The Successful Degenerate
Welcome to "The Successful Degenerate Podcast," where authenticity and triumph meet. Join me as I fearlessly share my journey from a college graduate to a homeless drug addict, to prison, and finally achieving success in sales. Through genuine storytelling and vulnerable moments, we'll break barriers and inspire listeners facing life's challenges. Together, we'll redefine success and showcase the transformative power of resilience. Join us on this empowering ride of hope, personal growth, and unstoppable determination.
The Successful Degenerate
The Unravelled Threads of a Successful Degenerate
Ever wondered how a four-time felon becomes a professional? Walk with me, Brandon Caldwell, on a journey as we navigate the intricacies of my childhood, adolescence, and adulthood in the debut episode of the Successful Degenerate Podcast. Experience the raw honesty as we stroll through my fragmented past, starting with a dual-lifestyle shaped by my parents' divorce and culminating in my present-day life as a successful professional.
In this roller-coaster ride, I share tales of divided homes, a complex relationship with my step-brother, Walter, and the after-effects of my parents' custody battles. Listen to the story of a young boy, who broke into his step-brother's heavily guarded room only to stumble upon an unexpected discovery. Throw in some childhood trauma, a pinch of family dynamics, and the strange story of Walter, and you have the recipe for an unforgettable episode. Together, we will traverse the thin line between a child's innocence and the harsh reality of the adult world.
This is not just my story; it's our story. A story of survival, resilience, and growth. From the divided homes of my childhood to the complexities of my relationship with Walter, and the evolution of my family dynamics, I offer an unfiltered perspective. Join me in this journey and be a part of the Successful Degenerate Podcast. Your presence here is deeply appreciated, and I hope you help spread the word, for together, we can all script our triumphant tales.
The Successful Degenerate is produced by Brandon Caldwell and Eric Smith from Abuveground.
Make sure to connect and follow on our socials. Rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Subscribe and follow on your favorite platforms so you're notified when new episodes go live!
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What's up everybody, welcome to the successful degenerate podcast. I'm the host, brandon Caldwell, for those of you that don't know me, and I'm just incredibly grateful to everyone tuning in to listen. I am a man. This is episode number one. Guys, we're just kicking this thing off here. Can't tell you how excited I am about this, been wracking my brain around this for a while now. When I was in let's just hey, man, we're just getting fuck it, we'll just get right into it.
Speaker 1:When I was in prison, I always thought to myself you got a story, dude, and now I need to be. I try to be humble about that. Everybody has their own story. Everybody has got their own struggles. Everybody goes through their own. You know, everybody has their own path, right? You know, mine was just a little bit different.
Speaker 1:I think it shocked some people. I think it shocked myself. I think it shocked a lot of the people that knew me growing up. I think it shocked a lot of clearly, my family members, of course, but you know it's. I was just sitting there and would always think to myself how am I going to put this story out right? Like I'm not a writer, you know, I don't know if I could sit there and write a book, right, I do like reading books, but writing one, I'm guessing that would be a completely different right. Like you couldn't get me to voluntarily sit there and write documents right Over. There's just, there's just. I'm not that guy, right, wish I was A lot of good, a lot of good people with obviously a lot of good stories to tell, are.
Speaker 1:I mean, that's just not me. What I can do is talk, ask. Anybody that truly knows me knows that at times I do have an issue shutting up. Let's just put it frank, right, but you know, that's just who I am. That's my. I think a lot of people in my family are definitely talkers, but then, hey, we do have a whole side of the family that is absolutely not. And you know, maybe we'll touch on some of those reasons. But you know again, hey, just you know, let's just start with this. Thank you, guys. Everybody that's listening right now, thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you for tuning in, Thank you for for showing interest in this thing. It really does mean a lot. It's kept. It's kept me motivated to get this thing going right. But yeah, so I've got myself. I'll be honest, I got myself a little drink here. I'm nervous sharing my, my story.
Speaker 1:You know, I do have a professional career as well and so maybe you know, let's just I guess we could talk on that a little bit. Yeah, there are. There's some fears, absolutely right. Like you know, society has this stigma that you know, if you have a felony on your record me, I have four, four total, I have four total felonies. You know definitely some misdemeanors around different cities, here in Maricopa County We'll touch on that later. But you know, is there, is there room for someone like me in in the professional world, in in you know, the industry that I'm in, you know work for a lender, let's just put it that way.
Speaker 1:Sometimes you know someone that may have some theft charges, as I do, would not be welcomed into that society. Right, we're breaking barriers and that's what. That's what. That's what I plan to continue doing. That's what I plan to continue doing with the show, you know, and we're just gonna, we're just gonna get to it and I feel like first we're gonna start at the beginning. You know, maybe touch on some childhood stuff, not spend a whole lot of time there. But you know, I think there's some. You know, let's just put it this way I have some very vivid memories of being a child that clearly stand out to me in my childhood, that were pivotal moments that that maybe had shaped later, you know, later years in my life, and those are the events that. Those are the events that you know that I'd like to touch on.
Speaker 1:But you know we're not gonna dive too much deep or too deep into some of the the nuance, right, you know we'll. If there's some interest there, you know maybe we'll share it later on. But for the interest of time, you know, we'll keep the story flowing, hopefully. But really I think we, where we are going to hit on you know pretty in depth, starting early 2000s, right, 2000,. Yeah, right, yeah, early 2000s, junior high, high school, right, I think there's a lot of things that happened during those years that you know definitely had an influence on how I live my life in my 20s. And you know where we're going to dive deep into there, obviously later 20s, beginning with where you know trouble started and to, you know we'll dive into all of that stuff, right, but and then, including you know, we'll focus on, you know we'll have a prison episode. I'm sure some of you guys are gonna want some of those stories, but you know we're not gonna dive too deep there. You know there might be some stuff that I might you know that I'll be comfortable sharing I may be. There might be some stuff I may not be comfortable, I don't know. We're just gonna flow with it, right.
