December 6, 2020 • 39 mins
So, this bonus episode basically talks about kind of a brief history of who I am, how I got here, and what I'm all about in general I don't go super in-depth into any one topic; this just gives you an idea of who Tony Randazzo is and kind of what I'm all about so enjoy this extra episode let me know what you think
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Episode Transcript
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Tony Randazzo (00:14):
It's hard to speak your mind these days.
voicing your opinion is toughand a climate where you're
either seen as an ultraconservative or a bleeding heart
liberal. But what about ourperspective? What about the Gen
X perspective? Hi, I'm Tony alatchkey kid from the 80s and
90s. Now I'm in my 40s wearingcargo shorts, collecting Star
Wars figures and reminiscingabout the days before my first
(00:36):
cell phone. The Gen Xperspective as for us caught
somewhere in between boomers andMillennials are we see things a
bit differently? I'm tired ofstaying silent. It's time to
rant, discuss a load in debate,join Tony and his guests as they
tackle the topics of PopCulture, Sports, religion, and
yes, even politics. If life's aRubik's Cube, we've got the
(00:58):
experience to tackle it. Welcometo the Gen X perspective with
Tony Randazzo.
Unknown (01:13):
Hey, how is everybody doing today? So um, I figured
this would be a good time tobasicallygive you some history
and tell you who I am and whatI'm all about. So, you know,
maybenormal people or podcastsor folks would do this over
time, do it in the firstepisode,I figure now is a good
(01:39):
time to kind of give you myhistory in general, what I'm all
about.
Now that it's not just familyand friends listening, excuse
me, andI can kind of just sharewho I am. So you get a kind of
bit of background to TonyRandazzo is and why I started
this podcast andkind of what,what I'm all about. So we're
(02:01):
gonna jump right in. And I'mgonna go back in history, and
kind of try to do this in achronological order. So starting
as a kid, working my way up totoday. And,and we'll go from
there. So, you know, I was bornin upstate New York, in 1973.
(02:22):
And, in 1979, goes between 73and 79. You know, I was a little
little and not a lotofexcitinghappened in a way that I
remember, clear enough to have agood story about at least at
that point. But the biggest,first big moment in my life, as
(02:46):
I was affected as a human beingwas in on my birthday in 1979.
My parents moved me to SouthernCalifornia, from Rochester, New
York. So six years old, get on aplane, fly to California. Andwe
went out there because my dadgota job in his business. And his
(03:10):
career took us to Orange County,California. So what I remember
most vividly, I don't reallyremember the plane ride all that
well.
But the first thing I rememberthat was just so amazing about
California Now, like I don'tremember getting off the plane
and saying, Wow, the weather. Iwas six years old. It was April.
(03:34):
I don't remember that. But whatI do remember his growing up as
a kid, or when I was really,really little six and under. The
only time you got to seecartoons was Saturday morning.
That was it. From where I was inNew York, Saturday morning
cartoons.That's when you got tosee him.And that was it. And of
(03:56):
course, at six years oldcartoons were pretty much the
center of your universe. Atleast for me, they were what I
noticed or realized inCalifornia, sitting in a hotel
room and I remember the hotel, Iremember the hotel room. And I
remember cartoons were on in themiddle of the week, which was
freakin amazing. Like that madeeverything okay. I remember
(04:20):
being probably more scared thananything. You know, I don't
really remember the being upsetabout missing friends. I was
morejust scared because I was alittle kid in general and it was
something new. But everythingwas okay.
When we got toOrange County, inthat hotel room, before we moved
(04:45):
into our houseand it wascartoons were at and that was
super awesome. And I was superexcited. And life was okay.Then
it seemed likeThe next day weleft the hotel and moved into
our house. Now, I don't reallyremember how much time passed
(05:06):
between getting out here orgetting out there in California.
And when we moved into our houseandMission Viejo,
California,butanybody who'slivedon in the northeast, and then
gotten to Southern California,especially in the 80s, early
(05:30):
80s, kind of the boom in OrangeCounty, California.
Talk about a freakin world, adifferent planet of
existence.And I'm sure it waslike that for my parents as
well.For my mom who grew up verytraditional Italian kind of
family, you know, stayed closeto mom, Sundays, we were always
(05:52):
over it. You know, it's eithermy,at my grandparents house,
either set was prettyinterchangeable. But every
Sunday you were with family,like family was the whole world.
I can't imagine what my mom wasgoing through at the time,
because it was California,especially Southern California.
A whole universe of different,like, just everything, different
(06:17):
cars, differentclothesdifferent.You know, I wouldn't
have been surprised if the moneywas different. It was a
different planet, literally. Andeven I remember how different it
was. And for me, my first asidefrom cartoons being different
was this house that we movedinto West Coast ranch style, you
know, kind of Mediterraneanlooking house, so very southern
(06:42):
California, stucco on theoutside one story. You know, it
was April in the grass wasgreen. And it we had a cool
backyard. And I remember howawesome it was. And we lived on
a cul de sac andyou know, ridingyour bike in the cul de sac and
(07:02):
the whole nine yards. Right? Sothat starts to plan. Soit was a
huge deal. And it was awesome.
If I remember as memory servesme being super little. Now that
life allyou know, typical kidsstuff, and,you know, group of
(07:23):
neighborhood kids all ridingbikes in the cold the sack. We
had the Glen or the woods at theend of the street that we could
go play in the mud and dirt. Andnow it's probably all biohazard
and sewage. And it probably wasthen too, but we were kids and
it didn't matter. So we had theGlen, which is where we played
where we weren't supposed to go.
(07:48):
And we had our cul de sac toride our bikes and skateboards
on mostly bikes. Andin life was really good
elementary school was like amile down the road. And we used
to walk or ride our bikes toschool year round. And
and it was good. It was justkind of a typical Southern
(08:10):
California.
adolescence.
Growing up now, I'm not going togo into a lot of details about
that in this story, particularlybut
you know, elementary school, youknow,
everything was good. I was, Iwas one of those first kind of
(08:33):
kids to go through elementaryschool that was diagnosed with
being dyslexic. And that wasn'twidely recognized at the time.
So like regular school, andteachers didn't have
the kind of education ortraining or tools at the time to
deal with me, and flippingletters and reading things
(08:54):
phonetically. And I was a mess.
So I wasn't doing really well inelementary school, and ended up
going to a school that reallyspecialized as a private school
that specialized inat least initially, when I went
there was for kids that hadlearning disabilities or were
dyslexic, so mild disabilitiesfor the most part, so I had mild
(09:14):
dyslexia. And then there wereother kids that were there by
the time I graduated there and Istayed there from I don't know,
I think fifth grade, fifth,sixth, fifth through 12th. I
stayed there till I graduated bythe time I graduated, it was
more of a school for still forkids that had learning
disabilities, but more was forkids that had attitude
(09:36):
disabilities.
