GenX Adulting Podcast (00:16)
Welcome to Gen X Adulting. And today we have Beth Stevens, also known as Bennett Peach, with us. Welcome, Beth.

Bennett Peach (00:25)
Hello.

GenX Adulting Podcast (00:27)
We're so excited for you to join us today. And our first question is always what year were you born?

Bennett Peach (00:35)
I'm a baby gen X. I was born in nineteen seventy nine.

GenX Adulting Podcast (00:39)
You just make it in. That near the cutoff. 80's the cutoff. You are? Okay. Yeah, we we had Nick. Nick was on and I was like, I he might be, I think he's the youngest Gen X we've had, actually now that you mention that. So you guys just made it in.

Bennett Peach (00:46)
I'm older than Nick though.

I am older than Nick, even though he looks older than me. I'm a year older than him.

GenX Adulting Podcast (01:06)
But I mean, I still think seventy nine, eighty kids definitely had one hundred percent the Gen X experience, Gen X childhood. Cause even the older millennials did. Like the eighty one, eighty two, eighty three babies more relate with Gen X than with millennials.

Bennett Peach (01:23)
Yeah, and I've talked to some of my millennial friends because I'm I'm on the cusp, right? It's it's this kind of micro generation that I think we've kind of created for ourselves called Xennials because, you know, it's like from like 1977 up until like 1984. And I think that it it it really says a lot that all of us had the same experience and it's not necessarily because of our age, but it's because we were all poor.

GenX Adulting Podcast (01:34)
Yes.

Yes.

Bennett Peach (01:59)
We were just all poor. We

were forced to go outside to play because there wasn't nothing else better to do.

GenX Adulting Podcast (02:04)
Yes,

that's so true. That's so funny. my god, I never thought about it that way. I've never had anyone on and say that. And there was no cheap like Chinese toys at that point. No, no. Yeah, yeah. So it was you were really outside figuring it out. Okay, where were you born?

Bennett Peach (02:21)
I was born in North Carolina in a town called Durham.

GenX Adulting Podcast (02:24)
Okay. And do you know how far back the generations go? Like, was it your grandparents that settle settled there, your great grandparents?

Bennett Peach (02:35)
I know nothing.

GenX Adulting Podcast (02:36)
It

do you have family that lives there still, like extended family?

Bennett Peach (02:38)
Yeah.

so all of my grandparents are deceased. so not really. I have kind of family all around the central North Carolina area. Some live in like Chapel Hill area. my mom lives here, like three blocks from me. So, you know, that's that's kind of where we're at. but all of my grandparents are deceased, so I don't really have any family floating around.

GenX Adulting Podcast (02:46)
Okay.

Okay, did your parents meet there in Durham?

Bennett Peach (03:12)
So my mom, my mom met my sperm donor at a disco when she was fifteen or sixteen years old. She had skipped school with her friend and she saw him across the dance floor. He had this long flowing blonde hair, but he wasn't a blonde, like he was sun in dyeing it, you know. And she said he had on these white bell bottom, real tight pants.

GenX Adulting Podcast (03:35)
Yeah.

Bennett Peach (03:40)
And this real beautiful fluffy shirt or whatever. And she said she looked at her best friend and said, I need me a piece of that.

GenX Adulting Podcast (03:49)
I'm dying that your mom was fifteen or sixteen in a disco. Yeah.

Bennett Peach (03:53)
Yeah, yeah. She

was skipping school back then and yeah, they got married I think in either nineteen seventy seven or nineteen seventy-eight. And when she was pregnant with me in nineteen seventy-eight, she found out that he was actually a gigolo.

GenX Adulting Podcast (04:08)
my god. No.

Bennett Peach (04:10)
Mm. He was a pavement prince, man of the night. Yeah.

GenX Adulting Podcast (04:14)
Okay, so okay, so she yeah. In Durham. Yeah. In Durham, right? In Durham. Yeah. Okay. So she so when she was fifteen or sixteen, when what did that been like the late sixties when she met him? Like how old do you

Bennett Peach (04:18)
Amazing.

Yeah, yeah.

she sh i she was born in fifty nine. So she had me when she was twenty.

GenX Adulting Podcast (04:38)
Okay, so that would have been like like in the early seventies she met him and he he Yeah. Okay. So and she had no so when how how old were th she was twenty when they got married or twenty when she had you?

Bennett Peach (04:41)
Early seventies.

Yeah. Early to mid seventies, yeah.

She was twenty when she had me. She was nine she was nineteen when they got married.

GenX Adulting Podcast (04:58)
Okay, so she graduated from high school and then they got married? No.

Bennett Peach (05:01)
No. No, she

didn't graduate from high school. She dropped out of school whenever she was, I don't know, around the same age, sixteen, probably. but she did get her GED after I was born and she had remarried to my stepdad. So 'cause 'cause after she found out my sperm donor was a gigolo, they divorced while he was in prison. And yeah, it's

GenX Adulting Podcast (05:09)
Okay.

Okay, okay.

Okay. That's

awesome. Okay, okay, okay. So so she's like fifteen, sixteen, she's going to discos, drops out of school, but falls in love with your biodad, let's say your sperm donor, as you called him. and but has no idea what he's doing, because he probably was doing that even when he first met her, I would assume.

Bennett Peach (05:44)
I'm sure he was a good looking man. Like

I'll I'll give it to him. He was a good looking man. I've seen pictures. But I don't know if he was that good looking for somebody to pay for it, but apparently. Apparently. I mean

GenX Adulting Podcast (05:49)
Yeah.

Right. Something magical happening there. Okay. And then

I mean, that's interesting, that he married your mom though doing that. What do you think it was because she got pregnant or do you think he would have married they would have gotten married either way?

Bennett Peach (06:12)
They were married whenever she got pregnant with me.

GenX Adulting Podcast (06:14)
Okay, so he decided to try to commit and do this traditional marriage while still being a gigola. What did she do you know what she thought he was doing for work until she found out the truth?

Bennett Peach (06:27)
Never asked. I never asked.

GenX Adulting Podcast (06:28)
I wonder what she thought he was doing.

Yeah, yeah. Just at a night job. Yeah, maybe. Well, I don't know. Is it only at night? They might be twenty four seven depending on the mood. That's true.

Bennett Peach (06:33)
Okay.

mean

he was he wa he was he was with a mom and a daughter at the same time. Like they had contracted him separately.

GenX Adulting Podcast (06:50)
and and then and then together they also Yeah. They were they were they they were so do you know how your mom found out?

Bennett Peach (06:53)
Pro probably. The seventies were a wild time.

She found condoms in his wallet. And she was like, What do you need these for? I'm, you know, I'm carrying your child. What in the hell do you need condoms for? And he was like, Well,

GenX Adulting Podcast (07:05)
Okay. So she probably just thought

So he just straight up told her what he did. He didn't even say, Well, I'm cheated on you. He went right for the I'm a jiggolo.

Bennett Peach (07:22)
I mean, I would assume because then, you know, something about somebody trying to run over with a car and there was a weapon involved. I'm not really sure. It was like I said, it was wild back then.

GenX Adulting Podcast (07:32)
Yeah, yeah. That's amazing. Okay. So so she becomes a single mom. Does she like move in with her parents or did she get like a little apartment for the two of you? Do you know what steps she took after they divorced?

Bennett Peach (07:45)
So my mom, my great-grandmother owned a trailer park in in Chapel Hill, and that's where she lived in a trailer in one of the trailer parks. And my stepdad and my sperm donor were apparently friends. And when my sperm donor went to prison, I want to say the conversation went like this in my head. This is how the conversation went.

GenX Adulting Podcast (07:49)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Bennett Peach (08:11)
Hey,

I'm getting ready to get locked up. I'm going upstate for a little while. Will you take care of my old lady? And he was like, Absolutely. And take care of her, he did.

GenX Adulting Podcast (08:17)
Okay. Okay. Okay.

He's like, no problem, bud, I got it. I got I will make sure it's good.

Bennett Peach (08:24)
No problem. I got you. Right. I'm pretty sure. I don't know

if that's actually how it went, but in my brain, that's how it went. Cause I have pictures of me sitting on my sperm donor's lap and they're all sitting around a table playing cards. Yeah. So they knew each other.

GenX Adulting Podcast (08:40)
Okay. Okay. So all right.

And and your mom knew your stepdad before they got involved with each other. They were friends or friendly or whatever in the same social circles. Okay, okay. What did your sperm donor go to prison for?

Bennett Peach (08:47)
Yes.

Yeah.

Arson and attempted murder.

GenX Adulting Podcast (08:58)
Wow. And was that separate from you guys? That was just a separate situation. Was this after after the divorce?

Bennett Peach (09:04)
Yeah. This

was the yeah, this she divorced him while he was in prison for something else, but then he went back to prison whenever I was probably like eight or nine. And that was for arson. And the he got I think the attempted murder ended up getting like dropped down at some point because he he never got convicted of that, but that's what they charged him with to begin with, because the house that he set on fire, there was a disabled person inside.

GenX Adulting Podcast (09:32)
my goodness. Mm-hmm.

Bennett Peach (09:33)
like a like a wheelchair or whatever. And

so they tried to hit him with that. But I think either he pled down or something. I don't know. I don't know. I just I just remember going to my visitation and asking my grandmother where it where he's at and she said well unfortunately he's not gonna be here and he's not gonna be here for quite some time because he's in jail and I'm like okay

GenX Adulting Podcast (09:40)
Right, right, right.

Okay. So you were you were aware of

him? Like were you raised to know he was essentially your bio dad and that your stepdad was

Bennett Peach (10:06)
yeah, I always

I always I always knew who my my dad was. I always knew he was my dad.

GenX Adulting Podcast (10:12)
Okay. But and but the relationship was limited because he was in prison basically?

Bennett Peach (10:18)
He was he was basically either in prison or in menstrual institutions my entire upbringing. so he was diagnosed with bipolar schizoaffective disorder, with borderline personality disorder. So he's not quite right. and so he's he's he's been in and out of my life all of my childhood and teenage years. And as soon as I became an adult, I made the decision that I

GenX Adulting Podcast (10:29)
Okay.

Bennett Peach (10:47)
went no contact with him probably fifteen years ago. I tried as an adult to have a, you know, a relationship, but but it was always very toxic. he would always want to trash talk my mom and blame other people for his actions and not take responsibility for the things that he did. And, you know, I always loved you see, I got

I got your name tattooed right here above my heart. I've always thought about you. Yeah, really? You always thought about me. You never paid child support and you always did the wrong things that kept you from me. So that how could you really, you know? So so yeah, I c I cut that that relationship off. he never he met my oldest child when she was just a baby, but he didn't he didn't even know that my youngest child, who's 25, even existed until his mother passed.

GenX Adulting Podcast (11:20)
Yeah, yeah.

Bennett Peach (11:37)
And I attended the funeral.

GenX Adulting Podcast (11:39)
Okay, okay. So how long yeah, how long after they divorced, how many years were there or how much time was there before your mom married your stepdad?

Bennett Peach (11:41)
So

my mom married my stepdad in nineteen eighty three, so not very long.

GenX Adulting Podcast (11:57)
Okay. So like

like three years or so, right? You were born seven nine?

Bennett Peach (12:00)
I think she probably

divorced my sperm donor probably in either seventy nine after I was born or either in eighty. So yeah, somewhere between two and three years. and then my baby brother was born in eighty four, so

GenX Adulting Podcast (12:09)
Okay.

Okay, so they get married and then your baby brother is born. So you so you basically then did have that conventional family, it sounds like that family life. Was your stepdad, you viewed him as your father, would you say, growing up?

Bennett Peach (12:30)
Yeah. Yeah, he was the one that was present. So yeah.

GenX Adulting Podcast (12:34)
Okay. And did you guys stay where you were i living in the trailer park that your grandma owned, or did they move somewhere else once they got married and had your brother?

Bennett Peach (12:46)
So we moved to a a little town outside of Siler City called Silk Hope and that's where my stepdad's parents lived. And we had, they had chicken houses, my granddad did, two lay-in houses. And we had a single-wide trailer like tucked up into the woods right behind the chicken houses. And we did not have running water in the trailer for quite some time, and we did not have adequate power.

GenX Adulting Podcast (13:06)
Mm-hmm.

Bennett Peach (13:15)
So it was run from the chicken house and we would have like a water hose run and we had an outhouse and stuff. So that's how I grew up. That's why I was picked on as a child because I was poor, you know. We got a I you know, it was one of those things where kid kids see that what you live in and you know, they judge you for that. And you know, it is what it is.

GenX Adulting Podcast (13:30)
Yeah.

What part of is that in Appalachia area? that town? What part of North Carolina is that?

Bennett Peach (13:42)
so it's direct

n Siler City is like directly in the center of the state. So we're about three hours from the beach, three hours from the mountains.

GenX Adulting Podcast (13:53)
Okay. Okay. Is that near Durham?

Bennett Peach (13:56)
it's about an hour from Durham, yeah.

GenX Adulting Podcast (13:59)
So was this his dad, his dad's property, your stepdad's property, or was it your mom's property?

Bennett Peach (14:06)
It was my step dad's family's property.

GenX Adulting Podcast (14:08)
Okay. So you grew up they were essentially your grandparents and then your mom's parents. were they so that was kind of your extended family? Were there aunts and uncles and cousins?

Bennett Peach (14:15)
Yes.

So

I don't have any first cousins.

GenX Adulting Podcast (14:27)
Does your

Bennett Peach (14:27)
I know people

give me the face whenever I say that. so my mom has two siblings and they never had children. My aunt has Turner syndrome, and that's a form of dwarfism. I don't know if you've ever heard of that, but that made it to where she could not have children. And my mom's brother never had kids. He's I think he's been married once before and he's married now.

GenX Adulting Podcast (14:44)
Yeah, I know.

Bennett Peach (14:55)
But they he's never had any children either. So, now my sperm donor, his sister had a son, but I did not grow up with him. I did not you know what I mean? So I don't really consider that a cousin. So whenever people say, you got cousins and stuff, I I don't because I you know, I just don't. So and it people

GenX Adulting Podcast (15:07)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Have you ever

Right. Right. And what about your step

your stepdad? Did he have siblings?

Bennett Peach (15:20)
he did. He had a brother and he did not have any biological children. He got married. gosh, I was probably thirteen or fourteen years old and she already had three children. but again, I don't really consider that because we didn't grow up together. It wasn't I had second cousins, but I I don't have any first cousins. And a lot of people think that's very weird. Which I mean I guess it is, but

GenX Adulting Podcast (15:43)
Yeah, no

I I'm trying to think because I only had if you're talking about first cousins, I only had well no, I guess on my dad's side. I was thinking about my mom's I only had two, but my dad I'm our the Armenian side, because we reproduce like rabbits. There was a bunch of My best friend as a kid didn't have cousins. Your best friend? Yeah, now that I think about I had a ton, but he didn't have any and Yeah, it didn't wasn't really a thing. I didn't grow up with first cousins because my parents divorced when I was young.

And I went to Oregon and my dad st was in Michigan, but I had a I had second cousins and they ended up being more like first cousins to me. I grew up with them but my first cousins and I were not close. So but yeah, there's but you you're Irish, so again, there they don't No, I'm not the other extreme. I probably have twenty. Yeah, you have ones you probably don't even know about. Yeah, probably. So with your w were you and your brother well, what was the age difference with you and your brother? What, like four years?

Bennett Peach (16:42)
Four and a half years, yeah. He was born in eighty four.

GenX Adulting Podcast (16:44)
So were you guys pretty

tight? Were you guys pretty tight? 'Cause it sounds like was kinda like you guys. No. Okay. Okay. Okay. So growing up

Bennett Peach (16:51)
No. No. And we're not closed now.

Even in adults.

No, I bec I think it's because it's like a four and five year difference. Because, you know, seventy-nine to eighty-four. we just lived two totally different lives. By the time I was, you know, going out and dating and job and all this other good stuff, he was still sitting on the floor playing Nintendo, you know. So we didn't really have a whole lot in common. plus he used to decapitate my Barbie dolls and hang from the tree house. So

GenX Adulting Podcast (17:02)
Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Well yeah, that would do it, honestly. That would do it and

Bennett Peach (17:29)
You know, he was a little demented shit. So but and

GenX Adulting Podcast (17:36)
So and it's not like you guys then it sounds like you didn't have that period where sometimes when you're younger and there's a spacing, but then as you guys get older, you find common interests and get close at that point, but that never happened for you guys.

Bennett Peach (17:48)
No,

no. He we t whenever I got old enough, I knew I wanted to join the military because I wanted to get the hell out of Dodge. and he tells me all the time that I just left him.

GenX Adulting Podcast (17:56)
Mm-hmm.

Mm. Okay.

Bennett Peach (18:02)
because whenever I joined, I joined when I was 17 to the Army National Guard. And what they had back then, and I don't know if they still have it now, but it was called a split up. and what you would do is you would, excuse me, you would go to your basic training during the summer of your junior going into your senior year. So that summer you would go and do all of that. And then you would come back for your senior year, and then after you graduated, you would go to AIT, which is where you learn your job.

And so I was gone a lot. And I worked sometimes two jobs whenever I was in high school because, you know, my my my mom and my stepdad went on a they separated for a little while whenever I was in high school and we moved out and in order to help with bills and such, I had two jobs after school, you know, I was waiting tables and doing whatever I could trying to help provide for the house.

GenX Adulting Podcast (18:34)
Right.

Right. That's it.

Bennett Peach (19:02)
so I mean, I we didn't really have a whole lot of time to spend together like that. and then whenever I got home from AIT, I want to say it was beginning of August of 1997, September of 1997, my unit was deployed to Bosnia and I was gone for nine months. So

GenX Adulting Podcast (19:06)
Yeah. Yeah.

Okay.

Bennett Peach (19:30)
Like said, he feels like I left him. And he'll tell you that if you ever ask him, he he'd be like, yeah, she abandoned me. She just up and left. So

GenX Adulting Podcast (19:33)
Right.

And he's not even joking, is

he like kinda salty about it?

Bennett Peach (19:43)
He might be a little salty.

GenX Adulting Podcast (19:44)
Yeah, yeah.

There's an underlying thing there, maybe But I mean it makes everything you said makes makes perfect sense. So when you okay, when you were younger then and you started school, you said that you would get picked on. So in that that town was there was a very divided of kids who were affluent and kids who were poor. Was it really obvious?

Bennett Peach (19:48)
Probably. Probably. I mean it is what it is.

yeah. In the school that I went to, you could tell which ones were the rich kids. and they may not have, you know, looking back, I don't really think these kids were rich. I think that they were just middle class or upper middle class. But to me, right. Yeah, but to me, it was like, you got a house with two stories, you rich.

GenX Adulting Podcast (20:22)
Right. Right. Right. Right. But if you compare it, of course. Yeah.

Right. Or or running water. Or you know yeah.

Bennett Peach (20:36)
Right. Well, I mean,

we didn't live like that forever. In nineteen eighty-eight, they did buy a a double wide and that got moved in and we had power and running water. But you know, from from like nineteen eighty-three up until about nineteen eighty-eight, we lived in that single wide behind. And they did put plumbing in eventually, but I do remember distinctly having to take showers outside with the water hose because we did not have plumbing in the house yet.

And I'd distinctly having to go outside at night with a flashlight to go to the bathroom because there was the outhouse, you know? So

GenX Adulting Podcast (21:11)
Yeah,

I mean that takes the Gen X garden hose experience. You've leveled that up to like a thousand. Like no one can pop that. It's like when we all talk about drinking out of the garden hose, you're like, wait a minute. Hold my beer. Yeah. Yeah. I got this. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. So I mean that because that's a lot of years still.

Bennett Peach (21:25)
Right. Hold my hold my hold my wine bottle here. Or in my case the box. Here, hold my box of wine. I got you.

GenX Adulting Podcast (21:37)
Like eighty-three to eighty eight, that's still and those are formative years, like to have that experience. That sticks with you for sure. So and it sounds like were you kind of on property and on the outskirts? Like were you able to do that typical Gen X, get on your bike, go hang out with your friends, be gone all day and come back when the streetlights came on? Do you had access to that? Okay.

Bennett Peach (21:58)
There were no streetlights. There were no

street lights. We were out in the middle of the country. Yes, did I get on my bicycle and ride for miles? Yes, but it was down country back roads. And if I wanted to go to my friend's house, that was like half a day's bike ride. And I I would get to her house long enough to have a glass of water and say hey, and then have to turn around and go back home because it took me that long to bike to her house, you know? Yeah. So

GenX Adulting Podcast (22:20)
Wow.

Wow. Okay. Okay.

So that's so you were out there. You were so how did you how did you spend your time? Like when you would get home from school, you're not latchkey. Well was your what'd your mom do? Was she a stay at home mom or was she working?

Bennett Peach (22:29)
Yeah, we were out there.

My mom stayed at home until my brother went to school. So I guess that would have been

Probably around the same time we got the the double wide I eighty eight, somewhere around in there. she went to work. but she did she did night school as well to get her GED at some point. Cause she used to take me to class with her. I remember sitting in a desk coloring while she was at school. so I have those memories of that. But she stayed at home with my brother and I until he went to school. And then whenever he started school, she went and got a job.

GenX Adulting Podcast (22:52)
Okay.

Mm.

Bennett Peach (23:17)
I want to say her first job out there was like dispatch. Cause she knew all the cops in town, like every single one of I couldn't get away with shit.

GenX Adulting Podcast (23:20)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Bennett Peach (23:28)
When I tell you I couldn't get away with shit, I mean it. Like they would have her on the phone before, you know, they're like, Miss Stevens, I just wanna let you know this we have your daughter right here. I mean I could not get away with nothing. So

GenX Adulting Podcast (23:38)
Ha ha ha

That's like multi

level because you're already in kind of a small town, right? And well how big was the yeah. How big was the town?

Bennett Peach (23:47)
Yeah.

So Siler City is maybe a population of about 10,000. But it's growing. It's growing so much. And and I'm it was way less then, back in the 80s, but but now it's probably around eight to ten thousand, but it's getting ready to grow a lot. for some odd reason they think that we should have a Disney themed freaking cul-de-sac home place around. God, yes, it's the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. Yeah.

GenX Adulting Podcast (23:55)
Okay. Yeah.

No. No way. Really? Wow.

Bennett Peach (24:20)
It's called Astoria.

GenX Adulting Podcast (24:20)
that's too bad. Yeah. I mean, is that like legit? Like where Disney's like they're sponsoring it and it's an actual legit. Yeah, that's so many people are moving to North Carolina anyways. You don't need I mean you're full. Like that's what we say from Florida. We're like, please stop. Yeah. Yeah. The South is full. Stop.

Bennett Peach (24:32)
We're full.

We're frickin' full. Please go the hell home.

I mean, I just I need

you to just stay. And what kills me, and I'm just I'm gonna go on a tangent here because it pisses me off. I have lived in this state, this beautiful state of North Carolina, my entire life. I love this state because it is so awesome. We are you know, where I live right now, I am three, maybe three and a half hours to the beach, three, maybe three and a half hours to the mountains. I can go either way. And I know that that's why people want to come here. They say that it's

GenX Adulting Podcast (24:45)
Yeah.

Bennett Peach (25:11)
Rural life, country life. It's so beautiful. And you have all these fields. Well, the more you come here, the less the fields are. The more you come here, the less country it is. The more you come here, the more it pushes us who've been here our entire lives out because you have priced our property taxes through the roof. And we can't afford to stay here. And you left New York.

GenX Adulting Podcast (25:23)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Bennett Peach (25:37)
You left Pennsylvania. You left these areas because it was so congested and it was so citified and all these other things. And then you come here and then you bitch because there's not a Starbucks five miles from your house. That's what happens when you move here, Sarah. You smell cow shit and you're gonna have to make your own damn coffee.

GenX Adulting Podcast (25:53)
Yeah. Yeah.

It's so true though. It's so true. And that's happened down here in Florida where we just see it just. Well, they moved here first that are like, fuck this, it's too expensive. There's too much traffic. We're going halfway back and they go in North Carolina. Yeah. No. And South Carolina too has gotten hit real bad. The Carolinas. No, it's

Bennett Peach (26:18)
Yeah, it's it's gotten really bad. It's gotten really bad.

And I know it's because we have beautiful state. I get that. I understand. Come visit and go the hell home.

GenX Adulting Podcast (26:25)
Yeah, yeah. No, it is gorgeous. We love North Carolina, but don't worry, we're we're staying here. We might move to a different part of Florida.

Bennett Peach (26:31)
Listen, I don't mind if you come here and you're

cool. I don't mind if you come here and you're cool. Just don't, you know, just don't try and make it like what you left, you know?

GenX Adulting Podcast (26:39)
The problem. Everyone leaves to go somewhere else and they try to change where they go. Yeah. Go and enjoy it. Don't don't mess it up. Well they're and they're doing it in Texas. Yeah, totally. Yes. It's that's what's happening in Texas too. I everywhere it's everywhere. It's it we I don't know. It that it's a whole thing. It what you're talking about, people talk about down here too, because it's changes just the whole demographic of the state too. And people complain about things. It's like this is why we enjoy living here.

Bennett Peach (26:44)
Yes.

Right. Don't fuck it up for the rest of us. You know?

GenX Adulting Podcast (27:09)
Have you ever been to Orlando? You ever been to Orlando area?

Bennett Peach (27:13)
А лонг, лонг, лонг там аго від мої сменми тук на Дізні.

GenX Adulting Podcast (27:17)
So what's happening there now is they're building everywhere. But there's some farmers that have held up or held out and there's farms with like cows and stuff surrounded by like resorts and weird country roads. Cause they're like, Well, I live here, but it's completely swallowed them up. Yeah. I love to see it though. Totally. I love it. I love it. No, every time we pass, I'm like, Yes, hold on, hold on as long as you can. Yeah, but I was thinking 'cause so that

Bennett Peach (27:34)
I love that for them though, that they're standing their ground. I love that for them.

GenX Adulting Podcast (27:44)
The town you grew up in is relatively small speaking. So in small towns, people kinda know eventually what everyone's doing. And then if your mom knows all the cops, like you really couldn't get away with you had the double whammy right there. So you all eyes were on you. But during that time when she so when she went to work, were you latchkey then or your grandparents were there? Like was there ever a time where you were coming home to an empty house?

Bennett Peach (28:11)
Yes. Yes. We can't I came home to an empty house every single day because she didn't get off work until six o'clock. And we got off the school bus at like 345. And I would be responsible for my brother until my mom got home. Granted, my my grandparents were just down the road, like within eye shot. Like they could see our house. So it's not like we were completely

GenX Adulting Podcast (28:23)
Okay.

Okay.

Bennett Peach (28:37)
you know, left to our own devices. But I mean, we we kinda were. I mean, I I did come home and have to fix my brother an after school snack and get him started on his homework and, you know, things like that. And sometimes pull out dinner to start it, you know, 'cause my stepdad worked as a construction worker and he didn't get home until dark. So, you know.

GenX Adulting Podcast (28:53)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, that's that's latch

key. That's the latchkey experience. but a lot a lot of a little parental participation. Yeah, yeah. so for a lot of latchkey kids, they would do their chores or have their snack, whatever, and then hit the neighborhood with their friends. But you were so out there. What did you I mean, I assuming you maybe we didn't really I don't know, we didn't have homework. No one cared about homework but back then. But what did you do? Were you

kind of just out on your own on on the property, like kind of entertaining yourself? Are you watching MTV constantly? Like how did you entertain yourself?

Bennett Peach (29:40)
So we couldn't afford cable. So I didn't have MTV until we moved to the trailer park whenever I was a teenager, until we had cable. so we did not have like a satellite dish or anything like that because we couldn't afford that. and cable wasn't ran out into the area where I lived at the time. but since my grandpa had a chicken farm, I would go up to the chicken houses and help him pick up eggs for fifty cents a belt.

GenX Adulting Podcast (30:08)
Mm.

Bennett Peach (30:09)
After I got my brother situated, I would go, I would walk up the dirt road to the chicken houses and I would take a belt and I would pick up eggs. And that was my job. I learned how to drive a stick shift truck when I was nine years old. I was backing up crates of eggs when I was nine. So and then and then taking that truck to the store with a note that says, please let her buy a pack of Marlboro one hundreds for my grandma, you know.

GenX Adulting Podcast (30:23)
Okay. Okay.

Okay, so so you're nine, you're driving a s a stick, a manual truck with with with money and a note to go buy marble reds for your grandma. That's amazing. Not Marble one hundreds. Marble one hundreds. Again, you've leveled up the Gen X experience because we were walking to the corner store or

Bennett Peach (30:43)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Marlboro One Hundreds. Marlboro One Hundreds. One hundreds. Mm-hmm.

GenX Adulting Podcast (31:02)
Going to the diner and putting money in that the cigarette machine and pulling the thing and then bringing the cigarettes back. You drove there in a six shift truck. And not again. I don't know. I don't know if anyone can top your experience. You're a country girl. Definitely. But but but like even though you're 79, you've already leveled up the Gen X childhood experience way more than the I we're 71.

And I'm telling you our mine's and I feel like I went through a lot, but I just had to walk to the store with the note and I didn't drive that's really cool actually. So okay, so you were working a farm essentially, like right that after school. in school during your elementary years, what were your interests? Were you into athletics, art, clubs, theater, music, anything?

Bennett Peach (31:43)
Mm-hmm. Yep.

Nothing. I hated school. I hated to be there. I absolutely hated to be there. I especially when I got to high school, I tried to show up as least amount as possible so much that I failed my sophomore English and I had to go to summer school. Cause I hated it. I tried to learn all of my classes through osmosis, you know.

GenX Adulting Podcast (31:57)
Okay.

Okay. Okay.

Was was it because of the bullying?

