Daily American
New episodes released every Wednesday @ 9am
info@dailyamericanpodcast.com
@dailyamericanpodcast
Daily American
DC Debuts on his first podcast: "The Judgemental's" and fire ensues
The Judgemental's is a Philly based podcast featuring Roy and Phill, give it a listen and follow them for more captivating topics, conversations, and guests.
Join us as we sit down with the host from the Daily American podcast to uncover his gripping journey through the highs and lows of gambling addiction. In a raw and honest conversation, Dan opens up about his early exposure to gambling in Atlantic City with his father, his struggles with various substances, and the profound impact addiction has had on his life. From the depths of his addiction to his attempts at sobriety, Dan's story offers a powerful insight into the challenges and triumphs of recovery.
Ever wondered how to keep your social media presence genuine while creating engaging content? We discuss the delicate balance of personal life and content creation, sharing strategies for podcasting, such as batching recordings and featuring diverse content. Learn why behind-the-scenes glimpses can be more appealing to your audience than straightforward promotions. We also delve into our favorite reads, highlighting Stephen King's "The Long Walk," and exploring its parallels to popular survival-themed shows.
Experience the adrenaline and dedication of young wildland firefighters through intense training and personal aspirations. From the rigorous Job Corps program to thrilling travel stories and cultural encounters, this episode offers a captivating look at the diverse paths of personal growth and adventure. Hear about the camaraderie within firefighting teams, the cultural insights gained from global travels, and the harrowing near-drowning experiences that emphasize the importance of water safety. Whether you're interested in addiction recovery, social media authenticity, or the thrill of survival and travel, this episode has something for everyone.
thank you for being a part of this journey
info@dailyamericanpodcast.com
Yeah.
Speaker 3:What's up everybody, welcome to the film. We were the judgmental podcast sup everybody.
Speaker 2:This is boy Phil back in the house and I'm Leroy, so, uh, we live the day.
Speaker 3:We normally be recorded. This is our first Guess in a while, since your brother, right? Yeah, yeah. So why don't you go over there and introduce him?
Speaker 1:I'll introduce myself. This is the Daily American. I got the Daily American podcast. My name's Dan Cianci. I've known Philly. Phil probably like how long has it been, I don't know, maybe like 15 years, and you know, I'm just meeting his cousin, leroy and I was listening to his podcast. That's messed up.
Speaker 3:My young boy, leroy. So what you got to say. Where did you two meet?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I guess in 2010, I got active duty and Sergeant Mott was there and you know I didn't get along with many people in the National Guard. I got along with them in the National Guard, but only a few I could like vibe with, and you know Sergeant Mott was one of them. And there we go.
Speaker 2:There definitely is a lot of dickheads and it's hard to just relate and hang with some of the dudes. You just want to get your job, get the fuck out of it. Then there's other dudes that it's like oh, this dude is cool, we can go get some drinks after this. You know what?
Speaker 3:I mean. So you mean to say there's a lot of guys that make shit difficult when it don't have to be Definitely 100%?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Y'all want to name them, or I think we did. I did that on Me and Whipple did On one of the podcasts yeah, you know, whipple.
Speaker 1:Yeah, whipple.
Speaker 3:Big old Whipple, yeah, we, yeah, he. He went, boy we talked for like I had to split that up In like two episodes Cause we talked for Almost like three hours, right yeah, and that's all they were sitting there Doing, talking about people, but I think he was naming names too. Yeah, I don't be naming names like that, but whoop-a-whoop he can give a shit I drop so many names in my latest episodes after my termination.
Speaker 1:but I usually wouldn't do that, but I sometimes jacked out of character. I married a couple people in my whole company.
Speaker 3:So what goes on on your podcast? Daily American.
Speaker 1:So pretty much, I started this podcast back in I guess three years ago. I started it I was sober, I wasn't even taking prescriptions. No, weed alcohol, nothing. I did that for one. I said I want to be dead sober for one year and I'm going to do this race, this Spartan race, and then I'm going to start getting banged up again. But one night I was like fuck, I still was gambling. Gambling is probably my biggest addiction. Always has been.
Speaker 2:How'd you start?
Speaker 1:gambling. How I started. We would play cards in the house against my brothers and stuff for pennies, quarters, whatever, shoveling snow money, cutting grass money. I remember crying, leaving all pissed off. My brother was just sitting there smirking. He didn't need the coin, but he was teaching me a lesson and I just didn't pick it up. I never learned. I guess going back five, six, seven, eight years old I'd take the bus down to Atlantic City with my pops. From where? From Country Hocking. Okay, yeah, the bus would run right through Country Hocking and take us right down to Atlantic City. And you know I wanted to go because I was getting out of the house and I was hanging with Dad why not? And you know we'd get down there.
Speaker 1:Usually he hits the pawn shop first to get some, some, some cash. And he would, he, he did. He always had a gold chain. He would buy the gold chain back because he that was one of his things he he liked. He didn't really have anything else materialistic. He liked this one gold chain so he'd get some cash for it and off we went to trump and you know, as a kid you can't go on the carpet back. Then it's. It was just a whole different atmosphere. Everybody's smoking in there. You got the, you got the actual buckets, uh, with the coins coming in, and he would try to stay nearby. But sometimes that machine just wasn't hitting so he just he'd take off. And I do remember being like cold as shit in the in the casino and people walking by like are you okay, young, are you okay?
Speaker 1:like it's like five hours it's like five hours later it's like six days later I got a bag of Doritos as a peanut juice. No, but, yeah, that's how I guess I got it. I have it in my blood. They say addiction runs in the family. I can attest to that. My one brother pretends like he's not the oldest because he's an attorney and shit, but the other three of us are just addicts. Addicts, just different choices of drugs. I've done basically every drug and a whole lot of drinking, but gambling has had the most negative impact on my life.
