 Welcome to Barbell Logic Rewind. You're listening to Barbell Logic Podcast. I'm Matt Reynolds. I'm here with my cohort, Scott Hambrick. Scottism, Hambrick. And we're here with his dad, Frog, which is what everybody calls him, which means it's the easiest first question I've ever had in my life, which is, what's your real name? What's your real first name? William. William. So mine. Right. So, yep. I'm Thomas. He's Scott. OK, right. Middle names. Now, did you go by your middle name growing up before you became Frog? Absolutely not. You went by William? No, I did not. What did you go by? Well, I had uncles named Bill. OK, right. Grandpa named Bill. Somebody hauled her Bill and everybody in the goddamn room stood up. Right. So they call me Tom. Not Billy Tom. They do that sometimes in Oklahoma. Oh, they do that. Does it throw two of those together? No, they call me Tom because that was my grandfather on my mother's side. So I was named after my dad's dad and my mom's dad. And how long did Tom last before Frog took over? 11 years. OK. Yeah, I was told you were a kid. I was told sixth grade. Yeah, I think so about right. So what's the story? How'd you become Frog? Well, my little sister had a neighbor and they had a music class and they had to go find a song, get the words to it, learn it, and sing it in music class. OK. And she got Froggy went according. So my my sister told her says he's got that in a songbook. Well, drag his ass down here and we're going to learn it. So I go down there and help her with it. And her mother went to call me Froggy. And then her daddy and her daddy went to call me. And then I had an older brother and she had older brothers. So that was it. Well, yeah, except when I was at my grandpa's house, he said, I ain't calling you no goddamn frog. I said, OK. Did you like it? I didn't care. They fed me. There's a lot of toms. It was that Cecil. Who was that? Wiley Berry. Wiley. Yeah. Wiley and Ruthie. So by the time you're 15, 16, you're frog to everybody. No, I go back to Tom. Oh, you do? Yes. OK. So then when do you go back to Frog for the second time? When I come back to Tals area. OK. So you went to off to school where? Over a little town over by the state line called Calcord. And you were how long? Well, it was my ninth grade. OK. So by the time you're 14 years old. At Christmas, we moved. Your mom had died young, right? When you were young? When I was 10. When you were 10. And we got it back all the way up. So you were born. In 1946. Wait a minute. Were you? I was hatched, really. So we thought 1946 for that's all I knew, right? And then dad went and saw his Uncle Joe about five, six years ago. And Uncle Joe had a letter that my grandpa sent him. It's dated February 1945. That's correct. And it says, hey, we had a bouncing baby boy. His name is William Thomas. So do you think that was a typo? Or do you think he wrote that down wrong? Or do you think you were born in 45? And I think I was actually born in 45. Because they said I was mature for my age. You were always the big kid. So you went 70, 68 years thinking it was 46. No, that's because a public record for me and my signing up for the draft and social security numbers and what I was registered to go to go to school. So that was the birth date. Right. And then Uncle Joe was like, here's this whole brown letter. Yeah, here I got something for you there. And you had no idea when you got that letter. Oh, are you saying me? You did know? Or no. No clue. I kind of, in the back, back of my mind, I'd say, maybe I'm a year older than I thought. It said, well, I distinctly remember that being mentioned like 1947, something like that. OK, yeah. When I first started remembering she had, sure. But so you were born in Compton. Born in Compton. Compton, California. I know some other guys that were born in Compton. Well, they don't look like frog. Well, the whole deal was back then it was a bedroom community for Lockheed Martin. Right. OK. OK. And and all the black people were in Watts. Yep. Long Beach line was next to it was Hispanic. OK. And then the integration started. Your dad worked for Lockheed or? He worked for McDonald Douglas and got loaned out during World War Two. OK. The Lockheed Martin, because he was a structural aircraft mechanic. OK. So he goes overseas to Africa and Egypt and all this stuff. Yeah. And then he comes back and made you. And then he goes to Lockheed. And it really comes back to Tulsa to Douglas. And they sent him back to Lockheed out in Long Beach. And then that kind of went south, kind of ugly thing. And sure. So anyway, he signed on the Time and Energy Commission. So he goes out to Marshall Islands when they're testing the A bomb. So they go out and fly the airplane, drop the bomb, come back. Well, and they check the airplane for structural damage, you know, when the pilots live to get them back. Sure. So if the plane got back, you had to go check it. It's like Noah's in and out the dove. So that comes back as good news. So that's what he did. What do you remember about your dad, especially before your mom passed? What was he like? He was gone. Travel all the time. Divorced. Right. Right. Gone. So you lived with mom. Yeah. Dad worked. Dad supported you guys still from his work. Yes. Yeah. Mom would lose the checks. She'd get hammered on four roses, go hide the checks. Four roses, not as quality whiskey back then as it is. And then couldn't find them. And oh, man, things like that. So mom struggled. Mom was a strong. No, no, she didn't really struggle. Well, I just mean she just get ahold of me. It's in another check. Right. Sure. So, you know, he didn't duck his responsibility for us at all. And then so you mentioned a younger sister. You got any other siblings? Oh, yeah. Yeah. How many held? I got a sister brothers, right? One brother, he passed away four years ago. Older than you. Two years. OK. I had a sister, half sister that passed away. That was 19 years older, 18, 18, 19 years older. OK. It was your dad's. No, it was your mom's mom. Mom's baby girl. And she always introduced her as her niece. Interesting, because she had her so young. Oh, I imagine, I guess, you know, they said she was 36 when she passed, but she was actually over 46. Oh, wow. So. And pregnant. You guys are like Cuban defectors. They just lie about their age. You realize that all of the Little League teams you ever played on, they're now forfeiting their trophies. Got to put it at once. They realize that frogs out there pitching. He's 17 years old. He's throwing up 72 miles an hour at these 12 year old kids. I got a I had a sister that was two years younger than me. That passed. And then I've got a little sister that's four years younger than me. OK, so you got. So was that four? What do you got for four? And then my aunt may the half sister. And then, yeah, then Aunt May, the half