Club Shay Shay - Sterling Sharpe Part 1 - Club Shay Shay

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You cut me with that knife.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
Man, I wanted to see how sharp the knife was.
Cut through his jeans, cut his leg, two pair of gens.

Speaker 1 (00:06):
There was short hold on where'd you cut me? It's
still that. It's right now, two centimeters to the left.
I ain't here.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
I bleed out and then you wouldn't be here. So
I'm definitely where I'm supposed to be. There's no doubt
about that.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
All my life, grinding all my lighter sacri fights, hustle
ba pricing one slice, got the bron geis sat all
my life, I'd.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Be grinding all my life, all my life, grinding all
my light, sacrid fights, hustle back to price in one.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
Slice, Doctor bron of Geist swatch.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
All my life, I've been grinding all my life.

Speaker 3 (00:46):
Hello, welcome to another episode of Club Sha Sha. I
am your host, Shannon Sharp. I'm also the propriud of
Club Shape Shape stopping by for conversation and the drink today.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
Well.

Speaker 3 (00:55):
He's one of the most dominant receivers to ever step
on the field, one of the best ever run after
the catch receiver in NFL history. In seven seasons, he
was a five time Pro bowler, three time First team
All Pro three times. He led the league in receptions
three times, led the receiving touchdowns twice, led the league
in receiving yardage twice, and he also did the triple
Crown in seven season. He's the first players to have

(01:18):
back to back one hundred catch seasons never missed a
game in his NFL career.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
He's one of three.

Speaker 3 (01:23):
Players in NFL history to have five hundred and seventy
five plus catches, eight thousand receiving yards, and sixty five
plus touchdowns in his first seven seasons. At the University
of South Carolina, he was a two time All American
and he had his number two jersey retired while he
was still active. He's a part of the first set
of brothers to ever be inducted into the Pro Football
Hall of.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
Fame, and he's the best sharp brother.

Speaker 3 (01:49):
Of the family, my big brother, my hero, my role model,
sterling shark man.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
Oh man, hey, you ain't have any more on now
you are? I thought I did a little more than that.

Speaker 3 (02:03):
Yeah, well he could drive a track to the age
of six. I ain't know if you wanted CJ to
put all that in there.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
It's what we did the last time.

Speaker 3 (02:15):
You're the first ever to do go repeat on Club
Shasha and the first time we did it, we did
it virtually.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
Uh. We also Laporte wasn't even a thing.

Speaker 3 (02:26):
And so for being the first set of brothers in
the Pro Football Hall of Fame, you get to join
your baby brother in your rightful place. And this wouldn't
been a long long time coming for everything that you've done,
not only the football feel because that's minute, for what
you've been able to do for this family. And so, uh,
I think it's only right that we told we're gonna
pour it up. Yeah, we're gonna pour it up.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
Like my grandma used to say, if you got it,
you better drink it and then go bad.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
I just had to do it bad, you know. I
had to do it for people at watch it at home.
This is a commemority.

Speaker 3 (03:00):
If these are gonna be available, this is the first
time you're seeing this. Yes, and so this is twenty
five hundred, the only available online. And this is my
brother and I at the first set of brothers in
the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The Shave Bsop Kangnac
Premium Bsop Cognac the best tasting Premium Bsop Cognac on
the market and as a commemorative of being the first

(03:22):
brother in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. That's Lati
thought we would do something like this, So people at home,
this will be available. I'm not sure. I think it
goes on sale. What Wednesday, Jordan, I think I think
thinks it goes on sale today. We released this, which
will be Wednesday. So congratulations, man, It's been a long

(03:43):
time coming and I'm extremely happy.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
So oh man, this is the second time in the
history of the Sharp Brothers.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
That we've had a drink together together.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
The first time we had a drink together was when
you told me I was the three hundred an eighty
second member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. So
it's definitely a special occasion, very very special occasion.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
As you know, Laportier is poured in French.

Speaker 3 (04:08):
And everybody's heard me talk about what Granny has meant
to me. I think people want to hear what Granny
meant to you.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
Well, the thing is is that I'm a firm believer
that you have to learn to follow before you can leave.
And she led us, you know, when we got to
be old enough to where we were playing sports and
I was driving us around. She never told us when
to be home. She only told us to be careful,
and she always told us we knew right from wrong.

(04:36):
So for me, what I got from Granny was the
ability that you know what to do, now just go
and do it. You know what, everything that you do
goes home. So everything that we did, you know, even
when we were in high school and we were you know,
as they like to say, putting up numbers, that went
home to Granny. And I mean, you know, oh, Mary,
your grandboys are doing so good. But the thing was,

(05:00):
it was so wonderful because at the time that was
our only way to say thank you to her, other
than saying thank you to her. And so it was
a it's a tremendous honor to be her grandson. It
is a tremendous honor to be the first brothers in
the Pro Football Hall of Fame. And for me, you know,

(05:22):
my whole thing is is if you don't have family,
you really don't have anything. And I never looked at
when I became successful or got money that I was
helping my family. I was just doing what families are
supposed to do.

Speaker 1 (05:36):
What would you say your favorite granny story.

Speaker 2 (05:41):
Uh, my favorite granty story is the fact that she
was like, somebody gonna hit that little boy in his
glob of mouth because he talked all the time. She
wasn't talking about me.

Speaker 1 (05:55):
She that boy there he goes, Oh, somebody gonna put
something heavy on him. That's where she would all, you know.

Speaker 2 (06:02):
But you know, the thing was is my grandma never
had a terrible or envious or evil bone in her body.
She would give the shirt off her back, which she
did to us and bringing us in and taking care
of us. And you know, in all those years, but
I all my granny stories would probably revolve around you

(06:24):
because we all knew that you were her baby. I mean,
you could do no wrong, you could murder someone in
front of her, and she'd be.

Speaker 1 (06:31):
Like, Noah, that older one did it. I seen it.
She was all about her baby.

Speaker 2 (06:37):
And I think you know, and the times that I
spent with her in the nursing home, because I would
drive from Columbia to Glennville, be there when she ate breakfast, lunch,
and dinner, and then drive back and you know, she
would fall asleep and wake up and you still here.
I'm like, yeah, I'm still here. But I think she
always knew, or she always felt, let me say it

(06:59):
this way, that I would be okay, and she always
felt that that Libby would be okay.

Speaker 1 (07:05):
I think she was always.

Speaker 2 (07:06):
Concerned about you being okay, like she was always she
was really afraid when I left to go to college
that you were gonna be the same as you were
when I was there. I think that that always bothered her.
And I think in my heart that she stayed here
long enough that she got a chance to see what

(07:29):
she needed to see from you. That she saw our
playing careers high school, college and pro. She knew you
were in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and I
I you know. And I think that once she understood
that there was nothing more she had to give you
and that you were okay, I think it was it

(07:50):
was okay for her to leave us. And I think
that's what she did.

Speaker 1 (07:55):
What do you think the number one thing is that
she taught you that that.

Speaker 2 (08:01):
I don't want to say my best is good enough.
I phrase it this way. Everything I did, from cutting grass,
picking tobacco, grinding feed, playing football, playing basketball, running track,
being a junior deacon, leading devotional service, everything that I did,

(08:21):
I tried to do better.

Speaker 1 (08:22):
Than anyone else did anything else.

Speaker 2 (08:26):
And most importantly, everything I did, I was my own standard.

Speaker 1 (08:34):
So I never failed. So if I wasn't the captain,
or if I wasn't the fastest in this race, or
if I didn't help lead my team to this victory,
I was okay with that because I knew I had
did all I could do. And I think the thing.

Speaker 2 (08:55):
I'm probably most proud of is everything I did athletically.
I did for you, and I think she knew and
she wanted me wherever I went, whatever I did. Don't
leave him behind, don't leave you, try to don't leave that. Well,
it wasn't my fault you three years younger, I had
to go come hey, but faul you.

Speaker 3 (09:16):
I try to go out over you on Saturday night,
gready to make that boy stay home.

Speaker 2 (09:20):
Well, the thing was is it was you know, the
one thing we had is we always had good friends
in Glenvill, Yes, and hanging out with when I'll throw
out a few names with Calvin and riding In and
Lamont and those guys hanging out. You know, it was
it was an opportunity for us. We didn't I didn't
drink then, you know, I wasn't chasing women there. It

(09:41):
was just hanging out with guys my age. And the
thing is is, I can't hang out over here because
I got to worry about this one here going. He
always had to wander off and do his own thing,
So it was it wasn't personal.

Speaker 1 (09:55):
I just want you to know one person.

Speaker 3 (09:59):
When I tell the story about no indoor plumbing and
not taking a shower in a home until I was
twenty X, Y and.

Speaker 1 (10:04):
Z, people don't believe it.

Speaker 3 (10:08):
How many times have someone come up to you and say, man,
I heard your brother say this and this and this
about y'all getting leaked on, y'all having to go out
to the woods, y'all having to take bath, you know,
eating this. How many times have people coming to the
units of man, is that true?

