Episode 003: Quincy is all “A-Buzz” With Bees!

So complete this saying: Bibbity Bobbity…..? Not Boo!…

BEE!

Sam Jennings

Bibbity Bobbity BEE! Yeah! The reason I’m saying ! Bibbity Bobbity BEE is this week is pollinator week. And to celebrate pollinator week, I am interviewing a beekeeper. Sam is from Best Bees. I mentioned in my last episode that I have a couple of honeybee hives in my yard and I love them. And my neighbors love them because different houses around the neighborhood have all these types of fruit trees and they’re getting more fruit. Plus my blueberry bushes are booming.

Listen to how local businesses and developers are incorporating honeybees into their plans!

Honey Bee Swarm Links:

From the city of presidents, it’s the all about Quincy podcast. This is your host, John Melley. Join me as we explore the history, hidden gems and highlight the businesses with great stories that I’ll tell the tale why Quincy, Massachusetts is a great place to live. Hey, there it’s Jon. Thanks for joining me today. I do appreciate it. Welcome to episode three of the All About Quincy podcast. First thing I want to do is thank folks for their kind comments about my interview with Tim K hill from

Speaker 2: Last week. Alicia, Janet, thanks for reaching out on Facebook and giving me a thumbs up or a nice comment about that episode. I really do appreciate it.

Speaker 1: A lot of people don’t know a lot about the honeybee.

Speaker 2: So I thought that it would be a good thing to do, to have a beekeeper on and talk about it. So I mentioned a couple of things in my interview with Sam from best bees. And I want to direct you to the show notes for this episode. It’s episode three at all, about Quincy podcast.com. And when you go there for this episode, you can see a couple of videos. One video is of the beekeeper, literally putting her bare hand into a cluster of honeybees that have swarmed and landed in one of the bushes in my yard. The second video is that beekeeper capturing the queen and putting it in a temporary hive. And I’m literally standing in my yard in jeans and a t-shirt with my iPad, recording the swarm, flying around me and I was perfectly safe and it was so cool to see. So if you want to see those videos go to all about Quincy podcast.com, episode three and click on the show notes and you’ll be able to see it. We also have some other links there for anybody who’s interested in learning more about bees. This is a little longer

Speaker 1: Than the other episode. So let’s just head on over to millions. You were saying, as I mentioned at the beginning of the show, my guest today is Sam Jennings, who is the sales

Speaker 2: Manager and beekeeper at the best bees company in Boston, buh, buh, buh, buh. How are you, Sam?

Speaker 4: I’m good, John. Thanks for having me. And you deal with honeybees, not bumblebees,

Speaker 2: Cause that way we wouldn’t say the best bees company of the bumblebees in Boston. No,

Speaker 4: We, we primarily work with honeybees. but we all do. We do it for all bees too. So, you know, honeybees are an indicator species that we’re able to use for research purposes to measure the health of the native pollinator species around our beehives.

Speaker 2: Now, folks listening to the show may be wondering, why am I talking about bees Well, I have to tell everybody that I have a couple of honeybee hives that Sam’s company, the best bees company helps manage. And they tend to every month. And, we get honey from, and Sam is involved with some beekeeping in Quincy. We’re going to talk about all kinds of things, but we’re going to be talking about the importance of honey bees and pollinators because this is pollinator week in June. we celebrate pollinator week and I have had an interest in honeybees that goes back to my childhood. I think my parents or an aunt gave me a national geographic subscription for kids. And along with that subscription came like two or three hardcover books. And one of those books, Sam was on honeybees and from very good. Yeah.

Speaker 2: And from an early age have always been fascinated by honeybees. And then when I was a kid, my parents had their house painted by a guy by the name of Mr. Thomas. And Mr. Thomas also kept bees. And one day he came to finish up painting and he brought this gigantic jar of honey and it was a really nice gift and it was delicious. And I was just fascinated about honey bees and beekeeping. And I don’t keep these cause I got enough on my plate. And I think my wife would be like, you’re going to

Speaker 5: Do what now. But she, she

Speaker 2: Read an article in Boston magazine, I think a number of years ago. And she said, oh, you might be interested in this. And I said, oh, this is kind of cool. And it was one of those things where I said to myself, Sam, I said, if I’m still thinking about this a year from now, I’ll look into it some more. And so I did, and I’ve been a client of yours ever since. I know I’m talking a lot, but I love the honey bees. They’re very relaxing. And, and your son done

Speaker 4: Quite well, haven’t they in Quincy You’ve had it. You’ve had a hive go three years and you’ve got one hive now that’s on year two, right

Speaker 2: Yep. That’s correct. Yep. We had a it’s server. That’s a question that I get asked all the time and is when the winter comes, people say, where do the honeybees go And I say, they are right there in that box. So incredible. And people are amazed by the explain to people why honeybees stay in their hive over the winter and that whole process.

Speaker 4: I know it’s crazy to imagine them, you know, finding a way to stay warm on these cold, new England winter nights. But, you know, with best bees, we don’t move the hives down south. Some beekeeping operations may be, you know, moving the bees down to Florida. There’s Snopes snowbirds that go down there and, you know, collect the forage and, produce more bees down there to extend the season. But, you know, at best bees, we were about establishing the hives on site to survive the winters year round, making sure they have enough resources and essentially what they do in the hive over winter is they cluster together around their queen. There’s one queen and then a bunch of worker bees and every beehive. And they, they use their wings, they beat their wings, creating friction, creating warmth and heat for the hive, in this ball of bees, basically that’s just in the center of the beehive.

Speaker 4: You know, they’re not really fully hibernated. They do have a reduced metabolic rate at that point. But, you know, if it warms up on a warm day, about 50, 55 degrees, you’ll see them come out the door and, you know, use the bathroom, do a cleansing flight as we like to say. but you know, they go right back in at nighttime and, and, and cluster together. And they, they move through the hive is a ball actually to access their honey stores over winter. And, early March, sometimes late February, the queen begins to start laying her eggs again, you know, preparing a new batch of worker bees for the spring season. And from there, the colony will grow in time with the early nectar flows here in new England. It’s really

Speaker 2: Always fascinating when that starts to happen in late winter, early spring, as you were saying that there might be some snow still on the ground and you do you see these bees flying out and then you’ll say like these little orange droplets in the snow and a bee poop. Yeah. And I’ll have it on my car. And sometimes I’ll see it on my car as I’m going to go drive somewhere. And I may not have noticed that there they’ve been out, but I’ll see that and I’ll go, oh, they made it through the winter or they leased. They’ve made it this far. One of the questions that I, yeah, I get that question all the time. Where do they go in the winter time And their honeybees are different from a lot of other bees species in that they collect extra honey so that they do make it over the winter. Am I correct

Speaker 4: Yeah, that’s right. There’s over 20,000 different species of bees. Some of them are solitary bees, bumblebees Mason bees. And they don’t always, you know, live the same type of life as a honeybee would in the sense of, they don’t have a large colony and hive where their instinct is to collect, a surplus of resources. So they just operate a little bit differently. Overwintering in different types of social environments. Sometimes all of the Queens will, you know, return to the same location to cluster together for winter and then disperse back and start new small little nests. But there are so many different bees and, it’s always great to see different types of bees species because it does indicate, you know, that your area is, healthy enough to sustain different types of pollinator populations. Essentially. They’ve also, you know, all these different bees have evolved over time in step with plants. And so each of them has a different length tongue. So certain bees have really long length, length, tongues, or medium lengths, shorter length tongues. And this allows them to forage from different flowers. So not every bee species will like even forage from the same set of flowers. And they, you know, they use different methods to get that nectar, get that pollen from flower. Oh, that’s

Speaker 2: Interesting. I didn’t know that one comment. I get a lot when I’ll be out. I, I think we talked before we started recording this program. I have a couple of dogs. You have a dog and when I’ll be out walking the dog, somebody else will say, oh, how are the bees Or if they don’t know that I have bees, I’ll talk about the bees to somebody. And a comment I get a lot is, oh, you know how you can get rid of those. And yeah. And I’m saying, no, I don’t want to get rid of the honeybees because they, this is on purpose. They’re there in my yard on purpose.

Speaker 5: The honeybee

Speaker 2: Really isn’t interested in people. It’s, they’re interested in, they’re interested in flowers and water. that’s also cool. I have a little bird bath and sometimes they’ll cluster around the edge of a bird bath on a hot data and you can see them drinking and flying back to the high with it. It’s cool. but you know, the bees don’t sit there and are flying around and go, oh, look, there’s a person. Let’s go get it. unless you’re like diving into their hive and really disturbing them, or you’re SWAT nap them while they’re trying to do their thing, they don’t care about us. Right Yeah, that’s right.

Speaker 4: Yeah. They’re, they’re completely, non-aggressive, you know, honeybees, especially, but even all of the other native bee species, including like yellow jackets and wasps, for the most part, when you encounter them in the wild they’re foraging, they’re searching for food, whatever that may be, you know, honeybees are looking for flowers. they typically know exactly where they’re going in the hive. They communicate to each other where the nearest nectar and pollen sources are. So those worker bees are following these predetermined flight paths, right to the source. So they’re busy, you know, they’re making trips back and forth and they’re not concerned about you. If they bump into you, they keep it moving. A lot of gardeners will know this, you know, as they’re gardening, there’s going to be bees on the flowers, bees in your plants. And, you can move them, brush them aside, pick the flowers, shake them off the bees.

