Special Episode: Ross Giusti

For this episode, we do a family & friends interview with one of Carol’s sons. Russ shares his upbringing, career highlights, and feedback for the show. 

Transcript

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SPEAKER_02 0:05

Welcome to Retirement Reflections Podcast, coming to you from the library of Canterfield of Kennesaw Independent Living. My name is Lee Martin. I'll be your co-host along with Carol Juicy. Our podcast producer is Patrick Bunroom, who will oversee the entire life cycle of this podcast, which simply means if something goes wrong, it's going to be her fault. Carol Juicy, hi, how are you?

SPEAKER_01 0:34

I am actually very good.

SPEAKER_02 0:36

This is special episode one. That means something really cool is going to happen, and you're going to take the lead on it because it's somebody who's very special.

SPEAKER_01 0:45

Yes, he is. This is my son, Ross Juicy. G-I-U-S-T-I. Did I say it wrong? No.

SPEAKER_03 0:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 0:54

You're really good.

SPEAKER_03 0:55

It's never been mixed up before.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

I don't know how many times we've had to spell our names.

SPEAKER_03 1:01

We could go through many.

SPEAKER_01 1:03

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 1:03

Well, hi, Ross. How are you? Good, Lee. How are you doing? I'm doing just great. I'm going to let your mom take the lead. Oh, this should be good. This should be good. This should be so much fun. And we're not going to edit any of this. We're going to make him, we're going to, that'll really mess things up. I don't know about that one.

SPEAKER_01 1:18

Well, just to give you a little background on my son, he was a very good boy when growing up. He listened to me all the time. He never, ever, ever gave me any problems.

SPEAKER_02 1:30

You have a brother that'll be listening, right? My brother Ryan will be listening uh very intently at this one. So I can hear the fan mail coming now.

SPEAKER_01 1:38

Yes. And his brother will have a lot to say. But growing up, Ross played baseball from a very early age. And he just recently retired. How many years, Ross, did you play baseball?

SPEAKER_03 1:51

Well, I just figured it out the other day. This is the first summer in 51 years that I haven't had a summer baseball commitment. It's amazing how one little decision can kind of change your life. And I was very disgruntled at a young age at seven. I was on the couch, I think, watching Saturday morning cartoons back in the day. And my dad basically said, Hey, get off the couch. We're going down to the park district. I'm signing you up for little league baseball. And the first thing out of my mouth was, I don't want to go down there. I'm watching TV right now because no, you're coming with me. We're signing up. Well, I wanted to play soccer. Soccer just started at the time. And I did play a little bit of soccer, but he's like, no, we're going to get you involved in baseball. And 51 years later, I'm still involved with it. And it was something that was a passion of my life. It really turned my life to have a direction and a purpose. I didn't know it at the time. And even in my 20s, I wasn't quite sure. But yes, so baseball has been a major part of my life as a head baseball coach, player, et cetera. You have a baseball card with the picture on it? Uh, I do somewhere, but it's way back. It was just a college uh summer league uh that they used to do back then. It was the Muncie Chiefs from Muncie, Indiana, and they just did an upstart league and they had baseball cards uh they put out for the inaugural season. So there is one somewhere.

SPEAKER_02 3:08

I just don't know where it is anymore. I I said that thinking I'd be rude and insult you, but now I feel bad about that. Really got a baseball card. That's cool.

SPEAKER_01 3:17

The interesting thing is is that his that my husband and Ross's father was a football coach. And we I did not want him to play football. I figured baseball, he wouldn't get hurt and he would be safe. And I said those football people were breaking legs, they were too tough.

SPEAKER_03 3:38

Well, that's all I wanted to do was uh because my dad was a coach, so he would uh on Friday nights, he'd come home right from work and he'd have the Friday night football game he uh coached at Maine East High School, right? Park Ridge, Illinois. And he would get me in the car, I would go to his games, I was the water boy, I was around all these guys, and it really dug the hook in deep as regards to being involved in athletics. And my dad was a big inspiration when it came to that, and that's what I want. I ended up coaching football in high school, even though I never played it, but it was just always something that he instilled in me, being around that environment, being around athletes, and it just was something even at a young age, I just knew I wanted to do.

