Episode 60: Bonus 6 The Fieldtrip Interviews With Nick Marino and North Point Brewing

Another holiday bonus this week for our dedicated After The Bell  listeners. The Stunt Brothers celebrate Season 2 Episode 30 with a look back in time at Season 1. Martin is not happy with this as permanent daylight savings time means he is now one hour closer to turning 60...and he will never get that hour back!

Part 1 unpacks the spirit of the Pacific National Exhibition (PNE) with community stories courtesy of author Nick Marino and his excellent book, Eastside Story. Join the Stunt Brothers in this lively episode as they explore the spirit of the PNE, colourful fair traditions, and personal stories that highlight youth, culture, and underground economies. Featuring educator and author Nick Marino, this episode dives into stories that celebrate community, history, and the power of shared experiences.

In part 1:

• The significance of fairs and festivals in fostering community connections and cultural pride
• Nick Marino shares insights from his book "East Side Story," focusing on PNE memories and youth culture
• Funny anecdotes of sneaking into events, catching greased pigs, and underground economies at the fair
• The cultural and social roles of fairs for teenagers transitioning into adulthood
• Imaginary casting choices for a “movie adaptation” of "East Side Story" with actors like Paul Rudd and Anne Hathaway
• Songs that would perfect a soundtrack for the imagined film, including classics from The Clash, Motley Crue, and The Cure
• Conversations about favorite teachers, memorable classroom moments, and their influence on our lives
• Exciting upcoming projects, including a family history book and reflections on teaching careers
• Celebrating community through stories, humor, and shared passions that connect educators, students, and local history

Part 2 finds the The Stunt Brothers celebrating at North Point Brewing with a variety of special guests. Join Roy and Martin as they immerse themselves in the lively atmosphere of North Point Brewing. They engage with guests, share laughter, and enjoy the vibrant community spirit. The segment captures the essence of camaraderie and celebration, highlighting the brewery's role as a local gathering spot. This is your chance to feel like you're actually there!

Learn more at stuntbrothers.ca

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Transcript

STS With Roy and Martin

Martin 0:05

Good afternoon, podcast listeners everywhere. Welcome to After the Bell, a Stunt Brothers production. I'm Martin Stuible

Roy 0:11

And I'm Roy Hunt, and we share your pain, having taught a combined 70 years. Seventy years. I know. Wow. So get out your marking, organize your supplies, or just pour yourself a coffee. I think I need something stronger. That's okay. Okay. And listen, engage, and interact with After the Bell, a podcast for you, the hardworking, dedicated teacher who wants free lesson plans, free advice, and a free meal.

Martin 0:36

Oh, I always show up for a free meal. Well, Mr. Hunt, episode 60. Oh, I know. I'm not there yet.

Speaker 6 0:48

You're so close.

Speaker 9 0:49

I'm not there yet. I'm still 59. I'm still 59. And I'm gonna hold on to this every last second.

Speaker 6 0:57

Seconds?

Speaker 9 0:58

Because of the the clocks going forward. I lost an hour of that, right? I had to jump ahead. Yes. So I no more. I'm glad that we're holding steady at this time now. We're not there yet.

Speaker 6 1:09

All right.

Speaker 9 1:10

So then I am not the age of my episode right now.

Speaker 6 1:13

Oh, okay. But it is season two, episode thirty.

Speaker 9 1:16

It is, yeah. That's nice and clean sounding. There you go. Good sounding. And we're so we're giving you another bonus episode for spring break. We hope you guys are taking time to relax, recharge. If you're dying to hear something again, well, here's a bonus episode for you. So who do we got going here? We got uh kind of putting some of the fun ones that we have left over from season one.

Speaker 6 1:35

They're all fun. Yeah. I mean, that'd be hard to choose. But these were uh particularly fun because one was just our celebration uh for completing uh one year of of episodes and and still liking each other.

Speaker 9 1:51

Yeah, we had a bit of a party to celebrate. So we have some guests that came on to say a few things. And then one of those guests, Nick Marino, is actually gonna be in our other part of this episode, who he came and talked about his book, right? East Side Story. Yes. And he he's I've he's actually working hard on the second book, so I hope to have him back on as a guest. But he uh he was a fun guest to talk about and get into the pe and his experiences there when he worked there, and he's a teacher from uh Vancouver. So that was really, I thought, a fun conversation and a little taste of the peony for our listeners again. So a chance during spring break to go back in the summer a bit.

Speaker 6 2:26

It's a great combination of two episodes that really work well together: a celebration and a taste of summer.

Speaker 9 2:32

Yeah, so everybody enjoy.

Nick Marino and Eastside Story

Speaker 6 2:34

Yes.

Speaker 9 2:38

So here we are. We are with our guest, Nick Marino, who is uh a teacher in uh Nutka, right, Nick? Yeah, and we're we're excited about this podcast because Roy and I have both read his book, East Side Story, and highly recommend it. It was a really, really fascinating read. And for anyone who either grew up in Vancouver and the peony is that thing at the end of sep uh end of uh August, or Roy, who did not, but you have a lot of experience with fairs, right?

Speaker 6 3:06

Well, I have a lot of experience with fairs, so I guess the other thing I also have uh a connection to East Vancouver because I lived in in East Vancouver on the corner of Pender and Renfruit.

Speaker 8 3:17

Oh wow. Yeah. Well, that's uh right near where my parents grew up. My parents were neighbors one block up from there. Yeah. So Pender and uh Caslow, I think, is the next read up.

Speaker 6 3:27

Yeah. Yeah, it's it's a sort of a two-story condo uh right on the corner, right across from the PE parking lot, uh, the one that's on the corner of Hastings and Renfrew. Yeah. And uh so I have a connection here. Uh I've been to New Brighton Park with my daughters, and I have fond memories of traveling down Hastings Street to uh a number of the uh sort of delicatessens along the way. Uh I know Donald's was our favorite shopping uh place, and uh we still come from the North Shore to shop at Donald's because uh we the connections that we made with the people there and uh and just I guess it reminds us of East Fan. We love coming here.

Speaker 8 4:12

Yeah, yeah. I I I want to because I feel like am I cutting into the you cut in whenever you go. Okay, jump in. So I just want to be um uh clear on something. I I feel like you guys are are looking to me as sort of the East Fan guy, which makes sense, East Side story. Yeah, but I know that uh my cousins who grew up around First and Nanaimo do not see me as an East Van guy because I'm from the Calarney area, which is southeast Vancouver. So I don't want to have any stolen valor or anything. I uh I I have a lot of longtime family connections to this area. My grandma, my aunt, uh you know, my like I say, my parents grew up in this area, but I um I the book is uh East Side Story uh because the PE is in the East Side and it's a story about there. Right. Um however, people that went to Killarney in Vancouver, and I'm really splitting hairs here.

Speaker 9 5:03

We were planning to do this whole podcast about your connection to East Fan. That is not we wouldn't even we don't care about the PE. There goes that idea.

Speaker 8 5:12

Well, that's a I mean uh we can still talk a bit about it, but I want to be clear.

Speaker 9 5:15

Okay. Great. So we always start before we get to the nitty-gritty about East Fan or the PE, we start with an icebreaker. And we call it ABC123, just to loosen things up. And it's kind of like the um Colbert questionnaire. Have you ever watched Colbert's show? He kind of quit questionnaire. Yeah, he does this questionnaire thing where it's the first thing that comes into your mind. Oh, yeah. So what's in your mind, say it. Or you might be giving a choice between it's a lot of pressure. Yeah. But have fun. So Roy, you're gonna start with the ABCs, and I will do the one, two, three. Right.

Speaker 6 5:46

Okay. So that it's ABC 123 about the PE. Oh, okay.

Speaker 8 5:51

There you go. I thought it was maybe about my personal life, as I was a little bit concerned.

Speaker 6 5:55

All right. Mini donuts or kettle corn?

Speaker 8 5:58

Oh, mini donuts all day.

Speaker 6 6:00

Yeah. Corn dog or potato tornado.

Speaker 8 6:05

Well, I'm a vegetarian now, so I'm gonna go potato tornado.

Speaker 6 6:09

Okay.

Speaker 8 6:09

But corn dog when I was younger, I think.

Speaker 6 6:12

Okay. Hunky Bill's or Henry's outdoor barbecued chicken.

Speaker 8 6:19

I think uh again, just like uh I'm gonna uh uh ignore that I'm a vegetarian, and I think barbecued chicken is more exciting than pierogies. Yep. Yeah. Okay.

Speaker 9 6:29

Okay, one, two, three. Number one, the wooden roller coaster or the corkscrew.

Speaker 8 6:35

Um well, the wooden roller coaster is better. I've been on the corkscrew more times because I'm afraid of the wooden roller coaster. So I've I've been on the roller coaster a few times. And um, my daughter and I are going to the Wilco concert in uh I think next week. Okay. Yeah. And uh we're planning on going on the wooden roller coaster.

Speaker 9 6:53

And are you afraid of it just because of the age?

Speaker 8 6:55

I was afraid of it when I was a kid because it seemed too old. Yeah, yeah. And 50 years later, it's still there.

Speaker 9 7:01

And it's very creepy. The creaky sounds and everything, yeah.

Speaker 8 7:03

Yeah, and it just doesn't feel like you're strapped in properly and all that. So yeah.

Speaker 9 7:08

Okay, number two, Demolition Derby or the Lumberjack Show.

Speaker 8 7:11

Oh, Demolition Derby. It's the best part of the PV that's ever had.

Speaker 9 7:14

And I didn't realize they got rid of that in 1991. I was just reading.

Speaker 8 7:17

Yeah, I just met a guy that used to drive in the Demolition Derby. He said sometimes they get he worked at a garage and he would they would get the cars for like 20 bucks they'd buy off somebody. Because at the time there was all these old cars from the I guess they were from the 60s, the cars they're using mainly. And uh they were just everywhere.

Speaker 9 7:32

You don't really get that anymore, right? People everybody's car looks new. Like you look around the road. Yeah, I know. We were young, people had to. And all the airbags would be going off and you couldn't do it. And then number three, walking through the peony prize home or walking through the marketplace.

Speaker 8 7:47

Oh, I hated the peony prize home as a kid. And as an adult, as an adult. Um and in fact, uh, we went through it a couple years ago, and it was just like pictures of it. It wasn't even there anymore. Yeah. You just walked through and they show you what it would look like if you were there. Yeah, I hated the peony prize home with a passion of stuff.

Speaker 9 8:04

That was that was the worst words when my mom would say, Let's go see the peony prize home, right? We'd get in that long lineup. I wanted to go over and you know, win some prizes or go on a ride, and we win that lot for a place that didn't look that amazing to me. Not at all.

Speaker 8 8:17

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Do you guys did you guys ever know anyone that won the home or hear about it? Yeah, I mean either. Yeah. It would have been interesting to actually interview someone that had won the home. Yeah. How it changed them or if it did.