Speaker 4: Aren’t going to get disturbed by even that type of activity. It really comes down to defending the hive itself, defending their, their nest and their queen. So when those nests and those hives get disturbed, that’s when bees do exhibit their defensiveness and they don’t do so independently, collectively they start to release their defense pheromones, which really trigger that defensive response. And it’s limited to the hive itself. So, you know, the best thing to do when you see a nest is to take a minute to reconsider, you know, disturbing it, it’s not going to be something that, you know, would be done quickly and even consider whether or not the bees are any nuisance to you. or if they’ve just found a great home because, you know, the native bees especially are dying and anywhere they can find a home is just a great success story. We want to keep those bees, you know, where they are and help to repopulate their populations in areas all across the country. So

Speaker 2: You bring up a couple of interesting points that I wanted to talk about since they are dying. And let’s say, somebody says, oh, I’ve got bees in a crack in my wall. What should they do You know, should they call somebody to have it removed Should they buy some poison and, and squirt it into the wall I mean, what’s a good ecological thing for people to do when they find something like that, where, you know, B doesn’t care. If it’s a house or a tree, it just says, Hey, this looks like a good spot.

Speaker 4: Right Yeah. Well, I would definitely advise not to use any sort of like pesticides it’s, you know, it’s bad for the bees, of course, but it’s, it’s gonna, it’s, you’re, you’re not taking care of the situation, you know, bees and in walls. it’s pretty rare, but it can happen, especially with like old sheds and things like that. And depending on your situation, it can be pretty tricky to access them. So there’s always, you know, the local beekeeping association, there’s one for every county, you know, there’s a statewide directory. Anyone in the country can look them up and contact their local beekeepers if they have some honeybees to relocate. But when they’re in the walls, you know, it can involve needing, you know, to like open up the walls and things like that. And, you know, you want to remove everything. You don’t want a bunch of dead bees running in your walls, even if you do want them removed at all costs. And you’re, you’re willing to do pesticides, it’s still probably not a good solution. So we would always advise to relocate them and, do so in a way that involves a professional beekeeper or local beekeeper so that you or your contractors and, you know, getting to knee deep in a beehive inside of your house,

Speaker 5: cause

Speaker 4: There’s ways to safely do so. And then it’s kind of a fascinating experience. Maybe, you know, your local beekeeper can help you get it set up in your backyard and in an actual beehive, giving them a proper home. but you know, there’s also other types of bees out there that tend to gravitate towards wooden structures. If you’re familiar with like the, the Mason bees or the, carpenter bees. Yeah. Any, yeah. Especially coastal homes, untreated wood, they really love stuff. And, one thing you can do is obviously plug up the old holes, but you know, also spray them with some just natural peppermint oil and soapy water to keep the bees out. You can do that during the day and they’ll go find a new home or, you know, plug up the holes. But you know, untreated wood is what they like. So if you keep that painted or you keep it sealed, they’re not going to be as likely to take up shop in your house or in your shingles, peppermint oil and soapy water. Yeah. There really

Speaker 2: Is. You know, you don’t have to go and get the stuff that I want to talk about weed killers and all that kind of stuff in a moment. But the other thing I wanted to talk about, which kind of has to do with the safety of honeybees and all of that one point, I take my lawnmower and go right up in front of the two beehives. I have two of them. And you know, if I stood there and held the lawnmower in front of the hives, they’d probably get aggravated, but they don’t care. I’ll just walk right through them as they’re flying in and out of the hive, Hey, don’t bother me. I’m not bothering them. And it’s people think I’m nuts, but like you said, here, they’re on a mission.

Speaker 4: Exactly. That’s how bees work. You know, you, you going by with the lawn mower, you know, some guard bees might take notice, but they’re not going to have that response. Cause like I said, they have to release their pheromones. So you really have to like disturb the hive itself, open it up. And then they start to release their firearm owns and exhibit that defensiveness. But, it typically takes some time and you know, you coming by with the lawnmowers, they’re probably familiar. They probably know you and are familiar with that sound. And they know it’s not a threat at this point. Right.

Speaker 2: That is, that’s very true. The other thing is, is now we’re in prime swarm season, correct

Speaker 4: Yes we are. Yeah. And

Speaker 2: I remember I’ve had the swarm a number of times the first time it ever happened.

Speaker 5: I didn’t know what was going

Speaker 2: On. I was like, oh my God, what have I done Because it was like this clone of bees in the yard and it was, they were just, they filled the yard at any rate. We had another swarm where we have two colonies and that’s why we have two. We had, the beekeeper come cause I called and I said, Hey, look, they’ve swarmed. And they’ve clustered on this Bush. That’s really low. We can capture them. And she came and with her bare hand, stuck her hand in the cluster of bees and just pulled out a handful of the bees and nothing happened. And I thought, oh my gosh, look at this. And then she, captured the queen and shook a bunch of them into this, portable hive and trimmed these little branches off and shook them all in. And as the queen was moving from the Bush into the portable hive, the whole yard just filled up again with the swarm. And I was standing there in a t-shirt and jeans and my iPad recording this, we’re making a video of it and I’m standing there in just in this swarm and you know, nothing happened

Speaker 3: And it, people look at it and

Speaker 2: They go, weren’t you scared And I said, no, because, and you explain why swarms aren’t anything to be afraid of.

Speaker 4: Yeah. So for the listeners, a swarm is actually a normal thing that these do. It’s a, it’s how we refer to a specific behavior. When, you know, the bees produce such a large population that the queen no longer has an ability to lay eggs. You know, it’s kind of their natural instinct to swarm. So at some point in the season, typically, you know, may and June, the queen decides it’s time for her to leave the hive and go find a new home. So she’ll release a specific pheromone that communicates to the bees that this is happening. Half of the population will eat as much honey as they can to prepare for the journey. And half of that population of worker bees will leave with the old queen. And, when they leave the hive, it’s a lot of activity. You know, it’s like a big amount of bees kind of flying through the sky altogether.

Speaker 4: they don’t go very far, typically stay within the property and, perch up on a tree branch like you described and like a cluster of bees. so they kind of stopped flying as much and they become this big clump of bees that is just dangling from your tree. And they’re there at this time. They’re completely docile. So once they’ve decided to swarm, they’ve left the hive, they no longer have a home to defend and they don’t exhibit any defensiveness. They don’t release defense pheromones. And like you saw with the beekeeper, we just walk right up to the hive or the swarm cluster. And we just grab those bees and put them into a container that we, you know, established into a new beehive. And essentially if you can grab the queen and the first clump and get her into the box, if you can’t access the remain, the remainder of the swarm, they’ll actually follow the center of their queen right into the box. And so you’ll see them actually walking in like a line going right inside of where we’ve, we’ve moved to the new queen. It’s

Speaker 2: Fascinating to watch because she got the queen into the box. There was this big cloud of bees. And then she said, okay, I’m just gonna leave this box here and go look at the hive that the group that was left behind and within 10, 15 minutes, all of them just coalesced into that travel hive, if you will. And it was fascinating. It was like, they all suck themselves into this box.

Speaker 5: Yeah. They were so happy

Speaker 4: To find a new home. Yeah, it was great. It was a good spot for them because typically they don’t find a great home. They’ll typically die or get eaten by some birds or, you know, they’ll maybe find a tree, but it’s not great for overwintering. So it’s always good to find a new home. And, you know, back in the hive that the queen left behind, she’s got half of the worker bees are, and they’re developing new Queens, which will then hatch in the next few dates. And those Queens that hatch actually will, will battle for control of the hive. And the surviving queen, you know, will then take over by, you know, going on a mating flight and then returning to the hive to, you know, start a new, you know, lineage, so to speak. So as beekeepers, we try to mitigate this behavior by taking what we call like artificial swarms or splits from the hive and removing some of the brood frames and kept queen cells to prevent the queen from thinking that she needs to leave, you know, making sure that she feels like she can stick, stick around. And so, you know, inevitably over the years, you know, it’s, it’s possible that your hive will swarm, but it’s actually a really good sign. And, you know, it’s a good thing in healthy behavior for the bees, but of course, you know, urban beekeeping being our specialty, we want to, you know, prevent swarms from, you know, happening as much as possible just to cut down on the new sense of just, you know, bees ending up in places where bees were not expected. Yeah. You see

Speaker 2: Him like people just cars in a parking lot, somewhere they’re land on the door handle or something. And it’s like, oh my gosh. But yeah, it’s really, they’re really, really, I can attest they’re harmless at that. Definitely.

Speaker 4: And they’re fascinating too. So if anyone ever sees them check out those beekeeping associations, I mentioned local beekeepers are always looking to catch swarms in their area. bees are limited resource. We don’t always have, you know, bees for everyone every season. So anytime we can access new colonies, like swarm beekeepers are, are looking for that. So, so contact the local beekeeping association, if you do come across a swarm, send them a picture and let them know where it is and they’ll be right out to collect it.

