Ep. 5 - Earl Clement: Jack of All Trades

 

Miracles in Meat Podcast | Ep. 5 – Earl Clement: Jack of All Trades

A Life of Hard Work, Problem-Solving & Family Legacy

In this episode of Miracles in Meat, Shane Thibodaux and Beau Bourgeois sit down with Earl Clement (Born 1939), Beau’s grandfather, to explore a lifetime of ingenuity, resilience, and hard-earned wisdom.

Earl shares stories of growing up in South Louisiana, his experiences with the original “Meat Man” Valerie Jean-Batiste Bourgeois, and the lessons he’s learned from decades of solving problems and making things work with his own two hands. This episode is a tribute to old-school work ethic, adaptability, and the mindset that built strong families and businesses.

Inside This Episode:

🔨 A lifetime of problem-solving—Earl’s resourcefulness through the years
🔨 Stories of early meat deliveries in the 1940s from the original “Meat Man”
🔨 Lessons in resilience, craftsmanship, and the importance of family traditions
🔨 Why old-school values still matter in today’s fast-changing world

Why You Should Listen:

This episode is packed with nostalgia, wisdom, and inspiration, making it perfect for anyone who appreciates family legacy, craftsmanship, and the stories of the men who built South Louisiana.

💥 Exclusive Offer

🛒 Use code: MIMPODCAST for 10% off your cart at checkout!

🔗 Connect with Us:

🌐 Website: www.bourgeoismeatmarket.com
📍 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bourgeoismeatmarket
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bourgeoismeatmarket/
📩 Email: Shane@bourgeoismm@gmail.com

 

Transcript

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Music.

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Music.

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When I was about three, my grandmother, his wife passed away unexpectedly and

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we lived with Pawpaw for a while, while him and my mom and a couple of his buddies

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built, he built, they built us a house in Houma.

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And then every summer growing up, I remember we would all pack me,

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my sister, my mom and Pawpaw into his camper and we would go all over the country.

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So we've been to the Grand Canyon, to the Florida beaches.

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We've been to Yellowstone, Washington, D.C., all over. We'd be gone the whole summer.

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So my mom was a teacher and Papa was a principal. So we all had the summer off.

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I have so many wonderful memories of those summers, which is why I also have a camper.

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And we go camping with my kids and, you know, it's great family time.

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So Earl is also the only person left that I know that knew my father's grandfather,

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which his name was Valerie Jean-Baptiste Bourgeois.

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He's the OG that started all this. And he actually passed away before my dad

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was born. So he didn't even get to know him.

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And I knew Paul Earl just not just as Bo's grandpa, but he was my very first

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principal at Schriever School from maybe kindergarten to second grade.

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So I have some pretty cool memories from back then and we'll get into those

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later on in the podcast. Let's get started.

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All right, here we go. I'm Shane. Got Bo here with Bo's grandfather, Earl Claymore.

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Mr. Earl, I'm going to call you Paul Earl because that's how I feel about you.

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And we start all of these off the same way we ask our customers what their first

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or earliest memories are of the bourgeois brand,

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the building, the products, going in the building, tasting something,

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whatever your first memory about bourgeois meat market was.

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We'd like to hear that. Well, I guess probably one of the original customers

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of Bourgeois Sweet Market.

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I was born in 39. My dad was in a service, so we moved in with my grandparents

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way back when, so when dad was in a service.

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And I remember my grandmother buying products from, actually raw meat,

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from the original bourgeois, Lester's father.

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I have vague memories of it because I was a kid, you know, I was,

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but he would pass in his, I don't remember for sure what it looked like,

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but it seems like it was an old bus. us.

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And he would deliver, he would take his products, he would basically take an order.

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None of us had electricity at the time. So he would take the orders,

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what you wanted for the next week.

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And then he would deliver the meat the following week.

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He was, I can't say that I I interacted with him, I didn't, I was a kid,

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a very young kid as a matter of fact, but I know my grandmother did,

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and they actually looked forward to the meat coming in.

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They had no way of refrigerating meat, we didn't have electricity,

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so they couldn't even preserve meat for any length of time.

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So that's my first memories of a bourgeois meat market.

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So was it special, the meat, getting the meat and knowing that it's going to come and go?

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It was, but as it turns out, I guess he must have figured out that when the

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Iceman was passing, we didn't have a refrigerator, no electricity. Electricity.

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So that was a guy who would come with blocks of ice and every week he would

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ask you how much you wanted,

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whether you wanted a quart's worth, 50 cents worth or whatever,

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and he would just chop up the meat blocks and put it in your ice box.

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Basically, that was how you refrigerated meat. So it kept the product pretty

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good for that period of time, but you couldn't freeze anything.

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There was no refrigeration to do that.

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So it would pretty much be a one or two meal serving of product that he would give.

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So at the time, though, we were 13 of us living in the house.

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So I guess it was a pretty good order.

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That's so cool. So I have so many questions, but let's start with,

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you don't remember the cuts of meat that you were getting?

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Man, I ate enough number seven steaks.

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It seems like that's all I could remember is Grandma buying number seven steaks.

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I don't think it was ever the roast or anything like that.

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It was, and I don't really remember that for sure, but I know why I remember

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it. But I know darn well I had some number seven steaks.

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So what's funny is like calf cuts are kind of dying off a little bit in the

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last 20 years or so. But sevens are still really popular.

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They were good eats. How'd she cook them? Well, first of all,

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who cooked and how did they cook them?

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My grandmother, of course, was a cook. She cooked daily.

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Again, you couldn't preserve food, so she had to cook every day.

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My grandfather worked in the fields, so he had to get up and he was off and

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running every morning, five, six o'clock in the morning, he had to go to work.

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And so at that point in time, she'd start cooking. And did they have natural gas yet?

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No, no. We had no electricity, no running water, and no natural gas. So a wood stove.

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We had a wood stove toward the latter part of the, but that was toward the end

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of World War II when they got what's called, what we would call the coal oil schools, the kerosene.

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Okay. But at that point in time, it was simply a wood stove,

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and they'd have to get the fire going on the stove. How she cooked on that, I have no idea.

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What time did she wake up to have breakfast ready for Grandpa and light a fire?

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She had an early morning every single morning.

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And she prepared food for all 13 of us and had to wash clothes on a washboard.

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Had to, you know, and you had to, the water was, it was scarce.

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Got a cistern? We had a couple of cisterns, but even still, when you had dry

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periods of time, when you had to, you know, kind of preserve water,

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because that was no other source of water.

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Yeah. You couldn't, there was no such thing as well water over here.

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You couldn't get good, clean well water. You couldn't drill wells that deep to get good water.

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So we just had to preserve water, watch how you washed.

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We had to bathe in the same water one after the other.

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What was the sleeping situation like?

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I was a young kid, and I remember I personally was sleeping on chairs.

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They put chairs together, and you'd sleep on top of the chairs.

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How many bedrooms in the house?

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As I recall, they had three bedrooms in the house, but-

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My family was there, my mother and me and her sister and her husband and four kids.

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We had a cousin, Norman. We had a great-grandfather who was living there.

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So we were all in the house.

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And that was just prior to World War II, things were so much different than they are now.

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I mean, you just didn't have the services that could help you.

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You didn't have anything you had to provide for yourselves.

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So we did a lot for ourselves. I guess that's where we learned to do what we had to do.

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Did you have a garden? We had a field.

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Yeah, we had a garden every year, every summer.

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That pretty much was what you had to do. And you had to preserve food. You had to can food.

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I remember my grandmother having, we didn't put them in jars.

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We actually put them in cans, and she had a special kind of canner where you

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could purchase the cans with a lid to put on top,

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and you had to sterilize the can.

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You had to sterilize whatever you would put in it.

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So we put up beans and peas and okra, and I don't remember putting up tomatoes,

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but we always had so many tomatoes we didn't know what to do with them.

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But all of those products, we had to can and store them.

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We had walls and walls and walls of canned stuff that stacked up on one another.

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And if you didn't sterilize them properly, you'd hear them popping every once in a while. They'd blow.

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Did you have any animals? Hogs? Mostly, yes. We had hogs. We had cows.

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The cows weren't to eat. The cows were milk cows.

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We had a lot of chicken. We had chicken.

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That was almost a daily thing because at least you could keep them alive until you cooked them.

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And we had, you mentioned it now, but we had acres and acres of corn.

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And we'd break the corn late summer and stack them in a corn crib.

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Basically a big building where you would just fill up dry corn.

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You'd break the corn when it was dry and just throw it into a corn crib.

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And you could use that corn to feed your cow.

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You could feed the chickens, stuff like that.

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Nice. Where was the property?

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What's that? Where was the property? Where'd you live? At the time,

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we were living off of Highway 1, going toward Labadeville.

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Okay. Before the Brulee Road. I don't know if you know where that is.

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All right. But the property that we had that we were farming on was my grandfather

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and his brother. brother, Ivers Adams.

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And there were fields and fields like maybe 40 or up and long of just corn and

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peas and that kind of thing.

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How much of that was to eat versus to sell? We didn't sell anything. That was for us to eat.

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Grandpa had a field, a garden on the side of the house where we were living.

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The corn came mostly from the field. The stuff that we ate, the beans,

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the peas, the okra, those kinds of things. That was in our garden.

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The corn was across the street in a big field, and that's where we got the cow,

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and we had a lot of corn, and we'd feed the cattle and chicken and stuff.

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What was your favorite thing that your grandma cooked?

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So instead. How'd she cook them?

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She smothered them down? Smothered them down. We ate a lot of rabbit.

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We ate rabbits also.

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Y'all raised them or y'all would hunt them? We'd hunt them.

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We didn't grow any rabbits. We didn't grow any rabbits.

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We'd hunt them. But the property back then, when you look back,

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and it's hard to realize that I've been around for 85 years almost.

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But things have changed so tremendously. And back then you could almost walk

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out in your yard and hunt.

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It wasn't because you- Especially if you had all them crops. Yeah. Probably a trait.

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It's not like you had to go miles to look for a place to hunt. It was there.

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So that changed in my lifetime. Right now you got neighbors on top of one another. You can't hunt anymore.

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Anything else besides rabbits that y'all would- We raised hogs.

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Every year you'd have a boucherie.

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One time, you know, we'd do a boucherie where you could, again,

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we had no way to preserve it except we had the big cross where we'd salt the

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pork down, which cost some money. I don't know why.

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Maybe you would know this better than me. Why didn't we salt down the beef?

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You can't do that? I've seen people doing it with lard.

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With lard. Preserving the beef just in solid lard. I think that's called confit.

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C-O-N-F-I-T. tea and way to do it

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holds a long time yeah 25 30 year

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shelf life oh as a matter of

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fact uh i remember the like the people coming across like

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christopher columbus or that gang you know they would uh like eggs things like

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that they'd put it in paraffin you could you could take you could take an egg

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a raw egg and put it in paraffin it'll last for years because you can't get

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back I can't get air to it.

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I guess the same thing would be true with beef or anything. I guess that's what

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the Lord did, I guess. He stops the product from getting bacteria.

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What was maybe some of your first jobs or big chores you had as a kid?

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Well, every year we had, as a kid, we all had to contribute to the labor.

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With working in the garden, I guess my role more than anything was shelling

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peas and beans and stuff to get them ready to cook whatever.

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Some of the earliest first jobs I guess I had was when a kid was,

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some of the neighbors, some of the farmers in the area planted those shallots and things like that.

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I had jobs where I would plant shallots. In fact, the dorm rows looked like

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they were like 100 and 200 feet long.

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And you'd plant shallots. And every. What you got paid?

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25 cents a row. row and i'm

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telling you couldn't see the end of the row either what a

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deal yeah so anyway uh that

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was pretty much it there were no paying jobs for for kids or anything like that

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that i was aware of at the time it was mostly working with the family working

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in forms and to get what you need yeah that that's the most interesting part

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yeah that that pretty much it is that we were depending on ourselves for survival.

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And in that sense, I guess I was blessed all of my life, really, in that we had a family.

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And we never worried about food.

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We never worried. In fact, we never worried about anything, you know,

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because we always knew that we had one another for backup.

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So you mentioned your dad, also named Earl, was in World War II.

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And that's why everybody moved in to the same house because all the husbands

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and dads and grandpas were fighting.

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Yeah, and there was no income. When Dad went in, as a matter of fact,

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I don't know if you want to hear about him, but I got a story to tell you about him. Yeah, absolutely.

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Dad was a pretty remarkable guy. He went to LT, which is a small school on 308

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going toward Labadeville.

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How did he get there? He had to walk.

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At the time, he wasn't living on highway. He was living, he and his, let me regress.

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Yeah. Okay, dad's father died when he was a young boy.

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They were living on a plantation. It was called La San Cuartas,

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which was off of 308. It was a plantation.

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I don't know who owned the plantation, but anyway, there were a bunch of row

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houses where you had people that were working on the plantation had homes to

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live in. Well, his daddy died.

206
00:17:55,016 --> 00:17:56,556
He had an older brother.

207
00:17:58,240 --> 00:18:03,640
And when he died, to stay in those houses, you had to have people working on the plantation.

208
00:18:04,020 --> 00:18:07,220
Well, his daddy died, so there was no one working on the plantation.

209
00:18:07,240 --> 00:18:11,480
So his brother dropped out of school in the eighth grade and started working.

210
00:18:11,940 --> 00:18:13,500
What was his name? Lester.

