Small Towns Podcast
Small Towns Podcast
E41 Small Towns Podcast – International Edition!
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Jason Kimber and Justin. What we're talking about live stories for our experience with Small Towns or Jason Kevin and unincorporated community. That's true. Along with Jason suggestions for solving those problems and all that is the Small Towns Podcast. Well, here we are, Dave, another uh Small Towns podcast again, Jason Kimber with the ever once again, I think we used it last time, the incomparable. Now it's for you. It used to be. I think we both can't be incomparable. You are incomparable. Dave Simmons, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you.
SPEAKER_02It's good to be here. It's good to be here. Hey, great. I feel great. I'll tell you what, I'm super excited about this pod. Oh, wait, why is that? Because we're going international. Oh, we are breaking borders. We're just knocking down walls and bringing in people from all over the world.
SPEAKER_01We should start like a nonprofit called like uh podcasts without borders.
SPEAKER_02Weirdos without borders.
SPEAKER_01I don't know if we should have that. I probably shouldn't say that. I probably shouldn't. I have to edit that out.
SPEAKER_02So I've been actually, from the get-go on this pod, I've thought I have one of my good, good buddies from the old mission days, Mitch Oviat, who is uh a is it true blooded if you're Canadian?
SPEAKER_01That's a good question. We're gonna uh that would be a question we ask him. Yeah. Would you say like true blue Canadian? I don't know if you're blue if you're Canadian. It's cool, right? Yeah, red. Yeah. That feels that feels right, that feels better.
SPEAKER_02Well, we we went ahead and and uh took the liberty of calling Mitch beforehand, and so let's just no further ado. With let's just bring in the the man, the myth, the mystery, Mitch Oviot from across the border up in Alberta, Canada. And now everybody clap. Mitch, how you doing?
SPEAKER_00Great, doing great, guys.
SPEAKER_02Um uh we are couldn't be better. Yeah, I mean, um Jason's office here is steaming hot. Uh it is a bit. I might crack the window. Well, I'm my shirt could come off. Don't forget the New Year's resolution, brother. I'm four months into not taking my shirt off, Mitch. You'd be very proud of me.
SPEAKER_00All right, I've seen it before.
SPEAKER_01Barely. It's barely changed. It's stu it I've seen it and it's breathtaking.
SPEAKER_02Mitch, in the ide in the kind of the spirit of um the small towns podcast idea, why don't you uh why don't you give our listeners a little taste of where where you grew up because from what I understand, and I'm I'm ashamed to say I've never been up there. I haven't either, which is I've seen it though.
SPEAKER_00I was on a I was on a It's not it's it's it's not because I haven't invited you.
SPEAKER_01I know. I know. I'm look I'm embarrassed about it, okay? And I'm excited to get into this because we've got a lot of I think tie-in connections um uh that we'll get into here in a few minutes, but I have actually seen Canada from a ski chairlift in uh like um like Sand Point, Idaho. Really? Yeah, they just said they just said if you look clear out to the north, that's Canada. Oh, did it look good? It looks it looks it looked beautiful.
SPEAKER_02Okay, well Mitch, give us a little rundown of your childhood days. Go ahead.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you betcha. So I grew up in a little um we call it a hamlet, because it's actually the hamlet of Sherwood Park. So you guys are talking about small, you know, small town podcast. I had to Google it to figure out kind of what the delineations were. So it goes metropolis, like mega city, and then city, and then town, and then village, and then a hamlet. But I looked on the population now, and I mean Sherwood Park is Sherwood Park's just east of Edmonton, kind of in in uh, I guess you'd call it kind of north central Alberta. We we usually usually call it, I guess, north out northern Alberta, but there's a there's a probably a seven or eight hour drive north of Edmonton, you know, up to the Northwest Territories. It's probably more than that, actually, if you had to drive it. But there's a whole big vast portion of the north, but we're kind of in the center of center of the province. And um it was a little town, kind of a bedroom community to to Edmonton, which is a big, you know, one of the one of the biggest cities and where the capital of of Alberta is. And um fast forward a bunch of years, now we live in in a little village, which is truly a village um called Sterling. And it's about uh we're about two and a half hours kind of north of Great Falls, Montana.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_00Kind of the prairies, yeah. Total, total farming community. You know, we got if the wind's right on any given day, you can smell the feedlots. Um, you know, the smell wafting or when they spread manure. Oh, yeah. It's pretty special. That's pretty great.
SPEAKER_01That's pretty commonplace around here, too. Yeah, that's a small town smell. Um Mitch, talk to us a little bit about population because I am kind of now I'm fixated on this concept of a hamlet. And if Hamlet could be, I mean, is that an international word?
SPEAKER_02I mean, because Grasskrick could be a hamlet. We we have Grasskrick as an as an unincorporated community, so yeah, but Hamlet sounds way better. Yeah, how many people in a st in a place like Sterling?
