Shaun Newman Podcast - SNP Archives #21 - Graham Brown

Episode Date: May 26, 2021

Originally from Cutknife SK. We discuss his early years, selling vacuums,  a career in media, raising a family in small town Lloydminster & boom/bust of the oil patch   Let me know what you think Text me 587-217-8500

This is Glenn Healing. Hi, this is Braden Holby. This is Daryl Sutterin. Hi, this is Brian Burke. This is Jordan Tutu. This is Keith Morrison. This is Kelly Rudy. Hi, this is Scott Hartnell.

Hey, everybody. My name is Steele-Fer. This is Tim McAuliffe of Sportsnet, and you're listening to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome to the podcast, folks. Happy hump day, happy Wednesday. Hope everybody's doing well today. We got a great one on tap. Before we get there, let's get to today's episode sponsors,

and Gilbert and the team for over 45 years since 1976. The dedicated realtors of Colwell Bank or Cityside Realty have served Loimister in the surrounding area. They're not shy about getting involved with good causes. I've been talking about their 50 minutes for 50 years, big brothers, big sisters, and then this past week they reached out and got involved here with a bike for breakfast, which is happening now in less than two weeks. It's crazy how quickly time is. going by but Jen Gilbert and the team over at Coldwell Banker heard what we were doing and

and it's why I love getting involved with Coldwell they they hopped on board and and lend the hand to us you know in in the current environment hopefully it's done sooner than later they've adopted virtual reality and with this technology they have the ability to show homes with live video walkthroughs of properties and your transactions can be completed using emails and electronic signing so you don't have to worry about, you know, if you want to do the distance thing, you can. They seem to find ways to meet all their customers' needs. That's Coldwell Banker, Cityside Realty for everything real estate, 24 hours a day, seven days a week,

780875-3343. HSI group, they are the local oil field burners and combustion experts that can help make sure you have a compliant system working for you. The team also offers security, surveillance, and automation products for residential, commercial livestock and agricultural applications. They use technology to give you that peace of mind. So you can focus on the things that truly matter. Stop in a day, 3902.50 seconds straight or give Brodie or Kim a call at 306-825-6310.

T-Barr won transport since 2002 for more than 19 years. The team at T-Barr has offered excellent service putting the community first. They are giving us a pilot truck and donating the fuel for the charter bus for this bike for Browell. breakfast heading towards Tuffinil, Saskatch, when and back here June 4th to June 6th. And they can cover all your heavy haul needs, whether you're in Lloyd Minster or Bonneville. They have a fleet of trucks that encompasses tank movers, 45-ton pickers, one-ton's, flat decks, Texas bed, winch truck, and highway tractors. And if you need anything, these are the guys for your heavy hall needs.

Give them a call, T-Bar-1-8-205-17-09. Spenrath and the team over at Three Trees Tap and Kitchen. Pretty quick here, you're going to be able to go down and get a beef dip and a growler, I believe, is what it is, where the proceeds are going to go to Bike for Breakfast as well. And I've got to give a shout out to Necky and Jim for working that out. Sounds like Necky's a pretty loyal customer. If you're wanting to find out more details on it, I would suggest following the Three Trees social media. I'm sure they'll put up the details when it comes up

or bike for breakfast for that matter. If you do follow Three Trees, social media, each week they're giving out a new gift cards to one lucky follower. And of course, I always bring up their growlers. They got the new logo, so if you can go down there and get your growlers filled with whether you're talking ribstone, Fourth Meridian,

you name it, they got it on tap. They'll fill a growler for you. And make sure to book reservations because they're busy and fill up. 780-874-765. Finally, Crude Master, since 2006, Crude Master has been an integral part of the community. They are a leader in the oil and gas industry,

and they never cease to amaze me. You know, I always talk highly about them here with the podcast, but June 4th with the group of us embarking on the two-day bike trip, raising money for, you know, Lloyd Public, Lloyd Catholic, Northwest, Buffalo Trail and Onion Lake, Heath and Tracy and the family stepped up big and made a giant donation, giant by my estimation of $25,000. That was way back at the start of this,

and I can't thank them enough for hopping on board with this idea and this cause. And finally, I said finally a couple times, but have you seen the SMP billboard? I've got to give a shout out to the team over at Read and Write, their outdoor signage, Mrs. Deanna Wander, or even looking around the studio, my wall quote, or my logo, they put it in and make it look sharp. So if you're looking for any signage, make sure you stop into read and write. Gartner Management is a Lloydminster-based company, specializing in all types of rental properties to help meet your needs.

And whether you're looking for a small office or a 6,000 square foot commercial space, give Wade, Gartner a call today, 780808, 5025. You head into any of these businesses, make sure you let them know. You heard about him from the podcast, right? Now, let's get on that T-Barr-1 tale of the tape. Volunteer, family man, and community pillar. I'm talking about Graham Brown. So buckle up. Here we go.

It's November 8, 2020. I'm sitting across from Graham Brown. So first off, thanks for coming in. You're welcome. Now, I want to talk to you about growing up and cut knife back. you know, 1950s. What was cut knife growing up in cut knife

1950s like? What are your memories, your early memories from back then? I remember lots of kids having lots of fun. And it was a town, all the families had lots of kids, so there was always something to do all the time. And there was always things going on.

What were some of the things going on? Well, we made our own fun, whether it was going and playing ball or going out to the grove and hunting or lots of different things and going to school. And we didn't really have in those days a lot of organized. But we had hockey in the winter. We had baseball in the summer. Later on, there was curling and stuff. The hockey player in me wonders, was it on an outdoor rink? Um, no.

I remember playing on an outdoor rink, but that was back in Rock Haven before we moved to Cutknife when I was, before I started school, I guess. Um, but we had a closed-in arena in Cutknife. And that was pretty awesome. That would have been unusual for that time. Yes. For a small town like that. Yeah. About 500 people.

But there was lots of kids and always things to do. seemed like we kept pretty busy. You'd get up and you'd get fed and away you went and you'd be back for mealtime and out again and away you went. Now I go to the lake and our grandkids are at the lake and they go out running around. It reminds me of cut-knife when we were kids, just having fun. You talk about different things and staying busy. Was it a one-room school house back?

back then? No. Did Cuttmane had a full-on school? I had a full-on school. I did start my grade one in a place called Rock Haven about six miles from Cut-knife where we first lived when we came from England before we moved to Cut-knife and that was a two-room school. And it had one to six in one room and six to 12 on the other room and each row was a different grade. When we got to cut knife, that was, they had just finished building a new elementary school. It was huge and all the, everybody, all these grades had their own rooms and it was pretty awesome. And then we, as we progressed through school, when I got to grade 10, they had just built a brand new high school there. So we went and we were the first ones into the brand new high school too. So in those days, it was a lot of

expansion, a lot of new buildings, because there was lots of kids there, and it was a growing community. So you kind of hit the money ball with always getting the new facility. Yeah, we did good. What do you remember about going to school back in the new facility, every classroom having rooms? Is there some things that stick out to you from back then? Not really.

when we got to the new big school and high school that was quite awesome that we had that because now you had all these different teachers and different teachers for each subject and we weren't used to that but that was a big change

and big gym so there was a lot more phys ed was starting to become part of the curriculum and that was quite a major change before that it wasn't part of the curriculum No, because there was really no facilities. You went out at recess, and so there was really no organized sports in the schools because there was really no physical, no gyms, no activity places.