SPEAKER_02 4:17

He was gone to games a lot and practice and stuff, and so was mom the disciplinarian.

SPEAKER_03 4:23

She was to a degree. So she would, she would, she always kept me in line, let's put it that way.

SPEAKER_01 4:28

And don't tell any more stories.

SPEAKER_03 4:30

No, I won't go into any personal stories.

SPEAKER_02 4:33

Well, then this podcast is over.

SPEAKER_03 4:35

I want to hear, I want to hear juicy, juicy stuff from the juicies. She had a particular look that my brother and I knew that when she looked at us in a one particular way, she had a specific look that we knew. I saw that draw the line. And to be honest with you, I couldn't have been luckier to have two better parents. My brother would say the same thing. Before this, I was listening to Bob Richard's podcast, and he tapped on a few things that really made sense. And it is true. And my brother would probably say the same thing. Any successes that we've had in life was a result of failure, somewhere along the line, that we realized that we had to pick ourselves up off the ground, wipe off the dirt, and keep going. I had two parents that would not let us quit. And I can name probably 10 times at different points of our life where I just wanted to cash it in. I don't want to do this anymore. And they would allow me that conversation. But in the same breath, you knew you just had to keep moving forward. And I'll be damned, the successes that happened after that would always follow. Not enough kids these days experience failure or understand how to deal with their. Oh, let's give him five times to retake this test that they failed. Well, no, if I fail the test, my parents would let me know about it. And I would have to improve on the next test. Maybe my grade ended up being a C, but it taught me lessons about, hey, you got one chance to do this thing. And so those types of lessons throughout life were more important. And in today's education, it's slowly coming back. I will say, being around it is accountability is coming back into the system in bits and pieces. But for a while there, we have been going astray and not allowing kids today in the educational system to fail enough to learn from their lessons to become better from it.

SPEAKER_02 6:21

Well, let me ask a question. You made me think of something when you said that. One of my pet peeves is I remember growing up and going out and trying out for summer baseball. Trying out for summer baseball. That meant after the tryout, on a particular Sunday morning, you opened the newspaper and you looked at the sporting section to see who got picked to be on a team. And sometimes a kid would not get picked on a team. Today's philosophy is everybody gets to play. And so therefore you don't have trophies for people that win. You have trophies for participation. And sometimes these kids, like me, they weren't good players. How do you feel about that? Are we doing a favor to the kids by saying, oh, if you just sign up, you'll get to play. You don't have to try out and be good.

SPEAKER_03 7:06

There are some situations I think it's important to get kids to participate, get their heads out of the TV screen and video games. Participation is important. When you get the participation trophies and these kids go to tournaments and they play in, I got stories that go way beyond here over the years. When you're just giving someone a reward for not really accomplishing anything, I don't think it sets a good example down the road. I mean, it's good to be competitive, but in the same breath, we do a disservice by continuing to do that. For the last 29 years, I've had to cut kids from my high school baseball team. Most difficult thing to do. But I would follow up and talk the kid after we made the cut and try to help him pursue another avenue. In other words, don't discount them as that you're a failure because you didn't make this team. It's insignificant. It's what you do from here that's important. And I'll be damned that some of those kids would come back and thank me for doing that.

SPEAKER_02 7:57

And you just said a while ago that some of the best lessons we learn, we learn from failures or mistakes or the negative things in life, you know.

