The Empty Nest Goes Back In Time - E59

Rick Denton  0:00  
There was a sign in the hallway, and they posted some quotes. And someone said, Did I just step into a DeLorean and get out in 1977 back in time? What? Where am I?

Clancy Denton  0:12  
This is the loud quiet, living the empty nest. Hey guys, welcome back. Episode 59 of the loud quiet. Thanks again to everyone who's been listening. We love being out in the wild and hearing people mention that they're listening or telling people about it. So we really do appreciate all the feedback.

Rick Denton  0:33  
Yeah, we really do appreciate the feedback. And seriously, y'all got stories that you want to tell, we'd be happy to tell them on on here as well. So want this to be even community based, more of a collaborative kind of thing as well as we go forward. Yeah. So this is going to be a little bit of a look back, and it's an unexpected look back. There is a series of activities that came together that brought us back to a little bit of memory lane. And not just our memory lane, but it was also just like life and culture memory lane. Yeah, I

Clancy Denton  1:09  
don't know if I'd really call it a look back, as much as it is, we went back in time, and we'll talk about the restaurant we went to, because we've done the Memory Lane one before, but it just so happened, it almost is like a full circle coming together that we ended up and we'll get there, you know, to places that, yes, meant something to us in our younger years. It

Rick Denton  1:41  
is the as we get older, and I remember, I don't know how many young listeners we have here, they're probably already starting to the the eyes are starting to roll as I'm about to do the sentence. And it is, I used to look at folks who were older and almost be like, okay, yeah, I know that you had that was what life was like back then and that sort of thing. Well, now I understand why there was so much talk like that back then, because it's fun, and it's fun when suddenly you stumble into an experience that really does remind you what life was like back then. And

Clancy Denton  2:19  
so we're, we're going to start with our text this week because we had reached out to Tanner because we he wanted to do something last week and we couldn't. So we had just thrown, Rick, threw him a text and said, Hey, you're you around Friday and want to do drinks and dinner with mom and me. We talked about heading into Dallas, since we will be out of town for the next few weekends, I love his response, let me check my calendar right quick and see or our Q sorry, and see if I'm free definitely. Let's do it. And then he said, Yep, I'm free. And then later, I think when you told him the place that we were thinking about going, I loved his response. That sounds lovely. That's so Tanner response. But anyway, so this is the text that kind of set up our Friday evening.

Rick Denton  3:11  
And we had, we had known that we were wanting to do something with Tanner because, as the text said, Hey, we're going to be out of town for a few weeks, and hadn't seen him in a bit, and he also had mentioned wanting to get us or cook a steak at home or something like that a couple weeks ago. So we thought, let's find ourselves a little steak place. We didn't realize that we were going to go into. Well, I guess we did realize, but when the experience actually happened, it felt like you had stepped back into a 1980s and maybe even older classic steak restaurant.

Clancy Denton  3:47  
Yes, he had wanted to reward himself, because he's hit the mid they're already now two thirds of the way through first semester of law school, and so when he mentioned the stake, we're like, okay, you know, we know all of our state places out here, and we know several of them down there as well, but someone had mentioned one who lives down there and also went to SMU law. And you I never heard of it, yeah, and I'd seen

Rick Denton  4:17  
it before. It was and like, when you think of the steak places that we have typically go, it's the shiny, it's the call it modern. But I mean, what steak places the very upscale, the very, very nice kind of place, the Perry's the the Morton's the Nick and Sam's that kind of thing.

Clancy Denton  4:38  
And this place we've driven by that. I mean, it's in a little strip center. We've driven by that a million times. And I think there may be another restaurant in there that we've gone to, or something that we've gone to. We've definitely gone to it's across the street from in whichever from, no, the Granada is what I was talking about. So I definitely have gone to movies there. Yeah. No, and we're in wood tavern. Is another one that we've been introduced recently. But Granada, we used to go there all the time for movies.

