Soon millions will make Medicare coverage decisions for next year, and UnitedHealthcare can help you feel confident about your choices. For those eligible, Medicare Annual Enrollment runs from October 15th through December 7th.
If you're working past age 65, you might be able to delay Medicare enrollment depending on your employer coverage. It can seem confusing, but it doesn't have to be. Visit uhcmedicarehealthplans.com to learn more.
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Vanguard Marketing Corporation distributor. This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories. And we tell stories about everything here on this show, including your stories.
Send them to us at OurAmericanStories.com. They're some of our favorites. And up next, we continue with our recurring series about the curious origins of everyday sayings. Here to join us again is Andrew Thompson, as he continues to share another slice from his ultimate guide to understanding these many mysteries of the English language. In a nutshell means concisely or in a few words, you might say to someone, just tell me in a nutshell. And it's said to originate from the ancient story described in 17 AD by the Roman scholar Pliny the Elder. The story goes that the philosopher Cicero witnessed a copy of Homer's epic poem, The Iliad, written onto a piece of parchment and enclosed into the shell of a walnut.
Obviously, this is impossible, but it is believed that important documents were folded and inserted into walnut shells and bound so that they were waterproof and could be taken long distances without damaging them. Shakespeare referred to the expression in his 1603 play Hamlet, and that immortalized the expression. Inner shambles means a state of complete disorder or ruin, and it derives from the open air meat sellers of medieval times. The word shambles derives from the old English word meaning footstool, which came from the Latin word meaning small bench. Most towns at that time in England had streets designated to a single type of vendor. There were streets for grocers, streets for bread sellers, butchers, who all offered their wares from street side workbenchers. These streets were known as shambles, but it was the butchers that became particularly associated with the term. As they were supplied directly by the slaughterhouses, the meat shambles were renowned for being a complete mess of blood and offcuts.
By the 1400s, the word shambles had become synonymous with general mess and disorder, and the town of York in England to this day has a street called shambles. In cold blood means deliberately and without emotion, and is often related to murders. For example, he murdered the man in cold blood. It's an expression that dates from the early 18th century. It began with the belief that a person's blood heated up when an act of great emotional passion was committed. This was based on the reddening of the face and the feeling of heat that a person experienced.
It was thought that when one could carry out a violent crime without excitement or emotional involvement, the person was acting in cold blood. The term was first used in the English publication The Spectator in 1711. To say something is in the bag means a successful outcome is absolutely certain. And while there are different theories on the origins of the phrase, including those relating to baseball and hunting, the early days of the British Parliament is the likely birthplace. On the back of the Speaker's chair in Parliament hung a velvet bag, and all successful petitions that were brought before the House of Commons would be placed in that bag.
Because it was known that all such petitions had been successful, they became known as in the bag. If you say to someone, I'm in the doghouse, it usually means you're disgraced and out of favour, usually said by a husband or wife. And in the doghouse is a phrase that has literary origins.
It derives from J.M. Barrie's 1904 book Peter Pan. Mr Darling, the children's father in the book, is particularly unpleasant to Nana, the family dog.
His children then fly off with Peter Pan, and as a self-imposed punishment for his behaviour, he goes out to live in the doghouse until the children return from Neverland. Peter Pan was obviously a very popular book, and as a result the expression quickly came into widespread usage. If you say in the doldrums, or you're feeling in the doldrums, it means to feel unmotivated or depressed. And it relates to a region by that name which is located slightly north of the equator, between two belts of wind. Sailors use the term because winds there met and neutralised each other, which resulted in ships becoming stranded and sitting around idly, virtually unable to sail. Many assume that the expression comes from the name of the region, but it's actually that the region came to be named because of its nature.
Doldrum comes from the old English word dole meaning dull, and that led on to the word doldrum, and the phrase was then used in the figurative sense by the early 19th century. In the groove is an expression which means to function perfectly or with little effort, and it stems from the early vinyl record days. Records are made with a number of grooves cut into the material where the music is recorded. The record is played by a stylus or needle, and the stylus must sit neatly in the groove to ensure good sound quality. If a stylus is worn, making its tip too wide, it will not sit in the groove and the sound will become distorted.