Speaker 5: And best bees does that too. And you know, I’m going

Speaker 2: To put the contact information for you folks in the show notes. And also I’ll go find some links to those beekeeping association, actually the local one here, because this is the Alabama Quincy podcast. So that actually leads to an, a nice segue about Quincy. And you’ve been involved with a number of installations in Quincy. Talk to us about that. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 4: As you know, Quincy is really going through quite a revitalization. You could say these years as it’s been a cool to see, it seems like more and more people are really excited about the future of Quincy and, and, I’ve seen a lot and of course, environmental impact, and we have to think about habitat. and so with bees and pollinators in general, habitat loss is the number one reason for their decline in health. And we’ve partnered with a local real estate company called Foxrock properties. And they have, office buildings in north Quincy, Quincy center, south Quincy. And they’ve been a big part of the, you know, development there in downtown Quincy. And, what we’re doing is installing beehives on the rooftop, maintaining them and engaging their tenants and really fun educational programs. People get honey from the properties. and we’re also doing research.

Speaker 4: So we collect data from all of the beehives we maintain, including yours strong. Yep. So that visit data helps us to manage the hives, but it also helps us to look at and quantify pollinator health in certain areas. Basically, like I said, they’re indicator species, the native pollinators are difficult to study. They don’t have hives. We can look at their solitary and it’s hard to really keep up with them. So the honeybee health is a really good indicator of the native species health. And we’re looking at a colonies health over the years, as well as diving deep into the data of their nutrition through honey DNA, actually take a small sample of honey from the hives, send it to our lab for genomic analysis. And then we get back a full list of the different plants that the bees forge from to produce that honey.

Speaker 4: Oh, that’s interesting. Yeah. It’s like the 23 and me of, of honey, you know, we learned, learned a lot about their tie it and, of course, you know, it’s similar to people. A diverse diet does correlate with better bee health and there’s gaps in forage. You know, some places don’t have enough plants maybe in early spring or late fall to sustain healthy colonies of honeybees, which is a good indication that there is also not enough habitat for the native species. So, you know, we’re doing this in Quincy where we’re monitoring, you know, bee health and Quincy and, you know, through our partnerships with companies like Fox rock properties, we can advise on plantings and habitat restoration that will impact all pollinator species. And, you know, being able to measure that over time is really important. So we can actually see the difference in habitat and diet changing in the bees over the, over the years. And, you know, it’s a fun thing. It’s fun thing when you have bees at work, you know, so it’s a cool thing to do and get to have fun, fun bee related events, you know, beehive tours and honey tastings. you know, the honey can be used to create honey ice cream or honey beer. And there’s a lot of fun, fun things that these, properties will do with, with the different companies that have offices

Speaker 2: There. That sounds like fun. I just have to let people know that I have this dog in the background who is snoring. So if you hear little snores, that’s Zoe the wonder dog sleeping in the back of the studio here. It’s a good job. Yeah, exactly. Anyway, you’re talking about, gaps in forage it’s pollinator week. What are some of the things that people listening if they’re interested can do to create a more pollinator friendly environment in general,

Speaker 4: Number one, obviously plantings, anything we can plant to create forage for the bees is great. A really great resource is these are CS for invertebrate conservation. it’s a long name, but the website is xerxes.org. Yeah. There’s just, they’ve really great local guides, for pollinator habitat establishment. you know, you can plant things, that bloom in early spring and late fall, those are really good for bees because that’s typically where we notice the gaps in forage. and then there’s also great guides for things like establishing pollinator Meadows, you know, Meadows of native wildflowers to new England that are blooming year round and providing that food for them year round. So, you know, number one is plantings. Number two, you know, cut back on all of the pesticides. It’s just, it’s tough to see people spraying so much that they may be not needing to check in with your landscapers, if you don’t do it yourself and really check in to see what they’re using and if it’s necessary, or if there are natural alternatives, it really affects the native bees even more than the honeybees where they just don’t have, you know, a whole population to rely on or a queen who can just lay even more eggs and create more bees.

Speaker 4: It’s just, you know, pesticides can wipe out populations.

Speaker 3: Yeah. And I also have to think

Speaker 2: On some level it’s, it’s hurting us. I mean, eventually it gets into the food supply and it makes its way into us and it kind of have to wonder. So do you know, I mentioned, I think it may have been before we were recording, but I’ve actually taken a mixture of vinegar and water or mostly vinegar and just squirted it on, some weeds popping up in the middle of, you know, like crab grass coming up in between some bricks in my walkway or something like that. Or are there some natural things that people can do that are totally benign to pollinators and people and really inexpensive, but very effective. Yeah.

Speaker 4: I mean, what you did is a great option. I think that that, that works really well. You can also put down like a tarp and cover up the area from any sunlight to kill all the plants or weed them yourselves. And, you know, the biggest thing is like when things are in bloom, maybe consider leaving them it’s pollinator week. If you’ve got, you know, weeds that are blooming, you know, they may not look as great to you or you might not want them, but they’re, they’re essential food for bees. So I always say, if you can leave them, that’s great. But if not, you know, try something natural, like you said, or, you know, weed them yourselves and just never, ever spray any sort of pesticide or chemical treatment on flowers in bloom because that’s, you know, that’s a stop for a bee somewhere to, you know, grab a bite to eat. And, you know, you just don’t want to have that, you know, be exposed to the whole colony or, you know, kill the native bee. It’s just, best to leave the weeds or do something like a little more natural. Okay. A lot of people might be thinking, well,

Speaker 2: What’s the big deal on a site Well, we get a lot of our food from these, these pollinators. So it does impact us.

Speaker 4: That’s an entire ecosystem, you know, not only are a hundred over a hundred fruits and vegetables that we eat pollinated by honeybees and other bee species, but know that the thousands of different plants, you know, that, that require pollination, to survive. And, and, you know, these native bees are a part of a big ecosystem and they’re dying. They’re disappearing due to habitat loss from development from people, you know, having just green lawns and removing all the weeds. And it’s just so important that we don’t lose these species and the biodiversity that we have already here in Quincy or in new England, it’s, it’s under threat and we have to really be considerate to why we are landscaping and the ways that we are. And, you know, what are some simple ways that we can have beautiful flowers, but also contribute to the health of our local ecology.

Speaker 2: Sounds great. So I would be remiss if I didn’t let you talk a little bit about what the best bees company does. Why don’t you tell everybody what the best bees company does So the services you provide and if people want to learn more, how they can get in touch with you. Yeah,

Speaker 4: Of course. It’s, you know, the best bees company is a national group of beekeepers. We have beekeepers in 14 cities across the country now, and we provide beekeeping services. It’s really the hands-off approach to having your own beehives, supporting pollinator research and even producing your own honey. So, you know, we’ve designed things to be just all inclusive of everything needed for happy, healthy honeybee colonies, including the beekeepers. So you wouldn’t have to do the work yourself, but you, you know, have your own bees and learn a lot about the process. and like we were saying, we take a real data-driven approach to it. And, you know, view all of the bees as indicator species. We’ve got a sister non-profit research organization called the urban bee lab that actually takes the data that we collect, and analyzes it alongside other data sets with our research partners, helping to advance our mission, to improve the health through research and expand populations.

Speaker 4: But, you know, it’s a cool thing to, and your beehives not only are producing delicious backyard, honey, they’re also, you know, NASA data points helping with, you know, studying the native pollinator species around your area. And, you know, spring is here. We are still installing beehives and areas around the country. So if you are interested, you know, especially in Quincy, we have beehives and, and are doing that all this month. You can get in touch with us at dot com, book an assessment, or give us a call at (617) 445-2322. We are local we’re Boston area based. And, now we would love to have, you know, some more beehives this season, you know, in your, in your backyard or on your rooftop.

Speaker 2: And I have to say, I mean, I’ve had, I don’t even know how long I’ve been a client of yours now, but it’s been at least seven years, I think. And it’s, it’s one of those things that it’s been a lot of fun. And what Sam says is true. If you’re, if you’re looking to do something, to help the environment and also have some fun, but not have to really do a lot yourself, you just kind of give them a spot in your yard and they do it all. And another question I get all the time is how much honey do you get And I said, well, it depends, depends on the weather, depends on a whole bunch of factors. One year I didn’t get any, but you folks provide some anyway, because sometimes that happens, colony can be just a little slow and not really kind of get, established and, and you need to make sure that they have enough food to make it through the winter. Cause that’s the goal. I think you have a program where you’re guaranteed at least a minimum amount of honey. Yeah.

Speaker 4: Yeah. We, you know, we’ve got, we’ve got other hives too, that we maintain in our reserve AP areas. So we provide, you know, every client with five pounds or more of local honey at the end of the year, if they’re calling these don’t produce, you know, it does happen when establishing a new colony because we want to make sure that they have enough resources to get through winter, especially here in new England. but, it’s those subsequent seasons when they make it through winter and then go into spring healthy and a strong population, they really can capitalize on that early nectar flow and produce, you know, quite a bit of honey as you know, I mean,

Speaker 2: Somebody said, how much honey did you get Well, I said, one year I got like 49 pounds on him. And

Speaker 5: He’s like, really I said, yup. Yup.

