 and welcome to me on five a show about Maine and its people this year for Christmas I decided to go to various parts in the state take some pictures of houses that I thought had beautiful beautiful decorations and also I was able to see the greatest gingerbread house I've ever seen in my life and I've got a short video coming up about that I've also got a video about a Christmas tree that I saw and over the course of my trip around the state I was asking people various Christmas questions for prizes amazing enough a lot of people didn't want to take the chance but some of them did and I was asking them some pretty interesting questions about Christmas but now I have with me the executive director of the station that I've been on for 20 21 years now his name is Tom Handel and he's the reason I'm here we had lunch about 21 years ago Tom happy holidays thank you so much for coming on the show one of the things I want to say Tom and I know this thing is a difficult with COVID and so things around the studio have changed but surely you've got a Christmas story that is one of your favorites in your life right and I'd like to hear that story yeah sure I have Christmas stories but I also want to say that this is a great Christmas story that you're coming on doing this show and your spirit and for all these 21 years or whatever that you've been doing your show you've added a lot of energy and vitality to what we do here I have I've never known anybody to be so passionate love so much what you do when you come in here it's really a joy to have you because you're just full of positive I'm a Dracula I come into the studio and then suddenly I wake up that's what it is well you bring a lot of energy to the place and I really appreciate all that you've all that you've done here it's really great thank you that to my children sitting up actually these are decorations that were left over by a prior roommate of mine yes yeah but one of the things that I think is really you know great about Christmas and the whole thing about Santa Claus that's part of my story is that Santa Claus is real and we all embody him and we all do our best to do special things on Christmas to make Santa Claus come alive and children of course respond to that to the most so my three kids were little we lived in Pownall where the station goes to Pownall and and it was enough what used to be a new school it was a lot of different buildings it was a new school in the 60s like for high school or even grammar school and there were all these weirdly shaped buildings in the 60s that had these different like levels it was it was bought by a family and made a compound but we were one family that they rented to and there was this u-shaped building that we lived in and the long shape of the U on one end was where our children slept and they and there was a roof over the hallway and then a higher roof on top of their bedroom and we were all the way at the other end of the bedroom so I had this great idea that on Christmas morning with all the Christmas presents on the tree instead of saying I think Santa's come what I would do is put my boots on run up the ladder go on top of their roof climb on top of the roof total total snow covered like like like a foot of snow this sounds like a lawsuit but go ahead and I and I'd get I'd go stomp on their roof go ho ho ho Merry Christmas ring the jingle bells then run down take my robe off run into bed and wait wait nothing so I said Andrew I guess maybe they didn't hear it's okay I'll go I'll do it again I put my boots on right run back into the bedroom nothing so finally I was like what's going on so I went down to the hallway they were under their covers they were shivering these says tell the synagogue yet he said yeah he's gone come out and get your presents yeah in the county jail and so I know that that poem the good fellow you know that she's at the end of it says the good shelf the bad shell fail I try to bring the Christmas spirit but you know you do the best you can right the reason why I enjoy the stories because here I am I'm up in various parts of the state and I'm going up to people and said listen I'm an attorney from Portland I have a TV show I'd like to ask you a couple of Christmas questions for a prize can you do and it was amazing the number of people that said no no thanks and I want to go what is it about my face that thinks I'm about to scam you but anyway that happens all the time we go out the street people just say no they don't just on get well then I then I don't take it so personally but Tom I do have a couple trivia questions for you oh great these are questions and and and the prize is enough to buy a well not a large car but a small car oh good okay so here's the question you are you know the song we three kings of orienta okay what part of the orient where from India well first of all I asked a woman in the store that question and she goes well I have no idea well I don't know if there's anybody answer it but guess I would have said Macedonia whatever who knows where they were from but she said Bethlehem and I said close enough okay what's the answer I don't know the answer oh well there is a movie you could see it on on YouTube yeah it's called Jesus was a Buddhist monk I hope I don't get yeah but it is is a documentary saying that actually the three kings came to see him in Bethlehem because they heard a Rupeshe was born and these were three were Buddhist monks that came from India and brought him back to India and trained him in Buddhism and their theory in this documentary was that Jesus's philosophy yeah that he espouses Christianity