Carol Patton (episode 84) returns to talk about her latest project, teaching kids about the USA. Carol has uncovered fun facts that can be used by adults in presentations or to stimulate and motivate kids.
Carol Patton's Website: https://adventuresofmo.com/
Transcription:
Intro 00:03
Welcome to Changing the Rules, a weekly podcast about people who are living their best lives and advice on how you can achieve that too. Join us with your lively host, Ray Lowe, better known as the luckiest guy in the world.
Ray Loewe00:17
Welcome to the luckiest guy in the world podcast called Changing the Rules. We're sitting here today in our brand new podcast studio in Willow Street, Pennsylvania. We have a revisiting guest, we have Carol Patton, who was a freelance writer all of her life. We're going to get to her in a minute, and she's going to talk about her project that she's working on. But we're going to do something else today. We have Luke Cagno sitting at our board and we just decided that we're going to pull him into the podcast today because Carol is going to ask me a bunch of questions I don't know the answer to. And I don't want to feel stupid all alone. So welcome, Luke. And Carol Patton out in Las Vegas, how's the weather out there today?
Carol Patton00:59
It is beautiful. No more wind like it was yesterday. Thanks for having me.
Ray Loewe01:16
Okay. So first of all, let me say that Carol was a freelance writer for most of her life, and she changed, kind of as the industry changed, and she picked up a project that is immersing her in life right now. And let me remind you, if you want to know more about Carol, she was on one of our earlier episodes. If you go through our files, it happens to be Episode 84, and she was on in September of 2021. So, Carol, we're all a year older now, and maybe wiser, maybe not. So say hello to everybody.
Carol Patton01:54
Good morning, everyone. Or I should say good afternoon, depending where you are in the country. It is a pleasure to be here, we are going to have lots of fun today.
Ray Loewe02:02
Cool. So the MO project is what life is all about for you right now. And you know, you're so lucky to have a project like this because I don't think people have a project that can drive them and can be as interesting as this one has turned out to be. So give us a quick synopsis of what the MO project is all about and what you're trying to do.
Carol Patton02:27
Sure, many years ago, I started writing a children's story about a dog and a bird that finds a key attached to a key chain that says Florida, they don't know where Florida is. So they travel on top of a delivery truck without the driver's knowledge to every single state in the country, and they learn things about every state. And the story teaches them a little bit of geography, history, cardinal directions, but most importantly, it's fun. And how this project started was it sort of took on a life of its own, because I started discovering so many fun facts and interesting things about every state. But I could not cram them into each chapter. So I started expanding the book, which is called The Adventures of Mo. And now it's a project, it has many legs and arms and attenae. And so now I've written state blogs, more than 20 so far, with all of these interesting facts and bits of trivia that people might be interested in learning about.
Ray Loewe03:33
Now, before we go into the actual triviality stuff over here, this project has taken you into a whole different lifespan, because you go out now and you talk to kids in schools, right?
Carol Patton03:46
Yes, I've done over 16 presentations so far.
Ray Loewe03:50
And your goal here is to get kids interested in learning about the United States and about life. And what else?
Carol Patton03:59
Well, I want to get them first interested in reading and writing. Many kids, you know, second or third graders, they find it boring, they'd rather be playing a video game or outside. So what I do is I talk to them about how writing and reading can be fun. And I use The Adventures of Mo as an example, I do a guided imagery of one of the chapters, and they have a lot of fun, it's very interactive, and that sort of gives them a sense that writing is not just writing your ABCs. It's not boring, it can be a lot of fun. So that presentation seems to go well in elementary schools and for your listeners, if anybody wants to use me as a speaker, it's free. Just contact me and I'd be happy to do it over Zoom.
Ray Loewe04:46
We will give everybody your website so that they can find you at the end of this thing. But you know, as we've been talking over the last year, I started thinking about some of the stuff that you're doing and I used to go out and give a lot of presentations as an adult. And I just started thinking, wow, when you go into a different state, it's really helpful if you can talk about the city or the state that you're in and give some facts that you learned, it kind of breaks the ice. And all of a sudden, I found out, wow, you've got a resource here, for adults who do this kind of thing. And then the other side of that is, grandchildren come into play. When you're a grandparent, and you're trying to bond with your grandchildren, wouldn't it be great to have some fun things to talk about at the beginning of a conversation? Or even better if you're taking a road trip with your grandchildren, to be able to talk a little bit about some of the things that we're going to see and we're going to find out, and so that's the background. So let's start here because we've got tons of these things and we're going to ask me some questions that I'm not going to be able to answer. That's why Luke's here, so I don't feel so bad. So do you want to start with what adults might do with this thing?
