You know, the most secretive thing in the world is a person's mind, because you don't want to let me know what you step up on or what you mean to tell me, because there are things in your mind, in my mind, that no one will ever know. Yes, I like to be tied into a duck with a skate key, but no one's going to know that. I like a catcher's mickle, but that's okay. But really no one knows what goes on in anybody's mind. So you can't really say I know what you're thinking. You never know what anybody's thinking. You just have to do what you have to do in your life that makes you happy without hurting anyone. If you hurt someone or lie to someone, cheat someone, they might never come back around. They say Carmen or Rosa, or I'll come around. I don't believe that. I see a lot of people have done a lot of bad things and they're fine. I see a lot of good people that have suffered. They should. So I don't believe in all that. Belief is a hard thing in this world. You know a life to believe in something, Because there's so many distractions that make you not believe. And when you don't believe in something, people think I'm not talking about your race. I'm talking about believing in it, in the government, your marriage, your wife, your girlfriend, your job. There's a lot of things you just don't believe in sometimes and don't make sense. I was always embarrassed to be a wrestler Cuz I had to protect what I did. Well, there's no masked men and there's no guy behind Dexter from Yankee Stadium with a mask. You don't announce a guy at the NBA from parts unknown. I mean, how can I work for a promoter and not tell them who I am? How do I get paid? This is stupid. So if you defend that to people, you can't do it. It's an embarrassment. It really was an embarrassment. They should have known what great actors some of us were. Some weren't, but some were, and the ones that were were the ones that drew money. And that's how you can tell a great actor, especially Tracy Sean Connery. Nowadays they have Tom Hanks, who's a great actor, or Brad Pitt. I've never seen him in anything, but I'd like to watch him and his wife some time. Never mind, but no, um, no, you never know. But a wrestler, you can tell if he's good, if he draws money, and you know an average fan can go out there and watch a wrestler and tell one time if they like him or not. That's the truth. You know, that's the truth. He may get a little better, but he's going to always be the same. Yeah, oh, exactly yeah, there's some guys that have shifted from the beginning. There's some guys Rick Flair, bobby Heenan, ray Stevens, pat Patterson and there were some guys that just never made it. They were like a fart in a spacesuit.
Speaker 1:What about you? Know how much does they always talk about politics and playing politics backstage? How much does that balance out with the talent? I mean you? Oh, it's very important If the broker likes you. Yeah, if the broker likes you, not the promoter, but the brother For you.
Speaker 1:People that are coming to spoke on me. If I was the promoter and I hired Steve Anderson to be the broker, I'd hear you're right, don't bother me. Well, maybe my thoughts are on my kids. So if the promoter comes in, let's say I'm running the AWA or WWF and I'm the broker there, I bring in two guys who I like and they're not really that great at counting, but I like them. I will push them down your throat. You can either buy tickets or not. Come along. Traders will tell really quick if they like you or not. So it don't take long.
Speaker 1:But some bookers just like to do that because they like these guys and they want to make them money. You want to make them money. You want to make them money. Put a guy on you don't like who can draw money and then send him a check at home. That'll work, all of us. You want to make money off what makes you money off. That's what you have to do. So those guys aren't so much focused on the consumer, they just want to put their friends over.
Speaker 1:Well, first of all, the booker. He only gets a very small percentage. I was offered a job once as a booker in a territory for $100 a week. I spent $100 a week. He said, yeah, but whatever you book yourself into which means the main advantage of them you'll make more. That makes the same as working. So it makes for $100 a week. I have to be in the office five days a week from 10 to 6 o'clock on the phone with all these guys. Kids are ass lying. For $100? Everybody wants to be a booker because it's a control thing, it's a power thing.
Speaker 1:Some bookers were great Red Nastine, I mean a great booker. Some were ridiculous. Some were foolish, some couldn't book anything, some couldn't call a cab. I mean, you can see it. I mean, what was it? Wcw? You put the bell on Daniel's mother, on David Arquette, because then it was me and Buck, our two people that had never been in the business. And it sounds like I'm not going to, but that's the truth. I couldn't right now run a hockey team or anything. I've only done one thing in my life, that's wrestling and make people laugh. I can be stupid and run wrestling, but that's it, and I made a living off that.
Speaker 1:So you talked before about people believing in things. What about people who I don't know if this is kind of a pop culture thing people who believe in like a John Edwards who's that? A guy that people can talk to the dead, or can supposedly talk to the dead? Oh, okay, what about that? You heard yeah, um, those people need something. Those people need something. Um, they're looking for something. They're lost. They're the people that are hurt, and if someone can pat their heads and rub their back and say, freddie's talking to you from cloud nine, I know so and so here, that makes them feel better they really, I don't believe, don't have enough strength in themselves.
Speaker 1:Here's a guy that was born just like you, clipped his pants, so he was four just like you Went to school, kicked his milk on his shirt. Just like you Went to school, Picked his milk on his shirt, just like you. Morning. All of a sudden he can talk to the Lord. He may think he can, and then there are gifts on that, but I'm saying we don't know about that. And those people seem to me to be very weak and they want someone to always tell them. It's like a person I said did I have a good match? You know that these people ask for help. They need guidance, they need strength. I don't know how to give it to them. The only way I know how to give strength to somebody is to tell them the truth.
Speaker 1:Steve Anderson, you're very, very, very good writer. I'm not saying that because you're my partner, but you are. I was a very, very good manager. Marilyn Monroe was a very, very good looking lady. Al Pacino's a very good actor. Those are things that just go without saying. So some people are just, they just want to hear things, and most of you are the sicks. Yeah, there's good people and bad people. Everybody has a washing in their heart. Everyone does, I don't care who it is.
Speaker 1:No, I'm wrong with that. I wouldn't do that. If I found a wall with a hundred grand in it, I'd return it Because that person must need it. No, I'm wrong. If I found a wall with fifty bucks in it, I'd return it Because they might need it. If they don't have a hundred bucks, they can't pay my people. If I pay 100 bucks, it's kind of hard. You don't need it. Then you want the reward too. It's mine. I'm going to go to the brain city.
Speaker 1:That's like people who return things and they expect rewards. It's like they're praised for doing it. They'll do a news story. That's what the guys are. I wouldn't charge him. Well, I don't want to be a guy's son. I wouldn't charge him. I don't want to answer your wife, I don't even. It's just wonderful. It's just wonderful that they returned that. What a great person they are. But that's not a news story, that's just common sense. It doesn't belong to you. Some people. They'll return something and they'll get mad because they don't get a reward. Like, well, you just did what you should do. You know you did what you should do. Yeah, not many people do what they should do. Yeah, people should move out of Newark. No, here's, we're doing this thing right now in August in Minnesota.
Speaker 1:And there's this other thing on TV about some guy. He's a guy, he's a guy, he's a guy, he's a guy. He's a guy, he's a guy. He, about some guy with some kind of reward he wanted for something he did and it was just a natural thing to do. You know, like you found somebody's kid that was missing, could you really return a kidnapped child or something? He said, hey, give me 20 bucks. You know what kind of a scum are you now, exactly, with great feelings, you would get out of that to return a child or someone, or return anything to make anyone happy.
