Bob Carstensen, Shane Randel, and Robin Randel

[00:06] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: Hi, I'm George Robert Carstensen, 94 years old. Born in August 3, 1928, Salt Lake City.

[00:18] SHANE RANDALL: I can't see today's date.

[00:21] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: Today's date.

[00:21] SHANE RANDALL: Today is August 22.

[00:24] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: August 22, 2022. Patricia Randall, age 68. Today's date is Monday, August 22, 2022. We are in Boise, Idaho. I am George Carstensen's daughter and Shane Randall's mother.

[00:52] SHANE RANDALL: And I'm Shane Randall. I'm 48 years old. I was born December 9, 1973. Today's date is August 22, 2022. We're in Boise, Idaho, and I'm here with George or his better known pop. And this. And my mom is better known as Robin or Binsky. So I wanted to come and just spend some time with my grandpa. And just go over his life and just what he's meant to us. So I'll let my mom ask the first question.

[01:32] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: So, dad, if you have a happy place, a place where you could visit in your mind when you're feeling down, what would that place be and who would be with you? That place would be in cascade, Idaho. I have my family around me. So your family includes who? Probably my wife, my four children, my grandchildren. Okay.

[02:04] SHANE RANDALL: Can you. What. What got you interested in flying?

[02:09] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: I was very, very young. I think about 19, 32, 33 somewhere. My father took me to an air show in Salt Lake City. At that time, Salt Lake airport was just a small airport. Did not have a paved landing strip. But they had all these barnstormers there with flying airplanes upside down and people walking on the wings. They were setting balloons up in the air, and the parents were popping over their with the propellers. That vision stayed with me my whole life. I built model airplanes for years, close as I could get to it. Close. I get the airplane eventually. In my later years, I was able to get an airplane. Learned offline myself, which would be a lifelong dream.

[03:02] SHANE RANDALL: How many years were you a pilot?

[03:04] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: I got, I don't know. Probably about the last 25 years.

[03:10] SHANE RANDALL: So we know that was your happy place.

[03:12] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: My happy place is cascade. Like all you needed was a landing strip.

[03:18] SHANE RANDALL: Yeah. How's your life been different than what you imagined? Or has it been everything you imagined? How's my life been different than you imagined? Or did you imagine all this?

[03:40] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: Life has been one experience right after another for me. I don't really know about any boredom. We've been able to travel a lot. I've been able to move from Utah to Idaho and moved into Washington, up to Alaska. Life has been very, very varied for me. I've done all types of work and have all types of experiences. Mainly, though, I kept my family together.

[04:14] SHANE RANDALL: Tell me. Tell me about how it felt when you found out my mom was going to marry someone who was not lds.

[04:22] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: Oh, I was okay with that. Something she had decided, not me. And I would prefer going differently, but I would not go back and change anything.

[04:38] SHANE RANDALL: What about all your grandkids? None of them ended up being lds. How did you know?

[04:46] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: People have the right to worship like they want. And I can, I can't. I can't dictate that to them. I can only live by Rubine lessons example to them.

[04:59] SHANE RANDALL: And you've done a good job of that.

[05:01] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: Well, thank you.

[05:02] SHANE RANDALL: So tell me about what it was like at the cabin when, when, when we were all young, when Sage Braun, DJ, Katie and I.

[05:12] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: Well, the cabin evolved very, very slowly. Originally, we just put a tent up and we lived around that tent. We had a small boat which is out of the water and boating and playing around, but originally just was just a tent. Then we built kind of a lean to, which the first good snowstorm took down. Then we happened to get a bonus check from my company that's allowed me to buy enough material to build a little more substantial place, which ended up. It's still, still standing. Still being used today.

[05:49] SHANE RANDALL: It is. Sage lives there.

[05:51] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: Yes.

[05:53] SHANE RANDALL: What's your favorite memories of being there with us when we were kids?

[05:59] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: Gosh, I don't seem like we always had company. It seemed like some, some of our best moments for when we had company from Canada and from Utah.

[06:08] SHANE RANDALL: Yeah.

[06:11] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: But we had good times. We didn't have much, but we had good times.

[06:16] SHANE RANDALL: One of my favorite memories is when we built that boat to pull behind the boat that didn't actually float. It just sunk. But you and I, you and I worked really hard on that.

