- We got a lot of places to visit, a lot of people to talk to.

We especially are gonna enjoy this one joint to go to when you wanna wet your whistle.

- Ooh, that sounds good, but I'm gonna have to ruin it with some words that might make you lose your lunch.

- Ugh!

Comin' up next.

(upbeat music) - Hey, take a look at this.

- "Moses was here," how old do you think this is?

(Julie chuckling) - It's not that old.

- Pretty old, pretty old.

- But speaking of words, we're gonna talk about some words that are kinda gross, kind of interesting and sometimes make people feel queasy.

- Why some words are just disgusting and other ones don't bother us?

- Exactly.

- We're gonna figure out why.

- I can't wait.

- Let's get to something more fun first,- - Absolutely.

- more delicious first.

Let's go up to Princeton, and we're gonna have some libations with a newer place in an old building.

It's all a lot of fun.

- Sounds good to me, let's do it, next.

(birds chirping) (upbeat music) - [Narrator] Whenever we're near Princeton, we try to pop by into Barrel Society, and we're not the only ones.

The lively pub pulls in people from Chicago and beyond.

Many come for the hard to find brands of beverages, including 350 whiskeys and 110 beers, although not at the same time.

Beyond the drinks, Barrel Society draws fans who enjoy an eclectic atmosphere of art, movies, food, and music.

A grab bag of merriment, mixed and served up by the head funster, bar owner, Nick Gorogianis.

- The overall vibe that we have is unique.

You'll never come into a bar that is this.

- [Narrator] Nick grew up in the Chicago suburb of Bloomingdale, before heading to Monmouth college.

There, some new friends took him to their hometown, Princeton.

- Princeton's just...

It's a great place to live.

The people are genuine, they're kind.

You feel at home here, from the minute that you come into town.

- [Narrator] After college, Nick spent a decade in public relations and construction, but he kept thinking of Princeton.

In 2018, he made his move and bought a storefront on Main Street.

The 19th century structure started as a pencil factory, then it hosted a men's store for decades.

It needed plenty of work.

- A couple of walls were torn out, a complete bar build, all the bench seating.

None of the brick was actually exposed, that all needed to be power chiseled off, the brick then washed and then sealed to give it, kind of, that shiny look that it has now.

- [Narrator] Many days outside the pub, you'll find food trucks, some from as far away as Chicago.

Inside the place, Nick is an art collector whose works fill the walls in a swirl of color and wonder.

He collects albums, 5,000 in all, so Barrel Society is constantly playing a soundtrack of metal, punk, and other genres.

Meantime, back at the bar, the TV plays movies silently, with patrons often filling in the familiar dialogue in their head.

- The films we play, we play a crazy, eclectic mix of old-school comedy to cheesy B-grade horror films, and then some new stuff too.

The focus is ultimately on quality.

- [Narrator] Amid all that going on, many customers are pulled into the place by Nick's fanciful Facebook posts, which highlight his wacky sense of humor.

Princeton city leaders laud Nick for promoting not just Barrel Society, but other businesses as well.

His social media posts have helped spark outsiders to take a fresh look at Princeton.

- [Nick] Barrel Society is ultimately a culmination of, you know, my life and my life experiences, things that I love and have experienced and loved for the past 20 so years of my life.

- [Narrator] There's even more.

In the back, you can find the high-end takeout store, known as The Bottle Shop liquor store, and on nice days you can sit at the back patio.

Whatever your fancy, Nick Gorogianis always seems eager to meet new faces.

- The minute you walk into our door, you're one of our friends, you're part of our family.

Plus, the insane whiskey selection and beer selection and great cocktails helps too.

(upbeat music ending) (power saw buzzing) (upbeat music) (people clapping) (upbeat music ending) (slow jazz music) - [Narrator] At R&J's Northside Pawn Shop, summertime can get really gross.

When the mercury rises, cold, hard cash can turn into moist money.

- Summertime is definitely sweaty money, moist money.

- [Narrator] We'll explain that disgusting dynamic in just a moment, but to understand how it happens, let's look at how pawn shops do business.

Pawnbrokers first set up over 3,000 years ago in ancient China.

