Host (00:00)
I'm so excited. Thanks for coming over. We're patching. That's good. Okay. You're off the chart here. So I got a turning down here.

John (00:06)
I can sure hear myself.

Wow.

Well, you're right into this.

Host (00:13)
Yeah, I'm pretty excited. So welcome, my very first real guest. I've had practice guests. Yeah. But your first business guest.

recording. so where do you want to start? Right from the beginning?

John (00:28)
pretty much from the beginning. I think we'll start where Laurie is the dental assistant.

Laurie (00:33)
Okay, do you want? You're my dental assistant? Yeah. was this? Yeah. Okay, do you want me jump into it. Okay, so I'll just give you a little synopsis of where we got to where we are with Lorianne Skincare. Yeah. my first job was a dental assistant. I went to Okanagan College and took the course. And I did that for several years and I really liked it. And then after that time, I started feeling like I needed to do something different. So I went back to school.

Host (00:34)
until

Laurie (01:01)
here in Cologne again and took the aesthetician course, which I loved. I've kind of always liked the beauty business as well. And did that for a few years and worked in a couple of different salons. And then, ⁓

Host (01:18)
At this point had you met John?

Laurie (01:19)
Yes. Okay. Yes. John and I were together. Okay. Absolutely.

Host (01:24)
Did

you both grow up here? No. OK, we need to go back further. ⁓ yeah, I don't know who you are. So where did you grow up? Where were you born and raised?

Laurie (01:34)
Okay, I was born in Ottawa. Okay. And my dad was in the Air Force. And my mom was a war bride from England. He was in World War II. He was a pilot. we got transferred from Ottawa to, well, we were in Montreal after that, to overseas. And I pretty much grew up in my younger years in France.

and Germany and there was five kids in my family mom was from England so we traveled around for eight years going on holidays in the summers in France and Spain and ⁓ all over and it was beautiful. Yeah. Love Europe and then dad got transferred back to Canada and I was ⁓

Host (02:08)
of

edge for you at this point.

Laurie (02:22)
12. we landed in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. It was a culture shock. It was in the prairies and it was cold. but it was a blast because Air Force life was a blast. No matter what base you were on, everybody was in the same boat. So you were never the new kid on the block.

Host (02:22)
Okay.

and bit of a shot.

That sense of community.

Laurie (02:41)
Always, always. So nobody felt ostracized because everybody had gone through it themselves. You get transferred every two or three years to do different bases. So we were in Col Lake, Alberta. We were in, you know, Ottawa, Montreal. We ended up in Richmond and that's when my dad's final posting was. And then he retired at 45 years old. Wow. Because he joined at 17 in the war.

So he did his tour of duty flying planes. At the very end, he was teaching all the pilots in Europe how to fly. So cool. That was peacetime, right? he had two places he was going to pick. He was either going to retire in White Rock or Kelowna, and he knew neither of them. ⁓ neither did we. We didn't know where they were. And then so after the years, him picking Kelowna,

And he found some really nice orchard land up in Lakeview Heights, which we loved. He built a house and it was the first house any of us had ever lived in because we were always on the barracks and we were always like all shoved in like little bird cages together, you know, three kids in a room type thing. When we came, in, I started grade 10. So I started high school life here in what we call it West Bank at that time. Now it's the West side.

Host (03:32)
Okay.

this point, how old were you?

Okay.

Laurie (03:58)
And it was George Pringle High School. And there was 30 kids in high school. the whole school? In the class, there was 30 kids. Wow. It was a small school. But it was fabulous. And as soon as dad came to Kelowna, I fell in love with it. I just went, I felt like I just landed in paradise. And I've never lost that feeling. I have always felt that way about Kelowna. And I could never leave. Never leave. Because we went to a lot of wild places.

And we basically, when we got transferred back to Canada after his stint there in Europe, we best all got down on our hands and knees and kissed the ground and went, we are home. And so therefore we could never be the 51st state. Not in our family anyway.

Host (04:39)
and upbringing.

Legit, legit. And what about you, John?

John (04:49)
I was born in Nelson. actually lived in Crestova, which is a Dukaboor village up around Nelson, until I was five years old. And then we moved to North Vancouver. And from five till, I guess I was 27, I lived in North Van. Worked for Woodward Stores in Park Royal, West Van as a baker, John the Baker.