Carol Patton06:11
Yeah, I picked two states. One state was really interesting trivia that may be more appealing for adults. And the second state the trivia may be more appealing for kids. But you can go on the website, and you can decide for yourself because obviously, it just depends on the age and your interest level. So okay, Luke, and Ray, tell me what state does this happen in. There's a small town that is called Earth. It's probably the only place on this planet that is named Earth. Do you know the state?
ay Loewe06:46
I have no idea. Luke, you got anything?
Luke Cagno06:48
I can't remember if we talked about this earlier or not. But I can't remember. I think it was Idaho.
Ray Loewe06:57
No, it's got to be a southern state because only southerners would think this way. Right? Okay, so give us the answer.
Carol Patton07:03
Okay, well, these three trivia are all from the same state. So let me give you the other two and then I'll give you the answer. According to state law, all thieves must give authorities a 24-hour oral or written notice of their intended crime before committing it. Apparently, this was supposed to help reduce theft. And apparently, you've got to comply with the law before you break it. That's the second stat.
Ray Loewe07:30
All right. Give us number three.
Carol Patton07:33
Number three, in 2014, there was a small town that voted to reschedule Halloween to October 30th because Halloween conflicted with the local high school Friday night football game.
Luke Cagno07:51
This all sounds like something Texas would do. Is it Texas?
Ray Loewe07:57
We know you cheated because we know you got the answer earlier but you sound good now anyway. Okay, so if I were going to Texas and I wanted to give a speech and I wanted some fun facts, how would I find these on your website?
Carol Patton08:10
Well, you go to the website and go to the footer or the bottom of the website on any of the pages, and there's a footer it says blog, just click on that. Right now 20 State blogs reposted, 30 are completed, we post one week. And I will complete all 50 states, I just haven't done it yet. But you can at least get a lot of rich content on about 20 states right now.
Ray Loewe08:36
Okay, have you got it got any other examples of things that I as an adult would want to know?
Carol Patton08:42
Yeah, you've got to hear this. Do you want me to tell you the state? Because the story is overwhelming.
Ray Loewe08:49
Yeah, so tell us the state and tell us the overwhelming story.
Carol Patton08:52
Okay, this happened in Idaho in 1914. There was a six-year-old girl named Mae, and she was actually mailed from her hometown to where her grandparents lived. And back then, it took many hours by car to drive there. Her parents wanted to send their daughter to visit her grandparents but the train fare was too expensive. However, they discovered that they could mail a package up to 50 pounds for just 53 cents. And guess what. Mae only weighed 45 pounds. So her parents got creative, and they purchased 53 cents in stamps, attached them to her coat and they mailed her and apparently, the post office had to honor that. She traveled the entire distance. It was from Grangeville to Lewiston in Idaho. And she traveled that distance in the trains mail car, and she was safely delivered to her grandmother's home by the mail clerk on duty. So I guess this maybe the first and last time a person was actually mailed, I don't know.
Ray Loewe10:03
I've got two comments on that. Where does child abuse fit in here? Although she was delivered first class, and you know, maybe it wasn't. And then the second thing is trying to figure out what the post office would do today. Do you ever track a package and find out it starts in Idaho, goes to Cleveland, and then someplace in Florida before comes back to Idaho again?
Carol Patton10:26
Yes, but you know, at least she was the only person in the truck at the time. She wasn't crammed in a seat like you are in airplanes. So she may have had a more comfortable ride, I don't know.
Ray Loewe10:37
Where do you find this stuff?
Carol Patton10:41
It's all out there. It's all out there on the internet. I do a lot of research. As a journalist, I'm used to doing research, so I know how to conduct it. But you just contact a variety of sites, you look under state facts, tourism, kids facts, there's a lot of websites that focus on that. And there's probably 10 sites that I traditionally go to, just to see what they have, and then see what else is out there. So this is how I find it. You know, it can be a couple hours worth of work easily. But it's fun.
