Stories from the Center of the Universe

Former NFL player and Washington Commanders Ring of Fame member, Ken Harvey, joins the podcast. Ken Harvey comes to the podcast via a connection with Jock Jones (Episodes 148 & 175) because they played in the NFL together. Paul started off by talking to Ken about his book, Stepping Stones, and growing up in Texas. Ken talked candidly about dropping out of high school, going back and then moving on...

Rob Dull, aka “Silent Rob” & “the Scribe” is on the other side of the microphone for an entire episode. Rob usually helps Paul with the Stories podcast, but he is the one getting interviewed by Paul and Kevin this time. Rob talked about living where Henry Clay was born and then moving to and growing up in Ashland. Paul and Rob talked about the guys they grew up with, some of the games and sports t...

Greg Burton comes to the podcast via a connection with Ross Luck (Episode #172). Greg grew up in Wilmington, Delaware and said his life was pretty much within eight blocks of his house. He walked to school & church, played little league, visited his grandparents and went to see his dad at work in those eight blocks. Greg played sports in high school, but knew he had a passion for and wanted to cov...

Sue Watson, a Center of the Universe icon, joins the podcast to talk to Paul and Rob. Sue was born and grew up in Wilson, N.C and has great memories of her childhood and family, especially going on horse rides with her Dad. Sue started dancing when she was three years old and her love for dance and all things theatrical has continued through out her life. After high school, Sue attended Duke Unive...

Pete A. Turner joins Paul via a connection with Jeff Bloch, aka Speedy Cop (Episode 173). Pete is from and lives in California. He told Paul about his adoptive dad growing up as well as just finding his biological father which has led him to having a whole new family. Pete talked about his interest in a musical instrument he got while growing up and his time in high school. After going to college,...

Audra Becker and Paul used to work together and she admitted that for a while, she was 50/50 on doing the podcast and telling her story. She joins us from Arizona where she was born and raised though she has a lot of family in Pittsburgh. She and Paul discussed how she never knew about daylight savings time until she moved to the Midwest for a while and she also told him what it was like growing u...

Stacie Straus and Acie Wyatt are the first twins to be on the podcast. They are from Ashland and Stacie is still in the area. Acie lives in Charlotte, NC. Paul asked a couple of questions about being twins and then they discussed what sports they each played when they were kids. They then talked about playing sports at Patrick Henry High School (PHHS). Stacie played softball & volleyball and Acie...

Nikhil Brahmbhatt and Paul know each other from working at the same company in the past and they talked about how they first met. Nikhil was born in Kalol, India and grew up in Ahmedabad and was the youngest of four children. Nikhil was a very good student and told Paul about a special skill that helped him a lot in school. While in school, he played cricket, attended cultural activities where he...

This episode is a celebration of Paul’s son Zach turning 21! Paul, his wife Lisa and their daughters, Lindsay and Melissa went to Blacksburg, Va. to visit Zach on his birthday weekend. Paul, Lisa and Zach started chatting and had lots of laughs about early and favorite memories from the time he was a toddler until his high school years. Lisa spoke about how being pregnant with Zach was pretty easy...

Downtown Ashland Association Series … Mac McManus was born in Fredericksburg, raised in Woodbridge and later moved south to the greater Richmond area for work. His parents knew at an early age that he was good at tinkering with and fixing things. He had a job with Chevrolet during and after high school and was fortunate to be sent to to the GM Training Center at age 16. By age 17 he achieved his G...

William Perkins Flippen joins the podcast via William Kevin Flippen, the occasional co-host and his son. William was born in Buckingham County, but grew up in Richmond, Virginia. William was #8 out of thirteen kids and their first house in Richmond only had an outside bathroom. William said being a kid in Richmond was fun as they had a lot of open areas to play in and he used that to hone his skil...

Michelle Hollander joins the podcast as part of the Downtown Ashland Association Series. Michelle is from Ashland and she and Paul reminisced about sledding on Goddin’s Hill when they were kids in different decades. Michelle decided to be an artist/muralist when she was 34 years old. They discussed her path leading up to that time and what movie she was watching with her kids that inspired her to...

