Harmonic Highways: A Musical Tribute to America's Mother Road

Every journey has its soundtrack, and my latest chat with Wayne Richard is like a melody weaving through the heartland of America. From Chicago's bustling streets to the serene lifestyle of The Villages, Florida, Wayne's story is a testament to the power of music and its ability to shape our lives. We explore his baseball-filled childhood, his foray into the world of radio and back to the strings and keys that define his spirit. Listen in as Wayne shares charming tales of Mackinaw Island, his unexpected role as an improv comedy accompanist, and how these experiences have composed the unique symphony of his life.

The spirit of Route 66 beckons, and within this episode lies the tribute to the cultural icon that has connected countless souls across the states. I recount the story of a man whose dedication sparked a movement to preserve the Mother Road, weaving the nostalgia of this historic pathway with our own adventures on its asphalt. Imagine the taste of Ted Drew's legendary shakes and the quirky encounters that turn a road trip into a treasure trove of memories. And if the open road calls to you, don't miss the details of the upcoming performance at Morgan Junction—our musical homage to Route 66 that's sure to stir the wanderlust in your soul.

Our final leg of this auditory road trip cruises through the lanes of family memories, the peculiarities of regional dialects, and the quirks that paint the American linguistic landscape. From the comical mispronunciations of 'Kissimmee' to adopting 'y'all' as an endearing term, these tales highlight the joyous connections we forge. Join us as we laugh, reminisce, and marvel at the rich tapestry of speech that binds us, all while celebrating the unity and discovery that podcasting brings into our lives. Tune in, and let's share the laughter and the language of our grand American mosaic.

Transcript

Emily: 0:10

Welcome to the Open Forum in the Villages Florida podcast. In this show we talk to leaders in the community, leaders of clubs and interesting folks who live here in the villages to give perspectives of what is happening here in the villages Florida. We hope to add a new episode most Fridays at 9am. We are a listener supported podcast. There will be shoutouts for supporters and episodes. As a supporter you will get a direct email link to Mike. In season 5 we are making significant improvements and changes on an ongoing basis.

Mike Roth: 0:40

Now you can help me afford to keep making this podcast by becoming a supporter. First, a quick note about the podcast. It's available because I absolutely love doing it, despite the fact that it cost me probably more time than I can actually afford. Now I can't buy back my time, but there is one thing that you can do that would be really helpful, and that is help me to afford making this podcast. You can do that by going to the website, open forum in the villages dot com and clicking on the supporter box. You're making a small donation of $3 to $10 a month and you can cancel at any time. Really, a small donation of $3 will still make a difference and I'd really appreciate it.

Mike Roth: 1:22

But if you can't afford to do that, I completely understand it's economically tough times for a lot of people. But there is something that you can do for free that can really help. If you want to. You can rate the podcast. You can give it 5 stars or maybe even give it a review on whatever podcast application you're using. That will make a huge difference because we will be discovered by more people. If you're able to do that, we would massively appreciate it and it would help keep this podcast going in 2024.

Emily: 1:54

If you have a book that you would like to turn into an audiobook, let us know via email to mike at Rothvoicecom. Hope you enjoy today's show.

Mike Roth: 2:06

This is Mike Roth on Open Forum in the villages, florida. I'm here today with Wayne Richard. Thanks for joining me, wayne, thank you. Wayne is a musical phenom. I'm a what An unusually gifted, talented music guy.

Wayne Richards: 2:21

Unusual. I understand If did.

Mike Roth: 2:24

Wayne has been recently been accompanying us in the improv shows on his keyboard and I'll never forget the first thing he said to me when we were practicing. He said Mike, what key are your players going to sing in? I found out very quickly. We sing in the key of I for improvised.

Wayne Richards: 2:44

Yeah, I can't find the right key. That's what it means.

Mike Roth: 2:47

Most of them don't know what it means.

Wayne Richards: 2:49

No, I tried thinking of different ways of doing it. Maybe have everybody sing their songs at the same key, but that didn't work either, because they all have different reference point in their ears, so I pretty much gave up on that idea.

Mike Roth: 3:02

Yeah, everyone sings in the key of I.

Wayne Richards: 3:04

Yeah, just let them go for it, right, I'll find them, I'll follow them.