Equally, if the record is scratched, the stylus may slip out of the groove and the record won't play. The phrase took on its idiomatic qualities with the arrival of jazz in the 1920s. The free-spirited nature of jazz bands and the way they played with each other led people to describe them as in the groove. Even the limelight means at the centre of attention. You may say, John loves being in the limelight, and this is one of the very first phrases I ever learnt. It has its origins in the theatre. When calcium oxide, more commonly known as lime, is heated, it produces an intense white light, and this process was first used to effect by a man named Thomas Drummond in the 1820s. He was a Scottish Army engineer who used heated lime as an aid in map making because the bright light was visible at a distance. The technique was then adopted in theatres to illuminate the stage and was first used in Covent Garden in London in 1837.
The actors who were the centre of attention on the stage were said to be standing in the limelight, and that saying now applies to anyone who is the focus of attention. If you say something is in the offing, you mean it is likely to happen soon or is imminent. And it's a nautical expression originating in the early 1600s that came into widespread usage by the late 1700s. The offing is that part of the sea that is visible from or off the shore, the area between the shore and the horizon. In other words, a ship that was in the offing was within sight. And a special thanks to Greg Hengler for the production on the piece, and a special thanks to Andrew Thompson, hair of the dog to paint the town red, the curious origins of everyday sayings and fun phrases.
Go to Amazon.com or any of the usual suspects. The story of the English language, or at least, its curious sayings and phrases here on Our American Stories. Folks, if you love the great American stories we tell and love America like we do, we're asking you to become a part of the Our American Stories family. If you agree that America is a good and great country, please make a donation. A monthly gift of $17.76 is fast becoming a favorite option for supporters. Go to OurAmericanStories.com now and go to the donate button and help us keep the great American stories coming.
That's OurAmericanStories.com. Soon millions will make Medicare coverage decisions for next year, and UnitedHealthcare can help you feel confident about your choices. For those eligible, Medicare annual enrollment runs from October 15th through December 7th.
If you're working past age 65, you might be able to delay Medicare enrollment depending on your employer coverage. It can seem confusing, but it doesn't have to be. Visit UHCMedicareHealthPlans.com to learn more.
UnitedHealthcare, helping people live healthier lives. Doing household chores can already be time consuming and tedious, and there's nothing more daunting than facing piles and piles of laundry that need to be done. I mean, that can be overwhelming for anyone. So if you want to get those larger laundry loads done right and get back to your life, try all free clear mega packs. All free clear mega packs are bigger packs with two times the cleaning ingredients compared to a regular pack so that you can tackle any laundry load without the worry. All free clear mega packs are also 100% free of perfumes and dyes and they're gentle on skin, which is great for any family's sensitive skin needs, which my family, we definitely have sensitive skin. So the next time the whole family gets home from long vacation or you get the kids back from summer camp or whatever the situation is that's caused this big pile of dirty clothes, just know that all free clear mega packs, they have your back.
Purchase all free clear mega packs today and conquer any laundry load for all fabric types. So you're in the garage working on your car and you need the valves you bought last week. You look in the cabinets and on the shelves, but the parts are never in the right place. eBay Motors has the car parts you need. Over 122 million of them all in one place and all at the right prices.
Find parts for everything from your classic coupe to your brand new truck at ebaymotors.com. Let's ride. And we continue with our American stories. Deborah Sampson became a hero of the American Revolution when she disguised herself as a man and joined the Patriot forces. Here to tell her story is the author of Deborah Sampson, The Girl Who Went to War.
Let's take a listen. I am Marilyn Gilbert-Kamichak and I'm going to be telling the story of Deborah Sampson. I was on the internet some years ago and was looking and talking about a woman who fought in the Revolutionary War, successfully disguised as a man. This piqued my interest because there were definite rules against this.
