Foundations Part 2 | Early Life of Paul Wilbur | Episode 02

1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:21,000
We're back. It's foundations. It's good to be back. This is fun. I'm merely enjoying this. I hope our listeners are too. This is our first attempt at podcasting. And we're going to move from our personal stories into events of the day right now.

2
00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:41,000
The rockets are flying over Israel. I'm leaving in a few hours to go to Israel. So I'm sure that our listeners are going to be very interested in what's happening in the land. I'm going to give a good report when I get back for our podcasting.

3
00:00:41,000 --> 00:00:51,000
But this is fun. I love doing this with you. And this is a good way to head into our future together.

4
00:00:51,000 --> 00:00:57,000
And if you haven't listened to the first one, I encourage you to go back. There's not too far you have to scroll.

5
00:00:57,000 --> 00:00:58,000
Just one actually.

6
00:00:58,000 --> 00:01:07,000
Just go back to one and learn a little bit about Paul's background, aka my dad. And we're going to go right now into your college.

7
00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:12,000
We're going to kind of see what was it like you graduated high school.

8
00:01:12,000 --> 00:01:23,000
And you didn't want to stay local. You're still going down this music excursion. What was going through Paul Wilber's mind out of high school time to get out of here.

9
00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:47,000
Well, you know that I shared last time the blessing and the curse of being a music guy singer and the singing monkey thing that actually disappeared in the high school years when I formed a little rock and roll band with my friend Tim Solak who's still playing drums professionally, by the way.

10
00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:54,000
And he went to music school as well. But we had a little rock band called the gremlins.

11
00:01:54,000 --> 00:02:02,000
And then we changed to along the way. We actually did some recording in New York City.

12
00:02:02,000 --> 00:02:16,000
We had a really good reputation in the whole area. We actually played weekends up in New York over the border of New Jersey where I spent formative years there.

13
00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:30,000
And so I went from being the singing monkey to actually making money and having a couple of the cool girls actually think I was okay.

14
00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:31,000
Being a gremlin.

15
00:02:31,000 --> 00:02:33,000
Yes, being the gremlin.

16
00:02:33,000 --> 00:02:35,000
But also in high school.

17
00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:44,000
I joined the choir, which was a good place to be that wasn't for the weirdo kids.

18
00:02:44,000 --> 00:03:00,000
I was the drum major in the marching band. That was not that was kind of two steps back. Yeah, with the tall hat and the big baton standing up my friends, the cigarette smoking gum chewing in class.

19
00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:08,000
Friends of mine, the rock kids would stand on the side of the road when the band was going by and shout.

20
00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:16,000
Not nice. I was the singing monkey again, only now I'm the dancing monkey.

21
00:03:16,000 --> 00:03:34,000
But I also played a lead role in the music high school plays that were very popular and well known because our music teacher, Bill Cromie was a special guy.

22
00:03:34,000 --> 00:03:49,000
And all throughout my junior high years, I really wanted to be a part of anything he was doing in music. So he auditioned me in junior high and said, yes, we want you in high school.

23
00:03:49,000 --> 00:03:54,000
And, but that's what really solidified.

24
00:03:54,000 --> 00:03:57,000
Okay, what do I want to do with my life.

25
00:03:57,000 --> 00:04:00,000
I thought about animal husbandry.

26
00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:13,000
I looked at chemistry, because my dad, as you know, as a chemist, and flunked out of chemistry twice in high school, I said, probably not a good choice.

27
00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:24,000
And, and then I started looking at music schools, and only one music school bothered to come to Poquanik High School in Pompton Plains.

28
00:04:24,000 --> 00:04:33,000
And they came specifically to recruit me for their school, which was just outside of Cleveland, Ohio.

29
00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:41,000
I took a trip out there, saw the school small, not intimidating nice people.

30
00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:50,000
And lo and behold, I went there four years, majored in vocal music, music education, actually.

31
00:04:50,000 --> 00:05:11,000
But in the first couple of weeks, when I auditioned for my voice teacher, who happened to be the canter at the Temple downtown Cleveland, he hired me to be a part of the choir in a reform temple, very famous as it turned out.

32
00:05:11,000 --> 00:05:25,000
And so for years, I sat next to him on Friday nights at the temple downtown Cleveland, learning some Hebrew Jewish literature.

33
00:05:25,000 --> 00:05:37,000
And after my four years in undergraduate, I decided I want to be an opera singer and a traditional Jewish canter.

34
00:05:37,000 --> 00:05:42,000
There was someone famous, I think I remember a story you were sharing, who had done that.

35
00:05:42,000 --> 00:05:45,000
So there was someone that you kind of said, Oh, well, maybe that's.

36
00:05:45,000 --> 00:05:46,000
Yep.

37
00:05:46,000 --> 00:06:01,000
As it turned out, Richard Tucker, whose, whose real name was Tinker, he changed it from Tinker to Tucker, thinking that probably rightly so that that was a better choice for a stage name.

