Sevan Matossian (00:01):
Bam. Good morning.
Caleb Beaver (00:03):
Good morning.
Sevan Matossian (00:06):
Jetro. Cardona, Jeffrey David Spiegel. Geez, Louise. Michael Shanks. Michael Shanks. Michelle Shanks. Hey, I’m reading this book, it’s called The Longest Shot I’m gonna have the author on soon. Um, th this is a, uh, this is a really good book. I highly recommend listening to the audio book. It’s called The Longest Shot. Uh, the author’s name is Craig
Caleb Beaver (00:37):
Harrison.
Sevan Matossian (00:38):
Harrison. The audio book’s amazing. I mean, absolutely. Uh, it’s like, I can’t even believe it’s real. It’s like an adventure book. It’s so cool. And it, it’s, uh, I, uh, I chatted with him this morning. Um, he’s having hip surgery, so that’s what the delay is of getting him on the show. But it’s called The Longest Shot by Craig Harrison. I, I am, uh, completely one hun. Yeah. This book, I am enjoying it so much. Uh, definitely it should, I dunno if this was made into a movie, but if it’s not, it should be. It is so fun. The beginning, the buildup to him even getting in the military, his childhood. It reminds me a lot of Roger Sparks book. Um, this guy’s a pretty strong English accent and, uh, he’s a British guy. Yeah, it is. It is. It is so cool. Uh, Brandon Waddell. Tess. Good morning. Kevin Allen, uh, Mr. Hardell Spiegel. Uh, Sean M. Austin. Martin Patrick Anderson. Hello, Alan Kester Baum. Uh, good morning Wad. Zombie. Always. Uh, appreciate your support. Thank you for all the generosity and everything you’ve done for the show. Melissa, obviously always smart and, uh, generous in the comments. Thank you guys for all checking in. I heard this comedian the other day say something I want, I looked for the clip and I couldn’t find it, but the comedian said something along the lines of if you, uh, well, alright. Another show guest is here. Mr. Clark.
Patrick Clark (02:06):
Good morning, gentlemen.
Sevan Matossian (02:08):
Hey, good morning. I’m loving the shirt.
Patrick Clark (02:12):
<laugh>. Thanks.
Sevan Matossian (02:12):
Representing.
Patrick Clark (02:14):
What are you wearing? No. Oh, I’m not. Is that a new
Sevan Matossian (02:16):
Shirt? No. Plan B. No, but I, but I always feel like it is when I put it on, I’m always like, damn, this is great. I love this shirt.
Patrick Clark (02:24):
Is that a new hoodie? Cale?
Sevan Matossian (02:27):
I got, I got a Did you say, oh, new hoodie, Caleb? Oh yeah. What is that? What is that lid? Only
Caleb Beaver (02:35):
One. Only one hoodie out here. It’s from, uh, the at Cross of P skc.
Patrick Clark (02:42):
Oh, nice.
Sevan Matossian (02:42):
Have we had them on the show?
Caleb Beaver (02:45):
No, I don’t think so. It’d be really cool if we could though. He’s a pretty dope dude.
Sevan Matossian (02:49):
Psk,
Caleb Beaver (02:50):
P C
Sevan Matossian (02:51):
Ps KC CrossFit. P sk
Patrick Clark (02:54):
What’s that stand for?
Caleb Beaver (02:57):
I think it’s like Portsmouth something. I can’t remember exactly. It’s Portsmouth, Ohio.
Sevan Matossian (03:04):
Psc. K
Caleb Beaver (03:06):
KC
Sevan Matossian (03:07):
KC PS kc. And the dyslexia kicks in <laugh>, uh, Portsmouth, Ohio. Home of hardworking, fun, loving people. Rooted in community, powered by CrossFit.
Caleb Beaver (03:20):
Might be a good affiliate
Sevan Matossian (03:22):
Show. Hey, I’d love to have you on my podcast sent
Patrick Clark (03:32):
<laugh>.
