0:00 [Music] Welcome back to another episode of Careful Boys, where we get very brutally honest with ourselves and each other. Um, when you guys were teenagers, okay, when it was all about image and trying to be cool and everything, what was something about you that made it obvious to everyone that you didn't have a lot of money? Whether it was like your out of style clothes, you it go to trips. My my dad would uh so we have a dry cleaners uh during this time. Yeah. So he had like a like 1989 Volkswagen van again basically. We called the Twinkie mobile and it's like literally one of those boxy vans that's worth a lot of money today. It Yeah. Now no power steering. That's how me and my sister learned how to drive. Was it
0:50 manual? Uh no. Oh god. Uh, and it was one of those ones that's like light brown on top and bottom and then dark brown in the middle. And they took out the metal seats and then put in like metal posts to hang clothes. So we would deliver clothes, right? So on his delivery run uh with like the different like other dry cleaners where cuz there's a lot of dry cleaners that don't have machines in them. So people would drop off clothes. We would go pick it up, bring it to our dry cleaners that had all the machines and pressing uh machines to clean it and then deliver it back. It's like an agency type thing. And uh he would come by the school to pick me and my sister up or me when she graduated. And I would always be so embarrassed because people are getting This is Sunny Hills High School in Fullerton. So like all these rich ass Koreans that live by like Los Coyotes Country Club, they're getting picked up in Lincoln Navigators, BMWs, Benzes, all that's right. And up the hill and it's one way in and out cuz it's like Sunny
1:41 Hills on the hill. My dad would come with this V. It was probably the most notorious like whose loser ass car is that? And the thing is there was no the handle broke on the outside. So to open the car door, uh I would have to open the window, stick my arm in and pull the thing out, push it out. And then also when you open it up, there's nothing but bags of clothes. So much oral loss during this whole process. I remember just getting in the car every single day of like trying to be cool, like saying peace out to your homies or whatever. and then go into the parking lot every it's one trail of cars that comes into this high school and I have to open this thing and even the horn if my dad honked the horn I have to open this thing the inside open it there's just like metal bars
2:31 clothes hanging and then bags of clothes so I would try to just jump in and slam the door and like stay like low and hidden from the window and it was just the worst try cleaning Change our cleaning. You need clothes clean. Drop off here. Drop off clean. Only with your friend need clothes clean. You know, tell them we got bitten. That's dope. That's how he talks. That's pretty badass though. That's how he talks. Dude, I feel that pain though. Ironically, now like the way you would accept it as a much more mature person would be like, "Yeah, that's my s███." You know, but like back then, oh my god, it's hard. Yeah. Or if I like lingered too long or anything and then he was parked there cuz he got there a little early and then he would like park the car right in front. He would get out but he'd be pissed cuz he's on a delivery
3:21 schedule, right? So when he would like walk a little bit and then when he would find me he'd be like, "Hey." And then I'm like, "F███." Hey. Hey. Were you actually made fun of or was it more like self-conscious? Cuz you're different. It's definitely like 95% self-conscious, but like there's there's that 5% in there sometimes, you know, where like somebody would say some ████ Oh, they'll make like a comment cuz I remember rich kids trying to hide their wealth cuz they they felt ashamed of it. Not at this ████ school. Well, that's cuz you were with gangster ass people. Yeah. I would hide my wealth around gangster people, too, if I was rich. Yeah, it was it was Was it like a really high income high school? like it was like a huge area. Yeah. Everybody that
4:11 just lived in that area was I mean you're literally surrounded by country clubs. Oh wow. Like it was just that we talked about on here before it was one of those things where it's like if there was a group project number one nobody's coming to my house in Bora Park. I was in a different district and I had to like test to get in that school through the international balor program and we would go there and if I did a group project like this is the first time I'm exposed to like a gated community. Damn. Where people had like detach. I have a condo. my parent detached like single homes with a front front yard or like a swimming pool. These this ████ was blowing my mind as a kid. You know, you walk in and it's like the mom doesn't have to work. You're like, what is Sunny Hills kids at murder? That was that was Sun Hill and P. That was better tomorrow. My mom My mom didn't work. I wasn't used to that. Damn, that's cool.
