Speaker 2: 0:31

what do you get? When you mix a legendary trucker known as hollywood and a family legacy of squirrel training a show that's been making waves literally for decades you get one of the most unique episodes you've ever had on that's delivered podcast and I'm your host, trucking ray, and today we have a wild and fun, heart heartwarming episode for you guys. I met Chuck and Tony at the Mall of America while watching one of the most memorable shows I've ever seen, a water skiing squirrel named Twiggy and definitely made a great impression. I had to have them on the show. And that's not all. I was also joined by Tony here today, with Tony's dad, known on the road as Hollywood. His truck always has had chrome lights, and the presence has made people stop and stare, and the story of an over-the-road truck driver is one worth hearing, especially when you hear how he shaped his daughter's journey too. So let's dive in Chuck, tony and also Hollywood. We got you guys on the show. Thank you for being here.

Speaker 3: 1:36

Thanks for having us.

Speaker 2: 1:37

Yeah, definitely Always a good time. Awesome man. You know you guys started out with a great show. I got to meet you guys and let's start with the Twiggy Show. Help people understand what that's about, how it originated, how it came to life. It's not just every day you see someone wakes up and decides to teach squirrels to water ski. How do you guys get that started? What was the story behind it?

Speaker 1: 2:03

Oh man. Well, the story actually started back in 1978 all as a joke by my dad. Um, he basically had a pet squirrel and decided to teach it how to water ski, just to, basically as as a bet to his friend. And um, he ended up doing it, put the squirrel on water skis as a joke and it got famous overnight. And then all of a sudden, in 1979, september 21st, he did his very first show with my mom. It was my mom and my dad. They traveled around from Minneapolis, st Paul, actually in September of 79, and then basically continued that legacy on. And here we are, 46 years later.

Speaker 2: 2:49

Wow, amazing. I mean, those guys are adorable.

Speaker 1: 2:54

They're a little nuts sometimes, but you know.

Speaker 2: 2:59

Oh man. So what's the story behind the name Twiggy? Maybe help people understand why you picked that one. I'll let you answer that one.

Speaker 3: 3:06

So Chuck's mom Luann she had a bunch of houseplants and their pet squirrel at the time had the run of the house and the squirrel would chew all the leaves off of the houseplants left nothing else but twigs, hence the name Twiggy love it.

Speaker 2: 3:29

Uh also see you know people. You see people's reactions. Um, when they see your show for the first time, uh, did people believe what they were seeing? Uh, how did? What were the reactions?

Speaker 1: 3:40

not on the internet. They think it's all ai, yeah, they think it's ai on social media.

Speaker 3: 3:45

So it's actually it's really fun to see. You know, kids are always going to laugh and smile and enjoy their time. I think the biggest like thrill for me is seeing the adults reaction, because we have gotten, you know, like a 40, 50 year old guy rolling on the floor laughing. He was so in shock, um, and I think, uh, even people who want to participate so badly the adults and they jump in the pool because they are like I don't know shocked by how cute twiggy is and and they want to be a part of the show. So it's really awesome to have the adults reaction.

Speaker 1: 4:27

So like it's off the charts it's always different.

Speaker 2: 4:31

Yeah, definitely yeah, when I was there I was like man. You guys get quite a variety of reactions. I can tell, wow, that's amazing. So life on the road too, what is that? Like you know, I can imagine traveling with train swirls is a unique kind of touring life. And can you give us behind the scenes of what it looks like on the road for you guys? I mean?

Speaker 1: 4:52

for the most part. I mean a lot of times we have or booked every week so we're traveling from show to show, but we I mean we're living at truck stops, to be honest, flying J's and pilots that loves, you know.

Speaker 3: 5:07

Tnas, that's basically our life, you know we drive a 31 foot RV and we pull a 12 foot trailer behind it. So you know, as as in the trucker world, you know, not everybody has enough space or is as accommodating when you're of that size, even though we're not as big as you truckers, but still, we still have our issues with getting around and we've been kicked out of bucky's and all the you know walmart yeah walmart's.

Speaker 1: 5:40

Uh, you know you have to find a place to sleep, especially. I mean, sometimes you're driving till three, four am and if you wait till past 8, 9 o'clock you ain't finding a spot sometimes.

Speaker 3: 5:52

And I have yelled at him a couple of times. When we're at a truck stop I'm like let's just keep driving, Let the truckers park.

