93
Let’s hear the story of Nebraska, its communities, its number one industry Agriculture, and the people who make it happen. Sponsored by Nebraska's Law Firm® - Rembolt Ludtke.
93
Connecting Nebraskans for Generations--Randall Raile, Marcus Young, Dreu Young
Travel through Nebraska’s telephone history with two family-owned providers who helped build it. From hand-crank phones and party lines to fiber-to-the-home, BW Telcom’s Randall Raille and Cozad Telephone Company’s Marcus and Dreu Young share how innovation, community, and a “neighbors first” mentality have helped them keep Nebraskans connected for generations.
Welcome to 93, the podcast, where we talk about Nebraska, its communities, its number one industry agriculture, and the folks who make it happen. I'm Mark Falton, your host for today's episode brought to you by Nebraska's law firm, Rembolt-Lutkey. Also joined by my colleague Tim Clare, also an attorney at Rembolt-Lutkey. Today we're taking a journey through Nebraska's telecommunications history with two families who not only watched it evolve but helped shape it for generations. From hand crank telephones and party lines to fiber to the home and high-speed connectivity, these companies have lived every chapter of the telecommunications story here in Nebraska. But at the heart of it all, past the copper wire, past the technology, there's been a deep and steady commitment to community and customers. These are companies built by neighbors for their neighbors. Let's welcome Randall Riley of BW Telecom out of Benkleman, Nebraska, and Marcus Young and Drew Young from the Kozet Telephone Company. Gentlemen, welcome to 93 the podcast. So, Randall, let's start with you. Give folks your background.
SPEAKER_05:Okay, I'm from Benkleman, Nebraska. We've been as a family in Benkleman, Nebraska since 1944. This is our 81st year. I am fourth generation in the business, and my daughter is fifth generation in the business. She's actively managing now.
SPEAKER_00:And what county is Benkleman in? We are in Dundee. In what county? What's the license plate prefix? 76. Marcus and Drew, give us uh your background.
SPEAKER_03:All right, I'll go. This is Marcus. Um I was born and raised in Kozad, Nebraska. Um Kozad Telephone Company was acquired by my granddad in 1933, I believe. Beat us. Yeah, I believe the company was started around 1902 as a mutual. Um I am the third generation uh to run it. My son Drew and my other son Connor are back, and they're they are the fourth generation to be running Kozad Telephone Company.
SPEAKER_00:Drew?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I'm Drew.
SPEAKER_04:Um Marcus III, but having two of us around, I go by Drew and he goes by Marcus. Um born and raised here in Kozed, helped out around like every uh local kid does with their dad business and fell in love with it, went and did a little football, and came back and been here raising my family ever since.
SPEAKER_00:So let's talk about that football. You where where'd you play football at?
SPEAKER_04:Uh down at the university. Back when we when we won. Yeah. When we were winning games all the time.
SPEAKER_05:Let the record reflect.
SPEAKER_04:We weren't trying to just get to a bowl game. We were thinking about trying to win a conference championship. It was elusive, but I we played in three of them.
SPEAKER_00:So what uh position, what position did you play?
SPEAKER_04:Play tight end.
SPEAKER_00:And who was a coach then? Uh Cowan for two years and Polini for three. Uh do we do I dare ask any stories about uh Bo Polini?
SPEAKER_04:Bo, I'm Bo was awesome. You know, everybody gets a bad rap, like the freaking out, you know, people took that as bad and you know, yelling, and but Bo always had your back. He was intense, but as a football coach and as a football player, like that's that's what you want. Like it's an intense, intense, it's an intense deal. So him yelling, like, they and the coaches told us that from the day that you show up, like always listen to what we say, not how we say it. And so that's why you never saw you know kids being crybabies about it. Like they're sitting there listening and taking their butt chewing, but you're listening to what he's saying. He's just intense, he's getting paid millions of dollars to win a football game. So if you're out there screwing up by fumbling the football, yeah, I'm gonna yell at you too, you know. Like it's not a it was never a personal attack or anything like that. I feel like um, you know, people took that the wrong way, and then they, you know, he's yelling at officials and all that, and as a player, like knowing he had our back, like it you'd run through a wall for him. Like, I loved both. So I I was disappointed with the way it went down and he went away, and now we've been in the spiral ever since. I think I saw a thing that um Matt Rule, Scott Frost, and Mike Riley all have six Big Ten wins inside of Memorial Stadium. And after Friday, Kirk Fairness now has seven. Yeah, I saw that too. That's uh I don't know if that's true. I didn't do any fact checking, but it's a bad statistic. He's here every other year, and we're playing six a year, so we're we gotta figure something out.
