Do Yinz Love Jingletown?

We hang out with local legend Frank George and trade stories about comedy, Johnstown pride, and the old rules that shaped a tight community. The laughs are loud, but the real point is serious: either build a better hometown or stop waiting for it to change on its own.
• road comedy, open mics, and staying sharp outside the city
• remembering Donovan and what community looks like in grief
• the Speakeasy mic vibe and why comfort matters for comedy
• where “Scoot” comes from and how names stick
• growing up around the By George and bar-life lessons
• By George bylaws and respect as a local currency
• the Willie Stargell hat story and refusing special treatment
• Johnstown on film, wanting out, and learning to stay
• ethnic roots, Catholic traditions, and what feels “normal” here
• sloppy joes versus steamers and the food-language of PA
• the “leave or build” mindset and giving back
• loyalty, integrity, and direct talk as a town value
• downtown nostalgia, Glosser Brothers memories, and what’s missing
• local food picks: Sal’s, Clark’s, Surf And Turf, G-Man, Kabuki
• Steelers talk and why winners get a shot
Stay tuned because we’re gonna have lots of events here in Jingletown.

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Transcript

Live From Moxham And Hellos

SPEAKER_01 1:14

Lantern, flicker, thunder roll, Scott and Crystal on patrol. Back road twist, the moon hangs low. Sasquatch tracks where the rivers flow.

SPEAKER_03 1:29

We're live. Live.

SPEAKER_04 1:31

Gotta love it.

SPEAKER_03 1:32

Live down in Moxon.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

Down the hood.

SPEAKER_04 1:36

Down the hood. Down the hood. I've been looking outside, making sure no one takes any of my anything from my car.

SPEAKER_03 1:44

That's why I like that you park right in front of the big window. Yeah. Because then you can just keep we got an eye on it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:50

We got an eye on worry about them tires.

SPEAKER_00 1:54

All right, guys. So welcome back to another episode of Gilded Trash Podcast. Today in this studio.

SPEAKER_03 2:02

Special guest.

SPEAKER_00 2:04

Man amongst men around town, local legend, one Mr.

SPEAKER_04 2:11

Frank George. What's up, buddy? Man, I got if you can see me, I got, you know, I'm blushing a little bit with all those nice things. No, I'm I'm uh I'm so happy to be here. Uh excited about what we're getting ready to talk about and looking forward to uh some real big things getting ready to come up.

SPEAKER_03 2:31

Yeah. So Frank and I have been, of course, a part of many shows together, and uh we work together and we have a nice little comedy partnership going, and we got lots of big dreams in the future. Lots of things coming, lots of things in the pipeline, lots of things in the works. We've talked about some of it.

SPEAKER_02 2:49

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:50

And uh, but yeah, but of course, stay tuned because we'll definitely be having some upcoming announcements because we got some things, we got some pieces coming together.

Comedy Runs Road Trips And Loss

SPEAKER_04 3:00

Yeah, yeah. This puzzle is is uh puzzle. We got the edge done. Now we're just filling in the middle. You know how hard it is to fill in the middle sometimes, right?

SPEAKER_00 3:12

The stars are aligning though, guys, and I love it. So we don't have a lot coming up this next couple weeks in comedy. However, it is spring, and folks are starting to get their boats ready to go out in the lake. So there may or may not be some people out in Ray's Town this week while you do an open mic.

SPEAKER_03 3:30

Oh, yeah, I'm going out there Friday and I'm going out to Racetown. Oh very cool lake. Yeah, it's at this uh I forget what it's called. Like the Ray's, what's it called? The Racetown Country Inn and Lodge or something like that. Somewhere in that yeah, I I may be available for that. I'll have to speak to the missus and find out if we're able to do that. But yeah, they well, so that there's a guy uh out in um like the state college. Well, he's in like the Huntington area. His name's uh Kevin Quinn, but uh he does music, he's a music guy. Okay, so he does like he does several mixed mics like in the uh Huntington area, but this dude is so awesome. He also has a traveling oddities museum where he's got like all kinds of like old crazy things, and like he travels around. Like, I'm just gonna say that he's got like the foot of a Civil War soldier. I don't know if he does. But that's the kind of shit that three-headed snakes and shit like that.

SPEAKER_00 4:29

Yeah, it's an oddities museum, but yeah, so we'll be hanging out with him, and then we also have um one of our good friends passed away a couple months ago, Donovan, and they're doing a memorial for him. Shout out to Donovan.

SPEAKER_03 4:43

Shout out, yeah. He was a good dude, real good dude, one of my really good friends. We have some friends in, so of course, I'm originally from like around Gettysburg. I'm not from Gettysburg. I thought he was gonna say around the ghetto.

SPEAKER_00 4:57

Hey Gettysburg. That's brother.

SPEAKER_03 5:00

Right around the ghetto. That's you guys. But yeah, no, so I grew up around the Gettysburg area. Well, anyway, she had some friends in Gettysburg, and we have friends in Gettysburg, and these were he he was one of our really good friends from out there, one of her best friends. It was her husband boyfriend, whatever you want to do.

SPEAKER_00 5:20

Longtime partner.

SPEAKER_03 5:20

Yeah, longtime partner. Gotcha. And uh he was real cool. He uh he was from Jamaica, and he me and him would constantly just cut up the entire time that we were out again. He was such a funny guy, and um he made some funny observations.

SPEAKER_00 5:38

He was just he was a quick one.

SPEAKER_03 5:40

Oh, yeah, right. Very quick with him.

SPEAKER_00 5:42

And you know, I'm very glad to say that you got to see Scott perform before he passed away.

SPEAKER_03 5:46

Yeah, they came out to we did a show down that way, and and they all got to come out and see me. So and he already had cancer at that point, so okay, it was kind of uh oh that's cool that you got a chance to see you. Yeah, absolutely. And uh they really enjoyed that. It was a great night when we did that. So that was a lot of fun. But yeah, we're going out to do that this weekend, so yeah. Well, you never know.

SPEAKER_04 6:08

I may join you, you know. Like I said, I'll talk to the missus and see because that would be fun. Because I know we've been talking about doing some you know, open mics in Pittsburgh and stuff to keep us sharp.

Open Mics Worth The Drive

SPEAKER_03 6:19

Yeah, and you and dude, the open mics, a lot of these I'll you need to come to me with some of these up at State College, Altuna. Yeah, there's so many good ones that and if the way that I look at it is if you're gonna drive to Pittsburgh, it's the same distance to go to Altoona or State Congress. Really? I mean, it's a little bit, you know what I mean. Altoona's a little bit closer, but state college is basically like the same difference. Exactly. So it's like it's an easier drive, actually. It's an easier drive because you don't have to deal with the traffic, right? Right, right, and not only that, but the venue, like you don't have to worry about parking at most of these places, right? You don't have to deal with the city or any, you know how it is going to a mic in Pittsburgh, so many places, especially the ones like in the south side and stuff. Yeah, you spend a half hour looking for a parking spot, you know what I mean? Like, yeah, so it's like um, but yeah, but and the venues are really cool. There's one that you should go, uh it's in State College, it's called the Speakeasy. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:19

No, that's in um Bellefon. Bellephont.

