Episode #172: Feeney Talks with Benn Gawitt

#BeAGoodFriend and check out episode #172 of #FeeneyTalksWithFriends featuring Benn Gawitt.

It was great to talk with my friend #friend, Benn. 

Benn is a teacher, rockstar, coffee enthusiast and twin girl dad! 

We talked about:
Names are important! (minute 1)
Fred Monet (minute 2)
Being a twin dad (minute 3)
Teaching Biology (minute 5)
Inspiration to become a teacher (minute 9)
Benn’s favorite teacher (minute 10)
Principal Drew DiPippo and pickup basketball (minute 14)
Mario B  (minute 17)
Benn was on House Hunters on HGTV  (minute 22)
Playing at the Johnny’s Jog (minute 30)
Acoustic Marsh Pit (minute 32)
Benn picks 3 songs, 3 dudes & 1 pizza  (minute 35)
Rapid Fire Questions  (minute 45)
Podcast sponsors (minute 50) 
3 Keys to being a great lead singer (minute 52)
Kindred and Crew Boutique in Simsbury (minute 54)
What makes Erika a good friend? (minute 56)
First Pop Roasting (minute 58)
Shoutout out to Pink Flamingo (minute 1.01)
Closing remarks (minute 1.02)

Podcast Sponsors: 
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Mandell JCC of Greater Hartford - www.mandelljcc.org
American Eagle Financial Credit Union - www.americaneagle.org

Creators and Guests

Host

Eric Feeney

After teaching for nearly a decade at his alma mater in Waterbury, in 2014, Eric Feeney began teaching at Wolcott Elementary in West Hartford. Shortly following, Sam Sohn, the father of one of his students, passed away suddenly from a heart attack. He left behind four beautiful children and a loving wife, Nancy Wallace-Sohn. Eric saw first-hand the toll this took on the family as they navigated their way through this unthinkable tragedy. The following year, Rashad Collier Sr., another father of a student in Eric’s class, passed away in Hartford as a result of gun violence. Rashad left behind two fantastic children and a loving wife, Denise Villegas. The impact of these tragedies weighed on Eric and motivated him to build an organization that could provide assistance for similar situations. With that, Friends of Feeney was born. In 2019, Friends of Feeney Inc. became an official 501©(3) nonprofit organization, allowing more funds to be raised and expanding the range of services provided to children and families in need. Today, over a decade since Eric’s idea to build a community organization dedicated to supporting our friends in need, Friends of Feeney has burgeoned into a reputable and recognized organization capable of providing financial and resource support to numerous families and individuals across greater Hartford and beyond. Through this work, an incredible community of children and families has been recognized, who care for and appreciate each other’s kindness.

Producer

David Chmielewski

David started his video career in the early 1990s working on video crews as an independent contractor for such companies as Martha Stewart Living, IBM and Xerox. After graduating Southern Connecticut State University with the degree in Corporate Communications, David continued his video production career and accepted a position at WFSB in Hartford, CT. Within a few years the news and production studios became his charge and David designed, installed and maintained the televisions sets for the various programs at the station. At the end of 2013 David founded DirectLine Media, a video production company that specializes in creating memorable and compelling video content for businesses.

Editor

Stefania Sassano

Stefania's acting journey began as early as the fourth grade, where she took on the role of Scarlett O'Hara in a stage production of Gone With the Wind. This early experience sparked a lifelong passion for the arts. With a background in musical theater fueled by her love of music and singing, Stefania stepped into larger roles, such as Fraulein Kost in Cabaret during her sophomore year at the University of New Haven. This performance earned her a nomination for the prestigious Irene Ryan Acting Award at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival—an honor she would receive again in her junior year.

What is Feeney Talks With Friends?

Eric Feeney talks with #friends! Eric is the founder of the nonprofit organization Friends of Feeney. Their mission is to help children and families who need assistance after heartbreak and tragedy. www.friendsoffeeney.com

All right, all right.

Feeney talks with friends episode 172.

We're the good friend, Ben.
What's up? Ben?

What's going on here? Ben,
go in the house.

Well, I think it's Galit.

We might have said that, but. God,
we did it.

You did it!

Got it.

It's like Cal Gao it.

I practiced, like, four times to go it.

Names are important.

As a teacher,
you know this. Names are important.

So friends out there, you know,
get the name right.

Probably not.

My first mistake of the day.

It won't be my last, that's for sure.

But we're very cool to talk with you,
fellow teacher.

22 years, just like me.

22 year teacher.

A lot of extra curricular activities.

So really excited.

Again, this is Feeny. Talks with friends.

My name is Eric Feeny, founder
and president of Friends of Feeny.

It's a nonprofit.

We help children and families
that need assistance.

After Heartbreaker tragedy
and I use this podcast.

Feeny talks with friends,
and I talk to a wonderful people

in the community
that are doing great things.

So you do great things in the community.

I try to do my best.

And you know, when I first met you,
I put something online and my buddy Fred,

who lives in West Hartford,
reached out and said, hey, with Brainy

Fred. Who?

Monet. Oh, yeah.

Okay.

Good old Fred Monet,
I like him, he's a good friend.

He he'll watch this. Yeah. He's
obligated.

Nice. Fred. All right.

Shout out to Fred.

In the community, can high school band

twin dad.

You know, I'm a twin dad to twin dad.

What do you have?

I have twin girls.

Twin girls.

Girls, girls, girls. Roll girl.

Dad. Twin 17.

They're graduating from high school.

Big things. Busy week.

Their last day.

Yeah, their last day of schools this week.

Graduations. Next week.

They do an all night, like, safe grad.

I'm going to the board of Ed. Spoiler.

I'm going to the board of Ed tonight.

You won't hear this for

about a couple of weeks after,
but I'm going to talk about the

thank the school system
for what they did for my daughter,

talk them
up, maybe embarrass them a little bit.

And it's all part of the game, right?

My girls never get embarrassed.
I might do it.

I was going to do like a
a dance at the end.

The robot do do do

you know whatever I can do.

Oh I'm gonna I honestly

three years.

I'm giving you a call because they're in
seventh grade right now, and

it's different. It's different? Yeah.

Are those your only children?

Only? Yeah. Me too.

Dad and dumb, I love it.

Twins. Two twins.
Mine are Neela and Brigid.

What are you. What are your names?

Vivian and Pearl.

Vivian and Pearl. Love it. Great.

But they are. You know, they're.

They're the game.

Yeah. That's it. Yep. That's it.

And do you live in Cannes as well?

I do teaching can live in Cannes. Canton.

So when I first started teaching,
I said there would be no way,

no way I would ever teach
and live in the same town.

And then I

left Southington and yeah,
I went to canton.

Yeah.

So I did nine years in Waterbury,
Connecticut, at Kingsbury School.

Same school that I went to as a kid,
which was really cool. Mrs.

Jarell was my fifth grade teacher. Mrs.

Jarell also was the principal who hired me
to be for my first teaching job.

I had like friends and cousins.

I had a couple high school
classmates, children in my class.

That was cool.

And then same thing.

I got hired in West Hartford
two minutes from my house.

My daughters went there
for elementary school.

It was a dream come true.

Will your kids at Cannes at some point?

Yeah, well,
they're at middle school. Their part.

Is it connected? Right. It's connected.

And they have the benefit
of going to school every morning with dad.

