November 30, 2023 • 34 mins
Heavyweight will be back next week with a brand new episode. But today, we’re excited to introduce you to Death, Sex & Money — a show hosted by Anna Sale about the topics that we tend to shy away from in polite conversation. The story we have for you is about a New York City mover named Adonis Williams. Over the past 20 years, Adonis has moved thousands of people in and out of the city. With each move, he catches a glimpse of a life in transition.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi everyone, Jonathan here Heavyweight. We'll be back with a
new episode next week, but in the meantime, we wanted
to share with you an episode of another show that
we really like. It's called Death, Sex and Money, and
it's hosted by Anna sal On the show, Anna interviews
her guests about the topics that we usually tend to
shy away from impolite conversation, things like the titular death,
(00:22):
Sex and Money. I recently sat down with Anna. As
I was sitting here, I was jotting down some last
minute questions, and the first one that I wrote down
was did you ask inappropriate questions as a child? Like
I'm imagining you approaching your dad's friends and asking them
how much they made for a living.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
I don't think I did that.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
I definitely wondered, or how much sex they have, or
when they were planning to die. Anna has a real
gift with people, whether it's talking to a TV weather
man about losing his job after a sex photo leak,
a new father about the surprising results of a paternity test,
or to actress Ellen Burston about the illegal abortion she
(01:05):
had at the age of eighteen. It's amazing what Anne
is able to pull from her subject.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
The concrete questions that other interviewers might find too crass
to ask. I just ask it. You know, all of
us deal with hard things and uncomfortable things, and rather
than retreat into our own feelings of shame around it,
let's create a little more conversation and connection.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Yeah, and I think that you're a very good listener.
Thank you? Did you? I mean just out of curiosity? Parenthetically,
did you have a schooling for that.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Listening school? No? My school I think was being in
a big family growing up. I was on the quiet
side and a loud family, So I think that trained
me for like it's like listening and be able to
take in a lot. But also I feel like I'm
(02:03):
kind of like a little maybe like a little bit
like a cougar. Like it was like waiting for that
opening and then I'm going to like, you know, strike.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Is very primal.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
It sounds like.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
I'm like, what's the metaphor someone who really wants a
bloody piece of meat.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
The episode we're about to play is about a professional
mover in New York City.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Our producer Zoe Azula was thinking about episodes where we
can catch people in a moment so it feels like
you're talking to them when something is happening. And she
sort of like movers are constantly doing that, They're showing
up when people are at that moment of joining together
coming apart. It's changed. And so she started to just
(02:50):
kind of look around at New York City movers and
she found this mover named Adonis. What I think is
really interesting about him. He's a professional mover, that's what
he does for work, and alongside that, he advertises his
services as being willing to show up and help survivors
of domestic violence get out of unsafe situations for free.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Well, I guess this is the part where I say,
let's listen to the episode and you can find Death,
Sex and Money wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Thank you. That was a very enthusiastic throw. I feel.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
It's as enthusiastic as I get, but I'll give it
another go. Let's listen to this episode of Death, Sex
and Money, which you can find wherever you get your podcasts.
Coming up right after the break, I am.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Yeah, I'm six for two and forty eight pounds. My
employees use the word a bralic a lot when they
see me pick up stuff like I literally just pick
a sofa up over my head while two of them
struggling with it, you know, and I'll just say I
got it, and I'll just pick up the sofa bed
over my head and start walking with it. And they go,
(04:06):
oh my god, he's so bralic.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
This is death, Sex and Money, the show from WNYC
about the things we think about a lot. I need
to talk about more. I maan a sale. Adonnas Williams
(04:34):
is a mover in New York City, a job he
started more than twenty years ago. When he saw a
woman crying on the subway. She had two kids with
her and all their stuff and trash bags, and.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Asked to what, you know, what was wrong? She explained
that she had to make a choice between leaving the
bags of clothes and carrying the kids.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Anas had a van, and he offered to move her
for free.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
I'm that way. Even on the way here, I stopped
to get me a cup of coffee, and it was
a mother with her daughter and Dunkin Donuts, true story,
and a little girl was crying because she wanted the
strawberry sprinkled donut and her mother was just going in
to get a coffee, you know, And I said, ma'am,
I'm going to pay for your coffee. I'm going to
(05:23):
pay for her donut. And that's just the way I am.