Sevan Matossian (03:33):
Good morning, Allison. Good morning. Elise Car. Rid Louise. Jason from Canata. You’re not Canadian, are you Clark? No. Mr. Park? No. No. And, and, and you served in the, uh, US military.
Patrick Clark (03:47):
Still am
Sevan Matossian (03:48):
As a national guard.
Patrick Clark (03:50):
Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (03:50):
Holy cow.
Patrick Clark (03:52):
Yep. 20, it’ll be 29 years in this coming July.
Sevan Matossian (03:57):
Wow.
Patrick Clark (03:58):
Yeah. Getting old.
Sevan Matossian (04:00):
Are you addicted?
Patrick Clark (04:03):
<laugh>?
Sevan Matossian (04:03):
Um, like do you, like, do you love it? Is that why you keep doing it?
Patrick Clark (04:07):
Yeah. Yeah. I definitely love it. I mean, you don’t stick around that long, especially something, I mean, it helps out. It’s part-time for me. It’s one week in a month, two weeks in a summer, you know, obviously like, like get, you know, there are some deployments here and there. I’ve deployed three times. But, um, yeah, it’s been good to me. I’ve taken, I’ve taken more out of it than it’s taken out of me
Sevan Matossian (04:29):
When you Well, that’s good. I like that. I like that math. When you, um, entered the US military, were you, did you enter as National Guard?
Patrick Clark (04:37):
Yeah, yeah. Uh, used it, pay for school and, um, yeah, paid for school and then was able to do a lot of other fun stuff because of it. Picked up a lot of cool skills, met a lot of cool people, you know, was able to travel to Middle East, which was, you know, I guess that’s never, for most people, that’s not on their bucket list, but I think I’ve been to every country in the Middle East in some form or capacity because of the military.
Sevan Matossian (05:05):
Wow. Yeah. Uh, when is that the primary reason why you joined? Is to help pay for school?
Patrick Clark (05:12):
Yeah, that, that was it. Uh, my parents could have, they offered to pay for school. I come from a military family and, um, you know, they offered to pay for school, but the way I looked at, they were paying for school, then they had to say on what I wanted to be. Um, you know, my dad, you know, pay, you know, he, he wanted me to be a teacher and a high school coach, you know, a high school football coach, you know, which, there’s nothing wrong with that, but I don’t know. I wanted to do something different. And, uh, I figured the National Guard was, they’re off a hundred percent tuition in the state of Illinois for any state school. And yeah, so did that and GI Bill and all the other extra stuff. I had a little bit more money in my pocket than most college students because of it. So it was kind of cool.
Sevan Matossian (05:55):
How long, how long, how long were you in before you, uh, deployed?
Patrick Clark (06:00):
My first deployment was 2006, so I was in almost 11 years. So I went 11 years without actually any like, major conflicts or deployments. And nine 11 happened and I almost got out. But, um, I don’t know. I got, I felt compelled to, I, I felt compelled to stay in and, and continue to serve.
Sevan Matossian (06:26):
Is the conventional wisdom when you joined the National Guard is that you won’t deploy?
Patrick Clark (06:30):
It used to be up until nine, up until, um, I, Iraq, Afghanistan. Um, then in, in some cases you had a lot of national Guardsmen deploy more than, um, some active duty units.
Sevan Matossian (06:44):
What is that percentage, Caleb? Can you look that up? What is the percentage of, uh, national guards people that deploy? Yeah, because I remember as a kid, those were the guys, like, uh, if I’m not mistaken, like if there’s a hurricane mm-hmm. <affirmative> or if there’s a riot or like, they basically take care of the homeland.
Patrick Clark (07:00):
Correct. And actually that was reasonable. I was actually on my way out of getting out of the military. Um, I’d served up to 10 years at that time, and that’s usually like, shit, or get off the pot, you know, 10 years because everyone wants to hit that 20 year mark. And, um, um, I actually got called up for my first major deployment. It was right after Hurricane Katrina. And, um, so we’re sent down to New Orleans and we’re, at that time we had a lot of units, national Guard, our mil active duty to military, they’re deployed overseas, so it was kind of a ragtag bunch down in, uh, down in New Orleans, you know, just helping with the flood walls and all. It was just crazy. And I met some great people there, served with some great people, and then I found out that they were deploying, uh, as soon as we got back.
