April 25, 2024 • 27 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, a story from our hometown, Oxford, Mississippi—and one that's near and dear to our hearts. J.J. Jones tells the story of how we went from scraping dollars together to buy his daughter Wendy's to eat in their car (where they lived)—to finding good mentors, God, and a special talent.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
To search for the Our American Stories podcast, go to
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Up next, we're bringing you.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
A local story from right here in Oxford, Mississippi, where
we broadcast each.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
And every day.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Here's JJ Jones telling his personal story of the many
ups and downs that ultimately led him to his calling,
and that would be woodworking.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
My name is Alan J. Jones.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Everybody calls me JJ. I was born and raised here
in Oxford, Mississippi. I'm a graduate of Oxford High School.
Graduated in nineteen ninety three and went on to pursue
my career at the mid At Northwest where I played
football and baseball. Had the time of my life there,
enjoyed it, excelled in sports. Left there and went to
(01:08):
Kentucky State. Played football and baseball there. Had the time
of my life playing sports, But my sports career came
to an end with a shoulder injury that I had
while working out for a pro baseball team. So I
had to kind of regroup my life, reset myself. I
went on and finished school, got me a degree Bachelors
(01:28):
of Arts and Criminal Justice. And when I left Kentucky State,
I moved back to Memphis because my dad was in Memphis,
so I figured it was a cool place to go.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
I was like, why not, not far from home.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
I just moved back to Memphis, and that's where I
stayed for thirteen years, right there in Memphis, living life,
trying to figure life out.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Didn't really know what I wanted to.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Do, was working in my criminal justice field, and was
bored out.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Of my mind. Started thinking this is not what I
wanted to do.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
And it wasn't just the income, it was the overall
scope of everything figured out real quick. I had no
desire in my heart to be a policeman. I had
no desire to be a state trooper. I had no
desire to work in a prison system. I wanted to
work with at risk youth. However I wasn't doing that.
I was helping retail stores control their theft, so to speak.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
So I was doing loss prevention.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
And I was traveling around training for the Big Lots Corporation,
for Marshall's, TJ Max, for these companies, and I was.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Still board out of my mind.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
So after years and years of that, I started dabbling
in tower work. Bought a house out in Cordova in
Memphis and started dabbling in tower work. I wanted to
lay Town so bad for some reason, I don't know why,
but I was amused by it.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
So I started watching the new construction houses.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
So when they would finish working in the evening, I
would go watch and try to figure out how did
they do this?
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Like how did they do that?
Speaker 3 (02:52):
So I met I met the contractor one day and
he actually kind of caught me over there, like just looking,
you know, And I told him I just was intrigued
by people lad tied and wanted to watch. He said,
finding loaders. I stayed out of the way. It was
no problem. Needless to say, I watched enough and I
went in there by all floors. I thought it was cool.
Later I realized it wasn't, but at the time I
thought it was cool. And after that I said, well,
(03:14):
I'm a build a deck in my backyard. Well, I
didn't have any money, was barely making it by the
skin of my teeth.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
So I would go in loads.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Now I don't know about now, but loads used to
have a section of books how to build things, about
lumber and all this type of stuff. So I would
go in loads and just stand there reading their books.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
You know.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
The phones then didn't have all the technology like now,
so I would just sit there read books, maybe take
a piece of paper and write it down. And this
manager one day would mess with me, say, you ain't
even reading again. So one day he gave me one
of the books, you know, and there was a book
on spans and loads off of different.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Sized lumber and all this type of stuff.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
So I went home and saved you up some money,
and I started building my deck. When I built the building,
saw it and he came over and gave me supporters.
But then when I finish, he told me it was good.
I built my fence. But I built my fence. He
asked me about working with him, and I thought, I
thought it was cool idea, so I said, yeah, it's
fun to me. So I started doing that, and somewhere
along the way I met another contractor and she offered
(04:14):
me a job doing remodels with her and building fences
and decks and tower working. And I was like, man,
this is what I want to do, you know. So
in my mind I thought it was, but I was like,
this is what I want to do. Right here, I
get to do everything that I've learned how to do.
So we got so busy that I eventually walked away
from the criminal justice situation because it was there was
Dad in for me, there was no room for Brook,
(04:35):
and I just didn't enjoy it. I dreaded going every
freaking day and I just didn't enjoy it. So when
I walked away, the construction industry was like really booming
at this point in time. So I was having the
time in my life getting up, going to work. Still
wasn't making a lot of money, but I was happy,
you know. And I was in Hernando, Mississippi, at missus
(04:57):
Laurie Welch House where good friends to this day, where
very good friends. She's very close to me. I was
doing her floors and she literally walked over to me.
She didn't know me that well known, but she literally
walked over to me and she said, j Jay, you're
gonna build this entertainment center for me over here I'm
living room And I was looking like I'm not doing
none of that, and she said, yes you are, and
(05:18):
I just looked at her. I said, well, miss Laurie,
I can't do that. She said, yes you can, and
I was like, no, ma'am. So I finished the floors,
hurry up and left the house. Next day I came
back to do some other little fine tuning for it,
she said the same thing. You gonna build me this
big entertainment center. And she had the whole design laid
out of my head and I'm just looking.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
At her like she got to be out of her mind.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
I'm not doing this, and needless to say, about three
weeks later, she called me one day and I still
say it was a trick to this day, but she
called me and she said, hey, what are you doing
this weekend? And I said nothing much and she said great,
I ordered the material I got in all at my
house in the garage. I need you to come build
this entertainment center. And I was like, oh my god.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
So I went and did it, and it was It.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Came pretty easy. After I saw we didn't have building
building one day and she was like, see that wasn't bad,
and I was like, well, nah.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Really was good.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
And so then she said, okay, next, I need you
to build my daughter headboard and I was like, dope,
not doing it. You know, we went through this thing
all the way over again. So I did that, and
then I started doing like little small jobs for people.
Somebody wanted the headboard, someone wanted a little footstool, little.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Things like that.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
You know, that's kind of that was my building, you
know what I'm saying. The center was my first introduction
at the woodwork. And uh, I still this day say
I didn't know what I was doing. It came out beautiful.
