213 - Growing Up In Germany During WWII ft. Brandon’s Oma | Unsubscribe Podcast Ep 213

Summary

Podcast Summary: Unsubscribe Podcast Episode 213 - Growing Up In Germany During WWII ft. Brandon’s Oma

Host/Authors: Eli Doubletap, Brandon Herrera, Donut Operator & The Fat Electrician
Guest: Bren Herrera (Brandon’s Oma)
Release Date: May 19, 2025

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Introduction

In Episode 213 of the Unsubscribe Podcast, titled "Growing Up In Germany During WWII ft. Brandon’s Oma", the hosts—Eli Doubletap, Brandon Herrera, and Donut Operator—welcome a very special guest, Bren Herrera, who shares her poignant and harrowing experiences of growing up in Germany during the tumultuous years of World War II.

Early Life in Mannheim

Bren Herrera begins her narrative by recounting her childhood in Mannheim, Germany. Born in 1932, she was just six years old when the war intensified in her hometown. The increasing frequency of bombings led to the closure of her school and her subsequent relocation to a safer area in France.

Notable Quote:
Bren Herrera [02:10]: "I was in Mannheim. And I remember was about six years old, I went to school and everything was still quiet."

Separation from Family and Life in France

At the age of eight or nine, Bren and her younger brother were sent away from Mannheim to a small town in France as part of an effort to protect children from the dangers of bombing. Although they were housed by a wealthy family, Bren struggled with homesickness and the strict restrictions placed upon her, preventing her from seeing her friends.

Notable Quote:
Bren Herrera [05:22]: "And I didn’t stay too long with friends. I would say maybe six, eight months."

Life During Bombings and the Bunker Experience

Returning to Mannheim, Bren describes the constant fear of bombings. Her family took refuge in underground bunkers, where they spent nights to escape the air raids. Life was marked by severe food shortages, leading Bren and her brother to scavenge for food, including rationing and even eating horse meat to survive.

Notable Quote:
Bren Herrera [06:22]: "We even eat. I hate to say that, horse meat. It was pretty good at the time. And we had nothing. Right."

A Frightening Encounter in the Bunker

One of the most chilling episodes Bren recounts involves a tall man in a German uniform who appeared in her bunker's hallway. Despite being in her pajamas and feeling vulnerable, Bren's quick thinking and bravery helped protect her and her family from potential harm.

Notable Quote:
Bren Herrera [09:24]: "I woke up and there was a tall guy standing right in front of my bed. I was uncovered. Okay. I have pyjamas and he was standing there."

Impact of the War on Family

Bren's family endured significant hardships during the war. Her brothers were drafted: one, Hans, was captured by the British forces in North Africa and later transferred to England, where he bravely surrendered. The other brother was forced to do labor for the Nazis, working on constructing defenses by the river, with his ultimate fate remaining unknown.

Notable Quote:
Bren Herrera [30:03]: "He was drafted. What was his name? Hans."

Banding Together Amidst Chaos

Throughout her childhood, Bren emphasizes the resilience and unity of her family. Despite the constant threats, air raids, and personal losses, they remained determined to survive. Her experiences include witnessing the destruction of their community, caring for injured family members, and navigating the shifting frontlines as Allied forces advanced.

Notable Quote:
Bren Herrera [24:42]: "So I went to school there, you know? And then my mom came to visit again and she got sick."

Immigration to the United States

At the age of 20, Bren met her American husband, an encounter that would change her life trajectory. Their relationship faced numerous challenges, including language barriers and bureaucratic hurdles. Bren's journey to the United States was fraught with fear and uncertainty, but with determination, she managed to reunite with her husband and build a new life together in Oklahoma.

Notable Quote:
Bren Herrera [73:10]: "I was 20, I'd say 20. We went to Oklahoma."

Life in America and Reflections

Adjusting to life in America presented its own set of challenges for Bren, from learning to drive a stick-shift car to overcoming cultural and racial prejudices. Despite these obstacles, she reflects on her experiences with a sense of gratitude and resilience, offering heartfelt advice to younger generations about appreciating the privileges they have today.

Notable Quote:
Bren Herrera [94:36]: "That they're very lucky today what they got, you know, really. And a lot of kids today do not appreciate what they got."

Closing Thoughts and Legacy

Throughout the episode, Bren's stories highlight the incredible strength and perseverance she exhibited during one of history’s darkest periods. Her memories not only serve as a personal testament to survival but also as a valuable historical account for listeners to understand the profound impact of war on individual lives.

Notable Quote:
Bren Herrera [99:15]: "So I enjoy life a little bit. I'm grateful that I can live still on my own in my age... and I think everyone feels that way, don't you think?"

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Conclusion Episode 213 of the Unsubscribe Podcast offers a deeply moving and insightful glimpse into Bren Herrera’s experiences growing up in Germany during World War II. Her storytelling provides listeners with a personal connection to historical events, emphasizing themes of resilience, family, and gratitude. This episode stands as a powerful reminder of the enduring human spirit in the face of unimaginable adversity.

Transcript

[Brandon Herrera]

You on a date? How about Schindler's List?

[Eli Double Tap]

Unexploded or.

[Donut Operator]

Dude, all I'm saying is me and my friends would have thrown rocks at it.

[Brandon Herrera]

Why do women live longer than men?

[Donut Operator]

Well, she matched her nails to her.

[Eli Double Tap]

Shirt and her necklace. I don't know what you're doing. Say hi to Eli. He's racially ambiguous. And Brandon, his hair is fucking fabulous. Donut. A doctor's position.

[Brandon Herrera]

And there's a.

[Eli Double Tap]

That electrician. Welcome to Unsubscribe.

[Donut Operator]

And then you're gonna drink all of it down it.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah.

[Bren Herrera]

Okay.

[Brandon Herrera]

You can take a little sip if you want. Just if you want. All right, three. Ready to go?

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah. Three, two, one.

[Donut Operator]

Hi, everyone. Welcome to Unsubscribed Podcast. We are joining today in a very special episode, we have Bren Herrera, Brandon Herrera's oma, Eli Double tap myself, donut operator. Thank you so much for joining us.

[Eli Double Tap]

It feels so weird being on this side, really. I usually sit there every time.

[Brandon Herrera]

I was just throwing you off a little bit. This is normally Eli's seat on the left side.

[Eli Double Tap]

This is the first time ever in 200 episodes.

[Bren Herrera]

Hi. Hi.

[Eli Double Tap]

We're so excited to have you. Thank you for coming.

[Bren Herrera]

You work.

[Eli Double Tap]

Are you excited?

[Bren Herrera]

Yes. You're excited?

[Brandon Herrera]

I'm really excited. I teased this, I don't know, maybe 20, 30 episodes ago. I thought, like, I just thought about it during. While we were recording. I'm like, oh, man. You know, my oma's lived a lot of life and she's got some crazy stories. And, you know, I think our audience might be interested in hearing some of them. And I pitched it by the guys. They said they'd love to come out here and talk to you, and here we are.

[Bren Herrera]

What do you want to hear? An old lady's childhood experience.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yes, of course. Amazing Stories. Brandon has given us a brief glimpses of your history, and it is phenomenal. And I think that's where we start is you were. Where were you when you were a kid? Where did you grow up at?

[Bren Herrera]

I was in Mannheim. And I remember was about six years old, I. I went to school and everything was still quiet. So I don't know if I was in school for one or two years. I'm not sure. And then when the sirens went off more often, we have less than a school. But then they bombed the surrounding areas, so the school was closed. And then we had an organization in Mannheim where they send children they want to get out of the denture areas. They send them away to safe places.

[Brandon Herrera]

So get them out of Germany and to other places.

[Donut Operator]

So just real quick, when you were six years old, like what time period was that? Like 1940.

[Brandon Herrera]

Well, what year were you born?

[Bren Herrera]

32.

[Brandon Herrera]

1932. Okay, so this would have been like 38, 39.

[Donut Operator]

Gotcha.

[Bren Herrera]

So my mom said you got both of my brother, my youngest brother and myself. So I was the first one to get picked. Of course, I was tiny, you know.

[Brandon Herrera]

You were the pretty one is what you. That was the way I always heard the story.

[Bren Herrera]

And I really had good people. They took me in. They were rich people. Okay.

[Brandon Herrera]

And this was in France?

[Bren Herrera]

Yes, it was outside France, you know, small town. I forgot the name of it. And I had it made because they had only one son and he was a baker boy. The good cakes he bought for me and I really should have been happy there, but I wasn't because she wouldn't let me go see my friends, surrounding friends, you know, she wanted me to be more with her friends. And I got more and more homesick. And my mom came and visited and everything was still okay then. But then they mentioned you adopt me. That was it. I saved my money up. I had an allowance every week from them. And one day I went on the train and I went home. I left everything behind.

[Eli Double Tap]

So this is you're going from France back to Germany during this time because.

[Brandon Herrera]

They said they wanted to adopt you, right?

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah, they wanted to adopt me. And that scared me, so I took off.

[Eli Double Tap]

Because you were at 6 years old at this time?

[Bren Herrera]

No, I was a little older, maybe eight, nine, I would say.

[Eli Double Tap]

And then what time did you separate from your parents? At 8 or 9 is when they separated you from and moved you to France from your parents?

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah. And I didn't stay too long with friends. I would say maybe six, eight months.

[Eli Double Tap]

Okay.

[Bren Herrera]

And then I went back home, but still at 8.

[Eli Double Tap]

That's wild.

[Bren Herrera]

And my mom was so mad.

[Brandon Herrera]

And you, you went back alone?

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah, yeah.

[Donut Operator]

So alone from France to Germany.

[Bren Herrera]

Alone, alone.

[Eli Double Tap]

And you bought a ticket by yourself, you saved up?

[Bren Herrera]

Yes, I was every day on the train station. I said, I want to go home, but I don't have enough money, you know. So I said, I'm going to save all my money on my allowance. And one day I did it, I just went, you know.

[Brandon Herrera]

So like I said, most eight year olds today don't know how to order a pizza on the phone.

[Bren Herrera]

It's true.

[Eli Double Tap]

I take my 9 year old to the bus because I don't think he can make it. And that's two blocks Away.

[Bren Herrera]

In a way. When I went home, she was pretty upset, my mom. And I said, don't send me back, please. You know, I don't want to go back. I want to be with you. So that was number one. Then they were bombing Mannheim for the first time, and we had. At the time, we had a room in an underground bunker. Every night we spent the night there.

