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Track Stars and Vietnam Vibes: Athletic Exploits, Patriotic Murals, and Family Tales

James Tucker & Santiago Lopez Season 2 Episode 48

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Join us at Madhouse Bar and Grill for a nostalgic trip back to the 1960s with the legendary Kenny Greer, a former track star and Vietnam veteran. Kenny takes us through his athletic journey, sharing tales of his transition from running to hiking and the evolution of track surfaces over the decades. Hear about his brief flirtation with baseball and how he found solace and camaraderie with the "Lunch Bunch," a group honoring veterans and community spirit.

Navigate the complex emotions of the Vietnam War era with a personal recount of being drafted to Germany instead of Vietnam, where cultural exchanges from rock concerts to the hippie movement left a lasting impact. Discover the heartwarming contributions of John Seklitar and his son to Patriots Park with their patriotic murals, and the touching story of sponsoring a painting for a life-saving VA doctor. These narratives showcase the unifying power of music and art across cultures and time zones.

Explore the tapestry of family history, dietary choices, and life transformations. From considering a plant-based diet inspired by documentaries to embracing family quirks and past struggles, the stories highlight personal growth and resilience. We also dive into the entrepreneurial journey of Mike Backewitsch, a Vietnam Navy veteran who turned career setbacks into a thriving business in the sports video industry. This episode is a celebration of community, the bonds of friendship, and the enduring power of family ties.

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Speaker 1:

we're number one. You mean you're being a cheap ass. You know I'm like dad.

Speaker 2:

You heard it here first right, we're the best you know. They say people that cuss are more honest.

Speaker 1:

So I'm honest, motherfucker put the fish away don't even hurt to get birthday, not for me. Nothing to it. Okay, let's do it. Come on, I'm ready, I'm ready, I want to do it. I wear a song. I got one on right now. You want to see me? And gee, madhouse bar talks. Baby, not this bunch of shit, if you ask me. Welcome to madhouse bar and grill.

Speaker 1:

We've got a special guest today, kenny Greer. He's a member of the Lunch Bunch and we consider him a friend of Madhouse Bar and Grill Comes in for lunch all the time. He was a track star in the 60s. He's had his own business, he's worked in the mill and he's a veteran and the Lunch Bunch is a huge supporter of the veteran everything, anything, veteran. The Lunch Bunch is there. Yep, that's correct. Welcome, kenny Greer. Thank you. The first thing that I ever found fascinating about you and there's been many as the stories start, it's always the fact that you ran track. I did, and you know I watch you walk around and you don't seem very fast when you're coming through here.

Speaker 2:

I'm not 17 years old.

Speaker 1:

When did you stop running?

Speaker 2:

In college I injured my Achilles tendon. I ran one year of track, one year cross country, and then I injured my Achilles tendon and that ended my competitive running.

Speaker 1:

Did you run after that, though? Just to run, just because you liked it?

Speaker 2:

I did, but not on a competitive level, didn't run a lot because then I developed flat feet so fallen archers. So, oh really, competitive level didn't run a lot because then I developed flat feet to fall in arches. So oh really, yeah. So now I I do a lot of hiking, a lot of walking, though no running oh really, you still walk.

Speaker 1:

Oh yeah, oh yeah. Well, that's why you're in great shape. That does it usually all the time that helps. So when you were, when you were running you country, you said I ran track and cross country.

Speaker 2:

And 1962, I was a member of the Amherst Steel cross country state championship team.

Speaker 1:

What's the difference between cross country and track? Well, track, you run on a track. Well, no, I understand Cross country you run out in fields, so it's not considered track then no.

Speaker 2:

Okay, two separate sports.

Speaker 1:

I did not realize that. I always assumed that it was just a version of track cross country.

Speaker 2:

No, it's not Okay, that makes sense Okay, but they're kind of interconnected. You run cross country in the fall In the spring, you run track, oh, in the fall in the spring you run track.

Speaker 1:

Oh, okay, did you play any other sports? I played baseball Really. Yeah, that was when baseball was something.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's when you play huh. Well, I played one year at Marinelle Steel. I was a third baseman. I thought I was pretty good, but evidently not good enough. So I don't play that often. Not good enough for what? No enough. So I don't play that often. Not good enough for what? No. So then I decided that's when I decided to go out for track. I ran. I ran two years of track my junior year and my senior year. My junior, I ran sprints, uh, and relays. And then my senior senior year I ran uh, 440, 880 in the mile relay. And you got some medals. Huh, I was. I was state champion, yes, state champion. Yeah, I was undefeated in the half mile in the state of Ohio.

Speaker 1:

I told you that didn't count because that was before black people were in, and then you showed me a picture of the black guy in the second place, that's right. Did you guys feel that way back then? Like nowadays, like I've grown up where, like, where, like black athletes are so much better than us I mean they really are 90% of the time, did it? Was it like that in the sixties? Did you feel that way back then?

Speaker 2:

Oh well, today it was a big advantage today. As far as track, back in my day we had a four lane center track at Amherst Steel and when I ran track when I won state, that's the last year Ohio State at the shoe, had a center track. After that they had all lane, all weather, all lane tracks, nine lane track. So you ran at the shoe, I ran at the shoe. The last year I ran at the shoe in one state. That's the last year they had a center track and now they have all-weather tracks. Even am or still has all-weather track now, but again they only when I ran they had a four-lane cinder track wasn't even level.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's pretty antiquated it'll get your ankles bad, huh well, you don't want to fall down, let's put it that way. Well, they have more. Give now, too, that track like has. When I was in high school I remember there was a mix. You would go to certain places that wouldn't have, like Southview. We had it where the asphalt or whatever is soft. It just felt spongy a little bit.

Speaker 2:

Yeah well, that's what they call all-weather track.

Speaker 1:

That's the all-weather Same thing that's rubbery, yeah. Yeah, rubbery. Yeah Is a rubber actually in the asphalt.

Speaker 2:

I can't tell you exactly what's in it, but it's kind of bouncy.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so I would think that would be less abusive on your body. Oh, big time, yeah, I would think yeah, but so, so then, after, after running track and dominating that, assume you graduated high school. Right, I did. Back then it wasn't a big importance, like you know, like they got my day it's always important to graduate from high school well then people didn't do it as often.

Speaker 1:

Well, I don't. I think the graduation rate was lower in the 60s. I think if I I'd have to look at the guarantee that, but I think I heard that. I'm not sure about that. I don't know. I think that it was. It was lower in the 60s, but it's a hippie free love. That was a weird time to be in the.

Speaker 2:

It was Countries in turmoil, a lot of discrimination going on. Vietnam War Were you a hippie?

Speaker 1:

My wife was. Your wife was a hippie. She was a hippie. You married a hippie, but you weren't a hippie. I married a hippie.

Speaker 2:

I was a hippie. You married a hippie, but you weren't a hippie.

Speaker 1:

I married a hippie. I was. I was born from two hippies. So I mean, there you go peace, love and hair. That's right. What did you what? So what did you think of the hippies back then like? What did you like? Because I I, when I think of the 60s and I only have like my parents, you know what I mean. Look at it. And they were hippies. I mean, they were a hundred percent hippie. What was it like to not be a hippie?

Speaker 2:

Well.