SPEAKER_00Well, Sterling, I guess we're probably we're probably I think the I think I looked it up. The last census they did, which was in 2016, uh, was about 978 people.
SPEAKER_01That's cool. Yeah, that's small. I mean it's like almost 10 times larger than Grouse Krug, but it's still small.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean compared to most places, that's a small.
SPEAKER_01No, no, no that's small.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So uh it's smaller. Do the kids go to high school right there, or do you have to ship them to another hamlet?
SPEAKER_00I feel like it's they uh there's a K through 12 there. Um so you know the kids can go to go to everything. We kind of had a little bit of a we had a bit of Spokane in the middle of things. Um, but we've basically basically been here except for the couple of years we spent in Spokane. We've been here the whole time. So there's certain things like um like my my son Callan, he's in grade 11. Um so what so I guess that's a junior.
SPEAKER_02Hold on, Mitch. Um real quick. Did you catch that, Jason? Callan? No, he called it grade 11. That was one thing that always got me. We don't call it grade 11. No, I just call sophomore 11th grade. Or small sophomore. Yeah. Yeah, that's the I like 11. He used to always say grade 12, grade 10, and I'm like, it's like say it the right way. Mitch, listen, I apologize in the.
SPEAKER_00That's why I translated.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah, yeah. When you first started speaking, I'm like, well, hopefully everybody understands him.
SPEAKER_01But so far, so good. So far now, talk to me about uh Callan. What is his graduating class once he reaches grade 12?
SPEAKER_02And there's a grade 12 X, by the way. Oh, there is? Well, if you want to, he can tell us about that too. They're not anymore?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's right. Dave's heard it all. Dave's heard the whole spectrum because back in back in our day, you could go, like I graduated, I have a twin sister, Mandy. Our birthday is the middle of November, so I'm I'm born, I think I'm three days before you, aren't I, Dave? I think.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I'm the 19th.
SPEAKER_00Something like that. 19th, that's what it is. Um anyway, and so so we graduated, we graduated, you know, at at 17. And so back then they had the option you could go back and and do another year of sports, so it's Ken's kind of gotten rid of that. Really? It's crazy, right? Yeah.
SPEAKER_02We weren't too happy about how it went in my my uh senior year. I'm gonna try it again. Try it again. Yeah, I that one was always one that just completely baffled me. But kind of cool.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it probably would have worked well for a guy like me. I get a duel. Try it again. Yeah, try it again. Try it again. Um, Mitch, I gotta just ask you. Uh first of all, I love that you're from Canada, and Dave and I shared this in that we both have dear friends from Canada that we met the same way. Uh I believe you guys met on your mission. Yep. And my first three, count 'em, buddy, one, two, three. My first three mission companions were from Alberta, Canada.
SPEAKER_02Really?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. The first one was in the MTC. Actually, I think he was from Raymond. But uh last name of Raymond's like 10 miles.
SPEAKER_00Raymond's like 10 miles down the road from me.
SPEAKER_01Really? Okay, so uh that guy, his name was uh uh Cahun, last name Cahun, and then my first two companions when I was in Australia, guy by the name of Ryan Johansson and then Cody Bone. Um yeah, Ryan Johansson's from Cardston. Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_02Do you know Ryan? Yeah, I know him. Oh yeah, his I I think everybody in Canada knows each other. Oh, I think that's true.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, his his dad, his dad is really good friends um with uh with my parents. So I love that. Listen, he's a he's a he's a second, he's a second, uh he's a second marriage actually to to my mom's best friend that she grew up with here in Sterling. So we'll have to chart.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'm gonna need to get a whiteboard, but I'm excited about it. Again, and it it does is you might have heard Dave mention this. It proves Dave's theory that everybody in Canada knows each other.
SPEAKER_00Especially probably probably especially in the church. Yeah, you can figure out a lot, you can figure it out.
SPEAKER_01Exactly. What do you do? What do you do for a living, Mitch?
SPEAKER_00So I'm uh I own a veterinary clinic or crow own a veterinary clinic um with a guy that was a couple years behind me in school, um, also an LDS guy. And so we have a we have a clinic called Ranch Docks, and we're just kind of in Lethbridge, which is the the biggest city. It's about it's about 20 minutes um 20 minutes up the highway from where we live. And so yeah, I'm uh I'm kind of a I'm I'm what you call a mixed animal veterinarian, so I do large animal and small animal.
SPEAKER_02He's the guy do it all. Yeah, he's the guy who's telling you that he has you don't wear a rubber glove when you do that job. You wear a rubber sleeve.
SPEAKER_01You do if you're oh I was gonna say you do if you're a gentleman.
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah. It's all about the sleeve, and you know what, they've even got sleeves now that have a hole that goes over your head, so you can, you know, the the sleeves not slipping down like the I need that. Yeah, I need that that just came up to your shoulder. Yeah, you can get right in there. I need your head'll just head neck hold it on.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. I mean, I don't I don't find my arms up into Bovinian territory very often. Fair enough. But if if I ever did, I need that suit.
