Latest / Life's Just Getting Started / Ep 9: Verne's Story

Transcript

Ep 9: Verne's Story · Life's Just Getting Started

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_03: Hey, it's Kelsey.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_03: Thanks for tuning in to Life's Just Getting Started at the Three Pillars Podcast about all things three pillars.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_03: Don't forget to also sign up for our e-newsletter at threepillars.org/slash contact-us so you can stay up to date with all the three pillars news, events, and activities.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_04: Welcome to Life's Just Getting Started, a Three Pillars podcast about all things three pillars.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_04: I'm Kelsey.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I am Josh, and we are here with Vern from Village on the Square.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome, Vern.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: So nice to talk to you.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_04: We are so glad you're here, Vern.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_04: So Life's Just Getting Started is about stories.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_04: Can we start with this happens to be our podcast, episode number nine, and we understand that's a lucky number, a number you like.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: You remembered that.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_04: I remembered.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_04: Can you kick us off with that?
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_04: Is that a fun story?
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's it's number nine has showed up uh enough times in my life that I think that's I have to call that my lucky number because it kept on showing up in my life.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: It was on my jersey when I played basketball, and uh just it kept on coming up, and so I've accepted at keeping that as a lucky number.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: And if it changes, I'll call you.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_04: Then we'll change the episode number for you.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_04: Um okay, so basketball numbers, that when you first remember number nine feeling significant?
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: I think that was a time, and there were a lot of pictures of me playing basketball, and uh when I see the pictures in the yearbook, that is what I remember.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: And when I see professional players now having that number, I think that's my man.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: Because he's he's wearing number nine.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: I never made it that far.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: I played a little college ball.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: Where did you play college ball?
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: I went to uh two-year college, uh junior college.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: It was called MIT at that time.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: And it was Milwaukee Institute of Technology.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: Started, I was in the second year that started in 1953 or four.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Before you guys were all born.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: So what what did you study there?
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: Art.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know what I wanted to do when I got out of high school.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: I was an average student and didn't there was nobody in my family had ever gone to college or anything like that.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I had two older brothers who joined the Navy upon graduating from high school because they didn't have any, they were not inspired to do anything else, so they joined the Navy.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I guess I had made up my mind that uh that wasn't not going to be the direction that I wanted to go.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: And that was a good thought, it was a good thinking process that I had in place for myself.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted more than uh seeing the world by joining the Navy.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_01: How'd you land on art?
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: That's a very good question, and that is the beginning of it and changed my life.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't even take art in high school, but when I there were things that happened in high school, I can't avoid not talking about this, but I had a uh severe speech impediment.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I became involved in the uh rehabilitation program over in Madison.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: And uh they suggested upon high school they saw a lot of people, people, teachers uh saw potential in me that I didn't know about myself.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: And when I graduated from high school, I came into Milwaukee one day and took a lot of tests, aptitude tests, they're called.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: I think they're they're probably including this in in the high school programs now, but at that time they did not.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I came into Milwaukee and everything directed me uh in my abilities and talents and everything that they showed up in the test were about me being in the commercial art field.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: And that was right on.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: That was really right on.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: It was beautiful.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_01: So was there anything when you were younger?
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: Were you drawn to it, no pun intended?
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: Or did you it was good, right?
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: Did you uh I caught that one or did you my kind of humor?
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: Did you find that when you got to school?
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: Like leading up to it, there was nothing that that really That's that's pretty funny too, because the kids in my class were coming me coming to me to do artwork on these colored folders that you get.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: And they weren't going to people in the art class, they were coming to me to do it.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: I like to do the uh hand lettering and sketching and everything on there, and they loved it.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, so I I got to be popular, just go to Verne and have him autograph or do a piece of art on their colored folder.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_04: So, like if I wanted my social studies yellow folder to have my name and a horse in a stable, I could bring it to Verne and you'd do custom art on my folder.