Speaker 1:But what I can promise you with a successful degenerate is honesty. I'm not gonna bullshit you. I am not gonna tell you anything that's a lie or over exaggerate things. I am simply giving you my point of view from how what life looked like from my eyes. Right, there might be some family members out there that may disagree with some things that I might say. There might be some friends that may disagree with them, some things that I might say along the way. Hey, that's fine, I'm just giving you what I remember. Right, and there's definitely some moments in my life where there's no way I got it wrong. Sorry, didn't get it wrong, but you know there might be some moments where you know we pull Mom in or we pull Andrew in, we pull Megan in for some guidance, right, for some, for an extra perspective. You know, maybe, maybe we do something like that. I don't know, we're gonna figure this shit out right, but hey, no game plan.
Speaker 1:I'm literally sitting here in my office at home drinking hand bear everybody. Bear, you're gonna learn, is my best friend. He is my dog. He is my everything. He is a year and a half old. We will touch on bear a lot, I'm sure, even though he's only been with me a short period of time. This dog has saved my life and has made made life so much more enjoyable for me and I hope I do the same for him. But he is a. I found him. Honestly, we'll just fuck it. I found him on Craigslist. He was six weeks old, born November 5th. He's a year and a half. So what is that? 2021, november 5th, 2021. Let's say that right, you know, and we picked him up. We met this guy I was with, who was my fiance at the time. Is her name? We'll leave, we're gonna leave last names out of these stories, but was her name? She was my fiance at the time. Obviously, I'm not. I am single today. No relationship. So picked up this dog off Craigslist.
Speaker 1:The next morning was just laying there on the couch one night. I thought to myself man, I need a freaking dog, right? Why don't I have a dog? I'm going to be working from home. That's the only thing that's ever stopped me from having a dog. I need a dog. So looked it up and I had a dog when I was a kid, or you know, growing up the best dog in the world. Her name was Abby. She was a black lab mix Best dog ever. I mean, lived to be eight, damn, was she 18?, 17, 18 years old, right, best dog ever. So I was like I, that's what I want. Right, I want a black lab mix and preferably I'd love a pit mix if possible. So I went on Craigslist, just typed in black lab pit mix and bam, this litter of puppies was there. He was the only black one in the litter that was showing. I say it that way because you know this was Craigslist.
Speaker 1:The guy that I met was a little sketch for sure, I don't know. And to have only one puppy and the puppy being six weeks old, way too early to be away from his mom, the whole thing was just seemed weird, right. But I was like fuck, you know, this dog is gonna be way better with me than with this guy who clearly doesn't want it for whatever reason. Let's go grab him. Anyways, got this dog right. Saw him lift him in my hands first.
Speaker 1:Oh, man fell in love. Oh, what's this dog's name? Well, we've been calling him Bear. You know what he looks like a? He looks like a black bear. Yeah, bear, absolutely love it. Bear, welcome home. I love you. You are my life. I will make you my life. I will give you the best life ever If you will come and accept me as your dad man. How could he say no to me? Right, obviously and I are no longer together, but you know was not gonna be giving up that dog, that's for sure. So, yeah, it's just Bear and I, bear and I at home. It's in the office, man In the office. I got a drink bears here, yeah, yeah, he's sleeping by my feet, where he always is. Actually, he's got his little bed over there. Maybe we'll do an office pick at some point.
Speaker 1:Put that on the socials, at the social degenerate, at the social degenerate. Please, guys, give me some help here. Would love it if you could go give me some love, like I don't know what they say. Like, like, subscribe, what, all that bullshit. Right, do all that stuff, but for real. Like, if you give me follow, tell your friends, family about it, have them check it out. You know, let's reach some people here. I think we could do some help or do some good stuff. You know we'll see what happens. But I, you know, whatever happens happens, I'm just gonna enjoy it along the way. Hopefully I can help some people. But you know, my plan is from here. You know, we're definitely gonna get into some more outreach, see how far we can take this thing. But you know, of course it all starts with you guys. I just I hope you guys enjoy this Now give me some feedback. You know, if there's any questions along the way, guys, let me know. You know we can touch on certain things, but you know why don't we just dive right into it?
Speaker 1:February 3rd 1987, mesa, arizona, where I was raised, born at, you know, good Samaritan, desert Sam I think it was called Desert Samaritan on a Dobson in Southern, across from MCC Mesa Community College. There, mother Cindy, father is Robert, or we call him Bob. We call him nothing at this point, we'll get into that later. But yeah, so February 3rd. I think it was born sometime, I don't know 6am-ish, whatever it was, but all as well, you know I had an older brother at that point. His name is Andrew, 17 months difference between the two of us. So you know, as you can imagine, that led to some a lot of fighting and arguing and damaging some doors. Some good stories, but a great playmate along the way. But yeah. So February 3rd man, great day, right, best day ever for my mom. Her favorite child was born at that point and, yeah, everything was good.
Speaker 1:Dad was in real estate at the time, I believe Mom was in, she worked in the title insurance, she worked for, essentially, a title agency, your entire career for the most part. But you know, mom was born mom's from Maryland Air Force Brat. You know my grandpa, art. You know, rest in Peace man, bob Fisher. Robert Fisher, possibly the best man, greatest man that ever walked this planet, you know was in the Air Force for 20 plus years. So you know, mom is a sibling of. You know, had two other siblings, essentially a older brother and younger brother. And yeah, so wait, hold on, is Uncle Randy older than mom? Shit, oh man, we're gonna have to fix that later, I think. But anyways, yeah, three kids, mom, two brothers, Uncle Randy, uncle Rob, but yeah, they're from mom was born in Maryland, essentially went grandpa came out here to Luke Air Force Base out in Litchfield or whatever that is out there West Side, and yeah. So mom went to Peoria High School.