Speaker 1:That's why I like to do comedy. That's why I like to entertain, because it makes people happy. I'm not a violent or mean person. I like to make people laugh. If I wasn't a good person, would I want to make people laugh? Of course not. There are a few. I get these, you know. I don't know, it's just, it's just, yeah, cut, yeah. How did we feel?
Speaker 1:Anyway, they take you up to the dressing room. They put your name on the door. We're just, uh, bobby Hinn, there's a cop standing by the door. You got it. This is a Melrose at Paramount Studios. Uh, paramount Studios, we're out in Melrose and outside Beverly Hills and they really treat you like your bread pit, like a big star. But they bring a basket in the room with ham, cheese, sausage and all that stuff.
Speaker 1:So the reason my wife was taking the basket. I said hey, put that basket back. People were like is that Bob Holzer sitting here and raps to the basket back? I said is that Bob Roper, that you're even laughing at the basket? It's Kay putting the basket. She said what are they doing? I said, hey, forget it, she leaves the basket. We get to the room. It's like one in the morning. I said, god, I'm hungry. She pulls out some of her sausage, a ham, she, and you know what. That was a good thing to do and because they gave it to you. So I talked to Arsenio. I told him I apologize for stealing the basket. He said, bobby, that was for you, that's a gift. And the next day he sent me a basket and a doll with an Arsenio Hall jacket on it for my daughter and my wife needs it. But that means they never know sometimes. So there's nice people and you see the things and there you go. What about Go ahead? No, no, dad, go ahead.
Speaker 1:When I was a kid, growing up, I didn't have a father my dad. They wrecked my mother and who knows very well, it's not important. She may have been a pain in the butt, so may he, doesn't matter. But you wonder how this affects a kid. I'll tell you exactly how it affects a kid. I was never affected because I had a lot of love for my mother and my dad was gone. Years later I got to meet my brothers and went to the gravesite where my father was buried and I put my hand on his grave. I wrote this and I said I'm not mad at you. And she did what you had to do, no problem. And I patted it in front of my wife and my brother and I'm not mad.
Speaker 1:What you get mad about is do you get mad about as a woman? What do you get mad about? Why did you leave me? Why did you do this and that? I don't know.
Speaker 1:I'm not there. I wasn't there, but I was never mad and I never felt cheated During Father and Son day school. I just didn't go. I thought my dad had died or something. I asked my mom when she knew he was just gone, but I so it really never came up a whole lot. No, there were never no pictures of my father or anything about him, and my mom just told me he was gone.
Speaker 1:But I had so much love for my mother and my grandmother and my aunt and my friends that I never missed him Because I never was raised with him. Had I been raised with him and he was loving and caring which I'm not saying he wasn't, because he was to my other brothers but that could happen. It never bothered me. It never did, because I didn't know him and they never talked. My mother never talked to me as he was a bad person. They just didn't get along. So I had no problem with that. I never had a problem with that.
Speaker 1:No, and you never saw me playing football games or baseball games or anything like that. Well, I didn't, because I only went to grade school. I never had a team. I never played in games or baseball games or anything like that. I didn't. I only went to grade school. I never had a team. I never played in a high school team or anything else. I played. Really well, my mom and grandma would see me. But you know, when you're raised with someone all your life, like my mother and grandmother, all you know is them. Even if my dad had shown up and said I'm your dad, you're never going to, I said, tell her I'm her new dad. He never followed up with me. He said you're really alone.
Speaker 1:Bart is not different than Warren Scotchers. We didn't know each other. I like that. Did you ever wonder why he didn't you know? Because it's like he was just gone and he never made contact. He tried to. No, no, I never cared about him. I had so much love for my mother and grandmother. She never hurt me because I never knew him. I was too busy trying to sabotage a neighbor's will. Yeah, nah, it never bothered me because I never grew up with it. I grew up with him. If he'd have left me, that may have bothered me because I never grew up with it. Had I grown up with him and he'd have left me, that may have bothered me. But he was somebody that was. It was like Babe Ruth in A Hundred Home Runs. I never saw him do it. My dad was my father. I never saw him do it. It just I have a different thinking maybe than most people, but it never bothered me.
Speaker 1:While you're talking about that, what about people who blame their life or the way their life has gone and not having a father? I always think that it's because whoever raised them didn't raise them right. They didn't tell them that. You know, let's say you have a wife and a father and you have a boy or a girl, and he's a boy and he beats the boy, he beats his wife and he's a boy and he leaves and takes off. Well, the kids are seeing that, so they have a judgment. The mother was crying, the father was beating them.
Speaker 1:I can't understand things. I'm four, I'm seven, I'm eight, I don't know. I never saw none of that. My dad left when I was like six months old, maybe it's that. So I could never judge him because I don't know him and my mother never knocked him. She never did. She just said he's gone. She never told me bad things about him at all, Nothing, and I've never, no one ever, said anything bad about my father. So I said gone, mie, missing answers or a pit show, I don't know, didn't care, I don't know him.
Speaker 1:So but he's in particular and I I never had the desire to find him, until the way it all came out to me he was star-searched, he had a search for his family and all I wanted to do was I didn't really want a relationship with him, not because I was mad at him, I didn't know, I didn't really think about that, I didn't know, I didn't really think about that, I didn't think he'd even be alive. I didn't want to see a picture, just so I could see if he looked like me or if I looked like my mom or, and Cindy called my wife, called at 800 service or something, and saw my brothers and everything. And it turned out to be immensely rewarding. And you know, the old man wouldn't have been a bad guy. I think I'm glad he didn't rub him, because he would have stank me a lot, probably, sure, but I think he's been a good guy because I've got three good brothers that are really great, decent people, really really. So he had to do something right. Oh, exactly, oh, he moved. So what aboutso?
Speaker 1:Your mom kind of played the father figure role too. No, no, yeah, yeah, there was no, I don't know where a father figure is. Well, like, maybe you saw your friends and their dads and stuff like that was there. Well, you lived in Chicago. It was an apartment building so everybody worked. Oh, yeah, when the father came home at six o'clock, you never saw him. Oh, that's true, you never saw him. At night, yeah, saturdays and Sundays we played mom, we went to the cup games, we went to the beach, paris, in those days it seemed to be heard. You know, they didn't, they weren't mean to you, they didn't bother you. So it wasn't like um, he threw the ball at me. No, first he threw the ball. You're in a park, yeah, and I mean, you don't break the toilet bowl, you're in an apartment. And it never came into play, it never did. I never saw anybody cry because they lost their dad or their dad was bad or something. No, no, it was. Um, it never came into the picture.
Speaker 1:You talked in the first book about a story about your mom watching an elephant getting electrocuted and stuff like that. Were there any other stories like that, any other things she said or did? Yeah, and we run after it. The elephant, I don't think we will. Okay, but my mother, I took her to the hospital one day. I think we will know. Okay, but my mother, I took her to the hospital one day and my mother for some reason had no idea how to put colors and stuff together. She had a pair of socks on with balloons on them and a green dress and she had red hair. She looked like the cross between Lucille Ball and Maggie Davis and she had a babushka in her hair which was striped, and she had a screen dress on which was striped babushka and polka dot socks. And this man walked by her who was about 70, and he had a black pair of pants on and a different jacket and my mom said get him. And I told her. I said hey, a-hole, you look like Ronald McDonald's mom, get him. And that was it. She laughed and I laughed, but that was it. My mom would just see.