Speaker 6 8:28

In talking about the PE, uh, the connections that we have for fairs and festivals, and uh in Japan they call it the Matsuri. Um and and there are just opportunities to make social connections, community connections, uh nurturing pride uh and creating new relationships. And oftentimes uh festivals will will bring in local crafts and food and just get the people and fairgoers to connect to their roots. So um I I bring a lens because I come from southwestern Ontario and I'll bring in a lens of of fairs and festivals. Uh we would we would go to the the Highland Games in where I live and uh watch people, you know, do the caber toss and things, and then uh they would have their own uh demolition derby. Um oftentimes I think you know if they could get some tractors in there they would. And that was just the parking lot. It was just the parking lot and uh tractor tractor pulls where they would have tractors like chain to each other and try to out-muscle the other tractor, and which doesn't sound as exciting as uh uh demolition derby. Was it a bit exciting though? See the other thing. Because they always put water down on the field so that the tires would dig in and and mud would be flying everywhere and it'd fly understanding. Yeah, and it'd be so loud and uh loud in that way. Yes. So what do you think and and before we go into in into talking about the book, what what do you think is the the the real draw, the connection? Does it have some of those elements? Is the P ⁇ E sort of does it really pull community together, do you think? What?

Speaker 8 10:21

Uh I think it does. Um I I think there's sort of two ways to look at it. Like there's sort of the corporate way that they, you know, uh organize the fair. And they're like, okay, so we have these uh cultural dancers over here and we're gonna have uh the you know the they try to represent the community and as well as they can. So that's that. But then underneath it, you've got all the teenagers that are just there to meet girls or boys, whatever, to you know, to try and in the end have sex, right? I mean that's why they go in there. So I mean there there's it's it it um it relates to the base instinct in young people, like like uh you can you can overeat, you can get uh overstimulated on these rides, you can maybe meet someone. I talk about in the book how about it's it's all about possibility. Yeah. So when you show up, it's like, hey, maybe maybe I'll my mom will let me get three bags of donuts this year, or if you're older, like maybe I will meet that girl, or maybe you know, we'll get on that ride so many times. So I think it does bring out all those cultural elements, but I think uh just like in schools, like when you plan certain things, you know, you're like um having certain days at the school and you think this is bringing the culture, but there's actually this culture underneath that the kids are actually running it. Yeah, and I see the PE similar to that, where like because I see the PE mainly as something for for teens and kids. Yeah. And there's their own culture running this thing. So I think if you were like looking back, say if this could be recorded and in 500 years, people look back at the PE, they wouldn't be looking at what attractions were there, they'd be looking at the interactions uh and and how teens and and and and young people treated each other and what their their goals and don't you think a lot of teens would look upon it as a real transition to adulthood, like what they learned to the PE, right or wrong, was that chance to kind of have some freedom, to have this underground economy that was theirs, right?

Speaker 9 12:14

Operate free from parents. Yeah. In a relatively safe manner. But clear there was some danger there. But it it was, I think a lot of people would look upon that time. They're earning money for the first time, they're having sex for the first time, right? They're doing all these things in a in a place that made them realize I'm not a kid anymore, right? Yeah.

Speaker 8 12:32

And that's yeah, it's exciting like when you're in high school and then you're put into a place with hundreds of other high school kids that you don't know.

Speaker 9 12:41

Yeah.

Speaker 8 12:41

You know, but in the case of a lot of people that worked at the PE, a lot of them knew each other because they were all from the surrounding high schools. I was from, you know, I said from Clarney. So there wasn't really people I knew here so much. It was always, you know, I knew like 10 or 20 people down here, but there'd be other people that would have known hundreds of people down here.

Speaker 10 12:56

Yeah.

Speaker 8 12:57

And that's not exaggerating, because there would have been hundreds of people working from Templeton or Tech or whatever here. Yeah.

Speaker 9 13:02

Yeah. My favorite part of the book was uh it was people that would break into the peony. Right. When you talked about some of that, and or or sneak into the Coliseum so they can catch a show. And it reminded me, my girlfriend at the time, she was well at first she worked her job was this was when we were like 19 years old, but her job is at Orange Julius, but then she got a job as a security guard. So ironically, a friend of mine and I, we broke into the peony at two in the morning, and she told us where there was an opening in the fence to visit her as a security guard. And it just reminded me of that time. And we walked around the whole grounds, just this place on the club. Just in in the dark. In the dark. And the only security guard who knew about it was my girlfriend, so I was safe.

Speaker 8 13:42

Yeah, yeah. Well, it I talked to a lot of guys that like a little older than me. Um, and they were saying how like nothing was locked that like you could just walk onto the property and just walk into the buildings, and you know, like I wrote about the people uh sneaking into the Coliseum to watch the Canucks practice, yeah, um, even to sneak into games, that kind of stuff. And I talked about uh my my cousin how he would one of my cousins would um sneak into games by he would go to the at the front of a family and uh as they walked through he would say my my dad's got the tickets at the back. And then as soon as he got into through the gate, he would just take off.

Speaker 10 14:20

Yeah.

Speaker 8 14:20

Um and then his brother, who was like uh more like less uh he just uh he used to he was a bullshitter. Sorry, can I swear? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, yeah. So he was uh he he was just he could use the gift of the gab. Yeah. So he just thought, I mean, I could run in, but I could also just walk in. So he just pretended that he was on the local uh uh New West Bruins. He just act like he was on that team. And for years, and he wouldn't just walk quickly and he'd stop and chat up the guy at the door. Reasoning about the family and all that kind of thing. So for years, he him and his friends just did that. So yeah, I I loved all that. And then um I know you guys have read the book, but just for people that haven't, yeah, please. One of my favorite stories is uh a guy named Dan, who I interviewed, uh, a friend of my cousin's who he stole, he didn't well he didn't think it was stealing, it was a broken goalie stick after a Canucks practice, and he was in there watching the practice. And I think they were okay with you watching practice sometimes. It didn't feel like they were chasing them out all the time. And he saw this goalie stick and he grabbed it, and then the Canucks goalie saw him take it, and he was like, I know, he's yelling and swearing at him, and he chased him all the way from the Coliseum almost to the roller coaster, yelling and swearing at him the whole time. And and Dan was like, Well, this guy's old, and the guy probably was like 30, right? But Dan was like 14, maybe 13 or 12 or something, and he's like, I can outrun this old man. Yeah, so he chased us, so this Canuck chased him, which would I I measured it, it was like equivalent of like 10 city blocks or something before Dan finally had to drop the thing. Oh, yeah. Yeah, drop run away. Dan also had another, he lived in the area, and and what I found fascinating talking to people, and then I realized it also applied to where my aunt lived. There was a lot of professional wrestlers that lived in East Vancouver because there was um all-star wrestling at the P ⁇ E, the forum. Yeah, yes. So actually on my aunt's block, there were two wrestlers. Oh. And growing up, I didn't even really think about it. I was just like, they would sort of talk, my uncle would talk poorly with them because my uncle was a boxer. Okay. So he saw these guys as losers.

Speaker 9 16:25

Lower class, right? Yeah.

Speaker 8 16:27

But uh Dan lived next door to um, I can't remember, I changed his name. I changed him to the Belgian Beast, I think, but he had a different name. Yeah. It was something like that. And uh yeah, he got in a fight with this guy's son, and then the son ran home and said, you know, Dan punched me in the nose, and this wrestler chased Dan. And and he was like, I think, like 11 or 12 years old at the most of the time. And he said he just got out of the guy's grip as he's trying to grab him, going over the fence, and he was like, he said, Oh my god, I pissed my pants. Like, because he said, I would see and this guy, this boxer, was known for having killed a man in the ring. So imagine you're in elementary school and this guy who's a known killer is chasing you.

Speaker 6 17:10

Yeah. One of the things that I I loved about in reading the book is is finding the opportunities to make money during the PE. And one of my connections to it is because I as I I told you before, I lived at the corner of uh Renfrew in Pender. And we had underground parking. Yes. And so our complex would get everyone to volunteer to move out of the underground, and then we would sell parking for all the time during here at the PE. And what did you have to charge, like 10 or 20 bucks? Yeah, something like that. It was just like uh I I can't remember exactly. But the thing that would drive me absolutely crazy though, is we would be selling the parking, and then I would go to park in the front of our house, and it was really competitive. Like so you would get four or five, so I'd go to park in front of our house, and four or five people would be rushing me because they're like, Oh, do you need parking? Is that no? I live here. Yeah, yeah. I live I'm parking in front of my house.

Speaker 8 18:08

Yeah, the the parking lady, I mean, it's generally uh a lot of Italian, old Italian and old Asian women are the parking ladies uh at the peony running around with their cardboard signs.

Speaker 9 18:18

Yeah.

Speaker 8 18:19

And uh I'd love, I've always loved uh them. They add such flavor to the neighborhood, and I've always thought that if a photographer should do like an exhibit of just all the parking ladies, I think would be great.

Speaker 6 18:30

And they're signs, they live very little milk cartons that they sit on or stand on, and yeah, yeah.

Speaker 8 18:35

Yeah. Um I wrote in the book about Bob Leonardoozy who was like uh played on the white caps and he was like a star in the in the 80s and 70s and 80s. He would do he would uh do uh parking for he lived right by the PE, right? Right. And um he would park cars on his neighbor's lawn and he'd make money that way. And he said he'd just bring home like a pocket full of quarters, you know, he'd get all his money in like quarters at the time, I think. But I think he had a bad deal. I think the guy's house, he the guy took like 75%, like he got a quarter for every dollar or something like that. Yeah.

Speaker 6 19:09

The guy had a good deal. When you think about it, I mean you had the BC Lions, you had the White Caps, yeah, you had the Canucks, you had the PE. And then all the concerts. And all the concerts in there. Yeah. I mean, it would have been like traffic snarls everywhere during the state.

Speaker 4 19:26

Yeah.

Speaker 6 19:26

And then money to be made. I mean, uh, between the parking and then what I loved in the book is sort of that during the PE, how the the students would have this underground economy saying, okay, you're working at food, and I'm working over here, uh, I'll give you a discount here, or or maybe even you give me five, I'll give you twenty kind of thing, and then you give me free food. And just how you know that community of you know of young men and women who are some of them having their first job, have this underground uh economy, but also this connection of working together.

