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Speaker 1: You know, everybody looks at me and go, oh, my goodness,

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Speaker 1: you you know you've lost so much. You lost so much.

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Speaker 1: I didn't lose nothing. God gave me a gift for

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Speaker 1: eight years with Samantho, and he gave me a gift

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Speaker 1: for thirty three years. That changed my life, I said,

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Speaker 1: and I said, I couldn't trade that for anything. Who

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Speaker 1: would I be today if I never experienced those two

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Speaker 1: people in my life.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to an army of normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney.

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Speaker 2: I'm a normal guy. I'm a husband, I'm a father,

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Speaker 2: I'm an entrepreneur, and I've been a football coach in

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Speaker 2: Inner City Memphis. And the last part it unintentionally led

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Speaker 2: to an oscar for the film about our team called Undefeated.

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Speaker 2: I believe our country's problems will never be solved by

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Speaker 2: a bunch of fancy people and nice suits using big

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Speaker 2: words that nobody really understands on CNN and Fox, but

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Speaker 2: rather by an army of normal folks. Guys, that's us,

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Speaker 2: just you and me, seeing need and opportunity in saying hey,

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Speaker 2: I can help. That's what Gilbert has has done. Gilbert

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Speaker 2: lost his eight year old daughter, Samantha to cancer. And

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Speaker 2: then lost his wife, Nicole, who was forty nine. And yet,

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Speaker 2: as you just heard, he doesn't have a victim mindset

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Speaker 2: about it, not anywhere close. Gilbert is honoring them with

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Speaker 2: his dirt track racing car that he named Nicole's Dream,

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Speaker 2: which was to have a car that raises awareness for

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Speaker 2: childhood cancer and funding to cure it. He's raised forty

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Speaker 2: six thousand dollars for Saint Jude and other causes in

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Speaker 2: less than two years. I cannot wait for you to

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Speaker 2: meet this truly normal dude and hero. Right after these

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Speaker 2: brief messages from our general sponsors, Gilbert hes, Welcome to Memphis.

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Speaker 2: Thank you. Where'd you come from?

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Speaker 1: I actually live in Inwood, West Virginia, but I grew

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Speaker 1: up in Gerardstown, West Virginia.

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Speaker 2: So where'd you flying from?

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Speaker 1: From Dollas Airport? I work at You're not at Airlines

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Speaker 1: down at Dallas Airport?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? What do you do with United?

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Speaker 1: I'm a GSSE mechanic, ground service ground service equipment mechanic.

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Speaker 1: For you're out of airlines for twenty five years.

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Speaker 2: I don't even know what that means.

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Speaker 1: Well, I'll put I'll pitch you to you this way

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Speaker 1: when you're on a flight and you look out the window.

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Speaker 1: Everything you see on the ground, that's what we work on.

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Speaker 1: We don't touch the airplanes or we don't touch the buildings.

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Speaker 2: But you fix all those like white, flat looking odd

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Speaker 2: vehicles that that got the conveyors on them.

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Speaker 1: We'll touch anything from a hand cart all the way

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Speaker 1: up to you know, a half a million dollar cargo loaded.

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Speaker 1: It loads the freight into the You.

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Speaker 2: Know, I've always wondered those tug things that pull around

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Speaker 2: the They look like a train. They pull around the

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Speaker 2: containers full of bags, you know, and they're not covered

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Speaker 2: or anything. I bet during the winter those stink to

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Speaker 2: drive around.

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Speaker 1: We have some that are covered and some that are not. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: they those guys though sometimes I don't have to do it,

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Speaker 1: but I work like I've got a nice pre record

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Speaker 1: around around. But they get theirself all dressed up and

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Speaker 1: they wear ski goggles.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I thought that job stuff. So your ground curtificate,

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Speaker 2: you fix all that stuff. The services, the airport service services.

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Speaker 1: You're not airlines, not the airport is selling just just

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Speaker 1: our airline got.

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Speaker 2: It all right. So I'm gonna read how we know

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Speaker 2: about you, and then we'll go back and then we'll

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Speaker 2: get Well, I'm gonna I'm gonna flash point your story.

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Speaker 2: I'm really interested kind of how you grew up to

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Speaker 2: to get to where this story brought us, and then

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Speaker 2: we'll get to what you're doing now. As a result

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Speaker 2: of this story, we got an email from a listener

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Speaker 2: named Russell Ward. Now, who is Russell Ward?

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Speaker 1: To you? Russe Ward. I met him and actually met

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Speaker 1: him at Port Royal Speedway. I guess I want to

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Speaker 1: say this last year might have been a year before

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Speaker 1: last up. He does the racing outreach ministries and he

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Speaker 1: had his uh he has he has a show car

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Speaker 1: that he does that's all dressed up with what he

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Speaker 1: does with that. And we just met and I started

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Speaker 1: talking to him about my program and then we just

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Speaker 1: stayed in touch and then he had me speak at

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Speaker 1: Eldor Speedway during the week of the World one hundred

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Speaker 1: out there. I was out there racing and he said, Hey,

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Speaker 1: I'd like did you come up and give a testimony?

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Speaker 1: And I said, oh, sure, I said absolutely, and so

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Speaker 1: we went up and did that.

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Speaker 2: Well, this is from Russell Ward. Bill. I have a

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Speaker 2: friend that might be a great story for your podcast.

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Speaker 2: In short, his name is Gilbert Hess. He and his

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Speaker 2: wife lost their young daughter to cancer. They wanted to

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Speaker 2: start a charity to raise money for Saint Jude in

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Speaker 2: honor of their daughter. Before they could get started, his

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Speaker 2: wife was then also diagnosed with cancer and she passed

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Speaker 2: away as well. Man, when I hear that, I'm sorry,

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Speaker 2: but that's now I'm interjecting in the middle.

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Speaker 1: But I don't want to interrupt you. But he got

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Speaker 1: that a little bit he got He probably lost it

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Speaker 1: in translation by my wife. Actually out of COVID.

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Speaker 2: You got got COVID.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, a lot of people get it. They get it

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Speaker 1: mixed up. They hear the word cancer, so they stick

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Speaker 1: with that. And then but yeah, she actually passed away

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Speaker 1: on March fourth, twenty twenty one, with of COVID. I

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Speaker 1: woke up and she was gone at our home. It's

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Speaker 1: it's not fat.

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Speaker 2: We finished this thing that he wrote, and I'm glad

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Speaker 2: you straighten it out. But well, let me find out.

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Speaker 2: Before they could get started, his wife was diagnosed with cancer.

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Speaker 2: That's wrong. His wife got COVID and she passed away

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Speaker 2: as well. He has taken on that task and is

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Speaker 2: now it is his passion. He calls Nicole's dream. Last

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Speaker 2: year he sent Saint Jude's over twenty five thousand dollars

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Speaker 2: and over five thousand dollars an aid to West Virginia

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Speaker 2: Children's Hospital, pretty much all by himself. He gathers up items,

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Speaker 2: he holds auctions, he sends money to children's charities. He

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Speaker 2: also gathers gifts for kids at hospitals and much much more.

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Speaker 2: You really need to talk to him about it. I'm

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Speaker 2: doing a story, no justice. There's so much more than

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Speaker 2: a thanks, Russell Ward. I've first of all Kleenex alert

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Speaker 2: for all you listeners. You really shouldn't have to hear

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Speaker 2: much more than that to know. Oh, our friend Gilbert

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Speaker 2: has hears had some some pretty tough times since trauma's life,

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Speaker 2: and instead of it crippling him, he's answered it. And

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Speaker 2: we're going to get to that Gilbert, for sure, but

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Speaker 2: I kind of want to. Obviously, racing is a massive

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Speaker 2: part of your life, dirt track racing, which is, you know,

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Speaker 2: my limited understanding of racing, which really has its genesis

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Speaker 2: in the Carolinas and Virginia's and all of that I

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Speaker 2: think comes from bootleggers back in the prohibition days. Is

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Speaker 2: that not right?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's how that's how they say that the birth

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Speaker 1: of NASCAR began. So is that yeah, right, yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: a dirt well, I guess so, I guess they were

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Speaker 1: dirt tracking way before NASCAR got started. So you know,

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Speaker 1: so it all, it all come from that, you know. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: they've worked their way up through the ranks.

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Speaker 2: And up, up and down the I mean now they

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Speaker 2: have these massive speedways and all. And I know you're

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Speaker 2: a dart track guy, but up and down kind of

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Speaker 2: the Southeastern coast, that's where racing really. I mean, it's

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Speaker 2: in the blood of folks over there.

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Speaker 1: Oh, if you go through p A, I mean there's

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Speaker 1: a race track seems like on every corner. I mean, yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's that's that's the biggest state and I think in

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Speaker 1: the world.

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Speaker 2: For everybody wants to go fast in circles.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just it's just an amazing state. You know,

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Speaker 1: you could go you could go there. They have like

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Speaker 1: a thing called Pennsylvania speed Weeks, and you're there's just

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Speaker 1: so many tracks involved and.

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Speaker 2: Gosh, all right, So how did you get your how

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Speaker 2: did you grow up? Well, did you get your start?

