Capturing the Soul of Naples: An Interview with Eileen Arsenault

Real vintage cottage, they were allowed to do that. In this town, there are no rules protecting historic houses, really. And it's very frustrating for the historical society because, they have to depend on people wanting to, it's really, they encourage and all that, but it's, it's, it's, the property values here are just too high too.

Get people to wanna hold on to something that they can sell and all of a sudden they'll get, a hundred times more than they paid for it, 20 years ago. Yeah. So, that kind of thing. I thought that area was preserved. I didn't know that was, they have a historic district, they try to make it look like, but there's so little left.

And that's one reason Paul and I are a little in quandary because we live in a very old house and we're trying to find someone who would buy it to preserve it needs to be raised. Like all of them we're all pretty low. Yeah. And we all got flooded and, with, Ian. Ian. Yeah. Yeah. That was, and that, and a lot of us are older who own them.

Yeah., we've been there, Paul and I've been there for, moved there as renters 43 years ago. Wow. And sort of patched together a partnership when we had a chance to buy it. And, but, many of the people who own old houses now. Don't wanna go through it again. Sure. Done. The post being thing done.

Yeah. That was it. Yeah. Yeah. And after so many years of having No, all those years, all those years, we got so spoiled. All those Wasn't that incredible. I know, like so many years and every year they'd say, oh, the surges, the surges. This what's surge.,? It's every time I What a surge was the hard way.

I'll tell you Ahow, that was something in all the years that we've been here. I know, I know. There's nothing like that. How'd you do the We were lucky. we were real lucky. We were, we're in a newer home on, Livingston, but even all the salons, which here, Even though the, the Bayfront, the park, the street way out there it was, was there were fish in it, so flood.

But it never came in into the flood. You're kidding it because you're up a little bit there. A little, just enough that it came right to the door. Wow. Never came in. Wow. Y'all are lucky. And then if the village was a mess, 'cause there were cars in the parking lot, cars in the canal, but they're the same thing.

We had nothing there. We got real lucky compared to what everybody else went through. My gosh. That was just so, now what about, don't y'all still have a place near food and thought, or, or is that no longer? No, nothing. Nothing in that area. Oh. Oh. Nothing over there. Nothing. Just these, this one here, what we used to be, at the original location was where Marissa's is third street.

Yeah, I remember y'all there. The original was, she took over that other side there. So we moved from there to above what was the upstairs pub? Upstairs? Yeah. Yeah, that's where I remember. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we were there for 10 and then, and then came over here, which was a big deal to leave that area.

'cause we had, dad had been there forever., he'd sit in that. Broad Avenue and third street corner, that corner building. Which Carlo Paterno, the, it's like the heart of town. Yeah. Yeah. And my father used to love, he would be there early in the morning. Were you on second? He was the corner. 12th first floor.

First. First floor, yeah. Floor. David Sexton, the lawyer was upstairs. Yeah. The Bason and King Bruce. D the accountant was the CPA. He was upstairs, in that same building. And, mark Chrisman, the men's clothing store. Uhhuh was on the, another chunk of that. Maia has it all now. And he would cut hair early in the morning, the window.

He would see everybody leaving from Port Royal going to work, Uhhuh coming, 'cause that's the way they had to go. And then he'd see them coming back at night 'cause he was still cutting in the window. He loved, he loved to cut hair. And he'd do it from morning till night and he'd see everybody out the window.

They'd beep and he'd wave at the window and then they would've beers. Whoever was there, they would've their Friday, every night they would've beers. Yeah., in the back room there, David Sexton would come down and Bruce d would come down and they'd have their little powwows, there for years, and that, but there was no restaurants really on the street, remember?

No. Third street was just kind of closed up in the summers. That's, you really did remember I have, I have ads that he had old, Naples Daily News ad that says Gone fishing. Yeah. It'd be closed for two weeks in the summer. Yeah. It just that he would go fishing and Yeah, just close the salon because it was nothing there.

No one here. Yeah. Everyone left. That's sort of, third Street was just, there was no reason to go there. No, no. There was nothing going on. No. He had a, there's a picture from, I think the Daily News, or maybe it was the Naples star at the time of. When we lived in Vanderbilt. 'cause Vanderbilt in 1977 was like almost being in Fort Myers compared to down here.

It was like way out. Anything north of Pine Ridge Road was like you were going to distant land. Exactly. There's a picture of him going to work and he's in a little mg, a convertible MG on the corner of Vanderbilt and 41 and there's nothing, nothing. There's just that sign that says Vanderbilt Inn this way.

You know? Oh, where the old Ramada was and, of course it was just Pelican Bay. Nothing was there. Oh, no, no. There's a good picture that, the United Arts people, I think are using, it's a picture of Debbie Clemente, who started United Arts With Myra. Omaira in front of a car with the sign that says, coming Soon Philharmonic.

Yeah. And it's like you said the Phil, there's nothing in Pelican Bay. Nothing. No. It was just, and we remember that, don't we? Yeah, yeah. Oh, and it's so grown in now. It's, yeah. You've seen it all. You've seen everything and right around you too. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, even when the Plaza was built in 90 or whatever that was, the plaza was built there.

Yeah. Right in front of you guys. I remember when I moved across, 'cause, I moved there in 1982 in the house and across the street where the plaza is now, there was this beautiful hedge of Australian pines to just shaded the street. It was so nice. And then I remember coming home one day. From work and they were just, they like cut off at the waist.

It was so like what in the world? Yeah. And then of course it took them a few more, a year or two to kind of clear the rest of the land. And so there was, I don't remember. There was nothing there where the plaza was or was there a home or anything? No, there was there just the little cottages that faced abroad that used to be the tennis shop and all that.

Those were there on that strip Uhhuh when Paul got here, the barracks were still there, but they were gone by the time I got here. So he got here in the seventies. I got here in 82, so that, barracks were part of the, original hotel, but they were the last things to tear down. So he remembers those, but they were gone.

So yeah, when I got there, there was just a field with trees, one big tree and yeah., and then the plaza and, then they finally got rid of that after. Yeah. Yeah. That was like a ghost town for a long time. It ended up being, nothing was starting to be vandalized and Yeah. I could see, I remember walking around and thinking, this is Naples going up, kind of creepy.

It was the way things were growing in and it just looked, oh. And people were using, graffiti and getting, kind of breaking the windows. It was getting, I think the city finally made them tear it down. Yeah., and they gave them permission to build this. I can't imagine what it's like for you.

'cause every day you look out at these Well, and I hear it, cranes. Yeah. It's still loud. yeah, it's, it's, gonna be, you know what it is. It'll be a big hotel, you mean? Yeah. So, well, when we were there, it was a year ago, I think when we went there. Oh yeah. To, to visit. Yeah. To, to go on site and take some pictures.

Yeah. And just to look around this little area there, there was a lot going on big trucks. Oh, they work a lot. I mean, especially in the beginning. I think now I don't see as many people, but they were sun up to sundown, they really are getting it done. And I hear that it'll be ready for business by the end of January.

I don't, who knows? Oh, really? They're that close. I haven't been there in a while. What they say? I don't think I've been there since we were there. Oh gosh. Down there. It's been a while. Yeah. It's, the color is in the, I mean, it looks kind of half, it looks more than half finished on our side. Okay.

And then the broad side still looks kind of messed up, but, they're working, they're working a lot. Yeah. And I think they've probably feel like they got through hurricane season and, that must have been a panic to for everybody. But are they, is it still underground parking there or what did they leave that there?

It's still underground parking. It's Oh, okay. And, Yeah, they're, Paul and I went to the meetings and basically they're letting people come in off broad. It's only valet, so they're gonna have valet underneath. And then the service, some of the service trucks are gonna be right across from us where they are gonna have to go pick up laundry.

And I don't On sec, is that second on? Second on, yeah, it's Gordon, it changes from second to Gordon at broad. So I think that's gonna be kind of loud. 'cause they're gonna be doing the beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. Backing up. That's where they're gonna do the Laundry service, food, all the rest of right in front of you.

Yeah. I don't know if the food, I think there's, I know they said the laundry and the get trash maybe, but they said, oh, we have this fancy trash composed that we're gonna not have to pick up every day. Or I think the beeping rabbit. Yeah. All that. Yeah. Yeah. You know what? Elon Musk had come on and he was talking about

These electric trucks that he has that he was saying not only the benefit of it being electric, but for things like that, for the noise that they make when they're going to residential areas. But won't they still need to make 'em? 'cause that's a safety thing, isn't it? With what, with beep, beep, beep. So let people know.

Yeah. There might still be that I would assume, but, but the, just the, the diesel engine that just is rumbling all the time. Yeah, you're right. The beeping. Yeah. You're gonna have to hear that backup you. That's right. Hear Yeah. Yeah. That's a part of it. Yeah. Just, I think when I go to New York, I don't know how people live like that.

I know. I guess they just get used to that constant. I think you must, yeah. Do you get to New York much? No. Yeah. No, I haven't been in years. Yeah. I went, my wife had a business trip up there and I'm from Philadelphia, but I went, I would go with her to, to visit. And, I meet so many people. We meet so many people who are from there, of course they've escaped New York and now they're just happy to be outta there.

But it used to be nice to visit, for restaurants and things, but I don't have a, we got all those restaurants here now. We do's. I know. There's no reason to go there., like I don't have anything burning desire to go back. I feel bad. I was, I was sharing a story about a business up there that really, I don't know.

It, I had a lot of empathy and hurt my heart for these hardworking business people. They own a dairy queen. They own a Dairy Queen franchise in New York, and they had been paying, their staff. The whatever wage they chose, it was beyond minimum wage for years. But they were paying them biweekly, which is how most businesses pay.

Yeah. Yeah. It's how most of the payroll companies are set up to pay everybody biweekly. They add the hours up, give the total sprint, the paychecks. So they'd done this for years. Well, somebody in New York found an old law from the sweatshop days in the twenties where they had a law that was, if you worked in a sweat shop, you had to be paid weekly.

This is if you worked in a sweatshop, a shop, that they were worried about the conditions. Well, they, they allowed New York to use this law to prosecute these business owners at a Dairy Queen in not 2025 to say, you owe all this back bad pay, which came to like $6 million. Some crazy number. it wasn't that they owed bad pay, but the penalties that they had to pay and the interest that they had to pay because they didn't pay weekly.

'cause they were classifying Dairy Queen as a sweatshop and they got away with it absurd. They, they actually had to pay the, whatever this number was. and who got most of the money? Wasn't the employees. Employees maybe got $50 each. Who used to work there. The lawyers, it was, they, they all the lawyers who got to sue and, the settlement and all the rest of that.

The lawyers pocketed most of the money outta the whole thing. Oh. This is why their lawyer jokes. Yeah. Right. It is. Right. Yeah. It just a very business unfriendly thing. Oh, it's a shame of Dairy Queen couldn't afford to hire their own lawyer. 'cause that seems so wrong. It is. It's so, it is. And these girls, as a franchisee, they didn't have the resources to fight, which it really is, is archaic.

It's like, what are you doing? You working, coming Seriously. You can't compare a dairy queen to a sweat shop. You can't, you can't. And all they're good work, hardworking people take care of their employees. I'm glad to have a job. Exactly. They're employing people. They're helping the tax base and helping the community and no, that's kind of sucks, making people happy with ice cream.

Yeah. Just Yeah. Makes you crazy. Yeah. Yeah. Just makes me appreciate where we are. Yeah., we have our own set of issues, but it's not like, what they, they have up there. So I don't have that design. I'm happy my father moved us out of there many, many years ago and took us to Paradise. I mean, we, yeah.

Were you very young when y'all moved here? Yeah, we, I was 12. We, I was in Philadelphia until I was 12 and we moved here in 77. So, at the time it was like a dream. Anybody leaving the city, my father was, my father and mother both grew up in little Italian neighborhoods in West Philadelphia, and it was a big deal for them to even leave the city.

We lived in the suburb, which was only three miles, but it was far away from Grm and Pop's house. Enough that Oh, wow. They're left the city at the time. But then when he wanted to move here as a pioneer as he was, he wanted to, I was gonna say, how did he even know about this place? Did he have a friend?

Didn't, he just knew Florida. He wanted to be in Florida. He wanted to fish and hunt and he loved the sun. And he just wanted to live in Florida. We didn't know where we were gonna go. We just. Got in the car, went literally, literally made us sell everything we own. 'cause we packed up and moved into, we lived in a motor home, a 30 foot motor home.

And it was just, we're just gonna go on this adventure for the summer. We sold the house there and had to, I had accumulated whatever you have as a 12-year-old, you gotta sell it all. We had garage sale to sell everything we had except for some clothes. And we're headed to Florida. So we lived in, up, we drove up and down.

He loved the keys. He really wanted to be in the keys, 'cause the fishing. And so we stayed at, in long key outdoor resorts. At the time it was, we lived, we stayed there for a month. It was like heaven as a kid. Oh God. I imagine it's beautiful. I mean the fishing, the lobstering, the sun, the pool, the kids, was it just the three of you or did you siblings?

It was mom, dad, my two sisters. Your two sisters, okay. a dog and a cat. Moose and Abigail. Okay. In this 30 foot motor home. And we didn't know where we were gonna live and my mother was saying. We have to find a spot. School's coming up, we gotta get him in school, where are we gonna go? He was arguing for the Keys and she said, absolutely.

I'm not raising my kid in the Keys, my kid's in the Keys. So we drove up and down the coast, we had Sara, we were on always on the west coast. We had friends on the East coast, but he liked the West Coast. It was untouched. And somehow we found Caribbean Trailer Park in North Naples, which is still there.