Speaker 1:Dad was from Akron, Ohio, born in 1940, my dad's an old man. Mom was born in 1959, okay, so, yeah, you do the math there 19 years difference, right? So dad was late 40s when I was born, mom was late 20s, yeah. And next thing, you know don't have a lot of memories from you know there's those few years, but you know we'll just get right into the important stuff, right. So they divorced. Essentially, I think my dad was starting to out age my mom kind of sorta. Maybe I don't know, we'll have to have mom on and you know, maybe dig into some of that stuff. I have talked to mom about it before, you know. So I do know a lot of the background there from her perspective. But yeah, they got divorced.
Speaker 1:I believe I was around three years old at the time and then both went on to remarry around the age of six and really I think this is kind of where we should dive into. Excuse me, guys, I'm over here fucking, I'm over here burping, anyways, yeah, but that's kind of where the story begins, right. So, really, in order to kind of focus this into a narrative that you know you all will understand, I think we really need to separate the two households because really it was it was two differently run households, completely very different experience from one household to the other. One household was a very pleasant place. The other, you know, kind of smoke and mirrors, pleasant, very unpleasant at times you know, was really a source of if there was, you know, any sort of quote, unquote, childhood drama or childhood trauma, not drama you know it would have definitely come from that house, right. So that's, I'm referring to dad's house when I talk about that. So yeah, we really need to separate out the two households, and you know. So I think we need to touch on mom's house and then kind of focus on dad's house, and it's really two different universes, right.
Speaker 1:The only thing that was cool about it when I was a kid was I had lots of friends. I had, you know, dad's houses. Dad's house had friends, set of friends over there, and I had a set of friends over at mom's house. And I say it like that because it really was two different sets of friends and we'll touch on that because, you know, when I was at dad's house. There was no calling mom, there was no visiting mom, there was no talking to mom, there was no talking to mom's house friends, because that could essentially link back to mom. You couldn't go over to and visit your friend, even though, by the way, dad and mom were literally probably three miles yeah, about three and a half miles apart maybe. At the most.
Speaker 1:Growing up dad was in Tempe, mom was in Chandler, but separated by the 101. I mean, that's literally it, right? So if you know the area, you know the 101 is the boundary border for Tempe, chandler, mesa, all kind of border right next to each other. Grew up with mom over on Elliott and Almo school primarily, so that's Chandler but Mesa public school district. And then dad was in Tempe on the country club way, which is basically between the 101 and McClintock, between Guadalupe and Baseline, that neighborhood right Fuller elementary is that neighborhood Actually funny, believe it or not the street I grew up on there and that is the house that I was born into. By the way, we should notate that when mom and dad brought me home from the hospital, that is the house I went back to and that is 2001, east Sesame Street, or 2009,. 2001 or 2009,. Something along that. East Sesame Street, sesame Street yeah, I grew up on fucking Sesame Street, wild right, and directly across the street there's a park. It starts with oh man, I should have this stuff prepared, but anyways, we'll edit that out later. But anyways, the yeah little park across the street. Man, everything seemed really nice on the outside looking in. But, truthfully, a lot of fucking weird shit happened in that house later on and we'll kind of touch on that.
Speaker 1:But mom and dad divorced three years old. Mom was a single mother at that point of two young boys, no college education in her 20s. Dad was the primary breadwinner in the household, obviously at that time doing real estate, whatever the fuck else he was doing, but yeah, so mom had to kind of figure some shit out, right, and it wasn't easy right away. So she, we were in a town home at one point can't really tell you really remember where that was at, but I just remember there was some stairs there and some shit like that and yeah, we were in this town home and that's kind of when she started to date, you know her then her next husband, then it, you know gentlemen named Brian, my, my, my, my stepdad then for basically from the age of six through the age of 15. Yeah, not not the best guy, by the way, I mean not. Let's not give Brian too much credit here. Great dad at the time, terrible husband, terrible husband, but we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll. We'll touch on that later. But yeah, they started dating, lived in a town home at the time. From there, you know, we jumped over. They got married in a courthouse. I remember Brian had a you know a mustache, kind of you know big old glasses at the time. You know this is the early 90s, so you know we had big, big old glasses house full of big, big glasses. It was funny. Anyways, yeah, got married in a courthouse and then we got, they bought a house. They moved over to a house over off Marlboro Ellie and Elmo school, again in the Sorin elementary neighborhood, if you're familiar with the area. Yeah, lived there for a few years and then eventually, in fourth grade I believe it was they bought the house over on Curry street and that's kind of where we'll pick it up at.
Speaker 1:But yeah, mom and Brian both worked for title companies growing up actually the same title company, let's just point that out. Brian was a technology specialist or he was the essentially the VP of IT for for the company. Mom worked her way up starting from I mean incredible, incredible story. This woman has, by the way, she, you know she worked her way up from, you know, receptionist answering phones at this title agency to, you know, becoming an escrow officer, to then, you know, running the branch and becoming a branch manager, to then having, you know, a large staff and then eventually finishing your career with that same, with that same title agency, you know, as a training specialist. So you know, as they rolled out new technology and new, new platforms, because everything was going web based at the time and that was new, you know versus, you know versus on-prem, and that was just, it was all. It was new for everybody, right. So you know she ended her career, you know, as a, as a, basically a training consultant for the company, but you know anyways, let's back up here. So everything was great, you know, at mom's house.
Speaker 1:And why we started with mom's houses because we're just going to keep this super brief. I love mom's house, had great friends growing up. Tj Tyler was my neighbor there. He now lives in Australia. I had Justin good kid, got to love him, I hate to say, you know, let's just keep it genuine. That's how I feel about him right now. They did some shit after long story long, but he was a great friend of mine growing up. I mean, my best friend growing up lived right around the corner.