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Speaker 2: You know, it was the racing bug in your in

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Speaker 2: your life from the beginning. Tell me, tell me how

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Speaker 2: you raised where you came from.

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Speaker 1: Just about every Sunday, my dad would take us to

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Speaker 1: Haggerstown Speedway and Haggerstown, Maryland for the races. I guess

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Speaker 1: I can remember that. Yeah, dirt track and I still

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Speaker 1: race there to this day. Really yes, and uh and uh,

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Speaker 1: Lisa Plessenger and entire Plessenger family have been amazing supporting

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Speaker 1: me and back of me and everything that I do.

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Speaker 1: But uh, it's it's funny because my dad was best

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Speaker 1: friends with my bus driver when I was a kid,

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Speaker 1: and so he would step beside behind us with his family,

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Speaker 1: and uh so we I just I just remember a

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Speaker 1: lot of fun days as a child. You know, they're

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Speaker 1: standing between my dad and back then, we didn't you know,

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Speaker 1: you didn't have ear mufs to keep the sound out.

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Speaker 1: So he would tear it inside of his jacket open

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Speaker 1: and poolcott now and stuff it in your ears, you know,

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Speaker 1: because the cars are so loud and everything, and you know,

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Speaker 1: we just sit and watched the greats back then, you know,

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Speaker 1: and and just it was just a fun time and

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Speaker 1: we just you almost got sick on your stomach if

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Speaker 1: you missed a Sunday or or if you get there,

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Speaker 1: it would rain. You know, you'd be lost because that

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Speaker 1: was a part of our life when we were kids.

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Speaker 2: Well I think you know I had I've not gonna

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Speaker 2: call them friends, but acquaintances that did dirt race and

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Speaker 2: oh for in the in West See. And the thing

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Speaker 2: that I learned about it is, I mean it's almost

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Speaker 2: a family affair to have a car. And you know,

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Speaker 2: we see NASCAR and TV and all these pits and wealth,

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Speaker 2: dirt track racers are doing it for the love of

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Speaker 2: the race, and they're spending there A lot of those

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Speaker 2: guys are spending their free time working on their cars,

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Speaker 2: getting them ready for racing. I mean, and they're literally

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Speaker 2: fixing them up in barns out back of the house.

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Speaker 2: I mean, it's a very blue collar, all hands on

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Speaker 2: duck doing it for the love of the race, not

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Speaker 2: for anything else. I mean, is that accurate.

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Speaker 1: It's one hundred percent accurate. And I like the fact

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Speaker 1: that you brought up about the family aspect because a

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Speaker 1: lot of these teams are one hundred percent all family, aunts, uncles,

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Speaker 1: you know, cousins. And then you know, like I said,

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Speaker 1: for myself, without my brother and sister, I couldn't even

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Speaker 1: do what I do. But you know, the whole atmosphere

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Speaker 1: is a family atmosphere. You can be at the track

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Speaker 1: and crash your car and you would have new less

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Speaker 1: than maybe ten or twelve people from other teams coming

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Speaker 1: up for what do you need? What do we need

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Speaker 1: to get you back out there? You know? Or come on, hey,

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Speaker 1: can I borrow a tire to the wheel tonight?

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Speaker 2: You know?

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Speaker 1: Or do you have this? You do have that? You know?

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Speaker 1: We all do it because like I said, you know,

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Speaker 1: I have a nice, big and clothed trailer and some

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Speaker 1: guys you know, don't, and I carry a lot of

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Speaker 1: extra things and they might have something I need or

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Speaker 1: they need. And we just worked back and forth because

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Speaker 1: the ultimate goal was for us all to get out

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Speaker 1: on that track for that main event at that night.

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Speaker 2: And it sounds expensive.

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Speaker 1: It is. I started well, like I say, after my

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Speaker 1: daughter had passed away, we got out a race and

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Speaker 1: we kind of buried ourselves in the hole for twenty years,

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Speaker 1: so we had nothing. So when I did this, I

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Speaker 1: made up my mind that when I started this new

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Speaker 1: project that I was going to go into it with

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Speaker 1: the with the best intentions because I knew we were

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Speaker 1: going to be in the limelight because the kids were

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Speaker 1: going to be involved with in our program. So I

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Speaker 1: went up and had a discussion with Steve Baker at

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Speaker 1: Rocket Chassis and we bought a brand new Rocket Chassie,

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Speaker 1: which is basically the exact repulet of the Stye cast

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Speaker 1: here and uh we bought uh. Unfortunately, we didn't buy

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Speaker 1: a brand new motor. We got one with the hundred

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Speaker 1: laps on it. So Ernie Davis was with Ernie Salva Chard.

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Speaker 1: He had up motor the day and he used for

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Speaker 1: one hundred laps, which is one of the He buys

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Speaker 1: the top of the line everything. So if Ernie has

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Speaker 1: something for sale, you know it's worth the money. And

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Speaker 1: so we end up buying the motor from him. Because

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Speaker 1: of COVID, we couldn't get a motor built. There was

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Speaker 1: a part short each all across the country and so

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Speaker 1: that was not able to do that. And then uh,

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Speaker 1: and then I went up and had a discussion with

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Speaker 1: Ronnie to Haven at the Haven Trailer Sales at Winchester, Virginia,

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Speaker 1: and and uh, you know, we got into you know,

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Speaker 1: what we needed for a trailer and he goes, well, good,

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Speaker 1: what you're gonna need this? And you're gonna need to

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Speaker 1: I said, I know us, and just I spent so

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Speaker 1: much money in the car. I got to be careful

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Speaker 1: with this. And so he quoted me a price, and

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Speaker 1: you know, we got through all that stuff and then, uh,

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Speaker 1: it was pretty remarkable. I know he's probably gonna yell

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Speaker 1: at me want to do this, but you know I

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Speaker 1: went back up to pick up the trailer and it

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Speaker 1: wasn't the price that it was supposed to be. And

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Speaker 1: I said, Ronnie, I said, uh, just say right, he goes.

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Speaker 1: You don't worry about me. You just go do what

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Speaker 1: you do. He said, I'm proud of you, son, you know,

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Speaker 1: and and so but bottom line, I lost count.

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Speaker 2: Well I'm even not even thinking about you necessarily. But

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Speaker 2: all these people racing that that are you know, like

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Speaker 2: you said, families that are just trying to get a

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Speaker 2: car on the track. And I mean I know the

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Speaker 2: people I knew in West See that Racy sings on weekends.

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Speaker 2: I mean they were scraping together, Bunny and all pulling in.

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Speaker 2: I mean, it is a love of a sport and

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Speaker 2: it is everybody's chipping in. This is not a wealth

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Speaker 2: thing by any chance.

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Speaker 1: I mean, in the upper that's the line of racing.

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Speaker 1: You know, those guys have have corporate sponsors and things

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Speaker 1: like that. That's different, and we get a little help

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Speaker 1: here and there, but it is it's very expensive. When

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Speaker 1: I started out, you know, racing in nineteen ninety, I

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Speaker 1: worked one job and then I had a little body

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Speaker 1: shop off to decide that that body shop paid for

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Speaker 1: my racing, you know. So I go to work at

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Speaker 1: my regular drive at five am and then leave there

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Speaker 1: at one and then go to the shop and working

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Speaker 1: to sometimes midnight.

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Speaker 2: So that's it, And what I'm trying to establish what

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Speaker 2: a lot of our listeners aren't familiar with dirt track racing, right,

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Speaker 2: And I just want people to understand when they hear

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Speaker 2: who you are and where you came from. Originally, this

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Speaker 2: is a largely each of these racing teams are pretty

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Speaker 2: much families. They're all working on the car. They're all

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Speaker 2: working together to get the car the race done, and

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Speaker 2: everybody's just kind of piling in together and pulling their

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Speaker 2: money together to get a car going. And it's really

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Speaker 2: for the love of the sport and something that families

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Speaker 2: just do together. Is that right?

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Speaker 1: Oh, it's absolutely correct. And like I said, people they

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Speaker 1: give up vacations, you know, birthdays, you know, just to

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Speaker 1: go to the track. And then, like I said, some

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Speaker 1: of them are they're very family oriented. And you know

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Speaker 1: they have cookouts every Saturday at the racetrack. You know,

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Speaker 1: it's it's almost like a reunion, you know in some aspects.

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Speaker 1: But you know, like I said, it's, uh, you almost

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Speaker 1: You've got to experience it. You've got to go to

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Speaker 1: a track and experience it. You know, the intensity and

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Speaker 1: the excitement, you know, and the noise and and the

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Speaker 1: smell you know, I laugh acaus. My wife, she she

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Speaker 1: would she would walk in and they would start the

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Speaker 1: cars up to get ready for warm ups, and she

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Speaker 1: just she would just go, hmm, I love that smell

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Speaker 1: of that of that race field.

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Speaker 2: One of the things these things don't have windshields, right,

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Speaker 2: No in mud and stuff flying, I mean you how

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Speaker 2: do you even see after a few laps.

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Speaker 1: Well, we have a we have a special advisors with

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Speaker 1: with with studs on them that we put on these

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Speaker 1: tear offs so as the mud throws on it, we

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Speaker 1: reach up and we tear off a layer. They usually

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Speaker 1: come in ten or fifteen. Some of the fancy guys

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Speaker 1: I use those automatic tear offfs. But I don't see

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Speaker 1: anybody use them like they used to. But but yeah,

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Speaker 1: it can, uh, but but that's usually early in the race.

