1 00:00:02,960 --> 00:00:05,560 Speaker 1: It's now time for Cannabis Talk one oh one with 2 00:00:05,680 --> 00:00:09,240 Speaker 1: Blue Joe Grande and Mark and Craig Wasserman, the Pot 3 00:00:09,320 --> 00:00:12,320 Speaker 1: Brothers at Law. We're the world's number one podcast for 4 00:00:12,440 --> 00:00:15,480 Speaker 1: everything cannabis. Hey, it's Cannabis Talk one oh one with 5 00:00:15,520 --> 00:00:18,240 Speaker 1: Blue Joe Grande and Market Craig Washerman, the Pop Brothers 6 00:00:18,239 --> 00:00:20,120 Speaker 1: at Law. I hope you're having a great day. Another 7 00:00:20,160 --> 00:00:23,119 Speaker 1: special edition you guys. Mark and I actually got a 8 00:00:23,200 --> 00:00:27,240 Speaker 1: chance to interview his dad, Benny Washerman. That's right, Market, 9 00:00:27,240 --> 00:00:32,760 Speaker 1: Craig Washerman's father. Seen your Benny Washerman. Now, we did 10 00:00:32,760 --> 00:00:35,560 Speaker 1: this as we're recording the Grande a Wash podcast, just 11 00:00:35,680 --> 00:00:38,360 Speaker 1: having some fun a while back. But we decided to 12 00:00:38,400 --> 00:00:40,960 Speaker 1: air this so that you guys can get a chance 13 00:00:41,040 --> 00:00:43,279 Speaker 1: to know us a little better and see what our 14 00:00:43,360 --> 00:00:46,480 Speaker 1: dynamic is all about. So here's a little special edition 15 00:00:46,920 --> 00:00:49,839 Speaker 1: of Cannabis Talk one oh one with Benny Washerman, the 16 00:00:49,960 --> 00:00:53,360 Speaker 1: father of Mark and Craig Washerman, the Pop Brothers at Law. 17 00:00:54,200 --> 00:00:56,720 Speaker 1: Welcome to the Grande a Wash Show. I'm Joe Grande, 18 00:00:56,880 --> 00:00:59,480 Speaker 1: of course with me the infamous little brother of the 19 00:00:59,520 --> 00:01:02,720 Speaker 1: Pop brother is a law. Mr Mark Wasserman. Jill, I'm 20 00:01:02,760 --> 00:01:05,720 Speaker 1: doing fantastic. It feels like it's been a while since 21 00:01:05,720 --> 00:01:08,080 Speaker 1: we recorded our show. It has It's been too long. 22 00:01:08,440 --> 00:01:10,880 Speaker 1: You've been putting me off. I don't know what's the deal. Well, 23 00:01:10,920 --> 00:01:13,320 Speaker 1: I don't know, because now I feel worried and threatened 24 00:01:13,360 --> 00:01:15,759 Speaker 1: because now I get you know, your dad is here 25 00:01:15,760 --> 00:01:19,480 Speaker 1: in the studio with this welcome Mr Benny Wasserman. I 26 00:01:19,520 --> 00:01:21,399 Speaker 1: don't know if he brought you here to threaten me 27 00:01:21,520 --> 00:01:23,399 Speaker 1: or you guys are just you know, I got two 28 00:01:23,480 --> 00:01:25,440 Speaker 1: Jews now and then I got the pops here. I 29 00:01:25,560 --> 00:01:28,280 Speaker 1: just figured you'd have a good time meeting my well 30 00:01:28,319 --> 00:01:30,759 Speaker 1: you've met him, but talking to my dad, I actually 31 00:01:30,800 --> 00:01:33,080 Speaker 1: look forward to this. It's funny, Benny. I didn't realize 32 00:01:33,120 --> 00:01:36,080 Speaker 1: you were a tired aerospace engineer. You worked actually at 33 00:01:36,120 --> 00:01:39,080 Speaker 1: the Apollo mission, and you're in the same department as 34 00:01:39,160 --> 00:01:41,759 Speaker 1: Falcon and the Snowman, which is interesting and I want 35 00:01:41,760 --> 00:01:44,000 Speaker 1: to hear more about that. Also, the thing I love, 36 00:01:44,360 --> 00:01:46,400 Speaker 1: which I didn't realize you were when I looked at you. 37 00:01:46,560 --> 00:01:49,440 Speaker 1: You're in Einstein look alike, an author of three books 38 00:01:49,560 --> 00:01:51,880 Speaker 1: and a father of course of the pop brothers at law, 39 00:01:52,160 --> 00:01:54,000 Speaker 1: and a doctor. What you we're gonna talk about all 40 00:01:54,080 --> 00:01:56,640 Speaker 1: that and even talk about these books as you signed 41 00:01:56,680 --> 00:01:59,320 Speaker 1: one for my daughter Rayley and my son Trey. So 42 00:01:59,360 --> 00:02:01,120 Speaker 1: I can't wait get into all that. But thank you 43 00:02:01,200 --> 00:02:04,480 Speaker 1: so much for coming to the Grande Studios. You're quite welcome, 44 00:02:04,960 --> 00:02:07,800 Speaker 1: And let's get first off, let's start with before kids, 45 00:02:07,800 --> 00:02:09,360 Speaker 1: and I'm sure you probably did that when you were 46 00:02:09,360 --> 00:02:14,080 Speaker 1: with kids, but retired aerospace engineer working on the Apollo mission, 47 00:02:14,400 --> 00:02:17,959 Speaker 1: and it's just funny how we just had the you know, experience, 48 00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:21,560 Speaker 1: not experience, but the anniversary not too long ago. That's 49 00:02:21,560 --> 00:02:27,080 Speaker 1: absolutely correct. Did that anniversary have any emotional fil for you? Uh? 50 00:02:27,280 --> 00:02:31,320 Speaker 1: Funny part is answers no, It should have been yes, 51 00:02:32,440 --> 00:02:36,919 Speaker 1: But that's only because my attitude when I was working 52 00:02:37,280 --> 00:02:40,560 Speaker 1: in those kind of programs that I really didn't care 53 00:02:40,560 --> 00:02:43,720 Speaker 1: about aerospace. Really, it was a job. It was just 54 00:02:43,760 --> 00:02:47,000 Speaker 1: a job, just a paycheck. And I'm so sad about 55 00:02:47,040 --> 00:02:48,640 Speaker 1: that because every time I worked on one of the 56 00:02:48,720 --> 00:02:51,639 Speaker 1: little black boxes, I never asked the question what does 57 00:02:51,639 --> 00:02:54,040 Speaker 1: it go into? And what does that go into? So 58 00:02:54,160 --> 00:02:56,840 Speaker 1: you're just an engineer programming and doing what you're supposed 59 00:02:56,840 --> 00:02:59,800 Speaker 1: to do. I actually started as a technician and before 60 00:02:59,800 --> 00:03:08,160 Speaker 1: I ever became an engineer. By trade, yeah and all that, um, 61 00:03:08,200 --> 00:03:12,840 Speaker 1: but yeah, it's not fascinating. How did you get the 62 00:03:12,880 --> 00:03:17,480 Speaker 1: job there? Oh my god? Because not too many people 63 00:03:17,600 --> 00:03:19,680 Speaker 1: get to, you know, work as an engineer in narrow 64 00:03:19,760 --> 00:03:22,240 Speaker 1: space and let alone get to work on the Apollo. 65 00:03:22,360 --> 00:03:23,920 Speaker 1: So how did you even get your foot in the 66 00:03:23,960 --> 00:03:25,800 Speaker 1: door where you're an intern? Did you start off picking 67 00:03:25,840 --> 00:03:28,440 Speaker 1: up garbage like myself and radio? I literally started off 68 00:03:28,440 --> 00:03:31,000 Speaker 1: in promotions passing out stickers. So how do you get 69 00:03:31,000 --> 00:03:33,120 Speaker 1: such a good gig at such a How old were 70 00:03:33,120 --> 00:03:35,840 Speaker 1: you when you even started? Oh my god, this takes 71 00:03:35,880 --> 00:03:38,360 Speaker 1: me back all the way to the beginning and uh yeah, 72 00:03:38,400 --> 00:03:43,320 Speaker 1: well here we go and some time to remember some 73 00:03:43,320 --> 00:03:44,800 Speaker 1: of these answers. Is that what you're saying, I could 74 00:03:44,840 --> 00:03:48,720 Speaker 1: help out a little? I could a little. You may 75 00:03:48,760 --> 00:03:50,840 Speaker 1: have to sharpen the tools for him, just saying I 76 00:03:50,960 --> 00:03:55,080 Speaker 1: remember I've gone over there so many times that a 77 00:03:55,120 --> 00:03:58,880 Speaker 1: short story becomes a very long story. Well, hey we're here, Hey, 78 00:03:58,960 --> 00:04:00,480 Speaker 1: we're here. I'm talking to I'm looking at you. I 79 00:04:00,520 --> 00:04:02,320 Speaker 1: want to hear you know it. So the question is 80 00:04:02,320 --> 00:04:06,560 Speaker 1: how did I get into aerospace? And I'll just start 81 00:04:06,600 --> 00:04:09,560 Speaker 1: with going to a trade school in l A, coming 82 00:04:09,600 --> 00:04:14,040 Speaker 1: from Detroit, Michigan, the D, the Big D. Yeah, but 83 00:04:14,080 --> 00:04:17,039 Speaker 1: talk about what happened just before you left, something about 84 00:04:17,279 --> 00:04:21,320 Speaker 1: grand theft or you left Detroit because you're a derelic. 85 00:04:21,920 --> 00:04:24,920 Speaker 1: Is that what I'm smelling? No, No, there were allegations. 86 00:04:24,920 --> 00:04:28,560 Speaker 1: There was never a conviction or anything like that or something. Okay, 87 00:04:28,760 --> 00:04:30,800 Speaker 1: if you want me to go there, I'll go there. 88 00:04:31,040 --> 00:04:33,240 Speaker 1: Let's open up, man, this is therapy right here, Grande 89 00:04:33,360 --> 00:04:35,960 Speaker 1: wash Show. It's more about opening up and letting loose. 90 00:04:36,440 --> 00:04:38,359 Speaker 1: And we're in here. Unlike your sound, I'm not going 91 00:04:38,400 --> 00:04:40,440 Speaker 1: to kick you out of this therapy session. So you're 92 00:04:40,440 --> 00:04:45,320 Speaker 1: gonna be okay here, it's funny. Okay. So I hated school, 93 00:04:45,400 --> 00:04:48,680 Speaker 1: I hated reading. And he had a friend in the neighborhood. 94 00:04:48,720 --> 00:04:51,679 Speaker 1: In the hood. In the neighborhood. Um, I won't mention 95 00:04:51,800 --> 00:04:53,679 Speaker 1: his name. Although he died at the age of thirty 96 00:04:53,680 --> 00:04:56,240 Speaker 1: of a heart attack. He was two years older than me, 97 00:04:56,279 --> 00:04:59,400 Speaker 1: and he was looking out for me. I kind of 98 00:04:59,440 --> 00:05:04,279 Speaker 1: lived in a neighborhood, and so I did whatever he 99 00:05:04,360 --> 00:05:06,400 Speaker 1: told me to do. And so in high school he 100 00:05:06,640 --> 00:05:11,320 Speaker 1: um I got me my first job, well, my first job, 101 00:05:11,360 --> 00:05:13,000 Speaker 1: I was working at a bakery for my dad. And 102 00:05:13,040 --> 00:05:15,520 Speaker 1: from there I decided I didn't want to do that, 103 00:05:15,760 --> 00:05:19,719 Speaker 1: and uh, my friend Chucky that's that's his first name, 104 00:05:20,440 --> 00:05:23,400 Speaker 1: asked me if I wanted to drive a truck. I 105 00:05:23,520 --> 00:05:26,280 Speaker 1: just learned how to drive, and so he became He 106 00:05:26,320 --> 00:05:29,080 Speaker 1: was the truck driver for a small company delivering tobacco 107 00:05:29,200 --> 00:05:33,919 Speaker 1: and candy, and he became a salesman and I became 108 00:05:33,960 --> 00:05:37,719 Speaker 1: the truck driver. And he said, I want you to 109 00:05:38,120 --> 00:05:40,159 Speaker 1: when you load the truck up with the list of 110 00:05:40,760 --> 00:05:45,560 Speaker 1: tobacco and candy cases of all of these things, add 111 00:05:45,600 --> 00:05:48,640 Speaker 1: another case or two on the truck, even though it's 112 00:05:48,680 --> 00:05:52,160 Speaker 1: not on the list prepared by the boss. And then 113 00:05:52,160 --> 00:05:53,839 Speaker 1: he would go on to explain to me that we're 114 00:05:53,880 --> 00:05:59,559 Speaker 1: going to sell those cases of cigarettes as you should 115 00:05:59,640 --> 00:06:01,960 Speaker 1: to read tailors that he was going to that he 116 00:06:02,000 --> 00:06:05,520 Speaker 1: made a deal with that he could get them to 117 00:06:05,920 --> 00:06:10,040 Speaker 1: buy the case of cigarettes for half price half and 118 00:06:10,040 --> 00:06:14,440 Speaker 1: then we would split the other half. Okay, And I said, 119 00:06:15,320 --> 00:06:18,920 Speaker 1: what if we get caught? So you're already pretty smart 120 00:06:18,960 --> 00:06:22,320 Speaker 1: then back then I wasn't. That's a good question. By 121 00:06:22,320 --> 00:06:24,920 Speaker 1: the way, Hey, I got an idea. What did we 122 00:06:24,960 --> 00:06:26,640 Speaker 1: get cart doing this? Though? You know, what if we 123 00:06:26,680 --> 00:06:31,279 Speaker 1: get caught? So he what he goes on to tell me, Well, 124 00:06:31,320 --> 00:06:33,440 Speaker 1: he takes me in the back room one day when 125 00:06:33,480 --> 00:06:38,640 Speaker 1: the back doors are opening up at twilight time and 126 00:06:38,880 --> 00:06:42,039 Speaker 1: cars are lined up with their with their trunks open, 127 00:06:43,080 --> 00:06:46,279 Speaker 1: and what's in the trunks half cases of cigarettes that 128 00:06:46,360 --> 00:06:49,680 Speaker 1: were stolen from somewhere else and they were being sold 129 00:06:49,720 --> 00:06:53,839 Speaker 1: to my boss. So my bosses. So my buddy Chucky 130 00:06:53,960 --> 00:06:58,960 Speaker 1: tells me they can't they gonna figure it out. How 131 00:06:58,960 --> 00:07:02,919 Speaker 1: are they going to explain to anybody don't have inventory 132 00:07:02,960 --> 00:07:06,000 Speaker 1: on this stuff. If they don't have inventory, that there's 133 00:07:06,000 --> 00:07:08,479 Speaker 1: no accounting. So when if we take a couple of 134 00:07:08,520 --> 00:07:12,040 Speaker 1: cases here and there, nobody's gonna ever know. Okay, So 135 00:07:12,080 --> 00:07:16,680 Speaker 1: we did that for six months, and uh made a 136 00:07:16,680 --> 00:07:18,960 Speaker 1: few bucks and made a few bucks enough for me 137 00:07:19,000 --> 00:07:21,720 Speaker 1: to buy a car. Oh that's nice. Eighteen years old, 138 00:07:21,760 --> 00:07:27,280 Speaker 1: and back then a car costs about seven hundred bucks. 