Speaker 1:And then Mike Art Rustin peace, mike. So, yeah, as you will notice as we go through this story, unfortunately, you know a lot of my high school friends, a lot of kids that are, you know, people that I grew up with, either are dead or fell victim to opiates and heroin, and you'll, you'll see that that's a, that's a trend. It started out, you know, with pills and other things and but Mike, mike was one of the first ones to pass. So Mike had a hard time growing up, you know, out of respect for his family, when he's not going to go too much into it, but drug issues, he was adopted. His mother, would you know, was a drug addict, was adopted by his aunt and uncle and they raised him and shortly after, you know, high school, he passed overdose, I believe it was. But yeah, that was one of the first ones. So, yeah, great, anyways, great friends.
Speaker 1:Growing up enjoyed rollerbladed, played hockey, played a lot of street hockey as a kid, rollerbladed literally everywhere, rode my bike, whatever it was. I was just out and about moving outside. Don't keep me in the house, don't want to be there. Although, you know, had all sorts of video games and shit, I just wanted to be outside. Man Just was outside and we always had a pool and shit and was outside swimming and you know everything was great. Man, mom's house was phenomenal, had an egg.
Speaker 1:I wouldn't say I was necessarily. I mean I was spoiled, but I, I also worked. I, you know parents, you know my mom definitely for sure instilled a really good work ethic in me. You know, as a kid, you know, a chore no, don't get I wasn't always perfect, let's not put it that way. I definitely, you know, fought it for sure, just like a lot of other kids. But, you know, had a chore list growing up. You know, was expected to have that chore list done by the time mom got home. You know where dinner was cooked and you know we got into the nightline. You know, nightline, yeah, nightline was definitely part of the routine at the time. But no, the nightly routine, yeah.
Speaker 1:So, but flip side man, let's just go right into the fucking dad's house, right? Bob called well, robert called well, father 1940, born in April 1940. Like I said, out in Akron Ohio. Yeah, so parents got divorced when I was three. Dad kept the house, mom moved out. Like I said, we were in a town home at that point, but don't really remember a lot at this time when you know my parents were not.
Speaker 1:You know, really life starts for me when Brian, mary mom, and Mary Mary dad. Mary's my stepmom. She's no longer with us. She passed away a couple of years ago I believe. But but yeah, so that's kind of when, that's kind of when life begins, right. So six years old really is kind of the starting point of life.
Speaker 1:And you know, dad's house was what seemed great, and I think it seemed great because I was spoiled, rotten over at that house. I'm telling you what, not even on purpose, like not even really having to ask for things, things were just given. My dad and Mary spent a lot of fucking money, right, they made a lot of money in real estate but spent every single dime of it and you know, as a kid man I didn't want for nothing. I'll tell you that right now. Always had the newest and latest video games, you know, new rollerblades when I needed them, every couple of years, new hockey stick when I needed it. I, you know, was always enrolled in, you know, different sports, but I and I say this because I really do feel like my dad used money in objects, in materials, and as a way to to, to kind of buy a love, because he wasn't there physically or emotionally right, but I had these things, so maybe these things would, would do the trick, right, and?
Speaker 1:And, and they definitely did, I mean as a kid who wouldn't want it, right, I didn't say no to that, you know. And in fact there were things that I would get and I'd be like, no, that's not the right one, right, that I mean to that degree, right. So, and then how do you turn that shit off? Like, right, you're developing those types of habits at dad's house. But then you get to mom's house and you know mom doesn't have that type of budget for one. Nor should you know, should it be expected that she would know the bratty behaviors of saying no and not, and always expecting, like you know, the when I get things for it to be like the best one, right? No, mom, that's not what happened at mom's house. Mom did, mom did a great job.
Speaker 1:Mom got us some. You know, if we needed it, we had it, let's just put it that way. But we didn't have not a whole lot more than that unless it was earned, right, and so be it, that's. But that's just how mom raises and and thank God right. Thank fucking God right, because I think the other way is very unhealthy. Right, looking back, but yeah, that's kind of how it, how it was. There was no one or need for anything, you know. But when my dad married, married Mary, you know she came with a bonus or a plus one, whatever you want to fucking call it. The fucking man, you'll learn this. Walter, walter, that is the step brother. That is a, an evil, sick, fucking person, right.
Speaker 1:And you know we're going to get into some stories here and they're going to be, you know, the family. I don't know what they think on me sharing some of this stuff, but you know it's, I think it's, it's the truth, it's what happened, right. So, you know, I think we need to be honest about it and and we'll just, we'll leave it at that. There's a lot of people out there, a lot of families out there, that you know really smoke and mirror their fucking problems right Like a white picket fence from the outside, right. But you know you, you open those doors up and there's all sorts of weird shit, crazy shit going on inside and that's what was going on at dad's house. Let's just say that. Let's, that's exactly what was going on at dad's house, right, beautiful house probably was the nicest house in the neighborhood From the looks of her from the outside, I mean just it.
Speaker 1:They were always doing stuff to the house. Like you know, I'd show up one weekend and There'd be a fucking major hole in the wall where they're putting wood postings in to for some decorative, to whatever bullshit, and Two weeks later I come back and out of walls filled, back in again same wall Like this. I mean, it's like they were doing shit like that, like just weird shit, like cutting holes in the walls and then filling the whole the wall, that as like home improvement projects, like trying to like make it, and then they found out later on that there was like some structural or Support stuff that couldn't be taken out, so it just didn't look right. Anyways, just blowing money, right, blowing money on just random shit, always. You know, yeah, they were. I mean, they brought it in. I mean they? Well, they brought it in because they were fucking working. They worked, dad worked all the time, every day, seven days a week. Well, that's what. That's what was my perception as a kid Come to find out later on. And they were not always working, they were gambling, but at the same time. But you know, you didn't didn't know that as a kid, just actually found that out a few months ago. Thank you, dad, for giving me that little nugget to chew on. Yeah, dude, fuck, I mean asshole, what an asshole, right.