Bennett Peach (32:19)
I think whenever I was young, yes. but whenever I was in high school, it was I think out of necessity because I was working so much. I got my first job like outside of working a farm because I worked on the farm ever since I was able to go up there and and do it, you know, like five years old. I remember going up there and helping my grandpa. but whenever I got my workers permit, I wanna say I was like fourteen and a half, I started working at a movie store.

Which was kind of like a Temu version of a blockbuster. and I was, I would go in there and I would dust shelves. I would remove the boxes of the movies and just dust the shelves. And that was a really cool job though, because I got all access to all the posters and all the the cardboard cutouts and stuff. I had a cardboard cutout of Patrick Swayze, like a life-sized from Dirty Dancing, because they were gonna throw it away. I was like, Can I have that? And I took it home and I

GenX Adulting Podcast (32:51)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Wow. Man.

Bennett Peach (33:15)
I put it in my bedroom and I kiss that thing good morning and kiss that thing goodnight every single day. I love missing Padre Swayze.

GenX Adulting Podcast (33:19)
that's funny.

I can't believe they were gonna

Yes, I can't believe they were gonna throw him away. That sacrilege. my goodness. No.

Bennett Peach (33:28)
I know. I

also got the cardboard cut out of Babe. Do you remember when that movie came out? Yeah, they were gonna throw that other out too. Yeah.

GenX Adulting Podcast (33:32)
Yes, yes. Yes, yes, no. That's

man. I remember when Twilight was out, we bought our daughter a cardboard cutout of that guy Taylor t yeah, Taylor Lautner. And it she had it in her room. And I think she also kissed that good morning and good night. But it was scare Brian every time he walked by her room. He'd be like ready to like fight. But you couldn't get them for free 'cause Blockbuster was gone after that. So it's cool that you were able to get all that.

Bennett Peach (34:00)
Right.

GenX Adulting Podcast (34:01)
All that merch. After okay, so during elementary you basically went to school, came home, took care of your brother, worked the farm, went and bought cigarettes in the truck. was your elementary like kindergarten through six or was it like K through eight? The school?

Bennett Peach (34:14)
Mm-hmm.

It was

K through eight. I think there is only about a handful of those types of schools in North Carolina. And I'm pretty sure they're all in this county that still exist where it's K through eight. there most places separate the middle schoolers from the younger kids, but but yeah.

GenX Adulting Podcast (34:31)
Where it's K three.

Right.

Okay. How old were you when you s took one of your grandmother's cigarettes? What was like the first time.

Bennett Peach (34:49)
I was nine. whenever I smoked one of her cigarettes, I didn't have to get my my grandma's. I would go into the ashtray of my mom's and steal some of her merit lights, like the butt, and then and then go up to the chicken house and light it behind the chicken house and and I thought I was I thought I was big shit back then. I remember taking my friend that was only my friend on the weekends because she didn't want to get picked on at school.

GenX Adulting Podcast (34:50)
Yeah, okay. No, I mean where you still want to smoke it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Okay.

Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yes.

my god.

Bennett Peach (35:16)
I

took her up to the chicken house one day and I was like, come on, Megan, let's go smoke. Let's go smoke. Everybody's doing it, let's go smoke. It's like, I don't want to. You're a bad influence. And she literally said that. so we go up there and you know, I had stole like two or three butts out of the ashtray. I think my stepdad at the time smoked Winston's and she was smoking the GPC's.

GenX Adulting Podcast (35:23)
Yeah, yeah.

my god.

Yeah.

GPCs, man, I haven't heard that in a forever. my god.

Bennett Peach (35:45)
GPC stands for general piece of crap. That's what that stands for.

That is the shit that is on the floor in the tobacco you know, warehouse or whatever. They they sweeped up and threw it. And then they just rolled it up. yeah. It's got like dust mites and all kinds of shit in there. That is the worst thing. So anyway, we go back up there and I had matches because I

GenX Adulting Podcast (35:54)
Yeah.

Yes.

A little hair in there, some earth.

Yeah.

Bennett Peach (36:11)
I didn't want to get busted, so I didn't steal nobody's lighter. So I I had matches. And I'm standing there and we're outside and I just kept doing this. I wasted probably 15 matches trying to light that damn cigarette. Finally got a halt of it and I thought I was gonna be cool and I held it like I was smoking a doobie instead of a cigarette. You know, you smoke like this, that's a cigarette. But if you smoke like this, that's you know, you're you're way cooler. So I handed it to her like this, because I'd seen it in the movies, you know.

GenX Adulting Podcast (36:26)
Yes. Yes. yeah. Yes.

Bennett Peach (36:36)
Here you go. And she took one puff all that sucker and I swear to God she coughed for five days. We get back to the house and my mama looks at her and says, Megan, why are you coughing like that? She's like I'm choking on the chicken dust.

GenX Adulting Podcast (36:41)
Yeah.

Hey, that's quick thinking. Yeah, she didn't sew you up. That is quick thinking.

Chicken dust. I love it. It probably was as bad as chicken dust. That's I remember doing that. I remember taking butts out of my grandma's ashtray and she would smoke it down. So I mean, I think I got one hit. And it was so harsh, but I was like, this is great. This is good. This is good stuff. And I you had to hold it like a joint, also, because it was so short, there was no room to go like this. So you're like just

Bennett Peach (37:00)
Uh-huh.

Mm.

felt like such grown ups too. It's like, my God.

Right. Right. They

would just listen, with them them Winstons were so daggum expensive though, you couldn't afford to leave much.

GenX Adulting Podcast (37:32)
Right,

right. My mom smoked Virginia Slims. So that's I remember I would sneak those.

Bennett Peach (37:36)
There's a lot of women

back then that smoked the Virginia Slims. I I know a lot of women that that did that back then. But she was she I remember distinctly her smoking the Merritt lights. And then when those got up to like, I don't know, ninety-eight cents a pack, she was like, Screw that. I can't afford that shit. Let me go get these GPC pieces of shit. my God. It's so funny.

GenX Adulting Podcast (37:39)
Yes.

Yeah. That's it. She had her limit and the ninety eight cents. That was it. I remember

when I started actually smoking, smoking like in high school, it was camel lights. I loved camel lights. And like all the other girls were more like lighter type although I had some girlfriends that smoked Marlboro Reds and I thought those were harsh, but I loved my camel lights. I d I think kids now, if they're gonna do anything, should be cigarettes, not the vaping.

I s I tell that to people all the time.

Bennett Peach (38:23)
I'm still on the cigarettes. Although although I'm, you know, back in the nineties, you know, it was really cool to do the organic American spirits.

GenX Adulting Podcast (38:31)
Yes, yes.

Spirits. Okay, so I have a I have a carton, not a or not a it's not called a carton, a pack. A pack. we we have a humidor in our room where there's some dying cigars that haven't been smoked that have been sitting there for ten years. But I have a pack of American spirits for my emergency when I need a cigarette. And it's this is organic because I'm like, they're they're healthier. I'm yes, yes, yes.

Bennett Peach (38:57)
It's like a diet cancer.

GenX Adulting Podcast (39:01)
I mean at least a slow burn. At least it's organic, you know, so but sometimes a good cigarette. But again, I think the vaping is worse. That's just my opinion. That's all I say. Yeah. It it it's coming back.

Bennett Peach (39:03)
Don't know.

Need to go back to smoking. I think we do. I mean, listen, I I I look at

it like this. I am 47 years old and I'm a whino and I smoke like a freight train and and I cuss like a sailor. Either my mouth is gonna get me in trouble and somebody's gonna off me, my liver's gonna give out, or I'm gonna get lung cancer. Either way, none of us are gonna get out of this alive. Leave me alone.

GenX Adulting Podcast (39:32)
It's true.

It's true.

Bennett Peach (39:34)
Let me say the word

fuck. Let me have my alcohol and let me smoke my damn cigarettes and leave me alone. If you don't like it, walk away.

GenX Adulting Podcast (39:41)
Amen. Amen. I'm telling you. And I will say cigarettes are coming back. I don't know if you've noticed, but they're starting to it's great. Like there's right. Right. Yeah, you were on your own for a while, I bet, right? Probably been ten, fifteen years Yeah.

Bennett Peach (39:47)
I have noticed and I'm liking it. I don't feel like a leper.

The judgmental assholes. Whenever I would, whenever I

used to work with the public, I worked, I worked in the jewelry industry for many, many, many years. retail. And so I would, we would have to go down this long ass hallway out to the dumpster area of the mall and get behind like this little thing and like with all the trash and the cockroaches standing there, and then you meet eye to eye.

GenX Adulting Podcast (40:13)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Bennett Peach (40:22)
With somebody else is just as much as a heathen as you are, and you're just like, what's going on?

GenX Adulting Podcast (40:26)
Yeah.

The smoker's tent. And then if someone if someone walks by you, they give you the look, like, Yeah. Or they walk walk a f fifty feet away from you so they don't smell it. Yeah. No

Bennett Peach (40:36)
Do the judgmental jackasses. I'm like, listen, Linda, mind your business. Leave me alone.

my God. And I'm gonna

say what nobody says. I'm gonna say the the the really honest part that nobody else wants to admit. I like smoking. I like the way it feels when it hits my throat. I like the way that it calms my nerves and makes me not want to murder people.

GenX Adulting Podcast (40:59)
Mm-hmm.

Yep. Yep. I'm telling you, there is there is nothing like a cigarette. There isn't. No, I'm telling you. Yeah. no shit. Wow.

Bennett Peach (41:14)
That's why I can't go to prison because you can't smoke in prison anymore. Yeah.

My brother-in-law just got out of prison. he was there for I don't remember how many years. and he took his first cigarette and he was like, this is best shit ever.

GenX Adulting Podcast (41:33)
That's like a double punishment. That's like a double punishment, honestly. That's I bet the price doubled between

Bennett Peach (41:35)
Yeah.

I would I'm not built

for prison. I'm not built for prison. I would be someone's bitch so fast. I am not I would, I would I I would probably suck toes for a cigarette while if I was in prison. I would do probably about whatever they needed me to do.

GenX Adulting Podcast (41:42)
Yeah, no. Do you have a cigarette? I'll do whatever you want.

my god. It is enjoyable. And I'm telling you, why mark my words, over the next like year to three years, you're gonna start seeing it again in movies, you're gonna see it in TV shows. You're gonna start seeing because celebrities are already doing it and getting their pictures taken and they're being those pictures are being put out. So they've approved those pictures. What's that one the that she's maybe a model Emily Rodd?

I don't, yeah, I know who you're talking about, but I don't want to follow her. Well, no, I just she smokes. And they put stuff up on like Instagram. They were like her birthday party or some shit. Yeah. And I've I've seen everybody was smoking. I've seen I saw an influencer. He's great. I don't know his name, but him and his husband host like dinner parties, and they have a smoking like bar, and they have cigarettes, like how you you'd have the cigarette girls walking around. They have it like on a tray where it's not even in a package.

You just pick up the cigarette and then they have the fancy lighters and cigars. And I'm telling you, it's it there's gonna be there's gonna be a flip. Okay, so I'm assuming in high school you were in the smoker section. What was yours called in high school?

Bennett Peach (42:50)
I love that.

so the year I started high school, about halfway through the year, we used to have a like a courtyard area. Our our school was built in like a box kind of, and in the center of that box there was a like a yard with concrete walkway and like little picnic tables and stuff. And that was the smoking section. during half of the school year, I guess they must have had a big ass PTA meeting or whatever, and they decided all of a sudden that smoking was not.

healthy for us teenagers to be doing while we were on school property. So they banned us. We had to be off school property. So I would be across the street, smoking my Marlboro Reds, Cowboy Killers is what we used to call And the the cross country coach, he was everybody thought that he was the most handsome teacher that we had. And he was Coach Oakley. He was a very good looking man. he was gay.

GenX Adulting Podcast (43:44)
Yeah.

Bennett Peach (43:59)
We did not realize that's that is that he had a whole ass husband, but he was gay. but I mean it was the nineties. It wasn't like something that you kind of, you know, it wasn't like a known thing. Yeah, you know, and we're in the south. It wasn't one of those things, but he was he was a cross country coach and listen, I'm five foot two. I'm not tall.

GenX Adulting Podcast (44:08)
Yeah. Well North Carolina Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Can't do that. Yeah.

Bennett Peach (44:21)
I have very short ham hock legs, but this man every morning would go, You got runners legs? Nick put them cigarettes down and come to practice. I'm like, no, if you see me running, that's cause the Krispy Kreme hot signs on or the police is chasing my ass. I ain't running for shit.

Runners legs my ass.

GenX Adulting Podcast (44:43)
my god. So you I love it. Wait, so would you be like off campus smoking and the cross country team would run by? Or was it just the coach? Okay.

Bennett Peach (44:52)
Yes. It was just the coach, but I mean I'm sure that

they did at some point because, you know, the where we would smoke at, we were like kind of caddy corn kind of caddy cornered to where the tennis courts were and the track. So yeah, I'm sure they could see us. I mean it was it was fine. It was fine.

GenX Adulting Podcast (45:05)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Was there a

smoking age back then in North Carolina or was that did that come later?

Bennett Peach (45:16)
I wanna say you were sixteen or eighteen at one point. I know I know that they changed it to twenty-one after I was already an adult. So but I mean I would go to the bowling alley with my parents. My my parents were in a bowling league back in the the nineties and there was a whole ass cigarette machine right there beside the pool tables, and you know, if you got enough quarters, you can just go over there and pop out. And we God, yes.

GenX Adulting Podcast (45:19)
Okay.

Yeah. Right, right. I think North Carolina was probably cold now.

Yeah. yeah.

yeah. Yeah. And Bolin always were the best, right? It was just fucking

loud. An inversion of smoke on a Thursday night or whatever the league nights were.

Bennett Peach (45:49)
Yeah, if they if they if we are bringing smoking back, which I hope we are, can we please bring smoking back in like I want to sit down in a restaurant in a smoking section? I would go back to waiting tables right now if they had a smoking section, because I made more money than Jesus working the smoking section at a restaurant. Smokers tip the best. Just keep their drinks coming and their ashtray clean. That's all they ask for. And

GenX Adulting Podcast (45:59)
Yeah.

Yeah.

it's funny. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That would drive me crazy,

but I'm all for it. Yeah, 'cause I'm allergic at this point. Yeah, he reacts.

Bennett Peach (46:21)
Well no, I mean listen,

put us in a different put us in a whole ass different room.

GenX Adulting Podcast (46:25)
Restaurant. I

just don't have to show up, but I don't you know. No, I think that they should do they could do restaurants that are smoking restaurants. Like my gosh.

Bennett Peach (46:33)
Yes, I would I would definitely go to that. I we can't

even smoke in bars, but you can vape in a bar.

GenX Adulting Podcast (46:38)
Yeah.

I know. And I hate I hate the smell of vaping. Like people say there's no smell. There's a smell. There is totally a fruity smell. I cannot stand it. Fruity and

Bennett Peach (46:44)
Listen, it's a every

single let's see, both three of my guitars, my bass player and both of my guitars, vape, right? And they will look at me dead ass and be like, Here, try this. And I'm like, I don't want to smoke something that tastes like strawberry shortcake, bud. That's first of all, that's weird. And second of all, ew, no, stop blowing that shit of my face.

GenX Adulting Podcast (47:08)
You know.

There's a bar down here that you can smoke at. Remember that bar where Kai played? Tackies? Tackies, like, but down in like like fucking Fort Lauderdale or wherever the hell that was. After a certain time of night, you're allowed to smoke in this bar. And see that's that's a good compromise. Yeah, that's a good compromise. And you're right. If people are drinking and smoking, they're happy and relaxed. They're gonna spend money, they're gonna tip. I would love to see ashtrays come back because the

Bennett Peach (47:25)
See, I would I think that that should be allowed.

GenX Adulting Podcast (47:37)
Artwork of ashtrays. I mean, first of all, don't even talk about the ones we made. We made an elementary school for our parents, yeah, yeah, and gave them as gifts, ceramics classes, but the ones you could go buy in stores, yeah. I miss that. I would love to see ashtrays come back, even if it wasn't for smoking. We need to find a new purpose because those things were even those cheap shitty plastic ones are kind of funny. I still have some, I haven't tucked away, green or whatever, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Bennett Peach (47:39)
Bruh.

Jesus.

Yeah.

GenX Adulting Podcast (48:06)
So when you were in high school, was it still no sports, no clubs, no theater? Like you were just like you're going and as little as you need to, it sounds like. So were you skipping a lot?

Yeah.

Bennett Peach (48:25)
my mom's not here so I can answer.

GenX Adulting Podcast (48:29)
Okay.

Bennett Peach (48:29)
I skipped I skipped a little bit. I skipped a little bit.

GenX Adulting Podcast (48:32)
Okay.

Now did you so through elementary school was there like w was there a f one or two best friends that you had and then you stayed friends with them into high school, or did you find those girlfriends in high school? Or did you not ever have like that one solid girlfriend?

Bennett Peach (48:54)
So I had a friend, I had a couple of friends, but we really I I hate to say it like this, but I'm I'm just gonna be honest. I had one really good friend and at one point she lived right beside my grandparents and then she ended up moving because her her dad and her stepmom got a divorce. So they moved and that's why whenever I said I had to go

miles and miles on my bike just to say hey and get a drink of water and go back home. Yeah, that was her. But she used to live like two doors down from me. She wasn't allowed to hang out with me. her her stepmom did not like me. we were I was trash according to her. and she would meet me at the fence and we would talk. and then she would sneak over.

And we would hang out. I think I spent the night at her house like twice.

She never spent the night at my house. She never spent the night at my house. and she wasn't really my friend at school either. because she didn't want to get picked on. Like they literally had an I hate beth club whenever I was a kid when I in fifth grade. they literally had an I hate beth club. and she didn't really associate much with me at school, I guess because she didn't want to get picked on too.

GenX Adulting Podcast (49:53)
Was she a Okay, that's I was gonna ask. Okay.

Bennett Peach (50:19)
And I mean that's valid. And we were kids, you know. You when you know better, you do better. I did have another friend. her name was Mary, but you know, she was just as weird and picked on as I am, or as I was. I'm still friends with this girl named Lisa. We hung out a little bit, but again, she was one of those outcasts picked on. You know what I mean? those are the kids that I hung out with. Whenever I got to high school.

GenX Adulting Podcast (50:43)
Mm-hmm.

Bennett Peach (50:48)
I really didn't have time to hang out with anybody like that. you know, everybody's always talking about being in cornfields drinking Mad Dog 2020, you know, and I joke that I was doing that, but I wasn't really, because I didn't have time for that. I was working. you know, when I was like sixteen years old, my mom was like, While your dad's at work, we're gonna pack up all of our stuff and we're leaving. and we left that day and moved into the trailer park.

in town and I wasn't allowed to tell anybody where we were for like six months. Not even my boyfriend. so, you know, I didn't have time for that. You know what I mean? and there's a lot of things about my childhood and stuff that I don't talk about because I would never want to embarrass or hurt my mom. But there, you know, you know what I mean? Like there there's a lot of things that that that go on that, you know, one day maybe, but not now.

GenX Adulting Podcast (51:26)
Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you know

Mm-hmm.

Right. Right.

you were talking about that there was an I hate Beth club. My our daughter went through that. So our daughter there was an I Hate Kaya club, and that was in

I wanna say fifth or sixth grade. And it was it was devastating for her. It was it's straight up bullying and it and it definitely stayed with her. Like that is something that was a deep, deep hurt. And so when you mentioned that, I remember how the struggles our daughter went through with that. And it's just such a cruel thing and it always is that queen bee bullshit.

Bennett Peach (52:03)
Wow.

yeah.

GenX Adulting Podcast (52:27)
And then the fluttering bees around the Queen Bee, and that Queen Bee controls everything. And I mean, I went through something like that where there was a Queen Bee, and one day she would tell everyone to be my friend. So I'd show up at school and she's my friend everyone's my friend. And then she'd say, Tomorrow don't be Nicole's friend. And then I'd show up and no one would speak to me. And it was every day was different depending on what she said. So was it kind of that s same situation where there was like a leader kind of running the show? When that was it was a guy.

Bennett Peach (52:53)
Yeah, his name was Chad.

Yeah, it was a boy.

GenX Adulting Podcast (52:58)
There was a boy that was to that degree. That's unusual.

Bennett Peach (53:01)
Yeah, and you know, you

know what bothers me the most is I would come home from school and I would be in tears, you know, because of what he said to me or what he did to me that day. and my mom, and and listen, it's no no hate towards my mom, but this is why we are the way we are. We would get told that, he just likes you. That's why he picks on you. No, he doesn't like me. No, he does not like you. He picks on you because he's a little asshole.

He y you know what I'm saying? It's not because he likes you. It's not it's not because he's too embarrassed and he thinks you're pretty. It's because he's a little asshole and he needs to have, you know, his face arranged. you know, I I don't understand why we got told that so much as kids. When my youngest daughter was going through that, there was a little girl in her class and she picked on all the kids. Like she was just this little asshole.

GenX Adulting Podcast (53:30)
Yeah. Yeah.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Bennett Peach (54:00)
She would pick

on people if they didn't have name brand rainbow flip-flops. Like, who wants to spend $60 on a pair of flip-flops for a seven-year-old? And because her mom was a teacher, she got away with a lot of stuff. And I finally looked at my daughter and I said, listen, you are too sweet and you are too kind. If you and your friends do not take that little girl into the bathroom and shove her head into the fucking toilet and flush that damn thing on her, guarandam to you, she will shut her fucking mouth.

GenX Adulting Podcast (54:09)
Yeah, yeah.

Bennett Peach (54:30)
Just smack her one damn good time and she'll leave you alone. I can't do that. I'll get in trouble. Please. No, you won't. Not with me, you won't. I'll buy you ice cream. And I want her mama to say something, because I'll fuck her shit up too.

GenX Adulting Podcast (54:37)
Right.

Yeah.

That's awesome. my gosh, it's such a relatable feeling too. Did she follow your your your advice?

Bennett Peach (54:46)
You know

No, because no, because she is too sweet, but she hates her to this day. Like we were on the phone the other day and she's like, Yeah, that little bitch Cheyenne, I still can't stand her.

GenX Adulting Podcast (54:55)
Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. listen, the girls that were have been mean to my daughter through her years, I'll I'll be in I'll be eighty in the grocery store and if I run into them with and they're with their kids, I'll still curse them. I will never for I tell my daughter I'll never forgive him. I'll never forgive forget who was mean to my daughter or my sons. I feel like I've not like all my kids. Like if you 'cause the other thing is we've been those parents where our home is open, everyone can come here, eat all of our food.

Bennett Peach (55:04)
Yeah.

GenX Adulting Podcast (55:27)
Yeah, my kids have been good friends to kids. So if you're mean to my kid, you're an asshole. There's no reason for it. So I there's just I don't I don't forget. You know, and I think a lot of moms are like that. I like that even if your kid decides they're okay, you're like, not in my book. They'll never be okay. So Well they have to live with them. They have to deal with them, right? And yeah. But to get but you're right though. If she they would have taken her and kicked her ass one day, problem solved. But then she would have gotten in so much trouble because society is maybe a week.

Maybe you know. You brought up a really good point though. The whole the boys are mean to you because they like you. That shit was fed to us growing up. And then I think even with I don't know if I did it with my daughter. I think I tried to stop, but I think it just recently, maybe in the last like 10 to 15 years, that has ended that whole philosophy where you can say, No, he's just an asshole. But up until then it was like, no.

He pulled your hair. He pushed you. He threw sand at you because he liked you. And then I feel like the danger of that is then you take that into adult relationships. And if you're with a partner who's then a jerk to you, you think, Well, they still love me because that's you've been ingrained to think that they still like you. So it it it's in your subconscious. Like you don't see it for what it is because

Bennett Peach (56:42)
That part That part.

GenX Adulting Podcast (56:49)
Of what you grew up being told. They're mean 'cause they like you. And that's the danger, right?

Bennett Peach (56:55)
Yeah, I think that that's how women justify staying in abusive relationships too. Like it's ingrained in in our psyche from a very young age, at least our age group was. and I can't speak for everybody, but I know for me, I stayed in an abusive relationship with a boyfriend from the time I was fifteen years old until

I was 17, 18 years old. whenever I met my husband, I was still going back to this boy after every single other relationship. I would always go back to this boy. and I think it was part of the mindset of A, I can change him. And B, he only does that because he cares about me. He only, he only smacks me around. You know, if I will just say the right things, if I will not piss him off, it's my fault. You know what I mean?

GenX Adulting Podcast (57:25)
Right.

Mm-hmm.

Bennett Peach (57:47)
And it wasn't until my mom actually looked at me and said one day, she goes, Just because you slept with him does not mean that you have to stay with him.

GenX Adulting Podcast (57:56)
Yeah.

Bennett Peach (57:56)
And I

was like, Well, good. You just gave me the green card to go be a whore, but all right, thanks.

GenX Adulting Podcast (58:04)
Just the dogs.

Bennett Peach (58:07)
Just kidding, kind of. but

no, I mean, I did. I every single boyfriend I ever had, after him, because he he was he was my first love, my first experience. I was 15 years old and I thought he was just the cutest thing on the face of the planet. And I decided that it was a good idea to leave to lose my virginity on the hood of a beretta right beside the cemetery of the church, you know, the as one does, like as one does, right? High as a freaking kite.

GenX Adulting Podcast (58:30)
Yeah. That sounds very direct. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yeah. As one

Bennett Peach (58:37)
You know, snuck out of the house with the preacher's son.

I mean, you know, as one does at 15. And

I just and I just stayed with him on and off for all those years. And it's really funny too, because I have this app on my phone that I'm connected to the sheriff's department, right? And it will show it you can look up and see who's been arrested, right? And he's he's constant trouble, constant trouble. Guess where he's at now? Federal penetration. Federal federal prison. Federal prison.

GenX Adulting Podcast (59:02)
Yeah.

he in prison? my gosh. Wow.

That sounds a white collar crime or something real serious. Sounds like something real serious.

Bennett Peach (59:20)
drugs, methhetamines to be exact, and firearms.

GenX Adulting Podcast (59:21)
Okay.

Mm-hmm. That'll do it. But every time. But as far as you were talking about, you know, staying in that abusive they do it because they love you. I think that's also where that excusing the controlling behavior. He doesn't want me to go on the girls' weekend because he loves me. And he doesn't, you know, he doesn't want me to go out with my friends because he loves me so much. And he keeps track of me because he loves me. And I think that's where that disconnect comes from is understanding that.

Bennett Peach (59:27)
Yeah. That'll do it every time.

Mm-hmm.

GenX Adulting Podcast (59:55)
That's abuse. That's abuse. that control and it that's it that's not love, but what's interesting though, there's a line here and the because girls, you know, from a guy's perspective, you think nice guys finish last, right? In some ways, there's that saying. And girls like guys that are edgy or kind of dicks or whatever, right? But then there is that line. Yes. And you're flirting with that line.

Yeah, well I think you can be The line's clear though. What you're describing is way past the line. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think you can be edgy and kinda alpha and you know, like kind of what turns women on, like knowing that they can be in their feminine with you, that you you've you're holding it down and all of that. And that but that you're also not going to abuse them mentally, emotionally, physically. You know, I think that you can be a testosterone filled man and not smack a woman around. It's definitely capable. Yeah.

Bennett Peach (1:00:48)
My husband

is an absolute testosterone filled man. he was a big ass jerk when I first met him. Like I and I was attracted to the bad boy, but he was not my type at all. Like he was not my type. I mean, he just was rude.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:00:49)
Yeah.

That's what I'm saying. Yeah, yeah.

Bennett Peach (1:01:05)
Came up to me while I was having a conversation with one of my one of my friends and was like interrupted me and was like, hey, I'm Daniel. And I'm like, hey, you're rude. I don't. And then he asked me for my friend's phone number. Like, what is that? Was very weird. And then he would come to my job whenever I was working. I used to work at Belks whenever I was in high school. if you're not familiar with that, it's like a southern store, like retail store that sells clothes, like mainly like Alfred Dunner's type type shit for like older ladies.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:01:29)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Bennett Peach (1:01:35)
And the big thing back in the mid to late 90s was the chap shirts and the Tommy Hill figures and stuff like that, right? He would come in all the time and like spend this money, like dollar dollar bills, y'all, on all these chap shirts and these Tommy Hill figure shirts, and then return them when I wasn't working because he couldn't afford that shit.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:01:42)
Okay.

that's fucking

awesome. Okay, that is effort though. That is that is that is if he wanted to, he would. Yes.

Bennett Peach (1:01:59)
yeah. Top tier effort. Top tier effort.

But then I was my mom kind of encouraged me to go out with this one dude. And I didn't really want to because he was the nice boy. but he was too nice. Like it's almost seemed fake. He was so nice. like open my door for me. I I have two arms. I can do it myself. I don't need you. I'm a strong independent woman. I don't need you to do it for me. Bought me flowers. I'm not a flowers girl. I know it's weird.

Whatever. I'm also not a dress girl either. So go figure. but like I don't know. He just gave me the because he was so sticky, super nice. And we were at a stop sign at in the I guess it's a shopping center. Wasn't a shopping mall, it was a shopping center where all the stores were kind of individual. And there was a stop sign that we had pulled up to and my now husband pulled up in his S ten truck. I'll never forget it, and he motioned for me to roll down the window.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:02:38)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Bennett Peach (1:02:58)
like this. Gen Z's not gonna understand that.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:03:00)
Yeah, yeah. There's no electronic windows.

Bennett Peach (1:03:03)
So I rolled down the window. So I

rolled down the window and he was like, what are you doing? I'm like, I'm on a date. And he goes, hmm, are you though? And then he drove off. Like the biggest freaking jerk ever. And you know what that did in my brain? Like, ooh, I like that.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:03:19)
With straight to your heart. Yes, yes, yes. That listen, that's a move.

Bennett Peach (1:03:24)
I'm like that guy.

Where is that guy going?

