Welcome to episode number three of Dan Time. I'm your host Dan McCardell. It's good to
have you here. Thanks for taking a look around the Daniverse. This is a podcast for people
who just like to hear interesting conversations with different types of people, different
backgrounds and I guess for the first few weeks, we'll keep it going as long as there's
still some interest. You're going to hear Dan after Dan after Dan, but not the same
Dan. So you'll have a good bit of variety and this week is no different. Let me recap
really quickly. I just want to drop a couple quotes from the first two episodes. Jim Powell
kicked us off episode one. A great takeaway from that conversation was you got to be happy.
You just got to be happy in this world. And I know it's hard and I know it's a daily
effort for a lot of you people. It is for me too, but you got to work at it. Take a
look around. What's your workplace like? How are those people? Who are your friends? Who
are your family members? Look around your house. Are people bringing you down? Are they
bringing you up? Try to identify people that make you happy, that bring something to the
table, something you want to emulate and just a positive attitude and hang on to that. And
episode two, Dan Weinrib, a great conversation. I can't wait to bring it back for the playoffs
in a couple of months. An awesome quote from Dan was some advice he received from his mom
long time ago when he had just won a very close race. And it was keep in mind the people
who have always been on board, your longtime friends, people that knew you before you were
a big deal and they're still here. They're still your friends. And then I try to identify
the people who came along right when you were taken off and maybe they're still here too.
And then the people who became your friends after you won. You could apply that to your
life too. Everyone's maybe been on top for a minute, for a while, for a few months, a
couple of years and then things didn't work out so well and you crashed down. You know
the people who have been there through all the periods of your life. So I thought that
was a great reminder. And we've got some more practical advice from another Dan and that
guy is Dan Lindeman. He is my first on premise sit down interview and I was just stoked to
speak to this guy. He's been in business longer than the internet has been around continuously
A&J mugs downtown Pensacola opened in 1953 and Dan bought the business in the late 80s
and just a wonderful conversation. This is one of the few ceramic shops, mug shops that
I'm aware of, at least in this region. I don't know how many there are nationally, but great
guy, a real colorful guy. He's done a lot for Pensacola. He stuck up for the city and
the citizens on a number of issues. I didn't really get into the weeds on that, but Dan
is just a wonderful subject and I really enjoyed our conversation. I think you will too. All
right, some quick stuff about Dan time. So I appreciate the feedback that I've received
so far. You guys are awesome. I appreciate my listeners from around the country and around
the world and we are just getting started here. So if you enjoy it, just park it here
at Dan time. It's always going to be entertaining. I aim to keep this show light, but thoughtful
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challenge. So if you, if you enjoy it, leave a comment. If you've got an idea for a Friday
challenge, you can always reach me. My email is Dan time pod at gmail.com. And remember,
if you'd like to come on the show, or if you've got a recommendation for a Dan or somebody
who's connected to a Dan or has no connection to a Dan, but is just a great interview, send
them my way. And I appreciate everyone downloading, subscribing and leaving a star rating. If
you like the show, let's get to my interview now with Dan Lindemann from ANJ mugs. He has
owned ANJ mugs for close to 35 years. The operation actually began by two gentlemen,
was opened by two gentlemen in 1953 under the name. So original location was on Navy
Boulevard and they moved it to downtown Pensacola in the mid 80s. And so Dan and his wife have
been running the shop for almost four decades here. Now some background on Dan and why I
felt like he was such an interesting subject here. Dan is a Marine Corps veteran. He arrived
in Pensacola in 1974 at 21 as a flight student. And I think he was really like a lot of people
just loved the area and kind of saw a vision for himself and his family and started planting
seeds at that time. But in the Marine Corps, Dan flew the H one Cobra, which I guess sometimes
called the snake or the Huey Cobra. There's one is actually one like it here. I'm jumping
ahead a little bit, but Veterans Memorial Park. I'm going to mention some landmarks
in town for people who have not visited the area. That is a must visit the Veterans Memorial
Park, but there's a H one either similar or just like it there. Yep. Same one. I actually
flew that one out in California. I'm going to wrap up with the bio really quick because
I could just go on and on about this guy. But so he joined the US Marine Corps at 19
11 years was actually as a flight instructor was a customer of A and J in the I guess late
seventies into the early eighties and became interested in ceramics. And I guess it was
just a natural move to take over the business. Dan, I'll I'll let you pick up from here.
