Welcome back to Ramble by the River, the podcast where we explore the stories and musings of interesting people from all walks of life. Today, we have a very special guest: Nick Matson! In this episode, we dive into a variety of topics ranging from fairy tale romance to Chinese weather balloons. So, let’s jump right in!

We start off by learning about Nick’s career as a longshoreman and the corruption that can occur in large-scale industrial shipping. Then we shift gears and talk about the world of online dating in small towns and how sometimes it leads to fairy tale romance. We also explore the crawfish culture of the Oregon swamp people and chat about some delicious comfort foods like pancakes, biscuits, scones, and pastries.

As Nick shares his experiences raising kids and cooking at home, we discuss the importance of home-cooked meals and the tricks to successful step-parenting. We also touch on geo-engineering, public disclosures, and cover-ups, which leads us to question the motives of TV news: is it to inform or entertain?

Nick’s love for music takes center stage as we delve into his time as a touring musician and his passion for creating art while managing pride and ego. We also talk about some fun Finn facts and folklore, and learn the true story behind St. Patrick’s “snake” genocide.

Moving on to more controversial topics, we discuss the need for a third political party and some of our own political opinions, such as Second Amendment and Abortion rights. We even float the idea of a new political movement: Gun-toting Liberals?

Throughout the episode, we sprinkle in some hilarious and wild stories, like the time Jeff got b*tch-slapped by Nick’s wife in school and the dangers of bath salts. And of course, we can’t forget to mention Nick’s childhood on John Day Slough, his boats, and his float house on the Columbia River.

Sit back, relax, and join us for a thought-provoking and entertaining episode of Ramble by the River with Jeff Nesbitt and special guest Nick “Foggy Auggie” Matson.

Nick Matson's Facebook and Instagram.

Music Credits:

• West of The Soul, River Foxcroft.
• Still Fly, Revel Day. 

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Copyright 2023 Ramble by the River LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

[00:00:00] Hello, and welcome to another exciting episode of Ramble by the River. I'm your host, Jeff Nesbitt. And we've got a great show for you this week.

[00:00:18] Nick is known as foggy Augie on the Instagram. And you may know him as the husband of friend of the show. Madeline Mattson. Formerly Madeline more formerly Madeline Dickerson.

[00:00:55] You know, hard to pretend when you've known someone that long. So I kind of felt, I felt like I knew him already. And, um, he did not disappoint. Uh, as I was editing this thing, I laughed my butt off. It was really fun. He's a good dude. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this intro. If you need to get ahold of us, you can email me at Ramble by the River at gmail.com or admin one at Ramble by the River dot com.

[00:01:34] But mostly.

[00:01:40] Before we get to it. Just a quick message from our sponsor.

[00:02:15] I can tell you from personal experience, I know the guys who work for this company. I know the guys who own this company, and they are top of the line cream of the crop human beings. If you call them and schedule something, you're gonna get the best service available and. Just a given, so don't make the mistake of going with somebody else.

[00:02:52]

[00:03:13] I think after the whole thing was all said and done, we became friends.

[00:04:17] Jeff Nesbitt: Mics are going. Okay, mics are going. Do I need to have set of these guys on? Yeah. Throw 'em on for a minute and just so you get, get a feel for the mic. It's kind of, kind of gets you in the zone. I like them.

[00:04:32] Nick Matson: Yeah. That, that feels right.

[00:04:50] Oh, I, I feel like the first hour of every podcast is me just like, struggling so hard not to adjust the mic. Uh, because it, when I just give in and be like, no, trust your instincts, dude. Just adjust it. You should probably adjust it if you feel like you should adjust it. Right, right. I'm always wrong. The guests will come in and they'll be like, way over here or, and I'll be like, oh my God, it's gonna sound terrible

[00:05:17] Nick Matson: my finger on it. Are you doing like an omni in the middle here too, to catch the room? Okay. That, yep.

[00:05:26] So this is good to have just in case, but cool. Yeah, it's, uh, mm-hmm. Yeah. Uh, so what do you do for a living? I'm a longshoreman. A longshoreman? Mm-hmm. . What exactly did they do?

[00:05:54] Bite water. I

[00:06:11] Nick Matson: Used to spend more. Yeah. Okay. Okay. But, uh, absolutely. That's kind of my. .

[00:06:19] Nick Matson: So, uh, as a member of the I L W, the International Longshore and Warehouses Union, um, we have a lot of different employers. Okay. Right. So we are our own entity. Um, but there's a large association called the Pacific Maritime Association who chiefly employs us, although we have quite a few other employers.

[00:06:59] Jeff Nesbitt: Okay. So it's just like on a needed basis, they'll assign people or f link up who needs what, with, who needs, who's got the stuff to give or how does it all coordinate?

[00:07:11] Nick Matson: Well, no, um, it's, it's on a pretty grand scale. Um, there's, there's, uh, obviously different, uh, shipping companies. And then at the Porsche there's different stevedore companies. And then there's also the, like, say, uh, cargo owners, cargo handlers. Um, and, and that's only, and that's only representing the corporations which own the individual.

[00:07:41] Jeff Nesbitt: agreements. So just so much interest all packed together. There's

[00:07:46] Jeff Nesbitt: in it. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. I, I always see those ships coming down the river with all the, uh, big freight boxes on them and it's, it's weird cuz I live right on the river, so I see it, but so many people are ordering stuff off of Amazon and just like living with stuff that's being shipped all the time and they never see the process at all.

[00:08:23] It's you and Madeline, by the way, everybody. This is Nick. He is, uh, the husband of friend of the show. Madeline, um, formerly Dickerson. Now Matson. Mm-hmm. .

[00:08:45] Jeff Nesbitt: I love your wife.

[00:08:51] Nick Matson: life. So, so you don't feel like you're in a constant

[00:08:58] Nick Matson: Is it, is it the envy that drove. To tell her Santa didn't exist

[00:09:04] Long before she was trying to save her soul on that one. That was just, I was working for the Lord . I couldn't have that. Everybody just being fooled by the devil there.

[00:09:16] Jeff Nesbitt: yeah. , my daughter does it now because she hangs out with my mom, . Uh, it's, uh, yeah, Grammy Tory don't fuck around.

[00:09:31] Nick Matson: Don't, don't let her hear the show with me on it. That that'd be a bad idea.

[00:09:38] And this was a while ago. Oh, you're

[00:09:44] Jeff Nesbitt: Oh no, my mom, I'm talking about, yeah, that was my mom, my daughter. Oh, grandma got, got got. But, uh, yeah, no. Um, yeah, in Madeline's episode, which was like very early on.

[00:10:13] Mm-hmm. , you wanna tell us about that?

[00:10:33] And so I, uh, came home and I was actually living in that, uh, that, that blue trailer that lives at our house. Oh, okay. I was actually living at, uh, in Deep, River in that. And, uh, we did the whole, uh, online matchup deal. You know what? Service

[00:10:55] Absolutely. I don't know if that counts in the rural areas. I don't, I've never been in the game out here. Yeah.

[00:11:28] Well people, you know, people who bore me a lot aren't Yeah. Dorks. Yeah. .

[00:11:37] Nick Matson: Ah, people with corners on their heads and stuff, you know? Um, you know, and we, we went to, we, we actually agreed to, uh, meet up for a walk, and we went for a walk on the river walk.

[00:12:18] You just know you wanna see that person. So it's always really interesting when that person very quickly reciprocates, you know? Yeah.

[00:12:36] So it was, uh, oh, yeah, I heard that. Yeah. Me and Melissa were not far ahead of you guys, and, and it was very similar, just like the first day we hung out, it's like, from then on out it was just like, I would like to do this all the time.

[00:12:57] Yeah. Especially during the time when, when, when we've met our people. Mm-hmm. , I think it's been really common.

[00:13:18] And then couples that can't recover from the realization that real life is not a fairytale, it's not gonna be exactly like they may have always pictured it. And then the second marriage only has to live up to the expectations that were established between the end of the first one and the beginning of the second

[00:13:42] Nick Matson: I don't know. I guess, uh, I guess I've got a simplified version. I mean, I, you know, you, you, how often do you eat the first.

[00:13:53] Nick Matson: the good one. Yeah, that's true. That's not the one. You don't put that on anybody's that goes in the trash. I mean, that's kinda the way I view it. Yeah.

[00:14:03] Yeah. It's your first time making pancakes. Mm-hmm. . And it's just getting hot. Mm-hmm. . It's all weird around. Yeah, you're totally right. Mm-hmm. . Totally right. What's your pancake strategy? Are you a pancake guy? I do love pancakes. Are you a bisque man? I, I bet you're from scratch, aren't

[00:14:23] Yeah. Mm-hmm. . Mm-hmm. . But, uh, I was actually more of a biscuit man than a pancake man. Oh, nice. Yeah. A big biscuit man dropped

[00:14:39] I love it. And then they just cook on the top and it, they're so good. I love it. Mm-hmm. It's been a long time since I made that. Yeah. Probably like 15 years. Mm-hmm. It's been a while. I feel biscuity right now. Yeah. I could really go for a few biscuits. I mean, we could spend all day talking about biscuits.

