Good morning, Wisconsin.
Morning, world.
It's a new day.
Thanks for kicking it off with us right here at WFHR.
Got your host, James behind the mic.
We are joined by CEO of your United Way of Southwood and Amps County's Terry Johns.
Good morning.
Got the band together on a Thursday.
We're going to have some fun today.
In the 9 o'clock hour, we'll be joined by Janice and our pet of the week from the South
wood County Amps society and much, much more.
But let's go ahead and kick things off the way we like to with our good friend, Brittany
Merlot, talking a little mother nature.
Brittany got a little bit of rain this morning with us.
Yeah, I was going to say I want to rock that umbrella hat, have you ever seen those
new things?
Yes, yes.
You could pull that off.
You could definitely rock that.
Oh, yes.
It's my favorite.
It works, too.
I mean, it doesn't really cover the whole body.
I mean, you have a nice elastic strap band around your forehead, too, but all good.
Yeah.
But you're dry.
I mean, it's all good.
But you're dry.
That's, yeah.
That makes it cool.
It's like any hat.
Once you put it on, you got to leave it on.
Yeah.
You don't have to eat your walker out of the house then.
You're right.
Because, otherwise, you'll have that nice hat head mark.
I love it.
Yes, yes.
Don't forget the real umbrellas, though, today, or a raincoat or something because it
is just going to be a damp and dreary one, got overcast skies, light rain.
It's actually ramping up now, moving up 39, headed towards Steven's point, a pretty decent
downpour.
And we're looking at rain rates down south at about, we're getting, I mean, half an inch
to ¼ of an inch.
So we're going to see some heavy rain throughout the day today.
The system continues to look to the north, swiping us, but then moving more into the
Fox Valley.
So we could see breaks of dryness later on this evening, but then another front, go figure.
This is one moving in from the south.
We've got another one moving in from the west overnight tonight, so we could see some
more rain through the overnight hours.
Now, I know that's not going to bother us, but what it's going to be doing is really,
really ramping up those rivers.
We're going to be rushing.
We're going to be rising.
The Wisconsin River is already at an action level, so we've got to be careful of that.
We're seeing some of those flooding over into northeastern Wisconsin.
So just the damp and dark day today, high temperatures cooler, too.
We're only going to make it to the low 50s, both today and tomorrow, and this rain could
still linger tomorrow morning before we dry out by the afternoon, and then the good news
settles in.
A huge, huge, blocking high pressure system for Saturday, Sunday, and into most of next
week, which is going to keep us dry, beautiful, and warm us up to temperatures in the 70s.
I felt it as soon as you said that.
That sounds good.
That's a little crazy fresh cut grass.
I was wearing shorts yesterday longer, probably about an hour or two hours longer than I
probably should have.
I started getting cold.
I'll be honest.
That sounds really good, Brody.
You know, with all the rain, though, lately, I've seen a lot of grass already cut a couple
times, probably.
Yeah.
Oh my gosh.
Have you.
Mine's kind of like half brown and then half green.
So I guess you're all this week, you know, it's just really going to have allergies too.
Oh, yeah.
I've been feeling that.
That is, yeah.
Well, we're that much more ready for it.
Thanks a lot, Bernie.
We appreciate you.
You have a great morning.
We'll get people ready for the week and tomorrow.
Sounds good.
Have a good day.
Best in the business right there for in Britain, we're low joining us every morning right
in this time slot.
Terry and I are going to get into some fun this morning.
This hour alone, we got the LKAPA, birthday and anniversary club.
We're talking moms, not only what they're looking for for Mother's Day, but the best in
where states for working moms thought that would be a fun, uh, interesting one to get
into.
We'll kick off the nine o'clock hour as I was telling you before with our pet of the week
from the South of County main society, Denise will be joining us, dive into some entertainment
news, uh, got some interesting stuff on Dolly Parton.
I want to get into local theater, one of the talk about and our newsletter all lined up
for you.
And we'll get into a couple of interesting stories, Terry got one about a one of the odds,
the actual percentage of a husband and wife both being picked for the first, the same
jury for jury duty.
Oh, that's, that's one of the interesting, wouldn't it?
Yeah, yeah.
We got that one coming up a couple of other good ones for you, uh, but we like to kick
off our show and certainly will wrap up with an update on the United Way of Southwood
and Anne's counties.
How are things going over there, Terry?
Um, really good, crazy busy, but I will say probably the most relevant and biggest news
is that starting today, um, families can register for stuff the bus.
So if you, um, our family that receives free and reduced launch, you are eligible to register
for school supplies and this would be for next school year.
But that registration did open this morning.
No feet, no worries.
It goes all the way till August 1st.
So you have literally three months to register.
However, I say that a little tongue in cheek because every year on August 2nd, somebody
contacts us and says I didn't register.
So you have three months, um, so we encourage you to do that and, and the incentive for
early registration is you, um, when you register, you pick, you choose your pickup slot.
So I mean, if there's, you know what I mean, if, if you know Friday afternoon does not
work for you, only Saturday morning would work.
Well, this is your chance to, um, you know, make sure that you get the slot that you need.
So the only way to register is to go to our website, UWAC.org, and click.
It's the very first, um, we have some rotating banners at the, at the top of our screen,
but it is the very first opening one.
You can't miss it.
If you do miss it, be patient.
It'll rotate back through, um, but you do need to register there.
If you, um, don't have the, the ability to do that or you don't have a computer, you
can call 211 to get registered, uh, but there are no paper forms or anything like that.