[06:28] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: Well, we built it, though, didn't we?

[06:29] SHANE RANDALL: We did. It was like heavy as a brick. I know. Yeah. I have a lot of memories of the cabin, too. I'm glad we have that. I'm glad we had that as kids.

[06:51] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: So, dad, have you ever experienced a miracle in your life? Absolutely. Do you want to explain that? I think my four children were on miracles, all miracles. And I've had several experiences since then that confirm the fact that miracles do exist. One of my dreams was being a fly, being a pilot. Another dream was going to Alaska. And I told me, I came to one day and said, no, right then you Alaska for two years. And I was just like, when did I pray for that? When did that happen? And so we was able to move to Alaska for a couple of years, and that really was an important part of my life.

[07:44] SHANE RANDALL: How did you meet? Tell me about how you and toot meth. About how you toot met.

[07:52] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: Online date. I was going norwegian gal. She had a boyfriend, so she set me up with Pearl as a blind date. So my little. We seemed to collect. It seemed like we liked each other. And it was just worked out.

[08:13] SHANE RANDALL: It just worked out. So Toot, I'll explain this. Toot is my grandmother. She died in 2011. We called her toot because my aunt went to Hawaii to work on the pineapple farms before I was born. I'm the oldest grandchild and tutu is grandma and Hawaiian in the Hawaiian language, polynesian language. And, um, she wanted to call Tutu and it eventually was shortened to Toot. So we had Poppin toot, which sounds like maybe fluctuation, but that's what we call almost pop and tut our whole lives. And I think you've been popped since like 1978. No one calls you George or Bob. No, everyone calls you Bob. Even friends of the family.

[09:08] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: Even our family, extended family. Aunts and uncles and cousins call me Pop.

[09:15] SHANE RANDALL: I know it's just pop now.

[09:18] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: All my grandkids don't call me Pop. It's just my name.

[09:22] SHANE RANDALL: It's just her name.

[09:23] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: Just saying pop for POv. Yep.

[09:29] SHANE RANDALL: How was it? So I know you went to World War two in 1945, right after the war is over. Do you want, do you want to talk about your experiences there?

[09:39] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: Is that worse? When that worst truck. I would absolutely decide myself. I knew I had to get over there and I had to get into it. I couldn't. I ran away from home to join.

[09:51] SHANE RANDALL: The navy at 17, right? 16.

[09:58] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: But when they found out that I did not have my parents permission, I was under 18. They moved me back out. Finally my dad decided that I was not going to be any good at home anymore until I got in service time for him to go to the army. And you were, how old were you when you joined the army? 1717.

[10:25] SHANE RANDALL: So what, what was it, what were your feelings when you, once you got there? Was it, were you scared?

[10:33] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: I was ready for it. I was just, I was ready for the discipline. I was ready for the holiday. I was ready to do what I had to do. Well, I'm not going to say not pay charge. I just knew those things were going to be expected of me. However, I was only in eight weeks training here in the United States and I had about a three or four week special diesel school. They sent me home for 30 days for seven days. Then they sent me to Europe. I never came back until five years or four years. I said, how much longer service time in Europe?

[11:13] SHANE RANDALL: Did you see anything when they. Were you there in the concentration camps or liberated or did you come after?

[11:19] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: I didn't say that. Europe was absolute mess when we got there. I mean, all the cities were bombed out. All the main streets, if you call them main streets, were full of rubble, bricks. Buildings were gone. People were walking around very despondent. They. When the german army collapsed, they were in deep, deep depression. They didn't have no work. They couldn't do anything. The money wasn't worth anything. And the main source of revenue was for exchange was cigarette butts. If you smoked cigarettes, threw it down, somebody picked up, put a little tin can, and they can actually sell those cigarette butts, trade them for potatoes. Wow.

[12:13] SHANE RANDALL: Well, I'm glad you. I'm glad you didn't have to see the concentration camps, because that would have been probably pretty bad to see.

[12:20] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: I never saw any concrete. I never got any concentration.

[12:23] SHANE RANDALL: Did you ever have to shoot at anybody?

[12:25] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: No, no, I shot that one, but I fell out of here one time.

[12:31] SHANE RANDALL: Well, I bet you're happy for that because, you know, that's the first couple.

