Welcome And The Power Of Place

Crista Cowan 0:00

Imagine taking your kids from a small pioneer cemetery in Spanish Fork, Utah, straight to the volcanic edge of Iceland and watching them move from politely humoring dad's need to share family history stories to reaching out and touching that history with their own hands. That's exactly what happened to today's guest. Eric Allen and I talk about how sharing family stories create deeply grounded, resilient kids. We talk about the delicious heritage traditions that might be hiding in our kitchens. And there's a coincidence that is a little mind-blowing. You're gonna have to hear it to believe it. Enjoy my conversation with Eric Allen. Hi, I'm Crista Cowan, and this is the podcast where telling your family stories can help create a deeply connected family. Welcome to Stories That Live In Us. Eric, welcome back. Glad to be here. Um, what did we talk about last time?

Eric Allen 1:01

Last time, primarily old photos. Oh, that's right. Digitizing photos and how I've done that. Um yeah.

From Grandpa’s Pride To Adult Research

Crista Cowan 1:10

Yeah. Well, this time I want to talk about Iceland.

Eric Allen 1:13

One of my favorite subjects, honestly.

Crista Cowan 1:15

You're planning a trip to Iceland right now. Another one.

Eric Allen 1:18

Another one. I have a problem. Uh yeah, I I took my family there two years ago, and it was wonderful. Took my kids around, had a great time, and and the whole time all I could think was I gotta get back here again. Okay. You know, we we had a wonderful time, but it was like immediately like Iceland pulls you back. You know, there's something unique about that place. I genuinely believe. So yeah, I'm planning another trip if I can without the kids.

Crista Cowan 1:42

Okay. Well, good. We'll talk more about the trip with the kids, but tell me, like, did you grow up knowing you had Icelandic roots, or was this a discovery later?

Eric Allen 1:49

So my grandfather was very proud of the fact that he was half Icelandic, but I don't think I ever understood that until uh his 70th birthday. The family got him a trip to Iceland. And uh I knew he'd always dreamed of going. And so, yeah, so I that would have been 1999, and I, you know, I was a teenager, and so I, you know, I I I understood that he was going to do that, and that was really special for him, but didn't really take Icelandic on as an identity in any way at that point. But I was just, you know, happy for him. And so then, yeah, more into adulthood, uh, got really proud of the fact that we were Icelandic, studied it more, did more of my family history around it. And and so that brought out more of that, like, hey, I want to explore this, I want to understand this. And then uh in two in 2023, my parents were called on an LDS mission to Iceland. And so then that sort of pulled us in a little bit more, and you know, then I was like, Yeah, we're going, you know, and taking the all of the kids.

Crista Cowan 2:54

So I love that. So just for context, um, for people who've seen your episode from season one, is the Icelandic grandfather the same one that was the historian?

Eric Allen 3:02

It actually is the same grandfather. Yeah, he I mean, he yeah, he was a man of many talents. I mean, in addition to he was uh he was this chief design engineer on the Philadelphia Mint, and he was he worked on Saturn V for NASA. So yeah, he was an impressive person. But yeah, he was he was the Icelandic one as well.

Crista Cowan 3:20

And when you say he's half Icelandic, was one of his parents from Iceland, or they just had Icelandic parents?

Eric Allen 3:25

So his mother was born in Spanish Fork, Utah.

Crista Cowan 3:30

As you are when you're Icelandic.

Eric Allen 3:32

Exactly. And uh her parents immigrated to Spanish Fork about eight years before she was born.

Crista Cowan 3:39

And what year was that?

Eric Allen 3:40

Uh they immigrated in 1892. Okay. And she was born in 1900.

Crista Cowan 3:44

Which is a little late when people think about Mormon pioneers. Right. Right? Yeah.

Why Icelanders Landed In Spanish Fork

Crista Cowan 3:48

So talk to me about why they came to Spanish Fork.

Eric Allen 3:50

Yeah, so um my great-grandfather or great-great-grandfather, Jakob Björnson was his name, was from the south coast of Iceland. Okay. And um, and then his wife was from, you know, maybe another five miles from where he was from.

Crista Cowan 4:06

For people, for people who don't understand Icelandic geography, how big is Iceland?

