Childhood, Life Advice, Historical Moments, and More with Kristin and Meredith Avis

00:00 My name is Meredith Avis. I am 17 years old. Today is November 26. I'm speaking with my mom. Her name is Chris Avis and we're recording in her bedroom.

00:12 I'm Krista Avis I'm 50, sitting here with my daughter Meredith, who is about to interview with me.

00:22 Okay. What did you have as a child that kids don't have today?

00:28 A lot of things. So a landline phone, what was that like? Well, it would literally be on your bedside table, and it would ring, and you would answer it, and you would hang up on someone. You didn't. It wasn't. We had no cell phones. There wasn't a way to have, like, 360. No instagram.

00:53 Did you mail notes?

00:55 Oh, absolutely.

00:56 You like mail?

00:57 You would go to the post office and get a pack of stamps and have to mail thank you notes.

01:03 Okay. What was your favorite movie or book when you were my age? So 1717.

01:11 I loved to kill a mockingbird.

01:14 We still read that.

01:18 The great Gatsby.

01:20 Oh, we read that, too.

01:23 Favorite book.

01:24 What about movie? Did y'all still have drive in movie theaters?

01:30 Yes, but we kind of quit going. So that was about the time that, like, the breakfast club and St. Elmo's fire and all of those, like, kind of renegade classic movies came out pretty in Pinkenhouse.

01:46 What was the movie theaters like? Like, no reclining seats.

01:48 No reclining seats. All, like, felt. Almost like orange felt.

01:53 Ew.

01:57 Stadium, no surround sound.

02:01 Okay. What was the hardest thing you went through as a child, and how did you overcome it?

02:08 One of the hardest things, I think.

02:13 Like, around when you're my age or sometime around there your age?

02:17 Both my grandmothers died when you're my age. Mm hmm. Well, one did when I was your age. The other did right before I got married.

02:26 What were they like?

02:31 Not very nurturing. That generation was not nurturing. Oh, really? At all. But just close enough to where you had, like, routines. Like, every Sunday, we'd be at my grandmother's house, and I don't know. It's the first time I dealt with someone not being here.

02:50 Yeah.

02:51 Even if they were a pain sometimes.

02:54 Okay, what advice would you give me about raising my own kids.

03:00 To ask for help when you need it, not get sleep deprived of and not overthink it. I think I wanted everything to be perfect, and you just need to enjoy it, because before they know it, they're your age.

03:18 What was your favorite year of me growing up?

03:25 Every year's my favorite. You're such a fun preschooler. Fun, funny. Woke up with this look in your eyes, like, how much fun can I have in a day? And you had all these funny little quirks and jokes. Like, your sister wanted someone to joke with her. You were the person in the room that would make the jokes and make people laugh.

03:54 All right, going back to your childhood, can you tell me about where you grew up and what was it like?

04:00 So I grew up in Memphis, which was a lot safer then. Our small house was all on one floor, which is why I wanted to make sure that we were all on one floor. So everybody said good night to each other. We had a screening porch. That was amazing. We'd all sit out there at night. My dad would grill out by the pool every Sunday. He worked all the time. We didn't see him during the week.

04:29 What was he?

04:30 He was a radiologist, so he did lots of, like, ten hour shifts, 14 hours shifts, whatever. But on Sundays, we were all by the pool, and he always grilled out, and that was, like, our day.

04:44 Oh.

04:46 Other than that, I was always in a station wagon with my mother, driving me to dancing.

04:51 Oh, what was your first car forever?

04:53 A Honda Accord. Yeah.

04:57 Okay.

04:58 It was the trend.

04:59 Oh, what is the best thing your grandmother ever cooked? And then what was the best thing your parents ever cooked since they were big cookers?

05:07 My grandmother, on Sundays before she passed, and my dad took over Sundays, it was always huge lebanese Sunday. Like my uncle's family, our family, any cousins would come over, and she would do kibi and grape leaves and the whole shebang. And her hands with the whole kitchen smelled like lemons. But it was a huge feast every Sunday.

