I was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in a predominantly black neighborhood. Prior to this the neighborhood was mostly white of which the majority of that racial make up was of Jewish decent. My father was an over the road union member truck driver who drove for several large companies in and around the Philadelphia area. My mother was a nurse who worked mostly in locations that were in the suburbs around Philadelphia. Both of my parents had a propensity for travel which I believe was instilled in me at an early age.

My father was born and raised in Gastonia, North Carolina. As a young man looking for better opportunities for work and a future he moved to the north and settled in Philadelphia. Philadelphia was home to several of his brothers and nephews. My father was knowledgeable about various areas of the USA because of the frequency in which he traveled to multiple places throughout the country. His experiences with people were a bit more extensive than someone who may have worked in the same location within a few minutes’ drive of their residence. I remember him telling stories of what it was like to travel through small towns in the southern states of the country. I also remember him talking about the island just off the coast of South Carolina which was a stop over for the preparation for the Africans brought to the United States for the slave trade. The Gullah/Geechee heritage can still be found there today. It is a heritage steeped in the traditions of the African descendants from the language and food to arts and culture. I have done a little research trying to find the roots of my father’s side of the family. What I have discovered so far is that a 200 – 300-mile line can be drawn from the slave market location in Charleston, South Carolina northwest to land and plantation owners who share the same last name, back east 200 hundred miles to where my father’s family can be found in Gastonia, NC.

My mother was born in Claremont, Virginia. At the peak of its economic prosperity Claremont, Virginia was a lumber producing and shipping town about 60 miles west of Norfolk, Virginia. Her parents later moved to Norfolk, Virginia where she lived until she decided to move north, first to Connecticut and finally settling in Philadelphia. She attended nursing school and later met my father. My mother was an enterprising person with a natural feel for helping people. As a nurse she worked in the suburbs of Philadelpha. Because of her ambitious nature she usually worked a full-me job and would also provide private duty shifts assisting people in need of home health care. The people who had the means to hire private nursing care were usually white families with inheritance or were entrepreneurs, some of whom I had the opportunity to meet. There were occasions when the children of one of these families would even come and stay the night at my parents’ home with me and my siblings. My mother had an idea as to what she believed were the better activities for her children’s growth that would position us to have success in life. She never would deny us the opportunity to learn and therefore invest in her children’s success.

Philadelphia has always been more progressive where Jim crow and segregation of that era was not found as it would have been just a few states away to the south. However, in Philadelphia, you would find that there was tribalism and certain races of people that lived in neighborhoods with people of mostly the same racial background. In some cases, there was certainly an intersecting of people of different backgrounds. The best aspects of my growing up in Philadelphia during the ages of 8 – 18 years of age was towards the end of the civil rights movement- the black empowerment era- where you would find black owned and sustained businesses in our neighborhoods. It was a time  family, friends, and community relationships that promoted togetherness because people were dependent upon more physical societal relationships, integrity, and communication. This was more of a factor than it is today. I believe the way I view other communities and issues that people face in general are predicated on communal experiences. Growing up with parents that were open to people of various cultural backgrounds and the interaction of people from all social economic levels has shaped my viewpoint on people in general. Having family members who were business owners and leaders in the community as well as my having the opportunity to be placed in elevated educational programs allowed me to experience higher learning and different cultural practices as well as the ability to explore the offerings of the fourth largest city in the country as early as 10 years of age. Furthermore, being in sports teams all throughout my school career taught me how to be a persistent and commited person to others in my organization.

There were cultural highlights that shaped my life. The era of black empowerment could be felt with the presence of the Nation of Islam Mosque and businesses just blocks away from my home. While in elementary school my parents purchased property in New Jersey with enough land to build a home and have a very large garden where we would be found on the weekends to get away from the city and to work on the house and in the garden. There in New Jersey, I learned to work the land and the very first vehicle I drove was a tractor. In high school I was fortunate to be able to get into academic programs that allowed me to leave my neighborhood to attend a school in a predominantly white section of Philadelphia. The school had a fair percentage of 1st and 2nd generation immigrant students, mostly from eastern Europe. I had teachers who had survived the holocaust, and the Nazi concentration camps several of whom had tattoos from these death camps on their wrist and arms. Furthermore, growing up near large Italian and Irish communities I did befriend several people from those communities, and it was there that I learned the dynamics of those cultures.

Due to the guidance of my track coach who was a teacher that had attended an HBCU, he impressed upon me to attend an HBCU after high school. The importance of attending a Historically Black College or University in the south has been immeasurable. It was there that I learned about the contributions of the descendants of Africans brought to this country who were forced into free labor and used to build this country into the major economic force that rules the world today. Since my arrival into the south, I have witnessed the different mindset of people from the north verses people from the south. I have learned to try to reach people in a way that they can understand a different opinion other than their own. I have been blessed to be able to start several small businesses by which it is of extreme importance that I hired based on ability, skill and diversity. I find that I am always learning from the people around me. I enjoy learning from the people I work with and the customers I serve. Through relationships and travel I have learned about many cultures, their challenges, and devastating history as well as the triumphs and tasks they face daily. Living in the Tidewater area with the largest military installations in the world, we can meet people and families from other parts of the world. The opportunity for personal growth by welcoming others experientially affects our mindset and casts us into a position of immersing ourselves into something new while developing relationships steeped in our basic need for connection. I hope to bring an understanding of those experiences through my podcast. Please listen with the purpose of expanding your knowledge. I will do all I can to bring you an experience you may not have had before.