To this day, it's it's beautiful, but I still I
didn't know what I was doing. Not to me, I
didn't know what I was doing. So that was my
introduction into woodworking. And after that I kind of pulled her.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Along with things. But once I moved back to Oxford
was really when my career. It took some great ups.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
It took so some even bigger downs in order for
me to find why hell.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Now, And you've been listening to JJ Jones share his
story with us. He's sort of a local legend and
craftsmen here in town now. But my goodness, the ups
and downs he had to take to get there, like
so many of us. Well, you're about to hear more
than he does. Some of the most beautiful work. Has
designed some of the beautiful furniture that's in our studio
(07:14):
and some of it in my home and so many
homes in this area. And little did he know, his
career was launched because of that one person's love of
him and those encouraging words. When we come back, more
of JJ's story here on Our American Stories. Lihabib here
the host of our American Stories. Every day on this show,
(07:37):
we're bringing inspiring stories from across this great country, stories
from our big cities and small towns. But we truly
can't do the show without you. Our stories are free
to listen to, but they're not free to make. If
you love what you hear, go to Ouramericanstories dot com
and click the donate button. Give a little, give a lot.
Go to alamericanstories dot com and give. And we're back
(08:09):
with our American Stories and with J. J. Jones telling
us the story about his passion for woodworking came to
be and how even someone with a very stable upbringing
can hit the lowest of lows. Let's pick up where
we last left off.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
I had two parents. I had a mother and father
who both they were married.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
I have a wonderful awesome mother, a wonderful, awesome father.
Both of them are still living. Both of them are
still wonderful, and both of them are still awesome. I
had a great parents.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
They were.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
They were disciplinarians, but they were disciplinarians in a way
of respect.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
People treat people right. You know.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
It was I gotta say I had a good child
to do that.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
I actually when I was a kid, I thought we
were rich. You know. I was like, man, I didn't know.
We were poor. We were. We didn't have we didn't we.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Didn't have the extras, but we had everything we needed.
You know, my dad worked hard. My mom worked hard.
My dad worked two three jobs just to make sure
we had the basic necessities.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
I didn't know.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
I thought he was working because he enjoyed working, you know,
he enjoyed what he was doing. But he was working
to make sure that we were all taken care of.
So I had I had a great childhood. When it
comes to life, I learned. I was taught a lot
of things about life, Treating people right, busting your but
nobody's gotta hand you anything. You know, and if you
(09:34):
want it, earn it, and if you earned it, it's yours.
You know a lot of moral values about life, god,
the whole now were put into me as a kid,
and I didn't. I honestly didn't get it at the time.
But as time went on and I got older, I'm like, oh, wow,
that's what they taught me. Because you know, I was
just like any other kid. I don't want to hear that.
You know, it's just you know, your parents, you know
(09:56):
then they're not cool.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
They don't know. You know, that's you know, that was me.
You know.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
So it's like I look back now and I'm like, wow.
You know, when I first started doing woodworking, my dad
and he could attest to this. My dad came to
me and he said, you know, I don't think you
should do this. He said, I think you should go
into coaching. I think you should do something with the kids.
I think you should do something with sports.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
He said. I just don't.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
I just don't think you should do this woodworking thing.
I just don't see I don't see the futureity for you. Well,
once I thought about it, I couldn't see the future
in it for me either, because I had never picked
up a hammer, you know, my old child, my entire childhood,
I never did anything with wood my entire childhood, you know,
other than visually. I used to watch my grandfather, my
(10:44):
mom's father. He started out family business, funeral home. So
I used to watch them make wooden boxes for confidence
to go in. And when I was little, I was
intrigued by watching him run a saw. And I never
did it, but I just used to stand there and
watch them. Oh, you know, I was intrigued by it.
So again, I had I had great parents, you know,
(11:05):
I had. I had some really good parents.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
You know.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
They didn't they didn't play a lot of mess, gave
us a lot of leeway, a lot of opportunities to grow.
They gave us opportunities to get in trouble, you know,
but it was all life lessons. It was all life lessons.
So I'm I'm grateful for my childhood. That I really am.
I have one hundred percent no regrets on how I
was raised. My dad, I guess it might have been
(11:30):
for three four years later he came in town and
he said, I need to talk to you for a minute.
And I was like, okay, and he came to me.
He said, you know, I just want to tell you
I was wrong. I'm proud of you. He said, I've
been watching and just watching what you're doing. He said,
I'm proud of He said, you gotta you're doing exactly
what God told you to do. And I had to
be honest with him. I said, Honestly, when I started it,
(11:50):
I didn't know where I was going. I just knew
I wanted to go this direction, and I knew what
I was doing. I was I was fulfilled. You know,
it's hard for a parent.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
I got.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
I knew exactly what he was saying, because it was
hard for him to say, Man, I don't want to
watch him go down this road.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
This is it's a dead end, there's nothing there. Why
does he want to do that?
Speaker 3 (12:09):
You know, And it was and it was hard for him,
but once he saw it, even like to this day,
he's just like, man, hey, I'm proud of you. I
you know, I'm doing something that my dad basically managed people.
He's awesome working with people, special Olympics, kids, adults, senior citizens.
He is awesome at organizing and working hand in hand
with people. He loved it, you.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Know, putting things together like that.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
Well, that wasn't the direction I wanted to go in,
but I really didn't know It wasn't that I didn't
know how to tell him that. It was more so
like I didn't know. I didn't really know what I
wanted to go in, but I knew I wanted to
try something.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
With this woodwork, you know.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
So yeah, the biggest challenge of my life was once
I started doing the construction thing, and I actually started
to make a little bit of money. But I was
the guy that still had people around him who were
not up to good things. I'm with them, so I'm
not up to good thing. We would hang out every day,
we would go to the party every day, we would
throw parties, you know, we would just doing it every day.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
We're gonna just have fun every day every weekend.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
Well, when I got custody of my daughter, I couldn't
work like I used to, so my twelve hour days
of working with down to six seven hour days, so
I couldn't sustain my lifestyle. So first I was like, well,
I got this extra truck, I'm gonna sell it where
I can make some money be keep my house. But
I sold that one. Then I was like, I'm gonna
have to sell this car too, But I sold that
(13:29):
one trying to keep the roof over our head, and
finally I got that knock on the door said you
got to get out the house.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
So I ended up homeless. Me and my daughter.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
We ended up sleeping in a truck on the Walmart
parking lot. And I'm not talking about for a couple
of nights. I'm talking about for months, months, months, months,
and when we finally were able to get a little money,
we would sleep it up. We would get a hotel
room a night or two. My mom found out, so
she would help get a hotel room here and there.
