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- [00:02]
Mishke
As technology becomes more complex, cyber reality dominates the culture and AI becomes an endless, anxious discussion. Simple, old human storytelling becomes all the more precious. And that's what you'll find on the Mishky podcast. In the end, we're all just people. Folks with our brilliance and our absurdities and stories about people. Well, they never get old. The Mishke Podcast Wherever you get your
- [00:30]
Progressive Insurance Announcer
podcasts, truckers aren't just moving goods. They're making sure bakers get their chocolate chips and hotels get their tiny soaps. But truckers can't do this if they're not on the road. That's why Progressive has over 360 heavy truck employees to help truckers stay on time and on track. Quote Truck Insurance today in as little as eight minutes@progressivecommercial.com progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates.
- [00:56]
Mishke
This program is being brought to you by the Consortium for Unresolved Staircases and the Guild of Misplaced Confidence. We want to welcome the foundation for Polite Alarm and the Fraternal Lodge of Ambient Moisture. My name's Mishke. Tom, dick, harry. Welcome to the show, everybody. It seems every year, sometime after the fourth of July, the stories start to roll in of little disasters. The fourth of July often brings small disasters due to the use of fireworks. The stories roll in in the days following the big holiday, and they take different forms. You always have a guy losing a hand, that's for sure. That's going to happen every time. But other things happen as well. Here's a house fire due to fireworks. This house fire intrigues me because the headline talks about the guy who put the flames out doing it without any clothes on, and you don't see that often. This happened in Sumner, Washington. There were real dry conditions out there for their Fourth of July holiday, and a house caught on fire due to some fireworks going off near a garage. A fellow named Wesley Howard really saved the day. It was just after midnight. Wesley's neighbor rang his doorbell saying, my house is on fire. I need help. Wesley was asleep, but he woke up when he heard the doorbell and he ran downstairs. He heard his neighbor yelling. He saw the flames on his neighbor's house and he ran out to help him put the flames out, but he didn't bother to find his shorts. He just ran over there naked. Not even any shoes. Apparently he burned his feet quite a bit putting out this fire. And that's what the story's about. This guy putting out a fire without clothes on. Here's the reason I'm bringing up this particular story in this News story. I learn that by the time the firefighters arrived, Wesley had gone and put on shorts. So the firefighters arrived, finding him in a pair of shorts. You see where I'm going here, or no. Wesley's neighbor goes next door, rings the doorbell, yells for Wesley to help him. Help? My house is on fire. Wesley jumps out of bed hearing the doorbell, and he doesn't even bother to throw on shorts. He hears his neighbor is in trouble. He sees the flames. He helps his neighbor. They put out the fire. Now the fire department arrives, and Wesley has shorts on. You see where I'm going here? This is a news story about Wesley putting the fire out in the nude. You with me here? If the fire department. If the fire department arrived and Wesley had shorts on, then how is it that anyone is aware that Wesley put out the fire naked? There's only one way a news reporter could have learned of this. Wesley's neighbor had to tell them. Wesley didn't brag about it. The very man who needed help getting the flames put out, who rang Wesley's doorbell and said, help, help, help. Come quickly. I need you now. The guy who got Wesley out the door helping him put out his house fire with Wesley completely naked, decided he should let a reporter know about this. Is that the way you say thank you? And how exactly did this neighbor pass it along? So the fire department heads out. They get a call this small town in Washington probably has a reporter hears about a fire department call. The reporter shoots out to see what's going on. He arrives on the scene, but again, there's Wesley in a pair of shorts. Probably doesn't really have a story at this point. Wesley and the neighbor have put out the fire just fine. But the neighbor sees the reporter and calls him over and says, say, I don't know. This is maybe something you might want to know. My neighbor who helped me put out the fire, he did that naked. He's over there. Shh. Keep it quiet here. He was naked. And I don't mean he forgot his robe naked. I mean, he came off that porch like a slingshot released by the hand of God. I mean, he came into my yard like Adam being kicked out of the Garden of Eden. That kind of naked. No shirt, no shorts, no plan. I'm telling you, once he hit a full sprint, physics got involved. There was some independent choreography happening down there. You know what I'm saying? Like, his body was one guy, and his business was a whole separate dude riding along for moral support.
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Mike
Shh.
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Progressive Insurance Announcer
Shh.
- [06:58]
Mishke
He's right over there.
- [07:00]
Progressive Insurance Announcer
Shh.
