Note: Our apologies for the technical issues with this episode. There is a fan hitting one of the mics periodically and we promise the overall sound recording quality will improve with each subsequent episode. Thanks for being patient with us as we get into this podcasting thang! — The Parcos
Here we are! The second episode of Hey Parco! and the second half of “It’s a Miracle We’re Still Alive.” There’s no denying it, as we leave the relatively benign dangers of our kidhood, we move into the higher stake hazards of being hormonal adolescents, young adults, and professional women in big cities. This episode is a little darker, but we have always found humor in even the most dire of situations… eventually. Trigger warning.
Here are the links to the audio-only podcasts:
- Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3t1mwvD
- Google Podcasts: https://bit.ly/3zLxMP2
- Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3DKMZma
- Stitcher: https://bit.ly/38JrsMt
- Amazon Music: https://amzn.to/38shRcH
And here is the video version on YouTube:
Catholic Schoolgirl on a City Bus and the Shell Game – ParcoAnn
It was difficult to wear a Catholic schoolgirl uniform on the city bus. Some city bus riding men are creepy and gross…so totally gross. I don’t understand what the allure of young girls in a uniform is, but in my humble opinion, it’s time to do away with the skirts and keep it to unflattering polyester pants and blocky turtlenecks. Then again, at my high school, the girls, including myself, would roll up the skirts after school, turning our uniform into mini skirts (it was the 80s after all).
I’m just grateful that the school I went to no longer had nuns running the show. I was told that back in the day, before I was a student there, the nuns would make young women kneel to verify that the skirts were the correct length–if it touched the floor, you were in compliance. However, if your skirt was too short, they’d make you stand up, then they would place raw rice in little piles where your knees were, and you would have to kneel on top of the piles of rice and stay there for what probably felt like an eternity.
I will say, that I didn’t mind wearing the uniform (except on the bus) because it was so easy to figure out what to wear in the morning, plus my mom and I saved a lot of money on clothing. Lucky for my mom, I got into thrift store shopping around 13.
The city bus was also where I learned not to gamble. If you don’t know what the shell game is, here’s a tasty treat from Wikipedia:
The shell game (also known as thimblerig, three shells and a pea, the old army game) is portrayed as a gambling game, but in reality, when a wager for money is made, it is almost always a confidence trick used to perpetrate fraud. In confidence trick slang, this swindle is referred to as a short-con because it is quick and easy to pull off. Read more here.
Watch the shell game explained here.
The White Panel Truck Guy – ParcoSam
It was a strange thing for a 13-year-old girl: to find herself quite suddenly an object of interest to grown men. Especially since boys my own age paid me very little attention. And most especially when one of the men looked like the freaking Unabomber (and/or Weird Al)!
Nightclubbing, Nightcrawlers & the Golden Age of Serial Killers – Both
Believe us, we have MANY more stories like these we could tell, but it would be too big a bummer. So we offer just a wee sampling of our close shaves with unsavory characters in the podcast. And they didn’t all happen at night or in clubs, but quite a few did.
Behold an 80s dance club (ParcoSam note on ParcoAnn link: Okay, but that’s a disco, not the kind of clubs we were going to – we saw bands play. We were more likely to be found here: Club Lingerie – Just sayin.) (ParcoAnn note to ParcoSam – absolutely but it doesn’t mean that those kind of youth weren’t at the clubs we were at. On the YouTubes I did a search for Club Lingerie there’s a Red Hot Chili Pepper recording. That would have been more a show we would go to than the disco)
Here is the source article with U.S. serial killer stats quoted
In–depth Rolling Stone article about the Golden Age of Serial Killers
It’s best not to dwell too much on this subject, particularly as it is more than covered by a bajillion other podcasts.
