A Look Back on Our First Year on The Porch - 1 Year of MFP

October 12, 2022 we published the first episode of Mokena's Front Porch. Now we look back at our first year of sharing Mokena's history. Today there are over 4 million podcasts available but we are the ONLY Mokena podcast! The majority of new podcasts post 10 episodes or less but we are proud to have published 28 episodes, talking to numerous local friends, addressed the Village board, recorded live on location at Zap Taco, Little Al's and Laura Thiel's Front Street salon! 

Thanks to everyone who is listening and thanks to those that have shared our show with your friends and neighbors!  We have a lot planned and are looking forward to many more years of sharing Mokena's rich history as well as where we are today. 

Thanks again for listening! 
Israel

Chapters

• 0:00 Mokina History Podcast and Thank You

Transcript

Israel: 0:00

Welcome to Mokena's Front Porch, a Mokena History podcast with Mac Dalek and me, israel Smith. October 12th marked one year since our first episode posted, so I just thought it might be Nice to come and post a little something of a thank you. Thank you, everybody for listening. This has been a lot of fun doing this and we look forward to doing a lot more. I really have enjoyed getting to work with Matt, as well as just getting to talk to the different people I've been able to talk to, and hopefully more of that is able to happen as well. Some of it's schedule, some of it's planning, but I've really enjoyed being able to talk to some of the people you know I think about. Our first episode was Little Al's and talking about that building, and then it was really cool for me to go back a little later with our friend, Tony Margis and talk to Little Al himself, get his story, hear his humor and share that. Al's just a really interesting character and I think he is a character like, He is a Mokena character and he's somebody who you know his memory and his influence will last for years and years, so I'm really happy that he took some time to sit down and talk to me so we could share that with you. Also, looking back, I got to talk to David Krop. Dave, his family and his history goes so far back. Think about, it really came about because of the St John's 100-year anniversary of their building last year and through that, you know, matt recommended trying to get a hold of Dave Krop but his, I believe, grandfather yeah, was the pastor responsible for getting that church built. You know tons of people, the whole town. It was truly a town effort, but his grandfather is the one that pushed that through. He was pastor when it happened and so it's just really cool to be able to tie that and connect to him. You know I got to go to his home, sit down with him, and you know I said it then, but we're going to do that again, hopefully very soon, because he's got so many stories to tell and such an interesting guy. I really enjoyed talking to him and I look forward to doing that again. You know we also got to talk to Jennifer Medima, who is responsible for getting the um, a Govny Yonker farm, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and you know that's another one of those episodes where technology was not quite figured out and you know the sound isn't the greatest, but you know it's interesting here. Jen's story, you know, and Jen is my neighbor and gotten to know her over the years and have really, you know, once I found out she was tied and connected to this, uh, you know, and responsible for the, the Yonker farm being listed. I thought, you know it was a great opportunity to talk to her and include that here. So that's a really another interesting conversation I'm glad we got to have.

Israel: 3:10

And then I think about other episodes. You know we did the one on the Zap Taco building and you know, recorded in Zap Taco with Gino Pichola. I just really enjoyed that, had a good time talking to him and, uh, you know, again, just being in this historic building that we're talking about, uh, that's been, you know, a major center point for Mokena for years, as a dance hall, you know, as a general store, you know, and now is Zap Taco which is by far the liveliest establishment in downtown um, Mokena, except for maybe the VFW and Aurelios, but you know that whole the Mokena Front Street corridor there, um, so again, that was that was great. I really enjoyed, um, talking to Gino there and being able to do that on site we had the episode, the Pillars of Front Street, where we talked about, um, the building on Front Street that was, uh, that's now Laura Teals salon and her home as well. Uh, and I got to go down and sit and talk to her and and met her for the first time. So that's been uh nice to meet her now and know what's going on there as well, as she got to share all the work that she did to bring that home, uh, bring that property to where it is now. You know it's a beautiful property, um, great salon. She's got there. So that's a, you know, one of Mokena's oldest properties. So it was really cool to be able to just see that and know the amount of work that and dedication that she put in to restoring that home to how it is now. So hopefully we can appreciate that and that was another reason to share the story is so we can all, as we drive down Front Street and we see properties like hers. You know that. We know that that is that's Moquina's history and very appreciative that Laura as well as a Gino and that are doing their part to restore and keep some of these old buildings.

Israel: 5:08

And another memory, you know one that I really enjoyed was talking to and getting to meet Dave and Charlene Bergman. Got to host him on my front porch and probably the most laughs I've had recording an episode by far, just a lot of fun. Again, really enjoyed talking to both of them and I look forward to talking to them more. Dave Dave told me that he might have run out of stories but I think he's got a few more saved up for us. But both of those people great people Again, neighbors that have had, you know, since we've been here, really, you know, just block or so away and glad to meet them and get to know them a little better.