[00:15:09] Nick Matson: makes. Pretty much good.

[00:15:16] I'm not, I'm not some kind of a, one of those guys who's just like, oh, you have a wife who cooks amazing stuff. She must cook for you all the time. I'm not gonna make these assumptions. I'm not that kind of guy. , but she must fucking cook for you all the time, huh? Uh. Good stuff.

[00:15:31] Um, we, we both cook quite a bit. It really, really changes, but, but I would say when we, when we were first getting to know each other, we cooked for each other all the time. Oh, you're showing off all the time. We were just showing off. Huge. Yeah. Oh, that's probably really fun. We, we ate awesome. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:15:58] Nick Matson: life. It'll be funner when the kids are like a tiny bit older.

[00:16:07] Jeff Nesbitt: it's like my 14 year old is just starting to be like, eat like a normal man, which is a great time because it's just like you got some extra food, push it his way. It's just like, God, somebody finish off this taco meat.

[00:16:26] Nick Matson: think, I think we're really gonna enjoy when, um, when kids, when kids start, Cooking. Not just, you know, not just because do this, do this, do this. When they actually start getting into like, ooh, you know?

[00:16:46] Jeff Nesbitt: Yeah. It's chemistry. Yeah. It's a fun thing to do. It is. And it's very good for your brain. Yeah. It's just like, it's primal. Yeah. You'd die without it. Yeah. You would I mean, people do the raw diet thing, but they don't seem to enjoy it.

[00:17:01] Nick Matson: Oh man. People, you know, some people just don't enjoy life. Yeah. You know, they gotta come up with reasons like why they need to be so much better than they are. And to me, I'm not really a self-improvement guy, you know, I'm not, I'm, I'm not that man. I live is the beast.

[00:17:16] Jeff Nesbitt: Well that's a much better way to just relish who you are. Oh god. Yeah. Just lean in and just be it, and bathe in it. And especially if you like stuff that's like good for you, like eating delicious food. Mm-hmm. , there's nothing, there's no harm in that. Mm-hmm. . But, and like, I mean, you carrying a six pack of tallies, that's nothing but

[00:17:35] Rocky Mountain

[00:17:41] Nick Matson: This is not from Flint,

[00:17:51] Nick Matson: The trains. No, not as much as I probably should.

[00:17:59] Mm-hmm. . But it's, it's barely covered on, on regular news. Well,

[00:18:21] So your, your wages, the actual equipment, et cetera, is so great. You know, where even the power for information to get out, um, is, is fantastic just because

[00:18:36] Nick Matson: It, it's just absolutely amazing. Um, for example, right now I'm, I'm part of a political group of, uh, longshoreman and, and Union Mariners called the Washington District Council.

[00:19:11] Mm-hmm. and, uh, kind of leaving the public. and labor out of the conversation, even though they're things that affect us massively, and actually in the end will affect our day-to-day lives. So looking at something like, you know, derailments are covered up, it's like, well, obviously Yeah. Yeah. You know, I mean, they're trying to cover the way the world economy works.

[00:19:34] Jeff Nesbitt: that's such a great point. Oh my God, that's so applicable to every field. Mm-hmm. , because it's just like, once you can see behind the veil just a little bit in, in your world, you can apply that same analogy to every situation. Like for example, in my industry, I spray chemicals, uh, on public property for a living.

[00:20:25] Absolutely. And they couldn't chase me down in their car because I'm flying a motherfucking airplane. , yeah. Mm-hmm. . So when I see the planes flying by leaving these giant strips of aluminum nanoparticles in the sky, that spread out like a fucking rug across the sky for the rest of the day. And people want to tell.

[00:21:16] Probably not the safety and health of the planet, but let's just give them a generous assumption that it's because they're trying to prevent global warming, uh, or fix the climate or something. Either way, if they don't have to tell us, they're not gonna tell us. Absolutely. No, no. And, um, now they're finally talking about it at least, and acting like they've been talking about it all along.

[00:21:39] Nick Matson: I mean, I, I think, I think, I think the base idea is that with, with great wealth, you know, and, and greed, that, that corruption is, is just, it grows exponentially. Oh yeah. Right. I mean, when we're, for example, in the longshore, I'm not gonna come here with facts and numbers because I'm not that guy, but the amount of wealth.

[00:22:37] You know, we we're talking about like fractions of percents.

[00:22:54] Oh, all the way from all the way from the logging 500 would you say? Yeah, I mean, in, in that industry, because that's, I mean, the profit's gonna be derived from that whole process. Right. And the logging companies are making a buttload of money too, like, right, right. Well, I mean, they're separate. I know from the shipping industry.

[00:23:21] Nick Matson: absolutely. So, so one of the reasons, one of the reasons you can't really involve the logging side of it, or even like the handling side of it, is they have their own corporations that are already making that money off of them.

[00:23:45] Jeff Nesbitt: you're just a middle man then.

[00:23:47] Nick Matson: Right. In a, in a, in a lot of ways. Yeah. Nothing, nothing can really go anywhere without us. Right.

[00:23:59] Nick Matson: no, so once, say, once, say, like, a log is, has been scaled, right. It's been scaled and it, it receives a barcode and, uh, once that's done, then it's in the, it's in the custody of basically whoever is purchasing it.

[00:24:29] Jeff Nesbitt: that time. Okay. So it's like when I buy something on Amazon, And it ships to me, that's why I have the tracking information mm-hmm. , because it's coming to me.

[00:24:43] Nick Matson: I mean, I mean, there's definitely gonna be, you know, a, a good trail for all, uh, all cargo of that value, you know, especially when it comes down to, uh, harvested resources and, and whatnot.

[00:25:24] Yeah. It's nothing, it's, it's raindrops in an ocean, you know? And, and once, once you start to understand the, the power and, and the size of what you're dealing with, it's, it's, it's staggering.

[00:25:47] Mm-hmm. it all very much like spiderwebs back to BlackRock and Vanguard and like very few companies own Right. Everything.

[00:26:14] Jeff Nesbitt: Oh yeah. Right.

[00:26:17] Jeff Nesbitt: thing. It's like the odd opposite of what a union's supposed to, to do. Exactly.

[00:26:23] Jeff Nesbitt: labor. That sounds way more like a, uh, what is that? Uh, antitrust? No. Is it trust? What are the thing? It's, God, how am I, I'm drawing a blank.

[00:26:38] Jeff Nesbitt: Yeah. Monopoly is like what I'm kind of like the term I'm thinking of, but it's, that's just the one company.

[00:26:47] Jeff Nesbitt: trust laws. I'm not sure. I, I, that's what I think I'm, I'm think I'm thinking of that, but, um, because they compete.

[00:26:56] Jeff Nesbitt: all win. Yeah. But can they get together behind closed doors and negotiate prices and price fix and all that stuff? Well, not necessarily. I'm sure they figured out how to do that.

[00:27:15] Okay. You see, you see what I'm saying? Yeah. So if one wins, they all kind of win, but they, they, they convenience for more pools of money, but rich people are Don't so smart. Oh man. Yeah. Yeah. It's

[00:27:43] That's fucked up. That's crazy, right? That's dangerous. That's a dangerous position. We are teetering on the brink of collapse. Well, and we're,

[00:27:52] Jeff Nesbitt: too. Continuously. Just print that money, baby. Print me

[00:28:04] But for example, with this, this outfit that was at, uh, at Portland, the container yard that, um, Portland's local got in this huge, uh, legal battle with, um, and they were able to sue the union. And that's still an ongoing thing for a, a grotesque amount of money. Like I said, I'm not a holding facts and figures type of guy, but this.

[00:29:10] No, that's removed from the country. That's scary. Right. And they were actually removed from the country. They're never allowed to do business in the United States again. Okay. Permanently. So they got banned, but they are still allowed to sue us. In

[00:29:24] Nick Matson: Um, you're gonna get

[00:29:27] That would be, I don't know how they would even do that. That May is they World Courts? That's Supreme Court. There's gotta be World Courts, I guess. I don't know. I don't know about that. Try people, I don't know how it all works at that level. I've

[00:29:42] I

[00:29:56] But yeah, it's a problem. Like there's a, the TikTok thing is mm-hmm. not, I think that's the least of our problems. I think it's, it's like the fact that there's a police station in New York City that they had, like, have you heard about that? No. China just like, uh, decided we're gonna just drop a police station in, in New York.

[00:30:33] Uh, a few people on the internet were like, Hey guys, this is, uh, we got a thing going here. We gotta take care of this. But mm-hmm. . Mm-hmm. . Um, yeah. And this, the, the Chinese weather balloon thing, I'm not sure what to believe about that. That seems the news talked about it too much for me to believe that it was completely real because they're full of shit and everything you say

[00:30:54] I don't have any, like, I don't think there's enough information present for anybody to have an opinion on it. Yeah. And I'm gonna say I don't have one either, because I have no idea what that is. No. And they haven't told us

[00:31:09] I'm more interested in, in random videos I see on the internet, because that's more real to me than what the news is talking about. Sure. Mm-hmm. some. Attractive person's opinion. Right? Like that's all that is. It's, yeah. That's something that's changed quite a bit in our lifetime, even though, oh man, I know I'm not gonna beat a dead horse.

