[Music] [Applause] [Music] Hello and welcome back to another conversation in South St. Paul. I am Mayor Jimmy Francis and I'm joined today by Caposia Days. We've got a couple of board members here, a couple of longtime residents. But before we get into that, I always like to start these out to learn a little bit more about you, Annie, learn about you, Jeff, and find out, we'll go around the horn here. Um, your favorite band or music, because sometimes it's a music, not a band. Your favorite sports team or anything that you follow. And then what would you do with your free time? What do you like to do, Annie? All right. Well, I my favorite band is Usher or Nelly right now, I guess. Really? And my radio. Yeah, I love that. I don't know. Uh my favorite sports team is my son Joe is in baseball. So Packer baseball. And my free time is I'm a mom, so driving to baseball. And the horse. My daughter has a horse, so we go to the barn a lot. Yeah. So that's where you choose to be. If you had any free time in the world, you'd choose to be one of those with your kids. Yeah. Reading my book for book club. They always read it and I just come and drink the wine and hang out. I have to catch up to them. That's super fun. Well, I guess you shows the age difference here now cuz uh my favorite band is like Zack Brown Band or something. My son loves them. Yeah. Yeah. You know, Usher and I'm not that's not for me yet, but you know, they got a few ones. I know you I've seen you out there. You probably make a lot of enemies right now cuz I grew up in Wisconsin and my favorite team is still probably the Green Bay Packers. Yeah, that's good. See, I cheer for the Packers. I get South St. Paul Packers and Green Bay Green Bay. Yeah. You just like the Packers. Works for me. You're covered. Yeah. My free time, I'm retired. I have lots of it. Yeah. So, I enjoy working in the backyard. I enjoy spending time with my lovely wife and traveling. Yeah. That's awesome. Kind of kind of what we do. And volunteering. Volunteering. Yeah. That's that is uh an important part of what we're talking about here today and and your volunteers. Um so let's start with you Jeff. Well, age before beauty uh capo what is caposia days just at its core what is caposia days? Caposia days is a community celebration provided by the community and for the community. To me, having lived here almost 40 years now, I suppose it's such a tight-knit community and we just enjoy celebrating our heritage and looking forward to the future together. And it brings our community together and I guess that's the biggest thing about capos. Yeah. Yeah. And you started it out by saying it's by us for us and so you're an all volunteer group. How what was your first introduction, Jeff, to the to Caposia Days? Uh, well, if you can remember. Yeah, it was been a long time a long time ago. Uh, actually I worked for a trucking company in South St. Paul and I talked to people all over the United States. Never got to know anybody in South St. Paul. My wife worked at the local bank and she knew everybody. I thought, well, we'll fix this. So, I, you know, got into coaching baseball. Composia days was one of my first foray into getting to meet people in the town. And I was actually president in 1995. So, it's been a while. Yeah, I remember that year. What was the theme? Do you remember? Uh, it was rain. It was rain is what it was. It was a rain out. We had a lot of rain. But how about you, Annie? What was your What was your first experience? My mom was in Capoja Days and I grew up in Capoja Days and I thought Capoja Days was like a class you had in high school. Everyone's just in Capoja Days. You just go do it. So maybe five years ago when Heidi asked if I would join the board, I was like, "Yeah, it feels like a good time." So I just joined maybe just to learn a little bit and do a little bit more. Yeah. Yeah. And you here you are the current president during the 50th anniversary of My mom was the president during the 25th year. No way. Perfect. I know. Yeah. Did you guys plan that or was it just No, it just for real. It just happened. Wow. Yeah. That's pretty cool. That's uh that's part of what you know that's why it was just like yes I have to do it this year it just is perfect. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I know Kabosha Days reaches so many other festivals and so many are beyond our walls. It's not, you know, it's become more about everybody coming to our town and for us being hosts uh than it is about our town getting served by the you know, right? It's like like we all we all have become hosts at our house on the parade route or or for the softball team or before after parades or fireworks and we have our friends from work come and we have our you know people from outside the community come and see what South St. Paul's all about. A lot of pride in that, isn't there? I think that's a great point. We get festivals from all over to come here and see what we get to experience every day. Mhm. I mean, this is a special community. When we moved here many years ago, we lived in Hudson for a little while and my wife said, you know, let's look for a house. She said, I only one place I don't want to live is South St. Paul. Don't know why. This was again 40 years ago. And we have loved every minute of it here. We've been so embraced by the community and it's just fun to give back. Yeah. Yeah. It it is a good community. I'm glad to hear that that we went out all those years ago. But it was a different town back then and and even um even for Caposia days. You know what's stood true is we're 50 years and it's run by volunteers this whole time and it's had its ups and downs over the years. say COVID throw another one the year it rain whatever right there's here's they had to postpone and redo fireworks on the 4th of July yes or um on the Sunday or the the week after I don't know which is the 4th of July usually so tell me you know tell me what you guys wanted people to know in our conversation here in South St. Paul about this year's 50th Caposia Day's anniversary celebration. Yeah, it's been going on for 50 years, so that's really great. We have some of our best the pancake breakfast and the parade and the fireworks. Um, we have a new puzzle contest at Angelo's Italian restaurant this year. So, pay some money and be part of the puzzle contest and get a pizza. So basically that from what I'm understanding is you go you enter with a donation to Caposia Day. You have a time to put a puzzle together and then within a loted time and then the one that gets it done first is the winner. Yep. That's pretty cool. And I think uh we even have some donations from some other businesses. So there's prizes. That's exciting. Yeah. Yeah. And we also have the Capoia Camera Club has a new event that they're going to be excited to bring. um around Central Square. Yeah. At Capoja days. Yeah. Annie, were you um involved with theater back when we used to do the sideshow? I wasn't. My sisters all were, but Yep. Yeah. And you know, the es and flows of the community. I mean, I don't know if you remember when in 95 your year, you know, of some of those things that used to be and now they they've changed, but now we've got new events that are coming. That's pretty cool. And it's kind of goes with the times and people I I saw that they were uh they had in the newspaper from 50 years ago marble. Yeah, let's bring that back. We should bring that back. Teach people how to do marbles. Get get a run on marbles. That is with anything with a city composure days with anything. You do need to change with the times. I mean, yeah. So, I still like my old music, but you know, but you have to change the bands and those Yeah. But you have to change with the times because the people of today get their entertainment in a different way. Yeah. Than we did 50 years ago when we when this started. So, yeah. Yeah. How about you? What do you want to talk about for this year's 50th Caposia Days? I would like to tell everybody to just bring their family. Come on down. Start at Friday night. Although, you might want to put out your chairs on Wednesday tomorrow. Yeah. get them out there earlier. You won't get a spot early and earlier, but you know, start with the parade and then, you know, there's a kitty parade on Saturday morning. You can start there. And there's car shows. Uh a lot of craft vendors, we have uh food and beverage vendors. We have bingo. Then on Sunday, we have the probably almost world famous pancake breakfast by now. And you can cap it off with the fireworks on Sunday night. Yeah. So, it's it's a full weekend. Yeah. All sorts of familyfriendly no matter what you're into. Yeah. Softball used to be a big thing. Is this is there still a softball tournament? We have a big tournament. It's typically about the second biggest one in the state. Okay. Or so it's it's uh it's a good tournament, men's and women's both. They take up uh Vetsfield and then down in the Lon Landing. Yeah. So, has uh has Caposia Days ever had a a trial or try to be in the Guinness Book a World's Record for anything? Is there any kind of stunts that Caposia Days have done over the years that you recall? Not that I'm aware of. I don't know what that would be. You know, unless you could get like Mr. Manowski into a hot dog eating contest or something. Yeah. Well, I don't know if you can break the record for that, but you know, I don't know. Maybe the most people standing in cow town doing a knock-knock joke or something. I don't know. Something like that. Well, we'll look into that for next year. Next year. Yeah. 51. Yeah. There you go. The 51st year of Caposia Days. So, the name Caposia Days. Um, I always like to, it's kind of my thing is always when