Podcast host David Reynolds conducts his first ever interview with family members. Born on different sides of the globe, just a few years after the beginning of the Great Depression, and soon to celebrate their 64th wedding anniversary, David’s parents offer their insights into teaching, learning, marriage, and parenting, recount a few stories from the past, and drive home more than a few points about what matters most, in life, regardless of the changes one experiences.
David Reynolds: What matters most in learning? The challenge? The thrill? The benefits? Interacting with other people, or something else entirely? What is the connection between leading and learning? Does change drive learning, or does learning drive change? What's more important, teaching or learning? Is everyone a leader, a learner, a teacher? You want answers, listen in as we address these intriguing issues through commentary, and with guests who share their thinking and tell us their stories. Lead. Learn. Change.
Paul Reynolds: Everything that happens should be something that makes you a better person if you pay attention to what you just said or done, or whatever it might be.
Geneva Reynolds: If you ever get to talking about it with somebody later on, and you didn't have any trouble talking about it, they could see that you learned it.
Paul Reynolds: Or you can understand the words, but what transpires is actually you really get involved in it physically, and that's the way you learn.
Geneva Reynolds: You have to actually participate, be in it, better than just hearing about it. Actually do it.
Paul Reynolds: This is amazing, what we talked about, and how we felt, and all the things that you know that really bonded us closer together.
Geneva Reynolds: There's nothing like those letters. We still have them to this day, I realize one of them.
Paul Reynolds: I think there's a teaching process to some degree, and in some manner, all your life.
Geneva Reynolds: It sure wasn't biology because we had to dissect frogs and I refused.
Paul Reynolds: Right now, you see about where you made mistakes, but that's anything in life. I mean, everything is not perfection.
Geneva Reynolds: But I loved every minute of it, even though it was hard.
Paul Reynolds: You latch on to things, and you look back, and you can see how it influenced you to where you are now.
Geneva Reynolds: We were both teachers, but I didn't think of myself as one at the time.
Paul Reynolds: If you just pay attention, life is what really teaches you about almost everything.
David Reynolds: Today, we have two guests on Lead, Learn, Change. Mr. And Mrs. Paul and Geneva Reynolds of Ferncreek, Kentucky which is just outside of Louisville. Thanks for speaking with me today.
Paul Reynolds: You're welcome.
David Reynolds: You may have noticed that my guests and I share a last name. That's because they are my parents. Instead of hearing me say "Paul and Geneva," today you'll be hearing "mother and daddy," because that's what I call them. I'm really looking forward to this conversation. Let's start this off first, to address the most important thing, here's your first question. Am I your favorite son named David? Yes or no.
Geneva Reynolds: Yes, you're the favorite son named David, sure.
David Reynolds: Okay, perfect. Thanks again mother and daddy. Our listeners may be interested to know that you are both 86 years old, or will be when the world hears this conversation, because mother, this episode is going to be released on your 86th birthday in just a few weeks.
Paul Reynolds: No April Fool's.
David Reynolds: No, it's just going to be an April 1st gift. Falls Church, Virginia, which is outside Washington DC, Tokyo, Japan, Danville and Crab Orchard, Kentucky, Portland Christian High School, and the courier general of Louisville newspaper are part of you all's histories as are four sons, me and my three brothers. You'll be married to one another for 64 years this May, which is a testament to your commitment to one another, and while 64 years or 86 years sounds like a long time, it struck me today that your parents are both born in, or all born in the 1800s. That's really fascinating, given that now it's 2020. You're were both born just a few years before World War 2. What's the biggest change that you believe you've seen in your lifetime? Mother, we'll start with you on that one.
Geneva Reynolds: Oh my lands. I'd have to stop and think a minute.
David Reynolds: That's fine.
Geneva Reynolds: Let daddy start first.
David Reynolds: Okay. The biggest change you've seen in your lifetime.
Paul Reynolds: I guess the way people conduct themselves in their own personal walk of life with other people.
Geneva Reynolds: There's much more violence now than when we were growing up, or even after we got to be young adults.
David Reynolds: That's looking from your life out at the rest of the world. If you narrow that a little bit and think about your own lives individually, or as a married couple, what's the most difficult change that you've gone through.
Geneva Reynolds: I don't know. All of mine's been great.