You do have to, um, either fill out the online form on your own or call 211 for some assistance.
Um, but again, you know, this is a big, this is a big thing, um, it puts a lot of people's
mind at ease.
I think that, um, you know, that this is a service that's available and it's only available
because the community as a whole supports it.
So the companion piece to this is, um, you know, school supplies are in the store.
So when you see school supplies, um, if you, if you have the ability, you could donate,
um, you know, pick up a few things.
If you are a business and you're listening and you're willing to be a drop off location,
um, you can also let us know that and we'll recognize your business and, um, people can,
can purchase items, bring them to you, then you bring them to us lunch by the river on
August 7th.
Um, August 7th is the deadline for collecting supplies because we need to inventory and
start packing those backpacks.
So we can't, you know, take stuff on the 10th or on the 15th or whatever.
So we do need them by August 7th, um, again, three months.
So, you know, we appreciate all of the help in making this happen, um, but we do need
to, you know, kind of stick to those deadlines so that we can make sure that we're serving
families in the best way possible.
You certainly know this better than me, uh, but, uh, from the years of doing this with
you Terry, I would say that this is the most ambitious project from the United Way
every year and, and the most, uh, the three parter where the community is really involved
in three, just different ways, uh, that all lead to the overall cause and, uh, that we
all believe and making sure that every school kid has everything they need to, you know,
uh, and have a good school year, um, and just put it basically and I'm really summarizing,
but there's so many more details to it, but it's really what we're trying to do here.
The goal of this is, and it really begins with, um, you out there, certainly for, it
begins in two different ways, certainly the families that this affects, signing up and
making sure that you've got a time slot for this while, uh, the rest of us, other, you
know, people that like myself and my kids are all in early mid 20s and everything and
they're not in school anymore, that sort of thing, but I still want to be involved.
Well, I can pick up school supplies.
I see them out there.
Um, I do hear from students that, uh, uh, uh, we had a sketch, uh, a couple of months back
about, um, then putting schools are, uh, Christmas, uh, decorations showing up sooner and
sooner in stores and I had a student say, well, I'm more upset about school supplies showing
up sooner and sooner.
Well, I mean, kids would be because school's not even done yet, but it's, uh, it's great for us.
It's great for us to be able to plan for this to be able to get these things out of the way.
I know for me, I met the store and I'm getting other things and I happen to see the notebooks
are on sale. Why not grab a couple of those? Um, every little bit helps.
And we do have a list of our most needed items.
Also can be found on our website and we'll continue to talk about this as it gets closer,
but, um, but, you know, there are items that we especially need.
So we need folders and notebooks, um, all solid color stuff, nothing with, you know,
designs or prints or pictures.
So notebooks, um, folders, scissors, markers, and colored pencils are really, you know, kind of
our greatest need items. Um, we, we do have the some storage capacity, not a lot.
So sometimes things get held over from the prior year. Um, so, you know, sometimes if we have
a thousand of something, we, we don't turn it away when it comes in, but it's not our greatest
needs. So that would be, you know, really our greatest needs. Um, and we just, you know,
encourage people to do what they can. We, um, this event or this undertaking initiative,
whatever we want to talk, you know, call it, um, like you said, it is a big, it's a big job,
but there's many hands and that makes life work. And so we have active participation from all
of our local school districts, um, and of course, United Way and other organizations, um,
throughout the community. Uh, but we do, you know, we do accept help, manpower, help, right?
Like helping to sort and, and that kind of thing. We have a lot of school groups that help pack
backpacks, but you know, when all of a sudden done last year, we served, um, well over 900 students.
I mean, that's how many actually received a backpack. We had over a thousand registered,
but of course, you know, you might register May and something happens over the summer and you
move or leave the area. Um, and, and then, you know, those backpacks just are ready for the next,
you know, for the next year. So, um, this is a great, um, great undertaking, well oil machine,
goes very well, um, but, but, but really what we need is we need people to register,
and we also really need people to donate school supplies. If I'm a family, say one of those
families, Terry, like you said, uh, the odds are maybe moved or something along those lines.
Let's say as well, uh, I'm a family that like, like one of the Alice family, so many are out there
on that we see from the report that the United Way Post, when it comes to a family on the cusp
possibly, uh, to put this the best way I can think of. And maybe I think I might need these supplies,
but something turns around and I actually, you know, a grandparent bought them or something along
those lines. So I want those supplies to go to maybe another needed family. Um, is that you,
do you still recommend somebody who lies signing up in those circumstances? Yeah, and we'll have
people let us know sometimes like, Oh, you know, I no longer need this. So we'll just pull them off
the list or, or the other thing, you know, sometimes, you know, school starts September 3rd and
September 5th, we have a new student, right? So then there's, you know, there is access to supplies
for those folks as well. And one of the other things that we layered on this, I'm sorry,
you guys are so good at this. You really do have this down like any gray area. I can't throw you
any curve balls. You're not this, that's really cool. Well, when one value add that is new this year
is when you do register, we actually provide you with a list of what you're going to get because
that's some feedback that we've gotten is, you know, we pick up the school supplies on August 16th,
but then, you know, there's things that we that stuff the bus does not provide. And so then they're
kind of scrambling right to get what they need. So if they know now, these are the 10 things that
your student will get in the back, you know, and including a backpack, then they know, you know,
when they go to the store and they see the list from their teacher, they know that they still need
to pick up four things, then they can do that as it as it is appropriate for them over the course
of the summer. So that's something new. In the past, we've just said, well, what have we received,
you know, through lunch by the river and through all of the collection points. And then when they
pick up the backpack, that's, you know, that's what we had. And we've always said, you know, it's
it's whatever the community has the ability to support. But we went through by school with the
schools together last week and said, you know what, these are the things that we're really
confident that we can for sure provide. And so now they're getting that list, which I think is
awesome. So once they register, they get a confirmation email and included is, you know,
if you have a first grader, here's what that first grader is going to get in their backpack.