(07:49):
And I said if I was gonna deploy, I was gonna deploy with them because it was just a great group. And yeah, it was like I finally did something, you know, a lot of national Guardsmen prior to that they would go their whole military career without doing anything. Just a one week in a month, two weeks in the summer. And after 10 years, that was like my first major thing I did with National Guard, where I felt like we were actually doing a job, like you see in the commercials that where they’re zip lining into the water and saving cats and dogs and school children, stuff like that. So that, that was the first time because we act, you know, it was, it was just so surreal during Katrina. And, you know, just, I remember we one day, like us and a bunch of our team, we saved probably about 35 people from a retirement home that had been stranded there for over a week. Um, because of the flood law was just bursting. And it was just, I dunno, it was very rewarding. And I, I felt finally felt like I found my calling because I was in charge of that group and we did a great job and I felt a sense of accomplishment and if they were gonna go overseas, I didn’t want them to go without me.
Sevan Matossian (08:53):
Oh, is it deploy, is Katrina considered a deployment?
Patrick Clark (08:56):
Uh, it’s more of like a, I guess, how would you call that? Kayla? Maybe just a, I guess an, I
Caleb Beaver (09:03):
Guess, yeah, so, so like, it’s like a, it’s almost like, um, it could be, it would be considered a deployment because there, it’s along the same line as when they were doing the covid, um, coverage. Like you had people deploying from our station to like Minnesota or mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh, Louisiana and stuff like that. Uh, I think it depends on like the duration Yeah. Of your, of your stay. And, um,
Sevan Matossian (09:28):
Do you consider that a deployment, Patrick?
Patrick Clark (09:30):
Yeah, we’re actually, actually, uh, we what, what k o seven turns of the, um, how long? I think it’s over 30 days. Um, then you’re, you’re put on federal orders and when you’re put on federal orders, that means it’s, it, it goes under, they call ’em like Title ix, title 10 orders. Yep. Um, and, um, it, the funding’s different. So a deployment’s usually based on funding how you define a deployment. So we were actually put on national funding and then that’s considered a, a deployment after 30 days. Cuz I think we spent, we purposely spent another week there because I think at the, at the time, H Can, Rita came in right after Katrina and it hit Houston area very well, uh, very hard. So they extended us and we stayed over 30 days. And, um, when I was on Covid orders, um, I think I was on Covid orders at one point. I was the longest serving only National Guardsman on Covid orders. I was on orders for 18 months during Covid.
Caleb Beaver (10:29):
Geez.
Patrick Clark (10:31):
Had a great gig though.
Caleb Beaver (10:33):
Yeah, I’m sure you got a lot of nurses that can pick up orders like that. And they’re just basically travel nurses somewhere. And Yeah, they worked in, basically did nothing for six plus months, just overseeing people giving vaccines or taking or swabbing noses.
Patrick Clark (10:48):
Yeah.
Caleb Beaver (10:49):
And they called that a deployment.
Patrick Clark (10:51):
Yep. I got a lot of hotel points out of mine.
Sevan Matossian (10:55):
Oh, that’s nice. Yeah, I, I’m still using my hotel points from, uh, when I used to travel every weekend with CrossFit. I, I truly am. It’s kind of crazy.
Patrick Clark (11:04):
Yeah, it is. It’s, it’s nice to have. Nice to have in your pocket. That’s actually what I used. I actually used my points when I was in Vegas for ellos games.
Sevan Matossian (11:12):
Oh, nice. Yeah. What hotel did you stay like at? A Hilton,
Patrick Clark (11:15):
A residence. I usually stay at a residence. They’re usually pretty nice. They have full kitchens and stuff like that.