God. And they didn't even allow motor vehicles, motor homes, but they got, got them to make an exception so we could park the motor home. 'cause we needed to go into school, registered for school. So they let them park the motor homes. So we weren't in some park that was way out. so we lived there until they found a house.

But we started school at Pine Ridge Middle School in, Naples Park Elementary and, for my sister. And that, that was how we picked it. I think it was just running outta time. And they found a spot they could stay. And luckily we, it was Naples and, we were, it, Which I feel, lucky that we did it is That's a great journey.

God. Yeah. Yeah. It was, it was a lot of fun. I mean, it was, I didn't have to worry about what they had to worry about. He was running outta money. It wasn't like they had any money, lot money. They had to find a house. Had to find a house, and had to find a job to go to work. And did he ride away, start a salon or did he know he didn't want a salon?

He wanted, he wanted to be able to leave at five and go fishing, Uhhuh and stuff. Uhhuh. So he, so he worked, in, in, a couple salons. A headmaster was one of them. That was where his name came from. 'cause there were two, there was Bob Green and Bob Del, Robert Del. There were two Bobs there, Uhhuh that caught hair.

But the other guy was from Ohio. Okay. And dad was from Philadelphia. So when people call, they would say, I wanna get my hair cut by Robert or Bob. And they'd say, which one? Robert of Philadelphia. Phil The Philly one. The Phil of Philadelphia. So that's where his, the name kind of came from. So when it came time, I dunno if you remember Eva Kovac.

Oh yeah. I mean I know of her 'cause Paul has talked about her and I have a, the picture of her on the cover of some Beau magazine. Yes. With her, yes. Hungarian beautiful, beautiful model and her face facial structure. Yes. I know about her, but I never met her. Yeah. She came to town and was opening up, Eva Cox Beauty in Purim, which is a modeling and hair and skin and this whole thing, which was, which was a new concept at the time.

I think Elizabeth Arden had had, something similar in la. But Eva came here to do that. So she wanted him to run the hair. Department. So he went to work with her Oh, at the Camargo house Okay. Was where Eva Kova was. Which is still there, right. Downtown. Yeah. Yep. and they worked together and then, he still didn't wanna open a place, but they had some, there were some business problems there.

Like FPL was showing up saying the bill hasn't been paid. So he was having to take the money outta the drawer to pay them. 'cause he wasn't running the business side of it, but he could see the handwriting on the wall. Yeah. That it wasn't being run right. So he knew that was gonna close. So that's when they met Carlo Paterno.

Okay. My mother and he, were just looking for a place for him to cut hair. 'cause he had didn't have anywhere to go. He knew this was gonna close and they went to Carlo and said, we'd like to use your space and open a salon, but we don't have money to open a place. and Carlo handed them a blank check and said, go ahead and build it out.

Do what you need to do and pay me when you can. Oh my. On a handshake. That doesn't happen much. No. Three page lease was not like the 80 page, oh God. 10 lawyer things you got now. Oh. And, I think Carlo had a, had a thing for my mom. Yeah. So he liked her. Oh, old Italian man. Yeah. What a great story though.

Yeah. Yeah. It was, it gave them the opportunity to, because I remember my mom was answering the phone on the floor. They didn't have a desk. They had a little card table and just had a place for him to cut hair. And was How much of the space did he have there? Just a little, well, they had that corn.

They had the east, the northeast. The northeast corner. The northeast corner. Yeah. Yeah, because Mar Mark Christmas was directly next door then Marissa's. So it was like that, just that corner. And they had expanded afterwards, but that was the. The window. He wanted that window. Oh, that's a great window. Carlo getting that window.

Yeah, yeah., that's like, Billy Van Dale told me his daddy. Bill. Van. There's another name. Yeah. Van Dale. I, well the book we're working on that Paul probably told you, we're almost published. It's at the printer, write the Spin and which is the name is and Artful History of Naples and Collier County.

How special is that? It's gonna be very special. I brought sort of the mock up, but it doesn't look like it's gonna look. I mean, it's gonna be really pretty, but, I wanted to, the way we approached it's not chronological, which it's gonna make people crazy 'cause I can't even find my way through it after working on it for four years.

Yeah. But we went by activity. So like the sec, there's four sections. First section is hunters and Harvesters. The second section is traders and Trailblazers. The, and so it'll go like, hunters and harvesters will go from the Calusa Indians all the way up to like a moley food, farmers? Yeah. Because it's hunters and harvesters.

Yeah. So it's not broken into 19, 20, 30, 40. Yeah. So it is a little disjointed, but, the part, the third part is Neapolitans and cosmopolitans and I can't even remember John van Dale. He's in the traders and trailblazers 'cause, Yeah. He started all that. Yeah. But, but Billy told me that the way they, when he got started, he was so hands-on, probably like your father.

And he kept the phone for PBA next to his bed. And people would call them at like one in the morning and say, my bags didn't make it. And he would get dressed. I mean, my, he was so involved. Yeah. And I just don't think that ethic, you don't feel that as much anymore. Yeah. Well, what a, what a. what a blast from the past to hear, the Van Dale name and PBA airlines.

Yeah. Which was the air, which was their airline. It was how we got here. Yeah. He flew. Yeah., the Van Dale family, right? It was, it was also in the Northeast. Yes. It started out as a commuter airline for, it was Provincetown, Boston, PBD. And so he just, it was in Provincetown. Was it really? Yeah. Billy grew up in Provincetown.

Oh my gosh. Oh, he has great stories and memories of that. Wow. Yeah. Billy is exactly your age. Oh, is he really? Yes. Okay. Oh wow. So, yeah, he, and then when his father's like, well, what since does it make to have, there's no business in the winter. Where am I gonna take all these planes? Right. And so he kind of figured, came to Naples, I can't remember how, but he, the guy who had the lease at the Naples airport, joined forces.

He joined forces with him. And then when that lease expired. the city had to find another lease and there were a lot of people applying for it. And John put his name in Van Dale, but he thought, well, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not this, this, this, and this. But, he was on a plane getting ready to go somewhere and they called and said, you've got the lease.

So he's like, all, so he moved all these DC threes down here and Oh, that's what they were. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, it, he was a quite a, he was a great pilot and a really good businessman. So he was also a pilot. I didn't realize that. I didn't realize, but, doing the homework for this book, Lila Zoo who did that giant history in Naples, that green book that's a thousand pages long did a really good story about his credentials.

And I mean, I can't remember 'em now 'cause I did their homework so long ago. But yeah, it was very impressive. He had such, he was a truly, a narrow, I mean, big long thing. But he had all his kids became pilot. I mean, they all knew how to fly, I think. Yeah., was so instrumental in having Naples be put on the map.

'cause they, it gave a. People a way to get here directly here to Right. To Naples. Exactly. That was such a big deal. I know that. And that I've always hated, I mean though I know the Naples airport's very controversial right now and always seems to be, but I always tried to get, it's like, can't we get a little jumper flight again?

Why can't, yeah. You remember that wasn't that great. Oh my gosh. And when Paul was working in Key West, a few times he would drive down and I was still working. So I would catch the five o'clock or five 20 flight from Key West here to Key West for $50. Yeah. A lot of times I would be the only person on the plane.

So it was kinda like my private plane. Yeah. Yeah. And then I would come back at eight in the morning on Monday. I would like. Yeah. You, wasn't nice. Yeah. Like a 30 minute flight, 45 minute flight or whatever was Yeah. And beautiful over the Gulf. Oh gosh. Whole way. What? Yeah. Yeah. Oh wow. So, and then also to fly to New Orleans, fly to Tampa, fly.

It just was nice. Yeah, it was great when we had flights like that. I remember that. I know. Yeah. So I didn't realize he was the pioneer that way. I didn't know he was a pilot and just 'cause there was also Peter Nars though, right? Yes. Yes. Is that brother, son? He had son, four children, and, the two boys were sort of took over the business Okay.

After he retired. And, John has passed. Peter is living here, I think again. And, the sister lives. Up north. She moved out to be with her, grandkids and kids and stuff. Yeah. And Billy is sort of a, a, a world, explorer right now. Yeah., he's living, does he have a home base here or just from, he has a home base here.

I think, he's got a, someone living there, but he's in Mexico right now. Okay. One of those expat places that, a lot of people are moving. Yeah. So, yeah. True. Pioneer of the day. Yeah. The Van R stuff, because I think one of them was involved with visitors television. Bt that was Billy. Yeah. Was it really?

Yes. Oh yeah. Wow. Yes. And he and Paul did a couple of trips down to the islands together. He had, he, he did a lot of interesting things, so, Paul would fly with them down there? I think so, yeah. Yeah. And then they would do, because Paul knew the islands very well. Yeah. And visitors television did a whole thing on the Caribbean and, he'd go to like, and Paul loves Dominica, so that was sort of the Dominica and then whatever other islands Billy wanted to do, if Paul was helpful, he would bring them with them.

Yeah., I'd love to get a hold of those old videos. I still, I think we have, what do you call that, Zach? I'll know the, when you're in a box like that. Like A-D-V-H-S or data? Data, yeah. Something like, I mean, I wouldn't know what to do with them, but you kind of have a hard time throwing 'em away.

Yeah. 'cause they do have fun things, but there must be some way to translate 'em. Yeah. Yeah. There's this, I actually had some, my father had 'em. They were, 'cause he did some, segments on visitors television. So we had some, some old eighties uhhuh. Ads, I guess they were, or infomercials is kind of how they did it that style

Of visitor television from the, from that era. In fact, one of them, yeah, one of them might be, we might have it on YouTube, but I had, had, had them converted so digitally so we could put them on online Oh, great. And on YouTube to see them. But, so there's a way to do that. But if you ever, if we find 'em, we're going through piles of, attics and everything because we're thinking we're selling our place.

And so, we gotta. Kind of purge a lot. Yeah. So if we come across them, I'll bring them in. Yeah, please. I'll, I'll, I'll, we'll have them converted and come back to you, but at least get 'em digitally converted so we have a copy. Okay. Yeah. I'm sure there's, I don't even know what format in there is.

It is exactly. I just know there's a little box of them, that say visitors television. How great is that? Oh my gosh. I love seeing that. Yeah. Because they have all the original St. George and the Dragon, all the, oh, and now that was a great restaurant. Yeah. Yeah. That was, I was, I didn't go often, but I just loved, it was everything now in restaurant world, here is all, eat outside, go, it's so, we wanna be seeing everybody and

Going into that place though. Yeah. It was like a magic land. Yeah. I mean, it just. There's so many nooks and crannies and all this great artifacts and yeah. I just thought that was the coolest place. It was special. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We used to go there in the pewter mug when, yeah, which was way north can at the time, but and it's further north now.

Yeah. Further. Yeah. They're still there, but yeah. Yeah. So one of the ads that we have from that visitor television days is of the pewter muggers and that big salad bar they always had, and, those, but that's the one I remember. Oh, and who was just in the other day was, Tony, Tony Ridgeway.

Oh, good. You did him? Yeah. Well he we're trying to get him on. Yeah, we haven't had him on yet. He, Lisa cuts his hair. Oh, okay. And, he's been coming forever and, we, he was just here last week and Oh, that's funny. We're bugging him to get him on here 'cause he's one of the other legends. Who Have you done, Marissa?

No, but she would be great. She would be, she would be great. Yeah. We gotta get Marisa on here. Yeah. That's a natural one that we should have. Yeah. Because she's been here just as long. She definitely has. And, talk about self-made,. Yeah. So, yeah, she stuck it out through all the chains and everything and she's, yeah.

She did a heck of a job and that took something And I guess Jay, her son is doing well. He's doing real well. Yeah. Well, yeah. So, it was a nice article recently I saw about him. That's right. Yeah. I saw him on the covers one of the glossies. Yeah. So that's another great one. Yeah. We, but Tony, I was, I was bugging him about, 'cause I remember the, chef's garden and truffles, the restaurants.

Yes. Their original restaurants chef have to go to. Have you been to the new bookstore? Somebody was just telling me about that. I haven't Tell me about that. It's fabulous. Second floor down there, I think Second floor where truffles was Oh, okay. Right there. Yeah, right there. And it's, some young gals, I mean, young compared to me, they're, they're, young mothers and, they just love books and they have done.

A incredible job. I've, I've been in four times and really, it's just a very full service bookstore and they're delightful people. And the vibe in there is so good because I think people are hungry for a place like that. Yeah, yeah., it was like a coffee shop too, or they, no. 'cause they have Tony's right down.

Oh, right, right, right., I'm sure they'll do work. In fact, we're hoping to have a book signing, there. Oh, great. Yeah. And, but it's just a real breath of fresh air for Yeah. For down there, and the pub closed. I know., I know. Another staple down there. Yeah. So it's really, it's been great to have, and I think they're gonna do fine.

I mean, everyone orders on that, on the internet. Now a lot of times people do that, but I think people want to support. Yeah. Well, especially books. I love bookstores. I get get lost in You gotta go. It's, you're gonna love it. Yeah. Yeah. My wife had mentioned it. I think she saw it on TikTok actually, is where she saw it.

Yeah. Well they're that generation that it served and some, influencer will Yeah. Pick it up. Good. Yeah. Hope get, get the word out there about, I gotta get over there. I didn't Yeah, because I think a long time ago there might have been a bookstore there, there was, right. There's two sisters, I think.