Yeah. You mentioned, you know, making these more colors and not so much themes of things and
stuff. We understand, you know, those are some that more on a personal level, if you can do,
I know that one of the bigger, hotter items, at least from what I can remember is the elf,
you know, trapper keeper. Yeah. Yeah. So we understand that that might not be, you know,
be the forever, but I don't know. I haven't had, I haven't been in school in a long time. I'm old.
I don't know what's cool anymore. And the teacher's just cool, well, I was dumb.
The teachers just say, you know, they want plain color folders. And I think that's, you know,
especially the elementary, like they might use green for language arts and yellow for math and
red for social studies and, you know, blue for science or whatever. So that's, so and cost
effectiveness. Yeah. Solid colors make more sense. Yeah. Yeah. It all makes a lot more sense
than anything I would pick out. You can be a part of this. We encourage businesses to be a part
of this as well. There are not many better things. There's no marketing, your salesperson,
it could tell you any better than you attaching yourself with a nonprofit, especially the United
Way. It is, it is an amazing way to get your business out there while also supporting your
community is a true win-win. Find out more at uwac.org, uwac.org. Be sure to follow the
United Way on Facebook and social media and share what they're doing on your pages.
Well, uh, end with another update on the United Way. Got some other things to talk about
with the gang over there. We'll have that in the LKF avertain anniversary club and so much more
right here on mornings at WFHR. You heard pit bull. It's time to do some celebrating with our
great friends at LKF and the one most, one of the most wonderful restaurants you're going to go to
in all of this area. We got some great local businesses and great chefs and great food in this
area, like nobody else. Central Wisconsin has such an elite and unique set of places to stop by.
One of them being LKF, a visit them today, treat yourself. Get on over to 221 Market Avenue,
beautiful port Edwards. Say hi to the gang over there for us. Wish them a great Thursday.
They got a great breakfast, corn, beef, hash skillet lined up for you today or for lunch or
grilled cheeseburger. Just straight up, grilled cheeseburger. That sounds good. Yeah, it sounds
good. Awesome. Many great things over there. Just keep in mind that when you go to LKF, if you're
hungry, like I want burger, I want a burger, then you take a look at that menu and everything changes
for you because they got such a great unique menu over there. Be sure to check it out and say hi
to the gang for us at LKF by local support local everybody. Part of the reason we love our friends
at LKF, they go above and beyond. We ask, hey, would you sponsor this segment? We'd really love to.
They do and that's really cool and then they're like, hey, wait a minute. We're not just going to
sponsor this segment. We're going to let you guys grab qualifiers every day and that the beginning
of every month, we're going to give you a chance to grab one of those qualifiers and they get to win
$2.20 gift certificates to take over to LKF and spend on whatever they want. Terry, if I won this,
I would go over there and for every day I could, I would buy it. I get a different slice of pie.
Just try all those different pies. You can. You can do that. You can do whatever you'd like and
you do that thanks to our great friends at LKF and to one of our guests pulling a winner because
I can't. I got all these names in front of me and I want every one of them to win, Terry. I could
never decide. So you get to decide and you get to pick a name out of the hat of who is going to win.
So we had ourselves 30 qualifiers last month. How cool is that? We had one for every day. That's
that's super cool. It's awesome. Thanks so much everybody for that. We had some added bonus
qualifiers in there as well. Got a great list here, Terry. Give me a one through 30.
26. All right. And that gives us Jerry and Rose Nash. Jerry and Rose Nash. Everybody,
let me get visual. There we go. Congratulations. Yeah. Jerry and Rose celebrated their
anniversary earlier in the month of April and we wish them a very, very happy anniversary.
Wonderful to see them win and to see all these people on this list. Keep adding these to our list.
Everybody give us those birthdays and anniversaries. You can email us info at wfhr.com.
Direct messages on our Facebook pages. And of course, you can call up using the Civic Media app
or you can text us through the Civic Media app. 715-424-2600 call up and get us those birthdays
and anniversaries. We love live birthdays and anniversaries. Love it. And a congratulations to
Jerry and Rose Nash. They're heading on over to LKFA for free. That sounds fabulous. That's
pretty cool. Thanks, Terry. Thanks for doing that. We'll get that name out there again, not only
today but we'll announce it again tomorrow. Just make sure that they hear. Looking at today's
list, Terry, I need you to do it again. Another one or two. Two. All right. It gives us that one.
We can first up wish a very happy birthday to Pam's nephew, Brian Fash, out of Kimberly, Wisconsin.
Happy birthday, Brian. Enjoy the day, Brian. You got an amazing aunt. You got an amazing aunt.
We take a look at this local list here and celebrating their 49th anniversary. That's awesome.
Ron and Elaine Herman. Happy anniversary. These hit my romantic heart every single time. I've
been doing this for almost 10 years and this Denver gets old to me. Happy 49th, Ron and Elaine.
