Shaun Newman Podcast - SNP Archives #8 - Louis Mavridis

Episode Date: November 13, 2020

Originally from Corinth Greece. He trained to be a mechanic, grew up on the meager diet of snails & sparrows, protested his government, served in the army, immigrated to Canada at 22, lost his business in the 80's & then built it back up again from scratch. Very cool story. Let me know what you think   Text me! 587-217-8500

This is Corey Cross. This is Wade Redden. Hi, this is Braden Holby. Hi, this is Scott Hartnell. My name is Jim Patterson. Hello, everyone. I'm Carly Agro from SportsNet Central. Hey, it's Ron McLean, Hockey Net in Canada, and Rogers' hometown hockey.

Hello, Lloyd Minster. This is Keith Morrison. And welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome to the podcast, folks. We're back at her here. I got a lot of texts on why there was no episode Wednesday. for those wondering who didn't see the social media posts, I just thought with it being a remembrance day

that I thought instead of releasing an episode that maybe it would be good to put emphasis back on somebody who'd served and a popular episode in Sy Campbell. So if you're wondering Wednesday why there was no episode, I was suggesting to everybody that if they wanted to listen to an episode to go back to episode 18, Sycamble, a guy who had served in World War II and talks in detail about that. I thought that was probably the best thing for Remembrance Day and honoring all of our veterans and military service people. Moving forward into the rest of November here and December, every second Wednesday from this point on is going to be an archive episode.

they're going to move in from instead of being on the Fridays, they're going to move to every second Wednesday instead of every second and Friday. Just with starting to do the giving Tuesday, sorry, the Lloyd Minster Regional Health Foundation's giving Tuesday. And we're ramping up on that and want to make sure that we get that off without any problems. So we're going to shorten up the episodes from five every two weeks to four. So now that everybody's on the same page, let's get to today's sponsors. Jen Gilbert and team over at Coldwell Banker.

I want to let you know for over 40 years since 1976. The dedicated realtors of Coldwell Banker, Cityside Realty have served Lloyd Minster in the surrounding area. They're passionate about our community, and they pride themselves on giving back through volunteer opportunities and partnerships as often as they can. We know that home is truly where awesomeness happens. Coldwell Banker, Cityside Realty for everything real estate,

24 hours a day, seven days a week, 78087.5. 3343. Clay Smiley and Profit River. Profit River is a retailer of firearms, optics, and accessories serving all of Canada. They specialize in importing firearms from the United States, hard to find calibers, rare firearms, special additions, check them out at Profitriver.com. As I was mentioning off the hop, I'm teaming back up with the Lloydminster Regional Health Foundation for giving Tuesday Radathon on December 15th to help raise money for the hospital and continuing care. We'll be doing a 12 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Facebook live stream where we'll sit down with different people from the community share stories about why the hospital is so vital to our community. Last year we raised

$50,000 for new Pixus automated pill dispensing machine and we're looking to exceed that goal I dropped last week. We're trying to get to 200,000. So we're trying to really, really set the bar high. And with all of your help, I know we can get there. Be on the lookout, December 15th, 15th, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Facebook Live. We're going to have some special guests in. I've already dropped names like Scott Hartnell, Clark MacArthur, Wade Redden. Quick Dick McDick is going to hop on for a little go. We got some politicians hopping on, Rosemary Falk from around the area, Colleen Young, the mayor, and there's going to be a whole bunch more. Mr. Shep is going to stop in and have morning coffee with me. It's going to be a lot of fun. So Facebook live, December 15th, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

A special thanks to the Lloydminster Archives for helping me put together each week these episodes. I always got to give a shout out to Lynn Smith. She was actually just by the house earlier today who works tirelessly behind the scenes to help line all these up. And honestly, we got another great one on store for you today. If you're heading into any of these businesses, make sure you let them, you know, you heard about them on the podcast. I know COVID restrictions. Maybe making that a little interesting.

But if you see people out and about, make sure you let them know you heard about them on the podcast. And if you're interested in advertising on the show, visit shon Newmanpodcast.com, hit the top right corner, hit the contact button and send me your information. Got lots of different options, and I want to find something that can work for the both of us. Now, let's get on to that T-Barr 1, tale of the tape. Originally from Corinth, Greece, he trained to be a mechanic, even served in the Greece Army. At age 22, he immigrated to Canada landing in Brooks, Alberta first. It would take him several stops before finally landing in Lloyd's. Minster once in town he owned and operated such restaurants as the Long Branch and

louis i'm talking about Louis maveritas so buckle up here we go it's November 8th 2020 I'm joined today by Louis maveridus so first off thank you sir for coming in you're welcome thank you too I'm going to see if we can't dig it a little into your life and and have a little fun doing it so that'll be good I always enjoy sitting across from a willing partner and this little endeavor we're doing here. So how about we start back in Corinth, Greece, growing up there. You live the first stage of your life there. You're 22 when you immigrate to Canada.

So let's talk about the first 20-so years in your life. And what you remember of life back in Greece and maybe your childhood. Growing up then, it was tough. It was after World War II and part. of that time Greece was on a civic war between communist and democrats so it was very rough we were very poor of course it was no power available that time nor any water no telephones nothing that was just you know simple life and that I went up to I was 11 years old first time I saw a television my life was when I was 12 years old

I finished. What did you think of the television at 12? That time was, you know, when I saw the antennas, because that's all they had up on the roofs, I thought they had them from birds, you know, to sit. Like, I had no idea what that was. But I was so amazed to see, you know, a lyrgy box that time was no more than 12 weeks.

I don't know if that was even that. And I got glued to that. We never had the toys or the entertainment that kids they have today, whatever we had, we manufacture ourselves. You know, we make our own toys or the games to play. So what was your favorite toy grown up? It was slingshots and bow and tie.

And there was, we used to play cowboys and idiots. Those years, they had, when it was, they used to bring the movies like mobile movies. It was not a stationary movie theater. Somebody will have, you know, a truck and had the equipment and will go from town to town, you know, and just broadcast, you know, the type of a movie. And majority of them, it was silent movies. Of course, it was Charlie Chaplin at that time and a lot of cowboy and Indian movies. And for us, as young kids, we enjoy that.

So we, in my hometown, actually, we split in two groups. One group was cowboys, one was Indians, and we had such a funny, you know, just, of course, one had slingshots, the other one had bow and arrows. We did a lot of crazy stuff, you know, in those years. But when I was 12 years old, I moved to Athens all by myself. Life was tough, you know, to make a living. So I moved to Athens by myself. I found a job and I was working in a grocery store as a delivery boy. And the people that I worked with, they were kind enough to keep me in their house,

they stayed at their home. And I was tending a night school. They had that opportunity. We had that opportunity back home in Greece, working kids. They can have an access to a night school. And I was on grade. nine, ten, that time. But for me, the passion was to become a mechanic.

