MR ED - Trista's PL8STORY Podcast Plate 47 with Ed Yamiolkowski of Knotts Island NC

MR ED - Plate 47 with Ed Yamiolkowski of Knotts Island NC

Ed's IMDB page - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm7410027/

Eyes of the Roshi Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cR5Cl...

Daughter Sara Beth's Plate Story - https://youtu.be/C2GM_ZA062c

Trista's PL8STORY Podcast Links

Nominate a plate - https://www.pl8story.com

Meet your host - https://www.iwokeupawesome.com

Subscribe to Trista's PL8STORY Podcast on Apple Podcast (http://bit.ly/itunespl8story), Google Podcast, Spotify or your favorite podcast app and access all published episodes



EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

MR ED - PLATE 47

[00:00:00]Trista, Host: [00:00:00] Welcome to this week's episode of Trista's PL8STORY  (Plate Story)  Podcast. I'm Trista Polo from iwokeupawesome.com and I am your host. Each week, we learn the story behind that vanity plate. You know, the one you saw driving down the road... what did it say? What did it mean? Why did they choose it? 

welcome. I'm very excited to have Edward Yamiolkowski, from Knotts Island, North Carolina. He has two license plates, MR ED, and YKNOTT and we're here to find out the story behind those plates. Welcome Ed. Thanks for being here.

Ed Yamiolkowski: [00:00:35] Thanks for having me, Trista. 

Trista, Host: [00:00:36] Really excited. So let's just jump in and start with the story behind the license plates.

Let's start with MR ED. Why did you choose that plate? 

Ed Yamiolkowski: [00:00:46] Okay, well, MR ED, it kind of goes back to, when my, when my children were, we were young and I would be involved in, Their activities, Girl Scouts, Little League, PTO. We were very active in a lot of, school functions. [00:01:00] and also I was around kids a lot.

And with my last name being as long and difficult, as it is, and, people would try to avoid that. So they'd just call me Mr. Ed, instead of Mr. Yamiolkowski when it'd be calling all the other parents, you know, Mr. And Mrs. By their last name. So I ended up being Mr. Ed. Yeah. And that stuck. Yes. 

Trista, Host: [00:01:23] I agree. Your name is a mouthful. 

It's 12 letters, but Ed Yamiolkowski: [00:01:28] you know, the way you said it, it breaks down into four very distinct, syllables that are very, you know, easily recognized, you know, yam oil, cow and ski. Oh 

Trista, Host: [00:01:38] yeah. That's very good. 

Ed Yamiolkowski: [00:01:41] It's pretty simple actually. But when you see the whole thing and total, it's like four that's a mouthful.

Yeah. It's a little Mount Everest name actually. But when you break it down to four regular, everyday English words that, you know, kindergarten there's learn, that's actually not that big a deal. 

That's right. 

Trista, Host: [00:01:57] That's awesome. And how about, YKNOTT? [00:02:00] And it's Y K N O T T. Tell us the story behind that plate. 

Ed Yamiolkowski: [00:02:05] So the why is our first letter on her last name?

And KNOTT from Knott's Island. And it's like, why not pick that? You know? So 

Trista, Host: [00:02:15] why not be in in Knotts' Island? 

Ed Yamiolkowski: [00:02:17] That's right. Why not? You know? Yeah. That's, that's correct. The funny thing with the, Y KNOTT is there's a, a chain of pizza restaurants down here called Why Knott Pizza? Oh, 

Trista, Host: [00:02:26] do people assume that that's their plate that they own that 

Ed Yamiolkowski: [00:02:29] plate?

Some people have, have said, Oh, you were associated with the pizza chain. No, no. 

Maybe they could give you a good price for your license plate. Now you move to Knotts Island at retirement. Is that right? And how long have you lived 

there? We've lived here six years. 

That's awesome. What made you choose Knotts Island over every other place that you could have retired 

to?

Well, our original intent was to, to move to Virginia [00:03:00] Beach, the Southern end of Virginia Beach, which is a agricultural. And we have friends who have a horse farm there. So we've been telling them for years that as soon as we retire, we're coming down and we're going to help them with the horses. And, so when we did retire, we were looking around for property and the property values in Pungo Pungo section of, Virginia Beach, very expensive.

And we just couldn't find a place that was suitable to us and right over the, the state line is Knott's Island. And our friend who has a horse farm has a sister who was in real estate. And she knew of this wonderful place that we bought. And, so that's, that's how we ended up on Knotts Island. 

