You're listening to Civic Media.
You can tune into any of our live shows on any radio station across the state with the Civic Media app.
Find us in your phone's app store and listen anytime, anywhere.
Well, hey there, Wisconsin.
Good morning.
It is a Tuesday morning, December 2nd, 2025, 6.06 the time.
And it's another beautiful morning to have you here up north live from Lake Wissota.
From wherever you're spending your mornings, listening across the Civic Media radio network or watching on social media, catching us by podcast.
Thanks for getting the day going right here.
I got a question for you.
A couple, actually, but here's the first one.
Are you ready for a truly spirited primary for governor?
Because I'm about to have details on former Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes, who just released the news that he's in.
Former Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes is going to be joining the field of Democratic candidates hoping to succeed Tony Evers and become Wisconsin's next governor.
That's now an even half dozen Democratic candidates in the primary, all of whom have their own attributes.
And so what does that mean for the primary?
We'll talk to Dan Schaefer from the Reconpopulation area about that a little bit later in the program.
And in just a few minutes, I will play some of Mandela Barnes' announcement.
He released a video that outlined some of his thoughts on why he's running for governor.
Our question of the day, though, is this.
How unpredictable is your work schedule or how unpredictable was your work schedule in a previous job?
There's some big news out of New York City about worker rights.
And it's one that we don't, I don't think we talk about nearly enough.
It's one thing to talk about pay.
It's another thing to talk about, you know, working conditions.
But there's also something to be said for predictable hours.
which we used to take for granted, but now way too many Americans are, to put it bluntly, being jerked around with work hours that are all over the board, which makes it really tough if you've got kids, for example, or other jobs or other responsibilities, and there are some who say, well, you know, you signed up, you get what you get.
Well, really?
I mean, at what point does that become abuse of those workers?
And so I'd love your own stories of examples, either now or in the past, where, you know, what kind of a job was it?
And just how crazy was it?
Were you working, you know, third shift one day, and then, you know, or for a week, and then they right away put you on some other shift, mandatory doubles, things like that.
So let's talk a bit about your work schedule and how crazy can those hours be?
855-755-CIVIC, 855-752-4842.
And coming up in less than 15 minutes, I will tell you about the story out of New York City that caught my attention.
Alicia, putting up on YouTube right away.
And good morning to you, Alicia.
My hours were ridiculously unpredictable when I was a delivery driver with FedEx.
Uh, and that's, you know, again, that can be the nature of the job.
Nobody's saying that every job has to be eight to five.
But again, at what point are you mistreating your workers?
Uh, Alicia says I would still be delivering packages at seven PM in New London as a single mom.
And that just ain't right.
So we'd love to hear more about your experiences on that 85575 Civic or use that Civic Media app to call us or text us or leave a quick voice note talking about your job and some of the crazy hours that you had going on in there today.
Coming up also on the program, we're going to talk to Brian Lemak from Defend the Vote.
He's going to talk all about the cost of corruption because let's face it, we have two real issues in this country.
One is the affordability crisis.
And then the other is having an administration that is openly hostile to America's economy.
And it's a level of corruption that actually does come out of your pocket.
And Brian Lemick is going to talk about that and about their endorsement in the Third Congressional District, Democratic Primary and more.
We also have Giving Tuesday upon us now, and so we will talk about 12 Days of Community Kindness, a little something we're doing here on the program for the next 12 days.
We will highlight different places in your hometowns that are trying to do good work and raise them up in public awareness for you to perhaps be able to help out with time or maybe volunteering, something like that.
So be listening for that during the course of the show.
And hey, if you can't stick around for all of this, easy enough, pod us, pod this program, head over to Spotify or Apple or just watch us later on YouTube.
And that way you don't miss a thing.
Temperatures are cold now, but you ain't seen nothing yet.
It is a chilly 12 right now across North Central Wisconsin, Annego, Rhinelander,
Park Falls, Arbor Vita, Manitouish Water is all reporting 12 right now.
Wasa is at 14.
It's 16 here in the Chippewa Valley.
It's 16 in Wisconsin Rapids, 18 in Oshkosh and in Richland Center, but we are headed for the deep freeze tomorrow night and Thursday morning when temperatures of 5 to 10 below Thursday morning will not be uncommon.
Assume that there will be school, and it's time to get out the hard core winter gear.