It was a school in Greece. It was very recognized school in all Balkans and Europe that time. That to enter, you have to give exams. Over 3,000 students who will give an exam, and 300 will pass. So I did pass that school. And I became a mechanic. A mechanic, I became a machinist. That time, we learned how to be blacksmith.

We had to learn, you know, how to make our own tools. A welder. Of course, all types of engines will learn how to do that. As soon as I finished that school, I went to another school higher up. It's like a college and upgrade my schooling for another three years. So I became a former mechanic, above a mechanics. And I used to work in two factories as a mechanic, looking after all the equipment and supervising, you know, everything there. Of course, it's mandatory to go to the war, I mean to the army in Greece.

When I was 20 years old, they took me to the army. Due to my experience of mechanics, they put me on a... technical. I was a technician in the army and I became a tank mechanic and then I they took me to school there and I took another diploma as heavy duty caterpillars and all those mechanics and then I learned to become an airplane mechanic. So you were working on planes too yes so So I used to do good money when I was back home in Greece as a mechanic. Actually, at the Army, we went to war actually for a year and a half.

I served in a war over Cyprus. In 1974, it was a war broke between Turkey and Cyprus. Of course, Cyprus has been Greeks there. The Greeks went to war too. and we were in the front line for a year and a half. And what year is this? 1974. 1974.

Yeah. So I spent an extra six months over my first duty that you have to serve 24 months, so I served for 30 months because it was still a little bit, you know, hot. Now, being a mechanic, I assume you weren't on the front lines. I tell you what we were. when the war broke down, we were everywhere fixing whatever was broken. Right. When the war is going on, we're in the front line fixing what is breaking there.

Like the tanks, you know, when they are on a war, they fight, you know, we have to be there and fixing it. So you've seen some things. I see a lot of things, yes. A war is nothing, you know, too brag about. I don't think worry makes me tough. How I'm not afraid of many things in my life. And that has to do a lot of with the army. Because your life in situations like that,

it doesn't seem much at all, you know. Because if you have that fear, you have fearful, but at the same time, you know, a lot of times all that is gone. That's what they train with the army, you know, to survive and kill somebody else. So I did have a hard time when I was released from the army to feel a little bit normal.

I remember I took my wife to the first holidays together to Banff. And she regret that because I live like Rambo. I took a surviving kid, a knife surviving king with me, and that's it. And said, where are we going? I said, to the bushes. So I still remember that. It's the only last three days and I have to take it to a civilization again.

And after that, you know, it was different. I have to have a whole mobile home with me to go anywhere. Isn't it strange to think, I don't know, you talk about going out like Rambo. It's funny to think that. But in Canada, right now, even a tent is kind of in our area seemed as, you don't do that anymore. You get a mobile, you get a trailer.

You get something to pull behind the truck and you go and you kind of live in luxury out in the wilderness. It was so tough. Of course, they teach you to be tough. You have your training. It's not just like a baby training. I don't know what they do now, but 44 years ago when I was in the Army, it was tough. I remember they put us on our knees on a gravel road to march one mile on our knees. we were bleeding, but they didn't care.

Imagine, you know, how tough, you know, used to be. And at wartime, you are under a canopy of a little in a jungle, literally inside there. We used to find places that's a river most of the time, so we have some war. Rain and snakes, and you have it just literally tense, you know, live with it. And I tell you what we used to eat. And that was my amazing thing. They were given us a can of meat. I couldn't speak any different language than my own, like, you know, Greek. And it was

in German. And somebody translated to us. It was horse meat. And we had the little pockets of big crackers about three by three. And it was dated in 1942. You can, that's, you can. That's bite them all day, you know, but they will never, you know, get to the bar. And that's how hard they were. But it was tough. But one thing, you know, I didn't feel left out or disappoint. Actually, we managed to go through every day. Some people, they lasted a little bit, but majority of us, you know, we were very, very strong. Like, you know, and developed you from a child to a man. Yeah. Yeah, seeing things like that. Right. And that was a good experience for me, how to approach, you know, things after my life.

Because I appreciate everything after that. First of all, the way I grew up would have nothing. I mean, nothing. Can you explain nothing? And the reason I say explain nothing is because you're talking to, you know, when this gets aired, Louis, when you say nothing, I don't feel like enough of us. in Canada, appreciate what nothing is? No, I'll tell you. Nothing means you have no pantry, you have no grocery stores or anything to say, well, I can go and buy some groceries. My source of protein, it was snails that I go and collect myself.

Snails? Yes. And my major meat, it was sparrows. I'm telling you, the amount sparrows I eat in my life, you might say disgusting, but tell you, when you're hungry, you'll eat anything. You eat anything. I had some ice straps. And even that little piece of bread that was poor, you know, for a bait, you know,

I look at it a few times because even that was, you know, for me, something to eat. But I rather have the sparrow than that little piece of bread. So. So you're saying as a kid. Like, how old are you when you're talking about this? More since I remember when I started, you know, knowing life when you are three. So you're talking like four? Oh, yes, that's right, yeah.

Barely anything to wear. I never had a second pair of shoes. The one pair I had when I was a child before school, it was just to go to church or some events. Any other day, you were bare feet. And when you put your shoes on, for me, I remember that time. It was like uncomfortable. I got used to wear no shoes.

So you wouldn't wear shoes, run around your bare feet? You didn't have the, you have no choice. Yeah, that's right, barefoot all the time. Yeah. I tell you this, I remember this, I was pitch black constantly because the only thing I have to wear,

it was just an underwear. That's all day as a kid. The sun will just make your skin, you know, black. So you ran around in underwear? That's it. That wasn't only one. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you know, and it was fun.

What did your parents do for work? My father was very poor, my mother too. They were working for Sabriel's all the time as a workers. Go and pick up fruits. You know, that was, you know, a major thing, you know, back home. And Chris, every season it has his own, you know, different. fruits to pick up, you know, like you have the grapes, the oranges, the apricots, you know, all of us and anything. So that was, you know, the only thing, you know, they were doing.

My dad didn't have anything on his own. Eventually, I remember when I was about 10 years old, my grandfather on the side of my mother, a gift to my dad as a dowry, few acres of land. And me and my dad, we put 300 small trees than olive trees. And I did have the opportunity to see them grow up and harvest them too with my father. Now, of course, they all back home. My brother, I have one brother still back home in Greece. He's taken care of those trees.

You know, it's been there for many years. I was 10, so it's 46 years, you know, trees. Yeah. The one good thing with my parents, my dad, because she was so tough to find any jobs, and this is kind of strange to say, we had the bathroom. It's very small. I don't think it was more than three by three, the bathroom. On that area, about maybe Hadriga's way, it was the school of children going to school.

And he thought, closed the bathroom hole. and everything and make it to sell you know leery things for kids you know for lunches so he opened a hole in the other side of the street and all of a sudden kids that will start coming you know buying this buying that buy this buy this buy that and then people start asking you know for groceries we had this more another little room on the side is this size exactly and we used to have our donkey there so he cleaned up that place and he made it to a grocery store. And my dad had the grocery store for many years until they both passed away 10 years ago, until 20 years ago. And that was the main living they had. But it was amazing how he started.