Then at 27, I decided I needed a change and I moved to Kelowna.

Host (05:22)
And why did you move to Kuala

John (05:24)
up here partying as a young guy and knew this was a beautiful area. Didn't know a soul, but I had a friend at North End that said, hey, maybe you should phone Brillo, who was a guy from North End, and he's up there by himself. Maybe you can move in with him. So I did up in Glen Rosa, stayed there for, I guess about a year. Then we moved to Casa Loma and lived there. ⁓

And when we lived in Casa Loma, I got a job working for the Ribbon Reef, which was a restaurant where Talos was down on, ⁓ I guess it's Water Street. And they went out of business, so I crossed the back alley to the keg, went in the back door of the keg and said I need a job. So I got hired on as a dishwasher and then became a waiter and then became John the bartender and then met Lori.

and we partied a lot. I got transferred to ⁓ Kamloops to manage the Kamloops keg and didn't like it at all. then I was to be transferred to Saskatoon.

Host (06:33)
Laura did you go up to Kamloops with John at this point? stayed in... yeah so did you have a long distance relationship at that point? Okay okay

Laurie (06:36)
Just for one visit. No, I stayed.

Yeah, I was dental assisting then.

John (06:44)
And I'd bought a house. The only time that you could buy a house being a waiter. I had no money, but I scrounged up $3,500. Bought a house for ⁓ just over $30,000. And it was a band house that flashbacks had. So when flashbacks would bring bands into town, the bands would stay in this house. So you can imagine what the house was like, ⁓

Host (06:50)
in

Yeah.

John (07:13)
So when

I bought it, I don't know, as a waiter and fixed it up. And then when I went to Kamloops, Lori was there. So she stayed in the house. after Kamloops, I was supposed to go to Saskatoon and open up a new keg in Saskatoon. And I said, no, I hate Kamloops and I know I'm not going to like Saskatoon. So that was my career with a keg. I came back home.

built a fence that summer around the yard and ⁓ where did I go from there? I had just had tons of jobs anyways I worked in the oil patch and worked in the Arctic and did all kinds of stuff. So then in and then we were I had a partner and we were in Phantom Screen Doors I don't know if you heard of the Screen Doors. So we sold that in 2003.

And Lori had been working at Gushigan. That's where she had her electrolysis in Gushigan. ⁓

Host (08:18)
the Gushigan Village? Mm-hmm. ⁓

John (08:20)
Yeah,

I had nothing to do. We'd sold business and one day I'm sitting there watching Oprah on TV. Only time I ever watched Oprah in my life. And a lady came out and she was the facialist to the stars from New York City on Oprah. And what she did was when they had the red carpet thing in Los Angeles, she would go there and do microcurrent facials.

for the stars on the red carpet. So we watched this and she zoomed in on a lady and pulled her out of the audience, did half a face with microcurrent and then showed the audience the difference. And I said, wow, Lori, you should get that for your shop because we built it in 2003, 2004, she moved into it. And so she's working there by herself.

So I said, we should get that microcurrent for you. you could, yeah, that's a good idea. So I sourced out through the internet microcurrent equipment. And I found a lady in New Zealand and she says, I'll come out and show you the equipment. I said, no, no, I have a question for you. Do you know Tracy Martin? She says, no, never heard of her. I says, okay, it's not you. I made about two or three other.

calls to different places, not many microcurrent machines out there. And I got one in Middlesex, England. And I said, hey, you ever heard of Tracy Martin? yeah, she bought her machine two years ago. Perfect. Send it out, So they send it out and they sent a guy up from Littleton, Colorado to train Lori on it because it was for her. And I said, well, you know what?

As soon as I don't have anything to do, I might as well just sit in and learn how to do it and then I can do it to you. So that's what happened. He was up for a week and trained Lori on other equipment. Trained us both on this microcurrent equipment. So I was doing facials on Lori, microcurrent facials. One day, lady came in and wanted a facial and Lori says, wow, it's gonna be two or three weeks. I'm so busy pulling hair, doing facials. then she said,

Well, maybe my husband could do it for you. He does it to me. Yep, no problem. So I did the Daphne, and I've been doing them ever since, over 20 years now.