Speaker 2:

I guess the reason I was not. Uh, I didn't. As I said, I graduated in 1963 and I went to college, um, on an athletic scholarship. Then I went to college on an athletic scholarship and back then, as far as the drugs go, marijuana was a big deal back in the early 60s and then other drugs came along. But you know, people started smoking pot and free love make love, not war and that was pretty common back in those days. So I didn't get involved in it. No, because I was athletic. I didn't want to stay in shape and I did, even though I didn't run a lot anymore as far as competitively.

Speaker 1:

Did you think less of the hippies, like the people that were hippies?

Speaker 2:

No, no, I didn't. I thought it was pretty cool.

Speaker 1:

Oh, you did. Okay, I'm curious. I mean, I don't know, I have no idea what it would have been like to be in that era and like the fact I met my wife at lincoln park. You probably were too young to remember lincoln park, is it? My uncle actually ran that for a little while, but I know lincoln park became chances and then it was the flying machine after that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's I don't know that, but anyway that's. That was a place to go back in the day Batten Fever Park in the summertime. Anyway, I met my wife there and she was wearing bell-bottoms and I can still visualize her now wearing bell-bottoms. I fell in love with her. I didn't know her.

Speaker 1:

Hip-huggers too. What's that? Hip-huggers and bell-bottoms.

Speaker 2:

Were they hip-hugging?

Speaker 1:

me. Yeah, those were sexy. I'll give you that those were sexy.

Speaker 2:

Very cool. So hey, you know I was a lucky guy. She's a beautiful lady.

Speaker 1:

I will take your word for it. I wasn't around to see it. Yeah, have you brought her in here? Is that the one? Have I ever seen her?

Speaker 2:

No, no case no, she passed away 2012. No, not 2012. Let me think I've had three ladies in my life. I was married to Diane, a hippie lady, for 27 years and she got in a really bad car accident at the intersection of 113 and Baumgart road. Life flighted to a Metro in Cleveland. After that she, her health just deteriorated and she eventually died. Passed away.

Speaker 1:

Like how long after the accident, Like did she come home? Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, well, she was in a hospital probably good 30 days. It was in pretty bad shape.

Speaker 1:

And then just from complications. Yeah, boy, I'm sorry.

Speaker 2:

I didn't know that. Yeah, brain injuries and it was sad. Wow, she kind of wasted away. And how old was she? Oh boy, she was in the early 60s.

Speaker 1:

Wow, I'm an old guy yeah, no, I know, I know, but I mean that's young, I mean that's fairly young. I mean early 60s is fairly young, especially if you lived a good life.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we did, and you know we own a small farm in Wakeman, probably about 10 acres. She loved animals.

Speaker 1:

Because she was a hippie. She was a hippie, and my mom's the same way. She's got chickens. Yeah, she's had goats.

Speaker 2:

Well, we started out with horses, and then she wanted to get a goat. She got one goat. She said well, a goat needs another goat for companionship. Eventually we had 20 goats. Wow, yeah, wow, we milked two or three of them.

Speaker 1:

So it was pretty cool garden, we had a garden, lived off the land pretty much so. Did you know her prior to getting in the military? Yes, you did. How'd she feel?

Speaker 2:

well, well well, I'm patriotic.

Speaker 1:

I don't want to say she was not a happy camper? Yeah, I'm sure she wasn't. No, not if she was a hippie. No, no, she uh well, oh, and by the way, the hippies were right, we shouldn't have been, you know, involved in the wars at that time, and that's, that's okay. I mean it's that she was right to say that, I mean being being, it's not. But when you're right, you're right. I mean that's, you know, it's like they say, if it's, if it's proven, it's not a conspiracy. And you know what I mean. And when you're right, you're right, they were right.

Speaker 2:

So back then nobody knew what was going on, not really no, you know, as an 18 year old, we're all.

Speaker 2:

We were all draft bait. We pretty much said we're going to get drafted. That's something physically wrong with you or mentally wrong with you, you're going to get drafted. There's something physically wrong with you or mentally wrong with you, you're going to get drafted. So a lot of people, a lot of boys or men, went to college to dodge a draft. To be honest with you, I didn't, because I went to college on an athletic scholarship. A lot of people did. Some people went to Canada.

Speaker 1:

So because you were on an athletic scholarship, you still were able to be drafted.

Speaker 2:

I had a deferment because I was in college, oh so it was after you got out of college. You got in the military Right. Anybody that was in college males had a draft deferment.

Speaker 1:

Okay, all right, so if you went to college you didn't have to go to war, right? But then you ended up being drafted.

Speaker 2:

Anyway, I did because I got drafted when I was 24 years old. After after right, they said when you finish your senior year, you're gonna be in the military. Get drafted, you drafted. Wow, you didn't have a choice.

Speaker 1:

And how did you feel? I know she didn't like it. Were you unhappy about being drafted too? I was scared.

Speaker 2:

Because all you heard and all you saw, was people getting killed and injured in Vietnam.

Speaker 1:

I remember, like I remember we would run into people all the time my dad's friends and stuff that would have maybe like a leg gone or their arm would be really messed up or they'd have some crazy scar, and it was all stuff from Vietnam. And then it kind of faded away, like in my adult years, when I was young I didn't see it, but unfortunately we start to see it again now after we went to Iraq, and we're starting to see more of it again, like I did when I was a kid, you know, and it's sad, I mean that's what's going to happen.

Speaker 2:

I mean it's better than the alternative, I assume. But you know Well a lot of veterans have post-traumatic stress syndrome too, that you don't see. Yeah, they're suffering now, A lot of them. They don't talk about it, Although I guess you could say they're coming out of the closet now. A lot of Vietnam veterans are starting to talk about their service now and you didn't hear about that 15, 20 years ago. Yeah, they don't want to talk about it. And were you in Vietnam then? I got drafted to Vietnam. I went to event infantry training in Fort Polk, Louisiana. At the time Fort Polk was the largest infantry training center in the United States for Vietnam, Excuse me, 95% of the trainees went to Vietnam. I was deployed to Germany. Wow, and I kind of feel guilty about that to this day. You shouldn't.

Speaker 1:

I mean, you just got lucky. That's all there is to it. You got lucky. God was looking out for you.

Speaker 2:

I mean that's just pure luck, but I know for sure some of the guys I trained with, a lot of them got wounded and some of them got killed and 58,000 of them didn't come home.

Speaker 1:

Wow, that's a lot that you knew. Well, I'm sure they were. Well, that you went to training. Yeah, I went to training, which you don't know. You probably didn't keep up with all of them. No, I did not. Yeah, that's a great group that you guys have going around that does the lunch bunch. And then what's the one son does the murals? What's his name? It's Mike Seklitar. Mike Seklitar, that's who does the painting. Or that's his dad? No, his dad is John Seklitar.

Speaker 2:

John Seklitar, that's it John Seklitar.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you met him at Madhouse there. Yeah, he's coming. He brought his son in too. Yeah, he does, he's been here yeah, I think it was last week we were here. His son was here too.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, Was it Okay? Yeah, I don't think he was here that day.

Speaker 1:

He looks just like him.

Speaker 2:

You can't.

Speaker 1:

I knew as soon as he came in it was his son. Yeah, you know. But he's a talent. Oh, absolutely, he's a very talented kid.

Speaker 2:

Very talented kid.