Speaker 1:But anyways, let's go back to Walter. Walter, I believe. For the life of me I can't remember. I don't know his exact age right now, so I can't give you. I want to. I want to say he's got like eight years on me. I believe it's eight years because, well, let's put it this way, I was six. Yeah, eight years. Yeah, yeah, it's gotta be eight years. Because I was six when dad and Mary got married and he was 16. But hey, this dude was 16 and look like he was 40. I'm not fucking kidding, like he's it.
Speaker 1:First off, he's Italian, he's Harry, as fuck, grown man beard at the age of like 14, like full grown like the thickest. I mean maybe I got some, I don't know. I don't want to put pictures up of people, but yeah, I mean, if you could imagine, uh, he played hockey. He was really good at hockey and he was a big defenseman. He probably 220 as a 16 year old I mean the thighs, the fucking size of your head big, strong dude at 16. That looked like he was a fucking 38 year old, grown, fucking man that had been through two wars. I mean, literally, that's like how I would describe the way he looked, not that he was haggard, but you know, because I think he always presented himself nicely, but he was. He looked way, way older than you know. That then his age to me, at least at the time. Right, my, that was my perception. But Walter Walter's real.
Speaker 1:What Walter's dad died when he was 14? Of a heart attack. I believe it was out in New York. So Walter and Mary are from New York, new York City, queens, I believe it was, or Long Island or something or maybe all of the above, but yeah, they're from the. They were from the city and after big. So Walter Walter's a junior. His dad's, his dad's name was Walter as well. He's a senior, that was his dad, senior Walter, senior Passway was 14. They moved out here and my dad and Mary met I've some somehow through you know dad doing real estate or whatever it was and they started dating and next, you know they're getting, you know they're getting married. So but Walter at the time was playing hockey Competitive hockey, I don't know, maybe the nowadays I think they call it triple a hockey or something like that.
Speaker 1:But you know that he went out to Bismarck, north Dakota as a 16 year old. You know, basically he had dad bought him a truck and it was a grave or tan forward f-150. I believe it was. And yeah, he went out to Bismarck or Bismarck, north Dakota to go play a play, play trip or play, play junior hockey. And you know Snakes, you know it's you use out there for a couple years or whatever it was. So you know, walter wasn't really around there at the beginning, only around mainly holidays and stuff like that when you'd come back.
Speaker 1:But I loved Walter as a kid I thought I looked up, I idolized the guy. All right, he did what I wanted to do on to play hockey, fucking. He did some cool shit right, like, yeah, he played for, played for the Roadrunners at some. At one point and I remember watching him play and man, he lit this guy up. And then he's next, you know he's, he's ripping the gloves off and taking this guy to the ground and punching him in the face. I mean, just beat the shit out of this guy, right. Next thing, you know he's walking out with his bag at half. You know before, before you know the second periods up and you know we're leaving. You know. So it was shit like that and I was like, oh man, that's cool. So that that's kind. You know, that's kind of how I look, how I looked at him, right, like he was. He was the big dude, big brother, and kind of scared of him, but at the same time I wanted to one of them to like me and I wanted to do what he did, right. So, you know, walter ended up eventually.
Speaker 1:Now I'm gonna put it from what's been told. Now, what do I think happened? I think there's some weird shit that definitely happened up in North Dakota that cost him to come back home, right, because he threw everything away, left all of his hockey equipment there, just up and came after he graduated from high school, come, came home. I think he made a stop somewhere, was living out of his truck, was drinking heavily at the time, major alcoholic at this point, at this point in time in his life, drinking At least an eight, I mean coming damn near an 18 pack, probably at this point a day, you know.
Speaker 1:And next thing, you know Walt was coming home and moving back in and Got this. You know, really cool older you know step brother and you know Andrew's there, obviously, and you know thinking that this is gonna be cool. You know, get to play some hockey and got two brothers to play hockey with. It doesn't get much cooler than that, right? This is kind of when shit starts to get weird.
Speaker 1:Okay, and I'm gonna preface this like guys, this is the clearly a mature audience show, okay. So this is honesty and transparency at its finest right. So we're gonna get into some shit. We're gonna get into some shit. It's fucking weird Looking back. I didn't know it was weird at the time, clearly, but you know, looking back on it now is fucking weird, really weird. It's just fucking weird. There's no other way to put it. So you know I'm I keep saying that you guys are probably sitting there like Brandon. What was what's fucking weird. Tell us what the fuck happened right now. But no, seriously, guys, like this is gonna be, it's gonna be some weird shit. So, you know, we're just fucking kind of get into it, right.
Speaker 1:So Walter comes back home and Got this big step brother that that I idolize and look up to and he, you know, develops a really strong bond with with Andrew and you know, and I wanted in on that inner circle and sometimes it was difficult, but you know, there's a lot of different events and and you know things that happen with Walter along the way. That you know, maybe we'll dive into some specifics because Ultimately, he's fucking evil, he's an evil guy, he's an evil person, he still walks this earth and he's fucking disgusting. But but yeah, so Walter's at home and I got this older brother and I Don't even know how to say I don't even. How do I see, how do I? How do you even get into this stuff, dude? Like how am I? I'm just sitting here in a room talking to myself, really right, but like it's like no one's listening, I mean, but damn, I feel like the fucking whole world's listening, right, but it's like Jesus Christ, it's just fucking weird, dude, so early on, you Know, as a big brother would, I guess, maybe, but I think it was just too early for I was just too early. It's just some weird shit. But right, like you know, fucking Walter had porn and stuff in in his room.
