Rhythm & Remembrance (Hour 2)

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Coming to Northeast Wisconsin live from the Civic Media Studios, this is Mino and the Mayor.

And

here are your hosts.

John

Minow and Jim Schmidt.

Hey, thank you very much.

Welcome back.

Hour number two of Minow in the Marin.

An absolutely perfect Tuesday morning.

51 right now in Green Bay, 15 out in 15 Oshkosh.

No wind whatsoever forecast in the low 70s.

Man, you can't get much better than that.

Roof should be open in Milwaukee tonight.

Should be.

Maybe they can get something going.

Let's hope so.

Ted Ludov is here.

Ted, a long time great friend of mine and very big with the community band in Ashwabara and something that I didn't know you had such a long history.

You're telling Jim here that you started out being a drummer when you were how old?

I was

in seventh grade.

Okay.

So my musical history goes back to sixth grade in middle school and I started out as a trombone player.

Okay, now that my parents would have taken the drum thing.

It must

have been a good kid for them to let you bring a

drum set into the house.

We lived in the country and my mom worked during the day, but I had to work during the day.

So summertime is just me at the house.

So when I started as a trombone player in sixth grade and the band director told me at the end of the season, you don't have the embouchure, which is your lips strength to be a trombone player.

He said, maybe it'd be better as a tuba player.

I thought, I don't want to be lugging around to two players with seventh grade boys.

So I said, well, how about if I try percussion?

And he said, okay, we'll put you in a percussion.

We'll let you try drums.

Typically being a percussionist, they want you to have a little piano background because you have the various mallet instruments that you play bells and cellophones, that type of thing.

But they let me in.

So I started playing in seventh grade and played percussion in the school bands all the way through my high school career.

Did they let you, did you get into the triangle and the xylophone?

Did they play?

Everybody plays that Jim.

Yes.

Everybody.

I was just going to ask you, were you ever the whip in, uh, in sleigh ride during Christmas time?

I played the whip.

You guys

might as

well talk Latin.

I have

no idea.

This

is fun.

I've enjoyed this.

I had no idea.

I just didn't know how

they, so you, they

ran you

through all the,

correct.

So that's cool.

That's cool.

That's a good teacher.

It wasn't that much later in my life where I actually had the courage to play the mallets and I'll explain that in a moment, but.

What Todd's talking about is a big whip.

So I had two big pieces of wood and drink sleigh ride.

Yep.

And you got to be right on with that.

Oh my gosh.

They're looking right at you.

Right.

Exactly.

It's a solo.

Yeah.

So then I played through high school.

And then after that, I went to play D three basketball down at Carroll College in Waukesha.

Well, basketball schedule band didn't work.

So I gave up drumming.

So I had a 30 year break.

And then mid forties, I hit my midlife crisis.

I thought.

I always wanted to play the piano.

So I started taking piano lessons when I was in my forties.

Wow.

Did you take them online or did you actually go sit?

I actually went and sat down with a with a local instructor.

Wow.

So it was a blast learning how it was one of those things were okay.

I'm just going to play long enough until I recognize a song that I can play.

I don't want to be Elton John, but let me.

recognize Jingle Bells.

Well, the first song you're playing, you know, a real simple song.

So I kept on playing and I still play a little bit once a while, not a lot, but it gave me a good background.

And then from my piano lessons, got me back into music and then I started playing drums again.

So I picked up the drums, bought myself a drum set, put them in the basement and luckily I got connected to a band.

So here I am.

10 years later with his band still playing something a little magic about this guy

understanding parents and understanding wife

And

I bet it wasn't that hard to pick up right

no I mean it's right people do that a lot right especially with piano the big thing was I already knew how to count right and that's a big thing being a precaution right able to count one two three four or whatever so that helped me with pianos and I had to learn all the notes but the nice thing about learning about

playing piano is now I could play those keyboard instruments, those mallets, the xylophone, the marimba, the bells.

So it's a lot of fun.

Was it more fun relearning it in your forties than it was back in the early days?

Well, it wasn't really more fun.

But when you're an adult, right, you know what you're doing.

So you're not being pushed to do anything.

So I took it on my own free will to go start taking piano lessons again.

And I enjoyed it so much that I kept on playing and I think I took piano lessons for five or six years.