Paul Reynolds: I don't know. I didn't have to really reprogram myself or anything. You just sort of took stuff as it came, and of course you didn't approve of everything, but I mean, just in the most recent years, the last 10 or 15 years is when major things have changed, especially politically and personally, and religiously, and everything else. It's just almost a complete reversal from what we used to know a few years back.
Geneva Reynolds: One little thing the most difficult for me was we have been married for three months, and he got called into the service, and I cried. I didn't know what was going to happen.
David Reynolds: I'm actually going to come back to that in just a minute, so I'm glad you brought that up. That's just great timing on that. Go back to school, when you were a student, and tell me what you remember about your early days of school. Just whatever comes to mind.
Geneva Reynolds: I loved school. I love school from the first grade through the 12th. I liked everything about it.
David Reynolds: Anything specific that you liked a lot?
Geneva Reynolds: Well, I was in different music groups, and played field hockey, which I liked. I just liked school.
David Reynolds: Both of those things that you've mentioned were things that were done with other people. Groups of people. Singing, you said music groups, and then field hockey is not a solo sport. It's a team sport. Were those experiences really good and positive, and created those good memories you think because there are other people around, or was it actually the music or the sport itself that was most valuable?
Geneva Reynolds: Oh well, it wouldn't have been any fun without all those friends playing and singing with you. It was the people, I guess.
David Reynolds: What about you, daddy? What do you think of when you think back to early years of school?
Paul Reynolds: I remember when you get up in the winter time, and they talked about school bussing, of course, I know these two are not synonymous, but I was bussed 10 miles when I started in the first grade, when we lived in the country like that. I had to walk about half a mile to somebody else's house to get on the bus, come rain, shine, or snow. I don't remember taking any notes to school, saying why you were late or absent, or anything in those days. You've made a lot of friends on the school bus, and you had a lot of playmates on the playground. I like most of the classes that I had, and I didn't have any teacher that I didn't like, or anything of that nature. Of course, living the country like that, you got up, especially in the winter time, to a cold house and you froze to death, not really, but getting ready to go to school. They fixed my lunch, and it was just normal, everyday routine of that nature. Had good time learning, and you're talking about more like when I first started, or just sort of progressively through high school, or?
David Reynolds: No. Whatever jumps out as the memory. It might be first grade for somebody, it might 12th grade for somebody else. Just your general thoughts on that. Mother mentioned field hockey and music groups, and you did not mention basketball but I know you played basketball in high school. Was that a positive component of school?
Paul Reynolds: Well, it is okay. I never was that good, but I did get to ... I was on the JV team and I did get to substitute on the varsity when they needed to change some players sometimes. But of course all of that took place at Portland Christian School. Of course, after we left the country, moved to Louisville, but then I had that opportunity to go to Portland Christian School, which was biblical based teaching, that teach you about God and Christianity, and all those things that was supposed to change your lifestyle and how you looked at things. But being a pre-teenager, and a teenager at that time, sometimes it takes a long time for us to have to think and do your system, so to speak, and how you look at things in different angles, and what you feel like inside, and how you react to certain situations, which was very good for me. Those helped shape your life for the future, and that part of it was held together all the way through our married life.
You latch on to things, and you look back, and you can see how it influenced you to where you are now.
David Reynolds: Right. You won't toot your own horn, or brag, but I will throw in here that you were also a valedictorian of your senior class. You can put that on the record and give you credit there. How do you think school, when you attended in the 40s, is different from schools that students attend today? You've got some notion of what schools are like, from whatever source you get that information, so I'm curious, what's your sense about the learning, or the subject matter, or the content?
Geneva Reynolds: They've got a lot more now to teach them with. They've got TVs or whatever else they use, and all those things that we never had anything, but just paper and books, and that was it. That would have been harder to do your studies and everything, if you'd had some of the stuff, but of course you have to know how to do it.
David Reynolds: Did you mean that it will be harder if you had the new tools and technologies, or that it was harder when you only had the paper, pencil, book?
Geneva Reynolds: Well, I just meant that we probably would have been able to do a whole lot more if we've known how to do this other, because with paper, and pencil, and books, and that's it. But nowadays, they can do a lot more with what they have.
Paul Reynolds: I think, I don't know, but it's hard to try to differentiate sometimes, but I think that learning things mechanically like that, having the teacher to put them on a blackboard where you can actually see it, and she's explaining it while she's writing it there, as supposed to being on the screen on some manufactured machine or something, I don't think it makes the impression in your brain or your heart either as the old fashioned way.