Mike Roth: 3:08

Yeah, and they'll change in middle of the song. Yes, they do. It's part of the humor of improv, it's part of the whole deal. Right, Ray, why don't you tell us listen? There's a little bit about your background before you got here to the villages.

Wayne Richards: 3:22

Well, I grew up in Chicago, sort of in the shadow of Wrigley Field, a 20-minute train ride. So I grew up very passionate about baseball, being a Cub fan. It was great to come here to the villages. Eventually I'll tell you about that in a second. I grew up the first 10 years in Rogers Park and by the time I was 10 years old I started to gravitate towards music. I didn't know what I wanted to do really. I was thinking well, maybe I can sing, I can play piano, I can write.

Mike Roth: 3:50

Yeah, we don't have a piano in this room.

Wayne Richards: 3:52

No, but I also thought about other things. I thought about radio and I actually went through the whole McGill of talking to some of the big names in Chicago radio, visiting with them and getting the low down of what the career involves. And that immediately sent me back to music, because at least with music I was always making some kind of money. Then I studied theater. I was a theater major for two years over at what it's not Columbia College, but it's sort of a division of it. It's called Loop College. It's in Chicago, and I went there because they had a very specific coach that I wanted to work with.

Wayne Richards: 4:29

And if you get into his personal class, he will help you find work and he'll personally train you. And I was just about on the cusp of getting into that situation when the Navy came along. So I wound up in the Navy for six years and after that I had a seesaw relationship between the city and the suburbs and I worked in full-time music. And then, lo and behold, the opportunity came along to start scoring some films.

Mike Roth: 4:55

Wow, how'd you get that A squad to a film?

Wayne Richards: 4:58

I had a single that I released called Mackinaw Dreams. It's about Mackinaw Island, which is a beautiful, wonderful travel destination, tourist spot. No cars, no motor-driven vehicles, just very, very peaceful setting. I've been there a couple of times, yeah. Horse-drawn carriages and everything. I worked there for an entire season. Did you, what did you do there? I performed.

Wayne Richards: 5:23

Oh, you know I can't ride a horse Actually I can, but that was a long time ago. I had a wonderful time at the beginning of the year because it was new. It was fresh, new sensations, new people, new experiences. And then by the time I was there at the end of the season, it was like Shawshank Redemption. I needed to get off of that island, but after I left I wrote the song a tribute to it, and it became the island song. Really, it became, yeah, sort of an unofficial anthem, if you will. Actually, I had always dreamed that the song would become a part of Mackinaw history and it actually did. And I'll tell you how. Not too long ago, maybe about three, four years ago, I was just scoping through my computer and surfing around and I said I'm going to see what happens, I'm going to punch in and Google Mackinaw Dreams. It took me right to a Girl Scout site.

Wayne Richards: 6:20

So it turns out they have a yearly meeting on Mackinaw Island. They all sit around there and their theme song that they sit around with guitars and they all sing is Mackinaw Dreams. Wow, and I heard it coming off out of my computer and I could not believe it. Can you sing?

Wayne Richards: 6:37

a few bars of it for our audience. Yes, many years ago I came to the silent. I came on a whirlwind tour. I knew that I had found something special. And I'll tell you one thing's for sure I have Mackinaw Dreams in the middle of nowhere. Mackinaw Dreams in the middle of the night, mackinaw Dreams in the middle of the morning. They come without warning, these Mackinaw Dreams.

Mike Roth: 7:10

That's basically it, a cool little song.

Wayne Richards: 7:12

It's a cool little song. They had another song on there too, called Michigan Calls, and I had. It was recorded in Chicago, just like they recorded we Are the World. I had other musicians come in and built up and took huge crescendo, so big voices and everything, and we were hoping it might become the song for Michigan. But it didn't. That's okay. I did okay with Mackinaw. That's probably the closest thing to a hit that I've ever had. Well, getting back to the scoring, a man by the name of Ran Shackleton came along and he heard the song Mackinaw Dreams. He was filming a documentary about the island Got in touch with me he said could I use that song in?

Mike Roth: 7:54

the film Sure.