Ray Loewe11:13
But you've got it now on your website, under a State blog, and I can find it. Okay, so let's take a different scenario here. Suppose I'm a grandparent, and I'm going on a road trip with my grandchildren. Pick a state that maybe we're going to go to and how do we get our grandchildren fascinated, motivated, and amused about where we're going?
Carol Patton11:39
Sure. I'm sure grandparents and parents are tired of hearing are we there yet? Right? You hear that 1000 times. And I know a lot of parents play the license plate game, how many cars have different license plates? Well, here's another game you can play in the car and your kids can actually learn a lot. For instance, I'll give you the kids state that I chose. This state has a city called Santa Claus. And every holiday it receives over half a million letters at Christmas time. You know, the city says that it responds to each letter, doesn't necessarily honor the request, but what state is the city in? A kid, I think, would be interested in hearing that. The same state also has a park called Wolf Park. If you make a donation to this park, you can get kissed by a friendly wolf. Parents may not be so enthusiastic about that, but the kids would be. And I know a lot of kids play baseball. Where was the first pro baseball game played? It was played in this state all the way back in 1871. So those are the kinds of things that the website has, the kinds of trivia, some are for adults and some are for kids. But you learn and have fun all at the same time. So do you know what state that was in? All three of those?
Luke Cagno12:56
It's got to be in New York, right?
Carol Patton12:58
Nope, 49 more to go.
Ray Loewe13:02
Yeah, I have no idea. So tell us because I don't have time to go online right at the moment and find the answer.
Carol Patton13:10
Indiana. They have Santa Claus, Indiana Wolf Park is in Indiana and again, the first pro baseball game was played in Fort Wayne, Indiana on May 4, 1871.
Ray Loewe13:24
Okay, let me reverse this a little bit. And one of the things in prepping for this is you did send me a list of these fun facts. And let me just read one and you can comment about how it fits into the whole thing. So you had one down here. Speaking of adventures, have you ever heard of a Bronco Charlie? So tell us about Bronco, Charlie.
Carol Patton13:52
It's the Pony Express. Kids learn about the Pony Express, I think in third grade, if I'm not mistaken, but they know all about it, when I go and do the presentations they know. And this is one of the presentations with guided imagery. I say close your eyes, imagine you're on horseback. There's no cell phone, there's no hotels, no TV, no road signs. And you've got to travel a full day as fast as you can to deliver this mail. And so we get into that what would it feel like? Would you be afraid? It could be raining, it could be snowing, it wouldn't matter. You could be really hot. And so they really get into this. And Bronco Charlie was the youngest Pony Express rider. So I asked them how old he was. And I'll get responses anywhere from 2 years old to 82 years old. But Bronco Charlie, I'm gonna say he's 11 and a half. He was 11 and a half because some websites said he was a 11, others say he was 12 so we'll split the difference. So he was 11 and a half. So they love learning about that stuff. And you can make it fun. It's fun for parents and fun for adults.
Ray Loewe 14:59
Okay, Here's another one that you put on your list. Every summer, 550 glass balls are hidden on a US island for tourists to find and keep. What's the name of that island and where is it? And if you don't know, I have the answer here that you fed me earlier.
Carol Patton15:20
Yes, it's Block Island in Rhode Island. And there's an artisan community there, they make these beautiful glass balls, and they hide them all over the island. And they're numbered. So when you find them, they ask you to report the one so they can check the number off and you get to keep them. So one of the stories is about dogs on a hunt to find these glass balls. So, you know, I know some people who've been to Rhode Island, they've never even heard of this. So I'm finding things that are some of them are common, some of them are not. Can I say the one about Michigan, Ray?
Ray Loewe15:59
Sure.
Carol Patton16:01
Okay. Michigan is the only one in the world that has a floating post office. It's located on the Detroit River, and it's called the J. W. Westcott. I think it's the second. And it's the only boat in the world that delivers not only mail, but packages, and also pizza to crew members stationed on ships that are traveling on the river. The boat is an official Postal Service mailboat, it even has its own zip code. It started doing this since 1952.
Ray Loewe16:37
So do you have to put stamps on the pizza?