Speaker 1:Now what type of games you play so it used to just see I was anti-slots, just like I was anti-cigarettes growing up, because I used to be in the back of my pop's truck and try to roll the window down, you chief, in there is cigarettes. I'm getting ready to go to a basketball game or something. Just get dropped off and it's smelling like, like smelling all the smoke. When I'm, you know, I need my lungs. I used to be in the car like this. Now I smoke, you know, a half a pack a day and I've been doing that for like 10, 10 years. Same thing with the game, but I didn't like the slots. Because of that, I stuck to sports.
Speaker 3:As I get older, though, man, these, these slots, these slots have, they're detrimental and, like we were saying before earlier, plus is more accessible now than it was I was back then, because you just mentioned atlanta city. That was the only place that we can gamble at now. We got sugar house, chester and, most importantly, you can do slots on your phone that's the worst part about it.
Speaker 1:that's the worst part about it because, you know, they just made this back in. I think it was right around 17, 18,. They made the online gambling accessible through FanDuel. There was only a couple of them back then, maybe FanDuel, and then DraftKings or Parks popped up. Anyhow, I was doing all right, I had my own house, I was still going back and forth with the girl that I was seeing and running with other chicks and stuff like that. But bottom line is, I had a house, I had my vehicle, job was all squared away. And then them online, them online fucking casinos came out.
Speaker 1:Next thing, you know, my credit, my credit was like 750, 200 grand credit line. Rack one, I racked one up after the other. I got it up to like 173 and I was, I was in underwater. So I had to, you know, kovu had had broken out and I had to, you know, make some strategic moves to to find a way to get, to get out of this. Or you know, I, I essentially lost everything back then. Um, so I filed the bankruptcy, I lost everything. And then so I filed the bankruptcy, I lost everything, and there I was building it back up, I was trying to build it back up, moved to Florida with my ex for a little bit.
Speaker 1:When was this? This was in 2000,. Right after COVID broke out, we moved to Florida, Okay yeah, and you know, we were back and forth for a while. I don't know if, did you ever meet Jackie? She was cool. She's married now. I'm glad she's married. She's married some crackhead, dude, dude, yo. He's got 20 mug shots on Google for like felonies and shit. I'm like nah, I'm not judging, maybe he did a state time and he got out, but he looks like a squirrely crackhead. Let me tell you that.
Speaker 3:So anyhow she just got married.
Speaker 1:I couldn't get in touch with her. I sent her a dollar on Venmo. I said congratulations, I'm glad you're happy, and it was genuine. And then I was like let me know when you get divorced, what part of Florida was this? Right near Tampa, lithia, oh, okay. Yeah, well, I only know you from looking at what part of Florida was this? Right near Tampa, lithia, okay, fishhawk.
Speaker 3:I only know you from looking at it on Instagram. I don't remember here seeing anything about Florida on there. You kept it up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, see, here's the thing. Back then, well before the podcast, I'd never posted on social media, man, never. I'd never posted anything. I could be anywhere, nobody would know anything, because I wasn't about that life and I'm not about that life now. But when you make a commitment to get some stories heard, sometimes you just gotta rock and roll and post dumb shit, post some things that maybe hit a little bit. It's a tough game but it's a consistent. I'm not consistent with it because I get in my head. I worry about too much what fucking other people think I don't my head. I worry about too much what fucking other people think I don't know why. Right, they wouldn't be able to.
Speaker 3:They wouldn't be alive today. Well, my advice to you for that is if you're worried about consistent and getting in your own head, then you should do a whole lot at one time, so that way you just cut it up into different episodes, whatever. So you do, let's just say you're normally by yourself, right?
Speaker 1:Well, no, whatever, so you do. Let's just say like, so you normally by yourself, right? Um, well, I no, not necessarily. Sometimes when I'm being lazy I'm by myself. I'm just by myself. To tell you the truth, when I'm being lazy, I'm just by myself. The episodes are probably boring, but you know recordings. I have five set up um on that calendar nonsense, calendly. Five people set up. Having guests on or finding guests is seamless. People like to talk about themselves.
Speaker 3:Especially men, because we don't get a chance to talk you know, regularly talk or anything. So once you talk to a man like that, they'll just want to give you their whole life story and everything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like I'm doing right now.
Speaker 3:So yeah, just do like alright, just do like do an interview and then just do something by yourself. So that's two episodes Now two weeks. You don't have to do anything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, maybe.
Speaker 3:I will do that, you know what it is.
Speaker 1:It's more so the other stuff, because people don't just want to see. I did this in the beginning, I was just posting podcast shit. People don't just want to see podcast shit. First of all, a lot of people don't even listen to podcasts. It doesn't matter how much they like you, how much they follow you on Instagram, how much they engage with your stuff, they with your stuff, they they just don't like podcasting. I happen to be one of them. I never listen to podcasts. I don't. You got, I listened to your guys a couple times, but not like through and through. I just it's not something that I I was ever interested in, right? So it's like it's. They want to see the bad, the other stuff like they. They want to see like you, you know whatever, playing basketball, or like drinking with your boys or like dunce. They just I think the, the, the people usually want to see like that behind the scenes type shit. But that's just my opinion. Who knows?
Speaker 2:no, you're right. It's almost like do you want to read a book and do you want to watch a movie? You know what I mean, where people rather sit on the ass and watch a movie than read a book, yup, so would you rather watch a movie or read a book. I used to read a lot. I don't read no more now I watch movies. So here you go.
Speaker 1:What's the best book you ever read?
Speaker 2:I'll tell you my favorite book, your favorite book. There you go, my favorite book is the Long Walk by Stephen King.