Speaker 8 20:03

Yeah, and also when you steal together, it really brings you together. Like you're in this together, right? So it's a real connection. So I my first job was at the P ⁇ E blowing up balloons as 12 years old. And uh our game was um a dart game. You have to pop three balloons in a in a row, like uh tic-tac-toe, and then you would win um then you'd win a record, you know. So so all the teenagers wanted records. So this guy came to me and he said, I was opening up as before the PE, before the crowd was in, and he said, Um, I'll give you free food if you give me some records. So I gave him a couple of records, and I went to his thing that day and I bought a like a cheeseburger and a fries or whatever, gave him five dollars, and he gave me like $28 back, and I was like, okay, I'm in. I understand this is great. It was scary, yeah, you know, because I was like I said, I was just out of elementary. I wasn't even in high school yet. Wow. It was a somewhere between grade seven and grade eight, you know. Um, but yeah, I think again, going back to the culture, like that's more important than the Highland dancers on the stage. Although that would be presented as a cultural context. The culture is this underground subculture of the underground economy that was going on. And and I didn't get it that much because I didn't have as many friends down here, but the people I talked to who had a ton of friends, they were all, you know, they they exchanged everything. They didn't pay for anything. You know, parking, games, rides, really, food, everything was free for them. Yeah. Because they all did it for each other. Yeah, yeah. The guy who told me is a teacher. But he he didn't wait, he didn't want me to use his name.

Speaker 9 21:41

And I don't know if I did I mention at the beginning, Roy, that that Nick is a teacher? Yes, I'm sure I didn't. Was there anything in the PE that prepared you for your teaching career? That you look back on. Uh that that was a good skill that helped me in my successful elementary school.

Speaker 8 21:56

Well, I mean my jobs in the PE for the like the actual job was blowing up balloons. one year and then handing out bingo cards. Okay.

Speaker 9 22:03

So yeah that would do it.

Speaker 8 22:05

Handing out bingo cards handing out bingo cards is a bit like silent reading, you know.

Speaker 9 22:11

I really enjoyed um another part and it was when you talked about Gloria Makarenko and Ms Panica. The um what do you call it? The anchor? The anchor, yeah, for many years. She's on radio now. I always had a secret crush on Gloria Makarenko. So I really enjoyed your interview with her. How did you find that?

Speaker 8 22:34

Oh it was good. I had first interviewed um someone named Christine who was Miss Peony. I wasn't planning on writing about Miss Peony. It never even crossed my mind. Yeah yeah and then uh this book is like a series of books um on a on it's on Arsenal Pulp Press but within that uh this local do you guys know Charlie de Maris the local comedian yes you do oh yeah yeah so Charlie is the editor of this book okay so yeah we yeah he's the one that asked me to write it and he he has the um he's also one of the debaters yeah exactly there is so uh he own he's the I guess he runs Robin's egg books which is called an imprint uh you know sort of you know some on on some record labels a musician will have his own small label on that? Yes that's what an imprint is for a publishing house. Okay.

Speaker 4 23:18

Okay.

Speaker 8 23:19

So he was asking comedians to write books and I had kind of told him an idea I had about this and then he asked me to write it. And so he announced it when um I was it was here in the Vacuum Writers Festival and the guy who wrote the book the year before um floats like a Float Like a butterfly drink me mint tea it was about a anyway it's a very good book as well. He he was um and in that book he said oh and the book next year is going to be written by Nick Marino it's about the peony and then as soon as that show ended this woman came over and she said are you writing about Miss Peony? And I'm like oh I don't know she was I was Miss Peony do you want to write about Miss Peeney? And I was like so she was really great to talk to and she was um she told me some really interesting things and the thing that I found the most interesting was so she was 17 when she was Miss Peeney grade 11 going into grade 12 right so she had to walk around with Erwin Swangaard who was in his 80s he was a president of the peony she had to walk around with him in her sash and crown all the time. Yeah right but it's the peony I guess it makes sense kind of right at the time but then she had to go to every board meeting that the peony had and she had to sit with Erwin Swangard and she had to wear her crown and sash at the board meetings when they'd be talking about moving electrical lines and and repainting the parking lot and stuff. Another time right yeah wow and she said she didn't like I don't want to you know nothing I'm not saying about uh Erwin Swangard no but I am kind of because I mean he's an old man yeah it's not he didn't do anything but she said I realized I was like kind of like a prize that he was carrying around yeah yeah yeah so okay then then I talked getting back to your Gloria Makarenko question yeah when I talked to her I brought that up and she was not impressed that's it in what way she was she she really liked Erwin Swan and and he she he was kind of a mentor to her because he had been in the newspaper business and she was going into her plan was to go into broadcast into journalism. So she kind of shut that down right away okay um and I don't think it offended her okay but I I just felt like um it was a little bit shaky ground when I was talking to her about it. And then I was on uh on her show on CBC radio she interviewed me okay and uh she didn't bring up that she was in the book when I was talking to her oh so I thought that's weird so I brought it up okay and she didn't say too much about it about being Miss Peony I guess it's something that she doesn't talk about much. I just felt like I that maybe she was slightly offended by my Ernie Swangard question. Interesting but I could be reading way too much into her because also I was like I've done like five interviews in my life and she's done thousands so she's probably thinking what's this guy doing you know I I was getting in my head about her because she's so good at what she does she's so natural. Yes um but yeah interviewing her was was fun it was fun to find out all the stuff about her like she had never been to the PE before she was Miss P that's how I remember Prince Rupert Prince Rupert it was yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah so she was she was really really nice and friendly and helpful I just my memory you know how like you can do everything great and then there's one thing you think went wrong and that's all you think of it.

Speaker 9 26:41

She's dwell on that human nature.

Speaker 8 26:43

Yes she might not even she might not even remember didn't even come up with her mind right yeah no for sure but yeah it was it was um she's a very impressive yeah she's very good at her job yeah she is yeah yeah she is because you listen to her and and uh like listen to me like uh uh uh if she did that on her show she wouldn't still have her show but now she's talking to different people all the time she can lure people I'm talking about something I supposedly know so is there anything that you left on the floor there's anything that you wish you would have put in the book oh um well I mean since I wrote the book I've met people that come to me and everyone's got like PE stories. Yeah uh one of the ones uh and there's a chapter in there about the Crump brothers uh they were some uh African Canadian brothers uh twins that my dad knew they was my dad's friends they were longshoremen but they were also performers that performed at the PE and and I wrote about them and their experience there and uh their daughter Brenda came to me after it was really I had a lot of people come to me and like sort of thank me for the book and stuff it was really kind of great but she came to a reading I did and then after she told me a story where she was at the PE because she's about my age and uh she was at the PE in the 80s and there was a blackout like all the lights went out and she was by the games and she said when the lights came back on everyone was walking around with giant stuffed animals and like people had stolen all of the stuff all of the prizes so like those kind of stories that people tell me I I wish I would have and then my cousin um Paula her friend Carlo I think his name is he still does this he he it's all it's all about like when I said my cousin Ed would just walk into the Coliseum and act like he's supposed to be there this guy still still does this where he pretends that he owns a horse and he just drives he does he never pays for parking and he just get he just goes straight he talks to the guys about the horse or whatever and it's just it's just one of the so I I love those stories especially things that I wouldn't have been brave enough to do. Yeah yeah yeah and um also can I just say go ahead sometimes people will come to me I did a reading in Richmond at a library there and there was this very nice woman who came up to me later she had been part of the organizing committee to get it and she came up and she started telling me stories that she thought related to the book um but I they were only related in the way that the the stories involved other Italian people like they didn't involve the P at all and one of them was like about some murder and then someone being put in a freezer or something and she was like I thought you'd like to know this you know because of your book and I was like it's not really about that but it is it was a good story. But yeah so so that that's been really fun having meeting people uh and getting the chance to hear their stories yeah yeah the book's been great that way I think our next part will kind of help us get about some of the characters in the book.

Speaker 9 29:34

They really are like that they're the they're the they're the stars of the book some of these characters and we kind of had this idea that uh let's imagine this is a production meeting and we're making a movie of the book. We're making oh we're gonna make a movie east side story of the movie oh I love this game so we're gonna cast it yeah we're gonna cast it we're gonna come up with a soundtrack maybe a director right okay because uh and then you can give us some background on some of the characters we have so I get started can I just say before you get started I I so my biggest influence when writing this book what what I was trying to capture was the essence of the movie Dazed and Confused.

Speaker 8 30:11

Okay so that is that is the feeling that I wanted how those teenagers it's just one night of teenagers and they're just living that one one day and night and you sort of see all these interactions and and all the things that teenagers go through the highs and the lows and that kind of thing. So that was the the feel that I wanted.

Speaker 9 30:30

So this is your movie so you guide us and you get us to where we're gonna start we have a list of some characters we want to know some background information on.

Speaker 4 30:38

Okay I'll give as much as they would talk about uh Eric Kaprowski. Okay. Tell us about him.

Speaker 9 30:45

All right well uh Eric uh tell the listener if they have maybe haven't read the book. Yeah. Give them a bit of an idea of this Eric guy.

Speaker 8 30:51

Um well Eric was a a very tough guy that I went to uh high school with um and uh you know I still I actually I heard from him yesterday because um actually someone else this is a sad story I don't know if we need to tell this but um someone that we went to high school with died a couple days ago and she was that um that Mountie um yes I read Catherine Gallaford that that that you know she had been she finally spoke up about being sexually uh harassed and assaulted by so anyway she's someone that we graduated with so we were just texting a little bit about that but Eric is a real real character a huge personality uh he moved here from uh Poland um in grade eight or nine I think um became a a very strong bodybuilder weightlifter kind of guy in the eighties okay and was a bouncer at several clubs.

Speaker 4 31:48

Okay.

Speaker 8 31:49

Um I always got along really well with him but he was he it he could be a very scary guy. Oh um it's delicate work being friends with a scary guy especially if you're gonna if you're gonna if you're gonna tease them a little bit which um I I would joke with him a little bit and uh the line right yeah exactly yeah yeah yeah yeah delicate work yeah okay yeah so who do you think would play him?

Speaker 6 32:10

Can you think of uh this is a good question. So I I would say Well what do you guys think I because I know him like if you've seen him in the book what do you think of him? Well I was thinking uh Zach Efron after his uh he did that show uh on wrestling was was the call some the what the cla the claw something like that because he he was like oh you know you know I got it I know who it is okay okay 80s Dolph Lundgren I like that because Eric has still has that sort of Eastern European accent a little bit which I don't think I talked about in the book but yeah and he has the blonde hair big bigger than everybody else yeah so I go Dolph Lundgren with him okay we'll get our casting crew on that okay how about uh tell us about Red Scardillo Red was um so Steve knows Red pretty well well anyway Steve is another teacher we know and and and he's my brother in law okay I was actually on a hike with Steve the other day and he he he said he didn't keep his part in the book you he he he had a whole story he told you and it's not in the book.