is closer to to Buddhism than it is to Judaism right so that's just it and there is a place where they actually say that Jesus is buried in India okay so we're gonna get a bunch of calls yeah that's that's thanks a long time here but you can see it on YouTube yeah here comes question two okay in my first in the show that I just taped the very moment so we talked about my dear friend Brenda Lee and in this show I'm going to talk about my dear friend Bobby Riedel who's this would be my friend Bobby Riedel this is what he looked like about 60 years ago he doesn't look like that now but but he's still a very handsome any 79 years old and the show that I want to ask you the question I want to ask you is Bobby Riedel did a cover to song that was very popular the two songs that came out in 58 were Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree by Brenda Lee huge hit and the other one was Jingle Bell Rock and Bobby Riedel did a version of that song which I'm gonna play when I close the show but he did it with another famous singer from the 60s and I'm gonna give you the hint this singer had the only number one hit to go to number one twice the only singer in rock and roll history and they did a song Jingle Bell Rock together do you want to guess the name of that other artist and that funnecello did not not bad not bad Connie Francis it was a male oh it was a man now I'm gonna give you another hint this man did songs about dances several different songs about dances how about the Barbara Streisand maybe Leslie will give me a hint okay this guy did the twist oh choppy checkers I mean besides the twist yes choppy and Bobby were pals well from Philadelphia twist anyway so that's the that's the that's the Bobby right now story so Tom thanks for coming on board while we let you switch I'm gonna call somebody folks and the person I'm about to call is indeed the the publicist for Bobby Riedel and his gal Friday and I'm gonna be calling her hopefully she'll ends the phone and here we go this is Maria Novi down in Pennsylvania as we speak all right we were calling here yeah hello is this Maria Novi my dear friend and Bobby Riedel's publicist gal Friday and whatever else you want to call yourself how you doing Maria I'm so glad to have you with me sitting right beside me is not Bobby Riedel about his picture on a pillow that my niece gave me and Maria I just asked my station director a trivia question I'm gonna see if you can guess it Bobby Riedel did a Christmas song with called Jingle Bell Rock and he did it with another artist a very popular artist can you name the artist Mr. Chubby checker well yes that's correct Maria and you win the big prize by the way Maria I've been asking people questions I got one more for you if you can if you can try to guess this trivia question we know that the Christmas is celebrated on December 25th what year what year was Jesus born Jesus Christ born you know well I asked this question yesterday and because I don't know I don't know what the I think the right answers is between four and six BC but my answer would have been zero yeah I don't think that's the right answer but anyway so Maria what I want to ask you is is yeah what's what's what's Bobby doing for Christmas what's my pal doing for Christmas well I got a couple elves right sitting right next to me by the way yeah yeah oh I can imagine that I I have to tell you one of my favorite moments was sitting him sitting with him on the back of that cruise ship and he's telling stories and he tells this story that he always tells the time about the the two old men that are talking about the heaven dreams but that's kind of an R rated story so I'll leave it for now and Maria what are you folks doing for Christmas okay so so they do a reenactment he's standing on the the front of the boat that with a picture we've all seen they go across the river wow now you know of course we have they have Bobby Rydell Boulevard there he's an icon of Philadelphia very very highly respected he loves the Eagles has he ever sung the national anthem at the Eagles game I would guess he has right right well years ago yeah okay I'm gonna close with a connection moment with Bobby Rydell when he and I first met this is how we became friends we started talking about the military and we were both in the Army reserves and both of us were squad leaders and the thing I remember is that my as being at the fort around Christmas time there's a very depressing place to be and yet one of the greatest things that I got out of the military was my friendship with Bobby Rydell and the last text that he sent to me two days ago he signed it spec for Riddarelli which of course is his real name and Maria I want to thank you just as I did Doug Rome I was in my last show I want to thank you for keeping my friendship alive with this wonderful man by the way he's 79 he just say he had a birthday in April right he'll be 80 in April 22 and still sells out venues where several thousand people will come and and watch him sing when's the last time you saw him perform Maria was recently wasn't it in August okay my final story for you in the audience as I was out in Las Vegas with Frankie Avalon at the South Point Casino with my other friend Eden Everly son of Don Everly and I went to Frankie and said Frankie I just want to tell you Bobby Rydell says good luck he goes what do you mean you know Bobby Rydell I said yes he said you just heard from him I go yeah he just texted me goes Bobby Rydell just texted you and so all of a sudden I was friends with Frankie Avalon Maria and happy holidays to you thanks for taking my call hi