Sevan Matossian (11:21):
Yeah. Dope. Yeah. Um, so, um, going back to Katrina, so you’re in charge of like 15 dudes and you get a call saying, Hey, these are, this is the address. Um, yeah. And, uh, we got 30 people there it out and go get
Patrick Clark (11:38):
’em. Pretty much. We were, um, we had a group. It was, it was approximately 12, 12 soldiers, you know, male, female. Um, and, um, we were, we were linked up with like, some type of government agency, um, whether it be something, whether it be something from New Orleans, like whether it be they’re state highway, state highway patrol. I mean, we had so many different organizations there and we were attached to them, so we just provided them support. So we were a transportation company, so we had these giant, huge trucks. Um, we call ’em five tons Deuce and a Hals. I mean, we had, we had both. And they’re, they’re mainly used for troop carriers and because they’re so high, uh, stand so high, they were actually above the, they would drive above the water. So that’s what they kind of used us for. So we would actually drive up to these flooded houses that were like, you know, four feet underwater and drive up to ’em. And if there’s someone in there, we’d, we’d tell ’em, Hey, come out, we’ll help you out.
Sevan Matossian (12:34):
What a scene.
Patrick Clark (12:35):
Yeah. That’s an old Deon half right there.
Sevan Matossian (12:39):
I think. Uh, he, I, I, back in the day, I don’t know, in 2008 or nine when I visited, uh, bill Hen’s gym, when he was, he didn’t, him and Katie’s gym mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I mean, that’s, that’s all they had. I think this is way, way back in the day. He had one of those broken down just sitting in the back. Yeah. And I, I think eventually he got it repaired and up and running.
Patrick Clark (13:02):
Yeah. They’re really, they’re really actually pretty simple to repair. Not very cheap, especially nowadays, but those have been around since before World War ii. And the Army was using those up in Army. And actually the whole military was, they were using those up to probably about, probably right in the middle of the, the war. Um, they were just so dependable. There’s, you know, they’re just an engine block and all you needed to do was oil change in those things. And that’s it. It kept in diesel
Sevan Matossian (13:30):
And you loaded that thing with old people.
Patrick Clark (13:32):
Yeah. That, I mean, we saved some animals, some young people. There were some people that, that just stayed in place when they tried to evacuate New Orleans. They refused to leave their home. And, um, I’d have to find some of these pictures I had, because obviously, you know, I’m a photographer. I was taking a bunch of pictures while all this was going on. I’d have to share those with you. But it was some pretty cool stuff. Um, yeah, it was, it was probably one of the, you know, one of those moments that I’m, I’m most proud of in terms of serving, because it was like, again, it was one of the first times where I felt like I was actually doing what I, I signed up for. Because as I told you, I’ve gotten more out of the military than it’s gotten outta me. Up until the, up until then, I was just, all I did was go to school one week in a month, you know, come to drill, which is our one week in a month, uh, hungover and hang out with our buddies, and then we’d leave on Sunday. That, that was it. You know, I didn’t really feel like I was accomplishing anything. Um, and then something like that happened and you’re like, okay, this is why I joined. You know, this is the real purpose, I guess.
Sevan Matossian (14:31):
Yeah. It sounds cool. It was probably one of the most, uh, picturesque, scenic, like deployments. I’m guessing you’ve done too, in terms of just seeing this, the stuff you saw would’ve made just endless great photographs.
Patrick Clark (14:44):
Yeah, it was just so surreal. I mean, I’d never been to, I’d never been to New Orleans and, you know, we drove from Illinois down to New Orleans, and on the way there people were evacuating. So it was kind of a, a very sad scene because all these people are leaving their home and they’re staying at these rest areas in Alabama, bi you know, Alabama, Georgia, wherever, you know, or living live, literally living in rest ar rest homes. And because they’re so displaced. And then we pulled into New Orleans and it was completely empty. It was like, there’s a aircraft carrier right on the, on the dock, you know, that almost towered the whole city. And, and then you could see fires randomly everywhere. It was, it was very apocalyptic. And we’re going through like downtown traffic, going through all these neighborhoods going down Bourbon Street. And there was like no one there except for there was one strip club that was still open.