- Pawn shops have been around for centuries.

It's been a loan system, from Rubles to pennies to food.

- [Narrator] The core business involves loans.

A customer puts an item up for collateral, often jewelry, electronics, or power tools.

Depending on the item's worth, the pawnbroker provides a loan.

You have 30 days to return to the shop and get your item back.

You pay the amount of the loan plus interest, which by Illinois law could be no more than 20%.

It's an easy way to get a quick loan.

The biggest loan ever at R&J?

$10,000 for a diamond necklace.

- You can go to the bank, fill out all the paperwork and get a small cash loan, with about that much paperwork, probably.

Here, you just need one signature and your driver's license or ID.

- [Narrator] Sometimes a customer does not come back to redeem an item.

In those cases, the goods go up for sale.

Meantime, R&J will also buy items directly and put those for sale.

People bring in all sorts of things, from beer signs to bicycles to broaches.

One recent big-ticket item was a 1965 Les Paul guitar with the original guitar case.

- It's a rare gem, and it's worth some money.

You could probably get about $4,800 out of it online.

We're asking 3995.

We do negotiate.

There's no sense in sticking to hardball prices.

So if you came in offering, "I'll give you 3,500 for it."

I'd more than likely take it.

- [Narrator] Meantime, the shelves at R&J can sometimes look like a museum to Peoria history.

- [Woman] We have a really cool PBR can over there, and on the bottom of it, it says, "the last day in Peoria."

So, it was one of the last cans to come out of Peoria, that was really cool.

- [Narrator] Amid all these transactions, items are checked for theft via the police computer system known as LEADS.

- Everything that comes in goes on the LEADS online program.

I take your driver's license and a picture of the product, and it goes into the database of... Any police department in the United States can access it.

- [Narrator] Though the items aren't hot, that doesn't mean they're always in good taste.

For instance, there was the time a customer decided to pawn his gold teeth.

- We're talking and he was like, "Do you accept gold?"

And I said, "Yes, we do."

And I was at the computer, looking away, and then all of a sudden, "Here you go."

I put my hand out and he puts a set of gold teeth in my hand, and I'm like, (Sean gasping) "It's wet, ugh."

- [Narrator] It wasn't an isolated situation.

Another customer has pawned his gold teeth over and over.

- We now have a reoccurring customer that does the same thing.

His teeth have been here, probably, five times.

I call him grillz and he wears 'em for the ladies.

- [Narrator] Obviously, some customers aren't shy in the least.

- I had a customer come in and he asked me if I took this freaky stuff, and it was obviously an enhancement product.

I don't know how else to say that.

(Mollee chuckling) - [Narrator] But, nothing gets freakier here than moist money.

During the sweaty days of summer, some visitors don't use pockets or wallets.

- They stuff it in the wrong locations.

Ladies usually like to stuff it in their brasiers.

And on a hot summer day, with no air conditioning outside, you come in our store and you decide to pay it, we look at each other.

We'll freeze, and we're like, "Oh, here it goes."

And it lays down on the table and you grab it, and you're like, "Eww."

So we gotta take it, it's cash.

And in the pawn shop business, cash is king.

- [Narrator] Cash might be king, but it's not always clean.

- When people come in without a purse or without pockets, we know what's happening.

I get a lot of, "Girl, hang on a second," and they'll pull their money out, and I'm like, "Ohh."

I had someone tell me, "Yeah, I just washed that."

You didn't, this is sweat.

"Thank you so much."

And when they lay it out and it just sticks to the counter, it's great, it's wonderful.

- [Narrator] As for males, they'll often just tuck their greenbacks into their sweatpants.

Sweatpants, of course, have no pockets.

- Alan, my coworker, was the one that actually alerted me to the guy digging around in his pants with his money, it was wonderful.

- [Narrator] What do they do with the moist money?

- We'll put it in the drawer and we'll go probably wash our hands afterwards, and we also, at the end of the day, like to disinfect the money with some Lysol.

(can spraying) - [Narrator] Here's to a good summer.

May it be dry at the pawn shop, but we doubt it.

(slow jazz music ending) - I don't know what was grosser, moist money or just the word moist.