Speaker 2 (10:20):
Probably six times a day for fifty four years. And
I mean because they're like, there is no way. The
first time you live in a house where running water
was nineteen eighty eight, and I said, well, not for me,
it was nineteen eighty nine. Because of nineteen eighty eight,
I went to Green Bay, so I did live in
the house. But yeah, I get it all the time
because it's hard to fathom in what was today's world.

(10:45):
That's hard to fathom. But you know, and I'll say this,
Livy and I our older sister, you tell stories about
our upbringing. We would never tell, right because you can't
explain or you can't walk people through what that's like.
I heard you tell the story about going to practice
and then you know, coming home doing as much homework

(11:07):
as you can and get in the car and catching chicken.
What people don't realize is that you have to catch
chickens at night. It's nine thousand degrees in that chicken out.
When you come home to take a bath, you either
gonna take a cold one or we're gonna have to
wait heat up the water to be And it's like,
there are so many more layers that you can tell

(11:29):
about our upbringing, but yeah, I get them all.

Speaker 1 (11:32):
I still get them to this day.

Speaker 2 (11:33):
Man, your brother said that your grandma did your grandma
hooked you and I with a hook because you were
sitting behind in a fishing pole. I was like, yeah,
I mean it was a perfect cast because she caught
my eyelid and she thought she was home, and she
just kept trying to unhang herself until I started yelling.
I'm like, now the story he tells, he is definitely

(11:56):
telling the truth.

Speaker 1 (11:57):
Yeah, you're absolutely right.

Speaker 3 (11:59):
Because people and the said, man, this is not forties
and fifties and sixties. They're like, bro, we talking about
late eighties. I was like, okay, you didn't have running
water in the late eighties. We had whale water in
the late eighties. We had to put the water in
a tin tub and let the sun heat it, or
we put it on the stove stove and boil it.

Speaker 2 (12:20):
I'll give you another one. People are amazed, said, I
don't know how to cook. And I said, I grew
up old school. When you went through Mary Porter's kitchen,
you were either eating or you were walking through. You
weren't learning how to She wouldn't. You weren't going in
there to cook. Nothing in Married Porter's kitchen. That's gonna happen.
We grew up as old school as you can get.

Speaker 3 (12:39):
People don't believe when I tell them. I said, at
the table, we couldn't talk. No, only grown folks were
allowed to talk. If you wanted to talk, you had
to get up and go on the porch. You had
to go in the living room. Only grown folks talked
at the table.

Speaker 2 (12:50):
Not only talk at the table, but when they were
in the living room or the kitchen, or when grown
folks were talking. You had to go because that conversation
that they were having was not for you. It was
not about you, and it wasn't gonna benefit you.

Speaker 1 (13:07):
So yeah, the respect of the kids. Go hang with kids.
Oh that was real.

Speaker 3 (13:14):
What do you remember most about that fouble square foot
send the block home that had cement floors, had a
tin roof, nor paneling.

Speaker 1 (13:20):
It was.

Speaker 3 (13:23):
You spent the first seventeen years there. I spent twenty
years there. You left in eighty three. You got the
house in eighty eight, So I was twenty. I'll never forget.
I was twenty when I called your own room in
the house called my own room. Yeah, had your own TV,
had your own bed.

Speaker 1 (13:42):
Yeah, yeah, and it was it wasn't cast I.

Speaker 2 (13:48):
I have lived my entire life by this phrase because
of how we grew up. This is my life. There
are many like it, but this one is mine. I'm
not in badris because we never went to everybody anybody
else's house to stay overnight. You know, Oh, I'm gonna
go stay at Lamont, So we go. Oh, you know what, man,

(14:10):
I'm just gonna go hang out. I'm gonna stay at
caws house this weekend. Granted, the only time we went
somewhere to stay overnight was to go to our dad's parents'
house in Reedsville, which is fourteen miles away. Correct, we
got there Friday and Barney picked us up on Sunday. Yes,
that is all. That is the only overnight we ever did.

(14:30):
So the only thing I'm trying to think, did I
go to I went to Forest Camp one? You went
to Roy, went to Rock Eagle. I went to Rock
Eagle twice, and I went to Chatham.

Speaker 1 (14:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (14:41):
But the thing was is when I look at that house,
it didn't motivate me to or drive me to be
this or that. It didn't scare me that I'm gonna
live like this for the rest of my life. It
was us, man, I have my family. When you know,
I learned my jump shot playing with you in the yard.

(15:01):
I learned my football moves on the fourth Sunday when Arnel, Eugene, Lannie,
Robbie Bernard, all of us would get together and play
in the yard. I was never embarrassed by how we
grew up. Remember that was jokes. The boys used to
make jokes about it.

Speaker 1 (15:15):
Man, y'all live so far out of town, they got
a bump sunshine. Man, that was, you know, bad, coach 'all.
We don't want to ride the bed drummers up first, coach'all.
Fuck y'all Right, y'all.

Speaker 2 (15:27):
Way, it can be raining in Glenville and it's snowing
out in Tyson. Y'all lived so far. Well never bothered
me because what it was was it was us always
had us. I always had my family, and that was
never a motivating factor. Being poor never motivated me because
remember the greatest season I had in college, being a

(15:48):
consensus All American, being up in the top three five
and catch his yards and touchdowns. I had another year
of college, I could have easily turned pro because everybody
had already projected me as being a first round draft pick.
And you know, I remember coach Morrison going, what do
you think I was like? About what he was like?
You know about turning pro? My family's been poor my

(16:10):
entire life.

Speaker 1 (16:11):
What's one more year. They used to it, they're accustomed
to it, they're comfortable with it.

Speaker 2 (16:16):
That's one more year. Because I enjoyed college. So when
I think about Glenville, and let me tell you, every
time I go to Glenville, I ride by that house
because there's so many tremendous memories and fun times and
growing up in that house with all of us Mary Nell,
sometimes Gladys, James Shermandine, Libby, Dietrich, her Son, Me, you,

(16:42):
Granny and Papa. I have so many tremendous memories because
all my life I lived in my head. Remember we
played that's my car, that's my car. Remember you know what, man,
when I get some money, you know what kind karma
get and on Camino a car the front, truck in
the back. That's what I'm kidding, you know. So you know,

(17:06):
for me, growing up was just the way of life
in that thousand foot center block out. But I have
such tremendous memories there, man, don't I don't have any
negativity or wow, you know that it wasn't tough because
that's all weakness.

Speaker 1 (17:19):
Yeah it was.

Speaker 3 (17:20):
It was definitely motivating for me because I was like,
I would know, but you were different.

Speaker 1 (17:24):
But I was thinking, does everybody live like this? Now?

Speaker 3 (17:27):
You know a lot of my family members lived exactly
how we live. When we go to their house. It
was the same thing. But I'm thinking about the kids
at school, my friends. Do they have running water, do
they have indoor plummet? I mean they telling me they
taking showers and they doing all this.

Speaker 1 (17:41):
I'm like, we'll do none of that.

Speaker 2 (17:44):
I never looked at it that way. I mean I
looked forward to two things. I look forward to the
fourth Sunday. Yeah, because you know Granny and Via Bell
and Clarice's and Dorris and all our aunts. We're gonna
get together with Granny and they were gonna cook right,
and there was gonna be cakes.

Speaker 1 (18:04):
And on the fourth Sunday.

Speaker 2 (18:07):
You know, my grandmother was the mother of the church
and my grandfather was the head deacon and the custodian,
and we had so we were in charge of the
communion wine at Morgan David, You're gonna get to finish
off that logan DP. It was a thousand little cups
and we were gonna get to drink that.

Speaker 1 (18:23):
But you know what we knew.

Speaker 2 (18:25):
We were gonna get to play right, we were gonna
get to enjoy ourselves. We're gonna get to eat good.
Those memories, man, lived forever in my head. I love
those times.

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Speaker 1 (19:44):
People, Man, when it rain, did y'all really get rained on?

Speaker 3 (19:47):
Could you really lay in the bed and look up
and see the sky, see the stars, see the moon
from your bed?

Speaker 1 (19:53):
People ask those questions.

Speaker 2 (19:56):
Yeah, we did, and regard, which is really strange because
it wasn't like we didn't climb up there and oh yeah,
you know, hey, is this the whole And you take
a broom and you be like right here and you
tar that area and be like, okay, now this area
is not gonna leave. Okay, now over here, this ain't
gonna leak. And regardless of what we did, if it rained,

(20:17):
it rained on us. Right, Yes, that's I mean, but
that was just the way of life then, and that
was just the way we did this.

Speaker 3 (20:25):
What about the bathroom situation, not being able to go
to the bathroom indoors at a home until I was twenty,
you were seventeen when you I mean when I went
to college. Yeah, so proud of that. People don't understand.
I was six and seven years old. You know, Liby
gonna be mad when she sees this. Libly don't like
you're talking about them days live.

Speaker 1 (20:44):
That's him. I ain't got nothing to do with it.
I'm just sitting here.

Speaker 3 (20:47):
I felt bad for you because if I had to
go to the bathroom late at night, now I had
to go with it.

Speaker 1 (20:52):
Granny had I had to go with it. Make you
hold a flash light.