Speaker 1:Everybody judges people. They're gonna knock you. You have to videotape yourself when you play golf. You don't know you. You have to videotape yourself when you play golf. You don't know how you swing. Once you videotape yourself, you don't know how you are in life. Once you videotape yourself, my mother never knew how silly she was or funny. I hope you don't either.
Speaker 1:Some people don't know how mean they are, how bad they are, how cheap they are, how rude they are Unless they see themselves, and unless you have love in your body, you can't correct it. A lot of people say that they make excuses. Well, he made me, he pissed me. This guy, no, you do what you wanna do because you do it. I was mad every time my wife pissed me. Off Me and OJ be sharing a spot. Forget that, that's not. I mean, who would you be scared of? I forget to have his stuff.
Speaker 1:Are there other stories about your mom? You know, I was always wondering, because this kind of came up when I thought about the book being a movie. Was there like when you would go to the department stores and hang out and cause trouble and stuff? Did you know about that? No, no, you know, as a kid I had to keep it a public school in Chicago because of my tenure's record. So my mother had three choices. It was to send me to well, what was it called? Monte Fiori in Chicago, with a detention school for bad kids, I mean just like a day standpoint. Well, she didn't want me to go there either. But I couldn't get into a Catholic school or any Protestant school because you had to have your father's sign. I had no father. So I love. You sent me to a private school, cost $65 a month.
Speaker 1:The guy was a retarded not retarded, he was a retarded major from a military academy and he had a glass eye with a flag on it. He rolled his eye until the flag came up and it felt like I was being taught by a slot machine. And this guy everything I was in the room with they were either criminals and, I hate to say, retarded but slow or problem kids like me. He would have me read a book and he'd read a room. It was an apartment building would have me read a book and he'd read a room. It was in a parking building. It wasn't a school, it was his house. He'd go in the room and hear a bat or something.
Speaker 1:So if you were bad, he would make you go into this one room that had a radio and a window open and a life magazine and he'd make you stay in there all day. So you didn't have to stay with the retards and the criminals. So I'm a person who he threw up. He hit me with a ruler right across the wrist. Come on, raymond. He put me in there, you have to stay here. So I kicked the ruler across the wrist, but all day long I had the window open, I could look out the window, I could read the magazine, and he never had a clue. As long as I'm out there, 65 bucks a month, I don't know what it was. I didn't realize why I was there. And for lunch time you had lunch in the building. They had a big hall they'd make, they'd offer kids that would stay there overnight and sleep in bunkers.
Speaker 1:It was like a. It was like a hand-working. We spoke in prison Because I stayed quiet and I didn't leave. Then they take you over to Lincoln Park in Chicago from noon until two You'd play ball and then you'd go back to two and you'd be there till three. It was just a gimmick Then to make money, I think so when winter would come.
Speaker 1:This is how I self-propelled my man. I told him his name was Major Boma Boma. You know, I don't know how to spell it, major Boma, and be careful with the names. You can understand how I feel. Major Tom Cole. Yeah, exactly. So I left him and went to the teacher. I said some people are falling out front. Do you mind if I settle the walk out front? He said, no, raymond, that is awful kind of you. Well, what I did is I settled the walk for all the cleaners, the drugstore, everybody down the street. They gave me a buck for doing it. I made five bucks.
Speaker 1:I came back in three years. I got the bus, went home. He had no idea I made five bucks a day, saw more snow, had lunch, read the book, got mad, real sick. Second room we're sitting there reading a little magazine. Passed. That's my education.
Speaker 1:How long were you there? Eighth grade, 8th grade, that was the last school you went to. Yeah, oh yeah, never graduated, never came back. The last couple weeks, no, I was in Chicago. There's 8A and 8B. 8a is the first one, 8b is when you graduate. It's the last year. I mean it wouldn't happen. And then it was supposed to come back in January and so on and so forth. And then we'd go to the next school and we yeah, it is the first one, it is when you graduate. Yeah, it's the last year. I mean it wouldn't happen. And then it was supposed to come back in January until I remember.
Speaker 1:And then we moved to Indianapolis and they needed me to work. Yeah, but I didn't learn nothing there. I didn't learn nothing in Florida for seven years. First I didn't learn nothing. I learned more in the wrestling business and riding in cars and reaching the guys' truck and watching people lay on you, watching people serve you in stores, watching people serve you in restaurants, watching people handle your business and stuff. That's where you learn things.
Speaker 1:Every teacher you get in don't teach anything. They ain't making nothing. If they were making something, if they were that smart, they'd be making a lot of money. I'm not knocking teachers, but they should make more money, not the guy with the bald head and underwear that puts a ball in the hoop. Teachers and scientists should make more money to help our lives, but they don't. So if you choose to be a teacher and make minimum salary, there are two reasons. One, you really are for the kids or you're done with the Merck fans. That's it.
Speaker 1:So you moved to Indianapolis and Whether your mom decided that you should work I mean, my aunt was with us and I could was really good because my aunt had a house. My aunt had breast cancer and her one breast was the size of a football. It was all blue with lines and she wouldn't have had a mastectomy. This was 1960. And then she had radiation and her whole side was burnt like a turkey and I was 15 years old and I used to have to do her shots of Demerol in the butt because my mother couldn't do it, my grandmother couldn't do it, my aunt couldn't do it. I don't know what I'm going to do.
Speaker 1:I'm 15 years old, I'm giving my aunt shots of Demerol and I'm working to support them and I don't feel bad about this. I'm not miserable about this. I'm happy I got to keep my aunt alive and my family alive. Because I did that. It was more fun going to work than going to school, because I was doing something for a change. I was making somebody happy, I was earning my way. But my mother wanted to take care of my grandma, her sister. My grandma was too old to go get a job and my aunt had no kids and I was a weak child, and so I did it.
Speaker 1:I never resented her. Some people would just tell me well, maybe your mom should have got a job or do something. Well, she was just all over my aunt and I'm not going to be mad. Do something for her. She was destroyed over my aunt. I'm not going to be mad at her for that. Had I got a job, I would have made the money I did in wrestling. I would have got to see Chris Taylor naked. I survived this. I would have got choked by Mad Dog.
Speaker 1:Michelle, no, I've never had a bad life, I've had a great life. Really, there are some things I don't like about it. It makes me mad. It makes me mad every day. But no, no, my, my mother didn't work because she and I didn't want her to work.
Speaker 1:She had a job one day at a cleaning store. Did I tell you that in the book? No, that's not what I said. She was working at a cleaner's down the street. I looked back over there. She was bent over and putting dirty people's clothes into a bag and I picked her up. She wasn't falling down, she was just bent over and I stood up. I picked her up. She wasn't falling down, she was just standing over. I stood up. I said go home. I said I'll finish up the date. She said yeah, you can, she's going home. So I sent her home and I finished the date, didn't know what I was doing.