Host (10:50)
Ow.

Laurie (10:51)
And he's an expert. He does them way better than I do. Yeah. Yeah.

John (10:55)
So I created myself a business, Or a job, anyways. ⁓ I knew the boss, so it worked out pretty good. Yeah, so that's kind of where we got to with our shop. And it's worked out good for us.

Host (10:57)
There you go.

That's amazing, 20 years.

Laurie (11:10)
Yeah.

It went fast. Yeah. Yeah.

John (11:13)
we used

to work Tuesday, because we hated Mondays, so we worked Tuesday to Friday. And then a few years ago, we got lazy and I said, let's go down to Tugboat Bay. we'd pack a couple of chairs up on our umbrella and put them on our bikes and head down to Tugboat Bay and sit out there with our feet in the water on Fridays. And before you knew it, I bet you end of that summer, we had eight or 10 friends that would come down with us.

we enjoyed that so much, we never did work Fridays again. Now we're down Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and it works perfect for us. ⁓

Host (11:51)
amazing.

Laurie (11:52)
Yeah,

just a quick little story. thought about it this morning when I knew that we were going to be coming and speaking. And John was writing down some little notes so that we kind of could follow what we were going to be talking about. And it brought back a memory to me is when I took the electrolysis course, Mackie was in...

grade four and I'd been stay at home mom for the whole time, adopt until grade four for him. Loved it. And until the day I took him to school, walked him to school and I was gonna go in and help the teacher on arts and crafts day. And he put his hand up to me, he says, you don't have to come in today mom. And I went, oh, okay. I started walking home and that's when I was feeling very sad and I thought, I have to get back into the workforce. I mulled around in my mind knowing that I wanted to stay in the beauty

had already done the aesthetics and I always knew that electrolysis was great because you could work independently, work for yourself. But there was no courses here in Kelowna. I knew that there was one in Vancouver. what ended up happening is...

It was a four month course. found a lady I could board with in Abbotsford and I take the bus on a Sunday and go down and the course went from Monday to Thursday. So every Thursday night I get on the bus and come home for the weekend. And so I did that for four months. But what made me think about this was that a little bit nervous being by myself coming like riding on the bus. So what I did was I find the front of the bus and there was right behind the bus driver and there was a

that was always, that was sitting there. And so I just sat beside him. But discovered as, as every week went by, he lived in Vancouver and he was a policeman. And he'd been doing this trip for 10 years. His wife and him had a house in Kelowna and he would do the same thing. He'd work there through the week, come home on the weekends.

Amazing. And the reason why is because his wife had some kind of like allergies or something or that she needed to be in a hot climate and she couldn't be in the dampness of Vancouver. she lived here and we got chatting, then I ended up telling him what I told you at the beginning of the podcast about being in Europe and when we came to Kelowna, how much I loved it. I told him that when we came around in my dad's car... ⁓

Going down into City Park and we came over that view over the hill and saw the bridge Yeah, and it was just magnificently beautiful and the water and everything and he says yeah, it's gorgeous. Isn't it right Always sat beside him always sat beside him and then

Quite often I'd have fallen asleep by the time we got to Kelowna and I told him about how I just loved it, loved it, right? eventually he'd start nudging me in the side, he'd said to me, Lori, your view's here.

And I'd wake up and we'd both stare out the window together at Kelowna. It made me think about Him this morning when I was thinking about telling this story. then when I look back on it now and I think, you know, I was quite timid to be on that bus by myself as a woman. And God put Him right beside me for every trip home. And we got to know each because He was by Himself too. And we were both from Kelowna. And it was just so special that what people

will do, right? To better themselves. And he was a cop. So that was even better. And we don't have the great hound anymore, we? Yeah.

John (15:11)
And he was a cop, so Lord

Host (15:17)
out.

And that what a cool thing when to think like through the week to look forward because you know you know you're gonna be with him. Yeah.

Laurie (15:28)
I'd

look for him. I would look for him. I where's, I can't even remember his first name. But I know I don't, can't know. And it's been like 20 years. Yeah. So but I'd always look for him. I hope he's on the bus this week. I hope he's on the bus this week. And there he was. It was wonderful. Yeah. Yeah.