And I just see you sit in the lobby with six or seven year olds.

It's like, what's that guy doing

here?

And

your

parachute

jump boots.

Right.

That's pretty cool.

You did that.

I think that's awesome.

I want to play just a little audio real quick so that you guys can understand what we're talking about.

I actually played both the horse and the whip at the same time.

Now that took a little something.

Here we go.

Here

it

comes.

You gotta get that right, boy.

So what is that?

It's like you said two pieces of wood that you slap together and it just has the right tone to sound like a whip.

Yeah,

right.

So I'll tell you one of

my last

memories.

We're

connecting here.

So one of my long time memories though is I went from trombonous in sixth grade to playing percussion in seventh grade.

So they started.

Okay, I'm just gonna, when you say percussion, you mean.

Drums but

percussion what he's saying is that's the pressure everybody just thinks it's the drum and then they but there's the bass drum there's a xylophone there's the maracas there's the triangle

okay that's

the percussion you sit you're kind of in the back okay

the vibra strap

the

vibra slap

and there's how many people are air in that section

three there's there's six oh yeah band in our percussion section you guys

I know you guys you're tossing out these terms like never

what was

the term you just used

the vibra slap

yeah

That sounds

something kinky.

So the whole point of this is 7-12.

Encouraging you to come to the ad club on PhD.

That's going to pay for that one time in

Mexico.

Yes.

So what I was going to say, one of my lasting memories that I've kept throughout my life is sixth grade trombonus, seventh grade and percussion.

They kept me starting me in the real easy stuff.

So I remember started seventh grade.

I'm in the band and it's a hot day.

in the band room, no air conditioning, and he's got me playing the bass drum, which is basically the easiest thing to do.

He just watched the director and beat, beat, beat with him.

Well, I wasn't keeping the beat, and he

chewed me

out.

You could throw the whole band out.

Oh, yeah.

So that made an impression on me, where I always keep an eye on the director.

And that's the main purpose of the percussion is to keep the beat for the rest of the band.

Wow.

It's

like the bass player in a small band.

You really just keep.

Okay, that's so that's great.

You did that and you obviously studied it because you Picked it up again.

So you play that in the alleyway.

It's called the alleyway village band or

what is it?

We are called the AVB community, right?

So it used to be the alleyway village band, right?

So we there's a little disconnect there.

So we lost our support

So we went from the Allaway Village Band, but we wanted to keep the acronym, AVB.

So now we just call ourselves the All Volunteer Band.

Oh, OK.

So it's AVB.

We play at the Ashwabanaan PAC.

Usually.

That was good thinking on that broaden your reach.

So it kept our brand, basically.

Everyone knew the AVB.

So we've continued.

I guess you've answered the question, but do they get paid?

No, okay, cuz like the city band

that plays Wednesday.

I think it paid correct.

They get a small stipend.

No, it's not that small 36,000 a year with Pales guy

three

thousand I

Wow

so I that volunteer been a plus.

He's got a really good volunteer band, too.

Correct.

Yeah, my neighbor plays a

texture height from Waukesha Annie.

Is it any or any?

Oh,

and

any that's

my

sister-in-law.

Okay.

All right.

So

she's two again.

Okay.

I got your

brother-in-law here.

He's just

educating us.

So you direct a band or you play in the band?

I'm a performer in the percussion section.

Okay.

That's awesome.

How often do you guys practice?

So we practice once a week.

So we have concerts from September through May of every year.

So our season finale concert is next Monday the 12th at seven o'clock.

So that's our grand finale.

So I want to encourage people to come on and

check it out.

Absolutely.

It's free.

It's free.

I just saw that.

Wow.

No advance ticket sales, no service fees on your credit

card, nothing

like that.

Wow.

And there's great parking there.

I don't think a lot of people have been there.

Right.

I mean, that's a great venue.

But so the venue is 735 people.

Wow.

So it's a big place.

And we would typically get anywhere from four to 600 people.

Perfect.

There have been a couple of concerts and we've been playing there now for four years.

There's been a couple of concerts where we literally have to close the doors and people are watching on a video screen.

Oh my gosh.

In the lobby.

And you're basically, you are connected with the high school, correct?

Or no.

No.

Our separate building.

Well, the building is connected, correct.

That's what I meant.

Yes, he had not.

No, he

had

not.