Speaker 3 (20:55):
We'd have to take the bug spray, especially if it
was in the summertime because the mosquitoes had machetes and
they were playing. Uh if it was cold, if it
was raining, you had to hold.

Speaker 1 (21:07):
And we didn't have an umbrella.

Speaker 2 (21:08):
We had like our aunts used to work at their
Claxton poetry so they had these like plastic vinyl uh.

Speaker 1 (21:19):
Gay with so I So while he's.

Speaker 2 (21:21):
Doing his thing, I got to stand over him with
a little bit over me and and I'm like this, yeah,
but that was just the way it was, man. I mean,
I would love to be angry that Papa didn't do
better and make it better for us. I would love
to be angry and be like, granted, you see how

(21:41):
we living. He ain't supposed to live like this. But
the thing is is when you don't know better, it's
hard to do or be better. And I was like,
this is who we are and this is what we do.
And and that's my little brother and can't nobody hit
him but me? Well, Granny and Papa are every now
and then. But you know, I couldn't say noning to that.

(22:03):
But that was the thing is, it was just us, right.
It was just our way of life, you know, Like
it's funny. And I tell people this all the time.
You and I looked out the same window and saw
two totally different things living in that house. Yep, you
were motivated by our living conditions. It was just a
way of life from.

Speaker 1 (22:22):
Me that motivated you to run harder, try harder, do this.
I was just like you were doing.

Speaker 2 (22:31):
I think what drove you was is I'm gonna be
the one to take care of these living situations and
all that. And I I'm like, man, you know, he
doing his thing, he's growing, he's becoming his own.

Speaker 1 (22:45):
Man, I'm loving it. For me.

Speaker 2 (22:47):
Looking out that window, all I saw was is this
is what we got. And every now and then I
would allow myself to think back and go, are we
here if we grew up and yaga, are we here?
If we are we as close as we are if
we grow up in Chicago. And so I'm like, sometime

(23:11):
many times we don't get what we want, we get
what we need. And that thousand foot thousand square foots
in their block house gave us both what we needed
to be able to be where we are right now.

Speaker 1 (23:27):
You didn't miss taking a shower, you like taking a
bath of the tin tub.

Speaker 2 (23:31):
When you didn't tub, it wasn't like, you know, I
got to take it. I go to school and I
got to take showers, and then I come home. It
was like a tin tub from cant to Can't. So
whenever you had to take a showers a tin tub,
and and that went on. I mean, just imagine I
looked left him go to college. When I would come
home for holidays, guess what back in that ten tub?

Speaker 1 (23:54):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (23:55):
So, but it ain't like I don't know how to
do it. You know, I know how to eat the
water up, you know, soap that leg, and I don't
know how to do all that. You know, it's just
like washing a car when you take a bath to
the tin tub you wash from the top down, just
like washing a car. So never bothered me, never, never,
never once bothered me to the point where I felt

(24:18):
embarrassed or income right, it was just you know, I
brought my girlfriend there, you know, never bothered me because
I'm like, this is just what we do, this is
who we are, That's how we grew up. I'm sorry
that you probably don't understand this.

Speaker 1 (24:31):
This is just light. Right.

Speaker 3 (24:34):
The drinking of the whale water, I remember, I mean
drinking whale water, and then the whale went dry, and
then we had to go get a barrel. We had
to go to Christine and she would let us droll
up a barrel, fill up the barrel, and that was
our drinking water. That was our washing water because we
sat the barrel and that those barrels were so I mean,
thank you, about fifty five gallon drum cash down with

(24:57):
water in it.

Speaker 1 (24:58):
And so that would have have to last us, you know.

Speaker 2 (25:02):
Until it ran out and we had to load it
back in the truck and then we were driving the
vehicle that might get us there and it might not, right,
but but you go back to the well. Remember what
we had to put it in the well to kill
the bugs. We put catfish in to put a catfish
in the bottom of the well and kill the buck
to eat the bugs off the top.

Speaker 3 (25:18):
So remind you now, the water that we're drinking, they're
the live fish catfish. Because we didn't want bugs. It
didn't Donald's well. If the catfish had to go to
the bathroom gone, that didn't dawn on us. It was
just the bugs.

Speaker 2 (25:33):
We already robbing Peter to pay Paul. We just robbing Peter.
That's all it was. Yes, yeah, live it. I ain't
got nothing to do with you question this, your little brother.
I don't want to talk about this. We want to
talk about.

Speaker 3 (25:47):
The meals that we ate. We got chicken once a week.
That was on Sunday. I can't remember a time in
my from the time that I was old enough all
the time I.

Speaker 2 (25:58):
Left, we ain't good on Sundays. We always had chicken,
always had Yeah, we always had chicken. Yes, And what
you didn't eat, you got it on Monday because you got.

Speaker 1 (26:06):
Got some mother fry. Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 2 (26:09):
And we ate everything on the pig from the rooter
to the two Yeah, yeah, everything go to chicken. Everything
on the except the first and the left party, got
on the bed. Dad speak of the butt. That is correct.
But see, it's funny having this conversation because he's saying
things that I never thought of. You know, when when
we would kill a hog and we had to go

(26:31):
over and get you know, Granny would say, go over
and get Mama, her mom, Grandma, go over and get
Grandma Louke, because we're gonna kill a hog. Because Grandma
lou was the chitling extpert. Yes, but I never you know,
people don't realize that we would go out in the
woods and get a tub of turping time. We would
boil water, put the turping time in there and slide

(26:52):
the hog in there and turn it around and most
of the hair would just come off right. But then
one of my uncles or our granddaddy would take the
straight rays and shave it and we ate everything on the.

Speaker 1 (27:03):
Pig feet you know, big is hog head cheese. We
did it all. And but that's just the way of life.

Speaker 2 (27:12):
That is not a Okay, I gotta do this now,
and I'm not gonna have to do this.

Speaker 1 (27:18):
No, this is just the way A lie, that's all.

Speaker 3 (27:21):
What do you think the craziest thing because when I
tell people the stuff that we ate, like, man, nobody
eat that. Man, don't nobody eat no posa, don't nobody.

Speaker 2 (27:27):
Eat I've never eaten possum, and I've never eaten chitlins.
I was like, yeah, I'm like, I'm not doing that.
That ain't gonna. I'm not doing that, and I don't
I don't care what. I'm not eating Chitlin's. That's not gonna.

Speaker 3 (27:39):
I promise you, Kelloggs he ate more corn flakes with
anybody on the history of the planet because.

Speaker 2 (27:44):
I'm not eating Chitlin's. That's not gonna happen. Well, that's
all we got. So if you're gonna eat anything, you're
gonna eat thet chitl No, sir, I'm gonna take this
carnation instant milk. I'm gonna miss it, mix it with water,
or if it's powdered milk, I'm gonna mix it with water.

Speaker 1 (27:56):
I'm gonna eat the eat kellogg frost and frikes for
as long as humanly. But what about the alligator turtle,
the snappy turtle.

Speaker 2 (28:03):
Okay, it's gummy, you know it's gummy, but it wasn't
what we ate every day, right, I mean usually remember that.
You know, we grew up in a time where we
would grab a gun thirty thirty thirty off six shot
gun twenty two and you know, we going hunting, and
Granted would just be like be careful, you know, because

(28:24):
she was like, well, they know how to handle the gun, right.

Speaker 1 (28:27):
You know, And that's something that we that people told
us how to have a gun.

Speaker 2 (28:31):
There's not a gun dead is a long time, so
you understood what the power of that gun was. Even
though he couldn't shoot, he taught us how to shoot
correct And so you know, usually you know, ducks, rabbits, raccoons,
squirrel I remember one time when Arnelle and Eugene first
got there fourteen Yeah, man, we must have killed four

(28:52):
hundred squirrels.

Speaker 1 (28:54):
I mean, man, we are head. Yeah, we wiped about.
We wiped out the whole at the game ward knowing
what we did when we be in jail steel right now,
we wiped out a whole gag squirrel. But you know
the thing was is, even to this day, I think
I wonder if I could skin a raccoon and I'm
like absolutely hanging up upside.

Speaker 2 (29:16):
You you know, pulling it. Yeah, Oh I could do that.
You know because some people say dressing. We called it casey.
You case it out. Yeah, oh yeah, so.

Speaker 3 (29:26):
But once again, that was just the way of life, right,
the sleeping arrangement. You slept with Papa, I slept with Granny.
When Papa passed, you still you.

Speaker 2 (29:38):
Slept by your side, by myself, but you were We
were in the same m the same room with Grannie.

Speaker 3 (29:43):
I slept with Granny. Then pop pap passed, you slept
by yourself. I didn't sleep by myself until I was fifteen,
till you left to go to South Carolina. And I
tell people you had it the hardest because my grandfather
wasn't a great sleeper, and he would get up in
the middle of maybe he get up two o'clock, three
o'clock in the morning, and he would say, come on,
spank it, and he would take you to.