Speaker 8 33:17

Oh yeah yes yeah okay um so red was this to me just like a legendary tough scary guy when I was a kid I'd walk you know worked at the PE he'd be the guy standing in front of the arcade he was a bouncer I was I was scared of him still am okay there's no reason he's a very nice guy to me now like I talk to him he he uh he loves the book he loves being in the book he's always asking me for more copies of the book to sell to not to sell to to give to friends and that kind of thing so he's been a big supporter of of of the book um so yeah he's just a real character I don't know him that well I never knew him as a kid turned out he was really good friends with my second cousin they were bouncers at the Commodore together okay actually Red told me a a great story he said his first night working at the Commodore he was it was a concert and uh this guy jumped up on stage and the other bouncer grabbed the guy and took him off stage and took him backstage right and he said and he's so like Red come here let me show you something and he took the guy and he threw him down the backstairs of the Commodore that goes all the way it's just a straight set of stairs that goes all the way to the alley. And he said he took this guy and he threw him down he said the guy rolled all the way down the stairs hit the door went out into the alley and the door closed behind him and the other guy was like and that's how you do it I mean I don't just to be clear I don't think the guys that should have happened to the guy? No. Good story.

Speaker 9 34:53

Good story sounds like Rolling Stones 1969 my gosh um so we have to cast it I I kind of Jake Gillenhall is a possibility but uh you know this guy so what do you think?

Speaker 8 35:03

I think we need someone bigger and more more menacing.

Speaker 9 35:08

Okay.

Speaker 8 35:09

And that and and the problem is I don't know if it's leading men that way I think we might need to look at more character guys. You know what I mean? Yeah yeah yeah um I don't know who's a big scary guy um I hate when they put wrestlers in movies yeah but I think maybe some kind of wrestler may need it for this he was he was a guy of few words at the time yeah so I think you just have that big scary would the rock work? I mean we know him too much in these other movies now right I think just some we want to find some new guys Dave Batista yeah yeah something yeah yeah I think a wrestler would work for him somebody new a new a new face okay yeah so we covered the two guys in the book okay all right uh what about uh Isaac Messenger character so uh should I quickly tell the Isaac story or please okay please so I was um I was at home one day my wife my my daughter and my wife actually my whole family has worked at Arts Umbrella but my daughter was working at Arts Umbrella and she came home and she said hey um Terry Lynn says you gotta interview her her uh the guy her landlord basically got a crazy story so I went there I won't tell the whole long story but basically this guy who's in his 90s now he um had a really fascinating life so he in the he was born in the 30s and his he was Jewish in Poland and um his whole family was either killed or taken away and he was the only one left so he was left on the streets in Poland as a young guy maybe early teens or something became part of a pickpocket ring he was the muscle which is hilarious because if you see him now like he comes up to my shoulder but I guess he just shrunk because he was the muscle um and also tough guys can be small we know yeah we all saw um train spotting yeah Megby wasn't the biggest guy but he was scary so anyway especially like short guy for this world yeah yeah so eventually he came over to Winnipeg and um when he was in Winnipeg he was like on the streets kind of like he was with a family but he was like a street tough yeah and he got to know guys in the mafia there and then um then he this guy that had lent some or borrowed some money from the mafia didn't have enough to pay it back and they're threatening to kill him so then that guy went to Isaac and said can you help me out? I know you know these guys I think they're gonna kill me I've got a family like so Isaac went and worked out a deal that this guy didn't get killed and the mafia got paid. Years later that guy was working at Playland at the Peony and um he's and and then Isaac moved here from Winnipeg and he said to Isaac hey I'll give you a job and since you helped me out so much you saved my life I'll give you this you can work at a gambling tent doing the the wheel the crown and anchor wheel and at the end of the day all the money that you made just take it home just take that money because you saved my life. So every day Isaac would take home like $500 or whatever you know this was in the 50s. Yeah um and uh and then he bought a house with this money that he had from the fair and he still lives in that house so I went and I and I went and interviewed him he's a little bit you know has a bit of dementia um but he talking about often people with dementia they're old stories yeah they're clear very clear yeah yeah turned out he he became friends with Rocky Marciana and uh he was like I didn't like I grew up in Vancouver and I didn't really know there was any mafia here at all but he's like oh yeah yeah then I uh um I bought the house off a mafia guy here and I was like I didn't even know this existed and then he would say that sometimes a mafia would get him to uh go and pick someone up from the airport and drive them to somewhere they would do their monkey business and then he'd drive them back to the airport. So I don't know if so I love that monkey business like monkey business considering a monkey business.

Speaker 9 39:04

Are they buying donuts or are they killing somebody?

Speaker 8 39:06

Yeah so the monkey business was uh they'd get someone from out of town to do the monkey business so no one would recognize him there you go wow wow so who do you who would you cast oh for Isaac um okay so we oh okay I'm thinking of him as a little old man yeah but but in his prime in his prime yeah I it would have to be some small tough I don't know you guys have an idea because that might help me know we had Joe Pesci we definitely had Joe Pesci because okay Isaac's personality when I met him was nothing like Joe Pesci's personality yeah but I love that pick yeah and if we're making the movie people don't know Isaac and and and for what he's accomplishing because his job eventually at the PE because he worked there a long time was to just make sure everything was going fine. He'd walk around make sure no one was stealing no one was yeah was causing any trouble. So I think Pesci is the right because someone's small but scary.

Speaker 6 40:01

Okay so here's the next one who's gonna play or tell us a sorry before I say that that tell us a a little bit about this Nick Morino guy tell us about Nick.

Speaker 8 40:14

So I know you guys are are doing this sort of as like a fun thing like hey if we make this a movie. Yeah that is uh my plan that is my goal so um it should be actually say in all sincerity uh so my daughter who is a playwright my daughter and I are are going to write a uh screenplay fantastic wow I talked to uh someone who actually I they you know this sounds if I don't give this it'll sound bigger than it is but her her kid goes to my school so I was talking her and she um helps independent Canadian movies get made okay and she thought it had a a good chance but she said the one thing against it is it being said in the 80s makes it a lot more expensive yeah I guess to make it change everything to look authentic. Yeah um but she said that right now like various uh local things are good like if it's hyper local yeah that that's things that are getting funding in Canada you need funding from the government to make anything right so um and then she said why don't you and your daughter just write a screenplay and see where it's going so saying all that if I were to make this a movie there would be no Nick Marino character in it. Okay because again going back to the stolen valor not from here I think it'd be more interesting to have the main kid actually someone who grew up right by the peony okay so I'd call him Anthony or something like that. Okay. Um and he would and I I would um who would play him it'd have to be someone who's a little bit like the way I wrote myself it's funny writing yourself in a book too right because you're like how do I make myself a likable character? What what you know what should I leave out and put in in my life to make the it's not only because I want people to like me but I want people to like the book.

Speaker 9 41:53

Like you you want to like the characters in the book right so um see who would I like it's a bit of a sales job about yourself right you're trying to present yourself in a certain way.

Speaker 8 42:03

Exactly um well who do you guys have for for the character? Because I'd keep him the same personality as me but I'd I would change the name because I don't want people to we were going you know just other Adam Sandler oh no I can you know some of his serious roles right think of some of his younger younger series not not his you know I just feel like films you know what um why I would say no is I feel like I don't have like Adam Sandler has that that bottled uh explosiveness okay that makes him great okay and I don't have that right okay you know uh I it'd have to be someone that's a little bit um uh okay I would go for like a Paul Rudd okay yeah yeah I like Paul Rudd in in a um yeah not in a not playing it funny just playing it straight yeah and you know I see that and we came up with these never having met you now that we've met you I totally see Paul Rudd yeah right I I totally see that yeah I heard a fun fact about Paul Rudd the other day Paul Rudd and John Hamm knew each other growing up they were they were friends and they they they dated the same girl like I think they they were both like sexiest man in the world I'd like to see who that girl is girl she tried to look at her husband like I knew my God you know we went out with two of the sexiest men in the world I'm stuck with you.

Speaker 9 43:21

So kind of keeping with that and if Nick's in it or if you have a new character for yourself I think you know it's always based on a true story. So keeping with that let's say we tweaked it a bit and it was partly because of my crush on Gloria Makarenko make that there's a bit of a romance in this story between Nick or me and Gloria we've got to sell this right if Hollywood wants to hear something we'll sell. So who would play Gloria Makarenko in that situation?

Speaker 8 43:50

Okay so I think we can all agree that Gloria Makarenko is a very beautiful woman and was so we'd have to you know I don't want to just cast it purely on looks. Um but if it's someone that I have to be yes. You're gonna get in trouble. Yeah, yeah. I don't know. I don't know here. Like I feel like I'm drawing a blank. Let's hear what you guys have. I put down Anne Hathaway. Oh okay. Yeah you know what? I think that really works. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah because uh Anne Hathaway uh is is is you know very pretty yeah yeah and she seems very smart. Really smart and and there's nothing about her that comes across as sort of like um overly sexual like she's she seems to be um getting by on her uh on just on her acting yeah I don't mean that I feel like I hope I'm not sounding negative words women she's but like some women get by some some actresses and some actors get by on their sexuality which I don't think Anne Hathaway I don't think there's a lot of men that love Anne Hathaway or Gwyneth Paltrow. I think they're more the type of women that women yeah they're strong they're strong people right and and I and I I think that's a they're strong characters all right so we need every good movie has a good soundtrack.

Speaker 6 45:07

Okay we would like you to give us four songs that you think need to be on the soundtrack for this movie.

Speaker 8 45:16

Okay so um as a lifelong fan of the clash I would have to have a clash song in there. Okay. Um and I think there's the obvious ones which I wouldn't choose like the hits and I don't know how well but as a Billy Bragg fan as you've got a Billy Brake t-shirt on I think you probably know the clash pretty well is my guess. So I think I would go with uh Rudy Can't Fail. Okay. Okay. Yeah because I've always felt like that song represents everything the Clash does well in one song except maybe Anger. But uh but I think that song because there's a joyfulness about it that um I think would really suit the the the the midway scenes and all that kind of thing. Okay. So that would be one for sure. Exactly I think I would need something kind of sad in there maybe. Okay. And this is maybe a deep cut that people maybe don't know but there's this REM song on um uh that album they had with What's a Frequency Kenneth I think it came out in like '93 um Monster, I think it's called yeah there's a song in there called Tongue which he sings in a falsetto and it's a very um kind of emotive song I would say. So I would want that in there at some point. These are great yeah um I think because I talk about some of the concerts that happened at the P I think it would be great to include some of that stuff. A Motley Cruz song yeah I was like tell tell the quickly tell the story okay so this is Eric we're going back to Eric yeah yeah so and he ended up in the book The Dirt about about uh Motley Crue I believe he did um he was like I say he was a big tough guy and he was a huge Motley Crue fan yeah so let's put in let's put in a Motley Crue song let's put in like uh uh girls girls girls as well because and I say that one because that was written um in Vancouver uh inspired by the sign at the cobalt that it used to say girls girls girls they were recording an album here okay I say all this not a Motley Crue fan I don't I don't want uh anyone to think that I don't I I grew up where I it was like very in you guys as well like music there was more like strict lines drawn like you're on this side or that side uh where it isn't that way now because everything's free like before because you paid for it you had to defend it you know I mean you go to someone's house you you look at their records and you'd be like you bought this yeah you know and then the guy'd have to defend it right but now you can just stream whatever you want.

