And that recording now one must not get one's knickers in a twist and turn. These are the stories your granny never told people loved by everybody. I was raising the country's kids until I slipped up on some spilled uns on the road and pushed my motorbike. Everyone, it's Nikki, your host for the stories your granny never told podcast, it's a monthly podcast where I interview the wiser generation about the unexpected stories from their youth. So this is once again a remote episode.

I'm coming at you a little bit late this month because I had originally aimed to do a Black Lives Matter oriented episode, but we had a few technical difficulties and that episode got pushed to next month and the episode for next month is now. So I did a little switcheroo. This episode is still really exciting. I interviewed and Oliverio, who is a 78 year old great grandma and businesswoman. Her granddaughter in law nominated her. So thank you, Manuella, for that.

This is overall a really nice, positive and lighthearted episode, which I think is a nice little distraction these days. So without any further ado, here's an olive area.

So please just introduce yourself, OK? My name is Anne Oliverio.

Can I ask you your age, even though it's a little rude.

Seventy eight years old, why don't you start from the beginning where you're from and how your life was when you were younger?

OK, I was born in a small town in Texas and East Texas. My parents were 18 years old when I was born, and they were wonderful people. They grew up together. We probably all grew up together, actually, but my mom and dad were just incredible people. They got along very, very well. I don't recall ever having my parents argue they were seventeen when they got married, eighteen when I was four and they were married sixty two years when my dad passed away.

And my mom is still living at ninety six years old and she's actually in a retirement home, but she does quite well. So we grew up, I grew up on a farm in East Texas. I have two younger brothers, one is five years younger than me and one's ten years younger than me. They're both still living. My dad raised cotton and we were made to pick cotton when we were little and I hated it.

Yeah, it doesn't sound like the funnest child pastime, but it was a very loving home and we had our chores.

It was a great childhood. It was a little town. And I think you felt responsible to everyone in the town if you did anything wrong. You knew that before you got home, your dad was going to know about it and so did the rest of the town.

Right.

And that was without telephones, without computers and without the Internet, just word to mouth and whispers. And I also grew up in a small town, so I know exactly how that works.

It's a great way. You feel like everybody cares about you. Yeah. You have a community for sure you do.

I left there when I graduated from high school at age 17. I went to Houston to live with my grandparents and I worked full time and went to college at night. And what were you working as?

I was working in an office of Four Fold your coffee company just as an office assistant. And then I went to the University of Houston at night. So I did that for a couple of years. And then I got married and to a childhood sweetheart. And then we lived on the campus of Texas A&M University because that's where he was in college. And of course, I gave up the rest of my college life at that time and worked on the campus to put him through college.

And we had two children during the process.

So that was, you know, wasn't exactly planned. But we did have a son and a daughter. And then he graduated from Texas A&M and we moved to Houston and lived there. And I stayed home for the first year and a half with the children. And then I actually went back to work. Then we moved to the island of St. Croix in the Virgin Islands. You go, wow, are you there? So that was a big change for us coming from small town.

Yeah, landlocked Texas to an island. It was. And so we were there three and a half years was a great place to live because it was the weather was warm and the kids could be outside all the time. Did you get some kind of culture shock when you were there, you know? Yes, because but having come from a small town, I don't think it was as bad for me as maybe some of the other people. We were very well taken care of through the company we worked with.

You provided housing and housing for us, and we met a lot of people from all over the world that had come there. So it was actually a wonderful experience. And after being there a couple of years, the minister of my church asked me if I would help with the kindergarten program that they were doing, and it was basically like a Head Start program. These were children coming from other islands who spoke French and Spanish, but the public school was going to be in English.

So the purpose was to have these three and four year olds learn English. And so I said, sure. And so he had a Volkswagen bus that he would go pick kids up. I had a Volkswagen car that I would pick kids up. Nice. Somebody had to have seat belts or any of that stuff.

We would just parliament and bring them in and have class for these twenty, twenty five children every day. So with that, I learned that I enjoyed being with children and working with children. So after three and a half years, we moved back to Houston.

And all of this is following the company.

No, we actually left that company and my husband got a job with another company in Houston. We were we were just ready to leave the island.

Yeah, I can imagine living on an island once you've been around it, you're like, OK, well, and the main thing was the children were now going into first grade and second grade and we were concerned that they were not getting the education that they would need. And that was the main reason for leaving. So it was it was good. And at that time, I decided I would go see if I could substitute teach in the public schools so I could be home with my children.