SPEAKER_03 7:22

Which is, yeah, that's right. Right, right, right, right. But um, it's at this place, it's called uh Gamble Mill, right? Which is like this big old mill that has like there's like a restaurant in there, like this venue, there's like a bar, and then there's like this thing that they call the speakeasy. And when you walk in, she'll show you the videos later, there's this giant picture on the wall. We didn't even know. We're like, how do you get in there? And they pull it back like a big door. Oh, and you walk in.

SPEAKER_00 7:50

It looks like it's an antique picture of like a flapper girl, like a vintage woman, like Mary Monroe-ish or whatever. It's it's gorgeous. But yeah, so that's a really fun mic.

SPEAKER_03 8:01

And it it gets a good crowd, but it's all couches in there. There's like a big old fireplace, like all wood and stone. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like it's very cool. So it's like 1930-ish. Almost leather seats, like all mocked up. We got the yeah, that's very cool. It's very cool.

SPEAKER_00 8:21

It has a great vibe. Oh my gosh, it's such a great vibe. And the crowd, the the crowd just gets really into it because they're close to you. They're sitting down, they're not sitting up on bars still holding.

SPEAKER_03 8:32

Right. You're just talking to them in the middle of this room. So it's almost like it's like we're talking right now, yeah. Right. And so it's like you really interact with them because they're comfortable. I always say this, and I don't know if you agree, let me know if you do. Comedy depends on a lot of things. Like, you don't just have to be funny, there's a lot of other things that have to go right. And one of those is how comfortable are the people in the audience. If they're not comfortable, they're not going to be laughing. No, you know what I mean? So if they're in the world, they're worried about everything else. This, they're nice, they're sitting in couches, and they laugh because they're relaxed. Yes. And they have drinks coming.

SPEAKER_00 9:10

Well, that's always drinking out there, too. They have like all the really good, they have a really good old-fashioned.

SPEAKER_03 9:18

So their barn's really cool too. It's all old brick and like wood. It's very cool. It's very neat.

SPEAKER_02 9:23

It's a whole vibe.

SPEAKER_03 9:24

Yeah, the place is awesome. It's beautiful. Well, we'll definitely have to do that. Yeah. Um, they just did the one for this month, but next it's the third Thursday of every month. The third Thursday. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:36

Hosted by one of our favorite comics out there, track suit Scott Davidson.

SPEAKER_03 9:41

So I don't know if you know this, but there's a uh so many comedians named Scott in Altoona. Is that why we changed your name? That's why I that's why I ran with it. You ran with it. Scoot works better. Scoot. You know what's funny is so we work Heather.

SPEAKER_04 10:00

That was Heather's penmanship, by the way. That was Heather's penmanship. Thank you, Heather.

SPEAKER_00 10:05

It actually worked in Scott's favor.

How Scoot Became Scoot

SPEAKER_03 10:09

So at my work, we work with people. Well, there's one group of people that's like based in the U.S., and then there's another team that I work with that's based in the Philippines. And we don't have as much, we don't talk or interact with them as much, but I do because of my position. I have a little more contact with them. And so I messaged one of them today about doing something, and he messaged me back and he said, Hey Scoot. Now he didn't know about that, but it was still funny because I was like, That's my name now.

SPEAKER_04 10:42

That's my name now. Scoot, right? Yeah, I think that he's gonna do a fucking some comedy, and then after that, then after that, he's gonna go, uh, so what happened in Georgetown today and start writing, you know, Scoot, ready for the daily news.

SPEAKER_03 10:59

And I said, I love it too now, because even now when I go into the bar, yeah, people are like, hey Scoot, hey Scoop. It's everybody. I ran into somebody at Walmart and they were like, hey Scoot. That's cool. I mean, yeah, heather way to go.

SPEAKER_00 11:15

Yeah, that's hilarious.

SPEAKER_04 11:17

Yeah, you can say hi.

SPEAKER_02 11:22

Hey, what up?

SPEAKER_00 11:25

You're welcome. She's gonna be another I will accept my royalty check. It's fine. She's gonna be part of our management team as we grow this comedy empire together, I think. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 11:38

Very, very, very excited about this. I I will let you guys know that when you asked me to come and do the podcast, I couldn't be more excited. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 11:47

Well, you're like we said, you're a Johnstown legend. I appreciate you. One of the first people. So when obviously, uh, you know, I'm not from here. We've lived here for a little four and a half years now. When we first started coming up here, now we used to come to visit because she's from here. Right. So, like we would go out here or there, but it's not like I really got to know anybody or anything like that. Occasionally, because I wouldn't remember from one visit to the next, right? You know, six months in between or something. I don't know this guy, unless it was like her family or something. But I always loved going into Ohio Street. That was like I was like, I love the feel of this place, right? Right. And then when we first started coming up here, I mean, when we first moved up here and we started, you know, going out into the neighborhood. I remember this, I kept hearing him talking. I'm like, who is this guy? But I was like, he's got an all-time voice. Yeah, yeah, I've been told. Yeah, I've been told. No, but that and he you're one of the first people that I remember like standing out and being like, who is this? Because everybody knew him. You know what I mean? Yeah. Everybody, when you're at a place, everybody that's walking in, hey hey Frank, how you doing, but you know what I mean? You're that kind of guy. I appreciate that. And uh, but no, you're all time, man. But yeah, of course we wanted to have you in here.

SPEAKER_00 13:05

But I think one of your earliest favorite memories before you really got to know Frank was you and I were at Ohio Street. We were sitting, we were playing the machines.

SPEAKER_03 13:15

You were playing the machine. I was sitting, do you remember when you pranked Mike as his son asking for money? And Mike was pissed. Oh, he was pissed off.

Johnstown Energy And First Impressions

SPEAKER_04 13:31

He was hot. He was pissed. Meanwhile, oh yeah, God rest your soul, Mike. But I had you that fucking I had him walk by the ticker. He was pissed.

SPEAKER_03 13:44

And I'm just cracking up.

SPEAKER_00 13:46

That was fantastic.

SPEAKER_04 13:47

That's that's good stuff.

SPEAKER_00 13:49

So, and and I knew of you from around town, right? Like we've I we've run in similar circles, but again, there's a little bit of an age gap. You know a lot of the same guys I do, but I was still too young before I left town to really like hang with those guys. Right. Because I left when I was like 17, but my dad knows you, right? So and my dad absolutely loves you. You're like his other son, one of his other sons. And and you know, he's he my dad's a hard man to get to know and love sometimes. But if he loves one of the guys around town, that's you can't say shit.

SPEAKER_04 14:28

That's it.

SPEAKER_00 14:29

So Frank's his boy. You can't say shit about Frank.

SPEAKER_04 14:31

Can't, yeah, and guess what? I'm standing right behind him and talking shit.

SPEAKER_03 14:39

That's what he likes about it. Yeah. And the other reason that we wanted to have you, and I think the biggest reason is because as we've gotten to know you, one of the things that I've always been fascinated with is like, I, as an outsider, I love Johnstown. I think the people here are great. Yeah, there is some things that are, you know, every town's got its issues. I say this all the time. But it's a great place because the people here have a lot of heart, they got a lot of character.

SPEAKER_04 15:06

There's a lot of character and a lot of characters. A lot of characters. Yeah, that's exactly right. That's for sure. Which makes it cool because you you say, Well, you know this cat, and then you start talking about it, you go, Oh, yeah, I know that dude.