Speaker 4: 5:59

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 6:03

It gets us going. But yeah, so that's. You know, we pretty much show to show, we live in the RV, you know, at truck stops basically, and then, once we get to the destination, we're able to live in a hotel, luckily, so get a little space and a good shower, even though you know we do love our pilot showers.

Speaker 2: 6:30

Some of them are really nice.

Speaker 1: 6:33

I can't complain. She likes the water pressure at the truck stops better than our house.

Speaker 2: 6:41

Nice, that's awesome. What kind of training does it actually take to teach a squirrel how to water ski? I think people can be amazed when they see the effort that goes into it. I mean those guys. They look so adorable out there but you can only imagine there's got to be some frustration with it.

Speaker 3: 7:19

So once you earn their love and trust, just like any other animal, even like a dog, you know, once you earn their love and trust, it's in the sense just like training a dog using the same words, commands, lots of repetition. You actually even train our squirrels in the show so the audience can see it for themselves. You know, live and in action, get to participate in that, just to see. You know, sometimes they listen, sometimes they don't, and you know they they call the shots.

Speaker 1: 7:42

And I think the cool part about it is we're not training every day, we're not training when we're at home, we just ski once. They learn it After the first month and they know how to water ski, it's just we show up. I mean they could take two, three months off and they come back and they remember they're really smart animals and a lot of people don't understand how smart they really are.

Speaker 2: 8:03

Wow. How do you care for them physically and emotionally during the tour?

Speaker 3: 8:11

Yeah, so just like how you interact with your cat or dog. No worse, I mean yeah, your dogs are not chewing corners of the wall and cabinets, no. So they eat twice a day, in the morning and in the evening, just like they would in the wild. Um, they eat all fresh produce, so fresh vegetables, fresh fruit. They also love mealworms and crickets and, um, you know, they poop all the time. So, yeah yeah, got lots of little pellets to always clean up.

Speaker 1: 8:46

We have our garage built out for them as far as a full enclosure. They live inside, they run around the house. Tony, I'll even say last night, didn't go to bed until 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning because she was snuggling with a squirrel on the couch. It's beyond spoiled on the couch. So you know, like it's beyond spoiled is the problem.

Speaker 2: 9:10

Yeah, that's dedication, you know. Yeah, they're like your family.

Speaker 3: 9:17

Yeah, they're our babies, for sure.

Speaker 2: 9:20

So yeah, squirrels have different personalities. For people out there that may think it's AI or something, Tell us about any funny or surprising stories that happens during performances.

Speaker 3: 9:32

Well, Trio likes to chew the rope. The black, white and brown squirrel, that's Trio, because he's one years old and he's just learned this year how to water ski.

Speaker 1: 9:45

he's been doing this one, one leg up and in the air, chewing the toe rope um and he'll jump like 10 feet sometimes and like I have to catch him in the middle of the show because he has a big jump yeah, the baby likes to go swimming in shows.

Speaker 3: 10:02

But yeah, if she doesn't want to water ski, she will jump off the skis and swim back to mom. She, she knows like, hey, I'm done yeah um, twiglet, she's, uh, seven years old, so she's very chill. She'll just sit there and like groom herself. Um, she's, yeah, she's chill, yeah, she's chill, yeah, yeah, she's good.

Speaker 2: 10:25

Then there's a setup and breakdown on a typical show. What is that like for you guys? It was a lot of work there, probably, right? Yes?

Speaker 1: 10:35

I mean it's a 20 by 20 foot pool that we carry in the trailer and have to set that up, drain the pool after every show and you know just basically put that together, put the sound system up and and we're ready to go. For the most part, I mean it's a lot of work but it's about an hour or two to set up and then you know a couple hours to tear down after every show well, and then you're waiting for water.

Speaker 3: 11:02

That water could take like four hours depending on their water pressure. That's not fun.

Speaker 2: 11:10

Do you guys have the RV and trailer pinstriped? No?

Speaker 1: 11:18

Just a squirrel on the trailer. That's pretty much it.

Speaker 3: 11:21

It's wrapped with pictures of the squirrel and the logo. We're getting people honking and the logo.

Speaker 1: 11:26

Oh yeah, we're getting people honking and raving. Truckers are always All right, we got to look at them yeah.

