should have had a business card. You didn’t, you’re using all of them, which is fine. You got some out there. Oh, I do . Just have to keep ’em in your pocket. Oh yeah. I’m not much in the habit of carrying business cards, dad. I’m just gonna be honest. It’s not your business card. It’s my business card. “Dispatches from Myrtle Beach.” Okay. I’ve, alright. Alright. I’ll straighten up. I’ll straighten up. Help me, you know, promote the show. You know you’re half of it and it’s got your picture on it. Yes. Alright. But both of us are handsome, I remember. Yeah. But that’s kind of what’s been going on. You know… It is summertime here and it’s- Here too. Just like it always is, a crowd of people down here… Partying- And going to the beach. Yep. Getting sand in their- Sand in the shoes. And other places too. Yeah. Other crevices. Laying in the sand, you can get some in your crack, and everywhere else too. That’s right. Right. Get some sand in your crack and some dispatches in your ear. That could be the next business card. Well Link, I got a little thing we got. He said, “Everyone’s been waiting.” And we finally heard back from Parker. Parker. Drew was trying to get Parker to listen and Parker finally sent something in. Where Drew was saying, this is what he said. Okay. And this is from… Parker. He said, “Howdy, Neals…” Howdy. “My friend Drew has been trying to convince me to listen to ‘Dispatches from Myrtle Beach’ for quite some time from now, quite some time now. And for some reason I just wouldn’t give you two off casts a shot.” He finally, we are out. See we’re off casts. We’re off casts? I’ve been, I’ve been called worse. Yeah, me too. Parker said, but thank you. But he finally got me to listen to Episode 64: “Charles pronounced more words.” And my jaw hit the floor when I heard not only my friend Drew’s name, but also my own. I’m so happy to be in the circle now. And I’m sorry that it took me so long to go all the way around. Unfortunately when the conversation moved on from being about me, I think I zoned out a bit and eventually lost the plot altogether. But thank you and love you both, Parker. Parker. Parker, we we sending you another shout out. Here we are talking about you again. This is the only part you’re listening to. Yeah. We gonna call your name a couple times so you keep listening to all the podcasts and not lose your train of thought- Dad, we need to develop the habit of just like throwing in just the word Parker? Just like, just put it in there so he can zone back in. What’d you think about that, Parker? Yeah. But- Welcome to the Flock. Yeah. I’m glad Drew was very persistent with you, Parker, and Drew, I’m giving you another shout out for getting Parker to listen. Yeah. All right, Parker, now you can zone back out a little bit. We’re gonna move on to something else. So it’s not gonna be about you. Well yeah, while you listening, Parker, we going do some stuff from the ratherbshaggin53@aol.com that people sent in. Okay. It’s time for another edition of “Myrtle Beach Mailbag.” And I got one, I got one from Harrison and he asked me, have you ever hitched hike? Have you ever hitched hike? Hitched? Yeah. hitch hiked. Hitch hike. Like stick your thumb outside the road. It ain’t, it’s not, it’s probably not a good thing to do in this day and time, but back when I was growing up, it was a, it could be a good way to get you from point A to point B. And yes, Harrison, when I went to basic training and stayed down there before I got to carry my car back down there and I couldn’t catch a ride back home to Lillington, North Carolina, we got off at about 4:00 one Friday afternoon and you just can’t, you can’t hitchhike off the, you couldn’t back then anyway. You couldn’t hitchhike on the army base, to try to catch a ride. You had to walk on down, get off the base, and then you could start hitchhiking because they’d lock you up hitchhiking. You wouldn’t, might not have been able to finish basic training. Huh? Were you in a uniform? Yes. That helps. Because I didn’t, hey, I didn’t have no, I didn’t have no other, they didn’t let you bring your own clothes when you was in basic training. You wore their clothes. Really? So you didn’t have a pole with like a sack tied up on the end of it, like a bonafide hobo? Oh no, no. You better not do that either. So you stuck your thumb out and someone just stopped and picked you up? And it wasn’t long. Somebody that was coming up the road and you know, they used to say that a man in a uniform people would stop and pick ’em up and they would, and he asked me where I was going and I told him, he said, “Well I can get you about halfway there.” Because where was it? Fort Jackson, South Carolina. Okay. That’s quite a- Close to Columbia. Fort Jackson and Columbia. That might have been a four hour drive? Hmm, pretty close. Yep. Okay. So he took you halfway. What was that like? Oh, we just talked some. It’s been a long time ago, but I do remember, you know, he getting me and he dropped me off. We went up highway number one and so I could get to Sanford to cut off and I knew if I could