(Note: explicit language) Our first bonus episode of the Family Twist podcast is all about the Clark Family property and the "Men Weekends" the Clark boys hold there. Kendall meets his cousin and some of the Clark family friends in crazy weekends of beer, fishing and more beer. There's explicit language throughout this episode.

We're calling this a bonus episode of the podcast because the format is quite different than what we usually do, but we wanted to get some of this information out there and also we're celebrating Kendall's birth dad's birthday today. So happy birthday, Scott. This episode is about the man weekends. That's what the Clark family calls the boys only trips to a very rustic part of New England. It's family property and the guys go up there to...

drink beer and sit around the fire, drink some more beer, fish, maybe have some beer and then finish the evening off with some more beer. Kendall went on two of these weekends and the first part of this podcast, he's going to talk about that. The second part of the episode is, I'll just say it, it's a bit of a mess, but it was me recording some of the guys from the man weekend at Kendall's uncle's place on Cape Cod before he moved to the Carolinas.

So you've got me on there, Kendall's brother Chris, his uncle Sean, Kendall's dad Scott, and good family friend Jameson. And they kind of talk over each other, but I did my best to interview these guys while they were drinking beer, doing shots, and watching the Red Sox and the World Series. So here you go. This is a man weekend.

Welcome to Family Twist, a podcast about relatively unusual stories of long lost families, adoption, and lots of drama. I'm Corey. And I'm Kendall, and we've been partners for over 16 years. So there's family property in New England, and it's not been fully developed, but it's been used over the years for, I think, what they call the men weekend or the man's weekend, whatever. And so you were invited to one of these weekends by your Uncle Sean.

What was your first impression of seeing the family property? They warned me that it would be primitive and that was rustic. Yeah, rustic. That's that's polite. So my grandparents bought the family property back in the 70s and they planned to put a house on the property as a second place for them to use during the summers. Right. I know. And hang out. Go fishing and all that stuff. Yeah, exactly. And there's a lot of hunting that goes on in the family. And so, you know, good prospects for that up there and everything. But.

They never really realized that that goal they, what they ended up doing was they built a basement and which kind of looks like a garage that would have been the lower level of the house with the intention of putting a top level on. And they never really did that. Right. So there's the property has electricity, but it doesn't have running water, but it does have a beautiful Horta potty.

It's an outhouse. And so it was kind of comical, but I was warned, you know, that if if you go, you know, you're going to we're going to bring in water to not only drink, but to use to wash your hands. And you've got the porta potty for your convenience. And that's about it. They weren't drinking a lot of water. So there was no need for water. Well, I was invited. I didn't go because we've got eight thousand animals at home. And so I thought, OK, well, this is actually a really good opportunity for Kendall to.

further bond with his brother and his dad and his uncle Sean. And then they also have, there's like some other characters that come along to the these men's weekends too. There's family friends. Yeah. There's original Pete and repeat and who else was there at that? Was that all for the first one? No. So yeah. So my, my, the first boys weekend that I went to my uncle, my uncle has three children and my cousin Justin is

middle child and Justin came to that weekend. And it was the first time of course that I ever got to meet him. Right. Which was wonderful to finally meet one of my three cousins on my dad's side. And Jameson is Justin's best friend from grade school and on and Jameson came too. And he's a great guy. So it was, it was a lot of fun. Oh yeah. We'll, we'll hear from Jameson later in this episode.

He's quite a character. So, okay. So you're there. It's this rustic area. It's the boys weekend. Like what, what goes down during a boys weekend? What happens? Yeah. So when I arrived, when, so my brother, Chris and I rode up to the property in Lyman, New Hampshire together. And that was, that was in itself exciting because I had never really been through.

the White Mountains, I had never really seen the spot where the old man in the mountains face fell off. So it was really, it was kind of just, it was neat to be, he was pointing out things that he's known about all of his life and really got to, you know, tell me stories as we drove up. So that in itself was wonderful. And maybe the first time you guys ever spent time together alone, really. That's probably true, honestly. Yeah, it's one of the few times for sure.

And I was a little bit confused. I knew that we were probably gonna sleep in a tent, but then it just dawned on me. I was like, well, if there's this basement that is enclosed, why are people not gonna sleep in it? And Chris immediately laughed and said, oh, well, Pete and Repeat, so that's father and son, they always sleep in there and they snore so loudly that nobody else wants to sleep, could possibly sleep in there with them.

So that was actually the plan that night. Right. And there was, I think at the time it's gone now, but there was like this old camper that was on the, on the property that was like, I don't know, probably overrun with mice and everything else. And that's where your dad slept. Yep. Keeping it classy. Yeah, you're right. There were the old travel trailer that my grandparents apparently bought around the same time that they bought the property was still sitting there.

