How Passions Begin

We trace where our sports passions really come from, from schoolyard belonging to family rituals, and how those early moments stick for life. Along the way we swap stories about football, the NFL, horse riding, and the odd ways identity gets built when we are kids. 

• Jesse’s listener question from the Grand River CrossFit community 
• How Pete gets into the NFL through 1980s San Francisco and becomes a Buffalo Bills fan after moving to Ontario 
• How a new school and a need for friends leads Pete to Crystal Palace 
• The Crystal Palace socks story and how belonging shapes loyalty 
• Sharon’s childhood pull towards horses and the Willie the donkey runaway moment 
• Losing the horse connection as a teen then rediscovering riding in Canada through western riding 
• How Sharon moves from trail riding to teaching to barrel racing then reining 
• Pete’s love of horses through racing culture and betting, shaped by family 
• Why UK football loyalty stays local for life and why North American teams relocate 
• Our brutally honest takeaway about childhood passions and keeping it simple 

If you have an idea you’d like to share, go to the website beabetteryou.ca and 'podcast' 

Have a question, a comment, or want to find out more? go to https://www.beabetteryou.ca/

Podcast thoughtfully produced by https://www.isleofsound.ca/

Transcript

Welcome And Weekly Premise

SPEAKER_01 0:00

This is Straight Up Talk with Sharon and Peter. We are both proud Brits and Canadians. This is a no-nonsense weekly podcast about people, life, leadership, and all sorts of stuff. We don't always agree. Hello, I'm Sharon Jones, business owner of Be A Better You, developing better managers and leaders, and this is Hi, I'm Pete Johnson, owner of Move Man Traders.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Buy and sell anything.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

Thank you very much there, Peter.

Listener Request And Today’s Question

SPEAKER_01 0:33

Topic for this week is a special request from Jesse, a fellow. Jesse Jesse, a fellow member of the Grand River CrossFit community. And in fact, it is uh the Grand River CrossFit community where we got inspired to do the podcast, podcasts, even podcasts, podcasts from the one that is done by Nairi, Greg, and Fiona. Um, and they inspired us to do this. Anyway, Jesse wants to know, he asked this question because we were both born in England, he wants to know how did you, Peter, get into football, soccer, plus why do you like the Buffalo Bills? And for me, how did I get into horse riding and jumping? Over to you.

Pete’s NFL Origin And Bills Fandom

SPEAKER_00 1:16

Yeah, I mean Jesse asked me um, because I I always wear my Bills shirt to the gym, well, most of the time anyway. Um, he asked me why I like the Bills so much, and um and and how comes I got into the NFL. So, I mean, when I was living in San Francisco in in the 80s, we used to go and watch the Niners, the 49ers, because they was a local team. You know, and you could hardly ever get a ticket, but I think we went once or twice, and then we'd watch them on TV. So that's how I got my love for the NFL. And now that we've moved to Dunville, the local team is the Buffalo Bills. So I'm a Bills fan now.

SPEAKER_01 1:58

But how did you get into football in the first place?

SPEAKER_00 2:00

Well,

Childhood Friendship And Crystal Palace Socks

SPEAKER_00 2:01

football is a much longer story. Do you want me to tell you that now?

SPEAKER_01 2:04

Yes, I do.

SPEAKER_00 2:04

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 2:05

No telling tomorrow.

SPEAKER_00 2:06

Well, when I was a kid, uh seven years old, we moved house and um I started a new school, didn't have any friends, and my sister used to take me to school, Jacqueline, if you're listening. Thank you. And um, because I didn't have any friends, she'd say to me at playtime, Oh, you know, I won't go off and play with anyone, I'll sit on the wall with you. So we used to sit on the wall and watch all the other kids play football. Anyway, I ended up getting sat next to this guy, and he said to me, You like football, don't you? I said, Yeah. He said, Well, why don't you come down the park after school? We go we often go down and have a game of football. So I said, Yeah, okay, then great. And I told my sister, and she's like, Oh, great, Pete, you've made some friends. So I took myself down the park and um watching his kids play football, and I recognised I know I call him here by his real name because he sadly died a few weeks ago, Mike.

SPEAKER_01 2:57

Right, yes.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

And um Mike's, you know, m Mike saw me and he said, Oh, come over, you know, join us. And then to his horror, I didn't have anything on that represented Crystal Palace, which was the local football team. So he said, Oh, sorry, you can't play. So I'm like, Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01 3:15

When you said anything on, just describe what you mean by that.