Band is not.

I mean,

if somebody's trying to find the place.

Correct.

Okay.

Correct.

It's right on Ridge Road.

Got texts here.

A VB band concerts are the best kept secret in Green.

But we're

going to change

that.

And you have a soloist comment.

That's kind of cool when you guys bring in.

Right.

So our band itself, it's 75 members.

So it's an extremely talented group of musicians.

And then periodically, like every other concert, we'll bring in a vocalist.

And this time it happens to be a young woman named Lucia Suarez.

She's a junior at Green Bay Southwest High School.

So we're going to bring her in.

singing a couple of songs with us.

That's cool.

There's so much talent in this community

and

you must know that because you're in the arts and I remember I went to a UWGB basketball game one time and they had a not they had like this old barbershop but they had somebody sing and I'm like I call them like why don't you have you got a lot of talent in this school you should feature the youth and it's good for them too.

I

mean it's good for them to get out there but yeah I'm sure she's very excited about

this.

Like I said, 4 to 600 people, that may be the biggest crowd that she's ever performed in.

I don't know what her history is, but we had a rehearsal last night and she's saying, and you'll be impressed by her.

We're at tentlude off

AVB community band concert.

Talk some more about this here, Ted, about, you know, proceeds and different things that you guys are doing with this.

Correct.

So we are non-profit group.

So.

we are thankfully able to get a sponsor for each of our shows that pays, because we sell the pay rent at the AVB and for some of the support production people.

So we get a sponsor in local florist, funeral homes, various people.

So this week, our next week's concert is sponsored by the Vietnam Veterans of America, Chapter 224.

And so they're actually sponsoring our concert.

And then also, periodically, we'll do various community-sponsored events.

Like during December, Norma, our Christmas concert, we'll have a food pantry for Paul's pantry.

This month, we are having a spring cleaning collection, and that was sponsored by the AmVets group here.

So we're encouraging people who come to bring cleaning and household items.

hygiene items for veterans.

So, you know, toothpaste, shampoo, pledge, Windex and that stuff that people that veterans need and the AmVets will collect that and then hand them out to the veterans.

So we are a free concert.

We do ask for donations.

So after the concert, there'll be band members standing in the lobby collecting money if you're gonna donate if you do.

But it's totally free.

Couple things on your concert.

Are you?

That's a big band 75

that's a little herd

cats once in a

while

Are

you looking for I don't french ones are you looking for people to join or?

And that's one question and other tryouts

there Yes, basically there are so we're pretty well established.

So we pretty are pretty well set with our band.

However, we occasionally need backups

people or regular members are gone.

So if you go to the AVB Community Band website, you'll be able to basically say, hey, I'm interested.

And then they'll run that through the process.

And whenever we need backup sites, this concert, we have

I think three or four backup players because other people in the section are going to be gone.

Here's the crown.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

That's all.

Table of AVB Community Band Concert coming up this coming Monday in Ashwabadan, right next to the high school at the PAC.

Right.

We got to talk more about this.

I'm just fascinated.

I had no idea.

Do you remember when I had the drum in the studio at the old station?

I used to play March of the Urquois.

That I don't

remember.

I

do remember a lot of stuff.

Wow.

Back after this.

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started.

earlier, right?

Yes.

And you're like, Oh, it sounds kind of kinky and all Johnson.

This is probably one of the most famous songs with a vibra slap in it.

Okay, ready for this?

Yeah.

I'll tell you where it comes.

Right here.

That is a vibra slap.

What is it?

How do you make

that?

It looks like a little horn.

It's a flat horn and it's got these little pieces of metal inside with a arm on it and a knob at the end.

You hit the knob and that makes the little pieces of metal inside flap around in that little wood.

I was thinking of the one with

That's a weirdo,

I think.

Okay, all right, all right, all right.

Okay, John, here's my proposal.

I am

learning so

much here.

This is unbolted.

I didn't know I didn't know yours.

We'll teach you how to really

play clave.

Okay, all

right.

Here's my proposal to you then, John.

All right, because you've never been to the Ashwap and on PAC.

Right.

You come to the concert next Monday.

We'll let you for free.

With a donation.

I can do that.

I can do that.

Come on up and stage afterwards.

And I'll give you a little tour of the percussion section.

No kidding.