SPEAKER_03 8:05

And you tapped on that. And one of the biggest stories that resonates with me, I still look back on, is I was a freshman in high school. I thought I was all that. I thought I was one of the best baseball players. I thought I was this, and I'm on a travel team, and I'm great. I got humbled very quickly at my freshman year. They picked 30 kids, they picked 15 kids on a freshman A team and a freshman B team. Top 10 go on the A. The second group goes on the B team. Well, they were ruthless then. They would put your name up on a wall and you would go and look. And I'm looking at the A team looking, I'm looking down the list. I don't see my name on the first 10. And I got put on the freshman A team. Well, to say I was upset was an understatement. Wasn't happy. I came home, and there's my dad coming home from dinner. I'm giving him the old. I can't believe they didn't pick me for the A team, and I'm just venting. And he's listening. Finally, he's like, Are you finished? I go, Yeah. He goes, Okay, you made a team, right? Yeah. Well, maybe they saw something that they didn't like. It's not going to happen all the time. So you're on the B team. You get to deal with it. I don't want to hear about it. I don't want to hear your complaining. You go and prove that you're an A team player. In the next couple of weeks, if they see your talent's good enough, hey, maybe they made a mistake and they'll bring you up, but quit complaining about it. And I'm like, ugh, not what I wanted to hear. But it was the best thing he ever gave the advice. By the end of that freshman year, prove myself and more, I got moved up to the sophomore team. So it was one of those things. Well, go prove your worth, they'll see it. Action speaks louder than words type lesson.

SPEAKER_01 9:32

Russ, over the years, I have heard you and I really like what I heard. You not only coach, but you give life lessons to a lot of your players. And not necessarily the good players, but I mean players that are kind of off the rails, so to speak. You have given some really good lessons on that. During COVID, it was a very interesting experience because everybody was at home. And what were you doing? How do you teach PE over ZTV?

SPEAKER_03 10:03

Zoom. Yeah, they have to do it. It was a difficult time for everybody. Even you know, looking back on that, it was kind of a travesty per se. Is that we had our computer screen and we had everyone that you're kind of looking on the screen of what to do and how to do it. And I'm I'm a person, I'll just say it and I'll be a real truthful about it. And I talk to the kids like, hey, how we we can't do this. I could I could close this down and say, hey, go out and walk around the block five times, go run, go do this. But how many of them actually would do that? They would turn me off and then go to their video games or whatever it might be. And I wanted to change the script a little bit and make it a practical podcast. So my PE students were looking at me and we kind of called it the PE podcast. And each day I would start with about a five-minute video on health that I would show something practical, nutrition-wise, that would be good for them. But then it got to the point where, like, well, let's just do something practical in life. How many of these kids even know how to change a flat tire? Probably none. So here I am showing videos on how to change a flat tire in PE class. But I got the attention of the kids because the next day it was like how to cook for yourself when you go to college. And mom and dad aren't around. How many of them actually have made their own meals over the years? So we kind of combined the auto class, the home ec class, the industrial arts class, a technology class. And I figured it'd be more important. It became more of a practical life skill class. And kids would tune in every day. I didn't have kids leaving. They were always kind of wondering, what's he gonna say next? And it kind of kept them in tune with stuff. So that's what we did a little different.

SPEAKER_02 11:39

I'm glad you said what she's gonna say next. Let's fast forward to just oh, maybe about a month ago. And you heard that your mother was going to be hosting a podcast. What went through your mind when you heard that?

SPEAKER_03 11:54

Interesting. I said this will be interesting. But hearing your podcasts, there's a couple things. First thought would be this'll this will just be interesting. Because I know my mom can bring up interesting tidbits. He's struggling for words with stuff. But my brother and I were kind of like, you know, kind of grinning from ear to ear, you know, very curious to see how this would work. And I I'm gonna tell you, you guys are doing an amazing job because here's where thumbs up, a two thumbs up. There we go. Sitting here live and listening to Bob, listening to your prior podcast of people's life experience. Everyone's got a story.

SPEAKER_02 12:32

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 12:32

And I firmly believe, and I just listening to this, if I was teaching a high school social studies class, I would play some of these episodes because they don't hear enough about people that are retired or people that spent time. My father-in-law is also a Vietnam veteran in the Navy, and he had some experiences on a ship called the USS Florestal. And he went in just the stories that come out. And Carol's grandchildren, Connor and Alex, my sons, when they hear this, all of a sudden you don't see the video games being turned on. They're so curious about where what things were like back then. And I don't think we tap into that enough in our history classes in high school. And they are not aware of the sacrifices or the stories or how to build our country from where it was till now. It seems like it's been erased over the last few years, and it's a travesty because just listening to your podcast, it's opened my eyes again to everyone's got a story.

