October 2, 2025 • 40 mins
We kicked off the program with four news stories and different guests on the stories we think you need to know about!
Combat Boots to Campus Blues: Veterans’ Struggle for Belonging in Civilian Life. Challenges they face with integrating into civilian life. & What's needed to help them?
Guest: Glenn Baker – Veteran, recording artist & Patriot
Fall is the best time to check out New Hampshire’s covered bridges. Here are some fascinating facts from the state’s expert on the subject!
Guest: Kim Varney Chandler - University of New Hampshire graduate and a full-time high school counselor who spent countless hours researching and visiting the state’s covered bridges & wrote a book about them: Covered Bridges of New Hampshire
Boston Rare Coin Treasure Hunt Oct. 7-11! - Stack’s Bowers Galleries Will Celebrate 90 Years of Rare Coin Auctions with a Free Treasure Hunt Featuring Rare Coin and Currency Prizes Valued Over $40,000!
Guest: Mark Schimel - Stack's Bowers Director of East Coast Retail
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth shames 'Fat Troops' and generals and reveals new military weight requirements
Guest: Brian Maddocks - Retired Air Force Major - For over 20 years, he was an elite Air Force pilot flying the most technologically advanced fighter jets on the planet.
Combat Boots to Campus Blues: Veterans’ Struggle for Belonging in Civilian Life. Challenges they face with integrating into civilian life. & What's needed to help them?
Guest: Glenn Baker – Veteran, recording artist & Patriot
Fall is the best time to check out New Hampshire’s covered bridges. Here are some fascinating facts from the state’s expert on the subject!
Guest: Kim Varney Chandler - University of New Hampshire graduate and a full-time high school counselor who spent countless hours researching and visiting the state’s covered bridges & wrote a book about them: Covered Bridges of New Hampshire
Boston Rare Coin Treasure Hunt Oct. 7-11! - Stack’s Bowers Galleries Will Celebrate 90 Years of Rare Coin Auctions with a Free Treasure Hunt Featuring Rare Coin and Currency Prizes Valued Over $40,000!
Guest: Mark Schimel - Stack's Bowers Director of East Coast Retail
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth shames 'Fat Troops' and generals and reveals new military weight requirements
Guest: Brian Maddocks - Retired Air Force Major - For over 20 years, he was an elite Air Force pilot flying the most technologically advanced fighter jets on the planet.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
With Dan Ray. I'm going easy Boston's news radio boy.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Again. I remind you if you have tuned in to
listen to the Red Sox game, this is not the place.
My name's Dan Ray and this is Nightside, and we
will be here all the way until midnight. So stick
with us. You have the opportunity here on Nightside always
to listen to the show while you watch a football game,
(00:27):
or a baseball game, or anything simple as that. Rob
Brooks is back there. Rob, you of all the TVs
turned off of the control room. You just focused the attention.
I know that Rob. Rob is the best producer that
anyone could possibly wish for. During the first hour, Rob
can relax a little bit because we don't take any
phone calls. However, during the second and third and fourth hour,
(00:48):
that is when we have great guests, interesting topics, mix
in some callers, just stir and add water and stir.
Simple as that.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Look.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
My name's Dan raym the host of Nightside, and we
have four different guests. That's what we do in the
nine o'clock hours. So, without any further ado, I'm going
to introduce you to Glenn Baker. Glenn is interested in
helping ex service personnel return to the real world, if
(01:20):
you will, and do it in a way in which
they are welcomed back. He himself served in the military. Glenn,
Welcome to Nightside.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
How are you, sir, Dan, Thank you for having me.
I'm doing very well.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Yeah, So, so tell us about you have this program,
combat Boots to Campus Blues. I get it. Is it
still that difficult? I'm of a different generation for the
folks who have served more recently and those who are
still serving as they try to move back, you know,
(01:54):
into what we used to call the real world. What's
it like out there these days?
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Well, Dan, my focus is a little bit different than that.
I mean, it's in that direction, but I'm actually helping
combat veterans that have been wounded to come back into
the real world. So we've we've we've made a deal
with a new company coming in out of France that's
got next generation technology, developed a self balancing exoskeleton. And
(02:20):
so I'm a combat vet from thirty five years ago.
I can't believe it's been that long ago, Dan, But
I'm also a country music artist.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
So that I'm sure was that that had to be Iraq?
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Well, it was Iraq. It was a desert storm. Yeah, absolutely,
fire direction control for an eight inch artillery battery can't.
And you know, we were the we were the young
guys that back then, and now I'm the old guy.
I got a little gray in my hair.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
I can't understand that. So go ahead and say thank
you for your service.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Oh you gotta get worth it.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
So, I mean, that was one where no one knew
for sure what you were going to face once you
once you're crossed in from Kuwait. That was and of
course the rocky forces folded up like a like a
cheap suit. It was. It was overlot quicker than anyone
could have hoped, but it still was pretty nerve wracking.
I'm sure for those of you who are in the
(03:15):
front lines.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Well, I think that was the one war. If there
had to be a way to do it, that was
the way to do it. And it was shock and awe.
It was overwhelming. It was you know, in and out,
and it was over with pretty quickly. I was in
country about eight months, but a lot of that was
sitting around waiting to deploy back out. So if you
have to go that way, that's the way to go.
But you know, God's been good to me and brought
(03:37):
me back into country music. About five years ago, I
had a chance to after writing a few songs, releasing
a few singles, I did a show with General Flynn
a few years ago. We were raising money for an
organization that was putting an extra skeleton on a paralyzed
vet so he could walk again. And when I saw
his marine stand up out of a wheelchair after being
paralyzed seven years before and in Afghanistan, it broke something
(03:59):
inside me. I'll ever be the same, I'll never recover,
and I knew I needed to help. So Dan I
wrote a song, thinking that's all I was gonna do,
went to shoot the music video last year fourteen months ago,
found out that organization wasn't helping vets much anymore, and
God just kind of leaned in and said, boy, this
was your plan, You're going to do it. And so
we filmed a movie and we've started a foundation and
(04:22):
have just taken our first veteran in July to New
York and got him in a clinical trial. Young man
was in a clinic for fifteen minutes and stood up
and took his first steps, and in three one hour
sessions he took over three thousand steps with the help
of an extra skeleton. So my mission is a little
bit different, but not really. We're helping these boys that
(04:43):
can't walk, that take their power has been taken, to
stand up and walk again, and Dad, gumm, it just
to feel like men. You know, it may not be
politically correct, but when a man has his wheels taken
away from his legs, there's some emasculation that takes place.
And I witnessed this youngman stand up and go walk
(05:05):
over and hug his wife for the first time in years.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
So the foundation, the foundation is called Heroes to Heroes foundations.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Correct, The foundation is called Finish this Fight, Finish this Free,
Finish This Fight Foundation. So yeah, and that's what we're
doing with everything that I'm doing now musically, movie wise,
foundation wise, is we're bringing the exoskeleton world back into
the public eyes and we're funding these guys to be
(05:36):
able to get up and walk again.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Explain to us what the exoskeleton world is. Because the
materials that I that I was received tonight did not
focus on that. So I apologize to that, but tell
us what that means.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Brother, It is not your fault at all. I've had
three interviews today, So we're going one hundred miles an hour.
The exoskeleton is a wearable robot. This is technology been
in the US for about a decade. The older technology
that's been available required the upper body strength to be
able to manipulate canes for balance, so the robot walked,
(06:12):
but it didn't balance for them. Now here's where I
get aggravated.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
Dan.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
We've got over about ten thousand veterans that physically could
use the old technology, and in the last decade there's
been less than one hundred of these skeletons that have
been provided out of ten thousand. That's not acceptable to me.
Now this new technology, they don't have to have that
upper body strength any longer because this is self balancing.
(06:39):
There's no canes required. This robot balance is for the
patient and allows them to walk with their hands freely.
Being available, that brings that number up to close to
thirty thousand that could use this technology. So my mission
is over the course of the next eighteen months to
raise enough and awareness and money to be able to
put one hundred of these on our veterans in eighteen months.
(07:04):
That's more than the government's done in a decade. And
quite frankly, I want to embarrass our government so they'll
step up and do the right thing for our boys.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
That sounds like a pretty good battle plan to me.