get that close, I could get to a payphone to call somebody to come and get me and pick me up because they weren’t no cell phones. Were you afraid of somebody wanting to like, kill you or were you prepared to also kill somebody? Well, that really didn’t ever cross my mind. I mean, I really weren’t afraid any, and I mean, I left about 4:00 that afternoon and somebody else picked me up and they kind of went out of the way and carried me all the way to Lillington, and dropped me off at mom and daddy’s house about one o’clock in the morning. Really? So, I mean, someone was that kind to say, “Well, I’ll take you outta my way.” Because hey, I think the first check I drew in the army that they automatically, they did, they, you they did have it where it just went straight to a bank account. And you couldn’t get it out while you’re still in basic training. So I mean they gave us like, I think $15 a week or something ’cause you could go buy some stuff right around on the base and stuff. So I didn’t have a whole lot of money, I mean, to give somebody and to help out and everything. And people didn’t really ask for it. So it was a pretty neat thing. So when I went back, I had made arrangements to drive my car back. Okay. And leave it outside the base where I could park it. I mean that could be quite an adventure. But you don’t remember the specific people? I’m 72. Yeah, that’s been 50 years ago. Well, they didn’t murder you. Dad, you would’ve remembered that. Oh yeah, I’d remember that. Or I’d remember if they was trying. Are there people, like back then there were people thumbing for rides constantly. Right? It was commonplace. It was a pretty, kind of a pretty standard thing. Were you in the practice of picking up people? I, I did it some, but it was kind of ironic. I picked the boy up in Sanford when I went through to go back and get on number one. They was going back to Fort Jackson and carried him back with me. Really? And he was, he was outside of Sanford getting on down towards Southern Pines and he was out there doing like this, side of the road and I stopped and picked him up, carried him all the way back to Fort Jackson. He just happened to be, you going back to the same basic training? Yep. Yep. I’ve never really had the occasion to hitchhike. I think the only time, Rhett and I went up to Indiana for his brother’s wedding and we were short, like we rode up there with them and then they left for something and we didn’t have a car. So then we were gonna walk from the hotel to the car and it was like across town and we didn’t stick our thumb out, but a guy pulled over to give us a ride and it turns out that it was Rhett’s grandpa, who we rarely saw, and he knew, he recognized Rhett and pulled over and we were just thinking, “Somebody’s trying to give us a ride.” So, but I guess that doesn’t count as hitchhiking. Yeah, so I’ve never actually hitchhiked. Nowadays if you’re driving on, I’ve definitely seen this out here, I don’t know, it’s maybe across the country you’ll see signs that say “Don’t pick up hitchhikers.” And I’ve learned what that means. It means that you’re near like a prison, where if there’s like an escaped convict or something, what they’ll try to do is, hitch a ride with somebody to get, to get outta dodge. You know, they literally have signs around these places. “Don’t pick up hitchhikers,” somebody on the lam. Well I, you know, being that I have worked in the prison system before, I, I wouldn’t be, I wouldn’t worry about if I was picking somebody up around a prison or something ’cause it ain’t, there’s little, little chance in hell in a snowstorm that they, somebody escaped from out there that they ain’t already out there looking for ’em, up and down that road. So if it’s somebody out hitchhiking beside the road, you need to be a little more careful about because it may be somebody that may end up trying to do something to you so they can get in that prison over there, so. Right. At this day and age, I mean it’s just, you just, you hear these horror stories, you just don’t know. I feel for people who, the occasional person, you see that’s hitchhiking, but it’s just, it’s too big of a risk to pull over. Oh yeah. Nowadays and like- Yeah. So the thought’s crossed my mind, but then immediately it’s like, “Yeah, I can’t take that risk.” No, that ain’t a good idea. Hey, I’m just right now, I’m just telling you, that’s a good train of thought. But this is your daddy talking to you said, “You don’t need to stop and pick nobody up hitchhiking and tell my grandchildren the same thing.” All right, I’ll tell ’em. And your wife. Yeah. All right. I’m gonna go home and tell Christy, Dad said, “Don’t pick up any hitchhikers.” Yeah. It’s a lost start. It’s a lost start. Now what are thumbs good for now? You know? Thumbs up. Like when you do, that’s all they good for. That boy, that the way to go. Yeah. Yeah. Or thumbs down. You know that wasn’t good. That wasn’t good. Well that’s what you know, it’s and grabbing things, Dad. Also thumbs are good for. New mugs just landed in the Mythical store. Check out the “Good