Oh, great. It's great. Uber.

They give you five stars.

At least they sometimes they give me 2.5,
that's for sure.

I noticed that too. I'll drive kids.

I'll drive my girls to school.

And you talk more in that

two minutes on your way to school,
then you will pretty much all day.

They're like, oh, this teacher did
this, this friend did this.

So it's just the best spot.

Yep, yep or yard goats game
I feel like too.

You sit with the kids, you know,
eating some chips or ice cream and,

you know, watching the game and casually
talking about what's going on.

Just anything not involving the phone.

They play for the The Hartford Athletic.

Oh yeah. So we go to all the Hartford
athletic teams.

Have you ever been. Yeah.
Did you go Saturday?

I did not okay
I was there my my dude Anthony Anthony

Sahin CE whatever names are important
is the goalie.

He just had his 300 save. He's
coming on the podcast.

Podcast guest gave me a signed glove.

There we go. My guy.

I didn't bring a glove,
you know. Come on, give me some.

Where's your signed guitar?

How's biology?

Bio is great.

You know, 22 years in,
I never thought that I would be, you know,

teaching this long.

You know, I went into it thinking maybe.

Maybe not.

Because when you do biology,
there's so many other options,

like you can get
into environmental science,

you can get into private firms of,
you know, lab work.

But me in a lab,
I don't think it's going to work out,

especially for the person next to me
kind of thing I can go for.

Yeah.

It's good.

And we'll podcast host. Come on.

What about forensic?

So how close to the TV shows?

Or can you compare something that,

you know, forensic TV
and is that fact or fiction.

Do you teach that?

You know what the reality is?

Forensic scientists don't really
necessarily always go out to the field.

They're getting stuff.

And there's so much involved,
like you can't go into that scene.

There's ways to lock it down.

And that's what the first few units are of
just how to go in.

And then there's a process of taking data.

You know, how careful and meticulous
you need to be to be able to like,

you know, do your job.

A lot of science.

But it's not just science
to, you know, there's all different things

that people can get involved
with with art and nice.

What about Doctor Henry Lee?

You know, heard of him? You know what?

I know a little about him.

A little, but not I've never formally.

I never got to meet him. But. Yeah.

Yeah, I met him. Boom.

We're gonna put a picture first
pick of the day.

Me and Henry Lee and we were going to
friends of Feeny were going to use him

for a fundraiser, and we did a zoom call,
so boom, two pictures.

Boom.

When I met him at an event
and when we had a zoom call with Tim.

But rest in peace.

That's not happening anymore.

So, forensic

scientists, I also did a lesson once
where I had the kids.

I forgot how we did this.

I drew teeth, or we had a kid.

Oh, I snuck a kid out.

We had a bite, a candy bar, and
we tried to figure out who's bite it was.

So they bit styrofoam cups,
and they kind of measured

the styrofoam cup to the candy bar
to see who's teeth.

Is that forensic science?

That is absolutely right. That's awesome.

Look at that.

Look at that.

I forgot where I saw that.

There's, like, a fun little lesson.

So can I talk about what we did?

Yeah. Let's hear it. Of course. Process.

We put chicken outside under a great.

And we put a rock on the great.

And we're going to go every day
to monitor the insects because insects

are part of that, that whole process of.

Okay. And discovering.

Oh, because,
they'll chew away the evidence.

Right? Yeah. Learn a lot from a bug.

So many words.

What about smaller
animals? Can they get into that? Yeah.

So that's what we try to grade it and
we're going to keep our fingers crossed.

But nothing's guaranteed.
But that's what you do.

You roll the dice and with science
you just redesign.

I also did something once too.

I had a piece of bread,
put it in a Ziploc bag.

We put it on the wall.
Then we had a piece of bread.

Every kid touched it, got their germs
on it, and we put it in the bag.

So we had a touched piece
of bread and untouched.

And then we went to spring vacation.

Came back.

The one that was touched,
I think was more moldy than the cleaner

one because of your germs, your
and all that stuff.

We did something at 17.

Nothing like that,
but it's worth talking about.

I put a $2 bill, like really high up
in my room, like probably ten feet up.

I just put a $2 bill,

and I said, that guy, let's
see how long this $2 bill can stay here.

All right. Three and a half years.

It made it.

It stayed there.

Did you ever see the hair
I wrote gullible on the ceiling.

Do you ever see that

a teacher will really write

gullible on the ceiling
and the kid believes him or not?

The gullible I wrote.

Teaching dude.

No. So, yeah.

What was your inspiration?

What got you into it? Family.

You know, teachers.

Usually it's in the blood somewhere.

So my mother taught 30 years in Bristol.

I want my couple great aunts.

So I think we have like 5 or 6 teachers
that are in my family.

And I just kind of continued that.

I was always round it did a lot of fish.

I was more of an outdoors guy, more of a

the save the Dolphins tree
hugger type of guy growing up.

And then I got into this side of it all

and, and I like at least inspiring
kids to do that stuff.

Yeah, yeah.

That's cool.

Well, one
stop banging on the table. Oh, yeah.

Two. Do you have a favorite teacher
that inspired you?

Ask 172 podcasts.

I ask them all.

Who's your favorite teacher? Okay.

Oh versus central.

Nice. English teacher. Awesome, awesome.

Oh, that's how you know Fred. Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Freddie in Bristol.

Do you know Marcus Patton? I do, yeah.

Former former podcast guest, Rob.

Insight technology

McKenna and Tom Holtz probably.

You know,
you meet a lot of people. Bristol.

Yeah. Rippy.

You know Rippy, Patton.

Marcus brother.

Yeah.

Good thing you can run,
but you can't hide.

That's it.

You go somewhere,
you're gonna know someone.

What school?

What elementary school?

Middle school. High school.
Southside. Yep.

Yeah, you know it.

Then the Boulevard and then Bristol
Central Memorial Boulevard, then central.

But I never took a bus.

So growing up,
it sounds like one of those stories.

Never took a bus.

Just walked mile to the boulevard.

Nice. Southside. It was awesome though.

Good time. Good old Bristol. Bristol.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Talk to you after.
What do you know about Green Hills School?

Green Hills?

My mother taught at green.

Oh come on. All right. Cool.

She was there for a while. Very nice.

But that was the old green hills.

New green hills is a little different.

It's K-8 now. Yeah, they changed
and they knocked down the hill.

So your mother was a teacher?

Yeah. Yeah.

So I think parents that are teachers
have the advantage over

other parents are not teachers.

Like we know child management.

We know some of the tricks of the trade,
how to get things done.

Do you feel that way?

Discipline. Management.

Conversations, communication.

You know, being a teacher,
obviously it just translates

into being the perfect parent.

Perfect, perfect.

But this year, I think it helped with
just being around the school,

helping my kids go into seventh grade
with 6 or 7 different classes

and like sitting them down
and just talking about structure.

Yeah.

Like, you know, you might have
four quizzes or assessments on Thursday.

You got to organize yourself
and chip away at it.

So that was a little learning curve.

But having that that helped.

Yeah sure. For sure.

Oh so yeah

Bristol Fred do golf I do a little.

So it's funny, I grew up fishing

so I'm a big
I used to used to be a big time fisherman.

I moved to canton and then I stopped
playing music, and I just kind of fished.

If you wanted to find me.