Speaker 2: So, you know, if you’re looking to do something and it really helps. Oh, and my neighbors love it by the way, Sam, because, well, they love it because not just for the honey, but they have apple trees and pear trees and peach trees and berries and nuts and all around the neighborhood. There’s people with pear trees and apple trees and the guy, I was just talking to my neighbor. He said, my apple tree is absolutely loaded this year. And, and, and so he’s all excited. And so, I mean, it, it, it has effects just beyond your yard. It does good things for the neighborhood. And, if you’re looking for a hands-off thing to do, give Sam a call. What’s the phone number again saying,

Speaker 4: Yeah, it’s the phone number for best bees is 6 1 7 4 4 5 2 3 2 2. And you can also check us [email protected] Sam. I want to thank you for

Speaker 2: Your time today. You’ve been very generous with your time and, thank you so much for sharing some information. Is there anything else that you want to share with our listeners that you make sure gets out before we end the show Yeah,

Speaker 4: I, I would say, you know, make sure that you’re doing something this pollinator week for the bees, you know, sprinkle some wildflower seeds at least, and, you know, get in touch with best bees, even if it’s just to, you know, keep up with the pollinator research that we’re doing. John, thanks so much for having me and giving me the opportunity to talk about bees on your podcast. I talk about bees all day long as you can imagine, but it’s always great to, to share with a larger audience. And I’d love to give a shout out to, you know, all of the, best bees Quincy clients, who I hope are listening. Thank you guys so much for the support and, John, thank you. Welcome

Speaker 2: Sam. Thank you. And, and good luck with what are all the stuff you have going on for pollinator week

Speaker 4: Yeah. Thank you. It’s a, it’s a busy time of the year Springs. A great time to be beekeeping, but we are busy. So thank you, John. Yeah. And good luck with everything else this spring you’ve got. Yeah. Thank you. Maybe they bothered AB that was really

Speaker 1: Cool. That’s it for this episode next week I think we’re going to have some folks on it from the Quincy historical society, leading up to July 4th independence day, make sure you tune in for that. And if you have an idea for someone who should be a guest on the all about Quincy podcast, go to all about Quincy podcast.com, click on the contact button in the upper right-hand corner and tell us who they are and why you think they should be a guest on the all about Quincy podcast. We want to interview business leaders is storylines, unsung heroes. If you think they should be on this show, we want to hear about it. So go to all about Quincy podcast.com, click on the contact button in the upper right hand corner and send us the email until next week. Thanks for listening. 

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Episode 002: Tim Cahill Campaigns On Behalf of City of Quincy Massachusetts

Tim Cahill

Speaker 1: From the city of presidents, it’s the all about Quincy podcast. This is your host, John Melley. Join me as we explore the history, hidden gems and highlight the businesses with great stories that I’ll tell the tale why Quincy, Massachusetts is a great place to live. Hey, there is John, how are you I know you have a lot of things competing for your attention. So thanks for spending some time with me today. I really do appreciate it. Welcome to episode two, where we have a very interesting guest Tim Cahill, who is the well, he’s got an Amazing resume.

He’s currently the president of the Quincy chamber of commerce. And Tim has had an amazing career and a lifetime of public service and one observation that I made, and unfortunately it was after we stopped recording. And I said to him, you know, you’re still campaigning. It’s just that rather than you being the candidate, you’ve replaced yourself with this city of Quincy and you’re campaigning for the city of Queensland. He, he liked that analogy. So let’s just dive into my conversation with Tim and I’ll talk to him a little bit at the end.

Speaker 1: As I said, at the top of the show, my guest today is Tim Cahill. Now most of you folks Listening to the program probably know who Tim is, but in case you don’t, we’re going to go through a little bit of a chronology before we have our conversation. so let’s just start at the beginning. First, Tim was Born.

Speaker 3: You will lose them in the first minute. If you go there,

Speaker 2: let’s just start with his professional chronology here. He was the founder and owner of a place called handshakes cafe from 1982 to 94. You own that for 12 years. And during that time, he also served as a counselor at large on the city of Quincy city council for 15 years. He also served as the Norfolk county treasurer from January of 1997, January of 2003, then he became the Massachusetts state treasurer. Tim served as the treasurer and receiver general of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2011 and the middle of all that he decided he was going to run for governor, which he did in 2009. He has also been a guest host of WBZ radio’s nightside with Dan Ray. He now serves as the president of the Quincy chamber of commerce and the executive director of the Quincy economic development corporation. So I think we can make a couple of assumptions. You probably know a couple of things about the city of Quincy. I know. Yes, yes. And that’s why we’re excited to have you on as a guest of the, all about Quincy podcast. So thank you very much for taking the time to

Speaker 3: Be here and you missed my first job, which I don’t blame you because it wasn’t listed. But my first job out of college was, well at first, very first job was in the Quincy park department or our mayor’s father ran the park department back then. I was under age 14, but I’m tall. So I made the cut. And, my first real job out of college was as a tour director at the Adams national historic site. So very fun history, a little bit. That’s that’s, that’s my, that was the beginning of my, sort of my historical education about Quincy. So, I can go deep if you want, or we can stay on the, on, on the surface. But, that was my first and one of my favorite jobs of all time,

Speaker 2: I can imagine it would be, I, my dad grew up in Milton and so we would come and visit my grandparents and we would come down the expressway and I would see the signs for the Adams national historic site for years. And it wasn’t until I married my wife and moved to Quincy and, started to poke around the neighborhoods and all of that, that I was like, wait a minute, we have the writer of the Massachusetts state constitution and a writer of the United States, constitution, presidents. And first ladies right

Speaker 3: Here inside of the declaration of independence. I mean, you, I mean, we could go on and that would take up the whole show, but, and I’m happy to do it by that. It is, it’s an amazing city. It’s amazing modern city, but it’s also amazing historical city.

Speaker 2: Yeah, it, it is. My first guest was Annie Dow and she is a lifelong resident of Quincy. my wife is a fourth generation Quincy resident. And one of the things that I said to Annie was that, one thing that I know about people who are from Quincy, they’re passionate about the city of Quincy and very proud of being from Quincy. And we were talking about all the things that Quincy has like with the new restaurants and the history and the different neighborhoods. I’ll walk around with my dogs and I’ll meet people and they’ll say, oh yeah, my parents have lived here and my grandparents have lived here. They’ve been around a hundred years, but then we have a large population of new folks to the city and a revitalization that’s going on in the city. So there’s a lot of stuff. We have an ocean on one side and the blue Hills on the other side and quarries and highway that runs through

Speaker 3: The middle of it really has everything. I was just selling our city to some out some folks who were looking to do some business in the year. And the conversation was exactly what you just said. We got the water a mile from where I am in Quincy center. We got the blue Hills about a mile from rain in west side, of Quincy center, beautiful historic district and a great urban, but not to, or even talent field, you know, I mean city, but you still feel like you’re in the suburbs. You got a patch of land. Most of us have driveways. They all work and stop. So I’ll start or something. I don’t think there’s a better place in America, in the United States of America. And I don’t think there’s a better country than the United States. So in my mind, Netflix, Quincy, top of the list in the entire world,

Speaker 2: Well, there you go. You’re an advocate for the city, aside from all the wonderful things that you just mentioned, what is it about Quincy that really, in your opinion, you have a lot more experience in the city than I do, but what do you think it is that drives that hometown pride spirit that people in Quincy have

Speaker 3: Geez, that one’s, it’s tough to put into a sentence, cause it’s a feel and it’s a hard one to articulate, but I think there’s a sense of genuineness and Quincy that you don’t find everywhere else, even for newcomers, for, for people who’ve been here forever. I mean, it does say take some time, like you said, a fourth generation, Quincy resident is still a newcomer to some folks here, but at the same time, you know, we’ve got first-generation immigrants, especially Asian, Chinese, Chinese, right. It means. And I feel honestly that they’re as welcome and they feel as welcome to this community as my grandparents, Irish immigrants, that my wife’s Italian immigrant grandparents felt maybe even more so, cause I think we’re a little bit more, I for legal, more open to new customers now than we were back then, but they all settled here and it might take a generation to become sort of part of Quincy, but I’ll tell you someone who’s seen tremendous highs and also some pretty deep lows in his life.

Speaker 3: People in Quincy will stick with it, no matter what they don’t care about your pedigree, they don’t care about your title. if you’re a good person, they’ll stay standby here, no matter what kind of issues you get into. And and that’s what makes it special. And it’s different than some of the other communities on the south and north shore and, and elsewhere, again, it’s hard to put in a sentence, but I think there’s a genuineness year in a, in a willingness to reach out that you don’t just find everywhere. Especially in the city of a hundred thousand people, it’s like a small town, you know, very D kind of small town, but yet it’s a city of over a hundred thousand people, each generational multiethnic, and yet people still want to come here and once they come here and they want to stay,

Speaker 2: Right, what do you think And I know you have to be because of your position, but what’s, what are some of the favorite things that you like about Quincy, aside from what you just talked about I mean, for example, Annie, our guest last time. So you said she loved the parks department because of the summer summer camp program that they had when she was growing up. And so those are some of the things that she likes. What do you have as memories from your childhood that you remember about Quincy that made it special for you

Speaker 3: Well, I agree with Annie, I lived at Kinkaid park in, Southwest Quincy, growing up, playing whatever sport was in season. And you had a great youth program back then played football for the Elks for Dean football. And then interesting. When, when I had one of my statewide campaigns as an, with four young daughters, we couldn’t go on vacation one summer because I was too busy campaigning. So my wife, we stayed home. You know, we stayed in the city and they took advantage of the recreational opportunities. So they learned to sail at Black’s Creek. Oh, cool. Thanks. Sports. And sailing is something that we never would’ve been exposed to. So there was so much to do I, my favorite past time in the city of Quincy, outside of coming to work and trying to help in ways that I can here at the chambers is walking.