SPEAKER_01I need that whole thing. One time, Al de Grouse, when um um we had an older couple, I think I've maybe mentioned them on the pod before, Ernest, love, just Ernest and Celeste great.
SPEAKER_02First of all, the fact that his name is Ernest is possible.
SPEAKER_01I got his picture over here somewhere, but champion of a man, he called my dad up one time. He's like, David, I got a cow, and I'm pretty sure I've used this phrase before, and I'm sure Mitch will know what I'm talking about, although I don't think this is probably the proper veterinarian vernacular. He's like, David, I got a cow that done turned herself inside out. Yep. Yeah, so we I mean, speaking of these these these gloves with these huge sleeves, I don't know if my dad had one, but like I just remember there was a whole lot of pushing, and then there was a big old needle, and it just seemed very uncomfortable for the bovine. I would imagine. But I think it's I mean, yeah, you know.
SPEAKER_00You're talking about a uterine prolapse, probably, where she had her calf and then spat out her calf's dead. Yeah, it's a mess. It's like in in a big in a heifer, it's not always so bad because they don't have a really big develop, but in a cow, I mean you might have, you know, you might have what feels like a hundred pounds of gunk hanging out of that cow and yeah, trying to get it shoved back in. We do use an epidural, though. Oh that's you numb them. You're a gentleman, at least so they're better than it could be.
SPEAKER_01And obviously, I mean my dad was not a veterinarian, he was a heavy equipment operator, but he was helping where he could. So we I think what we did was kind of what I would call a band-aid approach because after we did that, then we loaded the cow up in the back of the truck, took it to Burley, Idaho, 70 miles to the north, to see like a real veterinarian, like Mitch.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, well, and take the time to lose that extra 40 pounds.
SPEAKER_01Now, bitch, you'll have to forgive me, buddy, uh, because first of all, I think I've stated, again, three of the greatest people, I love them, from Canada. And now, buddy, I'm gonna count you as number four.
SPEAKER_02Well, I think it should be vaulted right above those first three.
SPEAKER_01For sure, two of them, for sure, yeah.
SPEAKER_00But for sure I'm gonna vault you right above. You know, I've actually been on one other podcast. What? I thought, yeah, true story. I thought for sure I'm like, oh, I'm a vent I'm gonna be on Dave's butt. You know, I was like probably the original listener. Do you get to like look at stats on who lives? Oh, yeah, we already listened.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we do, and we see that we have a following up in Canada, and it's probably you. Yes, we appreciate that.
SPEAKER_00Yep. When Dave Oh yeah, my wife plays it, she'll be like, Did you hear Dave's last podcast? And I'll be like, No, I haven't yet, and we'll throw it up, and it's good stuff.
SPEAKER_01We appreciate it. When Dave told me that uh that this was gonna be on the docket for today, and it's he can he can adjust, he he can verify this because I just have a piece of paper here and a pen that I keep some notes. And as soon as, again, no offense, as soon as he told me that we were gonna talk to you from Canadian, I wrote down two words. Did you just say from Canadian? See, sometimes my brain gets working faster than my mouth. Yeah, that's fine. That's fine. So, yeah, so when I heard that we're going to be speaking with a Canadian from Canada, I wrote down two words on my notes.
SPEAKER_02What do you think his two words were to ask you about? What an American might want to ask a Canadian about.
SPEAKER_00That's oh man, there's so much. I've answered so many questions. I mean, my my wife's an American, of course, too. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Did you know you he kind of stepped out on his countrymen?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'm married to America. I'm totally versed in both directions, yeah. My wife's from Washington State from the Tri-Cities.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Okay. Well, um I uh to give you a little bit of a hint, because that was a pretty you know broad question that Dave just lobbed up at you. That I wrote down it's actually a title of one of my favorite movies of all time.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah. Great. Are you talking are you talking about a little bit of Bob Mackenzie?
SPEAKER_01Strange brew. That's up to this point.
SPEAKER_00Strange brew. You bet. I haven't, I mean, I haven't seen it in probably 35 years, but yeah, me too, buddy, but I still love it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's quotable. It's quotable. So so Mitch, just real quick, give us an idea of what your childhood was like. Were you uh I mean, I would imagine you had to wear a park uh 24-7, 364. Because I there's gotta be at least one warm day. One warm day up there. At least one warm day up there.
SPEAKER_00It was a pretty it was it's a pretty cold um like Edmonton and the you know, Edmonton area in Short Park. It was a pretty cold place to be. We actually we actually used to live up in Yellowknife, which is in the Northwest Territories, which is even further north, like up kind of up kind of, you know, on what used to be the Yukon. Not quite, not quite, well, I don't know. Alaska's always a uh confusing thing to talk about because Alaska comes down so far. Um but but I mean way, way up there. So we we lived up there until kindergarten and then we moved to moved to Shrewd Park. And um, and I mean it was yeah, it was cold. Southern Alberta, Southern Alberta is a is a walk in the park compared to that. The only thing we get here is wind. We get a lot of wind, like 60 mile an hour wind sometimes.
