SPEAKER_01 0:05

Mr. Durrell. What's up?

SPEAKER_02 0:09

What's up? You can hear me good? Yeah. Thanks for coming on the podcast. Yeah, I can hear you great. I can only see the top half of your head though.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

That's all you need to see.

SPEAKER_02 0:26

Oh, we got the similar beards with the little gray hairs in them, too.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

Oh, I got a lot of gray hairs.

SPEAKER_02 0:35

So, uh, I believe the last time we spoke was 2004. Uh, Holy Name in Worcester. Yep. And I don't know if you've seen any other episodes of my podcast here. It's pretty new. I'm kind of winging it, but um, I've got to talk with some people I lost contact with from Holy Name and even before Holy Name, so it's been really cool. And that's the whole point is to see what we've been up to in life since we last spoke, which was a long time ago. Oh, yeah. Therefore, the title 24 20-year time out. Um, and I can see you live in Louisiana, right? Nope, Kansas. Oh, Kansas. And you just told me that the other day, too.

SPEAKER_01 1:20

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:21

So obviously you were living in Worcester um for since you went to Holy Cross, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:28

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 1:30

Class of 93 at Holy Cross.

SPEAKER_02 1:34

And did you have to travel from Kansas to go to college there, or were you living up here?

SPEAKER_00 1:40

Uh yeah, I traveled all four years from Kansas to Holy Cross.

SPEAKER_02 1:47

So you were born in Kansas and you lived there until college? Yep.

SPEAKER_01 1:52

Oh yeah. And um What Go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 1:58

No, I was just gonna say, what uh made you choose Holy Cross? Why Worcester?

SPEAKER_00 2:03

Uh it was it was a good fit. I I visited other colleges around Kansas, and Holy Cross was very comfortable to me. It wasn't big, wasn't too small, just right.

SPEAKER_02 2:20

Did religion have uh a factor in there too? Because it was uh is it a Catholic school or Christian?

SPEAKER_00 2:26

Yes, Jesuit school. Um Jesuit. Yeah. Um it it really didn't play a big role, but it did help in playing a role. In fact, um I just wrote this on Facebook. I didn't hear about Holy Cross until I saw them on ESPN one day. I knew nothing about Holy Cross before I got there. Uh I saw them on ESPN, I forgot who they were playing. But um they were talking about the school and stuff, and I just and I just thought to myself, uh, you know, I wonder what that school's about, and that was it. I really didn't think anything about it until I got a call on my 18th birthday. Holy Cross called me and offered to pay for a trip for me to um go to Worcester and visit the school for a week. So I went up there for a week, I visited visited them for for that week, low to school, came back and told my mom. She just looked at me and just shook her head because we couldn't we couldn't afford what it was costing. So through the grace of God, I got a I earned a academic scholarship to Holy Cross that paid for like 99% of my tuition. So that's rad. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:04

So I know you played go ahead, sorry. No, go ahead, go ahead. I was just gonna you played football there. Uh did athletics have anything to do with going there, or did it just so happen to be you were a good athlete and you were able to uh play football?

SPEAKER_00 4:22

Uh a little athletics did a little bit, especially seeing the football team on ESPN. Um my freshman year, Holocross was on ESPN against uh Princeton. So that was cool being on ESPN your freshman year, even though I didn't play, but still cool, the experience. And um, even my junior year, we were on ESPN once again against Princeton. Uh but the act with the academics, what impressed me, the athletics. I was very fortunate to be on a team that was full of athletes, scholarship athletes. I was a walk-on for football, and I was my head coach's first first and only walk-on at Holy Cross to ever make the team. So that was fun.

SPEAKER_02 5:21

So it was written, and it was in 1993.

SPEAKER_00 5:25

Uh I I got there in 89. I graduated in '93.

SPEAKER_02 5:29

Oh, you graduated, oh, so 89, cool. Yep. Uh, did would you like put uh Walkman on with some headphones to get pumped up before games and practices?

SPEAKER_00 5:41

Uh no, really. Um I did none of that stuff like everybody else does. I was one of those poor kids, so I I normally sat in the locker room by myself. We didn't say a word in the locker room. Once you entered the locker room, you didn't say a word. You did not smile, you did not crack smile, you did not talk, did not do anything. All you did was just get dressed and think about the game. That was allowed. And that was perfect for me because I didn't even have to get out of my comfort zone, so to speak. So was mo every game I just sat by myself and sat by my locker and put on my equipment stuff and waited for our pregame.

SPEAKER_02 6:35

Did you find life to be different from Kansas?

SPEAKER_00 6:39

Oh yeah. Wait, it was way different. Kansas, we're laid back and being in Massachusetts, New England area, is fast paced. Everything is on the go. You go, go, go, go, go, non-stop. And it was it was eye-opening, but it was also um enriching. So I got to learn another way of life. And I lived in New England for over 30 years, about 30 years. So it was it was a good time, good experience, good education.

SPEAKER_02 7:26

What did you do once you graduated? Yeah, and I can see your face better now if you keep your phone like that.

SPEAKER_00 7:32

Well, yeah. Well, I'm old, so what did I do after that?

SPEAKER_02 7:38

Uh I Well, you're you're are you that old? I don't you know, I feel like you're not that old. And you're the first teacher I was able to get on the podcast, so I I appreciate that. And I don't think I even know any other teachers, actually, so yeah, most of the teachers you had are gone.

SPEAKER_00 7:58

Let's see. Uh blessed them. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:01

Uh some of them have passed away. Yep. But um sure some of them are retired and Yeah, uh, actually some are still there, I think.

SPEAKER_00 8:13

Some uh very few are still there. Since they combined um Holy Name and St. Peter Marion, a lot of the teachers that you had are gone. Gone to different schools.

SPEAKER_02 8:27

Um I guess we are old.

SPEAKER_00 8:29

Yeah, well, I'm 55, so and my my youngest, she was one when you graduated. She was just turning one when you graduated. My youngest, she is graduating college this year.

SPEAKER_02 8:47

So so you were taught me when you were in your 30s?

SPEAKER_00 8:50

Yep. Wow. Yep, I was 30. I was 33 when you graduated.

SPEAKER_02 9:00

I'm 40 now, so Yeah. Yeah. That's fun.

SPEAKER_00 9:04

I'm 55. Just turned 55, so.

SPEAKER_02 9:09

That's not old because I have friends that are like 50, 55.

SPEAKER_00 9:13

Yeah, um so well, it's old for me. I feel like I'm old because a lot of you guys are married and having kids, and your kids are in school, and so to me that's old.

SPEAKER_02 9:26

Yeah. So you graduated from college and did you start teaching right away?

SPEAKER_00 9:31

Yes, I did. In fact, my interview for a holy name was the day after graduation. After my college graduation was the very next day.

SPEAKER_02 9:45

How do you how do you prepare as a teacher to just go in and start teaching kids? Because I feel like we, I'm sure every class gave you a run for your money, but like you had to keep us in check.