- I mean, moist is pretty gross, but you know what word is worse?

- I don't know.

- Ointment, ugh.

- That's kind of, like, moist with the oi and the... Ugh, ointment.

- It's not great, it's not great at all.

- Nah, ointment on the goiter.

- Stop it.

(Phil laughing) Oh my gosh.

- You know, these words, they make you feel gross.

They're disgusting, but why?

Why do some words gross us out and some don't do anything?

- I don't know, I bet you're gonna tell me how.

- I am, (Phil chuckling) because it's been studied, and there's some theories.

And we're gonna listen to an expert tell us about this, next.

- [Narrator] When it comes to gross words people hate moist the most.

That's according to multiple surveys by language researchers.

They found plenty of words that give people the willies.

- I'm just gonna read off a bunch, if I may.

If anybody pukes while they're thinking about this I apologize, but... Vomit, puke, phlegm, ointment, pulp, curd, slurp, sputum, panties, slither, glands, scum, oily, halitosis, poop, poo, rectory.

(Seth chuckling) Though I think that has more to do with how it sounds like rectum than anything.

Pus, phlegm, seepage, moist, splooge, which is an abrupt discharge of fluid, fester, mucus, ooze, putrid and curd.

(moist sound effects) - [Narrator] Okay, okay, we get it.

But why, what makes a word sound disgusting?

There are several theories, one involves bodily functions.

(splat sound effect) - If we look at all of these, a lot of them have to do with bodies.

We're really disgusted, culturally maybe, by our bodies.

But these words also are funny in the right context.

- [Narrator] Also, some sounds are connected to expressions we make when we're grossed out.

- So, you see a dead body, you see a dead animal on the ground, you go, "Ew," and shy away.

It smells bad, don't touch it and don't eat it.

- [Narrator] Linguists also have found a quirky connection between words that make us retch and words that make us laugh.

- Nobody's been able to nail this down.

This remains an interesting topic of study, but the topics that we seem to find funny and the topics we seem to find disgusting, in terms of vocabulary, seem to overlap.

- [Narrator] For instance, the c sound is funny because that sound isn't as common as many others.

Same thing with a sound like oi, as in moist.

- So a word that has oi in it is funnier than a word that has uh in it, because uh is just a more common sound than oi.

- [Narrator] Plus, there's humor in the way we say certain sounds.

- Ooh is funnier than uh.

It also makes you make a funny face, you gotta poke your lips out when you say it.

It's definitely goofy, anything that makes you poke your lips out makes you look goofy.

O to E, oi, oi.

- [Narrator] Again, as experts say, funny words can also gross us out, at least that's the theory.

But sometimes, the answer can be found not in the mind, but in the gut and the mouth.

- Just that moist for some people is really...

It feels gross in the mouth, even to say it, let alone to hear it.

(moist sound effect) (splat sound effect) - Now here's something for you to chew on.

- You know, there are a lot of great landmarks in Peoria, this one might be the most disgusting.

- Yeah, it's gross, it's real gross.

(Phil and Julie chuckling) - This is the Peoria gum museum.

- Unofficial.

- Unofficial.

I don't think there's a board of directors that runs it.

There aren't any special exhibits, but it's here.

We don't wanna say exactly where, but we're around downtown.

And this is where you go to take your, I don't know, your most proud-of gum.

- [Julie] I don't know.

- A real special piece of gum and this is where you'd put it.

- Perhaps, you know, you really love Frutti Tutti, maybe you love your Wrigley's, you know, it's...

It's all gross.

- Well, you don't like it- - It's so gross.

- because you don't chew gum a lot.

- I don't.

- I love gum.

- Mmm.

- I suppose I should... - Nuh-uh, do not.

- Who... - Oh my gosh.

- Who would be that gross?

Let me... Hmm.

- I've heard of someone.

("Pennies from the Heaven" by Louis Prima) - Well, that gives you something to think about, right?

- Yeah, that's a whole wad of information I didn't wanna know.

- Ugh.

- Yuck.

(upbeat music) - [Kids] Fun fact.

- In creating Bradley Polytechnic Institute, Lydia Moss Bradley made it her mission to produce students who not only had useful skills, but were well-rounded human beings.