139 00:07:27,120 --> 00:07:30,880 Speaker 1: It's a good car. Geez, look at you balling convertible convertible, 140 00:07:31,480 --> 00:07:33,360 Speaker 1: So you're doing the drugular car. Then back then even 141 00:07:34,320 --> 00:07:36,600 Speaker 1: first car was a convertible. Excuse me. My last name 142 00:07:36,640 --> 00:07:39,040 Speaker 1: is Washing and Benny's on the road be beat back. 143 00:07:39,800 --> 00:07:43,760 Speaker 1: I like it. So somewhere along the line there my 144 00:07:43,880 --> 00:07:47,080 Speaker 1: buddy decides he's gonna make more money by going to 145 00:07:47,120 --> 00:07:51,960 Speaker 1: another company, a meat packing company where uh they cut 146 00:07:52,040 --> 00:07:55,040 Speaker 1: up the beef and sold him to people with freezers 147 00:07:55,720 --> 00:07:58,600 Speaker 1: who they ordered half a cow and it was all 148 00:07:58,640 --> 00:08:01,240 Speaker 1: split up in package and the thing. So I went 149 00:08:01,280 --> 00:08:05,080 Speaker 1: to work for them, and this time I um, I 150 00:08:05,240 --> 00:08:08,960 Speaker 1: just stole a few steaks when I was loading the freezers. 151 00:08:08,960 --> 00:08:13,400 Speaker 1: I would just take a few had to eat. And 152 00:08:13,560 --> 00:08:17,239 Speaker 1: then one day I um when the guy was delivering 153 00:08:17,280 --> 00:08:23,080 Speaker 1: from the slaughterhouse the half cow, half of cows, quarter quarters. Um. 154 00:08:23,360 --> 00:08:24,760 Speaker 1: He asked me if I wanted to work in the 155 00:08:24,800 --> 00:08:28,160 Speaker 1: slaughterhouse and I said, I'm not working on a kill floor. 156 00:08:28,600 --> 00:08:30,520 Speaker 1: I didn't know what to kill floor was, he was explaining. 157 00:08:30,800 --> 00:08:32,400 Speaker 1: But he wanted to hire me as a truck driver. 158 00:08:32,559 --> 00:08:35,760 Speaker 1: So I went to work there and and driving the 159 00:08:35,760 --> 00:08:40,280 Speaker 1: truck delivering the sides of beef. And one day he um. 160 00:08:40,559 --> 00:08:43,520 Speaker 1: The owner asked me if I wanted to the guy 161 00:08:43,559 --> 00:08:46,200 Speaker 1: who was killing the cows got sick, so he asked 162 00:08:46,240 --> 00:08:47,959 Speaker 1: me if I would come down on the kill floor 163 00:08:48,520 --> 00:08:53,640 Speaker 1: and kill cows. I said no way, and he said, um, 164 00:08:53,800 --> 00:08:58,120 Speaker 1: We're gonna give you ten dollars a week more and 165 00:08:58,200 --> 00:09:01,560 Speaker 1: for me. It was all about and the hours. The 166 00:09:01,679 --> 00:09:05,400 Speaker 1: sooner you killed the sixty cows, the sooner you leave 167 00:09:06,600 --> 00:09:09,240 Speaker 1: them up. Man, how do you kill a cow? What's 168 00:09:09,240 --> 00:09:13,960 Speaker 1: the way? Uh? I don't even know. I have to 169 00:09:14,000 --> 00:09:19,559 Speaker 1: use a sledgehammer at the time. Sledge hammer, So they did. 170 00:09:20,080 --> 00:09:26,480 Speaker 1: You're a st freaking murderer and I love it, seriously. 171 00:09:26,480 --> 00:09:29,880 Speaker 1: It was a sledgehammer back then. Sledgehammer. They get blood 172 00:09:29,920 --> 00:09:34,800 Speaker 1: squirt on your body sometimes. No, No, I was many blanco. 173 00:09:34,880 --> 00:09:38,520 Speaker 1: Would that ever happen? I'm getting nervous. Don't look at 174 00:09:38,520 --> 00:09:41,640 Speaker 1: my swords. No, I don't want to get yaked over here. No. 175 00:09:41,679 --> 00:09:44,560 Speaker 1: So they the cows would come down to ramp and 176 00:09:44,600 --> 00:09:48,040 Speaker 1: go into this area and I would have to walk 177 00:09:48,160 --> 00:09:53,680 Speaker 1: up three steps and look down on these cows. And 178 00:09:53,720 --> 00:09:55,960 Speaker 1: I was holding the sledgehammer, and I started hitting it 179 00:09:56,000 --> 00:10:00,480 Speaker 1: on top of the head over and over and over again, 180 00:10:00,559 --> 00:10:04,319 Speaker 1: maybe ten times, and I couldn't lift the sledgehammer up again. 181 00:10:04,600 --> 00:10:07,040 Speaker 1: After ten wax, you were down ten wax, I was. 182 00:10:08,080 --> 00:10:10,199 Speaker 1: I was six ft one and a half way and 183 00:10:10,240 --> 00:10:15,400 Speaker 1: thirty five pounds, skinny, skinny thing. And then the guy 184 00:10:15,520 --> 00:10:18,040 Speaker 1: that as someone else comes up and with a ball 185 00:10:18,080 --> 00:10:22,200 Speaker 1: pen hammer hits the cow between the eyes bank and 186 00:10:22,320 --> 00:10:26,000 Speaker 1: down it goes. The tongue comes out and they start 187 00:10:26,080 --> 00:10:30,800 Speaker 1: the process of cutting up the cow. So that's how 188 00:10:30,840 --> 00:10:32,480 Speaker 1: you learned how to kill a cow. That's how. But 189 00:10:32,559 --> 00:10:34,679 Speaker 1: that's the only cow I killed. That was one one 190 00:10:34,679 --> 00:10:36,480 Speaker 1: and done. That was the one and done. The other 191 00:10:36,520 --> 00:10:38,559 Speaker 1: guy came back to work and they gave me a 192 00:10:38,640 --> 00:10:40,280 Speaker 1: job at the end of the line where I'm washing 193 00:10:40,559 --> 00:10:43,080 Speaker 1: every everything after everything is cut and put on a rail. 194 00:10:43,559 --> 00:10:45,800 Speaker 1: They're coming down the rail and I'm washing the ends off. 195 00:10:46,480 --> 00:10:50,480 Speaker 1: And then they initiated me one day. How's that They 196 00:10:50,520 --> 00:10:53,720 Speaker 1: filled up a bucket of the guts and blood, and 197 00:10:53,800 --> 00:10:57,120 Speaker 1: as I was turning the water off and turned around, 198 00:10:57,480 --> 00:11:01,320 Speaker 1: they took the bucket and through it and my at 199 00:11:01,360 --> 00:11:06,800 Speaker 1: my head, my eyes is nose, and I wanted to 200 00:11:06,840 --> 00:11:11,000 Speaker 1: go after them, like you can't believe. Instead I ended 201 00:11:11,080 --> 00:11:15,120 Speaker 1: up being a good sport laughing that initiation. Wait, wait, wait, 202 00:11:15,120 --> 00:11:17,600 Speaker 1: don't know. And I'm going back quite a few years here. 203 00:11:18,520 --> 00:11:22,320 Speaker 1: Um I saw that that's not what happened. I was 204 00:11:22,320 --> 00:11:25,160 Speaker 1: gonna go at him, but they took a high pressure 205 00:11:25,240 --> 00:11:27,760 Speaker 1: hose and pushed you back with it. And we're washing 206 00:11:27,840 --> 00:11:38,960 Speaker 1: me off and pushing me. I couldn't get there him. 207 00:11:38,960 --> 00:11:40,800 Speaker 1: So before you can even get in, they're gonna note 208 00:11:40,840 --> 00:11:42,880 Speaker 1: we know what's gonna happen. He's gonna come after us, 209 00:11:43,200 --> 00:11:46,720 Speaker 1: just as game planned. Yeah. So I did that for 210 00:11:46,760 --> 00:11:49,520 Speaker 1: six months and then uh ended up in the army. 211 00:11:50,559 --> 00:11:52,400 Speaker 1: But that gets into thank you for your service. I 212 00:11:52,400 --> 00:11:56,120 Speaker 1: always appreciate it. But that gets into another story about 213 00:11:56,120 --> 00:12:01,520 Speaker 1: my friend Carl, who uh won saved you and what 214 00:12:01,520 --> 00:12:04,400 Speaker 1: what happened that did Carl? Basically your relationship with him, 215 00:12:04,480 --> 00:12:07,400 Speaker 1: Say California. So there's two groups of friends. I had 216 00:12:07,679 --> 00:12:10,840 Speaker 1: one on the one in the hood and one from school. 217 00:12:10,920 --> 00:12:12,720 Speaker 1: And I lived right on the line with the car, 218 00:12:12,840 --> 00:12:16,400 Speaker 1: you know, across the railroad tracks like eight mile the 219 00:12:16,559 --> 00:12:19,280 Speaker 1: poor people on one side, the richer people on the 220 00:12:19,280 --> 00:12:23,760 Speaker 1: other side. So I used to play basketball with those 221 00:12:23,800 --> 00:12:27,959 Speaker 1: guys in their backyard. When you say those guys, you're 222 00:12:27,960 --> 00:12:31,079 Speaker 1: talking to poor people, Richie the Ritchie's okay, get more 223 00:12:31,120 --> 00:12:33,640 Speaker 1: of fluent. Uh, I didn't know they were the fluent 224 00:12:33,720 --> 00:12:37,199 Speaker 1: a the time. And so we would played basketball and 225 00:12:37,320 --> 00:12:41,880 Speaker 1: this one kid, Carl, I would get on my bike 226 00:12:42,000 --> 00:12:45,559 Speaker 1: and go home and get ready for my nighttime paper route. 227 00:12:46,400 --> 00:12:50,040 Speaker 1: I had two piper routes, paper and so anyway, he 228 00:12:50,120 --> 00:12:52,319 Speaker 1: go into the house as I was leaving and come 229 00:12:52,360 --> 00:12:56,440 Speaker 1: up with a book. He said, here, try try reading 230 00:12:56,480 --> 00:12:59,400 Speaker 1: or read it. I go home and hold it for 231 00:12:59,400 --> 00:13:02,160 Speaker 1: two weeks, take it back, never having read the book, 232 00:13:02,440 --> 00:13:06,079 Speaker 1: hoping across my fingers that he never asked me. And 233 00:13:06,280 --> 00:13:08,520 Speaker 1: um so that went on for a couple of years 234 00:13:08,559 --> 00:13:10,719 Speaker 1: like that, where he went in and got books and 235 00:13:10,960 --> 00:13:14,280 Speaker 1: there's there's four of them. I always remember three amals ola. 236 00:13:14,480 --> 00:13:18,040 Speaker 1: Uh no, there was was a part of whatever they were. 237 00:13:19,559 --> 00:13:25,240 Speaker 1: And then he goes off to Swarthmore College. No, Jesus you, 238 00:13:25,320 --> 00:13:28,200 Speaker 1: I gotta tell this whole story. Um, I love it. 239 00:13:28,240 --> 00:13:30,960 Speaker 1: Though it's for me. It's just oh yeah, you're taking 240 00:13:30,960 --> 00:13:34,760 Speaker 1: member and I'm joining it. It's the story of my Uh. 241 00:13:35,040 --> 00:13:37,000 Speaker 1: He comes over getting ready to go to college. He 242 00:13:37,040 --> 00:13:39,599 Speaker 1: comes over to my house. So, Benny, where are you 243 00:13:39,640 --> 00:13:43,720 Speaker 1: going to college? Um? He said, what go where? I 244 00:13:43,800 --> 00:13:47,280 Speaker 1: don't you know. I didn't apply. All he wanted to 245 00:13:47,280 --> 00:13:49,640 Speaker 1: do is be a professional baseball player at that time, 246 00:13:49,800 --> 00:13:53,040 Speaker 1: also position short stop. First twenty years in my life, 247 00:13:53,040 --> 00:13:55,040 Speaker 1: that's all I wanted to be. I played sand lack 248 00:13:55,080 --> 00:13:57,280 Speaker 1: ball and that's all I loved. That was that was 249 00:13:57,440 --> 00:14:03,560 Speaker 1: that was it for me. Um so Carl, and he's illiterate. No, no, 250 00:14:03,640 --> 00:14:07,320 Speaker 1: and he doesn't want me to say I'm illiterate. He 251 00:14:07,480 --> 00:14:10,360 Speaker 1: was just he was I could see the resemblance with 252 00:14:10,400 --> 00:14:15,079 Speaker 1: your son Mark here. But you know he pulls again. 253 00:14:16,360 --> 00:14:18,960 Speaker 1: Wait wait wait, wait, so go ahead. You know I know, 254 00:14:19,040 --> 00:14:21,920 Speaker 1: but you asked, where here going? He goes off to 255 00:14:21,960 --> 00:14:24,080 Speaker 1: college to college. He goes off to god know. He 256 00:14:24,080 --> 00:14:26,160 Speaker 1: comes over and he said, and I said, I can't. 257 00:14:26,160 --> 00:14:28,600 Speaker 1: We can't afford it. He can, he can buy that. 258 00:14:29,600 --> 00:14:32,200 Speaker 1: Except he goes home and he gets his father. He 259 00:14:32,400 --> 00:14:33,880 Speaker 1: I don't know how it happened. He knew what the 260 00:14:33,920 --> 00:14:39,520 Speaker 1: tuition was to Waite University, not in Detroit. He goes 261 00:14:39,560 --> 00:14:41,040 Speaker 1: home and he gets his father to write out of 262 00:14:41,120 --> 00:14:43,760 Speaker 1: check for seventy five bucks, which was to go to college. 263 00:14:43,840 --> 00:14:45,680 Speaker 1: Go to college. He comes back to next day, he said, 264 00:14:45,680 --> 00:14:50,960 Speaker 1: what's your excuse? Now? Wow? Yeah, wow, he isn't and 265 00:14:51,000 --> 00:14:53,520 Speaker 1: I and he goes off. What a friend, dad though too, 266 00:14:53,640 --> 00:14:55,320 Speaker 1: like that's just you know, it takes a village and 267 00:14:55,360 --> 00:14:57,960 Speaker 1: what a dad? Okay, son, let me help your your 268 00:14:57,960 --> 00:15:01,640 Speaker 1: boy out. And that's dope. I love no idea. What happens, 269 00:15:02,360 --> 00:15:07,440 Speaker 1: what continues to happen with this guy. Um, he goes off. 270 00:15:08,160 --> 00:15:10,800 Speaker 1: I go to Wayne University at night because I'm working 271 00:15:10,800 --> 00:15:14,440 Speaker 1: in the bakery full time. Family needs helping me, the 272 00:15:14,480 --> 00:15:19,920 Speaker 1: money dad and all that. Um his dad owned the bakery. No, 273 00:15:20,080 --> 00:15:24,920 Speaker 1: my my brothers, my half brothers owned the bakery. But um, 274 00:15:25,480 --> 00:15:28,840 Speaker 1: I got, I got. You're working, You're going to school. 