Speaker 9 47:39

And because of that now you can tell songs from the 80s to 90s it had its time but after the 90s because everything's just streamed there's no distinctive genre that you go that's that sound and that's I wonder if it's if that's that or if it's just that we're old and we don't know like because my my wife and I were talking about like I was saying I'm not gonna accept that and I've continuously listened to new music my whole life.

Speaker 8 48:02

Yeah um but uh like say with fashion if someone's like hey we're gonna dress like the 90s like at your school have they ever done like 90s day and they dress up I can't tell. I don't know if that's different from what I'm wearing now. You know what I mean? It's from the same yeah so um I'm I'm sorry I got Motley Crew Motley Crew yeah oh yeah to tell the listeners on the case played in Vancouver at the Pacific Coliseum very first song Vince Neal's out there I I think he was singing I can't remember what song it was but I did look it up because um there's a set list.fm where you can go on and they'll give you a set list from like all these shows and I think it was on there. Anyway while he's up there Eric was like front row up there I think with our friend Ener was up there as well and and uh Vince Neal planted his foot that's the lead singer of of uh Motley crew planted his foot right at the edge of the stage and was singing and Eric I remember he said to me he he goes oh my god Nick he was such a pencil neck I put my hand completely all the way around his ankle so just in that moment when he grabbed his ankle he was like oh my god he he was like disgusted by this pathetic pencil neck so he just grabbed him and threw him into the audience and they had to stop the show in the first song and then the bouncers dragged him out and beat him up and threw him outside but um yeah they throw him down the stairs and I remember the after the show maybe a couple days later our friend Ener who was there as well like you know what this guy did he grabbed his infinite sneal and threw him off the stage but yeah and they it's mentioned in the book about Motley Crue yeah yeah yeah yeah all right okay we need one more song one more song oh right okay so we've got the clash we've got the sort of uh sad one we've got the Motley Crue to set the scene and then um okay so it's the 80s so I think we need oh we gotta put the cure in there okay I think we put the cure in there and I'm kind of a stickler for I I don't like watching a movie where a song came out after the movie. Yeah you know I mean like it takes me right out of it. Yeah so it would have to be an uh an earlier cure thing. You know what I think although it's a bit on the nose I think boys don't cry okay I think boys don't cry is really still one of my favorite one of their songs um and I think there's a part in it where I break up with my girlfriend and then I just regret it for like the whole summer. I I tell her I want the summer off and then she's like fine let's just take the whole you know let's just break up and then I just regret it immediately. Yeah and I think for that section I think Boys Don't Cry would super I like that all right and who will direct this movie? Wow you mentioned brain spotting Danny Boyle or I I mean what do you think my dream would be um uh Richard Link later who directed Days and Confused as I said that when I wrote this book Days and Confuse was my biggest influence as far as how I wanted it to feel I love this film so so that's that's who I would want I I put down uh Greg Moda he did uh Adventureland oh yeah yeah and super bad oh my god super bad super bad is that's my wife's favorite movie yeah my favorite movie Stays and Confuse uh just and then my favorite comedy is uh Dumb and Dumber. Okay. Just get them out there my two favorite movies Stays and Confuse and Dumb and Dumber and I stand by them um but yeah uh I I love Super Bad and I think they just capture capture that stuff perfectly yeah I mean so yeah he would be great too because I'd love it to feel like that.

Speaker 9 51:30

I always love boyhood by Richard Link later. Yeah yeah and it's just that the way they film that once a year for decades I think yeah okay so I I have a I I I wouldn't call it a surprise but I have a little fairgoing days goes back to my fairgoing days.

Speaker 6 51:49

My my brother was in uh uh Demolition Derby. Oh wow and in uh small town Wallace Town yeah uh he listens sometimes so shout out to my brother who I don't know how he did it because every year he would look for the perfect car yeah and he'd get the welding torches out and he'd get it all fixed up and ready to go. He won once but I uh I know right now he's a year younger than me that he feels it in the body.

Speaker 8 52:18

Oh yeah yeah I was gonna ask about that because did they even have shoulder straps at that point or I think that you had to have a seat like a a strap.

Speaker 6 52:25

Okay.

Speaker 9 52:26

But you had to have something built in that way. And he f he feels the results of that time on his body now.

Speaker 6 52:32

He works really hard but he he's just got aches and pains. As long as he moves he's fine.

Speaker 8 52:38

He sits down and imagine like say you were in a car accident right? Those guys are in 25 accidents the whole you know a day. Yeah when they're doing that it's insane.

Speaker 6 52:48

Okay so here you go. I'm presenting or Martin's gonna describe it for me.

Speaker 9 52:54

Okay so we this for the listeners Roy's he's got a it looks like a ribbon it's a purple ribbon and what does it say it says Wallace Town Fair Wallace Town Fair second place.

Speaker 6 53:06

Second place for the demolition earlier well no we have no guess this is second place for something at a fair now I I brought this because in in the book okay I remember the the picture of the the women with hammers and the competition for hammering nails. Right?

Speaker 8 53:24

They were getting housewives to the housewives see if a woman gives a hammer I'm gonna give you three?

Speaker 6 53:31

Well that's we'll see we'll see so what did I get? Oh you did this so what so I did this I got second place Wallace Town Fair I'm not telling the year because then people will know how old I am okay uh but I'm gonna say I was eight years old. Okay. Oh okay or eight years old I I mean that kind of pushes things down.

Speaker 8 53:54

So you kept this for 70 years well I love working with you okay can I ask a couple questions? Oh you can ask some questions okay were you did you grow up in like a small town farm or like farm area for a small like what was it I was in a farming community. Okay so I'm gonna guess that this was some kind of uh so an agricultural fair kind of thing so so maybe you had like uh I bet at that age boys weren't cooking things so I don't think it was like for a pie or anything like that. So I think it was like some kind of animal I think it's animal related I think it's animal related be careful yeah um I don't know um I don't really know what those things I'm gonna say you raised like a a prize pig.

Speaker 6 54:49

Wow it's connected to a pig it's connected to a pig okay I Martin deep down inside was hoping that it would be like second place for growing the largest zucchini because Martin's being the big gardener but you're close it's related to a pig.

Speaker 9 55:05

It's good for the first guess.

Speaker 8 55:06

Yeah okay so I'm gonna guess it's fun in this fair now this is this is wrong but did you ride a pig? Was there like pig race? A pig race?

Speaker 6 55:17

No related to a pig oh oh no no no I was at a fair before where you if you guessed the weight of the pig they killed it and cut it up and you won the it was in uh it was in Coombs like about 10 years ago on Michael Riley won the pig no that would have been cool oh my god for the season oh you're you're you're really close yeah what could you do with a pig what could you do what could you win a prize that you had to do something to that pig oh you pinned it you wrestled a pig and you pinned the pig actually I'm gonna say that's that's as close as you're gonna get okay I I did I chased the pig it was a greased pig contest so they greased them up and you had the fastest one to to catch a pig and I I chased that little sucker down and it was all cut I all covered in baking grease probably yeah and I caught it and I got second place and you know when you second place because you someone did it faster than me. Okay yeah but but the the thing is when you when you think about all right as like hammering a nail into a board or catching a pig. I mean yeah that's what people had to do right the pigs got loose you had to catch a pig.

Speaker 8 56:33

I mean it would be fun like it now as a vegetarian I I'm gonna say I don't think we should be doing that but right now if they set up a little pen and me, you and Martin tried to catch a pig I'd be into that we'd be laughing our heads up right yeah and and you know the whole pen area is they they poured water all over so it's mud.

Speaker 6 56:50

So we were more of a spectacle I mean like grandparents and moms and dads are there just laughing at us because people falling face first all covered in mud chasing this.

Speaker 8 57:06

The other two could try to catch it gonna be a whole new TikTok right if we want viewers I think that's yeah retired greaser it could be called there you go and then like when a mud wrestling competition.

Speaker 9 57:22

So before we wrap up and the sun is coming out now it's become a beautiful day why while we speak uh Nick do you have any future projects planned or anything's coming up that you wrote this fabulous book I really recommend listeners to get a copy of this.

Speaker 8 57:35

Where can they find a copy for sure um well I mean before it came out in 2023 so it was um it was in all the bookstores it was very exciting I went into chapters on Robson or I guess it's called indigo now and uh they had like 40 of them there was like you know the hot new picks that would you know and it was all over so it was really exciting now you know not so much um you could get it you could order it online for sure yeah I would say not from Amazon yeah um not only because like hey they're not being nice to us right now right so uh I would prefer uh if you're in Vancouver go to a local bookstore Irond Books on Hastings right by the PE has been really great to me okay so that's be a place that I'd recommend you pick it up but you could order it online uh for sure and we'll have a link to the book and everything on our webpage stumpbrothers.ca so people can check it out and you know what take it out of the library yeah in the end I think I might make just as much there really you get paid for uh library books yeah and uh you don't get paid much for books like no no you you get you get money up front and then and then after that after you sell a certain amount you make a little bit more yeah um but I think a lot of people don't make any more than what their upfront money was so the little bit of money you get from the library. Yeah but whatever I don't care about the money now I'm just happy that people are are are still reading this book. So future any future projects yeah so future one very related to this book do you guys remember there was a chapter in here where I talked about my great grandfather and how he was the richest Italian in Vancouver and then he got murdered? Yeah yes so the um the publisher asked me to write another book about my family okay so right now I'm writing a book about my family who came from Italy. I'm I'm Italian 100% Italian but all my grandparents met in Vancouver so I'm actually from four different parts of Italy. Oh wow um but I'm following the roots from Abruzzo Italy where my great grandfather came over left there in the 1890s came was in Vancouver by about 1905 was murdered in 1914. So I'm just following the family up until now and there's been uh lots of uh interesting characters in my family just like you have the characters here I think I've got some characters from my family there's um some things people would know like uh very hyper specific things but Richards on Richards was run by my uh second cousin John Tetty who also owned um Puccini's restaurant okay um and then he also started the Shark Club um and his brother ran some other clubs as well um I have some second cousins that have run um Benny's Market in Strathcona since 1919 it's been in the family um so there's that stuff and then just a lot of um if you look at 120 years of a family history you're gonna find interesting stories yeah so so it's it's that's what I'm working on right now. The truth is more interesting than fiction right yeah for sure yeah I mean I always pictured myself writing fiction I always wanted to write yeah um and and writing nonfiction is uh a lot of work because it's so much research and interview and transcribing and and all that kind of thing. But I do agree that um had I made up these stories in the book about the the peenies book about you know red riding the roller coaster with no seat belt and changing the seats mid-ride it would be like yeah but no one really did that. But yeah no they didn't he did that and I've had it confirmed by several people that they know that that happened.