Trista, Host: [00:03:42] Wow. That's awesome.

And I understand it's a beautiful place to live. Now I have to tell a story really quickly, how we connected, because I actually have also interviewed your daughter and done an episode with her, for her license plate, which is [00:04:00] BOOF B O O F. And apparently all of you guys, you're a family of license plate vanity plate owners.

Ed Yamiolkowski: [00:04:07] Right. 

Trista, Host: [00:04:08] Now she told me about you before you and I spoke. And she talked about you as being like this really well-known guy that everybody loves in Knotts Island, but you're not the mayor, but that you are one of the prominent citizens. And so I was so excited to meet you. And you're clearly very gregarious and open and willing to have conversation of course, be on a podcast.

But I was surprised when we spoke originally , you said that you used to be like an introvert who dealt with, you know, stage fright and didn't like to speak in public. Is that right? 

Ed Yamiolkowski: [00:04:43] Absolutely. Correct. Yeah, that started in kindergarten.

Oh, I had the anxiety as soon as I got into school and, me and the, the custodian got to be very friendly [00:05:00] because, I'd have these anxiety attacks and, then all of a sudden breakfast was lost. It'd be on the Intercom. 

Trista, Host: [00:05:07] Oh my goodness. 

Ed Yamiolkowski: [00:05:10] Oh my goodness. calling the custodian. And I carried that right through to the workplace as an engineer. 

Trista, Host: [00:05:18] Wow. 

Ed Yamiolkowski: [00:05:18] The first couple of years of my career, I was having anxiety attacks at work. And, and, and everybody knew it did say, well, Ed's head is in the wastebasket again, it isn't too suitable for the broadcast. But I mean, that, that's me. 

Trista, Host: [00:05:36] What do you think started it? Because that's a pretty high level of anxiety if it's actually causing you to have physical reaction like that. 

Yeah, I'm not really sure, but I just had an episode this last weekend, when I mess something up for somebody on their wedding day, I was supposed to put up a sign on the, Ed Yamiolkowski: [00:05:56] on the marquee of the, fire department, you know, [00:06:00] congratulating this couple on their wedding and I completely forgot to do it. And so the past couple of, you know, past couple of days after that, I was actually, 

Trista, Host: [00:06:11] so the anxiety does come back, 

come back. Yeah, I was, I was surprised I came back that strongly. But I really did mess up if this was your wedding day, 

you have a big heart.

Yeah. I can tell you have a big heart and you just care a lot about people so I can see why that would have really brought a lot of that back. And I'm sorry that you had to deal with that. You know, everybody makes mistakes as you know. but I, I, I'm curious, how did you go so 180 from living with this kind of anxiety to being somebody who's out there making a difference at lots of public functions and being so well loved and well known in your neighborhood.

I think I just came down here and it's like, well, nobody knows me. You know, nobody knows that I'm [00:07:00] a shy or having anxiety or whatever. It's like, just try something new. And, Ed Yamiolkowski: [00:07:05] and I just wanted to, you know, Leave that behind which really happened. But, but I did turn the page, you know? 

Trista, Host: [00:07:12] Yeah. It's like you had the opportunity to reinvent yourself and you did, and you chose to be somebody who's out there, socia, friendly, able to talk to anybody and you do a lot of public speaking in Knott's Island, right? 

No, but I mean, I have done a couple of things. Like I moderated, Ed Yamiolkowski: [00:07:31] candidates night a couple of times. You know, I, I belong to an organization called Ruritans and we sponsored a candidates night. And so everyone's looking at each other going, well, who's going to moderate this thing, you know?

And it's like, well, I'm certainly not going to moderate it. Because, you know, I, I can't stand up in front of a group and said, nobody else would do it. So it's like, okay, let's give it a try. And I did it and you know, it 

Trista, Host: [00:07:59] turned out [00:08:00] okay. It did 

Ed Yamiolkowski: [00:08:01] complimenting me for it. 

Trista, Host: [00:08:03] That's great. So as a scared stagefright public speaker , do you have any advice for people?

Like how did you go from, I'm not doing that to okay I'll do it. And Hey, that worked out better than I thought. 

Ed Yamiolkowski: [00:08:16] Yeah, I guess just go for it. I mean, what's the worst thing that's going to happen? You know, I could tell you a couple of things that have happened, what I've been up in front of people and whatever, when I've actually left to go to the restroom and, you know, take care of some business and take a little, I call a bird bath, put some water, kind of splash it on you.... cool yourself down, wipe off the best you can and go back in and you know you're dripping and, continue. 