Rick Denton  5:07  
In fact, little side is not the one where you said, that's where we saw the governess, yes. And you felt, well, some of us saw the governance. That was one of those horrible movie, but

Clancy Denton  5:17  
you fell asleep completely. So anyways, but yes, so we ended up making reservations at Dunston Steakhouse, which established in 1955 calling

Rick Denton  5:31  
itself Dallas's oldest Steakhouse. And think of yours. Think of what. When people think of Dallas dining, certainly, it has grown. It has become much more than it once was. Dallas dining is associated with steaks. When you hear sports broadcasters talk about coming to town and where they dine, they're often at one of the classic steakhouses. That's what people think when they think of Dallas dining. Yeah, you see the oldest Yeah.

Clancy Denton  5:58  
And you think of like Dakotas because it has the elevator that you go down and Nick and Sam's, that's a newer one, but, you know,

Rick Denton  6:07  
barely it is.

Clancy Denton  6:10  
And when you think about, you know, you think about barbecue, you think about Sonny Brian's that's been here forever, yeah, you know, when you think about Mexican food. You think about Mia's or MI casino and all you know, those kind of things. L Phoenix, which, yeah, it's been around forever. Yes, it is, but, but anyway, so, yes, so dunstons is. And what's so funny is Ashley, who I work with, or work anyways? She said, I know, I know that name, and we were on the treadmill, and she goes, Oh my gosh, my mom used to go there to the one on Harry Hines when she would go down and work for my dad. She said, she said they had the best hamburger. So she'd go there, like twice a week for lunch. So there's two locations, one on Harry Hines and one on lovers, which is the one that we went to,

Rick Denton  7:12  
and this was when we were looking at it, because it was described to me before we looked in detail as, hey, it's a steak place. It's, it's a, I really, the guy said, you know, I really love we love it. We go there all the time. It's not as expensive as the other places. And that was all of the context that I had going into it. Well, then, as everybody does, what do we do? We start looking at reviews. And this is the old leather booth. This is the carpeted floors. This is the wood paneling it. It is, oh,

Clancy Denton  7:48  
it had the salad bar that you could still go up to the salad bar. And as we were going through the salad bars, like, Oh, yay, pickled okra. Because a long time ago, I remember going to those places that had salad bars. You couldn't really buy pickled okra in stores until later, when it started showing up. So I love pickled okra. So that was one of my favorite things that I would always get on the salad bar. So I was very happy to see it there. And you know, one thing we didn't even talk about before we got to Dentons, we were trying to decide we were gonna go have a pre dinner drink somewhere. And as we're talking and driving, and Tanner said, Is it funny to y'all that I'm listing all the streets and some of the places that you guys used to go to 30 years ago and when we were his age, yes. And we're like, Yes, this is very full circle. And we will continue the circle story. It's

Rick Denton  8:51  
very circle of life. You're absolutely right. The I want to go back and talk about those, those bar and we'll, let's just, let's bounce around a little bit. It was down there on lower Greenville, and it was, and I think actually technically lowest Greenville, and it's the kind of thing that we talk about wanting out here. Imagine a for those that don't know, it a block two, three blocks where it is truly just restaurant, bar, maybe some kind of unique shop, restaurant and bar and club and all that just sort of stacked together on this one street. It's very walkable, and we did. We went up to one place that was on the roof. I actually like where we ended up after that, where you're sitting on wooden benches, picnic table, benches, and just kind of, you're enjoying being outside. You're enjoying the company of the three of us, and just sort of people watching. It had a very urban vibe, like a Chicago, like in New York, obviously, much more compressed. It's different. It just had that kind of feel. The thing. That you and I talk about really missing.

Clancy Denton  10:03  
I just really enjoyed it one because some of the places, I mean, like that, simply fondue, I think, has been there forever. So that side of the street, things were similar, but you talked about 711 Yeah, I love how they've built now, all of these bars and restaurants that have rooftops. I yesterday was beautiful. So we're like, we have to be outside somewhere. And so yes, when we ended up at libertine as the one that Tanner was like, we really love libertine. I mean, he had just been there the night before playing trivia. And great Happy Hour prices, you know. And like you said, what I love about that area is, as we're sitting there on our benches, you're walking every watching everyone walk by. We're on Greenville Avenue, watching people walk by, walking their dogs. There's a couple older than us with their Trader Joe's bag. They're going to shop at Trader Joe's. The couple next to us had a five month old baby. I just love how there's just so much variety lifespans, just yes and just seeing that, being able to just observe it, you know, it's it reinforces to me, and I think us, that that is probably the place that we would really enjoy living.

