Welcome to the Kindness Chronicles. Where we hope to inject the world with a dose of the Minnesota nice that it desperately needs. Oh my god, I can't believe I did that. Alrighty, welcome to the Kindness Chronicles where once again we hope to inject the world with a dose of the Minnesota nice that it desperately needs This is Jon Schweitz here in the studio with Steve Brown! And out on the mean streets of Minnetonka. KG. How are you, Kevin? KG. Guys, good to chat with you.
Looking forward to the spooktacular, um, It's, uh, tis the season. No doubt. This is a Halloween spooktacular. Has anyone ever used that before? I've never heard it before. first we gotta play catch up. Yeah. It's been a while since we've seen each other. Yeah. Uh, hair's still looking good. You've always got a beautiful head of hair. Yeah. It's, uh, yeah, you look like a spallon, like a, like a czar. Not much going on with me, just working. Just working.
Just doing stuff, getting ready for fuck, getting ready for The season my, uh, furnace went out. Yeah. Heard and about and I woke up this morning. It was 56 degrees in here. That's cold. You know, it is cold. That's pretty cold, you know, 56 degrees. Yikes. Yeah, it's not good. There was shrinkage. No, I, why was, why would I say that? That's just a Feld. Re Why do we need to hear that? I was in the pool. I was in the pool. Jerry. It shrinks. Yeah, it shrinks. It just does.
KG, well, of course, Becky's out of town, so you're stuck there in the, uh, in the igloo miss Becky's all over the, uh, the world. Um, I saw some cool pictures on Facebook. She's as always these girls, man. When they travel for work, they still pack in enough time to see the sites. I mean, I, I'm usually bunkered in my hotel, but, uh, I give them all the credit in the world. I'll be doing a lot of traveling. I just got back from beautiful Winnipeg on, uh, on Monday.
And we leave, uh, Friday of this week for a 12 day, five city wild hockey tour, which should be pretty, uh, Exciting. No doubt. Oh, no. 12 days. Mm hmm. Dem dogs are gonna miss their dad. Well, the pups are gonna be a little distraught, especially Fenway. He when I'm out of town, he waits by the stairs every night, hoping I'm gonna be home. So it's it's a little, um, It's a little heartbreaking, no doubt, but, um, the trip is going to be great.
We get to go to Columbus, then to Fort Lauderdale, then to Tampa, then to Philly, then to Pittsburgh, and there's all kinds of off days, obviously mixed in. There'll be a Monday night football game in Pittsburgh. We're attending. There'll be some fun sports bars in Florida with. Open air and all the NFL games. I, I, I am very excited for the off days too. Very nice. Are you bringing any of your, uh, favorite football, jerseys? Yes, I am. Why? I, uh, because that's how many adult men do.
I'm not one of them, but you wear, you wear it. Why? I don't have a lot of jerseys. I, I'm not a big Jersey guy, but I had a dear friend of, uh, Chrissy and I named Randy Durek. They worked together for years over at Turk. And he lives out in Wyoming. He knows I love the Buffalo Bills quarterback, Josh Allen. One of the few that played at Wyoming and went on to the NFL. That's not a school that, um, graduates a lot of NFL superstars, but this happens to be their guy. And I love Josh Allen.
So he actually got me. An authentic, you know, game style worn jersey, the whole stitch down deal, Wyoming Cowboys, 17 Josh Allen. I'm going to throw that bad boy on because the Buffalo Bills will be on at the sports bar this coming Sunday. We're going to a place just outside Fort Lauderdale called Boat Campers. And I'm going to wear the, uh, the Brown and gold of, uh, Wyoming. Is it a medium? It's a medium, double medium. So you gotta, it's gotta be a tight fit.
And then when you spill nachos, it's a, it's a whole thing. Very nice. So Kevin, I have a question for you. So as you go into this, What, first of all, what an exciting phase of your year, like, cause you, I mean, that is really an exciting thing to, I know it's hard work and you're, you're day in and day out of this, it gets a little tedious, but you've been doing this how many years now for, for the wild?
This is year nine, year 19, but I got to tell you, I was asked the question earlier today. This is the longest trip in my 19 years we've ever had. We've had some eight day trips. We've had some 10 day trips. We only had nine days last year going to Sweden. But this 12 day trip will be the longest wild road trip I've been on and I am excited. You know, the games are, are great. You know, the practices kind of come and go. That's fine.
Um, there is work involved, but when you have that many off days and we've got back to back Sundays where we've got nothing, uh, and for a guy that's obsessed with NFL football, I, I am, I'm, I'm very excited for the trip. So how does he, how do you pack for 12 days? Like do you, do you look like Cher? Like you've got all kinds of people pulling bags behind you?
It's um, that, I'm not excited about the packing part because, you know, when you're wearing a suit for five different games, you don't want to double up too much. So I'm bringing three suits. Five dress shirts, five ties. Then you have to have dress codes for practice. That's a different kind of, you know, like khakis and Tommy Bahamas. I it's, it's going to be one big suitcase, one little suitcase and a computer bag.
And I'm going to do the best I can because it's, um, you gotta, the hard part of hockey travel, like baseball, you get to a city, you're there for four days, then you move to a city, you're there for three or four days, hockey, you're in and out, you're unpacking, you're repacking, you're ironing, that part of the trip is not it. So, um, yeah. The most desirable it's just one of those necessary evils. I think you should really consider, um, maybe not bringing the goalie bag this time though.