On the latter front, she focused on literature, the arts, the classics.

On the former, she brought to this campus a college of horology.

Not as it sounds, like something obscene, but rather the making of watches and clocks.

- [Narrator] Across America, (soothing music) many cities boast distinctive landmarks.

New York, the Statue of Liberty, St. Louis, the Gateway Arch, Los Angeles, the Hollywood sign.

And in Wenona, Illinois, there's the jumbo.

What's a jumbo?

That's the fanciful word for the giant mounds created when waste materials were dug out of coal mines generations ago.

Amid the flat lands of Central Illinois, they almost look like mountains, and there's a lot of nostalgia involved.

Jumbos are mammoth monuments to throwback days and the subject of great civic pride, and nowhere more so than in the city of Wenona.

- It's a great place, as you can see, from behind me, how peaceful it is.

This is a way to look at your community.

And people come back home, when you come home again, it seems like you always have to, you know, climb up the mine and take a look and maybe get your Coke at the sweet shop, or have a picnic with your family.

- [Narrator] In the late 18th century and early 19th century, (pleasant piano music) coal mines popped up among the counties north of Peoria.

One was in Marshall County, where the Wenona Coal Company began operating in 1883.

By 1910, the mine employed almost 400 men, most of them immigrants.

They worked in cramped conditions in veins that stretched out as long as 555 feet, but were, at most, four feet around and sometimes as narrow as two feet around.

For all that shoveling, sweating, and hard work, they'd make less than $2 a day.

- I talked to 'em and they said it was brutal.

I mean, there was no OSHA, there was nothing back when the mine started.

And, you know, they ate a lot of dirt, coal dust, and it was hard labor and not for a lot of money.

- [Narrator] To get to the lucrative coal, miners also had to dig and remove shale and other sediment, collectively called slag, which would pile up over the years.

In Wenona, miners would shovel slag into carts, which, by mule, would be hauled up 600 feet of track to the top of the slag heap.

- And then they had two rails here and they would pull that cart up.

And this is all made from individual little coal carts.

So if you can imagine the work to hand dig all this and then put it up here and dig this hole.

- [Narrator] Still, the mine helped Wenona grow and prosper.

By the 1920s, however, cheaper coal was being produced elsewhere.

So in 1925, the mine shut down, but it would see new life, in a new way, three decades later during the Cold War.

- [Man In Blue] After the coal mine closed in 1958, the Army wanted a place where they could run a radar to help protect the city of Chicago and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

So in 1958, the Army came up here, and they made the road to go up, and then they leveled this off, and they built this big concrete platform here, which held the radar station.

(peaceful music) - [Narrator] The radar station was good for Wenona, with 200 soldiers and employees moving to town and adding to the local commerce.

The next year, after detecting no foreign funny business in the skies, the Army decided to pull out of Wenona.

But though it took the radar, the military did leave behind two solid legacies.

Some of the employees stayed in Wenona, got married, raised families, and became part of the community.

Plus, before departing, (truck passing by) the Army planted tree seedlings all over the slag heap.

Over the decades, trees and brush have grown thick all over the heap.

Meantime, Wenona and other area mining communities gradually grew fond of their slag heaps, seeing them not as mere mining leftovers but as majestic historical landmarks.

- Oh, I think it's part of the nostalgia, it's part of our history.

Mainly, as our history.

- [Narrator] Many towns call them jumbos.

In Wenona, townsfolk simply refer to theirs as the coal mine.

There, benches have been added up top, creating a picnic area.

And rising from the radar slab is a sky-high flag pole, which often prompts passers-by to stop, take a look around and even climb the jumbo.

- It's the first thing you could see when you come in.

You'll notice, ours has the big flag on the top.

So as soon as you're comin' into Wenona, you see that huge American flag.

- [Narrator] Plus, locals love that jumbo.

In part, for exercise, and in part as a pilgrimage to the past, one they like to share with children and grandchildren.

- [Woman In Black] They like to walk up here.

They like to bring their families up here.

They just like to get a look at the community and say, you know, several times a year, "Hey, kids, remember," you know, "Hey, this is our town.