Hope it's a great one for you. Enjoy. I got the big dive. Oh, coming up next time. That's
going to be good. Yeah, you better get prepping for that. And looking at our qualifiers today,
celebrating their anniversary. Butch and Deb Fensel. Happy anniversary. Butch and Deb is an
awesome pairing. That's an awesome pairing right there. That sounds really good. Butch, Deb,
we wish you to a happy anniversary and joy year day. Hope it's a good one for you. And a big thank you
to everybody that gets us these birthdays and anniversaries. We appreciate being able to share
your day with you. That is a really cool thing that we get to do with our audience and the
connection we have with you guys. And two anniversaries on Mayday. Yeah, that's pretty cool.
Is that I don't I don't know if I I mean, you think I know we talk about a content wise all
the time. Is this the beginning of a wedding season because I feel like we I see a lot of
anniversaries in May. I don't know. Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Yeah. It's nice around people getting
outside. I could see it. I could see it. Let's go ahead and take a look at who these anniversaries
are celebrating with as far as bird days go. Taking a look at the list. Darius McCray is 49. He
was Eddie Winslow on Family Matters. Okay. He was on Family Matters. Yeah. Yeah. I remember him on
Family Matters a little bit. I was more of my brother and sister showed to be honest. But yeah,
one of the better directors out there in the game. Wes Anderson is 56. Amazing writer,
director. Rushmore. The Royal Tenenbimes. The Grand Pudipest Hotel. The Isle of Dogs. A lot of great
movies he's done. Really good director. One of those guys I'd I'd love to work with. One of those
guys I love to play and I played a double shot of them over on the sunrise show to the
sailor Brady's birthday. Tim McGraw's 58. He's top three favorite easily favorite country singers
song, you know, players for me. I love Tim McGraw. Big, big fan of his. And I said that as somebody
who really enjoyed his music as a kid and that, you know, grown up in high school and everything.
And I did not it was actually being in gym, you know, or in the weight room with the guys and
stuff like that was how I first heard Tim McGraw and stuff. And I just didn't, you know, most of my
friends didn't listen to a lot of country music. So it was mostly in school that I heard him.
I'm like, I liked his voice. I liked the way he sang. Just his style of singing. And then
learning more and more about him. But seeing him as an actor got me really on board with him and
stuff, seeing him in interviews and the kind of person he was the way he carried himself.
I don't feel like in only him, he knows. But I don't feel like this is a guy who's ever put on
heirs. This has ever been a guy who's like, this is the public persona I'm going to put across
or something like that. I think growing up the way he did with the relationship he had with his
father, Tung McGraw famous MLB pitcher. And some of those things laid out a path for him of, you
know, I get this break. I'm going to do it my way. I'm going to be myself and I'm going to
handle things my way. And I feel like he has, you know, he's done a really cool job of that.
This man has been around for decades and you've never heard a bad thing about Tim McGraw.
Like there's, there's nothing nobody's, he's worked with thousands of people. He's worked with
thousands of artists. It's an industry that looks for holes that looks for opportunities to take
shots at you or or take you down a peg or something like that. Nothing. Yeah, it's a great guy.
Just a good guy. Just a good guy. And you've gotten to see him live. Yeah. Yeah. He's a good
live performer right here. I am very jealous of that. I got to check him out sometime at 58. I
know he's not touring as much anymore and everything. So he does something live. I got to check it.
I got to catch it. It's worth it. He's a lot of, oh, I believe it. Yeah, he's good for it.
Ray Parker Jr. is 71. Ghostbusters superstar. That was hard to say.
He almost watched that again, huh? I don't mean to take a shot at Ray Parker Jr. or anything,
but I mean, you know, it was one of the problems with the 80s where, hey, here's a hit. You got
a hit song. Congratulations. That's all you get. That's it. What hit? You know, that was the 80s,
right? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And I imagine that Ray Parker is not feeling bad about this at all.
He's still got that. Dan Flork is 75 Captain Craig and on Law and Order SVU.
A great character actor, but one of those things where the Law and Order series,
there were certain things that they did and were benchmarks of every, this is going back to
Quincy and shows like that. But if you were a detective show or a crime show or anything like that,
you had to have the corner, the funny sarcastic dark corner who just had dark humor. It was usually
eating a sandwich or something when they were talking about the body or whatever. I don't think that's
real. I don't know. It might be. I don't know. But you also had to have the Captain. The strong Captain
was like, you're costing us money. You're a loose cannon. All that stuff. Dan Flork played that
character perfectly. Like really did a good job with that. His chemistry with the other characters,
Christopher Maloney and Mariska Haggerty and stuff is really good too. He's a good one.
Part of what made that show, I think, fun. Along with Ice Tea and so many other great actors on
the Law and Order SVU in the series. I love the Eat in the Sandwich. I don't watch and I haven't
watched a lot of reality TV shows and I haven't watched one in probably a decade. But I did watch
American choppers a bit. I have to admit, I did get into that show in part because of the
Tuttles and how much they reminded me of my family and everything. Paul Tuttle Senior is 76
today. American choppers lead. I could lead of the show and stuff. I don't know if it was his
idea to do that show or not or it was his kids. But I watched almost every episode of that show.
I'll admit. I was pulled into it. It was part in part because of the interaction between the
dad and sons and stuff. But also just choppers and just seeing the way they would build these
machines. Man, I get into that. It's kind of cool to me. Rita Coolidge is 80. Her biggest hit,
your love has lifted me higher and higher. It was in Ghostbusters 2, actually. Not Rita's version,
but the song was. And Chris Christoffer since X-Wife as well. They were married for a while there.