I didn't have a degree at that time, but they let me do it anyway.

Yeah. Used to be a little bit easier to do stuff like that. Exactly. So with the substitute teaching, I realized that primarily these teachers were out because their babysitters were not available at that time. We're talking about nineteen sixty nine. There were no large daycare centers so we decided well maybe we should have a daycare center.

So it just wasn't a thing because women were expected to stay at home for the most part.

Yes, they there just was not public daycare.

I guess that becomes a conflict when most of the teachers are women. And then how do you fix that? Right.

So with the money we had saved from St. Croix, we bought a building and converted it to the state standards and opened the first daycare center.

Oh, what was it called? Creative Care Children's Schools. And 50 years later, it's still in business. And my two children running.

Wow, that's great.

How did how did people what did they say when you first opened it up where they really thankful, very thankful to have a place that they felt their children could be left and be taught at the same time, because we did develop a very strong preschool program for teaching the children know they were really happy. And yeah, some of the clients actually became really good friends, you can imagine through the years. So my my sister in law and I actually started it together.

And the beauty of it was just my kids could come there after school. And I knew I mean, I'm sure they made a lot of friends there, too.

So that was that was the first venture. And then. After. I guess let me think now from that was 1970, we opened the first one in 1970.

So like I said, 50 years ago this year, then in nineteen eighty one, right before you get to that, I just I have this image in my mind that's probably wrong, but I in my head I know nineteen sixty nine is like the hippie times where people in Texas also wearing flowing dresses and headbands. Or is that just in movies. Yeah.

Yeah. And I will tell you one of the first children we got was a little girl who her mother was not in the picture. The dad had custody of this little girl. She was four years old. Her name was Cactus Flower.

That's great, actually. You think that was a name from today? Because people are starting to get back into these crazy names. Yeah, that one you won't forget.

You remember her. But yes, there was definitely a lot of that. I missed a lot of the hippie movement because I was living in St. Croix.

Yeah, I'm sure it didn't get over to the islands so that I was there from sixty six to sixty nine and basically really and I mean we had one channel on a TV and it only operated from three p.m. to eight p.m. So we didn't have a lot of TV and a lot and a lot of news. Was it black and white.

It was black and white and I didn't want to misjudge the age and be like, no, it's totally color. No, no telephones.

To call my parents, I had to go to a payphone.

So what did you and your family do for entertainment?

Well, the beach, right. Amazing. And snorkeling and scuba diving. And it was the beaches were just incredible.

Yeah. You don't need TV when you have the beach. And like I said, we were able to meet lots of wonderful people. So we had a lot of interaction with other people would be dinner parties. We had the kids play together. It was easy to get help for dollars a day for somebody to come and stay all day long with your kids. And so I could go do things with the ladies. And it was it was it was a very nice time from that viewpoint.

Sounds nice. I want to go live on an island right now.

I think that be pretty good. But I interrupted you.

You said in the eighties, OK? Yes, in nineteen eighty one. My brother needed some help. He had experience in working for a pipeline supply business, so I told him I would help him start a pipeline supply business.

You're just starting businesses all over the place. Wonderful people doing the day care. So in the same building, we started this pipeline supply business and it was called and SCoPI Buildings. And it was really a great little company. I did all the things I told him I would never do, and that was I told him I would not do sales calls and I would not do this. I would not do that. But I ended up having to do all of it.

But it was a need he had. His wife was ill. And this is the one that we started to schools, OK? And so he needed extra income to help pay for medical bills. And that was really the purpose of doing it. But it was just a real successful little company and I ended up selling that in nineteen eighty six. And the reason for selling or what happened was in nineteen eighty four my husband that we've been married twenty four years, the father of my two children decided he wanted a divorce so.

Oh no you know it's hard, it's hard to be running companies. He was running a company, I was running a company. We were trying to raise children. I think there's just way too much pressure. We're trying to do too much. Yeah, it's a lot going on and.

You know, men have huge egos, and if my business was a little more successful than his and that was hard, you know, I look back and I realize that and I didn't see it at the time. But anyway, I was not happy about a divorce. I didn't come from families that divorced. And I see it was it was a difficult time.

But was that something that was not so common at the time? No, it was not. It was not.

Because in the end, if you know, if you're unhappy, it's probably for the best. But I can understand if if yeah. People don't do it as often back then, then it will tell you.