Eric Allen 4:10

Not very big, okay. Surprisingly. So, yeah, I mean, it's a country of 350,000 people. You can there's a there's an epic trip you can do. This is the one I'm planning where you drive around the entire country and they call it the Ring Road Trip, which is 800 miles all the way around, right?

Crista Cowan 4:24

And sometimes I drive that in a weekend.

Eric Allen 4:26

Yeah, exactly. Uh, and so, you know, and and and you'll do that in 10 days because there's so many stops to see. So it's not a very big country. Like the the capital, Reykjavik, like he was from about two hours from there, but on the south coast. Okay. He was raised uh poor, it looks like. And and the records say that he, as a child, was living with another family in Iceland. And I've since learned that meant that, you know, his family was not wealthy and would have to have children stay with different at different places where people would sign up to take care of children. And so he would live there, work on a farm there, go to school while they were helping him out while the parents were not far, you know, miles away, not like hours away. Um, and so I don't know the interaction with them. I actually don't know much about his life in Iceland, other than what I found in like church records and things that are sort of moments in time. So he's raised, it looks like as a worker and moved from the south coast of Iceland out to this island off the south coast called the Westman Island.

Crista Cowan 5:27

Okay.

Eric Allen 5:28

Yeah, and I don't speak Icelandic, but in Icelandic, something Vestama Vesteman are or something like that. So the Westman Island is what it's called in English. And again, don't know the circumstances that got him out there, but in 1890, he's living out there.

Crista Cowan 5:41

And is he already married at this point?

Eric Allen 5:43

Uh no, in fact, he didn't get married until he came to America. Oh. But they had a child together over there. Okay. And then the three of them are the ones that that immigrated. So he's living on this island in 1890. I can see him, and he's living in this place called Jan's Hoos or John's House.

Crista Cowan 5:59

It's really original.

Eric Allen 6:00

Yeah, right. And uh and then in 1892, he moves to America. So research, you know, me going there uh and just learning about it, this place, the Westman Islands, is sort of a place where there was a centralization of early Mormon missionaries, and they baptized a lot of people on that island in a place they call Mormon Pond, which uh is actually this incredible location. It's you're you know, it's just off the off the island, and it's basically a hole in volcanic rock that water has spilled over from the ocean that just has created this this you know little pond. And they call that Mormon Pond because that's where they were all baptized. And uh, so a bunch of folks got baptized there and then moved to America. Ironically, my ancestors were never baptized, and they were never actually, you know, LDS at any point in their life. I think he just saw everyone else move from this island there to Spanish Fork and was like, I guess I'll follow along, you know? And so yeah, he brought his family over in 1892 as his wife and one daughter at that point, and they settled in Spanish Fork and then raised their family there.

Crista Cowan 7:11

And so and did the whole island settle in Spanish Fork?

Eric Allen 7:15

It wasn't it wasn't the whole island. Uh there were some people left over, but I think it was in the hundred, I think it was like 350 people. But they all came to Spanish Fork. All Spanish Fork, yeah. So there's like a Spanish Fork, a very like Icelandic area of Spanish Fork, and they still have Iceland days down there. And um, and they actually there is a there was a monument built in Spanish Fork to the early f settlers from Iceland. And so you can go there and there's like a lighthouse, and then there are names of all of the people who immigrated from Iceland to Spanish Fork, and my ancestors

Monuments On Two Shores

Eric Allen 7:48

are on there. And uh they built the exact same monument right near Mormon Pond on this island in Iceland with the exact same names on it. So when we went out in 2024, went with all my siblings, their kids. We had a group, I think there were 25 of us.

Crista Cowan 8:07

How many siblings do you have?

Eric Allen 8:08

I have five siblings.

Crista Cowan 8:10

And how many grandkids went?

Eric Allen 8:12

I I I think there are um now I think there are 18 grandkids. My mom will kill me. I probably got that wrong. Um, but but I think uh at the time there were fewer. We've had a few births since. And um, yeah, so it's me, I think there were 25 of us that were there with my parents, and we took a picture and you know, did the whole family thing uh at that exact spot.