Rick Denton  11:35  
And the the comparison that comes to mind. And it's a very poor comparison, because it's like comparing the best car to a kind of medium car, or whatever. But Greenwich Village, it had that kind of vibe where it is just smaller streets. Yes, there was traffic, but there's a sidewalk, there's places to walk, to eat, and it was that kind of vibe, yeah.

Clancy Denton  12:02  
I mean, just the mere fact that we had multiple places to choose to go to, it wasn't, you know, and, oh, we didn't like that one, so we just walked across the street to the next one, yeah? And if we weren't going to dinner, we could have walked across the street to another place. You know, that's what I just I just love that, and I don't need to be able because we did. We had to drive from Tanner's apartment. It would have been a quick Uber, but the play other places we were going. But just being able to have access to once you park, then you can just go wherever you want. And you know, just, just the that we had an hour in the car on the way down to Dallas.

Rick Denton  12:51  
Yeah, it did take us an hour to drive to Dallas, which then

Clancy Denton  12:55  
we were like, Should we just get a hotel room down here? Well,

Rick Denton  13:00  
we got into longer conversations about, well, we're, we are real wide ranging, if we bring this up, but the idea of the Mad Men apartment and just have something down there, and these are just fun conversations. They aren't particularly practical. But yeah, when you're when you're driving an hour on that Tollway to get to these sorts of things that are fun, this is, yeah, there's something about the suburbs that is great, and then there's something about the suburbs that is so sterile. And I would not have wanted to raise our family down there. There's so much more that goes into that. If you're raising your family down there, it's now that we're at that empty nest phase. Okay, let's go back like it's almost like the empty nest is the chance to, we talk about this all the time, that in the empty nest, part of the success is, remember what brought you together as a couple? Well, you know what, some of this is, go do the things and go live the life that you lived as a couple, down in that same area, those same experiences, that same variability of life.

Clancy Denton  14:04  
Well, I think too, if you know our our path changed, you know we moved from that house so quickly because we had a job change that took us to another city. Yeah, I don't know that we, we might have ended up raising our kids down there. They they couldn't have gone to the they could have gone to the elementary school, because that elementary school is a very good elementary school. Yeah, then after that, I'm not sure, but I wouldn't say that I wouldn't have raised a family down there, because I if, if our circumstances didn't make us change, yeah, we may have,

Rick Denton  14:42  
I know we talked about that. It's it wasn't ideal. You're right. Though it's amazing what happens. Well, it's amazing what happens when inertia kicks in, yeah, and even if we had said to each other as newly was, No, we're going to live here. But then we got to go somewhere that's got a good district and all that, you know, you did school. At Plano ISD. I was, at the time, the suburbs of Austin, and now it's interior Austin, but it is, it was in our head that you're right, and there she kicks in, and you might just sit there and say, This is the life we want. We're gonna figure out how to make it work for a family.

Clancy Denton  15:15  
And I think the feeling like this morning, I was laying there thinking about, I have loved our time in this house. I've loved the time in Frisco, exactly for the kids had great educations. They made great friends. But when I was thinking about our house down there, and by no means we I would not want to move back into that house, but when I, when we're driving through that neighborhood, it's just cozy. It feels like a neighborhood, yeah. It's just gives you that warm. You can see into people's homes. Everyone's not shuttered clothes. It just Yeah. It just feels. It made me feel warm inside. That is, yeah.

Rick Denton  16:09  
This is going to end up being an episode of like, suburb versus, you know, city, but it when you, when you design a neighborhood like the suburbs are designed, which is here are one or two entrances that come off of a busy road or a semi busy road, and the one or two entrances, then you have your little enclave of the the subdivision that you're in. Well, that's not how it is down there. It's just a grid, a patchwork grid, and you don't really feel the entrance or the exit to a neighborhood. It just is neighborhood, yeah, and I like it. And of course, the old trees and the old homes and all that we were going to talk about Dunst,

Clancy Denton  16:50  
we'll get back to that. But we, yes, we took a little detour there. But yeah, Dunston. So yes, we, we get there. And, you know, walk in, we were told by the person who recommended to us make sure you sit in the back room.