David Reynolds: Is that because of the relationship between the teacher and student was, you think, stronger in the past because the technology might be getting in the way?
Paul Reynolds: I would say so, because I think anything face to face and person to person is more beneficial than machine to person.
Geneva Reynolds: I wasn't talking about just machines by themselves. I was including the teachers too. I mean, nowadays, teachers and machines, that wasn't saying, do away with the teachers.
David Reynolds: Understood on that. You're talking about your learning experiences there, and you've mentioned some characteristics that seem to matter. Doing things with other people, or having the teacher interact with you on a personal level, and connecting with the head and the heart. Think back on your learning experiences, projects or whatever you were doing in school, what do you remember as one of your best learning experiences and how come you would pick that story as one of your favorite learning moments.
Paul Reynolds: That'd be kind of hard to do. I don't know if I can really come up with a definite answer on that. I mean, there's so much combinations of things.
David Reynolds: Was there one project or activity, or something you learned, or something that you were exposed to, that you remember thinking, "That was really fun," or, "I'm so excited that I know this now," or, "I want to do more of this." Anything like that from either one of you?
Geneva Reynolds: It sure wasn't biology, because we had to dissect frogs and I refused.
Paul Reynolds: I can't think of anything, David, specifically.
David Reynolds: Okay. Then let's make it more generic. How do you know when you really learned something? Not just memorized it, but you've really learned it. How would you convince somebody that you know that you know something?
Geneva Reynolds: If you ever get to talking about it with somebody later on, and you didn't have any trouble talking about it, they could see that you learned it, and they got into the conversation with you, and you had a good time talking about it. Does that make sense?
David Reynolds: Sure.
Paul Reynolds: I don't know. I mean, nowadays, socializing and conversion out of your mouth, and saying word is not non-existent but it's sure not prevalent like it used to be.
David Reynolds: You mean because of texting and e-mail, and things that keep people from doing face to face?
Geneva Reynolds: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Paul Reynolds: Yeah. I think those are very, very, how do I want to say here, not the exact tools they need.
David Reynolds: Do you all think that your courtship in your early days would have been less significant if you had only texted each other, instead of getting to write letters?
Geneva Reynolds: Oh, there was nothing like those letters. We still have them to this day, every last one of them.
Paul Reynolds: Yeah, word of mouth, like your mother said, we kept them. What was it we had? Over 400 letters, I think, and we two or three years ago we sat down here and during the week, we got them all out and reread them all to each other. It's just amazing what we talked about and how we felt, and all the things that really bonded us closer together that way, because as I was saying, I mean, the six years that we knew each other before we got married, we were only together, we counted out one time, we were only together six months.
Geneva Reynolds: Speaking of that, and going back to the letters, daddy lived with his aunt, and we were still just writing because we hadn't gotten married yet, but we were engaged, and he was out cutting the grass. His aunt came out, and handed him a letter, and she says, "Here's your dessert," and it was a letter from me.
Paul Reynolds: Yeah, that was-
Geneva Reynolds: He had already had lunch and this was his dessert.
David Reynolds: That type of interaction with another person, where you're really spending time, getting to know them and sharing thoughts matters in every aspect of life, whether that's a family or even at work, or at school where you get to know friends or some of your teachers really well, are there times outside of school that you think you learn as well as times in school? How would you describe the difference between, if there is any difference, between learning in school and learning outside of school?
Geneva Reynolds: For me, after being married, of course we weren't going to school anymore, I learned all kinds of things. I had never cooked before, and of course, I had done a lot of sewing, and I did a lot of different things that I never would have done, I think, before we married. I loved my jobs.
Paul Reynolds: When you leave school in that type of atmosphere, into working projects and things that you go through all those 12 years, and then you get out and you get a job, you're with a different kind of people. Then, if you get a job and you stay with it, then all that things are different than going to school for 12 years, even though the job you have, if you work at it for 12 years, because a day don't coincide with what your teenage life was then the kind of people you work with, and how they talk, and how they act, and the subject matters they discuss that's not too pleasant to listen to sometimes. You have more negative influences that you have to be aware of that I think when you were school age.
Geneva Reynolds: Back when I was in my jobs, that was before we married, and I loved every one of them, especially one. I didn't have that problem.
Paul Reynolds: Well, it depends on who you work for, and what kind of job you're in.
Geneva Reynolds: Like you at the courier, I know that was a little different.