[00:31:38] Nick Matson: Well, I think that's the issue, isn't it? Yeah. Is it the need to be entertained? That's the problem. You don't need to be entertained. No. You just need to receive information, I find.

[00:32:03] Right, right, right. And I watched the video of it happen and that like, this is the world we live in now. It's not hard to, to do this. It's complicated and confusing and it almost never feels clean and easy. And you almost never know who the good guy is. And you almost never know who the bad guy is. And it sucks.

[00:32:20] Nick Matson: man. I know. They don't. I they don't. And this is something that I've recently started in with honor her daughter, cuz she started to do the Well, is that a good guy? Is that a bad guy thing? And I really, really dislike that. I don't, especially being a very, very gray guy myself.

[00:32:53] Yeah. Right.

[00:33:13] Two wolves, one's the good wolf, one is the bad one, and the, the kid asks his grandfather, but grandfather, which wolf will win the fight.

[00:33:46] , but yeah. And so it's, there's that disconnect. But when you're a kid, it's nice to know that like, , I gotta make the choice right now to feed the good wolf. Yeah. Cuz if I don't, I might not have the opportunity to, to make that choice later. I gotta just, every time I can choose to, I gotta choose good pos.

[00:34:01] Nick Matson: mean, possibly the, the, what I really worry about is, is, uh,

[00:34:35] And I think that, um, I think that's very much l learning, uh, to live in the space between 'em, living in a more realistic place where you have the tools to, um, not just think that, you know? Yeah.

[00:34:56] Mm-hmm. . Yeah. And that stuff is gonna happen no matter what. Yeah, that's true. True. So the, that's the best part is just to think about it that way and think like, look, we need these challenges mm-hmm. For proper development. And for flavor in life,

[00:35:12] Yeah. Because they were too good. Yeah, exactly. You know, and then the world good. Oh my God, things are, things are bad. And I was like, yeah, things are bad really often. Yeah, exactly. Things good is actually you just, you,

[00:35:34] Mm-hmm. , . But then one day you see results and you're like, oh, thank God you do mm-hmm. . So that stuff pays off. It's just, you know. Yeah. Life is a trip. I, I really never get over thinking about the, just like the passage of time always trips me out. Like especially time and space by like, specific locations.

[00:36:11] Uhhuh. And I was like, here I am again at this rest stop and I can close my eyes. And it's like I was just there. Yeah. And I, I don't just mean it in the way. I, I mean it in a very real way. Like it literally feels like I'm looking at a stack of old pictures of all the old, every other time I was there and, um, who I was at that time.

[00:36:48] Yeah. Mm-hmm. . But if you think about your life like, um, in a series of moments that they just happen to be experienced in the order that you're experiencing them, which you think is chronological because it appears that way. Mm-hmm. and for, for all intents and purposes, you can think of it that way. But who knows?

[00:37:24] It could be just like every single moment we ever experience is like a stack of photos and they get shuffled and thrown down. But like, what if our processor is so fast to be in like real time to where like even if you did switch, if you didn't actually experience time in a linear fashion and you were just jumping back and forth and all.

[00:37:55] Nick Matson: Absolutely. Absolutely. Um, I was actually thinking about this For some reason, I felt like we were gonna talk about, uh, something at least close to this, um,

[00:38:41] Listen to it all the time. Because if I, like for example, I get a get a can of Coke, right? Or like, and I grab a three Musketeer and I go drive up the logging road, I turn that radio on, I can actually close my eyes and like be in my dad's brown Silverado and be eight years old. And you can smell it.

[00:39:20] Right. Those become less and less and less important, and then all of a sudden they're these highly emotional and important and character shaping parts of you in that, and all of a sudden you're measuring time in that way. And that's something that's become really important to me lately.

[00:39:34] Completely. And that's like, if we want to go back to the stack of photos analogy, one of those photos is that moment in the truck, or it's probably more than one moment, but either whether they're combined into one memory or whether it's a whole bunch of memories mm-hmm. or both, um, that's who you are, right?

[00:40:07] Nick Matson: I, I feel like that, that person, right, when you were, I'm gonna say like 14 and down, right?

[00:40:30] I think as you leave your twenties, you start to discover that those things are more part of your true. And. Personality than the things you tried to paint your personality with in your later teens and twenties. A hundred percent. Like that's actually who you are. You become more like that child, you know, in, in, in a certain way.

[00:40:58] Jeff Nesbitt: over that middle place. Right? The middle place is where you think you're becoming, you think you're choosing who you're gonna be. Right. Right. And really you're just like discovering who you've always been, right? Yeah, absolutely.

[00:41:11] Jeff Nesbitt: Mm-hmm. . Yeah. I was so into Modest Mouse and Oh wow. For like, I'm sorry, man, for like 10 years . I loved that band so much. I listened to them every day. I could sing every song like, I fucking love that band. But it, it was, I realized it was, uh, I, I had started listening to them when I was in a very depressed phase of my life.

[00:41:53] Like Right. I'm ready to grow up. Right. So I'm, and then when I did that, dude, I figured out who I really was. I learned a lot about myself, and I became much more quirky and dorky, honestly. Mm-hmm. and, and I'm, I became a dad in the process. And that doesn't help with the dorkiness. Nope. But, um, I'm much happier with this person.

[00:42:18] Nick Matson: Well, two degrees, right? I, I would say it's same thing. A different, different body, different variations of the same thing, right? So, like, as a musician I can say that I have absolutely been through this transition from the music making point of view, right?

[00:42:56] And then he, here you are turning 35 and all you really wanna do is sit down with a tiny tube amp and play Telecaster, old George Jones songs, , you know what I mean? All those adult I love it all comes crashing down. Cause it's just like, man, like it was, um, I was trying to create somebody. . Right. And I think one of the other things that happens during that time is there's this ego that says, I want to talk about who I am and who I want to be.

[00:43:49] Jeff Nesbitt: something, you know.

[00:44:18] This is terrible . Like, who do, why are you so emotional? Or, or like, and it's because art is meant to be a snapshot of a moment. Like you're capturing your artistic expression as a way to say, this is how I felt in this moment. Mm-hmm. . And I am a loose cannon, so when I write something, it sounds, it sounds goofy.

[00:44:46] Nick Matson: well, so one thing, one, one thing that that, um, you know, I was told pretty early on, but I didn't do anything with it, was like that thing that you experienced where you judge your own art is because you've been lied to.

[00:45:19] Your art isn't about a fan. That's true. It's not for them. They just happen to like it.

[00:45:37] He's worked with everybody, like from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Beastie Boys. Um, he produced a whole bunch of Andrew Dice clay albums, which I Oh, sweet. I found that to be strange. But, um, everything else was music. Mm-hmm. , Andrew Dice, clay, like the Dice Man. Hey, or no, that was the Fond, they're like the same guy in my memory.

[00:46:23] Yeah. Mm-hmm. and it's, and he, it's, the whole book is just about how, like to separate it from, how to separate your ego from the process without removing your, your voice personality. Yeah, absolutely. And it's a, it's a cool book. You'd probably like it a lot. It interesting. But what you said just really struck me cuz it sounded like it was straight from, from his stuff.

[00:47:01] Nick Matson: Oh man, that's been a long journey.

[00:47:39] Play. Oh, you should write

[00:47:43] Nick Matson: that. It'd be fun. . I'd goof around. I'd goof around for you. That be funt be bad, but, you know, it, it's just, man, we used to play hard. We used to play hard. We used to party hard. We did, I mean, we did good man.

[00:48:13] Yeah. Yeah, man. He played hard. Yeah, we played hard. And uh, it's just that, uh, the glamors totally gone. Right. The glamors gone. You know, I don't even, uh, I don't even write anymore. Right. It's like I went out and I got what I needed to get. Yeah. And I found out what was out there and what it was about. Um, but just the comfort of playing music that, that, that, that takes me to a very, very close to home space.

[00:49:11] Mm-hmm. , I don't write, I don't write, um, I just play guitar cause I know my way Uhhuh , you know? That's

[00:49:28] right.

[00:49:34] And, uh, that looks like fun. That's been a big one for me. Yeah. That's been a big one for me is guitars are very cumber. I love guitar, even acoustic guitar. You know, it's very cumbersome. I,

[00:49:53] No, but man, a little,

[00:50:02] Jeff Nesbitt: there so many more, like notes in a, when a banjos playing compared to a guitar? Is that by imagination? It seems like he's just picking like crazy

[00:50:12] There are many different ways to pick or play a banjo, but some of it is,

[00:50:21] Nick Matson: example, I, I, I play claw hammer style banjo, right? And it's a pattern called like a bum diddy. Okay. Pattern. Like bum did a bum did a bum, did you? Right. Yeah. And there's one of those, one of those strikes that isn't a note.

[00:51:03] We'll play that note in your head.