You're putting all your suits in that goalie bag? Stinks. That's gets a little old. I love the goalie bag actually is a great idea. That would take me back to my youth. Throw it right in the truck with the, with the team and boom. Yeah, because you probably don't have to worry about fitting it above the, yeah, because you've got. I mean, you've got special service, right? like the plane that you take, you're not getting on a sun checking bags. Charter is great.
You can bring as many bags as you want. We're very, very lucky that way. And, and the planes we travel on are in every seat is a first class seat. They fit NBA players. So all of us, uh, mere mortals, uh, we're more than comfortable. It's a wonderful way to travel. And the hotels we stay in. Um, are the best of the best. So honestly, we're very, very fortunate. We don't take that for granted. If I have to pack and repack a couple of times, we'll all be okay.
Okay, so considering this is like your longest trip in a long time, will you do us a favor? Will you, uh, done? Document this a little bit and and be on the lookout for some kindness stories that we can bring back This would be your great assignment. We'll give you a little assignment on the side He's on He really is on assignment Watching for a couple things out there.
I'm gonna be in florida and i'll be in and around a lot of uh, Aftermath of hurricane damage, you know, my my oldest daughter lives about a 40 minute drive from tampa So we're going to connect for dinner. I'll have Uh, being that I'm on assignment, some, some great stories of kindness. And one that I saw on, uh, on Twitter last night that really stole my heart. There was a game in Tampa, the Vancouver Canucks were playing the lightning.
And as you know, when this whole thing happened, They had like nine 11 in New York. They had to bring in, um, workers from all across North America where there's a large group of folks that work to get power back on and they came in from all over the place, including Vancouver. Well, the lightning hosted 20 of these guys at the game last night.
And I got to tell you, if you can find it on X slash Twitter, when they introduced them on the scoreboard and told their story of how they navigated from British Columbia, think about this. All the way down. They, they had to make that track, but their trucks all the way down to Florida. I mean, literally cross country, North America to help out people. Um, the building erupted. It was unbelievable, spontaneous, uh, just. Total, pure appreciation, and uh, the oxytocin was flowing.
So, really, um, remarkable story, and again, I think I'll get some of that along the way with a couple of stops in Florida on this trip. I have a couple questions about the logistics of, the hotel room. See, uh, you go into the room, you've got, a couple of, uh, Double beds. So do you and who do you end up spooning? End up spooning with Is it you and ryan carter, huh? Oh, I could do worse. But uh, no, I um, he does have glorious hair And he's just a lovely guy and he's a funny dude.
But no, it's um, you unpack you use one bed to kind of spread your stuff Um, we all have our routine. I Hate The people I work with have traveled with me for years and they make fun of me for a lot of reasons. But whenever we get somewhere, I'll need a half an hour to unpack everything. And they're like, well, wait a minute, we're leaving the next day. I'm like, no, no, no. I don't feel comfortable in my room until everything is in its place.
And when I say everything, I mean like all the toys, it's all got to be laid out. It's psychological. And I have issues. It's on me, but I unpack. Everything I bring, as soon as I get to the hotel, and I won't leave the hotel until I do. Are you a folder or a roller in your suitcase? So I'll put an information. This is important stuff. I know. You know what? We're going to put kindness on hold for a minute. We're going to, we're going to get dig deep. The spooktacular is waiting.
Spooktacular is waiting. We're going to get to the spooktacular. In fact, I just want to tease something. Yeah. I am going to share a, a story, a ghost story. That's a real ghost story that I encountered back in probably 1989. Okay. And it's a real story. Incredible. I got a couple of listeners. It still gives me chills. I texted you that earlier today. And as I'm texting you, I'm envisioning what you are going to relay in this story, and I'm not joking, like, this is a real story.
This is incredible. And it's still honestly freaks me like right now, as I get so like freaked out by this, because I, I've had this conversation with you and I've looked in your eye and I'm like, This is so real and I don't know a lot of people that, how I'm not gonna make this up, that experience. Something like, no, this is incredible. No, I sound like a dic. And you're gonna wanna hear it. Oh, it's so amazing. One last travel story.
One last travel story when you're washing the underpants in the sinks, so Oh no. Do you, oh no, I, do you bring 12 pair with you? Yes. Yes. Okay. That's so, that's good. We just want to make sure there's no doubling up that, you know, Oh, I am. You're talking to a guy that showers twice a day. I know. You're very clean. I have to be clean. I am very, in fact, I'll bring more than 12 just in case. There you go. That guy's traveled for 19 years. He was a Boy Scout. Be prepared.
Okay. Let's start with the spooktacular. So this is, we were trying to decide, we had a number of guests that had confirmed that they were going to be, people are busy. It's a very busy time of the year. Yeah. So we decided let's launch the Halloween season. It's kind of prepping for Halloween. We're prepping for Halloween and we're trying to get everybody in the right kind of state of mind. We're getting your nostalgia together. We're getting your ideas and some.
Some, uh, some kind of story related, but first we're going to start with just the basics. You know, when you were a kid, do you recall a favorite costume that you wore as a kid? When I was a kid? Uh, no, I don't remember. Oh, I, the, the, the one that, the two that I recall. Which I loved. I wasn't a child, so my mom loved dressing us up. Were you 40? Um, no, I was in college. I was, uh, this is a real, this is a real, kind of a rare, uh, specific one.