I'll maybe let you play the triangle for starters.

Wow.

And if that goes well, maybe the claves.

OK, OK.

All right.

Let him try the cymbals.

Well, yeah, do the cymbals if you want to do the crash cymbals.

Right, right, right.

That's awesome.

That's a great instrument.

And it goes well.

Well, the drum set there on my right.

Whoa.

Look out.

There's your opportunity,

baby.

You gotta be pretty coordinated to play the drums.

Not that you're not John, but that's, that's, that's a tough,

that's hard.

You're literally playing with all four limbs at one time.

That's what I mean.

I wouldn't, if I was a drummer, I wouldn't use the foot pedals.

They'd love to have you

in

the

band.

Got a text

here from

Mike

Ted is a good man and he is a packer expert.

That too?

Well, I'm a sports guy.

Do

you give tours there or you seem like you'd be one of those guys?

No, I don't.

Okay.

I mean, you're probably a little young

for that, but eventually, right?

That'll be on your

list.

I thought about it, but I found some other side gigs.

So I don't need that one.

I

got to go back to your paratrooper days.

So what was that training like?

I mean, obviously you're a well fit guy.

So I came in and imagined you at 19.

But looking back, how tough was that?

Well, it's very tough.

I mean, it's a three week course.

And so each week they have a different phase that you're doing.

And it column columnates in the third week then is when you actually get to jump.

So you have five jumps during your third week and two of them are night jumps.

So that I mean, besides jumping out, then you're jumping out into the dark sky.

That was a weird experience.

And it's dark.

Jim

did a night jump.

Well,

he had

his

eyes

closed.

I jumped.

I heard those stories.

So there's no lights.

I mean, when you jump, it's not like you're jumping into a city

or something.

There's no lights.

Correct.

Because the whole purpose behind the Airborne, the paratrooper unit is the mission is you're jumping behind enemy lines.

So you have a relatively low altitude when you're jumping anywhere 900 to 1,000 feet

And so

you're low because when you're jumping behind enemy lines if they see you You don't want to be in the air very long so you want to get down as fast you can and you have the element of surprise No, it's not

And that's the idea of those.

You don't want to be in the air very long if they see you coming because then they can shoot at you.

Obviously, you jump out.

You shoot must open right away.

Right.

It's a it's attached to a your static line that automatically deploys for you.

Wow.

But jumping out of the nighttime is wild.

Like how are you?

Well, you got the toggles and everything, but how do you navigate so you don't hurt yourself?

Right.

In the military, in.

the 82nd.

Flashlights on his

shoes.

You're typically jumping out anywhere from 100 to 500 people at a time.

So in reality is the parachutes are not very maneuverable because you have so many new jumpers that they're worried about them new jumpers trying to maneuver.

and run at the other parachutists.

So basically, you're at the mercy of the wind.

You're just, okay, you just jump.

You just go along for the ride, huh?

You're along for the ride and you're hoping to get to the ground as

fast as you can.

You know what would be my biggest nightmare about jumping would be?

Somehow I could see myself getting caught on like a high power pole.

Oh yeah.

One of those kind of things.

Oh!

It's possible.

I mean, one of our training missions is we jumped onto an airfield.

near base, because back in the 80s, a big thing in the world was taking hijacking airfields.

So we were training

how

to take over an airfield back to get it under control.

So we would literally jump on an airfield, an airport, and so we are literally landing on a concrete runway sometimes.

People were

falling onto buildings.

It was ugly.

I mean, so there were definitely accidents that have happened, but usually in training, we're jumping into a wide, wide open space.

I remember the Israelis did that.

Remember, and

Tebi,

was

that the name of the, remember the time the whole plane was taken hostage at an airport?

Right.

Yeah, I

remember that.

Yeah.

And they really, well, I know the Israelis did.

That was before.

Yeah.

Okay.

That was before.

Wow.

But you're right, that was the big thing as far as those hijackings at airports and

everything.

That's correct.

Yep.

Well, those night jumps, that's pretty cool.

You did that.

I mean,

that's

a little scary.

It is scary.

And one of my best memories was during training, you're not supposed to be jumping when it's too windy or wet or anything like that.

Well, one time we had this major, major training operation going on.

So they said, we don't care for training.

We don't care for 20 year going out.