SPEAKER_02 13:37

I think we do. I think everyone has a story, and I think they need to be heard. I think bits and pieces. I mean, you know, I was thinking the other day about mistakes that I've made, and I agree with what you said a while ago, you know, I would not be where I am, and of course, where I am is is good or bad, depending on, I guess, who's looking at it. But you know, I would not be where I am and who I am had not it been for the mistakes that I made. Not the successes, you know, but the mistakes, because with every mistake, for me, I have to stop and say, okay, God, what do you what are you trying to say to me? Not what is the boss over here saying to me or the person that I had the confrontation with or the mistake. God is saying something to me as a missionary, as a minister, that's my frame of reference. You know, what is God trying to say to me? And I think, especially when we get to be our age, that we listen a little deeper than we used to. I think, I think when we're younger, we're pretty superficial in what we hear. I remember my mother got it and said to me one time, she said, Did you hear me? And I was about 14 years old, and I took my ears and pulled them out, and I said, What do you think? Well, that's the only time my mother slapped me. And I still feel a little bit of the of the pain from that, you know, and realizing that what she was saying was not what did you hear with your ears, but did you hear? I think I think Jesus said it in the Bible. He he said, Those that have ears to hear, let them hear. In other words, it really would be more like those who have a heart.

SPEAKER_01 15:04

Well, Ross told me when I we talked it, I was gonna have to be on a podcast. Now, mind you, I never have heard a podcast. So I didn't really, when you said, you know, you want to be on a podcast, I thought, well, I don't know what that is, but I'll try it. I told Ross, and Ross said, do not, do not tell any stories about our family on the podcast.

SPEAKER_03 15:28

That was fun trying to explain to you exactly what a podcast was. And Ryan and I were uh, well, mom, it's like you're on the radio. Well, what do you mean? There's no listeners. I go, well, they record and they can put that out and you can listen to it anytime you want. But be careful, don't give away any family secret. No, I'll just go to the late now.

SPEAKER_02 15:48

Yeah, right. Well, listen, we've had a good time and we could go on and on, and and I've enjoyed speaking with you not only on the podcast, but otherwise. And I'm I'm so glad you're here from Wisconsin.

SPEAKER_03 16:01

Yeah, we live in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. We just retired, but we spent most of our life, even my my mom and dad, in the Chicagoland area, Mount Prospect, Arlington Heights area is where we really grew up.

SPEAKER_02 16:11

Well, and you've been here long enough that you uh got your mom's oil changed. Yes. And you went down to uh Burger King and met all of our friends down there.

SPEAKER_03 16:19

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 16:20

I mean, life doesn't get any better than that.

SPEAKER_03 16:22

We went to Bucky's the other day up north. Oh my god. I got the Bucky's experience. And what did you think of?

SPEAKER_01 16:27

Were you surprised about Buckeys? Uh it was, you know, kind of what I thought and very interesting.

SPEAKER_02 16:32

It's an upscale truck stop without the trucks. That's right. You can't park trucks at Bucky's. Well, anyway, unless there's something else that we need to pursue on this, thank you for being here and listening to us. And hopefully we'll hear from you again. I guess equal time we probably ought to give to his brother, you know. I don't know. Let him tell the real story.

SPEAKER_03 16:51

Well, keep doing what you're doing. Because I think the more it gets out and more people listen, especially in this community, I think there's a lot of stories that are there to be told. So keep up the great work you guys are doing wonderfully. Okay, thank you.

SPEAKER_02 17:07

Well, see you later.

SPEAKER_00 17:08

See you later, Lady.

SPEAKER_02 17:10

Bye.

SPEAKER_00 17:12

Hey there, producer Patrick Bundram here. We now have a new exciting feature where you can send fan mail on our website. Access the message board on Bunzy Broad by clicking the fan mail link on any episode. We appreciate your continued support, and we'll be back next week. As always, retirement reflections does not claim to give any advice, and the personal beliefs opposed and guests do not necessarily reflect the Canterfield community official policies. Thank you again for joining us.