Mythical Morning Show” mug. Available in four colors: Almond, white, pink and orange. Available at mythical.com. This show is sponsored by Better Help. We all carry around different stressors, big and small. When we keep them bottled up, it can start to affect us negatively. Therapy is a safe space to get things off your chest and to figure out how to work through whatever’s weighing you down. This show sponsored by Better Help is a good way for you to be able to talk to somebody and get something off your chest. Because I’ve had to get some things off my chest in my lifetime and been to a therapist and done that for probably six months, going through different things in my life. And it gets you calmed down and you’re not in a stress environment anymore. And it makes you just feel so much better about yourself because you’re able to talk to somebody that they’re not going to tell somebody else what you’re talking about. They keep it to themself. Just like, you know, if you tell a friend something, they say, “Oh, I’m not going to tell anybody.” But most of the time they going to tell somebody. So it’s a really good thing if you call Better Help and need to talk to somebody, it’ll be a good way to get something off your chest. If you’re thinking of starting therapy, give Better Help a try. It’s entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist and switch therapists anytime for no additional charge. Get it off your chest with Better Help. Visit betterhelp.com/dispatches today, to get 10% off your first month. That’s Better Help, H-E-L-P .com/dispatches. Why do you want to learn a new language? Maybe you have an upcoming international trip? Want to connect with a family member or friend? Or just want to learn a new skill or take on a new hobby? In comes Rosetta Stone: The most trusted language learning program available on desktop or as an app. It truly immerses you in the language you want to learn. They use trusted experts for 30 years with millions of users and 25 languages offered. Some of which include Spanish, French, German, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Dutch, and Arabic. Rosetta Stone immerses you in many ways. There are no English translations, so you really learn to speak, listen and think in that language. It’s designed for a long-term retention, plus they have convenient desktop and app options with audio companion and the ability to download lessons offline, all for an amazing value. A lifetime membership has all 25 languages for any and all languages needed in life. That’s lifetime access to all 25 language courses, Rosetta Stone offers for 50% off, a steal! Don’t put off learning that language. There’s no better time than right now to get started. For a limited time, “Dispatches from Myrtle Beach,” listeners can get Rosetta Stone’s lifetime membership for 50% off. Visit rosettastone.com/dispatches That’s 50% off unlimited access to 25 language courses for the rest of your life. Redeem your 50% off at rosettastone.com/dispatches today. Well Link, we got another email from Anthony and it says, “Many folks have done strange things during their childhoods. In a way it’s how we learn and grow into who we become later in life.” Okay. For example, I decided it was possible to make melted caramel by putting a butter scotch in a small cup. I ended up microwaving it for 10 minutes while going outside to play. It didn’t work. But I did learn how to create a six inch smoke layer in my kitchen, and I had to permanently destroy our family microwave. Oh-oh! What is the strangest or craziest thing that you did as a child and what lessons did it teach you? Much love from Mobile, Alabama. So he wants to know what’s the strangest thing that you’ve done as a child? Well, I have talked about some strange things I already did as a child, but we’re not going to bring them back up. But where me and, where we lived at Lillington, and behind our house and in between there was a vacant lot and it had this tall straw that would grow up. Okay. So a bunch of us kids went around there and we built us a bunch of teepees out of this straw and made us a place to play and go camp and have things that we tried to do during the daytime and just giving us something to do because you know, back when I was growing up, we did get to play baseball, but you didn’t have no video games and you had to figure out things to do, that was interesting. Yeah. So you’d make a teepee, like a thatched roof or you would just like, they were tall enough that you’d make ’em like a triangle. Yeah. And they was about four or five, because we weren’t that tall then. Four or five foot tall. Hmm, that’s cool. And so it was pretty neat. We had these things out and there was a, Jewel Bird’s house was on one side. And I’m trying to remember the other, there was some other, and our house was right behind it and just houses all around this empty field. And then there was a apartment complex right beside it where a lot of people lived over there. Okay. And we came out one day and it was all gone. Somebody had set it on fire. What? And the fire