Welcome to the Kindness Chronicles, where we hope to inject the world with a dose of the Minnesota nice that it desperately needs. Giving Steve the night off. Steve's, very busy preparing for a, concert that he's, participating in this weekend. But, uh, got KG on the line. KG, where are we calling you at? I'm in Minnetonka, and I'm just wondering if Steve's gonna break out those beautiful red pants. I sure hope so. I think of him and a concert venue.
I think of Both him and, remember, Loverboy had a lead singer that brought out red leather pants, I believe. That's pretty cool. Yeah, I'm not sure Steve's wearing the leather pants. I always think of Ross Geller. Remember with the leather pants? Yeah. And then he smacks himself in the forehead trying to get them on. I want to apologize. I'm a little sluggish. Just, got done with the colonoscopy, which was a lot of fun. Ooh, boy. Yikes.
And, um, but the good news is, is, uh, we're gonna talk about the state fair. And to do a cleanse after three days at the state fair, not a bad plan. I saw a picture of you on Facebook, staring down the biggest bloody Mary I've ever seen with all kinds of great protein hanging from the top. Yeah. Tell me about that. So that was at the Wildwood tavern. let's see, it had a cheeseburger on there, some chicken wings, some corn fritters, half a pound of cheese. There was a whole bunch of kill laws.
It was, it was, by the time breakfast came along, I was pretty full. So, uh, how much did that cost? Like that, that had to be 150. I don't know. It was a lot. Who knows? Who cares? Right? Hey, um, As the state fair comes to a close, you and I got to enjoy some time at the state fair. I also want to fill you in on a story that, uh, You weren't participant in the, uh, the following day on Saturday I happened to be at the fair and boy was that an experience.
Well, I, I, first of all, it's, it's festive. It's, um, it's amazing to me. Okay, I'm 57. I started going when I was probably six or seven years old. So I've got 50 years of data. The people watching is unbelievable. That hasn't changed one bit in the, uh, in the five decades I've attended. But I love it because for the most part, John, people treat each other well. They're friendly. They're happy. They're excited to be there. Uh, the vendors are people that come back year in and year out.
I've got a dear friend named Joe Cranston. Who coaches the River Falls women's hockey team. Uh, tip of the hat to them for winning the national title last year. But he runs in Scotch Egg. Yes. Oh, so good. And you see the familiar faces and the vendors and it, I tell you, it's, it's a right of the end of summer and I look forward to it every year. Well, in the spirit of the kindness chronicles, to your point, the beauty of the, the state fair.
Is that everybody just seems to be happy, fat and happy, I guess would be the best way to describe it. And, you know, we were there on a record setting, Friday. So crowded on that Friday that you and Becky and Chrissy and I went. And, you know, there's a lot of, what do we call it? Circle small talk going on. Like, we went from one circle small talk conversation To another, when you and I were there on a mission to consume calories. Oh, that's my favorite part of the fair. Why else are we there?
Right! I mean, it's good to say hi and visit briefly, but let's break it up and let's keep the momentum going. Yeah, let's put the briefly and briefly visit for a change. You know, there's a lot of chitty chat. I guess, I think that Becky and Chrissy, their objective was to keep us from eating too much, so they would break up our, uh, our fun. I mean, lovely people, let's face it. I mean, the people that we were wonderful. We, we bumped into all kinds of friends and family.
It was, I mean, it was packed, like you said. It was A record setting crowd. And that was the trend this year. There were the two bad weather days. And then the rest of the days, we're talking a quarter of a million people wandering around there. And I mean, I look, the state fairgrounds is good size, but when you think of 250, 000 People, it, it was elbow to elbow in a lot of places and that gets to be, for me, a little claustrophobic.
Yeah, that would be about three and a half, four U. S. Bank stadiums. That's a lot of people. And I mean, you can always tell that it's full when you can't see any pavement, when you're looking in every direction, down Underwood, down Dan Patch. Let's uh, let's, let's get to the, to the heart of the matter, the food. What uh, what were your food highlights this fair? Well, I mean, every year. Tried and true the roasted corn wins the battle for me.
It's it's amazing John year by year It's still my very favorite food item and we met you there to kind of start the festivities.
I love that The new food that I loved and we Before you get past the corn do we want to talk about my pro move as it relates to the corn this year Well, and I'm gonna tell our listeners that this is on the heels of me gaining great respect for you years ago in a local movie theater when we sit down and you pulled out an old school water slash ketchup bottle full of warmed butter to drizzle over said popcorn. The pro move of all pro moves until I saw this.
So why don't you tell our listeners what this move was? Well, I packed up a stick of butter and put it in my pocket. So it was nice and soft. I didn't put it directly in my pocket. It was contained in a Snack sized Ziploc bag. But, uh, I've always thought that, when it comes to the corn at the fair, I like my butter to corn ratio to be a little higher than most people. So, when I pulled the stick of butter out of my pocket, uh, Mrs. Schweitz gave me a look like, um, you're kidding, right?