275 00:15:29,320 --> 00:15:32,880 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I got halfway through the semester and I'm 276 00:15:32,920 --> 00:15:35,600 Speaker 1: getting I'm taking English and history. The worst thing I 277 00:15:35,640 --> 00:15:41,280 Speaker 1: could ever do, if anything, I always advocated taking out 278 00:15:41,320 --> 00:15:44,360 Speaker 1: of high school, taking classes that you enjoy initially and 279 00:15:44,640 --> 00:15:47,520 Speaker 1: do the general requirements later. But at any rate, any rate, 280 00:15:47,560 --> 00:15:50,640 Speaker 1: I take English History, I get halfway through, I'm getting 281 00:15:50,680 --> 00:15:54,440 Speaker 1: fs in both classes. I drop out. That's the end 282 00:15:54,440 --> 00:16:03,280 Speaker 1: of that. And that's how Carl enters my life that 283 00:16:03,320 --> 00:16:11,160 Speaker 1: way with the seventy. And then he comes back on 284 00:16:11,320 --> 00:16:15,760 Speaker 1: break two years later. After you dropped out for a year, 285 00:16:16,240 --> 00:16:19,240 Speaker 1: I was only in for a few months, half the semester. 286 00:16:19,560 --> 00:16:23,640 Speaker 1: He comes back after there's college break two years later, 287 00:16:24,240 --> 00:16:28,280 Speaker 1: and he's asking what am I doing? How am I doing? 288 00:16:28,960 --> 00:16:31,560 Speaker 1: He said, well, I didn't make it with the school. 289 00:16:31,960 --> 00:16:34,400 Speaker 1: I'm working at the slaughter. I'm working at the slaughterhouse. 290 00:16:34,480 --> 00:16:37,920 Speaker 1: You know, how do I tell this guy where? He says, Oh, 291 00:16:38,120 --> 00:16:39,840 Speaker 1: I'll tell you. I was listening on the radio and 292 00:16:39,920 --> 00:16:42,280 Speaker 1: I heard that you could volunteer for the draft. I mean, 293 00:16:42,320 --> 00:16:44,760 Speaker 1: sooner or later they're going to get you. And you're 294 00:16:44,800 --> 00:16:46,920 Speaker 1: not doing special work for the government, you're not going 295 00:16:46,920 --> 00:16:49,840 Speaker 1: to school. They're gonna get you. You're twenty years old 296 00:16:50,800 --> 00:16:54,120 Speaker 1: and this is Vietnam. No, no, this is just after 297 00:16:54,160 --> 00:16:59,960 Speaker 1: the Korean War. So he heard that you could volunteer 298 00:17:00,080 --> 00:17:02,080 Speaker 1: for two and a normal volunteer I had to go 299 00:17:02,160 --> 00:17:04,719 Speaker 1: in for three. But if you volunteer for the draft, 300 00:17:05,040 --> 00:17:07,400 Speaker 1: they'll take you for two. So I go in the army. 301 00:17:07,440 --> 00:17:12,960 Speaker 1: I spent my two years. Oh. His thing was, uh, yeah, 302 00:17:13,040 --> 00:17:14,359 Speaker 1: think about what you want to do the rest of 303 00:17:14,359 --> 00:17:17,800 Speaker 1: your life. Good head on his shoulder, What a what 304 00:17:17,920 --> 00:17:20,000 Speaker 1: a friend? I think, what you want to do? It? Yeah? 305 00:17:20,080 --> 00:17:24,560 Speaker 1: So finally I get out and at some point light 306 00:17:24,560 --> 00:17:28,720 Speaker 1: bulb goes on and says, there was nothing in nothing out. 307 00:17:29,200 --> 00:17:31,760 Speaker 1: I didn't gain anything except learning how to shoot people 308 00:17:32,200 --> 00:17:35,520 Speaker 1: that could be useful. I didn't read, I didn't do 309 00:17:35,560 --> 00:17:37,639 Speaker 1: anything because there was nothing in here to think about 310 00:17:38,080 --> 00:17:42,280 Speaker 1: except baseball. Wanting to do bro now before I went 311 00:17:42,280 --> 00:17:44,919 Speaker 1: in the Army. I did try out with the a 312 00:17:44,960 --> 00:17:48,600 Speaker 1: Farm Club of the Washington Senators to Chattanooga Lookouts. I 313 00:17:48,640 --> 00:17:51,800 Speaker 1: went down from Detroit to Florida Winter Garden and was 314 00:17:51,840 --> 00:17:56,640 Speaker 1: told by George Mayott after a month of trying out 315 00:17:56,760 --> 00:18:01,919 Speaker 1: with a hundred other guys, and I was getting on 316 00:18:01,960 --> 00:18:05,040 Speaker 1: the bus to get ready to go home when I 317 00:18:05,080 --> 00:18:07,919 Speaker 1: saw this coach, George Mayott, sitting on the bench. I 318 00:18:07,960 --> 00:18:11,159 Speaker 1: walked over and I said, how did I do? And 319 00:18:11,160 --> 00:18:15,639 Speaker 1: he said, what's your name? What's my name? I walked 320 00:18:15,640 --> 00:18:20,199 Speaker 1: away in tears towards the Boddy called me back and 321 00:18:20,240 --> 00:18:23,159 Speaker 1: he pulled out his notebook. He said, what's your number? 322 00:18:24,040 --> 00:18:28,040 Speaker 1: Sixty s That was my number, and he looked at 323 00:18:28,119 --> 00:18:31,400 Speaker 1: it and he said, hey, you're a damn good fielder, 324 00:18:31,840 --> 00:18:35,600 Speaker 1: really hustled, but you can't throw, you can't hit, and 325 00:18:35,640 --> 00:18:38,320 Speaker 1: you can't run. Don't ever think of making a living 326 00:18:38,320 --> 00:18:42,720 Speaker 1: out of this game. And that was the end. I 327 00:18:42,840 --> 00:18:48,200 Speaker 1: let that. I took his word as gospel and never 328 00:18:48,240 --> 00:18:51,720 Speaker 1: looked at the sporting sporting page of the newspaper again, 329 00:18:52,080 --> 00:18:56,320 Speaker 1: never kept track of anything. My tigers, my Detroit Tigers. 330 00:18:58,680 --> 00:19:00,680 Speaker 1: You didn't lose anything, by the way, because they never 331 00:19:00,680 --> 00:19:05,800 Speaker 1: did anything, so it didn't matter just so. So so 332 00:19:05,960 --> 00:19:10,560 Speaker 1: I end up going in the service and I, um, 333 00:19:10,600 --> 00:19:14,000 Speaker 1: I come out, I hope I didn't skip at there. 334 00:19:14,119 --> 00:19:16,199 Speaker 1: You got it And I come out of the service 335 00:19:16,280 --> 00:19:20,920 Speaker 1: and and you got nothing out of it. I got 336 00:19:20,960 --> 00:19:24,560 Speaker 1: nothing out of it. But uh oh yeah, oh yeah. 337 00:19:24,600 --> 00:19:28,439 Speaker 1: I take my uh my, my my dad, and my 338 00:19:28,480 --> 00:19:33,000 Speaker 1: stepmother to California to visit my sister. While I'm there, 339 00:19:34,040 --> 00:19:38,560 Speaker 1: I get to visit my stepmother's and her cousin or 340 00:19:38,600 --> 00:19:43,280 Speaker 1: whomever who live in Beverly Hills are very rough and 341 00:19:43,320 --> 00:19:45,680 Speaker 1: they're live a lot of Jews. There. A young lady 342 00:19:45,760 --> 00:19:51,080 Speaker 1: lives there who's uh, at my age, and she wants 343 00:19:51,080 --> 00:19:53,120 Speaker 1: to know a little bit about me. You mean at 344 00:19:53,160 --> 00:19:55,119 Speaker 1: that time, your age or right now you're at that 345 00:19:55,200 --> 00:19:59,800 Speaker 1: time because when she ate something when you met her. Okay, 346 00:19:59,840 --> 00:20:03,680 Speaker 1: so she was twenty something when you met her, got 347 00:20:03,720 --> 00:20:05,600 Speaker 1: it and she was going to U C l A. 348 00:20:07,080 --> 00:20:10,280 Speaker 1: And um, she wanted a little bit about me, And 349 00:20:10,320 --> 00:20:14,800 Speaker 1: what was I going to tell her? I drove a truck, yeah, 350 00:20:15,040 --> 00:20:18,879 Speaker 1: stole singer. Yeah, I'm amazing with a sledgehammer, but I 351 00:20:18,880 --> 00:20:22,800 Speaker 1: couldn't kill a cow. But what she does. Here's another 352 00:20:24,480 --> 00:20:27,280 Speaker 1: at a time when somebody else comes into your life 353 00:20:27,760 --> 00:20:33,000 Speaker 1: and you take you think it taking advantage of her suggestion, 354 00:20:33,600 --> 00:20:35,800 Speaker 1: She said, look, you have the g I bill right, 355 00:20:35,800 --> 00:20:39,560 Speaker 1: And I said, what's the gill it's amazy. She said, 356 00:20:39,600 --> 00:20:41,800 Speaker 1: I know one the instructor who's very aware of those 357 00:20:41,880 --> 00:20:45,720 Speaker 1: kind of things, and go talk to him and they 358 00:20:45,800 --> 00:20:48,720 Speaker 1: might give you some advice. So one way or another 359 00:20:48,760 --> 00:20:52,359 Speaker 1: either it was that from com Parce College in the Valley. Yeah, 360 00:20:52,480 --> 00:20:54,560 Speaker 1: and that's my last school I went to, ironically to 361 00:20:54,600 --> 00:20:58,400 Speaker 1: get my degree because I almost graduated to Anyhow, that's 362 00:20:58,400 --> 00:21:00,560 Speaker 1: a whole another servert ahead. I know exactly where it's 363 00:21:00,560 --> 00:21:03,600 Speaker 1: at at my point. So I talked to him and 364 00:21:03,600 --> 00:21:07,159 Speaker 1: he tells me to take the v A example, aptitude 365 00:21:07,160 --> 00:21:10,639 Speaker 1: and attitude tests. So I go back to Detroit and 366 00:21:10,720 --> 00:21:13,400 Speaker 1: I I go to the v A office and they 367 00:21:13,720 --> 00:21:17,639 Speaker 1: give me these tests. And right off the bat, the 368 00:21:17,680 --> 00:21:21,240 Speaker 1: guy says, we're not sending you to college because of 369 00:21:21,280 --> 00:21:27,640 Speaker 1: an std T. My mind went there, Sorry, they didn't 370 00:21:27,640 --> 00:21:30,439 Speaker 1: have that test out being in the military for two year, 371 00:21:30,440 --> 00:21:32,720 Speaker 1: hasn't done that. He hadn't done that. He was in 372 00:21:32,760 --> 00:21:35,400 Speaker 1: the military for two years. Mark, don't get your dad twisted. 373 00:21:35,400 --> 00:21:41,120 Speaker 1: Benny was land pipe. So they told me, um, you know, 374 00:21:41,320 --> 00:21:44,639 Speaker 1: the results that they had for whatever whatever tests I 375 00:21:44,720 --> 00:21:46,960 Speaker 1: took showed that I didn't read very well or right 376 00:21:47,040 --> 00:21:48,919 Speaker 1: very well or anything. So we're not sending you out 377 00:21:48,920 --> 00:21:51,560 Speaker 1: of college. I said, you got that right, Yeah, you're no, 378 00:21:52,640 --> 00:21:54,480 Speaker 1: he doesn't take an ice starting to figure that out 379 00:21:54,520 --> 00:21:58,520 Speaker 1: for me? Done that, yeah for me? So then it 380 00:21:58,560 --> 00:22:00,560 Speaker 1: meant so what else are we gonna all this kid 381 00:22:00,600 --> 00:22:02,680 Speaker 1: to do? So they said, how would you like to 382 00:22:02,720 --> 00:22:07,800 Speaker 1: be a barber? Cutting air? It shows that you you 383 00:22:07,800 --> 00:22:11,000 Speaker 1: could be a sociate, sociable guy. And I said, no, 384 00:22:11,000 --> 00:22:13,120 Speaker 1: I don't want to be a barber. I don't want 385 00:22:13,119 --> 00:22:15,280 Speaker 1: to be a barber. The next thing out of their 386 00:22:15,320 --> 00:22:20,680 Speaker 1: mouths was how would you like to go into electronics? What? 387 00:22:20,680 --> 00:22:23,439 Speaker 1: What the hell is electronics? Right? I had no idea. 388 00:22:23,720 --> 00:22:25,639 Speaker 1: He said it doesn't matter. We're gonna send you to 389 00:22:25,640 --> 00:22:28,880 Speaker 1: a trade school. And I said, you have to read 390 00:22:29,800 --> 00:22:32,800 Speaker 1: hands on, it's all hands on. And now do you 391 00:22:32,840 --> 00:22:35,639 Speaker 1: want to go in California where your sister is, or 392 00:22:35,680 --> 00:22:37,560 Speaker 1: you want to go in Detroit. We'll set you up 393 00:22:37,560 --> 00:22:39,959 Speaker 1: with schools. We'll tell you where the schools are. End 394 00:22:40,040 --> 00:22:42,560 Speaker 1: up going to l A, end up going to National 395 00:22:42,600 --> 00:22:47,520 Speaker 1: schools for eighteen months learning radio and TV repair, memorize 396 00:22:47,600 --> 00:22:51,200 Speaker 1: everything that there was a textbook I didn't understand, shipped 397 00:22:51,200 --> 00:22:54,920 Speaker 1: from the You didn't care. That school didn't care. They 398 00:22:54,920 --> 00:22:56,879 Speaker 1: made their work on these bulbs, learning out of the 399 00:22:56,960 --> 00:23:00,520 Speaker 1: wiring and all the good stuff with tubes to tubes. 400 00:23:00,960 --> 00:23:03,280 Speaker 1: And let me tell you, at the end of eighteen 401 00:23:03,280 --> 00:23:05,520 Speaker 1: months learning a TV, I could do a whole schematic. 402 00:23:05,560 --> 00:23:08,000 Speaker 1: I could, I could lay out everything and I got 403 00:23:08,040 --> 00:23:10,800 Speaker 1: damn schematics that a TV was made up. So anyway, 404 00:23:11,240 --> 00:23:14,639 Speaker 1: I graduate. But just before I graduated, I meet my wife. 405 00:23:15,640 --> 00:23:20,399 Speaker 1: By the way, wait wait, wait, wait um. It was 406 00:23:20,440 --> 00:23:26,280 Speaker 1: in January of fifty uh eight, February I would graduate, 407 00:23:27,160 --> 00:23:30,760 Speaker 1: and I'm getting ready to go back to Detroit to 408 00:23:30,880 --> 00:23:33,359 Speaker 1: marry a young lady I had known since high school. 409 00:23:33,880 --> 00:23:35,639 Speaker 1: Wrote to her while I was in the service. This 410 00:23:35,760 --> 00:23:38,600 Speaker 1: is not your wife, now, correct, that's referring to in Detroit. 