SPEAKER_02I don't care for the wind. Uh wind blows. Yeah, it does blow. Pass it off. Yeah, it really does.
SPEAKER_01So so so cold.
SPEAKER_02So so uh maybe maybe let's talk about some of the uh childhood memories that you have. Something uh it seems like you talked you you grew up with a bunch of cousins around the same area too, didn't you?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so I had some I had some OVIAT cousins, one one in particular that was that was um you know my same age and same grade. Um he lived out he lived out a little more kind of into the rural um area than me, but we spent a lot of time together growing up. That's my that's my cousin Cody. Um and yeah, I mean we did lots of we did lots of hunting, and you know, our dads are really outdoorsy, so we did lots of hunting and and fishing and that kind of stuff growing up. Um you know, hunted hunted ducks and geese, and and we go, you know, we go hiking in the mountains, which is a little bit it's a lot closer to where I live now than than then, but um, we have a little farm, we have a little farm that's been in the family since the 30s down here. So it kind of that comes out of well basically comes out of Glacier National Park and then Waterton National Park on the Canadian side.
SPEAKER_02Are there any uh are there any funny northeast? Are there any funny stories or stories that you tend to tell your kids with back from the childhood that you you wouldn't mind sharing with us?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so I was I was a pretty short, you know, I'm a pretty short kid, as you well know, Dave. So I But he's lightning fast.
SPEAKER_02The boy can read.
SPEAKER_00I'm a whopping five, I'm a whopping five nine. But anyway, when I was a kid, I I was always like really, really small. So so anyway, one time this cousin Cody came over to my house and we had a bunch of old bikes, and I had this, I had this little rusty yellow, it wasn't a banana seat bike, but it was like, you know, it was something that obviously had had a seat from decades before on it. And anyway, he he came over to my house and he's like, Well, I'm taller than you, so I better ride your brother's bike. I have an older brother who's four years older than me. He's like, I better ride your brother's bike, and and you better ride your your yellow bike. And I was like, Okay, so anyway, so we get on these bikes and we get cooking around town, and we come, we come down kind of a steep corner, and of course he can't really touch the ground on this bike that's my brother's bike. We come around the corner and we are we are just cooking it, and there's a bus parked there, and so he proceeds to T-bone himself into the back of the bus that he couldn't see until the last minute. Yard sails a bike under the bus, you know, right in the face. Just it would be on YouTube now if it existed, but that was the kind of stuff. Interestingly enough. So so uh that's what you got, I guess, for riding riding a big bike while I stayed on my nice little appropriately sized.
SPEAKER_02So yeah, it serves him right, right? Serves him right. As long as he's still he's okay to this day.
SPEAKER_00Same kid when we were 13. We went uh we went climbing um a mountain called Chief Mountain that's just barely across the line in Glacier Park. And sounds like a big one. Yeah, it's a it's kind of it's kind of uh it looks really impressive from the from the Alberta side. It's kind of it's called Chief Mountain because it looks like uh it looks like an Indian chief laying on his back, like kind of profile of his face if you follow. Okay. And then there's a big sloping part behind it that's supposed to look like the headdress. But anyway, so we go, we go with his uh his dad and some other family friends, and we and my twin sister was there too. And we go and climb this thing, and we're on our way back down it. So we're 13, and he starts just flailing his arms and legs, and I think he's just messing around. Um because you know, he's just flailing, and it's just kind of the kind of thing he would do to just, you know, he's just that kid. Anyway, and then all of a sudden comes together like a gymnast, and just one momentary two feet together, and then just over and over and over, rolls and rolls, and rolls and rolls and rolls. Anyway, long story short, um, we ended up getting airlifted off the mountain. Wow! He got airlifted actually to Cardston, and then uh the Park Services um back around where we met up with the park service kind of on the road, and they had to reopen the border because it was so late at night that the Canadian um American border was closed. We had to get special permission to get back through the border, but anyway, we have so many uh we have so many um kind of crazy crazy stories.
SPEAKER_02Did he come out of that unscathed?
SPEAKER_00I mean, I realize he got um he he's he spent several days in the hospital, um obviously, but uh, but you know, it's one of those like hey, um, you know, live to tell about it. And he ended up landing a little bit of minor brain damage.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and he landed up landing the part on Goonies as sloth.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02Later.
SPEAKER_00Well, listen, I want to make sure that I was in uh he was in Manchester, of course, when when uh you and I were in Sofia.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00Uh just Well, I guess you weren't always in Sofia. I was I was, I should say, when we were in Bulgaria, because you get you were in you were in lots of Plovdiv just for three months or so.