Speaker 2: 11:34

All right, that'll be good. So now the next segment is Enter Hollywood, the trucking legend. We got Tony back there. He's hanging out, he's enjoying this here in the labs, and also known as Hollywood. Welcome to the show. How are you doing, thank?

Speaker 4: 11:51

you? How are you doing?

Speaker 2: 11:53

Pretty good. Thank you for your patience. I know you got a lot to say, man. You've been seeing a lot of things out there on the road. Let's talk about the chrome lights and the name Hollywood. Where did you get that name? That's a cool name. Where did you get that?

Speaker 4: 12:06

from. I had a friend of mine and he worked for a company on Long Island, new York. I used to hang out with him and met his boss. We became very close to each other and he always said hey, do me a favor, run out to the potato farm, pick up a load of potatoes and bring them back. Well, when it comes time to, he wanted to pay me. I said don't worry about it, it's a favor, don't worry about it like that. He goes. Well, if you ever need something, let me know. So one time I needed a job. He hired me sight unseen and he gave me this truck.

Speaker 4: 12:42

I don't know if you're familiar with the movie White Line Fever. That light dodge goes flying through the sign. You better get to find that movie and look at it. Well, the truck he gave me to drive it had more holes than Swiss cheese and I just went from Long Island to Chicago, to Miami, back up to Long Island and he says no cream puff, but buy your time. About six months later he bought four brand new on respect out double wide cat, uh kdw cab overs with great dave beef is the whole nine yards. So they said go in the yard and pick one. So I picked that one. He said this is your truck. So my first months were to pay. I went to his parts house and ordered all chrome for that truck and every time he had a new account. My truck went and got the first load and that's where the name Hollywood came in. It looked like it came from Hollywood, california. Wow.

Speaker 2: 13:35

That's legit.

Speaker 4: 13:38

It pretty is Mine. Went to a company truck and it paid for it. You know what I mean. Went to a company truck and it it paid for it. You know I mean it. The reputation I had out there with everybody on long island, new jersey, up and down 95.

Speaker 2: 13:51

I was well known wow man, nothing like a cool trucker man. I appreciate you coming on the show. Uh, what was your favorite uh truck you ever owned? Was it that one you talked about, or was there?

Speaker 4: 14:05

no, that was a company truck you ever owned. Was it that one that you talked about? No, that was a company truck. His truck, my favorite truck. I had purchased a 2001 Freightliner Classic extended cab, extended nose, 280-inch wheelbase, polished aluminum tanks, running boards uh, battery boxes, everything you name it. It was on that truck and from that point I put some money into the truck all the time and I came up two steps from being a show truck.

Speaker 2: 14:52

Nice, wow, that's great. Um, that's like a dream of mine as well to get truck to that. Yeah, that's great. That's like a dream of mine as well to get trucked to that yeah, that's great. So, yeah, trucking has changed a lot over the decades. What is it like for you in the early years compared to what you see now out there on the road?

Speaker 4: 15:09

Oh boy, you're talking about black and white. When I first started back in 75, there was no such thing as power steering. You had big biceps and that was your power steering. They started experimenting with air assist power steering, making it more maneuverable in tight spots, and front brakes were an option if you bought a truck. Back then the truck I drove was all the brakes from the rear end, the two-drive axles like that. Between then and now it's all bells and whistles. Technology on the engines get better performance, better fuel mileage, all preachy feasts like that. Every truck I had was air ride all the way around, front axle, everything.

Speaker 3: 16:08

I love the bells and whistles, what you guys call the bling today well, and I think even too, back then you had to do the paper logs, and now everything is computerized now.

Speaker 4: 16:18

Yes, paper logs. Back then with the books, Everybody I knew had two or three books going on at the same time. Hello, here's one of them and you're sitting pulling the trucks up and going to sleep.

Speaker 4: 16:32

You had to take care of all these three books and bring them up to date, so to speak. You know what I mean. And once you got stopped by a DOT, you had to make sure he wasn't watching and give him the right book. That's tricks of the trade. And even with the DOT, the routes I used to take constantly, I became a lot of good friends with all of them. As my wife would say. I got so many tickets in every state I drove through. She could pay for the bathroom with the tickets. I call making donations.

Speaker 2: 17:10

That's pretty good, I love that.

Speaker 4: 17:16

A lot of good times, a lot of fun. It's not like it is today. Can't make no money today, you know 10 hours on, 10 hours off. I never heard of such a thing. You got tired, pulled over for two or three hours, took a nap and got back on the road again.