And they went and became. And they've done a good living. Not, you know, crazy, but good enough, you know, to have, you know, something every day. He saw an opportunity. Cut a hole in the wall, a little tiny bathroom, and turned it into a convenience store. That's right, yeah. Think about that. Of course.

That's unbelievable. It is. And to me, as a growing up child then, it was an eye-opener what the person can do. And I cared to that the rest of my life. I was never afraid to start from nothing because you don't expect to have everything at once. You have to have it, you know.

You start from there. and you're growing up. And when I came to this country, I saw that opportunity. And I took advantage of that. Not because, you know, I step on somebody else's toes. Nobody wanted, nobody wants to do this job because a restaurant business is not an easy job. It's 24-7.

You have no life. And that was the reason I gave up the business 10 years ago. Not because of me. I'm a workaholic. My wife knows that. I just want to have more time with my family. It's something that I regret many times I didn't have. But again, then somebody has to put, you know, food, you know, on the table.

And if you have two parents doing that, you know, then the kids, they grow up a little bit different. Our culture back home in Greece, it just tells you their wife and will stay home and look after the kids and the husband, and the man will go and bring the foot. So that was my philosophy. And it worked for me. Of course, the good thing, too, having in my business, I have all my kids there working, too.

So that was a start for them to see, you know, the life in a different way. In early stages, like, I start with my dad, and they appreciate what I used to do. Before they say, oh, dad is not, you know, and I soccer game, hockey game or anything. But when I brought them to work with me, they realized that, you know, wasn't doing all that on purpose. And I offered them after little well the business to them.

None of them wanted it because they didn't want to have that lifestyle. Like they said, this is too much. You know, I don't know how you done it, but we don't want to do it. And that's fine with me because, you know, everybody has their own choice to do, you know, what they want in lives. And all my kids, I'm happy, you know, the way they're doing it. they are, you know, they are. So that's good. So, back home in Greece now, like I told you, I used to work as a mechanic. That friend of mine that I came with in Canada, we found a job in a cruise ship to work as a mechanics. And when is this? 1974, before I came here.

So just after you're done the war. That's right, yeah. So you go from the war to working on cruise ships. Yes. But we went and got all our passports and everything ready, what the company told us to do. My friend had a brother that I knew him well too. He was working in one of the cruise ships.

Of course, he jumped off in Vancouver, and he was illegal immigrant, and he came to Canada. He got married, so I became a Canadian. That same year, when we're ready now to work in that cruiser, he called his brother and said, I want you to come to Canada. I have a restaurant here, you know, you can come, you know, and help me and blah, blah. So he said to me, let's go together.

Well, I never knew what's there. I knew Canada. We took those things in school, like when you, you know, but nothing in all else. What did you know about Canada before coming here? Just, it was up in the northern area, and it was cold winter time. Well, you're not far off on that. That's right, but I'll tell you what happened. My parents, they were very amazed because everything happened in a week.

We were ready in that same week to go to the cruise to work for the president of the cruiser. And the same week, we changed our mind and we got tickets for an airplane flying to Canada. And this is true. I took with me only to chance once. And one pair socks, one underwear, one pants, one shirt, and what I was wearing. and $100 in my pocket. And my aunt said, where are you going like that? The opportunity I said is there.

The land of the milk and honey. The thing I said that is because a lot of people immigrate before me, you know, to Canada or United States. They will come back home for visiting. And they were bringing some big cars, you know, and dollars and everything. And everybody said, wow. They have trees there growing, you know, money. there. So, and that's what my honor too. I don't need anything else. I'll get everything when I get there. Oh, yeah. We left Greece in November of 1974 plus 28. I wear what you wear. T-shirt. That's it.

A pair of shorts. Of course, flying from Montreal all the time took Calgary. The stewards, they were asking us, this is that? I couldn't understand. I thought they were saying nice, close, you know, and I say, thank you all the time. Being polite, till I landed Calgary, and I get out of there, it was minus 20 in a blizzard. To me, even the freezers back home,

they don't go that low and see that, you know. A lot of times when you see something extreme, I say, wow, I didn't say it that way. I said, what's the next plane? go back and find out what happened. The brother that he asked my friend to come to Canada, he was broke then. And he wanted his brother to work a little bit

and get him out of the hole. He didn't expect me to come there. I was just unexpected. But what he did, I was there anyway. So we went to his house. We stayed there and we did find a job, like I told you, in a restaurant in Brooks as this was.

So when you land in Calgary and it's minus 28 outside Does the brother pick you guys up? Is that how? Yeah, that's right Driving from Calgary which even then would have been a formidable size of a city That's right As you're going down the road What are you thinking to yourself? I said where are we going Because back home in Greece is a town after town A town town town town it was just nothing just bare

I said what's that I never saw anything flood like that in my life. Because back home in Greece is all mountains, no matter what, it's always hills. And this was quite different. Not only that, the buildings and the whole thing, you know, was everything has, it was in order. Back home in Greece is not such a thing, you know.

Of course, now they have, but somebody will build a house here, somebody there and there and there, you know, and cut the street between. Here, everything, you know, is just perfect. So, and the other thing that surprised me, the cars like back home, you know, you have all those little tiny cars and all of a sudden, those years, you know, in the 70s, just huge, you know, vehicles powerful with V8s and everything. So all those things became to me like a quiet, that wow. You didn't drive cars back in Greece?

Yes, I did have a minivan, but the minivan, you know, it was just the same size of this. table. It was thousand C, you know, you're going uphill, you have to stop. Yeah. And that's right. So it was quite a difference. For well, when I was, I immigrate here. Everything was so different. And I enjoy it. What I found here, it was more freedom of everything else and more. more in abundance of everything else. So let's start with freedom. Explain that to me. What do you mean more freedom and everything else?

When I was back home in Greece, and even when I served in the army, majority of the time, we were under HUDA. That is the army. It was governing Greece. And when the army does that, you don't have much freedom at all.

So once again, And were you on curfew? Can you go off the certain time? Yeah, curfew, look out, your name, if you've done something, you know, you're just right away thrown in jail and NNN. I was in one uprising at the time when we tried to overthrow Huda, the army.

That was 1973. And the amazing thing, after years and years, I saw my picture on YouTube, on papers, newspapers at that time, on the front confronting tanks, the army, because it was like a big coup of that time. It was just the... So you were involved in the protest? Yes. Two times I was so close to be killed.

And I was saved by people. They pulled me away. It was a lot of death that time because the army came down with the tanks and the commandos and the people, you know, soldiers up on the roofs, you know, and they were just killing left and right. And that was 1973. We do celebrate in that. It was November 11th. I remember when it happened. And it was tough.

And that was the time that I went to the army too. If they have seen my pictures then, I won't be here. Yeah. So. Just in the protests, there's lots of protests going on right now. Across the world. Yeah. And with social media and media in general, we can see it happening almost as it happens.