1993 World Trade Center Bombing (the first Terrorist Attack on the WTC) – ParcoSam
The old, pre-9/11 World Trade Center (1973-2001) was more than a building. It was more than just the 110-story Twin Towers. Extending from the clouds to below sea level, it was a 16-acre complex of commercial and public life, transport stations and links, monuments and art installations, a vast shopping mall with banks and bookstores, a hotel, observation deck, and the Windows on the World restaurant. It had its own zip code. One of the world’s largest gold depositories was located in its basement. When the developers were building it, they excavated enough material to create a whole new neighborhood, Battery Park City, extending the banks of the Hudson River.
Along with the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building, it was also a symbol of New York City and America herself.
The software company I worked for in Los Angeles relocated me to their WTC office in Manhattan in mid 1990. I was 23 and knew nobody in New York but my colleagues in the office (all white, middle-aged men who lived in the ‘burbs with their families). It was the brilliant! I got to reinvent my life, was on a constant journey of discovery, and lived out many of my lifelong dreams.
A good portion of that life revolved around the World Trade Center. It was my home base, where I procured many of life’s necessities (even my first pair of glasses). It was the starting point of every tour I gave to a visitor from back home. It was a compass point, visible from many parts of Lower Manhattan, that would orient me back to my apartment in Greenwich Village. During my last year in New York, I lived just around the corner from it.
Though it would be dwarfed less than a decade later by 9/11, the bombing that took place in 1993 was a shocking blow. An act of terrorism right in the heart of America’s shining metropolis. And I was one of its intended victims. Such a strange thought.
Link to the Wikipedia page about the Bombing
In the wake of the bombing, my company set up our staff with temporary office space at the Banker’s Trust building across from Tower Two. Some months later, we actually moved back to the WTC–onto a higher floor even–and resumed our business with a much different rhythm. Now there were layers of security to navigate each day and long queues of visitors waiting to be allowed in.
Though they filled in the giant hole in the lobby of Tower One (my building) and scrubbed away all physical evidence of the event, the community was permanently changed. The impenetrable wall of society that had surrounded us hadn’t yet crumbled, but it was sporting some mighty big, soot-stained gaps.
I Had Stalkers – ParcoAnn
I have had four stalkers, I hope to not have any more. Perhaps because I’m older, I’ll just be ignored – which is a weird backhanded benefit about being older. If you’re struggling with a stalker, I’m so sorry. It’s a scary, anxiety-laden experience, and takes away a whole lot of joy in life.
My first stalking experience began when I was 7, and lasted until I graduated high school. The first two were my father and his crazy freaking girlfriend. He died when I was 11, so that’s how he stopped stalking me, but the crazy girlfriend stalked me until she died, when I was 17. An entire decade of stalking!
The next was a classmate when I was about 12 (that lasted until I demanded my mom call his parents to tell him to stop and thankfully he did).
The final one, and the story you hear in Episode Two was someone I did not know. My crime was that my lunch break was at the same time as his and all I said was “Hello.” Because of this guy, I took different routes home every day, parked in different parking lots at my work, quit my job, took a new one, and carried a gun.
My stalker began around the same time that actress Rebecca Schaeffer was shot at her apartment by a stalker. His reign of terror lasted 3 years. Sadly, back then there were no stalking laws, so you were on your own. The only time you could get a restraining order was if physical harm was perpetrated, sadly the psychological impacts were never seen as something important.
There is one thing I’m grateful for: all of my stalking situations happened before the internet and cellphones with GPS. That said, I’ve compiled some links that may be helpful for you if you are in a similar situation. Be safe out there, it’s a crazy world.
Stalking Policies & Research
An interesting slide show about the Federal Law that was passed in 1996
Safety Tips for Stalking Victims
Signs of Stalking
Rodney King Riots (aka 1992 Los Angeles Riots) – ParcoAnn
Between dealing with a stalker and civil unrest, it’s truly a miracle I’m still alive. I currently have coworkers who have no idea what the Rodney King Riot was, soooo, here are a few links:
A historical perspective
News Footage from April 1992 if you want to know more.
As always, if you have Gen-X stories of your own (hair-raising or otherwise), we’d love to hear about them! Please contact us through social media or use the Contact form on this website.
Til next time! xx