Yeah. And it didn't seem like it lasted more than, I don't know, five years or something. Yeah, I thought so. And I thought that's what my wife was talking about, but I hadn't been there in a while. No, it's been kind of empty for, I don't think anything's been there, but they're open till seven, 10 to seven and, I think Sunday's till five.

So they're really going, they're putting their, all their energy and time into it and did a beautiful job setting it up. I'm just, I just love going in it. Yeah., I gotta go down there. Yeah. And it's gives me a reason that. Stopping it to Bridgeway would go bug Tony here. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

I gotta get on him and Suki too. Yeah. Yeah. The two of them, because Su Yeah. Suki comes too. We gotta get Suki on here too. But yeah, we're getting some good ones to get a hold of the Van Dales and boy Lanie. I would love to get a hold of him. Oh, good. Well, you know what? If he comes to town, I can't, I can't, I haven't talked to him in a little while, but, he would definitely be a good one.

Gosh, what a, what a neat thing that would be to get him on here. Yeah. Just a, he's such a, especially you played at your wedding, it sounds like. Yeah. Yeah, he did. He, I got old from 1990 video of those guys jamming. They were good too. Wasn't at the beach club? Where'd y'all do? No, we didn't have it there. We couldn't afford, we had to pay for it, so, yeah.

My first wife and I had to pay for that. And it was at the, somewhere out East Uhhuh, but there weren't many places you could go, but there was somewhere out east that we went and they, they rocked it. I mean, I. Yeah. They, it was a party. Yeah. It was a really, they really Oh, that's so cool. Did a great show.

I'll never forget that, that band though, they were, I was so disappointed when they weren't playing together anymore,? 'cause they were Yeah, yeah. Minero was a photographer. Right. That Minero was, that's what he did, right? Yeah. He had a place on fifth when I met him. He was on Fifth Avenue. It was a real good photo.

He was the one, he was the known name. He was, he did all of the shoots for the Yeah. Magazines and all that. Yeah. And, when, when I moved here, I really knew nobody. I had two names. People gave me when, oh, if you're moving to Naples, look somebody up. Yeah. And that's how I looked up. Andy McClennan and his mother, was there.

And so I got to know her. But when Andy came to town, finally, he said, oh. we got to, we hit it off and he, I said, I'm doing a swim athon. Do, any businesses that would sponsor me? And he said, well, go ask Bill. And so I just walked in cold,? Yeah. And I said, yeah. Andy said to him, I don't, and he did, which I thought was so sweet.

Yeah. Is like a completely unknown person. And I'm like, 10 cents a lap or whatever it was. I don't know, dollar. But, but I've always, he, I always had a soft spot for him. He was a really good guy. Yeah. Good soul. Yeah. Yeah. I know another one, but, well, how did you get here? I had met, a English couple in where.

Well, I didn't meet 'em talking to England, but they came to Louisiana because they dealt in antique prints and maps that were And that's where you were? I was in Baton Rouge. Okay. And I have a, relative who I think is more a third cousin, but he was, 80 when I was 30 kind of thing. But a real interesting man who, owned the original plantation that his family had in Baton Rouge back when there were plantations and he never sold it.

Never divided it. To this day, if you drive from New Orleans to Baton Rouge, you will pass what's called, the Rural Life Museum. So he ended up, didn't have kids, didn't marry, he ended up taking, this is a real segue, but it's a good story. He would, when they tore down plantation homes along the river, which they did so they could build.

Horrible petrochemical, they now call it Cancer Alley instead of Plantation Alley. Yeah. But he would take the co the, like the Overseer's house or the church or just the little outbuildings, not the giant plantation homes. 'cause that was a, but he would move the little houses to his property sometimes without permission.

He'd just go grab 'em. 'cause he knew they were gonna tear 'em down. Yeah, yeah. And so he ended up with this Rural Life museum and he ended up, leaving it to LSU and so now it's, Windrush Plantation slash Rural Life Museum. Anyway, I didn't know him. I went and just introduced myself once and he was pretty shy, he, to some kid coming out out of nowhere.

And but we had a couple of visits and he told me about this couple from England that Delta Antique Prince and Maps. And I said, I'd love to meet them. And he said, okay, well next time they're here. But he gave me their address. And this is before, email, fax, anything. You had to write a letter.

Yeah, yeah. So I wrote them a letter and said, I'm gonna be in England, around this time. Could I look you up?, I just wanna meet you. And I gave him the, I was staying with a girlfriend in London's house and they had a hall phone and she told me the night or so, anyway, they called me, which I was kinda shocked 'cause it, I'd written the letter so long ago.

I forgot. Yeah, almost. I was just on having this great London adventure and they invited me out to their house and I took a train out to their house, which is west of London and. It was so sweet. It was like this father, mother and father who were, he was the brains of the business and a daughter and a son.

And the son was, very, very, academic and very knew all the stories of the maps. And the daughter was a colorist, it was just a very dickens kind of feeling. And anyway, they had bought a place in Marco because they had so much business in America. They wanted a base here. And they had kind of done their homework.

They didn't want New England too cold. They loved being able to go just straight across Atlantic. So Florida made sense. Didn't want Miami. Picked Marco. So anyway, during the course of our dinner, it turns out they needed someone to run the American business. They didn't have any Americans. Well, I volunteered, having zero experience.

But, I thought, well, I can learn,? Yeah. So anyway, he said, okay, well come tomorrow to London and let's really talk. So I did, and it, they offered me a job and that was in November. And then they said, come in January when we're there and we'll show you the lay of the land. And so came, they brought me to the warehouses.

Which was on Marco or was there? No, they had brought, they had, they were smart. They bought two warehouses in the industrial district bottom, which was brilliant.,? Yeah, sure. These days they're worth, right. So anyway, they said You can live in Marco or you can live in Naples. And I kind of looked around Marco and went, well, let's go look at Naples,?

Yeah. And Marco was really, I just didn't get Marco remote. Right. It was just to built up and, and so I found it was in that day it was built. It was, yeah. Yeah. And they had a wonderful place at Ship's landing, which is like the last one as far as you can go. Okay. And it was sort of being, it was like phase one they were in.

They hadn't even finished building it. But, anyway, I was, I found a little rental on Palm Circle, a little cottage behind someone's house. Where is that? Palm Circle is near the hospital, kind of, back fourth Avenue. Yeah.,. And it's a great little spot. I loved it. Anyway, so, so that's where I moved in the next month.

And, that was 82. That was 82. Okay. But it was very difficult because, socially my job was not in an office. I just would go to this warehouse every day and I was 30 and everyone was like a hundred, it felt like, yeah, yeah., and the warehouse was where out, not industrial district.

Okay., like off of PO progress and Oh, yeah, yeah. Out that way. Yeah. That's been that way for a long time. It, yeah. Yeah. And so, but everything stopped at airport right then, then that was the end. And, but it was great. I could ride my bike, go to the swim in the morning. I mean, it was, a lot to love about it.

Yeah. But I remember my mother came to visit in May, I guess, and, she. She said, this is really a pretty place I've been here three months. She goes, but you don't have any friends. And I'm like, well, I'm not really missing them. I've had a very social life in Baton Rouge. I was kind of ready to get a break, but, but it was funny because she, was having eye issues and I had met one, another friend of Andy's who, had, he was kinda a friend, but we weren't, we didn't see much of each other, but he introduced me to the, what was it called?

The white No, the thirsty. What was the White House? The. A thrift store for the hospital. Oh, the white elephant. White elephant, yes. So we would do that about once every three weeks. He, we'd go to the white elephant and he told me about an acupuncturist in town who had helped him with something. So Mama, I said, why don't we go to an acupuncturist for your eyes, knowing nothing about acupuncture, eyes problems.

But she was so trusting. I mean, we went and it was talked to Kurt Chris. Did you ever remember him? Yes. Oh yeah. Okay. Of course. Yeah. I went to school with his son. Okay. Yeah. Well, he was a character,? Yeah. And, we walked into his office the first time and I admired a painting and I said, I love that painting.

And he goes, oh, it's a friend of mine. So they asked forward a couple of visits and mama's like, I'm stick, I don't like getting stuck about needles anymore. But by then we had had this really fun interaction with Kurt Christ and his wife and his mother. They all were working there. And he invited me. He said, I'm having a go on away party for that artist you like.

And I said, oh. And he goes, you're both invited. And it was a daytime party. And so it was a Sunday, and, mama didn't wanna go. So I said, well, I got mama. It's the first thing I've been invited to. I'm, I'm going. And as you pointed out, I don't have any friends. So, so anyway, I walk in at like 11 o'clock and his wife is, I swear to God in curlers, beating the dip and saying, I wish you'd tell me when you're inviting people.

And I was like, Ooh. And I'm in my party dress, ready to have a little time. So I stayed for a couple hours, had a great time, and, for God, it was for a, an hour. I didn't, I was a party, I was like, that's what I, and I truly forgot it was for somebody. And I actually, actually thought it would be an old man anyway.

'cause, the doctor was a little older. Terl. Turns out I'm walking to my car. Paul pulls up and gets outta his car. With another woman and she kind of, they do this, so we just have this very brief chat. And it was just funny. It was it was like, I. Five minutes, but we had all this stuff in common.

There's so much stuff in this. The first time you had seen The first time we met. Yeah. And, we had so much in common that apparently I carded him because I didn't believe we had the same birthday after being told we had the same, this, this, this. But anyway, back then you didn't, I didn't give him a number.

He didn't give me a number. I, it was no emails. It was no nothing. Yeah. It was just like, hi, bye. See you later. Yeah. And, I kind of knew that he, he lived off North Lake and, I knew he was an artist and I knew he was from New England. That was, but, it wasn't until that, crazy night with the plane crash that we saw each other again, which was six months later.

Oh my gosh. So I guess I thought it was a small enough town that you'd run into each other. But I don't, I don't think we would've. I mean, it was just, there was. I think people had their friends and you hung out with them. And if you weren't in that little friendship group Yeah., you didn't see people.

So it, it was shocking to me that I met my husband here because I just didn't see that potential for Yeah, yeah., and I was kind of old anyway for getting married. I think everyone had given up on me by then, so. Well, the, in the times of people getting married, like outta high school almost,?

Exactly. That was the thing to do like right away. Yeah. So. Totally. Yeah. Yeah. So, I think just, but, and here you are in Naples where it didn't seem like there were a lot of eligible bachelors anyway at the time. Especially still people say that about Naples. Well, I have, like you say, I have so many wonderful women friends that, I wish I could find somebody, but, yeah, I don't know where they are.

They, if they are the bookstore, the book, that's the place. Yeah. That's where would tell people they hang out, go to the store. I think that's where Mitch, Hmm. If he didn't meet one of our guests over the course of the year who I got, had the privilege of meeting and interviewing, who's newer in town, probably last 10 or 15 years.

Which is newer now. Yes. I don't know if he met, he might have met her there, I think. I think we talked about his meeting story just reminded me it wasn't a bookstore. That was, it was a coffee show. It was badass. His badass coffee still downtown. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. That's where it was. I'm pretty sure that's where they, if I have this wrong Mitch, you'll have to let me know, but I think they met there if they didn't.

That's sort of his hangout where he meets people. That is a good place to meet people actually.,? But so many people are on devices now. It's hard. Exactly. 'cause you feel like you're interrupting if you say anything,? Yeah, I know. But yeah. Yeah. We were talking about how we teach the younger generation of people that we hire

Just to be able to communicate, like without texting to somebody, they, that's their form of communication, but being able to talk to people is, is a new skill now,? Oh my gosh. I mean, you remember, one of the saddest things I saw was like a, a bunch of people at a wedding and, when you have a wedding, you invite your friends from everywhere.

Yeah. And your bridesmaids and don't know the bride., you get, that's where you get to know them and everyone's sitting there like next to each other, but not talking to each other. Yeah. Even out on dates, they're still there. Yeah. The other day we were doing these new luxury services that we call them.

We're, we're implementing them and throughout the business, and I experienced one of the luck services, which was this, it's called a hair repair, treatment, which I know I don't have any hair. They were hoping that it'll repair my brain, I guess. Anyways, it's like a, it's like a scalp massage and a

These, these, these gloves on with these moisturizer and warm gloves and they were massaging my hands and massaging my neck and, but I had to take my glasses off and put the phone away. Yeah. And just to be away from the phone for 10 minutes was such a treat. Yeah., it was just because you get so used to it or you're just always responding to something, there's always something going on.

But to have that 10 minutes of just away from the, you gotta give yourself that 'cause no one else will. I know. I know. And it just becomes such a habit. And then the expectation is there. And I talk about that all the time, but I feel myself. Back in again. Well, 'cause you're in business, right? Right. I mean, I mean, we're, we're, we're, we're so analog.

I mean, Paul still doesn't get on a computer. And a friend of his, who is an artist got very upset with him the other day. 'cause he said, you don't text back. And I said, if you wanna talk to him, call him. Call him. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he, he kept writing me and going, but he, he just wont, I said. He, no, if you wanna talk to him, call him.

I'm sorry. I know it's inconvenient maybe for you, but it's just, it's, that's the way he's, he just the way he is doesn't do it. Yeah. Yeah. And I applaud him for that, even though it makes my life, twice because I'm catching all of his stuff. But, but, it's just for somebody in the creative world, it's just an no.

A hundred percent. Yeah. Yeah. Because it takes you away that, that one beep., I'll, I'll be talking to people sometimes and their phone or their watch will beep. Yeah. And I'll see them look, they can't help it. They can't. It's automatic. And even though I know they're still with me, I can see they're not with me.