I like that, Glenn. So the folks can get in
touch with Finish the fight. I'm assuming it's a dot ORG.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Finish this fight.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Finish this fight.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Okay, finish this fight dot us US Okay. Yeah. The
movies there, the music there, the foundations there, the video
from this young man walking for the first time is there.
You can donate, you can buy a merchandise, you can
get involved. You can send me a message and say
I'm proud of you, or I don't like what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
I can't imagine anyone's going to send that second message, Glenn,
that's for sure, because unfortunately, as I think a lot
of us know, sometimes the government does not put veterans
at the top of their priority list. Uh. They have
a lot of other constituencies out there that they're trying
(08:04):
to take care of before veterans or and particularly also
before homeless veterans.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
Right.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Yeah, I'm involved in a group called Hope for the Warriors,
So I'm very very familiar with the different groups who
are out there and there's there's a lot that needs
to be done for veterans and your group. It sounds
to me like it's doing something really special. So finish
this fight, dot us. I'm hoping some of my listeners
tonight will take some time and look around and check
(08:33):
it out and maybe even make a contribution to help
you finish this fight.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Well, I appreciate that, Dan, And you know, with your
being involved with that foundation, this is grassroots. The government's
not going to do it until we step up and
do it and force them to.
Speaker 4 (08:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
And I saw you had a good rating from Charity
Navigator up too, by the way, which is which is
always very important so people can reinvest it that. You know,
when you get a raty a good rating from Charity Navigator,
that means this this particular charity, your charity is in
it for the right reason. So finish this fight, dot us.
Glenn Baker, pleasure, pleasure to make your your acquaintance, and
(09:10):
I'll be looking out for some of your songs. You
are still a recording artist and we need to get
we need We don't play music here on Nightside, but
some of our listeners might also like to be able
to check you out. What is your your website of people?
Do you have a personal website that people could We
could send people right now.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Everything I have is on Finish this fight now us. However,
I'm real easy to find. If you want to see
some cool music videos, just google Glenn with two ends
Glenn Baker Country music at a law pop up. Don't
use one though, Dan, because You're going to get an
Irish dude. And I'm way better looking than he is.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Okay, and shy too.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Really shy. Yeah, I'm not very big.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
All right, Glenn, Thank you very much. Pleasure to meet
you tonight. Thank you so much, Glenn Baker. Ladies and gentlemen,
finish this fight dot us. We get back. We're going
to talk about something that those of us here in
New Zealand are particularly proud of, and that is then
New England covered bridges. We have a woman coming up.
Her name is Kim Varney Chandler and she has written
a book about the covered bridges of New Hampshire. We
(10:09):
will talk about that with her in just a moment.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Well, those of us who live in New England have
a soft spot in our heart for many things that
seem to be just here in New England. And I'm
sure there are probably some other states around the country
that have a covered bridge or two, but I think
on a per capita basis, on a square mile basis,
New Hampshire has had more covered bridges than any state
(10:42):
in the world, any state in America for sure, with
us as Kim Varney Chandler, she's a U n H graduate,
full time high school counselor who spent countless of hours,
countless hours researching and visiting the state's covered bridges. She
wrote a book about them called appropriately Enough Covered Bridges
of New Hampshire. Welcome Kim, Welcome to night.
Speaker 5 (11:03):
Side, Thank you, thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
So let's talk about covered bridges of New Hampshire. There
was a point in time, not so very long ago,
when there were a lot more than there are now.
But there's still quite a.
Speaker 5 (11:19):
Few, yes, there are. In fact, I'm still researching to
see how many we actually had, and right now I'm
up to about four hundred and seventy eight, but now
we have just over sixty.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Now. Most of these covered bridges were built before the
arrival of the automobile.
Speaker 5 (11:42):
Correct, Yes, yes they were.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Okay, Well, what is there one that at this point
is still you know, you know, structure is still stable.
But it's the oldest. Is the one that you've identified
as the oldest covered bridge in New Hampshire.
Speaker 5 (12:01):
The old this covered bridge in New Hampshire is the
haver Old Bath Bridge and that bridge was built in
eighteen twenty nine.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Now when you call it the Haveral Bath Bridge, is
that a bridge that connects New Hampshire to Bath, Maine?
Per chance?
Speaker 5 (12:15):
No, it connects to New Hampshire town Haveborl and Bath.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Okay, fair enough? H And why were so many covered
bridges built in New Hampshire because of the weather or
was it as a tourist attraction? How was it that
New Hampshire became the became home to so many covered bridges?
Speaker 4 (12:39):
Well?
Speaker 5 (12:40):
Yeah, new the whole, like you said, the whole New
England area was very rich with covered bridges. But I
have to tell you Pennsylvania has the most covered bridges.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Still, they're a bigger they're a bigger state. I mean,
I'm sure you have a more per acre or more
per capita, but we're not talking about Pennsylvania. We're talking
about if they'll live for your die state, go ahead exactly.
Speaker 5 (13:08):
Well, you know the reason that they built covers on
their their bridges. A wooden covered bridge, as we can see,
can last you know, one hundred to two hundred years
if it's taken care of properly. So it was important
for those bridge builders to cover the bridge's trust. And
that's those are the series of triangles on the side
(13:28):
of a bridge that that that carry the weight of
the bridge itself and also whatever is traveling over the bridge.
And so that's the real reason why covered bridges are
covered is to protect the bridges trust.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
And you need you need bridges in New Hampshire because
it's the topography. If you want to get from point
A to point B and there's a river. What's the
longest covered bridge in New Hampshire. Again, I'm asking you questions.
I hope you know the answers to no one scripts
questions for me.
Speaker 5 (14:01):
So, the longest covered bridge in New Hampshire is actually
it's over the Connecticut River and it goes and goes
across into Vermont. It's the Cornish Windsor Bridge and it's
four hundred and sixty feet long and it's the longest
wooden bridge in the United States and the longest two
span covered bridge in the world.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Well, I'm really glad I asked that question. Did I
have not yet read your book, So I want you
to know these are spontaneous questions and it's interesting. So
the book that you have actually describes and I'm sure
there are pictures of is it forty or more covered bridges?
Speaker 5 (14:43):
There are sixty one covered bridges in the book.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
In the book, Okay, so you got them all that
you know of at this point. If you find more,
you'll have a second edition. When did the book come out?
How recently has it? Did it hit the bookstores or
hit Amazon?
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (15:01):
The book came out in the fall of twenty twenty two,
was published by Peter E. Randall Publisher in Portsmouth, And
really just began for me because I started driving around
and visiting all of the covered bridges and there was
no there was no definitive book with a really deep
history of each bridge. And so it didn't set out
(15:22):
to write a book. As you mentioned, I'm a high
school counselor, and I thought, well, I'll give it a shot.
So yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
This this, this is really a work of love for
your state and for a characteristic that makes New Hampshire. Yeah, really,
you know, typically it makes There's a lot of things
that make New Hampshire great, but this is one of them.
It's as simple as that. So how can people get
the book as it you said it was? It came
(15:53):
out a few years ago now as available through Amazon.
What's what's the easiest way for through you directly?
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (16:01):
It is.
Speaker 5 (16:01):
It is available on Amazon. You can purchase it directly
from me at my website which is Covered Bridges andh
dot com. And most of the independent bookstores in New
Hampshire carry it, and some in Massachusetts carry it also.
I've been I've been surprised to know. So, yeah, if
you can support your local book book retailer, that's great.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Now having produced this book, which I'm sure has pictures
and the history of these sixty one covered bridges, are
there other journalistic activities or literary activities that you're undertaking
or is this going to be your contribution to the
world of literature.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (16:44):
So I've been researching the different bridge rights who built
the covered bridges. So I've done some articles on my
website about gentlemen like James Tasker Captain Charles Richardson Sandford
Granger and really taking a deep into who these men
were and what other things they built, where they lived,
(17:05):
who their families were. And I have a podcast as well.
I've interviewed some people that I've met along this research journey,
but right now I'm really taking a deep dive into
the lost covered bridges. So I'm trying to figure out
where there were bridges that no longer stand. And that's
a giant rabbit hole and I'm way down in it.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Well, good, good for you. It sounds interesting. Real last
question and I think I know the answer. But back
in the day, I'm assuming were these bridges built by
communities or were they built by people who had business
commerce and they needed that bridge. Who funded these bridges
(17:51):
back in the day.