5:03 You guys didn't have all have pools. No pools. We had Some of us had a second fridge in the garage. Is that cool? Oh, yeah. We had that. Yeah. Double fridge. Is that two fridges? You guys had You guys had jacuzzi's, right? That's like a stupid I had a dog. I feel like a big giveaway. I feel like a big a dead giveaway when I was like in elementary was brands. You know how people had cool brands? That's right. Basically, just Nike was like the cool brand like when I was a kid. But then I always had Reebok because that was cheaper at Cabaz Amazon. It's still cheaper. I had no fear. Rebok for 25 bucks. I had No fear at the swap meets. No fear. No fear. That's cool. Boy was also like an alternative to I was wearing shacks, dude. What was that? Pay less shacks. Like 10 bucks. Shacks. No,
5:55 I didn't get shacks. I remember um you could clearly tell what was swap me clothes. Yeah. Yeah. And then like if you got went to Miller's Outpost before it was like Ankor Blue, right? And then if you went to the mall cuz back then like Target, Kmart, none of them carried the same brands. Like now you can go to Ross, you'll you could get like name brand ████ But back then there was a clear difference. Like you know that that's not mall clothes. You got ████ swap meat clothes or you got some ████ fake ass Kmart clothes. Kmart clothes. I was always swap meat clothes. Mhm. But I love Swap Me clothes. That ████ was cheap as ████ too. Yeah. Really cheap. They actually had cool stuff later on, too. Once you knew how to shop. Yeah. Yeah. But as a kid, when you couldn't go on your own, you just had to get whatever your parents took
6:45 you to get and they would just point out and just go like, "All right, you can get this much stuff." I would have to be so crafty at TJ Maxx. Damn. I'd be like I try to like It was really just a hack to try to seem like it was cooler brands than it was. And it just never it was just very clear that like other kids had like a Jordan jersey or like had Dude, that was the most I was never been more jealous. Kids with jerseys was sick. Having a sports jersey or having anything out of East Bay catalog. I'm like that's true. The East Bay stuff. Like I remember getting my first sports jersey, one of my first my first Colts jersey and being like, "Wow, cuz they were like 90 bucks." Oh yeah, they're expensive. I used to never Yeah. people showing up in Hardaways and you're just like I'm going to get LA gear after school cuz there's a coupon from Pis Gear was sick. Don't even feel bad. Gear was cool. Light up shoes. I think my dad did
7:37 a good job of like it was kind of confusing because my dad in 1991 he bought a brand new like Lexus LS LS4 which was like a before we found out those were just Toyotas like um but that's very luxury. Yeah, it was luxury at the time. So people were like, "Dang, you're rich." But then I didn't look like an LS4. Like I still looked like a poor dude. So they were like, "Why the ████ your dad hella flexy?" But you don't have anything cool. Cuz he loves you. Oh man. Even if he doesn't he loves you. My uh obviously my until I went to the same junior high with you, all of my schools were pretty ████ poor. Well, elementary school, right? Cuz like my classmates were like in trailer parks or like apartments and like I remember one had like a ████ pet pig. Like he had a house and it was like a junkyard. It
8:27 was disgusting. But it's it was fun for kids cuz they they would hoard animals and it would be like whatever. Yeah, that's for kids. Kids don't know about it. They don't know that like this is you don't know until squalor until your friend comes over and they look at your house and they go, "Are you rich?" And I'm like, me? And the only reason why he thought we were rich is because my mom kept a good house. So because it was clean, cuz it was like nice. They've never seen a clean, organized home. So I'm like, you don't have to have money for that. That's just you have to keep a wealth. So at the time, your mom kept the house really nice and like orderly, but you were able to tag the garage. That's This is elementary school. Okay. So this is like junior high and above. I just went area where you can tag. You see what I'm saying? So, but at by the time that you had that ████
9:17 tagged up homeless crackhead room, the rest of the house was still nice. Yeah, that's I didn't touch the rest of the house. That's crazy, dude. Must be like a dimensional rift, dude. It was a wild ████ home. Oh, he did that. That was an excellent. You think it's fine? Earthquake. You're good. ████ But I remember being ashamed of my parents because I thought they were fronting. Looking back now, I'm like, "Oh, they actually have class." So they dressed well. They understood. When you got mad at your dad for not wearing cool clothes? Yeah. And then he I was like, "Dude, can you just wear a ████ t-shirt? Like, why are you always wearing a suit?" Right. And then I'm like, "Stop." Cuz in my mind, I'm I'm like in third grade. I'm in third grade and I'm like, "My parents are such frauds. They pretend that they're rich, but we're in the same neighborhood as my friends that are broke as ████ And I'm like, why are you guys pretending?