sister. So then your mom passed at 10. Is that what you said? You were 10 years old. Yeah. What can I ask? What happened there? We went horseback riding. So we go down in the ditch there in L.A. where, you know, you could get horses and ride and had all the riprap and stuff. And so we go down to go horseback riding. So everybody gets a horse. And my little sister was four years younger than me at the time. So six, six, something like that. Mom gets on a horse and she rode a horse all of her life. The guy picks up my little sister to hand it to her and she blows up and goes to screaming and yelling and kicking and kick the horse. The horse went to Bucking. So my mom off in that pile of riprap. Oh, my God. Broker ribs punctured her lungs and she refused to stay in the hospital because there are four of us at home. So she comes home suffocated. Oh, my goodness. That's actually passed. So yeah, yeah, punctured lung, probably swollen. So wow, wow. It'd be interesting to talk to your sister about that, you know, just that's that's a that's some heavy shit to live with. I would think I don't think she even would remember. Sure. So, yeah, sure. And we didn't run it up or up the flagpole either. You're 10. You got a bunch of you got a bunch of little kids. Mom, dad are divorced. Dad's working and traveling all the time. You live with mom. You who do you live with my sister? My sister, my who's she almost 20 years older than you. Yeah, she comes from Colorado. She was awesome. She come from Colorado down for the funeral and stuff. Her and my dad talk. So we get on airplane, go to Colorado Springs. And we live with her a year. Wow. Well, you guys flew out there. She came to the. Yes, I did not know that. Is that first time on an airplane? Yeah, you can remember. Can you remember it? What it was like being on an airplane in like 1950. Yes, I'm 54. Right. Yeah, I hated it. Did you hate it? Yeah, yeah, we we got over the Rocky somewhere headed for Denver or whatever we hit an air pocket and it just. Oh, sure. And terrifying. Yeah. So that I've flown thousands and thousands of hours since then. But that first trip sucked. Right. Go to mom's funeral. Put your ass on a D.C. three. Yes. Yeah, like next day, probably, right? Yeah. Yeah. No, we stayed. She had a sister named Jesse. So we went and stayed with Aunt Jesse for less than a week, something like that. Was that June's mom? Yeah. And then ended up in Colorado Springs. Aunt May told me that when they all when those Hambert kids all showed up that they were feral children. Feral, he's not in the neighbors. They could shoot you like hogs, huh? So you don't go play with a wild dog. Your mama didn't teach you that. I know that's why you got to shoot them. That's what I said. So she break your ass like a wild horse. Well, she had rules. And if you didn't play, man, she'd come on you. Good. Turn on you like a wild man. She could be even before you. But there was no question, you know, that what she was trying to do was right. Sure. And I realized, you know, when she said, this is what I want you to do, it better happen. Yeah. Well, you could tell like the second you said her name a minute ago, he said she was awesome. Like you're well, you know, my brother had a had a hard time with my mom passing. So he was, let's say, belligerent, you know, sure. Negative and all that. But he he kind of and he was how old? Two years older than me. He's 12. Yeah. So gosh, he's right in the middle of the worst time of your life anyway, right, where it's well, another deal is we get out there. This is a great story. So they take us to have checkups like you take a dog to the vet. Normal kids get checkups. Right. That's not any that weird. Yeah. But, you know, us and that was weird for you never before. Yeah. So they they go and they found out Uncle Sonny, that's my brother, they call him Sonny. His name was named after my dad, Grady. And wait a minute, who was your dad named after? A blue nose mule. Yeah. We'll get that a minute. So anyway, he goes and has a we go have our check up instead. We'll find out he's got a hernia. So they said, well, we got to fix that. So they get him all rigged up. And then when he gets through having his hernia fixed, he discovered they'd also circumcised. He was a mad dude. They were feral. It was. It was a cut. It was for health reasons, she said. Yeah, good. That's great. I concur. That's a good move. So you go out there and you live with Aunt May, Aunt May, for just a year. A year. So you're 11. Where you go from there? My dad came back from the Marshall Islands. He went down and bought a 54 Mercury Monterey. So does in it. And we come to Catoosa here, but Tulsa. But that's where his mom and dad lived. OK, brothers and all them nearest inland port in the United States, the port of Catoosa. It wasn't there yet. Oh, it wasn't. No. Oh, no, no, no. There was a waterway. Well, there was just one. There was just one bridge across the Bergus River. OK, yeah. And that was just 10 years after the ferry went away. So that's that's 56 that you move there somewhere there and started going to school, Catoosa public school. Right. And dad is raising your dad. Have a wife at this time or girlfriend or anybody? Sort of, kind of, maybe. Don't keep buying. Yeah. So he bought. So he called this person and she was still in California. So she throws all of her stuff in there. Fifty four forward to the hard top with a continental kid and her two red eddy kids. And here she come. That lasted about eight months because she sold her kids and her stuff back in her little blue Ford and said, I've got to leave or I won't kill Tom. You. So where they went? Never heard of them again. Wow. But my mom was married probably four times four to five. Dad was married three to four. Everybody's trying to find us another parent. We didn't need a parent. We were a feral. Right. I mean, we really looked after each other. Sure. You joke about the feral, but you had a lot of street smarts. You guys obviously were raised in a way that you were kind of in survival mode for years. Right. Oh, yeah. Even pomegranates and. Oh, yeah, we still pomegranates and guavas and all that stuff. Yeah, oranges and right. Life was good. Yeah. So anyway, I ended up in Colorado Springs, so they enroll me in school and I go down there and talk to them. They want to send me back two years. But you go back to Colorado Springs. No, just went with the first trip. OK, they want to accept you back. So, you know, they're going to enroll us in school there. Sure. So we go down there and they say, well, you're coming out of California when I set you back two years. Oh, this was fifth grade. You know, I said, wait a minute. I don't want to do that. Sure. And they already, you're older than all the fifth graders. So they're like, listen, you're six. You're already 12. You got to