05:37 What were some of the things she cooked and what was your favorite?

05:42 I. Grape leaves, kibi tabbouleh.

05:46 A lot of lebanese food.

05:47 Baklava. It was always a lebanese sundae. What my parents would always cook. My mom's lasagna is the best thing in the world. We've tried and tried to replicate it, but it's still not hers. And then my dad's steak and potatoes on Sunday was always amazing.

06:10 Okay, if you could go back to one day in your childhood, which day would that be and why?

06:16 One day in my childhood, we went to out west for some reason, on a family trip, we did a spring break and a summer trip every year, and we went out west, and I was so scared. It was a dude ranch. So basically every day, like, you had kids camp and you're supposed to get on a horse, and I was so, so nervous, and it's the first time I've ever been on a horse. And it was amazing. We went all through mountains and streams, and I thought I would hate it, but I really just wanted to walk and not get on a horse. But I did it, and I was very proud.

07:05 What was your favorite trip you took with your family during your childhood?

07:10 My family during my childhood, I'd say New York. Er, I don't know. We went to Kiwa island one year.

07:27 Where's that?

07:28 It's in the Carolinas.

07:31 Like North Carolina?

07:35 Yeah. And it was. It. It was amazing. Like, there were an alligator. There was an alligator walking across the golf course. Oh, that's scary. But it was gorgeous. And we were all together. And it was before that age where you got all into friends and bringing a friend, and it's one of the last ones I remember.

07:55 That was just your family?

07:56 It was just our family. Other than that, it was probably like my fifth to 7th grade years when we would go to the beach for two weeks, and it was so fun. Like, we lived there.

08:11 What beach did you go to?

08:13 Well, at the time, it was not like it was, but it was like topsoil, sandestin, and the beach chairs were only one row.

08:23 Oh.

08:24 And we stayed there for two weeks.

08:29 Growing up, what did you think you wanted to do for a living? Like, what job did you want to do?

08:35 I always thought I wanted to be a doctor like my dad, because I always wanted to be like my dad.

08:39 Mm hmm. Would you say he was your biggest idol?

08:45 Yeah. He's a good man. He's very smart. His work ethic was amazing, and I always wanted to please him.

08:55 What talked you out of being a doctor?

08:58 Organic chemistry.

08:59 Oh. What grade did you take that in college. Oh. And then.

09:06 So then I tried physical therapy and volunteered a bunch, but I applied to ut Memphis, and they misfiled my application and told me I didn't get in. And it was a whole crap show, but it ended up working out for the best. They offered me a place in dental school because they messed up so bad. Dental school, medical school, or nursing school? And I said both my parents went through there, so it was kind of hard, but I said, I don't want a degree from here. And then I went to. I applied to psychology graduate school. And then I met your dad.

09:48 Who. Well, I guess we kind of touched on this, but who were. Are your role models? Models? Who did you look up to when you were younger? And what. Who do you look up to now?

09:57 My dad. Role models.

10:06 Did you have any, like, celebrity role models?

10:09 Yes, I did. So Ronald Reagan will always have a special place in my heart, because when I was a little girl, we studied space for about four months because the first teacher was going to go on the shuttle to the moon, and we studied it and studied it and studied it, and it was in every curriculum across the country. And then we all gathered in the chapel, and we watched the launch, and it exploded. And all I remember is we were all in shock and on tears. And how old were you? Oh, gosh. Maybe like, fourth grade, third grade. Ronald Reagan came on and did a state of the emergency, and I did. Both of my grandfathers died before I was two.

11:02 Mm hmm.

11:03 But I felt like he was like my grandfather, telling me everything was gonna be okay.

11:09 Okay, what was your first year of? Sorry, this is switching back to motherhood. But what was your first year of motherhood like for you? I'm not the oldest. So what was your first year of, Emily?

