Interview with Peter Guy

Peter Guy was interviewed by Hayden Slaugh on April 14, 2021 in the Bloomington subdivision of St. George, Washington County, Utah. The discussion covered Peter's perception of events that occurred in 2020 and early 2021.

HS:My name is Hayden Slaugh. It is April 14, 2021. I am interviewing "Pete" Guy in Bloomington, Utah. PG:My name is Peter Guy, it is spelled P-E-T-E-R G-U-Y.

HS:Okay. So, our first question starts with: what were you doing before the pandemic started?

PG:Well, we own a business in California , just working and commuting back and forth; and got three kids, enjoying them. That's about it.

HS:Okay, do you remember where you were when you first heard about the pandemic?

PG:The first time I heard about it was in March of last year, of 2020. And I was going in to get my physical, my yearly physical, and I heard something about 00:01:00scheduling and stuff, with possibly closing the offices and stuff. And so, I made it in and got my physical done and that was, like, the second week, I think, of March. Was it? Maybe around the 10th or so of March. Everything kind of closed up after that for, you know, for going in for regular procedures and stuff. They kind of just stopped all that stuff.

HS:So, [interrupting] --

PG:So, that's how I remember it was, you know, um, I was like, "What's happening?" [laughter.] You can't go in and get any regular stuff done because of this, you know, so it was really kind of interesting.

HS:So, what kind of lifestyle changes did you have to make immediately?

PG:Well, for me, the main thing for me was I was concerned about commuting. So, you know, like I work two days a week in California and then I live here in Utah five days a week. So, there was rumors, like they didn't want people, you know, like, they were trying to close down areas and not having people commute and, 00:02:00you know, coming from out of state to bring in an impossible virus from other-- So that was really kind of weird to me. I'm like, "Well, wait a second. I've been driving back and forth for seventeen years," you know. I don't really, you know-- And then I remember, like, at state line and stuff in [Las] Vegas seeing, you know if you were coming from California, you need to self-quarantine for fourteen days on the signs, you know those signs they have on the freeway? And that really tripped me out. I wasn't ready for that. Also just, I didn't really understand the concept of someone telling us that we had to stay in our houses. That was really-- I'm like, "I don't want to stay in my house," [laughter] but we did, we did, and so yeah.

HS:Okay, so going along with that, how do you view the government's response to the pandemic?

PG:Well, I think, you know, I think I'll just reference President Trump , and I 00:03:00think he did a good job. I think he wanted-- He might have wanted to do more response quicker, but I think he was counselled or maybe he thought that he didn't want to start a panic. 'Cause I specifically remember him saying, you know, "We don't want to start a big panic," you know. So I think he did a pretty good job. I think Dr. Fauci and some of those guys are-- I don't really trust what they say. They kept changin' their minds so many times, you know. No mask, wear a mask, don't wear a mask, wear five masks, wear two masks. You know, I think they just really botched a lot of that stuff. But, as far as the vaccine and stuff goes, I think President Trump did a awesome job of speeding up the process with all the testing and stuff. 'Cause normally that's, like, probably a two- or three- or four-year process, you know, to do all the clinical trials and 00:04:00testing and all that stuff. He went to the-- you know, he ran it like a business . He went to the companies and said, "Hey, you know, you guys can make a lot of money if you guys can step up and work around the clock and get this virus, you know, get the, you know, get a cure for it and a vaccine for it." So, I think he did an awesome job on that part.

HS:So, along with the vaccine topic, have you gotten the vaccine? Or do you plan on getting it if [inaudible].

PG:I have not gotten it and uh, I'm just going to kind of wait and see, like--

[Phone runs out of storage; resumed interview on laptop trying to pick up where left off.]

HS:Okay so, we're going to have to go back a little bit--

PG:Okay.

HS:-- to where we were-- to where the last point we were at was, and that was-- you were speaking about, your daughter's, how your daughter got the coronavirus but you didn't. If you could just retell that really quick, in brief summation.

PG:Oh, okay, okay. So, my oldest daughter and my grandson were with us at that time in our home. So [it] was my wife and I, and my son-- and our daughter and grandson, and our son came down from Utah State [University] and came with his girlfriend because they closed their dorms and stuff down. So, we were all together in the house for about a month or so. And my son's girlfriend did not get it and I didn't get it, but everybody else got it. So, I had gotten really sick on a cruise in October of 2019; I think I got it then, 'cause there was a lot of people sick on the ship. So--

HS:Were you concerned when your family got the Coronavirus?

PG:Yeah. Well, I was worried because I was thinking they were going to get really sick and they really didn't get that sick. They say that the younger 00:06:00people don't-- like your age-- don't get sick, but my son got the worst. He was the sickest.

HS:Yeah?

PG:And my daughter -- it's just like a bad flu. My wife and my daughter also, they lost their smell . My wife, basically, just didn't feel good and lost her smell. Other than that, that's all she had.

HS:Even to this day?

PG:No, no it's calmed down.

HS:Okay.

PG:But it took a while.

HS:Did anybody end up hospitalized over--

PG:No, uh-uh [negative].

HS:Okay. We recorded-- or we discussed it but missed it last recording: what other events of 2020 did you find to be the most significant?

PG:Okay well, I think, you know, like I said, just stores being out of supplies and toilet paper and water and stuff like that, and lines for all that stuff. And you know, different authorities telling us different things of what we can do, what we can't do, and where we can go, and you know, and who decides where 00:07:00we can go and what we can do. And also, as a business owner, it really concerned me about all the businesses that were closing. All the restaurants and stuff like that, and how they picked restaurants as a big problem. And all the travel, you know, cruise ships and, you know, national parks closing. You know, just everything closing, just was probably the thing I'll always remember about it. And me being worried about it, our business being able to stay open. And our customers, are they coming-- are they going to come in? You know, we own an auto repair shop and, you know, are they going to come in? They're not driving, they're not goin' anywhere so, you know, what's gonna happen?

HS:Yeah.

PG:So, luckily it worked out pretty good and we stayed pretty busy. So I'm very thankful for that.

HS:Yeah, so that's actually what my next question was going to be is, what 00:08:00changes have you made to your business to comply with COVID?

PG:Okay, so, basically what we did was we wanted to try to cut out as much interaction with the customer as possible. So, like with our business , it's hard because you want to have good communication with your customers and talk to them about their car. A lot of times you have to go test drive it with them and stuff like that. So, that all kind of changed.

We had to, you know, we needed to buy all kinds of, what is it, PPE [Personal Protection Equipment] stuff, you know, cleaning stuff and towels and wipes and, you know, then of course, everything is gone. So, it was really hard to find stuff, but we did. We did find stuff and we just had to pay a lot more money for it. And now it's back to normal now. You can get it pretty much anywhere. But just all the protocols were very time-consuming and retraining all the employees. Like when they use the bathroom, they gotta wipe everything down, and 00:09:00they gotta wash their hands, and they gotta clean the doorknobs, and they gotta wipe the counters down; and going out to the cars and wiping down the door handles, and the armrest, and the steering wheel. Shit, all of that is just very time-consuming.

HS:Mm-hmm [affirmative].

PG:You know, so that's one of the things that really affected the business . Now it's getting much better.

And our waiting room and just, we have two waiting rooms for the customers. And we just opened those up about two weeks ago, so it was about right at the end of March. Those have been closed since, like, last April, so almost a whole year. So, people were like, "Oh, I can't wait in the waiting room?" "Well, no." And a lot of people just knew they couldn't 'cause they go, they just wanted to come in and give us their keys and then split. They don't want to wait around or get around anybody. So that's probably the thing that was really interesting for our business . And being, you know, wondering, "Oh, are we going to have to apply for the PPP [Paycheck Protection Program] loans and stuff, you know, to keep our 00:10:00businesses going? Are we going to be able to meet payroll and stuff like that?" But luckily, we were very fortunate and we had a little bit of slow-down in March to April of 2020, and then it just kind of picked up. And it's been really interesting for our business, because we thought people wouldn't be driving that much and they would not need their car serviced as much, but it actually worked out for all the people that were working from home. It was easier for them to bring their car in because they didn't have to get to work. So, it was really just kind of really interesting, that part of it.

HS:So, there's this growing sentiment that the election was stolen in the U.S. It's really kind of a split conflict, fifty-fifty.

PG:I'm not split about it at all. It definitely was hacked.

HS:No? Okay, yeah so-- okay.

PG:Oh yeah, there's no doubt about it.

HS:Would you care to elaborate on that?

PG:Well, you know, I was a big Trump supporter and because, you know, I don't 00:11:00think anybody could argue, really, that he always portrayed like he loved America. And he loved American exceptionalism. He didn't throw us under the bus. He didn't, you know, make excuses for us or, you know, to other countries and stuff, you know? I think we're the best country in the world. And I think he did a good job, a heck of a lot better job than anybody else has done as far as, you know, America and putting us first, and not getting ripped off with all these trade agreements. And you know, the WHO [World Health Organization] and all the global stuff, you know, and the Paris Accord, all those things that, you know, everybody is supposed to comply. We end up paying for everything and doing everything and, you know, so I think he did, you know, a really good job. And I've watched the elections. I've voted Republican since I was eighteen years old. You know, and I really think, you know, um, at 1:30 in the morning he's 00:12:00ahead in like five states and then I go to bed and I wake up at like 4:00 in the morning and I just check and, you know, all of a sudden, you know, Biden is ahead in all of those states. So, I don't trust Dominion, you know the software, I don't trust those--

HS:The voting system?

PG:I don't trust those people; I don't trust any of those-- A lot of those workers at those places where they even have video of them bringing in boxes and all this kind of nonsense, you know? So, I definitely think it was-- and I've just been reading this week that there, in a couple of states, they actually have proof that there was, you know, a problem. And I think Georgia was a big problem. But anyway, so yes, I definitely think it was, it was a problem.

HS:Okay, on the subject of Black Lives Matter in the year of 2020, what opinions do you--

PG:Black Lives Matter sucks, [both chuckle] okay. So Black Lives Matter, you 00:13:00know, they're, as far as I'm concerned-- Just like I read yesterday, you know, the night before they're in Minneapolis again, torching businesses, Walmart, T-Mobile, and others, you know. They've just destroyed that whole town, you know? And then they want to defund the police so there's no cops to stop anybody. I don't know that I've seen Black Lives Matter do anything for, you know-- helping the-- I don't see them working in the community to help people in the community. They're just an activist group that shows up when, you know-- if a white guy gets, you know, killed by a cop nobody shows up. But if it's a Black person, I mean, I don't have anything against Black at all, I don't, it's just that, you know, they're making it more-- they're dividing the country by doing what they're doing. Because I don't know, I mean, I know a lot of people, I 00:14:00don't know a lot of racist people, you know? And, but they're making it so that, you know, you hear that name and, you know, you just immediately don't dig it at all. You know you-- I don't think they stand for anything other than a terrorist group. You know, what good community group-- How does it benefit the African American community by torching businesses that put money into the community, you know? Those people live there. So, I don't get it. They're telling them to burn down their own communities? Then they have no Walmart, they have no stores, then they wonder why no one-- and then they go, "Yeah, you see, they hate us. They don't bring their stores back."

HS:[Laughter.]

PG:So yeah, I don't have anything good to say about them; not one thing.

HS:Okay. The Capitol Siege , back on January 6th, so a little bit into 2021 [inaudible].

PG:Oh yeah, so the capitol siege, that's really interesting. And they're saying that, you know, President Trump does his speech and everything, he's saying, you know, "You have every right to, you know, peaceful protest. You can march here 00:15:00and there. You can do what you want." He never said anything about going there and torching the place or attacking the place. And I find it really interesting that, you know, there was one capitol police officer that was killed. They said he was hit in the head with a fire extinguisher. Now they're saying that that's not true. So, I don't really know. And then there was, I think, five people killed. They're not talking about the five people. How did they get killed? Did the capitol police shoot all those people? I know one of the persons that got shot and killed was like a, it was a woman, was a female, like, I think Afghanistan or Iraq veteran. So, I can't imagine that that person was busting into the capitol, you know?