[Eli Double Tap]

Okay.

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah. Daytime we went home, but sometimes the siren went off, so we go to different cellars, you know, whatever. We were close by. And that one day we were looking for food because we were rationed at the time, and we had about half, a little bit a week, you know. Yeah. We even eat. I hate to say that, horse meat. It was pretty good at the time. And we had nothing. Right.

[Eli Double Tap]

Meat's meat.

[Brandon Herrera]

If you've ever had Taco Bell, then you've had it, too.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

So.

[Bren Herrera]

Where was I?

[Brandon Herrera]

I said the bunkers.

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

This is 1940.

[Bren Herrera]

Ish. Or. Oh, don't ask me for this.

[Eli Double Tap]

Oh, you're good, girl. You're good.

[Bren Herrera]

Remembered years. All right. I don't.

[Brandon Herrera]

Early 40s, I would say.

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah. I don't know. 100% the age, you know?

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah.

[Bren Herrera]

But good. Pretty close. So. So that day, we went the bunker, and there was a bomb. And matter of fact, one of the bombs hit the bunker, but it didn't injure nobody.

[Eli Double Tap]

Okay.

[Bren Herrera]

And it was pretty close, but it was okay. And I don't know if I should tell you that story. We had bunk beds. 2, 4, 6 bunk beds in that room. There was my mother on the bottom. I was on the 2nd. My brother was right on the second one, and the other one and friend of ours were with us. They were good friends. And we always left the door open about like this, so we get little light into the room, and I.

[Brandon Herrera]

And that's the door to, like, the outside hallway in the bunker or to the outside?

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah. There was light on the outside because this is underground.

[Eli Double Tap]

This is no light. It's just pitch black if that door is closed.

[Bren Herrera]

No, there were lights.

[Eli Double Tap]

Okay. There is light. Okay.

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah. But because we didn't want to sleep with the light on, we left the door open to get light from the hallway. So I woke up. You ever smell somebody that smokes a lot? I mean, heavy Connor.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah.

[Donut Operator]

Connor.

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah. No, what can I do? I mean, heavy Connor.

[Brandon Herrera]

I smoke a lot of cigarettes online. Sorry.

[Bren Herrera]

And I woke up and there was a tall guy standing right in front of my bed. I was uncovered. Okay. I have pyjamasanthe. And I thought I was scared, of course. I was a young girl, you know, and I didn't want to scream, so I just moved back from the bed to the wall and I tried to wake my brother up. And my brother said, ah, there she goes again. She got nightmare. Because I did have nightmares sometimes, you know. And I said, please, I beg somebody. No, he meant to close the door, see? And it was pitch black, and that's what really scared me. And I said, please, somebody get up and turn the light on. There's somebody in here, you know, Like I said, my brother says, she's got nightmares. But the lady that we know, she said, I get up, Erica, she says, I turned the light on. So he was laying on a bench in the room, right? Like he was sleeping, but he wasn't sleeping, you know, I know better. And they called what they called the miniature from the underground bunker and the preacher. And they came in and they said, sir, you don't have a place to stay or you need. You know, he wouldn't answer, like he was sound asleep. I said, he's not sleeping. He was just standing here, you know. And so my dad, the guys that were across the hall, my dad and other guys, they came over and they say. They got in, shook him, you know, says, look, you need some place to stay, or what is it? You know? And all of a sudden he jumped up and he runs out of the room and he said something in a different language. We didn't know what it was, but he had a German uniform on, but it was not complete. He only had a jacket on, you see. And. And even, right, we would. I remember right next to the exit and the entrance, he took off and we never seen him again, you know.

[Donut Operator]

Who do you think he was? Brandon? Like a deserter or, like, the way.

[Brandon Herrera]

I'd heard the story before, I would have assumed deserter, but the other language was. It's interesting. I don't. I don't really.

[Bren Herrera]

I don't know. What, like you were cussing us out or something. You know, some languages, you have no idea what language.

[Brandon Herrera]

You're just. You knew it was different.

[Bren Herrera]

He kind of. Yeah, he was not sure, and he.

[Eli Double Tap]

Just snuck in in the middle of the night and thankfully. Was it the smell that woke you up?

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah, he had a real bad smell, like real heavy smoker and maybe drinking. But anyway, from that day on, they closed the doors in the bunker so nobody could go in and out, you know, after certainty. Fine.

[Brandon Herrera]

If only the Buffalo public school system could take some notes.

[Bren Herrera]

It.

[Donut Operator]

It was Connor.

[Eli Double Tap]

Dude, I really don't like the comparisons being made between me and this predator. But you look great for your age. He's like that. That would have been terrifying. Especially when you're 8 to 10 years old at that time.

[Bren Herrera]

Maybe up a little older, maybe 10.

[Eli Double Tap]

That's still.

[Brandon Herrera]

Because you would have been. So if you were born in 32, you would have been 12 to 13 when the war ended.

[Bren Herrera]

I think it was almost 15. 14.

[Brandon Herrera]

14. Okay. Yeah, gotcha.

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

So that within that time span, right.

[Eli Double Tap]

And you'd go down there. So in that it was the evening. So during the day you would be.

[Bren Herrera]

Up and then we've been home, you know, when the sirens went opposite, I would go to which place? Depends if we were out looking for food. Of course. My mom and I, we used to go to the farmers and trade clothes or cheats stuff, you know, for food. Because we didn't have enough food, you know. And. Well, anyway, my brother and I, we used to look if a house was still standing, you know. So we walked home, of course, looking. The houses were burning, you know, that nothing came down on us. And we came to this giant hole. I never forget that giant hole. And I said, what's this? And the closer we got, we seen that big bomb, I mean, big one that was not exploded. You see? I don't know what to say it in English, but we say blinking, you know, it didn't explode.

[Eli Double Tap]

Unexploded orbit.

[Bren Herrera]

And my brother, smart brother, he was a year older than I am, he said, don't move. And I was freezing. What do you want me to do, you know? He took off. He left me standing there.

[Donut Operator]

Dude, all I'm saying is me and my friends would have thrown rocks at it.

[Eli Double Tap]

Dink.

[Donut Operator]

Let's see what happens.

[Brandon Herrera]

Why do women live longer than men?

[Eli Double Tap]

Let's light this candle. Hey, Brandon, you ever wake up in your bed feeling like you just fought in a war?

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah. Why do you ask?

[Eli Double Tap]

You ever wake up and feel like you slept in a sauna?

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah. I believe that's called night sweats.

[Eli Double Tap]

Means you got a trash mattress, Brandon.

[Brandon Herrera]

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[Eli Double Tap]

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[Brandon Herrera]

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[Eli Double Tap]

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[Brandon Herrera]

I got ghostbed all night.

[Eli Double Tap]

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[Brandon Herrera]

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[Eli Double Tap]

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[Brandon Herrera]

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[Eli Double Tap]

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[Donut Operator]

That's ghostbed.com unsubscrib, subscribe, use the code.

[Eli Double Tap]

Unsubscribe or I'll start rattling chains under your bed until you do sleep better, stay cooler.

[Bren Herrera]

And I said, why did you do that? I was tiptoeing backwards, you know.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah.

[Bren Herrera]

He says, I tried to get help. I said, you tell me to stop there. But anyway, that's a funny explanation. Yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

So that big bomb just sitting in the middle of the road, especially at that age.

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah, that was.

[Eli Double Tap]

How, how was your view at that time? Like with. What was your understanding at that age of what's going on? Like you understood there was a war going on.

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

But was it just like we're civilians were scared. We're just trying to get out my.

[Bren Herrera]

Mind, how long is it going to be? When is it over? Right. That's what I always said. But it was long, long, long in a way that day. Then my mom got kind of restless again. She says they're throwing bombs now in our city. They're getting closer and closer and they get more and more. So she says, you need to go to our friends in the Black Forest. We had finds in a black. And it was safe there. They didn't bomb there, you know. I said, mom, don't send me away again. You know, I didn't want to go. But meanwhile, before she sent me anyway, we went to, like I said, looking where we get some food and the siren went off and said, it's too late to go to a bunga where we want. We want a different place, go home. I said, mom, I'm hungry, you know, let's get something to eat. And we go in our cellar. And we did. And there was another funny story. It was on 10 May, a day before my birthday. I said, oh, they send me a birthday gift early.

[Brandon Herrera]

There's that dark humor.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah, I love it.

[Brandon Herrera]

It's generations deep.

[Bren Herrera]

And well we made it through this one. But afterwards we found out that cellar we used to go to when we were out that supposed to Be bomb proof, okay? So they said. And we found out the bomb, they came from the back into the cellar and killed so many people. And we went there, of course, terrified. I remember that went down. I found that baby, you know, and I grabbed that baby and I cleaned the sand and the dirt and everything out, you know. And the mother screaming for her babies. She had half of her face missing. I seen that, like, yesterday. And the baby died in my arms, you know. But there were no doctors, you know, hospitals, nothing. Everything was a mess. So we had to tell the lady, we, okay, we got your baby, you know, just to get her calm down, you know. And the rest of the bodies, they brought them to school areas or restaurants and they lined them up and covered them, you know. And my brother were always gone. My dad, they had to help. Help them, stupid Nazis, to build a wall by the water. We lived right by the water, you see, and they were put in, like a safety wall or something. I don't know. So they were always gone. So we didn't know what happened to them. So we looked at everybody, hoping we don't find them, you know, and thank you so much. It's okay. And then everything was filled up. They put the bodies up in trucks. Just, you know, put them up in trucks. We don't know where they went or what. And anyway, another day, another alarm, right? So we went back to. I think it was Ursula. Yep. And we heard commotions. English plane was shut down over our city. And the parachute. The guy came down in our street, you know, where we live. And of course, some people. Oh, there's one of them. You know how it was? It was war.

[Brandon Herrera]

Do you remember if it was American or British or.

[Bren Herrera]

It was not American. The English came in first. The English. And so my mom, she was more outspoken than I am, but she went over there and she said, you leave that young man alone. You know, she said, I got a son and he's in Africa in El Alamein. He got Poison nine in L Elamain and then shipped to the States. Right. And she tried to protect that young man. There were two SS guys right there. And they arrested my mom. They said, she's a country trader. She was taken to the. I don't know where they were, you know, their offices or whatever. And they put the sign out with other people that she was a country trader. But I'm jumping ahead there because meanwhile, there were more stuff going on me at Backtrack.