Speaker 2:

But they do all projects with the, with the memorial, the, the park, the veterans park. It's called patriots park, patriots park, that's what it's called. Yeah, john's wife actually started patriots park. Oh, they did, oh, I didn't know, yeah, and then, uh, his son got involved as a painter and and there's 11, uh, there's 11 paintings, patriotic paintings, at the park. Every Veterans Day coming up here, november 11th, those 11 paintings will be taken down. 11 new paintings will be unveiled for this year. Every year they stay up there for a year. They're on display for one year.

Speaker 1:

And then what happens to them once they come down.

Speaker 2:

They go back to the families or whoever wants them.

Speaker 1:

Oh, really Okay, so they're not sold, or no?

Speaker 2:

Okay, I'll give you an example. My VA doctor, dr Von Cano, saved my life. I diagnosed early colon cancer this was probably six years ago and what I did for him and he wasn't aware I how I was doing it. I sponsored a painting, a painting of him, one of the first paintings that went up on the wall about three years ago. That was that's so it sat for a year and then you gave it to him. It was on display for a year and he got it Awesome.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that is awesome. Did you frame it for him and everything?

Speaker 2:

No, no, I was going to. I wasn't.

Speaker 1:

I'm sorry I didn't mean to make it sound like you did less than you should have that's okay.

Speaker 2:

I thought about it.

Speaker 1:

I felt well, maybe, maybe they wouldn't like the framing well, yeah, they might want to match to whatever they have, that house or whatever. Yeah, that makes sense that makes sense.

Speaker 2:

yeah, the va clinic and the va clinic clinic in Lorain, the Parma clinic, the VA clinic in the VA hospital. They're just awesome caring people, so what was Germany like during that time?

Speaker 1:

Did they have any hippies over there or no? Were there German hippies?

Speaker 2:

There were Really. Yeah, I went to a couple of rock concerts. There were a lot of hippies over there. No kidding, yeah, there were. Wow, they didn't particularly like the war either.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I wouldn't think they would have. Yeah, I wouldn't have thought so. I've got a friend who plays music all the time and he goes to all over Europe. His music was real popular. I I guess it's just more popular in germany and europe. It's um, they're americans and actually the group he's with now three of his singers are actually in france, but they trip he. He is a big deal there, like he's on mtv there, but here we don't care about him. You know, but germany that they have such huge, huge.

Speaker 1:

I was reading his book. He just came out with a book and I was reading through it and he was talking about how some of the places out were right when the berlin wall broke. All that type of stuff was going on. He was doing concerts and they were doing them for less money because everybody was broke. You know what I mean. And he told a story of a young man about his size was admiring his Levi's that I hope someday to be able to have up there, and he said he took them off and gave them to him right there. How cool is that? Yeah, that's really cool, because it was one of his idols and you know it was never mind at Levi's. Now you got your idols, but I was shocked at how different they are with the rock. That's when you say you've been to a bunch, it seems like they're pretty wild. But what I see his videos and stuff it seems I mean because he's scream mute. It's not my thing. It's like that hard heavy metal stuff. It's not my thing.

Speaker 2:

Mine either. I don't take a care for it.

Speaker 1:

But I like Foos enough. He's a great guy. I just don't His music and I can appreciate it now a little bit, now that I know him as well as I kind of listen to it, I semi-appreciate it, but it's still never going to be my like.

Speaker 2:

It's just so loud and it's just not my thing I think, if you're instrumentally inclined, you'll appreciate it more.

Speaker 1:

That's probably very true.

Speaker 2:

The guitars and the other instruments that they play. Yeah, that's probably very true. Not a lot of vocals, mostly instrumentals. Yeah, Unless you're Ozzy Newsome you can't understand him anyway.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I mean, I don't Ozzy Newsome like the football player. No, have you ever heard of Ozzy Ozzy, his last name's, newsome, I think it's Newsome, I'm pretty sure it's Newsome Are you talking about? Like the metal band Ozzy, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Oh, his last name ain't Newsome, is it? I think it is, is it Okay?

Speaker 1:

I thought that was a football player.

Speaker 2:

It is, but you have to Google that I think. I'm pretty sure I'm trying.

Speaker 1:

I can guess it myself. I could be wrong too, though let's look, we could look it up real quick. Ozzy Osbourne, osbourne, there you go. That sounds better.

Speaker 2:

Football's on my mind, sadly.

Speaker 1:

I don't know why, in this town I got my Browns. You might as well burn that. I'm ready to get a Tampa Bay Buccaneers jersey. I was such a Baker fan Huge Me years. That was such a Baker fan Huge. That's a mistake to let him go and then to spend the money they did. But I will say I think that they shouldn't have booed him as he's getting carried off the field. That was a little distasteful.

Speaker 2:

All the fans booed him.

Speaker 1:

I don't know, but I know there was enough.

Speaker 2:

It was disrespectful. Whether they liked him or not, it was disrespectful.

Speaker 1:

When you get that kind of money man people just have, like you can't blame them. I mean people are working their butt off to get a ticket for these games. I mean they're giving a lot of money. I mean tickets are. So I took my family to a game. It was my wife, my son and her dad In the nosebleeds and I think it cost me about $700. I mean that's just like when you're spending that kind of money and you got somebody getting 230 million and you're not getting anything for him, you kind of understand a little bit. You know they live in a different world than we do. I agree. I don't disagree with that.

Speaker 2:

I mean obviously their talent, their athletic, of course, and but disagree with that. I mean obviously they're talented, they're athletic, of course, but that kind of money.

Speaker 1:

It's ridiculous, it is absolutely. But back to you. Let's get back to Kenny. So this farm you guys bought out there. Did you grow anything? I did. We had a huge garden. What'd you have there? Everything, so everything. You didn't sell it.

Speaker 2:

No, so just for yourself. Of course we have chickens and we had our own eggs. We had goat milk, Milk to goats, obviously I haven't had goat milk since I was like 11.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, did you like it? I don't remember hating it, I just remember being thick. Yeah, yeah, like kind of reminded me of like the thickness of like buttermilk.

Speaker 2:

That's kind of what I remember about it, yeah that's not really that thick, it's just like cow's milk. But what you need to do is your milk milk to go. Obviously, put the milk in in the freezer and freeze it. You don't freeze, it, just kills the enzymes. So well, I hope. I hope my aunt did that. I don't know. So if you don't, when you drink the milk it tastes like a goat smells oh really that's. That's why you want to cool it down real fast and it's really good.

Speaker 1:

It's good for you too I don't know if I believe that I'm in the. Have you ever watched the movie forks over knives? What was the documentary forks over knives? No, I don't think so. It's a. It's a documentary put on by one of he was a heart surgeon at the Cleveland clinic and he actually was shared the office with a guy and helped him come up with bypassor and he forks over knives is a great documentary. Helped him come up with Bypasser and he Forks Over Knives is a great documentary.

Speaker 1:

I always tell everybody they should watch it. I haven't. It basically tells you to eat whole foods, vegan diet, you know, and it's the best thing for you and I definitely don't do that. It's not my thing, but I definitely think you should look at it and consider eating a little more broccoli and a little less meat. I mean, I believe that wholehearted. But one of the things he says in it is he says, like cow's milk is the perfect food for a calf, and I mean it makes sense. It makes a lot of sense, you know. So I mean I think goats, it's probably the perfect food for the baby. You know what I mean and that's. And I think that maybe they're right about that and maybe I'm wrong, I don't know. I mean, you're healthy enough for sure.