And then I saw different pictures of, video of, you know, the capitol police , like, telling people to run forward, which were-- You know, and I heard rumors 00:16:00that there was gonna be Antifa and BLM guys, you know Black Lives Matter and Antifa dressed up as Trump supporters. And then, I also saw some pictures that said this guy is an Antifa guy, but they're dressed in Trump shirts and stuff, and Trump hats. So, I don't really know if there was Trump supporters. I would hope there wouldn't be, but I'm not gonna say there wasn't. But it's just very unlike-- look at all the Trump rallies. I mean those rallies were gigantic, you didn't see riots and burning down stuff. And so, the jury's still out on that one for me. I'm not really sure about it.

HS:Okay.

PG:But I would just say, just that out of all the friends I have that are Trump supporters and stuff, there's not one person that I know of that thought that 00:17:00was a legit[imate] thing. They think it was all some kind of conspiracy of it all happening.

HS:Okay.

PG:For sure. I mean, that's every one of my friends that I know. They're all, "This is ridiculous, there's no way." You know, I have friends that have been to Trump rallies and stuff, and there's no way that those people that I've met there, you know, was there with them for the weekend, or whatever, would do anything like that. So, and I don't trust the media at all. The whole thing, so--

HS:Okay, so do you have a strong opinion on the name of Jeffrey Epstein ?

PG:Yeah, I think he's a scumbag. And I think he abused a lot of women and used his money, and-- We still going?

HS:Yeah.

PG:Okay. And used his money to, you know, to get women and party and do all the things that, you know, those rich folks do. I don't think he hung himself. I 00:18:00think he was murdered for sure. And he's tied, you know, I read stuff about him being tied in with a lot of influential people in Washington, Hillary and Bill [Clinton], and you know, all those scumbags. I think he was a scumbag, but I think-- I'm pretty sure he didn't kill himself.

HS:What did you think about the impeachment of Donald Trump ?

PG:Both impeachments were both a joke. And the second one was rammed through without-- completely unconstitutionally-- without any witnesses brought in. You know, no proof, no nothing other than that idiot Adam "Shifty" Schiff, you know, with all his-- The first one was a complete joke. The second one was a complete joke. It was a complete waste of taxpayer's money. And if it was up to me, every one of those people that was involved, I would throw them in jail. Because 00:19:00they're supposed to be doing things for their constituents, not spending all their time on lame investigations and stuff of nothing. And it turns out that all the Russian collusion and everything was with friggin' Hillary, and all those people. So, you know, Trump 's, [laughter] I don't think Trump had anything to do with any of that stuff.

HS:Mm-hmm. Is there anything that you didn't get to say, speaking about any of these issues that you would like to clarify before the end of the video?

PG:I think, as far as what I will always remember, tell my kids about of the pandemic and stuff is how, you know, it just-- I don't know that I trust our government to do this kind of stuff. And I don't trust our government when they're closing down businesses that they see need to be closed down. And you 00:20:00know, I have a lot of friends that own businesses and stuff, and restaurants. My friends that have restaurants and stuff, they got, I mean some of them are completely out of business . And then look what they did to the travel sector of our economy. I mean, they friggin' just tanked it. You know? The airlines, you know, I read one thing; one of the airlines, three or four million people a day travelin', down to 200,000. They can't make any money. So then they need to get bailed out, right, by the taxpayers again and, you know, so--

Oh! The other thing that I didn't say, which was with me personally, is how the COVID affected the construction industry and all of-- So you would think that everybody's locked in their houses, locked down. They're not doing anything. And I think what's really gonna change is-- so all these people that work in a brick 00:21:00and mortar location, and they commute back and forth to work, and then now their companies are telling them to stay at home and work from home. Okay, so a lot of people, you wouldn't think it this way, but a lot of people had extra time because they didn't have commuting time and stuff. So they started doing, like, home improvements and stuff on their houses. And with the low interest rates and people going, "Well, wait a second, why do I-- you know, I live in Victorville 'cause I can't afford a house in L.A. [Los Angeles] so I commute an hour and a half each way. But now I can work on my computer at home, so I'm going to move out of California ," and so many of our customers have moved to Idaho, Texas, Tennessee, all these different states because they're getting the heck out of California 'cause they can't afford to buy anything. And then they can buy a nice house somewhere else. So, what it did was, the whole demand drove up the whole construction demand. And then with the COVID and everything, a lot of the 00:22:00suppliers, you know, that make resins for PVC, that make, you know, lumber, the mills and stuff, shut way down or closed way down. And all of the sudden, you know, well those new construction, all these people moving all this--