SPEAKER_00 9:58

Well, it takes number one, what I learned that first year, you have to have thick skin and patience. Because my first year, I was ready to quit. I I told Mrs. Reardon at the time, who was the principal, I was ready to quit after that first semester. And she said, just be patient, give us some time after you're done with the first year, see what it's like. And I was just like, okay. Then after after the first year, I fell in love with it, and you really can't prepare for it. They can do, they can tell you all the things they want to about teaching, what you should do. It what they say doesn't really happen. You're gonna have good classes, bad classes. Some days you're gonna be prepared, some days you're gonna be unprepared. You just have to fly by the seat of your pants and do everything on your own comfort.

SPEAKER_02 11:06

And thinking, thinking like with today's technology and all the stuff put in front of people, like I it was challeng I'm sure it was challenging back then to talk to us about a subject probably, you know, some people didn't have an interest in, like myself. You asked me about religion, I'd say that's boring, you know. But you had your you had to teach us what you, you know, what we had curriculum for, and you had we had to pass. And now I'm thinking like present day, like how do you even keep a student's attention when they have a phone, uh YouTube account? Like it must be impossible to do that.

SPEAKER_00 11:45

Well, number one, curriculum is what I like to think of curriculum as just a skeletal outline of what you want to teach. You have to make the subject matter interesting for the students. You can't just keep teaching them the same things over and over again. Because even I got bored with some of the stuff I was teaching. So I would incorporate different things, different religions, different philosophies, you know, things like that. Do social events, things that would get you guys more involved in your education. Because to me, having an education is not being able to repeat all the things I'm I taught you. If I taught you, I want you to use that information and formulate your own opinion, your own beliefs, not just go by what I say and think that's it. Because that's not the world, that's not the way the world is. And nowadays, technology, I think it's crippling kids because kids rely on technology. They don't read books anymore. They expect everything to be online, expect all the answers to be online, and it cripples the students and they can't think for themselves. That's why a lot of them don't have common sense because they don't learn how to think. They're told things, taught things from a computer, from a book, and that's what they go by. And I that's why I really got out of teaching, because it's no longer they don't longer let teachers teach. They just want to push kids ahead so it makes school look better.

SPEAKER_02 13:32

Yeah, like a robot.

SPEAKER_00 13:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:36

Well, I gotta give you props because yeah, you kept the conversation going in the class. There were some other teachers I can think of that did that also. It wasn't about just teaching this curriculum, it was like getting us thinking about life and having debates. And, you know, yeah, we might have goofed off a little bit here and there, but there was times where I can remember focusing in on something and being like, you know, oh, I could just go talk to Mr. Durrell, even though he'll smack me upside my head if I step out of line. You could do that back then.

SPEAKER_00 14:09

Yeah, you can't do that now. They'll they'll have you in court as soon as possible. You'll be fired and in court.

SPEAKER_02 14:17

Do you remember uh picking me up in my desk and just carrying me over to your desk and saying, You're in the front now?

SPEAKER_00 14:24

Vaguely. I used to do that a lot of times because back then I could do it right now. If I did that, I would throw my back out.

SPEAKER_02 14:35

That's just a memory I have. There's two others, and I'll tell you them later, but that's one memory I have of just like you picking me up and bringing me to the front and be like, you're next to me now.

unknown 14:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:46

It's like, oh geez. You're lucky. I had teachers when I was in school, I had a teacher, if you fell asleep in his class, he would throw a racer at you, he would throw chalk at you, he'll throw a book at you. If you were really acting up, he would pick you and the desk up and toss you out in the hallway.

SPEAKER_02 15:07

Maybe you tossed me in the hallway. No, I think it was a you kept me in the room.

SPEAKER_00 15:10

Yeah, I kept you in the room. Because back then, well, when you were in school, if I did that, they would call me down to the office and they would have a shit fit. But oh well.

SPEAKER_02 15:23

Not as bad as when I got home and my mom found out.

SPEAKER_00 15:26

Oh, yeah, your mom was. Yeah, that that's one thing that is different. Parents nowadays, kids aren't really afraid of their parents nowadays. You guys were afraid of your parents. You're the first words out of your mouth was, don't tell my mom. Don't let my mom know. That's how, as a teacher, we knew, okay, you just gave us ammunition to use against you guys because all we had to do was say, you know what? We'll just tell your mom. And let you guys sit there and think about it for a while and rethink things.

SPEAKER_01 16:15

This is fun. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:17

It's you know, I I taught I taught for I taught at Holy Name for 22 years. They let me go because of some BS crap. Basically it's because they didn't like me because I spoke my mind and they didn't like that and I wasn't a yes man. I would basically tell them in a polite way to go F themselves. But they let me go after 22 years, and I stopped teaching for about three years. Then I moved back to Kansas to take care of my mom. I star taught four years in Kansas City, and then at three years I was gone. Education changed to the point where I hated, I hated teaching. There was something I loved. I never thought of it as a job. But when I got back into teaching for four years, I hated it.

SPEAKER_02 17:23

Is that like a common consensus with amongst your peers, people you've known in the industry, people who've been teachers for a long time? Do they have a similar feeling?

SPEAKER_00 17:30

Yeah. A lot of the old school teachers, it's okay to have technology, but when you care more about getting kids through instead of what is going into their head, that bothers a lot of us. And that's why a lot of these schools are hiring young people, because they schools can manipulate them. And that's the sad part. You have all these other teachers, we held you guys accountable. If you didn't do the work, your grades reflected it. That was the thing. If you didn't do the work, it reflected it. Nowadays, students don't have to do the work and they can pass. And that's not right. It's not right for the kid that sits there every day and does the work and stays after school to get their grades up. It's not fair for a kid to just walk in, not do anything, and pass. You know, where's the morality in that? And that's why a lot of these, you see a lot of these older teachers retiring early, because you're teaching to a curriculum. You're not using the curriculum as a skeleton. You're using it as the whole body of your teaching. And you can't. Kids have different learning, different ways of learning. And you can't teach all the kids the same way. So now I work with kids with um, I work with kindergartners and first graders. I work with special needs kids, kids with autism, kids that have no verbal speech. And I love it. It's the best thing. I don't have to worry about administration. I just worry about the kids, and that's the best thing.

SPEAKER_02 19:32

Yeah, what what are we working towards? Uh kids living in the basement? If they don't have a repercussion, or you know, if you can't give a kid an F, how are they gonna learn from their mistake?

SPEAKER_00 19:43

Or they're starting to find out now, because a lot of these kids are graduating and they can't do the simple, the basic things of like working, working in a for example, in convenience stores, make change. Some of them can't even do that.

SPEAKER_02 20:00

I forgot, you know, you forget. Yeah. Too. You don't do it for so long. Like I worked in a bakery and I could add in my head, and um, you know, I was playing darts the other day, and I was like, man, my adding and subtracting skills are not what they used to be.