And were troublemakers butthat's a whole different story.
We'll do a whole podcast on thatone but so
yeah, elementary school life wasgood Southern California.
year round summer, how amazingthe beach. I remember seeing all
(09:57):
those things for the first time.
Butthe highlights are so graduate
from high school. And in the endreally kind of get swinging this
background, explaining myselfprobably a little bit better as
I'm talking about kind of thehighlights of my professional
life for kind of what Gen Xersin, in general that we've done
(10:19):
kind of, I didn't have a pathlaid out before me.
And maybe that was good or notlike, it wasn't pre determined
that I was going to be a doctoror a lawyer and my whole world
revolved around making thathappen. I think it was
determined very early on that ifI graduated high school, it was
going to be a freakin miracleanyway. So I'm kind of the plan
(10:43):
for me in general, it changed.
My dad waskind of the same way growing up
in in school school was, youknow, he was a salesman, and
in in didn't have that formalhigh level education or training
either and most, you know, kindof the rabble rouser from at
(11:04):
least the stories that he's toldwhen he was in high school. So
the highlights are more aboutthe diversity in my life, as I
grew up, and what kind of mademe who I am today, and where I
sit today and how things are sofast forward to graduating high
school, reallymy first professional career,
(11:25):
and there's beenessentially two big ones.
But the first one I'm going totalk about had like three main
components that, in a lot ofways kind of made me who I was.
So when I graduated high school,I ended up getting shipped off
to a wilderness therapy program,because I was out of control
(11:49):
part in being a totaltroublemaker, doing stuff I
wasn't supposed to be doing,heading down a pretty dark path
pretty fast. So my parentsshipped me off to the woods of
Montana. And I spent,I think, 9060 days, 90 days
initiallyliving in the woods with a
(12:11):
handful of other kids and someadults and
and for me, that was quite aneye opening experience.
There are a lot of kids outthere that I'll talk about
how traumatic such experienceswere for them. I had a good
experience myself, went throughwilderness therapy, worked with
(12:32):
a therapist got healthy, hikedand climbed mountains and spent
about 60 days in the woods.
Well, after that.
I went to another program,independent living program out
in Oregon, that kind of helpedget you over the hump from being
(12:52):
a high school brat idiot to kindof becoming a well adjusted, or
at least an adult, maybe notwell adjusted, but adjusted
adult that could function in thereal world.
And that program was about ayear long. And I stayed there.
And I went through that programand spent another I think during
the course of that program, Ithink it was either 30 or
(13:14):
another 60 days within thatyear, out in the woods on long
term backpacking trips, andreally got in fell in love with
the outdoors. And this was, youknow, Oregon, Montana, Idaho, we
were up in that part of theworld. And it's absolutely
freakin stunning CascadeMountains. This is also the same
(13:34):
place that I've made somelifelong friends that I still am
friends with today, and spent alot of time really falling in
love with kind of the wildernessin the woods now.
Coming out of there.
My first job, I'll call it a jobbecause it started that way was
working for a wilderness therapycompany in Oregon. And I was
(13:55):
driving I was a driver, whichmeant that I kind of well drove
I brought people I brought kidsand supplies in and out and kind
of slowly worked my way upthrough this company and worked
in different departments. Now. Ididn't graduate with a college
degree, so I wasn't a therapistwasn't a camp counselor.
(14:16):
But I did work direct care withkids that I preferred and
enjoyed the most working withthe younger kids. I thought that
they still hadyou know, they weren't that
they weren't teenagers yet.
They're kind of preteens, sothey still
had fun playing in the dirt, Iguess so that it was a little
(14:36):
simpler. Although some of thoseguys and gals those kids had
some pretty traumatic lifestories and problems. They were
just way more fun to work with.
So I spent a lot of time workingwith them and becoming
more of a camp counselor kind ofstyle. Keep an eye on the kids
working with them camping withthem staying out there with them
(14:58):
for two weeks at a ripAnd, and this is years that I
stayed with this company, andgrew with them until I became a
kind of the manager of the staffthat worked with the kids. So I
wasn't the manager of thetherapists, or the company as a
(15:19):
whole, but I waskind of the field manager.
So I managed all the staff,their comings and goings, and
what groups of kids they workedwith, etc. And that led me to an
opportunity whereI got to be on a TV show on ABC
called brat camp. It was a 10episode,
(15:41):
show 10 episode eight Episode10 1010 episodes,
were on ABC primetime.
10 million viewers kind of deal.
And they followed a group ofthese kids around and it was
called brat camp. And of course,that, you know, they had to come
up with a name that was catchyand would work for television.
(16:03):
But it was abasically the first docu reality
show. So it was a documentary,because the producers and the
camera crews weren't allowed tointeract with the kids at all.
And they weren't allowed toinfluence the kids. So there was
nowinning a million dollars at the
(16:25):
end.
The only thing that you got atthe end of the show was to go
home, and they were all going togo home. So there wasn't really
a prize at the end. So I wasstarted out kind of more as a
technical advisor and kind ofthe go to guys so that my staff
could do their job and be leftalone from this film crew and
(16:47):
quickly ended up narrating theshows, and also working
on camera with the kids and, anddid that and had a pretty
amazing experience.
Early on in my professionalcareer,
interfacing with a Hollywoodproduction company, the time it
(17:09):
was Shapiro grodner Productions.
Shapiro has I believe retired.
He was the guy that did ScaredStraight for the rest of you Gen
Xers that remember that show. Hedid that show. And so
Allison grodner Productions, Ibelieve she's still working to
this day and the people thatworked for her still in the
(17:31):
industry andgreat fun group of people, I
learned so much and had a blastwith them. And it was also
probably one of the hardestthings I've ever done in my life
was you got to remember that welived and breathed working with
these kids and kind of thesanctity of
(17:53):
in the responsibility of beingtrue to these kids and not
loving this TV show kind ofchange what we were doing. And I
believe that we did a reallygood job keeping it.
Like it.
Like it was in real life. Itwasn't 100% like that. But it
was as close as it could get.
And in some ways be able to beon TV and make sense for
(18:17):
somebody to watch. And back thenin there was quite a stir of
controversy, you know, aboutfilming kids that were under
duress in some cases. I mean, weheard it all right. So you're
going to get the good press andthe bad press, you get the
praise, and what a great thingthese people are doing. And
(18:37):
then, you know, how could youtake advantage of these kids?