As it will be for Parker Olson as well, who produces this little shin dig and has to get up long before the butt crack of dawn to get the windshield scraped off and everything else, because his mean old mom won't let him park in the garage.
So he's got the driveway.
Mr. Olson, good morning.
Yes, I did, mom.
She's
know.
But I feel like I'd heard about.
Because if she did, she's not going to be like, do you call me your mean old mom?
Like, no, that was totally just.
You have no reason to let Parker into the garage.
That's, you know.
That's just what happens.
Yeah, I mean, I mean right rank rank has its privileges As we'd like to say it's true.
I have not earned it No, it's not not about earning.
It's not that you haven't earned it.
It's that somebody else is a little more shall we say grizzled experienced and Has done their time
on the outside of the driveway.
You punk.
So now it's now it's your turn.
Then just please make sure you do the same thing to your
someday as well and go, hey, school of hard knocks, you know, gladly.
So so and that's what when we talk about unpredictable work schedules, we don't just mean hard schedules.
You know, this is this is a hard schedule to ask somebody to be on the job at six a.m.
It's not the hardest schedule, but it's also not the easiest.
But at least it's predictable.
It's as opposed to people who are all over the board.
So
Oh, no.
Oh, I
I couldn't either, but we'd love to hear your experiences throughout the course of the day.
And like I said, I'll tell you about the new story that prompted it coming up in just a little bit.
But first, a little bit more about Mandela Barnes entering the race for governor.
He released the announcement early this morning saying that he is in.
He released an announcement video along the way.
In it, he first references his father.
His dad's jacket from UAW local 1866 and how you wear something like that all the time and that's not just a work jacket Because people knew if you had a union job you were looking out for one another you had each other's backs
And Barnes talks about having jobs where you could afford a home, support a family, save for retirement.
And now it's going the other way.
He talks about how, you know, the lower taxes are for billionaires now.
And the higher prices are for working people.
And meanwhile, you've got a president who's all about distraction and chaos to avoid accountability.
And here's where in his campaign launch announcement for governor, Mandela Barnes takes it from there.
So here's the reality check.
The only way for our state to move forward is to reject the Washington way and get things down to Wisconsin way.
It isn't about left or right.
It's not about who can yell the loudest.
It's about whether people can afford to live in the state they call home.
A state where you can afford your health care.
Where your kids can learn a skill and stay close to home.
Where a good day's work earns a good day's pay.
and where families can not only get by, but thrive.
I'm Mandela Barnes.
I've served Wisconsin in our legislature and as your lieutenant governor.
I know how to bring people together, and I know how to get things done.
Wisconsin, let's get to work.
And that's how the announcement video ends of Mandela Barnes describing the reasons why he's running for governor and why he feels like he's in a strong position to win the Democratic primary and to win a statewide race.
He came whisker close in 2022 and people will say, well, yeah, but he lost.
He lost to Ron Johnson.
Well, keep in mind two things.
One is the one you always hear me say.
Ron Johnson had no chance of winning if you, unless you had billionaires who could spend unlimited cash to drag his carcass over the finish line.
You've heard me say that before.
But you've never heard me say, because I didn't actually appreciate it until yesterday when I was looking at the potential of Mandela Barnes running.
And that said, in 2022, no Republican U.S.
senators lost their races.
That hadn't happened in like forever.
It was, you know, the midterm for the Biden administration, and it was a real pushback year against Democrats.
And so, you know, Mandela Barnes ran the closest U.S.
Senate race in Wisconsin history.
And so he feels like he is in the strongest position.
He becomes essentially the front runner in this race, but
Again, there are all kinds of people in this race right now.
You have the current Lieutenant Governor who's in there, Sara Rodriguez.
You have Milwaukee County Executive David Crawley.
You have State Senator Kelder Royce.
You have State Representative Francesca Hong.
You have a former chair of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, Missy Hughes, all in there.
So you now have a six candidate field on the Democratic side.
There are two candidates, Tom Tiffany, the Congressman, and Josh Schoeman, the Washington County Executive on the Republican side.
And Barnes comes into this, of course, with the experience of being a state legislator, of being Lieutenant Governor, of chairing the Climate Change Task Force, which has laid out a blueprint for how Wisconsin can mitigate the effects of a change in climate and thrive in new green energy sectors into the future.
