Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
To night. Michael Brown joins me here the former FEMA
director talk show host Michael Brown.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Brownie, no, Brownie, You're doing a heck of a job.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
The Weekend with Michael Brown broadcasting Life in Denver, Colorado. Yeah,
Labor Day weekend. I'm broadcasting live. So everybody, just relaxed,
sit down and just you know, take take a break
from grilling your hot dogs or driving your car or
whatever you're doing, and and let's let's get it on.
It's the Weekend with Michael Brown. I'm glad to have
(00:27):
you joining the program today. And I hope whatever you're
doing for Labor Day weekend, I hope, I hope it's fine.
I hope it's productive, and I hope you stay. I
hope you take just a moment to realize some of
the really strange history of Labor Day, because you can
there's so many different avenues that you could go down
about the history of Labor Day. You could talk about
(00:51):
the Marxist organism, the origins of it.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
You could talk.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
About how it really is celebrating Judeo Christian ethics and
how we believe in the value of work, and that
if you will go down the theological avenue. It would
be that you know, God intended us to work to
you know, provide for ourselves, to grow our food and
to use our brains so that we can you know,
(01:16):
come up with, you know, new ways and better ways
of doing things and taking care of ourselves, whether that's
feeding ourselves, sheltering ourselves, transporting ourselves, whatever it is, you
can go down that path. So there's many different paths
you can go down. I was, and I still am
going to play a speech for you, but before I do,
(01:38):
there were a couple of observations that I made. There
was there was a there was a death in our
extended family. It was our daughter in law's father who
died yesterday, and so I wasn't quite sure whether I
was doing the program today or not. But anyway, so yesterday,
(01:58):
after the weekday program, I'm running around trying to figure
out what's going on. Got a bunch of stuff you had.
It is when you try to take vacation and then
everybody crams in, hey, can you get this done? Can
you get that done? Can you get you know, blah
blah blah blah blah blah blah. Everybody was everything done.
In fact, I'll tell you a thirty little secret. I
just got an email, literally got an email on Saturday
(02:19):
morning around ten o'clock, about seven minutes ago from one
of our muckety MUCKs here in the Denver iHeart Cluster.
And they had we had been given a task that
I forget when the task came out, but it was,
you know, maybe a few days ago. And the deadline
is Tuesday, September is September second, but whatever that Tuesday is,
(02:43):
let me look at the calendarly quickly. Uh, this is August.
What is today? Yeah, Tuesday, September second. Now, other than
me this, well, I think we got somebody in the
newsroom downstairs. Michael's sitting out in Sherman Oaks in Los Angeles,
and he's probably one of only a couple of people
(03:04):
in the building there. And so this email comes out
to everybody who as other than the couple of people
in this building that it applies to, are scattered to
the winds. Everybody scattered to the winds. And it was
a reminder that and let's just guess that the number
is twenty five. The email went out to twenty five
(03:25):
people that are on air and they want us to
do something and the deadline is by close of business
on Tuesday. Well, who's going to do it on this weekend?
Nobody's going to do it on this weekend. And it
was kind of a reminder about only four of you
have responded and we need you to get off your
(03:45):
butt and get busy and do it. And I'm thinking, well, yeah,
everybody's going to do it on Tuesday because this is
a holiday weekend and nobody's working. Nobody's working. I mean,
it's just fascinating to me. And then as a precursor
to that email, I'm walking around in this building. Now
those of you that listen to me locally know that
we my producer in Denver, Dragon and I have a
(04:08):
lot of fun mocking and making fun of things that
go wrong in this building and then that never really
get repaired. Or you know, you got to put in
a trouble ticket, and then you have to before you
can put in the trouble ticket, you have to find
the QR code. And once you find the QR code,
you got to get out to work. Consuming it works.
Then you don't know where it goes.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
It go in.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
It can go into any office anywhere across the country
that has nothing to do with, you know. I mean
they obviously they work for iHeart, but they have no
idea like what's really going on in this building. So
we put in a trouble ticket, you know, something's not working,
and then we just hope and pray, and then Dragon
and I start making jokes about taking bets on how
long before X gets fixed. The reason I tell that
(04:53):
story is this morning, as I come into this studio
and I'm kind of unpacking and getting out everything ready,
I'm on the third floor of our building, which is
where most of our FM stations are located. I broadcast
in Denver from Freedom ninety three seven, but I don't
actually use the Freedom ninety three seven studios. I use
(05:15):
a little production studio downstairs on the third floor, simply
because it's more compact, it's easier, and I can reach
the board when I need to reach it.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
It's just easier. Let's just put it. It's just easier.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
The third floor restrooms were remodeled I want to say
three weeks ago, maybe three weeks ago, because there was
going to be a big celebration of the hundredth birthday
of one of our local stations, and so, oh my gosh,
the bathrooms were really crappy. So the building had already
(05:50):
been remodeled a few years ago, although that's still ongoing.
It's not finished yet, but they had to get those
bathrooms done. So they get the bathrooms done. I walk
into one this morning and the grout. Now, remember this,
this groud is what three weeks old, four weeks old
at the most, is already peeling in the corners. On
(06:13):
the on the urinal where the handle kind of goes
into the wall, there's one of those little kind of
disks that they put over there, just you know, it's
more of a decority thing, just to make it look
nice and neat. That's already broken and coming up coming apart.
It's already fallen off the wall. And I'm thinking to myself,
(06:35):
workmanship in this country, generally speaking, that's not true for everybody.
Because I'm sure many of you who do manual labor
or what just mean, there's whatever kind of labor you do,
you really take pride in your work. But how many
people in this country actually take pride in their work?
Who think about you know, maybe nobody's paying the attention
(06:56):
to this, but I want to do a good job.
I think we need more of that, and I think
we also need to instill in every generation. I mean,
Bloomers are maybe among the worst, let alone, you know, whatever,
the generations, you know, Millennials and Gen z or and
Gen xers and then the unknown whatever they're going to
(07:19):
call that last most recent generation just don't have the
same kind of work ethic that say, America's greatest generation had.
And I think that's sad because one of the things
that we're known for, I mean, think about some of
the great innovations, the industrial revolution that started in this country.
(07:43):
Think about what we've done technologically. Think about the fact
that you can jump on an airplane, even at the
last minute, and you can travel from New York to
la in you know, in four and a half five
and a half hours, depending on you know, whether it
got layover or not. Or I can jump on a
plane in Denver and I can be in London in
six and a half hours, eight hours. It's again depending
(08:05):
on headwinds and everything else. But it's simply amazing. And
then you look at take that airline. Now, obviously the
people that work on the airplanes have to be very
very meticulous in the work that they do because otherwise
the planes are going to come crashing out of the sky.
Then you think about air traffic control. The air traffic
(08:27):
controllers themselves, the individuals obviously know how serious their jobs are.
They take it very, very seriously, but they're working on
antiquated equipment that dates back to the sixties and seventies.
We just don't take labor and work seriously anymore. We
become too dumb, fat and happy. And I want you
(08:50):
to listen to something when we get back. It's the
Weekend with Michael Brown. Yes, we're live on Labor Day Weekend.
