Speaker 1: It's nice eyes with Dan Ray.
Speaker 2: I'm telling you crazy Boston's news radio.
Speaker 1: Thanks very much, Madison. My name's Dan Ray, host the
Speaker 1: night Side, and I will get you through the weekend. Well.
Speaker 1: For me, the weekend has not started because my weekend
Speaker 1: doesn't start until eleven fifty eight tonight, which I designate
Speaker 1: the official start of the weekend. For those of you
Speaker 1: who are driving somewhere, you've already started your weekend, so
Speaker 1: you're ahead of me by about four hours. But that's okay.
Speaker 1: Stay with me and I will get us all the
Speaker 1: way till Saturday morning. We have an interesting program coming
Speaker 1: up tonight, I promise you. The Tough Student has just
Speaker 1: been released down in Louisiana. We'll talk about that case,
Speaker 1: Ramesa Oor's Turk. She still faces some immigration challenges, but
Speaker 1: she is out of the detention center in Louisiana. And
Speaker 1: we'll talk tonight with Bruce Mittman, general partner and see
Speaker 1: of Community Broadcasters, and we're going to discuss the value
Speaker 1: and the importance of radio with a specific emphasis on
Speaker 1: AM radio, and tonight at eleven o'clock during the twentieth hour,
Speaker 1: we'll do a tribute to your mom, to all moms
Speaker 1: of our Mother's Day or annual Mother's Day edition. But
Speaker 1: we have four interesting guests to talk to in this hour,
Speaker 1: and we will be starting off with a State House
Speaker 1: news reporter, Ella Adams. Hi, Ella, welcome to Nightside. Thanks
Speaker 1: for hanging out with us for a few minutes here
Speaker 1: on Friday night. How are you by, Anne.
Speaker 3: I'm doing well. Thanks much for having.
Speaker 1: Me well, yeah, thank you very much. There's an interesting
Speaker 1: piece up there. I did not realize until I read
Speaker 1: your story today that there's this piece of wheelchair legislation,
Speaker 1: a wheelchair bill up at the House, and this is
Speaker 1: one I'm wondering, why is it taking so long to
Speaker 1: do something with this. I didn't realize that people who
Speaker 1: had wheelchairs, we're really having a tough time getting them
Speaker 1: repaired in a timely fashion.
Speaker 3: Tell us about it, Yeah, definitely, you know, Dan, I
Speaker 3: didn't really have a great idea about that either. Just
Speaker 3: you know, a bit over a week ago, the Joint
Speaker 3: Committee on Consumer Protection up on Beacon Hill, they held
Speaker 3: a hearing addressing a couple of bills that you're talking
Speaker 3: about that would address, you know, different ways the wheelchair
Speaker 3: repair system in Massachusetts and wheelchair users are struggling they've
Speaker 3: been talking a lot about, you know, feeling like they
Speaker 3: can't really live their lives. They're losing independence every time
Speaker 3: they have to wait for their wheelchairs to be repaired
Speaker 3: for extended periods of time. There's talk about the kind
Speaker 3: of structural issues in that wheelchair repair system. And there
Speaker 3: are two bills, a House bill and a Senate bill
Speaker 3: that both would kind of God would dress those.
Speaker 1: The problem is that they got to reconcile these pieces
Speaker 1: of legislation. So let's break them out. What does the
Speaker 1: first bill address? And I guess there's a question of
Speaker 1: how quickly the wheelchairs are repaired. And there was one
Speaker 1: woman I believe that you quoted in your article who
Speaker 1: said that once her wheelchair was unavailable, she was confined
Speaker 1: to bed for was it eleven days? That seems like
Speaker 1: an extraordinarily long period of time. This is an essential
Speaker 1: piece of apparatus that these folks need.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, and I believe one of the wheelchair
Speaker 3: users called it a crisis of equity. You know, nearly
Speaker 3: all of wheelchair users crowded into the State House hearing
Speaker 3: room and they were also testifying virtually, and they did
Speaker 3: talk about that, you know, when their wheelchairs break, they're
Speaker 3: unable to go to work, to doctor's appointments, they're stuck
Speaker 3: in the middle of the sidewalk, stranded in bed because
Speaker 3: they're waiting for weeks, in many cases months to get
Speaker 3: them repaired. So the first bill that i'll you know,
Speaker 3: i'll talk about the Senate bill. It's not new, but
Speaker 3: it was passed by the Senate last session.
Speaker 4: It died in the.
Speaker 3: House, and we can get to that infect. But that
Speaker 3: one focuses on the issue in terms of extending wheelchair warranties.
Speaker 3: So it would extend warranties to two years, require that
Speaker 3: an assessment of those broken wheelchairs is done within certain
Speaker 3: periods of time. And the second bill is a House bill,
Speaker 3: and that one is new, and that takes a little
Speaker 3: bit of a different approach. It would put an exact
Speaker 3: timeline on those wheelchair repairs, requires that they're made no
Speaker 3: later le than ten business days after that date of request.