411 00:23:38,800 --> 00:23:40,560 Speaker 1: That's correct. Okay, I just want to make sure I'm 412 00:23:40,560 --> 00:23:46,360 Speaker 1: following the story correctly. So her chance was her fiance 413 00:23:46,560 --> 00:23:49,360 Speaker 1: murdered or killed or anything like that, because your son's 414 00:23:49,359 --> 00:23:52,480 Speaker 1: story of ex wives or wives just those before a 415 00:23:52,520 --> 00:23:54,720 Speaker 1: fucking loop. Sometimes I just don't want to hear another 416 00:23:55,440 --> 00:23:59,440 Speaker 1: you know, crazy story like that. Okay, So in January 417 00:24:00,200 --> 00:24:02,960 Speaker 1: or December fifty seven, I get fixed. I get fixed 418 00:24:03,040 --> 00:24:07,200 Speaker 1: up on a blind date, and I call um this 419 00:24:07,280 --> 00:24:11,960 Speaker 1: young lady, uh Fern to set up a date, set 420 00:24:12,040 --> 00:24:16,720 Speaker 1: up a date. And I was about to fulfill that 421 00:24:17,359 --> 00:24:20,560 Speaker 1: when I call her again to tell her that I 422 00:24:20,600 --> 00:24:24,280 Speaker 1: can't afford to go out and at a date. While 423 00:24:24,320 --> 00:24:27,359 Speaker 1: I was going to trade school, I was working full 424 00:24:27,400 --> 00:24:35,200 Speaker 1: time h graveyard shift in a bank, uh, sorting checks 425 00:24:35,240 --> 00:24:38,600 Speaker 1: that came in from local banks into this main facility, 426 00:24:39,400 --> 00:24:42,520 Speaker 1: uh whatever they call that, and you have to redo 427 00:24:42,640 --> 00:24:46,560 Speaker 1: the checks at any rate. Um. And I was living 428 00:24:46,560 --> 00:24:50,159 Speaker 1: in a in a room in someone's home during that 429 00:24:50,280 --> 00:24:52,600 Speaker 1: whole time, well not the whole time, because I ended 430 00:24:52,680 --> 00:24:55,720 Speaker 1: up and before I met Fern, I ended up living 431 00:24:55,800 --> 00:25:01,680 Speaker 1: in a um four plex with eight of guys. Uh, 432 00:25:01,920 --> 00:25:04,560 Speaker 1: you know that kind of thing. So I have this 433 00:25:04,600 --> 00:25:08,720 Speaker 1: blind date that I called to cancel it, and the 434 00:25:08,800 --> 00:25:11,840 Speaker 1: mother answers the phone. Friends not home. Mother answers the phone, 435 00:25:12,200 --> 00:25:14,840 Speaker 1: and I tell her I can't make it. I can't 436 00:25:14,840 --> 00:25:17,760 Speaker 1: afford it, and the mother says, don't worry about it, 437 00:25:18,880 --> 00:25:23,200 Speaker 1: come over and have some cookies and milk Mr Rogers 438 00:25:23,200 --> 00:25:26,360 Speaker 1: this next quarter. Why not? That just sounds amazing. So 439 00:25:26,760 --> 00:25:29,680 Speaker 1: I figured I can't say no to that. Of course, 440 00:25:29,760 --> 00:25:33,960 Speaker 1: not who this lady? So what I would hear? Later 441 00:25:34,080 --> 00:25:36,920 Speaker 1: his friend comes home, her mother tells her this, and 442 00:25:37,000 --> 00:25:38,920 Speaker 1: she lays it on him, and you made a date. 443 00:25:39,040 --> 00:25:46,440 Speaker 1: I never met the guy, and yeah, yeah, oh my god. 444 00:25:47,040 --> 00:25:49,400 Speaker 1: So that day comes, I knock on the door. As 445 00:25:49,520 --> 00:25:53,520 Speaker 1: January the eleventh, nineteen. We go out a few times. 446 00:25:55,040 --> 00:25:58,440 Speaker 1: January eleven days later, I asked her to marry. You're 447 00:25:58,480 --> 00:26:02,320 Speaker 1: kidding me. I wish I us what my parents mentioned 448 00:26:02,560 --> 00:26:06,880 Speaker 1: thirty days after they met. They were married. My parents, 449 00:26:07,200 --> 00:26:08,919 Speaker 1: I mean, they're both to sea, so you can't ask him. 450 00:26:08,920 --> 00:26:10,720 Speaker 1: But I'm telling you the story. Yeah, it's exactly a 451 00:26:10,720 --> 00:26:12,159 Speaker 1: matter of fact. My dad's ashes are right over there 452 00:26:12,160 --> 00:26:14,840 Speaker 1: on a do guys before you leave. But well he 453 00:26:14,920 --> 00:26:17,840 Speaker 1: was funny. Well he was much brighter than me. You 454 00:26:17,920 --> 00:26:22,359 Speaker 1: were eleven days. You can't be too bright. I always 455 00:26:22,359 --> 00:26:25,399 Speaker 1: claimed three days, three dates. My wife says five dates 456 00:26:25,520 --> 00:26:28,560 Speaker 1: we had, But what did we know about each other? 457 00:26:28,600 --> 00:26:31,040 Speaker 1: She was nineteen, I was twenty three, you know when 458 00:26:31,040 --> 00:26:35,439 Speaker 1: we met and all that. And so that gets me 459 00:26:35,520 --> 00:26:38,280 Speaker 1: up to the point with the book that I already 460 00:26:38,280 --> 00:26:40,399 Speaker 1: mentioned the book. No, not at all at think started 461 00:26:40,400 --> 00:26:43,280 Speaker 1: on this podcast keep going, I haven't mentioned the book. 462 00:26:44,240 --> 00:26:49,320 Speaker 1: You haven't started. I mentioned was Carl giving me those books? Right? Okay? 463 00:26:49,440 --> 00:26:55,200 Speaker 1: So we get married and I invite him from Detroit. Yeah, 464 00:26:55,280 --> 00:26:58,560 Speaker 1: he was already uh in the city council of Detroit 465 00:26:58,760 --> 00:27:01,400 Speaker 1: at that point. So Carl's done up. Yeah, he became, 466 00:27:01,400 --> 00:27:03,800 Speaker 1: he went to Harvard, he went, he got uh, he 467 00:27:03,880 --> 00:27:07,200 Speaker 1: became a civil rights attorney, and he was in city college, 468 00:27:07,200 --> 00:27:10,480 Speaker 1: president of city council. And I invite him to my wedding. 469 00:27:11,000 --> 00:27:14,720 Speaker 1: He couldn't come. So he sends me a gift, Martin 470 00:27:14,880 --> 00:27:18,159 Speaker 1: a book, a book Martin Eden by Jack London with 471 00:27:18,200 --> 00:27:21,399 Speaker 1: a little silver astrae, which is interesting I still have. 472 00:27:22,840 --> 00:27:25,800 Speaker 1: And um, I look at the book, showed it to 473 00:27:25,840 --> 00:27:27,440 Speaker 1: my wife. I said, there's no way in hell I'm 474 00:27:27,440 --> 00:27:29,120 Speaker 1: going to read it. I told you I don't read 475 00:27:30,640 --> 00:27:35,520 Speaker 1: uh And and she said, um no. So I decided 476 00:27:35,520 --> 00:27:37,359 Speaker 1: I wanted to call him and ask him, what the 477 00:27:37,400 --> 00:27:40,440 Speaker 1: hell you're trying to tell me. You've got to be 478 00:27:40,480 --> 00:27:42,320 Speaker 1: trying to tell me something by sending me a book. 479 00:27:42,400 --> 00:27:45,919 Speaker 1: He never answered the phone, So Fern says, ship he 480 00:27:46,000 --> 00:27:49,240 Speaker 1: took the time to buy this book, and why don't 481 00:27:49,240 --> 00:27:51,920 Speaker 1: you just sit down and start reading it right, see 482 00:27:51,920 --> 00:27:55,600 Speaker 1: what it's about. And I said, four hundred and eleven 483 00:27:55,640 --> 00:28:04,679 Speaker 1: pages small print and pictures pictures, and they didn't have 484 00:28:04,680 --> 00:28:08,320 Speaker 1: it on tape yet. It was so somehow I sat down, 485 00:28:08,320 --> 00:28:10,959 Speaker 1: I started reading the first page. I don't know how 486 00:28:11,000 --> 00:28:13,679 Speaker 1: many times I read. The first page was so freaking boring, 487 00:28:14,600 --> 00:28:16,719 Speaker 1: and then I read the second and the third. Like 488 00:28:16,760 --> 00:28:19,200 Speaker 1: I said, took me two years, or maybe I didn't 489 00:28:19,200 --> 00:28:22,200 Speaker 1: say yet, it took me two years to read that book. 490 00:28:22,320 --> 00:28:24,960 Speaker 1: I looked up seven dred and forty seven words, had 491 00:28:25,080 --> 00:28:27,239 Speaker 1: underlined every one of those, and looked them all up 492 00:28:27,240 --> 00:28:29,840 Speaker 1: in a dictionary, wrote them on separate sheets of paper 493 00:28:29,880 --> 00:28:34,800 Speaker 1: and in the margins of that book. And I was 494 00:28:34,920 --> 00:28:38,760 Speaker 1: hooked for the rest of my life to reading and learning. 495 00:28:39,760 --> 00:28:43,680 Speaker 1: And this is at the age about what, yeah, that 496 00:28:43,680 --> 00:28:46,760 Speaker 1: would be about. And by then I had two children. 497 00:28:47,000 --> 00:28:53,520 Speaker 1: Oh wow, one of them being Craig and and and 498 00:28:52,040 --> 00:28:57,000 Speaker 1: uh and then okay, but the question was how did 499 00:28:57,000 --> 00:28:58,880 Speaker 1: I get to be an engineer from radio and TV? 500 00:28:59,600 --> 00:29:03,240 Speaker 1: And um I graduated and that job at the bank 501 00:29:03,800 --> 00:29:08,440 Speaker 1: that was going nowhere, UM I started looking for a job. 502 00:29:09,120 --> 00:29:12,200 Speaker 1: And so at the age you finally read a book, 503 00:29:12,200 --> 00:29:17,040 Speaker 1: wait have um No, at eight, I already had a job. 504 00:29:18,280 --> 00:29:23,240 Speaker 1: Four when I met Fern, I just graduated the trade school. 505 00:29:23,480 --> 00:29:25,800 Speaker 1: So you have a trade. Now you're an electrician basically 506 00:29:25,800 --> 00:29:29,280 Speaker 1: an engineer. What kind of trade? Repair repair guy? TV 507 00:29:29,360 --> 00:29:32,840 Speaker 1: repair guy? That's from school? So I initially I did 508 00:29:32,840 --> 00:29:34,479 Speaker 1: try to get a g I bill paid for all that. 509 00:29:34,760 --> 00:29:39,040 Speaker 1: G I bill paid for all that's beautiful, And times 510 00:29:39,040 --> 00:29:41,240 Speaker 1: were simpler, and they still help out a lot of 511 00:29:41,280 --> 00:29:45,960 Speaker 1: military vets. Not not enough, never enough, that's right, neverover enough? 512 00:29:46,680 --> 00:29:51,200 Speaker 1: Did you get it all? Um? So here I am 513 00:29:51,400 --> 00:29:56,200 Speaker 1: getting engaged, engaged never gave her a ring. I didn't 514 00:29:56,200 --> 00:29:59,000 Speaker 1: know what I didn't understand what engagement meant. Did she 515 00:29:59,040 --> 00:30:02,160 Speaker 1: ever disover ring? Now you know she's got one from 516 00:30:02,160 --> 00:30:07,240 Speaker 1: my stepmother. You've never bet firn of ring yet? Oh 517 00:30:07,320 --> 00:30:10,400 Speaker 1: my god, Benny, I'm gonna give you a ring to 518 00:30:10,440 --> 00:30:15,719 Speaker 1: take home with her, and I'll charge you for as 519 00:30:15,760 --> 00:30:20,960 Speaker 1: you can buy it. There. So, between after graduating, meeting Fern, 520 00:30:21,040 --> 00:30:26,280 Speaker 1: getting engaged, I'm without a job every time to get 521 00:30:26,280 --> 00:30:30,440 Speaker 1: married except to one, I'm doing graveyard and I think 522 00:30:30,520 --> 00:30:34,000 Speaker 1: I hung onto that for something a little bit um, 523 00:30:34,040 --> 00:30:35,680 Speaker 1: and I went During the day, I went out looking 524 00:30:35,720 --> 00:30:37,920 Speaker 1: for a job, and it was hard to get one. 525 00:30:38,120 --> 00:30:39,720 Speaker 1: The school trying to set me up. They sent me 526 00:30:39,760 --> 00:30:42,640 Speaker 1: to northern California, different places. I flunked all their tests, 527 00:30:42,840 --> 00:30:46,880 Speaker 1: technical tests, and I couldn't get a job. A neighbor 528 00:30:46,960 --> 00:30:51,040 Speaker 1: someone someone said, go to Hughes Aircraft and I said, 529 00:30:51,080 --> 00:30:52,760 Speaker 1: I don't see any ads in the paper. He said, 530 00:30:52,960 --> 00:30:56,560 Speaker 1: they have employment offices somebody who really knew what was 531 00:30:56,560 --> 00:30:59,400 Speaker 1: going on in the world. Just go in tell him 532 00:30:59,400 --> 00:31:01,640 Speaker 1: what you you went. I went to the school, what 533 00:31:01,720 --> 00:31:06,240 Speaker 1: you learned and to fill out an application. And I 534 00:31:06,560 --> 00:31:09,280 Speaker 1: did that, and they gave me a test, a thirty 535 00:31:09,280 --> 00:31:13,880 Speaker 1: three question test, and and and I missed. Uh. I 536 00:31:13,880 --> 00:31:15,320 Speaker 1: don't know how many you have to get right, but 537 00:31:15,800 --> 00:31:19,480 Speaker 1: whatever it was, I missed it by one. And I 538 00:31:19,560 --> 00:31:22,160 Speaker 1: just went, you know, I missed it by one. I said, 539 00:31:22,200 --> 00:31:24,720 Speaker 1: oh shit, I said, you know I knew some of 540 00:31:24,760 --> 00:31:26,760 Speaker 1: those answers. I've got him in my notes at home. 541 00:31:28,120 --> 00:31:30,320 Speaker 1: He said, well, I'll tell you what. Take it again, 542 00:31:30,480 --> 00:31:34,280 Speaker 1: go home, look at your notes, and then come back. 543 00:31:35,320 --> 00:31:37,280 Speaker 1: So I went home that same day. I looked at 544 00:31:37,280 --> 00:31:39,120 Speaker 1: the notes I had it. I said, I don't know 545 00:31:39,120 --> 00:31:41,360 Speaker 1: if I should go back, you know now right now. 546 00:31:41,560 --> 00:31:44,400 Speaker 1: I waited a couple of days, went back, took the test, 547 00:31:44,480 --> 00:31:47,920 Speaker 1: past the test, and the guy said, that happens to 548 00:31:47,920 --> 00:31:49,560 Speaker 1: be an opening, and then what do you say and do? 549 00:31:51,400 --> 00:31:55,200 Speaker 1: I said, I'll take it. I'll take it. I took 550 00:31:55,200 --> 00:31:59,440 Speaker 1: the job. And the weird part was that the work 551 00:31:59,520 --> 00:32:02,280 Speaker 1: I a out doing had nothing to do with anything 552 00:32:02,320 --> 00:32:06,040 Speaker 1: I learned in school. And yet, like everything else in school, right, 553 00:32:07,600 --> 00:32:10,160 Speaker 1: that's the story of school. And it was so unless 554 00:32:10,200 --> 00:32:13,040 Speaker 1: you're a nurse. I think nurse and doctors they learned 555 00:32:13,040 --> 00:32:14,920 Speaker 1: a lot, but it's still nothing like the real world. 