Rick Denton  17:06  
So we sat in the back so if you're going make your reservations, to sit in the back room, but the

Clancy Denton  17:10  
front room is nice, too. The front room has the red leather boots high backs. That's where the open kitchen smoker is, and so it is

Rick Denton  17:22  
a wood fired grill. There are grilling steaks over open flame, yeah, inside the restaurant. So

Clancy Denton  17:28  
we walked back to the back room, and that's where the bar and like you said, carpet, which I described. It cannot believe that restaurants still have carpet.

Rick Denton  17:41  
Yeah. Described it as the wood paneling and the carpet, it felt like you're anyone, not you Clancy mine. What a living room was like in the late 70s and early 80s. I distinctly remember and started telling stories of memories with my dad in that old wood paneled living room that we had,

Clancy Denton  18:03  
yeah, and we were in, you know, the booths were black leather back there. And then they had, you know, multiple tables with rolly chairs.

Rick Denton  18:14  
They kind of for those kind of shape like what we're sitting in, but it's the one with the chrome metal four wheel rolly chairs that are down on the bottom it, it, it absolutely reminded me of, well, the old steak place, just restaurants kind of back then and then, not that I was going to these places, but when you see them on movies I was thinking of, do you remember the bar in the original vacation that Chevy Chase goes into, it had that look. It really looked like that old hotel bar of what a Holiday Inn might have looked like.

Clancy Denton  18:53  
And it, you know, we, first of all, the prices were fantastic, so highly recommend. And the food was very good as well. I mean, it was the best we ordered the mushroom poppers, which I figured, yeah, they'd be fried mushrooms. I mean, the basket, it was huge, and just this bowl of good restaurant ranch. I mean, it was so good this morning. I even woke I said, I can't stop thinking about those fried mushrooms.

Rick Denton  19:26  
They were swimming pool brain. They were so good. It was those were really good. And the rolls with the cinnamon butter,

Clancy Denton  19:33  
oh, Tanner you were, you had gone to the restroom, and Tanner's, like, is this the better? Like they have it. What's the restaurant? We don't go there, Texas Roadhouse or something, whatever the place? No. Texas Roadhouse is the one that has the better we I don't think I've ever eaten at one, maybe one time, but he do the better. And yes, it was, and it was just very good, I mean. And to. Get your steak. What are two sides and one side? You know, tan and I both got the baked potato, because you don't get baked potatoes anywhere anymore at a lot of these restaurants. But to get your steak and your two sides for I think y'all got the bigger was like

Rick Denton  20:20  
it was $29 Yeah, $29 for nine ounce bacon wrapped filet

Clancy Denton  20:24  
and I got the tenderloin, and it was 37 and which, at Perry's alone, the steak itself is probably 55

Rick Denton  20:33  
Yeah, 50 to $70 steak, yeah. And if you read the reviews, you will see things that do speak to there can be some inconsistency with the grill and on the menu, it even explicitly said, If you order medium well or well done, we offer no guarantees, like basically they're saying we're gonna screw

Clancy Denton  20:52  
yourself. BB and Nana cannot go to this place.

Rick Denton  20:56  
But in spite of what I'd been told that there was the chance of inconsistency, maybe, if we go back, the food may not be. My steak

Clancy Denton  21:04  
was perfect, oh yeah, and mine was too. The

Rick Denton  21:06  
the pink on the inside was perfect. It was, it was, there was a sign in the hallway, and they posted some quotes, I guess, from social media reviews, or maybe just reviews, and someone said, Did I just step into a DeLorean and get out in 1977 back in time? Where am I?

Clancy Denton  21:27  
And the service was excellent. You can tell some of those people have probably been working there for a really, really long time, and they probably are treated like family. I would hope so. There's

Rick Denton  21:40  
a little fact about this place that I discovered when I was watching a video as we were trying to just learn about it and go there. They claim to be the inventor of texas toast, that this steak restaurant says that they are the ones who invented texas toast.