Speaker 2:

Let me tell you this story about my late wife, diane. As far as meat goes, we never had any of our animals butchered. And as far as meat goes, we never had any of our animals butchered. They would die of old age. I can't tell you how many cemeteries we had there. You know goats and horses and you name it. But anyway, what happened one day before she became a vegetarian? Well, we had too many chickens, right, and the hens were fighting over the, or the roosters were fighting over the hens. So I told Diane. I said, diane, we can't have all these, we've got to get rid of roosters, right? He said, okay, well, I'll call my cousin. She lives in Oberlin, maybe I can give the roosters to her. And she did, didn't know that her cousin would butcher the roosters and became immediately a vegetarian. She never ate meat again, really, yeah, that did it for.

Speaker 1:

That did it for she's a die-hard animal lover, that's and she was a hippie yeah, she was a hippie, very right. And my mom, like I said, she was a hippie. Yeah, she was a hippie, very, very. And my mom, like I said, she was a vegan too. She's the one who turned me into forks over knives, although she does love her meat. She's a vegan that cheats. But that's okay, it's better for her, it's healthy. It's healthier by far by a ton. It's protein. Yeah, it gets you a little bit of like corned beef. You usually can't resist our corned beef sandwich here. When she's here, she's like hey, you know, I just got to do it, you know.

Speaker 2:

So how old is your mother? If you don't mind me asking.

Speaker 1:

She is, so she would be. What? 68?, 68.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah, that's young compared to me.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, oh yeah, she's young and she looks it, she moves around good, she's out, she works still, she works a job full time and she has some land out in Amish country Okay, cool, and she's constantly out moving in the yard and stuff. Compared to my dad who's abused his body because my mom has been more of like a like she takes ayahuasca, if you know what that is ayahuasca. Well it, she takes ayahuasca, if you know what that is Ayahuasca. It sounds familiar. It's some real hippie shit. It's kind of like peyote, I think. But essentially you have to get it from a medicine. It's considered medicinal, so you get high off.

Speaker 1:

You have to get a license for it and then you have to be in a group. They do it in controlled environments, so like where she goes? She would go do it in Kentucky, and in Kentucky you would go there with a group of other people that are going to do the ayahuasca and then a shaman comes in and he basically gives you your ayahuasca. He, he basically gives you your ayahuasca and you, as soon as you take it or shortly after you take it I haven't done it so I don't know, but I'm going by what my mother's told that you start vomiting into a bucket. So everybody has a bucket and you vomit profusely. I guess it is like it's bad, it's just horrible. And then afterwards I always say you trip balls. But she says that's crazy, that she says that it opens, uh, it opens up your like you get, you purge out all the bad thoughts and uh and the negative energy, everything in your life, and it balances.

Speaker 1:

And I believe her and I'll tell you why I believe because she hates my dad, hates him. Are they still married? No, they haven't been married since. Uh, they got a divorce in 79, so my dad went to jail for murder in 79 and while he went to jail while he was in, like going to court. He didn't ever got convicted, but while he was in jail and it was like three or four months that he went through court or whatever. During that time she divorced him and has hated him ever since.

Speaker 1:

Good move on her part. Yeah, he was an abusive man. He wasn't a great person. He's a better person than you'd imagine by hearing that story because he he is. I mean he's God fearing veteran. I mean he's a, he's just a good dude. Um, he was just a little like drug addict. Back now he not today. He hasn't done. My mom is shocked that he trained like he never drank, I guess with her it was only drunk back then. What branch was he in? Military, he was in the marines and the army was in both. What year is what year? You know, I'd have to be 72, ish, 73. Vietnam was still going on. He went in. He went in right at what he went in. I believe vietnam was going on while he was in training.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it would have been. Vietnam ended around 75, I think.

Speaker 1:

And then he ended up coming out. When he got out he went AWOL or I can't remember which one it was, if it was Marines or the Army, one of them. He ended up going AWOL. They released him from that and then he went and signed back up for the other one. So he did one.

Speaker 1:

When a wall got in trouble they chased him down. It's a. It's a crazy story. I actually talk about it on one of the podcast with them. He actually dug his way out of a jail cell. Well, like he dug his way through a, through a. After they caught him he was in a little town in West Virginia, dug his, took a spoon and dug the mortar out of the, the uh, the brick or block and squeezed his skinny ass out the out the thing. It sounds like a movie or something. And the thing is is when I'm talking to him on the podcast, I'm talking to him about it and he says he dug it out with this, with a spoon, like that. And I said I said I said with just a spoon. He goes yeah, they gave us real spoons. Like he's looking at me like aren't they crazy? Like they didn't give us plastic, it was a real spoon, it could work.

Speaker 2:

That's funny. So is he still living today?

Speaker 1:

My dad, yeah, but he's got a rough life. Because he's lived a rough life, I mean he's not in the greatest shape, he's in bad shape, but my mom is pretty healthy, I mean, but she does the. But my point was what I was getting to was the ayahuasca. My mother does nice things about my dad, only anymore I've never heard a bad word since she did ayahuasca.

Speaker 2:

Kind of sounds like LSD. Maybe Is it like that To me.

Speaker 1:

Me, it sounds like it does to some degree, but it's not lsd, it's not. It sounds more like uh, like, like I'd say like peyote or something like it's. It's ayahuasca, that's what it's called. If you look it up, it's it's medicinal. People aren't doing it just to have a good time. They are literally going in a, in a, in a religious type environment, taking it and purging and then doing what they do. They're not, it's not a party, it's not. You know what I mean? It's. It's literally, uh, it's, it's medicinal. I mean it is and it's no, and there's, there's my mom's not the only one that's done it. That that's. People talk about it. Even, uh, collateral beauty. If you ever seen that movie with Will Smith, that sounds familiar. I might've seen that. It's the one where he lost his wife and he can't engage back and they they even talk about. They said he didn't even respond to the ayahuasca like it's pretty out there. It's known and it's known that it works actually.

Speaker 2:

So it's something like they chew it and spit it out or they puke it out. They puke everything they just take it. How do they get a high off of that? I don't know, they don't know they don't swell or anything, it just absorbs into their system.

Speaker 1:

I assume something. Yeah, I don't know how it works a hundred percent, I just know that that's. That's the explanation given to me from my father and I, you know, at the time was very annoyed that she even did it. You know, because that's who I am.

Speaker 2:

I'll have to google that sometime. Yeah, ayahuasca. Yeah, it's still a research.

Speaker 1:

Sounds very interesting it is very, it is very interesting and it's I don't know if it's something I'd want to do. I can't see sitting around and puking into a bucket. It doesn't sound right to me, but it could be. It's hard to say. It might be the answer. It solves everything. My mom claims that you let everything go after that. Does your mom live in this area? She lives in Amish country, so she's about an hour.

Speaker 2:

Okay, so maybe she has her own property there, but she actually lives there.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, she lives there. When she she bought a house or she bought Okay. So my mom, well, she's a lesbian. I don't know if you know that yet she's married to a woman now, but her and this woman met. She was living in Lorraine.