[12:36] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: Years I was in Germany was a very dangerous place. You had to make sure you had a buddy with you every place you went, you had to make sure you were not caught unaware of someplace where you didn't want to be. You had to be careful with your drinking. It was quite dangerous at that time. Yes. Audrey. Every German you met on the street would have been a soldier. Every German was a soldier. Only 14 year old boy is not so. All the german men have been brought back from the fronts and taken out of. The army were desperate. They didn't have no job for them. There was no money for them. There was no food for them. They were just. Just completely exhausted. Down. They really wore down. It wasn't until Germany changed their currency from Deutsche Mark to rice Mark, from the Reichsmark to the deutsche mark, that things started recurring. The Germans were very, very invited people. They find ways to get money. They find ways to get through things. And when they change the money, they run. Then all of a sudden, the stores start opening up. Before that, there was no stores open. All the stores were closed. And the year trade icy was cigarettes and cigarette bucks. You get a pack of cigarettes, you will spend a whole week in some place and live like a king. Yeah. Yeah.

[14:22] SHANE RANDALL: How did you feel when you found out you were going to become a father.

[14:26] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: When I found out what you're going.

[14:27] SHANE RANDALL: To become a father.

[14:29] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: Scared.

[14:30] SHANE RANDALL: Scared.

[14:32] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: When I was ready, I knew that was part of life. I knew that was just like getting up in the morning and you're going to eat breakfast. It was just part of what was going to happen.

[14:45] SHANE RANDALL: How was it when. When Sherry died. So. Sherry is his oldest daughter. She died of cancer in 2000.

[14:56] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: I was a heartbreaker. That was. Heartbreaker. You hate children that had so much ahead of birth, and you're still there. She's gone.

[15:08] SHANE RANDALL: Yeah. Yeah. I I know it's hard on all of us.

[15:18] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: But. Hardest on the parent.

[15:20] SHANE RANDALL: The hardest on the parent. Absolutely. Um, sorry. Um, so sorry, we interrupted by somebody at the door. Um, how did you feel?

[15:33] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: What.

[15:34] SHANE RANDALL: What were your thoughts when you found out you could become a grandfather?

[15:38] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: How did you leave it? Just finding my life. My family was expanding into the second generation, and I was already grandchildren then.

[15:53] SHANE RANDALL: Your favorite grandchild was born. First.

[16:00] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: Grandchild.

[16:02] SHANE RANDALL: Yeah.

[16:02] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: And he practically lived in our house with us. Mm hmm. Yeah.

[16:06] SHANE RANDALL: I spent a lot of time with you guys as a kid. Just.

[16:09] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: We were friends. We were friends. And I take shape. We go flying someplace. My wife and Shane and I. He'd take a pillow and sit in the soap on a seat maker, sit in the backseat. And I get on airplane. You get up the air and says, yeah, I'm mount beat down there. Stir fry mountain peak. And he's just baby sit there, that wheel, just as hard as he can be with all types of concentrations, trying to get the airplane going towards that mouth, feet and all along.

[16:42] SHANE RANDALL: I found out years later you were controlling the plane the whole time with your feet. And I thought I was flying. I know, but I thought I was actually flying. I was. I thought I was. I thought it was great. Obviously, I'm not your favorite grandchild, but I just like to jab everybody who's going to listen to this. I was going to ask you, how would you. What would you like your grandchildren or. Sorry, your great grandchildren and their children to know about you?

[17:19] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: I like to be an honest Mandez. I wasn't hurt anybody. I don't know. Just. Just the fact, I hope they think that's a good man.

[17:39] SHANE RANDALL: Is there anything you want them to know about you, though, like your legacy? Like, how would you want to be remembered?

[17:48] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: You know, everybody calls me pop, and I. That seems to be just fine. I, uh. I just like being a pop. So is that what you'd like on your, um, gravestone, pop? Yep. I did have a grave yeah, yeah. My wife was on the chute, I was on pop. We were not open to. Our airplane was poppin toot. Our boat was poppin toot. Our cabin was poppin toots. And our gravestones a poppin toot.

[18:28] SHANE RANDALL: What are your hopes for your grandchildren and their children?

[18:31] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: Happiness. Well, they don't have to go through anything nasty stuff in the world. With depressions, economy collapses. And some of the things I saw in Europe were frightening. Not very frightening. I hope my children never have to go through any of that. But that could happen unless we get this world put together again.