Crista Cowan 8:33

Have you recreated that photo in Spanish Fork?

Eric Allen 8:35

We did it before we went. You dare. Yeah. So I took I took my kids down because I wanted my kids to really connect with high school. That was important to me as well, because I didn't have that growing up. Um, not that I I missed it, but like now that I have it as an adult and I, you know, do the family history, it was just felt like I wanted to show them that. So we went down to Spanish Fork Cemetery, where my Icelandic ancestors are buried. We showed them, you know, the the plots, we showed them their grave sites, and then we went and took photos at uh at that that monument before we ever went to Iceland. So then they could come full circle and like have that experience across both of

Taking Kids From Cemetery To Iceland

Eric Allen 9:09

those.

Crista Cowan 9:09

How old were your kids when you took this trip?

Eric Allen 9:11

Um, my oldest daughter was um, let's see, she would have been 16.

Crista Cowan 9:17

Okay.

Eric Allen 9:18

And my second daughter, 14. And then my I have twin sons, they would have been uh 10.

Crista Cowan 9:24

Okay. And so as you're preparing for this trip, like what are you sharing with them other than the trip to Spanish Fork and walking through a cemetery? And how are they reacting to that?

Eric Allen 9:34

I was sharing as much stories as I had, as much information that I had, which wasn't like a lot, to be honest. Um, and and more like trying to set the stage of like, imagine, you know, your family lived in this place and they left with nothing, you know. And so, really just trying to help them understand that, like, and I think this is important. I try to do this with my kids, like, understand that like these hardships people went through made it so your life is pretty, pretty good. Um, and so really like those were the conversations we were having. Something like, you know, I don't know the circumstances, but there was famine in Iceland, they were suffering. When you go to Iceland, everyone will have the same reaction, which is like, why would anyone leave this place? Because it's just gorgeous. But the reality is they had to leave, you know. I don't think they had a choice, and they're just no one was thriving in Iceland back in the 1800s. You were surviving, and they're a tough resilient culture. Um, but you know, for whatever reason, just the hardships of that justified uh a trip all the way across the ocean and then it's settling in an entirely new country.

Crista Cowan 10:36

Um, so you took your kids to Spanish Fork, went to the cemetery, saw this monument. Um, and then what was the plan? Like your whole family's in Iceland. Were there like family history-specific activities planned, or were you just there to see the country?

Eric Allen 10:50

Yeah, a a bit of both, a bit of all of it. I uh each of my siblings sort of uh we we took an assignment as we were going, which was like, hey, we you know, we're gonna be there for eight days or whatever. You have to plan a day. And it naturally I was assigned the family history day. And so I spent a lot of time researching who the family was, where what where they were living, where their farms were. And and so as Family History Day planning went on, I was looking for the different destinations where we would stop. And as a part of that, I knew that he was on the Westman Islands. Um, and so I was like, well, we'll we'll go see the family farm down here, we'll see her family farm, and then we'll go down and check out, you know, this area where he was from.

Crista Cowan 11:31

Is there a bridge? Did you have to take a ferry?

Eric Allen 11:33

It's a ferry. Yeah, it's about a 45-minute ferry out to this island. It's very, I mean, it's very um, yeah, it's pretty small. Like the island itself is is really not big at all. And uh, and so yeah, you you you you ride a ferry out there. I knew the monument was there because they mentioned that, you know, in in Spanish Fork. And so we knew we were gonna go see that monument and see their names there, and so that's where I wanted to get that sort of full circle.

Crista Cowan 11:55

So, so I love that. Were all your siblings and kids into this, or was it like we're humoring Eric?

Eric Allen 12:01

Um, uh my siblings were into it. I think a lot of the kids were humoring us, you know, and they were like, hey, we're going along for the ride. We'll see it. We we promised them puffins because there's that's that's a puffin area of Iceland. And so they they were totally game to go do do all of that.

Crista Cowan 12:15

So and so you get to this island, any any discoveries there? Like anything that you hadn't planned for?