38
00:06:01,000 --> 00:06:17,000
Anyway, he would be on Johnny Carson show and whatnot, an amazing talent turns out that he had also been the canter and had done concerts at the temple where I was in, in Cleveland, Ohio.

39
00:06:17,000 --> 00:06:24,000
So I bought all of his records, his 33 and a thirds and listened to all of them.

40
00:06:24,000 --> 00:06:27,000
I became like his disciple.

41
00:06:27,000 --> 00:06:35,000
I had the score and I'd listened to the record and I'd put a mark in the score and the music score where he would take a breath.

42
00:06:35,000 --> 00:06:39,000
And when you're singing high, operatic music.

43
00:06:39,000 --> 00:06:40,000
Yeah.

44
00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:44,000
Sometimes you have to color it's called coloring the vowel.

45
00:06:44,000 --> 00:06:49,000
So instead of just a bright, you change it to.

46
00:06:49,000 --> 00:06:57,000
So it's not as harsh on the ear. And so I would mark that he would color the vowels up top.

47
00:06:57,000 --> 00:07:02,000
And I'd make those markings. I became his understudy.

48
00:07:02,000 --> 00:07:12,000
And I learned a lot about being a disciple of Yeshua by being a disciple of Richard Tucker and his music style.

49
00:07:12,000 --> 00:07:23,000
But you had, did you have any religious thoughts? I mean, at that time, I'll use that word. But as we get into more of the foundations, this is about a relationship.

50
00:07:23,000 --> 00:07:31,000
But at that time in your life, were you raised going to a church or a congregation to synagogue?

51
00:07:31,000 --> 00:07:42,000
Okay, so backing back up to the early years. Mom was my mother was raised as a New England Baptist.

52
00:07:42,000 --> 00:07:55,000
So, although she knew dad was Jewish and dad, he was, I always called dad, the reluctant Jew.

53
00:07:55,000 --> 00:08:11,000
He grew up, you know, he was born in 1923. So formative years in the Great Depression. And then the Holocaust, he signed up to be a tail gunner on a B 17 over Nazi Germany.

54
00:08:11,000 --> 00:08:16,000
Being a Jew was not a very popular thing in those years.

55
00:08:16,000 --> 00:08:31,000
And so he still isn't, but so he ran away. He did not embrace even himself being a Jew. And so going to church with mom and us was not a big deal for dad.

56
00:08:31,000 --> 00:08:38,000
And so we hopped from church to church when we were young.

57
00:08:38,000 --> 00:08:55,000
And so I was a passionate mind. I didn't have a relationship with the Lord. I wasn't excited about going. When I went to college, I completely dumped the church and started attending the temple.

58
00:08:55,000 --> 00:08:58,000
I would even go for special services.

59
00:08:58,000 --> 00:09:05,000
My dad, you may not know, was upset with me when you went to synagogue when I went to synagogue.

60
00:09:05,000 --> 00:09:11,000
In fact, he asked me once he said, why are you doing this to me? Oh, wow.

61
00:09:11,000 --> 00:09:23,000
He felt it was a personal attack, because he had spent most of his life running away from being a Jew.

62
00:09:23,000 --> 00:09:36,000
Now here's his first born son looking like he's really embracing this, which I did even more as a believer. And it was very difficult for him.

63
00:09:36,000 --> 00:09:47,000
Yeah, I just remember a lot of his stories and he always stayed far away from anything about the Lord or talk about that.

64
00:09:47,000 --> 00:10:01,000
It's almost like, you know, here he is today. He had experience in World War Two. He would touch on those stories a little bit, but more about his life and when he worked for the German company and hearing about that.

65
00:10:01,000 --> 00:10:12,000
But more so just, you know, hearing the stories coming from you and your experience as a child, you really went through a journey of seeking.

66
00:10:12,000 --> 00:10:16,000
What is life about? I mean, did you ever have that thought or you maybe just didn't care?

67
00:10:16,000 --> 00:10:21,000
It's about music being successful, what you thought that meant and forget about everything else.

68
00:10:21,000 --> 00:10:35,000
No, interesting. That's a good question, because I can remember, even as a young boy and a young man thinking, my life is going to matter.

69
00:10:35,000 --> 00:10:44,000
It's going to my life is going to make a difference. I don't know how I don't know where but people will remember that I was here.

70
00:10:44,000 --> 00:10:58,000
I always had that sense about my life. Very strange. That's a good question because it brings back a whole series of emotions and things for me.

71
00:10:58,000 --> 00:11:12,000
So when I became a believer, then I really realized why all of those years in music, I realized that all of the study and after college, I moved to Italy.

72
00:11:12,000 --> 00:11:23,000
You mentioned last time on our last broadcast, I went, I didn't know any Italian. I just wanted to further my career, but still not a believer.

73
00:11:23,000 --> 00:11:30,000
So where do opera singers come from? Italy. Where should I study? Italy.

