An Emotional Late Night Return To St Cloud Florida - Time Go By So Fast / Beginning Of Adam The Woo
St Cloud Florida Memories
Transcript
0:03
Welcome everyone. Adam the Woo here as a
0:03
recording of this. It is Monday, May the
0:05
5th, 2025. Cinco de Mayo. Standing here
0:10
right along this retention pond lake
0:13
here on the back side of the Art Deco
0:15
7-Eleven in Celebration, Florida. In two
0:19
days, right now, I will be departing.
0:22
Well, I'll be getting on a plane to
0:24
depart the country to go to another
0:26
international destination thing I set
0:29
out to do starting in January. And I've
0:32
staying the course thus far. Going to
0:35
continue through the rest of this year
0:37
and possibly into next year.
0:40
always going to be traveling
0:41
international. But for now, trying to
0:43
stick I'm gonna I'm gonna stay over here
0:45
in the shade because it's a little it's
0:46
a little toasty out here at the
0:49
moment. Two days from now. So, before I
0:52
go on trips, I would like to go over to
0:54
my parents house. So, I'm going to be
0:55
cruising over there a little bit later.
0:57
My mom's going to make dinner tonight.
0:58
Going to catch up with my mom and dad
1:01
before leaving the US of A going to the
1:04
next destination. Also today got the
1:08
keys to my new storage unit. So I'm
1:10
going to start putting some stuff in
1:12
there. Well, one item that I received in
1:14
the mail. A 4 foot popping out of the
1:17
ground skeleton that will go in front of
1:19
my home into October. I think probably
1:22
around October 10thish, give or take a
1:24
day. Might be the 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th,
1:26
12th, 11th, 12th. Let's just say the
1:29
10thish, give or take a day. I will put
1:32
my Halloween decorations up. That way
1:34
they could be up for a solid three weeks
1:37
I could be
1:39
home to nestle myself into the Halloween
1:43
decor goodness. Probably that first week
1:46
or so, first week to 10 days will be
1:50
doing international travel. So won't
1:53
have it up at the end of September, but
1:55
into, you know, into mid October, I'm
1:58
going to go hard on the yard decor. So I
2:01
got the storage space. Gotta start
2:03
loading that up. Do some shopping. Hit
2:05
some thrift stores today on the way to
2:07
my parents later on and just see where
2:09
the day leads. No matter what happens,
2:12
I'm inviting you, yes you, to join
2:19
me. Oo, that's not
2:19
good. I got to go exchange this. That's
2:21
supposed to be blueberry
2:29
coffee. No, no, no. Yeah, that's I got
2:29
to get a fresh fresh cup. Join me, shall
2:32
you? All right. Big the foot. Coffee
2:34
redemption has been achieved. A fresh
2:36
cup. Fresh cup has been achieved. I
2:38
mean, this is a groundbreaking piece of
2:40
yard
2:42
decoration decor because it it literally
2:46
is ground. It's going to be breaking out
2:47
of the ground. That's why it's
2:49
groundbreaking. That's a bad joke. Look
2:51
at this thing. That's going it's 89 in
2:54
by 35x 48. Was think this cart is
2:57
haunted. They provide carts here, too,
2:59
that could go from my car to storage
3:03
unit. I got a bunch of other stuff I got
3:05
to bring over, but this is the first
3:06
thing putting in my new storage unit.
3:08
It's even got an elevator
3:15
here. Not on the first floor, but it
3:15
doesn't really matter. They have a sweet
3:22
elevator going up.
3:22
Last storage unit I ever had was back in
3:26
me playing in band days and it was up on
3:29
Orange Blossom Trail. Also, this is
3:32
AC. There's a code to get in Cameras. I
3:37
have a lock on the door. The last one I
3:39
had was like early 2000s and it was
3:42
outside, but you had the roll you'd have
3:44
the rollup door and people actually
3:47
lived in them up on Orange Blossom and a
3:50
lot of bands. So people would take them
3:53
and like reside inside the storage
3:55
units. I don't think you could probably
3:57
get away with that at this particular
3:59
spot. The lights turn on when you walk
4:01
down here. Or maybe
4:04
not. But a lot of bands, a lot of local
4:07
bands would rent out the facility. Why
4:09
is it so dark? There we go. There we go.
4:12
And then you would just pull your car
4:13
up. We would have our amps in there. We
4:15
would practice. And there would be six,
4:18
seven, eight Florida local vans that
4:20
would practice. Cannot get away with
4:22
this here in celebration, but some
4:24
storage places do allow it. And that
4:26
back then, 22 years ago, it was allowed.
4:29
I'm just storing stuff though. I'm not
4:30
going to start abandoning one of these.
4:32
So, there it is. This is the storage
4:34
unit, a 10x 10. Pretty good size. You
4:38
get up to the top. Probably what, 8t
4:40
tall? Yeah, maybe nine, 8t. probably
4:42
eight. With the netting right there, the
4:45
mesh, I can put a lot of stuff in here.