Sevan Matossian (15:36):
Serious.
Patrick Clark (15:37):
Yeah. It was powered by generators and the hotel across from, it was a, uh, I forgot what type of hotel it was, but that’s where a lot of the government agency people, um, like federal government agency people were staying at that hotel. Um, but it was, it was crazy with like the one strip club that was open.
Sevan Matossian (15:54):
I, I, I wanna say that, um, the large, uh, what is the biggest migration in, in the us? I, I, I wanna say that I heard Katrina was the second largest migration of Americans besides the 1906 hist, uh, 1906 earthquake in San Francisco and the history of the United States. Now our border with Mexico might be
Patrick Clark (16:18):
That. Correct? Yeah. I, I would imagine. But yeah, I, I wouldn’t doubt that at all.
Sevan Matossian (16:22):
So have you been to the, have you ever been deployed to the border?
Patrick Clark (16:25):
No, I, I mean, they’re trying to get me to, um,
Sevan Matossian (16:29):
It’s chaos down there. It is. It is. It is. I follow this guy, Jorge Ventura, and it is chaos down there.
Patrick Clark (16:36):
I’ve heard, that’s what I’ve heard. But, uh, for the military, especially as a commander, that’s the last thing you wanna do is be in charge of like 150, like basically kids away from home for the first time on the border, and they’re all staying in hotel rooms and they have money. That’s the last I’m, I’m here. I hear horror stories. I was actually offered to take a command of a unit that was deploying there, and I said, no, thank you. I’m, I’m fine.
Sevan Matossian (16:59):
Because it’s, it’s, it’s like, it’s like managing a frat house a little bit.
Patrick Clark (17:02):
<laugh>. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, I’m, I’m hearing a good buddy of mine. He, he was command of a unit and he had like nine, nine soldiers got pregnant, you know, a bunch, you know, DUI charges and government vehicles. So they were getting pulled, you know, they were getting pulled over in a government vehicle while intoxicated. I mean, just, just, just, yeah. It’s just, it’s hurting cats and it’s again, like a frat house and you get a bunch of young kids, like 18, 19 year old. Yeah. It’s crazy. And you know, I used to be one of those kids. Right. You know, so I was like, there’s no way. I couldn’t, I couldn’t do that.
Sevan Matossian (17:39):
Um, especially if you’re partying, you know, 3, 4, 5 days a week mm-hmm. <affirmative>, and then you’re doing the National Guard thing on the weekend and you’re 20 years old and then you get deployed. You just kind of maintain that lifestyle. Uh, did, did, um, it’s the same thing with when all those pictures came out from, uh, Abu Grave, uh, I was thinking to myself, I’ve seen crazier shit in the, like those pyramids they were building with the prisoners and shit. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I’m like, I mean, I went to, I went to uc, Santa Barbara, university of California, Santa Barbara. That was the exact same thing that was done there. Yeah. And you know, my, my friends were in the military. I was like, yeah, but they can’t do that. They’re supposed to have discipline. And my pushback always was, dude, they’re fucking 19 year old boys. Yeah. 19 year old boys. Get other 19 year old boys naked and build pyramids out of ’em. That’s what we do. Yeah. I don’t know why, but that’s why you have to keep us very, very busy.
Patrick Clark (18:29):
Yeah, exactly. And
Sevan Matossian (18:30):
We’ll build pyramids everywhere. We’ll build all, we’ll do a lot of stuff naked.
Patrick Clark (18:35):
My sister was deployed in Iraq when that was happening in Aba Grave, and she was actually a military police officer. So she went to that, she went to that prison many a times to drop off people, drop off like, you know, or pick up people. And um, and that was ran by a bunch of national guardsmen and reservists as well, and
Sevan Matossian (18:54):
<laugh>. Perfect. Perfect.