[00:51:07] Nick Matson: that's so cool. Yeah, so there's stuff that goes on there. It's, it's kind like a yes and no answer. Uhhuh .

[00:51:21] Oh, sweet. Yeah. And he, um, I don't even remember if he was playing in the masterclass or I just watched videos of him doing it, cuz I enjoyed it. But he, uh, I think that's the style. He uses the Yeah. He,

[00:51:37] Yes. Really,

[00:51:53] Nick Matson: That's a good guy. What are they, what, what is he called? He, he actually played for a group That's pretty good.

[00:52:06] Jeff Nesbitt: so many videos of him playing stuff on the internet, like all, like for the last 30 years. I didn't, yeah. I was surprised that.

[00:52:21] Nick Matson: that interesting? Yeah. Like a, like a Northeastern

[00:52:28] Nick Matson: there's a lot of banjo players in Connecticut, Vermont probably, and all that, you know, but you just don't think about it, I guess.

[00:52:35] Jeff Nesbitt: . What were we talking about? Mm. Could I have one of those

[00:52:54] Jeff Nesbitt: Oh, all right. Well, we've been talking about deep stuff for a while. Mm-hmm.

[00:53:16] Nick Matson: Yeah. It, it, to, it totally bugs me.

[00:53:19] Jeff Nesbitt: people. Yeah. I don't call myself that ever. It bugs the hell outta me. Yeah. Um, also, I don't want people to say that to my kids for some reason. I don't want them to call, even though I, I know that that is what I am, but it seems degrading, so I, I don't know.

[00:53:35] Nick Matson: at all, I, I, I can tell you that, uh,

[00:53:42] Nick Matson: I, I don't, I don't know that I, I, I don't, I I think that one of the things,

[00:54:03] there's something deeper there. You know, so sometimes this thing occurs where, you know, a man or a woman marries say like, you're a parent and they become a stepparent. It's very, very different when you're either a very young child or even a child of any age needing something. Yeah. And you know, while I'm a firm believer in that, parents absolutely always come before children, right.

[00:54:44] Jeff Nesbitt: yeah. You can't kill yourself to make your kid happy. Absolutely

[00:54:48] Jeff Nesbitt: it's not be raised right. Yeah.

[00:55:00] I, I, and I think most people could, if they took the time, understand. The, the difference between, hey, yeah, somebody came along and married my mom, or, you know. Yeah.

[00:55:18] Yep. Like, I will be here and, you know, we'll all love each other and everything, but that's a step. That's not my responsibility. That's a stepdad. See, I don't even think he deserves that title. Maybe not, maybe not. He's just Your your mom's husband. Yeah. Your

[00:55:31] Fuck that guy. I don't know, man. I don't, I don't like, I mean, I'm raising the girl. Yeah. You

[00:55:52] Nick Matson: you know, prob, I mean, I guess it depends on which context, you know?

[00:55:59] Jeff Nesbitt: are you guys to a place where it's, it's smooth and easy

[00:56:10] Jeff Nesbitt: good. That makes such a huge difference in the whole thing. I don't think,

[00:56:18] Um,

[00:56:41] Um, that's

[00:56:45] Nick Matson: Madeline we're just her parents. Yeah. You know,

[00:56:48] Nick Matson: about she go to another house and then somebody else is her parent. Yeah. You know, and, um, that other parent doesn't interfere with the parenting in our household so much, you know?

[00:57:00] Jeff Nesbitt: I think

[00:57:10] Jeff Nesbitt: very different. Oh, yeah. That makes just a complicated, right. There's no, there's no way around

[00:57:18] Yeah. That's Q's struggle. And that's a question for her at a different time. I would say me and Madeline are just Yeah, you'll find out.

[00:57:34] Married to Madeline

[00:57:35] That's something people always

[00:57:52] Jeff Nesbitt: I don't know how she does it. Look, look at me. Jeff .

[00:57:56] Jeff Nesbitt: look at me. You're an Adonis. What are you talking about? ?

[00:58:08] Jeff Nesbitt: I know. About 45 minutes ago.

[00:58:11] Nick Matson: I don't mind you. Can you imagine living that life? Yeah. She's a saint.

[00:58:29] She's always, always doing something. Yeah, we fucking go way back. She's like, She'll keep you guys busy till the day you die. Yes, she will. And the museum has been so much improved since she's , taking over the helm. Oh

[00:58:47] And, uh, Madeline never ever, ever gets the credit she deserves. Yes. For the work she's done. I bet now for the museum, she always gets snubbed and, uh, she is a far better person than I am. And, uh, me too. . She's just like, you know, she just takes it with such grace, you know, she's keeps doing a good job. She's

[00:59:17] She's probably like, I'm not gonna shit where I eat.

[00:59:29] Jeff Nesbitt: know, principled. Principled. Yeah.

[00:59:39] Jeff Nesbitt: uh, well that actually Madeline has once slapped me hard, fucking hard in the face.

[01:00:08] Oh, I saw stars. I heard the Tweety Birds. Oh man. Oh God. Yeah. She, she fucking decked me, basically. And, uh, sweet. But you know why? It's because I was flipping her shit. I took her seat and then I wouldn't get up and she just, she only asked me once, maybe twice. And then she fucking took me out. .

[01:00:30] No, I don't resent change. Oh, she,

[01:00:33] Nick Matson: good change, huh? Yeah. You got your butt kicked cause you got in the way. . She got her, that was her seat man. And that wasn't about to change. You got your butt kicked. .

[01:00:41] Nick Matson: that's funny. Yeah. That's

[01:00:43] Yeah, it was because, at the time she was like little kid, boyfriend and girlfriend with CJ Hawkinson friend of the show. He gave us the air conditioner, , and that we're using right

[01:00:55] Jeff Nesbitt: now. And he was my best friend, so I was like, I'm gonna sit by cj.

[01:01:03] Nick Matson: out. Yeah, she did. Wow. Man. I hope she slapped somebody from me one day.

[01:01:12] Fun Finn Folklore and Facts

[01:01:17] Nick Matson: Finn Folklore. Yeah.

[01:01:22] Jeff Nesbitt: I actually just wanted to say that. Alliteration fun.

[01:01:30] Jeff Nesbitt: Oh, fun. Finnish folklore. You guys recently traveled out there, right? Yeah, absolutely. Tell me about that.

[01:01:42] well we were considering different places to go and Madeline being Norwegian, she really wanted to go to Norway. And, uh, that was a bit more complicated and she was nice enough to let me talk her into, go into Finland, specifically Helsinki, because I've spent some time there. I've been there on about five different occasions.

[01:02:07] Jeff Nesbitt: you've been to Helsinki five times. Uhhuh . Why are you spending so much time in Helsinki? Nick? It's awesome. What do you got going in Helsinki? Awesome. Freedom. . Is it pretty cool place? No, it's wonderful. I know very little about the culture, the geography, anything about, I know about architecture and Helsinki, the band, but that's it.

[01:02:53] Oh, it's clean culture. Yeah. Directness, you know, honesty, um,

[01:03:24] Jeff Nesbitt: colorful. Okay. Not impressionist fans, huh?

[01:03:33] Jeff Nesbitt: no. Jackson Pollock for them. No. .

[01:03:50] Jeff Nesbitt: Of, of what? No, it's people who don't need a whole lot.

[01:03:53] Nick Matson: They do, uh, uh, Finn don't need much to get by. Oh, okay. You know, they're not, they're, they're not a, they're not a people of

[01:04:05] Nick Matson: there's immigration there. There's immigration. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's kinda one of the things with Finnish culture too, right?

[01:04:16] Jeff Nesbitt: real old, right?

[01:04:39] And they've been around, uh, pheno, Scania and the Baltic for a very long night. I mean, 10,000 years or better possibly, you know, they're older than for example, uh, those people are older than the first German people who migrated into the other Nordic countries to become Norwegians and Sws and et cetera.

[01:05:04] Jeff Nesbitt: older. Wow. That's super old. Mm-hmm. . So, okay, so all like the, the tall blonde. genetics, um, that those came from Germany before.

[01:05:24] I mean, uh, don't, we're not,

[01:05:25] Nick Matson: not. Yeah, because, because people bring up weird stuff with this and it's unrelated crap. That's not what we're talking about. It's different ethnic group. Right. Because fins are not Germanic people. Okay. Yeah. Right. They don't have a dramatic language. They don't have a Germanic culture.

[01:05:56] Jeff Nesbitt: like you being white's actually way more complicated than I guess it

[01:05:59] Yeah. Because you are white. That's

[01:06:03] Nick Matson: around something different, but you're not related to basically Western Europe, Uhhuh, . So that's kind of a weird space that

[01:06:16] Mm-hmm. a lot. Like, I had no idea they were sep they would be separate like that genetically. Well,

[01:06:27] Jeff Nesbitt: the scariest of the whites. Oh,

[01:06:39] Into what is now Russia, fairly late. You know, that was a fairly uninhabited area, but there was different, you know, Saami people's, the Tars Epan, yeah. There was a lot of different people around there. And uh, so

[01:06:59] Nick Matson: Siberia and all that, peoples Yeah. At one time, Finn Peoples were actually a vast group of cultures, you know, who were reduced down by, uh, cultures who are actually more, um, agrarian Okay.