So you did subjects and you did your running around after and during recess and stuff and some of the sports that you did were usually community organized. But it was after when they started building the new schools with gyms, then you started getting, that was the first time we'd ever had a phys ed teacher. Now there was a phys ed teacher in our school and a phys ed program. What was your first school organized sport you played then? Probably badminton or probably badminton. Do you remember?

Because the hockey and ball was community. Was community organized? Yeah. I always just assume, you know, being a younger, guy and I don't know why I assume such things that sports school sports in particular had been around for a long time did you play all different sports or did you pick did you just go I'm going to play bad badman dinner by the I was kind of finishing school then but my younger brothers got quite active in a lot of sports that were now being

presented by the school curling and stuff like that was never part basketball it was never part of part of the program when I was in school. So if you'd wanted to play basketball in particular, you did it on the outside time and realistically there wasn't no team happening anyways. There was no facilities, there was no basketball hoops, nothing in our small town. It was hockey baseball. That's it. No other options. No, you didn't have playgrounds that had basketball hoops or anything on them. There was just playgrounds that were ball diamonds. So you grew up with a, in the summertime, you grew up with a bat and a baseball

meant, and then once the snow flied and the ice was on, you threw your skates and your glove and you're sticking away you went. You went skating every second night and then playing hockey every, playing hockey as much, well, probably a couple times a week. We had hockey practice or hockey game, but if you have, you. weren't, then you went to the rink skating. Everybody went to the rink skating. How about, you know, different people who've come through here have talked about no power,

no running water, the growth of the use of the phone. I mean, now with the phone sitting in the head. If you go back to living in small town cut knife, did you guys have running water? have power? No. No. We had power. But when we moved there, we'd have built the, moved in an old house, and it was sitting on a cistern, and our bathroom was a five-gallon pail in the, in the basement, and it was kind of dirt cellar down there, and you'd get the job every day. We'd have to take that five-gallon pail and pull it out of its little enclosure and take it out to the outhouse and dump it. And that was lots of fun because the five-gallon pail in those days was almost as big as I was.

And yet that was one of your jobs. And then we had, so we, our own water was our own. We had a cistern, so we would have to, we would have to get water hauled in and then use that. And then while I was a young child there is when the town finally got. running water and they wouldn't come to our house because we were a couple of blocks down a road at the end and it was too far to go so then my parents built a newer home a couple blocks back into town where we were on water so we we got a new home with water and sewer and all the modern amenities and that was so I that was in 1963 so I was turning 13 that fall. So I was 12 then, turning 13. And that was pretty nice. And then we all had

some bedrooms, but with seven of us, we still had a bedroom with three boys in one room, two girls in the other room. And upstairs, my two little brothers got the other bedroom and mom and dad. But then we went to a meeting about that same time. Downtown they had called a general meeting first all going, they were showing us these new phones and these huge numbers. Like there was seven digits in these numbers. And we were used to, our phone number used to be 42. And I remember talking people at the meeting, like how are we ever going to remember this? How are you going to remember your own phone number when it's seven digits? I remember people talking about that. It was pretty comical.

Now you look back at it. It's kind of funny. It's new, right? Yeah. And now to think that you've got phones that are just, you can do anything, you need a flashlight, you need a camera, you need. Yeah, it's a Swiss Army knife of phones. You need to know how do I hook this thing up? Oh, just Google it. Oh, you put that wire here, that wire there, okay, done, okay, fixed. How come this thing doesn't work?

Google it. Okay, try this. Done. Different world. But it was a simple life then. It was lots of fun. So you made a lot of your own fun. Like we all went out to all the kids and playing and doing stuff,

but just fine things to do all day. Go back to this house where you had to take the five-gallon pail. How big of a house was it? You'd mention when they built, and I don't mean square foot, but I mean rooms. You mentioned when you built a new house, three boys in one room and multiple rooms with kids stuck in it. Was it the first house like that as well, or was it small?

I don't remember. It was two stories. Mom and dad had there was a living room and a kitchen downstairs and mom and dad's bedroom. So upstairs, I think, where there was two or three bedrooms for the seven of us. Do you ever find it amusing? And nowadays people all talk about every kid needing their own room and own space. Oh, yes. Yeah.

What do you think of that? Well, it's a different world. And they're expected now to have that space. And it's different expectations. Like when we built the new house and it was huge, it was a thousand square feet. Well, nowadays, you can't have a house a thousand square feet. It's hardly enough just even for two people. So it's just different world.

But I guess it's how we move forward is we keep demanding more and better. And as we do, then we produce more and grow the economy and people and different. So I guess that's what we're about. We're supposed to keep moving ahead. When you got into that new house and you had running water, did you all go I'm taking a hot shower I'm taking we're going to I don't know wash the dishes what was I don't remember that I remember it was every morning you could get up and and have a quick shower on your way out to school and stuff like that but you just went and did it real quick and got

outside because that's what you wanted to do you wanted to be out playing with your friends How would, you know, I was just at the store the other day, and the selection of TVs and the price now on TVs is, I mean, it's almost like, it's almost like it's an old technology. Like, you can get a big TV for next to nothing. Back in the 50s, it would have been a little bit different. Do you remember some of the, maybe the first television you got, or maybe some of the shows you guys watched,

or maybe all of the above? funny, I distinctly remember coming home one day. It was in the old house and coming around the corner and there's these people on our house and they're putting a TV antenna up. What the heck is that? And then I get home and we find out that there's this news station that has just gone on in Lloyd Minster, CKSA. and we can get it with this big Aggie.

So here they were putting it up, and my dad had brought home this old black and white TV, and this was really something, and you sit it in the living room, and then we used to watch the news out of Lloydminster and the weather and sports scope. It used to be the old sports, and the CBC programming in those days.

And, of course, then you didn't need to worry about changing channels because there was only one. But I distinctly remember that day that I came home and we had a TV set. And it was quite something. What was one of your favorite shows that came on back then? Her favorite nights of the week? Was it Saturday night?