- [07:02]
Mishke
Anyway, the fire's going and he's helping me put it out. He ain't even looking down. He's just hurling water like Poseidon. Total commitment. Total exposure. And I mean total. But did he stop? No, no. Did he cup a hand over anything? No, no. He ran through that fire like a man being chased by his own instincts. I'm telling you, it was something to watch. Completely nude. I probably shouldn't be telling you this. I really shouldn't. This is a private thing, a sacred thing, really, between neighbors. And here I am just handing it to a guy with a notepad who has a job at a newspaper. But I needed someone else to know. I mean, I didn't want to carry this information all by myself. I mean, he's a real hero. Salt of the earth guy. He's in shorts now, but he wasn't then. I'm telling you, you got a story here, you really do. But you didn't hear it from me, okay? Some neighbor. I'm not sure I'd be okay with him the next day. Bob, come here, will you? What possessed yuh to talk to that reporter about what I was wearin or wasn't wearing when I helped you put out the flames? Did you need me for those flames, Bob? I think you did. You were screaming, asking for help. I came. I could have put on a pair of shorts. That little bit of time might a cost you a couple bedrooms. I thought helping you was more important than finding my shorts. After we got the fire out, I went back, put shorts on. Fire department came. I thought, no one's going to know I ever put this fire out naked. Not unless Bob talks to somebody. And Bob would never do that. What got into you there, Bob? Well, Wesley, it was just extraordinary. I just. I was watching you helping me put those flames out, and I said, this is something else. I've never seen anything like this. I mean, a naked firefighter. You were. You were like something out of a weird dream I might have sometime after. Too much Italian food or something. I had to tell somebody. I mean, somebody had to know. I couldn't carry this around for the rest of my life by myself. I mean, you should have seen yourself picture in your mind what it's like to see a guy naked putting out a fire. Sparks were all around you. I mean, it was weird. I got nervous just seeing how close some of the sparks were coming to. Well, you know what I'm saying. I mean, if I had a video of that. Do you know, Wesley, that I could retire right now? Bob, I don't want to talk to you for a good long time. I know we'll see each other as neighbors, but I'm not even going to wave. Not for a while. Not until I process this. You wait a little bit after the 4th of July and you get stories like this or you get a story like this. An 18 year old teenager lost his hand while playing with fireworks outside a California fast food restaurant. Nader Hannah, who had graduated from high school this year, met up with his twin brother and a couple of friends outside a popular burger chain. One of the guys handed Nader a firework about the size of a tennis ball. He lit it and it exploded immediately, right away, it just exploded the second it was lit. Nader said. My hand took the entire blow. I looked down and I didn't see a hand. It had disintegrated. His twin Brother Ramsey called 91 1-before frantically searching the ground for pieces of his brother's hand to take to the hospital. But there were no pieces to be found. His brother said it was like Nader stuck his hand in a garbage disposal with the thing going full tilt. One of his buddies said. I told him it looked like his hand was placed in a blender. There was no hand really there. It was just blood spewing everywhere. We were all freaking out. Doctors were unable to save the hand, but they said they were able to preserve the wrist. Sorry, but what good is a wrist without a hand? What sorts of things can a wrist do?
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Progressive Insurance Announcer
It was a Wednesday night, just a casual night. We're bored, right? It's around, it's like 10pm, 9:30. We always light fireworks, so we let the first one, it was fine and then the second one, there was like a broken piece. Like I just remember looking both ways and then an explosion happened.
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Mike
Just like boom.
- [11:18]
Progressive Insurance Announcer
Like when you shoot a gun. Like how fast the bullet comes out. Like it was like that. I looked down and like, obviously I don't see a hand, you know, just exploded, like disintegrated. So it was just sadness, you know, I was like, no way. Like it's just a firework. Like, I just felt bad for like my parents, you know, I was thinking about my future.
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Mishke
Nader, when interviewed, said he's focusing on recovering and hopes to eventually be fitted with some sort of prosthetic. His quote, it's just motivated me to be better. Now I have to be someone great. I can't be an average dude since I don't have a right hand. I'm feeling bad for my parents. But I'm gonna be okay. That's a extraordinary quote right there. I've really never heard a quote like that after someone has had a traumatic injury like this. Now I have to be someone great. Up until that hand came off, he was able to just live his life. Being your garden variety type of dude, nothing fancy. An average good time Charlie. Apparently. Now with the elimination of the hand, he's got to become something great. The universe has laid down the gauntlet for this fella. Apparently. I find this guy's perspective rather refreshing. I mean, first of all, he's sad for his parents. Right away, he understands that any injury done to a child is an injury done to mom and dad. That sad reality of love, one person's pain is another's. So he grieves the pain he's causing his parents at the age of 18, losing his hand. But he doesn't grieve his own loss. He simply realizes, oh, it's going to be one of those lives. One of those lives where a tragedy, part of my hero's journey, will propel me through the pain into greatness. I have gone through the crucible. Now it's on to amazing heights as I become not just a man, but a great man. He, he, he. Wow. Where'd he learn to think that way? Nader, your hand is gone. It looks like you stuck it in a blender or a garbage disposal or something. It's blown to smithereens, my friend. We can't put it back together again. It's gone. You got a wrist, if that's any consolation. But no hand. And Nadir lights a smoke, looks off into the horizon and says, so it's gone. Five fingers, one palm. A lifetime of unremarkable gestures, waves, salutes, handshakes. Given my pals the finger, it's all gone. In the time it takes to light a match. It's gone. I could mourn. God knows I've earned the right. I could sit and let the world pity me, let the neighbors lower their voices when I pass. I could let this be the sentence from the universe that defines me. The boy who lost his precious hand, a neighborhood tragedy, a sad footnote in a city's busy day. But no. No, I'm not going to do that. Because now I have been marked. Not cursed. No, marked. And a marked man doesn't get to be forgettable. If I'm going to be a hand short the rest of my days, then, by God, I will be twice as present in everything else. Twice as sharp, twice as fierce, twice as loud in the world's ear. So that when they tell my story, they will not say, there's the boy who lost his hand. They will say, there's the man who decided that a hand was a small price to pay for a life that mattered, really mattered. That this boy gave up the hearty waves, the strong salutes, the firm handshakes, and. But he did not give up his joie de vivre. No siree, Robert. On the contrary, he purchased it. He ascended into the rarefied air of human greatness. He became the man he never would have, and I dare say, never could have without the loss of this hand. He scaled the heights of human achievement reserved only for the most determined. Because that's what he became. All because of this horrific injury. Let this ugly stub on the end of his wrist be the receipt. Let it be the proof that he paid something hefty in this life. A great price. That he handed that currency to fate and said, take it. I'll pay this. Give me greatness in return. I'm willing to claw my way there. That's right, Claw my way to that greatness. But make sure it is waiting at the end of that dark road. For I will earn it and I will take it, and I will own is my destiny. If everyone losing a limb could take that attitude. Wow. Kind of makes you happy we have 4th of July accidents. Just for inspiration.