people say they, you know, they know all about us. I say, "Oh, really? Do you know how to spell Caposia?" And see what they say. But Caposia, the the name is is homage to our forefathers, right? Is it correct? Ancestors. Tell me a little bit about the name where where the committee came up with it or or you know what what why the name is continues today as a honor and a tradition. Well the festival started in 1976 the bsentennial year. Daryl Bustler was the first president about three years or so and he got a committee together and they wanted to have a community celebration and they named it Caposia Days after the Caposia Indian Native American tribe that settled here. They were the first settlers actually in South St. Paul and again that was you know an honor for them. Yeah that and then the name that's what they came up with the name for and it's been that way ever since. Yeah. And over the years, we've had uh Native American presentations. I know last year at the kickoff, uh the the drum circle, which was amazing. We'll be back this year. Yeah. Just a really awesome. And then the the setup of the campsite that used to be up there to teach us. And that es and flows again, but it does does remind us of of our Aborigines ancestors and and the reason why we do this. And I think too, you know, our city is, you know, the little the summer camp, right? That's that's what it was back in the day. And that's kind of what our festival seems to have grown into this hospitality aspect of it. And you shared at the council meeting your family tradition of getting sacks of food from family member brings or something dinner and then you just have to you don't know what you're getting but that's it. You like eat dinner waiting for the parade. Smores board. Yeah, that's great. How about you? you I know you used to have uh host many of pre-events and have been on the board I mean since 95 you've been particularly I was on the board before that yeah the year I was president was 95 then my wife was president I think about 98 if I'm not mistaken but yeah we enjoy the buildup to it the kickoff we used to have a kickoff dinner and now it's kickoff celebration at the Croatian hall that'll be on the 26th from 5 to 7 but yeah my wife and I used to host a small party that, you know, people would come over and have food and maybe a beverage or two before the parade started and just kind of get in the mood to go and enjoy and have fun at the parade. Yeah, there's always somebody in the parade that you'd recognize or that recognizes you, isn't there? Well, that's always fun. Like now I get to watch it with my grandchildren mostly. Maybe not the next year or two cuz I'll be busy, but it's fun sitting with friends and neighbors and and then getting to meet people that you just happen to sit by, you know, and kind of maybe start a new friendship. And again, that's what the community is all about. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we're having a great conversation in South St. Paul about South St. Paul and our city festival Caposia Days. You're volunteers. You've been volunteers. you got volunteer by your spouse or by your family to do this. I was volunte when I served uh by Greg Kun that I had to do it. And I'll never forget that first meeting that I got got sworn into the um to be on the board and then they came nominations to be the leadership and and I I volunteered to be in I think it's a secretary or vice president role. So then you roll into the president and past president. Maybe it's vice president. What year were you president? Um, you know, he put me on the spot. Oh. Uh, I had the list, but I didn't write it down. That's okay. I don't remember mine much either. Six or eight. Okay. 2006 or 2008? Cuz then I was prime minister in 2010, and that was before that. Okay. So, it was I know it was before that. Okay. Um, but I said, "Yeah, I'll I'll nominate myself to be as the vice president." And um our treasurer, Linda, looked at me and says, "You know what that means, don't you?" And I said, "Yes, I do. That I can be out of here in three years and I don't have to stick around." That's right. So, you do it all right away in the three years of your first term and all of a sudden you're it's you're good. You get unless you decide to come back, which you did. Yeah. Again, you come back and you do the things. I think I served two terms there and then uh waiting to uh come back again because it's all cyclical. We all come back. We love it so much we come back. I was going to say it's so it's fun the people that we serve with, if that's the proper term, volunteer with. Yeah. Uh it's just fun to be with these folks and have the meetings and then to watch it on a Sunday night after the fireworks and go, we did it. Yeah. Whole year. We did it, you know. Yeah. Yeah. Start take August off and then start again. Yeah. Exactly. So