Speaker 1: That still doesn't solve the problem though, because if a
Speaker 1: wheelchair goes down and someone is truly reliant on the wheelchair,
Speaker 1: that means they are their house bound. They're going to
Speaker 1: be housebound unless they have a replacement wheelchair. Now, if
Speaker 1: if I have to bring my automobile into an automobile
Speaker 1: repair shop, in most cases I might be able to
Speaker 1: get for them a courtesy car to drive for a
Speaker 1: few days. More worst case scenario, they will transport me
Speaker 1: to a local rent a car place and I can
Speaker 1: then rent a car. Why is there not something similar
Speaker 1: for people who Why why are they not replacement wheelchairs
Speaker 1: that all of these places that repair wheelchairs, why don't
Speaker 1: they have some replacement wheelchairs that they can if they
Speaker 1: have to rent them out, okay, but at least make
Speaker 1: them available to me. The analogy between how much I
Speaker 1: depend on my car, you know, I and someone depends
Speaker 1: on a wheelchair is virtually identical.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, and I think that that's an interesting
Speaker 3: that is a good point, you know, I think that
Speaker 3: is what these advocates and these users are of bringing up.
Speaker 3: You know, there are systems in Massachusetts to get people
Speaker 3: loner wheelchairs. It's an issue of you know, they were
Speaker 3: talking about there aren't enough people to repair those wheelchairs.
Speaker 3: The system doesn't move fast enough. And you know, loaner
Speaker 3: chairs are not the exact same thing in some in
Speaker 3: a lot of cases, as you know, someone's primary chair
Speaker 3: that they use and so, you know, I think it's
Speaker 3: really interesting. There were a couple of voices of opposition
Speaker 3: in this hearing as well to these bills, and I
Speaker 3: think that kind of shed some light on, you know,
Speaker 3: why maybe the Senate bill has it wasn't able to
Speaker 3: make it to the finish line last session, or maybe
Speaker 3: why this is still a contract.
Speaker 1: What what preytale did the voices of opposition have to say?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so one of those voices was the executive director
Speaker 3: of the National Coalition for Assistive and Rehab Technology. That's
Speaker 3: a national nonprofit advocates for people who rely on technology
Speaker 3: and equipment like wheelchairs. And he didn't all out, you know,
Speaker 3: say that these bills should not pass. He acknowledged the
Speaker 3: system needs to be addressed. His concern was on the
Speaker 3: to your warranty right now, as he explained it. You know,
Speaker 3: these this equipment is on you know, six to thirteenth
Speaker 3: month warranties. He's worried that the wear and tear on
Speaker 3: this equipment will mean that manufacturers just they can't expand
Speaker 3: their warranty limits to meet those two years because they
Speaker 3: buy pieces like batteries and tires from other companies and
Speaker 3: those parts have to constantly be redesigned and expanded over time.
Speaker 3: So that was what he was talking about, and that
Speaker 3: gives an idea of you know what from that perspective,
Speaker 3: you know, the manufacturing standpoint. He was talking a lot
Speaker 3: about how he's been in conversation with lawmakers and consumers
Speaker 3: and Ma's health, which a lot of these wheelchair users
Speaker 3: are on about how to kind of finagle the system
Speaker 3: to make it so that it works better for people,
Speaker 3: but also address that warranty concern.
Speaker 1: Wow, something like this seems to me we're negotiating like
Speaker 1: an anti nuclear agreement with Iran. I would think that
Speaker 1: that compared to that, this should be something that they
Speaker 1: should be able to solve, even at Beacon Hill. I mean,
Speaker 1: is it's interesting. It's interesting that something like this that
Speaker 1: we in Massachusetts, who consider ourselves to be such an
Speaker 1: enlightened state. I'm not trying to put you on the
Speaker 1: spot here, Ella, that's for sure. You've explained it so well.
Speaker 1: I just don't understand why, in twenty twenty five we
Speaker 1: have reached this point. And I would think that there
Speaker 1: would be some statisticians somewhere who would know precisely the
Speaker 1: number of people in Massachusetts who rely on wheelchairs, either
Speaker 1: full time or part time. How many replacement wheelchairs we
Speaker 1: would need, you know, for the for the vast majority
Speaker 1: of those people. This is one that think, I just look,
Speaker 1: any one of us could be in a wheelchair tomorrow. Ellen,
Speaker 1: would you be kind enough to keep us posted on this.
Speaker 1: I'd maybe like to do a story some night on
Speaker 1: this because I this to me is intolerable.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I absolutely we'll keep you posting on this. Why
Speaker 3: I will be keeping and looking for looking at those bills,
Speaker 3: seeing how they progress through the legislature. If they progress,
Speaker 3: can definitely keep you posted.
Speaker 1: Appreciate it, Ella, I really do, because I used to
Speaker 1: cover the State House a lot, and I know that
Speaker 1: all they need to do is refer one of these
Speaker 1: bills to the subcommittee to study and that's it. And
Speaker 1: this one really does affect a lot of people, and
Speaker 1: a lot of people critically, and this is one that
Speaker 1: I'd like to fight for and I'd like to get
Speaker 1: some of the manufacturers, get the people on my show.
Speaker 1: You've given me great ideas and I'm going to bring
Speaker 1: you back to Ella. You did a great job. You're
Speaker 1: a good reporter. Thank you. You explained that so effectively,
Speaker 1: you won't be at the State Hell, You're going to
Speaker 1: be at the New York Times of the Boston Globe
Speaker 1: before you know or trust me, Oh Dan, I mean,
Speaker 1: I mean it. I've been around a long time. I
Speaker 1: can spot a reporter who is talented and who can
Speaker 1: explain it, and you are excellent. So thanks so much
Speaker 1: for coming on tonight, and I'll write a resume for
Speaker 1: you to anywhere. They're not going to want to lose you. You'll
Speaker 1: be able to get a better deal at the State
Speaker 1: House News. You did a great job. Thank you very much.
Speaker 1: I'm kidding. I'm not kidding with you at all, and
Speaker 1: I'm saying that from my heart that you did a
Speaker 1: great job. Thank you for explaining this story as well
Speaker 1: as you did. We'll talk.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1: You're more than welcome on back soon. Thanks. I'll appreciate it.
Speaker 1: All Right, we get back. We're going to talk about
Speaker 1: the twenty ninth, sadly twenty ninth Annual Mother's Day Walk
Speaker 1: for Peace hosted by the Lewis D. Brown Peace Institute.
Speaker 1: We're familiar with this, We've covered this for many years,
Speaker 1: and once again the women and I hope some men
Speaker 1: will be out there with them. But it's the twenty
Speaker 1: ninth annual Mother's Day Walk for Peace. We'll come back
Speaker 1: with Alexander Cherry Durellis. She's the co executive director of
Speaker 1: the Lewis D. Brown Pieces Toute. My name is Dan Ray.
Speaker 1: This is night Side, going to take you all the
Speaker 1: way through the end of Friday night right up to
Speaker 1: Saturday morning. Coming back on Nightside, Stick with us.
Speaker 2: Hid night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2: Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZY, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 1: Heh welcome back everyone, Night'side on a Friday night. This,
Speaker 1: of course is Mother's Day weekend, and for the twenty
Speaker 1: ninth year, the annual Mother's Day Walk for Peace, hosted
Speaker 1: by the Lewis D. Brown Peace Institute, will kick off
Speaker 1: this weekend with us is the co executive director of
Speaker 1: the Lewis D. Brown Peace Institute, Alexandra Sherry Durreles. Alexandra, welcome,
Speaker 1: How are you this evening? Hi?
Speaker 4: Dan, I'm well, Thank you for having me, How are
Speaker 4: you well?
Speaker 1: Welcome back. I'm doing great and again you folks are
Speaker 1: are once again doing this for those who are to
Speaker 1: the area give us the brief history of this tremendous event,
Speaker 1: which was founded in a horrific set of circumstances.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so we were. The walk was founded in nineteen
Speaker 4: ninety six by my mother, Clementina Sherry, who is also
Speaker 4: the founder of the Lewis D. Brown Peace Institute, after
Speaker 4: my brother Lewis was murdered in nineteen ninety three in
Speaker 4: December on his way to a teen's against Gang Violence
Speaker 4: Christmas party. You know, after Lewis's murder, my mother asked questions,
Speaker 4: how am I supposed to celebrate Mother's Day? What My
Speaker 4: oldest child is dead and I have two living children,
Speaker 4: and she really wanted to continue to be there for us,
Speaker 4: but still felt, you know, this tremendous loss and knew
Speaker 4: that there were other mothers out there who had to
Speaker 4: be experiencing the same thing as her, and so she,
Speaker 4: you know, started a walk that wasn't inten to be
Speaker 4: very big. It was just an opportunity to engage city
Speaker 4: officials in honoring mothers on Mother's Day who have lost
Speaker 4: their loved ones. And then it grew to something so
Speaker 4: much bigger. It's an annual tradition in Boston. Now everybody
Speaker 4: sort of gets ready for it, and we have people
Speaker 4: coming in from all over the country to celebrate Mother's
Speaker 4: Day and to know to grieve together and to continue
Speaker 4: to heal together.
Speaker 1: So let's talk about it. When does the march kick
Speaker 1: off and give us a rough idea of how long
Speaker 1: it is? And I assume that everyone is welcome and
Speaker 1: it's a march that virtually everyone can.
Speaker 4: Participate it absolutely, So it's Sunday, May eleventh. We start
Speaker 4: the speaking program at eight am in Townfield Park in Dorchester.
Speaker 4: That's in a small community called Field's Corner and it
Speaker 4: is a five k it's about three point two miles
Speaker 4: and we are just doing sort of a loop around Dorchester.
Speaker 4: So we start in the field and then we're gonna
Speaker 4: walk the streets of Dorchester and end up right back
Speaker 4: in the field. And you know, while the while the
Speaker 4: founding and who we're honoring on Mother's Day are survivors
Speaker 4: of homicide victims, we also welcome supporters, friends, We welcome
Speaker 4: you know, families whose loved ones have been incarcerated for murder.
Speaker 4: We really are It really is a day of unity
Speaker 4: because you know, violence has no borders and survivorship has
Speaker 4: no boundaries. Also, you know, we're all survivors of something
Speaker 4: in our own right, So.
Speaker 1: That's that's what I knew of as the Dorchester Town
Speaker 1: field where you're assembling, right, Yeah, perfect location. I can't
Speaker 1: tell you how many baseball games I played on that
Speaker 1: field when I was much younger than you.
Speaker 4: Participated in some of the those games too.
Speaker 1: Well, it's a lot of memories where I got I
Speaker 1: was a picture got lit up there. So you know,
Speaker 1: not every night is a success, but this, this this
Speaker 1: march is always a success. And what a tribute to
Speaker 1: the memory of your brother. It is just it's an instant,
Speaker 1: it's an institution. Your family has stayed strong over the years,
Speaker 1: and you have extended your family. How many people have
Speaker 1: over the years participated. There must be some sort of
Speaker 1: a wild estimate, And I'm wondering how many folks if
Speaker 1: we get the weather that we're promised it's supposed to
Speaker 1: be good weather on Sunday for a change, keep our
Speaker 1: fingers crossed, say a prayer, yes you will. What do
Speaker 1: you hope what do you hope to get in terms
Speaker 1: of a turnout this Sunday?
Speaker 4: You think a couple of thousands yeah, yeah, exactly a
Speaker 4: few thousand people. We've estimated between thirty five hundred to
Speaker 4: five thousand people a good day.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 4: We we have a fundraising goal of six hundred thousand
Speaker 4: and we are just under five hundred thousand, so we
Speaker 4: have a ways to go, okay, and we're hoping, you know,
Speaker 4: we're hoping that day of we'll really kick up those Okay.
Speaker 1: So what about if there are people who are listening
Speaker 1: right now who maybe can attend the march. I hope
Speaker 1: you have a website they could, they could click on
Speaker 1: make a donation. Okay, let's have that ahead, so you can.
Speaker 4: They can find us at Mother's Day Walk for Peace
Speaker 4: dot org. And that's the number four. So Mother's Day
Speaker 4: Walk the number four, Peace dot org.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm going to do that nice and slow because
Speaker 1: that's important. People are grabbing for pins. It's there's no
Speaker 1: apostrophes here. Whenever we do these. It's Mother's m O
Speaker 1: T H E R S D A y W A
Speaker 1: O K. So Mother's Day Walk that's probably lowercase, I assume,
Speaker 1: or is it.
Speaker 7: Case sensus lowercase.
Speaker 1: Mother's Day Walk the numeral four Peace p e a
Speaker 1: CE dot org. Donations are tax deductible. If you're a
Speaker 1: dot org I assume you're a five O one C three.
Speaker 4: Yes we are.
Speaker 1: So this is this is going to be a great event.
Speaker 1: It's it is such a great way to celebrate Mother's Day.
Speaker 1: And your's been instrumental in this. You turned a horrific
Speaker 1: tragedy into something really positive for the city of Boston.
Speaker 4: So thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Please you so so kind of you to be available
Speaker 1: and best of luck on Sunday.
Speaker 4: And hope, thank you for having me. I hope to
Speaker 4: see you there.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you, I we just had a baby, granddaughter,
Speaker 1: a less than two weeks ago, so we have some
Speaker 1: family plans. Other than that, I'll be I would be there,
Speaker 1: so I'm not gonna.
Speaker 7: Lie to yet.
Speaker 4: We'll fill your spirit your energy there.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, I'm with you totally. Thanks so much, little girl
Speaker 1: named woman, Sweet Caroline. Ben's Alexandra.
Speaker 4: All right, okay, take care of Dan.
Speaker 8: Thank you.
Speaker 1: It's Alexander. To talk to you soon when we get back.
Speaker 1: A really fun story about a team of soccer grannies
Speaker 1: grandma's who are just back from an international football tournament
Speaker 1: in South Africa. No, that's not American football. That's soccer.
Speaker 1: We're going to talk with one of the leading one
Speaker 1: of the local Massachusetts soccer team players, author of a book,
Speaker 1: Soccer Granny's The South African Women who Inspire the World.
Speaker 1: We're going to talk with Gene Duffy. Come on right
Speaker 1: back on Nightside.
Speaker 2: It's Night Side with Dan Ray. Hey, Dan Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2: You're on night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's
Speaker 2: news Radio.
Speaker 1: All right, now, we have a really interesting guest. Uh,
Speaker 1: all of us know about sports and athletics and how
Speaker 1: we like to play sports. In athletics, a lot of
Speaker 1: people play pickleball and things like that, particularly as you
Speaker 1: get a little older. Well, I want to introduce you
Speaker 1: to a member of the Massachusetts The New England Breakers
Speaker 1: play in Granny's international football tournaments. I'm confused here, Geene Duffy,
Speaker 1: is that the New England Breakers? Is it the Grannies.
Speaker 1: I know you're pretty good soccer players. Tell us this story,
Speaker 1: which is going to be I believe this is going
Speaker 1: to be a cover story in the Boston Globe magazine.
Speaker 9: Correct, last sun It was in the Globe magazine last Sunday.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, I thought it was yet to be in there.
Speaker 1: Now you are a player on the team, and I'm
Speaker 1: not going to tell your age, but like many of us,
Speaker 1: you were definitely on the wrong side of fifty. Like
Speaker 1: I am.
Speaker 6: That's it all right?
Speaker 1: Do we leave it at That's how I phrase it.
Speaker 1: And you've written a book called Soccer Granny's The South
Speaker 1: African Women who Inspire the World. This kind of connects,
Speaker 1: I believe with the tournament that these these women from
Speaker 1: Massachusetts played in in April helped me out here and
Speaker 1: unravel all of this.
Speaker 9: Okay, well, the story, I guess it goes back to
Speaker 9: when I started playing soccer and I was standing on
Speaker 9: the sidelines in Lexington, outside of Boston and watching my
Speaker 9: daughters play, and I said, hey, that looks like fun.
Speaker 5: I'm already a runner.