[01:07:38] Jeff Nesbitt: oh, they must have had St.

[01:07:48] Nick Matson: Some Roman dude killing the crap outta Pagans. Yeah, yeah.

[01:07:55] Child. He was kidnapped by Irish and taken to Ireland. He was raised in Ireland and then he escaped and went back to Britain. But he was a

[01:08:09] Jeff Nesbitt: Oh wow. Yeah. Is that why he was kidnapped

[01:08:18] Yeah, yeah. Right. But, but in Britannia. In Britannia. I didn't know that either. Yeah. Well, because that was the Roman Okay. Yeah. Lands in, in Britain it was Britannia. So his, uh, his father was a Roman aristocrat of Britannia.

[01:08:39] Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And we celebrated every year here in America for no fucking reason at all. Can we talk a minute

[01:08:51] Jeff Nesbitt: Okay. So yeah. My kids showed me a, a picture of that green water and um, was like, how are they allowed to do this legally?

[01:09:03] Jeff Nesbitt: I can't imagine what chemical they're using to do that. What is going on? Well, cuz it was so bright that it's not just like, they're not just putting green in there. They're also having to put white in there, uh, or something that's gonna reflect, otherwise the the light's not gonna shine back green like that.

[01:09:21] Nick Matson: The only thing I know about this, Is that they would put it in buildings to look for like cross-contamination, plumbing leaks. Okay. And then they'd actually go check the canals in the river to see if there was green coming out of any of the storage drains.

[01:09:54] Jeff Nesbitt: Ridiculous. It's very ridiculous. Yeah. Dyes are very, very easy to spread. Like a little bit goes a long way.

[01:10:07] Nick Matson: it for days. Like

[01:10:13] Nick Matson: totally comfortable nuking water. Nobody even

[01:10:19] Nick Matson: Geez. It's like the guys who used to dump buckets of bleach in the river to kill the fish and net 'em below that. I didn't know that. Oh yeah. That

[01:10:31] Nick Matson: was not very good for anybody.

[01:10:36] Nick Matson: idea, man.

[01:10:40] Jeff Nesbitt: Yeah. I can see dynamite fishing before. Bleach fishing. That's Yeah. Yeah. Concussive shock. I'm not gonna hurt nobody.

[01:10:53] Jeff Nesbitt: Lemme see what we got here.

[01:10:59] Jeff Nesbitt: think, but yeah, I, I, you know, if I'm curious about anything you are interested in and want to talk about, really anything that you're, you, that you can get fired up about, that's what I care about.

[01:11:24] Nick Matson: got a great new master bedroom.

[01:11:45] Jeff Nesbitt: house, but. Cool. Close too. Yeah, right on. It's going good. That's not as interesting as I thought it was gonna be.

[01:11:55] Nick Matson: uh, oh man, I, so I'm gonna come, we're gonna make it, we're, we're gonna do a finished culture thing right now. Okay. Alright. I'd love to, when you ask really complex questions and you get very basic answers or even single word answers, like yes or no. Yeah. Questions that you think are gonna have a story, those incredibly and disgustingly finished thing to have happen.

[01:12:34] Jeff Nesbitt: happen. That is like a podcaster's, uh, full stop.

[01:12:41] Nick Matson: Yeah. It's actually like a joke on news.

[01:12:57] Mm-hmm. , how about you talk about this? And they're just like, no. Nope, nope. Yeah. But you know, it is what it is. I have been, I did a podcast yesterday. I did a, I did a podcast with, uh, AI this morning, and I did. One couple days ago. I've been doing 'em again the last couple days, but Uhhuh, um, I haven't been doing 'em for weeks.

[01:13:33] Beer, Babes, and Being Real

[01:13:41] That's a shit deal,

[01:13:58] Nick Matson: doing it all the time.

[01:14:00] Jeff Nesbitt: slow down, . I mean, it's, it's nice. It's really nice. It's good to slow down. It is. You guys drink at home ever? What's that? Do you drink at

[01:14:12] Jeff Nesbitt: Yeah. Is that, we definitely, do you have like a ritual? Yeah,

[01:14:24] You know, we drink a lot of red wine, uh, beer. You know, I, of course, I love, I love, oh man, I love my chief domestic beer. Um,

[01:14:41] Nick Matson: I mean, we are, I'm not, we're not gonna talk about that , but,

[01:14:54] Nick Matson: the, the one thing man about, uh, about these domestic beers, you know, I love Micro Bruce. I really do. Um, I don't want a session Micro Bruce.

[01:15:27] Jeff Nesbitt: with man buns, I mean, you

[01:15:32] Jeff Nesbitt: nothing wrong with

[01:15:33] I mean, the thing is, is that your your're supporting a, a, a better, more sustainable lifestyle for American workers.

[01:15:44] Nick Matson: Mm-hmm. , people who go to work every day, they got benefits in healthcare, you know? Yeah. I mean, I love microbrew.

[01:15:50] Jeff Nesbitt: you're, it's a hobby of one thing. Yeah. I think it's a hobbyist thing. It definitely can be. You

[01:16:00] Jeff Nesbitt: yeah. Which helps them. So why not I, these days you can make a pretty good living with either one, but the, uh, I see what your point is. I, it's, it's a good one.

[01:16:09] Nick Matson: with without being too prejudiced, is it a base level, you know? Yeah. This does, this does support that. I mean, I worry that, uh, people grab onto fats pretty quickly. Oh, for sure. People grab onto Fats pretty guilty. Quickly. Yeah. Guilty.

[01:16:27] Yeah, I guess

[01:16:36] Jeff Nesbitt: Right. Yeah. Most of 'em are probably pretty good. . I like this. Yeah. It's me too. Mm-hmm. , cheers.

[01:16:49] Jeff Nesbitt: yeah. I got gorilla arms.

[01:17:07] Nick Matson: kind of a,

[01:17:12] Yeah. I mean, like,

[01:17:25] Jeff Nesbitt: those people are freaks, dude.

[01:17:29] Nick Matson: this funny thing happened to me is like, I always thought I was the smallest dude. Right. Running around, like out in John Dace, Vinson, you know, and like playing sports in Astoria and, and uh, come to find out man, like I went to Portland, I went to the big city, right.

[01:18:00] Jeff Nesbitt: yeah, yeah. Height is a weird thing. It matters. Mm-hmm. so much. And people, I mean, some people will just acknowledge it. Some people actually too much like women, on the internet, , but, um, they suck though.

[01:18:35] People

[01:18:47] Jeff Nesbitt: Nope.

[01:18:53] Jeff Nesbitt: explicit. Well, let's see.

[01:19:11] Nick Matson: dishonest for themselves or, uh, people being attracted to ideas of things they think they should be attracted

[01:19:18] Yes. I remember trying to force myself to be attracted to thin women when they were popular in the nineties. Oh, but they don't got it.

[01:19:27] Jeff Nesbitt: day. That's not the move. But it never did take Yeah. Never did take mm-hmm.

[01:19:44] Nick Matson: so there's my argument. They absolutely have control over this thing because the thing's an illusion.

[01:19:52] Jeff Nesbitt: Yeah. Your attraction changes too. Sure. It does. I have become increasingly more attracted to the features of my wife, oh man. Since she started becoming the only person I have sex with. Mm-hmm. . Mm-hmm. . It is like clockwork. Curly hair. . The body style that she mm-hmm.

[01:20:10] Nick Matson: really like it. And like I said, I'm not gonna get explicit on here, buddy . Yeah. It's,

[01:20:22] Wild men, wild times, and the wilderness appeal

[01:20:26] Nick Matson: Oh man. Took too, It's a great feeling, huh? Yeah, man, I've wanted that for so long. So really weird thing. Uh, I mean, I've, I've wanted to be married with kids since a pretty young age, like soon as I could, it's like what I wanted to do. I think it's

[01:20:44] But it's

[01:21:02] Jeff Nesbitt: dreams. Well, that makes you a good candidate to be a parent. But that definitely doesn't, I don't think that accounts for the drive.

[01:21:23] Nick Matson: I mean, dude, I honestly, growing up, growing up on John Day SL with my dad, holy shit, the man was a legend, you know, and I was raised by other absolute legends.

[01:22:03] Uh, my dad was a longshoreman and a gill netter. Okay. And, uh, my mother, uh, worked for her family's, uh, beer distributorship, close beverage, which was kind of a big deal in Clasp County and, uh, shown a few stores and mostly took care of us. Um, but man, the guys,

[01:22:52] And you did, spent every summer with him up there. Oh, that's cool man. And God, just that group of guys, the just big group, they were every, every one of those guys, you know, there, there wasn't like full-time longshoreman still because traditionally there never was a full-time longshoreman. You were a logger, you were a gill net and then you longshore when a ship was in.