[Brandon Herrera]

Absolutely. But to finish that out real quick, I think what. And correct me if I Get any of this wrong? Because I've. This is over the course of years hearing, you know, stories, some of them secondhand, but they said that they were. I was told that they were about to ship her off to a concentration camp, right? And then they were liberated.

[Bren Herrera]

That's why I jumped ahead. I just thought about it. Because the English, they came. That's why they didn't have time to ship my mom out, see, because the Nazi was gathering. They took off. You know, that's. I went a little bit too far because I forgot the second trip to the Black Forest.

[Eli Double Tap]

What is the Black Forest?

[Bren Herrera]

It's an area close to Switzerland. Okay. And they lived there, but they were good friends of ours. They moved there, and I felt good there because I knew them, you know?

[Eli Double Tap]

Is it a town inside a forest or is it just a city?

[Brandon Herrera]

It's a region.

[Bren Herrera]

No, it's a little city called Black Forest.

[Eli Double Tap]

Okay. These.

[Bren Herrera]

And so I went to school there, you know? And then my mom came to visit again and she got sick. So.

[Brandon Herrera]

The Black Forest.

[Eli Double Tap]

Oh, okay.

[Bren Herrera]

That's real pretty.

[Eli Double Tap]

Beautiful. Oh, God, yeah.

[Bren Herrera]

Gorgeous.

[Eli Double Tap]

Gorgeous.

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah. So my mom got sick. She had a gallbladder attack. And they didn't have a doctor in that little town, you know, so they took it. But I would say, I don't know, but four miles away to the hospital. She had surgery there. And I walked. I think I can do. I couldn't do it again. I don't think I could. I walked through the woods by myself with smelling the boars. You know what a boar is? The big pigs, pretty bad animal, you know?

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah, yeah, boars do. Yeah. Very explosive.

[Bren Herrera]

When I smelled them, I was going, just looking, you know, and see which tree can I climb, you know, just.

[Brandon Herrera]

Walking through the Black Forest alone as.

[Bren Herrera]

A child that time, my shoes, I had holes. And honestly, by the time I got to that hospital.

[Brandon Herrera]

You said every time you smelled a boar, you were ready to climb a tree.

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

And this is like 12 years old, probably younger.

[Bren Herrera]

Young, in a way. They were all nice. The hospital, they let me stay there because my mom, you know, and. Till she could travel. And then we took her back to the friends of ours, you know, but by train. And she stayed till she felt better. And then she said, honey, I gotta go home. Does your brother. Does her husband? You know. So she left. I said, okay. It was hard. She wasn't completely healed, you know, But I stayed a while. And then I said, no, I gotta go home. You know, I gotta take care of her. And I did it Again, I saved my money and I went on the train hidden from Mannheim. And on the way to Mannheim, I heard sirens in the distance. And the train stopped. And they said, everybody out. Go to the woods. There were a lot of woods because they used to target the butchers, the trains, you know, all the infrastructure that they can damage. Yeah. So we had to stay there for a while till we got the clear to go back, you know. So by the time I reached Mannheim, we couldn't go into the. What they call it Braunhof, you know, the train station. Yes, the train station. Because there was bombed, so I had to have to walk and I go home. And I was glad I went home because mom's wounds didn't look good, you know, they were infected. So I had to take care of my mom, clean the wounds and just take care of her. And then one day, the siren went off again. So I said, mom, where are we going now? We don't want to go to our cellars. Getting pretty bad, you know, they bombing a lot lately. So I said, there's underground bunga goes the bridge. You know, we lived right by the Neckar river, and we thought we could make it good. But it was kind of late, so half of the bridge, my mom broke down. She couldn't walk. She said, I can't walk no more. I said, you have to do. You got to get up because we got to make it.

[Eli Double Tap]

You know, you're pushing your mom, so you're trying to. You're motivating her to do.

[Bren Herrera]

And I tried to pull up. Nobody helps you. They all run for their lives, you know. And we finally made it. But I seen already the bombs, you know, and it seems like I never forget it going down the steps with my mom, like, close the door. Like, they come right at us, you know, the sound of it and all this. So that went okay, I guess. And I already told you the story with that young man coming down. And you know, so well, while we're.

[Brandon Herrera]

There, we kind of. If we could backtrack even a little bit more because you mentioned in that story that your mom was saying, look, I have a son who was captured as well.

[Bren Herrera]

Exactly.

[Brandon Herrera]

I want you to treat him well because I want my son to be treated well.

[Bren Herrera]

Right.

[Brandon Herrera]

Can we talk a little bit about your brother?

[Bren Herrera]

Oh, my brother. He was drafted to the army.

[Brandon Herrera]

What was his name?

[Bren Herrera]

He was drafted.

[Brandon Herrera]

What was his name?

[Bren Herrera]

Hans.

[Brandon Herrera]

Hans. Yeah, it was Hans. And Willie, right?

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah, he was my oldest brother. He was 10 years old.

[Eli Double Tap]

Hey, guys, who's gonna get the next Triple double in the wnba. Is it Caitlin Clark?

[Donut Operator]

None of us watch that.

[Eli Double Tap]

It's Caitlin Clark for sure.

[Brandon Herrera]

I don't know what the any of those letters mean.

[Eli Double Tap]

Just use the hall of Fame app.

[Brandon Herrera]

It's got all the data on everything, all the analytics.

[Eli Double Tap]

What's wnba?

[Donut Operator]

It's what they play in hell.

[Brandon Herrera]

It's like basketball, but nobody can dunk.

[Donut Operator]

I can't wait to bet on layup after layup after layup.

[Eli Double Tap]

Check the app. Can I bet on how many rebounds.

[Brandon Herrera]

Angel Reese gets that are from her own missed layups? Is there a parlay for that? Wait, the hall of Fame app? Was that the one that was started by two Ivy League grads?

[Donut Operator]

This is not your buddy's group chat full of hot takes.

[Eli Double Tap]

It's a full analytics engine and it's.

[Brandon Herrera]

Built for the average everyday sports fan, so it's easy and intuitive to use. No big words that are hard to pronounce.

[Eli Double Tap]

Whether it's mlb, NBA, NFL, hall of.

[Brandon Herrera]

Fame has all the analytics.

[Eli Double Tap]

And with over 6,000 five star reviews, it's safe to say that HOF has already helped a lot of people.

[Brandon Herrera]

Unlike my hoa, who I am actively fighting with. You, Betty.

[Eli Double Tap]

Our listeners get a seven day free trial and 50% off their first month. That's half.

[Donut Operator]

Just download the HOF app and use the code Unsub at checkout for a limited time only.

[Eli Double Tap]

Our listeners get not only a seven day free trial, but 50 off at checkout when you use code Unsub.

[Brandon Herrera]

Just download the hof app on iOS or Android, use the code unsub, and you're all set.

[Eli Double Tap]

Your senior.

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah, and like I said, he was in Africa. And then he got captured in El Alamein.

[Brandon Herrera]

And so he fought under Rommel with the North African campaign until.

[Bren Herrera]

And first he came to the States. I forgot where he was, but he came to the States and he didn't have it as good, you know, in prison. But then he got transferred to England and he had a mate. He was striving for the higher colonel or mayor, whatever he was, you know, he was a sliver. He loved it. He had a mate.

[Eli Double Tap]

Way better than war.

[Brandon Herrera]

Were you allowed to talk to him at all? Like any letters or correspondence?

[Bren Herrera]

Well, when he was in Africa, we did. Before he got captured. That little bit we got, I'll never forget it. We always put a little bit of our food. Not food, but candy or chocolate or something in his package. And we sent him real thin scarves because of the sandstorms they had.

[Eli Double Tap]

Oh, yeah, I know they had.

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah, Anyway, the other story was, where were we?

[Brandon Herrera]

So we were. We were just talking about your brother being captured and then driving for the colonel and whatnot.

[Bren Herrera]

Right. And little later on, like I said, my dad was never there. My brother was never there. It was just me and my mom.

[Brandon Herrera]

They were off doing labor. They were off being forced to do labor.

[Bren Herrera]

Yes, they were forced to. And so we had to look out for ourselves, you know, because your.

[Brandon Herrera]

Your father was a lot older, right?

[Bren Herrera]

Yes, 25 years older than my mom.

[Eli Double Tap]

Oh, okay.

[Brandon Herrera]

Because no, I'm. I'm recounting a little bit of family history that I think I know about. Please tell me if I'm wrong. No, I think that. So he was. He was kind of a little on the older side during World War I, but he was part of, like, the. The militia that they used for, like, not the young men, but it was called the. The Lungewehr, which was basically like a militia of, like, older people that they won't send to the front lines, but still, like, ready to fight.

[Eli Double Tap]

Gotcha. So their reserves. Army, like, army reserves, almost.

[Brandon Herrera]

Do you remember when your. When your father was born? What year? Sorry, I know there was that. I'm not putting you on the spot, but you said he was 25 years older than me.

[Bren Herrera]

My mom were born in 01.

[Brandon Herrera]

Okay, so he would have born. It would have been born in the 1870s.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah, 1876. 1875.

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah. Yeah, he was.

[Brandon Herrera]

So at this point in the war, he would be in his 70s?

[Bren Herrera]

No, he was young. I think he was okay. Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

But still not a. Not a spry young man.

[Bren Herrera]

No, but. Oh, goodness. Then, yeah, like I said, my mom was there, whole prisoner that was Turdy. And I got them all. Yeah. And my dad came finally home, and we decided we go to the bunker that's closer to us because it was too far to go, because you couldn't wait. A bomb, you know, you can't say, wait till we get there. It's impossible. So we went to the bunker by the water. That's the upright bunker, the tall one, you know, supposed to be bomb safe. So me and my brother, me and my dad, we were going and get some food, and mom was already in the bunker, and my brother, I don't know where he was. So we went home, we got food, and on the way to the riverside, we heard them cannons. You heard, you know, artillery. Yeah, you can hear, and you don't know where it hits. And one of them came pretty loud, and we went into the doorway, you know, just covered Ourselves. But we had to cross the field to get to the bunker. And the English were across the river already by then, you see, so they were shooting guns and everything. So we were crawling on the floor, on the ground, getting to the bunker, you know, and they were shooting. We made it somehow. And they already closed the bunker, you know, and we were banging on them steel doors. Open the doors. We need to get in, you know. Finally they decided it was us, you know, and we made it in. But that was really, really scary. Really scared.