I was on the river,
you know, my my wife was cool with it.

It was a slight fishing problem.

Got into fly fishing and and I always
fished growing up my whole life.

But I fished fish, fish, fish, fish,
so I didn't golf as much.

I can play golf.

And you know, when I got a golf
with one of my brothers and he said, Ben,

he played college baseball.

You're one of the worst I've ever

I've ever played against.

So, But I can hit it,
you know, you want me.

If every once in a while I can hit a ball.

But I'm not going to be able to do any
type of finesse if it's under 60 yards.

I can't go with that.

You know, that 60 degree or something.
Forget it.

It's going over.

So time management. Right.

So my father in law, same way
he's like I spent so much time fishing.

I can't also invest time with golf.

So I get you to.

So the music and fishing kind of
I love golf.

I just went to Avon Golf
Club the other day.

Oh, I know a guy over there.

Hey, hey, I got a guy.

I got a guy, and I.

Honestly, I enjoyed it, I enjoyed it.

We went on a Sunday.

We did 18. Nice. Can't beat it.

Not that so.

And then they always at womp womp I'm
always I play a lot of music at Walmart.

So I do that.

I do there
nine and dines and things like that.

And I was just talking to I think it's Ed
on say I'm sorry if I don't know

my West Hartford womp people, but

he said, you know, let us know, you know,

get you're out there.

All right.

Yeah. Womp is great.

Yeah, I, I got a lot of friends.

I haven't been out there in a while.

Anthony I'm looking at you. Brooks.

Steve. Greg.

You know Billy Rick Wells, former
podcast guest.

You think you'd get me out there, right?
Yeah.

They're kind of obligated right now.

It's great.

So Canton High School,
what's up with Principal Drew?

I just, you know, it's funny,
I mentioned your name yesterday to him,

and he got me, so he said,

you know, the one thing he'll say,
I shouldn't say it, but it's off record.

But he said, if it
if the ball goes down to the post,

it's not coming back up.

So all facts there, drew,

you know,
the ball needs to go in the hoop, right?

Oh that's hilarious.

I could pass occasionally. That's funny.

If it doesn't if I
if I give it to him, it's not funny.

So true, so true. Oh.

That's hilarious.

No, he's a great point guard, too.

Yeah. Feisty coach on the court. Feisty.

Do you still play?

I haven't played since January.

I've been playing.

I played in this league
at the JCC for 17 years, and I played with

Drew on Thursday nights at Saint Bridges
and Red Brook on Sundays.

Withdrew. And then I have it.

I took take some time off for my knee
this knee injury.

Yeah.

So you how's your hoop game?

I love basketball, I'm just not that guy.

I'm more of a banger down low, you know?

But it it kind of ended

March 30th, 2020 I'm playing an old guys
rule Tuesday night.

Canton in the middle school
or in the CIS gym.

Breakaway.

Feel something back in my foot.

I thought someone like did something
and I couldn't move it.

Torn Achilles I haven't,
I haven't then that the world shut down.

Nine days later, I knew a guy.

He got me into a doctor.

He got to the surgery.
The doctor didn't even come in.

He quickly came in and said,
how are you doing?

How'd you do this? Boom. Did the surgery
the next day.

I did that on Thursday and Friday
the 13th.

I think the world like it all shut down.

Oh, that would have stunk.

You would have not been able to get it
for like nine months.

Did you feel like you got shot
or a rubber band broke?

You know what it felt like?

It felt like someone took a paddle of a
for a canoe and just wow, wow.

And then my brain, there was no pain.

So it's like you're sitting there
and I'm, like, tapping my foot.

I'm like, something's wrong.

Like my brain shut off any pain,
and then they're like, you okay?

I said, no, I can't move my leg.

I can't move my foot.

Yeah.

In about five minutes later, they're like,
yeah, you don't look too good.

I said, you know,
I don't feel too good either.

But but yeah.

So they got me in there like the next day,
which was amazing.

Grateful for that. Yeah.

But unfortunately the the hoop game.

I'm not dominating
the paint anymore right now.

No, my I have a little bone on bone
arthritis.

So I just got my knee drained
and a quarter zone shot.

It's been feeling great.
I walk backwards on the sled.

I do Spanish squats with the rubber band
behind the knee.

I walk backwards on the treadmill with it
off pushing.

Good for your knee, bad for the treadmill.

Swimming.

So all these things have been good.

So we'll see.

I'm possibly
might go back on the court, but

you got to ask yourself
is the juice worth squeezing?

My goodness, it's so much fun
playing though.

Yeah, I love the commodity camaraderie.

I like the razzing.

You know, Fini doesn't
pass. Fini doesn't play.

De fini fouls too much.

All that good stuff. Drew, we heard it.

We heard it before. Yeah. For sure.

And what about another canton, buddy?

Mario. Mario, be.

Well be. I'm not even I can't jelly. Yeah.

Can you spell it.

That's the thing b o u j

j a couple other j's.

Maybe a double L or something.

Something like that.

Funny thing, this past weekend,
there's a family whose leaving canton

and some another family through a
just a going away gathering.

And Mario was there spinning. Oh, nice.

And I had played womp Friday night,
so I didn't leave to like 930.

So I show up at 10:00
and it's going, it's.

And I'm like

like a backyard party. Yeah. This is it.

I mean, it was a beautiful location,
everything.

But you know, people were having fun
and they played until midnight.

Go to Mario.

It was I think it was prom weekend.

So I think the neighborhood
probably thought, oh, these meddling kids,

it's a prom.

But he he did such a good job
talking about, like, a talent.

That guy. Yeah.

I mean, he for nonstop
I was there for for that two hour run

and everybody was just dancing
because that's what he does.

He kept the party going to be.

Yeah. Coming up on 20 years.

He did my sister's wedding party
in my mom's backyard again.

Had the party jumping all night long.

Mario. He's great.

He just volunteered his time at a friend's
Afeni toy drive at Luna Pizza

this past December.
Had that party jumping.

Let me. He let me go on the.

You know, I didn't break anything,
so I did.

All right.

Now marries a great guy.

Was in the Army National Guard with him.

I guess he spoke about that
on Veterans Day.

So that's how drew met him
and he same thing he mentioned.

Oh, I know Feeny.

And Drew was like, drew didn't
hit him with the he doesn't pass.

But he said he's a good guy I guess.

Oh, and I work with Miley.

Alexa,

Alexa, she has two boys.

They play soccer at can
they may have graduated.

Yeah, they're really good. Yeah.

Really good soccer players.

Yeah. Yes yes yes. So they said hi.

I was like,
come on, give me something good about Ben.

She's like, I don't
I didn't have anything.

Yeah he's a good teacher. I'm like,
come on.

There you go. That's it.
Give me something else.

Yeah, they're they're very great kids,
but also great soccer players.

Nice, nice.

Anything else about teaching?

We talked about your favorite teacher.

22 years, ten and can.

Do you have the run?

Do you have 35? You.

That's my question to you.

You have 35.

It's getting harder and harder for sure.

Did you start right after college?

Did you have another job?

I did, I did, yeah, I started at 24,

so I'll be 67, 65 ish, maybe 30.

No, it's 37.5, right?

Oh, yeah. I don't think I'm not there.

We're 35.

We're pushing it. Yeah. 35.

So. And my girls are in college.