Eric Allen 12:20

Yeah, I mean we didn't know Mormon Pond ex at least I didn't know Mormon Pond existed. And so that it was called that? Yeah, and that it was called that when we get out there. Um yeah, no, and then and then um, you know, it was just it was just a cool place. We didn't have any other necess oh, actually there is one. Yeah. And I actually uh I didn't know about this before, and now I kick myself, I'll have to do it next time. There's an entire museum on this island dedicated to these folks. And my dad had sent has has since sent me a photo of our ancestor who's on that wall, a photo of him in that museum. So we'll have to get back there and see that section there. There was a famous uh volcano that went off in the 70s on that island, and so it burned a lot of what was around probably when my ancestors were there. Um, and so I don't know how much I could see the original places today, but uh, but still the you know, the the vibe of the whole thing was definitely real.

Crista Cowan 13:15

I love that. Is there anybody left on the islands that is connected to or still related to people in Spanish Fork?

Eric Allen 13:21

Yeah, and I don't know the answer to that, honestly. And I and I I have since spent some time, not a lot of time, researching the siblings of my second great grandparents who left and learned, you know, that that many of them lived until the 1950s, you know, 1960s. And I haven't found family that's living there yet, but they're there. And you know, through time of of me doing more research, I'm sure I'll find some real family

Iceland’s Genealogy Database And Lost Stories

Eric Allen 13:47

communities.

Crista Cowan 13:47

And Iceland has a really unique genealogy thing.

Eric Allen 13:50

They do, yeah. They have uh they've basically mapped their entire history. Uh I I again I'm gonna butcher Icelandic, but it's something like Iceland book, you know, the Iceland book. And it's for any Iceland, Icelandic citizen, they can find themselves on this in this book, basically a website now, and it will map their entire genealogy for them. That work's all been done. And the the reason I'm told, I don't know if this is a rumor, that they did that was because you know, when you start dating someone in Iceland, a country of 350,000 people for a thousand years, you're probably you're you're definitely related. Yes. The question is how closely related you are. So people would say, like, hey, I'm gonna, I'm gonna check before we get too far along in our relationship, you know, how close we are. And um, and so yeah, you you know, you can do that. I as a not as an American citizen don't have access to that. But um would you know an Icelandic person will be able to do that and then find how I'm related to them.

Crista Cowan 14:45

So anybody who has roots in Iceland, if they just connect with somebody in Iceland, yeah, can gain access.

Eric Allen 14:51

They've got their history.

Crista Cowan 14:52

That's amazing.

Eric Allen 14:53

I don't know that they have the stories. I don't know that they have all of that filled in, but like the names and dates are done for everyone. That's crazy. Yeah, lucky, right?

Crista Cowan 15:03

We wish, right? Because because, and I love that you brought that up because it's real, it really is the stories, right? Here at Ancestry, we talk a lot about like filling in your family tree. And I think there's a lot of people who do that, and then they're like, now what?

Eric Allen 15:16

Right. Oh, I'm done. Yeah, you don't, you're not done.

Crista Cowan 15:18

Yeah. So as you think about that with your own family history, like you're going back to Iceland. Yeah. What like are there I know you're going with friends and it's a an opportunity to explore the country, you know, for as a tourist. Yeah. But are there is there gonna be another family history day?

Eric Allen 15:33

I will definitely hit spots. Okay. Um, you know, and and this time, I it sounds like, you know, I don't know for sure yet, uh, I'll be going with my first cousin, okay, who's also, you know, from that same grandfather. Uh as I'm planning the trip, we're close, and and I was telling him about it, and he was like, Yeah, I gotta go. And so for him, as you know, even as we're planning days with friends, he's like, Hey, can you and I peel off one of the days and go see some of these spots? Like, I'm not gonna go to Iceland without visiting these locations um where our ancestors are from. So for sure, we would do that. Um, in terms of like what else I could find, I would definitely spend some time and we'll spend some time. You know, I'd love to find a relative, you know, and maybe they have more stories. I think, you know, to that point about stories, like as I discover facts, you know, trivia, like born, lived, died, all I want to do is uncover context and stories about these people. And and frankly, I don't know that much. I know more about their life here uh when they got to Spanish Fork, which was which was tough, you know, it sounds like in many ways. And, you know, my my second great grandfather, I'm told, felt a little bit like an outsider because one, he was uh Icelandic in Spanish Fork, and two, he was not LDS in Spanish Fork. And so, you know, like I I I'm I think they had a wonderful life, and you know, his kids all stayed here and and stayed there. And uh, but I but you know, I mean, I I don't think it was without challenges. And and uh I think he was a sheep farmer in Iceland, and when he was here, he worked for the railroad.