Okay. I was Schneider from One Day at a Time. Oh my God. Oh, I see it. I totally see it. Nobody knows who that is, but he was the, he was the maintenance man. Oh, yes, they do. And he had a robe on and a tool belt. And I thought it was super funny, no one knew who I was, but I loved it. But you knew who you were, which is fantastic. Yes, uh, and yeah, and then I was the big Lebowski, uh, for a party one time. I had the sweater, it was perfect.
Pat Fabian used to host a Halloween party every once in a while, and Becky and I would dress up in some, some unique costumes. One year the theme was a Saturday Night Live character. So as you might imagine, I, of course, went as Matt Foley, the motivational speaker. And, and Becky went as Ed Grimley. Remember Ed Grimley? Yeah, Martin Short. I must say, it was fantastic. I say fantastic a lot. I'm starting to sound like Trump. He talks, he says fantastic a whole bunch.
KG, what's your favorite costume you had as a kid or as a 40 year old? As a little kid, I went as Casper the Ghost. And you know, at that time, You know, I was into those type of shows and I loved Casper and it was a, it was a great little costume. But then in college, uh, there was a place called Philbert's, you know, Johnny knows this place. A little dance club and I didn't have a costume and you had to be in costume to go like we were all going.
I was either a junior or senior in college and so I decided this was a really bad idea and Chrissy reminded me of this the other day. I went in my full St. Thomas hockey goalie gear, skates and all, I put my goalie pads on. Everything. What I didn't work and again, it was really cool until I realized how bad that year It was but I'm on the dance floor doing goalie moves, I mean it was I will admit It was pretty damn funny, but nobody wanted to come near me because I smelled so bad.
to me, all you were doing, you're just making it fair for the other guys there. It's very authentic too, but you understand what I mean by that. I mean, it's like when Kramer had the Kevorkian, he had to do the thing with the thing, and I feel like it was my thing to do. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. And you had that perm in the back of your hair, the mullet with the perm. It was on, it was fantastic. Yeah, the hair was good back then. The hair is gone now. Yeah, but you still look good.
Um, okay, favorite Halloween candy. We've talked about this in the past, but I want to bring it up again, because What do you say it is? Don't you remember what mine was? I do. The 100 grand bar. Yes, because that's mine too. What's your second? My administrative assistant at work, when she's really in a good mood, she'll bring in a bag of the 100 grand bars. And our marketing communications director and I fight over getting those little mini hundred grand bars. Good stuff.
Yeah, they only put like 10 or 12 of them in a bag though. They should, they should jam the bag full of them. Those things are so good. They can't, honestly, I hate to say this, I would love to come up with a, a counter argument. I can't, they're my favorites too. In fact, when my daughters were younger, uh, they would bring home these, just these, these, these.
I, not all of them, but they come home with these like pillow cases full of candy and I'd like sneak some of those a hundred grand out of there. The only ones I really wanted. I didn't like, I'm not a milky way. A guy Snickers are fine, but the a hundred grand was just pure gold. I like the peanut M& Ms too. That's my secondary. I like those. Yeah, those are kind of grand bars too. I love a hundred grand bars. Those are my favorite too. We're in consensus here. They more. Popular.
I don't know. I think it's a supply and demand thing. I think that, you know, getting those little rice krispies, that takes a lot of work. Yeah. It takes a lot of little elves making it and stuff. Exactly. Kit Kats are good too, but there's nothing like the 100 grand bar. It's that nougat, or is that caramel? I mean, it's good caramel. Yeah. Yeah. Is there a Halloween tradition that you're a fan of? You know what I never liked? Carving a pumpkin. I also thought it was disgusting.
Um, I like I like doing my mom used to do that We we loved it. I did with the kids and when I first first did it with my daughter she was very excited and then I when I pulled the the Insides out she freaked out. Yes, very scared Yeah, Becky would lay newspapers all over the floor for the kids and I'm like, you know, I'm just gonna watch I'm about the seeds you make the seeds you toast them up Disgusting.
Oh Yeah, you eat them yeah, you toast them up with some Garlic salt and some yeah, it's like the brain matter can still attach to some of that's toasted up. It's good It's not brain matter. It's pumpkin. We eat pies out of that gentleman. That's different. That's not There's that's not true Well I wanted to ask about your favorite, do you have a scary movie that, uh, that's your favorite scary. Oh, he's got a whole list, a whole list. Okay. Gee, he's so prepared.
I'll just give it a couple, like a couple of classics, like in the seventies. Number one is undefeated. You better have, I'm just going to hold. I would hope that this list starts at the top with the, it's indisputable, the only Halloween movie that matters. Oh, no. What is it? What is this? Jumroll? Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween. Oh, I mean that. Never saw it. I mean, that one, I'm sorry. That is, to me, if you're going to grade out Halloween movies, it starts with that one.
And they all try to measure up. Yeah, I didn't. Unless you guys. I mean, how do you beat it? It's well, it's you're correct in that. It's very Halloween. It's scary. And it's on Halloween. It's about Halloween. It's all, it's all there. Trick or treaters. Yeah. It, it makes you horrified for poor little kids going to trick or treat that. But I, I'm going to say a classic seventies. Salem's lot was a very scary movie as a kid. I don't, I haven't seen it in years. The shining classic 80s.
Who's that? 80s, yeah. Shady's, Shining Winds. Can I tell you that, you know, the Friday the 13th, the Halloween, all those things? Yeah. I have to, uh, admit, I have never seen a single one of those movies. Not interested. Are you nuts? Not one. Haven't seen a single one of them. I saw the early ones when they first came out that I kind of gave up. There's a lot of them. There's a lot of them.