Speaker 1:It's fiction.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's about this town. This town is like I guess they poor, but every year they pick kids. That's, if you turn 18, you can sign up for the long walk. So the long walk is they have like rows of kids on both sides of the street. They have an army tank in the middle and a kid that walks the longest. They walk through different towns. All this shit. The kids that make it to the end get like all these riches and shit. Fucking all this money ain't walk through different towns. All this shit. The kids that make it to the end get like all these riches and shit. Fucking all this money ain't got to work again. All this shit.
Speaker 2:The kicker is on that tank. There's two guys One guy facing this way, one soldier facing this way Got a fucking M16 in the hand. You stop walking. You get a warning. You know what I mean. You got a warning. You know what I mean. You got a warning. I think it's like five seconds or ten seconds or whatever. Then you pick it back up and if you walk a certain amount of distance, that warning will go away. But if you get three warnings, they blow your fucking head off.
Speaker 1:What was that other game, that Asian movie Battle Royale? No, not Battle Royale. The other one, something game. They were all in a prison something game. They were all in like a prison basically.
Speaker 2:Oh, you're talking about the one that blew up At the end?
Speaker 1:No, I don't mean blew up?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, blew up. Everybody started watching.
Speaker 3:Oh, on Netflix the show, the TV show you're talking about.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what was?
Speaker 3:it called.
Speaker 1:Oh my goodness, it was something games right no I don't think it had games in it um, I'm thinking hunger games, but not that I know I'm not.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the game. Yeah, I know what you're talking about it was like that kind of. It seems like that a little bit when he was describing it, I just automatically thought about the hundred hunger games. When, uh, you were breaking down the whole story, because, because I'm like, well, what came out first? I know Battle Royal, hunger Games is like a remix of Battle Royal. Battle Royal is like a Korean movie.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 3:And it was pretty much the same scenario as you can work with. I think it's like three or four of them, but if you get a chance, watch the first one.
Speaker 1:Okay, watch the first Battle.
Speaker 3:Royal. It's almost like it's what Hunger Games took from. So I'm like wondering, like what came first?
Speaker 2:that book? Of these two movies? Probably the book? Yeah, I would think so too. Yeah, because the way you were describing it made me think about the hunger games. Yeah, well, you don't have to sign up, it's up to you if you want to sign up. But once you sign up, you're signed up right. I mean you just start walking. So they kind of like follow, like certain characters in the story. They tell you like what's going on with this guy's life, and then he, he might see his buddy slack. Yo, pick it up, come on, let's go like that. You know what I mean. And it kind of like cliffhanger at the end. It was my favorite book and it stuck with me and I read it twice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I usually don't read like thick books. It had a little weight on it. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:I've only read a couple. Well, this is back when I first joined Job Corps. Job Corps is kind of like the Army setup, where you got the dorms, you go to training all day and then you come back. We didn't have all the technology you have now. We didn't have TVs and shit. You got a TV, one TV in the day room, but I think at 9 o'clock they shut the day room down. So now you're at your bump. What you're gonna?
Speaker 1:do you're gonna pick up a book? We didn't have phones. You stay overnight in job corps. Yeah, they have two different ones.
Speaker 2:Okay, so they have the one. You go to like school every day. You come home like they had one in philly. I don't know if they still have it or not, I don't think. So yes, well, you come home. You can come home. The one I went to. I went to virginia, in the fucking woods, middle of nowhere. So you don't come home, you stay there. So one week you go to school, the next week you go to your trade, and you just keep doing that until you complete one or the other. Then, once you complete both, then you have to go through driver's training. You know what I mean. You go through driver training, you get your license. Then, once you complete everything, they send two people on the job. So you complete. Now you're waiting for somebody else in that field to complete out every three. Once he get everything complete, then they link y'all up. Y'all too is going on a job. It could be anywhere fucking in kentucky, they.
Speaker 1:As soon as you get there, they ship you, they ship you out across the states. Yeah, they can send you anywhere.
Speaker 2:The job is already yours, like you don't got to go there, fill out no app and none of this shit. There's going to be a construction site that you're already hired for. They know you coming, they're going to make sure y'all have a car and they're going to make sure you have an apartment when you get there. So you're not going around looking for this shit as soon as you get there, this is y'all crib, this is y'all car, like that type of shit. So it's kind I was like 17, and I went for Brick Mason. You know what I mean. So I just had to wait for another Mason to come along. He came along and they linked us up and they sent us in.
Speaker 2:It was a small-ass, little hick town called Colburn, virginia. It was Colburn. No, colburn is where Job Corps was at. What the fuck was it called? It was another little town because Job Corps was in Virginia. They got us a job in Virginia too. You know what I mean. But it was another little small town and as soon as we went to the website, they was like so you're my two guys, hey, alright, they're gonna pop on the brakes, get to work. You know what I mean. It was like that and all the old heads.
Speaker 2:They sit back drinking beer listening to sports radio All the young guys do most of that company, so that company's going to keep jobs. They're going to keep that money moving. They're always building shit in that city or wherever you go.
Speaker 3:Oh, okay, I thought that was like the Job Corps you work with them, but you were getting paid through the Job Corps.
Speaker 2:Well, job Corps pay you, but they give you pennies, so they give you. Let's say, they give you. I think it was like 25 bucks every two weeks. That's just spending money so you can buy honey, buns and fucking.
Speaker 3:It's almost like a per day PX shit.
Speaker 2:You buy a little bit of shit like that you know what I mean and you're accumulating money while you're there. So if you complete Job Corps, there's money at the end of it as long as you've been there. They piled up for you. That way they don't see you on the job broke. So you might have let's say, if you was there for a year, you might have I don't know $5,000 or something like that in the bank waiting for you. But you can't get it until you complete everything. But that's what it is. It depends on how long you is, the more money you have to hit.