again, I think people are tuning in for the first time about Caposia Days. They're from another planet. What is it like to be a volunteer for Caposia Days? And how would one get started? Do you have to be a board member to participate? Who do you ask? Is there something that you ask? You don't have to be a board member at all. You can be a volunteer, especially the weekend of Capoja Days. We always need more help. Um, if you're interested and you want to just come hang out, once a month we have meetings the second Monday and I think in the next month we'll have applications on Facebook and our website. But definitely even Capoa Day's weekend, find one of us. We'll have a big button on and ask how you can help out and we'll get you signed up. We always need more volunteers and helpers. Yeah. And you also need money. Yep. All of our sponsors are a big help every year. We couldn't do it without, it's a community effort. We couldn't do it without the volunteers, the inkind donors, and then the financial donors. Uh, but you know, it's South St. Paul. Everybody pretty much steps up to the plate and helps us out. And that's why it's been on for 50 years. Yeah. Right. And you know, the nominal buttons, you buy a nominal button and you get into a bunch of free stuff. And I mean, at the baseline, you get a free pancake breakfast on Sunday. You know, that's worth price of admission right there. But anybody could just donate or what I also think is cool is some families and some individuals celebrating a birthday. They put a float in the parade. So, anybody can really be interactive in this. You don't have to be a business organization to donate big money or to have a memorial for your family in in the parade or something. Um, h how would somebody, you know, benefit from being a sponsor of Caposia Days? Is that can you guys are you experienced enough to talk about that? Yeah, you get your name out on our website. Uh the big sponsors have the flags going down south view. Those are made and going up this next week kind of just in all of our brochures, Facebook website. Um as much as we can talk about and thank them every time. How about uh Town Square Television? There's another bonus there. You get you get on TV, right? They do our parade for us. Yeah. Yeah. Many a years of that parade coverage and the the fun hy jinks that have happened there. You know, that was fun. I I actually did that for about three or four years. I think I think all of us MC announce Yeah. announcing the parade. Sit up on top of the truck and hope Mr. Dipple didn't fall off, you know. I always hope that the people in the parade get in line that the lineup says that the TV has already been pre-made. Never works. Yeah. It's always out of line. Yep. Yeah. and then it screws up the screws up the description. But that's part of the fun, you know. It is part of the fun. And people watch from home, which again is another amazing thing. So we'll have thousands of people on the line up around, you know, the line, the pray route, and then there'll be another thousand people watching from home. That's you know, and Town Square is there all the time. They they've done a good job. They do a good job to promote not only uh the festival, but also the sponsors in it that helped make it possible. So, I mean, again, we've talked about volunteer, we talked about how you got involved, money, uh, that's important, you know, how this thing goes because this is there's no city funds uh, besides the city support in the trash, barricades, those kinds of things. Even if they're not donated, trash and barricades, we pay for those every year. Yeah. The city does nothing to I mean they give us like the goal green light and they support us but no funds financially, right? Yeah. And that's been the the case for it entirety. It has to be. Yeah. Without the police, the fire, the school grounds for, you know, some of our events. Yeah. Uh and I know other communities help out also when our police are busy here. They'll cover shifts or we'll see them on the parade route, you know, from West St. Paul from Evergrove Heights and I know we reciprocate back to that. So it's, you know, we again you couldn't do it without all the help that we do get from the city. Yeah, it is. Otherwise, the price tag would be $100,000 to put on a lot of little festivals. A lot of little festivals and fairs that aren't around anymore. Yeah. Just because of the expenses. I mean, it's amazing now. So, yeah. Yeah, it does. It does add up. All of it. All of it adds up. And I think it's really personally think it's slice of Americana to have a city festival where year after year these kids grow up in town. That's right. Bring their friends over or whatever and and have those memories and experience. You know, I I think there's something to be said about those that uh the cities like ours that make that