Host (15:33)
about the

So

how did you find somebody, when you went to and you said that you found somebody to room and board with,

Laurie (15:52)
how it worked is I'd already was lined up to take the course and this is the house,

small town because it was at this part and the school was there.

when I registered with the lady, she said, so where are you going to be? And I said, well, I don't even know yet. I don't know where I'll be staying. She says, there's a bunch of people that take in students in the town that come that billet, billeting. So I got this lovely lady and her family. She had two kids. And she gave me a room. She didn't even want to charge me. It was amazing. But I'd always leave her money on the side table after the week was finished, right? And it was, was, it was.

Wonderful. I still had to kick myself off the couch every Sunday night to go back every week because I'd come home and go, this is really nice. I'm home. no, you got to go back. But four months goes by fast to take a course where you can have your own business for the rest of your life.

Host (16:33)
So

That's true.

John (16:52)
So she would leave on Sunday on the bus on Sunday and she'd be in the fetal position on the Chesterfield Yeah, so she did good man, she did really good by going for four months down there

Laurie (17:09)
Well, I had

a great husband too because he held down the fort while I was gone all week. Took care of our son, you know, he eight years old and was fantastic father and just took care of everything. I could go with peace of mind knowing everything was fine back home. we worked together as a team, big time.

John (17:25)
and we'd

go and sometimes pick her up in West Bank at the bus depot. She was so excited.

Laurie (17:30)
Get

to Westpac. don't want to wait all the way to Kelowna.

John (17:33)
Yeah?

Host (17:34)
Is it was back? It was by Canadian tire.

John (17:38)
Yeah, by where all the car dealers are there right on the corner now it's gone.

No Greyhound now, I guess they catch the E-Bus downtown. Different thing, ⁓ Life is so different now. So yeah, we're still in the business and more clients all the time. It's just amazing. Just amazing what's going on. And I think all the building around here has really helped. lot of people walk by our signs out the front, see our building and... ⁓

Host (17:46)
Yeah.

And your

house is so cute and it's always immaculate. There's a good gardener at your house, ⁓ Yeah.

Laurie (18:14)
It's a matter of many hearts.

John (18:18)
Yeah,

he wears the hat and during the weekend he's the gardener and then during the week he's the facialista.

Host (18:25)
So you must have some long-term clients then,

Laurie (18:27)
Yes, we've

got clients that have been coming for 20 years, some 15 years. Repeat business, yeah, definitely.

John (18:34)
We have a client that I was doing a facial on her and what was the guy's name that did our bathroom for us? Grapevine. Grapevine Construction. A real nice guy. And there he was working on the bathroom, finishing it off. And there I was doing a facial on a client. And she's still with us today. Wow. Yeah. She comes what, every six weeks or something? So it's pretty amazing.

Laurie (19:01)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Host (19:03)
You grew up together, ⁓ Get the down though when all your life starts.

Laurie (19:07)
Yeah.

Yeah, that's a nice

thing about hands-on business like that with people servicing. ⁓ You get to know people in their lives and the kaleidoscope of humanity of all different people's walks of life. similar to being, you know, hairdressers and manicurists can tell you that they get to know their clients a little bit more intimately. That's what we get to. so we're kind of like, AKA psychiatrist at the same time.

counselors. Big big big ears for listening right? Yeah. So it's yeah you get to kind of hear and everywhere like because we're downtown we're north end but now we're considered the cultural district so that's we're all food. Is that what we're considered That's what we're considered now so Foo Foo.

Host (19:43)
I imagine, right?

I'm like, don't I know like I consider us a downtown but technically downtown is like a block over whatever right and then But we're not north end because we're not on the other side of Clement and then on on the map It says we're city center, but then when I talked to a real estate agent, they're like, no, you're not in city center

Laurie (20:18)
We're two blocks from the beach. That's all we care about.

John (20:22)
Yeah,

cultural district sounds pretty.

Host (20:25)
⁓ It is so cool now to walk a boat. everything. There's so many people out on a boat. You know that twilight and walk out your house and you're right anywhere you want to be is great.

John (20:35)
It's wonderful, isn't it?