SPEAKER_00:But so Drew and Marcus, CoZED, what county is that? We Dawson, uh eighteen. Eighteen license plate prefix. So in so uh Benkleman Telephone, Randall, uh it's not just Binkelman. What other what other towns or communities do you provide service to?
SPEAKER_05:We have Benkleman Telephone, Juanita Telephone Company, and Hartman Telephone Exchanges encompassing Benkleman, Juanita, Hagler, Danbury, and Lebanon, Nebraska. And some property in Kansas uh telephone exchange customers in Kansas in uh both Hartman and uh Binkelman.
SPEAKER_00:Marcus and Drew, is Kozad uh pretty much it? And how far does it extend?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, Kozad, we're we're basically just uh the the city of Kozad in the rural area. So we we basically go, oh, eight miles east and west, ten miles to the south, and thirty miles to the north. And that that's pretty much our exchange.
SPEAKER_00:So, gentlemen, I grew up, I I tried to explain this to the kids today, that I grew up with a party line at my house. Uh, any good stories from the early days of COZET or Benkleman Telephone of party lines, switchboards, any old technology that people maybe couldn't comprehend today?
SPEAKER_05:Go ahead, Marcus and Drew.
SPEAKER_03:Well, I'll I'll start. You know, um the rural area, we had tin party lines, and and Randy will relate to this. We had tuned ringers, so every once in a while um you get a ringer that would follow follow dial pulses when people would dial because they had rotary dial phones. And so, you know, there was always a complaint that people would pick up the phone and listen to the other people.
SPEAKER_00:That that never happened, right? Just kidding. Rubber button, rubber button, yes.
SPEAKER_03:So, and then you know, um when we we found out who it was, when we finally in 1980, we went uh 100% one party, all buried, and we had quite a few customers that did not want to give up their party lines just because of that. But by the time we Social Net. Yeah, by the time we did that, um the farmers, you would a lot of the farmers, if they were gonna do some business, they would they would actually, and and this is really gonna date me, but uh they'd actually come in and use the pay station so so they so they couldn't get rubber done.
SPEAKER_05:Love it.
SPEAKER_00:Randall, how about you?
SPEAKER_05:The same sort of thing the folks uh learned that uh they could get all of the gossip by rubbering in or uh sneaking in. Some of the phones had a rubber button that if you didn't lift the button all the way up, you could still hear but not be heard. The volume would go down a little bit, a little bit, and people were aware of it. Um but uh it was very interesting. The folks uh the way information exchanged. We were the Facebook back then.
SPEAKER_00:So, Randall, obviously technology has changed. Uh describe Benklman and Juanita today. What uh what what's your telephone company look like from a technological standpoint?
SPEAKER_05:Technologically, we're declining in numbers of uh landline customers, but growing in respect of uh fiber to the home, internet for people, and uh having just a pretty good uh take rate with everything going on.
SPEAKER_00:Marcus and Drew, how about you guys?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I mean, we're definitely in the same boat. I think uh I mean our landline numbers are definitely declining. I think Randall's in, you know, always we'll always be in the same boat as um being a rural community community, there will always be a need for it at the farms. Um and you know, some of the remote locations, they're just not cell phone um coverage. But we're definitely, you know, I when people ask what I do, I'm oh well landline, you know, family landline business, but we're just we're more of a technology provider now. You know, we're an internet provider and that's what everybody wants and uh needs. And now we uh we're 100% our whole exchange. Uh we just finished up with the last little lake that we had around here, so um you know, being able to offer whatever speeds people want, and that's what um wherever they live, that's a a huge bonus for us.