If I see you know, people are sad or crying,
you know. But I do have one rule. I don't
take care of the homeless in other states, like I
travel too much. But if somebody comes up to me
in a window in Texas or Tennessee, I don't give
any money. I know it's sad, but I just can't
(05:44):
take care of the world. But in New York City,
if you come up to my window, I'll give you
two dollars five dollars. And that's every day, all day anybody.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Adonnas is often in other states because a lot of
his moves are long distance, but they mostly start in
New York City.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
One two three lived a pull on that side.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
On a Saturday afternoon a few months ago, Adonnas was
moving the belongings of Miss Dixon. She had just retired
from her job as a home health aid and was
leaving the Bronx after many years. Producer Zoey Azule met
them at a storage unit where they were packing up
her stuff.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
What's the what's the moving plan today? Where are we going?
We're going down south North Carolina. What's there? Family?
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Mm hmm?
Speaker 3 (06:32):
And are you going to what are you going to
miss about New York? Much A means in the middle.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
From the storage unit they drove in Adonnas's truck. Miss
Dixon riding shotgun Zoe squeezed in the middle to pick
up the rest of Miss Dixon's things at her.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Apartment thirteen thirteen, twenty two. Gotcha.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Adonnas has lived in New York City his whole life.
He knows each neighborhood how to maneuver through them in
a big truck.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
Misticks, have you ate that Spanish restaurant right there? Why
you want right here? No? I guess you never hate here.
I think feel will back.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
When they got to the apartment, there was not much
left to pack up.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
I had seven bocks and only seven boxes. Over there
is a fan on the TV.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Oh, they already packed.
Speaker 4 (07:22):
Up anyway, Okay, make me feel guilty about taking your
money with such a small job, or on the other end,
I mean I have to give you some money. I
had to pay you for the exercise today.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Over his twenty years in the moving business, Adonnas has
seen people in all sorts of transitional moments, retiring, getting married,
being priced out. Sometimes a person is ready with their
stuff in boxes eager. Other times Adonnas and his team
have to help a person pack. It's a mover's job
(07:57):
to make this moment manageable, departmentalize, and help a person
move on. This is not a service a donna's had
growing up.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
Well. I remember moving as a child between Harlem and
the Bronx, and we never hired movers. I didn't even know,
you know. I would just come from school and we'd
be in a new place. My dad took care of everything,
and we just did it with pickup trucks, cars, you know,
whatever we could, you know, whatever relative could come by.
(08:27):
We never ever hired a moving truck.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
I talked to Adonnas after he'd gotten Miss Dixon's things
to North Carolina. He came into our New York studio
the morning before another move. It was still summer, a
Donnas's peak season when he does about a move a day.
He used to pack in three moves a day. That's
a lot of flights of stairs, tight corners, and long drives.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
I just did back to back, Florida, Texas, Tennessee, Schoosetts,
and now I have a Vermont coming up next week.
I've been to every state except for Seattle, Washington, and Oregon.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
And when you are driving these long haul moves, do
you go by yourself?
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Sometimes sometimes I do, or sometimes I pick up my
dad And yeah, my dad he comes in. He does
the driving. You know, at seventy years old, he's still
a hell of a driver and still moves furniture and
picks up boxes and stuff. He loves to go.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
And are they still living in New York City?
Speaker 3 (09:34):
No? No, No, My parents eight years ago moved to
North Carolina, and I moved them. And they said it's
because I gave them the cheapest price.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Not because they wanted the Patriots.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Because I said, you moved for free.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
He won the bid? Uh for free? Okay, got it?
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Yeah, I moved my parents out to North Carolina, and
I visit them. Anytime I do a move going like
I said, doing New York to Florida, or New York
to Georgia, or New York to South Carolina, I always
stop it and use my parents' places the hotel. But yeah,
my dad still goes. When I go up ninety five.
He's always happy to put on his fatigues because that's
(10:14):
what we were. He goes. Yeah. He likes the fact that
when he is wearing his Vietnam hat and his fatigues,
a lot of people will say thank you for your service,
you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Yeah, And it's nice you get to watch those interactions.
That's cool. You get to see that. I imagine when
you enter into a home where someone is moving out,
you know, it means something in their life is changing.
Can you tell the difference between a happy move and
a sad move?