556 00:32:15,000 --> 00:32:18,440 Speaker 1: It was so crazy because what I ended up doing 557 00:32:18,600 --> 00:32:25,400 Speaker 1: was fabrication, putting, putting little uh creating little boxes for 558 00:32:25,480 --> 00:32:29,440 Speaker 1: engineers to do a prototype work. I had to learn 559 00:32:29,440 --> 00:32:31,560 Speaker 1: how to use tools. I never used tools at home. 560 00:32:32,080 --> 00:32:34,520 Speaker 1: I had to use a drill, and I had to 561 00:32:34,640 --> 00:32:38,880 Speaker 1: learn how it got It really got bad to where 562 00:32:39,080 --> 00:32:42,680 Speaker 1: I was not goofing off but making a lot of mistakes. 563 00:32:43,240 --> 00:32:45,920 Speaker 1: And I got a chance, after a chance to hang 564 00:32:45,960 --> 00:32:50,240 Speaker 1: in there to be a better fabricator, and I said, 565 00:32:50,280 --> 00:32:51,880 Speaker 1: I want out of here. He said, you got to 566 00:32:52,000 --> 00:32:54,280 Speaker 1: stay in this department for a year before we can 567 00:32:54,320 --> 00:32:58,400 Speaker 1: transfer you out. So eventually would get transferred out and 568 00:32:58,480 --> 00:33:02,400 Speaker 1: to another department where I would test resistors. And I said, 569 00:33:02,480 --> 00:33:05,920 Speaker 1: to just take data. You know what resisters go through, 570 00:33:06,560 --> 00:33:10,040 Speaker 1: vibration and thermovac and all that, and just me just 571 00:33:10,120 --> 00:33:12,560 Speaker 1: taking data. I went to school to learn more than that. 572 00:33:12,600 --> 00:33:17,040 Speaker 1: I gotta, you know. And so eventually guys from Hughes 573 00:33:17,080 --> 00:33:22,520 Speaker 1: went over to Lytton in the Valley, another aerospace company 574 00:33:22,840 --> 00:33:26,120 Speaker 1: in Canoga Park, and they would come back with these 575 00:33:26,680 --> 00:33:31,080 Speaker 1: after taking a ten question test, and I have all 576 00:33:31,200 --> 00:33:36,360 Speaker 1: all the answers from them, a bunch of me gone. 577 00:33:36,480 --> 00:33:40,120 Speaker 1: So I go and I take the exam and they 578 00:33:40,160 --> 00:33:44,680 Speaker 1: tell me I got them all right, I got them 579 00:33:44,720 --> 00:33:47,040 Speaker 1: all right. I said, oh my god, I got a job. 580 00:33:48,120 --> 00:33:51,400 Speaker 1: They called. They called me in for an interview, and 581 00:33:51,440 --> 00:33:53,480 Speaker 1: I'm sitting down with this guy and he starts asking 582 00:33:53,480 --> 00:33:57,520 Speaker 1: me questions about transistors and over and over again, I'm 583 00:33:57,520 --> 00:33:59,840 Speaker 1: telling you, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, 584 00:34:00,920 --> 00:34:03,040 Speaker 1: and I want to get out of there so fast. 585 00:34:04,160 --> 00:34:08,040 Speaker 1: And the guy says, um, we'll let you know. I 586 00:34:08,080 --> 00:34:13,560 Speaker 1: get back in the car. Fern and Michael at the time, uh, 587 00:34:13,800 --> 00:34:17,520 Speaker 1: he was you know, no, no, Craig wasn't even born 588 00:34:17,600 --> 00:34:23,960 Speaker 1: yet in my little volks and I told Fern I said, 589 00:34:24,080 --> 00:34:27,880 Speaker 1: well that went bad. Everything I answered with, I don't know. 590 00:34:28,840 --> 00:34:31,799 Speaker 1: Two weeks later, I get a call, we'd like to 591 00:34:32,120 --> 00:34:36,120 Speaker 1: talk to you again. We'd like to hire you. And 592 00:34:36,160 --> 00:34:39,040 Speaker 1: I go okay. So I get a job there in 593 00:34:39,200 --> 00:34:42,200 Speaker 1: systems tests something. I have no idea, what's on? What 594 00:34:42,640 --> 00:34:47,040 Speaker 1: am I doing checking out gyros and and platforms that 595 00:34:47,160 --> 00:34:49,839 Speaker 1: go into the apollo or no, it wasn't that one 596 00:34:49,920 --> 00:34:55,399 Speaker 1: wasn't the apollo that was for some navy equipment. I um, 597 00:34:55,480 --> 00:34:57,600 Speaker 1: I said, I don't have any experience. I'm trying to 598 00:34:57,600 --> 00:35:00,520 Speaker 1: be very I'm very blunt. I'm telling him I don't 599 00:35:00,520 --> 00:35:04,719 Speaker 1: have any knowledge or experience doing anything. Just try it. 600 00:35:05,120 --> 00:35:07,040 Speaker 1: If it doesn't work out, well, we can always put 601 00:35:07,080 --> 00:35:08,960 Speaker 1: you back to what you were doing back at Lytton. 602 00:35:10,080 --> 00:35:12,640 Speaker 1: We need people there too. Remember it was the time 603 00:35:12,640 --> 00:35:15,520 Speaker 1: of Sputnik, so they were just getting people right and 604 00:35:15,600 --> 00:35:18,960 Speaker 1: left into this field. And so I started on the 605 00:35:19,080 --> 00:35:24,080 Speaker 1: job and I do quite well, and I last there. 606 00:35:24,080 --> 00:35:26,120 Speaker 1: I won't get into everything I did there, but I 607 00:35:26,120 --> 00:35:29,560 Speaker 1: was there for five years and then I wound up. 608 00:35:30,160 --> 00:35:37,440 Speaker 1: Oh God, being talked. I had graduated Pierce the Junior 609 00:35:37,480 --> 00:35:42,360 Speaker 1: College Junior College as junior College. Yes, um, and I 610 00:35:42,440 --> 00:35:45,000 Speaker 1: went on to you. I changed my major from engineering 611 00:35:45,040 --> 00:35:47,880 Speaker 1: to sociology because that was my love. If there was 612 00:35:47,920 --> 00:35:50,640 Speaker 1: going to be academic people, if there was gonna be academics, 613 00:35:50,680 --> 00:35:52,720 Speaker 1: I wanted to go in that direction. So I started 614 00:35:52,719 --> 00:35:54,799 Speaker 1: out at U c l A. And I won't go 615 00:35:54,840 --> 00:36:00,880 Speaker 1: into I only went one semester and his classmate was 616 00:36:00,960 --> 00:36:06,520 Speaker 1: lou al Cinder. Yes, yes, the nine and then firm 617 00:36:06,600 --> 00:36:09,799 Speaker 1: invites a friend of hers, just Mary, married with one 618 00:36:09,880 --> 00:36:12,560 Speaker 1: kid is what U c l A. Yeah, and working 619 00:36:12,640 --> 00:36:16,040 Speaker 1: full time, taking twelve units because and U c l 620 00:36:16,120 --> 00:36:18,200 Speaker 1: A didn't want me to. They called me in and 621 00:36:18,360 --> 00:36:20,680 Speaker 1: you can't take twelve you with work full time as 622 00:36:20,800 --> 00:36:23,839 Speaker 1: I've got to. I can't afford to do otherwise I'm 623 00:36:23,840 --> 00:36:27,000 Speaker 1: married to have a kid. And they said, well, you're 624 00:36:27,040 --> 00:36:29,040 Speaker 1: not gonna do too well. Possibly we're gonna put you 625 00:36:29,080 --> 00:36:41,720 Speaker 1: on probation for no reason off the top of approbation working, yeah, secret, 626 00:36:41,760 --> 00:36:45,960 Speaker 1: double a probation exactly. No, I mean twelve. I took 627 00:36:45,960 --> 00:36:48,160 Speaker 1: two upper They let me take two upper division and 628 00:36:48,239 --> 00:36:50,960 Speaker 1: two lower division courses. They were all in sociology, and 629 00:36:51,040 --> 00:36:53,880 Speaker 1: I try to convince him that this was what I've 630 00:36:53,920 --> 00:36:58,520 Speaker 1: been reading so much about. Okay, all the books I 631 00:36:58,560 --> 00:37:01,879 Speaker 1: started reading and doing all because of that one book. 632 00:37:02,840 --> 00:37:05,040 Speaker 1: And they said, well, we'll put you on probation. So 633 00:37:05,120 --> 00:37:10,280 Speaker 1: I go through the year, um or the semester, quarter semester, 634 00:37:10,400 --> 00:37:12,000 Speaker 1: and I end up with a couple of bees and 635 00:37:12,040 --> 00:37:14,120 Speaker 1: a couple of seeds. But I get burned out. I 636 00:37:14,160 --> 00:37:17,040 Speaker 1: get burned out, and I said, and that's the end 637 00:37:17,080 --> 00:37:21,239 Speaker 1: of my as the end of my education. Um so, 638 00:37:21,680 --> 00:37:27,839 Speaker 1: but but so Fern is inviting at that point, Oh, 639 00:37:27,880 --> 00:37:32,240 Speaker 1: I was going to continue. I was going to continue 640 00:37:32,320 --> 00:37:37,480 Speaker 1: because I applied to Santa Barbara. That's where they had 641 00:37:37,520 --> 00:37:41,000 Speaker 1: a great sociology department and they had on campus living 642 00:37:41,040 --> 00:37:44,840 Speaker 1: for married couples, just to show you the twists and 643 00:37:44,920 --> 00:37:49,440 Speaker 1: turns these things can take. And just as I'm about 644 00:37:49,520 --> 00:37:53,080 Speaker 1: to make that move, the school tells me there's no 645 00:37:53,120 --> 00:37:56,799 Speaker 1: longer a sociology program. No, no, there's programs there, but 646 00:37:56,840 --> 00:38:02,000 Speaker 1: no on campus housing. And when I started looking around, 647 00:38:02,360 --> 00:38:04,680 Speaker 1: because I had bought a house out in the valley 648 00:38:04,840 --> 00:38:08,239 Speaker 1: for fifteen dollars, believe it or not, on income that 649 00:38:08,320 --> 00:38:10,840 Speaker 1: was at the bottom of the run. But I was 650 00:38:10,880 --> 00:38:13,600 Speaker 1: able to do that, and after four years of living there, 651 00:38:14,400 --> 00:38:15,680 Speaker 1: we sold it. And I was going to use that 652 00:38:15,719 --> 00:38:21,120 Speaker 1: a little bit of money to go to Santa Barbara 653 00:38:21,120 --> 00:38:23,440 Speaker 1: and live on campus and go to school and finish 654 00:38:23,480 --> 00:38:26,319 Speaker 1: and maybe get a degree with your wife and with 655 00:38:26,400 --> 00:38:30,040 Speaker 1: my wife and son. Right then and there, my wife 656 00:38:30,080 --> 00:38:36,040 Speaker 1: invites a friend who's a real estate investor, and he says, Benny, 657 00:38:36,200 --> 00:38:38,120 Speaker 1: how long is it going to take you to get 658 00:38:38,160 --> 00:38:43,120 Speaker 1: your master's degree pH d? And then when you finally 659 00:38:43,160 --> 00:38:45,719 Speaker 1: get that, are you gonna be able to be the 660 00:38:45,800 --> 00:38:49,680 Speaker 1: kind of social research sociologist that you want to be? Independent? 661 00:38:51,239 --> 00:38:53,000 Speaker 1: I said, I don't know what it's going to take. 662 00:38:53,520 --> 00:38:58,239 Speaker 1: He says, just let me have and I'll let you 663 00:38:58,280 --> 00:39:06,680 Speaker 1: buy five duplexes and East l A and down and 664 00:39:06,880 --> 00:39:09,520 Speaker 1: each one and you'll be the proud owner of five 665 00:39:09,600 --> 00:39:12,960 Speaker 1: duplexes in in l A. And I go ahead and 666 00:39:13,000 --> 00:39:18,520 Speaker 1: do that. And six months later I found out this 667 00:39:18,520 --> 00:39:21,359 Speaker 1: this friend had taken me for a ride. He lied 668 00:39:21,400 --> 00:39:25,480 Speaker 1: to me about everything. I now the owner. But I 669 00:39:25,560 --> 00:39:27,960 Speaker 1: decide if that's the way I got in, I gotta 670 00:39:28,000 --> 00:39:32,080 Speaker 1: get out, no matter what the losses are. Yeah, because 671 00:39:32,120 --> 00:39:34,680 Speaker 1: I met somebody that knew him also, that took him 672 00:39:34,680 --> 00:39:36,600 Speaker 1: for ride, but he got in so deep he couldn't 673 00:39:36,600 --> 00:39:40,640 Speaker 1: get out. He was beholden. This friend try to get 674 00:39:40,680 --> 00:39:45,600 Speaker 1: me to buy a house in Rolling Hill, Rolling Rolling Heights. 675 00:39:46,239 --> 00:39:48,680 Speaker 1: He also tried to get me to buy a Lincoln. No, no, 676 00:39:48,760 --> 00:39:52,480 Speaker 1: a Cadillac. He said, if you gotta, you gotta. When 677 00:39:52,520 --> 00:39:54,759 Speaker 1: you go to banks to get loans, you gotta look 678 00:39:54,800 --> 00:39:59,600 Speaker 1: like you're accomplish you you've you've made it. And I said, 679 00:39:59,600 --> 00:40:01,360 Speaker 1: I can't get of the Canadacts. Instead, I got a 680 00:40:01,440 --> 00:40:08,080 Speaker 1: Brandoville Pontiac. He had. He had me ending up getting 681 00:40:08,160 --> 00:40:12,680 Speaker 1: home improvement loans. He knew the ropes, how to get 682 00:40:12,719 --> 00:40:15,080 Speaker 1: in and get that money. But every time I did 683 00:40:15,120 --> 00:40:20,880 Speaker 1: this is that blue? Is that blue? Back in the day, 684 00:40:20,120 --> 00:40:24,120 Speaker 1: I didn't realize it, but he was sucking me in 685 00:40:25,120 --> 00:40:29,760 Speaker 1: more and more to where I would become beholden to him. 686 00:40:29,800 --> 00:40:32,960 Speaker 1: And I got lucky that I met that guy, the 687 00:40:33,000 --> 00:40:36,239 Speaker 1: other guy. He got into this whole thing as an investor. 