• 5:57
  unknown: Wow.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I can't do it now, but if I have time after a while, I'll do that for you.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_04: Oh my goodness.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_04: So so the your classmates knew you were artistic and you said, oh, that's just a little thing I do, kind of a thing.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: But because of my speech handicap, I was uh I got well known for something more than that, and it was my art ability.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: Nice.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: So that was the entrance into me taking tests to find out what I I was suited to do.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: And that was I remember that day, and I'd never been in Milwaukee.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_01: Oh wow.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I had to borrow my dad's car, which he was very concerned about, me driving into Milwaukee.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: I was too, because coming from a small town of Jefferson.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: And uh when you come into Milwaukee, that's uh that's a pretty big jump.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_04: So you w drove to Milwaukee for the aptitude test, all went well, went home, got your results, and was it like a revelation to you of huh, that could fit.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_04: I should pursue art.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: I I I wasn't I guess I wasn't surprised about it because of all the art that I was doing, but didn't take art classes because I wasn't inspired.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't have parents who was guiding me along.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't have helicopter parents, I think they call them now, that hover over you and you have to do it their way or no way.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I didn't have that.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: I had a they didn't inspire me to do any direction in my life because they didn't have that in their life.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: And they were very poor and and that's how it was in early 30s, uh 40s.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: Bad time.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: It was a bad time for our family to survive.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: I have to tell you, my dad was a cheesemaker.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: When I came here, and I went to coffee hour for the first time, and they asked me to stand up and just talk about where I came from, where I grew up, and it was in the central Wisconsin around Marshfield.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: Marshfield, you've probably heard of Marshfield.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh in that area, but it was small towns around Marshfield.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and I'm telling them that my dad was a cheesemaker, and after the coffee hour was over, uh gentleman came over and talked to me.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: He said, you know, my dad was also a cheesemaker.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Well, that's very interesting.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: Where was his cheese where was the cheese factory?
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, It was five miles directly east of a small town which you wouldn't know called Spencer.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I looked at him, I couldn't even speak.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: I was so shocked.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: Our family moved into that building the same day his family moved out.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: Same building.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_01: No kidding.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: Same building.
• 9:08
  unknown: Wow.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: Dale Rinfleisch, and he lives here.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: Isn't that something?
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_04: I'm kidding.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_04: So was he in the same boat with his family?
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_04: Cheesemaking was tough and you had to move around to find the right place.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I never really got to know him because he was moving out while I was moving in.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: But I have talked to him about this now.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I was up there up there a couple of years ago, took pictures of that of that building, and I got him back and I showed him to Dale.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, wow.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: And it brought a tear to his eye.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: That's quite a story.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's it is.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, Well, then you knew the neighbors, and I said, You mean Donnie and Ray and Jeannie and Virgil Virgil?
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so I had to prove that I I wasn't kidding him.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I knew all those people.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: Those people were part of my life and his.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't that a nice story?
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's a wonderful story.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's um just has what are the odds of that happening?
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: It was a wonderful time of my life.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: We had a radio but no TV, of course.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: The grade school was one mile away from our factory.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: So we'd meet at our factory and everybody would bring their sleds and tie it on the back of the car whose car the teacher that drove us one mile to school, pulling all these sleds to I don't think they do that anymore, do they?
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was just wonderful things like that.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: And uh going out uh sledding at night on moonlight night and country roads, there's hardly any cars around.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: And we'd tie uh uh neighbors had a farm hole tr farm hall tractor and a bobsled on the back of it so we could take a sleigh ride or be pulled on our sleds and back of that, and we'd go for miles like an hour, hour and a half, two hours, just driving around the countryside.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: And the snow plow snow plows had wings on them, so they had flat areas on the snow on the side of each of the roads, great for skiing, pulling skiers along.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: Forming.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: And that really gets a lot of attention, especially when I was telling that to my children, and they said, You what?
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I told them that story, and they couldn't believe that that was the kind of fun that we created by ourselves to do.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: We didn't go to Disney World or anything.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: That was our Disney World.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_04: That sounds like a Wisconsin kid's wholesome fun.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_04: So you're a creative guy.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_04: The arts, music, art.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_04: Are you sketching on people's folders in high school?
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_04: Yes.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_04: But not really, not really leaning into art or art class, you said.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: No, I I didn't at that time I was doing it because they knew I could do it, and I was doing it for them, and I was happy doing it.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: I was I was being recognized for a talent that I wasn't even sure what I could do with at that time.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I found out that uh there was money out there to be made by being a commercial artist.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_01: Did you discover that in in college then?
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: As far as that you can make a career out of that?
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: They recognized my talent more than I was recognizing my talent.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: I was in doubt what I was gonna do after high school.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: That all kind of fell in place.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: I've been a very lucky guy being being invited to places, being at the right place, right time in your life, and doing the most of it with what you have.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: But it took me a longer time to realize that about myself.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't have a lot of confidence in myself.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_04: So, what are some of the opportunities or the the doors that your art career opened for you?
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: Now we're getting it into the meat.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_04: What comes to mind?
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: I came into Milwaukee and my first job I had, I had 30 days, and the guy had to leave me go because I didn't have the experience to help him.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: I was making a dollar an hour.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: Forty dollars a week for normal time.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_04: Were you were you pleased with that wage?
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: Like what did I know?