Clancy Denton  21:59  
And did you see texas toast on the menu? I

Rick Denton  22:02  
was, well, I if you order the chicken fried steak or some other things, okay, there were other menu items that might

Clancy Denton  22:09  
have because we got rolls. And then when last night, I was like, Huh? I wonder if they meant those little the things that were on the salad bar that were texas toast. Yeah. Now see, we'll have to go back and try that so, but it was funny. It was around, oh, probably, what, nine, nine o'clock, I don't know what time it was, and we, all of a sudden, we see all these people start rolling in, and

Rick Denton  22:33  
you put them in their probably, upper 30s, in their 40s, into their 50s,

Clancy Denton  22:39  
yeah, yeah, yeah. They

Rick Denton  22:40  
have to be, I didn't need 30s, yeah, 40s and 50s, yeah.

Clancy Denton  22:43  
And then we noticed, oh, they had on Highland Park Cheer shirts. They'd all come from the game and the game, because when we were walking out, I think your retainer said, how's the game going? They're like, Oh, they were up by, you know, 30 points. So we all it was halftime, we were done. So they all come over, I guess. And

Rick Denton  23:02  
that goes back to what we were talking about that I love that idea of a restaurant, or we were talking about bars. We're talking about restaurants, but whatever where it's that okay, this social community moment, and we're gonna go to this place together, and they're just standing around the bar, or, I guess some may have been waiting for a table or something like that, but you could tell this was that just community vibe that you don't always see in a brand new suburb, or just, you know, a lot of this is so transitory that people don't live in this place for decades or generations, where it might actually be happening down there. Yeah,

Clancy Denton  23:42  
yeah. So that it was just, it was a great night. It was a great experience. I want to go back and have the hamburger, because I'm sure it's really good. And there were, I mean, everything, even Tanner said I'm having problems. I don't know. There's so many good things on the menu. And so, yes, it was very good. So if you do live in anywhere in the Dallas area, I would go give it a try sometime.

Rick Denton  24:05  
So we make reservations. I will say that, Oh yeah, if you want to be

Clancy Denton  24:10  
in the back room, because the people in front of us had a family. They walked in and we and we were there at seven o'clock. So that was prime time. Yeah. So then Tanner's making the rest of his evenings planned. And he said,

Rick Denton  24:24  
we're done and adjusted. We're out. We're toast. He's like, Okay, what am I doing next?

Clancy Denton  24:28  
And he said, Oh, y'all are gonna drop me off at one of his friends Lincoln's House, who is a lost new law school friend. And we're like, okay, and there they were going out from there so, and he was like, you know, y'all come in. I mean, it was hilarious. We're driving to Lincoln and and he is living in a house that is his aunt's longer story. But we literally are driving, and Rick goes. Here it comes. There's our house right there, literally three blocks from where Lincoln lives now. And, I mean, it was just, you know, and we're sitting there going, okay, so, yeah, look, the shutters that I put up are still there. Flower boxes are gone and, and at one point you go, sorry, Terry's like, No, I like this. Hearing y'all you know this was our life, and this was even our life, dating and married. Once we moved back here, you know you and I would go down there, right for special occasions, right? But,

Rick Denton  25:37  
and, and I knew when they were describing where Lincoln's house was. I don't want to say where it was, but I knew that it was going to be close, and so I purposely turned to where we might and then it, it was almost accidental. I made a right turn, and I had the epiphany of, oh my gosh, this is our strength. This is we're going to pull by the well, they tore down the garage. Thank God, it was falling apart anyway. But that, you know, that's where we were. And I always wonder, when we're stopped there and we've got the headlights on, we're all staring at the house. Is anybody looking out their blinds going, Oh, why? Why are people stalking us? Well,

Clancy Denton  26:15  
and we were sitting there, and I said, you know, we're sitting there. I said, Oh, and the house, like, right across the street. That's where we got the dog from. Our first dog from. And tam was like, No way. I was like, Yes, I said we literally walked across the street and got this dog from the family who lived there. So, yeah, it was just

Rick Denton  26:35  
and, like, we probably on walks with that dog. Yeah, walked by. Oh, sure, that house, yeah.