He certainly comes in with a string of endorsements, including the mayors of Green Bay, La Crosse, Superior, legislators like Amada Rivera-Wagner and Angelina Cruz, several local officials.
But obviously some of the other candidates are racking up their own endorsements.
They have their own experiences.
This is going to be a real hard primary.
Let's not kid ourselves.
And not just for this race.
We talked about the third congressional district yesterday.
We had Emily Bergeon.
She's the Eau Claire City Council president.
She's giving up that post of city council president to focus on her campaign for governor because like Mandela Barnes, there are people who look at Becca Cook and say, well, you tried and you came up short.
It's time to go in another direction.
And it's a real battle, I guess, is the right way to put it of people either or trying to decide if
You help people like Cook and Barnes get the rest of the way across the finish line because they are the strongest candidates or if they can't get it done in your estimation and so you've got to choose somebody else.
And there's no easy path forward and that's why I say this to voters.
It's not just hard for the candidates.
It's hard for voters.
You got to vote.
You got to show up next August.
Forget about November.
November will take care of itself.
But there are also legislative districts where there are already multiple
Democrats running and I'm sure there's going to be multiple Republicans running in some of these districts.
And in a lot of cases, there isn't a front runner.
You've got to look at these people and say who's best and not kick yourself later on when you can't get, when that candidate loses in November because you didn't vote for what you thought was the strongest one.
So you're going to hear this a lot between now and next August.
Be sure you vote in the primary.
We will talk more and just a bit about how crazy unpredictable work schedules can be.
First, live from Lake Wissota, thanks for making this the place to spend part of your mornings.
I'm Pat Crightlow.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
Coming up on 6.23 right
now on this Tuesday morning, December 2nd,
Nice to have you along here.
We'll get back to our question of the day in just a moment, but first a reminder that you can sign up for our daily newsletters at upNorthNews over at upNorthNewsWI.com.
In one of the latest editions, Ellie's put in a section called the Badger State Buzz, a rundown of events happening around the state.
And yes, they happen even here in the good old winter time.
For example, in Marshfield this Friday and Saturday, Christmas in the barn.
A live nativity scene, a Bethlehem style marketplace, a petting zoo, kids' crafts and hot cocoa at Memory Lane Farm in the Marshfield area.
On Saturday afternoon, there will be a Christmas market at the Northern Wisconsin State Fairgrounds here in Chippewa Falls, and that's all ahead of Saturday night's Bridge to Wonderland parade through downtown Chippewa Falls, followed, of course, by a trek through Irvine Park to see all the Christmas lights and decorations, and I got to tell you when we moved here 30 years ago.
and saw our first bridge to Wonderland Parade.
We knew we'd made the right choice for a place to settle down and raise our young kids in Chippewa Falls.
The parade is just a beautiful thing, especially for all the little kids and all you gotta do is just remember to bundle them up real good.
One more here, the Tree of Light in Wisconsin Dells started yesterday and it runs through New Year's Day.
It is a scenic river walk.
full of festive lights, including a 55-foot silver maple tree decorated with 65,000 lights on it.
Also, in our newsletter, a link to our story last week about the Trump administration canceling a major shipbuilding contract that'll hit hard in Marinette.
You can go back and listen to our podcast episode to get reaction from Tom Nelson or head over to our website and read more.
And while you're there, sign up for those newsletters, the weekday one and our Sunday morning one.
That's over at upnorthnewswi.com All right, the reason I asked about unpredictable work schedules and things like that is That Starbucks has just agreed to pay nearly 40 million dollars in a landmark labor law settlement in New York City The settlement stems from Starbucks committing
More than a half million violations, including failing to give workers stable schedules.
It is the largest worker protection settlement in the city's history.
More than 15,000 hourly workers are expected to receive restitution payments under the agreement.
And that's a good thing, because work environment isn't just about the pay.
And it's not just about having safe conditions, though these things are important.
It's not just about collective bargaining, for example.
It's just that we never used to talk much about the role of working hours themselves because working hours were more predictable and somewhat stable, but we're now living in a just-in-time economy where we order inventory just in time rather than having everything that you need in the back room.
And the same goes for scheduling.
Instead of people essentially standing around and there's not a lot of customers at that time of day, well, maybe people just get sent home unless you're busy.