Like, they saw something that took them away. And I know how it works. 'cause I've done the same thing. We all, yes. It takes me away from the moment and I'm, I'm somewhere else in my head. I'm still doing the. Polite thing. Yes. Yeah., whatever. But I'm gone., like, it, it robs you of the moment,?

Oh my gosh. I remember the first time, and it was a long time ago, it was like, but somebody that was sort of, an early cell phone user and I didn't really, they had dinner with us and I remember how insulted I got when, we're sitting here having a conversation at dinner table and he's looking down at his phone.

Yeah. I wanted to like grab it and throw it. Yeah, I know. Well, I feel, I feel bad for moms in a way now later raising their young kids. 'cause when they go on a date or they go anywhere, I mean, I guess it's good 'cause they know their kids are always okay. But back in the day, mom and dad went on a. The babysitter had to call the restaurant that they were at to track them down if there was an emergency.

Yeah. And usually there's not an emergency, nothing. So there's nothing that urgent so that mom and dad can go have some peace. Yeah. Or while mom's at work, she's not getting bugged about where the peanut butter is at home. Yeah. Yeah. It's so hard for people to unplug now, but once they do, it's such a, benefit.

I admire that about you both. I admire that about Paul. I love that he's. old school like that. Yeah, he definitely is. And, I think we missed, I'm sure like I hear what people are, do, just finding out about things that are going on that would be important. But eventually people tell us, it's like, oh, there's a, March you might want to go to or this,?

Yeah. Yeah. So, but there's so much, there's so much input now anyway. I know that I don't really need more. It's like I can't keep up it hard to keep it's up with it all. It's what it becomes. I know. Yeah. So many ways to be contacted now and, messenger, text message and email and in WhatsApp and know Signal and, then Instagram and then TikTok and you, there's, you can get messages on all those.

I know it. Yeah. It's just, it's overwhelming sometimes in a way. It really is and enough,? Yeah. I'm reading a really good book right now that, I relate to a lot that the woman is about my age and who's the. And she is a letter writer. I mean, the whole book is letters, the entire book, and they tell you whether it's to her or from her and what date and who it address.

They actually do the address, the whole dress every, every time. And it's, it's wonderful. 'cause it's called The Correspondent and I'm so, if you ever wanna Good listen, it's a great listen. Yeah. Because usually books on tape, they'll have like read by one person. Yeah. I like that. Yeah. This one is read by 20 people because she wants every character who is in that book to have their own voice.

Yeah, yeah. And they do. And you recognize 'em after a while you're like, oh, that's the sister. That's the this, that's the this. Yeah. But the correspondent. The correspondent, okay. Yeah. I think Virginia. Zach, can you put that on my list please? The correspond, I think it's Virginia Egan, but do it as a audio.

Yeah. That's all mostly what I do anyway. Yeah. I like books, but usually it's great for me in the car you don't, don't have time for so much. No you don't. And driving, it's a great way to, it's great. I love it. Yeah. Are you back and forth between all the two? Yeah. Yeah. In fact, today I came from was up in Benet, the Promenade, so that's a perfect opportunity if you got 30 minutes of, of a book in.

So y'all have Promenade place there, Beita, Uhhuh, and Venetian still. Yep. Venetian still. Yep. Promenade. I remember well Promenades going on. So that up been 97, which, which at the time going north of Bonita Beach Road was a big deal. It was like, you're gonna Lee County. Yeah. That's a really big deal. Yeah.

It wasn't, wasn't Bonita Bay and all that happened? No. At the time and yeah, that was a big deal, but that area's Well everywhere is crazy right now. Oh, I know it. I know it. It's all going. Yeah, we haven't, it is. I kind of think twice. I used to have appointments up in Fort Myers and I'm like, I wouldn't go, unless I really had to drive up that way.

Yeah, don't go. Yeah. I was talking to this investment advisor the other day, a friend of mine who was a client over at the, at the village and he said, yeah. He said, I got clients. Who are millionaires moving here, who can't move here? They got $8 million and they, if they buy a place, it's 5 million. And then what do they got left?

They can't, like it's, it's what has become of Naples, it's hard to move here. So he's saying that, that they spend all their money on the, well, they, they can't, they're having to go to Punta Goda or North now because they, people who retire here with a lot of, well, it sounds like a lot, but here it's not.

No, it's not. Yeah. 8 million is not a ton here. 'cause you half your wealth will be tied up in the house, in the city anyway, the city's just, it's Wow. Yeah. Big but was his take on it anyway. I'm sure you can get for less than that. But the average, like a decent home that they're looking at.

So they're, a lot of them are going north further north. You think that's gonna last for a long time? This, this, I don't think it never, I don't, I've never seen it. Not, it's in my, our whole lives. It's always gone up. Yeah. It's never gone any other way. Yeah. I mean, it was a little blip in oh seven, where, but it all came right back.

Yeah., and it, and it just keeps going. It's not like, I don't know, if we'd have had a, a hit like. Fort Myers Beach or Bel had. Yeah., or if we get one like that, I don't know what that'll, at some point. Yeah., and I do, and I don't, I do kind of worry about the, fragility of the, the shopping districts downtown.

Yeah., I mean, the rents keep going high. Oh my gosh. Have to leave. Gosh. I know. There's only people that can afford it. The chains that are coming in now. That's what I'm saying. With the deep pockets. Yeah. That's, yeah. That really, broke my heart with my wife and I this summer. She went to medical school in Grand Cayman and we'd like to go back and visit, but we haven't been back since COVID o and

2019 was the last year we went and we went this year. And all of our favorite charming places are gone because of COVID. they were on, they were closed for two years, 24 months where they were shut down and that just doesn't put all the businesses out. And then what happened was all the money came in, a lot of money came in and bought up all these old properties and they're just raising them and, building these.

30 million Euro condos right on the beach. 30 million Euros, not even dollars, which is a lot, 20% more, everywhere there. So it was really disappointing to see 'cause we loved it there., I love St. Barts too. Yeah. Which is was just great. But they've, St Barts has kept the charm either way, even though they were shut down, it's expensive is all ever, but, but I think, grant Cayman is just not what it was, as far as an island goes.

'cause of, 'cause of the money that's moved in and just taken over all the, like you talked about the small shops, the small, boutiques. It's kind of everywhere, isn't it? Yeah. I mean, even Dominica, which is the nature island, and, I finally got to go last year and the Chinese have come in and it's been like they're putting in a mega jet port.

I mean, it's, it's just. The people are still very poor,? Yeah. They live there. Yeah. But the, I guess they're just gonna build themselves big. I don't know what they're gonna do, but it felt very, disjointed as far as, kind of messing up the nature yet. Yeah. They're gonna pull in people and similar to what we saw in, in, in Cayman.

Yeah. The same thing. We have the, yeah. Very, very poor and then the extreme wealth. Yeah. 2, 2, 2 sides of it. Yeah. So, yeah. I, I love, I, Naples is still, I, it's hard for me to go anywhere from Napal. I love Naples so much. It's so special here. It's, it's so beautiful. And I, Paul has captured it.

You both have captured the charm of our area so Well, and I know he was talking about. This book last year Yeah. That you've been working on for a while now. Yeah. Yeah. It's exciting for us. It's very exciting. It's, we're, I guess when we had the galleries, sometimes people would come in and say, is there a book about Naples?

And I'd go, well, I don't think, I can't think of one. Yeah. That really tells you, kind of a story without, and then when Lila came out with that giant book, it's very factual. And I mean, it's got so much information, but it's not an easy one to deal with. 'cause it's mostly words. Yeah. And ours is mostly pictures.

Yeah. So it's a lot more fun,? Yes. I hope it's as factual. I hope it's as accurate. But, I'm not a historian by nature. I just like history. But, I, but your background is, my background. I went to school in, graduated Anthropology. Anthropology. So I do love stories and I love people talking.

So that is the study of. People of human Yeah. Study man. And, but I wasn't a very serious student,? I did get work right out of, school doing in that field, which was wonderful. And, just had, had to work for a place called Coastal Environments, which in Baton Rouge, which is still there, and was doing a lot of, work with coastal environments.

I mean, we had a, my. First job was doing a survey of the Gulf Intercoastal waterway from Texas to Florida. And I can you imagine every Monday morning I'd get in a boat with the sky and we would just ride on the Gulf Intercoastal waterway and then pick it up the next Monday and pick it up. I mean, it was amazing job.

Isn't that interesting? 'cause didn't Paul have a similar experience on boats? He kind did. Yeah. Yeah. He, he started with the, well he, he was on a boat out of Woods Hole and worked with the Smithsonian, so yeah. He was doing, that kind of thing. I was doing more, I wasn't doing well. He wasn't either, he was a deckhand.

We were both just doing whatever we were told to do. Yeah. But on boats, in different parts of the, on boats, of different parts of the world. Yeah. That's amazing. No, we, as it turned out, once we got finally together, even beyond that first time where I thought, this is too many crazy coincidences, we found so many times where we had.

Almost like we probably passed each other like this. We were at the same concert. We were at the same, the gospel tent on different, we figured we, have you ever been to the New Orleans Jazz Fest? I haven't, no. Okay. Well, it's a 10 day extravaganza of great music and there's, they're known for the music is, oh, it's amazing.

That's the, and it goes from the Thur, the last Thursday of April to the first Sunday of May. So it's a long a and every day there's stuff and there's the venues, but the main venue is at the fairgrounds. And they'll have six stages with just first class music and all of them. And they just changes every, whatever, 40 minutes or something.

But they have a gospel tent. And the gospel tent is the most soulful place ever. I mean, it's just like, gospel groups that just get up there. Anyway, we figured that on the first Sunday of May in 1981, we were both in the gospel tent. I said, where were you sitting? And I said, if you're facing the stage, he said, if you're facing the stage, I was on the left and I said, I was on the right in the front row.

Oh my gosh. So we were within each other's aura, destined to be the That's so good. And there was like three or four other ones. I'm like, oh my God. We were there. And of course one of the things we realized when we first met was we had, both lived in the same rooming house in this little place of little rocky neck, Massachusetts, three years apart.

And it was very obscure and yeah, I was not supposed to be there. I had rented a house in Marblehead or sublet it and then. When I got there, I was in my little Volkswagen and they said, oh, I'm sorry. The owner needs it. They, she had a premature baby and she wants to be here all summer.

I'm like, okay, now what? And I swear I just got in my car. I didn't even have a map. I just drove. So, and I ended up just stopping in front of this little store and I went in and asked, is there any place that I could rent around here? And she said, try that store. I went and I got a room. And then when Paul and I met, he's like, I lived there.

Oh my gosh. Yeah, there was, I love those stories, just so, so many. And then that you'd meet up in Naples of all places, which was nothing. I know, I know. Tough of that. And it was, and have all that same interests together. That's Yeah. Yeah. What a beautiful story. Well, it was, it was, it's been very, lucky for me.

'cause I really don't know. I just, being able to stay in our house has been a wonderful story because we love it. But, when do you remember Indy Earl? When she bought it from our landlord and we thought we were there forever as renters, and then she sold it like beneath us and we both were like.

What? And so we tried to find another place to live and it was like impossible. Yeah. Even then, yeah. This is the eighties. It was like, ooh, this is a, this is expensive here. Living here. Yeah. Yeah. But anyway, long story that deal fell through and we put together a partnership and, so we were able to, to do it.

But it's a great place., there's used to all four cottages and so many interesting people have come through there. Yeah. A lot of rascals. A lot of renegades, a lot of, yeah. Smart people. And yeah, it's, it's been a real magnet for, interesting. Yeah. For anybody doesn't know or hasn't seen, it's, it's what Naples, it's what Naples was.

I mean, it really totally is. Yeah. It's just so charming. So, I don't know. There's something special about it when I just, on being on the property and walking around there was, I just felt like I had been taken back in time. It's so charming. It's just so charming. It's just a really, It's, it's so the way it was to me.

Well, and we're so challenged to figure out like, are we just the crazy people that want to still don't mind living, like pioneer? I mean, it is very primitive on a certain level,? Yeah, yeah. I hadn't been upgraded with all the things people would do, but Yeah. It's like, there's just something about it that it, I, people don't look for it, but I think when they feel it and when they sense it, yes.

And when they come in, they're like, oh, this is something else. Yeah.,? Yeah. And I, it, it, to me, it didn't seem old, it seemed like, I equate it to, we went to Uspa Island a couple years ago. Oh yeah. And stayed there and at the Inn or when a house, or the think, I think, but, but where were we in one of the cottages off to the side is where it was.

Oh yeah. That was wonderful. On the pink path probably. Yes. And That has held its old charm, to the way it was. It seems like, wasn't it the Collier? I don't know who who Yeah. Built it. The Collier, it was Collier's home. He bought the, is that right? Yeah. Yeah. We fixed it up and, that, it's funny you bring it up because I hadn't been in probably four or five years with Lanny and Holly's last time we were there, and, they have such a different business plan.

You have to, you can't just show up. Yeah., it's very, and since the Beckstead died about three or four years ago and the family has had it, and then they just weren't, I mean, he was the visionary. He had the figured out, and I don't think his children were that, they just wasn't making it work quite like he did.

So, apparently a bunch of islanders have, bur have bought it. They've coalesced. There's like 10 people from, or 13 from the island too. So it needed help because it got, you don't understand it got hit by the hurricane 'cause it's so high, but they, they got mashed up. Yeah. And the end. So it needs redoing and a few other things.