Paul Reynolds: Yeah.
Geneva Reynolds: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
David Reynolds: Let's talk about some teachers, and the best ones. It may not be easy to pick the best one, but almost every time anybody has asked a question about who's your favorite teacher, a couple of people spring to your mind. Who is your favorite teacher, and why?
Geneva Reynolds: I had a favorite teacher in grade school, which was my fifth grade teacher. She was just so helpful any time anybody needed help with their work, or couldn't understand it, or even things outside of school, if you wanted to talk about a little problem or something, she was just perfect. I really loved her. She's my fifth grade teacher, and I did have one in high school that I liked the best too, but that's the main one.
David Reynolds: Did you like the one in high school for the same reason, because of the listening and the helping?
Geneva Reynolds: Yeah, pretty much.
David Reynolds: Do you remember their names?
Geneva Reynolds: The one in high school was Mr. Snodgrass. Then later on, went to work, after I graduated, went to work for his aunt which I absolutely loved. I told daddy, I said, if we hadn't ever married, I'd still be there working for her, because she was the sweetest boss I ever had. Worked as secretary to the principal.
David Reynolds: Daddy, your favorite teacher?
Paul Reynolds: Well, let's see, I like my first grade teacher, Mrs. Lina McClure. I don't know about any particular reason. When you're little like that, probably it wasn't one. Then when I came here, I guess, in the ones I had at Portland Christian was Monabel Campbell. She was an English and literature teacher. But it's hard to really separate because they all had different personalities, and everything else. There wasn't any of them that I dislike. But I guess I'd have to say who I just told you, Monabel Campbell.
David Reynolds: For her, why was that? Kindness, or patience, or what?
Paul Reynolds: Well, a combination of things I guess. I guess it's her mannerisms, her personality, and her ability to enable you to understand the explanation of the subject matter, and except maybe for some of them, like mother would say like Shakespeare, because I despise that stuff.
David Reynolds: Do either one of you consider yourselves to be teachers?
Geneva Reynolds: Not me.
Paul Reynolds: No.
David Reynolds: Well, as parents, what would you point to as the most important lessons or information that you taught us, me and my three brothers?
Paul Reynolds: You mean by words, or actions, or both?
David Reynolds: Whatever that means to you. I believe that if you're a parent, you are a teacher by default, but I just wanted to see what your response to that would be.
Geneva Reynolds: Of course, we wanted you all to know about God first. But then, I wanted you all to behave. Because it was really hard for me, although I loved it, I wouldn't trade it for anything, but it was hard for me because daddy slept part of the time, and then was at work the other part of the time, and only had the two days off every week. It was hard, but I loved every minute of it even though it was hard.
David Reynolds: Let me refresh your memory from the child's perspective but from an adult's memory of a child's perspective. Daddy, I remember learning from you, you told us about some of your friends at work, and especially some of the practical jokes that they played on each other. That stuck with me, as you know. I also know you looked into ... And you took us to your place of work, especially in the summer, and that, whether you realized it then, or later, or not, was a huge thrill as a young boy. Then, I remember hearing that you have looked into drafting and mechanical drawing at one point. That was evidenced by your handwriting and your fine guidelines on the covers of your envelopes that you would address. Then, I ended up studying and teaching that same subject matter for a number of years, and I don't think that's necessarily just a coincidence.
Then there was basketball for me. Days on the dirt court in the backyard where the ball would hit a bump and shoot off like somebody's stolen it from you. Then, later at the local schoolyard with my teenage friends where you actually played with us in your early 40s, those are some of my favorite memories and experiences as a child. Is there anything you remember about those interactions? The drafting, the mechanical drawing, or the telling of stories, or basketball?
Paul Reynolds: Just trying to get into the action with you all just depending on your childhood playmates to be with all the time. Parents need to be involved in whatever they had to do, which probably wasn't involved enough, but you have to see, you learn from, especially like sports, if you're going to get mad and blow up, which happens occasionally and naturally, but anyway, it's, I think even all through life, you try to be a good example, and do what you think is right, which is also some of the times you look back now, you see about where you made mistakes. But that's anything in life. I mean, everything is not perfection. As you live your life, you're going to stumble and fall, and make mistakes, whether it'd be with your children, or your kinfolk, or people you've never heard of before, in case you happen to be in their presence or something. Living life is a very hard chore. But it's also full of pleasant things as well. It's a good mixture. If you just pay attention, life is what really teaches you about almost everything.