Just let you know, take me back to 1974, you know, or 75 76 when you're getting acclimated
with Pensacola and you start having these ideas like, Hey, this might be a good place
to settle down. Yeah, I did. I came here in 1974 as a young second lieutenant, just graduated
from TBS up in cornico and was coming here for the Naval Aviation Training Command. And
I got here and immediately fell in love with Pensacola. And I made a promise to myself
that I would come back, buy a home in the historic district is close to the Hopkins
boarding house as I could possibly get. And someday own a business downtown. And I came
back in 1980 as a flight instructor. And I did exactly what I said I was going to do
back in 1974. So here I am in this business because it is a niche industry. You don't
see these on every street corner. You don't see them in every city. Were there times in
the eighties and nineties, early part of the 21st century where times were lean? Was it
was there ever a period where you thought, I don't know if this was such a great idea
or have you always built a reputation in the community? And is the business and the brand
always been strong, I guess? Well, you know, with any small business, it's a struggle.
It really is. You've got supply side issues, you've got employee issues. Just being in
small business is like being in hell sometimes. But you just have to have a belief, the tenacity
to stick with it. And I think the belief, you believe in yourself. And it's kind of
funny, you talk about a mug shop, you tell people what do you do for a living? You see,
I make coffee cups and beer steins and they just look at you like you're, yeah, right.
No, seriously, what do you do? And I say, no, that's exactly what we do. It's a very
niche business. And in the military, beer steins go back to the 1700s. I mean, people
had a commemorative beer stein for every regimental unit they were in. And it's just a program
that we've continued. A lot of pride in ownership of our products. We ship all over the world.
And we do all the branches of the military. So we're doing something right. And yeah,
but believe in yourself. And I'm very proud to be the owner of a mug shop. I really am.
Is it true that everything that's made here is completely American made? Everything that
we do here is American made and our steins, the bulk of our steins are made at one of
the oldest potteries in the United States up in East Liverpool, Ohio. Now we have had
to do some importing from China and Taiwan simply to meet the demand. The potteries in
the United States pretty much fell off the bandwagon back in the 60s. They just fell
off and it was all taken over by China. Hence the name China. All your China is made in
China. But we have stuck with this little place up in East Liverpool, Ohio since 1953.
We've been buying from them continuously. In fact, their factory was made pre-Civil
War. It's an amazing little place and they're still in operation and hopefully they'll be
in operation for years and years to come. So just a very basic overview of how these
mugs and steins are produced. The logos are attached and then they're baked in kilns.
How long does that process take? Actually it's called a water slide ceramic decal. We
screen print, just like a t-shirt shop, we screen print. Instead of ink, we're screen
printing actual ground up rocks and glass. It's called ceramic glaze. It's suspended
in a very unique oil and we screen print to a water slide decal paper. If you've, any
of you guys out there, anybody to tell you the truth, that's made a model airplane or
a model car and you've got a sheet of decals that you soak in the water and you slide them
off onto your model, we do the same thing. We print on a decal sheet, soak these things
in water, slide them onto the mugs, squeeze them down, dry them, put them in a kiln and
they fire up to about 1600 degrees Fahrenheit. So they are there.
One thing that I took notice of the first time I met you Dan and walked around the shop
is you have some very prominent customers going all the way up to the President, to
Vice Presidents.
We yeah, you just, you do things like for example, we've got letters from George Bush
and Dick Cheney after 9-11. We're big dog owners here at the shop. We've always got
dogs down here and we knew that Cheney and Bush were the same way. So we made them customized
dog dishes and sent them up to Camp David because we knew they were going to be up there
and we sent those up there with a little note that hey, we hope that after this crisis has
been put to bed that you guys can take time and relax a little bit and enjoy your pets
and we sent them these dog dishes and we got some really nice letters back from George
Bush and from Dick Cheney both.