to John and Carolyn and the family and when you see my pal Bobby say Derry did Jingle Bell Rock on his show but trust me you don't want to see it okay okay bye bye okay ladies and gentlemen that was a Maria Novi from Pennsylvania excuse me well I bend down and get my sheet here and what I'd like to do now before I bring on my next guest is to talk to you about some photos that I took around the state of various homes that had their lights on the quality of the photographs is not what I would want but at least the message is clear and the first one I want to show which is number one is a photo actually of one of my neighbor's house and they had the normal Christmas lights but what I noticed was a Christmas tree in in the backyard not in the front yard but in the backyard and you could not see it only just a little bit from the road but they could obviously see it from the window I suppose of their living room and so the second shot Dino was also all that Christmas tree and I'm going to make it my business every night now to go out and stand and look at that lonely it's not lonely but it's sitting by itself in their backyard we're moving now to shot number three and what I thought was beautiful about this home was just that there was all white lights all white lights and it just as you drove down the neighborhood and saw this show this this house you could not miss how wonderful it was and the next one I liked another this is slide number four this is a house where had lights in every room obviously ours are single candle light in every room and I just thought that was simple but so well stated and the next one is of a store that actually is in my neighborhood called a fiddle head gift store right near the cookie jar in in South Portland and as I drove by there the first thing I thought was that's a little much it's a little whatever but then what I began to see how well they designed the symmetry of this of this decoration I was just so very very impressed so the next shot which would be slide number six is actually this is my backyard these two giant trees it took me about seven days no actually this is the park in South Portland that is right next to Portland players and right across from Cumberland farms and I wanted to tell a joke that it was actually my backyard but the shot number seven is one of my favorites because that is the shot of my favorite theater the Portland players theater in South Portland and what looks like to have the star of Bethlehem shining on Portland players where it says on the marquee happy holidays well actually that star is a streetlight but it sure looks like the star of Bethlehem to me and do you know the last slide that we're going to see here is a picture a picture of a mailbox at the post office that it goes direct to Santa and I just thought that was so cute that kids could come in there and it makes a lot of sense because then they don't have to sort all the male that's addressed the Santa Claus at the North Pole do you know if you could send in either Warren or yourself to come in and sit down and while you're doing that I would like to chat a little bit about my friend Bobby Raidell whom I just texted I met Bobby Raidell on the malt shop memories cruise and when I was on that cruise the last night there I was introduced to him we started talking about the army and the next day he called me over and we became we became good friends over the years he is pretty much a big draw card on that on that ship the malt shop memories cruise and as Maria just said in my interview he is now 79 years old still performing with the Golden Boys of Bernstein which by the way I saw that show in 1985 here in Portland Maine at the Merrill Auditorium Frankie Avalon and Bobby Raidell and Fabian they would have been in their 40s I remember sitting in the audience this the show was just beginning having trouble hearing you well that's I guess my phone saying having trouble hearing me and in any event they they performed in this Golden Boys of Bernstein and what I noticed was that the audience was sold out and I thought to myself this is really fantastic well they were going to do that show for two or three years but ladies and gentlemen it is now 2023 and those people are still going strong the Golden Boys of Bernstein so do you know I'm going to start with you buddy thank you so much for being the director how many months you've been on and now doing this I have been here at the media center working I've been volunteering for years I was on the board of directors for a little bit but I've been working since June of this year and I didn't realize they know that you have tremendous experience where was it you you were in Boston WGBH of the WGBH I was down in Boston from 1987 yeah where I started part-time full-time in 89 until 2012 oh my goodness yeah oh wow it's quite quite quite a run-in very fortunate it was a great place to work and and just recently you had a famous person on this at this studio you had Al Franken Al Franken was in at our new podcast studio we did a couple episodes for his national show well worldwide show you get a worldwide show you know yeah well it's a podcast available everywhere around the world and why did he happen to choose to shoot it here Al's got family and his wife was born in Portland really yeah oh my goodness and they come and visit and while he was here I was thrilled that the media center was able to chip in and help him continue to do his show while he was here well I'm proud to be sitting on the same spot as Al Franken so so Dino you must have a Christmas story from the past that you're quite fond