Speaker 3: my dad was, a big Walker. He was known as a Walker. He would put in 10, 50 miles a day and I had a driver’s license. I was walked to work. And even when he retired, he just kept walking. So not to sound silly, but I’m following in his footsteps in some way. just sort of finding paths. And I think the pandemic really opened my eyes because there wasn’t much to do. You couldn’t go to the gym. Work was not, everything was closed. It was, to me, it was a really interesting time to be able to enjoy the city without the traffic, without the congestion, without things that were bothering us prior. I mean, I’d be, I walked literally in the middle of the street, there was not a car coming in, either direction for the whole walk and finding some parts and some trails outside of the blue Hills, just through the neighborhoods.

Speaker 3: Lindsey is my favorite pastime outside of spending time with my family or being at work in that. And it’s interesting what you find walking, what you discover walking, if you don’t discover a dragon. Oh, sure. Yeah. Little houses, little businesses, parks that, and then just open space. There’s plenty of it in Quincy. I mean, tons of it and the city’s done a great job in this modern era of really maintaining those products, adding to them, making, creating new parks and new walking paths and stuff. And we’re working on an, on a, really exciting, program with the city called the presidents trail, which comes from my interest in history, my interest in walking and the fact that we’ve got all this history, that’s just got a city here. I know chamber and the city have gotten together and we’re putting together what’s called the president’s trail that will connect.

Speaker 3: It’s a walking trail and urban walking trail that will connect all of these significant historic sites in Quincy with really beautiful historic signage, a map, an app that you can follow along with self-directed self, you know, self guided. And, you are literally walking in the footsteps of John Adams, John Quincy, Adams, Abigail, John Hancock, cause all the signs was signified. What was going on at this site at the time, usually in, mostly in their words in quotes that came from John Adams diary or Abigail’s diary, as you said at the outset, there is no other place in America that is the birthplace and the resting place of two presidents, two signers of the declaration of independence. I mean it’s unique and that history, and I think this is another thing that makes Queens unique is history is still important, but it doesn’t overshadow the progress in the future. You know, we’re kind of going in two different directions in this presence trail is a way to capture that history and allow people to walk through new Quincy while experiencing full Quincy. And we’re really excited about that. Hopefully we’ll be kicking it off sometime.

Speaker 2: That’s very cool. That’s very cool. I’ve often, I’ve often wondered this may sound kind of geeky, but I’ll say it anyway. I’ve often wondered if John Adams or John Quincy Adams and Abigail Adams, if they all came back now, what would they think

Speaker 3: You know, approximately might be horrified because their farm is much smaller than it was when they, when they left. I, I, you know, I, you know, it’s funny. It is G and I, but I can identify, cause I think about a lot, you know, what would it be What would it be like if you came back 200 years from now, what would you see What would you recognize and what wouldn’t, you obviously there’s so much that it’s changed, but that church where they used to worship that is still there. Yeah. The graveyard where his father was buried and his ancestors are buried is still there and the birthplaces and the birthplace.

Speaker 3: And so I think he’d be honored because to know John Adams know that he lived in a turbulent times and when he died, I don’t think he realized, I don’t think he ever thought he would be remembered, certainly not a month. The grapes like Jefferson and Washington soft spot in his, in his personality that he’d been overlooked. And we have David McCullough mostly for that resurrection of John’s reputation because he did a marvelous job of uncovering and then promoting how important John Adams was an Abigail. Both of them were to the founding of this country. Oh, definitely. Yeah. That inspires me. And it’s really brought a lot of, I think it brings a lot of pride to those of us who live here to know that again, we walk in their footsteps.

Speaker 2: Yeah. What excites you the most about the future of Quincy You have a kind of a bird’s-eye view of greater sense of the opportunities that are coming to Quincy, stuff that you can talk about. What, what excites you the most about the future of Queens Well,

Speaker 3: I liked the development that’s taking place, and I know that isn’t universally loved by everyone in Quincy, because change is hard, but change is important in a city, in anything, in a person in the city and the entity and a business. If you don’t change that, if you don’t keep growing, you shrink. And so I’m very excited with the way we’ve been able in the city. The mayor has been able to incorporate the new with the old, and I like the fact that there is also open space being added, even though the buildings are getting bigger than they were in the past is always based around those buildings. They don’t feel quite as big and it’s not a clunk, it’s not a concrete jungle. And as they look out the window of my office, it never will be there’s trees everywhere and green space.

Speaker 3: And I think that’s, that’s why I think Quincy has boys too, to accelerate and grow even more so in the 21st century, because we’re not stuck in the past, we honor our past, but we’re not stuck in it. And I think that’s, you know, I, I work in a beautiful art deco building. It was built in 1929 Quincy’s first skyscraper, granite Trussville. Yep. And I can imagine back when the opera was king was building it, how on what used to be a church ground How waterfight people probably were that this huge building with an elevator was going in and now it’s an historic building or building other buildings sometimes bigger. So, you know, that’s, again, that’s why Quincy is different and why it’s cool and why I think it will always be a great place because there’s always a turnover in, in sort of the, the population, as I told you, as you know, the quarries and stone covers brought the Irish, the Swedes, the Italians, all, all looking to make it in America.

Speaker 3: And then, yeah. Then what was the last two, you know, 20 or 30 years the Chinese, the Vietnamese, the Koreans have come Indian American Indians from the country have come and, kind of invigorated. They are the new shopkeepers. They are the new restaurant owners. They had a new dry cleaners. They had the new sort of American dreamers. I think that really, that’s the other thing about Quincy, it’s an economic city in addition to being a historic city, where the birthplace of Dunkin donuts, the birthplace of Howard, Johnson’s the birthplace of the Grossman companies, all businesses that were instrumental in the 20th century country to where it is today. And to me, that’s exciting. I mean, we’ve got a company in Quincy right down the street from me in Quincy center called IntelyCare – a health company. That’s created an app, that allows nurses and people in healthcare to sort of create their own jobs and go where the jobs are.

Speaker 3: And then now the fastest growing private company, one of the fastest growing private companies in the entire state and one of the top fastest growing companies in the country. And again started here probably in the last five or six years. And it’s sort of a, you under the radar Quincy company that could become the next Uber. Wow. Because that’s what they’ve created. An app based technology that allows people who are qualified to be nurses, get picked the jobs that they want to pick when they want to work and stuff. It really is. It’s a great healthcare tool, but it’s also a great freedom tool for people who have the skillset and want to, you know, work nights, work, weekends, work around their families and stuff. And that’s just one, I there’s another company called dive technologies that is building the next generation of underwater, autonomous underwater vehicles submarines. Wow. They building them on Willard street using a 3d printer.

Speaker 2: Sure. No kidding. That’s fascinating.

Speaker 3: And, and, and those, those are two companies we’re associated with that I know of. And I guarantee there’s a, there’s a dozen or more that I don’t even know yet, but they will. And they were born with a small group, you know, a couple of guys, a couple of friends who decided, Hey, this is what we’re going to do. And they’ve done it here in Quincy. So that’s, that’s the thing that gives me a lot of hope going forward. And as you said earlier, I was an entrepreneur at the beginning of my career. And I get to work with entrepreneurs now at the end of my career. So I’m blessed in that sense. And those are the people. Again, they, they motivate me, they motivate me and they inspire me because they’re doing what I did when I was in my twenties, hopefully doing it better and more successfully than I did. So, so it’s a great place for people to either live, work or play. And, you can do it all here in Queensland. and we, we love the creators and, this is a great place to, to do that.

Speaker 2: That’s great. Yeah. You mentioned Howard Johnson. I was just telling a friend of mine that my grandfather knew Howard Johnson. It’s, it’s fun to hear all those names and you don’t realize that these are started local, but became national chains. I mean, Dunkin

Speaker 3: Donuts, the flow of the world, and they started the Southern artery. And that first story is still there and rock the donuts and pouring the coffee.

Speaker 2: The funny story about that real quick household hazardous waste collection day, the city holds it twice a year. My wife and I pulled up and got in line with some paint or something like that. And we’re sitting there and it was the summer date and we had the windows open and we’re parked in front, across the street from the Dunkin donuts. And the pan mass challenge was going by and there every other group of bicyclists they’re going, Hey, that’s the original Dunkin donuts. No, Hey, that’s the original Dunkin donuts for 20 minutes. And just basically everybody riding by going, Hey, that’s the original Dunkin donuts. I said, I should call up the sales rep at the radio station and say, I’m going to set up a camera on a tripod and just record this and they can use it for a commercial.