Speaker 2 (30:04):
The truck stock. No, he would he would make me
go with here to the truck stop. He wouldn't take me.
It wasn't like a package deal. But that ain't the
best part. The best part is that he would order
grits ed bacon toast, maybe some French toast, and he
would tell me, you ain't gonna get to eat this

(30:26):
because you're gonna eat cereal in the morning when before
you go to school. I just had to sit there
and watch him eat. But he didn't want to go
by himself. How about this one we used to wash
his car. He would pay us five dollars to wash
his car and charge us three dollars to take us
to the score to spend it.

Speaker 1 (30:49):
That is absolutely it's just, but it's just the way
of life. And so you know, remember what a lot
of people don't know. You probably don't know this. When
he died, he fell over on the sofa on me.
I called Thurman.

Speaker 2 (31:05):
He had a heart attack, fell over on the sofa
on me at thirteen twelve thirty, at thirteen I called
Thurman and and Thurmann called my uncle James, and Uncle
Thurman came down and got Ruby King to come over
and tried to rush him to Dublin. I think it
was the VA hospital in Dublin. And then he died

(31:28):
a few days later. So you you know, when when
I hear you talk about Granny, and justifiably so. Remember
I spent the majority of my being able to move
around work, learning how to drive, years with him and
listening to him direct until and.

Speaker 1 (31:51):
Orchestrate me in a way to where I never I
never looked at our lives as being magic or bad
or sad.

Speaker 2 (32:02):
It was just the way of life. And guess what,
just like novacaine, just give it time. Your lives get better.
It's just gonna take some time.

Speaker 1 (32:09):
Right. What's your favorite story with Papa? I mean he's
serious or funny.

Speaker 2 (32:17):
The funniest story is when he had to thirty Well,
he made me go get to thirty ox six because
the fox was like twenty yards away sitting in the road,
and he shot four hundred times and the fox was
looking at him like, well who you shooting at? That
was the funniest And he blamed me for the sight
being off. He had a scope and then handed me

(32:38):
to thirty ox six and at thirty thirty in and
one shot, the fox fell over dead and he was like, yeah,
you done need something to my gun?

Speaker 1 (32:46):
No, you just can't shoot. I mean, that was probably
the funniest one.

Speaker 2 (32:50):
But you know, the thing was is not knowing like
really anything about his life, the fact that he was
so respected by everybody that came in contact with, both
white and black yep, and not knowing why that was uh.

Speaker 1 (33:08):
He would teach me with words.

Speaker 2 (33:12):
Remember we would be riding up, you know, hitting maybe
go up to Thurnails and we would get to play
with Ronell and them and here and Thurnail and he
just wanted to hang out. And he would see a
car on the side of the road with four, you know,
teenage guys, and he would always say too many drivers
and not enough fixers, you know. So he talked in riddles,

(33:35):
so to yee yes and so for me, like when
he taught me how to drive, he was just like,
you donna see me do it now, follow me and
don't hit anything. So I'm like, I'm trying to drive,
and I'm like and when you watch someone drive, you
see the steering wheel constantly move. So I'm back there

(33:57):
like this and I'm like, in the truck is going
like this, and he pulls over just to just to
curse me out because he's like, boy, you don't drive
like that.

Speaker 1 (34:08):
Hus's not gonna learn to drive.

Speaker 2 (34:10):
So but there were so many things like watching him
in church, you know, when he went, you know, oh,
I'm gonna go buy such and such fras your house
because you know, he need to come to church and
be like no, I ain't leaving until you get in
the truckle. You know, just the fact that he he

(34:31):
had a powerful voice. He was very well respected, and
I never knew or understood why, even to this day,
still don't know or understand why. But the fact that
he commanded your attention when he spoke. Everybody was like
this if you were. I mean, the thing is is

(34:51):
his threats were real. So when we would be in church,
and you know, the best place to sleep is in church,
and I wish you had a bit there before. I wish,
I wish you would now he could nod off, but
we couldn't. I mean that, you know, those are the
things I think, in hindsight that I learned which helped

(35:12):
shape and mold my development of trying to be uh
the man better than anyone else, be a man better
than anyone else, did anything else?

Speaker 1 (35:24):
I agree.

Speaker 3 (35:24):
I think the thing is you had it the hardest
because he was very very hard on you because you
were the oldest. And I remember him having I was
the oldest boy boy. But I remember him telling Granted
all the time. She said, she said, Bartie, why you
so hard on him? He said, Mary, because that little
one is going to learn everything from him.

Speaker 1 (35:45):
Yep, and he have to do it right.

Speaker 2 (35:47):
He nicknamed me Spanky because he couldn't say sterling, so
he would always say spank. That Spank is always going
to be responsible for him. So I don't want that.

Speaker 1 (35:59):
Look.

Speaker 2 (36:00):
If the big one's in jail, the little one's gonna
be in jail. If the big ones on drugs, the
little one's gonna be on drugs, And I don't want
that to happen to either one of it. But he
never told me, no, that I was responsible for you.
He never said that, but he always would give me
little look like. I spent more time with him and

(36:22):
my uncle Thurman because my uncle Thurman, his third oldest son,
worked to work together for you. So I spent more
time with them and got a chance to watch their interaction.
And the thing was is he was always in charge.
Now you may not like it, you may not appreciate it,

(36:43):
but he is always in charge.

Speaker 1 (36:45):
And I like that, and I.

Speaker 2 (36:49):
Equated it to the only way to constantly be in charge,
that you got to have more information, You got to
have more compassion, you got to have more love, you
got to have more understanding about the the world.

Speaker 1 (37:00):
That you're in and if you want to be in
charge all the time.

Speaker 2 (37:04):
And so I always loved the fact that when it
came time to voting seven thousand and I'm going to
say this because I grew up in rural South Georgia,
seven thousand, white people would come by and talk to
him about how he was going to vote, because how
he voted influenced how a lot of the black community
out in rural South Georgia voted. So the fact that

(37:25):
he commanded a presence like that, the fact that if
he had something that taught me son, if you got
something to say, say it. There was a lot of
times that I thought I had something to say and
I didn't, but I learned over time that I got it.
My voice is powerful. My daughter hated my voice growing up.
I mean, I think I may have spanked summer once

(37:46):
because my voice was enough and it wasn't you know hey,
it was just what are we doing?

Speaker 1 (37:53):
And that was enough?

Speaker 2 (37:54):
And so I think a lot of subliminally I learned
a lot of I mean, everybody in the family things,
I'm more like him than he was. I'm more like
our grandfather than anybody.

Speaker 1 (38:05):
Any of it.

Speaker 2 (38:06):
Because I spent the most time with him because of
little things that, you know, making me get up to
go to the truck stop with him so he could
eat breakfast because he.

Speaker 1 (38:15):
Didn't want to go along. You know. Uh. The thing
was is.

Speaker 3 (38:21):
We had we had to sring his fishing poles, We
had to do his rods, and real what about the
ba we had. We had the worst, probably the worst
beating he ever gave you. And I say this, and
all is my We went out and we found a.

Speaker 1 (38:36):
Smorgasborg of worms.

Speaker 2 (38:39):
No, I found the borg of work. Now, let me
tell the story my way. We found a Smorglsborg of worms.
And my brother's got this coffee can. It's about like this,
and it is glowing with dirt and worms.

Speaker 1 (38:54):
My grandma ain't she don't have any worms? She said
she would have worked that.

Speaker 2 (39:00):
She says, uh, son, bring me some of them worms.
He says, no, these, mind, Granny, I want them dog these.

Speaker 1 (39:09):
I mean, dang uh Barney, that boy that won't give
me none of his bait.

Speaker 2 (39:17):
What we ain't catch a thing that day because all
that yelling you were doing was scared off all them fished.

Speaker 1 (39:24):
He beat the brakes off, you bro. But but that
but he really, you know, after his I want to
say the first heart attack, because that was the first
heart attack, because the second heart wait wait, no, the
second heart attack he was down at the thing.

Speaker 3 (39:41):
No, that was the first one at the UH. Because
the one he fell over on me was the third. Yeah,
at the house. That was at the house. But marinell
the one that found him at the UH down down
the road at the the shot where we used to
go skateboard.

Speaker 2 (39:56):
Yes, and so so we had to string, we had
to carry we How about getting in the boat with him,
I mean he got in the boat and you know,
you got to be you know, bub got to be balanced.
He got in there like he walking on land and
you were sitting in there because you know, we all
learned how to swim, throw you in the clay hole,

(40:18):
bubbles and whatnot, you know, and I almost I almost
drowned because I didn't know how to swim at the
state park.

Speaker 1 (40:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (40:25):
But you know, for for being around Papa all the
time that I did, I think I learned so much
subliminally by watching and seeing the interaction of you know,
his best.

Speaker 1 (40:38):
Friend was a guy named Virgin Wiggins.

Speaker 2 (40:40):
Yep, and Virgin Wiggins could do no wrong and couldn't
nobody talk about him but him. He was the only
one that could say something negative about Virgin Wiggins. He
was the you know, we don't, I don't.

Speaker 1 (40:51):
We don't.

Speaker 2 (40:51):
I'll say we we ain't big on going to somebody's house.
We you know, we ain't ever half still to this day, yeah,
never ain't big on going to somebody house. And I
think we got that from him. And the only house
he would go to other than his you know, his
kids was Virgil Wickins.

