On The Job: The Moth Radio Hour

This week, an episode in which storytellers transport us to the behind the scenes of their workplaces. A McDonald’s, a law office, a fishing boat. Hosted and produced by Moth Senior Director, Kate Tellers. The Moth Radio Hour is produced by The Moth and Jay Allison of Atlantic Public Media. Storytellers: As teens working at McDonald’s, Bob Gurnett and his buddy make an art of doing the least. In his early days as a lawyer, Reggie Williams’ relationship with his boss turns complex. Kaylen Duquette reconciles what it means to come from a line of New England fishermen. Podcast # 1008

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:57Speaker 01

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• 2:13Speaker 01

  This is The Moth Radio Hour. I'm your host, Kate Tellers. In this show, our storytellers are taking us to work and giving us a behind-the-scenes look at life on the job.

• 2:24Speaker 01

  As part of my job at The Moth, I lead workshops for companies who want to use storytelling to build teams and culture and better their communication. Despite the context, even the most buttoned-up corporate spaces are staffed with human beings with hearts and minds. This is how I ended up hearing about a Creative Leads meet cute on the L in Chicago: being wowed by a managing consultant whose grandfather was the inspiration for an iconic Sesame Street character, and spending a few hours with an operations manager who briefly ran away with the circus. Work can be a grind, but if you're curious about the people around you, who knows what you might unlock?

• 3:02Speaker 01

  I'll introduce our first story by saying a sentence that never fails to blow my children's minds: "Let's go to McDonald's." Bob Garnett told this story at a New York City Story Slam, where WNYC is a media partner of The Moth. Here's Bob.

• 3:22Speaker 02

  I started my first job in hospitality when I was 14 years old.

• 3:29Speaker 02

  It was at one of the most prestigious places you can work, one of the best restaurants in the world. I was at a truck stop McDonald's.

• 3:42Speaker 02

  I don't know if you guys knew, but whenever somebody screws up your order at McDonald's, there's a good chance that's a literal child that did that.

• 3:54Speaker 02

  Don't get mad, they were 13 very recently.

• 4:02Speaker 02

  So the first thing I did when I got that job is I obviously went to make sure I got my best friend hired, my best friend Ryan. I immediately got him hired. Because now, I think we're used to where it's like to get a job, you have to go through like six Zoom interviews. But back then, the only requirement they were really looking for was, "Do you know someone who already works here?"

• 4:29Speaker 02

  Which, Ryan fit the bill. He nailed it. He like showed up to his interview with the application. It's like, "It says here that you sometimes get stoned and play video games with our worst employee."

• 4:45Speaker 02

  That's what we're looking for here.

• 4:49Speaker 02

  We love that you're best friends with a guy who mostly steals Chicken McNuggets from us.

• 4:56Speaker 02

  So I got him hired, and then we spent the next six months doing our best to not do any work. So what we did, we found out this little thing that we thought was a life hack at 14. We found out that if somebody asked you to do something, you could just not do it.

• 5:17Speaker 02

  You could just not do it, wait for the end of your shift, and then someone else did it.

• 5:26Speaker 02

  So that's what we did for a long time. And then about six months in, my manager wised up, and he realized what we were doing. So he said, "Bob, you're gonna go out there, and you're gonna change the ketchup in the lobby, and your shift's not over until you do that." And I was like, "I've been outmaneuvered."

• 5:49Speaker 02

  "Okay, I gotta do this."

• 5:53Speaker 02

  So I've been there six months, and as far as my manager knows, I've been changing the ketchup every day. So it is too late to inform him that I do not know how to change the ketchup.

• 6:10Speaker 02

  So I wing it. I go in back and I grab a big bag of ketchup. In fast food, ketchup comes in like three-gallon bags. It's insane. You pick it up, and it is jiggly and squirmy. It's like the fussiest baby you've ever held.

• 6:29Speaker 02

  So I take my little ketchup baby,

• 6:34Speaker 02

  and I take it out to the lobby, and I am not tall enough to reach the ketchup pump. Because again, I'm a child laborer. So I go get a ladder.