Well, it was usually, well, the hockey night in Canada was always big. And then Sunday night she always had Ed Sullivan and followed by Bonanza. and usually mom and dad would try and send you to bed when Bonanza started so it wasn't until you got older

that you got to watch that but Ed Sullivan was probably the big thing. Walt Disney was always on at supper time at six or seven and then so it would have been seven o'clock

Disney was every night Sunday night after supper first thing after supper was wonderful world of Disney and it was always Walt Disney himself introducing the show show. See, even as a kid, I remember Walt Disney.

Yeah, yeah, those are fond memories. Yeah. We, you talk about one channel. I always tell the young kids now we had two channels. We had, we had options. We had a second channel. Yep, two and four. When you graduate from high school, what, what do you think? Are you going, I want to do this. I want to go here. I want to, you know, it's, you know, It's 1968.

The grad glass in 1968. Did you have big thoughts of like, let's go conquer the world? I don't remember those. I just remember thinking, I got to get out of the house here. I got to leave home now. I got to go make my own way. I got to go do something. Where am I going to go?

Well, first of all, I need to eat. So I guess I need a job somewhere. And I talked to my friend in Lloyd Minster, and he said, come up here, I got a job for you. And so I did. I moved to Lloydminster and went into the co-op and they hired me. So you moved to Lloydminster in 1968? 1968.

Paint me a picture of Lloyd Minster in 1968. A lot smaller than it was now. There was really no housing on the south side of the highway on the Alberta side. The Saskatchewan side had the housing down to about where the co-op store is now. And then they were starting to build new homes there. And the new area on the Alberta side was Alberta Crescent. And it seemed like a very busy town. Lots going on.

The co-op was downtown, and I worked at the co-op packing groceries there. And, yeah, the old BA station on the corner where the Petro Canada is now and Texaco, where KFC is, and kind of everything rotated around that. And if you went for a drive, when your young kids driving around in town in the evening, checking things out, you would go up the main drag to 51 around the TV station, back down 50th. and then out the highway to A&W, which is now where, across from the Dairy Queen, where the, used to be the ranch house, but now it's Amador's place. That used to be a drive-through A&W, where they had car hops and that,

and then you go around there and out and back down the highway, and then through the cellar's dairy freeze, which is beside where the, the KFC is now, and then that back down the highway, up downtown and around. And it was quite a circuit. So as an 18-year-old bag and groceries, a little change in your pocket, what you young kids would do for fun was drive the strip. Drive the strip, yep. And at that time, there was always dances on Friday night,

usually out at Lashburn or Maidstone or sometimes in Marshall. funny in the odd time there'd be ones at the Legion Hall in Lloyd that would be the Legion Hall was down where the co-op is now at the corner but there would be but there seemed to be dances going all the time there was always these rock bands that were trying to get going and there was a few pretty popular ones around here so there was always a dance going on and that was pretty cool so there was always we were always headed out Friday Friday night, Saturday night to a dance somewhere. So it was pretty fun. But, you know, it was interesting when you look back at that because in two weeks, my pay for two weeks was about $90. And half of that went for rent, room and board. So it was costing me about $90 a month for room and board,

and I get another $90 to pay all my expenses. And that wasn't that bad of money. We seemed to do okay on it at that time. But boy, now you couldn't buy a bag of groceries for that. Were you taking any trips into, you know, later on in your life, you end up living in Saskatoon, you end up living in Emmington and Red Deer. Were you guys traveling around doing any of that back then? Or was it?

Oh, we didn't travel much. No. No, in those days you didn't travel much. going to the big city that wasn't something that you did like now you just don't even think about it you just do it so why didn't you do it back then there was no no

reason to go I guess I mean you were having your fun locally so when then does it change then you decide you know what maybe I should go to college maybe I should go to university I guess that's from meeting my wife

well let's talk about your wife Joe and then uh Joan is going on to nurses training and as she's going on to nurses training okay so then the next question is so what am i going to do where did you where did you meet your wife joan at these dances at one of the dances yep when you meet joan at the dance and you guys start to know one another where's one of the first dates you take her on where was the hot spot to take a girl for a date back them. Well, the main, I guess the main, probably the big thing that in those days was the movies.

So the drive-in? The drive-ins were open. In the summertime, you had drive-ins, but mainly the movie theater that was downtown, the May theater that was right on the main drag there. They just have their office in there now, but that was the theater then. And that was probably the one, the when the main first date was a triple header. It was an October long weekend, and it was because of the long weekend that they had this triple-header movie thing. It was supposed to be a big, big thing.

We took Joan to that. And the rest they say is history. What the movie lover and me has got to know. What movies are there? I don't even remember what the movies were. You know, we just had Sean Connery pass away. and he was the original Bond. Do you remember when the Bond movies came up?

Yes, I don't remember them coming out, but I remember him acting in the Bond, James Bond. Well, they were such fantastic movies. Did you see those, did you ever see them the first weekend, opening weekend or opening year? No, we never did a lot of that where something was just breaking and you had to go to it. It was mainly, and maybe because I'm,

I'm not sure that a lot of those movies came to Lloydminster when they were breaking. They were usually farther down the release by the time they got here. Interesting. But lots of times you just went to the movies because that's the only movie house. That's the only movie. It's Friday night. You go to the movies. So whatever's playing, that's what you're going to.

Well, I played my hockey out in Dyson, and Dryden, Ontario, and they only had one, a single room movie house or movie theater. So, you know all about it. That's right. Tuesday night is James Bond, and Wednesday is, I don't know, Titanic. Let's throw something completely off the other side, right?

And you only had one option, or maybe they, maybe they had a couple of options. They'd play a couple different movies at different times, that kind of thing. it's it's uh now you think about going to the movies and how many options have we got in town now i mean you go to a big center how many options you got you got like 16 options yeah and everything as soon as it's out it's almost in every movie theater now so when we moved back here in 1976 and it was the next year in 77 that the maze were just opening this twin theater where the theater is now and the the red end of the

the blue. They had one that was all red and one that was all blue and this was a twin theater. Like, wow, there's going to be two choices any night now. And it's seven and nine o'clock. There's four shows a night. Wow. So it was quite a change. And of course, that's just expanded and expanded and expanded and expanded until the maze have done a very good job here, I think. They've worked hard and expanded as much as they can, as fast as they can, and kept the face pretty good, I think. Yeah, well, and for myself, going to the movies was always something in Lloyd.