Speaker 1 (41:10):
I think Granny is more more don't go to people house.

Speaker 2 (41:13):
Well, we definitely got that from them because we ain't
all about going over and definitely spend the night at
going over and be like, yeah I was in No,
I ain't in the neighborhood at your house. If I'm
coming to your house, you either owe me money or
I'm borrowing something.

Speaker 1 (41:27):
That's about it. You know.

Speaker 3 (41:29):
Back then, I can't recall the time, and I told
you I can remember. Papa died in seventy seven. I
was about to turn I was about to turn nine.
He died in February, so I was eight at the time.
And every time everything he's ever said in my presence,
I can remember. I don't remember him ever saying.

Speaker 1 (41:47):
That I love you.

Speaker 3 (41:48):
But the one thing I do know is that he
didn't play all them jokes, and that Kiki never saw
him life, really never really saw him all that Kiki
key and that joke, because I remember, I remember what
I'm not gonna call the guy's name. He made a
joke about my grandfather's teeth, and my grandfather was pulling off.
My grandfather put the car in the car and put

(42:09):
he reversed and put the car in park, and he
got out. He said, I don't play. He said, I'm
old enough to be your dad. He said, I don't
do that joking. But the times were different too. Yeah,
I mean, but men didn't play back then. Make but
parents and grandparents weren't your friend. No, aunts and uncles

(42:29):
weren't your Absolutely not.

Speaker 2 (42:31):
And I think now because of how the dynamic is, because.

Speaker 1 (42:36):
Some of the ages, dangers are a little. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (42:38):
But but the thing was is, and I and I
tell people this all the time when I speak publicly,
is we were apprentices. We were never gonna get the
approval until we were doing whatever it.

Speaker 1 (42:52):
Was, cutting the grounds. We had to cut it like
he cut it. I go left to right.

Speaker 2 (43:00):
You know, we may want to start down here and
just run go. No, I cut it left or right,
so you got to cut it left or right. So
you know, the times and the people were different, you know,
growing up in a time where men were men and
women were women. And I'm like, that's why I never
learned to cook because you weren't learning the Mary Porter's kitchen.
That wasn't gonna happen because if she found you in

(43:21):
the kitchen and she asked you, you weren't gonna There
was no singing at the table, my ain't. Gladys caught
us that. The ain't no singing at the table. It's
your thing, remember that. So you can't sing at the table,
you ain't talking at the table. And if you in
the kitchen, you're either walking through it or you eat.
And that's just the way it was.

Speaker 3 (43:40):
Right when Papa passed, did you feel like you needed
to step up? Because now you're the dominant male figure
that I'm gonna see every single day. Did you felt
or did you feel he had prepared you for that role?
And that was just a natural progression. When Papa died
was the best day of my life. When Granny us

(44:01):
to tell us that he remembered he was in the hospital.
He died in hospital. Y when Granny walked out, we
got off the bus and Granny met us. She said, boys,
your grandfather is gone. Best day of my life because
I was going to get to do what I wanted,
always wanted to do.

Speaker 1 (44:16):
I was going to get to play football. Yep.

Speaker 2 (44:19):
I learned this from an older gentleman because he would
always ask me about the best You know, I learned
grow what's the best day of your life? I go,
my grandfather died, best day of my life. The man
who took us in raised us formulated, who I am,
best day of my life? Well, what's the worst day
of your life? Same day. But I've learned in my

(44:41):
years that he had probably given me everything that he
could give me, and it was okay for him to
leave because when he died, I got a chance to
play football.

Speaker 1 (44:51):
The very next year. He died in February.

Speaker 2 (44:53):
The very next year I started playing football and the
rest of of course, is history and God willing, I
find myself in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Barney
Porter is definitely one of the men that And once
again you have to learn to follow before you can leave.
That I followed.

Speaker 1 (45:14):
Not knowing where I was going, and I never looked
at I know that I wanted to be the best
I could be.

Speaker 2 (45:27):
But that was a great day, man, when Granny told
us that Papa had died, because you said something I
saw on one of your on one of your your
segments in your podcast, that you wish Papa and Daddy
could see what we turned out to be. If Barney
Porter doesn't die, then I don't get to play football

(45:50):
because I'm the oldest guy in the house. I'm with him,
so I'm still riding a tractor, plant whatever will grow
in harvesting that you, as the baby might have right,
but I don't get that opportunity. So selfishly it worked
out great for me selfishly. But man, let me tell you,
I use the same words, phrases, mannerism, actions, reactions that

(46:15):
I saw in seventy three, seventy four, seventy six that
he used back then.

Speaker 1 (46:22):
If you could talk to him today, would you tell it.
I really wish you would have let me eat a
couple of times at that.

Speaker 2 (46:32):
I had to trust it out because boy, I was
sitting there salivating, going man, pancakes, but just like you
see on TV in a commercial, and I would just
sit there and he had orange juice he had cought.

Speaker 1 (46:45):
Yeah, yeah, you don't want none of this.

Speaker 2 (46:48):
Because you're gonna have you gonna have some cereal when
we get back to the house while you go to school. No,
I honestly do not know, because there is not much
you can say to someone that you're like. There is
not much that you want to say to someone that
you're just like, because.

Speaker 1 (47:08):
Think about it.

Speaker 3 (47:08):
You started, you started chewing tobacco, You smoked cigars because
he was a big chewed tobacco. He smoked cigars, he
wore hats, a lot of your manner rhythms today are him?

Speaker 1 (47:20):
Are him? Yes?

Speaker 2 (47:22):
And and and and and don't don't lose sight of this.
I'm older now than he was when he died. Yes,
and so yeah, I inherited a lot of who he was,
what he stood for, what he said. Remember, there's a

(47:43):
lot of things you might get away with. You weren't
gonna have Barney Porter late.

Speaker 1 (47:47):
You want to get on my bad side? Be late?
Where you get that from Jordan? Late?

Speaker 2 (47:52):
You ain't let me tell you, we ain't even be late.
And that you know, and if I tell you I'm
going to that's happening.

Speaker 1 (48:02):
Yeah, that's as good as gold. You can put it
in the bank. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (48:05):
I got that from him. His word was as as
they say nowadays. His word was bombed. If he told
you he was gonna do or be, you can count
on the best, believe it.

Speaker 1 (48:17):
Yes, And I inherited Harold Green, one of my best friends.

Speaker 2 (48:23):
We almost had a falling out because he was late
and he late. We going to play golf and he late. Brouh,
you can't be late. That that is like an absolute
no no brother. That that you can fry egg on
my head if you're gonna be late.

Speaker 1 (48:39):
Yeah, I mean we got it from both. Yeah, we
ran that gonna be.

Speaker 2 (48:43):
Late because and if you say you're gonna do something
to do yeah, And a lot of people's word is
no good.

Speaker 1 (48:50):
It's how how did Uncle Tharmo used to say it? Man?
They word like pie crust easily broken.

Speaker 2 (48:57):
And so I you know, the old school way that
we grew up and now I'll say I grew up
Man definitely formulated and impacted my life in a way
that allowed me. I never did anything for public consumption.
The only competitor, the only competition I ever had in
my life was you. I cut the grass. Oh, the

(49:20):
race took me sixteen minutes. Race the race headway, bro.
I fed the hogs, the chickens and ringo weve minutes.
That's the only competition I ever had going out. I
remember people going, you know, comparing me to other receivers,

(49:41):
and I would just laugh because I'm like, y'all don't understand.

Speaker 1 (49:46):
I'm doing what I want to do. This is my ceiling.

Speaker 2 (49:48):
I'm playing, not making the Pro Bowl, not being an
All Pro. My ceiling is playing in the NFL. I remember,
and I say a lot of the best things that
ever happened to me with you. You know, when I
signed my scholarship, you in the background, jeezus, you know,
I'm like, I don't know why he's so happy. When

(50:10):
I got drafted. Uh, when the call came in, which
I'm gonna tell y'all this, but don't tell him.

Speaker 1 (50:18):
I'm telling you. So. When Buddy Guys called me to
tell me that the Green Bay Packers were going to
take me at number seven, my brother yells out in
the background, damn man, you ain't wanna have me on TV.

Speaker 2 (50:33):
I was so happy because I went to a place
that I could I could concentrate. I'm playing football and
so to me, you know all, you know, I remember
you two real pointed things in my life. We went
to this quote unquote restaurant in Colombia. My brother wanted
to try it, and it almost kills So I ain't
been back to that restaurant, saying. And the first game

(50:56):
my brother came to h was probably my twelve Minnesota
in green Back. Yeah, and I thought that almost killed
him because.

Speaker 1 (51:06):
He went and got in bed. And the next time
I talked to him, we were at the airport. He
was like, but you know, so that man, I just got, you.

Speaker 2 (51:17):
Know, tremendous memories of what Barney Porter gave us, you know,
gave us life, help, gave us what he had what
he could. More importantly, he gave us wisdom and knowledge
that we weren't gonna get anywhere.