go back and be with the third graders. He's like, no, no, no, no, no. It's amazing that the administration would even look at you and say, yeah, we should put you with a bunch of seven year olds. Like, listen, man, can you imagine the level of bully that you could be? So anyway, we went over, what do you know? Well, I knew how to color. I could make shit with clay. I could finger paint. I could print my name. Well, that's it. And I had this wonderful lady. Her name was Myzenbach, which was going to be my teacher. And I said, I'd like to try to make it. She said, I'll tell you what. You give me an hour every morning before school and hour after school to be tutored. And if you make it, you make it. If not, you're going back. Well, I said, I'm in. So when I left there, I knew how to read. I knew how to write longhand. I knew my multiplication tables. I could, you know, I walked in that class and they were doing long division. She said, I said, what's that? Is that Egyptian? So anyway, I had six years or so of education in one. Yeah, you know, I mean, California, we're just trying to make you better neighbors. Right. You know, how to coexist in a like this. That's in an anhyzer. So many people. Their main object is for everybody to love each other. Sure. And education and pay taxes. Yeah, not a lot has changed. But the same. So by the time you came to Catoosa, you had a decent education. You were relatively caught up at that point. I got to where I actually enjoyed math. Yeah. The English kind of pissed me off because they were making a lot more out of it than what it physically was and how it was used, you know, the diagramming sentences or all that other kind of crap. I said, really, what is the reason for this? It's like algebra. They should spend that time teaching people how to do checkbooks, how to manage their money and things like that. Instead of if you got four apples and three oranges and Dickie has one grape and you mash them all up in a big can and you leave it to lay for six months. What do you have? You got something to drink. I was going to say you got prison wine, right? You know. So anyway, now you're back. Now we're caught up and Wiley Berry calls you froggy. And so that's why you were there. That's why you're in Catoosa at sixth grade. Right. Yeah. Yep. So so I have a paddle from sixth grade that one whole side of it has my spankings on it. The other side has a whole class rest of the class. Oh, like tick marks. Yes, like hash marks. I mean, like doing time. Who swatted you? Mr. Sam's and a guy named Gabe Walters. So J. W. Sam's the first guy they ever gave me swats to really your first your first spanking at school was the same guy that spanked your dad. They weren't actually swats either, buddy. He put the hammer on you. Did he? He was good at it. Yeah. Yeah. Was it good? Did you need it? Or do you look back with disdain? I probably had to come in. Yeah, sure. You know, Mr. Sam's a good guy. Yeah, it's just part of life. You know, sure. You were honoring need to be beat. Got to beat you. So when I got to kindergarten, he was the principal of the elementary school. Well, yeah, I had a few like that. Yeah, I had an algebra teacher, Mr. Hock. Actually, I had him for algebra, in geometry and trig at him three years. And he was my dad's math teacher. My dad went on to be a civil engineer, and it was always interesting. I had a few of those out of Mr. Gould was the history, political science teacher that was also the golf coach. My dad was captain of the golf team in golf. What's that? I know, right? And then listen, we actually, we come from nothing to year. But it's just pasture hockey. So yeah, well, it's weird that the only thing we knew about golf course was to be over and dropped off so you could carry somebody's bag. Yeah, sure. It's a well, even my grandpa, that we didn't we didn't mention it when we interviewed my grandpa, Lynn, but even up till about three years ago, the golf course he played even at 82. Everybody in town calls it the Goat Ranch, right? Because it's not this in the country club. That's not where we're playing. So it's the public course. But we're recording this tonight because he's playing golf tomorrow. Oh, right. Yeah, that's right. So he's right. At some time, he yeah, he figured it out. So yeah, go ahead. How long were you at Catoosa then before you went to Colcord three years? Seven, eight, nine, 60 for three and a half years. Yeah. We went at Christmas in 1960. You're like 15 somewhere in there. Kind of sort of. OK, in that ballpark. Yeah, that's what you're you're worn. Yeah, I know, right? Somewhere in there. We're in the right ballpark, though. You're not driving yet. I mean, not legally. No, but I did go into Arkansas and get my driver's license. You could get a driver's license in Arkansas. You could go to Arkansas and get a driver's license. And then bring it back and it would still count in Oklahoma. Well, what the deal was is we lived on the Oklahoma side at Flint Creek. And we had a Siloam Springs address. So I just go over and I just take the test and stuff. I got a Siloam Springs, Arkansas address. So they give me a driver's license. You was the town you lived in in Oklahoma right on the border, right next to Siloam Springs? Are you why did you have a Siloam Springs? They didn't really live in a town. Well, I understand. But what I'm saying is that the the address of the place you lived in in Oklahoma actually had a Siloam Springs address or you guys had another property. No, no, it was there. You lived on the border basically. Well, yeah, it was seven miles. Right, it was close. OK, got you. So you went into the city town of Siloam Springs. No, we never lived in city. No, you went into the town of Siloam Springs to get your driver's license. So that way, then you could drive with with an Arkansas driver's license in Oklahoma in case there was a problem. When I moved, you know, I came from Arkansas. You still you get your learners permit at 14, which you can't do. I think you have to be 15 and a half or something in Missouri. It's not it. You got away in a while. I think in our yeah, but you could get your driver's license to be a school bus driver at 16. I'm serious. So it's some juniors in high school driving the bus. Yes, yes. That's incredible. Yeah, they go when they were the last stop on the bus and they drop everybody off and park the bus at home and they get up in the morning, go to school, they pick everybody up on the way back. Amazing. Yeah. Can you imagine? They got eight dollars a day. Yeah. Did you do that? No, no. Yeah, I think you can still get what I call a farm to market license or something like that. Right. You can drive to the farmer's co-op right for 14. I think that's well. Yeah, you drive a hay truck and that kind of stuff. So when do you move out and decide I'm tired of