Patrick Clark (18:56):
Yeah. Yeah. Perfect. And, and she would, she would tell me, like, I mean, my sister, she had a, a lot more rough deployment in Iraq than I did, but, um, and that’s one reason why she’s like my hero. But, uh, she would tell me some of the stories and how it turned her kind of cold and callous. And when I deployed, that was the last thing I wanted to happen myself, Uhhuh <affirmative>. But then it actually did turn that way, um, where I did become cold and callous. And, but you know, through some help I’ve, I’ve been a lot more open about my experiences,
Sevan Matossian (19:28):
Um, be because of, uh, colon and callus to protect yourself emotionally. Cuz what you’re saying is, is is too much to process in the moment.
Patrick Clark (19:37):
Correct. Exactly.
Sevan Matossian (19:39):
Like you hit a squirrel and you have a couple, you know, you’re driving to work now and you hit a squirrel and it’s like, you think about it for like a week. Yeah. Like, you’re over there and you’re seeing fucking all sorts of bad shit happen every 15 minutes. And it’s like, dude, it took me a week to process the squirrel. I fucking hit dealing with
Patrick Clark (19:54):
<laugh>. Exactly. Exactly.
Sevan Matossian (19:58):
Crazy. Um, you have one, one sibling, your sister?
Patrick Clark (20:02):
No, I also have an older brother too.
Sevan Matossian (20:04):
Did he go into National Guard also? Yep.
Patrick Clark (20:06):
Holy
Sevan Matossian (20:07):
Cow.
Patrick Clark (20:08):
All three of us.
Sevan Matossian (20:10):
Holy cow. And, and, and all in, uh, so your older brother, younger sister?
Patrick Clark (20:14):
Yeah, that’s my younger sister. Yep. So she deployed first, uh, I think 2002, 2003. Right, right. When the war started when we invaded Iraq, she was part of that. It was a while while West, back then I deployed in oh 6, 0 7 that my brother deployed in 2011. And his deployment was basically shutting down Iraq at the time we thought was shutting down Iraq. And then my second deployment was actually, my deployment was reopening back Iraq <laugh>. So it was just kind of weird. It’s, it’s kind of weird how all our deployments, like, they’re different, but they’re so similar in terms of everything. Yeah. It’s my brother.
Sevan Matossian (20:53):
Wow. What a, what a trip that, uh, all three of you went. That’s pretty cool. Um, uh, what ethnicity are you?
Patrick Clark (21:01):
Um, half Chinese, my mom’s side, and then my dad’s side is, uh, uh, native American, French Canadian, African American, and maybe Irish.
Sevan Matossian (21:13):
Wow. Yeah. But, um, on, on your, um, mom’s, is your mom first generation?
Patrick Clark (21:19):
Yeah. Yeah. She was actually born, born in Shanghai. And then during the whole Communist rebellion, they, um, the whole family moved to Taiwan.
Sevan Matossian (21:28):
Dude, crazy. So cra I, there’s, there’s all these people in the United States that I don’t think people realize that are so freaking lucky to be alive. Yes. I’m Armenian and my wife is Jewish. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and, and my kid. The, the fact that either one of us is here today, living on planet earth is, is absolutely nuts being in the last hundred years, both our, our groups of our tribes got went through, uh, mass genocide. Yep. Yeah. How did crazy that your mom got outta China? Yeah. I mean, it’s crazy that you’re here and then, and then your dad does, um, what does he know about his, uh, you know, hi his generations, how he got to the United States?
Patrick Clark (22:11):
Um, it’s, well, I think my grandfather is the Native American side, and then my grandmother is came from like, you know, from Europe. So, and I think how they met in, I don’t know, they’re, they’re Hoosiers. My dad’s a Hoosier and they ended up in southern Indiana somewhere somehow. Um, but because of their ethnic backgrounds or the diversity, I mean, obviously my grandma being, you know, of European descent and my grandfather being Native American, they were kind of, I guess in the early 19 hundreds or twenties thirties, they, they were kind of, they played, I think, my, my guess. And my grandfather opened the first like, I guess all races like hardware store, so that he would
Sevan Matossian (22:56):
Oh, blacks can use the same register as whites. Yeah. Yeah. <laugh> awesome.