SPEAKER_00:How has broadband I mean impacted the economies of southwest Nebraska or Dawson County? I mean, has it been pretty important?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I mean I think um you can you definitely see the uh you know there's a a lot more young people coming back into the community. Um and I think a lot of it is is they they know how to use the technology. When they get back to COVID, they know that um you know we've got fiber, so they don't have to worry about having that connectivity uh ever being an issue. It's gonna be rock solid, it's gonna be there, they can get whatever they want. Um with the advent of all the online retail, you know, getting married and having a wife come, like they may not be able to go to the Malda every day, but I guarantee the Amazon people are gonna know where my house is, so they uh that's not because that's not because of you, right? It's made made it viable and competitive to especially for people to return home, I feel like. Um just have it having that um rock solid connectivity, and um you know the only thing you're missing is the hour commutes to and from work and a hundred thousand people around you, which most people don't miss, you know.
SPEAKER_00:Ran Randall, how about you?
SPEAKER_05:About the same. The technology for folks to be able to telecommute. We are close enough to Denver, uh we're 190 miles from Denver, and we're able to attract some folks down here that have come to Benkleman, bought houses, and found that uh it's more conducive in a little town that does in fact have a hospital, does in fact have a school system, uh, a good infrastructure here uh that does attract them and the fiber gives them that uh capability of uh telecommuting and uh being in touch with the world.
SPEAKER_00:What's been the hardest part of what I'll call your legacy technology legacy system that's been the hardest to retire or get rid of or replace? Randall?
SPEAKER_05:No thoughts come to mind at the moment. The the evolution of copper being phased out. Uh I think um all advantages. I haven't seen any real disadvantages. It's the evolution of uh technology and uh the uh society.
SPEAKER_03:Marcus and Drew I I'm gonna throw a little caveat in there. I mean, it it's really not a downside to it, but it used to be in the late uh in and and I'm going back before Fiber, but it used to be that um I think the single biggest hurdle we have is with with powering issues. Um it used to be everything was powered out of the office, so if we could provide service whether the the people have power or not, and and we still can, but now our central office is is is spread out. It's not in one location. We have we have hot salts uh scattered all over the place. So if you if you have a winter storm or something, you know, and you have power outages, uh we do have standby generators, but they don't always work, and so then you have to get out, you know, and take a little portable generator just so people um you know have power that they own the ONTs are powered, but then the next problem is is most people don't have generators at home, and everything now works off of AC uh electricity, and so even when we get that done, they still don't have a computer. And so that that's probably the biggest difference I see. I mean, as far as you know, uh keeping service to people. Um, I mean, there's a there's a huge amount of upside just because of what people can get to, you know, with with the advent of fiber, but uh there are a few uh hurdles that you have to to to jump over.
SPEAKER_00:Any uh interesting or funny stories in your company's history about perhaps having to go out and fix lines in a snowstorm or something happening during calving season or something that's unique to Nebraska and its weather? Marcus.
SPEAKER_03:You know, like I said, in 1980, we we went uh 100% buried. And before that, you know, growing up as a kid, um every weekend, every uh holiday, I was I was out with dad, you know, shooting trouble. Uh people, um, the open wire, you know, we'd have trouble with it. And so um with the advent of getting everything buried, and Randy will test this the trouble went from having multiple trouble tickets after uh storms and everything else to just riding the storm out and like any other day. So I I don't have really funny stories, but boy, I I spent a lot of time out in bad weather fixing stuff.
SPEAKER_05:Randall? Like s likewise, uh, we're a little more spread out. We cover about twelve hundred square miles, and the trips are a little longer to do, but the same sort of thing. You wanted to strive to make sure your customers were taken care of, and uh it's an all-out effort with your folks to do that and uh make sure the people stay with you.
SPEAKER_00:So I know one of the benefits of uh having a rural telephone company in your community is the amount of time and effort and money that you give back to your respective communities. Randall, let's start with you. Uh, how has your company impacted Benkleman and the Juanita area as far as giving back uh to the community?
SPEAKER_05:We've got a couple of 501c3s that we do help our local organizations, uh, the hospital here in Benkleman, the nursing home in Benkleman and Juanita, uh, a lot of the small civic organizations we do help with there and are uh proud to be catalyst to preserve these small communities that we've got. Uh they're all important and that service goes with it.