Speaker 5 (17:53):
That's an excellent question. Some of them were funded by communities.
So a town felt like they needed a bridge, they
wanted it to be a covered bridge. They would hire
either a local carpenter or maybe someone who built covered bridges.
Most of the Connecticut River covered bridges, though, were built
(18:13):
by people that came together and formed some type of
a business and they put their money together and then
they charged tolls to get their money back.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Oh okay, so there was a little entrepreneurship going on
back in the day. And did they stop using tolls
once they had recaptured or recouped their money or did
they did they continue on and actually turn a bit
of a profit.
Speaker 5 (18:39):
Some of them did stop, but some of them kept going.
The cornersh Winter Bridge was actually freed in the nineteen forties.
They had a big party to celebrate the last toll
taken on a Connecticut river bridge.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Well, look, the book is available again. Give the website
one more time, and then I'm going to have to
say good night because they got to make way for
a newscast. What's the best way they can either get it?
Get it either from Amazon or from you personally.
Speaker 5 (19:06):
Yeah, the website is Covered Bridges NH dot com. Okay,
and there's a links by anywhere else you would like.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Sounds great. Kim really enjoyed the conversation. I learned a
lot about covered Bridges in a short period of time.
Speaker 5 (19:19):
Thank you again, Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Good night, Welcome, You're welcome. When we get back right
after the news, we're going to talk about a rare
coin treasure hunt coming up next week right here in Boston. Uh.
This is there's going to be forty thousand dollars in
prizes and we're going to talk with Max Shimmel about
this treasure hunt and how you you might be able
(19:45):
to participate. Stay with us here on Nightside. You're on
night Side with Dan Ray on WBZY, Boston's news radio. Well,
welcome back everyone, and there's going to be a rare
coin tre hunt in Boston from October seventh to the eleventh.
Pretty exciting stuff when you think about it. A rear
(20:09):
coin treasure hunt with us is Mark Schimmel. He's with
a company called Stax Bowers. He's the director of their
East Coast retail. Mark. To be honest with you, I
am unfamiliar with Stax Bowers, So first of all, tell
us about the company, then let's talk about the treasure hunt.
Speaker 4 (20:25):
Great, thank you, Dan, and thank you for having me
on tonight.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Very well.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
The statement you just made that you're unfamiliar with Stax
Bowers is something that we are trying to overcome, and
that's one of the main reasons that we are having
this treasure hunt. We are actually a ninety year old
rare coin firm where America's oldest and most accomplished rare
coin company selling the largest and most valuable coin collections
(20:52):
that have ever come to market. But we are new
to the Boston and New England area. We had one
store in New York, was only retail store for the
first ninety almost ninety years of our company's history, and
then we started expanding in Boston was one of our
new locations. So we want to introduce the Boston the
(21:13):
Bostonians to wear coin collecting and tell them about us
and have them learn about us. And this is one
of the ways we plan to do it.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
So where are physically located in Boston? If someone wants
to stop by, I assume you have a store.
Speaker 4 (21:28):
Front, Yes, we have a storefront. We're on State Street,
but we're actually right by Faniel Hall. It's twenty two
Exchange Place, which is right by Faniel Hall Quincy Market.
If you stand in the square and you look to
the left, you can see our awning. So we have
a fantastic location. We get everybody who comes to Boston
(21:51):
to visit sees our store and we're very happy to
welcome them.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
In a lot of foot traffic. Okay, So let's talk
about this treasure hunt. When you think about treasure hunt,
do you think about, oh, clues and all of that.
It sounds pretty exciting.
Speaker 4 (22:06):
What's going on, Well, that's exactly what we're doing. So
picture this. Just picture that in twenty twenty five, Paul
Revere gets on his horse and he rides through the
streets of Boston and he says, the coins are coming,
the coins are coming, And that's basically the image we
want to generate in the Bostonians' minds. So what we're
(22:27):
going to be doing is it's going to take place
over five days starting October seventh through October eleventh, and
each day we're going to go to an iconic Boston location.
We're going to hide a certificate. We're going to post
clues on our Instagram accounts, both Stax Bowers and stax
(22:48):
Bower's retail. We have two Instagram accounts, and we're going
to post clues starting at ten o'clock in the morning.
We'll post a few clues during the day until somebody
finds the certificate. So the certificate is going to be
hiding there and then the person who finds the certificate
will be able to bring it to our store the
following week to claim their prize.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Okay, so the certificate. I don't want to break any
rules here, and I certainly don't want to, but I
want to make sure people understand. So you'll pick five
locations five days. I guess it starts on Tuesday, if
I'm not mistaken, right.
Speaker 4 (23:24):
It starts on Tuesday, goes till Saturday. Saturday is the
grand prize.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Sure, Okay, so Tuesday through Saturday. So you pick a
location and then people have no idea where that location is,
but you'll post some clues on your websites and so
we will. We'll get to that in a second. The
next question that I have is will the clues be
(23:50):
a little obfuscated or will they be really direct, like
you should check out pick you know, I'm just going
to pick something the Old North Church or whatever, you know?
Or will it be a clue that people will kind
of have to figure out, if you know what I'm saying,
(24:11):
more than you have to figure out, figure.
Speaker 4 (24:13):
Out more that you have to figure out. But our
Boston store manager, who is a longtime Bostonian, family's been
here forever, and he knows Boston so well, so he
has structured these clues in such a way that Bostonians
will know where it is. If they don't get it
on the first clue, they'll get it on the second
or third. But our true Bostonian will figure out where
(24:35):
these places are.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
So one clue will be a release it what ten o'clock,
and then if some period of time passes, a second
clue gets released later that morning.
Speaker 4 (24:47):
Correct.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Correct.
Speaker 4 (24:48):
We will release the clues until there's generally about four
or five clues per location, and realistically you'll find it
by the fifth clue.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Okay, and there's certificates then will basically be taken to
your store and exchange is the certificate for the rare coin. Okay?
Right now? These all American coins, because when I checked
out your website earlier tonight, I saw that you're doing
(25:18):
a lot of auctions and you do coins from different
countries around the world, Sweden, Denmark. I assume you also
do American coins as well.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
Sure well, everything here will be American and the highlight
the grand prize is an American twenty dollar gold piece,
which at the current value of gold is somewhere in
the thirty five hundred to four thousand dollars range for
this particular coin. So everything is an American coin. But
(25:47):
we do have two very special Boston related items which
people generally don't know about it all. One is an
eighteen sixty three Faniel Hall Bank of Boston vote and
it's a five cent note. And the other one is
in eighteen fifty seven Massachusetts bank note. It's a two
(26:08):
dollar note. So right away people don't realize that in
the eighteen hundreds, banks actually issued their own currency. They
issued notes which would circulate, and of course they would
circulate in the local territory. Unfortunately, sometimes these banks went
out of business and you just had a piece of
tissue in your hand. But these are historical documents, they're
(26:31):
hand signed, they're fabulous, beautiful colors, beautiful graphics, and in
this instance, these notes relate directly to Boston. They're uniquely
Boston items.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
And I assume that even though the face value is
a flight number, that from a collector's point of view,
these notes have a value well above what the face
value of the note would suggest.
Speaker 4 (26:59):
Oh. Absolutely, see, that's the good thing about it is. Yes,
the bank is long gone, but the notes survive and
have a value that is well in excess it's about
two hundred dollars in this instance, so certainly well in
access to face value, okay.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
And it's so I think that the press release we
saw was that the rear coin and currency prizes are
going to in total be valued over forty thousand dollars.
Is that accurate? Well?
Speaker 4 (27:27):
Well, in each city we're doing this in four different
cities because we have four retail stores. Okay, city prizes
will be ten thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
Any city, Okay, totally in tens Okay. So got the
idea from having preps done something like this before as
to how many people you think might be following you
come next Tuesday morning.
Speaker 4 (27:50):
We're hoping we'll get hundreds of people to follow us.
We're trying to get as much publicity and press as
we can out there, and we we'd love people to
take notice of us.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Okay, So let's go real slowly and let's have the uh,
let's have the website.
Speaker 4 (28:08):
Okay. The website is Staxbowers dot com.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
And let's spell that stax Bowers is s T A
C K.