They could be flogged, jailed, or put out of the church, any manner of things. What made me want to go to the work and trouble of writing about her was her extraordinary courage and her amazing patriotic zeal that she thought to be one among those who tried to pass and succeeded without being discovered. She was born in 1760 in Plimpton, Massachusetts. Her family came over on the Mayflower. But at five years, her father deserts the family and she's sent to work for a mother's cousin as a maid. At eight, she's a maid to 80-year-old Widow Thatcher. At ten, she is sent to work for the Thomas family as an indentured servant, although she begged them continually to let her go to school. They would not let her go to school. So she taught herself to read and write in the loft at night. And also she, in the meantime, was becoming a teacher and a weaver. Then Middleborough gets word of the Boston Tea Party.
The English attacked the people of Boston and jailed them and whipped them for dumping the tea in the harbor. Deborah and Mr. Thomas go to Boston with food for the Americans, and that experience helped her know that she wanted to be a soldier. One night, she dresses as a man and goes to enlist. It's almost successful when someone discovers or sees her felon finger.
This is a finger that only weavers have of the thread rubbing against their certain finger. And a man shouts, that's a woman. She has a felon finger. She, in the meantime, has woven so many pairs of men's suits and clothing that she simply puts on, late at night, a man's suit and gathers some other things that she might need because she is going to try to find the recruiter for George Washington's army. She walks quite some distance before she finds the recruiter.
And so she stays in barns during the day to keep out of sight. She does find a recruiter, and she enlists as Robert Shirtliff. She's given a uniform, and she marches in this dreadful weather, very, very cold weather with her unit from Boston to New York City and joins the light infantry, 1782, at West Point.
In fact, as we speak, there is a plaque on the wall for her at West Point. She liked to be away from the other men as much as she could for fear of discovery, and so she volunteered as a scout. But once while out having volunteered as a scout, a man on horseback raided an enemy ham house, and as she's making her getaway, is wounded in the leg. She hides in a cave, and using her knife, some brandy and water from a nearby stream, works on the wound, though it is never properly healed. And in time, she walks until she can rejoin her unit. General Patterson chose her to be his orderly.
Now, this involves shaving his face and helping his family. This is an honor, and she also is given a room of her own. So that helps subside her fear of being found out. Then there is the rebellion in Philadelphia from some of the troops there, and the general needs to go, and he wants Deborah to go with him. So while they are there, he sends her out on several errands, and while she's out, she faints and falls over and loses consciousness.
She's picked up off the street and taken to a hospital. Dr. Benet comes to her, and she begs him not to turn her in, because he has discovered she is female. Dr. Benet helps her win an honorable discharge, and before she's discharged from the Army, the general is very upset and asks her, Why did you do this? Meaning, why did you enlist as a woman? And she said, So I could see the world and serve my country. Other men who had faked their identity and gotten into the Army were severely punished, but the general said he would not punish her. He thought so much of her, but he said she could no longer continue to be in the Army. So he had her turn in her uniform and gave her a pink dress and pink shoes and hat to wear home. So when she gets home, no one will have anything to do with her, not her mother, not the church, not anyone. But she works as a farmhand on different farms. And then one day, a handsome man on a great, beautiful stallion rides up at her door and asks her if she would like to go riding with him.
In time, they marry, and Deborah bears three children in five years. But the farm does not produce poor soil, and Benjamin is ill and cannot work any longer, and her leg wound still bothers her. She petitions the government for back pay as a soldier for serving in the Revolution. The government is paying soldiers back pay, but not to her.
She decides that she can't wait any longer, and she goes in uniform and does the manual of arms. She becomes the first American woman to go on a paid public lecture tour. Then, to her delight, Paul Revere had picked up her money in Boston because he wrote a letter about her for $96, which was a fortune, and brought it back to her in his saddlebags for her payments to continue until her death. She died in 1827 at 67 years in Sharon, Massachusetts. In World War II, a Liberty ship launched the Deborah Gannett. That was her husband's name. And Deborah's reapplication and struggle for a military pension was on America's first freedom train, and songs and poems have honored her, including one by the Fort Worth, Texas, Boys Choir.
Her name is on a plaque at the U.S. National Cemetery. Song of Deborah was sung for women veterans at a memorial service. And a special thanks to Greg Hengler on the production, and a special thanks to author Marilyn Komichek, author of Deborah Simpson, The Girl Who Went to War. And what a movie this would be. It was a heck of a story. And that scene at the doctor's office, where she's just hoping against hope that the doctor will turn her in, and he does. All she wanted to do was do what the boys could do, and that is see the world and serve her country.
