Introduction and Personal Background
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to Fixate Today Gone Tomorrow. I'm Nikki and I'm here with my Aunt Joy. We are two neurodivergent ladies who obsess about various topics. Joy is autistic and I have ADHD and we are letting our hyperfixations
The Oneida Community Revisited
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Speaker
Today we are fixating on the assassination of President James A. Garfield. Music
00:00:31
Speaker
Welcome back, everybody.
Tryphena Hubbard's Life and Struggles
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Speaker
We are still talking about the Oneida community. We got a little long, so we figured we'd maybe take a quick little cutoff point. We're going to get back into talking about the group. There's so much to talk about.
00:00:45
Speaker
It's so interesting. I'd rather have our full discussions than try to squeeze it in because there's a lot here. Yeah, yeah. So we are going to talk about Tryphena Hubbard. She was a member of the group from 1848 to 1851. She was 21 years old when she joined the group. She was the first official Oneida local convert after the
Abuse Allegations and Community Response
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Speaker
group fled from Vermont. She married a man named Henry Seymour in the group.
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Speaker
was going to say, is that her reason? Do Do we know if that is why she was a convert to the group? was No, actually, i believe she converted first and then was partnered ok with him. Okay. I was thinking for sure that she like ran away with him. and Yeah, she's trying to get her claws in Henry. and Okay. All right.
00:01:32
Speaker
Interesting. So this was 1849. Her father, Noadiah, don't hear that name. it I mean, you don't hear Tryphena much anymore. But Noadiah demanded Tryphena return home. And he was fighting so hard to get her home, he began going to the mansion house to try to get her out.
00:01:50
Speaker
She fought. She was staying. She was staying with Henry.
Decline of the Oneida Community
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Speaker
That was that. In 1950, the group criticism of of her started calling her insubordinate and egotistical. She was getting a little, um I think she was calling out some of the things in the group she didn't like.
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Speaker
And she was being. Seems like she was just a little too and but independent for their. A little too vocal also. Yeah. And do we think has anything to do with her father trying to pull her away or the information her father's feeding her? Or we just think she's just.
00:02:22
Speaker
Probably. i mean, I think it's a little bit of both. I think her personality, like she ran away from home and joined a group 21. That's like just left her father's home before getting married. You know, ah it it seemed like she is a progressive woman.
00:02:36
Speaker
who yeah wanted different things for herself. But after the group criticism started, Henry began abusing Tryphena to try to get her back under control. That always works.
00:02:49
Speaker
yeah Yeah, yeah. 1851, Tryphena starts showing signs of mental illness. We're not positive what it is, but it seems like she could have always had some sort of mental illness, but the pressure from the group is starting to kind of display itself in her mental health.
00:03:08
Speaker
Like she's starting to lose it. Yeah, and I would also think possibly the group is... attributing her vocal nature to mental illness, you know, in addition.
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Speaker
ah And we see that again, like Miller. Yeah. Just she's not behaving. She's not doing what we want. yeah So there must be something wrong with her.
00:03:31
Speaker
She's mentally unwell because she's not in line. Yep. History repeats itself as an echo. Henry, her husband, who has been abusing her, has been beating her, tells her family that he's concerned. he's showing She's showing these mental illness signs.
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Speaker
And the family's like, but you're abusing her. What are you talking about? Of course. Good for this family.
Legacy of the Oneida Community
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Speaker
ahha Continue to stand up for him Yeah. So September 27th, 1851, Noah Dyer Hubbard filed assault and battery charges against her husband, Henry.
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Speaker
to try to keep everything quiet, the Oneida community agreed to pay Trifina's expenses while she was institutionalized because she did get to the point that she needed professional help. We're paying her we're paying her off.
00:04:18
Speaker
Kind of Scientology vibes again. Yeah, well, yes, they agreed to pay her $125 a year if was well, mentally well, $200 a year if she was deemed unwell. and two hundred dollars a year if she was deemed unwell Very interesting.
00:04:33
Speaker
The Hubbards, though, the family, i don't know if they didn't โ I don't know. For some reason, they only accepted $350 settlement from the โ like, they โ I don't know if it was like they wanted to โ well, that's what it is.