Speaker 2:So when I was in job court, I program called the fire team but you had to be like one of the elite guys there, like physical-wise, you had to be able to run a certain amount, carry a certain amount. You had to be excelling in all your training and in school, like all these steps, you had to be fucking above average to join the fire team. Once you join the fire team they give you fire gear, you go through some small training and shit and then, when the alarm go off, if you're on the fire team, throw your gear on, get out to the main building because there's gonna be some buses to pick you up. You're going out, you're putting out forest fires, right. So I was like, oh shit, I need to do that.
Speaker 2:So then that's when I started fucking some people in job corps. They don't want to complete job, because once you complete job corps, you don't have that back and forth thing. They'll tell you, once you complete job corps, if you want, you can become a permanent fire team member and that's all you do is putting out forest fires and they pay you fucking good money. Like I said, I was like 17 years old. I was fucking at that time making probably more than I'm making now. You know what I mean and that's crazy. That's like fucking 30 years ago, but like fucking 30 years ago. You know what I mean, but that's what they do.
Speaker 1:So I was doing a fire team and I was doing that shit too, man, I was killing it, killing it. Let me ask you something the fire team are these forest firefighters just do they all go through Job Corps? No, okay, okay, okay.
Speaker 2:So they always need people on the fire team. They have full timers that, so they always need people on the fire team they have full-timers. That's what they do, but they still don't have enough. And by me doing it, that's when I saw it. Like, when you watch the news in the summer, you always see these forest fires and shit.
Speaker 1:I swear to God that these guys are starting these fires.
Speaker 2:Because this is how they pay the bills. If there's no fires, how do you work? It's not like this is your second job, you know what I mean. Or a side job, or hustle Maybe some people it is, but you have people that's. This is permanently what they do. They train firefighters to do this, not firefighters like in the city, but they train forest firefighters to do this. Right, and this is what they do. And if you're in Virginia, you're putting out Virginia fires, or you might go to Tennesseeucky, you might go to west Virginia, whatever they need you at, that's where y'all going, right, I mean so it is, and the money was money. You know what I mean. I think we did, uh, we worked like maybe five days a week and it was like over a thousand dollars after taxes. You know so and you're and you're 17.
Speaker 1:I was 17. Yeah, you're eating. That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:I ain't had no bills, no kid, nothing. You know what I mean. How?
Speaker 1:long was uh like not not boot camp, but how long is the initial staying in the barracks with the dude? How long did it take your boy to finish up, to get going?
Speaker 2:Well, they try to find because there's so many people there. Let's say the class has 20 people If I'm on level 5, whoever else is on level 5, so they're already in their mind thinking like, okay, these are the people that we can pair up and as long as they keep moving, if somebody's still on level 1, he's going gonna be stuck way back on level one. Keep fucking repeating and trying to get it. He just might be one of those little brain motherfuckers that just take you over the line. Some people's like that. You know what I mean. But as long as you're doing what you're doing like me wanting to be on the fire team I couldn't bullshit. I have to be excelling what I'm doing on my tree. You know what I mean?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, same with the dude Ray. He's the guy that I went on the job with. He was on the fire team. He was making sure Like he ready to get the fuck out of job court. He been there too long. He need somebody else to speed up their shit to catch up with him.
Speaker 1:He wants a full-time gig.
Speaker 2:He wants to be a full-time. He wants to For a gig, no, no, on a fucking job he wants to be. He went to be a Mason, a cement Mason. He wants to go get a job as a cement Mason and start his life.
Speaker 1:He was a little bit older than me.
Speaker 2:He probably was like 18 or 19. But it was nobody close on his level yet he was probably almost complete. They even pushed me faster than what I was supposed to be because I was a quick learner. I wasn't fully complete. I wasn't fully complete, let's say, is ten levels to be complete? I was probably on level seven when he graduated.
Speaker 1:How long does that take the job for?
Speaker 2:yeah, just just a level yeah, it all depends on the person. If you a quick learner, if they say, build this wall or do this or do this, and everybody has like a platform in front of you got to mix this, you gotta do everything. You got to mix this. Well, you do have people that's just going to job. For what are they called Laborers? You have just laborers. So if you have laborers there, they'll mix the cement. Do all that for you. You just do your measurements, do your cutting your blocks and doing your stacking.
Speaker 1:I guess what I'm asking is from the initial time you flew to you said Virginia, Virginia, To get to your first job. How long were you? In that, I would probably say Like a couple weeks, or like a few months.
Speaker 2:I would probably say close to a year, damn. Damn, that's a while Well because I dropped out of school.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay.
Speaker 2:So I also had to get my diploma. You know what I mean. So I had to do. You don't have to do both.
Speaker 2:Some people come to Job Corps already finished high school, so then they just focus on that trade. So if you're spending every week on your trade, you're going to graduate faster. You know what I mean. If you're a dumb motherfucker and they got to drag you along to get you school and this shit, you know what I mean. So what you want, in a perfect world you'll have your school and your trade lined up together. If I'm getting B's in my trade, I'm getting A's or B's in school, Not you fucked up on one, but you're excelling on the other, Because then you're going shit ain't lined up right. Or, like I said, if you graduated high school and you went to Job Corps, then you can just do your trade and get the fuck up out of there. But now if you're on the fire team and you're getting that $1,000, now you kind of want to cut back a little bit because you don't want to leave job court too soon and you don't want to just stay in Virginia on a fire team. So you want to try to double dip.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean. Got you, got you. So saying to be a full-time firefighter wasn't something you wanted to do, but if you wanted to, you could have did that. I could have done that.
Speaker 2:Because they always wanted. It was weird because when we went on the fire team, it was dangerous too, because we're right in the mix of shit, I had a fucking bag Ghostbusters Kind of.