Trista, Host: [00:08:42] Wow. So that's happened to you when you've been public speaking before? 

Yeah, I mean, yeah, for the most part, at work. I used to go to a lot of meetings, but I'd just be very, very quiet, just. Try not to say anything and try not to get called on and kind of hide in the corner.

And, [00:09:00] Ed Yamiolkowski: [00:08:59] and then after the business meetings were over with I'd go conduct business, like I should have been conducting business in, in the context of the meeting. Wow. Let's do it all as sidebars or, so I mean, that's, that's, that's not the right thing to do, but I mean, that's, that's how I coped, you know?

Yeah. 

Trista, Host: [00:09:19] And it worked for you, you were very successful and able to retire. So congratulations for that. We're going to talk a little bit about your career because I find it quite fascinating, but I want to stick with the Knott's Island conversation a little bit more because you might not do a lot of public speaking, but you do a lot of public appearances in a bunny suit, as I understand it. 

Yes. And, Ed Yamiolkowski: [00:09:43] the, the, the bunny suit, I mean, it was much like the, being the moderator for the, for the candidates night. It's like, I was the last man standing, so we belonged to my wife and I belong to the fire department, auxillary. And, and so they used to annually put on a, an Easter egg hunt in [00:10:00] cooperation with the Baptist church.

So the first year we're there to do this Easter egg hunt, they bought a new bunny suit. And so, you know, it's half an hour to Showtime and they pull the suit out of the box and I'm there, you know, it's a bunch of ladies, all kind of, you know, small, they pull this bunny suit out and it's huge. And so they're looking around, okay, well, who's the bunny.

It's like, well, I'm not the bunny, certainly. I'm not the bunny. So it's like, they have to be the bunny. Oh my gosh. It's like, Oh no. I said does. So the first thing that I asked does the bunny talk and say, no, the bunny doesn't speak. Oh, okay. Okay. Then I'll do it. 

You're riding the firetruck. Cause the bunny arrives by fire truck and That's cool.

Trista, Host: [00:10:52] That is very cool. I'm just having this picture. I've seen it in movies, you know, where they'll ask for a volunteer and everybody, but one guy [00:11:00] will step backwards, one step, and that guy ends up being the volunteer. That seems to happen to you a lot. 

Ed Yamiolkowski: [00:11:06] It certainly does, but I mean, both when you're in that situation, what are you going to do?

Right. You got to rise to the occasion. 

Absolutely. Absolutely. Trista, Host: [00:11:17] So another thing I wanted to talk to you about with your Knotts Island experience, you actually got to work on a movie. Is that right? 

Ed Yamiolkowski: [00:11:25] Yes. 

Trista, Host: [00:11:26] Yeah. Tell me about that. 

Yeah. Okay. Well, since it is another thing, you know, so, Ed Yamiolkowski: [00:11:31] I'm, I'm at a Ruritan's meeting and the associate director of the producer, rather of the movie is, is our secretary. And she says, well, I'm not going to be here the next three weeks because I'm filming a movie.

Does anybody want to help film a movie? And so I says, Yeah, I guess I do. So, you know, it's like, I sent her an email and I figured all kinds of people are going to be putting in for this. Cause how cool is that, you know, to get to film a movie while I was the only one. 

Trista, Host: [00:11:59] Are you [00:12:00] serious? 

Ed Yamiolkowski: [00:12:02] Wow. Okay. So I did it.

So I went in as a production assistant. So that is, I just go do whatever they tell me to do, you know? And, plus it's all. So this, executive, producer says, well, here's the ground rules. You don't get paid, but we feed you and you do whatever we say. It's like, okay.

Right. Well, this was, this was pretty cool. And, So I, I was doing all kinds of things, you know, cleaning up, yelling, "quiet on the set", you know, all kinds of fun stuff. And, but, but then my role just sort of evolved and I ended up, being an extra in a couple of scenes. You can't really see me too much.

I ended up being the caterer, towards the end of the movie production and feeding, you know, 40 people or so meals and, you know, do all the shopping for it. Cook it. Oh my gosh food services. Yeah, I was, yeah, it was crazy as they [00:13:00] called it. And, so, so I did that. I mean, we did have a good chatter, but after that, most of the filming was done.

We'd kind of transitioned into me being the caterer. It was like, well, who's going to feed us. I guess it's me because I used to do that in Girl Scouts. we we'd hold the, these big camperies at these, A big campsite and, and I'd be the one who would do all the cooking and, you know, serve 200 people or so of course, with help of the volunteers.

So it's like, well, I've fed large groups of people before, you know, so 

Trista, Host: [00:13:34] I can do it. That's so fun. I love that you're like, yeah, me I'll do it. So tell me about this movie. What was the name of it? Who starred in it? 

Ed Yamiolkowski: [00:13:45] Okay. The, the name of the movie is, Eyes of the Roshi. Okay. And it's, it's about a Vietnamese, individual and he lives on the Island here. And actually, I, I work with him. He's got a large [00:14:00] property, like 70 acres here. And, and I, I help him, maintain his property, and, and whatever.

He's, he's, he's an all around good guy, but he's a, a yoga master. And so we call a master Adam and, And then Eric Roberts, he's, known as one of the busiest actors in Hollywood. He does a whole lot of a whole lot of movies. And, so he was, he was pretty cool to work with. And, and he really liked my daughters.

So my daughters were on the set a lot of the times. So all of a sudden, Eric, every time I'd see him, he'd come walking up to me, give me a hug and he'd go "Daaaaaad". Oh, that's so nice. Well, that's pretty cool. You know? I 

Trista, Host: [00:14:40] love that. 

Ed Yamiolkowski: [00:14:41] it was meant to be a martial arts action type movie. So, you know, he was, he's like, he's like my age, but he is he's. He's in phenomenal shape, yoga people, you know, they can lift them their body up [00:15:00] on one hand and crank their leg around their neck and all this type of stuff does it.

I've seen them do it. 

My husband always sees those and he thinks there's, it's gotta be Photoshop. There's no way a person could make their body do that. 

As a teacher, he still teaches. And he's telling me that he's got students in their seventies. 

Trista, Host: [00:15:23] Wow. That's very cool. And so was Eric Roberts, the villain, like what was the storyline?

Ed Yamiolkowski: [00:15:28] Eric Roberts was, ended up being a Hitman, but he got, he got, he got shot. 

Unfortunately, the movie never was a theatrical release. I mean, you can, you can get it on Amazon or 

Trista, Host: [00:15:42] Netflix, maybe. 

Ed Yamiolkowski: [00:15:43] Yeah, it was a Netflix, for, for a while. And, and it was, it was pretty cool.

Trista, Host: [00:15:48] I have to say, I love that you just went for it and you were part of this thing. And by being willing to do whatever they asked, you actually had this really fun experience in [00:16:00] a lot of different areas of the movie production.

I think that's great. Now, my more important question is, did you get a credit. Oh, 

yes. I think I put in my notes that I have a, Ed Yamiolkowski: [00:16:10] I have many credits on the screen, but I also have an inter an internet movie database page.

You can just look me up. 

Trista, Host: [00:16:22] Awesome. That is awesome. I'll make sure to put a link to your IMDV page on your show notes. That's great. Now, I have to ask you about one other thing. You're apparently a very well-known Baker around your parts and you do a lot of baking for fundraising, et cetera. Tell me a little bit about 

Ed Yamiolkowski: [00:16:44] that.

Yeah. There's something that I had started, back when I lived in Connecticut, I used to come home from work every night and bake two loaves of bread because that's what my recipe called for. I mean, it's, you know, the ingredients resulted in two loaves of [00:17:00] bread and, so we couldn't eat two loaves of bread.

So I used to bake them and then go to my neighbors, you know, kind of rotate. Here's a, here's a loaf of warm bread every night, you know? So I had the small group that I used to deliver bread to. So I got kind of known for that and people anticipating getting their warm loaf that night. And so I just kinda didn't really carry on a tradition down here, but I tried to keep up my bread baking skills and, And so that kind of translated into people asking me, you know, if, if there was a fundraiser or whatever, or our local, United Methodist church has a big, fried chicken dinner every year.

And, and then the pastor approached me and said, you know, I really love your yeast rolls. She says, we've been purchasing roles. And you know, it's not that great. I really would like some East roles. She was, I heard you. And I said, not a problem pastor. And, so he says, well, how many do you need. She says, well, 303 to four.

Okay. [00:18:00] Well, I bake them 20 at time, you know, and I have a stand mixer and all. And so it's like in order to make that many, it's a, it's a, it's a long, 12 hour day and whatever, but it's a labor of love. And, and then when I see people after the chicken dinner, they're saying, Oh, those rolls were great. Were those rolls yours?

So yeah, those are mine. And so I get a lot of compliments on them. I've even baked, like communion bread for, for her. For the, for the pastor and then she's used that in her services. 

Trista, Host: [00:18:29] Wow. Oh my gosh. That's great. But you also like to bake with your grandkids, is that right? 

Yeah, I've got a, well now three-year-old granddaughter and, Ed Yamiolkowski: [00:18:39] but when she sees me, baking, you know, she, she, she, she puts on a little apron and she comes over to, to help me but we have a lot of fun and, you know, she'll add the ingredients and, and I'll rip off a piece of bread dough and she'll roll it, you know? Market, whether it be, you know, market with a B you know, the, [00:19:00] all that kind of stuff.

And, you know, I'll give her her own little cutting board where she can roll it all out. you know, and actually, I have some biscuit cutters. You know, this, the, just the circular cutter and she'll, she'll do those and, make her own little, their own little biscuits and stuff. 

Trista, Host: [00:19:21] That's awesome.

You had given me a picture of yourself along with your plate picture and it looked like maybe you'd had a little too much fun. With the standard mixer. Was that making, rolls for the church or was that with your granddaughter? 

We were making biscuits and, Ed Yamiolkowski: [00:19:38] like buttermilk type type of biscuits. And I was adding some dough into the, into the stand mixer.

And, and it kicked back on me and it got all over me and, and my wife took a picture of it. And Audrey actually got, got a little bit of flour on her. Didn't I didn't send the picture of Audrey, but she's, I've got a real nice picture of her with her [00:20:00] face, kind of covered them in flour, but we have fun.

That's awesome. It sounds like you do have fun. You get to spend a good amount of time with your grandkids, 

right? Yeah. They, they, they live with us while they're, they're still waiting to build a house. They've got a piece of property, but you know, times being what they are. And, and I'm going to tell you to be able to see your grandchildren every day is, is, is just awesome.

Trista, Host: [00:20:24] Yes, I bet that's probably one of the best parts of retirement, right? 

It, it really is, you know, and I hear friends or whatever saying, you know, I got grandchildren in Texas or California, whatever. We haven't seen him in a long time. It's like, you know, I wouldn't trade this for the world. 

Yeah, it makes you feel really lucky and blessed that you have that 

Ed Yamiolkowski: [00:20:45] we, we are blessed.

Trista, Host: [00:20:47] Yeah. Now you haven't always been retired. You actually had quite an amazing career. You said you were an engineer, you worked with the Navy in a shipyard. Tell me about your experience as an engineer. 

[00:21:00] Ed Yamiolkowski: [00:20:59] Yeah. Let me just back up one step. as soon as my wife and I got, we married, we, we went to, to Maryland and I worked for the Navy at an ordinance plant where they made nitroglycerin and all, all kinds of, high explosives, in all. And so we lived right outside of the Washington, DC. 

Trista, Host: [00:21:17] Wow. 

Ed Yamiolkowski: [00:21:19] We didn't like it. We actually kind of. we didn't like it. And in my wife was always a hearing stories like, well, every now and then the ordinance plant blows up, you know, it's like, Okay. So I had a five-year plan of staying down there. She had a two year plan.

I'll give you two years. Yeah. On the 25th month, I got another Navy job and it was back in new England. And so she was now able to. You know, be close to family and all, and it was in the submarine, business at electric boat, but I was still a Navy employee. All right. And so it kind of a safer environment, safer environment.

And I [00:22:00] met a lot of, needs for us. We wanted to be back with family. we love new England, but we didn't want to necessarily go back to our hometown, Massachusetts, which we we just never cared to, to be there. So we settled in Groton, Connecticut, and we were there for 32 years. Oh, wow. Yeah. 

Trista, Host: [00:22:21] And you worked on submarines.

Ed Yamiolkowski: [00:22:22] I worked on submarines cause I didn't know anything about submarines as I went into the job and so going back to anxiety. So that's why I had a low, you know, a lot of anxiety the first several years, because they had a lot of expectations on you in the submarine world is very, Tactically challenging, very rigorous, standards.

Trista, Host: [00:22:43] How did they prep you for this level of rigor?