00:04:48
Speaker
Thinking through it now. They just wanted to cut ties with the group, right? Like โ Cash up. Yeah, just give us this money to pay for, like, her care and we don't want you anywhere near us. yeah The issue was that when she left the group, as so many people do with ah bolt abusive relationships and high control groups, Trefina ultimately returned to Henry and had a baby.
00:05:12
Speaker
And we have to remember, though, there's a one there's a relationship with Henry, and then there's her connections to the community, which... ah intersect huh but are two separate things yeah he was abusing her yes it may have been due to the influence of the society i don't know i just think we have like there's we have to remember those still are two different things so there's still the complexity yeah well and it's also that's why i kind of said both like you see when people are trying to leave a high control group they often
00:05:45
Speaker
return And when people are trying to leave abusive situations,
Preservation of History and Personal Reflections
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Speaker
what is it? It takes sometimes women seven times to safely leave. yeah And I do believe she was pregnant because she didn't just โ have a baby and go back. You know what i mean? Like, I think she was pregnant while while her family was trying to get her out.
00:06:03
Speaker
um And they haven't necessarily divorced. No, no. they're just It was just trying to get her away from the group and this man. yeah And only two months after her father filed the assault and battery charges, Tryphena died November 26, 1851, still in the group.
00:06:20
Speaker
I wonder if that was tied to her being pregnant. That's my guess. I don't know, though. i But it's just like not everything was โ there's a lot of great things for women.
00:06:32
Speaker
Like they're allowed to do what they want, like work how they wanted, things like that. But this is still a high control group. And when someone's stepping out of line, they're going to do what they need to do. to get her back in line.
00:06:44
Speaker
And yeah my belief is it caught it led to her death at, what, 24, 23, 24 years twenty three twenty four years old Very well could be, yeah. So after Tryphena's death, the community starts to decline. But it really kind of goes downhill when Noyce tried to pass leadership to his son Theodore.
00:07:03
Speaker
Theodore was not as charismatic as his father and not as religious as his father. He was agnostic. and Isn't this a pattern? Again, we see over and over with different cults, religions, passing the attempt to pass on through the family, but whoever is inheriting it is not the right personality. Yep.
00:07:24
Speaker
um Or at least creates division. We get the Shiite versus Sunni in the Middle East. Yeah. Even um Jewish versus Christian. Yeah.
00:07:35
Speaker
We see that divide among ahha I just got ahead of myself because you're about to talk about the divide, but I'll just do it. That's okay. It led right into it. Yeah, and that's what it did.
00:07:46
Speaker
ah One group stayed no night, another group moved to California. And actually, the group that moved to California was able to convince the government to make a new municipality that is Orange County.
00:07:59
Speaker
Wow, that i did I find that funny. Fascinating. Yeah. Now I want to learn about how counties began. Yeah, yeah. That's a deep dive. How did this county start?
00:08:10
Speaker
A further divide in the group was debates beginning about how young children should be initiated into sex. There are some people who are like, yeah, this is bad. We shouldn't make 12 year old is a child.
00:08:22
Speaker
And some people were like, this is how we've always done it. And I think this part's so interesting as the the so there are babies being born. There are generations of this group. Younger members started wanting traditional marriages.
00:08:36
Speaker
They fell in love and just wanted to be married to their person, which like that doesn't work in the free love community. Noyce was like, no, no, no, no. That's not how we do it. Everybody's married to each other.
00:08:49
Speaker
but we also I mean, there's two extremes to that, right? The free love. can ah But also then we start with like arranged marriages like. ah of um Yeah. the Community or the population within India yeah is a tradition of arranged marriages.
00:09:03
Speaker
But I know. um when I visit and friends I have when when they meet and fall in love and and they specifically call those like love marriages. And I think some people think one is maybe quote unquote better than the other, ah but kind the same thing.
00:09:23
Speaker
Yeah, right. And I think it's the thing of like, when you control a group so much, they're going to rebel. And sometimes the rebellion is like, But we want tradition.
00:09:33
Speaker
Yeah. And it usually โ rebellion often starts with the younger generation. and Yeah. So at the same time, a professor named John Mears of Hamilton College began campaigning specifically against the group. And he was able to rally local clergy members.