Speaker 2: 17:30

Wow.

Speaker 4: 17:31

You know, I mean, we used to go from Long Island, new York, down to Miami overnight. Wow, like that, got tired cup of coffee. Some people had custom made excedrin pills, all tricks in the trade. You know it, you heard about it. They make it to Miami next morning, but my boss paid dearly for it. There, make it to Miami next morning, my boss paid dearly for it. There's a bonus like that. That was the name of the game. The old dollar sign.

Speaker 2: 18:06

I heard guys, when they get there they get a bag of money just thrown at them.

Speaker 4: 18:11

I got more than a bag sometimes. What's that? I got more than a bag sometimes. You're going to like a disclaimer warning sign on this episode it was good.

Speaker 4: 18:26

Um, I don't knock my um career. I've been to a lot of places where you don't even know exists like that, especially with nasa. I've been to initial sites out in new mexico and if you were out there with your car you would think it's nothing but a flat ground with a bunch of cactus and bushes on it. It's more than what meets the eye, that you cannot see maybe he's got another good question.

Speaker 4: 18:56

But been in a lot of places, got a lot of education out there. You know constantly asking questions about other people, what they do, learning from their point and like that. But today's working conditions nah, I'm glad I got out of it Now. I heard you go pull some trucks up. They could check your air and your tires and stuff like that. Well, that's your responsibility when you leave the yard. Now the government has gotten in the way to make an extra dollar and it's going to cost you an extra dollar because you get pulled over, you have air pressure and everything. So that's flat. Now they've got to call a tow truck, air you up. He's going to get part of it a dollar off of you and the way he says he's going to give you a ticket for having low air pressure. So the only person who wins is those two and you have to dig it into your pocket again, as usual.

Speaker 2: 19:55

Yeah, I can see those computer systems. They're automated. They can tell if there's different tread or different types of tires on a trailer.

Speaker 4: 20:01

Well, my safety advisor. He said these things can make you or break you Like that. And he was right. If you know how to work within the company walls, you get ahead of the game within your company. If you know how to work within the company walls, you get ahead of the game within your company. If you try to work outside the four walls, you're going to get in trouble left or right. So my savior was always my safety director and my dispatcher Right.

Speaker 4: 20:34

Yeah, keeping those relationships with them oh and they, you know, if you do them a solid favor, they never forget. Hey, tony, I got this load, this load and this load, which one do you want? I always took the lightest and the furthest away. You know why. Go down the road with 43,000, 44,000 pounds in a trailer and get paid the same as you took a 10,000 pound load down the road with 43, 44,000 pounds in a trailer and get paid the same as you took a 10,000 pound load down the road. You're spending less with a 10,000, you put more in the tank with a 44,000. So that's the other thing you got to be smart about. You know how your money is spent.

Speaker 2: 21:12

Very good, very good advice. You got a story you want to tell, maybe something that's wild, that happened for one time.

Speaker 4: 21:21

I delivered furniture for the majority of my career, my life and had a lot of good customers all females like that and the one trip that stands out the most I had my daughter walk with me and we stopped to eat somewhere and she got nauseous and she cleaned out the inside of my truck on her own vomit.

Speaker 3: 21:57

I threw up all on the inside of the truck Because when I was younger, when we had no school for the summer, we used to because I have two older sisters as well we used to, you know, take turns and go on the road with my dad for the summer, and it was KFC and I threw up my KFC all.

Speaker 1: 22:19

In kfc they had a buffet type get place and I got yelled at so this happened again, actually a couple years ago, with twiggy oh, we had texas roadhouse. I had texas roadhouse and had food poisoning and we're stuck in a pilot for the whole day. We're in Alabama on our way to Birmingham and we had to be in our mobile. We had to be in mobile that day but she's stuck going into the shower and yeah, everywhere. So that's an ongoing pattern. I didn't know about this.

Speaker 4: 22:54

She kept apologizing and oh dad, I'm dad, I'm sorry. I went to the first truck stop and she puked on the window. On the inside of the window it ran in the door. I just took the garden hose and flushed it out.

Speaker 3: 23:10

It's a good thing. I didn't mess up any of the chrome on the outside.