74
00:11:30,000 --> 00:11:38,000
So I moved to Milan, Italy, the home of Lascala Opera House, the most famous opera house in the world.

75
00:11:38,000 --> 00:11:52,000
I went and saw productions there. I studied with a top teacher, Italian, who also spoke no English. My Italian was growing. I was studying it, but still.

76
00:11:52,000 --> 00:12:03,000
Then grandpa, was it this point in time or is like maybe you should find something else to do with your life instead of music?

77
00:12:03,000 --> 00:12:20,000
Get a real job, find something out. He said my entire life, won't you please get a job? It became, even when I was making good money, or as a music teacher, still not a believer, as a music teacher in high school,

78
00:12:20,000 --> 00:12:31,000
back in Berea, Ohio, where I went to graduate school, Baldwin Wallace, he would quip at me, when are you going to get a real job?

79
00:12:31,000 --> 00:12:45,000
Eventually he came around, excuse me, and after I became a believer and he watched my life and then your life and saw all the things that were going on.

80
00:12:45,000 --> 00:12:52,000
He called me one day, you wouldn't have known this, but he told me he wanted to be baptized.

81
00:12:52,000 --> 00:12:53,000
Wow.

82
00:12:53,000 --> 00:12:58,000
Yeah, that he now believed what I believed.

83
00:12:58,000 --> 00:13:04,000
So we found a church in town. He got water baptized, dunked was what I think he said he wanted to get dunked.

84
00:13:04,000 --> 00:13:12,000
None of this, you know, sprinkle me happy stuff. He wanted the real thing, a mikveh.

85
00:13:12,000 --> 00:13:39,000
And, and joined the choir, joined the, joined the church. And then in the last years of his life, began to embrace his own Jewishness. He apologized to me for all of the, the things that he had said and the emotions that he had expressed really anger at me for wanting to be a canter.

86
00:13:39,000 --> 00:13:51,000
Well, it's because of the rejection he felt. He didn't want you to go through similar. Usually a father's love for a child is don't go down this road because I know what happens.

87
00:13:51,000 --> 00:13:56,000
Yeah, that's very insightful. And it's true.

88
00:13:56,000 --> 00:13:59,000
But it, it, it.

89
00:13:59,000 --> 00:14:17,000
The way he expressed it, probably, you know, it stole, it stole a lot of things. The, the attitude that he approached life, although very loving people loved Papa as you remember, pop up as you called him.

90
00:14:17,000 --> 00:14:33,000
And he, in the last years, remember, we, nobody wanted to take him shopping because he would stand for an hour at the fish counter or at the meat market and talk to the people at the counter.

91
00:14:33,000 --> 00:14:42,000
20 minute grocery visit turned into an hour and a half. And he said, I'm not paying a dollar 50 for a pound.

92
00:14:42,000 --> 00:14:48,000
I used to pay 25 cents. Yeah. And I like, well, pop up, you know, inflation.

93
00:14:48,000 --> 00:14:57,000
Yeah. So our foundations where we're getting to eventually we're going to get to your story too, which I think is really compelling.

94
00:14:57,000 --> 00:15:03,000
How would you have embraced? Why would you embrace?

95
00:15:03,000 --> 00:15:14,000
A lot of your growing up years, me traveling, how did that impact you? You, you had a very different reaction than your younger brother.

96
00:15:14,000 --> 00:15:20,000
And we're going to bring him into because he's, he's part of this foundations thing.

97
00:15:20,000 --> 00:15:44,000
But our family, I'm just so, can I say proud of what the Lord has done in our lives as a family to be a demonstration of his kingdom and the, and the desire that you and your brother and your wives and now our grandsons and my wife raised

98
00:15:44,000 --> 00:15:54,000
a criterion, the desire that we have as a family that's displayed in Shabbat in your home broadcast, right? Every week.

99
00:15:54,000 --> 00:16:01,000
First Friday meeting face to face, you're preaching leading the meeting. I used to do it.

100
00:16:01,000 --> 00:16:16,000
Now I'm the guest whenever I'm home on the first Friday of the month, which isn't very often, but you're leading it now. And I'm, I'm so proud. The Lord has done just amazing things.

101
00:16:16,000 --> 00:16:17,000
Yeah.

102
00:16:17,000 --> 00:16:24,000
Foundations. And I hope that this kind of stuff is impacting the lives of the families of those who choose to tune in.

103
00:16:24,000 --> 00:16:36,000
I'm sure it is. So we'll close up this one. We've reached our time and maybe get into one more part because I wanted to get into that early years of the recording.

104
00:16:36,000 --> 00:16:47,000
I think what you have to bring even to some leaders that are listening will be impacted in a powerful way to see what was it like?

105
00:16:47,000 --> 00:16:53,000
What was that first step, that moment that you knew this is what I was called to do?

106
00:16:53,000 --> 00:17:00,000
And what all the things that I endured in the past brought me to this moment? So we will be back.

107
00:17:00,000 --> 00:17:24,000
All right. I'm excited.