Speaker 1:Walter was always in his room and, like, always kept his door closed. It was always like Do not go in Walter's room, do not go in there. Right, do not go, do not open his door unless you ask him to open his. Make sure you knock if that door is closed before you. Just all that shit, right, cuz I mean, he's an older Teenager and here he is living with a fucking, you know, I'm probably eight or nine at this point, right, let's just get into that. Like that's, this is probably the age right and at this point in time, and, and you know he's, I'm sure, not enjoying it, but hey, teach their own right, you shouldn't come back home. You knew you're getting into. But you know he's drinking heavily at this point, right, let's point those, I'm gonna continue to point that out.
Speaker 1:And Cognito, he used to keep his beer. I don't know if there was a cooler in his room or whatever it was, but he used to keep his beer in his room and so he'd go back to his room and he'd always have this red solo cup and he would just pour his drinks and is whatever in this red solo cup. So he's would sit in this chair. That was, like you know, 15, 20 feet away from the couch, and you know, by himself, and everybody would be on the couch. So you know, I don't, you know, I'm sure he just sat there and got drunk looking back on it. That's kind of the environment, right? So, yeah, walter, come to find out.
Speaker 1:There was one day I, I opened up his door, I was like you know what, what, what the fuck's, what is he hiding in here? And you know, go to flip on his computer, right he's. He had a computer. That this is in the 90s, guys, right, like computers were not around a Whole lot back then, right. But when we had a and he had a computer in his room and my dad had a computer out in the living room office area, whatever it was dial up, internet, whatever it was, you know that sort of thing, right? You go, fucking plug in the phone line and you know, you pick up the phone and dad yells a. I put the phone down. Hey, put the phone down, it's off. What the fuck? Right, like that's what was going on, right? So, anyways, I flipped the computer on and boom, right there on the home screen, big old titties, and I'm like holy shit. And I'm like nine, ten years old, right, and I'm like, oh man, those are cool, right, like you know. And and yeah, so good.
Speaker 1:And then I it was like, well, what's over here in this drawer, right? So I open this drawer up right, and there's a. He had a pistol. He had a big old pistol, if revolver, right, he had a big old revolver and underneath the revolver was these, or I think the revolver was in the, the closet or something. But and the drawer was all these porno magazines. And I always wondered, like Walter is always the one check my, I got the mail, like I'll check the mail, right, you know, walter's always one checking is kids, he's getting this fucking litter fucking porno magazine sent to the house, right, like this wasn't when porno was on, was easily accessible on the internet. Like you know, dudes fucking had magazines sent to their goddamn house. Or you picked him up at the, the circle K on the corner right and and Walter had a lot of them had a lot.
Speaker 1:And as a ten-year-old, I'm like you know what the fuck is this, right, and you know. So let's just we're pointing this out, because what comes next is is an evolution of this. You know, walter thought I'd be cool to fucking watch porn with his little brothers as Close to porn as you could get at those date. Like those times, right, like, for example, private parts, was one of our favorites to watch, right, if anybody ever watched the Howard Stern private parts Back in, you know, in the 90s, man, it was like titties every, every other scene, right, and as a ten-year-old boy, this was like this had a profound effect on me. Yeah, saying these like, yeah, just anyway, so like, and we do when we watch it a lot, you know dad and Mary would be, you know, at work, so we watch that movie several times. And we watch other stuff, like you know, other rated Rx, like X rated type movies that had, you know, a lot of nudity and stuff like that, and we did that a lot During the day, even you know they'd be at work and I'm ten-year-old boy and you know.
Speaker 1:So we're gonna get right into a specific story. So one of the times we're watching private parts on the couch right. And this is. This is a fucking traumatic event.
Speaker 1:This is a young little boy. I'm like ten years old, right, and I'm sitting there, you know, as you do as a kid, I'm sitting there and look, my little boxer shorts, right, little, I think they're a little red plaid boxer shorts, right, but like little boys, boxer shorts had the little slit in the front right and the hole. There's no button or whatever. Anyways, I'm ten years old, right, sitting on the couch watching private parts with Andrew and Walter, and Try not to make it's like now, it's like not even at the weird point anymore, it's just like it's something that we just did right and like it's just fucking. Anyways, ten-year-old boy, pop a boner, or maybe like a little tiny one or something, whatever it was right.
Speaker 1:I go to stand up and my little, my little penis is hanging out a little thing. Little guy, little pepe, he was hanging there right out of my boxers and you know, and If you've, walter turns to me and he starts laughing and he's just laughing and laughing, laughing, and I'm like what are you laughing at? What are you laughing at? What are you laughing at? And he's like laughing at me and he's just laughing and and I, fucking, I look down, I'm like, oh no, like, right, like I can see my little way hanging there, right, so I go to tuck it away and I run and I run and I run back into my room, right, because I'm embarrassed at this point.
Speaker 1:I'm like, and he's just laughing at me and he starts calling it a like some sort of nickname, right, like, making fun of me, like, right, I'm a ten-year-old boy, like like, obviously, my, my, my penis is a it's quite tiny at this point, right, and and so so, yeah, he makes a nickname for my little wiener and he goes around and tells all the neighborhood boys as they come around to the house, like what happened and how small my penis is, and that he's never seen anything so small and that it was Some nickname or whatever. And so now all my friends around the neighborhood are calling me this nickname that I didn't like, and my brother's making it worse and yeah, and I just fucking hated him for it. I hated him for it. And and I say like, yeah, it was weird. Like, who, like what older, fucking like 1819, whatever, what? 18 year old it's gonna sit there and watch fucking nudie movies with his little brothers at home all day, right, like, fucking, go do something, dude, like you fucking weirdo. And Anyways, yeah, long story long, fucking, he Starts making fun of me.