[01:23:36] And, uh, he, uh, he flew this cub and he had the roof cut out of it, you know, and he had this, whatever, bulletproof, clear plastic over his roofs, he could fly upside down and spot elk. Oh my God. And he'd come down and elk hunt with my dad, hunt, hunt Rosie's, and then, uh, you know, and we'd go back to his, uh, his cabin up in northeast Washington.

[01:24:04] Jeff Nesbitt: mean, that sounds badass. You could not drive to

[01:24:31] It's like, smells like shit. These guys were, some of these guys were just such, you know, Wild man, such mountain men. Yeah. It's just Wild men. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:24:46] Jeff Nesbitt: can hear you say that, you know, my. has been going to Bristol Bay for two years now.

[01:25:11] Yeah. And so, and I, that's not the life that I had growing up. So I, I grew up in a autobody shop. Mm-hmm. . It's just like same town. Totally different life. Sure. Totally different world. Yeah. And, um, so it was a little scary, but yeah. It, you turned out That's so good. You turned out great. I can't to see how, how Sawyer ends up.

[01:25:30] Nick Matson: love, I love that first. Lucky. You're great . Yeah. Oh man. But I could do, I can't even, I can't even tell you. So, for example, a great man just recently passed away, his name is Clarence de Massey and I don't know if you, uh, know of Clifton at all on the other side of the river.

[01:25:51] I've

[01:26:07] Sounds good. He was this Italian guy, you know, amongst all these Nordic guys. Right. Uh, and, uh, man, he was the mayor of Clifton. You know, he ran Clifton's station more or less. And, uh, just a fantastic man. Fantastic man. I mean, a piece of history, you know, there's pictures of him and, and black and white of him and his brother, you know, throwing fish over here at Union Fish Union, fishermen's G and Scanner.

[01:27:06] There's that, you know, he, he was a longshoreman as well, but he, anybody needed a road made in the woods. They were the first call.

[01:27:17] Nick Matson: I mean, he was just the guy, you know, and he was a fascinating and wonderful person. I mean, I guess this is all an extension of you asking me why I wanted to be a dad.

[01:27:38] Jeff Nesbitt: Yeah. I don't, I worry that not, I worry that more people don't feel like that. Like they don't have something to share.

[01:28:09] Mm-hmm. and you're, you're helping them fashion the frame and the lens through which they'll see the world forever. It's a very big job. It is, and it's, it's fun also, but it's, I mean, it's hard.

[01:28:29] Jeff Nesbitt: It's

[01:28:34] Jeff Nesbitt: have, which is probably not even possible anymore. Maybe not. I mean, you'd have to work really hard to make it happen, but I, I almost, I

[01:28:47] Jeff Nesbitt: be that.

[01:29:09] And you can kind of fantasize like, oh yeah. You know, going out to the water hole and, you know, having a fire and all that shit. It's not really as good as it sounds, . And, uh, it would get old real fast, man. Like

[01:29:38] You know, one of the proudest moments I ever had was, uh, we're a pretty, we're a pretty big crawfish family, you know, and, uh, We brought, you know, all these, we've just brought a bucket of, uh, cook Craw ads to Quincy, and we sat 'em out in front of Quincy and we had Quincy sucking on crawdad heads. And man, she couldn't let one pass by.

[01:30:03] Jeff Nesbitt: good. And that's like a cultural thing too, that that's not something that anyone anywhere can just do. Mm-hmm. and even around here. Right. Most people even around here can do that.

[01:30:15] Where, where we grew up, you know, in the slew, you know, over there in the islands. And I mean, I mean, honestly, I'm I guess I have to admit I'm a little bit of a swamp person, you know? Is that like

[01:30:27] Nick Matson: Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And then, uh, so me and, uh, me and my dad, uh, co-owned float house out in the islands there too.

[01:30:44] Jeff Nesbitt: there's house, there's float houses. Oh, I know exactly where you're talking about. Yeah. Old, old communities. Yeah. These, you kind of see 'em down by off Highway 30.

[01:31:07] Jeff Nesbitt: Right. Oh, so you're not, you're protected. Mm-hmm. . Mm-hmm. . Because I was thinking I'm the Columbia, aren't you? They're totally protected.

[01:31:20] Jeff Nesbitt: Oh, yeah. You're a boater. Mm-hmm. , what kind of boat do you have?

[01:31:38] Jeff Nesbitt: Mm-hmm. Unified Express. What is that kind of boat?

[01:31:48] Jeff Nesbitt: manufacturer.

[01:32:09] Yeah. They, they built a bunch of fast river boats and, um,

[01:32:13] Nick Matson: Yeah.

[01:32:26] Like a rail turt where it's on the Barings. I don't know. That

[01:32:38] Nick Matson: man. That's, I mean, that's the beginning of my story really. Right. Growing up on John Dace loop.

[01:33:02] Fat pats, dude, fat pats. I don't know if you know where the John Day, uh, boat ramp is now. Yeah. It's a big, big paved like County park now. Well, that didn't used to be the case. Hmm. You know, it used to be just all gravel. It used to be a gravel strip that went down. Then there's big pothole Dock Bear. Oh yeah.

[01:33:39] Jeff Nesbitt: a minimart or a market, or as long as he's got a deli and some fucking soda and cases and Fat Pat

[01:33:47] Jeff Nesbitt: Uhhuh , right. So he'd be sitting there, we'd be keeping up on the turn events, ,

[01:34:01] Jeff Nesbitt: rocked up. Yeah, absolutely.

[01:34:08] Nick Matson: kids. Yeah, like kids. Coconut ice cream. I know , he's just

[01:34:25] And, uh, we didn't have a bathroom in that shop, so it was also the crack shack, which we, I've had multiple crack shacks. If you're, if you're, if you follow the show and you're confused because of my other crack shack stories, this is a different crack shack. This is related to crab. I'm hoping crack the, uh, like the part of your ass where the shit comes out.

[01:34:49] Nick Matson: There was.

[01:34:54] Nick Matson: mean, you know, there.

[01:34:59] Nick Matson: Yeah. They call it weren't spreading.

[01:35:01] Jeff Nesbitt: call it what you want. They weren't spreading vagina. It like you, there's part of

[01:35:12] Jeff Nesbitt: not even a shop. It's not even a shop. Yeah. Oh yeah. That's true. Oh yeah. I just had a memory recovery too.

[01:35:38] Spread it, yeah. Mm-hmm. , his, my dad's was just like a piece of aluminum or a piece of steel. It was like, and he kept it real clean and everything.

[01:35:45] Jeff Nesbitt: And this guy though, it was a piece of plexiglass with a porn magazine sheet in like in between sheets. So yeah, he's like, look, it was just the same magazine.

[01:35:56] Nick Matson: you ever look away? Oh, fair enough.

[01:36:11] Nobody cared. But I didn't, you know, I was worried about, Being cast into the fiery pits of hell, so, oh man. Yeah. Couldn't be, couldn't be too careful in that

[01:36:25] Jeff Nesbitt: So how did that work for you as a kid? Was your, were upbringing a, a religious one, or atheistic?

[01:36:31] Nick Matson: uh, my mother is a Sicilian Catholic. Okay. And my father is, uh, is a Union Finn. So, I mean, they couldn't be fire and ice. I mean, they couldn't be more different. Right. I

[01:36:51] Nick Matson: and ice, honestly, that really is. So I got a lot of that, like very, very strict and Catholic and very like Italian culture and then a lot.

[01:36:58] Jeff Nesbitt: you understand a major sect of society.

[01:37:11] Jeff Nesbitt: You know? I really think that's the best mix. I had a similar mix.

[01:37:35] Nick Matson: can do is lean into the mic and say,

[01:37:43] So I can tell her that. I think she's brainwashed.

[01:37:46] Jeff Nesbitt: Okay. This is even then, this is pretty fucked up. Um, but she thinks I'm brainwashed by my liberal arts education, so it's okay. We're passionate people and we're we're, uh, we

[01:37:57] Jeff Nesbitt: Um, and don't get me wrong, I'm a full on moderate. I, I I really am.

[01:38:17] Yeah.

[01:38:17] Nick Matson: Why don't we, uh, why don't we, let me take a pee break and then let's do that. Jump onto, uh, that exact topic after that.

[01:38:27] Nick Matson: moderates. Moderates

[01:38:33] Oh, yeah. Me too. Yeah.

[01:38:35] Jeff Nesbitt: for it. Let me take a RIN nation. Oh, you're gonna want to, you're gonna have the impulse to walk out that door and fall to your death. Ouch. Don't do it. Ouch. Go out the hatch that you came in. Ouch. I'm gonna hold

[01:38:52] Okay. Yeah. So this is the door of death. Yeah. My best friend had a door of death.

[01:38:58] I'm gonna stay up here. I'll be here.

[01:39:25] You think he'll think it's funny? I bet not.

[01:39:41] Nick Matson: Brand new man up. You feel better. Oh. Oh my god.