a priority and and continue it. So, um, fireworks, one of my favorite events, that's that's morphed over the years as well. People used to watch from the side and and now we've we've moved them down to the ball field because we really want that experience to be at the at the football field at the high school auditorium and have that real community sense, community feeling down there. That's right. All at the football field. Yeah. Yeah. And that was the side show that we used to do back in Well, your sister's My sister did it. She was just talking to me about it. Yeah. Yeah. And and how fun, you know, that was the summer theater program. And so it it only started, you know, summer starts a couple of weeks, right? School gets out, then we had the caposia day. So it was always a a fun experience to get to that point. And then it was always the 50/50. Is it going to rain? How we doing this outside? Show must go on kind of mentality. And you've battled that over the years. You know, I mean, it's it's the last weekend of June. the weather is unpredictable because of the hot, the cold, the the rain potential. Uh who who makes those calls when it comes time to to rain or come time to call off an event? Well, we the board members get together typically, but um a lot of it comes from our police department. If it's uh we'll go like the parade is rain or shine, but severe weather obviously we're safety is going to be first no matter what. Any of these events uh you know we'll cancel something if it's severe weather, thunder, lightning, that type of thing. If it's just rain, you know, we're from South St. Paul, we can handle a little bit of that. Show must go on a little bit. Exactly. Still kind of fun to play in the rain. Sometimes it is. Jump in a puddle and feel like a kid again. Yeah. Yeah. That's always the kind of the nostalgia that comes with this. You know, you think back to all those times. I as long as we're telling stories. Uh I remember having a spot in the parade and I didn't have any I didn't have anything that I gave out. I my friend and I um parked the car in advance of the parade parade lineup and um waited for the parade and they said, "Okay, you're your turn to come." And so I got in the parade and I I pulled this way and it was Tom Voy was leading me in and uh I pulled forward and I pulled towards him the wrong way and he's like, "What are you doing?" And I threw it in reverse and I I drove the whole parade backwards in my car and it was just the just the two of us. uh my friend and I and we had it was the who'ser doggy hot dog car because it was my brother's hot dog stand. Drove it backwards and we had more fun the two of us not giving anything out. We were like a a crowd favorite after after that one because people were like you know the yelling you're going the wrong way. Yeah. Right. And then then we'd stop because it was a low you know like we get backed up and and we'd get out we go to the front of the car and we play two square real quick with the ball and we get back in the car and we back up. I don't know if you could do that today with uh uh you never know. Yeah. Right. You know, I mean what I I what I regretted in doing it was my neck because you know driving a parade backwards with your neck over your shoulder the whole time watching for kids. It was a funny idea in the beginning and then once you got there I was like have a screen. Yeah. Right. You could just Wow. And do it that way. Watching your TV screen. Yeah. And Jeff, you've been in it not only as a board member and as a Lions Club member, but also as a Winter Carnival, you know, character. Tell me about your your times doing that and your memories of that. Oh, I've got great memories of the parade. Um, first, well, in 2005, I was a South W for the Winter Carnival. Very honored to do that. And one of the local ladies was a queen, and my son was dating her at the time. They don't anymore, but that's uh but it was great to see her at all the parades. So that made it kind of an interesting family dynamic, you know, their family, our family. Um when you're president, I remember well, when I was president, I had the honorable job of following the horses. I had It was an honor job. Yes, it was. I had the I had my shovel and then uh you know, so I followed the horses that year and it was about 110. Yeah. Well, you know what that's like. Yeah. So, but yeah, between that, you know, being on the board here and then the Lions Club has a big float. Yeah. Every year I was president of the Lions Club one year and get to shoot the cannon. When you're the president, you get to shoot the cannon, which that's either a good bad thing depending upon your point of view, I you know, but we have tamed it down a bit. So, well, again, that's a tradition that's gone back a long time. And it is fun for for people and not fun for some, but you know