Clancy Denton  26:41  
And it just, it always gives you feelings of nostalgia, feelings of oh, you know, but this time, it really made me feel like I want to be back down here in this area, living this way again. And you know, Tanner said, Well, you got to wait till I get out of school, because that's a little close. And I said, Dude, we went, we're not ever in your business. And he said, Oh well, yeah, I guess, I guess that, yeah. He said that. Then he said, Oh well, I guess it would be nice that I could just come over to the house here instead of having to drag like, yeah, I said we don't. We're not those kind of parents, but your friends all like us and so y'all would probably be hanging out if we got a house. Ended up getting a house down there before you get out of school. But, and,

Rick Denton  27:36  
yeah, like we talked as we're driving down there. Yeah, so much of this is dreaming, and dreaming is like read anything about empty nest, health, dreaming, having visions, having having things that you want to explore together. I still don't know how practical this is. I mentioned inertia, and there's a lot of comfort in inertia. There's a lot of things, like the relationships that we have, the the church, that we're a part of, all those sorts of things. And I felt what you felt that you're describing. So in spite of everything I just said there, I felt that same sort of pull to that area

Clancy Denton  28:16  
well. And I was, I was actually thinking about that again this morning, that, uh, you know, your parents, my parents, they have stayed in their same. I mean, your parents in the same, or, you know, mom, yeah, they moved 78 in that house. They have stayed in that house, in that community since, you know, forever, my parents, once we moved to Plano my sophomore year, they have been in the same place. I find that our friends and our generation are once they've raised their kids. I don't think as many people are staying in the same place as the generation above us, I

Rick Denton  29:07  
don't think so either, yeah, and not not only because just I don't think so. We're seeing and we're hearing it in the conversations that we have with folks. And that was, you know, maybe we'll save that for another episode, but that was another part of the conversation that I said, Look, I loved it. I love it down there, and I love it as we were going there, I don't know if you took kids out of the equation, would I actually still choose to live in Dallas? Is Dallas where I, and I'm being very selfish with this word, where I would choose to live. And I mentioned other places in the country, there are certainly other places in the world that I would rather live than Dallas as much as I enjoy it. The thing is, you can't extract you can't actually live a life that says, Well, I'm just gonna blow the kids out. I guess you could. I don't choose to do a

Clancy Denton  29:59  
I wouldn't blow it there. Lots of people that don't have a good relationship with their kids, we just happen to be very

Rick Denton  30:04  
blessed, and even if you have a good relationship, I still could choose a different location. Yeah,

Clancy Denton  30:09  
I also think that because before, when Tanner was still in undergrad, we were saying, Austin, Austin, Austin. That's probably where we want to move. But you know now that he's in Dallas, and we've been reintroduced to that area of Dallas, because we wouldn't be down there as much as we are right now if he wasn't down there, definitely not. But it's just made me realize how much I do enjoy it. And if we get the bonus that both of our children are back in this area, then that's even, yeah, better. It'll be

Rick Denton  30:53  
interesting to see how that all rolls out. Yeah, it was fun. I mentioned memory lane. I still to me it is kind of a memory lane, because it is going back there. I do like what you said, though of more full circle A and it is kind of that conversation of living your empty nest in a similar sort of vibrant dating way as you did when you were well, dating. And we just happen to have the opportunity to do it, not just, Hey, let's be busy. Let's do activities. Let's date. We get to do it in the same places, and in some cases, like, literally the same places that we were in our 20s. Man, well, it's been fun. I if you've hung with us all the way through here, then I would say that that means that you actually kind of enjoy what we've got going on here, and if, if that's the case, would you tell someone? Would you actually tell a friend about the loud quiet we'd love to share this, and we'd love to get more folks in that empty nest community that are hearing the stories and also sharing their stories back with us. So if you made it this far, well, thank you. And then we'd love to if you'd be willing to share that with someone else, because it's quite a journey on the loud, quiet living the empty nest.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai