I'm Scott Ebright and I worked here at St. Laurent Brothers from 1966 to 1968. Wow! That background music is a HORRIBLE fit for this video!!! Too loud, too busy, and that twanging banjo mountain music sounds like an old "Yahoo, it's Mountain Dew" radio commercial recorded deep in Appalachia in some hidden West Virginia holler. Video documentaries can be enhanced by using suitable, nondescript background music that doesn't clash and over power the narrative of this piece. The announcer's voice lacks a full, tonal range that would make it easier to decipher. BUT...my apologies if he has a lisp or unpreventable speech impediment. His voice is just plain hard to understand and doesn't add anything like Marte St. Laurent or Keith Whitney's voice does. I'd rate the music an F, the announcer voice a D, but the video filming a B and the story originality an A+. I knew Keith Whitney and his older brother Darrel in Essexville. Keith (owner of St. Laurent Brothers) was a coordinated and scrappy young baseball player on my minor league baseball team, the Bay City Shovels in Essexville. I still have an 8 X 10 black and white team photo where Keith and I are posed with our teammates after winning the "2nd Half Champions award" (winning the most games in the 2nd half of the baseball season). Mr. Madigan was our coach and his son, Mike Madigan pitched on this team and so did I. Mike graduated from the same year class as mine: Garber H.S. Class of 1969. AND NOW, allow me to take a stroll down memory land at "THE NUT HOUSE"..... Howard and Mary St. Laurent ran the business when I worked there with other high school boys from Handy, Garber and Central H.S. No young ladies were hired during the late 1960's. And knowing the bunch of smart aleck clerks like me that worked there, it's probably a good thing that girls weren't subjected to our joke telling and antics. Louis St. Laurent ("Uncle Louie" to us), kept operated the roasting ovens on the upper floor levels and all inventories and warehouse operations. Louie was in charge of deliveries of major shipments that came off the ships from Brazil or Africa on the back loading dock behind the store. He supervised the chocolate dipping assembly lines with little old ladies wearing clean clothes and aprons and hair nets (they sort of looked like meticulously dressed elderly nurses). They sat on stools lined up on either side of assembly lines and dipped clusters of nuts in chocolate and poured out large flat trays of white and chocolate almond bark. (My all time favorite was dark chocolate covered orange peels). Customers used to get excited when they saw a fresh load of hot roasted peanuts fly down a 3 story high tin metal chute. This daily event was preceded by a phone call from a worker upstairs. He would shout on the phone, "Get ready for the load of peanuts coming down in 1 minute"! So one of us clerks would run over to the corner of the store and pull pull open a lever to open up the chute. We had to quickly relocate several remaining 2 pound bags of shelled peanuts still in the bin from an earlier delivery. The wooden bin was 3 X 3 feet and about 18 inches deep. Once a second "ALL CLEAR" signal was given, a noisy AVALANCHE of 50 pounds of hot, fresh roasted peanuts came thundering down the metal chute and into that wooden bin. We frantically scooped the pile of peanuts off to the sides as more of the load kept coming down. Peanut dust swirled through the air for a few minutes after and store customers lucky enough to catch this spectacle would smile and stare in amazement. They looked like young kids watching in awe at fire trucks arriving to a fire! I used to tease them and say, "Okay...we let you watch this whole show for free. But NEXT time we will have to charge you a ticket cost to see this show!" And then I winked at them.
I both worked there evenings, after high school and longer hours on weekends. After working there for a year, I gave a good referral for Tom McCarville to get hired for a newly opened clerk position. Tom was hired and he quickly earned the respect and good favor of Mary, the boss. But 4 months later, his paycheck relfected a 15 cent raise all the way up to $1.25 an hour - and my pay rate was still a pitiful $1.15 during the whole previous year! The carnage! The carnage! OH THE HUMANITY!! I knew I was a good worker and friendly with the customers, and I became jealous. After 3 sleepless nights, I gave Howard and Mary my 2 week notice to quit since I needed to go elsewhere to earn more money. A buddy of mine, Ed Czuprynski, worked at the Shoe Market and pulled strings for me to get hired running shoe business errands to and from the Post Office for shoe market owners, Don and Bob Sherman. I sure showed the Nut House ‘what for’! LOL! But all was well with Tom and I. He gave me his employee discount on dark chocolates or dark cashew bark whenever I dropped by to visit and get my candy fix.