Speaker 9: Surely I can run and chase a soccer ball. And
Speaker 9: I fortunately, I found a group of women just starting up,
Speaker 9: and in no time I was hooked. I found it
Speaker 9: was such a fun way to exercise. I forgot about
Speaker 9: my to do list for that hour. And now, twenty
Speaker 9: years later, they're among some of my best friends. And
Speaker 9: I know there were a team in South Africa that
Speaker 9: started up just a few years after I did. But
Speaker 9: these women were even older, in their forties to eighties,
Speaker 9: you know, they started exercising for their health. And one
Speaker 9: day some boys kicked the soccer ball in front of
Speaker 9: them and they were They kicked the ball and it
Speaker 9: went off in a crazy direction, and Becca, who was
Speaker 9: organizing the group, said, showed them grandmothers how to kick
Speaker 9: the ball. And so after you know, a half hour
Speaker 9: of running and kicking, they were like, who like this,
Speaker 9: We want to keep playing. So there's kind of the
Speaker 9: parallel stories of women in Africa and women here in
Speaker 9: the US playing soccer.
Speaker 1: And so you did not know about them, but at
Speaker 1: some point you must have heard about them and you decided, boy,
Speaker 1: this would be great to go play a game in Africa.
Speaker 1: So you've have you been there two years now to
Speaker 1: play games?
Speaker 9: Yeah. So actually it goes back to twenty ten when
Speaker 9: South Africa was hosting the FIFA World Cup and the
Speaker 9: group of the team there in South Africa had just
Speaker 9: been playing a few years at that point, but running
Speaker 9: around in their skirts ticking the soccer ball. They were
Speaker 9: the perfect human interest story associated with the World Cup.
Speaker 9: So reporters were flocking there to show their story. And
Speaker 9: my team saw one of those news links, and you know,
Speaker 9: we're like, wow, even though we could tell our lives
Speaker 9: must be very different, we could tell also that they
Speaker 9: loved the same thing about the game that we did.
Speaker 9: And they were so inspiring because they were forty to
Speaker 9: eighty years old, you know, even older than our players.
Speaker 1: So how many times have you gone over there to
Speaker 1: play soccer?
Speaker 9: Yeah, So once reached out to them in twenty ten,
Speaker 9: invited them to come to the United States States, and
Speaker 9: they did. They came here to Boston and played in
Speaker 9: the Massachusetts Adults. They played in an adult soccer tournament
Speaker 9: that was held here in Massachusetts, oh, twenty eleven. Some
Speaker 9: of my teammates were there. And that's what the book
Speaker 9: is about. It covers, you know that twenty and twenty eleven,
Speaker 9: the initial interaction with us, and I did a lot
Speaker 9: of research about the South Africa and the historical and
Speaker 9: political pressures that impacted the lives of the women and
Speaker 9: what soccer meant to them.
Speaker 1: So why were you most recently back. It sounds to
Speaker 1: me like you've been back in the last well, it
Speaker 1: sounds like you were there in April.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I was there this April.
Speaker 10: And.
Speaker 1: You're correct me if I'm wrong, but that's last month.
Speaker 9: Yes, it is. It is. Yeah, So I'm more.
Speaker 1: Excited about this than you are at this point, Jane,
Speaker 1: tell me all about it, Okay, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5: So when the team came over here in twenty ten,
Speaker 5: the founder of this team, this woman by the name
Speaker 5: of Becanetsunrici, who's a community activist and just a wonderful
Speaker 5: person who's made amazing differences in her community fighting poverty
Speaker 5: and AIDS and etc.
Speaker 9: She said, you know, I have a dream. I want
Speaker 9: to host before I die, of Granny's World Cup and
Speaker 9: have teams from around the world come together. So this
Speaker 9: was a dream she expressed in twenty ten, and it
Speaker 9: was in twenty twenties. The pandemic got in the way
Speaker 9: a little bit of carrying it out. But in twenty
Speaker 9: twenty three she had this first tournament and we took
Speaker 9: three teams from Boston at that point, all women over
Speaker 9: at fifty in our fifties, sixties, and seventies, and competed.
Speaker 9: And then now two years later she hosted a second
Speaker 9: tournament and we had two teams this time and players
Speaker 9: fifty to sixty seventies and eighties.
Speaker 1: So what are the teams grouped in terms of age
Speaker 1: or is there a I mean I realized that looked
Speaker 1: there's a difference between a person who's fifty years of
Speaker 1: age and a person who's eighty or is it a
Speaker 1: complete team? You know, doesn't matter what age you are,
Speaker 1: you remember the team whether you're fifty, sixty, seventy, or eighty.
Speaker 1: How's that work?
Speaker 9: Yeah, So for this tournament, over fifty was the requirement.
Speaker 9: Women over fifty. So that's you know, we just formed teams,
Speaker 9: tried to balance our two teams. But you know, for
Speaker 9: other tournaments in the United States, there are you know,
Speaker 9: categories over fifty five, over sixty.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I figure. So how'd you do on this most
Speaker 1: recent tournament, the one last month in April of twenty
Speaker 1: twenty Five's the question? I'll repeat, how did you do
Speaker 1: in the tournament last month? Not that winning or losing
Speaker 1: is all that matters, but I'd love to know if
Speaker 1: if you how you did?
Speaker 9: Yeah. So, Uh, the two US teams, which are the
Speaker 9: Breakers and the Soccer Sisters, we played each other in
Speaker 9: the semifinals, huh, And I was on the Soccer Sister's team,
Speaker 9: and it was actually the Breakers who went on to
Speaker 9: win that game. And to win the finals.