Speaker 6 1:00:52

Yeah yeah yeah so that book uh will be coming out a year from now um fantastic it'll also be on Arsenal I don't have a title for I mean I'd have a title but I haven't cleared it with uh right okay okay so one of the things because in our podcast uh we we connect with teachers and we talk about having some work-life balance talk about you know you know because teaching can be all consuming it's just trying to find a passion after teaching or and and I I am amazed that knowing that you are a teacher uh especially grade four or five uh which you know Martin and I uh finished our careers in in that grade and it's an amazing grade but you still have some gas in the tank yeah right to to be able to write or follow a passion and uh I just I I love that and I I hope our listeners connect with that as teachers but there's more to the the duck than just teaching right because it can be important and all encompassing it can suck uh the the marrow from your bones kind of thing if you let it yeah yeah it's it's been great it's it's I feel very grateful to have given this chance later in life you know when I when that book was published I was like 56 57 56 I think when it came out um and uh yeah I I had kind of given up on the idea that I was gonna be a writer.

Speaker 8 1:02:22

I always wanted to be you know yeah um but writing's one of those things that you don't have to be in shape to do like if you were a a good athlete and then you can't you can't at 56 you know try out for the Lions or something right so um so now it's like this I wouldn't say second career um but when I retire I'll you know I know that what I'll do is I'll keep writing and I've got ideas for other books and um I want to write things that aren't as hyper specific to Vancouver so I get invited to writers festivals in Montreal or something like that. You know what I mean?

Speaker 9 1:02:54

No your story's inspiring. I mean I started a novel 20 years ago and I only I already finished it this last year for time oh congratulations until I'm gonna rewrite it and blah blah blah it just got pushed off to the side and so I'm so grateful now to have time every day in my day yeah that it's my writing time right because it's it's hard work.

Speaker 8 1:03:12

Yeah it's hard I'll tell you easy a a deadline really helps yeah but it hurts. Yeah you know I mean like it it's painful. I've spent this whole summer just writing because my first draft is due in November.

Speaker 9 1:03:25

Okay.

Speaker 8 1:03:26

And uh my dad has been in the hospital since February he's been quite sick. He's just moved into a hospice so I haven't had the time or energy during school time. After you know teaching all day going to the hospital going home and eating eight o'clock at night I don't feel like writing. Yeah so all summer it's just been like I've been like okay this is my job. I get up nine o'clock in the morning I'm writing or researching or whatever.

Speaker 9 1:03:48

Yeah yeah and before we went on air you mentioned you had another idea for your last year of teaching. Can you share that with us?

Speaker 8 1:03:55

Yeah as long as there's a lot of teachers listening so don't steal this idea. Okay. But what a um the the They don't have your drive so it's okay. Yeah yeah a lot of people actually listen I'm not gonna steal that that's stupid what a great idea it it the the the idea for my uh hopefully third book would be called um the The Year I tried up my job. Okay and um I love the title. At that point I will have been teaching probably for like 35 years I think in that range. So my idea is for my very last year of teaching to think about what really makes a great teacher. Think about what I thought I was going to be as a teacher when I first started. And and you know obviously I haven't measured up to those things in my life. I don't think many teachers do, right? There are some of those that do but then also work-life balance like what are they doing? So uh the idea is that I'm gonna do my very best instead of instead of just fading away like some people do when they retire I'm gonna try the hardest I've ever tried in my last two teaching which I think will be funny. I I vow to learn what the letters mean when they say like this kid is a Q and I'm like what is that? And I'll have to look it up. Right? It's there. Yeah right Q is what I know. Most of them I don't know.

Speaker 10 1:05:13

No, you gotta look it up each time.

Speaker 8 1:05:14

So I I'm gonna I I I'm gonna try to be the very best teacher that I possibly can and then write about that. And it'll give me an excuse to also write about a lot of fun teaching stories that I've had over the years.

Speaker 9 1:05:24

Yeah.

Speaker 8 1:05:24

And I'll also interview other teachers and that kind of thing but but I mean all my stuff I write uh is somewhat in the humor vein. I want it to be funny. Yeah. So I want to put some of the funny stories I have in.

Speaker 9 1:05:35

Well thank you we really appreciate you coming on this is amazing. This is actually going to be the first episode of season two. Oh it's gonna come out on Labor Day September. Oh right September 1st I believe and uh we're kicking off with you on our season two and we've made it a bit like a job we're loving it but we managed to get it out every Monday this SLS podcast we've been consistent and treating it like something like we have deadlines and like you say with a deadline you kind of feel the pressure but you need a bit of pressure In life, right? Yes, yes. So we really appreciate having you on.

A Stunt Brothers Celebration At North Point Brewing

Speaker 8 1:06:02

Yeah, well, congratulations on getting to your second season, sticking to it, and thanks a lot for having me on. This was super fun. All these opportunities that have come from the book, I love and I don't take them for granted. So thank you very much. Thank you.

Speaker 9 1:06:22

Well, Mr. Hunt, I can see by the clock on the wall, we have 10 minutes to go. Ten minutes till four o'clock.

Speaker 6 1:06:27

Until four o'clock.

Speaker 9 1:06:28

Tell us what does that mean? Tell us what that means.

Speaker 6 1:06:30

Okay, well, we we're set up. We're good to go. Uh we're here at North Point Brewery in North Vancouver. Great location. Great location. We're on the their uh second floor, uh their tasting room. They've graciously provided us with this.

Speaker 9 1:06:44

Great people, yeah, to provide us for the celebration that we're holding today.

Speaker 6 1:06:48

And uh we have an amazing view from here. Look at that.

Speaker 9 1:06:51

That's wow. And uh Vancouver City. This is great. It's just amazing. And we're here celebrating because it's our final summer session. So summer session nine.

Speaker 6 1:06:59

That's right. Uh episode 30 from our uh first season.

Speaker 9 1:07:05

And 32 if I'd done the math right earlier.

Speaker 6 1:07:08

With the the A B that we added when we were traveling.

Speaker 9 1:07:12

But the big thing is it's the finale of season one. That's right. Season two will start on Labor Day, right? So here we are having this celebration. We've invited the world. Yes.

Speaker 6 1:07:21

And I remember way back at uh I possibly our first episode. Okay, and we're in the booth in the uh North Vancouver City Library, and one of the lines we said, This podcast is organic. And when I think about what's gonna happen soon, I think that's probably as organic as you can.

Speaker 9 1:07:44

We have finally hit the organic moment, which means it could go anywhere. That's right.

Speaker 6 1:07:49

Certified organic.

Speaker 9 1:07:51

And you when you invite people to a celebration, you provide a beer and other alcohol and an open mic, who knows what we'll hear. That's right. But this is podcasting, and you know, filters are only good for C B C radio. And editing is uh well within our means. Absolutely. Right. But I think it's great that we have this, and I'm really excited about having people come and join us here to celebrate what's been a fantastic season. It has been. It has been. It's been beyond expectations, and we're so excited about season two. So that's why we're holding this today. That's right.

Speaker 6 1:08:24

And we have five minutes on the clock now, and I'd like to go buy you a beer.

Speaker 9 1:08:28

Oh, I'm into that. Okay. I say cheers to that, my friend. All right. So we can do that. Here we are again back at North Point. North Point Brewing. We just had a little chat with some of our guests here. And a beer. And a beer, yeah. We even have uh our guest from the end of the summer sessions, Nick. Yes, Nick Marino, right? He is he's here. So he came back after the water.

Speaker 6 1:08:51

I know, but it's rare because some sometimes you say, or me. I would say something that maybe our guest is like, I don't think I'll ever come back, but he came back. He came back, right?

Speaker 9 1:09:00

So that's a good sign. Yes. We got Normal over there. Yep. Normal doesn't want to come on the mic, but wave Normal. Hey, there he is. You can he can can you hear the wave? Uh yeah, you see the wave. We talked with Normal, we talked with him many years ago at Dorothy Linus. So one of the people that go back to that time when we were at Dorothy Linus that we've spoken about in previous episodes.

Speaker 5 1:09:20

There you go.

Speaker 9 1:09:21

So we'll just go mingle a bit and we'll mingle, come back. We'll see if somebody wants to come onto the mic. I've heard Nick might want to come back and tell his life story. So here we go.

Speaker 6 1:09:30

I I have a feeling that when he does come, then he's going to um give his life story.

unknown 1:09:36

Shut the computer off.

Speaker 9 1:09:37

Yeah, but his wife's here. She seems far more interesting. Yes! So the celebration's going great, right? Mr. Hunt is yes, it is.

Speaker 6 1:09:51

Doing very well.

Speaker 9 1:09:52

And we we have someone at the hot mic. The hot mic. Oh, there he is.

Speaker 1 1:09:56

I can't believe I'm seeing this in person. I've like heard it in my headphones for. You can't believe it. You're actually here, right?

Speaker 9 1:10:02

You actually're putting a face to the voices.

Speaker 6 1:10:06

For the first time, really, right? So we have some questions. All right. Uh, because it's a podcast about uh education, about uh for teachers. And so uh what's it like to be the the son of a teacher?

Speaker 9 1:10:24

Oh I guess we should tell the listeners who we have here. We have we have we have Josh Stubel here. Joshua Stubel. I always call him Joshua. People say Josh, and I go, who's Josh? It is my son. So I guess he is the son of a teacher. Hi everybody. Yep. He's uh he's been on a podcast before. He's also a great uh what would I say sound engineer for people's production? What what what what title would you like to use for yourself that would be appropriate?

Speaker 1 1:10:52

Amateur sound engineer.

Speaker 9 1:10:54

He's very humble, very humble.

Speaker 1 1:10:56

Okay. So ask your question again.

Speaker 6 1:10:59

Okay, that so the question is what's it like to be the the son or the the child of a teacher?

Speaker 1 1:11:07

Well, I guess it really depends uh the proximity effect of uh the teacher, because for me, it was the same school. So it's right, right?

Speaker 9 1:11:19

Not at first, but then we were at Upper Lynn. Yes. And you had your dad at the school.

Speaker 1 1:11:24

And then we were flying pretty close to the sun. Was that awkward? Literally. Uh no, actually, no. In reality, not at all. No, I don't know. I don't know.

Speaker 9 1:11:32

No, and even even because you I was still doing grade seven when you were in grade seven, right?

Speaker 1 1:11:35

But you refused to teach me. Yes.

Speaker 9 1:11:37

Though I yeah, didn't I No, not yeah, but didn't I teach you PE? We we switched teacher night. Yeah. So I still had you in grade seven. A little bit. Yeah. You gave me an A, didn't I? Do you get grades in PE? Yeah.

Speaker 1 1:11:51

I I do not remember. But no, it was totally fine. It was great.

Speaker 6 1:11:56

Well, you know, it's it's interesting because both my daughters went to the same school that I taught at. Ridgway. At Ridgway. Wow. And it's their experience was a positive experience too. Uh I guess it would be very difficult if uh the student population didn't like your mother or father who was a teacher. That that I think that would be really uh, you know, that would be very difficult to navigate through.

Speaker 1 1:12:22

Mr. Stubel had a great reputation. If anything, it was a halo effect. Well, it rubbed off on that.

