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Conversations With A Vet Army Veteran Wayne Wolford · Military Broadcast Radio | MBR Talk

1:07
Well, good evening everybody and happy Sunday.
1:10
Welcome to Conversations with a Vet.
1:13
My name is Carol Lee and I'm your host today.
1:16
So before we get to my wonderful guest who's waiting in the
1:20
wings, I wanted to say again, a huge shout out to a couple of
1:24
authors and the first one all the way from Australia.
1:27
Yeah, that would be Tim Thomas. And he has sent me a book called
1:32
Fight, Flight and Feel. And this is to discover the
1:36
power within to transform your outside world.
1:39
Wonderful read, wonderful gentleman.
1:41
I have done an interview with him so you can go out to
1:44
YouTube. You can search Tim Thomas on
1:47
once you're in conversations with a vet.
1:49
Wonderful book right there. The other, another veteran that
1:53
I've had and that was unshaken resolved by Michael Alexander
1:58
Payne. So we do have that as a couple
2:01
of autographed books. I'm very excited.
2:04
So when we hit our next milestone of 1000 subscribers,
2:07
we'll have several autographed books out there for giveaways.
2:11
So make sure that at the end of this, you hit that like button
2:15
and if you haven't already, hit the subscribe button and the
2:18
notification button so you don't miss any wonderful interviews.
2:23
So thank you everybody for showing up tonight and please
2:26
help me welcome my guest, Wayne Wolford.
2:30
Hello and good evening. Good evening, Carolyn.
2:34
How are you? Absolutely, it's an honor to
2:37
have you here. How's your weekend been going
2:39
for you? It's been been going great.
2:42
When you retired, sometimes you just kind of relax a little bit,
2:45
you know? I don't know I, I can dream
2:53
though, right? We can all dream.
2:56
So thank you again for for being here tonight.
2:59
And it's, it's an honor, as I said, to have you here and be
3:04
able to interview you. So let's go ahead and start the
3:07
conversation off by asking. I want to I want to know a
3:12
little bit about who Wayne was as a child.
3:17
OK, I was born in Alton, IL, which is 25 miles east of St.
3:23
Louis, MO and my folks moved to Saint Louis when I was six years
3:26
old. And after that particular time
3:30
when I reached 10, my grandmother, she was basically
3:35
raised in Tennessee and my uncle had plenty of land here in
3:39
Mcneville. So she asked him could she build
3:41
a house here? And so he gave her 5 acres for a
3:44
dollar. And I love that.
3:47
House back in 1958 and it's still standing and that was AI
3:53
guess that was one of the the best things that ever happened
3:55
to me because my mother never was married.
3:58
We lived in Saint Louis and I would have to I always wanted to
4:02
come here because my uncle had a farm with everything.
4:05
You know, it had chickens, cows, peas, horses, you name it, you
4:09
had it. So by being the only child, you
4:11
know that I just fell in love with that living in the city
4:15
where things were kind of tight. You had liquor stores all over
4:18
the place. You had prostitutes walking down
4:20
the street, stuff like that really want me out there, you
4:23
know so so when I came here, I just fell in love with it.
4:26
So after that I I came here after just before I got ready to
4:33
graduate. I wouldn't do it.
4:34
I wasn't the sharpest tool on the shelf at that time.
4:37
So when I was in Saint Louis, I was there three years in high
4:39
school. So I came here one year after
4:42
integration and that was my senior year.
4:44
So that was 65 and 66. So I graduated that that one
4:49
year and 66 and I went to Nashville and I was always I
4:55
knew I wouldn't going to college.
4:56
So I was always interested in hair cutting.
5:00
So I went to Nashville and there was a Barber college there and I
5:03
learned how to do their froze back then back in the back in
5:06
the 60s. And so I opened my own business
5:08
and that, you know, it was, it was pretty good to go so.
5:11
How did it take you to to go through?
5:14
I mean, was there like a school? Yes, yes, uh huh.
5:18
Yes, there it was only 11 months.
5:21
OK. All right.
5:23
And you know that that was a basic and, and back then, you
5:25
know, it was everything was pretty much segregated in so it,
5:29
you know, it was all black, you know, little building there
5:32
where we learned how to cut hair and everything.
5:34
So but later on I was kind of jumping here there Later on,
5:39
after I finished the military, I came back here and I went to to
5:44
to a college, Barbara whatever. In the Barber college there was
5:47
cosmetology. And so in cosmetology, you have
5:50
to do. You have to color the hair.
5:52
You have to wash it. You have to roll.
5:55
Excuse expressing roll little old lady's wigs up, you know,
5:58
tighten them up and everything and get them cut.
6:00
You did your manicure and you did your pedicure.
6:03
So I had to do all of that just to get my farmer's license to
6:05
get back. Yeah.
6:08
But, I mean, I enjoyed it. You know, my voice was deep when
6:11
I was doing this, so I was good to go.
6:14
I bet you had a lot of repeat customers coming in.
6:17
Oh. Yeah, yeah, I did.
6:18
I. Did yeah, yeah.
6:20
So while you were in high school, did you play any sports?
6:24
No, I wasn't eligible. Well, I did when I was in Saint
6:27
Louis. When I was in Saint Louis, yeah,
6:28
I played baseball. I ran track.
6:31
I wasn't a really big fella at that particular time.
6:33
I only weighed like I guess maybe 170 lbs or something like
6:37
that and almost almost 6 foot. And I never did play football
6:41
because I just not, not with pads on, let's put it that way.
6:45
And so when I got here, I thought I was going to be able
6:48
to come and and hang out with my guys here and come to find out I
6:52
was 1/2 accredited shy of being able to play.
6:55
Oh wow. I don't know what that was.
6:58
I can't tell you. I don't know whether whether
7:01
flavor had to do with it or not, but and I I refer to this as
7:04
flavor OK. I got to.
7:07
I got. To.
7:07
I don't know whether that had anything to do with it or not,
7:09
but it was so cool. They coached, let me come on the
7:12
team. I practiced with him and did all
7:15
that stuff. I traveled the games with him.
7:17
I took him on the shirt, let me in.
7:19
He said no, Wayne, I can't let you in.
7:22
I was a pretty dangerous guy on the field there.
7:24
So that's that's why he didn't do that.
7:26
And I appreciate him just letting me be there with him,
7:28
you know? Right, right.
7:29
Well, and that, that. Was in later years now after I
7:34
got out of high school and everything, I, I did try out for
7:38
the Saint Louis Cardinals, which of the Arizona football
7:40
Cardinals now? And they kept me out of 450 of
7:43
us, 12 of us got to go down to the stadium.