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:03:28)
He's

got game. He's got game between buying the shirt and then doing

Bennett Peach (1:03:31)
I know. Him and

his corduroy pleated pants. I don't

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:03:34)
Yeah.

Listen, those nice guys, there's a whole thing on social media about the nice guys are this can be the scariest because it is an act. Like if they're too nice and it's like, then they fli they switch up so fast, but you're stuck. Like you might already be at their apartment or in their car. Their psychology. Yeah. And all of a sudden it's like

Bennett Peach (1:03:41)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Guess who else was really nice?

Ted Bundy.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:04:01)
I was gonna say Bundy, those guys, yeah. And good looking. No, you have to watch out. Exactly. So guys like a little crazy too. Well, I know. Guys do like a little bit of Or is Brian calls it damaged goods? Because he says I'm damaged goods. You know, so you get a little crazy with the damaged goods. But and then and then I healed and he's like, wait, where's some of that crazy? I need some of that. I'm like, I'm healed.

Bennett Peach (1:04:04)
Ted Bundy was good looking and nice. No, I'm I'm okay.

See, I'm I self medicate,

so that's why mine, you know

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:04:32)
I think we all do. well I do that too. That's part of the healing. Yes. Yeah. Yes. Exactly. Costco has, by the way, I know if you've tried Costco box wine. It's really good and it's like twelve ninety nine a box. It's so good.

Bennett Peach (1:04:37)
Right, right, right, right. They're like, don't why aren't you on like Lexapro or nothing? I'm like, I'm on box wine. What do you want for me? It's cheaper and then you deliver it right to my house and it doesn't require prescription.

You know

what? I would love to try a Costco wine, but we don't have one where I live. Like it would take me an hour to get there. And Walmart will deliver my shit to my door at eight thirty in the morning.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:05:01)
Well Well there you go. There you go. Well if you ever hear Mark grab

a box delivery. Yeah, no, that's the shit. Okay

Bennett Peach (1:05:10)
I'm lazy

shit. I'm a lazy shit. I do not want to go to the grocery store. I will Walmart at that shit so fast it'll make your head spin. I don't care if I do, gotta give them a ten dollar tip. It's worth it for me not to have to put on a bra and leave the house.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:05:22)
Yes. listen, I'll do

curb I'll do curbside if I know I'm gonna be out and I've done it my pajamas with no bra. I'm like

Bennett Peach (1:05:27)
I'm salty as

hell that I had to put on a bra for this podcast, to be honest with you.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:05:31)
What?

I don't really even have one on. It's called a bralette. I didn't even put on official bral.

Can you tell I'm wearing a bra?

Yeah. Holding it all together. I got my bro on. Your bro, your bro.

Bennett Peach (1:05:40)
It's called a brolet.

It's not a bra. It's a bro for you. Yeah, you got your bro on. Okay. Yeah. I think it wasn't that

Seinfeld where he said that he invented the bro. Yeah. Yeah. I know a lot of men that need a bra.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:05:52)
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. So you said Yeah,

yeah. Especially in our generation. Absolutely. Absolutely. So you said your first job when you were fourteen and a half was working at like a a knock knockoff blockbuster. and then did you go to working retail after that? at the Belks? Okay.

Bennett Peach (1:05:59)
Like they got bigger they got bigger titties than I do.

You know? Woof.

Mm-hmm.

yes. I

waited tables at Golden Corrall

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:06:24)
Okay. Right after right after the movie place?

Bennett Peach (1:06:25)
And I waited tables at Huh.

think so I don't I had so many jobs when I was I was a job bouncer anytime. I mean I okay so I worked at Golden Corral for a little while waiting tables. That was whenever I had two jobs. That was whenever I was working at Belks and yeah. So I had two jobs then and my mom actually did waited tables at that point too. because that was at the time when my parents were separated. I worked at a cafeteria

That it like had a serving line and you would get your food in that serving line, get your ticket, and then you would go to your own table. And then they had sections. We had a smoking section. I always wanted to work the smoking section because you always made better money there. So I worked that job. awaited tables doing that. let's see, I worked at a dry cleaners one summer, which was awful. God help people that work in that in in dry cleaners. my God. It is so hard.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:07:05)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Why? What makes it so bad?

Bennett Peach (1:07:32)
Horrid. It's so hot. my God. That was probably one of my most hated jobs ever. It was so miserable. It was like a hundred degrees outside with a thousand percent humidity. And then you're in there steaming clothes and ironing clothes. my God, it was the most horrid job I've ever had. I worked at Roses for a little while whenever I was in in school.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:07:35)
Is it hot? That's what I was gonna say. Is it just hot?

Yeah.

Yeah, that makes sense.

Bennett Peach (1:08:00)
and then I did a little odd jobs. I would like clean cars if if I didn't have, you know, anything else to do. Cause, you know, whenever I was growing up, whenever I got my license, my mom gave me her 1985 cutlass Sierra because she got her like a Hyundai that had the electric seatbelts. Do you remember those? And it would you would get in the car and it as soon as you shut the door, it would go, right? Right. They got rid of

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:08:17)
Mm-hmm.

Yes, yes, yes. Yeah. Yes, yes.

Bennett Peach (1:08:29)
I wish they still had those because my car drives me up the fucking wall. Ding, ding, ding. Shut the fuck up. I'm only going to the dunk. God. Right? It's so annoying.

most of the time I just snap it behind me. and don't even bother to unbuckle it. I mean, that's just who I am as a person. But my my stepdad used to cut the motherfuckers out of the car.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:08:44)
Yeah.

Yeah. My dad did too and he was an ER doctor. So go figure. Yeah. Yes. one hundred percent. I remember my dad my dad yeah. My dad picked me up from the airport once and I had our son who was our firstborn. And I'm holding him and I get in and I'm like, do you not have a car seat? And he's like, No, just hold him. And this was like in nineteen ninety seven. And so then I'm like holding I'm like, Okay. But he's like, Yeah, you just hold him. That's what you do.

Bennett Peach (1:08:56)
See, that's what I'm saying. We didn't have seat belts. We had mom's arm. That was it. That was it. What's a seatbelt?

Exactly.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:09:19)
Yeah, no seat belts, not it was just it is what it is. So the worst is with that when I put something in my passenger seat that's maybe kind of heavy and it thinks that there's a person there and it or my dog is there and they think it's a person and I'm like, God, how far do we have to drive with this? 'Cause it doesn't stop. You're right. It's very annoying. But yeah, so those that's what I'm gonna have to do. I have never thought about that. That's true.

Bennett Peach (1:09:20)
It is what it is. No.

Jesus.

You just you just buckle it. You just buckle it.

Yeah. Just buckle it. Listen,

I have a challenger right now. I have a a plum crazy purple challenger and I don't drive it very often. it is my midlife crisis car because I'm financially irresponsible. And and I don't drive it very often, but when I do, it's not very far. So I keep the seatbelt latched in that sucker because I don't want to hear it. And it's the Dodges have the most annoying ones.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:09:52)
nice.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Yeah.

Bennett Peach (1:10:15)
I think. my suburban is annoying, but it's not as bad as my challenger is. That challenger like, bitch, if you don't buckle up, I'm gonna you know? And I'm like, I'm just driving three blocks to my mom's house. Like, I don't understand. Can't can't I just isn't there an option for that? Where's the option for that? I'm only going here. Yeah, it's

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:10:22)
Yeah, yeah. Now that's good to know.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Unfortunately, no. There's nothing but that

the buckling. Like that's that's a good trick. What what color was your cutlass?

Bennett Peach (1:10:42)
It was like the blue-ish. I don't really know how to explain it. It was maybe ish, but it wasn't metallic.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:10:45)
Okay, yeah. Metallic.

Yeah.

Yeah, I know, yeah, yeah. Almost greyish, guyish, bluish. Yeah.

Bennett Peach (1:10:54)
And it was the eighty-five. Kinda, yeah. Yeah, kinda.

But I'm gonna tell you what, that was the best riding vehicle ever. Like it felt like you were riding on a cloud. Like if you if you've ever gotten into like a Cadillac now, that's what my cutlass Sierra felt like. And I had thumbtacks holding up the carpet off the seat, you know, of the ceiling because it was coming off, you know? Yeah. I had that car till it broke down and then my grandparents

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:11:03)
it's so fun. Yeah, yeah.

Nice.

yeah, yeah. A felt? Yeah. That's awesome.

Bennett Peach (1:11:21)
got me a new car for Christmas and it's so funny to tell this now because it wasn't a new car. It was a nineteen eighty five Nissan Central with a stick shift in the floor and it didn't even have like power steering, right? but it was paid for. I think they paid like maybe a thousand dollars for it. I mean, it is what it is. And I drove that some bitch till the wheels fell off of it. I look like I was driving a shoebox with wheels on it. It was so bad.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:11:33)
my goodness.

Wow.

Bennett Peach (1:11:48)
But I made enough money whenever I was working my jobs that my senior year of high school, I took it to a guy that he put subwoofers and big ass speakers in that damn thing and a six disc C D changer in that some bitch. You could see me before you could see me. You could hear me before you could see me. And I love to listen to the like the like that's that's why we're deaf now.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:12:00)
Mm-hmm.

Nice.

Yeah, nice.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Bennett Peach (1:12:18)
You know, 'cause

I was listening to like Cornwall like

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:12:21)
Yeah. Yes. Yes. And did you did you ever go through the period where you pulled your radio out or did that skip past you?

Bennett Peach (1:12:30)
Well I had I had I had the face, the front face that would come off. Yes, and I would take it off and put it in my pocketbook. Because you know, you don't want somebody to steal it.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:12:32)
The face. That's smart. Yes.

Yes. Did you have the

no, nope, nope. I had I had to pull the whole Kenwood out and carry it and I had to buy a big purse. That thing was heavy. And it'd be like clonka clonka. I'd be going to a nice restaurant, clonka clonka, clunk. But the face, then that then the face came out after that, and that that was brilliant. That made sense. What were you gonna ask? I was I'm curious. I'm picturing your car. Did you have like the feathers with the roach clip thing hanging from the rear view mirror? Yeah. All right.

Bennett Peach (1:12:52)
Yeah.

How did you know?

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:13:08)
But they need to bring that back. I like that look. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Bennett Peach (1:13:09)
I j I mean that was probably one of those carnival prizes that my parents won me at one point because you know, we

got paraphernalia back then as a prize.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:13:18)
Absolutely. Well, we gave them ashtrays and they gave us paraphernalia. Absolutely. I remember Roach Club seemed all over the coffee table growing up. Not knowing what picking them up, not even knowing what it now I do. You know, once I went to college, I was like, or maybe late high school. But up when I was little, I remember being with my second stepdad going to his friend's house and there was this horrendous smell in the house. And then like when I hit

Bennett Peach (1:13:25)
No.

Yeah.

No.

yeah.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:13:46)
college, I realized it was pot butter because they were making pot butter in college. I'm like, that's the same smell when I was like seven. But I didn't know at the time. So it's funny how it all starts to come together. It comes together. So as far as the military, because you said you went you started that this the training the summer before senior year. When did you make that decision? How old were you when you made the decision that that's the route you were going to go?

Bennett Peach (1:13:50)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So I knew that there was little to no chance in hell that I was gonna get out of the small town unless I took action. And this is gonna sound so frigging lame. G.I. Jane was really big back then, in the in the nineties. And I remember watching that movie and thinking, she is so badass. I wanna I wanna be that. That's what I wanna do.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:14:27)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

She was

Bennett Peach (1:14:41)
And I remember saying that and my stepdad, I don't know if he said it to be mean or if he said it to like nudge me, but he looked at me dead in my face and was like, You won't even make it past boot camp. And me, because I do shit out of spite, I was like, you wanna bet? Watch me. You know, I I've done shit out of spite my whole life. you know, tell me I'm not gonna do something or I can't accomplish something, I'm gonna do it just so I can rub it in your face.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:14:58)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Bennett Peach (1:15:10)
So yeah, that's that's why I joined. It spite and I thought she was a badass.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:15:16)
But she was. I mean, that whole all of that. I remember vividly all of that. I didn't know that.

Bennett Peach (1:15:18)
Yeah. All of it was badass. And it's based off a true story too. So, you know.

Yeah. Not all of the story, but like pieces of it is based off of women women's stories from that they gathered to to do that to do that movie. I read that somewhere. It could have it could have been bullshit that I was reading because not you know, you never know. Everything on the internet's true. Bon jure, I'm a French model.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:15:32)
Right.

that's so cool.

Yeah, no, but that

Bennett Peach (1:15:45)
but I mean it could have been bullshit, but I read somewhere that they took stories that were submitted, and they kind of meshed a lot of those stories together to create the character and create the storyline. So if that's the truth, then that's pretty cool. it was around it was in the late 90s too, whenever I went in and it was started where you could train boys and girls could train together. Like, I don't my brain just like stopped. Thank you, co ed. It just went.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:15:55)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

I co add.

Yeah.

Yeah. yeah, that happens. Yeah, it is. It is. Yes. Yes. It's it's like the computer caught on fire and there's smoke coming out. That's what it's like glitchy. Yes, yes. Yes, yes. The cache is full. Yes.

Bennett Peach (1:16:15)
It's the perimetopol's brain. It just quit. It just stopped. Like it just my hamster stopped running.

Yes. It's like buffering in my brain. It's like, hold please. But yeah, it was like

co ed. And it was really wild because I don't know how they thought that nobody was going to end up pregnant during basic training. Whenever you have girls sandwiched in in barracks, like boys on this level, girls on this level, and then boys on this level. Like, what the fuck did you think was going to happen in the stairwell at three o'clock in the morning? They're going to be screwing you dumbass.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:16:54)
my gosh.

I would have thought

Bennett Peach (1:16:56)
Got a bunch of hormonal

eighteen year olds with morning wood stuff wrong with you.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:16:59)
Yeah. I I would have I w Yeah, that's Bill Clinton there.

But I would have thought they would have separated you guys at night. Like

Bennett Peach (1:17:11)
So the boys were on this level, and then you go up one flight, and that and that was us. And then you go up another flight, and that's boys. We, the girls were sandwiched in the middle. We were on a separate floor. But like, what did you think was gonna happen? Do you know how many times I went in that stairwell and there was some hoity, you just some bumping uglies?

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:17:13)
That's not separate. different floors. Okay. I was I was picturing bunker. Yeah, yeah. Okay, I was picturing bunk. Right. Yes. It's like cold.

Yes. Yes. That

was

Bennett Peach (1:17:39)
And not just

not just the boys and girls either. I saw more lesbian shit during basic training because we had to we showered all together. Like there was this

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:17:44)
Yeah.

Bennett Peach (1:17:49)
in the barracks. So we had one big shower room. And there were one, two, three, four, and a one in the middle. And all the showers had like one pole, and you had like several heads coming off of that pole.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:18:07)
yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Bennett Peach (1:18:08)
If that makes any sense at all. And so you would

push the button and the water would come out. Kind of like those aggravating ass taps in the bathroom where you push it down and you're not even done with the soap before it runs out. So you have to keep pushing the fucking thing. Yeah, that's how we had to take showers. Do you know how many cooter looking I saw going on in them showers?

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:18:16)
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

my gosh. That's wild. I believe it. But it was just Yeah. Now the showers you were separate, please tell me that. The showers was women and men, right? Like not together.

Bennett Peach (1:18:30)
Because I mean it's just bunch of naked women.

No.

Yeah, it was just women because our showers were on the same floor as our barracks. Yeah. So it was just women in there. It was just women in there.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:18:45)
Okay, okay, okay. Okay, okay, okay. No, but as far as like

the different floors, our college was like that. Like we had girls on one floor, guys the next floor, girls. So that's where we were just like that. No, no, we had like I've seen that before though. I can't remember where I think I've seen that in movies. I haven't seen it in real life of it. Like where you have them come down. So which branch did you go into of the military?

Bennett Peach (1:18:56)
Yeah, they set it up just like that. They set it up just like that. Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

А він інтеле

національного гард.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:19:16)
that's right. You said that earlier. So you did okay. So you did training the summer before. Was that basic training the summer before senior year? And then you had to after basic training, then you do your senior year in high school? That seems so strange. Like you just went into this intense situation. Basic training is very intense, I would assume, correct?

Bennett Peach (1:19:17)
Yep. I went into the Army National Guard.

Yes.

It was. It was. I was buff as shit though. When I came home, I was buff. You could have bounced a quarter off my ass.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:19:40)
And then you have to now go be around I bet.

I bet. You were like Linda Hamilton Terminator two, I bet.

Bennett Peach (1:19:52)
Well, it's only because I got in trouble a lot.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:19:56)
in the Army National Guard? Like during training. Yeah.

Bennett Peach (1:19:58)
Whenever I went to basic, when I went to

basic, I got in trouble the the minute I walked off I got off the bus because the drill sergeant was like this really petite, short black lady. And she looked at me and she was telling all of us, but I felt like she was looking at me directly and I said, Yes, ma'am. And you don't call them ma'am, you say yes, drill sergeant. Well, she said to my face, get down and beat your face, which I didn't know what that meant at the time. I learned very quickly what that meant.

that she told me to get down and beat my face. I work for a live in private. You addressed me as drill sergeant. And I was like, fuck me. I'm so sorry. I was taught manners. Apologies, you know. But beat your face meant that you had to do push-ups. Well, I looked at her and said, I can't do a push-up. She goes, I don't give a shit. Get down and beat your face. So I basically was on the ground in that position because I I didn't even have enough upper body strength at the time to go down and come back up.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:20:39)
Yeah, yeah.

So

Bennett Peach (1:20:58)
Because I was

I mean, I was I was sixteen, seventeen years old. I was weak as shit. You know?

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:21:02)
Yeah, yeah. Mm-hmm. So

how what happened? Did how many did she make you do, or did you even actually do the push up or you st stand there like a point?

Bennett Peach (1:21:10)
Stayed in that, I stayed

in the front leaning wrist, which is what they call it. I stayed in the front leaning wrist position for about 15 minutes before she relieved me. And yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. That was right off the bus. I wasn't even in BDUs yet. I was still in civilian clothes. Yes. I got in trouble from junk.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:21:18)
man. That's like a plank almost. my off the bus. You're rolling and Yeah, wow.

Wow. I have a I have a question.

do you I didn't know you could just go into the Army National Guard. I thought that was for like the reservists. Like you go, you do your army or whatever you're you know, that you serve, then you come out. You're saying you can join the Army National Guard like without going okay. Did you know that? No. No. I always thought it was for the folks who kind of came back.

Bennett Peach (1:21:50)
Yes, yep.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:21:57)
Okay. So you could That's interesting. Okay. So so is that why it's allowed like for high schoolers in the summer and they're still attending school 'cause it's the National Guard where

Bennett Peach (1:22:10)
assume so but I don't even know if they have that program anymore because it's been you know twenty eight twenty well twenty twenty-five years at least since I was in the service and 30 years almost that I well that I that I went through basics so so I don't really know if they even have that option anymore. but back then in in 1996 they did.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:22:18)
yeah.

I bet they don't. That's what I don't know about it. 'Cause I think

Yeah. And we were still at peaceful then. Now we're in perpetual offshore action, right? But we were peaceful then.

Bennett Peach (1:22:46)
Well, I don't

and listen, whenever I was 18 years old and we got deployed to Bosnia, I didn't understand why I was there because it was a peace, you know, keeping mission or whatever. Now going back and looking at kind of the history of, you know, why we were there, and kind of going back through my memories and remembering like the genocide and stuff that I saw there, it makes sense. Like we would be posted at the bottom of a mountain.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:22:52)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Bennett Peach (1:23:13)
Because what what my job was is an eighty eight mic, which is a truck driver. it's not really what I wanted to do, but that's what I was that's what I tested to do is either that or cook. And I'm like, I ain't gonna be nobody's cook. I'll drive a truck all day long though. But so we would be posted at the bottom of a mountain waiting for the one truck to come back down from dropping off supplies. And there would be kids that would come up to our trucks begging for MREs, asking for

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:23:27)
Yeah.

Bennett Peach (1:23:42)
clothes, telling us that they had, you know, family at home and their parents were dead, you know, and we would, we would go through villages that were completely demolished and, you know, you could tell that they were hit with bombs and and things like that. Like I I those things stick with me. But at the time I was very bitter because here I am this 18 year old that has just been dropped off in the middle of freaking nowhere, living in a damn tent, you know.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:24:01)
Mm.

Yeah. Yeah.

Bennett Peach (1:24:11)
All

of my friends are doing this, that, and the third, and here I am, you know, having to wear a cavalier vest, you know, bulletproof vest to go to the damn bathroom with a friggin' bulletproof helmet, you know, going to the bathroom at midnight because that's what we have to do. So, you know, but but yeah, looking back at it, that that I I realized that there w there was a reason for it. But at the time I was like, this is bullshit.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:24:39)
No, that that makes sense. I mean, when did you go through your whole senior year? And then right after you graduated, you were sent to Bosnia? Is that pretty much how it went?

Bennett Peach (1:24:49)
Pretty much. Like I graduated my senior year. I graduated in end of May, first of June, something like that. And like think ten days later I went to AIT, which is to learn my job. So I went to the military school where I learned how to drive trucks. what I drove back then was called a PLS, and I don't know if they use them very much now, but it was a huge truck that had a hydraulic crane on the back of it that would pick up connex boxes, and those connex boxes would have

meals, weaponry, things like that. So it it was kind of like support, right? so I learned how to drive trucks. and then I got the papers. My sergeant from my unit actually sent me a letter letting me know that my unit was going to be deployed.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:25:22)
Mm-hmm.

Bennett Peach (1:25:36)
While I was still in AIT, like he's telling me, this is what's gonna happen when you get home. We're gonna be activated about two weeks later after you get home. So just be prepared that whenever you get home, spend as much time with your family, do those things because we gotta go and we're gonna be gone for this amount of time. So I knew I was gonna be deployed before I even got done learning my job.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:25:57)
Where did you go to learn to get training in driving the truck?

Bennett Peach (1:26:01)
so I was in

Fort Lost in the Woods, Missouri. That's what we call it. Fort Leonard Woods.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:26:10)
Okay. So you go to Missouri Lost in the Woods. And is that basically

Bennett Peach (1:26:13)
Where where the state

bird is the recluse spider. my God. It was so terrible. let's see. I think I got out, came home in August. So it was only like eight weeks, maybe ten week training. and we we had to go through all the classes and stuff with a bunch of marines. So, you know. I tasted a lot of crayons because they like their flavors.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:26:16)
Yeah, yeah. Probably middle of nowhere. How long were you there?

I mean that's a long time. That's a long time to

Mm. Okay.

Wait, explain that.

Bennett Peach (1:26:44)
It's this thing between Marines and Army. They always Army always says if you're really dumb you join the Marines because they always go in first and then the army goes in to clean up after them. So you have to be really dumb to join the Marines. So we always say that they eat crayons.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:26:58)
my

god. That's hilarious. I've never heard of that before. that's funny. Okay.

Bennett Peach (1:27:04)
if anybody's watching this and is a vet, they'll understand what I just said.

But no, hanging out with a bunch of Marines, I realized really quickly that I could not hang with my alcohol. I got I have Polaroid pictures of myself passed out beside the toilet off of Zimas.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:27:19)
my goodness, Zima. Zima. God. Yes.

Bennett Peach (1:27:21)
Zimas. You know what I'm saying? I'm pretty sure that

they put other than I I'm pretty sure they put something other than the Jolly Ranchers in those Zimas to make me so effed up as a football bat because there is no way. No. No. Yeah.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:27:30)
Yeah.

Yeah.

So would you guys like party together? The r all of you? Were there a lot of other women?

Bennett Peach (1:27:40)
God, yeah.

in my unit, no. Not not a whole lot of women. I was the only female in my platoon, actually. so the the unit that I was with is out of Concord, North Carolina, and they still have that it's called the 1454th Transportation Unit out of Concord, and they have a detachment unit, which is like a kind of a subunit. and in there's a whole platoon and it's located in Ashborough.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:27:54)
wow.

Bennett Peach (1:28:13)
So that was closer to me. So that's where I reported to. I was the only female there. Whenever we went and met up with the rest of the company, there was probably a handful of women, maybe 12, 13, but not a whole lot. it was mostly men.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:28:29)
Were you were you the only

girl out of your graduating class that chose this route?

Bennett Peach (1:28:37)
No, actually I went to basic training with a girl that I graduated high school with. Her name was Blanca and we went through basic together. she chose a different job and I cannot remember what what her what job she went into, what field she went into, but we both graduated basic training together and then completed our senior year at the same high school together. So yeah.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:28:59)
So being a woman though in such a male dominated area, d were there times that were you s were you scared to be around so many men in that capacity? Or did you feel was it the opposite where you felt safe?

Bennett Peach (1:29:14)
honestly, I didn't really I maybe it was the fact that I was so young and stupid. And and I never clocked it, you know. and most of the guys were older and they'd been they'd been in the military practically their whole life. I mean, and most of them either wanted to act like they were my dad, you know, or you know, the younger ones, let's just be honest, they horn dogs, you know.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:29:22)
Right, right.

Mm.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Bennett Peach (1:29:43)
They wanted to act like my boyfriend.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:29:43)
Yeah. Yeah.

Bennett Peach (1:29:46)
but you know, I I really never felt unsafe, you know. but but like I said, it could have been that I'm I was just 17, 18 years old and just dumb as hell, you know? Maybe I never clocked anything, or maybe they just were really cool and I never had to worry about it. But you know, I just I I never really clogged it. One of my really good friends that I used to.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:29:58)
Well

Yeah. Right.

Bennett Peach (1:30:11)
I used to play video games with because I had I didn't have a family. I didn't have to send money home, you know, like that. So I wasn't married, didn't have kids, none of that stuff. A lot of people that were over there had families at home. So they couldn't afford to buy some of the stuff that I was frivolo, you know, dumb dumb money, right? So I bought a TV VCR combo TV, right? Right. Yes, I was hot shit back then. It's 1997, right?

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:30:27)
Yeah.

Fancy. Yes.

Bennett Peach (1:30:38)
And I

bought a PlayStation One.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:30:42)
Wow. The OG, the OG, yeah.

Bennett Peach (1:30:43)
I know, right? I know. I was bawling. Was bawling

at the PX. and we had a movie theater, or not a movie theater, but like a makeshift movie store where we could go and you never had to exchange money or anything, not really. just your card or whatever. And you could rent movies. So we would watch movies. I was the only one in the entire tent that had a TV. And I was the only one in the entire tent that had a PlayStation. So one of my really good friends.

was from a totally different unit. He would come over and we would play Legend of Zelda.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:31:18)
nice. I used to play that a lot. Yeah, you would play that. Yes. Yes. Yeah, no, it's like squares. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, no, it's all pixelated in shit. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. No, a hundred percent. Yes. Yes.

Bennett Peach (1:31:24)
Yeah. Yeah. the one though. Legend of Zelda won.

Yeah. Yeah. It was so bad. Like that that sound. You know what I'm talking about? I'll never forget those sounds.

and we would play that and he was he was gay and I loved the fact that he was gay. He was this big, huge, burly guy, and we could check out dudes together and then come back and eat popcorn and play video games. And I had zero to worry about. He didn't want to screw me. He didn't want to, you know what I mean? He knew I was engaged.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:31:57)
Yeah, yeah yeah.

Bennett Peach (1:31:59)
He knew you know, we were just really good friends and we had a good time doing that. So

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:32:02)
Yeah.

And that was when you were over in Bosnia? So that's awesome that you had that. You had that person. so before you left for Bosnia, how did your parents handle that? Were they supportive of you even being in the military and choosing this route?

Bennett Peach (1:32:05)
Mm-hmm.

Yep. Engine.

my mom was petrified for me to leave. She was petrified. hearing her tell it now, she worried about me every single day I was gone. and me, I'm just la-di-da. Whatever. And she's over there like crying every day. And which as a mom now I understand that, but back then, you know, again, I'm 18 years old. I'm not clocking that, you know. I'm like, my gosh, mom, it's not that deep, right?

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:32:23)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, praying. Yeah.

And yet it is.

Bennett Peach (1:32:49)
As a mom now, if

my kids would would have done that, I would have been like a ball of mess. I would have been a ball of mess. So No, correct.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:32:54)
Yes. We don't get it until they hand us our baby. I remember they handed

our older son to me and I was like, now I understand why my mom was crazy, you know. So and I tell that I'm like, just wait, you'll get it. But until up until then you're like, What's the big deal? so so you spend some time with them and then you're off to Bosnia and you were there for nine months, you said?

Bennett Peach (1:33:07)
Right.

Mm-hmm. I got home in May of 1998. and then whenever I got home, I was still living with my parents, and I remember distinctly my mom trying to give me a curfew when I got home. And I'm sitting there literally looking at her, like going, Are you fucking for real right now? Like I'm a whole ass soldier. Like, what do you mean I gotta be home by 10 30? I don't even understand what you said. So I was like, I gotta move. So

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:33:32)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Bennett Peach (1:33:48)
My my husband and I, which we weren't married, we were engaged at the time. we got a house and moved in together. And I found out I was pregn let's see, we moved in in like August, July or August, something like that. I found out I was pregnant in September. And then we got married in November. And it was really awesome. It was really awesome because I'd I'd had my daughter convinced for a long damn time that she was a seven pound preemie.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:34:07)
Wait, did did you guys?

Ha ha ha.

Bennett Peach (1:34:18)
And then she learned math.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:34:23)
That's like the healthiest premi ever.

Bennett Peach (1:34:26)
It was so funny. Like I had her convinced for a long fucking time. And then she learned how to do math. And I'm like, God damn it, why are you so fucking smart? probably like seven. Shit.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:34:34)
that's funny. How old was she when she figured it out?

Okay. Yeah, and that's

still where, you know, the hormones haven't hit her yet, so you can manage it all. Well

Bennett Peach (1:34:46)
Ugh! Made me mad.