They have six years with that.

I'm doing the math.

I'm shooting for ten.

Yeah, but the goal is 15.

Okay.

Yeah. Oh. So you're you want the.

Yeah. Well, something else comes up.

I might I might look for a vice
principal jobs because I have my 092.

I'm my.

But I love my school.

I love my commute.

I love the community, my principal.

Everything's great. So.

Well that's.

What is your principal,
on the other hand a.

Canton's.

It's comfortable though.

It's really nice. It's cozy.

It's like when everybody you talk about

can everybody's like oh cantons,
nice schools, nice to enjoy.

Yeah, I have a lot of fun.

I do new things all the time.

If I did the same thing
then it would be for me.

I get to try new experiments
and like Lou Rickets

in the try doing trying things
a different way.

So that part, that's
what keeps it fun for me.

I'm constantly
trying to find new, new things to do. So

keep it going.

Keep it going.
No. Teaching is a great job.

Something different
every day. You never know.

You know, you gotta like, today

we had a kid upset over something,
so you had to calm the kid.

Then you have a kid
you want to give a compliment to.

Then you have a kid

that you want to give some redirection to
and just help them learn.

Because making mistakes
is part of learning all that good stuff.

I teach third grade.

So your high school,
my third grade teacher.

I still reach out to miss McDonald.

She'll say hi to me. She'll come to a show
every once in a while.

Come on. That's awesome.

Yeah.
You're like, that's my teacher. Yeah.

What if
I put your name in the Google machine?

What comes up?

I don't know, you're like a celebrity.

You've been on TV.

I have been on TV.

That's true.

I like did not experience.

Expect that at all. I'm like,
oh, let's look up.

You know Ben godwit.

Gow. It got it.

Yes. Go it.

Let's put him in. What? House hunters.

Come on HGTV
when you bought your can house.

Yes. Come on.

Yeah.

Just when you moved to another house
or something.

Okay. Yeah.

What was that experience like?
What was that year?

How'd you get find it?

What's going on here?

Well, you know, walking in here,

most people might be intimidated
by the camera.

Well, let me tell you, this is nothing.

Nothing? No. No HGTV.

It was awesome because they had a
team of like, it was a it was a full team.

So they had a person,
a couple camera guys.

They had a full on sound guy,
which was really interesting.

And he's a local Connecticut guy too.

I can't think of his name, but they wire
you up and and they have sign things and,

and you have to remind you like, hey,

you got to let me know
if you're going to a bathroom.

You know, all these little things
because you're on.

You're right. You have to tell people.

And but that was
an unbelievable experience.

My wife and I did that.

Melissa Carmen, a realtor.

Honestly, it was just the the whole idea.

And people have. So we'll say that.
Why did you do it? Yeah.

And because I said,
why not let everybody know my business?

Yeah.

Why not? Did you apply? Do you get paid?

How does that work?

We were. Our realtor was a Carmen.

She reached out,
so she said, and we're friends.

We're close with her and family
and things like that.

But she said, you know, if you guys,

I know you're looking.

If you do it.

I'd love for you to be the
the family that does this.

So that opportunity presented.

But then there's a whole process that,
you know, you sign things and

I don't know, but they
they want to see who you are too.

So you have a conversation like this
and they're, you know,

they coach you through
and they talk to you and they want to see

if you're just going to be a dud or
or maybe I mean, yeah.

Are they looking for drama
or are they looking for comedy?

What are we looking for?

You know, what I did notice is that that

there were stuff that they cut out
that was so funny,

but they had their recipe,
and that's what I noticed.

So, you know, they're the longest
running reality show on TV.

There's nothing longer than H. Come on.

That we were episode season 261,
episode 12 town Versus country.

So if you're listening now,
you know HGTV, you can get that. But,

I will say season 261.

That's like a lot
that's a lot of seasons, a lot of seasons.

And it continues.

So like there were things, you know,
I once I get going in front of a camera,

you do that for 5 or 6 days of
just getting used to it and,

you know, and getting more comfortable.

There were things that were said,
but they just they don't want that.

I can't speak for them.

I just know they have an elite show
and so they're going to do their recipe.

Episode 12.
You said episode 12. Yeah. Season two.

Season.

Town versus country in Connecticut.

And you can guess the house I bought.

I'm not going to say what town. Oh,

going on a limb here, but can Connecticut.

Yeah.

It was it was special.

And my daughters were on it. And my dog

my wife.

We even got my in-laws in there
and that, you know, it was it was cool.

You get 30 minutes

the whole show on the show, but
there was a lot of time put in to do that.

So it wasn't like
it wasn't 30 minutes of filming.

Oh of course, no way.

In the amount of effort and communication.

But the guys were so cool though.

So this the main guy,
the director, producer, whatever.

I'm sorry
if I don't know his name or the title,

but his thing he was,
they flew him in from Britain.

So he comes in
English accent already here like, well.

And he carries handwritten little leather
binder and he talks, you know,

you know, and you say something
and I'll write it down

and he shares ideas and like he
he was like, real deal.

It felt like you were with someone
that was like,

this guy knows what he's like.

The the big Irish guy that goes into
the restaurant and call it a dump, Wow.

So when did that air?

It aired in September of this year.

Yeah. Oh, 2025 at aired.

And so.

And how
about the students in the community.

How do they react?

Like like we had a
we had a quiet watch party.

Initially
we thought we were going to do this like,

you know,
welcome to the neighborhood party.

And then we were like,

I don't think we don't because
you don't know what they're going to do.

They don't know how
they're going to spin it.

Maybe they have a side conversation of me
and Erica on the mic, you know,

because it's theirs, right?

And there were a couple when you're house
hunting.

Yeah.

But the community embraced it.

I still have people
that will come up to me and be like, Mr.

got the kids.

We watched your eyes on my mom and I.

We thought it was hilarious or whatever.

And then my wife, you know, she has people
come up there and she's like,

I was watching.
We didn't even know you were on it.

You know what I mean? And that's awesome.

That's great.

Ever at the
the store and you're like, hey, I saw you.

Yeah.

Some people will come in, you know,
and it helps

to just kind of start conversation,
make you seem a little

more interesting.

Maybe, you know, for the sake of even
my music world sometimes.

Did you jazz it up at all?

Because, you know, you're on camera
or you tried to remain calm and normal?

Yeah.

You they they kind of say you have to
just be yourself

and eventually you realize you can't.

It's just too much time, you know?

And you do have real conversations
about parts fun,

you know, because you're seeing things
for the first time now.

Did they push you
in a direction of a house

or that was strictly the real estate agent
and they are just filming it

authentically.

So everything
Melissa took care of everything.

And then we kind of,
you know, they have to come

and they do a lot of like there's
a lot of stuff that they do prior to that.

You know, I don't even know what they do,
but they're filming things outside above.

They got drones,
I think, I think B-roll and traffic and.

Yeah,

jeez.

That's awesome. So here's the question.

Are you going to watch the episode?

Of course, of course I wish.

You got to get the HGTV. It's
hard. You don't. Oh, yeah.

I don't know if it's not on YouTube.

Yeah, you can get it on. Yeah.

So you're good
YouTube TV or just regular YouTube TV?

Okay.

95 bucks a month, I think that is.

I just cut that. Yeah, we'll find it.

Yeah, it's about the budget.
You know, I got.