And Uncle Sean had come early to try to smoke bomb it to try to get rid of at least half of the insects that had taken over. And it was it was comical. I remember opening the door to it and saying, oh, no, thank you. It was scary. But my dad was not scared at all and was like, oh, it'll be fine. You know, what's a couple of insect bites. And so he is the only person who slept in that.

contraption overnight. The rest of us did sleep in tents or in that weird basement room that Pete and Repeat slept in. The whole idea behind the weekend was just to have fun. Really, we played a lot of cornhole. We drank a lot of alcohol and sat around the fire and just really had a good time. Yeah, yeah. Actually, and this being an example of how wonderful a partner I am.

I wanted to meet Justin too. So I ended up driving up the next day. They were staying for two nights and just so I can meet everybody and literally like the amount of time that it's kind of safe for us to be gone and leave the dogs at home alone without them needing to do their business is probably like six hours. And so literally I drove up there, met everybody, hung out for about 45 minutes and drove right back. That's right. That's right. But it really meant a lot to Justin.

Yeah. That you did that because he didn't know me well yet. Sure. You know, and it just meant a lot that you wanted to connect with, with the family that way. Right. So I'm so glad that it worked out that you could do that. And I think it shows the level of commitment that you and I together have to the whole Clark family. Sure.

Sure. So you did, you went to two of these boys weekends and Uncle Sean recently sold the family property or his family property on Cape Cod and moving down south. And so he wanted to do one more like sort of boys weekend slash hurrah type things at his house. And Kendall had to end up working that weekend. So I thought, okay, well, this is an opportunity for me to at least get a, get a feeling of what this was like. And I thought,

Oh, hey, it's also a good opportunity to get some content for the podcast. And I'd been to his property once before, just a beautiful, beautiful place right on the lake. So it was, unfortunately, Pete and repeat couldn't make it, but it was, I ended up driving Kendall's dad over to the property and then Chris joined us and Jameson joined us as well. And despite it being sort of a raucous event, I was able to get.

some stuff recorded here and they shared some very funny stories. One, I think Chris was just absolutely impressed that, so I think they were all like drinking beer pretty much at that first weekend. Well, Kendall's not a beer drinker, so he was drinking wine and I think he was, he was keeping up with them with glasses of wine. I do think it was one for one. Right. Yes. And at some point, I think what I saw you, when I came to visit, like you had like a, you had a wound on your head because you had fallen in the woods. I did. I did. Not my finest moment, I'll say, but yeah.

I tripped over a log right by the fire. Lucky that my face didn't go into the fire and did scrape my forehead on a log. So that was, yeah, it was a classy moment for me. We'll talk about some of the parallels between Kendall's birth father and my birth father as the podcast goes along, but we both, both of our dads were very like,

outdoorsy hunter types, fishermen, you know, like Kendall's dad has has nabbed a bunch of deer over the years. My dad loved to fish and to bow hunt. But I think it's safe to say that you that we did not inherit those traits. Yeah, no. I mean, hunting is zero interest for me and fishing has.

slightly more importance to me. I've always thought it to be terribly boring. Yeah. Yeah. Of course, as a kid, I wasn't drinking beers. I was doing it. And I think I sort of see like maybe this is why some people like to do it, because it's an excuse to literally do nothing but drink beer. Absolutely. Yeah. I think most of my dad's fishing, my dad Scott's fishing expeditions have just been social. I think, I think, right. And a lot of fun, but didn't always end up with fish. Yeah. So this was.

pretty comical. I think one of the Chris's favorite memory of that first boys weekend is that they all are they all are have they live in Massachusetts. So they're residents of Massachusetts. And Kendall was the only resident of New Hampshire at the time, which meant Kendall had to be the one buying the ammunition from Walmart, which is not something Kendall would ever do. This is true. That goes against my nature. That's a nice way of saying it. Yeah. And there's actually a photo that I have.

I will not allow Chris to put on Facebook of when I'm standing at the hash register in Walmart buying ammunition for - I think we've got to share it for social media just for the podcast. Well, we might do it there because I'm going to have a huge disclaimer under the - because I need to say that I'm not a fan of Walmart and I definitely am not a fan of buying ammunition.

When did the boys' weekends up at the family property start? About 40 years ago. Okay. Since the first one. Yeah, since about 40 years. Probably since I was 10 or 11. Yeah. No, 38, 39. No, no, we were doing it for you. I mean, that was common.

Scott built a couple shacks. That's all they have up there. He woke up one night thinking I was a girl who started to bum blast me.

I'm out of here just fucking sleeping back.

Shards of you!

I paid my taxes. But I sold it for a profit, so I didn't have to lose. That's good. Yeah, no, he did okay. I mean, the property value up there has gone from... I bought the property up there from my parents for what they paid for it. Basically a camp. My parents paid $16 ,000 for it. In those days. Almost 50 years ago. Yeah.

I bought it 20 years later and I paid them 16 ,000. And I sold it to Justin for 16 ,000 bucks. So he's going to take it over? You didn't even want to make like a thousand bucks off this yet?