I'm like, God dog, why you gotta be so smart? This is not fun. I need you to be dumb just for a little bit longer.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:34:50)
Yeah.

Right.

So when you do so you met your now husband before you went to Bosnia?

Bennett Peach (1:35:01)
Yeah. Mm-hmm. I met him my senior year of high school.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:35:02)
So is that

and w how did you get where was he? Like how did you guys meet? I know he walked up to you, and did the whole

Bennett Peach (1:35:10)
Yeah, we met we met

at the gravel parking lot in in the town where we all would just like park. And that was the only place where we could park and not get like loitering tickets. So I think there's a bank there now in that parking lot that we used to hang out with. but that's where we met. He was in college at the time. he w funny thing is he was going to college to be a college history professor. That's what he wanted to do with his life. and he went on a

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:35:21)
Okay.

Bennett Peach (1:35:39)
partial scholarship for wrestling. not wrestling, wrestling. there's a big difference. And he broke his collarbone and he was unable to wrestle anymore. So and I think he either did student teaching or either somewhere along the line he was like, I don't think I can deal with being a teacher. He loves he loves history and he loves knowing stupid shit. Like

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:35:43)
okay. Yeah.

Bennett Peach (1:36:04)
He will literally be sitting there telling me like how many times a hummingbird flaps his fucking wings. Like, I don't why do you know this information? And why do you think that I need to know that you know this information? Like, shut the fuck up. have you ever have you ever emailed that show smarter than a fifth grader? Or are you smarter than fifth grader and corrected them on facts? Cause he's done that many times. Many times. Mm-hmm.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:36:04)
Yeah.

Yes. Sounds like my kind of guy. Yeah, Brian does the same thing.

no, no, no, no. That's awesome. Yeah. That is awesome. That is a is he is your is

your husband super curious about everything? Like if you're driving and he wants to know, I wonder why that truck's parked there. I wonder what they're working on. Like Bri Brian wants to know what everyone's doing. Okay.

Bennett Peach (1:36:40)
If he is, he's very quiet with it. If he is, he's very

quiet. Like we can go, we go on road trips all the time, and I'm over there playing like Candy Crush on my phone or I'm watching something on you, you know, YouTube or Hulu or something. And he's he drives without music. Like I don't get that. He drives in silence. He drove all the way to Ohio, which is like eight hours in fucking silence. I can't be left with my own thoughts that long.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:36:56)
I I do that too. You'll do that too. Yes.

Yeah. That's hilarious.

Bennett Peach (1:37:11)
like plot someone's

demise in my brain and like have it all like I would I would already be playing the episode of Snap that they would play on the TV starring me afterwards. Like I would already have written the script for all of it. Like I can't I can't be with my own thoughts that much. so I don't understand how he can, you know, be in silence, but you know, whatever.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:37:14)
Yeah, yeah.

I'm

That's funny.

But he's probably he's probably

like thinking and problem solving and analyzing and like you know, all that stuff 'cause that's what he does. So you know without noise, like no noise is wonderful. Yeah, you like that. There's so much noise in the world, whatever it is, wherever you go, turn on the T V, it's all fucking noise. Yeah, you like it when it's quiet. Quiet. Yeah. Now I need music or a podcast or something. Like I can't just you know.

Bennett Peach (1:37:37)
I know he is. I know he is.

Me too. I I have to

go to sleep listening to a podcast because I can't turn my brain off. And it has to be something that I've already listened to. Like

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:38:01)
Mm. that's interesting. I do the

like a like a comfort podcast. Yes.

Bennett Peach (1:38:08)
Yes. Like it's already an

episode. I already know every word that they're gonna say. Like there's there's certain shows that I watch all the time on repeat because I already know what's happening, but it's background background noise, like white noise for me. like I know, it's stupid. It my dirty pleasure, my guilty pleasure is watching fucking sister wives. I know, shut up.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:38:14)
Yes.

Bennett Peach (1:38:31)
And I like to start it

at season seventeen where it all goes to shit and Christine tells him to eat a bag of dicks.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:38:38)
That's

amazing.

Bennett Peach (1:38:41)
Recite

it word for word. And I always play that while I'm like gardening or if I'm cleaning because I already know what happens. I don't have to think about it, but it's the noise. If I listen to music, however, I stop doing what I'm doing and I'm doing like a little dance party or I'm singing to it, you know. The the the show is what is like quiets my brain. And it it I think some I read somewhere.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:38:50)
Right.

Yeah, yeah.

Bennett Peach (1:39:07)
Or maybe it was somebody else that was diagnosed and I'm undiagnosed. They said that that's like a trait of like a touch of the Tism, like ADHD or something. And I'm like, well, I think I think the majority of us gen Gen X have a touch of the Tism then because we all have like our weird ass quirks. and most of it revolves around like we can't be left with our own thoughts.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:39:14)
Yeah. Or ADHD. ADHD. Yeah. For sure. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, and I think it's I think you're right. And I think it has to do a lot with how we were raised and it's I'm sh it's tied to trauma. There's no question about it. So it's it is that that hypervigilance, that fight or flight, that walking on eggshells, all of that. and that's how I think it's manifest. And I do think it manifested into a ADHDism, whatever, neurodivergent type stuff. because I do the same thing, even in the car. Like I'll run TikTok in the car.

Like I'll just s I don't look at it, but I'm swiping, listening to TikToks or listening to Instagram, or my my comfort show is the office. I've watched that show, I can't tell you how many times, or friends, but it's that it's needing that counter to the chaos that's always going in your brain. It the it the chaos or the noise of that counters it and in there is peace. So I think it is very common with our generation.

Bennett Peach (1:40:15)
Yes.

Yes. Yeah. I

it it's so weird to try and explain to somebody that doesn't get it either because they're like, What do you mean? I'm like, you don't understand whenever I'm not listening to something, whenever I laid my head down to try and go to sleep and I don't have any noise whatsoever, I can't stop my brain from going, Did I do this? I shouldn't have said that. Maybe I should do this tomorrow. I should have done that yesterday. I forgot to do this. It's all of that in my brain. Did I do this? Did I unplug this? Did I?

You know what mean? Or I should have called so and so. It's all the things that go on in my brain that just will not shut up so that I can relax and go to sleep. And so if I'm listening to something, it shuts that shit off.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:41:00)
Yeah.

Bennett Peach (1:41:09)
And and and like I said, it's very it's very hard to explain to somebody that doesn't that can just my husband can just go the fuck to sleep. He just can. And it pisses me off.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:41:12)
Yeah.

yeah, no, I I No.

And then when you wake up, is it right on? Like I'll wake up and it's on. I'm like, I think of everything I need to do and everything I a lot of times I'll wake up with a song in my head. Or I'll go to sleep with a song in my head. Like the song it it's and it can be the most random song. I wasn't even thinking about the song. And I wake up and it's in my head. So it's it's something it's almost like you just always your brain is always going. There's just and then that

Bennett Peach (1:41:24)
Yes. Turns on immediately. Turns on immediately. Yep.

Mm-hmm.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:41:46)
show or the podcasts or social media, whatever it is, shuts it off. And 'cause you can't you're saying it only shuts it off if you already know what's coming. 'Cause you don't have to think.

Bennett Peach (1:41:56)
Yeah,

if it's something, if it's something that, well, it's not that it doesn't shut it off. It does shut it off, but I won't be able to go to sleep because I'm interested in what it they're saying. Because I want to know. If it's new, I won't be able to go to sleep. Yeah. I'm trying to process what's being said. So it can't be something that I've already heard, you know, that I've not already heard. So like I live listening to the Crime Junkie. I am the, I am the stereotypical feral ass southern woman that falls asleep the fucking murder shows. Okay. Yes, I am.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:42:04)
Yes. So if it's new, yeah, you're gonna process it. And that's really interesting. Yeah, yeah.

That's right.

Yes.

Bennett Peach (1:42:26)
so I listen to Crime Junkie a lot, but there's like three or four episodes that I've already listened to many times, and those are the ones that I will listen to whenever I'm trying to go to sleep. If it's a new one, like every Monday, I have to listen to it that Monday. I can't try and go to sleep with it because I'm like gonna stay up to try and figure out what happened. Well, why is she missing? Well, what happened? I need to know.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:42:39)
Yeah. Right.

Yeah. No,

but it's it's it's what you said, processing. You're not processing when you already know what's gonna happen, but when you like process but yeah, that's what 'cause his brain is my own head and figure shit out and you're in your your brain is still going. Like your brain also never stops, but you like to counter it with silence. So when we're on road trips

Bennett Peach (1:42:54)
Yes.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:43:09)
We're talking typically because I can't have silence. So we're just having conversations. fucking misery. Or or I'll put in Yeah. Yeah. We've been married I don't even know. September will be thirty-three years, I think. So it's like whatever. But I'll or I'll put thank you, thank you. But I'll put in my headphones and then I'll just go on podcast social media if we're like if there's nothing and but he'll still be quiet. He won't put the radio on.

Bennett Peach (1:43:19)
fail.

Congratulations, that's awesome.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:43:37)
It depends. I will it depends. Yeah. So yeah. Well yeah. Yeah. Well I'm gonna I'm gonna try what you're talking about because that's an interesting concept. I've you've already processed it. I feel like I'd look at it from a different angle too though. So I I don't know if that would work for me. Yeah, you may just continue to realize it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we'll see.

Bennett Peach (1:43:38)
I know. It's it's freaking weird. Y'all are weird. I'm gonna say it out loud. Y'all are weird. I tell my husband that all the time. He's weird. You're weird.

brain works the same. So I mean, you know, just because that's

how my weird brain works, that doesn't mean that's I mean

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:44:04)
What you find

what works. I'll I'll put on white noise too, like rain.

Bennett Peach (1:44:09)
I've tried

that and it makes me have to pee.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:44:12)
that's

funny. That makes sense. What about music? I assume you're well, I know you're into music, but you can't listen to music. You want to dance, you wanna, you know, you wanna ha react. So okay, so you guys met in hanging out socially, but he was in college, he was going to school to maybe be a a professor, decided not to do that. But a lot happened that senior year because then

Bennett Peach (1:44:17)
Music I mm mm it w I can't do it with music. Mm mm. Mm-hmm.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:44:39)
You left but you said you were engaged before you left for Bosnia. So this is

Bennett Peach (1:44:42)
Yep. He

proposed right before w I left.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:44:46)
Okay. Okay. So it was sounds pretty quick. Pretty instant.

Bennett Peach (1:44:50)
We started dating in May. We started dating

in May. it maybe like a month before I graduated high school. I graduated in July. I left or not not July. I graduated in June. And then like 10 days later I went to AIT to learn my job. We were dating while I was gone to AIT. So if that tells you how much time we actually spent together, not a lot.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:45:09)
Mm-hmm.

Right.

Bennett Peach (1:45:16)
And so I came home, I was home for about two weeks and then I left. But in that two week span, he bought a ring and proposed. And I said yes, because I was young, dumb, and in love, and I had no idea what the hell I was doing at all. At s at eighteen years old, you s don't have the concept of what forever is with somebody. and we've been married this year will be 28 years. and I'm very thankful.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:45:43)
Congratulations. Congratulations.

Bennett Peach (1:45:45)
Thanks. Thanks. I'm

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:45:45)
Yeah. Yeah.

Bennett Peach (1:45:46)
very thankful that at a certain point we didn't just say, fuck it and give up because, you know, we were so young. I was nineteen when we got married. He was twenty one. you know, I couldn't even buy a beer yet. You know,

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:45:59)
Yeah. Yeah. Statistically

it wasn't supposed to work out. Right? Statistically, you're from a rural part of the world. You met out the gravel pit, which I love that concept because I can picture it a gravel parking lot. But statistically you weren't supposed to still be together. That's cool.

Bennett Peach (1:46:06)
Okay.

Yeah. I mean

No

no, we're the last ones that are still married. Everybody else has been divorced. Sometimes twice. There were there were a couple of people that got married kind of young, but every single one of them are divorced. We're the only ones that are still married. you know, and and listen, it's not for everybody.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:46:25)
Yeah. Did everyone else get married? Did everyone else get married young?

Do you find

No, I mean we got married at twenty three, right out of college. and people thought we were crazy. and it it's not easy. Like you just like there's definitely I tell people there's bad days, bad weeks, bad months, bad years. I mean, in our forties, we had some bad years. And I I could say there's probably times other people would have called it quits. And I think what kept us together was our friendship. Our friendship is so tight. but

Bennett Peach (1:46:50)
No.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:47:10)
Like you just said, I'm so glad we didn't because if you can get through that, it's awesome. It's so awesome growing older with someone and and getting to this next phase of life. It's insane. I love it. I love that I have a partner. I don't have to explain anything to him. He's been there from the start. But getting through those parts, I mean, it's not for the weak of heart. You gotta hang in there.

Bennett Peach (1:47:35)
Yeah, and we weren't, we were not alone at all when we got married. when we got married, we were broke. God, we were broke. we were sleeping on a mattress in the living room with no AC. We didn't even have power for three days because we couldn't afford to pay the first month's rent and first and like security deposit and the deposit for the power company because neither one of us had credit. So they made us put down a ginormous deposit.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:48:00)
Yeah.

Bennett Peach (1:48:03)
So we didn't have power for the first three days, and it is August. It is swamp ass season. And, you know, but we knew that we wanted to be in this in each other's space. you know, we were eating ramen and peanut butter and jelly because we couldn't afford to eat any damn thing else. You know, I didn't realize that spaghetti was a struggle meal, but fuck, we ate that all the time. I g I mean, I guess I don't know. Hell, we had it last night. Shit, I don't care. I like me some damn spaghetti.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:48:27)
Yeah, yeah.

Bennett Peach (1:48:31)
if I had

if I won the lottery tomorrow, I still be eating some ragu. Shut up. It's good. I wasn't aware that that was a struggle meal. I thought spamming, you know, friggin' ramen was the struggle. I wasn't aware, but but I mean we we didn't have money, we didn't have a pot to piss in, but we had each other. And, you know, I was pregnant whenever we got married. We had roommates because we couldn't afford to pay the rent by ourselves.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:48:34)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Robin's good.

Bennett Peach (1:49:00)
So we had two two dudes living with us that were paying rent. One of them was brother and one was a friend. So

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:49:03)
So you're

Okay. So you guys got that house and then you had roommates to help you out with the r the rent? Okay.

Bennett Peach (1:49:11)
Yeah. Yeah.

Until our baby was born and you know they were doing extracurricular things and I was like, we can't be having this shit around our kids, so y'all got to find somewhere else to go. But you know, it we were never alone. For the first twenty years of our marriage, we were not alone. We either had a roommate or we had children.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:49:27)
Right.

Right.

Bennett Peach (1:49:38)
Whenever our kid our last kid moved out, we had to s really sit down and look at each other and try and figure out if we still like each other. Like you're we're no longer navigating through being a parent. We're no longer not in that capacity. I don't mean that we just kinda you know what I mean? I don't want somebody to say, just 'cause your kids move out doesn't mean you're a parent. I'm I know that duh. Shut up, Susan.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:49:56)
Mm-hmm.

It's so true though. Yes.

Bennett Peach (1:50:03)
It's just a different it's just a different level of parenting

because they no longer look to you for advice on a daily. They might call you every now and then and be like, hey, if I defrost this chicken, am I gonna get salmon manila? You know, because that literally happened. I'm like, babe, you stopped the you stopped the the aging process of the meat once you put it in the freezer. She's like, really? Yes, really.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:50:17)
Right. Right.

Yeah.

It is it is those life things though that you get the phone calls about. It could be the most random thing. But it's all that hands on. Yeah.

Bennett Peach (1:50:33)
Yeah, it's yeah, it's you know, yeah, it's it it's that. Yeah,

and you're you're less hands-on, you know, even whenever they start driving and and and going out on their own and having jobs and friends of their own and they're they're becoming young adults, you are still navigating how to spend time with your spouse in this new era, this new chapter that you're going into, this this empty nester thing.

And empty nesting really hit me like a brick.

Our house was the house where all of my kids' friends came over. And nobody talks about this part of it. You don't just miss your kids when they leave. You miss your kids' friends too. Because they all called me mom. I was always cooking food enough for a damn army. I had to adjust the way I cook meals because I no longer have teenagers that are, you know, in my refrigerator all the time. I no longer had someone up above my bedroom.

Stomping around upstairs. It is so fucking quiet in my house all the time. I used to have parking classes with these children trying to tell them how to park in my driveway. Like, bitch, I'm gonna need you to learn that you park over here. You park over I had kids that had toothbrushes in my upstairs bathroom in a baggie with their name on it because they would spend the night all the time. I mean

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:52:02)
Yes.

Bennett Peach (1:52:05)
And nobody talks about that part that you don't just miss your your your kids, you miss your friend your kids' friends because they became your kids too.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:52:15)
Yeah. Yeah. It's true. Then and and the the noise of it all all the shoes at the front door, like and the and the bikes in the front and the driveway. And I remember thinking, 'cause sometimes I'm like, there's so many shoes, but I'm like, but that means there's all these kids in my house. So I'd rather have a pile of shoes and a pile of bikes than not. And then there aren't any more you know, there isn't a pile of shoes anymore. You know, but then they do come when like I at least with our older two,

Bennett Peach (1:52:23)
God.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:52:45)
When they would especially when they would first come home from college, then their friends would come back over to see them. And you kind of would get a taste of everyone.

Bennett Peach (1:52:53)
Yeah, see, I

didn't get that because during what my y my oldest went to college. she did community college to get her degree in IT, some nerd shit. I don't know. She does shit with computers. She's a nerd. I love her dearly. She does she works for our county and she's a super, super nerd. so she went to community college to do that. And she has like all these different

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:53:14)
Awesome.

Bennett Peach (1:53:20)
certificates and shit and again nerd shit that I don't understand. and so she yeah I both of my kids are nerds. Both of my kids are I don't know how the hell they're nerds. I I I would like to take credit for that. I ate a lot of Subway. I drank a lot of Mountain Dew and I loved fortune cookies. So I attribute that diet to how my kids are so smart. but she

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:53:25)
The world needs nerves. Yes.

Well, there you go.

I think you need to trademark

that and maybe start a workshop. Yeah. It's the fortune cookies. It's philosophical.

Bennett Peach (1:53:53)
Well, my oldest is also

a type one diabetic and she blames me for that. She said it's all them damn mountain dew. She's just kidding. She knows that it's not my fault, but also it probably is. but but no, she went to community college to do that and she was dating her now husband. So, you know, did she have friends come over at that point? Not really. Plus, she was working full time and things like that. And my when my baby went to college, she was only

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:54:02)
Yes, yes, yes, yes.

Mm.

Bennett Peach (1:54:23)
in college for six months before the pandemic happened. So she was sent home. So I didn't get that experience with the kids coming during that, you know, while she was at home. Then she transferred to a different college because at the time she was going to an all-girls private college. She had gotten a full ride scholarship. she wanted to be a math teacher. And yeah she decided not to be a teacher. So we're paying that scholarship back.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:54:27)
No

Wow. Wow.

Yeah. no.

no. So wait, you have to pa so wait, but she only went for how long did she go at that school?

Bennett Peach (1:54:58)
She was at the private school, but she had gotten a scholarship through the state. And in order to not have to pay that back, you have to teach in the state of North Carolina for eight years. and so sh she transferred to another college that would take that that scholarship. And she graduated with a mathematics degree, but she dropped the education part. She just decided she was doing like

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:55:13)
no.

Bennett Peach (1:55:28)
in class stuff and she's just like, I I can't do this. And I'm like, I'm she I mean, she called and she was like really upset one day and she's like, Mama, I just don't think I can do it. I'm petrified. Like she was sharing her Amazon wish list for her classroom and, you know, sharing like bulletproof backpacks and, you know, door stoppers and things like that. Because, you know, it it's a reality, unfortunately. that

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:55:31)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Yeah. That's fucked

up. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Bennett Peach (1:55:57)
that people can be very afraid of. And she was

not okay with it. And plus she said that kids are assholes. And I'm like, yeah, I don't know why the hell you wanted to do this to begin with. but so she got her degree in mathematics with a minor in something with computers. Again, nerd shit. and now she's right and now she's getting her master's in statistics. so yeah, they're like smart smart. They're like smart smart.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:56:07)
Yeah, yeah.

That's awesome.

There's

She's smart. Both your kids are smart. Girl girls and SM. I love it. Girls and S They

Bennett Peach (1:56:27)
And she volunteers

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:56:27)
need it.

Bennett Peach (1:56:28)
a lot with STEM programs for younger kids. Like she still wants to work with young girls in STEM. So she does do a work with a nonprofit every now and then, teaching them how to code and because there's not a lot of women in STEM. it's it's mostly a male dominated field. So she she really does do that. Like my daughter, the one that does IT, she's the one of only

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:56:30)
Yeah.

There is no. No.

Bennett Peach (1:56:56)
two females that works in the IT department. So, you know.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:56:58)
Yeah.

No, it's awesome that they're both doing that. Brian's in IT and I'll off and on ask him, Were there any women there? And he's like, Yeah, there was one, or yeah, there was one or two. It's such a male dominated field. So I I am cheering your daughters on. That's awesome. It's less so now than it has been. It's improving, but yeah. Yeah, yeah. That's great that she's a mentor.

Bennett Peach (1:57:18)
Well what's so sad is

that I'm so technologically stupid and I have two kids that are so super freaking genius smart and one of them is an IT person and I still don't know how to run podcasting equipment for crying out loud.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:57:22)
Mm-hmm.

That's how it goes. My dad

my dad was a doctor and if we would get sick, he'd be like, You're fine. Like it we didn't get any of the treatment. It's just he hates it when something Yes.

Bennett Peach (1:57:38)
Right. Right. Here's some ginger ale. Watch the prices

right. Here's a cracker, you find.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:57:45)
Exactly.

And it's when stuff goes down in our house, he's like, I just did this all day. I don't, you know, but so it's very common. So you're right. So when they went to school, you didn't have the group coming back again, like for Thanksgiving break, Christmas break. Cause that kind of weans you off of that a little bit. You know what I mean? Where you you still get to see them here and there catch up on their lives. What are you doing? So for you when they graduated, like

Bennett Peach (1:57:51)
I know, I know.

Yeah.

Yeah.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:58:14)
Everyone was kinda gone. That had to have been that would have been such a huge adjustment. And then for you Yeah.

Bennett Peach (1:58:19)
It was a very huge adjustment. I'm almost

I I'm kind of glad COVID happened at that time because it forced her to come back home. So I wasn't that lonely. But then she left again. So it was kind of like a heartbreak all over again. And then I'm an idiot. And I had gotten a St. Bernard puppy whenever she was

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:58:28)
Yeah.

Right.

Bennett Peach (1:58:44)
And I didn't do the math. I didn't I didn't realize that she would be

I'm sorry. She was my dog and my my dog. She was my dog and she's been gone for two years. she got old as fuck when my kids moved out. Like

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:58:55)
No, no.

I'm so sorry.

So it all

hit. It's a perfect storm. I guess it's It's a perfect storm. She was your soul, was she your soul soul dog? Yeah. Yeah.

Bennett Peach (1:59:10)
Yeah. Yeah. I didn't do the math. Yes, absolutely. I don't ever want another dog. I don't ever want

another dog. I can't do it again, physically and emotionally. I don't think I could ever do it again. I don't think I could love another animal as much as I loved her. and I don't think that I could take the heartbreak. I've I saw my husband cry so much that he had snot running down his beard. I've never seen that man cry like that ever.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:59:37)
Yeah. There's

Bennett Peach (1:59:40)
My daughter was devastated.

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:59:40)
there's something like yeah.

Bennett Peach (1:59:42)
my oldest used to work for a the county as a animal. I don't even know what you call it. at yeah, at animal control, but she didn't like go out and like take animal. She took care of them and she had to learn how to euthanize animals and take care of them and all kinds of stuff. yeah. So whenever we had our dog put to sleep, she came and I think she just disassociated because she

GenX Adulting Podcast (1:59:50)
Control.

my goodness. my goodness.

Yeah.

Bennett Peach (2:00:07)
seen it

so much and then she told me later that she cried all the way home. And and she was our dog. She she was our family. I have her ashes above, you know, my count my cabinets and sometimes she makes appearances in my videos because I deal with shit with dark humor. You know, that's that's how I deal with shit. But I mean whenever she died, the house was unbearable.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:00:34)
That's

the worst. you had you had the perfect storm. You had the perfect storm because we just lost I lost my soul dog in March and I'm still processing it. his his ashes I think I spent more on his box than I did on anything for myself last year. But his ashes and his paw prints are on a prominent table right off the kitchen with plant I mean I see him I passed like fucking altar. It is an altar and I need that and I and I know he shows up

Bennett Peach (2:00:36)
Was unbearable. Yeah.

It fucking sucks. It fucking sucks.

I get it.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:01:03)
times. Yeah. So anyways, I I hear what you're saying. We have two others still. We do, but he was my soul dog. But to have your your kids leave and then to lose your soul dog, that is devastating. That is so was that around the time and the house gets quiet. Is that around time where you and your husband then also had that talk of okay, we're this is what our life is and where are we going forward with this new phase in our life?

Bennett Peach (2:01:31)
We had had that conversation prior to that because I did have like two years at home with it was just me and my dog because my husband's a farmer and he was gone, especially during the summertime. He would be gone until dark. So a lot of times it was just me and my dog, you know, hanging out. but she had gotten to the point where she was elderly and she had hyper what do you call it?

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:01:54)
Yeah.

Bennett Peach (2:01:56)
She had arthritis, but she also had like the hip dysplasia. That's what I'm trying to say. and they told me that they could have done surgery on her, but the recovery for a dog her age would have been very painful for her without much of a guarantee of length of life. So I didn't really see that being very beneficial for her. It would have been selfish for me. You know what I mean?

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:02:00)
Yes, yes, yes.

Right.

Yeah. Yeah.

Bennett Peach (2:02:22)
so

we chose, I mean, she was she would have been thirteen, she would have been thirteen that year in July if she'd have made it. That's a very long life for a Saint Bernard. but she was a mix, but I think whatever she was mixed with, she shitted out because she looked just like a Saint Bernard. and she drooled just like one and you know, whatever. Dixie. She chose her name.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:02:30)
That's a long life for Saint Bernard. Yeah.

Mm.

Well w what was her name? Dixie.

Bennett Peach (2:02:49)
My girls tried to name her whenever we went and picked her up. they wanted to name her Nikki because our last name is Stevens. Nikki Stevens, Stevie Nicks. Like they, yeah. They they love Fleetwood Mac. I made them listen to music at growing up. They they are very versed in music. and they really wanted her name to be Nikki. She never turned around while we were in the yard.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:02:56)
Mm hmm. Mm. Yes. Clever. That's great. Yeah.

Bennett Peach (2:03:15)
like we would just say her name over and over and over and over and over again and she would never respond to it. So I was like, Well, maybe she doesn't like that name. Let's just start screaming out stuff and see what she see what she comes to. And I I can't remember which one of us was, but somebody said Dixie, and she turned around and her he her ears popped up like this and she took off running towards us. And I was like, Well, there you go. She just named herself. So

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:03:39)
Wow, I've ne

never heard of a dog that happening with a dog. What a trip. I like that approach though. Yeah, that is a cool approach.

Bennett Peach (2:03:46)
She was six weeks old

and she weighed twelve pounds when I brought her home. She was a big bitch. She was a big old fat bitch.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:03:50)
Wow. Wow. Wow. They're beautiful dogs.

They're absolutely beautiful dogs. to go back when you got back from Bosnia and you guys got married and you got your house and you have the roommates and you have your daughter, were you a stay at home mom during that time or did you also have to work? Okay, so you so you what did you do?

Bennett Peach (2:04:10)
No God no.

I worked two jobs when I was pregnant, before I had my oldest. I was working at a jewelry store called Friedman's Jewelers, selling jewelry, retail, slinging jewelry. and then I was waiting tables at a little barbecue joint. And that's a lot of times that's where we would get our dinner because we couldn't afford groceries because we were broke. my husband would come in almost every single day and that's what we would have for dinner because like I said, we just

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:04:26)
Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Bennett Peach (2:04:42)
We just didn't have money. I mean, I don't I don't even know how I I don't know how we survived, to be honest with you. And our rent was only four hundred dollars a month. And you would have thought that that was a million dollars. But we made it work, you know. It is, it is. at the time he was working at a machine shop, I think that was his job. No, he was working in a furniture place, loading furniture. and he was

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:04:54)
Yeah. Yeah. Well to all relative. What did he do?

Okay.

Bennett Peach (2:05:10)
pressure washing, doing odd jobs, things like that. And then he started work at a metal company, like fabrication, metal fabrication. He did that. And then my father in law was like, let's build some chicken houses. And I was like, you can have fun with that. I don't want no part of it. I did chickens my whole fucking life.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:05:17)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yes. Yep.

Bennett Peach (2:05:32)
so they they built chicken houses. So he was part time farmer and full time working at that metal shop. So

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:05:37)
And

were you guys still living in that same house?

Bennett Peach (2:05:40)
We lived in that house for sixteen years. My mom actually lives in that house now.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:05:43)
Okay, the one

So the one where the roommates were. That same house. Okay. And so Okay, that's what I was gonna say, 'cause you were renting it at first, right? And then you bought it.

Bennett Peach (2:05:47)
Mm-hmm. Yep. We ended up buying that house.