688 00:40:36,920 --> 00:40:42,719 Speaker 1: And I called Sam, that was his name, and I said, 689 00:40:42,920 --> 00:40:47,640 Speaker 1: is this true? This is how you used me? And 690 00:40:47,640 --> 00:40:49,879 Speaker 1: he himm did in, he hard and he couldn't sing, 691 00:40:50,760 --> 00:40:53,000 Speaker 1: and I hung up and I said I'm done, And 692 00:40:53,040 --> 00:40:55,880 Speaker 1: I went into foreclosure on all of the properties. The 693 00:40:55,960 --> 00:40:58,040 Speaker 1: banks called me in and they said, we'll make you 694 00:40:58,080 --> 00:41:02,359 Speaker 1: a deal. We'll let you pay interest only, big deal, right, 695 00:41:03,239 --> 00:41:05,440 Speaker 1: And I said no, no, no, I got it. I'm 696 00:41:05,480 --> 00:41:07,320 Speaker 1: just going to get out, no matter what it takes. 697 00:41:08,680 --> 00:41:11,640 Speaker 1: And I lost all those homes and which it was 698 00:41:11,800 --> 00:41:18,279 Speaker 1: duplexus duplexus um and I got out. And during that 699 00:41:18,320 --> 00:41:22,239 Speaker 1: time I had quit Lytton, quit Litton, quit a job 700 00:41:22,280 --> 00:41:29,680 Speaker 1: with a wife and two kids and now craigsborn. And 701 00:41:29,760 --> 00:41:32,120 Speaker 1: so Sam says, no problem, I'll get you a job 702 00:41:32,160 --> 00:41:34,480 Speaker 1: with a realator I know, and you can go and 703 00:41:34,520 --> 00:41:39,640 Speaker 1: collect rent from his properties that he owns. So I 704 00:41:39,719 --> 00:41:46,759 Speaker 1: became a muscle yeah, collector, collector, a collector making half 705 00:41:46,800 --> 00:41:48,919 Speaker 1: the amount I was making a litting and it litten. 706 00:41:48,960 --> 00:41:51,080 Speaker 1: I was rising in the ranks. I was really going 707 00:41:51,160 --> 00:41:54,800 Speaker 1: up the letter. But okay, so all this takes place 708 00:41:56,080 --> 00:41:59,319 Speaker 1: and I find all this out and I quit that 709 00:41:59,400 --> 00:42:03,840 Speaker 1: job and without a job now and I'm looking to 710 00:42:03,880 --> 00:42:07,120 Speaker 1: get back into aerospace, can't get back into Lytton. I 711 00:42:07,160 --> 00:42:09,799 Speaker 1: go to nor Tronics, where there I got lucky and 712 00:42:09,840 --> 00:42:12,279 Speaker 1: they hired me and I was there for almost a year, 713 00:42:12,800 --> 00:42:14,640 Speaker 1: and I kept looking because the kind of job. I 714 00:42:14,640 --> 00:42:17,160 Speaker 1: had a nor Tronics. I was just dealing with one 715 00:42:17,200 --> 00:42:22,840 Speaker 1: piece of equipment again testing And finally I got a 716 00:42:22,920 --> 00:42:25,040 Speaker 1: job at tier W through the back door somebody I 717 00:42:25,120 --> 00:42:27,080 Speaker 1: knew it Letton, who had already worked there. I had 718 00:42:27,120 --> 00:42:30,200 Speaker 1: already applied to Lytton to tr W through the front 719 00:42:30,200 --> 00:42:33,839 Speaker 1: door and didn't didn't have nothing happened the back door. 720 00:42:33,880 --> 00:42:37,480 Speaker 1: The guy knows me application on the top of the folders. 721 00:42:37,719 --> 00:42:41,040 Speaker 1: Before the application, I get to talk to the manager 722 00:42:41,040 --> 00:42:44,160 Speaker 1: of that department and he had me fill everything out. 723 00:42:44,280 --> 00:42:47,840 Speaker 1: He said, no problem, and uh, that's how I started. 724 00:42:47,920 --> 00:42:50,920 Speaker 1: And that's how I started working on the Apollo program, 725 00:42:50,960 --> 00:42:54,000 Speaker 1: doing with the equipment that whatever I did, and worked 726 00:42:54,040 --> 00:42:56,920 Speaker 1: my way up from being a tech to being an 727 00:42:56,920 --> 00:43:00,560 Speaker 1: engineer to be a sub project manager and got only 728 00:43:00,560 --> 00:43:03,040 Speaker 1: those who how far I could have go out if 729 00:43:03,080 --> 00:43:07,319 Speaker 1: I uh at the age of fifty eight, they gave 730 00:43:07,320 --> 00:43:10,839 Speaker 1: me the golden handshake. We'll give you a I wasn't 731 00:43:10,840 --> 00:43:13,319 Speaker 1: ready to retire, didn't have any money, We never learned 732 00:43:13,320 --> 00:43:16,920 Speaker 1: how to save our money. Mark took it all, of course. 733 00:43:20,520 --> 00:43:22,279 Speaker 1: He was about to pay for my law school. And 734 00:43:22,320 --> 00:43:28,520 Speaker 1: then he got eight and they and they of us, 735 00:43:29,440 --> 00:43:32,200 Speaker 1: they made that offer we'll give you a year's salary 736 00:43:32,480 --> 00:43:34,799 Speaker 1: or you stay stick it out and wait, wait it 737 00:43:34,840 --> 00:43:39,800 Speaker 1: out unless we uh lay you off. So at the 738 00:43:39,880 --> 00:43:44,000 Speaker 1: last minute, I decided I'm gonna take the retirement. And 739 00:43:45,440 --> 00:43:47,080 Speaker 1: I think at that point I could say the rest 740 00:43:47,120 --> 00:43:49,239 Speaker 1: is history. I didn't know how it was going to well, 741 00:43:49,280 --> 00:43:51,640 Speaker 1: I can I can say something there that that's when 742 00:43:51,640 --> 00:43:54,440 Speaker 1: I was starting law school and they were going to 743 00:43:54,719 --> 00:43:56,759 Speaker 1: like they did for my older brothers, pay for all 744 00:43:56,800 --> 00:43:59,160 Speaker 1: their schooling, they were going to pay for mine. And 745 00:43:59,200 --> 00:44:02,319 Speaker 1: then he got, uh the handshake there, and so I 746 00:44:02,360 --> 00:44:04,080 Speaker 1: was on my own to get loans in this and that. 747 00:44:04,280 --> 00:44:07,200 Speaker 1: But this is when I said, I'm going to law 748 00:44:07,320 --> 00:44:11,480 Speaker 1: school and I'm gonna let my hair grow dad, and uh, 749 00:44:11,560 --> 00:44:14,160 Speaker 1: he had very very short hair, and he said, I'm 750 00:44:14,160 --> 00:44:17,759 Speaker 1: gonna let mine grow too, and uh, you see what 751 00:44:17,840 --> 00:44:20,360 Speaker 1: happened to his hair. He got the Einstein look alike. 752 00:44:20,920 --> 00:44:24,280 Speaker 1: And that's and that's where that started his second career. 753 00:44:24,320 --> 00:44:27,800 Speaker 1: Craig basically was helping me out so I can have 754 00:44:27,840 --> 00:44:31,080 Speaker 1: a few extra bucks. And um, it was it was 755 00:44:31,120 --> 00:44:35,120 Speaker 1: two weeks at our our our office, which it was 756 00:44:35,160 --> 00:44:37,279 Speaker 1: actually in the same building. It wasn't I wasn't there. 757 00:44:37,360 --> 00:44:39,880 Speaker 1: My brother had the same in the same building, but 758 00:44:39,960 --> 00:44:42,120 Speaker 1: a different office, and there was a buddy of his 759 00:44:42,200 --> 00:44:44,799 Speaker 1: that he shared space with, Tom Capalbo, who was an 760 00:44:44,800 --> 00:44:47,080 Speaker 1: attorney friend of my brothers, who went to law school 761 00:44:47,120 --> 00:44:49,480 Speaker 1: with And he was the one who said, you know, 762 00:44:49,560 --> 00:44:51,480 Speaker 1: with your hair like that, you you you put a 763 00:44:51,560 --> 00:44:54,600 Speaker 1: mustache on you, you look like Einstein. I know, I 764 00:44:54,640 --> 00:44:56,920 Speaker 1: have I know a guy who's a look alike. Manager. 765 00:44:57,640 --> 00:44:59,759 Speaker 1: And at that time I was heavy into all the 766 00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:03,440 Speaker 1: acting things. I was acting and performing and I knew 767 00:45:03,560 --> 00:45:06,799 Speaker 1: I happened to know the makeup artist who did the 768 00:45:07,000 --> 00:45:11,239 Speaker 1: original Yeah yeah, yeah, wait, wait wait, because when when 769 00:45:11,320 --> 00:45:13,239 Speaker 1: Tom said, that's all you have to do is go 770 00:45:13,320 --> 00:45:15,799 Speaker 1: buy a mustache, Go buy one and take I think 771 00:45:15,800 --> 00:45:20,000 Speaker 1: I can grow one. No, eventually it would be decades later, 772 00:45:20,160 --> 00:45:23,280 Speaker 1: well not decades. Maybe I try to grow the mustache, 773 00:45:23,320 --> 00:45:26,920 Speaker 1: because so he says, go just go home, take pictures 774 00:45:26,920 --> 00:45:29,040 Speaker 1: of yourself. Don't go spend a lot of money, just 775 00:45:29,160 --> 00:45:33,040 Speaker 1: normal pictures of the camera, black and white, black and white. 776 00:45:33,080 --> 00:45:35,239 Speaker 1: I had a nice camera, actually, and I had a 777 00:45:35,400 --> 00:45:40,000 Speaker 1: portrait lens. So I took some headshots of myself and 778 00:45:40,040 --> 00:45:43,719 Speaker 1: I gave it to him and I had him, you know, 779 00:45:46,400 --> 00:45:50,400 Speaker 1: a week later I gave him to him. And it 780 00:45:50,520 --> 00:45:52,520 Speaker 1: was two weeks after that I get a I get 781 00:45:52,520 --> 00:45:56,680 Speaker 1: a call saying, is this uh Ben, he wants someon 782 00:45:56,800 --> 00:46:00,320 Speaker 1: Einstein look alike. I have a gig. I said, I 783 00:46:00,320 --> 00:46:02,879 Speaker 1: don't know what a gig is, and I hung up. 784 00:46:04,120 --> 00:46:06,000 Speaker 1: I saw somebody's pulling my leg and he calls me 785 00:46:06,080 --> 00:46:09,040 Speaker 1: back and he said it was a Japanese production company 786 00:46:09,080 --> 00:46:14,920 Speaker 1: that I wanted uh in Einstein and uh So he says, Benny, 787 00:46:14,960 --> 00:46:19,239 Speaker 1: do you smoke? You smoke? You don't smoke? You No, 788 00:46:19,280 --> 00:46:20,759 Speaker 1: I don't smoke. Well, you have to learn how to 789 00:46:20,760 --> 00:46:24,160 Speaker 1: smoke a pipe a pipe. So I went and I 790 00:46:24,200 --> 00:46:26,080 Speaker 1: bought a pipe at this store and the guy showed 791 00:46:26,120 --> 00:46:28,759 Speaker 1: me how to how to not only smoke it, but 792 00:46:28,880 --> 00:46:30,879 Speaker 1: clean it and and the whole. He spent an hour 793 00:46:31,000 --> 00:46:33,359 Speaker 1: with me just to do that. So I had that 794 00:46:34,040 --> 00:46:37,279 Speaker 1: when I went for that first interview, uh for that 795 00:46:37,360 --> 00:46:41,799 Speaker 1: Japanese production company. That was my first gig period and 796 00:46:41,840 --> 00:46:44,520 Speaker 1: they and they so, now in retirement, that's what you're doing. 797 00:46:44,960 --> 00:46:47,480 Speaker 1: Do you still do it quite a bit? No? This 798 00:46:47,480 --> 00:46:50,879 Speaker 1: this hopefully is I say, hopefully he's done my last 799 00:46:50,960 --> 00:46:55,120 Speaker 1: year unless somebody wants to take a photo shoot and 800 00:46:55,200 --> 00:46:57,359 Speaker 1: I'll just I don't want to. I don't want I've 801 00:46:57,360 --> 00:47:00,880 Speaker 1: done movies, I've done TV, I've done printed all over 802 00:47:00,920 --> 00:47:03,680 Speaker 1: the world. Do you have a bigger portfolio than your son? Here? Mark? 803 00:47:03,760 --> 00:47:06,000 Speaker 1: And Clay has claimed to famous. Oh look at me, 804 00:47:06,360 --> 00:47:08,480 Speaker 1: Mr Mark, to do that? Have you seen my movie? 805 00:47:08,520 --> 00:47:10,520 Speaker 1: And he's sent me is real? He said to me 806 00:47:10,560 --> 00:47:14,839 Speaker 1: about thirty times this past month. That was a different one, exactly. 807 00:47:15,040 --> 00:47:16,960 Speaker 1: I made an edit. He said it to you a 808 00:47:17,000 --> 00:47:18,799 Speaker 1: few times. He says it to everybody, Hey, have you 809 00:47:18,840 --> 00:47:21,400 Speaker 1: seen my real? Have you seen my real? The biggest 810 00:47:21,440 --> 00:47:24,000 Speaker 1: thing I did was the Pepsi commercial and that's when 811 00:47:24,040 --> 00:47:28,239 Speaker 1: I got my SAG card. When Mark Kurby, Oh my god, 812 00:47:28,280 --> 00:47:30,759 Speaker 1: I was pissed. It took him like three days were 813 00:47:30,960 --> 00:47:33,680 Speaker 1: really you know, twenty years. I'm like trying to get 814 00:47:33,680 --> 00:47:36,120 Speaker 1: into Union and do do do do do do dobody, 815 00:47:36,840 --> 00:47:39,440 Speaker 1: you know, And and he comes along, throws a mustache, 816 00:47:39,440 --> 00:47:41,839 Speaker 1: Sean grows his hair and like, here's your Sage card here, 817 00:47:41,880 --> 00:47:47,000 Speaker 1: It's it's good. Whoever thought I wouldn't end up traveling 818 00:47:47,040 --> 00:47:49,480 Speaker 1: all over the world twice, to Japan twice, to Korea, 819 00:47:49,960 --> 00:47:55,759 Speaker 1: to Athens uh Panama City kind on Barcelona where I 820 00:47:55,760 --> 00:47:59,840 Speaker 1: did a car commercial and right now, can I say this, 821 00:48:00,040 --> 00:48:02,360 Speaker 1: say whatever you want, I want to do a commercial 822 00:48:02,440 --> 00:48:07,920 Speaker 1: for Mercedes, why not? I don't. I want to. I 823 00:48:07,960 --> 00:48:12,800 Speaker 1: want to give them lifetime use for the for a car. 824 00:48:13,280 --> 00:48:17,360 Speaker 1: It's only once as a car. Manage. My manager, my 825 00:48:17,520 --> 00:48:21,600 Speaker 1: previous manager, he always would take care of that usage thing. 