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Speaker 1: Later on it the track slicks over and it's just

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Speaker 1: more dustier than it is. Money.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, unbelievable. So it's loud, it's dusty, people are cheered,

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Speaker 2: you smell. I guess what are these things run on?

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Speaker 1: Well, some of them run on alcohol and some of them,

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Speaker 1: you know, just regular race gas. But it's funny that

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Speaker 1: you're talking about that the way that is. I had

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Speaker 1: a friend of mine he decided to take his wife

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Speaker 1: to a dirt track race and they went to a

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Speaker 1: sprint car race. It's so much different than what we have.

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Speaker 1: But he said, I'm setting near Gilbert, he said, and

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Speaker 1: the bags come out. He said. They got face mask on,

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Speaker 1: ski goggles, hats and more. Second goal, what's getting ready

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Speaker 1: to happen? But those are the people that know what's

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Speaker 1: getting ready to happen Star Wars, Well, it is absolutely.

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Speaker 2: And now a few messages from our general sponsors. But first,

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Speaker 2: I hope you'll consider rating and reviewing us on Apple, Spotify,

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Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to the podcast. These reviews help

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Speaker 2: more normal folks find us and ultimately build this army

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Speaker 2: that can change the country. Please go online and do it.

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Speaker 2: It won't take much of your time at all, and

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Speaker 2: it really does help us. We'll be right back. So

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Speaker 2: where'd you say you grew up?

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Speaker 1: I grew up in Gerardstown, West Virginia, all right, so

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Speaker 1: it's basically up in the panhandle of West Virginia.

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Speaker 2: And your wife, her name was stun called Nikole. Yes,

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Speaker 2: So where did y'all meet? I went to high school,

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Speaker 2: no kid. Yeah, she was a sophomore and I was

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Speaker 2: a senior. High school sweetheart. Well, yep.

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Speaker 1: The February eleventh, nineteen eighty eight cross from her house,

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Speaker 1: This love was playing on the radio when I kissed

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Speaker 1: her for the first time. Wow, everybody last when I

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Speaker 1: do that. But I just remember that date. I even

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Speaker 1: put that on her heads there. Everybody goes, what's this

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Speaker 1: February eleventh on the heads there? And I said, that's

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Speaker 1: the first night we kissed.

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Speaker 2: So did you go a military or no?

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Speaker 1: No, I just I just went race straight to work

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Speaker 1: out of high school.

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Speaker 2: You know, were you already mechanically inclined?

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Speaker 1: No? I just you know, my growing up with my

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Speaker 1: grandfather you know, when you grow up poor, you learn

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Speaker 1: how to do things because you can't afford to pay

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Speaker 1: anybody to do it. So we were constantly changing transmission

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Speaker 1: and engines. And like I said, then we started our

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Speaker 1: race team, which was just a fouresow in theer class

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Speaker 1: back in the nineties. And like I said, you don't

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Speaker 1: have the money, you learn real quick. And we would

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Speaker 1: tear our own motors down. We send a machine shop

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Speaker 1: to have the machining none but we put all of

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Speaker 1: our motors together. And like I said, then I got

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Speaker 1: hooked up with a friend. He taught me how to paint,

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Speaker 1: and you know, so we painted our own cars, we

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Speaker 1: built our own engines.

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Speaker 2: And you know, I grew up without much or nothing either.

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Speaker 2: And I remember one time somebody calling an uncle of

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Speaker 2: mina shade tree mechanic. And he said, I ain't no

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Speaker 2: shade tree mechanic. And he said, oh, you better than that.

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Speaker 2: He said, no, I can't afford a tree. I got

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Speaker 2: no shape. He said, I'm just a mechanic guy. And

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Speaker 2: he not evocated by choice, but if he wanted to

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Speaker 2: get to work, he had to keep his car running. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: And when you say you grow up poor, what does

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Speaker 2: that look.

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Speaker 1: Like, Well, you know, when you grow up poor, you

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Speaker 1: don't know you're poor until you have what you have

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Speaker 1: later in life. And so back then we were tickled

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Speaker 1: to death. I mean back then, you know, we got

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Speaker 1: to go to King's the Minion once a year, and

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Speaker 1: we just thought that was the bee's knees.

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Speaker 2: You know.

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Speaker 1: Now I go to Hawaii four or five times a year,

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Speaker 1: you know, because I work for you out of airlines

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Speaker 1: and I fly for free, so you know, so I

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Speaker 1: never even thought that was even possible. But the things

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Speaker 1: back then, you don't miss stuff that you never had,

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Speaker 1: and so so back then we didn't know we were poor,

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Speaker 1: you know. And like I said, it's just it was

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Speaker 1: just a thing that you look back at and you go, wow.

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Speaker 1: We didn't have a whole lot, but we were richer

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Speaker 1: and a lot of other things, you know. Like I said,

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Speaker 1: I was fortunate enough that my grandparents live right in

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Speaker 1: front of me, and my dad bought the property behind, well,

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Speaker 1: actually didn't buy. He put the plumbing in my grandparents'

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Speaker 1: house and they gave him the piece of land. So

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Speaker 1: I grew up. I grew up behind my grandparents, and

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Speaker 1: off to the right of us was a was a

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Speaker 1: Pentecostal church, you know, and and so we had that

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Speaker 1: structure as children growing up, you know, and uh, we

399
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Speaker 1: grew up on the switch, you know. So it's uh,

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Speaker 1: we were we were taught, we were we were talked.

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Speaker 1: If you do something bad, you know, you were punished.

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Speaker 2: And I, uh, I think you just said a mouthful.

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Speaker 2: I mean, you didn't have much of anything. But what

404
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Speaker 2: you did have was you had your family, You had

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Speaker 2: structure with the church, and you had to switch if

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Speaker 2: you got out of line. And I just wonder. I

407
00:20:41,640 --> 00:20:47,159
Speaker 2: can't help but wonder if so much of what is

408
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Speaker 2: challenging us since society days because we've lost so much

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Speaker 2: of that very thing.

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Speaker 1: We've lost our we've lost our family values, we've lost

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Speaker 1: a lot of moral issues too. And uh and we're

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Speaker 1: in the in The sad part about it is if

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Speaker 1: we don't get it back soon, we're going to lose

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Speaker 1: it forever. And people laugh. Some people laugh when you

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Speaker 1: say that, but it's it's not funny.

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Speaker 2: Because you're just a dumb old runneck from West Virginia

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Speaker 2: talk about stuff you don't know.

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Speaker 1: Well, I don't know, I don't know about all that.

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Speaker 1: I know what you're saying I do, but it is

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Speaker 1: it's it's a it's a I grow. I'm working with

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Speaker 1: a lot of younger guys, and I just I see

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Speaker 1: the way they carried herself and and and their outlook

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Speaker 1: and things on life. And I try to I try

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Speaker 1: to show them what I know. And but they're just

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Speaker 1: like I am when I was thirty years old. No,

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Speaker 1: that don't I don't know nothing, you know, and and

427
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Speaker 1: and but I do. I try to take the time

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Speaker 1: to try to explain them because, like I said, over

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Speaker 1: the last you know, eight to ten years, I've really

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Speaker 1: really noticed it. But like I said, you know, we've

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Speaker 1: got ourselves in society now. Well, both people have to work.

432
00:21:43,680 --> 00:21:45,480
Speaker 1: See I grew up with mom was in the house

433
00:21:45,520 --> 00:21:50,480
Speaker 1: and and dad worked. My wife didn't work. I worked,

434
00:21:50,640 --> 00:21:52,880
Speaker 1: you know, and that it was the same thing we wanted.

435
00:21:53,160 --> 00:21:55,480
Speaker 1: She was homeroom mom. She was she went to the

436
00:21:55,520 --> 00:21:58,240
Speaker 1: school whenever they needed her, you know. And and so

437
00:21:58,440 --> 00:22:01,560
Speaker 1: we had that balance. And but some people can't do it.

438
00:22:01,560 --> 00:22:04,359
Speaker 1: And I understand that, but but they need the biggest

439
00:22:04,359 --> 00:22:06,720
Speaker 1: thing is now pull those cell phones out of their

440
00:22:06,720 --> 00:22:09,280
Speaker 1: hand at dinner and then talk about your day, you know,

441
00:22:09,400 --> 00:22:12,720
Speaker 1: have that conversation because that's what's getting lost. These kids

442
00:22:12,720 --> 00:22:14,919
Speaker 1: are suffering from things at school and bullying and all

443
00:22:15,040 --> 00:22:16,520
Speaker 1: kinds of things that are going on in the world,

444
00:22:16,720 --> 00:22:19,800
Speaker 1: and they don't know, you know, because they're they're not

445
00:22:19,840 --> 00:22:22,520
Speaker 1: speaking up. They need that parent to sit down and go, hey,

446
00:22:22,640 --> 00:22:24,760
Speaker 1: I want to hear about your day. And but they

447
00:22:24,800 --> 00:22:27,280
Speaker 1: also have to you know, they also have to go

448
00:22:27,359 --> 00:22:30,520
Speaker 1: back and go listen, we got a relationship where it

449
00:22:30,520 --> 00:22:33,360
Speaker 1: doesn't matter what you tell me, We'll get through it.

