The Complete Hulk Hogan | An Interview with Billy Johnson, Terry's Buddy on the Docks

<v Speaker 1>It's the Lapsed Fan Wrestling podcast special report. The Lapse
<v Speaker 1>Fan presents the complete Hull Coogan, a real American story.
<v Speaker 1>We're brought to you by Garage Pierre.
<v Speaker 2>Oh, Billyoks speaking Hi Billy Johnson. Yes, sir, Hi, this
<v Speaker 2>is Jack at the Lapsed Fan. How are you real good? Good?
<v Speaker 2>Can you hear my co host JP? If you could
<v Speaker 2>say hi to Billy JP? Hey, Billy, how's it going
<v Speaker 2>real good?
<v Speaker 3>How are you doing today? Good? Thanks?
<v Speaker 2>Thanks for doing this, really looking forward to it, So
<v Speaker 2>we'll jump right in, Billy. We really look forward to
<v Speaker 2>getting your insights here because this is a part of
<v Speaker 2>Terry's life that a lot of people don't know anything about.
<v Speaker 2>So yes, let's get started.
<v Speaker 3>In seventy nine, I.
<v Speaker 4>Worked in the port. I worked for a company called
<v Speaker 4>L R. Stevedoring Company. And Terry was a union checker
<v Speaker 4>back then with the International Longshoreman's Union, and basically he
<v Speaker 4>was working all over Florida wherever you know they had,
<v Speaker 4>they had checking jobs. Basically his job was to check
<v Speaker 4>the Back then, we really didn't have cargo ships. This
<v Speaker 4>was back in seventy nine, and we really didn't have
<v Speaker 4>container ships. We had actually cargo ships where we bulk
<v Speaker 4>loaded the ships and his job was as a checker,
<v Speaker 4>was to make sure the goods were coming in.
<v Speaker 3>Mostly we were handling.
<v Speaker 4>Oranges and grapefruit at the time, and we were shipping
<v Speaker 4>out it at the time in Canaveral Fort Pierce, Port
<v Speaker 4>Everglades and then over and Port It Tampa, And I
<v Speaker 4>believe he was based out of Tampa. Yeah, but he
<v Speaker 4>you know, he worked wherever they called him to, whichever
<v Speaker 4>port because they those guys made pretty good money.
<v Speaker 3>They made real good money back then.
<v Speaker 2>It's really interesting, Billy, because we tried to piece together
<v Speaker 2>how he moved through the seventies. You know, he got
<v Speaker 2>into wrestling in seventy seven, and then in seventy eight
<v Speaker 2>he went to Cocoa Beach. He was managing a bar
<v Speaker 2>there and he also worked in a in a gym,
<v Speaker 2>and then in seventy nine he kind of got back
<v Speaker 2>into the wrestling. In like March of seventy nine, he's
<v Speaker 2>wrestling mostly out Alabama Pensacola area. Then he goes to Memphis,
<v Speaker 2>Tennessee in like the summer of seventy nine. But it's
<v Speaker 2>not clear to fans did he go back to Tampa
<v Speaker 2>like every other weekend and worked the docks, or do
<v Speaker 2>you remember exactly when in seventy nine he kind of
<v Speaker 2>showed up.
<v Speaker 4>Actually, I might be a year off on that, because
<v Speaker 4>I'm thinking I started with them in seventy eight.
<v Speaker 3>Okay, how did I think about it?
<v Speaker 4>Because I just graduated from high school in seventy seven.
<v Speaker 4>So it was it was that fall after high school
<v Speaker 4>that I started working for Eller, I mean for Coastal
<v Speaker 4>Stevedoring back then. And I know he told us back
<v Speaker 4>then he was doing a lot of training at that time.
<v Speaker 4>He was really training for Mister Universe more than anything.
<v Speaker 4>And him and another guy were training a lot over
<v Speaker 4>over in Tampa. And I want to say Sunshine Jim,
<v Speaker 4>if I remember correct, And I remember he used to
<v Speaker 4>like I said, he was a union checker for us,
<v Speaker 4>and we were working anywhere from Port Everglades, Fort Pierce,
<v Speaker 4>Port Canaveral and Tampa.
<v Speaker 3>And so I mean, you know, you know that.
<v Speaker 4>And at the time I really didn't know him wrestling yet.
<v Speaker 4>I mean it was later on that we started watching wrestling.
<v Speaker 4>I see wrestle, but I do know this. Uh, in
<v Speaker 4>my office, I had a refrigerator and he used to
<v Speaker 4>keep his lunch in my refrigerator.
<v Speaker 3>And his lunch. Back then.
<v Speaker 4>He actually he was kind of a freak about his body,
<v Speaker 4>you know, as.
<v Speaker 3>Well as what he ate and everything.
<v Speaker 4>And he had real long blonde hair, straight blonde hair
<v Speaker 4>back then, and I mean he looked almost like uh,
<v Speaker 4>I can't think of who that like Fabio almost with
<v Speaker 4>the long blonde hair and all back then.
<v Speaker 2>Is what good one?
<v Speaker 3>Yeah? And uh but he used to in my refrigerator
<v Speaker 3>leave his lunch in there.
<v Speaker 4>And I remember him always every day he had like
<v Speaker 4>seven pounds of grapes and he always had this uh
<v Speaker 4>this this juice or this uh shape that he drank. Yeah,
<v Speaker 4>and it smelled the high heavens. I always told him,
<v Speaker 4>I said, Terry, I don't mind you keeping this in refridger,
<v Speaker 4>but don't open it up my office. Open it up
<v Speaker 4>because it I don't know what was in that shape,
<v Speaker 4>but it smelled.
<v Speaker 3>But he always explained to us.
<v Speaker 4>That that he ate the grapes because when he was
<v Speaker 4>doing all of his weightlifting, and all the grapes made
<v Speaker 4>his skin thin so that his veins would bulge out more.
<v Speaker 2>Is that right?
<v Speaker 3>Yes, And that's why he ate so much grapes every day.
<v Speaker 4>But I never will forget the first day I met
<v Speaker 4>Terry when I first went to work there. My boss
<v Speaker 4>back then was Bruce Brannigan, and he was probably all
<v Speaker 4>of about five foot to maybe five foot three, and
<v Speaker 4>he was taking me around the port, just introducing to
<v Speaker 4>me all these guys, and he goes, this is Gene
<v Speaker 4>the meme machine, and this is Dick, and this is
<v Speaker 4>you know, Tom, and this is Paul and you know
<v Speaker 4>and and uh and all of a sudden we come
<v Speaker 4>walking up to Terry and I said, and each one
<v Speaker 4>of these guys he was telling me what they did.