SPEAKER_00 20:16

Yeah, but you know what? At least you can use those. Some of those kids, some of these kids don't even have that. I've had kids that had like the high school I taught at when I moved moved back to Kansas, the high school I was at, we had kids with uh with like a fourth grade reading level. And they were in high school, seniors in high school with a fourth grade reading level.

SPEAKER_02 20:47

I appreciate my upbringing from all my teachers uh without technology for the simple fact that um, you know, our generation, yeah, we can read at a high level, we can write, we can be creative, we can problem solve, we can take, and I'm just maybe millennials in general, but you know, we could also play the devil's advocate and say some things that millennials weren't really taught were like light life skills, like how to manage money, how to um, I don't know, budget, you know, how to do accounting, you know, how to start a business or like you know, you're taught to study your books, go to college, and that's gonna get you a good job. And, you know, I didn't go to college till I was 25, and then I got my master's degree, and I'm walking out of my statistics class because it was the hardest one, and I took it last. And I was depressed because I said, Oh, my life is the same. Nothing's changed except I'm a bit more in debt. Yeah. You know, but I I enjoyed writing during my uh master's program.

SPEAKER_00 21:59

Yeah, and and I can't speak for other people, but they don't teach the way they should be teaching. They they teach they don't teach uh what's the right right thing I want to say. They don't teach for tea for skills. They teach for information. To throw information at you, not to use those skills, to show you how to use those skills in any situation. And that was that was the fun part for me for learning being in school, because I had teachers that taught me in different different classes to um take what I learned and use them as a skill. You know, we worked, I and for example, in a science class, chemistry class, advanced chemistry, I took, we learned how to do um for forensic solving, you know, how to lift fingerprints, how to how to do a crime scene. I learned all that in high school, where we didn't have computers and things like that. We learned accounting. We learned how to do it accounting. I took an accounting class. We had a make-believe business where we did balance the books and things like that, how to do the books.

SPEAKER_02 23:31

We learned all- uh Do you remember Anthony Fuller?

SPEAKER_00 23:36

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 23:37

I had him on the podcast, and we were talking about uh a mandatory internship uh from kindergarten to twelfth grade. The last like month or two of school should just be mandatory internships where kids just go hands-on and do work and pick things they like, even just like go do manual labor or landscaping, you know. It's like that might be helpful for kids.

SPEAKER_00 24:03

Know what? It would be, but at the same time, uh school systems are worried about budgets and how much everything is gonna cost and how much money they're gonna save for things and stuff like that, which is very disheartening because these are the things that kids need nowadays. They need to learn a skill, they need to go to uh classes, like you said, do an internship. You know, we when I was in school, when I was in eighth grade, we did that. We learned about different things. We learned how to uh, you know, play chess, we learned how to use a table saw, we learned how to paint ceramics, we learned how to, you know, just do things just so. You know, I in high school we had home ec and we learned the basic things of how to run a household. And a lot of these kids don't know how.

SPEAKER_02 25:03

If they went out that's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 25:05

Yeah, if they went on their own, they would have no clue.

SPEAKER_02 25:11

That would be an amazing show. Just getting like a hundred kids right out of high school.

SPEAKER_00 25:16

Oh, you you just give them a landline phone and they would be hand-tied. They would, it was like them being handcuffed. They wouldn't know what to do. And it's funny because you do that now to a kid, and they wouldn't know what a what a phone, a dial phone is, what a push-button phone is. All they knew know it's a cell phone.

SPEAKER_02 25:39

When I was younger, I used to think you would take one thing, one subject or one niche, and just really get great at that, and that would make you intelligent. But then as I like got older, and I've like studied like Charles Munger, like, you know, reading like uh that was the last book I read, so I'm just referencing it, uh, his autobiography. He preaches that you need to have a collection of knowledge from every industry subject, and only then when you understand how psychology works, business, accounting, mathematics, then you can make intelligent decisions on whatever you choose to do. And that's kind of been resonating with me lately. It's like maybe it is good for kids to branch off and just like get different hobbies and like, you know, because I have kids now, so I'm watching them be anxious and like want to do a million different things and just like trying to remember what it was like as a kid and embrace and let them do it.

SPEAKER_00 26:41

Yeah, and that's the best, that's the best thing as a parent to let them do as many things as they want. Because what it does, it broadens their learning. It it enhances their ability to learn, to learn different things, to do different things to be self-sufficient. A lot of these kids aren't self-sufficient. And growing up, we you learned everything as much as possible. I learned, I learned demolition in high school, which I did in the summer. I moved furniture, you know, I worked as a piece of delivery in the summer. I worked in the hay fields in the summer. So you let kids do things and put them in jobs where they are learning a skill. Like I can tell you how to bell hey, what you have to do and everything, how to take care of cows and things like that. And I can also tell you how to load a truck, a furniture truck. You know, what what type of furniture goes good in certain areas, how to take care and maintain furniture when you're putting them away in storage.

SPEAKER_02 27:54

And we just gonna have to move. People move. You need to know, like, some, you know, you need to know someone who could help you or figure it out yourself.

SPEAKER_00 28:02

Yeah, and and you have to when when you're moving the military, you have to problem solve because a lot of their furniture don't fit in the doorways, you know, you can't just like walk straight through. You have to manage ways like carrying a piano up three flights of stairs. How to do that? I know how to we have to problem solve that. Uh, you know, things like that. You know, that's why your back hurts. Yeah, yeah. It's also from playing semi-pro football for too long. But um Oh, oh, go ahead, sorry. No, no. Uh it's, you know, we we tend to we tend to handcuff kids and tell them, okay, you only need to know how to do one thing. Oh, let them learn as many things as possible. Because you never know what they're going to be good at. Because when in college, I started out as an economics major, and I wound up being a theology major. So I realized halfway through college, I wasn't good at economics. I understood the philosophy of economics, but I wasn't good at it. I could not see myself sitting in a cubicle all day long in a shirt and tie and just be surrounded by three walls of hitting buttons. That wasn't me. I wouldn't be allergic to cubicles. Yeah. Oh God, I would I would lose my mind. There would be a bloodbath.

SPEAKER_02 29:46

I get like that sometimes.

SPEAKER_00 29:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:48

Yeah, I that's why I say allergic to cubicles, because Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:53

Yeah, that's the best thing. Stay allergic. Stay allergic, because those are the worst things. I remember my mom having a cubicle and seeing her, oh no, I couldn't do it. I I couldn't do it. I so but you know.

SPEAKER_02 30:13

I was changing I was uh no, I'm curious about semi-pro football. Was that local to Worcester or did you have to go to Boston for that?

SPEAKER_00 30:20

I went I went to I played one season in Northern Mass, two season in New Hampshire, one season in Eastern Eastern Mass, and the rest was in Worcester. So I played 17 years, so about uh I would say probably about 10 years were spent in Worcester.