Carol Patton16:41
You know, all I can say is I think Uber and DoorDash are in trouble. I don't know.
Ray Loewe16:46
All right. So we're not going to go through all of these because we want them to go to your website and look because that's where you can really get into this. But which state elected the first female or woman to Congress? And I have the answer so you don't have to look it up.
Carol Patton17:07
Well, I have the answer too, but that I'm going to leave that up to you to say the answer.
Ray Loewe17:11
All right, because Luke's not going to know this one. It's Montana.
Luke Cagno17:14
I was going to say Ohio.
Ray Loewe17:15
Well, Ohio is known for a lot of things in here. Did you have any of these that you picked up when you were cheating and looking at the list?
Luke Cagno17:23
No, I didn't get a chance to read them all.
Ray Loewe17:25
Okay, well, that's good. So that way you don't cut into my time over here.
Carol Patton17:30
What about Wyoming? You got that one?
Ray Loewe17:35
No, but go ahead.
Carol Patton17:37
Which state had, well we know it's Wyoming now, but which state has a dirt landing strip reserved for people from Jupiter? It's called the Greater Green River Intergalactic Spaceport.
Luke Cagno17:51
Has it been used?
Carol Patton17:54
If it has, nobody's telling us.
Ray Loewe17:57
You're kidding me?
Carol Patton18:00
I am not kidding you. I'm not kidding you. So they actually have a dirt landing strip. And I think people from Jupiter, I think they're called Jovians, I'm not sure, I could be mispronouncing that.
Luke Cagno18:11
I think that's right.
Ray Loewe18:13
Okay, so just a quick rundown of a couple others that are here. Which state invented 911? And I know the answer to that is Nebraska. Last place in the world I would have expected this to happen. And one other one from here. The state nicknamed the mother of presidents. I kind of knew this one because I grew up there. But Ohio, and it's because there are so many presidents that started their life there. So what are some of the creative things that we can do with this? We can teach kids fun things about history and about learning and about doing research.
Carol Patton18:59
Yes. This is a great resource for teachers, they can even play a form of Jeopardy in the classroom by using these trivia questions. They can do extra credit on exams. Teachers can be really creative with this stuff, that's just an example of some things they can do. And even sitting around the dinner table with parents and your kids. You know, if the conversation gets a little stale, you can mention any of these and it launches into a wonderful conversation.
Ray Loewe19:30
I can see this now. We're having pizza with our grandchildren. So which floating post office delivered this?
Carol Patton19:38
Exactly.
Ray Loewe19:39
I'll tell you I really got I got a kick out of this postage thing. I had been to Hawaii and I know you can mail a coconut from Hawaii to anywhere by putting a stamp on it, and you actually write the message on the coconut. But mailing your daughter or granddaughter I think that's a little much. All right, you got any others in here that will amuse us and enlighten us and fascinate and motivate us?
Carol Patton20:04
Yes. This city's name was decided by a coin toss. If I say the city, you'll know the state. So I'll give you the city in the state. It was Portland, Oregon. Okay. So it had the coin landed on the other side, what would Portland have been called?
Ray Loewe20:28
No idea.
Carol Patton20:31
Boston.
Luke Cagno20:37
So then what would Boston have been called?
Ray Loewe20:40
I guess it would have been Boston, Massachusetts versus Boston, Oregon. All right, we only have a couple minutes. And we're going to sum up because we want to let people go and look for this. So first of all, give us the website that they're gonna go to again.
Carol Patton20:57
It's Adventuresofmo.com. And then if you want to look at this trivia, scroll all the way down to the bottom to the footer, and you'll see blogs and just click on that. And 20 blogs are there already.
Ray Loewe21:14
All right. Give us a couple more of some of the more diverse things over here so we can leave people with examples. And then we'll sign off leaving people wanting.
Carol Patton21:25
Okay, where did the country's first train robbery occur?
Ray Loewe21:31
All right, Luke, this is up your alley, go ahead.
Luke Cagno21:35
The first train robbery in the country occurred in Indiana.
Carol Patton21:41
How did you know that? Were you related to the robbers or something?
Ray Loewe21:46
Yeah, it's right. So is that where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were or is it somebody else that pulled this off?