4:48
Again, this is just I know I do have a
4:50
house. I bought a house a year and a
4:52
half ago, maybe a little less than that,
4:54
but over a year ago, and I could keep a
4:57
lot of the stuff in the garage, but some
5:00
of the stuff I don't really want to look
5:01
at when it's out of season, and that's
5:04
the problem. And I don't want to store a
5:05
lot of the stuff in some of the other
5:07
rooms. I want to have, you know, kind of
5:10
out of sight, out of mind until it's
5:12
time to bring all this stuff out. And I
5:14
have all my stuff from last year that
5:16
I'm going to bring over here and shove
5:17
it in here, too. And then also Christmas
5:18
stuff. And then other other items as
5:21
they develop I can use to have out of
5:24
house
5:26
storage. Yeah, why not,
5:28
right? All right. You'll be getting some
5:30
friends soon, skeleton. But for
5:45
now, got the luck. I just realized it's
5:46
been a while since I've been over here
5:47
to Island Village, the extension of
5:51
Celebration. Sometimes when you travel a
5:53
lot, you don't Time goes by a at a
5:57
quicker pace and things change a lot
5:59
when you get back over to an area. We're
6:01
not in town every day. I don't think
6:03
I've been over to Island Village in
6:04
months. Last time I was over in this
6:06
section, they were still finish up some
6:07
of the construction on these these
6:09
homes. The lake area has been open for a
6:12
while. Did a
6:14
couple eating videos and like food
6:16
review stuff down here like a year ago.
6:19
This is technically still part of
6:20
Celebration. In fact, I looked at
6:22
purchasing a house over in this area. I
6:24
just decided to be closer to downtown
6:26
and into the
6:28
celebration proper, I guess you could
6:30
call it. This is the
6:32
extension. All still the same town,
6:34
but it's a little bit of a ways from all
6:37
the stuff I usually show on Mini Marge
6:40
and Lake Reinhardt and all that. There's
6:42
a lizard going across the ground
6:51
there. That's an island village lizard.
6:51
these apartments. There were people
6:53
living in these apartments last time I
6:54
was over here, but all the businesses
6:56
below them were all dirt floors. They
6:58
hadn't even laid the floors down yet.
7:00
And now the businesses look to be open.
7:02
There's a Mexican restaurant. There's a
7:03
coffee spot. There's even an ice cream
7:05
place up here. Yeah, it's all coming
7:08
along nicely. Yeah, just up until I
7:10
don't know the last 6 months, this was
7:12
all dirt floor stuff here. Now they got
7:14
Cinco de Mayo Celebration taco place
7:17
open right there. Very
7:19
nice. I've already got my coffee or I
7:22
would try coffee for the soul. I come
7:24
back over here at some point. There's a
7:25
village barber shop open
7:34
here. Man, celebration's just growing by
7:34
leaps and bounds. Not the mystery
7:36
machine, the ice cream machine. Scoop
7:38
scoop ice cream.
7:41
Part of the reason I don't come over to
7:42
Island Village as often as I go to Lake
7:44
Ryan Hart and the other areas is because
7:47
my golf cart technically is not allowed
7:49
on the road that gets over here. All the
7:51
other roads in Celebration I can go on,
7:53
but there's one road the speed limit is
7:57
above the speed limit that is frowned
7:59
upon not to drive a golf cart on. So,
8:02
because I spend most my time when I'm in
8:03
town on Mini Marge, I don't I just
8:07
talked to the owners of Scoop, not to be
8:09
confused with Scoops. It's kind of like
8:12
one of those things like everyone
8:13
everyone says Aldi's, which is a grocery
8:16
store here in Florida, when really it's
8:18
called Aldi, and they were talking about
8:20
how everyone calls them scoops, but they
8:22
were actually open been open for over a
8:24
decade in North Carolina. And they
8:26
opened this place here a few months ago
8:28
over here in Island Village. believe
8:30
they said they're open till about 9:00
8:32
every night. So, they're open late.
8:35
Check them out. Scoop ice cream. And
8:38
they did offer me a scoop of ice cream,
8:40
but little too early in the day for for
8:42
ice cream and trying to moderately watch
8:44
what I eat again. So, but I I was
8:47
checking out some of the different ice
8:49
cream flavors and looks pretty good in
8:50
there. The most magical ice cream on
8:52
earth. Come taste the best flavors in
8:55
all the
8:56
land. I will return. I will return one
8:58
day and check out and uh get a scoop
9:01
from scoop or maybe a couple scoops, two
9:05
scoops from
9:06
Scoop. This whole area is growing
9:09
quickly. Island
9:12
Village. Yeah, I do see people sometimes
9:14
driving on the road over here cuz that
9:17
there's one road that's a speed limit of
9:18
40 and I cannot
9:21
take I cannot take the golf cart on a
9:25
road that's speed limit over 35. So 35
9:28
and under I can, but I do see people
9:29
taking their golf carts on that road. So
9:31
I don't know. Is it allowed? Maybe I
9:34
should test it out one day. Big the
9:36
foot. What do you think the penalty for
9:38
driving a golf cart on this road to
9:40
Island Village would
9:46
be? Just hypothetically
9:46
asking. Sometimes you'll see speed trap
9:49
set up on this road. See this is 35. So
9:51
this road is allowed. But once I get up
9:53
here to the light, the art deco
9:55
7-Eleven, it turns to 40 mph and you're
9:57
not supposed to. So this section of the
9:58
road for about the next mile and a half
10:00
is the only road you're technically not
10:03
supposed to drive golf carts on. But I
10:05
see people do it often. In fact, there
10:07
was
10:07
a officer up here doing a speed trap
10:10
recently and I saw a golf cart drive
10:12
right past him, but he didn't do
10:13
anything about it on this road. So, who
10:15
knows? All right, I'm now jumping on the
10:16
turnpike southbound. Uh, really backed
10:20
up. I guess you could consider this rush
10:22
hour. Also, there's some really nasty
10:25
weather rolling in. So, going to get a
10:27
storm blowing through here
10:30
probably before I get to my parents.