Crista Cowan 17:02

So yeah, what kind of what kind of life did he build for himself here?

Eric Allen 17:05

Yeah, I mean, I did they built a home here, I knew that they had uh five or six children, I'd have to look for sure. I think it was five children. They were raised in Spanish Fork. My great-grandmother uh became a school teacher and met my great-grandfather in Salt Lake City, and then they got married. Um yeah, and it but but but Jacob and his wife Gudrun, they spent their entire time in Spanish Fork uh and until they passed away.

Crista Cowan 17:32

So in my family, I have a great-grandmother who was born in Dallas, Texas. Okay, spoke German as her first language. Obviously, too into Dallas Texas. No, her parents were both German immigrants, and they lived in a German community and they went to a German Lutheran church, and they she started school in a German school that was connected to the church. Like she did not speak English until she was, you know, like in upper grade school.

Eric Allen 17:56

Yeah.

Crista Cowan 17:56

Um, and that that was always so funny to me because I knew her, she had this German accent like to the day she died. Right. And yet her younger sister, who was significantly younger than her, spoke with the biggest Texas twang you've ever heard, right? That's fantastic. So fantastic. Um, but I think about that when you have these insular communities of people, yeah. I suspect your great-great-grandparents probably never learned to speak English.

Eric Allen 18:19

Yeah, I mean, it sounds like my my grandfather said they they spoke words. Okay. You know, they knew English words, but I don't think they spoke very much. Because they didn't need to. Yeah, they didn't need to. And to their children, they only spoke Icelandic. And so my great-grandmother knew Icelandic and you know could have conversations with them.

Crista Cowan 18:33

But but beyond that, yeah, I don't think they were and then at what point do people decide not to pass that on, right? Like she meets somebody and marries somebody that's not Icelandic, and now those traditions are getting lost. But are there any Icelandic traditions, foods, celebrations, anything that you recognize now that's been passed down?

Eric Allen 18:53

Yes, absolutely. Um one of my favorites is uh something I grew up with from my grandfather, and it's called roller wrappers. Now I'm sure there's an Icelandic word for this, but for us, all all it was was uh they were long, thin pancakes and butter spread across the top with cinnamon sugar and then rolled into like a crepe. Like a like a like a cigar, like size. But it was but it was but they were pancake texture, they weren't thin like crepes, they weren't eggy like that. And so like we would, yeah, we would have these, we would have our pancakes, and then we'd always get a roller upper at the end. And so yeah, that was that and come to find out since my parents had been there and lived there, that that is an Icelandic thing that they do, you know. The I guess the other one I would say is on um we we definitely did this on Christmas Eve, the Icelandic tradition is to give a book to people, and then people sit around and just read books.

Crista Cowan 19:51

That sounds cool.

Eric Allen 19:52

Yeah, on Christmas Eve together. Yeah, it does.

Crista Cowan 19:55

I think but also probably because it's cold.

Eric Allen 19:57

Yeah, I would assume you're not going out, you know, on Christmas Eve in Iceland.

Crista Cowan 20:01

Well, I love that you didn't grow up identifying as Icelandic, but if anybody looks at you, right, your height, your coloring, like you are very Icelandic, right?

Eric Allen 20:09

Right. I am I'm I'm 40% Scandinavian, um, a combo of Sweden and Iceland.

Crista Cowan 20:15

So love our ancestry DNA.

Eric Allen 20:17

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I know that. The other, the other half, you know, 50 to 55% is uh is from England.

Crista Cowan 20:23

There you go. Well, you made a fun discovery about this part of your family tree as it relates to somebody here

The Coworker Connection And Shared House

Crista Cowan 20:30

in the office. And I love this story.