Can I confess, guys, that, and I'm just going to lay this out there, I hope to God Uh, Chris, he doesn't end up listening to this episode, I hope he listens to a lot of these. Yeah, right. I hope not. Can I confess to, like, junior high and high school, and I didn't love, and I still don't love horror movies, but I would go on a date specifically thinking, that's only gonna make them want to, And, you know, when you're that age, that was everything, man. I'm sorry. I'll admit to it now.
Um, yeah, I, I did that a lot and, uh, yeah, I don't regret it. No, that's, that's a good move. Um, jump scares were big in the eighties and I don't really like the super gory jump scare stuff cause it's kind of cheap, but let me just give you, I'm going to run down my list and KJ, you listen and see if you're a big movie guy before you do this. Can I just say for the listeners. That nobody is more enthusiastic about the Kindness Chronicles than Steve Brown. What do you mean?
No, you're just, I love how just enthusiastic you, you have a passion for it. I just made a list of what you're, you're asking about. No, you are, you are such a great guy. Well, you are. And he's constantly sending me videos. Um, LinkedIn, do you, do you do anything at work or do you just look at LinkedIn videos? I, I do look at LinkedIn often, but I do use of work. It's about networking. Yeah. Oh, you're, you're a good networker. Do you send those videos to a bunch of people?
No, no. Okay. Just kindness ones to you. They're so, they're lovely and I rarely respond, but I do look at them once in a while. Um, okay. Okay, so I'm going to give you a list. He's got a list. Babadook. I don't know what that means. Um, it's a very scary movie, but it's really good. Midsommar. 0 for 2. KG, you heard of any of those? No. Um, KG, you still there? We lost. You guys cut out for a few seconds. I didn't get to hear the movie. You didn't miss anything.
Okay, no, no, no. Have you seen Babadook? No. Have you seen Midsommar? No. are these, are these American films? Is there A24? Uh, it's more recent. Uh, The Ring, of course, is a classic scary one. Never saw it. Yeah, it's it's good because it's there's a really crazy surprise in it that I loved about The strangers you ever see the strangers that might be one of the scariest Gives you the chills the way it's shot something about the production. It is so scary.
You're an artist I know the conjuring you're seeing any of those just a few of those No, no, no. Hereditary? You've seen Hereditary? Are you making this shit up? There's a movie called Talk to Me. It's about a hand. Come again? It's a dead hand when these kids get together. trippy, scary movie. Talk to Me. Um, I'll make, I'll give a little list and we'll maybe post it. Are there any movies that like, other people have watched? There's one more.
Okay. That's not scary, but it's called A Ghost Story and it's Casey Affleck. And you guys would love it. It's so different and interesting. It's a ghost story, love story. Well, it's called Ghost Story. Yeah, but it's not scary. Hmm. Interesting. It's really cool. Well, I love Casey Affleck. I really would think he's Super underrated. It's good. I really appreciate the energy that you put into that. Um, I got more stuff when you're ready. I know you do. You've got reams of paper over here.
Um, KG, do you have any additional ones now that we went through 12 movies that no one's ever heard of? Oh, I'll go back, like, you know, mine are the, again, I'll start with the original Halloween. That, that movie freaked me out. Um, I love The Shining. You guys mentioned The Shining.
It's um, it's another one of those freaky movies that I don't watch a lot, but I respect, um, how you feel when you, like, it's super, Intense, but I, I, lately I haven't seen anything like modern day because I get too scared now. Like when I was a kid, I was, I was able to laugh a little bit and not get drawn in. Now, I, I think I watched too much Dateline. I get drawn in and I, I freak out. I mean, I love the Scream series.
Um, even though Scream was more of a spoof on the scary movies we grew up with, it was done really well. And I love the, uh, the actors in that, in that series. Um, just, I, I really thought that was a fun, I don't know, what, six, seven movies or whatever it is. It was really good. Um, is Scooby Doo, is that a, is that a scary movie? Scooby Doo? No. Scooby Doo. There's some Scooby Doo, cartoons that I really liked. Those were kind, there were some Halloween, uh, elements to it.
Have you ever seen, uh, Sean, Sean of the Dead, which is a comedy horror film? I've heard of it. I did. So good. I did see Sean of the Dead. Yeah, that was fun. That's a zombie one. That's a classic in my family. We've seen it many times. It's awesome. You know what? We just, what we just experienced here. We experienced KG is sort of like the mainstream, yes, almost cliche level horror movies. Ah, but he sees you're kind of art house. Yes, art house. Indie. Indie.
You know, Johnny Clueless level sort of, like you really have to kind of appreciate it to understand it. No, they're, they're just not, yeah, there's more to them than just jumpscares. You're an artist. No, I, I, I appreciate good writing and good, like, they don't, they don't, um, They don't assume anything. You're, you're, you're treated a little bit smarter as a, as a viewer. Let's talk about kindness, um, on Halloween.
So because Steve is the, uh, the executive producer of this program, when we were kicking around, what should we talk about tonight? He said, where's the kindness in that? So very quickly while I was driving, I Googled, um, or I went to that YouTube and I said, Kindness Halloween. There are, I encourage you to go do that because there are so many wonderful stories about Halloween and the one that got me the most and I think it you guys both saw it as well.
There's these two young, probably eight or nine year old boys. And they go up to a house and apparently they had seen a, a kid take all the candy that was in the, uh, the bucket and ran away with a little kid. Yeah. I mean, so took all the candy from, from the bowl that someone left out. Somebody left a bowl of candy out and they dumped the whole bag into there. And these two little guys saw that there were some really little people walking up, coming up.