7:46
And after 13 days with cameras and all that, and then they
7:51
checked my knees out and they said, well, sorry, we can't use
7:53
you. So that busted my bubble.
7:56
That's too bad. I was good, I was good, but the
7:59
Lord had had He had other intentions for me.
8:02
I didn't realize that until later on in life.
8:04
And and we're going to get to that too.
8:07
So let's talk about you. So I know what the drive is from
8:12
Mcminnville to Nashville and the time it takes.
8:16
So for you, how you went for you said how long was it 1111 months
8:23
driving? Was it a five day a week thing?
8:25
Yes, it was five days a week and and one of the one of my friends
8:30
was was going to Tennessee State University and so he would take
8:33
me down and there was apt a little apartment building that I
8:36
lived in and I stayed there all week.
8:38
And. Then then that Friday, then we
8:40
we'd all, you know, come come back home.
8:42
So yeah. That's good, 'cause I was like,
8:45
Oh my gosh, I know how long that takes.
8:48
Crazy time, crazy time. And then you you go through your
8:54
Barber school, you start now, I'm assuming you were working
9:00
for somebody else to start. Or yes, I was in the beginning.
9:04
Then I got smart and got me a storage shed and put it out here
9:07
by the house. So then I, I back then, then I
9:11
could do any kind of electrical work or whatever.
9:13
And then me and, and my son, he lived in Saint Louis.
9:16
He was old enough to come and help me.
9:18
I have two sons, two and one daughter.
9:21
And he came and helped me and I got it established.
9:24
And right now I'm just using it for a music room.
9:28
Nice. All right, so going back then
9:30
we're at what point did you decide you wanted to join the
9:36
military and then specifically the branch that you chose, what
9:41
made you decide that? That's a sweet story.
9:45
I couldn't get drafted because I'm the only child.
9:49
So my draft was F1, which was, you know, you can't go.
9:54
And so I was working in a factory because if things were
9:59
kind of going slow for the hair cutting business, I worked in
10:02
the factory for a little while and things weren't hitting off
10:04
too well. And same way with my friend.
10:08
And we went to lunch. And at that particular time, I
10:13
was married, I had two children, he didn't.
10:15
And I know if I'd gone back to work, this box that I had just
10:19
kept picking with me and picking with me.
10:21
And I said, oh, if I go back, something going to happen.
10:26
So I didn't. Me and him, we talked, we didn't
10:28
go back. We had to say the boss, you
10:31
know, so we don't know what happened there, but but we
10:33
decided not to go back. And then after that he went in,
10:37
in Redstone Arsenal, AL. And then he showed me all the I
10:42
still went back and cut hair, but he was showing me all the
10:44
things about all the quality there that the cars they were
10:48
driving, the money they were making, the jobs that they had.
10:53
I love sports. So they had, you know, sports.
10:55
They had even a football team in in Japan.
11:01
And and then I went nightclub and two at that time too.
11:04
So I mean, everything just fell right into play, you know, So I
11:07
said, Oh, this is neat. So I took I had a visit with
11:10
him. When I came back, I was so
11:11
excited. First place I went to the Air
11:13
Force recruiter because I said if I go in, I'll, I think I want
11:18
the Navy, I'm 27 years old. Then I want the Marines because
11:22
they're hardcore. And I said no, I don't want them
11:25
to blow me up like that. So I said the Army, I'll check
11:30
the Army out. So I went to the, I went to the
11:32
Air Force and they didn't have any openings in.
11:34
I was excited. I was ready to go.
11:37
And so I went to the to the Army and I'd already taken courses
11:44
later on after Barber school, taking courses out at the
11:47
school. I had technical school that took
11:49
up industrial wiring. So, you know, as far as
11:51
factories and stuff like that, I could do that and get my
11:54
certificate there. And so I looked and there was a
11:57
program there saying radar. I said, oh man, this is neat.
12:00
I'm going to jump right on this. So so I went on and got in radar
12:04
for the Army is concerned, but the but the Air Force, they
12:07
didn't have any openness for me that I wanted that time.
12:09
So the Army. And it was.
12:12
Probably 11 days, 11 days. Wow, so the so the MOS was
12:18
radar? Yes, 39 Charlie.
12:20
OK. And what what did that entail or
12:26
at least on paper, what did that entail?
12:29
What did they tell you it was? Oh, OK.
12:31
Well, basically what it was the weapon of radar repair, what you
12:34
did any kind of basic, it wasn't the, the, the radars for jets
12:41
and stuff like that. It was for low flying objects
12:43
like helicopters. You take that radar and and run
12:47
it across miles and you can hear troops marching, you know, on
12:50
the on the on the other side and stuff like that.
12:52
So it was, it was very good. And it was in two, they had
12:56
tubes at that time. Oh, yes, yeah, that was a little
13:01
bit different, especially being in 20 years.
13:04
And then then that's going over to the digital side of the
13:06
house. I was I, I was a repairman at
13:09
first. Then I got to the point to where
13:13
I was teaching radar. Now I was teaching liaison and I
13:17
was teaching civilians, then I was teaching instructors.
13:21
And so it kind of went on and on and on.
13:24
So, you know, it, it was, it was pretty, it was pretty neat.
13:27
I really, really career. Nice.
13:29
So let's go back and and talk a little bit about basic training.
13:35
So obviously it's been a little bit since you've been in sports
13:39
and you know so and you're older than probably a lot of those
13:45
recruits that are there. What was going through your mind
13:50
when you first got to basic training?
13:53
Well, let's put it like this. I've been an athlete all my life
13:56
and I've been pretty good at it. So at 27 working in, I mean,
14:01
I've done things like shining shoes in stores, I've delivered
14:05
groceries. Like I said, I did work in a
14:08
factory one time and, you know, just little minimal jobs like
14:11
that. And so by doing things like
14:14
that, well, I'm trying not to get off track here, but yeah,
14:19
those are the kind of things that we're when I was doing this
14:23
kind of stuff, it was it was it was building.
14:26
I don't know what I was building, but these are things
14:28
that I can't forget right now. OK, so excuse me, I'm 78 years
14:35
old. So repeat that portion that you
14:36
said because I forgot it that fast.
14:39
No worries. So I guess I was curious, as far
14:44
as basic training, what it was like for you when you first got
14:50
there. At 27 years old, I pretty well
14:53
knew what what the deal was. And when you're 1718 years old,
14:57
you're afraid to death, you know.
14:59
So with that age there, I didn't have any problem because my
15:02
senior drill Sergeant was 29 and, and a couple of other drill
15:05
sergeants were only 23. You know, I was 27, you know, so
15:08
I was older than they were. And so when they had things
15:11
going on, you know, I, I took basic training as something
15:14
that's going to help me in life because if I got in a situation
15:18
where it was life threatening or I had to take care of my troops
15:21
or whatever, this is what I experienced.
15:23
This is what I learned. And, and, and it was almost like
15:26
AI won't share a game, but it was planning ahead.
15:28
So if something had happened, I would know what to do.
15:32
I didn't take it like, oh, I'm scared.
15:33
Oh, you know, I got to do this or I got to crawl hearing that.
15:35
No, it wasn't that everything I took seriously.
15:39
What did you think of or how did you help the other recruits
15:44
along being that you were probably older than most of them
15:49
there? Yeah, I actually, I actually got
15:51
to be the platoon platoon guide. So I was the one that anytime
15:55
the drill sergeants were went home and everything, I was the
15:57
one to take care of everybody, you know, so there's a problem
16:00
then. There wasn't any.
16:01
I didn't really have any problems because if they gave me
16:04
an aesthetic, all I had to do was write the name down on the
16:06
pencil and paper and give to the drill Sergeant.
16:08
Oh, oh, that that wasn't that wouldn't go work the next
16:11
morning, you know, so and then other times, you know, when they
16:15
have problems, they were lonesome, wanted to leave, do
16:17
stuff like that. I was old enough and mature
16:20
enough to just talk to them like I'm talking to you and and kind
16:23
of explain life a little bit. You know, Hey, this is, you
16:26
know, you, this is just the beginning.
16:27
You know, we don't know what's what's in here those but hey, be
16:31
patient, wait and do what you got to do and make the best
16:34
choices. Do you have any funny stories
16:37
from basic training that you can recall?
16:41
I would say, I would say that because in basic training, you
16:46
know, like on the weekends, the drill sergeants relieved and
16:49
kind of let you kind of be to yourself, OK, So they will let
16:53
you go to the to, to the store. And when, when you once you went
16:58
to the store, you can pick up some things, but you couldn't
17:01
bring them inside. OK, So what I do, I go get big
17:04
Hershey bars, Oreo cookers, a couple extra rolls of toilet
17:09
paper and stuff like that. And then I have one of my
17:11
friends that's already going in. I'd go by the window and hand it
17:14
in the bag and they take it upstairs.
17:16
And So what I did when they open, when you open up my
17:19
locker, everything's supposed to be just just so you know, OK,
17:22
Now on the bottom there, I have my Hershey bars up under under
17:26
the tile. I had my gym, what do you call
17:30
them Slim Jims and stuff like that in the other other side.
17:34
So, you know, if somebody investigated my, you know, my
17:36
locker, they looking at oh man, this is sharp, you know, and
17:38
then go ahead and close it. But I actually had a store so,
17:42
so that's so on the weekend when they're in our toilet paper
17:45
starts and I roll some of them like, OK, here it is a dime, you
17:48
know, cookies, OK, it must cost you a quarter of a cookie If you
17:51
want a candy bar that's $4.00. Oh, I was.
17:54
I was willing and dealing. Wow, I guess so.
17:58
And I had more room to see, so that was a good part, yeah.
18:01
Wow, how did you get so lucky? Well, I was a platoon guy and so
18:06
everybody else kind of slept in, you know, in the Bay Areas, you
18:09
know, where everybody went out. But but they had a they always
18:12
had a couple of rooms there for, for platoon guide and maybe
18:15
somebody that was getting ready to leave, you know, real soon,
18:17
whatever they wanted them separated from from the other
18:19
people. So, yeah, I really lucked out.
18:23
And the one other thing is we went on what they call a bivouac
18:26
that's walking. And it was hot that day and we
18:29
were out walking and we had a rest area and I saw a turtle
18:32
over there. Turtle was about, about.
18:35
Yeah, B And I put picked him up, put him in my pocket and I took
18:40
him back. You know, you're not supposed to
18:41
have no animals or nothing. Took him back and we were in
18:44
B154. That's what they call it.
18:46
And I wrote that with the white out on his back and I kept him
18:51
in. There was another locker in the
18:53
room and I kept him down there, but he wouldn't eat anything.
18:56
I couldn't figure out. This was a whole week.
18:57
I'm trying to figure out what's going on.
18:59
So I had him up on the shelf while I was in the bathroom
19:03
shining boots and everything, and he picked up my shoestring.
19:06
I said, oh, that's what he was worms.
19:10
So we had some downstairs where we did our PT and so forth.
19:14
So I went down to some worms up. Oh, wow, he was good to go after
19:17
that. Actually was on the towel when
19:21
the Colonel came in. And my my drill Sergeant knew
19:24
about him and he was just sitting there and he wouldn't
19:28
move and the Colonel came in. Is this for real?
19:31
Yeah. We had a real turtle, you know,
19:33
under our plaque. That was pretty cool.
19:34
Never said nothing about it. That's pretty impressive.
19:40
So you had, Yeah, you had your own.
19:42
Mascot. Mascot, yes.
19:45
Oh, that's great. So was there a difficult time
19:50
for you while you were in basic training?
19:53
Yes, because I was married at the time and being away from
20:00
home, you have your moments, you know, and then you couldn't just
20:06
jump in the car and go home that weekend or the plan of plan a
20:09
time to go, then you knew when you going that was going to be
20:12
quite a while. So yeah, those were the most
20:14
difficult times for me in the military, being away, being
20:17
overseas and stuff like that from my family and so
20:21
especially. With my daughter, which was
20:26
later on, it was my second marriage when just being away
20:30
from her really hurt because when she did hadn't seen me for
20:33
like 6 months or whatever. And she did see me and she
20:35
grabbed me and started shaking, you know, and hugging Daddy, I
20:38
love you and all just that that gets to a person.
20:42
It really gets to a person. So you graduate basic training,
20:48
Where do you go to next? OK.
20:50
That was Fort Knox, KY. Then I went to Fort Hill,
20:54
Oklahoma and that's where I took my AIT and and that was that was
21:00
six months for for our particular field, that was six
21:03
months of training. So that was pretty neat.
21:06
It was hot in Oklahoma, but you know, I handled it.
21:10
Yeah, yeah, it does get pretty warm, doesn't it?
21:12
Yes. And then from there, so AIT was
21:16
six months, What what did you do after graduating AIT?
21:22
OK, after AITI was there for a little while and then almost my
21:26
three years were up and they said you got a charge, you go to
21:28
Korea or you get out. Oh, wow.
21:31
I said, well, I hadn't lost anything in Korea.
21:33
But I said, well, I got to support my family and I've only
21:36
been here for a little while and I fooled around, bought a new
21:38
car and I said, hey, I might as well just stay here and hang,
21:41
you know. So I went to Korea for a year
21:44
and I didn't want to. But when I got over there, once
21:46
I got my mind straight, I got over there, I learned a lot.
21:51
I learned a lot about people's culture and so forth.
21:53
That's where they didn't have a whole lot of tractors and stuff.
21:56
They had oxen at that time. They didn't have tractors,
21:59
people out in the, in the rice fields and stuff.
22:03
And then when I was there, I was on in the DMZ Demilitarized Zone
22:07
and we were right there looking at North Korea, you know, so and
22:11
I, you know, we had a radar site up there.
22:13
So, but to go over there and to be over there for a year and
22:17
learn the language, learn the custom, eat the food, that was
22:20
an experience for me. I really brought that back home.
22:23
That was an experience. Was there a particular food
22:27
there that you liked best? I don't know if you're familiar
22:30
with kimchi or not, but kimchi, one of them.
22:33
And then now when it came to squid, octopus and stuff like
22:37
that, no, I kind of stayed away from that.
22:39
You know, something The Archers out of the shells or something
22:44
like no, I couldn't, couldn't do that.
22:46
But there was enough going on that we're at yes.
22:49
And even now, you know, I'll go to a Korean restaurant now.
22:52
And just my wife, she never had experienced it, but when when I
22:55
took it and won, oh wow, she fell in love with it.
23:00
So you spend a year there in Korea, and what happens next for
23:04
you? OK, then I come back to Fort
23:06
Riley, KS and well, what was so neat about it?
23:12
I asked to go back to Korea again because it was like mash.
23:14
Once we got up on the radar site, we had seven days on and
23:18
then we go down to our regular base.
23:20
We have 7 days off. We'd get a pass for seven days.
23:23
Wow. Oh, super job, you know, And so
23:26
that's why I asked to go back. And so it was about six months
23:29
later, they sent me back. Oh, I'm happy as I could be.
23:32
I'm going back on the radar site.
23:34
And no, no, they sent me down, sent me down on the depot.
23:37
So I had to do what all the regular guys did.
23:41
We had to run PT and all that. See, I didn't have to do that
23:45
before, but yeah, yeah. So after that, the I came back
23:51
to Fort Stewart. Well, I went to Fort Stewart, GA
23:55
and I stayed there for I think three years and then for four
23:59
story Georgia, I went to, yeah, four story Georgia.
24:07
I went to recruiting duty. And so recruiting duty was in
24:11
Illinois. And so I spent my time in school
24:15
there and finished that. And I did recruiting in
24:18
Springfield, IL. And then I tried to get so good
24:23
that they gave me a station in Mattoon, IL.
24:26
That's where Illinois University is.
24:32
And so I stayed there and all together in three years, you
24:35
know, I had a good time there, but that was that was kind of
24:38
rough. You had to make all these phone
24:40
calls. You had to spend all the next
24:41
hours and I think one of the worst things that hurt me when I
24:44
called somebody and come to find out that that that child was
24:48
dead, you know that I called, you know, trying.
24:50
To Oh no. Yeah, so I mean, it's a polite
24:53
way you're trying to call people when they say I'm sorry, you
24:56
know, but my son and my daughter's passed away.
24:58
So yeah, that's that's not a good feeling, you know?
25:01
Yeah. But I did.
25:03
I did well there. And you did that for three
25:07
years. Yes, that's where I'm.
25:09
That's where I met my second wife.
25:11
She came in and she was inquiring about the military and
25:14
I met her and we went out and everything.
25:16
Next thing I know I said no, I'm putting you, I'm not putting you
25:19
in boots. I'm keeping you.
25:22
So we've been married 42 years now.
25:26
Congratulations, That's a funny story, right?
25:30
I mean, usually the recruiters are supposed to be recruiting
25:34
and bringing people in. But I mean, her hair was screwed
25:40
on so well, you know, you know, it just, you know, she we became
25:43
friends and that's what I needed that time because I've been
25:46
separated from my first wife for, you know, pretty good while
25:49
and and I needed somebody with, you know, some support, you
25:52
know, just not to complain about, you know, you need to
25:55
leave so and so alone. You need to do this and that.
25:57
No, she was just straight up, you know, so that's what I
26:00
needed. I needed a friend that was
26:01
straight up. No, that's wonderful.
26:04
That's a great story. And then so you you meet your
26:09
first wife or second wife and how long after that did you guys
26:14
get married? It was a matter of four months
26:19
because I was, yeah, because I was getting, they were getting
26:21
ready to ship me out because I had they had getting ready to
26:25
ship me out. Go back to Fort, Fort Sill, OK.
26:28
And I asked her because she was working with the IRS there.
26:31
She was making good money at her own house and everything.
26:33
And I'm saying, whoa, well, this is this is kind of nice.
26:36
I could, I could deal with this. But she said, no, no, I want to
26:39
travel. I want to do so and so let's get
26:41
married and do so and so. And then then that's what
26:43
happened. There is there is nothing wrong
26:47
with that. So all right, so you get back to
26:51
Fort Sill. What happens for you?
26:54
I was there eight years, 8 1/2 years.
26:57
Oh my God. I was at the point there that
26:58
where I played, I played a lot of sports.
27:00
I played a little basketball and I wasn't too good for playing
27:03
basketball is concerned. I didn't know all the rules and
27:06
everything, but when it came to softball and and and football, I
27:09
was in it for a while. They were calling me Mr.
27:12
Oklahoma because I just point to the fence and just just send the
27:15
balls over the whole the field. What's the what position did you
27:20
play for? Baseball or softball?
27:23
Well, then I was, I was pitching and I played little first base
27:25
every once in a while. Yeah, I was pitching nowadays
27:29
and I I played ball for a long time after that, but you can't
27:34
get me pitching anything anymore because when they send those
27:36
balls back to you now, they come fast.
27:39
And when you're in your 70s, yeah, that's real fast.
27:44
That is quick, yes. So eight years and so your time
27:49
there was spent training and teaching or?
27:53
Yes, that's what I did. Yeah, your radar to and, and
27:57
like I said, you know, I, I did, during that time there, I was
28:02
doing the training the students and then liaison people coming
28:07
in from other countries, you know, I, I teach them and then I
28:10
got to teaching instructors. And so I had all the lesson
28:14
plans and everything. And so it, it, I only had only
28:20
had 16 months to go. And so they, I was in Fort Seal
28:25
and they sent me back to Fort Stewart.
28:27
I said, oh, why you do this? You know, 'cause it's, it's
28:30
coming right past my home here in the back minimum.
28:32
So what I did, I went to, I went there and did my time.
28:38
And once I did my time, I put in for I don't know if you're
28:42
familiar with or not, but if your instructor, whatever you
28:45
can, you can apply for jobs in your hometown as a as a teacher
28:50
at that time, I can't remember the exact numbers, it was
28:54
somewhere around 12,000 the first year, 7000 second year,
28:57
and 3000 that the school system would get for for taking you.
29:02
Oh wow. I almost, almost did it.
29:05
But when I got out, it was in June, I had all my paperwork and
29:09
everything for lesson plans, but I didn't have and they accepted
29:13
me, but I didn't have all the instruments, you know, to work
29:16
with, you know, before school started.
29:19
So I tell them, no, no, this is not going to work.
29:21
I'm going to have to delay this year a little bit, you know,
29:23
until I get everything done. And So what was so weird about
29:27
it after that I just went on back and went to Barber school
29:30
again or cosmetology school and got those license and I said
29:33
well at least I got something to fall back on there.
29:36
And after that I said let me try substitute teaching.
29:40
And the thing about Mcminnville is by living in Saint Louis and
29:47
knowing the difference between Saint Louis culture and and
29:51
Mcminnville culture with two different 2 totally different
29:54
worlds or person like me. So I wanted to get into the
29:58
school system, and I wanted them to see a person of my flavor
30:02
teaching. Now, I went to the system.
30:05
I didn't go just to high school. I had the high school,
30:07
alternative school, middle school, and elementary school
30:10
anywhere, anywhere that we weren't around.
30:15
I was there. I wanted them to see a teacher
30:18
character well dressed and see I didn't go and sit and read a
30:23
book. The teacher had to have a Lesson
30:25
plan for me. If they didn't have a Lesson
30:27
plan, I wasn't going that day. Good.
30:30
For you. I wanted, I wanted to make a
30:32
difference here in my middle and I think I have cause I've helped
30:36
get the coaches that, that not my, you know, the, my flavor
30:40
and, and everything else. So throughout the years, yeah,
30:43
I've, I really helped out the, the school board for us for
30:47
getting cultures in here. One thing is, I don't know if
30:50
you're familiar with it or not, but there's a multicultural club
30:52
at the high school. Oh wow, that about 11 years ago.
30:57
Nice, yeah. So and it's still going strong.
31:01
That's wonderful. So let's go back a little bit to
31:04
when you were looking to go to separate with the Army.
31:08
Now you you were put, you'd put in your 20 years.
31:12
And so when you're ready to retire, do does the Army provide
31:20
you any resources at all about how to, you know, reintegrate
31:27
into civilian life again? Yes, they had they had
31:30
everything that that I needed and everything was in front of
31:33
me. But I was 47 at that time.
31:36
And so I pretty much had to make my mind up, OK, let's go out
31:40
here and do some things that a 4047 year old would do and live
31:45
comfortably. My wife was working that time.
31:48
So that was that was helping out too.
31:50
And so these were I guess everything fell into play.
31:54
It took me a little while to adjust.
31:56
I, I guess I did it so well that, that my daughter was quite
32:00
young at that time and my wife was still working.
32:04
And so it wasn't anything for me and my daughter Go to Atlanta,
32:07
we check out a ball game or something.
32:09
We go to Saint Louis. That's where, where I'm basic
32:12
kind of basically from. And you know, we did stuff like
32:14
that. And this thing, I know my credit
32:16
card went up. Oh, I'm gonna have to do
32:19
something here. So, so I went out to Bridgestone
32:23
and it was 13 people that applied for the job and it was
32:30
weird. I had to go in front of them
32:33
three times. Then it's the first time I went,
32:37
it was with the 1st 13. Second time I went it was six of
32:44
us. And then third time we went, it
32:46
was just two of us. I said, Oh well, I've got this
32:48
for her. Yeah.
32:49
And I don't know what it was. I don't know what sold them, but
32:54
one of the main guys there, he said, you know, you retired
32:57
military and everything. You know what, why you want this
33:01
job? I said, hey, man, my credit
33:03
card's up. I need a job.
33:06
I just said it like that. And they just, they just smiled
33:09
and said, OK, all right, you got it.
33:11
I love it, I love it. And how long did you work for
33:15
them? Well, I worked two years, two
33:18
years out on the main gate and I worked about oh, maybe no, six
33:22
months inside because after I got caught up after those two
33:27
years, I was pretty well caught up.
33:29
And then they said, you know, could we have you just a little
33:32
bit longer? I said, well, I tried it and
33:33
tried it and people coming by with the tops down on the cars
33:37
and music playing, you know, they come in and out the gate
33:39
and here I am sitting in here in this building.
33:41
You know, I could be be with my family.
33:43
I said enough is enough. I'm through y'all.
33:45
Oh. That's funny.
33:50
And so right after Bridgestone, then where did you go?
33:54
OK, let's see, after Bridgestone, let's see what did
33:57
I do? OK, I was doing quite a bit of
34:01
barbering at that time. Yeah.
34:07
OK, I did a little bit of barbering at that time.
34:09
I never did work in the factory or anything after that.
34:14
Oh, wow. Oh, OK.
34:17
Yeah, that's why I did a lot of substitute teaching.
34:19
Then after that I just kind of kind of hung around here on, on,
34:23
well, I, we got 70 acres I got to take care of.
34:25
So, you know, I had to kind of take care of that.
34:30
Only about 5 1/2 years ago, premonition came.
34:37
Well, I'd say premonition, but you know how you lay in bed at
34:40
night and you know, you thinking about things, some things sound
34:43
good to you and so forth and other thing you just let it go
34:45
by, you know, and this voice came to me and said that Wayne,
34:48
I know you're retired, but I got one more thing for you to do.
34:51
I said, what's that? He said, you going to start a
34:53
black History Museum? I said for what?
34:55
See you go start a black History Museum.
34:57
Now I thought about it, thought about through the night.
35:00
Next morning I got up, went to my accountant, took my
35:03
checkbook, got my 5O1C3 charter chapter tax exempt.
35:08
I had nonprofit organization. I didn't have a building.
35:13
You got to start somewhere. Yeah, but she, she told me I had
35:16
to have a board because I, I thought I was going to be
35:18
president, my wife was going to be secretary.
35:20
She said no, no, you need a board.
35:22
And I did. I went out and there are people
35:25
around here in town. They're very influential people.
35:29
And I knew them and they knew me and they, they got on board with
35:33
me. And really, I started out with
35:34
17 board members. Yeah, but I mean, you know, it's
35:38
a family. You know, I, I wanted to
35:41
establish that first. It's a family.