Speaker 1:

She had a house in Lorraine and there was a campsite down there for all women it was basically for women only, no men allowed and uh, they decided to sell off. Well, each person that would go there owned a portion of it, like they would buy an eight, you know, and her and her girlfriend that she met down there decided to buy up some of the other lands and there put theirs lands together and they ended up building, uh, a house. They basically put a basement up and had a shed with a loft put in and then went in and framed it all up and she just moved because at that time she lost her job. Lorraine products had closed. She used to work at Lorraine product and they had closed or changed everything, and so she actually didn't know what she was going to do. My grandmother died, my grandma left her the that house, and so she just sold that house and um, that's what she did.

Speaker 2:

I guess Sounds like she's living like the amish, living off the land. She have a big garden and that type of thing actually they usually keep a decent sized garden.

Speaker 1:

She doesn't live like the am by any means, but she has a vehicle. Then, oh yeah, she has a horse and bug, yeah, yeah, she's got a couple vehicles. Yeah, she's got a brand new. She just had a cadillac long ago, um, but she got rid of that. Now she's got a new honda or something suv, but yeah, she comes up here quite a bit, um, but she works now. So she went back to work. She was off for a little. What does she do? Um, I don't know. She's in a factory right now.

Speaker 1:

She, when she was at lraine Products, she was a computer insertion machine. She's a computer programmer. That's what she went to college for, pretty smart. So the insertion machine that they had at Lorraine Products they had at this company, booster, so she was working there for a long time. It's a funny story and actually it's probably worth telling, I guess. So she works in this place and it's a small, like they're working on a shoestring budget. They're not. They're not Lorraine product, they're not Marconi, they're not. You know, they don't have them. They're not international business. They might be, but they're not big. I mean, that's just not a. They're working on a shoestring budget for the most part.

Speaker 1:

But they got a new insertion machine and they brought this thing in and they paid, I forget. I want to say somewhere around 350. Somewhere big. Maybe I'm wrong, it might be 450, might be 150. But it was a lot of money to them. And they trained everybody how to operate it.

Speaker 1:

Well, my mom was the only one that knew how to operate the last one. And they put a bunch of young kids to teach them how to do it. And my mom is stressing, she's calling me and I don't get it. I don't understand. These kids are just picking it up. I'm done. You know what I mean? She's freaking out.

Speaker 1:

Well, then the time came, they turned them loose on the machine. Well, these kids didn't know shit. They just kept saying uh-uh, uh-uh. You know they didn't know nothing. My mom was the only one who actually knew how to run the machine, so she had to teach them.

Speaker 1:

No, now they're working her like freaking, 14-hour days and everything else. She's exhausted, she's tired. They're giving her shit about listening to her books on, because she does recorded books on her and she's, at this time, only about 59. So she's not still young, not ready to retire yet, really, you know, and they call them into their you know room, their uh what? Why did the words escape me? I need to take my myth. Um, they could. They call them into the the you know where they talk to them. They basically come up, they're on stage, they're telling them look, this is what's going on with the company. These are the new rules. There's going to be X amount of things, maybe mandatory overtime, whatever the things are and they say to them if you don't like it, then you can leave.

Speaker 1:

And my mother picked up her purse, walked out and and she called me freaking out on her way home. She's like, oh my god, I just quit my job. What did I do? She's freaking out, you know, but they're abusing the shit out of, they're working the hell out of her. She's constantly going. Well, she did the right thing. And she, she walked. Well, she's a legend. I mean, she goes to the walmart and people always are like, oh, it's they, they just love it, but she's a legend. And she went to work for another factory and whatever, she don't, he's happy. She's making more money now than she's ever made in her life. As far as that. Plus, she's still getting social security. So, oh, good for her. Yeah, but it was. It was a moment in time where that drive home she's going. What the hell did I do?

Speaker 2:

Well, it sounds like it was for the better, for yeah.

Speaker 1:

I mean, I get it from my mom. I'm definitely between my mom and dad. There's no chance you're going to get me to walk the line, but uh, so anyways, yeah, that's, that's her story. Back back to back to you. And you we've got, we went to the farm. So then, what? What'd you do for a living?

Speaker 2:

oh well, because you went to college. Yeah, well, what happened? When I got all service, I I thought I talked to somebody today downstairs about this and I don't know if I just mentioned that to you also what happened? I lost my job at us still, uh, like thousands of other people did. That was probably about 1981, 1982.

Speaker 1:

You probably worked with my grandfather with my same name, james F.

Speaker 2:

Tucker, well, there's a thousand you know thousands of people there at one time. You know who knows? But I worked in a laboratory and then I lost my job. What's a laboratory? You analyze steel and iron Like x-ray and stuff. Yeah, I worked in the electronic part of it. Oh, okay, spectrometers, that type of equipment, all electronic Air conditioning Sounds like a good job. It was a good job. It was a really good job. That type of equipment, all electronic air conditioning, which sounds like a good job. It was a good job. It was a really good job. Made good money. You know, last year, I think it was 1979. I made 40 some thousand dollars Pretty good money back then.

Speaker 2:

Pretty good money back then, yeah. But, as I said, it was major cutbacks. We were the first to go. Probably at least 6,000 people went when I did no warning whatsoever. You know, vietnam was all over, so, yeah, so I lost my job and then, as I said, I owned a farm. I had to get the chimney clean. That's how I started my chimney service business. What happened as I was knocking doors? As time went on, I built my business up, went to two county fairs Lorain County and Back to Back Fairs here in Lorain County and Lorain County fairs. I had a booth there. I generated a lot of business that way too. That was probably 1982, 83. And then, as my business started to grow, I had my office in my house.

Speaker 2:

The problem was I was telling you earlier about the chickens we had. Well, we had too many roosters. Well, one of our roosters, a man named Henry, in the wintertime we had to bring him. He couldn't take the cold, so we brought him, put him in a dog cage in a utility room, in our utility room in the wintertime. Well, we had an Amazon parrot too. Well, my office was between the utility room and where the Amazon parrot was. Well, the Amazon parrot learned to crow.

Speaker 1:

The parrot learned to crow.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, learned to crow. So a customer. That's a true story. So a customer would call's a true story. So a customer would call. I would answer the phone. My voice was set off to crow the parrot, both of them. So I'm in the middle and they're crowing on both sides of me. People say your office in a barn? I said no, I'm actually at home. No, my wife's just a hippie. Yeah, she was just a hippie. That's a true story. So as time went on, henry the rooster, his health got worse. So, dan, my wife took him to a veterinarian I think it was North Ridgeville that specializes in birds and eventually Henry died. But my understanding is the veterinarian took a picture of Henry and he has that picture up on his wall of Henry oh, really, the rooster in his office Still to this day. Huh, henry's pretty cool. Henry didn't like me, though. No, he was jealous.

Speaker 1:

He was jealous. I was so afraid of chickens. When I was a kid that was my dad. We'd go to my grandparents or whatever. And now I realize it and honestly, if I'm being honest, I only realized it maybe six years ago. I realized my dad was joking, but it took me all these years to realize it. Every time we'd get out at my aunt Sandy's or my grandma's, he'd always go watch that one at bites. He didn't know which one he was even pointing at and I didn't realize it all this time. I was scared of the chickens Usually.

Speaker 2:

I said roosters are mean.

Speaker 1:

Well, he was just making it up.

Speaker 2:

I don't think. I don't think.

Speaker 1:

I think he was just making it up Kidding around. Yeah, he's just trying to aggravate you. That's funny. Yeah, but yeah, so, so the chimney. How long did you do the chimney business then?