Speaker 1:The manager came in and said who are you? I said I'm Naomi's son. I said she's longer worth you, she's not feeling well and I left. I was never going to have my mother any longer put somebody's dirty underwear in a bag when I could do it. So I sent her home and that was it, and it really bugged me. It really bugged me to see her do that, to actually see it, as opposed to just know what she's doing and actually saw it. Yeah, to see her standing over and putting laundry in a bag and then picking this bag up and trying to take it over someplace, I couldn't do it. I said, nah, you're done. No, I'm a pro-boy.
Speaker 1:You know what you didn't say in the first book? And you said in interviews that when you were a kid you had a tumor in your stomach. Yeah, I didn't know that until, oh, I just. Yeah, it's called parloric stenosis. What's that, parloric stenosis? Okay, I was born three weeks premature. I weighed nine pounds eight ounces. My mother thought she was going to have triplets or a goat, and what happened was a tumor grew out in my stomach wall. So every time I ate, it wouldn't go down, I would regurgitate, throw it up. So I weighed four pounds.
Speaker 1:I was born November 1st. December 1st. I was operated at Wesley Memorial Hospital in Chicago Wesley, wesley, that's what he has to tell me why. And it's a common thing, yeah, so I grew up, I just had a zipper and you don't know where it was. Someone else told me I didn't know, you don't know. When you're a month old. There wasn't a malignant tumor, no, no, which is the thing? It goes out of sight. An access or something, yeah, and it's coming. Huh, it won't carry on with me. Huh, no, wow, you better have your bicep to me when you're a month old. I thought so who's going to mark up a tooth? I'm one year old, yeah, but you're about even eight months old, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I didn't know that. I think you had done an interview and I saw that. Well, aren't there more stitches in me? Yeah, huh, anything else about your mom that comes to mind? We can come back to it.
Speaker 1:My mother had a boyfriend I presented Because he's taken some of the attention away from me and that's why Not to do with my dad or anything. I just kind of like the guy. I remember my aunt was going back to Indianapolis at one time In those days. She took the train, so I walked out the back door of the hotel, my Aunt Nine friend of my mother's, who was her boyfriend. As he walked out the door he said where are you going? I said I'm going with my aunt to the train station. He said no, you're not. I said no. She told me I could go and he pie-faced me. He put his hand on my face and pushed me. Well, I jumped him. I was 14 years old. I jumped him and knocked him down and my aunt was screaming. My mother came. I said this is my aunt, this is my mother. Who's this guy? Tell me? And you know what my mother dumped him or I. She said he's not going to tell my kid when he's going to do something or not. Wow, I'll never forget that. So when they were dating one time I remember you know, we used to go out at night. I didn't want to go out, I wanted to go home. So I knew we'd park his car. So I went over there and I took a knife and I cut the valves off his tires and as I walked back to the hotel I saw them go by in a cab. They were across me.
Speaker 1:Oh no, but she didn't did she date? She dated one guy, another guy, only two guys I know in her life she dated, and one guy would come over to the house and she'd bring a six pack of beer and I'd grab the group, I'd show up house. She'd bring a six pack of beer. My grandmother grew up like Schultz. She'd sit on the couch like this. I'd wait like 10 o'clock. She'd say don't you have something to do? So how many guys do you think were in her bag at home? Somehow She'd give it over for it. No, that was it. If there's one, two men. I don't remember their life, I don't remember my father, but I remember this one guy she dated and the other guy and the one guy was good, nice guy, but the guy maybe I was a jerk.
Speaker 1:You know it was the 50s. You know my mother had an eight-hour job and a kid to raise and her mother lived with her. So we lived in an apartment in Chicago. We had the biggest apartment in the building because she was the manager. I think she only made. I think she made like 50 bucks a week. But the apartment was paid for utilities, was paid for phone and everything. So I made a lot of money in those days. I guess I never had any money. I had a nickel. I bought a gun. You remember the old?
Speaker 1:I used to go to this grocer right next door that's called Abe's Delicatessen and they had these tanks. We'd open them up and they had Coca-Cola in there and stuff and you'd have to pull them through lines to bring them up and hit the Peter Diamond and nickel. Pull them up, get the train to get them out of there, right, and I got figured. How can I get them out of there? Well, I can't. So then I can't open this door, I can't open up the bottle and put the straw in. That's what I would do. I'd have to wait and wait. I was smart enough. A bear, yeah, figure out how you pop out of the bottle. Yeah, oh no, look at that. Yeah, my wife was pregnant.
Speaker 1:I had to go take out American furniture liquidation garage. I had to go take out American furniture liquidation garage. I had to go take out American furniture liquidation garage. I had to go take out American furniture liquidation garage. I had to go to play college, those courses where your wife has pregnancy and you're in the room and all this. What do you call it? Mirage or whatever? I had to work all the time, so I didn't make the classes.
Speaker 1:So when my wife came down to the river, when the room was back to the immediate side, you were ready to put the greens on. You know the jacket. I said let me tell you something before we go any further. I said I've never been here for the meetings. He said, well, you don't have to do anything, but it could be Glory, would it bother you? I said I've seen Chris Taylor naked and he looks at me and said what I said never mind. And I went in there and it wasn't bad at all and we'd been talking boys the whole time. We didn't know. We named the kid Jasper just for a stupid reason. So when finally she had my daughter I'm behind the bed right with the mask on I said to her I said there's no prick, there's no prick. My wife said what I said no prick. The doctor said what I said no prick. He said it's a girl. Take that. So I'm back to sit behind the bed. That was the worst I know, cause you're looking for a boy, right? Yeah, yeah, for your drunk boy. Yeah, justine and I went through it too. We thought it was like we swore Maddie was a boy and Dominic was the only one who said it's a girl.
Speaker 1:I don't really have throat cancer, I have tongue cancer in the back of my tongue but I don't know the name for it. And to say, a wrestler had tongue cancer, he's got to have right-wing throat. Yeah, yeah, exactly In the back. Shoot what. I think that's the way in any business. I've been in the wrestling business for 40 years, so I don't know what mainstream is out there anymore. I don't even know how much a gallon of milk is. I don't. I never had to listen to anybody and there's a lot of rushes that always shake your hand and you knew that if you were in the main event, they wanted to be in the main event, they wanted to be in your position and a lot of guys from the main events. I never stabbed anybody in the back. I really didn't. I didn't mess with that part of life. I learned a long time ago in the business that if you do do that, you're going to maybe have to get in a ring with that guy someday.
Speaker 1:Accidents can happen. You know you can accidentally go through something and hit's right between the eyes or something. But you know when I was at WCW I would see people there in the office that I'm in charge of paperclips. The person next to me, is in charge of pencils. So I'd ask them could you hand me a rubber band while I'm in charge of pencils? They wouldn't do that, but if you well, I got the rubber band They'd tell somebody. Somebody went to your desk and got some Not really, but you know what I mean. Everyone was jealous. No one would help anybody. So I received all this phony hello how are you and this and that.
