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- [00:00]
Kevin Allison
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- [00:33]
When did I get here?
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What do you mean?
- [00:35]
I swear it was just moments ago that I accepted a great offer from Carvana online. I must have time traveled to the future.
- [00:41]
It was just moments ago.
- [00:42]
Ellie Reiter
We do same day pickup.
- [00:43]
Kevin Allison
Here's your check for that great offer.
- [00:45]
Ellie Reiter
It is the future. It's.
- [00:47]
Kevin Allison
It's the present. And just the convenience of Carvana. Sorry to blow your mind. It's all good.
- [00:52]
Ellie Reiter
Happens all the time. Sell your car the convenient way to Carvana. Pick up. Times may vary and fees may up.
- [01:08]
Kevin Allison
Hey folks, this is Risk, the show where 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 the Best of School Stories number one, as we are now in September. Now both of these stor we're about to hear were first shared back during the COVID lockdown in 2020 when we were doing Risk shows from our living rooms, myself as the host, every storyteller and every audience member. We were all in our homes, but we were all having a Risk live stream show together. We did that for several months. It was so much fun. But the audio quality of the stories is a little different from what you're used to because of that you and in fact, I was just thinking it's about time we have both of these storytellers back on the show asap. In a little bit we're going to hear from Ellie Reiter. But first we're going to hear a story from Angie Chapman. And here she is now with a story that we call taking a long time. Everyone please welcome to the virtual stage Angie Chapman.
- [02:31]
Second grade was boring. The nuns all wore these habits where were like big black capes. And they also had to wear the thing that covered their heads so that all you saw was their face. My teacher, Mrs. Scott wasn't a nun, so she was always in what I call dress up clothes. Me and my fellow students, we also had to wear Uniforms to school the girls in plaid skirts and knee high socks that had to either be navy or white. And we wore a white shirt with a collar. In the colder days, you could wear a navy blue sweater. And the boys had to wear blue pants and dark shoes and white shirts as well. So it's kind of strict and not a lot of fun. Except on visitor day. Visitor day, we got to wear our own clothes, and it was always a surprise who was coming to visitor day. One time, we had a person from the Shedd aquarium come, and they showed a video about whales and dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico. And then another time, we had an astronomer from the planetarium, and he talked about the stars and the constellations. And then we also had a visitor from the symphony, and they actually just played really kind of boring music, but it was just something different. But the best part of visitor day was that we got to wear our own clothes. And on this particular visitor day, I wore my favorite brown knit dress, and it had pink stripes across the chest. And actually, my mother said it wasn't brown, it was taupe. And I love saying that word, taupe. And I also wore my white stockings, and I wore my special shoes, which are black patent leather. See, my family wasn't very rich, so I got three pairs of shoes each year as I grew out of them, I had my black patent leather special ones, my regular brown school shoes, and then a pair of tennis shoes. And so this was a very special occasion that I could wear my black patent leather shoes. So we never knew who was coming. That was the other great thing about visitor day. And so late in the afternoon, we would have been excited all morning, me and my classmates. And late in the afternoon, a policeman shows up at the door, and Mrs. Scott introduces him as our visitor for the day. And there was like a tension that came across the room, but part of it was that we had to behave really nicely when it came to any of our visitors. So the policeman came in, and he was a big guy, and his name tag said Stanislauski or something like that. And he had a thick accent, and he was. It was funny, you know, most of the policemen on TV were svelte, skinny, muscular. This guy was a little overweight. It was kind of like his belly hung over his belt and his buttons were about to pop because he was so big. Anyway, so he comes in and he says what we should do is call him officer Friendly, and that Officer Friendly's roles with the Chicago Police Department is to serve and protect Americans. And Lyle, one of My classmates behind me snorted. And we knew why he made that noise. Because, see, we had all seen that Dr. King had marched in Chicago's Marquette park the summer before, and the policemen were there, but they didn't protect the people who were marching. And in fact, Dr. King, there were rocks thrown at him. Almost like the story in the Bible that the nuns told us about how Jesus was stoned. And the reason why we knew is because they had a picture in the Chicago Defender newspaper. And there was blood on his forehead, and he almost fell down. And the people around him helped him out. But again, the policemen didn't do anything. So we were kind of skeptical about that whole thing that these people were there to serve and protect