SPEAKER_01Sometimes I get a little mixed up with my stories, but so if I'm hearing this correctly, the same guy that just tumbled over and over and over is the same guy that just like T-boned a yellow school bus. Is that correct? Yep. So I mean the guy's got some stitches, he's got some scars. He should get off bikes, is what he should do. He probably should. I mean, just think what would happen if I mean what if he what if he had a bike with like a non-banana seat. You mean no seat at all? Well, I mean just the banana seat I feel, I don't know. I don't even know what I'm saying about that, but the banana seat is just stuck in my mind as something that would probably attribute to this crash. I don't know. It's got a lot of movement on that.
SPEAKER_02So you can go up and down that seat a while. I mean, you a smaller seat, you're gonna fly off.
SPEAKER_01That's fair. That's fair. That's funny.
SPEAKER_00It's pretty much like the you know, like the Wonder Years. I mean, it's literally like it's like straight out of the Wonder Years, you know? Do you guys ever watch that? Yeah. Oh, yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_02Jason probably had a crutch on Winnie. I who didn't have a crutch on Winnie. I've been I bet I got a running tally of the people he had a crutch on, and I think I'm almost a half dozen deep right now.
SPEAKER_01Well, we're gonna we're gonna add more to that list. One thing about Mitch, obviously, this sounds like a small town, which is fantastic. Um is this the small type of town that when you give directions, are you referencing well, you know, you go past the old heart place and then turn. I mean, is is it is it that small of a town that you're giving directions where people really have Live there a hundred years to understand what you're talking about?
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah. I mean, the the tough thing about you know, and and like I say, my mom grew up in this town. You know, the only times I would come here were like for family reunions or stuff when I was a kid. But the problem is that people will always reference, you know, the old Hartley place, the old this place, right? So it's so I didn't grow up here, my mom did. So when they're like, oh, you know, next to you know, next to Miller's, and you're like, you know, who? Right. Haven't lived there for maybe, you know, maybe 40 years, 50 years, however many years, right? So we get a lot of that. Where it's like I find that kind of unless you grow up here, you have no idea. Yeah. And I have to sometimes remind them, I'll be like, hey, I have no idea who you're talking about.
SPEAKER_02For some reason, that cracks me up though. Jason will tell me stories and throw out names like people I should, I should know who they are. Like you should, like old Stella down the road. I don't know who this is, but you can continue on with the story.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, it but it's the it's definitely a a a piece of small town culture where you say, Oh yeah, uh, they just purchased the frost meadows. Well, there hasn't been a frost that lives in Grouse Creek in 50, 60 years at least. And and it's funny, I don't know what it takes, but my one of my bucket list items, I would like my name to be associated. Oh yeah, that's the old Jason Kimber House. That's the old Kimber house. That's the old Kimber Manor.
SPEAKER_02That's the old Kimber double one.
SPEAKER_00Um yeah, and the other, and the other thing you gotta know is like your directions, right? Like we're on the prairies, so it's pretty like it, it's I feel like it should be easy because the mountains are kind of to the west. You know, you can always, you know, if the mountains are to your left, you're facing north, you know, kind of thing. But you'd be amazed at how many people, especially kind of up and coming generation, have no idea, you know. If you if you say, oh, it's north of this place or it's that road, you know, go go aception over east and then you know, whatever they they have no idea directionally, right?
SPEAKER_02So it's just I think it's I think that's generational, Mitch. My my kids are the same way. I have a 22-year-old, and she's still not 100% sure all that stuff either. But you know what I blame? Let's get all old man on you right now.
SPEAKER_01Please, go ahead.
SPEAKER_02They they don't they don't look out the windows when we're driving around. They got their phones on their stinking or their nose on their phones, exactly, and they have no idea where they're going.
SPEAKER_01What what we need to do is we've got to take all of our kids right out in the front yard. We've got to be facing north, and then we gotta say, never eat soggy waffles. It's so easy. We said shredded wheat. Shredded either way. Yeah, never eat shredded wheat. That feels better than soggy waffles, because who would eat? Actually, I like shredded wheat a lot.
SPEAKER_02That doesn't surprise me at all. Dave Mitch, do you know this? When we go when we go to like Texas Roadhouse or something, this is a guy who's they say, What two sides do you want? And he chooses of one of them. The grown man chooses applesauce. Who doesn't love a nice canned applesauce?
SPEAKER_00Um, you know, uh uh, you guys are talking about, you know, Canadian stuff. So here's one, and maybe Dave, I don't know, did you and I ever talk about cherries, Dave?
SPEAKER_02No.
SPEAKER_00We ever talked about we so my family puts cherries on like on like a ham, like a ham roast.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00Like literally like canned, canned sweetened cherries. And so so I was probably like, I don't know, I was probably a teenager before I realized that all families don't do that. And you know, like apple, you know, applesauce on pork was okay. Um, but but we had cherries, and I asked my parents one time because I was at a friend's house, and you know, it came up, and I'm like, you know, I came back home and I was like, hey mom, um so I guess other families don't eat cherries with their ham. What's going on? And anyway, and it turned out some friends of theirs from from way back east in Ontario somewhere um did that and they tried it once, liked it. And so my family for you know for generations now, I guess. Um brought it up. I guess well into our third generation. Yeah, all our kids, all our kids will eat cherries on ham, but I didn't realize that was a thing. And and I thought it was maybe a Canadian thing, and it wasn't. It was just sort of a specific thing, but you should try that sometime. Well um good stuff.