<v Speaker 4>You know, Oh, he is an operating engineer, he is
<v Speaker 4>a he's he does this, he does that. Well anyway,
<v Speaker 4>and all of a sudden, here we come up to
<v Speaker 4>Terry and I go, who is this And what does
<v Speaker 4>he do? Because you know, he was really big. He goes, Oh,
<v Speaker 4>that's Terry. He does whatever he wants.
<v Speaker 2>Right Yeah, who's going to tell him something he doesn't
<v Speaker 2>want to do.
<v Speaker 4>Right, Yeah, that's Terry. He just does whatever he wants.
<v Speaker 4>But uh, yeah, we just you know, we we really
<v Speaker 4>had a good time. And I mean, uh, I remember,
<v Speaker 4>you know, Terry didn't back down from nobody, you know,
<v Speaker 4>I mean when we joked down. I mean he didn't
<v Speaker 4>care what he said or anything else. I mean, you know,
<v Speaker 4>and uh we we just all had a really good time.
<v Speaker 4>And I mean I never felt uh scared of Terry.
<v Speaker 4>I always enjoyed being around. I enjoyed being around Terry.
<v Speaker 4>I like him being around there. In fact, I remember
<v Speaker 4>we had a guard at the port at night, and
<v Speaker 4>this was at Christmas time, and the company paid for
<v Speaker 4>us all to go to this fancy dinner uh cafeteria
<v Speaker 4>up in Vero Beach and we go up there and uh.
<v Speaker 3>And anyway, uh we had this guard there.
<v Speaker 4>His dame was uh Felix, I think alex Or Felix,
<v Speaker 4>and he was like we always made fun of this
<v Speaker 4>old guy.
<v Speaker 3>It was funny.
<v Speaker 4>He had this little clock on him and he had
<v Speaker 4>to go everywhere and get.
<v Speaker 3>A key and push the clock on his waist or whatever.
<v Speaker 4>And uh, anyway, he would he was always worried about
<v Speaker 4>everything about security and all that. Well, anyway, he gently
<v Speaker 4>left at like two o'clock in the morning or one
<v Speaker 4>o'clock at night.
<v Speaker 3>I'm sorry, went in the morning.
<v Speaker 4>And we got here about one point thirty and he's
<v Speaker 4>already left. And there the whole place the gates were
<v Speaker 4>all locked up, and none of us could get to
<v Speaker 4>our cars inside. So we jumped over the fence, went
<v Speaker 4>into the shop and got a cut forklift and came
<v Speaker 4>out with a cutting torch on there, and we went
<v Speaker 4>in there and cut the locks off of the fence
<v Speaker 4>and got our cars and just kind of like dummy,
<v Speaker 4>locked the.
<v Speaker 3>Gate back up.
<v Speaker 4>Felix come back the next morning. Man, he was like,
<v Speaker 4>oh my gosh, let me call the long let me
<v Speaker 4>call along, and we're all like this guy laughing, like Felix,
<v Speaker 4>we did that. We couldn't get to our cars. Did
<v Speaker 4>you see all of our cars gone? And he goes, oh,
<v Speaker 4>I didn't even think about that.
<v Speaker 2>That's a good time. What's the What was the routine like?
<v Speaker 2>As far as the schedule, Billy, is this like a
<v Speaker 2>Monday Friday thing? You know when Witarry report to work.
<v Speaker 4>We had to actually work whenever the ship was in
<v Speaker 4>the port. And they these ships, we had so many
<v Speaker 4>days to get them loaded up, and a lot of
<v Speaker 4>times it was like two and a half days we
<v Speaker 4>had to get them loaded up. And we started at
<v Speaker 4>seven o'clock in the morning. We stopped for lunch for
<v Speaker 4>thirty minutes and then we'd stop again at we'd stop
<v Speaker 4>at six and take a dinner break until seven, and
<v Speaker 4>then we'd work till one o'clock in the morning. Now,
<v Speaker 4>these ships, these ships, if they were a day late
<v Speaker 4>or whatever, generally they would send the ships on before
<v Speaker 4>they were late, because I think they got charged like
<v Speaker 4>a million dollars a day for these ships if they
<v Speaker 4>were late or whatever. And I can remember one time
<v Speaker 4>we had a ship in Tampa. It was called I
<v Speaker 4>believe it was called the Sun Belt Dixie, and it
<v Speaker 4>was it was on its maiden voyage. It had just
<v Speaker 4>came from Japan to Jacksonville and it was loaded with
<v Speaker 4>two thousand Toyota cars and then it went over to
<v Speaker 4>Tampa where we loaded it up with I think it
<v Speaker 4>was grapefruit that we loaded on there, and we had
<v Speaker 4>to load three thousand semi loads, which was a thousand
<v Speaker 4>boxes per semi load. We had to load three thousand
<v Speaker 4>semi loads on there. We had three days to get
<v Speaker 4>it done. Wow, and it has it turned out one
<v Speaker 4>of the trucks, one of the trucks got in just
<v Speaker 4>at the last minute, and another one was broke down
<v Speaker 4>somewhere and it showed up at the port as a
<v Speaker 4>truck as the ship was going out in the port,
<v Speaker 4>because we couldn't afford a million dollars for one truckload
<v Speaker 4>of grapefruit.
<v Speaker 2>You know, so so much great. He seemed to take
<v Speaker 2>a lot of pride in being able to look In
<v Speaker 2>his book he talked about these days and like sort
<v Speaker 2>of being mathematically minded as far as how to perfectly
<v Speaker 2>stack the cargo so that it would fit the container
<v Speaker 2>and the dimensions of the container. Was that was that
<v Speaker 2>a big part of the job was sort of like
<v Speaker 2>that judgment called.
<v Speaker 4>No, we didn't have containers back, well, we did.
<v Speaker 2>I might be using the wrong turn, Billy, Yeah, but.
<v Speaker 4>We had is we had we had to bulk load
<v Speaker 4>these things, like the Japanese fruit that we send a
<v Speaker 4>japan It was kind of like laid on skid sheets
<v Speaker 4>and dropped right on the ground and they actually picked
<v Speaker 4>them up well off the ship and loaded them out.
<v Speaker 3>You know in Japan.
<v Speaker 4>We had these big hoists and we drop them down
<v Speaker 4>there and we kind of like move them over in
<v Speaker 4>the ship and off and uh wherever we couldn't get
<v Speaker 4>them to uh we had to stop or whatever. Gentally,
<v Speaker 4>we put wood shoring in there and and uh they
<v Speaker 4>nailed it down and off. But we actually drew up
<v Speaker 4>stowage plans before the ship came in, and we actually
<v Speaker 4>figured out weight, displacement, till and everything else so that
<v Speaker 4>we knew where we were putting everything before we even
<v Speaker 4>started loading on each one of these cargo ships.