So I jumped out and the cloud cover was about 200 feet at the time.

So I jump all the way down.

I get out to the ground and I'm

Preparing are gathering my parachute and everything else and I look around the most amazing One of the most amazing things I've ever seen is all this low cloud cover comes all these paratroopers jumping out as a man if I was the enemy I would not be seeing that Wow good stuff pretty neat and blew it up.

Okay.

Give it one more time here Monday night AVB community band May 12th next Monday 7 o'clock at the ashwab non-pac it is free

You'll hear various music from Mancini in Sousa and John Williams Star Wars, Let It Be from Frozen.

This is your grand finale too, this

is

it.

This is our grand finale, so hopefully...

new people come out to the show.

Right.

And they're walking on even darn.

I have to wait until September for another concert.

Thanks for doing this.

Absolutely.

I'm so

impressed.

I'm serious.

It's a

great time.

Good for you.

Ted Lutov, ABB Community Band Concert, 7 o'clock Monday.

Sponsored by the Vietnam Vets.

That is correct.

Ted, thanks for what you're doing.

Thanks for serving our country.

You're very

welcome.

Thanks, guys.

We're going to set a quick break.

Allie and Nicole

coming up.

From local stories to local voices, we're shining a spotlight on what matters right here in northeast Wisconsin.

It's more than just talk.

It's about connecting with the community.

This is Mino and the Mayor.

Now, here's John Mino and Jim Schmidt.

Hey, thank you very much.

Welcome back, Mino and the Mayor, and a beautiful Tuesday morning.

51 in Green Bay right now, 50 in Apten, 50 in Oshkosh High in the low 70s today.

There's no wind out there, so my sailing class is probably going to be postponed.

No,

my goodness.

I'm

just saying.

Sailing class.

It makes a lot of stuff up here, ladies, but we're like go kayaking instead.

Special thanks, Ted Ludoff, AVB Community Band Concert, Monday night, great, great event taking place there.

I can't believe how big that 750, it holds.

735, yeah.

Wow.

Well, we got another big event coming up this week.

We've got Ollie and Nicole here from the Neville Public Museum talking about Mung American Day, something that I am 100% in favor of and have all the respect in the world for the Mung community and so does Jim.

So welcome.

Thanks for being here.

Thanks for having

us.

This is a great event and I want to get to later you talk about to wear some monk clothes and I'm sure you got some too as gifts John but I got you know the black shirt you know which is somebody made and then the silver like chain stuff you put around you it's just it's awesome so I'm gonna be styling that day anyway go ahead so tell me about the event.

Yeah, so we have our event on Sunday, May 11th at the Neville Public Museum, and it is from 12 to 3, and it is a celebration of Hmong American Day.

So there will be food, there will be different performances like music, dancing, and different cultural displays.

I know Nicole can talk a little bit more about what she's planning on having at the event too.

Oh yeah, we're very all excited.

Well, first of all, I just want to kind of touch base a little bit about the history of Hmong.

It's originally the original full name for that is the Hmong Lao Veterans Day.

And

it became on May 14, Governor Tony Evers acknowledged that over 1,000 Hmong Lao people fought alongside the US troops during the Vietnam War.

So this one day it's actually to recognize a a bill that was put into place and it is supposed to be

Excuse me, it was supposed to be put in place to really remember that in 1975 was the anniversary on May 14 is really marks the anniversary of the last aircraft that was lifted in Laos in 1975.

Talk a little bit if you don't mind family history in regards to I have so much respect for the monk because like I've talked to so many Vietnam guys like one of the guys I just

spoke to recently as a helicopter pilot.

And he said whenever they got the call that a helicopter had been shot down, you know, they'd have to send out other copters.

And so many times they would get there and the mong somehow some group in the middle of the jungle knew exactly where this and they were there taking care of the Americans.

He said what they did is is so under appreciated or under reported that it's it's a shame.

Did your family ever talk about some of the stories what they used to do how they used to help the Americans

in Laos?

Oh, definitely, definitely.

My dad, who is actually one of the...

first Hmong Lao veteran survivors that settled in 1976 here in the US.

And I'll quote what he shared to me when I spoke to him about Hmong Veterans Day.

He said, the United States has since then became our homeland.

And he stands proud to bear arms with the country as strong as the United States who believes in we the people.