10:08 Right. And then like also, we would get the bill collector calling all the time and I get in trouble for answering the phone and ████ You guys are liars, right? That's a good sign, right? Yes, we live here. Yes, that's our name. Yes, this is I thought we're not supposed to lie and ████ Yeah, my dad's still buying suits. I don't know what this money thing is. That's You know what's funny? That's always like the first time as a kid that you have that confusion of like, I thought we're not supposed to lie. Is answering the phone, right? For real. And you're like, "Is your parents home?" And you're like, "Yeah, here." You're like, "Why did you say we're home?" I was like, "What other answer is there?" Yeah. And you're just a kid. You're like, "Yeah, no, they're not home right now." Like as if you're ████ a kid by yourself. Cuz like you're like, "Are you home?" No, they're not home.
10:58 Oh, they're not home right now. Yeah, you're just so bad at it. Imaginary mom. I remember being in like third, fourth grade having to translate with my with the bank. Oh yeah, cuz I'm like what the ████ You're using a child to ████ translate ████ I don't even understand. But I do remember thinking like, we're not rich. Why you got to pretend like you're rich? Why you dress like that? But it's just their style. like they actually, you know, they have taste and stuff and they don't It's just like a class thing, like a mentality. Yeah. And all my classmates, they're like ████ teen moms and ████ so they're more modern, right? Like they're more like they dress mo like like they they have cool clothes and then they dress their kids cool ████ Also, you're just so honest. Like I remember my parents got us a metal swing, you know, for outside or whatever. And then I remember um like
11:50 pretty much the next week our neighbor to the right uh they had like a wooden huge swing with a slide and everything and I was like wo this is so cool and you don't even think about like what my parents went through to get the swing. They're just you just see like the the hammers next door like they're kind of killing it. The pride they felt in providing it for you. Yeah. It's like a goofy movie. Yeah. They're like, "How come theirs is better?" Yeah. And you're just constantly pointing it out, too. You don't even know. Yeah. The ████ RV that they roll in. Goofy Movie. Yeah. Yeah. It's all legit. And it's funny that you think like I equated like my parents would always make home-cooked meals all the time. And when you're a kid, you equate that with poor. And the guy eating Pizza Hut was rich. But like the luxury and the preparation,
12:40 the time. Yeah. Yeah. Home-cooked meal again. It's like my parents went to buy all of these ingredients and then spent the time to cook it and I want ████ Pizza Hut. Dude, as a kid all I wanted was like, "Can we just have Jack in the Box?" Like, "Why do we got to eat this?" Yeah. And I thought kids eating fast food are like richer because they were buying that. Yeah, that's true. What a slap in the face. Legit. Like when they have like casserole or mac and cheese, you're like, "Oh my god, you guys must be rich." Cuz that's what you see in the movies. Yeah. But you don't see ████ stir fry with rice in movies, right? So when you see that, they're like peasants. Yeah, dude. The first time, you're like, "What is this meat scrap?" Steamed fish again. Yeah. A whole fish. Like what? Where's the mac and cheese, baby? Whole fish, baby. Did you grow up
13:32 with like rich? Um, my parents were like very very penny pinching. Oh, yeah. So they saved a lot of money. Like they would they would just always say like, "Yeah, it only cost us like 100 100 bucks per month for food." Like we would always like they would always cook all the time. Like we would never go out and eat. Wow. It would just be like we just like eat at home. But then per month I was like, "Are you sure?" But yeah, they would like like my dad was always just like, you know, if like a banana costs like 2 cents less, like you'll just go there. Dang. Like like penny pinching. Like super penny pinch. My dad used to teach us. He was like, "Look, see this is how you get ripped off. You got to look down and you got to look for the per ounce. He's like, you always find the per ounce. Never just look at it and buy it. You pay per ounce. And I never stop doing that. I always look at the It's super clutch though. I still shop like that to this day. True. Cuz when