Speaker 4: 23:13

It is what it is Like. They say shit happens. Oh, wow, A lot of good memories, Even with the police. A lot of good times with the police In Florida. I had that truck I was telling you about before. I had a bug shield on the front. It had Hollywood and chrome letters on it. I pull on the scale and go have a tap on me. Hollywood, Go ahead, you're good. Every time I went to a DOT inspection my truck was clean under the hood, inside the hood, no matter where you wiped your finger, you got nothing. And the DOTs used to say, all right, let's pop that hood, I'd pick up maybe a foot off the tires, close it. Let me see your logbook. Look at my logbook. Nice and neat. Have a nice day.

Speaker 2: 24:04

Wow, that's beautiful. Yeah, if you take care of your stuff, it takes care of you.

Speaker 4: 24:09

That's it. You got to treat your stuff the way it treats you back. You don't take care of it, it ain't gonna take care of you. I learned that from a couple of DOT inspectors I met on the road. Constantly my safety rule advisor would come up with this new rule, try to put it into play, and I would say to him no, this doesn't sound right, this law that you tell me about. So I said I'm going to have it checked out. He goes. Who are you going to talk to? I said my friends at the scale DOT. He goes.

Speaker 4: 24:45

Well, I'm telling you no, dot is going to write me a ticket. If I listen to you, if I don't listen to you, you're going to smack me on the hand. So, listen to you, you smack me on the hand. So who do I listen to? Dot, and I come back with paperwork and saying that his rule was obsolete or whatever. Just a company flipped the policy. And I go to him. Here's your paper from DOT. Have a nice day and I just go about my business. But I never got in trouble, never, never, ever. That's good, that's good. You know how to about my business.

Speaker 2: 25:17

But I never got in trouble, never, never, ever. That's good. That's good, you know how to handle your business. That's amazing, oh yeah.

Speaker 4: 25:23

Once you become an owner operator which I was for 90% of my career you have to. You have to watch how you spend your money. You know all your P's and Q's, how to stretch a dollar into a $2 thing. My wife had that job and she did a good job of that and I brought my paycheck home, never saw it. She got it, she had to deal with it. And here comes Sunday morning, sunday afternoon, back on the road again delivering furniture and I'd stay out all week long, maybe come home for about 24 hours and go back out again.

Speaker 2: 25:59

You got Twiggy over there.

Speaker 1: 26:00

Yeah, brought a treat.

Speaker 2: 26:03

Oh man, there he is, say hi, say hi. He knew I waved. Yeah, that's awesome. You got a favorite route that you like or a region that you like to go through.

Speaker 4: 26:21

Well, when I started doing furniture, I was running from Long Island, new York, to North Carolina High Point that's the furniture capital of the world.

Speaker 4: 26:31

And then we decided to move to Florida, still with the same company, but I ran from North Carolina down to Florida and that petered out after a while. I was doing too big of an area to cover from North Carolina down to Florida and that petered out after a while. I was doing too big of an area to cover, taking me more time to do it. So I was losing a trip a week. So I made a complaint about that and he says well, you know, this is the way it is. You know, you could. You know what? I came looking, I'll leave looking, I'll be in a job in five minutes if I leave. Well, that's okay, you know, we want you to stay this and that.

Speaker 4: 27:11

And they folded up and I went to another company that my friends worked at and I stood there for the remainder of my career, up and down 95, uh, 24, 77, 77, 85, all up. That way it was great. I had a good thing going doing furniture and nobody bothered me. I did my job well. Customers called in, they used to compliment about my services to them and when they got new line of furniture I didn't have to ask for it, it automatically went to my company. That's how my paycheck used to get bigger and bigger and bigger.

Speaker 4: 27:52

I had control of my own earnings, like that, if I didn't want to load more, my dispatcher would say I got a good load here, but it's a good load more. But you could load more stops or give a cheap load one or two stops. I said I'll take the 20-stop and get 20 stops pumped off in about a day and a half. My 10 little fingers. Here was a forklift. That's awesome. You want to load furniture by hand, no machine, and it's a floor load. Pop the bottom, wall to wall, front to back. It's like a puzzle. You can't even get your hand inside the boxes sometimes. Wow yeah, but you work hard and you smile all the way to the bank.

Speaker 2: 28:37

Nice, you got a favorite truck stop. Truck stops got their own culture. What's a stop that you like to stop when you're out there?

