Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:05 All right. Good morning, Fort McMurray. Thank you very much for tuning in. Once again, I am your host, Elliot, Pierre, and you are watching the Mac city morning show. I started this off the same way every day. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for everybody. Who's decided to spend their time with us. I know you can be doing a million other things, so it warms my heart on that note. Tana hit him with you.
Speaker 1 00:00:30 Welcome to the <inaudible>.
Speaker 0 00:00:38 Well, all right, well, we have a very, very, uh, historical guests today. This gentlemen has been in the community forever. I'm not going to do an intro cause I never do. He'll introduce himself, but I'm super excited to have him here and the topics that we're going to talk about today. I don't even know this guy has so much knowledge of this community, so hopefully you'll see him again and again and again, but get ready for a good one. So sir, introduce yourself. Let the people at home who know who you are,
Speaker 2 00:01:05 What I really enjoyed Elliot. When you introduced yourself in the show, you said Fort Mick
Speaker 0 00:01:13 Murray, okay. It
Speaker 2 00:01:15 Bothers me. I'm not going to say it sucks. What does suck? We were named after William Mick Murray. Who's a matey, a person. And so it really bugs me. When you say people say Fort Mac or Fort McMurray. My name is Curtis J Phillips. I've been a member of the community for nearly 40 years. And, um, uh, my career has been in sports journalism, be it media, uh, print or electronic, and that evolved or revolved into becoming a historian. I loved volunteering, loved being part of the community. And the most important thing is what you're doing with your show is telling the story of the people in Fort McMurray. You have the easiest job in the world because every person is a story. Every person is unique. There's 75,685 stories out there in Fort McMurray to have
Speaker 0 00:02:02 That's it, that's it. And I love hearing all of them. So it is the easiest job in the world. I get to listen to amazing stories and I get to share the, share that with the world. So it's pretty cool. So your story, you and I met, and I don't know if you remember this, but you used to do a basketball camp basketball camp. When I was about eight years old, I got passionate about playing basketball and my mother, Pam Pierre said, Hey, I'm putting you in camp. Cause we were just shooting around in the backyard. Didn't know how to do it. Just, you know, playing. And I went to your basketball camp and I fell in love with basketball. It was you and Compton vigilance. I'll never forget it, but you put me on the path to playing basketball and that's how it all started. So let me hear and tell everybody at home about these basketball camps, how you got involved and how many kids you pumped through these programs. How old were you then? I was probably like, I think I was eight, but like now that I'm telling the story has probably seven, I was probably seven years old.
Speaker 2 00:02:55 I recognize you had the beard. Then I remember it was here's the one year old that had the beard, but you know, uh, you give back to the sport you're involved in. I fell in love with the sport of basketball as a 12 year old growing up in Winnipeg, Manitoba. And uh, when I came to Fort McMurry, I was here I think two weeks and had my first basketball camp. And also we landed the 1983 Western Canadian, senior men's basketball championships. Uh, because in Winnepeg they said we would, we like to host in Fort McMurray and we had great response. And it's when you see the kids out there. You know, I have the belief that each and every kid be, they seven or eight year old, eight year old have the enthusiasm, but somebody has the responsibility in locking the key of enthusiasm in that person.
Speaker 2 00:03:40 And it keeps the kids out of trouble. And there's so much joy watching kids like yourself. Like you said, you know, you learn how to do a layup. And uh, uh, just, just, you know, just learning that one little thing to do a layup, you know, we, we know we're not all going to make the NBA, you know, we're not going to play pro hockey, but you could take that as a life lesson, thrilled life, you know, you met your teammates and everything and it doesn't have to stop as a, as a player. You could become a coach, a writer, a administrator, uh, work in work in the back office or do physio. So sports are something that can last a lifetime. I, you know, my passion for star sports started as a 12 year old or, or even younger as a six year old.
Speaker 2 00:04:23 Uh, my dad created one of North America's largest multi-sport camps in the States. And he did that from 1962 up to just recently. And we'd get sometimes up to 2000 athletes for the summer, uh, over, you know, 14, 15 different sports at a place called the league athletic camp at international peace garden. And I saw that passion and love for sports given by the coaches at that time. And so it's just giving back. So you have the next level and they will give back to you, which is really neat. And you just see the smile on the kids' faces is worth it all.
Speaker 0 00:04:54 Yeah. It's amazing. I've had the honor of doing a little bit of coaching myself and it's frustrating as heck. There's no doubt about it, but when something you've taught them works and you see it, that feeling is tremendous.