SPEAKER_00 3:18

Uh kit. Any of the kit. Meaning like the colours of Crystal Palace. When you said anything on, I thought you turned up nude. Oh no, no, no, no. Like uh the kit, the football kit, like the top, the sh the shorts. Okay. And anyway, so I went home and I told my mum, I said, Oh, I oh yeah, how'd you get on at the park? I said, Well, they wouldn't let me play because I didn't have anything with Crystal Palace written on it. I said, They want me to go and buy a shirt. So off we went to the local sports store to get a Crystal Palace shirt. And we walked in there and looked at all the shirts, Chelsea, Tottenham, and there was one Crystal Palace shirt there, and it was £12. And my mum was like, I'm not paying £12 for a football shirt. Can't I get you something else with Crystal Palace written on it? Well, in them days, the socks had Crystal Palace written on them. And she said to the bloke in the shop, How much are the socks? He said, Oh, they're only two pounds. She'll have the socks then. So off I put my socks on. Next day I went down the park, went up to the boys where they were playing football, and um he's like, Where's your shirt? Where's your Crystal Palace shirt? I said, Well, my mum couldn't have all the shirt, but I've got the socks. They sell great, okay. In you come, and I and that was it. I was became a Crystal Palace fan after that.

SPEAKER_01 4:33

That's that's that's pretty

Sharon’s Horse Story And Willie The Donkey

SPEAKER_01 4:35

funny. So I looked at the neuroscience of childhood passions. Um, they aren't always pure preference, they're often socially shaped choices that feel safe, rewarded, and identity building at the time, which is what you just described.

SPEAKER_00 4:49

That's right, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:50

So for for me, getting into horses, I don't really remember a time when I wasn't into them. I remember every Christmas and birthday on the top of my list I would write a pony. And we lived in Bram Hall in England at the time. We had a garage, and one Christmas morning I woke up and I could swear that there was a sound of a pony in the garage. I was so excited and I ran out. No pony. At junior school, I used to have a little friend called John. He had no kneecaps. I don't know why I remember that, but he didn't.

SPEAKER_00 5:23

No kneecaps.

SPEAKER_01 5:24

He had no kneecaps, no.

SPEAKER_00 5:25

How did he run?

SPEAKER_01 5:26

Very weirdly. So, but the school, Chawton Park Junior School, this was, had uh a mascot and it was a donkey. And the donkey was called Willie, and they wanted people to look after Willie the Donkey. So um, because I could only afford to go riding once a week at this little stables, it was 50p an hour, that's how long ago it was. And they'd stick you on a horse and they'd they'd lead you around. And you know, that wasn't very exciting for me. So the opportunity to look after Willie the Donkey, and then I remember getting on Willie, and donkeys are notoriously difficult. Willie ran off with me on his back, and he ran over the crown green bowling area.

SPEAKER_00 6:06

Oh dear, I know.

SPEAKER_01 6:08

So that in England, so we know bowling over here. In England, Crown Green bowling is on a pristine bit of grass. Oh, yeah, and the people who do it are like golfers, very fanatical about the grass. So Willie ran off over there, greens. Very precious. So Willie ran over the uh Crown Green bowling area, so there's little hoof prints, and then there's a splat mark where he bucked me off. So but it didn't it didn't put me off when I was a kid riding English because I was in England, I used I learned how to jump just by doing it. And then at the age of 14 we moved and then I lost the connection with horses.

Canada Riding Life And Selling Horses

SPEAKER_01 6:50

Came to Canada in about 2004. Uh I went up to a ranch and they were doing obviously western riding, and I tried it and I really liked it. And it was I've been hook, as you know, been been hooked on it ever since. Um, and riding's something that is it's a it's passionate to me because it allows me to uh take myself outside of you have to have very deep pockets. I don't have very deep pockets, not that deep, not as deep as I used to. But yeah, horses are expensive, but we don't have kids.

SPEAKER_00 7:25

They're expensive pets, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:27

And you can sell a horse, you can't sell your children.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

And you can pretty well selling your horses, I must say.

SPEAKER_01 7:33

I I have.

SPEAKER_00 7:34

Since I've been in Canada and twelve, I've been coming since 2012. I was stuck, I lived here from 2015 onwards. You've sold about five horses and you've made profit on four of them.

SPEAKER_01 7:44

Yeah, and it's always a a case of because the thing is you want to find a good sporting partner. Now, the difference between what I do and what you do, you know, you're sitting there with your Crystal Palace hat on, so that that's a sport you go and watch other people do. The sport that I do, I am working with another sentient being a horse. So it's like playing a game on two separate minefields, theirs and and your own. And I really enjoy the learning, but not just like people, not every horse is good at everything. So the reason I've sold horses in the past is because they haven't wanted to do the sport that I've wanted to do. I started out trail riding, which was great. Then I started teaching people to ride, which I absolutely loved doing, and that's how I got into training actually. And then I started doing barrel racing, which for anybody who doesn't know, it's basically three barrels. I call it 15 seconds of glory, and I had a blast doing it. You can't go wrong going around three barrels, and I actually used to win money back then. Um I I did, not very much, but enough to pay for my entry fees. But then I saw a raining video, Sean Florida. If any people here won't know what the heck I'm talking about, unless they know about raining, and I I saw this raining video and it was like, wow, that looks so easy. Yeah, I know, and I've been humbled.

SPEAKER_00 9:04

Everything done well, looks easy.

SPEAKER_01 9:06

Of course it does. I've been humbled every day since because it absolutely isn't.