826 00:48:22,000 --> 00:48:24,960 Speaker 1: He said, Ben, you don't know anything about that. You know, 827 00:48:25,400 --> 00:48:28,160 Speaker 1: you get so much you can't just let somebody have 828 00:48:28,239 --> 00:48:34,520 Speaker 1: it forever. Because and with the Pepsi commercial, it was 829 00:48:34,560 --> 00:48:37,560 Speaker 1: all through SAgs, so every time they showed it, you 830 00:48:37,640 --> 00:48:40,440 Speaker 1: gotta be paid. And it was a good year. I 831 00:48:40,520 --> 00:48:43,840 Speaker 1: was on there for a whole year. That was a 832 00:48:43,840 --> 00:48:46,279 Speaker 1: good year. From that was a good It was the 833 00:48:46,320 --> 00:48:50,160 Speaker 1: Pepsi commercial. There was a little redhead girl who was 834 00:48:50,200 --> 00:48:53,680 Speaker 1: doing pepsi commercials and it was it aired first time 835 00:48:53,760 --> 00:48:58,680 Speaker 1: during the Super Bowl that year. You can google it 836 00:48:58,800 --> 00:49:04,360 Speaker 1: right now, it'll come up Pepsi commercial, Einstein Einstein and 837 00:49:04,440 --> 00:49:09,680 Speaker 1: that should pop up. But um, let's not forget Brandon 838 00:49:09,719 --> 00:49:13,280 Speaker 1: Einstein one. That's it. That's it, that's a second sixty 839 00:49:13,320 --> 00:49:16,279 Speaker 1: second one. That's my dad's super Bowl. Can I see you? 840 00:49:16,320 --> 00:49:19,920 Speaker 1: And now you're not a room? Oh there you are. 841 00:49:20,080 --> 00:49:28,280 Speaker 1: That's a great commercial. Look at you go, CoA Cola. Listen, 842 00:49:28,800 --> 00:49:33,600 Speaker 1: it's a pepper. Well, let your mother speed your speed. 843 00:49:34,360 --> 00:49:41,080 Speaker 1: They laugedly seemed of two possibilities, between which beyond inncable 844 00:49:41,200 --> 00:49:46,520 Speaker 1: giving a choice, of course, as any randomly occurring, any 845 00:49:46,560 --> 00:49:51,560 Speaker 1: good event when wound up time and space relationships, you 846 00:49:51,880 --> 00:49:59,720 Speaker 1: must invariably alive and one and absolutely only one collect choice. 847 00:50:02,239 --> 00:50:15,520 Speaker 1: That's her, That's that's her. Whole party ends with you 848 00:50:15,680 --> 00:50:19,120 Speaker 1: jumping jump at the end, he went up and click 849 00:50:19,200 --> 00:50:22,920 Speaker 1: your hills. Awesome. He's always been nimble and quick and 850 00:50:23,160 --> 00:50:24,840 Speaker 1: great doing that. And he wasn't a young cookie in 851 00:50:24,880 --> 00:50:28,200 Speaker 1: that commercial. No, no, and and and to this day, right, 852 00:50:28,280 --> 00:50:29,719 Speaker 1: I think you know he gets in there to the 853 00:50:29,760 --> 00:50:35,160 Speaker 1: batting cages every week nine Who knew the guy? Who's 854 00:50:35,200 --> 00:50:38,359 Speaker 1: the guy who somebody told him? What was the guy's name? 855 00:50:38,440 --> 00:50:41,319 Speaker 1: In Winter Garden, Florida, years and years and years ago? 856 00:50:41,400 --> 00:50:44,759 Speaker 1: You couldn't hit? Yeah, I never mentioned the coach who 857 00:50:44,840 --> 00:50:49,120 Speaker 1: couldn't hit George Wyatt and crushed him and he never 858 00:50:49,239 --> 00:50:54,359 Speaker 1: tried again five years old. What could he have done 859 00:50:54,360 --> 00:50:56,359 Speaker 1: in person? Can do that to us in life though, 860 00:50:56,440 --> 00:50:58,440 Speaker 1: And you allowed it to happen, but it happens all 861 00:50:58,480 --> 00:51:01,400 Speaker 1: across the land, I mean every time. And the moral 862 00:51:01,480 --> 00:51:03,600 Speaker 1: to what happened to you, Benny as a young man 863 00:51:03,760 --> 00:51:06,200 Speaker 1: is don't let somebody tell you you can't do it. 864 00:51:06,520 --> 00:51:08,160 Speaker 1: Who knows if you could or couldn't have you know, 865 00:51:08,239 --> 00:51:11,200 Speaker 1: they're scouts. And how many times does athletes here that? Right? Like, 866 00:51:11,280 --> 00:51:13,239 Speaker 1: there's a guy by the name of Michael Jordan's who 867 00:51:13,360 --> 00:51:15,440 Speaker 1: was told in high school that he couldn't do it. 868 00:51:16,160 --> 00:51:18,279 Speaker 1: You know what I mean? Now, listen to this though 869 00:51:18,880 --> 00:51:21,719 Speaker 1: both sides of the spectrum. Right you have you have 870 00:51:21,880 --> 00:51:23,759 Speaker 1: the guy over there you can't hit you canda and 871 00:51:23,840 --> 00:51:26,600 Speaker 1: crushed his dream. And then you have this friend to 872 00:51:26,760 --> 00:51:29,239 Speaker 1: his from the other side of the tracks, trying to 873 00:51:29,280 --> 00:51:33,160 Speaker 1: get read that says here, here's a book, here's a book. 874 00:51:33,239 --> 00:51:35,719 Speaker 1: Go to school. Here's another book. Here's another one. He 875 00:51:35,800 --> 00:51:38,000 Speaker 1: doesn't read him, he throws whatever. And then he gets 876 00:51:38,120 --> 00:51:40,480 Speaker 1: married and gets a book for a gift. Did you 877 00:51:40,520 --> 00:51:41,759 Speaker 1: ever get a hold of him and realize what that 878 00:51:41,800 --> 00:51:44,880 Speaker 1: book was about? And then the metal last tray, and 879 00:51:45,200 --> 00:51:47,600 Speaker 1: and and and and his friend's name was Carl. I 880 00:51:47,840 --> 00:51:51,279 Speaker 1: think now is a good time to tell everybody who 881 00:51:51,400 --> 00:51:53,480 Speaker 1: car well Carl's the guy who gave him the books. 882 00:51:53,600 --> 00:51:56,520 Speaker 1: Carl Lewis the runner. No, his name was got the 883 00:51:57,120 --> 00:52:02,200 Speaker 1: first initial right of his last name, l Levin, Carl Levin. 884 00:52:02,440 --> 00:52:06,200 Speaker 1: Should I know that name? Activists? You will in a minute, 885 00:52:07,400 --> 00:52:10,520 Speaker 1: Carl Levin. Mark, who I said was the president of 886 00:52:10,560 --> 00:52:14,400 Speaker 1: the City Council in Detroit in v six went on 887 00:52:14,480 --> 00:52:17,160 Speaker 1: to become a you United States Senator from the state 888 00:52:17,239 --> 00:52:21,120 Speaker 1: of Michigan, Okay, and remained there for thirty six years. 889 00:52:21,680 --> 00:52:26,600 Speaker 1: Just retired two years ago. And that is the individual, 890 00:52:27,840 --> 00:52:32,279 Speaker 1: like Mark just said, to ends of the spectrum, someone 891 00:52:32,360 --> 00:52:35,080 Speaker 1: who said don't do it, someone who said do it. 892 00:52:35,560 --> 00:52:41,360 Speaker 1: And I'm listening to both of Right, you're just a sponge. 893 00:52:41,480 --> 00:52:43,120 Speaker 1: Tell me what to do, soak me up and I'll 894 00:52:43,160 --> 00:52:45,240 Speaker 1: do it. No, that's right. That's the way I operated 895 00:52:45,280 --> 00:52:50,120 Speaker 1: on my job. Whatever the boss, I'm a direct me 896 00:52:50,480 --> 00:52:55,200 Speaker 1: and Benny will do it. So Chucky my friend from 897 00:52:55,360 --> 00:52:58,839 Speaker 1: the the hood, Chucky, which is Carl. No, No, Chuck, 898 00:52:58,840 --> 00:53:00,879 Speaker 1: he's another guy, Chucky's the hood. Chuckie is the guy. 899 00:53:04,600 --> 00:53:07,320 Speaker 1: So I was a follower all my life. I was 900 00:53:07,360 --> 00:53:09,839 Speaker 1: a follower, and that's the one thing I didn't want 901 00:53:09,880 --> 00:53:12,880 Speaker 1: my kids to be a follower. I wanted them to 902 00:53:13,040 --> 00:53:16,400 Speaker 1: learn to be independent. And at one point I m 903 00:53:17,360 --> 00:53:21,080 Speaker 1: in aerospace. I felt on the edge every day at work. 904 00:53:21,120 --> 00:53:23,000 Speaker 1: I was going to get laid off. That was a 905 00:53:23,080 --> 00:53:25,640 Speaker 1: feeling I had, the way things are going in the 906 00:53:25,680 --> 00:53:29,040 Speaker 1: country and whatever. And I try to influence them to 907 00:53:30,080 --> 00:53:32,200 Speaker 1: if they were going to go to school, learn something 908 00:53:32,360 --> 00:53:35,440 Speaker 1: where you can either hang up your own single or 909 00:53:35,520 --> 00:53:37,360 Speaker 1: go to work for someone. Let it be your choice, 910 00:53:38,280 --> 00:53:41,960 Speaker 1: labor or whatever. And not everybody's made to be be 911 00:53:42,080 --> 00:53:44,759 Speaker 1: in business for themselves, right, so you work for somebody else, 912 00:53:44,800 --> 00:53:47,920 Speaker 1: but recognize that you have a choice that way. So 913 00:53:48,760 --> 00:53:51,200 Speaker 1: my first one comes along and I'm patting myself on 914 00:53:51,280 --> 00:53:55,400 Speaker 1: the back. He's reading. He's a sponge, he's everything I 915 00:53:55,719 --> 00:53:59,520 Speaker 1: talked about getting him into. Everything was about medicine. That 916 00:53:59,640 --> 00:54:01,640 Speaker 1: doesn't mean you have to be a doctor or a surgeon. 917 00:54:01,680 --> 00:54:03,320 Speaker 1: You could be an X ray technician. You can be 918 00:54:03,360 --> 00:54:05,560 Speaker 1: a nurse. Thank god, he's a lot like Fern then, 919 00:54:05,640 --> 00:54:08,200 Speaker 1: is what you're saying. You need those kind of people 920 00:54:08,239 --> 00:54:10,400 Speaker 1: are needed everywhere in the world. You don't have to 921 00:54:10,400 --> 00:54:13,640 Speaker 1: worry about not ever having a job. You can always 922 00:54:13,640 --> 00:54:16,080 Speaker 1: get a job. And so Michael goes ahead and he 923 00:54:16,160 --> 00:54:20,319 Speaker 1: becomes a doctor. Unbelievable. And then my other two come 924 00:54:20,360 --> 00:54:23,960 Speaker 1: along and they don't do very well in high school. 925 00:54:24,480 --> 00:54:29,759 Speaker 1: They're c minus averages and tell Craig he doesn't have 926 00:54:29,840 --> 00:54:32,799 Speaker 1: to go to college. He doesn't have to. And Craig said, 927 00:54:32,840 --> 00:54:34,600 Speaker 1: don't you think my brother is smarter than me? And 928 00:54:34,680 --> 00:54:37,359 Speaker 1: I said, no, no, you don't read. You don't read, man, 929 00:54:38,040 --> 00:54:40,880 Speaker 1: You've got to read to get through it all. And 930 00:54:41,080 --> 00:54:45,200 Speaker 1: so he goes to community how he starts at seriously, serrita, 931 00:54:45,600 --> 00:54:49,280 Speaker 1: sera and uh. Right away he gets on the debate team. 932 00:54:50,080 --> 00:54:53,440 Speaker 1: I said, how the fund are you going to paint anybody? 933 00:54:53,719 --> 00:54:56,239 Speaker 1: You don't read anything? He says, they give us three 934 00:54:56,280 --> 00:54:59,080 Speaker 1: by five cards and it's all written down what we're 935 00:54:59,120 --> 00:55:01,680 Speaker 1: gonna say. And then I, one way or another, I 936 00:55:01,800 --> 00:55:06,320 Speaker 1: figured out I just argue with the guy who's on 937 00:55:06,400 --> 00:55:09,560 Speaker 1: the other side and try to find holes in his arguments. 938 00:55:10,840 --> 00:55:13,840 Speaker 1: I said, Oh, that's the way you do it. I said, well, however, however, 939 00:55:14,200 --> 00:55:16,440 Speaker 1: so he goes on to finish Cerritos, goes on to 940 00:55:16,560 --> 00:55:19,520 Speaker 1: U C L A and Uh, and then there's then 941 00:55:19,600 --> 00:55:22,280 Speaker 1: there's Mark, and then you know, he goes to law school, 942 00:55:22,440 --> 00:55:25,160 Speaker 1: passes the bar first time around, No, Craig passed the 943 00:55:25,200 --> 00:55:30,040 Speaker 1: first time around. Mark, didn't that correct? Yeah, thank you, 944 00:55:30,560 --> 00:55:33,880 Speaker 1: thank you for basing not correcting your own story. It 945 00:55:34,040 --> 00:55:37,400 Speaker 1: three times. I took it three yeah, I remember it 946 00:55:37,520 --> 00:55:39,480 Speaker 1: that way. I passed it first, no problem, no problem. 947 00:55:39,520 --> 00:55:42,480 Speaker 1: And I was an actor first. I mean, until this day, 948 00:55:42,480 --> 00:55:44,720 Speaker 1: I don't understand how you don't read through high school, 949 00:55:45,280 --> 00:55:48,480 Speaker 1: you make it through U C l A. I don't know, 950 00:55:48,760 --> 00:55:50,680 Speaker 1: you know, you just I don't know. He didn't have 951 00:55:50,840 --> 00:55:53,120 Speaker 1: that great of a great point. That's why he he 952 00:55:53,160 --> 00:55:55,759 Speaker 1: couldn't make it into like Harvard or any of those 953 00:55:55,840 --> 00:55:57,560 Speaker 1: kind of schools. That's why he went to Western State, 954 00:55:57,920 --> 00:56:04,120 Speaker 1: which was an unaccredited school at the time. Mark, No, no, oh, sorry, Craig. 955 00:56:05,440 --> 00:56:09,600 Speaker 1: Craig as well, yes, under yes, okay Mark. All he 956 00:56:09,760 --> 00:56:12,040 Speaker 1: ever wanted was to be an actor, right and so, 957 00:56:12,680 --> 00:56:17,879 Speaker 1: which he does at the courthouse. Yeah. Yeah. So when 958 00:56:17,880 --> 00:56:20,200 Speaker 1: I was on jury duty once and the judge asked me, 959 00:56:20,320 --> 00:56:22,359 Speaker 1: They always asked the potential jurys, so what do your 960 00:56:22,440 --> 00:56:25,440 Speaker 1: kids do? And I said, well, one's a doctor, and 961 00:56:25,719 --> 00:56:28,600 Speaker 1: uh and one's a lawyer, and one's a lawyer actor 962 00:56:29,560 --> 00:56:31,840 Speaker 1: and the judge and the judge says actor lawyer, the 963 00:56:31,920 --> 00:56:36,840 Speaker 1: same thing exactly. That's awesome, isn't that the damn truth? 