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RISK!
Holiday Stories Fan Favorites!
01:07:49
Every holiday season, RISK! fans ask about this small handful of yuletide perennial favorites. Well here they all are, wrapped up in one neat package with a bow. Unwrap and enjoy these stories from Elna Baker, Kevin Allison, Sarah Long Hendershot, and Kate Bohl.
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- [00:00]
Kate Bohl
Hey, Ryan Reynolds here wishing you a very happy half off holiday because right now Mint Mobile is offering you the gift of 50% off unlimited. To be clear, that's half price, not half the service. Mint is still premium unlimited wireless for a great price.
- [00:17]
Kevin Allison
So that means a half day.
- [00:20]
Kate Bohl
Yeah, give it a try@mintmobile.com Switch upfront.
- [00:23]
Elna Baker
Payment of $45 for three month plan equivalent to $15 per month required new customer offer for first three months only. Speed slow after 35 gigabytes of network's busy taxes and fees extra CMintmobile.com Find.
- [00:31]
Kate Bohl
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- [01:00]
Masterclass Narrator
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- [02:02]
Narrator/Host
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- [02:52]
Kevin Allison
Hey folks, this is Risk, the show where people, people tell true stories they never thought they'd dare to share. I'm Kevin Allison, and every Thursday we release these special episodes where we look back at content from our earlier years. This week, it's Holiday Stories fan favorites. If there's one episode you can easily share with all of your friends and family at this time of year, it's this one. These are the holiday stories Risk fans request to hear again year after year. Now we will be hearing the present from Sarah Long Hendershot, the Allison family Christmas Tree Hunt from me, and we're going to cap it all off with Snow Globe from Kate Bowl. But first, the OG most requested story recorded in 2010 when the podcast was just one year old. It comes to us from Elna Baker and it's called for the Love of Nubbins.
- [03:54]
Elna Baker
So I moved to New York to do acting and I never, I auditioned. I never, I've actually still, I've never been cast once in anything. But the first acting job I actually was able to get was as a toy demonstrator at FAO Schwartz. And it's an acting job. You work retail, but basically you have to audition. You read a monologue by Princess Pretty, and then for two weeks you have to rotate from toy to toy so they have confidence that you can do this. And there's like the fun toys. Like, I like being on jewelry because I would just make earrings for myself all day. And you're supposed to give them to the kids. I never did. But then there were like sucky toys, like band in the box where it's like maracas, a tambourine and clapper. And you do that for eight hours. Worst band ever. Or there was the toy veterinarian kit, where you have like a stuffed animal and you'd have to interrupt families as they go through the store and you're like, spot is sick. Can you help me figure out what's wrong with Spot? Which is like, you know, basically like you and your family want to be left alone. But I'm an actor. Mortifying. But after two weeks, I got assigned to the most high profile of the toys. It was the Lee Middleton doll collection. And I don't know if any of you have seen these dolls, but basically they're weighted in the head and the bottom so that they flop like newborn babies. And it's so creepy. And I worked on the second floor in the adoption center, which was this cottage that they built, and there were all these incubators and incubators of the babies. And there was a white picket fence around it and two rocking chairs. And a typical day of work would go as follows. You know, parents and their children would look at these dolls and then if they were serious about adoption, we would open the white picket fence and escort the prospective parent, usually like a seven year old girl, into one of the rocking chairs. And we had to conduct an adoption interview. And again, I'm in like a nurse's uniform with a whole, you know, everything. And it would begin, do you promise to love and care for this baby? Will you read to the baby? Will you change the baby's diaper? And the little girls would always answer, you know, yes. And then you would get to the last question, what would you like to name the baby? And there was always like, you know, Princess Tiffany of Fairy Flowerland. And you would write that on a birth certificate and hand it to the parent and then say, now all you have to do is pay the adoption fee, wink, wink. Which was like $120. And you know, we were instructed not to use. You couldn't say purchase or cost or buy because that would break the illusion of the world. And the other thing that typically when it gets slow at work, you can talk with your co workers. I worked with three other nurses. But that would also break the illusion of the world. So if we weren't working with a customer, we had to always be holding, rocking or bouncing. The display baby doll. The display baby doll was on display for a reason. Something horrible happened in the factory. On the day of its conception, its head weighed five pounds more than all the other babies heads. So you would pick and its head would just flop back violently and its hands had been molded together so it looked like it had flippers. So you pick it up, the head would flop back and the flippers would fly up. And it looked like a tabloid monster baby, which is how it earned its nickname. We called it Nubbins. And because Nubbins wasn't up for adoption, he didn't even have an incubator. He was kept in a cupboard, which was like so disturbing because he looked realistically dead. You just open the cupboard and downward dock. Dead baby. You'd have to scoop him up and pretend that you cared for him. So these dolls were really expensive. So for most of September, October, we weren't really selling them, which meant that we spent a lot of time holding, rocking and bouncing baby Nubbins. So much time that you kind of start to resent. I would complain of lower back pain. I was like, oh, God. So us nurses, we invented a game. And the object of the game was, was to try to get another girl to break character by doing something horrible to baby Nubbins. So, like, I would open all the drawers and rock Nubbins, head into the jagged edges while, like, humming a lullaby. Or the best would be, like, there'd be a whole group of people there, and you really have to. You scoop up the baby, and you really make it look like it's real. Burp it. And then at just the right moment, you drop the baby. Everyone knows it's not real, but they still are, like, gasp. So, I mean, we would just spend all day doing horrible things to Nubbins. And then one day, it was right after Thanksgiving, everything changed. Do you guys know that there's that show Rich Girls? It was, like, the first stupid reality show about rich children. Tommy Hilfiger's daughter was in it. But they came to FAO Schwartz, and they adopted a baby. And the day after it