Speaker 6 1:12:29

But I I can remember I was in the same shit situation where I was teaching grade seven and and my my daughter Camille came to me and she said, Dad, all my friends think you're an amazing teacher and they want to be in your class, and I'd like to be in your class. Oh. And and I look, I looked at her and I said, No. And I went down to to grade four. And so there was an opening, and I left grade seven, went to grade four, and I didn't have to teach her. But my other daughter was in grade four, but she definitely did not want to be in my class, so I didn't have a problem.

Speaker 9 1:13:12

Did it make you want to be a teacher watching me? Then you just like uh you gave up that you decided I'm gonna give up that dream and become a sound engineer?

Speaker 1 1:13:22

No, I don't think so. I don't I don't think so. I thought I'd be better suited to producing podcasts. I see, I see. Okay.

Speaker 6 1:13:30

And and we have been able to uh utilize your expertise in producing podcasts to help us out.

Speaker 1 1:13:36

Oh, it's true. That's true. I've tried to help where I can.

Speaker 9 1:13:38

Yeah, he absolutely has, and it's like you're my go-to guy. I can just send you a message any time of day. And it's like you instantly work for me. You right away give me a response and solve my problem. So I appreciate it.

Speaker 1 1:13:50

And I keep on sending the bills in the mail, but they I don't know, they never get paid. You're going to the old address, so it's alright.

Speaker 6 1:13:57

Oh, but he's been sending them to me and I've been shredding them.

Speaker 1 1:14:01

Oh, okay, okay. Well, at least that explains that.

Speaker 9 1:14:06

Well, thank you. We really appreciate this, and uh we wish you all the best. Thanks for coming to our celebration and getting ready for season two.

Speaker 1 1:14:13

Yeah, I'm looking forward to it.

Speaker 9 1:14:14

Thanks for having me. So this is going well. North Point, once again, a big shout out to North Point. Big shout out to the North Point Brewing. We're they're they're here on uh First Street, 200 block 1st Street, and they're just a fabulous, fabulous uh establishment here in North Vancouver, and we encourage our listeners to come check them out. Check them out. And they come here, we won't be here. No, no. Not this time. We'll do this again. And we have with us a kindergarten teacher who has come to Yeah, yeah. Hi, Charlene.

Speaker 1:14:46

Hi, Roy.

Speaker 9 1:14:47

And uh it it's August, and a lot of people think, oh teachers, they're still on their summer vacation, right? They're not really getting ready for school. They're just they're off till Labor Day. They don't start till September 2nd. They're still on holiday. Charlene, is that true?

Speaker 1:15:02

Definitely not.

Speaker 9 1:15:04

No, okay, why?

Speaker 1:15:05

I think I've been thinking about my next year since June.

Speaker 9 1:15:11

Wow. Wow. Did you find when like when it became August, did you find it get a little feeling in your stomach?

Speaker 1:15:18

There's a little feeling that happens on August 1st that is the impending doom of the next school year. And yet hopeful. There's so much hope. There's like next year's gonna be the year. Next year's the year that I do it right.

Speaker 6 1:15:40

Oh, okay. So when have you been in the school yet?

Speaker 1:15:44

I have not. Okay. I I intend to on Monday.

Speaker 6 1:15:48

On Monday, okay, because I I had this thing where I like to do, uh I would just go into the school. It's kind of like, you know, when you go to a lake and you dip your toe in, I like doing that. So I would like walk into the classroom, look at the furniture, and go home.

Speaker 1:16:08

I look at, I drag furniture, I look at furniture, I set it all up, and then I organize something strange that it has nothing to do with the whole setup. Take a photo of the whole thing, go home, and then come back the next day with oh, these are the changes I need to make.

Speaker 6 1:16:31

So you go for the full swim.

Speaker 1:16:33

Full swim the second day.

Speaker 9 1:16:37

So what's gonna be different this year? That's gonna make it the best year ever.

Speaker 1:16:41

Do you do you know what the change is? I got I got a label maker maker. I can't even say it. Label maker. And that will make all the difference in the whole world.

Speaker 9 1:16:55

Label their heads, their foreheads?

Speaker 1:16:57

Exactly. I will label everything. Go this way, go that here, this is for you, this is not for you. It will all be labeled. Nice.

Speaker 9 1:17:11

Well, we appreciate you being a loyal listener to After the Bell and coming out to our celebration about season two. So thank you, Charlene, and uh thanks to everyone here who's joining us tonight. We got people even from Japan here. Yes, we do. You know, I hear we have a lot of listeners from Japan. There's a lot of Japanese going on. Here we have a teacher who's just has retired recently. Hi, my name's Fred. Fred and I go way back, right? We were 19 when we first met. I didn't have any gray hair at that time. We haven't changed though.

Speaker 7 1:17:42

At all. Absolutely not.

Speaker 9 1:17:44

And uh Fred, you're still TLC in a bit?

Speaker 7 1:17:47

Yeah, maybe one or two days a week.

Speaker 9 1:17:49

And is that enough?

Speaker 7 1:17:51

That's enough for me, absolutely, especially kindergarten. One day of kindergarten every month is good enough.

Speaker 9 1:17:57

And and for many years, didn't you teach French in Vancouver?

Speaker 7 1:18:00

Yeah, I was in I was uh French teacher in Vancouver, teacher librarian in Vancouver for a number of years. Yeah.

Speaker 9 1:18:07

Anything else you want to say to the listeners?

Speaker 7 1:18:11

Um hey, sign up, sign up for this wonderful podcast. I I mean it's awesome. International international reach. It's great. Thank you, appreciate it.

Speaker 9 1:18:25

So we're another celebration guest here. We're really appreciative. We have a dear old friend here, Normal Ponton.

Speaker 2 1:18:31

Yes, Mark Stubel and Roy Hunt. Yes.

Speaker 9 1:18:35

Hi, Normal. Hi, Roy. We go back to Dorothy Lyon as like 25 years, eight months more. Wow. Oh 25, it's 25 years ago is when you wow. Wow. You haven't changed it. His hair is a little longer. He's got a great set of hair, right now, it's just it's a rock star hairstyle.

Speaker 2 1:18:59

Well, thank you. I I'll take it.

Speaker 9 1:19:03

You're still you're still TLC un, right? T T L C T T. How many T's are there now? T T T T.

Speaker 2 1:19:09

TOC. Yeah. Yeah. It's uh yeah, it's um it's a good way of keeping in touch with a bunch of people like you guys that I've known for so many years, decades. Yeah. Uh I still like teaching. Some days are easier than others, but that's always been the game anyway. And teaching is not supposed to be easy.

Speaker 9 1:19:30

It's no, it's a hard it's a hard job, actually. It is a hard job. Yeah. But do you enjoy most of your days?

Speaker 2 1:19:37

Most days, yeah. You know, it's uh it's you know, if go on, Roy, you're going to ch to jump in.

Speaker 6 1:19:43

Well, I was just gonna say uh I know the days that you enjoy the most are the days that you and I are in the same staff room when we're teaching at the same school. Exactly. That's always worth uh a good laugh.

Speaker 2 1:19:57

Good point. Good point. Uh go on.

Speaker 9 1:20:00

No, I was gonna say uh I guess the nice thing about TOCN is uh if you if you're not happy with the place, you go, I'm not going back there.

Speaker 2 1:20:07

That's very much so. It's uh you uh but you know, there's a variety of reasons that I will keep to myself for you know what makes me decide to go to this classroom or not. Um yeah, so I I do enjoy that. I uh uh but uh it keeps you actual, it keeps you relevant, but uh purposeful.

Speaker 9 1:20:31

Yes, yeah. It's a noble profession, it really is teaching, I think, right? Yeah. You can hold your head up high when you're a teacher.

Speaker 2 1:20:39

Many thoughts come to mind when you say that. Yeah. But uh it's uh it's still a very rewarding relevant endeavor to be to be in that profession.

Speaker 9 1:20:51

Yeah, well thank you. We're getting too deep here. No, no, I I love it, right? And I think as a retired teacher, as we both are, it's it feels good to look back on a career that was teaching. Like I think I I we both can hold our heads up high knowing we did that. Yeah, you know, it was like I don't know if other jobs have that, you know. Some do, but not I don't think the same level that teaching does. You know, I think it's a it's as you get older when you look back on what you did, you it's quite satisfying. Thank you, Nomal Ponton. We appreciate it. We really appreciate you coming out, and we we just think you're a great, great human being. Well, thank you. Like likewise, you guys. Love you guys. Likewise, take care.

Speaker 10 1:21:33

Here we go.

Speaker 9 1:21:33

Cheers, everyone. Cheers, Nick. Cheers. I left my beer on the book. Steve, go get your go get your beer. Go get your beer.

Speaker 8 1:21:42

Genie, I thought you were coming on.

Speaker 9 1:21:44

We have our Nick is gonna be our guest. You're no one's no one knows this yet, because this is the final summer session. Nick is going to be our guest for our episode one of season two. And he is here at our celebration with his brother-in-law. Steve. Steve. Steve. I know. Steve, this is Martin and Roy.

Speaker 6 1:22:05

Hi, Martin. Hi, Roy. I said to Martin, it says like alcohol and like microphones. What could go wrong?

Speaker 9 1:22:15

I was just remembering whether it was brother-in-law or brother, but no, it's brother-in-law. That's what was going on. The wheels were turning in my slow brain like that. But the funny thing is, they're both teachers, right? They both are, right? Yeah.

Speaker 8 1:22:34

Hey, before we go on, I just we just want to say congratulations on your first year. Thank you. Of your season. Thank you. Appreciate that. Congratulations. You know, yeah. And we still like each other. I know.

Speaker 6 1:22:49

You're gonna do a season two. It's gonna make season two even better.

Speaker 9 1:22:54

But we were committed to every Monday getting it out, being consistent, and everything we read said you can do that. It just becomes more legitimate when it's in the streaming services out there.

Speaker 3 1:23:04

And it sounds so professional, I've listened to it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Speaker 9 1:23:09

It's building our egos up. I love it.

Speaker 8 1:23:11

Well So what are we what what's what are we talking about?

Speaker 9 1:23:14

This is a this is a whatever kind of conversation. Whatever.

Speaker 8 1:23:16

So Steve, we were uh not to put you on the spot, but uh think about this. We were talking about like who your favorite teacher is and why. So so do you guys want me to go first? Yeah, and then you can think about it. You guys can say yours. Are we supposed to mention their full names? You can, absolutely. I think when we who's the teacher that you think was the biggest pervert. We don't say the one favorite teacher, right? So um favorite pervert?

Speaker 9 1:23:50

And you can't vote for yourself. My levels are peaking with a little bit of laughter.

Speaker 8 1:24:01

So um for me it's very easy. It's um his name was uh Barry Kennedy, and uh he taught uh Calarney, and he was an English teacher. Did you have Mr. Kennedy?