Great memories...I could write a 400 page book about all that went on in that store during those years! Very fun and a cool job as well even though the total pay per week was about $17.00. But the fringe benefit of eating a big handful of cashews on my breaks was worth it. Often times, customers thought they could predict the future and declared that all clerks working there would eventually hate eating candy and nuts. I am proud to announce that THEY WERE ALL WRONG! To this day, I still love chocolate (mostly dark) and fancy mixed nuts! I soon moved on in life and made a career in the entertainment industry in California. Ironically, I am also a paid, voice-over actor for movies, films and commercials (which is why I gave a critical review of the announcer and music quality above). During my career, I booked thousands of shows with recording artists and bands, and one show where Madonna was involved, somebody brought her up to me backstage by my dressing room door and introduced me to her as a "native" of Bay City - just like me. She grinned and said, "So you're from Bay City, too?" I told her yes, and she quickly asked me, "Why ever would you move away from such a quaint place?" For lack of a better answer I told her, "Because that da_n sugar beet factory stunk so much it gagged me...." And upon hearing that, she nearly fell over laughing and grabbed my arm to steady herself on her high heeled shoes. Everyone within 20 feet of us stared at us both wondering if we were silly drunk or high or something. They just didn't get the joke. So then Madonna explained she caught all kinds of flack and complaints from angry Bay Cityans who didn't like her telling the world that she didn't like Bay City because it STANK from the sugar beet factory! When we both stopped laughing like hyenas, she proposed we both drink a quick toast to Bay City, "...And may it live in our hearts forever!" The only thing available nearby was a bottle of Jose Cuervo Gold tequila, so we both slammed a shot down our throats. I never thought to ask her if she had ever shopped at St. Laurent Bros when she was a young girl. She would have been 8 to 9 years old and I probably waited on her more than once....
Madonna, who was born in Bay City, loved going to St. Laurents as a child and has been there a couple of times since she became famous.
I'm Scott Ebright and I worked here at St. Laurent Brothers from 1966 to 1968. Wow! That background music is a HORRIBLE fit for this video!!! Too loud, too busy, and that twanging banjo mountain music sounds like an old "Yahoo, it's Mountain Dew" radio commercial recorded deep in Appalachia in some hidden West Virginia holler. Video documentaries can be enhanced by using suitable, nondescript background music that doesn't clash and over power the narrative of this piece. The announcer's voice lacks a full, tonal range that would make it easier to decipher. BUT...my apologies if he has a lisp or unpreventable speech impediment. His voice is just plain hard to understand and doesn't add anything like Marte St. Laurent or Keith Whitney's voice does. I'd rate the music an F, the announcer voice a D, but the video filming a B and the story originality an A+.
I knew Keith Whitney and his older brother Darrel in Essexville. Keith (owner of St. Laurent Brothers) was a coordinated and scrappy young baseball player on my minor league baseball team, the Bay City Shovels in Essexville. I still have an 8 X 10 black and white team photo where Keith and I are posed with our teammates after winning the "2nd Half Champions award" (winning the most games in the 2nd half of the baseball season). Mr. Madigan was our coach and his son, Mike Madigan pitched on this team and so did I. Mike graduated from the same year class as mine: Garber H.S. Class of 1969.
AND NOW, allow me to take a stroll down memory land at "THE NUT HOUSE".....
Howard and Mary St. Laurent ran the business when I worked there with other high school boys from Handy, Garber and Central H.S. No young ladies were hired during the late 1960's. And knowing the bunch of smart aleck clerks like me that worked there, it's probably a good thing that girls weren't subjected to our joke telling and antics. Louis St. Laurent ("Uncle Louie" to us), kept operated the roasting ovens on the upper floor levels and all inventories and warehouse operations. Louie was in charge of deliveries of major shipments that came off the ships from Brazil or Africa on the back loading dock behind the store. He supervised the chocolate dipping assembly lines with little old ladies wearing clean clothes and aprons and hair nets (they sort of looked like meticulously dressed elderly nurses). They sat on stools lined up on either side of assembly lines and dipped clusters of nuts in chocolate and poured out large flat trays of white and chocolate almond bark. (My all time favorite was dark chocolate covered orange peels).