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Mike
Foreign.
- [17:09]
Mishke
I want to talk about Brad, Shaw and Bryant. They are personal injury attorneys. Now, some of you out there have very public injuries. We're all allowed to watch, enjoy them, talk about them, sometimes review them. But Bradshaw and Bryant, they are personal injury attorneys. That's when you get a personal injury only you know about. Well, maybe the person who rammed Indian knows about it. Maybe the person who left the water on the floor knows about it. Maybe the person who created the defective product knows about it because they're hiding in the bushes laughing their ass off. But the whole world has not been made aware of the injury. So you go home with your little personal injury and you say, what should I do with this? Well, if it was caused by recklessness, carelessness, callousness on the part of someone else, it is time to take them to court or get them to settle. Before that happens, you need a pit bull, people. You need somebody who's gonna fight, fight, fight for you. Now, I'm not embarrassed to say I was a cheerleader for Bradshaw and Bryant in their cheerleading squad. I was the only guy. The gals made me wear a pleated skirt and everything. But I so wanted to cheer for this company. I didn't care. I said, give me that skirt. These are my guys, Bradshaw and Bryant. They're great. Great. They litigate, go to court. I can't wait. All sorts of cheers we had to learn. Anyway, I want you to remember Brad, Shawn, Bryant. If you have a personal injury, if you have one of those public injuries, take a bow and wave to the crowd. For personal injuries, remember this Minnesota Personal Injury.com grab the Pom poms, girls.
- [19:11]
Progressive Insurance Announcer
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- [19:43]
Mishke
Mishke Here for the well Shire the Wellshire of Bloomington and Medina is a memory care center. It's for people with Alzheimer's and dementia. It's sad to think about the fact that there's so much of that out there, but it's not sad to walk into the Wellshire. There's joy there, happiness. There's music. There's ice cream. There's people singing. There's people enjoying garden walks. There are people watching movies and clapping. There are people getting their hair done in a salon, taking out books from a library. Life is happening at the Wellshire. Wonderful life. If you have a loved one with Alzheimer's or dementia, you're not going to tuck them away at the well Shire. They're not going to be pushed in there behind closed doors to live out their lives. They're going to walk into a world of wonder of human beings who celebrate them. The Wellshire is about life and remembering that while these people are still living, they are living the Wellshire of Bloomington and Medina. This has nothing to do whatsoever with 4th of July accidents, but it is another story about someone without a hand. I just liked it because the headline entertained me. Woman with no right hand is pulled over for using phone in her right hand. I repeat, the headline is Woman with no right hand is pulled over for using phone in her right hand. The woman was ticketed. Yeah, a guy pulled her over and said, hey, I'm pulling you over. I saw you using a phone in Your right hand. And she held up her arm, and there was just a wrist there. She didn't have a right hand. I just want you to know a judge has dismissed the case. He wasn't going to dismiss it, but she was ticketed for using a phone with her right hand, which is illegal while driving, obviously, but she presented a solid defense by showing nothing but air where there would normally be a right hand. Where you and I have right hands, she has air. The judge asked where her hand was, thinking she purposely amputated it to get out of the ticket. And she said, no, I was born with this birth defect. Sure enough, she was born without a right hand. The judge said, do you have an attorney? And the woman said, I was going to get an attorney, your honor. And then it hit me. Wait, I don't have a right hand. Wouldn't that be a solid defense all by itself? Would I really need a attorney? And the judge said, that's not a bad defense as defenses go. That's not bad. You were ticketed for having a phone in your right hand, and you don't have a right hand. I mean, I've heard worse defenses. Let's go to the prosecution, shall we? What's your case, fellas? Well, your honor, a cop saw her driving in the car with her phone in her right hand talking, and that's illegal. Seems pretty open and shut, your honor. Yeah, but fellas, she doesn't have a right hand. Okay, okay. Yeah, uh, okay, that's where you're going to leave it, boys. Okay, ma', am, you can go home. I'm not sure what happened here. A sheriff's deputy was working on traffic enforcement in Lake Worth beach, Florida. He stopped a 36 year old woman named Kathleen approached her car, explained why he had pulled her over. He said she'd been holding her cell phone in her right hand and talking. But before he could get very far, she held up her right hand and said, there is no right hand. She was sighted anyway. Not sure why. As with any enforcement action, motorists have the right to contest citations through judicial process where all facts and evidence can be fully evaluated as they were in this case. Now, the cop wasn't too happy. He actually says to the woman in his body cam video, hand to God, honestly, you did not have your phone in your right hand. You. You did not have it in your right hand. And she said, officer, I am showing you a stump. One last fourth of July catastrophe story. You know, I look at these stories before I bring them to you, so I don't know why I laugh again when I start to talk about them. It makes no sense. I laughed when I first came upon them and that should be done with finished at that point. But I go to bring up these tales with you and I get the giggles and I don't like that. I don't want that. But I swear, it's like laughing in church. I want to deliver these stories straight, and I can't. I didn't used to have this problem. Everything is silly to me now in the world. All of it. It's all a carnival. A crazy, funny carnival. Everything. Okay, back to the story. One final Fourth of July destruction tale here out of Billings, Montana. Vandals blow up 13 porta potties. That's the headline. Destroyed amusing fireworks. The Porta Potty Company out in Billings says we lose four or five Porta Potties every year during the fourth of July holidays. But this year was particularly rough. They blew up 13 of our precious Porta Potties, and we have never dealt with that before. These things are completely destroyed. They were in different parts of the city, these porta Potties, one after another was blown up with fireworks. It mostly happened around residential construction projects where workers needed to relieve themselves during the day, but where workers were absent during the holiday weekend. The owner of the Porta Potty Company said, these are not the type of fireworks you can buy at fire stands in Montana. If you saw how blown apart our toilets were, you'd know it had to have been a large explosive. That means the fireworks probably came from Wyoming or the nearby Crow Indian Reservation. You know, when we set off fireworks when I was a kid, we'd stick them under empty soup cans and we'd blow those cans sky high. Kids are graduating to blowing up Porta Potties. Now, with each generation, it has to be something more grand, more monumental. But to be completely candid with you folks, the real reason I'm bringing this story to you, and this may be where the laughter is coming from, because I'm aware of this as I'm talking to you. The real reason I'm bringing this story to you is, is because of the name of the Porta Potty Company. They're having fun with the fact that when you use their Porta Potties, you're mostly peeing. And since you're peeing, they have called their operation, you're a peeing. That's the name of the company that alone makes it. So I have to call these guys. That all by itself fires me up to want to make a call. Just A quick call.