David Reynolds: That's well said. Mother, I have a lot of memories of watching you prepare meals, and bake literally thousands of cookies. Actually, I thought about your teacakes, melt-aways, and fudge just the other day. I was looking for something like that in the pantry here at home, knowing that there wouldn't be any, but it made me think about, "Man, I wish there was a can of those things up here." Here's confession time. Your efforts to make those cookies last every year from your baking season, from one baking season to the next, and then you would fill all the cookie tins very methodically and carefully, which looked like some sort of mathematical formula. You would put 17 cookies in a layer, then cut out a piece of round wax paper that had been scored to match the shape of the can with the edge of a pair of scissors, and then you lay another layer on top, and so on, and then seal the lids, and then store those away down in the vault in the basement so we couldn't get to them. But all of us, Norman, Les, William, and I, with what we thought was very clever timing, frequently but very carefully, we would unseal those tins and remove, and reorganize just the right number of cookies or an entire layer and eat as many as we could, and always take extra care to eliminate the appearance of our breaking and entering. We did this for years.
I don't know if you knew that or not, but we really had our share of cookies when you weren't around.
Geneva Reynolds: I didn't really know how often you all got into it, but I could tell sometimes that I knew that you all had. I've never said anything, because I couldn't prove it.
David Reynolds: We did a pretty good job there. Let me go back to our other non-criminal memories. When I was very young, I was on your hip a lot, like your shadow. I remember a lot in the kitchen. You had some pretty significant patience to put up with things I did while I was learning. Like constant questions, and then I remember one day, spinning around in a circle there by the backdoor, and counting the numbers way over a thousand, and waiting for my older brother to come home from school. You may remember that, I'm not sure. I don't know how it didn't drive you crazy. I also recall one summer, either between second and third, or third and fourth grade where I would be in the living room, or wherever you could be, in the kitchen probably, and you were calling out multiplication tables over and over, and over again, so that I would be prepared for the next school year. If I didn't say thank you then, which I'm pretty sure I didn't say thanks for that, I'm telling you thanks, now.
What do you remember then about those teaching and learning moments of cooking, or helping of multiplication tables, or overall patience?
Geneva Reynolds: I remember all of them, and I loved every bit of it. When you all were learning to tell time and just all of it. Tie your shoes, I remember having to teach each one of you tie your shoes. I think you had the hardest time learning it. But you learned it fast enough. But all of those little things that you take time out to teach the children when they're little and growing up, the first thing that they learn when you teach them a little thing like that. One of you all, I believe it was Norman, after he learned to tell time on the clock, he told me every five minutes what time it was, for I don't know how long. It was okay. It was just funny. I remember when you broke your arm because you were hanging on the clothesline.
David Reynolds: I was trying to tie my shoes. That's why I broke my arm.
Geneva Reynolds: Oh, you were?
David Reynolds: No. I'm kidding.
Geneva Reynolds: I thought you were really-
David Reynolds: I want to go on the record here that I can tie my shoes today, so apparently I have my mother to thank for that. I don't wear only slip-ons. Daddy, I remember you taking us to the Louisville free public library virtually every Wednesday of every summer, between probably second grade and sixth or seventh grade so we could check out books.
Paul Reynolds: Yeah.
David Reynolds: I probably didn't say thank you then for that either. I don't remember, so I'm doing that now. And also ...
Paul Reynolds: I was wondering when you were ever going to get around to that.
David Reynolds: Well, I guess I'm overdue, to use a library book term. Also, learned from both of you lessons about how to respect your spouse. Also how to be diligent and consistent and committed, hard-working providers for a family, so thank you both for that.
Paul Reynolds: You're welcome.
David Reynolds: That little trip down memory lane, do you still say, "Oh no, I don't consider myself to be a teacher," or has your mind changed a little bit?
Geneva Reynolds: Since you've asked the question, we were both teachers, but I didn't think of myself as one at the time. You do have to teach them to do those little things. That's one of the things that they don't even learn to say words and different things. From the very beginning, you just go all the way up, and that's just your job.
Paul Reynolds: Well, and then another thing too, I don't think just because you grow out of different age years, and levels, et cetera, I think there's a teaching process to some degree, and in some manner all your life. Somebody's watching you. They pay attention how to you'd react, how you conduct yourself, what you say, if you dish out demeaning comments, or try to give them something solid and sure to think about, so that they can improve their own image, and start getting a better feeling about yourself importance. Not that you're getting a big head, but I mean self-importance is part of living also as any other subject matters too.
