"What's one of the weirdest fares you've had?"
"Girls takin' their shirts off. It's happened about four different times."

"I enjoy life. You only get one chance in life. I had colon cancer and I got operated on and they took the cancer out of me. I'm just lucky, you know what I mean?"

Boy: "My mommy and daddy are going to see the Mets World Series. WITHOUT ME!"

Mom: "We're going to the World Series to see the Mets win. It's game four, so it does have the potential to be the winning game. My fingernails are already all bitten down!"

She has taught ninth and tenth grades. This year she teaches third grade.

"What *don't* we need in education?"
"We don't need politicians telling us that we need these standardized tests for these kids when they should be learning things that they're not learning anymore because of these tests. Like writing, arithmetic, problem solving, critical thinking, those kinds of things."

"Filmmaking and movies are my biggest passion. It's what I'm going to school for now. I love how powerful they are: they can allow you an insight into a different world you've never seen before. It's a great way for people to see other aspects of life."
"Is there one film that really inspired you to go into filmmaking?"
"Honestly, Halloween and The Shining were two that stood out when I was a kid. Twelve years old and I was so fascinated by the terror and how pretty it seemed, all those shots, those camera angles. I liked it even back then."

"I love bodyguarding and being around a lot of interesting celebrities, interesting people who have interesting lives that the average people don't have. It's the most profitable job I could get with the degree that I have, that I liked. You know, you always want to work something that you like doing."
"What was your first job bodyguarding?"
"You're gonna laugh, but there's a gentleman by the name of Wiz Khalifa. He's an interesting guy, really cool working for him. My first gig was a one-on-one with him at a nightclub on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, and he had a really good night that night. I'll just say that."

"I think acceptance is the biggest social problem facing us today. Or, fear of not being accepted. Because everybody is so afraid of offending other people that they don't break down barriers and just be open and find people that accept them. Political correctness is a big thing that I have a problem with. I mean, there's respect on one hand, but then political correctness is almost disrespectful in the way that, like, 'I'm afraid to even mention who you are.'"

"I lived in the Dominican Republic for six months, but one time I got left in Haiti on the Dominican Haitian border. I went to visit a farmers' market there and wandered on the Haitian side of the border unknowingly, and found out that you can't *do* that. There's a lot of tension between the Dominican Republic and Haiti! So I ended up on the Haitian side of the border for awhile while they debated whether or not my American passport was real. So that was pretty scary. I made it back fine; they found my passport to be valid, but for awhile they were like, 'I don't believe that you have an American passport,' and I was like, 'But I speak English and I'm American and can we call someone and double-check that...?' That whole process was pretty crazy." 

"I was researching my name, my ancestry, one day. I'm a lifelong skeptic and cynic, right? I don't believe in the supernatural. But I was looking at some old documents from the Civil War and I discovered a list that documented the men that were lost on the Union side in one of the battles in a post-Civil War skirmish that was still happening in the Southern hills. I noticed a name that was exactly my name. My name is Peter David Lambdin and I noticed on the list of men who died that day in battle the name Peter David Lambdin as one of the soldiers. And not only was that a coincidence, but the eerie part was that the skirmish took place on April 19, 1870, which would have been a hundred years to the day of my birth on April 19th, 1970. That's probably the weirdest thing that's ever happened to me."

"I was paralyzed and then I was healed and I was able to walk again. I had a stroke in 2008 that left me partially paralyzed, but my whole body would not function with the other side. So I had intensive therapy and I was able to restore back to walking. It took two-and-a-half months of intensive, five-times-a-day therapy. The worst part was depending on other people to take care of your basic needs."

“I had a brain tumor when I was six. I have a scar from ear to ear. They peeled my whole face down so they could take it out. Unfortunately, I lost the sight in my right eye because of it. I’m doing a lot better these days.”

Mike (right), Arturo (middle), and George are Juke Jazz. I caught them recently at Hugh Moore Park, and they sounded terrific:

"We like to cover as much jazz as possible, like Louis Armstrong to the present, focusing on the American songbook."

You can get in touch with them at torrellavision@gmail.com. 

"I used to be an engineer--I drove trains. I used to run from North Jersey to Harrisburg and occasionally to Hagerstown, Maryland. Railroading is interesting; the work is cool. The sights you see are fantastic. If you're with the right company it's great; if not, it can be misery because you're on call 24/7, and until you have enough seniority to hold a regularly scheduled job, you live by the phone. If the phone rings, it's time to go to work. "
"What made you decide on the railroad?"
"I like trains. I like the scenery, the mechanics of it. And honestly, the pay was fantastic. But it's a single man's job because if you try to have a family while you;re doing that, you live by the phone and you never know when you're going to go to work. It's really difficult to try to do things and spend time with your kids when the phone can ring at any moment and you gotta go."

Connor, 15, is a tech whiz:

"My first memory of using technology is probably the Fischer Price keyboard we had that you would hook up to a computer and you could play all kinds of crazy little games. From there, I got my first computer when I was six, so I spent a lot of time messing with that."
"Do computers and screens take one away from reality?"
"Not necessarily. I try to coexist with other people and still maintain my little happy place.  I try to still be human and tinker with things."

She's moved with her husband to North Carolina, but came back to Easton for a visit. I asked her what she has missed most about living here:

"We love the Crayola Factory. We visit it whenever we come back. We like the parks along the river and there's a little free library at some of the parks. That's awesome. My little girl will sit there and read the books. It's really nice."

Les and JoJo recently relocated from L.A. to Easton. I asked them about the difference between the two after they got off of their tandem bike:

Les: "Wow. Traffic is much better in Easton than it is in Los Angeles. The beaches are better in Los Angeles than they are in Easton. But I'm with my wife and our dog, so we're happy either way."