11:26 Well, if you include pregnancy, it's very weird. Your body just, like, kind of expands in places. And there were times I worked full time at Hopkins, and so I would be, like, at my desk typing my progress notes, and she would decide to roll over, and I'd have to lean back and, like, let her move. It was really weird. And then everything was great. She came in happy and healthy, and then she screamed for three months, and that was hard. And then all of a sudden, like, she got to about five months, and we moved here, and she was okay, but it was hard. I am thankful for that time, because I couldn't apply for my psychology license for about four months. So financially, it was very hard. But I got to stay home with her and rock her and take her on walks and listening to my board exam tapes and see all three meals. And it was. It was actually a neat time because we went through a rough time when she screamed all the time.

12:35 All right, this is kind of a basic question, but if you could share a meal with anyone in the world, who would it be? And why?

12:42 Anyone in the world?

12:43 Yeah. Like, you got to meet them and sit down with them.

12:47 Yeah.

12:50 Mine would be Taylor Swift.

12:53 That'd be pretty cool. I'm trying to think, do you go historic or famous?

13:06 Okay, what about past people? Like, they can have past.

13:14 I'm thinking. I'm thinking. I'm thinking. I'm thinking. I'm thinking. So, there was a surgeon, Ben Carson, that came to give a talk at Hopkins. He was the first one to separate conjoint twins, and he. His mother was illiterate. They were absolutely poor. He ended up being one of the top surgeons and I think surgeon general for a while. But he came to UAB when I was working there and gave a talk. And he's one of the neatest people ever. Like, he was almost dyslexic and had a hard time to learn to read and is, like, a world renowned surgeon. I think it would be so cool.

14:13 To think you'd eat.

14:16 Huh?

14:16 What do you think you'd eat?

14:20 I have no idea. I would probably ask his recommendation for a restaurant and gut follow him.

14:27 All right, moving on to the history questions.

14:30 Yes.

14:30 Where were you during 911?

14:34 I was in California. My dad was getting inducted into the National Radiology Honor Society. I was in Baltimore. I flew out to meet them, and we were gonna do a wine tour, which we did one day, and then a day in Sausalito and, like, three other days, and then his actual ceremony. And we didn't get to do Sausalito because they shut down the Golden Gate bridge. But we woke up in the hotel room. My sister called and said, turn on the news. Something has hit the World Trade center or one of the towers. We turned on the news. We saw the second plane hit on live tv. On live tv, which is something I can never get out of my brain. And then they said, something's going after the Pentagon. And that's when your dad worked, right down the street from the Pentagon.

15:37 Mm hmm.

15:39 So we were in San Francisco and mainly trying to get. Once we heard the Pentagon was hit, trying to get in touch with him because he had to get out of DC, and I. And it was hours. And finally he got a signal and said he made it to a friend's car and they were going to Virginia. So I knew he was okay, but I didn't know that he was okay for a while. And then we were also in a high rise near the Golden Gate bridge, and they said that San Francisco and one other city were likely next. And, I mean, we're just waiting for. There are bomb threats and all the. We're in a high rise hotel, and one of my friends that lived there at the time, there were high rises in our office building that were. Got bomb threats. Like, it just went contagious. So we stayed in the room for a day. We could go to the club level. They let us go to the club level, and everyone was just sitting around, not talking, looking at the tv. And I think my parents are trying to keep me distracted until I knew your dad was okay.

16:51 Mm hmm.

16:52 So he got to Virginia.

16:54 How did you fly back? Since all the airports were shut down.

16:58 Oh, it took forever. We tried. One day all the flights were canceled. The next day all the flights were canceled. The next day I went to the airport, to the airport with my parents. They got on a flight to Dallas. My flight got cancelled and I had nowhere to go. So literally they all like gathered our flight person or whatever and they said, we're going to a hotel. Well, I didn't have a credit card. And this person, literally, it was like an angel. Like my parents sent him a turkey and it never got him delivered or whatever. But I um. He said, here, I'll give you the money, you can um, send me a check later. So I checked into a hotel and then the next morning took a cab back to the airport and our flight went on and he went one way and I went another. Never saw him again. It was like a guardian angel. It was crazy.