I got a box, I got a I got this super box.

Get whatever you want. Plug it in box.

Keep that on the low.

Don't tell anybody coming up.

It's like hard because I just kind of,

you know, you start budgeting,
you look at things you're like,

during

Yukon season, I got to watch, I got,
I got to put it on.

So I'm not going to miss a game or,
you know, but it's a pain.

Like they're on like ten different
channels.

Even the Knicks or the Yanks.

You gotta like, are they on NBC,
ABC, ESPN, Hulu, Peacock or Amazon?

Yeah. That's crazy. You don't know.

Yeah. So World Cup coming up.

So I don't know maybe a little or YouTube.

World Cup, world Cup

and then you are.

Oh where where do we meet Johnny's John.

Johnny shot.

You know, I don't know how many years ago
I started doing that.

Initially, we started over by slim.

Is a school.

Is there a school? Planners? No.
That's something.

What's the school?

Elementary school.

That's like old in West Hartford.

Kind of in that web hill, Webster Hill?

No, I can't think of that.

It was near downtown like that.

Sedgwick. Oh, yeah. Oh, okay.

So initially we did a couple shows there
and, you know, they reached out and said,

hey, you know, we had a friend shout out
to Lou and Mandy Di Loretto, you know.

But if they're friends of the Johnny's
jog, their friends.

So she called me up and said
they're looking for music for that.

And I said, this sounds like an awesome,
you know, thing to do.

So they put us over by Sedgwick and
we played and we did that for a few years.

And then I said, hey, why don't
you put us at the end in the start?

Like we can hype them up a little,
we can talk it out and kind of build it

up. And and they tried it
and it's it's really been successful.

How long have you been at the start now.

I think probably four years.

Oh wow. For years now. Yeah.

So got our picture right here.

Me and Ben I saw the can hat. Boom.

I was like, hey, do you know Mario?

Do you know drew?

First question. Nice hat.

And then here we are.

And then teacher, I was like,
oh, this guy's a teacher and a rock star.

It's got to be a good podcast guest.

Well, thank you for those nice things.

I didn't know he was a TV star, too. Yeah.

Yeah.

We've been helping the Johnny's job
with the photo booth

for maybe 10 to 15 years in the back
right corner.

And then they picked three non-profits,
and they always pick a fourth

one for their Clover Club,
and they picked friends of one year.

So that completely catapulted
our organization.

Mike O'Meara, that does the Jimi Hendrix.

His dad was a podcast guest recently.

Rob great guy.

Yeah he is.

We talked Pearl jam.

Oh, he's a Pearl jam guy. Got it.

Acoustic Marsh, Marsh pit.

Where is that from?

You know, you kind of get it.

Initially we were in a band
I've been playing for like 30 years now.

So like 18, 19 I started
and that kind of puts where I am.

Class of 95
I see right in the heart of it.

So we were in a band called old Marsh,
which is a reservoir in

Bristol, borders terrible Bristol.

But you know, the name helped locally.

And then we started playing
and playing and playing.

We got bigger and bigger and then
the next thing you know, we were playing

and we're young, you know, but
we're still called old Marsh in the early.

So then we're going
to change to the marsh.

But we still called ourselves old Marsh.

But from a marketing standpoint,
we're like, we're the marsh.

Yeah, we're not the Marshall
old Marshall Tucker.

Something like that.

So we start playing
and then it's it's 1999 now or 2000.

Right.

And there's crowds and we're
playing things that are a lot of energy.

And we didn't have marsh pits.
We had marsh.

I like it.

So we'd say come in the marsh pit.

And you know, people
kind of identified with that.

But then, you know, you get old,
you hit those mid to late 20s

and you start realizing teaching
and the rock star life

are not a perfect match,
at least time wise.

It's a lot.

So it kind of took a little break.

I started a few other things,

and then one of the other guys said, hey,
you want to start playing again?

Just on the side.

So yeah, and we started doing it.

I said, well,
why don't we call it acoustic Marsh pit?

And it kind of stuck,
but then I start playing and I didn't

like being the guy in the corner

because I always, you know,
you got to grab that attention.

So we start promoting it and promoting it,

and then we start playing huge shows again
and from big crowds.

I love it and doing fun things.

So we're back full swing,
but we're not original for the most part.

We're just playing fun, fun party music.

Was the whole crew there at Johnny's
Jug full band?

No. Okay.

There are three of us.

That day we just played Talkin Mountain
Collective in Simsbury.

Oh, yeah.

And what day was that?

First night.
That was the Memorial Day. Friday.

So we kicked off summer. Oh, nice. There.

And we're back
there. We'll do one in the fall.

Last September. Last Friday in September.

Flannel Friday.

Oh, it's coming right.

Flannel Friday.

Little Pearl jam chains.

Maybe a little wet.

Last September, when?

What about.

Upcoming events?

Do you have any other thing before that?

September.

I think June 13th. It's a Saturday.

I am playing at

a golf course in Hawks Landing.

Okay,
so I think ten. Yeah, that's a big one.

The beautiful outside shell show.

So that's part of part of that.

And then I am playing kinsman
I believe for like some type of sea

or ocean food, like things

like 12 on June 20th
that when I say it's a Saturday.

So Saturday, June 29th,
he checked my phone and I thought

that one is like starts at noon
and we go through four.

But I'm booked like in June and all of
June, like either 2 or 3 shows a weekend.

So I'm playing after that one
to a lot of private events, nice events.

That's my way. There we go.

Graduation parties fiftieths, believe it
or not, are a big thing for people

our age. It's around the corner.
That's it.

And it's like. It's
almost like a perfect storm right now.

Because if I play a 50th,

someone else, someone else
is going to be turning 50 in that crowd.

Oh, and then it's
right in their wheelhouse.

So they're playing this song in 30 years,
right?

Or, you know, just the vibe
when you play that kind of music.

But then also all the kids graduating,

when I play graduation parties,
the kids could care less.

The parents are like, oh, this is awesome.

Do you play?

I get knocked down,
but I get up again like that.

But closing time.

So sometimes it just me acoustic,
sometimes it's so it's not like this

heavy, heavy stuff coming at you.

So a lot of it is that acoustic flavor
of like a duo,

in this fun.

So mostly 90s, 90s country 2000.

I mean, really, you have to play
what's the trick?

Mumford and sons and and Lumineers,

you know, and I'll try to sneak in a song,
like, a couple years ago.

Shibu. Oh, yeah.

And then if you don't play country, people
just get mad these days, they're like.

You don't.

How dare you? Kenny Chesney,
you know what I mean?

So how do you remember all the songs?

I don't, you know what I mean?

In terms of, like,

lyrics, it's really hard and time wise,
and I respect anybody who can.

So there are people
that do have the rolling iPad thing.

Yeah.

I don't I will use an iPad
for words or lyrics when I need to.

A lot of times it just comes back,

like you start going with a song,
you're like, I'm, I get it, I remember it.

And then other times, like,

I don't know how many times
you get the Wagon Wheel request, right?

And I mean, I've sang that.

I've had that song maybe way
too many times, which is common, but

occasionally you just screw up the words
and it happens down to Tennessee.

Yeah. Waterbury. Yeah.

That was are the things that are.

It's fun to play
that kind of those parties are.

That's really my wheelhouse.