211
00:18:14,260 --> 00:18:18,440
Isn't that cool? Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, his dad started working on,

212
00:18:18,520 --> 00:18:20,320
his brother started working on the plantation.

213
00:18:20,760 --> 00:18:23,620
So that the family could have a place to live. So that they could have a place

214
00:18:23,620 --> 00:18:29,680
to live. So, my grandmother, my dad's mom made a few pens.

215
00:18:29,740 --> 00:18:34,700
She used to make, she'd make filet gumbo, filet for the gumbo.

216
00:18:35,420 --> 00:18:40,260
She would get the sassafras leaves, dry them, crumble them, and basically put

217
00:18:40,260 --> 00:18:42,640
them in Coke bottles and cap them and sell them.

218
00:18:42,720 --> 00:18:45,040
That's the money she made. That's what she did.

219
00:18:45,580 --> 00:18:50,200
And Lester worked on the plantation. My dad was younger. He continued going to school.

220
00:18:50,980 --> 00:18:57,000
And in those days, you had like pretty much multiple grades in one classroom.

221
00:18:57,620 --> 00:19:02,240
Dad was, I guess, relatively bright, so they skipped him a grade.

222
00:19:02,660 --> 00:19:09,440
And at that time, graduation was at the 11th grade. They didn't have 12 years of school.

223
00:19:10,020 --> 00:19:15,480
So Dad graduated from high school. He was 16 years old.

224
00:19:16,060 --> 00:19:21,220
During that period of time, during those high school years, he had a job working

225
00:19:21,220 --> 00:19:23,880
for Mr. Edmund Derame, a lawyer in Thibodeau.

226
00:19:24,800 --> 00:19:30,000
His Edmund Derame Jr. was the most recent one that you might have a memory of,

227
00:19:30,100 --> 00:19:36,320
but it was the old man Derame that recognized that Daddy had some ability and

228
00:19:36,320 --> 00:19:40,440
encouraged my mother to send him to school.

229
00:19:40,540 --> 00:19:46,480
The only local university he had at the time was USL, Lafayette.

230
00:19:46,480 --> 00:19:50,220
So they had no money so

231
00:19:50,220 --> 00:19:53,760
daddy went to went to usl on a basketball scholarship

232
00:19:53,760 --> 00:20:00,040
and he wasn't making enough money to eat so he got a job as a waiter didn't

233
00:20:00,040 --> 00:20:04,600
have enough money to eat then so he got himself a boxing scholarship whatever

234
00:20:04,600 --> 00:20:10,340
it takes yeah what a hustler yeah so so anyway he got a boxing scholarship,

235
00:20:10,580 --> 00:20:20,760
he got through college doing that, and he went through a four-year program,

236
00:20:20,800 --> 00:20:22,440
and he graduated in three years.

237
00:20:22,520 --> 00:20:26,460
He was 19 years old and a college graduate. And what year, you think?

238
00:20:27,993 --> 00:20:36,213
This was in the late 20s, early 30s? I was, no, it was, I would say the year

239
00:20:36,213 --> 00:20:41,953
he graduated, I was born, it must have been 37 or 38 is when he graduated from college.

240
00:20:42,713 --> 00:20:46,133
And he, how did he meet Momo? He knew her before he left? Yeah,

241
00:20:46,133 --> 00:20:47,333
they were in school together.

242
00:20:47,653 --> 00:20:50,893
I mean, it was a local community. It was a little LT school.

243
00:20:52,233 --> 00:20:55,713
The building is still there. I don't know what they use it for anymore,

244
00:20:55,713 --> 00:20:56,613
but the building is there.

245
00:20:57,233 --> 00:21:00,153
And so when he got out of the service

246
00:21:00,153 --> 00:21:05,593
they got married he got a job and he was principal he was a teacher and got

247
00:21:05,593 --> 00:21:10,553
a job at principal as of lockport school there was a school in lockport where

248
00:21:10,553 --> 00:21:18,533
he got the principalship of that school and the war broke out in 41 so he volunteered.

249
00:21:20,513 --> 00:21:25,513
And and that's the point in time when we had to move in with so y'all were living

250
00:21:25,513 --> 00:21:26,473
in lockport before that?

251
00:21:26,693 --> 00:21:30,273
Yes. We lived in Lockport for a brief time and the wall broke out.

252
00:21:30,433 --> 00:21:34,273
Gotcha. So we had to move back. We had no other place to go so we lived in,

253
00:21:34,313 --> 00:21:37,013
we moved in with Grandma and Grandpa like everybody else. Yeah.

254
00:21:37,373 --> 00:21:41,473
So, that's what he did. He volunteered to go in.

255
00:21:41,873 --> 00:21:45,853
So that was your mom's grandparents that you were My mom's grandparents.

256
00:21:46,453 --> 00:21:53,793
My, my grandmother on my dad's side was still living on Los Ancuadro.

257
00:21:53,853 --> 00:21:59,293
Lester was still working at that plantation all that time. Golly.

258
00:22:01,533 --> 00:22:05,753
So anyway, that's Dad's story. That's who he was.

259
00:22:06,313 --> 00:22:11,273
And I guess because of that, I'm fortunate, I'm lucky, because in those days,

260
00:22:11,793 --> 00:22:14,033
there weren't that many people from around here going to college.

261
00:22:14,173 --> 00:22:16,453
How he ever managed to go to college, I have no idea.

262
00:22:16,613 --> 00:22:19,353
How he managed, there was no money. He didn't have any money.

263
00:22:19,433 --> 00:22:20,813
His mama didn't have any money.

264
00:22:21,473 --> 00:22:23,253
How did he get to Lafayette?

265
00:22:24,419 --> 00:22:26,779
I would have guessed it was going to be by train. I don't know.

266
00:22:26,919 --> 00:22:28,719
Okay. I mean, he didn't have any vehicle.

267
00:22:28,959 --> 00:22:32,939
Right. You know, he had to go by train. So that's how he went.

268
00:22:33,699 --> 00:22:38,639
Sheesh. And as it, as it turns out, he, you know.

269
00:22:39,319 --> 00:22:43,659
So how old were you and how long was he gone in World War II?

270
00:22:44,219 --> 00:22:49,699
I was born in 39. I guess I didn't, after, for the first couple of years,

271
00:22:49,759 --> 00:22:51,299
of course, I have no memory of that.

272
00:22:51,299 --> 00:22:54,459
But he came back probably 45

273
00:22:54,459 --> 00:22:57,539
or 46 after the war after the war

274
00:22:57,539 --> 00:23:00,259
was over in the pacific he was in he was fighting in

275
00:23:00,259 --> 00:23:03,159
the pacific gotcha so he

276
00:23:03,159 --> 00:23:06,259
was he probably didn't get back i'd say

277
00:23:06,259 --> 00:23:08,979
until about 46 or 47 so i would have been

278
00:23:08,979 --> 00:23:12,379
maybe six seven years old geez when he

279
00:23:12,379 --> 00:23:15,239
got back and what was god what

280
00:23:15,239 --> 00:23:18,319
was that like meeting your dad kind of because you

281
00:23:18,319 --> 00:23:21,099
probably didn't remember him when he left no i didn't because uh

282
00:23:21,099 --> 00:23:24,639
and he there was no time off you know right when he

283
00:23:24,639 --> 00:23:27,899
was on a ship in in the pacific and he

284
00:23:27,899 --> 00:23:32,219
couldn't take a break you know he had to come he had to keep fighting yeah so

285
00:23:32,219 --> 00:23:37,139
i have no memory of that really you know except that those are those are some

286
00:23:37,139 --> 00:23:41,219
years that probably would have been some formative years so i wish i had with

287
00:23:41,219 --> 00:23:46,159
him i didn't you know anything about his His service?

288
00:23:47,279 --> 00:23:53,419
Nothing except that he was in the Pacific. He was on the... He was in the Navy? In the Navy. Okay.

289
00:23:53,979 --> 00:23:59,519
The ship he was on were, I guess, a medium-sized vessel where there were landing

290
00:23:59,519 --> 00:24:04,719
craft, basically to discharge tanks, troops, that kind of thing,

291
00:24:04,799 --> 00:24:07,439
had to go in and put people on the ground.

292
00:24:08,739 --> 00:24:10,759
So that's the kind of vessel he was on.

293
00:24:12,104 --> 00:24:17,704
He was involved in fighting all the way even into Tokyo Bay, you know.

294
00:24:18,944 --> 00:24:22,924
So, but he made it without a scratch and survived it.

295
00:24:23,184 --> 00:24:27,044
Probably dropped off a lot of Marines, Shane. Yeah. Any pictures?

296
00:24:28,264 --> 00:24:33,764
No. Again, that was a, that's in your realm. Yeah, sure.

297
00:24:34,204 --> 00:24:38,464
In those years, they just didn't have it. But he did bring back one picture,

298
00:24:38,544 --> 00:24:42,464
though, or one postcard of Tokyo.

299
00:24:43,144 --> 00:24:48,984
I guess I should have brought that just to show you where they show what was left of Tokyo in 45.

300
00:24:49,764 --> 00:24:53,224
Wow. I think I had one building standing. That was it.

301
00:24:55,444 --> 00:24:59,644
But anyway, when he got out of the service, he had to, as it turns out,

302
00:24:59,644 --> 00:25:03,564
the building he was in, when Principal Shivan Lockport, the building burned down.

303
00:25:05,184 --> 00:25:10,444
So when he got back they had no building he was not he was no longer had a principalship there,

304
00:25:11,584 --> 00:25:14,984
and he was not able to get another principalship until

305
00:25:14,984 --> 00:25:21,784
i guess maybe 51 or 52 and the reason for it was soldiers and were prep were

306
00:25:21,784 --> 00:25:25,944
protected if they were drafted you know they would be entitled to their job

307
00:25:25,944 --> 00:25:31,124
when he got back he volunteered so he wasn't entitled to anything i see what

308
00:25:31,124 --> 00:25:33,044
you get I like that rule. I see what you get.

309
00:25:34,384 --> 00:25:38,864
So what did he do in that time? Was he still teaching? Yeah, he started teaching.

310
00:25:39,364 --> 00:25:45,984
And another thing he did was, in fact, there were a lot of veterans in those days.

311
00:25:46,004 --> 00:25:48,904
There were a lot of people in this area that really couldn't even read and write.

312
00:25:49,464 --> 00:25:57,724
Yeah. And he started, he volunteered to teach veterans. and he would teach night

313
00:25:57,724 --> 00:26:02,164
classes over in Shakhtar to teach them how to read, write, that kind of thing.

314
00:26:02,224 --> 00:26:04,424
He did that after the Serbs.

315
00:26:05,544 --> 00:26:09,804
So just so everybody knows now, I am a fourth-generation butcher,

316
00:26:09,964 --> 00:26:12,504
but I also taught classes at

317
00:26:12,504 --> 00:26:16,784
Nichols and Tulane, so I'm also a fourth-generation teacher. Yes, you are.

318
00:26:17,164 --> 00:26:21,924
That's pretty cool. Because, yeah, my great-grandfather was a teacher and principal.

319
00:26:22,064 --> 00:26:25,224
Papa was also a teacher and principal. with my mom, teacher,

320
00:26:25,424 --> 00:26:27,584
and then, yeah. So that's super cool.

321
00:26:29,362 --> 00:26:35,442
What else? What else to say about your dad, Paul? Nothing except he was a great provider.

322
00:26:36,942 --> 00:26:42,122
And I think you are where you are. I am where I am because of him.

323
00:26:42,182 --> 00:26:48,862
Because in that time period, there weren't that many people that thought that the value of education.

324
00:26:49,542 --> 00:26:54,542
I look back at my cousins, let's say, Lester's children.

325
00:26:55,682 --> 00:26:58,842
They didn't have the advantage that i had of seeing the

326
00:26:58,842 --> 00:27:02,102
potential of an education yeah they dropped

327
00:27:02,102 --> 00:27:06,362
out of school went to work and there's no shame in it but it's that was that

328
00:27:06,362 --> 00:27:12,142
was a thinking that was a foresight yeah whereas in my case i don't think i.

329
00:27:12,142 --> 00:27:15,702
Have a question that i was going to be a college graduate and that was unusual

330
00:27:15,702 --> 00:27:20,222
at the time and it was unusual not in then this That's certainly my period,

331
00:27:20,282 --> 00:27:22,582
but for my dad's time,

332
00:27:23,022 --> 00:27:24,142
you worked.

333
00:27:24,822 --> 00:27:30,102
To survive. Not even to be successful. You weren't thinking about anything except

334
00:27:30,102 --> 00:27:33,302
surviving, putting food on the table, because that's what you had to do.

335
00:27:33,422 --> 00:27:36,202
You didn't buy it because you didn't have money. Right.

336
00:27:37,282 --> 00:27:43,762
So that was his thinking, and I guess it was Edmund Derame, the old Derame,

337
00:27:43,862 --> 00:27:47,662
who encouraged him and saw to it that he went to college.

338
00:27:48,622 --> 00:27:53,942
But he did it and I don't know how he did it I still don't know it's remarkable

339
00:27:53,942 --> 00:27:57,942
that he did but at least he gave me the impetus to go and get an education,

340
00:27:58,842 --> 00:28:06,202
hence it provided your mother you realized the value of an education and you went from there.