aired, suddenly these were, like, the hot items to get for Christmas. And every mother on the Upper east side had to have one for her child. And there was a line outside on the street of people waiting to adopt. And, you know, no more horse play, no more pranks. It was like, you know, adoptions left and right. And within one week, we sold out of all of the white babies. And it was three weeks until Christmas. The babies were already on backorder, so there was no way to get any more white babies. All we had left were incubator upon incubator of minority babies. So every day, the same scenario would repeat itself. These mothers, you know, eager to get the hot toy of the year, would rush up to the adoption center, and you just watch. They would stop dead in their tracks, and their heads go from incubator to incubator. They'd, like, pause briefly at the Asian baby, like, oh, never mind. To incubator. And then they would look at us, trying their best to be politically correct. They would be like, I'm sorry, do you have any other shades of babies? Well, the toy manager had, like, prepped us with a response. He taped a memo in the women's locker room that said, if the mothers express a disinterest with the babies due to their ethnicity, kindly inform them that while this is all the selection we have available, there's a wider selection available online. They can order online. Well, this isn't what these women wanted to hear. They would go on and on. They'd be like, oh, don't you have Something like, my little Susan here. Just something that looks like Susan. And so this happened so much that we, you know, we invented another game. And the game was this. Like, if the little girl didn't care, but it was clear the mother did, we would put the mother on the spot by. You know, we'd scoop up a baby and be like, oh, little Maria has really taken to you, and hand it to the. You would make an excellent mommy for Maria. And you just see these mothers in the background, like, why are you doing this to me? What did I ever do to you? And the second game we invented involved Brad's memo. Instead of saying a wider selection, we'd have to say whiter selection without getting caught or breaking character. But those are the things you do just to survive a job. Because literally every day, these things I didn't expect would happen. And I remember once in particular, this woman, I tried to sell her a Hispanic baby, and she put her hand on mine and was like, we don't want a dark child. You know what I mean? I was like, no, I don't. But also, unbeknownst to her, I'm actually half Mexican. I just look white. And my brothers, there's five kids. Three are dark, two of us are white. So I don't know what she means, but also, I don't know what she means. Does she honestly think that if someone saw her carrying a Hispanic baby, they would be like, oh, Juan the gardener knocked that kid up. But this is only half the story, because while we had sold out of all the white babies, we still had Nubbins, who was white with red hair and these green eyes. So if we weren't working with a customer, we still had to be holding, rocking, and bouncing Nubbins. So almost every day, some woman would rush up to the adoption center, see Nubbins in our arms, and think, in their mind, they're like, that's the last white baby. So they would say, can I see that baby? All you ever had to do was turn Nubbins around, and his head would, like, flop back, and the flippers would flip up, and they would just say, never mind. And this, you know, this happens so often that us nurses, we decided to make a bet. And the bet was, who do you think's gonna sell first? The minority babies or Nubbins? And I was like, oh, the minority babies, for sure. Who would buy Nubbins? And then. So, okay, to be honest, there are two ways to end this story. There's the politically correct way or there's the do you guys want to hear the real what really happened?
- [13:05]
Narrator/Host
All right.
- [13:05]
Elna Baker
It's so depressing. What really happened is this. We did start to sell out of the minority babies. We sold. We. First we sold out of all the Asian babies, then we sold out of all the Hispanic babies, and then all we had left were incubator upon incubator of black baby dolls and Nubbins. So inadvertently, the bet had become, who will go first, the black babies or Nubbins? Well, I stood by my initial bet. I was like, we're never gonna sell Nubbins. But then Christmas Eve, this woman rushes into the store, and she's one of those people dressed head to toe in designer, and she's, like, toting along this solemn child. She gets up to the adoption center. I'm holding Nubbins, and she's like, can I see that baby? So I turn Nubbins around slowly for full effect, and his head flops back, the flippers flip up, and she just says, we'll take it. I'm like, nubbins, I don't even know if you can sell Nubbins. But I was like, okay. So I open the white picket fence, I sit this little girl down, and I begin the adoption interview and say, do you promise to love and care for this baby? And this child looks up at me, and she says, no. And I, like, did not. I mean, I had been doing hundreds of adoptions. No one, technically, she had five, failed the adoption interview. So I'm like, move on. I'm like, will you read to the baby? And she just looks. She's like, no. So I skipped to the last question. I say. I'm like, well, what would you like to name the baby? Stupid. I'm like, I'm not Nubbins best friend. I'm not gonna call him stupid. So I'm like, well, let's think of other names. And the mother impatiently interrupts. She's like, ugh. Just name the baby Veronica. They're not anatomically correct, but he's clearly a boy. So I write Veronica on the birth certificate, and I'm like, now all you have to do is pay the adoption fee. And the mother looks at me, and she's like, cute. And takes the birth certificate, and they walk away. And I scoop up Nubbins, and I put him in a pink blanket instead of a blue one. And as I'm wrapping him up, that's when it hits me. I'm like, wait. Nubbins has just been adopted. Like, I love Nubbins. Like, I can't let him go to this horrible family. And there's this, like, montage, you know, like, we one time put his head underneath the rocking chair, or, like, we used to make out with him. See if people would turn the corner and they'd be like, oh, like, all these memories. And I was like, I can't let him go to this family. And I was like, but, I mean, I don't have 120spare dollars, you know? And so then I'm like, oh, I'll call my dad, and I'll just be like, dad, there was this baby, and he was gonna go to a bad family. And I think I could be a good family for him. And as I'm saying this, you know, and I think, honestly, it was also just like, I didn't want to lose the bet. Like, I didn't want that to be the way the world was. So as I'm going through this, they return. And then, you know, I do what I have to do. I hand them little baby nubbins and I say, I'm sure baby Veronica will have a wonderful home. And then I watch him, his head bouncing on the little girl's shoulder outside the store until I can't see them anymore. Thank you.