They went to that door to get candy as well. They went to the, and there was nothing left in the bowl. So they took candy out of their own buckets. Oh wow. And put it into, I mean, it was so cool. And then kept giving things to these little kids. And they said, the mom said, well wait, and the ring camera's catching all this. Like, are you sure? No, that's, that's more of your stuff. And I think what they did is they discovered that giving. Is so joyful.
I mean, that's my favorite thing, but I love, so we live on a street that nobody ever comes to for Halloween. I think, yeah. I mean, the first year we've talked about this before the first year we lived here, Becky and I were so excited. We didn't have any kids. We went out and bought king size candy bars, like the huge ones. I'm like, I'm going to be a legend of this neighborhood. Yeah. We had zero people. Come to the bars for a whole year.
I got diabetes as a result of, I've never eaten so many Twix bars in my life. That's good. And they're the long ones. You know, the king size ones. A good one. Yeah. A big one. Yeah. So, so left, right, left, right. We, we get that, that the, the kid's job really is.
They're they go out and they hunt for it set the fun for them So yeah, and I realized as you get older that window is it's very sure when you have kids You think it's gonna be it it only lasts for a little while It's funny how fast that goes but but that's their job is to go out and get candy and they get to do that They get to run around and here these kids saw that they thought for The little kids behind them and said, Oh, there's no candy for these kids.
So they how disappointed that was going to be. Yeah, it was beautiful on a little kids eight year old. It was very sweet and there's a whole story behind that which is even more You know reasoning as to why and what he was saying. Oh god, it's very good So I encourage everybody to go to youtube we were you know When someday we're going to turn this into a video podcast. I know steve wants to get cameras and do the whole thing You Um, we need to lose some weight before we do that. Um, are we?
I'm not sure. Well, I mean, here and there. It's all about lighting, boys. It's all Yes. Um, but we'll see if we can post those links of the couple ones that you had showed us. Oh, yeah. Yeah, if we can, because we have a media manager now. Yes, we have a media manager. Tell us about our media manager. My daughter, Lucinda Brown, is going to the U of M and she's in marketing. And uh, she's been looking for side things to do and we are needing this help.
So she's helped put together the new facebook page the new instagram page. She just started with it We got people signed up. We got a we got a little problem. There are two facebook pages. I know we are gonna we're gonna Try to get rid of the old one, and John, you gotta invite all your friends to the new one. Cuz, like, hundreds of people, I'm not kidding, hundreds of people signed up for the wrong one. I know. I didn't know. Oh no! I know.
Well, I sent you the link, and I showed you where it was. And I just didn't want to be that guy that's like, Love me. Love me. They do look similar. So I look for the one that has using the official podcast one China clues Kindness Chronicles podcast so but yeah, my daughter Lucinda Brown is gonna be doing that. She's gonna be excellent We even got some emails already.
So we'll start calling through those and we want feedback from you We want you to join it get on it And give us information, but talk, tell us your story. So quick notes about your favorite Hollywood, whatever we want, we want feedback from you and 100 percent of the proceeds from. This podcast go to the listen to Brown exactly the listen to Brown scholarship.
Yes. Yes, she gets all Money, yeah that this podcast brings in so good luck with all that Yeah Halloween yeah is celebrated all around the world, you know, what so just set this up. It's an American, you know tradition But then it's spread. Okay, Canada big time. That's Ireland You UK. Yep. I'm okay. Mexico. No, no, you the UK Mexico, Japan, Germany, France, France, Australia, and does everybody do the dress up Italy Philippines? Spain, South Korea, Brazil and Brazil and Sweden.
I did not know this. Yeah. Yeah, so a lot of them because the All souls day is connected to it So it's a religious holiday for some of the latin countries and some of the other ones And so they've they're kind of starting to pick up this tradition because of the parties and the dressing up. They love that Yeah, and uh, so it's not so much.
I think they're starting to do candy and stuff too But it's a it is a great holiday It's a great holiday because it's such a, it's so focused on kids and fun and, you know, sort of celebrating, but there, a lot of it comes out of the all souls day and all day of the dead and all that kind of stuff. Um, for the next podcast, can you do a little research? How many countries celebrate the 4th of July? Um, I think that's a little more complicated. Um, okay.
Back to what day is the 4th of July on this year? That's my, that's always a good one. That's always a good one. Yeah. Well, um, I was going to ask, uh, you know, we had a challenge that was out there. Oh yeah. And the challenge was to support the arts. Yes. Did anybody support the arts? Well, are we ready to already, cause we gave people a long time last time. You didn't support the arts, did you? Oh, Steve. I know, I haven't done anything, I haven't been anywhere.
Oh, no. Have you supported the arts? Absolutely. Okay, let's hear about it. So, there's this restaurant, uh, Mancini's. You ever been to Mancini's? The culinary arts? Those guys are artists with garlic bread and steak. And so you, what did you say? KG and I decided we were going to support the arts and, uh, John and, uh, Pat Mancini who run Mancini's. We're going to go on site and do a Kindness Chronicles podcast from Mancini's. Yes. We're going to pack up all this equipment.
We already talked to John. Okay. Yeah, we're going to do that. But that, uh, you're celebrating the culinary arts with, with the Mancini's family. Yes. Yes. You gave them props and you, you, you gave them properly. Uh, what the props they deserve as the culinary, you talked to the chef and everything. No, we just talked. So John Mancini, we, you know, he walks around like his brother or his dad, Nick used to do. Yeah. I remember that. And just what a lovely guy.