Well, we always felt internallypretty good about what we were
doing, because we knew that thefilm crew, and the producers and
all the people around didn'tinfluence the kids, they didn't
secretly talk to them. I mean,we had our thumb all over this
thing and made sure that we heldtrue to our word to those
(18:58):
parents of those kids. And gotto do this really amazing TV
show and watch tell a wholeproduction company works. And
got to go through that and gotto do the voiceover or the
narration of this thing. So theyended up flying me down to
Southern back down to Californiato Hollywood and put you in a
sound booth and make you readpages and pages of stuff. And it
(19:20):
was really a fun experience. Igot to meet some really cool
people andmake some friends and that was a
for half a minute I thought thatmaybe that was going to be a
career that I was going toattempt and
and ended up not doing that andended up staying in the
wilderness therapy industry fora number of years and worked my
(19:42):
way up. So after that televisionshow aired my we were an
independent company. We werebought out by another larger
company that owned a handful ofwilderness therapy programs and
boarding schools andthey were in the business of
Kids and in education andtherapy, and yada, yada yada.
(20:07):
And my boss that owned thebusiness, retired to Florida,
with his wife and family andsold the business to a health
care company, who ran thebusiness along with a bunch of
other ones. So there was moreopportunity to grow in the
business. And I ended up stayingon with them through like the
(20:29):
2008 2009.
shake up where they economy tooka nosedive? Well, we were
healthcare industry, and we wereprivate pay. So as you can
imagine, our business was theywere reformatting and
consolidating our business. Andeventually I got consolidated
(20:49):
out and, and left the business.
Andafter what I thought was going
to be my career, for my life,after 12 years, I was out of a
job. And I had a couple otheropportunities and I had network
pretty well in the industry togo find a job but you know, when
you own a home, and my wife hadher business and was working and
(21:12):
you know, for me, it meantpacking up and moving. So we
didn't know what we were goingto do. So I basically did what
any kind of midlife crisisperson in their 30s would do.
I jumped in my Toyota fourrunner, grab my dog, give my
wife a kiss on the forehead andchoked in the Toyota and off I
(21:37):
drove to New Yorkto clear my head and be my
parents were out here starting abusiness, another business and
and wanted to go see my familyand clear my head dead snack.
You know, mom both said, youknow, come see us and
come clear your head and hangout. And I said, Well, you know
(21:58):
what, I want to drive I want todrive cross country. I'm out of
here. Of course, I had to clearthat with my wife first. Because
in between graduating highschool and ending up in
therapy, working with kids,there was a short stint in my
career. Now I'm totally goingout of order. So between
(22:21):
graduating high school andand spending a year in Oregon,
in that Independent Livingprogram, right after that, I
moved back to California andmet my wife in the hair
industry. So what moved my dadin the family to California when
(22:43):
we were little kids when I was alittle kid was
the franchise business. And bythe time I was in high school
age a little younger. He wasowned a franchise called
fantastic Sams hair salons. Andthere was a couple hundred
(23:05):
locations in Southern Californiathat were franchised that he
had. So, step mom was ahairdresser. I became a
hairdresser that year that I wasin that
Independent Living program afterhigh school. I think it was
right after that. Mostly thatum, I went to cosmetology school
(23:26):
and got my license be ahairdresser. And so that short
stint that I came back toCalifornia
I met my wife in Vegas at aconference and
and then hired her to come workfor me. She was living in
(23:46):
Colorado, and I needed to findsomebody to do
to be a teacher basically aneducator and fantastic Sam's
because I didn't want to do thatjob anymore. And I talked her
into moving to California, andwe were friends and hung out for
a year. Andthen I went out to Colorado with
(24:10):
her for Christmas and I proposedto marry her in front of her
family. Now I don't suggestdoing that. By the way. Anybody
that's listening that's thinkinglike I'm gonna be cute and
propose tothe love of my life in front of
their family.
(24:34):
When I first asked my futurefather in law
for my for his daughter's handand kind of get permission to
marry her I was being prettytues very traditional, is very
traditional. And I am as well.
(24:54):
He said no.
And say he needed to talk to hiswife now.
Knowing my mother in law, and myfather in law as well as I do
now, that makes perfect sense.
But at the time, I was mortifiedlike I'm in Colorado.
I just asked if I could marryhis daughter. And he said he, he
(25:16):
said no, basically, at thatmoment, said he'd get back to
me. And so I had to wait. Mikehad the ring whole nine yards,
Christmas was approaching fast.
And so they tortured me a littlebit, maybe wait a day or two
till he could talk to his wife.
And then they did a littledigging to make sure that she
(25:38):
liked me so that I wasn't set upand stuck in Colorado, and
oh, my God, it was horriblewaiting. I laugh about it now.
And but it was horrible. And soshe said, Yes, by the way. And
(26:00):
so aftera year or so, more in Southern
California working together, wedecided to move back to Oregon
because I really longed for it,missed it, missed the outdoors
piece. And then went back andthen started as a driver working
for that company. And then thewhole TV thing happened. So
little out of order there. Iapologize.
(26:26):
But so my career 12 years later,from that moment on, we get
married, we're in Oregon, we getmarried. I'm 12 years old at
this company, they laid me off,I jumped in the Toyota with the
dog and off I run.
With my wife's blessing, ofcourse, I go out to New York and
I hang out for I don't know, Iwas out here a couple weeks,
(26:50):
five, six weeks. And my wifecalled and said, Are you ever
coming home? Like, what's up?
You're still out there? You gotthe dog. I'm kind of bored. And
you're in New York, what are youdoing? And I said, Well, you
know, the funny thing is, is dadwants you to fly out he wants to
talk to us.
So Laurie jumps on planeflies out to New York at that
point. Andthey offer us basically
(27:15):
partnership, and the winery thatthey had just started, my sister
had been there from thebeginning. So the winery is
about a year old at that point.
And it was growing pretty good.
And they thought, Well, youknow, Tony's in between jobs,
and careers. And either he'sgonna jump back into what he was
doing, and that'll be the end ofit. Or we can snag him right now
(27:37):
while he's out of work and dothis thing. So we talked about
it andGod bless my wife, she agreed to
move all the way across thecountry to New York, to upstate
New York of all places, and putdown roots here, no friends, no
family, no nothing. Just mycrazy family.
(28:00):
So we went back home, and withina few months we were house
packed up on our way out east.
You always hear I'm going outwest never I'm going out east
but we are going out east andNew York. Here we are. So New
York.
started the winery businesswinery was going I didn't know
(28:22):
anything about the winerybusiness. I'd spent the last 12
plus years working with at riskyouth youth at risk youth in a
wilderness setting, camping andhanging out not
not marketing, not advertising,not
making wine, none of that stuff.
The only thing that I knewreally well was how to manage
(28:43):
people because I had a by thetime I left doing what I was
doing. I had hundreds of peoplethat worked indirectly worked
for me. So what I could do wasmanage people. The rest of it, I
had no clue and was wonderinghow my dad was actually making
wine because he came from asales and franchise background
and how he was making wine. Ihad no idea. So
(29:07):
dad always said, well, it's inyour blood. You're Italian.