Ed Yamiolkowski: [00:22:46] Yeah, they really didn't. I mean, it was mostly a learn on the job, and there's a lot to learn, you know, and of course a business is always like any technology it's always kind of evolving and, You know, as part of the [00:23:00] job. And we did, we did several phases. I mean, we were involved in design. We built the ships, we, we repaired the ships and, and we converted them. I mean, we converted some Trident missile ships into. into other type of, of, of ship and, I mean, it's very, very challenging, exciting, always something new.

That's very cool. Now you, Trista, Host: [00:23:24] obviously you were not part of the military, so you didn't go out on missions and things, but did you ever have an opportunity to be on any of the submarines and experience what it was like to live on them? 

Ed Yamiolkowski: [00:23:36] Yeah, I went on, several, several C trials and, that, those were very interesting experiences.

Yeah. Tell me about that. Trista, Host: [00:23:45] I've toured them and you know, museums, but I've never been in one underwater. So what, what's it like to live on a submarine? 

Ed Yamiolkowski: [00:23:54] Well, quarters are kind of cramped. Passageways and stuff. I [00:24:00] mean, you gotta be able to, to really like the people that you're with, because you're always making physical contact with some of the passageways.

and, you know, like, like when you're in the mess hall eating, I mean, you can barely move your elbows. At least that was my experience. I mean, they kind of cram you in there and, So quarters are kind of kind, kinda tight. I did. Okay. On the sub, the only time I had problems was when they're on the surface, I have problems with the motion sickness and 

Trista, Host: [00:24:29] it's worse on the surface than it is under water when it comes to motion sickness?

Ed Yamiolkowski: [00:24:33] Yeah, the darn thing, bobs like a cork when you're on the surface. And, you know, because it doesn't have any, it has a few appendages, but, but, but not many to really kind of keep it stable. 

You know, they have ways of sort of stabilizing, you know, but when they, when the submarine is submerged, I mean, it's, it's like sitting, sitting here, you know, No, no sensation when they pitch up or pitch down, you know, if they're submerging or, you know, when, when [00:25:00] you were ascending, I mean, you can, you can, you can feel that, but it's not much more than like being on an airplane.

Right? I do notice on an airplane. You can't really tell that you're this, you know, that you're at an angle going up. Trista, Host: [00:25:12] there's really not much difference. I always wonder when we're. Tipped over turning. Why am I not leaning this way on the right or the left? So it's probably similar in a summary when you're under.

Ed Yamiolkowski: [00:25:22] Yeah. In, in, in that degree of, of role in stuff in pitch, isn't that great. Plus you have no frame of reference, you know, like, except if, you know, if the plane is banking and you're looking out the window, you'll lose the horizon and all you can do is see what's below you, then all of a sudden it's like, Oh, okay, 

Trista, Host: [00:25:43] what's going on?

Ed Yamiolkowski: [00:25:44] Not sensation to that in that, in the sub. 

Sure. Did you ever have any experiences when you were on the sub where anything would happen? Any like emergencies or things that could affect, because you know, you're in the submarine, you're [00:26:00] underwater. If something bad happens, you're sort of have to handle it.

Did you ever have any experiences like that or was that mostly when they were on missions? 

No, we, I was on a, let's see trial where we, actually had a couple of small fires. we had some flooding into the boat. And, yeah. And, and when we had somebody do a bad lineup on the sanitary system and they blew the, sanitary tanks.

Trista, Host: [00:26:25] Oh my gosh. And you're under water and you're out. What do you do? 

The first time it happened, you could effectively put your handkerchief over your, over your mouth and nose and walk around like that for a, for a few days until the smell dissipated. But, but right before we were, we were coming in like maybe two days before we were coming in, it happened again and there was 

no 

Ed Yamiolkowski: [00:26:52] escaping, no escape in the.

You know, the odor in, in, in whatever. I mean, it was 

Trista, Host: [00:26:59] right. Cause where would it [00:27:00] even dissipate to? There's no place for it to go. 

You know, they can clean the air and that type of stuff. You know, we, they generate their own oxygen. They have, 

so they have filters and things, 

Ed Yamiolkowski: [00:27:15] monoxide and stuff out of the, out of the air.

So, you know, we do have, you know, equipment to go do that, but really it was, it was, it was pretty bad, but I mean, it's a good experience. And, you know, I enjoyed, being out of shape. And, and when I did it as a senior engineer, I had the luxury of saying, well, I'm going to stay in my rack. Well, the boat is on the surface because I can handle that.