Text line as usual was always open. That number three
three one zero three. Keyword is my Michael Go follow
me on x formally Twitter, that's at Michael Brown USA.
I'll be right back. Welcome back to the Weekend with
(09:13):
Michael Brown. Happy Labor Day weekend. Glad to have you
with me. Whatever you're doing, I hope you're enjoying it
and having fun. And what I hope you're doing is
listening to the program. Don't forget always go subscribe to
the podcast. That's easy to do on your podcast app.
Search for this title The Situation with Michael Brown. The
Situation with Michael Brown. Once you find that, get that
subscribe button, leave a five star review that helps us
(09:35):
beat the algorithm, and then that will automatically download all
five days of the weekday program and the weekend program.
And our podcast numbers are great. So I appreciate you
subscribing to the podcast, but of course I'm so damned
competitive I want even more, so go do that. Martin
Luther King gave us a speech called the Street Sweeper speech.
(09:59):
Gave it in Cago, April nine, nineteen sixty seven. And
you have to be nuanced anytime you talked about doctor Keen,
because well, huh, imagine this, Like everybody else, there are
good things and there are bad things about doctor Martin
Luther King. If you ever want to understand a side
(10:25):
of the civil rights movement that was never taught an
I doubt ever will be taught in public education, let alone,
for that matter, higher education anywhere else, you need to
go watch a couple of short video, not necessarily short,
but a couple of videos that go through the history
of the civil rights movement, and it gives a really
(10:47):
nuanced look about how it got captured, almost Stockholm syndrome like,
and it was really kind of a Marxist communist movement.
Now that probably offend some people because we all believe
in civil rights. I'm a civil rights advocate. I think
(11:07):
civil rights in this country have been bastardized. I think
that all people, all humans, are created equal. So you
you have to take it with a grain of salt.
And so anytime I use doctor King, I just throw
out this caveat that. Yeah, I understand that doctor King
has good things and bad things, but that's because he's human.
But that does not take away from the point that
(11:29):
he makes in this street sweeper speech.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Look to you this morning, my friend, even if it's
all your lot to be a street sweeper, go out
in sweet streets like Michael as alte.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Streets like I love that.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
If your lot in life is to be a street sweeper,
sweep those streets well. Michaelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel in
the Vatican. If we all had that attitude, I wouldn't
have three week old plumbing in a bathroom that's falling apart.
(12:13):
That people simply don't take pride in what they do.
I'm not gonna pat myself on the back, but I
love what I do, and I know some days I'm
not quite as on as I should be for any
number of reasons. But I come in here and I
really try to be on, and I try to be I.
You know, you want to be energetic when I'm giving
(12:34):
a keynote address or I'm sitting on a panel or something.
I want people to when when when I speak, I
want them to listen. But in order for them to listen,
not only do I have to be concerned and focused
on delivery, but also substance. Because I could give some
(12:56):
rip roar and speech that is just vacuous and that's
gonna fall flat. But the same token, I could give
a speech that is amazingly substantive with a lot of
stuff to really chew on. But if I just drone
on and on and on, and nobody's ever really going
(13:17):
to listen to it, doctor King was able to accomplish
both in this speech.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
What I'm saying to you this morning, my friend, even
if it's owed your lot to be.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
A street sweeper, go out in sweet.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Streets like Michael Angelo painted piece pictures sweet streets like
Handle and Beethoven composed news here sweet streets like Shakespeare
road portray sweet streets so well that all the hosts
of heaven and Earth will have to pause and say,
here live the great street sweeper who swept the job. Well,
(13:56):
if you can't be a pine on the top of
a heel, be a scribed and valley, but be the
best little scrub on the side of the rial, be
a push that you can't be a tree. If you
can't be a highway, just be a trail. If you
can't be the sun, be a star. It isn't by
size that you win or you fail.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Be the best of whatever you are.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
And when you do this, when you do this, you
master the length of life's on with push to the
end of self fulfillment is the end of a person's life.
I don't stop here, though. You know, a lot of
(14:38):
people get more further in life than the length they
develop dinner powers. They do their jobs well, you know,
they try to live as if nobody else lives in
the world or themselves, and they use everybody as mea too.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
To get the where they are going.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Yeah, they don't love anybody but themselves and own. The
kind of love that they really have for other people
is utilitarian love. You know, they don't love people that
they can use a lot of people never get beyond the.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
First dimension of life.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
They use other people as mere steps through which by
which they can climb to their goals and ambitions. These
people don't work out well in life. They may go
for a while, they may think they're making it all right.
(15:48):
But there is a law, they call it the law
of gravitation in the physical.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Universe, and it works.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
It's final, it's inexorable. Ever goes up can come down.
You shall report yourself. God has structured this universe that way.
And he who goes through life not concerned about others,
we will be a subject victim of this law. So
(16:21):
I move on and say that it is necessary to
add breath to length. Now the breath of life is
the outward concern for the welfare of others. As I said,
man has.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Not begun to live.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Until he can rise above the narrow confines of his
own individual concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
To.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
What we all should do. Street that that street, as
if you were painting the Sistine Chapel. And what goes
around comes around, is indeed one of the laws of
the universe. I don't know who was fixing these restrooms
on this floor. I don't know who they are individually,
(17:17):
and I know nothing about them except this. They had
no pride in their work. They were rushed. There apparently
was no accountability because was there a manager, was there
a supervisor? Was there somebody? And if there was, did
they look at it and go, yeah, that's yeah, Yeah,
that's good enough. Who cares? That's good enough. Let's just
(17:39):
move on. No, let's don't do that on Labor Day.
Let's recognize that all work. That waiter, that waitress, the
person that's driving your uber or delivering your food, the
person that's checking you out of a convenience store, whatever
it is, they all have worth. Let's help them do
(18:01):
the best they can be. I'll be right back.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Tonight.
Speaker 4 (18:10):
Michael Brown joins me here, the former FEMA director of
talk show host Michael Brown.
Speaker 5 (18:14):
Brownie, no, Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job
the Weekend with Michael Brown.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
You're listening to the Weekend with Michael Brown, and I'm
glad you're doing so happy Labor Day weekend. Here's what
we're going to get to eventually in the program. There's
a story about a little girl in the United Kingdom
which is horrific. I want to get to that. I
want to touch on some new information about the shooter
in the Catholic school in Minnesota. We've got some interesting
(18:43):
new facts about sea level rise. Oh my gosh, sea
level rise. We're all gonna drown. That's kind of interesting.
And we're going to get to all those stories shortly.
But I really wanted to focus a little bit on
Labor Day. I would ask a favor because I'm really curious,
you know my uh, I said, you know, I'm sorry.
(19:08):
My first job that I can recall, I think I
mowed lawns for a couple of neighbor neighbors a couple of.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Times some summers. But I did.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
I don't consider that that wasn't a real job. That
was kind of something that my parents were like, go
go over and you know, uh, missus Wood's lawn for
because there's nobody around to do it.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Okay, I'll go do it.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
My dad, who was in the army and then in
the reserves, obviously you knew how to spit spit shine shoes,
and so if he taught me as a little kid
how to shine shoes and kind of instilled in me
that shoes and keeping them clean and proper was a
way to make a very good impression on people. And
(19:50):
that and to this day, I'm kind of a sneaker
fanatic and I always want to make sure my shoes
are presentable because you can. You can glance down to
someone's shoes and you can tell a lot of about them.