Speaker 1:And now all my neighborhood friends are making fun of me and you know, my brother knows about this. And I tell my brother, you better not tell my friends over at mom's house or I'll kill you. Because, like, obviously, like going back to mom's house, like you can separate the two households, right, what goes on at dad's house doesn't need to go on a mom's house. No, no, of course not. You know, brother fucking brought that name over. I don't think it. I don't think he told any of my friends about it, but you know, he definitely kind of poked at me a little bit about not, but it kind of went he With him and when it was just him and I at mom's house, like it went away, right. But when we get back to dad's house, like they pick it right back up again and it would just fucking.
Speaker 1:And so you know, and I say this, like how it affected me later on, like you know, you start getting into you know I was an athlete growing up and you start getting into locker rooms and you don't want to show it. You like you're looking at everybody and you're thinking, like you know, you don't want to be the kid that you know kids are mean, dude. I mean kids are mean, kids are fucking mean. You don't want to. The fucking kids, the dudes going around on the team, going around to the girls in the school and say, hey, fucking call, well has got a, you know, a small fucking dick, right? So I left my shorts on all the time. I didn't want to get naked in the locker room, I didn't want to. And so you know, and yeah, I mean, like, obviously, guys, today, like it's fine, I mean that was something that happened and you know we're gonna kind of move on from there. And but I say that because it gets weirder. It gets, it gets weirder At this time period, guys, my dad starts and marry primarily.
Speaker 1:I should point this out, let's point this out, let's point out the dynamic between the two households at this point. So how the custody worked is mom had me half the year during the school year. Dad had me during the summers, okay, and or had Andrew and I. And you know, basically during the summers I'd spend two weeks with my dad and then I'd go back to mom's house for a weekend and then I'd go back for two weeks, right, and that's kind of how we spent the summers. And then during the school year it was the opposite, you know, with mom for two weeks and then I'd go see dad on the weekends and then holidays was a rotational schedule, all sorts of weird shit, right.
Speaker 1:But the handoffs here's where here, here's where it gets funny, right, like my, my mom and my dad, after they got divorced, had a cordial relationship. There was no problems, like. They had no problems communicating. You know, it seemed like the, the divorce was amicable, you know, no major, no major breakdowns at that point, right. But you know, introduced Mary and the dynamic gets fucked.
Speaker 1:Mary was very manipulative, jealous person and, for whatever reason, hated my mom, and so how they communicated, or started to communicate, was via letter. So whenever we'd be dropped off at, you know, mom's house, I'd be bad. A little letter in my hand oh, here, mom is from Mary, right, and it'd be like a, you know, weird fucking communicative shit or whatever things that she'd do or whatever things that she'd want to say, and sometimes it'd be, you know, child support checks and stuff like that and that's kind of how you know the communication went back and forth, never by phone, it was always via letter and we were the, we were the the mules for that letter, right, and my brother and I, and that's kind of how that, how that worked and and, like I said before, you know when, when you're at dad's house, there's no communicating with mom. That was not allowed. Okay, there was a lot of things like the phone cord at home was taken. At times it was unplugged out of the wall. At times, you know, when dad and Mary were not around, the phone cord was definitely out of the wall because they did not want. You would think you'd want to have your kid having access to a phone, but nope, that's not the case, said they would unplug that shit and they would say, oh, we don't want the phone ringing, right? Who unplugged their fucking home phone, right? No, was on purpose. So that way, that way Cindy wasn't calling and that way the kids couldn't call Cindy or they. You know, that's sort of shit. I fucking know the story. You don't fucking lie to me and it just all just weird shit. Man, that whole fucking place was fucked up, right, but at the same time.
Speaker 1:We'll get into this a little bit. You know dad's kind of coercing Andrew and I To. You know, move in with him full-time. Right, things are great guys, right, don't you love all this stuff that we've gotten you like you get to play hockey here with your friends and have all this freedom. And you know you got them all down the road and all this. You know sun splash, passes and all this other stuff, right, like life so great over. Oh, yeah, dad, life's great. Like, oh, yeah, I'd love to come stay with you, dad for sure. Like yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, all right, we'll back in court. We go Next thing.
Speaker 1:You know Andrew and I are having to go see some doctor. We're, I don't know what this doctor is, but she's a doctor and and we get pulled into this doctor come to find out it's a counselor later on. But yeah, oh, back then when you're going through custody battles like this, they wanted the kids or the children to seek or see a professional counselor assigned by the court to kind of Look into things from the child's perspective, right, so we go in there and it's comical, you know, I'm telling the everything is great and all this stuff. And then she's like yeah, now we're gonna bring your father and I'd like to just ask him some questions, you know, and I'd like you guys to stay in here while I do so, but you know, really, these are questions for your dad, so I don't want you answering for him. Okay, sure, lady, of course, no problem at all, right?
Speaker 1:So dad comes in the room and, hey, so, father, why don't you go ahead and name, you know, why don't you name five of your son Brandon's friends? Sure, no problem. Well, there's Sam and there's Timmy and there's Jeremy and there's Sam and Timmy. And I'm listening to three neighbors off at my dad's house. Right, it's it, it's all he knows. Doesn't know any my school friends, doesn't know any of my friends at my mom's house. Doesn't know any of that shit. Right, can't name. Right, and she starts going into some other stuff. Right, and that was just one of the questions that I remember vividly.
Speaker 1:I'm like, dad, how do you not know my friends? Like I talked to you about all my friends all the time. Like you know, you know you have Walter. Take me to Justin's house, Like, or go pick up Justin to go to Sun Splash. Like you know this stuff. Like what are you talking about? Right? And just kind of a shocking situation, right, we'll come to find out.