Speaker 1: So so a team from Massachusetts won the whole the
Speaker 1: whole nine yards.
Speaker 6: They did. They did great.
Speaker 1: That's that's important. And this this has to be a
Speaker 1: great experience, a great bonding experience. Well, thank you for
Speaker 1: sharing this with us. I'm going to go back, and
Speaker 1: somehow I missed the Sunday. I read the article today,
Speaker 1: but I read it online. And sometimes with the goal
Speaker 1: the articles appear online and are published subsequently, and sometimes
Speaker 1: it goes the other way. So I missed the Sunday
Speaker 1: magazine last weekend. It was kind of a busy weekend
Speaker 1: around around the house. We've just had it. We haven't
Speaker 1: had but our son and his wife have just had
Speaker 1: a granddaughter, and so we were focused. I wasn't focused
Speaker 1: much on the Sunday Legacy last weekend. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: I appreciated your time, Jane, and keep playing soccer.
Speaker 9: Okay, all right, thank you very much, Jane.
Speaker 1: Have a great night. Good night. When we get back,
Speaker 1: we have an interview with the gentleman whose name is
Speaker 1: Bob Schick. He's from Walpole and he has a story
Speaker 1: to tell us. He's a former high school classmate of
Speaker 1: Pope Leo. The fourteenth. This is an amazing story. We'll
Speaker 1: talk about it with Bob Schick of Walpole, Massachusetts right
Speaker 1: after the break.
Speaker 2: Night Side with Dan Ray on w b Z, Boston's
Speaker 2: news Radio.
Speaker 11: Celebrate Mother's Day weekend with Shan Yun at the Prominence
Speaker 11: Performing Arts Center, May tenth and eleventh. Don't miss your
Speaker 11: chance to experience a breathtaking journey through five thousand years
Speaker 11: of Chinese culture filled with beauty, wisdom, and drama. Now's
Speaker 11: the perfect time to treat mom and yourself to the
Speaker 11: show and make this Mother's Day unforgettable. Oscar winner Kate
Speaker 11: Blanchette calls it exquisitely beautiful, an extraordinary experience. World renowned
Speaker 11: motivator Tony Robbins called Shenyune magnificent and highly recommends it
Speaker 11: to anyone. Discover why Shenyune can't perform in China yet
Speaker 11: captivates millions worldwide tickets at Shenyune dot com. That's She
Speaker 11: and Yuun dot com. Shen Yune, see it once, cherish
Speaker 11: it forever.
Speaker 12: Water damage happens fast, so can the cleanup. When you
Speaker 12: call on the restoration specialists of one eight hundred serve
Speaker 12: pro to help make it like it never even happened.
Speaker 12: That's one eight hundred. Serve Pro franchises are independently owned
Speaker 12: and operated.
Speaker 13: There are Boston Celtics, take on the New York Knicks,
Speaker 13: and you can be there. Ace Ticket has the best
Speaker 13: seats at the lowest prices. ACE Ticket is the official
Speaker 13: ticket partner of the Boston Red Sox. You'll always save
Speaker 13: money buying from Boston's local source for tickets. Best of all,
Speaker 13: we don't charge ticket fees. That's right, we don't charge
Speaker 13: ticket fees. The price you see is the price you pay.
Speaker 13: So treat yourself for someone special. Call one eight hundred
Speaker 13: my seats or visit ace Ticket.
Speaker 7: Countertops installed in one day, Yes they do. Call Bill
Speaker 7: Shays and Quincy. Yep, that Bill Shay's call. The company
Speaker 7: so serious about countertops that they put it in their name,
Speaker 7: Bill Shay's Countertops. When you say, says you make your
Speaker 7: new counter tops.
Speaker 8: We at Ivy Real Estate have been serving people throughout
Speaker 8: New England for many years. It's important that they have
Speaker 8: our values and standards. That's why we partner with Smaller Insurance.
Speaker 7: When it comes to insurance, go smaller, Smaller.
Speaker 10: And dot com If you need to hire it seems
Speaker 10: like the whole process can be exhausting. You search resumes,
Speaker 10: wait for the right candidates to apply, set up initial interviews.
Speaker 10: It's a lot of time and work. Well, what if
Speaker 10: you could meet with qualified candidates for your job the
Speaker 10: very next day? Now you can with zip Intro from ZipRecruiter,
Speaker 10: and right now you can try it for free at
Speaker 10: ZipRecruiter dot com slash free. Zip intro is super easy
Speaker 10: to use. You simply pick a time and it does
Speaker 10: all the work of finding and scheduling qualified candidates for you.
Speaker 10: Then you can choose who you want to talk to
Speaker 10: and meet with great people on back to back video
Speaker 10: calls as soon as the next day. Best of all,
Speaker 10: you save time and energy.
Speaker 14: Try zip intro for free right now at this exclusive
Speaker 14: web address, ZipRecruiter dot com slash free. Zip intro post
Speaker 14: jobs today, talk to qualified candidates tomorrow once again. Go
Speaker 14: to ZipRecruiter dot com slash free to try it for
Speaker 14: free at ZipRecruiter dot com slash free.
Speaker 2: It's nice side with Dan Ray on w B Boston's
Speaker 2: news radio.