Customers used to get excited when they saw a fresh load of hot roasted peanuts fly down a 3 story high tin metal chute. This daily event was preceded by a phone call from a worker upstairs. He would shout on the phone, "Get ready for the load of peanuts coming down in 1 minute"! So one of us clerks would run over to the corner of the store and pull pull open a lever to open up the chute. We had to quickly relocate several remaining 2 pound bags of shelled peanuts still in the bin from an earlier delivery. The wooden bin was 3 X 3 feet and about 18 inches deep. Once a second "ALL CLEAR" signal was given, a noisy AVALANCHE of 50 pounds of hot, fresh roasted peanuts came thundering down the metal chute and into that wooden bin. We frantically scooped the pile of peanuts off to the sides as more of the load kept coming down. Peanut dust swirled through the air for a few minutes after and store customers lucky enough to catch this spectacle would smile and stare in amazement. They looked like young kids watching in awe at fire trucks arriving to a fire! I used to tease them and say, "Okay...we let you watch this whole show for free. But NEXT time we will have to charge you a ticket cost to see this show!" And then I winked at them.
I both worked there evenings, after high school and longer hours on weekends. After working there for a year, I gave a good referral for Tom McCarville to get hired for a newly opened clerk position. Tom was hired and he quickly earned the respect and good favor of Mary, the boss. But 4 months later, his paycheck relfected a 15 cent raise all the way up to $1.25 an hour - and my pay rate was still a pitiful $1.15 during the whole previous year! The carnage! The carnage! OH THE HUMANITY!! I knew I was a good worker and friendly with the customers, and I became jealous. After 3 sleepless nights, I gave Howard and Mary my 2 week notice to quit since I needed to go elsewhere to earn more money. A buddy of mine, Ed Czuprynski, worked at the Shoe Market and pulled strings for me to get hired running shoe business errands to and from the Post Office for shoe market owners, Don and Bob Sherman. I sure showed the Nut House ‘what for’! LOL! But all was well with Tom and I. He gave me his employee discount on dark chocolates or dark cashew bark whenever I dropped by to visit and get my candy fix.
Great memories...I could write a 400 page book about all that went on in that store during those years! Very fun and a cool job as well even though the total pay per week was about $17.00. But the fringe benefit of eating a big handful of cashews on my breaks was worth it. Often times, customers thought they could predict the future and declared that all clerks working there would eventually hate eating candy and nuts. I am proud to announce that THEY WERE ALL WRONG! To this day, I still love chocolate (mostly dark) and fancy mixed nuts!
I soon moved on in life and made a career in the entertainment industry in California. Ironically, I am also a paid, voice-over actor for movies, films and commercials (which is why I gave a critical review of the announcer and music quality above).
During my career, I booked thousands of shows with recording artists and bands, and one show where Madonna was involved, somebody brought her up to me backstage by my dressing room door and introduced me to her as a "native" of Bay City - just like me. She grinned and said, "So you're from Bay City, too?" I told her yes, and she quickly asked me, "Why ever would you move away from such a quaint place?" For lack of a better answer I told her, "Because that da_n sugar beet factory stunk so much it gagged me...." And upon hearing that, she nearly fell over laughing and grabbed my arm to steady herself on her high heeled shoes. Everyone within 20 feet of us stared at us both wondering if we were silly drunk or high or something. They just didn't get the joke. So then Madonna explained she caught all kinds of flack and complaints from angry Bay Cityans who didn't like her telling the world that she didn't like Bay City because it STANK from the sugar beet factory! When we both stopped laughing like hyenas, she proposed we both drink a quick toast to Bay City, "...And may it live in our hearts forever!" The only thing available nearby was a bottle of Jose Cuervo Gold tequila, so we both slammed a shot down our throats. I never thought to ask her if she had ever shopped at St. Laurent Bros when she was a young girl. She would have been 8 to 9 years old and I probably waited on her more than once....