So that I just booked two yesterday, two

new shows in June and days I had off. But

gotta make that money.

Gotta go at it,
gotta go at it. Summertime.

Yeah, man,
we got to get you out of Friends of Event.

We should.

Come on.

We gotta work it out.

We'll make it happen.

September 12th SA Golf tournament,

second Saturday in September.

Maybe.

Maybe we can do something like look it up.

I can, I can check and see.

It's around the wife's birthday.

Oh yeah. I can't have that. That one.

You always have to be.

But you don't mind if I do that?

Yeah.

Look, real quick.

I am playing in the morning.

I'm playing in Groton.

Oh, that day for a brew

run down for the city of run
down to Brighton.

Okay, that's the mystic chamber
of something or other.

I don't know, I had this great question.

I can't find it.

Where is it?

You answered?

Yeah.

How did it get started?

Boom! Where the name come from? Boom.

How would the transition from old marsh
to acoustic marsh pit boom.

How do you keep it lineup together? Boom!

This is great.

You answer the questions. I even ask them.

Oh, what if.

Come on, where is it?

It's the greatest question of all time.

If you had to pick in West Hartford

three songs,

three dudes and a pizza,
what are your three songs?

Who are your three dudes
and where are you getting the pizza?

Three songs

to play or just to jam out to your jams?

My jams?

Definitely love
Yellow Ledbetter, Pearl jam.

Okay,

I would

probably choose an original song
called I'm that I wrote.

Okay.

To do your own music. Is it on Spotify?

It isn't on Spotify.

Come on, you gotta get that on Spotify.

It's on. Hey,

Napster. Napster.

I'm like, I am. Yeah.

So it's a really good song. It's it.

I think it screams 2001.

I'll call it, you know, around that era,
that's when it was written.

We used to do a lot of
original music played, you know,

with at that time we were playing with
like play with De La Soul.

Come on, letters of Cleo.

Nice sponge Street credit.

I got to throw that out.

De la.

Yeah, I love de la soul.

That's great.

But back to that third song.

Jeez, any Zeppelin?

I love LED Zeppelin too, so.

All right, so you got a Zeppelin?

I'm, well, yellow led better.

And then pizza.
Where are you getting your pizza?

Anywhere in the world.
Anywhere in the world?

Yeah, well.

Ironically,
we just went down to it in New Haven

the other day,
and I went to this place in North Haven.

Saint Paul's and Pies. Oh, yeah.

I don't even know East Haven.

West Haven was North Haven.

I want to say it's the parties.
The parties?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I went there.

Top five, top five. You're up there?

Yeah. I grew up in Bristol.

A lot of good pizza, a lot of good pizza.

Chunky tomato.

Oh, I heard that one before.

But there's West End
pizza was growing up.

That's Greek style pizza.

Which in Bristol pizza.

These pizzas, you know, square cut.

You know, West End was all cash. Cash,

cash is king. Cash

cash rules.

Yeah. Pizza.

I'm a big fan of pizza.
So I went to Ecuador.

My wife's from Ecuador and we went to
Ecuador once for five weeks.

The first thing I did, we landed
in an American airport, I bought pizza.

You think you don't?

I don't know if you've ever been away
from pizza for a long time.

You haven't had it five weeks.

Yeah. If you go five weeks without pizza,
you're like, really?

Okay. Yeah.

I don't know how long it's been.

I've never gone. Maybe even a week.

Five weeks.

Yeah, I'm going to try that.

It's omnipresent
even if you don't want to.

If you don't want pizza,
just knowing it's there,

someone's going to bring it and be like,
oh, we're just gonna get a couple pies.

Yeah, I got an extra slice.

Yeah, I'm not gonna finish this.

You're gonna finish pizza.

Pizza?

It's big
if you say you're from Connecticut.

Oh, you know, they're talking pizza,
but in Bristol's got good pizza.

I always say that I like Greek style
pizza, too.

I do, not just the New York
or I'm sorry, babe

in style phase and and the end.

Pizza is good too.

Where's that Bristol. No, that's in a

pizza.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, a b c pizza.

I like a b a b c pizza in Collinsville,
Connecticut okay.

Yeah. Never had that one either.

Pizza.

Think about all the pizza places.

You easy to many.

All right. You see,
what about your three dudes who like.

Oh, dead or alive celebrities.

We're doing two celebrities. Eddie Vedder.

You're a big Pearl jam guy. Yeah,
I got it. I would love to.

You know the reason why?

It's because there's nothing he can't do.

And he's turned into a just a person
that's going to help the world.

I mean, there's nothing more to do.

Is he the guy that climbed the stage
crew to get the mic?

No wires, no wires.

That was the craziest thing
I've ever seen.

And he, like, hung upside
down with his feet to untangle it.

And then.
Okay. That's him. He's a philanthropist.

He's just. Now. What do you do?

There's nothing you haven't done.

You just want to make the world
a better place and be nice.

It'd be interesting to do that.

Shaq.

I I'm fascinated with Shaq, I love him.

Probably if Shaq ran for president,
I think he would win.

He is the.

It just seems like such a nice guy.

And what he does for kids. Oh yeah.

You watch those videos I sometimes
a lot of times like holy College Shaq.

You know he'll buy something at Walmart
for everyone.

Just amazing dude.

Yeah he is
he is an amazing I told my daughters

I'm like right him a letter and send them
your your your graduation date or a card.

He'll send you something signed.

Like even if you don't want to give it to
me, I don't want something from Shaq.

And so I wonder, how does a guy like that?

Where does he get time,

right?

I mean, he can't walk anywhere
and everywhere he does.

He takes time to,
you know, that privacy is going.

You know how he could even he can do that.

But yeah, definitely. Shaq.

Yeah.

Probably I'm a big sports guy.

Babe Ruth I got it. I gotta say it,
I gotta say it.

Babe Ruth just I like it,

say like, what made you so different
just to find that out?

Like, how did you do this? Yeah.

How did you even,
you know, with that swing,

the the lifestyle is in some ways like,
how did you do this?

Yeah, he's out of a cartoon.

To hit bombs, drink beer,

eat steaks, and do it at a level
where no one could do it.

Yeah, no one was doing it. Yeah.

Crazy.

Anyone else you want to add?

I know I said three.

We'll give you four if you want.

Shaq, Babe Ruth, Eddie Vedder.

Yeah, that will go with those for now.

Got it. Quick little rapid fire. On topic.

Oh, favorite band of all time, Pearl jam.

Boom.

Favorite 90s song?

I probably know this answer to.

Oh, go ahead.

She's favorite. It's hard for me.

You know what I like?

Plush Stone Temple Pilots.

Oh, I know that one.

I do that acoustic for anybody.

If you come watch for me,

put in that request.

I think I know this one. Acoustic guitar.
Electric guitar.

Never played an electric boom.

Too easy.

Hence the name Dream venue to play.

Where would you want to be?

Let's say dream venue.

Dream artist to play with.

Like like I feel it's realistic and
it's on my list G love and special sauce.

Oh, so I'm going to say that
I think I would hit it nice.

Not that we're the same music, but I old
I got to throw the connection ready.

I'm the one person away.

I'm always that one person away.

Yeah, my next door neighbor's wife,

college
roommate is married to the bassist.

Come on, you're in.

You're in.

Come on. That's almost a guarantee.

He's.