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Mike
Sam. European Porta Pots, this is Annika.
- [27:48]
Mishke
Hey, glad I got a hold of you. You rent porta Potties? Well, as sell them or just rent.
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Mike
We have sold them in the past, but mainly they're rentals that may still work.
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Mishke
We have a situation at our house where I wanted to get a porta potty and I guess I'm okay renting it. I would rent it permanently. We have a situation where I want to put one outside the house for my wife. We have plumbing in the house, but I feel I need to have a separate potty for her just outside, maybe the back door. She has used the same bathroom that I have for a good while now. But I told her recently I think she needs to get her own toilet. She's noisy when she uses the bathroom and it wakes me up. I mean real noisy. I'm not sure what sort of gastrointestinal problems she has, but I told her, you know, if we're gonna stay together, you gotta have your own, your own little potty. And I'm willing to rent one for her and keep it outside the back door. She isn't happy with this, but I don't know any other way. I'm not gonna spend the money to do the plumbing, tear out a wall and build a whole fancy bathroom for her. And I don't want to just let her out the back door like I do the dog. So I thought a compromise would be a port a potty just outside the back door there, just far enough away from me where I don't hear her.
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Mike
We run rentals 104amonth, maybe a little bit less.
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Mishke
But one thing I'm a little worried about is we got a lot of young hoodlums in the neighborhood. I'm worried about the tendency of some of these kids to want to blow them up.
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Mike
Yes, unfortunately we do recommend keeping a combo lock on them and then providing us with the combo. And when they get serviced, our technicians have that combo.
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Mishke
So you mean to tell me every time my wife would head downstairs, go out the back door to do her business in that porta potty, she'd have to use the combination to get in?
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Mike
Well, that would be up to you whether or not you would like to have a combo lock.
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Mishke
But you're saying without that there's definitely danger of that baby blowing up?
- [30:11]
Mike
Yep.
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Mishke
You guys had something like 13 of them blow up?
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Mike
Yep, over the 4th of July.
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Progressive Insurance Announcer
Uh huh.
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Mishke
That's an extraordinary number of porta potties blown to smithereens. I sure wouldn't want that to happen while she's in there. That, of course, is my biggest fear. That she's in the porta potty and the whole thing blows, Right?
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Mike
Yep.
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Mishke
These are all made in Europe, your porta potties? No, sir, but they are European.
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Mike
Sort of. You are a P E E I N O.
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Mishke
As in you are a peeing.
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Mike
Yes, sir.
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Mishke
Have you ever heard of an arrangement like this where someone just had it at their house outside the back door for a spouse?
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Mike
You know, I haven't personally taken a. Taken an order.
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Mishke
Gonna be a little cold in there in the winter, I suppose.
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Mike
Mm.
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Mishke
But again, it's her own fault. Noisiest gale you've ever heard. I don't know if you ever go into some of these restrooms where someone's using a stall next to you and you just think, holy smokes, the decibel levels they're hitting. Know what I'm saying?
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Mike
Yep. So let me just take down your info. What's your zip code? I gotta look it up, see how far it is.
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Mishke
59101.
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Mike
They would run about 104amonth for service.
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Mishke
That's reasonable. I mean, to get a good night's sleep. Worst case scenario, you know, after a few months, she decides to finally go to the gastroenterologist and see what the devil's happening there. You know what I'm saying?
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Mike
So what. What's a good callback number and I can get you put in here? What is your street address?
- [31:52]
Mishke
Well, I don't know what my street address is. Frankly, I'm gonna have to hang up because I'm a little deep into this call. We're not really going to advance any further than we have at this point. I don't know any businesses that are 250 years old. The United States is 250 years old. I'm unaware of a business that has hung in there for all 250. Minneapolis St. Paul plumbing, heating, Air and Electric has hung in there for 108 of those years. I'm not familiar with the local business that has more years than that. MSP recently said to me, we're going to take our 108 years and America's 250 years. Put those numbers together and take $358 off any new heating or cooling equipment right away. 358 bucks taken off, but only in the month of July. If your current system is struggling or you're thinking about replacing it before it fails, now would be the time to take advantage of one heck of an offer 358 bucks right off the top of any new heating or cooling equipment from MSP. You want to get a hold of MSP? Go to call msp.com Truckers aren't just moving goods.