being raised by adults? How old are you? Well, I started making my move when I was about 14. But OK, I actually pulled it off when I was probably 16, 15 and a half. So what happened between there, 14 and 16? You started sleeping in other places? Well, no, I done my best to try to help Dad keep his farm. You know, we had cows to milk and hogs to feed and chickens and a lot of chickens. Right. You have that commercial chicken. Yeah, like a chicken house. They have like 23,000 chickens. Yeah. Tyson. And you fed them with a shovel and a wheelbarrow. Right. Was that was it a Tyson chicken house? Is that who you sold to or who? No, plus. Plus Oklahoma. Is that Oklahoma company? No, it's Arkansas. Plus O'Gree. OK. OK. And then you leapt out for real 15 and a half, 16 on your own. Yeah. What was that like? Is another day in the adventures? Well, where'd you live? Well, I didn't really live anywhere. I had. I come back at 2 for just a little bit. And then I turned around and went back to where I was going to school because I made my grandpa a promise that I would graduate high school. So I go back over to Calcord and it's during the holiday thing at that particular time. So they always let the gym open so you go play in the gym. You know, play basketball and just that other. So I just found me a nice place to stay in the gym. Cold outside. It's holidays. You're 16. Yeah. Where else are you going to sleep? Had showers. Yeah. You know, locker room showers. Take a dump. You start sleeping in the gym. Yeah. Wow. Then I got to do that. Then I got discovered two weeks. So you got you got somebody found you. Yeah. How'd you get found? I don't really, really, really know. I think the principal, the guy that I ended up staying with, suspected that I was staying in the gym because, you know, he'd come down early and open up school. You're the first guy at school every day. The last guy to leave, you know, and I think he's seen me coming out of the gym and going in, you know, that kind of thing. So you said it's the guy you started staying with. Is that he took you in and you stayed at his house. So the principal finds out that you're sleeping in the gym at 16 years old and decides to take you in and gives you a bedroom and make sure you got a place to sleep. And he feeds you to give you food. Yeah, but I didn't impose on it very much on that. Yeah. You know, he had bird dogs. He had blankets, cows and stuff like that. And I took care of all that kind of stuff for him. Do you guys talk about that? Make a deal or do you just start kind of working and feel like this is what I need to do if he's. Yeah, that's what it was. You know, he, you know, he'd get up, go feed the cows. I said, I got it. And out in his pasture, I lost my class frame. I thought I'd lost it had been gone. You know, it'd be gone forever. Well, a year later, I'm out there to go spread some hay and there it laid. So I was, I was, I was golden. So had he taken in other folks or before he had one guy that he had took in probably 20 years earlier for a short period of time because they're I kind of understand that the guy's parents were killed in a car wreck. So he let him stay with him, finish up a senior year in high school. So this guy had been principal for decades. Now, he went to principal then he was just a teacher, still in education for decades. Yeah. Over the course of 20 plus years. Well, the only people that were, let's say, had a decent car to drive decent house to live in and decent clothes. They were the school teachers or the superintendent. Yeah. Or a preacher. Really? Everybody else was on the same level. Grubbin. Huh? Yeah. Yeah. Times have changed. Well, you get a hundred people in the congregation, 10 points. Well, I live in man. That's true. Everybody's paying 10 points, I suppose. But, well, and I was thinking more teachers. Oh, yeah. But, you know, I mean, you even go over there right now is over last weekend for an alumni deal. And for Illuminati. What? An alumni dinner. Oh, alumni. Yeah, alumni. Alumni. I don't speak Missouri. That's mule shit. Show me. Right. It's show me. It's show me. Just just about. So anyway, the nice cars, the parking lot and the people that had on dress pants and nice linen church stuff like that at the church with school teachers or the school teachers, even still, even still. Yeah. Yeah. It's poor, poor, poor, poor. There's a poor over there that can't even pay attention. You're making thirty five thousand a year over there. You're that's high life. You're rocking. That's and that's probably what teachers make. Well, the deal is that it worked for the chicken plant. Right. Making twenty one. No. At the chicken plant now. I don't think so. Twenty one thousand a year. Probably not. What county is that? OK, Delaware, Delaware County. Port County and the state. That's crazy. That's beautiful place, though. Sure. Nice folks. Sure. You can hunt, find a lot of shit to eat. Yeah, it's good. Yeah, I lived in Northwest Arkansas where I was raised, same sort of thing. Beautiful, you know, right on the White River. Good fishing, good hunting, good people. Nothing, nothing there. And you go back when you're thirty and all your friends are in prison for dealing math or, you know, nobody's done anything. So so you came from this really. I mean, it's it's you've got a rough background growing up, right? You lost your mom at ten and you were feral by your own qualifications, right? And, you know, five, six years behind in education. And then you get caught up because you got this teacher that takes you in and takes you under her wing two hours a day for a year and catches you up and then and then you end up moving out and you live in a gym and then get taken in by a principal. And that's a that's a that's a tough upbringing. And, you know, I know you as this guy who's a, you know, a fairly financially independent family man. You know, you're a great grandpa and a great dad and and Scott and I hang out all the time and he talks so so high about you. How this work? I mean, how did it work going from this like insane? The cards that you were dealt in life weren't very good. You weren't dealt. Well, you got to you got to understand things happen, but you don't have to look at them like they happen to you like they wounded you. They, you know, their experiences, you know, you can get bitter and mad about a lot of things than I was cheated. No, I wasn't and never felt that way. Never felt that way at 13 at 11. No, you were always just like, here we go. There we go. Next day, myself up by my bootstraps and go to work next day. Yeah, let's go. Yeah. So what was life like after high school? When did you meet your wife? I met her actually probably 1958. OK. And I knew her brothers and I knew who she was because she and my sister were friends. And how close are you guys in age? She's