Wow, so you actually jumped ahead and decided to produce these for them and they hadn't
reached out to you but...
Yeah we do, we are, the folks at Camp David use us for their coffee cups, beer steins
and so we've already got a link to the place and we knew that we could get these things
to them. I called the protocol people up there and said this is what we're going to do and
they said absolutely send them up and we did and it was, yeah it was pretty neat.
Is there a story you'd like to share of over the past 34, 35 years of that door opening
and some dignitary or somebody, I mean you probably never know who's going to walk in
here but have you had someone walk in and where you thought wow...
We haven't had any presidents or anything like that walk in.
Are they usually call or...
God, there's been a lot to be honest with you. I don't even know where to go with this,
it kind of caught me off guard.
Oh that's okay.
But yeah we've had some very unique folks walk in and sit down and visit and again the
shop if you walk by it, there are not a lot of mug shops anywhere and we don't look like
a mug shop, we look like an antique shop or a curiosity shop and I guess the curiosity
side is what draws people in and they come like, what's the name of the magician, the
big guy that made the Niagara Falls disappear and everything?
Oh Copperfield?
David Copperfield came in and spent about two hours in here and he was just mesmerized
by the place and he actually sat down over in that chair right over there and just, you
don't mind if I just kind of sit down and absorb this place for a while do you?
Dan it really, it has a museum quality to it.
When you walk in, I can promise you guys, if you walk in here you're not going to see
anything like it that day, wherever else you go, you're not going to see anything like
it probably that week and if you're traveling from out of town and you go back to Ohio,
or you go back to Kentucky or wherever you're visiting, you're going to remember this place.
It happens to be a couple doors down from the historic Rex Theater.
Dan, I'm really curious to know about the Rex and the different periods that you've
seen, the dormant period where nothing was going on and then the restoration and...
When I first got here in the 70s, the Rex Theater was a triple X movie theater in a
basically abandoned downtown.
There was nothing down here.
Then it sat empty for a long, long time and then it was utilized as a rental place.
There was a dinosaur exhibit that came in and did a few things.
It's a cool old building.
It's gutted now.
It's not anywhere near what it used to be, but the church folks in there have really
done a good job with it.
In one time, did they try to revive it with a cinema and draft house is what I was reading?
Yeah, it did.
Yeah, that...
Late 80s?
Late 80s was when you'd go in and watch a movie and have pizza and drink a beer.
I think that went for maybe two years maybe.
It just didn't make it.
Nobody back then was coming downtown.
I mean nobody.
That's why I'm downtown.
The cheapest buildings that I could buy in Escambia County were downtown Pensacola.
They were the cheapest buildings.
That's not a joke.
That's the truth.
They were the cheapest buildings I could buy.
Yeah, folks, Dan has been here since people left downtown at five o'clock and just got
out of here to now when people either get off work and stay down here or they get off
work across town and come downtown.
How cool is that to see?
I know it's not perfect all the way around, but just...
I mean tonight is gallery night and all the events and the Palifox Market.
How pleased are you to at least see some of that stuff?
I love it.
When I came here, like I said, 1974, I swore that I would buy a home downtown.
I bought up in the North Hill Historic District.
Everybody thought I was crazy.
Then when I bought the buildings downtown, everybody thought I was crazy.
It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that someday this place was going to just
pop and explode for the same reason that I believed in it, a lot of other folks did.
It's now becoming a very unique place.
I hope it maintains its quaint charm and doesn't get too big.
We don't need another Bourbon Street or a Beale Street.
I want Pensacola to stay the way it was about 15 years ago.
Well speaking of that, now I found a quote from 2007, I mean not that long ago, but this
is pretty cool because this is before downtown really became the hot spot that it is, kind
of right on the cusp of it.
You said people need to know that this is their downtown and they need to utilize it
as often as they can.
Yeah, that's the neat part.
That was the key word that the people that live here, this is your town.
I don't want to see outside investors coming in and driving the little guy out.