David Reynolds: Sure. I want to go back, I want to cycle back to something you both made reference to a few minutes ago, and it has to do with the fact that you've known each other for, well, you said that you knew each other for six years before you got married, so that would be 70 years of knowing each other.
Paul Reynolds: Yeah.
David Reynolds: That's a long time. What is the most meaningful lesson that you have learned from each other?
Geneva Reynolds: Your love just grows stronger and stronger as the days go by. That's the way it is with me. I couldn't stand to be without him.
Paul Reynolds: Well, and also living together as a married couple is not the same as courtship. A lot of things change, and it changed for the better if you really do love each other. That doesn't negate the fact that things happen in your life that you wish you never had done or said. If you've been married long enough, I sincerely doubt there's a couple on the planet that that doesn't have happen to.
Geneva Reynolds: I have to add right this minute is we were right for each other, because God did create us for each other. I believe that will all my heart.
Paul Reynolds: I second that.
David Reynolds: I guess I can third it. You've learned lessons from each other, and you've done that through life, by living with each other, doing the give and take, figuring out what works, what doesn't work, and it's really the same teaching and learning process from school. Listen, read, observe, try. How do you learn? Do you learn best by talking through something, or hearing something, or reading about it, or doing it? How do you learn best? Each of you.
Geneva Reynolds: I think it's best about talk about it.
Paul Reynolds: And you have to listen too.
Geneva Reynolds: Yeah. I try.
David Reynolds: Mother, field hockey, if you just had a lot of lectures and they talked about field hockey, would that have been the right way to learn that one?
Geneva Reynolds: No, you have to actually participate, be in it. Better than just hearing about it. Actually do it.
David Reynolds: Daddy, I guess the same thing with the machinery or the tools and equipment at the courier, that you could stand back and even watch people using the circulation machine, or doing the baling of the papers, and that sort of thing, but until you actually do it, I don't think it's the same. Just curious on you all's thoughts on that. Is it by just observing, and listening, and reading, and knowing, or do you actually understand when you actually do?
Paul Reynolds: Well, you can understand the words, but what transpires is actually you really get involved in it physically, and that's the way you learn.
David Reynolds: What about learning from mistakes, what would you say about that?
Paul Reynolds: That's probably a better teacher than if you never did make a mistake.
Geneva Reynolds: That's true.
David Reynolds: Talk about that a little bit more.
Paul Reynolds: Go ahead.
Geneva Reynolds: I don't know what to start out. You go ahead.
Paul Reynolds: Well, the expression, you learn from your mistake, so that's what I said earlier about life. I mean, everything that happens should be something that makes you a better person if you pay attention to what you just said or done, or whatever it might be. Because as a human trait is, to be able to speak before we even think, and we got it backwards. That's just mankind in general.
David Reynolds: Is there an incident or a story, or an event, or a moment that either one of you can remember where you say, "I made a mistake that I really learned from," right then?
Paul Reynolds: I guess the thought of ... Go ahead, Gene.
Geneva Reynolds: No, I just started saying, we probably made plenty of them but I can't think of one right this minute.
Paul Reynolds: Whatever it was, I would assume, I can't put anything definitely on a specific occasion, but I would assume that it would be if you have children, it would be raising the children is where you would more than likely make most of your most serious errors.
Geneva Reynolds: You might disagree on them.
Paul Reynolds: Yeah. Go ahead.
Geneva Reynolds: I was going to say, we had a few disagreements on a few things, like that raising the children.
Paul Reynolds: Because sometimes when the parents get in that position, the child knows exactly which one to run to to get his way.
Geneva Reynolds: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Paul Reynolds: Mama said no, daddy said yes. Well, if there's something he wanted, who do you think he's going to run to? The one that said yes. Well, you have to be on the same page, as the expression goes, in order to make things work right. But that's humanly impossible to happen 100%. In my opinion.
Geneva Reynolds: That's right.
David Reynolds: You were pretty close, because I never knew who to go to. If I heard no from one of you, I knew I was going to hear it from the other. You all were pretty consistent.
Paul Reynolds: Thanks.
David Reynolds: Is there something that you've always wanted to learn, but you didn't, or haven't yet?