Speaker 3: Well, interesting fact is that we, we started a hall of fame business hall of fame a couple of years ago here at the chamber, right before the pandemic in 2019 and Duncan, we inducted Duncan as the first member of that hall of fame. Sure. We want to honor the businesses that have come before us and, and really stepped up this year. We’re going to be honoring a company. Queensland company called granite city electric started was started by an Italian immigrant in 1923. And they, one of the biggest electrical distributors in the, in England right now. So like I said, we, we, we honor the, the founders and the people who got it started and we were excited to follow and maybe create the next generation or at least be part of the next generation. So somebody can drive down the street someday and say, that’s where in Telecare was started. That was the first one, or that was, you know, the first something else. But, you know, like I said, there’s, there very few dull moments in Quincy that’s for sure, because you can always drive down some street and someone will point something out that you had no idea it was there. And when you think about it, you said, Jesus, it’s pretty special place.

Speaker 2: Well, I want to thank you for taking time out of your schedule, to be on the show and share your insights and your knowledge. Is there anything that you’d like to share with the audience before we sign off

Speaker 3: Well, I mean, there’s, you know, as you said at the beginning, I’m the president of the Quincy chamber of commerce and, w I think we play a valuable role in promoting Quincy, as you can tell, I’m a promoter, I guess, at heart, and, and it’s easy to sell something when you really love it strongly about it. So, we, we just think that there, there is not a better place to do business if you’re lucky enough to find a place to live and raise your children as my wife and I did here in Quincy, like I said, it’s just, we feel blessed. We feel blessed to be here. and I think it was David McCullough that might’ve said it or someone else. I read it. You know, you, you, you need to appreciate not just where you were born, but where you are in life and in the world and stuff. I mean, we could have been born in a country, a third world country that where we struggled and we didn’t have, we, we, we often shouldn’t take for granted what we have complete Erica being born at this period of time. And we know there’s a lot of challenges out there and struggles, but overall there’s no better place in the world. And no other time, I think as much as I sometimes reminisce or romanticize, what would it be like growing up in the revolutionary war period I don’t think I could have hacked it back then.

Speaker 3: Tougher w when I read history, I said, geez, that’s, you know, I like having, you know, cooking in an oven as opposed to an open flame, you know, into a, into a plumbing and things that we take for granted that the rest of the world doesn’t have. Right. And so, you know, and I think we have a duty. I certainly feel that way too, to make sure that you send that message out there, whether it was in politics in business, or now in the chamber, I just want to, I’m not selling anything. I just want to really promote what the good things that, that take place in, in Quincy and in this world, because we should be appreciative more so than we are so greatest country in the world. I felt that way for a long time. I still feel that way. And we just happen to be in the best city of the greatest country in the world. So w w w lucky, and I want to spread that message as much as you do

Speaker 2: Well, that’s good. I completely agree with everything you just said. And, I want to help you spread that message. So thank you for being here and that with us and your insights and for sharing your time with us today.

Speaker 3: Thank you very much. And, and how do we catch this, podcast And we subscribe to it. What’s the best way to

Speaker 2: I listen to it. it’s on apple podcast, it’s on Amazon, it’s on Stitcher. And if that doesn’t work for you, you can go to all about Quincy podcast.com and you can stream it there. Thanks,

Speaker 3: Tim. Great. Thank you very much. Appreciate it, John, have a great show going forward and, I’ll be back anytime you want.

Speaker 1: Wasn’t that a cool interview I thought so, man, he’s just got so Much knowledge and passion for the city of Queensland. It was great to have him on as a guest. I want to let you know that next week is pollinator week and whether you know it or not, I have honeybee hives. So my guest for next week’s episode is a beekeeper from the company that takes care of my hives. It’s a fascinating interview, and I encourage you to listen to the next episode coincide with the events of pollinator week. And if you’ll indulge me for a moment, I have a little bit of a rant to go on. as a dog owner walking around, I know it’s not the most pleasant task, but if your canine companion does, Cukor pick it up. Plastic baggies, there are barrels in the parks, toss it out. It’s not healthy.

Speaker 1: And quite frankly, it’s disgusting. If you just leave your, your, your pooches poop is Laying in the park or on the sidewalk. I mean, if it’s your dog, it’s your responsibility to pick up after them. And most folks are great about that, but I walk around and I see enough of it to go, listen, we’re all trying to live here together. Just pick it up and toss it in the barrel, please, for all of our sakes. Anyway. End of rant. Thanks for listening tune in next week for my episode, with the beekeepers pollinator week and the all about Quincy podcast. If you know someone who would be a great guest for the alibi Quincy podcast, we want to know about it. Business leaders, historians, unsung heroes, just go to the [email protected]. Fill out the contact form, tell us who you think would be a great guest and why, and we will try to make that happen. So until next week, thanks for listening.

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Welcome to the All About Quincy Podcast!

Episode 001: Quincy’s Annie Dow Helps Us Kick Off the Podcast!

Quincy’s Own Annie Dow from Mix 104.1’s Karson & Kennedy Morning Show

Annie Dow, a proud Quincy native is a member of the Karson & Kennedy Show on Mix 104.1. She spends her mornings giving the people of Boston the traffic reports, sharing stories about her life, and talking about the latest celeb gossip. She started her radio journey down in St. Augustine, Florida at Flagler College, and has been in love with radio ever since. Annie is a born and bred Quincy girl. You can find her at the local Quincy dive bars, or running Wolly Beach.

In This Episode Annie Shares

  • Her Favorite Thing About Quincy
  • What Makes Quincy So Special
  • How She wound up doing Mornings on Mix through Another Quincy Connection
  • Her favorite Hangouts
  • The Green Pylons on Quarry Street
  • And Much More!

Speaker 1: From the city of presidents, it’s the all about Quincy podcast. This is your host, John Melley. Join me as we explore the history, hidden gems and highlight the businesses with great stories that all tell the tale why Quincy, Massachusetts is a great place to live. Hey, there it’s John, how are you? Thanks for spending some time with me today. I do appreciate it. This is the first episode of the all about Quincy podcast. So let me tell you a little about why

Speaker 2: I decided to do this podcast. I have been in Boston radio for 27 years. If you’ve listened to Boston radio at all, you have more than likely heard me. Voice commercials starting with, Oldies 103.3 way back in the day in the nineties. and then moving to Mix 98.5, which became Mix 104.1 I’ve been on WBZ,AM sports hub magic 106.7BIG 103.3 AMP 103.3, all of those stations for many, many years. And the pandemic hit a little over a year ago and I have been working from home and I have to tell you, the reason I live in Quincy now is I’m married to someone who grew up in Quincy. I also have a couple of dogs, Zoe, the wonder dog and Quinn the Jackabee, a Jack Russell beagle mix and Quinn is short for Quincy Adams.

Speaker 2: I’ll have, you know, there are a lot of fun and you can usually find me up in Faxon park in the mornings with both of the dogs. but at any rate I was walking around the neighborhood with the dogs and all of these stores were closed. All these restaurants and barbershops and nail salons and hair salons, and you name it, everything was shut down. I don’t need to tell you. We all lived it. And I come from a small family business background. I’m very involved in advertising. I said, you know what Quincy is a cool city. I’ve gotten to know it because I’m a big history buff. And we are the birthplace of two former us presidents, John Adams, and John Quincy Adams, and Quincy. Center’s a really cool place. And I thought, you know what I’m going to take my love of history, my business background and my marketing background and my love of podcasting.

Speaker 2: And I’m going to put this altogether for the city of Quincy. So that’s what the all about Quincy podcast is about. It’s about exploring the neat history that we have in this city from obviously the revolutionary war, the granite, the Navy ship yards, the first railroad, all of that stuff is here in Quincy, but we also have such a variety of businesses here. And so I wanted to explore all of that and I want to share this with you. And so I kind of took the easy way out for my very first episode. And my first guest is someone who I work with, but is also a Quincy native. And that is Annie Dow. Annie Dow grew up in Quincy. She loves Quincy. And that’s one of the reasons why I had her on is that the people that I know who are originally from Quincy, they are passionate about Quincy.

Speaker 2: And so let’s, jump on over to my conversation with Annie Dow. And I’ll talk to you a little bit at the very end,

Speaker 2: Annie Dow. You are the first guest ever to the all about Quincy podcast. And I have to say, Annie and I have worked, how long have we worked together Annie Three years, three years. Three years. Yeah. So, and one thing that, you know, created this bond between Annie and, and me instantly was the fact that I live in Quincy. Yeah. And there’s one thing that I’ve learned because my I’m in Quincy now because my wife is a Quincy gal. She’s an OJ she’s O G and she’s like a fourth generation Quincy resident. And I used to work with another woman who grew up in Quincy. And there’s one thing that is common amongst all three of you, women about Quincy is that you’re very proud of being from Quincy. And you’re very proud of Quincy in general.

Speaker 3: Yeah, I don’t, I don’t know what it is. I don’t know why. Cause everybody says this to me. You know, when I started working at mix there’s people from the North shore, the transplants, there’s all these kinds of people. And I think just growing up here, it’s such a community like your wife, fourth-generation you hear that all the time. You’re once you, once you’re Quincy, you’re Quincy for life. You know, my, my parents both went to Quincy public schools. Well, my mom went to Archie’s for high school. We, we forgive her for that. But so, you know, they chose to raise their three children in Quincy, all my dad’s brothers and sisters, they still have that Quincy pride, just, you can feel it and equal. And I think there’s just something to be said for the city. We have everything here, everything

Speaker 2: There’s an awful lot. And if it’s not right within the city limits, it’s within an arm’s length. Right.