a year younger than I am. OK. In the same high school, you're one of the same high school at the time? No. Well, I'm same same school district, though, right? Well, I, you know, I mean, I left and I left in ninth grade and junior high. OK, so you were done with school after nine. No, I would that's in Catoosa. He left Catoosa. So that you would hitchhike from out at Colcourt back to Catoosa on weekends and stuff like that far away these two times. So 89 miles, 89 miles. OK. So on the weekends, you're coming back to Catoosa occasionally. Yeah, right. And you hitchhike back up here. Is there a highway that goes from 412 go straight from Colcourt to Salon? OK, well, it's 412 now. It was old, old highway. Old Highway 33. OK, got it. You hitchhike back and you met her your ninth grade year and she's a eighth grader, something like that. Yeah, I mean, I knew who she was, but you know, you're not sweet on each other. No. So anyway, I'm out of school a year at a high school when I come back because I have a job at a chicken plant and I go where and I'm getting a dollar and a nickel an hour and I'm getting chickens. They're just coming just in. You're tearing your front of your nails off and you're getting these chickens. And the line boss come by, I said, boy, you're sure doing a good job. So and you look and it was like a quarter of a mile to the wall. And here's this guy snaking along the wall, going up there and said, you keep working hard, you can have it. Maybe you can have his job one of these days. I said, what does he make? He said a dollar thirty three an hour is the plant manager. I took my gloves off at that instant. My apron, I said, I'm done. I'm not getting trapped in this shit. And I left. Yeah. Oh, and back to Catoosa. Yeah. For good. For good. So you're doing odd jobs around Catoosa around the area. Yeah, you know, I've there's a lot of people work with their hands. You know, carpenters that needed help. And then one of my. Uncle's wife, brother, was a Mason bricklayer. So anyway, he got me in and I was a Mason tender for a while. That was a good flick. And this is like in your mid 20s. No, I'm not. No, not yet. No, early 20s, 20, 20. And so are you married yet by the time you're 20? I get married at 20. OK, how long did you guys date? Two years, two years. Tell me about your bride. She's awesome. Amazing. She's special. What was it that changed her from this eighth grade little girl that was friends with your sister to you came back and decided this was so. Well, I go down, you know, I go down and there's ballgame going. And I hadn't seen her in three years or something like that. And I look down behind the bleachers and here's this long tall. Good looking gal with black Levi's on. I said, damn. Mom was probably five, nine or 10. I was going to say, she's still long and tall. She's just imagine it's the kind of genetics that makes Scott. Hamburg. So anyway, I go and investigate and I find out it's Mary. So I, you know, I catch her in the gym and we visit a little bit and I catch. I mean, does that mean corner? Yeah, stalk. Well, she had a friend and we went on a double date. My buddy took Mary and I took Brandon. We go out on this day and I said, me and Jerry put her heads together and I told him, I said, I don't like this son of a bitch. Let's walk. He said, OK. He married her. Yeah. Yes. Oh, that's so good. So good. So now you're you're in love. You're 20. Well, what point do you join in? Is it the Navy? Where'd you join? I joined the army. The army. When were you? Well, the deal was I go down and I think about joining the army. Now, this is before me and Mary got to, you know, I said, you know, they got food and rough and bad. Well, I'm about blind in my right eye. So I go and I say, we don't care nothing about having you. I said, OK, I go. And then my buddy, Jerry, when I he joined the National Guard, I want you to come and join the guard. I said, OK, so I go down there. I joined a guard week later. I get my draft papers. So anyway, it gets shut down. And so I just do my time in the guard. I spent 15 years in the army guard. And then I one day I heard some guys bitching because the remote in the room, they couldn't find it for the TV. And I was thinking them guys got to be in the Air Force. So that was a full timer for the guard. Full timer for the guy. So you did your two years or whatever was part time in the guard. Six. Oh, six years part time. Yeah. Before you went full time. Right. OK. And then you go full time. So now by this time you're twenty six, twenty somewhere there, twenty five, twenty six. You go full time. Yeah. And then. Seventy two, January one, seventy two. OK. And I was working for Pontiac. Thanks for going real bad. They built these beautiful new Pontiacs in the first year of emissions. They changed camshafts and screwed them up where they wouldn't run. And it was all a brand new product. Nobody had by them. So I went from five hundred bucks every two weeks down to eighty six dollars. I said, I can't do this. Well, the old man had run the maintenance shop for the guard because I had just got out. He came down there and he says, hey, you want to go to work? I said, OK, stand right there. I went and got my truck. We pushed my toolbox over in the back of it. We went out the armory and he says, well, you're not really hard yet. We got to go down and talk to McGee, which was a guy, the Colonel McGee guy. I said, OK, we go down there. I said, thanks, I just quit my fucking job. That's what I mean. He said, be here three in the morning. We're going to Norman. I said, OK, so I'm there. We go down to Norman. We go in and talk to some commudging. How much you got to have an hour? And at that time, they before they went federal civil service and I got to have four dollars and a nickel. Oh, God, how many said that's too much money? I said, well, that's what it's going to take. I've got a family feed. And I said, I, you know, and that's a lot of money. He says, go out there and sit down. I got to talk to Orville. So Orville went in there and they just have after about two and a half hours, they, oh, man, they agreed. OK, but don't you tell anybody what you what you're drawing? I said, done. Two and a half hours. So I was sweating it for a while. Yeah. So we go back to Tulsa and I load my toolbox and I got my stall and this is the other one of the old guys says, you know what? If you keep your nose clean, you work real hard, you make what I make. I said, what do you make? He said, two eighty six. Oh, my God, I said, I've got to go. So I was a little kid and I remember Orville. He was awesome. So you're, you know, Beatle Bailey, comic books. Yeah, this sergeant in there is Orville Snorkel. Oh, it is. That's the guy. And I was a little bit kid, a little kid. And that'd be one. That's the same guy. He was a sergeant. He come by today. You