But that doesn't mean there can't be flexibility, you know, with a rugged work schedule.
It's just that there's a line somewhere that gets crossed
When a good worker can't make an abrupt change for childcare, or transportation, or sleep, or just being able to live a life outside of work.
Because again, we're all workers second at best, we're people first, even if some employers don't want you to believe that's the case.
In New York City, a fair work week law was approved in 2017, and it says fast food employers
must give workers regular schedules that stay the same week to week.
They must provide schedules 14 days in advance and cannot reduce hours by more than 15% without just cause or a legitimate business reason.
Now, Starbucks said in a statement, the law was quote, notoriously challenging for businesses to navigate.
Really?
It seems to me it would be less challenging to set up
regular work shifts and stick to them.
That's the cost of doing business.
And that's really one of the things I like to get to where people go, well, you know, if workers take that job, that's that's it.
They sign off their rights.
You don't have a right to stay in business either, especially if you're doing so while abusing your workers.
The New York Times said the New York City's investigation found that most Starbucks employees never received regular schedules, making it difficult to manage childcare or second jobs.
The company also, quote, routinely and unlawfully reduced employees hours by more than 15 percent.
The city found which made it difficult to get by.
Imagine trying to plan out paying your bills.
based on working a certain number of hours, which of course, they're all about the promises when they're recruiting people.
There's a labor shortage right now.
So they'll promise you the moon and stars and then screw you over once they've got you there.
So under the settlement, most employees who worked for Starbucks in an hourly position from July 2021 through July 2024 will receive $50 for each week that they worked.
So an employee who worked at the store for a year and a half could receive nearly $4,000.
Now that
hardly makes up for the disruption in their lives and maybe having to leave their jobs or Give the you know have their children be watched in less than proper circumstances But it makes a statement and that's the important part here and so Keep this in mind when we're saying oh well that $4,000 and you know what what are these workers complaining about?
Just keep in mind that the CEO of Starbucks last year
made $96 million.
While the barista's median income at Starbucks is $14,674.
That is the widest disparity between a CEO and its workers in the country.
And
So hats off to New York City and its workers for finally pushing back people want to work hard people want a good job, but they also do not want to be Shall we say taken for granted is the safest way I can put it on the radio Coming up next today's history lesson actually looks to the future with some brand new music from birthday boy Charlie Puth, but first the Midwest farm report.
I'm Pat quite low.
You're up north
Cranklow.
To all who've come to this happy place, welcome.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Beatles!
That's one small step for man.
Well, I'm not a crook.
You believe in miracles?
Yes!
You know, this depression is gonna be so great.
We'll be the ones eating the cats and the dogs.
That's gonna be fun.
Once again, it is time to take another revealing peek back into history.
We're going to kick off today's history lesson with a little movie music.
The naked gun movie based on TV's police squad premiered with Leslie Nielsen and friends.
And it was, it was just great.
I mean, I don't know who does that kind of screwball comedy these days and who does it well.
But Nakedun did such a great job of spoofing all of the police dramas that are out there.
And I feel like we need more that we need more spoofing.
There's enough meanness and sarcasm and everything else.
We need more spoofs.
Make us laugh people.
And by the way, we don't need to be laughed by people getting
You know, hitting the crotch or whatever, which seems to be all the rage these days.
We can do better than that.
Good.
It should be.
Take care of that.
All right, let's see.
On this day in 1951, the Green Bay Packers retired their first ever number in franchise history.
This is just for the listeners.
I know that you can already see the answer, Parker.
But let me ask the listeners, who was that?
Do you know who that was?
Who had the first jersey number retired in Packer history?
I didn't set this up as a call or anything, so I'm only going to give you five more seconds just to say it out loud to yourself.
And the answer, the jersey number was 14, and it was Don Hudson.
His was the first number retired at the Pro Football Hall of Fame wide receiver.
That number retirement happened this day in 1951.
On this day in 1954, the U.S.
Senate voted to censure Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin 65 to 22 for conduct that could bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute.
Oh, to have that level of honor in our Senate today.
You might have known that yesterday we had Dr. Kristen Lyrely on, and it was her birthday.
And she was very touched by all of the birthday greetings because her birthday is actually today.
And she shares it with all kinds of people.
As she mentioned, there's Aaron Rodgers, who turns 42 years old today.