• 6:50Speaker 02

  Again, I don't know what I'm doing. I get on the ladder with my ketchup baby, and I climb up, and I open up the pump, and I go, "I think I know how to do this."

• 7:03Speaker 02

  So I take the big bag of ketchup, and I cut off a corner of it.

• 7:11Speaker 02

  And that fussy ketchup baby started freaking out.

• 7:18Speaker 02

  And I dropped it from the top of a ladder.

• 7:27Speaker 02

  And it hit the ground with such force that the ketchup coming out of it could only be described as a ketchup volcano.

• 7:38Speaker 02

  And I know sometimes people like to embellish or exaggerate stories for effect. I need to stress, what I'm about to tell you is 100% a factual thing that happened to me. The ketchup came out with such force, it shot in the air straight into a ceiling fan.

• 8:10Speaker 02

  So now I'm standing on top of a ladder,

• 8:14Speaker 02

  and it looks like a massacre has happened.

• 8:18Speaker 02

  There's ketchup on the ceiling, there's ketchup on the floor. I am covered in ketchup. There is a bob-shaped silhouette of ketchup behind me.

• 8:34Speaker 02

  And I'm looking around to see if anybody has witnessed what just happened.

• 8:42Speaker 02

  And the only other person in the lobby is my best friend Ryan.

• 8:49Speaker 02

  And Ryan is standing there, and he is silent, and I am silent. The only sound in the lobby is the ketchup dripping from the ceiling.

• 9:00Speaker 02

  And he breaks the silence by saying,

• 9:04Speaker 02

  "You should probably just go, right?"

• 9:16Speaker 02

  And so I did.

• 9:20Speaker 02

  "'Cause sometimes you screw up so bad at work, you should just leave."

• 9:27Speaker 02

  "I'm doing a bad job. I shouldn't be here.

• 9:32Speaker 02

  I'm not worth the $5.15 they're paying me."

• 9:36Speaker 02

  So I left. I quit. And let that be the moral of the story to you guys. If you screw up bad enough at work, you can ask yourself, "Do I want to fix this? Or do I want to go home?"

• 9:50Speaker 02

  And you can do that.

• 9:52Speaker 02

  All right, thank you.

• 10:04Speaker 03

  Bob Durnett is a storyteller, comedian, and generally good hang, originally from Omaha, Nebraska. He lives in Greenpoint, Brooklyn with his wife. Bob says that he visited that infamous McDonald's 10 years after this incident, and the ceiling was still stained, quote, "a beautiful shade of burgundy." He continued, "In a way, this silly story is a tribute to my friend Ryan, who passed away when we were young. I miss him and love him very much, and I am eternally grateful that he got to see me covered in ketchup."

• 10:43Speaker 03

  In a moment, a terrible encounter over French onion soup when The Moth Radio Hour continues.

• 10:56Speaker 04

  The Moth Radio Hour is produced by Atlantic Public Media in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

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• 14:00Speaker 03

  This is The Moth Radio Hour. I'm Kate Tellers. Sometimes, as we've heard, a job ends in a blaze of ketchup. But other times, the exit is not so simple. Our next story was told by Reggie Williams, who shared it at our main stage in Ohio, where we partnered with the Cleveland Orchestra. Here's Reggie Williams.

• 14:25Speaker 06

  I was pushing 40 years old in 2000 when I graduated from Case Western Reserve Law School. My wife Tracy was pregnant with our second child, and we were really excited. You know, I took the bar exam, and I failed.

• 14:44Speaker 06

  I did what I could to make money. You know, I taught elementary school. I did odd jobs. But two years went by, and I still hadn't passed.

• 14:55Speaker 06

  I needed a steady paycheck, and I wanted a legal job so I could get my foot in the door. Well, I got the number to a man we'll call Mr. B. He was a lawyer, a bankruptcy lawyer, who needed a law clerk. So I get him on the phone, and he sounded anxious to see me, wanting to see me early the next morning. Now, that raised an eyebrow, but still, I felt pretty good when I went down to his office the next day. I've done some good work in my life. Plus, he's in a hurry to see me. That could equal a job.