got a demeanor similar in everything. Yeah, you got any red man chewing the back of. I always kept y'all the best. He gave me a big jaw full of it. And he walked, you know, 30 steps to the back door of the shop, chewing and spitting all the way. And then we get the door. You just take it and throw it out in the parking lot. Oh, my God. It's all he wanted. Just wanted to hit a still a bunch of maple syrup in there. Yeah, just a touch of that balcony. Speaking of to some point, life gets pretty good for you, too. You've you've built a you've got a good marriage. You've got a good job. You're working while I'm standing on the, you know, I'm down at Fort Polk. You know, I've been married a week and I got a deal. You got to go to Fort Polk, a basic training. I go down there and I get my last 20 dollars to the preacher when we got married. Then I call the wife and she says, I bought a trader house. I said, I'm getting with what? I'm getting forty four bucks a lot. You done what? She said, I got it. We're good. I said, oh, yeah. Oh, was she hooking? No, she's getting she's working for early. She's working for a department store, flipping hamburgers stuff. And she kept it running like a back. Yeah, then that's real William Scott was born. You know, they were made for a long time at the time anyway. It was eight or nine years, something like that. Before you had him. Yeah, OK. Didn't want to bring him didn't have nothing. We could feed him or no place, buddy. No, we did the same. I was married. We were married six years. How long were you married for? You had your first. How long was it? Five, three days, three days. And we were married about four months before we had our first. No, just kidding. So anyway, we bought us a lot. Then we moved the trailer up there and then we bought a house and had it moved on there and then we always tried to do. Yeah, I don't think people know what that means. So, you know, they would build an expressway and you could buy a house that was in that right of way. OK, you go in there and jack that thing up and roll out, put an IBM under it and put some axles under it and move it. OK, right. So you'll drive off with it and drove off with it. Right. So, you know, there's all these, you know, houses on frame, houses on crawl spaces. So you bought 900 square foot house or something like that. Or yeah, it was 36 but 24. Yeah, I get four grand for it. The guy moved it for 200 bucks and I went to work hooking it up. Yeah. So we we moved out into the Fergus River Bottoms 80 and 80. Yes, that's right. And then they started building an underground house. Yeah. So we lived in it. We moved a trailer out there to live in while you guys built the house. And so, you know, every spare time, every spare minute, building this house. Yeah. So I got pictures. This man's got up there with a jackhammer. We had this rock about the size of a 1948 short school bus in one corner of it. We had to break it up and move it out till we had room. So we spent a lot of hours on jackhammer. Sure. I want to take you to build it two years. Shit, it was never done, you know. I think when I moved in, yeah, you're right. No, it was longer than that. So we moved out there halfway through my first grade year and we moved in fourth grade, so it took about three and a half years. Yeah. Yeah. It was an underground house, you know, sixteen, fifteen hundred square feet, two car garage house under three foot of dirt. It's got a light, three bedrooms. I'd love to see the electricity bill. It was nothing. It was nothing, I'm sure. Yeah, a little natural gas well on the property. So yeah, he did for gas well on the property. Yeah, that's the kind of stuff you get in Oklahoma. Right. He just drilled the pocket gas out there. And yeah, a little wood stove in there and heated. How did you figure to live really within your means as you as you got older? I mean, that's not something. I mean, look, I did not borrow anything. Yeah, how though? Because everybody that comes from your background does. I had no resources. Nobody had lent it. I had no resources. I mean, that's is that what it is? You didn't you couldn't go down and talk to a loan officer or a bank because you didn't know one to know how to know didn't care. You said I'm just going to work. I mean, that was one of them. I'm glad that's a piece of knowledge I didn't pick up because everybody, you know, like you hear him right now, I'm going to get the equity out of my home. Sure. I'm going to spend it on something. Right. Well, they don't realize I want another home later on where they're going to get the money. Right. For the down payment, it's the equity in our house. Sure. You know, that's you did have a lady. So there's a federal employees credit union here in town. And I remember there was a lady Rosie. Yeah, she's your lady. You could go in there and get some money to go by 12 bundles of plywood to build forms with. Yeah. I could go in there and get a signature loan. Sure. For like up to five grand. Right. For not very much money. Sure. Yeah. You know, so. Right. Right. You know, the bar on $50,000 was out of the question. Oh, hell no. Wouldn't even consider it still wouldn't today. Sure. And I see I got buddies are buying pickups paying $45,000. We see it all the time. Yeah. It's amazing. We sit in well with this crew. We don't do that. No, we were driving over here to the warehouse. We're recording this here in my data storage and we're driving over the warehouse and this new GMC pickups drove by. That said, you know what that fucking pickup cost? You know, sure. You know, GMC pickup when I was a kid, that was rubber floor mats, door crank. That was the bare bones product. Sure. Well, GMC was the truck. It's a better truck, I think. Yeah. But it was a work truck branch of General Motors. It wasn't a half ton chivalry pickup. Sure. It was. It always had leaf springs. It always was the truck that you'd want on a farm to haul hay or work or whatever. They're almost 50 grand. Now they're expensive. Yeah. Yeah. But you don't know when the guy drives in, you know, they like him because they got a pretty grill. Well, I was going to say, it's the, you know, I've got a nice truck that I got for a real cheap price and I bought in cash because I had the cash to buy. I'm not going to go buy it. I'm not going to spend $50,000 on a truck and go put a seven year loan on it. It's crazy. You know, they've got an aversion of borrowing. But by the way, I was raised not as rough as a background as you, but super poor, super south. And my parents didn't teach me this stuff. And I learned from my culture and my family, what you do is you borrow. But that's the thing that was ingrained in me. I've had to beat it out of myself. Like, you know, I was the kid that at 18 went to college and signed up for the credit cards and ran up $5,500 