Stories from the Center of the Universe

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...

Buck Sessoms and Paul graduated from St. Christopher’s together and share a common bond in that they both served in the United States Military. In Part 1 of this podcast, Buck tells Paul how he got his name and they talked about his fondest memories of St. Christopher’s. They talked about him attending VMI, the brutal first year as a “rat” and how he lacked motivation and was on some form of proba...

Dr. David Jones and Paul haven’t talked in quite some time, but they went to St. Christopher’s together and graduated in 1987. David, who Paul said is one of the nicest guys he has known, grew up on the north side of Richmond and later in the Midlothian area. David, who is one of six siblings, played tennis at St. Christopher’s and was a captain his senior year. David knew early on that he wanted...

Paul and Silent Rob discuss episodes 101-150. 

Cherud Wilkerson comes to the podcast courtesy of knowing occasional co-host Kevin. Cherud is from Long Island and he grew up going to different schools. He played football and wrestled in high school and even played against a famous Bengal QB. Football was his main sport and it got him looks from various colleges and he ended up playing at Va State. Cherud was in US Navy for eleven years. He star...

Rob Stiles, possibly the first guest with three first names, joins Paul and Silent (?) Rob on the podcast. Paul and the two Rob’s all grew up in Ashland and have known each other since they were kids. Rob lived a couple places in town, but spent most of his time on Caroline St. near the Randolph-Macon campus which became his “playground” growing up. Paul and Rob first talked about his dad. Rob des...

Edouard “Edy” Asmar works with Paul and this episode took two tries due to a bad storm which cut out communications the first time they tried to chat. Edy was born in Washington, DC and says he is “a DC guy through and through”. He has a great deal of exposure to different cultures mostly due to travel opportunities because of his mom’s work. He lived in Ecuador for the first 3-4 years of his life...

Magnus Nordenman joins the podcast courtesy of former guest, John Watts (Episode #50). Magnus is from Sweden and lived there until he was 18 when he came to the United States to go to The Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Va. He told Paul about previous visits to Virginia, but it was a different and very unique reason that led him to VMI. They talked about his experience at VMI and how it...

Dave Tribble knows Paul’s dad Larry (Ep. #9) and he joins Paul on the podcast. Dave is from the Richmond area and after his U.S. Army service was completed, he and his wife settled in Hanover, Virginia.  Dave talked about growing up, a long list of jobs he held as a young man and a car accident that changed his life. Dave is a United States Army Veteran and he and Paul talked extensively about his...