Speaker 2:It was like a flame drop bag, so it's like some fuel in there and I got a hose on it and it's dropping fire. When I push the button it drops little fireballs like that. You know what I mean. So as the fire is coming, let's say the fire is coming like this, so the fire is coming this way. We got to cut the fire off, so I'm starting the fire over here and when this fire meets that fire it'll burn itself out. There's nothing left. You know what I mean. But that's dangerous because I got the bag. So if the fire's coming this way, I don't want to like burn up a whole bunch of unnecessary land. So I want to get close as I can. And once you start getting close you start fucking sweating. You like getting paranoid and I'm a fucking young dude. So I see this fucking fire on blaze in the forest. I'm like what the fuck?
Speaker 1:so I'm all like this with my joint I'm dropping it.
Speaker 2:But I'm scared as shit. You know what I mean. But that's what you're doing. And then, once you have that fire there, they spread the soldier I said soldier, they spread the dudes out so far apart. And then you sit there overnight and just watch the fire line and let's say, this is the fire line that we built right here. And you have shovels, you have axes. All you're doing is digging in the dirt, pushing the old grass away. Then you're sitting on it overnight to make sure no fucking ashes and timber cross over, because then it'll start to fire. So then you sit on it overnight and once it's out, it's out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know how many people know you do hear like fire with fire, but I didn't. I'm just thinking you're out there with water.
Speaker 2:We don't have no water. Yeah that's crazy. We got shovels, axe, and we're building a fire line and then certain people have that fucking bag that I had to help start the fire. You know what I mean. So if we build the line let's say we build the fire line right here we're going to start our fire drip line up here, you know what I mean? And then everybody's going to sit back here and make sure and base off of windage though.
Speaker 2:Right, right, you know what I mean. And then you have the helicopters that fly over these, fucking open up the buckets, drop this slime shit. You want to make sure you clear that shit. They say it burn. I don't fucking know because I don't be around that shit, but when they they let whoever the head guy is know okay, they about to make a drop, pull back, everybody pull back. So we pull back. And then you see the helicopters open the thing up on the bottom and you see all this shit fall down. There's like some wet, slimy shit. That kind of help put the fire around.
Speaker 1:See, I thought that was water, but no, it's not. No, it's some other shit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was deep and, like I said, it was an eye-opening experience for me. Being like 17 from the hood I just was trying to get money and I was just like everybody said this what I the guys in job career was getting a lot of money. They told me that's what I need to do. I met this guy when I first went to job car I was scared to shit because I was 17, I ain't know nobody from the city, I ain't never been outside of philly you know what I mean. And uh, I met this guy. I swear to god he looked like jay-z funny looking ass dude, but he was cool as shit, like how jay-z cool kind of. You know what I mean early jay-z, not jay-z now yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean he was like that.
Speaker 2:He was so laid back. His name was davir, he was from philly, so he was like oh, oh, what's up? Phil, you know what I mean. You from Philly, I'm a man, this, and that you know what I mean. So he pretty much took me under his wing and he used to sell snacks, all this shit, because it was like in the military, you know how you eat dinner at like 4.30? Come 8, 9 o make their food runs. They let him go. And then he'd buy like fucking cases of honey buns, cases of oodles, of noodles, all this shit. He'd put it in his locker and then he'd sell it Double the price. So this is back in the day. But one pack of noodles you probably can get a fucking box of noodles with like 20 packs for like three bucks or something. One pack of noodles he would sell for a dollar. And then people, and if you're like man, I ain't got it, don't worry about it, I'll put you down for a dollar 25. You know what I mean?
Speaker 3:Here you go, just catch you on page Now. You sound like jail Yo. That's what I said. That's how he was.
Speaker 2:So he even was selling like fucking shots. You had shots of liquor and he was selling shots for $5 a pop man. I ain't got no followers, don't worry about it, I'll put you down for $6. You know what I mean? Just see me on payday. Then on payday, everybody in line getting their little $25. He's right on the sideline they fucking breaking him off. He was killing the game, but he was like Phil. I don't really want to sell the food. I ain't know nobody. I'm like what the fuck? I'm like fucking wet behind the ears. I don't know what the fuck is going on. I'm a little dude. I'm only like fucking 130 pounds. He's like fucking tall. He got fucking dudes and shit.
Speaker 1:He's the enforcer.
Speaker 2:now he was like. He was like. He was like I'm gonna start selling weed and drinks food. I was like what I'm like? Alright, I don't know how he got it, but he would sell weed but not baggies. He would roll up and just sell J's.
Speaker 2:And I think he was selling them things for like 10 or 20 bucks or something crazy, for just one J. You know what I mean. So that's what he was focusing on. So I had the food. But now he was like I'm going to show you how to do it this payday. So I was killing it. You know what I mean. I was getting my Job Corps money, my fire team money and my hustle money from selling food.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean I was killing it? Yeah, you got contact because I'm going to Job Corps.
Speaker 2:Yo, I'm telling you, man, that shit was sweet. This was back in the day, though, but me being so smart and not know nobody if somebody payday rolled around, yo man, I ain't got it. I'll catch you next time. I'm like what the fuck Now? What do I do? Now? I'm like a fucking bitch, because this dude bigger than me probably can whoop my ass and that's another thing.
Speaker 2:In Job Corps, when I went to Job Corps, I just thought it was going to be a lot of people like me, young dudes that are just trying to find their way, sent to job corps. It was like you going to job corps, you're going to jail, type motherfuckers. So these was like knuckleheads in the streets, always getting into fights, breaking into cars. Like all these knuckleheads in here I'm going, not a bad dude, like almost a square, not really a square, but not a bad dude, and I'm here with all these dudes. You know what I mean. So you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:When, when a couple guys maybe two or two didn't pay me on payday, devere was like yo, did everybody square up with you. I was like nah, such and such told me he going to pay me next payday. Nah, today is payday. Hold up. When it found a dude, yoked him up, came back and dude was like here you go, phil. Made the dude pay me back. I was like, all right, go Phil. Like made the dude pay me back. I was like, oh, all right, you know what I mean. I ain't got a fucking because I'm sweating like damn. You know how you get the mindset that this dude burned me and everybody thinking that everybody going to start burning me and shit.