Speaker 4: 28:47

Well, the one I was trying to exit 10 in George, that was a Flying J. I didn't really spend time in a truck stop just to stop, get fuel, keep going both coming north and going south, same truck stop all the time. I had a nice reputation with the managers of that truck stop and I've always parked at my customers' place of business. Places were big enough for a trailer to fit in there and they didn't have to worry about somebody mugging me or robbing me. I was right there at the store and playing side of the police when they come by, so I never had to worry about anything like that, you know.

Speaker 2: 29:34

What lessons did trucking teach you to stick with you today that maybe you can share with people? That hey, you know there's a lot about trucking that helps you each day.

Speaker 4: 29:44

Yes, and the most thing today I see is people are ready to do this without doing nothing for it. They want to get paid every Friday but they don't want to work for it. You can't. If you lease on to a company, you have to give yourself time to see if the company is right for you, or to keep moving, or you stay, and you're not going to find that out in a month's time. You're going to find out in about four, five, six months down the line If this is the right thing for you or it's time to move on.

Speaker 4: 30:21

And my luck in the past the furniture. My friend said when I got the job you're going to work your ass off, but I guarantee you you're going to smile all the way to the bank. And he was right. I've been doing it ever since. I have a nice big house. I've raised three kids. My wife had a car every four years. I traded my truck every four years. My accountant told me stop putting money into it. That word warranty runs out. Get rid of it, buy another one. That's what I did Amazing.

Speaker 2: 30:53

I got the father-daughter legacy. Tony grew up with you as a dad. On the road Looks like there was more than just one daughter. What was it like for Tony or for you guys as a young one? Any memories waiting for?

Speaker 4: 31:10

Yeah, it was tough for them because Let me grab Tony real quick.

Speaker 4: 31:15

Hold on, I was always busy making a living. You know, if my dispatcher said are you going home this weekend, what do you got going? I got loads. It's going to go down to Miami first thing Saturday morning. It pays you $1,500. I'll kick another two if you want to take it. The only thing I had going on that weekend was maybe it was Tony Reeves' birthday. Well, the only thing I had going on that weekend was maybe it was Tony Reed's birthday. Well, unfortunately my bills come first. So I did the load, made $1,500 in an overnight time and I spent a happy birthday the following weekend.

Speaker 4: 31:57

You know what I mean and it's been like that. I mean I was home Christmas, thanksgiving, every weekend, but for the majority of the time her and her girlfriends not her, but her girlfriends, don't you have a father? He's never home. You know, my job was to provide for my family and they had new dresses every occasion they had. My refrigerator was always full, the lights turned on, nice air conditioning, cool in the backyard. Like I said, everybody was taken care of the right way. You know what I mean. So I gave up a lot so they can have.

Speaker 2: 32:42

What was it like for you, Tony? You said you had two other sisters.

Speaker 3: 32:50

Yeah, I have two older sisters. So I think, basically, going off of what my dad just said, is you know when those special occasions did come around.

Speaker 4: 33:07

You know and you want your dad to be and and he's not there. That that's definitely hard um, some of the fun things were. He's not there let's have fun.

Speaker 3: 33:11

I remember when I was little he um got to bring home an extra like case or a pallet of yoohoo. That was my favorite thing, all the extra like junk food stuff that we would get um when I was little and then definitely like going on the road um in the summers. That was fun. I don't know what kind of truck it was, but it had the hump in the middle of like the driver's seat in the passenger, so we used to get to like sit on the hump and like sit next to dad and you know at the time it was like the shifter there too, so it was like cool, to like be shifting Cabover KW.

Speaker 3: 33:56

Just a lot of like cool memories.

Speaker 4: 33:57

you know joking around because he had bunk beds, so just to like joke around when I had my own trucks, when they had like a car wash fundraiser like that, yes, I'd bring the truck down. I already cleaned it in my driveway, so they had just the water on it and I'd chip in 50 bucks or more.

Speaker 3: 34:21

That was like the coolest, like brag moment, you know, at the school. We would have, you know, the school fundraisers, you know, for a car wash and we'd be like dad, can you come down with your semi? And he would pull up and all the kids would be like whoa, and I'd be like that's my dad, so that yeah.

Speaker 4: 34:42

And I flipped out a $50 bill or more like that to give to the kids.

Speaker 3: 34:47

I broke my ass cleaning before they did. That was fun.