SPEAKER_03 15:23

Yeah, exactly. And one of the things that I've become fascinated with is like sort of the history of the place, you know what I mean? And as I love hearing stories about how it used to be. Because I I that's one of the things that I can view like through in my mind is like this lens of like the glory days.

SPEAKER_04 15:43

You know what I mean? Like you talk about glory days, you talk about when my dad had a bar in the 70s, you know, the buy George, and it was called they would say buy George by two. So at two o'clock, they'd knock, and my dad would let them in. And you know, five o'clock as you're closing the bar, the cops are driving by and they're driving you home. You're not getting DUIs back in the set. They drove you home and they knew everybody. Everybody knew everybody, and and you know, now it's different, but you still have those same core of people that have the same values that you have, and and that's what makes Jingle Town Jingle. I call it Jingletown. I don't call it Jones, I call it Jingle Town. Yeah, it's jingle town and me.

SPEAKER_00 16:32

You guys like Light of Snake?

SPEAKER_03 16:35

No. Oh, so let me ask you this. Like, now, as you were growing up and your dad owns this bar, are you there?

Growing Up Inside A Bar

SPEAKER_04 16:45

I was there. Did you like grow up in the bar? Oh, I grew up right in the bar. I grew up so much in the bar that when my when my dad had the bar and divorced my mom, he lived up on the third floor of the bar. And he had a black German shepherd that was in like the hallway, so no one would ever go to his apartment. Yeah, his name was Spartus, yeah. Big black German shepherd. Oh, hell yeah. So, what I would do is I I since I grew up in a bar, I kind of knew how to play the game a little bit even as a younger child. So when I would stay at my dad's, I would I would wait till you know 12:30, 1 o'clock. I knew the guys were all drunk and they were all my uncle. Right. You know, being a dago, everybody's your uncle. Right. So I would get my tooth, you know, and they'd be loose and I'd pull them son of a bitches. Like if it was just a little bit loose, I would wiggle it until I popped it off, and then I would go down the steps one in the morning, and I'd go over to each one of my uncles and say, Hey, I lost my tooth. Did a tooth fairy come to your house? And then you're so drunk, man. This is 1976. I'm nine years old and I got$250 in my God. Yeah, it was good women back then. Oh yeah, I was making more than some of the guys that were in the steel mill.

SPEAKER_00 18:15

Yeah, and that's that's something about growing up around here, too, is that we all could walk into the bar if our parents were around, right? Yes. We could walk into any bar in town. So, me growing up, I would do the same shit. I would know when my dad was getting paid. I would walk into the bar after I knew he had enough beer, and I'd be like, Me and my friends are going to the dance tonight tonight. Meanwhile, not only did I get a 20, all my friends got a 20. And then Uncle, you remember uh the mailman, the mailman was passing out money, and Cannon, all the guys down the bar were like, Oh, you guys are going to the dance, have a good time, get some pizza afterwards.

SPEAKER_04 18:54

Yeah, you you come back, you have money for three weeks. I bought a bike. I guess so. I bought my own bike at nine years old. I pointed to it and I said, That's the bike I wanted. And they said, Well, that's$45. And I looked and I said, Yeah, and they said, Well, it's$55 if we put it together for you. And I licked my thumb and said, I want that one already written, man. I wrote it right in the elevator. Wrote it in the elevator out of the door. No, I was a pen traffic. Yeah, you left out on the second floor. I took it right out the window. Whoop!

SPEAKER_05 19:29

Right, I'm through.

SPEAKER_00 19:32

That's fantastic.

SPEAKER_05 19:33

Yeah, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 19:35

And so him having that bar. So the Buy George, if you guys aren't listening from the Johnstown area, we have a huge stadium downtown Johnstown where we have triple ABA games.

SPEAKER_04 20:38

Was the stadium there then? Oh the stadium was there, but he was on the corner of Maine and Market the first bar. Okay. The first Buy George. So it was right across from City Hall. And then he left there in '82. And in 1983, he bought the place right across from the Point Stadium, which is the stadium that that you're talking about. Right.

SPEAKER_03 21:01

And let me ask you this. So, how long did your dad own the bar in total?

SPEAKER_04 21:07

Like so, in total, he had the first bar was called the Golden Key, and he was the manager of the Golden Key. That was in the late 1950s into the 60s. Now, where was that at? That was where the old Sejuan restaurant was down in on Main Street in Drake.

SPEAKER_00 21:25

Across from the dispensary there and up a little bit.

SPEAKER_04 21:27

Gotcha. Yeah, so he would have jazz bands. Uh you wore a shirt and tie when you walked in, the bartenders lit the ladies' cigarettes. Like, I grew up like, man, drinking Shirley Temple's and you know that kind of stuff. And correct me if I'm wrong, but like downtown was like a busy place.

SPEAKER_03 21:50

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_04 21:50

It's totally a different world. It's different than it is now, believe.

SPEAKER_00 21:54

Well, one of the things that I always told Scott about, and I know that.

SPEAKER_04 21:57

I want you to make sure you come over and say hi, what's up?

SPEAKER_00 21:59

Make your podcast debut.

SPEAKER_04 22:01

Podcast debut, big dog.

SPEAKER_00 22:06

Um, Jeff, we're talking about old-fashioned bargain days. Um, back in the day, like in the 80s, the early 80s, my mom was like the PTA lady. You know what I mean? Like so she had a clutch of ladies and moxum. They all, we all went to Cypress Avenue School, and she they all would get together and make gobs, make uh pigs in a blanket. That's how I learned how to make those pigs. They would do that every time, every year for old-fashioned bargain days, they had little stands and sell sold their little good stuff.

SPEAKER_04 22:37

It was a special time, yeah. You knew everybody in town, which was which was really cool. Um, you know, when my dad took over the buy George after the golden key, it was a real rough place. So he put by George bylaws. And you couldn't wear men couldn't wear a hat when they sat down at the at the bar. Uh guys weren't allowed to wear tank tops. Um, you weren't allowed to swear if there were women in the bar. So there's all these buy George bylaws he had to clean the place up. Yeah. So at that time, Willie Stargil um was in business with Mr. Salem, and they had a car dealership in northern Cambria. Okay. So they walked into the by George, and you had to go down the steps of the old by George. You had to go down the steps to go to the bathroom, and Mr. Salem waved to my dad and said, you know, I run into the Bacasa, which is a bathroom in Italian. Run into the Bacasa. So as he goes to Bacasa, here comes Big Willie Stargin. And he has a big straw hat on. And my dad says, You know, hey Willie, you know, nice to meet you. How are you? I'm Frank George, I'm the owner. Uh and Willie says, you know, I'd like to have you know whatever he wanted, CC and water or whatever. And my dad says, that's fine, but you have to take your hat off. And, you know, this is Willie Stargil. My dad don't give a shit who it is. And he, and Willie Stargil said, I'm not taking my hat off. It's part of my attire. And my dad said, Well, you and your attire can get the fuck out of my bar because I have guys that work in the steel mill that come here every day and spend money and they take their hat off. What makes you any different? You don't put your pants on any different than I do. Get the fuck out. He kicked Willie's throw. Mr. Sailor came up and said, Where's Willie? My dad said, He's sitting out on a, you don't want to take his hat off. He kissed my ass. All these other guys take their hats off. Kicked Willie, captain Will on the hill. God rest Willie's soul. And my dad, they're up there probably. My dad probably still told him to take his hat off in heaven. Throw him in heaven, take your hat off there, big Will.