of can you tell us that story well I'll tell you you know Christmas to me has always been about being with my family right and like many families mine has gone through its own ups and downs it's its own changes and I feel so fortunate now because I've got my when my parents divorced going back almost three decades now they both remarried wonderful wonderful people and I feel so fortunate that I get to spend time during the holidays with with with even more people than I almost feel sometimes more people than anyone should could deserve but it's a wonderful wonderful gift and my family here in Portland well let me celebrate the fact that my daughter and Nicole just moved to Maine with her wife are and was shopping right now with my wife and I've got to tell you something one of the things about divorces is believe not sometimes families can grow in a positive way it doesn't have to be negative and I have to say during the Christmas season folks it's the time to let down let down those those negative negative feelings and you move forward and and moving to the new year Dino I want to thank you profusely for for what you've done for me in the studio and especially these incredible decorations at Dino I was looking for a couple ribbons a couple presents but I got that you know I got the whole thing here and my two buddies the elves that look like a couple of kids I went to high school with well that that's that's courtesy of the ever resourceful Tom Handel so Dino I'm going to send you back into the studio as I discuss the videos that I did some of which I tried to send you hopefully you got them we'll take care of it yeah okay so folks we'll say goodbye to Dino when he goes back in and tries to close this show thank you Dino thank you ladies and gentlemen one of the things that one of the videos that I did up in Rockland at the Sima set was I'm walking by I saw this fantastic fantastic gingerbread house I mean something you could actually go walk inside this thing and we're going to show that video as we close the show and then the beautiful Christmas tree in Rockland I tried to send that that didn't quite come across but another beautiful Christmas tree at the Sima set one like I'd never seen before it was all white and had these white owls all through it and that was just a fun moment for me but folks I also did these trivia questions with people and for prizes and one of the gentlemen that I did record but it didn't quite get sent to the station in time his name is Christopher I told him I watched the show he was in a store nobody else wanted to do but he did and I asked him the question what year what year was Christ born and he said zero and I said to him that that is that is what I would consider to be the right answer so Warren you can come over and sit in this chair for a second just very briefly I want to just you can just hold the mic and speak by holding it without putting them up there I know you got your headphones in there and and Warren you're you're a volunteer at the station right I am a volunteer but I also work here I'm the social media coordinator you're the social media coordinator that's right and I what's your accent what's this accent oh it's a it's part of a speech impediment I had as a kid really yes it evolved over the years I still don't fully know what it is but it sounds like you're from Belgium or something it's eyes it's very weird I like I mean my mom one of the people asking that question people ask me that question all the time what's the accent right yeah and I don't know what to tell them well my parents spoke English well I have to say you know I have an accent by the way my main accent is among the worst you could have in the state of Maine if for anybody wherever I go anybody they'll go what what the heck is that accent so so Warren the good news for you buddy is is I've got I got some some trivia questions and and a prize so I'm gonna ask you a couple of Christmas questions okay okay now in the Christmas story they they're going to Bethlehem you all right one minute left they got one minute left on the show they're saying okay so with one minute left I wanted to ask you when they were going to Bethlehem what where was the first place they went to try to find a room oh they went to was it a hotel yes and what was the name of the hotel I don't know the name of it so Warren I would ask that question Warren congratulations thanks for working at the station thank you looks like we're getting ready to wrap this thing up ladies and gentlemen happy holidays from me on five and I wanted to play a jingle bell rock by Bobby Riedel and I'm gonna do that hey Siri play jingle bell rock by Bobby Riedel I think it's coming up yeah one sec I want it now there we go that's it now I don't hear it jingle bell sign and jingle bell ring the wind and blowing a bushel of fun now the jingle hop has begun jeanie about jingle bell jingle bell twist that's chubby checker I dance you wouldn't know so this is one of the new trees I've ever seen Christmas tree these are all owls sitting in the street from these like adult owls and they look so real anyway this is one of my favorite trees on this Christmas trip we are in front of what the biggest gingerbread house I'm gonna see and at first when I saw this I couldn't believe it's real gingerbread but it is everything in this gingerbread house is real this is at the famous and hotel rock it's got 290 gingerbread tiles 90 pounds of icing 10 pounds of candy two sugar glass windows and 60 plus hours so this I say is the greatest gingerbread house I've ever seen in my 75 years on the face of this earth