450
00:22:33,840 --> 00:22:36,679
Speaker 1: And that's the problem. Kids are scared to come forward

451
00:22:36,720 --> 00:22:38,800
Speaker 1: these days, you know and tell them, you know, hey,

452
00:22:38,840 --> 00:22:40,760
Speaker 1: I'm being bullied and picked on and things that are

453
00:22:40,920 --> 00:22:43,199
Speaker 1: going on in my life. And then that's why, you know,

454
00:22:43,680 --> 00:22:45,800
Speaker 1: we have suicide and things like that going on in

455
00:22:45,840 --> 00:22:48,000
Speaker 1: the world. You know, with with kids, we can't figure

456
00:22:48,000 --> 00:22:50,680
Speaker 1: it out. But but they're they're lost because they don't

457
00:22:50,720 --> 00:22:52,600
Speaker 1: have that structure. And seeing a lot of those too

458
00:22:52,640 --> 00:22:55,600
Speaker 1: is nobody goes to church anymore, you know, I mean,

459
00:22:55,680 --> 00:22:58,960
Speaker 1: it's it's a sad day where you know, when you

460
00:22:59,320 --> 00:23:02,040
Speaker 1: find out that this whole family has never went to

461
00:23:02,040 --> 00:23:04,080
Speaker 1: a church, the mother or the daddy of the kids.

462
00:23:04,280 --> 00:23:06,159
Speaker 1: So where do they find that at? You know, So

463
00:23:06,200 --> 00:23:07,880
Speaker 1: then when you go in and you try to explain

464
00:23:07,920 --> 00:23:10,119
Speaker 1: to them what they're missing out on. They have no

465
00:23:10,119 --> 00:23:12,920
Speaker 1: comprehension of it, you know. And so by what I'm

466
00:23:12,960 --> 00:23:15,600
Speaker 1: doing here, you know, I try to show people that

467
00:23:16,119 --> 00:23:18,440
Speaker 1: I am the man I am today is because of

468
00:23:18,480 --> 00:23:21,399
Speaker 1: the grace of God. About six months before, I always

469
00:23:21,520 --> 00:23:23,440
Speaker 1: I was always brought up in church. But of course,

470
00:23:23,520 --> 00:23:25,520
Speaker 1: you know, as you get as a teenager, you drift away,

471
00:23:25,600 --> 00:23:29,399
Speaker 1: and you know, some do, some don't. But uh yeah,

472
00:23:29,480 --> 00:23:32,160
Speaker 1: and you know, me and my wife had a hard

473
00:23:32,160 --> 00:23:34,879
Speaker 1: discussion during COVID. She says, she said, Gilbert, if we

474
00:23:34,880 --> 00:23:37,360
Speaker 1: don't give her a life to Christ, she said, we're

475
00:23:37,359 --> 00:23:39,320
Speaker 1: not gonna see her daughter again. And that's not an

476
00:23:39,359 --> 00:23:42,440
Speaker 1: option for me. And we sat down and we gave

477
00:23:42,480 --> 00:23:44,760
Speaker 1: her a life to Christ, and matter of months later

478
00:23:44,760 --> 00:23:47,720
Speaker 1: she was gone. So you know, there was a reason

479
00:23:47,760 --> 00:23:51,239
Speaker 1: that timing. Timing is everything. And I just had this

480
00:23:51,280 --> 00:23:53,199
Speaker 1: discussion with Alex going up the road, and I had

481
00:23:53,200 --> 00:23:55,760
Speaker 1: this discussion with a lot of people. You know, everybody

482
00:23:55,760 --> 00:23:57,320
Speaker 1: looks at me and they go, oh my goodness. You

483
00:23:57,320 --> 00:23:58,960
Speaker 1: you know, you know I brought this up in church

484
00:23:59,000 --> 00:24:01,640
Speaker 1: out there, russ Church out in the door. Every he goes,

485
00:24:01,680 --> 00:24:03,440
Speaker 1: oh my God, you lost so much. You lost so much.

486
00:24:03,840 --> 00:24:06,879
Speaker 1: I didn't lose nothing. God gave me a gift for

487
00:24:06,920 --> 00:24:09,440
Speaker 1: eight years with Samantha, and he gave me a gift

488
00:24:09,440 --> 00:24:12,160
Speaker 1: for thirty three years. That changed my life, I said,

489
00:24:12,280 --> 00:24:14,760
Speaker 1: And I said, I couldn't trade that for anything. Who

490
00:24:14,760 --> 00:24:17,960
Speaker 1: would I be today if I never experienced those two

491
00:24:17,960 --> 00:24:20,000
Speaker 1: people in my life. You know, he gave me a

492
00:24:20,000 --> 00:24:22,640
Speaker 1: gift of my grandparents and my parents and brother Bro'm

493
00:24:22,680 --> 00:24:24,520
Speaker 1: back that lived next door at the church, you know.

494
00:24:24,840 --> 00:24:26,720
Speaker 1: And that's what I told him. I said, you know,

495
00:24:26,760 --> 00:24:29,000
Speaker 1: I said, I'm dating a new lady right now. And

496
00:24:29,240 --> 00:24:31,160
Speaker 1: I told her, said, I said, when you meet my family,

497
00:24:31,160 --> 00:24:33,720
Speaker 1: they're a little bit different. And she goes, well, why

498
00:24:33,800 --> 00:24:36,760
Speaker 1: is that? I said, well, I said, you know, our

499
00:24:36,800 --> 00:24:39,880
Speaker 1: experiences through life, I said, make us who we are.

500
00:24:40,320 --> 00:24:42,240
Speaker 1: I said, the people that we meet, the experiences that

501
00:24:42,280 --> 00:24:45,360
Speaker 1: we have. I said, So they haven't had the opportunities

502
00:24:45,400 --> 00:24:47,760
Speaker 1: that I have. I've traveled abroad, I've met so many

503
00:24:47,760 --> 00:24:50,199
Speaker 1: different people, I've worked with so many different nationalities at

504
00:24:50,240 --> 00:24:52,960
Speaker 1: the airport. I've learned so much about the Pakistani and

505
00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:56,280
Speaker 1: Iraqi cultures and Haiti and things like that. And you know,

506
00:24:56,400 --> 00:24:59,919
Speaker 1: and people there are people just like we are. You know,

507
00:25:00,080 --> 00:25:02,119
Speaker 1: they want the same things they want they want, you know,

508
00:25:02,160 --> 00:25:04,560
Speaker 1: they love their families, they want a good life and

509
00:25:04,600 --> 00:25:07,000
Speaker 1: things like that. But but it's it's changed me into

510
00:25:07,000 --> 00:25:10,480
Speaker 1: this person that that you know that I'm I'm happy

511
00:25:10,520 --> 00:25:13,680
Speaker 1: with myself. You know that I've got these experiences that

512
00:25:13,720 --> 00:25:15,719
Speaker 1: I'm able to broaden my horizons and got to do

513
00:25:15,720 --> 00:25:16,560
Speaker 1: the things I get to do.

514
00:25:17,359 --> 00:25:24,440
Speaker 2: So you and Nicole meeting high school, you get.

515
00:25:24,240 --> 00:25:26,600
Speaker 1: Married, give job nineteen ninety.

516
00:25:26,560 --> 00:25:30,280
Speaker 2: And you're starting life and you have a little girl,

517
00:25:31,160 --> 00:25:32,040
Speaker 2: and her name.

518
00:25:32,000 --> 00:25:35,080
Speaker 1: Was Samantha, Samantha Nicole has.

519
00:25:35,320 --> 00:25:37,400
Speaker 2: And you're working at United.

520
00:25:37,880 --> 00:25:40,720
Speaker 1: No, I'm actually working at the service station for for

521
00:25:41,119 --> 00:25:43,880
Speaker 1: Roach Oil for It's a Texa CooA station. And then

522
00:25:43,920 --> 00:25:45,440
Speaker 1: I had a little body shop on the site.

523
00:25:45,600 --> 00:25:50,600
Speaker 2: Got it, and uh, what's what's what's no Cole doing?

524
00:25:50,680 --> 00:25:51,200
Speaker 2: Is she working?

525
00:25:51,280 --> 00:25:54,200
Speaker 1: She said, No, she's not working. We she she worked

526
00:25:54,200 --> 00:25:56,440
Speaker 1: a little bit when we first got married, and then

527
00:25:56,760 --> 00:25:58,359
Speaker 1: I just I didn't want her working when we had

528
00:25:58,400 --> 00:26:00,240
Speaker 1: the baby. You know, I wanted to be home with

529
00:26:00,280 --> 00:26:02,159
Speaker 1: the baby. And you know, like I said, So we

530
00:26:02,240 --> 00:26:04,440
Speaker 1: start racing in nineteen ninety. We bought our first car

531
00:26:04,480 --> 00:26:06,919
Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety just forest owner stuff, and then we

532
00:26:07,000 --> 00:26:09,040
Speaker 1: got into that for a few years, and then of course,

533
00:26:09,160 --> 00:26:11,920
Speaker 1: you know, Samantha come along. So we took a year

534
00:26:11,960 --> 00:26:15,159
Speaker 1: off and then regrouped and you know, did a few things.