SPEAKER_00 25:00

So was your uh when they filmed um Slapshot, was was that any of that like uh involved with your dad and down?

SPEAKER_04 25:09

No, no, well, I mean the parade and whatnot, but um he had some friends that were in it, of course.

SPEAKER_00 25:15

Sure.

SPEAKER_04 25:16

Um and then with all the right moves, he was over at the new bar when all the right moves came in. I got to meet um coach Craig Dino. Yeah, who was a super cool. He's my favorite person from the movie. He was a super cool guy, man. He sat at my dad's he gave me a uh letterman jacket, an all right moves letterman jacket, which someone stole when I was in college. Um broke in and stole my job. Yeah, which yeah. Um Tom Cruise was an ass. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:49

Yeah, yeah, he was a man back then. But I've heard that from a lot of people who had the chance to meet him when he was in town that he was an ass. However, I heard that Leah Thompson was a terrible sweetheart.

SPEAKER_04 26:01

I didn't know that. I wouldn't I would have liked to have known.

Movie Town And Wanting Out

SPEAKER_00 26:07

Did you know? Um do you remember Steve Keith? He went to Ferndale.

SPEAKER_04 26:11

Steve Keith, was he in the he was in the movie?

SPEAKER_00 26:14

No, he wasn't in the movie, but um he went to Ferndale and they put Leah over at Ferndale and didn't tell anybody who she was. So people caught on.

SPEAKER_04 26:22

Okay, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:23

He was like hitting on her before he knew that she was famous or whatever. So that's his claim to fame, is that he was hitting on the new girl and then found out she was Leah Thompson. Very good. Steve Keith was a good-looking kid back then. Let me, I mean, he was he was he wonder if she dug him at all. I don't know. I would love to find that out if I ever get a chance to know her.

SPEAKER_04 26:42

I'm gonna ask. Yeah, I would like to know. Be like, who'd you shack up with Johnson? Yeah. Was you with you? Was you with the mom from what the hell was that movie that she was in that she was the mom? Back to the Back to the Future. Yeah, back to the future.

SPEAKER_00 26:58

But I don't know if you remember that. So they filmed the party scenes after like when the after the wedding on right where Grove Avenue starts to turn, where the little uh car wash is there. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. On that street. We lived on DuPont Street right there in one of those houses that crossed Grove, right? So I'd we didn't know what was going on. I woke up to go to school one morning and there were trailers lined the whole way up the street. They were filming that party scene. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 27:27

Well, it's so crazy that the two movies that they film in Jingletown are both so depressed. Everybody wants out of the town. Right. Yeah, are you kidding me? Like, yeah, you know what? They they wanted to go to Florida for slapshot, you know, they wanted to get out of town. Tom Cruise, he wanted to get out of town. Everybody wants to get out of Jingletown. And you love it. What the fuck? I love it. I said the F word and I said the writing. I said F and not fuck. That was pretty good. Yeah, that's pretty good.

SPEAKER_00 27:59

No, we can swear on this podcast. That's good. That's good. But yeah, I mean, and that that's I grew up wanting to get out, and I did. When I was 17, I packed the bag. As soon as I graduated, like it was two weeks after graduation. My girlfriend that lived down in Franklin County, she's like, come on, girl. She's like, you come live with me for the summer. And I did. And then I was already scheduled to go to Indiana, IUP. Yeah. So I was getting out of town, and then I got knocked up in that malay and was like, well.

SPEAKER_03 28:28

And ever since we started coming here, I've been fascinated with it.

SPEAKER_00 28:31

He loves it.

SPEAKER_03 28:32

For whatever reason, it's like, and I grew up in the country. You feel home. I grew up in the country, but I feel the same community.

SPEAKER_04 28:41

It is. It's the people that you surround yourself with. Right. I mean, because there's nitwits everywhere.

SPEAKER_03 28:47

Well, that's exactly right. That's what I say. Every place we've ever lived has had idiots doing dumb shit.

SPEAKER_00 28:53

Right. And there's no more crime here, here, right here, than there is if we would live in Baltimore, right?

SPEAKER_03 29:01

Oh, or Pittsburgh. Or wherever or any other East Coast city. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like.

SPEAKER_00 29:07

There was as much crime in Waynesboro in certain areas when we lived out there.

SPEAKER_04 29:11

I think we got spoiled because back in the day, like there was one murder. And obviously, I don't know the exact but I think there was one murder in like 10 years. Right. And we get like one a week.

SPEAKER_02 29:27

Right.

SPEAKER_04 29:28

Which in Jingle Town, we're like, you know, we're not used to that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_03 29:32

Well, so much so that, like, you know, you've seen uh you know I talk about Johnstown in my comedy store. Yes. Everywhere that I go, people get it because they all look at Johnstown as like this bad place. Oh, yeah. They all get the jokes.

SPEAKER_00 29:48

They're all like, what's it like? Oh, you live in Pizza Grey?

SPEAKER_04 29:54

I have comedians while I'm sitting watching them go, Booms Farm. Frank, you're from Johnstown. You know what that is. Like, oh yeah, yeah, mad dog 2020.

SPEAKER_00 30:05

That's the that's the beauty of Johnstown, though, is that we are hood and we're part inner city, but we're also country. We're Appalachia. We're really what Appalachia is. We're all my town. We're all kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_03 30:17

It's like uh it has all those feels of all those different things. It's like half country, half Western Pennsylvania cult down, half like city, half all these different things.

SPEAKER_04 30:28

And your uh ethnicity is is such a big part of everything that goes on. Well, that's just but it doesn't matter if you're full-blooded German, if you're full-blooded Italian, if you're full-blooded this, you're full, like everybody.

SPEAKER_00 30:43

But just be proud of the ones, everybody gets it.

SPEAKER_03 30:47

Well, down like where I'm from, there's no like ethnic clubs, and then I come up here and I'm like Polish National Alliance, isn't that what Hitler belonged to? You know what I mean? Like it totally was it's a different experience for me, but I love it and I love learning about all that history and tradition. Like those are the things that like have you seen the movie?

SPEAKER_00 31:09

It's a Christmas movie, and it came out a couple years ago. It's called Feast of Seven Fishes.

SPEAKER_03 31:13

I have not.

SPEAKER_00 31:14

It's set in West Virginia, southern or like Western Pennsylvania town.

Traditions Food Names And Catholic Roots

SPEAKER_03 31:19

It's set in like, yeah, it's supposed to be like a West Virginia town, like in I'm gonna say like the Morgantown area. Like where like talk very much about like the Steelers and stuff, you know what I mean? So you know it's like a that part of like West Virginia, and but it's an Italian family, and um, what's the guy's uh is it Joe Pandaleonis?

SPEAKER_00 31:41

Joe Pandali, Joey Pants, yeah. Joey Pantali.

SPEAKER_03 31:43

He's in it, um, the one other guy that plays like gangsters in a bunch of movies, he's in it. But the But the movie is about family and connection.

SPEAKER_00 31:53

But it speaks to Western Pennsylvania and how we all grew up because it ties back to so they're Italian and they're doing Feast of Seven Fishes at Christmas time. Yes. And it's how the family's in and out all day, and somebody's in charge of getting the liquor, and somebody's in charge of making the parts.