'Cause this is affecting me personally, with the house we're trying to build. And, you know, the lumber just for our house that we're trying to build right now, the lumber has gone up $200,000. That's just in a few months. That's because up until 2020, the lumber measured in board feet was around two to three hundred dollars. And yesterday, I checked and it was eleven hundred and something dollars yesterday. So that's, you know, whatever your lumber cost, they're saying, "Oh, well, you know the lumber's around," -- At first, they were saying it's gonna cost you about 5,000 more, then a few weeks later, it's ten-. The average three-bedroom two-bath home now it's up to like 75,000, ours is 00:23:00200[,000] because of the size of the living room so that the beams and stuff-- But anyways, so now, you know, we're not even able to build our house right now because it priced us right out of the market. So we have to build a smaller house, right, that just because of the increase of the lumber.

And the whole supply chain has been affected, you know. All the prices are going up on everything because of the COVID slowdown. And then, now it has a backup. So all these orders, you know, like if you tried to buy a bicycle in 2020, you couldn't even buy one unless you wanted to buy like a $10,000 bicycle. But if you wanted just a thousand-dollar bike, nobody has bikes, you know. There's a whole supply chain issue. And this is what President Trump said the very beginning, you know; we can't rely on China. And everything we make, you know, a lot of stuff is from China, and this is what's going to happen to us. You know, it's going to be a big problem. So, that's one of the things I'll always remember about it, is the supply chain problem, the price increases, the lockdowns, all the businesses going out of business . And then, not to leave out 00:24:00all the people that have been affected physically, that died, you know, lots of people.

HS:Mm-hmm [affirmative].

PG:Lots of stupid people that run cities that, you know, put COVID people in nursing homes, like New York, and just kill lots of people and then don't even have-- don't even think they did anything wrong. Those are kind of all of the things that I will remember about this stupid thing [laughter].

HS:Yeah, so do you, on that last one, do you think we're experiencing a [economic] bubble right now similar to 2008?

PG:Yes, we are experiencing a bubble. But I don't know how big the bubble will go before it bursts. I was involved in 08-09-10, I, you know, I had rental properties, I had land. And what really was hard for me in the bubble, was, you know, I had rental properties and I owed money on them and the value of the properties was going down, so the rents were dropping. And what happened was, like, in Cedar City [Utah], where I was living, everybody just stopped paying on 00:25:00them, and they got foreclosed. And I didn't wanna damage my business reputation or any of my money, so I was paying over 3,000 a month for, like, four years, five years, to keep those so I wouldn't go into bankruptcy or anything like that. So, I hope I'm not gonna be in that situation again.

But yeah, I think it's gonna, I don't think it'll bust, because see now, with people working from home it's changed the whole work dynamic. So a lot of big companies are looking at the brick and mortar and going, "Wait a second, why do we need this big ten story building? Why are we paying all this rent? Why do we own this thing? All these people can work from home, you know? And we can still--" My brother-in-law works for Nestles, and you know, they have spices and chocolate and all kinds of subsidiaries of the big company. And he told me a couple weeks ago that they informed him that he probably wouldn't be going back. 00:26:00He'd probably be working, and he's working with people that he's never met before [laughter].

And you know, and as far as this Zooming and all that stuff, like, for church and stuff, I don't like it at all. I like to go to church and have the interaction with people. I tried the Zoom thing and it just, it's just not the same. You know, you need to have that interaction. So I wouldn't be a good employee working on a computer from home. I wouldn't be good at doing that. So, but what's happening is now you see, I think, a lot of companies are gonna change their people from employees to contractors, outside contractors and pay them differently. Then they don't have to pay them workman's comp[ensation], and you know, all the payroll taxes and stuff. So, I think it's really going to change a lot of things long term. So, it'll be interesting to see, you know, how it goes.

HS:Alright, well, I think that--

PG:Is that it?

HS:I think that concludes the interview.

PG:Okay, awesome.

HS:Alright.

[END OF RECORDING. END OF INTERVIEW.]