there's clowns aren't fun for some either and you have clowns every day. We try to be respectful, but that's always the case. That's what we do. So, yeah. But yeah, I've enjoyed the parade as a spectator and a participant for a long time now. That's probably one of my favorite events that um I like car show. That's fun. I like watching the kids. I get and it's not an event, but one of my favorite things is just people watching. Mhm. Just sit in a chair and watch people. Yeah. I mean, it's fascinating. The neighbors. Yeah. Check out the neighborhood. Yeah, exactly. That's that is pretty fun. Annie, do you have any, you know, besides having the food with your family at the waiting in the Smoresport? Is there any memory that you have about the the uh Caposia Days parade or Yeah, we just grew up in the Capoia Days. Maybe a favorite uh memory would be being in it with the so St. Paul JC's when we were really active. Yeah. And we didn't know what we were doing and it was hot and sunny and it's like hilarious maybe that the parade starts at 6:30 p.m. You think it would be cooler, but it just gets hotter on that Friday. Yeah. And we um all dressed up cuz we were having a haunted house at the Crow that that fall. we were going to promote it and we had Michael Jackson maybe music going the whole parade in the truck and he just had passed away. So everyone on the parade route was angry that it was too soon and they didn't understand we were JC's and we weren't making fun of them. It was really for a Halloween party. Oh man, I remember that summer too when Michael Jackson died. That was uh oh man those are memories like little etched in and the JC's are part of that but you guys you know the JC's did some fun stuff. They did so many fun things. Also just morphed in the members morphed into Caposia days and it it's been great learning and growing up together. Right. Yeah. And just learning leadership just learning about the community. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That is one of the good opportunities of being on a board. You know, people are looking for that in in their development and either well business skills or even in retirement life. Some some people want to build those public speaking skills. They want to build that, you know, teamwork and try it today at Black Sheep. I started my day at Black Sheep and he saw Capoia Days and he said, "What's that?" So, we talked about the parade is right by his house. He's going to come he's going to come for the weekend and like he's already excited. He wants to meet people and see so St. Paul and maybe try to join next year just from getting coffee. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I have a volunteer for you for the fishing. There's a resident that just moved in over here who's related to family that you know lives right in the condominiums next door that wants to get wants to help. He saw the fishing thing and said, "How do I help?" Or how just show up there and help bait lines, whatever. You don't Exactly. doesn't need to be an official um thing this year. You can get in and do like you said, you don't need to be on the board. you can just volunteer. Yeah. And I think the fishing is such a big opportunity or um every kid that goes gets a fish. They're just really good at that. Yeah. That part that part of it. Yeah. Yeah. And they get a pole, too, don't they? Still doing that. Yeah. That's that's been a pretty neat thing. We used to do the the kite fly. Yeah. That was one I was my favorite. that I ran for a few years after Ze Miller hung it up and uh he really started that up and got it was passionate about that and I saw the passion in him and I'm like well we can't let this go let's keep going and then he you know mid mid year you'd send a letter to Walmart and say hey do you have any kites and when they guide call you back and say well we got some in the warehouse but right call me this month right before you know all of a sudden now we got 200 new kites from Walmart or Walgreens I guess it was because we we just asked and then that held us for a And man, kid with a kite. There's nothing just more fun to watch a kid get excited. More frustration watching a parent, you know, have to have to chase those those around. It's fun bringing memories to people, right? It does. Yes. So, what am I forgetting? What what what have we what haven't we talked about in in our conversation here about Caposia Days that we should be making sure either people know or or reiterate that we want you to participate and it doesn't cost anything, right? You can just come and show up. Uh again, most of the events are free. I think the buttons are $5 this year. $3. $3. We had t-shirts and puzzles and we didn't want to take all the money from the people, so $3 this year. Yep. And they're already out at all the businesses. So look online or go to your favorite