[01:39:51] Jeff Nesbitt: Oh, don't thank me. You did all the work. Huh? Don't thank me. You did all the work. Oh, yeah. Right. That's fair. And we're back. Have you ever heard of these? I'm sorry? Have you ever heard of these jelly beans bean bustled, the fiery five challenge? They're, uh, spicy jelly beans. Don't you get that shit near me? Jeff, I'm gonna eat these. I was gonna offer you something. , Jeffrey, Stanton. I'm not

[01:40:21] Jeff Nesbitt: dude.

[01:40:45] Absolutely. And you don't know how to Yeah, exactly. And I do like the inverted penis trick. Yep. You do a couple of wiener inners every night. That's

[01:40:57] Jeff Nesbitt: Well, I haven't, but no, for real though. We are talking about how we're both fairly, uh, centrist, moderate, yeah. Mm-hmm. , even if, like, I have certain views that I, where I'm extremely liberal mm-hmm. and other views where I'm extremely conservative, right? Mm-hmm. . And I think that makes you a moderate. I think that makes you a person.

[01:41:23] Nick Matson: Let's see. No man, that's

[01:41:32] Nick Matson: so we're gonna do a finished side spur right now, because holy, I watched your face.

[01:41:41] Jeff Nesbitt: not gonna be good, dude. I should have gone with the lighter ones first. Yes.

[01:41:48] Jeff Nesbitt: second to hottest Jeffrey. You fucked up my Lord. They'll get ya. Holy shit. . Have you ever watched hot ones?

[01:42:05] Nick Matson: buddy . Oh my

[01:42:11] Nick Matson: another one. That's a good idea.

[01:42:16] Nick Matson: flavor. Yeah.

[01:42:20] Jeff Nesbitt: that one tastes like Tim's cascade chips. Oh, you like a jalapeno chip?

[01:42:37] Jeff Nesbitt: weirdly picky about what's sweating under my eyes.

[01:42:44] Jeff Nesbitt: The whole thing? Probably. I hope so. I hope so too, buddy. So you, you don't do the spicy

[01:42:54] Jeff Nesbitt: stuff. Dude. You don't like candy that burns your face. Yeah, that doesn't

[01:43:03] Jeff Nesbitt: Hey, you want that beer?

[01:43:09] Nick Matson: Oh,

[01:43:19] Nick Matson: How you feeling now? That is better. That's good. That's good. Um, yeah. Anyway, you and I. More, uh, yeah, more just people who are open to, uh, their own ideas and things that influence them and aligning with morals and whatnot.

[01:43:41] Jeff Nesbitt: let's do a rapid fire, uh, yeah, let's do it. Political leaning thing. Okay. On all the, the big, the big issues issue. Okay. That sounds fun. Say your left, right, or center. Oh,

[01:43:52] Jeff Nesbitt: Or maybe, but like, we can do either one. Whatever, whatever information you wanna share about, I can go between both.

[01:44:12] Nick Matson: I can't answer that in a simple question. You know why? Why? Because I am a liberal gun owner.

[01:44:36] Jeff Nesbitt: What about the people who like guns?

[01:44:43] Jeff Nesbitt: laws thing, right?

[01:44:51] Nick Matson: wow. Yeah. We are very different on that. Um, so for example, I believe that the proletariat like myself, the people who must sell their labor for wages, right.

[01:45:09] Jeff Nesbitt: They are. That's true. Mm-hmm. , most countries, that's not a problem. Right. But here it

[01:45:27] Because I understand the military machine more than that, to believe that garbage. Yeah. We, we crushed You. Do not measure up. Crushed like little, but as far as the right of the peasant, the proletariat, the working class to utilize firearms as a tool for their own gain Yes. Is a human

[01:45:52] It's a tool. Yep. That's exactly right. Mm-hmm. just like a sazo. Mm-hmm. . It's just much better at killing people, um, a lot at once. So they need to be regulated in some way. Absolutely. In, in my opinion. Yeah. I,

[01:46:11] Jeff Nesbitt: are, that would break my heart.

[01:46:13] Nick Matson: um, I mean, I understand like it's, it's not like they're not needle,

[01:46:31] Police

[01:46:32] Nick Matson: interesting thing about this exact deal, the Second Amendment and who has the right to bear arms. Right. It is the right to arm and keep a militia of citizens. Correct.

[01:46:45] Nick Matson: do. You see 'em every day here in Chinook, you know who they are.

[01:46:58] Jeff Nesbitt: How is that possible? Isn't a militia like a, a ragtag group of friends who just want to do the right thing and shoot people,

[01:47:07] It

[01:47:09] Nick Matson: they do exist. Wow. Yeah.

[01:47:14] Nick Matson: Yeah. The smokey the Bears. Yeah. Yep. Mm-hmm. only you, they call the Smokey for a reason.

[01:47:20] Nick Matson: actually, that's the state. That is our state militias. The state trooper.

[01:47:24] Jeff Nesbitt: they think they're so great . Yeah. They're my least

[01:47:30] Jeff Nesbitt: because in like, how much of

[01:47:41] Jeff Nesbitt: Like real dicks.

[01:48:00] Jeff Nesbitt: Did you let her use your phone?

[01:48:04] Nick Matson: Not me, because I'm street smart enough to know that I never let anybody have anything. Well, cause I don't know their intentions,

[01:48:16] Nick Matson: well, that's the thing is then I'm like, okay, this person sought to ask me for stuff.

[01:48:37] You know, she just, things just don't seem quite right. Things, things look a little different. And, uh, the trooper, uh, looks over at me and says, yeah, well, you know, they always do and rolls up his window. . Yeah. Hmm. Oh, so, okay. I guess we maybe need to get ahold of the sheriff's office to

[01:49:02] Yeah. I like them. That was dumb.

[01:49:06] Jeff Nesbitt: Yeah. The state patrol, um, I haven't interacted with them for a couple years now. Mm-hmm. really, actually, they have changed the way they do business since Covid. They used to be really aggressive and they were constantly pulling people over. There were speed traps everywhere.

[01:49:26] Nick Matson: uh, oh man in that stretch from, uh, that stretch from napkin to, uh, Naselle used to be a terrible speech. Right. Never. That's, I got a ticket there.

[01:49:37] They were all in the car and I was like, damn it all going 55 in a 40 be, and actually the funny thing is the cop was on my ass. And I was going 50, but I thought this was 55. And I'm like, oh, I'm going five under, and this cop is riding my ass. So I'm just like, I'll speed up to 55. And so I sped out to 55 and she pulled me over and wrote me a ticket.

[01:50:02] Nick Matson: You know what this is? Oh god damn it. This is just one of those things, buddy, where like, for example, we're at a sheriff. My favorite thing about the sheriff's office, and I don't care what county you're talking about, is that usually as far as, you know, when, when I was growing up, in order to be a sheriff, you had to be a guy from the area.

[01:50:59] Kind of default to, oh, and I think it's 50 miles an hour. I didn't know

[01:51:06] Nick Matson: kinds of times when that happens. Right. And, and you can explain that to the officer. I was going 50 as you observed, going 50 and I was going 50 because I went to the default speaks I did not understand the speed limit.

[01:51:20] Jeff Nesbitt: Or the law Clearly. Or

[01:51:34] Jeff Nesbitt: like, they don't know me. No, they don't know this area.

[01:51:43] Jeff Nesbitt: Because you are going way too

[01:51:53] Jeff Nesbitt: man. Yeah. The world is crazy right now. Speaking of the fear.

[01:52:01] Jeff Nesbitt: No, I, I don't, um, we're not, we don't have time to get into all that.

[01:52:06] Nick Matson: yeah, I know. Oh yeah. And I guess

[01:52:25] Mm-hmm. . My opinion has become firmer. Actually, we will talk about it. Okay. Go ahead. Um, so I've always been, um, a pro-choice person. Mm-hmm. in my, in my adult life. And you've since changed the detect? No, uh, no I haven't. Um, I have become more firm in that. Oh, interesting. Like the reason more firm, the reason, the reason I'm pro-choice is because I don't trust the government to do anything, especially not regulate, regulate human lives.

[01:53:08] Screaming in their face to tell them that. Um, I think it's none of my business what people do with their bodies. Mm-hmm. And, um, yeah, I, and I would like to have autonomy over my own. Mm-hmm. So I've, I'm pro-choice for the, strictly for the reason that I, I'm a liberal on that one because I don't trust the government to regulate human lives or, or even human bodies for that matter.

[01:53:52] True. Mm-hmm. , like, it's, there's a lot of reasons why, um, that's, that's why I, I feel like I'm pro-choice, but it's complicated. It's not, it's, people want to hear one side or the other, and then they just put a lot of think connections to it. And it's, it's not that simple. It's, it's a very complicated issue.

[01:54:14] Nick Matson: Yeah. I'll fuck you up. Let's hear it. All right. I'm also pro-choice, but my reasons entirely different. The woman, uh, capable of having the child is a tax paying citizen and member of our society in the United States.

[01:54:56] Jeff Nesbitt: because it's not a citizen till it's born.

[01:55:09] No, no, absolutely not. That, that mother, her who she is and what she is, absolutely supersedes what it is or what it could be. 100%. Okay. She retains the right above that thing, period. Right. Because she is the only one who is conscious. Right. And a member of our society, a

[01:55:39] Nick Matson: Absolutely.