Wayne Richards: 7:55

I said, only if you allow me to score the entire film. Oh, so this is one of those things where you got to stick your foot in the door a little bit and he said, sure, and I wound up doing about 16 or 17 films with him.

Mike Roth: 8:08

Wow, so that was, and that was a paid gig. That was a paid gig, right, yeah, 16, 17 films, that's a lot of film.

Wayne Richards: 8:15

It's a lot of films. You don't make a fortune. You set things up where you might get a percentage, or what they call a kill fee. Okay, I'll do this one. You had success with the last one. Now we're going to get, maybe earn, a little bit more money. Didn't work all the time because some projects were very small. And then I go to the mailbox one day, I look and there's a big certificate that somebody had sent and basically it was announcing that I had won the best score 2008 Summit Media Award. Now, summit Media, they're an organization. They're like either the Grammys or the Oscars, but it's for small productions, so I won the best score. Now, the funny thing is, out of all the films that I did, it was my least favorite. It was okay, it had good music in it and it worked and it embellished the scenes and all that Just didn't work for me.

Mike Roth: 9:11

Other people liked it.

Wayne Richards: 9:12

Other people liked it, but I got an award for it and so that's really nice. And then, of course, the stage was hitting at me and I wanted to do something. So I spent about 23 years working on a musical called A Summer Storm, and the reason it took so long is that it is a historical drama. It's about the Scopes Trial of 1925. And what you find out in there's a beautiful play called Inherit the Wind, and what you find out there is sort of a I don't want to say made up version of the trial, but it's sort of spruced up and they're making things a little bit more dramatic than they were, and for the wrong reasons. The whole reason that they did that trial in the first place was to make money. It was Hollywood, come on. Yeah Well, not so much Hollywood, but I mean the town where the trial took place. They saw it as an opportunity to bring in some heavy attorneys and make a big deal about it, and they didn't realize how big of a deal they made. And it turned out to be a wonderful, interesting, funny time in their history, and people argue about this whole thing to this day. So I thought that that would make a very, very good musical and it took a while to do it, but the theater company in Chicago picked it up. We had a full production, we had three full houses and I've always wanted to take the play a little bit further.

Wayne Richards: 10:38

But sometimes it just doesn't happen. You get to the point where you're discussing money and finances. The whole thing sometimes falls apart. And then back here in the villages, I moved here with my wife, annie, about five and a half years ago and since I've been here I and I'm retired I've done some plays done, picked up on the things that I wanted to do that I couldn't do before, and during COVID I wrote a musical called the Dream Road and that is just beginning to move a little bit. Some people are interested in it and we're trying to develop it.

Wayne Richards: 11:12

What was the Dream Road about? The Dream Road is about four people that meet on current day Route 66, and their lives intersect in interesting ways and as they try to figure out their lives, they're also learning about the road. The entire story revolves around one man who is an actual living human being by the name of Angel Del Godillo. Hello, my name, yes, it took me a while to learn how to pronounce it as it turns out, he has a barber shop and a gift store in Seligman, arizona. Nothing you'd really notice driving by, I probably drove right by his store then.

Wayne Richards: 11:51

You probably have. I know I have twice and I didn't even know who was there. The reason that he is such an influential individual is that when Route 66 died, when they were laying down the roads across the country, the big interstates towns died along Route 66, including Seligman, arizona. What he did is that he set a movement going to get historical status for the Arizona portion of the road. That started other people to do it. So he actually brought back to life the interest in Route 66. And so he's considered the father of Route 66 to so many titles and he turns out to be a great guy. So you actually met the man.

Wayne Richards: 12:34

I have not met him. I have written to him and we have corresponded. I told him about Dream Road and he got and he's in his 90s. Now this is a man in 90s. He's still just like you're in the villages. You see these guys riding around their bikes and everything.

Wayne Richards: 12:51

It's incredible he is, he's still like that and he'll still go in once in a while and do a full day's work if he feels like it. Well, he has probably, I'd say, the sweetest heart that I have noticed in a long time in a human being. He truly cares about people and he was truly interested in the music him and his family so I sent him the script and I sent him the music, okay, and he loved it. Now he was saying you got to tell me when and where it's going to be produced. Blah, blah, blah, blah blah. I was sending it to him thinking that he'd be able to give me a suggestion as to who to contact, and there are some people I have them on a list and the reason this is so important and we're sort of in a race to get this thing going is that 2026 will be the 100th year anniversary of Route 66.