341
00:28:08,153 --> 00:28:11,213
Okay, now let's talk about you. So where'd you go to high school?

342
00:28:12,293 --> 00:28:17,353
What's that? Where'd you go to high school? I went to Thibodeau High. Okay. Graduated in 57.

343
00:28:18,173 --> 00:28:21,473
And then did you go straight to college from there? Yes.

344
00:28:22,153 --> 00:28:27,753
Yeah, I went to LSU at the time. There was no Nichols yet? There was a Nichols.

345
00:28:28,493 --> 00:28:31,773
At the time, I don't know, as they provided very many four-year degrees.

346
00:28:32,053 --> 00:28:34,833
It was like a junior college kind of thing. Gotcha.

347
00:28:35,953 --> 00:28:41,393
But anyway, yeah, I went to LSU. I went there, and I didn't graduate from LSU.

348
00:28:41,493 --> 00:28:45,053
I transferred back in my senior year to Nichols.

349
00:28:47,453 --> 00:28:52,833
Anyway, that's when your grandmother and I got married that year.

350
00:28:53,073 --> 00:28:57,373
I need to know more about that. So where did you meet her? Her name was Dorothy. Yes.

351
00:28:59,033 --> 00:29:03,113
I'm trying to think when we first met. Was it in high school?

352
00:29:03,273 --> 00:29:09,813
No, it wasn't in high school because I was very little. I was at Thibodeau High School.

353
00:29:09,873 --> 00:29:12,653
She was at Mont Carmel Convent. Oh, I didn't know that.

354
00:29:13,073 --> 00:29:19,313
At the time, that's where the old, the convent is where the old Holiday Inn is right now.

355
00:29:20,633 --> 00:29:25,853
And as a matter of fact, her graduating class had 14 people in it. Nice.

356
00:29:26,353 --> 00:29:30,833
That's when you had a separation of girls and boys. It was an all-girls school,

357
00:29:30,953 --> 00:29:36,133
and you had the boys' school at Thibodeau College, which was off of Highway 1.

358
00:29:36,693 --> 00:29:39,013
It was in a different location. Gotcha.

359
00:29:40,293 --> 00:29:44,773
So, I guess somewhere along the line, we must have mingled and got to know one

360
00:29:44,773 --> 00:29:47,533
another. Can't tell you I know how.

361
00:29:49,093 --> 00:29:53,313
Anyway, we started dating. When you got back from LSU?

362
00:29:53,873 --> 00:29:58,513
Prior to. I was dating her while I was at LSU. Gotcha. So...

363
00:30:00,357 --> 00:30:07,117
Anyway, we... What was dating like in 1958, say? There weren't a lot of... Yeah, what would you do?

364
00:30:07,457 --> 00:30:12,937
There wasn't a lot. Go to drive-in, you know, go and get a burg or something

365
00:30:12,937 --> 00:30:18,257
at the 69, whatever, drive-in or something like that. That's about it. Cool.

366
00:30:18,657 --> 00:30:22,437
Yeah, the women of the world dances, things like that. Nice.

367
00:30:23,337 --> 00:30:26,217
Okay, so y'all got married when?

368
00:30:27,157 --> 00:30:28,817
I guess in 62?

369
00:30:30,357 --> 00:30:36,657
62. So right after you graduated. Yeah. Actually, my senior year of college, we got married. Gotcha.

370
00:30:36,897 --> 00:30:41,737
And your grandmother was teaching. She started teaching at Bayou Blue Elementary

371
00:30:41,737 --> 00:30:45,397
in Lafourche Parish, in Bayou Blue. Yeah.

372
00:30:46,097 --> 00:30:51,397
And she did that until I graduated. And then she still continued to do that

373
00:30:51,397 --> 00:30:53,437
until we started having children.

374
00:30:54,437 --> 00:30:59,797
Awesome. So you had my mom, obviously, was the oldest, Marie.

375
00:31:00,357 --> 00:31:03,977
And then Cain came next, and then Parnco. Yes.

376
00:31:04,497 --> 00:31:10,737
As a matter of fact, another thing my dad did for me, as a matter of fact,

377
00:31:10,877 --> 00:31:14,517
he had bought some property to show you how things have changed.

378
00:31:14,597 --> 00:31:16,217
He bought property off of Highway 1.

379
00:31:17,157 --> 00:31:21,837
It was a big lot, 100 by 200, where his house is existing now.

380
00:31:22,037 --> 00:31:25,297
In addition to that, he had the property across the street called the Batua,

381
00:31:26,417 --> 00:31:31,117
which was on the buyer's side. Right. Well, when Dorothy and I decided we were

382
00:31:31,117 --> 00:31:36,697
going to get married, Daddy offered me the property to build a house on the buy-side. Okay.

383
00:31:37,662 --> 00:31:43,082
And I built a house on that side. And he helped me. And the more he helped me,

384
00:31:43,082 --> 00:31:44,262
he did most of the work, truly.

385
00:31:45,122 --> 00:31:46,702
So I built a house there.

386
00:31:48,242 --> 00:31:52,062
And that's when we moved in and where Marie was born, your mother.

387
00:31:52,222 --> 00:31:55,982
Okay. She was born. That was her first house. I didn't know that.

388
00:31:57,242 --> 00:32:01,062
Well, shoot. Let's talk about this. Because, yeah, you built that house.

389
00:32:01,162 --> 00:32:03,362
That's not something most people do or say. No.

390
00:32:03,842 --> 00:32:07,502
How did you build it? Why did you build it? How did you know how to build it?

391
00:32:08,242 --> 00:32:11,922
I guess it's kind of like you. I'm the rat that knows my way through the maze.

392
00:32:12,062 --> 00:32:14,002
I don't know. It's a genetic thing, you know.

393
00:32:16,162 --> 00:32:23,962
It really is. I did a lot of work, and I did a lot of observing in the way that I was raised.

394
00:32:25,202 --> 00:32:31,362
If something broke, you had to fix it. So it was a common skill set that a lot of people had? No.

395
00:32:31,922 --> 00:32:34,942
I guess I'm an exception in some sense.

396
00:32:36,002 --> 00:32:39,422
Lester, my uncle, the one who was working on the plantation,

397
00:32:39,522 --> 00:32:40,782
was a plantation carpenter.

398
00:32:41,602 --> 00:32:49,822
And so he helped build my mom and dad's house on that property I was telling you about.

399
00:32:50,962 --> 00:32:55,382
And I guess I observed, I worked with them, stuff like that.

400
00:32:55,622 --> 00:32:59,202
And your dad learned at some point too. My dad is similarly,

401
00:32:59,422 --> 00:33:02,042
had really the same skills.

402
00:33:02,182 --> 00:33:04,322
He knew how to do things.

403
00:33:06,182 --> 00:33:11,722
In that time period, I guess you just had to observe and do,

404
00:33:11,882 --> 00:33:14,382
and you had to, as a helper too, you had to work.

405
00:33:15,942 --> 00:33:25,342
You know, it's like your involvement as an adult, you learned as you went, you progressed,

406
00:33:25,662 --> 00:33:30,242
you observed, you asked questions, you learned what to do and you do it.

407
00:33:30,382 --> 00:33:32,342
Shane, same way with you, I'm sure the same thing.

408
00:33:32,542 --> 00:33:39,102
You just, as an adult, you just, You just know what your responsibilities are, and you just do it.

409
00:33:39,562 --> 00:33:43,662
Yeah, but why not just get somebody else to build it? It costs money. We didn't have money.

410
00:33:45,722 --> 00:33:51,102
We had no money, bro. My first job, when I started teaching,

411
00:33:51,422 --> 00:33:58,402
my first salary was $3,200 a year.

412
00:33:59,122 --> 00:34:04,402
I would take home $220 a month. And that's what you had to get by,

413
00:34:04,462 --> 00:34:05,542
and apparently that's not enough.

414
00:34:06,182 --> 00:34:11,402
To build a house. Not enough to do a bunch of anything. And this was after college?

415
00:34:12,042 --> 00:34:18,122
That was after college. What were some of your friends, your peers making that didn't go to college?

416
00:34:18,922 --> 00:34:22,122
Most of them were the oil industry, of course.

417
00:34:23,082 --> 00:34:28,222
I have no idea what they're making except that I'm sure it was a heck of a lot

418
00:34:28,222 --> 00:34:32,742
more than I was making because there were welders and electricians and roughnecks.

419
00:34:32,882 --> 00:34:35,682
They were making money. When did that industry take off?

420
00:34:36,182 --> 00:34:44,262
I would say probably a lot of it at that point in time, and that was a point,

421
00:34:44,282 --> 00:34:51,102
too, when Saudi Arabia and when oil production in that part of the world started to ramp up.

422
00:34:51,242 --> 00:34:55,502
There were a lot of people from this area, really, that went to Saudi Arabia

423
00:34:55,502 --> 00:34:58,642
and started working in the oil fields.

424
00:34:59,182 --> 00:35:06,842
A lot of the people down here, they were just good, hard-working people, tough people.

425
00:35:06,942 --> 00:35:12,302
They knew how to work, and so they worked on the oil rigs, a lot of the guys.

426
00:35:12,402 --> 00:35:17,242
That's when Texaco was big around here, not so much anymore, but they were.

427
00:35:19,226 --> 00:35:25,226
Everybody just went in that area. And it provided a lot of opportunities for

428
00:35:25,226 --> 00:35:28,066
a lot of people to make money, you know.

429
00:35:29,146 --> 00:35:33,706
So besides teaching, what other jobs have you ever had? Oh, man.

430
00:35:36,206 --> 00:35:42,306
I worked. One job I had was for Houston Contractors back at Chag Bay on a pipeline.

431
00:35:43,126 --> 00:35:48,606
Just running a pipeline, that kind of thing. Clearing waterways, that stuff.

432
00:35:49,226 --> 00:35:51,986
I worked for General Motors at

433
00:35:51,986 --> 00:35:55,886
one part of the time on floor planning of automobiles and stuff like that.

434
00:35:56,986 --> 00:35:58,426
Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

435
00:35:59,766 --> 00:36:04,346
What was that transition like? How did you get there? It was whatever.

436
00:36:04,826 --> 00:36:09,286
I never just quit teaching to do that. This was summer jobs.

437
00:36:09,746 --> 00:36:13,946
I also had a job driving a Greyhound bus. That was an interesting job.

438
00:36:15,026 --> 00:36:18,306
I would, Greyhound had a position for teachers.

439
00:36:19,506 --> 00:36:23,566
Greyhound at the time was a pretty big industry for transporting people.

440
00:36:24,186 --> 00:36:29,906
And so they would, every summer they would hire teachers to work on what they called a reserve board.

441
00:36:30,366 --> 00:36:34,066
The reserve board was where you put your name on a list,

442
00:36:34,906 --> 00:36:38,846
and whenever there was an overflow for a route for the New Orleans area,

443
00:36:38,906 --> 00:36:41,306
like if it's from New Orleans to Mobile,

444
00:36:41,486 --> 00:36:45,906
if they needed two bus drivers instead of one, you if your name was at the top

445
00:36:45,906 --> 00:36:49,846
you got that job you ran into mobile if it was to go to jacksonville you ran

446
00:36:49,846 --> 00:36:55,026
to jackson wherever you had to go that's that was your job so i did that one

447
00:36:55,026 --> 00:37:00,186
summer i worked for core lab analyzing core samples.

448
00:37:03,346 --> 00:37:09,386
This is all side hustle shane this is him he needs a few more dollars and he's off for the Right.

449
00:37:09,666 --> 00:37:14,946
And so are you finding these opportunities in a newspaper or through a buddy?

450
00:37:15,246 --> 00:37:16,686
Someone's telling you about this stuff?

451
00:37:18,106 --> 00:37:23,306
Again, I guess it was job hustling. If you heard about a job, you applied for it.

452
00:37:23,846 --> 00:37:28,686
You know, I also, I did the core samples. I did the bus driving.

453
00:37:29,626 --> 00:37:32,566
Do you help design automobile plans? No.

454
00:37:33,706 --> 00:37:39,246
I did work with GM for a while. I did work with E.J. Mitchell.

455
00:37:39,986 --> 00:37:43,706
I left teaching for a short period of time. I worked for E.J. Mitchell Company.

456
00:37:43,786 --> 00:37:47,446
It was a company out in Houston selling the Raveler pump valves and Herberger

457
00:37:47,446 --> 00:37:52,026
compressor valves in the oil industry. So I did that for a while.

458
00:37:53,686 --> 00:37:58,506
That's probably the worst job I ever took, truly, because it kept me away from home. I had a route.

459
00:37:59,626 --> 00:38:03,526
I had a district where we ran all the way from Corpus Christi,

460
00:38:03,626 --> 00:38:09,646
Texas, all the way up to Jackson, Mississippi, three states, Arkansas, Louisiana.

461
00:38:11,809 --> 00:38:17,269
I left that job in a hurry. One day, I'd always call Dorothy to see where she

462
00:38:17,269 --> 00:38:19,469
was or what was going, because since I was away from home.

463
00:38:20,209 --> 00:38:27,529
And when the last time I called her, she said, Cain, my middle son or the middle

464
00:38:27,529 --> 00:38:29,429
child had viral meningitis.

465
00:38:29,589 --> 00:38:33,549
Well, the word meningitis scared the hell out of me. I didn't know what that was, you know.

466
00:38:34,329 --> 00:38:36,389
It didn't sound good. It's not good.