10:33
Those clouds up
10:35
there. That over there used to be a
10:37
blockbuster video. Now, it's a pawn
10:38
shop. It looks like a storm or something
10:40
has ripped the sign down, but that was a
10:42
blockbuster when my family and myself
10:45
first moved here in '91. At Wendy's has
10:47
been there as far back as I can
10:49
remember. And on the other side of this
10:51
building was the Publix I used to work
10:53
at from 91 to like
10:56
93ish. It took almost two hours to get
11:01
from Celebration to St. Cloud. Now, I
11:03
will throw a little asterct in there
11:04
because I got down to 535 kind of over
11:06
near where the Big Wizard is at 4:05
11:09
from my place. Was going to drive down
11:12
192, hit a bunch of thrift stores,
11:13
taking 192 all the way to St. Cloud. Got
11:16
to 535, which is only a few miles from
11:18
Celebration. I had to turn around,
11:19
forgot something at home that I needed,
11:21
went
11:22
back and then jumped on the turnpike
11:25
thinking, "Oh, I could get I could get
11:26
down to lower CM or into St. Cloud a
11:28
little quicker that way." It is
11:31
now
11:32
5:55. So, I was in the car for an hour
11:36
and 50 minutes to get to this point.
11:39
Granted, I did I did go a couple miles,
11:40
have turn around, and go back, but still
11:42
an hour and 50 minutes to get to here.
11:44
Traffic has gotten crazy around these
11:47
parts. I was kind of looking for some
11:49
some wall art in here. Nothing's really
11:52
popping out at me, but I definitely
11:54
could still use a little wall art in my
11:57
place. This is interesting, too. Check
11:58
this out. Main Street, USA. It's not all
12:00
of Main Street. It's just the front hub
12:02
there at Magic Kingdom. They even have
12:05
over here at the firehouse sorcerers
12:06
training in there. I've never seen that.
12:08
Isn't that interesting?
12:10
Right. I know what that's even from.
12:12
Look at this little bear bear photograph
12:15
right there. The bear in its cub. I
12:16
didn't really find anything in there. Of
12:18
course, it was kind of quick. I got to
12:19
get
12:20
over. Mom's got food ready. The house
12:23
her their her
12:24
place and avoided the storm. I saw some
12:27
lightning, but that I didn't drive
12:29
through any heavy rain. A little
12:30
sprinkles. I remember years ago, this is
12:33
in the '9s, my roommate at that time and
12:35
I came out in this parking lot with a
12:38
kite and we were flying it out
12:41
here. Yep. Pre- internet, that's the
12:44
things you did. You kept yourself busy
12:45
by doing other fun things and surfing
12:49
social media and things like that. Yeah,
12:51
we stood right over here. We launched a
12:53
kite
12:54
up for a good portion of the
12:57
day. This actually used to be a Walmart
13:00
also. So Walmart, which is over on the
13:02
other side of 192 now, used to be right
13:05
here where the Goodwill, Dollar Tree,
13:08
and Tractor Supply used to be. And then
13:09
it moved over. This is This is in the
13:11
mid '90s. Early to mid '90s, but I
13:13
remember Walmart being here. My family
13:16
first moved to St. Cloud. Yep. Value
13:18
Pawn and Jewelry used to be a
13:20
Blockbuster. There used to be like six,
13:23
five or six VHS video stores in Saint
13:27
Cloud in the in '91, '92. Now there's
13:31
none. Zero. Not a one. believe it's a
13:34
gym of some sort now, but in the early
13:37
90s, but first job, first retail job I
13:39
ever had in ' 91 was at the Publix
13:42
shopping center here in St. Cloud. Now,
13:44
I worked some other jobs when I was
13:45
living in Eupallo, Oklahoma. I'd mow
13:47
yards on the side, under the table kind
13:49
of thing, but it wasn't a punching the
13:50
clock kind of thing. But the first
13:52
official job that Uncle Sam would take
13:55
money out of my paycheck for, this is
13:57
the backside of that Publix, which is
13:59
now a
14:00
gym. and for a couple years and then I
14:03
went to the Buena Ventura Lakes location
14:05
BVL. I still worked for Publix and after
14:07
that I worked for Walmart, Windixie,
14:09
Office Max, etc. I worked worked retail
14:11
for over two
14:13
decades, but I would be on the stock
14:15
crew late at night, early in the
14:18
morning. We go in around 4 in the
14:19
morning. We'd unload the trucks and this
14:21
was the lift for the truck. So, I would
14:24
come out of that door, which has now
14:26
been sealed
14:27
off right there. They'd open that side
14:29
door and then they'd open that bay door
14:31
and we'd pull the pallet jack out, lift
14:34
up. There was a little mechanism over on
14:36
the wall that was plugged into that
14:38
outlet. This would lift up and I would
14:42
unload the trucks with the rest of my
14:44
stock crew cohort
14:46
co-workers. Pull the pallets in there,
14:49
go take them into the back room, spot
14:51
the stuff on the aisle, stock the
14:54
shelves. That was it. I worked quite a
14:56
few grocery stores. That was the
14:57
beginning of my retail. Two decades of
15:01
retail in the in the in the working
15:05
retail in
15:07
Florida, grocery store retail. Stocked a
15:10
lot of cans of peas in my day. But this
15:13
right here is just like a little
15:14
momento, a little
15:16
remnant of myself back in the day. And
15:19
then as this is this is actually the
15:21
next shopping center over from where
15:23
that Blockbuster video was. And the
15:25
Walmart that I said moved across the
15:27
street. And when that Walmart moved
15:29
across the street, they hired me to be
15:31
part of the setup crew for the new
15:33
Walmart which opened. So I was part one
15:36
of the first probably 30 hires at that
15:39
new Walmart, which is now an older
15:41
Walmart that's here in St. Cloud that
15:43
everyone knows as the Walmart Super
15:45
Center. Fun fact, I also just realized I
15:48
can't get out this way. That was going
15:50
to be my secret to get out of this back
15:51
around the back, but this is all blocked
15:53
off. Hey, look at this. Can't get out
16:00
there. That whole road's closed.