SPEAKER_02 30:59

Do they still have a uh semi-pro team? Is that still a league?

SPEAKER_00 31:03

They still uh they still have some semi-pro team leagues around Worcester. I think the team I used to play for was uh Worcester Wildcats and Central Mass Fury, which turned into the new Marble Shamrocks, and I think they just recently disbanded. But uh yeah, I played for I played for Central Mass Fury and uh Worcester Wildcats. So uh far as as far as that goes, I really couldn't tell you if there's still uh uh semi-pro teams around Central Mass. But uh there used to be an arena football team, though I think they were Worcester Pirates.

SPEAKER_02 32:03

Oh yeah, I heard I heard that name before.

SPEAKER_00 32:06

Yeah, and that was happening, but Arena football now has almost become extinct. Not as popular as it was back then.

SPEAKER_02 32:21

So not that you had time if you played semi-pro ball for 17 years, but what were some hobbies um that you had while you were teaching outside of work?

SPEAKER_00 32:35

Actually the hobbies I had was painting ceramics. That was my if I wanted to re relax, take my mind off of things, I would grab a um a statue, ceramic statue, and paint it. I the more detailed I was, the longer it would take, the more calm I would be. And that was that was a calming factor. I could I could sit in one position for three hours and just paint. And it wouldn't it wouldn't even bother me.

SPEAKER_02 33:15

Ceramic statues need to be painted, what, because they're formed and then they're glazed, or do you glaze after you paint them?

SPEAKER_00 33:23

You glaze them after you paint them. You paint them first, and then they have a technique where you can antique them, which is using an oil-based paint, where you just paint it's a black oil-based paint, and you just uh just go over whatever you paint with that, with that black paint, and it makes it look like it's aged well, and then you can put them in a kiln, a kiln, which is where you you bake them first, and you put them in a kiln and then let that let it glaze over and stuff like that. And it's it's a it's I always encourage people to learn about it because it to me it is relaxing, it is fun, and to paint the different things and see how it's done. To me, it's it's fun. It's it's very relaxing for me. I encourage people to do it all the time. And you know, it's it's something that allows me to just not not just think, but to ease my mind, let my mind wander. Because you have teaching, you have football. I worked part-time as a bouncer. Uh and when you have 99 things going on in your life, you need something to distract you. Because if you don't, you're gonna get crazy. And that's the way I was um towards my the end of my years teaching, because I I couldn't, I kept thinking about the same things over and over again every day, even in summer. You know, did everything, had the same things on my mind, and it just life was no fun for me. And it was it was very depressing.

SPEAKER_02 35:24

So that's hard to make a change, too.

SPEAKER_00 35:28

It is, but when you know you reach the end of your rope, you know you need to seriously rethink things. Because I'm not I'm not gonna lie, I tell the people this all the time. There were times where I've thought about suicide. Wow. Because things were they would just get crazy because went through two divorces and just having to deal with all that stuff, had to deal with schools nonsense, had to deal with the pressures of everything else, retiring from football. Football was my identity. I retired from coaching. Uh, let's see, in 2013, I almost died. I was literally on my deathbed. If I if my wife at the time, my second wife at the time, hadn't taken me to the hospital one night, I would have died in my sleep. Because I had a bad infection in my leg. And they they told her, I remember, because I was going in and out of consciousness, they told her that if she didn't bring me in that night, I wouldn't have wake woken up in the morning.

SPEAKER_02 36:47

Well, I'm glad you're here. The world's better for it.

SPEAKER_00 36:51

I don't know about that. See, the way the world is now.

SPEAKER_02 36:55

Nah, we need people.

SPEAKER_00 36:57

Yeah. But there's too much stupidity in the world.

SPEAKER_02 37:03

Did you you something that brings me solace? Did you ever go to Old Sturbage Village?

SPEAKER_00 37:08

Yeah. I went to uh went there a couple of times. Um Old Sturbage Village. It was Yeah. Yeah, it was it was it was a good place to go, but it wasn't for me.

SPEAKER_02 37:23

We live right by there. And it every time they're firing up the kiln, kiln, is it a kin? Kiln? Kiln.

SPEAKER_00 37:31

Kiln. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 37:32

It seems like we're always going there when they're firing it up. So yeah, we always like to watch all the potters put in all the stuff and they start sealing it. And uh it's nice for the kids because yeah, there's like no technology, and we just walk around and the kids can run around and go in the buildings.

SPEAKER_00 37:48

We go there all the time. Yeah, and that's a that's a fun thing. I think a lot of these kids need to break away from electronics because that's what a lot of them always do, is nothing but electronics. I work with kids who like you take away their iPads and they lose their freaking mind because you took away their iPad, because it was time for them to learn. You take away their iPad, and they will throw a tantrum, you know, pound the floor, throw themselves on the floor, scream bloody murder.

SPEAKER_02 38:27

And it's just like it's a lose-lose situation.

SPEAKER_00 38:31

Oh, yeah, it is. And you you learn to bite the bullet and just keep taking it away from them. That's what they have to learn. It's like life is, you know, time to work, time to play. They have to know that. But life is.

SPEAKER_02 38:48

We had a run-in. Oh, go ahead, sorry.

SPEAKER_01 38:50

No, go ahead, go ahead, go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 38:53

I was saying uh when you said you were a bouncer, we had a run in at J Gillian's when you were bouncing one night.

SPEAKER_01 39:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:02

Nothing bad, but you knew I wasn't 21 yet, so you went over to me and you said, if I see you buying one more beer, I'm kicking you out of here. Yeah, oh yeah. So I just had my one beer and I was like, oh, Mr. Durrell's here. I gotta I gotta behave. I was behaving anyways, but Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:18

And it's funny because your mom had stopped in a couple of times there. Not that night, but previous times, and uh if I would saw her, I would definitely let her know.

SPEAKER_02 39:32

At that point, I think she would have just I think at that point she was like, he's he's over 18. Because I had my I had, you know, I was able to pay my bills and you know, she she was like, You're on your own. When I turned 16, she was like, You want that? You go get a job.

SPEAKER_00 39:52

So well, yeah, that's that's that's old school parenting. Yeah. That's what I did with my kids. You turn 16, you want it, you go get it. Because you'll take better care of it when you buy it with your own money. And uh yeah, being a bouncer was it was a fun job until people got stupid.

SPEAKER_02 40:22

Which is drinking and that's what happens. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:26

They they get alcohol and they want to start fights. They want they want to get behind the wheel. They want to argue with you about what what are the liquor laws and stuff like that. And when you shut them off, that's when they become belligerent. And I I just got tired of it.

SPEAKER_02 40:45

You know? I was a waiter for a long time doing wine and selling wine. Uh-huh. Yeah, and people think you can get two martinis and then a bottle of wine, and they want to order another bottle of wine, and there's only four people at the table, and you start doing the math, and you're like, you're gonna leave here and drive. And it's like, I'm not comfortable like getting you an annihilated so that you can go and crash.