Speaker 1: Well, for those of you who were not watching television
Speaker 1: yesterday and maybe living in a cave somewhere the Catholic
Speaker 1: Church has a new pope. His name is Pope Leo
Speaker 1: the fourteenth. Joining us now is not Pope Leo the fourteenth,
Speaker 1: but joining us is a gentleman by the name of
Speaker 1: Bob Schick from Walpole, Massachusetts, who, believe it or not,
Speaker 1: is a former high school classmate of the new pope,
Speaker 1: Pope Leo the fourteenth, who back in the day was
Speaker 1: Robert Francis Prevot. If I pronounced his name correctly, I
Speaker 1: always don't. I'm not sure, Bob, if it's Prevot or Prevost.
Speaker 6: That's actually a really good question, because back when I
Speaker 6: was in school with him, he was Prevost, and I've
Speaker 6: been hearing everybody on the national news referring to him
Speaker 6: as Prevost.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, Well maybe because is what a pope. Maybe
Speaker 1: they're assuming he's going to be doing a lot of
Speaker 1: praying as a pope. I don't know. Well, Bob, welcome
Speaker 1: to Nightside. Thanks for joining us tonight. I'm sure that
Speaker 1: you have been a sought after interviewee in the last
Speaker 1: few days, the last couple of days, for sure. Tell
Speaker 1: us you and he went to high school in Michigan.
Speaker 1: So this is kind of a little bit of a
Speaker 1: complicated story, but I think it's going to be fun.
Speaker 1: Tell us how you happen to cross paths with the
Speaker 1: future Pope.
Speaker 6: Well, we were both attending a school called Saint Augustine's Seminary.
Speaker 6: It was a high school up near Holland, Michigan, and
Speaker 6: it was where high school aged boys who thought that
Speaker 6: they might have a location to the Catholic priesthood. Ye
Speaker 6: went to school. It was a boarding school, and when
Speaker 6: I was a freshman, Bob Prevost was there as a senior.
Speaker 1: So how much so, look, I'm very familiar. I happen
Speaker 1: to be Catholic. So you got the big speech from
Speaker 1: the nuns many years ago. So we all got that, okay,
Speaker 1: But as they say, many have called, but few were chosen.
Speaker 1: So even if we were really called Bob, I think
Speaker 1: it wasn't necessarily neither were you were I. But that's okay.
Speaker 1: So Bob Privo obviously followed this, uh, and which is great.
Speaker 1: How much interaction did you have with them? As I
Speaker 1: understand that he was a really good bowler, He was
Speaker 1: an excellent bowler, and I'm told by someone who knows
Speaker 1: that he has taken up and is a very accomplished
Speaker 1: trombone player. Did you see any evidence of that back
Speaker 1: in your days in high school?
Speaker 6: I do not remember him playing the trombone. Iye bowled,
Speaker 6: and he bowled and his team actually won the school championship.
Speaker 6: How big his accomplishment? Yea, at the time in school,
Speaker 6: we're pretty significant. He was the student body president, he
Speaker 6: was a valedictorian. He was out standing on the speech
Speaker 6: and debate team. He was on the spirit club. He's
Speaker 6: very involved and very good at all the things that
Speaker 6: he tackled.
Speaker 1: Did you get well, speaking of tackle, did you guys
Speaker 1: have a football team? Per chance? I suspect probably not,
Speaker 1: but did you.
Speaker 6: Well, we did not, and we all we had that
Speaker 6: played against other schools in the area was a basketball
Speaker 6: team and a baseball team. This is a school, it's
Speaker 6: a high school. So all four years freshman, sophomore, junior, senior,
Speaker 6: we had a total of one hundred students.
Speaker 1: Yeah. No, I'm very very fru you're in Walpole. My
Speaker 1: son went to Roxbury Latin School, which is not a
Speaker 1: Catholic school, but it is as it's a school that
Speaker 1: it was an episcoal minister named a Tony Jarvis, Reverend Jarvis,
Speaker 1: who was the head master and they, uh, that was big.
Speaker 1: It broughts me flat and bigger, but not all that
Speaker 1: much bigger. So so basically you were there for a
Speaker 1: year with him. Now you're a freshman, a first year student.
Speaker 1: He's a senior. Uh, and obviously he's a big man
Speaker 1: on campus at that point if he's a valedictorian and
Speaker 1: all of that. Pretty good guy to deal with back
Speaker 1: in the day, or there was always that sort of
Speaker 1: stratus strata in high school. The seniors don't talk to
Speaker 1: the juniors, and the juniors ignore the sophomores, and the
Speaker 1: sophomores don't even recognize the freshman or because obviously everybody
Speaker 1: was responding to us a potentially similar call. Was it
Speaker 1: a different sort of interaction.
Speaker 6: Well, I don't think there was really something that existed
Speaker 6: at our school. I would call it much more of
Speaker 6: a brotherhood collegial.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 6: My contacts with prevots and a few of the other
Speaker 6: seniors was that they were really supportive of us because
Speaker 6: they realized that us freshmen are living away from home
Speaker 6: for the very first time. I mean, we only went
Speaker 6: home for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter, and it can be
Speaker 6: tough to be away from home at that young age,
Speaker 6: and they recognize that, and Bob in particular stood out
Speaker 6: as somebody who was really supportive and really helped people out.