There's Aaron Jones, who turns 31 years old today.
And there's Britney Spears, who turns 44 today.
There's also super producer Aaron Zommers, who has a birthday today.
Zommers.
Can we just say how important Zommers is?
Yes, we can.
I don't think we can say it too much.
So Mr. Zommers, happy birthday to you.
Let's see, Chad Holmes from WXCO in Warsaw.
Chad has a birthday today as well.
Spicy.
So, spicy Chad.
Along with Dr. Liarley and everybody else.
By the way, in honor of Dr. Liarley's birthday, I should note that on this day in 1952, the first ever human birth televised happened on Station KOA in Denver.
It wasn't like, you didn't really see.
It
was in the room.
You know, there was a sheet and eventually they hold up the baby.
So, it was like they were there, but they weren't there, if you know what I'm saying.
Let's see, we got more birthdays.
Let's start with Charlie Puth.
He turns 34 years old today and here's a little clip of his next single.
So Charlie Puth just was announced as the person who's going to sing the national anthem at the next Super Bowl.
Super Bowl 60 on February
Yeah, he announced a couple of weeks back that his next album will be released in March.
It's called Whatever's Clever and it was accompanied by the release of the album's lead single that you're hearing here changes.
So again, Charlie Puth 34 years old today and looking forward to an appearance at the Super Bowl.
Happy birthday to singer Nelly Furtado.
She is 47 years old today.
On this day in 1972, the new number one song was by the Temptations.
on this day in 1927, after 19 years of making the model T, Ford unveiled its next model.
And you're thinking, was it the model U?
No.
Of course.
That would have made sense.
They actually did have models from A to T. Not all of them were sellers.
They were just constantly updating things.
The T was like a big hit for a while.
Like I said, 19 years they produced it.
And they thought the next design was going to be so radical.
They started over again.
So their next model was another Ford Model A. And then eventually they gave them all the other names, you know, names for animals and things like that.
There have been some really good car names over the years.
And then there's the Edsel, you know, and some of the others that didn't work so good.
So what's the...
Oh, shoot.
What's the one that's half car, half pickup truck?
Oh, the El Camino, right?
Yeah.
There's just some that are appropriately named.
When you hear it, it's like, yeah, yep, that sounds like what you are, you know?
Kind of like the Mercury Grand Marquis.
Yeah, that thing's an aircraft carrier.
That's exactly what you'd expect from a car named the Grand Marquis, you know?
The big fella.
Yes.
You know, we had a Mercury Bobcat at one point, just a cute little car, but it would get you where you needed to go.
So, some car names work, some not so much.
Let's see, one more song here.
It's from 1967.
The number one song was by the Monkeys.
This,
of course, would be Gay Dream Believer, and it would be the number one song for four weeks, starting this week.
in 1967.
Let's see, before I get to the national day calendar, I wanted to thank Roger for putting in a note about our question of the day.
He said, my last employer frequently pulled the last minute.
We need a manager on duty on Saturday card.
And guess who was the only choice?
And even more, I had to deal with the call-ins.
I've been out of retail for 11 and a half years and never looked back.
Which kind of reminds me of that movie office space again I don't know if that one you've seen if not you got to put it on your list where the boss is always like Yeah, we're gonna need you to go ahead and come in tomorrow, you know on Saturday It's the it is the perfect movie spoof.
There's that word again spoofing spoofing corporate office culture So yes, absolutely get your list out put office space on there Got got to do that work
Let's see.
From Tony.
I love the El Camino.
It was built on the same frame as the Chevelle.
1969 was the best year for it.
You love the El Camino, the half car, half pickup?
I mean that, and they're trying that again now.
Let's see.
It's not the Bronco, but somebody's trying it again.
It basically, it's almost like a remodeled Ford Explorer.
But again, it kind of looks like half car, half pickup truck.
Not like pickup truck.
These pickup trucks have gotten to be gargantuan.
Oh, God.
you looking
now?
you.
Oh, you probably do.
If you're using the word weird, you've got the right one.
I mean, they're all
Yeah.
Let's see.
Tony says Ford had the El Dorado.
Not the same.
Nope.
Not at all.
And I still find it funny that for so many years, it hasn't been for a while now, but for so many years, there was fake wood paneling on the side as if people wanted their car partially made out of wood.