And even at age 85, he expresses that he lives still to serve the US Army defense.

He especially thinks.

you know, Governor Evers for making Hmong 14, Hmong, I mean, May 14th, a day of remembrance for the Hmong Valhalla veterans.

That's awesome.

That's

great.

And I, so very familiar with Hmong community.

They've done so much for this community.

And what I like is you've really held on to your traditions.

We just dedicated a restaurant here, not that long ago, and you had the dancers come out.

And you do that at the Brown County Arena.

You have your

festival.

And we have our festivals.

And then I'm doing the summer.

The huge thing at Depear this summer.

And I think that's great that you've held on to those traditions.

And your equally as very like your dad just said, this is his home.

Yeah, it has definitely become Hmong and you know, we recognize it as really as a Hmong Veterans Day, but it's also Hmong American.

You know, we've become Hmong American because we made this place.

I have to

say one thing a little bit funny about this.

I was in real estate and I had some wonderful Hmong clients, okay?

And we're in

this house,

showing this house's family, and they're two teenage girls.

And for the closet, if you open up to see the closet, there was like almost like, please do not touch, and there's all these statues and

like incense type things all these different things you know please do not touch please not touch and they asked the girl I said oh I said is this what you you honored you prayed to these they're like we don't know we're from cacana they

were very much assimilated they they were not first generation they they they they're the third generation

I don't know what

that

is

That comes to everybody that people has adapt, you know, adapt for changes.

Right.

Yes.

Changes is good.

So it is good.

But also this year actually marks the 50 years celebration that Hmong has been in the U.S.

too.

So with that, you know, we're doing a lot of celebration.

Like I said, we're bringing a lot of the Hmong outfits, you know, like Jim has shared here.

Please wear if you have any Hmong artifacts or anything that you want to put on your body that day.

You're very welcome to do that.

I

have a cool instrument.

You guys gave me two.

It's.

Oh, OK.

It seems like it's bamboo, like different pieces that are bent.

You know what I'm talking about?

Yeah, and that is all hand-made.

Yes.

Anything that you see that's going to be artificial that day that we bring to show it's all hand-made.

All right.

You may have to teach me how to use

it, but sit in my house

and study

with

me.

You teach me?

Allie, talk about how they never wanted to get involved with

this.

There are a lot of extra celebrations happening because it's that 50-year anniversary this year, but this is actually the third time that we will be having Hmong Day at the Maple.

So this is the third year we've done it, and it started out with just a partnership between Nicole and some other community members who reached out wondering about doing some kind of event at the museum, and it's been a really wonderful partnership.

A really big part about the museum is we really want to work with all of our local communities to collect, share their stories through either exhibits or programming.

and this is just really perfect.

So it's been such a great partnership.

I honestly think Nicole and the community and the...

partners who work together on this do a lot of the work because they're working on um bringing in everyone who's going to be either participating in the event via vendor or actually doing like a dance or something one of the performers um so they do a lot of the work and I just help facilitate they're doing the brunt of that work.

I just think it's awesome.

Isn't

that great to have people like that?

She's awesome.

They're all awesome.

And it's been wonderful seeing the event too so like I'll be here for the third time as well and each year it's a little bit different it's been really wonderful watching.

everything.

What

have you learned?

What have I learned?

I have learned about different instruments that exist that I have never seen before.

And like listening to just the music and actually one of my favorite things too is when like last year to seeing some of the younger performers dance because they're bringing in I think an element of their culture but also like

bringing in more of like a recent like youth energy to it.

So it's really fun watching them kind of combine all of that together too.

That's

awesome.

And then

you'll be sharing your culture as well because you're bringing food.

Oh,

yeah.

Food there and we are encouraging the youth to be very involved this year.

Recognizing.

I had one of my

Vietnam vets tell me though to never if I'm at the house of among family.

Okay.

Two things.

I made two mistakes.

He said never drink their race

wine.

Really?

I never heard that.

Not in the morning.

And then they gave me, I walked in and it's like, what, that's the greatest smelling thing.

And it was, it's the, and like I got allergies right now and I still got some of this.

It's the hottest spice I've ever managed.

It's like the color of that, like an orangish kind of flaky kind of spice.

Saw that here right

there.

That's a great spice.

They do sell that at the monk stores.

Okay.