Back in Greece, when you're protesting, do you think you can win? Actually, we did. because after that we start as a small group that was some schools they started as a peaceful thing and all the rest of the schools

they start gathering together protesting but of course you know in every peaceful you know protest you get the extremists coming in and that will happen then you have the extremists with a different agenda

with the different ideas. And all of a sudden, something peaceful, it just becomes, you know, a volcano. And that's what happened that time. But in the end, the war, you know, for the Greeks. Because we overthrew those, the hood, like the army, and we got back, you know, to civilian politicians again. And that came a year after.

But the time the war started, the government was still the army government. And of course, then you didn't have the right to vote or do anything or to read the newspapers or to have anything to do with a civilian award. You just strict insight along what the army offers you. So you have no idea what's going on. And of course, when we got to war that time, it took me nine months before I had any communication with my.

parents and that was tough not only for me for me you know I was occupied you know every day you know doing things but my parents they didn't know if I was alive yeah so what do you think then Louie you've seen a lot of things what do you think of all the protests going on right now protest to me is okay well I guess you know the protest is reasonable and peaceful democracy and of course Greece is The part, you know, we call a democracy because it's the people, you know, chosen. If it's for the right thing, I agree with that. But when you have protest, breaking stores, looting and destroying somebody else's property,

that's not, you know, protest. We'll have the right to disagree with the government or somebody else, but we have to do it in a manner that is civilized. By doing it this way, it's very wrong. And you see that's happening. We all have our conspiracy theories. We'll have disagreements with somebody else. The only thing, you know, what's happening now is always one side.

People don't want to hear the other side. So, and that's why we have what we have now. We both right. And if you have both right, it's nobody wrong. and that's the problem. What do you think of, well, right now I think, I think. You know, in the states, we focus so much on the states because they're most powerful country in the world

and they're just south of the border to us. Whether we're talking about Canadian politicians or the United States politicians and Trump and Biden, coming from and remembering that time in your life where the army runs the country, what do you think of all the, I don't know. I can't even think of the word, the buildup,

whatever it is about our political system, the way it's ran, and the sides hating each other. You said it very perfect right there. Everybody's right. Yeah. And so you get two rights yelling at each other. You find no wrong. Yeah.

You find no solution. But what do you think of it coming from a viewpoint of being under Army rule and having... More. That's the thing. They don't give you that option. It's only one option. You like it or not.

If you don't like it, you go to jail. and that's what they take away when you become, you know, too much on the social style, you know, area. And we did have social government in Greece for eight years, too. So. Social government? Social government. Like socialism, you're talking? Like communist?

No communist, but social. Different from the democracy. It's, you know, it's democratic, but social at the same time, too. You know. What was life under that like? Some people like it. people didn't. But what sticks out? If you were to paint the listeners some things that you remember from that time, what are some things? Like was jobs a plenty? Was food a plenty? Was

any of that happening? Was things better? Were people in jail? What? Paint us a picture? The freedom was still there. They didn't change much because one thing with Greeks, their people don't take chances easily. We're a very small country, but we have shown historically. We're very powerful. We start with Spartans, Alexander the Great, and even the Bissadian emperor.

So the Romans, they said, you know, we conquer Greece by the sword, but they conquer us by their wisdom. So the only problem Greeks they have, they cannot get united. If you unite every Greek together, it will be very powerful country. Not because I'm a Greek, but I see, you know, the history of my own country, how, you know, as a small country, what they accomplish if they want to be united. And with politics, we're talking about politics. Greeks, they are very strong in politics.

It's two things that they have, you know, very strong. politics and sports. A lot of families, they are divided on both. I remember my father's family. The brothers, they won't talk to each other because somebody else, you know, I'm for liberals, I'm for conservatives, I'm for this. Or I'm for this team and for that team. And they still have it now.

That's how strong it is. So, but what's the, what's the way? happening here and even in our own country, the democracy we have is not the same democracy that Greeks they brought to this world. And we see it now. They impose things, you know, that's not your right. We have this pandemic now. All of a sudden we lost all our rights. Because if you don't do what the government tells you, you pay a fine or this and that, or you can go to work. So that's to me, you know. Once again, you bring up the pandemic.

You, through your life, have seen some very... Well, let's just say you've seen a lot of different things. That's right. I see a lot of pandemics in my life. I'm very surprised in this time of humanity, with all the knowledge we have. We went to the moon in the 60s, and here we're at 2020. And a little bug is shut down the whole world, you know, all of a sudden. And you turn on the TV and stand to encourage the people how to live their lives.

They're making us, you know, depressed. Don't do that. We're losing our jobs. And I see it gets worse and worse. I can't see no end to it. Everybody's waiting now for the miracle shot. Miracle drug, yeah. But in the news again, the same doctors, they said don't depend on that because it won't happen.

They've been trying to find that miracle shot on coronavirus for the last 20 years. They can't. So what do you make of it then? I'm making, let's make it simple. Okay, what works and what does it work? But what's happening, and you see that what's happening, the government alone, it listened to one doctor and not, you know, to fuel it. of them. Let's have a debate. See what works. Let's try some different avenues, not just one.

And if you open your mouth and you judge, you know, any of that, you know, more, you're discriminating, you know, somebody now. So easy. So, and don't say the virus is not there. But we had SARS, we had embolals, we had HIV, we had so many other things before. We never done that. I don't know. I'm a little bit skeptical, you know, about the whole thing. If it was a man made for a reason, or we all fell asleep and we go to come, you know, we don't know what to do. I enjoy talking to people who are well beyond my age and seen the world have lived in different things.

geez, for your sake, you've ate sparrow and just like snails, right? Yeah. You've seen the simple, tough side of the world where you're just trying to put some food in your belly to where we are now. And so it's just, I like this perspective. You've got a lot of perspective. It's interesting to hear somebody talk about it. That's all. I remember when I was as a kid.

I never washed my hands to eat. we never clean anything. Even in the Army, when I was in the Army, we had just an aluminum contended to put our foot and a fork. Underneath my shirt I was wearing,

that's all that was everything clean the same time. Of course, they gave us some type of shots when we went to the Army and I have no idea what they were, you know, but we're never afraid of anything.

Now we're afraid of everything. I never had seatbelts on my car. You know, I survive everything. Or look, for the masks, I never knew, you know, what those things are. Anywhere you were going, even the hospitals and everything, nobody was doing that. Free. I tell you, back home in Greece, even today, some doctors, they're still smoking inside in the hospitals.