16:00
Neptune's closed. Look at that. I'm
16:03
going to have to go back to 192. This is
16:06
always the shortcut, but shortcut is
16:09
completely unable to be driven
16:13
on. Yep. Can't get out this way either.
16:16
Look at
16:17
this. Wow. I haven't seen no traffic on
16:20
that road because you can't even get on
16:21
that
16:27
road. All right, fast forward the day a
16:27
bit. It's now
16:29
10:37. Spent quite a while over at my
16:31
parents house catching up with them,
16:33
talking about future plans and travels
16:35
I'm going to be going
16:36
on, seeing how they're doing. My mom
16:40
made nice meal, caught up
16:44
watch a little
16:50
TV. Just kind of nice hang out with my
16:50
parents for the evening. Obviously, I
16:52
didn't film. Talked about this before,
16:53
but it's probably been five, six, seven,
16:56
eight years since I mentioned it. People
16:58
do ask, "What does Adam the Woo mean?
17:02
Why are you called the Woo?" And in all
17:05
reality, the word has absolutely no
17:09
meaning whatsoever.
17:14
I got the name the
17:17
Woo simply because I was sitting here
17:21
when I used to work at this Walmart. I'm
17:23
going to reiterate myself. So, people
17:25
who've been following me for a decade
17:26
probably already know this, but if
17:28
you're new within the last couple years,
17:30
you might not be privy to this
17:31
information. So, as the light flickers
17:34
over there next to the liquor store next
17:36
to
17:37
McMart I used to work at I mentioned
17:39
earlier how they moved over here. I used
17:41
to wait for the Lynx bus right here. I
17:43
used to live at Simpson Ridge Apartments
17:45
which is about five miles that way. Did
17:47
not have a car. Was working in the
17:49
grocery department of this Walmart. And
17:52
I would get to and from to work from the
17:54
Lynx bus station which has recently
17:57
moved over here. You can see the bus
18:00
stops are over there on the road, but
18:02
they used to be right here. The bus
18:03
would pull up right here. and in the mid
18:06
'9s. This is probably
18:08
94 or 95 around then. Might have been
18:12
96, but I'm going to say 94 or 95 when I
18:15
was working
18:16
here. Right down here, I would wait for
18:18
the bus. And inside the Walmart, they
18:22
had it. It's snail mail is not a thing
18:24
anymore. You don't really write letters
18:26
to people that often, but I would write
18:28
letters to
18:30
bands and I would put my return address
18:33
on there. You get on a mailing list and
18:35
bands would send you stickers back. They
18:37
would send you information about where
18:39
they were touring. This is pre- internet
18:41
obviously. And I thought, I need a
18:43
clever name. I need a
18:46
nickname. So, I went in. I bought a
18:48
stamp kit inside of here that had the
18:50
little tweezers and you would pull the
18:52
letters out and you'd put the tweezer
18:54
pieces of the different letters that you
18:56
chose into the stamp pad and then you'd
18:59
stick that in the ink and that would be
19:00
your return address label. And I sat
19:03
right here on one of these benches and I
19:05
came up with about I don't know five or
19:08
six different
19:10
names, Adam
19:13
something. And I came up one of them,
19:16
Adam the Woo, cuz I thought it just kind
19:19
of was had a nice ring to it. Didn't
19:20
mean anything. And that's it. I would
19:23
use that as my return address and bands
19:26
would send me things, you know, like a
19:27
promo CD or something on their mailing
19:29
list or stickers or patches or whatever
19:31
they whatever it was. Was really into
19:33
the punk scene then. So, I got a lot of
19:35
return address stuff sent to me, the
19:36
self-ress stamped envelope era, which is
19:39
kind of why when I did the sticker PO
19:42
box thing a few years ago, I kind of
19:43
follow that format as well from those
19:46
days. The mean the name meant nothing.
19:50
And fast forward years later, started
19:52
selling on eBay in
19:54
1999. That was my account and I used
19:57
that as my screen name. And then when
20:00
certain social media platforms, I guess
20:02
before social media, but they were
20:03
basically the early era of those types
20:06
of platforms started, I would use that
20:08
as my screen name as well. And it just
20:11
kind of stuck. In fact, when YouTube
20:13
first started, I believe it was around
20:16
2007 where I started a YouTube channel,
20:21
which was became my main channel. Now
20:23
I'm filming on the Daily Woo. But that
20:25
was the signin name because that's what
20:27
I was using on my eBay and other other
20:30
places, other things. And that just
20:33
became that. I would upload home videos
20:36
of family and things like that with
20:38
family reunions. the band I was in, I
20:40
would upload footage on there. And then
20:42
I started doing the abandoned stuff.