SPEAKER_03 32:11

The chicken cutlets are being made.

SPEAKER_04 32:14

It's almost like the good fellas scene, like where they're cooking, my brother's doing this, I'm watching. But we are hey, the the funny thing is Maria.

SPEAKER_02 32:25

Sal.

SPEAKER_04 32:26

Yeah, I I started, we started this this Italian thing, you know, our our second, our second person, I call it. And I'm using quotations. So call me Sal. I call Heather Maria, and then we have Nikolai here. And what do we call Nikolai?

unknown 32:49

Carmine.

SPEAKER_04 32:50

Carmine. Carmine. Hey, Carmine, come here for a minute. Come say. Forget about it. Yeah, forget about it.

SPEAKER_02 32:58

What's up? That's Carmine.

SPEAKER_04 33:02

He got some Italian in him. Yep. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 33:06

But what's your real name? Uh Nikolai. Nikolai. There you go. And what grade are you in? Third. Third grade.

SPEAKER_04 33:13

He just had his first Holy Communion. You know how big that is for people. I don't know. Like, again, that's a huge thing. And I mean, I believe it's it's probably everywhere, I would guess.

SPEAKER_03 33:27

Well, let me say, no, it's not, and I'm gonna tell you why, because down where I'm from, they don't even have Catholics. Right. Nobody's even Catholic.

SPEAKER_00 33:35

Right. That's because there is there's not big pockets of Italians.

SPEAKER_04 33:39

There's not big pockets of Italians. Yeah, and and you know, Heather's family being Italian and Calibrae's yeah, I'm Sicilian. I'm not Italian, so she doesn't really like me that much. Yeah, yeah, but that's okay. Yeah, the big red flag. But it it's crazy because it was a whole it's a whole fancy thing.

SPEAKER_00 34:02

Come on, Heather.

SPEAKER_04 34:05

If that's the biggest red flag, I'm doing all right. Been hiding them son of a bitches for a long long time, them red flags.

SPEAKER_02 34:14

I'm well, I'm not colorblind, but you might be.

SPEAKER_04 34:17

Yes, yes. But it it is, it's it's a it's a tradition that's you know, it was it's very special. Like it's a very special thing, and and you know, even you know how he was dressed and the and then the dinner after, and it, you know, that's it's a big thing in in Johnstown.

SPEAKER_00 34:38

It is. Well, see, my youngest daughter, Dakota, she's half Italian, and her dad's family is um very entrenched in all of that. Her dad, I still don't know what his real middle name is. It's either Michael or Anthony, one or the other.

SPEAKER_04 34:54

Everybody else the same name. Yeah, well, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:57

But I mean, that's they were like of the from the Baltimore Diocese. Actually, Dakota's grandmother was a nun in from the Baltimore Diocese or the Pittsburgh Diocese before I was gonna say they started in Pittsburgh. They started in the Pittsburgh Diocese, but Dakota's grandmother was a nun before she decided to leave and get and get married. Um, so yeah, that's a very much a part of my youngest child's very cool.

SPEAKER_04 35:23

Yeah, and it is, it's it's it's a big, big deal. I remember my mom when I had mine, um, she ended up telling me a couple days later, she said, you know, had everybody over to the house and I made sloppy joes. She said, and as I was, as I was doing the sloppy joes, I was, you know, getting rid of the grease, and it all fell into the soapy water. She said she didn't know what to do. All the people were coming, she said, so she just rinsed it off. You know, she just rinsed it off real good. And I said, No wonder I was blowing bubbles when I was eating sloppy joes, I burped and a big bubble came out. What the hell is going on in here?

SPEAKER_05 36:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:06

So that sloppy joe's. I'm glad you brought that up because we talk about this a lot on our Pennsylvania episodes. We grew up calling it Sloppy Joe's. They call it Steamers.

SPEAKER_03 36:17

What do you call it? Steamers. Steamers, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:20

And he's only from two hours east here, bro. Like there are what they call foods over there. So when I first moved over that way, I I was married when I was younger to somebody else, but when I first moved over there, I told them one night I was like, Oh, Easter's coming. I'm gonna make pigs in the blanket, and I'm gonna need the whole day to get these rolled and wrapped up and everything. They were like, What the fuck is wrong with you?

SPEAKER_03 36:44

They didn't know what pigs in the blanket were? Well, they thought they were the hot dogs with the cheese and the crescent rolls.

SPEAKER_02 36:49

That's what we did down in uh Texas.

SPEAKER_00 36:52

Yeah, yeah, they were like, How hard is it to roll hot dogs up in crescent rolls? And I was like, That's not a pig in the blanket. I don't know what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_04 37:01

Yeah, but I'm not yeah, that's a crescent roll hot dog.

SPEAKER_00 37:05

That's what I called them. Yeah, I called them the the hot dogs. Pig in the blanket.

SPEAKER_03 37:11

We never had a cabbage roll. But then we never halushki, none of that. We never ate none of that stuff. I didn't even know what any of that was. And then we came up here and I'd have everything we went to, I'd have six different versions of Haluski. Steamers. Steamers, we had steamers, yeah. That's what sloppy joes were, steamers.

SPEAKER_02 37:34

Yeah.

Leave Or Build Something Better

SPEAKER_03 37:35

And that's a big thing, and they're very like it's a that's it's a big thing down there. They home steamers, and that's like you would never hear somebody say sloppy joe. No, never, no, unless they were from somewhere else. So that's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 37:51

I think I had a n a couple other questions on my list for you.

SPEAKER_03 37:55

But I say that all the time though, that like even though it's just two hours east of here, uh it's a complete Johnstown is a completely different world. Yeah, it's crazy, huh? When you think about it. It is because it's like I think about things like it amazes me how different it is. Just being that short drive. Two hours is nothing. It's nothing. It's a little over Pittsburgh, right? Right. And the difference between where I grew up and here is nightmare. That's that is crazy.

SPEAKER_00 38:27

It is crazy, but it took me leaving and coming back and being able to appreciate it through his eyes and his lens that makes me love it so much more. Like, I didn't when we bought the house here, I was shitting my pants. I was like, I'm not staying here.

SPEAKER_04 38:45

And now look at the house, it's beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 38:47

Yeah, and now like the house is what I want. The people around me are what I want. You're right. Like, I can make friends anywhere I go, and I have. I've done that time and time again. Right. We've made our, you know, we've lived in South Carolina, in Myrtle Beach, we made friends. We've lived, you know, up closer to South Mountain, Pennsylvania, and made friends in Hagers Town. You know, we've lived all over and made friends.

SPEAKER_04 39:11

So we Well, you guys are very easy to get along with, first of all. Well, I mean, that is yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 39:19

But so, but the people here, because now it's like now that I'm in a place in life where I'm starting to think about giving back and who deserves being given back to. Those other places where I've made friends, like, yeah, I have good friends there. But I don't I I don't feel the pull to give back to those people.

SPEAKER_04 39:43

Right, they were just yeah, they were this is my people.

SPEAKER_03 39:46

Did you ever think about leaving?