467
00:38:37,469 --> 00:38:42,369
So anyway, as it turns out, it's called viral meningitis, But anyway,

468
00:38:43,549 --> 00:38:48,409
so I got on the phone and I called Mitch, E.J.

469
00:38:48,429 --> 00:38:50,929
Mitchell, the company I was working for in Houston.

470
00:38:51,609 --> 00:38:54,929
I told him I was quitting, I was leaving, I was going to drive the car.

471
00:38:55,029 --> 00:38:57,749
I had a home base in Baton Rouge.

472
00:38:58,209 --> 00:39:01,289
So I told him I was going to leave the car at the office in Baton Rouge,

473
00:39:01,389 --> 00:39:04,349
but I couldn't go anymore. I had to quit. So I left that.

474
00:39:06,009 --> 00:39:11,029
So those are the kinds of jobs. I took some, I would work a lot of summers with,

475
00:39:11,169 --> 00:39:13,969
well, you might know Andosek.

476
00:39:15,089 --> 00:39:19,689
Eric Andosek? Lou Andosek, Eric's daddy. Okay.

477
00:39:20,149 --> 00:39:23,549
He did, he had a contracting company. He would do construction work.

478
00:39:23,649 --> 00:39:25,429
I worked with him doing construction work.

479
00:39:27,029 --> 00:39:30,989
Like residential, like building houses? Yeah. So that's how that got started?

480
00:39:31,129 --> 00:39:34,569
Go ahead. And you had already kind of developed your construction skills at

481
00:39:34,569 --> 00:39:36,949
this point. Yes. So he wanted you. Yeah.

482
00:39:38,109 --> 00:39:43,069
So he was looking for carbon. So I did that. So I did about anything,

483
00:39:43,189 --> 00:39:44,769
anything that would pay money. I did.

484
00:39:45,509 --> 00:39:49,109
Don't matter how much. At this time, were you looking to stick with anything

485
00:39:49,109 --> 00:39:53,329
career wise or were you still in a, in a, in a hustling mindset?

486
00:39:54,269 --> 00:39:57,229
Mostly it was trying to feed a family. I had three kids. We didn't want,

487
00:39:57,329 --> 00:40:01,309
I didn't want Dorothy to work. We wanted her to be home raising the children.

488
00:40:01,769 --> 00:40:07,489
So I had to make enough money, you know, to do that. So I still wanted to teach.

489
00:40:07,569 --> 00:40:09,349
I liked teaching. I still like teaching.

490
00:40:09,469 --> 00:40:11,729
That was a thing for me.

491
00:40:13,376 --> 00:40:16,116
So I would take whatever job I could during the summer months,

492
00:40:16,216 --> 00:40:18,956
you know, to supplement my income.

493
00:40:19,556 --> 00:40:23,296
Then I went and I got a few dollars ahead. I started doing some other things

494
00:40:23,296 --> 00:40:25,656
instead of working and doing stuff for other people.

495
00:40:26,176 --> 00:40:31,616
I started constructing things, building spec houses that we could sell.

496
00:40:32,176 --> 00:40:36,076
So I did that with a partner. Frank Pugh was his name at the time.

497
00:40:36,076 --> 00:40:43,616
And I developed a little trailer park on the north side of near the Prospect

498
00:40:43,616 --> 00:40:44,916
Street Bridge in that area.

499
00:40:45,296 --> 00:40:51,016
So I did things like that and built some apartments over across from Perkle's

500
00:40:51,016 --> 00:40:53,676
over there. Built a couple apartment buildings.

501
00:40:54,696 --> 00:41:00,396
So I started doing things. Is that Gloria Street? Yes, Gloria. Okay.

502
00:41:00,816 --> 00:41:05,436
Yeah, we had two apartments in there. Were you the first to develop in there?

503
00:41:05,436 --> 00:41:07,836
Pretty much. Yeah, way back when.

504
00:41:07,996 --> 00:41:10,856
Is it the two right on the front corner? No.

505
00:41:12,056 --> 00:41:15,756
Those were developed later before they did all of that. It was,

506
00:41:15,816 --> 00:41:20,276
I forgot that, 208, 207, 213, somewhere. And that's the address in that area.

507
00:41:21,336 --> 00:41:28,436
And anyway, it was just, so I started doing that just to make money.

508
00:41:28,896 --> 00:41:32,296
But I still wanted to teach. So I do all that work during the summer.

509
00:41:32,376 --> 00:41:35,276
And I have a protracted time after that, you know.

510
00:41:35,436 --> 00:41:39,536
Yeah, just build a quick fourplex in three months with just you and your buddy. Yeah.

511
00:41:40,636 --> 00:41:45,756
What were the regulations like back then to build something?

512
00:41:46,656 --> 00:41:50,496
I hate to say this in public, but there weren't very many. There were none.

513
00:41:50,736 --> 00:41:53,756
Right. I guess that's what I would assume. It's not too many.

514
00:41:53,756 --> 00:41:54,656
It's a lot easier, right?

515
00:41:55,256 --> 00:42:01,396
As a matter of fact, the houseboat we moved to over in Houma when you and your mama moved in.

516
00:42:01,536 --> 00:42:03,796
Yeah. I drew less plans on a napkin.

517
00:42:05,576 --> 00:42:11,096
And just started, huh? Yeah. Get some wood and just start. Yeah. So that's nice.

518
00:42:11,296 --> 00:42:15,276
My whole childhood, I remember Papa building houses over the summer.

519
00:42:15,376 --> 00:42:18,236
You know, Mom would bring us out there and we'd see him or whatever.

520
00:42:18,556 --> 00:42:20,576
I remember him building the house I grew up in.

521
00:42:22,126 --> 00:42:25,106
Did that provide more financial security for the family?

522
00:42:25,526 --> 00:42:30,026
For you and your family, yes. No, no, no. Specifically doing,

523
00:42:30,186 --> 00:42:33,346
when you started doing it for yourself instead of for other people.

524
00:42:33,466 --> 00:42:39,126
Yeah, it was because, yeah, it did it.

525
00:42:40,226 --> 00:42:47,266
The biggest salary that I ever made while I was working was $50,000 a year as a principal.

526
00:42:47,346 --> 00:42:49,646
Towards the end as a principal. That's toward the end.

527
00:42:50,126 --> 00:42:55,426
I'm a multimillionaire right now. I mean, I'm not boasting about it.

528
00:42:55,566 --> 00:43:00,526
And that's not from teaching. And it ain't from selling corn.

529
00:43:00,966 --> 00:43:03,706
And it ain't from growing corn and putting it in the cornfield.

530
00:43:03,726 --> 00:43:09,366
No, because, you know, you just like the house in Florida, for instance,

531
00:43:09,486 --> 00:43:11,186
we built. Okay, I built that.

532
00:43:11,446 --> 00:43:14,206
Him and Miss Ev built that. Yeah. Just the two of them.

533
00:43:14,646 --> 00:43:19,006
And I bought the property for $80,000. i

534
00:43:19,006 --> 00:43:21,946
built a house for 50 000 this was in

535
00:43:21,946 --> 00:43:24,846
early 2000 when i was we built it

536
00:43:24,846 --> 00:43:33,046
we started building it i guess around 2000 okay we sold it last year for 550

537
00:43:33,046 --> 00:43:39,206
000 so i pocketed 550 000 because i did

538
00:43:39,206 --> 00:43:44,446
it that was my labor that was my involvement in it yeah you know so So,

539
00:43:44,446 --> 00:43:48,586
and all the other houses, all the other things, like the apartments,

540
00:43:48,746 --> 00:43:49,626
we built the apartments.

541
00:43:49,926 --> 00:43:52,626
We held on to those for a period of time.

542
00:43:53,306 --> 00:43:56,366
Then we sold them and pocketed the money. You know, in the interim,

543
00:43:56,446 --> 00:43:57,486
we were collecting the rent.

544
00:43:57,686 --> 00:44:02,906
It cost us nothing because the rent would amortize the loan and would take care of expenses.

545
00:44:03,346 --> 00:44:08,686
And the loan's pennies compared to if you had to pay labor to build it. Yeah.

546
00:44:08,786 --> 00:44:14,926
The only money I ever made or the only way I was able to accrue any money was with my labor.

547
00:44:15,326 --> 00:44:23,306
Yeah. In other words, if you build a house for $50,000 and it's worth $100,000,

548
00:44:23,306 --> 00:44:26,846
then you made $50,000 even if you don't have it in your pocket.

549
00:44:26,926 --> 00:44:28,026
At some point, you got it in money.

550
00:44:28,586 --> 00:44:35,586
Was there anyone teaching you or kind of mentoring you along this journey of investing?

551
00:44:36,486 --> 00:44:40,686
No, not really. Did you learn any of that in college? No.

552
00:44:42,741 --> 00:44:46,921
I always figured my sweat equity would carry me through.

553
00:44:47,401 --> 00:44:51,621
You know, if you work at it, you're going to come out.

554
00:44:52,061 --> 00:44:57,601
You can't pay a lot of labor because labor is going to eat you up on those kinds of projects.

555
00:44:57,881 --> 00:45:00,301
And I didn't have the expertise to hire people.

556
00:45:00,761 --> 00:45:06,501
Like I did on this last project, they wouldn't allow me to do the electrical

557
00:45:06,501 --> 00:45:08,061
and plumbing. When was this?

558
00:45:08,441 --> 00:45:12,121
Just this past year. Once a year. And you wanted to do all of it?

559
00:45:12,741 --> 00:45:13,941
And they wouldn't let you?

560
00:45:15,261 --> 00:45:19,021
Well, they wouldn't let me do the electrical.

561
00:45:20,101 --> 00:45:27,041
I couldn't even put up a temporary service. The guy, I'm in the office line

562
00:45:27,041 --> 00:45:28,901
for an electrical permit. I'm going to do that.

563
00:45:29,481 --> 00:45:33,101
And the guy's sitting on the side of me, and he said, man, he says,

564
00:45:33,141 --> 00:45:36,721
get yourself an electrician. I said, hell, I can put up an electrician.

565
00:45:37,061 --> 00:45:39,321
I can do that. Doing this my whole life.

566
00:45:39,941 --> 00:45:41,821
Longer than most of the electricians. I want you to go eat in your truck,

567
00:45:41,821 --> 00:45:45,401
buddy. Yeah, so I said, okay, I know how to do this. He said, no.

568
00:45:45,761 --> 00:45:49,921
He said, they make you take a test.

569
00:45:50,461 --> 00:45:55,921
St. Tammany does. You've got to take a test, an electrical test. I said, I can pass a test.

570
00:45:57,741 --> 00:45:58,221
Yeah.

571
00:46:00,301 --> 00:46:06,181
So he says, no. He's an electrical engineer at NASA. He couldn't pass a test.

572
00:46:06,501 --> 00:46:10,781
I said, oh, Jesus Christ, man.

573
00:46:13,281 --> 00:46:17,141
So he can't pass the test. So I'm thinking, well, Earl, you don't have a shot.

574
00:46:18,881 --> 00:46:22,661
NASA electrical engineer can't pass it. Yeah. Good luck.

575
00:46:24,242 --> 00:46:28,142
Because, I mean, the NEC code book is about two inches thick.

576
00:46:28,662 --> 00:46:31,722
They don't want to know whether they're not going to give you a test on whether

577
00:46:31,722 --> 00:46:35,682
you know how to pass, hook up wires to put up an electrical service.

578
00:46:36,342 --> 00:46:40,122
They want to know if you can pass this book. Yeah. And meanwhile,

579
00:46:40,202 --> 00:46:41,922
how did that go letting somebody else do it?

580
00:46:42,242 --> 00:46:46,162
So I've paid somebody 600 bucks to do it. And how'd they do?

581
00:46:47,342 --> 00:46:50,042
Did anyone almost die? He hooked the wires backwards. Backwards.

582
00:46:52,422 --> 00:46:54,122
That's the guy that really got me killed.

583
00:46:56,262 --> 00:47:00,782
That's perfect. Hooked the wires up to the meter pan backwards so that when

584
00:47:00,782 --> 00:47:04,442
Pawpaw was trying to put in the fuse, it was extra hot.

585
00:47:04,662 --> 00:47:08,862
The fuses were hot. You never could take the fuses off.

586
00:47:10,782 --> 00:47:15,742
You would have known better. Yeah, I don't know what to do. But they probably

587
00:47:15,742 --> 00:47:17,962
didn't ask that question in the test, right? Yeah.

588
00:47:19,642 --> 00:47:23,842
Man, I bet you could come up with a good test, huh? Yeah. Wow.

589
00:47:26,682 --> 00:47:32,062
So you kind of learned as you went, on your own, as needed. Yeah, that was pretty much it.

590
00:47:32,802 --> 00:47:36,902
Again, like I said, I think genetics has a good part in it. You know,

591
00:47:36,942 --> 00:47:39,302
you learn how to do stuff.

592
00:47:39,922 --> 00:47:44,642
I think Bo is an example of that. He's learned how to do by trial and error.