And as soon as I'd get up and about, and I was, you know, I could, I could do my business, but as a junior engineer, I couldn't do that. So I did go out a couple of times as a junior engineer and I had to be, on my feet and, that didn't work out too well. 

Trista, Host: [00:27:56] No, I wouldn't think so. 

Ed Yamiolkowski: [00:27:58] I'm going to tell you, I loved the [00:28:00] submarine business and I dream about it every night.

Trista, Host: [00:28:03] So, I have really loved chatting with you and learning about your life, your history, and how much you are really living your retirement. You know, I hear so many times where retirees will just sort of decide that since they're no longer working, it's almost like they're no longer living. And that is definitely not you.

And so I really acknowledge you for that because every stage of our lives, we have a choice how much we show up and how much we participate and you are doing that. So that's wonderful and I'm sure your kids and grandkids really appreciate that about you 

Ed Yamiolkowski: [00:28:39] as well. Yeah. 

Great. So I always like to wrap up with turning the tables, giving you an opportunity ...I've been asking you all these questions. Do you have a question for me before we end? 

Well, actually, I had to change my question, but I do, do you have any musical talent?

Trista, Host: [00:28:58] That's a great question, [00:29:00] actually. So I, grew up in a very musical family. My family is extremely talented. I have a cousin who is a professional French horn player. His wife is a concert pianist. Their children are both professional flutist and Viola players, just like a, really my other, my uncle is a jazz saxophone player, just an amazingly musical family. So when I was growing up, I was put into piano lessons. I played the flute for a while in high school, I played the trombone for a while in high school, and I never had the discipline to practice enough to become great at any of it. And I really, when I was younger, I really just wanted to rely on my natural talent. So my natural talent is as a singer. And so I grew up having a very naturally good voice. I was complimented all throughout my [00:30:00] life, lots of solos in school and things, and I never did anything with it, professionally, but I definitely enjoyed being a singer in any venue that I could. And so when I was working in New York city for several years for an advertising agency, my boss was a, he was a musician. He was a singer and a guitar player, and he had a sixties band on Long Island where he lived and he asked me if I would be their singer.

And so for a couple of years, I was actually a singer for a sixties band. I would travel down to Long Island on Saturdays to rehearse with them. We did some originals. We did a lot of sixties covers. We performed in bars and auditorium's and you know, smaller venues, but a lot of live performance. We did some recording and we collaborated on some [00:31:00] music that we wrote together.

Ed Yamiolkowski: [00:31:01] Wonderful. 

Trista, Host: [00:31:02] Yeah. Thanks for asking what a great question. 

Ed Yamiolkowski: [00:31:04] Yeah. So I'm glad I asked that. 

Trista, Host: [00:31:07] No, I really appreciate you asking that because I haven't talked about that in a long, long time. And I have had such a blast chatting with you and learning about you and the story behind your license plate and everything else we covered as well.

I want to thank you for being on. Do you have any final words you'd like to share before we wrap up? 

Ed Yamiolkowski: [00:31:26] No, no, not really. I mean, that was high anxiety anticipating this, you know, all of this and, but, no, I, I, I really don't. I really, I enjoyed it and that's another opportunity for me to put myself out there.

Trista, Host: [00:31:41] I love it. 

Ed Yamiolkowski: [00:31:43] So. 

Well, you did a great job. You shared some wonderful stories, quite entertaining, and I'm so glad that even though you were having some anxiety that you showed up and you did your best and, Trista, Host: [00:31:55] been a real pleasure. There's a key 

Ed Yamiolkowski: [00:31:57] word show up, you know, that's, that's the [00:32:00] key to life, 

Trista, Host: [00:32:01] right? 

Show up.

What a great way to end. Good final thought. Thanks Ed. Have a great day. 

Ed Yamiolkowski: [00:32:08] Hey you too Trista? Thank you so much. 

Trista, Host: [00:32:10] Thank you for joining us for this week's episode of Trista's PL8STORY podcast. Please subscribe to Trista's PL8STORY podcast to get the story behind all those vanity plates, driving with you on the road. And if you would like to nominate the owner of a license plate, including you... Or visit any of our partners and sponsors come and see us www.pl8story.com. That's P L number eight story.com and give us the details. 

If you enjoyed this episode, please drop a review and give us a share. I'm Trista Polo wishing you well on the road to your next adventure.