Eric Allen 20:32

Yeah, it's uh it's fun. So I uh I I'd have to guess it was eight years ago now, hired someone on my team um as a as a young uh web developer. And I never clocked it that his last name was Gessleson. Uh, but I guess now looking back, I I should have really understood that uh that is a very Icelandic sounding name. So uh through course of conversation and telling him I was visiting Iceland, he was like, Oh, hey, we should talk about Iceland because my family has a ton of connection to Iceland. And uh, and so then he was telling me about it. His uh his grandfather was uh one of the first to open up the new LDS mission in the 1970s, I believe.

Crista Cowan 21:18

Okay.

Eric Allen 21:19

And he did that with Andy's Andy on my team, Andy Gessleson, his father and his father's twin brother. And and so he was telling me this story and and and about how they had gone there and then they you know they worked there and how you know he hadn't been back, but but he had this like deep connection, and then his going back one generation, his great grandfather, his name I believe was Gesley Geslissen, right? Which is super common with the patronymic naming over there. Um, like I have Bjorn Björnsons in there, Amy, so that's a thing. Uh so he had this Geslie Geslissen, and I was like, Oh, well, let's look and see if we're related to each other in any way. Uh turns out You know, Andy and I don't share enough DNA to be related, but his father and my grandfather do.

Crista Cowan 22:06

Oh, okay.

Eric Allen 22:06

So they are related to each other. And I and I haven't figured out exactly where I just again need to connect to the Iceland book, and I and I'm sure I could. But I did some research and I was trying to say, like, okay, so you know, I said, Do you have family on this plaque? And he was like, Yeah, you know, Gesley Gasluson is on there. And so then just doing research, uh I found that Gesley Geslissen left Iceland in 1885 after living in Jonsus on Westmont Islands.

Crista Cowan 22:37

The same house.

Eric Allen 22:38

The exact same house that my second great grandfather lived in before he moved here. I have not connected that they knew each other directly yet.

Crista Cowan 22:47

Like their time there didn't overlap.

Eric Allen 22:48

Yeah, because I I I I don't know exactly when my second great grandfather moved to that house, but he was living there in 1890, which was five years later. Yeah. And and uh and so, but but certainly they knew of each other. Like he had to have known, you know, of the people who left there and went to Spanish Fork.

Crista Cowan 23:05

That's what Well, and then they both ended up there.

Eric Allen 23:07

And they both ended up in Spanish Fork. Andy and I have since done some research on where they lived, about um a half a mile from each other. And in the census, I want to say it was the 1910 census, both of them were listed as uh working for the railroad.

Crista Cowan 23:22

Okay.

Eric Allen 23:23

So I, you know, Andy, as Andy and I have connected on this, we're like, yeah, they knew each other, our families knew each other. And so it's just amazing how it comes full circle like that. I never put it together. I'd worked with them for, you know, six years before I ever connected it. But turns out, you know, we we followed a similar path, and our ancestors certainly did and may have even, you know, known each other and worked together.

Crista Cowan 23:43

Oh my gosh, I love it. And that, like when we talk about the stories that we want, it's not just the stories of our ancestors and their lives. I love that concept of the way our ancestors' lives intersected with the lives of the people we're living and working in, you know, moving in the world around today.

Eric Allen 23:59

Yeah, absolutely. I totally feel that. I really enjoy those parts of our stories where, you know, they help us connect more to people who are around us today. And certainly Andy and I have a deeper connection today and a friendship, you know, just because we both can relate to, you know, some of what that was like.

Crista Cowan 24:15

So love that. That's such a fun serendipitous moment. Well, as you think about like kind of back to your trip with your kids, um, do they still do they ever talk about it? Do they feel more connected now to their family history?

Eric Allen 24:27

They definitely do. To my kids, that was, you know, that was a trip of a lifetime. They really enjoyed it and I appreciate that. I have one son who, you know, I don't want to, I don't want to tip the scales, but I suspect could could carry the family historian Gene, um, who often identifies with the Icelandic. You know, he said, Oh, yeah, I remember we saw the farm. My Icelandic ancestors, my Icelandic ancestors. When we were over there, we visited a museum right near the family farm. And there was a there was a boat, a ship in the museum. And he reached over to my wife and he said, I want you to take a picture of me touching the boat that would have been one of the, you know, the uh from the place our ancestors were from. And so, yeah, he has a real affinity toward it. And my kids have, yeah, they've they've carried that and are proud now more than I was when I was that age, because I just didn't know to have part of their heritage be Icelandic.