I'm not kidding you. But now we are so afraid of everything. And we try to be so clean and look at what's happening, you know. So the best defender for me to fight any type of a disease is my own. It's my immune system. If I'm healthy and I look after myself, I don't need anything else. And that's not proven by me only, but from a lot of doctors too. I said, if you're healthy, don't worry.

but I'm not stupid to go and put my hand, you know, in the fire either. You know, you have to know, you know, how to behave too. So some things make sense to me, some things doesn't make sense at all. But a lot of people, they look at the way I feel and they say, well, what's wrong with you? I say, I have a different opinion and I respect your opinion. Well, I think that's It's It's almost like a lost art right now

Where you can have A discussion Not an argument Yeah Rightly, there's lots of things I disagree with people on Yeah, but you still gotta hear Where they're coming from

Of course, that's right You know That's If I only think, you know What's right with for me Mine is well, you know Just stay home all day Because you can't, you know

You can survive Well look at the United States right now That's right. They just had, which sticks out to me about it is, how close it was. It doesn't, like,

to me, I think Biden's won it. I mean, they're going to appeal it. But 50% of the population sees it one way. Yeah. Or 48%, 49%,

and 51% sees it the complete opposite way. That's a divided population. It is. That's what sticks out to me. Because they've managed to divide their population, so they absolutely. hate each other in what you say I agree you're in 2020 where we we should be thinking about

larger things in life of course look it when 50 families they control all the money in this planet is something wrong so we let it happen same thing now you're looking at the United States the new president was to get away from fossil fuel okay The same thing. The liberal government, you know, this country, you know, it feels the same way about the oil stands, you know, in Alberta. But what's the alternative? Figure out first what you do, you know, to replace it,

and then, you know, I'm 100% with it. So why does that common sense statement? Because I think we get labeled here in Alberta as... Bad people. Ignorant, bad people can't think about it. And we all go, no, like, you tell me tomorrow, We've got some miracle way to harness the sun. And it can turn around and create jobs and provide what we want.

That's right. Everybody's switching to herpes. Yeah. For sure. The problem is nobody's got that solution. Or nobody wants to sow us. You know, they have it because still, you know, I don't know. You were young.

I remember they had electrical cars in the 50s. And electrical cars in the 50s? That's right. But guess what? They bought them out. Because oil is a lot of money. So, but look at how the big companies, you know, in the big countries, South Arabia, in the 70s when I used to have my muscle cars and gasoline was only 25 cents a gallon.

You know, all of a sudden it was no oil, we ran out of oil. Do you sing this song and dance multiple times in your life? That's right, yes, that's right. What I see here in town too, I face three major slowdowns because of the oil. Even oil went down to $5. No long ago was beyond zero. It was negative. That's right.

So who's doing that? You go and buy a bottle of water. It costs you more than a gallon of gasoline. You pay $2.50 for a bottle of water that they're stealing it, you know, from you. and I, you know, and something wrong here. Or you pay utilities, you see your bill to trust that power from Edward here. It costs you more money than you pay for actually what you use for power or gas, the same thing. I don't know whether we should dig into this, but how about then global warming, climate change. That's something, you know, you mentioned electrical cars in the 50s. I did not know.

that. Yes. What I do know about global warming or climate change, I guess, is that it's had multiple different names throughout the last multiple decades. I can't make right or wrong of it. I just, you listen to one side. They say very smart things. You listen to the other side. They refute the very smart things. And you're just kind of left in the same side. The same side that's that they telling us we have a global warming. They're going back decades back at the same. say we had the same cycles before and everything started coming back. Of course we pollute now more than before. In 1980s, I was watching that yesterday. We needed 850,000 barrels of oil a day, I think, and now is 89 million how much we're using. So that's a big difference.

And a giant difference. Yes. And of course, it will. get more and more and more. It's lots of oil everywhere. But now, if we want to continue that, then we have problems, you know, with the environment. Now, how accurate is that? You and I, we don't know. We just try to believe, you know,

what somebody else tell us. The same way they said, you know, that galaxy, we find new life, 350 billion light years away. Come on. Okay. We can see each other eye to eye here, you know, and now we see, you know, life, you know, 350 billion years away from here. So we spend money for fullies, you know, other things than look after our own people here. So now, I don't say not to explore or anything, but if it's, you know, what good we'll do.

Okay, we went to the moon. Big deal. What we gain? Just fame, but people still still. starving, the amount of money NASA, you know, spends per year, it can make all Africa, you know, rich people. Simple. Just blowing things up in there. But we never look at it that way, you know, we think we're just, well, we went to Mars. And then what? So the few people that can afford to live this planet in case one day, you know, a comet comes,

you know, and destroy it. So somebody can go and occupy at Mars? Well, what about the rest of us? Because you and I pay for that. It's an interesting thought. Yeah. Nothing is fair. But you can't let, you know, those things, you know, make your life miserable every day.

And you feel, you know, say, now what? You know, you have to fight and keep going, you know. And don't let anybody else, you know, just tell you what to do every day. Use your brains, too. That's it. A disagreement, that's what's a democracy. That's what democracies. To disagree with somebody.

But in a mirror, you know, of human, you know, like a human to human, not, you know, pull the guns out. That's when arguments start, you know, and you have, you know, a war. But the democracy is I can talk with you and disagree, and in the end we shake hands. I don't see that anymore. No, it's a divisive time. Yes. And I think, you know, we were just, the wife and I were just watching a movie the other day about the Chicago 7. which I'd never, it was a big protest and cops fought the protesters back in the 70s.

And the 70s seemed like a time with the Vietnam War going on, very divisive time. Of course. I lived that. Yeah. I saw what happened. You know, I was in the army part of it, and then I was out of the army part of it and see the whole fiasco what's going on. And I felt for those soldiers even if not been there. And what was the gain?

Nothing. But look at all the wars we have now. And there's lots of them out there. And we pay no attention because Canada has been a country that it hasn't been pock. Something bad, you know. It's so good here. And we fell asleep.

It's like the turtle and the hair. You know, I can run that thing in easy. Heaven up. That's how we feel in this country. We haven't have anything major problems, you know, about how to survive if you don't have that. Especially now. You're lucky, you know, a grown-up young kids. And I do have a teenager in my house.

If you take the cell phone away from them, they have no communication with anything. It's very hard, you know, to see that, you know, that young kids. people, they can sit on the same table and all of them has a cell phone and don't pay attention to each other. There's no communication anymore. I don't know. You have young kids too, you know, then that's the future. Yeah, I worry about it. Ah, me too. I see, you know, my grandchildren, how they come to the house all with a cell phone. I said, come here, talk to me. Okay, I come I said, what are you doing there? I talk to my friends.

I'll tell you a good friend. My daughter, the last one I had, they used to bring some friends to the house. They all sit, you know, together. None of them will talk. We'll talk to each other through their cell phone. I'll say, what happened to your voice, girls? Well, we have more fun doing it that way.

You know what I find fascinating about, fascinating about doing these archive interviews is I'm currently reading a book about Big Bear who was a Cree leader back in the 1870s-ish and they talk about he was the political leader of the tribe and in war times he'd give all power over to a war time later and what I enjoy about talking in these archive interviews is I'm talking to people who have lived long enough

to see cycles repeat and see how the world has changed. And I just, I find it fascinating to talk to people who can remember things like that because you live a good chunk of your life by the time I'm born. I used, okay, I grew up on time that was no power on my life. There was no television, no phones. In the Army, we used to have a magnetic phones. You know, you have to put a line, a cover up, to some distance and you have the magnetic phone.