SPEAKER_00 41:10

Yeah, what what we learn as bouncers, you can't make them stay, but you can report them. If they get behind the wheel, it is your responsibility to take down their license plate, uh, the model and make of their car, and immediately report it to the police. Because that's what we learned in alcohol prevention. And I did that many times. I'd be like, people wouldn't want to fight? Okay, get behind the wheel. I I would tell them, you're making me call the police on you. Well, I don't care. Okay. And if the police come and get you, and the thing was, the police station was right down the street from Jillian's. So if they got a call from us, they were there in a heartbeat. You weren't gonna get far. Yeah. And it's like, it's not, it's not worth it. It's not like you would be halfway home and get pulled over. You'd be coming out of the parking lot and they'll be sitting right there. And on Fridays and Saturday nights, they were always there. They were always right by our parking lot. They're either at Hunting Farm, sitting in Hunting Farm's parking lot, or across the street at the rehab center. And we would tell people, don't do it, it's not worth it. You're better off calling a taxi, paying that$10,000,$20. It's better than better than paying a$5,000 fine.

SPEAKER_02 42:44

Tell them I'm a religion teacher. You you don't want to get this close to God tonight. Because I'll throw you down.

SPEAKER_00 42:52

No, I had a lot of customers tell people that that I was a religion teacher, and they would look at me like I had four heads. Like, yeah, I'm a religion teacher. Not something I would brag about or use something to get women, you know, pick up women. Hey, I'm a religion teacher.

unknown 43:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:12

Oh man. Yeah, I guess that wouldn't be the best thing for swag at the bar.

SPEAKER_00 43:20

Nah, nah, nah. You know, you can use a teacher. You can use a teacher.

SPEAKER_02 43:25

Until Christian Ming, until Christian Mingle.com came out.

SPEAKER_00 43:30

Yeah, I think that was that was the beginning of Christian Mingle. But uh, you know, I I enjoyed my experiences and everything and teaching, being a bouncer, bartender, uh playing semi pro football. Uh lately I've been reflecting. I do a lot of reflecting nowadays because um, you know, when you get older, you tend to forget. The things you should appreciate. Like uh the guys that I play football with, a lot of them have passed away. There's about seven or eight of them that I played with in college who have passed away. One recently passed away about three weeks ago. And he was my captain, my sophomore year. And you just you realize all the stuff you've been through and all the lives, all the lives that that have interacted with yours. Just like with students, I'm always happy to see read on Facebook how you guys are doing. That some of you have bought your first house, that some of you have grandchildren, that some of you families are growing, that you got a promotion at a job or got a new job, and you're enjoying life. Because as a teacher, that's what we that's why we teach. We don't care about, you know, whether or not you graduate. We do care about that, but it's not a for our main focal point. Our main focus is did you guys become a better person? Did you do, are you doing the things that you want to do? Are you enjoying life? Are you appreciating the things that you have in life? That's what we get a kick out of. We could care less if you have all these academic honors and things like that. You know, we care about is your life good? How are you doing? You know, are you mentally there? Are you physically there? Are you there for your family? Are you being the best person that you can be? That's what we care about. We don't do it for the glory, we don't do it for the money. We definitely don't do it for the money. But we want to see you guys achieve things that a lot of times we couldn't achieve. And we like to live through you guys. And just seeing you with a podcast now, you know, amazes me. You know, you saying you have kids now. You know, being a parent, that's the greatest gift in the world. Being a father, being a husband, or having a spouse, you know, having kids, enjoy those things. Because I have I have seven grandkids now. And because I live in Kansas, I don't get to spend much time with them. My two youngest grandkids, I don't know them. They don't know me because I haven't seen them since they've been born. And, you know, those are the things I miss. When I when people say, Oh, I got my grandkids, people that I work with, oh, I have my grandkids, I tell them, you know, appreciate that because I don't have it. I don't see my kids all the time, every day. You know, you can be in an argument with your kids. Be in an argument with your kids, but enjoy that time you have with them because I don't get to see my kids every day. And I always consider that to be a luxury. And I've always wanted to be a good father and a good grandfather. And I'm okay, but not where I want to be. And that's what I'm I want to work towards is to be that type of, you know, father, grandfather. Where my kids, like I do, I look back on time I spent with my grandfather. You know, I appreciate those moments. I love those moments. I relive those moments. And that's what I want my kids and grandkids to think about when I pass on. You know, they didn't get the time that they needed to spend with me. Was I available? You know, always be there for your kids. Whatever you're doing, if your kids need you, drop everything. Do everything you can advise. Do everything you can for your kids. Be present for them because they will remember that. You don't think they will remember. They remember the slightest detail. Especially if you work right.

SPEAKER_02 48:38

Those little kids remember everything. You cannot say nothing in front of my kids. They remember everything like a sponge years later, too. I'm like, how the heck did you remember that? So Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:50

Oh yeah. The good and the bad. Well, just like you, you would remember everything, but that's not what you said in the class here at the Neki. You said that's what you would do. But that's the thing. Uh, a lot of these parents today are more concerned about money and things. Your kids don't need things. They need your time. They need your presence. They need you to be there. They they will tell you firsthand they could care less about all the things. They'll remember when you weren't at a game or when you were at a game. They will remember when you were there for dinner. They will remember what you did for Christmas, the things you do for Christmas. They will remember all that. And they will Family dinner. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 49:46

Fit like that's a dying thing, I feel like a lot of people are just traveling for stuff and sports, and they're just eating out all the time. They're not taking the time to just sit at dinner without a phone and talk and catch up.

SPEAKER_00 49:58

Oh, yeah. And that's the thing. Uh a lot of parents don't do that because they don't have the time. Well, you can always make time. If you can make time to work, you can make time to be present for your family. And, you know, I hope you're doing that with your family.

SPEAKER_02 50:17

And if I got time to podcast, I got time to sit and eat dinner with my kids.

SPEAKER_00 50:22

Exactly. If you can have if you have time to do other stuff that's not that's not essential, then you can spend time with your family.

SPEAKER_02 50:31

No one under no one gets how I have time to do anything. Like, oh, there's 24 hours in a day. You can do everything.

SPEAKER_00 50:39

Yeah. Trust me, I know you can do. I did a lot of things.

SPEAKER_02 50:44

So I'm a- I mean, today I woke up tired as hell. I came downstairs early at like 5 15. I set up my camera and I was like, I don't want to do it later. So I did it in the morning. And, you know, I enjoy it so much that I don't care if I'm tired. I make a tea, I throw the computer on, and I want to sit and connect with people, and I got the software set up so that it makes it easy for editing, and I just put it out there with the imperfections, you know. Yeah, but I don't know what the end goal is, but it's fun for now, so maybe something in the future. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:18

As long as as long as you're having fun with it, that's all that matters. That's like hella fun. Yeah, oh yeah. I work with first graders and kindergartners. I love working with them because some of the things that come out of their mouths is hilarious.