35:43
We don't come here to bicker. We don't come here to complain.
35:46
You got an idea, Let's thrash it out and see which which is best
35:49
for your idea. So, you know, 'cause we want
35:52
your ideas coming. We know when you say, Oh no,
35:54
that idea won't work, what will happen?
35:56
Well, I don't think it's going to work.
35:57
So let's, let's move on. You know, I want my boy to be a
36:00
family. And so we don't, we don't have
36:03
bicker than anything. We, we iron things that if
36:05
there's something there that somebody has an idea on, we
36:09
thrash it out until they understand and we understand
36:11
which way to go. So, so we've been going strong
36:14
here for and getting off track a little bit.
36:17
We've been going strong here for 5 1/2 years.
36:20
And we also the city gave us some property that we had lost
36:24
back in, back in the day, acre and a half to Ramsey Park.
36:29
And we're trying to get, we're trying to get close to 1,000,000
36:33
1/2 to put a multicultural museum there.
36:37
Oh wow, so. We're going to have, we want
36:40
diversity there. We want tourism, you know, stuff
36:42
like that. So that's what we're working on
36:44
right now. So that's me now.
36:46
Every once in a while, every other day, depending on when the
36:49
time comes, I go in the museum, do my little bit.
36:54
That's wonderful. So as far as all of the
36:59
memorabilia for a museum, how difficult was it for you to?
37:05
That wasn't difficult at all. My grandmother saved everything
37:08
and I'd be, I started saving everything too.
37:11
And so, you know, you have old TV's, black and white, you got
37:14
old computers got green screens on them.
37:17
I mean, even in the museum, I, I still have stuff here in, in, in
37:21
two sheds that I haven't been able to put in there because
37:25
people have come out of the woodwork.
37:27
We've got difference. We've got cameras, we've got
37:31
basically, you name it, you know, all kind of stuff in
37:33
there. If it's not black history, it
37:36
brings you back-to-back to the date maybe when your parents or
37:40
your grandparents were, you know, we got stuff in there like
37:43
that, the old phones and stuff like that.
37:45
You know the phone where you put up to your ear and then you,
37:47
you, you, you, you hear? The Rotary, the.
37:50
Operator No, no, I got. That, oh, even before that.
37:53
Oh yeah, yeah, that's the coach. Yeah, so those are kind of
37:57
things when people come in, you know, it, it brings back
38:00
nostalgia form, you know, they, they kind of stop and think,
38:03
well, my my grandmother, my grandfather had this and that,
38:05
you know, and it's the museum is it is it's a treat.
38:09
It's really a treat. And we also have, I've done so
38:12
much work far as getting names and research to where if
38:16
somebody wanted to, to find out about something in their family.
38:20
And I also have other section, I have a library in there too that
38:23
tells you just about everything you need from from Macmill, the
38:26
old buildings, old churches, schools, everything.
38:29
So it's it's me. Yeah, yeah.
38:32
So you've kind of become the town's historian.
38:35
No, no, no. I I know a lot of history, but
38:40
so far, Jimmy Haley is, is considered the town's historian.
38:45
But, you know, we, we chat quite a bit and he's helped me out
38:47
quite a bit. But yeah, on, on on this side of
38:50
town, Yeah. Yeah, I know quite a bit about
38:52
this. Wow, that's impressive.
38:56
Now, so you open up your museum, you get your board together.
39:03
How long did it take you to get the museum open?
39:08
Well, back six, 5 1/2 years ago, there was a thing that where you
39:13
had to wear a mask all the time. Remember what that was?
39:16
I forgot intentionally. Oh, that was rough.
39:21
You know, I for some reason though, I had it in my mind I
39:23
was going to open up the museum in three months.
39:25
No, I mean, it was only one suite.
39:27
It was 9 rooms, but that wasn't possible.
39:30
So yeah, I, I have plenty of time together.
39:34
Together. That was 2019 and in 2020, I
39:38
think it was, right. I think it was around February
39:39
2020. That was my grand opening.
39:44
That's when that's when people came in and I was good to go
39:47
then. Yeah, and then March of 2020 was
39:51
when they shut it all down. So a month you were open.
39:57
Oh goodness. Well, I tried, I tried to open,
40:00
but you know, I, I told people at their discretion, you know.
40:04
Right. Yeah, it was one of it wasn't,
40:05
you know, I wasn't, it wasn't mandatory closed or anything.
40:08
It was just that if somebody wanted to come in, that was
40:11
their discretion. And I mean, even when they're
40:13
grand opening, you know, people came through and I had chains on
40:16
the doors because I don't really want anybody walking in.
40:19
And, and so I don't know whether I had my camera system set up or
40:23
not. But yeah, I've got it set up now
40:25
to where I got cameras all over the place.
40:26
So. So I haven't had anything
40:28
missing. So people have been very
40:30
generous and very good. Yeah.
40:33
That's nice. And then has the the walkthrough
40:37
of people. How has that improved for you?
40:40
I think it's improving every year, to tell you the truth.
40:44
Last year I think I kind of somewhere around 1500 people to
40:48
come through. And I think it's even more now
40:51
because I'm getting a little group, even little groups like
40:55
YSI don't know if you're familiar with them or not.
40:58
OK, Young Scholarship Institute, that's what they call it.
41:05
And there there's several groups of them.
41:07
They have, they have different ages and I, I, I did get to have
41:10
two groups come in. And I mean, when you got 30 kids
41:13
that are 7 years old, that's kind of neat, you know, and I
41:20
love kids. So, you know, we had a good
41:22
time. We left and carried on.
41:23
We were talking about, we talked about flavors and look around,
41:26
you know, you all different flavors and stuff like that.
41:28
Then I took them back to the room there where the telephones
41:31
were, where, you know, you had to dial where you pick it up.
41:34
You hear, hear you talk here, you know, oh man, they just had
41:37
a ball. So, and they asked a lot of
41:39
questions and that was, that was so cool.
41:41
That was so cool. So yeah, it's, you know, this.
41:45
I just want this to be a place where people can come memorize
41:48
and learn stuff too, you know, learn about, you know, learn
41:51
about cultures. Well, and really just getting to
41:56
know the history too behind these cultures.
42:01
So I, I think that's incredible what you've done.
42:05
So tell me a little bit now. I did a little bit of research
42:10
about you prior to you coming on tonight and now you have had
42:17
some interesting encounters through your lifetime and one of
42:23
those being potentially being able to play the drums.
42:30
Why don't you tell us a little bit about that?
42:33
OK, that's one of them. I started playing drums in Saint
42:36
Louis when I was six years old. I was beating on on books,
42:40
telephone books, anything. Possum fans.