The story of the woman who went to war, here on Our American Stories. Soon millions will make Medicare coverage decisions for next year, and UnitedHealthcare can help you feel confident about your choices. For those eligible, Medicare annual enrollment runs from October 15th through December 7th.
If you're working past age 65, you might be able to delay Medicare enrollment depending on your employer coverage. It can seem confusing, but it doesn't have to be. Visit UHCmedicarehealthplans.com to learn more.
UnitedHealthcare, helping people live healthier lives. Doing household chores can already be time-consuming and tedious, and there's nothing more daunting than facing piles and piles of laundry that need to be done. I mean, that can be overwhelming for anyone. So if you want to get those larger laundry loads done right and get back to your life, try All-Free Clear Mega Packs. All-Free Clear Mega Packs are bigger packs with two times the cleaning ingredients compared to a regular pack so that you can tackle any laundry load without the worry. All-Free Clear Mega Packs are also 100% free of perfumes and dyes and they're gentle on skin, which is great for any family's sensitive skin needs.
My family, we definitely have sensitive skin. So the next time the whole family gets home from long vacation or you get the kids back from summer camp or whatever the situation is that's caused this big pile of dirty clothes, just know that All-Free Clear Mega Packs, they have your back. Purchase All-Free Clear Mega Packs today and conquer any laundry load for all fabric types. So you're in the garage working on your car and you need the valves you bought last week. You look in the cabinets and on the shelves, but the parts are never in the right place. eBay Motors has the car parts you need, over 122 million of them all in one place and all at the right prices.
Find parts for everything from your classic coupe to your brand new truck at eBayMotors.com. Let's ride. Music And we continue here on Our American Stories and we love to tell stories about businesses and business owners and particularly family-owned businesses that start small and grow.
It's the American dream, folks, and it's still alive no matter what folks say. And this next story is the story of Christopher Donahue and his family business, a business his father founded called Federated Investors and the company handles over $459 billion in customer assets. Let's go to Chris Donahue, chairman of Federated Investors. Music Dad was one of five. He had four sisters.
Mom was one of eight, four boys, four girls. And Dad went to West Point, graduated in the class of 46, and then was in the Strategic Air Command, which was in the Army Air Corps in Roswell, New Mexico, where I was born. The atomic weapon that we had, we had two of them in the interregnum period, World War II and Korea, and their B-29 won the right to be the one to carry that. So they had to create air-to-air refueling and there were all sorts of other stories associated with that.
His job description coming out of West Point was to fly the atomic bomb from Roswell over the Aleutian Islands, get refueled, and drop it in Kubashek in central Russia, where the Ruskies were building their bomb. And one time he was telling us this when we were on a fishing trip. I said, well, Dad, wait a second.
If you've got enough fuel to get from Roswell to the Aleutians, and now you're going to go to Kubashek, what then? He said, yeah, somebody asked the CO that one time and he said, gentlemen, don't forget that Turkey is a friendly power. Now, I know a little bit about geography. I said, well, Dad, that's a one-way trip. We switched subjects. So it was a one-way trip. That was the job description they had.
As I look at it, if you're betting the nation on guys, that's a pretty good bet. I know that guy. I'd go with that because he was both the bombardier and the pilot on that plane, which meant he had to know all the circuitry, arm the weapon, and all that kind of stuff. He spent, I think, $48, which back then was huge, and bought a mutual fund investment correspondence course from Forbes magazine and became totally enamored of it, began to teach it to others at Maxwell Air Force Base, and then when he came back here, thought the mutual fund business was going to be a great business, whereupon he got two of his buddies from high school, Dick Fisher, who was selling cars at Cadillac Dealer in East Liberty, and Tom Donnelly, who was a lawyer coming out of the University of Michigan, and they put together a firm to offer mutual funds, which they thought was a great concept and still is, because you get professional management and diversification all at a reasonable cost to a regular investor. And putting money in pools is still a big, big, big deal today. And so they started that in the 50s, and then by 55 they had formed Federated Investors, Inc. Interestingly enough, the three founding fathers had 27 children among them, over 100 grandchildren, and now I don't know if it's 135 or 140 great-grandchildren. The comment was always that they had to create more funds in order to feed the growing brood, and that's about how it all happened, and hence the moniker of Faith of Family and Federated. And that's how my dad put it, that's how I put it. My mother said that oftentimes it was federated faith and family.