A lot of infrastructure needs redoing. Yeah. So it just happened. 'cause I contacted the one lady we knew there to see if she would sponsor us to come over. Yeah. I had a friend I wanted to bring over and she said, well, it's a mess right now. Everything's under construction and the Islanders are trying to buy it, so.

Oh, great. I think it's great. Yeah. Yeah. At least that's great. I think the family will be able to feel good about that. People who have such a vested interest in it are gonna be in charge. Just felt like going back in time, even to the fact that in the rooms, so we just went a couple years ago, there was a phone book Yeah.

In the room, which I thought was awesome. Yeah. Because it was from like 2000, it was the old yellow page. The red book. The red sprint or whatever. Yeah, yeah. Sprint book or whatever it was in. Big, thick yellow pages. I know. Those are really just anachronistic, aren't they? Now you don't, no one uses a phone for No, no.

They don't exist. When I saw it, I was excited. This is a piece of history here. This is amazing. Do you remember the little one they had of Naples downtown? Oh, yes, yes. It's little tiny one. I think I still have that. That would be great. Yeah. I mean, I don't know why I had, for a while I kept it because Pete had people's addresses that I might wanna send an invitation to, and now I think everyone's gone that were in it.

But it's just so cute, and had their, address and phone number,? So. Yeah. And you knew where they lived by their prefix. You knew if they were 2 6 1 2 6, 2 2, 6 6, they were usually downtown in the city. Yeah. And for 5, 9, 7 or 5 6, 6. They were North Naples. Four five. Five was Golden Gate.

Yeah. 7, 7 4 was East Naples. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So that, to see a phone book is, is kind of fun. Yeah. Yeah. Well, tell me more about your book. 'cause I'm excited for it 'cause I can't wait to get them in the salons and for people to be tasted. I'm very excited. Okay. It's 240 pages. It is, lots of color pictures.

A lot of, vintage photographs. We've, connected with this woman in town who has collected, postcards of Naples for years. Mm. She was in a great source. And, so we have that and we have, I have, I have the, I kind of hate to show you, but I'll show you just one or two pictures of it because, this is not what it's gonna look like.

The, I sent Zach, the cover's gonna look something like this, but this was an early rendition,. Okay, great. And this isn't as big. I just glued this on a top. This isn't the actual book. But, that's Port Royal Club. Do you remember that? Yeah. Oh, the port. Yeah, the original. Yeah. Yeah. So that's not gonna look like that anymore.

Oh, that's it. No, it's not. That's the Old Beach club. Yeah. Yeah. In fact, we walked down. Have you seen what? Wow. Giant? No, I haven't gone there. I can't, I can only imagine. You can. I mean, it is, it's giant. But there's one picture in here I especially wanted to show you. 'cause you'll get a kick out of it. Let me see if I got this upside down.

Of course, this is just a mock, this is just a, but this will give you kind of a visual of what it's gonna look like., the different, oh, I love this picture. This is, Josie, Billy and Frank Brown that grew up in a moley. They were best friends. They were best friends. And of course I'm write, but you can see how little writing, there's not a lot.

Yeah, yeah. But we try to get the capsule of like, okay, this is what it's about. Yeah. That's what that's about. But, he was a, a mizuki and he was Frank, brown, he was, his father had the trading post. Okay. So they were at each other's houses a lot. Oh, wow. And he became like. An incredible Everglades hunter and knew all the trails and, he was like, the, knew the Everglades better than anybody.

He became like a chief and learned to speak English in their house,? Really? Oh wow. Yeah, it was great. I mean, just, I'm trying a small wood store. I mic Suki. 'cause we were interviewing, Popeye, I call him Popeye. I don't, Ola, yeah. William Osceola. Oh, I call him Popeye. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

It gave me so much history about Oh, they would be mic suis. Yeah. And this is of course Indian Day at the Smallwood store., they didn't do that Smallwood store Oh my gosh. Nineties. They, but, Paul painted that every time. This is Paul's work? Yeah. Oh, wow. Yeah. All the paintings, except for a few of 'em are Paul's, of course.

Baron Collier, there's some black and whites. This is one of my favorite. I have to just read you this because it's short. This was one of the Haldeman's, they had the Haldeman house down and he was Walter Haldeman. If it weren't for him, I don't know what happened to Naples, but he, he really kept it alive.

After all the other investors bailed out, he bought the whole place. And so his children kind of considered it their little, their home. But they lived in Kentucky and she said we could not reach it every season. But when we did there, it was miraculously enough, the little group of sun drenched cottages on the graceful very hu beach.

The pier reaching out, a welcoming hand fish, jumping pelicans, diving food for the gods, waiting at the hotel. Our heart swelled with Thanksgiving for it. Oh, isn't that beautiful? How beautiful is that? Florence Hal. Oh, I love that. Yeah. So I was so glad that was actually, I took that out of Doris Reynolds book.

The Peacocks were roasted book. Oh, you'll like this. This is Swan Court. You remember Swan Court? Yes, yes. Yeah. Right. Yeah, of course. So that was, oh my gosh, friends. But I'm looking for a particular, like I say, I still kind of don't find my way around here as easily as I should, because I've been working on it so long.

But I'm so glad you're, you've done this. I'm so glad. It's gonna be fun. Yeah, this is great. It's, it's really fun. let's see, I'm looking, oh, I think maybe it's back. Oh, this is the, Marco, these gals, oh my God. I didn't really know much about the Olds family there. Marco, their parents moved to, Marco as both doctors from Philadelphia from I think really, and, because there weren't that many sick people here.

Yeah. There weren't that many people. Yeah. They started growing fruit and they, his, their mother, was very educated. So here they are of these girls, there's like hunting, bobcats and catching fish and growing mangoes. But she gave them like, if I can read, it's like she wanted them.

She said, okay. Their mother saw to it. They received a broad education teaching Latin, German, French, Spanish, Hebrew, Greek, math, geography, grammar, and current events. They also practice music an hour a day in preparation for weekly concerts, and Sundays were devoted to spiritual readings. I mean, that was not the typical Marco person.

Yeah.,? Yeah. I mean it was all those languages too. Yeah. Wow. No, they were, they were just medicine, music and mangoes. That page is called, okay. Not great. That's the s snuck in. Of course. Yeah. But I am, and there's the old Naples. Oh, here's got P Van Dale. Yes. Oh my gosh. So yeah, he was really, how great is this?

And that's a PBA, plane. Yeah, yeah. Old DC threes. Yeah. Yeah. Those are the ones that used to fly over with the mosquito spray. the DC threes with the Yes, I remember that. Spray for mosquitoes, right? Yeah. And then this is, I love this picture of Bruce Tro Trusdale Grace Trusdale. I don't know if you remember her, but she was like an early realtor.

But this is making me feel, oh, Doris Reynolds. Yeah. Yeah. She would've been a great interview if you'd have had her around. Yeah. Yeah. She wrote about everything here. She did. She was the historian. Yeah. So, that's our, one of our little cottages. Yeah. And then this, this is one of the few paintings that Paul didn't do.

This is Richard Salman's painting of me and Paul on the beach. and I love this, this is, you can find this real big, but that's what Naples looked like in the, sixties or something. But, the picture I wanted to show you, got, I think that must be earlier on, but anyway, you gotta get the picture of what it's gonna be like.

Yeah., it'll be an interesting, fun read and it'll be a fun thing just to kind of have around, I think. But we need it. We so need it. So Great. You can, so great. And I think you can just, you can just pick it up and put it down and, learn one thing and, but, I'm trying to think where the key wa part is.

Oh, you had some key waiting in there. Yeah. Yeah. Just I'm, this is horrible that I can't figure out where anything is because, I don't think she's in the, she, maybe she is. Paul had some good stories about key waiting. Yeah. Yeah. So we did try. Oh, here. Yeah. But this is not a picture you'd seen of Laverne Gayner before.

Isn't that fun? Her parents, Lester Norris and his wife and Laverne. Is this her? Her? Yes. Oh my gosh. She's so beautiful. Isn't that a great picture? Oh, you gotta get this in there, Zach. That's Oh, you've got a, oh, I love this. This is, and then, the only reason I got her had it was because, oh my gosh, the people that were taking care of Laverne's Effects, her whatever, when she died, I asked them if they had any photographs that, there's her typical ones, which, you've seen.

But yeah, she let me go through her stack of photographs. What? And I saw that and I'm like, shot. And I think they're in New York,? Oh my gosh. And that George Gainor look how young, geez. Just, yeah. So anyway, Tracy, my sister Lisa, you gotta see this. This is so great. Oh my gosh. Yeah. No, it's, it's gonna be fun.

And then of course beautiful. The Caribbean, we had a big Oh yeah, the zoo. Yeah, the original Caribbean Garden Zoo. And then Paul painted this, you remember, was samba, he just died. The zoo thing. Yeah. So, and then the last section after, is called, stewards and spirit spirits and stewards.

And, that one is dedicated to all of the environmental groups that have been working. I've been very involved with Ottoman of the Western Everglades for 40 years, so I made sure they got in. Yeah, great. And then the Conservancy and Clark Screw Swamp and, Clyde Butcher. oh yeah, Clyde love him too.

Yeah. And yeah, little Marco, there's Clyde, and then Marjorie Stoneman Douglas. So, this has all the souls of Naples. Yeah, this is great. Yeah, it was really, I mean, we had a fabulous book designer, Donna Murphy, who, is done. Incredible job. She did so much more than, just designed a book, she really put her heart into it.

And so she was really in so instrumental in getting a lot of the pictures and getting ideas and helping name the, she, she helped a lot with the verb verbiage and stuff. And she's right now on press up in, up in the Boston area., I kind of insisted we print in America, which I don't know if that was in the long run a good idea, but, oh, and this is the Rod and Gun Club, Paul's painting and that Oh, yeah, yeah.

With some of the classic boats. The Birdie Lee, which is the starter boat, the Pilar Hunt Hemingway's boat. And the Valley. Who, which was the, Kelly family? Miguel's Kelly's, Kelly's fish house. Kelly. Yeah. Oh, wow. Wow. Yeah. So sorry about the phone. I forgot to, to mute it, so, yeah, no problem. Is it okay? You have check it?

Oh yeah, that's fine. It's probably spam. Okay. I hit it up on those. Yeah. Isn't that awful? That's our business line, because we don't have a whole a landline now, so I have a designated thing and it's ridiculous how many of them are Oh, yeah. Span. Oh, it's, it's crazy. The number. Yeah. It's just never ending.

Yeah. And they're getting so good at spoofing everything. Sometimes it shows up as like a real Oh. Business or something. Oh, I know. You don't know the difference. These poor people that are hired. I mean, I had a one yesterday and Paul already fell for this one, so I was sort of, did you get your new social security card?

Have you gotten that one yet? No, I didn't hear about that one yet. Oh God. God. And so, I'm like, no one expects to get a new one. You're like, well, what's wrong with the oh and right. And, my number. I just told 'em, I said, I'm pretty sure this is like a, this is a, a spam thing and I really don't wanna talk right now.

Bye-bye.,? Yeah. You don't wanna be rude, but, it's like, who has time for, right. I mean, sometimes you have to be almost it say, what are you gonna do? Like they're, they're so good at getting people in a bad way,? Just I know. I know it. And we've had somebody we work with, the bank called, he thought it was the bank that called and said, we need to secure your account.

There's been something off with it. We're gonna move it over here and ask. Him to verify the account number. And red flag. Yeah. They took all their money. Oh, now lucky we got it all back. But they were good. The way they spoofed the number, the way they had information about them. They did. They're getting good.

They're getting good. You gotta, and now they can imitate voices. So voices. Right. With ai, you think? Yeah. They could do the exact voice. That's so, so scary. I mean, the technology in some regards is great, but when it's used in that way, it's, yeah. Yeah. It's not good for us. Yeah, I know. I was kind of glad that, I was able to get through the writing of the book, which.

Without even knowing about ai. 'cause like now everyone's like, oh, you just could go to AI and this, it'll do it all for you. It would've been maybe tempting, but I don't think so. I, I think in general, I'm proud that it's like I got away with that. Yeah. It was pre ai. Yeah. Yeah. And let people know now that it's a selling point.

Yeah. I think that, yes, it was done by a real human. I know, I know it. So I know Don proof. I know when she was looking at it, she would use AI to like make sure, and it was good. She did. Or got a couple of dates wrong, like, but yeah, it's good for that. Yeah. Right. To, to verify. Yeah. Or if there's a grammatical issue with something that Yeah.

So, which would be a problem for me, probably. I need the, all the help I can get that way. Oh God. So when's it going? What's the target date? Well, today was the last, she was on press yesterday and I think we have about a month. Okay. And they said that, it'll probably be kind of. Thanksgiving week, which isn't ideal.

So I've already moved twice our launch thing, and now what I think we're gonna do is just have a, an open house, at our house. And then a couple of places are giving us, like the bookstore, give us a, a book signing. Palm Cottage is gonna give us a book signing. We were gonna do the launch there, which would've been fun.

But yeah, the time, once the delay in the printing happened, it pushed into their Christmas season,? Okay. If it would've been November, it would've been fine. Of December isn't so good for them. Okay. So, so you think the copies will be ready? What's the target? I think probably early December. Early December?

Yeah. Okay, great. Alright, so well, well. We be able to get some to absolutely have in this one, but also to sell. If people wanna buy any, I'd love to you to some. Yeah, no. I'll bring one over when they're done and you can see, tell me what you wanna do with them. That's great. Yeah, I would love that. 'cause it's, it's the heart and soul of Naples.