In my case, it was definitely for the best good or bad at the time.

But I persevered and I was working. I had my kids and I by now my son has a two year old and I thought, you know what? I'll just enjoy my kids and keep working. Yeah. So I took my children to Colorado to ski and it was after about 18 months we'd been separated and I wasn't sure what was going to happen.

But I got my kids. We went to Colorado and my daughter sees this man at the bus stop, decides I should meet him. And it turns out he was an amazing human being. And we got married two years later and we were married twenty three years when he died ten years ago.

So that was an emotional roller coaster. You know what it was? We had a wonderful life together. So therefore, I sold the business back to the divorce in nineteen eighty five. My ex husband ended up with the children's daycare centers. So which is a blessing because I would have sold them and he kept them. And like I said today, our two children run them. Right. You know, so life is interesting. You look back and you at the time, you don't think it's the right thing, but it can be the right thing.

And I had an amazing twenty three years with with my husband that I married. And he is the one that Olavarria that I still use his name. And he had he his wife had died at age 40 from breast cancer. And two years before she died, he lost a daughter that was twelve years old. So he had been through a lot of heartache and he had one daughter that was seventeen at the time. And to this day, she's my daughter now.

So I am still very much in touch with her because I'm really the only family she has. So it was a beautiful day. We were together two years before we married and we were married twenty three years. So basically we were together twenty five years and he died in two thousand and nine.

So sorry. So but life goes on.

And when I married him after I sold the company and everything, I, I still had some business interests. I had to go back and forth to Houston a lot for about five years. But then I learned to play golf and I had a lot of new friends and through that.

So I had a lot of things in my life. Yeah.

I mean, you seem like a very, very perseverant businesswoman. When you started this pipe company, did you know things about it or you just kind of went on the on the business side?

My brother knew about it and he did the best he could to teach me. And there was no Internet. There was right computers to learn things. So we just used books and did the best we could.

So did you have to, like, go to a library and find plumbing books? Yeah.

Pipe what is pipe.

What is I I and then valves and fittings. But what happened was another brother was in Louisiana. He had a well he was an offshore drilling rig accident and so was in a hospital in Louisiana. So as we were driving the one brother that knew this business and I just see the other brother, we stopped by a pipe coding company that my brother knew about. He just wanted to say hello to the people. Well, they were having a I was at Christmas time and they were having a crawfish boil partying.

So in talking with them, we realized there was this product that the pipe that this business needed and there was a patent agreement that only allowed for one in the United States. But this patent agreement was getting ready to be lifted. And there was another company in Canada that made the same. Product. So I got all that information from this place where we stopped to get the crawfish and I saw it, I made an appointment and flew up to Canada.

Well, at that time in in nineteen eighty women in Canada generally work. They if they were they were in an office.

And so was it different in Canada than in the States.

I think they were a little bit behind us with Wehrli. I didn't know that. And so especially with women to run a company. And so the reason I had to go there was to see if I could buy this distributorship to get this product in the United States. Well, they were so eager to get the product in the United States, they didn't care who you were, if you would buy the product and stock it and try to sell it.

They were just trying to get their foot in the door, too. So it was a win win for both of us. And I was able to get that product in. That was the main product that we had with that company. So it was good. It was a really good thing for us and for this company.

You were running running it or managing it, right? Yes.

So doing all the sales, everything. So when you were doing this or maybe differently then with the day care, did you get any flack from I mean, I can imagine if a man is coming to you about a plumbing company, he would probably assume that you don't know anything about it.

Well, now it's it's a pipeline. I'm sorry. Yeah, pipeline. Pipeline. It's the gas and oil that goes through the pipeline.

I just had pipes in my head and I just said plumbing.

So, no, actually, it was I went out on the jobs where we supply the products to Wyoming, Colorado, Albuquerque to check to make sure the product was being used properly. And so I'd wear my jeans and boots and and the men were men working out there.

But I will tell you, I have my theory was, if you act like a lady, the men are going to treat you like a lady. And I didn't have any problem with sexual harassment or any problem. I just did not have a problem with it. It just didn't exist. But maybe because I was the owner of the company, maybe there was respect there for that, I don't know.