Paul Reynolds: Of course, I mean, there's things there that might pique your interest or you wish you could do something, but I can't think of anything specifically in that category today that-
Geneva Reynolds: I can tell you something silly that I wanted to learn to do.
David Reynolds: Go ahead.
Geneva Reynolds: I wanted to learn to yodel.
David Reynolds: Do you want to try that out now, so everybody around the world can hear it?
Geneva Reynolds: No.
David Reynolds: I'm shocked that you didn't want to learn to speak fluent Japanese.
Geneva Reynolds: Oh well, I've learned as much as I had time to learn. Learn to sing a song, and saying some of the words, we still use some of the words [inaudible 00:38:34], but-
David Reynolds: Mother, you told us stories when we were young about your conversations with the workers at the silkworm operation that was adjacent to your, or near your home in Japan.
Geneva Reynolds: Mm-hmm (affirmative). That was the NoKnuckles.
David Reynolds: I wanted you to add a detail or two, because I remember some other stories from childhood that I heard from the shadows that were completely in error. As I grew older, I was believing things that I thought I picked up when I was eight, that I found out when I was 40, weren't even close to truth. So I want to ask you a question about that, and just say, what can you tell me now about that memory from early childhood before you came back to the states, because you were born in Tokyo. Because my memory of what you shared when I was very young was probably not very accurate. Also, if you want to mention in that response anything about the last boat out of Japan before Pearl Harbor, or your own father's service in naval intelligence as a civilian, or anything else from Japan. Just share whatever you want to share.
Geneva Reynolds: Well, I loved it when we lived in Japan. I enjoyed it. We like the people, and of course, I was still little, but first time we came over, I was one year old, and then came back the last time, of course, got back one month before the attack of Pearl Harbor. We got the very last boat out. That was, we sure were thankful for that. But being over there, we had some awful good Japanese Christian Japanese friends, and living next door to the agricultural school, they raised silkworms, of course all the beautiful Kimonos and things. The no-knuckles that worked there, they used to come to our fence, and since I was little, because there's only seven the last time we came back, we had these little books from America that would say, "A is for apple, B is for ball," and so forth and so on, and had the picture with it. They wanted to learn. They used to come over to the fence, because they had seen me with a book before, reading those little things out there, and they wanted to learn.
They asked me, "How do you say that?" Because he saw the picture of the balls. I like the whole time I was over there. I had a good time, and we had a summer home up in the mountains in Karuizawa. It got so hot in Dango-Machi. We went to our summer home, and that was fun. We drank goat's milk the whole time we lived over there. Daddy had to take the goat with us every summer up in the mountains, and he had a little thing they rigged up for the back of the car to carry the goat.
David Reynolds: You actually started teaching people English when you were seven years old, so I think this teacher thing is more prevalent in your life than you think it is. Daddy, you mentioned a few stories from the army, which would have been in the 50s. Right after you were married, as mother mentioned earlier, you were drafted just a few months after that. You started training to be a medic. Now, one of your grandsons is studying to be a physician. I also remember a story about observing and testing, and possibly a mushroom cloud experience out in the desert somewhere. That could be one of those memories that I also have in my mind that's not very accurate. Is there anything about that experience that you can share?
Paul Reynolds: Yeah. Since I was in the medic, and that was in the 50s, 1957, I think. At Camp Desert Rock in Nevada, which is approximately 65 miles from Las Vegas where we both lived on the weekend together, because I had to stay out there at the base for five days of the week. We had Quonset huts that we lived in, and the Quonset huts was also the hospital rooms. I had very easy duty while I was there. When you have an assignment like that, nobody bothers you. They don't come around and say, "You're on KP," or, "Go out there and sweep the sidewalk, or pick up rocks and put them over there," something like that. When you have a specific job, they don't bother you. Actually, the whole time I was in the service, that turned out to be the best part of the duty that I had other than the fact that I forget now how far the base was before the ... I would say it was 100 or 200 feet tall metal towers, and they put these atomic bomb explosives on top of that tower. Around that area, they had some sheds built, and put their jeep out there, and the tank, and some other vehicles.