Speaker 1:So dad was trying to get custody right, came, came back to bite him in the ass nothing changed. But I'm pointing this out because what if? What if? Oh, thank God for that that counselor, doctor, because she, I think, honestly that person really kind of halted it because Come to find out later on. You know, that lady, you know, basically said there's no way in hell I'd ever get fucking full custody of that guy. So I don't know what dad did, right, but he clearly did not have the right answers. He failed that test. But I don't know. I mean he probably spent a bunch of money right trying to fucking fight that battle and I don't know what that shit costs nowadays, but I'm sure it's not cheap. I mean none of that shit's cheap, right. But so you know he lost. He lost, thank God, thank God. But in the mix of this let's get back to the weird shit.
Speaker 1:Andrew was always Walter's favorite. Okay, let's just point that that that out. I think it was because Andrew's an old soul Really is, always, has been, you know, always acting mature for his age, Always got along with older people, more more so than he did, you know, kids his own age, you know Andrew liked the adult table let's just put it that way versus the kid table. That's just him. You know, that's just my brother, and Love him to death. Love my brother to death. Didn't love me, it doesn't love him so much when I was a kid, but no, I love my brother and, but I say that because you know he's Walter, he was Walter's favorite, right.
Speaker 1:So there was one summer that Walter and Andrew, you know, went back to New York and spent the whole summer there no, I'm sorry, not the whole summer, about two weeks, kind of visiting some family that you know, marion, you know had in the area that obviously we're still Walter's family as well, part, you know, part, partly my family, but didn't really, didn't really consider them, like you know, direct family members, right. But anyways, long story long, they went back there for two weeks and, you know, enjoyed themselves, walked around the city, you know, saw the sights, did all the tourist stuff, and you know I'm back at home, you know, back at dad's house, kind of sitting there, you know, a little jealous, right, like you know, feeling like I wasn't, you know, good enough to be included or or didn't, you know, provide enough value to go Right, like for whatever reason. So, you know, they get back from New York and you know how was the trip and everything went great and everything was all you know hunky dory and stuff like that. Well, well, this was a really big moment because we were, you know, essentially teenagers at this point. You know, andrew in this, when this, when they took that trip, was, you know, I Know that, I know that I really think about it probably more like 13, right? So you know, young teenage boy I'm, I'm probably 11 or 12, but you know, andrew gets back. Andrew and Walter get back from New York and you know we're, we're about really a year or two away from, or just a couple years away from, you know, andrew, being able to start driving. So, and I and I say that that because that's an important moment in time, right, because, with this custody thing that we have going on, you know, andrew, having a car would give us the freedom, hopefully, of being able to go back and forth, you know, more freely, like when we chose to versus, you know, when the court decided it was time for us to go over to, you know, to rotate houses. So you know, dad bought Andrew a brand new car when he was when he first 16th birthday and and Shortly after this it was discovered that an incident had taken place Back when we were teenage boys and we're just gonna like, essentially leave it at at that.
Speaker 1:So an incident took place. It was a major incident that took place and it was big enough to cause a multi divide in this in this family, and you know this news had come out and this was big news for the family. And when the news had come out, it was shared with you know, with dad and Mary, and you know, of course, everybody kind of, you know, knew what happened, what happened at this at this point in time, but there was no action taken, right. So there was action taken on my mom's side of things, you know, protect, to protect us boys. But as far as my dad goes, you know this incident had to had had to do with something with Walter and you know, as we know, you know Walter is still living at home at this point. You know, never moved out, never decided to move out, was not working, was not a productive member of of society by any any stretch of the imagination. And you know, dad basically said you know, what am I supposed to do? Kind of threw his hands up in the air. Well, you know, as your biological children, you would think that you would want to do something to protect us, but that's not what he did. That's not what he did. He chose to ignore the situation and the incident that occurred.
Speaker 1:So at this point in time, there was some things that took place with the courts that you know prohibited us from going over to our father's house in order to make sure that, you know, we didn't have any contact with Walter at all, and it was at this time that, because Andrew was driving, you know, we obviously were not going to voluntarily just go over to dad's house, but you know, we were told that, you know, on certain occasions Walter wouldn't be there and that we should come over, so reluctantly because of course, we're still teenage boys and technically we kind of still have to right, because there's this court order in place.
Speaker 1:You know, we would go and see dad and Mary on, you know, holidays and special occasions and you know, Mary kind of always had this like attitude towards us. Like, you know, you guys did this like how dare you Like you guys? You know you guys are liars and that sort of thing, and that just wasn't the case, right? But you know, so we'd, you know we'd go over there and things would you know be totally fake and superficial. You know a meal would be had and essentially, you know that's about as far as it went. But it was really at this time that the dynamic of the family really shifted, right, because we were seeing our dad less often, we weren't forced to go over there, and it was an opportunity for us to spend more time at mom's house and really get a chance to live out the remaining portion of our childhood, right? Well, I think that this is a good point in time to really stop on dad's house and shift focus over to mom's house. So, with that being said, guys, I think that this is going to conclude episode one.
Speaker 1:Thank you again, everybody for tuning in. Man, we're just getting started and I just cannot thank you guys enough and express the amount of gratitude that I have for the time that you guys just spent listening to the freaking drama that is. That was, you know, my life just there for a little while. So, but, guys, again, successful degenerate podcast, visit us on Instagram or any of the socials. There the handle will be the successful or at the successful degenerate.
Speaker 1:And again, you know, help us out, please get the message out there. You know, share with your family and friends, see if we can get you know some people interested in this thing. Let's take this thing off. I think it's. You know it's going to be a journey and it's going to be one that is not obviously going to come without its hardships along the way, and you know, having battle lows in the past, that's for sure, right. So you know we're just going to take those head on as they come and it's going to be, it's just going to be great guys, and I just I'm so grateful that you guys are, are going to be with me along the way and to that, see you later degenerates.