You always, there's always been, it's kind of like something you do on the Friday or the Tuesday or whatever night it is. Yep. There's always a night you go to the movie theater. Yep. It's been almost a way of life in Lloyd Minster. Yep.

movies or dances or to the lake or what did you what did you think of moving to saskatoon you mentioned we talked you moved to saskatoon you're dating joan at the time she's going to emminton you're going to saskatoon what did you think of moving into saskatoon which at the time would have been the big city oh it was quite different yeah it uh it was a big city and and trying to go to university and do classes and trying to pick up where you left off in grade 12 was quite a challenge and didn't prove very well so that didn't last very long well then you moved to ammonton which is moved to edmonton yes which is even bigger city yes it was big and then i worked uh with kirby vacuum cleaners, selling vacuum cleaners and driving all over the city. We had pre-appointments all

arranged. We just had to go and do the presentations, but boy, it was a huge city. It's a lot larger now, but it sure seemed large then. What did you think of the selling vacuum cleaners? I loved the selling part of it, and the product was good, and so I enjoyed it and did well at for a couple years. You know, you're a guy who spent pretty much majority of his lifetime in sales. Yes. That's what got me started in sales. Well, what did selling vacuum cleaners teach you about sales?

Good question. I guess it taught me that I enjoyed sales, that I enjoyed talking to people, working with people, helping them understand the product. the benefits of it and completing the sale and so they have the product and can enjoy the benefits because that just from there on all jobs that I had were sales. Yeah, selling vacuum cleaners, I mean, how the world has changed. I mean, you still got vacuum cleaner being bought all the time. Yeah. But to actually have one dedicated to just selling a vacuum cleaner just seems foreign to my brain, I guess.

Yes. Right? If you want a vacuum cleaner now, you go to one of the department centers. And away you go. Yep. Yep. In those days, there was a number of companies. There's a lot of companies that product was available in department stores.

And there was three or four companies that had their own sales force. So if you wanted, you called these companies and these companies lined up appointments and you went in and demonstrated your particular product. and what were the benefits of it and why should they have it. Was there good money in that? I did okay. What was, like, so you go from Cutknife to Lloyd to Saskatoon, across to Eminton, then you move to Red Deer.

Now, in a matter of years, you've kind of seen a bunch of Alberta and Saskatchewan. Now you're in the sales force. You're dating a girl who's becoming a nurse? Yes. What was it When you go back and you look at your time in red deer Because in red deer you start to This is where you slowly stumble into

Or maybe I don't know if stumbles the right word But you find media And CKRD When you look back at your time in red deer What sticks on Um A very fond memories of red deer We were just young

We were just getting married starting a home and had a job that I really enjoyed. I was in sales and working away at learning to get better at it. And really enjoyed the city. It was a fun city. It was a nice size city. So we got involved in the community with the Optimus Club and got to meet some great people and have some fun

and trying to start out life and things were good. And once we got married and settled and started a family and had my oldest daughter there and everything was going along very well, it was a nice city and a great city, and it was at a time when the economy was doing well and everybody was doing well, and it was fun. What brings you back to Lloyd,

So as I'm in the broadcast and working there, Joan's dad passed away here in Lloyd Minster and so then when I was offered a position to come back and work in sales, television sales in Lloydminster. And after some discussion, Joan and I decided that we were going to do that. We're going to move back here and we're going to get involved in this operation and with CKSA and work away at what we could do there. I would think long, I mean, like career-wise, like you must have had a successful career. You hit Lloyd at a time over the next 30 years that Lloyd really grows immensely.

Well, in spurts and... True, true. You know, there was times when we were going crazy. when I moved here in 76, they were saying that there's an upgradeer that's going to get built in Lloydminster, and it's just days away from announcing in 1976. So there was a lot of excitement in the community, and the oil business was doing very well, and it was an exciting, growing community. But we've had some bumps along the way, and then all of a sudden when the world price of oil goes down,

we shudder half the town. So there was 80, in the 80s, we'd gone down to $10 oil and shuddered half the town. And in those days, when you didn't have the upgrader pumping a lot of oil every day, you'd close up half the oil patch if the oil price wasn't good. So it was kind of boom and bust, boom and bust. Well, I'm curious about that because, I mean, Obviously, you've lived through some of the boom and bust. Currently, we're in a very precarious position with how the last year's gone,

coronavirus, the pandemic, the lockdowns, everything. When you go back to the 80s, if you can put yourself back then when interest rates are skyrocketing. Oh, we remember those well, yes. What are some of the things that you remember about that time, that you could pass along to not only us right now, but generations to come? You know, when things are bad like that, I think that's when you kind of look around. I remember in the 80s where you got $10 oil, you got interest rates going up every day. Every week the government used to the Bank of Canada, I guess, would look at the economy, and they would set up. the rate every Thursday and it was always going up 10 11 12 30 got as high as 18 I think was and

in our business We had a fair amount of loans out. We just expanded from one station to two stations in television and had to borrow some money to do that and so every week when you got an increase in an interest rate you just got handed a higher interest bill and so things were looking pretty bleak but you you kind of look around at yourself and you kind of think okay can't get much worse than this um and so we think we can keep working at this we're okay so you kind of start to look at the future with a fair amount of optimism because you know it's not going to get worse so you kind of look there and say i think i'm okay

here, it's going to be a challenge, but we're going to do this. And as we're going to do this, we're going to kind of out of it and better days are ahead. So it kind of gives you the enthusiasm to keep going. And I think that's the same thing we're in right now. With the pandemic, boy, it's a problem every day. When you look at the number of infections every day, people dying every day, oh my gosh. Okay, so what do we? I do? Okay, what can I do about it? I can do the best I can wear the mask, do the social distancing, try and do that, but I can handle this. But I do know, it's not going to get worse than this, it's probably going to get better. So as the saying goes, this will pass. And one thing I've

seen with the oil industry, it's boom, bust, boom, bust, boom, bust, boom, bust. And, and But we're in a bust, but after every bust comes a boom. After every boom comes a bust. So in my time in Lloydminster, I think I've been through about three of these boom bus cycles and about three to four of them. Mid-80s, we were just, we were in real problems here. So closing up half the town, people losing their businesses, it was tough. it was really hard on some people. A lot of people didn't make it. But when you get in these

situations, they say that it makes you tougher, makes you better. Yes, it does. And if you can, if you're fortunate enough to be in a position to be able to make it through. And some people didn't make it through. And it's not because of them. There were circumstances that they couldn't do anything about. And that's very tragic. I've known some very good local business people that were involved in business in those days that ended up not making it and losing their business and have to leave. And it was a tragedy for this community because we lost some very good people. So if you make it through, then I say you're very fortunate to be in a situation. that you could manage through it.

But when you manage through it and when you're in that situation and you think you can make it through, then the future does look good because you know it's going to be better. And I think that's where we're at now with the pandemic. It's a challenge. We're at a certain point where we feel, okay, I think I can handle this, and I think I can handle what's coming at us. So therefore, the rest is going to be

better does that sound yeah no i i get what you're saying um if you can survive what's going on and the better days are ahead of us it's just everybody right now is wondering how long do we got to survive for right at the you don't know that you don't know that well and i i always say right if you had a crystal ball and could see it was coming but i mean that isn't that isn't that isn't that and what you get to experience. You only understand life backwards. The problem is you have to live it forward. That's right.