Speaker 4 (28:17):
S S S yes and b O W E R S.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
Write the name of Johnny Bowers and NHL goaltender with
the maple leafs. That's where I would know the name
Bowers from. Okay, okay, and the Staxbowers dot com.
Speaker 4 (28:33):
Right perfect, and most important is our two Instagram sites,
Stax Bowers and the other one is Stax Bowers Retail.
So both of those sites are where you're going to
find the clues.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
Gotcha, okay, okay, so the clues are on Instagram, yes, okay,
we want to mislead anyone. Robie hope you took a
couple of notes there in case anyone calls in h
after we finish up our interview with Mark Shimmel. Mark,
thank you so much. Welcome to Boston. I think you're
going to find it to be a great historic city.
And I don't know if you've spent much time here before,
(29:11):
but uh there, there's so much to see in our city.
Welcome to Boston.
Speaker 4 (29:16):
Thank you, Dan. Yes, I love the city and I
spent a lot of time there during the build out
of the store, and I'm generally there about once a month.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
All right, I love you'll have a lot of collectors.
It's Numatists. If I'm not mistaken as that is that a.
Speaker 4 (29:30):
New Missmatist New missmetist. But that was a good try,
Dan new mismatists.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
Okay, that's great. Okay, now I've got another word in
my mind. I knew what the word was, I simply
mispronounced it. Thank you so much, Max. We'll talk again.
Speaker 4 (29:45):
Thank you, Thank you, Dan, Thanks Milly.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
All Right, when we come back, we're going to talk
about some comments made by the Secretary of War Pete Hegstath,
and we're going to be talking with a retired Air
Force major, Brian I think his nickname is mad Dog,
Brian Maddog Maddox. For over twenty years, he flew an
Elite Air Force fighter jet, which was one of the
(30:12):
most technologically advanced on the planet. We'll be back on
Nightside right after this very quick break.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
All right, I'm delighted to welcome a retired Air Force major.
His name is Brian Maddox. He has a nickname of
mad Dog. For over twenty years, he was an Elite
Air Force pilot flying the most technologically advanced fighter jets
on the planet, and he uses lessons learned in the
military to help companies and individuals good metaphor here sort
(30:48):
of new heights through his company, total engagement, leadership, General,
I shouldn't say general, major, major, major Maddox, Welcome to Nightside.
Speaker 4 (30:57):
How are you hi, Dan?
Speaker 3 (30:59):
Thank you fantastic, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 4 (31:01):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
So tell us about this. You basically have moved from
the chain of command, if you will, to a different
sort of sort of change, you know, a business change.
And you basically say that there's some some things you
learned in the military which can be applied in leadership positions,
(31:23):
particularly leadership positions within businesses. Would you like to explain that,
I certainly understand it. I'll tell you that, No.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
I would love to so. So my position on that
is this. You know, when I was in I'll tell
you the story. You know, so when I was a
thirty ish year old, you know, f F S teen
pilot in command of a you know, fifty million dollar
airplane with the power, with the responsibility, I'll say it
that way, you know, to make split second life and
(31:52):
death decisions, you know, mine and or someone else's. Sure,
you know we had that responsibility. You know, we're training, equipped,
empowered to to do those things. You know, I retired
from the military in twenty eleven and joined, uh, you know,
join corporate Corporate America. And and I'll tell you it
was a it was a tough transition. You know, spend
(32:14):
spend the better part of ten years kind of you know,
figuring it out. And what I what I the conclusion
that I came to and the problem that I'm trying
to solve is that you know that that train equipment
power that we that we that we do for our
war fighters in the military, we don't do that for
that kind of same level of I'll call we commonly
(32:35):
referred to to them as mid level managers in corporate
But I think if we did that, if we if
we treated the the mid level management layer in corporate
America the same way we treat the that that same
layer in the military as as you know, empowered responsible professionals,
(32:58):
I truly believe even that would have unlaunched a whole
nother level of of of productivity, profitability, Uh pick your metric.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
Some people, by some people who haven't been in the
military might maybe misunderstand that. So let me just drill
down a little bit, and that is when you're in
the military, one thing you knew, you knew there's a
chain of command, and uh, generally, unless you're being ordered
to do something which will get you in trouble with
the u cmj uh, and you know you're supposed to
follow orders, you don't question again, unless you're told to
(33:33):
do something which is patently illegal.
Speaker 4 (33:36):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
That may you would think that that would be compatible.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
But at the same time, people who have never been
in the military, some people are don't understand the reason
why an organization has to have a leadership structure where
people actually buy in and then do what they are
expected to do. Am I making sense with that question?
Speaker 4 (34:01):
To you? It does?
Speaker 3 (34:04):
It makes sense. But let me just let me let
me tweak that a little bit of good because you know, yes,
there's a chain of command, Yes there's the following orders.
But what I will say, and this may be a
misconception of the military, is that you know, there's this
there's a there's a concept that we use called centralized
(34:25):
command decentralized execution, Okay, And what that means is that
you know we again I used I used train, equipment
and power a lot, because that's that kind of captures
what what we do at every level of the military.
You know, I I like to use the expression profession
of arms because that that's really what it is. I mean,
(34:47):
everyone in the military is a professional. And so when
you are a profession and you are you're in the
United States Military and you're a member of the profession
of arms, you are you are are empowered and what's
sorry word that you're You're empowered and trusted to do
your job. So the way the way centralized command decentralized
(35:10):
execution works is you have what we call commander's intent,
like hey, go go blow up that bridge, go do
this mission, this is your target, and then your unit
goes and does it without you know, what we would
commonly referred to as micromanagement.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
Exactly exactly right.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
You're trained to go do it, you go do it,
and you figure it out despite despite the challenges. And
I think that's I think that's missing from corporate in
a couple of in a couple of ways, one of
which is well, one of which frankly is is lack
of that professionalized training, particularly at the mid mid level
of the company. And and second of all, is that
kind of risk averse micromanaging.
Speaker 4 (35:53):
Ethos.
Speaker 3 (35:54):
I guess you would say sure, uh in corporate. But
it to me, the the the the crux of that,
or the origin of all of that is that you
know that training, the training, equipping, empowering, which leads to trust,
which leads to hey, go do your job. I expect
you to go do your job. And then we've all
(36:15):
heard the speed of trust and things like that, and
then things start, things start working.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
Yep, I understand what you're saying. I got to ask
you real quickly. Pete hegg Seth, the new Secretary of
the War formerly Secretary of Defense, delivered a really interesting
speech the other day to generals and admirals, folks who
normally are up there given the speeches, are giving the orders,
and they had to listen to the Secretary hegg Seth,
(36:42):
and I just want to play one sound bite for you,
and I want to get want to make you get Politically,
I'm just kind of curious as you how how you
thought this SoundBite would be received by the military leadership
across the board. Rob just played Cup fifteen A for
me into it.
Speaker 6 (36:57):
Also today, at my direction, every warrior across our joint
force is required to do pt every duty day.
Speaker 3 (37:04):
Should be common SATs.
Speaker 6 (37:05):
I mean most units do that already, but we're codifying
and we're not talking like hot yoga and stretching real
hard Ptah. There's either as a unit or as an
individual at every level, from the joint chiefs to everyone
in this room to the youngest private leaders set the standard,
and so many of you do this already active guard
(37:27):
and reserve. This also means grooming standards, no more beards,
long hair, superficial individual expression. We're gonna cut our hair,
shave our shave our beards, and adhere to standards.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
Yeah. So I'm just curious that that was a pretty
straightforward presentation, left little to be uh, left little said.
I'm just curious, Uh, as someone who, if you stated
in the military, might have ended up sitting in for
that that conversation or that that speech. What what was
(38:02):
your thought? Now, how do you think that will be
received by folks who you serve with? And now are
you know, in leadership positions?
Speaker 3 (38:10):
Yeah, so here here's how I here's how I feel
about that. And frankly, the whole speech I've I've I've
seen it, I've read the transcript, and you know, let
me caveat it this way. If you if you watch
or or read that speech, and and and you take
it at face value, and you you you look at
it a politically for me, I I applaud, I applaud that.
(38:38):
I I applaud the the the return to standards particularly,
and like he said, it kind of kind of starts
with the what we call dress and personal personal appearance,
right your your physical appearance, your uniform, how you wear
the uniform, et cetera. It's it's all in a concept
of grooming, haircut, et cetera. It's what we what we
(39:01):
refer to is as dress up a dress and personal appearance.