They wrote some songs together. And that is going to complete our list, a great list today and a
great one to have some anniversary's on. One more time we want to wish a happy 49th anniversary
to Ron and Elaine Herman, a happy anniversary to our qualifiers, Butch and Dev Venzel. And of course,
a big congratulations to our April winners Jerry and Rose Nash. We are just on an anniversary
roll out here. Congratulations. I love it. It's awesome. Keep getting us those birthdays and
anniversaries, everybody. And I cannot think of a better way to celebrate them with our friends
at L Cafe. Get on over there today. Treat yourself to 21 market Avenue and beautiful poor
Edwards. Terry and I will take a news, sports and partner break. We'll even have some
Peach Wabe entertainment news in there. I wanted to promote Pete a little bit and the good work
that he is doing. All that coming up for you. And then we'll be back talking Mother's Day
on the morning's morning show. I was going to say mornings with WFHR. I was trying to combine
the morning show and mornings with WFHR as well. Whatever we want. We're here in the AM.
Not the radio.
Can't believe you put this in there.
Perfect song to sit us up talking about Mother's Day. I don't know. I don't know. I didn't have a
Mother's Day song. The dinosaur. That's what we're going with. Terry and James,
take it out with you. Thanks so much for joining us. Everybody morning show here at WFHR.
We get in our 80s vibe around here when Terry joins us. We can't help ourselves.
But we are going to talk a little Mother's Day right now. We are two weeks away from Mother's Day.
And if you haven't thought about a gift from Mom in your yet, I think we can help you out
with that a little bit. Now I will tell you before we even get into this article. I actually think
that moms are in some ways. I wouldn't say easy between moms and dads and Mother's Day gifts.
But I think if you are paying attention to your mother and you know you just are listening,
you actually have what to do for Mom. Pretty easy and pretty lined up for you.
Moms won't tell you. But I think if you're paying attention, you can figure out good things to do
for Mom and Mother's Day. And I mean, I don't think you're going to get called out. If you, you know what I
mean? Like if you, I think mom's appreciate anything that you do for them or give them. So
it's not like they're going to be like, oh yeah, I don't really like that. Yeah. Yeah. Plus,
we're going to really make this really easy for you. According to a number of the surveys that I'm
looking at here, the thing that all moms are looking for is a day off. That's it. That's what they're
looking for. Okay, but I'm not certain we ever get that. Yeah. Yeah. Every year moms are asking what
moms are asked what they want from Mother's Day. And they're always hinting at small stuff or like
maybe even stuff like a nap or the day off from doing everything for the family or handmade gifts
and cards. These are kind of the go-tos and stuff. And all of these are according to this survey
are still really good once. I think I think just taking a pause for a second and they know we joke
about these things. Oh, give me a nap and we all make a laugh. Like, let's take its moment here
and realize what mom, like the simplest things like the first thing on most moms list is a nap.
Just let's have some respect for what moms do instead of just, you know, kind of not even just
phoning in our thanks, but also like just taking a second a breath and realizing that this world
moves because of moms and have for thousands of years and we appreciate them. In a new survey,
94% of moms say that they'd like to have more sleep and half of the moms said that a nap with no
one needing you is the ultimate luxury. Okay, I just literally said this the other day. I said,
you know, I would like to just sleep until I wake up. Now, that doesn't mean I can sleep in,
but I would like to not wake up from an alarm snoring, um, body parts, smacking me, you know, like,
arm, um, children's feet, doors slamming, like any variety of things I would like to just one time
I'm being a little dramatic, but really, like, so I just said this like two weeks ago on a Friday
and we had nothing the next Saturday morning, nothing early and I thought, oh, maybe, um, and yeah,
someone's phone rang at like 615. Of course. Yeah. Are you hitting me? You know, so, um,
yeah, we would like a little sleep or I can remember my kids were really little,
you know, it'd be something like that. Like, I'd be like, oh, I'm just going to go take a nap, right?
And okay, you know, my husband's there with the kids right there in the living room, but
the, you know, Randy's in the same room with them, but he's probably maybe watching TV. And
all of a sudden, you hear mom, yeah, and then you hear him go, don't bother your mom. Well,
okay, let's see. I've got one like right in my face trying to whisper mom so they don't get caught
waking me up, but I used to laugh about that all the time. And I'm like, you know, if you just
kept them occupied, maybe that nap would happen. I would run into, um, don't, don't, don't bug mom,
don't bug mom, but my shoe laces, I can tie them, I can do it. Yeah, but you don't do it the way mom does.
Yeah. Well, there is that. And, and I will, I'm not going to lie mom stew kind of. Oh, yeah,
yeah, yeah, that'll blame me. I would do. So then after that, the next quote, luxuries being
eating in meal while it's hot or not making any decisions or how about a solo bathroom break?
Like, you talk about the bare minimum of things to ask for in this world to just a moment to breathe.
Like, how about that? Uh, again, looking at this list, and I think you can do two things at once.
You can have, uh, you can laugh and cry at the same time. We all have all done it.
You can look at this list and laugh a little bit and think, oh, that's kind of funny and stuff.
And at the same time, like, oh my gosh, what, what is put on mom's shoulders? We really need to take
a breath. If we should do it every day, obviously, the old adage of, you know, that every guy looks
to get points for mothers day should be every day. Yes, it should. Uh, and, and, and, and we should,
maybe it shouldn't be every day. We should appreciate moms every day. And here is an example of why
we should and try to give them this wiggle room from getting away and to be, breathe for a moment
every day. Sixty percent of moms say that they'd be happily, uh, they'd happily trade gifts
for the chance to sleep. Almost two thirds of moms have been at a nap in the last month and a quarter
of them can't remember the last time they napped period. Uh, yeah, the, the, is an example of this we
just had. The, the, this happens for Terry so seldom that she was able to pull a memory out of
nowhere of this happened. Although, now with my kids older and pretty self-sufficient and they,
you know, like, whatever, they have practices or whatever, I, I'm not going to lie, there are some
days where I'll get home from work and I will literally like sit down in the, here's how I'll
damn, I'll sit down the chair like dose off for like 20 minutes before I have to start supper. You
know what I mean? Because I'll just time it out and I love that. You take your, take your moments
where you get the gift. Uh, and yes, thoughtful gifts are nice flowers and dinner out are appreciated.