[Eli Double Tap]

Getting shot at is terrifying.

[Bren Herrera]

So what else we got?

[Brandon Herrera]

Well, there was one story I found really interesting, too, about your younger brother, which would have been Willie. About him surrendering to the British.

[Bren Herrera]

Oh, afterwards, okay. When the British came across, before they came across, they were right across the river, okay. When we went to the bunker, my dad and I and my youngest brother, we didn't know that till afterwards, you know, he was always gone, mayor for my city. Two other gentlemen and my brother, for some reason, they went in the boat and they went across the river. Two with the white flag, of course, to give the city to surrender.

[Brandon Herrera]

Surrender.

[Bren Herrera]

And my brother forgot he had a gun. I mean, the knife, inside pocket, you know. And just before he got all the way across, he realized that. So he grabbed the knife, let it go in the water. Dang.

[Donut Operator]

I bet you missed that one, don't you?

[Brandon Herrera]

Granted, right?

[Donut Operator]

That knife, that would have been kind of cool.

[Brandon Herrera]

That would have been a cool heirloom. Yeah, but the. Yeah, we've done that many times at TSA for the same. For the same reason.

[Donut Operator]

Tossed a couple of knives at the airport.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah.

[Bren Herrera]

And the Germans, of course, they disappeared from the riverfront. Of course. Right. Or my mom would have been shipped out. But she was in a time where she was just lucky, you know? I forgot to tell you the story. When I was. I was back, I was maybe 8 years old, something like this, where I thought, what is going on? You know, they were getting people out of their apartments and a lot of Jews had stores and everything. I said, what's going on? You know, we didn't know what was going on. So they told the people, they're going to send the Jews to a new colony where all the Jews get together their own, you know, little Jew colony. And while they were gone. That's my clutter.

[Brandon Herrera]

Means it's six o' clock. Yeah.

[Bren Herrera]

And while they were gone, they burned everything. I remember the drawn furniture out of the windows, you know, it was terrible. There was a sight. I never forget either. You know, they shipped Them out and we didn't know where they were going.

[Brandon Herrera]

At 8 years old, you have no concept for what's going on.

[Eli Double Tap]

You know, you're just seeing stuff thrown out one day.

[Bren Herrera]

We did not heard about the concentration camps till the war were over, honestly. Yeah, we didn't know and I couldn't believe it. Matter of fact, later on when I met Oprah, we went to a movie. The first movie we went, they showed concentration camps and all this. I was shocked. I was shocked. And I said, and my mom would have been there too, you know, after all you go through, it was miserable. It was not a good childhood, put it this way, you know, and even my mom and my dad, I shouldn't say that, but 25 years is too much different in a marriage. You know, it was good in the beginning because she was young, he was still in his 50s, you know, it was okay. But later on is when it started, you know, because my mom wanted a new dress later on and you know, she wanted to look good. My dad was jealous, is crazy because my mom was a good looking woman, you know, so there were always fights and where was I? Under the table, you know, so from small kid on it was, you know, we didn't have no graduations or stuff like that, you know.

[Donut Operator]

When did you make your way to the United States?

[Bren Herrera]

Well, I was 18 and a half when I met her. That Yoko.

[Brandon Herrera]

All this time in Germany and she shacks up with the first Texan she meets.

[Donut Operator]

You met a Texan boy?

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah, yeah, he was from Laredo.

[Donut Operator]

The Raider. Where did you meet him?

[Bren Herrera]

At Freo. Really? You know where Freo is?

[Brandon Herrera]

It's like Dilly Frio County.

[Donut Operator]

How did you meet a Texan boy?

[Bren Herrera]

Well, my brother and I, we went to, what do you call it? Guest house. We called, okay, restaurant. And they started. First the guy would playing the harmonica accordion. And we go there on a Saturday. But my brother didn't let me go alone. I was almost 19.

[Brandon Herrera]

He's a protective brother.

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah. And I met really my husband's friend first, you know, they were all in the same company. And he was a darn good looking guy, I tell you. But he likes to fight. Whenever a fight going on in the place, he was involved. And I didn't like that, you see, So I said, no, that's not the guy for me. And one day he brought that with him, Oprah. And we were talking when he was gone, you know, and I said, yeah, I know he want me to be his girlfriend, but I don't like it. When somebody get involved in somebody else's fights, you know. And he said, yeah, he's kind of fighter, you know, we're talking. He said, well, you want to go movie with me next week?

[Eli Double Tap]

He slid in them DMs.

[Donut Operator]

She would have hated us.

[Brandon Herrera]

Like, he likes to fight. We're just all like, yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

You want to go see a movie, though?

[Brandon Herrera]

That's funny.

[Bren Herrera]

I don't know what I'm telling you.

[Eli Double Tap]

What movie did he take you to?

[Bren Herrera]

You know, I don't remember. I think the first movie. Part of the movie. From Concentration camp, I believe. So it could be.

[Brandon Herrera]

It's a hell of a thing for a first date.

[Eli Double Tap]

I know it's a little heavy.

[Bren Herrera]

A harsh first date.

[Brandon Herrera]

Love to take you on a date. How about Schindler's List?

[Bren Herrera]

Do what? He didn't speak German.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, yeah. He didn't speak German at the time.

[Bren Herrera]

Oh, no, I didn't speak English.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, my God. Yeah.

[Donut Operator]

Were you guys using hand signals to.

[Eli Double Tap]

Talk to each other?

[Bren Herrera]

No point.

[Brandon Herrera]

At cinema, that guy. No good.

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah. So I said, okay, I go to English school, you know.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah.

[Bren Herrera]

And I did for a couple weeks. And every time I came home and I learned something and he said. What did you say? He couldn't understand.

[Donut Operator]

So wait, wait, you. You were living with him?

[Bren Herrera]

No.

[Donut Operator]

Okay. No, I thought you said you came.

[Eli Double Tap]

Home to my mom's side.

[Donut Operator]

Oh, okay.

[Eli Double Tap]

Visit.

[Brandon Herrera]

Okay.

[Eli Double Tap]

Hey, Brandon, do you know what I can tell you about Surf Shark Brother?

[Brandon Herrera]

We are not doing this bit again.

[Eli Double Tap]

What bit are you talking about?

[Brandon Herrera]

Go ahead, Eli.

[Donut Operator]

What.

[Brandon Herrera]

What is Surf Shark?

[Eli Double Tap]

It's a vpn, Brandon.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, that's what the porn people use. Right?

[Eli Double Tap]

And the servers offer the best speeds around. By default, it's easy to install and you can run unlimited uses on a single subscreen.

[Brandon Herrera]

Did you know you can overcome location based price discrimination on plane tickets and car rentals by changing your VPN location?

[Eli Double Tap]

For real?

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah. No, no, I didn't even know that.

[Eli Double Tap]

It's always a good sign in the ad when that happens.

[Brandon Herrera]

I genuinely didn't know that, but that's really good to know.

[Eli Double Tap]

Surfshark.

[Brandon Herrera]

Surfshark. Plus, you can be safe on public WI fi because surfshark encrypts your data, making it useless for anybody who steals it.

[Eli Double Tap]

Again, very important.

[Brandon Herrera]

Identity theft is not a joke, brother.

[Eli Double Tap]

Encryption ciphers scrambles that data so no one can make sense of it.

[Brandon Herrera]

Kind of like my thoughts. It's so scrambled, nobody can make sense of it. He just sounds like the horny Kool Aid man.

[Eli Double Tap]

Head over to surfshark.com unsubscribe and use code unsub10 to get an additional four months of Surfshark VPN.

[Brandon Herrera]

That's surfshark.com unsubscribe using code unsub10.

[Bren Herrera]

And he says, I don't know what you're saying. And I said, why? I go to school for, you know, I stayed another week or so, and every time I come home, he said, I don't know, it was a school English. And he just couldn't understand it, you know, And I said, forget it. So I quit. And I said, now you're going to teach me. You know, it's amazing how much you can communicate when you have to.

[Eli Double Tap]

Oh, yeah.

[Bren Herrera]

Isn't that true? Right?

[Brandon Herrera]

Depends on what you're communicating, I guess. Certain things go beyond words, I assume.

[Donut Operator]

I live with a Mexican opa, and I don't understand half of what she's saying to me, but I understand it right. I don't know the words, but I.

[Brandon Herrera]

Know what she's saying. Even crazier because she speaks perfect English. Yeah. Dude.

[Donut Operator]

She hits me with flip flops. She'll take her shoe off and she'll hit me with her shoes.

[Eli Double Tap]

Chanclas.

[Donut Operator]

The chanclas.

[Brandon Herrera]

There's one. Oh, sorry.

[Bren Herrera]

No. I drove my husband crazy with tb. Every time we watch tv, I say what she says, what she says, you know, I ask questions. That's how I learned, but by me trying to learn how to speak English. My kids never kept a German because, you know, I wanted to learn English, so I wanted him to keep speaking.

[Eli Double Tap]

English, so I learned first generation, it's.

[Bren Herrera]

Oh, they understand words, you know, Especially the ones they're not supposed to say.

[Brandon Herrera]

Well, Shaisa Scheissa.

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah. They learned the bad things for us. You had.

[Eli Double Tap]

Brandon told the story during war that you went, There was a bomb. You were supposed to go into a different shelter and then it got bombed. Or someone was saying, come in.

[Brandon Herrera]

Like a house.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah, come in the house. But then you didn't go in the house. And then something happened to that house.

[Bren Herrera]

Oh, the back of our house got bombed.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah. Can you tell that story?

[Bren Herrera]

Well, there was, when we checked, my brother and I, you know, the front were okay. Then there is what they called between the back house and this is not.

[Brandon Herrera]

A garden, but a common area.

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah. And that was bombed. And our apartment, we lived in second floor. The wall. The wall was that much. We could look up to the third floor. It was just, you know, so we were lucky. We very lucky. I turned and I don't know. I have so much more. I know, but I can't go.

[Brandon Herrera]

There is one that I thought was really funny that I heard of where. I can't remember. I think it was your mother. But it was when the British came in and they busted into the house when they were first taking the city.

[Donut Operator]

They had some hot Texans with them apparently so very good looking Texans with them.