Yeah, we rented it

for a year and we built our credit up and then we had his parents co sign with us for a year and then we got it out of their name after a year. So we we've we lived there for sixteen years from the time we moved in together, that was our only address until we bought our our house we live in now.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:06:14)
I mean you guys were hustling. It's pretty impressive to only rent for a year and then to buy your that home. That's I mean you're saying with a kid. With the with a kid that's saying that like you don't know how you made it work, but man, you did. You made it work really well. 'Cause

Bennett Peach (2:06:29)
Honey, we

did we did all kinds of odd jobs. You just have no idea. You have no idea. I cleaned houses. I did whatever we needed to do. I was not going to you know, be a statistic. you know, I grew up white trash and I was gonna be damned if I was gonna be that as an adult. You know what I mean? and that's no no shade to to you know, my mom. They they did the best they could. but

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:06:36)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Bennett Peach (2:06:57)
I did I wanted to give my kids more than that. And you know, I think sometimes maybe us gen X probably overcompensated some for our lacking. And that's sometimes why we have these overly entitled children running around now. but it's because we grew up so different.

when pe people don't realize that whenever we're sitting here talking about nostalgia and how we loved our childhood and stuff, it's because we didn't know any different. You know, yeah, we loved it because, you know, we didn't know that there was an alternative, I feel like. you know, it was a form of neglect. I mean, if you look at it, I mean, looking at it now, us being at home watching our siblings at nine is neglect.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:07:50)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Bennett Peach (2:07:52)
Can't do that

now, you go to jail.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:07:55)
Yeah. And we want it to be better. Right. We all wanted to push it up a little bit further. No, I always say that we maybe created the helicopter parenting, but the pendulum had to swing that way in order to find some balance because we were so on the other end of it. So to get away from that, we had to bring it this way. Plus, we were out there. We know what's out there. So we're not ignorant to we're not letting our kids go out at five, six, seven, eight, nine.

Bennett Peach (2:07:59)
Yeah.

Yeah.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:08:23)
walking around on their own out in the wild because we know we're not ignorant to it. So yeah, we are more protective because we know. So it's it's not

Bennett Peach (2:08:33)
Well, there was no ch there

was no reason for them to have a commercial on the TV for us to be reminded that we had freaking children.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:08:43)
Exactly. Exactly. Yes. And that commercial sums it all up. It still struck me.

Bennett Peach (2:08:45)
You know.

Yeah, it's 10

PM. Do you know where your children are? And I'm sitting here going, damn it. It had to have been such an epidemic at that point for them to have to be told, hey, by the way, you remember those little tax tax returns, those little tax bracket things you got?

Your pullout game was really shitty. You might want to go check on them. See where they're at. I don't know. Did you f

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:09:20)
You know, you're so right. It's so and then they use

they use celebrities too. 'Cause that's sometimes I'll see it, it'll come up on social media.

Bennett Peach (2:09:25)
Yeah. Yeah, it wasn't just like news. It was like Lee Deonne Warwick coming on there and be

like, Hey, by the way, do you know you got crotch goblins? Do you know where they're at? Yeah, I don't reckon you do. You might want to go see about it. You idiot.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:09:37)
Yeah.

It's so true. I never thought of it that

way. Yeah, but you summed it up epidemic as right. Because for them to create that campaign In the halls of Congress, they're like, We got a fucking problem. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Bennett Peach (2:09:51)
Out of everything that they could have been doing, it's like Ken, we

remind these boomer motherfuckers that they had children.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:09:56)
Yeah. Yes.

I'm gonna go to Hollywood and get these fuckers on the phone. my god, it's so true. And so yeah, I think you're right. We most of us worked hard to break that generational cycle. Whatever happened to us, we sure as hell are gonna make sure it's not gonna happen to our kids. And

Bennett Peach (2:10:14)
Yeah, and I'm not saying I was perfect. Listen, I I made mistakes as a parent. And I, you know, I I tried really hard not to do and treat my children the same way that I was treated. I tried really hard not to look at them and say, you know, you better stop crying. I'll give you something to cry about. You know, I really tried hard not to use that, but I will t I'll be honest with you. There were times whenever I would open my mouth and my mother would come out. that because it's it's a learned thing and you have to stop yourself.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:10:16)
No, no, no, no. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Bennett Peach (2:10:43)
From doing that and saying those things, because I can't tell you how many times I got told, you know, shut up or I'll give you something to cry about, you know, crying's for pussies. Nobody wants to see anybody, suck it up, you know, stop acting like a big baby. It's not that big of a fucking deal. Like I my daughter, for instance, my daughter, and this is this is my bad, and I apologize to her all the time for this. We got a trampoline whenever she was probably.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:10:52)
Yeah.

Bennett Peach (2:11:13)
seven or eight years old and she fell. I was trying to teach her how to do flips, right? She fell, broke her arm. I didn't know it was broken because it wasn't like I when I never broke a bone whenever I was growing up. My brother never broke a bone when he was growing up. So I didn't know what the hell a broke bone looked like. I thought it was just like like it had to be like flopped over or something. No, I didn't know that you could break a you could splinter it, right? I had no idea. So you know after she, you know, I'm

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:11:31)
Right. God. Right, right.

Yes. Yeah.

Bennett Peach (2:11:40)
cuddling her and you know I'm so sorry. It's okay. I got her some ice, whatever. And I did. I was like, okay, I'm gonna need you to calm down now. It's not that bad. You know, it's really not. All right. You're you're kind of being dramatic about it. I I'm gonna need you to suck it up a little bit. All right. Just whatever. I did not take her to the hospital. I made her do her homework. She's left handed. It was her left arm. Okay. I'm a bitch. I'll just say it outright. I'm a bitch.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:11:50)
Right.

Bennett Peach (2:12:11)
I went I took her to school the next day. The school nurse called my husband. He took her to the ER. He called me at work and said it's broken. They're gonna have to do surgery.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:12:23)
no, it was on a growth plate then, right? That sounds like it was that was not a clean break.

Bennett Peach (2:12:30)
Bruh, you wanna

talk about somebody feeling like the

gum off of the bottom of somebody's fucking boot. I mean, I felt like absolute dog shit. and then whenever she got older, she would look down at her scar whenever I would be fussing at her about something. And she wouldn't even have to say anything and I'd just be like, never mind.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:12:50)
yeah.

That's funny. But you know what? We've we've all had that. I can look back with all three of my kids and and I have cringe moments. I especially my oldest because they're the guinea pigs, right? And we were kids. We were kids. Yeah. Yeah.

Bennett Peach (2:13:00)
Yeah.

That oldest is that tester kid, dude. The older one

is the tester kid. You know, you know when like I said, when you know better, you do better. You treat your youngest one or your middle one or whatever. The ones that come after the first one, you treat them a little bit differently because that first one, you're learning.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:13:21)
Yes. Yes.

And you were how old again were you nineteen? Nineteen when you first had her? Okay. So you were only twenty seven when sh when when she broke her arm. Yeah. Yeah. So you're still pretty young.

Bennett Peach (2:13:28)
I was twenty when she was born. I was twenty when she was born.

Correct. And I also had

another child too. Like I have two girls. They're they're twenty two months apart. So yeah. Yeah. My my husband couldn't pull out of a fucking driveway.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:13:39)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Wow. Yeah. You were you guys were like us, then. Yeah.

Listen, you wanna hear this? Talking about that? We have a twenty nine year old, a twenty five year old, and a sixteen year old because my husband couldn't pull out of the fucking driveway. So we ended up with a bonus baby. I'll never forget that. So which I always say, thank God our family wasn't complete without him. Yeah, he did just get his license. But

Bennett Peach (2:14:04)
Yeah.

See, I I'm so glad for everybody else that decided to have one more. Me, I daps a freaking lutely not. Let me tell you, I knew I signed those papers to have my tubes tied when I was six months pregnant with my youngest. And my husband w honestly was a little irritated with me because he he grew up with two brothers and he had a lot of cousins and stuff. And he if he'd have had his druthers back then, we would have had a fucking football team. But

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:14:38)
Yeah.

Probably trying for a boy. Yeah.

Bennett Peach (2:14:39)
No, I was like, absolutely not. Like I can't well,

it's not even that. No, he told everybody. He was proud to be a girl dad. He told everybody that his that his shit was strong enough to blow the balls off. That's how he got girls. That's what he said. he said that many times because there were a lot of people that gave him shit about being a girl dad. And he's Fuck it, I love being a girl dad. and he was so good with

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:14:47)
Yeah.

There you go, I like that. That's awesome.

Yeah. No, being a girl that's like the

shit. It is. Like yeah. Yeah.

Bennett Peach (2:15:01)
And he was so good with the girls. Like he'd let them paint

his fingernails. He wore a Hannah Montana wig to go watch the movie. I mean, he was really good girl dad. So I think if we'd have had boys, he probably would have killed him. because they would have been just like him into everything, breaking shit, you know. but yeah, I mean I learned with that first one. You do you you do the best you can and and like I said, I've I've apologized to her many, many, many times about how I

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:15:08)
Yeah. That's awesome.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You do the best you can. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Bennett Peach (2:15:31)
reacted to that situation. But then like a like you said, I was twenty seven, twenty-eight years old at the time. I really was still learning. I I I think my frontal lobe had just formed, you know. And it's, you know, and it's learned behavior. You know, it's learned behavior. And and I'm sure that my mom did the best she could 'cause she was learned behavior from her mom. It's just a cycle. And I tried really, really, really hard to to try and break that. After I did that, I I try to do better.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:15:42)
It's true. That's true. That is when it happens. Yeah. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Bennett Peach (2:16:01)
You know, I'm not saying I was perfect all the time, but I did try. And I hope my and I and I think I'm I'm not one of those parents that are no contact with their kids now. So at least I must have done something right.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:16:04)
It's not easy.

There you go. That's that's when you know. That's when you know. I'm telling you,

I think and that whole, you know, every parent the every generation did the best they could. And that's in general true. I mean, I do think there's situations like people will say, My my parents beat the shit out of me. They didn't do the best they could. You know, so you can't like blanket that, but I do think in general that's true. But I do think Gen X is the first set of where when we became parents, we're like, We're doing we're doing different. We're breaking this. So we're not gonna fall back on we

well, we did the best. We're changing it. And that takes a lot of effort. And it takes falling on your face a lot. and it takes so much energy. But I do think in general, so many of us were like, it stops here with us. We're going to change. And if you look at Gen Z, they're amazing. They're an amazing. And I know like in there is a lot of entitlement and there's there's exceptions, but overall, especially the girls are so cool. I love the Gen Z girls. They have their voice and their

funny and their girlhood is strong. I just think if you want to see how we all did as parents, I'm proud of Gen Z. You know, and I know there's situations where people say, they don't want to work. But over I mean, all the Gen Z I know are awesome. They're awesome.

Bennett Peach (2:17:24)
Listen,

both of my kids are Gen Z. you know, my oldest is married, has a successful career. Matter of fact, she just got a promotion at her job. that she's been at for the past six, seven years. She's been with this company. my son-in-law is actually a millennial, like a baby millennial. It's so funny that he's thirty one. I feel so old. my God.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:17:26)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm. They are that's that's the youngest. That's the youngest millennial,

I think, or thirty is or something.

Bennett Peach (2:17:54)
What's so funny is

his parents, his mom is my mom's age.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:17:59)
Yes. There are boomers who have young millennials. Isn't that true? Yeah. Yeah.

Bennett Peach (2:18:02)
Yes. my God. I was like, I

was like, I can't wait to meet your parents. And he's like, I was like, what's your mom's name? He's like, Martha. I'm like, fuck, Martha's.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:18:10)
Yeah.

that's awesome. Is Martha gonna want to smoke sticks with me and drink some water? Martha wants you to drink. Yeah, yeah. But it's true, it's true. Cause we'll get people in our comments being like, you know, this parent has had this generation and then it's like, No, boomers also had some millennials. You can't. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's funny. So they

Bennett Peach (2:18:15)
Martha's got No. Martha has a walker. Like what the fuck?

Boomers had some millennials. They damn sure did. And he's the oldest. That's what's so funny. He's the oldest. no, maybe his

brother's the oldest. Maybe he's the baby. I don't remember. But anyway, they've been married for five years this year. My youngest child, she's 25, has a great career. She's going back to school to get her master's degree.

she pays her own damn bills by herself. She's a strong independent woman and she don't need no damn man. You know, she she's doing her damn thing. so I'm I'm really freaking proud of how my kids turned out and I'm proud of the majority of their friends. Like their most of their friends have really successful careers and you know it it's it's really great to see. Now you do have those certain people. Now I will I'll listen listen, I'm gonna I'm gonna

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:18:59)
Yeah, they're awesome.

Yeah.

Bennett Peach (2:19:19)
Dog my nephew, real quick. My nephew, my son's child. I love him. I do. Zero motivation to get his driver's license. Zero motivation to get a job.

And he's 18. He just turned 18. And I'm just sitting here going, why are these kids that are like that age not want to get a driver's license? They don't even want to get a job. Like they're content with letting mom and dad or grandma and grandpa take them wherever they need to go. Or they, you know, they got a fucking app and they'll just call it them Uber, you know? I couldn't wait to get my driver's license. Like, I don't get it. Why they don't want to drive.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:19:43)
Yeah.

Yes, yes.

Yeah. Yeah.

Bennett Peach (2:20:03)
Like go get a fucking Tesla dude. They drive themselves, bitch. Like, what do you mean? Like you don't, you really don't want to be independent?

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:20:06)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I've heard of that about I think 'cause that's the young like our son's sixteen and he's the last Gen Z, I think. And I think that young gen he won his license and he's working, but I I think there is a group of them that are like that. The COVID. And I don't know if it's the COVID thing, if it depended on what state you were in when coming Yeah, they were locked down so much.

Bennett Peach (2:20:27)
It's so weird.

I know. Well, I know, I know that during COVID

and during the lockdown, he was pr he I he was always a little bit more socially awkward. and then COVID happened. So that made it astronomically worse. I think that COVID for certain kids wasn't the cause, but it was definitely the catalyst of how they adapted to navigating other relationships with other people, social

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:20:50)
Yeah.

Bennett Peach (2:21:04)
situations and things like that. so I I do know that COVID did not help. I don't think it was a cause though, but I do think that it was a catalyst for a lot of a lot of kids, especially his age. and and even younger than that, I don't understand. There's and and it's not even just my nephew. Like he just turned 18 in April, but there's I have friends that have kids that are, you know, the same age as my kids and they

didn't want to get their driver's license until they were like twenty. And I'm like, what the fuck do you mean? We live in the middle of nowhere and you were content not going nowhere? Like you just stay at home.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:21:34)
Yeah. I think it was an enabling.

Yeah. I think there's two

two branches here of Gen Z. I think there is there's a group of Gen Z that are not thriving. And then there's a group that and I don't know. I you know who might know it's it's or it's where where were they during COVID? Were they in a state where they were locked down for like three years and it was crazy, or were they in a state where it was more normal and you could still go out? Like I don't know, or is it the parenting

Bennett Peach (2:21:44)
Yeah, I do.

Yes. Yes. Maybe it was the parenting. I don't know.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:22:08)
We had Kim Minch on. Do you know who that is? She's on social media. She's an adult parenting expert. We had her on like, I don't know, six months ago or something. She specializes in that. That's how many kids there are in this Gen Z group that are not thriving, you know, struggling to launch. Struggling to launch. And so Yeah. Yeah, she's great. So they exist. They exist. Yeah. It's that you think about that though.

Bennett Peach (2:22:26)
Yes, I've heard that. I maybe I have come across her before, but yeah, I I get it. I get it. I understand. It it is a thing. But I but like you said, I do think

it has a lot to do with, you know, where they were you know, age-wise during during the pandemic, because that set so many kids back, and not even just kids, like adults too. Like adults forgot how to fuck an adult. Like I

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:22:50)
Yes, yes.

Bennett Peach (2:22:53)
never stopped doing what I was doing during COVID. I mean, I it probably wasn't the most responsible thing to do, but I was still playing bars. We were one of the only bands that would play bars during the pandemic. I wasn't really concerned about it. You know, I'm I'm

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:23:07)
Yeah.

Yeah. We're in Florida, if

that tells you anything. Like it didn't really even happen here. We were like it's ordered and shut down really. So Yeah. Yeah. We just kept going. Yeah. We did yeah, so our our kids pretty much all outside one or two could do w everything. Schools got weird, just like the rest of the country. Yeah, but not long. No. Not long. So I think I think it does depend.

Bennett Peach (2:23:18)
Yeah, yeah. COVID Who, never heard of her. Yeah, y'all y'all were just y'all just didn't give a fuck. Y'all just didn't give a fuck.

Yeah.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:23:40)
You know I think it is? I have a feeling for kids who didn't necessarily want to be social and be at school, it fully enabled them to go chill. And then the world changed because now everything can get brought to you. Like our neighbors, they don't shop. They I see them getting their groceries delivered still. Same, yeah, you're doing the same. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Now some things are nice, right? That's a wonderful thing. But

Bennett Peach (2:23:49)
Absolutely. One hundred percent.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:24:07)
But you're but you're out in other ways. You're not you're not you're out in other ways. Yeah.

Bennett Peach (2:24:10)
I am out in other ways, but I would rather I would rather

get poked in the eyeball with a bojangled sport than to go to Walmart and pick up groceries. I can't stand it. And it's not and it's not even because I don't want to go get groceries. It's the fact that I can't go in that damn place without seeing somebody that wants to stand in the fucking aisle and talk to me for 30 minutes. Listen, Jennifer from fifth grade, I don't really give a flying fuck what's going on in your life. I just let me get my damn ragoo and go. Shit.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:24:18)
one more time.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. You were an asshole to

me back then. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Did you start the club?

Bennett Peach (2:24:42)
I am 100% and

I know that makes me found sound like a fucking dick, but I am 100% if I am going down that aisle and I see somebody I know, I am gonna go right the fuck back out.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:24:55)
yeah. yeah. I'm the same way. When I'm at if I do go like Costco, I'll go to Costco, but I have blinders on. I don't make eye contact. I don't don't look at Yes. Yes. Yes. Yeah.

Bennett Peach (2:25:02)
Yes. I just want to get my shit and go. Please just let me go. Cause they always

end up saying something fucking stupid. Like, or they want to know what you do for a living. And then whenever I say social media, they like give me that bless your heart face. And I want to go, I bitch, I probably make more money in a week than you do in a fucking month. So eat a bag of dicks. Like they have no idea.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:25:11)
Yeah.

Yes.

Exactly. They don't know. They have no idea.

It's so true. But but you're not using it to because you don't leave the house. You know, like it like where where things are brought to you that enable people who don't want to go out, don't want to be shocked. You know. You still do things. Yes.

Bennett Peach (2:25:38)
Right. I mean, I'm still I still go out with my band. You know, we still we still

play stuff. You know, my husband does moonshine festivals all the time. I'm I'm a very active and social person, you know. I I do do that stuff and I go thrifting. I'll I'll do things like that. I just hate fucking Walmart, man. It's like it's like, God Jesus. The last time I was at Walmart and I got trapped in an aisle, there was a lady that

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:25:49)
Right. Right. It's a yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. No. It's why I do cruise slides.

Bennett Peach (2:26:06)
I didn't even go to school with her. She went to school with my husband, but she knows who I am because of him, right? And she was like, I hadn't seen you in a long time. And sh she basically alluded to the fact that I had let myself go because I had I had gained some weight. Like we all do whenever you friggin' get older. Calm down, Susan. Right? Well, she's she made that comment like, you know, whatever. And I was like, Yeah, I gotta

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:26:21)
Yes. Who would ever comment on that?

Bennett Peach (2:26:32)
Got a treadmill at home. I'm just lazy. I like I always try to treat awkward situations with humor or whatever and make fun of myself. That's just, you know. and I I said something to the effect of I have a trem treadmill at home, but it's mostly got my laundry on it because I'm lazy. And she was like, Well, why don't you just walk your dog? And I looked at her, I was like, My dog died. And she goes, You should get another one. And I said, like, she wouldn't let it fucking die. Like she just wouldn't let the conversation go, right?

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:26:50)
my god.

my what's Pentagon, Pentagon?

Bennett Peach (2:27:02)
She just kept on and kept on. And I was like, well, once you've

ever once you've had the best dog in the world, you don't want to. And like, listen, she would not let it die even after that. She goes, Well, how do you know it was she was the best dog ever? Because I fucking know, okay? Shut up. But it was so funny because I was able to do a video about it. And it made me money off of her stupid shit.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:27:13)
no. No. No.

There you go. Content. Yeah.

It's perfect. It's perfect. You gotta move to the city. No, no. so to go back though, so you said you guys lived in that house for 16 years. and you're both both hustling, hustling, hustling, raising your daughters. When you left that house, where did you guys go?

Bennett Peach (2:27:31)
Exactly. It's so funny. Like

Mm-hmm.

So we have many hats. I did a I did jewelry industry for from probably 1998 up until about 2010. I worked at several different jewelry companies. One was Freedman's Jewelers, which is no longer a company anymore. They filed bankruptcy back in like 2006, 2007, somewhere like that.

I worked for another company called Whitehall Jewelers. They also filed bankruptcy. Daniel actually, my husband told me he said, You need to go work for the IRS. Maybe they'll file bankruptcy because n everywhere you go seems to crumble. and then I ended up working at Kay's up until 2010 when we bought our local beer store. So we were known as the Heathens in town because, you know, we live in a very Bible belt area where

you know, people would hide their beer like in carts at the grocery store, like put shit on top of it. So yeah.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:28:50)
Even even

in twenty ten, people were doing that stuff. No, in general, you're saying you have a bunch of closet alcoholics. Yeah, right. Yeah. So yeah. So they won't show that they're they won't show that they're fine, that they drink

Bennett Peach (2:28:59)
I'm not a closeted one. I'm just out in the open. I don't give a shit.

Yeah, I I

would literally when we bought this store, like we it was one of the only places because our county well, to give a little bit of history about where I'm at, the the county, Chatham County was dry for ye for for long, long, long time. Like it wasn't until like the nineties that you could purchase alcohol in my county, right?

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:29:28)
Yeah.

Bennett Peach (2:29:32)
And the neighboring county beside us, Randolph County, is still dry to this day. It's twenty twenty-six and the county itself is dry, but the city of Ashboro is wet, if that makes sense. Like the county itself, you cannot buy alcohol unless you go into the city of Ashboro. And then it's a free-for-all. You can, you know, liquor by the drink, beer, all that good stuff, right? ABC stores, galore. So

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:29:56)
You can you buy

it and bring it back to where you live in the county?

Bennett Peach (2:30:00)
So you can, but we live in such a very small area and the little town that I live in is like tucked in at the like corner of this other county that is completely dry and another county that is completely dry. And we got alcohol first. So this beer store, this man used to run a bait and tackle shop where he repaired knives and repaired hunting equipment and he would sell bait,

like ninos and worms and stuff for people that wanted to go fishing and shit like that because you know we're we live out in the country and that's what we do. And he found out that we were getting alcohol so he immediately applied for that shit. Immediately. He ordered one truck loaded down full of Budweiser. That truck was so loaded down that it bowed in the middle.

filled to the brim with Budweiser beer. He upcharged it one dollar and he sold it to people by the trunk loads because they would come from the two neighboring counties that were dry and they would buy whatever they could, load it down in the back of their trucks or in the back of their trunks and bootleg that shit.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:31:12)
Right.

Wow.

Bennett Peach (2:31:25)
So when we bought that store, there was a lot of history that came with it. Like he was so busy that he had a drive through for alcoholics. Okay. Because they didn't want the Baptist church to see that they were over there getting beer. So he had like a screen put in, and like you drive behind it and you could get whatever it was, and nobody would know that it was you. And you drive off with your 12 pack or your 24 pack or whatever. Yeah.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:31:41)
my god.

What a trip. What a trip. I didn't realize North Carolina had dry counties. That's wild. So

Bennett Peach (2:31:54)
Mm-hmm. Yes.

yeah. Still dry counties.

It's crazy. So when we bought it in 2010, there were still there was still the stigma around because I I we live very close to like three Baptist churches, and y'all know how Baptists are. You know, no offense to the Baptists watching, but some of y'all, some of y'all.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:32:11)
Right, right.

It

Bennett Peach (2:32:19)
Mm. Some of y'all. Anyway, that there was several people that would come in the store on a Saturday after they were weed whacking. And they would go over there to the cooler and they'd get them an 18 pack of Michelob Ultra. And they would see somebody from the Baptist church coming in and they house it behind me going, Don't tell them I'm here. I'm waiting on a pizza. That's what I'm waiting on. I'm like, are you fucking serious? You are three times seven and you're acting like you're 12. Like, come on.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:32:46)
Right.

Bennett Peach (2:32:48)
We had people that would literally not come in there and and shop with us. even though we we sold Hunt Brothers pizzas. I don't know if y'all have those there, but it's like a convenience store pizza, best convenience store pizza ever. we sold pizzas and people would order pizzas there. and I mean, we were hopping all the time with pizzas. We couldn't keep up. but we had people that would literally not come in there because we sold alcohol, because sh I'm like, do you not go to the grocery store?

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:32:57)
Mm-hmm.

Bennett Peach (2:33:18)
'Cause they sell alcohol. Do you not go to San Felipe on a Saturday night? They sell alcohol. Maybe you should get a margarita. Brenda. Calm down.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:33:25)
Yeah. Yes. Yes.

Yeah. Yeah. What a it just that's that is not that long ago, twenty ten. People to be acting like that.

Bennett Peach (2:33:34)
No, we so we sold it in twenty sixteen.

We sold it in twenty sixteen because I just c I couldn't do it anymore. They made it so hard with the taxes and the fees and the and the restrictions and you know, I wanted to expand and our county wouldn't let us because of the septic system. I would have had to do this, that, and the third to be able to do it. And I was like, I can't. I wanted to put in gas tanks and they wouldn't allow me to because of the

I mean, it was just too much. And I was like, you know what? I can't do this anymore. I'm sinking more money in into this than than I should. And it's just ridiculous. Plus, at the time, you know, my husband was coaching wrestling. He was trying to help me with that business while also running seven chicken houses and a hundred head of cattle. and our daughters were still in high school playing sports.

And we had my husband had purchased the house that we're in right now at an auction for $35,000. So we were trying to remodel that house. I don't know when we slept for like two years. I really don't. It was absolutely insane. We were both, I I think I was the skinniest I've ever been in my entire life because I didn't eat and I didn't sleep.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:34:27)
Cheese.

Wow. Wow.

Yeah, that sounds crazy. That sounds c it to have

Yeah. Because

having two girls in high school and sports is is bad. That's that's takes up your life. And then have everything else you guys are doing. I'm sure there's parts of those years you don't even remember what it's like you blacked out. 'Cause it

Bennett Peach (2:35:06)
I did

honestly. It I was walking around in a like a I don't know a daze. And in the midst of that, my oldest was diagnosed with type one diabetes. So we had to navigate learning how to help her with that and help, you know, educate myself and and and everybody else around us on how to deal with that situation. yeah, it was it was a lot. It was a friggin' lot.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:35:26)
Right.

No kidding. And that was all in two years time of just all of that balance.

Bennett Peach (2:35:34)
Two, three years.

Yeah. And my husband's parents were going through a divorce as well at the same time.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:35:39)
my gosh. Wow. So was that before you sold it or was that go the two, three years before you sold it?

Bennett Peach (2:35:40)
Craziness.

it was right around all of it kind of happened at the same, you know? And then tw in twenty twenty sixteen, whenever I left, I decided that I was gonna go to the county and get a job so I could have benefits. because I didn't have any retirement, I didn't have insurance. and I thought, well, that that'll be a good way for me to do it. County benefits are always great, right? So

Hmm, my dumb ass thought I would be a lunch lady, which I loved my job. Don't get me wrong. I loved being around those kids. I had a great time, but working for the county is not for me. There is too much bullshit. And absolutely not. I quit after the one school year. Told them that they could kiss my ass.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:36:21)
All right.

Even even doing lunch being a lunch

lady, there was it w there was still a headache. Like you would think you'd be off, you know, that w you wouldn't be dealing with lunch ladies, but even with that there was

Bennett Peach (2:36:37)
So

I was because I am an overachiever when it comes to my job, I always go in and and try to whatever you need, whatever can I do? Can I do anything to help? Can I learn this so it makes your life easier? I've always been the manager's favorite, always. because I've always taken and I think that's just I don't know. I don't I don't I don't know what that is. There's something wrong with me on the inside, I think, because I'm just an overachiever. I just want to please, yeah.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:37:05)
Or words favor.

Yes. Well yeah.

Bennett Peach (2:37:07)
and

so my manager, she ended up having to have an emergency appendectomy and gallbladder removal. So I was the only one that was willing to learn how to run that cafeteria. So I was a temp because that was what they hired me in for, but I was working full time as a manager for not the pay.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:37:29)
So

Bennett Peach (2:37:30)
And whenever it came time for them to evaluate me, because I was like, okay, I'm just gonna continue to put forth this effort and gonna continue to show them that I'm willing to do these things. That way I'll they'll give me full time. And they passed me over for like the third time full time, and I was like, Absolutely not. No, absolutely not. I can't, I'm not gonna do this anymore. You're paying me eleven dollars and twenty-five cents an hour and I'm doing a manager's job. I don't have benefits. I'm, you know, this is bullshit.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:37:45)
Yeah, no. Yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense. Yeah.

Bennett Peach (2:37:59)
So I left and I became a personal assistant up until twenty twenty three. And then I did started doing full time content creation.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:38:10)
So personal assistant for like a corporate person or Okay.

Bennett Peach (2:38:14)
No, it was a individual person. She owned a trunking

company and I would do her help her with her bookkeeping and tax prep and things like that.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:38:24)
So in twenty tw just real quick side note on the high achiever, a lot of Gen Xers are like that. We've had a lot of guests come on from this generation and that high achieving, people pleasing, it roots back to how we were brought up. So it's it's definitely not a defect or anything wrong with you. It's it's consistent. It's consistent with I think how well we were so many of us received love and validation through performance.

Bennett Peach (2:38:37)
Mm-hmm.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:38:53)
through achievements. That's when we received attention. That's when we received acceptance. And and so continuing to try to achieve, achieve, achieve, we got trained. Like that's when we got received that those dopamine hits of what we were looking for from people. And and then took that into our adulthood as we worked and all that. So very consistent behavior. It makes sense.