Speaker 2:Don't punch him in his head. But if I punch him in his head I'll probably get beat up. So it's like when you're a criminal and somebody burns you, what do you do? Right, right. So I just when the very act, I just told him the truth and then he fucked, yoked the dude up and the dude paid me, and then I had no problems with it after that. You know what I mean.
Speaker 3:Now, why did you leave Job Corps? I completed it, oh, okay.
Speaker 2:All right. I thought it was um, waiting too long, we're just gonna pass you through. I'm like whoa, whoa, I'm only on seven, I ain't advanced. I ain't hit my whole check. Don't worry about it, you'll learn that on the job. That's what he told me, so I was like all right and that was the first.
Speaker 1:No, I was a different job that was event me, okay, okay okay, got you the.
Speaker 2:Uh fire.
Speaker 2:Shit was like a bonus that you can do while you're in Job Corps Got you got you Unless you decide you want to do that full time and then once you do that, you see all these different people and they say the one rule I got to say is don't speak to the Native women, don't say nothing to them, don't look at them, because those dudes will fuck you up, they'll cut you, they'll beat your ass if you're looking at their women. So that kind of stuck to heart, because then you see all these burly-ass Indian like Native American Indian women with fire suits on and some of them's looking good, some of them's just looking like rough-ass dudes. But you try to stay focused because you see these motherfuckers. They all look crazy. All the guys, the Indian.
Speaker 1:Why is the majority of them Indian? Is there like a reservation out there?
Speaker 2:Maybe I don't know, I was too young to understand.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's wild though, right I?
Speaker 2:mean I'm not saying a majority of them was, but it was a lot that was there. I mean it was a lot of white dudes. It was like older black dudes, older white guys, younger white dudes. So we all was there, but the one rule they kept saying that stuck in my head was don't mess with them. Indian women, now I don't know, baby them guys. They take that shit personal. You saying something to them girls? I just was like all right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, we essentially took like their entire native land. They're probably a little pissed off about that stuff.
Speaker 2:But they'll probably give me a little bit of leeway not to, because I hate that shit.
Speaker 3:You know what I'm saying? I'm saying, yeah, speaking of that, dan, you're a world traveler, right? What place have you been?
Speaker 1:I wouldn't say yeah, I mean I've traveled around a bit, but you know I'm not good at like being real, you know I get all banged up when I'm out there, so I don't remember everything. But I've gone to Iceland, which was pretty cool. You know the Caribbean around the United States a little bit, but there's so much to see here you could literally just get in a vehicle. I was thinking about doing it. Now I have a little bit of time just hopping in the vehicle and traveling all around the US, because there's so many spots, man, especially mid-summer. But also, like Smyrna, I went to Italy a couple times that's where my father was born. Ireland a couple times. Croatia, that's where my father was born. Ireland a couple times Croatia, which was crazy, which was cool Budapest.
Speaker 2:First thing about you. First you say well, I haven't been to that many places. Right now you're running off all these other places, right, yeah I?
Speaker 3:haven't been to many places, but I've been to Iceland. Oh, I've been to Italy.
Speaker 1:Traveling, especially alone, like it's like a ride, it's like it's like a, like a, like a roller coaster. And I don't know if it's just me, but I remember going to croatia and sitting down at this table. I stayed in an airbnb and they're pulling, they're pulling the fish right out of the water, which is right where that arcade machine is, and just so peaceful, just Adriatic City, just beautiful. They don't speak much English. I obviously don't understand their native language, but I could still understand. They were just trying to feed me and make me feel like I was exactly at home. It was crazy, crazy bottles of wine. And they've been through some wars over there uh, croatia against, you know, the serbs, I guess, back in the soviet union. I don't know too much about it all, but you know you could tell some of the guys at the table they've been through some shit, like during that war, but uh, yeah, it was just like emotional, like I just remember breaking, like I was in tears after dinner, just like so grateful. You go there by yourself and this is how you get treated. These people don't know me, you know, but I guess they could sense that you know I'm an all right dude and I would do the same if they were, if they were at my place, you know. So it's cool. It's cool traveling and then, like you know, obviously getting banged up and doing dumb. And you know, luckily I got somebody getting. If I got a fight out in, uh, croatia I thought I was fighting against the serbs. My uber driver was croatian, he's cool, he was a carpenter and he took me on his boat and stuff his speed boat around the islands. Um, what's that do with long hair? Jaroletto, his, one of his islands was right there does all sorts of weird shit on there. He said, like we drove right by it, like that dude's, like a weirdo, yeah, all sorts like seances and shit, I hear. But anyhow, besides that, um, yeah, the fight. So I got a little scuffle. I was all banged up at this club. So many people Pop's charm I only had one Gets ripped off in the fight. The charm falls out. I stayed at that place. I slept there. I slept there on the bench at that place. I wasn't leaving without this. I got the chain. I was digging through all the drains. It could have been shit in there. I wasn't know. It could have been shit in there. Whatever, I wasn't leaving.
Speaker 1:I woke up the next day, gave me some water because, like, the cleaning people were there and shit, I go shower. My Uber driver picks me up. He's like man, that thing's gone. I wouldn't even worry about it. I was like no, I'll get it back. I knew it was coming, I knew I was going to get it. I go back that day he takes me. No luck. But I left my name, my number. I said I'll pay whoever you know if somebody finds it. I knew somebody had it, that was there, and they know each other. You know what I mean, whatever. So three days later I get like a Facebook message from this girl and she said she had it. She wasn't expecting any money or anything. I obviously gave her a big tip for whoever had it.