535
00:26:15,200 --> 00:26:18,880
Speaker 1: And but also too funny story about that during week

536
00:26:19,000 --> 00:26:22,160
Speaker 1: during that racing thing in nineteen ninety two, the pace

537
00:26:22,200 --> 00:26:23,880
Speaker 1: car driver, he used to come into the service station

538
00:26:23,880 --> 00:26:25,679
Speaker 1: and fill up every Tuesday on his way to pad

539
00:26:25,880 --> 00:26:28,800
Speaker 1: to go hang out to the race shops, and he said,

540
00:26:28,920 --> 00:26:32,840
Speaker 1: uh man, you're a pretty little thing. And nicoleus, well,

541
00:26:32,880 --> 00:26:34,720
Speaker 1: thank you. He goes, how about I buy you a

542
00:26:34,720 --> 00:26:36,439
Speaker 1: couple of bathing dudes and you give out the trophies

543
00:26:36,480 --> 00:26:39,000
Speaker 1: up with the Speedway. She goes, well, I can do that.

544
00:26:39,680 --> 00:26:41,960
Speaker 1: So she became the she became the trophy girl at

545
00:26:42,000 --> 00:26:43,560
Speaker 1: the speedway in nineteen ninety two.

546
00:26:44,280 --> 00:26:44,720
Speaker 2: So then.

547
00:26:46,200 --> 00:26:49,800
Speaker 1: Nope, nope, and so in nineteen ninety three we had Samantha,

548
00:26:49,840 --> 00:26:51,920
Speaker 1: and then we just kind of we took a little

549
00:26:51,920 --> 00:26:54,439
Speaker 1: bit off, and then and then to started, you know,

550
00:26:54,480 --> 00:26:57,160
Speaker 1: trying to She was homeroom mom and she hung out

551
00:26:57,160 --> 00:26:57,760
Speaker 1: the school a lot.

552
00:26:57,880 --> 00:27:01,359
Speaker 2: So so there you all are in the dream, building

553
00:27:01,400 --> 00:27:06,600
Speaker 2: your family, building your life. And then Samantha is eight

554
00:27:07,160 --> 00:27:10,920
Speaker 2: and she gets sick. Tell me how you found that out,

555
00:27:11,040 --> 00:27:12,679
Speaker 2: Tell me how that revealed it.

556
00:27:12,800 --> 00:27:15,280
Speaker 1: So she was actually six and a half. She went

557
00:27:15,320 --> 00:27:15,760
Speaker 1: to school.

558
00:27:16,040 --> 00:27:17,919
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, no, no, no, yeah.

559
00:27:18,680 --> 00:27:20,439
Speaker 1: Yeah, six. She was six and a half and she

560
00:27:20,480 --> 00:27:24,840
Speaker 1: went to school that morning and she come home and she's, mom,

561
00:27:24,880 --> 00:27:27,159
Speaker 1: I don't feel good, you know. So of course, you know,

562
00:27:27,880 --> 00:27:30,359
Speaker 1: Nicole took her into doctor her Net's office in Martinsburg

563
00:27:31,040 --> 00:27:34,720
Speaker 1: and we got her. Look dad, and he at first

564
00:27:34,760 --> 00:27:37,120
Speaker 1: he goes, you know, it might be stripped through. Well,

565
00:27:37,160 --> 00:27:39,720
Speaker 1: then she had these bruisings from her knees down to

566
00:27:40,080 --> 00:27:43,639
Speaker 1: her ankles. He goes, man, she bruises and.

567
00:27:43,640 --> 00:27:46,119
Speaker 2: Just not from being just what's bruised?

568
00:27:46,160 --> 00:27:49,760
Speaker 1: I mean, well, I'll I'll explain that to you. Yeah.

569
00:27:50,040 --> 00:27:52,120
Speaker 1: And so she had these bruises from her knees down

570
00:27:52,119 --> 00:27:54,240
Speaker 1: to her He goes, man, she goes, she's a rough houser.

571
00:27:54,240 --> 00:27:57,440
Speaker 1: And she goes, no, she might. My daughter liked to draw,

572
00:27:57,760 --> 00:27:59,400
Speaker 1: so she would just sit at the table and draw

573
00:27:59,520 --> 00:28:03,320
Speaker 1: for hours and hours. And he goes, that's not that

574
00:28:03,359 --> 00:28:06,080
Speaker 1: doesn't look right. So he sent her over to the labs,

575
00:28:06,400 --> 00:28:08,760
Speaker 1: had labs done on her, and the next day he

576
00:28:08,800 --> 00:28:11,520
Speaker 1: calls he said, I think you need to go to

577
00:28:12,480 --> 00:28:16,080
Speaker 1: children's hospital. We need to check a few things. Well,

578
00:28:16,119 --> 00:28:20,280
Speaker 1: of course, my wife's heart sank because now they're talking about,

579
00:28:20,400 --> 00:28:22,240
Speaker 1: you know, the white blood counts and all that stuff

580
00:28:22,240 --> 00:28:24,560
Speaker 1: being off, and I didn't understand what was happening. He didn't.

581
00:28:24,640 --> 00:28:27,239
Speaker 1: He never said the word of leukemia. So we had

582
00:28:27,320 --> 00:28:28,560
Speaker 1: it down to children's hospital.

583
00:28:29,119 --> 00:28:30,960
Speaker 2: They did, did he know? Do you think you know?

584
00:28:31,160 --> 00:28:33,960
Speaker 1: Well, he the signs were there because her white blood

585
00:28:33,960 --> 00:28:36,240
Speaker 1: cell count was off. So he sent us down to

586
00:28:36,320 --> 00:28:38,719
Speaker 1: children's hospital. They took us in and they did a

587
00:28:39,360 --> 00:28:42,320
Speaker 1: church hospital, West Virginia, No children's hospital down in Washington,

588
00:28:42,400 --> 00:28:45,760
Speaker 1: d C. Oh yeah, oh yeah, okay, yeah, so because

589
00:28:45,800 --> 00:28:49,000
Speaker 1: we're just right outside of DC. See no, no, no, no,

590
00:28:49,040 --> 00:28:51,520
Speaker 1: that's quite right. So back then there wasn't a whole

591
00:28:51,560 --> 00:28:53,840
Speaker 1: lot of children's facilities up our way. You know that

592
00:28:53,960 --> 00:28:56,560
Speaker 1: you were talking twenty two years ago, or actually twenty

593
00:28:56,560 --> 00:29:00,520
Speaker 1: three and a half years. So we went into the hospital.

594
00:29:00,600 --> 00:29:02,680
Speaker 1: They did what they call a spinel type and a

595
00:29:02,800 --> 00:29:04,840
Speaker 1: and a bone marrow where they put a needle in

596
00:29:04,880 --> 00:29:07,240
Speaker 1: your spine and draw the flood and then they sink

597
00:29:07,280 --> 00:29:09,400
Speaker 1: a nail. Well, I caught a nail. It's a needle,

598
00:29:09,400 --> 00:29:11,520
Speaker 1: but it looks like a sixteen penny nail down into

599
00:29:11,560 --> 00:29:13,360
Speaker 1: your hip to pull the bone marrow out to a

600
00:29:13,480 --> 00:29:17,280
Speaker 1: six year old dude. It was the whose horrifying thing

601
00:29:17,320 --> 00:29:20,200
Speaker 1: you've ever want to was? She just she was, She

602
00:29:20,200 --> 00:29:23,000
Speaker 1: couldn't be asleep. She had to be semi sedated for

603
00:29:23,480 --> 00:29:24,280
Speaker 1: this testab.

604
00:29:24,240 --> 00:29:25,400
Speaker 2: You're just holding your daughter.

605
00:29:26,280 --> 00:29:28,440
Speaker 1: It was. It was tough, and I had to go

606
00:29:28,480 --> 00:29:30,720
Speaker 1: through many of those, but over after that one, I

607
00:29:30,880 --> 00:29:32,760
Speaker 1: never allowed my wife to be in the room again

608
00:29:32,800 --> 00:29:33,080
Speaker 1: after that.

609
00:29:33,280 --> 00:29:34,959
Speaker 2: Was it that rough? Yes? It was.

610
00:29:35,080 --> 00:29:37,600
Speaker 1: It was horrifying. One time one lady did it and

611
00:29:37,680 --> 00:29:39,800
Speaker 1: she almost come up with the table and I was like, listen,

612
00:29:39,800 --> 00:29:41,840
Speaker 1: you got to stop. You don't know what you're doing.

613
00:29:42,240 --> 00:29:43,880
Speaker 1: We have to get somebody in here that can do

614
00:29:43,960 --> 00:29:46,320
Speaker 1: this so that the girl that usually doesn't come in. Bam

615
00:29:46,400 --> 00:29:51,400
Speaker 1: bam bam. We were good, but uh so, basically they said,

616
00:29:51,400 --> 00:29:53,840
Speaker 1: got in the waiting room, and so we went out

617
00:29:53,840 --> 00:29:55,960
Speaker 1: in the waiting room about two hours, went buying and

618
00:29:56,080 --> 00:29:58,960
Speaker 1: a lady come in. She was a social worker. She says,

619
00:29:59,440 --> 00:30:00,400
Speaker 1: come on, we need to go.