And to this day, I can still remember the day
that my dad came home from his barbershop and said Jack,
(20:13):
who was the owner of the shop. There were three
brothers that ran this shop. Jack said, if you would
like to come and shine shoes at the barber shop,
he can gladly have you and you can work on
you know, maybe three four days a week after school
for a couple of hours. It pays twenty five cents
per shine, and you they'll supply all of the stuff.
(20:39):
All you need to do is approach a customer and
ask them if they'd like their shoes shine. So I
jumped at it. I thought, oh, that'd be kind of fun.
So my first real job where I had a certain
period where I had to show up and then I
had to stay until they closed, was shining shoes in
that barber shop. And I get read I remember the
(21:00):
first time somebody paid me twenty five cents for the shine,
And I can remember the first time somebody gave me
thirty five cents or fifty cents.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Holy cal this is wonderful.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
And you put those quarters in your pocket and you
realize that's money that you made. And it, at least
for me, it made me want to do an even
better job because I realized that the better job I did. Yeah,
you know, I learned the hard way too. You do
a really good job. Some guys just going to give
you a quarter. But some guys will look down at
(21:34):
the shoes and think, oh, oh, that's amazingly good, and
it's to give you a quarter. They'll pay you a double.
They'll give you fifty cents for the shine. I was
fascinated by this, and it taught me the work ethic
that I think I have today. The Trump administration went
back to several cabinet members and asked them, what was
(21:56):
your first job? So I want to ask you, what
was your first job? Texted to me three three onesie
wroll three keyword Mike or Michael. I'm really curious, not
across the fruited plane of what was your first job.
You can tell me as much or as you are,
as little as you want to, but we'll share some
of those because I'd like to know in this audience,
(22:16):
what was your very first job. Now, maybe not mowing
the yard for your next door neighbor because she was
an elderly woman and your mom and dad told you
you got to go do that. Now I'm talking about
where you had to show up and you got paid,
either you know, an hourly wage or like me, shining shoes.
(22:37):
I got paid the number of men that I was
able to convince that they had to get their shoes shine.
Here are the members of the Trump cabinet explaining what
their first jobs were.
Speaker 6 (22:50):
My first job my parents.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
This is the Secretary of Labor, uh Mis Chevin.
Speaker 6 (22:55):
It's assisted that I get a job. I wanted to
be a cheerleader in high school and I couldn't afford uniform.
So my first job was packing peaches at warman AM's
Packing in Hanford, California, where I was working twelve hour
days for the first time, and it was exciting. I
raised the money that I needed to buy that uniform.
I lost fifteen pounds and I knew all about peaches
and I still love them today.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
Now now this is Doug Collins, the Secretary of the
the I look.
Speaker 7 (23:22):
Back on my first job. I think about all the
things I thought it was so important. When I got
up every morning, I went to a local grocery store
called Big Star, and I got to clean the floors.
And I stayed there for five years. Actually, my first
job turned into a five year experience all the way
from high.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
School to college.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
My first job was nice.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
This is Tulci Gabbert, the Director of National Intelligence Unique.
Speaker 6 (23:40):
It was delivering newspapers in downtown Honolulu.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
Well, I started at my This is Lee's Eldon, the
administrator of the epa cool Community Library.
Speaker 5 (23:51):
It was not the most exciting job, paying pretty much
minimum wage. I was able to get a massive promotion
over to retail as a cashier, and I remember the
big day where I was given the promotion to dress
shirt supervisor that came with a fifty cent per hour race.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
My first this is the Secretary of Defense Pete He
job was as a lifeguard at the indoor pool that
my mom worked at. My first job, Bobby Kennedy Jr.
I was working at the Washington Zoo.
Speaker 4 (24:28):
I was working in the reptile house, and I was
feeding the reptiles, cleaning the cage, cleaning the glass with
a squeegee, and cleaning the.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
Guardrails with brass polisher.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
And my parents Tilsey Gabber again and instilled in all
of us a very strong work ethic.
Speaker 7 (24:49):
From a young age, I.
Speaker 4 (24:50):
Learned that's a little thing, scout, that whatever you do,
you should apply all of your talents and all of
your energy to trying to do well.
Speaker 6 (25:00):
You know, with the President's leadership, he's offering every American
who wants to work the opportunity to work and really
strive and earn the American dream.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
After they I forget which one it was talked about. Oh,
it's Tilsa Gabbard throwing newspapers in Honolulu after I did
the shoeshine job. By the time I got to be
probably maybe I'm guessing, maybe a freshman in high school,
maybe younger, maybe seventh eighth grade, I'm not sure. But
(25:36):
a buddy of mine and I decided that there was
a paper route opening for the morning newspaper, the Daily Oklahoma,
owned by the Gay Lords. That newspaper is still in existence.
It's a you know, it's more than one hundred years old,
and it was the only local news that we are,
the only state wide newspaper that we really got where
(25:58):
I grew up in Neilklamba pan Him. So my buddy
and I decided to apply to be newspaper boys, and
we got the two largest routes that in our small community,
probably covered about three fourths of the town. And every morning.
I think this is why I'm always a morning person,
because my dad was always a morning person too, So
(26:18):
I think this is.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
What instilled me.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
Why why I don't mind getting up at you know,
four o'clock on weekday mornings and I'm in the studio
by five point fifteen and on the air at six am,
you know, for the next four hours. Just it's just
my lifestyle. But we would throw those newspapers, those newspapers.
Newspapers would be delivered by a distributor, dropped out on
our driveway and we would have to bring those in
(26:41):
and then fold those newspapers or roll them up those
before plastic bags, put a rubber band around them, whatever.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
You know, whatever. I forget all the different ways that
we did it.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
And then we get on our bikes and we would
drive and we would ride and we would just throw
the he would be in one part of town, I'd
been to the other part of town, we'd throw we'd
throw those newspapers all and then we had to clear
for the newspapers. And that was always a thrill because
sometimes and it taught me a valuable lesson, sometimes people
are pretty done newspapers. Wait a minute, maybe I should stop.
(27:14):
Do you guys know what a newspaper is. It's it's
this thing. It's made out of wood pulp paper, Yeah,
it's and it's printed, and the ink smears on your fingers,
and it's got the news of yesterday for you that morning.
And people would come by and throw it on your
driveway or throw it on your porch. And I can
(27:35):
remember the first time that I went collecting. There would
be some people who would be, you know, very kind,
and you know, they would gladly pay their bill, and
i'd you know, mark it off and keep a little
ledger and put that money in because I had to
pay the distributor for the newspapers, and the difference between
when I paid the distributor and what I got in
delivery fees and tips was what I made. But I
(27:59):
learned valuable lesson. Some people want their newspapers near the
garage door. Some people want their newspapers on the porch.
Some people want their newspapers I don't for some reason,
just out on the sidewalk. Some people, most everybody does
not want their newspaper in the front yard. They want
(28:21):
where they can walk out in their robe and get
the newspaper. So the first time I went collecting to
for that first time on the route, I learned from
several people. Oh this house, I got to put it
on this put it on the front porch. Oh this
house is going to be right next to the garage door.