SPEAKER_00:Marcus and Drew, how has COZED telephone given back to its community?
SPEAKER_03:My dad once told me he said you you you you support the community that supports you. And so we've always done that, but you do it for the right reason because it it is the right reason, not because you want recognition.
SPEAKER_05:So, you know, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:So we we do a lot of things, um, you know, with the schools, we do it with with child care, we do it with churches. I mean, you know, we're kind of like the one-stop shop, but you know, we do it kind of anonymously because um, like I said, we we do it because the community has uh been very good to us, and so we you know it's it's it's just the right thing to do, and that's the way I would phrase.
SPEAKER_05:The anecdote that goes with that, and Tim, I'm gonna relent and tell a joke anyway. Doing good things in Kozat and Benkleman and our communities is a little bit like wetting yourself in dark trousers. You get a warm feeling, you get a warm feeling, but nobody else notices it.
SPEAKER_06:Okay, Randall, that'll be all.
SPEAKER_03:I remember that.
SPEAKER_06:No, I I I would I would uh just say, as an outsider looking in, the communities of of Benkleman as well as Juanita and and uh the Hartman exchanges, along with COSAD, they are all outstanding communities, and it's really been a privilege in working with you over the years, both of you, uh to help and help you and at the same time be able to see what you're doing in terms of giving back. You know, you're not just saying that, that's not just a sound clip, it's something that I've witnessed for, I don't know, 30 plus years uh in watching how you you give back to the community and support the community. And it's really it's really outstanding to see that. And that's not something new, as Marcus and Randall both said and Drew as well. It it it goes back to uh what your parents did when they were running the company and the support they gave back to the community as well.
SPEAKER_00:Yes. So uh in addition to financially supporting your communities, uh you guys give a lot of time as well. Marcus, if I'm not mistaken, for the longest period of time, and maybe you still do have served on some city boards uh as well as some other uh boards in the community.
SPEAKER_03:Oh yeah, you know, in a small community. I I've been on the you know, the United Way, I've been on the Chamber of Commerce, um I've been on the Board of Public Works since its inception, I think. And um So you know, there's always I've been on, you know, church boards, um and you know, in a in a little community you have to uh you don't have to, but you You know, you there's just a lot of things to do. And and and I'm glad that that I was, you know, in able to do it. I'm gonna turn this over too to my my son because he also does a couple other things in the community now. True.
SPEAKER_04:Oh yeah. I mean I've since I've been back, um I've been uh dad dad got off the United Way board and I got put on that life set. Um which is a great a great thing for the community. We it's an awesome deal. Um I've been helping coach um and helping with you know that side of it, which I guess growing up I I never knew what all dad and the and mom and the commun and the business did for the community because like dad said he never made it a big deal, but um then when you get back and you get older and you you kind of get some behind the curtains look that everything, um like it it it makes you really proud. And now being back and having like my family and um this being my town, you know, like it it's really cool to see what has all gone on behind the scenes for so many years um that you you want it to keep going. So being able to have the opportunity to go coach and be around the kids and help them, you know, learn football, whatever is it's fun, but hopefully make an impact on them to be good human beings and good productive members of society on top of everything else, you know. I'm I'm on the bank for on one of the bank boards now and a million different other things that um you get to be on because like I said, when you're in a small town, like there's only so many people around that can do stuff and um so you you get asked to do a lot and it's um seems like a lot at times, but it's really kind of a a privilege and an honor that I get to be in the situation I am because of of uh what what dad and grandpa and granddad young all all did before me. So it's kind of a thing that you take pride in and trying to to carry on and make this the best it can be, so it's around for a long time because I've got kids and I've got a vested interest in it now for another 18 years or whatever it's gonna be at least.
SPEAKER_00:So, Randall, I know you've given back quite a bit of your time to the communities. What uh types of activities have you served?
SPEAKER_05:We've been on the or I've been on the hospital board for like 11 or 12 years, I believe it was. Uh, been uh on the church board, our Lutheran church, uh here in Benkleman, uh helped with the Lions Club, worked in a lot of civic things in where you volunteered and provided. Uh we help with the local car show in sponsoring some of that, to be sure. Uh my sense of success is vehicles and activity on Main Street. Uh that's that that uh makes me feel the best.