[Bren Herrera]

You know, when the first English came in, right. We were on the second floor, I was in the corner. I was scared stiff, you know, because they were with guns, of course. And they came, looked the apartment, you know. And my mom tried to say, hi. Little.

[Donut Operator]

Wrong crowd, wrong crowd. They just like.

[Brandon Herrera]

How did they react?

[Bren Herrera]

I think they didn't pay too much attention. They took all our jewelry, you know, and stuff. The English and I told her died when she did that. I said, mom, I hope they didn't hear you. But she was scared because she was texting, you know, and she thought, I don't know what, she was six years old. Yeah.

[Donut Operator]

She thought they were Nazi Germany type soldiers.

[Bren Herrera]

They're both scared. Oh my goodness.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah, he just covered. Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

How does your family feel about the.

[Donut Operator]

Nazis coming to power?

[Bren Herrera]

Too bad.

[Eli Double Tap]

How did your family feel about the.

[Brandon Herrera]

Nazis coming to power?

[Bren Herrera]

You know, I would say, listen, I shouldn't say that, but I say first Hitler was okay when he first started. He was okay. We had food, everything, everything great.

[Eli Double Tap]

A good economy. That's a very good economy.

[Bren Herrera]

It was great. And then it started slowly, you know, he got greedy. In other words, then he wanted to take other countries like France, Poland, you know, Poland and all this. He went slowly, he wanted more, more and more. He got greedy. And then when they went into Russia, that's when they made a big boo boo. Because the German army were not prepared for that cold weather, you know, the Russians were used to it, you know, so most of these people, the soldiers died, they froze, you know, that's when he lost it.

[Brandon Herrera]

And well, so if, if I recall correctly, there's a. There was an instance where Hitler came to your town, right?

[Bren Herrera]

He was.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, yeah, you got to see Hitler in person. And what abouts was that was that was before the war or was it okay?

[Bren Herrera]

No, I think it was. Oh, don't quote me on that. I know, I remember a lot of people lined up and he came in the big Jeep or whatever it was.

[Brandon Herrera]

A Volkswagen. Yes, it was a Volkswagen parade.

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah, kind of. Yeah. And there, my mom could have got in trouble there. She couldn't keep her mouth shut, you know, I said Mom.

[Brandon Herrera]

It seems to be a recurring theme.

[Eli Double Tap]

Generational.

[Bren Herrera]

Oh, gee. But, Tola, you better do what the others do or you'll be picked up, you know, that was before she got picked up, you know. Yeah.

[Donut Operator]

And so you actually saw Hitler?

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah.

[Donut Operator]

Two degrees of separation away from Hitler. Brandon Herrera.

[Brandon Herrera]

One degree for me, two degrees for you guys.

[Donut Operator]

Oh, dang it.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah. What is it? Six, seven degrees from Kevin Bacon?

[Bren Herrera]

Your mom didn't salute them, did they? Did she? I remember one of the German army. I don't know if it was Goebbels. Goebbels or.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, Goebbels.

[Bren Herrera]

Or was the other one gentler? One of them were good guy. Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

No, Is it Rommel, Connor, what was it?

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah, the good one.

[Brandon Herrera]

Rommel. Because I think Rommel, whose name is.

[Donut Operator]

Escaping me right now.

[Bren Herrera]

I don't know.

[Brandon Herrera]

Because I think Rommel was kind of one of those. He was just a really good general, but I don't think he was exactly pro Hitler.

[Donut Operator]

Connor, come here, Come here, come here. Step in for a second. I'll be over here.

[Brandon Herrera]

Hess. Was it Hess?

[Bren Herrera]

No.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, was.

[Bren Herrera]

Couples. Couples of. Or Rommel. One or the other. Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

I think Rommel was one of the ones that was not. He was a good general and he loved Germany, but I don't think he was a Nazi necessarily. He wasn't super down with the program. If I'm remembering correctly, this is all just, you know, history.

[Bren Herrera]

Really good, too.

[Brandon Herrera]

There is one thing I thought was kind of funny that I wanted to bring up because it was a funny story. I remember we took a road trip at some point, and I. I played a song for you, and it was Erica.

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

That. That song from. From World War II. You know, the soldiers would sing it a bunch and such. Yep. I was just. I was curious to know if you. To see if you knew it and you started singing along with it, and I thought that was very funny. And because the song's about, you know, a flower back in my hometown that is, you know, singing about a girl.

[Bren Herrera]

Yes.

[Donut Operator]

Are they singing about Oma.

[Brandon Herrera]

Well, so funny enough, what was your story? You said you heard the. The soldiers walking through town singing the song when you were a little. Little girl.

[Bren Herrera]

What do you mean?

[Brandon Herrera]

I remember you. You saying at one point that the. The soldiers would be walking through town and you hear him singing the song.

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

And as a little girl, you're like, that's me.

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah. I said singing.

[Eli Double Tap]

My son with your two brothers, were they when they got drafted? Correct?

[Bren Herrera]

Yes. Only one got drafted.

[Eli Double Tap]

Okay.

[Bren Herrera]

My oldest brother.

[Eli Double Tap]

Oldest Brother got drafted and then your.

[Bren Herrera]

Other one still, he had to do what the. What they call it? Ss. The Nazis told him to do the ss help build the wall by the river and all kinds of stuff. We never know what it went.

[Brandon Herrera]

This would have been like Gestapo.

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Because I think you guys had to do like kind of Hitler Youth kind of stuff, right? Or he did at least.

[Bren Herrera]

Yep, yep.

[Eli Double Tap]

Oh, so he was told, hey, you have to do that now. When he surrendered for the town, you said, Right?

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

So they were just. That would be terrifying. So it's just like go across the river on a boat and then just hope they don't shoot you.

[Bren Herrera]

Yep.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah, that's wild.

[Bren Herrera]

Of course, the Nazi were gone by then, you know, but the British, who.

[Brandon Herrera]

Had just fought all the way to that point, they don't know that.

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah, yeah, there was.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, but I think he was later recognized by the city for that, wasn't he?

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah. Matter of fact, I wish I had a letter from the governor, you know, but brave and young man he was, you know, to do this, you know, I don't know if I've ever find it. I have it somewhere, you know, and even wrote to me while I was here, you know, in the U.S. yeah. Oh, wow. Yeah. And my father, he wasn't scared of nothing.

[Donut Operator]

How did you feel about the British coming in? Were you afraid of them or.

[Bren Herrera]

Of course I was. And look, I was still a young kid, right. And the first black man I seen, I was hiding. I never seen a black man, you know, at the time, I never did. And we were scared of him, you know.

[Brandon Herrera]

You just never seen anything like it?

[Bren Herrera]

No.

[Brandon Herrera]

Were you told they were going to hurt you or.

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah, you hear stories. They're going to. They're going to do, you know, stuff like this. And then later on, the GI's, the English told Candace to the kids, you know, that was later on. And there was something I never forget seeing the black guy. I said, my God, how did he get black?

[Eli Double Tap]

Just confusion. Yeah, that would be wild. If you've never seen that, you're like, what the fuck?

[Brandon Herrera]

Tell that. Tell that to Netflix.

[Eli Double Tap]

So what. What age was it when you decided to move? Oh, you moved at 18 to America. But what, what made you to decide?

[Donut Operator]

Or was it.

[Brandon Herrera]

Did you move to America at 18 or was it years later?

[Bren Herrera]

No, no, it was. I was 20, I'd say 20.

[Brandon Herrera]

So you'd been dating Opa for. Yeah, a year and a half.

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

So.

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

Oh, so he was over in.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, he was in Germany. He was Occupational force.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah, Mannheim was in West Germany. Yeah, well, you met an American, so you're in Western. Can I ask a question real quick?

[Bren Herrera]

Yes.

[Donut Operator]

We call. We call her Opa.

[Bren Herrera]

Oma.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oma means grandmother and opaque grandfather.

[Donut Operator]

Okay, gotcha.

[Bren Herrera]

Oman.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah, gotcha. So both. And did he bring you state side together? Did you move to America together?

[Bren Herrera]

Well, there was another big store.

[Brandon Herrera]

I may not know this one.

[Donut Operator]

Was he another one of his friends like to fight?

[Brandon Herrera]

My mom might not know the story.

[Eli Double Tap]

She just looked over at your mom for confirmation.

[Bren Herrera]

Eli.

[Eli Double Tap]

Pooping pace Connor, I'm not playing your game.

[Brandon Herrera]

Hi Eli. You won't be needing this with today's.

[Eli Double Tap]

Sponsor Tushy while I clean my butt.

[Brandon Herrera]

No. So do yourself a favor and get a bidet by Eli. Pay attention to me.

[Eli Double Tap]

What's wrong with you?

[Brandon Herrera]

Come on, we've all been to the void. Bidet by Tushy.

[Eli Double Tap]

What'd you say about the toilet paper?

[Brandon Herrera]

Washing with a precise stream of clean water helps to remove 99% of bacteria as opposed to wiping with regular toilet paper. Here, let me show you.

[Eli Double Tap]

Please don't show me anything. You don't know what you want.

[Donut Operator]

Soothing, isn't it?

[Brandon Herrera]

And speaking of soothing, Tushy.

[Donut Operator]

Bidet provides two in one benefits.

[Brandon Herrera]

Preventing micro tears and using soothing water to cleanse instead of irritating toilet paper. Not only is it easy to install, it only takes about 10 minutes. Every hello to sheep a day comes with a hassle free 30 day return.

[Donut Operator]

And a 12 month warranty.

[Eli Double Tap]

I am squeaky clean instantly.

[Brandon Herrera]

Improve your health from the bottom up. For a limited time, our listeners get 10% off their first order by using code unsubscribe at checkout.

[Eli Double Tap]

That's 10% off your first bidet [e-mail] with promo code unsubscribe.

[Bren Herrera]

We wanted to get married, right? I said I'm not going to the States, not being married, see. But he said he's got to go to the States first because of his father or something. I don't know, something. He probably was sick or something. I forgot and I said, oh, there we go. He goes states, he never come back, Right? That's what you think.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah.

[Bren Herrera]

And I went to work and one day off work I got out there with my husband, you know, he won. My husband, Dad. I said, I can't believe it. You did come back. He said, of course. I told you I'd be back.

[Brandon Herrera]

Running out on a family in the 50s was so easy. You could move, move a town over and change it.

[Bren Herrera]

He didn't have A family yet.