964 00:56:36,960 --> 00:56:40,680 Speaker 1: You're excuse, no excuse, he had to stay here, they 965 00:56:40,760 --> 00:56:45,280 Speaker 1: let you go. No. I uh, I was only excused 966 00:56:45,320 --> 00:56:48,200 Speaker 1: once because I learned he loves juries being on that 967 00:56:48,320 --> 00:56:50,799 Speaker 1: I've been. I've been on ten of them, and after 968 00:56:50,880 --> 00:56:53,640 Speaker 1: I got excused, and the very first one when they 969 00:56:53,719 --> 00:57:00,160 Speaker 1: do the questioning when the attorney bad dire dire never 970 00:57:00,239 --> 00:57:04,239 Speaker 1: heard that word, but thank you. Just to give an example, uh, 971 00:57:04,400 --> 00:57:08,600 Speaker 1: let's say the defendant was someone who stole stuff from burglary, 972 00:57:09,239 --> 00:57:11,840 Speaker 1: and and so the question would be asking ball as jurors, 973 00:57:12,040 --> 00:57:15,080 Speaker 1: have any of you ever been burglarized? What's the other 974 00:57:15,120 --> 00:57:18,520 Speaker 1: word for? If it's not burglary, robbery, robbery, Well, burglarized 975 00:57:18,600 --> 00:57:21,200 Speaker 1: it's different because we got had someone breaking into our 976 00:57:21,280 --> 00:57:24,680 Speaker 1: home and so I raised my hand, Yeah, I was burglarized. 977 00:57:25,280 --> 00:57:32,000 Speaker 1: Next thing, I know, you're excused. I learned that's one 978 00:57:32,080 --> 00:57:34,120 Speaker 1: good way of getting off if you want to get off, 979 00:57:34,920 --> 00:57:36,560 Speaker 1: if you know what the cases about, and they tell 980 00:57:36,600 --> 00:57:39,760 Speaker 1: you basically what the case is about. Has anybody been 981 00:57:39,840 --> 00:57:43,120 Speaker 1: racially profiled? Yes? Okay, perfect, see later. I mean they 982 00:57:43,120 --> 00:57:44,880 Speaker 1: would ask me, is anybody in your family and the 983 00:57:45,400 --> 00:57:49,240 Speaker 1: law enforcement. Well, I had a cousin friend's cousin. But 984 00:57:49,360 --> 00:57:52,160 Speaker 1: I learned after that first instance, I don't have to 985 00:57:52,200 --> 00:57:55,600 Speaker 1: say anything. So you're the creator of the STF. You 986 00:57:57,640 --> 00:58:00,440 Speaker 1: you're the one who created you know. I knew these 987 00:58:00,480 --> 00:58:02,560 Speaker 1: boys couldn't come up with it on their own. I 988 00:58:02,720 --> 00:58:05,400 Speaker 1: knew you had it in you. Many come on, Mark 989 00:58:05,480 --> 00:58:07,760 Speaker 1: and Craig trying to take all this credit when early 990 00:58:07,920 --> 00:58:10,920 Speaker 1: on you're the one who figured just shut the funk up. 991 00:58:11,120 --> 00:58:13,919 Speaker 1: I mean, they all felt, and maybe it's generally true, 992 00:58:14,000 --> 00:58:17,600 Speaker 1: statistically true, that you can have a bias in one 993 00:58:17,640 --> 00:58:19,640 Speaker 1: direction or the other and day to one bias people 994 00:58:19,720 --> 00:58:22,600 Speaker 1: on the jury for the defendants or the other side, 995 00:58:22,640 --> 00:58:26,120 Speaker 1: so they start knocking people off, and it's crazy. I 996 00:58:26,200 --> 00:58:28,560 Speaker 1: always felt that I've got a good enough head that 997 00:58:28,640 --> 00:58:31,840 Speaker 1: I can put that aside, and I always did. Well, 998 00:58:31,880 --> 00:58:33,920 Speaker 1: I think so too, And knowing where you came from 999 00:58:34,000 --> 00:58:36,280 Speaker 1: in Detroit, knowing that you walked that line from the 1000 00:58:36,360 --> 00:58:39,800 Speaker 1: hood and too nice silver spoons, you better will see that. 1001 00:58:40,000 --> 00:58:43,880 Speaker 1: And you were treated probably more hoodish back in Detroit, 1002 00:58:44,000 --> 00:58:46,960 Speaker 1: So I would imagine rolling that dice and judging a 1003 00:58:47,080 --> 00:58:50,800 Speaker 1: person's character. You have a more open look on kids 1004 00:58:50,840 --> 00:58:52,920 Speaker 1: from the hood, people from the hood, So therefore you 1005 00:58:53,000 --> 00:58:55,400 Speaker 1: can judge them a little more with an open eye 1006 00:58:55,480 --> 00:58:58,640 Speaker 1: rather than you're guilty, you're guilty, you said, have a bit. No, 1007 00:58:59,000 --> 00:59:02,080 Speaker 1: here's the thing, it's not a matter of being sensitive 1008 00:59:02,120 --> 00:59:05,160 Speaker 1: to anybody's plight in life. Are the facts there to 1009 00:59:05,320 --> 00:59:07,440 Speaker 1: determine whether you're guilty or not. But I mean a 1010 00:59:07,520 --> 00:59:09,400 Speaker 1: lot of times it's just stereotyped and a lot of 1011 00:59:09,440 --> 00:59:12,320 Speaker 1: people up there, they walk into and people will feel 1012 00:59:12,360 --> 00:59:14,200 Speaker 1: that way. So my point is you're gonna wait for 1013 00:59:14,400 --> 00:59:16,920 Speaker 1: the facts and look at it and weigh it all 1014 00:59:16,960 --> 00:59:19,320 Speaker 1: out and not just go, oh, look at this freaking 1015 00:59:19,360 --> 00:59:22,720 Speaker 1: beaner walking in. Is that Joe Lopez perfect, he's guilty. No, 1016 00:59:22,880 --> 00:59:25,720 Speaker 1: I'm one of the first. Yes, I'm One of the 1017 00:59:25,800 --> 00:59:30,320 Speaker 1: cases I had was a position of marijuana, and the 1018 00:59:30,920 --> 00:59:36,000 Speaker 1: vote was tended to and ten to convict, no to no. 1019 00:59:36,720 --> 00:59:43,480 Speaker 1: Ten were for acquittal, acquittal, acquittal, and two ten were 1020 00:59:43,520 --> 00:59:45,640 Speaker 1: for acquittal. I was one of the ten that was 1021 00:59:45,720 --> 00:59:48,200 Speaker 1: for acquittal, and there was the two who were holding out. 1022 00:59:48,920 --> 00:59:50,800 Speaker 1: So the first thing you do is you asked them, 1023 00:59:51,600 --> 00:59:54,800 Speaker 1: those jurors why they were holding out, and one woman said, 1024 00:59:56,480 --> 00:59:59,480 Speaker 1: if you oh, no, no, no, no, okay, I got 1025 00:59:59,560 --> 01:00:02,480 Speaker 1: this a little bit, just a little bit wrong. Anybody 1026 01:00:02,520 --> 01:00:05,320 Speaker 1: who smokes marijuana has got abuilty of whatever crime that 1027 01:00:05,400 --> 01:00:09,200 Speaker 1: they had committed. That was the rationale that they were using. 1028 01:00:10,040 --> 01:00:14,160 Speaker 1: If someone smokes marijuana, they're guilty of that crime, period, 1029 01:00:14,200 --> 01:00:16,600 Speaker 1: because you're a bad person. Oh God. And so we 1030 01:00:16,640 --> 01:00:20,040 Speaker 1: asked the second lady. I don't want to emphasize the lady. 1031 01:00:20,120 --> 01:00:22,760 Speaker 1: It's just so happened. There were two women, and the 1032 01:00:22,840 --> 01:00:25,440 Speaker 1: other lady says whatever she says, I go along with. 1033 01:00:26,280 --> 01:00:29,240 Speaker 1: She's a puppet. This is in the versus in the 1034 01:00:29,360 --> 01:00:33,560 Speaker 1: jury room. And so those experiences which I have all 1035 01:00:33,600 --> 01:00:36,840 Speaker 1: written in my years of journal writing. But that's the 1036 01:00:36,880 --> 01:00:40,600 Speaker 1: whole difference. That's thirty five years straight, every day since 1037 01:00:40,640 --> 01:00:43,560 Speaker 1: he was unbelievable. He's written in his I can't wait 1038 01:00:43,640 --> 01:00:45,840 Speaker 1: to read that. Well, you know, as we get to 1039 01:00:45,880 --> 01:00:48,520 Speaker 1: wrap up, we can probably talk for hours and hours 1040 01:00:48,640 --> 01:00:51,400 Speaker 1: and hours with you, Benny, because there's no end to 1041 01:00:51,520 --> 01:00:54,560 Speaker 1: the Benny Wasserman story of life and getting into your books, 1042 01:00:54,600 --> 01:00:57,000 Speaker 1: which we didn't get into. But I mean we're coming 1043 01:00:57,120 --> 01:01:00,160 Speaker 1: up on here an hour, and I just want to say, 1044 01:01:00,240 --> 01:01:04,280 Speaker 1: Benny Wasserman, you know, husband of Fern, father of three 1045 01:01:04,320 --> 01:01:08,280 Speaker 1: amazing boys that are nice men, and a great grandfather. 1046 01:01:08,360 --> 01:01:10,720 Speaker 1: That's what counts, that's what you know. That's your legacy 1047 01:01:10,840 --> 01:01:12,080 Speaker 1: right there. I don't want to I don't want to 1048 01:01:12,080 --> 01:01:14,200 Speaker 1: be known as the father of the doctor and two lawyers, 1049 01:01:14,240 --> 01:01:15,960 Speaker 1: which I've always being told you should be prodded, you 1050 01:01:15,960 --> 01:01:18,840 Speaker 1: should be proud. I want to be told there are 1051 01:01:18,880 --> 01:01:21,920 Speaker 1: two great guys who don't take advantage of people, and 1052 01:01:22,120 --> 01:01:28,080 Speaker 1: who are said too, what about to take advantage of people? 1053 01:01:28,200 --> 01:01:30,480 Speaker 1: He's no, you got to pay me extra and I'll 1054 01:01:30,520 --> 01:01:33,000 Speaker 1: fix you. No way, no way if you only know 1055 01:01:33,160 --> 01:01:36,680 Speaker 1: his story. Oh my god. Well I can't because the 1056 01:01:36,760 --> 01:01:38,960 Speaker 1: boys don't talk about remember Marcaret Craig. I can't get 1057 01:01:39,000 --> 01:01:43,680 Speaker 1: a peep out of their older brother, Fredo. Fredo. Where's Fredo? 1058 01:01:43,920 --> 01:01:46,560 Speaker 1: He's the bad Fredo meeting the bad outlaw from the mob. 1059 01:01:47,320 --> 01:01:52,080 Speaker 1: Look at him. Benny Washerman, it's a pleasure of having 1060 01:01:52,160 --> 01:01:55,000 Speaker 1: you on the Grande Washed Show. Make sure you check 1061 01:01:55,080 --> 01:01:58,280 Speaker 1: us out Grande and Washed dot com. We appreciate it. Mark, 1062 01:01:58,360 --> 01:02:00,520 Speaker 1: thank you so much for bringing your dad here, and 1063 01:02:00,640 --> 01:02:03,480 Speaker 1: thank you for spending this morning of your birthday as 1064 01:02:03,560 --> 01:02:06,920 Speaker 1: we recorded this on your birthday exactly. You know what 1065 01:02:07,080 --> 01:02:09,720 Speaker 1: this is? What when it opened up the opportunity and 1066 01:02:09,800 --> 01:02:13,080 Speaker 1: I heard you were gonna keep this place, it was 1067 01:02:13,200 --> 01:02:17,440 Speaker 1: just what do they say, synergistic? Yes, it's meant to 1068 01:02:17,520 --> 01:02:19,920 Speaker 1: be so, Benny. We look forward to having you on 1069 01:02:20,080 --> 01:02:21,920 Speaker 1: more and more, and I look forward to hearing and 1070 01:02:22,080 --> 01:02:24,560 Speaker 1: learning more and more about you, as I truly am 1071 01:02:24,640 --> 01:02:28,400 Speaker 1: intrigued on learning about my friend's parents, and especially since 1072 01:02:28,800 --> 01:02:31,160 Speaker 1: me and your brother your sons have become so close. 1073 01:02:31,560 --> 01:02:33,880 Speaker 1: As you know, I'm really close with this drunk right here. 1074 01:02:36,760 --> 01:02:40,360 Speaker 1: Maybe maybe maybe you'll be the first one and only 1075 01:02:40,480 --> 01:02:44,800 Speaker 1: one to read my autobiography. God William, as my wife says, 1076 01:02:44,840 --> 01:02:49,080 Speaker 1: if I if I don't, if if she lives longer 1077 01:02:49,120 --> 01:02:53,600 Speaker 1: than I do, she's burning it. It's getting burned. I 1078 01:02:53,680 --> 01:02:56,280 Speaker 1: can't wait because I know you started, if I believe, 1079 01:02:56,400 --> 01:02:59,920 Speaker 1: right when he was a teenager. So therefore these teenage 1080 01:03:00,080 --> 01:03:04,320 Speaker 1: years got to be crazy. I'm saying, Mark's teenagers is 1081 01:03:04,360 --> 01:03:06,840 Speaker 1: when you started writing. You see, I already know these things. 1082 01:03:07,360 --> 01:03:09,560 Speaker 1: Is that that tell you how Jewish I am already? 1083 01:03:09,760 --> 01:03:12,160 Speaker 1: How are your Jewish Mexican sent By the way, I mean, 1084 01:03:12,240 --> 01:03:16,280 Speaker 1: I'm adopted in the ju be. The thing is more 1085 01:03:16,320 --> 01:03:20,560 Speaker 1: stud This stuff about Mark is in my journal. Okay, okay, 1086 01:03:21,080 --> 01:03:25,160 Speaker 1: I summarized. The autobiography is basically all because I just 1087 01:03:25,240 --> 01:03:26,880 Speaker 1: can't wait for you to go home tonight and write 1088 01:03:26,920 --> 01:03:30,680 Speaker 1: about your son's mother in law. Don't figure out that 1089 01:03:30,800 --> 01:03:33,400 Speaker 1: part of the story, no, he said, Okay, we're not 1090 01:03:33,520 --> 01:03:36,000 Speaker 1: going there. But Mark, it is a real life story. 1091 01:03:36,040 --> 01:03:37,840 Speaker 1: We all have mother in law's. We all have and 1092 01:03:37,880 --> 01:03:39,960 Speaker 1: if you don't, good luck to you. It's a blessing 1093 01:03:40,440 --> 01:03:42,360 Speaker 1: either way. The grass is not greener on that decide. 1094 01:03:42,400 --> 01:03:44,640 Speaker 1: We'll talk about that another time. It'll be part of 1095 01:03:44,720 --> 01:03:47,240 Speaker 1: the show. But thank you again, Benny, Thank you again 1096 01:03:47,360 --> 01:03:50,800 Speaker 1: Mark for coming on. It is grande and wasas Thank 1097 01:03:50,880 --> 01:03:53,000 Speaker 1: you for listening to Cannabis Talk one on one on 1098 01:03:53,080 --> 01:03:56,280 Speaker 1: the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you 1099 01:03:56,400 --> 01:03:57,400 Speaker 1: get your podcasts.