SPEAKER_00 9:10

Shall I tell you where my love of horses

Racing Bets Football Loyalty And Local Teams

SPEAKER_00 9:12

came from?

SPEAKER_01 9:12

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 9:13

Because I love horses too, as you know. I do, and um I've only really got into riding since I've been in Canada, and you know, you say I'm a good rider, but I'm I've got a natural seat.

SPEAKER_01 9:24

You're annoying because you've got a natural seat, but you don't actually want to learn it.

SPEAKER_00 9:28

No, I'm just you know, I'd rather bet on them than ride them. And that's where my love of horses came because when I was a kid going back to Norbury as a kid, growing up in Norberry, um, we used to go to my nan's place quite a lot, and she was always she always had horse racing on the TV, and she'd had a little bet, you know, on the horses, and we used to sit there and watch all her horses run. Most of them would fall over or you know, come last. But just the fun and the thrill of it. And then obviously my mum worked in book in the bookies for a few years. Right. So as soon as I was old enough to go to the racetracks, I used to go on my own and then started going with friends, and then I got into all the trainers and all the form and everything, and it just became a fascinating world to me.

SPEAKER_01 10:11

I know when we were living back in the UK, we would go racing.

SPEAKER_00 10:16

I used to go at least once a week. Yeah, when I had the business.

SPEAKER_01 10:19

It they're the obviously beautiful animals, of course, that we both have an affinity for. But yeah, it was frustrating for me that you had such a nice seat, but you weren't really interested in learning how to do it. But I actually want to go back to your story of how you got into Crystal Palace because before Crystal Palace, there was another team that your dad bought you a shirt for.

SPEAKER_00 10:41

Oh, I was hoping you weren't going to remember that. Um, yeah, one one Christmas my dad came home. I mean, my dad left when I was eight, so this is this is a very distant memory for me. But he came home with um two football shirts. Manchester City had just won the FA Cup, which is like the pride, the big prize in England.

SPEAKER_01 11:00

What does FA stand for?

SPEAKER_00 11:01

Every C Football Association Cup. Right. So they just won it, I think it was 1968. And uh so he must have gotten from a knocked off like knocked off somewhere, because he brought home two Manchester City tops, one for me and one for my brother Tony. And I saw them in the drawer, you know, before Christmas. You know, when you're a kid, you go sneaking around. I wonder what I got for Christmas. So I saw these two Manchester City tops, well, one's for me, one's for Tony, anyway. But um, so I had a really big my City was my first team, really. But then of course I met I met Mike, my old dear old mate Mike. Yeah, and uh you know I couldn't have played football with his crowd until I became a Crystal Palace fan.

SPEAKER_01 11:43

So you had to forego City.

SPEAKER_00 11:45

I had to leave City behind and start following Crystal Palace.

SPEAKER_01 11:48

And actually, another interesting thing about this is you you say that because in England, whichever football team you support when you're a kid, you're with them for life.

SPEAKER_00 12:01

Oh, definitely, yeah. Whereas can't change, yeah. Over here, it's a little bit different, seemingly, because me and Jesse were talking about that in the gym the other day because Jesse was telling me about the uh LA Raiders and the Oakland A's and all this, and he said, Oh, they're based in Vegas now, and they're based in so and so. And I was like, Yeah, but they do they still have the same fan base or and he's like, Oh, you know, I don't know, but I suppose the people in uh in Vegas follow them now, you know. You couldn't do that in England if you left right if Crystal Palace left London and moved to Scotland, they wouldn't have any fans.

SPEAKER_01 12:37

Because back then, teams were created based on local people, yeah. And teams London's got five teams or something. Oh thirteen. Thirteen, right, there you go. Twelve or thirteen. Manchester, my hometown's got two, Manchester United, Manchester City. Teams were initially obviously so that they could play against each other, but initially based on on religion, right? So there's the Catholic team and the Protestant team. So the history of it is quite interesting. Whereas over here, you tend to find people who support soccer teams in the UK either from their parentage, yeah, or they just have have maybe come across the name and liked it.

SPEAKER_00 13:15

You like the name,

Takeaway Listener Link And Sign Off

SPEAKER_00 13:16

yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:16

Anyway, we are at our 13 13 minutes so uh brutally honest takeaway of the week about what we like. Um I don't really have a brutally honest takeaway, except to say I think the things that we tend to have a passion for when we're kids shape a lot of how we end up being as as adults, and those preferences tend to stay with us. Um what would you say tonight?

SPEAKER_00 13:40

Yeah, no, I agree with that. Um I would just say keep it simple and support your local football team.

SPEAKER_01 13:47

Yes. Thank you very much for that, Peter. That was a very different podcast for this week. Thank you for listening. If you want more information, we don't have any more on this topic specifically, but that's quite alright. On anything else, you have an idea you'd like to share, go to the website beabetu.ca backslash podcast. And this week's podcast has been thoughtfully produced by Isla Sound. It's goodbye from me, and it's good night from you, Peter.

SPEAKER_00 14:13

Good night, everybody.