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know better.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: Dollar an hour sounded pretty good.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: I think about it now and I just have to laugh.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's so out of w out of uh tune to what was happening now.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's just unbelievable.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: But the first job he had let me go, and I was crushed.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: Here I am in Milwaukee living at the YMCA, and um I wasn't gonna give up.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: I had some samples from classes that I took, and I heard about this guy who was who was president of Dozy Johnson printing a rather large company downtown Milwaukee.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: And he liked my samples and he liked me, and we got along very well, and he said, I've got a friend who has a very large studio here on the top floor of the Al Hamber Building, downtown Milwaukee, across from Boston Store, which is only a couple blocks from his office.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, Why don't you go there right now?
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'll call him.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: He called him, he said, send him over.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: Timey, all in a timing.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: Turned out to be one of the most uh important person in my life.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: His name was Bob Slater, he was president of Slater Ross Studios.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: Top floor.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: I can't explain this.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: It was so beautiful, big skylight in there.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: He had about 18 people working for him, and I fit in like a glove into his need of that day, and he hired me that day.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_04: What was your job?
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_04: What did he have?
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_04: What were you going to do?
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I emptied the waste baskets and cleaned the jars and water and study at the very basic, it was an apprentice job, hoping that I would work out.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Bob and I got along very well, and he was his partner was Tom Ross, who was came from New York to work here in Milwaukee, and he was doing the covers on Field and Stream magazine.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, wow.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: And when I walked into his office, he had just finished one of these pieces of cover art.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: I knew I was at the right place at the right time.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: And Tom Ross was also a gentleman, and I'm so grateful for all the people I'd have had along the way.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_04: You had said when we were getting ready for this interview that I think it was a quote.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_04: Wow, I have been blessed.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_04: Blessed, blessed.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: I do feel that.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_01: Would you mind telling our audience the story about the Brewers logo and your role in the Milwaukee Brewers logo?
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I wish I would have been the designer of it.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: It was designed by uh uh uh uh instructor in Eau Claire uh University, University of Wisconsin, Eau.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: And um our company, I mean I saw it when it was announced by the Brewers, this is the design, but they came to our company to do the finished art.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's called finished art.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: And by that time, that was quite a few years after um I had been in the business for 20, 30 years, and um I had the the privilege of taking that art and turning it into finished art to be used by everybody that would use that logo in whatever way they wanted to, they had to get permission to use it.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm proud of that.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it at the time I did it, it was it was another job, that's all.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: But it is a good logo.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's still a logo, maybe be not because I was part of it, but I still think it is a powerful logo for that ball club.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_01: Definitely.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_04: That's significant.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_01: Are there as we as we reflect back, and you've got so many great stories, um, as we talk about getting to three pillars, and obviously you're here now, is there a place on campus that that you think about as your your favorite place to go?
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, it's the dining area.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: No, I I do uh go to the cafe right down by the by the chapel, near the chapel almost every day because I've gotten uh uh bunch of friends that we all go there for lunch and and that's informal, casual, friendly, comfortable.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: I would say that would be probably one of my favorite places.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: Good.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's a good spot.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_04: It always always smells good down the hall, probably right up to your apartment.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_04: Can you smell the delicious cafe food right when you step out?
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: I blame myself for being that close to it, and I'm spending a lot of time.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_04: That's just it's just right.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: We get excuses all the time.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_04: I wanted to go back to your your art at your place, Vern, because when you moved in at Three Pillars, your art caught my eye personally walking by because you have a few pieces, or maybe it was one piece at the time, but something outside of your door on display.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_04: And that got you that got you um, I don't know, one of your you're famous on our wall at our other cafe across the across the way in our Riverside Lodge building, we have a couple pieces of Vern art on display.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_04: So if anybody's ever dined at the Riverbank Cafe, they've seen a bit of Vern's artwork.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_04: But I was thinking about how w there was a story or two, didn't once you came to Three Pillars and people, you you know, new friends, some new neighbors, and people started seeing your art, seeing who you were.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_04: A a timer too.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_04: I know there's a few stories of somebody recognizing a piece.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: That is true.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's a wonderful story.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: When the computers came into our studio, I was saying I don't want to get involved in computers because it would take away what I do manually.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: So I was it's probably my German background.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: I just said, I don't need this.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I found out that was wrong.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: But when I saw it was coming in so fast and changing the uh changing the whole thing about photography and artwork and printing and type and all that, it scared me and I knew I had to make a change.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: And at that time I I was just made president of our c company.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: Oh wow.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: And um I was caught in a dilemma.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: I just didn't want to go there, so I thought I was having lunch with a friend of mine and telling him this story, and I just said, I have to make a major change in my life.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, Well What did you always dream about doing?