00:09:52
Speaker
So now the community โ is starting to turn against the Oneida community. Ultimately, ah warrant was issued against John Humphrey Noyce for statutory rape.
00:10:03
Speaker
I want to wrap up a couple things, and then we'll get into his life post-Oneida community. So in the timeline of John Noyce, where I'm going to kind of jump back to talk about his life after the community, but I want to mention a couple things about the community itself.
00:10:19
Speaker
in In 1947, a group of Noyce's descendants burned the group's records. Trying to hide some things. Oh, this is... was going to say this is recently, but I mean recently. Recently-ish.
00:10:35
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. In 2004, Oneida Unlimited, the flour company, announced that U.S. manufacturing would cease the next year, ending its 124-year history in the U.S. Facilities have gradually been sold and shut down. There is still a facility, so it's not completely shut down.
00:10:53
Speaker
Today, the Oneida Community Mansion House it still stands. I stayed there. It's beautiful. It was ah deemed a historical landmark in 1965, and it's still five separate buildings on one property.
00:11:06
Speaker
they are always There's renovations and trying to just maintain the space, not change anything, but keep it able to stand and run and be functional. And I think ah the community is proud of it, right?
00:11:20
Speaker
Yeah. And they're very insistent that this group not be deemed a cult. Yes. I think I've heard you say. Yeah. yeah They view the community very favorably, the people who run the mansion house.
00:11:33
Speaker
And yeah, the talk of the free love part, they don't get too much into the children's side of it. Like, I think that's very intentionally omitted from the history that they present.
00:11:44
Speaker
um They talk quite a bit about the communal situation of raising children. Mm-hmm. But it is, you know, the focus, and I think that's okay, that's fine, is um on the benefits that they brought to the city of Oneida itself and the good things that they really attempted to do. Yeah.
00:12:04
Speaker
I wonder if, number one, if in Orange County, ah California, there's any historic sites or museums? ah Yeah. Oh, I wonder that too. Yeah.
00:12:15
Speaker
And also, can you, yeah mean, now that you've you've been there, can you explain
Preview of Next Episode: Garfield's Assassination
00:12:20
Speaker
the actual layout or... Yeah, it's really cool. So there's like a center courtyard type of thing almost. And there's this enormous tree that's like in the center of this. I have a picture of my husband leaning on it just to show like how huge this tree is.
00:12:37
Speaker
And... that kind of courtyard connects the buildings. Some of the buildings now are connected through like hallways inside. So like you can get from one building to another without like actually leaving to go outside.
00:12:48
Speaker
But it's basically like- and Were these like do dormitory style? or is it individual rooms for individual families, couples? Do you have any idea? Kind of both. like they So there were, I think, two or two buildings you can't go into because people live there like apartments now.
00:13:07
Speaker
Oh, okay. So there are people like, um they said a lot of like young teachers will live there who've like just started their teaching career and they that's where they land. Oh, wow. Yeah.
00:13:17
Speaker
Yeah. So there's like, when you go into the main, when you're staying as a guest of the kind of hotel part of it, you go through a different entrance and through that entrance, there's like mailboxes set up and like Amazon deliveries get dropped there.
00:13:31
Speaker
and things like that. And it's because people live there. So that area like you're not like obviously not allowed to go into those areas. So pre I would assume presumably those maybe were for ah families and then the individual rooms were- That's what I think too. Yeah. For individuals, I'm assuming those are the rooms that have been now converted into guest rooms? Yeah. Okay.
00:13:52
Speaker
I think so. Yeah. And then they have an example of like what a room would look like still- And it's basically like a bed, a desk, a very tiny space. And there are, like I said, there's back to were talking about, this kind of layout. So it's basically almost like a hexagon in this courtyard that has access to all the buildings.
00:14:12
Speaker
they're not like huge, massive buildings, but they're, yeah, they're individual structures. But those are primarily where people lived? um it true I think two or three of, and then there's, yeah, there's communal spaces within the building. Like there's like the stage area, the children's wing.
00:14:30
Speaker
There is a library. It's still there. Like you can go and sit and read in the library. A lot of the communal spaces got turned into like where the exhibits are. They have ah sitting room that's still how it would have been then.