20:44
That took off in
20:47
2009, 2010. I started to do pretty well.
20:50
It started to get me a couple
20:51
subscribers. And I thought I should
20:53
probably take the band practice footage
20:56
and the home videos of my
20:58
family off of there and just turn it
21:01
into what became a channel. Didn't
21:03
realize that that was such a thing. I
21:04
don't think anybody did back then. And
21:07
because that signin name was what I was
21:10
using already, Adam the Woo, that just
21:13
became the stage name. That's
21:16
it. Anyway, just thought I'd share that
21:19
with those who possibly did not see the
21:21
video from like a decade ago or eight or
21:23
nine years ago when I talked about it.
21:25
Got off work, was waiting at that bench
21:27
doing the tweezer set with the stamp pad
21:29
and that's it. It means absolutely
21:31
nothing. Hey, it's kind of late. I
21:34
figure I'll just cruise around downtown
21:36
St. Cloud. Now I have a little nostalgic
21:39
romp through my mind in my brain and
21:43
talk about some of my memories. Been a
21:44
while since I've been downtown St. Cloud
21:47
and at night it's been a long while.
21:50
Yeah, I'll park and walk
21:52
around. Weather feels nice out. The
21:54
brick streets of downtown St. Cloud
21:57
right here in New
21:59
York. My old stomping ground. I lived in
22:01
an apartment down here for many, many
22:03
years.
22:04
up until I quit my last retail job at a
22:07
feed store that was a couple miles down
22:08
the
22:09
road. Quit there in August of
22:12
2011. Shortly before
22:14
that, 6 months before that, 5 months
22:17
before that, I moved out of my
22:18
apartment. I was just sleeping in my van
22:20
to help pay it off, not paying the rent.
22:23
But I want to show the chamber of
22:24
commerce here. When I first moved here
22:26
in '91, my dad was a minister, the first
22:28
Christian church right down there. Now
22:30
it's a different
22:31
congregation. But back in those early
22:33
90s when we lived down there, they not
22:35
only filmed the water boy with Adam
22:37
Sandler downtown Scloud, but they also
22:38
filmed some Super Boy episodes and they
22:40
used the front of this building for
22:42
Super
22:44
Boy. Remember standing across the street
22:47
watching them film it.
23:01
I always love downtown Scloud and when I
23:01
lived in the apartment up here on the
23:02
right, I would just walk around at this
23:05
time of night and I have not walked
23:06
around at this time of night probably
23:07
since I moved out of there. So, this is
23:09
kind of bringing back memories where I
23:11
would go out just before midnight, you
23:13
know, 10 11:00 at night and just walk
23:15
around and enjoy the night. Wow, it's
23:17
bringing back memories. There's a big
23:18
fire down here in 1917. Destroyed most
23:20
of the town. A little mural here devoted
23:23
to it. Of course, 2000
23:27
maniacs. Hershel Gordon Lewis directed
23:29
Godfather of Gore. He had that
23:32
nickname. Went on to inspire many other
23:35
horror film directors including Toby
23:37
Hooper to make Texas Chainsaw etc.
23:40
Filmed inside here as well as a scene
23:41
from The Water
23:42
Boy. Scene from that Super Boy episode.
23:45
Also filmed right here. My apartment is
23:48
right down there. I'll walk over there.
23:51
Again, I've talked about this before,
23:52
but it's been a long time and maybe
23:54
people have jumped on to what I'm doing
23:56
that don't know a lot of this
23:57
information. I figured I was already in
23:59
St. Cloud. Why not kind of reminisce a
24:02
little bit? There's my reflection right
24:04
here. It's kind of cool. All right. A
24:06
little street light
24:08
there. Neat. These used to be apartments
24:12
up here. In fact, I almost moved into
24:13
these. They weren't in the best shape
24:14
back then. They fix them up since then,
24:16
but there was a little room up here that
24:17
I almost rented an apartment up there. I
24:19
mean, it was like the size of a closet
24:21
and it was not in good shape back then.
24:24
And then I found the apartment up here,
24:26
which was a little bit nicer. It was up
24:28
on the top floor up
24:29
there. This used to be Big D's, my band,
24:33
TNT, The New Threat. We used to play
24:35
there occasionally and pretty often.
24:37
Well, we played there probably three or
24:39
four
24:39
times back in the day. It's now an ice
24:43
cream shop. No, it's a waffle shop.
24:46
Yeah, Big D's. This used to be horse
24:49
horseshoes and hand
24:50
grenades tattoo parlor. We played in
24:53
there as well. We played on the floor
24:56
inside of there. In fact, there was a
24:57
circle pit. Someone knocked a hole in
24:59
the wall. And last time I went in here a
25:02
few years
25:03
ago, they had like like pieces of metal
25:07
or clothing covering the hole in the
25:08
wall that was over there. But yeah, tons
25:11
of people showed up. People were lined
25:12
up out here stretching out. We were uh
25:15
playing a little punk rock in there.