But that was on the sole agreement that he kept it in the family. Right. That means it was sold to Shane for $16 ,000. Right. Yeah. Shane or no one should have a lot of it. Is the trailer still up there? No, no, we took that out. It's just the foundation now. Yeah. No, there's still roof on the top. Yeah. True. Still the same camp, but no, but you.

The grills go there, go during the spring and summer. Not during the winter. Oh no! You just hang on to trees! They always are! No, that tree fell down! No way! I was up there about a month ago. That's why they call it fall. Or a difficult tree. The weight of the tree. Oh shit! I never thought that tree was going to fall. How weird! It was surprising. Yeah, it was down.

The one that the table was? Yeah, where our workstation is. Stail's on 30 already, man. Second inning? Yep. No way. Does anybody go up there and tend to that outhouse? No. Does anybody tend to it, whether they're up there or not? No. It's just nothing but disgusting. It's just a whole... How does the lawn get overflowed? It's a whole...

It's organic matter. It just goes into the soil. It runs into the stream. It runs into the stream. I'm just drinking water.

Yeah, you got plenty of nutrients for that. So there's six or seven guys up there. Everybody's drinking heavily and eating crap food. No, we usually eat good food. I mean, we usually eat a lot. I mean, food that would like run through. No, no, no, no. That's the opposite. We eat so much food that we can't crap today. And then we start talking about it's a protein blast.

It's a giant old blackhead. Wish I had diarrhea. No, but we always have peppers and onions and chips. Yeah, that's what I'm wondering. It's masked by all the... Under the peppers. What do you do when you gotta go into the house of a load? Explode, baby. Did you know? Sean explodes up there twice every morning. I built that damn shit up. With Sean.

your hands. They have like multiple roles in them. How do you clean your hands with some dirt? That's how you build your immune system is up norm.

and you go have breakfast. While you're taking a drink, you talk to the huge, it's her brother, Randy. God damn it.

So we went to Walmart to get the Walmart and no one's got a fucking license, new hand drawn ID. So we, none of us can buy, none of us can buy ammo. Right? So I have a picture of Kendall buying ammo.

I wouldn't shoot the gun but I'd drop the ammo. I said, I got you motherfucker!

He's like, don't keep that. I was like, yeah. Look at that guy by. I'm actually going to find that picture right now. What? Pick up the gun, buddy. But the shell. So you have to have you have to have a license to buy a new Hampshire. No, no, no. Get the license and then you go get the gun. Don't go.

get the gun and go without the license. No, no, he's talking about buying ammo and your hamster's license. You just need a New Hampshire's license.

came to what you wanted me to be. It turns out. You turned out well. No, but going out hunting and fishing and things like that. You didn't want to kill animals. I understand. But how did you feel about me with that stuff? Like, dude, were you angry? Were you upset? Were you disappointed? First of all, it's your choice, not mine. Yeah. But you just, you liked fishing, didn't you? When you did, you didn't live that till the last two years. Yeah, I didn't really like them.

That's good. Kids get out to do it too. Use worms and a bobber. You're going to get tripped all the time. I just, I never knew, I never, I always wondered if you were disappointed in my commitment to hunting or fishing. That's all. No, that's fine. You didn't like me killing deer. And I understand that because even my wife.

saying you have to kill that beautiful animal. I said yeah hell yeah we're putting him on stakes tonight. I remember so I remember when I was like seven dad shot a rabbit right yeah and I was hunting with him when we hit it. We shot the rabbit. It was a jack rabbit. I mean the hare. Brought it home. Brought it home. This is Anna! We're gonna eat a rabbit tonight!

She said, you killed bumper!

You killed -

She knew I'm a night owl. The thumper's right over there, mother. And I saw it standing. That might have been the first time in my life that I thought, my dad's not fully in charge right now. He buried it in the fucking backyard. Oh, he didn't even eat the thumper. No. Oh my god, he fucking buried it. The birdshot was all inside him.

bird shot for because I would burn on it. Bird didn't go up a year ago. I remember being in my backyard going, what's going on? You use a 22 on rabbits, not bird shot. You can't. It's against the law.

going to miss this opportunity to continue these if Uncle Sean is moving down south and doesn't get to come up as often. Right. We're really hoping that we get to continue these voice weekends. Yeah. The nice thing is that the property is staying in the family. And so there are plans to actually finally finish building that house. And hopefully, like in the next year or two, that'll be a cool place for us to visit with.

our friends and your brother and your sister. Right. Right. Yeah. No, because it is beautiful. And while we'll need to take care of some poison ivy.

situation on the property and it's lovely up there and it really makes me feel even more connected to my grandparents having never met because the house that they lived in on Cape Cod is still standing but it's not owned by anybody in the family. Whereas at least this property is still in the family and I can go visit it and feel connected.

This is the Family Twist podcast hosted by Kendall and Corey Stulce with original music by Cosmic Afterthoughts and produced by Outpost Productions and presented by Savoir Fair Marketing Communications. Have a story you want to share? Visit Family Twist Podcast dot com. All our social media links are there as well.