Speaker 3 (51:30):
Right I tell the story, Yeah, everybody knows who you
and I are. But the person that had the hardest
job was Buck. Because when Buck came, we all came.
She's five years older than you, eight years old, the
Libby eight years older than I. And when we came

(51:52):
in nineteen seventy for good. She never left correct. And
in order for me, and you speak for you, in
order for me to function at the highest rate that
I knew I possibly could, I needed to know, granted,
was gonna be okay. And I know Libby being there,
You know, Libby could do no wrong. And Granny's eyes,

(52:15):
how important you could do no wrong in Granny's eyes either,
But go ahead with your store.

Speaker 1 (52:21):
But go ahead.

Speaker 3 (52:22):
I mean, as I got little, did it, got the bed? Well,
Libby could do no wrong from the time that week
I got grown. You know, I left it, gover to
Savada State, and I come back and Libby have replaced me.
How important was But.

Speaker 2 (52:37):
To you see, I have never been able to separate
the dynamic of Mary and Barney. So Mary and Barney
are here, and then it's all of us, so there
is no well, Shannon, being the youngest, is least important.
And and you know Sherman Deine or Gladys or our
aunt Jane are more important. We were it was them,

(53:02):
and then it was all of us, right, and we
were here, And what Libby did was mum.

Speaker 1 (53:09):
Hmm, don't do that. Don't say that. Get it done.

Speaker 2 (53:16):
You know, when when pappap would say, hey, somebody need
to take out a draft.

Speaker 1 (53:23):
Was our first induction into being a foreman.

Speaker 2 (53:29):
Okay, you take it out Monday, you take it out, Tuesday,
you take you know, So now we delegate what that
grass idea is getting kind of long? You cut it
on this week, I'll cut it. I'll cut it next week.
So I don't look at Libby as an extension of

(53:51):
those two, right, I look at Libby as one of
us that just happened to be five years older.

Speaker 3 (53:59):
I think that's the difference because all the things that
a mother would do. Liberty did help me. What time,
mush you my report card? Helped me with my homework.

Speaker 1 (54:09):
She ain't do very well on the homework part. Man,
She was a terrible teacher. He ain't had no patience.
He couldn't get in prison with his grass man. Libby
was a terrible teacher. Man. She didn't have no patience.
How you spelled his word, don't? That is how you speeling.

Speaker 2 (54:27):
She didn't have any patience because he was too busy
being fun His entire existence is about a joke. He
gonna find the funny part in it, and he gonna
exploit that and he gonna keep it going.

Speaker 1 (54:45):
He don't care how many people join in on the joke.
He gonna keep it going. I don't care. Yeah, he gonna.
It's gonna be funny.

Speaker 3 (54:54):
But you know the thing was that, you know, she
took a lot of responsibility because you I mean would
take you know, take us, you know, school clothes shop,
and she'd take you to take you to Statesburgh leave
me ad school until I found out.

Speaker 1 (55:07):
You know, y'all made the mistake. You couldn't go with
us because you know it was a don'ts man. Man
lived was going.

Speaker 2 (55:12):
We go to Dairy Queen, get the big burger, and
you know, we were living we were living a dream.
We ain't had the responsibility of word about the dude,
you know, because you know, Granny was more like, okay,
y'all go to Statesburn, come right back.

Speaker 1 (55:26):
There ain't no detour getting food and all that. So
we could go go get the.

Speaker 2 (55:31):
Clothes, swing by Derry Queen enjoy the best choice burgers
and shakes. Because when we weren't gonna tell this dude
couldn't hold water if you did it, oh my god,
and he would hold Oh.

Speaker 1 (55:47):
Remember when ill went to Derry queen. You went to
Terrry queen too. Yeah, but Granny told y'all got to go.
I was just in the truck.

Speaker 3 (55:58):
Yeah, I was snitch our blackmail people because I know
when people got kicked out of school, to.

Speaker 1 (56:04):
The door to hear my others talking. Somebody got suspended.
I got oh, he was in all about the information. Yeah. Yeah,
you had to pay you had to pay up. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (56:18):
People don't believe this that we've never You and I
have never slept over at someone's home. No, And we've
never had friends sleep over hours.

Speaker 1 (56:29):
No, Like.

Speaker 2 (56:33):
I think the first time at my house that someone
stayed was you and Harrold the year y'all came out
of the draft, and you know we're all trained together.

Speaker 1 (56:46):
In ninety y'all stayed with me. But no, until this day,
I don't do it. It's just it's.

Speaker 2 (56:54):
Comfort for us. I mean, we sleep with fans, yes,
all of us. Me and you, Libby, we sleep with fans.
Susan Summer's sleep with fans. I just think it's a
comfort thing, that this is what I like and what
I need, and I don't want to We are all
about in our comfort, staying out of your way and
what you need.

Speaker 1 (57:14):
They ain't a bad thing, that's just the nature of
the beast. I did become envious because you got the
good clothes. Man. I had to wear hand me downs.
I had to wear Libby clothes.

Speaker 2 (57:26):
Okay, let's walk this thing back when when Papa died
and we started working for the Tatum brothers.

Speaker 1 (57:32):
Yep, and you were making your six dollars a day. Yeah,
so we working. Hold on, hold on, stop.

Speaker 2 (57:41):
You're making your six dollars a day working Monday through Friday.
So six times five is third. Where would the bulk
of your money go? Corner Stoke? Okay, So so sometimes
for lunch, we didn't go home and eat lunch. We
just stay in the field, take an hour break. So yet,

(58:03):
bring me a coke and you know, some chips, coke,
some peanuts coke.

Speaker 1 (58:09):
Tave a honey buck Junior here, Oh.

Speaker 2 (58:14):
Give me two honey buns, two sodas, and so all
his money is gone. We working because now I'm playing sports.
So in order to have football basketball at track shoes.

Speaker 1 (58:29):
I'm paying. In order for him to have football basketball
track shoes, I'm paying. So I got to choose my
spending carefully. So when my Grandma found out he was
making six dollars a day. She was like, oh lord,
that's y'all paying him too much. No, granted, he ate

(58:50):
his thirty dollars for the week, so he didn't he
couldn't get the quote unquote. But he always wanted the
best of the best, which I love about him. And
it was so I'm gonna fast forward when I got money,
regardless of what he would have turned out to be.

Speaker 2 (59:10):
Whatever he wanted. If he would have been a trash man,
he'd have been a trash man living in a ten
thousand square foot house. I would have made sure that
he'd have been a trash man driving a Mercedes. I
would have made sure he had a Mercedes in college
before I had one.

Speaker 1 (59:23):
Because he was my little brother. So when he tries
to be I was envious that you had all of
you work like we worked. You just ate. You was
making sixteen dollars a day.

Speaker 2 (59:36):
I was making you ate yours and honey buns and soda,
and we were saving ours because we were living down
the line and you were living for the day.

Speaker 3 (59:47):
I think, well, the thing was is that my grandmother,
we were making five dollars a day, and by killing
Landing me and Lanny. He's two years older than me,
Landy's two years older than me, Spanks three years older
than me, Eugene six years older than me, Arnell seven
years older than me, and Libby's eight years older than me.
And so Landy, I let Lanny talk me into asking

(01:00:08):
mister Joe for a raise. I said, mister Joe, Man,
we be working. This is me and I said, man,
me and Landing, Man, Man, Landy been working hard. Let
me refill my glass. He called my name Joe. They
called me pee wee because I was so small. T
Win Sundown.

Speaker 1 (01:00:24):
They called him sundown because he's like man this time,
this time to knock off man.

Speaker 3 (01:00:28):
The sun's going down. So that was his day, So
pee Win Sundown. So I let Landy talk to me
and say, man, man, you need to ask mister Joe
for a raise.

Speaker 1 (01:00:38):
Man.

Speaker 3 (01:00:39):
So I said, mister Joe, Man, me and Landy be
working hard. Man, we be carrying our own role. We
be walking behind the tobacco picker.

Speaker 1 (01:00:46):
He said.

Speaker 3 (01:00:46):
I said, man, we need a raise. He said, well,
pee Wee, how much you thank y'all? I mean, I'm
like I used to throw out a number because I
knew he was going to say no. I said, Man,
I think a dollar. I say a dollar.

Speaker 1 (01:00:56):
He said, over that pee wee, I pay you exk
the dollar a day. Man. I was so, I said,
Landy heard it too. Man, we ain't do nothing the
rest of it. You ain't do nothing. You ain't for
the rest of that day. You'm too laziest individual to
ever work the field.

Speaker 3 (01:01:15):
So Libby come home, blab of mouth, come home. Granted,
all them boys do is play in the field. They
don't do nothing else but play. And mister Jodham gave
him a raise. Granted, ain't say nothing. So the next morning, granted,
don't go to work. She come out there on the porch. Joe, Hey, Mary,

(01:01:37):
how you doing. I'm good, She said, Joe, I heard
you gave them boys a raise. He say, yeah, Mary,
they be working hard.

Speaker 1 (01:01:43):
They make a U. I gave him a dollar raise.
She say, take it back, six dollars.

Speaker 3 (01:01:48):
She say take it back because Libby told me they
don't do nothing to play, and he took it back.