25:18
It's all coming back to me now. That was
25:20
the apartment I lived in. I go in that
25:26
door. And when I first moved out of,
25:26
well, not when I first moved out of the
25:27
apartment, when I was pre-planning to
25:28
move out of the apartment. This is how
25:30
wild this thought process is. Thinking
25:33
back of this, I still lived in the
25:35
apartment. So, there was an apartment
25:36
here. My neighbor was up there. And then
25:39
these last two windows were mine. This
25:41
is the bathroom, and that's the room.
25:43
That was my bedroom right there. And I
25:45
had my van. And I had the Ford E150 that
25:47
I used to tour in the van in. And I
25:49
thought, what would it be like to sleep
25:50
in a van and not in my bed? And I can
25:53
remember I had my van parked right here,
25:55
right over here. This is in early 2011
25:59
when I quit the job in August of 11. So
26:01
early 2011, started getting the idea in
26:03
my head and I came down here, had the
26:05
air mattress, slept in the back of the
26:07
van one night and I thought, you know
26:09
what, that wasn't that bad. I could do
26:10
that. And I did it below my bed, which
26:13
was up there. And that was the testing
26:14
grounds of me going into the
26:18
van right here downtown St. Cloud. Walk
26:22
out this. I had a key that would open
26:24
this door, go up the stairs over to the
26:26
apartment. I would come out here and I'd
26:28
sit right here at night, drink my
26:30
Mountain Dew's back when I used to drink
26:31
a lot of soda. Just sit out here, cruise
26:34
around the neighborhood, come back, sit.
26:36
I used to be that Big D's bar. there'd
26:38
be a lot of people that were drunk
26:40
exiting the bar and they'd be walking
26:42
down the road. So, I definitely had got
26:45
some interesting experiences when the
26:47
bars would close or right before they
26:49
would close. And the interesting thing
26:50
is too, so there was Big D's over there
26:52
and then there used to be another bar
26:53
over here which has since changed names.
26:57
I think originally was called Soldier
26:59
City Saloon that changed names. But on
27:02
this corner, there would be fights
27:05
because the bars would get out usually
27:07
on Fridays and Saturday nights like
27:08
around 2 am. There was always officers
27:11
showing up. There were street fights
27:12
because people would be coming out of
27:14
this bar and they would meet up with
27:16
people exiting the other bar at Soldier
27:18
City coming out here. And there would
27:20
always, you know, well, not always, but
27:22
often there would be a scuffle right
27:24
here in the middle of the road. And I
27:26
could be up there in my window and look
27:28
out and see the shenanigans there for a
27:30
few years. I lived there up until 2011,
27:33
but I lived there for many, many years.
27:35
There used to be a coffee shop right
27:37
here that had Wi-Fi and I would I didn't
27:39
have Wi-Fi because I was just, you know,
27:40
paycheck to paycheck. I didn't have
27:42
Wi-Fi and I would tap into the Wi-Fi
27:44
across the street. My couch was up
27:46
there, TV was up there. So, these three
27:48
windows were mine and around the other
27:50
corner those other two windows and I
27:52
would go up the stairs and that was my
27:53
that was my apartment.
28:05
here. This is kind of where it all
28:05
began because, you know, making the
28:08
decision to start traveling and move
28:09
into my van, it was a it was a different
28:11
time of YouTube then. It definitely was
28:12
a completely different time. I didn't
28:15
really have a huge template on how to go
28:17
about, you know, making videos and
28:20
getting people to watch them. There
28:22
wasn't a lot, you know, there wasn't a
28:24
lot of people that I could emulate. not
28:26
a lot of
28:27
people uh you could you could take their
28:30
their template and kind of run with it.
28:32
There really wasn't a whole lot that I
28:34
kn I could go off of. So, I kind of just
28:36
did it on my own terms. And that was I
28:38
don't like my job. Can't stand the job.
28:40
I don't want to work for someone
28:41
anymore. So, I'd rather be hungry in a
28:44
van than make someone
28:47
else wealthy by working for them and not
28:50
be rewarded, you know, not be rewarded
28:52
for the time I'm giving. So, I just
28:54
that's that was kind of my thought is
28:55
you know what? I'd rather just travel,
28:57
see the countryside, film videos, and be
29:01
happy doing my own thing. I'd rather be
29:03
broke doing
29:06
than barely getting by and not being
29:09
happy working for
29:11
someone. That was my thought. And that's
29:14
the only reason I decided quit my job
29:16
and move into my van, which used to be
29:18
parked right there. And then I started
29:19
traveling the countryside after I quit
29:20
the job. That was almost 14 years ago.
29:29
Wow, time really does fly. Really does.
29:29
You know, it's just as quiet down here
29:30
as it always was. Like I never left.
29:33
It's like it's still that same time
29:34
frame in that same era. During the day,
29:37
it gets a little busy down here with
29:38
people and traffic and places open. Not
29:41
too
29:42
busy, but busier than it is now. But
29:44
this is
29:45
exactly the same vibe as it was back
29:48
when I lived down
29:49
here from like what ' 08 to
29:52
2011. I lived there for a while. A lot
29:54
of good memories of that
29:57
place. Almost moved into here at one
29:59
point. I actually looked at these places
30:01
which kind of reminds me of like an old
30:02
beachside place. There's no beach around
30:04
here, but kind of reminds me of like an
30:05
old beach motel that's been converted
30:07
into apartments. Looked at those once.
