Java Junkies of the Month - Jane and Less Prior

Julie (pressing record on her voice recorder): Alright, so we are going to record our Java Junkie interview…

Jefferson (in the background): woah, woah… are we getting all high tech with our interviews now?

Julie: Don’t interrupt, this is valuable airtime you’re taking up here. So this is with Jane and Less Prior. How did you guys first find out about Read, Write & Brew?

Jane: Well, we take Taekwondo class across from the store, and I think the first person that really introduced us was Sara Webb. We try to come every Saturday after we work out. That’s our treat (laughs).

Julie: So what’s your favorite drink?

Less: The ‘Black and Tan’.

Jane: Yeah, the ‘Black and Tan’.

Less: So far…

Julie: What are you guys reading right now?

Jane: I did buy a book here when you had the Foothills and Vicinity Writers Group out here, and I’ve started to read that, the one about Kansas (‘What do you do with the yolks? ‘ by Carol Devlin). Since I’ve started homeschooling I’ve been reading a lot with Danny so, you know, my pleasure reading has kinda been put on hold, just because I try to read his lessons before the next lesson. I’m learning a lot from his studies.

Julie: How long have you been homeschooling Danny?

Jane: This is my second year. He’s in fifth grade. He loves to read. If he gets a good book, he’s a really good reader. So I’m really happy about that. That runs in our family.

Julie: So Jane, tell us about your project that you’re working on at the Taekwondo school.

Jane: Well I’m working on my black belt for December’s testing, and this testing is for my recommended black belt. My goal is to help raise money for the families who need assistance in paying for the Taekwondo classes. So to raise this money I’m helping Sara Webb with the Halloween event. We’re going to make it like a carnival and the money that people pay for the games goes towards that.

Julie: Oh, that’s the Trunk ‘n Treat! I remember you guys hosting that last year. What day are you having that this year?

Jane: Saturday October 30^th from 4pm to 6pm. Everyone’s welcome to come and check things out and check the school out. We raise the money by people paying to take part in the activities, and Danny as well as Brett (Sara’s son) have volunteered to have people throw whipped cream at their face for one of the competitions. That’s the game I’m organizing for my project.

Less: There’s going to be food there too.

Jane: Everybody’s going to bring their own ‘pot luck’ for everyone to share. They’ll also have the contest for the trunks, where we all vote for the trunk that everyone likes best.

Less: And everybody gets candy because each trunk you go to, it’s like ‘trick or treat’, but it’s a ‘trunk or treat’, so you visit the ‘trunk’ and you get a ‘treat’.

Jefferson: So do you have junk in your trunk?

Jane: (laughs) In my trunk I’m going to have a donation jar and people are welcome to donate to the families with that. We have about 5 or 6 families that benefit from this fundraising, so we just need to get more money in there.

Julie: We’ll that’s awesome, I’ll have to make sure I promote that on our blog site [editor’s note: DONE!] So another question I usually ask our Java Junkies is, what would our blog readers be surprised to know about you?

Less: I met Mickey Rooney when I worked on the golf course. When I was at Tre Hills Country Club, I was top dressing tee’s and he was playing a round of golf with the gold pro. So he was giving the golf pro lessons. I ended up just top dressing and I went 4 or 5 holes with them. He was a character. And he’s really short like they say. He was just cracking jokes.

Julie: How long ago was that?

Less: Well, that was 30 or 40 years ago.

Jane: I think, what people would find surprising about us is that everyone thinks that Taekwondo is for kids but what we’re doing is something that’s really difficult for adults to do (taking classes). There’s about 10 parents that join in. But we’ve stuck with it and continue to stick with it. When I first brought Danny there I thought it was just for the kids but it’s for adults as well. That’s us getting on the mats and testing in front of people, which was hard because that’s not who I am. I have changed a lot from doing that in terms of confidence and how to talk to people. It’s hard for me to get up and speak in front of other people and I’m a little bit better with that now. I think that’s helped us a lot.

Thanks guys for being our October Java Junkies - we hope you enjoyed your $10 gift certificate!