• 15:32Speaker 06

  But then I opened the door, and I was knocked a step back by the flurry of activity. People were going this way and that way, and barking orders at each other. It was frantic. His office was humming. I was frozen where I stood until they thawed me out and ushered me back to see him.

• 15:54Speaker 06

  Mr. B was a giant of a man. He was big and round with a booming voice and wide, wide, sweeping gestures that ventilated the room.

• 16:09Speaker 06

  He was dressed to the nines. I mean cuff links, suspenders, pocket hanky, and a tailor-made suit by Joseph Scafidi, the fine local clothier.

• 16:24Speaker 06

  He had many, I later learned. Well, about 15 minutes into the interview, he's talking up his high school football glory days when one of his assistants comes in and whispers just loud enough for me to hear, "That motion has to be filed by tomorrow." She turns and leaves. He turns and says, "You're hired."

• 16:53Speaker 06

  "Can you start tomorrow?" Now, you know I did. I mean, I was ambivalent, but I needed that money. But you know something? He needed me. You see, Mr. B was... Mr. B was a black lawyer trying to make a go of it in a city that can be really tough for black lawyers to get a toehold in. You know, blacks are historically underrepresented in the legal profession, even while black people are vastly overrepresented in many, many areas where legal justice is needed. But Mr. B was... He was changing all that just by existing. I liked seeing that, and I wanted to be a part of it.

• 17:39Speaker 06

  But man, it was chaotic. I mean, one crisis after another, endless deadlines. This was my job description. Put fires out, get callers in, cheer clients up, and be there for him.

• 17:59Speaker 06

  So I'd be working on a time-sensitive memo or something, and he'd come in, grab me, and say, "We're going to Johnny's." He loved Johnny's Bistro, this really fantastic upscale restaurant over on West Sixth Street, where powerful Clevelanders like to eat. He'd glide in ahead of me, glad-handing everyone, everyone. He'd go from table to table, greeting people by name. Working the room like that is a gift. It was really something to see. His politics were not mine. Like-minded lawyers and politicians, well, they'd come by the office, actually, pretty frequently, or they'd join him for lunch there, and he'd pick up the tab and give to their political causes

• 18:43Speaker 06

  and their campaigns. I remember this one time, we were there, and a party came in right after us. And they were seated at the table next to us. I'm enjoying a bowl of French onion soup gratin, and he's talking business when he catches a glimpse of one of the people at the next table, and he cuts himself off mid-sentence. "Well, Reggie, I'm really concerned about this particular client." I hate that son of a bitch.

• 19:15Speaker 06

  And then he goes into this loud, long tirade about this man. They're looking over... I feel like they're looking at me. I have never wanted to drown in a bowl of French onion soup

• 19:31Speaker 06

  more than I did that moment.

• 19:35Speaker 06

  And then when I get back, I ask him about it, and he says, "Reggie, they're gonna think what they think about us. I can't control that."

• 19:46Speaker 06

  Well, I started to see chinks in the armor. One morning, he asked me to hold my paycheck for a few days.

• 19:55Speaker 06

  But then that very afternoon, he's back at Johnny's entertaining, and you know he picked up the check because he always does. Everyone knew he would.

• 20:05Speaker 06

  My ambivalence, it turned into frustration. I slowly grew to dislike him. And it wasn't his politics. And it wasn't really the work. Well, maybe the work and the spending and all that, but you know, I'm gonna be honest with you.

• 20:20Speaker 06

  The reason I didn't like him is because I wasn't like him.

• 20:28Speaker 06

  And a part of me wanted to be. You see, here was this man, this big, bold, black man stomping his way through the world, saying anything to anybody with nary a consequence and making a little money. He was carving out his own identity. It was an act of resistance.

• 20:51Speaker 06

  And me? I was just a middle-aged man trapped in this bar exam purgatory,

• 21:00Speaker 06

  trying to hustle up a meal for my family and wondering why my wife hitched her wagon to this.