And it's it's really fundament that some of that.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
Could be applicable to corporations as well. You know when
you know when people sometimes uh take you know, a
casual dress code to to an extreme major major I
hate to do this to you, but a flat out
of time fascinating guests. How can folks in the business
community get in touch with you and get in touch
with the program that you're talking about.
Speaker 3 (39:29):
Sure, so a couple of a couple of ways. I'm
on LinkedIn, Brian mad Dog Maddox on LinkedIn, and I
do have a website. It's Brianmaddox dot com and the
last name is M A D D O C K
S so Brian Maddox all one word dot com.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
Thank you very much, the best of luck. I really
do appreciate the conversation and I hope people listened not
only to the words but to the thoughts behind it.
Thank you very much, Major.
Speaker 3 (39:56):
Thank you, sir, Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
You welcome. Right, we'll be back right to the nine
o'clock news, and we're going to talk about what's over
the horizon, and that is things like the flu, maybe
a return of covid RSV. We're going to talk with
doctor Shira Dorone as to what you should be thinking
about in terms of shots this winter.
With Dan Ray. I'm going easy Boston's news radio boy.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Again. I remind you if you have tuned in to
listen to the Red Sox game, this is not the place.
My name's Dan Ray and this is Nightside, and we
will be here all the way until midnight. So stick
with us. You have the opportunity here on Nightside always
to listen to the show while you watch a football game,
(00:27):
or a baseball game, or anything simple as that. Rob
Brooks is back there. Rob, you of all the TVs
turned off of the control room. You just focused the attention.
I know that Rob. Rob is the best producer that
anyone could possibly wish for. During the first hour, Rob
can relax a little bit because we don't take any
phone calls. However, during the second and third and fourth hour,
(00:48):
that is when we have great guests, interesting topics, mix
in some callers, just stir and add water and stir.
Simple as that.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Look.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
My name's Dan raym the host of Nightside, and we
have four different guests. That's what we do in the
nine o'clock hours. So, without any further ado, I'm going
to introduce you to Glenn Baker. Glenn is interested in
helping ex service personnel return to the real world, if
(01:20):
you will, and do it in a way in which
they are welcomed back. He himself served in the military. Glenn,
Welcome to Nightside.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
How are you, sir, Dan, Thank you for having me.
I'm doing very well.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Yeah, So, so tell us about you have this program,
combat Boots to Campus Blues. I get it. Is it
still that difficult? I'm of a different generation for the
folks who have served more recently and those who are
still serving as they try to move back, you know,
(01:54):
into what we used to call the real world. What's
it like out there these days?
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Well, Dan, my focus is a little bit different than that.
I mean, it's in that direction, but I'm actually helping
combat veterans that have been wounded to come back into
the real world. So we've we've we've made a deal
with a new company coming in out of France that's
got next generation technology, developed a self balancing exoskeleton. And
(02:20):
so I'm a combat vet from thirty five years ago.
I can't believe it's been that long ago, Dan, But
I'm also a country music artist.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
So that I'm sure was that that had to be Iraq?
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Well, it was Iraq. It was a desert storm. Yeah, absolutely,
fire direction control for an eight inch artillery battery can't.
And you know, we were the we were the young
guys that back then, and now I'm the old guy.
I got a little gray in my hair.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
I can't understand that. So go ahead and say thank
you for your service.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Oh you gotta get worth it.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
So, I mean, that was one where no one knew
for sure what you were going to face once you
once you're crossed in from Kuwait. That was and of
course the rocky forces folded up like a like a
cheap suit. It was. It was overlot quicker than anyone
could have hoped, but it still was pretty nerve wracking.
I'm sure for those of you who are in the
(03:15):
front lines.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Well, I think that was the one war. If there
had to be a way to do it, that was
the way to do it. And it was shock and awe.
It was overwhelming. It was you know, in and out,
and it was over with pretty quickly. I was in
country about eight months, but a lot of that was
sitting around waiting to deploy back out. So if you
have to go that way, that's the way to go.
But you know, God's been good to me and brought
(03:37):
me back into country music. About five years ago, I
had a chance to after writing a few songs, releasing
a few singles, I did a show with General Flynn
a few years ago. We were raising money for an
organization that was putting an extra skeleton on a paralyzed
vet so he could walk again. And when I saw
his marine stand up out of a wheelchair after being
paralyzed seven years before and in Afghanistan, it broke something
(03:59):
inside me. I'll ever be the same, I'll never recover,
and I knew I needed to help. So Dan I
wrote a song, thinking that's all I was gonna do,
went to shoot the music video last year fourteen months ago,
found out that organization wasn't helping vets much anymore, and
God just kind of leaned in and said, boy, this
was your plan, You're going to do it. And so
we filmed a movie and we've started a foundation and
(04:22):
have just taken our first veteran in July to New
York and got him in a clinical trial. Young man
was in a clinic for fifteen minutes and stood up
and took his first steps, and in three one hour
sessions he took over three thousand steps with the help
of an extra skeleton. So my mission is a little
bit different, but not really. We're helping these boys that
(04:43):
can't walk, that take their power has been taken, to
stand up and walk again, and Dad, gumm, it just
to feel like men. You know, it may not be
politically correct, but when a man has his wheels taken
away from his legs, there's some emasculation that takes place.
And I witnessed this youngman stand up and go walk
(05:05):
over and hug his wife for the first time in years.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
So the foundation, the foundation is called Heroes to Heroes foundations.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Correct, The foundation is called Finish this Fight, Finish this Free,
Finish This Fight Foundation. So yeah, and that's what we're
doing with everything that I'm doing now musically, movie wise,
foundation wise, is we're bringing the exoskeleton world back into
the public eyes and we're funding these guys to be
(05:36):
able to get up and walk again.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Explain to us what the exoskeleton world is. Because the
materials that I that I was received tonight did not
focus on that. So I apologize to that, but tell
us what that means.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Brother, It is not your fault at all. I've had
three interviews today, So we're going one hundred miles an hour.
The exoskeleton is a wearable robot. This is technology been
in the US for about a decade. The older technology
that's been available required the upper body strength to be
able to manipulate canes for balance, so the robot walked,
(06:12):
but it didn't balance for them. Now here's where I
get aggravated.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
Dan.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
We've got over about ten thousand veterans that physically could
use the old technology, and in the last decade there's
been less than one hundred of these skeletons that have
been provided out of ten thousand. That's not acceptable to me.
Now this new technology, they don't have to have that
upper body strength any longer because this is self balancing.
(06:39):
There's no canes required. This robot balance is for the
patient and allows them to walk with their hands freely.
Being available, that brings that number up to close to
thirty thousand that could use this technology. So my mission
is over the course of the next eighteen months to
raise enough and awareness and money to be able to
put one hundred of these on our veterans in eighteen months.
(07:04):
That's more than the government's done in a decade. And
quite frankly, I want to embarrass our government so they'll
step up and do the right thing for our boys.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
That sounds like a pretty good battle plan to me.
I like that, Glenn. So the folks can get in
touch with Finish the fight. I'm assuming it's a dot ORG.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Finish this fight.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Finish this fight.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Okay, finish this fight dot us US Okay. Yeah. The
movies there, the music there, the foundations there, the video
from this young man walking for the first time is there.
You can donate, you can buy a merchandise, you can
get involved. You can send me a message and say
I'm proud of you, or I don't like what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
I can't imagine anyone's going to send that second message, Glenn,
that's for sure, because unfortunately, as I think a lot
of us know, sometimes the government does not put veterans
at the top of their priority list. Uh. They have
a lot of other constituencies out there that they're trying
(08:04):
to take care of before veterans or and particularly also
before homeless veterans.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
Right.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Yeah, I'm involved in a group called Hope for the Warriors,
So I'm very very familiar with the different groups who
are out there and there's there's a lot that needs
to be done for veterans and your group. It sounds
to me like it's doing something really special. So finish
this fight, dot us. I'm hoping some of my listeners
tonight will take some time and look around and check
(08:33):
it out and maybe even make a contribution to help
you finish this fight.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Well, I appreciate that, Dan, And you know, with your
being involved with that foundation, this is grassroots. The government's
not going to do it until we step up and
do it and force them to.