- [16:49]
Kevin Allison
One thing I love about Christmas is that it reminds us to cherish memories. It reminds us how good for the soul it can be to just take the time to remember some of the better times you've had. But also, when it comes to my family, it reminds me that memories aren't always that accurate. Well, it was absolutely my parents that instilled in me that love of telling stories about old memories. And, you know, they always just loved old things with sentimental value. Old buildings, old art and music, old traditions. You know, when I would come home from NYU when I was in college, it always felt so grounding to come back home and see the place once again, all done up in these, like, Renaissance era and Victorian era decorations, each one with a story behind it. And then I've talked on the podcast before about how in the 60s and 70s, my dad was into the civil rights movement. And in the 70s, he became very curious, very interested about the black power movement. And one year, he got this Christmas tree ornament, which was a black Santa with a raised fist, and on the bottom, it said, with a big exclamation point, black is beautiful. And so that was always hanging on the tree. I remember around about, like, 1990 or something like that, a friend came over and said, that ornament is interesting. And I said, yeah, it was the 70s then. There was a year when my mom was obsessed with the show Little House on the Prairie. And this year she went to various thrift stores around town and then sewed together for everyone in the family. This is five children in the family pioneer era clothes so that we could take a sepia toned family portrait. And I remember her saying, now don't smile. Kids pretend somebody died. So they weren't pretentious about celebrating things of the past, they were creative about it. So there's a story in my family that goes like this. Or at least this is the way it goes in my brain. In 1970, when I wasn't yet one year old, the family was gathered around the television set in the living room to watch a Charlie Brown Christmas when my father got an idea. Now if you remember in the TV special, Charlie Brown complains that Christmas has become too modern and too commercialized because everyone's getting fake Christmas trees. And dad, he was so struck by that, he said, damn it, Charlie Brown is right. You know what? Let's stop getting our Christmas trees from a parking lot behind the mall. Let's go into the heart of the country, into the great American wilderness to chop down a tree with our own bare hands. And my mom said, paul, I think that's a federal crime. And it was. So dad started researching about the great American wilderness and discovered that if we took a two and a half hour drive from Ohio into Indiana, he heard that there was an old farmer who lived up on a mountain who would let people chop down his trees. You could cut them down yourself. So perfect. Now we were also a very Catholic family, very Catholic family. And dad learned that going back to like medieval times, you really are supposed to bless the tree. So dad said, oh man, we're gonna need a priest. But dad had gone to grade school with a buddy who happened to be almost identical looking to dad and who had become a priest. Father Harry. Who was Harry? Like dad, two giant men with giant bellies and big bushy red beards. So dad called the church and said, Harry, here's the plan. It's going to be you and my family. You're going to lead us through the first half of a Catholic mass in our living room. Then we're going to get in the car and put on an eight track tape of Handel's Messiah while we ride out to this mountain a few hours away and chop down a tree. And then we'll bring the tree back, do the second part of the mass in the living room, and then we'll have lasagna. And that's exactly what we did. And everyone thought it was so great that that's exactly how we did it every year for 30. But every year, mom or dad would be talking to some other family and be like, oh, my God, we would love to have you come along. So that by the time I was in junior high, there were way too many people for the living room, that people were just all over the house. I remember one year where there were people going up the stairs to the second floor of the house so that, you know, Father Harry would have to be shouting the Mass throughout the entire house. A lot of the kids from other families who were attending this, they didn't get all of this. I mean, it's bizarre. Allison family tradition. By far and away, the least popular thing was doing the second half of the Mass. After this epic day of traveling and being outdoors and everything, everyone comes home exhausted. It was often snowing and all that sort of thing, but my mom loved that we split a mess in half that way, because then if any of us was misbehaving on the car ride up on the mountain, whatever it was, she could say, we are in the middle of a Mass. And that was generally accepted as, oh, shoot, yeah, she's right. But us Allison kids would always reassure any other kids who were along for the day. Listen, at the end of the day, it's all going to be worth it, because the lasagna. Then we drive out to Indiana listening to Handel's Messiah, and we'd just be a convoy of station wagon after station wagon after station wagon, you know, heading out into the great American wilderness. But most years, there was some sort of fiasco. And these. These are the memories that my family loves to pour over nowadays. For one thing, my dad was just obsessed with getting the biggest tree possible. And nine out of 10 times, we couldn't get the goddamn thing in the house. You know, we would have to chop the thing up in order to get it in. I remember there was a year where the top of the tree had to be chopped off so that it kind of looked like maybe it was going through the ceiling into the next floor of the house and the branches reaching into other rooms. One year, one of these monstrosities. On the car ride home, you know, somewhere on the interstate, one of these trees fell off the roof of our orange VW van and nearly decapitated Father Harry driving in the car right behind us. But whenever we go over these memories, dad would always say, no, no, no, it was Harry's. Tree that almost decapitated me, but no one really remembered because, you know, for one thing, they looked the same. Anyway, another year, that orange VW van, I don't know what happened. The transmission broke or something like that, and we had to make the drive home going like 10 miles an hour. That might have also been the year that the Messiah tape busted on us as well. And the best we could find to replace it was George Harrison. My sweet Lord. But I remember falling in love with that song that day. Another year, one of the Allison boys got lost on the mountain. And there were hours spent desperately searching for the missing boy, but my family can never agree whether it was Peter or David or me. And another year, one of the Allison girls was walking on a frozen pond up on the mountain and fell through the ice into the water and had to be rescued. But again, the family can't get on the same page about it. No one can agree whether it was Mia or Becca or me. But the one word that always comes up when the family reminisces about the old Christmas tree hunt is the verb. Shat. Someone will say, those were the greatest memories, those Alice and family Christmas tree hunts. I'll never forget them. Wasn't it Becca that shat on dad's lap on the car ride up one year and we were all dying? Someone else will say, oh yeah, unforgettable. But no, I thought it was Kevin who shat on mom's lap on the car ride back. Someone else will say, no, I remember it like it was yesterday, but I thought it was Mia who sat on David's lap. So we do cherish the memories, even if we can never come to a consensus on the details. But we do know that one of the years, or some of the years, or all of the years, one of us, or some of us, or all of us shat in each other's lapse.