• 21:08Speaker 06

  I took the bar exam yet again and failed.

• 21:13Speaker 06

  I took it whenever they offered it. I failed it whenever I took it.

• 21:23Speaker 06

  He didn't really manage me. He, it's more like he checked in. So I was able to, I was able to grow. So I said very little, I listened a lot, I read the law, and I handled his clients, and the lawyers, and the courts. I was able to develop my own style. But the long hours and the slow pay, it began to take its toll on our marriage. I rarely saw my wife and kids. So when I finally passed the bar in late 2003, I started making money moves. Thank you. Thank you.

• 22:06Speaker 06

  I am a lawyer. I started making money moves. I got my own liability insurance, I picked up some bankruptcy software, and I started advertising in, in small, local, black publications like Horizon Magazine. You can find him in neighborhood bars and restaurants. I'm telling you, I did work that he would never do at rates lower than he'd ever charge. But then in April 2005, the bankruptcy laws changed dramatically, making it much more difficult for people to file for relief.

• 22:50Speaker 06

  Mr. B was hit very hard. Creditors started calling, our paychecks were bouncing, employees left. I knew we were circling the drain when Scafidi sent a pass, "Do notice." His health worsened. He would spend some days just lying on his office sofa, face up, breathing heavily while we attended to him. Or just sitting at his desk, head in hand, just talking to himself. I felt so bad for him, I really did. The team he put his money on was the same team that passed the legislation that was now doing him in.

• 23:31Speaker 06

  And meanwhile, meanwhile, the woman that I love is looking at me, she's relying on me to make something happen. Well, finally, in July 2005, he accused me of stealing clients and fired me. I wasn't stealing clients, I was moonlighting. But he cut off our health insurance like a light switch. Tracy was pregnant again. We struggled. The loss of income hurt, our, our bills piled up. We did manage to find health insurance, but you know the type.

• 24:10Speaker 06

  You pay $600 for the right to pay a $3,000 deductible, and everything short of a common cold is a pre-existing condition. Well, one other thing bothered me. I was raised to leave people better than you find them. And I wanted to do that. I wanted to do that with him, and I didn't. And that stayed with me. I didn't see Mr. B for a little while. Good little while. Now, he showed me one way of being a lawyer, but I chose another path.

• 24:53Speaker 06

  You know, I, I, one that was, I felt was more compassionate. I became the attorney that makes house calls, no office. I saw people in their homes, in their churches, in McDonald's, heck, even a Cleveland Metro Park. I'd sit at their dining room tables, where they'd lay out their financials and their sad stories. Sometimes they'd have just a brown paper bag that they'd pour a amount of crumpled dogged receipts and coffee-stained tax returns. Sometimes they'd, they'd place their gun on the table beside them, waiting for my

• 25:38Speaker 06

  reaction. I'm a stranger in their home, I get it. But then they'd get all salty when I asked them, "Well, how much did you pay for that? What's it worth? I mean, in bankruptcy, you have to disclose every asset. That gun is worth something." Well, about two years later, about two years later, I was on my way into the courtroom, on my way into court. I'm still making short money, but things are picking up a little bit. I'm getting referrals, I'm building a decent reputation, Tracy's working.

• 26:22Speaker 06

  I look behind me and I see Mr. B. And he just looked awful. Grimy and unkempt, shirttail out, tie undone, and he appeared incoherent, and he had no sport jacket. No, seriously. Let me tell you, bankruptcy court is federal court. This is not like Law & Order. It's a room full of lawyers in suits. That is the baseline way that we show our respect for the court and the process. So I rush upstairs to see what is he there for, and come to find out, he's there for a contempt motion against him, not a client of his.

• 27:07Speaker 06

  And my heart drops. No lawyer wants to be on that hot seat. Contempt can mean fines. Fines add up and they can kill careers. Honestly, judges don't want to have to impose them. The courtroom is packed. They call Mr. B's case, and he, he shambles up to the podium. He mutters something unintelligible, and the judge immediately knows that he's not ready, that he cannot handle what he's there to deal with. So she asks the room full of lawyers, us, "Does anyone here represent Mr. B?"