- [33:17]
Progressive Insurance Announcer
They're making sure bakers get their chocolate chips and hotels get their tiny soaps. But truckers can't do this if they're not on the road. That's why Progressive has over 360 heavy truck employees. To help truckers stay on time and on track. Quote Truck insurance today in as little as eight minutes at progressive commercial.com, progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates. You're listening to this podcast, so I know you've got a curious mind. Here's a helpful fact you might not know yet. Drivers who switch and save with Progressive save over $900 on average. And pop over to progressive.com, answer some questions and you'll get a quick quote with discounts that are easy to come by. In fact, 99% of their auto customers earn at least one discount. Visit progressive.com and see if you can enjoy a little cash back. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates national average 12 month savings of $946 by new customers surveyed who saved with Progressive between June 2024 and May 2025. Potential savings will vary.
- [34:32]
Mike
Hello?
- [34:33]
Mishke
Well, hello there, Mike.
- [34:35]
Mike
How you doing, Mischie?
- [34:37]
Mishke
Doing all right? You've been a tough guy to track down.
- [34:41]
Mike
I had this call blocking. I get so many calls that if it's an unfamiliar number, send it to my voicemail. So I finally got enlightened and put your name down and apparently let you through, which is great. Sorry about that.
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Mishke
Oh, don't apologize. It's all right. I just hated how long you had to sit on the old waiting list.
- [35:03]
Mike
Yeah, I'm pretty excited. I didn't know if it would ever happen.
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Mishke
Hey, are you talking to me on a speaker by chance?
- [35:10]
Mike
Actually, I'm talking to you through my hearing. It's.
- [35:13]
Mishke
It's not the ideal quality.
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Mike
Is this any better?
- [35:19]
Mishke
Dramatic.
- [35:21]
Mike
Oh, good. Yeah, I was through my hearing aids. I'm old. I'm 75, so.
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Mishke
75 years old. My God, you could die during the call.
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Mike
I know. You better hurry. Don't. That's why I didn't want to miss you again.
- [35:33]
Mishke
If you were to die during the call, I can guarantee you a couple of times in the next year I'd replay this.
- [35:43]
Mike
Well, I'm gonna do my best not to make it available to you, if you don't mind.
- [35:47]
Mishke
Well, it's not going to be that bad for you, is it?
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Mike
Yeah. Some things I so want to do.
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Mishke
Right. But I mean, once you're dead, you don't think about that.
- [35:58]
Mike
That's true. That's true.
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Mishke
So I'm just trying to get. Yeah, I'm just trying to get you at ease with the idea of dying during the call.
- [36:05]
Mike
Okay. Yes. You're making me feel much better just the thought of it.
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Mishke
Find some peace and know that it's been a good run. Has it been?
- [36:14]
Mike
Actually, yeah. I've done pretty well for 75.
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Mishke
Well, you lucky stiff, how did you get a good run?
- [36:21]
Mike
I think outside the bun a little bit. I was never a conformist. So I lived out west at a place in Florida and we go down there for the winter.
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Mishke
You haven't been a conformist. You tell me right now what the greatest example of nonconformity is.
- [36:38]
Mike
Started young. I didn't have a real good childhood and I spent most of my high school years majored in detention. Didn't really want to follow rules just because you told me to.
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Mishke
Well, you and I have that in common.
- [36:52]
Mike
I kind of had that feeling when I listened to you.
- [36:55]
Mishke
Spent a lot of time in detention myself, or just plain getting suspended or getting kicked out of school. But let's go back to you. Your nonconformity, it found its first expression in childhood. What was going on at home?
- [37:11]
Mike
The old man was a taskmaster and I pretty much grew up way out in the county with a pump and an outhouse and all we did was go to work. A lot of alone time.
- [37:22]
Mishke
Wait a minute. What year did you grow up? During the Dust Bowl?
- [37:26]
Mike
No, a little after that. But during the 50s.
- [37:31]
Mishke
And in your childhood you had an outhouse and a pump in the yard for water?
- [37:36]
Mike
Yeah.
- [37:37]
Mishke
What was the old man doing for a living that he wasn't really able to afford?
- [37:41]
Mike
The indoor plumbing carpenter and just kind of a roustabout. And we lived in a little two room garage, which eventually turned into a garage. And taking a bath in a galvanized tub, pooping in the pail, and mom would carry it out through the snow to the outhouse.
- [37:57]
Mishke
That's livin'. You have had a good run. So you're living in a garage, you're pooping in pails, getting cleaned in galvanized tubs. Life couldn't be better. How was ma?
- [38:10]
Mike
Big old Norwegian lady. She just turned 96 and sharp as a tack.
- [38:15]
Mishke
96 years old. She's still sharp as a tack and she's still A big old Norwegian gal.
- [38:21]
Mike
Well, she's shrinking a little bit. She's getting a little bit smaller, a little more hunched over.
- [38:25]
Mishke
But I'd like to meet this lady. I want her to be real big for some reason. I want her to be this big, healthy, 96 year old brash Norwegian lady. And I want to come visit her and pick her up or have her pick me up and one of us throw the other over their shoulder and wrestle a little bit, maybe out in the grass.
- [38:47]
Mike
She won all the kick the shoe contests and.
- [38:50]
Mishke
Wait, say that again.
- [38:51]
Mike
Every kick the shoe contest that was ever held in Duluth, she won by a mile. And she played softball and skied and,
- [38:59]
Mishke
and she won every kick the shoe contest.
- [39:01]
Mike
Oh, she destroyed everybody. They were kicking it around the picnic that she was kicking them over the trees out into the parking lot.