Bennett Peach (2:38:57)
Yeah.

Yep.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:39:25)
Yeah. Okay. All right. So you said twenty twenty three is when the content creation for you really is that when it kind of started or had you been working on it before twenty twenty three or was that literally when you began?

Bennett Peach (2:39:25)
That's awesome.

So I started doing content on TikTok during the pandemic, like a lot of people did. And it was so funny because my first viral video was so low effort. It was so low effort. It's so funny. I was sitting on the crapper, as one does, scrolling, you know. 'Cause what we used to do back in the eighties and nineties is look at readers' digest or, you know, the back of the shampoo bottle while we're trying to take a shit. Now we're scrolling social media.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:39:47)
Mm-hmm. Right.

Bennett Peach (2:40:11)
to, you know, work that turd out. So I'm just scrolling and a and a video came across my feed and it was this cop and who said, that's it. Stitch your best excuse as to why you got pulled over today. And I don't know what it was. It was just something in my head I was like, I got an idea for a video. So I finished up what I was doing in the bathroom. I went in my car. I had zero lighting. I didn't have a tripod. I didn't have nothing. I kind of positioned my phone up in like the

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:40:11)
Yeah. Yes.

Bennett Peach (2:40:39)
Corner of the dash. And I stitched the video and I said, Well, see, what had happened was, is I've been trying to reach you about your card's extended warranty, and you've been dodging my phone calls, and this is the only way I've been able to get a hold of you. It went completely and utterly viral. I've never in my life had my phone blow up that much. it was such a high.

And I was sitting there going, my gosh, this was like the lowest effort that I have ever given to anything in my entire life. And people fucking loved it. They thought it was hilarious.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:41:14)
Yeah. That's brilliant. That

it is hilarious. That's brilliant. I love that.

Bennett Peach (2:41:19)
the cop that originally made the first video that I stitched, duetted it, liked it, and then sent me a friend's request. So we still we're still mutuals on TikTok. six years later, we're still mutuals. So I see his content every now and then. But that was my first viral experience. And I I don't know. It's like once you get that first viral, it's like it's it's it's that dopamine rush, and you just want to get that next.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:41:33)
Awesome.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Bennett Peach (2:41:48)
Because

I enjoyed I enjoyed making people laugh at a situation that annoys the shit out of ninety percent of us, right? How many times have you gotten a phone call in that time? I it it was during 2020 where you were getting a phone call like every five minutes. We'd like to talk to you about your car's extended warranty, or you get that thing in the mail and they're talking about your car's extended warranty or whatever. And so it was it was a relatable thing and it made people laugh and it was poking fun and

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:42:07)
Mm-hmm.

Bennett Peach (2:42:17)
It was just so fun to me to entertain people. so I've just I I was just trying to chase that high ever since, you know? And so I kept doing it. I kept doing it. And I was starting to slowly grow my account. I think I hit 10,000 followers in like, I don't know, six months, which seems like a long time, but in social media world, that's that's pretty fast.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:42:43)
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Bennett Peach (2:42:47)
I wasn't making money off social media. I was just doing it for fun, you know? and then I got to about a hundred thousand followers, and my husband thought that it would be funny if because I drink a lot of wine and I used to get Duplin wine. I'll it's it's a local North Carolina wine. and it's very sweet, it's very delicious. I love it, but it has so many calories in it, I can't do it anymore. I would love to, but I can't.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:42:51)
Yeah.

Thank you.

Bennett Peach (2:43:13)
And I would go through like two bottles of that shit every day. I ain't even gonna lie. I think I turned into like an alcoholic during the pandemic. I ain't even gonna front. I think we all did. It was, you know, we couldn't plus our governor th, you know, kind of dared all of us during the pandemic that we couldn't drink at bars after nine o'clock. And we were like, bet, we can just get drunk before, you know.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:43:19)
Think everybody did. Everybody did, yeah. We all did. Yeah.

Bennett Peach (2:43:40)
So we're like, that's fine. We'll order buckets of beer at 9 P and it'll be fucked up by eleven, you know? We didn't care. so my husband was like, it would be really funny if you took because okay. So we would order stuff from this Christian bookstore called Adam and Eve.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:43:45)
Yeah.

I forgot about that website.

They good person books. Yeah.

Bennett Peach (2:44:08)
give you like free

like gift with purchase things, right? They they'll send you like this little free gift with purchase that's like a mystery item or whatever. Sometimes it's a newsy with really shitty acting, you know? I'm a pirate on a ship and I'm stranded. help me. and sometimes it's like a toy. well we had got this toy in the mail that I am not going to use.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:44:13)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, no.

Bennett Peach (2:44:42)
And I'm sorry,

that's an exit, not an entrance. We're not doing that. I got hemorrhoids. No. so he was like, it would be really funny if you use this as a wine stopper. And I was like, this is the stupidest fucking shit I ever heard in my life. But I was already two glasses in and I was like, fuck it, I'll do it. So I did the video and I was like, my husband is the sweetest man ever, and he bought me this nude wine stopper. Let me show it to you. And I put this butt plug in this wine bottle, and people lost their fucking minds about it.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:44:58)
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

huh.

Bennett Peach (2:45:12)
there were people from other countries like taking a sip of their wine after like they would stitch my video and they would take a sip of their wine and like spit it out and be like, no wonder it tastes like shit. Like it was so hilarious. Justin Nunley actually stitched it one day and I was like, I have fucking made it. I have fucking made it. And I gained like 50,000 more followers overnight. It was so wild, it was so crazy.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:45:25)
Yeah.

No way. You've made it. that's awesome.

Bennett Peach (2:45:40)
And I'm sitting here going, now I'm known I was a meme. I was a meme on Reddit.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:45:45)
No way. That's hilarious. That's awesome. That's awesome.

Bennett Peach (2:45:46)
Yes. It was so bad. It's awesome, but

also, do you know how many names they call me? They call me with some really bad names. but it's okay. I got thick skin. It's fine. I don't care. But but yeah, that's I mean, I honestly had always been trying to chase it. And I never thought that it could be like a full time thing, like a career. And and I wanna say career, but I also wanna say I have never, ever, ever, ever

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:45:54)
Sure, I'm sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Right.

Mm-hmm.

Bennett Peach (2:46:16)
Depended on social media money to pay my bills. Let me repeat that to anybody that thinks that content creation is a fix-all. I've never counted on social media money to pay my bills, to pay my mortgage, to pay my car payment, to to to do any of those things. It is extra to me. It is retirement money. It is money to help my children. It is.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:46:20)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Bennett Peach (2:46:43)
Money to do fun shit. It is money to help my mom. It is money that is extra. I've never counted on it. Now I'm not shitting on people that do, but it can be taken away and snatched from you in a fucking heartbeat. And I never want to be dependent on that income alone. So take that with a grain of salt. we are financially independent and financially well and off well off enough. you know, with the farm that my husband runs.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:46:51)
Mm-hmm.

Right. The smart. No, that's very smart.

Bennett Peach (2:47:12)
that this is fun for me and extra money. But I never thought that it could be something more than just fun, that it could actually make me money.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:47:23)
Right. Right.

Bennett Peach (2:47:25)
and then they came out with the content creator program, the creator rewards program. Like at one point it was just the creator program and you were getting like pennies off of all your videos. and then they started doing where it was only content that was over a minute, which let me just tell you is hard. It is not easy to come up with content jokes that's more than a minute because people's attention span is like eight seconds.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:47:29)
Mm-hmm.

Right.

Yeah.

Bennett Peach (2:47:54)
If you don't catch somebody in the first couple seconds of your video, you're cooked.

that's why my videos look like they do in the morning. It's, you know, sliced up so I can catch somebody's attention, you know? there was a there was about where I was doing reaction videos to song lyrics at one point and I was making bo I I remember I made six thousand dollars off of one video, but it got thirteen million views. Do you see what I'm saying? It's not

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:48:10)
Right, right, right.

Wow. Wow. Right. Right. Yes.

Bennett Peach (2:48:30)
You know, you see somebody

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:48:30)
Yeah.

Bennett Peach (2:48:31)
that gets, you know, 100,000 views, they're not making shit off of that. Maybe $10. You gotta hit that for you page and get millions, millions of views for you to be able to make decent money. but yeah, I I I really never thought that that would be my full-time gig. But whenever I started doing like TikTok shop, whenever it started getting really big, I was friends with some other people that did TikTok shop, and I was very against it to begin with. I was like,

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:48:36)
Right. Yeah. Right.

Yeah.

Right.

Bennett Peach (2:49:00)
I feel like I'm exploiting my audience, my audience. And it was put to me in this way, and it put it in such a different perspective for me. You go on a video and you're wearing, say, these glasses right here. And you have 20 people in your comment section asking where you got those glasses. Why would you not tell them where you got those glasses and then provide them a link if they want to buy those glasses? Why would you not do that?

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:49:03)
Mm-hmm.

Right.

Yes. Yes.

Right.

Bennett Peach (2:49:30)
And

so that put it into a perspective for me. because I did I did wear stuff. I did have things that people would ask me about all the time. what kind of coffee are you drinking? Where'd you get your coffee pot from? Or where'd you get your coffee mug from? Where'd you get your glasses from? What kind of t-shirt are you wearing? Where'd you get those shorts? my God, I love those shoes. It's it's an avenue for me to be able to share with my audience because they're interested and they love the fashion that I have or they like the doohickey that I bought, you know?

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:50:00)
Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Bennett Peach (2:50:00)
Do I

buy some dumb shit off of the TikTok shop? Yes. Why do I have a Barbasol can?

From Jurassic Park, that you open it up, that has little vials in it. Why did I buy that? Because I was drunk one night on box wine and I was like, that's cool.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:50:22)
That's fucking hilarious. No, but why why

Bennett Peach (2:50:25)
Well I did I did a video.

I was like, you could put your weed in this.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:50:28)
Yeah. Yeah,

totally. Yes.

Bennett Peach (2:50:31)
Say weed,

I was like, you can put your spices in this in case you're at a white person's cookout and they don't know how to use spices. Like, you know.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:50:34)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

You know what you're doing though with that? It's really the same as if you're with your girlfriends and like, where'd you get that purse? And then you tell them. But it really is the same. Yeah.

Bennett Peach (2:50:45)
Exactly. Exactly. And and I do that. And I do that. And

and I do try out different products. Like it because I'm a TikTok shop affiliate, I do have brands that reach out to me all the time, want me to try their stuff. And sometimes I say yes and sometimes I don't because I'm not gonna accept something that I don't wanna use. If it's a dumbass product or if it's a skincare product, that I'm I've already got my skincare routine down, dude. I I've already committed to Medicude and I'm a lifer and that's just what it is.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:51:04)
Right. Right.

Right, right, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Bennett Peach (2:51:15)
Nobody else, I'm I'm not gonna try your shit. Sorry, I don't care. and I don't want to be that person either that tries a different product every five minutes just to c just to make a buck. Like that's so disingenuous to me. Yes, it does. It does. Like every five minutes you love you're obsessed with a new shut up. Please shut all the way up. but like a new bra. If they want to send me a new bra, listen, us ladies love a good damn bra.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:51:18)
Yeah. Yeah.

Every time. Yeah. Because it yes, it takes the integrity. You need to hold on to that integrity. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

If it's comfortable, yeah, yeah. If it's comfortable.

Bennett Peach (2:51:45)
I'm gonna try a good bra. If it's comfy, I'm gonna try it and I'm gonna

tell everybody whether it's worth a damn or not. And if it's not, don't ask me 'cause I'm gonna tell them the truth. Cause I've given some really shitty reviews.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:51:51)
Yeah.

Yeah. And that's it.

No, it's it's the it's the trust. If you if your if your audience can trust you, then it actually helps them because

Bennett Peach (2:52:05)
Done some

really bad reviews and gotten I, you know, my score on TikTok shop went at one point because I gave a company a really shit review. I was like, this is garbage. And if you buy this, you're a dumbass. Do not waste your money. And I got so many dings on my account for that. because they judge you on the score that the that the the product, the company that sends you the product.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:52:17)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, the render.

Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Bennett Peach (2:52:34)
Yeah, they like score you on your videos or whatever. And they

gave they gave me like a Yelp review from hell. Which mean meant my score went really down. So I was

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:52:42)
So are you What is that what's the impact

of that though? Does that mean you'll they'll show less views or something?

Bennett Peach (2:52:50)
So it it messes with your views and it messes with your ability to work with certain brands. It lowers your GMV, which is your gross something or another. Anyway, that's how they judge you. Yeah, there you go. See, again, I'm not technologically smart with that stuff. I just know what I gotta do. Okay. So I try to work with brands that I believe in and something that I'm actually gonna use.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:52:56)
Okay.

Roast margin or some shit. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. But so are you

Because you if you can't if you're not supposed to give an honest a bad review, then what what about if you accept a product and you really don't like it, but they don't want you to give a bad review, can you do no review? Or will the brand come after you and say you took something?

Bennett Peach (2:53:33)
So you have so whenever you get like a free sample, and I try not to take free samples. I try to buy it myself. That way A I can find out how long the shipping process is, because sometimes if they're know that you're doing like a sample review, they're gonna ship it out to you like like that. But if you paid for it with your own money, the shipping process might take longer. It might be a lot

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:53:37)
Mm.

Yeah.

Bennett Peach (2:54:01)
less fast. You know what I mean? Like there there was a t-shirt that I had ordered. Yeah, yeah. I had ordered a t-shirt. It was one of those reading rainbow t-shirts. They were going viral. And it came up where I could have asked for a free sample. And I was like, you mean I can get that for free. Well the t-shirt was only like 16 bucks. So I was like, I'll just buy it. You know, I'll just buy the t-shirt, you know, smort support, you know, whatever. And it took 23 days.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:54:04)
Right. Yeah, yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Bennett Peach (2:54:30)
23 days. I linked the t shirt and I told them, I was like, I just want you to know this is an awesome t shirt. The quality's great. Love it. However, it took forever to get here. So I have that option if I purchase it. Yeah, I have that option if I purchase it. Now, if I get a free sample from a company, I have 14 days to post a review. now you can do a negative review, you can do a positive review.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:54:32)
And you need to know that.

Mm-hmm. And I think that's good. Yeah.

Bennett Peach (2:54:56)
they don't ding you on TikTok necessarily if you give a bad review. It's the company that sent you the product that will go in TikTok and give you a bad score for your review.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:55:09)
Man, so yeah, but so you you really have to be sure of what you're accepting because you have to assume I'm gonna like this and give a good review. And then I think that also shows people who are taking everything, you can't truly trust what they're saying because they can't be giving good reviews to all this stuff. So be more particular and then people can it's the trust.

Bennett Peach (2:55:17)
Right. So correct. Correct. Correct.

Right. Right.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:55:35)
There's there's another there's another creator I watch and he'll be like, I don't lie about reviews and he'll but he'll go buy. He'll go buy like crumble cookie and then he'll try it and then he'll give his honest he wasn't given it. So that maybe that's the difference. He's like, I'm gonna go try this and I'll let you guys know what I think. So it's very subjective. This is my but people value his what he's saying because he's being honest. But

Bennett Peach (2:55:36)
Yeah.

Am I

the only one that doesn't like crumble cookies?

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:55:59)
I can't try 'cause I'm gluten free, but I know the kids like it. What it's those cookies we buy that are big. Yeah, the the re too much I think the reviewer didn't like He said they're dry. He didn't like them. Yeah, for sure. For sure. But he he said that. He said there's a There goes our shot of crumble cookies.

Bennett Peach (2:56:03)
I don't like them.

I don't I think they're overrated. They're expensive.

Ha ha.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:56:18)
They're not gonna be contacted out. Let me take them off our list.

Bennett Peach (2:56:20)
I'm just kidding.

Just kidding. No. No, I did I did. Listen, we went, we went to Pigeon

Forge with Graeson and his wife a couple years ago. And we stayed in this house called the Dolly House. It was Dolly themed. It was so awesome. It was so cool. It had an indoor pool, which was more like a puddle, to be honest with you, but it was really cool. We stayed with them for the weekend. And his wife ordered the crumble cookies, and she was like, These are so good. And I'm sitting here going,

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:56:42)
Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, I I don't know 'cause again I haven't tried I don't they're expensive.

Bennett Peach (2:56:52)
They're expensive. They're expensive

for what? It's like just a fucking sugar cookie with a bunch of frosting on top. Like it's

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:56:58)
Yeah. I think

it's why the kids like it, 'cause they're expensive. They like stuff that's like expensive. I'd rather have my grandmother's

Bennett Peach (2:57:02)
God, it's so weird. It's listen, I don't

I don't drink Starbucks either, so there's that. I think Starbucks tastes like shit and it's overrated. Except for it's Starbucks you want to contact a hoe. I'm just kidding. I love your coffee. I'm just kidding. No, I don't. It sucks. I'd rather have Duncan all day. It's better coffee. I I Duncan, call me.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:57:08)
Yeah.

I will see we that's what we have here. I know, I know yeah.

Yeah, I like Duncan. Duncan's good too. They're good.

Yeah, there you go. So I have to ask you, you're speaking of coffee, your morning skit, where you pour the coffee, you pour the creamer, you tell everyone to take their medicine, and you talk about something that you an observation. where did that come up? Where did you come up with that?

Bennett Peach (2:57:47)
So the spoon toss came from me being mad. I do not remember when it happened, but I remember I was scrolling. I was outside smoking my morning cigarette, drinking all my coffee, scrolling on the internet, and I come across a video that just pissed me off. And I was like, in my Gen X brain, I was like, I gotta talk about this shit. So I go in the house and I just threw my phone down and I propped it up against my my ninja air fryer. That's where I that's that's

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:58:16)
Mm. One of those.

Bennett Peach (2:58:17)
If anybody knows, if anybody

knows what that is, that's where my phone is 100% of the time when I do those videos. It is propped up against that ninja air fryer. So I propped it up against there and I was like and I just left it in there. Right. And I don't remember exactly what I was mad about. I don't know, but that's how it started. And people like loved it. They loved it. They're like, my God, we need the three taps and the toss. Like that's

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:58:24)
It's a ninja air fryer. I love it.

Okay.

Bennett Peach (2:58:46)
So great. And now if I don't do it, people are in my comment section going, no, my day is not complete. Where's three taps in the toss? What what's going on? You didn't remind me not to take, you know, you didn't remind me not to be a twat waffle and take my medicine. What happened? Right. And I'm like, my God, I'm out of town. Jesus, calm down. I feel like I'm gonna have to record that in several different pairs of PJs.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:58:54)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, yes yes the

Bennett Peach (2:59:13)
with several different coffee cups so I can redo it every single day for the rest of my life.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:59:17)
Yeah. Right,

right, right. Just insert insert here. Insert here. Yeah. But people they like

Bennett Peach (2:59:21)
It's so funny. It's so funny. Th people call

me out so bad for it. It's so bad. They're like, You did three taps this morning. You did four taps this morning instead of three. I'm gonna need you to go back. My O C D cannot handle that. You know, it's very funny.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:59:26)
They like repetition though.

No, but it's true. I I think

they like repetition. I I've seen that with different creators that do the same thing in in certain videos and they're like, You didn't do the thing. Yeah. Yeah.

Bennett Peach (2:59:39)
Mm-hmm.

I never expected it. I never expected it to be a thing, but it's been a thing

for over a year and it's really funny. And I get videos from my my friends that'll be out and about and they'll do the tap and the toss and send me the video, and it's so hilarious. And sometimes I'll put it on my page. it's just it's it's funny. and Nick, I know I know Nick was on there with you guys not too long ago. Whenever we were getting ready to load up for the Gen X cruise last year.

GenX Adulting Podcast (2:59:55)
Yeah.

I love it.

Yes.

Mm-hmm.

Bennett Peach (3:00:12)
he was like, Good morning, do you wanna talk junk? And I was like, That's because he can't cuss because of his brand, but I can say shit.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:00:17)
Yeah.

That's

so speaking not at all. The speaking of Gen X takeover, so with the social media growth that you've had, how has it connected you with other Gen X personalities and what opportunities

Bennett Peach (3:00:22)
Ian Sherri don't give a shit.

No.

that was actually recorded or not, but

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:00:44)
I don't

know, that w that was off the record when we were talking.

Bennett Peach (3:00:46)
Okay.

So I ended up being mutuals with Graeson Mcgaha on on TikTok. I don't remember when. I know that I was following him well before he followed me. and I don't exactly know when all that happened, but I crept up in his live one day and his wife completely fangirled about me being in the live, which was so freaking weird to me. We exchanged phone numbers and we would talk every now and then.

And he was doing the stickers for the Gen Xers, like Slim Sherri Dad Bod, Nick, and Kelly, right? And I was having such a problem with my YouTube at the time. And Graeson's wife was trying to help me figure it out. And he was like, you know what? Sherri's one of the smartest people I've ever met. Let me get you in contact with Sherri. Let me tell you, when I tell you that,

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:01:23)
Mm-hmm.

Bennett Peach (3:01:44)
Sherri is one of the most kind and genuine people that I have ever come across in my life. She had never met me in person. She did not know me from Adam, but she spent an hour and a half on the phone with me, and she didn't have to trying to help me figure out my monetization on YouTube. She didn't have to do that. and this was before I met her in person. So

And and we would text every now and then, right? After that, because she was just a genuinely cool person, right? And I I felt like we jived, you know, as as people. And I had become mutuals with another creator called that 172, that 1 crazy 72, her name is Jessica Mccabe on TikTok as well. and Bridget, I can't remember what Bridget's last name is. anyway, the three of us would do content together every now and then.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:02:17)
Yeah, yeah.

Bennett Peach (3:02:41)
And the Gen X TakeOver was going to do their first comedy show in Nashville, I want to say two years ago. Has it been two years? Yeah, it's been two years. Yeah. It has been two years. It was 2024. And so me and Jessica were texting back and forth, and I was like, Do you want to go to this? And she's like, Hell yeah, I want to go to this. Do you want to go to this? I was like, fuck yeah, I want to go. Let's go. Let's make a weekend out of it. You know, we'll go half-sies on.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:02:52)
I think it's yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Bennett Peach (3:03:08)
On a place and we'll just make a weekend of it and we'll just have a good time. I texted Sherri. I was like, hey, me and Jessica are gonna come. You know, I I'm so excited to meet you and everybody else. This is gonna be awesome. So I flew to Nashville. Jessica came and picked me up because she lives in Alabama. So it was kind of like a couple hour drive for her. So she picked me up from the airport and we stayed in this Airbnb for the weekend and we went back to the house that Sherri, Kelly, Jon and Nick.

Had run in for the weekend and we had like the best time. We sang karaoke, we drank, well, I drank.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:03:40)
Mm-hmm.

Right.

Bennett Peach (3:03:49)
We had the best time. you know, I had met Jon for the first time, Dad Bod veteran. I met him for the first time. He's really tall, by the way. Didn't realize how tall he was until I met him in person. Nick looks old as shit, but I'm actually older than he is. So take notes, buddy. Get some just for men for that beard, bud. and you know, it was so cool to meet Sherri and her wife, and I met Dad Bod's wife, and you know, and Kelly. I think Kelly was a little like who is this bitch?

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:03:49)
Okay.

He is. Yes. Yes.

Yeah.

Bennett Peach (3:04:17)
To begin with, but we're cool now. I think she was kind of like, Why are you here? but I don't blame her. Like they have built something so unique and so niche and so absolutely wonderful for our generation that I can absolutely 100% understand that she didn't want someone trying to come in and ride on coattails. That's not who I am as a person, and she didn't know that about me then.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:04:27)
Yes.

Right, right.

Right.

Bennett Peach (3:04:47)
So I

completely I've never been offended by her like standoffishness. She was never rude. Let me just throw that out there. She was never rude. She was very nothing but kind to me. But she did have that wall up to begin with with me because I think she was very protective as she should be of of what they've built. but so that's when I met all of them. And I ended up getting in a group chat on Facebook.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:04:56)
Right.

Right, right.

Yeah. Yeah.

Bennett Peach (3:05:13)
With a bunch of other Gen X creators. That's where I met John Kotrides That's where I met Gen X Gina. That's where I met, you know, a lot of other people that are just, and I think we've just created this really cool kind of camaraderie because we we bounce ideas. I I wish we would do more collaborations with each other, but all of us are so everywhere. We're all doing our own thing.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:05:17)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Bennett Peach (3:05:38)
Two years ago during the summer, we were doing collabs together. We were uploading videos and sharing them with each other and kind of meshing them together and and doing stuff like that. I wish we could get back to that. It just would take us to have a little bit more effort because we are so spread out and we are doing so many different things. But yeah, I'm I'm I'm so excited and so incredibly blessed to have connected with so many people that I never would have before.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:05:45)
Mm-hmm.

Bennett Peach (3:06:08)
You know, I remember my mom and everybody else saying, you know, stay away from the internet. There's weirdos. Well, yeah, there's a lot of weirdos, but they're my kind of weirdos. And I'm digging it, you know? I would've met you I would have never met you guys had it not been s for social media. So, you know, and I appreciate that. I love it. I love it.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:06:17)
Yes. I love that. I know, I know. No, it's it's

I no, and and you're so right. I I love the way you just said that. It's like those are my kind of weirdos. I can totally relate to that. And every time, you know, we feel blessed to be able to get to know you and have you on. And you know, for us, this start like the getting access to Gen X.

personalities such as yourself, where you will come on and share your life story. For us, it's funny. It it started with Sherri too. And it's Sherri that Sherri just is a good person. And she's just such a good person. She is. Like awesome. Yeah. Yeah.

Bennett Peach (3:07:00)
She is one of the best fucking humans I've ever met. She really is. She would give the shirt off of her back if you needed it. She really

would. And her wife, Christa is the same. Like I love them dearly. And I wish that we talked more, but you know, I'm in North Carolina, they're in Georgia. I wish we lived, but you know what? Honestly, if we lived near each other, I don't know if the world could handle it.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:07:12)
Yeah. She's so nice.

Yeah. There's enough distance to make it happen. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's you know, it's it's really awesome. I mean, w I have loved just the whole community being able to watch on social media and I I everyone just is so talented. I I relate, I feel seen, it resonates, I laugh my ass off. And then for us to get to know you guys better, it it's just

Bennett Peach (3:07:29)
my God, we would be so insufferable. It would be so bad.

Yeah.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:07:54)
Wow, this is like so cool.

Bennett Peach (3:07:54)
There's another person you really need to make sure that you reach out to is Carmen. I'll I don't wanna say her last name and butcher it, but it starts with a G. She does Gen X skits all the time with like nostalgia stuff. She is absolutely amazing. I got the pleasure of being with her on a Zoom call for content creators that we're gonna be added into the Gen X cruise for next year, next March. And I actually

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:08:04)
Okay.

Mm-hmm.

Bennett Peach (3:08:23)
was able to talk to her in person, like an actual conversation. She's so super cool. I wish her and Gen X Gina live very close to each other. They're both in Texas. but Gina, let me just tell you, Gina is a trip. I know y'all weren't spent four hours with her, but text with her at about, you know, 10 o'clock at night. Send her some parachute pants. Send her some parachute pants that are way too long for you. See what happens. but Carmen

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:08:27)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. Okay.

Yeah.

I've texted with her.

Bennett Peach (3:08:53)
Carmen is so super sweet and she's so super genuine. and it makes me almost wish that I lived in Texas. Almost, not really. but I'm I'm super excited to meet both of them in person on the cruise because you know, you you you conversate with somebody on on social media, it's not the same as being with them in person, you know? And I'm really looking forward to that. I'm really looking forward to that. And do you did you know Carmen has over a million followers on YouTube?

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:09:01)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely not. Yeah.

Bennett Peach (3:09:23)
She has a gold plaque, dude. Gold. I got a silver one. Makes my silver one cry. Like mine is over there in the corner going, no, she got a gold one not too long ago. She is huge on YouTube. People love her. She does all kinds of skits. She has all she she's amazing. If you have not watched her, I'm gonna send you her link. You need to. She's amazing. She's amazing.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:09:23)
No. Wow. Wow.

Wow, that's amazing. You know.

Yeah, send me her link. I'm sure

I've seen I'm sure I've seen her, but send please send me her link. I just love it because

Bennett Peach (3:09:52)
I will, I will.

And I guarantee you she would be interested in sitting down with you guys and talking. she like I said, she's a very genuine. I really love the fact in our community too, that we push each other too. Like I have listened to other people on podcasts, that are in this Gen X community where they have mentioned other Gen X creators. And it's so wonderful that we all have each other's back. You know what mean?

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:09:57)
Okay, cool.

Right.

Yes.

Bennett Peach (3:10:21)
Because there's enough meat on the table for everybody. There are so many of us Gen X content creators, but we're all different. Even though we might do some of the same stuff, we're all different. We all have our own personalities and we all have our own different audiences. And we can reach different people, but we can also cross-reach people. Like whenever I do

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:10:24)
Yes, yes.

Yes.

Bennett Peach (3:10:46)
Content creation and collabs with Graeson. People are like, my gosh, two of my favorite creators in one video. Whenever I do content, which I don't do much with the Gen X crew, because I never want them to or anybody else to think that I'm trying to ride on their cocktails. I make my own coat, just so we're clear. I hang out with them because we're friends and I enjoy their company, not because they can offer me something. So I try my best not to do c like I it it's

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:11:04)
Right. Right. Yeah.

Right.

Bennett Peach (3:11:15)
spontaneous every time. but whenever we do do content together, they're like, my gosh, all of my favorite people, you know. And I think it's really wonderful that we can reach such a broad audience, but also cross reach, you know? And then we all support each other in what we're doing.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:11:17)
Right. Right. Right. Right.

Yes, yes.