[18:57] SHANE RANDALL: Yeah, I agree there.

[18:58] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: So do you think the world is a better place now than it was 80 years ago? Oh, it's 100% better. Yeah. It's a complete different world. Well, I know. Well, I was a little tiny guy. I know. My biggest thrill in life was to go to mom and dad to get to root beer at night. Root beer stand and always got me a baby root beer. I was in a little mug with baby root beer. And life was very simple. We were very, very happy with very, very little. And some of my brother. People sat on the front porches at night and they. The houses were too hucks set in so they were dark. Everybody had to sit outside the front porch. People walk up and down we go, visited each other. And you know, your neighbors, they know you, you know, they were, you were friends with them. And the kids would just play it out in the park and out between the houses and throwing the ball over the top of the house. Ran the eye over and Annie, come back and no bears out tonight. I. It was a much happier time. We did not have all the pressure of, oh, you gotta go in there and watch your prices right now. And I mean, I love television, but it did change. And then air conditioning has changed a lot. Maybe air conditioning is one of the biggest changes towards social, socializing because people used to like, say, selling the front porch, visit with each other. Every front porch had a couple of rocking chairs on and they'd sit there and walk and talk and maybe come over and talk to them and you won't knew all about your neighbor. You were there from, you knew what they liked to do, you knew where they went to church, you knew. And the kids, we just out there and played. So I go to bed kind of like I did. Pardon.

[20:56] SHANE RANDALL: So did I. That's what we did when we were kids too. Played until it was dark, until the street lights came on.

[21:09] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: Maybe air conditioning is one of the biggest social just injustices we've had, well.

[21:14] SHANE RANDALL: Technology in general, like phones and tablets and tvs.

[21:22] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: Absolutely. Are we grabbing it?

[21:26] SHANE RANDALL: No.

[21:28] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: So as a kid in Walla Walla, I remember that we had, we always had fun. What are your memories of the four of us when we were children? Well, when you were children, we weren't doing very well. The fact how bike you find was $40 a week working for money on the awards. And with $40 a week, even those times, you didn't get very much. You didn't have very much. So we, once again, we socialize more. And it's pretty tough economically, pretty tough to keep food on table, $40 a week. But financially, we were socially better off. Much better off. Well, I remember, though, that you always had fun with us. You built us a roller coaster in the backyard and you took a skiing. Those wooden skis that you had bought third or fourth hand. But we were always off on an adventure. Navarro, how little we had, you always made us feel like we had a lot. When we started skiing ski resort. I had little pair of skis. Pearl had little pair of skis. My first keys, I just had a strap over the toes, all wooden. And we decided we wanted to go skiing. So we went there the next weekend and rode the rope tow. And I never get down without falling at least six times all the way down. I bought a bunch of huge equipment for your kids to use. You took two much quicker than I did. Yeah, it was just sherry and I. Just sherry and you. Yeah. Yeah. But I gave one of that tip. I started haunting all the thrift stores and salvation armors, everything. I just plug in to find old skate and everybody. We had time out there. We had coats, we had hats, we had gloves, and we had skis. And we did it. We did it. We got it done. Yep. That we did. And then you had. I mean, there were so many other things that we did, too. Like, you always were doing something fun with us. And I remember that as a kid, we always had fun. Well, you were coming from a different place, right. You just felt the stress of putting food on the table. Yeah, but food was only part of my life, though.

[24:23] SHANE RANDALL: Yeah.

[24:25] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: Even those days I dreamt about flying airplanes. Yeah. My first airplane was back in the 1950s. 1st airplane lesson it's $5.50 for an hour. If I couldn't afford that, I only take half an hour training at a time. Don't get much flying in half an hour. No, always on board.

[24:59] SHANE RANDALL: Got a walk in, $5.

