“I’ve been doing this a long time.  I’m just the garbage man…but I’ve got people that wait for me every week.  If I don’t give them fifteen or twenty minutes, they get upset.  I call them my groupies.  

I had this customer, Iris, who recently passed away.  She was 96.  Every Thursday, she’d come out and give me Hershey chocolates.  I’d sit with her by the front door and talk.  On Sundays, I’d go to Walmart and buy Iris the little snack pack puddings and Ovaltine.  She liked to make her own whipped cream, so I’d get her the heavy cream, too.  She and her family were just nice people.

During COVID, I had people come out and tell me they hadn’t talked to anyone in months.  I was the only person they’d seen.  And that’s the thing…we don’t talk anymore.  Kids don’t know how to have a conversation.  People don’t interact.  But here at Kaptein’s, you pull up a stool and people actually talk to you.  You get all walks of life. It’s great energy.”