I mean, I love, I mean, well it's fill a gap I think,? Yeah. I think there's really, like I said, when people would come in and ask me, I'd think, what would I. Where would I send them?, I don't really couldn't picture something. There's, so there's a lot of magazines that have done Yeah.

Pretty pictures of stuff, but as far as just an actual volume you can pick up. Yeah. I couldn't, no, it's captured the soul. It's really, it was, I'll tell you, Paul's first book, which I think he gave y'all are hope You hopefully Yes, yes. that Donald worked on that too. That was so much fun for us. We had a great time and it was, we, it was like put cut and butter, nothing.

But didn't, this has been like giving birth to an elephant. It was so hard. It was sucked. And, we got interrupted by hurricanes. We got interrupted. Yeah. That's why you told me all of them, my reference got drowned and then we switched our whole format and it just wasn't as easy as I thought it might be.

But I'd never written a book, so I didn't have really very reasonable expectations anyway. Yeah. But if I did it again, I think if it would be. I did during the course of it, take myself away for a week to St. Augustine and just wrote, just worked. And it was the best way to do it. I, yeah. Coming back here, there's so many distractions.

I mean Yeah., well when you're home Yeah. You're, oh, it's impossible. Always., we're running a business out of the house and Yeah., it's just, so I think, I would advise anybody the series if they can do it, or else just, I don't do well, getting up real early and trying to work like at four in the morning.

Well, that's what writers would do anyway. Like, they would go to this secluded house somewhere. Yes. Or just be away from everything. Exactly. And that's when they could write. Exactly. Yeah. You have to, you can't be, you gotta let your mind, yeah. Most series writers, that's what they'll do. Yeah. It's just like you isolate themselves and, but, it was nice to be able to access libraries and me, I mean, Paul has kept, which is part of why it's gonna take us forever to move.

Every magazine that ever, every golf show. Like, thank God though he has all that. What are we gonna do with it though? Yeah, it's like, maybe digitize them. I don't know. But it is something that even libraries, I don't think want old books. I mean, well, I know we have our own share of what I got from my dad of articles and books and they're just in boxes.

But it's so nice every now and then to go through those. But what do you, what do you do with them? But someday someone will want those and, appreciate them, hopefully. Yeah. Yeah. It's such a good archive of. And its like funny, happened to funny. Somebody just gave me, 'cause they came across it and didn't know what to do with it.

The, whatever that magazine was, it had Eva on the front. Oh yes. Yeah. So Eva was on the front of that? Yes, she was on the front. Yeah. I'll bring it if I can find it. What? Yes. Yeah. What was it? It wasn't Gulfshore Life. I think it was. I remember it now. Yes. It was Vegas. It was a tall magazine. Color.

Yeah. What was that? I don't remember the name, but I remember I could see her face on there. Yeah. Such a beautiful woman. Oh my gosh. So she died early, I think. Did she? No, no. I think she's, so, I just heard she's around. Oh, really? Not here, but she's alive still. Somebody. Oh gosh. Who am I confusing her with telling me that?

She moved. I don't remember who I was just talking to, but it wasn't that long ago that they were talking about. Oh. They had seen a picture of her and or had spoken to her in recent years. Yeah. Oh, I'm, so, I was surprised. Glad I thought I'd missed her. Totally. You know what I mean? Yeah. No, I. I'd heard anything about her forever.

And just recently she came up in a discussion and, by somebody else who was local. But you brought up so many great names of people that I just am so happy to hear about that I have to dig up and get 'em on here. Yeah. To capture the souls. Yeah, no, there's definitely, I, I haven't seen Marisha in a while, but she's still around so she would be an interesting Yeah.

Another absolute legend. Yeah. Yeah. So many of them, and especially so related to where your family's Yeah, she was there, right there with Carlos. She'll have stories about Carlo Paterno. Yeah. Carlos had his, his, at the time they were called secretaries. Josephine was his, she was his protector. She was a tough woman.

Uhhuh, where's the rent check? She was, she took care of Carlo Josephine, but, and the two of them. But, so I'm sure Marissa will have some stories about them too. Oh, I'll bet she would. Yeah. Yeah. No, I'm glad I met him once or twice. 'cause I have a definitely memory of, of, he was a. Pretty forceful.

Yeah. Kind of guy. Big nose Italian. Yeah. Ka pat. Yeah. Yeah. Oh gosh. Wow. He, he has helped us in, in many ways. Yeah. I have, some fun questions that I want to ask you 'cause I, we gotta do this again because I love talking to you. I love getting the soul of the community. You have so much rich history of Well, I'm, well, I feel I'm not, I mean, I feel like I'm a late comer compared to, Paul and people that were here in the sixties and seventies.

Well, there's different eras of it., some people now are here 10 years and they think, oh, I'm in Nepal. And like 10 years is nothing here., it's even 20, it's not that much here. I know a lot has happened every five years. So much happens. I mean, literally sometimes if I don't go to third Street for a few months and then I go down, I'm like, what happened?

I haven't been down in a while. Well, well you'll, the hotel will be surprise to you. Yeah. That's gonna shock me. Okay. So these are what I call the fun zone questions. Do you have a hidden talent that would surprise people? I don't think I have a hidden talent. I think, cooking is my talent, but I'm not, it's not very hidden.

Yeah. Well, what was hidden for me? I didn't know that you cook Well, I just, I'm very oriented towards healthy stuff. I have, I stopped eating meat when I was 18, so, it wasn't even a fad then that you were ahead of the fad. I had just read a book, actually a, that's why I love libraries. I just went to my little hometown, central Louisiana library and read, I think it was a complete illustrated book of yoga I brought home and they talked in the first chapter about the animals.

Like what an animal goes through when they're go as done. It was like, it was just like, well, why would I, you know that? Yeah, yeah. just talking about how they're, the hormones in their body when they're about to be, excuse me, you can bleep this out, but this was like, what got me was like, what goes through them is these fear hormones, and that's what you're eating when you have a, a slaughtered animal.

So I was like, Ooh. And then my first job after that was in a steakhouse. Which I like. That pushed me over the edge. Yeah. I was like, you get sick of smelling it and the whole thing,? Yeah. So, so I tend to cook vegetarian fish. I do eat fish. I love shrimp. I'm from Louisiana. Of course you have Most of my big dishes are shrimp dishes.

Yeah. And, well I was gonna ask you about that 'cause that caged the whole Louisiana. I don't know if, Dr. Span or Joe Span, or Joan, Valerie Spanner. 'cause he's from Louisiana. He he is, yeah. Yeah. He's the only other person I know from there. You, well, Elizabeth Swanson? Yeah. She grew up in New Orleans.

Oh, did she? And Cuba, she's got Cuba and a big Cuba connection and now that was Swanson Foods. Yes. Yes. Okay. Yeah. And wine. And wine, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Swanson TV dinner, Swanson. Exactly. Oh, now if you could interview her. Oh my God. Well first of all, she is like the most effusive personality I've ever met in my life.

Is that right? My mother knew her. I didn't know her well. Oh well. She's nobody like her. Really? I'm telling you. Yeah. She is something else. I just love being around her. Is she here? They have a house still. They got flooded twice. but they have, mostly in California,. Okay. They have a house here.

And then they love when they're here, they often go to their house in Everglade City. Really? Yeah. You'd be surprised how many still places are still around. Oh my gosh. People from here,? Yeah. Oh, that's another name we gotta put on our list. Elizabeth Swanson. Oh, if you could get her, she would just entertain.

I mean, she just really, I just sort of am amazed by her, just so she's Louisiana too. She's Louisiana. Another one from me. Yeah. I didn't know that. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, Dr. Spano would cook. I want my favorite. Of all lifetime meals were, he's such a good cook. Is he? Yeah. Oh my gosh. He's a, I haven't seen him in a long time.

He's, he's still practicing. Oh my goodness. Okay. I don't think he's 85 ish 6, 7 87. I don't know how old he is, but he looks the same. He looks so good. Oh, the last time I saw saw me, he always took such good, and, their house was around the corner from us and that's gone, they've moved toward that town.

Yeah. Yeah. I think he's in Lake Park. I can't remember where they moved, but yeah, I didn't know where they ended up. 'cause they were living with Elizabeth or living with, yeah, Elizabeth this year, if they had to stay temporarily, they weren't sure where they were gonna go. Okay. Yeah. Maybe they park now.

Good, good. Yeah. So Louisiana Food, Cajun Cook. Oh yeah. You're, you make a gumbo or what to say? I do. I do. Do you really? Yes, absolutely. Yeah. So few people I know that do that. Wow. Oh no, I, I definitely do. And, more in the fall,. Yeah. And I used to, I mean, I. I used to love being able to get golf crab meat, but I don't think it's as easy to get anymore.

Yeah. And I don't, I don't know., it was funny, we were at somebody's, oh, we were at a restaurant the other night and three of us, and when they were saying what the special was and when they said, and golf shrimp, and it was amazing how people reacted instead of like, Ooh, Gulf shrimp. It was more like, Ooh, Gulf shrimp.

'cause there's such a, a, now you have to worry about does it have, this in it and that, and it, oh, right. And all this stuff, er stuff going on with the Gulf. Is it gonna be blue-green, algae affected? All that stuff. So I was like, oh, that's so sad. It used to be like a bragging thing That was the gold, the platinum of Exactly.

Yeah. Yeah. Oh wow. So, so yeah, that, that's kind of a different, well, if you ever, need somebody to do a taste test Oh, okay. Or you wanna trade for some, I love, no, some shampoo. I love to order. Oh my gosh. I, I, it's a, my time favorite food is, well, I sort of learned how to make it, my mother was sort of the fifties mother with five kids that, they were into cans and she wasn't doing the fresh vegetable thing,?

Yeah, yeah. Took good care of us. I'm not saying anything like that. Yeah. It's just that she didn't really get, spend her all her day in the kitchen and she didn't have a garden. So, yeah. But, she did make good gumbo and when I made my first, when I was working in a, a restaurant in New Orleans and I decided I'm gonna make a, for all the employees I'm gonna make gumbo.

Of course, I'd never, made anything like that. But I remember back then, it used to be very expensive to call. long distance. Yeah. I don't know if you remember that. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. But I spent more landline or cell phone. They were both expect, yes. I, this is way before cell phones.

Yeah. But I had to call her for every step. And I remember at the end of the day, I had spent more money on the phone than the seafood just to get the real, I think there was like, 20 people working there and I was like, I'm gonna make y'all gumbo. But anyway, yes, it was my baptism by far with cooking was Oh, my was doing gumbo.

Yeah. So how, well, what wasn't gum? The history of gumbo that was like they were poor and they had to, whatever they had, they put in the Yeah. What created gumbo, but just, yeah. No, it's love hearing that really. And going back to, well, that's another reason to go to New Orleans or Louisiana. It's just, you can just spend your whole time there just going restaurant to restaurant,?

Yeah. I, it's my absolute favorite food as Oh, good. Well, I'm glad to know that. Oh my God. When you started telling me you were. From there, I was like, oh, I just, I gotta get the, I gotta find out if she has that anywhere. Have you found one here, a restaurant that you think has good gumbo? I haven't. I haven't, no.

I don't see it very often in the, where's the last place? I can't remember the last time I had it and no, I don't know. My wife and I drove through on 10, we drove through, we had to go to Houston for a surgery that she had. Yeah. So we went through and stopped in Slidell or sl Uhhuh, however you say that, along the way.

And got some beignets and, we stopped at another restaurant along. I tend to, that I looked up that had some great. C, c what did we get? Tufe? I don't remember exactly what we got. I love Tufe too. Yeah, me too. It was so good. It was kind of off the beaten path a little. It was a little dumpy place.

Yeah, that's okay. It was good. Dumpy places. Yeah. It doesn't matter. The food is what I'm going there for and yeah. Good. It's, it's just my special place in my heart for that food, when I would drive, I don't love flying and I drive home when I'd go home a lot of times and I'd stop half, well, I'd stop in the AK Springs, which is right off I 10.

Yeah. And there's an old, I hope it's still there. It was like an old Masonic or Elks thing that they re made it into a, a hotel inside Uni Inn. Very little. Yeah. But it's, it had, they got a, the last time Paul and I went with was with me, we stopped and their chef was like a really good chef from New Orleans.

Oh my God. It was so good. It was like, DEFAC Springs has great, Louisiana food. Who knew? It's not very far from Louisiana, but yeah, that was, if you ever go in I 10 again. Okay. Will, you're gonna look into it. I'll make a point for that because that, that was the highlight of my trip. I hope he's still there.

That was a few years ago, but still, that would be good. Yeah. Yeah. Alright, well I gotta, we got, I gotta have you, I gotta get on your list for leftovers at some point. Absolutely, please. Or at least your recipe. Anything. Oh, I'll, I'll cook for you. Okay. Yeah. I love cooking. Yeah, really I, you will have shampoo for a lifetime, I promise you.

Well, that's what's so funny in my kitchen, when I look around, the even magazines, but just going into anyone's kitchen, it's always cracks me up my kitchen. You've sort through it. I hope it's this big, it is the tiniest kitchen in the world and. I Sure I cook more than anyone in downtown.

Yeah.,? Yeah. And they have these bit. I know, I know. I see where the house of my father grew up in there where my grandmother used to do all this cooking. It was a tiny little space, but some of the best food Oh, in the world came out of that space. I mean, I couldn't, I wouldn't mind a little more space.