But by this time we've been sleeping in a truck,
and the truck was in such bad shape that I
(13:59):
couldn't see in the car ride of line with it
running because it would overheat, you know, it was started
running hot and all this, so it was embarrassing. So
I would part like a little way from the car
ride of line walking go get my daughter. And we
didn't live too far from the school, so some days
we didn't have gas. So some days I'd just be like, hey,
we gotta park over there, and we got to walk today,
raiding pouring out, raining, we'd be on a little umbrella.
(14:19):
But I didn't have gas and I didn't have a
vehicle that was dependable. It had no heat, it had
no air, So I had to find my daughter a
little blanket in the good wheel that you plugged into
the little cigarette lighter to warm up for a little
seat because they didn't have any heat in it, right,
so the only heat we would get was driving it,
the heat coming from the edge, and that was it,
you know. But we went through that phase, and that's
(14:40):
what I really that's when I really my life changed.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
That was like the biggest challenge of my life, and.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
It was bigger than work and woodworking because I thought
I was understand. At one point, I was like just
mad at God because I was like, you know, how
you let this happen? You know, like seriously, I was
just like, this is a joke. I thought the right
thing to do is get custody in my daughter. But
ever since I got custed of, everything's already going down.
So I'm like, what kind of crap is this? You know,
(15:05):
and it's just you know, be an honest, I was like,
what is this? Talk to me and I'm like, you
talk to everybody else, Well, I don't give it.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
I don't care what they hear.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
The little money I got I gotta pay after care,
you know, and everybody was put in a cheap of place. Well,
I don't have gas to drive on the other side
of the town, you know. So then when my daughter
was in this daycare, I met the owner. So what
he would let me do was paint the classrooms on
the weekends and do little maintenance work to.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Keep her tuition paid.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
So that was something we worked out, like, I would
do whatever work they needed because I couldn't. It got
the point I couldn't afford to keep it there because
I didn't we didn't have money, so we.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Ended when we went Homeness.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
It was tough because it put me in a position
where I couldn't tell my son because he stayed with
his mom, because I knew if she found out, she
probably wasn't gonna let him just run around town with
me as a parent, shouldn't you know.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
I get it, but I still wanted to see my son.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
On the other hand, I had this little girl who
was at the time was like kindergarten, first grade.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
And she don't understand. She just wanted to be with
her dad and we having fun.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
That's it. No matter where we are. If Dad's good
she's good. All those nights she would go to sleep,
I would just cry. I was broken, like I was
really broken.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
And finally one night I got sick.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
I got sick, and my daughter just found out, probably
like a year or two ago, when I got sick,
I was really sick. She thought I was kidding because
she had a little play nursing stuff, nursing stethoscope and
all that. But I got sick one night and I
was sitting on the end of the bed and it
came clear as day to me God, she said, do
I have your attention? Do I have your attention now?
That's all I could hear was do I have your
attention now? Because prid of that, the world didn't matter.
(16:37):
I was just doing whatever I could to get by.
It didn't matter, you know. So once we got out
of that situation, I told myself then, I said, you
know what, this is a situation I'd never want to
visit again.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
And you've been listening to JJ Jones tell one heck
of a story and talk about the low of lows
to see custody of your daughter. And JAD didn't get
JJ did kno get into particulars for good reason. And
we don't need to know them, because we know it
wasn't good, not good at all. He stepped up, he
did what he thought was the right thing to do,
and then things just turn south. And there he is
(17:11):
with his daughter just broken as she slept alongside her
daddy in a car. And it doesn't get lower than that, Folks.
Any man who's been there, any parent who's been there,
well you're crying a little bit. When we come back,
we're going to learn about how JJ pulls himself out
of this and how God helps him. The story of
JJ Jones, local woodsman, local craftsman, local master craftsman, JJ
(17:37):
Jones and just one heck of a guy. His story
continues here on our American Stories. And we're back with
(18:09):
our American Stories and with JJ Jones sharing his story.
We left off with him at the lowest point in
his life. Let's pick up where we last left off.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
It was the bottom of the bottom for me. I
had good parents. My dad didn't know. I didn't tell them.
My mom didn't know. I didn't tell the people closest
to me. I didn't tell them. I was embarrassed. I
was hurt because the guys I thought, well, my friends
now I needed them, and they turned their back and
walk away.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
You know. So that was one.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Of the hardest parts of my life. However, it was
a necessary part of my life. I needed to get
away from the people that were around me. I needed
to understand that there was nothing bigger in life than God.
I had to These are things I had to understand
because I didn't give me credit for nothing.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
I was just like, I did it. That was my thoughts.
I did it. What do you mean I went to work,
I made the money. I did it. So I wasn't
grateful about what I had going on.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
That was one of the biggest challenges of my life,
that phase right there, when I was a.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Kid, I had a thing.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
I would never idolize an athlete right because I idolized
my dad. My dad made it happen. I mentioned earlier,
I had a good father. My dad was like super
mad to me. No matter what we needed, he made
it happen. No matter where it was, where we had
to travel, player sport, he was always there. My dad
(19:34):
was that guy. My favorite athlete was Bo Jackson. My
mentor and my guide through life was my dad. Then
it was my granddad or my mom's father. You know,
those were the two men in my life as a
kid all the way up through college that was just rocks.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
I mean like they were just rocks.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
Now, before I was homeless, my dad had gotten into
a situation where he was taken away. He was my
dad was in jail for like a year and a half.
So it through my whole world. My superhero is in jail,
like literally in jail, like, you know, what in the
world is going on?
