East Liverpool

Isn't that interesting? Well, if a song like that could come from a circus, a fellow who was a circus drum major, I don't know how the Lord could use you, but I know he could use you.

For instance, he used a gentleman who owned a music store in East Liverpool, Ohio.

He sold music and musical instruments.

He sold old pump organs.

There is no perceptible change, of course, in the contour of the rugged hills which hem us in, yet somehow it stirs the blood to reflect that quite within the recollection of all of us in Pilgrim's crew, save the boy, that left bank was the house of bondage and that right the land of freedom, and this river of ours the highway between.

East Liverpool, forty-four miles, and Westville, forty-eight miles, are long stretches of pottery and tile-making works, both of them on the Ohio shore.

There is nothing there to lure us, however, and we determine to camp on the banks of Yellow Creek, fifty-one miles, a peaceful little Ohio stream some two rods in width, its mouth crossed by two great iron spans for railway and highway.

But although Yellow Creek winds most gracefully and is altogether a charming bit of rustic water, deep set amid picturesque slopes of field and wood, we fail to find upon its banks an appropriate camping place.

Hot mom check, kid.

Hi, this is Leigh from East Liverpool.

I want to say hi to Kate McKenzie.

Mommy loves

So we went in volunteer and got to stay together for basic training.

Where were you from? East Liverpool.

East

Liverpool.

Ohio.

And did you go back to East Liverpool after the military?

I go visiting while I was in the military.

We ended up with our base being Fort Lee, Virginia.

It's in Ohio.

East Liverpool, Ohio.

I wanna do a little digging on that place.

I thought that sounded super cool, actually.

Yusha Bajwat leads technology for the Bajko Group, the Ohio-based franchisee.

His uncle Nadeem started as a delivery driver before buying a single store in East Liverpool with a pile of used equipment.

Today, Bosco runs more than 270 Papa John's, I think 275, across 10 states with a stated ambition of opening 500, which is absolutely crazy.

Along the way, Yusha got tired of the back office being held together by spreadsheets and email, so he built the fix in-house.

So I'm glad we're finally able to kind of close this connection and get this podcast up here.

I'd like to talk, before we get into meal dynamics, let's go into your background just a little bit.

So you grew up around a business that started with the single store in East Liverpool, as I mentioned in the intro.

What is the version of that story that I just described that you actually lived versus the version that shows up in the press? Or was it basically exactly the same?