And what I love, and what I was saying to Louis when he was in here before, is what I love about doing this right here is it's a way to look back at some events that are not identical to what we're going through. That's not the right way to phrase it, right? No bust is ever the same and no boom is ever the same, right? But you can understand that some lessons just transfer over time. And that's what I like to go after. I like to go after your life experiences,

what you've done and how that can be transferred to people, whether it's right now or whether it's 20 years from now. There's certain lessons that are, I assume your parents have passed along lessons to you, if you think about it, that maybe you... I think they passed on lessons to me that I didn't know they were passing on. What lessons would those be?

You know, my mom is still alive, over 100. Her next birthday will be 101. My dad passed away at 73. I really saw in my dad probably a lot of community involvement. He was the guy that started the hockey league. He was the guy that went around selling all the memberships, the athletic club in Lloydman in in the marital town of cut knife to get everybody together to build a new arena um he was the guy doing this and he was involved in the legion and in the

mason's and in the whatever group it was he was involved in it um he was involved in politics uh and i i learned that from him and he he always give back and and try and help somebody else um my mom i never heard her say a bad word about anybody, but she just did what she had to do every day. And now when I look back and I think there were seven kids and the two of them, that's nine people fed three times a day, and never was there a KFC to go get stuff in and get food brought in or anything like that, and you go, wow, that must have been horrendous staring at them every day. And then you look around and you think, well, everybody was in the same boat.

But that's what everybody did. They just did what they had to do. And, you know, when you look back, probably more so now, I'm starting to say every day, every day now I understand my mom and dad more and more and more. Every day I start to go, wow, what they were doing. we had seven kids so every person had their own day for doing the supper dishes we used to feel like it was terrible that we had to do all this work at home we had to do the supper dishes it was our job to clean up the supper dishes and we why would we have to

do that and now I look back on that and I think that's the only thing we did We cleaned up the supper dishes for mom. When she was done supper, she went in the living room and sat down. She was done. But she'd been going all day. Like when you came home, meals were ready. When you came home, the bathrooms were cleaned. The clothes were cleaned.

Everything was done. And you go, now I start to look back on that and say, wow, everything was done. There was never a question. And it was always done to the point. that you never ever questioned it. And so you just assumed it. And then, and now you go, wow, that was pretty darn good. So we always had a good base.

We always had that stuff provided. And so you could go and spend whatever time and effort on what you wanted to do. And you didn't have to come home from school and worry about, problems at home that, you know, when you look back now at all these kinds of issues that are in homes and you go, geez, we never had any of that. So I guess I was free then to do my own thing all the time. And all us kids and our family were allowed to do that because everything was looked after at home. And we didn't realize. But that gave us, I think, a nice base and went forward from there.

Well, I have three children for and under. And it's a ton of work. I grew up in a family of five kids, right? And I'm seven kids, and I had one of the Harris's on. There's 11 kids. And you just go like, they're bloody saints. That's what they are for taking on, not taking on, but like the amount of work that goes into three kids under four,

I just can't imagine adding one more in. another in or four more in or whatever the number is like the beds the clothes the food the activities i mean you know uh you talk about you know the phys ed coming in and then the more opportunities to go play other sports well before that you just threw them out in the backyard i suppose and just let them have at it now like there's activities at all times for anything you know want to go do whatever you want to do there's an opportunity to go do that the opportunities are endless now yeah yeah it's unreal yeah but what they did it's on just they just did it there was never any question about it or they just did it it was all there have you ever asked so i guess

you know today we hear on the news Alex Trebek has died yeah and all the outpouring of him and And then you look at why did he fight so hard to stay alive once he was diagnosed with his cancer? And he publicly talked about it and went through it. And then you say, what did I learn from my mom and dad? And you look at that too and you say, there's something in that guy that when he was presented with the challenge, he just did it. How did he learn that? and I guess maybe that's what some of us did when we say how come we have a positive look or something like that

well maybe because our parents in the household we kind of grew up with that that our parents were just positive about it or just if things got challenging one day they just did it they just handled it and we kind of see that and so we learned from that and probably like you sit here today and say to me so what did you learn well I don't

know what I learned but I did learn it and maybe it was through osmosis you stole the word out of my head that it I absorbed it somehow and for some reason I'm doing this this way and probably because that's the way I've seen it done

well I forget who said it in this room But they talked a lot about learning by seeing, not by hearing, right? Like, it's great you say something, but show me. And that's the best way to learn. I think kids pick up on what you do. I mean, obviously. More so than what you say.

That's right. You mentioned your mom's 101. We'll be 101, yes. Do you ever just pick her brain on some of the things that... Can't anymore. Can't anymore? It's not there anymore. but up until two years ago, three years ago, she was fine.

She was living by herself till she was 89 in her own house. I don't know how she did that. Till one day I went to her and said, do you want to move? Yeah, I'd like to. Oh, okay. In those years, when she's in her 80s, did you ever pick her brain on growing up? Not near enough. Now that I have all the questions, I want to go and say,

how did you do this or how did you do that? And probably, I don't know whether this is an excuse, but probably since I retired, do you reflect more about that? And when you're working, you're still go, go, go, go, go. And even though you take days off from time to time, you're still, your mindset is in what you're doing and what's going to happen when you get back to work and still the challenges that are there. And after we retire, when that world all goes away and then you start to reflect more on

your parents and your upbringing in your life and what did you do and why didn't you do this? And what do you remember? And then you start to sit around and remember about what you used to do and as a kid. And I guess, and now you have time to sit and relax and think about this stuff. You go, holy smokes. And then you go, I should ask my dad. Well, he's gone now. Now you start to say, well, how did dad do that?

Well, how did he do that? Well, when did he do that? And then you go, I guess I can't ask him anymore. You know, you shouldn't beat yourself up because, you know, what I, everything he just said makes so much sense to me. It's not even funny because my grandmother, Doran Newman, we talk about her in a lot. Um, she passed away and she was a lady in her 80s that's lived by herself, still drove, still gardened, uh, like just, thing is that you just, but she was so active, so sharp, all the way

up until the day she passed. And all of us grandkids talk about, man, wouldn't it have been awesome if I would have been able to do this with her? And all of us say that, right? what I love about now is when I enter, I'm going to steal a line from Ray Ferraro, he was on the podcast and he said one of the lessons he's learned after his NHL career was to be where your feet are. And I love when I get in here, I don't look at that thing anymore. It's gone. This thing just disappears. I like to just, okay, let's sink the ears into what the guest is saying. and let's really try and pick up on some things and dig into it. And that's what this room has become.