<v Speaker 2>Like that, I'm trying to figure out as far as
<v Speaker 2>the routine goes, like, how would you guys get word
<v Speaker 2>that a ship's coming. You kind of said that it
<v Speaker 2>wasn't like a set day that you'd be there, It
<v Speaker 2>was sort of whenever the ships arrived. How would Terry
<v Speaker 2>or yourself get word Because we're trying to figure out
<v Speaker 2>how he balanced doing the wrestling with with.
<v Speaker 4>You know, well, we actually knew I had a time.
<v Speaker 4>I mean one of the we had a couple of
<v Speaker 4>big people that ship the fruits and vegetables that we handled.
<v Speaker 4>One of them was D and E Sales that they
<v Speaker 4>were out of Fort Pierce, which they were a huge
<v Speaker 4>citrus distributor, and the other one was a do in
<v Speaker 4>somen American Foods which did a lot of vegetables and all.
<v Speaker 4>So they actually arranged it to where they had a
<v Speaker 4>refrigerated cargo ship whenever they had one coming into the area.
<v Speaker 4>You know, they knew days ahead of time, and they
<v Speaker 4>would schedule it out so we'd actually know when we
<v Speaker 4>were dealing with the ship, you know, And like I said,
<v Speaker 4>we might be two and a half days or three
<v Speaker 4>days on a on a a refrigerated cargo ship loading
<v Speaker 4>it with oranges and all.
<v Speaker 3>And we knew that. Now.
<v Speaker 4>When they worked down in Port Everglades, they had all
<v Speaker 4>kinds of ships coming in, cruise ships and cargo ships
<v Speaker 4>and everything else. And I mean that was pretty much
<v Speaker 4>a routine thing there. But I don't think Terry well, yeah,
<v Speaker 4>I guess they did use union checkers to bring bring
<v Speaker 4>the supplies in and stuff for the ships and all,
<v Speaker 4>because that's what he was. He was a union checker,
<v Speaker 4>and he checked in the supplies and stuff that would
<v Speaker 4>go on the ship.
<v Speaker 5>It's interesting that I was a union checker since he
<v Speaker 5>became so anti union later on his wrestling career.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, I think he kind of gave it up after
<v Speaker 4>a while back, you know, later on.
<v Speaker 3>I mean it got to be where it was a hassle.
<v Speaker 4>But you know, he's I think he kept his Union
<v Speaker 4>card and every once in a while if he didn't
<v Speaker 4>have work he'd come back and you know, fill back
<v Speaker 4>in with the union and stuff.
<v Speaker 2>So is it that easy, Billy? Is that how it works?
<v Speaker 2>You really just whenever you're free, you can pretty much
<v Speaker 2>get work.
<v Speaker 4>Well, we're talking about nineteen seventy eight and seventy nine.
<v Speaker 4>You know, I'm quite sure it's a different ballgame today.
<v Speaker 3>You know, they just have so much cargo coming into ports.
<v Speaker 4>There's no way that you could, you know, you could
<v Speaker 4>be a musician and be a longshoreman at the same time,
<v Speaker 4>or you know, be a wrestler or a longshoreman at
<v Speaker 4>the same time. You know, I mean today, But you know,
<v Speaker 4>back in those days, you know, it worked out for him.
<v Speaker 2>You know, did he ever express any desire to do
<v Speaker 2>something other than that? He seems to when he talks
<v Speaker 2>about this time in his life in his books and
<v Speaker 2>stuff and interviews, he always seems to be of two minds, like,
<v Speaker 2>I'm doing this because it's good money and I want
<v Speaker 2>to make the most money for the time in But
<v Speaker 2>at the same time, I've got these dreams. Did he
<v Speaker 2>ever talk about that.
<v Speaker 4>I'll be tripping with you when I knew Terry, I
<v Speaker 4>never knew that he was going on to be a wrestler.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I always his goal.
<v Speaker 4>Back then, his ultimate goal was to be mister Universe.
<v Speaker 4>I mean he was training him and a couple other
<v Speaker 4>guys were training to be mister Universe and that's what
<v Speaker 4>they were working on. And uh, I guess that never
<v Speaker 4>really but then all of a sudden, wrestling came along.
<v Speaker 4>I think he made it when we was up in
<v Speaker 4>Port Everglades up there around Cocoa Beach. He started seeing
<v Speaker 4>well they actually had wrestling and Coco Beach and Fort
<v Speaker 4>Pierce and he actually thought it the Armor in Fort
<v Speaker 4>Pierce here at one time too, I believe, Uh that's
<v Speaker 4>where he got to start because yeah, uh, the Florida
<v Speaker 4>Wrestling Alliance or whatever, I mean they I think they
<v Speaker 4>were out of Tampa or whatever, and that's how he
<v Speaker 4>got And it was funny they had wrestling pretty much
<v Speaker 4>everywhere where. He was working in the ports too. But yeah,
<v Speaker 4>it's interesting.
<v Speaker 2>So I wanted to ask you if you could help
<v Speaker 2>us understand kind of back then what people from the
<v Speaker 2>area what drew them to the ports. Was it pretty
<v Speaker 2>much the best money you could make, was it? Did
<v Speaker 2>you have to get in through like a referral? Like
<v Speaker 2>was it easy to just sign up. But what was
<v Speaker 2>attractive sounds like a backbreaking job for sure. Back then.
<v Speaker 3>Well, his job wasn't because he drove.
<v Speaker 4>I mean all he did was walk around with a
<v Speaker 4>clipboard and papering and check off stuff. He this was,
<v Speaker 4>you know, it was high paying jobs. I mean basically.
<v Speaker 4>I mean, I know, our company fought about down in
<v Speaker 4>Port Everglades one time they you know, the union came
<v Speaker 4>in and they had what they called alignment, and his
<v Speaker 4>job was when the ship came into port, they would
<v Speaker 4>throw that monkey's pole over with a small rope and
<v Speaker 4>then he'd pulled the big rope over and then drop
<v Speaker 4>the loop on the cleat and he'd go down the
<v Speaker 4>ship to run down real quick and do the other
<v Speaker 4>two down there so that they could winch yourself on
<v Speaker 4>into the seawall there. The unit came in and said,
<v Speaker 4>wait a minute, we're not going to let a.
<v Speaker 3>Guy do that like that.
<v Speaker 4>We want three guys for the ship when it comes in.
<v Speaker 4>We want to give him a four hour minimum. And
<v Speaker 4>this was back in nineteen seventy six, I believe, and
<v Speaker 4>or no, seventy seven. I think it was seventy seven
<v Speaker 4>or seventy eight that they did that and they said,
<v Speaker 4>we want three guys to do this, and we want
<v Speaker 4>to pay them a four hour minimum, and it was
<v Speaker 4>eighteen seventy five an hour back then, you know, which
<v Speaker 4>that was good gravy money. Yeah, and these these guys got,
<v Speaker 4>These guys got and that's for each ship that came in.