Speaker 2 (20:09):
You know.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
So through my early part of my life, through my
sports career, probably up just before I started doing the woodworking,
my dad was that person for me. And to this day,
my dad's a great mentor, you know, but my dad
was that person. Once I moved back home and once
I moved back to Oxford, the crazy thing about it
(20:31):
was I was working with a guy that I.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
My childhood friend.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
And I thought me and this guy were just like
the best best of friends, like I thought we were brothers.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
We literally grew.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
Up houses apart and would sleep at each other's house
every other night. But I didn't know that his mind
wasn't in the right place. I had no idea, you know,
he had other things going on. But through that guy
I met one amazing soul. Now the amazing part about
that is I didn't know him. I didn't even live
here at that moment. I was commuting back and forth
(21:01):
to Memphis to Memphis from here, and I saw and
met him, waved at him, kept on moving.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
I was building his studio furniture.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
That's what I was doing, build a studio furnture, doing beans,
and I spoke with him. I had no idea that
years later, once I needed business advice, once I needed
to know how to manage money, once I needed to
know how to actually run a business. He was the
guy that set me down and said, Hey, this is
what you can do. You can do it, quit steady
(21:30):
yourself short you do premium work. He was a guy
that kind of put my head in the right in
the right position. Again a father, you know, he was
another father fake, But those have been those two men
have been the biggest key parts of my life from
childhood up and I got out of college and then
after I was homeless and I came here. He was
one of the first people I connected with and didn't
(21:51):
even know it. I mean we just was, hey, how
you doing. But a few years later God led us
back to each other and he really helped put my
life in a better position. There was one other guy
that was a mentor through through sports.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
He was a sports guy.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
He was my high school basketball coach, Sherbans, the guy
who all Slope is in Oxford. He was the hardest,
I mean, would push you to your limited person I
ever met. But he was a guy that only wanted
the best for you. And at the time I thought
it was just basketball, but once I left school, I
realized it was about life.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
Give your best, be your best. You know. He was
a guy that when we when here.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
When we went in high school, we went through this
little racial thing for some reason, like all the black
players were quit and they said he's picking on the
black players and he's not picking on the white players.
It was a bunch of nothing. But I was the
only black player left on the team. And I remember
my dad asking me one day. He just said, I
got I got a question. He said, why are you
still on the team. And I said, because he's never
done anything to me that was wrong. And he said,
you keep that same mind state. He said, you do
(22:51):
not follow crowds. You do what's right. And I said
it was the right thing. What. Needless to say that
all the other guys started wanting to come back on
the team, and he wouldn't left them.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
From this point, we're losing all the star players of Gold.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
Everybody's going We're just getting out brains me that night
after night after night. But he had to keep he
had to keep his thing. I can't let him come back.
I can't let him and just walk back on my team. So,
you know, Coach Sherman, I got a lot of love.
I got a lot of love about heart for Coach Sherman.
He was the He was that athletic mentor you know,
every sport you played in a game, he was gonna
(23:23):
be there.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
I don't care what sport it was, he was coming.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
I would just say, regardless of who you are and
regardless of what you're trying to do in life, things
are gonna happen, some intentional, some not intentional, but things
are going to happen.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
But don't fall victim. I did this at one point.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
Don't fall victim to thinking that when something hurts you
or something sets you back, that you gotta always fix it.
Some things are gonna always hurt. When I was homeless,
I said, I'll never be homeless again. I never asked
God to make me forget about it, because I know how.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
It feels to be hungry.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
I know how it feels to go go go through
the drive through of windows and be able to buy
two ninety nine cent chicken nuggets and hope your daughter
don't eat all of them so you can eat something.
I know how it feels. I don't want them to
take those thoughts away from me. I use them as motivation,
so don't don't often we get caught in this.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
Thing or think it. I gotta do things a certain way.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
I saw my dad and my mom operated a certain way,
and I was like, Okay, I'm a hot to operate
a certain way. What the truth of the matter is.
I gotta make my own mistakes. I gotta do my life.
I gotta go out here and see what it's about.
I got to go do some good things, and I'm
gonna do some things that might not be right. And
I'm not talking about going to rib or kill nobody.
But some of the decisions I made in my life,
(24:38):
I don't regret them. I just I just they service,
they had a purpose. Some of the business decisions I made.
I don't regret them. They had a purpose. They got
me to where I am now. So if a guy
like me can think she's doing everything, ball hit rock bottom,
(24:59):
keep scratching, keep on working hard and can buss his
butt to come back and re establish yourself in life
and give the other people and pull other.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
People up along the way. Anybody came, but it started.
It started with self.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
My dad can tell me anything that he can tell
me everything that he's blue in the face. But I
also got to have a will and desire to say, hey,
let me go do it.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
My grandfather told me a long time ago, I.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
Don't care if you pick up cans, be the best,
better collector in the world.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
And it sticks with me.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
It's I never would have thought of a million years
I would build stuff out of wood and make a
live and do it. If you would have told me
that when I started, I have been like yo, right,
And now I look. I went from where I was
working and now I've I've probably either delibered and shipped
furniture to at least thirteen to fifteen states. I never
(25:52):
thought I would do that in my life, So anything possible.
But you gotta talk. You gotta gotta channel out all
the head noise. That's where it worked for me, you know.
I just sometimes I have to channe out the hit noise. Man,
I have to get to myself. I'm out here in
my shop now because this is my peaceful place. This
is my this is my having, this is where I'm happy,
you know. So I come out here even when I
don't have work. Sometimes I just come out here in
(26:12):
studio for a minute because this is my clear.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
My MySpace, and a terrific job on the production editing
and storytelling by our own Madison Derricott and my daughter
Reagan and JJ is Well. He's so well known in
this town. His story's well known. He shares it. He
doesn't hide the bad parts. When you see him around
young men and young women, absolutely inspiring, and he gives
(26:36):
some hope. He gives a lot of kids hope. I
had great parents, he said, a good childhood. When I
was a kid, I thought we were rich. We didn't
have extras, but we had everything we needed. We had
a great childhood. And then he talked about those people
he was around. I had people around me that were
not up to good things, which meant I was not
up to good things, and this turned in the end
(26:56):
his life very far south. Those people he was hanging
with in Memphis, Tennessee. The story of JJ Jones. And
by the way, what a heck of a father, son's story,
what a heck of a mentorship story. That woman he
met who encouraged him, those mentors in this town who
loved on him, and now he's doing the same. JJ Jones'
story here on our American Stories.