Speaker 2 00:05:08 Yeah. Yeah. There's, there's nothing like that. Money can't buy that. No,
Speaker 0 00:05:11 No. So you're doing something else that I've been noticed on online, which I'm intrigued with. And I think it's hilarious because your picture has never looked like the advertisements you can go into. I've only seen two. Maybe there's more, but you've been going to fast food restaurants and asking them to make your burger like the advertisement. And then you ask for certain condiments as well, explain this to me and how this
Speaker 2 00:05:36 Well, I always like to think outside the box and your typical day, you make it fun. And, uh, there was one particular fast food place I was going to, and they weren't doing a very good job. And then, so I've always asked in the past, you know, I'll go to a burger place and they'll say, well, see that burger you have in the screen, I'd it to be made like that. And a lot of times they'd laugh at you and this is advertising. You know, this is, this is what they're selling us. And I know it's all done up with plastic and all this stuff. So I decided the other day and, um, I was feeding the Ravens. I have a friend named timber who lands on my car to feed him chips all the time. And, uh, so I went, went to the restaurant.
Speaker 2 00:06:16 I said, like you said, may I get certain burger looking like in the advertisement, I want you to do that. Then they get the fries and drink in the vinegar and all that. And then I take a picture of the burger and I give it a rating. I say, I show it with the advertising. And then I give it a rating, how it tastes the appearance, the taste and how the service was. And some people it's a, I think I call it CJ, Conda sewer or something like that. And a lot of people say, well, you know, in the comments are always fun. You can't take anything. Anybody says internet serious, that's it. And, uh, and it's been fun. It's some people say it's been good for their business. I've been to AMW Wendy's burger King McDonald's and I'm forgetting the fifth. Oh my goodness. Well then I went to a fifth restaurant too, and it's just fun to do, and I think I'll continue it, uh, to do, uh, it's just, it's making my lunch more fun too. I think it's hilarious. And the Ravens, um, I know there's one named timber and he lands every time and he, he's got to the point now where he'll reach in and grab a chip. Now, the other day I'm sitting in my car and I dropped one of the chips. So I bend down like this
Speaker 3 00:07:29 Pick up the chip. Do you ever reaches in to, it takes like took off.
Speaker 2 00:07:37 He takes off and drops the tooth. That's hilarious. It was funny. My good friend timber. Yeah. So with all these burgers mean Tanner, how to show where we were just chatting with each other. And we were talking about burgers. You've listed off a few that you've got some from. I don't want to put you on blast, but out of all these burgers, which one do you think is the best burger for you? Fast food burger, fast food burger in town, in town. Well, a fat burger, fat burger. I enjoy, I don't go a lot. I used to be 280 pounds down to 26. Congratulations. Uh, I got rid of a wife. She weighed six by, uh, no, but, um, fatberg I enjoy it gets, it looks like what they're serving the main thing. It tastes great. It's not that, that healthy. Let's be honest. But, um, I think fat burger is the burger in town for fast food. We're not talking sit down food like Mr. Mike's or the cake or something like that. Right. That's correct. Now you kind of walk into the next question. Yeah. That's restaurant burger, best restaurant burger. Wow. It's a hard one. I know. Best restaurant. I like the variety of Mr. Mike's. Okay. I like the variety there. You know, Michael, <inaudible> one of the owners. I liked the variety. Um, yeah, I'd have to go with Mr. Mike's right now. Okay. You know, there's some, I haven't probably tried, but Mr. Mike's is one of the snacks.
Speaker 0 00:09:02 Okay. So you've been here for so many years in the community and I hope I'm not ruining one of Tanner's questions. Cause he asks five questions afterwards. But cause I love eating food and like, uh, Tanner makes fun of me. Cause every morning I exercise every morning and I run all of the time and it's not because I have this, uh, motivation to do it. Cause I'm like, you know, I do it because I eat whatever I want whenever I want. So I have no choice to keep up the exercise because I'm just like, I love eating out and I love bad food. I love good food. I just love to eat. We got a bowl full of candy over here. Yeah. That's exactly. Yeah. So that's why like this is my morning regime. The Tanner makes fun of me every morning. I meditate. I'm jealous.