Speaker 1:But I think a cab driver, if he's driving around with nobody in the back, he wants a fare, he wants the fare the other guy has. I think anybody will stab anybody in the back. I think everybody has largely in their body and you just can't trust anybody. Now what do you do with it? Do you let them beat you down like that? What I do is I make friends with them, because at least I know where my enemy is. Then If I don't talk to the guy, I don't know what he's up to. So I make friends with him and then I turn him on other people. I turn other people on him and it's easy to do.
Speaker 1:I remember when I was in school there was this kid, his name was David, and he'd beat me up all the time and he was a punk and I didn't like him. Well, I couldn't take the guy. But I knew how to get him. I would take my pencil box or whatever I had at work and I'd put it in his desk. And when the teacher told me to convince him, I said I can't find my pencil box. Well, let's look and find it. So they looked and they found it in his desk. He'd be in trouble all day. It's not nice to mess with the weasel.
Speaker 1:So that's how you get back at people. You let everybody else. You just give them enough rope to hang themselves, but you never let anybody defeat you. You never let anybody. I told myself that growing up I got a mother and a hand and a grandmother to take care of and myself I have four people. I have to eat and I don't have a job or education. What do I do? I buy a Smith and Wesson and not go to the liquor store? No, I can't do that, especially if I'm on here in bubble, but I can't do it all the time. I won't talk. So what you do is you learn how to survive. So you do the best you can, or what you can. And what I could do the best was make friends with people. I could make people laugh and make them talk. So instead of them being mad at me, I made friends with them. I always had them arms length away but I knew what they were doing and somehow they built trust in me and I don't got to be trained to make trust. But you start messing around with me. Then I'm gonna have to put your pencil box in my desk and that's how I get through a lot of things just watching everybody and listening. And you can tell when people are jealous of you. You can tell when people are jealous of you. You can tell when people were.
Speaker 1:Let's say, you came to the wrestling and you had a new suit on, new tie, everything. Three guys would come up to you and say, hey, the guys look good. And the other guy would come up and say how you doing? And I'd say nothing. But you know what you saw. We had a new wrestling jacket. Some guys wouldn't say anything Because they just didn't want to put you over. But you know what? He didn't care. You had the jacket. You were going out there to wrestle.
Speaker 1:A lot of people would let that get to them. They didn't even have a grudge against that guy. They wouldn't talk to that guy. Just let you see between Jesse Ventura and Hogan, and no one knows why. I'm sure Hogan would tell you, I'm sure Jesse would tell you, but I bet they're two different stories. I bet they'll never sit down and shake hands or talk.
Speaker 1:And you know what the bad thing about that is. You're going too right now and you're missing out on other human beings' intelligence. You're missing out on learning something he knows, because you can learn something every day if you talk to someone. No, you can learn something every day if you listen to someone. Talking won't get you anything. I'm tired, but listening will get you everything. And you have to listen to people Because people make mistakes. You can capitalize on that and benefit from it, and you can do all other things People will. Well, they have courts, defense attorneys and prosecutors To do the talking. They don't want you to do the talking, exactly Because you get $200 an hour. And that's what I hate about the courts. If I look at the court and be a bad guy, because my writer, steve Anderson, told me that Vince McMahon said something bad about me and I wouldn't beat Vince McMahon up. Well, the reason I did it is because Steve Anderson told me well, you can't do that, that's hearsay. I was an attorney Hearsay if you paid for it Because he wasn't there when the crime was committed or the alleged crime was committed. But he can, of course, swear you're innocent. He doesn't even know you. He just wants to get presidents. That's all he wants.
Speaker 1:What about you mentioned when you were a kid how you got that kid who was picking on you anything in your professional or adult life where you did that to somebody who was just oh well, we had a gang one night that brought him back to the dressing room in Denver and Denver was a wild town. People had really energetic fans and it was usually so loud and it was a long walk back to Dresden and this one kid I remember and people would throw beer and just stand at you and throw things and there was one cop that would always help us back. I always made sure when I got back to Jerusalem I would shake every cop's hand. Thank you, thank you very much, because when the people like police or not, you don't call your brother. When you get robbed, you call the cops. Someone does something to your kids in your home, you call the cops. But if you're doing 60 or 50, they pull over to that portion and they get mad at you. Hey, it's your job to outsmart him, it's your job to catch him. He likes to date, that's all. It is Nothing personal. So that's why, when I was a kid, I wanted to do that. I wanted to get a hold of things the best way I could in wrestling.
Speaker 1:So this guy, the couch book, this guy in the dressing room, I had him handcuffed. I guess he stood on one of us. But he got the cop. This was a big cop. He yelled at the guy if you sit there on that bench, don't move Handcuffed him and kicked the other guy. So just as he got the door, I told the cop I said officer, he just gave you the finger and he turned around and went back and beat this guy unmercifully. Look, if you think about it, the guy's handcuffed. How could he have given him the finger? And the guy spit on me. That's my way to get evil. Now See, it worked. It didn't have to hurt my hand or my shoes or anything. He, I didn't have to hurt my hand or my shoes or anything. He got beat up. Cop felt good about it. He probably won't do it again.
Speaker 1:And I remember one night we went home on Nebraska and they were throwing a whole bunch of crap in the rain and the cops grabbed the guy and they brought him back and Nick Bachman was the one that took the guy in the dressing room and Nick got in the shower and turned the water on with his boots and his trunks on and grabbed the guy by the tie in there and asked him what he was doing. What made him think he could spit or throw up a punch or do something else? Who do you think you are? And the guy sat there with his shower pouring down on him in street clothes and all he did was put his right hand over his left pocket to keep his cigarette dry. So Nick is soaking wet with his boots and shorts. I'm sitting there laughing watching and Nick's talking to his dumb hillbilly who was soaking wet with his cigarette dry. So there's justice, I guess.
Speaker 1:I remember another thing it's very easy to get people. I was at the Philadelphia Spectrum one time. We were dressed in the back. They had a big machine. The time cards were really clocked in. I got nothing to do, so I clocked everybody out, plus there'd be a hundred cards. I had nothing to do back there so I did school with people. I don't know why you got your car. I remember why I did it Because every time I came to the building the guy would say he'd say to my dean who are you with? Sir? I've been coming here for a year, two years.
Speaker 1:I got bleach, blonde hair and it's rustling at night. You and I you think I just reached my hair to sneak into this place. You ask me this every month. I see you. You know who I am, where's my job? Fine, I check some out again. And one of my wives we had a bake sale once at the church. So she makes some kind of a cake and puts her name on top of it and it was a stick and things. She'd run this over to the church and just sent it to Jim. So I came over there and I see, oh, there are cakes and pies and donuts and stuff. Right, it took me an hour and I switched everybody's names. We got to here and we told Cindy what great carrot cakes she made. She made muffins. She said nobody had them.
Speaker 1:So the day we did the radio station I passed by the mail room. I saw all the different shoots by the radio station. I passed by the mail room. I saw all the different shoes. By the time I had time I had switched every one of them In Japan. I know some.