Laurie (20:40)
Yeah, it's fantastic. We love it. We were only going to live downtown for like in the north end for a couple of years and then we were going to branch out and go. But it just became so convenient. know, Mac didn't to take a bus to school. He can walk, you know, and it's it just got so convenient and so wonderful to be able to go down to the beach and walk around town and walk to the restaurants and stuff that we never left. Yeah. And then built our business in our backyard.

John (21:06)
Yeah, it's pretty handy having our business right behind us. our gas bill is really reasonable for our car

Host (21:13)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I don't see you driving very often.

John (21:16)
No,

I have a client that comes in from Peachland. She works in Kelowna. Comes in from Peachland and she, ⁓ she complains all the time about how much it cost her for gas back and forth every day. Yeah, it's pretty amazing. We even have a client that comes in from Armstrong.

Host (21:30)
Wow, can't, yeah.

Laurie (21:36)
Yeah, she was just in last week. She's been coming for years.

John (21:40)
it's good. we have lots of good clients, young and old. It's pretty amazing.

So I met Lori when she worked at the keg. Yeah. Back in the day, yep. Were you? Lori would, she worked for a dentist, but in the summertime she'd quit working for a dentist then work in a restaurant for the fun of it, eh? Yeah. that year she picked the keg and yeah, it's kind of how we met.

Host (21:48)
same when you were a waiter. Sorry. Yeah, how'd you meet?

Laurie (22:07)
That's how we met. We've been

together ever since.

Host (22:10)
You're

lying to each other.

John (22:12)
I was the bartender at that point and she was a cocktail waitress. yeah, it worked out good. And then we'd cash out and head to Tramps. Remember Tramps? Were you here then? ⁓ yeah. In the Capri Hotel.

Host (22:26)
And if I was probably just a young kid.

John (22:29)
You would have been, yeah.

Host (22:32)
What type

of place was Tramps though?

Laurie (22:33)
was a nightclub

dancing. was the place, you know?

John (22:38)
At the Capri Hotel, yeah. Right above CAPS, know where CAPS liquor store is? So it's the whole area up there. was. I don't know, maybe it's meeting rooms or something. don't know.

Host (22:40)
Yeah.

Restores

It's there now.

Was the Capri ⁓

John (22:58)
was totally happening.

Laurie (23:01)
The vintage

room in the hotel was the restaurant to go to. Beautiful. it's still there too.

Host (23:06)
Still got good food. I don't

know, is it all?

John (23:11)
Yeah, it must be because I don't think the vintage room's around anymore. Yeah, Pat Capozzi was a good guy. All the guys from Tramps would come to the keg.

Laurie (23:14)
Yeah.

John (23:23)
We'd feed them and we had a beautiful solid bar there so we'd slide them as much as we could. then when we'd go to the tramps, there'd always be a line up at the front door. We'd just go in through the back door. yeah. Man, it was just such an awesome time. Back in the day of the Kapozis, you don't hear that name anymore, do you? And they owned everything in town at the time.

Laurie (23:41)
Yeah, was a great time. Yeah.

Host (23:49)
⁓ I grew up with the Kaposi. Yeah, really really nice really nice girl Didn't realize how big a deal our last name was until I was a bit older. ⁓ they hope they hosted our They host or they I don't know her her parents hosted our gym class for an end-of-year Event yeah, and then we went in it was just this they had a tennis court

John (23:52)
he said it.

Laurie (23:53)
down.

John (23:57)
yeah, yeah, so...

Alright.

I

Host (24:18)
on their property and an indoor pool and they lived on this massive piece of land that I think went down to the beach. Like a resort. I'm like this is your house. Yeah.

John (24:18)
Right?

Yeah, I did.

Laurie (24:30)
Yeah.

John (24:31)
I it's

gone today, I'm not sure, but I don't think it's around. The Kaposies were a big name, big time. Herb Kaposi was the GM for the BC Lions. okay. Yeah, Laurie's dad used to fly for Tom Kaposi. He had his own plane, so Laurie's dad, being a pilot, would fly for him. Yeah.

Laurie (24:50)
Yeah, when I said that we retired, our family, he retired from the Air Force and so he was only 45 years old. And so he got a job flying as his private pilot for, I'm not sure there was four different brothers, but it was one of the Kaposi's anyway. You said Tom John? Tom, yeah. Yeah.