Speaker 0 00:09:43 Cause you do like a big ass workout every morning. When I wake up, like when I get to the office, I should say I do a 10 minute meditation. I do a hundred pushups. I do a two-minute plank and a two minute wall sit and about 30 odd squats. Well, and I try to run three to four times a week about 10 kilometers a run. So I love eating food. And so there's a certain restaurants in town that aren't here anymore. Can you think back of a restaurant that's not here that you loved to go to back in the day?
Speaker 2 00:10:18 Ponderosa. Ponderosa. Okay. Yeah. That was a good night. And do Western meditation.
Speaker 0 00:10:23 Uh, I do, um, some guided meditation. They use an app called the calm app. So it has a bunch of different,
Speaker 2 00:10:28 Well, Western meditation goes like this. It goes, Oh Oman, the range that's Western meditation. No, but yeah, Ponderosa was a good one after a sports. So many restaurants, it's a business. We have more restaurants per capita. I think that anywhere in North America, when we have over 150 restaurants in this city. Right. And, and, and just cause the, the, the lifestyle, the city, you get off work at six, you have that disposable income. You go, you go out to eat at the restaurant with your family. Um, there are so many good restaurants have come and gone, but there's ones that have been around for eons. Like the blue diamond has been around for eons, um, tastes of the orient. A lot of places have been around for a long time. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:11:14 My two, um, there was a place up where I believe Joel was, is right now. It used to be called mountain boy. Oh yeah. Downton boy was a good one. They had taters. And I remember my dad used to bring home the taters and it was unbelievable. But the other one used to be fabled table
Speaker 2 00:11:30 Fabled table. Yes. That's where Boston pizza.
Speaker 0 00:11:32 That is correct. Yep. Fable table fable table. The best part about it was a buffet for anybody who doesn't know. And at the time being a child, what was a buffet was the best thing ever. But I remember being able to like put all of the different fountain pops in your glass and make small water. My dad just looked at me. He's like, you're out of your mind. It tasted horrible. But you know what I, the option of doing that. So now you've been in the community for so long, so long. And like you said, that soul log so long. I love it. I thought that long really well, most people that I bump into and I tell them I'm born and raised here. They're just like, ah, you're a unicorn. I'm like, I'm not that much of a unicorn, but,
Speaker 2 00:12:10 And your maze, sorry to cut you off. Then. Uh, all three of my children born and raised in Fort Murray, all left. Uh one's in UK, one's in Edmonton. One's in the big city, Toronto. And uh, the wa the one living in the UK as wants to live there three, four more years and come back and live in. Can I say, where do you want to live? Yeah. And she goes, Fort McMurray. And I go at first, I said, why would you want to live in Fort McMurray? Then it made sense. It's her home. It's her home. That's it. It's her home. And I know that one of the premise of the show you want to do is to show how positive all the positive stories in Fort McMurray. Right? I think we don't need that million dollars or $2 million budget from the city to go tell people how good Fort MacMurray is. The word goes out there by itself. But like people like yourself, people like Tanner or people going out and saying, Fort McMurray is a great place. That's it? And word of mouth is still the most powerful medium in the world that sorry, uh, bill Gates and all those other people, word of mouth is still the most popular. Agreed.
Speaker 0 00:13:09 Well, you're like taking the words out of my mouth in regards. So I was going to ask about your children. So they all, they're not here currently, but you've decided this is where you want to retire. This is after you. Yeah. So what about the community? Do you love so much that like keeps you here?
Speaker 2 00:13:21 Um, you can become involved and you get to see like the fruitition of your volunteer work, come up like yourself saying, you know, I learned basketball from you or something like that. And you know what, people, you know, people on the street and, and you can become involved anywhere you go. Like I could leave here, go to Edmonton, uh, start a basketball league or start a TV show or write for the newspaper or create something in Fort McMurray. I'm not a city person. I grew up in a big city, but Winnipeg is not really that big when I lived in the States for awhile. And, uh, what I really like about Fort McMurray is we, I'm not outdoors person, but we live across from a Greenbelt. And every morning I get to look out that window and I see nothing but forest. And it's very calming and relaxing.
Speaker 2 00:14:10 And Fort McMurray is the only place in the world. Will people come back, people come here, they can reinvent themselves. And that's the neat thing. You can forget who you were in the past, reinvent yourself. And when you reinvent yourself, it's usually for the good. So that's what I think is great about Fort Murray. And there's the energy of people coming in, getting excited and doing something. But my advice to people coming in, getting excited, so many people go like this. They get involved in a charity or a sporting event and they get to high. And then they crash. They get the high crash, do it. So the highest air, but then you get used to it. That's right, because whenever I will say it was, you know, um, the 1992 Alberta winter games, it was the biggest, biggest event TV wise in the history of Canada.