Oh this one, I can just drop it on the
side as long as it's on the slitting them gripe
(28:41):
about I threw it in the grass, and I'm they're
not gonna pay me less. I get it off the
grass from now, and okay, missus Jones, I'll make sure
I do that.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
But what great life lessons you learn based on your
first job? So text me through three one zero three
keyword Michael and Michael, what was your first job and
if you got timer room, what'd you learn from it?
So begin with Michael Brown. It's Labor Day weekend. I'll
be right back. Holy Cow, Welcome back to the Weekend
(29:20):
with Michael Brown. So this segment is just your text messages.
These are fantastic. Pardon me, but I'm not going to
give out your numbers today because I want to get
through as many of these as I can. At Sea Galli,
I was a hostess Michael nine years old, early morning
paper route on a bicycle in Denver. Did it for
three or four years, and I can count on one
(29:41):
hand the number of times my dad drove us same year.
It might be it have to be a blizzard before
my dad would drive us, or even worse was when
one of us was going on vacation. Then we'd have
to do both routes, so it would take us twice
as long, so we'd have to get up even earlier.
I love this one. Michael cleaning the oil spots in
(30:03):
the parking lot spaces at the MacDonald's on Saturday mornings.
Oh that's a tough one. This one. My first job
was as a cook for Kentucky fried chicken with big
pressure cookers, four hundred degree oil, raw chicken and no
air conditioning.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
All four a dollar seventy five an hour, or Mike.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
My first job was at sixteen years old in a
small town drug store where I was a soda jerk, clerk,
stock boy, and clerk and scrubbed and waxed the floors
every Saturday night after closing a dollar an hour parentheses,
and I loved every moment. Michael, this is a retired cop.
My first job was a paper route at a veterans home.
(30:45):
That's interesting at a veteran zone, Mike. My first job
was unloading produce trucks at my local mom and pop
produce store. I also had to move around the produce
in the cooler to be sure the older produce was
sold before getting to old to sell. Then I got
another job at the same timeframe, mucking out horsetalls at
a local horse farm. It was glorious times see and
(31:09):
think of what the lessons you learn from those things, Michael,
I too, worked in a barbershop. What an education I
got in the back room, card games, et cetera. I
didn't mention that, but sitting like I shined all the
shoes and made or stay you know, I got everybody
that was there and listening to the conversations between the
(31:32):
people in the barber chair and the barber, or listening
to the conversations from the people sitting, you know, in
the chairs waiting for their turn to get a haircut. Holy,
how do you learn a lot? Maybe that's the reason
I'm the nut job that I am.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
Mike.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
My first job was as a dishwasher in a nursing home.
I didn't like it, but I learned from that job
that I did not want to be a dishwasher the
rest of my life. So my next job was as
a bank teller, the youngest teller they had ever hired,
at not quite sixteen years old. Holy crap, you're a
bank teller at not quite sixteen years old.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
Tell them?
Speaker 3 (32:12):
Please tell me that was a small town tell it.
You gotta tell you that was a community bank. Come on,
you gotta tell me more about that. I adored that
job because I was in an adult world with adult
expectations and responsibilities, and handled thousands of dollars in cash
every day and had the balance to the penny at
the end of each day. That is amazing. My first
(32:35):
job was delivering the Thorpe Morgan Times and brush teller
right on the early eighties, while remembering the first check.
I also remember the first time I had to ride
my bike across town to the convenience store to buy
a few papers because my stack was short. That's what
(32:55):
she had to do. Yeah, well I can't. I can't
go knock an your door at you know, five point
thirty in the morning and say, hey, Liten, I ran
out of papers. I'm sorry, Uh go get your own. No,
you rode across town Family convenience store. You bought the papers,
you took them back, and you put them.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
On their porch.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
That is responsibility, Mike. My first job was going door
to door selling subscriptions for the Chicago Tribune on the
South side of Chicago. Ooh, you want to do that today, Mike.
I worked at the Big White supermarket, pushed grocery carts,
bag grocery stock shelves.
Speaker 1 (33:30):
I busted my ass.
Speaker 3 (33:32):
My manager, Henry, upon my first evaluation, even said, quote,
you busted your ass, and I appreciate it. Close quote.
I absolutely loved the profit sharing checks. Thirty years later,
I still bust my ass. Different industry, but same work ethic. Yeah,
that's what because that's what you learned. Oh and from
that bank teller jobs more coming in and from that
(33:54):
bank teller job. I also learned that I really enjoyed
working with the public and giving our customers goods. Sir,
isn't that amazing when someone says thank you? That's why
I always take the opportunity to either start a you know,
just some sort of silly little conversation with you know,
(34:15):
a waiter or a waitress, or someone who's opened the
door for me, or when I check into a hotel,
whatever it might be. Just make somebody smile because when
they go home that day, they might remember. You know,
there was this dufless looking old fart came in. He
and he made me laugh about something. He made me smile.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
Mike.
Speaker 3 (34:37):
Mine was in there early to mid seventies, delivering newspapers
from my wagon. No bike, just me and my wagon.
I was only seven when I started love the quarter tips.
Those were truly the days, life lasting lessons learned. Absolutely,
(34:57):
let's see refresh these. Not counting my paper route. I
would load hay onto a wagon, Oh it's tough, and
stuck it in a barn all summer ninety five degree
hit heat. During school, worked in the public library, returning
the books to proper places.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
On the shelves.
Speaker 3 (35:14):
That's a good one too. My first jobs were feeding
the neighbor's dog when they're out of town.
Speaker 6 (35:19):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (35:19):
I used to do that part time too, mowing lawns.
I also had a paper oute after school for evening
newspaper delivery. I learned responsibility and commitment.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
Mike.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
I worked in a machine shop part time, sweeping up, tailing,
lubrication return, and fetch of tools, things like that. That's
pretty responsible. My first job in high school was in
the oil and gas industry as an attendant at a
full service gas station called Sunny Coo in my hometown.
I worked one sumwhere at a gas station two and
(35:48):
I made a big mistake one time, and the owner
of the gas station called me in and explained to
me what mistake was. I'd made pump gat you know
is full service. Somebody pulls in, I filled up their tank.
Somebody pulls in across next to them. What do I do?
(36:08):
I walk right over I fill their tank? So who
knows who owed how much money? So the second guy
is like, you know, I told the first guy you
know is you know, eight dollars, five dollars whatever it was.
But the next guy was ten dollars because I had
forgotten to reset the pump. Oh man, do I get
(36:28):
in trouble for that?
Speaker 1 (36:31):
Mike?
Speaker 3 (36:31):
And this is why the minimum wage laws are killing
the work ethic of younger generations. They can't be hired
at age nine or twelve and menial jobs to learn
the first values of being on time and having responsibilities
of reporting to a boss and customers.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
Amen.
Speaker 3 (36:49):
Let's see delivering brochures for the fuller brush man in
my neighborhood. I was ten and was paid a dollar
a day.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
I was the youngest bank taeller hired by First Bank
at their headquarters branch in Lakewood. Oh wow, it's amazing
hang tune. So we came with Michael Brown. Be right back.