That's how we make wine. We justknow how to do it. It's in our
DNA. Well, DNA, lots of booksand lots of paying attention.
And 10 years later,dad's semi retired, my sister
myself and my wife are runningthe business. And here we are
today.
(29:31):
Running coyote moon vineyards inClayton New York.
second largest winery in ourregion in the northeast part of
New York that we're in. Andarguably the most awards
for anyone winery in the state.
I don't know that officially butover 1000 in 10 years, so
(29:56):
maybe, maybe not the mostawards, but pretty darn close,
at least best I can tell. Sothat's kind of just more my
opinion than anything,not factually backed up, just
for clarification. SoI learned how to make wine.
Learn the marketing andadvertising and, and here we
(30:19):
are, my wife is in the businessas well. And so as my sister, my
wife runs the retail store nowin at our main location, and my
sister runs a secondary locationthat we have, and I kind of
oversee both in the vineyard andkind of keep the ball The wheels
on the cart. And, and that's howthat happens. And that how it
rolls. So it's been a quick 10plus years in New York now.
(30:48):
And it's really interesting howtime flies.
And now I'm47 running a business in the
middle of a pandemic. I didn'teven know what the word pandemic
was until less than a year ago.
But again, different story.
We've talked about pandemicsquite a bit on this podcast now.
(31:09):
So it's been a crazy whirlwind.
And, and so many Gen Xers that Iknow are kind of the same way.
So, so many of us were neverfixed on one trajectory or one
(31:29):
route, and we've always beenkind of easygoing, kind of
malleable, okay, you know, Yeah,that'll work, I can do that, or
that'll work, I can do that. Andjust kind of go with the flow.
And that's part of our bad rapin some cases, but I think it's
our,our biggest strength, also is,
we have the ability to adaptreally well. And really quickly,
(31:51):
I think, to changing situations,so wilderness therapy,
winemaker,hairdresser, you name it,
whatever. Totally cool, I can dothat. Not afraid to fix build
work on anything. And so manyGen Xers that I know are kind of
the same way. They're all handy,on some level, if it's
(32:13):
computers, or if it's cars.
We're all pretty self reliant.
In general, I think ourgeneration is, you know, we can
we'll make it work, we canfigure it out, not scared to get
our hands or our mind dirty, soto speak, to make it happen.
We're also the first to take abong rip, chill out, wearing our
cargo shorts, you know, easygoing, don't take things too
(32:38):
seriously, at the same time,knowing have some pretty high
strung, career minded friendsthat are I would argue that that
are roughly the same age as me.
But at the same time, you know,I got other friends that are
lawyers that, you know,they spend part of their year in
(32:58):
Florida hanging out because ofthe good weather because they
still want to drink beers andchill out and relax and still
down to earth. And that's soimportant.
And so much a Gen X or kind ofthing. I don't know, a couple
weeks ago, got a call from agood friend of ours. And you
know, it wasI think nine or 10 o'clock our
(33:21):
time she was out west. So Ithink it was six or seven her
time early.
And we're taking shots ofwhiskey with video chat, it was
Thanksgiving morning, I believe.
Andthat's just because we always
have and every time I get on thephone with her or when I would
be around her we're gonna dropimmediately back into where we
(33:43):
left off, literally 10 yearsago, and it'll always be that
way with her and a handful ofother friends of ours that are
all still staying in touch witheach other. And the rest of them
not so much the whiskey but thisone friend, that's just what we
do. So my liver is probably muchhappier 10 years later that I'm
(34:07):
not seeing her on a regularbasis because
I'm sure I would besuffering way more than I am
now.
Just to be said, you know, justlifelong friendships, man. Just
things just kind of slide rightback into where you left off.
(34:27):
And that's, I think such a Gen Xor kind of thing and
and, you know, we made all thisstuff so you know, I'm in my mid
to late 40s Gen Xersyou know, our history is Apple
computers, our history, youknow, the iPhone. That was us,
(34:48):
by the way. I mean really, Imean if it wasn't for that Apple
computers, Apple twos Apple, twoC's you
coming out, you know, grabbingthat mouse and running with it,
so to speak.
This whole technology world andall this stuff that our younger
(35:09):
kids like my daughter, or evenyounger, where they will sooner,
grab it out of our hands andjust do it because we're dumb.
Because we're now getting thatage where our kids think that we
don't know what we're doing.
We're the ones that inventedthis crap that y'all grew up
attached to like my grandson,thick.
(35:30):
His whole life he's had a tabletin his hand literally has has
had a screen available to him.
And wouldn't know what to dowithout it, which is fascinating
to me. Now, that's there's awhole other debate there about
that. But that isa huge, weird, different thing.
(35:52):
As I mentioned, my daughter andmy grandson, where they slip
into that timeline that we justtalked about was before I
married my wife. And right afterhigh school,
my daughter was born with ayoung lady that I was dating,
and we never got married, butwe had our daughter, and we
(36:15):
don't keep much in touchanymore, because she's our
daughter is grown and has a son,my grandson.
But we stayed in touch andraised our daughter together.
Andwe all got along, so to speak,
which is a very jennex thing, bythe way. So didn't get married,
had a child, I married my wife,who also helped raise our
(36:39):
daughter. And we all got alongand all raise this child, you
know, a village kind of concept.
And we did. And we have a great,great child in her 20s and
grandson that's running aroundand getting ready to go into
school. And things are awesome.
(37:03):
So again, that's a whole notherpodcast and story. But that was
anotherjust another cog in the wheel of
my life there. Right after highschool. It's pretty exciting
time. Now I look at I shouldn'tcram a lot of stuff into those
years there.
(37:23):
But that is the generalbonus episode of kind of my
history and background and whereI'm from and what I'm all about.
So hopefully that gives you alittle more insight as to why
I'm such a weirdo. And if youlike what you hear, subscribe to
(37:44):
the podcast where you get yourpodcasts and listen to them and
got any questions throw me anemail Tony at Gen X perspective,
comm please leave a review. Icould use all the help I could
get to kind of grow this thing.
So I'd appreciate some help withthat.
You guys are great. And pleaseleave me feedback.
(38:08):
You got any ideas for guests? Orlike to come on the podcast and
talk about something? pleasereach out to me. I'd love to
hear from you. Again, Tony atGen X perspective, calm.
Have a wonderful evening andy'all Take care of yourselves.
I'll talk to you guys soon. Havea good one.
(38:30):
Thanks for listening to the GenX perspective with Tony
Randazzo, where we see things abit differently. Let's get
social. Find us on Facebook bysearching Gen X perspective,
Twitter at Gen X underscorepodcast and on Instagram at Gen
X perspective. You can also findus online at Gen X perspective
calm and reach out to Tonydirectly at Tony at Gen X
(38:53):
perspective.com. to maybe youcan talk strategy on how to beat
Super Mario Brothers three.