Americans. But we still behaved ourselves and listened quietly as Officer Friendly passed around his badge for us to look at. And he passed around his baton, which was really heavy. And then he asked for a volunteer. Now, second grade for me was boring also, because Mrs. Scott would teach reading, writing, and arithmetic, but I already knew all that stuff. So I was basically the teacher's pet in the front row at all times. And so as soon as they asked for a volunteer, I raised my hand and I got up there, and Officer Friendly had me turn around and face the front, where he then asked me to put my hands up in front of my face. And he took out his handcuffs, and he put them on my wrists. And they were really heavy and metal and cold. And he told me to drop my hands, and the handcuffs fell off, and everybody laughed. But there's still that tension in the air of my classmates. Then Officer Friendly asked me to turn around and put my hands behind my back. And he said that for people who had smaller wrists like me, there was a special set of handcuffs. And he put those on me, and I could hear them click. And not only were they cold, I started to try to wiggle out of them because I was kind of nervous and wanted to get these off of my wrists and move my arms completely, and they scratched. And meanwhile, Officer Friendly is busy talking about all the other things that policemen do, like give out parking tickets and save people who are in distress. And I'm looking at Mrs. Scott for her to help me to see that I'm in distress. I want these handcuffs off. And I don't know if she couldn't. If I couldn't catch her eye or whether she was just ignoring me, but I got scared. And so I looked at my classmates. I turned around and looked at my classmates for help. And Kevin, one of the boys in my class who never played with me, so it wasn't like we were close friends. He looked at me and he shook his head, and I knew that was a signal to not give in, because he could tell that I was about to cry. I was really scared. And when I saw Kevin do that, I thought to myself, oh, this must be a bully. And I wasn't going to let him win. So I didn't cry, and I stopped wiggling. But my body didn't pay attention to what my mind was telling it. And so I could feel the urine come out of my pants and down my legs and into my beautiful black patent leather shoes. And it was at that time that Mrs. Scott got up and she told Officer Friendly, she said, release her now. And he took the handcuffs off, and Mrs. Scott gave me a paper bag, which I knew was for emergencies, so it probably had a pair of clean underwear in it. And I went off to the bathroom and I changed my clothes. And when I got back to the class, Officer Friendly had left, and it was pretty much time to go home. Officer Friendly did leave me a prize, though, for being so helpful. It was a silver whistle on my walk home from school in my wet, soaking shoes. I threw that whistle away. It was no prize. When I got home, my mother asked me what had happened, and I told her. And I apologized for getting my shoes wet, and she forgave me. And I was disappointed, though, that that's all she said. She said, I'm so sorry this happened to you. But she didn't get angry. She didn't say, I'm going to go up to that school and find out who that Officer Friendly was and make him say he was sorry. She didn't do any of that. And I was really disappointed in my mother because, you see, I thought my mother was Wonder Woman. She had told us that me and my sister and once we actually went through her jewelry drawer looking for her bracelets. So I was surprised when she couldn't do anything. What she did say is, she said, change is going to come, Angie. Trust me. It'll be different when you get older. And when I was stopped in a department store and all of my white friends backpacks weren't searched, but mine was. I thought about what my mother said to me, that change was going to come. And I thought, maybe a couple more years. But then when I was pulled over because a policeman thought my tail light wasn't working and he threatened to give me a ticket, I thought, okay, couple more years. Change is going to come. And then when I was driving and I had my baby in the backseat, and a cop pulled me over and told me that I didn't know how much my baby weighed. And they were in the car seat facing the wrong way. Here's a $50 ticket. I thought, change still has to come. It's been a long time since I was in the second grade. And when I see George Floyd and those 13 at the church and Charleston and Breonna Taylor, I can't help think about the same people who lost their lives when I was a kid. Like the story of Emmett Till or the four little girls in that Birmingham church. And it just seems like change isn't coming. It's the same. Things are repeating themselves. But I'm gonna try to hold on and still believe because my mother never lied to me. So change is coming. It's just taking a long time. Thank you for listening. Black Lives Matter. We'll be right back.
- [13:27]
Mike and Alyssa are always trying to outdo each other. When Alyssa got a small water bottle, Mike showed up with a 4 liter. When Mike started gardening, Alyssa started beekeeping. Oh, come on. They called a truce for their holiday and used Expedia trip Planner to collaborate on all the details of their trip. Once there, Mike still did more laps around the pool.
- [13:49]
Whatever.