00:14:43
Speaker
And then there's this with the there's a spot where like the mailboxes are in that main entrance is like a big kind of hall. where there's like a beautiful fireplace and there's access to a kitchen, like a bigger kitchen, like industrial, um like below industrial kitchen, like a big kitchen for a large group of people.
00:15:01
Speaker
I wonder, did they have a dining hall or at in the past that maybe converted to over i maybe a restaurant I think. No, not even like a restaurant. They don't really have anything like that on site. They do breakfast, but it's like very minimal and it's in a kind of different other space too.
00:15:16
Speaker
Like we never got breakfast there because it was like cereal and muffins, which is fine.
00:15:22
Speaker
But there was something that was a dining hall. yeah outside is very cool um i don't know exactly how the outside lays out because the grounds itself where like the five structures are there is like a communal garden that they still maintain and then there's uh i forget the name of this structure but it it's like a gazebo want to say hut too because just the way it's built it's like it almost looks it looks like hagrid's hut from harry potter
00:15:54
Speaker
But it's this like cool structure that's built from like branches. And it's like darker wood. It's such it's a very cool place. And they constructed that. Historically or recently? Is that was it? No, historically. That's yeah, yeah.
00:16:06
Speaker
And then there is the cemetery, which is a bit of a walk away. And to get to it, like we had to walk through like a residential area in the back of it. So it's like people live in actual houses there. So presumably they've sold off land.
00:16:25
Speaker
That's my guess. And there's also a golf course. So I'm assuming that was probably their land because it's adjacent to the cemetery. Okay. Which, I mean, they had to have been agricultural fields, right? Because they did produce food and vegetables. ah One of the other things they did to their Financial gain was sell off canned fruit and vegetables.
00:16:47
Speaker
And also, I think, for their own use. So there must have been some agricultural land that and that that would make sense. That land would be sold off and something like a golf course would make sense on there.
00:16:59
Speaker
Yeah. who was How big was the cemetery? and did you Not very big. we did We did go there. We walked around. We found graves. Yeah, the graves are still there. like They're cared for.
00:17:10
Speaker
and it Not huge. I mean, probably like a decent-sized backyard of a house, right? You know what i mean? like not Not a huge space. And these were members of the community and one time right Yeah.
00:17:24
Speaker
Yeah. Members of the community. I'm sure also probably even some members of the community's like elderly parents or something. And if they didn't have us funds or the resources to bury them you know at a church cemetery or something, I feel like the community was like, well, I can go here. yeah Yeah. And even like some more recent ones that were probably like, I would like to be buried with my family who happened to be there. Okay. Yeah.
00:17:46
Speaker
Not super recent, not like 2000s or anything, but later than the community, like early 1900s. So where the leader was โ oh, yeah, he's there. We found him. Okay.
00:17:57
Speaker
Okay. Really not like an ostentatious gravestone. kind of looked like like some were like huge and some were just like markers and his was a bit like kind of in between like I expected when we got there there was like a huge one and we were like oh that's his and it was not his I don't remember whose it was but and that actually brings up one good point are there any remnants of the actual community is there any group of people that through history have remained attached to each other or did it completely dissolve I believe it completely dissolved. Okay.
00:18:29
Speaker
If there are, they're not vocal. Okay. And I do believe that the people who who maintain the mansion home now and own it, it's it's very much a dedication to like the history. More of a historical society. yeah Right.
00:18:43
Speaker
Right. It's not, they're not pushing group marriage. All right. Okay. Yeah. And I'll take a picture of this too, but one of the times we've gone twice. And the first time I think we got my mom a Oneida flatware spoon that was turned into like a hook, like a key ring hook that you could put on the wall and like hang your keys on it.
00:19:04
Speaker
Neat. And they do cool things like that. Like you can get like hair clips that was made from Oneida flatware and you can still see, you know at the end of ah flatware. Sometimes they have like designs in the silver. Mm-hmm.
00:19:17
Speaker
So that's like the highlighted part in like the barrette, as you can see, like the design. It's really cute. You didn't bring her a prom, or palm, prom, cap? Oh, they didn't have any. I don't think.
00:19:29
Speaker
I for sure would though. I mean, I'm thinking the style's changed. and I think so, maybe. All right. So should we get into John Humphrey Noyes' life post-Oneida community?