But I would go out on those jobs and never encountered a problem. So it was an interesting time. But literally, I mean, if we had an order that had to be filled, I might be working in a warehouse at eight, nine o'clock at night helping fill the order. I mean, you did everything. But my brother still kept his full time job, but he would come by in the afternoons after he got off work and he would be there to help with the orders in the evenings.

So I couldn't have done it without him. But at the time, the reason the reason we really did this, Jimmy Carter was running for reelection for president and he was touting that he would require these companies to do 10 percent of their business with minority owned.

No. OK, so we got what we might still be there. Well, he didn't get re-elected.

You don't want a lot of the companies kept that rule. So a lot of the large companies, Exxon, Shell and many of those did try to do 10 percent of their business with minority owned businesses. So we were there to be the minority for them is it was our goal. And that did help. It definitely helped with us getting orders.

So you supplied parts for pipelines. Has the mentality around that changed in terms of ecological terms from then to now? I don't know if you're still in that. Was that being protested at the time or brought up or were you not even.

It was definitely a factor even in in the early eighties then. Yes. You know, you couldn't put a pipeline through certain areas because of environmental issues or the Indian reservations or whatever. Yes, there were problems then, but probably not to the extent that maybe it is today.

Yeah, I wanted to ask because I know there have been a lot of protests, something like that recently.

Well, I guess. And then I did that from eighty to eighty five and then sold, sold it, sold that business.

And so then my I was married to my husband and we moved to Colorado and lived in Colorado and then from Colorado to Atlanta and then from Atlanta. To Austin, Texas, so back in Texas, in the NBA, yeah, so is that your favorite place to live?

Oh, you know, I liked everywhere I was at the time actually, I did. But getting back to Texas was was great because at the time both my parents were living and I was able to spend more time with them and and in my children to be able to spend time with them. So that was a factor for coming back.

It's nice to be near the family for sure. Yeah.

So and then, you know, I like I said, I, I stay really busy. As a matter of fact, I seem to always have a project of some sort of the other. But after my husband died in 2009, I sold the home that we were living in a couple of years later and stayed in Austin. And then in in 2012, friends introduced me to a man that played golf and thought that we would enjoy each other. And so we are still together, OK?

And we did get married, but I didn't change my name because it was just too much trouble.

I'm too old to go through all that, whatever.

So but we do play golf together. We played today and we have Have a Wonderful Life together. We are almost three years ago now, we moved to the Dallas area and this is where we're living now because I have a daughter that is my daughter is here. And I thought it would be nice to be able to be closer to some family as we were both getting older. And it's been great. We we've enjoyed meeting new people here in the Dallas area and and being close to the daughter and her family here.

The Dallas area is actually the only part of Texas that I've been to before. So I know a little bit about it.

OK, yeah, but I was actually sort of disappointed when I went to Texas because I wanted to see cowboys everywhere and like Westerns, but it's just the normal place.

Do you have any specific stories that come to mind?

Well, I will have to think about that. My husband now, we've done a lot of traveling, so we've been very, very blessed to be able to go to many countries and you see a lot of the world and that that's been a super wonderful thing that we've been able to to do.

So what are some of the places that you've been to? Well, we've been to Russia. We went to St. Petersburg and Moscow and some smaller places. And we've just this last year we went to Croatia. Oh, I love Croatia. And it was beautiful.

Just we really enjoyed that. And we've been to China and just had a wonderful trip to Beijing, Shanghai and some of the other towns in China to see the forbidden soldiers. So many, many different areas. They had a great wall and then Australia and New Zealand pick all of their really far places.

We decided we have to do it while we are.

We can, yeah, maybe start far and then get closer and closer. Then it goes on. That's a good idea.

And this last year we actually went to Paris. My husband, we went out to Normandy and spent some time out there. And that was that was.

Did you manage to get some good weather while you were there? Because it's rare.

It rained. It rained was kind of cold, but it it was it was pretty windy and cold, actually. But we went prepared.

OK, yeah. There's no such thing as bad weather.

Just bad clothing. Right. Yeah, exactly. You know, I guess I have seen a lot of change when I tell my grandchildren and now I have great grandchildren for great grandchildren, that I didn't have a computer growing up or even my at home that I live. And we didn't even have a telephone talk and we didn't even have a Wolfen.

So as it was in the countryside. So it just wasn't wasn't common.

And and then in the businesses I ran, I can recall I needed to have access to a cell phone really bad with the and supply business. And when I checked, the cheapest cell phone was going to run about thirty thousand dollars a month and it had a very, very small range of service.