Speaker 4 (08:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
And I saw you had a good rating from Charity
Navigator up too, by the way, which is which is
always very important so people can reinvest it that. You know,
when you get a raty a good rating from Charity Navigator,
that means this this particular charity, your charity is in
it for the right reason. So finish this fight, dot us.
Glenn Baker, pleasure, pleasure to make your your acquaintance, and
(09:10):
I'll be looking out for some of your songs. You
are still a recording artist and we need to get
we need We don't play music here on Nightside, but
some of our listeners might also like to be able
to check you out. What is your your website of people?
Do you have a personal website that people could We
could send people right now.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Everything I have is on Finish this fight now us. However,
I'm real easy to find. If you want to see
some cool music videos, just google Glenn with two ends
Glenn Baker Country music at a law pop up. Don't
use one though, Dan, because You're going to get an
Irish dude. And I'm way better looking than he is.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Okay, and shy too.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Really shy. Yeah, I'm not very big.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
All right, Glenn, Thank you very much. Pleasure to meet
you tonight. Thank you so much, Glenn Baker. Ladies and gentlemen,
finish this fight dot us. We get back. We're going
to talk about something that those of us here in
New Zealand are particularly proud of, and that is then
New England covered bridges. We have a woman coming up.
Her name is Kim Varney Chandler and she has written
a book about the covered bridges of New Hampshire. We
(10:09):
will talk about that with her in just a moment.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Well, those of us who live in New England have
a soft spot in our heart for many things that
seem to be just here in New England. And I'm
sure there are probably some other states around the country
that have a covered bridge or two, but I think
on a per capita basis, on a square mile basis,
New Hampshire has had more covered bridges than any state
(10:42):
in the world, any state in America for sure, with
us as Kim Varney Chandler, she's a U n H graduate,
full time high school counselor who spent countless of hours,
countless hours researching and visiting the state's covered bridges. She
wrote a book about them called appropriately Enough Covered Bridges
of New Hampshire. Welcome Kim, Welcome to night.
Speaker 5 (11:03):
Side, Thank you, thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
So let's talk about covered bridges of New Hampshire. There
was a point in time, not so very long ago,
when there were a lot more than there are now.
But there's still quite a.
Speaker 5 (11:19):
Few, yes, there are. In fact, I'm still researching to
see how many we actually had, and right now I'm
up to about four hundred and seventy eight, but now
we have just over sixty.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Now. Most of these covered bridges were built before the
arrival of the automobile.
Speaker 5 (11:42):
Correct, Yes, yes they were.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Okay, Well, what is there one that at this point
is still you know, you know, structure is still stable.
But it's the oldest. Is the one that you've identified
as the oldest covered bridge in New Hampshire.
Speaker 5 (12:01):
The old this covered bridge in New Hampshire is the
haver Old Bath Bridge and that bridge was built in
eighteen twenty nine.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Now when you call it the Haveral Bath Bridge, is
that a bridge that connects New Hampshire to Bath, Maine?
Per chance?
Speaker 5 (12:15):
No, it connects to New Hampshire town Haveborl and Bath.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Okay, fair enough? H And why were so many covered
bridges built in New Hampshire because of the weather or
was it as a tourist attraction? How was it that
New Hampshire became the became home to so many covered bridges?
Speaker 4 (12:39):
Well?
Speaker 5 (12:40):
Yeah, new the whole, like you said, the whole New
England area was very rich with covered bridges. But I
have to tell you Pennsylvania has the most covered bridges.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Still, they're a bigger they're a bigger state. I mean,
I'm sure you have a more per acre or more
per capita, but we're not talking about Pennsylvania. We're talking
about if they'll live for your die state, go ahead exactly.
Speaker 5 (13:08):
Well, you know the reason that they built covers on
their their bridges. A wooden covered bridge, as we can see,
can last you know, one hundred to two hundred years
if it's taken care of properly. So it was important
for those bridge builders to cover the bridge's trust. And
that's those are the series of triangles on the side
(13:28):
of a bridge that that that carry the weight of
the bridge itself and also whatever is traveling over the bridge.
And so that's the real reason why covered bridges are
covered is to protect the bridges trust.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
And you need you need bridges in New Hampshire because
it's the topography. If you want to get from point
A to point B and there's a river. What's the
longest covered bridge in New Hampshire. Again, I'm asking you questions.
I hope you know the answers to no one scripts
questions for me.
Speaker 5 (14:01):
So, the longest covered bridge in New Hampshire is actually
it's over the Connecticut River and it goes and goes
across into Vermont. It's the Cornish Windsor Bridge and it's
four hundred and sixty feet long and it's the longest
wooden bridge in the United States and the longest two
span covered bridge in the world.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Well, I'm really glad I asked that question. Did I
have not yet read your book, So I want you
to know these are spontaneous questions and it's interesting. So
the book that you have actually describes and I'm sure
there are pictures of is it forty or more covered bridges?
Speaker 5 (14:43):
There are sixty one covered bridges in the book.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
In the book, Okay, so you got them all that
you know of at this point. If you find more,
you'll have a second edition. When did the book come out?
How recently has it? Did it hit the bookstores or
hit Amazon?
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (15:01):
The book came out in the fall of twenty twenty two,
was published by Peter E. Randall Publisher in Portsmouth, And
really just began for me because I started driving around
and visiting all of the covered bridges and there was
no there was no definitive book with a really deep
history of each bridge. And so it didn't set out
(15:22):
to write a book. As you mentioned, I'm a high
school counselor, and I thought, well, I'll give it a shot.
So yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
This this, this is really a work of love for
your state and for a characteristic that makes New Hampshire. Yeah, really,
you know, typically it makes There's a lot of things
that make New Hampshire great, but this is one of them.
It's as simple as that. So how can people get
the book as it you said it was? It came
(15:53):
out a few years ago now as available through Amazon.
What's what's the easiest way for through you directly?
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (16:01):
It is.
Speaker 5 (16:01):
It is available on Amazon. You can purchase it directly
from me at my website which is Covered Bridges andh
dot com. And most of the independent bookstores in New
Hampshire carry it, and some in Massachusetts carry it also.
I've been I've been surprised to know. So, yeah, if
you can support your local book book retailer, that's great.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Now having produced this book, which I'm sure has pictures
and the history of these sixty one covered bridges, are
there other journalistic activities or literary activities that you're undertaking
or is this going to be your contribution to the
world of literature.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (16:44):
So I've been researching the different bridge rights who built
the covered bridges. So I've done some articles on my
website about gentlemen like James Tasker Captain Charles Richardson Sandford
Granger and really taking a deep into who these men
were and what other things they built, where they lived,
(17:05):
who their families were. And I have a podcast as well.
I've interviewed some people that I've met along this research journey,
but right now I'm really taking a deep dive into
the lost covered bridges. So I'm trying to figure out
where there were bridges that no longer stand. And that's
a giant rabbit hole and I'm way down in it.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Well, good, good for you. It sounds interesting. Real last
question and I think I know the answer. But back
in the day, I'm assuming were these bridges built by
communities or were they built by people who had business
commerce and they needed that bridge. Who funded these bridges
(17:51):
back in the day.
Speaker 5 (17:53):
That's an excellent question. Some of them were funded by communities.
So a town felt like they needed a bridge, they
wanted it to be a covered bridge. They would hire
either a local carpenter or maybe someone who built covered bridges.
Most of the Connecticut River covered bridges, though, were built
(18:13):
by people that came together and formed some type of
a business and they put their money together and then
they charged tolls to get their money back.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Oh okay, so there was a little entrepreneurship going on
back in the day. And did they stop using tolls
once they had recaptured or recouped their money or did
they did they continue on and actually turn a bit
of a profit.
Speaker 5 (18:39):
Some of them did stop, but some of them kept going.
The cornersh Winter Bridge was actually freed in the nineteen forties.
They had a big party to celebrate the last toll
taken on a Connecticut river bridge.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Well, look, the book is available again. Give the website
one more time, and then I'm going to have to
say good night because they got to make way for
a newscast. What's the best way they can either get it?
Get it either from Amazon or from you personally.
Speaker 5 (19:06):
Yeah, the website is Covered Bridges NH dot com. Okay,
and there's a links by anywhere else you would like.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Sounds great. Kim really enjoyed the conversation. I learned a
lot about covered Bridges in a short period of time.