42:43
I mean, it just seemed like it just came natural, you know?
42:46
And, you know, in Saint Louis, you know, you had The Four Tops
42:49
of Temptations, Supremes, you know, you heard music like that
42:52
all day long. So, yeah, you know, that was in
42:53
my blood. OK I play with two bands now.
42:58
I'm 78 years old now and over the, the blue building, the the
43:02
place across from the museum there, they had a anniversary
43:06
there Thursday night. And one of the bands I played
43:10
with is called Assisted Living. Now it's it's five of us, but we
43:18
are basically a sit down band. Everybody sits down, play the
43:21
guitar, play the keyboard and we play cover songs more because we
43:25
don't have any of our songs. And so I've been playing with
43:32
them for about 15 years, I guess.
43:35
Oh wow. I'm also playing with another
43:36
band. It's a younger band called, they
43:38
call themselves Sunset Tabernacle Blues Band.
43:41
And they everybody there stands up, shakes and bakes.
43:47
We have two females the same. We have 4 guys that play
43:50
instruments. And I mean, we, we really get
43:52
off. But these are songwriters, and
43:55
every once in awhile we'll sing a a cover song, but most of them
43:59
are songwriters. And you think when you think of
44:01
songwriters, you think of something kind of slow and kind
44:03
of melody and this and that. No, no, no, we shake and bait.
44:08
And being a drummer, you know, with these new songs, I kind of
44:12
bring something different to them, you know?
44:15
And so, yeah, even in if we have a set like, you know, like a
44:19
party or whatever, yeah, we can throw down.
44:21
So that's kind of cool. So it keeps me going.
44:23
You know, I I love music. I play percussion instruments.
44:27
We talking about Kevlar drums, bongos, Kongos, timbales,
44:31
electronic drums, you name it. Oh, wow.
44:34
I'm having fun. I'm having fun.
44:36
I'm enjoying life. So tell you, tell us about the
44:40
time that you went to a concert for Ike and Tina Turner.
44:45
Well, it wasn't a concert. It was, I lived in Saint Louis
44:48
and I went to East Saint Louis and I'm sure you probably heard
44:51
East Saint Louis is kind of used to be kind of rough.
44:55
So we went across the railroad tracks, this Blue Note club, me
44:58
and my me and my partner and we were going to check them out and
45:01
see what was going on. We sat there for a while and all
45:04
of a sudden it was getting late and and Tina came out.
45:07
She said, I don't have a drummer.
45:09
I said, anybody here play drum, do my hand up real.
45:11
Yeah, yeah. OK.
45:12
Because it then I could play just about anything and
45:14
everything. And so if I had to improvise a
45:17
little bit, I could still handle it.
45:18
You know, it's not like playing instruments where you have to,
45:20
if you don't have to write note or key, you know, you, you throw
45:23
people off. But being a drummer, you can,
45:25
you can improvise. And so get up there and get all
45:29
set up. Oh, man, good to go.
45:31
You know, here I'm in my 20s now.
45:33
You know, this, this is my chance.
45:34
I'm good. So I don't know how good their
45:37
drummer would, I guess I never paid any attention to it.
45:40
But just before we got ready to get that first song out, guess
45:43
who walked through the door? Their drummer?
45:47
I said, oh come on, why me? Why now?
45:52
And so that took care of that. But.
45:55
You got to meet her up, up close and personal.
45:59
Yeah, her and I. But I never didn't get to play
46:03
well. And like I said, I told you
46:04
about the football, you know, a Pro Football player.
46:08
See, those were in my 20s. And when I stop and think about
46:11
it, my head threw up at first. Why me?
46:15
You know what, Why can't you give this to me now, you know?
46:18
But he works on his time, and he put me in the military for 20
46:22
years. I get paid until I die, my
46:26
Healthcare is taken care of. I'm a healthy person.
46:30
I'm living my life, living my dream now for having the museum
46:34
and everything, being able to write books when I get ready or
46:36
do whatever I want to. And so now I'm blessed.
46:40
Now I realize why he didn't do that, because I could have made
46:44
a lot of money. When you make a lot of money
46:46
during that time doing those things, what happens?
46:50
You can run into drugs, you can run into that one or whatever,
46:54
and my life would probably have been ruined.
46:56
So now I think about it, I'm blessed.
46:59
But I did have the opportunity, you know?
47:02
Yeah. Now, Speaking of books, you're
47:04
also an author, yes? Uh huh, And what books have you
47:09
written? Well, I've only written one
47:11
right now. I've got 14 huge notebooks, but
47:14
I took, I took 450 pages from some of the books and I put it
47:20
in the book. I'm working on another one now,
47:25
which is just military. And so I've got all the D2
47:28
fourteens and everything here from one county that I could
47:32
have could collect. And that's the next thing I'm
47:34
working on. The reason I wrote the book was,
47:38
and it took me 17 years. I mean, I procrastinated and
47:41
procrastinated, but I had some people behind me all the time.
47:44
You got your book finished yet? Yeah.
47:45
When you going to finish this and that?
47:46
So they stayed on me. And that was good.
47:49
And I ended up getting books for the school system here in
47:54
Mcminnville. And there are two of my books
47:57
signed in each library in in the school system here.
48:01
Oh, wow. I just wanted that history done.
48:04
I wasn't there trying to make the money and do everything.
48:06
I just wanted that history here. And after that, it just kind of
48:11
took off because I think, you know, that, you know, back in
48:16
the day when you tried to save history in your family, of
48:21
course, many of us don't have more than one or two historians
48:26
in the family. Where did they write the history
48:29
you remember? Bibles.
48:32
Right now. How many people write history in
48:34
the Bibles now? Probably not many.
48:38
Yeah, yeah. So that's why I, for some reason
48:41
though, that's what triggered me.
48:42
I said, well, you know, and, and, and that's why I wanted to
48:45
write, write this. And in, in one portion of it,
48:48
it's about, oh, about 25 pages there.
48:51
It doesn't have anything but names.
48:52
Like they might have been vets, they might have been married to
48:54
somebody, this and that, or just might just been the name.
48:57
But they can go to it and when they buy the book and they take
49:00
a sheet of paper and put in there and put their family right
49:03
there in there. So in other words, that'll help
49:06
them out for us, knowing who that family was.
49:10
Oh, that's impressive. What's the name of the book that
49:13
you authored? OK, my nickname is Wolf, so my
49:19
book was called Through Wolf's Eyes.
49:24
And is this available? Amazon.