So these modest disputations notwithstanding, these were important ingredients, the family, the faith, and federated. While I was in law school here at Pitt, I worked half-time at my uncle's law office, which my grandfather had set up, and then half-time at Federated, and was deciding back and forth where to go, what to do. And the then CFO, Ed Gonzalez, said, well, what are your uncles offering you? I said, X.
He said, well, I'll give you a few thousand dollars more than X. Well, we graduated law school, we already had four children by the time of the bar exam, so a few thousand more was a big deal. And he gave me another speech on how the opportunities at Federated and all that, but I have to admit that glazed over the other concept, and then I never looked back.
I think I was the 35th employee, something like that. Coming here was a great decision, but I didn't have to make all that many. Back then, you weren't thinking about, oh, do this, do that, year off. It was just keep your head down and keep going, which in many ways is a lot easier than all the opportunities the young people have today. There's a huge difference that can't be quantified between founding fathers and subsequent managers.
What it takes to be a founding father is completely different. And the dedication, the numbers of years of are we going to make it, are we not. But it does put in thoughts that are very important, like survival really counts.
And owner operators think about survival as a very important thing. So it isn't so much following in the footsteps, because the marketplace that we deal with changes so much that there is no following in the footsteps. There's maintaining the culture and enhancing the culture. But the footsteps aren't what you can really deal with at this point in the game. So it isn't that much of a burden.
I don't feel it is a burden or a hollow surround because you can never equal that which the founding fathers did. You do the best you can with the crew you got and proceed along. And that's the way it is. The one of the themes that my dad had that we've kept through the company and through these other things is the dignity of the individual human being.
They didn't have an employee handbook in the 50s and 60s. So it was always, well, you get to paint your own picture, you just have to stay on the canvas. And paint your own picture is a very strong enabling concept.
It respects the dignity and talent of the individual. It says you can decide how to arrange the colors. Someone else in the company is painting another picture. And he may have a right to suggest a little more red in the picture, but the person with the brush has the ultimate saying.
But you have to stay on the canvas which means you can't go on another guy's canvas. But it also shows you there's a lot of creativity involved. And that comes out of the beauty of each individual human.
We don't get it right all the time and there are imperfections. But it is that dignity of the human person that we hope pervades this organization. And then sets the stage for how you look at people, how you look at things, and how you conduct yourself in the community. And when we come back, we continue with Chris Donahue, who's the chairman of Federated Investors. And this is a family story, if ever there was one. My goodness, three founders, 27 children, 100 plus grandchildren.
That's quite an achievement by itself. And they had to create more funds to feed the growing brood, was the thinking over in the family, in the Donahue family and the other founders. My goodness, what a lot of mouths to feed, what a lot of responsibility.
And that theme, the dignity of the individual human being, and how they were able to keep the quality of the culture, even as the industry changed from day to day and from year to year. When we come back, more of the story of Federated Investors, more of Chris Donahue's story, his family story, here on Our American Stories. Soon millions will make Medicare coverage decisions for next year. And UnitedHealthcare can help you feel confident about your choices. For those eligible, Medicare annual enrollment runs from October 15th through December 7th.
If you're working past age 65, you might be able to delay Medicare enrollment depending on your employer coverage. It can seem confusing, but it doesn't have to be. Visit UHCmedicarehealthplans.com to learn more.
UnitedHealthcare, helping people live healthier lives. Doing household chores can already be time consuming and tedious. And there's nothing more daunting than facing piles and piles of laundry that need to be done.