Speaker 2:

What happened? As my business grew, I moved my office to Amherst. I rented a warehouse and office building there, on Route 13, there south of on Route 58, just south of 113. So I built my business up. It grew. I had employees. Then we branched out doing other things Restoring chimneys, building new chimneys Not, too, not a lot of new construction, mostly restoration, Relying on chimneys with stainless steel after people have chimney. Fire insurance company will cover that. So that's where I really started growing. When I retired I think it was 12 years ago sold my business. I had over 25,000 customers covering eight counties. So I went to knocking on doors. So you're rich. I sold my business. That sounds rich.

Speaker 1:

I didn't know you were rich. I thought you were just some poor schmuck. Everybody thinks when you own a business, you're rich. That's just how it goes. They do.

Speaker 2:

Everybody believes that and I always say everybody needs the opportunity to be self-employed. Understand how hard it is to make a buck, no less a dollar in profit. Yeah, it's not easy. It's a rollercoaster ride, as you know. Yeah, most all businesses are like that, especially small businesses, I believe it, especially restaurant business. That's the toughest.

Speaker 1:

It didn't used to be. It's a new thing that it's a tough one, Is it? Yeah, From what I understand, 20 years ago restaurant business was a business to have Well. 20 years ago is when it went downhill, Like in the 80s and 90s. You'd have done well in a restaurant from what.

Speaker 1:

I understand what happened. I think it's like food costs and things like that. I believe it was the biggest thing, Especially now, and I think it. I think partly it may be, I think credit cards might have, because I think some of them old school little restaurants, they were able to hide a little more cash and stuff like that. You know where now you're using credit cards so much that you can't, you know, get rid of those sales. And you know, like, you figure, when I this place here with the gin mill, when it was a gin mill, Andy was the one who rang everything in and he didn't let anybody else ring any. He controlled the money as a. When you customer pay the tab and I mean smart, yeah, and I guarantee, put some of that away without away, without ringing it in I would. You know what I mean. Why would you turn it in to the IRS if you didn't have to?

Speaker 2:

mostly the only thing I can tell you. There. The lunch bunch has a patriot that is now an IRS agent. You were no one of the members of the lunch bunch. Now Don't bring him around here. No, I'm just kidding. That's what I'm saying well, you might want to watch what you're saying.

Speaker 1:

No, what I'm saying is it used to be, they did that, I don't think you get those perks no more. I think those perks are kind of gone to this to them. So that probably helped, I'm sure, because taxes kill you. You know, even if you could get, and I think a lot of that times to those, they they would pay cash to their, some of their employees, but they pay them out of that money they were able to obtain without you know, ringing it in type stuff. I mean it was all kinds of little ways. Once, the more you get the credit cards involved and I mean you know my credit card, you know my credit card fees are a month here and I'm not a busy restaurant about 12 to $1,400 a month. Oh, that's my fee. That's crazy, that's huge. I mean it's an electric bill. You know what I mean. It really is.

Speaker 2:

Don't you have an add-on fee, like some of these places? I have never done that. It's 2% or 3% to add, I find it to be in cash.

Speaker 1:

They've approached me about it. That's pretty common. It's starting to be. They approached me about it about two years ago and I was scared of it. I feel like it might leave a bad taste in people's mouth. I put that $1.50 fee whenever they started adding the to-go boxes and stuff started getting real high in price. I added $1.50 for all to-go orders and I lost customers over it. I had a guy that came in here and got the meatloaf dinner religiously and I'm friends with his son and he's been coming in here religiously since I opened the place as soon as that $1.50 was there won't come back.

Speaker 2:

That's crazy. Over $1.50. Over $1.50. It's still a deal it is. It is. That's crazy. Over a buck 50. Over a buck 50. It's still a deal it is.

Speaker 1:

It is that's what I told him. I said, what if I? Because I don't think he would have minded if I charged 1050. At the time it was 899. And I don't think he would mind if I would have charged 1050 for it. It was just the idea of that fee for being a carry out, you know, I think, is all that he didn't like and I don't, and I'm afraid that that's what will happen with the, the charge and more for the credit cards. It's pretty common, like I said, it is, and it makes sense to do it because, like I said, when you're paying 12, 1300 a month, it's only so long you're going to do that before. That's a lot more appealing, you know, yeah, and I just, you know, I, I, I started to see it more and more. I just nervous about it. Yeah, I don't want to tick nobody off and you know what I mean. That's, that's my whole thing. How did you get involved with these guys, the lunch bunch that you do you mess with?

Speaker 2:

Well, through through a Facebook um, and I was supposed to quit. Mostly when I go to, I walk a lot, like I said before, and hike a lot. I would post pictures and somehow it came up that I was a veteran. Mike Backewitsch, who's a Vietnam Navy veteran, was following me on Facebook and he invited me to join a join a lunch bunch one day and I did, and that's. I've been there ever since. Oh really, yeah, it's probably been maybe four years ago or so, okay, and we don't have a lot of people. We don't call ourselves members, we're patriots, we don't have a membership, but probably at that time we might have had 20 people, maybe that were part of the lunch bunch. Now we have over 70. Mike's a great guy, he's an awesome guy.

Speaker 1:

Every time I've ever talked or met with him, I've had nothing but good vibes from him. Yeah, I mean, he's just a good person, I think, and he's somebody I'd love to have on here also. He's very interesting. Yeah, he's very interesting. He's another guy like you, that kind of. Of course he did a lot better than that, but it's the same thing. Saw a need for something and jumped in and did it. I mean, that's the heart of the American spirit, isn't it?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, he started the US Sports Video. Yeah, and before he bought the property he owns now, he started in his basement. He was working for Honeywell as a computer expert and he lost a job at 50 years old, similar to what I did, so he's really electronically inclined and that's where he started his business. Now it's a multi-million dollar business.

Speaker 1:

Oh yeah, it's huge. He's controlling the cameras at every NFL game, college game. It's crazy, it's unreal now, but I mean, yeah, he's an interesting game. I mean it's crazy, yeah, it's unreal now. But I mean, yeah, he's an interesting guy.

Speaker 2:

I actually worked on his house from Star when I was with that.

Speaker 1:

Star, yeah, starbuck built it right. Yeah, he built it and we worked on the house when it got built and I remember being so like, wow, look at this property, it was beautiful. It had an elevator, which I thought was amazing beautiful. It had an elevator, which I, you know, thought was amazing. Yeah, I've been there several times. Yeah, I, I haven't been there since it was built, so I, I mean, that was the last time I was there, but mike is so humble you would never.

Speaker 2:

You would never ever know he had a nickel to rub together. No, he's a great guy, so generous, a great guy, and and uh, does he do a lot for charities and stuff like that?

Speaker 1:

he seems like he, I know, I see that he does a lot politically, charities and stuff like that. He seems like he, I know, I see that he does a lot politically.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, he, he. He doesn't tell anybody what he does, but he does I know. I know he's filmmakers, we're really close friends. He does a lot.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I would think he does he just. You could just he, just he's got a good soul, he does.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you could tell him for sure. He's a great guy.

Speaker 1:

Amazing. So how long was the Lunch Bunch going before you started?

Speaker 2:

Well, roger, Bronson, he was here today, you know, roger. Yeah, I told him, he's next. He's next. Yeah, Anyway, him and probably five or six other retired teachers started it.