Speaker 5 (19:19):
Thank you again, Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Good night, Welcome, You're welcome. When we get back right
after the news, we're going to talk about a rare
coin treasure hunt coming up next week right here in Boston. Uh.
This is there's going to be forty thousand dollars in
prizes and we're going to talk with Max Shimmel about
this treasure hunt and how you you might be able
(19:45):
to participate. Stay with us here on Nightside. You're on
night Side with Dan Ray on WBZY, Boston's news radio. Well,
welcome back everyone, and there's going to be a rare
coin tre hunt in Boston from October seventh to the eleventh.
Pretty exciting stuff when you think about it. A rear
(20:09):
coin treasure hunt with us is Mark Schimmel. He's with
a company called Stax Bowers. He's the director of their
East Coast retail. Mark. To be honest with you, I
am unfamiliar with Stax Bowers, So first of all, tell
us about the company, then let's talk about the treasure hunt.
Speaker 4 (20:25):
Great, thank you, Dan, and thank you for having me
on tonight.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Very well.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
The statement you just made that you're unfamiliar with Stax
Bowers is something that we are trying to overcome, and
that's one of the main reasons that we are having
this treasure hunt. We are actually a ninety year old
rare coin firm where America's oldest and most accomplished rare
coin company selling the largest and most valuable coin collections
(20:52):
that have ever come to market. But we are new
to the Boston and New England area. We had one
store in New York, was only retail store for the
first ninety almost ninety years of our company's history, and
then we started expanding in Boston was one of our
new locations. So we want to introduce the Boston the
(21:13):
Bostonians to wear coin collecting and tell them about us
and have them learn about us. And this is one
of the ways we plan to do it.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
So where are physically located in Boston? If someone wants
to stop by, I assume you have a store.
Speaker 4 (21:28):
Front, Yes, we have a storefront. We're on State Street,
but we're actually right by Faniel Hall. It's twenty two
Exchange Place, which is right by Faniel Hall Quincy Market.
If you stand in the square and you look to
the left, you can see our awning. So we have
a fantastic location. We get everybody who comes to Boston
(21:51):
to visit sees our store and we're very happy to
welcome them.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
In a lot of foot traffic. Okay, So let's talk
about this treasure hunt. When you think about treasure hunt,
do you think about, oh, clues and all of that.
It sounds pretty exciting.
Speaker 4 (22:06):
What's going on, Well, that's exactly what we're doing. So
picture this. Just picture that in twenty twenty five, Paul
Revere gets on his horse and he rides through the
streets of Boston and he says, the coins are coming,
the coins are coming, And that's basically the image we
want to generate in the Bostonians' minds. So what we're
(22:27):
going to be doing is it's going to take place
over five days starting October seventh through October eleventh, and
each day we're going to go to an iconic Boston location.
We're going to hide a certificate. We're going to post
clues on our Instagram accounts, both Stax Bowers and stax
(22:48):
Bower's retail. We have two Instagram accounts, and we're going
to post clues starting at ten o'clock in the morning.
We'll post a few clues during the day until somebody
finds the certificate. So the certificate is going to be
hiding there and then the person who finds the certificate
will be able to bring it to our store the
following week to claim their prize.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Okay, so the certificate. I don't want to break any
rules here, and I certainly don't want to, but I
want to make sure people understand. So you'll pick five
locations five days. I guess it starts on Tuesday, if
I'm not mistaken, right.
Speaker 4 (23:24):
It starts on Tuesday, goes till Saturday. Saturday is the
grand prize.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Sure, Okay, so Tuesday through Saturday. So you pick a
location and then people have no idea where that location is,
but you'll post some clues on your websites and so
we will. We'll get to that in a second. The
next question that I have is will the clues be
(23:50):
a little obfuscated or will they be really direct, like
you should check out pick you know, I'm just going
to pick something the Old North Church or whatever, you know?
Or will it be a clue that people will kind
of have to figure out, if you know what I'm saying,
(24:11):
more than you have to figure out, figure.
Speaker 4 (24:13):
Out more that you have to figure out. But our
Boston store manager, who is a longtime Bostonian, family's been
here forever, and he knows Boston so well, so he
has structured these clues in such a way that Bostonians
will know where it is. If they don't get it
on the first clue, they'll get it on the second
or third. But our true Bostonian will figure out where
(24:35):
these places are.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
So one clue will be a release it what ten o'clock,
and then if some period of time passes, a second
clue gets released later that morning.
Speaker 4 (24:47):
Correct.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Correct.
Speaker 4 (24:48):
We will release the clues until there's generally about four
or five clues per location, and realistically you'll find it
by the fifth clue.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Okay, and there's certificates then will basically be taken to
your store and exchange is the certificate for the rare coin. Okay?
Right now? These all American coins, because when I checked
out your website earlier tonight, I saw that you're doing
(25:18):
a lot of auctions and you do coins from different
countries around the world, Sweden, Denmark. I assume you also
do American coins as well.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
Sure well, everything here will be American and the highlight
the grand prize is an American twenty dollar gold piece,
which at the current value of gold is somewhere in
the thirty five hundred to four thousand dollars range for
this particular coin. So everything is an American coin. But
(25:47):
we do have two very special Boston related items which
people generally don't know about it all. One is an
eighteen sixty three Faniel Hall Bank of Boston vote and
it's a five cent note. And the other one is
in eighteen fifty seven Massachusetts bank note. It's a two
(26:08):
dollar note. So right away people don't realize that in
the eighteen hundreds, banks actually issued their own currency. They
issued notes which would circulate, and of course they would
circulate in the local territory. Unfortunately, sometimes these banks went
out of business and you just had a piece of
tissue in your hand. But these are historical documents, they're
(26:31):
hand signed, they're fabulous, beautiful colors, beautiful graphics, and in
this instance, these notes relate directly to Boston. They're uniquely
Boston items.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
And I assume that even though the face value is
a flight number, that from a collector's point of view,
these notes have a value well above what the face
value of the note would suggest.
Speaker 4 (26:59):
Oh. Absolutely, see, that's the good thing about it is. Yes,
the bank is long gone, but the notes survive and
have a value that is well in excess it's about
two hundred dollars in this instance, so certainly well in
access to face value, okay.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
And it's so I think that the press release we
saw was that the rear coin and currency prizes are
going to in total be valued over forty thousand dollars.
Is that accurate? Well?
Speaker 4 (27:27):
Well, in each city we're doing this in four different
cities because we have four retail stores. Okay, city prizes
will be ten thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
Any city, Okay, totally in tens Okay. So got the
idea from having preps done something like this before as
to how many people you think might be following you
come next Tuesday morning.
Speaker 4 (27:50):
We're hoping we'll get hundreds of people to follow us.
We're trying to get as much publicity and press as
we can out there, and we we'd love people to
take notice of us.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Okay, So let's go real slowly and let's have the uh,
let's have the website.
Speaker 4 (28:08):
Okay. The website is Staxbowers dot com.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
And let's spell that stax Bowers is s T A
C K.
Speaker 4 (28:17):
S S S yes and b O W E R S.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
Write the name of Johnny Bowers and NHL goaltender with
the maple leafs. That's where I would know the name
Bowers from. Okay, okay, and the Staxbowers dot com.
Speaker 4 (28:33):
Right perfect, and most important is our two Instagram sites,
Stax Bowers and the other one is Stax Bowers Retail.
So both of those sites are where you're going to
find the clues.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
Gotcha, okay, okay, so the clues are on Instagram, yes, okay,
we want to mislead anyone. Robie hope you took a
couple of notes there in case anyone calls in h
after we finish up our interview with Mark Shimmel. Mark,
thank you so much. Welcome to Boston. I think you're
going to find it to be a great historic city.
And I don't know if you've spent much time here before,
(29:11):
but uh there, there's so much to see in our city.
Welcome to Boston.
Speaker 4 (29:16):
Thank you, Dan. Yes, I love the city and I
spent a lot of time there during the build out
of the store, and I'm generally there about once a month.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
All right, I love you'll have a lot of collectors.
It's Numatists. If I'm not mistaken as that is that a.