Don't forget to subscribe to theGen X perspective wherever you
get your podcast. Thanks forlistening
It's hard to speak your mind these days.
voicing your opinion is toughand a climate where you're
either seen as an ultraconservative or a bleeding heart
liberal. But what about ourperspective? What about the Gen
X perspective? Hi, I'm Tony alatchkey kid from the 80s and
90s. Now I'm in my 40s wearingcargo shorts, collecting Star
Wars figures and reminiscingabout the days before my first
(00:36):
cell phone. The Gen Xperspective as for us caught
somewhere in between boomers andMillennials are we see things a
bit differently? I'm tired ofstaying silent. It's time to
rant, discuss a load in debate,join Tony and his guests as they
tackle the topics of PopCulture, Sports, religion, and
yes, even politics. If life's aRubik's Cube, we've got the
(00:58):
experience to tackle it. Welcometo the Gen X perspective with
Tony Randazzo.
Unknown (01:13):
Hey, how is everybody doing today? So um, I figured
this would be a good time tobasicallygive you some history
and tell you who I am and whatI'm all about. So, you know,
maybenormal people or podcastsor folks would do this over
time, do it in the firstepisode,I figure now is a good
(01:39):
time to kind of give you myhistory in general, what I'm all
about.
Now that it's not just familyand friends listening, excuse
me, andI can kind of just sharewho I am. So you get a kind of
bit of background to TonyRandazzo is and why I started
this podcast andkind of what,what I'm all about. So we're
(02:01):
gonna jump right in. And I'mgonna go back in history, and
kind of try to do this in achronological order. So starting
as a kid, working my way up totoday. And,and we'll go from
there. So, you know, I was bornin upstate New York, in 1973.
(02:22):
And, in 1979, goes between 73and 79. You know, I was a little
little and not a lotofexcitinghappened in a way that I
remember, clear enough to have agood story about at least at
that point. But the biggest,first big moment in my life, as
(02:46):
I was affected as a human beingwas in on my birthday in 1979.
My parents moved me to SouthernCalifornia, from Rochester, New
York. So six years old, get on aplane, fly to California. Andwe
went out there because my dadgota job in his business. And his
(03:10):
career took us to Orange County,California. So what I remember
most vividly, I don't reallyremember the plane ride all that
well.
But the first thing I rememberthat was just so amazing about
California Now, like I don'tremember getting off the plane
and saying, Wow, the weather. Iwas six years old. It was April.
(03:34):
I don't remember that. But whatI do remember his growing up as
a kid, or when I was really,really little six and under. The
only time you got to seecartoons was Saturday morning.
That was it. From where I was inNew York, Saturday morning
cartoons.That's when you got tosee him.And that was it. And of
(03:56):
course, at six years oldcartoons were pretty much the
center of your universe. Atleast for me, they were what I
noticed or realized inCalifornia, sitting in a hotel
room and I remember the hotel, Iremember the hotel room. And I
remember cartoons were on in themiddle of the week, which was
freakin amazing. Like that madeeverything okay. I remember
(04:20):
being probably more scared thananything. You know, I don't
really remember the being upsetabout missing friends. I was
morejust scared because I was alittle kid in general and it was
something new. But everythingwas okay.
When we got toOrange County, inthat hotel room, before we moved
(04:45):
into our houseand it wascartoons were at and that was
super awesome. And I was superexcited. And life was okay.Then
it seemed likeThe next day weleft the hotel and moved into
our house. Now, I don't reallyremember how much time passed
(05:06):
between getting out here orgetting out there in California.
And when we moved into our houseandMission Viejo,
California,butanybody who'slivedon in the northeast, and then
gotten to Southern California,especially in the 80s, early
(05:30):
80s, kind of the boom in OrangeCounty, California.
Talk about a freakin world, adifferent planet of
existence.And I'm sure it waslike that for my parents as
well.For my mom who grew up verytraditional Italian kind of
family, you know, stayed closeto mom, Sundays, we were always
(05:52):
over it. You know, it's eithermy,at my grandparents house,
either set was prettyinterchangeable. But every
Sunday you were with family,like family was the whole world.
I can't imagine what my mom wasgoing through at the time,
because it was California,especially Southern California.
A whole universe of different,like, just everything, different
(06:17):
cars, differentclothesdifferent.You know, I wouldn't
have been surprised if the moneywas different. It was a
different planet, literally. Andeven I remember how different it
was. And for me, my first asidefrom cartoons being different
was this house that we movedinto West Coast ranch style, you
know, kind of Mediterraneanlooking house, so very southern
(06:42):
California, stucco on theoutside one story. You know, it
was April in the grass wasgreen. And it we had a cool
backyard. And I remember howawesome it was. And we lived on
a cul de sac andyou know, ridingyour bike in the cul de sac and
(07:02):
the whole nine yards. Right? Sothat starts to plan. Soit was a
huge deal. And it was awesome.
If I remember as memory servesme being super little. Now that
life allyou know, typical kidsstuff, and,you know, group of
(07:23):
neighborhood kids all ridingbikes in the cold the sack. We
had the Glen or the woods at theend of the street that we could
go play in the mud and dirt. Andnow it's probably all biohazard
and sewage. And it probably wasthen too, but we were kids and
it didn't matter. So we had theGlen, which is where we played
where we weren't supposed to go.
(07:48):
And we had our cul de sac toride our bikes and skateboards
on mostly bikes. Andin life was really good
elementary school was like amile down the road. And we used
to walk or ride our bikes toschool year round. And
and it was good. It was justkind of a typical Southern
(08:10):
California.
adolescence.
Growing up now, I'm not going togo into a lot of details about
that in this story, particularlybut
you know, elementary school, youknow,
everything was good. I was, Iwas one of those first kind of
(08:33):
kids to go through elementaryschool that was diagnosed with
being dyslexic. And that wasn'twidely recognized at the time.
So like regular school, andteachers didn't have
the kind of education ortraining or tools at the time to
deal with me, and flippingletters and reading things
(08:54):
phonetically. And I was a mess.
So I wasn't doing really well inelementary school, and ended up
going to a school that reallyspecialized as a private school
that specialized inat least initially, when I went
there was for kids that hadlearning disabilities or were
dyslexic, so mild disabilitiesfor the most part, so I had mild
(09:14):
dyslexia. And then there wereother kids that were there by
the time I graduated there and Istayed there from I don't know,
I think fifth grade, fifth,sixth, fifth through 12th. I
stayed there till I graduated bythe time I graduated, it was
more of a school for still forkids that had learning
disabilities, but more was forkids that had attitude
(09:36):
disabilities.
And were troublemakers butthat's a whole different story.