Dave Klisz met Silent Rob about twenty-five years ago and joins Paul and Rob on the podcast. Dave was born in California, but moved around quite a bit early on due to his dad’s job with General Electric. They settled in Virginia and Dave grew up in nearby Chesterfield and did BMX, skateboarding and played a lot of soccer growing up. Dave played travel soccer and his senior year in high school, he...

Red Vein is the latest addition to the Downtown Ashland Association Series on the podcast. Kitty Barnes is a co-owner of Red Vein and moved to the Richmond area from Maryland about sixteen years ago. She discussed Dark Immersive Art as well how they got the business started. She talked about all the things that the Red Vein Army does .. the Escape Room, the Haunted House (at the Hanover Vegetable...

On this episode, we have two repeat guests who are here together, know each other well, but haven’t seen each other in about twenty years. Donnie Morris (Episode #138) and Jock Jones (Episode #148) played football at Patrick Henry and Lee-Davis (now Mechanicsville) High Schools respectively and at the same time. They played against each other and their senior year they were the two best players in...

Eddie Martinez-Cunion joins the podcast via the Ashland Downtown Association to talk about her business, Your Path Counseling Center. Eddie says she is a military brat, but she calls Maryland home. As a youngster, she was an avid reader and that has continued into adulthood. Eddie worked as a counselor and then decided to start her own business. She told Paul why she picked Ashland and they discus...

Jeff Bloch, aka SpeedyCop, comes to the podcast via a connection with John Watts (Episode #50). Jeff grew up in New Jersey and New York and was the 2nd of nine kids. Jeff and his family did a mission trip to China when he was a teenager and they did some interesting smuggling while they were there. As Paul and Jeff were talking, Jeff relayed that he knew two things early in life - he was going to...

Paul, Rob and Ross Luck have been friends since childhood. Ross grew up just outside the Ashland limits and growing up, he spent time going to Kings Dominion (later worked there) and the Hanover Country Club. He told Paul and Rob about playing a lot of sports growing up including a story about a little league baseball match up versus Paul. Ross said he had a couple hobbies growing up one which was...

Kevin Mills is back for Part 2. Paul and Kevin finished the story about Kevin being diagnosed with a tumor. Kevin went into detail about finding out about the tumor, the surgery and the first thing he said when he woke up. They talked about him going to college at VCU, what he majored in, sitting for the LSAT, but having a change of heart about what he wanted to do for a career. He is twenty-three...

George Monroe knows Paul and Kevin from when they worked at the Bakery. George lives in Hanover, but grew up in Albemarle and Charlottesville. While in Albemarle, he grew up on a farm where he said he learned the value of hard work. He then moved to Charlottesville and later went to Charlottesville High School where he played football and ran Track. He also told a funny story about how he almost p...

Jimmy “The Boogie Woogie Man” Valiant joins Paul and Kevin on the podcast and he started off with a bang! Jimmy was born in Tullahoma, TN and just turned 80 years old a couple of weeks ago. Before he could remember, his family moved to Hammond, IN where his father took a job as a millwright at a Ford plant. Jimmy’s career in professional wrestling has taken him all over, but he has called Virginia...

Dani Derricott is from Ashland, went to Patrick Henry and told Paul and Kevin the story about “the trail” as an alternate way to get to school. As a younger kid, Dani talked about how they played all day and he was always playing sports against the older kids which made him tougher and better at the same time. He had a major change in his life at 10 years old and was playing basketball and footbal...

Kevin Mills and Paul know each other from their time in the National Guard together. Kevin grew up in Ashland (Paul did know his older brother) and he told Paul he did all the normal running around a kid would do, but also mixed in a lot of motorcycle riding. Kevin’s dad was former military and his brother was in the military when he graduated high school. Kevin decided he would do the same and he...

Tony Tran comes to the podcast through Mike DiMaggio who he went to school with and Paul knows Mike via a family connection. Tony and Paul talked about many things, but started with an amazing survival story for Tony and his family. Tony is from Vietnam and he and his family had to escape during the fall of Saigon. They discussed the memories he had before they left and the amazing journey they we...

In Part 2 of the podcast with Buck Sessoms, Paul and and Buck talked about his deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. Buck told Paul the differences between deployments and some of the stories of what he and his fellow troops did while overseas. Buck then discussed one of his next assignments which was becoming a pilot for HMX-1. This is better known to most as being a pilot for the President of the...