This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
To search for the Our American Stories podcast, go to
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Up next, we're bringing you.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
A local story from right here in Oxford, Mississippi, where
we broadcast each.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
And every day.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Here's JJ Jones telling his personal story of the many
ups and downs that ultimately led him to his calling,
and that would be woodworking.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
My name is Alan J. Jones.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Everybody calls me JJ. I was born and raised here
in Oxford, Mississippi. I'm a graduate of Oxford High School.
Graduated in nineteen ninety three and went on to pursue
my career at the mid At Northwest where I played
football and baseball. Had the time of my life there,
enjoyed it, excelled in sports. Left there and went to
(01:08):
Kentucky State. Played football and baseball there. Had the time
of my life playing sports, But my sports career came
to an end with a shoulder injury that I had
while working out for a pro baseball team. So I
had to kind of regroup my life, reset myself. I
went on and finished school, got me a degree Bachelors
(01:28):
of Arts and Criminal Justice. And when I left Kentucky State,
I moved back to Memphis because my dad was in Memphis,
so I figured it was a cool place to go.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
I was like, why not, not far from home.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
I just moved back to Memphis, and that's where I
stayed for thirteen years, right there in Memphis, living life,
trying to figure life out.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Didn't really know what I wanted to.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Do, was working in my criminal justice field, and was
bored out.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Of my mind. Started thinking this is not what I
wanted to do.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
And it wasn't just the income, it was the overall
scope of everything figured out real quick. I had no
desire in my heart to be a policeman. I had
no desire to be a state trooper. I had no
desire to work in a prison system. I wanted to
work with at risk youth. However I wasn't doing that.
I was helping retail stores control their theft, so to speak.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
So I was doing loss prevention.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
And I was traveling around training for the Big Lots Corporation,
for Marshall's, TJ Max, for these companies, and I was.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Still board out of my mind.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
So after years and years of that, I started dabbling
in tower work. Bought a house out in Cordova in
Memphis and started dabbling in tower work. I wanted to
lay Town so bad for some reason, I don't know why,
but I was amused by it.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
So I started watching the new construction houses.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
So when they would finish working in the evening, I
would go watch and try to figure out how did
they do this?
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Like how did they do that?
Speaker 3 (02:52):
So I met I met the contractor one day and
he actually kind of caught me over there, like just looking,
you know, And I told him I just was intrigued
by people lad tied and wanted to watch. He said,
finding loaders. I stayed out of the way. It was
no problem. Needless to say, I watched enough and I
went in there by all floors. I thought it was cool.
Later I realized it wasn't, but at the time I
thought it was cool. And after that I said, well,
(03:14):
I'm a build a deck in my backyard. Well, I
didn't have any money, was barely making it by the
skin of my teeth.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
So I would go in loads.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Now I don't know about now, but loads used to
have a section of books how to build things, about
lumber and all this type of stuff. So I would
go in loads and just stand there reading their books.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
You know.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
The phones then didn't have all the technology like now,
so I would just sit there read books, maybe take
a piece of paper and write it down. And this
manager one day would mess with me, say, you ain't
even reading again. So one day he gave me one
of the books, you know, and there was a book
on spans and loads off of different.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Sized lumber and all this type of stuff.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
So I went home and saved you up some money,
and I started building my deck. When I built the building,
saw it and he came over and gave me supporters.
But then when I finish, he told me it was good.
I built my fence. But I built my fence. He
asked me about working with him, and I thought, I
thought it was cool idea, so I said, yeah, it's
fun to me. So I started doing that, and somewhere
along the way I met another contractor and she offered
(04:14):
me a job doing remodels with her and building fences
and decks and tower working. And I was like, man,
this is what I want to do, you know. So
in my mind I thought it was, but I was like,
this is what I want to do. Right here, I
get to do everything that I've learned how to do.
So we got so busy that I eventually walked away
from the criminal justice situation because it was there was
Dad in for me, there was no room for Brook,
(04:35):
and I just didn't enjoy it. I dreaded going every
freaking day and I just didn't enjoy it. So when
I walked away, the construction industry was like really booming
at this point in time. So I was having the
time in my life getting up, going to work. Still
wasn't making a lot of money, but I was happy,
you know. And I was in Hernando, Mississippi, at missus
(04:57):
Laurie Welch House where good friends to this day, where
very good friends. She's very close to me. I was
doing her floors and she literally walked over to me.
She didn't know me that well known, but she literally
walked over to me and she said, j Jay, you're
gonna build this entertainment center for me over here I'm
living room And I was looking like I'm not doing
none of that, and she said, yes you are, and
(05:18):
I just looked at her. I said, well, miss Laurie,
I can't do that. She said, yes you can, and
I was like, no, ma'am. So I finished the floors,
hurry up and left the house. Next day I came
back to do some other little fine tuning for it,
she said the same thing. You gonna build me this
big entertainment center. And she had the whole design laid
out of my head and I'm just looking.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
At her like she got to be out of her mind.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
I'm not doing this, and needless to say, about three
weeks later, she called me one day and I still
say it was a trick to this day, but she
called me and she said, hey, what are you doing
this weekend? And I said nothing much and she said great,
I ordered the material I got in all at my
house in the garage. I need you to come build
this entertainment center. And I was like, oh my god.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
So I went and did it, and it was It.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Came pretty easy. After I saw we didn't have building
building one day and she was like, see that wasn't bad,
and I was like, well, nah.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Really was good.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
And so then she said, okay, next, I need you
to build my daughter headboard and I was like, dope,
not doing it. You know, we went through this thing
all the way over again. So I did that, and
then I started doing like little small jobs for people.
Somebody wanted the headboard, someone wanted a little footstool, little.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Things like that.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
You know, that's kind of that was my building, you
know what I'm saying. The center was my first introduction
at the woodwork. And uh, I still this day say
I didn't know what I was doing. It came out beautiful.