<v Speaker 3>You know, they didn't and.
<v Speaker 4>If they did three ships that day, they worked twelve hours,
<v Speaker 4>even though that was you know, that was like ninety minutes.
<v Speaker 4>They got paid for twelve hours.
<v Speaker 2>I'm starting to get it now. Okay, not only was it.
<v Speaker 4>Not only was it twelve hours, it was you know,
<v Speaker 4>overtime paying all after eight hours, right, even though these
<v Speaker 4>guys were only working ninety minutes.
<v Speaker 3>And we they fucked that tooth and nail.
<v Speaker 4>But the union won that one there, so they just
<v Speaker 4>kind of let it slide, to let it go because
<v Speaker 4>they originally talked about putting four to six guys on
<v Speaker 4>some of these ships, and they ended up for the
<v Speaker 4>linemen and uh, they ended up going with they settled
<v Speaker 4>for three and uh.
<v Speaker 3>But I mean that's the kind of things that they
<v Speaker 3>were doing.
<v Speaker 4>But I'm gonna tell you, we we did all kinds
<v Speaker 4>of things. I'm telling you we we did a lot
<v Speaker 4>of stuff, and.
<v Speaker 3>I'm pretty sure Terry was with us.
<v Speaker 4>And in uh Port Everglades. One time the Dea busted
<v Speaker 4>a cargo ship off of uh uh Sebastian near the
<v Speaker 4>golf stream there and it had I can't remember how
<v Speaker 4>many bales of square grouper it had on it, but
<v Speaker 4>they caught it and they brought that ship in.
<v Speaker 3>To UH to Canavil.
<v Speaker 4>And UH we were high to uh unload all of
<v Speaker 4>it and loaded up on Semis and all of the
<v Speaker 4>the uh the international longshoremen that worked on there. They
<v Speaker 4>had to basically strip down and wear these white jumpsuits
<v Speaker 4>that that the customs gave them, and they had to
<v Speaker 4>be checked every time they came off.
<v Speaker 3>Of the off of the ship and everything else.
<v Speaker 4>And UH, I remember we had some guys in there
<v Speaker 4>that were working and and UH.
<v Speaker 3>I probably shouldn't say this, but.
<v Speaker 2>I think where you're going feel free. Just do you
<v Speaker 2>leave names out of it?
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, Well, anyway, UH we were joking about this. One guy,
<v Speaker 4>Frank uh said, you know, I don't trust that guy.
<v Speaker 3>Right We said to the custom we don't trust that
<v Speaker 3>guy right there.
<v Speaker 4>You know, he may he may need a cavity search because.
<v Speaker 3>I'm I'm sure he got stuffed.
<v Speaker 4>Head, and we're all like, no, that's not true.
<v Speaker 3>You know, you're lying.
<v Speaker 2>Oh my god. So the cavity search guy was Terry
<v Speaker 2>or was somebody else?
<v Speaker 3>No, it was it was just a joke, Yeah, of.
<v Speaker 2>Course, yeah, yeah, I thought, Okay, I just want to
<v Speaker 2>be sure you weren't saying that Terry was the guy
<v Speaker 2>that needed to be cavity searched.
<v Speaker 4>No, okay, I'm thinking it was Terry that said it
<v Speaker 4>about Frank, but it was.
<v Speaker 3>One of the guys, one of the guys.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.
<v Speaker 3>And uh, but you know, we we cut up a lot.
<v Speaker 4>I mean, we did a lot of crazy takes, but
<v Speaker 4>we worked a lot of hours and we had a lot,
<v Speaker 4>you know, a lot of work to do.
<v Speaker 3>I mean, you know, that was no doubt about it.
<v Speaker 2>Absolutely. That must have been a component of the job, right,
<v Speaker 2>or people smuggling illicit things, right, you don't know what
<v Speaker 2>you're handling sometimes. I bet the DEA was always kind
<v Speaker 2>of sniffing around.
<v Speaker 4>Well, you know, in the seventies, you know, there was
<v Speaker 4>so much square group for being around this area.
<v Speaker 3>I mean, you know, Jimmy Buffett wrote his song.
<v Speaker 4>You know pirates look at forty, you know, and he
<v Speaker 4>talks about smuggled so much weed that you know, and
<v Speaker 4>he pissed.
<v Speaker 3>It away in Miami. Well that that really did.
<v Speaker 4>That really was happening back in those days. And we
<v Speaker 4>had customs check every single ship that came in. There
<v Speaker 4>wasn't no doubt about it. But that ship that we
<v Speaker 4>unloaded and port Port Canaveral up there, that was busted
<v Speaker 4>out in the ocean out there I see, off of Sebastian.
<v Speaker 4>It was about ninety miles from I don't know, thirty
<v Speaker 4>miles from Canavil.
<v Speaker 3>I think thirty or forty five miles something like that.
<v Speaker 4>But they ended up the coast Guard ended up bringing
<v Speaker 4>it into Canavil and that's where we unloaded all of it.
<v Speaker 4>But yeah, they they actually checked every single person when.
<v Speaker 3>They came off the ship. That's why they had to.
<v Speaker 4>Wear these these white jump suits and almost like and suits,
<v Speaker 4>you know, the orange jumpsuit that prisoners wear. Well, what
<v Speaker 4>these guys had to wear load pot off there. If
<v Speaker 4>I remember right, I spent so many years ago, but
<v Speaker 4>I think there were twenty eight truckloads of the pot
<v Speaker 4>that was unloaded. The square grouper that was loaded on
<v Speaker 4>the semis Wow, and uh, there was twenty eight of
<v Speaker 4>them and they hauled it all over to Sumter County.
<v Speaker 4>They kept some for evidence, but the rest of it
<v Speaker 4>they hauled in bulked to Sumter County and they had
<v Speaker 4>they had a large incinerator there and that's what they did,
<v Speaker 4>is they burned it all.
<v Speaker 2>That was kind of the joke, talk about a contact
<v Speaker 2>high need to go to Sumter.
<v Speaker 3>Man they sell a lot of brownies and.
<v Speaker 2>Something like, Oh that's great. So you guys standing there
<v Speaker 2>like on the front lines, you must have gotten a
<v Speaker 2>pretty good flavor of like this is how this business works.
<v Speaker 2>Like here you know what I mean, here's the import
<v Speaker 2>export game everybody's playing. It must have been kind of
<v Speaker 2>kind of interesting to be able to see be on
<v Speaker 2>the front lines of that kind of hidden commerce.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, I mean, be truth, What is the only drugs
<v Speaker 4>that I ever seen like that? Was that one particular
<v Speaker 4>that wing. But I mean that was all legitimate for me.
<v Speaker 2>Yeap for sure. Do you remember the Jim you mentioned
<v Speaker 2>that he was going to Any chance you remembered is
<v Speaker 2>stands natural write Jim or stands Jim in Tampa.