It's become a spot where I can have different people come in and try and pull as much out of them as I humanly possibly can. And what I hear out of you again is what I got irritated. I've had my dad, I've interviewed my father once. And I wanted to do it every Father's Day. And he blew me off this Father's Day. And I kind of let it slide. I just got, okay, fair enough.

He's 64. And I was like, oh, yeah, whatever. It's probably ridiculous. But what I hear out of you is no more because you're absolutely right. I have so many questions for him. Probably could fill hours upon hours of doing this just by listening and getting his thoughts and how amazing will that be as the years progress to have that and to have asked those questions. Yep.

Exactly right. Don't leave it unsaid. You know, so my daughter got me a few years back, these grandchild books. Okay. And you're supposed to go through and put all your memories about this and that and everything in this book, then give it back to her for the grandkid to have to be able to look at someday. And, of course, Joni and I said, oh, we're not doing that. Gee, that's a bother.

So we stuck them in the drawer. And then last year, I thought, No, we should be filling those out. Johnny, no, no, I don't want to do that. So I started filling mine out, and of course, then I get a bunch of questions. So the last trip out to Victoria, I take the books with me, and I say, so I've done this much, have a look at it, is what else would you like in here? You know, and so then we talked a little bit about that, and I brought them home so that I can do some more on it.

But it is a project. It is a very important project, because there's going to be a day when I'm not here, and they can pull that out and have a look and they say, well, what did they do there? And then, oh, it should be in there. Well, the lovely thing I love about conversing with somebody is that you can just have it in your words, I guess, is the way my brain works, right? To read something, then I'm reading it and I'm going,

I wonder what he meant by that. And when we're talking, at any point, you can just interject and go, well, what do you mean by that? I it has to be tough I assume to have a parent still alive at a hundred and one which is absolutely impressive like a hundred years think about that that is unbelievable I don't mean to bring up um tough and if you just want to skip over it that's totally fine but at 101 to have a parent still alive is it just tough you can't sit and just dig into her her life and and and and and and and and have those memories and shared with and write them down or what have you? It is. It's disappointing that, but you, it's my fault. I'm the one that didn't ask the questions when I probably should have.

I just look at it and say it's been a blessing to have the influence that we've had from Mum and the leadership that has been there. And you kind of look at, it's wonderful that she's lasted as long as she has and it's disappointing that it's ending this way. But it just appreciate all that we've had from her. It's too bad that I didn't ask some of the questions when I should have. But that's fine.

What are some of the questions you would like to ask your mom? Probably what it was like when I happened to look after all these kids all the time and they're all coming in. Like now, when I sit around and these grandkids start running around you and I think, well, cheapers in our house, there have been twice as many. And you go, oh, man, that must have been tough. But they just knuckle on and do it. probably those kinds of things. Well, how about this?

Whether it was two or seven being a parent, I understand personally, the first kid is challenging. We all know why, because you have no idea what the heck's going on. Two is challenging because now you have two of them. Three is challenging because now you have three of them. So let's talk about having your first,

What was that like for you? That's pretty exciting. That's very exciting. But like you say, you're not sure yet. You're just being a new parent. And so you're probably working harder at being a parent. And then we had another daughter three years later. So they were far enough apart that by the time the second one came to the stuff,

that the first one had already done, you kind of saw the results a little bit, so you maybe weren't as anal about some things. But this summer, we had a conversation with our oldest daughter, which is now 45, and she's just saying to us, I'm kind of looking at my kids,

and I'm thinking, you know, I'm just kind of flying by, by the seat of my pants here and she says, you know, I'm just realizing you guys were too. It's a crazy realization, isn't it? And she's saying, I'm just realizing that you were flying by the seat of your pants too. And yeah, we were. But like that ad says, if you're doing your best, that's good. You're doing it right.

And that's all it takes is if you care about what you're doing and you care about them enough to do what's best for them, you'll be fine. And you just go day by day and handle it day by day. And it's like so many things people say it's a good thing you don't know what's ahead of you or you'd probably stop. But when you just take it a day at a time, it's like any big job or any journey starts with a single step. So if you just do one step at a time and try and make sure you're doing it right. And usually with these young people, they're just so excited, enthused about doing the right thing and being right and doing that, that that's great. That's all you need. And you're properly equipped to take on the world.

You know, I have this, this happened like literally like five days ago. It's funny that your daughter says you were flying by the seat of your past. I was remembering as a kid walking in and my father playing for Suncor, I think it was, a rec hockey team, and thinking they were so old. And I started doing the math this week. You're at the same age. And we're at the same age. And I'm like, I've got to be very, very clear.

I do not feel old at 34. Actually, I think, man, I was dumb at 30. Man, I was dumb at 25. Man, I was extremely dumb at 18. And I feel like, I'm just curious what I'm going to feel at 40, Because I remember thinking at 20, 30 was old, at 30, 40 is old, right? And I'm trying to just like take that mindset and be like, throw it out the window.

Because I don't know half the things I think I do. And probably in another five years, I'll look back and think of some of the things I thought I knew and I had no idea. And when I listened to your daughter say that to you, I know that feeling because at 34. Yep. My son probably thinks, man, you're so old. I was driving down the freeway one time with my daughters in the back seat

and they're talking about being old and I said to Michelle so what do you call old? She said 25. To her she was just a small kid 25 was old. But I also had a situation when my grandson started going

playing hockey and I was go watch him play hockey and he'd kind of stumble around a little out there and I thought you know that's about the caliber that I was when I was a kid. I really wasn't that great.

But I remember very distinctly thinking I had this all case. And I remember very distinctly thinking, wow, I'm pretty hot at this. And then I look at it now and I thought, I was terrible. But I remember distinctly thinking I really had this one taste.

You know, you mentioned with your first kid, you were anal about certain things, and by the time the second one came around, you'd loosen the range, shall we say? Yes. Do you remember what you were an anal about with the first? Was there certain things you're like,

nope, she's not touching that or not getting on that, or I don't know, maybe cleanliness, right? I think of vehicles in the beginning. You're like, nope, we've got to keep it spick and span, and then, you know, as the kids start to pile on and they throw it out, you're like, ah, it's going to happen anyways. What were one of the things in? I don't really remember a lot of particular things.

When we moved to Lloyd, my wife retired from nursing and became a full-time homemaker and mother and was very good at it. And the nice thing about that was I didn't really have to worry about much. But I would be a sounding board. So lots of times we would kind of discuss things. But with our older daughter, a lot of times you could just explain to her, here's why you shouldn't do that and she'd say that makes sense and not do it.

Leslie was a little different and he had to work at it a little more. But my mother, her mother did all that which was very good for me because it left me available for more

to focus on my role at the office more and I was involved in a number of community groups and organizations also so that worked out for the better. But I had a very strong partner in looking after that. How many years are you and Joan been married now? 47.