• 27:48Speaker 06

  Dead silence. She asks again, almost pleading it seemed, "Does anyone here represent Mr. B?" I was so scared for him. I didn't know what was wrong with him, but I knew this would make it worse. So slowly, haltingly, I stood up. And I punctured the silence.

• 28:29Speaker 06

  "I do, Your Honor, I do." And I approached that lecture, and for the first time in two years, we looked each other in the eye. And for that eternity-filled second, I wondered where all his powerful friends were now, the ones that loved to eat and drink with the big man who always paid. I was so glad that they weren't there that day. Because I needed to be there, for him and for me.

• 29:11Speaker 06

  I needed to leave him better than I found him, and I was given that chance. It took some time, but I did clear up that matter and a few others, thanks to the goodwill of the court. And then our lives went in different directions for good. My time with Mr. B was messy, and it ended badly. But that man gave me a chance. And he gave me space. He gave me the space to carve out my identity in the law.

• 29:50Speaker 06

  I wouldn't have been there then, or here now, if it wasn't for him. And so, as unlikely as it would have seemed all those years ago, I stand here as his legacy. Thank you, Mr. B. And thank you all.

• 30:27Speaker 03

  That was Reggie Williams. Reggie is an attorney, musician, and performer in Cleveland, Ohio. Before becoming a lawyer, he was a teacher, community organizer, developer, actor, and rock and roll singer. After the show, Reggie wrote me to say, since last year's wonderful moment at The Moth, many people have reached out to me. They connected with the idea of making peace with difficult circumstances and the people who made them so. Some acknowledged their hand in it, but the hard-won clarity that can only come with reconciliation made it real to folks. And thanks to Reggie, meeting storytellers like him are one more reason for me to love my job.

• 31:10Speaker 03

  To see photos of Reggie and his family at the show, check out themoth.org. In a moment, a story of the wide open sea, when The Moth Radio Hour continues.

• 31:31Speaker 04

  The Moth Radio Hour is produced by Atlantic Public Media in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

• 31:37Speaker 01

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• 34:05Speaker 03

  Listen and follow UnPaused with me, Dr. Mary Claire Haver, wherever you get your podcasts. This is The Moth Radio Hour. I'm Kate Tellers. Our final story is from Kaylen Duquette, who told this in New Bedford, Massachusetts, where we partner with the Zeitarian Theater. My family has always had a complicated relationship with the ocean. In a lot of ways, it has provided for us.

• 34:45Speaker 03

  It gave me a home, food on the table, and a childhood full of wonderful dockside memories. But the ocean also has a way of collecting its debts. For generations, the men in my family made their living on the water. Tragically, both of my great-grandfathers were fishermen who were lost at sea. Their stories were passed through the family like heirlooms, always with the same message.

• 35:24Speaker 03

  Somehow, the call of the ocean is something we've never been able to resist. And just like his grandfathers and his father before him, my dad answered the call, too. So when August 6, 2011, happened, it felt like the balance had finally tipped in our family's favor. That was the day that my dad saved three friends who were on a recreational fishing trip after their boat had sank in less than a minute, leaving them stranded in the middle of the ocean. The story was everywhere. All the local news stations covered it.

• 36:08Speaker 03

  The story even ended up on the Travel Channel show, When Vacations Attack. Overnight, my dad had become a hero. When he told the story, he was buzzing with adrenaline, already imagining how he would incorporate it into the book he had been talking about writing for years, Sons of the Sea. Keeping stories alive was important to him. When I was seven, he took me to the Seaman's Bethel so I could see my great-grandfather's

• 36:49Speaker 03

  names carved on the stone cenotaphs. I traced my fingers over the cool marble. I felt those letters etched in the stone as he told me their stories. The Atlantic had their bodies, but we had their memories. Before every trip, there was a ritual. We would always embrace, and I would say the same words. "I love you. Have a safe trip." The words felt like a prayer.