Patrick Clark (23:01):
My, my, my grandpa actually went to, I believe my grandfather. Don’t
Sevan Matossian (23:06):
Worry, we’re gonna fix that. We’re gonna get back, we’re gonna have a special line for blacks again here soon. Don’t worry. It’s coming.
Patrick Clark (23:12):
I don’t doubt that at some point. Who knows? Um,
Sevan Matossian (23:14):
I’d like to get one for Armenians too, please.
Patrick Clark (23:17):
<laugh>. And, um, he actually went to, I guess back then they called it the Colored School. Um, oh,
Sevan Matossian (23:24):
Your grandfather did because he was Native American. He was, he, yeah.
Patrick Clark (23:27):
Yeah. And they, they actually built their house, my, their house. My, the house my dad raised in actually in the, the, the colored portion of Mountain Vernon, Indiana, which is a small town outside of Evansville. And, um, it’s still, it’s still there. Every time I go to Evansville, I drive by and, you know, I always popped my head through Mount Vernon and like, you know, look at the old house and the, the, the old, um, segregated high school’s still there. It, it’s, it’s crazy that it, it seems like so long ago, but yet a lot of those things are still standing and it just kind of, you know, I guess a reminder of our history or where we come from.
Sevan Matossian (24:05):
What was the name of the town? You
Patrick Clark (24:08):
Said Mount Vernon?
Sevan Matossian (24:09):
Mount Vernon. Is that where the
Patrick Clark (24:13):
It’s in Indiana.
Sevan Matossian (24:15):
Is that, where is that where that jujitsu school is where they have an abandoned Caleb? We had the guy on Daisy Fresh. Daisy Fresh. Do you know about Daisy Fresh Patrick?
Patrick Clark (24:25):
I don’t,
Sevan Matossian (24:26):
So in Mount we had this, there’s this group of Jiji. There’s the, there was a, um, an abandoned dry cleaning service. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, like, I don’t even think it was a dry cleaning service where like coin op laundry place. Okay. Coin Laundry. And this, and this guy, uh, rented the place and started letting and started teaching jujitsu in there and started letting the boys stay overnight there. Oh, wow. And the place was a dilapidated pile of shit, you know, like freezing in the mornings below 30 degrees. And this, I had this guy on the show
Patrick Clark (24:56):
Oh, that’s in Illinois, Mount Vernon, Illinois. Yeah, that’s, that’s,
Sevan Matossian (24:59):
Oh, okay. Okay. But
Patrick Clark (25:01):
Indiana, yeah, Mount Vernon, Illinois is actually, I, I’m very familiar with Mount Vernon, Illinois. That’s only like an hour away from me.
Sevan Matossian (25:07):
And these guys ended up, these guys are now like a force on the, in the jiujitsu scene. Really? Like hardcore. And they’re just, they’re basically, they’re like the, you know, the, um, the peasant boys, you know what I mean? And they have a, they have a series on YouTube. I highly recommend anyone see it. It reminds me so much of the shit we used to do back in the, um, CrossFit days where like the camera work and the audio, none of that matters because the content is so rich. And it’s basically the journey of all of these boys who live together on mats. Yeah. And all they do is jujitsu, you know, day in and day, uh, day out.
Patrick Clark (25:39):
I could see
Sevan Matossian (25:40):
Like, everybody watched that here.
Patrick Clark (25:41):
Yeah. Mount Vernon, Illinois. It’s kind of like, it, it used to be like a coal mine city. Now it’s basically like a highway city. It’s kind of like a highway stop. It’s, it’s one of those cities you go through and it’s like nothing but truck stops and restaurants right off the highway. But, uh, it’s very, uh, a very, um, just, you know, like I said, it’s kind of a poor city, a lot of, you know, you know, white, middle, middle America, lower middle class. So I could definitely see that,
Sevan Matossian (26:08):
Uh, Heidi Crumb, daisy fresh team, team is all on the box of fruit drinks. <laugh>. Careful, Heidi. Careful. How dare you. How dare you. I, when I, when I, after I did the, uh, interview with that guy, I went to Trulia and I started looking up homes there, and the most expensive home I could find in the area was $500,000. And it was like 13 bedrooms on 40 acres with a pond. I was like, shit, I’m with like a, a, a 60 by 40, uh, barn in the back that I could turn into a skate park, indoor skate park. I’m like, I’m moving, moving.