SPEAKER_04 39:48

I did leave. I left when when I was uh I was in my early 20s, I went to Florida and um it it's funny that it it was to me back then it wasn't Johnstown. And I I missed it. So I came back. I was only gone for four months and I came back. Um and it's the people that that you know I I cared about, you know, and I I missed that. You don't get that everywhere. Like, you know, I even you know try to get into softball out in Florida with people, and it was cool, man. I go out and have a few drinks with them and stuff, but it wasn't my homies. That's exactly right. It wasn't my homies.

SPEAKER_00 40:31

Last year at this time we were going to move to Nashville, and there's reasons why we're not that we can't talk about right now, but we're not moving to Nashville now. But point being is when we got out there, like we we we got out there and we were going to look for houses, and he was doing comedy out there, and I was ready, man. Half of my hair and makeup shit was packed, like that's a whole room by itself. I was ready to go.

SPEAKER_03 40:56

But when we got out there and spent a couple days, we both turned to each other once we got home, and we both love it, it was great. We both turned to each other when we got home. It was like, I don't think this is no kidding.

SPEAKER_04 41:11

It was like because and I just speaking about the comedy scene, because I've done comedy in a lot of different places, and I always want to come back here because it's like the access to like the what we have going in this area in Altuna and Pittsburgh, the people the people that are in those scenes, well it's it's the truth, and it's it's it's one of the reasons why I love giving back, you know, and doing it comedy because I I feel like the Lord sent me here to make people smile. And that's and that's the bottom line. And and I love being around the you know, these people in Johnstown thing jingle. Like I, you know what, they don't get all this. No, you know, and now that it's starting to come out a little bit, and they're you know, people are starting to come out and and they're like, man, this is fancy.

SPEAKER_00 42:06

So but like at work, and Port Scott experienced this today because he happened to ask me a word question.

SPEAKER_03 42:15

Not only do we work together, but she's like really where we work, we're talking of a team of let's say 150 people, maybe total. She's like the best person and highest up just about out of everyone. Right. And she knows more about like don't let her fool you, she knows more about like what we do there than anyone. Yeah, and everybody knows she's a boss bitch. You know what I'm saying? Hell yeah. So it's like people, but then people also meet me and they're like, what's going on here?

SPEAKER_00 42:55

Because he's so laid back and chill and nice.

SPEAKER_04 42:57

Well, that's what makes you guys and so that's what makes you perfect. Yo, I gotta spit fire over here, man. I'll tell you what.

SPEAKER_00 43:04

Everybody needs balance.

SPEAKER_04 43:05

That's a boss bitch right there. Yo, at 35.

Loyalty Direct Talk And Town Characters

SPEAKER_00 43:09

Everybody needs balance in their life, and we balance each other out. But there, I have a thing at work where you I will give you 10 minutes to complain to me, whatever you want to bitch about. If like if it's personal, I give you more time. Like, if you want to, if you need to vent to me about personal, then you get a half hour on Friday. Tell me all about your personal life. But if it is work related and you want to bitch at me about work, you get 10 minutes to bitch at me about work, and then I'm gonna say, okay, now what is your solution? What's your solution? So when people are bitching about what there's nothing to do in Johnstown, you've got one of two solutions, my friends. You can either get the fuck up out of Johnstown or you can figure out how to make things happen in Johnstown. I no longer want to leave and I want my community to thrive. So, how am I going to bring things in Johnstown for people to do?

SPEAKER_03 44:05

Well, that's just it. Now we're doubling down. Now we're like, now we're not leaving.

SPEAKER_04 44:10

Yeah, and and that's the thing. And and you know what? And that's the thing. You know what? I you give up on Johnstown or you don't give up on, you know, and and it's funny that you say it like that. You know, yeah, we it's crazy. Yeah, I ain't giving up. You know what? I might give up on some people that might not treat me right or whatever, but the bottom line is is the the people that care. That's the people that you know that come out to the shows, those are the people that that you love seeing. Though, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 44:44

So I can count, I can count on one hand the people, friends that I've made along the way, not here, that like if I needed something, they would have my back. I can't count on two hands the friends that I have here that I can count. Right. You know what I mean? And I've only lived here four years. Well, I'm one. Yeah, absolutely a hundred percent. We talked because we talked about like loyalty, because like the the things that are important, that's things that are important to me. That's what I worry about when I think about a friend or whatever. That's what matters to me.

SPEAKER_04 45:21

I'm with you 100%. It's all about loyalty, right?

SPEAKER_00 45:26

And real loyalty, not loyalty, not just not just fake alliances, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 45:31

Not just no, not just fake. We're talking about like, listen, man, don't talk about my man, or don't talk about that loyalty that you're there for that person.

SPEAKER_00 45:41

Loyalty is if somebody is talking about you in a room that you are not present and you have their back. And that is loyalty to me. That's why Scott and I get along well together because there's there's certain things that people can say about me that I allow because I would say them about myself, but he's not going to let somebody talk shit about me, about me, my character. Somebody if somebody said I was fat, he'd be like, that's right, she's got a big ass. If somebody said, you know, that's that's all allowable because that's not a hill worth dying on. But if somebody was talking about my fucking integrity, I know my man's got my back.

SPEAKER_02 46:19

Right on.

SPEAKER_00 46:20

I don't want and I don't like people in my circle who question other people's integrity when they're not around.

SPEAKER_04 46:28

If you have a question with somebody's integrity, say it to their come to me and tell me, and we can discuss it.

SPEAKER_00 46:36

Right.

SPEAKER_04 46:36

We can discuss it, and we may not agree, right? But then we could agree to disagree, but let it go with that. At least we both know where we stand.

SPEAKER_00 46:45

And that's how my dad was. You know, that's why my dad likes you, and that's why you guys get along. My dad raised me to be that way. And I grew up in like a very dysfunctional family, but a fucking tight-knit. You don't talk shit on my sister and my brother. If you do, I'm punching you in the face.

SPEAKER_04 47:03

And I don't care if you if you're right.

SPEAKER_00 47:05

Right. I don't care if you're right. I might be mad at them later for making me defend them while they're being an asshole. Yeah, but I got it. And I'm still gonna get that.

SPEAKER_03 47:14

And I think that to go back to a greater point, though, I think people in Johnstown are more direct. More so there's more of that here, which is why I think that I like it so much, is because the people are direct like that. It's not a lot of that, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 47:32

Like we didn't grow up, know it like a lot of times like this, you hear about the sleazy businessman. We don't have a lot of snake oil salesmen around here because people spot bullshit amount later.

SPEAKER_03 47:45

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:46

The men push them out. Like, no, you're not doing that in my community.

SPEAKER_04 47:50

Like you can tell the clowns when you see them. That's yeah, and that's another good thing about jingle talent. Because if you're a clown, you show your ass. That's how I'm trying to tell you, yeah, because everybody acts like they act. So what you see is what you get. That's exactly right. Yeah, yeah. What you see is what you get. If you're an ass, you're an ass.

SPEAKER_00 48:08

Right. And people know, like, I'm not gonna call anybody out by name because there's a couple characters around town that everybody knows, and they're like, oh god, there's that person again. Yes. But they all like them because they're a Johnstown staple. Like, if they were gone, you'd be like, where the fuck is that person?

SPEAKER_04 48:23

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 48:24

Every town's gonna be a good one. Dio, I'm just gonna say his name. Shout out Dio. He doesn't listen, but he knows we talk, he knows we're talking about him. But we love him too. Like, if Dio is a community staple, like, you know what I mean? Like, he's a community staple. Is he irritating sometimes? Can he be a clown sometimes? Absolutely. But he's you can't say Johnstown.