credit card debt. Yeah. But you know, if you're in the right area, you got all these farmers and these guys that they go down to Farm Bureau and they bet on the come. They borrow on the come. They borrow the money to plant the crops. Sure. And I'll pay you back this fall. I need to buy 25 cows. It's been done that way for decades. And so just the habit of borrowing. Once you get it, you can't get out. No, you're was the circle. A slave to the lender. But yes, kid, how they do it. Well, my mom, mom's tighter than a banjo string, man. Right. And worked her ass off too. Cleaning houses. You've talked about her before. Mom's always had a side hustle. Yeah. So cleaning clean houses. Yeah, mom. So yeah, here's the business lesson from Mary. She cleaned houses because she could do that. You know, she could dump us off at school or get us on the bus or whatever. And then go clean the house and be home in time for, you know, whatever, whatever she needed to do for me and my sister. And it's like, I don't clean dirty houses. Yeah. Those are bad customers. You know, they don't pay the bill. It's more work than needs to be. I can get a better rate from these people. Yeah. That's a big deal. Yeah. Like picking the customers. Yeah. Yeah. And she had all of them for over 20 years. Yeah. They all died eventually. Yeah. The only way that she lost the customer is if they died of old age. Yeah. Yeah. So it seems like, I mean, the thing that I recognize from your story, the kind of common theme is that you really, you had work ethic most of your life, right? Like even, that's what we did for fun. Even when you were feral, you worked. Well, you know, one of mine is Scott's favorite things to do is go cut firewood and split it. Sure. You know, him and his buddies come out and they go out in the woods and kick over trees. So we have something to cut up. Split. You know, we just had a good time. Do you think your, Scott, do you think your, your work ethic is more nature or more nurture? Did you get these work genetics from your mom and dad or did they ingrain it in you? Grow it up. I mean, it wasn't really, I don't know. You know, mom has these three brothers and they're all nuts. Like one of them. That's how. With the work stuff. They're like you work. They work for work's sake. Like my uncle Roy, my uncle Roy will go dig a goddamn hole in rock, in rock. With like a, with the, yeah. With a hand drill. Yes. He will go dig a hole in Limestone at his house because it's Saturday. You know, I like him already. Oh man. You know, and then they're all that way. H bar and a. Yeah. Yeah. So I don't know. I don't mind it. No, it's what we did. My sister didn't enjoy it that much. Sure. Well, and the question is, was the upbringing the same? I think mostly, she might say something different, but I think mostly, you know, so that's something, you know, do you, you know, you got two, you've got two kids dad and they're different. Clearly my sister's a sister. Like electricity. Right. AC DC. Two different things. You know, see, you know, do you actually treat them the same because they're actually different people that you could say, gosh, you don't treat them the same because they're not the same. I don't know what you do. Well, that's like, I would treat a guy different. I would a young lady and then my wife would treat young lady different. She would a young man. So I don't know, you know, both of my children think they're the only child. That's what Mary said. You know, pretty good. Yeah, I think both of them think they're the only child. Who is that other asshole that's claiming can. But it's all good. So what's the, what's the legacy that you want to leave? Well, why would a person want to leave a legacy when they've got somebody like Scott? Well, he is a legacy, right? Yes. I mean, you know, this whole thing is not about me. It's about my family. Yep. And everybody loves Mary. Everybody loves Scott. But I don't know about that. Well, you know, it's debatable. And his sister, you know, they are taking care of themselves. Yep. I'm just having a great time. And my wife still lets me own half of everything we've got as long as I act correct. Yeah. You realize it shouldn't have turned out this way, right? I mean, that's like, I get it that you know, I wanted better than what I had. Yeah. I did not. You broke the cycle of poverty, which I mean, really, really, that's really rare. You know, when you realize there's you, that's going to make a difference in your life. Yep. And you are responsible for yourself. And the rest of them bastards has all got hobnail boots, and now they're where you out. You got to take care of yourself. You got to find out where you want to go and head that way. You may not end up in that spot. You may deviate over here over there. But, you know, you got to keep putting out of the foot in front. And economics is a big driver in that. And if you borrow it, you don't have that money. Nope. That's not yours. It's not yours. It's theirs. Everything you're working for, that's not yours. That's theirs. I did not like that at all. Yep. That was not my, did not give me a warming fuzzy. If I owed you $10, you're working your ass off to pay it by the lunchtime. I would do my best. If you left town, I would drive to Missouri and pay you. Right. Sure. Because I just, I've been screwed over a few times. Well, second time, it's shame on me. Sure. First time, shame on you. Sure. Well, there ain't been no shame on me. So, I mean, I've been, been used a couple of times, but that was just one time around. Yep. We're new lesson. Well, that's where the personal responsibility, it seems like it's the, it's one of the primary themes of people that we interview that are successful. They're people that in every scenario, look at through the lens of this is on me. Buck stops here. Well, that's like Scotty. He goes to college, right? Gets out of school and he goes to junior college. He's working, right? And then he goes down to OU. So we say, you need any help or anything? No, I'm good. Okay. Yeah. Well, he gets him a deal in this apartment complex. By the way, no, you don't need anything except, I know the story that you're eating brown beans out of a can. Well, yeah. But you know what I'm saying? But no, I get it. But it's, that's still the attitude. You know, no, I'm going to build this for myself. Me and mom reserve the right to fill up his refrigerator with carbon gas. Sure. But as far as me giving him a hundred or thousand dollars for this, he wouldn't have it. Sure. Well, dad, you were like, I want to go to buy fuel so you'll come home and see your mother. Yeah. And then there was also a go ahead and run up the long distance bill because you got to call your mother. And I'll pay that one, right? Yeah. But anyway, he got in this apartment deal. He was painting the vacant apartment. He's