620
00:30:00,360 --> 00:30:00,760
Speaker 2: Talk to you.

621
00:30:00,960 --> 00:30:02,920
Speaker 1: So they took us in a room about this size here,

622
00:30:03,240 --> 00:30:05,600
Speaker 1: big old oval table We're sitting down at one end

623
00:30:05,600 --> 00:30:09,240
Speaker 1: and it's covered in doctors, and they has to start talking.

624
00:30:09,320 --> 00:30:12,320
Speaker 2: Had to have known when you sit down at an

625
00:30:12,320 --> 00:30:14,840
Speaker 2: oval room that what you had to have known at

626
00:30:14,880 --> 00:30:15,280
Speaker 2: that point.

627
00:30:15,440 --> 00:30:18,720
Speaker 1: Oh well, the intensity of the way we were, you know,

628
00:30:19,640 --> 00:30:21,719
Speaker 1: talk to and everything. You know, we could tell they

629
00:30:21,720 --> 00:30:24,240
Speaker 1: were getting ready to spring something on us. And so

630
00:30:24,800 --> 00:30:28,480
Speaker 1: they just start they just start blurting out all these protocols, protocols.

631
00:30:28,520 --> 00:30:32,160
Speaker 1: I'm like, whoa, what's what's happening here? You know, and

632
00:30:31,920 --> 00:30:36,200
Speaker 1: they're like, well, your daughter has leukemia.

633
00:30:42,320 --> 00:30:43,240
Speaker 2: We'll be right back.

634
00:30:56,600 --> 00:31:03,720
Speaker 1: Well, my my wife, my wife burst into tears because

635
00:31:03,840 --> 00:31:07,080
Speaker 1: her thirteen year old friend dad of leukemia, you know,

636
00:31:07,240 --> 00:31:09,440
Speaker 1: when they were in high school. And uh so she

637
00:31:09,480 --> 00:31:11,920
Speaker 1: knew what we were getting ready faced against me. You know,

638
00:31:11,960 --> 00:31:15,000
Speaker 1: I'm dumbfounded, you know, I'm just I'm like, so, my

639
00:31:15,080 --> 00:31:16,760
Speaker 1: daughter's sick. You know, I didn't I didn't know the

640
00:31:16,760 --> 00:31:19,560
Speaker 1: intensity of it. You know, I'm twenty some years old,

641
00:31:19,600 --> 00:31:24,800
Speaker 1: and and so we actually I'm I was thirty two,

642
00:31:24,920 --> 00:31:30,280
Speaker 1: but but uh so we just go through all these protocols,

643
00:31:30,480 --> 00:31:32,160
Speaker 1: you know what we're going to try, and I'm like,

644
00:31:32,800 --> 00:31:35,479
Speaker 1: we don't know what to do. And so they said, well,

645
00:31:35,480 --> 00:31:37,800
Speaker 1: we got to do something, and it's got us start today.

646
00:31:37,840 --> 00:31:40,840
Speaker 1: I was like, what today, he is, We're omitting her

647
00:31:40,920 --> 00:31:44,720
Speaker 1: right now, And so they took her. It took her

648
00:31:44,800 --> 00:31:47,520
Speaker 1: and they put her. I forget the room number, but

649
00:31:47,560 --> 00:31:49,080
Speaker 1: it was the end of the hallway. They caught it.

650
00:31:49,080 --> 00:31:51,640
Speaker 1: The princess room. It was the biggest room on the floor,

651
00:31:52,000 --> 00:31:53,720
Speaker 1: and it had a big old thing drawn in the

652
00:31:53,800 --> 00:31:55,720
Speaker 1: back like a veil, and it was all drawn up,

653
00:31:55,760 --> 00:31:58,720
Speaker 1: done up like a princess. And we spent our two

654
00:31:58,720 --> 00:32:02,480
Speaker 1: weeks there starting treatment, and then we were released after

655
00:32:02,480 --> 00:32:05,040
Speaker 1: two weeks. And I'll never forget that day as long

656
00:32:05,080 --> 00:32:07,720
Speaker 1: as I live, because Nicole's mom come down and was

657
00:32:07,760 --> 00:32:10,160
Speaker 1: helping her get ready for packing everything up to go home,

658
00:32:10,720 --> 00:32:13,000
Speaker 1: and she combed her hair for the first time and

659
00:32:13,120 --> 00:32:15,400
Speaker 1: all of her hair fell out, start falling out, and

660
00:32:15,560 --> 00:32:17,280
Speaker 1: we still have that. We still have that hair at

661
00:32:17,280 --> 00:32:20,680
Speaker 1: home in a bag. And so then we went through

662
00:32:20,720 --> 00:32:23,000
Speaker 1: the process of going back and forth and back and

663
00:32:23,040 --> 00:32:28,240
Speaker 1: forth to the treatments. You know. So then did Jeff hope, Yes,

664
00:32:28,440 --> 00:32:32,480
Speaker 1: we did, because that this this all happened. It actually

665
00:32:32,480 --> 00:32:39,160
Speaker 1: happened August thirtieth of two thousand and by I guess

666
00:32:39,240 --> 00:32:45,320
Speaker 1: the spring of two thousand and one, she relapsed. I mean,

667
00:32:45,320 --> 00:32:47,920
Speaker 1: excuse me, she was in remission. She was in remission.

668
00:32:48,440 --> 00:32:50,880
Speaker 1: I mean she she got around better than any healthy

669
00:32:50,920 --> 00:32:54,280
Speaker 1: kid I seen. And we just had such an amazing,

670
00:32:54,560 --> 00:32:58,600
Speaker 1: an amazing summer. I bought her a new pool. You know,

671
00:32:58,960 --> 00:33:01,200
Speaker 1: we had we had the big Fourth of July fireworks

672
00:33:01,200 --> 00:33:03,200
Speaker 1: is play. I mean we we actually had a traffic

673
00:33:03,200 --> 00:33:05,760
Speaker 1: stop that long because well, we took her up. We

674
00:33:05,760 --> 00:33:09,000
Speaker 1: took her up to Breezewood, Pennsylvania to buy fireworks, and

675
00:33:09,120 --> 00:33:10,600
Speaker 1: uh when we got in there, of course, she was

676
00:33:10,640 --> 00:33:13,760
Speaker 1: ball headed. And the guy walks over immediately he says,

677
00:33:14,040 --> 00:33:17,440
Speaker 1: can I have her? And I said, uh, yeah, you're

678
00:33:17,440 --> 00:33:19,240
Speaker 1: gonna give her back? He's yeah. So he took a

679
00:33:19,280 --> 00:33:22,520
Speaker 1: cart and he's filling this cart up and I'm like,

680
00:33:23,240 --> 00:33:25,560
Speaker 1: I can't pay for all that. He goes, this is mine.

681
00:33:26,680 --> 00:33:29,280
Speaker 1: He was the manager. And they filled that filled that

682
00:33:29,360 --> 00:33:31,800
Speaker 1: cart up, and we set off fireworks for a week

683
00:33:31,840 --> 00:33:35,960
Speaker 1: after that. But but but we went through the summer

684
00:33:36,000 --> 00:33:38,040
Speaker 1: and it's great. She she went in she went into

685
00:33:38,120 --> 00:33:41,200
Speaker 1: second grade, and and you know that fall and then

686
00:33:41,720 --> 00:33:45,680
Speaker 1: me and my wife were out Black Friday shopping and

687
00:33:45,920 --> 00:33:48,360
Speaker 1: we come back. She was she was sick, and we

688
00:33:48,440 --> 00:33:49,160
Speaker 1: called the amulets.

689
00:33:49,840 --> 00:33:51,000
Speaker 2: She got that quick.

690
00:33:51,160 --> 00:33:54,280
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, she she was sick and and uh did

691
00:33:54,320 --> 00:33:58,200
Speaker 1: you know? Yeah, I feared it, you know, so they

692
00:33:58,360 --> 00:34:02,080
Speaker 1: they they put us in an am land So I

693
00:34:02,120 --> 00:34:04,720
Speaker 1: told I said, I'll ride down, you pack up and

694
00:34:04,800 --> 00:34:06,600
Speaker 1: come to the hospital to take your time.

695
00:34:06,600 --> 00:34:08,719
Speaker 2: Did you need an ambulance? She must have been really sad.

696
00:34:09,320 --> 00:34:11,359
Speaker 1: They just they didn't want to take any chances back

697
00:34:11,440 --> 00:34:13,279
Speaker 1: because they didn't know, They didn't know a lot, you know.