Was it one of those big clunky ones? It was in the car and the car was a car phone, but and I couldn't justify thirty five hundred dollars for the range of would allow.

What do you mean by range. Like you could only call a certain area of Houston is is. Oh is all that you could call it. Oh it just. It would. Tell you how far out that their cell phone would be good for, huh? I didn't even know that. So it wasn't worth. You know, the cost, so you had to stop at a cell phone and call back to your office to give them an order cell phone.

I'd like a pay phone.

Yeah, that's what we'd have to do. And and then it literally you didn't even have a fax machine to fax in an order. You had to dictate it and write it down and hope you like the typewriter in the beginning when you said you were a secretary.

Right. Did you were you on the typewriter like what you had to throw about? Even electric typewriters didn't come along until much later.

It sounds really picturesque in my head, but I'm sure you just like cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck.

Well, you know, you get pretty fast with it and you just, you know, it's it's pretty interesting. But then you you didn't have coffee machines, so you had to make carbon copies. Yeah.

And then if you make a mistake, you have to start over. What?

You have to erase all the carbon copies, the original. You didn't have the white out. How do you erase it if you had a typewriter eraser?

Oh, OK.

Well, it wasn't real pretty.

I'm learning so much it was no white out.

OK, so I, you know, I sometimes think, oh my gosh, what could I have done if I could have had my cell phone in my fax machine, my printer and computer, you know, how much more could I have done?

Always looking to get more done. That's business before. But, you know, it's interesting.

I like I said, I'm very close to my kids. And and then last year, I have a nephew that works in Italy. My brother's son, his mom passed away. And she's the one that actually started the daycare centers with me. And he got audited by the IRS for five years. And he being in Italy, seven hour difference, time frame, he he just couldn't couldn't deal with it. You see, he was there and this was here.

So I tell him, I said, well, let me just have everything. I'll take it. So I literally spent a year with an IRS for him last year. And but it was it was good. I he could not have done it and yeah. From him and sixty six thousand dollars to him owing one thousand dollars and he got paid and settled and done.

So here it is always like hustlin. So that took my my year last year basically.

You really have a knack for business. Did you, did you always want to do that. You said you went to university. What was that for.

I only went, I went, I took typing shorthand and accounting at night so. And then my husband, my children's father, his degree from Texas A&M was in accounting. So he actually taught me a lot. And I did all the books for the daycare center and like that. But you know what? What he taught me was probably more valuable than what I had learned in school experience. Right. And then just doing it.

So, yeah, I guess I guess just the fact that I enjoyed math and whatever it it comes easy for me.

So I still do all of our bills and everything and everyone's lucky to have you know, I it's just I, I just feel blessed.

I'm very healthy. So I'm very, very thankful for that. Have been healthy my whole life. You know, I just feel like you have to give back when you have to have that ability.

You're very positive about all this. It's a great way of thinking. I'm in a great mood now.

OK, thank you. I am very thankful. And I think it's I think it's important that we realized that we are thankful in to try to stay positive.

Yeah. Yeah, I think so. Some questions that I usually ask everyone.

What advice would you give to people from my generation, you know, and give us some wisdom.

I think you guys worry too much about things.

Probably I, I think I see this with my grandchildren, my great grandchildren raising their children. They think they really need to entertain the children all the time. The children need to have an activity constantly instead of just sending them out in the backyard, letting them play, learn, eat some dirt on their own.

I see that. And this is true of both of my grandchildren who have children. They're always. Entertaining them, and they're not firm with them to the fact that my granddaughter right now is experienced in the fact that her almost three year old's getting up during the night and come into the room. And I see people that have just talked very sternly and say, you're not allowed to do that and don't allow her to do that. They don't do that.

She said, well, we just can't do that. We can't be that firm with. Well, then he's going to come to your room at night. Yeah, you know what? He's running the show. You're not you know, the kids are the stars. So I see that. I think they need to be a little more parents instead of friends and trying to entertain them. That would be one thing I would say. And then I just career wise, because my children are working, but my grandchildren are the ones more that I would keep jobs during all this pandemic time working from home, which I think is just amazing.

I think a lot of things will change.

Another thing that you couldn't do back in the day very easily, you couldn't because you didn't have this ability right here. You didn't have zoom and face time and whatever, you couldn't have done it.