593
00:47:45,542 --> 00:47:49,742
If he doesn't know what to do, he calls home, hey paul i said oh jesus man what

594
00:47:49,742 --> 00:47:57,142
the hell do you want so now you know hey so shane so 2011-ish i bought a house

595
00:47:57,142 --> 00:48:01,782
on blade court it's got four apartments in the backyard shane currently owns it,

596
00:48:02,562 --> 00:48:05,822
but yeah the the build the house

597
00:48:05,822 --> 00:48:10,342
had been built in the early 50s the apartments were built in the early 60s and

598
00:48:10,342 --> 00:48:17,462
everything was just needed a lot of work so so papa for the next 10 years got

599
00:48:17,462 --> 00:48:22,282
daily phone calls about how to do this how to do that and and shane got the

600
00:48:22,282 --> 00:48:25,642
deal and shane got shane got it all fixed up ready to go.

601
00:48:28,266 --> 00:48:32,046
By the way, are you still doing bed and breakfast? Man. Airbnb,

602
00:48:32,346 --> 00:48:36,126
baby. It's doing well. Doing very well. Super.

603
00:48:37,226 --> 00:48:40,806
Again, that's part of a process of you being an entrepreneur.

604
00:48:41,286 --> 00:48:46,186
You didn't, you had no, you know, you just learn how to do stuff and you know what you need to do.

605
00:48:46,206 --> 00:48:50,086
Yeah. You do it. Bo got a lot of the same calls that you got from Bo. Yeah.

606
00:48:50,866 --> 00:48:55,586
I call Bo, ask him the same questions. sometimes he might he might actually

607
00:48:55,586 --> 00:48:59,906
ask you and then give me the answer and have me think that it was his idea of

608
00:48:59,906 --> 00:49:04,306
course most you know most of the time that's probably true boy slick huh oh yeah.

609
00:49:06,006 --> 00:49:10,026
Uh but it's a lot of trouble for me because a lot of things that i want to

610
00:49:10,446 --> 00:49:13,206
hire someone to do i i know i'm like

611
00:49:13,206 --> 00:49:16,626
man bo would know how to do it yeah and

612
00:49:16,626 --> 00:49:19,386
then i gotta dig into it that makes you yeah i gotta dig

613
00:49:19,386 --> 00:49:22,306
into it and then i'm seven trips to lowe's after there

614
00:49:22,306 --> 00:49:25,646
i finally might call them but again

615
00:49:25,646 --> 00:49:28,646
that that's that's the point i'm making like like we'll learn

616
00:49:28,646 --> 00:49:31,446
that through observing and doing in trial

617
00:49:31,446 --> 00:49:34,246
and error you know i'm a pretty smart guy now

618
00:49:34,246 --> 00:49:37,106
because i did everything twice you know right i

619
00:49:37,106 --> 00:49:39,986
couldn't do it by the first time but i got it right the second time papa always

620
00:49:39,986 --> 00:49:42,726
told me that i've always so many times when we're doing

621
00:49:42,726 --> 00:49:45,446
something i'm like how do you know how to do this he said

622
00:49:45,446 --> 00:49:48,526
because i've done it wrong a bunch of times first yeah

623
00:49:48,526 --> 00:49:51,306
yeah that really is the way yeah the

624
00:49:51,306 --> 00:49:54,166
only way hey speaking of doing stuff wrong

625
00:49:54,166 --> 00:49:58,286
paul did you ever have any accidents while building all these houses especially

626
00:49:58,286 --> 00:50:04,506
like beach houses and stuff where they're maybe way way off the ground oh yeah

627
00:50:04,506 --> 00:50:12,946
tell me about some oh man i can tell you about my Wally Coyote hat.

628
00:50:13,566 --> 00:50:16,366
Yes, please. You ever heard of that much thing? Yes, sir.

629
00:50:17,406 --> 00:50:21,166
Well, I'm putting, I'll put up, I have this place in Florida I'm building,

630
00:50:21,306 --> 00:50:25,126
okay? I'm doing all the work. I'm putting the roofing myself on building.

631
00:50:26,646 --> 00:50:31,886
So it's a corrugated roofing on Dura. It's a non-metal product,

632
00:50:31,946 --> 00:50:35,086
but it's, so you have to be careful with it. You don't want to damage it.

633
00:50:37,086 --> 00:50:43,406
So I'm putting it up. I climb up on the roof. It's like 18 feet off to 18 feet.

634
00:50:43,486 --> 00:50:45,606
The roof is like 18, 20 feet off the ground.

635
00:50:46,266 --> 00:50:49,966
Because the house is on piling. It's on piling. So it's like a two-story building.

636
00:50:50,766 --> 00:50:56,706
So I get up there and I figure, well, it's getting hot. But summertime,

637
00:50:56,906 --> 00:51:00,866
so I figured I'm going to get up early in the morning so that I don't,

638
00:51:00,926 --> 00:51:04,446
it's still cool and I'm not going to damage the roof.

639
00:51:05,406 --> 00:51:09,126
So I tie a rope around my waist and I had it tied at the peak.

640
00:51:09,746 --> 00:51:14,346
So I had something. Just to be extra safe. Be safe, you know. I'm into safety.

641
00:51:15,366 --> 00:51:18,586
So I get up there. I climb up on the roof.

642
00:51:20,046 --> 00:51:23,246
And I knew it was going to be cool. I didn't know it was going to be wet.

643
00:51:23,366 --> 00:51:29,906
You know. You don't die with all that humidity and stuff. Got a lot of humidity in Florida, man.

644
00:51:30,646 --> 00:51:35,666
So I get up on the roof. I'm climbing, and I start to slip, and I got no way

645
00:51:35,666 --> 00:51:38,266
to hold on. I can't catch.

646
00:51:38,626 --> 00:51:42,966
But I got a rope around my waist, and I got it tied. So I slipped to the edge of the roof. Boom.

647
00:51:44,546 --> 00:51:49,546
So I said, man, that's great, you know. So I'm like Wiley Coyote. I look up at the rope.

648
00:51:50,086 --> 00:51:52,386
When I look up at the rope, the rope breaks. It's coming down.

649
00:51:52,386 --> 00:51:54,866
Did you watch it snap? Yeah.

650
00:51:56,246 --> 00:52:00,106
So that was my Wally Coyote act. So anyway, I fall to the ground,

651
00:52:00,246 --> 00:52:02,446
bam. I said, Jesus Christ.

652
00:52:03,546 --> 00:52:08,086
18 feet. Yeah. And how old were you at the time? 60-something.

653
00:52:09,446 --> 00:52:12,786
So anyway, about 20 years ago.

654
00:52:12,866 --> 00:52:17,606
So yeah, I was about 65 or so. Anyway, see this too here?

655
00:52:18,286 --> 00:52:23,886
It's not real. It swings me into the castle, into a scaffold. Bang.

656
00:52:24,666 --> 00:52:28,646
So I knock this one out. So anyway, I fall to the ground.

657
00:52:29,606 --> 00:52:33,846
After that, I look at the rope, you know, and I'm figuring, what kind of rope is this?

658
00:52:33,886 --> 00:52:37,706
It's a 316th Dacron rope. You can pull a car with that.

659
00:52:38,486 --> 00:52:42,206
Working load, 90 pounds. I weigh more than 90 pounds.

660
00:52:44,066 --> 00:52:47,486
So anyway, it broke. The rope didn't hold me. Rope, I guess,

661
00:52:47,486 --> 00:52:48,906
ain't like it used to be. No.

662
00:52:50,246 --> 00:52:53,386
It's misleading. They're serious about that working load, though. Right.

663
00:52:53,566 --> 00:52:58,246
What did you learn that day? What kind of lessons did you learn?

664
00:53:00,288 --> 00:53:03,068
Did it again i went back up same way i

665
00:53:03,068 --> 00:53:06,588
got a bigger rope i know

666
00:53:06,588 --> 00:53:10,528
what the problem is i just needed a bigger rope yeah yeah i'd

667
00:53:10,528 --> 00:53:14,248
have been great if it wouldn't have been for a big rope yeah it's way worse

668
00:53:14,248 --> 00:53:18,928
than he makes it sound though i'm sure slides off of the roof and now he's swinging

669
00:53:18,928 --> 00:53:25,068
from the by himself yeah swinging from the rope that's three quarters of an

670
00:53:25,068 --> 00:53:26,848
hour how How thick, Paul? 3-16.

671
00:53:27,128 --> 00:53:30,428
Yeah, 3-16. So digging into your belly, right?

672
00:53:30,748 --> 00:53:32,368
It's like an extension cord.

673
00:53:33,288 --> 00:53:36,768
He's swinging, smashes his face into the scaffolding.

674
00:53:37,268 --> 00:53:41,428
Knocking the tooth. And then thinks, oh my God, thank God I tied this rope.

675
00:53:41,488 --> 00:53:45,148
That hurt really bad, but I'm going to be okay. Looks up, rope pops.

676
00:53:48,568 --> 00:53:51,888
And out of that, I was flat enough that when I put it around my waist,

677
00:53:52,008 --> 00:53:53,128
I tied it with a slip knot.

678
00:53:56,348 --> 00:54:00,588
That felt good, huh? Yeah, maybe he's lucky it popped. Yeah,

679
00:54:00,608 --> 00:54:03,988
you're right. I couldn't have got me down.

680
00:54:05,488 --> 00:54:09,048
I don't like to see how that goes. Miss Evelyn, climb up on the roof and cut

681
00:54:09,048 --> 00:54:12,888
the rope. Yeah. Jesus Christ. You're going to have to do it.

682
00:54:13,568 --> 00:54:17,048
Oh. Oh, boy. That's a good story. Yeah.

683
00:54:17,688 --> 00:54:21,208
Any others, Paul? It seems like I remember you teaching me a trick when you're

684
00:54:21,208 --> 00:54:23,028
working on roofs to tie some ladders together.

685
00:54:23,948 --> 00:54:25,948
Oh, Lord. I don't know.

686
00:54:29,183 --> 00:54:35,563
Well, we were working on Father-in-law's house on LaGuard Street in Thibodeau,

687
00:54:35,623 --> 00:54:39,263
and as a matter of fact, we corrugated 10. It's hard to get up.

688
00:54:40,123 --> 00:54:43,323
But if you put a ladder, one on each side, and tie the two together,

689
00:54:43,463 --> 00:54:48,363
what you have when one ladder's at the bottom, the other one's at the top.

690
00:54:48,963 --> 00:54:53,423
Well, I'm at the top of the ladder. The guy's at the bottom of the ladder on the bottom one.

691
00:54:54,103 --> 00:54:57,603
He forgets I'm at the top, so he gets off the ladder, so the top ladder slides.

692
00:54:57,943 --> 00:55:05,303
Off so the rule to that shane is be a man on the bottom ladder,

693
00:55:07,603 --> 00:55:14,123
say i learned that lesson you know you learned a lot of stuff by being stupid

694
00:55:14,123 --> 00:55:21,103
right well i wrote this down earlier i wanted to know about maybe your first

695
00:55:21,103 --> 00:55:26,283
time out of state yeah you had mentioned some some trains and buses earlier.

696
00:55:26,703 --> 00:55:31,483
What was your first time out of state? Did that happen as a kid or as an adult?

697
00:55:32,983 --> 00:55:38,943
I guess my first, I first recall, I guess, a vacation trip to Colorado with

698
00:55:38,943 --> 00:55:41,563
my parents, that kind of thing.

699
00:55:41,943 --> 00:55:47,523
As an adult, I guess our first trips out of state would have been probably to Florida.

700
00:55:47,763 --> 00:55:51,063
We enjoy, we always enjoy going to Florida, going to Navarre,

701
00:55:51,103 --> 00:55:55,363
going to Navarre beach. We spent a lot of time on the beaches over there. Nice.

702
00:55:55,843 --> 00:56:01,103
In fact, when we first started going to Navarre beach, they didn't have any

703
00:56:01,103 --> 00:56:03,743
buildings. The condos that they have now, they didn't exist.

704
00:56:03,983 --> 00:56:09,163
The only building they had on the beach at the time was a holiday inn on the beach.

705
00:56:09,643 --> 00:56:13,483
They used to have a near the national seashore. They had a campground and we

706
00:56:13,483 --> 00:56:14,943
did a lot of camping over there. Nice.

707
00:56:15,203 --> 00:56:18,023
It was on the sound side, but you could walk across to the beach.

708
00:56:19,328 --> 00:56:24,068
So, like I said earlier, I grew up doing a lot of camping with my mom and grandpa,

709
00:56:24,228 --> 00:56:29,008
but they did the same thing when my mom was young.

710
00:56:29,448 --> 00:56:32,088
So, tell me about your first camper.

711
00:56:33,068 --> 00:56:37,608
Oh, man. I built one. I knew it. I knew it.

712
00:56:39,308 --> 00:56:43,788
I had one of the first motorhomes around. I bought an old bread truck.

713
00:56:45,928 --> 00:56:50,088
How much you bought it for? Oh. Probably $400 or $500.

714
00:56:51,488 --> 00:56:55,708
But those were some. Did it come with the bread? No.

715
00:56:57,268 --> 00:57:01,748
It was an old bread truck. And I did everything I could.

716
00:57:01,988 --> 00:57:06,668
I had a kitchen. I had a shower. I had a toilet. I had beds. The whole bit.

717
00:57:07,308 --> 00:57:10,528
And we'd go camping in that thing. It was nice.

718
00:57:11,188 --> 00:57:14,228
Y'all ever get turned away? Oh, yeah.