And he's just exactly like, is he like you're in goodfellas and someone's coming over, but a nice version where there's no shooting. Yeah. Not scary. That's that's cool. Yeah. I just, I love that restaurant. It's 100%. Satisfaction every time you go. Well, I'm going to say that's great, but I'm going to say, uh, unless KG, have you supported the arts at all? Have you done anything? Yes. Oh, I've got a great recommendation for you guys and our listeners.
If you're of a certain age, like, you know, most of us are in that 50 plus range now. And you grew up with Saturday night live. Um, there is a movie out called Saturday night. Yes. And I have to tell you, I went to it last weekend over at the Edina theater off 50th and France. Lovely. Real butter on the popcorn, the whole shebang. The movie is one of those movies where honestly the credits came up and I was so mad it was over the hour and 45 minutes went by so fast. The story was so compelling.
The movie basically takes place the day they're trying to get this show on the air and all the different things that are being juggled to get this thing literally to be Saturday night in New York, which turns out to be Saturday night live. It is one of the best movies I've seen in years, absolutely go see it, and I felt good about supporting the arts that night in the diner. See he sees a lot of movies, he sees good movies too.
Yeah, and that's sort of supporting the arts, I mean it's sort of a layup for KG, cause he goes to every movie. But it's, you know what? I've had people reach out and say that they love your, Cinema recommendations. So were there, what was the guy's name on Seinfeld that you used to recommend the rentals for Elaine? And then she got in trouble cause she went over to see him and he was like underage at the blockbuster type place.
Yeah. So earlier in the podcast, you, you use the word actors and you put a funny accent on the second syllable. Um, so are there actors that play like Bill Murray and, or was Bill Murray just like him? No, not Bill Murray, but they have a John Belushi character, Chevy Chase, Gilda Radner, Dan Aykroyd, and I was amazed at how much these actors looked like the setter and live characters from the late 70s. I was Blown away. Yeah. I want to see Jim Henson has a, he has a role in the first show.
Um, uh, George Carlin is going to be the host. I mean, it is honestly, the movie will, it's a mind blowing movie because I had no idea the backstory and how close that show was to never making air. And obviously the rest was history. And I don't think the show now is anywhere near like it was back then. But in our lifetime guys, when that show started in the late seventies and you can run it all the way through. Probably as late as the 90s. It was must see TV. It's, um, I'm with you.
I've been a fan of the show since I was a kid. My wife and I both watch it. Pretty much every every week if we don't see it. We we watch it. It's good. I love it. I've always loved it It's an experimental show. It's hard to do they do it in a week people don't give credit It's sometimes it's a bomb, but it's just because of the the week that they had to write it. It's all it's so amazing It's an experiment not last week, but the week before Nate Bargett see yeah was on there.
Yes, how about the skit? Love it. Love it. Have you seen that KG? I saw clips. I did a few clips and it was really fun. Oh my God. And the Washington, the George Washington thing again, he is the most brilliant comedian out there right now. He's so good. His delivery. I will say, okay, so I w I'm going to extend our challenge for our listeners to next week or whatever. Let's just, let's keep it going a little longer. There's a lot of opportunities. And I say that because.
A guest of ours a former guest of ours right around this time last year, uh, Willie wisely. Yes has an event Yeah with open arms, minnesota. Yeah, and I would strongly suggest you go to i'm looking for it right now See if I get some information on it, but he's got an event coming up. Yeah support that because it's supporting open arms, minnesota Um, which is, uh, you know, feeding people. It's a really neat program and it's, he puts on a show.
It's it's, it's, uh, Willie is the most unique character that we've ever had in studio. Love Willie. Yeah, he's cool. Yeah. Super interesting guy. Well, you were in studio for that one, weren't you? KG? I was, I was, and I'm so happy. I was, yeah, he's a quirky dude. And, uh, clearly he's got his heart in the right place, so, yeah, let's try to support that as much as we can. Alright, it's come the time of the show where I'm going to tell my ghost story. Do you have something else?
Well, I was going to say, also Well, we're getting there. We're getting there. I mean, KG's got me at dinner time here coming up. Well, you should see all the stuff Steve brought in today. Like, I just printed out a couple things. You know, you could save some of this stuff for next week. Well, it's Halloween related. Yeah, we're still going to be approaching Halloween here, that's true. Yeah. Oh, well, okay. We can do Halloween Part Deux. Yeah, let's do that. I like that.
Maybe we can ask people to send in their ghost stories after they hear this one. Okay, so. Should we dim these lights? Back to 1989. Light a candle. Yeah, let's hear it. I was a senior at the University of St. Thomas, and I was working as a nursing assistant at St. Joe's Hospital on 5B, which was the locked psychiatric unit. So, very interesting job. It happened to be my very first night of work and I had gotten called to come do a double shift.
So they asked me to come in to work 3 to 11 and then my normal shift was going to be overnights from 11 till 7. And it was just a part time gig. Um, but I went in and did the double shift. You were how old? I was 21 maybe? Yeah, 21. So, During the, the three to 11 shift, your job as a nursing assistant is, you know, you, you do some occasional blood pressures back in the day, you know, everybody would get two cigarettes each shift, not the workers, but the, the people that were staying there.