I mean, that can be overwhelming for anyone. So if you want to get those larger laundry loads done right and get back to your life, try all free clear mega packs. All free clear mega packs are bigger packs with two times the cleaning ingredients compared to a regular pack so that you can tackle any laundry load without the worry. All free clear mega packs are also 100% free of perfumes and dyes and they're gentle on skin, which is great for any family's sensitive skin needs, which my family, we definitely have sensitive skin. So the next time the whole family gets home from long vacation or you get the kids back from summer camp or whatever the situation is that's caused this big pile of dirty clothes, just know that all free clear mega packs, they have your back.
Purchase all free clear mega packs today and conquer any laundry load for all fabric types. So you're in the garage working on your car and you need the valves you bought last week. You look in the cabinets and on the shelves, but the parts are never in the right place. eBay Motors has the car parts you need. Over 122 million of them all in one place and all at the right prices.
Find parts for everything from your classic coupe to your brand new truck at ebaymotors.com. Let's ride. And we return to our American stories and we heard earlier about how Federated Investors has run the company. Now it's time to hear how the family is run.
Let's get back to the story of Chris Donahue. Well the deepest sense of fulfillment probably comes out of the family. I mean just last week I was holding the triplets born to my niece. They're identical boys.
Now this is a one in two hundred million shot. And they're what, four weeks old. So this is incomparable joy. Chris and Ann have been blessed with 38 of our own grandchildren.
38, that's far out. And you can only have gratitude with each of them. One of the other things we try to do is teach those kids fishing. And the only way to teach a kid fishing is to teach them catching.
And I assure you, you get more pleasure out of a grandchild catching than you ever got fishing or catching. Family needs protected, it needs strengthened. It's where the basic teaching of everything occurs. You read any study and by the time the child is five or six they've got most of their stuff figured out.
Mostly whether they are loved or not. And this is very important. And you take the other formation attitudes as well. So it is in effect a domestic church. And the mom and dad have the duties of making that work. And I think it's just a critical ingredient to society.
One of the things we used to do in the family was, you know we'd have a family dinner, remember those? And we basically had the attitude that any question can come up. And so one day my son in seventh grade, this will pinpoint it, says, Hey, was that stuff Bill Clinton doing a violation of your marriage promise? Well this is kind of annoying because A, it means they're talking about it. B, it means they know what they're doing. And C, it means they're discussing whether this is really a violation.
Well this really frosted me. Now we handled it in a nice way. And so what really happens is the kids learn.
They can ask anything. They actually learn the truth of the matter. They learn a little bit about fidelity, which is a big plus. And now that kid has a beautiful wife, five children, and is proceeding along. And I presume he is forming his kids in a similar fashion. Dad had nine daughters. So he wants them all married up nice and proper. So his rule was, you're not allowed to go out with a guy the second time unless you're convinced he'll be a good husband and a good father.
He never enforced it. So I didn't think much of it. And along the way you talk to different people, some having a tough divorce, and they say, well, what happened with your sisters, with your dads? I said, oh no, the brothers, we were really good at bringing in the proper brothers-in-law. You know, they were real good to bring in, just enough that you could beat them in all the sports, though. So don't forget that. But in any event, that got rejected. And I said, well, yeah, well, Dad had this rule.
But I didn't think much of the rule. And the woman said she was. No one ever told me that. I go, what do you mean? Oh, Dad never told me that. So I go back to my father and I say, hey, you never enforced that rule. What's the deal?
He goes, you really don't understand anything. That rule's not for enforcing. That rule's only for repeating.
And that's as good as you can do. So I went right back to my five daughters and started laying the rule on them. And it really came home one time when one of the girls had just been dumped by her boyfriend. And we're right coming out of St. Paul's Cathedral walking down the street.
She's in tears. We're walking down and she says, well, Dad, you know, I'm really glad that you have that grandiose rule. I forgot to add that I told them they didn't have to follow grandiose rule.
That's what we called my dad. But if you didn't follow it, then I'd pick the husband's. And so this one, who objected to that the most, then says, oh, I'm having a tough time and I'm really glad you said that because I know you'll take care of me and protect and pick a husband. I go, oh, man, well, that's not what happened.
But that's a full cycle on that kind of a thing. So it was one that I sort of knew because I had heard it, but I didn't believe it. And I tell him this, exactly this rule that don't go out with a guy the second time unless you're convinced you'll be a good husband and father.