Bonus family time is special, but nothing shows your appreciation for what moms do more than
doing it yourself. So they, uh, they, they can put their feet up a little bit. I, I think that,
you know, certainly this is different for different ages of parents and stuff with my parents and
everything. It's a little different. They're not, my mom isn't necessarily looking for me to give her
time to help out with a nap. But, um, for, for me with, uh, as we're older and stuff, I've always had a very,
um, injury, a different relationship with my mom and dad. I grew up really quick and I was a very
serious kid. So we've always had open conversations, but I think one of the joys as your kids get older
is having such a different relationship with them and being able to be more not peers ever,
but be able to be more of just, hey, I'm just here to listen. You know, I'm just here to talk. So
whether it's, uh, from my end of it as a son to my parents or as a parent to my children that are
a little bit older and they're 20s and everything, it becomes much more, not so much, hey, what can
I get you for your birthday? But like with my youngest, it's, hey, what's something that you won't
do for yourself, but I could do for you. Or it's, uh, with my son who's a minimalist, hey, how
you doing? Hey, I just asked him recently, you know, he just celebrated the birthday a couple days
ago. And, uh, hey, JC, you know, if you ever thought about, uh, traveling somewhere for your
birthday, is there any way you would've ever wanted to go? I've always wanted to go to New Orleans
for my birthday. What about you? Just having a conversation, um, with my mom, that's one of her
favorite things to do is just be able to talk to her kids and find out how they're doing. So my mom,
while I'll get her some kind of unique knick knack or something like that, I already got something
mine. Um, my mom also likes when I write her poems, uh, from other days, things like that, um,
finding out what is integral to her. Now, if I went out and bought my mom, uh, a beautiful necklace,
thousand dollar necklace or something like that, she'd appreciate it. She'd probably never wear it.
It wouldn't do her any good. That's not her thing. It's a nice thought, but it's not specific to her.
I think if you just think about this a little bit and think about your mom and what you know of her
and everything, hey, my mom is a huge reader. So maybe get her a new novel or, or get in a nice hard
cup, a copy, hard cover of a, some book she loves or somewhere or one that I know she reads multiple
times. I don't think it's that hard. Uh, generally, when you think about it, especially if it's just
giving them a day off, like that. Yeah, it's been on the age of the kids, right? Or take over the
carpool driving or something like that. But we, we traditionally have always gotten together
for Mother's Day, you know, in person. And probably gosh, it's been a long time already. Maybe like
15 years ago, one of my brothers said, I'll host Mother's Day. So none of you moms have to do it.
So that took, you know, like my mom didn't have to do it. My grandma didn't have to do it.
Me or my sister. I mean, we still bring something. Of course, well, the guys say they bring it,
but let's be real, you know, I mean, at the paper plate, but, but and they do bring stuff. But
it's usually at our, you know, direction, but it is really nice. Like there's just something about
that. Now, of course, I'm a planner. So literally like two weeks ago, I sent my brother a message.
I'm like, are you doing Mother's Day or question mark? You know, so I mean, you have to remind them
sometimes, but, but it is really awesome to even just have that, you know, off our plate.
Now, if you haven't even given a thought to Mother's Day, you still have 10 days. Yeah.
A lot of time. Yes. Right? You know, it was something thoughtful. I think that there's a
number of different options, not only that we've offered or we've talked about, but again, you
know, knowing your audience, knowing your mom and giving her that time. Because honestly, part of
Mother's Day, a big part of it, I think, is the thought we put into our moms and the thoughts we
have of them. And I've mentioned before, there's the strongest, smartest human being I've ever known
as my mother. And I still don't think I appreciate her enough. I still don't realize how much she's
done for me and my brother and sister and even my kids kids and, you know, and stuff like that and
everything. She goes above and beyond. And to me, I think that every year, I get a chance to kind of
put them put a mirror to her and show her this because this woman will not take any compliments or
any appreciation whatsoever. So, you know, it's on me to, in my brother and sister, to kind of
remind her and almost, you know, force her to be like, hey, appreciate yourself because, hey,
we do. And good news is a lot of the local greenhouses have opened. So, I mean, that's right.
Like that's super easy. And something that I think every mom would appreciate having something nice
and colorful outside their window or, you know what I mean? I hate, whatever. I hanging basket,
a little planter or something. And that's easy, right? You are set and ready for Mother's Day.
You're welcome, everybody. And to moms, we thank you. We appreciate you. We'll be talking about
you a lot as we lead into Mother's Day. Take a quick time out. Speaking of moms, when we come back,
interesting one here, Terry, the best and worst states for working moms. We're going to dive into
that one a little bit. When we come back on Mornings at WFHR. Welcome back, everybody. Mornings
show at WFHR. 85 going. I mean, when you played Walk the Dinosaur for Mother's Day,
I was thinking you're out of touch. Yeah. I'm nicely done. Well done. Well done.
The hauling oats of radio, Terry and James here. I don't know what that was.