Space. It'd probably be nice, but I am used to it. Yeah. So it sort of works. But, and now they've turned kitchens into like com. They look like a commercial kitchen. They have all the wolf snow? Oh yeah. The Sub-Zero. It's, it is. You remember when Hilda's Tea Room was downtown? Yes.

Yeah, of course. Yeah. And, a friend of ours had a wedding at their house on, and they had a state-of-the-art kitchen, and this is that I'm pretty sure the, if not the eighties, probably the eighties. But they didn't cook, they had this giant kitchen with all these, incredible things. Yeah.

And, she just liked to go out. So they went out every night for dinner and the night of the, reception for their, their child's wedding. Yeah. No one knew how to turn the oven on. I love it. I'm wondering how many people really use these places. And Hilde had to take, she was catering it. She had to take all the food back to the tea room and do it there.

Huh. Oh my gosh. And, her, the, the man at the house was pretty engineering oriented, he knew how to do things and fix things, but it was even with the manual knowing, and I thought, this is crazy. Can get going. Yeah. Yeah. Look beautiful. But doesn't get used. I know. it took him a long time to realize it.

So how about music? What music's playing when you're cooking, writing, designing, driving, walking? I'm afraid. I'm a very old fashioned, for cook, music I could listen to. well, I have, my people that I could listen to Crosby, stills and Nash. I could listen to, Dolly Parton.

I could listen to. Patsy Klein. Oh yeah. Love Patsy Klein. Yeah, I could listen to Bob Dylan. I could kind of, the eighties, nineties. I am sorry. I am ignorant about, there's so little I resonate with, with music today. Yeah. Well, Patsy's one we don't have on, so I try to put together a playlist of the people we have on the show.

Oh yeah. Patsy Klein isn't on there yet. And Patsy Klein was one of my mother's absolute favorites. Oh. Patsy was, playing often when the Manhattans would be flowing in the house. Oh yeah. Patsy Kle would I fall to pieces? I love Joni Mitchell., I, listen. Oh, who else? There's just so many of the, that era to me was just such great music and, some of, even back before the McGuires, I could, things that you just don't hear anymore.

I don't, I wish I was more interested in knowing more, but when I hear stuff on the radio that's current. I, it doesn't interest me. Yeah. I don't know whether I'm not, 'cause I don't hear the words a lot of times just the harmonies, like, Crosby Seals, I could just, they're so beautiful. Yeah., it was Simon and Garfunkel.

Oh my god., instruments, there were instruments. Instruments and their voices and their songs. And so, so yeah. And then, a lot of the blues, we, when we got, well yeah. New Orleans. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yeah. You had the incredible music capital there. It was, in fact, when, when we got married, we got married in New Orleans.

And I have a, a friend who's a musician and he said, I wanna play at your wedding. And he brought down the hottest band. It was Sonny Landreth who's like a, he plays with Bonnie Rai and I love Bonnie Rai. Yeah. Wow. and there was three or four other people. And, my friend's name is Steve Kahn. He's wonderful.

He lives in Nashville and. So, I should get you some of his music. In fact, there's one as we're, wake up more. I'll just get you a CD or something. 'cause he, he's got a lot of really great ones, but, but I have brought him since the wedding, which was in 85. I've had three house concerts for him.

You know, one was at the Sherwin Home. Oh yeah. When on, with Cutlass Cove? one was at, she Bowett. and where was our, oh, the last one was at the Camp Yellows. Club room. Oh yeah. Oh. And it was just Steve. Oh, it was great. He is so good. So, yeah, I listened to him and, Yeah. I just, it is fun to, to hear that music.

Yeah. Well, good. Yeah. Some good new names to where List for our Spotify, Naples Souls Unfiltered Playlist. Great. Yes. And now we'll get you, I'll send you a Steve Conn and, oh God. There's, there's some beautiful, he's done ballads, but he's done fun stuff. And then the one, now as we're getting older, he had one called, sing Me to the Other Side that'll just like, ah, 'cause so many of our friends are leaving the planet.

Yeah.,? Yeah. And so I think he wrote that for one of 'em, and it just kind of sing me to the other side. S me to the other side. Yeah. Yeah. So I, it'll probably have me choked up, listen to it. I just, yeah. Uhhuh. Yeah. But there's some fun ones too. There's some hilarious ones. There's one called, I've Got Your Dog that you might wanna listen to.

Okay. Coffee or tea order. Coffee. How do you like it? Black. None of the Starbucks fancy stuff, right? Just straight black. I do love a cappuccino when we go out, if there's some, if we go to a special coffee and you don't mind paying $7 for a coffee. Yeah. Yeah. I don't do it every day, but yeah, I do.

New Orleans has it, what is it? Chicory coffee. Yeah. I don't love that. I used to, I've got, that's a New Orleans product. It is. Coffee and chicory. Yeah. Community. Community guy. Yeah. Yeah. That's it. Yeah. Yeah. And I used to be a big fan of that and I don't know what happened. I think just like I used to drink it with milk.

I don't anymore. Yeah., I just think good, strong organic coffee is,? Yeah. And then, the more you hear about, it's sort of like everything you start peeling a layer about, it's like, okay, well I love avocados, but guess what they're doing to the forests in, in Mexico so they can grow avocados.

And you're like, okay, so now I have to avoid Mexican, if it's not shade grown coffee, you have to kinda worry about that,? So, the more, the more you kind of have to shop. I mean, I'm. Definite believer that, consumer power is so important,? Sure. Like what we buy is really, what you, what you can rep what you value,?

Yeah. And that now, unfortunately, I feel like our system is so geared towards fast foods and, oh, yeah., slash and burn Yeah. That, the people who are trying to grow well and do the right thing, it makes it really hard for them. But yeah, that's who I wanna support,?

Yeah. So, and I've, I've heard, I gotta go talk to Tim Slo, which would be another good one at the zoo, because he is real into the whole, fair trade coffee world. And that to me says a lot. I'm, I really appreciate that. He's gearing that way too. So, we have a lot of options now.

There's a lot. Yeah. We do., we never, yeah. Just gotta get educated on it. Yeah. Come on in. You come in. It's okay. Come on in. Come in. You're okay. We're just chatting away. Having a good time here. We could be here all day. I know you got so many great stories. Some good stuff. What do you, what do you get doing Maria?

Towel. We don't have anything. Oh, you need towels? We're out of house. Alright. I'm sorry, Maria. Alright. We're almost done. You're slipping on the job here, huh? Yeah, I guess I just carried away. It just so interesting. Happy. Don't worry. Okay. Just be happy. All right. I'll do that. Sorry, interrupt. No, you're good.

That's okay. All good. okay. Let's see where I was. I do like sweet tea, which I shouldn't, but I do iced tea. Sweet tea. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So that just seems like a southern thing, trying to avoid sugar a little bit. Yeah.,. what's your favorite Naples restaurant? Hidden local G right now. Oh, I love Blue Prance and I love Escalante or Veranda e Yeah.

And, we don't go out that much 'cause I like to cook, but Yeah. During the sizzle month. Yeah. We thought we get in. We did. And it was so good. We tried, well we went to Za, we went to, Escalante. But I have to say, I'm kind of a ignorant about what's north of, the Central Avenue.

I mean, we really tend to, well, why would you need to go anywhere? You're in the heart. I'm right in the middle of it and not gonna say it. It's so, yeah, those, you could walk everywhere. It's so perfect. Exactly. Yeah. And there's so many good ones right around us,? Yeah. I like, yeah. Ridgeways is consistent,?

Yeah. You can always count on them. And, There's a few that I haven't even been to on Fifth Avenue. They seem to, come and go. But yeah. we did go to that Colonial. That was really nice. Then that's new and, that's on fifth. Yeah. Colonial. It's got the decor is absolutely beautiful.

Okay. It's kind of an Asian and who, where else did there just, and I still love Kelly. Yeah, I know. That's the, I just love going to Kelly's. That's the old school original. Yeah. Kelly's it's, and I've been there a long time ago called, it's not the food is the best in the world, but I just love that it's still there.

Yeah., it's the spot oldest restaurant they left and they've gone through their share of hurricanes. I'm sure they had, they went through all kind of water Yeah. In there. But they came back and, Kelly's Fish house. Kelly's fish house. Yeah. It's, and, if you could try to call 'em, they'll never answer the phone.

You can't make a reservation. You can't know what time they go open and close. So you just have to take your chances. Yeah. That's the heart. But I guess there's a bunch of real fashionable ones, right. And I hear y'all are getting a new one here. That sounded real interesting. What? Where Royce was, I hadn't heard the latest.

Oh yeah. Have you heard that? I, there's, I just read about it and everyone was kind of excited and I can't remember where I read it or what. What I read. Yeah. Oh, that's exciting. Yeah. That'd be great. Yeah. Yeah. Love that down here. Yeah., I get, so I don't like to get my hopes up too much. 'cause sometimes they don't last that long too.

You, which a good one in. And they're in and out. They can't survive those summers,? I it in the summer. It's tough. Do you have a favorite? Yeah, I like to cook myself too. Yeah. So don't go out as much. But I love fish. I lo I love, the Nemos. Everyone loves Nemos. Nemos is great. Yeah. Oh yeah.

They're, they're one of my, that's one of my favorites. Don't go there very often. Yeah. But, if we do, there's a, is it Delmar on fifth? Oh yeah. Springfield Donut. Uhhuh. What I love about that is, they do a seafood, like a seafood boil kind of. Okay. And it's in a big, it's more of an appetizer, but it's, it's got mussels and clams and shrimp and fish.

It reminds me a little bit of a jino kind of thing. Yeah. And I love it. We go there and just get an appetizer, but we've only done that a couple times because we don't go out that much. But yeah, if we do, that's, that's one of our. Oh, that's good to know. Yeah. Yeah. It's, that's a pretty place too. Not like that.

It's, it's real nice, isn't there? It's pretty on the second floor and you go down to fifth. I love going to fifth just doesn't happen very often, but those are probably my, yeah. I like a, I'm just a, I love fish,? Yeah. I can live on fish. I remember. Are you fisherman too, like your dad? I am not Uhhuh.

He got it. I mean, he had it and I, it just, it wasn't for me. Yeah. But I would go with him, he would bring me out on fish and we always had so much fish. Yeah., he was the grouper and I didn't appreciate it at the time. Yeah. That I had unlimited grouper to eat. Right. And how much I love it.

And now it's, not as, as common or even catching it is not as common. Oh, I know. Fishing. But, but it was, that's one of my favorites., the, but I don't, but that's what got us here was fishing. So he, he brought me here, so I'm always grateful that dad and you. It, so that's good. Yeah. Happily cook it.

Yeah. Good. Love it. Good. let's see your

Yeah, these, you kind, you kind of told me your book already. Yeah. So, yeah, I got that. That's on my list now too. here we go.

What book or mo movie has had a profound impact on your life? Ooh, so many., to Kill a Mockingbird book and movie for sure. Yeah. Yeah. That would, that would be, that's, rad. Wait, so the, our neighbors named their pets after Scout and Atticus Scout. That's my scout. I've named my pets after them.

Is that right? Yeah. Yeah. My two cats were scouting Atticus. Scouting Atticus. Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah. Our neighbors, Boxer. They just had to put, put her down. Oh, the Scout. She was my favorite. She's, yeah, that scout. That's how I'd always remember the name. 'cause I had to think of the book. Yeah, no, that was def definitely, probably one of the biggest.

And yeah, there's, so I loved, wings of Desire. I dunno if you ever saw it. It's got subtitles, but that was very impactful. There's so many, so many that, in fact, one day I was just trying to write 'em all down because I thought that my top five are real easy to come up with, and now I'm like, blanking on 'em.

But, that, that, that was definitely right up there. Yeah. And, Yeah. And I used to read, I mean, I was a bigger reader I think when I was young. I don't know why I can't, in the summers they would kind of give you go read 10 books, remember? I dunno if they still do that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

But, so I never did it, but I was supposed to do it. Yeah. But now I love books,? Now I like books. The older I get the more I appreciate them. But I do use the audio books, the audible version of it. It's, it's, it's wonderful. Yeah. You like fiction? Are you kind of historical fiction or, more, I'm more nonfic.

I mean, I'd like to find a, a genre of fiction that I, but I usually, I'm usually always like trying to fix something in my life. So I'm reading and not like Okay. Or biographies. I like to, yeah. Biography some people the history and, that's why I'm excited about it. Your books. Yeah., what you've got coming and the love history, I'm just fascinated by.

And if you haven't read, you would appreciate, A Land Remembered by Patrick Smith. Okay. It is a history of Florida. It is. Everyone's kind of like, the amazing history. I mean, he is so good. And Paul, I actually had him when he was alive at our gallery speaking. We did so much fun stuff. We didn't Wow.

I don't know how we did it, but, 'cause now it seems like a lot. But yeah, he, it is really highly, highly recommended. A land remembered. A land remembered. Okay. Yeah, the library. Add that to the list of the other ones. Zach, please. Yeah, it's very readable. And I just, I tell you another one that, as far as local history, and it's, historical, I think nonfiction is, if it's called fiction or nonfiction, shadow Country by Peter Matheson.

Okay. And it's the story of Mr. Watson out in, the. Notorious murderer. He's got a chapter or a page in our book. Oh, wow. But that, Peter Matheson, did you ever read any He's, he wrote Oh, what, a play in the fields of the Lord and something Snow leopard or something. He, he's an incredible writer.