SPEAKER_02 51:38

So my son is in uh pre-K. Both my kids, they're five and three.

SPEAKER_00 51:42

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 51:43

Oh and they're like splitting the my son Miles, he's a splitting image of me in every way, and then my daughter, she's just a feisty, sassy gives me my run, a run for my money.

SPEAKER_00 51:58

Oh yes, trust me. I the working with those kids is the highlight of my day. You know, I I get excited when I get them off the bus and when I sit in classrooms with them. And the best part of my day is when a lot of these kids, like I I run the hallways constantly, and a lot of these kids know me as Mr. Craig. And they'll come up and give me a hug for no reason because they see me, they give me a hug. You know, I say hi to them, they give me a hug. And they will talk trash to me. And I'll talk trash right back to them. And to me, that's fun. And when parents don't spend time doing that with their kids, there's something wrong with the parents. Because to me, that's the best part of the day. I miss doing that with my kids, with my grandkids. And I treat those kids as if they are my grandkids. Some of them even call me grandpa.

SPEAKER_02 53:12

That's why they're lucky.

SPEAKER_00 53:14

Oh yeah. No, I'm I'm the lucky one. Because when I first started doing this, I did this, start doing this about three years ago. I didn't know what I was doing. And I I'm fortunate enough that they really don't mess with me. They let me do my own thing. There's a way of doing things that I do it my way, which best suits me, which is comfortable. And these kids are the best things that have happened to me. I'll I'll give you an example. My my health has been going downhill lately. And last year, uh during the day, I passed out in the hallway. I don't remember why I passed out. I was out, all I remember is walking the hallway, and I was waking up in the back of the ambulance. And the next day, the next very next day, when I came back to school, a lot of kids, a lot of these kids gave me hugs if I sat in their classroom. They wouldn't let me out of their sight. Like they were in my lap. If I went somewhere, they were asking where I was going, what I was gonna do. It's like, okay, I'm I'm just going to the bathroom. I'm I'm good. But they were they were scared that I was that I was dying. One of the kids was asking his mom, who works, there's a friend of mine who works at school. He was asking her, is Mr. Craig gonna be all right? And she kept telling him, I don't know. We'll we'll see if he's back at school. And when he saw me, he was, you know, you would have thought he won a lottery.

SPEAKER_02 55:14

Yeah, they have an untainted soul, right? They just they they haven't been affected yet by things. They're just like who they they're just organic and if you're there full of life.

SPEAKER_00 55:28

If you're there and you say hi to them, that's what they hang on to. They could care less of anything. They could care less what school I went to, if I played semi-pro football, how many championship rings I have. They care less. They they care about if I can help them get across on the jungle gym. You know, when they're at recess or push them on a swing. That's what they care about. They could care about anything. They don't, you know, they don't really care about things. When they get out of recess, oh my God. It's like watching a a bunch of rabbit squirrels run around because they're on everything. They're just running around having fun. And they don't carry any prejudices or any type of racist attitudes. They will work, they will play with any kid. What they don't care about if you have a handicap. They learn, they actually learn to work better with kids with disabilities than what adults do. They will tell you, oh, so-and-so can't talk. So when he does this, this is what you need, this is what he means. And you're looking at them and like, okay, these kids are a hell of a lot smarter and in tune uh than I am. One in the kids I had uh a few months ago, saw one of his classmates upset, went over to went over to the kid, asked him what was wrong. Went over to a teacher, got a teacher, brought the teacher over to the kid, and you know, that was that was my prime moment.

SPEAKER_02 57:20

So this is I don't know what I was gonna I don't know what they call it at my son's school, but there's like it's integrated, so they'll have like some elective kids from out of town. Um, if they have a disability, they'll integrate them into the class with um kids who don't. And a moment my son had was he noticed a nonverbal child uh and they became great friends, was really crying and struggling to walk into school and leave his mom. And my son like ran over, gave him a hug, and said, I'm Miles. And this is how we go to school every day, picked up his hand, and the kid walked right in with them. So they always tell us, like, oh, Miles is our uh our guy who ambassador who will help any kid who's struggling because he's got this like if he hears a sad song, he'll like literally start to tear up. He's got a big art. They're like, Are you crying, buddy? And he's like, This song is so sad. I was like, All right, we'll keep the we'll keep the funk and the disco going for you, buddy. We don't want you getting all sad over there on the radio.

SPEAKER_00 58:27

Hey, you know what? That's something that you need to be proud of to show, because we have adults that don't even do that.

SPEAKER_02 58:37

But it's he taught me to look out for the like be more part of society. That's you know, I'm learning lessons from him about you know, no prejudice and just helping your community and everyone's a person.

SPEAKER_00 58:51

Yeah, they'll they'll help you because you need help. That's it. They could care less about anything. And to see them, to see him do that, see, I I would I would lose my I would lose my lose it. I'll start crying and be bawling my eyes out and stuff, and the probably kids would probably think that I was losing my mind. But, you know, that's something that I like to teach the kids and like to have them keep instilled in themselves. Because when they get older, we as adults, we don't do, we don't think about the things we do. We teach them how to not be themselves. And that's the sad part because I see them every day, and they're they're holding hands, walking through the hallways, walking each other to class. And to me, it's just, you know, the greatest thing I see. And I hope my grandkids do that, are doing that. Because that would make me the proudest grandfather on the face of the planet. That they that they're taking care of other people. They're not worried about, you know, whether or not that kid looks like them. It's a person. It's another person. You don't worry about things like that. That's irrelevant. The fact that they need help, that you see somebody in distress, that you go over there and you ease their burden. That's the most important thing.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:30

And hopefully he keeps continuing being like that up until, you know, grade school and middle school and high school and that mentality.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:39

Yeah, till he gets old and gray. Because that's always always, always, always keep that instilled in him. When he does it, praise him for it. Act like it's the greatest thing on the face of the planet. Because they'll keep doing it. The second that you don't notice that they do it, that's when they'll stop doing it.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:09

Well, what part of Kansas do you live in?

SPEAKER_00 1:01:11

Leavenworth. We're in the northeast eastern part of Kansas. We're we're right, we're right next door to Missouri.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:21

Yeah, so that's like I always picture Kansas for some reason like near more south, but it's kind of we're in the middle of the United States. Middle of the United States. Yep. I'm thinking it's near the ocean, but I'm looking in my map here, and it's definitely not.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:38

Yeah, we're nowhere near the ocean. And that's what I miss about the East Coast being by the ocean. So you're a Chiefs fan or Oh yeah. Oh, born and raised. Born and raised fan. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I I rooted against the Patriots when I lived in New England. I I did not like the Patriots. I respected them, but I didn't like them. I've been to two Patriots games when they play the Chiefs. I had a friend take me uh both times, and went to two games. One at the old Foxborough Stadium, and then to it was a Thursday night game in Gillette Stadium.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:34

So I there's two memories I just want to share with you and see if you remember. In eighth grade during a midterm, for some reason I had a super big ass, thick, long rubber band. Do you remember me shooting it across? You were you didn't see me do it. You just saw the reaction. I shot Eddie Demarsky like in the face with it. And he jumped up going, ah, my eye, my eye. And I obviously have a really good, I'm a good actor. I just sat there like reacting, like, what the heck's going on with Eddie? And you were like already frustrated because the class was uh Yeah, you guys were trying to take a midterm, and we were being, you know, ruuckish, and then Eddie jumps up, and you were like, like, Eddie, you're gonna get kicked out of here, and he's like, it's Richie. And I'm like, I don't, what is he talking about, Mr. Durrell?