Speaker 1 (01:01:55):
Which y'all did. Play. That's all y'all did was.

Speaker 2 (01:02:00):
But you know the thing was is just like we
had to learn, because you know, you walk behind the picker.
Then you become a picker. Then you become you know,
working for mister Joe, you become a stacker, and then
you go from stacking to dry.

Speaker 1 (01:02:16):
You hang you you or hanging?

Speaker 3 (01:02:18):
Yeah, and then you could you go for walk behind
the pickle to pick at the tobaco. Then you then
you hang had Indeed, if you hey, you get to
work at the barn because what what.

Speaker 1 (01:02:27):
What the thing about hanging for mister Joe was?

Speaker 2 (01:02:29):
Remember I I you know, uh, mister ors Eason used
to put the tobacco in the rat and the rat
and then spend the table and then I would put
the clamp on it and then put it in the
trailer by myself. Yeah, and so there was an elevation,
and y'all was not all about being on the elevation.

Speaker 1 (01:02:48):
May that walking, man, I got tired of walking. Man.

Speaker 3 (01:02:50):
Sometimes hey, they becoming back hey me and laying to
be sitting down there throwing rocks, and they coming back
the other way.

Speaker 1 (01:02:55):
We follow.

Speaker 2 (01:02:56):
But you know, you bring up something about working in
the field of which people want on standing. I mean,
since we talk about let's talk about it all. Imagine
sitting in a seat on the ground you know, the
tractors pulling this picker and you are you know, you're
trying to get the three four leaves on the bottom
and you put them on the belt and the belt
rolls them over. Well, how many times were they rattlesnakes

(01:03:17):
wrapped around them stalks. That's only by the grace of
God that we And I'm going to say we are
here right now, because how many times that we you know,
and all of a sudden you shake and everybody would
dial dive off. But let me tell you it never
ended well for the snake. And how many times did
we catch rabbits with our bare hands?

Speaker 1 (01:03:36):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (01:03:37):
That was that was the thing. I'm like, I'm like quickness.
We had that from twenty one Jump Street. We would
catch rappish with our hands.

Speaker 3 (01:03:43):
I would just pray, Lord, please let the bill skunk tomorrow,
soar let me so he can stay up the field
that we can knock off earlier, yeah, you know, or.

Speaker 2 (01:03:51):
Or or have a hurricane or tornado come through, knock
all the leaves off, and you have to work on Sunday,
you know, And then the thing is it's got to
be done. It's going to be doing, so you know,
I learned and not complain about those things. But yeah, man,
you and Lanning, uh you know the way we grew
up though, man, But we were just so thankful that
we were working for someone because all the years we

(01:04:14):
worked for Papa, we never got paid because he was like,
I'm feeding you and I got a roof over your
head and I'm clothing you, so it don't make sense
for me to pay you. His logic, not hours back.
But that's what we did. Yeah, hey, that's what we did.

Speaker 1 (01:04:31):
You work.

Speaker 3 (01:04:32):
I mean, he was paying me. I couldn't do it.
He's like, I'm gonna give you a dollar to stay
out the way. I couldn't couldn't do it. I couldn't
do it.

Speaker 1 (01:04:40):
I could do it.

Speaker 3 (01:04:40):
I wanted to do something, like I said. I was
the youngest by three years, I mean landing, and I
was like, man, I could do something. And I'll never
forget that day that mister Joe came by and said, Barney,
what about ay you know such and such? And then
we all because Papa had already told us, see that
Joe tatoum come by tomorrow and he said, I want
everything big enough to sop sirrup to hit that truck.

(01:05:04):
So I remember saying, everybody had got up and got
on the back.

Speaker 1 (01:05:06):
Of the truck.

Speaker 3 (01:05:07):
And I was sitting there next to Papa, and mister
Joe said, well, Barney, what about that little one I've
been I couldn't have been no more than five or
six pops up? He said, Barney, what about that little one?
He said, I don't know, Joe.

Speaker 1 (01:05:19):
He too small, He said, Barney, I find something for
him to do off the porch.

Speaker 3 (01:05:23):
I here you go.

Speaker 1 (01:05:25):
Yeah, man ah, the good old days.

Speaker 2 (01:05:29):
That that that was speaking of work though, But I
tell people all the time because they like they equate
playing football with work, And I said, now, work ain't work.

Speaker 1 (01:05:37):
Work. Playing football left and running in the summer, that
ain't work.

Speaker 2 (01:05:41):
Work is when you got your shirt off and you
look and as far as you can see, you see
tobacco plants and you got a handful of arschnick and
saying because you walk in dropping bud.

Speaker 1 (01:05:55):
Work for us, yep.

Speaker 2 (01:05:57):
Work is when you when when Mster Ali Menci comes
by and gets you, and you got your shirt off
and all you see is seven hundred and twenty bales
of hate and you it's sixteen thousand degrees out and
you got to throw the hay on the truck, because
once you load the truck, you gotta unload the truck.

Speaker 1 (01:06:17):
That's work. Work is when you.

Speaker 2 (01:06:20):
Are in a tobacco field and blue jeans and a
long sleeve shirt with a undershirt, and it's seventeen thousand
degrees and you in that field from you see the
waves of the heat. You in the field from seven
until that barn is full.

Speaker 1 (01:06:39):
That's work.

Speaker 2 (01:06:40):
Playing football they work down in lifting weights ain't work.
Running aim that ain't work.

Speaker 1 (01:06:46):
Do you do you remember Chicago? Numb?

Speaker 2 (01:06:50):
Because what I remember about Chicago is two friends I
had in a neighborhood, next door neighbors or Troy and
d D. I remember their names, I can't pick out
their faces. I remember flipping you over in your in
the stroller and getting the brakes beaked off me one time.

Speaker 1 (01:07:12):
Uh. That's kind of the only memory I have of Chicago.

Speaker 3 (01:07:17):
Yeah, because when I don't remember being there, You know,
I don't remember because you were small. I remember the house,
I don't remember you know, whether we had steps or
I don't remember any of it now because you when
Granny came and got me, Uh, she said the barney
I'm going to get that boy, and he said, bring
Spanky back.

Speaker 1 (01:07:36):
So I was three months when she came.

Speaker 3 (01:07:38):
When they came and got me, I would have been three, Yes,
And when Daddy came and got me back, I was
seven months. We went back and then I came back.
We were two, you were five, five, maybe was ten.
I don't remember. No, I don't remember a whole lot. No,
I already know the answered. Did this for my part?
If we grew up in Chicago, are we here?

Speaker 1 (01:07:59):
No? And I'm gonna say no, because of all we
got in Georgia. Yes, all we got from Mary and Barney. Yes.

Speaker 2 (01:08:08):
All we got from Arnel, Eugene, Lanny, Robbie, Bernard, Chris,
our cousins. All we got from Thurnail, our uncle, Thurman, James.
All we got from Mary Nell, Gladys Sherman, Deine Jane.

Speaker 1 (01:08:25):
No, we ain't here, you know. And the reason why
we're not here. And I tell people this why I
still stay in the South.

Speaker 2 (01:08:32):
I like knowing. I knew when people didn't like you
or me because of the color of my skin. I
knew when people would say, you know, I don't care
what you do, You're never going to be successful in college.

Speaker 1 (01:08:47):
You're not gonna make it. I like knowing that. That's
not motivation. I just like knowing, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:08:52):
I like knowing that I got to do this for
me because there is no way I can do this
for you, because you don't want me to do it
and you don't believe that I can do so. The
thing that I got from Glenville was I got love.
I got friendship Calvin Lamont, Jesse, Reggie King. I got

(01:09:14):
William Hall as a coach. I got Buddy McCall as
a coach. I got Earl Rogers as a coach.

Speaker 1 (01:09:20):
Man. I got to be able to play sports and not.

Speaker 2 (01:09:27):
Be dominant, but learn how to dominate. I got to
play sports, and I got to learn how to play,
how to be okay with being the best player on
the team and still be in here. I got to
learn to be in athletics and to operate in.

Speaker 1 (01:09:46):
A way that.

Speaker 2 (01:09:49):
While I would love to score thirty, or while I
would love to run for one hundred and fifty, man
if I could hit Pat on this slant, or if
I can get Devin Durnty, you know, downhill on this lead,
or if I can get the pitch out fast enough
to Gary Levan, it's gonna be all right.

Speaker 1 (01:10:07):
You know, we got a change. So I got to
learn and develop how to be a player in Glyndon.
What was it about Glenville?

Speaker 3 (01:10:17):
Because as we talked about earlier, and we're the first
two brothers in the Plow Football Hall of Fame, and
when you and I were growing up, it's two stop lights.

Speaker 1 (01:10:25):
It's still two stop lights to this day. No, no, no, wait, wait,
there's one in midtown. The three now there's a caution light. Yeah,
they ain't stop light.

Speaker 2 (01:10:37):
The one coming in you know how we were coming
to Glenville from the Fesville is.

Speaker 1 (01:10:42):
A caution it's not a stop like.

Speaker 3 (01:10:43):
Yeah, that's why we made that left in the times
out here, that's right.