- [13:50]
You were made to outdo your holidays. We were made to help organize the competition. Expedia made to travel. What does it feel like to get hit by a car while you're biking? Or to be attacked by an alligator? Or learn that your spouse hired someone to kill you? If those are the kind of stories you find interesting, then what Was that Like? Is the podcast for you now? If you're thinking, Kev, didn't you recently do a Risk Reacts episode where you listened to an episode of what Was that Like? Where the guy fell into that crevasse or crevice? Yes. What Was that Like? Is filled with real stories about the most surreal experiences of people's lives. On each episode, a guest comes on and tells about the time they found themselves in some sort of extreme situation. Could be an animal attack, a plane crash, winning the showcase on the Price is Right, and more. This show brings you tons of completely surreal and completely true stories, all told through the lens of the person who lived it. I remember the one about the guy who got buried alive, the one where the woman's parachute failed. And over the years, we've become good friends with Scott Johnson, the creator and host of what Was that Like? As you know, we're so simpatico in what our podcasts do. So if you want to hear some unbelievable and inspiring firsthand stories, I invite you to check out what Was that? Like, every story is verified, so, you know, even the most bizarre tales are someone's reality. Listen to what Was that? Like on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or on the app you're using right now.
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We're back.
- [15:34]
Ellie Reiter
So it was my first day of college class, and I got in front of the group and I told the class what I wanted to study and how I was looking for a partner. And there was complete silence and cold stares. Some things didn't change. See, I was a late bloomer. After dropping out of rabbinical seminary, I got into College at 22, and really, that was the first time in my life that I was in an environment where there were people who didn't look like me, there were people who didn't sound like me. I came from a school where, like, it was all boys. We wear white shirts, we wear black dress pants. And I got to Hunter College. 25,000 students from every socioeconomic class and background. And I'd be walking in the halls and I'd be completely confused. And, like, even to fit in, I bought my first pair of blue jeans. Or as my 10th grade rebbe called them, the pants of the Gentiles. I remember when I told a teacher of mine that was going to Hunter, his first reaction was, isn't that a women's school? And I'm like, it was. And, like, the 70s, like the 1870s. So I got there and I sort of couldn't find my place because I was still very religious and observant, and I was in this very secular environment. Like, one professor of mine got arrested for protesting. Another person was part of the Weather Underground terrorism group. And, like, I would go to the Jewish club, or as my old teachers would call them, Christians. And, like, for them, they'd be like, being Jewish is watching Fiddler on the Roof. And for me, being Jewish is being Fiddler on the Roof. So I'd be wandering the halls and, like, in my women's jeans, because I bought jeans without knowing they were women's jeans. And I got to this linguistics class. I wanted to do original research on Orthodox Jewish English. And if you don't think that exists, if you're ever in New York, go to B and H. And I told the class what I wanted to study. And then after class, this other young man approached me who also had a beard. And he told me that, like, he wanted to study with me. And I'm like, why? And he's like, because I like Semitic languages. And I'm like, why? Because, like, it's not like no one studies Semitic languages to get women, you know, like, it's not like engineering. So he told me his name was Abdul, he was Palestinian. I'm not, but I figured, why not? I needed someone to work with. And after class we would hang out in the lunchroom and we'd both be looking around at the people eating. And he wouldn't eat anything because nothing was halal. And I wouldn't eat anything because nothing was kosher. And we'd both be hungry and like, we got to know each other better a little bit through our hunger. Because, like, we talk about dating, for instance, where he'd talk about how hard it was to find someone who was similarly devout as he was. And I would talk about how it's hard to find someone similarly devout, but also more politically progressive. And also like, I was jealous of him because first he wore skinny jeans so, well, that were for men. He wore skinny jeans. He had these really amazing white vans or something like that. He just looked put together. But also like, for him, he was very observant, but also he didn't seem anxious. And I'm halfway there, but the wrong half. So throughout the semester we're hanging out and he told me a story about how he was in Israel, Palestine, the previous summer for a month. And after the first week he realized that no one around there in his group was as like devout as he was. So he locked himself in the study hall for the rest of the trip and studied by himself. And I'm like, that's exactly how I feel when I visit the Upper west side or when I go on birthright trips. So we're working out and we're like doing research together and one evening we meet in a Starbucks and we're going over the data I collected. So I teach in different all boys yeshivas privately. And I gave my students polls to fill out surveys. And we're going over the survey data of about 75 or 80 students. And it's just a shit show where some of the kids just wrote smart