SPEAKER_00 1:03:29

You you always played the the I'm innocent role. You you always had the look of opening the palm of your hands, and your so hands are out, and like, oh, it wasn't me. I didn't do it. I I don't know what you're talking about. And I'm thinking, here I am, because that this was a time where I used to get in trouble almost every day with administration. And I was just thinking, like, oh, this is the last thing I need. One of these fools get injured in class where I was supposed to be, be watching them like a hawk, and one of them gets hit in the eye, and it's like, oh. So it was like, oh my god, it's like you got in that day, you guys were pissing me off.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:20

Beyond that.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:21

Yeah, we were I remember, well, I I learned about Karmer that day because uh right around that time, those lifesaver creamsicle suck candies came out. Yep. And I had one, and after it died down, and Eddie finally sat down and was just like thinking, scheming up a plan to get me back. I could just see how red he was in the face, because I got them good. And I took that candy and I I like celebrated by like opening the candy and like you know popping it in your mouth. And I choked on it, and I was it was caught in my throat so hard that I actually you I was like choking and you were like, just get out of the class. And I was like, Thank you, I gotta go. I really do have something in my throat. And I went and I did. I was drinking water for like 45 minutes when it stuck in my throat. It finally went down, but it was like instant karma for that.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:17

Oh yeah, I I I I do remember that. I didn't know what you had stuck in your throat, but it was I could see your face turning red and you were just like doing a hole with your neck and holding your neck.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:34

Yeah. I'm just like, what the hell is this problem?

SPEAKER_02 1:05:40

It was like one thing after the other in that c that uh day for the midterm.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:44

Yeah, it was it's just like so that you got one side quiet and settled, the other side would act up, and it's like, oh my god, you guys are gonna make me lose my mind. Um and I was to the point, a lot of times I was gonna To start swearing in class because that's how upset you guys were getting me to a point because I didn't because I knew I had to deal with upperclassmen after you guys and have to deal with their nonsense.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:18

So if you guys were acting up, it was gonna be ten times worse with the upperclassmen, with the juniors and seniors, and like oh be I swear to you, when I like started going to college when I was 25, I was like thinking I should try to teach because there's I deserve it for what I did to all the teachers. Like I feel like that was like a calling to me. I was like, it I think I know I can't handle it, but I feel like I deserve everything I get, so maybe I should.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:58

I think you deserve to get a taste of what it's like to teach. Especially nowadays. Nowadays, you would lose your mind. You will you would start saying things that you never would have thought come out of your mouth.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:17

I can't even imagine.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:19

And I have a lot of patience, but yeah, you your patience will run out a lot of days. Especially with these phones and stuff. These kids, I'm telling you, there have been many times I have threatened a kid's life. I will I will knock your head off and kick it down the hallway. You know, say stuff like that to them, and they'll look at you like they'll they will almost dare you to do it. And then you just want to go, you know, if I do, I'll get fired, I'll be brought up charges, and be like, oh. And you just learn how to.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:00

You'll see that on Facebook, that'll be no good.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:03

Yeah, it's just like like you learn to pick and choose your battles.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:08

And my last question for you Yep, can you see I'm sharing my screen. I don't know if you can see it, but it is a disciplinary referral, 92503, period G, grade 12, Mr. Durrell for Rich Marcheski. And uh this one I never got. Oh my god. Definitely not Neil Roberts said he was out of dress code but had no button, wearing senior sweater, didn't sell any magazines, office detention. Where did you take data from? I have them. I have them still.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:51

Oh my god. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:55

How how epic is that?

SPEAKER_00 1:08:57

Oh, that is so funny.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:00

Because you were right. You cut you called my b my bull. Yeah. I was out of uniform. I didn't sell any magazines, and I didn't have a button that allowed me to be out of uniform.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:12

Because, Richie, you were the Eddie Haskell of the school. You could smooth, you could BS talk your way out of everything. And I was bound and determined to call you on your bluff because you made it sound good that you were out of dress code. You you were very, it was it was hard to think of you as not being truthful when you were talking about that. We said, oh no, I'm I'm out of dress code. I told me, no, you didn't. You didn't sell in one damn magazine. And I was keeping track, and I went around, it's like, well, give me proof. Show me proof, show me proof. No proof. Yeah, no proof, no proof. Oh, jeez.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:03

You caught me.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:06

And that was back when I was very thorough about getting proof. Because I checked everything because I didn't trust you guys at all. You got your class was notorious for BS. You were the one needed.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:26

That's why I was so good at selling wine. Yeah. First place. You know what?

SPEAKER_00 1:10:33

I wouldn't doubt it because you you knew your audience. You knew how to talk to certain teachers. And I would, I would, I would just sit back and watch you in action. How you would talk to teachers, especially when they had you dead the rights, and you made them question themselves whether or not.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:01

Yeah, because the my mom was coming in. I was like, I need to get, I need to figure my way out of this one quick.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:10

Oh yeah. And that was that was the funny part of you doing stuff. Because you were always, you you, like I said, you were the Eddie Haskell.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:21

You knew the one I don't, I got in trouble because we had the white senior sweaters.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:28

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:28

And my we didn't have a lot of money. My mom bought me one sweater and they were expensive, but I chose to do permanent marker designs on my. I made lapels, I had my name on the back, I jazzed it up. And then I was out of dress code because that's not the dress code you can't draw on your senior sweater. So I didn't even get to wear my senior sweater all year.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:50

Yep, and you know what? I I appreciate the creativity, but that was back when they were crashing hard on being in uniform. And they were coming, they were coming down hard on us teachers. Yeah, I mean, there's rules. Yeah, there's rules, but some rules, I mean, if you were wearing pants, if you're wearing blue pants, I really didn't give a rat's ass. But heaven forbid, if the administration saw you not in uniform pants, because we had a contract with Neil Roberts, oh my god, they would they would lose their mind. And we're just like, you know what? Fuck it, cuz literally there were times I went and throat punched some of them. Because they were just nonsense. I mean, they were coming down hard on you guys for no reason. And it wasn't like you guys were building bombs or anything. You're just testing your dress code. And to me, it's like they have a shirt with a collar. To me, that's good enough. They have pants. You know, it's good. I'm I'm not gonna really worry about it. But they made a big sting about it, just like, oh.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:08