18:02 Um, okay, that's pretty crazy. What do you think the impact from 911 airports, like before and after, because y'all always stay like when we're going out of town.

18:17 Yeah, that was September. And then that December we tried to fly to Memphis. And normally Baltimore airport was, I mean flawless. Like you checked your bags, you get. It was like you went through security, but it was immediate. The line was about 2 miles long. We were told to go 3 hours early. So it was about four in the morning to get on our flight. And you just stood there and. No, the interesting thing was no one was angry, no one was irritable. Everybody was just so thankful to be going to see people when you couldn't travel for a while. But it was tight. I mean you couldn't take all kinds of stuff on there. Normally your family can meet you at the gate now they can't do that like you have to get out of security or you know, get off of your thing and meet them in the lobby. Would you say you couldn't take forks, you couldn't take plastic ware on there, can you now? No, not a knife.

19:30 Would you say that was the most significant historical moment in your life?

19:36 September 11? Yeah, September 11. And challenger, I think.

19:40 What event in history did your parents talk about the most? Like what was their big like? I would say mine was Covid. You would probably say yours was 911. What do you think theirs was? Are they the baby boomer generation?

19:59 I mean they'll talk about seventies, the asset.

20:03 Wait, were they alive during the assassination?

20:05 Like Kennedy's assassination? I think.

20:07 What did they say about that? Do you remember? Not really their take on it.

20:13 Um, I think it was one of the first presidents they seen shot.

20:19 Yeah.

20:22 Um, I don't really. They don't talk a lot about that, honestly.

20:27 What's something you never imagined you'd live through in history?

20:30 Covid?

20:32 Yeah.

20:33 Ever. I've never seen businesses, restaurants shut down. I never imagined a scary virus that no one could describe. I never imagined just the world shutting down, school, shutting down, walking down a sidewalk, and someone jumping into the road because they didn't want to walk near you.

20:55 Yeah.

20:55 Not being able to walk down a grocery store aisle.

21:02 Yeah. That's definitely the most historical thing in.

21:05 My children on school.

21:07 Yeah. That was great. How did the financial crash in 2008 and 2009 affect you?

21:16 Honestly, economically, it affected a lot of people, and I think it affected the economy because people put themselves in a hole and couldn't go out and stimulate the economy. But we never took out a loan that we couldn't. I'm not bragging. I'm just saying we're always. We started out coming out of graduate school very frugal. So we wouldn't have taken out a loan that we couldn't pay back. We couldn't. We wouldn't go beyond our means.

21:51 So you would say it did it.

21:52 They were tight, but they were tight anyway because we're coming off of graduate school.

21:57 Did you know anyone that was hit bad by that crisis?

22:01 I mean, I. I think I know of some families that declare bankruptcy, but I don't know. I don't want to sound judgmental, but it just. It didn't really hit us because we live tight anyway.

22:17 Mm hmm. All right, last question. What did your grandparents talk about in history? Like, what event do you remember them bringing up?

22:25 My grandparents?

22:28 Well, I guess more so your grandmother's?

22:32 Yeah. Cause I didn't have grandfathers, so.

22:36 Or did your grandparents ever talk about? I mean, your parents ever talk about something your grandparents told them in history?

22:43 No. My mom's mom always talked about, just, like, family times, like, when she would talk about when my grandfather was alive and they started St. Jude and tell some really interesting stories about how they would entertain him and Marlo Thomas when they would come in town.

23:06 Mm hmm.

23:07 And they would have these late night parties and how they decided to fund. Help fund St. Jude on the board and those kind of interesting things. But I don't really remember a lot of other stories. It was all about family, and they're always. It was like my big, fat greek wedding. There are always tons of people in the house, so everybody talked.

23:32 Okay. Is there anything else you'd like to add before I end it about anything. We touched on life advice, historical moments, life advice.

23:43 When you have your kids, don't stress too much. Just enjoy it.

23:50 Okay. Thanks, Marco.