Carol Patton21:53
It's somebody else. I think they were called the Reno brothers. And when I heard that, I thought they were from Nevada, because of Reno, Nevada, but they weren't. And they stole something like the equivalent of today, a quarter of a million dollars, something like that. So it was a lot of money. Oh, here's one for the musicians out there. The last time the liberty bell rang was more than 150 years ago. What musical notes did the bell strike when it rang?
Ray Loewe22:22
All right, Luke is a guitarist, I'm non-musical here. I bet you have no idea what this is.
Luke Cagno22:29
I read the start of it, but I didn't get to the end of it. I'm gonna guess it's probably an A.
Carol Patton22:42
No, E-flat. E-flat.
Ray Loewe22:44
Now, who decided this? Was the bell made to do this or was this just what happened?
Carol Patton22:51
I think it's just what happened. I have no idea who decided to make it an E-flat sound or ringing in terms of an E-flat. But let's see if I have any others. Okay, in the 1800s, dozens of shipwrecks happened between Alaska and a chain of US islands. Can you guess the name of these islands?
Ray Loewe23:17
Hawaii.
Luke Cagno23:18
What islands are there around Alaska?
Ray Loewe23:21
Well, I don't know there's Hawaiian Islands and there's the Marshall Islands. And I don't know what else.
Carol Patton23:29
Ever hear of Devil's Peace islands off of California's coast? That's where they are, between California and Alaska. Dozens of shipwrecks happen. I think they're called Farallon Islands too if I'm pronouncing it correctly.
Ray Loewe23:42
You know, there was one other one on here that I thought was interesting. And that had to do with there is a state that if you stand anywhere in the state, you're within 85 miles of one of the Great Lakes.
Carol Patton23:57
Yes. Anywhere you stand in the state. And that's my home state.
Ray Loewe24:02
Well, it makes sense if you look at a map, and I think this is what you're trying to do is get kids to look at a map. Because when you look at the state of Michigan, you got all the Great Lakes around. So it's got to be Michigan, right?
Carol Patton24:14
Exactly.
Ray Loewe24:15
All right. We're nearing the end over here, give us two or three quick in succession, and then we're going to leave people to do the research on their own.
Carol Patton24:25
Okay, I'll give you two more only and they can be good for kids or adults. Only one state capital has three words. Which state? Only one state has one syllable, which state? And let's see what else. Which state had the most men sign up to fight in the Civil War? Like I said, I have tons of these. And how many of you know the names of the four US presidents whose faces are carved into Mount Rushmore? Not everybody knows that.
Ray Loewe25:01
All right, let me guess at that. It's Roosevelt, Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln.
Carol Patton25:06
Okay, you get the prize.
Ray Loewe25:09
Well, I've been there. But you're right, you wouldn't really know that. Okay, so kind of let's recap, because we can go on and do these for a long time. And, and one of the reasons I knew Carol could do this is we meet for virtual cocktails every Thursday afternoon, and Carol comes up here, and we will not let her escape the afternoon without giving us a few of these. We call them factoids instead of fun facts on the air and she always amuses us with these. But again, let's just kind of recap about the purpose of The Adventures of Mo. It is to get kids engaged in reading, writing, learning, right?
Carol Patton25:54
Learning about the country, the amazing history, and geography of this country.
Ray Loewe25:59
Okay. And anything else you want to say before we sign off?
Carol Patton26:04
Just try a chapter. Or if you don't, go on and look at one of the blogs, because the blogs have a lot of information about history, about fun stuff. It could be anything. Ghost stories, for instance, and I can't I'll be the one without the answer. What state has the most registered ghost towns in the country? You'd be surprised. I'm not gonna give you the answer.
Ray Loewe26:30
All right. We're leaving that wanting. So, Carol Patton, thanks so much for being with us again. As you do more research and you get more of these fun facts, we're going to have you back again, just because the world needs to know these things. All right.
Carol Patton26:47
Absolutely. Thanks. That was fun.
Ray Loewe26:48
Okay. So the adventures of Mo, we'll write this out in our notes so that you can find the website. And Carol, thanks so much for being with us on Changing the Rules again, and Luke, sign us off, please.
Outro 27:04
Thank you for listening to Changing the rules. Join us next week for more conversation, our special guest and to hear more from the luckiest guy in the world.