00:19:41
Speaker
Sounds good. He is now on the run. In June 1879, a loyal group of followers alerted him that he was going to be arrested for statutory rape.
00:19:52
Speaker
Is that when he went to Canada? Yep. He fled to Ontario. Okay. And the community had โ I wrote a factory, but I think I meant a faction. A community had people there. Oh. Okay.
00:20:03
Speaker
There was like Oneida community members there. So he he went to them. Could have been a factory. don't know if they were making silverware there. I wrote this a while ago.
00:20:12
Speaker
and interesting Interesting. August 19, 19. nineteen Oh my gosh. August 1879. So we got to remember he fled the community, but community members are still there. Okay. Community members are still living in the mansion house and and running things. He wrote to the Oneida community telling them to abandon complex marriage and return to traditional marriage.
00:20:34
Speaker
Now that he's not involved. Exactly. And with this, within two years, the community dissolved. And I don't think it was like the abandoning of complex marriage. I think when a core tenant of a system is then...
00:20:48
Speaker
changed by the leader, it's like, well, we've got a lot of other questions now, too. Yeah, yeah. But he wasn't there, so it didn't matter to him. no So when the community dissolved January 1st, 1881, it was converted to a joint stock company because the Oneida flatware was still really profitable. Yeah, yeah. That's amazing.
00:21:08
Speaker
Members of the community were still seeking him out for religious leadership and asking marriage advice. Yeah. But it was all in a way that he wasn't there. he was So he would like write letters and be like, yeah, just just be traditionally married. It's fine.
00:21:20
Speaker
He died April 13th, 1886. And he was returned to Oneida. And he was buried in the Oneida Community Cemetery with many of his hardcore followers. There was.
00:21:33
Speaker
It wasn't just the, i mean, they had branched out, right, to like other cities. And it wasn't just the one, yeah we'll call it commune or, yeah. okay Yeah. This was obviously like the biggest one. It was almost like franchises, right?
00:21:47
Speaker
Like this is the main one. Yeah. And interesting that he didn't go to one of those. Yeah. I he think he knew enough to leave the country when he was. I guess so. So after his death, Noyce's other son, Pierpont.
00:22:00
Speaker
There's a lot of Pierpont Noyce juniors, the thirds, the fourths in the cemetery. It's kind of a cool name. It is kind of a cool name. ah He consolidated the community's businesses to focus just on the silverware.
00:22:14
Speaker
So no more palm frond hats. i mean, I ah gotta say, okay, so, I mean, we ah again have a lot of different groups who pass on leadership positions through male lineage. But, okay, what I find is that I feel like this guy had a talent, Pierre Pond, and probably was not leading a cult.
00:22:35
Speaker
Yeah. But he like dove into the like, maybe his business. Right. He recognized the business end of it. Right. And that was where he he was talented. Yeah. That's kind cool.
00:22:47
Speaker
ah Because with this decision, Oneida Limited became the largest flatware producer in the world. It's just such a strange outcome. I know. It's a weird connection to this group. I know.
00:22:58
Speaker
It's wild. And as we just kind of talked about, the community's communal brick mansion today is a museum, apartments, guest rooms, dorm housing, and banquet facilities. That's cool.
00:23:09
Speaker
So it's still benefiting Oneida. It's still but tourism. Like a lot of the things that they started doing to help the community of Oneida, the city of Oneida, it's still happening. It seems like he started a little bit at that one time, I guess, while he was at Yale with some some political activism.
00:23:28
Speaker
But doesn't seem like he he ended up being too involved in politics or activism after that outside of this community. I think he very well could have gone the political route, almost like Gato did in like trying to find.
00:23:42
Speaker
hmm. I guess, power that way. But once he found, I feel like once he found this group of followers, he was like, yeah, this is what I was looking for. had enough on his plate. Right. Well, it also could have been an alternate alternate route to like all what he ultimately wanted was, I think he, who it's hard because I do think he wanted like this utopian society, but I think anyone who gets a taste of power and control will crave more and get more controlling.
00:24:13
Speaker
So do you think Gato got out of all this? How do you think this influenced him in the long run? I think the dismissal, his dismissal from the group was humiliating for him.
00:24:25
Speaker
Another form of rejection. He was rejected again. Yep. Has no self-reflection in understanding why he was turned away from the group, why none of the women would have sex with him.