SPEAKER_03 48:47

This is the way that I look at it. And this goes back to a book that I read about the mafia where they were like, yeah, a lot of them are bad people, but they're our bad people. Right? And I look at that like as like the people like in town, like, yeah, we might have some of these like characters, but there are characters.

SPEAKER_04 49:09

My dad had a friend, you guys will laugh. Oh my god. So I and all I'll say is the guy and his first name was Joe. I don't want to say his last name. Yeah, yeah, of course. Yeah, but um, he was an Italian guy, but he was completely bonkers, he was out of his mind. He he refused to walk up and down Main Street. This is when my dad had the bar on the corner of Maine and Market. He refused to walk on the street because if someone bumped into him, he would fight him. So he would go and climb under the man covers, right? The sewer, yeah, the sewer covers and walk to wherever he went underneath and then just pop up, man, like a like a fucking he'd just pop right up. Boom! He pop up like there's Joe. And he'd go, hey, here's Joe. Joe go, hey Frank, and my dad would go, Yeah, can you go to the to the liquor store and get me this? He'd go, whoop, man, he'd pop down and he'd go down and pop up like one of them moles, man. That moley mole thing. Yeah, whack-a-mole. Yeah, whack-a-mole. Yeah, he'd just pop his shit up and then he'd go get crazy, right? Crazy. True story. They'd all sit there and he'd just they'd all be sitting outside of the bar and there's a nice bench out there. Those guys would sit there, they'd have a few cocktails. Nobody pulled you over for that or cops and said, get in the bar and have your drink. They're drinking cocktails. And it was like, good man, you know what? I was blessed because it was it was how the movies you portray, I got to do it firsthand. That's what I saw it all. That's what I love is you got to see these things blessed in movies and stuff drinking and then fuck it and the gambling. Like my dad would take me down the steps and he'd say, Was there illegal gambling? Uh like little poke guns. Oh, yeah. There was I don't know what there was. I mean, there was a lot of yeah, a lot of like back. And then he was closed on Sundays, so he had people there that they did the the the bets. And he lived on the third floor, and we would go down the steps, and he'd have meatballs and sausage down there for the guys. I like that. And he would say to me, he would say to me, you know, I'm eight years old, eight, nine years old, and he'd say, Frankie Paul, what don't we do when we go downstairs? And I go, cheer for anybody. I don't know why I should cheer for anything because they all had money on it. But then again, I'd bring them meatball sandwiches. So they're all my uncle, my uncle Fred, Uncle Rocky, you know, Uncle Lou, the whole mind yours. I'd leave with a pocket full of money.

Downtown Nostalgia And Local Food Picks

SPEAKER_00 51:56

Yeah. Remember, I don't know if you knew or remember this, but do you remember when Scotty Bede's um father-in-law took he virus had the yes, he was running numbers out of his own house. He had his own lottery machine. A lottery machine just sitting in a house in Moxham. Yeah, every night all my gr like all my aunts and uncles, because my grandparents lived on Russell Avenue, the next house over, right? And so every night at like 6 45, everybody get out of the pool or put their plate down and be like, I'm heading over to Chickies, running over to Chickies.

SPEAKER_04 52:29

Gotta run over and play my number, man.

SPEAKER_03 52:31

Yeah, you gotta go over and play your number. It just it it excites something to me, I guess, because of like growing up watching movies and stuff, like where you see those things to meet people and talk to people that really grew up that way and be in a place where people really grew up that way. I think for me, that's like what it is. It's like seeing those things.

SPEAKER_04 52:51

It was it it's something like it it really was. And I sit and I laugh about it a lot because it really was exactly how they portray it. Yeah, they play it in the movies that way, and that's exactly how it was.

SPEAKER_03 53:07

Let me ask you this if you could bring back one thing that was used to be a Johnstown and isn't anymore, like that you remember is like such a great memory, what would it be?

SPEAKER_04 53:23

That seriously, the downtown would be crowded. Yeah, it was so cool when downtown was crowded. It was just a whole different vibe.

SPEAKER_03 53:32

It's just hard for me to picture that. It's so I know. Think about it, man.

SPEAKER_04 53:36

It was like it was crowded, man. And I mean, crowded for Jingle.

SPEAKER_03 53:41

To think that you guys had like department stores and stuff.

SPEAKER_04 53:44

Oh man, yeah, you got to see there, and there were people like like uh Crystal Set, like they had twins that worked at Glosser Brothers that did the food in the cafeteria, and they were twin sisters. Everybody knew that the twin sisters were there. You got man, you got your meatloaf with mashed potatoes and corn and man. Oh, there was nothing better.

SPEAKER_00 54:11

They had a counter in there that you could sit and eat. I don't know why, but I for some reason I wanted, I don't like tuna that well, but I wanted a tuna sandwich from the Glosser Brothers counter one day. Unreal. It was unreal. I felt like I needed to do that in the moment to preserve it forever. Like I just have this, I'll always have this memory sitting at the counter and eating a tuna sandwich.

SPEAKER_03 54:38

Speaking of food, I got a couple questions that I always ask people. Good, go for it. I'm good with the food things. Okay. So if you I'm going to give pizza on a Friday night, where am I going? If I was you, I go to sales first.

SPEAKER_05 54:55

That's where I'm the correct answer. That is a correct correct answer.

SPEAKER_03 55:02

Yeah, I go to sales. That's a correct answer because let me tell you, like, I'm a pizza fanatic. Yeah. And I try pizza, then we were just in Jersey drying. All over the place. I try pizza all over the place. And in my hometown, there's this like angry Sicilian guy that runs a pizza shop. I'm an angry Sicilian guy. And it reminds me, because like if somebody talks shit on Facebook, they talk shit back. Yeah. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 55:28

Like the whole character.

SPEAKER_03 55:30

And I say every town needs a good Italian pizza guy that like isn't afraid to take no shit. The customer isn't always right.

SPEAKER_04 55:38

Like, no, and sales from sales family is from Messina, Sicily, the same as my great-grandparents. Wow. Which is crazy. So when my uncle Chuck comes in town, you know, he speaks fluent, you know, Italian. And I'll take him up there, and you would love it, man. They go back and forth. Man, they just go to town.

SPEAKER_03 56:01

I bet. Because every time I go in there, I love it. I talk about it all the time because they're all talking and you know, doing their thing. They always say to me, hey, Pizon.

SPEAKER_04 56:10

They always call me, hey, Pizon.

SPEAKER_03 56:13

That's the correct answer, South's. Okay, so let me ask you this. I'm always on the search also for the perfect sub. If you're going to get like an Italian hoagie, where are you going? Clark's. Clark's. Clark's. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 56:27

See, he hasn't had Clark's yet.

SPEAKER_03 56:30

Oh, Clark's is the best. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 56:32

He's had Tony's and Clark's is the best.

SPEAKER_03 56:36

Yeah, okay. Okay, no, I'd noted.

SPEAKER_00 56:39

Noted.

SPEAKER_03 56:40

Noted. Clark's.

SPEAKER_00 56:42

Shout out. No doubt.

SPEAKER_03 56:44

If there was one restaurant in Johnstown that you could bring back that's not here anymore, what would it be? Ooh. Uh surf and turf.