truck was out there putting it out and it burned all of it down and we didn’t know if we was in trouble for building them things or what we did. And we never didn’t know. I don’t think if I was trying to, we were all trying to figure out one of us, mischievously might’ve been doing something one day and caught it to set on fire. But nobody wasn’t on. And it won’t me. Are you sure? You sure that you don’t want to tell us something? Now’s the time. No, it won’t me ’cause and you, you know, I didn’t like, some of these kids, you know, kind of like to smoke a cigarette once in a while when we was growing up and trying different things. But I hated them things so it won’t me, but you know. But the fire, the firetruck was out there and they just kept it wet on the edge and just let the whole field and all our little teepees burn up. So we had to go find somewhere else to go play after that. So you got your little friends building teepees and smoking cigarettes. Is that what was happening out there? Well they, there was a couple of ’em. Yeah. They tried to get me to steal some of papa’s just, just get a couple of ’em. He won’t never miss them. I said, I ain’t helping you smoke no cigarettes. That ain’t gonna happen. That was never your thing. Pretty ironic. Then I went to growing tobacco years later. Right. Oh yeah. And then, probably the other strangest thing, Link, that ever happened with me when I was nine years old, I was about nine or 10 anyway, I broke my elbow throwing a baseball. And you know, when I was about three or four, you can’t hardly see it, but I got this scar right here where I run my arm up in the ringer washing machine while your nana was talking to her Mama and she wasn’t watching me and I was trying to help and it run me all the way up to my elbow. Oh! You’re talking about the, like the two things that, like in the two rollers? Just spinning it around on my arm right there. You remember that? Was burning. Oh yeah. And burning in me, I screaming and hollering. Mama run in there and it had a little lever on the side of it where it would put ’em back apart. Jerk me out and had to carry me to the doctor and all that. But that’s just kind of how, what happened with this store when I broke my elbow and they had to put a cast on my arm and it had to be at at a “L.” Okay. Right here where I couldn’t move it, where it cracked and broke. Makes me uncomfortable. So, about four weeks later I was riding my bicycle and going down the road and I kept feeling something wet. And I looked down and there was pus and mucus and all kind of stuff running out the end of my cast. Coming out my arm. Pus and mucus. Yeah. And I said, “What in the world?” So I turned around and went back home and got mama and I said, “Mama, there’s something going on.” I did that thing and she seen it. She said, “Oh my God, what in the world have you done now?” I said, “Mama, I ain’t done nothing.” So she, we had, we daddy was at work, so we walked two blocks down the street back down to Dr. P’s office. Showed him what, he cut that cast off and where that place is at on my arm had festered up because the skin was so thick. So they had to clean all that up. And then they had to fix me, another cast to put on my arm. But when he made the cast, he left a hole in it where that thing could get some air. Huh. Where my arm went. That, that’s- Like a breathing hole? A breathing hole. It was up above it up there. And so that’s a- If you ever have something happen to your arm, you’re riding a bicycle and stuff goes running out down your arm, don’t be alarmed just go back to the doctor. Let ’em cut the cast off. You want me to tell everybody that too. So when I go home, I’mma tell Christy, if she’s got pus and mucus running down her arm, don’t be alarmed. And don’t hitchhike. And don’t hitchhike. All right. That would be correct. All right. I gotta start taking notes if there’s anything else you need me to tell her. Well I’ll remind you. Alright. That’s wild, dad. Anthony, I, I’ve had, you know, a couple of strange things. Yeah, I reckon one of ’em is kind of crazy. It’s too, because when you break your arm and you got pus and mucus running out where your cast- Don’t say, you don’t have to say pus and mucus again. Just don’t, you don’t have to. What, your stomach queasy? Yeah, I just don’t. We’re good. We get it. Okay. Alright. So just watch that. And thank you for sending that in, Anthony. Yeah. And Link, I don’t know about you, but it’s been fun having you all here with us today and we’ll be next- We’ll be back next week for another one. And don’t forget to follow and subscribe wherever you get your podcast and on YouTube and while you’re at it, rate and review us on Apple Podcast and if you’ve got a question, comment or a story you’d like to share with me, email me at ratherbshaggin53@aol.com, send them emails on in. And y’all have a great rest of your week and Link, I can’t wait to see you next time and just see if you can get some pus and mucus to run down your elbow again the next time. So I’ll see you next week. Love you. Dad! I love you too, Dad.