Speaker 1 (01:10:47):
So that's a caution light. And then the one in
the center of the town is the stoplight. And then
the one right down used to be back to behind
me and Lipsey. There's yes, right down by the farmers. Yeah, okay,
so you're right, go ahead. That's why you too, mean
they stopped.

Speaker 3 (01:11:00):
Like by the word thirty five, I mean there's probably
more people there now, but when you and I were there,
it's like thirty five hundred What is it about Glenville that.

Speaker 2 (01:11:07):
Allowed us to prosper, to flourish and lessen If the
active shooting you aim small, you miss small for us,
I'm not gonna talk for you. For me, all I
wanted to do was play football. I remember you know

(01:11:30):
who taught me how to put the pads because remembering
you football pants, you had the little the thing where
you slide your pads in pockets. You know who taught me,
Hank hank taught me how to put my Lawrence Hankerson
taught me how to put the pads in my pants.
The first time I ever touched the football or organized football,
you remember what it was?

Speaker 1 (01:11:48):
Kickoff? Yep, I ran it back for a touchdown, but.

Speaker 3 (01:11:51):
You picked the ball up before you got into the
ends on fifteen yard penalty rekick coach, y'all say, all
y'all go do is make it running back.

Speaker 1 (01:11:57):
For the ran it back again for a touchdown.

Speaker 2 (01:12:00):
So what Glenville provided for me was an opportunity to
have no clue what I was doing, but to do
that very well, right. So I had no clue what
being a star or a great player or but you
know what great game, nice play. So I got a

(01:12:21):
chance to learn and grow. Remember how I got to
be quarterback. I wasn't a quarterback. I would want, Hey,
I'm a running back, I'm a corner. I'm a running back.
That's where I want to be. Remember how I got
to be quarterback? Jess Kotmono and coach McCall was like, hey,
I want you to in spring, want you to go
with the quarterbacks. Like wait, what, That's how I got

(01:12:45):
to be a quarterback. If I'm not mistaken, was I
the first quarterback Glenville High School?

Speaker 1 (01:12:50):
Or or was it Pete? Probably because I mean Taylor
Ken Taylor.

Speaker 2 (01:12:56):
So you looking at a growth and develop that's organic,
that can't nobody tell you how to do it. You learned,
and I think Glennville gave us the opportunity. Gave me
the opportunity to learn and grow at a pace that
was comfortable for me. So I wasn't in a hurry

(01:13:16):
and I wasn't behind. So what I got in Glenville
served me very well. Going to the University of South Carolina, right, we.

Speaker 3 (01:13:27):
Worked for the poetry and people. People find this so
hard to believe it. I don't know why, because you
don't see it. You've never done it. Go ahead, I
know where you're going, but go ahead. When I tell
people we caught a thousand chickens. No no, no, no, no,
A thousand dollars, a thousand dollar dollar, a thousand, but
we caught the most we ever caught was sixteen thousand.

(01:13:49):
That was the most chickens we ever caught. But we
normally did. We normally did twelve, well every twelve. Then
where you get that sixteen?

Speaker 1 (01:13:57):
Yeah, that was it.

Speaker 3 (01:13:58):
Yeah, And we were what they called the seat. We
were small. I mean all of us, we're all cousins,
we're all camp yeah, and most of.

Speaker 2 (01:14:04):
Us was was in school, Arne, l Eugene, Lanny, Me
and you, yeah, sometimes.

Speaker 1 (01:14:09):
Robbie and Bernard.

Speaker 3 (01:14:12):
But they had the big crew that would catch thirty
forty thousand. And you work from Sunday to Thursday, because
nobody worked on Friday. Nobody worked on Saturday because the
porchry was clothed on Saturday. Then Sunday, and so we
would pick tobacco working for the Tainum, working for the tatums.

Speaker 1 (01:14:28):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (01:14:29):
That was five to six dollars five dollars for me,
there were sixteen for me. But go ahead, and then
we would go to check catch chicken anywhere between eight
and twelve.

Speaker 2 (01:14:37):
But now you can't catch chickens during the day. You
gotta catch them at night. You got to catch them
at night. So we're getting picked up at ten thirty
eleven o'clock. And you know, usually the farthest we went
was our ride. You know, we'd go over to backs Black. Yeah,
so our ride. And then when you catch chickens, you
had a catcher we were carryings, so we were praying

(01:15:00):
it was six so you carry in three and three
because when you got that four and three, oh lord,
but it was a dollar one thousand. So if it
was sixteen thousand, we made sixteen dollars. If it was
thirteen thousand, we made thirteen thousand. And there ain't no
time limit. You leave with the last chicken gone. And

(01:15:21):
so yeah, so we don't work from seven until about five.
We eat, and now we're waiting for it to get
dark for James or Earl to pick u something.

Speaker 1 (01:15:32):
We go and catch chickens. We do that for at
least two two and a half hour. Yeah, we get back.

Speaker 2 (01:15:38):
Let's say you get back at midnight one o'clock, just
so you could because remember now you've been in the
chicken house.

Speaker 1 (01:15:45):
Yeah, dust, you got to get that off you. So
that's another Yeah, I gotta get that off.

Speaker 2 (01:15:50):
Here's another hour, hour and a half so you can
get in bed, just to get up and get on
the truck with mister Joe in the morning again at seven.

Speaker 1 (01:15:59):
And people don't realize this that we did this while
we going to school.

Speaker 2 (01:16:03):
Also go to school, playing football, go to practice, come
home at five thirty six.

Speaker 1 (01:16:11):
Each I did homework. I did I did it. I
don't speak. I don't like to talk about other people.
I did homework, do homework.

Speaker 2 (01:16:25):
Wait till it get dark, get on the chicken truck,
drive thirty five, forty five hour, catch chickens, come back
home just to get up the next morning to do
it again. Because if we wanted a pair of you know,
two pair of running shoes and trap, yep, we had
to pay for it.

Speaker 1 (01:16:42):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:16:43):
Granny was like, hey, son, how much money you got saved?
Wasn't no bank for us, it's under the mattress.

Speaker 1 (01:16:49):
Yep. How much money you got saved? Granny? I got,
you know, one hundred and forty dollars. Let me borrow,
not give me.

Speaker 2 (01:16:58):
Let me borrow twenty, so I can, you know, keep
the life on or let me get forty from you
so we can pay for gas for heat.

Speaker 1 (01:17:08):
So because back then it was protein protein.

Speaker 2 (01:17:10):
Yeah, and if if I had spent whatever on basketball shoes,
then we moved the heater over and we got to
use the fireplace for heat sometimes heat and like so.

Speaker 1 (01:17:26):
Yeah, it was, you know, just just the way we
grew up.

Speaker 3 (01:17:33):
I don't do it so much now, but I used
to tell kids, and when I do, I still do
when I go go speak in the pears appearances and
I tell people, I say, kids, make sure your kids
have a lot of jobs while they're kids, because they'll
let them know what they don't want to do.

Speaker 1 (01:17:49):
I'll agree with you.

Speaker 2 (01:17:50):
To this point because my daughter's had one job and
she's been on this job for about eight years, nine years.
But my daughter's like me. You don't have to tell
her because she's a lot like you. She's always watching

(01:18:11):
and she's processing. And so I learned that how we
grew up and what was done too and for us
is different. Oh yeah, for her only because when she's
a girl, she's smart as hell. She's six feet tall,

(01:18:32):
she's extremely athletic.

Speaker 1 (01:18:34):
But she's a girl. So sports are out of the
question because you know, you can't be sweating with the
hair with your girl, So that's not a question. But
I learned that, you know what, And I learned this
through all our years. You know, when we were coming
up in the church. The thing is is we weren't
just coming up in the church. We were participants, you know.

(01:18:55):
And I learned biblically that.

Speaker 2 (01:19:00):
In our spirit, if you just shut up and pay attention,
it'll guide you and put you in places that you
never thought you'd be. And it has a way of
putting you exactly where you're supposed to be the moment
you're supposed to be there. And so I learned that
the way I grew up, I could not raise my
kid that way. Yeah, I learned that, and I'm glad

(01:19:24):
I learned that. And I don't I tell people all
the time, hey, look at your kid. You nay, you
graize them anyway. But I also tell them, you know,
this is my life. So just because you think I'm
an asshole because I won't give you an autograph or
a picture, understand this.

Speaker 1 (01:19:41):
I tell my kid no. How hard do you think
it is telling your kid no? Right. I look forward
to telling your kid, no, it's easy. So you know,
I try not to contrast and compare it only because
this is my life. There are many like it, but
this one is mine.

Speaker 2 (01:20:01):
You're gonna get what you need from it based on
how you are around me. And if you're not gonna
get anything from me, there's a good chance you're not
gonna be around me.

Speaker 1 (01:20:11):
You're not gonna be around me enough to get something.

Speaker 3 (01:20:13):
This concludes the first half of my conversation. Part two
is also posted and you can access it to whichever
podcast platform you just listen to part one on. Just
simply go back to Club Shashay profile and I'll see
you there.

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Club Shay Shay - Sterling Sharpe Part 1

Episode Transcript

Host

Shannon Sharpe

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