- [28:33]
Narrator/Host
It was a bitterly cold Rochester, New York December and the power was out in my apartment. And it wasn't out because a storm knocked it out. It was out because I didn't have the money to pay the energy bill. There were only five more days till Christmas and there was no heat, there were no lights, there was no refrigerator. And this kind of setback would have been not that difficult to deal with if I had been single. But I was a single mom and I had this great 11 year old son. And you know, as a parent, I think especially as the only parent, just way down deep in the core of your being, you want to give your Child, a nice holiday. There's this awareness that these are memories that your kid is going to have for the rest of his life. Rochester winters are really, really gray and unrelenting, and it helps you to get through it. If you have a place to go that's cozy and bright. And you can kind of count off the winter season through the holidays. You know, you've got Thanksgiving, and then there's Christmas, and then New Year's, and before you know it, you're almost to Valentine's Day, and you can see St. Patrick's Day off in the distance. And then things are starting to thaw, and you know that you made it through another one. But things had been sliding downhill for me for months, and now they shut us off right before Christmas. And it just. It fills you with shame. I kept trying to play it all off as an adventure for him. He was bright and happy kid. And we would go to the library and we would get tons of books, and we would crawl under blankets with flashlights and read them. And we had all the Harry Potter books, and we had all the Tintin adventures, and I would read them out loud, and I would have a unique voice for every character. And it really was fun. But eventually, you have to come out from underneath the blanket, and you're in your apartment, and you can see your breath, and you dash through the house to the bathroom, and the porcelain is like a big block of ice, and you wash your hands, and the water is so cold that it physically hurts, and it turns your hands into claws, and it's only fun for so long, and you have to learn how to pretend for your child. The month before and the days leading up to Thanksgiving, I hadn't been able to pay the bill, but they didn't shut us off right away. Shane and I came up with this idea for our Thanksgiving feast. We were going to try to come up with enough money to buy a single entree from the Chinese restaurant for our Thanksgiving feast. So we pulled all the cushions off of the sofa, and we found some change in there. We collected cans and bottles from neighborhood recycling bins and returned them. We even took out the cardboard folder that we'd been putting all the new state quarters in. We pried those back out, and Thanksgiving Day, we counted up our money, and we had enough for an entree. And it was very exciting. And we walked there together in the crisp fall air. And Shane chose shrimp with oyster sauce because it sounded like the fanciest thing on the menu. We walked back home. It was a beautiful day. We were gonna really make it festive. We were gonna cuddle up together on the sofa with our blankets and eat our Chinese food while we watched a VHS copy of It's a Wonderful Life. And Shane was chattering away like he liked to do, And I was dishing out the food. I put a very healthy portion onto his plate. I set it on the table for him with a glass of water. He came over to get it and he picked it up. And I still ask myself to this day, why did I serve it to him on a paper plate? But for whatever reason, I did. And as he turned away from the table with his plate in one hand, his glass of water in the other, the balance of the food shifted and it just slipped out of his hand. And I watched it, like in slow motion, just falling towards the floor. And of course, turning over to land foodside down on the carpeting. I saw his face just change in that split second. It was one of the most heartbreaking things I've ever seen. The joy, it just evaporated. And I saw the sadness and the guilt just wash over him. We had pulled off this minor miracle and now it was ruined. And I had to think really fast. Your parenting instincts, they just kick in. And I held up the plate that I had just filled with the remainder of the food, and I said, no, no, no, no, it's fine. You're good. That's perfectly fine. You accidentally picked up my plate. This is your plate, and that food is fine. The food on the floor, it's still good. There's a three second rule. And I ran over and I scraped it up off the carpet with all the detritus and the dog hair, and I knew that I was gonna have to eat it all. I could see the tears in his eyes, and he didn't really believe me, but I knew I was gonna have to really sell it, so I did. I just said, mmm, oh, isn't this great? And then I distracted him. Circumstances had brought us to Rochester, which was a new town to us earlier that September. And we didn't know anybody in Rochester. The job that I had been promised upon my arrival never materialized, and I had not been able to find another one. I had watched what little savings we had evaporate in three months. And my first family was fractured and far away. And many of my old friendships hadn't survived the realities of my single parenthood. Most of my old friends were musicians, and they all had their own struggles with money, too. Sometimes there just isn't someone to go to. I Think that this is what people who are used to consisting of in their lives don't understand about people who walk the line between solvency and poverty. You can be okay for a long time and then some unexpected thing or two things go south and then the dominoes are falling and you're suddenly in poverty and it's daunting and exhausting to claw your way out of it. You