Really? I mean, yeah. I mean, it was like a Cheech and Chong van. There was, you know, smoke billowing. It was just, it wasn't a very healthy environment, but. Um, you would also just spend time just talking to the, the, the patients that were up there. And usually there are probably between 15 and 20 patients on the floor at, at, at any one time.
So I spent a good portion of my night playing chess with a woman who was there because she was dealing with some depression issues and she had been transferred from the Shakopee women's prison. And she was there because of, you know, some, some Depression matters that she was dealing with. So, played chess with her. Very nice woman. Um, very sad that, you know, that she was in this situation. I have no idea what she was at the prison for.
But, uh, 11 o'clock comes around and you know, everybody goes to bed at about 10 o'clock and every 15 minutes you do these checks on people just to make sure that everybody's in their bed, that they're, you know, sleeping, you put your little flashlight on them to see if the covers are going up and down. It was very, it was very interesting. This is, yeah, it was a very interesting job. Well, I was being, uh, trained in by a guy named bill.
Um, And, uh, Bill is, uh, I think he's still in the business. Okay. And I probably shouldn't share his last name. But anyways, I'll never forget, Bill was training me and, keep in mind this is my first day of working at this thing. First day. Oh. Um. Day one. We go from, uh, from, from room to room and we get to the last room and I can't get the door open. I can't figure out what's going on. And it happens to be the room that the woman from the Shakopee women's prison was, was staying in.
I push on the door, and I could tell that there was something at the bottom of the door that was keeping it from opening. Well, what happened was Hold on, wait, wait, wait, hold on. Eh? Boom. No There was no, there was none of that, you know, cause we could, I mean, but you know, really the, the sound effects really help.
Yeah. Um, I tried to push the door open and she had jammed some stuff like a, like a pillowcase or something underneath the door and finally got the door, you know, pushed open and she had taken a sheet and she hung it over the top of the door. Oh no. And then she, around her neck and she lowered herself down and she essentially hung herself. She suffocated. And when we got there, we pulled her off of the door, carried her out into the middle of the hallway and she was a different color.
It was, it was my first day. First day. I had just learned how to do CPR. I was just, I just did the CPR and this was back when there were chest compressions as well as mouth to mouth. So Bill and I start doing chest compressions and I'm yelling code blue, code blue. I didn't even know what I was supposed to say. But the nurses come running out and they saw that we were doing the CPR and they let us continue doing it.
So, we're doing CPR, a, the, the, they call it like the crash team or something from the emergency room comes up. They get up there and somehow, we had gotten her heart pumping again. So, they, they hooked her up to a monitor. She had, uh, a, a faint, uh, EKG. She had a, a Something going. She had something going. Um, but it stopped I think it was her heart was pumping because we were manually, manually doing it.
So anyway, this woman ended up dying and, yeah, my very first day of work and it freaked me out. Yeah. And I was a disaster. There was a, the nurse, the head nurse on duty, her name was Kay and Kay knew my mom. I mean, it was a, it was nuts. Fast forward about six months, and I'm still working at the hospital. You didn't go, that's enough for me? No, no, but I, you know, I was really, it was very, it was a crazy first experience.
everybody knew that that was my first day and, you know, people were very concerned about me. Yeah. Fast forward six months. I am driving to North St. Paul to visit a girl that I was dating at the time and I had a a really cool red Jeep CJ7, okay? No doors, no top. I probably had a mullet. I was probably wearing, you know, a pastel polo sweatshirt. It's like a white snake cranking on the radio.
Oh no, there probably wasn't white snake, but it was probably something real sappy like John Parr or something. Maybe Johnny, yeah, John Parr probably was singing St. Elmos fire and I sounded great. Probably had a really deep dark John parr pan. Another deep cut, by the way. That's a really great deep cut. So I'm driving, um, okay. I can picture it. I want you to imagine I'm driving. Eastbound on 94, right by Spaghetti Junction, right there by St. Joe's Hospital.
And while I'm in the Jeep, you know, you're very aware of the cars around you. Lots of, lots of cars coming and going right there. But there's, when you don't have doors on your, on your vehicle, it's really loud. John Parr is blaring in the background, St. Elmo's Fire. Music's blaring, but it's really loud. And I noticed that there is, it was like a Volkswagen bug. Yeah. And it was a light blue color. And it was really close to my passenger side door.
I'm up high, they're down low, so I really can't see into the vehicle. Yeah. But this car is uncomfortably close. Yeah. So I'm kind of veering over a little bit to the left, and it is right there. And that car continues on 94, going east, like toward Woodbury. Yeah. And I continue up 35E. Okay. I get to about 35E in Maryland, which isn't very far. Yeah. And that car is there again. Okay. And it is right next to me, and I pull over into the next lane. Still on the passenger side?
Still on the passenger side. I pull over into the lane, and I see that there's a woman driving the car. And I speed up, they speed up. I need to get off on 36. So between Maryland and 36, you go past like, uh, Wheelock Parkway and stuff like that. So, I'm in the left hand lane. This car is now in the middle lane. I almost lay on the brakes and I pull behind them, and I get off on 36, and I see that car continue on 35E going north. Like, going towards Little Canada Road.
I am on 36, and I'm like, what the hell was that? I mean, this person was like, chasing me, sort of. I get up to, um, 36th and English. Yep. Um, there used to be a stoplight there. Yeah. By Schmelz Countryside Volkswagen. Original Mattress Factory. Original Mattress Factory. Menards and all. You know, you'd take off and go to Maplewood Bakery, you know. I know that era. Embers used to be there. Embers used to be right there. And that car pulls up next to me, and I'm at the stoplight.