ass answers. Some of the kids left things blank. And then it was also really embarrassing because I was an English teacher and my ninth graders couldn't spell for shit. They can spell shit now. They kept spelling the words phonetically, but they couldn't spell the word phonetically. For instance, one student spelled peple P, E P E L. So this whole time over the previous few months, I've been really Avoiding this elephant in the room with hundreds of years of history because, like, Abdal seemed like a very nice person. I don't like saying something inappropriate and, like, I didn't feel equipped to deal with that. And we're going over the data, looking at all my students, and he looked at me with a glint in his eye, and he's like, you know, I always thought you guys would win. Now I'm not so concerned. And I realized that he's someone who can joke about this very complicated situation and we'd be good friends and we could, our friendship could survive this much. So after working together for a while, we submit our research to an undergraduate research conference. And I'm very excited because, like, I finally have a reason to try on the half a dozen blazers I own. I can finally put them to good use. Even though I was an undergrad, I still dressed like some wizened old professor from Hogwarts. We got there and I'm looking at the roster who's presenting that day. We have cancer research, HIV research, research to prevent infant death, yeshivas, cancer research, cancer research, cancer research. And although there was a contest for breast presentation, I saw we would lose regardless because, like, everyone was doing such serious stuff and that we were not doing that such serious stuff. The conference started and I hid myself in the bathroom. I was very nervous and Abdel texted me to get my tuchus over there right now. Although he didn't use the word tuchus yet, he didn't know the word yet. I get back and I'm wearing a blazer because. And we start talking about our research. And after we speak for a few minutes, the academics in the room, who are very scary, ask questions. We answer them and there's a very lively back and forth. We finish and I meet his mom. She's an amazing woman. And we say our goodbyes and his mom invites me over to dinner. So I left, hungry, but also excited to try his mom's cooking. And the next day, about 5pm, I get a text from Abdel saying, we won the conference, we did serious work, and I can finally own those blazers and buy more. Fuck yeah. The semester goes on and we present again and do more research, and we're friends throughout the day, the semester. Like, we hang out, we get coffee. I see his family again. And then the semester ends and he's going to Israel, in Palestine to teach again. And he flies out. June 10th or so. On June 11th, three Israeli boys go missing and war breaks out. They find the boys who are killed and then There's a lot of combat both in the west bank and the Gaza Strip. And I'm looking at social media, and all my friends, my Facebook friends, not my real friends, really come out of the closet as, like, you know, like, assholes. And I read the news and, like, my first fear is that Abdel is dead. There are a lot of casualties. There's a lot of, like, issues happening. My second fear is that, like, he might not want to talk to me. I don't know how he's feeling these days. I don't know how anxious he's feeling. I sent him an email to see how he's doing, and I send him a second email after not hearing from him for a week. He emails me back a week later being like, hey, Ellie, Shalom. Which is a good sign because he's learning. He's like, hey, Ellie, I'm thinking about you and your family right now because you knew I have a lot of relatives in the region. He's like, I'm praying that your family and friends stay safe. He told me that luckily he was safe and he just wants the fighting to end. But his main concern is me and my family. That could have gone a trillion different ways. But his main concern was me. And it was a very close, touching moment. The next day, there was a Jewish fast, and the same day was also a Muslim fast. It was commemorating the destruction of the Jewish temple. And it was getting dark that night, and the fast ends in the evening. And I ended up buying from a cafe mint tea. And I was sitting on a subway platform with a mint tea smelling very aromatic. And it, like, I was very thirsty from a long day of fasting, and I just wanted to have some, but it was too early. It was like one of these dusk moments when, like, I was trying to do the mental math in my head whether or not it was worth it to sin. And the fast a little early, and I'm sitting on the platform and the tea is melting in my fingers, and I'm, like, trying to, like, balance that. And then a question pops into my head. What would Abdel do? And I knew the answer, so I waited.
- [25:34]
Kevin Allison
Thank you for being a friend? I want to thank you, thank you.
- [25:39]
Ellie Reiter
For being a friend?
- [25:41]
Kevin Allison
I want to thank you, thank you for being a friend?
- [25:46]
Ellie Reiter
Thank you, thank you for being a friend?
- [25:59]
Kevin Allison
Thank you for being a friend? Travel down the road and back again? Your heart is true? You're a pal and a confidant.
- [26:19]
This is risk. That was Ellie Rider, who you can find online at Ellie Rider Dot com. That's E L I R E I T e r dot com. And that is all for the best of School Stories. Number one, if you've got a story about something that happened to you in your school days, pitch it to us and maybe you can be on the next episode of this series. Everything you need to know about how to pitch us your stories is at risk-show.com submissions folks, today's the day. Take a risk.
- [27:05]
It.