• 37:29Speaker 03

  It sounds a little morbid when I say it now, but it never felt scary. It felt special. We weren't just tossing off a casual, "love ya, see you later." The words carried weight. But my dad always beat the odds. He always came home. To this day, one of my favorite smells is the docks. It's a very distinct mix of fish and diesel fuel that would hit me in the face the second we opened the car door to welcome him home from a trip.

• 38:14Speaker 03

  It's not a scent that would bottle well as a candle, but to me, it meant that dad was home, just like he promised. But we get older, and our priorities change. As a kid, I could not wait for him to get home. As a teenager, I sometimes looked forward to when he was out, because it meant I had the card in myself. And when college came around, I went as far away as he would possibly allow. Tennessee.

• 38:54Speaker 03

  Landlocked, where seafood meant catfish. But after some time away, it started to change how I saw home. One year, when I was up for a visit, my dad talked me into watching him go speak on a cruise ship that was docked in New Bedford. He'd gotten involved with the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center, a museum downtown whose mission is to share the story of fishing with locals and visitors from all around the country. He was so excited to get to teach people what life at sea was really like.

• 39:37Speaker 03

  My friend and I claimed a plush, skirted couch along the back wall while my dad made his way up to the front of the room. He took a second to set up and then looked at the audience and launched into speaking the way he always did. Loud, animated, hands flying everywhere. He talked about serious things, like how different boats catch different species, federal regulations, the toll that the work can take on your body. He talked about people we had lost to the sea, family members, friends.

• 40:17Speaker 03

  But he was always a jokester, too, and he also told funny stories, like the time that he hauled up a giant manta ray and for a brief moment thought he had caught the Loch Ness monster. The room erupted into laughter as he mimicked it growling and wriggling around on deck. And I thought to myself, wow, people are willingly listening to my dad's crazy stories and loving them. Something that I had grown up around, something that I had taken for granted, was fascinating to them.

• 40:58Speaker 03

  He was in his element, and I felt proud. There I was, a ripe 21, my friend and I, easily the youngest people on board by about 40 years. And there, then, was the first time that I saw him as more than just my dad. He was a man that was passionate about fishing. He was a man who had worked his way up from deckhand to captain. He was a man who felt responsible for telling the real stories and sharing the real struggles

• 41:38Speaker 03

  of his industry.

• 41:41Speaker 03

  When I decided to move back to New Bedford, my dad was still talking about writing Sons of the Sea. He'd say, "People won't complain about the price of seafood when they know all the work and the risk that goes behind it." He loved imagining who would play him when the book was adapted into a movie. Russell Crowe was his top choice. But actually writing the book, not so much. Yeah, Dad, the book. Became kind of a running joke. Then, he started trying to recruit me. "Well, now that you're home, you could help write the book. You have a college degree.

• 42:26Speaker 03

  Your dad is just a dumb fisherman." And, you know, after six years away, I had come back with a newfound appreciation and respect for what he did. It was hard, it was dangerous, it was part of our family legacy, and he was good at it. But I still wasn't very enthusiastic about helping him write a book. Eleven months after I had moved back home, I drove my dad to the dock for a 10-day trip.

• 43:07Speaker 03

  I was annoyed with him that morning because I told him I had a meeting that I couldn't be late for, but he still wasn't ready when I arrived. "Dad, hurry up. Dad, I told you to be ready." But when we got to the dock, that ritual kicked in. "I love you, Dad. Have a safe trip." "I love you too, Kaylin, more than anything." Six days later, I was driving when I got a phone call.

• 43:48Speaker 03

  It was from a number that I didn't recognize, but something told me to pick up. It was the call that I had spent my entire life knowing could come, but now that it was happening, I couldn't believe it. It felt like entering a trance. Everything got blurry, and it felt like any moment I would snap out of it and realize it was a nightmare.