Speaker 3: And just like, just speaking from experience, because I think a lot of people, when they look for where they want to settle down, you look for what’s in the community. You look for the schools, you look for the restaurants, you look for the park department, all of kinds of things. And I can’t say enough about the city of Quincy. I don’t think I would be who I am if I didn’t grow up here.

Speaker 2: Yeah. No, that makes sense. That makes sense. What are some of your favorite things about Quincy

Speaker 3: So my absolute favorite thing is the Quincy rec department. and I don’t know if a lot of people know this, but Quincy actually has an amazing rec department where every single park around the city, when you’re a kid in the summer, they basically have a free summer camp. So they set up a couple of different leaders at each park, depending on how many kids there are. So when I was growing up in Squantum, there was three rec leaders down the park and you go and you, your parents sign you up. And there’s 50 kids down the park, you’re playing four square or you’re playing Dodge ball, there’s arts and crafts. They do field trips, all of these amazing things. And it’s free there’s options in the rec department where you can do like a basketball camp or other sports or stuff like that. But I think just having that at all of these parks around the city, to give these kids an opportunity to you, make friends for life, you can start when you’re eight years old and you can do that. And for parents to not have to break the bank on summer camps, it’s right in their backyard.

Speaker 2: Yeah. That’s, that’s nice. I didn’t, I wasn’t aware of that, but also just seeing kids outside, playing rather than watching videos, playing video games and being inside, surfing the web and all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 3: I was just driving home today. And, the middle school central had a half day and there was like kids walking home, like pushing each other. And I was like, nature is healing. This is what we do.

Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. You know, I mean, that was one of the saddest things with the COVID pandemic was last spring. They had just put in a new playground near my house and they had to tape it all off and they couldn’t let the kids play. And then they put trash bags over the basketball hoops. I couldn’t, I mean, there was zip time and nuts. Yeah. And I was thinking, Oh, you can’t even do that. I mean, it’s no wonder that people were going crazy and things got as nuts as they did because there was literally no outlet. There was no, I mean, unless you could, I go up to facts and a lot with the dogs. And that was nice to me, thank God for that. But, you go out and walk and stuff like that, but that was the saddest thing to see that all taped off and the kids would come along and want to get on the swings, but they were tied up and they couldn’t do that.

Speaker 2: And then they finally let people into the park and they had parked monitors and these young women who work for the park department and they beat a path around the park is one of them just walked and did lapse to keep herself occupied through the thing. I think there’s still like a, you know, how like a path, whereas in it it’s say it was a divot that goes the length of the bark, but to see that open up and all that, that was, that was really nice. The rec department. So that’s cool. I wouldn’t have expected you to say that, you know what I thought you were going to say restaurants. So you and I always talk about restaurants when we were at the station together, by the way, I don’t know if we said this up front, but Andy and I worked together at mix one Oh four one and Annie is you’re on the morning show and you do the traffic with Carson, right

Speaker 3: I do. And, yeah, it, you know, working at the radio station has been such a blast. Unfortunately, I don’t get to see Melly in person yet. It’s almost better because I would go down to Molly’s office and we’d talk about something. And I would look at my watch and it would be an hour later. So

Speaker 2: We jokingly said, we’d, we’d spend like an hour working on like two, 10, second scripts, but we were just tossing around and we would riff on a theme

Speaker 3: So the park department, I think was just so important to me as a kid. Cause that’s how I grew up. But being an adult in Quincy, and now I’m living kind of more near Quincy center where I can walk through all of these things, the restaurants in Quincy, you have something for everyone, you have Italian, you have good bars, you have such good Asian food. Like there’s just some, whatever you’re in the mood for. They have it.

Speaker 2: Yeah. They do. The thing is a reason I bring it up is the, Annie was always busting my chops about how come you haven’t been to such a place. How come you haven’t been there How can you I’m like, I don’t know. I think part of it is that I would spend so much time in traffic going to work and then coming home that by the time I got finished at home, the idea of like, you know, and I have dogs, I gotta walk and all that kind of stuff. And by the time I get done with that,

Speaker 3: And you’re really good about you make your own food, you’re very aware of, you know, your gut health. You’re very aware of what you put into your body, which I love talking to you about that kind of stuff too. But unlike Nelly, if you live in Quincy. Yeah.

Speaker 2: Oh, of course. Yeah. I mean, you know, and we have, we really didn’t obviously with the pandemic going on. Cause we couldn’t. But now that that’s things are starting to open up or they have open governors. Got it. So as it can be at full capacity now, right.

Speaker 3: August 1st, everything will open up, but no restaurants. Yes. Restaurants. Yeah. Yep.

Speaker 2: At any rate. so restaurants, rec department, we’ve got two RS, anything in the B category for Quincy or better yet Q I’m kidding. I’m kidding. With a queue.

Speaker 3: You know what I will say though, please Quincy wants to know when I was a kid Quincy center, wasn’t the best spot. it was a little rough around the edges and seeing what the city has done, you know, rebuilding the center with the fountain right around city hall. It’s beautiful down the walk. It’s so nice. They keep, they keep it so clean. And they’re putting all new restaurants in there as well, which has kind of been wild for me. So there used to be this really divey bar that we used to go to called clash of the Ash and they shut down and we were all devastated when they closed. We were like, nothing will ever be the same. And so they just made it into this new bar called Idle Hour. And I was kind of being like, we can’t go in there. It’s not the same. I don’t know. I don’t know how I’m going to feel about it. I’ll tell you. I went in there. It was awesome. The service was awesome. It was beautiful. It was, it’s so weird to see a place that you knew as one thing completely transformed into another, but it was awesome. And it’s so cool to see the city kind of revamping to in a way.

Speaker 2: Yeah. So shout out to the idle hour. It must be 21 or older just to keep it legal.

Speaker 3: Hey, I’m like mostly buys mostly bars that I go to.

Speaker 2: No, that’s fun. That’s fun. the heck was I going to say what Quincy center Quincy center. Oh, I know what I wanted to ask you. And this is on topic on some of the Facebook groups on Quincy. Have you seen quarry street with the green pylons up and down quarries

Speaker 3: Oh yes. We’re the new bike lanes are. Yes. What do you think

Speaker 2: I don’t like them.

Speaker 3: I don’t really understand. So I get the bike lanes and for bike safety, but I just don’t see how that’s necessary

Speaker 2: All the way up. It’s only on the way, you know, it’s only on wonder one side of the Hill. It’s weird. And I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bike on quarry street. No. and I, I know they want to protect it. My biggest question is two things. I think they’re probably removable so that when the snow comes, the plows aren’t slaloming through the violence. But the other question is what happens if like an ambulance or a firetruck or a police vehicle needs to get by You can’t pull over to the right. Not safely. I just, I think that could be a problem. I don’t know.

Speaker 3: I don’t understand it either because the bike lanes that they put in are big. I mean, I run that route all the time and I try not to step in. I mean, obviously if I’m going to, I look and see if there’s a bike coming, but I try not to step into that bike lane, but it’s huge. Yeah. A bike, a cyclist would have more than enough room and like that road’s pretty wide anyways. A car’s not,

Speaker 2: I’m just waiting for the time and I’m going to plant this and then somebody is going to say, you should never have said this, but I’m just waiting for some kid on us, a skateboard to start going in and out of them for the challenge, they probably already have, you know, whatever. I don’t know. There seems to be a lot of discussion about the green pylons on quarry street. So I just thought I’d

Speaker 3: Some of those Facebook groups, people just have too much time. Wow.

Speaker 2: I think Facebook is and social media. I call it anti-social media. It’s way too easy to, for people to get nasty, really fast

Speaker 3: Melley. Do you know that there’s a skate park in Quincy over by a Goodwill Yeah. By a Quincy point. So if you’re going towards like frozen Freddy’s or Rag’s or any of those places, awesome skate park. There’s kids there all the time. I always wish I was a skateboarder. Every time I walked by, I’m like, I wish I was them.

Speaker 2: Now I’m going to reveal my ignorance. Quincy point. Is that’s over by, Southern Artery

Speaker 3: Yeah. So if you’re going towards the Fore River bridge,

Speaker 2: Yeah. I drive by that because I go to the Pet Supplies Plus little plug for pet supplies, plus I’m there all the time with the, for stuff for the dogs and true. and Goodwill almost said true value. What is a true value True value hardware store. They’re not so big around here, ACE. Curry ACE hardware. There’s a shout out for Curry ACE hardware all free, but this is all about Quincy. So, anyway, what else, what else do you love about Quincy

Speaker 3: I really love and for like, I’m just keep going back to my experience. But when I went, I went to school in Florida. And when I came back, you go through this really weird period where you’re come home from college where you kind of feel like an alien and you don’t exactly know where you fit in or what you’re going to do with your life. It’s just this weird transition period. And everything kind of feels upside down. The only reason that I felt somewhat okay is because I was in Quincy and because I still have so many of my friends here, I still have so much of my family here. There’s still, you can still, so growing up in Squantum there’s this little Italian deli and I can still walk in and Carmen who owns it, he greets me. Like I never left. It’s those little things, those little interactions with people around Quincy that I think make the city what it is.