[Eli Double Tap]

That's adorable.

[Donut Operator]

How long did. How long was that before he came back?

[Bren Herrera]

He was in the States, maybe. I would say three weeks, four weeks, something.

[Eli Double Tap]

Oh, okay.

[Donut Operator]

And then he just showed back up in Germany and knocked on your door.

[Brandon Herrera]

All right. And tell the truth, you waited on him?

[Bren Herrera]

No, I thought he never come back.

[Brandon Herrera]

She found the fighters. Yeah. You started going back out with the fighter?

[Bren Herrera]

No, I didn't go out. No.

[Eli Double Tap]

But.

[Donut Operator]

She'S like, but hear me out. Hear me out.

[Eli Double Tap]

Omal was an attractive young lady.

[Brandon Herrera]

I'm here. I'm learning some family history today.

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah, no, I've been to work. And like I said, he came and he surprised me at work, you know, and then he asked me, you want to marry me? And I looked at him, I said, I got to think about it. I was a bad girl. I got to admit, I wasn't teased.

[Brandon Herrera]

It all comes I did you get one sip of claw in this woman?

[Eli Double Tap]

El Paul likes to party.

[Bren Herrera]

I told him, I got to think about it, you know? And he said, why? I told you he flew back out here.

[Eli Double Tap]

He's like, I'm here, so I don't care.

[Bren Herrera]

You know what I did? He was on sick you. You know what sick you is?

[Brandon Herrera]

What is that?

[Eli Double Tap]

CQ is when you're on guard.

[Bren Herrera]

Cq, you're on duty.

[Brandon Herrera]

Cq?

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah. Cq? Yeah. You're on duty.

[Bren Herrera]

He was there. So I used the towel around my face, and I called his number, and he answered. And I said, oh, I heard about you. You want to go to movie with me? I pretended I was somebody else. Okay.

[Brandon Herrera]

1950 relationship testing.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah. Trying to see if he's going to.

[Brandon Herrera]

Go out with another girl. We are the same to do.

[Bren Herrera]

Okay.

[Brandon Herrera]

We are the same people. Just 75 years later, a girl sliding.

[Donut Operator]

Into, like, your DMs. Like the. The best friend sliding into your DMs. See if you'll answer back. Yeah, that's what Oma was doing.

[Eli Double Tap]

Did he say yes?

[Bren Herrera]

No. Oh, he said, oh, I'm sorry. I'm taken.

[Brandon Herrera]

Good man.

[Eli Double Tap]

Hung up. I know that was Eric.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

That German accent I know from anywhere.

[Bren Herrera]

Oh, my goodness.

[Brandon Herrera]

You never believe this. My girlfriend just called me through a towel.

[Eli Double Tap]

Well, he threw me off.

[Bren Herrera]

And then when he came home, he told me about it. He said, would you believe some girl called me?

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, he knew. He. He knew.

[Bren Herrera]

He.

[Eli Double Tap]

100 he had some German girl called me. It sounded like she was talking through a towel.

[Bren Herrera]

I say, what?

[Brandon Herrera]

You told him the story later, right?

[Eli Double Tap]

How long after that did you accept his proposal, huh? How long after that did you accept his marriage proposal?

[Bren Herrera]

Oh, it was. Oh, then. Then I start lying to him. Okay, wait, what? I said I don't know. I said, you don't know? I have a kid, you know, I told him I had a kid. Just testing him.

[Eli Double Tap]

What kind of tests are these? I have a child. I just came back to Germany.

[Bren Herrera]

You know what he said? He said, really? You didn't tell me that in the beginning, you know, but can I see the kid? That's when I got in trouble. I did that again. I finally had to admit that I was, you know, testing him. I finally told me, I marry you.

[Donut Operator]

Oh, my gosh.

[Brandon Herrera]

He was like, put him through hell.

[Bren Herrera]

Yes.

[Brandon Herrera]

I think before that she met several.

[Bren Herrera]

Guys at the same. Oh, yeah. Wait, what was it T her excuses.

[Eli Double Tap]

I was a teaser. I love it.

[Brandon Herrera]

I'm just a goral.

[Bren Herrera]

There were so many guys who wanted to go out with me, you know.

[Donut Operator]

Omo is a hottie. Well, she matched her nails to her.

[Bren Herrera]

Shirt and her necklace.

[Brandon Herrera]

I don't know.

[Eli Double Tap]

I don't know what you're doing.

[Bren Herrera]

So I used to say, you know, good looking guys, right? And I said, okay, I'll meet you over there. Wherever, on the corner in the Westwood. And then I went over there and see if he really showed up. And then I go home. I didn't know.

[Donut Operator]

Oh, my God, you were breaking hearts.

[Bren Herrera]

I did.

[Brandon Herrera]

Just for fun.

[Bren Herrera]

One day I got caught. Doing what?

[Brandon Herrera]

Like just standing him up?

[Bren Herrera]

Essentially, yes, that's what it is.

[Eli Double Tap]

That fool in the restaurant across the street, she runs across the street. Why does she do this to all of us? We can see her.

[Brandon Herrera]

Look, that asshole did what he said.

[Bren Herrera]

He was gonna do.

[Eli Double Tap]

Now. To wait for the wanted to come back from America and tell him I have a child.

[Brandon Herrera]

But was it, Was it Opa that caught you? Ruthless?

[Bren Herrera]

Yes.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, Opa was the one who caught you. No, he caught you.

[Bren Herrera]

Yes, he did. Before we were mar. Okay, I hope so.

[Donut Operator]

What was special about Opa, out of all the hearts you broke?

[Bren Herrera]

He was not a fighter like some of the guys I met. But the only thing, I was a good dancer when I was young. You know, he couldn't dance for nothing, so I had to teach him how to dance. You know, he stepped on my feet all the time. But he learned the poker and, you know, a couple of things. And if somebody, Your daddy were very chill when somebody asked me to dance, right? He was okay the first time, but he came back a second time.

[Brandon Herrera]

Now he's a fighter.

[Bren Herrera]

She's not dancing right now. He was very chill.

[Eli Double Tap]

And then you moved back to the United States after that. How long did you live in Germany?

[Bren Herrera]

We left Germany like you said in the 72. Right?

[Brandon Herrera]

That was way later.

[Bren Herrera]

He's talking about it first. Oh, the first time. First time was 50. Let me see, 50.

[Brandon Herrera]

We'll say 53.

[Bren Herrera]

53, 54.

[Brandon Herrera]

Something like that.

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah. We went to Oklahoma. But meanwhile we had a couple kids, you know, after we were married, we got married. I was 21. All grown up?

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah, very grown up. Everything.

[Donut Operator]

You had real kids, not the fake one you told them that you had.

[Bren Herrera]

Right? I had real kids. So my oldest, Henry and Robert were born in Germany. Okay. But we had problems getting married. You never believed why we wanted to get married by church. My church was baptized in Germany. I wish I wouldn't marry us because he didn't have a baptism paper.

[Brandon Herrera]

Germany very big on papers.

[Bren Herrera]

And then I had to get a paper from the court that I'd never been in jail or in trouble. Right.

[Brandon Herrera]

To marry.

[Eli Double Tap]

To get married.

[Brandon Herrera]

That's wild.

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah. So he sent to Texas that he get a birth certificate. Right. But we had a date set when we wanted to get married. Everything was arranged and paper never came in, you know. So we got married in a way, but not in church. We got married in the courthouse.

[Brandon Herrera]

Courthouse?

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

In Germany.

[Bren Herrera]

In Germany. Yeah. And so we never got married by church, you know.

[Donut Operator]

So was he still on duty with the army in Germany when you guys got married at the courthouse?

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah.

[Donut Operator]

Okay.

[Brandon Herrera]

I think he stayed through. He was active duty with the military until after the Korean War.

[Eli Double Tap]

Okay.

[Bren Herrera]

But then whatever. It's like been when he had to go back. Right. I wasn't ready to go with him because my papers didn't work altogether from the court I was from. You know. So he went to the States and I stayed with the kids. Two kids I had done. And talking about scared I couldn't speak English and I had to go on a certain time. I had to go over to meet him and I was tempted not to go. I'll be honest with you. I was scared to death, you know. And so I went in a way.

[Brandon Herrera]

To a country whose language you don't speak.

[Bren Herrera]

Right.

[Brandon Herrera]

Alone with two kids.

[Bren Herrera]

Our arrived in New York, didn't know. He always tell me, he said, if I cannot make it to pick you up in New York, ask for the Red Cross to help you, you know. And I had this in my head. So I came to New York. I stood looking for him. He wasn't there. I said, oh, my God. Gosh.

[Brandon Herrera]

He gave you an address in New.

[Bren Herrera]

York, right from the late Cross.

[Brandon Herrera]

Okay, so just go to New York. I'll find you.

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

You'Re not texting anyone, and it's a snail mail. It's literally like, oh, I'm here.

[Bren Herrera]

It was the 50s.

[Eli Double Tap]

That's it. I'll wait.

[Bren Herrera]

They didn't notify him on time to catch the plane to New York in time, you see, so that's why he went there. So I said, well, he told me to go to the Red Cross. Where's the Red Cross?

[Brandon Herrera]

You know, he was off asking women on dates and just seeing if they'd show up.

[Bren Herrera]

So he said, go to the bus. Takes you to the Red Cross. So I went in the bus, suitcase, two kids. And then there were other girls that got married, you know, One French girl I'll never forget. She said, oh, you're traveling by yourself? I said, yeah, my husband couldn't make, and blah, blah, blah. And she said, where are you going? I said, he told me to go to the Red Cross. They will help me. She said, you're in the wrong bus. I was in the wrong bus. So I had to take the kids again, suitcase and go to the other bus. Was in front of.

[Brandon Herrera]

Were you speaking her in French? She spoke German, English or English?

[Bren Herrera]

She could speak good English.

[Brandon Herrera]

Okay, so you knew a little English at this time, then?

[Bren Herrera]

No, I didn't even know the money. The guy on the airport, you know, that had my luggage. I said, oh, my God. So I grabbed my money and I just put the hand. Not to the day. I know what he took.

[Donut Operator]

Take what you need.

[Eli Double Tap]

Very trusting.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, it's the. The meme. Is this enough?

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah.

[Donut Operator]

Have you watched 1923 yet?

[Brandon Herrera]

I've seen the first season.

