From addiction to rehabilitation

Frank Palmieri’s life spiraled out of control when he became addicted to painkillers. Eventually, he found his way through Bikram Yoga.

[00:00:16.655] – TAMAR:
Hey, everybody, I am so happy to bring you episode 56 of the Common Scents podcast. I have Frank here and Frank is visiting from a classroom. He’ll explain in a moment. Thank you so much for joining. Where are you physically in the world besides the classroom and what are you doing right now?

[00:00:36.935] – Frank Palmieri:
Thanks for having me. So I live, my wife and I moved to Buford, South Carolina, last year, December 2019. We just got to the point where we were tired of the Northeast and wanted warmer weather. And so we we visited here and fell in love with it. And it was a wrap, six month turnaround.

[00:01:01.295] – TAMAR:
Where in the northeast were you before?

[00:01:04.295] – Frank Palmieri:
So born and raised in Brooklyn, Sheepshead Bay.

[00:01:07.385] – TAMAR:
Nice. Nice. I was born in Brooklyn also.

[00:01:09.875] – Frank Palmieri:
All right. Right on. So I was pretty I was a bad kid. I got into a lot of trouble. My father decided that before he had to put me six feet under, as he liked to say, he moved. So he picked up the family. We moved to Pennsylvania when I was 16, I think, what was that, circa 1986? And and I lived in Pennsylvania until 2019.

[00:01:35.405] – TAMAR:
Nice. Nice. So we’re in Pennsylvania? Now I have to ask you that one.

[00:01:38.195] – Frank Palmieri:
OK, sure. I’m sorry. Lancaster.

[00:01:40.335] – TAMAR:
Oh ok.

[00:01:41.405] – Frank Palmieri:
Yeah. So south central, it’s it’s right in the middle of everything now and a half from Philly.

[00:01:47.645] – TAMAR:
Yeah. I went, I did a Turkey Hill museum and I did the Amish country stuff.

[00:01:52.565] – Frank Palmieri:
So the Turkey Hill Museum, literally two miles from where I live.

[00:01:58.565] – TAMAR:
Yeah. Those are the tourist attractions. It’s all familiar. Yeah. My my husband’s actually from Pennsylvania. Scranton. Yeah. Cool.

[00:02:05.915] – Frank Palmieri:
Home of The Office.

[00:02:07.145] – TAMAR:
That’s right. That’s really what they’re known for. And honestly, if you’ve ever been to Scranton, Pennsylvania, you would realize that there are just two types of people there. There are college students and they are very religious Jews. So, yes, we follow the second camp.

[00:02:19.595] – Frank Palmieri:
I think I actually spent a couple of nights in Scranton then and whoo, it’s special.

[00:02:24.005] – TAMAR:
It’s a very interesting dynamic, 100%.

[00:02:26.735] – Frank Palmieri:
Yes.

[00:02:27.505] – TAMAR:
Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Well, that’s awesome. So you are physically, what do you do?

[00:02:32.615] – Frank Palmieri:
So I am a teacher. I’ve been in education for 22 years. So my first job was in York City, York High. I worked in York City from 2000 to 2019. I actually thought I would end up retiring there. York City, it gets a lot of bad press. There’s a lot of bad things that go on, but it’s your typical like urban environment, high impoverished rate. But you know what? The community itself is just made up of some terrific souls. And to work there was really a gift. I enjoyed my time there thoroughly and honestly, that’s what sucked the most about moving, you know what I mean? Was leaving that job.

[00:03:20.205] – TAMAR:
Yeah. Yeah. You know, it’s funny, Not like I’m going to throw away, “hey, I’m from Brooklyn. My husband’s from Scranton.” I was just doing, I do genealogy and I like to know about my cousins, my distant cousins. And I noticed that a lot of I think that a lot of my cousins actually went to York High. I don’t know, I don’t remember which ones, because I go through a lot of people and names, but yeah, there are a lot of people in Lancaster who came from that area. So they probably have had, like these are just [super distant relatives], they have no idea that I exist, but I know who they are because that’s what I do. I like to, it’s not just about the ancestors, but it’s about