We're proud of where we come from, where we work, what we do."

(peaceful music ending) (upbeat funky music) - Hi, I'm Phil Luciano and welcome to my garage in beautiful Worth Township, Illinois.

And you're with "8-Track Time Machine," where we look back on some of the greatest albums of the greatest era of music, the 8-track era.

And today, we go back 40 years to 1982.

Can't believe it's been 40 years, for this classic, John Cougar's "American Fool."

And, if you remember, back then, it was a huge album, but the thing is, it almost didn't get produced at all.

And why would that be?

Well, until that year, John Cougar, well, he didn't even have the juice to be called his real name of John Mellencamp.

His label said, "Nah, you sound like a hillbilly," that's actually what they told him.

"You're gonna be Johnny Cougar."

So he's like, Johnny Cougar, for a while.

He kinda looked like this David Bowie type of fella, it was really kind of weird.

And, then he became John Cougar.

In the meantime, he put out a couple of albums.

He had a couple of hits like "I need a lover," and "Ain't even done with the night," and so he's doing a little bit on the charts, but not a lot.

And so he started writing for what would become "American Fool," but it wasn't gettin' very far.

So the label said, you know, first they said, "Well, maybe you can do it sort of like Neil Diamond."

And I don't know what they were thinking, like, you know, some sort of "Sweet Caroline" redo or something.

I don't know, that would've been a whole different sound, it would've been very, very strange.

And so, John Cougar keeps writing.

And then he's writing and writing, and the label's like, "Well, what's going on?

There's nothing happening.

Maybe, we ought to dump this guy, just get rid of him."

And his producer just kind of said, "Go, keep writing, keep writing."

And all of a sudden, it's April of '82, and the radio starts playing this song.

("Hurts so good" by John Mellencamp) ♪ Hurt so good ♪ Come on baby make it hurt so good ♪ - So that's everywhere, right?

And everyone starts buyin' the album, and it was like the perfect summer song.

And it's ridin' the charts, it goes up to #2, so it's... You remember the days back then, it would just keep sticking on the radio for weeks and weeks and months and months.

And I don't know how you guys listened to albums back then, but I would give mine a quick listen.

And I remember, after hearing "Hurt so good" for the jillionth time on the radio, I'm like, "Well, maybe there's some other stuff on this album, Maybe there's other stuff."

So I started listening to it again, I'm like, "Wait a minute, there's another song that sounds maybe even better."

And I think a lot of other people were doing the same thing and finding this other song, 'cause pretty soon on the radio, you heard this little ditty.

("Jack & Diane" by John Mellencamp) ♪ A little ditty 'bout Jack and Diane ♪ ♪ Two American kids growing up in the heart land ♪ - And that one blows away everything that's on the charts back then.

And it goes to #1, it pushes the album to #1.

I think, it sells like 6 million in the United States and about the same in Europe, just a total smash.

And it changes everything for John Cougar.

The next album "Uh-huh," in 1983, the next year, he becomes John Cougar Mellencamp.

And then pretty soon, a few years later, he drops the whole Cougar thing and he's John Mellencamp, and he feels really good about that.

And so it changed everything for him.

So we salute Johnny Cougar, John Cougar, John Cougar Mellencamp, and most especially, John Mellencamp, on the 40 anniversary of "American Fool."

So we'll see ya next week back here in the garage, for "8-Track Time Machine."

(upbeat funky music) (power saw buzzing) (upbeat music) (people clapping) (upbeat music ending) (cheerful music) - [Narrator] Do you know a person or a story that should be featured on "You gotta see this!"

Send it to the email here.

(door banging) - Well, I guess... - Agh.

- I guess it's done, because we can't get back in.

- But, you know, when one door closes, another opens.

- Absolutely.

- Next time.

- On "You gotta see this!"

And we're gonna talk about some words that might want... Might want?

Might make you lose your lunch.

(indistinct) - Up in Princeton, there's a great...

Wait a minute.

We've gotta do this in reverse, don't we?

- [Man Off Camera] Okay, like you like each other.

Here we go, there you go.

- Over and over again.

(Phil exclaiming) (cheerful music)