Mike Roth: 13:43

Okay, so you forwarded the script and the music to several notable Broadway producers.

Wayne Richards: 13:48

Well, I haven't, but I know some individuals that can do that, okay.

Mike Roth: 13:52

Okay.

Wayne Richards: 13:52

And you do meet people as you go along in the career. Some of them take an interest in your career, most of them don't. Right. Right you know they're, but I have met some of these people and who have a very sincere desire to help, and that, to me, is important because it proves that you've created something that moves people.

Mike Roth: 14:14

Sure, it moves people to do something, yeah.

Wayne Richards: 14:16

Right, but I mean moving them from the standpoint of the story and the music. People, I think, will remember this experience. It's an experience, good, and it's one because it raises the point. Route 66 is important not because of what you see along the road. It's important because of what you don't see and what don't you see. You don't see a lot of things that are thriving. You see old gas stations that are falling apart, crumbling.

Mike Roth: 14:42

Oh yeah, wigwam motels.

Wayne Richards: 14:44

Yeah, old barns, restaurants that no longer. They actually have one restaurant where they have rebuilt it and refurbished it, but you can't get food there. There's no wait staff, there's no nothing. It's a museum.

Mike Roth: 14:55

They just rebuilt it.

Wayne Richards: 14:56

It's not even a museum, it's just an empty place where people come in and rest, like a little rest area. They may have a little vending machine and that's it. You sit there and you realize, wow, this is the booth where Elvis used to come and he sat there. That kind of thing you will find. It's an adventure. If you research and you let the road get into you, you'll never lose it, and that happened to me on two trips.

Mike Roth: 15:22

Yeah, I was on route 66 after a rotary convention. It starts in Chicago and we started at mile zero and drove for a while because we had come from Cincinnati and much earlier I had moved to California, and we for some reason zigzagged our route and wound up on route 66 for a couple hundred miles between LA and Arizona.

Wayne Richards: 15:45

I see there's some things you do have to plan. I mean it's about exploration and discovery. You have to go to certain places. You have to go to Ted Drew's just outside of St Louis.

Wayne Richards: 15:58

They serve what's known as a concrete and what that is it's a very thick vanilla shake that they make with their custard ice cream, and I swear to you, even in winter there are lines waiting to get one of these shakes, or they serve other things too. You have to go to oh, I can't think of the name of the place, but they have a sign there they serve dead chicken.

Mike Roth: 16:20

Well, you know, most of us would not want to eat a live chicken.

Wayne Richards: 16:25

Well, if you were desperate, you might.

Mike Roth: 16:26

but yeah, well, I preferred mine, you know.

Wayne Richards: 16:30

There's the blue whale Fried the blue whale, which is great. The caverns they have to.

Mike Roth: 16:35

It's hard to get that whale meat, though, these days.

Wayne Richards: 16:37

What's that? Whale meat, whale meat. Have you ever had whale?

Mike Roth: 16:41

Not knowingly no.

Wayne Richards: 16:42

No, no. What's the strangest food you've?

Mike Roth: 16:43

ever had. Strangest food, yeah, I don't know. Most exotic Some sushi probably exotic, and squid probably.

Wayne Richards: 16:51

Was it moving on the plate when you ate it?

Mike Roth: 16:53

No.

Wayne Richards: 16:53

No, no, that's an experience you get when you're in Japan, folks.

Mike Roth: 16:57

Right, right when you're. When I was at a local restaurant here in the villages and I mistakenly ordered some tuna they served at Tartar, you know where. It was just like lightly braised on the outside and then totally raw on the inside. I sat it back. I ordered the wrong one.

Wayne Richards: 17:14

You're listening to cooking with Mike Roth?

Mike Roth: 17:16

Yes, Okay, cooking my way is not exactly the way everyone would have it. I like everything well done, so, wayne.

Wayne Richards: 17:24

Yes, I am.

Mike Roth: 17:24

I did ask you to come in and talk a little bit about this show that you're having at Morgan.