SPEAKER_02Do you would you ever go out to breakfast and order steel-cut oats?
SPEAKER_00Nope.
SPEAKER_02No, no, well, why would you?
SPEAKER_01It's so delicious, and there's so much good stuff. It's funny that I would be saying, you know, promoting a healthy type of lifestyle, but I'm not really the poster child for that. But still-cut oats are so delicious. You put enough brown sugar on them.
SPEAKER_02If you put enough brown sugar on anything, it's gonna be fine. Yes. So good. Um Mitch, here's here's another one. I I wanted to give you the chance, the opportunity to uh clear up any what uh maybe misnomers that you think that uh used to call me Yankee, but I I don't know if I really like it because I don't really care for the Yankees, but that's okay. You are a Yankee. And and and Mitch, is it a slur to refer to Canadians as Canucks? No way, man. You like it? We love it. Okay, nice. Yeah, we don't mind it. Okay, great. So it's not it's not offensive. Okay, great. So so are there any misnomers that you would like? I mean, because I think you speak on behalf of every single Canadian. I'm pretty sure of it. Yes. Well anything you'd like us all to know that we're woefully ignorant about? Like the fact that you don't have to wear a parka 24-7-364?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so we, you know, we used to go, we used to go down to Provo quite a bit and go to like EFYs. My older brother would go to my older brother would go to them and and we went down there a time or two when I was a teenager. And you know, we used to our our favorite thing to say when we'd get down there, you know, we'd we'd tell girls like, hey, you know, we don't we don't uh live in igloos, you know, in Canada. First of all, that's ridiculous. You know, some of my friends have large wall tents, you know, canvas wall tents, but they have a stove in them. They're really quite well equipped. So we used to we used to we used to pedal that a little bit. And you know, unless they unless they uh had a cousin in Raymond or something, then uh most of the time they most of the time they bought that kind of hook line sink. But it was funny, you know, when I worked in I worked in Spokane, I've been in I've been in practice now since 2006. So I I guess I'm I'm 16 years into practice. And when I so so basically year one I was down here, and then year two and three of my early days in practice, I was down in Spokane. And when I moved back to Alberta, one of my bosses asked me. Um, he's like, So do you guys have the internet and stuff up there? And he was stone cold dead serious. Oh and I said, Yeah, Bob, we do. We have cell phones and the internet. You know, this is like this is like literally like you know, 2009.
SPEAKER_02Oh my gosh. Hold on, hold on. Oh, I knew this was coming. Yeah. Okay. Sorry, I was getting a phone call from the school telling me my kids missed class.
SPEAKER_01Gosh. Um, it I want to hear a few more things if you need to clear the record straight, but I will say we've been we've been on this call for about 30 minutes now, which have been which have been just wonderful, but not once, Mitch, have I heard you end any word with the letter A. Sentence with with A.
SPEAKER_02It's not a letter A, it's like an E H.
SPEAKER_01It's like it's oh it's like it's like kind of that old joke, how do you spell Canada? C-A, N A, B-A.
SPEAKER_02Well Mitch, you used to say you used to say more hey, like I don't know. It's hard to explain it.
SPEAKER_00True. I mean, there's definitely you can you can usually pick up a Canadian sooner or later. You know, there's some tells that they'll have right in their speech most of the time. But like I say, I try to I try to hide mine, especially, especially um kind of post-COVID, where it's gonna embarrassing, uh embarrassing how how Canada's kind of handled it. You should have seen getting through the border with with uh because of course my wife and all the kids have US passports, and I'm the lone Canadian, but anyway, that's a that's a whole other story. But like I say, you can you can usually usually Canadians will give it, you know, give it away. And we can, you know, it's like anything else, you know, we can usually pick up on you know who's from who's from the Maritimes and Eastern Canada or who's from you know who's kind of from where or who's who's really far northern. There's a there's certainly some regional stuff, just like in the States, I suppose. Sure, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we know who's from Boston and the Northeast. Maybe the South. And the South for sure, Texas. Now, West for sure.
SPEAKER_01I think we all kind of have different things. We've got our own little accents and dialects that we probably don't pick up on. But I'm gonna tell you, one thing that I've learned, there are small towns everywhere, and everybody's got a story to tell.
SPEAKER_02They really do. Let me ask you a couple questions. Um, does do you love hockey?
SPEAKER_00Uh not so much.
SPEAKER_02Can you skate backwards?
SPEAKER_00I'm like what's that?
SPEAKER_02Can you skate backwards?