719
00:57:16,688 --> 00:57:19,528
First time we went to this place in some place

720
00:57:19,528 --> 00:57:22,448
it was a wind dig place you know in florida and they thought

721
00:57:22,448 --> 00:57:26,248
at the time i think they're charging about four bucks a night you know that

722
00:57:26,248 --> 00:57:31,328
kind of stuff really expensive so we go in his place and they wouldn't allow

723
00:57:31,328 --> 00:57:36,928
me in so made man i said geez how could y'all tell that you know god turned

724
00:57:36,928 --> 00:57:40,728
me away i bet you were kind of proud of that though Oh, man.

725
00:57:41,908 --> 00:57:46,788
No, no, no. We said campers only, no bread trucks. Yeah. Yeah.

726
00:57:47,568 --> 00:57:49,768
How old was mom when you built that?

727
00:57:51,408 --> 00:57:56,948
Hmm. I don't know. She's probably not even a teenager.

728
00:57:57,668 --> 00:58:02,368
I don't remember for sure. We were living over on Isle of Isle at the time.

729
00:58:03,408 --> 00:58:07,228
Yeah, so maybe like 10 years old, call it, the early 70s? Yeah.

730
00:58:07,328 --> 00:58:10,668
Something like that? Something like that. Where did y'all take that thing?

731
00:58:11,468 --> 00:58:17,268
Most of the time we did it summers, going toward Florida. We spent a lot of

732
00:58:17,268 --> 00:58:18,268
time on the beaches in Florida.

733
00:58:20,201 --> 00:58:24,161
I don't remember going too far north. I think we might have gone up to Missouri

734
00:58:24,161 --> 00:58:26,481
or something like that in those areas.

735
00:58:27,201 --> 00:58:31,381
Most of the time, where the land was flat, you wouldn't go too far,

736
00:58:31,481 --> 00:58:33,981
you know. Had no six-cylinder engine.

737
00:58:35,801 --> 00:58:38,561
Imagine mapping out your trying to get away from all the hills.

738
00:58:38,701 --> 00:58:42,701
Yeah. Two hills. Mostly that's where we went, Florida.

739
00:58:44,121 --> 00:58:47,061
All right. That's so cool. What happened to the bread truck?

740
00:58:47,761 --> 00:58:52,921
My brother-in-law wanted it. gave it to him. Figured he deserved it. Uncle Joe.

741
00:58:53,361 --> 00:58:56,041
Come on. There's a lot of good Uncle Joe stories.

742
00:58:57,141 --> 00:58:59,781
I'm not talking any Uncle Joe stories here.

743
00:59:02,161 --> 00:59:05,501
What did he do with it? He lived in it? He used it? He used it.

744
00:59:09,081 --> 00:59:12,381
And just passed around it.

745
00:59:13,261 --> 00:59:19,641
And toward the end, well, he died. I don't know what happened to it after that. Gotcha.

746
00:59:20,221 --> 00:59:24,401
I can tell you another story about that old, remember that, the one you and

747
00:59:24,401 --> 00:59:27,201
I used to camp in, that little coachman motorhome?

748
00:59:27,661 --> 00:59:31,241
So I remember the camper, there was a camper first that you pulled with the

749
00:59:31,241 --> 00:59:32,421
Suburban. Right, right.

750
00:59:33,241 --> 00:59:37,221
Which that Suburban is its own podcast.

751
00:59:37,921 --> 00:59:44,201
Yeah. But anyway, the coachman, you know the guys who I sold it to.

752
00:59:44,621 --> 00:59:50,241
I sold it to the two sports here, Michael and his brother.

753
00:59:51,141 --> 00:59:55,261
What the heck? Can't think of his name right now. Anyway, they bought it.

754
00:59:56,688 --> 01:00:00,068
They wanted to just patch around or have a place to go when they got,

755
01:00:00,208 --> 01:00:03,968
you know, hang out at the games and stuff like that.

756
01:00:04,088 --> 01:00:06,588
So I told them, sure, you can have it.

757
01:00:07,028 --> 01:00:10,488
So I gave it to them because it was beat to hell.

758
01:00:10,628 --> 01:00:18,028
It started to rot, water leaks. I never took care of it. It was exposed to elements. So I gave it to them.

759
01:00:19,408 --> 01:00:22,468
And I said, okay. Cranked it up. It started, ran fine.

760
01:00:23,328 --> 01:00:26,848
So I told them, yeah, come get it anytime you want. So I gave them the keys,

761
01:00:26,908 --> 01:00:29,348
they got it. They got it all the way to Highway 11.

762
01:00:29,508 --> 01:00:34,308
I live off of Highway 11, about a block or two. I get a phone call from them.

763
01:00:35,108 --> 01:00:38,428
It says, hey, camp is on fire.

764
01:00:41,768 --> 01:00:44,288
And that's your lesson for going to a free camp.

765
01:00:46,488 --> 01:00:51,748
So anyway, they come to find out, I guess, there were a bunch of rat nests or

766
01:00:51,748 --> 01:00:55,828
squirrel nests on top of the manifold of the vehicle. And by the time they got

767
01:00:55,828 --> 01:00:58,068
it to the highway, it heated up enough. Just hot enough.

768
01:00:59,068 --> 01:01:02,888
That's good. So that ended that camping. Did it burn down?

769
01:01:03,528 --> 01:01:08,068
Or just messed it up enough? It messed up the interior. It messed up the cabin

770
01:01:08,068 --> 01:01:11,688
since, you know, the way the configuration of the motor and all that was in there.

771
01:01:12,388 --> 01:01:16,528
So I just told them to haul it back to the house. They did. I still had insurance

772
01:01:16,528 --> 01:01:19,408
on it. So I filed an insurance claim and they gave me $7,000.

773
01:01:20,128 --> 01:01:21,348
Nice. Yeah.

774
01:01:22,648 --> 01:01:28,888
So anyway I made I made $7,000 on that deal it was a good deal actually worked

775
01:01:28,888 --> 01:01:32,628
out real good got any good stories about my mom,

776
01:01:34,848 --> 01:01:41,468
should go out to Lake Verret skiing and stuff like that and pull them on tubes and all.

777
01:01:42,188 --> 01:01:45,108
She was a young girl and I remember her in her little bikinis and all,

778
01:01:45,268 --> 01:01:51,588
you know, and pulling her behind the boat on a rope and we're going and going

779
01:01:51,588 --> 01:01:55,328
to town and all of a sudden somebody else, hey, she's got a flag up.

780
01:01:55,488 --> 01:01:59,108
It was her bikini bottle and she was holding up at the top of her legs because,

781
01:02:00,968 --> 01:02:02,528
her bikinis had fallen off.

782
01:02:05,488 --> 01:02:10,328
What about uh oh so going

783
01:02:10,328 --> 01:02:13,848
back to my grandpa lester and

784
01:02:13,848 --> 01:02:17,048
that bourgeois family i know

785
01:02:17,048 --> 01:02:20,388
you remember him dropping meat off but when when

786
01:02:20,388 --> 01:02:24,248
was the first time you went to the store and where was it was

787
01:02:24,248 --> 01:02:27,148
it where it's at now was it across the street no it's where

788
01:02:27,148 --> 01:02:33,388
it is now okay that would have been that would have been like in the mid 60s

789
01:02:33,388 --> 01:02:39,728
okay way back then yeah so from then so i guess what i'm trying i'm wondering

790
01:02:39,728 --> 01:02:44,608
is when did papa's dad stop delivering meat so,

791
01:02:45,788 --> 01:02:49,568
not not that you know you were a kid but at some point y'all stopped getting

792
01:02:49,568 --> 01:02:55,328
meat from there and then how'd y'all get meat after that as it turns out i recall

793
01:02:55,328 --> 01:02:59,548
daddy doing this again there were a limited refrigeration.

794
01:02:59,548 --> 01:03:03,928
I don't know if you remember, but there was a guy who built a refrigeration place.

795
01:03:04,308 --> 01:03:05,968
The Ice House on St. Patrick.

796
01:03:06,728 --> 01:03:11,228
Yes, over there. And so, Daddy would rent.

797
01:03:13,189 --> 01:03:18,309
Unit to preserve or to put food in. Oh, that's what Miss Kathy and Miss Karen

798
01:03:18,309 --> 01:03:20,989
did, too. Their parents, the A-Bears?

799
01:03:21,209 --> 01:03:23,389
Yeah. Do you know them or remember them?

800
01:03:23,889 --> 01:03:28,589
They had the spot where West Main Pizza was on St. Mary.

801
01:03:29,189 --> 01:03:31,529
You know what I'm talking about? Yeah, that's the one I'm talking about.

802
01:03:31,769 --> 01:03:33,409
It was across the street. It was on the by side.

803
01:03:33,649 --> 01:03:37,829
That was Miss Kathy and Miss Karen, the twins that worked here. That was their parents.

804
01:03:38,469 --> 01:03:43,749
They had a meat market, but I think a big part of their business was renting out cooler They did.

805
01:03:43,929 --> 01:03:49,369
Actually, that's what they did. And so I don't remember the configuration or

806
01:03:49,369 --> 01:03:52,729
anything like that, but I do know that we didn't have the ability to,

807
01:03:52,769 --> 01:03:56,489
daddy still didn't have the ability to preserve food like that.

808
01:03:56,549 --> 01:04:00,689
So we'd buy meat in quantities, you know, like maybe go to an auction and buy

809
01:04:00,689 --> 01:04:07,369
a quarter calf or a quarter side of beef or something and preserve it and put

810
01:04:07,369 --> 01:04:09,589
it in their place. That's how we preserved meat.

811
01:04:09,789 --> 01:04:12,969
This was after World War II when your dad came back? Yes, yeah.

812
01:04:13,689 --> 01:04:16,809
That's really interesting. So cool. That whole business.

813
01:04:17,049 --> 01:04:22,209
Like a mini storage for meat. Yeah, basically, the building is still there.

814
01:04:22,369 --> 01:04:27,849
I don't know what they're... In fact, at one time, I think Dave Leboeuf had

815
01:04:27,849 --> 01:04:31,509
tried to sort of a pizza place in that building. Yeah, it was West Main Pizza.

816
01:04:31,889 --> 01:04:36,269
Yeah. Well, it's not there anymore. He sold it. Right. But that was the building

817
01:04:36,269 --> 01:04:38,969
that all of those coolers and stuff were in.

818
01:04:39,049 --> 01:04:41,729
That was the original building. So how did you access them?

819
01:04:42,249 --> 01:04:45,709
Like they had to be open and you had to go inside and they let you in kind of thing?

820
01:04:46,149 --> 01:04:49,149
Yeah, you had to go in through the interior. There was no exterior.

821
01:04:49,369 --> 01:04:51,069
It wasn't like it was a like a home.

822
01:04:51,789 --> 01:04:55,189
Outside door to a padlock or something? No, you had to go into the building.

823
01:04:55,389 --> 01:04:59,549
Gotcha. And I don't know what the costs were. You know, Daddy did that. I had no idea.

824
01:05:00,689 --> 01:05:03,649
So that's, that pretty much was how people...

825
01:05:05,330 --> 01:05:10,450
Preserved food, or we're able to do the beef, the market like that. Nice.

826
01:05:11,310 --> 01:05:16,770
Oh, Shane. So, don't forget that Papa was your principal. Right.

827
01:05:17,270 --> 01:05:23,910
Schriever School, Schriever Elementary. He was a wimpy kid. I was a small little sack of peas, huh?

828
01:05:25,430 --> 01:05:30,710
He had blonde hair, too. Oh, yeah. Very blonde. Yeah. Cotton top.

829
01:05:30,730 --> 01:05:32,930
Schriever School was kindergarten through third.

830
01:05:33,390 --> 01:05:36,230
No pre-K, right? No. No, I'm pretty kidding. No.

831
01:05:36,790 --> 01:05:41,610
And. I don't think you were there that long, were you? Just three years.

832
01:05:42,070 --> 01:05:44,530
I don't remember you being there that long. K through three.

833
01:05:44,710 --> 01:05:50,830
You were my principal for kindergarten, first, and maybe second.

834
01:05:50,970 --> 01:05:55,410
And then we got someone new, maybe my third grade year. Okay.

835
01:05:55,930 --> 01:05:57,990
Do you remember who took over after you?

836
01:05:59,150 --> 01:06:02,610
A woman, Mrs. Chauvin. Chauvin, yep. Yep.

837
01:06:02,990 --> 01:06:08,850
She, if I remember correctly, she wore combat boots. Yep. I remember that.

838
01:06:09,210 --> 01:06:16,090
How long were you the Prince of Water, Paul? I guess about 10 years. Okay. Yeah.

839
01:06:16,490 --> 01:06:20,470
Good experience, as a matter of fact. That was one of my best teaching experiences

840
01:06:20,470 --> 01:06:22,770
ever. I enjoyed to be with the community.

841
01:06:23,390 --> 01:06:29,990
It was a lot of family-oriented people, just little hard-working people.

842
01:06:30,830 --> 01:06:34,150
This is a good question. When did they get away from paddling kids?

843
01:06:34,690 --> 01:06:39,790
It was way after Papa retired. Yeah. After you left, Shane. Far after.

844
01:06:41,230 --> 01:06:43,870
But seriously, until when? The 2000s?

845
01:06:45,346 --> 01:06:48,526
And when I was in high school, we got paddled. That was 2000s.

846
01:06:48,626 --> 01:06:52,486
2005. Five. I'm trying to think when I left Shreve.