I don't want to think that quite who I would have picked. And I know I'm oats in this situation.
I know I'm oats in this situation. So, I don't know why it's not bad. What I get to do a fun
topic here is we take you to the top of the hour. Keep a mind on the clock hour. We're going to
kick off with our great friends on South O'Kiney main society. We'll be talking to Denise and our
pet of the week. Oh, the top of the 10 o'clock hour. I'm so used to doing that. Yeah, at the top of
the 10 o'clock, we'll feature our pet of the week from the South O'Kiney main society looking
forward to hanging out with Denise. Terry and I will also get into entertainment news
on the 9 o'clock. And we'll get into a couple of good stories of today. Our schedule and this
interesting story about a husband and wife that were picked for the same jury. Interesting,
the numbers and the stats of the odds of that happening. All that coming up, but this would be
an interesting one of the noteworthy one as far as looking at the best and worst states for working
moms. 74% of women with kids under 18 are working moms. 74% of women with kids are under 18 are
working moms. Just wanted that to make sure that that came home for everybody. So, three quarters,
right? Yeah, yeah. So, the month of Mother's Day seems like a good time to give them a shout out
and also give some credit to the states that make their lives easier. A website just ranked all
50 states in DC from the end DC from the best place for working moms to the worst. They used
factors like the cost and quality of daycare in schools, the gender wage gap, and the ratio of
female executives, and parental leave policies. The 10 best states for working moms are Massachusetts,
Connecticut, Rhode Island, the District of Columbia, Maine, Minnesota, Vermont, New Jersey,
New York, and Wisconsin. Wisconsin ranks as, let me see here, the eighth best state for working mom.
Interesting. There was a lot of New England in there. Yeah, yeah. I thought that was a little
interesting. Yeah. Outside of that, maybe even just as interesting to me that the clumping of
this where it's like you said there in the New England area or Minnesota and Wisconsin here in
the Midwest, how that worked. But very staggering to me is not seeing any West Coast or Southern states,
like in any of the top 10. Well, I think I'm that criteria though that you gave. I think that
there is a pretty huge salary disparity in those, especially West Coast and Southern. So,
it depends upon their criteria. That's a great point to bring up. Now, the 10 worst states for
working moms are Louisiana, Alabama, Nevada, Mississippi, New Mexico, South Carolina, Arizona,
West Virginia, Idaho, and Oklahoma. Again, what's Idaho doing? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, really.
If you're curious about some other states, Illinois is the 13th best California is dead center
25. Florida is 34th. And Texas is 41st. And the idea that this is, I mean, the factors that they
used here are always worth bringing up. And this is certainly nothing. I would not say that if you're
sitting here and you're listening to us in one of those states with the 10 worst, that this segment
is the reason for you to move. Any more than it's a reason to stay, I think that this is a case
by case thing like every survey we do. But I do think that it's a much more than a grain of
salt to take in the information. And especially if I can reach out to everybody who is not a working
mom, because and I run into this all the time with these subjects and everything. If you're a working
mom, this is interesting to you. It may have, it may play into your day to day life. It may even
play into decisions you make. But I would imagine that you're going to care about something like this.
We need other people to care about everybody to care about everybody to care about this one.
Again, some of the hardest work going on in the world is being done by single moms. And they are
impacting our future. Moms in general are doing and all the heavy lifting and so much of the heavy
lifting. I'm not saying, you know, the the low hanging fruit of making fun of dads or fathers
or anything like that. Well, we don't do as much or something like that. But when it comes to the
pie chart of of of work being put in traditionally and currently moms are doing so much work. And
then when you look at what a single mom does, it's it's so much more, there's so much more put on
their plates. So looking at these things are important certainly from mom single moms all the
above. But I would like to see the rest of us as a society care just as much because it impacts us
just as much. You pay taxes, you care about the economy. Moms are impacting that with the way that
kids are being raised and going off to be taxpayers or go off to college or any of these other
things and stuff. The domino effect is not hard to see. So we are all connected and and we this
impacts all of us this information. Absolutely. And I yeah, I think it's it's nice to just call
it out right just to and to recognize that hey, there's a lot happening, but there's also so many
factors. And we we just speaking for myself even but let alone us as WFHR, we have always been a
bipartisan station. We do not take sides. We take facts. We take the side of the people. And with
that, I think that sometimes, especially in this 24 hour news cycle, we focus so much on the negatives.
And we do need to have accountability for our politicians and for our laws and all these things.
But we don't take a chance at very well and just say, wow, Wisconsin's eighth in the union. And
you know, supporting working moms. That's pretty cool. That's pretty great. We could always do
better. We want more and everything. But I also think that it's really important at times to be
like, hey, they heard us. They they realized that this is important to us. They're doing their
job by listening to their constituents. They're doing this or doing that. Um, we need to get better
about this as a society. This idea that we can't give credit to somebody because they have an R or
a D in front of their name. And oh, God forbid, that might sway somebody and they may want to vote
for them or something. No, maybe we can actually bring attention to the fact that when we ask
politicians to do something and they actually do it, thank you. We're going to reelect you instead
of you're just out there being a mouthpiece for somebody or something like that or whatever.
This is important as important as it is to give moms credit and and to pick out a really good
mother's day gift. That's really important. That's what. Uh, Terry, I came across a pretty cool
good story of the day from the good news network.org. Encouraging to bookmark that. Check it out,
especially if you need a palette cleanser in this 24 hour news cycle and you could use some good
news here and there. I thought this was a pretty cool story and it's actually kind of a follow-up
because we touched on the story when it first came out. Last July, G&N reported to the on the
California city, Petaluma and its experimented collaboration with local restaurants to create a
city wide return and reuse beverage cup program. At the time, the plan was a three-month trial.