And, uh, I wasn't. And what I noticed is, is I didn't have any napkins, so by the time I was, uh, done consuming my entire, cob of corn? And yeah, the corn on the cob. Yeah, it, I, uh, I looked like the joker. I had just food all over my face. It was, it was quite a, quite a scene, but yeah, I guess it's a great move. It's a commitment to the best. It was. know, I'm happy that you could be there for me to, uh, to witness that.
The cheese bread at Vescio's, we stopped for a little cheese bread and you know, once again, the, the star of that show is the butter that they, the garlic butter that they put on the bread. Yeah, it's, it's like the most buttery, warm garlic bread you've ever had. And then there's a layer of mozzarella cheese and pepperonis. And we didn't get the dipping. Sauce with it, but you can get the the the red sauce with it to dip. We didn't do that We had a didn't need it.
No, it was it was delicious It was and then we both loved that new item that we got at the blue barn Why don't you tell the folks what that was all about? I don't know what they called it But let's start with bacon that is baked inside of a pancake batter Covered with a, some sort of a whipped cream that's infused with a little dash of peanut butter with a little bit of jelly and I am not a peanut butter and jelly guy, let me tell ya, I am now. My god, was that something.
Yeah, and I didn't even, didn't even add butter to that one. Didn't need to. There were four of us., We got to share and nibble and that, you know, I think that's the right way to do it at the fair with some of this stuff because I'm not brave enough to buy something new unless I know I like it. Yeah. Um, so I like the idea that you can share and then you can figure out maybe the next time you go.
You get it all for yourself, but the only things I'll, I'll always come back to her, you know, for just by itself is something I know I'm going to like, because the other thing I'll tell you, and I'm not old curmudgeon guy, you know, back in the day, it was, but it's expensive. Like, when you factor in the parking, what it costs to get a ticket, and if you're going to really eat your way around the park, which I pretty much don't eat all day and then go out there and just completely go nuts.
It ain't cheap. It is the melting pot of melting pots. I mean, everybody goes to the fair. when I tell you about my Saturday night, um, I'll tell you that, uh, what I discovered in the midway on Saturday night was the, uh, the admission price is way too small because there were a lot of troublemakers in there and they were in there to make trouble. None of them were playing games. None of them had a bucket of Sweet Martha's cookies. They were in there to cause trouble.
But I wanna just, uh, go back to the food for just a second. I discovered something new at the fair this year that will become part of my, uh, routine. Back behind the blue barn, there is a place that does milkshakes. And the milkshake that I got was a Dreamsicle flavored milkshake. It was, it was unbelievable. God, does that sound good. And it was, it was good. So, let me tell you about Saturday night. Okay. uh, We got some friends in from New York.
Denise, the, the friend from New York, her dad, Papa Denny, gave her 300 bucks and said, go have fun at the Midway. Well, as you know, I am the sober person at this event, as usual. Of course. And, uh, the others, not so sober. And, uh, true confessions, let's see, my son Jack and Erica were there, and Becky, and then Denise and her son PJ, who writes for the New York Post. Really cool kid. He's in a band called, uh, My wonderful boyfriend. Check him out on, uh, Spotify.
Anyway, they decide that about 9. 30 we're gonna go over to the Midway. We're gonna blow through 300 bucks. See how many of those twelve, uh, cent stuffed animals we can buy or we can win. And the minute we get there, um I was overwhelmed by the police presence. There had to have been 150 cops. Every community in the twin cities was represented. Sheriffs, state fair police. It was just insane. And I quickly understood why.
we get our tickets and while they're getting the tickets, all of a sudden there's this stampede of troubled youth. that are, knocking people over. They're all running in one direction. Not sure what caused that, but clearly something had happened, uh, deeper into the midway, but despite the fact that this chaos was taking place. The crew decided, we're going in anyways, we gotta, we, we bought our tickets to play these stupid games, let's go.
So we go in, and at one point, the five are shooting water into the clown's mouth, they're having so much fun, not paying attention to what's going on behind them. I'm watching what's going on behind them, and there had to have been half a dozen police officers Uh, putting half a dozen or more, uh, feral youth into handcuffs. The, yeah. And the, it continued, there were a couple more stampedes, you know, one of the comments made from one of the thoughtful people in my group was.
Well, you know the people that are working in the booth, they don't seem to be afraid and I'm like well They're they're protected from the the chaos because they're up in the booth. People are getting run over I see paramedics like helping people that have you know Fallen on their face. It was insanity. It reached its pinnacle its apex when the tear gas or mace was and Have you ever gotten a whiff of mace? Yeah, that's not good. I'm just going to be up front. I'm going to leave at that point.
Well, and at that point, I said, I'm the one driving. Oh, there's Becky. Hold on. Let's pull her in here. Hold on.. Becky? Hello? Hey, you're on the Kindness Chronicles. Hold on. I'm going to put KG on. We got Becky on the line. Hi, Becky. Becky? Hi, are you, are you live on the air? We're live on the air. We're live. We were just talking about Saturday night at the Midway. Why don't you give us your assessment of Saturday night at the Midway at the fair? Oh, I can't be partied to this.