- [39:08]
Mishke
What kind of superhuman was this woman? First of all, I've never heard of the kick the shoe contest.
- [39:14]
Mike
Hang the shoe on your toe and then you see how far you can kick it.
- [39:17]
Mishke
And she could outdo everybody, oh, five times.
- [39:21]
Mike
They were kicking it a little ways down the thing and she was kicking them out into the parking lot.
- [39:26]
Mishke
Holy smokes, what's her name?
- [39:28]
Mike
Dorothy.
- [39:29]
Mishke
Dorothy.
- [39:30]
Mike
Dorothy May.
- [39:32]
Mishke
Dorothy May, the shoe kicking queen, you betcha. Might have to write a song about her tonight.
- [39:38]
Mike
She'd appreciate it too. Yeah, she just. She just finally quit driving at 95 last Christmas. She gave up. She had a little fender bender at a Walmart parking lot. So she finally quit driving at 95.
- [39:49]
Mishke
You know what made my mom give up driving?
- [39:51]
Mike
Hmm?
- [39:52]
Mishke
Well, she was going down the road. Why can I not get through this? She was, she was, she was going. She was. She was going down the road in St. Paul and she heard a funny noise. You know how when you're driving a car sometimes, I mean, especially if you drive old beaters, you'll hear a funny noise.
- [40:18]
Mike
Oh, yeah, yeah.
- [40:18]
Mishke
That used to happen to me quite a bit with almost every car I had. What's that noise? I gotta take this in and have it checked out. And she, she too thought she should get the noise checked out at some point. Well, the noise was she was sideswiping every single car on the street. Every one of them. She was hitting them all, all of them. You know how many notes she had to put on windshields? There weren't enough post it notes in the city available. So we had to go to her and say, this might be the time for you to toss us the keys. She said, I don't think so. She said, that street's kind of narrow there. Nope, it was just hugging the right side a little much there. So what's your ma do to pass the time these days? I'd like to go play kick the shoe with her.
- [41:18]
Mike
Oh, she lives up in Duluth and senior high rise. Runs around the apartment building bothering other people.
- [41:24]
Mishke
And now tell me about the old man.
- [41:28]
Mike
Pretty stern. Wasn't. Wasn't real fun growing up. Spare the rod, spoil the child. And summer vacations were pretty much shoveling concrete.
- [41:36]
Mishke
Summer vacations were shoveling concrete?
- [41:40]
Mike
Yep, that was pretty much it.
- [41:42]
Mishke
You're painting a picture of idyllic Rockwellian life.
- [41:46]
Mike
Pretty. Pretty tough and lonely. Matter of fact, the summer you didn't meet a lot of people other than Ready Mix drivers.
- [41:52]
Mishke
Your best friend had to be the seven minute visit of the Ready Mix driver.
- [41:57]
Mike
Pretty much. That was. That was summer. Yeah. Pick you up the last day of school with your work boots and went till football started. You get to quit working when sports started.
- [42:07]
Mishke
School gets out and he's waiting at
- [42:10]
Mike
the out in the parking lot with my work boots and we head to the next project. Everybody else is going to the class picnic and you're going to shovel concrete. And that was summer man. Yeah, that was from 6, 7 years old.
- [42:22]
Mishke
Did your old man ever once have a good talk with you?
- [42:27]
Mike
Nope. We didn't talk. Never. Children should be seen and not heard.
- [42:34]
Mishke
And you weren't around any neighbors, you were just off on your own in a field somewhere?
- [42:39]
Mike
Pretty much me and my dog.
- [42:41]
Mishke
No friends?
- [42:43]
Mike
Not hardly at all. Don't have anybody from when I was young, no.
- [42:48]
Mishke
So then you kind of took it out on authority figures at school?
- [42:52]
Mike
Yeah. Yeah. I didn't respect my elders very well. They had to earn it. And I wasn't real good in school. I didn't have enough points to graduate, but they let me go. They just said, go to work. This isn't your gig.
- [43:05]
Mishke
So you get out of high school and what do you do?
- [43:08]
Mike
Eventually I became a heavy equipment operator, then started my own company later in life.
- [43:13]
Mishke
How quickly did you move the hell out of that house?
- [43:16]
Mike
17 and a half.
- [43:17]
Mishke
Got your own place?
- [43:19]
Mike
Yep. All garbage in the winter. And work construction in the summer. Bartending a little bit, whole garbage in
- [43:25]
Mishke
the winter, construction in the summer. And bartend a little bit.
- [43:28]
Mike
Yeah.
- [43:29]
Mishke
Well, you should have picked up a guitar.
- [43:31]
Mike
I go pretty much every night, have a few beers and listen to some country music.
- [43:35]
Mishke
That's what you do now?
- [43:37]
Mike
Pretty much work around the house, mow the lawn, just do things, play on the Computer. And I've learned a lot on the computer looking at like Schopenhauer and learned a lot.
- [43:48]
Mishke
I didn't see Schopenhauer coming. That was a curveball. You read a lot of Schopenhauer?
- [43:54]
Mike
Well, I more watch and I'm not a good reader. I got add. Too bad. But I enjoy what I can find on the computer about them. Bonhoeffer and Schopenhauer and them guys just really opened my eyes a lot.
- [44:06]
Mishke
What was the big thing you took from them?
- [44:08]
Mike
That I wasn't really nuts. And a lot of society have said a lot of people a lot of bad stuff and just kind of free thinking, like Bonhoeffer and stuff. Hitler ended up killing him because he wouldn't conform. Just be a free thinker. That's why I kind of enjoy listening to you. You kind of seem to have that same beat to you in your humor and stuff.