I want to see that, like I said, the quaint charm of downtown maintain itself in that
unique quality of the locals, I think is what made this place.
From restaurants to galleries to small business, it was just, it was local and I hope it stays
that way.
Speaking of local businesses, restaurants, A&J, I guess you've had a long relationship
with Maguires.
Yeah, yeah.
Tell me a little bit about that relationship and how long it goes back.
Well, it was going when I got here back in 1987 and it's just, it's an example of how
a business saw an opportunity to give their patrons a sense of ownership by selling them
a beer stein that was personalized and hung in the bar.
So they were part of it and that attraction has, I know we're approaching 300,000 beer
steins with Maguires.
They're one of our oldest, longest non-military customers and they've just been absolutely
excellent and we've enjoyed being a part of their tradition and their customer loyalty.
It's just been an honor to do that.
Dan, real quick here, because I know an operation like this, it takes a group effort.
I just want to throw out some names here.
Caroline, your GM.
My daughter, yeah.
She runs the place.
Jules, your office manager.
Julie.
Jeff, who I met, art director.
Callie and Remy, the two pups.
The dogs, yeah.
Have there been variations?
Have you had some other dogs long ago?
Oh my God, from, well, the day I walked in here, we've had dogs, yeah, I've got pictures
of them all too.
There's always been a dog in the shop since I've been here, just always, and they've been
a big part of the shop.
In fact, there are almost more, we have people coming by just to see the dogs.
At one time we had five, five dogs in here.
Megatron was one of my employee's dogs.
He was a severely abused, very big pit bull that just looked meaner and snot.
I mean, he was huge, but he was the biggest love bug you've ever seen in your life.
We'd actually have people come in to see Megatron because he literally, a young guy named Brian
King got this dog.
Megatron was on death's doorstep, and we nursed him all back.
Everybody pitched in, he nursed back, and he became a really neat part of the shop.
Megatron's counterpart was Moon Pie, another rescue dog.
In fact, all the dogs are rescue dogs.
Every one of them, we've never bought a dog.
They've all just kind of found their way to us.
Yeah, the dogs are cool.
Once you come in and you see the dogs here, it's hard to imagine not having a dog here.
They do kind of fit with everything, and they seem quite comfortable as well.
Yeah, they own the place.
I want to go way back to Abbott and Jones.
I found an old advertisement, I guess, of two mugs that they were promoting back then.
I don't know if this was the 50s, 60s.
The AJ Victor mug at that time was the most popular, and then the AJ Swank mug, an 8-ounce.
Are these still in the product line?
The Victor mug is kind of a unique story.
It was made by the Victor Insulating Company, and they started making mugs during World
War II because their initial business were making insulators for electrical wires and
telephone poles.
When the war broke out, they weren't stringing any wires.
They were using all the copper for bullets.
This company said, well, we've got to do something, and they started making these mugs, and they
called them Victory Mugs from Victor, New York.
They were sold to the Department of Defense.
Actually, it was done through the quartermaster, quarter business, back in those days.
The mug became very popular.
When the war was over, everybody in the military drank out of a Victor mug, and all the diners
and all the restaurants continued to buy this thing, and it just became a staple in coffee
shops and everywhere else.
To this day, Victor is no longer making coffee mugs.
They're all made in China, but it's the same style, same everything.
That's the story behind the Victor mug.
Yeah, it was Victor, New York, and in World War II, that's referred to it as the Victory
mug, and that's how it got its name, the Victory mug.
Real quick, I think I mentioned at the top that you earn your wings of gold as an AH-1J
Cobra pilot.
Now, in order to earn your wings of gold, if I'm correct, you've got to go through API,
primary flight training, intermediate, advanced turboprop, and then advanced helicopter training.
Back then, is that something that you kind of rolled into, or was that a goal that you
had in mind?
I've always been fascinated with aircraft.
When I was a kid, my dad was in the Navy, and we were stationed at Bethesda, Maryland.
The H-34s would come roaring over our house on the way to the helipad at the hospital
at Bethesda, and I became fascinated with aircraft.
I just continued to pursue it.