Speaker 1:In Japan people used to Some buildings. You walk in and take your shoes off. They put them in these little pigeon holes like mailboxes and then they have them separately sit on the floor. I don't know why those people do it, but that's how their culture is. I did nothing to do. One day I'm on the last match In Japan. You have six Japanese matches, then you have six of the Americans against the Japanese, so you've got ten, twelve matches a night. So there's really nothing to do. You're there for a month. You see the same matches every night. So I went out front and switched everybody's shoes my right one to my left one, this box, everything. And then I watched them come out at the maps and they're all looking around for their shoes. And then it hit me they're Japanese, they all wear size five. It didn't really matter. So it was a good evening.
Speaker 1:I remember it was a kid named. I don't even know his name anymore. I knew Matt and I would put him in the book. But how he said, put his bike by my house and change it around the pole and then go down to the beach a block away he took off. As a kid I always made fun of my grandmother because she was heavy. I didn't like the guy, I hated him. So I took some pinch snips and cut all his spokes in him and front and back wheel. He came back from the beach unwatched, his bike got on it, started riding, the wheels all collapsed. I went straight down. Within a half hour he was beating on my door For some reason. He knew I did it. He knew I did it.
Speaker 1:And across the street we had a neighbor who didn't like me. So what I would do is I would order her pizzas, maybe 10 pizzas from 10 different places. Now you have to give him your phone number and everything. We did it in those days, except there were 10 pizzas for Mrs Goldstein. She was made with a link pizza. So see, all these people had done.
Speaker 1:What I do is I had a real fun. I would call cabs and send cabs to her and ask all cabs to be there, like at nine at night. And that night I called the police and said there were cab drivers fighting in my lobby and some of the cops would come and all the cab drivers would be there. Nobody was fighting. But I just drove this woman crazy.
Speaker 1:And then what I used to do with her husband he didn't like me because he always thought I was breaking his windows. But I wasn't, I really wasn't. And he was a hillbilly, he was a janitor, but he couldn't say windows, he'd say winders. He broke my winders so I'd call him winders. So one day he caught me and grabbed me by the nape of the neck and really hurt me and threw me on the ground. I was like 14? Okay, what can I do to you? I got Quaker Oaks and put it in his radiator of his car. So when the radiator heats up it looks like his car pukes. And then you ever put one burger cheese on a guy's engine. No, it'll smell when the engine gets warm. Funny winders never bothered me after that. And then I'd always wave to him and everything else. So he knew I was his friend. Nah, I messed up his 53 Chevy so they always assumed it was you. Oh yeah, anything that went on.
Speaker 1:Me and my buddy Bozo, we did everything in that neighborhood. We did everything. We did everything. One street goes in front of the stores on 1st Street and then behind the stores there's an alleyway For some idea. One day I found I got a hold of a hundred feet of rope. So Buddy Boz and I we went and put it through the doors of every business and we went around to the back and tied the rope up in a bunch of knots. So everybody was roped in their stores.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, and then there was this guy at the liquor store I think it was Castell Liquors, and he was kind of a mean guy. He didn't like us, but in the back he always had cases of folks when you bring the bottle back, they give you two cents and you put the bottles in the back. Well, both of them go in the store and start talking to the guy and I go around back and get the bottles, I go in and give them to them. Can you give me ten cents for five bottles? No, just bottles. I talked to him. Both of them are on my back. Can we have ten bottles? So we each have a dime. So we go get a Coke or something. And there was one guy hated us at this Because they just had big tanks of water, ice water, with Cokes in there and you'd have to put a dime in and bring your Coke through these mazes.
Speaker 1:And then the other thing, we had to pull it out through there. Well, if you had no money you couldn't get a coke and they didn't have twists or tops. Simple, I got myself a can opener and a straw, cause the guy didn't like it so I fixed it. So me and my brother used to go in there and pop the corks and drink all the guys' cokes. So you think doing those things like with the guy with the windows, doing those things kind of stopped him. No, because after that I made friends with him and waited all the time and I wanted him to think in his mind he'd be the last person to do that. Oh, I think. See, he's my friend now and I had a kid named Tommy. Hi, tommy. I always talked to him and everything. He was about 10. I was like 14. So he really knew it wasn't me then, because I'd made friends with him, hated him, hated his kid, so you'd pull something and then you'd be nice to him. Yeah, remember, you get more laughs with sugar than you do with rice.
Speaker 1:So what do you tell people about that, about what they can learn from dealing with people like that, whether it's when you're a kid or when you's, oh, when you're old, I think you're gonna run, you're gonna go beat him up. You don't want to board a black, you're gonna go to jail. I still got your money. We're attorneys and lawyers and you can't hurt someone. No, I don't want to hurt you. I don't mind seeing them suffer a bit. I don't want to hurt anybody. I don't mind seeing them suffer a bit. But that's the truth.
Speaker 1:The guy next door to you has to do something wrong all the time they move their canes out or they mow your first year property or something. So many things you can do. So many things you can do to them. Put a garden hose in their basement window, flood their basement window For their basement, I mean. There's so many things you can do. Don't ever go up their mailbox or stuff like that. That's criminal.
Speaker 1:But, um, you can always gather a lot of dog. Me and a couple guys used to walk a dog around the house and a dog would always lick a dog, and so I yelled at him one time. I said you forgot something. He's always back to get it. He never came back to get it. So one day I got a napkin and I wrote the neighbors and I picked up the dog poop and we'll hope there's no marks or stuff it up inside of it. I never saw him with a dog again.
Speaker 1:What's the point? Where you're dealing with someone and you just walk away. You just say that's not even someone I want to deal with. That's the best thing to do. It really is, because a lot of people you just can't have fun with, no matter how annoying you make their life, they're just annoying to watch or be alone. And there's other people out there, there are a lot of people out there. So the best thing to do is just turn your back and ignore them, and people hate that more than anything to be ignored. People don't mind getting in an argument with you If you ignore them. They hate it. They hate it.
Speaker 1:Like my wife and I got in an argument one day, one date, and I told her and this is a line everybody can use when you're arguing with your wife or husband or anybody that's how I told her. I said, hey, if you could have done any better, you would have. This is as good as you can do it. You live enough time. You're the one that said yes when I asked you. I didn't say yes, you didn't ask me, this is the best you can do. And then my wife told me I didn. I asked you. I didn't say yes, you didn't ask me, this is the best you can do. Then my wife told me I didn't have time to shop. Well, even most men and women do a lot of shopping. Yeah, everything was a dollar store. Yep, I thought you'd seen you guys in the divorce court. Yeah, have you been married 20 years? What happened? I knew from the day I married him he was no good. And why would you spend 20 years with him sleeping on rented furniture? Are you nuts? Yeah, go do something else. Was the sex that good? Was the company that good For 20 years of misery? Are you nuts? Go do something else. Was the sex that good? Was the cooking that good For 20 years of misery? Are you nuts? No, I couldn't understand that.