What

is

that?

It's a, it's a very hot monk tradition spice that is again.

You know what I've

actually done with that when I'm just totally completely

stuffed up

everything?

I'll just put it in a hot water, in a bucket of hot water, or a pan of hot water in the stove, and I'll just put my head over it, and then have that steam come up through my,

and it just clears

out

your head like

you can't believe.

That stuff is incredible.

What's that made on it?

Just some kind of a pepper

they grow on it?

Yeah, it's just made of home traditional seasonings, herbs, and all put together.

So yeah, it has a very good, but it adds just more flavor to it.

every food.

It's phenomenal chili, right?

Yes.

Oh, I'm glad you got to taste that.

That's excellent.

You don't forget it.

No, that's pretty good

stuff.

So

it's

awesome.

Hey, when you do something like this, what message do you try to get across to the people representing the Hmong and what they've done in our country for 50 years now?

Well, on that day, especially on that day, we like to really, you know, bring up front and talk about, you know, what the sacrifices that were took, the sacrifices that were made in order for us all to be here.

But we are really grateful for those sacrifices, and especially with the Hmong Lao veterans.

We recognize their courage that.

in 1975 and we all recognize and we are here and we are Hmong Americans today and we are proud to be part of the community and this day recognizes and remembers that, you know, Hmong...

all the Hmong here, we are here today because we are accepted like places like the, we thank Beth, you know, for allowing us the space to have this on a special day and making it public to the community because the museum holds a history of Green Bay and all that comes together.

And so being a part of the museum means that we, we the Hmong are a part of Green Bay and we're very, we're very blessed and very honored that we were able to share that with the museum.

Were you born in America?

Well, no.

I came as a refugee with my family in 1976.

Do you remember it at all?

Or are you too young?

No, I was only 10 months.

Oh, yeah,

10 months.

Okay.

But did they talk much about what it's like in those camps and waiting to come to America?

And I mean, they didn't know.

I mean,

Again the ones I've talked to and even my my soldier friends, you know from Vietnam I mean they saw what they went through I mean they went literally from being hunted I mean hunted like

remember

we had the guys in here Jim and they talked about they were just like hunted animals and trying

to get

out of wows

Do they

ever talk about that?

Oh, yes, definitely definitely and they will have we'll have some speeches on them and they in regards to those tragic experience and The three reasons why you know among the troops.

I mean the

U.S.

troops had asked the Mongols to be a part of and fall alongside the U.S.

troops and all that courage and all that success to be able to be a part of it.

So

yeah.

I find that interesting that you, to assimilate the United States, you picked pockets.

I mean, Minneapolis.

Was that a

Wausau big area

one time?

Right, Wausau.

In the state of Wisconsin, it would be Wausau and Green Bay.

That's just interesting.

And I'd like to think Green Bay was accepting.

I'd

like to think that our

community was, and a lot of good people here in Green Bay.

Oh, definitely.

Yes, definitely.

So I think that's

pretty neat

how that all worked for both cultures, right?

And accepting the diversity, because, you know, Green Bay holds a lot of diversity, too.

And everybody's got different cultures coming into Green Bay, so it's all good and a part of it.

But especially, like, you know, you guys have all mentioned that, you know, the Hmong people,

They know the layout of the land.

And that's why they fought along the US troops because they know the layout of the land.

So being a part of it and all the sacrifices that were made, but you know, till this day, it hasn't been forgotten.

And that's what Hmongyaday is about in May 14 is to remember all that Hmonglo Veteran's Day.

You know,

I think I heard negative about the American troops from the Hmong is that they would teach the little kids swear words.

And there'd be some words coming out at the

dinner table that the parents would.

And I love your culture, but your funerals.

So when I would show up, it was like, because I was the mayor for a

few years, and

then they would bring out like.

The

good

stuff, like the Jack Daniels and that's a little early for me.

No

rice munga.

I had to

call my wife one time, pick me up.

Hey, so wonderful having you both here.

All the respect in the world for your culture, your tradition.

Right.

And thank you

for

you

didn't know.

Allie, thank you very much for everything you do it that now everything else good.

Everything is great at the Neville.

Yeah, tell me again Sunday Sunday from noon to three So either stay for the whole event or stop them by for a little bit to check it out

great

Music,

food, dishes,

different