HEAD HARD HAT and QUEEN CHAR INTERVIEWED
by GERRY BARNABY of WOTV4
or Andy's first trip to a TV station.
(Andy Smith the HHH, Gerry Barnaby and Queen Char)
It was a crisp fall day in Michigan and the autumn colors were
peaking. As my wife and I drove the two hours to Grand Rapids, the home of WOTV4, I was looking forward to the TV interview and also a little nervous about what to expect. Since our host and interviewer Gerry Barnaby, or just Barnaby as he is known, had asked for Char to come along in all her Red Hat regalia, it was a true Hatter Couple experience.
I always get a kick out of people's reactions when they first see us. Char, in her huge pink hat, blinding tiara and glittery lavender suit and me in a Hawaiian shirt and lime-green hard hat. Maybe it’s the fish glued to the front of my florescent hard hat. Maybe the bobber on the top. Maybe the fact that a black T-shirt with a bright orange and yellow logo and a blue Hawaiian flowered shirt are not exactly high fashion. Maybe it was the fact that Char walked up to the reception desk and without missing a beat said "trick or treat!" and held out her hand for some candy. Whatever it was, we rendered the receptionist speechless for a few seconds while she took it all in. She cautiously asked if she could help us. We introduced ourselves and she put a call out to Barnaby. Since he was still at lunch we had a seat in the waiting room. Now for Char, this was no big deal. She had been a TV personality of sorts in her other life at one time. But for me, well, I am not embarrassed to say I was nigh on to being giddy about this whole thing. I love telling the world about the Brotherhood and the great fun and friendship to be had. It was at this point that it occurred to me that I had left the camera in the car. While digging round under a pile of THWACKERS I heard someone say, “Hey Andy that is a great statement you have on your car’s bumper.” I immediately recognized Barnaby’s voice and popped my head out from the back seat. I told him that we indeed get a lot of thumbs up and car horns when it comes to the slogan “The Hard Hat Brotherhood – Fun, Farting and Friendship – Join Us!” I found the camera and we were off to the interview. Little did I know just how "guy" this interview would turn out to be!
(Handyman Skip's Tool Room is a Testosterone Filled Paradise.)
It seems that Barnaby had taken our "guyness" to heart and had decided to hold the interview in the most testosterone-looking place they could find in the station - Skip’s tool room. Skip is the station’s all around handy man and Mr. Fixit. If he ever decided to not show up for work the station would immediately cease functioning. Skip was waiting for us and he smiled as I shook his hand. “Just so you know I don’t normally let anybody in here,” he said with pride. Both Barnaby and his cameraman concurred that we were the absolute first to have an interview in this sacred place. The room was a tool guy’s dream; dark, chaotic and had just a hint of WD40 in the air. On the walls were dozens of tools, saw blades and hunks of equipment in different stages of repair, ahhh guy stuff. Char was reluctant to climb over the debris in her royal finery so she had a good time joking with Skip and keeping an eye on me as I was being interviewed.
When Barnaby was done with me he asked Char to join us. Carefully maneuvering the "guy stuff" she took a place next to me to finish the interview. She is much better at this stuff than I am since she has done it before and easily filled in any information and details I left out. That's what I pay her the big money for...to make me look good! It was a fun whirlwind experience that I will not shortly forget and I cannot wait to see the final results.
See Gerry's interview about the Hard Hat Brotherhood
including a streaming video: Click Here
See all that Gerry Barnaby is up to: Click Here
WOTV4's Website: Click Here