SPEAKER_00:So rural telephone companies are well known for exceptional customer service. Can you give some examples or fun stories of how you guys have gone above and beyond what maybe people expect today? Yeah, even if it was a few years ago, as far as serving your customers.
SPEAKER_05:One of the things our ladies here in Benklen have the record for answering the phone quickly quickly, the even quickest people will say the phone didn't even ring quick enough. They'll get the last digit in and the lady will pick up and say, BW Telecom, and you go, What? So being uh attuned to what the customers need, going on above and beyond, checking in on the customer after the problem's been resolved, making sure that uh they're good with what we've done and if they've got anything else we need to help them with, uh we offer to do that as well. So go ahead. Marcus and Drew.
SPEAKER_03:Well, you know, we've always prided ourselves. Um, you know, we're on call 247-365. And you know, growing up with the business, we never ever went home if if we had trouble. I mean, it's just it got fixed before anybody got to go home.
SPEAKER_05:And absolutely yes.
SPEAKER_03:And you know, it it amazes me um the amount of and and I I'm gonna say, and and I that our customers are spoiled, it amazes me how much how much we get called, and I and I'm grateful for it. That's what we're here for. You know, we're here to to solve these problems, but you get into a bigger city, even like Lincoln, and and you and you have I'll take an example. Let's go to North Platte. I I went down North Platte and bought something, and their internet didn't work. And so he went over and reset his router and did this and did that, and and and uh he had his stuff for another company. Um I won't mention Spectrum's name, but anyways, he said good show. Uh I said, you know, I said, is that aren't you gonna call somebody? And they said, oh no, you know, um I'm not gonna he they said they're gonna tell me to do this, and he said they might come out in a couple of weeks. And I said, You you've got to be kidding me. And he said, No. And and he was good with it. If I would do that, if my if Drew would do that, if we would do that, we would have people, you know, everybody knows where you live. They would be standing on my door, knocking on my door. And and uh I I just you know, customer service is something that uh is the top of our list, and I I just I and it the other industries that that even the providers that in our industries they don't have that same customer service. It's you know, oh we'll get to you when we get to you.
SPEAKER_05:And it's intrinsic with us.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. And you know, and it's a little different because back when I was growing up, if you lost your phone, you had no other way that to to uh reach out and to touch the world, to call 911 or whatever. Now with the advent of cell phones and everything else, they they you know, even if one doesn't work, the other probably does. And and so the customer service just to me has has disappeared, and that's something that that uh I hope continues. I'm I'm mostly retired and and uh to me that's the the biggest part of our our company is what we can offer after they get our services good.
SPEAKER_00:What's the uh biggest challenge facing rural tel telecom companies today? Not only today, but maybe a few years down the road.
SPEAKER_04:I mean, I think you you have a couple couple issues. One obviously is customer based, your population. Um you know, rural communities are on a downward slide. I feel like Nebraska's d slightly different because we don't have the LAs for people to move to. You know, I mean you've got Lincoln and Omaha and they're definitely growing, but um, our population is basically stayed pretty steady and it honestly probably coming back a little bit. Um so you know, if you don't have customers, it's kind of hard to keep a business going. Um, but just your sub the support from all the um your recovery with your NUSF and all the above, those are always seem to be ways that um governments and government systems have tried to dip their hands into the honey pot. And you know, you there's not a whole lot of business plans with what it costs to put in um fiber and upkeep all that, you know, fifty dollars a month. You ain't you're not gonna you're not recovering very fast at 30,000 bucks a mile, you know. I mean that especially when you're in rural Nebraska. Like, um I I don't know what your density is, but we might go four miles and pick up one customer. Well, you know,$100,000,$50 a month, that customer's gonna have to be here for a long time before you can make a business plan that makes that work. So, you know, you rely on uh NUSF and uh USF and all those different um those different paths to help maintain and uh give your provide your customers with uh the service and um if those start dwindling away or go away to fix other things because there's money sitting there, um, you know, it's gonna have an impact on on a lot of rural companies.
unknown:True.