Speaker 3:I got it back, but just dumb shit like that.
Speaker 1:What's your favorite place that I've been to ever? Probably See. I like peace and quiet when I'm traveling. I would say you know what? I don't even think. You know what the true answer is, Leroy, it doesn't matter where you are when it comes to your mindset and your heart and your happiness. Right Like I could be here. I'm happier here today, after gambling away basically everything, than I was when I had tons of money just chilling and I could have gone anywhere in the world, and it's just like the way it is. I think sometimes I don't think being at one place is like that place is the best place I've ever been. I think it's a combination of everything. If I had to think back to my happiest moment, I don't know. There are some cool places and Croatia is probably tops them all because there was a lot of peace in the countryside. Adriatic Sea is beautiful, except don.
Speaker 1:There was a lot of peace in the countryside Right yeah.
Speaker 1:Adriatic Sea is beautiful, except don't get bit Baptized. My Uber driver on his boat that's what he called it, because I'm not a big swimmer, so we would just park the boat and jump in. It's very. I don't know if it's soluble or insoluble, but whatever makes you naturally float. So it's either really salty or not salty I don't know which one, but I think it's not salty at all and it naturally makes you float to the surface. So you don't really got to be that good of a swimmer, right? So he parks the boat, probably like a football field, 100 yards, what's that? 300 meters away from the land, basically.
Speaker 1:So he's like come on, we'll swim over here I'm like all right, like I'm not a good swimmer, I could probably make this though. So I made it to the land on the way back, this dude just like dives in like he's a fish. There's like rocks right there like like he, perfect, and I'm like I'm walking. Well, that was a bad idea, because he told me about these little sea sea urchins. I'll show you pictures later, but basically they had like these porcupines all on these rocks and you know, they're not like. It's not like a perker, they're like a perker bush, but stronger, and they're in there. They go all the way in. So they're like the pricker bushes, but they go underneath your skin completely where you've got to dig them out. Oh shit, yeah.
Speaker 1:So I basically slipped on a rock trying to swim. I slipped on a rock, I was still standing, and then I just dove. I dove directly into more of those little urchins, made it back to the boat, your hands. He was like yeah, you got baptized, you're officially one of us. That's what he told me. He was laughing and cracking up. My hands were like are you sure this is all right? My hands are all swelling up and shit Does it hurt. Painful, it's all in the nerves, but you know it was all right. His mother was actually digging some of them out. I got a video of it Digging them out, but she couldn't get them all. The last one came out probably like six months after I got back. Eventually it stopped hurting, but you could still tell something's in there because of the nerves. Right, I'll show you guys pictures.
Speaker 3:It was vicious, but don't do that. See, I don't know if I would even swim. I don't like swimming either.
Speaker 1:Because I never did growing up, so I'm not comfortable, right.
Speaker 3:You a swimmer.
Speaker 1:Not really.
Speaker 3:No, I can get by.
Speaker 2:I almost died a couple times I don't fucking wear them. Army shit. We graduated. When we graduated boot camp, we had like A little two day pass or whatever. You know what I mean. And so we was like, oh, I'll get a hotel, get a hotel, and shit, we got we the hotel. Get a hotel, and shit we got. We got. Uh, chicks all at the hotel, everybody's there. You know what I mean? Chilling and shit. I'm at the edge of the pool like this. We all drinking and shit and I'm a bullshit swimmer. So I'm at the edge of the pool but I'm drunk. I'm talking to the girl. She's laying on, uh, you know, the side of the pool, chilling. I'm talking to her. I go and I grab the side like this, put my foot up on the edge and kick back, do a couple back strokes, like you. Don't know what the fuck I'm doing Now.
Speaker 3:see, I'm thinking you was going to say I was on the edge of the pool and I wanted to get up out the pool.
Speaker 2:I wish I would have did that.
Speaker 3:You wanted to try to show off. Yeah and don't know what the fuck I'm doing.
Speaker 2:Next thing I know I'm thinking that you was'm in the deep end after I did this a couple times and I'm like, oh shit.
Speaker 3:So you don't really, you're not really a swimmer. You were in the deep end into the pool trying to show off.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and there's other Joes all out there swimming having a good time and I sink like a rock, so I'm under far to get to the edge. I don't know what the fuck was going on Panic sets in yeah exactly.
Speaker 2:So I'm like struggling and shit you know what I mean in the bottom of the pool. So I'm like, what the fuck am I doing? All I'm thinking in my head is all right, I'm going to fucking spring with all my strength as I can. I'm going to spring up. Now, do I spring up? This is what I was breath of air to get my shit going or do I scream help? Once I break the water, I was like fuck this. I'm screaming help because I'm about to die. You know what I mean. So I I gather all my strength, get low and bounce to try to break.
Speaker 2:Here's the top so you're on the floor on the ground on the bottom of the pool drowning like a. I bounce with all my strength to break the water hit with the water hit with me. I'm like, like, oh, I'm dead, I'm fucking dead. And as a bullshit you, not me being at the bottom of that pool I saw my mom watching the news and on the news it was like a soldier died today after graduating from boot camp and like I was on the news like fucking, I died, damn.
Speaker 2:no, I was like no bullshit just like you, basically like like right now, just telling the story my eyes, and like I get a little hot, crazy like that.
Speaker 2:Shit was crazy. I was down there damn near dead. Like, let's say, on a scale of one and ten, when you hit zero you're dead. I probably was like. I felt like I was like on a three or two or some shit. Like it was a rat, it was a dude, I didn't know him, but he was another joe that was there partying with us. He was was like I was on the side of the pool and I'm like what the fuck is he doing down there? And he's like I saw you moving around but you weren't coming up. I'm like, damn, this dude can really hold his breath. Good. But then after a while I was like what the fuck? He ain't coming up. And that's when he jumped in and grabbed me and he pulled me out.