So I saw the development of all the electronics we have today. I saw the phones they used to have before. It was a big huge suitcase. It's coming, you know, mobile phones. I saw how TV develop with two channels in this town to what it is now. And then I saw how the computers they came up to life. All that, you know, and we had, you know, our A truck, then we have our cassettes, Then I have seen this, now you have nothing.

You know, you have all your phone. So it's amazing how in the mirror of my lifetime to see, you know, all this stuff, you know, developing that way. And it's so fast sometimes, you know, technology is good, but the way it comes now is not good. Because it takes the person out complete, you know, of everything. Before you used to go to even a gas station. And I remember that.

A guy will run right the way out, clean your wind seals, everything, Mr. How are you? How are you doing? What I can do for you? You sit in your car and they take care of you. It was not going by, drive-through of anything. It was all personal. Yeah, lots of human interaction. That's right. And that was good. Now you have to, you see lineups in Tim Horton, McDonald's, anything, you know, it's just boom, wrong, wrong, because we're too busy. And what caused that? Because we want too much in life, and the only way we can do that, spend all day, you know, working and try, you know. But is that what people do? Do you think, I agree with the busy thing. I think we tell ourselves we're really busy. But are people actually creating the busyness to get ahead anymore? Grit has caused that because we are not satisfied and happy with a little bit.

We want more than that. If our car, you know, is three years old, four, we need something better. Well, I need a four by four. I need this one and I need that one. You know, houses. Nobody will go and build, you know, a little house, maybe eight hundred score feet anymore. And if you look at the old town, that's the size of a garage is there, you know, now. All the other, the old houses.

And people live on that. So now we need everything. And that's why. People, they have to work husband and wife and everything. And we have a lot of brackets in our families now because those people is not there. And you notice that too. You know, you see that happen. Well, but you raise a couple different things there.

There's a lot of divorce in couples. It's a very prevalent problem. Yeah. Part of it is they aren't there. The other part of it is you get stuck in technology and you don't talk to each other. That's it. Yeah. You've been married 42 years.

Yeah. I assume that you're going to rank communication somewhere up there in those 42 years that you have to be able to talk to the other person. Of course, I tell you, I don't even have a cell phone. Really? Yes. And I tell you why. I learned all my life to go without.

What makes a difference now? I said, you know, than 30 years ago, I done everything with just a phone home. I don't need anything else. A lot of times they say, maybe if something happened to you on the highway, I say simple. I tried that one time. The first person I stopped and I asked him to use the cell phone

and say, yes, sir. You know, I had no cell phone all the way until it was 2011 I graduated from college. I think it was 2011. It was enjoyable. I hate having, well, I don't know.

It's a love-of-hate relationship. Well, yeah, that's right, yeah. Lou. Like, you love it because the power of information is just sitting there at all times, right? Like you want to check something? Boom, it's right there. Oh.

It's right there. You want to know how to get X here to there. You just, boom, click it here. Heck, I even go with the computer going back to this war of Cyprus. Boom, I click it in. That's right. I'm like, where about is Cyprus? Oh, it's a little island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea.

And I go, oh. Boom, it's there. That is, that's unbelievable. I'm forward to that. I use it. I use a computer home. I use the information. I do have a GPS to travel now because before it was just a map and I last many times myself

in the big cities, you know, technology is good. But I don't live home and I say, where's my phone? We rely so heavily on the phone. That's where I was going to get to. That's right. Yeah. Because you bring up the map, you bring up things like that. Yeah.

It's empowering to have to rely on yourself to do. things. Like how do I get around Emmington? We used to pull out the map. That's right. Mom would be driving. Yeah. And me and my brother Harley would sit there and we'd read off, we'd follow it along on the map. I don't know how old we are. Can you imagine relying on your nine, ten year old to read a map and tell you where you're going downtown Emmington these days? I don't think so. Oh, I tell my wife every time I go to that one, I say, thank God for GPS, you know. I remember one time we, my mother, came to visit me and I took her from the airport. And we became, we are now on the road.

It says, Highway 16, east and west. I said, my wife, are we going west or east? West. Okay, I turn west. All of a sudden, we keep going now, Highway 1, I'm in 16. I see Jasper signs, you know. So what am I going? I was going to Jasper. I'm going to law minister. Of course, you know, that was the only ones, but like, you know, technology is good to have it, but not to make you, you know, forget, you know, what's going on behind you.

Well, skills, right? Like life skills. That's right. Yeah. Knowing the direction seems like such a small thing. Oh, yes. Yet such a useful thing. I'm forced to that, like I said.

But once again, you go back to the GPS or the phone. what do you need to know what Northwest is anymore when you can just type it in? No, it's just take a left up here and right. And it's a funny little age gap as you go along because my generation still, you know, when we talk about, well, what door to come in the building? Come in the west side. Oh, okay, sounds good. And they come in the west side.

But you can't do it. There's a certain timeline in there where you hit a certain age where you're better off just to say, I'll meet you out front. But the one thing with that, we last our privacy. because we expose ourselves there through Facebook or Twitter, whatever they use it, you know, to everybody else. So, and what you read there is not 100% true for each individual, you know, because nobody wants to look bad, you know.

So I'd rather be anonymous. Whatever has happened in Vegas, it's happened, you know, stays in Vegas, like they said. But that phone there, you know, is explore you complete to everybody. you know, it has one of them. So that's why I don't have a phone. I don't need it. I'm happy with it.

Let's go back to when you first immigrated to Canada. You're living in Brooks. You're working as a dishwasher. Yes. How hard was it coming to a country not knowing the language? It was hard because you have no communication with people. You don't know, you know, you just look in a smile to other people. So you relied on, I assume, your friend and your friend's brother for interaction?

And that was tough too because we both work on a different sifts. I was working in the morning. They were working the night. The only time I saw them is when we chanced the sifts. I said, hi, bye. But that did a good thing to me because it forced me to learn how to communicate quicker than before. So I used to write a lot of things down in a piece of paper, so I memorized everything. when I start learning the language,

I had to translate in my head from Greek to English. So if I want to talk to you, I have to think a little bit. How you say that and what he meant? Of course, you know, of all the years, it's different. Of course, your accent is going to remain there. It's very hard to lose that. Because to me, it sounds good, but to you, it sounds, you know, a little bit different. After Brooks, when I met my wife and we got married, I went to Saskatoon, and I worked there for a Greek restaurant.

They used to call it the Burkates. And I was there for another year. And one of the people working there, I was a friend of mine. He found out that in Louis Minister, a hotel burned. out the Alberta Hotel and they built a new one and they were looking for Saburi to take over the restaurant. So he

came up he made the list and he asked me if I want to be a partner with him. And I said yes. So that's when I came to Lawy Minister. And that time the town was maybe close to 8,000 people. Very

small town. I built a house by Nelson Labber crossed the high school, the comp. That was the end of town that time. Was it the comprehensive high school?