We'll do a whole podcast on thatone but so
yeah, elementary school life wasgood Southern California.
year round summer, how amazingthe beach. I remember seeing all
(09:57):
those things for the first time.
Butthe highlights are so graduate
from high school. And in the endreally kind of get swinging this
background, explaining myselfprobably a little bit better as
I'm talking about kind of thehighlights of my professional
life for kind of what Gen Xersin, in general that we've done
(10:19):
kind of, I didn't have a pathlaid out before me.
And maybe that was good or notlike, it wasn't pre determined
that I was going to be a doctoror a lawyer and my whole world
revolved around making thathappen. I think it was
determined very early on that ifI graduated high school, it was
going to be a freakin miracleanyway. So I'm kind of the plan
(10:43):
for me in general, it changed.
My dad waskind of the same way growing up
in in school school was, youknow, he was a salesman, and
in in didn't have that formalhigh level education or training
either and most, you know, kindof the rabble rouser from at
(11:04):
least the stories that he's toldwhen he was in high school. So
the highlights are more aboutthe diversity in my life, as I
grew up, and what kind of mademe who I am today, and where I
sit today and how things are sofast forward to graduating high
school, reallymy first professional career,
(11:25):
and there's beenessentially two big ones.
But the first one I'm going totalk about had like three main
components that, in a lot ofways kind of made me who I was.
So when I graduated high school,I ended up getting shipped off
to a wilderness therapy program,because I was out of control
(11:49):
part in being a totaltroublemaker, doing stuff I
wasn't supposed to be doing,heading down a pretty dark path
pretty fast. So my parentsshipped me off to the woods of
Montana. And I spent,I think, 9060 days, 90 days
initiallyliving in the woods with a
(12:11):
handful of other kids and someadults and
and for me, that was quite aneye opening experience.
There are a lot of kids outthere that I'll talk about
how traumatic such experienceswere for them. I had a good
experience myself, went throughwilderness therapy, worked with
(12:32):
a therapist got healthy, hikedand climbed mountains and spent
about 60 days in the woods.
Well, after that.
I went to another program,independent living program out
in Oregon, that kind of helpedget you over the hump from being
(12:52):
a high school brat idiot to kindof becoming a well adjusted, or
at least an adult, maybe notwell adjusted, but adjusted
adult that could function in thereal world.
And that program was about ayear long. And I stayed there.
And I went through that programand spent another I think during
the course of that program, Ithink it was either 30 or
(13:14):
another 60 days within thatyear, out in the woods on long
term backpacking trips, andreally got in fell in love with
the outdoors. And this was, youknow, Oregon, Montana, Idaho, we
were up in that part of theworld. And it's absolutely
freakin stunning CascadeMountains. This is also the same
(13:34):
place that I've made somelifelong friends that I still am
friends with today, and spent alot of time really falling in
love with kind of the wildernessin the woods now.
Coming out of there.
My first job, I'll call it a jobbecause it started that way was
working for a wilderness therapycompany in Oregon. And I was
(13:55):
driving I was a driver, whichmeant that I kind of well drove
I brought people I brought kidsand supplies in and out and kind
of slowly worked my way upthrough this company and worked
in different departments. Now. Ididn't graduate with a college
degree, so I wasn't a therapistwasn't a camp counselor.
(14:16):
But I did work direct care withkids that I preferred and
enjoyed the most working withthe younger kids. I thought that
they still hadyou know, they weren't that
they weren't teenagers yet.
They're kind of preteens, sothey still
had fun playing in the dirt, Iguess so that it was a little
(14:36):
simpler. Although some of thoseguys and gals those kids had
some pretty traumatic lifestories and problems. They were
just way more fun to work with.
So I spent a lot of time workingwith them and becoming
more of a camp counselor kind ofstyle. Keep an eye on the kids
working with them camping withthem staying out there with them
(14:58):
for two weeks at a ripAnd, and this is years that I
stayed with this company, andgrew with them until I became a
kind of the manager of the staffthat worked with the kids. So I
wasn't the manager of thetherapists, or the company as a
(15:19):
whole, but I waskind of the field manager.
So I managed all the staff,their comings and goings, and
what groups of kids they workedwith, etc. And that led me to an
opportunity whereI got to be on a TV show on ABC
called brat camp. It was a 10episode,
(15:41):
show 10 episode eight Episode10 1010 episodes,
were on ABC primetime.
10 million viewers kind of deal.
And they followed a group ofthese kids around and it was
called brat camp. And of course,that, you know, they had to come
up with a name that was catchyand would work for television.
(16:03):
But it was abasically the first docu reality
show. So it was a documentary,because the producers and the
camera crews weren't allowed tointeract with the kids at all.
And they weren't allowed toinfluence the kids. So there was
nowinning a million dollars at the
(16:25):
end.
The only thing that you got atthe end of the show was to go
home, and they were all going togo home. So there wasn't really
a prize at the end. So I wasstarted out kind of more as a
technical advisor and kind ofthe go to guys so that my staff
could do their job and be leftalone from this film crew and
(16:47):
quickly ended up narrating theshows, and also working
on camera with the kids and, anddid that and had a pretty
amazing experience.
Early on in my professionalcareer,
interfacing with a Hollywoodproduction company, the time it
(17:09):
was Shapiro grodner Productions.
Shapiro has I believe retired.
He was the guy that did ScaredStraight for the rest of you Gen
Xers that remember that show. Hedid that show. And so
Allison grodner Productions, Ibelieve she's still working to
this day and the people thatworked for her still in the
(17:31):
industry andgreat fun group of people, I
learned so much and had a blastwith them. And it was also
probably one of the hardestthings I've ever done in my life
was you got to remember that welived and breathed working with
these kids and kind of thesanctity of
(17:53):
in the responsibility of beingtrue to these kids and not
loving this TV show kind ofchange what we were doing. And I
believe that we did a reallygood job keeping it.
Like it.
Like it was in real life. Itwasn't 100% like that. But it
was as close as it could get.
And in some ways be able to beon TV and make sense for
(18:17):
somebody to watch. And back thenin there was quite a stir of
controversy, you know, aboutfilming kids that were under
duress in some cases. I mean, weheard it all right. So you're
going to get the good press andthe bad press, you get the
praise, and what a great thingthese people are doing. And
(18:37):
then, you know, how could youtake advantage of these kids?