- [44:29]
Mishke
Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
- [44:31]
Mike
Yeah.
- [44:32]
Mishke
German, Lutheran pastor, theologian, anti Nazi.
- [44:38]
Mike
Yeah. They ended up killing him just for the war was over. But yeah, he just was wondering why people do what they do, how they can conform, you know, Carl Jung and stuff too. It just.
- [44:48]
Mishke
Boy reading Bonhoeffer and Jung and Schopenhauer. There's a lot there.
- [44:53]
Mike
Nietzsche.
- [44:54]
Mishke
Nietzsche as well.
- [44:56]
Mike
Yeah, I enjoy them. Deep thinkers.
- [44:59]
Mishke
Do you ever have an opportunity to sit around some old bar listening to country music, ordering a couple of beers, visiting with a few guys, talking Nietzsche and Schopenhauer and Bonhoeffer?
- [45:11]
Mike
Not too much. I pretty much do that when I'm by myself.
- [45:14]
Mishke
Any bartenders willing to talk? Carl Jung with you?
- [45:17]
Mike
I haven't phoned one yet.
- [45:18]
Mishke
But where am I finding you? Where are you right now?
- [45:22]
Mike
Superior, Wisconsin, watching the wife clean the driveway.
- [45:27]
Mishke
Here in Superior, Wisconsin? Watching the wife clean the driveway. So you finally found a gal. I didn't hear nothing about no woman. What part of your life does she appear?
- [45:38]
Mike
Second marriage. First one didn't go very well.
- [45:41]
Mishke
You can almost count on that. You can almost count on screwing up the first one because you don't know anything. There's got to be one that's sort of a practice run. Sounds like number one was a practice run.
- [45:53]
Mike
Very true. Yeah. Yeah.
- [45:54]
Mishke
You don't have an example. Were you the only kid?
- [45:58]
Mike
No. I got a younger brother and sister.
- [46:00]
Mishke
How messed up are they?
- [46:03]
Mike
It's very fractured. I mean, we don't talk, we exist. No fond memories, just kind of there.
- [46:11]
Mishke
How old did your dad get to be before he kicked?
- [46:14]
Mike
88. He was sharp as a tack, too. His own thing is his lungs. Gave out all the tall males and camel streets and asbestos. Working construction. Caught up with his lungs.
- [46:23]
Mishke
Camels, asbestos and Paul Mulls will do you in eventually. But if you can get to 88, throw in Winston's and Ray Don, for that matter.
- [46:35]
Mike
Sure.
- [46:36]
Mishke
And I don't suppose even later in life when you were an adult hanging with them, that there was any joy to be found.
- [46:43]
Mike
No. No. I could tell you what the last words in the last 10 years were, but I can't. I don't want to repeat them over the air.
- [46:53]
Mishke
I want to hear them. I really do.
- [46:54]
Mike
It was F you for the last 10 years. That's the only words we had.
- [46:58]
Mishke
You mean every time you got together, that was what you said to each other?
- [47:01]
Mike
Yeah. We go to Christmas at my mom's house. He'd sit in the back room, watch tv, and we'd pretend we were having a merry little Christmas. He wouldn't even come out.
- [47:10]
Mishke
When was the last time you spoke to him? Prior to his death. How long before he died?
- [47:16]
Mike
I gave up on him about 10 years before he died? Well, even 15 years, we didn't have any words except F U.
- [47:23]
Mishke
Would that be when you'd pass each other on the street? Or when would you have the opportunity to throw in an fu?
- [47:29]
Mike
Christmas.
- [47:31]
Mishke
That's a Christmas greeting. Come on down the stairs Christmas morning. Hey. F you.
- [47:37]
Mike
Yep.
- [47:38]
Mishke
Did you father any children?
- [47:40]
Mike
I have two daughters. I had two. One of them passed away when she
- [47:43]
Mishke
was three, but I'm sorry to hear that.
- [47:46]
Mike
That was kind of a tough one. Yeah, she was born a little heart defect and they thought they were going to fix it when she was three, but it didn't go as planned.
- [47:53]
Mishke
Man. How do you recover from something like that?
- [47:56]
Mike
I don't know. You survive.
- [47:58]
Mishke
You survive.
- [47:59]
Mike
You survive.
- [48:01]
Mishke
And your other daughter?
- [48:03]
Mike
She's 40, 41. She's got some scars. The first wife was an alcoholic, so she's got some. She went through some pretty tough times when she was young, too, when we split up.
- [48:14]
Mishke
Man. So the first. The first woman you met was alcoholic? How long that marriage last?
- [48:20]
Mike
14 years.
- [48:22]
Mishke
Where'd you find your second wife?
- [48:25]
Mike
At a bar. She's an AA now, too, so.
- [48:30]
Mishke
So wife number two was also alcoholic?
- [48:33]
Mike
Yeah.
- [48:33]
Mishke
Is this typical of that part of the state or are you just attracted to alcoholics?
- [48:40]
Mike
Superior.
- [48:41]
Mishke
Yeah, say no more. I've been to Superior. I think they test you with a bottle of hooch at the border, see if you can even fit with that crowd. So going back to this idea of being a non conformist how else did that manifest itself in your life?
- [48:58]
Mike
I don't know. Just kind of. Kind of lonely. I hate small talk. You probably know more about me than anybody in the world right now. I never sit and talk to anybody like this. This is very enjoyable.
- [49:08]
Mishke
Your life outside of being married was a life of a loner.