Wayne Richards: 17:29

Junction. Yes, yes, yes.

Mike Roth: 17:31

When is that show?

Wayne Richards: 17:32

That's going to be March 2nd, saturday, march 2nd, at 2 pm. One performance only. One performance only. It's with the full band. When I say full band, I am suggesting to you that it is the Morgan Music Junction Band. What people don't realize is the background that these musicians have and why they're going to help make this show so special.

Mike Roth: 17:53

So tell us about each instrument in the band.

Wayne Richards: 17:56

Well, we have, of course, the drums. That's played by Doug Florence. He is. He used to work with the Pointer Sisters.

Mike Roth: 18:03

Really.

Wayne Richards: 18:03

Yeah To it with the Pointer Sisters. And then, of course, we have Sean Booth on bass, and he has worked with the likes of Neil Diamond and some other people I don't know about, because we're still learning about each other. You know, the more we get to know each other, the more fun it is to play with each other on stage. And then, of course, the rest of the show is brought to you by Morgan and Morgan, which is Darrell Morgan and Suzanne Moore. They are sort of the battery of the whole thing. Darrell is an incredible guitarist and Suzanne is a wonderful vocalist, and we're going to be doing a lot of duets. We're not sure we may have an additional rhythm guitar or pedal steel. We're still playing with some ideas, but the basic show is set and it's called Living in.

Mike Roth: 18:50

Dreams, living in Dreams. Are you going to do songs from the Route 66 musical?

Wayne Richards: 18:55

Yeah, Okay, there will be a couple of songs from that, but I got the idea for the show. I was in Chicago a few months back and just driving around and there was a sign that just popped up out of nowhere. It wasn't connected to a restaurant or to anything, just a standalone sign that said be sure to dream Really.

Mike Roth: 19:14

Yeah, let's take a break here, and listen to a Alzheimer's tip from Dr Craig Curtis. Dr Curtis, what is one thing that people can do to help their brain.

Dr. Craig Curtis: 19:24

One of the best things they can do comes down to the choices every day Getting lots of sleep, for example. Getting the proper amount of sleep, for example. And what does that mean?

Mike Roth: 19:33

Approximately hours.

Dr. Craig Curtis: 19:34

Seven to nine hours of sleep per day is what's currently recommended. Good, thank you.

Mike Roth: 19:39

Wayne, we were talking about the show on March 2nd at. Morgan Junction. A lot of folks that are listening probably don't know how to get tickets to Morgan Junction.

Wayne Richards: 19:49

Well, there are several ways. Number one you can just walk in on any beautiful afternoon at Morgan's Music Junction.

Mike Roth: 19:57

Which is where.

Wayne Richards: 19:57

Well, it's in Summerfield.

Mike Roth: 19:59

Summerfield, Florida.

Wayne Richards: 20:01

Summerfield, Florida, and if you're familiar with 301, it's off of 301 and the other street it's like White Boulevard. You know, the furniture mogul, Mr White, owns that whole plot of area. It's in the old post office. For those of you who are the old timers who are familiar with the area, it's in the old but it's all refurbished inside, made into a beautiful little theater.

Mike Roth: 20:28

How many seats are you going to have?

Wayne Richards: 20:30

We probably are going to have about 120. Because it's small. It's very nice, but it's small venue. But that's pretty much all you can fit in there.

Mike Roth: 20:40

Comfortably. Yeah, yeah, what time does the show start?

Wayne Richards: 20:43

It's 2 pm 2 pm sharp and it's going to be how long? Well, the show probably will wind up being about two hours. They sort of tied this up because until my birthday. That's why they give me the show. It's your birthday on March 4th. On March 4th is usually the birthday, but we're going to do the show on the 2nd.

Mike Roth: 21:00

They're going to have a big birthday cake for you. Sometimes they use.

Wayne Richards: 21:05

Sometimes they don't. I'll tell them if I'm not really interested in that kind of things because I don't need to make a. I'm not trying to make it an annual birthday show, it's just turned out to be that way. Okay, you know, it's nice when they acknowledge it, and Suzanne has a very unique way of singing happy birthday, and she does it every year to me and to other people too, and so I will be subject to that.