To night. Michael Brown joins me here the former FEMA
director talk show host Michael Brown.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Brownie, no, Brownie, You're doing a heck of a job.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
The Weekend with Michael Brown broadcasting Life in Denver, Colorado. Yeah,
Labor Day weekend. I'm broadcasting live. So everybody, just relaxed,
sit down and just you know, take take a break
from grilling your hot dogs or driving your car or
whatever you're doing, and and let's let's get it on.
It's the Weekend with Michael Brown. I'm glad to have
(00:27):
you joining the program today. And I hope whatever you're
doing for Labor Day weekend, I hope, I hope it's fine.
I hope it's productive, and I hope you stay. I
hope you take just a moment to realize some of
the really strange history of Labor Day, because you can
there's so many different avenues that you could go down
about the history of Labor Day. You could talk about
(00:51):
the Marxist organism, the origins of it.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
You could talk.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
About how it really is celebrating Judeo Christian ethics and
how we believe in the value of work, and that
if you will go down the theological avenue. It would
be that you know, God intended us to work to
you know, provide for ourselves, to grow our food and
to use our brains so that we can you know,
(01:16):
come up with, you know, new ways and better ways
of doing things and taking care of ourselves, whether that's
feeding ourselves, sheltering ourselves, transporting ourselves, whatever it is, you
can go down that path. So there's many different paths
you can go down. I was, and I still am
going to play a speech for you, but before I do,
(01:38):
there were a couple of observations that I made. There
was there was a there was a death in our
extended family. It was our daughter in law's father who
died yesterday, and so I wasn't quite sure whether I
was doing the program today or not. But anyway, so yesterday,
(01:58):
after the weekday program, I'm running around trying to figure
out what's going on. Got a bunch of stuff you had.
It is when you try to take vacation and then
everybody crams in, hey, can you get this done? Can
you get that done? Can you get you know, blah
blah blah blah blah blah blah. Everybody was everything done.
In fact, I'll tell you a thirty little secret. I
just got an email, literally got an email on Saturday
(02:19):
morning around ten o'clock, about seven minutes ago from one
of our muckety MUCKs here in the Denver iHeart Cluster.
And they had we had been given a task that
I forget when the task came out, but it was,
you know, maybe a few days ago. And the deadline
is Tuesday, September is September second, but whatever that Tuesday is,
(02:43):
let me look at the calendarly quickly. Uh, this is August.
What is today? Yeah, Tuesday, September second. Now, other than
me this, well, I think we got somebody in the
newsroom downstairs. Michael's sitting out in Sherman Oaks in Los Angeles,
and he's probably one of only a couple of people
(03:04):
in the building there. And so this email comes out
to everybody who as other than the couple of people
in this building that it applies to, are scattered to
the winds. Everybody scattered to the winds. And it was
a reminder that and let's just guess that the number
is twenty five. The email went out to twenty five
(03:25):
people that are on air and they want us to
do something and the deadline is by close of business
on Tuesday. Well, who's going to do it on this weekend?
Nobody's going to do it on this weekend. And it
was kind of a reminder about only four of you
have responded and we need you to get off your
(03:45):
butt and get busy and do it. And I'm thinking, well, yeah,
everybody's going to do it on Tuesday because this is
a holiday weekend and nobody's working. Nobody's working. I mean,
it's just fascinating to me. And then as a precursor
to that email, I'm walking around in this building. Now
those of you that listen to me locally know that
we my producer in Denver, Dragon and I have a
(04:08):
lot of fun mocking and making fun of things that
go wrong in this building and then that never really
get repaired. Or you know, you got to put in
a trouble ticket, and then you have to before you
can put in the trouble ticket, you have to find
the QR code. And once you find the QR code,
you got to get out to work. Consuming it works.
Then you don't know where it goes.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
It go in.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
It can go into any office anywhere across the country
that has nothing to do with, you know. I mean
they obviously they work for iHeart, but they have no
idea like what's really going on in this building. So
we put in a trouble ticket, you know, something's not working,
and then we just hope and pray, and then Dragon
and I start making jokes about taking bets on how
long before X gets fixed. The reason I tell that
(04:53):
story is this morning, as I come into this studio
and I'm kind of unpacking and getting out everything ready,
I'm on the third floor of our building, which is
where most of our FM stations are located. I broadcast
in Denver from Freedom ninety three seven, but I don't
actually use the Freedom ninety three seven studios. I use
(05:15):
a little production studio downstairs on the third floor, simply
because it's more compact, it's easier, and I can reach
the board when I need to reach it.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
It's just easier. Let's just put it. It's just easier.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
The third floor restrooms were remodeled I want to say
three weeks ago, maybe three weeks ago, because there was
going to be a big celebration of the hundredth birthday
of one of our local stations, and so, oh my gosh,
the bathrooms were really crappy. So the building had already
(05:50):
been remodeled a few years ago, although that's still ongoing.
It's not finished yet, but they had to get those
bathrooms done. So they get the bathrooms done. I walk
into one this morning and the grout. Now, remember this,
this groud is what three weeks old, four weeks old
at the most, is already peeling in the corners. On
(06:13):
the on the urinal where the handle kind of goes
into the wall, there's one of those little kind of
disks that they put over there, just you know, it's
more of a decority thing, just to make it look
nice and neat. That's already broken and coming up coming apart.
It's already fallen off the wall. And I'm thinking to myself,
(06:35):
workmanship in this country, generally speaking, that's not true for everybody.
Because I'm sure many of you who do manual labor
or what just mean, there's whatever kind of labor you do,
you really take pride in your work. But how many
people in this country actually take pride in their work?
Who think about you know, maybe nobody's paying the attention
(06:56):
to this, but I want to do a good job.
I think we need more of that, and I think
we also need to instill in every generation. I mean,
Bloomers are maybe among the worst, let alone, you know, whatever,
the generations, you know, Millennials and Gen z or and
Gen xers and then the unknown whatever they're going to
(07:19):
call that last most recent generation just don't have the
same kind of work ethic that say, America's greatest generation had.
And I think that's sad because one of the things
that we're known for, I mean, think about some of
the great innovations, the industrial revolution that started in this country.
(07:43):
Think about what we've done technologically. Think about the fact
that you can jump on an airplane, even at the
last minute, and you can travel from New York to
la in you know, in four and a half five
and a half hours, depending on you know, whether it
got layover or not. Or I can jump on a
plane in Denver and I can be in London in
six and a half hours, eight hours. It's again depending
(08:05):
on headwinds and everything else. But it's simply amazing. And
then you look at take that airline. Now, obviously the
people that work on the airplanes have to be very
very meticulous in the work that they do because otherwise
the planes are going to come crashing out of the sky.
Then you think about air traffic control. The air traffic
(08:27):
controllers themselves, the individuals obviously know how serious their jobs are.
They take it very, very seriously, but they're working on
antiquated equipment that dates back to the sixties and seventies.
We just don't take labor and work seriously anymore. We
become too dumb, fat and happy. And I want you
(08:50):
to listen to something when we get back. It's the
Weekend with Michael Brown. Yes, we're live on Labor Day Weekend.