<v Speaker 4>Well maybe that's the name that he said, But I
<v Speaker 4>always thought it was Sunshine's Jim is what I remember.
<v Speaker 2>The only reason I ask Billy is because around this
<v Speaker 2>time he showed up on a few wrestling television shows,
<v Speaker 2>him and his buddy Ed, who he was working out
<v Speaker 2>with and who he grew up with in Tampa, with
<v Speaker 2>that T shirt on. So I wondered if maybe that
<v Speaker 2>would help us, because I'm trying to figure out what years,
<v Speaker 2>to the best of our ability, that this took place
<v Speaker 2>in the seventy eight or seventy nine. To you, it
<v Speaker 2>doesn't make a big difference, but when you're trying to
<v Speaker 2>put together Hulkogan's life story, there was are two very
<v Speaker 2>different years for him. So I was trying to wonder
<v Speaker 2>if that was a hint.
<v Speaker 4>I'm I'm pretty sure we were definitely working in seventy nine.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, Yeah, that was your first.
<v Speaker 3>Thing to you like this. It was when they do citrus.
<v Speaker 3>We were doing citrus.
<v Speaker 4>Late in seventy eight, we were shipping citrus, and then
<v Speaker 4>spring of seventy nine, you know what I'm saying, Ye,
<v Speaker 4>the mark the season on that.
<v Speaker 3>I mean, it had to be fully.
<v Speaker 4>Ripe citrus before we started export it, and it was
<v Speaker 4>generally like closer to even though they were picking citrus
<v Speaker 4>in November and in October and all that. It was
<v Speaker 4>almost late November, just before Thanksgiving before we started shipping
<v Speaker 4>like that.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, so that that.
<v Speaker 4>Would have been seventy eight when we were doing that,
<v Speaker 4>and then we were doing it in the spring of
<v Speaker 4>seventy nine.
<v Speaker 3>I know Terry was there all during that there.
<v Speaker 2>So you're thinking maybe fall seventy nine, Is that my
<v Speaker 2>figuring this out right?
<v Speaker 4>No, I'm talking about spring of seventy nine, Spring seventy
<v Speaker 4>eight and fall of I mean fall of seventy eight
<v Speaker 4>and spring of seventy nine. I know he was working
<v Speaker 4>there then got it great, and I think I worked.
<v Speaker 4>I worked there until late nineteen seventy and then that's
<v Speaker 4>when I I went off into another I went to
<v Speaker 4>work for some on my own that time.
<v Speaker 2>And starting when that belly, When did you start your
<v Speaker 2>own company?
<v Speaker 4>I started actually started kind of part time in seventy nine,
<v Speaker 4>but by eighty I was full time in the I
<v Speaker 4>was doing a long maintenance and then I started a
<v Speaker 4>Lawmore shop. By eighty three, I had a love More shop.
<v Speaker 2>And then so you would have been off the docks,
<v Speaker 2>so to speak, by nineteen eighty.
<v Speaker 3>By nineteen eighty.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, and do you remember Terry?
<v Speaker 2>Do you remember Terry being gone before you left or
<v Speaker 2>was he there when you stopped?
<v Speaker 4>I know he was there in seventy nine a spring,
<v Speaker 4>I mean the you know, the Winner of seventy nine,
<v Speaker 4>you know, the early spring spring seventy nine, and we
<v Speaker 4>we quit shipping citrus probably by uh. I want to
<v Speaker 4>say that big load of grapefruit we sent to Japan
<v Speaker 4>out of Tampa was somewhere around I mean, I have
<v Speaker 4>to double check it. I'm just trying trying to thinking
<v Speaker 4>off my head, but I'm going to say that it was.
<v Speaker 4>It was like, uh, December of nineteen seventy eight, that
<v Speaker 4>big load that we sent out.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, Yeah, I can see that making sense for his
<v Speaker 2>story too, because he didn't start until like March out
<v Speaker 2>in Pensacola. But and I don't know that that seems
<v Speaker 2>like a big drive to get back to Tampa for
<v Speaker 2>that spring of seventy nine. But you don't think there's
<v Speaker 2>a chance he worked there in the in the fall
<v Speaker 2>or late seventy nine as well.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, well, I know in the spring.
<v Speaker 3>I'm trying to think did he work seventy nine?
<v Speaker 2>Gosh, sorry to be so specific.
<v Speaker 4>Yes, he would have still been working in the fall
<v Speaker 4>of seventy nine.
<v Speaker 3>But like I said, I left after that. I left.
<v Speaker 4>I probably left because I started my own company by January.
<v Speaker 4>For sure, I was already you know, part time in
<v Speaker 4>it and before that, and then I went off.
<v Speaker 3>I mean, we all were looking for a better life,
<v Speaker 3>you know.
<v Speaker 2>So Yeah, were you about to say, I'm sorry to
<v Speaker 2>cut you off, Billy. Were you about to say that
<v Speaker 2>you kept in touch with him after you left to
<v Speaker 2>start your company.
<v Speaker 4>No, I only seen him one time after that, and
<v Speaker 4>I went to go see him another time when I
<v Speaker 4>showed you that picture of Yes, I went to go
<v Speaker 4>see him there, and I couldn't see him because.
<v Speaker 3>He was in a hurry to leave to go somewhere.
<v Speaker 2>Else at his karaoke bar or whatever.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah.
<v Speaker 4>Uh but uh I, uh I seen him one year
<v Speaker 4>when his daughter was down in West Palm Beach at
<v Speaker 4>the uh I forget what they call that, the uh
<v Speaker 4>I think it's the Sunshine Fast or what festival or
<v Speaker 4>whatever down in West Palm Beach there and his daughter
<v Speaker 4>was actually singing there, And uh I seen him down
<v Speaker 4>there and then and my son was with me, and
<v Speaker 4>I kind of walked behind him, and I said, I
<v Speaker 4>hear that. You know, I made a I kind of yeah,
<v Speaker 4>did a loud thing. I said, I hear that Hulk Cogan.
<v Speaker 4>He's uh, he's kind of not you know. I didn't
<v Speaker 4>say it quite yeah, I got to say it to words.
<v Speaker 4>I don't know if he's uh, you know, if he's straight,
<v Speaker 4>you know, and like that, and all of a sudden,
<v Speaker 4>he turned around and looked at me and goes.
<v Speaker 3>Jock gave me the biggest and my son's eyes were
<v Speaker 3>like so big. I mean, he's like, dad, he's going
<v Speaker 3>to kill you, you know.
<v Speaker 4>And he turned around and he just kind of like
<v Speaker 4>gave me a big bear hug and lifted me up
<v Speaker 4>in the air and he just says, good to see you, brother,
<v Speaker 4>I haven't seen you forever.