SPEAKER_00:What is it?
SPEAKER_04:And I don't I think that's a lot of people don't don't understand, you know, like people in the in the you know, in Congress and whatever, sitting down there going, well, you guys have all this money sitting there. It's like, well, yeah, that you also say you want everybody to have fiber. Well, catch 22. If you take the money away, who's gonna put you know no businessman's gonna come out and put in a million dollar project for 10 customers. You're never gonna make, you know, you're losing money. Can't do it. So we gotta have some way to keep it balanced, and I think that's always been the biggest threat. And anybody that's been around tel telecom knows that the especially you know, in Nebraska, the NUSF battle is a constant battle that's going on, and um I think our commission, everybody, has done a pretty good job of keeping keeping steady in the ship, but um that that's what I see as the biggest threat right now, but handled.
SPEAKER_05:Um got an anecdote again, Tim. Uh Benkleman doesn't change too much in population. A baby's born and a man leaves town. Other than that, not too bad. So the the typical challenges, what Drew and Marcus are saying, are totally valid. Uh it's highly expensive to do this at 30,000 a mile uh to get fiber to these people. We have customers 37, 38 miles from from the exchange in Benkleman, and the others are 80, 80 and 90, where we've got distances out to Danbury, Lebanon. Uh and the truck rolls add up, the expenses to do that, and uh those cost mechanisms do help us provide for that, and I believe they need to be necessary.
SPEAKER_06:Absolutely, they're necessary. When you think of uh the businesses that are that are now operating maybe from home or from a you know in a small business context, they need your service to be able to compete in the global marketplace. Uh so the service that you're providing and the technology that you're providing is imperative to the success not only of the community, but of those small businesses uh within the community and and on the outskirts of the community. I I think I would be remiss if I didn't also mention, you know, Randall, the work that you have done relative to attracting some new companies into uh into Benklen with with uh the Gavalon and also with with uh Black Shirt Feeders, um, who our our office had the privilege of working on that project significantly from start to finish. But that's those are big economic booms and it wouldn't have happened but for your the technology and the the uh uh the the quality of the service that you provide for the customers there in Benklman.
SPEAKER_00:Yep.
SPEAKER_06:Good.
SPEAKER_00:So what would the founders, your family members, uh what if they if they saw your companies today, what do you think they would think or say?
SPEAKER_03:I'm gonna go way back. My granddad, you know, they they had the the old common battery, the old crank phones, and and when when when they cut to to a step office, they went from a two-wire world to a three-wire wire world because they had a sleeve lead. My granddad Young said, you know what, Neil, I'm out. That third wire, I don't understand it. Get me out of here. So they cut to the step office in 1957. So we went from 57 to 1980, and we put in our first generation digital switch, and and you went from a three-wire wire world back to a two-wire world, and then you had the stored program and all this, and dad goes, you know what, Mark? He goes, I'm out of this. He said, I don't get it. Bye. So, you know, we went from um 1980 to about 2000, then we started getting smart switches, and you know, internet started coming along, and we get in the IP environment, and and Drew comes back and says, you know what, I don't get this. I'm out of it. So you know, the with it has been um so I'm pretty sure both my granddad and my dad would have said, Well, we we've been out of this a long time. And uh, and then to see it would probably um the biggest thing I I'll go back to is service. It would just it would drive my dad nuts to know that people would put up with with uh having no customer service. And uh, you know, um so Randall, you you can take it from there.
SPEAKER_05:Okay. Grandad was the one that came here in 44, and he had learned that business from his father-in-law, and service was a part of that and uh and continues to be. Uh Grandpa would likely say WTF, which wasn't in his vernacular, but we'd say why the face, Grandpa, and uh he would understand. So uh I think we're following that lead that our predecessors, the family, have instilled in us, and that's the responsibility that we have to these communities if we're serving here, and we are in fact doing that and enjoying it. It feels good to be able to resolve issues and help people out uh with what they need.
SPEAKER_00:So, one question we ask all of our guests, and Drew, I'm gonna start with you, but you get one word. Drew, what is your one word that best describes this state in which you were born and raised, where you played football for the Huskers, where you're currently uh leading the next generation at Kozad Telephone? What's your one word for Nebraska?