Speaker 1:

It was not known as lunch.

Speaker 2:

Much Every Wednesday it would go to Ziggy's and Amherst for lunch and when COVID came along they saw a need for smaller restaurants, local independent restaurants, to support them. So they started going to different restaurants and then it started to grow.

Speaker 1:

It snowballed, so they never went past Ziggy's before COVID no.

Speaker 2:

I didn't know that Every Wednesday it would go to Zig. No, I didn't know that Every Wednesday would go to Ziggy's. I didn't know that. Wow, Like I said, they sell a need. Small restaurants are relegated to stay open certain days and certain hours. So that's what they wanted to help out.

Speaker 1:

It was. Yeah, it was. I appreciate them so much. It's so, it's just awesome and all the guys are so much. I, I, I, it's so, it's just awesome. It's I and all the guys are so good. I've never met any buddy bad in that. It's a good. It's a real good group of guys.

Speaker 2:

It is it? Is you know, really caring people?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's a really good group of guys and I and they're and come in. I always like that you guys give us a call, let us know, so that we don't get, you know, overwhelmed or you know you want it to be a benefit to us, not not, that's right, hurt us. You know what I mean. So and I I really appreciate it. I think that they, they do a great job. And I wanted to get roger up here. I told him he's next, but he, he just looked at me like yeah, I don't think so everybody knows roger?

Speaker 2:

yeah, yeah, he's. He was a teacher and counselor at lorraine high school for years and years, so yeah, we were talking about it.

Speaker 1:

It went down there to one day because I went to fair home when I was young. Eventually, south here we, off the side of lorraine, but you know I never was in his classes at all.

Speaker 2:

Did you graduate from South Hill? I didn't graduate. Did you know? What year did you go there? What was your? I was supposed to graduate in 92. Okay, did you know Ray Pagan by any chance? Uh-huh, ray was a friend of mine. Ray was yeah, oh yeah, he was a good baseball player.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, he was big into baseball.

Speaker 2:

I remember that His older brother, roe, was also very good, especially basketball. They're both really good athletes, so good guys. Yeah, I think Roe passed away not long ago. As far as I know, ray's still alive. His nickname was Munchie. I'm not sure why they call him Munchie.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I want to say he played baseball with Fred and those guys at one time and I and that's I was shocked when I seen him, you know, there with all those guys, cause I met I forget what. I met Fred I think I brought subs up. Fred owned Subway and I worked at the Subway across the street at Southfield. I think I took, cause he was playing softball the one day and I took subs out for everybody. He asked me to bring them out and I brought them out and he was there and I'm okay, that was weird, you know, but I mean, when he's your principal you just stay clear, you know. You don't want to, you don't want to see him after we're after school.

Speaker 2:

I heard he's pretty lenient, though I'm not sure about that.

Speaker 1:

I never had to deal with him whole lot he.

Speaker 2:

I don't believe he was ever the disciplinary principal there was. We had miss kemp who was usually handled our disciplinary stuff so I dealt with her.

Speaker 1:

She hated my mother too. So well, she wasn't a very nice person, was she? I was a bad. I was, oh, I was a bad kid, for sure 100. But in fact the reason I quit going to school was only solely because they were going to put me in detention home for missing so much I was a bad kid I just was a little bit of your father's blood in you there.

Speaker 1:

Huh, you know, honestly, that sounds like the dna the tuckers had a bad reputation. It wasn't just my dad, it was all his brothers, everybody and I. I, when I was a teenager, I felt like that was my fate, that's what I was supposed to do honestly. And it wasn't until my, my daughter, alexa, was born and and I I met her family and and this kind of changed and realized I didn't have to be that. I don't know what. Just something switched one day. This went yeah, I don't know reason, I have to do that. That doesn't make any sense. You know what I mean. But I always assumed I have to be a Tucker. This is what Tuckers do. You know what I mean.

Speaker 2:

And uh, well, you did something right. You're doing well now Seems like yeah, I mean I've always.

Speaker 1:

Just it's pretty common that that people um in business, small entrepreneurs and stuff like that, or it's very common that they weren't the best students in school. The best students in school they always were full of their own ideas, and you know that's pretty common.

Speaker 2:

So and I mean that's I kind of fit in that category because I had ADD Back in the day. They didn't know what that was, so if I read a book I'd have to keep going back in chapters and probably remember what I read. But now they know what it is. They just thought we were slow learners. A lot of us, quite a few of us, were in that category, and I was one of them. Actually, some of us became overachievers.

Speaker 1:

And I think part of that is trying to prove something, probably a little bit. And that's how I fit in that category. My, you know, my daughter just called me. Her birthday was tuesday. Went to her house for dinner and we were talking about drinking coffee. Because I drink coffee and go to bed. He goes yeah, everybody would 88. I looked there, I go what are you talking about? He goes nothing. So I don't know, maybe I needed riddling, I don't know, I know I've never.

Speaker 2:

I'm not hyperactive. My attention uh, and it's very, very low, so I have to. Sometimes I will interrupt somebody when they're talking. I'm trying to teach my and I have been doing that for quite a few years teach myself listen, don't talk. Yeah, even talking to you, and I want to interrupt and say something, but I intentionally try not to do that and that's something with me on the radio or on the podcast.

Speaker 1:

I have to force myself to do that too. And my wife still goes you interrupted him, interrupted. You interrupt all the time whenever we're listening she goes look, you interrupted him and it's. It's, you're right, and that my what my daughter's probably. I'm learning stuff about myself because people have been saying things to me like somebody told me the other day, like probably a couple months, but they said that I'm intense, I'm intense and that I ask other people and everybody's like uh, yeah, you're pretty intense, dude. Like I didn't know that, I had no idea. I looked at my brother and thought he was intense. I didn't think it was. I think your father was for sure. Yeah, my dad, he was a charismatic guy. He got a minor, my dad, but still he's charismatic. But in fact I did a podcast with him. He came into town one time. Oh cool, I did a podcast with him. I really wanted to do that really badly. Some of the best views I got on YouTube to date was with him. People just love him.

Speaker 2:

He's just the way he is. Did you learn something about him that you didn't know through the podcast?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, a little bit. I learned more. Actually, I learned more from my mother. My mother told me the whole story on the murder charges. My dad won't tell you the truth about a whole lot. Everything's a joke to him. You know what I mean. Like he has a tattoo of a woman named diane, I go, it's diane. He's like who knows, it's a wild night. You know I mean it's, but that's not the truth. You know what I mean. That's just, that's just how he is. You know.

Speaker 1:

So I I did, for my mom recently told me the story, what actually happened, and I remember part of it. Um, I wasn't sure how it went down. I just remember a portion of um, but I wasn't sure exactly what went. You know how you, when you're a kid, like you remember things but you don't know what you were like. It's weird. Like you don't understand what you're, what it was that was going on. Yeah, that's things like that, but that, that. But she gave me the whole rundown and pretty wild story, one that I'll never tell, and maybe when my dad passes, maybe I'll tell it then, but I'll tell it before that promise. So was your father sarcastic.

Speaker 2:

My dad is nothing.