Well, we always felt internallypretty good about what we were
doing, because we knew that thefilm crew, and the producers and
all the people around didn'tinfluence the kids, they didn't
secretly talk to them. I mean,we had our thumb all over this
thing and made sure that we heldtrue to our word to those
(18:58):
parents of those kids. And gotto do this really amazing TV
show and watch tell a wholeproduction company works. And
got to go through that and gotto do the voiceover or the
narration of this thing. So theyended up flying me down to
Southern back down to Californiato Hollywood and put you in a
sound booth and make you readpages and pages of stuff. And it
(19:20):
was really a fun experience. Igot to meet some really cool
people andmake some friends and that was a
for half a minute I thought thatmaybe that was going to be a
career that I was going toattempt and
and ended up not doing that andended up staying in the
wilderness therapy industry fora number of years and worked my
(19:42):
way up. So after that televisionshow aired my we were an
independent company. We werebought out by another larger
company that owned a handful ofwilderness therapy programs and
boarding schools andthey were in the business of
Kids and in education andtherapy, and yada, yada yada.
(20:07):
And my boss that owned thebusiness, retired to Florida,
with his wife and family andsold the business to a health
care company, who ran thebusiness along with a bunch of
other ones. So there was moreopportunity to grow in the
business. And I ended up stayingon with them through like the
(20:29):
2008 2009.
shake up where they economy tooka nosedive? Well, we were
healthcare industry, and we wereprivate pay. So as you can
imagine, our business was theywere reformatting and
consolidating our business. Andeventually I got consolidated
(20:49):
out and, and left the business.
Andafter what I thought was going
to be my career, for my life,after 12 years, I was out of a
job. And I had a couple otheropportunities and I had network
pretty well in the industry togo find a job but you know, when
you own a home, and my wife hadher business and was working and
(21:12):
you know, for me, it meantpacking up and moving. So we
didn't know what we were goingto do. So I basically did what
any kind of midlife crisisperson in their 30s would do.
I jumped in my Toyota fourrunner, grab my dog, give my
wife a kiss on the forehead andchoked in the Toyota and off I
(21:37):
drove to New Yorkto clear my head and be my
parents were out here starting abusiness, another business and
and wanted to go see my familyand clear my head dead snack.
You know, mom both said, youknow, come see us and
come clear your head and hangout. And I said, Well, you know
(21:58):
what, I want to drive I want todrive cross country. I'm out of
here. Of course, I had to clearthat with my wife first. Because
in between graduating highschool and ending up in
therapy, working with kids,there was a short stint in my
career. Now I'm totally goingout of order. So between
(22:21):
graduating high school andand spending a year in Oregon,
in that Independent Livingprogram, right after that, I
moved back to California andmet my wife in the hair
industry. So what moved my dadin the family to California when
(22:43):
we were little kids when I was alittle kid was
the franchise business. And bythe time I was in high school
age a little younger. He wasowned a franchise called
fantastic Sams hair salons. Andthere was a couple hundred
(23:05):
locations in Southern Californiathat were franchised that he
had. So, step mom was ahairdresser. I became a
hairdresser that year that I wasin that
Independent Living program afterhigh school. I think it was
right after that. Mostly thatum, I went to cosmetology school
(23:26):
and got my license be ahairdresser. And so that short
stint that I came back toCalifornia
I met my wife in Vegas at aconference and
and then hired her to come workfor me. She was living in
(23:46):
Colorado, and I needed to findsomebody to do
to be a teacher basically aneducator and fantastic Sam's
because I didn't want to do thatjob anymore. And I talked her
into moving to California, andwe were friends and hung out for
a year. Andthen I went out to Colorado with
(24:10):
her for Christmas and I proposedto marry her in front of her
family. Now I don't suggestdoing that. By the way. Anybody
that's listening that's thinkinglike I'm gonna be cute and
propose tothe love of my life in front of
their family.
(24:34):
When I first asked my futurefather in law
for my for his daughter's handand kind of get permission to
marry her I was being prettytues very traditional, is very
traditional. And I am as well.
(24:54):
He said no.
And say he needed to talk to hiswife now.
Knowing my mother in law, and myfather in law as well as I do
now, that makes perfect sense.
But at the time, I was mortifiedlike I'm in Colorado.
I just asked if I could marryhis daughter. And he said he, he
(25:16):
said no, basically, at thatmoment, said he'd get back to
me. And so I had to wait. Mikehad the ring whole nine yards,
Christmas was approaching fast.
And so they tortured me a littlebit, maybe wait a day or two
till he could talk to his wife.
And then they did a littledigging to make sure that she
(25:38):
liked me so that I wasn't set upand stuck in Colorado, and
oh, my God, it was horriblewaiting. I laugh about it now.
And but it was horrible. And soshe said, Yes, by the way. And
(26:00):
so aftera year or so, more in Southern
California working together, wedecided to move back to Oregon
because I really longed for it,missed it, missed the outdoors
piece. And then went back andthen started as a driver working
for that company. And then thewhole TV thing happened. So
little out of order there. Iapologize.
(26:26):
But so my career 12 years later,from that moment on, we get
married, we're in Oregon, we getmarried. I'm 12 years old at
this company, they laid me off,I jumped in the Toyota with the
dog and off I run.
With my wife's blessing, ofcourse, I go out to New York and
I hang out for I don't know, Iwas out here a couple weeks,
(26:50):
five, six weeks. And my wifecalled and said, Are you ever
coming home? Like, what's up?
You're still out there? You gotthe dog. I'm kind of bored. And
you're in New York, what are youdoing? And I said, Well, you
know, the funny thing is, is dadwants you to fly out he wants to
talk to us.
So Laurie jumps on planeflies out to New York at that
point. Andthey offer us basically
(27:15):
partnership, and the winery thatthey had just started, my sister
had been there from thebeginning. So the winery is
about a year old at that point.
And it was growing pretty good.
And they thought, Well, youknow, Tony's in between jobs,
and careers. And either he'sgonna jump back into what he was
doing, and that'll be the end ofit. Or we can snag him right now
(27:37):
while he's out of work and dothis thing. So we talked about
it andGod bless my wife, she agreed to
move all the way across thecountry to New York, to upstate
New York of all places, and putdown roots here, no friends, no
family, no nothing. Just mycrazy family.
(28:00):
So we went back home, and withina few months we were house
packed up on our way out east.
You always hear I'm going outwest never I'm going out east
but we are going out east andNew York. Here we are. So New
York.
started the winery businesswinery was going I didn't know
(28:22):
anything about the winerybusiness. I'd spent the last 12
plus years working with at riskyouth youth at risk youth in a
wilderness setting, camping andhanging out not
not marketing, not advertising,not
making wine, none of that stuff.
The only thing that I knewreally well was how to manage
(28:43):
people because I had a by thetime I left doing what I was
doing. I had hundreds of peoplethat worked indirectly worked
for me. So what I could do wasmanage people. The rest of it, I
had no clue and was wonderinghow my dad was actually making
wine because he came from asales and franchise background
and how he was making wine. Ihad no idea. So
(29:07):
dad always said, well, it's inyour blood. You're Italian.
That's how we make wine. We justknow how to do it. It's in our
DNA. Well, DNA, lots of booksand lots of paying attention.