To this day, it's it's beautiful, but I still I
didn't know what I was doing. Not to me, I
didn't know what I was doing. So that was my
introduction into woodworking. And after that I kind of pulled her.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Along with things. But once I moved back to Oxford
was really when my career. It took some great ups.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
It took so some even bigger downs in order for
me to find why hell.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Now, And you've been listening to JJ Jones share his
story with us. He's sort of a local legend and
craftsmen here in town now. But my goodness, the ups
and downs he had to take to get there, like
so many of us. Well, you're about to hear more
than he does. Some of the most beautiful work. Has
designed some of the beautiful furniture that's in our studio
(07:14):
and some of it in my home and so many
homes in this area. And little did he know, his
career was launched because of that one person's love of
him and those encouraging words. When we come back, more
of JJ's story here on Our American Stories. Lihabib here
the host of our American Stories. Every day on this show,
(07:37):
we're bringing inspiring stories from across this great country, stories
from our big cities and small towns. But we truly
can't do the show without you. Our stories are free
to listen to, but they're not free to make. If
you love what you hear, go to Ouramericanstories dot com
and click the donate button. Give a little, give a lot.
Go to alamericanstories dot com and give. And we're back
(08:09):
with our American Stories and with J. J. Jones telling
us the story about his passion for woodworking came to
be and how even someone with a very stable upbringing
can hit the lowest of lows. Let's pick up where
we last left off.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
I had two parents. I had a mother and father
who both they were married.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
I have a wonderful awesome mother, a wonderful, awesome father.
Both of them are still living. Both of them are
still wonderful, and both of them are still awesome. I
had a great parents.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
They were.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
They were disciplinarians, but they were disciplinarians in a way
of respect.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
People treat people right. You know.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
It was I gotta say I had a good child
to do that.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
I actually when I was a kid, I thought we
were rich. You know. I was like, man, I didn't know.
We were poor. We were. We didn't have we didn't we.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Didn't have the extras, but we had everything we needed.
You know, my dad worked hard. My mom worked hard.
My dad worked two three jobs just to make sure
we had the basic necessities.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
I didn't know.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
I thought he was working because he enjoyed working, you know,
he enjoyed what he was doing. But he was working
to make sure that we were all taken care of.
So I had I had a great childhood. When it
comes to life, I learned. I was taught a lot
of things about life, Treating people right, busting your but
nobody's gotta hand you anything. You know, and if you
(09:34):
want it, earn it, and if you earned it, it's yours.
You know a lot of moral values about life, god,
the whole now were put into me as a kid,
and I didn't. I honestly didn't get it at the time.
But as time went on and I got older, I'm like, oh, wow,
that's what they taught me. Because you know, I was
just like any other kid. I don't want to hear that.
You know, it's just you know, your parents, you know
(09:56):
then they're not cool.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
They don't know. You know, that's you know, that was me.
You know.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
So it's like I look back now and I'm like, wow.
You know, when I first started doing woodworking, my dad
and he could attest to this. My dad came to
me and he said, you know, I don't think you
should do this. He said, I think you should go
into coaching. I think you should do something with the kids.
I think you should do something with sports.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
He said. I just don't.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
I just don't think you should do this woodworking thing.
I just don't see I don't see the futureity for you. Well,
once I thought about it, I couldn't see the future
in it for me either, because I had never picked
up a hammer, you know, my old child, my entire childhood,
I never did anything with wood my entire childhood, you know,
other than visually. I used to watch my grandfather, my
(10:44):
mom's father. He started out family business, funeral home. So
I used to watch them make wooden boxes for confidence
to go in. And when I was little, I was
intrigued by watching him run a saw. And I never
did it, but I just used to stand there and
watch them. Oh, you know, I was intrigued by it.
So again, I had I had great parents, you know,
(11:05):
I had. I had some really good parents.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
You know.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
They didn't they didn't play a lot of mess, gave
us a lot of leeway, a lot of opportunities to grow.
They gave us opportunities to get in trouble, you know,
but it was all life lessons. It was all life lessons.
So I'm I'm grateful for my childhood. That I really am.
I have one hundred percent no regrets on how I
was raised. My dad, I guess it might have been
(11:30):
for three four years later he came in town and
he said, I need to talk to you for a minute.
And I was like, okay, and he came to me.
He said, you know, I just want to tell you
I was wrong. I'm proud of you. He said, I've
been watching and just watching what you're doing. He said,
I'm proud of He said, you gotta you're doing exactly
what God told you to do. And I had to
be honest with him. I said, Honestly, when I started it,
(11:50):
I didn't know where I was going. I just knew
I wanted to go this direction, and I knew what
I was doing. I was I was fulfilled. You know,
it's hard for a parent.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
I got.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
I knew exactly what he was saying, because it was
hard for him to say, Man, I don't want to
watch him go down this road.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
This is it's a dead end, there's nothing there. Why
does he want to do that?
Speaker 3 (12:09):
You know, And it was and it was hard for him,
but once he saw it, even like to this day,
he's just like, man, hey, I'm proud of you. I
you know, I'm doing something that my dad basically managed people.
He's awesome working with people, special Olympics, kids, adults, senior citizens.
He is awesome at organizing and working hand in hand
with people. He loved it, you.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Know, putting things together like that.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
Well, that wasn't the direction I wanted to go in,
but I really didn't know It wasn't that I didn't
know how to tell him that. It was more so
like I didn't know. I didn't really know what I
wanted to go in, but I knew I wanted to
try something.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
With this woodwork, you know.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
So yeah, the biggest challenge of my life was once
I started doing the construction thing, and I actually started
to make a little bit of money. But I was
the guy that still had people around him who were
not up to good things. I'm with them, so I'm
not up to good thing. We would hang out every day,
we would go to the party every day, we would
throw parties, you know, we would just doing it every day.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
We're gonna just have fun every day every weekend.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
Well, when I got custody of my daughter, I couldn't
work like I used to, so my twelve hour days
of working with down to six seven hour days, so
I couldn't sustain my lifestyle. So first I was like, well,
I got this extra truck, I'm gonna sell it where
I can make some money be keep my house. But
I sold that one. Then I was like, I'm gonna
have to sell this car too, But I sold that
(13:29):
one trying to keep the roof over our head, and
finally I got that knock on the door said you
got to get out the house.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
So I ended up homeless. Me and my daughter.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
We ended up sleeping in a truck on the Walmart
parking lot. And I'm not talking about for a couple
of nights. I'm talking about for months, months, months, months,
and when we finally were able to get a little money,
we would sleep it up. We would get a hotel
room a night or two. My mom found out, so
she would help get a hotel room here and there.