I would draw aircraft.
I would make model airplanes.
When I was in college at Ball State University, Vietnam was just ending, and there was an
opportunity to join the military without a college degree under this thing called the
Aviation Officer Scholarship Program.
I thought, well, that's kind of cool.
I was bored with college and not really doing anything great.
I signed up at the age of 19.
Yeah, got commissioned when I just turned 20.
Finished up all the stuff the Marine Corps makes you do, and then came down here for
flight school.
Best time of my life.
I enjoyed flight school more than anything I'd ever done to that point in my life.
Not that I'd done a lot by then, but as a 20-year-old, it was fun.
It was a damn blast.
I couldn't believe I was getting paid to do that.
I can't believe I got paid to fly, period.
It was that much fun.
You also turned around as an instructor and trained not just Marine Corps flight students,
but Navy, Coast Guard, and Allied nations.
Some Saudis, some Iranians.
Yeah, no fun.
Being a flight instructor was a blast, too.
That was kind of fun.
Real quick, Dan, I've got some kind of lightning-round questions, just some silly season questions
I like to ask all my guests.
I tell everybody, if I hit on one and you're like, I'm going to take a pass, you can always
use a pass.
Okay.
Favorite Pensacola restaurant, if you and your wife go out to eat, or if you've had
a long-time favorite or a current favorite?
That's funny.
My wife is the best cook in the world.
My favorite place to eat is a meal that's been prepared by my wife.
Yeah, no, I really don't have a favorite restaurant in Pensacola.
I don't.
My favorite place to get stuff is at Joe Patty's Seafood and cook it ourselves.
That is a destination, again, for people that are thinking about visiting Pensacola, you
have to go by Joe Patty's.
Almost everyone here will tell you that.
Speaking of your wife, can you remember your very first date with your wife?
Yeah.
Again, I might be putting you on the spot because if you said, oh shoot, I don't remember.
Well, yeah, I do.
We met at a dance in a dome-off.
How beautiful is that?
That is just...
We've been together since 1980.
We got married in 1980.
As a young boy, let's go back to six, seven, eight years old.
What was your favorite hobby?
What was something that you liked to do back then just as a little kid?
Tear engines apart, figure out how things worked.
My grandfather was a mechanic up in northern Minnesota.
He had me welding when I was eight years old.
The first truck I ever rebuilt was a Dodge Power Wagon, straight six.
I completely rebuilt that engine.
Rebuilt a Buick Roadmaster straight eight out of a flexible bus when I was 10.
I didn't do it all, but my grandfather just here.
Do you know how to read?
I said, sure.
He said, well then go get the Chilton's book and look up that model engine in the year
and tear it apart and rebuild it.
When you have a problem, call me and I'll come give you a hand.
I was taught at an early age that there's basically not a thing you can't do if you
don't try.
Great advice.
I was going to ask, do you have a favorite piece of lawn equipment or small engine equipment
that you like to get your hands on?
I've got an old 1924 Hit and Miss engine that I just love.
I like to fire it up every once in a while.
I like gears.
Anything that burns gas, diesel, and has oil in it and makes noise.
I pretty much like to mess with it.
Dan, are you a cereal or oatmeal guy or neither?
I am a Cheerios Almond Crunch guy.
I've noticed over the past few years, the Cheerios section would have regular honey nut.
I think that was it for a long time and now it's like a big wave of six or seven different
things.
I look for the Bogos at Publix and when the Bogos hit, I load up on the almond Cheerios.
I don't put milk on them.
I eat them raw out of the box.
It's like a snack food.
Every morning I have my Cheerios.
What would you recommend to someone that maybe is 21, 22, or maybe 31 or 32 and they're thinking
about starting a business, they've got a passion, what's some advice you would give so they
don't jump in too fast and fail?
I guess that could happen with any idea, but do you have any advice where they can go in
and execute it the right way?
Everybody says passion, passion, passion.
I said passion is great, but if a lot of other folks don't have that same passion, your business
isn't going to go very far.
I laugh because mugs, how in the hell do you have a passion for mugs?