And 10 years later,dad's semi retired, my sister
myself and my wife are runningthe business. And here we are
today.
(29:31):
Running coyote moon vineyards inClayton New York.
second largest winery in ourregion in the northeast part of
New York that we're in. Andarguably the most awards
for anyone winery in the state.
I don't know that officially butover 1000 in 10 years, so
(29:56):
maybe, maybe not the mostawards, but pretty darn close,
at least best I can tell. Sothat's kind of just more my
opinion than anything,not factually backed up, just
for clarification. SoI learned how to make wine.
Learn the marketing andadvertising and, and here we
(30:19):
are, my wife is in the businessas well. And so as my sister, my
wife runs the retail store nowin at our main location, and my
sister runs a secondary locationthat we have, and I kind of
oversee both in the vineyard andkind of keep the ball The wheels
on the cart. And, and that's howthat happens. And that how it
rolls. So it's been a quick 10plus years in New York now.
(30:48):
And it's really interesting howtime flies.
And now I'm47 running a business in the
middle of a pandemic. I didn'teven know what the word pandemic
was until less than a year ago.
But again, different story.
We've talked about pandemicsquite a bit on this podcast now.
(31:09):
So it's been a crazy whirlwind.
And, and so many Gen Xers that Iknow are kind of the same way.
So, so many of us were neverfixed on one trajectory or one
(31:29):
route, and we've always beenkind of easygoing, kind of
malleable, okay, you know, Yeah,that'll work, I can do that, or
that'll work, I can do that. Andjust kind of go with the flow.
And that's part of our bad rapin some cases, but I think it's
our,our biggest strength, also is,
we have the ability to adaptreally well. And really quickly,
(31:51):
I think, to changing situations,so wilderness therapy,
winemaker,hairdresser, you name it,
whatever. Totally cool, I can dothat. Not afraid to fix build
work on anything. And so manyGen Xers that I know are kind of
the same way. They're all handy,on some level, if it's
(32:13):
computers, or if it's cars.
We're all pretty self reliant.
In general, I think ourgeneration is, you know, we can
we'll make it work, we canfigure it out, not scared to get
our hands or our mind dirty, soto speak, to make it happen.
We're also the first to take abong rip, chill out, wearing our
cargo shorts, you know, easygoing, don't take things too
(32:38):
seriously, at the same time,knowing have some pretty high
strung, career minded friendsthat are I would argue that that
are roughly the same age as me.
But at the same time, you know,I got other friends that are
lawyers that, you know,they spend part of their year in
(32:58):
Florida hanging out because ofthe good weather because they
still want to drink beers andchill out and relax and still
down to earth. And that's soimportant.
And so much a Gen X or kind ofthing. I don't know, a couple
weeks ago, got a call from agood friend of ours. And you
know, it wasI think nine or 10 o'clock our
(33:21):
time she was out west. So Ithink it was six or seven her
time early.
And we're taking shots ofwhiskey with video chat, it was
Thanksgiving morning, I believe.
Andthat's just because we always
have and every time I get on thephone with her or when I would
be around her we're gonna dropimmediately back into where we
(33:43):
left off, literally 10 yearsago, and it'll always be that
way with her and a handful ofother friends of ours that are
all still staying in touch witheach other. And the rest of them
not so much the whiskey but thisone friend, that's just what we
do. So my liver is probably muchhappier 10 years later that I'm
(34:07):
not seeing her on a regularbasis because
I'm sure I would besuffering way more than I am
now.
Just to be said, you know, justlifelong friendships, man. Just
things just kind of slide rightback into where you left off.
(34:27):
And that's, I think such a Gen Xor kind of thing and
and, you know, we made all thisstuff so you know, I'm in my mid
to late 40s Gen Xersyou know, our history is Apple
computers, our history, youknow, the iPhone. That was us,
(34:48):
by the way. I mean really, Imean if it wasn't for that Apple
computers, Apple twos Apple, twoC's you
coming out, you know, grabbingthat mouse and running with it,
so to speak.
This whole technology world andall this stuff that our younger
(35:09):
kids like my daughter, or evenyounger, where they will sooner,
grab it out of our hands andjust do it because we're dumb.
Because we're now getting thatage where our kids think that we
don't know what we're doing.
We're the ones that inventedthis crap that y'all grew up
attached to like my grandson,thick.
(35:30):
His whole life he's had a tabletin his hand literally has has
had a screen available to him.
And wouldn't know what to dowithout it, which is fascinating
to me. Now, that's there's awhole other debate there about
that. But that isa huge, weird, different thing.
(35:52):
As I mentioned, my daughter andmy grandson, where they slip
into that timeline that we justtalked about was before I
married my wife. And right afterhigh school,
my daughter was born with ayoung lady that I was dating,
and we never got married, butwe had our daughter, and we
(36:15):
don't keep much in touchanymore, because she's our
daughter is grown and has a son,my grandson.
But we stayed in touch andraised our daughter together.
Andwe all got along, so to speak,
which is a very jennex thing, bythe way. So didn't get married,
had a child, I married my wife,who also helped raise our
(36:39):
daughter. And we all got alongand all raise this child, you
know, a village kind of concept.
And we did. And we have a great,great child in her 20s and
grandson that's running aroundand getting ready to go into
school. And things are awesome.
(37:03):
So again, that's a whole notherpodcast and story. But that was
anotherjust another cog in the wheel of
my life there. Right after highschool. It's pretty exciting
time. Now I look at I shouldn'tcram a lot of stuff into those
years there.
(37:23):
But that is the generalbonus episode of kind of my
history and background and whereI'm from and what I'm all about.
So hopefully that gives you alittle more insight as to why
I'm such a weirdo. And if youlike what you hear, subscribe to
(37:44):
the podcast where you get yourpodcasts and listen to them and
got any questions throw me anemail Tony at Gen X perspective,
comm please leave a review. Icould use all the help I could
get to kind of grow this thing.
So I'd appreciate some help withthat.
You guys are great. And pleaseleave me feedback.
(38:08):
You got any ideas for guests? Orlike to come on the podcast and
talk about something? pleasereach out to me. I'd love to
hear from you. Again, Tony atGen X perspective, calm.
Have a wonderful evening andy'all Take care of yourselves.
I'll talk to you guys soon. Havea good one.
(38:30):
Thanks for listening to the GenX perspective with Tony
Randazzo, where we see things abit differently. Let's get
social. Find us on Facebook bysearching Gen X perspective,
Twitter at Gen X underscorepodcast and on Instagram at Gen
X perspective. You can also findus online at Gen X perspective
calm and reach out to Tonydirectly at Tony at Gen X
(38:53):
perspective.com. to maybe youcan talk strategy on how to beat
Super Mario Brothers three.
Don't forget to subscribe to theGen X perspective wherever you
get your podcast. Thanks forlistening
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