SPEAKER_00I'm like, I'm like Happy Gilmore on skate. You gotta understand though, like like my you know, my dad's from Southern Alberta. I mean, Southern Alberta is a basketball mecca.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00You know, it's it's like that's where it's at. Like if you wanna, if you wanna, you know, see a fight in the parking lot, it's at the bat, you know, it's following a basketball game, a heated basketball game. There is some hockey, but you know, down here, certainly, but it's a basketball thing. So, you know, my dad played college basketball, so it was all about, you know, basketball, basketball, basketball. And then of course, height is wasted on the tall, right?
SPEAKER_02Yep, that's it. Yep, we blew it.
SPEAKER_00Dave compensated well. I haven't heard I haven't heard you talk much about basketball, Dave. And you really should. Dave Dave was phenomenal. That doesn't surprise him.
SPEAKER_01I've Dave is an athlete. Well, I like to pretend.
SPEAKER_00I know you know what though, I do you know what, you know what, like Dave used to Dave used to frustrate me when we play basketball against each other because I feel like I can jump higher than him, I know I'm faster than him, and he would strip the ball a lot when I'd be going up for shots just because he he would get to where he'd just read me like an open book. Or if I was gonna cross over, if I was gonna cross over, he could see it. He was really, really good at that. So my my one my one moment of triumph was we were playing in a we're do you remember the remember the US Embassy um 4th of July party that we went to? Where it was baseball? Yeah, yeah, and you struck out in slow pitch.
SPEAKER_02No, that is that uh there's no way. There can't be. I look, either I scrubbed something from my mind, exactly. I could uh that I don't believe it.
SPEAKER_01Well, we're gonna have to have some fact checks.
SPEAKER_00Here's the thing though, this is why it was so satisfying, because weren't you weren't you on like like the state like state B or State Something all-star team in between basketball and baseball?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, well, uh I yeah, I can play baseball, and there is no way I missed three softball pitches.
SPEAKER_00I know.
SPEAKER_01There's no way.
SPEAKER_00Hey, that's so funny when a guy can't seeing you fan, seeing you fan on some big high lobbing pitches that were coming in. I mean, that was my one moment when I'm like, I've finally got this kid. Okay, get okay. You know what?
SPEAKER_02Maybe it didn't hardball. Because if somebody's lobbing something that's coming down from the strap, exactly. That's not even why do you why even try to swing at something like that?
SPEAKER_01That's silly. All I gotta say, though, it's not so funny a guy can't throw a ball over a roof now. Don't coach me with that. That's funny, Mitch. That's that's a little tidbit that you kind of want to have our readers kind of our listeners kind of tuck away. I'd I would have preferred that never even came out.
SPEAKER_00Because I have a friend. That's why it's the one thing I had to find a way to weave it in.
SPEAKER_02You have more than that on me. That day we had to run back into the MTC, you were gone, man. We we I told you that by the day. He can just run like he's like he's track star. Yeah, exactly. Like it's different level. Okay. You think you think you might be able to run okay, which I always thought I was decently fast. You're not fast when you run next to guys like this. No. He's he's got some wheels. Um, and it was always best when we'd play on the same team in the M in the MTC, because all I gotta do is throw it, throw it down the court. He's down there already.
SPEAKER_00Do you do you remember when the do you remember when the Bulgarians wouldn't let us play in their uh in their like in their street ball tournament? Remember that?
SPEAKER_02I remember trying to go to one, but I don't remember why we couldn't.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, they because they didn't want to play against us.
SPEAKER_02Oh, well, probably plain and simple.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we we went with we had like Martel and we had I can't remember who else. We had pretty good pretty good roster. We would have done well. And when we showed up, they said no, you can't play. So they knew we would have smoked them.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, well, they didn't want a piece of this. They didn't want it in the light.
SPEAKER_00The orange the orange blaze, baby.
SPEAKER_02Dude, uh are you by a window right now? What's up? Are you can you see outside as of right now? Can you are you by a window? All right, let me ask you this. What is the first thing you see? A caribou, a bigfoot, or a polar bear?
SPEAKER_00I actually see that. I actually see my dog kennel, Dave, with the dog that I picked up when I came down to Salt Lake. Yeah, he came all the way down here to get a dog.
SPEAKER_01Well, can that dog pull a slight?
SPEAKER_00It can, it could, but it's a heck of a pheasant dog. I was gonna say, for sure it's a house.
SPEAKER_02He came all the way down here for the LeBron James of Pheasant of bird dogs. Well, let's do it. That's what he said. What he must have got it from Barfas. Our next door neighbor, you could have a good conversation with him next time you're down here. That's impressive.
SPEAKER_00Is it a Britney guy?
SPEAKER_02He's got oh, what is that dog? It's a big old oh, it's embarrassing because they listen to this pod and he's gonna be yelling right now, so you should know what my dog is. It's like it's a hunting dog. It's a hunting dog.