just don't have any slack. So as Christmas approached, it became harder and harder to keep depression at bay and to hide our dire circumstances from Shane. I didn't know if we were going to be able to pay our rent and I was afraid that we were going to end up in a shelter and we were living off of spaghetti because I could get a pound of spaghetti noodles for 49 cents and a jar of ragu for 79 cents. Sense Shane was okay with that because he loved spaghetti. But how was I going to get us through Christmas? So Shane was at school for the last day before the holiday break. I sat in that cold and silent apartment. And it's amazing how close quiet it gets in winter when there's no power in the house because there's no hum of the refrigerator or the clicking of your computer keys or the TV or the radio. There's just nothing. And I read the want ads again, even though I knew that nobody was hiring a few days before Christmas unless I wanted to become a long haul trucker. And I heard downstairs someone walk across our porch and a thump. I went to the window and I saw the big brown UPS truck out front. I wasn't expecting anything so I pulled the blanket more tightly around my shoulders and I went down the narrow stairway to the front door. And I opened it up and I got hit with this arctic blast of cold. There was a box sitting there. Just a plain brown box. It was maybe about the size of toaster oven or so. I picked it up. I saw the return address was Naples, Florida. I couldn't think of anyone that I knew in Naples, Florida. I shook the box, but it didn't make any noise. So I took it upstairs and I sat down on the floor with a pair of scissors and I scraped the scissors along the end of the box and as soon as the tape released the flaps they sprung out and wads of paper money came shooting out onto my lap and onto the floor. I couldn't believe my eyes. I was stunned and dumbfounded. I reached my hand and the entire box was packed full of crumpled up paper money. And there were a lot of ones, but There were fives and there were tens, and there were 20s, and I was laughing and crying at the same time. What in the world Was just the last thing in the world that I ever expected to see. There had to be $400 at least. It was a treasure of incredible bounty to me. At that point in my life, I thought to myself, Naples, Florida. Naples, Florida. And I remembered my friend Paul, who I hadn't seen for several years. He was a piano player, and he spent half the year working in the Thousand Islands and half the year working down in Florida playing piano in bars. And I called him up, and he told me that every night that he played, he took his tip jar at the end of the night and he would dump it into his piano case. And at the end of the year, he would take all the money and he would donate it to somebody that he thought could use it. And for some reason, I had crossed his mind. I stuffed the money back in the box and taped it back up again so that when Shane came home from school, he could sit down on the floor in the same place I was and he could open the box himself and get the same surprise and shock that I had gotten. And there was enough money in that box to get the power back on in time for Christmas. And there was enough money for a small tree and some gifts for each other and enough for Christmas dinner. We also took a portion of that money, and we bought several pairs of gloves and a stack of gift certificates from McDonald's. And we went out into that freezing cold December, and we gave them away to people who looked like they needed them. The woman at the bus stop whose chin was tucked down into her cloth coat and her hands stuck under her armpits. And the man we saw riding his bike with bright red hands grabbing the metal handlebars. He told us that it was the only way he had to get to work. And those interactions were filled with joy and gratitude. And we kept that tradition for many years, until Shane went away to college. I realized that it had all begun with a man sitting in a bar and the people there listening to something that made them happy. And so they gave him something for that. And he shared it with us, and we shared it with other people. And who knows where it went from there. But what it also did was it got me through the end of a really tough year and into a new one. And that new year brought a new job and new friends and a new boyfriend who turned into a loving husband and father. That completely unexpected act of kindness kept the other dominoes from falling and it held us together. It was a beautiful Christmas.
- [42:57]
Elna Baker
We'll be right back.
- [43:00]
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- [43:53]
Kevin Allison
At ikea, your dreams can come true. Well, maybe not the ones where you're being chased by a monster. We're talking about kitchen dreams and there are IKEA products and solutions for all of them, whether it's a whole new kitchen, a statement glassware set, or just new cutlery. If you got big dreams or small dreams and any size or budget, IKEA can help you bring them to Life. Visit IKEA US DreamKitchen to learn more. Dream the possibilities. We're back. This is Risk. This is Hilltop Trio behind me now. And we just heard from Sarah Long Hendershot, who you can find on Instagram @DJ Jane Hendershot. Now. Our next story first appeared on the show in December of 2017. It was told by Kate bowl, who at the time it was recorded, had not yet transitioned. So in 2017 the story was credited to Kevin Bowl. But in 2024 I revisited the story with Kate herself and we discussed the story after listening to it. So you're about to hear the story we call Snow Globe. And then you'll hear myself and the storyteller Kate bowl talking about it seven years later. So without further ado, here is the story we call Snow Globe.
- [45:31]
Narrator/Host
It.