Mike Roth: 21:32

So the audience. There are seats still available.

Wayne Richards: 21:35

Yes, there are, but they're going pretty fast.

Mike Roth: 21:37

Is there a telephone number they can call to make a reservation? Yes, do you know it.

Wayne Richards: 21:41

No, not offhand yeah.

Mike Roth: 21:44

Morgan's Music Junction, morgan's Music Junction in Summerfield, florida, summerfield, florida. And they have a website.

Wayne Richards: 21:50

Yes, of course they do. That's pretty easy. It's morgansmusicjunctioncom.

Mike Roth: 21:55

Oh boy we don't have to be a genius to figure that one out.

Wayne Richards: 21:59

No, it's very, very. You get, I think, the if you order online it's. I think it's $15. As the door is 20.

Mike Roth: 22:07

Yeah, I know, I have tickets for it.

Wayne Richards: 22:10

I appreciate that I have to go and get some myself.

Mike Roth: 22:12

You're performing and you need a ticket.

Wayne Richards: 22:14

No, no, not really, but I do buy some.

Mike Roth: 22:17

You do buy some For other people. Yeah, okay, the paper of the house.

Wayne Richards: 22:21

Well, no, no, just to have some friends come out there that don't normally have an opportunity to go out and see the show, but they would come to see, is it?

Mike Roth: 22:31

going to be recorded.

Wayne Richards: 22:33

I think it is. I believe it is. Sometimes we used to video it and use it for reference, but now I think they're using it to put together promos, little snippets of the shows, but you have the entire show there, so I think the whole thing will be recorded. We used to send that out live, but we don't do that anymore.

Mike Roth: 22:53

Stream it? You mean stream it? Yeah, not much less than a shipper, no, no, that's why we don't do it.

Wayne Richards: 22:58

They actually do have. They have a show called Jibber Jabber, which is it is a live streaming show. They do every Wednesday and sometimes I'll come in there and join them on that. Sometimes I'll just call them or sometimes I'll just text them and write while they're on the show. So it's an interesting venue because it's basically a country venue. I'm not a country artist, but when I was asked to join the band about which I was in for about two and a half years, I had to learn about country music and I discovered it's not easy you only need to know four chords.

Wayne Richards: 23:34

It's not a four-chord deal. There are all kinds of different interesting, complicated things that you wouldn't think are there, but they're there, and I can't do a lot of different kinds of music. I don't do rap, I wouldn't want to do rap, but country. I think that a lot of the material that I've written, and there are quite a few originals in my show they sort of border between rock and folk anyway, and so there is a country aspect to it.

Mike Roth: 24:07

So in the show everyone in the audience will understand the words. Oh, absolutely Not like rap.

Wayne Richards: 24:14

No, no, no, no, no no.

Mike Roth: 24:15

Okay, so this is a real show that folks can enjoy this is a show that can enjoy.

Wayne Richards: 24:20

It's from the heart right to their ears. These are personal stories and the stories are very relatable to people because they've gone through it. For instance, interesting fact about dreams Did you know that the average person dreams between five and 10 times a?

Mike Roth: 24:37

night. That's a little bit higher than I would have guessed. I would have guessed two or three.

Wayne Richards: 24:41

Now, do you remember any of your dreams? Just the last one, the last one. Did you ever write down the dreams?

Mike Roth: 24:47

No, I don't think I would want anyone to see how this co discombobulated what my dreams were.

Wayne Richards: 24:54

See, I like facts like that, Little facts like, for instance did you know that a woman gives birth to a child in this country every 38 seconds?

Mike Roth: 25:04

Takes that long, huh.

Wayne Richards: 25:05

Yeah, I would know I was just going to suggest we got to find this woman and stop her, but it's. Those kinds of things are interjected into the show, along with some personal stories and actually personal stories that I've told before that people actually love hearing and they actually call out the punchline back to me. Okay, you know a comical stories air comical stories here and there, and they're true. I'll give you one if you'd like well, the Sun is, I guess.

Mike Roth: 25:32

Would love to hear one.

Wayne Richards: 25:33

Okay, this is true because my parents used to travel. We traveled as a family. Of course, they didn't just take off without me, but we, we would travel all over the country by car, train, bus and everything. But particularly in the car there was a system. The system was my mother did the driving, my father was the Navigator yes, you had those trip tick a a maps at the big, so gas station maps, you know.