[25:01] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: $5, right. So we were always taking car trips, too. You're always loading all four of us in the back of the DeSoto or the Studebaker and taking a car trip. Do you really, what's some of your good memories about some of those car trips or bad memories we used to go to? Yep. The platforms were in front of girls laying platformers with your pajamas, and they will watch the driving movie. And then you can hear your act like he's asleep back in. I got a dog dart to bring in, put you in bed. I don't even know who you want to sleep half the time. Yeah. What about the car trip we took one winter day and it started snowing? Do you remember that one? Yeah, I did. We was at just kind of looking for deer, running. It kept getting up higher and higher and higher and higher. So I slipped around a little bit, and all of a sudden, the car slipped back off the road. The backhand went off the road, and we weren't up where we can't see anybody or find anybody. So we had a little quilt in the backseat from the car. We took that. We took the kids walking, and we started walking towards the ski area and shooting. The guys come by and pick up truck and said, off in the tank is on out. I tried talking to truck, turn around, going back, but they wouldn't do that. They wanted to keep on going. So we got the pickup truck, and they slow off the road. Then when they slow off the road, they took off and left us. So I had four children and we were out for a Sunday drive, so there. So we didn't have coats, and John and Ron didn't have shoes on, so we ended up getting to the skier yet, but we weren't able to get by the lodge or anything. So we went up and sat underneath the tree. We all sat on this log on one side and me on the other side. Two girls in between us and took the two boys, put them in our laps at one blanket wrapped around us. And that's where he spent the night. They were flying around looking for us in there and couldn't find us. We have snowmobiles looking for us. They couldn't find us. We ended up walking the rest of the way to the ski lodge. And at the ski lodge, we. They would call my dad, come up and get us. And his first words on dad, we kept guessing, where are you? Why didn't you tell us where you were last night? There was no telephone under that tree. Yeah, they were pretty scared. But we made it. We made it. I remember waking up and the chairlift was like, right over the top of us, but we couldn't see it in the night because of the storm. Yeah. But we were right under the chairlift, and so we were able to just walk down, follow the chairlift down to the lodge. Yeah. Found a guy down there to pick up truck cover wood or something. I asked him to take us to the lodge. He said, are you that found? That's lost. We're not lost now. We've been found. No, that was an experience. I don't think. I don't think it was gonna hurt from that. No. I think we all learned more what we were made of. Yeah. And we could do it so we didn't get hurt. We didn't hurt that company. It was nasty and it was cold, but we managed to stay warm and managed to stay together and. Yeah. Yep. Whereas John was just a baby, and I carried John on my shoulders all the way.

[29:21] SHANE RANDALL: What's your. What's your favorite memory of her?

[29:24] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: Robin?

[29:25] SHANE RANDALL: Yeah.

[29:26] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: Oh, gosh, yes. Many. I really don't. When she first got married, she returned to us, and that was a very pleasant meeting to you. He asked us for help. Not for help, but for support. Friendship. Friendship. And I thought that was very, very pleasant. Very, very good example for me that we could stay together. Even though they got married, left us. We stay together pretty close. Yep.

[30:08] SHANE RANDALL: We are pretty close family. What's your favorite memory of me?

[30:12] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: If I said you were there? He was my boy. I mean, you and I were buddies. You took to me and I took to you, and we were friends from the way. Just buggies. Yeah.

[30:33] SHANE RANDALL: Yes, we were and still are. You just don't get to tell me what to do anymore. One of my. One of my not maybe not favorite memories. One of my memories that sticks out about you is that time you're outside chopping wood with an axe, and somehow you stuck your finger. You stuck your finger under the axe, and you went running the house, and I followed you, and you said, shane, go get toot. And I said, what happened? He said, cut my finger. And your finger was just hanging by a thread. You ran into the emergency room. They put a metal rod in your finger, and somehow.

[31:17] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: It looks fine.

[31:18] SHANE RANDALL: It looks fine now, but I just remember that metal rod sticking out of your finger.

[31:22] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: That rod sticking out of my finger.

[31:24] SHANE RANDALL: I know it was Houston.

[31:27] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: I hit an airbag that hold that figure over the earth, over the defrost bin. So.

[31:32] SHANE RANDALL: I know, but was so mad at you for cutting your finger. She got over it. But I just remember that. I remember that day vividly in my.