Speaker 2:Everybody else still bouncing around the pool, walking around the edges, drinking, having a good time. He pulled me out Once he grabbed me. I'm like on him like this, but I'm like out of it a little bit. He pulled me to the side. I'm throwing up all this water and shit like that. Nobody even see me throwing up.
Speaker 2:Nobody see me dying, so here's the question the girl that you was talking under. She just walked away. Oh shit, she probably thought I was like fucking around and shit. You know what I mean. But I'll tell you, like I was about to die when I was a kid I had to be like my daughter's age and my uncle told me to stay on the steps. They got a swimming pool. You know how the steps go in, stay on the steps, but everybody having a good time in the pool. So I grabbed the edge and I started doing this shit. You know how you hold the edge and you're going around the pool like that. I guess my hand got too slippery and I slipped under and the same shit happened then. I was under the pool and then my uncle fucking jumped in and saved me and shit. Like I still remember that shit and I was like fucking six when that happened. And then the other time Was right after I graduated boot camp the other time.
Speaker 3:My drowning was almost the same thing, but he was just talking about the last one. We was in King Sessom Pool. I talked about this on a podcast before, but you know how the pools have drainage on top of it. I don't even think pools have drainage on top of it anymore. I don't see them. So when we was at the pool, we would hang on the drainage and go all across the pool or whatever. So all across the pool or whatever.
Speaker 3:So the guy I was with he was like yo, you want to go around on the pool. We was little, I had to be around about. We was in camp, so I had to be about seven, seven, eight, maybe younger than that. He was like you want to go around. He was the same age as I was too. So he's like you want to go around the pool. I said, yeah, so we all going around the pool or whatever. So we get on the deep end and this girl jumps. She's on top, she jumps. She didn't notice we was there. So she like kneed me in my head, damn, and I flew back like this I flew back and I'm like trying to grab the drain or whatever. I was way too far. She just swam off and didn't see me.
Speaker 3:So I had turned around and looked for the lifeguard. The lifeguard was like talking to a girl or whatever. So I'm like treading, like going down, going up, going down, going up, and the guy see, when the guy he didn't see me, when the girl hit me. So as all that stuff was going on, he kept going. So I guess he looked and seen like well, where is he at? And he looked and seen that I was like damn, they're ready to drown, or whatever. He came back, he came back over and grabbed my hand and pulled me over. Yeah, yeah, I'll never forget that too. That like so scared me because I'm like looking around, like looking at the lifeguard, he talking to somebody, I'm getting water in my lungs and all that stuff. The girl she done swam off over or whatever. I'm like oh man, this is it. And just so happened my hand my last time my hand was up like that.
Speaker 2:He had grabbed my hand and had pushed me over if everybody was on the same drinking level I was on. I probably would have died that night, but my man was paying attention, he saw me down there and she didn't fucking save me. This was at night time. No, this was probably, like I don't know, four o'clock in the afternoon it's funny, bodies of water will really like.
Speaker 1:Will show you my brother I would think he's not scared of nothing, marine, you know what I mean. But yeah, water, this guy is like it's ridiculous, like he's like it's like a baby Still to this day, like he doesn't mess around with any sort of water. So we went to Costa Rica. I went there recently. That's a beautiful spot, too Beautiful, Real quick. Monkeys up in the trees we had like these, like not tree houses, but I guess little like villas right there and all these monkeys and shit. At nighttime I'd smoke a cigarette, him and I would be chopping it up, like talking, just like this. Monkeys start tossing shit right at us like you just hear these little, fucking little bombs of shit just dropping right like that you know telling us basically to shut the fuck up, like we're trying to get some sleep right.
Speaker 1:it's kind of crazy how smart they are to throw things at like they do a lot more smarter things. Anyhow, we were, uh, we went out snorkeling and my brother was all hammered for. He's like yeah, man, I I'll be alright. Life vest we had our life vests. All you gotta do is basically float and look down and kind of swim, you're not gonna drown because you got your life vest. Man, this guy, as soon as he gets in the water, he just panics, so bad it's like he he's a whole different.
Speaker 3:Did you have an attendant with you?
Speaker 1:They're not really like attendants. The guy that I was with out in Croatia when I jumped in the water, I had faith this motherfucker knew what he was doing. I don't think he was just. He wasn't just some Uber driver. This dude was like a. This dude knew everything about every weapon. He was a badass and spoke completely proper English. I think he was some sort of like ex-Green Bray or some shit, or Marine. He did have a marine keychain which made no sense. He said, oh, somebody gave that to me, like I think it was bullshitting, and he couldn't really tell me what he did, but regardless, I had faith that you know if he's riding the speedboat like this, whipping it like this all fast and shit like he knows what he's doing out here in the water. These guys not we were like um on the way out to snorkeling.
Speaker 3:Um, they're just guys that are locals.
Speaker 1:They just know a little bit about swimming but anyhow, my brother, you never see somebody so terrified man before, like you would never see it anywhere else. But you get that man near water. It's over. The fear comes over him quick and it's interesting to me.
Speaker 2:But my daughter when she was two. She was just learning, she was just learning, she just just learned to walk and I put the big pool up in the backyard. It's probably like fucking. You seen, when I had the pool up, I didn't put it up this year. Usually, somebody told us, the best way when you have an outdoor pool is to always take it down, don't leave it up because when you leave it up, finish the conversation on part two with dan sensi.
Speaker 3:Oh, you can reach the judgmentals on facebook, tiktok, twitter and subscribe to our youtube at pno's judgmentals, instagram at the two underscore judgmentals, or you can email us at pnojudgmentals at gmailcom. Sorry, y'all have a good one.
Speaker 2:Most of y'all have a good one.