Crista Cowan 25:16

Yeah. So well, and that's part of why we do what we do, right? Like we grow up sometimes a little bit in oblivion to the world that came before us, and now we can share those stories and those experiences with our kids.

Eric Allen 25:28

Yeah, absolutely.

Crista Cowan 25:28

That's a lot of what I'm in it for. Love it.

One Word One Story Cake Wars

Crista Cowan 25:31

Well, uh, we have a new segment on the show called One Word, One Story. It's like a little word association game.

Eric Allen 25:41

Okay.

Crista Cowan 25:42

We're just gonna share the first thing that first memory. Like it can be a family history story, it can be something from your life. Just first memory that comes to your mind.

Eric Allen 25:50

The word Iceland's not in there. We've covered it. I don't know.

Crista Cowan 25:56

The word is cake. The word is cake.

Eric Allen 26:00

I assume you're laughing because we we have a cake stories. We have cake stories at work, actually. Uh we uh there I have baggage with cake at work. People know me as the cake guy now, honestly. How how it's kismet. Um uh we had a member of the team just you know, to sort of keep people together during COVID era, started posting just quizzes and fun games on our internal uh team page. And one of the things was here are nine items you have to get rid of one of these items. And it was like ice cream, hamburger, french fries, uh cookies, you know, I can't remember all of them, but one of them was cake. And a lot of people on the team were choosing cake, and they were like, I would just get rid of cake. I don't like cake. And I and I really came to the defense of cake, like, what's going on, people? How are you killing cake? Like, you know, why are why are we choosing French fries over cake? Like, what's happening? And so then it became just this huge debate for weeks about like, well, if you had the right cake, does cheesecake count as cake? Like, you know, and then I I uh I said some of the best cake I've ever had is famously called the Cruise Cake because Tom Cruise buys this cake from a bakery in LA and sends it out to his entire Christmas list. So it became a thing that we were gonna have a cake party at my house, and we did. We had the whole team over. I got Tom Cruise cake, a couple of those, so that we could we could eat them, and and then I try to convince the team that like this shouldn't kill cake.

Crista Cowan 27:24

Yeah. Well, I will say I was at that cake party. I was one of the people who chose to get rid of cake. Okay, see. Um, and the that cake almost won me over. Okay, I will say that. Yeah. Um, yeah, so my cake memories actually have to do with birthdays growing up. I am not a huge cake fan. Yeah, obviously. And so it's just a thing. I don't know. But uh, so whenever anybody asks me what I want for my birthday, yeah, like it was always rice crispy treats or brownies.

Eric Allen 27:53

Okay.

Crista Cowan 27:54

And now, like now my go-to for my birthday instead of cake is brownies and ice cream.

Eric Allen 27:59

Is is are brownies cake?

Crista Cowan 28:01

I've no brownies are not cake.

Eric Allen 28:03

They're not cake, okay.

Crista Cowan 28:05

You can make it cake like brownies, but I don't like those. I like my brownies fudgy. Okay. So anyway, there you go. Not cake. Fun word. Okay.

Listener Stories And Farewell

Crista Cowan 28:14

Well, if you've got a story about cake, we would love to have you share it in the comments if you're watching here on YouTube. If you're listening on your podcast app, just write a story about cake, share a photo, put it on your Instagram or your Facebook, tag us, let us know. I would love to read your one word, one story. Well, Eric, thank you. Yeah, so great to be back. I know. I love your passion for family history. I love learning about your passion for Iceland. And I hear you have a new passion in the wings with whales. So maybe we'll have to have you back.

Eric Allen 28:50

That's a teaser, I guess, for maybe a future episode. I'm doing some family history work and research about my Welsh family that I didn't know about until only a few weeks ago, but I'm very excited about where this could take me.

Crista Cowan 29:01

Okay, well, maybe next season we'll do whales.

Eric Allen 29:03

I'm here. Studio sponsored by Ancestry.