698
00:34:13,320 --> 00:34:15,120
Speaker 1: We had to take her into the hospital one time

699
00:34:15,160 --> 00:34:16,800
Speaker 1: and I told him, I said this, you got to

700
00:34:16,840 --> 00:34:19,600
Speaker 1: call the hospital on how you administered this antibiotic. They

701
00:34:19,600 --> 00:34:22,920
Speaker 1: were like, all right, the girl comes in, does it

702
00:34:23,080 --> 00:34:25,120
Speaker 1: and my daughter starts turning red. And they call it

703
00:34:25,120 --> 00:34:28,160
Speaker 1: Redman syndrome because if you administered the antibiotic too quick,

704
00:34:28,280 --> 00:34:29,880
Speaker 1: it causes you to turn red.

705
00:34:30,080 --> 00:34:30,920
Speaker 2: Are you kidding?

706
00:34:31,160 --> 00:34:33,680
Speaker 1: And it's called red It was called Redman syndrome. And

707
00:34:34,320 --> 00:34:36,400
Speaker 1: that's why that's why we were very hesitant to take

708
00:34:36,400 --> 00:34:38,799
Speaker 1: her to local hospitals. They just didn't have you know,

709
00:34:38,840 --> 00:34:40,640
Speaker 1: they didn't deal with a lot of children, you know,

710
00:34:41,239 --> 00:34:42,640
Speaker 1: back then, you know, it was it was a very

711
00:34:42,719 --> 00:34:44,560
Speaker 1: rare thing that you heard a kid with cancer r

712
00:34:44,680 --> 00:34:48,000
Speaker 1: our in our area. And so we took her down there,

713
00:34:48,120 --> 00:34:50,719
Speaker 1: and she packed up and came down later, and we

714
00:34:50,760 --> 00:34:53,480
Speaker 1: spent the last two months down there, and she passed

715
00:34:53,480 --> 00:34:56,440
Speaker 1: away on January twenty of two thousand and two. You know,

716
00:34:56,680 --> 00:34:58,960
Speaker 1: to do a lot of a lot of treatment, we

717
00:34:59,360 --> 00:35:01,719
Speaker 1: did a lot of minute treatments, but they they burned

718
00:35:01,719 --> 00:35:03,600
Speaker 1: her pancreas up and she wasn't able to eat the

719
00:35:03,640 --> 00:35:05,759
Speaker 1: last six weeks of her life, you know, she was

720
00:35:05,920 --> 00:35:08,240
Speaker 1: she was basically the most she had was ice.

721
00:35:08,120 --> 00:35:09,000
Speaker 2: Chips, you know.

722
00:35:09,160 --> 00:35:11,720
Speaker 1: And and then that has.

723
00:35:11,600 --> 00:35:17,360
Speaker 2: Got to be I mean, for any parent, and I

724
00:35:17,400 --> 00:35:26,319
Speaker 2: don't want to sound I have four children, and as

725
00:35:26,320 --> 00:35:31,680
Speaker 2: a father, you know your your I think your basic,

726
00:35:32,040 --> 00:35:36,560
Speaker 2: primal first instinct is protect your kids. And you're sitting

727
00:35:36,560 --> 00:35:38,480
Speaker 2: there and you can't. Well.

728
00:35:38,480 --> 00:35:41,160
Speaker 1: I woke up that morning. I woke up that morning

729
00:35:41,320 --> 00:35:45,160
Speaker 1: and she was in a coma. And and my wife

730
00:35:45,640 --> 00:35:47,680
Speaker 1: her were up there about three o'clock in the morning together,

731
00:35:47,719 --> 00:35:51,280
Speaker 1: but my wife dozed off and fell asleep, and and

732
00:35:51,000 --> 00:35:53,080
Speaker 1: and so we woke up, you know, we woke up

733
00:35:53,280 --> 00:35:55,200
Speaker 1: runnin eight o'clock or so, and she was in a coma,

734
00:35:56,360 --> 00:35:58,839
Speaker 1: and I just it just didn't it didn't look good.

735
00:35:58,880 --> 00:36:01,239
Speaker 1: And I went in and nurses and the doctors come in.

736
00:36:01,320 --> 00:36:03,920
Speaker 1: They looked at her, and of course they were told

737
00:36:05,000 --> 00:36:06,640
Speaker 1: by me to bring me to the side so I

738
00:36:06,640 --> 00:36:08,719
Speaker 1: could explain it to my wife. So she didn't, you know,

739
00:36:08,880 --> 00:36:11,359
Speaker 1: because she gets so emotional so quick, and we needed,

740
00:36:11,400 --> 00:36:12,960
Speaker 1: we need somebody to have a little bit of you know,

741
00:36:13,000 --> 00:36:15,319
Speaker 1: sanity here to kind of calm things down. So they

742
00:36:15,320 --> 00:36:17,719
Speaker 1: took me out and they told me, said, this is it,

743
00:36:18,360 --> 00:36:20,960
Speaker 1: this is it. So I went back inside and.

744
00:36:21,200 --> 00:36:25,600
Speaker 2: Whoa, So you're bearing the this is it news and

745
00:36:25,640 --> 00:36:28,520
Speaker 2: now you're going to have to go somehow console your wife.

746
00:36:28,760 --> 00:36:32,120
Speaker 1: Well, the only thing I could do was I walked

747
00:36:32,160 --> 00:36:35,120
Speaker 1: back in the room, and of course she's just she's

748
00:36:35,160 --> 00:36:39,640
Speaker 1: freaking out, and I said, listen, just calm down. I said,

749
00:36:39,640 --> 00:36:42,759
Speaker 1: just calm down. And so I said, let's get in

750
00:36:42,760 --> 00:36:45,879
Speaker 1: bed with her. So she crawled on the left side

751
00:36:45,920 --> 00:36:48,040
Speaker 1: of her. I crawled on the right side of her,

752
00:36:48,560 --> 00:36:51,000
Speaker 1: and we held her hand and we laid her, We

753
00:36:51,080 --> 00:36:53,279
Speaker 1: laid the side of her. She took three brs and

754
00:36:53,360 --> 00:36:57,439
Speaker 1: she is gone. That was it, and life was never

755
00:36:57,440 --> 00:37:03,680
Speaker 1: the same. And of course the night before, all these

756
00:37:03,760 --> 00:37:05,480
Speaker 1: people were supposed to come down and see her, and

757
00:37:05,480 --> 00:37:10,080
Speaker 1: we had a horrible ice storm, so nobody, nobody knows

758
00:37:10,200 --> 00:37:13,759
Speaker 1: that they're on the road and she's gone, and and

759
00:37:13,800 --> 00:37:15,440
Speaker 1: this and the bad thought about this is no more

760
00:37:15,480 --> 00:37:18,560
Speaker 1: than she passed away. The phone rang and it was

761
00:37:18,600 --> 00:37:20,839
Speaker 1: a lady from the newspaper that just did a big

762
00:37:20,880 --> 00:37:23,399
Speaker 1: story on her, and she wanted to call and say, hey,

763
00:37:23,440 --> 00:37:25,440
Speaker 1: the story turned out great, the paper's out. And I

764
00:37:25,480 --> 00:37:27,759
Speaker 1: had to tell her that she just passed away. And

765
00:37:27,800 --> 00:37:30,000
Speaker 1: all I remember from her is the phone dropped. That

766
00:37:30,080 --> 00:37:33,040
Speaker 1: I never heard from her again, you know, I just

767
00:37:33,200 --> 00:37:35,600
Speaker 1: I don't know what it did to her. But but

768
00:37:35,840 --> 00:37:39,239
Speaker 1: of course, you know, I go out to go get

769
00:37:39,280 --> 00:37:42,759
Speaker 1: us something to drink. And here's fifteen people walking down

770
00:37:43,239 --> 00:37:49,120
Speaker 1: to the hallway, her mom, mom, dad, brothers, sisters, nephews.

771
00:37:49,160 --> 00:37:53,759
Speaker 1: But the worst, the worst was her best friend, you know,

772
00:37:54,040 --> 00:37:57,600
Speaker 1: And and Erica was out in all the way and she's, yeah,

773
00:37:58,000 --> 00:37:59,799
Speaker 1: she was, she wasn't she is? She was? I guess

774
00:37:59,800 --> 00:38:02,120
Speaker 1: she she was probably still seven and a half or so,

775
00:38:02,760 --> 00:38:04,719
Speaker 1: you know, did you sued to spend nights at our

776
00:38:04,760 --> 00:38:07,120
Speaker 1: house and she had to. We didn't let her in

777
00:38:07,160 --> 00:38:08,960
Speaker 1: the room, We didn't let her see her anything like that.

778
00:38:09,040 --> 00:38:11,560
Speaker 1: They the social worker come and got her and you know,

779
00:38:11,640 --> 00:38:14,640
Speaker 1: kept her isolated and everything. But but she she knew

780
00:38:14,640 --> 00:38:16,480
Speaker 1: what was going on and she had to be there

781
00:38:16,480 --> 00:38:19,640
Speaker 1: for that, you know. So, uh, that was tough. That

782
00:38:19,760 --> 00:38:21,759
Speaker 1: was that was that was a tough deal. You know,

783
00:38:21,840 --> 00:38:24,640
Speaker 1: that was a tough deal to try to because because me,

784
00:38:24,840 --> 00:38:28,440
Speaker 1: I'm I'm, I'm me, I wanted to protect mode. You know,

785
00:38:28,560 --> 00:38:30,920
Speaker 1: I've got I've got my wife is a basket case.