30:10
This used to be an old bank. Then it was
30:12
the library when I first moved here, but
30:15
I don't think it's been either one of
30:16
those things for years. You still have
30:18
the drive-thru areas here. You even have
30:21
the bank deposit box, which hasn't been
30:23
used in decades. Look at that. The night
30:26
depository right there. Used to be a
30:28
ghost hunting shop right in here for a
30:30
short
30:31
while. Ghost hunters shop. Been under
30:35
construction forever and a day.
30:38
the original building where the people
30:40
when they first started to move into St.
30:44
Cloud way back in the day. This is where
30:45
the people when they were having their
30:46
houses built lived. Very historic. Said
30:49
to be haunted. I think that's why the
30:51
ghost hunting place had the shop for a
30:53
short while. This has been under refurb
30:55
for like a
30:57
decade and it's just just sitting
31:00
here. Wow. I can remember when they were
31:03
going to build a skyscraper in Scloud.
31:04
They were going to build it behind this
31:06
and I thought that's not going to
31:07
happen. and they announced it. They put
31:08
it in the newspaper. I'm like, "No, I
31:09
don't think that's going to happen." And
31:10
it never
31:16
did. Also, the strong rumor that John
31:16
Dillinger robbed this bank, which was
31:18
later debunked. He never came through
31:19
this area, which is kind of kind of fun
31:22
to think about. There used to be a bank
31:23
right here, too, which is now like a
31:25
produce stand. Oh, yes. Moors
31:27
Market. It's called Moors Groceries, but
31:30
we call it Moors Market. I think they're
31:31
already closed for the evening cuz it's
31:32
late. But this was the local gas
31:36
station.
31:42
Everybody just kind of hung out here,
31:42
went in here, got their snacks, got
31:44
their sodas. I had heard a rumor that on
31:47
the weekends, like Fridays and
31:49
Saturdays, that they sold more beer out
31:52
of this place than anywhere else in
31:53
town. Of course, there wasn't as much
31:55
open back then as there is now, but this
31:57
place was a beehive of activity on the
31:59
weekends of people going in here buying
32:00
cases of
32:02
beer. I was in here all the time. soda,
32:05
beef jerky, snacks. They used to have
32:08
this beef jerky on the counter I'd
32:09
always come in here and
32:11
get. They used to be open late, but I
32:13
guess not open as late as they used to
32:15
be. It's 11:11 right now. In a
32:17
roundabout way,
32:19
it's I don't know. Kind of fills me with
32:22
like a little sadness remembering those
32:24
days. Just how drastically things are
32:27
different, but yet they're still the
32:29
same. I can't really put my finger on it
32:32
honestly. Looking back on your younger
32:36
self, it's always it's always kind of a
32:38
weird feeling. New York used to go all
32:40
the way to the
32:47
lakefront. New York a tent street is
32:47
where I'm standing. This used to go all
32:48
the way through and then they built the
32:49
new city
32:51
hall many years after we moved here in
32:55
'91. Just time just goes by so quick the
32:57
older you get. My parents and I had a
32:59
whole conversation about that this
33:01
evening. And my dad's theory. He heard
33:03
he heard
33:04
once, you know, the older you get, the
33:07
faster time
33:08
goes. And he was telling me a story
33:10
about he had a friend that explained it
33:12
to him once. It kind of made sense. And
33:14
ever since that, he's used that an this
33:16
analogy that when you're 10 years old,
33:18
one year is onetenth of your life. Not
33:21
not much of your life. But when you turn
33:24
50, it's 150th of your life, which does
33:28
not seem like much
33:31
time. I don't know if that's 100%
33:33
factual or truth, but I think that has
33:35
some validity to it on why I think when
33:39
you get older,
33:41
time it just moves on. I mean, it just I
33:45
used to never make plans a year out. If
33:49
you'd have told me, "Hey, we're going to
33:50
make plans." Like if someone came up to
33:51
me now and said, "We're going to make
33:53
plans for
33:54
2027." Like, you know, if I was younger,
33:58
I'd go, "That's insane. Why would I make
34:00
plans that far away?" But now I know if
34:02
I make plans 2 years from now, it's
34:04
going to be
34:06
here like that. Yeah. Right inside of
34:09
there. Not only 20,000 maniacs, I've
34:11
shown this before, but not only 2,000
34:13
Maniacs, Hersher Gordon Lewis, but also
34:15
the water boy, Adam Sandler lived over
34:17
on Minnesota. This is way before I had
34:19
the apartment down here when the water
34:21
boy was filming. My dad was preaching at
34:23
the church down there a couple blocks
34:25
after the congregation that day. My
34:27
sister and I walked up
34:29
here around this corner. I was working
34:31
at Publix. So, I couldn't stay the whole
34:35
day, but around this corner when they
34:37
were setting up for the scene that the
34:39
guy that's a teacher that looks like
34:40
Colonel Sanders when he comes down the
34:42
staircase and then Adam Sandler meets
34:44
the two girls and he's like, "Oh, I see
34:46
a lot of girls. I see a lot of guys too
34:48
that was inside here and around the back
34:51
they had craft services and everything
34:52
and saw Ferusa Balk saw Henry Winkler
34:55
right over here on this corner. Since
34:57
then I've seen him a couple times but
34:59
that was the first time I ever met Henry
35:00
Winkler right over there. Very kind guy.
35:04
I did not meet Sandler but my sister
35:06
did. Got a photo with
35:09
him because I had to get to work Publix
35:12
at the time.