- [45:59]
Kate Bohl
There was a blizzard in Brooklyn. The snow was falling down heavily and there was talk of shutting down the subways. So I shut the bar down a little early that night to make sure that I could get home. But I also shut it down so that I could have the bar to myself in the blizzard. The bar where I work is one of the most beautiful bars in the city. It's over 130, 30 years old. It's all hand carved wood, details everywhere There's a proscenium with a giant mirror over the back bar with gargoyles in either corner, stained glass with the first owner's initials in a coat of arms. There are 18 foot ceilings with the original tin and a bar that is a single piece of mahogany from end to end. And there are huge windows out front with bars on them. When the bar is closed, I will sit in my perch behind the bar, enjoy the silence and perhaps read a book and definitely have a whiskey. In a snowstorm, I like to watch the snow fall through the windows. The bar is particularly beautiful in a snowstorm. And if you squint when the cars are covered and you have the sodium lights coming down from the street lamps and there's an orange glow on the street, you can imagine, almost believe that you are in the 19th century and you wouldn't blink an eye if a horse drawn sleigh came up Bergen Street. So it was a perfect moment, sitting there with my book, reading or not reading and sipping the whiskey. And then out of the storm, there was a knock on the front door. Not getting up from my chair, I drew my hand across my throat, giving the international signal for we are closed and went back to my book. And the knock came again. And I think to myself. So I heave myself out of the chair to make my way to the front door. And as I get closer, I can see that there's this figure silhouetted against the street light. It's this young woman outside. I say to her, we're closed. I'm sorry, I can't help you. And she says, oh no, I know, I know, I'm sorry. I am so sorry. I can see that you're closed. I just. I'm staying with a friend in the neighborhood and I can't get in. I don't have the keys. Is it possible that I could wait inside until I hear from her? Fine, I say and motion her to the back door to let her in. Now, after working a bar shift and dealing with people all day long, dealing with drunk people all day long and the same stories over and over again, and dealing with the neediness of people and the voices that are sometimes like ice picks in my skull and hearing the same song played over and over again on the jukebox, all I want is this silence. I want this place to myself. So it was frustrating to let this person in. But I can't leave this woman on the stoop in a blizzard. So resigned, I go and open the door and the storm blows in and she blows in, and there's snow on her, and there's snow on the floor. And I shut the door against the wind. The steam is already coming off of her clothes. She pulls back her hood and takes off her scarf. And she's this beautiful young woman with close cropped blonde hair and sparkling eyes. She's stunning, but even that doesn't get past my defenses at this point. She says, thank you. Thank you. I'm like, no problem. So she finishes taking off her coat, and I lead her into the bar. And she's this little slip of the thing, and she. She sits in the chair and I offer her a drink, and I pour a whiskey for her. She starts to talk. Now, I'm still in my head at this point, and I'm kind enough to give her monosyllabic answers to her questions, but that's really all I can muster at this point. I'm waiting for this phone call to happen so that I can have the night back to myself. But she has this unrelenting cheeriness. Oh, this is the most beautiful bar. I love this bar. Thank you so much for letting me in. You're so kind to let me do this. I know it's difficult, and yes, I say, fine, thank you. No worries. And then she starts to go deep with the questions, which is like catnip to me. I love to go deep in a conversation. So I'm beginning to have more interest into the things that she's asking. She starts to ask me, how long have you been working here? A long time. I say, it must be difficult to do what you do and deal with all these personalities all day long.
- [51:21]
Kate Bohl (Reflecting Post-Transition)
Yeah, it is.
- [51:23]
Kate Bohl
You know, I'm an actress, she says, so I know what it's like working in the food industry myself sometimes. I know what it's like to have to deal with that. And then we start talking about theater, and we start talking about her work and how she loved figuring out a character that she was working on, finding the heart of the character. And I talked about how I loved that, too, being an actor. And I began to thaw a little bit. And then she asked me to put music on some bartenders when they closed, they will play music. They love to put their own personal playlist on. And they DJ for a friend or two that they've got in the bar after hours. And for me, I adore the silence. I've been listening to the cacophony of people all day long and music, and I just love the silence. But there's more, too, because I tend to feel things deeply. And music in particular is very evocative to me. I use it sparingly. So I say, no, no, you know, I'm good with the silence. And she says, please, just put on something. Who's your favorite artist? She says, billie Holiday, I say. She says, that's wonderful. Put some Billie Holiday on. Fine. So I go to the ipod, and I find Blue Moon. And Billy starts singing. And she fills the space with her voice. And it just seems like she lives there, too, when she's singing to us. And then the woman reaches over the bar for my hand. I'm flabbergasted. I don't know what to do for a moment. But the whiskey has softened me and Billy's softened me, and her conversation has softened me. And so I take her hand, warm in mine, and she leads me around the bar. And we find an open space on the floor. I put my hand on her waist and take her other hand and hold it up. She puts her hand on my shoulder and we start to dance. And Billy's singing to us. And we are slowly dancing to her music. And the snow is falling outside the giant windows. And I can feel her warmth next to me. I can feel the warmth beyond her body, this warm soul that has walked into my bar at the. This strange time. And we slowly move, and she puts her head on my shoulder and we sway. And I can feel her soft back and her soft hand and her head on my shoulder. And it's just perfect. And then the song ends. And I look at her and I can see the sparkles in her. And her smile melts my heart. And in that moment, I'm in love. And I sense nothing but love from her. So we grab our drinks and we go to the front window. And we talk in whispers now, like children up after bedtime and stealing these moments of watching the snow and. And the light and feeling how lucky we are to be seeing this. And then the call comes, and it's time for her to go. So we take our drinks to the bar and we put them down. And I walk her to the back door and I unlock it as she's pulling on her coat and tying her scarf and putting her mittens on her hands. And she looks at me and we hug. And then I open the door and the storm blows in again. And she disappears into the night. And I slowly make my way back to my perch behind the bar. My drink is there and my book is there. The snow is still falling. And it occurs to me that, yes, in fact Everything has changed. The room looks different. The snow looks different. And I think this was a perfect moment. This must be what it's like to be inside of a snow globe. This perfect moment encased in glass, having no impact on anything that comes after, no connection with anything that came before. Just this perfect crystalline moment in time. And I pick up my whiskey and I sip, and I think that's what this is. This is a snow globe moment. And I thank her silently for opening my eyes to the beautiful surprises that can come out of a snowstorm on a dark night.