786
00:38:30,960 --> 00:38:32,560
Speaker 1: I got my mother in law's a basket case. I

787
00:38:32,560 --> 00:38:34,879
Speaker 1: got my father in law. You know, there's a basket case,

788
00:38:35,120 --> 00:38:37,719
Speaker 1: you know, And it's just it's just it was bad.

789
00:38:37,920 --> 00:38:41,640
Speaker 2: What about you? You got to be able to grieve too,

790
00:38:41,719 --> 00:38:42,399
Speaker 2: as your daughter.

791
00:38:42,800 --> 00:38:45,680
Speaker 1: That's the problem. This is what happened to me, is

792
00:38:45,680 --> 00:38:48,680
Speaker 1: is when that happened, I wanted to protect mode. And

793
00:38:48,680 --> 00:38:51,160
Speaker 1: I didn't go off pnect protect mode until my wife dad.

794
00:38:52,160 --> 00:38:54,520
Speaker 1: So then when my wife dad, I got the double whammy.

795
00:38:55,400 --> 00:39:03,800
Speaker 2: You know, we got to get all right, Yeah, man, Gilbert.

796
00:39:04,600 --> 00:39:12,160
Speaker 2: As an aside, I can't help but say thank God

797
00:39:12,200 --> 00:39:17,560
Speaker 2: for Saint Jude in Memphis because this is a story

798
00:39:17,600 --> 00:39:20,399
Speaker 2: that they see with and deal with and are as

799
00:39:20,440 --> 00:39:24,040
Speaker 2: we speak right now, there are five hundred families over

800
00:39:24,040 --> 00:39:26,600
Speaker 2: there dealing with this is zact very the exact same thing,

801
00:39:28,480 --> 00:39:36,560
Speaker 2: and it's it's it's gut wrenching, but it's also uplifting

802
00:39:36,600 --> 00:39:38,879
Speaker 2: that we have people in this world working to save

803
00:39:39,000 --> 00:39:46,239
Speaker 2: families from this sadness. Okay, what year was this?

804
00:39:46,719 --> 00:39:48,080
Speaker 1: That was in two thousand and two.

805
00:39:48,080 --> 00:39:57,319
Speaker 2: Two thousand and two. Okay, so you and Nicole got

806
00:39:57,360 --> 00:39:59,920
Speaker 2: to pick up the pieces and move on with life.

807
00:40:00,080 --> 00:40:02,120
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean we just lived after that. I mean

808
00:40:02,200 --> 00:40:04,239
Speaker 1: we got up every day and want the work. I

809
00:40:04,280 --> 00:40:06,520
Speaker 1: want to work, and you know, she still didn't work.

810
00:40:06,600 --> 00:40:08,399
Speaker 1: You know, I just let just left her be at home,

811
00:40:08,440 --> 00:40:10,680
Speaker 1: and you know, we just put herself in a hole.

812
00:40:11,000 --> 00:40:13,120
Speaker 1: We could go into the racetrack, we could, we could

813
00:40:13,200 --> 00:40:16,200
Speaker 1: doing everything. I mean, we just didn't do anything. It

814
00:40:16,239 --> 00:40:18,840
Speaker 1: was just, you know, we stopped going to family functions.

815
00:40:19,040 --> 00:40:21,480
Speaker 1: I don't want to say we were jealous, but it

816
00:40:21,520 --> 00:40:23,600
Speaker 1: was so hard to watch everybody have a family and

817
00:40:23,719 --> 00:40:27,000
Speaker 1: enjoy Christmas and Thanksgiving and you know, and and all

818
00:40:27,040 --> 00:40:28,839
Speaker 1: that and and you.

819
00:40:28,800 --> 00:40:31,719
Speaker 2: Know it's what was Christmas and Thanksgiving?

820
00:40:31,880 --> 00:40:33,960
Speaker 1: Like we didn't celebrate it for seven or eight years

821
00:40:33,960 --> 00:40:34,880
Speaker 1: after she passed away.

822
00:40:36,320 --> 00:40:37,560
Speaker 2: You didn't even go with family.

823
00:40:37,640 --> 00:40:40,839
Speaker 1: We didn't do anything. We didn't. I may not get

824
00:40:40,840 --> 00:40:42,839
Speaker 1: her a little gift here there, but we we didn't

825
00:40:42,880 --> 00:40:44,360
Speaker 1: put a tree up. I think at least seven or

826
00:40:44,400 --> 00:40:45,920
Speaker 1: eight years after that.

827
00:40:46,560 --> 00:40:47,239
Speaker 2: It's too hard.

828
00:40:47,600 --> 00:40:49,399
Speaker 1: It's just she just didn't want anything to do with it,

829
00:40:49,719 --> 00:40:51,920
Speaker 1: you know. She of course, we built we built it.

830
00:40:52,120 --> 00:40:54,319
Speaker 1: We built it. We sold our old home that we

831
00:40:54,400 --> 00:40:56,920
Speaker 1: had where Samantha was at, and we built a new

832
00:40:56,960 --> 00:41:00,279
Speaker 1: home and she she resurrected her bedroom. Now for me,

833
00:41:00,320 --> 00:41:03,319
Speaker 1: I didn't go into it. She went into it all

834
00:41:03,320 --> 00:41:06,560
Speaker 1: the time because it was helped her, but it wasn't.

835
00:41:06,719 --> 00:41:08,440
Speaker 1: It was right above my bedroom, and I wouldn' even

836
00:41:08,480 --> 00:41:11,120
Speaker 1: go into it, you know, for twenty years. I mean

837
00:41:11,320 --> 00:41:13,239
Speaker 1: lucky if I want to in ten times, you know.

838
00:41:13,640 --> 00:41:16,160
Speaker 1: And uh so, you know that was that was the

839
00:41:16,160 --> 00:41:17,640
Speaker 1: first thing I got rid of on my wife, that

840
00:41:18,120 --> 00:41:20,239
Speaker 1: very first thing. I gave the bedroom suit to her,

841
00:41:20,440 --> 00:41:23,160
Speaker 1: to her her niece, and and called up some of

842
00:41:23,160 --> 00:41:25,960
Speaker 1: her Samantha's friends from school. I said, hey, bring a box,

843
00:41:26,440 --> 00:41:29,359
Speaker 1: come in if you remember something that you all played

844
00:41:29,400 --> 00:41:32,200
Speaker 1: with you just kids, because everything's still there. Grab what

845
00:41:32,239 --> 00:41:33,640
Speaker 1: you want, put it in a box and take it

846
00:41:33,680 --> 00:41:35,320
Speaker 1: home with you. If you want to remember. So a

847
00:41:35,360 --> 00:41:37,879
Speaker 1: few of them did. They came over and and uh,

848
00:41:37,920 --> 00:41:40,359
Speaker 1: and then we tore the room down, you know. And

849
00:41:40,400 --> 00:41:42,439
Speaker 1: that was a very very difficult thing for me because

850
00:41:42,440 --> 00:41:44,640
Speaker 1: it reopened a lot of old runes.

851
00:41:45,560 --> 00:41:51,520
Speaker 2: So was there not social worker help for people to

852
00:41:51,600 --> 00:41:51,920
Speaker 2: talk to?

853
00:41:52,680 --> 00:41:54,799
Speaker 1: Well, you know, everybody wants me to go see a

854
00:41:54,840 --> 00:41:57,319
Speaker 1: therapist and this and that. I'm just I'm just not

855
00:41:57,400 --> 00:41:59,920
Speaker 1: that guy, you know, I just don't you know, I

856
00:42:01,440 --> 00:42:04,720
Speaker 1: I heel through the process of meeting people and talking

857
00:42:04,760 --> 00:42:07,520
Speaker 1: to them about their experiences as well, and you know,

858
00:42:07,600 --> 00:42:11,920
Speaker 1: and things like that, and and it's just that I

859
00:42:11,960 --> 00:42:13,839
Speaker 1: wish we were to give ourselves to God back then

860
00:42:14,200 --> 00:42:15,920
Speaker 1: because he would have been so much bigger help for

861
00:42:16,000 --> 00:42:18,680
Speaker 1: us through that process. But we didn't, you know, and

862
00:42:18,719 --> 00:42:21,319
Speaker 1: we suffered for it too. We suffered because he would

863
00:42:21,480 --> 00:42:23,239
Speaker 1: he would He would have helped us manage that pain

864
00:42:23,360 --> 00:42:26,040
Speaker 1: so much more better than what we did. But you know,

865
00:42:26,360 --> 00:42:28,800
Speaker 1: it's you don't know what you're going to do in

866
00:42:28,800 --> 00:42:33,280
Speaker 1: into your to have that situation come into your life.

867
00:42:34,360 --> 00:42:37,920
Speaker 2: And that concludes part one of my conversation with Gilbert

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00:42:38,000 --> 00:42:42,000
Speaker 2: House and guys don't miss part two. It's now available

869
00:42:42,000 --> 00:42:46,680
Speaker 2: to listen to as the Redemption. It's coming together. We

870
00:42:46,760 --> 00:42:50,200
Speaker 2: can change this country, but it starts with you. I'll

871
00:42:50,200 --> 00:42:51,080
Speaker 2: see in Part two