Yeah, that was terrible. Well, yeah, it doesn't sound like a lot of fun with all the roof rat. It was really quite, I mean, I wasn't troubled by it because I was. Playing my game, but it was troubling. How was the mace? How did the mace, how did you handle the mace? Was that good for you? No, the mace was terrible. Like, I could not, that was, that and my uh, asthma, not a good combo. Yeah, and to the listeners, to be clear, I would not want to do that again.
Yeah, to be clear, the mace wasn't directed at us. We just happened to be, um, like second hand maces. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it was awful. Might have been a cue to leave at that point, Bill. At that point, it's time to Round up the troops and whether we head to the other side of the park or we head to the dugout for a nightcap. For me, when they start pulling that stuff out and we've got, you know, some violence in the area, it's time for me to pull the chute.
It was really, yeah, it was time to pull the chute. So my advice, my advice to the listeners is as much kindness as we experienced at the fair. For the several days that we were there, uh, it was offset pretty significantly by the lack of kindness that existed on the midway on a Friday or a Saturday night. Don't do it. I asked a police officer. I said, all right. Um, I'm going to let you guys sign off. Okay. I guess. Well, thanks for stopping by. Yeah. All right. All right. Goodbye.
Nice talking to you. She, you know, I mean, she's off to Greece here soon, so she's got a, Get her, uh, her luggage in order. But I got to tell you back when I was an early on midway goer. So high school age, college age. So we're going back to the mid to late eighties. I love the midway, but there was none of that stuff going on back then.
It was just good old fashioned, you know, Fair fun, trying to win stuffed animals for your gal down there with your buddy showing off, trying to shoot buckets, the ring toss. I mean, Even on Fridays and Saturdays, John, that element wasn't there. So it definitely has changed over the years. I don't want to let that tarnish what for the most part is a. Pretty wholesome place to hang out overall, the fair, but yeah, Friday or Saturday night, I'm sure is a different element there.
And the thing about it is not a single one of those people was walking around with a big Turkey leg. They didn't have their bucket of sweet Martha's cookies or their bucket of French fries. There were people there. To just be troublemakers. So my advice to you, the people that are listening, if you've got young children, if you've got teenagers, teenage girls, especially, uh, it must be forbidden because the behavior, and this isn't get off my lawn, old man. This was dangerous insanity.
So enough of that. And guess who just came in? Johnny Clueless, he, he's done rehearsing for his big show on Saturday. Welcome, Steve Brown. Hey, gentlemen. Hi. Sorry I'm late. You're not late. We're surprised that you made it. No, you're right on time. You're early, actually. Talked, of course, about your red pants, and will the red pants be making an appearance on Saturday? I haven't decided. Okay, well You know, I don't like to be, uh, I don't like to be You don't want to show your cards.
Yeah, don't, don't pigeonhole me. I want to be a dancing monkey. I know. I might, I might do, you know, yellow pants. I don't know. I might do green pants. I might do black pants. Super excited. It's gonna be a big, big show. Let's not make it about my pants. Alright? It's just a Yeah, it's going to be at, uh, Petey Pappy's on Saturday. We'd love to see you down there. Yeah, it's going to be fun. Uh, eight o'clock. Um, our opener, his name is Briggsie. He plays with us a lot at the dugout.
He's, he's actually my cousin and he's a super talented dude. He plays acoustic and, uh, sings and write songs and he's really great. And Petey Pappy's is an, it's what, what's interesting about it. I'm just jumping in here. I don't know what you guys are talking about doesn't matter. Um, we have never played there before Really? We we've played everywhere for many years and then we've only played the dugout for the last Freaking 20 years or something ridiculous.
So You know, we don't, it's, it's, you know, we're not a touring band. We're just kind of having fun doing it, but we'll get a chance to play there. And it's going to be really great. Cause it's, we've been down there. Do you know what that's all about? It's kind of an open air in a way. It's like three sides. It's right by the river. It was underwater for part of the summer. I know. I don't know how they recover from that. From, I mean, it was literally underwater. They always do though.
It happens a lot. Um, anyway, yeah, is this set? Oh, we lost. Oh, no, hold on. I joined in and I just break up the party. Yeah, what is the deal? What's the deal with you? Um, has the set list been determined? Um, not officially. No, we don't really do that until we kind of play it by ear, play out, see how the show goes. So there's not a lot of show prep there either. Well, I, I will be rehearsing. Yes, I'll be walking through songs, singing, making sure my voice is warmed up.
Um, playing guitar. I've been playing guitar a lot lately, so I feel good about that. And like you really, if you don't play guitar a lot, you don't, your, your calluses go away and your finger gets soft. So your, your fingers are like callus. So you have to play a lot. I have no musical abilities whatsoever. So I've been playing a lot. It's been good. I feel good about that. So it's going to be super fun. Do you think tainted love will be on the, yes, for sure. We love a little tainted love.
So somehow we lost KG. I hope it comes, hope it comes on as this. Jerry, this phone's a piece of junk, goodbye! There we go. Steve just said, Jerry, this phone's a piece of junk, goodbye! Right? I think that's what you have to say. You have to say that every time you come back. That is well, well done, Steve. That is good. I'm so proud of you. All right. KG. Nice chatting with you and, uh, Steve, we got another show here. Yeah, we're going to tape and off we go