Speaker 1:I used to do things in my life, sometimes just to drive her nuts. Here we have a list of the refrigerators that she wants to get Red milk eggs. I put on like a wiener helper. I don't know what that means. I don't know milk eggs. I put on the one cup Wiener Helper Kidney Leptors. She'd be in the store walking around seeing that and she didn't know what that was Her men. And when I go through stores now I like to put things in people's carts at the end of the night, like M&Ms or a I don't know if it's for the hands too big, you know a piece of. You can buy yourself a smoked sausage or Crozier food or something you know. And usually when somebody's checking out they're reading the magazine there or they're looking for a employer. Then they get home and the husband says hey, I don't eat pig feet, I don't either. What do you buy it for? I didn't buy it. It's my way of helping out the world.
Speaker 1:What about people you've encountered who maybe were okay to be with but then someone had a real big influence on them to kind of go the other way and change them and that kind of thing? Someone who was really a good person to deal with but then someone had an influence over him. I've seen that wrestler. I've seen a guy come in the dressing room introduce himself. The wrestler how you doing? How you doing, how you doing. How you doing? How you doing, how you doing, how you doing. I've seen a guy come in the dressing room, introduce himself a wrestler how you doing, how you doing, how you doing? Everybody. And then, like the ultimate warrior, who's a real jerk, come in the dressing room how you doing? How you doing. How you doing, how you doing.
Speaker 1:Well, after he became a main eventer and won the belt, he said to me I know what you guys do wrong with me. I don't have to go shake anybody's hand. He said that out loud, yeah. So I said like you really think you're going to shake your hand? Yeah, we're just being polite, but see, before, when he was kissing ass to be where he is, he was shaking everybody's hand. Now that he thinks he's a star. None of us like you. To begin with, we didn't want to shake your hand, but I've seen guys come in and they were talking about when I did this, when I did that. They're just putting themselves over it. That's fine to do, but you can see how money and different stages of life will affect people. To me, when I was making more money than I ever made, I was the nicest of people. I was happy making money, but I always saw a guy that would fight and argue when he weren't making money.
Speaker 1:There's a funny thing about wrestling. I can say I'm gonna make a bet, you're not, so what? Hey, I had your wife before, so what? If you tell the guy you're a lousy match, oh yeah, then they want to fight you. They're going to knock you over the head, but they want to fight you because they're a lousy match. So you can always hit the guy.
Speaker 1:And did you speak to him? Jimmy Blackwell, who was a good worker, but he was a moody SOB, sob. He kind of liked talking to you. I don't like fair weather trends. He talks to me all the time, but he doesn't talk to me at all.
Speaker 1:So Jerry came back to the ring. He said to me how was the match? I said fine. He said you think so. I said yeah, now, first of all, you don't have to ask anybody. He's like having sex. You don't tell somebody at home. Okay, he said was it really? I said was it the truth? He said yeah. I said it was the shits. He said what do you know? I said whatever, kid, I'll tell you the truth. I don't know. Whatever it was, I never watched it. I was ever up there to concern myself with it.
Speaker 1:But you could see when it would change. You could tell they were in a better event and they would talk to you and sometimes they wouldn't talk to you. Norman Robinson was like that Englishman He'd talk to you when he was rambling or he wanted something, but other than that he wouldn't bother with you sometimes and you could see people that were friends of yours and all of a sudden they wanted to be friends with the promoter because that's where the money was and they wouldn't talk to you that much anymore. They'd talk to him when you'd be in a bar. They'd be sitting with you and they'd get up and go and sit with them. Oh yeah, and you could see how they were. Just your friendship didn't really mean that much. So you know what you do. He's got a tab probably. Yeah, it's a rear double, that's what it is. Side rim service to him. He ain't gonna let him. He's always a winner.
Speaker 1:You mentioned the Warrior getting you know changing because of success. Have you ever seen someone change because maybe someone took them under, the Like in your example and I know you don't want to talk a lot about it, but I think we talk about it in general, like when Bruiser kind of took you under his wing. I mean, you saw what type of person he was and you weren't influenced by it at all. Not to be like that.
Speaker 1:Well, when I started in Indianapolis with the promotion there, one of the people I really really cared about and one of them I didn't and I love Wilbur yeah, that's right, he was a decent, nice man. The other man, dickie Boozer, I pretended to like him. Right, I despised the man. Why did you pretend to like him? Because he was the boss. Yeah, he paid me. Yeah, I was supporting three man. Why did you pretend to like him? Because he was the boss, he paid me. I was supporting three people. I had to like him. If I didn't like him I'd be back at the Ford dealer. So I used him to get where I wanted to in life with my family.
Speaker 1:So when he would make me do things that I didn't wanna do, like launch stupid errands for him, call him twice a day, every day. Call him twice a day, 10 o'clock in the morning, 2 o'clock in the afternoon. Some days I wanted to play football with my friends. I couldn't play. I had to go call him and if he wanted me to run an errand for him.
Speaker 1:The hard work started to be a goal. Did you check in with him or something? I had to check in every day with him, seven days a week, and if he was on the phone he'd be on the phone, sometimes booking a car or something, for hours. I'd have to wait wherever I was, and call him back, because if I didn't he'd get mad at me. And if he'd get mad at me, well then he wouldn't pay me. He'd treat me bad. I needed the money. So I kissed his ass for all those years to make a living. And then I finally went to the AWA to burn Gagnon and I no longer needed him. So I no longer ever worked for him again and that's how I became one. I was his number one star. The mayor of Indianapolis, steve Goldberg, had a Bobby Hannon Day in 1998, I believe, and just the 20th of July Mayor Peterson of Indianapolis proclaimed Bobby Hannon Day again in Indianapolis. No wrestlers ever had a day for themselves in Indianapolis, not even Dick the Bruiser, except me Two days. So that's how over I was in Indianapolis. So I had to do that to make a living.
Speaker 1:And I mean he wasn't anything despicable or sexual or filthy. He was just a demanding person and there were things about him and characters, about his life and the way he conducted himself with his family I didn't like and I couldn't change that. So I always looked at him as an employer, not a friend. I pretended to be his friend because that's what he wanted. I was a liar and a cheat. But no, I had a feed in my family and I figured I'm not lying and cheating against my mother or anybody I respect or like. I'm doing it against some person I do not respect or like. But he had to check and I had to take it.
Speaker 1:I remember some promoters would pay you money at night and they would give you fives. So they would give you 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50. Sometimes hard guys make 25 bucks a night. So sometimes you give a guy 25, you give him 30, and he'd smile. He'd stop If you didn't smile. You didn't know how far you'd go. It would've probably been much more past 30, but as soon as he saw you smile, you're paying him and those are just things. But I had no animosity towards Mr Bruiser or his family. I was over and done with in 1974 if I was ever concerned, and the reason I left this promotion. I'll tell you exactly why I left this promotion.
Speaker 1:For years he went to Detroit and ran his wrestling against a wrestler who used to be called the Sheik, Eddie Farhat F-A-R-H-A-T, who was my first friend in the business. He befriended me. I was carrying jackets, I had a Washington car. He'd drive me to the bus stop so I could get home. If I missed the bus I'd have to walk from 7th to 486th Street. He always made sure I made it home. He was my first friend and Virgil was opposition to him. In Detroit he wanted to run his own wrestling against the Sheik. So I went there and worked for Dick all those years against the Sheik and I did it because I lived in Indianapolis, I was working there, and I did that because not to hurt the Sheik but to feed my family and make money off. And when I left Dick in 1974, the reason was they turned me into a guy, a baby face.