got a place to live. And he said, well, God damn, we got to open the pool, but the only people in Oak City, what did he do? He go get some license to do the pools in Norman. He's the only guy in town. Yep. So all these motels have got to pay him to do that. So he's, you know, I mean, he's that kind of guy. Yep. You know what I'm saying? Great. Here we go. Yep. So anyway, he gets through school and. Kind of. Kind of through school. Kind of. Well, yeah. In most ways. Yeah, you know. All the way to one semester through school. Well, I got what I wanted to do. But I'm super proud of him. Sure. He's, well, you got through it eventually. He got his idea of where he's headed. Sure. And he hadn't looked back. No, no, I can see. When I first met you guys, I didn't see the connection. And I was like, what's that? Well, I was like, that's Scott's dad. That's okay. That's not what I expected. You know, Jack Tank Hill. Why do you think I ought to wear a bomber's cap? And no, I just, you know, I just, you just. You don't talk alike. You don't look a lot alike. You just, you know, you don't care yourself the same. And so it's taken knowing you guys for a few years to, to see the, the passing down of the, of really the core values and the principles of your life, whether you meant to do that on a, or whether you did that, you know, you know, I don't know if you ever sat down with Scott and said, this is why we don't borrow money. And this is why we work like you probably didn't. You just modeled the thing. No, it's the stories. Oh, the stupid stuff, a bitch I work with, borrowed the money on this truck. And then it's a lady got work laid off. Oh yeah. Like we got a guy that went in 401k and he borrowed money to put a fence up. Yeah, right. You know, from his 401k. Yeah. Yeah. Smart. Great idea. No, it was stories like that. You know, so-and-so borrowed money to buy this truck and his wife lost her job and they came and towed his truck off at lunchtime today. Right. You know. And you lose. Hmm. And you like stories. Yep. Put that in your brain. I'm going to store that in there for a while. Yeah. You're like, hmm, don't owe the bank on the truck. And my wife economics has just kept an eye on it and a fist on it. Yeah. She don't turn loose. Yeah. And that's good. That's why I'm where I'm at. All their opinions. I got claw marks on them. Yeah. All right. So then that begs the question. What's the funnest couple of things you spent money on in the last five years? I bought a Winnebago Sprinter camper. Okay. That we had fun with. Yeah. Are you done with it? Did you sell it? I sold it. Got to grow down from Colorado with cash in his fist. And I said, are you shitting me? All right. I'm out. So anyway, we used it three years and mom said, okay, that's enough of that. We'll go stay in Motel if we go somewhere. I said, all right. Okay. So you got to Winnebago. You guys ever go on vacation? Like to a real vacation? Like you guys went to Mexico. Did you have to drag their ass to Mexico? No, they wouldn't go. I stole my pay. They actually still didn't go to Mexico. No, you guys went. My wife will not cross the border. You're correct. She will not cross the border. But you had fund building the house we got now. It's what Mary wanted. She drew the plans up. Oh, that's cool. So you got a nice house. Yeah. Right? You got a Lexus SUV I've seen. Yeah. So. About used. About used and in cash. Yep. I'm sure. Yeah. Yep. We've had it, what, five years now? Used cars. Drive them until they don't go no more. Yeah. She got 60,000 miles on it. We've had it five years or something like that. Sure. Cars are one of the biggest holes in the bucket, man. Oh, that's like my little. That's like my little Tacoma truck. I mean, they're just dying. I want your truck. We need your truck. Now, wait a minute, do you think they need your truck or they just want you to get in on a lot and trick your ass out of it? They want to take my truck and take it down to the coast and sell it. Right. At a premium. Right. But they want to jack my ass up on a new truck. Right. To. Right. And I told them, I said, hey, if I want premium dollar out of this, I'll just drive down to Houston and I'll make enough money. I can fly back. Right. Oh, I guess you're not interested, Mr. Ambrick. Yeah, you're right. That's right. And I flew down about Rachel's Lexus. I flew to Dallas and drove it home. Absolutely. Because it was so much cheaper down there than it was in Springfield, Missouri. Bought it in cash. I went to the bank, got a cashier's check, flew one-way ticket down to Dallas, Ubered from the airport to the dealership, handed them the cashier's check and drove the, drove the Lexus home. Hey man, thanks for being on the show. It's been good. Well, it's all been wonderful up to this point. So it's always good to see where my cohort comes from and I like seeing these stories and trying to put these things together. It's like a puzzle. Well, it's like a puzzle where you don't have the box top, you know. And every time I do an interview like this, it like gives me a little glimpse of the box top of the puzzle top. And I can see what the picture is. I can kind of see how the puzzles starts fitting together. And so it makes sense. So thanks for the legacy you've left through your kiddos. Well, I'm proud of them. They're doing me good. Yeah. Your strength training, getting strong. Your wife is too. You guys have bought into the strength training and we didn't even talk about that. But you guys, every time I come over there and matter of fact, as we speak, your wife is over there training with charity. And did you, did you have a perspective from somebody my age? Why would do that? Why would you do that? I want to be able to get up off the floor. Yeah. I want to be able to get up off the toilet seat. I want to be able to wipe my butt. Yeah. Pre-demortalize and have somebody else hang out for you. Well, yeah. And there's also, you have the balance that goes long with it. It goes long ways. Yep. And you'll feel better. Yep. Yeah, I don't think we said it. So you're either 72 or 73. 75. I'm in my, I'm in my 70s. Yeah. Yes. Well, that's been an hour. I want you to say something. I know I'm really proud of you. You beat all odds. Yep. Nobody's supposed to do it. Well, you help me. Thank you. I can concentrate on raising my family instead of fighting a kid. You know, I mean, that says volumes. Yep. Yep. You know, a lot of people spend their life fighting their kids to keep them out of trouble and all this stuff. Yep. I've been blessed. So. Kind of. Kind of blessed. Because we know the stories about the World Book Encyclopedia's and the. Well, as a world term. And the male issues. Sorry. Well, love you dad. Thanks for doing it. Appreciate it. Thanks, man. Thanks for being on the show. Appreciate it. Keep up to good work. Thanks, brother.