Wayne Richards: 25:59

And so we were actually on a trip coming down here to Florida. And so she said, okay, look on that map, tell them, tell me where we are. He says, oh well, we're in Kissimmee. She said no, I think it's pronounced Kissimmee. He said no, it's just the kiss in this thing. It says kiss me. And they actually argued about this thing back and they're gonna about argued about everything but this in particular, and so it just got so heated. He said alright, pull this thing over, I'm gonna find out what's going on. Gets out of the car, real huffy and puppy. He goes in there, says excuse me, could you tell me where I am? The woman took a breath. She said burger king, there you go. So the those are, and everybody calls, calls out burger king. It's so funny. I just you know you, sometimes you touch a nerve, you don't you're gonna say gas station no.

Wayne Richards: 26:51

That would work too.

Mike Roth: 26:53

I suppose it would work yeah yeah, everyone used to stop at gas stations to find out where they were.

Wayne Richards: 26:58

Oh, I used to love gas stations. You go, drive in your little bell ring, yeah, they come out. Take care of your windows, clean your windows, check your tires, check be oil To everything. See you a lullaby and then send you on your way right, that's the old world.

Mike Roth: 27:12

That's the old world today you pump it yourself and if your window is dirty, you know it gets cleaned if you do it yourself.

Wayne Richards: 27:18

That's true even in a car wash right. You take it to the car wash and pull it out. You still got to take it home and clean it right, air used to be free at the gas station. No, it's not for anymore.

Mike Roth: 27:27

Oh, no, no, now it's gonna cost your buck, unless you want nitrogen in your tires, which case it's five bucks.

Wayne Richards: 27:33

I think it'd be helium good. I get to a place a lot faster.

Mike Roth: 27:37

You wouldn't want to put helium in your tires because it's smaller atom and the pressure would go down faster.

Wayne Richards: 27:42

Wow, yeah, mr Science.

Mike Roth: 27:44

See, that's why that's why they're using nitrogen. Yeah, although the air we breathe is 80% nitrogen, they say if you fill your tire with all nitrogen, those larger Modicul molecules will stay inside your tire longer. You know, I have a suggestion for you.

Wayne Richards: 27:59

Yes, I think you should do a podcast. Oh, yeah, you have this real deep. You know rumbly Voice, that just these. It just comes at you. Yeah, it's perfect for for radio.

Mike Roth: 28:10

I've been accused of that since I've been in college.

Wayne Richards: 28:12

Yeah, did you always have that deep voice?

Mike Roth: 28:14

Oh yeah, yeah, they wouldn't let me go on the air when I was in college.

Wayne Richards: 28:17

Every place you go has a different kind of language. I remember I was in in the Navy. I was. We were staying at a family family's house during a Liberty weekend. They were having a big dinner and so used to be a big football game.

Mike Roth: 28:31

What's?

Wayne Richards: 28:31

that.

Mike Roth: 28:31

Liberty Bowl.

Wayne Richards: 28:32

Liberty Bowl. Yeah, yeah, I know that the Chicago Bears are always playing in the toilet bowl, but that's beside the point. So, anyway, we were in this house and we're having dinner, conversation goes on and everything, and if you were having a conversation with somebody and you're from where we are, you're from the the East, from from the Midwest we would ask a question why would you do that? I know that's pretty much what we would say. Why would you do that? When you're down in a place like Millington, tennessee, they'll say the same thing, but they say it like this what you want to go ahead and do that there for mm-hmm, you know that that was one of the most interesting things that happened to me in 1992 when I moved to Cincinnati.

Mike Roth: 29:10

Mm-hmm, you know, if you wanted something, someone to repeat what they just said, because you didn't quite understand it, coming from Chicago, you'd say I wouldn't say much on anything. Well, you wanted them to repeat themselves. What would you say?

Wayne Richards: 29:22

Oh, repeat themselves. Okay, I would say would you say that again?

Mike Roth: 29:26

Mm-hmm, you know, in New York it was huh.

Wayne Richards: 29:28

Oh really.