I've added and help you get to heaven. Okay. Then one day somebody says, well, wait a second. He had four sons. What did he say? He said he never said anything to the four sons. Well, wait a minute, Dad, what's that about?
He said all you guys are going to do is try to find the closest girl you can find that's like your mother, and I can't improve on that, so I'm not saying anything. Now, this is wisdom beyond the ages, but those are take-home value things to anybody, in my opinion. I had kind of a hard-nosed and didactic approach, which I always enjoyed. Punishments were worthy and terrific.
If they didn't make their bed and I saw it, I'd flip the whole bed, the mattress, rip everything off, close the door, and now they had a problem, stuff like that. And some of the punishments needed a certain amount of amelioration, communication, so we had family court. And family court was a deal where if you got a punishment, you had the right to go to family court and get it changed, and it was truly empowered to change the punishment. Or if there was a disputation between two siblings, they could go to family court. And family court consisted of you could have a judge, a single judge, and it would be anybody in the house. So when Ann's dad was alive, he was picked periodically, Pop-Pop Gary. He was known as a fair judge, and there was one example where one child was in charge of the dog and then dedicated that to the other child while they went out or something.
The dog made a mess on the porch. So it was responsible, and they're each pointing the fingers. So they go to family court, and Ann's dad says, well, you get the scrooper and you get the hose and we'll declare victory and move on, that kind of a thing. There were other cases where we had a rule that if you got a speeding ticket, you would lose your driver's license for a semester. And we enforced this. This was not an unforced thing because I didn't want dead or maimed kids. You see, that would be bad for me.
So it's all about me. But no, nonetheless, then they had a chance to go to court. And one time one of the daughters went to court, but she didn't take the court seriously because she thought that everybody would roll me.
But she didn't take the court seriously. And the way you went to court was if there were friends in the house, whoever was there, you declare the court. And if the other side of it agrees, that's the court, that's the jury. And so she picked the jury. We each made our say, you could pick a lawyer if you wanted and do whatever. And the jury in that case came back and said, well, instead of a full semester, you only have two months of penalty. She was furious, but that was the penalty that was, you know, put into play. So it was a way to dampen things.
And then you also got to get it out. And it was a forum for getting out, but it had to be empowered with the real decision making to make it work. They learn to get along with each other or have a system for solving things, as opposed to a permanent disdain for the other one, which was its goal. You've got to have a forum where you work things out. I'll give you another example.
We had ruled that we didn't care if you fought between yourselves. Go have at it. It's going to be stuff. Go solve it.
But if it's within my earshot or sight, then I'm really upset. And whatever it is you're fighting about is going to be removed. So there were several examples of this. The best was the two girls are fighting about a Barbie car that happened to fit perfectly in the garbage crusher. And so they had been warned not to be fighting about it. They were fighting about it. So the garbage car goes in the crusher.
You turn it on, makes a great sound. And all of a sudden they realize they have to solve their own problems in to say not so good for the Barbie car. I'd probably go to jail for this kind of stuff today.
But nonetheless, I'm telling you the real stuff of what we did. But it teaches the kids that their relationship is not worth the car. And they have to learn to solve their own problems. You just can't go going up to mom and dad and solve the problems. You know, hit the bar, get a pellet.
Hit the bar, get a pellet. No, these are other human beings and you're going to learn to deal with them. And what a great story and thanks to Chris Donahue for spending the time with us. Both on the business and how it's run and the values that run and shape that business. And that the dad and his partner shaped that culture. And then the culture of the family and the most important unit there is in America is the family unit. We know this. We know this deeply. People of faith, Catholics like Chris Donahue deeply understand it. They're doing everything they can to preserve the family unit.
I don't know how society runs without it. Chris Donahue, the Donahue family, the federated investors family, here on Our American Stories. Soon millions will make Medicare coverage decisions for next year. And UnitedHealthcare can help you feel confident about your choices. For those eligible, Medicare annual enrollment runs from October 15th through December 7th. If you're working past age 65, you might be able to delay Medicare enrollment depending on your employer coverage.
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