- [57:36]
Narrator/Host
Wow.
- [57:37]
Kevin Allison
Oh, my God. We both got teary there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, this story is so beautifully told.
- [57:49]
Kate Bohl (Reflecting Post-Transition)
Thank you.
- [57:51]
Kevin Allison
I just feel like there aren't many stories you can listen to again and again over the years and want to go back and hear it again, you know?
- [58:04]
Kate Bohl (Reflecting Post-Transition)
Thank you. That means the world to me.
- [58:06]
Kate Bohl
Yeah, yeah.
- [58:08]
Kevin Allison
Goodness gracious. It's also. It's a short story, too. It's not, you know, it's not a.
- [58:16]
Kate Bohl (Reflecting Post-Transition)
Big, long, epic tale.
- [58:18]
Kevin Allison
Yeah. It's a little vignette. It's a slice of life. But it reminds me of some of those things like Dylan Thomas, A Child's Christmas, or some of those that just have these wonderful details.
- [58:36]
Kate Bohl (Reflecting Post-Transition)
Thank you.
- [58:37]
Kevin Allison
Yeah.
- [58:38]
Kate Bohl (Reflecting Post-Transition)
I still remember, you know, I've worked there for so long, and I was afraid that because I'd been in that space for as long as I had, that I wasn't visually creating it for people during this period.
- [58:58]
Kevin Allison
Oh, my God. In fact, do you remember?
- [59:01]
Kate Bohl (Reflecting Post-Transition)
I do.
- [59:02]
Kevin Allison
The first time I entered that bar a couple years later, and I was like, oh, my God, I recognize this place from your description in the story.
- [59:12]
Kate Bohl (Reflecting Post-Transition)
That's how I knew that I had nailed it. It's that phenomenon of, like, if you look at a circle that isn't completely closed, your brain will close the circle for you. And I was afraid that I had not closed the circle. But when I got that message from you, then I was like, okay, good.
- [59:29]
Kevin Allison
Yeah. There's a mindfulness in it. There is a deep love of the atmosphere and the romance and the. Just the tiny little things that can make a moment magical that make you nostalgic for it. I'm sorry. Now I'm tearing up again.
- [59:54]
Kate Bohl (Reflecting Post-Transition)
The thing is, that snow globe moment, it's like when you learn a new word and then suddenly you hear that word everywhere, it becomes a part of your consciousness. After this, I started to find snow globe moments everywhere.
- [60:14]
Kevin Allison
Oh, that's beautiful.
- [60:16]
Kate Bohl (Reflecting Post-Transition)
Shortly, maybe a year or two after this, I took myself to see the Florida project. I don't know if you've ever seen one, but okay. And I went to the Angelica, you know, that great old movie theater. And I found a seat. The theater was packed, but I found a seat six rows back on the aisle. And there was a seat next to me open. But I sat on the aisle and the lights went down and the trailers start to go. And all of a sudden I felt this presence at my left shoulder. And I looked up and there was this woman standing there, and she pointed to the empty seat. Of course, I obliged.
- [60:54]
Kate Bohl
I stood up, let her get in.
- [60:55]
Kate Bohl (Reflecting Post-Transition)
She sat down, the movie starts. And the movie meant so much to me.
- [61:02]
Kevin Allison
It is extraordinary.
- [61:04]
Kate Bohl (Reflecting Post-Transition)
You know, I was raised by a single mother in the 70s, and we didn't have anything. And my mother was so good at not letting us. My brother and I know just how poor we were. That was not something that was in our consciousness. You know, we thought that food stamps were cool, Right. Getting free lunch. Well, we're spreading special. And there was no stigma because most of the other people around us were in the similar boat. And so in the summertimes, we were completely left to be feral and would run around like the kids in this movie. Right. And then the last five minutes, suddenly this tone. There's a shift in tone, which I won't spoil, but I started just utterly ugly crying. Oh, snot and tears and body shaking. And I suddenly became aware that the woman sitting next to me was having the exact same deep emotional response. And we connected on that for a moment in the darkness of the cinema. But I didn't want it to get creepy. I was still living. I was still a boy then. And I got up and I went to the back of the cinema with my back to the wall and watched the credits roll, trying to gather myself. And I saw her stand up, walk up the aisle, and she just stood right next to me. And we watched the rest of the credits together. You know, we tried to talk afterwards.
- [62:47]
Kate Bohl
But language was gone.
- [62:49]
Kate Bohl (Reflecting Post-Transition)
You know, it was just that. And then we left the cinema and we parted ways and. I shit you not, it was snowing.