I don't know how he does it.
I've been to a bunch of cheap love shows.

My music really isn't like his at all,
but I just.

I mean, he's, like,
kind of like a fun show to watch.

Amazing.

Well, you send this to the neighbor,
send this to G love.

Yeah. Come on, let's do it.

What's your most requested song, Laura?

And Rich, by the way,
that's the Lauren Rich

most requested song that you're like.

People yell, play, play Freebird.

No. The commercial.

Yeah.

So I mean, obviously depending
on the venue, you know what I mean?

You get a lot of Wagon Wheel.

You do, you do.

But I would say once they catch on
to us, they like songs like,

blister in the sun.

Oh, you know, that would be
I want to do that song.

Not that many lyrics.

I think I could pull that one off someday
if I come to a show.

Can I sing that with you on stage?

Absolutely. Shake.

When I'm gonna walk in, I start, right?

Am I in?

Is this a tryout? Did I pass? That's it.

I'm so strong out.

I'm high as a kind.

I just might

let me go on. Close your eyes, Stephanie.

Who do I sound like?

Let me go on.

All right.

What song do you wish
you wrote or had written?

Oh, wow.

What song I wish I wrote, Oh, obviously.

Stairway to Heaven. Oh, classic.

There's, like, a stigma around that,
so I'm over that.

You know that Wayne's World too long.

It's like the. It's so

just it's special.

Every component of it. There's
not going to be another song like that.

And how did that even get written?

It doesn't make sense, right?

It's just like it is pretty,
pretty darn good.

What's one word to describe acoustic?

Marsh pit?

Boom.

Boom.

That's our rapid fire.

Anything else about acoustic marsh pit?

We got two things.

Yeah, I, I can say with acoustic marsh,

but I never thought during the pandemic,
when I,

when all that happened,
I started doing these live shows

on Facebook and then I started doing them.

And some of them are getting like 19,000
views and people are showing it.

And what happened at that time,

even though I wasn't playing bars
and things like that.

So it kind of transitioned into this idea.

Now I just do private events
and I just tell people,

like when I play, I'm like,
thank you so much.

If you like what you hear,
check us out on social media, Instagram,

and thank you in advance
for hiring me for your graduation party.

Smart.

But it's like it's a way to plug things
because people want that.

People love life, music they want
they enjoy their yards more now than ever.

Right?
Yeah. Beautiful yard, beautiful setup.

It's like, why not have a little event?

It's not crazy.

It's like this guy doing acoustic music,
you know?

So I never thought that I would be playing
as much as I am

in the style that I'm playing.

Like, my stage sometimes is just a
little patio, but those are the the most.

Yeah. What about June 19th? Juneteenth?

Are you busy?

Come on. June 19th, which is a fry.

Yeah. Friday.

I'm. I'm I'm booked.

Double
or triple booked all the way through

through June and

into my fourth and playing the seaside,

beach club and the cool man,
that would have been cool.

My daughter's graduation, backyard,
doing a guitar, maybe.

Option B, DJ Mario.

Yeah, I think that would be he can hit.

He can hit everything.

Yeah.

Oh, classic.

No, he's he's not option B, actually,
he was my first option.

Mario, if you're listening.

What about. Oh.

Let me shout out some sponsors.

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We got Brooke law Brooke Gough
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Shout out
Sara float 41. She was our honoree.

She's a veteran owned business.
You ever do a float?

My brother in law and my wife has
I just had her.

Gotta try, gotta try.

I hook you up.

I feel like you gotta turn off.

Yeah,
I know you know what I'm saying, right?

That's the thing. I'm there.

It's just like, oh, it's just watch too
many of those, you know, can scroll

and talk to the crowd.

You know, I just recently found someone,
you know, you you get in the rabbit

hole of watching things in social media.

Some guy was like,
if you can't sit for five minutes,

just sit there, think for five minutes,
try it.

Shake that challenge.
So I do that now. Smart.

It's a form of like meditation.
Absolutely.

But just sit there.

We're overstimulated for sure.

And, it's challenging, you know.

And I noticed two students
attention spans are, I swear, shortening

because of the technology and the always
needed to be engaged and stimulated.

Yeah.

A couple other shout outs to people's
Bank, American Eagle

Financial Credit Union,
Parkville Management,

the JCC.

Luna Pizza,

talking about pizza
Luna Pizza's my guy Alex on Farmington.

And then.

I think that's it, but New England.

No. No. West Hartford lock.

So with West Hartford Lock, what are three
keys that make you a great lead

lead singer and guitarist
for the acoustic Marsh pit?

Yeah.

So my guitar skills,
you come and watch me, and,

you know, some people watch
and they know my skills.

I can play a mean rhythm.

You know, I almost play percussion.

You know, I strum my rhythm.

So my guitar player is playing
is not a lead.

It's solid.

And I've been doing it for so long,
and I can play a lot of stuff.

Right. So you're not.

I'm not going to blow you away with that.

But I'm not trying to. I'm
an entertainer. More so.

So that leads into singing.

I can take a crowd
that doesn't want to dance.

I can make them dance.

I can make them sing in a positive way.

Like, you know, like, hey, take a step
forward or what do you want to hear?

I could probably play 13 seconds
of that song, you know, engagement.

So it's really it's not
how good you sound sometimes it's.

Are you engaging? Are you, are you.

Hey, I'm going to do this song.

And like, I used to play this place up
at the Red lion up in Stockbridge.

Oh, yeah.

Lee mass. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, yeah. Lee mass, you're up there.

And I realized
people didn't care what they wanted.

Anecdotal stuff about, you know,
you strumming like you're on the way up.

Yeah. So I do here.

Johnny
Cash used to frequent this location,

but. Yeah.

And so my voice, you know,
it took me a while.

And one of the guys in my band, Jeremy,
the bassist,

you know, bassist Noel really cares about,
you know,

he said Van Sing when we used to do

like songs like by AC, DC,
he said, sing it how you sing.

People don't want to hear you
try to sing like AC, DC.

They like your voice.

So it was more of a confidence thing
of being able

to accept that people
like I was more of a sports guy.

I didn't sing, so you're not I'm not
a guy in the choir or anything like that.

I started singing
and then it evolved into bigger things, so

I had to learn how to say thank you
and accept, like, oh, I can sing.

I can sound really good,
you know what I mean?

So, and I accept that now
when people say, I say, thank you so much.

You know, I do try hard.

I do work at it,
you know, and stuff like that.

All right, all right.

Engage the crowd.

Yeah.

Definitely engaging entertainer.

Entertainer I love it.

Was that was that three.

It was three keys bro.

Come on. You gave me one and a half. No

no I can't wait.

I'm going to go to one of your shows.
I was definitely at the Johnny's jog.

I'm all for it with acoustic marsh pit.

So you got some things coming up
your wife owns?

We got Kendrick and Kindred
and crew and Simsbury.

And then where's this first pop
roasting company going?

So Kendrick and crew.

Can I talk about that? Yeah.

Of course.

So Kendrick and crew, boutique for women,

beautiful women's clothing,
jewelry, gifts and things.

Nice.

And right near the Starbucks and Simsbury
or popovers

restaurant
up there near the ice rink and harvest.

Yeah. Yeah, kinda. Hoops and hops.

Yeah. Around there.

A little closer in terms of Avon.

Closer to Avon, but.