[Donut Operator]

So, like, his wife is trying to come to England. Yeah, same. It's the same thing. You don't know, like, what you're doing. You're just arriving in a foreign country.

[Bren Herrera]

Right.

[Donut Operator]

I don't know what's going on.

[Bren Herrera]

Now. She told the bus driver, please tell her when to get off. You know. So I got up. It was coming down rain. You can imagine, with two kids, one little rascal that liked to run off right on my head.

[Donut Operator]

How old were they at the time?

[Bren Herrera]

Missy Henry, he was about, I don't know, two years old. And the other one was still a baby, you know, and a big suitcase, you know. I was so convicted, I looked like a wet rat, in a way. We got to the Red Cross.

[Brandon Herrera]

We got to work on that self talk.

[Bren Herrera]

We. We didn't know it was closed, you know. So that French girl happened to be there, and she says, well, we gotta wait till they open up. And I'm pretty sure they give you room upstairs to clean up, you know, and get the kids changed. And they were screaming. Robert was screaming, my baby. And he wanted milk, of course. And they were used to warm milk. Where do I get milk? I couldn't get milk. Oh, my goodness. And then Amun changed the kids in the restroom. I lost the key to the suitcase, so I had to break the suitcase open, right? So I changed them, you know. Meanwhile, the Red Cross opened up, and that French girl helped me a little bit. She asked if they have milk or can you get milk for the baby, you know. And they did. And I warmed the milk in the bathroom because they were used to warm milk, you know. Yeah. So I said, no, if I can.

[Brandon Herrera]

Just interrupt for a second. It is amazing to me how vividly you remember this 70 years later.

[Bren Herrera]

I'm amazed at myself. Well, this.

[Brandon Herrera]

This is your first time in America, right? This was your first time in America.

[Bren Herrera]

So how do I close the suitcase? You know? I said, oh, my. Oh, I took the belt off I had, and I striped the door and said. And then the lady from the red gar said, come on, there's a room upstairs. You can stay there till your husband comes. Can let the kids rest and all this. We made it up to the stairs, right? And I heard my husband's voice. He said, this is not my wife. And I turned around, looked down, there were stairs, and there was a French girl.

[Brandon Herrera]

So he could have gone bride shopping.

[Eli Double Tap]

Honey, hi.

[Bren Herrera]

And then she said, if you looking for your wife, she's right up there, you know. And we were still soaking wet, you know. And he came up and we changed. Like I said, the kids and I changed and all this good stuff. We stayed there for a couple of hours.

[Donut Operator]

What'd you do that couple hours after?

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, come on.

[Bren Herrera]

My ninja got better.

[Donut Operator]

Made brand new.

[Bren Herrera]

His mom. So.

[Donut Operator]

You were happy to see.

[Eli Double Tap]

They read the Bible, they sung hymns.

[Bren Herrera]

So he said.

[Brandon Herrera]

He said, might need another claw.

[Eli Double Tap]

And so you're in need.

[Donut Operator]

York City.

[Eli Double Tap]

You're at the Red Cross. Your husband has just showed up.

[Bren Herrera]

We had only two hours, I believe, and then we had to leave, you know, it was just temporary. So we were all tired. So my husband went to the hotel room and it was so amazing. The bed had a box on the back. I never forget it. You put a quarter in and the bed goes and I said, great, I can put the kids. And they're going to sleep. Yeah, that's a dance move.

[Brandon Herrera]

What flavor would you like, buddy?

[Eli Double Tap]

Anything. Thank you. Look at this baby nap machine.

[Brandon Herrera]

I was told it's also a funny, funny story of you learning to drive stick.

[Bren Herrera]

Oh, yeah, that's a good story, too, but I'm not finished with. Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

[Eli Double Tap]

Go on with the bed story.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, please continue with.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah, continue with the vibrating bed story.

[Bren Herrera]

I'm excited. There you go.

[Donut Operator]

Brandon, thank you for inviting us here.

[Brandon Herrera]

I hope you're having a grand old time.

[Bren Herrera]

And then next day, next morning, we were relaxed. We went to TR station.

[Eli Double Tap]

Oh, man. Oh, stress melted away.

[Brandon Herrera]

I guarantee you, nobody who started the first 20 minutes of this episode thought.

[Donut Operator]

It was going to be anything like this.

[Eli Double Tap]

This one real quick. See, you were well rested, a little dehydrated, you went to the train station.

[Brandon Herrera]

About 30 years too early for gay to rave.

[Bren Herrera]

So we went in the train to Oklahoma and halfway the train stopped, let everybody out to eat the get stuff. And there was another shock for me. I was looking at a couple, you know, one was white, one was black. You know, it was so new for me. And the waitress said, you can come in here, it's only for whites. I said, excuse me, they can come in here. I didn't say that.

[Brandon Herrera]

I was thinking that there's still segregation year was that early mid-50s, 55.

[Bren Herrera]

There was. I was in shock. She said, you can come here and you got to go in that place. Go. You know.

[Brandon Herrera]

What state was this?

[Bren Herrera]

Oh, well, it was halfways from New York to across.

[Brandon Herrera]

Well, it was one of those states.

[Eli Double Tap]

One of the 25 on that half of the country. That would be so crazy because if you've never seen that, Never seen that.

[Bren Herrera]

And I. I couldn't believe it. They had to eat outside because he don't want to separate from her, you know, that was crazy. And then we got to Oklahoma and.

[Brandon Herrera]

Was that Fort Sill? Was he stationed there or. Do you remember.

[Bren Herrera]

Fort Sill, Oklahoma? Yeah, yeah, Lawton, matter of fact. So right away, they didn't have quarters for us, you know, so we rented a house on the outside. Had a tornado bunger and everything. Boy, it works. And. And then we moved to a little town. I forgot the name of it, too. And I learned how to drive, right. I couldn't drive then. And my husband, he had no patience. Every time I did something wrong with a stick, you know, I did something wrong. Don't you get it? You know, I said, okay. So one day he was at work, and I went in the car. I said, love myself, right? So I went in the car.

[Eli Double Tap]

Honey, I am proficient at stick driving.

[Brandon Herrera]

Good news, the transmission's gone. Good news, I learned how to do it. Bad news, car's smoking now.

[Bren Herrera]

And I drove. I mean, I put in the back, and I'm sure I chirped. And forward, too. And I said, I hope I don't get in the garage. You know, I'm in the garage door. But I did pretty good. And I said, I'm going to visit my girlfriend. She was halfway between Loudoun and, you know, that little town. And I did great. And I drove, you know, was fine, but I had problem. Every time I stopped the motor, shut.

[Brandon Herrera]

Off, install it, release the clutch.

[Bren Herrera]

So I said, oh, well, just started again, right?

[Donut Operator]

Oh, no, those curbs were probably.

[Brandon Herrera]

Well, how many?

[Donut Operator]

So you had your. Your kids home alone. You took all your kids with you, I'm guessing?

[Bren Herrera]

Of course, yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

Do you remember what kind of car it was?

[Bren Herrera]

No.

[Donut Operator]

No.

[Brandon Herrera]

Emmanuel.

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah. I went to the friend I met, you know, and my husband had to go by the highway to go home, you see, and he seen the car, you know, and he stopped and he said, who drove the car over here? And I said, they say what, the rims were destroyed? Yeah, there's another story then. Anyway, we stayed there for a while, and then when we got orders to go to Panama, Right, we went to Panama. No matter of fact, the first time I drove a shift. The other one was not a shift, I don't think. Anyway, so Oklahoma. Well, we got there on a diet almost with heat. They had no air conditioning. They had a giant fan. And at them years, I had migraines, you know, and that wasn't very good with a fan, you know. But again, I learned how to drive. We went to the commencal. It was up the hill, right in Panama. Panama. And I drove up everything. Good. My girlfriends were with me, and we had a babysitter then, you know, and they were guard house before you get into the commissary, you know, and we had to show our ID and. Okay, I got my id, you know, and I was on the guard house. And I said, oh, my God, the car is going backwards. I told the guard, I said, I'll be right back.

[Eli Double Tap]

Just look at it real quick. Look at Miami.

[Bren Herrera]

Even to God. Oh, gee.

[Eli Double Tap]

Oh, my God.

[Bren Herrera]

And it was so hot over there. Oh, my God.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah, that's tropical heat. That's that. Humid, humid, humid.

[Bren Herrera]

That's six Months of rain. That was terrible. And the grapes, they had grab season. I never seen anything like the whole everything patio, everything full of crabs. The fire department came and, you know. Yeah.

[Donut Operator]

Oh, dude, the documentaries with the crab migrations where they just go across the island.

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

Snow crabs.

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

Big, big.

[Bren Herrera]

And they go in your tires. You know, when you come apart, they want your tires.

[Brandon Herrera]

Everything infested with crabs. Kind of reminds me of Fable, actually. Panama.

[Donut Operator]

Were there vibrating beds? No.

[Brandon Herrera]

We're not gonna let that one die, huh?

[Eli Double Tap]

He's like, I have an opportunity.

[Donut Operator]

Germany, Oklahoma, Panama.

[Brandon Herrera]

Did you go anywhere else after moving.

[Bren Herrera]

Around for the service to Vietnam, Korea, and I had to take care of all the kids by myself. That was not easy.

[Eli Double Tap]

No.

[Bren Herrera]

You know, and I had to take the car to buy my HOF in Germany. I mean. Yeah, Germany, you know, that was hard.

[Brandon Herrera]

You had to take what now? Sorry, I didn't.

[Bren Herrera]

My car, I had to take it on. How do you explain that?

[Brandon Herrera]

Ship it.

[Eli Double Tap]

To get it transported.

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah, okay.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

Transported to Germany and.

[Bren Herrera]

Oh, Lord, it was hard times, you know, it was always hard times. But still funny when you think about it.

[Brandon Herrera]

Now, something that is also. You just spurred my memory. We have some family, like family. Well, family of yours, family of mine, but that were on the other side of the Berlin Wall in East Berlin.

[Bren Herrera]

It was my dad's family. I never met. I never met because the war were going on. They built a wall, you know, and for me, as an American, my husband said, you not going to go. You're not coming back. My brother went, but for me, it was too dangerous, you know, being married to an American.

[Brandon Herrera]

Right. Those guns pointed inward.

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah. So I never. But that's amazing.

[Eli Double Tap]

You have lived quite the life, ma' am.

[Bren Herrera]

Oh, my goodness. I tell you, there's probably more I can remember more.