14:22 you go to Costco and you you get the bulk and it's not cut, it's way cheaper. Way. Yeah. as a kid or or as a teen, did anybody ever make you feel like you were poor because they were so I think for me like I didn't really give a ████ It was just like I mean I had this car that I had to jump every time to use it. But you had a car. That's pretty I had a car. I had a car like Yeah. I had a car but then every time like you know like um you know before I go home from school you know like Yeah. jump. That's pretty That's pretty sick that you even have something to drive. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's true. That's true. So I had a car like Yeah. I mean, you guys didn't drive when you guys got your permits and stuff. I didn't drive until like senior year. Yeah. Yeah. Same. Senior year. Yeah. I remember fifth grade people were saving up to buy little motorcycles and then like in junior high. Yeah. Like they
15:12 some people like the little mini ones that you like sit on like this like dirt bikes. Dirt bike. Okay. Yeah. That makes sense. And then No, cuz everyone just started riding illegally like fifth grade, sixth grade. Motorcycles. Yeah. Fifth grade. No, you could take a dirt bike, right? You don't need a license for a dirt bike. I think you I don't know about fifth grade. Oh yeah. On the street fifth grade cuz I thought it was crazy. Like in eighth grade my friend saved up like $500 and he got like a CRX. Nice. And then those hatchbacks. And I was like, "Wait a minute. You bought a ████ car in eighth grade?" Yeah. That's crazy. And he was just driving money on the street and drug. No, he he collected cans and did a lot of random ████ But he he's he's saved up and I was like, "What the ████ You have a car as a How old were you guys?" Eight. Like that must be like 12 13. Oh
16:04 my god. You bought his he bought his first car at 123. Yeah. At 8. I was like, "What man, dude?" Yeah. What the heck? But by high school, there were so many people I already with like cars and stuff without licenses and stuff. Yeah. Oh, you know what always made me feel really broke is that uh when people would go snowboarding. Oh, yeah. And I would always be like, I can't go in the car. 400 something dollars to do that. Yeah. And I never went until I was like probably my 30s. Really? Yeah. Because I never knew how much I never knew how much it cost, but in my mind, like it sounded like it was insanely expensive. I I agree. I would like I think you would like it. Actually, I would go for the hang, but the actual snowboarding part, I feel like I would face plant the whole time. That's what I do. I just face plant. I pretend to like it. I still face plant the whole time. I think you'd enjoy jumping on a tube and sliding down a mountain. Hell yeah, brother. I want to sled that ████ No.
16:55 Uh, as soon as we were like 18, 19, we would do day trips because if you go at a certain hour, like it was like after 5:00 p.m. or whatever. Yeah. The twilight. Yeah. It's like 20 bucks for the ticket. Yeah. It was more like activities and trips that I could never do because the cost was just astronomical to me. Like when people go to even when they went to raves. I was like, "Damn, how you guys afford to go to raves every day?" You sneak in. Well, not all of them, but yeah, sometimes you pay or concerts. Did you ever go to a concert as a teenager? No, not as a teenager. That's what my girlfriend made me. One concert. I had to go to like Yeah, that's like a lot of money back then. Punk bunch of punk rock bands and I was like ████ punk is gay, dude. But all right. And she was like gothic and kind of stuff like that. I kind of always liked those chicks. So I just like went and like I wore a baseball t-shirt and like you know pretended to
17:46 be like alternative or whatever and I just didn't didn't work for me. Listen to guys like you know how they get in the microphone they go like and I was like Jesus dude I think uh not going to summer camp but seeing that other people did was a big one for me cuz I was like well I go to summer school and then they would laugh. That's not the same thing. And then you know cuz you actually live and then you watch those movies you're like staying in the summer camp and I'm like I want to do that. Yeah. I remember they were doing like that in my school and I begged my mom like I was like please don't make me go to summer camp because I I want to be able to take a shower every day and she's like Stephen I'm pretty sure you can take a shower. And I was like I don't care. I I was so obsessed with like keeping my skin as clean as I could that I didn't go to summer camp cuz I was just too scared that was Did it start cuz of your acne?