Mike Roth: 29:28

Okay, in LA it might have been K-PASA, but when I got to Cincinnati I was taught to say please, to make someone repeat themselves. Okay, it turns out Cincinnati was a very German city and please was a kind of a literal translation of the German word bitter. It worked in Cincinnati.

Wayne Richards: 29:45

Well, let me, let me not lovable. Let me tell you this, Dr Roth I had discovered something a couple of weeks ago that maybe the real transference of me becoming an actual southerner, because just automatically in a conversation I said, y'all.

Mike Roth: 30:01

Sure, y'all like this show, become a supporter. Hit that black button up at the top. Now if you listen to me in China or Russia, the black button is still there. It might even be in your language, but this is a listener supported podcast. We're having fun doing it. Wayne, do you have any last remarks before we sign out?

Wayne Richards: 30:20

Well, first of all, I'm very impressed with your podcast setup. It's a little bit more elaborate than the one that I had back in Chicago. Right over here he has. He has two computer screens that either are representing our vocal astuity or we're having an earthquake.

Mike Roth: 30:37

I haven't quite figured out what it is. It does look like an earthquake sign and if there's some inexplicable reason.

Wayne Richards: 30:42

On the big screen there is a picture of what looks like Holland.

Mike Roth: 30:46

It is Holland. That is the best single photograph I have ever taken in my life. You have taken that. That's beautiful. We're on a river cruise and the last stop was Amsterdam and before we got into the actual city we went into the windmill park. It was a cloudy day, overcast, but I took my camera off the bus and went out. There was this bridge across that body of water and I shot the windmill, thinking it was going to look terrible. So later that night, when I got back to the ship to look at the pictures that I took, I saw that one. I said, oh my God, that's the best shot that I've ever taken the reflection of the windmill in the river, the reflection of the clouds in the river. It just came out beautiful, so I preserved it.

Wayne Richards: 31:27

I had a picture that I took on my phone of the backyard in my house but it somehow captured a light that was in one of the windows and it was reflected on the picture and it looks like a giant moon over this backyard, which was really a golf course, and the lighting and everything. It just amazed me. I had it made into a large picture which I have in my office.

Mike Roth: 31:50

Good, let's tell our listeners what the phone number is over at Morgan Junction. Okay, morgan Junction.

Wayne Richards: 31:57

It just amazingly popped back into my head.

Mike Roth: 31:59

Amazing, isn't that?

Wayne Richards: 32:00

Isn't that something that happens, you know, as the medication is kicking in? It is 352-693-4233.

Mike Roth: 32:09

And you call over there and say you want the Wayne Richards show. You want the Wayne Richards Living in Dreams show On March 2nd.

Wayne Richards: 32:16

Right, you want 50 tickets for the short guy. I don't know exactly what they talk 50 tickets. Yeah okay, 120 seat house there you go for what you can, you know.

Mike Roth: 32:26

Great hey Wayne. Thanks for being on the show with us today.

Wayne Richards: 32:29

Thanks for having me. It's nice to be here.

Mike Roth: 32:31

Good If people want to get a hold of you because they want to produce your unproduced show how do they do that, waynerichards. org. That's a website and you have an email address.

Wayne Richards: 32:42

It's called the Wayne Richards Museum and on it you'll see everything that most of the things that I've done in my career with audio files, sound files, stories, blah, blah, blah. Also all the current things that are happening. So it's WayneRichards. org Good.

Mike Roth: 32:57

And there's a place that they can contact you via email.

Wayne Richards: 33:00

There's a contact page.

Emily: 33:00

Hold that website.

Mike Roth: 33:01

Great Thanks again, Wayne.

Emily: 33:03

Thank you. Remember our next episode will be released next Friday at 9 am. Should you want to become a major supporter of the show or have questions, please contact us at mike@rothvoice. com. This is a shout out for supporters Tweet Coleman, Ed Williams and major supporter Dr Craig Curtis at K2 in The Villages. We will be hearing more from Dr Curtis with short Alzheimer's tips each week. If you know someone who should be on the show, contact us at mike@rothvoice. com. We thank everyone for listening to the show. The content of the show is copyrighted by Roth Voice 2024. All rights reserved.