Never understood
But everybody from my age onward talks about riding in the woody, which was what we called a wood paneled station wagon back in the day, with the jump seat or whatever you would call it in the way back of the station wagon, facing backwards with no seat belts.
What
that was.
What a time to be alive, except for the people who weren't alive because they were in those seats.
What's on the national day calendar for today?
Okay.
I don't really have time for this, but I swear at some point.
I'm going to go through and count how many days are devoted to dogs of one time or another.
Let me, let me put it this way.
Yeah.
Okay.
I've got a document.
I've got a Google document that we use for this segment.
And it started out actually Aaron Zahmers helped, helped start it three and a half years ago when we started this show.
And so it was just, you know, at that time, it was one day, this day in history.
And we thought, let's put this down because this, we might be around for a year and we don't want to have to reinvent the wheel.
And so.
day by day, over the years, we've added to it.
I've now got it set so that this Google Doc has 365 pages, one for every day of the year.
And we've got all these history lesson things on there.
The one thing I didn't put on there that I wish I had now was these national days, because it would be easy for me now to do a search on that Google Doc.
and see just how many days are devoted to, like, this dog or this food, you know, this kind of pie or cake or ice cream or whatever the cake may be.
So, we're gonna do
All right.
Yeah, all I can think of now is Florence and the machine dog days are over.
Oh, no, there's always going to be dog days.
Trust me.
From Alicia, we had a woody station wagon and my brother and I would fight over the way back.
Oh, yeah, we totally did.
And back then, if you didn't have a station wagon, but you still had that back window in the back seat of the car, and there was so much room above the back seat.
to the back window that you could ride back there.
Now your dad would yell at you like you're blocking the rear of your mirror.
But sometimes they didn't because it was the only way the kid would settle down is let them ride, you know, in the behind the back seat up next to the rear windshield.
We were weird little kids that easily entertained.
All right, so it's national mutt day, which by the way, to take after my rant on dogs, I love mutts, love mutts.
I love mutts in everything, in every breed, especially people.
I love much with people like, okay, you're, you're half this, half the, or you're an eighth this and a quarter of this.
I love it.
Let's do more of that.
Let's get that melting pot really going.
Boy, that'll, that'll make the, uh, uh, the whites, uh, the white nationalists just go crazy, you know?
Uh, what else is on the calendar?
It is national bartender day.
Oh, I've had some amazing bartenders here in Chippewa Falls and they work their tails off.
And thank you to our
Okay.
Let's see.
Tony apparently tried to do a quick count.
He said the exact number varies on how you count them.
But there are well over 20 dedicated specifically to dogs.
Many dog days.
But today we got the month.
All right, what else we got for calendar items?
Not if you skip it.
No.
No, no, no.
So there you go.
There's today's history lesson.
Now coming up in our seven o'clock hour, Hans Bright and Moser, Sheila Everhart, and wedding barn owner Gene Bond will talk about the fall legislative session and how they basically blew off the people who want to operate these wedding barns around Wisconsin.
Also, Brian Lemick from Defend the Vote, real information, great conversation on a bashedly Wisconsin
Live from the lake, you're listening to Mornings with Pat Crite,
low powered by Up North News on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Still ahead on this Tuesday morning after the 7 o'clock news we'll be talking to Brian Lemick from Defend the Vote.
We will also have your first keyword of the day in our grown-up gift list text-to-win contest.
If you're not familiar with it get that Civic Media app.
load it up on your phone where you can call or text or leave us a voice note.
You're going to want to use that text feature.
We're going to give you a keyword.
You text it in and that's your entry for a chance to win $200 cash as part of a daily prize for one lucky entrant.
And everybody's entered for one of three different grand prizes being offered.
And again, we'll do that right after the seven o'clock news coming up.
But Parker continues things with entertainment news and what he has found of interest, whether they're of interest to me or you.
you know, will be the judge of what he's been browsing.
Where are we starting?
We are
A $1.3 million car because it's in the style of James Bond.
of restoring three million dollars.
The amount.
Yeah, I can only imagine how much restoring went into this.
Suddenly it is.
It is very much like my first car.
I've mentioned a few times.
My first car was a 73 Plymouth Fury.
And it sat down there at Luns.
There was this auto salvage yard between Eau Claire and elite or South of Eau Claire, I should say.