• 44:26Speaker 03

  This is the United States Coast Guard. I tightened my grip on the steering wheel, and I kept driving while I answered the questions. At one point, I even stopped for gas, like this was a normal phone call. My phone pinned between my ear and my shoulder as I described what he looked like, his build,

• 45:06Speaker 03

  what he might have been wearing, all while the numbers on the pump climbed higher and higher. Focus, Kaylin. Stay calm. Listen to the details. He had been woken up at 3:30 in the afternoon for his next watch. When he failed to report on deck by 4, someone went to go wake him up, assuming he had fallen back asleep. But his bunk was empty. They looked everywhere: the bathroom, the wheelhouse, over the side of the rail.

• 45:50Speaker 03

  Nothing. On a 50-foot boat, calm seas, the middle of the day, everyone awake, he somehow just vanished. The search was called off the following night after 28 hours of efforts. It was the 4th of July. I remember sitting at my dining room table, head in my hands, just weeping, while fireworks

• 46:34Speaker 03

  exploded over Nasketucket Bay, just beyond our backyard. Apparently, the scales hadn't been balanced. Three lives saved, three lives taken. The ocean wasn't finished with our family. At my dad's memorial service, the three friends who he had rescued years earlier came up to me. "So, are you gonna write the book?"

• 47:17Speaker 03

  But people kept asking, and I found myself thinking about it a lot. This nagging feeling like somehow I was supposed to, somehow I needed to write this book, pushed me to reach out to the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center. And now, for the past six years, every summer when cruise ships come into town, I give the same presentations that my dad once did, teaching visitors about how their favorite

• 47:58Speaker 03

  fish ends up on a plate and why it costs what it does. And sometimes afterwards, someone will come up to me and, you know, thank me and tell me how much they learned, and, "Wow, they're never gonna look at seafood the same again, and they definitely won't complain about the price tag." And when that happens, I can see my dad smiling, and it feels like I'm doing something right.

• 48:34Speaker 03

  The question that I've struggled with is, how do you find closure without answers? Without really knowing what happened? For a long time, I told myself that closure would come when I write Sons of the Sea. But like my dad, I think about writing the book. I imagine how cathartic it would feel to write this book. And then I don't write the book.

• 49:14Speaker 03

  Now, when I visit the Seamen's Bethel and I stand in front of those cenotaphs, my dad's name now too, etched in stone, I imagine that he might say the same thing to me that I used to say to him. "Yeah, Kaylin, the book." But lately, I've started to wonder. Maybe the story doesn't need to live on pages. Maybe it lives in the stories that I tell about my family, in the moments that I get

• 49:55Speaker 03

  to teach people about the world he came from. A world filled with hard-working men and women who risk their lives so that we can enjoy what the ocean provides. Because if I ever write the book, if Sons of the Sea is sitting, finished on a shelf, that might mean that the story is over. And I'm not ready for that. Thank you.

• 50:51Speaker 03

  That was Kaylen Duquette. Born and raised in the New Bedford area, she co-owns her family's restaurant, Turk's Seafood, with her husband and serves on the Board of Directors at the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center, where she enjoys helping preserve and share the stories of the fishing industry. To see pictures of Kaylen, her father, the sea notaffs, and an actual video of her father rescuing the three fishermen, visit themoth.org. Recently, we caught up with Kaylen and one of those fishermen. My name is Mitchell Buck and Tommy Quentin rescued me at sea. Mitch talked about that fateful day.

• 51:32Speaker 03

  We realized the seriousness of the situation and we jumped out of the boat. We bailed. We were all experienced boaters and fishermen and recreational fishermen. We realized we had to get away from the boat because a way people get trapped is when a boat capsizes, flips over, can trap people. So we got away from the boat. And then very quickly, that boat just took on water and just went down like nose pointing in the air. Just thinking about survival at that point, thinking about the poor outcomes, we're trying to think of solutions. And especially me being an engineer, I'm always trying to think of solutions and ways to solve things.