00:24:38
Speaker
It was all everybody else's fault. And it's another way that like the world has harmed him. Yeah. Pattern throughout his life. Right. Right. Right. And, you know, I think anybody who like experiences multiple rejections is able to have some self-reflection about like it might not be their fault, but their role in it.
00:24:58
Speaker
Right. And there is no willingness for Gato to recognize anything negative about himself. And I think he wanted to make a name for himself in some way.
00:25:08
Speaker
her And unfortunately, due to his lack of self-reflection and, I don't know, I don't know, maybe intelligence or emotional IQ or whatever.
00:25:20
Speaker
For sure emotional intelligence. so There's nothing not a lot there. That unfortunately, the way to make and his name for himself partially was to do this horrible act, which actually put him in the history books forever.
00:25:33
Speaker
Yeah. I think he felt very entitled to praise. He felt entitled not to be required to do hard work. in any way, physically, like, go and get a job or even, like, the work of being, ah making yourself a better person.
00:25:50
Speaker
And he was joining a group that ultimate goal was perfection and sinlessness. And even, like, the mutual criticism, even though it's, I think, is a net negative, the group was compelled to try to better themselves as individuals to reach, like, the perfection state.
00:26:10
Speaker
And Gato went in being like, but I'm, But I'm great. That had to be his ultimate hell. Yeah. so So he wanted to succeed in life, but he didn't want to put the word. No, no. And he didn't feel like he should have to.
00:26:25
Speaker
He felt like know because of because of because of what? Oh, no. Because of this delusion of grandeur. That's all I got. Like, he should be entitled to, I joined this free love group to have sex and no one will have sex with me.
00:26:39
Speaker
And why else would I be here give it like giving you the gift of me? I'm not weaving a hat for nothing. No. I will not make a palm frond hat. I don't have to. You make it for me.
00:26:52
Speaker
And I want some sex too. Yeah. And with the group's belief that like a man being rejected isn't the woman's like, she's being picky or she's like needy or blah, blah, blah, all the misogynistic things. It was like, yeah, that's your fault. If she rejected you, there's a reason.
00:27:11
Speaker
Yeah, that's true. That was very cool tangent to ah the overall James Garfield story. So thank you for taking us along there. One of my... The best, the funny thing is like one of the things that I struggle with is when I release episodes, I then I'm like, every Wednesday, I'm like, I panic. I'm like, I have to do this social media posts. And then I'm like, I never plan ahead that far. And I have to like find pictures. And, and it's never a lot. It's like three or four pictures. But i'm like, have so many pictures of the mansion.
00:27:41
Speaker
but Social media is gonna be So easy. Yeah. Because hey you have personal pictures you took, right? Yeah. Yeah, so many. Well, and you know, um i don't know if our listeners know that one of my huge fixations is hotels and especially like historic hotels. Yeah.
00:27:59
Speaker
yeah aye have to go to this place yeah we gotta go and it'll be because it's my husband and i have gone and we've gone twice and it's been like it it's not cheap so it's like anniversary or like yeah this is what we got each other for christmas is we went here so it's like but we are a type of couple that uh does not like to touch when we sleep so we're like we need a king-size bed so we've stayed in both rooms that have the king-size bed Oh, yeah. That's to say the rooms probably aren't They're not huge. They're beautiful. yeah um
00:28:30
Speaker
ah But they're different bed sizes. We're like, well, we're never going to stay in another room unless it's like the twin beds separate. But I'm like, you and I could go and sleep in one of the rooms that have the small beds that are separate and we can experience a different room.
00:28:44
Speaker
Yeah. We've seen you stayed in the like two twin beds before. like for me. Yeah, I'll do that. Heck yeah, I'll do that with you. I can't be like, okay, we're on this romantic getaway with my husband and we're in our twin I love Lucy beds.
00:29:02
Speaker
I know. That's funny. All right. Well, we're going to get back on track next week with our story. and We're going to talk about the actual assassination, the timeline of the assassination, Garfield's death, the trial. It's going to be good next week.
00:29:18
Speaker
Awesome. I can't wait. All right. Well, thank you, everybody, for listening. And we will talk again next week. Have a good week.