so St. Paul business. They're already selling them. Yeah. Posdays.org is a has a wealth of information that's got the history. Um then the events this year uh how to get involved. I mean obviously sign up. Yeah. The changes. Yeah. There'll be a Marie Avenue is closed this year. So you can't park there. don't drive on it to come to um Central Square, but there'll be information of where to park and how to get to the events. And I would come early to all of the events. The parade, obviously, there's road construction around. It's going to take a little longer to get around, so you know, plan on that and just, you know, show up a little bit early. And that's 6:30 Friday, uh June 27th 7th. June 27th and it's also this year new going down Fifth Avenue. Yeah. Right. That on the 50th year. Yeah. Yes. So that's been a that's been again an interesting thing that volunteers have to discover and deal with, you know, get more parade marshals cuz now we have two more streets to police with. Yeah. Yeah. Right. It does it does cause another move some things around. Bingo is not where it's traditionally been. Yeah. Uh that's going to be over by the high school parking lot just off of sixth. Um and we get in the big tent this year, right? We did the bingo fundraiser in the in the spring. Got the big tent coming. So, uh there will not be any lions there this year, just so everybody's aware of that. Bring your beverages selling beer. Correct. Community because we are on the school property. Oh, that's makes sense. So, we you know, no alcoholic beverages there. So, just so everybody knows about that change, too. Um, can you sell at the softball games? Will you be softball games parade? There'll be a couple of different places on the parade. So, yeah, that's great. And so, they should say hi to you when they see you. People should yell and say, "Hey, we heard you on the podcast." That's right. And they should take a selfie with you and then post it and then say, you know, "Caposia Days." That'll be like a million people or something, right? Yeah. Right. That'll get you that'll get some a million people or so. Big hits on the on the website if you hashtag Caposia Days. Now, people need to know how to spell it. That's right. Right. You you all know how to spell it. Spell if you went here. Right. Yep. And so, this is pretty funny because in our one of our council meetings, I had said that to somebody. I said, "Well, can you spell it?" You know, they had said that they were here and I said, "Well, spell caposia." And they laughed. And then we went on with the meeting. And then at the end of it, the one of the other fellas was there. He says, "So, how do you spell it?" And I said, "Ka ps i a." And he goes, "Nope, not even close." See what he had wrote down what he thought Caposia Caposia was supposed to Caposia days. Yeah, exactly. So he had he had it as a C and uh it's Yeah. Again, it's uh our history, it's our fund, but it is Caposia Days. K- A caposia.org where you can find all that information. Well, and we also have we haven't mentioned our sponsors much here. We have quite a few of them. We have different levels, platinum, gold, you know, um they're all listed on our website and I would like everybody to go and look at that and then go to those businesses, support those businesses that are helping us. So, you know, don't go out of town. We have everything you need right here at Center of the Universe. Yeah, we sure do. So, we've got everything you need here. Just, you know, support our sponsors. That's a great reminder. And then even even just telling them that you heard it or you saw them and thank you, you know, just vocalize that to even the the cashier. Maybe it might not be the owner, but just repeat it back to them because I think that goes a long way. And that's really what this is all about is all about keeping our community together, doing something for our community and for our community by our community and it's about fun, right? Yeah. Yeah. So, as we sign off our conversations in South St. hall. Uh, and and we think about our favorite caposia days um event that we're going to go to, we also have to think about how we either we pray, we do alms, we give alms or whatever for the weather, right? We want good weather this year. So, I don't know for the 50th, I don't know how we can conjure up, you know, the best weather ever in 50 years, but this is the year to do it. And I think this would be a great year as you're as the president and you're as just a board member or you you're vice president. You're back. I'll be I'll be back next year. I'll be back. I love it. This is so great. Y Well, it's great to have you have you on with us and talking to our community and we well I know I'll see you at Caposia Days, but we hope to see others at Caposia Days. You've been listening to Conversations in South St. Paul. [Music]