SPEAKER_00 56:52

Yeah. Hands down.

SPEAKER_03 56:54

A lot of people say that.

SPEAKER_00 56:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 56:56

Surf and turf.

SPEAKER_00 56:57

Yeah. Surf and turf.

SPEAKER_04 56:58

Now where was that at?

SPEAKER_00 57:00

Right behind Bilo.

SPEAKER_04 57:03

Yeah, it's not there anymore than a doortown. Oh, okay. Interesting. Hey Heather. One restaurant you'd like to bring back is a Johnstown that's not here anymore.

SPEAKER_02 57:15

Oh man. Uh probably. Honestly, for nostalgia purposes, a G-Man.

SPEAKER_03 57:23

The G-Man, I said Serpenturf.

SPEAKER_02 57:26

Serpenturf, yeah. But G-Man was great.

SPEAKER_03 57:31

What did the G-Man have? Tell me about this.

SPEAKER_02 57:33

Gingerbread man. Okay. Serpenturf is great, man. Serpenturf is a great. Serpenturf always.

SPEAKER_00 57:44

The G-Man was the vibes. Matter of fact, you saw me sing up there when we first started dating. I sang with man up there. Yeah, G-Man was the vibe. So, Nikolai, where's your favorite place to eat in Johnstown?

SPEAKER_02 57:57

Um That is a hard question, but um I gotta sing kabuki. Ah, I knew it.

SPEAKER_04 58:09

Yeah, he's great.

SPEAKER_00 58:14

We gotta do a sushi day.

SPEAKER_04 58:16

He taught me, it was probably about four months ago. Yeah, and I never had sushi and I never wanted it. Like now I go twice a week. I go twice a week, and I lost weight.

SPEAKER_00 58:35

You just have to get the right kind of sushi, right? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 58:38

You gotta get the right. Well, Nico's is is banging.

SPEAKER_00 58:46

So you know my brother used to be the sushi roller up at Nico's. Really? Yeah, yeah. My white American brother is trained to roll good sushi.

SPEAKER_05 58:56

Dave.

SPEAKER_00 58:57

Trained by Dave's wife, though. I mean, Dave and his wife trained him, and Dave's wife is pretty dang good. So yeah, I haven't eaten there since they have been at that location. I maybe I have. I I mean Dave's been a part of my family.

SPEAKER_04 59:11

We've gone, we we go um, I mean, almost twice a week now. I really, really like it. I love sushi. Yeah, and I never thought that I would. Ever. But when it it comes with the crab and this and it's yeah, it's gonna be sushi. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 59:30

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 59:30

Yeah, I gotta look at the right one.

SPEAKER_03 59:32

Yeah, I can't be doing certain things. Yeah, it's doing all that other crazy. She's gotten some where I'm like, eh.

SPEAKER_04 59:38

Yeah. Heather got ill before.

SPEAKER_03 59:40

It wasn't, yeah, like I ate it, but I tell you, we had uh Watami. I don't know. It's up there by uh where the cunt the corner coffee shop is. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They had one, it was the crispy eel like thing on the outside.

SPEAKER_00 59:57

That was amazing.

SPEAKER_03 59:58

It was really good. Yeah, it was really good.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:00

Actually, I think that it was salmon skin on the outside and eel on the inside. I thought it was really good. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:06

I get the four corners. Here's what I do. She'll laugh at me because I don't know what the hell I'm doing. Me either. So what I do is I just go down and I go through the United States. I'll go four corners, then I'll get the Boston rule. I got the Maryland rule, after the Maryland rule. There's a couple other chump. What's that? There's a Philly. Yeah, there's a Philadelphia. And then I said, How about do you guys have a Rhode Island one? They were like, there's no such thing as a Rhode Island one. Yeah, I just I figured it out.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:41

He needs to come with us sometime down to Solomon's Island. You ever been to Southern Maryland? No. You guys should come down there sometime.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:50

We need to vacation down there.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:52

It is my one of our favorite spots in the whole world. One of my really good friends lives down there. And it's just so it's like the eastern s it's like the western side of the Chesapeake Bay. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:05

So if you're at Ocean City looking across it, right.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:10

Right. So it's like, but it's like so it's like south of DC. You know what I mean? But still on the bay there. And like everybody's got boats and like, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 1:01:21

Like it's but they're like bar kind of. We know how to detect the right people.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:26

And they're very like, they're they're just laid back cool people. It's like it's so fun. But yeah, you guys should. And it's like they have like little bars like all in the water and stuff. Yeah. Very cool. You would love it. I can see him and Jimbo right now.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:42

Oh, for goodness sake. My friend, I want to get you guys you and Jimbo.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:46

I'm in. We're in. It would be so much fun. No, because like you can do so much down there. And then like the food. You know what I mean? Like the seafood. Yeah, the crab and the fresh soft shell crab. Yeah, you can't get anything like that around here.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:03

It's not touristy though. So it's not like a busy. It gets busy, but it's a big thing.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:09

But it's not like a touristy place where people go to spend the season or something. As long as it's not Baltimore, I'm good. Oh no, it's far from back.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:17

Yeah, fuck them dirty birds. Yeah, I'm saying it. No good ravens. Yeah, I ain't gonna be.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:22

Speaking of those dirty birds, um, somebody else, it everybody's campaigning. I heard you and Taylor talking about it. I heard you and somebody else talking about it. Will Howard.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:34

Oh, yeah, I'm all there. I want the Steelers to start Will Howard. I want them to start because I think that kid's got it, and I'm gonna tell you why. He's a winner. John Gruden compared John Gruden and a lot of other people have compared him to Josh Allen. And a lot of people have compared him to Ben because he's got the size, yeah, the mobility. And I just think John Gruden said he was the best quarterback in that whole draft class. He's a winner, man. He's in the yeah, he won a national championship. Yeah, he's a winner. At Ohio State. I think he has, and everything that he says is the right thing. You know what I mean? Like he says I love the right things. I think they should give him a chance. I expect. Did you see Mike T's gonna be on Sunday night football? No, it isn't. He's gonna be on football night in America with Tony Dungey and Dan Patrick in him. I figured, yeah, Coach T would.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:25

Yeah, the standard is the standard.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:27

He's a good on the mic. All right, so we're gonna wrap this up. What do you want to leave us with? Some words of wisdom for Jingletown.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:34

Words of wisdom for Jingletown. Yo, Jingletown. Stay fresh, stay clean, and don't and don't act like a dick. There you go. That's the big three things. You know what? Just be nice. Right. That's all I'm saying.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:54

And stay tuned because we're gonna have lots of events here in Jingletown.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:57

Oh, I'm telling you guys, we have some shows that are getting ready to come up that are gonna blow your mind. We have some major, major stars too, like big time.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:07

Big time names coming.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:08

We've got some, yeah, we've got some big things going on in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:14

Yes, thank you guys so much for having me on.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:18

Yeah, I had a lot of fun. We are gonna be doing so many more interviews this season, too, but that's a wrap for today. So if nobody's told you guys today, stay trashy. Stay trashy.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:28

Trashy.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:37

UFOs flash without a care. Get the trash where the loud things grow. Comedy legends, we bring it home. Where we end up tonight. Cat bar glow, every runner is the boy. Giles friends, this is Gilded Dragon.