Speaker 3 1:24:10

Uh no, I didn't, but I know who he is very well.

Speaker 8 1:24:13

Yeah, just a really wonderful guy. He he um was one of those I I feel like he had that leftover idealism from the 60s of sort of like stand up to to to power, you know? And and he was sort of he had irreverent things on his wall, which I mean now probably might not look like it, but in the early 80s when I went to his class, he had like funny pictures and things drawn on his wall, which no other teachers had. And he had a great sense of humor, and he saw me or you, whoever you're for who you were. And he was just a great guy, and he really was super encouraging to me. Uh he really encouraged me to write. And actually, when I wrote my book, I I put a thank you in for him. But um, he had died. But I I knew that, but I just want to acknowledge how much he he um influenced me, and then I found out that his son is the uh um I feel so dumb saying this. What do you call the head of the the the teacher, the person's head of the school board? Oh the superintendent, yeah. The superintendent uh of West Vancouver. Oh, okay. Yeah, Chris Kennedy. Oh, yes, so I I got in contact with him, let him know that his dad was super influential, and that I wanted to thank him in the book, and then I invited him to the book launch, and then he came to my book launch with his mom, who was Mr. Kennedy's wife, and they were very thankful, and um it was a great experience. And then I know someone who was teaching in Westman, and Chris Kennedy was there recommending my book to teachers to use to teach in high school. So yeah, but Mr. Kennedy himself was just such a kind, he was a guy that just got it. You know, when you're in high school, some guys were like, Nope, this is the way we do it, this is school, and these are the rules. But there's the other guys that got it and they saw you, that's who Mr. Kennedy was. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 9 1:25:57

Yeah, no, I mean, um I've mentioned her name before on our podcast, but my favorite teacher was Christine Miller, my grade four and five teacher. Um she was a breath of fresh air. It was Ridgeway in the 1970s. I think most teachers there taught in the 50s, they were and they were all New York typical. And she was this young 23-year-old teacher, just like, who is this person, right? She had Crichter's creative writing. I mean, I love writing to this very day because of this woman, right? She had would have science fiction days. I got into science fiction because of this woman, right? She would just would talk to us like real human beings. And then a few years ago, I realized I found out that she was the head of the Bear program in North Van. She had programmed it's called the Bit the Bear Awareness Program in North Van. She had stopped teaching in the 80s, but but I met her through the this bear awareness program.

Speaker 8 1:26:46

Oh, see, yeah. And we reconnected an adult.

Speaker 9 1:26:48

Seen her as an adult, had her over for uh for lunch last summer, and in fact, I'm as we speak, I'm organizing a Facebook group of people that were in her class in my grade four and five year to come back, we're hoping in September or October to get together with Christine Miller, because and everyone has the same stories about her. She's just related with people. So it's just it's just being able to tell that to someone. And I mean, I've experienced it the other way too. When a student tells you that that you've made a difference in their life, it's like, wow. Yeah, yeah. But she's just I could like her face just lit up. And I I've in fact, I still have a letter that I kept in grade five that she wrote me because my friend and I adored her, and we baked her a cake on the last day of grade five. And we happened to be going to Safeway to buy a Duncan Hines box to bake this cake to bake it for. And we're in line, and then we look behind us, and it's Miss Miller, right? And we quickly tried not we hid hid the box, and so she wrote this lovely note saying, Thank you for the cake, and now I she said, Now I know why you look so guilty, right? When you really say that. And I still have that. Letter and I took a picture of it and I gave it to her just a few weeks ago so she could see that letter.

Speaker 8 1:28:04

And it's just like you gotta have you gotta have Christine Miller on the phone. That's I think it would be that would be amazing, right? You know what a funny thing in grade seven I was in an open area and one of the teachers' names she was great was Chris Miller. It's not the same person. Okay, yeah. Because her name at the time wasn't Miller, it was Loney. She married uh a teacher.

Speaker 9 1:28:22

Richard Lonely?

Speaker 8 1:28:23

No.

Speaker 9 1:28:24

No, did she marry Richard Loney?

Speaker 8 1:28:26

No, she married uh Ron Miller. Oh, no, but they were my both my great seven teachers.

Speaker 9 1:28:37

But her before she was married, her name was Lonely? Loney?

Speaker 8 1:28:40

I don't I don't know because she's quite young. She was uh like like you say, like brand new teacher.

Speaker 9 1:28:45

I just jump on that because at Sutherland, when I went to Sutherland, my French teacher was Richard Loaney. And you know who that was? No. Being a Canuck fan, he sang in the Canuck, he was the one of the greatest Canuck O Canada singers. He sang Richard Loney, right? Oh, yeah. And he was a teacher at Sutherland. Yeah, yeah. And he even, I remember we were in grade 12 and he came up with his Christmas album.

Speaker 8 1:29:07

And he was selling copies. Do you guys remember when Carl Lewis sang the uh American National Album at a baseball game? And he couldn't hit the notes, and then it was coming around to the hard party gate, and then he was like, okay, gonna make up for this.

Speaker 9 1:29:26

So, Steve, do you have a favorite teacher?

Speaker 3 1:29:28

Um yeah, I have one favorite teacher. Um, and it's similar to your story going back to uh grade four. Okay. Yeah, grade four, uh Miss Hamigami.

Speaker 9 1:29:37

Hamigami? Hamigami. That's her real name. That's her real name.

Speaker 3 1:29:41

Wow. And uh yeah, I think she was straight out of university, probably like 23 years old or something like uh Miss Miller. And um yeah, Miss Hamigami, uh, I can't remember too many details of grade four, but I just remember that uh she was my favorite teacher. Like uh I could see myself in the future becoming a teacher because of her. That's great. And um and all that I know is that my mother would say that every day when I came home from school um in grade four, my mom would say that you're just in love with her. You're just in love with her teacher. You know everything she's wearing, you know, every word she said, and and uh okay.

Speaker 8 1:30:22

So the fun thing is Steve went to Waverly. Okay, I started teaching at Waverly, and she was still there. Oh, wow, and I taught with her. And she's my neighbor, she lives like a block away. Wow.

Speaker 3 1:30:32

Yeah, and then when I was a substitute teacher, when I became a teacher, and then I had a sub, um one day I was called to Waverly School, and so it was so weird to go in the staff room where you went to elementary school, and I was looking for uh for Gloria. I found out later because my family got to know her. Um her name is Gloria Hamigami and changed to Gloria Joe. Okay. At that time I was looking for Gloria Joe, and they said, Oh no, she's off today. She's never off, and she's off today. And so I never got a chance to meet her in the school. But um I did see her in the neighborhood from time to time.

Speaker 9 1:31:06

Roy? You've talked about a favorite teacher before.

Speaker 8 1:31:11

Please do. Uh a fun fact, um, she was on the very first BC Lions cheerleading squad. Oh you did not even know that. You should tell me. Yeah, right. Teacher side hustle. So far, the three of us have chosen women in their early 20s. Just random choice. Uh I'm sorry, I don't have any random.

Speaker 6 1:31:35

Yeah. Uh for for me, uh it it was uh PE teacher of mine, uh, Mr. Oswald. Um I was on the wrestling team in uh high school and uh he saw uh leadership skills in me that I didn't think I had. And he made me the captain of the team and and just put me in situations uh to um give me opportunities for leadership. And I believe that was probably the most influence that I can think of anybody having in my life seeing something that I didn't see that was there. Um and I went on to it was almost like, okay, I can do stuff. And I went on to going on to university when I thought I come from a small town. Uh I thought my options were working in the agricultural industry or uh working in a factory, and I I just pulled it all together at last minute. Went on to university, I became a teacher, and one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life is I went back to my high school and I went and found Mr. Oswald and uh I said to him, I said, you know, I became a teacher and uh you know, I went to university and became a teacher, and it's because of your influence. And he said, Well, I'm glad you went to university.

Speaker 9 1:33:01

So I wanna I want to show you a picture, and it's you know, it's funny when you're when you're 10 and your teacher's 23, 24, they're like an adult, right? But then eventually when you both become adults, you you you're like the same age almost. So here's a picture of me with Miss Miller from a a year ago. Wow. Like, you know that's great. The 10 years or 15, whatever it is, 11, just nothing at that point, right? Yeah.

Speaker 8 1:33:27

You know, I'm just thinking about when I was like 10, 11, 12, like I was this weird combination of being kind of cocky and also like nervous. But I would have thought, like, if I liked Miss whatever teacher I had to say she was 22, I would have thought, I might have a chance. Seriously considered like great circumstances. I think I could probably pull this off.

Speaker 6 1:33:53

I get my lunch money before go out.

Speaker 8 1:33:58

Like a babysitter, I'd think, like, yeah, we get rid of these other two kids, maybe me and you.

Speaker 9 1:34:04

It's gonna be the longest episode ever. Oh yeah, okay. Well, thank you guys, thank you. Appreciate it. You bet.

Speaker 10 1:34:12

Thank you.

Speaker 9 1:34:14

Well, this has been a great event.

Speaker 6 1:34:17

Well, it's it's it's amazing to see so many, so many people here.

Speaker 9 1:34:21

And uh just I mean the sun is setting, we got this beautiful view of Vancouver from North Point here, and I really have to give a shout out to North Point. North Point Brewing.

Speaker 6 1:34:30

They they you know, they've been such a let us have this uh upstairs room. Yeah. That's uh there's the main floor of the brewery, we and the upstairs room, and uh it's open to the public, but there's no one up here, and uh we've had the whole place to ourselves. You know, our the people who showed up thought we'd done broke the back.

Speaker 9 1:34:50

They were really impressed, right? And we don't have any uh official sponsors, but I would like to think North Point is maybe our first sponsor in the sense that they provided this and allowed us to have this celebration here. And so we encourage people to come to North Point and they have a wonderful list of bears, sours, and ciders, and good food, and good eats in this upstairs location. We will definitely have another celebration.

Speaker 6 1:35:14

I think we'll have another celebration up here.

Speaker 9 1:35:16

And it's just been wonderful to spend it with all these uh after the bell listeners. Yes.

Speaker 6 1:35:22

And it's it's nice we have family here, we have friends here. Um but that's how how everything starts out. That's how our podcast started with the friendship that we have. Exactly. And then uh we're building a family here, building a family of listeners.

Speaker 9 1:35:35

And so think about it. This is the end of our summer sessions for the summer, and but we're having our season two will begin on September 1st, Monday, September 1st, Labor Day. And Nick, who was here today, will be our first guest guest talking about the pee and his book, East Side Story. So looking forward to that. We really wish everybody a great start to the school gear and a great uh beginning in September. This podcast is organic, taking shape with each episode, building resiliency for teachers everywhere.

Speaker 5 1:36:11

That sounds great.

Speaker 9 1:36:12

And our website is stuntbrothers at dot ca.

Speaker 5 1:36:15

That's stuntbrothers at dot ca.

Speaker 9 1:36:17

We will chat again after the belly.