That's right. Yeah. So I mentioned. The Lloyd Mall, it was just built when I came. So in a year after I stayed in partnership with that fellow, I bought him out. So I was a sole owner to the Longbrand.

Why did you buy them out? He wanted to live too, and you know, when you have a partnership, it doesn't work the same way. You know, it's like the first years of your marriage, you know, the raft till you understand each other. So, and it was him or me. So I bought him out. And it was good, because I had a tremendous amount of business, long brunch. It was a very famous restaurant. Well, I tell you what, you mentioned Long Branch, and anyone from Lloyd, heck, the area remembers that place.

Yeah. I had to close Sundays. The reason I started closing Sundays, I couldn't do it anymore because you were tired. My staff, they were tired. And Sundays, they were very busy day, but I didn't want to close any other day because those years, remember, Sundays you couldn't sell liquor. Sundays you couldn't sell liquor. No. Oh, when did that change?

Oh, in the 80s. Yeah. You see, before this country, it had the Bible as, how can I put it, a part of life. And the hotel there, when you go to each room and it was a Bible there. Yeah. And liquor would not be sold, you know, Sundays. Same thing, you know, liquor won't be sold, you know, when we had elections, any type of elections. Now it's free anything. Of course those years too, you didn't have liquor stores. You

have the government building like once. Yeah, like an LCBO. That's right. And that's how you can get your liquor. So and like I said, Sundays, it was always a church time for everybody. And Good Friday's, it was impossible, you know, to sell liquor. That was the law. It was a you know the people made that up was there or you can do that so do you think back then i don't know if we're better as the right right word but now you think of now you can buy liquor pretty much what is it 10 a.m to yeah to two in the morning kind of thing uh lead weed was just legalized of course across across the country. It's this, wow, it surprised me that Sundays you couldn't buy because I just, once again, I don't remember those times. Well, what really happened in those years, we're looking 40-some

years back, even in Canada, the immigration we have now from people coming in, it wasn't like that then. So the rules the Canadian, the government had implied, it was taken from the Bible because Catholicism and Protestantism, you know, it was huge then. And the government will run, you know, the ideology, like, you know, we still have, you know, good Friday we close down things. And why? Because we don't believe now anything anymore. Okay, what we're done with Christmas. Christmas now is just a holiday. It's not, you know, Jesus' birth anymore. But those years was different. And when we started, you know, see, you know, more immigrants coming in with a different face and that, we changed the rules.

Nothing all with that. Like, you know, for me, I respect everybody's race. I'm an immigrant, too. But we're all immigrants in this country, you know, in a way. So, and I guess we chance, you know, our customs, you know, to everything. That's what I think happened. You know, or we all just all of a sudden, you know, we forgot, you know, it's a school. superpower, and which is here, and dying is nothing's happening.

We're making our own loss now. But the old system, it was very good, I think. Now we make it more free. Too much freedom sometimes not good. Because people take that advantage, you know, and they use it for other things. So. It's a fine balance. That's right.

It's how you're looking at. Some restrictions is good. Too much, not good. No. Because a lot of times we say, well, that's how you learn. More, I said, no, that doesn't work that way because you cannot just let a kid, you know, it hasn't even walked and find, you know, a drug on the floor.

You think you'll let him take it? No. Well, if you can protect him now, why don't you protect him, you know, later on, you know, that is not good for him. Let's talk back about this long branch. So you own the long branch for 10 years? Just about, yeah. Through probably the worst decade...

Yeah, oil went down. Since this decade. That's right, yeah. Were the 80s tough on you? Oh, yeah. In the 80s, they were tough. And the only thing, you know, we see a little bit changed at that time on oil price. and that was the time I decided to build the Greek classic in the 80s.

So when we opened, we opened 1988 and then things got worse. The interest rates, it was 22%, and we bore $400,000 to build it. So imagine our 22% on 400,000. thousand dollars long. We were busy. We're making, you know, money, but things started getting down and down and down.

And we became, we were back in payments and everything. And all of a sudden, Upgrader came to town. The upgraded started building and we have tremendous amount of people came in.

That bus, they call them in town. But I wasn't good. enough for us to make enough to pay what we all. So 1993 we lost the business. And that's you and Bill. Yeah. So and with both last our houses, of course my house was paid complete. And that time I had four kids. And they took everything where I had. But I didn't love. hope because still I said you know I went home actually I don't say you know I took it like jumping up and down happy I have I'm responsible man and I had the wife and I had four kids now what I have nothing so they only left you with what you're wearing and whatever

they don't want to take anymore so I went home and I said my wife I said I have to tell you something. Today this house that you enjoy so much is not ours. They took it away and we lost our business. But I said, let me remind you something. I gave me this country, I said with nothing, $Hadri box in my pocket. And what I have now is thousand times more. If I can make it with hundred bucks I can make it again. One good thing, the people they took everything from us, that was the Remy company from Saskatoon. They allowed us to work at the restaurant, and they did want to tell anybody else that time

that they're the owners and not me and Bill. The business was still going, and they were giving us for that time a good money to manage the place. The people from the wayside in, the hotel they approached me and they asked me if I want to take over

the establishment there or the food establishment and I say yes and a year and a half actually what I did I didn't left the house I asked the people that they took over if they allowed me to rent the house

and they agree with me So a year later, I bought the house back from them. I stay in that business for 15 years of 2010. I made back whatever I last in triple, and I decided 10,010 I had enough. Not to retire, but from a restaurant business. So the old Thorpe Center used to be behind us. and the management and the ministration

and they used to come for coffee or lunches. They asked me if I want to build the kitchen for them. I said, I'll do that for you on my spare time. So I put everything together. I had all the connections, been in the restaurant business. And when I was finishing the kitchen for them up there, they asked me if I want to manage the place. I did have nothing to do.

I said, sure, I'll do it for a couple of years. I like it so much there and I feel comfortable. I'm still there after 10 years about. But I'm happy I give up the restaurant business the right time because what happened after I finished, up to 2012-13, things they were okay. But after that, we saw a big downfall, you know, in the economy and the oil and everything.

Now look at what's happening, you know, this year, our restaurants they close in the doors they cannot make it with all the restrictions we have and we're not over yet who knows what this coming year we'll bring

I'm not pessimistic but I don't look at you know it's going to be a prosper year for a long time people are scared people they open up too much you know the wallet before

and now it's very hard to And yet, you're a guy that has the knowledge of going through it once before. Because, I mean, you just walked us through how you open up a brand new restaurant. Must have been an exciting time. Well, I tell you what happened, too. When I took over the West Side Inn, the restaurant was very small. They had only about 40-seat restaurant. And, of course, the banquet rooms, they were big.

and the first day I went there was a lineup for an hour the second day too before it was very slow I'm not trying to make fun of those people but you know sometimes I can't do you know

a manager job in a hotel but I know how to manage you know a restaurant so when the people then had the whole building they knew how to do the hotel, but not the restaurant, especially when the staff were managing, you know, the place.