Speaker 4 (29:30):
New Missmatist New missmetist. But that was a good try,
Dan new mismatists.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
Okay, that's great. Okay, now I've got another word in
my mind. I knew what the word was, I simply
mispronounced it. Thank you so much, Max. We'll talk again.
Speaker 4 (29:45):
Thank you, Thank you, Dan, Thanks Milly.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
All Right, when we come back, we're going to talk
about some comments made by the Secretary of War Pete Hegstath,
and we're going to be talking with a retired Air
Force major, Brian I think his nickname is mad Dog,
Brian Maddog Maddox. For over twenty years, he flew an
Elite Air Force fighter jet, which was one of the
(30:12):
most technologically advanced on the planet. We'll be back on
Nightside right after this very quick break.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
All right, I'm delighted to welcome a retired Air Force major.
His name is Brian Maddox. He has a nickname of
mad Dog. For over twenty years, he was an Elite
Air Force pilot flying the most technologically advanced fighter jets
on the planet, and he uses lessons learned in the
military to help companies and individuals good metaphor here sort
(30:48):
of new heights through his company, total engagement, leadership, General,
I shouldn't say general, major, major, major Maddox, Welcome to Nightside.
Speaker 4 (30:57):
How are you hi, Dan?
Speaker 3 (30:59):
Thank you fantastic, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 4 (31:01):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
So tell us about this. You basically have moved from
the chain of command, if you will, to a different
sort of sort of change, you know, a business change.
And you basically say that there's some some things you
learned in the military which can be applied in leadership positions,
(31:23):
particularly leadership positions within businesses. Would you like to explain that,
I certainly understand it. I'll tell you that, No.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
I would love to so. So my position on that
is this. You know, when I was in I'll tell
you the story. You know, so when I was a
thirty ish year old, you know, f F S teen
pilot in command of a you know, fifty million dollar
airplane with the power, with the responsibility, I'll say it
that way, you know, to make split second life and
(31:52):
death decisions, you know, mine and or someone else's. Sure,
you know we had that responsibility. You know, we're training, equipped,
empowered to to do those things. You know, I retired
from the military in twenty eleven and joined, uh, you know,
join corporate Corporate America. And and I'll tell you it
was a it was a tough transition. You know, spend
(32:14):
spend the better part of ten years kind of you know,
figuring it out. And what I what I the conclusion
that I came to and the problem that I'm trying
to solve is that you know that that train equipment
power that we that we that we do for our
war fighters in the military, we don't do that for
that kind of same level of I'll call we commonly
(32:35):
referred to to them as mid level managers in corporate
But I think if we did that, if we if
we treated the the mid level management layer in corporate
America the same way we treat the that that same
layer in the military as as you know, empowered responsible professionals,
(32:58):
I truly believe even that would have unlaunched a whole
nother level of of of productivity, profitability, Uh pick your metric.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
Some people, by some people who haven't been in the
military might maybe misunderstand that. So let me just drill
down a little bit, and that is when you're in
the military, one thing you knew, you knew there's a
chain of command, and uh, generally, unless you're being ordered
to do something which will get you in trouble with
the u cmj uh, and you know you're supposed to
follow orders, you don't question again, unless you're told to
(33:33):
do something which is patently illegal.
Speaker 4 (33:36):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
That may you would think that that would be compatible.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
But at the same time, people who have never been
in the military, some people are don't understand the reason
why an organization has to have a leadership structure where
people actually buy in and then do what they are
expected to do. Am I making sense with that question?
Speaker 4 (34:01):
To you? It does?
Speaker 3 (34:04):
It makes sense. But let me just let me let
me tweak that a little bit of good because you know, yes,
there's a chain of command, Yes there's the following orders.
But what I will say, and this may be a
misconception of the military, is that you know, there's this
there's a there's a concept that we use called centralized
(34:25):
command decentralized execution, Okay, And what that means is that
you know we again I used I used train, equipment
and power a lot, because that's that kind of captures
what what we do at every level of the military.
You know, I I like to use the expression profession
of arms because that that's really what it is. I mean,
(34:47):
everyone in the military is a professional. And so when
you are a profession and you are you're in the
United States Military and you're a member of the profession
of arms, you are you are are empowered and what's
sorry word that you're You're empowered and trusted to do
your job. So the way the way centralized command decentralized
(35:10):
execution works is you have what we call commander's intent,
like hey, go go blow up that bridge, go do
this mission, this is your target, and then your unit
goes and does it without you know, what we would
commonly referred to as micromanagement.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
Exactly exactly right.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
You're trained to go do it, you go do it,
and you figure it out despite despite the challenges. And
I think that's I think that's missing from corporate in
a couple of in a couple of ways, one of
which is well, one of which frankly is is lack
of that professionalized training, particularly at the mid mid level
of the company. And and second of all, is that
kind of risk averse micromanaging.
Speaker 4 (35:53):
Ethos.
Speaker 3 (35:54):
I guess you would say sure, uh in corporate. But
it to me, the the the the crux of that,
or the origin of all of that is that you
know that training, the training, equipping, empowering, which leads to trust,
which leads to hey, go do your job. I expect
you to go do your job. And then we've all
(36:15):
heard the speed of trust and things like that, and
then things start, things start working.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
Yep, I understand what you're saying. I got to ask
you real quickly. Pete hegg Seth, the new Secretary of
the War formerly Secretary of Defense, delivered a really interesting
speech the other day to generals and admirals, folks who
normally are up there given the speeches, are giving the orders,
and they had to listen to the Secretary hegg Seth,
(36:42):
and I just want to play one sound bite for you,
and I want to get want to make you get Politically,
I'm just kind of curious as you how how you
thought this SoundBite would be received by the military leadership
across the board. Rob just played Cup fifteen A for
me into it.
Speaker 6 (36:57):
Also today, at my direction, every warrior across our joint
force is required to do pt every duty day.
Speaker 3 (37:04):
Should be common SATs.
Speaker 6 (37:05):
I mean most units do that already, but we're codifying
and we're not talking like hot yoga and stretching real
hard Ptah. There's either as a unit or as an
individual at every level, from the joint chiefs to everyone
in this room to the youngest private leaders set the standard,
and so many of you do this already active guard
(37:27):
and reserve. This also means grooming standards, no more beards,
long hair, superficial individual expression. We're gonna cut our hair,
shave our shave our beards, and adhere to standards.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
Yeah. So I'm just curious that that was a pretty
straightforward presentation, left little to be uh, left little said.
I'm just curious, Uh, as someone who, if you stated
in the military, might have ended up sitting in for
that that conversation or that that speech. What what was
(38:02):
your thought? Now, how do you think that will be
received by folks who you serve with? And now are
you know, in leadership positions?
Speaker 3 (38:10):
Yeah, so here here's how I here's how I feel
about that. And frankly, the whole speech I've I've I've
seen it, I've read the transcript, and you know, let
me caveat it this way. If you if you watch
or or read that speech, and and and you take
it at face value, and you you you look at
it a politically for me, I I applaud, I applaud that.
(38:38):
I I applaud the the the return to standards particularly,
and like he said, it kind of kind of starts
with the what we call dress and personal personal appearance,
right your your physical appearance, your uniform, how you wear
the uniform, et cetera. It's it's all in a concept
of grooming, haircut, et cetera. It's what we what we
(39:01):
refer to is as dress up a dress and personal appearance.
And it's it's really fundament that some of that.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
Could be applicable to corporations as well. You know when
you know when people sometimes uh take you know, a
casual dress code to to an extreme major major I
hate to do this to you, but a flat out
of time fascinating guests. How can folks in the business
community get in touch with you and get in touch
with the program that you're talking about.
Speaker 3 (39:29):
Sure, so a couple of a couple of ways. I'm
on LinkedIn, Brian mad Dog Maddox on LinkedIn, and I
do have a website. It's Brianmaddox dot com and the
last name is M A D D O C K
S so Brian Maddox all one word dot com.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
Thank you very much, the best of luck. I really
do appreciate the conversation and I hope people listened not
only to the words but to the thoughts behind it.
Thank you very much, Major.
Speaker 3 (39:56):
Thank you, sir, Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
You welcome. Right, we'll be back right to the nine
o'clock news, and we're going to talk about what's over
the horizon, and that is things like the flu, maybe
a return of covid RSV. We're going to talk with
doctor Shira Dorone as to what you should be thinking
about in terms of shots this winter.
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