[01:55:45] Jeff Nesbitt: that's where I stand. Oh yeah. So, okay. I think I get what you're saying. Mm-hmm. . So, so why bother trying to supersede that authority? Absolutely. Like why it done

[01:55:58] Jeff Nesbitt: that's pretty cut and dry.

[01:56:18] How could we, oh, that's who I am. How could we refute it? Like what's, uh, . Yeah. Okay. We could go, we go heavy moral mm-hmm. and say like, oh, well, somebody's gotta protect the baby from these selfish mothers. Mm-hmm. . Um, it, it better be, you know, the government. Mm-hmm. , what would you say to that one? Oh,

[01:56:43] One. Um,

[01:56:48] Jeff Nesbitt: that that's the perfect, that right there would trigger so many people into a launch, into a irrelevant argument. It would, but luckily didn't get me. Luckily I'm a, I'm, I'm a, I'm thinking of my character. I'm like a Christian woman Absolutely. From the Midwest, and I'm heavily principal.

[01:57:04] Nick Matson: But luckily, the greater evil here would be if you allowed the child to be born into such in apostate environment.

[01:57:22] Nick Matson: Are you serious? And if you ha that, that's just my opinion is that if you have those values, then, then, Would you want them born into a belief system that you don't agree with and who cannot and refuses to

[01:57:38] They'll be taken care of. They won't. No. Not even a little bit. They won't. No, that's such a, such a true point. There's so many little ways for this argument to just squirt off into something that doesn't actually matter. Mm-hmm. that it, it rarely goes anywhere when you hear the discussion done publicly.

[01:58:08] Nick Matson: Hmm. ? No. So here's a little piece of Union town history. So my father, you know, growing up, he was one of the union town gang, uh, growing up.

[01:58:37] like 15 times a day while the luta fish was sitting out there and lie, the dogs just come by and piss on him. Piss on and piss on him. And he said he never ate. Luda Fisk. And, uh, for, for, for that story, neither have. .

[01:59:00] Woo. Oh man. Oh, bud. That was a hot one. Yeah, you're tough. I like spicy foods. Yeah, you must. I like, uh, I, I need, I need stimulation. Mm-hmm. . I have some bath, not bath salts. . I have some smelling salt if you want. So wheat. But if you, if you're into it. Yeah. Uh, I don't have any bath salts if you're into that Damn dude.

[01:59:25] Nick Matson: Don't want to eat our faces off here or anything.

[01:59:31] Nick Matson: oh my god. Story time available. Yeah. Oh my God. Let's hear about you eating somebody's

[01:59:42] It was like $20 and you could get high for days. Wow. Yeah. It was like methamphetamine very much. Oh, wow. It was not a good, not a good high. Um, oh man. Oh, Jeffrey. Mm-hmm. I, I kept breathing in the, the spit. I ain't getting in my lungs. Mm-hmm. . Um, the, uh, so the blue silk, they were, they were telling everybody it was synthetic cocaine, like it's legal, it's synthetic cocaine.

[02:00:30] Mm-hmm. and I, I didn't have a legal access to medication. Mm-hmm. , I was buying that on the black market too. Mm-hmm. so this stuff was like way cheaper. And I was trying to figure out the dosage to be able to use it, basically to medicate myself for adhd. Ended up getting,

[02:00:48] Jeff Nesbitt: got a little squirrely on me.

[02:01:15] So I had to flip the motor and have it roll back up the other way. My dad walked me through it on the phone and, um, I just did it in the parking lot. But, I realized really quickly like this stuff. . It's not good. This is not, this is garbage. Mm-hmm. ,

[02:01:29] Jeff Nesbitt: Yeah. Mm-hmm.

[02:01:39] Nick Matson: adrenal process and all that.

[02:01:44] Oh, sweet. They're really

[02:01:48] Jeff Nesbitt: the pillow perfectly in little look in my neck. I was just like, how have I never thought of this before? . I couldn't turn on the seat. fucking talking

[02:02:01] Jeff Nesbitt: have you ever tried to fit a butternut squash in the, in the nook of your

[02:02:04] No. That doesn't sound like my personality. I feel like I would experiment many ways with a butternut squash, but it would not be for sleeping.

[02:02:18] Mm-hmm. in the little breezeway on the linoleum. Mm-hmm. , because that was the only place I was safe. Everywhere else in the whole place was scary. And I needed to be able to quick escape. Oh man. Yeah. That's good shit. There was spirits in there. Every time I turned on the god the sink, I would see 'em outta the corner of my eye walking by

[02:03:06] Smart boy. Shit. It was a smart boy class. Mm-hmm. . And it was a, it was three questions, essay style questions. Like you had to design experiments to test for certain things. Mm-hmm. . Mm-hmm. . And so you had to identify like the neuroimaging techniques and, and the process and just mm-hmm. all the variables and all that.

[02:03:30] Nick Matson: logic matchup

[02:03:40] So I get, I get through the first question, um, and I'm feeling great. I've like erased the whole thing and redone it three times. Mm-hmm. and I'm like, fuck yeah, this, I'm killing this. And I look up, we had two and a half hours to work on this thing, . It's been two hours and 15

[02:03:59] Jeff Nesbitt: story I've ever heard.

[02:04:24] Yeah. Frozen. And I just stared at my professor because I, I was trying to get the nerve up to ask him for more time. And, um, at one point I realized I had just been staring at him for quite a while and he was looking terrified, . And I got up outta my seat and I was like, I better go talk to him to straighten this out.

[02:05:01] Yeah. But was, and in retrospect I can see that. So like,

[02:05:09] Jeff Nesbitt: Yeah. Yeah. Executive dysfunction to the mass. Yeah. Oh

[02:05:15] Jeff Nesbitt: um, exacerbated by chemical abuse. Yeah. It's like next level. Yeah. But he actually let me come to his office and, uh, And finished the test and he gave me like an extra hour and it went, it worked out.

[02:05:41] Nick Matson: Yeah, Dr. Derpy. Okay. Alright. He was Dr.

[02:05:45] Jeff Nesbitt: He was my statistics professor and he had a yellow mustache from smoking so many cigarettes. Sweet. Yeah. It was gross. Yeah. Um, but yeah, I, so after I finished the test with Dr. Grim, I, uh, was, you know, I was on top of the world. I had just, just slayed this test and clearly shown my merit to this guy and

[02:06:28] Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. . Yep. The, the studies where they have the rats with the bar, the cocaine, the Skinner boxes. Oh yeah. He did those. Okay. Uh, direct injection of cocaine in the rat brains, and I want it in. And, um, he looked at me like he, so he's studied the drugs for his entire career and he's looking at me, I'm drenched in sweat.

[02:06:51] Nick Matson: I

[02:06:57] Nick Matson: that would be a fucking, no, no.

[02:07:15] Like, I'm such an asset

[02:07:19] Jeff Nesbitt: Yeah. . Sometimes things don't work out. No . Yeah. I ended up doing well on the test though, so that was cool. Yeah. Yeah.

[02:07:31] Jeff Nesbitt: No. Damn. No. I was gonna let the rats free anyway, so they don't deserve that. They

[02:07:37] But you know, who deserves the cocaine? Who Jeffrey

[02:07:46] Nick Matson: those days. Oh yeah. You get old and it's not fun.

[02:07:52] Nick Matson: a little bit. Not at all. Mm-hmm. ? No. We used to have, uh, we used to play, uh, we used to play shows at this place called The Litter Box down in Eugene.

[02:08:14] Jeff Nesbitt: was bullet belt tough tiff of the bullet belt. Her name was tough. Come on, tell me something else. That doesn't sound like a lesbian cuz otherwise I can't get it outta my head.

[02:08:26] Nick Matson: there and, and then she just had these little tiny vials with corks and every single one of 'em had cocaine in them.

[02:08:38] Nick Matson: Little vials. Yeah. Yeah. She's working tough

[02:08:44] Sorry bud. Probably let you home to your family. Yeah. All right. Thank you so much for coming, man. This was a blast. I really enjoyed it. Yeah. Anything, uh, any closing words?

[02:09:01] No.

[02:09:15] I hope you've enjoyed this episode of Ramble by the River. If you did, it really helps us out if you leave us a rating or a review like us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. And if you want to get more involved and support the show, you can subscribe to our Patreon page for exclusive content bonus episodes in a Ramble by the River T-shirt with every Royal Rambler subscription after three months.

[02:09:57] It's my private ride. Ow. It's my, it's my time. It's my, I'm young. I'm free. Ain't nobody here. And. It's my time to ride. It's my time. It's my time. It's my time to ride now. It's your, it's your, oh, if you on the bus say Yeah. Yeah. If you on the train say Yeah. Yeah. If you got a walk, say here. Yeah. Everybody's going somewhere.

[02:10:51] I'm young, I'm free. Can't nobody here and now. It's my time to ride. It's my, it's my, it's my time to ride. I'm young. I'm free. Ain't here and now. It's my, it's, it's, it's,