Speaker 1:It was Bruiser and I against the Sheik and his manager and that night Bruiser turned me back heel against him so he didn't want anybody who's a bigger baby face than him and I used to go to the office. They didn't have an office. He worked out of his garage and Wilbur worked out of his basement. Bruiser did all the booking, did all the TV, wilbur made all the checks and payoffs. So I went over to Wilbur's house to get my check or something. I saw a checkbook.
Speaker 1:This was the second show at Market Square Inn and it sold out. The first one was at Glen Campbell, I believe. Remember the second one in the building. It sold out. He gave me a sheet $2,000. He gave me 600 bucks. I went to him. I told him I said I'm leaving, I'm going to Minneapolis. He said go ahead and go, you'll never make it without me. I went to Minneapolis and I made it without him and that's the truth. That's why that and all the personal things about the managing life. But sometimes you've got to shut your mouth to fill your mouth with food, shut your mouth to fill your stomach. That's what it really is. There's a lot of things you don't like. Sometimes you don't like working at the job because the guy working there was a jerk.
Speaker 1:I'll tell you a story about me. I was working at a department store in Indianapolis. I worked at Box Department Store. I was a at a department store in Indianapolis. I worked at a box department store. I was a stock boy Locks, yeah, b-l-o-c-k-s. I was a kid, I was 19, 18 years old and I had a guy that was like 40. He was a little short guy, a lifetime employee as a stock boy at 40 years of age. It's like being the guy at the show that tears a ticket hat.
Speaker 1:Where do you go from there? What job advancement is there? I was there when I was 18. I was there mostly because I could hide upstairs in the dressing room to watch people dress. That was a fun thing. Remember that everybody, who people that are reading this, especially people that bought the book and then your dead police deputy didn't buy it Wherever you're in a dressing room in a department store, someone can watch you. There's some area up above you can be watched at.
Speaker 1:And there was this guy. They put him in charge one day Because the boss was going to show him, so they were paging me anyway. So I went down to the loading dock and I said what do you want? He said, well, you've got to take the merchandise out. I said, well, I don't have to. I walk around, picture the rules and paint and stuff. I said okay, so I'm talking to him. I'm touching the radio back and away. I was doing that. So this guy he said to me he was standing by the shirt and he punched me in the mouth. But he wasn't powerful enough to hurt anybody and I looked at him and I shoved him and he fell down. So I left.
Speaker 1:I went and the department store had a, a, a, a, a, a, a a a wedding gowns every day. So I go in the room and I lock the door and I sleep under the mattress. In there I heard a patient. They all had a number. It was number. It was number 83, I think, and they paged me. I never asked them to page. I find the clock, I walk down. They punch my clock in.
Speaker 1:There was Mr Eller, the boss. He said I want to talk to you, raymond. He said where you been all day. I said I've been on strike. He said for what? I said, jerry, you went.
Speaker 1:I said that guy punched me in the mouth and I shoved him. I knew he was looking at me for that. He said you know I could fire you right now for that. I said you could fire me because he punched me in the mouth. He said yes. I leaned over the desk and I punched him in the mouth. I said now we're both unemployed. He said get the hell out of here. And that was it. You make people live by their word. But I knew he liked me and I really didn't think he'd fire me. That's the reason I did. But he didn't fire you anyway. No, oh no. He didn't fire me. No.
Speaker 1:And I transferred downtown because I wanted to work downtown. It's a bigger store, it was 74. It's just a shopping center and a shopping mall. I figured well, I could hide all day there. They never find me. They put me in a mail room with two women One was named Butch and I worked there the whole day long. I never got to be in a store and see a customer. It was horrible.
Speaker 1:Then I transferred out to the west side. It was a warehouse. They'd give me road refrigerators all day and sofa couches. I don't know. I'd rather stay back in the place and punched myself in the mouth, but I always made a check. You know, I was sent an application for a job. It was a high school grad. I put yes. My mother asked me. Well, she said why do you do that. That's why I said but mom, by the time they find out I'm not a high school grad, I may have three or four checks and if I'm doing a good job they may keep me. And in the 60s there was no computers and nobody checked on you, oh sure. So I always had a job someplace, I always could find work, and if they didn't fire you it's okay. So I always checked. I got another job someplace to do something. So you just have to have balls.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I remember when the rock and roll bands would come to town Jake Hart, caravan of Stars and they'd have the British guys with them, like Dave Hart Five and the Howies and this, and that I worked at the Coliseum. So I had a suit on, like a Beatles suit, telling people upstairs in the stands and they were looking over and they see me in the suit and they think I was in a band or something and people were asking for autographs. So I decided to program. So I keep their pens and you know what I do. I go back into the dressing room and I found a pair of drumsticks that were broke and I walked over to somebody else's who was it? Those? And then they hit me Next time the show was in town, I went out and bought 20 drumsticks and then I came out of the dressing room and told the people hey, this is Regal's drumsticks, really. Yeah, I found it for 10 bucks. Boom, we hate that, right, they probably don't have them. Oh, they're on the wall, they're on eBay. No, they were waiting in the room 60 minutes.
Speaker 1:Someone could read the book. Oh, that would be funny. And if you read the book and you buy the book, I'm sorry, I'm marching the book. Take one of those drugstores, you can do it that way, thank you. I wasn't a pianist, but I always found and made a living and there's always ways to do it. If you know that you're your best friend, I will never, never do anything to hurt me. Our children may hurt us someday and leave us, our lives may divorce us or we could get BOJ'd, but I will never hurt me. And if you know that I live inside of this 180-pound 6-foot shell and I look out no one can look in and I'm always aware of people and everything around me, I'm walking on a street when I'm in New York.
Speaker 1:I had a cold, so I went to a friend of mine on the car that he drove and he made a deal. And so I'm in San we're 49th and 8th he's like a 57th in Broadway. So I walk over there and all I want to do is get some good old Jewish chicken soup. And I had a bowl of chicken soup. It was really good. I felt a little better. And I'm walking back and I see a bunch of rough looking guys on the street there in New York. So I cross the street to avoid it. Somebody told me a long time ago if you act, nuts, nobody ever messes with you. Another thing if you ever held up the best thing to do throw up on your money no one will take it.
Speaker 1:We're walking to a car when I meet Baron Van Ratsky in Hayman, indiana, and somebody came up from the house between the bushes. They ripped it or something. I cut my car a block away. Hey, I'm scared to hell of both of us. I said I got my heart speeding and Ratsky says can't look at me, here's a walrus, I'm ready to throw up on my money. So I'm walking down the street and I see all these guys. I'm thinking I'm by myself. I got reach one hair. I'm going to get in trouble. I bet African nuts. So as I'm walking I can see them coming up behind me. So I start all this kung fu, jackie Chan stuff. Yeah Ha Ha. I turn around. There's nobody there, even with the shadow of the street light I was scared of my own shadow, but you know, that probably would have saved me. Yeah, instead of acting nuts. Yeah, is that okay, sir? Oh, yeah, that's great.