But by this time we've been sleeping in a truck,
and the truck was in such bad shape that I
(13:59):
couldn't see in the car ride of line with it
running because it would overheat, you know, it was started
running hot and all this, so it was embarrassing. So
I would part like a little way from the car
ride of line walking go get my daughter. And we
didn't live too far from the school, so some days
we didn't have gas. So some days I'd just be like, hey,
we gotta park over there, and we got to walk today,
raiding pouring out, raining, we'd be on a little umbrella.
(14:19):
But I didn't have gas and I didn't have a
vehicle that was dependable. It had no heat, it had
no air, So I had to find my daughter a
little blanket in the good wheel that you plugged into
the little cigarette lighter to warm up for a little
seat because they didn't have any heat in it, right,
so the only heat we would get was driving it,
the heat coming from the edge, and that was it,
you know. But we went through that phase, and that's
(14:40):
what I really that's when I really my life changed.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
That was like the biggest challenge of my life, and.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
It was bigger than work and woodworking because I thought
I was understand. At one point, I was like just
mad at God because I was like, you know, how
you let this happen? You know, like seriously, I was
just like, this is a joke. I thought the right
thing to do is get custody in my daughter. But
ever since I got custed of, everything's already going down.
So I'm like, what kind of crap is this? You know,
(15:05):
and it's just you know, be an honest, I was like,
what is this? Talk to me and I'm like, you
talk to everybody else, Well, I don't give it.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
I don't care what they hear.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
The little money I got I gotta pay after care,
you know, and everybody was put in a cheap of place. Well,
I don't have gas to drive on the other side
of the town, you know. So then when my daughter
was in this daycare, I met the owner. So what
he would let me do was paint the classrooms on
the weekends and do little maintenance work to.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Keep her tuition paid.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
So that was something we worked out, like, I would
do whatever work they needed because I couldn't. It got
the point I couldn't afford to keep it there because
I didn't we didn't have money, so we.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Ended when we went Homeness.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
It was tough because it put me in a position
where I couldn't tell my son because he stayed with
his mom, because I knew if she found out, she
probably wasn't gonna let him just run around town with
me as a parent, shouldn't you know.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
I get it, but I still wanted to see my son.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
On the other hand, I had this little girl who
was at the time was like kindergarten, first grade.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
And she don't understand. She just wanted to be with
her dad and we having fun.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
That's it. No matter where we are. If Dad's good
she's good. All those nights she would go to sleep,
I would just cry. I was broken, like I was
really broken.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
And finally one night I got sick.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
I got sick, and my daughter just found out, probably
like a year or two ago, when I got sick,
I was really sick. She thought I was kidding because
she had a little play nursing stuff, nursing stethoscope and
all that. But I got sick one night and I
was sitting on the end of the bed and it
came clear as day to me God, she said, do
I have your attention? Do I have your attention now?
That's all I could hear was do I have your
attention now? Because prid of that, the world didn't matter.
(16:37):
I was just doing whatever I could to get by.
It didn't matter, you know. So once we got out
of that situation, I told myself then, I said, you
know what, this is a situation I'd never want to
visit again.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
And you've been listening to JJ Jones tell one heck
of a story and talk about the low of lows
to see custody of your daughter. And JAD didn't get
JJ did kno get into particulars for good reason. And
we don't need to know them, because we know it
wasn't good, not good at all. He stepped up, he
did what he thought was the right thing to do,
and then things just turn south. And there he is
(17:11):
with his daughter just broken as she slept alongside her
daddy in a car. And it doesn't get lower than that, Folks.
Any man who's been there, any parent who's been there,
well you're crying a little bit. When we come back,
we're going to learn about how JJ pulls himself out
of this and how God helps him. The story of
JJ Jones, local woodsman, local craftsman, local master craftsman, JJ
(17:37):
Jones and just one heck of a guy. His story
continues here on our American Stories. And we're back with
(18:09):
our American Stories and with JJ Jones sharing his story.
We left off with him at the lowest point in
his life. Let's pick up where we last left off.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
It was the bottom of the bottom for me. I
had good parents. My dad didn't know. I didn't tell them.
My mom didn't know. I didn't tell the people closest
to me. I didn't tell them. I was embarrassed. I
was hurt because the guys I thought, well, my friends
now I needed them, and they turned their back and
walk away.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
You know. So that was one.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Of the hardest parts of my life. However, it was
a necessary part of my life. I needed to get
away from the people that were around me. I needed
to understand that there was nothing bigger in life than God.
I had to These are things I had to understand
because I didn't give me credit for nothing.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
I was just like, I did it. That was my thoughts.
I did it. What do you mean I went to work,
I made the money. I did it. So I wasn't
grateful about what I had going on.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
That was one of the biggest challenges of my life,
that phase right there, when I was a.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Kid, I had a thing.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
I would never idolize an athlete right because I idolized
my dad. My dad made it happen. I mentioned earlier,
I had a good father. My dad was like super
mad to me. No matter what we needed, he made
it happen. No matter where it was, where we had
to travel, player sport, he was always there. My dad
(19:34):
was that guy. My favorite athlete was Bo Jackson. My
mentor and my guide through life was my dad. Then
it was my granddad or my mom's father. You know,
those were the two men in my life as a
kid all the way up through college that was just rocks.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
I mean like they were just rocks.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
Now, before I was homeless, my dad had gotten into
a situation where he was taken away. He was my
dad was in jail for like a year and a half.
So it through my whole world. My superhero is in jail,
like literally in jail, like, you know, what in the
world is going on?