Text line as usual was always open. That number three
three one zero three. Keyword is my Michael Go follow
me on x formally Twitter, that's at Michael Brown USA.
I'll be right back. Welcome back to the Weekend with
(09:13):
Michael Brown. Happy Labor Day weekend. Glad to have you
with me. Whatever you're doing, I hope you're enjoying it
and having fun. And what I hope you're doing is
listening to the program. Don't forget always go subscribe to
the podcast. That's easy to do on your podcast app.
Search for this title The Situation with Michael Brown. The
Situation with Michael Brown. Once you find that, get that
subscribe button, leave a five star review that helps us
(09:35):
beat the algorithm, and then that will automatically download all
five days of the weekday program and the weekend program.
And our podcast numbers are great. So I appreciate you
subscribing to the podcast, but of course I'm so damned
competitive I want even more, so go do that. Martin
Luther King gave us a speech called the Street Sweeper speech.
(09:59):
Gave it in Cago, April nine, nineteen sixty seven. And
you have to be nuanced anytime you talked about doctor Keen,
because well, huh, imagine this, Like everybody else, there are
good things and there are bad things about doctor Martin
Luther King. If you ever want to understand a side
(10:25):
of the civil rights movement that was never taught an
I doubt ever will be taught in public education, let alone,
for that matter, higher education anywhere else, you need to
go watch a couple of short video, not necessarily short,
but a couple of videos that go through the history
of the civil rights movement, and it gives a really
(10:47):
nuanced look about how it got captured, almost Stockholm syndrome like,
and it was really kind of a Marxist communist movement.
Now that probably offend some people because we all believe
in civil rights. I'm a civil rights advocate. I think
(11:07):
civil rights in this country have been bastardized. I think
that all people, all humans, are created equal. So you
you have to take it with a grain of salt.
And so anytime I use doctor King, I just throw
out this caveat that. Yeah, I understand that doctor King
has good things and bad things, but that's because he's human.
But that does not take away from the point that
(11:29):
he makes in this street sweeper speech.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Look to you this morning, my friend, even if it's
all your lot to be a street sweeper, go out
in sweet streets like Michael as alte.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Streets like I love that.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
If your lot in life is to be a street sweeper,
sweep those streets well. Michaelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel in
the Vatican. If we all had that attitude, I wouldn't
have three week old plumbing in a bathroom that's falling apart.
(12:13):
That people simply don't take pride in what they do.
I'm not gonna pat myself on the back, but I
love what I do, and I know some days I'm
not quite as on as I should be for any
number of reasons. But I come in here and I
really try to be on, and I try to be I.
You know, you want to be energetic when I'm giving
(12:34):
a keynote address or I'm sitting on a panel or something.
I want people to when when when I speak, I
want them to listen. But in order for them to listen,
not only do I have to be concerned and focused
on delivery, but also substance. Because I could give some
(12:56):
rip roar and speech that is just vacuous and that's
gonna fall flat. But the same token, I could give
a speech that is amazingly substantive with a lot of
stuff to really chew on. But if I just drone
on and on and on, and nobody's ever really going
(13:17):
to listen to it, doctor King was able to accomplish
both in this speech.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
What I'm saying to you this morning, my friend, even
if it's owed your lot to be.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
A street sweeper, go out in sweet.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Streets like Michael Angelo painted piece pictures sweet streets like
Handle and Beethoven composed news here sweet streets like Shakespeare
road portray sweet streets so well that all the hosts
of heaven and Earth will have to pause and say,
here live the great street sweeper who swept the job. Well,
(13:56):
if you can't be a pine on the top of
a heel, be a scribed and valley, but be the
best little scrub on the side of the rial, be
a push that you can't be a tree. If you
can't be a highway, just be a trail. If you
can't be the sun, be a star. It isn't by
size that you win or you fail.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Be the best of whatever you are.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
And when you do this, when you do this, you
master the length of life's on with push to the
end of self fulfillment is the end of a person's life.
I don't stop here, though. You know, a lot of
(14:38):
people get more further in life than the length they
develop dinner powers. They do their jobs well, you know,
they try to live as if nobody else lives in
the world or themselves, and they use everybody as mea too.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
To get the where they are going.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Yeah, they don't love anybody but themselves and own. The
kind of love that they really have for other people
is utilitarian love. You know, they don't love people that
they can use a lot of people never get beyond the.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
First dimension of life.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
They use other people as mere steps through which by
which they can climb to their goals and ambitions. These
people don't work out well in life. They may go
for a while, they may think they're making it all right.
(15:48):
But there is a law, they call it the law
of gravitation in the physical.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Universe, and it works.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
It's final, it's inexorable. Ever goes up can come down.
You shall report yourself. God has structured this universe that way.
And he who goes through life not concerned about others,
we will be a subject victim of this law. So
(16:21):
I move on and say that it is necessary to
add breath to length. Now the breath of life is
the outward concern for the welfare of others. As I said,
man has.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Not begun to live.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Until he can rise above the narrow confines of his
own individual concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
To.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
What we all should do. Street that that street, as
if you were painting the Sistine Chapel. And what goes
around comes around, is indeed one of the laws of
the universe. I don't know who was fixing these restrooms
on this floor. I don't know who they are individually,
(17:17):
and I know nothing about them except this. They had
no pride in their work. They were rushed. There apparently
was no accountability because was there a manager, was there
a supervisor? Was there somebody? And if there was, did
they look at it and go, yeah, that's yeah, Yeah,
that's good enough. Who cares? That's good enough. Let's just
(17:39):
move on. No, let's don't do that on Labor Day.
Let's recognize that all work. That waiter, that waitress, the
person that's driving your uber or delivering your food, the
person that's checking you out of a convenience store, whatever
it is, they all have worth. Let's help them do
(18:01):
the best they can be. I'll be right back.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Tonight.
Speaker 4 (18:10):
Michael Brown joins me here, the former FEMA director of
talk show host Michael Brown.
Speaker 5 (18:14):
Brownie, no, Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job
the Weekend with Michael Brown.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
You're listening to the Weekend with Michael Brown, and I'm
glad you're doing so happy Labor Day weekend. Here's what
we're going to get to eventually in the program. There's
a story about a little girl in the United Kingdom
which is horrific. I want to get to that. I
want to touch on some new information about the shooter
in the Catholic school in Minnesota. We've got some interesting
(18:43):
new facts about sea level rise. Oh my gosh, sea
level rise. We're all gonna drown. That's kind of interesting.
And we're going to get to all those stories shortly.
But I really wanted to focus a little bit on
Labor Day. I would ask a favor because I'm really curious,
you know my uh, I said, you know, I'm sorry.
(19:08):
My first job that I can recall, I think I
mowed lawns for a couple of neighbor neighbors a couple of.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Times some summers. But I did.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
I don't consider that that wasn't a real job. That
was kind of something that my parents were like, go
go over and you know, uh, missus Wood's lawn for
because there's nobody around to do it.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Okay, I'll go do it.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
My dad, who was in the army and then in
the reserves, obviously you knew how to spit spit shine shoes,
and so if he taught me as a little kid
how to shine shoes and kind of instilled in me
that shoes and keeping them clean and proper was a
way to make a very good impression on people. And
(19:50):
that and to this day, I'm kind of a sneaker
fanatic and I always want to make sure my shoes
are presentable because you can. You can glance down to
someone's shoes and you can tell a lot of about them.