47. Over 47 years of marriage. What's something you go, yeah, this is a key to a successful marriage. Um, the big question is never in doubt. Um, when you get married and you say, okay, we're headed into this for a lifetime. And we're going to be partners for the life, for the rest of our lives. And I guess you just take that on and say, that's my commitment. That's the big question.

And it's not going to be discussed again. so when bumps in the road come along it's never a question of is this something to break up on or something like that it's the big question is done with this isn't this isn't a breakup or anything so we got to solve this and my wife was always one that would i would probably let stuff stew and she would always say, we got to solve this. And yes, we would. And so really, I owe it to her in making sure that when there was bumps in the road, we got together and solved them and moved on. But from my point of view, and my advice is there's the big questions and then the littler questions. And the big question has to be that that's solved and that's done. And the commitment is there, and it's not going

change. That also helps with whenever there's opportunities to sidetrack you and take you away, if you know that the big question is done, that the straying isn't there. It doesn't happen because it's not even an option. So that's, in my opinion, but I think mainly my wife should be getting all the credit for you married a good woman us i married i married what did uh ronald regan say above our pay grade um she was smarter than me and knew when there was things that needed to be solved they had to be solved and i was a type of person that could let stuff stew she couldn't so because she couldn't let it stew we'd have to get it solved and of course that was good for me too because when it's solved and you move on you mean you mentioned

I mentioned, first up, I think that's great advice. I think that's really good advice. I've never had the big... I was like, what do you mean by that? No, that was very good. You mentioned being involved in community groups that you're involved in many community groups, and that maybe that stems from how much your father

was involved in the community. What community groups were involved in, and maybe what's one or a couple of the things that really stick out that you're proud of, that you accomplished or were a part of with these different groups? Well, I was involved with the city Lita, Chamber of Commerce, Lakeland College advisory committees, Saskalta Training Group. I guess probably the Chamber of Commerce was a good time.

lots of good people around there. We really had some challenges when a bunch of us got involved there and found out it was broke and bankrupt and really in dire straits. And with some leadership, we got that thing turned around and got it on solid footing.

And I spent about 15 years with the chamber and a year as president. And I was the president the year we had $10. oil and we had politicians coming in and wanting to find out more about our heavy oil situation. And so we did have a number of meetings that year with ministers, provincially and federally about the oil and the industry and that kind of stuff. And we had great people in the industries that worked with us and made presentations and did well.

So I'm pretty pleased with the contributions that I made. over the years with the chamber. And then I was on the Economic Development Authority for Lloyd Minster for a few years. And through that, we started a training group. And it was called the Saskalta Training Group. And I chaired that for all the years that had existed. And during those years, Canada Employment Center had a bunch of money to put into job training. but they needed a local community group that would do the analysis in the community and figure out the needs.

And so our group got organized and did that, and we would provide the information to the employment center, and they would give us the funding for a lot of programs that got put on, and a large part of it got started when they were going to build the upgrader. and they needed to do a lot of backfilling and employment training in the community to fill jobs at the Upgrader and to fill jobs in the community that would be left vacant from people moving to those other jobs. So that organization did a lot during those years in providing a lot of that. and I spent probably 10 or 15 years on the advisory committee with Lakeland College.

And that was a great, it was interesting and challenging at times and nice to see the way that has grown. When I was president, they had just announced that they were going to build this new facility here in Lloyd for the Lakeland College campus. And we said at that time, said the nice thing about a college is it builds a facility and fills it up and then adds on and then fills that and then adds on and fills that.

So it's going to be something that is always growing and growing and growing with the community and the services to the community are going to continue to grow. And so it was fun being part of that. And I was on the fundraising committee with the Vic Chuba Community Theater. I was in the Lions Club for a very

short time, but that was fun too. So it was in my job with CKSA radio and television and CITL TV in the sales area, we also worked with a lot of community groups. And there was a So my brother-in-law, Ken Raptash, who was the general manager of the stations, got the station involved in a number of groups and fundraising and events and stuff that we got involved. And we put on the bike-a-thon to help build the grandstand that is now at the exhibition grounds. Ken got in started the tournament of champions with the ball this spring tournament that was still, goes on in our community. So we got involved with a lot of things and it was fun and it was because of our jobs and our position in the community, you knew where all the groups were that

needed help and a lot of them would come to us and it was fun to be able to respond to a lot of them and help them out. And so we did quite a bit of that. And you feel good now looking back at When we were there, what did we do? And did we give back? And I think we did very good. And I think that was kind of passed on to us from Jones' dad who started the stations. And he was always a big community supporter. So we carried on the tradition that he had started.

What? You caught me in a... I'm thinking about everything you just said. And I find myself at a stop for a second. I was wondering, like, over your time and working in media and Lloyd Minster, what's maybe one of the biggest, and I don't know if changes is the right way. But you've seen, like, on television and businesses in town, television has just grown exponentially.

Businesses in town have grown exponentially since first coming here. What has been one of the biggest or maybe most memorable changes, whether it's in Lloyd Minster or whether it's on the media side of it, or maybe both, that has happened that sticks out to you. That's memorable. You know, for years, It was a smaller community, and everything was done in town by a lot of small business people. All the businesses were locally owned.

And I remember distinctly in 1990 when Nelson Lumber announced they were going to build this new superstar. And I thought, this is taking, and people were saying, oh, is that really good for Lloyd-Benzuela? And we're saying, well, I guess they're going to drag us into the 90s. So it really changed the Lloydminster from being a bit of a service center for the Midwest area to now becoming more of a major shopping destination for the whole Midwest region. And one of the competitors competing communities in our region was always the Battlefords. And as you go from Lloydminster to Battlefords, the closer you get to the Battlefords, the people would go there. Now that we were kind of taking Lloyd Minster to a next step or a larger community or services provided that weren't provided before,

I think we then enlarged that. Also, one of the big, the big, I think benefits that Lloyd Minster had was the television stations so the television stations every day were beaming out to the Bonneville area to Coal Meadow Lake down around cut-knife unity Wainwright Provost it was promoting Lloyd Minster it was promoting all the services and in and everything that was available in Lloydminster. So every day these people in their daily lives are getting up and doing their thing, and then they're tuning into their television viewing,

and they're being influenced from Lloyd Minster. When Mr. Shortel was looking at putting the CTV station here, for many years it was the Edmonton station that wanted to put a rebroad here. And Mr. Shortel said, no, it has to be able. local station because we don't want all these Edmonton businesses coming in and telling people in Lloydminster come to Edmonton come to Edmonton and so he made sure it became a local station so all the people in the Lloydminster region were being told all the time to come to Lloydminster and so the big benefit was for us for this community so I think that had a lot to do with us

becoming that center. And then you take things like the super store. So did that come because it had a TV station that could bring the people in? Well, probably had something to do with it. But also the people looking at the investment, excuse me, looking at the investment would have been saying it's a big enough center. And it can become a bigger center. and we want to get in there and grow the business.