And seriously, being in the military, one of the very first things I ever did, the first
mug I ever got is up on that shelf.
It was from HMA 269.
That was a big deal.
You ordered your mug.
You got your mug, it's got your name on it with a call sign and it's got your squadron
patch on it and you've become part of the group.
So I knew how important the mugs are and the steins are and how everybody that I ever saw
had one.
I thought if everybody's got one, that must be kind of a pretty cool business.
I mean, it's recession proof.
The eagle farts twice a month regardless of what anybody else is doing.
So there's always going to be a discretionary income with the active duty military.
And man, making mugs and beer steins just made sense to me.
Let's give it a shot.
And plus, the graphics to it, the actual screen printing, it's challenging as hell.
It's a craft.
It's a highly skilled craft and I still enjoy it to this day.
So I would say find something that you absolutely love to do.
You think about it all the time.
You wake up in the morning and you're excited about going to work.
You're not going to be excited every day, but that to me is the key thing.
Do you love this?
Do you get satisfaction from it?
And then going back to the passion side, make damn sure that there's a market for your passion
and if there isn't, keep it as a hobby.
Have a passion as a hobby and you might want to find something else to open a business
with.
But yeah, do some homework and like I see you mentioned the word niche at the very beginning.
This is about as niche as you can possibly get.
I don't know of any other mug shops that are, I've never been to another mug shop before.
I haven't either, yeah.
Yeah, there's a lot of people that do ceramic decorating and there's a lot of people that
make restaurant ware and there's a lot of hobby shops that do this stuff, but there's
only a handful that do stuff on this level for the military.
Well, real quickly, I'm going to read, this is straight off the website that you guys
can find.
If you go to ajmugs.com, you can read all about it and you can see some examples of
their products, but Dan and Diane still practice the time honored art of hand screen printed
water slide ceramic decals.
It says we use the finest ceramic inks and precious metals available in creating our
decals.
All of our ceramics are hand decorated, which allows our customers the ability to create
like you said, one of a kind pieces that you're not going to find anywhere else and the flexibility
to order as many pieces as needed.
Dan, I really appreciate your time with me today.
It's been educational for me.
I think for my listeners, you guys hopefully got a lot out of it.
You can order online or if you're in town, please stop by.
You'll be glad you did.
Dan, I got one final question.
This is out of left field here, but I always like to get into silly season.
Have you ever, now this might be a Valentine's day or Mother's day or anniversary situation,
but are you ever standing there in the hallmark aisle?
Have you ever been brought to tears while trying to pick out a card for your wife?
Just thinking, Oh wow, that's it.
That hit me.
She's going to love it.
No, I have not.
You got to be honest.
Is there a movie?
I asked another guy, is there a movie that makes you well up?
Is there something that's one of your favorite films of all time that just hits you right
where it had to be Patton?
Blood and Guts Patton.
I just love that movie.
No, I got there's so many in there.
There's such a wide range of emotions that you can put a movie into a category for that.
Yeah.
There's a ton of movies that if I'm channel surfing and it pops up on, I'll jump right
in and watch it.
I don't care if I've seen it 20 times.
I'll watch it.
Do you have a favorite actor?
Robin Williams was probably one that I just absolutely respected.
I loved him.
What a unique talent there.
His talent was just unbelievable.
I still to this day, I laugh every time I hear his rendition of his, he's going to invent
a game called golf.
It's one of my favorites.
I love golf too, but he was a talent and he was a phenomenal actor.
Also Dead Poets Society pops up as a movie that to me was very meaningful and had a strong
message.
Yeah, he made some good stuff.
If I had to say my favorite actor at this moment from you asking, I'd say Williams.
You can't go wrong there.
Dan, this has been just spectacular.
I can't thank you enough for spending some time with me today and to everybody out there.
I hope you got a lot out of it as well.
Remember, next time you're planning a vacation, come to Pensacola if you've never been here
and you need to visit Dan at ANJ Mugs.
All right, that's it for Dan time.
You guys have a great week.
Go out there and make a difference in somebody's life.
We'll see you next week.