Host (25:11)
That's pretty cool.

Did he take you up when you were young? No, no. ⁓ That's what they say. Yeah. Yeah. Did anybody in your family follow the pilot footsteps?

Laurie (25:16)
No, no, you weren't allowed.

John (25:19)
strictly business anyways.

was a wild time. It was a good time. We were, we left a good time here in Kelowna.

Laurie (25:36)
Yeah, and we still are.

Kelowna is amazing. We love it. We love Kelowna.

John (25:42)
So yeah, Lori Anne's is busy, busy.

Host (25:45)
Until you retire, retire. You're going to go down to two days a week.

John (25:47)
Yeah,

don't know if that'll ever happen if we'll retire, retire I have lots of clients come in say, well, you're so lucky, you you've got something to do. My husband, he retired and he's got nothing to do. So it's pretty interesting. ⁓

Host (26:03)
And then we like those relationships going to

John (26:05)
Yep,

you bet. And we really enjoy it. Like I've got lots of wonderful ladies. Half of them helped raise Mack actually, because I had whine about Mack and they said, do this, do that. And yeah, so it's been a good experience. Yeah, lots of wonderful ladies, young and old. We had one here that ⁓ she's passed away now, but she worked for Hoover Realty. Do remember Hoover?

Host (26:31)
No.

John (26:32)
before

your time, Yeah. And she was the greatest realtor in town. Olivia was her name, I won't say her last name. Her son is actually a realtor now. And she had all the clients in Kelowna. And she would go and meet you at the airport on Christmas Eve if you were coming in to look at a house. Anyway, she came in one day and.

Her phone went off about seven times while I was doing a facial. And I said, Ollie, next time you come in, just shut your phone. This was in 2008, because the market was just hominid. I said, Ollie, next time you come in, shut your phone off and just go to sleep. Oh, OK. So she came in, shut her phone off, and she snored for over an hour. And when she woke up, went, oh, John, that's the best sleep I've had in years. Yeah.

she was a hustler. it's good.

Laurie (27:28)
business is good. That's good.

Host (27:30)
when you started your business, was before the internet.

Laurie (27:35)
Yes.

John (27:36)
Yeah, 2004.

I guess. Yeah. Yeah, we got to put a good website together. I got a guy across the lake and he did a really nice job for us. we haven't had to do much about it and we don't really do any advertising. Once in a while we'd throw a little piece in the Daily Courier. Yeah, but can't get any advertising out of it now because basically it's about four pages.

Host (27:40)
just start. ⁓

I missed the daily

Well, and it's turned to well, it's not the Daily Courier anymore. You know, they renamed it. really? Because it's not daily. It's only a couple of times a week. It's like the Courier or something like that. ⁓ Remember, the Capital News was the one that had all the advertisements. Yeah. And then the Daily Courier had very few. There's news now. They got to survive somehow, But I'm like, who sits down and reads this?

Laurie (28:06)
No one.

John (28:10)
Also.

Doesn't come out

yeah.

Nobody. used to, we used to deal and then they were, you know, where the UBCO building's going up, that's where they were.

Host (28:40)
I do not know where that's going.

John (28:42)
Right. So that was where they're off.

Host (28:45)
We love

downtown, we know all about the school.

John (28:49)
I hear they had a big pour there the other day, concrete big pour. So yeah, I guess it's going up.

Host (28:55)
I used to deliver papers for the courier. Yeah, when I was a kid, but my brothers and I, ⁓

You know, I can't remember what age I started. It was in elementary school I want to say around grade five give or take a year, right I think when I originally started I'd wake up and help my older brother I have two older brothers and a younger but my two older brothers had paper wrote and They had to be delivered before seven in the morning and it was seven days a week and the only day I think it was only Christmas Day that they didn't put out Wow paper

John (29:22)
it.

Host (29:31)
maybe Canada Day, but I think it was just Christmas. So you had to get up and they had to be delivered before seven. I learned a lot from that. Because when I got my little route, and it was a neighborhood route, you had to wake up and you had, whether it was minus 20, well was rarely minus 20, but minus 10, minus 15 or whatever it was, you had to get out there, get all these papers delivered. And there's always, there was always somebody if it was like seven oh one, they'd call in.

my paper wasn't delivered on time. There's always that somebody and then I learned that if I roller bladed I could do it a lot faster. I could sleep in an extra 15 minutes. Right. And

John (30:02)
Right?