Israel: 5:48

So you know, we've published our first episode, as I said, in October 12th and that was one year for us and that was a big accomplishment. You know, it's not easy this is not my background but figuring out the technology, figuring out the best way to do it. You listen to episode one. It's really interesting and Al's little Al's in the history of that place is incredible. But the audio is a little tough. So but I think it's worth it and it's our first episode and still the most listened to episode of all of our episodes. So you know that's something that says something as well, although the conversation with little Al that I did after that is pretty close to again. People just love that. Building, love little Al, and you know I'm again glad we got to talk to him.

Israel: 6:46

So, as I said, october 12th is one year since our first episode and we've published 28 episodes in that time with and I say that because the last one just published before I said this. So it is officially 28 episodes and, you know, fortunately I've been able to continue doing it pretty consistently every two weeks. I did have one week over the summer where we got pushed out, but I think, other than that we've been pretty close to two weeks where I've gotten them out, you know, and Matt and I both have busy schedules, so this is something we're enjoying doing. We enjoy putting together and talking to people. So we've been finding our times where we can get together and talk, but you know, a lot of those are evenings when time opens up.

Israel: 7:33

So again, matt has a passion for history. He's been spending hours and days and days, you know, researching Mokena and our history, reading through those papers, the last episodes about the Mokena News Bulletin and the Summler family. You know Matt spent countless hours reading through. You know all those papers and you know they're not on computer, it's a microfission. He's literally going through. You know, page by page, 50 years of newspapers that they have there. So we have a great advantage by being able to kind of get the cliff notes here by the podcast, as well, as you know Matt's blog posts.

Israel: 8:19

But you know, obviously, in all of this, you know, I want to say thank you to Matt. Matt has made this possible with his work and his great knowledge. You know we've had thousands of downloads already, which is impressive and I'm, you know, happy to see that and I think it shows that people are appreciating it. You know we've added now a YouTube channel that will kind of supplement and figure out what goes there. But you know, and have ideas of how to grow and expand it in ways that it, you know, maintains the intent of what we're doing here. You know history, but as well as you know, talking to people, you know today's history and looking at you know what else that involves. So we really appreciate everybody who's tuned in, everybody who's subscribed.

Israel: 9:15

You know I had a great story. I play in the Park District volleyball league and one of the guys on the league, a brother of he's a friend but as well as a brother of a good friend of ours, and he said some of his Friends were talking the other day or it came up and he said hey. They said hey, did you know there's a moquina history podcast? And Pat, you know I bragged that he knew the guy that did it, you know he knew me and but anyway, I thought it was a really funny story. I thought it was very cool to you know this is I don't know who the people are. I hope you're listening and I really appreciate you passing on the word to Pat. Hopefully he listens some or more. You know that's. That's what we want. You know it's. It's great to see it kind of spreading by word of mouth. But it's been a lot of fun learning more about moquina, meeting new people and you know now, like hearing, how much people do appreciate our listening and enjoying it. You know I've had people at the VFW come up to me and and and say they're enjoying it as well, as you know other people. I'm surprised that. Have you even heard about it or listen to it? So you know that's been cool.

Israel: 10:32

I look forward to sharing more stories, more history, talking to more people, and we really do want it. If you know, I try to put it at the end of every episode, but if you know somebody that you think would be interesting, that would be good for us to talk to, please let us know. You know I love, love these conversations with people in town, people that have you know history here, something that's an interesting conversation to have and to share with people. So if you have somebody you think might be interesting or show idea, anything like that, send us an email, moquina's front porch at gmailcom. And you know I've gotten a few of those and I think we'll have some episodes coming up, hopefully soon, if we can arrange conversations. But Arrange, you know, coordinating. You know some people are out of state, so if the figure out how to, how to do that and do a phone call.

Israel: 11:26

But you know, now as some of these stories get out and spread and people hearing more families coming forward and saying, you know, sharing it with their family and seeing that on Facebook and seeing the comments, and you know, then people, we did the recent episode on 11042 Front Street. That's the property right at Front and Mokena Street. It sits directly west of Little Al's Property's been there since the years following the Civil War and you know to hear people comment on Facebook, I lived in that building or my grandma lived in that. You know like. You know I spent days. You know, playing. You know it's cool, it's great to hear and really appreciate those.

Israel: 12:13

So if you have, you know those stories please. We always love stories. You know this is kind of a story podcast so I don't want to drag on Again. The point was just to come on and say thank you for listening. Please share the podcast. We look forward to doing some fun things, some things that are worthwhile, that add and contribute value to the community, and you know we'll see where it goes. But you know here's to our first year and looking forward to many more after this. So thanks again for listening and we'll see you next time on Mokena's Front Porch. Thank you very much for this.