The results of which are in and it is a hit. They love this. The major chains like Starbucks and
Taco Bell joined in alongside with local mom and pop stores. The program ensured customers wouldn't
be charged a penny more for the reusable cups, but were merely asked to deposit their cup in one
of the many purple bins around the city center. Uh, this is in its done very well. CBS News at the
Bay Area reported on the projects launch and it's now happily trumpeting its success set up by the
closed-loop partners investment firms center for the circular economy. The program aimed to cut back
on 50 billion disposable drink cups used by Americans every day. So I'm a little confused.
I mean, so you drop it in the receptacle and then what? Um, and just it gets recycled, but these
are all recycled cups and they're able to keep reusing. So not, so reused or recycled? Reused. Re, uh,
yeah, recycled recycled. Um, yeah. Um, and I had reused in my head. So I was just wondering like,
what, what sanitation facility. I want to make sure I get this right. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah.
Uh, uh, sit, return and repeat. So, uh, so they are being reused. They are, uh, they're,
they're reusable cups that are going into the bin and getting recycled. Somebody must be collecting
them and cleaning them. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and this has been incredibly successful. That's interesting.
Now part of what they're saying is helpful about this is they've got a vibrant purple color to
them and people like the color. So that's been helpful. Um, the bins and the advertisement is
certainly going a long way with this. And, um, I'll say, you know, being out there quite a bit and
everything. Um, Californians are quick to jump on these trends sometimes because it's a trend
in its popular and stuff and image, you know, and sometimes it's because, oh, the Joneses are doing
this. Well, we got to do this. Uh, I think that's noteworthy a little bit because it might be very
different from different states. But I'll say also, uh, they, they believe in what they're doing. And
they really back this stuff when it comes to the environment and everything. They really go
above and beyond whether we're talking about the migrant farm workers out there. We're talking
about somebody in Silicon Valley. Well, I think there's a little bit of that peer pressure too,
right? Like you're, like you're coming and you see somebody using the reusable cup and you're
using a disposable cup, you know, or even go into meetings. I mean, how often do you see people
bringing their water now in a, you know, in a fillable, yeah versus a disposable bottle of water?
So, you know, I think that this is happening in a lot of places. I'm quite curious about the process
once it's dropped in the bin though. Yeah. Um, there's a, there's a lot more stats on that.
Interesting on that. I encourage people to look into it, especially, um, the idea that this,
this is, if this is been popular, this company is going to be proposing this to other major cities,
I imagine, and probably will end up making its way here to Wisconsin and Madison, Milwaukee,
or maybe even other rural communities. Um, the next gen, uh, report showed that 83% of customers
knew of the program's existence of whom 88% knew how to return the cup and 80% wanted the program
to continue, uh, something that they're really encouraged by. I mean, getting those kind of numbers
for almost anything is pretty encouraging nowadays. Uh, and I'm going to be following up on that,
seeing how far that story goes and what more good they can do. Um, I also wanted to touch on another
big fun thing going on in our community, and that is no more may kicks off today. Uh, our, uh, mayor,
uh, would out of proclamation of this. So just a reminder to everybody that you might see
many communities in our area celebrating no more may encourage you to be a part of it. If you can
help out our polliners, pollinators, make this area green. Keep in mind, the city is also denny,
designated some spots on city property to leave on mode. Uh, you've got 20th, uh, 20th street over
by two mile in Griffith, 16th street over by two mile in Coon, Whitrock Avenue between 16 and 20th
street, around the storm, water pond on 16th and two mile, uh, Sandlot Park, uh, the ball fields,
inspected areas will be mode and McMillan Memorial Library is also doing this, although the East
Grand Avenue side will be mode over there. Um, just a really cool thing, a slow mo summer. Um,
think about what we're asking you to do. Help out our pollinators, help out, make our,
our, our, our state more green, more beautiful and all that. And oh, yes, we're twisting your
arm that you don't get to mo. Oh, no, oh, why? Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, no. Yeah. Uh, I encourage you
to be a part of it, everybody. Um, and, uh, and do keep, uh, and keep, uh, hanging out with us.
And do they still do the signs? Or is that not a thing anymore? You can have a sign if you'd like,
but you don't have to have a sign. Okay. Just, uh, thank you for bringing that up. That was
one last thing I meant to mention that I did not get a chance to, uh, uh, proud of everybody in
the city doing this, but also don't, you know, put this on anybody. If you don't participate,
that's fine. No judgment here. Uh, do appreciate everybody that is being a part of it. We have got
to get to our break out 30 seconds away. I don't really like, oh, let's go and take a call. Uh,
you got like 30 seconds here. Uh, what's on your mind? Or call back. Yes. Feel free to call back.
That's okay too. Uh, we're looking for, we'd have more time to talk when you call back. So feel
free to call back and join us after we're done hanging out with our Denise and our friends at
the South of County, what, human society and our pet of the week. We're looking forward to bringing
that to you in just moments from now, everybody. And we're able to do it thanks to our great friends
over at Milltown Coffee. Big shout out to them. Can I wait to get some of that coffee and show that
out? I love trying new coffee places. It's always fun. We'll be back with more show coming up
right here on Mornings at WFHR. This is locally grown radio WFHR 1320 Hangout W24 A.D.E.
Wisconsin Rapids and always streaming on the Civic Media app.