Absolutely. Absolutely. And

Yeah. No, it's amazing. And it is such a testament to our generation. I think you all are such an inspiration for Gen Xers in general as we have hit midlife and are going into the second phase of our life that hey, you can do anything. You can reinvent yourself. You can go after whatever dream you want, and you can continue to live and thrive. And you guys are all an example of that. And I think that's so unique. I don't think that's happened in this

degree for a generation as they they have hit midlife to have peers totally reinventing themselves and going after what they want at 45, 46, 47, 48, in their fifties, in their six in their late fifties, into sixty. I mean Gen X Gina is gonna be sixty in October, which is crazy to think about. You know I know, I know. Talk about skincare. I don't I know. I

Bennett Peach (3:12:24)
I know. That's so weird. She yet looks younger than me. It's so insane. I kind of want to punch her in the face. I'm not even gonna lie. Like, what are you doing? Give me your skincare.

Is it Botox? Cause I need to go get some. I mean shit. Jesus.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:12:37)
I it's amazing. It's amazing. But I mean,

it's just inspiring. And I feel so fortunate for our generation because we've been put through it for so much of our lives to kind of land here and be like, well, we all kind of relate. We all had a shared experience to some level. Some people's trauma was more crazy than others, but there's a commonality we can all relate on and look at us, look at l look at all that we're doing.

Bennett Peach (3:12:47)
Yeah.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:13:03)
And then other Gen Xers can look up to you guys and say, Okay, I'm gonna do it, they're doing it, I'm gonna try it. And that will I think we're gonna redefine aging, honestly, our generation. This is a question.

Bennett Peach (3:13:13)
God, are you serious?

I remember whenever I was a teenager and you know, young, young kid, teenager, looking at somebody that was forty-seven. I'm forty-seven now. I remember looking at someone that's forty-seven and thinking, God.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:13:31)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I guess.

Bennett Peach (3:13:32)
We're fucking old.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:13:37)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I know. Yeah, you see those pictures where they show like the golden girls and they're like what in their thirties or something. They're in their forties. I'm exaggerating, but

Bennett Peach (3:13:38)
The golden girls?

They're in their forties. Like every single one of them have the grandma haircut and they're in their freaking forties. And I'm

sitting here going, I am not doing I'm not aging like that. No, I'm wearing ripped jeans. you know, I'm I'm not cutting my hair off to, you know, the old lady, you know, helmet hair. You know, I'm not doing that. No, we don't listen, we don't have to age.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:13:58)
No.

Now yes.

Right.

Yes, yes. The bond. Yeah. Yeah.

Bennett Peach (3:14:18)
The way society says we have to. We can create our own aging. I'm gonna wear my band t-shirts. I'm gonna be fucking weird. I'm gonna do whatever I wanna do. I'm still gonna be out playing music till two o'clock in the morning, as long as my body will allow me to, because I'm gonna get old my way.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:14:23)
Yes.

Yes. And and because you can. I I sometimes think about there's a lot of us who have health issues and can't. And so sometimes I'm like, I can still, so I better do it. Because there's other people that would that are my age that can't and would give anything to be able to do what I'm about to do. So, you know.

Bennett Peach (3:14:43)
Right.

Yes. I feel like I should, you know, you

know that pink songs, Raise Your Glass. I kind of feel like that that's where we're at. Raise your glass because we can, and there's so many people that don't get the privilege of number one, aging, because there's no alternative to aging except death. That's it. So all these people that are chasing the younger stuff kind of doesn't really compute for me because I want to age with grace. I'm I'm privileged to be able to age.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:15:02)
Yes, yes.

Yes.

Right.

Bennett Peach (3:15:28)
there's so many people that are denied that. So I'm gonna embrace aging. I'm gonna do everything I can to make it as graceful as possible, but I'm gonna age and I'm gonna be grateful for every single day. And number two, I'm raising my glass for the for those that, like you said, can't. Because there's so many of us that just can't. Just can't. Whether it's whether it's because they have a mental

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:15:50)
Yep. For whatever reason.

Bennett Peach (3:15:54)
health issue or because they have a physical ailment or because they still have small children at home and can't, or because they are raising their grandchildren and can't, or because they're taking care of their elderly parents and can't. I'm gonna do that for them and in memoriam to them in honor of them. Because it's a privilege to be able to do what I do.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:16:02)
Yes.

Yes.

Yep. Yep. No, it makes perfect sense. And speaking of music, okay, you sing in a band or you're a lead singer for a band. When did that start?

Bennett Peach (3:16:27)
Mm-hmm. Yes.

twenty twenty.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:16:33)
During during COVID?

Bennett Peach (3:16:37)
It happened. I know. So fun fact, I used to sing in church whenever I was little. I I went to a Quaker church my whole life and I sang in church like through, you know, whatever. but I never took like chorus or anything like that during school, but I've always been a big fan of music. Music was my escape. Music was essentially my best friend growing up.

And I would always I know I'm the stereotypical, you know, eighties and nineties kid who was sitting in front of the the the cassette recorder and I would have one of those memoricks blank tapes, you know, pressing, you know, record right here and then pause, you know, trying to get Casey Case some to shut the fuck up so I could get the rest of my good song, you know what I'm saying? Like shut up, just play the song, right? Stop talking. I don't need you to narrate everything.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:17:17)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yes.

Bennett Peach (3:17:33)
Right. So, and then because back then, I could not I didn't have the money to like buy cassette tapes or records at that time. and but the cassette tapes would have the book on it that had the lyrics in it, right? But me, I would sit there with a notepad and with a pen and you know, stop, stop, stop, play and write down what I thought.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:17:47)
Mm-hmm.

Bennett Peach (3:17:59)
were the lyrics. I got them wrong a lot of times. I'm not even gonna lie. I got them wrong a lot. but that was my friend. That would that was my escape. That was my best friend was music. I would escape through music all the time. And I really enjoyed music.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:18:00)
Yeah.

Bennett Peach (3:18:16)
And then I, you know, I had my kids and, you know, married life and you know, you work full time and you you gotta raise a family and you gotta do your thing. in twenty nineteen, my best friend and I went to a bar. I I wanna say it was in November because there was like a hint of coronavirus in the news at that at that point. There was like little little chirps of it.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:18:38)
Mm-hmm.

Bennett Peach (3:18:43)
So I know that it had to have been in November or December. So we go to this karaoke bar and there's a sign on the wall right beside our booth and it said karaoke Ashboro Idol. It was basically a singing contest locally. And she looked at me and she said, if you don't enter that, I'm gonna punch you in your fucking face.

And I was like, that's aggressive, but okay. So I went over to the bartender and I was like, where's the signups for this Ashborough Idol bullshit? And she was like, it's right here. So I signed up my name. And they started their competition, I want to say the end of January of 2020. And it went on for about six weeks. Every Thursday I would go, I would have to learn a new song.

Several songs because it it was elimination just like American Idol. Like they would stand you up on stage and they would eliminate two of you bitches. Be like, boo, you're done, right? It was

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:19:42)
Okay. In in a very intimate

setting, like it's probably in a small bar, right? Yeah. A quick question for you though. did you did you sing at like family events or anything? How did your friend know you could sing and so like in the car or something you guys are? Okay.

Bennett Peach (3:19:47)
Yes, like and and yeah, it was a very small bar. Like and we still play this bar. I'm very close to the owners. so huh.

No. So so I did sing in church. I did sing in church.

I was actually a choir director for a little while at the church that I was going to. and that didn't work out. but that's that's a whole nother story. but yeah, when she told me I'll punch you in your face if you don't do this, because she's like, I see your potential, you can sing, do this or I'm

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:20:21)
So she knew. Okay,

so she knew you could sing. Okay. Okay.

Bennett Peach (3:20:24)
Yeah, she

well, because we used to go to karaoke all the time. Like, you know, she's my best friend and we would we would do that, you know, like once a month. We would go get drinks together and and you know, just go to a karaoke bar. but yeah, I entered the contest and I I happened to win it. which was really fun. I and I was up against some really talented people in our area. Josh Jennings is one of them. He's a singer songwriter, and he's does not get the flowers that he deserves. He's he's really awesome.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:20:27)
Okay. Okay.

Okay.

Wow.

Bennett Peach (3:20:55)
but yeah, it w it was really fun. I had a great time doing it. And this dude called Fox's Den. Weird ass freaking name to have on the Book of Faces, dude. But he kept like liking my videos. Yeah, it was so weird. It was so fucking weird. So, you know, after after I won, you know, I did debut with the house band.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:21:10)
What's his name? Sounds like an adult magazine shop or something like off the internet.

Bennett Peach (3:21:24)
For a couple of songs, you know, as the winner of, you know, this contest or whatever. And then the pandemic happened and then everybody was sent home. Well, so I'm on Facebook and this dude called Fox's Den is like liking all of my shit. And then he sends me a DM and he's like, Hey, how you doing? I have a band and we practice in my mom's basement. And I would like for you to come and be our lead singer. I was like, No, I don't want to come to your basement.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:21:28)
Right, right, right. Yeah.

Yeah.

Bennett Peach (3:21:53)
At your mom's house, I'll meet you in a public venue though, you weirdo. and

it wasn't his mom's basement. I just be clear, I just do that 'cause it's funny. It was actually a building out in his backyard that was like the size of like a a lawnmower shed.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:22:05)
Mm.

So also still

weird. Still weird.

Bennett Peach (3:22:11)
It's still it's still weird. Don't get me wrong. It's still fucking weird that

he was like. So he told like the band was getting ready to break up. Their lead singer had quit. And the bass player and the rhythm guitarist was like, I don't, I'm not fucking with you anymore. They had already tried out several singers before and that didn't work out. There was one girl that tried out and she wanted to do just Whitney Houston covers.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:22:38)
Mm-mm. Right, right, right.

Bennett Peach (3:22:38)
And that's not what they're about. And they're like, I don't

under I don't know if you didn't understand the assignment or or what. You're hot and all, but no, that's not what we're doing. so I agreed to meet them at a at a music studio about an hour from here from where I live. And the the it's so funny whenever my rhythm guitarist tells us 'cause he says that he looked at Fox, which his name is Jeremy.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:22:45)
Yeah. Yeah.

Bennett Peach (3:23:08)
Jeremy Fox, Fox's Den. Get it. he looked at Jeremy and he's like, Let me tell you something. If she don't show up, I wanna beat your ass. Cause he sent him videos of me singing. He's like, Yeah, I've seen her. She's she's great. Well, she's coming to jam with us. No, she's not. Yeah, she is. She is. She's she's coming Sunday. And he's like, Let me tell you something. If she don't show up, I'm gonna fuck your shit up, right? He threatened bodily harm. So when I showed up, I saved his life.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:23:10)
Classic.

There you go. There you go.

Bennett Peach (3:23:37)
Because Brett's a big dude. I did

Jeremy a favor by showing up. So they had sent me a list of songs to to memorize and practice or whatever. One of them was like that song by the Toadies. What's that song? Shit. Make up your mind. so stupid. anyway, they sent me some dumb shit. Like Bush.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:24:01)
I can't I can't I can't think of it.

Bennett Peach (3:24:04)
Like Bush, the Toadies, like just dumb shit.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:24:05)
Okay. Okay.

Bennett Peach (3:24:07)
Like you're sending me male vocalists, zero female vocals at all. And you want me to okay, so this is what we're doing today. Okay, cool. so we so I get there.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:24:11)
Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Bennett Peach (3:24:22)
I start flipping through their book of songs that they know. And I come across the cranberry zombie. And I'm like, so y'all know this? They're like, Yeah. I was like, all right, let's, let's, let's do that. Cause I know I know that. Immediately. We we vibed. It's like we were meant to be.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:24:28)
I mean.

Yeah.

It's awesome.

Bennett Peach (3:24:45)
Every single one of us. and we we're not just a band anymore. We're not just friends, we're family. even though the lead guitarist Jeremy retired because I don't think he ever imagined at his ripe age of fifty that we would be playing out as much as we do. I think he thought that we would just be playing in, you know, a garage and having a good time and drinking beer and and and, you know, playing.

I don't think he really realized that this could be a thing. so he retired and we got another guitarist. He's 32. Fuck. but he's fantastic. He has magic fingers. I don't know why he still fucks with us. To be honest with you, he should be famous as fuck. because he's that talented. It's so stupid. like when I say he's so talented, he should be playing with like major players.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:25:23)
Yeah.

Bennett Peach (3:25:42)
major recording artists right now. He is that talented. He's so stupid talented. and I'm very humbled that he gives us the time of day, to be honest. but we've we've created ourselves a little family. Like we are so tight knit. We can look at each other on stage and know exactly where we're going with something. We know exactly what we're doing. And it's so great. Our families all get along

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:25:49)
Wow.

That's cool.

Bennett Peach (3:26:09)
And and it it it's a wonderful thing. It's like a second family for me. And I'm so incredibly grateful for it. but that was never my intention in entering this stupid contest. I never thought that this would be my life, but here we are. And that's the we don't play as much as we used to. There was one year that we played 50 shows. No, it wasn't 50, it was 48. It was 48 shows in one year.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:26:25)
How often do you play? Yeah.

Wow. Wow.

She's

Bennett Peach (3:26:38)
And that

was sometimes a Friday and a Saturday, which is very taxing on anybody. but we didn't we don't have the chance to do it so much because both of my guitarists have small kids. and that takes priority, family over anything. So we always have to work around their schedules, and I don't mind that at all because I'm getting older and I am tired of shit. And every single morning when I wake up after a gig, I'm like, I'm too old for this shit.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:26:43)
Yes. Yes.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Well it's so interesting because that took off at in it simultaneously with your content creator career. So you had two very unusual things just take up unexpectedly. Yeah.

Bennett Peach (3:27:08)
But then I'll do it again. So

It's I'm so really thankful that I had both of those things. I'm really

glate grateful that I had both of those things because I'm an empty nester and I think that if I would have not had any hobbies to do, I would have probably banged my head up against the wall.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:27:35)
Right. Right.

Yeah. No, the

the timing was perfect for you with how everything was going in your li your life and everything. It's it's amazing. What's the name of your band?

Bennett Peach (3:27:49)
Killing fiction.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:27:50)
Killing fiction. So and do you guys I love that?

Bennett Peach (3:27:52)
It's the stupidest fucking name. We're out here murdering books. Like it's so dumb.

They put it in a computer algorithm before I came along. And I probably should have looked at them and said we need to change that dumbass name. but I didn't. I mean, we should be called Beth and the Dad Bods. That would be funnier. but at this point, we're known locally, so I kind of feel like it would be an oxymoron to change our name at this point because we've been killing fiction for the past six years.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:28:01)
Okay.

like that. I like that. Yes.

Okay.

Bennett Peach (3:28:21)
but the main the the name is dumb as hell. Like it's stupid. It's d like who what does that fucking mean, dude?

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:28:25)
Do you it's not that bad. It's not that bad.

Well, sometimes that that's the mystique, right? Of band names. You don't know what they mean. So it's like whatever. Do you guys mainly play? Well, there's the grateful dead. Yeah, the grate that makes no sense. So

Bennett Peach (3:28:35)
I well apparently we're out here stabbing books and shit. I don't know. It's fucking weird.

I mean,

no, but whatever.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:28:44)
Where where you guys play, is it mainly in your area? Like how far do you go?

Bennett Peach (3:28:48)
Yeah. We're we're kinda

local right now. I would like to to expand our playing area, but it's again, we have to we're at the mercy of, you know, the guys in the band that have families. and we have to respect that. so, you know, d our we're we have a gig in Virginia in August, which is the furthest we've been. I would love to get down to the beach and play that.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:29:01)
Right, right, right.

cool. Cool.

Bennett Peach (3:29:15)
and I would also like to get with my guitarist who does write music, and you know, start recording our own stuff instead of just doing covers because that's what we're doing right now. and we we take popular songs like pop songs and stuff and kind of turn them into rock music or metal music, which is fun for us. It's it's really awesome to turn, you know, like blinding lights into something hard as shit.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:29:26)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's cool. Yeah.

Bennett Peach (3:29:42)
and people don't expect that. They think it's really cool.

They're like, my God, I didn't see that coming. I'm like, Yeah, you didn't, but here you go. so that's that's really fun to do. but but yeah, that's that's where we're working. I would love for us to sit down and actually record some covers. and I've talked to Nick about the logistics of being able to purchase the rights to be able to do that. So I have all the information. I just am lazy.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:29:49)
That's awesome.

No, you know what though? You have a lot. I mean, the content creator stuff, that's a lot. People don't realize how much time and effort that takes. It is very time consuming. It is.

Bennett Peach (3:30:15)
It's very time consuming. It's very time consuming. And I'm a low

effort content creator. I'm not one of those people that sets on my tripod and like does that shit. Like I'm not gonna fake wake up. That's the stupidest shit I ever seen in my life. Like, my God, hold on, here we go. Let me do it. Let me do it. Let me do it. Let me do it. Let me do it. Let me do it. Let me do it. Let me do it. Let me let me set this up. Hit record. All right, hold on.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:30:24)
Right, but right.

Yes, yes, yes, I know. Yes.

Bennett Peach (3:30:43)
Good morning guys. my God. It drives me insane. Like shut up. You just set up your whole ass tripod and pretended

to wake up, you dumb whore. Stop it. Please, for the love of God.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:30:57)
That's so funny. But I think I think

that's the difference though with the Gen X content creators is it's authentic. You guys are you know, you're not doing that, you know?

Bennett Peach (3:31:05)
It's so bad. Like, it's so funny though.

I do, I do enjoy some of the content. Don't get me wrong. But in my brain, I'm sitting here going, you dumb bitch. Everybody knows that you didn't get up, right? You set up your tripod, you got back in the bed and pretended to fucking wake up.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:31:11)
Right, right, right.

Yeah you know what it takes to do that. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yeah. Yes.

Bennett Peach (3:31:26)
Ela, what are you doing?

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:31:30)
it's so true. Okay, so we've been we've been like these guys who like hiking videos. where they set up and then they go back and they hike up. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've tried that. It's like, man, it's a lot of fucking effort. And it's awkward. It is awkward. It's awkward.

Bennett Peach (3:31:43)
my God. It's listen, I feel listen

I can't I can't record when my husband's home. I can't do it. I make him go outside. I'm like, I gotta do a video. And he's like, You want me to just stay out here? Yes, please stay out here because you make me uncomfortable.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:31:51)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. You have to get in your zone. That's fine. You have to be you have to be in your zone. So we've been laughing through pretty much this entire episode. So that leads me to my question. Have you ever done stand up? Because you're frickin' hilarious.

Bennett Peach (3:31:58)
It's so weird. It is. It's so funny.

So I appreciate it. I've I think I'm funny in my own head. I'm glad that other people find me hilarious. no, I've opened I've had the opportunity to open up for Graeson a couple times, and I'm so grateful for that opportunity. Did I ever think that I would be doing stand-up comedy? No. Not at all. But yeah, here we are. so and I'm actually getting ready to open up for him again in August and in September.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:32:14)
You are funny.

Mm-hmm.

But here you are.

Bennett Peach (3:32:36)
Around here and you know, maybe one day we'll see. I can do more than ten minutes, 'cause that's all I got, bitch.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:32:36)
Wow.

That's a lot of time though. That's a lot of time though.

Bennett Peach (3:32:44)
That's all I got. Ten minutes. You never

realize how much goes into writing stand-up until you're sitting there doing it. you know, being funny on social media is so much easier because you have the option to stop it, erase it, and go back and do it again. Until you're in front of people and there is no pause button and redo.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:32:53)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Bennett Peach (3:33:12)
You have zero clue what these people do. And it is so hard because I bombed my first go round. It was fucking terrible.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:33:24)
Why why? What happened?

Bennett Peach (3:33:25)
Terrible.

well, first of all, it was a miscommunication with the venue. I was told that as long as I didn't use the word fuck, I was fine. So I didn't use the word fuck, but I talked about a dildo and that was inappropriate. so I was not asked to come back the next day. the second time I w it was no holds bar and I was fine, but I looked down and I saw

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:33:28)
Chris.

Yeah.

Ha ha ha

my gosh.

Bennett Peach (3:33:55)
Ron and Amy Shirley from Lizard Lick Toeing in the front row. I don't know if you ever watched that TV show. And I almost peed myself. I'm not even gonna lie. I look and I've met them before in l in real life. I've met them before. But them sitting there, like with their judgmental eyes and shit, like on me while I'm on fucking stage trying to tell them a joke. I want you to laugh, bitch. And you're

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:33:58)
No.

Right. Yeah. Yeah.

Bennett Peach (3:34:18)
I almost peed. I'm not even gonna lie, I almost peed. A little bit, little bit, little bit.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:34:23)
how

how many times have you been up on stage doing stand ups so far?

too. So then you're and then you have August and September. You know, I mean

Bennett Peach (3:34:30)
It was the only two times.

Yeah, Graeson

loves me for some odd reason. I don't know. His wife says I'm funny. I don't know. I've seen the videos that she recorded of me and I'm like, mm, that's cringy as fuck. She's like, but it's you and you're gonna judge everything that you do. You're funny. I'm like,

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:34:48)
Yes.

You're funny. Did you get people that were people laughing? The second time? The second time.

Bennett Peach (3:34:57)
Yeah.

But I also feel like it was people that know me and they bought tickets 'cause they felt sorry for me, probably. I don't

No, I I do have a good time. I love to entertain people. I love to have fun. and I've and I've always been comfortable ever since I started with the band, I've always been comfortable on stage. And I've always tried to tell jokes in between our sets, you know, because you know, they're adjusting their guitars, they're doing they're doing things. And I've always tried to entertain during that time. So I was already used to being on stage and being in front of a crowd and and and talking to people that way. but definitely doing stand up is so super different.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:35:19)
Mm-hmm.

Bennett Peach (3:35:36)
So super different. So

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:35:36)
Yes. Do you know what you're

gonna be doing on the Gen X takeover cruise?

Bennett Peach (3:35:43)
They're probably gonna put me like, I don't know, changing trash bags or something. They don't really want me in charge of nothing. I'm just being honest. I don't even know why they asked me.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:35:53)
Because you have a lot of people that would love to meet you.

Bennett Peach (3:35:57)
It's 'cause

my husband's already gonna be there. He does security.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:36:01)
No, I don't think so. No. I think your fan your fan base definitely wants to meet you and it's a great opportunity for them. And that actually leads me to the question, have you been recognized in public for your content creation as of yet? Do people approach you? Does that happen quite often?

Bennett Peach (3:36:14)
Yes. Yes.

I don't tend to leave my house unless I'm at a show. But I have had people that follow me on social media come to my shows because of my social media. recently we played this big venue with another band at Sunset Theater in Ashborough, and I posted it all over my social media, and I had a couple of people that have followed me for years drive five hours from Virginia to my show.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:36:23)
Well Okay.

Okay.

Wow.

Wow. That's pretty awesome.

Bennett Peach (3:36:50)
Which was

so humbling and so I I I can't even describe it. Like I cried. that was really awesome. And then another couple drove an hour and a half from like Concord to watch us play. And then they came back this past weekend, not last night, but the Saturday before, because they enjoyed it so much. And they, you know, it it's

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:36:57)
Yeah.

Bennett Peach (3:37:19)
It's really weird a little bit, but it's so awesome too, you know? whenever I was on the cruise, I would have people come up and be like, my gosh, Bennett Peach, can we take a picture? I'm like, yes, absolutely. You know, so I mean it's it's cool. It's weird. It's weird. I feel like I'm not nobody, you know? I feel like I I just want to look at it and be like, I'm not nobody. I'm I'm I'm a fucking idiot on the internet with a phone.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:37:24)
Mm-hmm.

Try surreal.

Bennett Peach (3:37:49)
You know? Have a Wi-Fi connection and an iPhone. That's the only reason why you know who I am. And I am so sorry that you follow me because I probably put out bullshit.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:37:50)
Yes, but it's well.

No.

You know, you know, you're talented and it's also how you make them feel. You know, you you some bring something to their lives, to their day.

Bennett Peach (3:38:09)
Well,

I hope I hope I do. And I do get I do get messages a lot from people and I know that they think that I don't read them. Even if I don't respond, I do I do try to read all my comments and all my DMs. I do see the messages where people like, You're the only reason why I remember to take my cancer or my chemo medicine, or you know, you're the only reason why I, you know, get up in the morning, which is honestly sometimes very heavy.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:38:38)
Yeah, it is happy. Yeah.

Bennett Peach (3:38:38)
For

as as a responsibility, like I don't know if I really want all that pressure, but also I'm glad I can be that for somebody because they may not have anybody else, you know. I've had some negative comments about, not everybody depends on a pill bottle. Well, a lot of people do. And sometimes I am their reminder to take that medicine and

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:38:49)
Yeah. Yeah. Right.

Bennett Peach (3:39:06)
You know, just because you don't live in a pill bottle and you don't need medicine, you don't need a multivitamin, you don't need that. Don't shit on everybody else. Like if you don't like it, scroll. It's not that hard.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:39:19)
Absolutely. I mean how fucking cool.

Yes. Yes. How cool for you talk you took us from your beginnings to where you are now and just having that impact on people. That's pretty fucking amazing, right? You ever like pick yourself? You're like, wow. Yeah, yeah.

Bennett Peach (3:39:33)
It's a wild it's a wild responsibility. It's a wild

responsibility. And and I'm so grateful for where I am. I never imagined this is this that this would be where it would take me. but I'm very grateful for it. And I hope that when I'm gone.

Дема кідс волокба.

And say that their mom was a bad bitch and that they're proud of me. You know, at the end of the day, that's what I want to do. I want to make my kids proud. And I wanna make be proud of myself. You know, I'm I'm chasing that inner, that inner kid that was told so many times that you'll never amount to shit.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:40:13)
Mm-hmm.

Bennett Peach (3:40:27)
Well, fuck you.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:40:29)
Yeah,

yes, yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Yes, yes, it's so true. It's so true. It's so true.

Bennett Peach (3:40:33)
What's that song, Look At Me Now? Look at Me Now. Right? You know? so yeah,

that that's kind of where I am in life now. I just I want to look back 20 years from now when I'm sitting in the remodeled mall, the remodeled abandoned mall that us Gen Xers have taken over and made a a nursing home. Cause I I want us to do that.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:40:51)
Yes. I hope so.

I hope we do. I hope we do. I want us to do that too. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Bennett Peach (3:40:58)
I ni I need us to do that because shopping malls are dying and you know, they they gotta have something to do with that space. Listen,

I'm gonna be in there with my hover round.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:41:07)
Yes, going to Orange Julius.

Bennett Peach (3:41:10)
Blasting some, you know, Doctor Dre. Let's go.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:41:16)
I've got a question. You use the word responsibility. Do you feel that? Like do you feel the pressure of you know, you started off with like I'm just gonna fuck it, I'm gonna just throw this up and whoa, it took off. Now you've got a little pressure, right?

Bennett Peach (3:41:22)
Sometimes.

I do, I do, I do I do feel a responsibility sometimes. Like if I'm absent for a day, I feel like shit.

There's probably somebody that forgot to take their medicine today because I didn't post something, you know? because I do get those messages that says, You are my alarm clock to take my meds. And I'm like, God dang, I don't I didn't realize there was so many so much pressure on my choice whether I post or not today. but so I've I've started telling people, like, if you didn't take your medicine day, set your alarm, you know.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:41:42)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Bennett Peach (3:42:08)
'Cause

can't I can't show up every day. I can't. Like when we're gone to Alaska for two weeks, I don't know if I'm gonna have adequate Wi Fi to be able to post. So I'm hoping. I'm hoping. Maybe I should Yeah.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:42:13)
I mean.

Right.

That's all the that's all the balance though. It's the balance with the

those social relationships and and your platform and 'cause you're just gonna continue to grow. So all of that's gonna continue to grow. So it's maintaining that balance and those boundaries. Where did the name Bennett Peach come from?

Bennett Peach (3:42:35)
God. It doesn't matter. It's all public now. I have been asked that a million times. So whenever I was trying to come up with a TikTok name, I I didn't know what to write. So I was like, I don't want to use my real name. Who does that? Right? Gotta be anonymous on the interwebs, right? so I'm from a town called Bennett and I got a big ass.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:42:38)
I'm sure you've been asked that a gazillion times.

Right, right.

there you go.

Bennett Peach (3:43:04)
Bennett Peach.

That's where it's it's not that deep. That's where it came from. It's so dumb. And I was like, I didn't want to tell people for the longest time they thought my last name was Bennett.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:43:09)
Yeah.

Right. Right.

Bennett Peach (3:43:18)
but I didn't want to tell anybody, but whenever my husband his episode on moonshiners aired, I was like, it the cat's out of the bag now, you know, it doesn't really matter. So and I had to use my real name on Facebook in order to pay for the blue check mark verification. So I'm like, you know, what the fuck does it matter? Everybody i if somebody's gonna pull up to my house, they're gonna get a rude awakening. But you know.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:43:28)
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yes. Yes.

Yeah, yeah.

Bennett Peach (3:43:45)
It it is what it is. He asked me before he went on the show, he was like, Do you want me to use an anonymous name? I was like, It doesn't fucking matter at this point. We're so public, it doesn't matter. So

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:43:54)
Yeah. I think you

get to the point where you especially your platform, it's gotten b it gets so big you o there's certain there's certain privileges. Yeah. You can't hide. You can't smell bigger than just you. So we've so we've talked about, you know, your journey after the kids left and and the content creation and the music and the stand up and and everything.

Bennett Peach (3:44:03)
Yeah. Once you get to a certain level, it's like you can't hide. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:44:22)
While you were doing all that, what was was your husband still working with the chicken coops? What was he doing along the way?

Bennett Peach (3:44:29)
So he was still he was still working at the chicken farm. we have seven chicken houses and a total of a hundred and thirty to a hundred and forty thousand chickens at a time, whenever we have them. and then we have over a hundred head of cattle. We have a hundred and fifty acre farm. And he fired me from that farm because he said that I'm too emotional.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:44:39)
Wow. Wow.