Host (30:13)
you had to collect the money, right? So you had your little fanny pack and have all your change in there and then you'd go they had a people had a choice to pay the delivery person or go into the daily courier and the people you'd go collect every other week and like hole punch their card and punch your card make change and then you'd have to take that down to the courier to give them. ⁓ But I think back at that and I'm like I wish the kids had that at this age because

John (30:25)
Right?

Host (30:42)
you learn responsibility you learn like if you went away for the weekend every time every swim meet you'd have to find somebody who would wake up and deliver your papers for you and I think I only had 20 houses looking back it really was not that big of a deal but as a kid you're that's a lot it was a block a half

John (30:52)
Right?

Laurie (31:00)
It's a lot.

Host (31:03)
Yeah, yeah, the responsibility and you had a little pocket change. Right. And you could collect your money, you could save it and you learned to make change. And the other thing is, I can't imagine it in this day and age, letting your kid go out and roaming the neighborhood, going into people's homes to get their money for their paper. Yeah. I think back at some of the experiences I had, there were some interesting people.

John (31:23)
same.

Host (31:31)
that you met. And there were some very awkward scenarios. And as a kid, you learned how to deal with it. I thought it was really good. I'm how do get that experience in this day and age?

John (31:39)
Yeah, it's good for you.

Laurie (31:44)
Yeah. So, you know,

we shelter. So young.

John (31:48)
and no papers anymore, so no job for the kids. ⁓ it must be the capital news, because I do see somebody on the other side.

Host (31:56)
Yeah, that's a different ball game. I think they gotta deliver a lot. They get one or two hundred papers, don't they? But it's only once a week.

John (32:05)
Right,

yeah. We used to have a couple of beautiful little Filipino girls that lived up the street on the other side and one of them would do that side with the newspaper and one would do our side and you know in the front we have crocuses that come up in the spring so I'm doing a facial and I see this beautiful, they're beautiful little girls, And she's got her papers and she stops and she sees the crocuses on the ground.

And she picks one and turns around and her front window has got that film on it that makes it look like a mirror. So she picked a flower and she saw her face in the mirror and she stuck it in her ear. I wished I had a video of that. She was just a beautiful. ⁓ no, they just did a good job and they were nice little girls, nice family down the road. Yeah, so. They've moved on.

Host (32:49)
Did they race each other?

John (33:01)
pretty much like everything now, Yeah, you bet. We got two nice little girls that live here. And Logan and Rachel got two nice little girls that live up the street.

Host (33:04)
Yeah, you've seen the neighborhood change.

Yeah. It's nice to see so many kids in the neighborhood.

Laurie (33:16)
We're noticing more

and more. Yeah. Yeah, in this last year. More buggies being pushed around, more babies. A lot. A lot more. A lot Because there were like a few years there where you didn't see any of that.

Host (33:27)
Well,

when we first moved to the neighborhood, we were the only family. There was very few. There were very few. Now, everywhere you look, there's...

Laurie (33:37)
Little kids. It's great. I love hearing it. I love hearing it.

John (33:40)
And we love

hearing your little girls laughing out the backyard.

Host (33:43)
laughing.

Laurie (33:45)
They never fight.

John (33:49)
Oh they're laughing at how much fun. my goodness. Never forget this winter building that snow fort and all that was left a couple of days later was our yellow shovel lying on the ground.

Laurie (34:01)
She

Host (34:02)
It was like the next day at melt or when snow falls she finally got to play in the snow and then

John (34:07)
Yeah, that was good. Yeah,

they're nice little girls. It's nice to see that going on. New life in our neighborhood.

Host (34:13)
Yeah, no it really is.

Well, any other stories you got or interesting tidbits of love?

Laurie (34:22)
Well,

I think that's kind of a summation of general summation there for you,

Host (34:29)
Yeah.

John (34:31)
We do have a few, we can't probably say them on here.

Host (34:35)
Turn the mics off and then you can tell me.