49:30
There's several of them out there that you can get it from,
49:33
and all you have to do is put through Wolf's eyes and put
49:36
Wayne R Wolford Senior and it'll pop right up.
49:44
I'm looking it up here so we can.
49:47
And when you look at it, you'll think it's a nature book because
49:51
there's a wolf there. Got it.
49:53
OK, so I just wanted to make sure I got the right one.
49:58
And it looks like it is out there also at like Barnes and
50:03
Noble. I'm gonna I'm gonna share this
50:06
for anybody interested to see. And so one second.
50:21
OK, let's see see if I can get that to pop up.
50:26
Yay. OK, so this is this is Barnes
50:29
and Noble. And so we have your a little
50:38
overview of the book and where it was to inform readers about
50:47
black history, specifically in Warren County, Mcminnville, TN.
50:52
And so this is wonderful. Yeah, even though it's, it's,
50:58
it's, you know, the African American or black, black
51:02
citizens in Warren County, it kind of shows you something in
51:06
the very beginning of it, back in, in 1870, that's when the
51:12
census came out that we were in the census before then we went
51:16
sales, sales records. So, but you wouldn't have the
51:20
last name. You'd have the last name of the
51:22
owner, but you would have the first name of whoever it was,
51:26
the mom, the dad, the kid or whatever, how much they were at
51:29
that time. And maybe right next to it you
51:31
had a cow for sale for so and so and so.
51:33
So that was only way you could halfway keep records, but it
51:36
wasn't last names. So what I did, I took about 3 or
51:40
4 pages of those and stuck them in the front of my book that
51:43
were legible. And then after that I wrote
51:47
something about the difference between the way things were and
51:50
the way things are now. And now I've got American Legion
51:53
in there. I got semi pro baseball teams
51:56
that we had here and and important people, important
51:59
places. So it just went on and on from
52:00
there. So it's a little bit of touch of
52:03
all my books there. Wow, that's impressive.
52:08
And then? History's gone, you know.
52:11
It is and that's why I, I thank you so much for coming on and,
52:16
and, you know, sharing that some of that history with us today.
52:24
If anybody has some questions before Wayne, go ahead and get
52:28
those put out there in the chats now and then.
52:34
Wayne, if you had, you know, some words of wisdom, what would
52:39
they be for somebody interested in joining the military?
52:46
It's a difficult time right now. They want to join the military
52:52
and like I said, words of wisdom.
52:54
That's definitely up to you right now.
52:56
The way things are, when I joined, I felt very freely about
53:02
going in and serving my country. This particular time is real
53:08
touchy for us. This is my personal opinion, but
53:13
for going in and being able to do things for yourself, it is so
53:19
great to know that you get a paycheck and get it once a month
53:23
or twice a month. You can have meals, you get a
53:28
paycheck, you have a place to stay, you get to travel, you get
53:34
to get an education that's basically on your own and you
53:38
get education for the job is concerned.
53:40
So when you finish the military, you can take that and take it
53:43
out in civilian life and make plenty of money for Healthcare
53:47
is concerned for the younger person, you know, you have to
53:50
worry about Medicare and Medicaid later on.
53:54
And right now we have what they call Tricare, which is
53:58
insurance, you know, like it covers me and my wife if I
54:01
really need to go, but if I really need to, if I really
54:05
wanted to go on, you know, on my own.
54:07
VAVA takes care of everything, no matter how much it is.
54:11
So that's a blessing later on in life, you know, So All in all,
54:17
it can, can build you, especially talking to younger
54:20
ones when you leave your group, 1819 years old and you all you
54:25
all used to partying, have a good time and all this.
54:28
Then all of a sudden you go into the military and you do your
54:31
basic and you do your training and then maybe get your first
54:35
station and then you come back home.
54:38
Your friends are going to look at you a different way.
54:41
Wow, man, you you know, it's just females either way.
54:45
And you've changed and you will because you've got structure,
54:49
you got discipline, you've already been in charge of some
54:53
people. So so it's it's a builder, it's
54:56
a life builder. I guess I can just tell it leave
55:00
it like that. No, I think that's great.
55:04
And Timothy says free travel, which is absolutely true.
55:08
Yeah. Yeah, it is free travel, you're
55:09
right. Yeah.
55:11
So Jason, let's see, I've, I've got a couple of things.
55:15
So Jason says thank you for your service, Sir.
55:19
Appreciate he always, and I always say, you know, when
55:24
people tell me that, I always ask, have you been in service?
55:28
Because I don't want to be disrespectful, you know, I say
55:31
thank you. You know, that sounds like it's
55:32
just me, but if you've served, I appreciate your service.
55:36
It's pretty like that. That's wonderful.
55:39
He also said he was curious to know.
55:42
Did you ever get to meet Dottie W living in Mcminnville?
55:46
No, I wasn't fortunate enough to do that.
55:49
Dottie W is very popular here. Very popular.
55:52
She is interestingly, I, I, I don't know if you recall, David
55:58
Frizzell, Lefty Frizzell, They were singers.
56:05
They sang with Dottie. Oh, really?
56:08
And you're and so we met in Montana.
56:14
We ended up meeting David Frizzell, Lefty's brother, and
56:21
Shelley West. So they were, they, they
56:25
happened to come for the 4th of July bash that we had in our
56:31
little town all the time. So, but yeah, I we see all the
56:36
time the Dottie W highway and and such.
56:39
So just kind of curious to that. And, you know, Dottie W, he
56:46
says, was one of his dad's favorites growing up.
56:49
Oh OK, yeah, I've got the I've got the shirt.
56:53
I got 2 shirts and two caps, one with the Dottie West and her,
56:59
her her daughter. And let's see, am I doing this
57:03
right? Yeah.
57:04
Ty W OK. And there were a couple of
57:06
concerts here. Even Chad Atkins came to one of
57:09
them. Oh, nice.
57:10
Yeah. I've got a couple of items there
57:11
in in the museum that that has that.
57:14
Nice. Well, I'm not seeing any
57:17
additional questions. Wayne, I want to say thank you
57:21
for joining tonight. Everybody else, if you are
57:24
interested in getting Wayne's book through Wolf's eyes, you
57:28
can go out there, it's out on Barnes and Noble, Amazon as well
57:33
and let us know. We want to know what you think
57:36
and help support our veterans. It's been an absolute pleasure
57:41
and an honor, Wayne, to have you join tonight.
57:44
So and for the rest of you, please join me again.
57:48
Hopefully next weekend, next Sunday, we will have another
57:51
wonderful guest for you. So everybody, please enjoy the
57:56
rest of your week and thank you for being here.
58:00
Hi, I'm Beaker with Military Broadcast Radio TV.
58:04
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