Speaker 2: 34:54

Your dad's work ethic, trucking lifestyle. Did it shape your approach with the Twiggy Show, or at least for life today? What was it like for you and your sisters approach with the Twiggy show or at?

Speaker 3: 35:03

least for life today. What was it like for you? Yeah, so definitely instilled very hard work ethic in me, you know, just to see my dad out there doing it all all day, every day. You know that that does, you know, have a very huge impact and it creates hard work ethic and doing doing it with twiggy. Now I've learned to be comfortable with staying put in a small enclosure well, I kept because, and well you, you're a driver.

Speaker 4: 35:36

you know how big is a from behind your driver's seat to the wall behind your bed. How deep is that? How wide is that? Five by eight, five by seven, that's what you lived in.

Speaker 3: 35:49

Yeah.

Speaker 4: 35:52

Have you on this. You don't put nothing in, you don't get nothing out.

Speaker 3: 35:56

Yeah.

Speaker 4: 35:57

It's what you put into. It Determines what you get out of it, oh, for sure.

Speaker 2: 36:02

Nice Now. You guys are doing a great job and I'm so happy I got to be a you see my name on it At the Father's Day moment.

Speaker 3: 36:13

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 36:16

That's great. So have you ever met someone on the road who recognized you as Twiggy's dad or made a connection between the two careers? Or did you just always have to explain it to people?

Speaker 3: 36:29

Well, you've been retired. For what? Five years? Now six years now Since 20.

Speaker 4: 36:34

Yeah, so five years yeah.

Speaker 3: 36:37

And then I started doing Twiggy with Chuck in 2021. So nobody's ever recognized like for the both of us. Twiggy with Chuck in 2021. Nobody's ever recognized for the both of us. But I mean just in the sense of pulling down the road in the RV and trailer. We get recognized all the time.

Speaker 2: 36:58

Yeah, hey, I'm glad I was able to put this show together. Many people connect the dots with Hollywood and Twiggy and the beautiful story that you guys have put together. But by just letting people know about your lives and and connecting with people out there on the road, I mean that's a that's a that's a lot nowadays when people they're so distant or they're stuck on their phone. But knowing the story behind what makes great lives or makes people.

Speaker 4: 37:23

If I can cut in a lot of these companies going out of business because of a general commodities company like Schneider, jb Hunt, all those guys like that, I call them turnstile companies. As many people come in, excuse me, as many people quit, that's how many people come in. And JB Hunt had once said if I make a dollar profit on every load I take out, I'm a millionaire. Well, that's not good for the economy because he couldn't give two hoots on his profit. You know what I mean the economy because he couldn't give two hoots on his profit. You know what I mean For people to work for general commodities. You're stuck to that type of freight. Furniture is a specialized commodity. It pays more, it costs more to do, liability is more and you're going to make more as a driver. I would go for a company that specializes in some, not just working for Schneider, somebody like that. You know what I mean I'm calling truck stop companies.

Speaker 2: 38:36

I like it. That's great advice. Try and prepare you for any way, maybe for the second life touring with Twiggy supporting Tony or connecting with fans face-to-face. Any final thoughts?

Speaker 4: 38:53

No, I wish her the best. Look what she wants to do supporting Tony or connecting with fans face to face. Any final thoughts? No, I wish her the best. Look what she wants to do. I'm always for her and you know I support her as best I can.

Speaker 3: 39:03

Yes, I do make fun of her.

Speaker 4: 39:04

Sometimes she makes fun of me right back, and it's just a good good thing. It's nothing terrible about it. We just that's the way we are. You know what I mean.

Speaker 3: 39:12

Giving each other a hard time all the time, oh, constantly.

Speaker 4: 39:15

And if this is what she wants to do with the rest of her life, god bless her. I'm glad I'm done with that type of life because now I can drive my car 35 miles an hour down the street instead of somebody saying to me hurry up, you got to get there by tomorrow morning, so the speed limit is 50. You can do 80. You know what I mean. Like that I can drive like a human being. Now, stop for a stop sign. I get it.

Speaker 2: 39:43

Oh man, so for you guys, even for the Twiggy show, any tricks that you guys are working on, any projects.

Speaker 3: 39:55

I guess the only thing would be getting Trio fully trained. Some upcoming projects we have our Club Twiggy cartoon out on YouTube, so just getting that pushed out. I know, I know Trio's getting distracted with the computer, so, yeah, just getting our cartoon out. We're in the process of getting some more merch. Yeah, I mean, there's always something to do, right.