18:36 Oh yeah. I was that was Yeah. I didn't want That's why you have to shower now. Yeah, exactly. It's just part of my brain. Yeah. I I was really sad when uh I couldn't do NJB, which is like the National Junior Basketball or something. Um and it's just like kind of like Little League, but for basketball, and I really wanted to play basketball, but that's an after school type of program that you have to pay to be a part of. And my parents are like, "Nah, we can't afford that." Yeah. And I was like, that was outside of normal cost. Want to play basketball? Sorry, Anthony. You can't play this season. I played for you, brother. Thank you. You You bet. I thought It's funny, though, because I I wish I knew the ratio of how many things did we really not be able to afford and how many things did they just say no to to keep me focused on school. Or they just too tired of ████ driving. They just don't Yeah, that could be it. Yeah. Cuz
19:28 I remember growing up the messaging from everyone in my family was like, "We don't got money for that." Yeah. No matter what we did. So, I just it it forced me just to be like a real cheapkate. So, so I just looked at it like, "All right, we're just not going to go do that." Damn, that's cool. Damn. Like, it is what it is. Yo, that's funny that it made you It made you into a cheapkate, but for for me, it made you look for deals, bro. It It made me the opposite. Once I was out of the house and I had my own money, I couldn't keep it. I would spend it all the ████ time because I was like, "Finally, I can do this." Yeah. I had my phase like that once I started making my own money and I was like, "Okay, I can just spend." And you're like, "Okay, this is I see why they told me not to spend my money." When Ta has a pot of friends and they're all b███████ about like how rough they had it growing up, what do you think Tao is going to even say? Is he going to be like, "I asked my dad for a 3D printer and it took like 4 days." He's going to be like, "Drippy drippity cheese." He's going to be like, "Hey, Google me." He's
20:19 like, "Sucks for you guys." Yeah. Hey, that blows, guys. You guys want to You guys want to go throw rocks on my dad's car? He's like, "No, we used to do rocks. Let's do cinder blocks today. I want to go bigger. You want You guys want to just break all our toys right now? Um I can print us some new ones. Yeah. The thing is it's like relative cuz like B was even saying that Ta has been to other houses that are richer than theirs. So it must just be like the same thing we have. But here didn't he live next to like Jason Kid or something like that? Like that'll do it. Jason Richardson. Jason Kid high school though. Like we would go to our different We had so many different friends in different groups. We would go to the friends who like live in the projects. We go to their house and they'd be like, "Yo, this is crazy." And then you go to like these multi-million dollar houses where these kids went to private school and they
21:09 just would have parties and they're no none of their parents would be home. So different and you're just like, "Yo, this is absolutely crazy cuz you get both sides." Yeah. And you could see like all these kids were just whiling out partying all the time and then the kids of the projects were just like doing hood ████ all the time, you know? But it was like it was such a weird dynamic eating burritos at their own. When Richie Rich had a McDonald's in his house, that that shouldn't have had permanent real estate in any of our brains, but we cannot let go. Like, how's that possible? Remember they Taco Bell just did a commercial with Dvonte Adams like for the last 2 years where he has a Taco Bell on his house and I'm like, that's smart. You That is sick as hell. And how cushy. What a cushy gig for the employee, by the way. What's he do? He just wakes up every day. Maybe they don't have Taco Bell today. He's just chilling there. That must be ████ cool. It just waiting for your
21:59 one customer to come through. Like, are you kidding?
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