- [62:58]
Kevin Allison
Yeah.
- [63:01]
Kate Bohl (Reflecting Post-Transition)
It was remarkable. And that's another beautiful snow globe moment. This connection with another soul over this emotionally impactful moment.
- [63:13]
Kevin Allison
Yeah.
- [63:14]
Kate Bohl (Reflecting Post-Transition)
You know, in New York City.
- [63:17]
Kevin Allison
Yeah. And you.
- [63:18]
Narrator/Host
You.
- [63:20]
Kevin Allison
These things can take you by such surprise. However, if you have your antenna out, if you are receptive, that's right. Toward the beauty out there.
- [63:34]
Kate Bohl (Reflecting Post-Transition)
That's exactly right. That's exactly right.
- [63:37]
Kevin Allison
Yeah.
- [63:37]
Kate Bohl (Reflecting Post-Transition)
As a matter of fact, weirdly, this is Only maybe three weeks ago, I.
- [63:43]
Kate Bohl
Was closing the bar.
- [63:44]
Kate Bohl (Reflecting Post-Transition)
And now when I work, I always just play jazz. I don't. You know, the jukebox is gone. I am setting the tone.
- [63:50]
Kevin Allison
Oh, fabulous.
- [63:52]
Kate Bohl (Reflecting Post-Transition)
And the jazz just fits that space.
- [63:53]
Kevin Allison
Goodbye, me.
- [63:55]
Kate Bohl (Reflecting Post-Transition)
It's wonderful. And, you know, I bartend on a early in the week, so it's not like a Saturday night shit show. And a friend of mine who's in the industry as well, she's a server at a local restaurant near the inn. She was hanging out with me as I was, and we're listening to the music and we're talking, and then she reaches over the bar for my hand and says, let's dance. And she had not heard snow globe. Wow. And so she led me around the bar, and this time she put my hand on her shoulder and her hand was on my back and she led.
- [64:35]
Kevin Allison
Wow.
- [64:36]
Kate Bohl (Reflecting Post-Transition)
And we were dancing in the same spot.
- [64:39]
Kevin Allison
Amazing.
- [64:40]
Kate Bohl (Reflecting Post-Transition)
It was incredible.
- [64:42]
Narrator/Host
Yeah.
- [64:43]
Kevin Allison
How does that feel? That aspect of. You are only several months into transitioning.
- [64:51]
Kate Bohl (Reflecting Post-Transition)
Yeah.
- [64:52]
Kevin Allison
And you've described it before as being like in the glowing sort of honeymoon, like, everything is so new in this, so exciting.
- [65:05]
Kate Bohl (Reflecting Post-Transition)
Everything is so exciting. Painting my nails, you know, and doing my makeup every day and just moving in the body that I always knew that I should have.
- [65:18]
Kevin Allison
Yeah.
- [65:18]
Kate Bohl (Reflecting Post-Transition)
And then for her. And let me just preface this by saying I am the luckiest trans woman on the planet, and I do not take that for granted.
- [65:27]
Kevin Allison
Wow.
- [65:28]
Kate Bohl (Reflecting Post-Transition)
I have such an incredible community around me.
- [65:30]
Kevin Allison
Oh, yeah.
- [65:31]
Kate Bohl (Reflecting Post-Transition)
And my family is supportive of me.
- [65:33]
Kevin Allison
Yeah.
- [65:34]
Kate Bohl (Reflecting Post-Transition)
You know, my mother, she's doing her best, but she doesn't question my choices.
- [65:38]
Kevin Allison
Right.
- [65:39]
Kate Bohl (Reflecting Post-Transition)
And I don't worry if she misgenders me. I mean, she had a boy for 50 years.
- [65:43]
Kevin Allison
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [65:44]
Kate Bohl (Reflecting Post-Transition)
You know, but this woman, you know, she knows that I'm trans. And for her to put me in the woman's position was so affirming and exciting. And, you know, of course, I wept again.
- [66:04]
Kevin Allison
Yeah, yeah. Oh, my God, this is incredible. It was fascinating for me to listen back this time and to hear in your voice and your. Oh, I don't know, the poetry and just the emotion in the way you were speaking back then. And to be like, oh, yeah, you know what I mean? Like, in retrospect, that.
- [66:26]
Narrator/Host
Yes.
- [66:28]
Kate Bohl (Reflecting Post-Transition)
Yes, absolutely. You know, in some ways, I'm the only one who's surprised.
- [66:56]
Kevin Allison
Well, that is all for our Holiday Stories Fan Favorites episode. This is Kobe Salomon behind me now, and you can find Kate bol on Instagram aitbohl6. 6. You can find lots more compilations of Risk stories going back to 2009 at risk dshow.com specialseries. You'll find series there with titles like Happy Stories, Adventure Stories, Funny Stuff and so much more. Happy Holidays everyone. And folks, Today's the day. Take a risk.
- [67:45]
Narrator/Host
SA. League 1 volleyball is back.
- [68:14]
Elna Baker
The world's best players together on American soil.
- [68:17]
Narrator/Host
This is volleyball like you've never seen before.
- [68:22]
Elna Baker
Huge swings, massive blocks, jaw dropping digs.
- [68:25]
Narrator/Host
A sport where every play is a highlight. League 1 volleyball returns January 7, 2026 with teams in Atlanta, Austin, Houston, Madison, Nebraska and Salt Lake.
- [68:36]
Elna Baker
To buy tickets, visit lovb.com iheart.