SPEAKER_04:Family. But my no matter what, I feel like Nebraskans have each other's back. I feel like um, you know, whether everything you do, you're doing to take care of your neighbor, whether it's intentional or not. Um we always have each other's back, especially in a small town. Like you're gonna do what's best for everybody.
SPEAKER_06:Because it's the right thing to do, right?
SPEAKER_04:It's the right thing to do. And um even if you're not friends with everybody, you know, I don't always get along with my brother and sister, but they're still my brother and sister. You know, even with the old, you know, Nebraska corner husters, we've kind of had a stretch here, but we still got their back, man. There's they're still my they're still my brothers in arms, so I want the best for them. We just we've just been on a little slump, but um, you know, in a small town especially, I think um it it's it's just like a big family. Like we do it because it's the right thing to do. We know it's the right thing to do, and um it's going to benefit the community, which is what all you know, all I've ever not necessarily been beat into my head, but that's all I've ever um seen from dad and grandpa and everything is this is the you do it because it's the right thing to do, and it's what's gonna take care of it. And to me, that's just like my family. Like I'm gonna take care of them because it's the thing that we're supposed to do. And um I thought when I played in Nebraska, everyone had my back. Even when they'd be mad that we lost, they were still there. You see it every Saturday. Um good, bad, or ugly, everybody's still gonna show up in the small town. You know, we had a bad hail storm a year ago, year and a half ago. Um looked like a war zone in town is the craziest thing I've ever seen. And looked like, where do we even begin? And within a week, every house was boarded up, streets were clean, like, and everybody was out doing it. So um has been part of the service, you know, is doing the right thing, taking care of everybody. Um so a family, I don't know what that word would be, but camaraderie, whatever it is, but that's true Nebraska through and through, and especially in a small town. That's what what it's all about.
SPEAKER_05:And so I can give you my word. Go ahead, Randy. Home.
SPEAKER_03:And why you stole my word?
SPEAKER_00:I stole your word, Mark. I knew it, I was reading your mind. So rant random way home. Why is it home you're wanting to?
SPEAKER_05:Home is where I've been. I've been all my life. This is my lifestyle, this is my character, this is where I like to be. People are gregarious, they enjoy being recognized. It's just comfortable. Uh, we've traveled a lot and seen other places, but Nebraska is still home, whether it's Lincoln, Omaha, Kozad, Binkleman, it just feels right being here. It's good to be home when we do.
SPEAKER_00:Marcus, uh, what's your one word? And if someone stole your word, that's okay, but what's your one word?
SPEAKER_03:Well actually mine was mine was or is home because like Randy, but um I'm gonna still another word that he used, even though it's it's been a little cold. I'm gonna say um comfortable. I mean, this home, it this is um I'm not much of a travel traveler, as everybody knows, but um and and and it's it's nice to get away, but I'm always ready to come home. I mean, it's it's it's it might be nice when they get away, but as soon as they get away, I want to get back home. So um, you know, I was born here in Kozed. Um I'll probably d I I'll die here in Kozed, I'll be buried. Yeah, I mean this this is this is um where I wanna be. Um I know the people. The the people um know me, it it's uh the community and and I um i you know you you wanna do things and and I'm fortunate in the fact that that all three of my kids came home and are all three of them are raising families. So grandpa gets to see the grandkids and you know my biggest concern now is that there's something here that will that will lure my grandkids back, you know. Um so not only do is my uh Golman word home, but um you know I hope it's home for generations of of of my my kids and my kids' kids that that they'll also call this home.
SPEAKER_00:Randall, Marcus, Drew, thanks for joining us. If you enjoyed this episode, consider subscribing on Spotify, Apple, or whatever your favorite podcast app is. Give it a thumbs up or a like, and share it with someone who might find it of interest as well. And please keep on listening as we release additional episodes on Nebraska, its communities, its number one industry agriculture, and the people who make it happen.
SPEAKER_01:Thanks. This has been Nighty Three, the podcast. Sponsored by Nebraska's law firm, Rumble Lucky.