• 52:12Speaker 03

  You can put the engineer on the boat, but on land or water, he'll still be an engineer. Despite Mitch's tactical thinking in the moment, the experience has stayed with him. So I did name my son Quentin after Tommy Quentin. So my son, who's seven, has got his name. So that's one way I kind of marked the whole series of events. After the rescue, Mitch and his friends were so kind. And obviously, I mean, my dad did them a solid by saving their life, but they just went above and beyond, like communicating with him so much after that, like just how much they appreciated him. And I still have, I don't know if you remember the wooden cross that you gave him. So my dad was a very strong Christian.

• 52:56Speaker 03

  God was a very big part of his life. And they had a cross and they signed the back of it. And he had it hung up next to his desk. And I still have that cross. So it's, they were very, very kind to him. And it made him feel so special. He was just, wanted his whole life to be able to, I don't know, put good out and save someone from the sea rather than, you know, be taken. On show day, Kaylen took a bunch of us from The Moth to her work, the family restaurant that she and her husband own. Lunch was epic, understandable since the menu is eight pages long. At Kaylen's nod, plates kept coming out of the kitchen and onto our table. She shared her favorites, which are many. One of my favorites is the baked stuff sole.

• 53:41Speaker 03

  That's, sole's one of my favorite fish. I get it with the white wine sauce. It's delicious. My husband gets mad when I eat it because sole's a pain to filet. Eating all the sole, it's going to take me longer to cut it. So if you want ultra-local scallops, you have to try scallops. If you're in New Bedford, you have to get scallops. And you have to get them from the right place because a lot of times, even places around here, it's amazing we have access to such fresh, local fish. And some people still choose to buy stuff that is processed or comes from other places just because it's, sometimes it's cheaper, it's easier. It's so hard. You don't just, and some people do. You just go to the store, you buy the size of fish you want. Oh, we need this, this, and this. And it's easy. We're not doing that. We're, what boat's coming in this week?

• 54:26Speaker 03

  Is there going to be a boat? Oh, we thought the boat was going to come in, but they had to stay out or it broke down. There are so many moving parts and there's so much behind the scenes work. I mean, they're up at 4:00 AM doing this. And people ask me all the time, why is your food so good? Why is your food so good? It's not a secret recipe. We're not using any special ingredients. It's really just the freshness. And there's so much work behind the scenes to make sure that happens. There's this whole community of people that are up before the sun and we're all sleeping and they're making sure that we have the best stuff. Kaylen shared what she thought her father might think about her sharing her story. I think he would be happy.

• 55:05Speaker 03

  I think he would say something along the lines of, see, I knew you could do it. I knew you could help me write this. See, people want to listen to my stories. Your dad is interesting. Would he be proud? Would he approve? Would he be in the front row blubbering his eyes out? And I think the answer is yes. And that's why I did it. And I think just putting that out there hopefully encourages other people to not only think twice about their seafood, but maybe appreciate it a little more and the people who are behind it.

• 55:43Speaker 03

  That was Kaylen Duquette. That's it for this episode of The Moth Radio Hour, all about jobs. We hope you'll join us next time, or else you're fired.

• 56:14Speaker 04

  This episode of The Moth Radio Hour was produced by me, Jay Allison, and Kate Tellers, who also hosted and directed the stories in the show. Co-producer is Vicky Merrick, associate producer Emily Couch. The Moth's leadership team includes Gina Duncan, Christina Norman, Marina Cluce, Sarah Austin Jenness, Jennifer Hickson, Jordan Cardenale, Caledonia Cairns, Suzanne Rust, Sarah Jane Johnson, and Patricia Urenia. Special thanks to Beth Jones and her New Bedford in the Palm of Your Hand digital storytelling map. Moth stories are true, as remembered and affirmed by the storytellers. Our theme music is by The Drift. Other music in this hour from Stellwagen Symphonette, Epidemic Sound, and Blue Dot Sessions.

• 56:59Speaker 04

  Podcast music, production support from Davey Sumner. The Moth Radio Hour is produced by Atlantic Public Media in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Special thanks to our friends at Audacy, including executive producer Leah Reese Dennis. For more about our podcast, for information on pitching as your own story, and to learn all about The Moth, go to our website, themoth.org.

• 57:36Speaker 01

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