Speaker 2 (20:09):
You know.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
So through my early part of my life, through my
sports career, probably up just before I started doing the woodworking,
my dad was that person for me. And to this day,
my dad's a great mentor, you know, but my dad
was that person. Once I moved back home and once
I moved back to Oxford, the crazy thing about it
(20:31):
was I was working with a guy that I.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
My childhood friend.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
And I thought me and this guy were just like
the best best of friends, like I thought we were brothers.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
We literally grew.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
Up houses apart and would sleep at each other's house
every other night. But I didn't know that his mind
wasn't in the right place. I had no idea, you know,
he had other things going on. But through that guy
I met one amazing soul. Now the amazing part about
that is I didn't know him. I didn't even live
here at that moment. I was commuting back and forth
(21:01):
to Memphis to Memphis from here, and I saw and
met him, waved at him, kept on moving.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
I was building his studio furniture.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
That's what I was doing, build a studio furnture, doing beans,
and I spoke with him. I had no idea that
years later, once I needed business advice, once I needed
to know how to manage money, once I needed to
know how to actually run a business. He was the
guy that set me down and said, Hey, this is
what you can do. You can do it, quit steady
(21:30):
yourself short you do premium work. He was a guy
that kind of put my head in the right in
the right position. Again a father, you know, he was
another father fake, But those have been those two men
have been the biggest key parts of my life from
childhood up and I got out of college and then
after I was homeless and I came here. He was
one of the first people I connected with and didn't
(21:51):
even know it. I mean we just was, hey, how
you doing. But a few years later God led us
back to each other and he really helped put my
life in a better position. There was one other guy
that was a mentor through through sports.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
He was a sports guy.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
He was my high school basketball coach, Sherbans, the guy
who all Slope is in Oxford. He was the hardest,
I mean, would push you to your limited person I
ever met. But he was a guy that only wanted
the best for you. And at the time I thought
it was just basketball, but once I left school, I
realized it was about life.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
Give your best, be your best. You know. He was
a guy that when we when here.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
When we went in high school, we went through this
little racial thing for some reason, like all the black
players were quit and they said he's picking on the
black players and he's not picking on the white players.
It was a bunch of nothing. But I was the
only black player left on the team. And I remember
my dad asking me one day. He just said, I
got I got a question. He said, why are you
still on the team. And I said, because he's never
done anything to me that was wrong. And he said,
you keep that same mind state. He said, you do
(22:51):
not follow crowds. You do what's right. And I said
it was the right thing. What. Needless to say that
all the other guys started wanting to come back on
the team, and he wouldn't left them.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
From this point, we're losing all the star players of Gold.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
Everybody's going We're just getting out brains me that night
after night after night. But he had to keep he
had to keep his thing. I can't let him come back.
I can't let him and just walk back on my team. So,
you know, Coach Sherman, I got a lot of love.
I got a lot of love about heart for Coach Sherman.
He was the He was that athletic mentor you know,
every sport you played in a game, he was gonna
(23:23):
be there.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
I don't care what sport it was, he was coming.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
I would just say, regardless of who you are and
regardless of what you're trying to do in life, things
are gonna happen, some intentional, some not intentional, but things
are going to happen.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
But don't fall victim. I did this at one point.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
Don't fall victim to thinking that when something hurts you
or something sets you back, that you gotta always fix it.
Some things are gonna always hurt. When I was homeless,
I said, I'll never be homeless again. I never asked
God to make me forget about it, because I know how.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
It feels to be hungry.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
I know how it feels to go go go through
the drive through of windows and be able to buy
two ninety nine cent chicken nuggets and hope your daughter
don't eat all of them so you can eat something.
I know how it feels. I don't want them to
take those thoughts away from me. I use them as motivation,
so don't don't often we get caught in this.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
Thing or think it. I gotta do things a certain way.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
I saw my dad and my mom operated a certain way,
and I was like, Okay, I'm a hot to operate
a certain way. What the truth of the matter is.
I gotta make my own mistakes. I gotta do my life.
I gotta go out here and see what it's about.
I got to go do some good things, and I'm
gonna do some things that might not be right. And
I'm not talking about going to rib or kill nobody.
But some of the decisions I made in my life,
(24:38):
I don't regret them. I just I just they service,
they had a purpose. Some of the business decisions I made.
I don't regret them. They had a purpose. They got
me to where I am now. So if a guy
like me can think she's doing everything, ball hit rock bottom,
(24:59):
keep scratching, keep on working hard and can buss his
butt to come back and re establish yourself in life
and give the other people and pull other.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
People up along the way. Anybody came, but it started.
It started with self.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
My dad can tell me anything that he can tell
me everything that he's blue in the face. But I
also got to have a will and desire to say, hey,
let me go do it.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
My grandfather told me a long time ago, I.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
Don't care if you pick up cans, be the best,
better collector in the world.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
And it sticks with me.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
It's I never would have thought of a million years
I would build stuff out of wood and make a
live and do it. If you would have told me
that when I started, I have been like yo, right,
And now I look. I went from where I was
working and now I've I've probably either delibered and shipped
furniture to at least thirteen to fifteen states. I never
(25:52):
thought I would do that in my life, So anything possible.
But you gotta talk. You gotta gotta channel out all
the head noise. That's where it worked for me, you know.
I just sometimes I have to channe out the hit noise. Man,
I have to get to myself. I'm out here in
my shop now because this is my peaceful place. This
is my this is my having, this is where I'm happy,
you know. So I come out here even when I
don't have work. Sometimes I just come out here in
(26:12):
studio for a minute because this is my clear.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
My MySpace, and a terrific job on the production editing
and storytelling by our own Madison Derricott and my daughter
Reagan and JJ is Well. He's so well known in
this town. His story's well known. He shares it. He
doesn't hide the bad parts. When you see him around
young men and young women, absolutely inspiring, and he gives
(26:36):
some hope. He gives a lot of kids hope. I
had great parents, he said, a good childhood. When I
was a kid, I thought we were rich. We didn't
have extras, but we had everything we needed. We had
a great childhood. And then he talked about those people
he was around. I had people around me that were
not up to good things, which meant I was not
up to good things, and this turned in the end
(26:56):
his life very far south. Those people he was hanging
with in Memphis, Tennessee. The story of JJ Jones. And
by the way, what a heck of a father, son's story,
what a heck of a mentorship story. That woman he
met who encouraged him, those mentors in this town who
loved on him, and now he's doing the same. JJ Jones'
story here on our American Stories.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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