Can't save every cow, right? Wait a minute, are these cows that aren't just pets? You don't wanna know.

Bennett Peach (3:44:59)
No,

it's they're Angus beef cows is what they are. They're black Angus beef cows. no, he fired me from the farm because I after I left the schools, I was like, Well, I'll just come help you. That'll be fine. I'll just come help you. So I was getting up in the morning, I was putting on my work boots, I was going to the chicken house, helping them walk chickens. And when I say walk chickens, there's a lot of people that don't understand what that means. You walk the houses to look for dead.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:45:02)
Okay, okay, okay. Yeah, yeah.

Bennett Peach (3:45:28)
You look for sick animals, you want to make sure that the feed lines are good and the water lines are good. You're not walking chickens on a fucking leash. Okay. And that's what a lot of people are like. They're like, what do you mean you walk 140,000 chickens like on a fucking leash? No. No, Derek. That's not what we're doing. so anyway, I would get up in the mornings at six o'clock. I would put on my jeans, put on my work boots, go with him to walk the chickens, and we had a cow.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:45:36)
Right.

Mm-hmm.

Bennett Peach (3:45:56)
that gave birth to a set of twins. And twins sometimes don't do well with

Bennett Peach (3:46:03)
we had a cow that had a set of twins, a male and a female. And in order for the male to thrive, which brings us more money, we took the female down to the barn to bottle feed her. So that was the plan. because sh the mama was not taking care of both. So we took Lucy, I named them first mistake.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:46:05)
Think we're good.

Bennett Peach (3:46:28)
So we took Lucy and then

we ended up with Leroy, d both of the twins down in the barn. And they ended up getting a respiratory infection. But I was going down there every morning and bottle feeding these calves. And you know, I would pet and I would love on them and they were so cute. I just

until Leroy died. I came in one morning to bottle feed and he was dead in the stall. And I was he my husband came down there to check on me because I'd been in there for a while and I was literally sitting in cow shit with this baby calf's head in my lap, crying the ugly cry with like snot running down my face, like apologizing to this baby calf that I could not save him. I'm so sorry. I did everything.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:46:52)
no.

no.

Bennett Peach (3:47:16)
Could and he looks at dead in my face and he goes, You gotta find something else to do. This is not for you. And I'm like, What do you mean I could do this? He's like, No, you can't. I spent way more on this calf saving its life, knowing damn good well it was not gonna survive because of you. You're singing to the chickens. I just I can't. And I was like, I was. I was walking down those chicken houses going, because I'm happy. Come on, chickies, let's go. Like I was.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:47:22)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Bennett Peach (3:47:45)
You know, I was I was I was, you know, I'm I'm soft hearted sometimes. But so he fired me. But whenever the kids moved out, my husband started watching Moonshiners, the TV show, on Discovery Channel. Like, and I don't know what it was. I guess in like twenty twenty one, he decided that he was gonna go to his first moonshine festival in Maggie Valley called Hillbilly Jam, and it was like the winter jam.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:47:50)
Mm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm.

Bennett Peach (3:48:14)
And

he met Jerry Benson at the Hillbilly Jam, who is a moonshiner on the show. And they became very fast friends. And then my daughter, when she was getting married, was like, Dad, can you because he had dabbled in making moonshine at that point, bought a steel off of Amazon, you know? And he was like in the back making bullshit corn liquor that wasn't great. I'm not even gonna lie to you. It was like 170 fucking proof and it felt like fucking acid going down your throat. don't tell him I said that.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:48:31)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Bennett Peach (3:48:44)
Cut that out. No, I'm just kidding. I don't care if he hears that. I've told it to his face. but so my daughter, when she was getting married, she was like, Dad, can you make me some wedding cake moonshine? And he was like, Hell yeah. he in fact could not because he bought a bunch of cake mix and put it in the still and it burnt the battery and I couldn't get that smell out of my nose for days because it's burnt cake mix. It was so terrible.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:48:55)
Yeah.

my god.

Bennett Peach (3:49:12)
But so yeah, he said he started doing moonshine and stuff, and that's highly illegal in our state. you're not allowed to own the equipment, own the own the ingredients to make it, own it own own the product, like illegal moonshine, you're not allowed to have it. None of it. It's North Carolina says no, fuck you, no. so he got busted. But that was after he was on the T V show.

Like he he tried out or he has submitted his stuff to go on Moonshiner's Master Distiller. And he actually filmed for that show in 2024. And it took 20 some months for them to air his episode. It aired in March of this year, and it's on the Discovery channel, on the Discovery app. You can get it on HBO Max and Discovery. It's called Jimmy Red Corn Reborn. It's the very last episode. And he won.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:50:09)
So wait, did he

Bennett Peach (3:50:10)
He won. He's a master distiller now. Yep. Yep.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:50:10)
and he and he and he won? And he won. But but did he get busted in between the time of filming ending and the episode airing? That's crazy.

Bennett Peach (3:50:19)
Yes. Yes. Yeah.

it was May of last year, May of 2025. my best friend was here. and her son, who's like 13, was like trying to show me how to use my podcasting equipment because I'm technologically stupid. And he was like, for payment, I would like a pizza, fifty dollars, and an aux cord.

I'm like, kid, you're an extortionist. What the fuck? so we go down to my band room and I was like, I have plenty of ox cords, I'll just give you one of mine down there. And while I'm down here, she comes through the door and she's like, Hey, you got company. Well, nobody comes to my house without being invited. Okay. We live out in the sticks. she's like, I think you need to come outside. Well, when I open the door, there's four alcohol law enforcement agents standing outside my door asking for my husband my name.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:50:45)
huh.

Bennett Peach (3:51:11)
And saying that they have reason to believe that he's making illegal liquor. And I was like, I don't know who the fuck you're talking about. Never heard of him.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:51:20)
good for you. Good for you. That's very

Bennett Peach (3:51:22)
Cause snitches get stitches, okay? That's how we work. Right.

No, they actually threatened to take me to jail because I was not being compliant. and I was lippy. I can't imagine. but so they took all of his equipment, probably about ten to fifteen thousand dollars worth of equipment and liquor. fifteen gallons of liquor, but all of the liquor that let me be clear, he was never making alcohol and selling it. Never, not once.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:51:30)
Mm, wow.

See.

Bennett Peach (3:51:53)
Every stitch of liquor he made was either in practice for the show or for personal use. But that apparently to the state of North Carolina does not matter. You're not allowed to have it at all. so they took all of his equipment. they took all of his liquor. yeah. And he got five charges, which we had to spend a shit ton of money in court fighting.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:52:06)
Crazy.

Bennett Peach (3:52:21)
Which he got out of all of it. They dismissed all the charges because he had contracts from the show showing that he was legitimately on the show and and that he legally distilled with them and he's supposed to have a legal run coming out this fall. So but yeah. It costs us a lot of money.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:52:29)
That's great.

So I w

how come the law enforcement couldn't have done some research and maybe asked you guys for proof and contracts before doing all that. That's

Bennett Peach (3:52:47)
well what I feel like happened,

because my husband liked to stir the pot on social media and flaunt the fact that he was a moonshiner and things like that, it's highly illegal in the state. I feel like somebody was jealous of the fact that he got picked to be on the show and they turned him in because they told us up front that somebody had turned him in for a making illegal eager.

So I feel like that that's what it all boiled down to. and if I ever find out who turned him in, they're gonna get a very thick thunk tongue thrashing from me. Like I don't believe in physical violence all the time, but I will definitely roast your ass publicly for being a piece of shit because you don't do that. You know, the moonshine community is so tight knit and it's yeah, it's illegal in a lot of states.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:53:12)
Crazy.

Yeah.

No.

Bennett Peach (3:53:39)
But you have Moonshine Festivals, which kind of contradicts itself a little bit. I I whatever. and then you have a whole ass syndicated television show that's nationally and globally aired that, you know, some of it is shot in the state of North Carolina. Like I don't I don't understand, but whatever, I digress. the only person that made any money during the entire thing was a lawyer.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:53:41)
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

Yeah. Free.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So when is his his line out, his legal line of moonshine come out?

Bennett Peach (3:54:10)
We don't

know. The the distiller is still working with with his recipe because what he did on the show, he had to write down every every ingredient and then he used his process and things like that. And because he is not a licensed distiller, he cannot legally distill it. It has to be given to a distiller for them to use his recipe and make it. And then he goes in and he approves what they've done or says, This is what I need you to do to tweak it. so they've already

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:54:36)
Mm-hmm.

Bennett Peach (3:54:40)
thrown out one because he said, Absolutely not. That tastes like shit. This is not even close to what I did. So we'll we'll have to see. I'm I'm hoping it'll be this fall. So

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:54:49)
That's good though.

It's good he has cre creative control. Like that they're letting him taste it and approve it.

Bennett Peach (3:54:55)
Yes, he does have con creative

control to a certain extent. Like at some point they're gonna be like, Okay, you're being picky as fuck. I'm sure. 'Cause he is he's a perfectionist.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:55:02)
Right. Is

Of course. Is the show that he did like I've seen that show or Moonshining Shows where they're like you know, there's these guys out in the woods in Georgia up in the hills. Is that the same show or like they buy rent a warehouse and they're moonshining?

Bennett Peach (3:55:20)
So the

Moonshiners show is completely different from Moonshiners Master Distiller. Moonshiners Master Distiller is a lot of people that have applied to do a competition and make the best moonshine in front of judges. Moonshiners is a reality TV show where they make moonshine in the woods.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:55:27)
Okay.

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Okay. This is more like the what that show Yeah, I I I

Bennett Peach (3:55:48)
And that's all I'm gonna say about that. Every stitch of alcohol

that my husband made on Moonshiner's Master Distiller was one hundred percent real alcohol.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:55:57)
Right. Yeah. Right. It's almost like that show Forged where they go and they forge a knife or a right. Sign kind of like that same format. Yeah. I assume that when his when his line is gonna deb debut, will you be able to talk about it on your socials? Yeah. Yeah.

Bennett Peach (3:56:05)
Yes. Yeah.

absolutely. Absolutely. I had to keep my mouth shut for 20 months about whether he won or not. Because we

filmed it in 2024 in Asheville, North Carolina, in like May or June. And I had to keep my mouth shut for like almost two years about the fact that my husband won this damn show. And I am a shitty fucking secret keeper. I'm terrible. I'm terrible at it.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:56:33)
Gosh, that's crazy. Man, the irony.

The irony of filming in Asheville.

Yeah, like getting

Bennett Peach (3:56:49)
I know. Well,

they did they did film in a distillery that had licenses to do that. You know what I'm saying? Like it wasn't like backwoods.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:56:53)
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Right. Well, isn't that the whole concept behind NASCAR was bootlegging. Bootleggers in North Carolina. So that's probably why they're so harsh about it, the history there.

Bennett Peach (3:57:02)
Yes, yes, yes.

Yes,

and my grandpa used to run liquor back in the day. Like he bootlegged it. He didn't make it, but he ran it. Like my mom was telling me stories about my grandpa and she would be in the back seat while he had liquor in the trunk and he was running it all over the place back in the day. You know, when she was a kid in the sixties. So

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:57:09)
Yeah.

Now you're

Yeah. Wow,

that's true. Your husband's from West Virginia, I think, right? His family is? So the last time we were there I we got I got moonshine. You did? Yeah. Yeah, you got moonshine.

Bennett Peach (3:57:31)
Originally, yes. Originally yes.

Yeah, so it's legal

for you to make

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:57:38)
Do you drink the moonshine much?

Bennett Peach (3:57:41)
I don't. I don't. Yes. Yes. He does. He likes his, so what he won the show with was Jimmy Redcorn. it's a native corn to the Carolinas, like South Carolina, North Carolina. And it was almost extinct, but a certain amount of moonshiners and farmers saved some of the corn, if I'm

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:57:43)
Does your husband? Is that like his drink? Yeah, that's awesome. That's so cool.

Bennett Peach (3:58:09)
I'm hoping I'm telling the story correct. He went outside because I told him I had to finish this phone call. and yeah, I was like, take your ass outside. But I hope I'm telling it correctly. I know it's native corn from the Carolinas and it was almost extinct, and a few, like a handful of farmers, kept some of the seeds and kept some of the kernels, and they started using it because it's like a oily corn.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:58:11)
Yeah.

Hmm. Yes to leave.

Yeah, cool.

Bennett Peach (3:58:38)
and whenever you go to make liquor out of it, it has like a nutty flavor. If if you're a bourbon or a whiskey person, you'll understand what that means. but it has like an earthy, nutty flavor to it, and that is the the stuff that he used on the show and won. But he barrel aged it for a year. And so now it's like the it's like that really pretty caramel color, and it's so sweet. you know.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:58:42)
Mm. Interesting. Yeah, yes, yes, yes, he

Yeah.

Yeah, that's cool.

Bennett Peach (3:59:07)
what we had left that the ALE didn't take. But but that's what he won with. And that's whenever he was tasting it and mixing it and doing all the things for the show, he said he was effed up as a football bat because he kept trying to like he wasn't just like swishing it in his mouth and spitting it out. He was like drinking it. So when he called me and told me that he won, he was drunk.

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:59:20)
Sure. Yeah.

Yeah.

No,

that's and it's a different drunk. You're drunk. Yeah. Yeah.

Bennett Peach (3:59:34)
and you know what's so funny?

Watching the episode now, I can tell that he was drunk. I can tell like I've rewatched it like several times. Yeah, I can tell that he's drunk. Like

GenX Adulting Podcast (3:59:40)
That's funny. I can't I'm gonna watch it. That is funny. That's awesome.

Okay, so for listeners, you haven't crashed a party here. there was a p a little bit of a technical issue that happened and so we had a little have to take a little bit of a break and now we are back. And yeah.

Bennett Peach (3:59:59)
Just call it how it c just call it how it is. My power went out because I forgot to pay my power bill. No, I'm just kidding. No, my neighbor

plugged in her apparatus for s pleasure and it made the whole town go dark. Again, just kidding. No, it's the heat. It's the heat. Sometimes if the heat is so bad and everybody's running their AC and everything else, our power just goes out for no fucking reason at all. Progress energy just says fuck you. So

GenX Adulting Podcast (4:00:09)
Right.

Yeah. So Yeah. But we were

so fortunate to get you back. And and we get a little bit of a change of scenery. This kitchen for fans of Beth Bennett Peach, you'll recognize these cabinets if you follow her on social media as you should. So and we were just about to ask our last question, but before I ask my last question, I always ask Brian, do you have any other questions? Yeah, I don't think so. I you know, I r really appreciate

Bennett Peach (4:00:34)
Yeah. Yeah.

GenX Adulting Podcast (4:00:55)
This much time. Yes. your story is phenomenal.

Bennett Peach (4:00:59)
I appreciate that. I I feel like I live such a boring life, but then whenever I we were sitting there talking, you know, it's one of those things. I feel like everything is boring in my life until I sit there and I tell somebody else about it and I'm like, I did some shit, you know?

GenX Adulting Podcast (4:01:12)
Yeah.

certainly. You certainly have. It's kinda cool 'cause we were when we were waiting, you know, trying to s sort out the power event, when Nicole mit I think she summed it up well. She's like, What an American story. You have an American story of growing up in rural North Carolina, probably out in the sticks, didn't have the easiest life, you know, coming up. You served in our you served our country and and we're in a in a war zone. Bosnia doesn't get much credit, but I

To be honest, I think we we did important work there. Not all of our conflicts in this country have been important. That was pretty important. We prevented a genocide and and you were part of that on the front line. So I don't know. Kudos to you. It was really cool. I love the fact that you sing, you're gonna do stand up you know. But and then the the content creation. Just re just reinventing yourself again,

It midli quote unquote midlife, but you especially the younger generations, they always like to remind us, you guys are past midlife. It's like, no, we're not. But I do have a question out of all of that. Yeah. Would you have ever thought or imagined that you'd be doing what you're doing? And like we touched on earlier, having the impact you're having. It's pretty crazy, right?

Bennett Peach (4:02:14)
Não.

Never

in a million years. I spent so much of my life, and I think a lot of us did, trying to shrink down, be invisible, do the things that we were told to do, excel at our careers, trying to be good parents and just not make noise.

GenX Adulting Podcast (4:02:30)
Yeah, it's cool.

Bennett Peach (4:02:54)
so I think we spent a lot of time like trying to shrink ourselves down to where we weren't noticed. And and because I was bullied and picked on as a kid, I definitely tried to make myself unseen. Because I didn't want someone to judge me. And I don't

Happened. I I think I was around 30-ish when I just woke up one day and I was like, I don't care anymore what people think about me. I'm going to be who I am. I'm going to be loud. I'm going to be opinionated. I'm going to do me unapologetically.

And that has carried over into this part of my life, this season of my life. And and I'm I'm not mad at it. I'm I'm actually enjoying it. I'm having fun. And it might lead to other things, but I definitely did not see myself 20 if I could sit there and tell myself, if I could go back in time at 47 and like get into a DeLorean, right?

GenX Adulting Podcast (4:04:04)
Mm.

Bennett Peach (4:04:05)
And like

pull up to 1995 me and be like, let me tell you something. In 2026, you're gonna have over 1.4 million eyes on you every single day. And you're gonna make them laugh and you're gonna make them find joy and you're going to entertain them. I would have looked at my future self and said, Get the fuck out of here.

GenX Adulting Podcast (4:04:28)
Mm.

Bennett Peach (4:04:30)
So no, I had zero clue. Zero clue. But I'm I'm really enjoying this journey. I really am. And I'm so super grateful to every single person that has decided to engage my content because at the end of the day, I would not be able to talk to you fine people. You would have never known who I was if it wasn't for the people that follow me, the people that comment, the people that like, the people that share. So without those folks supporting what I do.

GenX Adulting Podcast (4:04:36)
Yeah, that's true.

Bennett Peach (4:05:00)
I would be sh I would just be another dumbass with a phone throwing stuff into the abyss. So if you're still here and you're listening to this, I want you to know that I appreciate you as a follower, as a supporter of my channels. So

GenX Adulting Podcast (4:05:09)
Okay.

Yeah, cool. That's great. And congratulations on all your success too. It's amazing. That's a perfect Yeah. I'm sure. Yeah. Well, and on that note, my last question is always, where do you see yourself in five years?

Bennett Peach (4:05:23)
I appreciate it. It's weird. It's fucking weird.

God.

In five years, let me see. in five years, that means I'll be like fifty-two. I don't know. I don't I don't know. I don't know. Maybe may I I mean I'm hoping that I'm still, you know,

GenX Adulting Podcast (4:05:42)
Listen, that's still young. You're a young one. Remember, you're you're a baby gen X.

Bennett Peach (4:05:55)
doing what I'm doing. I'm I'm hoping that I'm still able to entertain and and bring people joy and make people laugh. and you know maybe maybe I'll have an album out, whether it's cover songs or whether it's written words that we've collaborated on our own. may you know maybe I'll be touring the country doing

Stand up. Who the fuck knows? Like the the the sky's the limit, honestly.

GenX Adulting Podcast (4:06:30)
Isn't that the truth? That is the truth. That's a great Yeah, it is. And the beautiful thing is the options you have. Yeah. That that you know. Yeah.

Bennett Peach (4:06:36)
Yeah, and I'm here for every bit of it. Like I'm here

for every bit of I just I just, you know, I'm I'm hoping my husband has success doing what he's doing. I'm hoping that maybe he'll have you know, a distillery at some point 'cause that's his dream. So maybe. I don't know. I don't know. The sk like I said, the sky's the limit, and I'm here for every bit of it. So

GenX Adulting Podcast (4:06:58)
And you'll continue

to inspire, you know, your fans, listeners, just continuing to do all those different things that are thrown at you and tackling them in such a way that it helps others feel seen, it brightens their day, it connects with them. So again, like Brian just mentioned, from where you came from to where you are now, it's really amazing. And I do think it's an amazing American story. but it's also

I still go back to, I think it's such an inspirational story for Gen X, but especially Gen X women, because so many of us, like you just allude said, we quieted ourselves, we shushed ourselves to do what needed to be done. And our dreams were never ignited really, if you think about it, until now we're hitting midlife and we're giving ourselves the permission to ignite those dreams and to go for them and not care what others think and realize life is too short.

And because we can, we should. And people like you out there doing that help people like us want to do that and give us the courage to do it for ourselves. So just from one Gen X woman to another, thank you for doing what you do.

Bennett Peach (4:08:13)
Well, I appreciate listen, I have had so much fun with you guys today. It was such a pleasure to sit here and chit-chat and god dang, we've been over here for like five hours. If if it hadn't been for my shitty power.

GenX Adulting Podcast (4:08:22)
I don't want that.

Bennett Peach (4:08:26)
We would probably

be still down there in the building and I'd be sweating my freaking non existent balls off. I got a serious case of swamp ass, y'all have no idea.

GenX Adulting Podcast (4:08:34)
You got balls.

Listen, we've loved having you and that you've shared your story with us. You know, we I know your fans are gonna love this because it's this is a a very unusual access to your story. So thank you for that. But also for listeners, I'm I know there's things you've said that you that others can relate to or that may help them feel seen. So just that alone is also serving. And then this is such a great

memento for your children to have in future genera generations. So I know it took a lot of time, but I think it's gonna be so worth it, especially when, you know, you listen to this back. I think you'll be very happy that you have this 'cause I I it's a really an awesome story. It really is. So thank you again.

Bennett Peach (4:09:22)
Well, I appreciate

you guys asking and I appreciate you having me on and taking the time. I really appreciate it. So thank you. It was an honor for me to be sitting here with you guys today. So thank you.

GenX Adulting Podcast (4:09:28)
Yeah. Absolutely.

Thank you, thank you. And so for our listeners, and for Beth's followers and fans, everywhere you can find her, well, they already know, but everywhere you can find Beth, Bennett Peach will be in the show notes. And when your husband's line comes out for his I don't know if you call it that. Do you call it a line of moonshine or I'm not sure. Whatever when that does come out, we're gonna be reposting.

Bennett Peach (4:09:59)
Well, I mean he's standing right here if you would like to ask

him.

GenX Adulting Podcast (4:10:04)
When when it comes out, yeah, I don't know, but when it does and you're where is he does he wanna be on camera? Hi. Can he hear us? That's true. He's been on a TV show.

Bennett Peach (4:10:13)
He doesn't care. He's been on camera a lot here lately, so he's fine. He's it's only fans.

It takes a subscription. it's not only fans, you crazy. Good grief. Jesus Christ.

GenX Adulting Podcast (4:10:24)
No, but we

when w is it called your moonshine is it called a line when your moonshine release release

Bennett Peach (4:10:30)
Yeah. A release, but yeah, I yeah. It's a it's a label

re it's a label release, yes. Yep.

GenX Adulting Podcast (4:10:36)
label release. So when that happens,

you know, we're we will repost all the things. So anything you put up, we'll put it out there and and anything if even if you want us to like do a little clip about it, you know, so any any push you need, you let us know. Gotta get it to our local local one.

Bennett Peach (4:10:42)
Okay. All right.

Okay.

And listen, he's 1977, Gen X. So I mean you you're more

than welcome to do an interview with Mr. Man over here. And I'll I'll sit in the sidelines.

GenX Adulting Podcast (4:10:57)
Well I I was

I was gonna ask I kinda was gonna wait and let him listen to yours to make sure before I jump on him to make sure he wants to do that. But I I will I was gonna extend the invite. If you would like to come on and share your life story, we'd love to have you.

Bennett Peach (4:11:13)
Yeah, sounds good to me. I don't mind doing podcasts. I like it.

GenX Adulting Podcast (4:11:14)
Awesome. Awesome. Okay. So I'll

be in touch for scheduling and everything. That's awesome. Where in West Virginia are is your family from?

Bennett Peach (4:11:21)
Yeah. Yeah.

about twenty miles north of Charleston is a little town called Red House, is the name of the town.

GenX Adulting Podcast (4:11:28)
Okay.

My dad was born in Granville, right outside of Morgantown.

Bennett Peach (4:11:38)
Okay. I I know where it's at, but a little ways away, but I know where it's at. I I really to be honest, people ask me all the time and I'm like I moved away when I was like nine. I don't remember I don't remember anything about it really.

GenX Adulting Podcast (4:11:46)
Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. We're actually in Charleston. We're going to Charleston to see Billy Strings in August. Have you guys heard of Billy Strings?

Bennett Peach (4:11:54)
okay. Yeah. He does have he does

have a little bit of that West Virginia accent though, because he says collar instead of color. and he says on, like turn the TV on. Like there's no I in that word. Like I don't know what

GenX Adulting Podcast (4:12:01)
Mm. Mm-hmm.

Yeah. What about yins? You guys Yeah. You

say yins guys? What are yins up to? Yins.

Bennett Peach (4:12:14)
Hm?

that's the Tennessee thing.

The yuns. That's Tennessee. Yeah.

GenX Adulting Podcast (4:12:20)
My

cousins in West Virginia say that too. Like Williams. Yeah.

Bennett Peach (4:12:23)
Yeah, that's that's a mountain thing. is it a mountain thing? Isn't it? Well I

Tater says yens all the time. It's like Appalachian Mountain thing. Yeah. That's what it is. Yeah, and they say pop. And actually Bartalosi from up in Pennsylvania, he lives in I've heard him say yens before and I thought he was just making fun of the he's from the Appalachians and that's how they say it. I thought he was just making fun. Yeah. Little shit. Yeah, I remember I remember going up to visit his family one time and his cousin was like, Do you want a pop? And I'm What

GenX Adulting Podcast (4:12:29)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Have you guys

Yeah. Yeah, yen's like half.

Bennett Peach (4:12:53)
Pop what? Like a pop tart? Like pop sickle? Because here's here we just call it a coke. Here we just call it a Coke. A drink. A drink. You know? We don't we don't call it a pop. It's it's it was so weird. And she goes, No, a a soda pop. And I'm like, you mean a Pepsi? Sure, I'll take a Pepsi. and they don't make tea up there like like we do here either. They they've got like the tea that comes out of like the Instant Instant tea.

GenX Adulting Podcast (4:12:54)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Is that

yeah, okay. Okay.

Yeah. Yes. Yes. And that's funny.

No, no, no.

Yeah, yeah.

Bennett Peach (4:13:23)
It's it's

it's weird. And I ordered a cheeseburger all the way up there. And then she said, What's all the way? And I said, Mustard slaw, chili and onions. And they brought me out a cheeseburger that was open with the with the meat and the cheese and then the bun over here and a cup of like bean chili and then like I don't know what kind of slaw that shit was, but it's like red, like barbecue slaw, I think.

GenX Adulting Podcast (4:13:48)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Bennett Peach (4:13:50)
And

she looked at me like I had three heads and I'm like, I don't I don't red can't be slaw out of red. Yeah, it's it's so weird. 'Cause what we eat here is a s is a cheeseburger all the way and it's mustard slaw, chili, and onions, and it's like hot dog chili with no beans in it, and then like a coleslaw that's like homemade. There all all the way is lettuce, tomato, onions, lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise, onions, and pickles.

GenX Adulting Podcast (4:13:54)
It's not on the menu.

Yes, yeah.

Bennett Peach (4:14:18)
That's all the way. Yeah, and I can eat it like that, but I wasn't prepared. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Look, I told her when we left, I said, do not order tea in the north, okay? It's not the same thing. It was like some nest tea out of a freaking i it was gross. It was so gross. But I also told her the cows up their two legs were shorter than the others because they walked on the mountain.

GenX Adulting Podcast (4:14:23)
Yeah. Yeah.

It's not. It's not. Yes. Yes. Have you guys heard have you

my god.

Bennett Peach (4:14:43)
He did. And she believed it. I did. And then when I finally told her the truth, I was like, Look, th they walk out one way and they walk back the other way, so it kinda evens them out. He did tell me that.

GenX Adulting Podcast (4:14:45)
That's hilarious.

my god.

Have you guys heard

Bennett Peach (4:14:55)
He did I f I look, I found her under a rock when I found her. Hell up. He tells everybody that

he saves me from the trailer park. I saved her from the trailer park, okay?

GenX Adulting Podcast (4:15:04)
Well it was it was a gravel parking lot, right? So it's kind of like a rock. It was a gravel parking lot, yep. You'll have to listen. She told us stories about you. Yes. Well, listen. Okay, so I'm gonna be in touch to schedule your episode. Okay. So we'll we'll run dates, you know. Well you can crash his. Yeah, exactly. I expect that.

Bennett Peach (4:15:08)
It was a gravel parking lot. It was. Jesus Christ. And I've given you this life of luxury that you have in there.

Okay. Sounds good to me. Yeah, get the hell out of there. This is my shit. Get out.

Don't think I'm listen,

pull your pants up. It's ridiculous.

GenX Adulting Podcast (4:15:34)
Yeah.

All right. Well that was awesome. We got a little we got a little cameo. I don't know if I'm gonna cut that off. This is a little cameo. So but again, thank you, thank you. And this has been the f most fun episode, I swear.

Bennett Peach (4:15:38)
You can cut that out too. I know. I don't know. I don't know.

I guarantee you say that to everybody. It's fine. It's fine. I'm gonna call you later and I'm gonna be like, You're a liar.

GenX Adulting Podcast (4:15:55)
No, no. If you go listen, yeah.

You can go listen and if you can make it through, because these are long podcasts, you'll hear I have not said that to everybody. So I promise, but okay.

Bennett Peach (4:16:07)
You cut it out. It's fine. I get it. I'm just messing with you. No, I

do I do. I really appreciated you guys asking and I've I've had a good time today and I appreciate the opportunity. So

GenX Adulting Podcast (4:16:16)
Glad.

I'm glad. I'm glad same. It's been awesome. And again, for listeners, everywhere you can find Beth Stevens, Bennett Peach will be in the show notes. And if you want to leave any comments or questions, she will see them. And we always love to hear from you. So please leave them. And we will see you next time. Bye.