And my dad had driven it for for a while.
And then when he upgraded his car, and I was like 1413 or 14.
And he's like, well, I'll just tuck this away.
And so, I mean, on the one hand, when I turned 16,
you
know, free car.
And I thought it was just going to like be in the driveway.
All he said was that, you know, his old car, he was going to give it to me.
You can imagine what I was feeling when he says, get in the car, let's go.
We go for a ride and we travel south of Eau Claire to Lunds.
I don't believe it's there anymore, the salvage yard.
But we go to this junkyard.
And he walks over to the middle of the junkyard, and he's like, there
is.
That's the one.
And it's green, and it's rusting out, and there's a mouse nest in there.
And because the sun had been beating down on it for a couple of years, this was back when dashboards were made of vinyl.
And it cracked.
And there was this crack down the middle of it with all the exposed, you know, styrofoam, not styrofoam, but whatever it was underneath.
So it looked like I had the San Andreas Fault going down the middle of my dashboard.
And but again, free car.
And so it was responsible for a lot of stories like the time the muffler fell off, it fell off.
The time one of the tires just fell off.
A host of other
issues that come with the 73 Plymouth Fury.
And all I could think of is, at one point, that thing was showroom new.
Somebody drove that off the showroom floor and said, this is the latest and greatest in automobiles.
And I'm sure that that's exactly what they thought of this Aston Martin back in the day.
Like, this is James Bond.
This is great.
And then they let that thing sit in a junkyard too.
But I promise you, $1.3 million worth of restoration would do nothing for a 73 Fury compared to what it did to that car.
So I hope it sells.
Oh my gosh.
In the middle of the Clark County Forest on Highway 10.
And we just heard this on a highway.
You look, yeah, we're in the middle of nowhere.
I go to pick it up, which was a mistake.
I don't know if you know this.
Mufflers get really, really hot.
Mufflers are warm.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We, Sherry and I had to wait a bit for it to cool.
Then loaded it into the...
back, it's into the back seat and continued on to, to where Sherry lived, uh, you know, the dairy farm in Manitowoc and I said, yeah, I'm going to have to take it into a shop or something or whatever.
And Sherry's dad is a dairy farmer and says, I got this.
And like an hour later, he says, you're, you're good to go.
And I look and sure enough, he'd put it back on.
He'd taken a coffee can and cut, you know, cut it and then wrapped the coffee can around the joint and then wrap that in chicken wire.
OK.
And it's and it stayed on.
There you go.
It was still a little loud because, of course, you couldn't give it a really tight seal because it probably was going to rust through otherwise.
But that's, you know, everybody's got everybody's got a first car story of some type or another.
And that is definitely mine.
It is not a one point three million dollar car.
The things you can do
Yeah, you got one more here.
What's new at the movie theaters?
The highest animated opening film ever half a billion dollars.
Yeah
for Zootopia 2.
don't know if I've seen the original Zootopia.
Have you?
Oh, so you were too cool for it?
Is that what you're
Oh.
All right.
So you're familiar.
So.
So you're going to go see the the second one at some point, right?
I mean, what the heck added to the list?
Oh, come on, you've got you've got plenty of other things on the list.
I don't know that you should be paying money to go there.
But apparently a lot of people thought otherwise they paid over $500 million to go see this.
Yeah,
So there you go.
When people say, you know, oh, it's all streaming and movies are dead and things like that.
No, no, no, no.
There's still a room for movie theaters where the kids can go and you can just kind of, you know, let them tune out for a bit.
Unless they're throwing a popcorn.
What was the phrase that sent
them
in?
Chicken
jockey.
Yes, exactly.
You need a theater for that.
You can't do that in the family room.
No.
All right.
Again, coming up, Hans Bright and Moser, Sheila Everhart, more on Wedding Barnes, our 12 Days of Community Kindness starts on this Giving Tuesday on these mornings powered by Up North News.
I'm Pat Critello.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network, your grown-up gift list, text-to-win contest keyword coming up after the news.
The national news cycle never stops, but it can be hard to find news about your local community.
Civic Media is dedicated to providing quality local and state news coverage across Wisconsin.
With the Civic Media app, you can get notifications about local stories that matter to you and your community.
Find the free Civic Media app in your phone's app store and choose notifications from the menu to tell us what kind of news you want to hear about.