Speaker 2 00:15:03 Up until that time, we had, you know, bells come from all over Western Canada, three, 400 people doing the TV aspect. I was in charge of that. And you'd work. 18 hour days a party got three hours sleep for two nights, do it the next day. And everyone afterwards was, uh, once it was over, they wanted to celebrate. And once he was over, I was back in my room, getting ready for the next event the next day. So you don't have that crash down, right? Yeah. You just continue going, going forward. That's awesome. That's awesome, man. Yeah, no, it's a beautiful community. Everything you said is bang on. I like the revenge reinventing yourself part because it's so true. Oh yeah. Yeah. Literally the opportunity here to do whatever you want to enhance the show, I've had a number of different ideas and things that I've wanted to do.
Speaker 2 00:15:43 And if you want to do it, you just do it. Yeah. If I want it to be a firefighter today, I could go down to the fire hall, figure out what I needed to do. And I could be a firefighter tomorrow. You'd have to shave your beard. I'd have to shave the beard. And so I can't be a firefighter. That's not happening because I look 12. If this beer is gone. So now on that note, Tanner, you got the Mac city minutes. So this is part of the show where we put you a little bit on of the show. This is just a segment of the show where fantasy five questions, Tanner and I worked together. Tatter helped. I do the announcing for the cattle college Huskies. I did not know this. You have done it for 10 years, I think. And we do broadcast all our games live and internet. And I do a couple of national championships for soccer, basketball, volleyball. I've done. And Tanner's been with our Kiano crew and he was a, he was a great kid. Great duck, man. You know, he, I agree at the beginning he was falling asleep a lot. Cause he'd be drinking Pepsi, needing hot dogs, but then he picked it up and did a really good job telling her your questions.
Speaker 4 00:16:37 My questions for you. I don't know if you, uh, you were speaking about the right guy. I don't know how great of a kid.
Speaker 2 00:16:43 We're young man now. Yes, sir. How old are you? I am 21 years old. I got shoes older than you and I'm wearing them. Okay. I'm wearing socks.
Speaker 4 00:16:52 Number one. What is the most memorable? Both sports moment you can remember in Fort McMurray.
Speaker 2 00:16:57 Oh, that's easy. Uh, 2000 the year, 2000, the Fort McMurray, old oil barons beating the race side. Belfour saber cats for winning the championship with the 2000 Royal bank cup, which is symbolic of a Canadian junior hockey supremacy in Canada. That was easily the best.
Speaker 4 00:17:17 Good answer. Question. Number two. What is one thing that hasn't changed since you got to Fort McMurray?
Speaker 2 00:17:24 One thing that hasn't changed is the energy that the people, the people we talked about that just a second ago, the people coming here and just reinventing themselves and enjoying themselves and just making a new life
Speaker 4 00:17:36 Question number three. What is one fact about for McMurry? You want people to know
Speaker 2 00:17:43 How, how great it is. It's a great city. There's for you. Look at our crime rate. Very low. There is no such thing as robberies of banks and Fort McMurray law that has to do with how far away we are from somewhere. But just, I believe the crime rate is low here. The people are good. Uh, it's nothing but positive things we can say about this city. And as Fort Mick Murray, not Fort Mac. I like to emphasize that
Speaker 4 00:18:11 Question. Number four for you. Uh, what place in town has had the best poutine, current or past?
Speaker 2 00:18:19 I don't eat footie. You don't eat. I don't eat poutine. I'm sorry. Wow. I'll say the sleep. Hell no go. I'm on going to fall off the ski Hill, the ski Hill. Okay. Keith out there does a great job.
Speaker 4 00:18:35 Last question for you. If you could describe Fort McMurray, in which one short story, what would that be?
Speaker 2 00:18:45 Re-invent Regan. Re-invent re-invest and enjoy your trip. Your journey in life. Those have been your five questions, man. I thought you were going to ask you some trivia trivia in my head. Like I thought you would ask me, what should the Edmonton Eskimos, what, what should the Evanston team be known?