So I think those are some of the things that were happening through there. And then as you get into the 90s and closer to the turn of the century, there's more of that with the Power Center and with other big box stores. And probably when you go back to the 80s and come back to 2000, most of the businesses in Lloydminster were locally owned businesses. And then there started to be Canadian tires and these kinds that were national chains, but they had a local owner. And now we're moving more into national chains that are also owned by national, international companies. So the amount of local businesses is getting less and less and less.

and that's a concern because as now with COVID-19, there is really a lot more promotion of the fact that it's your local businesses that fund your ball teams, your hockey teams, the Lions Club, the Kiwanas, the Rotary, it's all these people that make up the fabric of your community and these, the car dealers. These are the people that get bombarded day in, day out, by community groups saying,

can you give us some money to keep operating? And these businesses keep saying, yes, yes, yes. And these businesses keep doing whatever they can. And so the one positive that has come out of the COVID-19 is the focus on all these small businesses in your community and keep them alive. One thing about this area, we have a lot of agriculture, and one of the things that you'll never have to talk to a farmer about

is supporting your local town. They know that, right, from the day one. And you go to most people in the community, where did you buy your car? Well, I bought it down the road there because they had a better deal. And he asked the farmer where he bought is, and he bought it right in town. Why?

Because when I want to go get parts, when I need to go buy something, I need a dealer there. So it just, and it's just second nature to a farmer that you don't buy stuff somewhere else. You buy it from the community that you support and you buy it where you go for everything else. We've talked, well, that has been brought up an awful lot. You bang on here since the pandemic hit and everybody's been, you know, closing their doors or shutting up or a can. get in or whatever. To me it's become evident more so every day that it was only like 15 years ago maybe,

maybe less, maybe a little bit more somewhere in that time frame, when everything was locally owned or a majority of it was locally owned. I'm not saying all of it, but a lot. And a lot of successful businesses and the oil field and stuff were locally owned. And now it's becoming less and less and less. and I think you're bang on a lot of that money that gets the businesses that are taking a lot of that money that aren't owned locally it doesn't get put back in it goes elsewhere and that is I think it's very evident and I wonder I think more and more eyes start to see that as the days ticked by

and you wonder what comes to that down the road you know like you say we can't see what what happens in the future. And so you wonder where that goes. You wonder if that creates more local businesses and more businesses start to open up and they get the people from here focusing on supporting them if that happens.

I think that's a result of this COVID-19. There's probably been there's been a lot more focus on supporting local businesses and I think it's been very positive and it's, I'll bet there's a lot, lot of people that have kind of known that in the back of their head but really haven't thought about it and they thought, oh yes, my kids, my grandkids are on these teams and these teams

wouldn't be there without the local businesses. Well, we've been going for closing in an hour and a half. So I know. Yeah, it's funny how time flies when you're having a good time. Yep. I just, before I let you go, is there anything? that maybe I've passed by. Is there something else that we should dig into before I let you go?

Is there something that, you know, you think, gee, this meant a lot to me in life, and I should let, you know, whoever hears about it coming along. You spend a lot of time in this community. You've got two grown daughters and grandchildren and all that. You've lived a very good life. You have a lot of years ahead of you. And if you're anything like your mother, maybe you got a lot, a lot of years ahead of you. Is there something that is near and dear to you that we haven't, you know, crossed paths with and that we should discuss?

Not really. I probably had more to say than I thought I ever would. But I do appreciate this community. We were very fortunate to end up in this community and be able to spend our life here. there's a lot of positive things about this community. There's always been lots of entrepreneurial spirit here. There's always been lots of spirit of community and helping each other. And I'm just very thankful that I was able to spend my career here working and contributing and being part of it. And I think this community is growing.

and I think that we're in a little bit of a lull right now, but we've got some good times ahead of us and some better times ahead of us, and we're going to have some more hiccups. But, yeah, we're going to be just fine. And the people that we've attracted around here and the lot of traditional families that have been here for many years are all contributing,

and we're going to be fine. Well, I just want to say thanks for coming in today, Graham. This has been really enjoyable. You're welcome. Yeah, it's been really enjoyable for me. And I hope now that, you know, when we first sat down, you're, I don't know why I'm here.

Well, I hope now you've enjoyed yourself and that, well, it'll be something that when you get the USB with the interview, something for your family to look back on. And like I say, it's been really enjoyable sitting across from you. Thank you very much. Hey, folks. Thanks for joining us today. If you just stumbled on the show, please click subscribe.

Then, scroll to the bottom, and rate and leave a review. I promise it helps. Remember, every Monday and Wednesday, we will have a new guest sitting down to share their story. The Sean Newman podcast is available for free on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever else you get your podcast fix. Until next time. Hey, Keeners. I got to give a shout-out to Amber Fisher.

She reached out on Instagram and said, Brady-Leovold, best podcast I've listened to of yours, blown away. Thanks for helping him share his story, very inspiring. And if you haven't listened to Brady-Leovold, I highly suggest you go back to episode 176. He's a young guy who was in the W.HL and then gets signed by the Tampa Bay Lightning, and then goes down the road of cocaine, heroin, fentanyl, living on Hastings Street, homeless on Hastings Street. and has pulled himself back out of that, and it's a pretty, I don't know, crazy story,

I think is maybe the easiest way to describe it. So thanks, thanks, Amber, for reaching out. I hope everybody has enjoyed this week. We went from, we've kind of jumped all over the map, which, as you all know by now, that's exactly how I enjoy it. I enjoy different topics, different people, different perspectives,

and really trying to, you know, follow where my mind goes and lately it's been kind of all over the map so i hope you're enjoying it uh next week you know we got another couple great ones on tap for you i'll i'll wait for you guys to find out a little closer to monday i did take a little reprieve from social media if anyone's following me on social media i uh i told the wife last week i just still feel like posting anything i think i'm just going to leave it for part of the week and and go enjoy may long and that's what they did. I tried turning the phone off as much as I could. That way I just, I didn't have to look at it. I'm so tired. Well, not so tired. There's days

where I just, you know, there's just so much on social media that I just could care less about. So I took the time to just kind of recharge, so to speak, and really not pay any attention to what was going on, which meant I didn't post anything even for the podcast, which I've now gotten back to, you know, making sure that with new guests coming out, everybody's up to date on who's out on the podcast, that kind of thing. But no worries, everybody, everybody knew rain or shine Monday, Wednesday. We got somebody coming for you, all right? Now, if you're the champ, chances are you didn't get out golfing on Maylong and you're,

you're really foaming at the mouth. No worries, the time is coming, but it is only Wednesday, so maybe feet off the desk. Let's go to work, all right? We'll catch up to you guys Monday.