Okay. But, he's gone now, but he came to Naples and did research on the book, and we met him at a party. Oh, wow. And, he, the book he wrote, shadow Country, his editor made him divided into a trilogy. So it was killing Mr. Watson and something about the Bones. Okay. I could never get into those, but for some reason, shadow Country, even though it was 900 pages, I just thought was amazing.

Shadow Country. Really? Yeah. Okay. But you need to kind of keep notes., it's one of those th things I think, my, one of my first, my mother didn't have any real, worries when she sent us to the movies when we were little. Like a lot of people would like, well, what rate is it? And showed I saw all kind of stuff when we were little, but I know, I know.

My first that I loved was Auntie Maim. The, you Ever, it's like a, Rosalyn Russell. I mean, I was five or six,? Yeah, yeah. Auntie Mam. But that made a impression on me. That, that was a, a wonderful movie. And, yeah. But that was, a long time ago that shape you at five.

Yeah. It was just this woman who had a Aviv that just, was just so fun,? Yeah. And, it still stands up. I've seen it, since, I mean, it's, they unfortunately have some, stereotypes that would be not politically correct, probably now. Yeah. Somewhat like breakfast at Tiffany's.

Yeah.,? Well, I think that's fun about seeing all those is to see like the culture and what was acceptable. Yeah. And now, gosh, they would get so upset about some of the things that happened. Yeah. Some stuff needed to change, but some of it's just part of life that people are afraid to say now.

'cause I can't. Yeah. But, so I, I, this has been so fascinating for me. I've been such an honor to, to, Hear so many of the old stories and to see, you being such a big part of capturing the soul of Naples and, so much and so much. I hope so., it's, it's gonna be easy to, I feel like already when I look at it, I'm like, oh my God, I, I wanna rewrite.

You know what I mean? It's like, it's never feels finished and you hear new stories from people that you're like, oh, I wish I'd have been able to put that in and I found this picture I wanna put in,? Yeah. Yeah. So going, it's never ending going. It's never ending. Right. Yeah. But I'm glad I got Laverne Gainor in.

I got a picture of her. Yeah. What a great one too. Yeah, I appreciate that. You appreciate that because I, it warm my heart felt like, it showed her at such an exuberant young age. Yeah. And they look all happy, classy and beautiful and so sweet. You could just see her in that picture. What a great, yeah.

Capture a, a capturing of her and the history of our community. I know we gotta do this again 'cause there's so much more I want to cover that we just scratched the surface. I think so, absolutely. Yeah. I'm for it. And I applaud you for doing this at all. I mean, it's, it doesn't exist. I don't think there's enough, there's so many.

I want to, I want this to, I look back, I wish I had my parents to talk to again. Like, there's so many things that I wanted to know that I don't know. And, just getting stories out. And like I say, it's like we are, we're the old timers now. It's like, had that happen, we, yeah.

There were so many people that, I mean, even my landlord and Mr. Sloan, the man who., whose father built our house? I, why didn't I go and talk to him? Yeah. He would've been very open to it. Of course. Yeah., I just like, just why didn't I was busy,? Yeah, yeah. Well, well we're, we're on a mission, so you could be my partner and get people between Lanny and all the people and, Elizabeth and Oh, Elizabeth try to get Elizabeth, gosh, she comes in January, I think.

Okay. And, like I say, she'll kind of blow your socks off. She's just a different, she comes from another planet somehow. She just great. But she's all heart and she's just to listen to her voice. I just could listen to her voice. Yeah.,? Yeah. 'cause she's got this raspy, wonderful southern voice that, I don't know, she's just.

True fellow Louisianan too. She does, yeah. Yeah, that's gonna be great. And, they've been here, I mean, her husband Clark, they came down in like, I can't, I don't know exactly, bought a radio station or something. They, but it was like, late sixties or seventies, early seventies. Yeah. The really early times.

So they really, she remembers the beach store, which I don't remember,? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Did you remember that? Yeah. Was that there? I don't remember if it was there. I remember hearing about it. Hearing about it, yeah. Yeah, yeah. The beach story. Yeah. And, the hotel went down in 65, which Paul and I both like, it would've been across the street from us, and we both feel like that was what a loss.

Yeah.,? Yeah. And, when everybody, and I've tried to ask when I first got here, just naively like, well, why did they tear that down,? And truthfully, I don't, I didn't get a good answer. I think it didn't have to go, I mean, yes, it got beat up in the hurricane and, Donna, but Donna, yeah.

It was the wood. It was this, it could have been restored. Yeah. I just kind of sad that one went Yeah. In it's parking lot, so Yeah. For a parking lot. Yeah. And it would've, the picture, that I showed you when I was reading them, that Florence hauled them in prices, little excerpt, Donna Harbor, Donna put together, she just merged them and it's sort of like a fake picture 'cause she has the hotel, but she has it looking from the pier.

So when you see it's like, well who took? And Paul said, well, it doesn't really work 'cause that there's not a, that shows a telephone pole on the beach. And that wouldn't be, but it's okay. It's just to get the visual of what you would see when you would get off of the boat at the pier and look down.

Oh, right. Yeah. At the hotel. That's the pier was for, yeah. Yeah. Wow. So she, she just made it work. Yeah. And I think it was brilliant. So, I just would love to have seen, that hotel Yeah. Would be. There's lots of those that we're missing. Yeah. And kind of like you said, the Boca Grande, I mean, that one was more elegant.

I think that the Collier Inn, I think had a little more elegance. But, the Marco Hotel, did y'all ever go down there? Didn't, no, I talked to Paul about that quite a bit, but no, I've never been, oh God, for a while I was on the board of, what was it, the Collier County. It was historical, an archeological preservation or something board.

And, because that is such a historic building, it was built in 1880s and, it's, it's fallen apart kind of. Mm., and we got to kind of tour it and I mean, I know it's probably gonna go down, but it's such a shame,? Yeah. That's a big, big, the pilings are like rotted, tree trunks.

Yeah.,? Yeah. Yeah. I saw the pictures of that. Yeah. Yeah. But I just wish that there was more of an ethic here of preservation. Yeah. That's one thing. I mean, Naples has so much to recommend it, and it's just, that is missing. Yeah.,? Yeah. Yeah. It really is. I'm shocked to know that those, that whole section there, it wasn't preserved, of, of broad.

That is not, but it's, it's, everybody wants to be here and they keep coming here. I know. And values keep going up, and everything's so precious. I know. So I just, I you love it and you hate it for both reasons,? Are you still North Naples, or where are y'all now? Yeah, we're north. I'm in, I'm off of Livingston now.

Oh, you said Livingston. Yeah. Yeah. Livingston is just south of a moley road, but Okay. I've mostly been North, lived in Bonita for a little while, but grew up on, in Vanderbilt, on, on Tradewinds Avenue, which all those houses, we lived in an old stilt house. Oh. That was built in 77 by Don Kale was the architect, and it was a little 1200 square.

1600 square foot. Is that where y'all's first home? Was that when you went from the Yeah, it was a small home. We lived in a very big home, Tudor home in, in Phil home. But I mean, when you got here and you got off of came the, when we came here, we were in that big home. Yeah. Went to the motor home. So we're in this enormous home.

We lived in a motor home for three months, then we bought this tiny house by today's standards, but it seemed like a mansion moving out of the motor home. So I think my parents did that by design. And that was the one at Vanderbilt? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. It'd just been built by Don Cahill, Uhhuh on Trade 2 47 Trade Winds Avenue.

Yeah. but he picked it because it had, he could fish outback, it was on the lot and we could fish. And even though it felt like we were almost in Fort Myers at the time, 'cause Oh, that was drive to downtown Boondocks. Yeah, he was. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. It was way far out. Did your daddy also cook or did he just Oh, he is a great cook.

Yeah. Okay. But mom and dad, both great cooks, but he loved Cook. He was a, in fact, he and Joe, Dr. Spano would, they'd take turns. One would cook at one house, one would cook at the other. So that was a big deal for him. And instead of. When they would have the fundraising events, they would come and ask for haircuts or Yeah.

You know, whatever donation instead of donating that he would donate a, a meal that he would cook at his house and they would auction it off for a dinner at Robert's. 'cause he cooked some spectacular, it was such a great cook. He and my mother, they were great hosts and they would host great parties and, his food was known, so he was known for his cooking.

And, people would buy these dinner for 10 or whatever, or whatever for the community. How old was he when he passed? 75. Oh, that seems young. Yeah. Yeah, he was ready. He had been sick for a while. He was, he was ready. But yeah, definitely young in today's standards. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. He never, he didn't take good care of himself, he was a, a smoker and a drinker.

Okay, well that does take a toll. Yeah, it did, it did take his toll. But he, he lived good. He loved living that way. He went out, in fact, Dr. Spanner told him he had, he had spot on his lung, he had some lung cancer and he was emphysema. He was on oxygen. Dr. Spano told him, don't bother quitting smoking., just, you might as well enjoy your way at it, 'cause it's, the damage is done and it keeps your blood pressure down right now.

Yeah. So keep, keep going. And your mom, did she last too much? She passed real young. She passed a 57. Oh God. She had cancer also. She, yeah. Oh, that's terribly young. Yeah. Yeah. I know. And I think I'm older than she is when she passed. Like, how, at the time I didn't, I knew it was young, but I didn't know how young until I got to that age.

'cause you're in your young fifties old. Yeah. So it sucked. That's right. Yeah. And then now I go, wow. She was really just, wow. Yeah, she's been on a while. But, the two of them were, they're together their Italian love and their gracious hosts. And that's what the salons were. 'cause they were pretty much having a party.

It was like a, it was like a cocktail party to them. It was like, come to our home. Ah, fun. That's the salon that we're gonna, my mom would work up front. Did did she work? Yeah, she did. She work up front and she. Knew all the town t and the gossip of the community and, knew, well. She talked about Elizabeth and Clark and Valerie and Joe and the Gargiulo's and all the names of the town that I see.

You're so, you need to be interviewed. You've got the stories too from that. Yeah. I got little pieces of it. My, little pieces of the history of it, but I just am so, I love it. So my movie, it's a special place, we watched it grow up,? Well, I loved it. I didn't realize it. This is a th third generation that you're Yeah.

My son and daughter are, are involved and a lot of, we were just talking about that the other day. We have a lot of our staff on our team that, third generation, we have four generations of work here. We have from 70 to 17, a wide range of 60 people. Well, that says a lot about your business.

Yeah. If you can hold onto generations of people. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we're blessed. I think we, there's a lot of good, we got. Good people in our family and in our, in our, I'm, I'm lucky I get to work with 'em. Some fun people have a good time. Oh, that's wonderful. Yeah. It's been nice. We lot of blessings, don't we?

Yes, we do. Speaking of blessings, I have a one most important question, and the final question is, what do you love about your life? Oh, I love that I live in a, a home that I love with a man that I love and I'm near water and, I have still freedom to holding on. yeah, I love that. I've had, I sometimes wonder like when you wake up and you think, I, how did I get to be born in this world and not born in a tent in Sudan?

I mean, it's the, luck of the draw. Yeah.,? Yeah. Really is. And so, and just even the morning I was thinking, okay. I got up and I went to pt. I've got this leg thing and, nice people there helped me. Then I get to have breakfast with a friend and have a lot of laughs and then I get to come home and have her help me do something else, and then I get to come here and have a hair done and get, it's just like the little, the little gracious of, of the day,?

That's sort of where I really appreciate. Appreciating what there is here. Yeah. And what, and then of course to me it's like our health that, we're getting to where, things are falling apart. But, we're trying to keep 'em together. And Paul and I are still got a lot of plans.

You know, we got travel plans, we're talking about going to Africa, and we're going to, Bermuda and all these places. And you really realize I used to have this little cup and somebody made me give it to 'em, which I was, or I said, I don't need to have it. I know it's true. There's no wealth but health.

And when you think about it, that is the truth. Yeah. Yeah., and I know people that are up on these man, multi zillion dollar mansions, and they're just sitting there in their, sick bed or wheelchair Yeah. With no fun,? Yeah. It means nothing, none of that means, none of that means anything.

It's like the money thing is just not what It's Aboutm. No. And, I don't, I don't know. I feel like, we just, I grew up in a very financially precarious world in a lot of ways. But I always knew I was okay. You know what I mean? Yeah. It was so, the money thing to me, like the chase for it never got, I never got that.

Yeah. And I don't think anybody, my family did, I think we all saw where it led that chase and it isn't a good necessarily place. Yeah. So just try to take care of yourself, support yourself,? Yeah. Try to find a way to be happy that just so. That's kind of where, where I am right now. Love that. I just wanna try to stay healthy.

I've had my share of, things go wrong, but right now I feel pretty good. So, yeah. Well, you look great and your spirit's still alive and full. Thank you for sharing it with us too. Absolutely. I can't wait for the book and for our next time. I hope you love it together. I really do. I, I already know, it was sort of one of those things, it's like, well, we just, just do this book and we just jumped in and, it, like I said, it was a lot of interruptions, but I feel like we're gonna see it and.

Print, which is hard to believe. I'm finally gonna see it 'cause it's been four years. Yeah. And I guess we thought it would take a year and, just didn't really know what we were getting into. Well it's quite an undertaking and it's got, it is bigger. And I would approach it, like I say, like everything you learn along the way, the, how you'd have done things differently.

You know, there are people I probably would've interviewed if I'd have known to interview 'em. There are people, collections. How, but we did it., we got where we got. Yeah. And it is what it is. December, 2025. Here we come. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're ready for it. So, good. Well, God bless you and thank you again so much.

And I can't wait for the gumbo too. Oh, you're gonna get gumbo. Okay. All great.