[Brandon Herrera]

No, I. I've always been impressed by. Always, always been impressed by just how sharp you are and just how much.

[Bren Herrera]

You remember, you know, that I still got my mind. All right.

[Donut Operator]

I have a question, though. Do you have any funny stories about Brandon, like, growing up?

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, I'm sure.

[Donut Operator]

Little boy.

[Bren Herrera]

He was a cute.

[Donut Operator]

Oh, of course he's cute. Do you. Do you hear any funny stories, though, about Brandon?

[Bren Herrera]

I used to pick him up from school to play it.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah.

[Bren Herrera]

And I'd take him home and he didn't want to go home. He wants to stay with Oma.

[Brandon Herrera]

Why?

[Bren Herrera]

I don't know.

[Brandon Herrera]

I'll rat myself out on that one. The always, always sneak into Oma's house because she'd have Nutella which we always called. It's a nougat.

[Bren Herrera]

Nougat, yeah.

[Donut Operator]

Straight sugar butter.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yup. Just fattening me up.

[Bren Herrera]

The fun time I had in my life is, I think when we had all the campers. My son had a camper, they had camper, we had a camper. And we parked kind of, you know, altogether. And that's when Brandon every morning disappeared, came to me.

[Brandon Herrera]

My parents would be looking for me. I'm just waving from the window with Nutella.

[Donut Operator]

Hey, guys, Brandon's got a jar on me too.

[Eli Double Tap]

It's old chubby Brandon.

[Brandon Herrera]

Little fat kid.

[Bren Herrera]

Oh, my goodness. Then we got born in Germany. She's a German too.

[Eli Double Tap]

Oh, she's German.

[Brandon Herrera]

You were born on a army base, right? On a base in Germany, Sure.

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

She's like. I don't remember.

[Brandon Herrera]

American. They were in shop.

[Donut Operator]

It was a girl.

[Eli Double Tap]

Well, thank you so much for sharing your story. We truly, truly appreciate your time.

[Bren Herrera]

I never thought I would tell you because I'm not a. How do you say, storyteller? She can talk, but I can't.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, not talking. Not like braggadocious or a storyteller or how do you.

[Bren Herrera]

No like a preacher, right. In church. He came.

[Brandon Herrera]

Charismatic.

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah. He said, don't you want to tell your story? I said, what? I said, no, my daughter can talk, not me.

[Eli Double Tap]

Lies.

[Brandon Herrera]

No kidding.

[Eli Double Tap]

You did amazing.

[Brandon Herrera]

I think you did really good. I'm sure the audience will agree, but I've always said that the stories that I've heard growing up and just picking this up piece by piece and hearing bits of your story when I was 6, 8, 12, 15. You're. You've got an awesome story. And you're. You're one of the most inspirational women I've ever met.

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah, well, I. Like I said, I see everything like it was, but I can't think of dates or how old I was. You see, that's.

[Brandon Herrera]

I can't remember what I had for breakfast yesterday.

[Bren Herrera]

Oh, yes.

[Eli Double Tap]

Well, we truly appreciate your time. Thank you so much, so freaking much.

[Bren Herrera]

I'm show you guys and nice have met you. Okay.

[Donut Operator]

Very nice to meet you.

[Brandon Herrera]

Even you, Cody.

[Eli Double Tap]

Even you, Cody.

[Bren Herrera]

Cut it a little bit and got the glasses on. I couldn't tell. On one picture he said, wait a minute. Push point.

[Donut Operator]

That was Eli's fault, by the way.

[Brandon Herrera]

He put.

[Donut Operator]

He put my. My face on Brandon and Brandon's face on my face. And people couldn't tell the difference?

[Bren Herrera]

Nope.

[Brandon Herrera]

On first glance, it was a little confusing.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah, it was terrifying.

[Eli Double Tap]

I was laughing.

[Bren Herrera]

What picture was that you showed Me. And I had to look twice. I said, which one is one?

[Eli Double Tap]

I have a. I have a question.

[Donut Operator]

One last question for you.

[Eli Double Tap]

If you could give any piece of.

[Brandon Herrera]

Advice, living the life that you've lived, if you could give any piece of advice to young people, what would it be? It's a great question.

[Bren Herrera]

That they're very lucky today what they got, you know, really. And lot of kids today do not appreciate what they got, you know. We appreciate every little thing, let me tell you. We were hungry and when we get a ration for the week, depends how many the family was. When the potatoes run out, we peeled all the potatoes and we fried them. There was another meal, you know, for us. I forgot something. Yeah. When the British came in, you know, and they were still with their rifles and all this. But by then we were so hungry, all the stores were gone, you know. I'm sorry. I have a cramp.

[Brandon Herrera]

You okay?

[Bren Herrera]

A cramp.

[Brandon Herrera]

Do you want some water or something?

[Bren Herrera]

No, I'm fine. Okay. And so I said, well, let's go to the stores. They were bombed. We find some food, you know, canned food or something, you know. So me, my brother, we went across the street. There were big. What do you call it? Not a warehouse, but where they sell everything.

[Brandon Herrera]

Like a general store.

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah, big store. And they also had food store in there. We went in there and there was that English guy with machine gun, you know, and he just looked at us and we looked at him and we kept on going, you know, hoping they don't shoot us, you know. But he didn't. He understood, I guess, you know. Yeah.

[Donut Operator]

So you're saying kids should be grateful for what they have now.

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah. They do not. They don't know I will go take out a funeral. They're not appreciate.

[Eli Double Tap]

I agree fully.

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah.

[Donut Operator]

On a lighter note, I want to show you. So this is our faces swapped. So this is me and Brandon swapped.

[Bren Herrera]

You kidding?

[Donut Operator]

No.

[Bren Herrera]

Wow.

[Donut Operator]

That's my face on Brandon's head.

[Bren Herrera]

That's not this brand.

[Donut Operator]

So that's me.

[Bren Herrera]

Yeah.

[Donut Operator]

With Brandon's face.

[Eli Double Tap]

And that's.

[Donut Operator]

That's Brandon with my face.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Wait.

[Eli Double Tap]

No, that's Brandon.

[Bren Herrera]

That's Brandon.

[Eli Double Tap]

Cody's like.

[Donut Operator]

That's confused. Yeah, that's. That's Brandon with my face.

[Bren Herrera]

Wow.

[Donut Operator]

So that's my head with Brandon's face.

[Eli Double Tap]

Am I the only person who thinks that. That you don't look similar at all? I mean, when you do the face swap. The face swap's pretty.

[Brandon Herrera]

The face swap. That one, I get even.

[Eli Double Tap]

That One I was like, wait, certain.

[Bren Herrera]

Picture, not so much. But you know he's got some in there. He had me.

[Brandon Herrera]

I know that one got married.

[Bren Herrera]

We tricked Oma.

[Brandon Herrera]

Cody's going to be over in Oma's camper with Nutella.

[Donut Operator]

Only if she has a vibrating biz.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, no.

[Bren Herrera]

I enjoy your life.

[Brandon Herrera]

I love you.

[Bren Herrera]

Thank you so much.

[Eli Double Tap]

It's been a pleasure. Cody, you want to close out, you beautiful son of a gun.

[Bren Herrera]

I hope I live a little longer so I can enjoy all you guys. I've been saying that, you know, all my life. It was hard, you know, I had migraines for 25 years, you know, and they take care of five kids, you know, my husband were always gone six because. What are you calling over?

[Brandon Herrera]

She had six kids?

[Donut Operator]

Is she the imaginary kid?

[Brandon Herrera]

She's making all sorts of confessions today.

[Eli Double Tap]

Five kids plus the other one.

[Donut Operator]

No, I'm sorry, continue.

[Bren Herrera]

So I enjoy life, little bit. I'm grateful that I can live still on my own in my age, you know, that I'm grateful for. She wants me moving with her. I know. But as long as I can do for myself, I'm going to be here. And I think everyone feels that way, don't you think? Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

No, you're in better shape than I will be in five years. So I. I think you're doing great.

[Bren Herrera]

I try. I mean, I got my problem.

[Brandon Herrera]

You just turned 93 four days ago.

[Bren Herrera]

Four days ago. Oh. Happy belated birthday on Mother's Day.

[Eli Double Tap]

Happy belated Mother's Day too.

[Bren Herrera]

Did my grandson called me?

[Brandon Herrera]

No, I did. Oh, I absolutely did.

[Bren Herrera]

God.

[Brandon Herrera]

I will pull up the receipt.

[Bren Herrera]

Did it count?

[Brandon Herrera]

Look at that. Look at that right here. Hold on, I'm gonna pull that up. Sunday we talk for 22 minutes.

[Bren Herrera]

Don't mind me. You wanted to yell at me.

[Brandon Herrera]

I can't believe I almost got Shade for that.

[Eli Double Tap]

You did not leave a memory.

[Brandon Herrera]

Apparently. I'm sorry I bored you.

[Eli Double Tap]

Hangs up just like, oh, back to the vibrating bed.

[Donut Operator]

Why didn't Cody call?

[Brandon Herrera]

They all look the same.

[Donut Operator]

She straight up said Brandon's calling again.

[Brandon Herrera]

Is that why you declined my first three calls?

[Donut Operator]

She's gonna smack the hell out of you, Brandon.

[Brandon Herrera]

She probably will. But seriously, Oma, thank you so much.

[Donut Operator]

Thank you, thank you.

[Eli Double Tap]

You, thank you.

[Bren Herrera]

You take care of yourself, all right? I love you and I really enjoyed you guys, okay?

[Donut Operator]

We enjoy, enjoy hanging out with you so much.

[Eli Double Tap]

My pleasure. Thank you so, so much.

[Bren Herrera]

I never thought a door can do that. I can do it. She say you can.

[Eli Double Tap]

Killed it.

[Bren Herrera]

Amazing.

[Eli Double Tap]

Cody you want to close this out?

[Donut Operator]

We're going to kill this one.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yes.

[Donut Operator]

Everyone, thank you for joining the unsubscribed podcast. I was joined today by oma, Brandon Herrera, Eli Double Tap, King Trout's here with us. And myself, donut operator. Thank you so much for joining the unsubscribed podcast.

[Eli Double Tap]

We love you.

[Bren Herrera]

Thank you, guys.

[Brandon Herrera]

Thank you.

[Bren Herrera]

Thank you.

[Eli Double Tap]

My.