So Yeah, Mr. Saint Amand would get me all the time if I didn't shave.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:13

Oh yeah, oh yeah. Yeah, God bless his soul. That was he was he was like an older brother to me.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:21

I liked him. He was a good teacher.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:23

He was, and he was when I came back that weekend that he died. When I found out that he died that weekend, I was just you know, it was I was my mind was just gone, right? Because it was looking across the hallway and not hearing his voice or seeing him ride up and down the hallway on that stupid bike and not seeing that anymore was just you know, it it killed me. 'Cause I'm a you were still working when he passed away? Yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:09

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:11

I was yeah, I'm very sentimental guy.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:14

Tough day.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:15

Yeah, it it was. It was it's it was rough. It was you know, I never thought something like that would have faked me so hard. But it it did. That that knocked me on my ass for weeks, for months. And it's it just looking across the hallway and not seeing him. See his books still on the shelves and just you know, it's it would it was just something that I just couldn't get through my head for s a lot of times because I would I would think that it was just a bad joke. That he was just gonna come in and everything's gonna be okay. And it wasn't, and that that shook me for a while.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:06

So Well, thank you for sharing sharing uh some memories with me and and updating me on what's going on with with your life, and you definitely made uh impression on me when I was younger, so I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:25

Well I I I thank you for being who you were. And you made, believe it or not, you made me a better teacher, you made me a more patient teacher, and you made me uh have a better sense of humor. Because without some of your shenanigans, I I don't think I would have the sense of humor I have now of dealing of dealing with kids and their nonsense. Because some of the stuff they pull now, I just I reflect back on stuff you used to do and go, you know what, I know somebody who can do it better than you. So so I thank you for letting me be your teacher and uh actually wanting to learn because it being a teacher it was a rewarding job. For me, it was a rewarding job. And it was something that I never thought I would love. But I loved it for 22 years, and I credit to all my students, even the ones in the past few years. So thank you. Cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:43

Yes, and let's keep in touch, you know? Shoot me a Facebook message once in a while, I'll do the same.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:49

Alrighty, I will do that, sir. All right.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:54

Have a have a great rest of your week.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:58

You also welcome it.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:59

And it was really fun catching up, man.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:00

Yep, it was fun. Yeah, we're we're on vacation this week, so I'm just sitting at home doing nothing.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:09

Nice. Well, paint some um do some ceramics tomorrow and pour yourself a glass of wine and throw on some uh some funk funk jazz or something.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:20

You know what? That does sound good. That would sound good. I might do that tomorrow. All right. All right, sir. Peace. Peace.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:31

Hey, get another uh give me some recommendations for who I could reach out to from Holy Name that might be willing to do a talk. That would be interesting.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:41

Uh did you have Ms. Crab?

SPEAKER_02 1:17:45

She yeah, she's great.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:47

Yeah. Did you already have her?

SPEAKER_02 1:17:50

No, I I didn't.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:52

Message her. She she would be glad to do it.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:55

Okay, I'll hit her up. Yep. See what she's got going on. She's another legend.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:01

Yep. And she's she is on Facebook, so.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:05

Yeah. And she can probably She can inspire kids to write in she's a lit literature teacher, English?

SPEAKER_00 1:18:13

Yeah, I think I think she still is. She's not she's not at uh well, what is now St. Paul's. She's not there anymore. I don't know where exactly she's at.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:24

But she's still around. Cool. Huh? She's off, she is on Facebook. Look, look up her under her neither maiden name, Heather Crab. You know.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:38

I want to talk to Miss Morello.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:41

Oh, she she used to be on Facebook. I don't know if she is now. But I'm sure she wouldn't get a kick out of talking to you.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:51

Yeah, because she used to come to the restaurant I worked at once in a while and she'd be like, Richard Marcheski. Wait in tables, I see. Yep. And I'd say, were you expecting me to be in jail? She probably would. Was there like a running, like a like a running list of like who's gonna end up in jail and who's not?

SPEAKER_01 1:19:16

Oh yeah. Oh yeah, oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:20

Do you usually guess right or do you usually guess wrong?

SPEAKER_00 1:19:23

We we usually guess wrong. Like we usually guess dead wrong because somehow after you guys left high school, you will pull it, turn it around real quick, like after your first year of college. I mean, we had we've had students. I had one student, a quick story. I had one student when I first started teaching. He was a singer, he was in my homeroom. He was always in trouble. Every single day, he was called to the office. And when he graduated school, we were like, this boy's dudes, this boy's not gonna go anywhere. He wound up, I I wound up, he he wound up finding me at Jillian's one night. And he came up to me and he goes, Do you remember me? I was like, Yeah, you were in my homeroom, you know, blah, blah, blah. And he said, I just wanted to thank you because tonight I just graduated med school.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:22

Oh shit.

unknown 1:20:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:25

That's awesome. That that was my response was like, holy crap. It's like he was one of those kids where we figured, oh, he's not gonna go anywhere. He's he's gonna be a dead-end job, and you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:39

You can't tell. You're you're right, because there's kids that I went from kindergarten to twelfth grade with that you're just like, wow, what happened? Or, you know, and it Yeah. Yeah, you just there's the good and the bad, and you just you the people you thought would be like perfect, you know, things happen, and the people who you were like, oh, you know, they're not gonna do well, and they're all of a sudden they're great and they're fun people and they're happy.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:05

And oh yeah, yeah, and that's and that's why I said, you know, we as teachers, we get a kick out of seeing you guys living the best lives you can. That's what we're proud of. We can care less about all the accolades you've done and all that stuff. If you're living the best life you can and you're happy, then we we've done our job.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:31

And Facebook should sponsor this podcast because this is how I'm finding the people.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:36

Yeah, hey, that's that's how I work.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:40

How else am I gonna find people? Like, I don't have their phone number, their landlines are shut off.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:47

Yeah, I know the feeling. That's how I find people.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:55

All right. All right, super good catching up. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:59

No problem. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:00

Can I call you Craig finally? Or is it still preferring Mr. Durrell?

SPEAKER_00 1:22:04

You can. If you if it if you feel comfortable, call me Mr. Durrell. That's fine. Call me Craig, it's fine. I get called at school Mr. Craig, so it doesn't matter to me. Whatever makes you feel comfortable.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:18

I promise I'm gonna have my mom sign that referral. I know you need to have it on your desk tomorrow. Uh it's just a little bit late, all right?

SPEAKER_00 1:22:25

Just a little bit, just a tad bit. But make make a good excuse. Make a good excuse, though.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:32

Yep. I sold the magazines, but I just didn't get the button. Because I'm not about the prize, all right? I don't need the trophy of the accolades.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:42

Oh my god. That is so funny. All right, thank you.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:47

All right, peace out, peace.