<v Speaker 3>And I said yeah. I said, uh, some of us
<v Speaker 3>peawns are still, you know, poking away down here.
<v Speaker 4>And were you rich guys or you know, did you
<v Speaker 4>I'm knobbing it down here in West Palm Beach.
<v Speaker 2>You know, do you remember when you realized, I mean,
<v Speaker 2>especially if you didn't know when Terry worked there that
<v Speaker 2>he was trying to become a pro wrestler. Do you
<v Speaker 2>remember what it was that you realized that the Hulk
<v Speaker 2>Cogan that everybody knew was the guy that you worked with.
<v Speaker 4>Well, he's that was a long time before he really
<v Speaker 4>became Hulk Hogan. Yeah, I mean we watched him when
<v Speaker 4>he became you know, you know kind of.
<v Speaker 3>I remember he was a mask wrestler too.
<v Speaker 4>Yes, that's when I really that's when we were all
<v Speaker 4>starting to keep I mean I really didn't watch wrestling
<v Speaker 4>that much, but then when I knew Terry was wrestling,
<v Speaker 4>that's when a bunch of us would started watching it.
<v Speaker 4>I can't remember what his name was, but he was
<v Speaker 4>one of the mass wrestlers. There was a pair of them,
<v Speaker 4>and he wore a mask and.
<v Speaker 2>You know, yeah, he was Super Destroyer under the mask
<v Speaker 2>in nineteen.
<v Speaker 3>Yes, yes, super destroyer. Yes.
<v Speaker 2>See that's interesting, Billy, only because he was a Super
<v Speaker 2>Destroyer in seventy seven. And it doesn't sound like you
<v Speaker 2>knew him in seventy seven.
<v Speaker 3>I didn't know him as a wrestler for sure.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. Because that's a fascinating thing too, because wrestling fans
<v Speaker 2>would love to see video of him back then, but
<v Speaker 2>there wasn't any video that survived. There's hardly any photographs
<v Speaker 2>even of him wrestling as Super Destroyer. That was a
<v Speaker 2>a very short period of time in seventy seven where
<v Speaker 2>he first tried to make it as a wrestler, suffered
<v Speaker 2>injuries and just wasn't making enough money and gave it
<v Speaker 2>up and then went to Cocoa Beach. So that that
<v Speaker 2>was the fact that you remember that is interesting because
<v Speaker 2>it seems like that would have happened before you knew him,
<v Speaker 2>and there's no photos or video of it.
<v Speaker 3>Maybe that's what it is.
<v Speaker 4>I don't know, but I remember him more as being
<v Speaker 4>a bodybuilder when you know, going for mister Universe, when
<v Speaker 4>I knew him.
<v Speaker 3>When he was doing that.
<v Speaker 2>Go ahead, sorry, finch him.
<v Speaker 4>I mean that's just what I remember the most about Terry,
<v Speaker 4>you know, being around him, and I just remember his
<v Speaker 4>seven pounds of grapes every day and as his uh
<v Speaker 4>you know, it was like a half gallon of I don't.
<v Speaker 3>Know whatever it was, but it smelled the high heavens.
<v Speaker 2>Had to be there. There must have been exiting, must
<v Speaker 2>have been ra eggs in there.
<v Speaker 3>Well.
<v Speaker 4>He had it in a refrigerator, but you didn't smell
<v Speaker 4>it until he took the lid off of it.
<v Speaker 3>It did it did quite have a tinge to it.
<v Speaker 2>Wow.
<v Speaker 5>Now, well, I want to ask, was you know when
<v Speaker 5>he when he was in when he was doing this
<v Speaker 5>the bodybuilding and training for mister Universe, did he or
<v Speaker 5>did anybody ever compare him to the Incredible Hulk at
<v Speaker 5>that time?
<v Speaker 4>No, because I don't think Incredible Hulk when did that
<v Speaker 4>come out?
<v Speaker 3>Seventy eight?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah? Yeah, so if it's it's possible, but it's possible.
<v Speaker 4>But I I mean, I only thing I remember is
<v Speaker 4>Terry was telling me he was training with some guys
<v Speaker 4>over in Tampa and he kept talking about this one
<v Speaker 4>particular guy that he's working out with a lot.
<v Speaker 3>He said that guy might be mister Universe.
<v Speaker 4>Oh, I don't know what his name was, but I
<v Speaker 4>remember him always talking about this one particular guy that
<v Speaker 4>he was trained with a lot.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, well he had a good friend ed Leslie. Is
<v Speaker 2>that the guy it could be? I mean, okay?
<v Speaker 3>Would he have been younger than Terry?
<v Speaker 2>Yes, by two or three years.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, and that's probably him, because I remember Terry was
<v Speaker 4>older than me, and I know he was saying that
<v Speaker 4>this guy was probably about seventeen at the time. If
<v Speaker 4>I remember right him, I was I was I turned
<v Speaker 4>eighteen and I turned eighteen, and I want to say seven,
<v Speaker 4>either seventy six or seventy seven.
<v Speaker 3>Seven, I think seventy seven.
<v Speaker 4>I turned eighteen in and he was telling me that
<v Speaker 4>this guy he trained with was seventeen at that time.
<v Speaker 4>So I was probably eighteen nineteen when we were talking
<v Speaker 4>about that.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>In his book, Billy, I'd love to get your kind
<v Speaker 2>of thoughts on this, he kind of characterizes this part
<v Speaker 2>of his life. He kind of mixes it together with
<v Speaker 2>some time he did as a laborer. He got into
<v Speaker 2>the laborers union as well, and he said, at first
<v Speaker 2>they sent me out a construction jobs or pouring concrete,
<v Speaker 2>helping electrical workers. Then one day they sent me out
<v Speaker 2>to the docks to help load and unload ships. I
<v Speaker 2>took to that real quick. I was good at anything
<v Speaker 2>to do with math, figuring out how to load these
<v Speaker 2>ships the right way. It was all about math and balance.
<v Speaker 2>It was important too, if you had a big ship
<v Speaker 2>going to Singapore or Tokyo and that ship wasn't loaded correctly,
<v Speaker 2>you could sink it no joke, is that true.
<v Speaker 4>That's exactly what I was telling you about the stowage planets.
<v Speaker 3>That we had to draw.
<v Speaker 2>That's the same thing.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, yeah, that was one of my jobs. Me and
<v Speaker 4>another guy.
<v Speaker 3>I want to say that is Terry.
<v Speaker 2>Bruce Terry, another guy named Terry.
<v Speaker 3>You're saying, yeah, I'm thinking another guy.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, we had to.
<v Speaker 3>This is the thing. I mean, we had to.
<v Speaker 4>We already knew exactly how many boxes we were going
<v Speaker 4>to put in each hole, and how they had to
<v Speaker 4>go in there, and how they had to be boarded
<v Speaker 4>up short and everything else.