And they made a good decision. I don't say, you know, it can be some various, you know, but they came to me and we make the deal. But been in town for so many years and the reputation I had with Bill, you know, of all those years, I knew I would have hard time, you know, to fill the place. In a year, I asked them if they could. can expand the restaurant. I don't know if you ever been, you know,

at the restaurant there, the Louis Place. Oh, yes. Okay. That used to be half. The extension we did there, it was just the outside of the hotel. And there was trees there. I said, let's cut all this and extend you in all that

and make one room. It cost me to do that. Not them, $115,000. But I knew I can feel that place, you know, and will pay me out. And it did. In one year, I paid the whole thing out. But what that gave me the opportunity to come up with different ideas.

I put a buffet there, everyday buffet, a big brunch, the lineup. Those years, too, the town was packed. It was busy. People want quick lunches and a good lunches and a good price, and they found it there. I was employ that time, 40 full-time people. Forty? 40, yes, 4-0.

Full-time. My payroll that time, it was a quarter of, three-quarters of a million dollars. Payroll. But I used to do good money, money. But I had, the reputation was good. Buses that they were traveling through lawy minister. to go to Alaska or other places or for Gablin going to Saskatchew,

they're all going to stop to Louis Place. Because I give them a deal, and that's all you need. One driver to tell everybody else. And my banquets, they were extreme busy. We used to do close to 75 to 80 banquets a month. That's lots. And I had the privilege. prime ministers and ministers of Alberta to be there, you know, have any, all the meetings

and cater to them and everything. So it was quite the thing. The last one I had to was, let's see, I forgot, the progressive before the Trudeau. The Conservatives? Husser. Oh, Harper. Harper. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry. Prime Minister Harper. Yeah, when he was running, he stopped and stay at the hotel with his family. And I remember he came and talked to me in person. He wanted to go to have a speech. And he wanted me to go soup and sandwich for the crowd, you know, that time. And the second time I saw him where he was a prime minister,

he came to town and stayed up in the hotel. It was quite the thing because the type of a security, and what's going on, it was amazing. Yeah, because they took all the roofs, I think, upstairs, the two roofs. It was just, yeah. Hmm, yeah. You know, with the current, where we're at currently, and we're slowly ticking down on the end of this,

but before I let you go, once again, we, you've been through, maybe not identical to what's going on right now, I don't think the world has ever, in recent times, have ever seen a lockdown for the pandemic, anything remotely closest. You're a guy who started a restaurant, then had to go home and tell his wife that their house has paid off, but it is no longer owned by them. I assume that was not, wow, I can assume that was not an easy conversation. And yet, here you are sitting.

Yeah. Talking about how we came here with nothing, we can get back to where we are. one thing like I told you what I learned, you know, even back home, to live with nothing, appreciate, you know, what you have, and go to the army and toughen myself, you know, to the extremist. Give me the ability to look things a little bit different. I don't say I don't put my head down, but not for too long. I put them down to think, not to depress myself. I don't look other avenues for me to find like Mar-K, I last everything,

might as well get wrong and everything. In life, we're always going to face a problem. Solve it. You know, you don't have to destroy your family. You don't have to become, you know, an alcoholic or dragoholic or lose it complete. A lot of people, they scare, you know, to start from scratch again. But a lot of us are going to have to do that.

Because if you just let a go, then you're going to be on the streets or you have no family, no kids, or anything. So I always have a good ideology, and I say that to even the people who work, I mean, the clients at the Thorpe. I said to me, I tell you how I feel. And then I said, went to the doctors because he had the heart problems. And the doctor hooked him up on that machine with a screen. And right away, you have, you know, a light going up and down.

The man was looking. I said, you know, the screen starts sweating. The doctor went to get something, and the man just keep looking and looking, and all of a sudden, they're screaming. The doctor come back, say, what's wrong with you, man? He said, I think I'm dying, doctor. Look that thing there. It goes up and down like crazy.

Don't you think should be straight? So, and of course, the dogs just smile. I said, you know, if that thing ever goes straight, life is dead. And that's how I take life. I don't look for straight. I look for anomalies. Because that's what makes you strong. Sometimes it's okay.

Sometimes it's there. So you have to get used to it. And I always said, you know, a good surfer, it looks for the big waves, not that tenuous. So the bigger the wave the better is I said bring them on Well it has been you know I've really enjoyed this I enjoy other mall I enjoy sitting down and talking to the generations before

Because I find there is so much knowledge in what you guys have been through You guys and girls everyone And I just really enjoy that you you get to impart some wisdom I hope other people sit and listen to this and It helps them because for what people are going through currently is you've seen it and you've been through things and you've talked about it. And it's just I really appreciate you coming in and opening it up and talking a bit about your life. Falling down is not a problem. Stay down is the problem.

And we see that quite a bit now. When a skater doing figure rating and skates, you know, everybody's looking, wow. But we have them sometimes falling down. but you see them they're getting up and they're still continuing, you know, their routine. And what I notice, you know, and all the time, the crowd gets more behind them when they do that.

Everybody loves a good comeback story. That's right. So don't think it's the end of the world because something happened now. Keep going. Because if we have another pandemic like that, then what? We're going to give up and locked ourselves, you know,

in the houses. and be unsocial to everybody. Because that will happen now. You know what you do? So you go to the store. You can even call for sneeze. You're afraid, you know, how people will look at you. And that's not your fault because media, you know,

and everybody else make it feel that way. So, I don't know. I hope, you know, things turn a little bit too better because now the way things are, you know, you're scared to go out. And the only thing you hear from TV it's blah, blah, bad news. No hope.

There's no hope watching it. Just turn the TV off. That's what I do. I watch documentaries about animals. I'm a firm believer. I put it out in every, whenever I'm trying to get on the podcast, whenever I'm trying to reach out

and tell people about myself, one of the lines I leave them with is I believe positivity spreads. A positive guy. Of course. I think positive, just as much as negativity spreads. or fear or whatever you want to put it as. That's right.

As much as that spreads, if you go the opposite route, that positivity spreads just as well. Here's my final one for you. You said it before we started recording, and I wrote it down because I really enjoyed it. You said everything is a gift. For the listeners, could you explain what you mean by that? We came in this word with nothing.

The day that my mother had me, I became negative. So we have the power that's beyond us, and I do believe in God. So nothing to me is just pure luck. I do believe that God, you know, had lots to do in my life. And my faith and believe it kept me going, because I believe that when I was down, my gut lifted me up. And every time I fell weak, I find strength in it. him. And that's what kept me going because he's my best friend. He's my father. And I hope when I close my

eyes to see him and say to me, well done, my son. Come. Paradise open for you now. That's all. Thank you, sir, for coming in and sitting down for a couple hours. It's been thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyable. Thank you, too. Folks, thanks again for joining us today. If you just stumble on the show and like what you hear, please click subscribe. Remember, every Monday and Wednesday a new guest will be sitting down to share their story. The Sean Newman podcast is available for free on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever else you find your podcast fix. Until next time.