Speaker 6: It was I think it has been his nature to
Speaker 6: be a service.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 6: He was also in the National Honor Society, which meant
Speaker 6: as a part of being in the NHS, you do
Speaker 6: a lot of mentoring of students that you know could
Speaker 6: do some help. Jeff, I believe he went on to
Speaker 6: major in math at Villanova. But now there's a picture
Speaker 6: of helping somebody by, you know, putting some drawings on
Speaker 6: the chalkboard and helping them through the lessons. And that
Speaker 6: was the impress out of him that he was really
Speaker 6: out to make life easier at a tough time for
Speaker 6: a lot of a freshman.
Speaker 1: Well, what you've just described Bob more eloquently than probably
Speaker 1: I would have described it as a leader, someone who led.
Speaker 1: My example, this would have been he is now sixty
Speaker 1: nine years of age, so you're a little younger than
Speaker 1: he is. I'm trying to do the math. He was
Speaker 1: born in fifty five, so you guys would have been
Speaker 1: going off to your first year at this school to
Speaker 1: figure out whether or not you actually had a vocation, probably,
Speaker 1: you said, in the ninth grade, which would probably make
Speaker 1: you thirteen or fourteen years old. So he probably got
Speaker 1: there around nineteen sixty eight and got out in seventy two,
Speaker 1: I'm guessing. And you probably got there.
Speaker 6: In seventy one and June seventy three.
Speaker 1: He graduated seventy three. Okay, did you hang in for
Speaker 1: the entire four years or did you at some point
Speaker 1: say this isn't quite my cup of tea?
Speaker 6: We're in my junior at the fellows requires of priests.
Speaker 6: Could was one of a great and uh. I remember
Speaker 6: talking to a priest about it at the time, and
Speaker 6: to paraphrase what you said a bit ago, what he
Speaker 6: told me was, don't worry about the few are frozen.
Speaker 1: I missed that. You broke up on me just a
Speaker 1: little bit. What was your last.
Speaker 6: Comment, bob, Oh, you missed my punchline?
Speaker 1: Well, I want to say, hey, do me a favorite
Speaker 1: set it up again. I don't want to waste a
Speaker 1: good punchline. Alright ahead.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 6: Traditionally it's many are called a few are chosen. Yes,
Speaker 6: I had told me that many are old, but few
Speaker 6: are frozen.
Speaker 1: Okay, I got so. Did you then did you matriculate
Speaker 1: there or did you go on, you know, back home?
Speaker 1: Were you a Michigan guy or in Illinois? Obviously he
Speaker 1: grew up outside of chicagoan uh, what was described as
Speaker 1: close to the south side of Chicago. Are you? Were
Speaker 1: you from Chicago? I know that Michigan and Illinois the
Speaker 1: border of butts.
Speaker 6: There most of the students there. There was the different Detroit,
Speaker 6: the Detroit area in Saint Louis, but it was mostly
Speaker 6: the Chicago area. Leaves put hide sometimes in the city.
Speaker 6: I'm from a suburb called when this was from Tinley Park.
Speaker 6: Those are both Southwest suburbs. And after I finished my
Speaker 6: junior year, I just went back home and went to
Speaker 6: a public high school.
Speaker 1: Okay, And so he went off to Villanova and and
Speaker 1: the rest is history. I'm just curious, what have you
Speaker 1: done with yourself? How'd you end up here in Walpole?
Speaker 6: Well? I actually spent some time working on movies and
Speaker 6: television shows and commercials and things like that. I was
Speaker 6: an assistant director, uh huh, and that for a couplecades.
Speaker 6: I started to tea and I actually taught in a
Speaker 6: Catholic high school in Maryland. And that's the job that
Speaker 6: I just retired from and we moved to Massachusetts because
Speaker 6: our daughter went to school, went to then of living
Speaker 6: in Boston and never came back. Just now Mary working
Speaker 6: and we decided to join her up here, and we
Speaker 6: absolutely loved here.
Speaker 1: Well, welcome to Massachusetts, Bob. Nice to make your acquaintance.
Speaker 1: I hope you'll listen to Night's Side occasionally. I spent
Speaker 1: thirty one years working on Channel four. I know you
Speaker 1: were interviewed last night by my former colleague and great
Speaker 1: friend Lisa Hughes. Is one of the real class people.
Speaker 1: I enjoyed watching it, and I really appreciate that you
Speaker 1: take some time and talk to my audience tonight. And
Speaker 1: it's just funny how the world works and the people
Speaker 1: that you meet along the road of life, you just
Speaker 1: never know where they're going to end up. So you've
Speaker 1: got a story to tell that a lot of people
Speaker 1: are going to be interested in. Thank you so much
Speaker 1: for your time tonight, Bob.
Speaker 6: Thanks for having me. And and Lisa.
Speaker 1: Said, you broke up with me again there all.
Speaker 6: Right, Lisa Hughes asked me to say hello to you
Speaker 6: quite well.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, we were, we were. We were teammates for
Speaker 1: many years. That's for sure, Bob, hope to meet you someday.
Speaker 1: I I had relatives growing up who were in in
Speaker 1: Walpole many years wrote a street called Lewis Avenue. We
Speaker 1: just go out there and visit when I was probably
Speaker 1: your your age or younger in terms of elementary school,
Speaker 1: so I know Walpole well. It's a great community. Thanks Bob,
Speaker 1: I appreciate your time. Have a great weekend, enjoy yourself. Okay,
Speaker 1: than congratulations.
Speaker 6: Thanks for having me. It's a pleasure.
Speaker 1: Right back at you, right back at you.