847
01:06:53,286 --> 01:06:57,946
Well, if you were in second grade, that'll help. Yeah. Had to be 93.

848
01:06:59,106 --> 01:07:06,706
I quit. 94. I left. 10? Oh, no. I retired in 97.

849
01:07:07,866 --> 01:07:13,286
That sounds right. Yeah. Yeah. That sounds right. Right. So probably about 2000

850
01:07:13,286 --> 01:07:17,526
or so is when they started the no corporal punishment stuff.

851
01:07:18,026 --> 01:07:23,686
I think the superintendent at the time was Liz Skirtel.

852
01:07:24,466 --> 01:07:30,026
One story I have, I rode the bus. My mom lived right there in Shriver.

853
01:07:30,386 --> 01:07:33,666
And I rode the bus. and there

854
01:07:33,666 --> 01:07:36,646
was one day where the entire bus

855
01:07:36,646 --> 01:07:39,646
got called to the principal's office over the over

856
01:07:39,646 --> 01:07:42,626
the intercom oh man it was it

857
01:07:42,626 --> 01:07:47,946
was if your student rides bus whatever have them report to the principal's office

858
01:07:47,946 --> 01:07:53,886
so and i'd never really i've never been called to the principal's office before

859
01:07:53,886 --> 01:07:58,046
this i was i was a good kid so the whole bus which is i don't know how many

860
01:07:58,046 --> 01:08:01,906
seats on a bus It must've been 30, must've been 30 kids.

861
01:08:03,406 --> 01:08:06,826
So we're all waiting on the side of the principal's office.

862
01:08:06,966 --> 01:08:09,806
There was, I think there was like a little, you know, almost like a bench,

863
01:08:09,946 --> 01:08:11,506
like a church pew style bench.

864
01:08:13,118 --> 01:08:17,158
Waiting there maybe from for quite some time and that might have been on purpose

865
01:08:17,158 --> 01:08:22,658
it might have been just to just to spike some nerves a bit but we all got called

866
01:08:22,658 --> 01:08:23,918
in there we didn't know what it was for

867
01:08:24,298 --> 01:08:28,798
and we get in and we all had to sit down and there was a tv with a you know

868
01:08:28,798 --> 01:08:34,358
vhs player and it must have been it must have been you and it must have been

869
01:08:34,358 --> 01:08:39,538
our bus driver but we were told to sit down Turn the lights off. Keep quiet.

870
01:08:39,638 --> 01:08:42,318
Don't move. And watch what's on the TV.

871
01:08:42,818 --> 01:08:48,978
So they pressed play. And it was the video surveillance of our bus.

872
01:08:49,658 --> 01:08:53,358
And we had to watch what was happening on our bus.

873
01:08:55,018 --> 01:09:00,738
And hey, everything was happening. There was kids, there was throwing things,

874
01:09:00,998 --> 01:09:05,038
there was kids jumping over the seats, running under the seats,

875
01:09:05,078 --> 01:09:08,798
running back and forth, fighting, beating, you know, wrestling,

876
01:09:09,078 --> 01:09:12,278
in fun, but just terrorizing the bus.

877
01:09:12,898 --> 01:09:19,078
And I guess the bus driver had enough and gave you the video and you had to watch it.

878
01:09:19,098 --> 01:09:22,158
But we all had to watch it too. And then we all got paddled.

879
01:09:23,958 --> 01:09:26,938
And we had to lock the entire bus. We had to line up.

880
01:09:27,418 --> 01:09:32,018
And it was a quick, it was a quick one, you know, I don't know what it was, one hits, two hits,

881
01:09:32,098 --> 01:09:36,718
but I remember sitting on the wall and you could hear what was happening in

882
01:09:36,718 --> 01:09:40,918
the room and it got scarier and

883
01:09:40,918 --> 01:09:43,838
scarier as you got closer to the front of the line and you knew it was,

884
01:09:43,838 --> 01:09:47,398
you knew it was your turn to go in. That's why I got tennis elbow, man. Yeah.

885
01:09:48,358 --> 01:09:52,398
And I think you even have a, you had a special, you might've had a special paddle.

886
01:09:52,518 --> 01:09:55,318
Do you remember that? I had one that looked like a bat.

887
01:09:58,278 --> 01:10:05,558
Was I the one? I thought I thought it was something with Holstroth in it I could

888
01:10:05,558 --> 01:10:07,438
be wrong No, I never had that,

889
01:10:09,355 --> 01:10:12,595
Man, what a different time, huh? What a different time.

890
01:10:14,275 --> 01:10:17,575
I never went back in that room, though. I should tell you that.

891
01:10:18,535 --> 01:10:21,135
That's not true of all the people that went to Shreve. Right.

892
01:10:21,435 --> 01:10:23,195
Some of them been in there several times.

893
01:10:23,255 --> 01:10:27,115
But it straightened out a lot of them. Yeah. Worked for me.

894
01:10:27,775 --> 01:10:31,615
I didn't want to be called. I didn't want to do anything that would have me

895
01:10:31,615 --> 01:10:35,135
called to the principal's office. You were a good kid. Yeah. Good mama.

896
01:10:36,015 --> 01:10:39,055
Great mama. Yes. That's a big part of it. Yes.

897
01:10:40,415 --> 01:10:45,755
What's up you have any principal stories or even teaching stories i hear some

898
01:10:45,755 --> 01:10:51,555
one of our aunts taught in new orleans and i've heard some horrific stories

899
01:10:51,555 --> 01:10:56,935
of of what goes on in there and there's you know just lack of discipline and

900
01:10:56,935 --> 01:11:00,275
not really the truth of the matter is,

901
01:11:00,955 --> 01:11:07,295
every school i've been in and i went in some that were pretty tough but i can

902
01:11:07,295 --> 01:11:13,655
my one take being a principal is, I was a teacher and principal for 34 years.

903
01:11:14,115 --> 01:11:16,215
I can't name you five bad kids.

904
01:11:16,935 --> 01:11:21,815
Kids are not bad. Parents don't know how to handle and they don't discipline

905
01:11:21,815 --> 01:11:23,955
kids and they don't teach them the right thing.

906
01:11:24,595 --> 01:11:29,835
If a kid's got good parents, if he's got a good family structure,

907
01:11:30,575 --> 01:11:31,975
he won't do anything wrong.

908
01:11:32,415 --> 01:11:37,675
If he doesn't have that, he'll do anything wrong because he's,

909
01:11:38,535 --> 01:11:44,175
I was, as I was growing up as a kid, I knew I was accountable all the way from

910
01:11:44,175 --> 01:11:48,695
my grandfather, my great-grandfather, my mama, my daddy, my grandma, everybody.

911
01:11:48,955 --> 01:11:53,015
I was accountable to a whole family. I was not accountable.

912
01:11:53,875 --> 01:11:57,875
I was responsible and accountable. Not that I was perfect.

913
01:11:58,015 --> 01:12:01,975
I sure as hell wasn't. But I think that's what's lacking with kids today.

914
01:12:02,315 --> 01:12:05,815
As far as Shreva School, I thought it was a great school. I thought it was a great kids.

915
01:12:06,415 --> 01:12:11,775
I can't say that it was wild, it was not. They were disciplined, they were.

916
01:12:13,820 --> 01:12:18,720
What you expect kids to be doing. So all my experience with all of those kids

917
01:12:18,720 --> 01:12:21,460
have been good experiences, good communities.

918
01:12:21,920 --> 01:12:25,220
Loved every minute of it. I wonder how much it's changed.

919
01:12:25,380 --> 01:12:29,820
I wonder what it'd be like if you went and sit in a principal's office at Drew

920
01:12:29,820 --> 01:12:31,620
School today. I'd probably get fired.

921
01:12:34,520 --> 01:12:40,820
I think the kids' families have changed. You don't have the family structure you used to have.

922
01:12:41,900 --> 01:12:44,660
And that's the key to kids, you know.

923
01:12:45,720 --> 01:12:50,180
You look what's happening in those big cities. 70% of them don't have mom and

924
01:12:50,180 --> 01:12:52,180
daddy and don't know what's going on.

925
01:12:52,240 --> 01:12:55,880
They're roaming the streets at 1, 2, 3 o'clock in the morning.

926
01:12:55,920 --> 01:12:59,180
You see a kid 15 years old shooting somebody at 3 o'clock in the morning.

927
01:12:59,480 --> 01:13:01,400
Why is he out at 3 o'clock in the morning?

928
01:13:02,180 --> 01:13:06,180
When you were 15 years old, you weren't going to be out at 3 o'clock in the morning, I promise you.

929
01:13:07,060 --> 01:13:08,960
So you couldn't even think about going wrong.

930
01:13:09,860 --> 01:13:15,040
That's true. I think that's the real issue with what's the family structure is broken down.

931
01:13:15,200 --> 01:13:18,920
And until that gets straightened out, it's not going to get better.

932
01:13:19,540 --> 01:13:23,600
We're lucky that we live in communities where pretty much we had good family

933
01:13:23,600 --> 01:13:25,640
structures. That helps.

934
01:13:26,420 --> 01:13:30,440
But as far as the kids, kids are not bad. They need direction.

935
01:13:31,500 --> 01:13:35,580
Another thing I've always wondered about, Paul, is these days it's rare for

936
01:13:35,580 --> 01:13:43,020
men to get into teaching. In fact, growing up, I would say most of my teachers

937
01:13:43,020 --> 01:13:46,380
were women, but there were a few men.

938
01:13:46,500 --> 01:13:49,840
Most of them were coaches, though, that were just teaching because.

939
01:13:49,940 --> 01:13:55,500
That's changed dramatically. When I started, I'd say probably better than 50%

940
01:13:55,500 --> 01:13:58,900
of the teachers were men. Yeah. Had a lot of men teaching.

941
01:13:59,500 --> 01:14:05,660
The hierarchy to the principalship and assistant principals were mostly men.

942
01:14:06,480 --> 01:14:12,420
Now, I'd say the majority of them are women, for sure. So that's changed.

943
01:14:13,800 --> 01:14:17,320
As a matter of fact, I got to compliment my daddy, too. He was made principal

944
01:14:17,320 --> 01:14:22,620
of Thibodeau Junior High, and he was instrumental in appointing the first assistant

945
01:14:22,620 --> 01:14:27,100
principal, a woman, as assistant principal of a junior high school.

946
01:14:28,020 --> 01:14:34,340
Jeez. He did that. Her name was Miss Heard Carnegie, the Carnegies, Skipper Carnegies.

947
01:14:34,480 --> 01:14:37,660
I guess Because they ain't great. But anyway, yeah.

948
01:14:39,380 --> 01:14:47,600
It's different. So I don't think that's the reason for the lack of discipline that you have.

949
01:14:47,780 --> 01:14:50,760
Yeah, yeah. I think it's parental breakdown.

950
01:14:51,480 --> 01:14:54,000
That's the cause of the chaos.

951
01:14:55,100 --> 01:14:59,760
What do you do to fix it? Go to church. I think...

952
01:15:01,712 --> 01:15:04,872
Federal government, and I'm going to get into politics here,

953
01:15:04,992 --> 01:15:10,592
but I think the federal government early on started trying to help people.

954
01:15:11,352 --> 01:15:16,372
And when I was growing up, there was no federal government to help me.

955
01:15:16,832 --> 01:15:21,852
The only thing that could help me were my parents, my grandparents.

956
01:15:23,012 --> 01:15:27,152
Now, you don't have that, so what do you have to help you?

957
01:15:27,712 --> 01:15:30,652
The federal government, and there are a lot a social program so

958
01:15:30,652 --> 01:15:33,692
therefore you don't rely on family you're not dependent upon a

959
01:15:33,692 --> 01:15:36,692
network of people to help you you're depending on

960
01:15:36,692 --> 01:15:40,572
the federal government to give you something that i

961
01:15:40,572 --> 01:15:43,312
think is the thing that's done the most to

962
01:15:43,312 --> 01:15:46,172
destroy the family because if you

963
01:15:46,172 --> 01:15:49,072
can depend on uncle sam to give you a check instead of

964
01:15:49,072 --> 01:15:51,972
grandpa growing you some beans that destroys

965
01:15:51,972 --> 01:15:55,112
the family the federal government has destroyed our family

966
01:15:55,112 --> 01:15:58,932
or has helped to destroy the families yeah i

967
01:15:58,932 --> 01:16:02,132
think it's a good example of like good intentions

968
01:16:02,132 --> 01:16:05,072
gone wrong you know yeah i don't think anybody intended for

969
01:16:05,072 --> 01:16:08,132
that to happen right there was like kids need

970
01:16:08,132 --> 01:16:12,032
to eat so therefore let's help them well then it

971
01:16:12,032 --> 01:16:14,852
gets to be well then the whole family needs something to eat so let's

972
01:16:14,852 --> 01:16:17,672
help them but sooner or later then those

973
01:16:17,672 --> 01:16:20,812
people and and there's nothing wrong with

974
01:16:20,812 --> 01:16:24,032
those people except that they then become dependent

975
01:16:24,032 --> 01:16:27,612
on a government instead of a family as

976
01:16:27,612 --> 01:16:32,172
a network of support you need the family without a family you don't have a much

977
01:16:32,172 --> 01:16:35,332
of anything and i'll stress that with you i don't know how many times oh yeah

978
01:16:35,332 --> 01:16:39,312
the biggest thing you got in the whole world is your family without that if

979
01:16:39,312 --> 01:16:44,692
you don't have that you don't have anything that's a fact yeah if you have too

980
01:16:44,692 --> 01:16:46,512
much help you don't need much skill.