SPEAKER_01Not in.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's a hunting dog. Yeah, it's a hunting dog. So next time you it but he trains it for birds.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah. You're gonna want to talk to him next time you're down here. Do you hey while you're looking out there, do you see the northern lights?
SPEAKER_00Nope.
SPEAKER_02Dang it.
SPEAKER_00What about but we will sometimes, you know, like really rarely, you will actually down here. And sometimes, like, if you know about it, you'll you'll head out to do it. Certainly, like growing up in Shredd Park, we used to see them more commonly up there just because you're further, you know, you're about you're about five hours north um of where I am now. So we used to see them there, and of course, in the territories you can see them all the time.
SPEAKER_01I'd love that's kind of a bucket list thing for me. I'd love to see that. Um uh what about lunch? Have you ever had just for a nice lunch? Have you ever had uh a CBLT, which of course is uh Canadian bacon bacon Canadian bacon uh lettuce and tomato?
SPEAKER_00We call Canadian bacon ham. Oh, with cherries? Yes, that's right. Sometimes I've never put cherries on a ham on a on a you know on a Hawaiian pizza, but I do like that's that's when we chuckle about we're like, how in the world did that happen? Canadian bacon.
SPEAKER_02I don't know, just called it it's just pretty much ham. Yeah. But you know what? When you go to Yeah, it's pretty much ham. I think I think it's ham. Yeah, it's pretty ham thin sliced ham. It is. Yeah, maybe it's just the cut. Like at our one of our local uh pizza joints, everybody knows Frederico's around here. You can get ham or Canadian bacon. Oh. And the Canadian bacon is sliced differently and the ham's kind of ground up.
SPEAKER_01It kind of reminds me of that Simpsons episode where Bart said or Homer says to Lisa, oh sure Lisa, next you're gonna tell me that ham and bacon and sausage and pork chops all come from the same mythical creature. Canadian bacon seems to be kind of magical that way.
SPEAKER_02You know what I had never heard of until, I don't know, probably 10 years ago? Mitch, you never told me anything about poutine. And I think that looks delicious, and I've never had it. Is that oh let me just take a stab at it?
SPEAKER_01Is that fries with gravy on it? And and like cheese and melted cheese.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, cheese and like crazy amounts of gravy. That's kind of I mean it's a French word, so it's from Eastern Canada, like from Quebec, is where it kind of you know started. But yeah, my wife, my wife and kids love that. I've never been a poutine fan. I'd I'd like to try poutine.
SPEAKER_01I'll try it. I'd try right now. I'll try it right now. Give me some fries and some gravy.
SPEAKER_00You gotta, but like you go to a Costco, you know, here, and like you go to the Costco in Lethbridge, and you can get a really good poutine. So if you ever come up here, Dave, I will take you for poutine.
SPEAKER_02You're gonna take me to the Costco and get us some poutine?
SPEAKER_00I'm gonna I'm gonna take you to Costco, spend like, I don't know, five bucks. Wow.
SPEAKER_02What a guy, what a friend. Yeah, I like this guy already. Yeah, he'll take you to the Costco, get you the Kirkland brand poutine. Exactly.
SPEAKER_00Well, Mitch, we're coming up on my wife my wife thinks that's like that's like the upper tier of you know, they call I can't even probably pronounce it, but they call them like they have poutineries, right? Which are like typically catering to poutines.
SPEAKER_02I I think it's a great idea.
SPEAKER_01It's a genius idea. You know what? Actually, of course it's a genius idea. You want to make anything in this world better, cover it with gravy and cheese. That's right. We should make a poutinery here in Cache Valley.
SPEAKER_02It'd probably sell like hotcakes. It seems like a lot of work though.
SPEAKER_00Mitch, we're coming up on leave it open until like 2 a.m. so you get the kind of closet poutine cravers. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02The same guys that have the wacky tobacque, they're the ones in there wanting poutine. Hey, uh, we're uh we're coming up on 40 minutes, and I've yet to meet anybody that wants to listen to this podcast for any longer than 40 minutes.
SPEAKER_01But thanks for being with us, buddy. What great Canadian stories. You're you are now on the my top list of top five Canucks. Wow.
SPEAKER_02All right, awesome. Mitch, thank you so much. Say hi to the wife and kids for us. All right, we'll do. Okay, talk to you later. Bigger easy gen. Okay, see ya. Goodbye.
unknownThanks.
SPEAKER_01Call ended. What a great guy. What a great guy. Yeah, exactly. We ought to make, you know, we're gonna take this uh podcast international. We just did. I don't know what else you want. I mean, that doesn't get any more international than Canada. It really doesn't. I could barely understand it. I've never heard the word A so much in my entire life. Of course that's not true. Did you did you realize you spoke Canadian?
SPEAKER_02Fluently. I I mean it's pretty special to be able to speak Canadian and English. It does, and now I've got a real anchor. Me too. Thanks again, folks, for listening to another episode of the Small Towns Podcast. We're pretty sure we could change your life for the better. If not, well, we'll try again next time.