And to this day, I can still remember the day
that my dad came home from his barbershop and said Jack,
(20:13):
who was the owner of the shop. There were three
brothers that ran this shop. Jack said, if you would
like to come and shine shoes at the barber shop,
he can gladly have you and you can work on
you know, maybe three four days a week after school
for a couple of hours. It pays twenty five cents
per shine, and you they'll supply all of the stuff.
(20:39):
All you need to do is approach a customer and
ask them if they'd like their shoes shine. So I
jumped at it. I thought, oh, that'd be kind of fun.
So my first real job where I had a certain
period where I had to show up and then I
had to stay until they closed, was shining shoes in
that barber shop. And I get read I remember the
(21:00):
first time somebody paid me twenty five cents for the shine,
And I can remember the first time somebody gave me
thirty five cents or fifty cents.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Holy cal this is wonderful.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
And you put those quarters in your pocket and you
realize that's money that you made. And it, at least
for me, it made me want to do an even
better job because I realized that the better job I did. Yeah,
you know, I learned the hard way too. You do
a really good job. Some guys just going to give
you a quarter. But some guys will look down at
(21:34):
the shoes and think, oh, oh, that's amazingly good, and
it's to give you a quarter. They'll pay you a double.
They'll give you fifty cents for the shine. I was
fascinated by this, and it taught me the work ethic
that I think I have today. The Trump administration went
back to several cabinet members and asked them, what was
(21:56):
your first job? So I want to ask you, what
was your first job? Texted to me three three onesie
wroll three keyword Mike or Michael. I'm really curious, not
across the fruited plane of what was your first job.
You can tell me as much or as you are,
as little as you want to, but we'll share some
of those because I'd like to know in this audience,
(22:16):
what was your very first job. Now, maybe not mowing
the yard for your next door neighbor because she was
an elderly woman and your mom and dad told you
you got to go do that. Now I'm talking about
where you had to show up and you got paid,
either you know, an hourly wage or like me, shining shoes.
(22:37):
I got paid the number of men that I was
able to convince that they had to get their shoes shine.
Here are the members of the Trump cabinet explaining what
their first jobs were.
Speaker 6 (22:50):
My first job my parents.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
This is the Secretary of Labor, uh Mis Chevin.
Speaker 6 (22:55):
It's assisted that I get a job. I wanted to
be a cheerleader in high school and I couldn't afford uniform.
So my first job was packing peaches at warman AM's
Packing in Hanford, California, where I was working twelve hour
days for the first time, and it was exciting. I
raised the money that I needed to buy that uniform.
I lost fifteen pounds and I knew all about peaches
and I still love them today.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
Now now this is Doug Collins, the Secretary of the
the I look.
Speaker 7 (23:22):
Back on my first job. I think about all the
things I thought it was so important. When I got
up every morning, I went to a local grocery store
called Big Star, and I got to clean the floors.
And I stayed there for five years. Actually, my first
job turned into a five year experience all the way
from high.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
School to college.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
My first job was nice.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
This is Tulci Gabbert, the Director of National Intelligence Unique.
Speaker 6 (23:40):
It was delivering newspapers in downtown Honolulu.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
Well, I started at my This is Lee's Eldon, the
administrator of the epa cool Community Library.
Speaker 5 (23:51):
It was not the most exciting job, paying pretty much
minimum wage. I was able to get a massive promotion
over to retail as a cashier, and I remember the
big day where I was given the promotion to dress
shirt supervisor that came with a fifty cent per hour race.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
My first this is the Secretary of Defense Pete He
job was as a lifeguard at the indoor pool that
my mom worked at. My first job, Bobby Kennedy Jr.
I was working at the Washington Zoo.
Speaker 4 (24:28):
I was working in the reptile house, and I was
feeding the reptiles, cleaning the cage, cleaning the glass with
a squeegee, and cleaning the.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
Guardrails with brass polisher.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
And my parents Tilsey Gabber again and instilled in all
of us a very strong work ethic.
Speaker 7 (24:49):
From a young age, I.
Speaker 4 (24:50):
Learned that's a little thing, scout, that whatever you do,
you should apply all of your talents and all of
your energy to trying to do well.
Speaker 6 (25:00):
You know, with the President's leadership, he's offering every American
who wants to work the opportunity to work and really
strive and earn the American dream.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
After they I forget which one it was talked about. Oh,
it's Tilsa Gabbard throwing newspapers in Honolulu after I did
the shoeshine job. By the time I got to be
probably maybe I'm guessing, maybe a freshman in high school,
maybe younger, maybe seventh eighth grade, I'm not sure. But
(25:36):
a buddy of mine and I decided that there was
a paper route opening for the morning newspaper, the Daily Oklahoma,
owned by the Gay Lords. That newspaper is still in existence.
It's a you know, it's more than one hundred years old,
and it was the only local news that we are,
the only state wide newspaper that we really got where
(25:58):
I grew up in Neilklamba pan Him. So my buddy
and I decided to apply to be newspaper boys, and
we got the two largest routes that in our small community,
probably covered about three fourths of the town. And every morning.
I think this is why I'm always a morning person,
because my dad was always a morning person too, So
(26:18):
I think this is.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
What instilled me.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
Why why I don't mind getting up at you know,
four o'clock on weekday mornings and I'm in the studio
by five point fifteen and on the air at six am,
you know, for the next four hours. Just it's just
my lifestyle. But we would throw those newspapers, those newspapers.
Newspapers would be delivered by a distributor, dropped out on
our driveway and we would have to bring those in
(26:41):
and then fold those newspapers or roll them up those
before plastic bags, put a rubber band around them, whatever.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
You know, whatever. I forget all the different ways that
we did it.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
And then we get on our bikes and we would
drive and we would ride and we would just throw
the he would be in one part of town, I'd
been to the other part of town, we'd throw we'd
throw those newspapers all and then we had to clear
for the newspapers. And that was always a thrill because
sometimes and it taught me a valuable lesson, sometimes people
are pretty done newspapers. Wait a minute, maybe I should stop.
(27:14):
Do you guys know what a newspaper is. It's it's
this thing. It's made out of wood pulp paper, Yeah,
it's and it's printed, and the ink smears on your fingers,
and it's got the news of yesterday for you that morning.
And people would come by and throw it on your
driveway or throw it on your porch. And I can
(27:35):
remember the first time that I went collecting. There would
be some people who would be, you know, very kind,
and you know, they would gladly pay their bill, and
i'd you know, mark it off and keep a little
ledger and put that money in because I had to
pay the distributor for the newspapers, and the difference between
when I paid the distributor and what I got in
delivery fees and tips was what I made. But I
(27:59):
learned valuable lesson. Some people want their newspapers near the
garage door. Some people want their newspapers on the porch.
Some people want their newspapers I don't for some reason,
just out on the sidewalk. Some people, most everybody does
not want their newspaper in the front yard. They want
(28:21):
where they can walk out in their robe and get
the newspaper. So the first time I went collecting to
for that first time on the route, I learned from
several people. Oh this house, I got to put it
on this put it on the front porch. Oh this
house is going to be right next to the garage door.