981
01:16:47,966 --> 01:16:50,766
True you don't need to learn you don't need

982
01:16:50,766 --> 01:16:53,866
to but then you learn not

983
01:16:53,866 --> 01:16:57,006
to be like i don't like

984
01:16:57,006 --> 01:17:00,066
the federal government gives me something i don't have to contribute anything

985
01:17:00,066 --> 01:17:07,446
to it when i was growing up when at that point in time we needed food i depended

986
01:17:07,446 --> 01:17:12,986
on my grandpa to provide me with food but i had to contribute to that i had

987
01:17:12,986 --> 01:17:16,026
to peel some beans i had to peel some peas i had I had to put up cans.

988
01:17:16,226 --> 01:17:20,386
I had to plow. I had to cut the weeds, you know, stuff like that.

989
01:17:20,486 --> 01:17:24,186
So you had to be a contributor to it. Now you don't have to be a contributor.

990
01:17:25,226 --> 01:17:29,086
Don't even have to pay taxes because you'll get, you know, you'll get money back.

991
01:17:29,286 --> 01:17:33,966
So it's the federal government has, with all the best of intentions, created a problem.

992
01:17:34,726 --> 01:17:36,446
Yep. Okay.

993
01:17:37,466 --> 01:17:42,046
So in case y'all couldn't tell from this podcast, One thing that I hope you

994
01:17:42,046 --> 01:17:47,146
all did get to understand is that my grandpa is a truly a jack of all trades.

995
01:17:47,606 --> 01:17:53,246
And I think that that's become lost in later generations as society pushes us to specialize.

996
01:17:54,406 --> 01:17:58,826
So like the way to the way to succeed now or the key to success is becoming

997
01:17:58,826 --> 01:18:01,046
like really good at one thing.

998
01:18:01,306 --> 01:18:06,826
But Papa is like a rare combination of being really intelligent and really hardworking. working.

999
01:18:07,706 --> 01:18:11,766
And as you've heard, he can, you know, run a school from an administrative standpoint,

1000
01:18:12,306 --> 01:18:14,606
but he can also teach any of the classes.

1001
01:18:14,806 --> 01:18:20,066
He can fix anything that breaks in the school, or he could rebuild it from the ground up by himself.

1002
01:18:20,466 --> 01:18:23,646
The design, the carpentry work, the plumbing, electricity, all of it.

1003
01:18:23,906 --> 01:18:27,106
And it turns out he could also drive all the buses if he needed to.

1004
01:18:28,546 --> 01:18:33,626
But growing up with you, even into adulthood, you've passed on like not just

1005
01:18:33,626 --> 01:18:34,586
these individual skills,

1006
01:18:34,806 --> 01:18:39,386
which are useful and important, but more importantly, the mindset that I can

1007
01:18:39,386 --> 01:18:44,486
do anything that I set my mind to, whether that be build a shed in my backyard,

1008
01:18:45,126 --> 01:18:48,026
remodel apartments, or run a successful business.

1009
01:18:48,746 --> 01:18:53,086
So I have three questions to finish up this podcast.

1010
01:18:54,226 --> 01:18:57,486
The first one is what advice do you have for me going forward?

1011
01:18:58,386 --> 01:19:04,226
I'll give you something. Not a teacher teacher, but somebody told me,

1012
01:19:05,126 --> 01:19:07,326
every problem in the world has a solution.

1013
01:19:08,046 --> 01:19:11,286
Every problem. Not just a math problem. Any problem.

1014
01:19:12,226 --> 01:19:14,586
And if you can't solve it, it's because you're too stupid.

1015
01:19:16,626 --> 01:19:20,746
God, boy, way to just put the pressure on, huh? I like it, though.

1016
01:19:21,466 --> 01:19:25,786
No, every problem has a solution. If you can't figure it out,

1017
01:19:25,846 --> 01:19:28,886
work hard enough so you get it. Till you finally solve the problem.

1018
01:19:29,646 --> 01:19:33,466
If not, then you're too stupid. I like it. All right.

1019
01:19:33,966 --> 01:19:39,626
All right. So my kids are still really young, but if you can imagine 20 years

1020
01:19:39,626 --> 01:19:42,386
from now, what advice do you, would you have for them?

1021
01:19:45,212 --> 01:19:49,032
I think they need to be family-oriented, as I think they are.

1022
01:19:49,572 --> 01:19:52,252
The most important thing in the world for them are their brothers,

1023
01:19:52,332 --> 01:19:55,892
their sisters, their mamas, their daddies, their grandpas. Those are the most important things.

1024
01:19:56,352 --> 01:19:59,992
Because this world is changing and it's evolving in such a way that with AI,

1025
01:20:00,232 --> 01:20:04,672
we don't know where things are going to eventually evolve.

1026
01:20:06,312 --> 01:20:11,632
They need to be flexible. They need to be hardworking. They need to have a sense

1027
01:20:11,632 --> 01:20:15,032
of responsibility to family, period. Awesome.

1028
01:20:16,072 --> 01:20:18,732
And more generally what do you

1029
01:20:18,732 --> 01:20:21,492
think is important to pass down like what you

1030
01:20:21,492 --> 01:20:24,352
answered that question yeah what's important to

1031
01:20:24,352 --> 01:20:27,072
pass down the later generations is that yeah because

1032
01:20:27,072 --> 01:20:33,292
you can't at this point in time in my time it was easier to predict outcomes

1033
01:20:33,292 --> 01:20:37,972
or to pick what predict what's going to happen i grew up in a time when you

1034
01:20:37,972 --> 01:20:41,272
didn't even have jet engines you didn't we didn't have cell phones we didn't

1035
01:20:41,272 --> 01:20:45,152
have television we didn't have electricity we didn't have water we We didn't have gas.

1036
01:20:45,252 --> 01:20:48,112
We didn't have any of those things. Now they've got all of that.

1037
01:20:48,592 --> 01:20:56,792
It's a taken for granted thing. But then they've got to be flexible in not knowing

1038
01:20:56,792 --> 01:20:59,392
the outcome even because, again,

1039
01:20:59,572 --> 01:21:03,452
with this, things are going to evolve right now at such a rapid rate.

1040
01:21:04,372 --> 01:21:11,032
I don't think you can make predictions about the future, about what in terms of a career.

1041
01:21:11,872 --> 01:21:13,372
Things are going to change.

1042
01:21:14,372 --> 01:21:18,132
Yeah, what if you go into business, into the cooler rental business, you know?

1043
01:21:18,192 --> 01:21:20,812
Yeah. Invest all your money into that, and the next thing you know,

1044
01:21:20,812 --> 01:21:22,432
everybody's got one in their house. Yeah.

1045
01:21:23,552 --> 01:21:31,672
But we, like right now, you got more computer power in my cell phone than NASA

1046
01:21:31,672 --> 01:21:34,772
had when it sent out the first spaceship. Yeah. You know?

1047
01:21:35,372 --> 01:21:40,072
You don't know how things are going to evolve with this AI. I'm telling you

1048
01:21:40,072 --> 01:21:43,752
right now that I believe that things are going to evolve at such a rapid rate

1049
01:21:43,752 --> 01:21:46,392
in medicine, especially medicine, I would think.

1050
01:21:46,732 --> 01:21:48,752
With all the money that's going to be poured into research.

1051
01:21:50,721 --> 01:21:55,121
In terms of progress that they're going to make with the human experiences,

1052
01:21:55,361 --> 01:21:56,381
it's going to be tremendous.

1053
01:21:56,641 --> 01:21:59,881
You're lucky to be living at this point. I wish I could live another 20 years

1054
01:21:59,881 --> 01:22:00,901
to see where we're going to be.

1055
01:22:01,441 --> 01:22:05,741
You know, but I'm not. You never know how old my mom is.

1056
01:22:06,621 --> 01:22:10,001
I'm in the last decade of my life. I mean, you know, that's a fact.

1057
01:22:11,241 --> 01:22:15,141
And that's okay. I don't have a problem with that. But it'd be interesting to

1058
01:22:15,141 --> 01:22:19,721
see, like your kids, you know, the world they're going to be exposed to It's

1059
01:22:19,721 --> 01:22:22,141
not the world that you're going to see right now, I promise you.

1060
01:22:22,561 --> 01:22:25,021
You already see it happening like day by day. Yeah.

1061
01:22:25,521 --> 01:22:29,761
And it's going to happen with this AI and the money that's being poured into

1062
01:22:29,761 --> 01:22:31,241
it, especially in medicine.

1063
01:22:31,921 --> 01:22:35,281
Man, things are going to change at such a rapid rate that you're not going to believe it.

1064
01:22:36,261 --> 01:22:39,761
Disease, I think people are going to live a heck of a lot longer in that sense

1065
01:22:39,761 --> 01:22:44,741
because the genetic component of diseases is going to be eliminated, I promise you.

1066
01:22:44,741 --> 01:22:51,841
You know, to where people are going to live for a lot longer period of time.

1067
01:22:52,781 --> 01:22:56,541
Hopefully that comes sooner than later then. Yeah, it does. It does.

1068
01:22:57,541 --> 01:22:58,561
What else you got, Shane?

1069
01:22:59,881 --> 01:23:03,301
How do we get everyone in the world to listen to this?

1070
01:23:04,061 --> 01:23:07,841
They need to hear it, man. There's some things in here that everyone needs to hear.

1071
01:23:08,381 --> 01:23:14,741
And to know that we are, you know, You know, Papa's old, but he's not that old. He's almost 85.

1072
01:23:15,341 --> 01:23:20,261
And just the amount of things that he has seen and experienced is unbelievable.

1073
01:23:20,721 --> 01:23:27,581
You know, if you go back 85 years ago, this world doesn't even look remotely the same.

1074
01:23:28,461 --> 01:23:32,301
No, you don't. Like I said, we didn't even have television.

1075
01:23:33,741 --> 01:23:37,641
Electricity. What would you have plugged it into? The problem with electricity,

1076
01:23:37,741 --> 01:23:41,521
it was abundant and it was there. The problem is with World War II,

1077
01:23:41,681 --> 01:23:45,581
every house that has electricity needs a step-down transformer.

1078
01:23:46,161 --> 01:23:49,481
They were building tanks. They couldn't build transformers. So you didn't have

1079
01:23:49,481 --> 01:23:51,201
the infrastructure to support all of that.

1080
01:23:51,581 --> 01:23:55,501
Yeah. You know? When did y'all get electricity? Shortly after World War II?

1081
01:23:55,901 --> 01:23:59,441
After World War II, Dad was the first electrician I knew. He came down there

1082
01:23:59,441 --> 01:24:01,501
and he ran one wire right down the middle of the house.

1083
01:24:02,361 --> 01:24:07,621
And he pulled the pull chain light. I bet that was cool. Was it insulated wire?

1084
01:24:08,561 --> 01:24:12,961
Yeah, it was insulated. Okay. Yeah, it was insulated wire. Then Grandpa got

1085
01:24:12,961 --> 01:24:15,921
all excited because he had an electric bill.

1086
01:24:16,481 --> 01:24:20,221
That was $3 a month. Hey, that's a lot for just a light.

1087
01:24:21,221 --> 01:24:24,461
It's not you running the AC. No, no, no. That was the first electric appliance

1088
01:24:24,461 --> 01:24:26,281
we had was an electric toaster.

1089
01:24:26,901 --> 01:24:31,081
You put the toaster in, and then it heats it up, and you had to be careful.

1090
01:24:31,161 --> 01:24:32,741
You burn the bread, and you burn the house.

1091
01:24:33,581 --> 01:24:35,741
Do you remember that light coming on for the first time?

1092
01:24:37,210 --> 01:24:40,170
Really that he had seen lights in in other buildings

1093
01:24:40,170 --> 01:24:43,050
but he just didn't have it at a house but in your house man

1094
01:24:43,050 --> 01:24:46,070
it's like that's something yeah but that

1095
01:24:46,070 --> 01:24:48,950
wasn't that wasn't a big thing for me no i don't remember

1096
01:24:48,950 --> 01:24:54,830
that all i know is we had it geez did everybody complain all summer long that

1097
01:24:54,830 --> 01:25:03,490
they were hot oh we uh we sat we had we sat on the porch mostly you know just

1098
01:25:03,490 --> 01:25:08,790
because i hear I hear a lot of I'm hots at my house, and it's not hot.

1099
01:25:09,810 --> 01:25:12,730
You need a porch. Yeah.

1100
01:25:15,130 --> 01:25:19,190
This is awesome. Thanks so much for coming on. Yeah, thanks so much,

1101
01:25:19,190 --> 01:25:22,110
Paul. Thanks for having me. You sound very sharp.

1102
01:25:22,890 --> 01:25:26,170
Getting dull about it today, Shane. I can't tell. I can't tell.

1103
01:25:27,810 --> 01:25:31,230
This is awesome. Really, really cool. Appreciate the time with you guys.

1104
01:25:31,730 --> 01:25:35,290
Yeah, so much fun, Paul. Love talking to you. Thank you. Okay, thank you. That's it.

1105
01:25:36,030 --> 01:25:41,210
So these days, Papa is getting a little older. He's actually battling cancer right now.

1106
01:27:16,080 --> 01:27:32,547
Music.