And I look in the car, and it's the woman who hung herself. And I'm not kidding. Mmm. Mmm. I don't know what, I, I would lose my mind. I think I would break down. I threw up like I was like, it just like hit me like a ton of bricks. It was the craziest thing. Was there a weird tingle of like, that's a familiar person earlier before you got off? I just thought it was somebody screwing around with. Okay. And was she on the passenger side or the driver's side?
She was still on the passenger side, but I could, I looked down and she was looking at me and she waved at me. Oh, okay. So, and you see that as what? I, well. I freaked out. I thought, okay, have I lost my mind? What in the hell is going on? I, I, I literally, I was thinking, you know, did I take something? You know, I'm, you know, drug free, alcohol free, all the above. Yeah. It was just the craziest hallucinating, like I'm hallucinating. I thought, Oh my God, I'm hallucinating.
So I get to this gal's house and, um, puke on your jacket. It was, I, I kind of threw up out the door of the, uh, just the door of the vehicle because there's no startlingly scary. Yeah. And you know, it's really funny. I remember that I threw up, but I, I, I, in my mind, I may have made that up. It was just, it was very odd. I had an out of body experience.
Yeah. So, I get there, and I call the hospital, and I ask to be forwarded to 5B, and sure enough Kay, the, the, the nurse that was working the night that the woman hung herself, she was working that night. Yeah. She was working the 3 to 11 shift. And I said to her, I said, Kay, I gotta talk to you, I, I'm freaking out here. I tell her the story. Kay is a very funny, sarcastic nurse, and she said, Well, either you're going nuts, or you saw a ghost.
She said, let me connect you with the, uh, I will get the, uh, psychiatrist on call to call you. What number are you at? So I gave the phone number of the place that I'm at. And the guy's name was Dr. Sitka. I'll never forget it. He was the psychiatrist on duty. And when I told him what was going on, his response was, well, you just, you saw a ghost. I'm like, that's, that's the, that's what you're going to tell me. I saw a ghost. That's what you're giving me. He had no other answer.
No other answer. No other answer. He said, you saw a ghost and he goes, maybe you saw something, maybe you didn't, but somehow that was, you know, the world working its magic and making you realize that this person was okay. Yeah, and that's somehow we're thinking of her or anything like that not at all But what's super weird is when I first saw her it was right by st. Joe's Hospital Right by st. Joe's Hospital. It's wild. It is.
It's John Did you ever do the recon and find out and this might freak you out if you didn't find this? No, if did you find out what type of car? No, no, he was living What if and I'm serious seriously, what if you asked around? In the weeks that followed that ghost sighting, and you found out she drove that exact type of car. That might put me over the edge. I do remember she left a suicide note, and it was to her lawyer, who was What? Yeah. There's your lead, there's your lead right there.
So her lawyer was Joel Monpetit. Remember the Monpetits? I think it might be, uh Related to Todd? Todd's dad, maybe. Oh. Well, we can get answers. We got the Scooby Doo Gang on this one. We got, yeah, yes. That's a good mystery to solve. Yeah, the re It all goes back to Scooby Doo and Seinfeld. That's right. But no, that is my, uh, that is my ghost story. Had you not told that on the, on the air before? I don't think so. If I had. I don't think so.
I, I, I heard it, but I didn't know if you told the story. I tell the story from time to time just to, uh. Good story. I kind of forgot parts of it. No. That's good. It's, yeah, it was nuts. So, um, with that, we want to wish you all an early ha, happy Halloween. Make sure you get to the store and get the costumes before you're left with, uh, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle thing with a broken mask. Remember those stupid plastic masks that, uh, No vision, no vision, and your face would get so hot.
God, it was terrible. And then your breath, you could smell your own breath. I always was, I always made sure I had very fresh breath because I didn't want to make myself sick. Right. And KG always had fresh breath because he was hoping that the chicks would be falling all over him. Alright, well, um, Stinky, have a nice time in, uh, The 12 different, uh, or no, how many? Six, seven different places in 12 days, 12 days. And hopefully the wild can keep winning. And we got to see a goalie goal.
It's been quite a start to the season for the, uh, for the fighting wild. Yeah. Two Oh, and two, I'll take six points in, in four games. Absolutely. You know, if you keep that pace up, you might make the playoff. Let's do it. Hey, now. Good luck. Let's not jinx anything here. Good luck to the wild. Get your assignment together. Get some good stories for us. Gets lots of good photos for us. Yeah, I want to know what the friendliest city of those five cities is. Wow, very good question.
I'll find out It's likely not going to be philadelphia, even though we call philadelphia Oh brother, that is a salty bunch of sport fans out there. They get real feisty at the games. They get all over the officials But yeah, I think Columbus has a chance. Columbus. I've had a lot of, I've met a lot of good people down there in Columbus, Ohio. Well, let's, let's also remind our listeners to, uh, support an artist as a part of the challenge and respond, get on a Facebook, join it and follow us.
And we'll have updates there, LinkedIn, or sorry, uh, uh, what'd I say, Facebook and Instagram. We have new. Setups for that. So look at the newest one. It's the kindest chronicles podcast, Facebook page. Check that out. Give us some feedback, give us information, you know, about some stories you've got some, you spent so much time on LinkedIn. Maybe you should get us a LinkedIn, a LinkedIn profile. Maybe. Yeah. All right. Well, with that, off we go, somebody hit the button.