Speaker 2: Yeah. It’s, it’s, it’s kind of like a small town, but it’s still a city. Yeah. I mean, it was about a hundred thousand people

Speaker 3: And you don’t realize it until you’re here, but to get from one side of Quincy till the other can take you 20, 25 minutes sometimes.

Speaker 2: Yeah. And you know, and then we got the blue Hills and the ocean, you know, on either side of it. So it does have quite a bit, people want to know how did the whole morning show adventure for Annie Dow happen

Speaker 3: Okay. Actually, this is because of someone from Quincy. Cool. All roads lead to Quincy. There you go. So I went to North Quincy high school, proud Raider. I was the captain of the girl’s basketball team, my senior year. And I got asked to go on the public access television show, which is QA TV. And it was just like a round table discussion, whatever nice conversation move on with my day. I’m at lunch probably a week later. And this guy comes up to me. He says, I saw you on QI, QA TV. You’re really great in front of a camera. You’re really great at controlling your conversation. Have you ever been interested in anything in the industry, specifically radio And I was like, actually I am, I think I’m going to do radio in college. And he was like, great. Keep in touch, Rick Radzik from 95. I go down.

Speaker 2: Well, another proud Quincy man. Yes.

Speaker 3: I, I go down to school in Florida. I do my school’s radio station fell in love with it. And when I got back, I was sending him some of my tapes and cause I originally really wants to do sports radio, big Boston sports girl, whatever. And so I was sending him my tapes and he actually took me for a tour around the station when I came back from school and he was like, let me introduce you to someone. And he introduced me to Mike Mullaney, who is the music director for Mix 104.1. And he was like, someone about you. I like you. And so they hired me. I was doing overnights. So I was doing the street team. I was doing kind of whatever job they needed me to do at the station. I was,

Speaker 2: I remember seeing you around the station. I think I remember seeing you at a Mix-Fest once backstage.

Speaker 3: I was everywhere. And so I continued to do that. I did a couple events with Karson and Kennedy and got to talking with them. And one of the girls that was on the morning show, she got a job in Baltimore and they were looking to fill a position and they were like, would you like to try out Karson was like, this girl’s crazy. I’ve worked events with her. She needs to try out. So I auditioned for the role. I spent two weeks with them, I think auditioning and I just never left.

Speaker 2: That’s great. That’s great. You definitely, have a knack for it. And I think one of the first events you did shortly after you went full or got the full-time gig, was that what the Steve Perry and the Erin O’Malley interview

Speaker 3: Event was amazing. That was very helpful to me. That was one of my favorite moments.

Speaker 2: We’re talking about Steve Perry from the band Journey,

Speaker 3: Erin, who was recovering from breast cancer. and we just had this amazing event and Steve ended up donating a crap ton of money, like $50,000 or something. And he was the most gracious kind man. He was, it looked like him and Aaron were old pals up there. And obviously, I mean, I didn’t grow up with Johnny. I didn’t have as big of a connection, but watching Kennedy was bawling her eyes out when she saw him watching, it was, it was a really, really magical event.

Speaker 2: It was, I mean, they were, you know, so, you know, older, you know, that I’m in my fifties and their big breakout hit album, the escape album with don’t stop believing and who’s crying now and keep on running and all these big, songs that came off, that album that came out in 1981. And where was I in 1981? I think I was in high school, freshmen in high school in 1981. So that, you know, your high school year has really formed a lot of your music interests and they were huge in the eighties. And, to be able to meet a musician that you enjoyed listening to for so many years, I can remember the first time I heard that song. I was in my cousin’s bedroom and he had this killer stereo system with, a turret. My I’ve got my turntable and cassette player and receiver over there on the Y I cannot get rid of them, but is to hear that song for the first time. And you just like, I like this song, this is a cool song. And it’s a simple song, but it’s like the number one download. So for folks, our age to get to meet Steve Perry after he’d been away for so long with such a big deal. So what, how did that all evolve for you I mean, did they just say, Hey, you’re going to do the Q and a or because you were up on the stage for a little bit worried.

Speaker 3: Oh, I be doing fan questions. I thought about that good memory. Yeah. I think because Kennedy was so shaken up because it was Steve Perry, she’s obsessed with journey. I think they were like, Annie, go out there with her. And I was like, okay, sure. Oh, fun. Okay. Yeah. And, but again, like watching people react to Steve in that moment, similar to what you were just saying was so cool for me. Yeah. And I got to have one of those experiences actually during quarantine. you know, the real silver lining was because these artists weren’t touring, they were available for interviews. And I got a chance to interview Miley Cyrus and Miley Cyrus is like my Steve Perry. Like she, I grew up, she was on the Disney channel show, Hannah Montana. And that’s like, what I grew up on. And I just, I remember those albums. I, I was speechless. I saw her speechless, which if you know me, I’m,

Speaker 2: That’s gotta, that’s doing something I know. I know. Well, you’ve been very generous with your time. Is there anything you want to say I mean, do you feel like I’m giving you the bum’s rush right now Get out of my studio,

Speaker 3: Melley. I need you to try at least five new restaurants in Quincy. Oh, that’s okay. We can do that. Okay.

Speaker 2: Yeah. I don’t want this to turn into the Phantom gourmet because they’ve got that Wrapped up.

Speaker 3: Well, yeah, but we could do Melley’s Phantom gourmet. That’s what I really want to hear.

Speaker 2: Melley’s Menu always use a little alliteration. That’s what I say.

Speaker 3: So I am part of the Karson and Kennedy program,

Speaker 2: Funny story about Karson and Kennedy. The first week they were on the air with mics, they had just replaced Lander John Lander in the Lander in the morning and that anyway on ZLX was Carlson and Mackenzie. Yes. And so I did something. It was their first thing. And I didn’t even realize it until the next day when Kennedy said something, but I said Carlson and Kennedy, because I was used to saying Carlson and Mackenzie join Carlson and Kennedy for something. I think Oprah Winfrey was doing her soups because what Kennedy said the next day was like, she said, we were going to say, Hey, could we have some sloop Because I had put an “L” in Karson’s name. She says, well, we didn’t want to do that because we don’t want to upset you. I said, okay.

Speaker 3: Oh, you totally should have done it a little laugh my head off. Sorry. I did. Oh, that’s amazing. That is amazing.

Speaker 2: Carlson and Kennedy …. uhh, wrong station. John.

Speaker 3: Wow.

Speaker 2: Karson and Kennedy Karson with a K anyway. All right. Well, Annie Dow one last thing you want to say about Quincy -Quinky?

Speaker 3: There is no greater city on the earth in Quincy, Massachusetts. We are the birthplace of Dunkin donuts. I might even say where the birth place of the revolution.

Speaker 2: Well, I was going to say we are the birthplace for John Adams and John Quincy Adams, which is like our

Speaker 3: Whole nation

Speaker 2: Is our whole reason for being, Quincy, Quinsy. You can always tell when somebody is not from Massachusetts Quinsy, that’s in Illinois and they copied us.

Speaker 3: He went Z Y that’s how you should say it.

Speaker 2: Q, N Z Y Quincy. All right. Well, Annie, this is the first episode of what I hope to be many episodes. So I will let you know when this is published, share with all your Quincy friends, let’s generate some buzz, some Quincy, and, we’ll have fun. Thanks for doing this. I really appreciate it. I know you’re busy. You’ve got a, an appearance. I’m getting my hair done. Oh, that is my appearance appearances. You’re going to do an appearance for an appearance. So your appearance is apparent or your appearance is appealing. That’s better. Yeah. That’s better. All right. Well, I hope everybody’s been able to put up with this witty banter between the two of us and, and if you’re listening and you want some, you got ideas for guests or, Oh, who should I interview on the show Hmm. That’s a good question. We’ll put them on the spot. Go ahead. And let’s say one of my roommates is on the planning committee for the city. He might be interesting. Who’s you Who’s on the planning committee. My roommate joking. He’s the best joking. Maybe we’ll have him on. All right. You said he knows everything about the city. What we should do that it’s all about Quincy. That’s what, this is all about. Talking to interesting people that make up this little municipality.

Speaker 1: Beautiful Quincy, Massachusetts. Here’s beautiful row. All right, Annie. Thank you, Mel. You are so welcome. Whatever you need. I appreciate it. I’ll talk to you soon. Yeah. I’ll bring you a copy soon. Darn well better. Well, I hope you enjoyed this first episode of the Oliver Quincy podcast. If you, or you know, someone who would be a great guest for the podcast, a great business, a great historian, a great person in the community, the unsung heroes of Quincy. We want to know about it. So how do you get in touch You go to all about Quincy podcast.com. You click on the guest suggestion box, enter your name and email address and who you think should be a guest on the show and why. And we will try to make that happen. So thanks for listening to the alibi Quincy podcast. Please share it with your friends who were originally from Quincy. Like it, give us a review. That’ll help get us up to the top of the list and the podcasts and the search engines and all of that. So thanks for listening. And I’ll talk to you real soon. Take care.

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