Speaker 0 00:19:12 Okay. Like what should the Edmonton,
Speaker 2 00:19:15 Well, you look at different countries, um, like, uh, South Africa and uh, in South Africa, they named after animals. Like they have art barks in South Africa. So they have the, some of the rugby teams called the aardvarks and you know, in Edmonton, near Edmonton, they found a stegosaurus. I remember this and I thought, but it has to be the, he has to come with the, after it, the nickname I thought Edmonton stegosaurus would be excellent. But the Raptors that the t-shirt for the kids and everything. Yeah. It would have been really excellent. There's some
Speaker 0 00:19:50 Interesting sports names. And it's one of those things where we were talking a little bit about before the show started, how like schools come up with their sports names. Um, yeah. It's, it's fascinating in today's world. I know a lot of sports names have had to be changed,
Speaker 2 00:20:04 Which ones don't end with S <inaudible> that some of the teams don't end the NES don't end with us. You know, now that you're saying it, like I'm thinking
Speaker 0 00:20:16 Know, I'm just like the flames, the oil, like all these things. They am the Tampa Bay. Lightning.
Speaker 2 00:20:22 Yeah. What other ones? Utah. Jazz packets. Orlando magic. Okay. I got one, a trivia
Speaker 0 00:20:29 Magic. That was, I love the Orlando magic. I don't know if you remember this player. Chuck not shack, penny, penny Hardaway. And I still to this day have my penny Hardaway Jersey. Um, my favorite basketball player of all times and the story, Michael Jordan, which I still have my Michael Jordan Jersey that I wore to camp. Okay. Yeah. And I still have it and it's Oh, I wish. And I was in Chicago a few years ago and I tried to buy another Michael Jordan, Jersey, and Dane for me, how much that would cost. And I was like, Oh, I don't like Michael Jordan that much to get,
Speaker 2 00:21:06 I have the opportunity to have lunch with Michael Jordan as well. I covered the NBA for years. I think for Canadian press and different organizations. I still do history for the NBA. And I was in Seattle at the all-star game. And I took Eli for squali with me, Eli. Eli was captain of our national team for several years. And he was, uh, drafted by Chicago and he was a last cut. I believe it was Gerald Henderson, took his position. And then he went to Seattle and Kyle Macy took his position there or vice versa. And he ruled with Jordan. So that got me into meet Jordan. And we were sitting at the same table. It's about eight or nine of us. So we were talking to everything. And then now fast forward the next day. And, uh, with that, I'm sitting on the sideline and Michael, this is his famous duck.
Speaker 2 00:21:51 He took from the free throw line. He comes over and he goes, what dunk should I do? And I thought he was talking to me. I said, I just met this guy. I know I like basketball. But sitting beside me as Michael Jordan's brother on the city of the court and he asked them, what dunk should I do? And he actually said, he said, do the S I dunk, which means it'd be so good to be on the cover of sports illustrated. And Jordan did that famous Dunkin. It was on the cover of sports illustrated. Why is this true? Well, in my life, I've, I've, my job is to interview athletes. That's my job. Right. And so, but I'm also not, I've lived kind of in the Walter Mitty, Forrest Gump life, because I'm, I'm not scared to be adventurous and I'm not scared to go talk to somebody. And I talk to them like, they're a, like a regular person and I don't, I don't go, I don't go my goddess, Michael Jordan. I got to be friends with Dr. J Julius serving, and you're just interviewing them. And then you, you just break that barrier, right? Cause you just to, like, we're doing now, we're just two people.
Speaker 0 00:22:54 That's it? That is amazing, man. Amazing. All right. On that, we'll, we'll, we'll end the show on that note. I hate ending the show, but this is why we do it. I have the shows 20 minutes. So people can get a taste of who you are, but then you can keep coming back again and again and again. So thank you for coming. There's so much more we can talk about. I hope you become a very regular occurrence on this show, but thank you. And your stories are amazing. Let me hear what you got before you leave, though.
Speaker 2 00:23:22 What I got? Yeah. That's a good thing. What I got, what I got is I noticed you don't have any socks. I do not. So I found a pair of socks, knowledge. What is the truth? That's what you're, you're you're talking about all this wisdom and truth in there, Robert rim. And there,
Speaker 1 00:23:49 Thank you very much
Speaker 0 00:23:51 After you do your meditating, you'd have those socks. Well, from time to time, I will put these on. Thank you very much, my man. I appreciate it. Awesome. Well, for McMurry on that note, thank you very much for tuning in. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. It's been a thrill for me to have this man here. I've been excited about it since the show started. So thank you for showing up. Thank you for watching. And this has been Elliot Pierre with the Mac morning show, and we'll see you tomorrow. Peace.
Speaker 1 00:24:20 <inaudible> talk about quenching your ugly thirst.