So I'm very thankful that you're technologically minded, by the way. This is very easy. Thank you. I feel lucky to be able to try to keep up. And like I said, I call these grandkids and if I have a question or problem and they help me through. But it's just so much. I mean, you can just there's just so much you can do, you know. Yeah. Now from home and in like, you know, I take care of all my mom's bills and it's not that many, but I do it all online.

And how lucky are we that we can do these things? Yeah. So it is a new world. I will say. I think that a lot of the kids are too connected the need to leave the cell phones at home.

And it is sometimes a little bit of an addiction for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Too much texting and not enough talking and interaction and the situations. I see that with, with some of them. I do have my youngest granddaughter is, but she's she's really good about trying to not be on there so much. So maybe there's going to be a swing back. Yeah, maybe.

I mean I also personally like try to put my phone down when I'm trying to have a conversation with people because it's so easy to get distracted, flashing lights, colors.

But that's another part of like why I'm doing this. It's it's nice to just hear people's stories and and kind of just know what other people's lives are like and how it was back in the day and things were kind of really different, although some things stay the same. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, it's interesting. My mom always had a garden and we always had fresh vegetables and fruits. And I see that my grandchildren are now wanting to have a garden and have fresh vegetables.

And so there is kind of reverting back to some of the same things.

But yeah, it's true. My parents also have a little garden and can kind of like make most of their meals in the spring, in the summer. And I'm pretty jealous. I live in the city, so I have one basil plant dying on my windowsill.

And where are you? I'm in New York. OK, so your overall advice would be stop worrying so much.

Yeah. And, you know, just work hard and don't be so afraid. Don't be so afraid to step out there and try something. If I had known what I learned and probably both of the businesses that I did, I would never have done them.

I was too afraid. But I didn't know and I just jumped in there and just be naive and do you know, just think through it and know that you have the resources to allow yourself to do it. But don't be afraid to to try something new. And I think about this, the pandemic situation. How many great businesses have popped up as a result of this? I mean, a lot of businesses have certainly been hurt, but there's a lot of businesses that have popped up like some companies.

I'm sure they're doing great because you see all these new signs that we're open for take out or we're open for online only, you know.

Yeah, just look at Zoom. No one heard of Zoom a year ago and the Zoom people. And, you know, I think there's opportunities every day.

It's funny. You see me constantly, like always has a business opportunity, obviously ready to go.

Well, I keep I keep thinking, am I too old or could I do something else? Why not?

If you're still feeling good, why not?

So my daughter said, no, mom, you can come to work for me at the daycare, get done that.

That's OK. Know, I just I feel very blessed that I had the ability to step out and do the things I did and they were successful. But, you know, success is hard work to you. Don't you don't just say, oh, I think I'll start this business and it's just a lot of hard work. You have to be willing to do anything.

You have to be. Yeah, it's not going to fall in your lap.

You have to be willing to sweep the floors, clean the toilets, whatever it takes to get it going.

That's a good tip. That's a good business tip, actually. Yeah.

Just you can never be too good to do whatever it is needed to be done. They humble. Uh huh, exactly. Yep. That's true.

And so now for pastimes, you you golf, right.

We do. We we play golf and we both are involved in our churches and hadn't been able to go lately because they've been closed. But and then like I said, by the time my husband has three, the three daughters and seven grandchildren and I have the three children and six grandchildren and now four great grandchildren is like and my mom still living.

So there's just always somebody that needs you to do something enough family to keep busy. So, you know, there's always a lot.

Well, yeah.

Thanks for all the stories. I was very positive.

Well, thank you, your darling. And I wish you good luck with all of this. All right, how sweet was that and is the best she's so positive, so motivated. It's quite inspiring. I hope you like that. And if you did, please leave a review on iTunes. It really helps get me up the charts and get other people to see the podcast, obviously. Please share it to your friends and so on if you think they would enjoy it.

If you have a grandma or grandpa or our grandma and you want to be interviewed, feel free to write an email or contact us over social media on all platforms. Its stories your granny never told on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, also dot com and at Gmail dot com. The background music is the maple leaf rag by the New Orleans Rhythm Kings. My granny tip this month is to say safe and plant a garden and tend to your garden. Whatever that means to you can be a dying basil plant on the windowsill of your dark, dark New York apartment.

Or it can be, you know, an app with a little plant in it. I don't know if you like plants, help keep people safe. See you next month with another episode of stories your granny never told by.