Oh this one, I can just drop it on the
side as long as it's on the slitting them gripe
(28:41):
about I threw it in the grass, and I'm they're
not gonna pay me less. I get it off the
grass from now, and okay, missus Jones, I'll make sure
I do that.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
But what great life lessons you learn based on your
first job? So text me through three one zero three
keyword Michael and Michael, what was your first job and
if you got timer room, what'd you learn from it?
So begin with Michael Brown. It's Labor Day weekend. I'll
be right back. Holy Cow, Welcome back to the Weekend
(29:20):
with Michael Brown. So this segment is just your text messages.
These are fantastic. Pardon me, but I'm not going to
give out your numbers today because I want to get
through as many of these as I can. At Sea Galli,
I was a hostess Michael nine years old, early morning
paper route on a bicycle in Denver. Did it for
three or four years, and I can count on one
(29:41):
hand the number of times my dad drove us same year.
It might be it have to be a blizzard before
my dad would drive us, or even worse was when
one of us was going on vacation. Then we'd have
to do both routes, so it would take us twice
as long, so we'd have to get up even earlier.
I love this one. Michael cleaning the oil spots in
(30:03):
the parking lot spaces at the MacDonald's on Saturday mornings.
Oh that's a tough one. This one. My first job
was as a cook for Kentucky fried chicken with big
pressure cookers, four hundred degree oil, raw chicken and no
air conditioning.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
All four a dollar seventy five an hour, or Mike.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
My first job was at sixteen years old in a
small town drug store where I was a soda jerk, clerk,
stock boy, and clerk and scrubbed and waxed the floors
every Saturday night after closing a dollar an hour parentheses,
and I loved every moment. Michael, this is a retired cop.
My first job was a paper route at a veterans home.
(30:45):
That's interesting at a veteran zone, Mike. My first job
was unloading produce trucks at my local mom and pop
produce store. I also had to move around the produce
in the cooler to be sure the older produce was
sold before getting to old to sell. Then I got
another job at the same timeframe, mucking out horsetalls at
a local horse farm. It was glorious times see and
(31:09):
think of what the lessons you learn from those things, Michael,
I too, worked in a barbershop. What an education I
got in the back room, card games, et cetera. I
didn't mention that, but sitting like I shined all the
shoes and made or stay you know, I got everybody
that was there and listening to the conversations between the
(31:32):
people in the barber chair and the barber, or listening
to the conversations from the people sitting, you know, in
the chairs waiting for their turn to get a haircut. Holy,
how do you learn a lot? Maybe that's the reason
I'm the nut job that I am.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
Mike.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
My first job was as a dishwasher in a nursing home.
I didn't like it, but I learned from that job
that I did not want to be a dishwasher the
rest of my life. So my next job was as
a bank teller, the youngest teller they had ever hired,
at not quite sixteen years old. Holy crap, you're a
bank teller at not quite sixteen years old.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
Tell them?
Speaker 3 (32:12):
Please tell me that was a small town tell it.
You gotta tell you that was a community bank. Come on,
you gotta tell me more about that. I adored that
job because I was in an adult world with adult
expectations and responsibilities, and handled thousands of dollars in cash
every day and had the balance to the penny at
the end of each day. That is amazing. My first
(32:35):
job was delivering the Thorpe Morgan Times and brush teller
right on the early eighties, while remembering the first check.
I also remember the first time I had to ride
my bike across town to the convenience store to buy
a few papers because my stack was short. That's what
(32:55):
she had to do. Yeah, well I can't. I can't
go knock an your door at you know, five point
thirty in the morning and say, hey, Liten, I ran
out of papers. I'm sorry, Uh go get your own. No,
you rode across town Family convenience store. You bought the papers,
you took them back, and you put them.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
On their porch.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
That is responsibility, Mike. My first job was going door
to door selling subscriptions for the Chicago Tribune on the
South side of Chicago. Ooh, you want to do that today, Mike.
I worked at the Big White supermarket, pushed grocery carts,
bag grocery stock shelves.
Speaker 1 (33:30):
I busted my ass.
Speaker 3 (33:32):
My manager, Henry, upon my first evaluation, even said, quote,
you busted your ass, and I appreciate it. Close quote.
I absolutely loved the profit sharing checks. Thirty years later,
I still bust my ass. Different industry, but same work ethic. Yeah,
that's what because that's what you learned. Oh and from
that bank teller jobs more coming in and from that
(33:54):
bank teller job. I also learned that I really enjoyed
working with the public and giving our customers goods. Sir,
isn't that amazing when someone says thank you? That's why
I always take the opportunity to either start a you know,
just some sort of silly little conversation with you know,
(34:15):
a waiter or a waitress, or someone who's opened the
door for me, or when I check into a hotel,
whatever it might be. Just make somebody smile because when
they go home that day, they might remember. You know,
there was this dufless looking old fart came in. He
and he made me laugh about something. He made me smile.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
Mike.
Speaker 3 (34:37):
Mine was in there early to mid seventies, delivering newspapers
from my wagon. No bike, just me and my wagon.
I was only seven when I started love the quarter tips.
Those were truly the days, life lasting lessons learned. Absolutely,
(34:57):
let's see refresh these. Not counting my paper route. I
would load hay onto a wagon, Oh it's tough, and
stuck it in a barn all summer ninety five degree
hit heat. During school, worked in the public library, returning
the books to proper places.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
On the shelves.
Speaker 3 (35:14):
That's a good one too. My first jobs were feeding
the neighbor's dog when they're out of town.
Speaker 6 (35:19):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (35:19):
I used to do that part time too, mowing lawns.
I also had a paper oute after school for evening
newspaper delivery. I learned responsibility and commitment.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
Mike.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
I worked in a machine shop part time, sweeping up, tailing,
lubrication return, and fetch of tools, things like that. That's
pretty responsible. My first job in high school was in
the oil and gas industry as an attendant at a
full service gas station called Sunny Coo in my hometown.
I worked one sumwhere at a gas station two and
(35:48):
I made a big mistake one time, and the owner
of the gas station called me in and explained to
me what mistake was. I'd made pump gat you know
is full service. Somebody pulls in, I filled up their tank.
Somebody pulls in across next to them. What do I do?
(36:08):
I walk right over I fill their tank? So who
knows who owed how much money? So the second guy
is like, you know, I told the first guy you
know is you know, eight dollars, five dollars whatever it was.
But the next guy was ten dollars because I had
forgotten to reset the pump. Oh man, do I get
(36:28):
in trouble for that?
Speaker 1 (36:31):
Mike?
Speaker 3 (36:31):
And this is why the minimum wage laws are killing
the work ethic of younger generations. They can't be hired
at age nine or twelve and menial jobs to learn
the first values of being on time and having responsibilities
of reporting to a boss and customers.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
Amen.
Speaker 3 (36:49):
Let's see delivering brochures for the fuller brush man in
my neighborhood. I was ten and was paid a dollar
a day.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
I was the youngest bank taeller hired by First Bank
at their headquarters branch in Lakewood. Oh wow, it's amazing
hang tune. So we came with Michael Brown. Be right back.
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