I finally got a call for my duty to go out on one of those missions. They put you on buses, and took you way out there, and they had trenches dug and everything, or around the site. They told us, he said, whenever we start counting at 10, back down to zero, said, when we start counting to ten, he said, turn your back toward the tower, put your helmet over your head, put your hand over your ears, and do not open your eyes. They started counting for 10 seconds, and all of a sudden, you heard this big boom. You could hear the rumble of the sound waves coming up through the desert. Also, they told us, "Do not stand up." We had one wise guy, he stood up. About the time he stood up, the sound wave reached the area where we were and it knocked him flatter than a flitter. Just right down on his back or face, or whatever, but it didn't hurt him. But it was so bright when that thing went off, and you had your back to it, and your eyes closed, but you could still, if this makes physical sense, you can still see the light. That's just how powerful it was.
After that was over, they put us on some buses, I think, and took us down to the area where this thing exploded, and of course all the vehicles are all mangled and the tower was completed melted down. The little shack they had there was all torn up. Then, they took us over to an area, and took us all off the bus. They had some kind of an instrument that measured the radiation. They ran that over to each individual, and the ones that had registered some radiation on their body, they put them in one group, and those that were zero, they put us in another group. I was in the zero group, but unfortunately I don't know I had some. After I got out of the service, I had some stuff that started on my skin. I don't know if I ever told you about it or not, but it's been on there now ever since, I don't know. I've been going to the same dermatologist for 42 years, and he's kept it all under control. But he seems to think that it could have been from exposure to the radiation. Of course, that's just an assumption on his part.
But the army did send me forms to fill out for 10 years, and send them back in. After 10 years, they just dismissed me from that program and nothing was ever done. I mean, I never even went to see an army doctor or anything. That's some inceptions of that tour of duty in Nevada during the atomic bomb test in 1956, or 1957.
David Reynolds: That's just really interesting. I'll probably end up doing some reading on that. What is your life's greatest accomplishment? Not something that's been done for you, but something that you can say, "I'm proud of that. This is the greatest thing I've done or contributed."
Paul Reynolds: That's hard to say. I don't know what you have to do to fit in that category, David. Of course, what I would say maybe, and somebody else would say, "Well, that's nothing," or vice versa, but I don't really ... I can't say any specific one other than marrying your mother.
Geneva Reynolds: I'd have to say raising four children, because you sure learn off and on all the time, you're learning all the time.
Paul Reynolds: Mother did, that was mostly her job because like she said earlier, I worked ... Out of those 44 years I worked, I think 40 of them were all night, and everything happens when I was gone from home and she had to take, your mother's taking care of all you all. That was something that I didn't have to do, but two reason we did that. One of them was because you made more money at night, and with six of us in the house, we needed all the money we could get. I mean, not that I was money hungry, but it just took that for us to live reasonably comfortable.
David Reynolds: Sure. Anything else that you all want to add? Is there some story that you wanted to share, or some parting words of wisdom that I didn't uncover?
Geneva Reynolds: I don't have any wisdom to take [inaudible 00:48:20].
Paul Reynolds: Raising children, I guess, is one of the biggest opportunity to have, to see what you're made of. Not to be patting ourselves on the back, but I think we did a reasonably well job because as I said before, I did make quite a few mistakes which I wish I had not done, but you all grew up to be nice children that we could be proud of, even though different families have had their own disagreements and hardships, and things, but that's just part of living on this planet. I mean, that just goes with the territory. We're proud of all four of you, and we love all four of you, and you all, I think, always respected us. We're not sorry that we had four children. We just didn't ever feel like, "Wish I just had one. I didn't know it was going to be this hard." We never did say that, or even think it, that I can recall.
Geneva Reynolds: It was a rewarding, it is a rewarding career if you want to call it a career to raise a family, and everything that goes with it.
David Reynolds: Every time I ask the question at the end, "Is there anything else you want to add," people always say, "Well, no," and then they tell me something really profound, so thanks for keeping on talking. That was helpful. I have learned that everybody has a story, and it's very interesting to a bunch of other people. Thanks for being on the podcast, and this is the first time I had said this to a guest. Have a great day, and I love you.
Geneva Reynolds: We love you too.
Paul Reynolds: Yeah, we love you too, David and your family. Thanks for having to do this. This is more fun than I had anticipated, which is not to be taken in a negative way. You'll probably wonder, "Well, what were you thinking then?" But I didn't know it was going to be this interesting, and it's been a pleasure to talk to you in this manner.
David Reynolds: Thanks for listening today. Find the Lead. Learn. Change. Podcast on your search engine, iTunes, or other listening app. Leave a rating. Right a review. Subscribe, and share with others. In the meantime, go lead, go learn, go make a change. Go.