[31:45] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: Another bad time was when we were going on vacation, and mom and dad bought this little trader house, and we all went on vacation with mom and dad, and we were all together, and they bought the little trailer house, but it only had room in the dinette for four people. So I had these girls, like, they had a breadboard. So I put Mike in the breadboard, put a wig on the end of it. So we took the girls on stools at the breadboard, teeth. And doing that, I got my hand sawed, took eight cinches in my hand. They just had a little poor pouring saw. It wasn't much saw. Push them through. I just went through the blade. So I know you're pretty young through the depression, but do you have any memories of that? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Bad times. Bad times financially, but good times for strengthening people. I know my brother got sick, was in the hospital. He just a baby, and died on the hospital again. When they discharged him, the sister of the hospital said, he asked, how much money do you have? $11. Can you have.

[33:23] SHANE RANDALL: Was that. Was that John or Dennis?

[33:25] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: That was saying, my brother John never did smell that either. Oh, he had affliction rest of his life.

[33:36] SHANE RANDALL: Yeah, I know. I know. He's always. Yeah.

[33:40] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: Did he? Yeah. So any other memories of the depression? I mean, you guys were living in. Grandma and grandpa used to live with us for a while. We lived there for a while. Seemed like we did a lot of moving. And grandma and grandpa Johnson were always good friends of ours. I remember sitting in the back porch one time with grandma, Grandpa Johnson and my dad, and they had this crock full of anchovies. They take his anchovies by the tail and drop it in her mouth. I couldn't envision that. Not this anchovy. Wow. But we all lived in one house. We all got alongside him. Yeah. So I remember we used to do a lot with grandma and grandpa Johnson, too. So I was with my parents, my grandparents, and my great grandparents a lot. When Sherry and I were both. We did. We stayed very close to. As a family. Yeah. And we kind of kept that going right now. So we still talk to you as a family. Yes. And that's what it's all about. You have all the friends in the world you want, but your family. So is there anything else that you want to talk about? You want to ask us a question? Maybe? I do want to ask you a question. Did I do okay if I were to parent? I think you did a great job. I'm still here right? We're still talking. I think you did a great job as a parent, and you've been a wonderful grandparent to all of your grandkids, and I think you should be proud of that. I'm probably still vacation together and get along. Exactly. And I get along with my brothers and all the cousins get along. And. Yeah, it's more than just getting along, too. We enjoy being around each other, you know, being that a pro, very close to her sister. And her sister became part of our family. Her family come. Part of our family. They live in Canada. But we still did all things together.

[36:17] SHANE RANDALL: We did, we did, we did.

[36:20] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: And it was easy because her kids, Aunt Linda's kids, are the same age as my kids. Right. And so the kids all had cousins to hang around with. So you have these reunions at the cabin, and you can imagine a little three bedroom cabin with 85 people. I mean, a lot of people were feeding, taken care of. They all had tents or campers or pickups or something. Right. And every year, we come down three or four days. Union. It's a lot of pancakes in the morning.

[37:06] SHANE RANDALL: Yeah, my dad was talking about that the other night, how much he enjoyed cooking so much food for everybody.

[37:12] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: Oh, yeah.

[37:15] SHANE RANDALL: My mom said it was just stressful, and I. I was, like, nine years old, so I had a great time. I was running down the Hill, right down on the skull carts that everyone made.

[37:29] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: It was that one that won 80 people there? Yeah, I'm sure it was. Yeah. Brought the budget cord down. Yeah. You broke your back when I got around it. Broken. I broke my back, but that's okay.

[37:47] SHANE RANDALL: So we're paralyzed. So we thought you were gonna be paralyzed. You seem to walk away from injuries that most people don't, so I don't know. You've rolled vans and you weren't wearing a seatbelt. You still won't wear a seatbelt.

[38:04] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: Only if he has to.

[38:05] SHANE RANDALL: Only if you have to. Now you have to because the car dings at you, so you don't have a choice anymore. You can't hear it, though.

[38:10] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: Well, flying was big part of my life. The flying moments or hours of pure boredom interspersed with moments of terror. That's exactly how I feel when I fly. Hours of blood and his birthday panic.

[38:37] SHANE RANDALL: Well, pop, I want to thank you for doing this with us. It means a lot. It'll mean a lot to the family, because this would be something that everyone can listen to for generations.

[38:55] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: I don't know. Maybe they'll get bored. I don't know. I doubt it. Everyone loves your stories. Yeah.

[39:04] SHANE RANDALL: So. Thanks.

[39:05] GEORGE ROBERT CARSTENSEN: You're welcome. You're welcome.