- [49:14]
Mike
Very much. Golf alone? Yeah, very much.
- [49:18]
Mishke
You never really learned. It doesn't sound like how to make a friend.
- [49:24]
Mike
No, it was more. I remember in high school, I wouldn't even go in the lunchroom. I'd go behind the gym and go for a walk. I mean, not to sound whiny, but even at the old man's funeral, there wasn't one person there that I knew. There's nobody that came to my dad's funeral for me.
- [49:38]
Mishke
There's a lot of pain there. Wonder what you do with all of that.
- [49:43]
Mike
It just boils. Boils.
- [49:48]
Mishke
Any of these guys that you come across and enjoy reading and hearing their wisdom, philosophy, any of them help you with any insights when it comes to all that pain?
- [50:01]
Mike
No. I've had more conversation with you than I've had with anybody in my life right now.
- [50:10]
Mishke
That actually makes me feel good. It also makes me feel sad. I'm delighted that I got to be the guy to actually have a nice, long conversation with you.
- [50:18]
Mike
Yeah. This is odd for me. Yeah.
- [50:22]
Mishke
Now, had I.
- [50:22]
Mike
That's why I enjoy listening to you, though. You just seem like you have that insight.
- [50:27]
Mishke
Well, thank you. Had I stumbled into a bar in Superior and learned there was a guy listening to country music, drinking beer and interested in talking about Nietzsche, I'd have probably strolled up and we could have talked about some of his ideas, and I could have found out a little more about what you think and your takes on different things. You ever come across a country song that came the closest to sounding like your life?
- [50:57]
Mike
Yeah, actually. Charlie Rich. Rolling with the flow. I just keep on rolling with the flow that's it.
- [51:04]
Mishke
Once was a thought inside my head before I'd reach 30 I'd be dead but somehow on and on I go I keep on rolling with the flow Some might be calling me a bum But I'm still out there having fun and Jesus loves me Yes, I know so I keep on rolling with the flow that's what life has been for you.
- [51:28]
Mike
Actually. Yeah. When I heard that a few years back, that's been my. Been my exit song at the end of the night song. Then Gentle On My Mind by Glenn Campbell.
- [51:37]
Mishke
Gentle On My Mind. Very different song. What do you mean? Your exit song. You have it in your car?
- [51:44]
Mike
Well, usually on the jukebox when I'm leaving the bar at the end of the night. When that comes on, that means I'm leaving. Rolling with the flow.
- [51:52]
Mishke
So there's a jukebox at your favorite bar?
- [51:55]
Mike
Oh, yeah.
- [51:56]
Mishke
And they have Roland with the Flow on there. And they have Gentle On My Mind. Now Gentle on My Mind is a lovely song about a woman. Is that a fair description of the way you view your gal?
- [52:10]
Mike
Yep.
- [52:11]
Mishke
It's knowin that your door is always open and your path is free to walk that makes me tend to leave my sleepin bag rolled up and stashed behind your couch and it's knowin I'm not shackled by forgotten words and bonds and the ink stains that are dried upon some line that keeps you in the backroads by the rivers of my memory and that keeps you ever gentle on my mind it's not clinging to the rocks and ivy planted on their columns now that bind me or something that somebody said because they thought we fit together walking it's just knowing that the world will not be cursing or forgiving When I walk along some railroad track and find that you're moving on the back roads by the rivers of my memory and for hours you're just gentle on my mind
- [53:01]
Mike
she gives me a lot of rope.
- [53:04]
Mishke
What does she see in you? If I were to ask her, what would she say?
- [53:08]
Mike
He's not dull. It's been a wild ride.
- [53:13]
Mishke
If you could relive one year of your life, which year would it be
- [53:18]
Mike
by the year I met my wife. We had a good time, a lot of happiness.
- [53:24]
Mishke
When you met her, did you just start talking to her? Because you aren't a guy who goes up and talks to people and makes small talk.
- [53:31]
Mike
No, she actually came up and started hitting on me a little bit, but she was a cutie.
- [53:34]
Mishke
How long after she met you did she say to herself, you're the one? What would she say when she saw me? Right. When she saw you, she knew you were the one.
- [53:44]
Mike
Yeah.
- [53:45]
Mishke
And how about you? How long after meeting her did you say, she's the one?
- [53:49]
Mike
When I saw her.
- [53:51]
Mishke
Two people see each other and both decide right away, this is it right here, right now.
- [53:56]
Mike
Yeah.
- [53:59]
Mishke
Well, I guess you and I have officially had the longest conversation you'll probably ever have with some guy.
- [54:06]
Mike
I believe that. And it's been interesting. I say that's why I enjoy. I enjoy listening to you.
- [54:10]
Mishke
Well, I'm glad to hear that. I'm going to let you go. I really enjoyed talking with you. I. I love. I love checking in with people. I'm never sorry. I'm always delighted with whoever I find when I start going through that list. So I'm glad I finally caught up with you.
- [54:27]
Mike
You know more about me than probably anybody in the world right now.
- [54:31]
Mishke
Maybe I should be the guy to give you your eulogy.
- [54:34]
Mike
You'd probably be the best at it.
- [54:37]
Mishke
Oh, God, I gotta get into the eulogy business.
- [54:41]
Mike
There you go.
- [54:43]
Mishke
All right, well, I hope to run into you sometime or talk to you again sometime. But I'm sure glad we connected.
- [54:48]
Mike
I am, too, Mischie. Appreciate it.
- [54:50]
Mishke
All right, you have a good rest of your day.
- [54:51]
Mike
You also. Bye. Bye.
- [54:53]
Mishke
Thank you.