Okay. Okay.

Fitzgerald's around there.

Oh, yeah. Yeah,
little past that, but. Yeah.

How long has that been open?

So it opened in during the pandemic.

So nice started
and can she transitioned there.

And we kind of just turned into a major
like we've morphed rebranded a little.

And she's done an unbelievable job.

Owning a store is a lot of work.

Yeah a lot of work.

There are so many facets like amazing,
amazing.

I, I watch her
and I wish I could be like her sometimes.

Like how

resilient just just doing everything
and changing and dedicated.

It's so much.

But yeah, it's a great start.

Beautiful things.

Gifts you need a gift.

Graduation gifts, graduation gifts. Nice.

We have beautiful.

What about website or Instagram?

What kindred and crew
and kindred and crew on

Instagram as well.

Where did that name come from?
Kindred and crew.

It comes from family and friends.

So the idea is like, you can come in,
you buy for yourself, like housewarming

gifts, guest warming,
you know, like when people host

gifts, candles, jewelry.

Love it.

And I will be checking it out.

She's got clothes.

Get the Friends of Feeny discount.

Friends of Feeny discount or no.

You can talk to their boss.

But that's fine.

Oh, so our models. Be a good friend.

Hold the door, pick up trash,
give compliments, be charitable.

I know she's your wife,
but what makes her a good friend?

And this is for you.

Geez, you kind of touched on it
a little bit hard working.

She puts up with your mess.

She put on. Obviously.

I don't know why she does.
That's the question.

How many more things
can I do wrong, right?

But yeah, she's always there for us.

And like from a mother's standpoint,
you know, she's she's the one that's

kind of elevated me in terms of saying,
hey, you can do this show.

You can't.

Like, she's really into, like,
motivating yourself,

like believing you can and telling people
and surrounding yourself with people.

Yes, I like it.

She doesn't she doesn't
want me to be around knuckleheads.

Yeah.

And so she's helped me say, okay,
I'm going to choose

to put myself in a position to be around
positive energy.

Yeah, positive self-talk.

And surround your people around yourself
with good people.

Yeah.

And she's like, you know,
sounds like we should double date. Yeah.

My, did we be did we just become best
friends?

Stepbrothers?

I'll tell you what.

You know where I'll go in in West
Hartford.

I'll go down to harvest.

I'd like I got a gift card, let me know.

Yeah, yeah.

I love that place. Okay.

Yeah, we go all the time in general.

I mean,

when you go down here
and there's so much energy, so much.

They do love it.

Well, we got to wrap up a first pop
roasting first.

Pop roasting is a new endeavor for me.

It's really all about,

roasting coffee
and doing it in an approachable way.

There's some educational components
and some coffee drops

that are going to be happening.

This is something that's in the works
right now, but really important.

It's on Instagram.

I just this is all in the works,
but I figure I mention it,

but it's a real thing.

Me moving forward to it.

So it's more with a, it's
more of a component of there's people

that are are curious about coffee
roasting, but they're intimidated.

And my job being a teacher 22 years
and the biology behind it

and all the science is
I feel I can give this,

I talk to people about coffee
roasting and offer

significantly more once it's ready,
but I can't reveal all that information.

But it's gonna be.
I cannot wait for you to.

Why is First Pop significant?

And what's that name? What's that? Really?

How does that relate to coffee and stuff?

So first pop,
one of the things when you roast coffee is

you use your senses
and one of the senses is you're hearing.

And when it reaches
you're roasting your coffee.

So let's say it's
roasting for ten minutes. Eight minutes.

All of a sudden you'll hear like popcorn.

And we call it first crack. Right?

The problem with first crack is
you can't open a coffee affiliated thing

saying its first crack coffee.

It just doesn't know cream crack is whack.

So first pop.

So yeah.

So first pop roasting is actually what
it's called its first pop roasting cola.

That's the Instagram
handle Facebook handle.

And it's just starting now.

So when we listen to this
get on file people.

If you do if you do you're on it.

So it's just the beginning.

So first pop roasting company.

Yeah yeah.
You're going to give an education.

There's chemistry physics behind it.

You'll have flavors.
Will you do a espresso. Yeah.

So the concept behind it is just learning
a lot about the process of roasting.

So like there's so much
I could sit here and talk for hours on it.

But it's really about
you don't know much about roasting, but

you come with me and you watch my videos
and we do all this stuff.

We're going to get you roasting
at least wanting to roast.

I invite you, I'm in.

Would you roast me? Absolutely.

Okay. Are you going to turn it?

It's going to be like a YouTube
or Instagram Reels and stuff.

Yeah, I have all. Yep. I'm roasting.

Roasting on YouTube. First roasting.

Okay. Instagram. Facebook. Very cool.

One of my

friends, one of my coworkers, her husband
every morning brews a coffee, plays

an album, comes out, shows

the album, gets the fresh
coffee, talks about it.

It's like every morning.

So I've been watching that.

Now I actually
I have coffee for you in my car.

Oh, I love it.
I drink coffee, but the coffee.

I just roasted this about six days ago.

Pink bourbon.

You drink it like a tea.

So it's a medium light roast.

No milk.

You have a grinder?

Yeah, yeah.

You just treat it like regular coffee.

You just try to drink it.

Look at it.

It's not going to be this.

It's it's world.

I'm in a little, little sources
and some acids in it.

You'll love it. All right. I'm interested.
This is great.

Oh come on. Homework and to go gifts.

Come on. This is getting better
and better.

You gave me a mega I got it, I got it.
I gotta give you something.

I have some coffee.

Oh, I gotta get something.

You got twin girls? Twins.

This is Pink Flamingo.

Shout out to Pink Flamingo.

They hooked us up at the parade.

Maybe I'll give you a couple extra

for some students that earn it,
but we'll let you.

These are pink Flamingo shadow for Pink
Flamingo.

Always sponsoring us.

I want to any close remarks?

You know, I just want to say that
I think it's great.

The more people I talk to about you,
you do good things.

Thank you.

Complements the positive stuff.

So this is one of these things, right.

When I talk about my wife positive energy.

You're the guy. Yeah. You're the guy.

Let's let's continue
this partnership and collaboration.

I'm going to come sing.

I'm going to come roast.

We'll hang out a harvest and we'll golf.

Golf.

We're going to connect
somehow in golf at Wamp.

My brother.

Oh, Avon.

Yeah, yeah.

Go into Avon.

Bumps and elbows there too.

I like it, I like it.

Oh, I got this to be friends. Afeni.

Podcast sticker.

Any clothes? Remarks?

Did I already ask that?

Closing remarks.

We talked about house hunters.
We talked about teaching.

We talked about kindred and crew.

First pot roasting, acoustic marsh pit.

Man. You're busy.

People always say, oh, you're so busy,
you're so busy, I like it.

Staying busy keeps you out of trouble.

No dust collecting.
That's it. No dust collecting.

You just gotta keep on going.

I don't know, sometimes you ask people
to do things and they say they're tired.

I'm like, yeah, I had a long day.

I got stuck in traffic

my day,

you know, walk the dog, work out,
go to school.

I'm going to talk at a board of Ed meeting
in a little bit,

just to brag about the school
and my daughters.

You can stand up and do that. Yeah.

Shout out Sierra.

Shout out my guy Ben.

Episode 172 go it back
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