John (34:40)
Yeah,

right. No, no life has been good here and our business has been good for us really good

Host (34:46)
Well, I appreciate you taking the time and it's so nice to get to know you better

John (34:48)
Yeah.

Yeah, and this is cool to see your little setup here. love it.

Host (34:54)
It's gotta start somewhere.

John (34:56)
Yeah,

Laurie (34:57)
You're going to be so good at this, You're going

John (34:59)
it's gonna be fun for you.

Laurie (35:00)
to be great. You have such a nice, mild-mannered personality. Just fine. You're just going to be wonderful.

Host (35:01)
Thank you.

I

⁓ I just love listening to people's stories.

Laurie (35:14)
Well that's the ticket isn't it? That you love what you're doing.

Host (35:17)
I'm, I, my whole life I've been, you're in school and you're around people and you go to university and I lived overseas for a few years and then being a teacher, you're just always around interesting people. you got your class and all their stories and their families and your colleagues and there's new, every year there's new people. And that was all I knew of life. And then when I went on,

Maternity leave and became a stay-at-home mom through the years your social circle Became very small And not only does it become very small you or I personally lost That connection of just meeting people. Mm-hmm. don't do social media Mm-hmm. I don't have I don't have that outlet and I and I and I didn't realize that was something I loved so much until all of a sudden it was gone

Laurie (35:53)
Yeah.

Right.

I'm like, get away from me.

Host (36:14)
really

miss learning about people and hearing their stories and their childhood and like you end up to the Arctic?

John (36:23)
Yeah, worked

in the Arctic for a couple of months.

Host (36:25)
Living and growing up in Europe and I can't imagine the vacations you had over there. Do you speak a different language?

Laurie (36:31)
Yeah, yeah. you pick Just a

little bit of French, but yeah. Because of the years? Yeah, but the years have gone by, so not using it, not as much. you lose it. Yeah, exactly.

Host (36:44)
Same with math facts. But yeah, so I think this is going to be pretty cool to just find out people's stories and then share them with the city and

Laurie (36:58)
Yeah.

John (36:59)
Next thing you know, you'll be going to the airport and interviewing people. Remember that guy on TV? He would interview people. No, it was...

Host (37:06)
You're going away?

Laurie (37:09)
yeah, what show was that from? It was like they'd be coming in and they'd be crying and hugging each other, families. And he'd just come randomly up to them and say, well, why are you crying? Where are you going? And then he'd learn all about He had a show and it was like...

John (37:21)
Where are you going?

Bye.

Laurie (37:27)
things that happened at the airport and what their stories were. And one was coming in and he was marrying this girl or he was leaving to go away for four years somewhere. ⁓ he would just randomly interview them at the airport about...

why they're coming and why they're going. it was fascinating because it was very, very short little 10 minutes is all he got out because the guy was jumping on a plane, right? So you'd only get this quick 10 minute thing. But it was all, it was very emotional because he'd interview the ones that were excited or crying or something big was going on in their life, right? So we wanted to know what it was. ⁓ Yeah.

Host (38:01)
in their lives.

when you think of that with an airport like that's just this little tiny window into that one person's life and then you look around, of life and you're like, my

John (38:18)
Yeah,

mom and dad would be hugging the daughter and he'd want to know where they're going and they're crying. Yeah, it's pretty cool.

Laurie (38:26)
So that's what you're gonna

be doing. You're getting into the weeds.

John (38:31)
Yeah, right.

Host (38:32)
I'm

Laurie (38:33)
Hopefully

we don't veer off so far. That's what I was worried about. We were going to be doing this with you. I hope I don't go into the weeds too far. know, because sometimes anybody that's telling a story and it goes on forever and you're going, my God, get to the point. I'm thinking, I hope I don't do that today.

Host (38:53)
That'd be such a good title for the podcast because it would be called The Weeds because I think the weeds are the most interesting part of the story. You into the details and it takes you somewhere totally off topic like that. Yeah, those are the interesting moments. know, that's the spice of the story.

Laurie (39:02)
The hole. Yeah.

the road less traveled.

Yeah.

Host (39:14)
I'll keep you apprised and updated.

John (39:18)
Thank you. So you got

lots of people lined up, ⁓ Good for you. you.

Host (39:23)
got a few.