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: And then I told him I always dreamt about being a famous portrait artist.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, then you have to do it.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: You have to follow that.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: And he knew about a guy who did all the portraits for all the brewers and and basketball players.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: And he was so good.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I knew who he was, George Pollard.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: And he lived in Kenosha.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: So he said, I want to call George Pollard this afternoon and have you call him back.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: And he did that for me.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm talking to a guy I admired for a lot of years, and I got him on the phone.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, Why don't you come down tomorrow afternoon at about three o'clock?
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I did.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: Drove down to Kenosha.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: He had a beautiful home on the lake.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: And he invited me in.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: I thought I'd be there maybe 20 minutes or so.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: I was there over two hours talking with him and seeing his art.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: I was, here, here's, here's the opportunity that I was meeting people at the right time in my life.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: And George was one of those people.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, well, I have a son over in Richland Center who is, he takes on special people and has them over at his home for two or three days and works with him over there.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: And he called him on the phone while I was there.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so I went over there, and that was opportunity just pushed me and into an area that I I knew I had to go.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: He was a portrait artist, but he was big time.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: He had an agent, and he did portraits for people, kings and whoever it was all over the world.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: George Pollard also did a, he had just finished a portrait of the Pope in Rome.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: He had to go there four or five times to finish it.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's just, I was elevating myself pretty fast into an arena that I had never been in before in my life.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I I knew then that it was where I should go.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: And then I got involved with the Door County scene, art scene up there, art school, went up there for a while, had a teacher who turned, who um turned out to be a mentor, friend, very good friend.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: And we'd uh three other guys and I would go up to Door County and paint for three days.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: Oh wow.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: And we'd go to his house.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: He had property in the middle of Door County.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: And we'd see him first.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: Just spend a couple hours with his wife.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_04: More special.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: How that happened?
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: Special people in my life.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_04: So did you get into portrait art?
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: I did.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's where I wanted to go.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: But then it was it was very difficult to uh starting out, you know, who do you who do you do portraits of?
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: I was able to bump into some people that I was very proud of them.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and then I got involved with the Door County park up there and went up there 18 years in a row in the middle of September painting with these guys for three days.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_01: Oh wow.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: That opened up a lot of doors for me being up there.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I went I was uh going up there with my son because he wanted to know more about my connection with Dore County, and uh I tried to call my friend, didn't answer the phone, and I knew something was wrong.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: He had died in March.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: Oh wow uh year ago in March.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: But I found I called the school, the art school up there, just to find out what happened, how did he die and all that.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: And then I called also Sister Bay to find out information on the guy.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: He was so popular up there and he was so he had bought, he had moved from Chicago up to Door County and bought forty acres of land in the middle of Door County.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like fifty years ago.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: When he died, he donated his property, his artwork, and the fifty acres to the art school.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: Oh wow donated it gave he gave it to them.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't have children.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: So that's part of my story because the feeling I have about giving it away, he has that too.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: And that's that's a wonderful story.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: And now I'm gonna I've got artwork that I'm trying to get rid of, and hopefully I'm gonna make a connection with the art school up there to do what he did in some fashion, give my art to one of the buildings, part of the art school.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: I it happened a year ago, so uh everything is sort of new up there.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_00: Now but I would like to get why are you smiling?
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_04: No, I was just thinking, what an inspiring guy.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_04: And all the all of the people that come to mind as you're talking about.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_04: Special people, inspiring, creative, helpful, or willing to yeah, come on, Vern, I'll call him right now.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_04: You know, let's go meet him.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_04: What a special journey.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_04: You surrounded yourself with inspiring, interesting people.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_04: We could do several uh Vern episodes.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_04: You've got so many great stories.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_04: Will you, before we wrap up, will you tell us about Durf?
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah, I heard you uh heard you talk about that portrait.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: That portrait was one I did for a guy who I worked with.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: He was a friend of mine.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, and he asked me if I would do a portrait of his father, who was at that time 94 years old.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Well, sure.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: But I talked to Durf.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: Durf is Fred backwards, Fred Aldrian, whose son now just moved into the fields.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm turned around in a direction.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: But he was over here visiting Three Pillars, and he saw that portrait.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, his dad.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, That's my dad.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: Who did that?
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: And then they told him it was Vern Teamy.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Well, I met Vern Teamy a long time ago.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: He used to live way up north.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_04: A lot of connections from your heart.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: War, but they were good, yeah.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_04: Well, it's been really fun talking to you, Vern.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_04: Thank you for sharing some.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for allowing me to have this pleasure of coming over here and meeting you guys and uh and just having a chance to tell my story.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we appreciate it.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_04: We've sure enjoyed it.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_04: And thank you.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_04: To the listeners, thanks for tuning in to Life's Just Getting Started, a Three Pillars podcast about all things three pillars.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_04: I'm Kelsey.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Josh.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_04: And we are signing off.