Speaker 2: 40:27

How much work goes into the cartoon.

Speaker 3: 40:30

Oh, lots of work, chuck, you want to elaborate on that?

Speaker 4: 40:37

Pete on the table.

Speaker 1: 40:41

Go, go, go, go go. I'm going to put him up.

Speaker 3: 40:44

Yeah, go ahead. It's fine, it's fine, it's fine. Yeah, just leave it.

Speaker 1: 40:50

Well, so as far as the cartoon, yeah, so it's all AI generated. Actually, I've got a friend of mine that's been able to design it using all AI, which is crazy. I mean, in the beginning it was a lot harder because AI wasn't quite there, but as far as now it's gotten, gotten easier to make. But he's putting about 40 hours a week into each episode um launching. Yeah, so it's, it's a lot of work, but everything from the music from the the, all the characters, all of the background, everything is all ai generated that's awesome.

Speaker 2: 41:30

Yeah, I like. I think it looks great, it's sharp. Yeah, we'll keep putting the word out. I'll put the link out there too for you guys. We can also help each other and spread that awareness to the Twiggy show or to trucking. It's also pivotal, you know, making these truck stops, all these connections, learning from each other and just making each other smile and be happy. I think that's uh, I think that's huge man. It made me, made me smile when I knew you were right here at the mall of america and I had an opportunity, I had the time to actually go and watch the show. So I had a blast. My daughter had a great time as well too awesome.

Speaker 1: 42:06

Yeah, no, I think that's a fun thing is like, cause we kind of live at truck stops. All the truckers are always, you know, loving what we do and you know, always asking questions and it gets into long conversations and uh, but we enjoy what we do, we're, we're living on the road, just, you know, one day at a time.

Speaker 2: 42:24

So Wow, awesome. Thank you guys. Um, and for all of you guys out for everyone on this, one message or lesson I hope that people take away is to see when can they see Twiggy perform? What's the next show? Or you find a schedule.

Speaker 3: 42:44

Yeah, we do post our schedule on our website. It's twiggyshowcom and we also post it on our social media. And our handle is at Twiggy showcom and we also post it on our social media. Uh, and our handle is at twiggy show nice and um.

Speaker 2: 42:58

Do you guys help people? What's the mission with the show? Uh, what's what's the lesson?

Speaker 1: 43:03

so my dad lost his life in a boating accident in 97 um. So my mom put a life jacket on the squirrel and then we are now recognized by the National Safe Boating Council and the Coast Guard as the spokes animal for water safety. So basically we're we're there promoting water safety to everyone around the world, to make sure what happened with my dad doesn't happen to anybody else.

Speaker 2: 43:27

Thank you. I want to make sure I got that in there, yeah, because, yeah, you guys do a great job with that and I'm sorry for the loss. Man, it's uh. Losing a parent is hard. Losing anyone that that we love is hard. So in the truck industry, a lot of people are affected by lives on the road and also out off the road. So we all got to be safe so we can get home back to our loved ones. So, yeah, just kind of signing out there. There you have it. You got Chrome, you got passion, you got family creativity, you got the squirrels, I mean man.

Speaker 3: 44:00

And a whole lot of nuts.

Speaker 2: 44:01

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 44:02

Definitely in the house, okay.

Speaker 2: 44:07

Thank you, so I'll take it.

Speaker 3: 44:09

I'm so happy.

Speaker 2: 44:19

Oh, man, man, so a big thank you to you, uh, chuck, tony and the one and only hollywood. Thank you for sharing your stories and your advice, your insight and also that compassion that you guys have for each other. Man, it's uh amazing. Keep that going. That family ties, and, um, I think that's beautiful. We all need a lot more of that in the world. So, keep, keep that going, spread that energy.

Speaker 4: 44:33

Yeah, thank you for having me come on and talk my little side of the episode over here. I love it.

Speaker 2: 44:44

They were warming you up. You're the headliner.

Speaker 4: 44:47

They were buttering you up for an hour before you came on. Nice, nice they were buttering up for an hour before you came on nice nice, that's amazing.

Speaker 2: 44:59

All right, uh, so to catch twiggy on the show, uh, in person, or learn more? Uh, check out the episode notes. We'll put that in there. And until next time, keep those wheels turning, wheels running and keep making memories on and off the road. And that's Delivered.