35:18
Hell yeah. St. Cloud Memories. And if
35:18
anyone remembers far back enough,
35:20
Fisherman in the fridge right here.
35:23
Fisherman in the
35:29
fridge. He'll grant your final death
35:29
wish. Turn around to walk
35:32
away. Gut you like a fish. And there's
35:36
my St. Cloud tattoo.
35:39
STC. Got that many years ago. STC for
35:43
St. Cloud.
35:45
Oh,
35:46
yeah. A lot of memories here. And it was
35:49
in that apartment down there that I
35:50
bought my first KitKat clock. And I've
35:53
had one at every place I've ever lived.
35:55
Now, granted, when I sold everything and
35:57
started traveling in the van, I got rid
35:58
of that one. And I think I bought two or
36:01
three more since
36:03
then. But I started the KitKat clock. I
36:07
have one at my place now. I've owned a
36:09
few of them cuz I saw it in Back to the
36:12
Future and I thought, I got to have a
36:12
Kit Kat clock. So, when I had the
36:15
apartment down here, I bought my first
36:17
one, put it on the wall, and since then,
36:19
I've never been in an apartment andor
36:21
home without a said KitKat clock. The
36:25
first one I ever bought was right here
36:27
in this store. I think the name has
36:30
changed now. Southern Roots Ant. Yeah,
36:31
it's a different store, but this used to
36:33
be like a clock shop of some sort, and I
36:38
bought it in there, and I thought, man,
36:40
why have I never owned one of these
36:42
before? And they're just like the
36:43
greatest things ever. They make me
36:44
happy. This stinks. They've painted over
36:47
the paintings in here which had a
36:50
timeline of the events of St. Cloud.
36:52
They were all along here and they've
36:54
since painted over them. That's a
37:00
bummer. Each one of these, not the one
37:00
with the door, but that one, that one,
37:02
that one, that one, and that one all
37:06
had, you know, different accounts of
37:08
things that happened downtown with the
37:09
date stamps on them. But no, I guess
37:10
they decided to paint it over it. Once a
37:12
week, they would do street cleaning over
37:14
there where I would normally park my van
37:17
and I'd have to move the van over here.
37:19
So, I'd park
37:21
here. It's odd how you can go back to a
37:25
place like right now. I feel like I just
37:28
got out of my van, still live there, and
37:30
I was going to walk over there, go up to
37:33
my apartment, put a DVD
37:36
on till I got tired, and then went to
37:39
bed. There's a cat going by. There's a
37:40
black cat over
37:50
there. Something I had not thought about
37:50
in many years, but just standing here,
37:52
it's like, well, I could just I could
37:53
just go to my apartment, but I can't.
37:55
Mind is like a what do they say? It's
37:56
like a steel trap. It's like things just
37:58
get lodged in there, and they don't get
38:01
unlocked until you have something and
38:03
you see something, a sight, a sense, a
38:07
smell, a view.
38:10
an ambiance that unlocks that memory.
38:14
The brain is an amazing thing. Really
38:16
is. Don't know how it works, but it's
38:19
amazing. Yeah. Here's something
38:21
interesting that I just thought about.
38:23
At that point in time, when I was living
38:25
down here, I had never even been to
38:29
California. I hadn't even joined the Van
38:31
Guttermouth yet. I hadn't done any
38:34
massive touring except for with TNT. We
38:37
did some brief touring. I think that's
38:38
why I bought the van. But I hadn't even
38:40
been to SoCal to visit for the first
38:43
time. My car is making some squeaky
38:45
noises on these
38:48
bricks. A lot has
38:50
changed since 2011 when I was down here.
38:54
Should the fridge was a long time ago.
38:55
That was
39:03
fun. Yeah, memories are wild. Memories
39:03
are wild. What really hits me is the
39:05
fact that kind of made the decision to
39:07
put me where I am
39:08
now. Right up
39:11
there. All right, I'm done done
39:13
reminiscing. I'm just talking to myself.
39:14
But yeah, you know, I've been down here
39:17
a bunch of times over the years. A bunch
39:19
of times downtown. And it never really
39:22
hit me like it did till tonight. I think
39:25
this cuz it's just reminding me of those
39:27
times walking around late at
39:29
night. It just really kicked me back to
39:33
2010,
39:40
2011. There's the water
39:40
tower. I'm very grateful for my life and
39:42
happy that it's it is where it is at
39:44
this point.
39:50
Not something I would have ever expected
39:50
to do what I'm doing for a career based
39:52
on a decision that when I was up in that
39:54
apartment working at a feed
40:03
store. I just wanted to travel, see
40:03
things, film some videos that maybe a
40:06
few hundred people or more would
40:10
watch and that possibly somebody would
40:13
see and think, "Oh, this is something
40:15
kind of neat. I'll maybe watch the next
40:17
one that he does from somewhere. This
40:19
guy traveling around slumbering in the
40:22
back of a van filming really grainy,
40:26
badly filmed clips of things that they
40:30
possibly had not seen before on film.
40:33
There's plenty of photos out there, but
40:35
thought maybe people like to see a video
40:37
of things of places they haven't been.
40:39
And I thought maybe there would be some
40:42
people out there that might be into
40:44
that.
40:57
Thanks for watching. I'll see you in the
40:57
next video, the
41:03
vlog. Truly, thank you for
41:03
watching. I am amazed how fast time
41:06
goes. I really
41:07
am. Couple days going to another
41:10
country.