The Bert Show (Pionaire Podcasting)

Episode: Vault: Strange Things Grandparents Do
Date: December 8, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode of The Bert Show is a lively, nostalgic deep-dive into the charming and sometimes downright bizarre eccentricities many grandparents (and some parents!) exhibit. The cast, joined by callers, swap personal stories about the quirky habits, penny-pinching routines, and old-soul superstitions handed down through the generations—many rooted in Depression-era upbringing or regional traditions. The tone is lighthearted, affectionate, and funny, with cast and listeners sharing moments that are both hilarious and deeply relatable.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Grandparent Eccentricities: Food, Frugality & Routine

• Half-Drank Soda Cans (02:08–02:39)
  Jessica shares how her aunt heckled her 92-year-old grandmother for not finishing a can of soda:
  "Once you open a can of soda, it'll go flat if you put it in the fridge."
  Jessica explains her grandmother’s meager meals due to her age:
  "When you get that old, your meals become, you know, a slice of bread with peanut butter on it. And that's it. And that's all you eat for the entire day." (02:22 – Jessica)

• Hot Water Heater Ritual (02:39–03:43)
  The cast discusses Jessica's mom's unusual habit of only turning on the hot water heater before a shower to "save electricity." Elizabeth challenges this logic, but Jessica refuses to question an elder’s ways:
  "She's 60 something years old. I'm not gonna argue with her." (03:13 – Jessica)
  A friend clarifies that the hot water system is an old, Hawaii-specific setup.

• Early Rising & Sitting in the Dark (04:18–04:39)
  Jessica’s mom wakes at 4:30 am, waits for sunrise:
  "She gets up, makes her tea or whatever, heats it up in the microwave, goes and gets the paper and then comes back and sits in the dark house until the sun gets up enough so she can read the paper." (04:18 – Jessica)

2. Depression-Era & Cultural Habits

• Finishing Everything on the Plate
  A friend from Hawaii notes the cultural expectation to never waste food, especially Spam—"they almost see that as a sign of disrespect if you don't eat every last bit." (04:40)

• Unique Superstitions & Routines
  Crash recounts how his friend’s grandfather simply wouldn’t travel on Tuesdays, believing it to be unlucky (05:17).
  Jessica reminisces about monthly, never-changing family tours of her grandfather’s town (07:13-08:11):
  "Same tour every month from what I can remember, until I was old enough to not have to go with my parents every time, probably 13 or 14."

3. Audience Call-Ins: More Hilarious Habits

• Turning Off the Car at Red Lights (06:38–07:13)
  Vicki’s grandmother used to turn off the car at every red light to save gas—so often they’d still be stationary when the light turned red again.

  "Every single red light that we came to, she would turn it off. It was so humiliating. I was like ducked down in the seat and I was like 10 years old." (07:02–Vicki)

• The Baby Food Jar Heist (08:11–08:47)
  Hannah describes her grandmother filling empty baby food jars with food from buffets to secretly take home—plus pilfering any tabletop condiments.

  "She would steal the condiments. You could sit at a table that had salt, pepper, sugar, sweet low. By the end of the meal, gone." (08:40–Hannah)

• Hiding Money & Saving Everything (08:47–10:43)
  Many grandparents hid cash in drawers, stashed wads of bills everywhere, and saved every possible container:

  "Found, like, $1,000 in $5 bills in one drawer...another cabinet, all in, like, ones. Just random little wads of money all over the place." (08:52–Jessica)
  Vicki adds her grandmother kept dozens of yogurt cups, rubber bands, nail clippers, and "literally clothes my mom said that when she was growing up, she still had the same clothes." (09:39–10:21)

• Souped-Up Freezers & Tupperware Mania (10:46–11:25) Ike found hundreds of butter tubs and Ziploc bags with beans dating back decades in his grandfather’s freezer:

  "There must have been 200 of those [butter tubs]. He would save them, put green beans in them. In our garage, we have a freezer...no less than three or four hundred little Ziploc bags of kidney beans dating back from the mid-80s." (10:46–11:15–Ike)

4. Other Classic Moves

• Unplugging During Storms (11:29–11:54) Vicki describes how her grandmother made everyone unplug everything and “sit around and stare at each other” during storms.

• Boxing Nuns & Garden Artifacts (11:57–12:46) Crash finds a broken boxing nun puppet he tossed appearing as garden decor in his parents’ yard—typifying how elders don’t throw anything out.

• The Bacon Grease Can (13:03–13:17) Jessica recalls a Maxwell House coffee can of bacon grease in her parents’ fridge—never used, just always stored:

  "Whenever they cooked bacon they would pour the grease into a coffee can." (13:09–Jessica)
  Hannah defends the practice:
  "No, I save it all the time. You use it for cooking? Oh, it's great for seasoning and flavoring other foods." (13:19–Hannah)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On eccentric frugality:

  "You don't want to think of your own parents getting old." (11:57–Jessica)

• On the Depression legacy:

  "I think a lot of these eccentric type things come from our parents, like growing up in the Depression…they just never got out of that whole habit." (04:09–Crash)

• On intergenerational recognition:

  "It's easier to recognize in your in-laws than it is in your own parents." (12:40–Elizabeth)

• On coffee cans as storage:

  "When did like coffee cans become the universal holding device for every item in your grandparents' house?" (13:03–Crash)

• On nostalgia:

  "Same tour every month...until I was old enough to not have to go with my parents." (07:13–Jessica)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 01:34 – Show starts, Crash introduces the topic
• 02:08 – Jessica’s family soda/food stories
• 02:39 – The “hot water heater” discussion
• 04:09 – Reflection on Depression-era habits
• 05:17 – Superstitions: refusing to travel on certain days
• 06:38 – Vicki’s car-red-light-gas-saving grandmother (call-in)
• 07:13 – The repetitive monthly family town tour
• 08:11 – Hannah’s buffet and baby food jar stories
• 08:47 – Money hiding and hoarding (Jessica and Vicki’s stories)
• 10:46 – Ike’s grandfather’s bean/tub freezing story
• 11:29 – Storm unplugging tradition (call-in)
• 11:57 – The boxing nun puppet / garden art
• 13:03 – Coffee cans for bacon grease

Episode Tone & Style

The conversation is affectionate, with playful teasing and gentle mocking of elders’ old-school logic. The cast’s storytelling and the energy of the callers keep things fast-paced and engaged, laced with frequent laughter and “can you believe it?” moments.

Conclusion

“Strange Things Grandparents Do” serves up a loving tribute to the unique quirks of previous generations, from creative money-saving tricks to weirdly steadfast routines, all painted with the show’s signature humor and warmth. If you have ever wondered why your Nana saves bacon grease or your Pop hides $5 bills in the couch, this episode will make you laugh—and feel right at home.