<v Speaker 2>Well, I heard you talk about him with the clipboard,
<v Speaker 2>and then he writes, they threw me down in the
<v Speaker 2>hole and I worked real hard to the point where
<v Speaker 2>they invited me to join the lung Shorman's Union.
<v Speaker 3>So I don't I don't ever remember him working. Uh
<v Speaker 3>that was the I l a. That was a different
<v Speaker 3>bunch of people. He could have.
<v Speaker 2>Sure, Yeah, it's possible. He talks about it.
<v Speaker 4>He did.
<v Speaker 3>He didn't do it where we were at.
<v Speaker 4>He was a union checker by the time I met him,
<v Speaker 4>and that's all he did was he checked and Uh,
<v Speaker 4>his job was with a checkers jobs.
<v Speaker 3>We had four or five checkers there. They were to
<v Speaker 3>receive the.
<v Speaker 4>Cargo and market in and then they also had to
<v Speaker 4>note what cargo was going in which cargo hole and
<v Speaker 4>how how many boxes and how many you know, how
<v Speaker 4>it's to be loaded and everything else?
<v Speaker 2>Got it? And uh he talks about a guy he
<v Speaker 2>used to because he used to do rock and roll
<v Speaker 2>too as a kid. He used to be a guitarist.
<v Speaker 2>And he talks about a guy named Gary Devrend, who
<v Speaker 2>I guess was a hot shot in the long Shoreman's Union.
<v Speaker 2>Do you know that name? He was in the band
<v Speaker 2>with him, and I think he helped him too. As
<v Speaker 2>far as the lung shorman's part of it, I don't
<v Speaker 2>remember him. Yeah, Okay. Firstly, something else, he says, I'd
<v Speaker 2>love your thoughts. He says, I was the first white
<v Speaker 2>guy ever to get into the long Shrman's Union in Tampa.
<v Speaker 2>Believe it or not. Was that a thing? Was that
<v Speaker 2>like really like a job for black guys? Or was
<v Speaker 2>he like what's he talking about?
<v Speaker 3>Were all black in the I l A.
<v Speaker 2>In the il A.
<v Speaker 3>Wow?
<v Speaker 2>Look at that? Interesting?
<v Speaker 4>That's the International Longshoremans Union and most yeah, most of
<v Speaker 4>them were.
<v Speaker 3>Brother all right?
<v Speaker 4>Uh yeah, yeah, most of them were black.
<v Speaker 3>But now you had several differents. Who's that?
<v Speaker 4>All right?
<v Speaker 3>Uh?
<v Speaker 4>Most of the uh you had different unions. You had
<v Speaker 4>operating engineers. Those are the ones that ran the cranes
<v Speaker 4>and run the equipment, the heavy equipment and all down
<v Speaker 4>to Port Everglades too. I mean you had you had
<v Speaker 4>uh uh tankers come in with with uh like gasoline
<v Speaker 4>and jet fuel and stuff like that.
<v Speaker 3>I mean they had guys that.
<v Speaker 4>Did that and uh Terry was actually a checker for
<v Speaker 4>that kind of stuff. And they had they had a
<v Speaker 4>lot of white guys that.
<v Speaker 3>Did that too. But yes, that most of the I
<v Speaker 3>l A.
<v Speaker 4>Were were black goat as far as the labor part
<v Speaker 4>of it.
<v Speaker 5>The labor, right, Okay, got it? And I wanted to
<v Speaker 5>ask one thing, did you ever uh did did uh?
<v Speaker 5>I don't know if they ever made it down to
<v Speaker 5>the uh to the docs or now, But did you
<v Speaker 5>ever meet his parents?
<v Speaker 2>No?
<v Speaker 3>No, I only seen his daughter once in and beach
<v Speaker 3>down there. That's the only time I remember that. Got it?
<v Speaker 3>All right?
<v Speaker 4>I got to tell you not a little story. You
<v Speaker 4>may not want this on there.
<v Speaker 2>Or whatever, but all right, leave it up to us.
<v Speaker 4>Yep, we hit We had a big Christmas party at
<v Speaker 4>the time, and one of the guys from Tampa, I
<v Speaker 4>mean from Port Everglades he was a supervisor too, like
<v Speaker 4>I was. And uh he worked for Ler Stevedor back then.
<v Speaker 4>And I'm not one hundred percent sure if the name
<v Speaker 4>is right because I'm getting so old down and forgetting
<v Speaker 4>some things, but I want to say his name was
<v Speaker 4>Michael Cash.
<v Speaker 3>And one of the ally, I mean, I l a
<v Speaker 3>guys had.
<v Speaker 4>Fell off of the superstructure of the ship and landed
<v Speaker 4>on the uh uh landed on the uh the deck,
<v Speaker 4>not on the deck of the ship, but on the
<v Speaker 4>He went over the side of the ship onto the
<v Speaker 4>platform on the the dots there, laying it on the
<v Speaker 4>dots and uh and the guy, the guy, uh, I mean,
<v Speaker 4>you know, he was pretty bad shape and all. And
<v Speaker 4>and Michael Cash was worried about the guy. And I
<v Speaker 4>mean we all had to take CPR and all of that.
<v Speaker 4>You know, that was part of our training in the CPR.
<v Speaker 4>And uh and the guy, Uh, the guy you know,
<v Speaker 4>ended up going to the hospital and he was in
<v Speaker 4>pretty bad shape.
<v Speaker 3>But they he was back to work, you know, the
<v Speaker 3>next year or whatever.
<v Speaker 4>The guy.
<v Speaker 3>And but anyway, we was at this Christmas.
<v Speaker 4>Party and uh, we were all together and uh we
<v Speaker 4>were at this club and uh, Terry goes to Michael.
<v Speaker 3>He goes, hey, Mike, he.
<v Speaker 4>Said, when that guy fell off the ship and you
<v Speaker 4>had to give him CPR, he said, and you doing
<v Speaker 4>that mouth to mouth, did you?
<v Speaker 3>You didn't slip him a little tongue?
<v Speaker 4>That just.
<v Speaker 3>And we were all like, oh my god.
<v Speaker 4>And uh and Mike's probably you know, my size, you know,
<v Speaker 4>and Terry's you know, had us both by about you know,
<v Speaker 4>probably eight inches or ten inches more.
<v Speaker 3>And I mean, what is Mike going to do? Like,
<v Speaker 3>you know, and you know, we.
<v Speaker 4>Just all just started laughing and joking around. But yeah,
<v Speaker 4>I just never will forget him said, hey, Mike, you
<v Speaker 4>didn't have to slip the little tongue in there when
<v Speaker 4>you were giving him mouth to mouth.
<v Speaker 2>That was that the Terry You knew that kind of
<v Speaker 2>sense of humor. I mean, oh yeah, I would force
<v Speaker 2>myself to laugh if he was that big.