Patrick Clark (26:43):
Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (26:44):
My wife’s like, no, not
Patrick Clark (26:45):
<laugh>. You don’t want, not, Illinois is not the, the greatest place in terms of taxes either. So it’s one of those states where, uh, we call in Illinois, cuz I was raised in Illinois. I live in, I live in St. Louis now, just across the river. My parents still live in Illinois.
Sevan Matossian (27:01):
You live in St. Louis?
Patrick Clark (27:03):
Yeah. Yep. Wow. Yep. Wow. Crazy. Um, but it’s, it’s a whole state.
Sevan Matossian (27:10):
Go ahead. Go ahead. I’ll ask, I’ll ask you. I won’t forget. Go ahead.
Patrick Clark (27:13):
Yeah, it’s a whole state ran by, you know, Chicago’s in northern Illinois, but it’s all ran, the rest of Illinois is ran by, is Chicago politics. It’s crazy, you know, because the most of Illinois outside of Chicago is all like farmland and small towns and stuff like that. But it’s being ran by big city politics and it, it’s kind of crazy, especially in the southern Illinois part where I, I was pretty much central, uh, southern Illinois where I was raised. Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (27:39):
I had this guy on the show, his name’s Tommy G I don’t know if you saw that episode. He’s a, he’s a, he’s a YouTube guy and he’s got, I don’t know, two or three or hundred thousand YouTube subscribers and he makes doc these weird documentaries, uh, about just rough neighborhoods. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And he is a white kid and he goes into these neighborhoods and it’s like all black kids. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and, well that, that’s actually not true actually, cuz the storm tell, and I can’t remember where he went, but he went to this town called Kensington. Okay. I think it might be in Pennsylvania. And it’s a city in Pennsylvania. And basically he gets out of the car and everywhere you look, there’s people shooting up, like literally everywhere you look, there’s just heroin and fentanyl everywhere. The cops don’t do anything. Uh, he walks up on one guy while um, two strangers are like, um, starting his heart up again.
(28:30):
What’s that thing they give you? No novac Nova. No Narcan. Narcan. Yeah. They give you they uh, yeah, new, new Kensington It when I see shit like that. And I, and I, I, I spent a lot of time in Oakland as a kid, but we still didn’t have anything that crazy. Yeah. So here it is. Oh wow. So he just, or he goes to, he goes to these cities where he’s just, he’ll be out, the whole documentary will be him out in the middle of a street hanging out with 15 kids all under the age of 16. And every kid has two guns just brazen out in the open, an automatic, uh, machine gun and a pistol. And they’re in their Gucci bags and <affirmative> and, and, and there’s no cops, nothing. You know what I mean? Or he did one on car thieves. And these people are just brazen. They just walk up to any car and just steal ’em. When I think of St. Louis, I think of that as one of those cities, like these forgotten cities, Cincinnati, uh, Philadelphia, Milwaukee. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh, St. Louis is St. Louis. Like that. Like man, that shit is just so hardcore courts. It’s like you, you can’t even imagine.
Patrick Clark (29:28):
There’s definitely a lot of parts like that. Um, especially during Covid. It became a very lawless city it seemed like to me. Um,
Sevan Matossian (29:37):
Yeah. Everywhere that, that happened in California too. Just completely
Patrick Clark (29:40): Lawless. Which is unfortunate because a lot of my good friends, they just joined the city police department during Covid and a lot of, most of them have gotten out since then. Um, because they joined to do, you know, they joined for noble reasons and when they finally got there, they got caught up into politics that they couldn’t do their jobs. It was the wave of copy.
The above transcript is generated using AI technology and therefore may contain errors.
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