Speaker 1:

Okay, I kind of assume that my dad says his, his, he's always got a saying, always something crazy. Keep it simple, stupid. I'll give you an instance. My friend comes in the house one day and we're growing our mustaches starting to grow. We got mustaches. We walk in the house and my buddy had a pretty good-sized nose. You know he was a pretty big nose, I mean not the biggest nose of our friends, but pretty close. And he walks in the house my dad just goes what a nose like that. Why would you underline it? That's just my dad. You know what I mean. That's how he is. I mean everything was always so fast and just I mean he was. So we were doing one time for Pre-Builder, we were doing Vineyard Square Shopping Center. It was right when Moose had moved out of it, okay, and they put that MedMart or whatever medical. It was a pharmacy, basically. They put in there and we added put the addition on. Is that on 58? It's on 60.

Speaker 2:

Okay, okay, it's in the vineyard plaza right there, yeah.

Speaker 1:

I know exactly. I live in Vermillion, I know where it's at, so right where that when they put that addition on for the pharmacy and Moose had moved across the street at the time not to Lorraine, but across the street.

Speaker 1:

Remember that actually I was there one time and we're building that and and instead of getting the portage on Paul Preet's putting, letting us use the restroom in the office. But it was nice, you know it's better than going to a portage on. You got a regular restroom. You know my dad's out there and Paul paul pre comes out, makes a comment about dribbling on the on the seat. You know of the toilet. You know could you lift the toilet seat up or at least wipe it when you're done, or something like to my dad? You know my dad goes. I'll do that shit at home. I ain't doing it at your fucking office. Who does that? You know what I mean. And there was a portage on there that day, by the way so what the preach?

Speaker 1:

say he just turned around walked away and put a portage on it's like that's all he did.

Speaker 1:

That was it. Yeah, my dad just wanted those. You don't argue with them. Like I, literally my dad with like a broken hip limping in a walker, I would feel safer walking next to him right now like that than any other time in my life. I mean he just he's just that guy. You know what I mean. You know you don't. I mean he's just a scary guy. Something about him Just you know, like it was never the biggest guy you might have been able to whoop him. It would have been a. You'd have been packing a lunch if you did, but if you did, that'd probably be the worst thing you could do is win, because I mean you might your house might get burnt down. He's just, he's crazy.

Speaker 2:

I mean you don't know what he's capable you know, I had an older brother similar to him and, uh, you know he drank and did this thing, but but when he drank booze he would get mean. So he would go to a bar and drink a beer and then he'd start drinking booze. Right, he would look around the bar, say what's that guy looking at? He must be a faggot. He instantly got into a fight. He wasn't big like your father, he's muscular and tough, but but not a. He probably weighed 150 pounds, 160 pounds, the most you know. Yeah, kind of like your dad.

Speaker 1:

Oh, yeah, that sounds more like my dad's brother that just passed randy. Now that's the kind of stuff he would. He would get drunk and walk in the bar and tell him what the laws are according to rand that's not that sounds like my brother.

Speaker 1:

That was right. But randy was a little bigger, a little stronger and a little. How old was he when he passed? He just passed, so he's, uh, same as my mom. So he'd be 68, pretty young. Yeah, he just passed, just read. But he wouldn't go get help. He had a stroke at home and would not go get help. He's like, yeah, I'm done, I'm not doing it. So he died on his own terms, you know, and I think he was sick of being sick, basically.

Speaker 2:

Oh, my brother did too. I can tell you a lot of stories about him, but I'd rather not, you'd rather not. Well, I could, because you know, back in those days, you know, I was in school, he was older than me and always got in trouble, and you know his name would come up on the news and on the radio. It was embarrassing, yeah, it was really embarrassing, you know. So, yeah, he ended up in a stroke also, actually, because he got in a bar fight on Pearl Road, pearl Avenue in Lorain, I can't think of the name of it, montezuma or Cavalier Club, cavalier Club, cavalier Club. So he got in a fight, pool fight, pool hall. So the story is the guy took the shoe stick over his head several times plus shot him the same day and then he was. After that he was paralyzed on his left side. Oh Well, kind of like your dad, yeah, maybe not that extreme, more extreme than your father, randy was extreme.

Speaker 1:

According to my mom, my dad's the one who yeah, my dad was the one who gave randy the idea. According to my mom, he said my dad thought it. Yeah, when they got off on their murder charge bradley was their attorney, by the way, and he'll tell you that's what made his career he'll tell you that, yeah, that was that murder case. It was actually they that somebody got shot coming out of three star. My dad and his brothers happened to be roofing the us steel building right there on the corner. They were doing a roof job yeah, it was a roofing and, uh, the guy got dropped on the sidewalk right outside. Oh and uh, you know my dad and brother, randy, randy and ricky and randy they're ricky, randy, rusty, rocky, rowdy and robbie robbie died anyways.

Speaker 1:

Ricky and randy go to court and, uh, they just like looked so similar. They just one had facial hair and the other one didn't and they witnesses couldn't figure out. They mis-said who was who. Basically, you know what I mean they got off. They got off. Yeah, I mean they did not go to prison for that. I mean, randy went to prison later on in life and you know, dad went to jail a few other times after that, but never prison. I've been crazy like Randy. Yeah, pretty, pretty crazy story there's a lot of. I'll tell you the whole story, but not on air someday, yeah I could tell you stories too, about my brother.

Speaker 2:

I don't prefer to, yeah, tell too much about what happened to him yeah, they were crazy, they were absolutely nuts.

Speaker 1:

They were, they were that's. That's a whole nother level. It was. This is the and I'll leave it. We're gonna get ready to get out of here, but I I'll leave you with this one, this story. When I was a kid, on numerous occasions not just once, it's at least a dozen times it happened I would stay the night at a friend's house and as I'm waking up in the morning I could hear the parents yelling at the my friend in the other room saying you get that tucker out of you. Okay, true story. I mean numerous times that happened.

Speaker 2:

It was a lot well enunciated your first letter, right anyway. Tucker, right yeah, but every girl that I ever knew troublemakers and tuckers.

Speaker 1:

every girl I ever knew, though, their mom was like oh I had the biggest crush on your dad, or I had the biggest crush on r dad, or I had the biggest crush on. Randy, they must've been some good looking kids, pretty cool. All right, I appreciate you sitting down. I was looking forward to this. I'm glad we learned a little bit about you and a little bit about the lunch bunch. If anybody else wants to get involved, they can just come to the lunch bunch. Yeah, they get involved.

Speaker 2:

They can just come to the lunch bunch. Yeah, they just, they just where do they look for it at? On facebook, in fact. I posted. This morning three o'clock, I posted a little story about the lunch bunch, how it started and that type of thing. So, and that I think the last sentence. I said anybody's welcome to join the lunch bunch at a visit sometime on wednesday. Only thing, only recommendation requirement we have is that you honor the American flag. That's it.

Speaker 1:

Okay, that's all yeah, because you guys always say a pledge of allegiance when you're there. Yep.

Speaker 2:

That's awesome. And sing God Bless America, yep Every.

Speaker 1:

Wednesday Yep, and that's that's, that's a, that's a solid request request. I don't see why anybody could.

Speaker 2:

You know, we don't care what political affiliation you're with to show up. Have a good time, yeah, and support the rest of us.

Speaker 1:

That's what we do, even if they're voting for Kamala.

Speaker 2:

I'm sorry.

Speaker 1:

It's been great. I really appreciate you coming and talking to us. Kenny, all right, thanks for having me. Thank you, take care.

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