<v Speaker 4>But you know what I mean, well, yeah, I mean,
<v Speaker 4>I mean, the guy wasn't gonna, you know, Michael Cash
<v Speaker 4>wasn't gonna you know, go, you know, jump on Terry
<v Speaker 4>because uh, you know, but you know, we were in
<v Speaker 4>an environment where people said what they want to say,
<v Speaker 4>and I mean Cus Cussin was uh you know, that's
<v Speaker 4>just part of the.
<v Speaker 3>Language, you know.
<v Speaker 4>Uh. But yeah, but I mean we had you know,
<v Speaker 4>we were continuously every day, you know, joking and eat.
<v Speaker 4>We all ate lunch together whenever we were together. You know,
<v Speaker 4>we always a lot of times we'd be eating with
<v Speaker 4>our feet hanging over the seawall, looking out at the
<v Speaker 4>pretty water and looking at the fish and eating lunch
<v Speaker 4>and everything else at the same time.
<v Speaker 2>That's beautiful.
<v Speaker 3>We joke around.
<v Speaker 4>But uh, Terry was uh, you know, I don't know
<v Speaker 4>who Terry was at the end, but I know Terry
<v Speaker 4>was downright super nice guy.
<v Speaker 3>Uh. He wasn't above anybody, you know. I mean I
<v Speaker 3>know people who.
<v Speaker 4>That are billionaires and you know, they're down to earth
<v Speaker 4>and everything else.
<v Speaker 3>I always felt Terry was one of the guys. Yep. Uh.
<v Speaker 4>He had a he had a really good job with
<v Speaker 4>the Union back then as a checker. Uh and I probably, yeah,
<v Speaker 4>he probably was, you know, being his size, he probably
<v Speaker 4>could have handled doing the uh the labor part of
<v Speaker 4>it when they were loading ships back then. But then
<v Speaker 4>later on, I mean, you know, by the late eighties,
<v Speaker 4>I mean the type of ships that we were loading,
<v Speaker 4>all of that went by the wayside and everything was
<v Speaker 4>loaded up on big open ships with containers loaded stacked
<v Speaker 4>up on him. And I mean, you know that's that's
<v Speaker 4>that's shipping now, you know.
<v Speaker 2>That's that's a lot less grabbing things with your hands
<v Speaker 2>and more truck to truck kind of transport.
<v Speaker 4>Basically, yes, yeah, And I mean and uh, basically a
<v Speaker 4>union checker today, I mean his job is to check
<v Speaker 4>the seals on a container, make sure the seals are
<v Speaker 4>and say, okay, yep, there it is, that one's on
<v Speaker 4>the that one's going into port. Or then you know,
<v Speaker 4>when it's in the port, Yep, there it is. It's
<v Speaker 4>going off to the ship.
<v Speaker 3>You know.
<v Speaker 4>And I'm not I haven't been around the ports long
<v Speaker 4>enough to know, but I'm quite sure the rule of
<v Speaker 4>thumb of what we did probably applies to what they
<v Speaker 4>do too with these containers that they load. I mean,
<v Speaker 4>the ballasts and the trim and everything else has to
<v Speaker 4>be just right for these ships to maneuver to go
<v Speaker 4>across sea, you know, to Japan or whatever.
<v Speaker 2>And he would he himself would soon be traveling to Japan,
<v Speaker 2>but not as not as Margo, but as a big,
<v Speaker 2>bulked up wrestler who made a bunch of money over there,
<v Speaker 2>so Japan got he got he got his money back
<v Speaker 2>from Japan, I think tenfold.
<v Speaker 4>Well, we he was involved with us too when we
<v Speaker 4>were there was a set of ships that were from
<v Speaker 4>a shipping company in Japan. I can't even think of
<v Speaker 4>the name, but they were all brand new ships that
<v Speaker 4>were built back then.
<v Speaker 2>They were called were they that could have been okay, but.
<v Speaker 4>I forget, but I remember the name of the one
<v Speaker 4>ship with sun belt Dixie, and I've got pictures of
<v Speaker 4>other ones at my house.
<v Speaker 3>I'd have to go look up the names.
<v Speaker 4>But uh, these ships were built back then in the
<v Speaker 4>days to be able to come from Japan and go
<v Speaker 4>through the Panama Canal.
<v Speaker 3>And back then these ships would the.
<v Speaker 4>Biggest one of them was like nine hundred and something
<v Speaker 4>feet long, but they were only like one hundred and
<v Speaker 4>five to one hundred and about one hundred and five
<v Speaker 4>to one hundred and seven feet wide. And the reason
<v Speaker 4>why they were only that wide is because I think
<v Speaker 4>the Panama Canal was only one hundred and twenty five
<v Speaker 4>or one hundred.
<v Speaker 3>And thirty feet wide at that time.
<v Speaker 4>Now that Panama Canal is much wider and they could
<v Speaker 4>get much bigger ships going through there. Now but back
<v Speaker 4>then in the seventies, and these ships were all built
<v Speaker 4>over in Japan Nschiewa, I think it is, or either
<v Speaker 4>Nagasaki or NiTi Nagasaki.
<v Speaker 3>They were built over there, I think.
<v Speaker 4>And they all were somewhere around one hundred and seven
<v Speaker 4>to one hundred and one hundred and seven to one
<v Speaker 4>hundred and five feet wide, and they gently were somewhere
<v Speaker 4>around nine hundred the longest one and probably seven fifty
<v Speaker 4>to eight hundred feet, more like eight hundred feet eight
<v Speaker 4>to nine hundred feet. And these ships could go to
<v Speaker 4>Japan and come through the Everglades. And like I said
<v Speaker 4>that that one we loaded up in Tampa, it came
<v Speaker 4>through the it came through the Panama now, and it
<v Speaker 4>went all the way around Key West and down the
<v Speaker 4>Florida Straits, and it came up and went the Jacksonville
<v Speaker 4>and unloaded two thousand Toyota cars back then and then
<v Speaker 4>went back all the way around the Keys.
<v Speaker 3>And then came back to Tampa.
<v Speaker 4>And that's when we loaded the two hundred and ninety
<v Speaker 4>nine semi loads of grapefruit.
<v Speaker 2>Look at that. Wow, that is a full circle moment. Well,
<v Speaker 2>Billy Johnson, we want to thank you so much. This
<v Speaker 2>was such a great color for a part of Helk
<v Speaker 2>Hogan's life that he's made reference to, but a few
<v Speaker 2>lived shouldered to shoulder with. So thanks so much for
<v Speaker 2>joining us on the show and reflecting it's been awesome.
<v Speaker 3>Thank you. We'll show you, Buck.
<v Speaker 2>Milsan.
<v Speaker 1>As a TJ Disantis production, its contents is intended for
<v Speaker 1>private use only.