Podcast
Grandma's Been There
Hosted by Siobhan Barry · EN
Host and creator Siobhan Barry takes listeners back to the 1950s and 1960s. Her stories, sometimes funny and sometimes serious, are time traveling trips through the days of penny candies, neighborhood ice cream parlors, fifty-cent movie tickets, air raid drills, summers without air conditioning, street games, homemade toys, football weddings, transistor radios, Beatlemania, and a cultural revolution.
30episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
The One True Church
Mar 2000:20:20Tap to summarizeThe road to heaven was paved with suffering. Getting slapped by the bishop during our Confirmation ceremony was a reminder of just how hard it was to be a Christian. Only the baptized could go to heaven, and if communist soldiers invaded our country and demanded that we give up our religion or die, God wanted us to choose death. As young children in the early 1960s, we learned that being a member of the one true church wasn’t for the faint-hearted.
Transcribe →
Baby, You're A Rich Man
Mar 1300:16:07Tap to summarizeNew books, new records, the latest clothes and shoes, new movies… Guess what city they all hit first? New York, of which Brooklyn is a part. Thanks to your location, you’re more worldly and savvy than any small town kid. There’s nothing you can’t get here and you never have to worry about having someone to play with because you know kids in just about every apartment building on your block. Your country cousins would give anything to trade places with you. Forget about chasing rainbows. Baby, you’re a rich man.
Transcribe →
School Days Part 2
Mar 600:21:15Tap to summarizeBy the time I became a fourth grader, I knew my way around the culture and the campus of my school. I wasn’t “new” anymore. My condolences went to the latest class of first graders. I’d survived, and with a little luck, so would they.
Transcribe →
School Days Part 1
Feb 2700:21:28Tap to summarizeThe mornings always felt two times longer than the afternoons, and Mondays always felt twice as long as Fridays. But lunchtime recess? Well, that flew by faster than we could rip open a candy bar wrapper. That was how our school days went.
Transcribe →
Going Viral
Feb 2000:20:18Tap to summarizeIn the 1950s and early ‘60s, there was a laundry list of what were referred to as “childhood illnesses” that every single one of us were going to get at some point. Viruses that all came with pink rashes, red rashes, blisters or lesions. The first nine years of my life are one big blotchy, itchy blur.
Transcribe →
Hey Mom, Can The Beatles Stay Here Tonight?
Feb 1300:17:36Tap to summarizeAs pre-teen rock and roll fans in the mid 1960s, we were passionate followers and defenders of our musical idols. Laugh if you want, but we were totally sincere. With the kind of joy these young musicians and their music brought us, we owed them our allegiance and we were glad to give it.
Transcribe →
Rock and Roll
Feb 600:14:10Tap to summarizeSince we just passed the 67th anniversary of the date that's come to be known as "the day the music died," I thought I'd spend a few minutes talking about my earliest memories of rock and roll and my first exposure to Buddy Holly's timeless music.
Transcribe →
The Media Push
Jan 3000:18:44Tap to summarizeThe television shows made during the 1950s and '60s helped shape the way we felt about Brooklyn. Those shows presented an image of family life in American towns that were totally unrecognizable to city kids like me.
Transcribe →
A Bench For All Seasons: Winter
Jan 2300:17:24Tap to summarizeWinter is a season of multiple personalities. When we were kids, we loved some of its personalities, but hated others. Its long cold days were depressing. Just the length of the season tried our patience. But when it gave us snow, the winter was our best friend and it could stay as long as it liked.
Transcribe →
Cautionary Tales
Sep 19Tap to summarizeIf you should happen to notice any similarities in the themes of these two cautionary tales from the past, or if you find them relatable to things that are going on in the present day, well, that could be because history does have a tendency to repeat itself, especially when we're not paying attention.
Transcribe →