Speaker 3 (10:45):
Oh? Absolutely absolutely. As a matter of fact, now I
get the email ADONISHU moved me, and let's say, let's
use the name Josh into the apartment. You know, five
years ago, we're now getting divorced, and I just want
to know if you are able to help me move,
so they'll know the kind of atmosphere I'm entering, Like,
(11:06):
I won't be like, hey, how's everything going, you know,
And it's a sad occasion for them because they're getting
a divorce, you know what I mean. And so I
you know, I go in there like neutral, not taking
any sides.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Yeah, uh huh. And do you find, like, how often
do you find that you need to sort of offer
some some reassurance or some comfort for somebody who's having
a sad move.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
Usually every time, every time you do the move, there
is some you know, they want to talk to you
about it. You become the bartender or the taxi driver
that they need to you know, event to or at
least tell their side because you know, everybody feels they oh,
I'm not the bad person. And you get some I
get some people guys, both guys and girls and say, Adonis,
(11:56):
I really messed up. I cheated on them and got busted.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Do you ever find yourself sharing any of your you know,
ups and downs with someone who's having a hard time.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Absolutely, you can't. You can't go in and just you know,
hear about their life and not have to share a
part of your life, you know, with them. And that
happens all the time. You know, I tell them about
my mistakes because at fifty four, I'm always older than
the person that I'm moving.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
You know, when you come into someone's home and they
are packing up all of their possessions, I imagine you
see a lot of private items. You know, you see
(12:46):
the way people actually live instead of how they present
on the street. What's like, does anything surprise you now
having done this for twenty years, what you come across
when you're packing up a bedroom for example.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
No, Now I have on my questionnaire when I send
them a list of tips of you know, moving tips.
The police check under the beds for anything personal. So
that because a lot of times the apartments are so small,
the rooms are so small that the bed takes up
most of them and you can't move the bed left
or right or nothing. It's just up against the wall.
(13:22):
And so I asked them to check under the bed
because usually whatever falls on the side of the bed
or under the bed, they can't get it until the
movers come and move the bed. So I moved an
Indian couple that I had moved before and was familiar
with them and everything. But this time the they were
(13:44):
having a baby and they needed a bigger space. So
when we moved the bed and a lot of the
Indians and Asians, parents come on both sides when they're
doing a move, you know, yes, they both come like
it's an event. Whatever. They come help do the packing
and maybe the mind the baby, you know, the small
(14:05):
children so the parents can do whatever they have to do. So,
you know, I got ready to take apart the bed,
took the mattress off and lifted it up, and they're
all talking to me, you know. And I moved the
bed and some used condoms were following the side of
the bed, and yeah, used, used, used, And the girl
(14:29):
was pregnant, which was the reason they were moving, and
so the husband had no reason to use condoms. And
so everybody stand in the room looking at each other
except me. I just put the better the side and
take it out. But there was a big argument in
their language, and it didn't't well. You know, she ended
(14:50):
up staying at the place and he ended up leaving,
and it was a big old argument. I said, oh man,
oh wow, yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Oh my goodness. And I wonder if I'm imagining for
your for your clients, you know, who find you and
reach out like you. You also have this very up
close view of how New York City neighborhoods are changing
because you're noticing who's coming in and who's coming out.
(15:22):
What what are you noticing right now in New York?
Is there anything different or is it the same kind
of march of uh? You know, expensive neighborhoods getting bigger,
and affordable neighborhoods getting smaller, and the racial makeup of
neighborhoods changing.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
You know that clips What I'm noticing is nobody, and
I mean nobody in New York City can live alone.
It's very rare for me to move a place where,
let's see, even if it's a one bedroom where there's
just one person living there, just paying the rent, everybody
has to have help. Yeah, the rent is so expensive
(16:02):
and I don't care what kind of job I've moved
lawyers and doctors and people in advertisement. I once moved
a group of girls on Wall Street in a very
very expensive building, and it was seven of them. They
had so many walls put up split in this place,
so like going through a maze to get the stuff out.
Oh wow, So they could afford the rent. Yeah, And
(16:24):
we had gotten there early, and so there was still
a few of the people sleeping. There was actually a
girl who slept by the door. The little hallway that
leads to the door was a bedroom, so she had
to like frold up her bed and move it so
we could start, you know, you know, coming in and out.
I was like yeah, that's really really trying to pay
(16:45):
the rent with the seven girls in here.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Does it ever get you down, like seeing how hard
people are, how hard it is for people to to
find a comfortable place to live and to be able
to afford to stay there.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
No, no, you know, I never it never gets me
down or nothing like that. But it makes me realize
that I'm not the only one in that boat. Because
growing up, we were very very very very very and
if I could throw two more berries on there, very poor, yeah,
very poor. We always thought white people lived better than us,
(17:22):
you know what I mean. We lived in the projects,
and you know, they lived in the Tribeca and Gramercy
Park and you know all those places. But now that
I move people, you say to yourself, Wow, they're really
people in New York City, really really suffering their own way,
you know what I mean. They just put up a
(17:43):
good facade.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Coming up. How Adonnas got into the moving business and
why for the first five years charge for it.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
The frequency of the phone calls where I was trying
to do Friday, Saturdays and Sundays. The people that are
being abused can't wait for the weekend. So then I
found myself trying to take care of it in the
morning before I went to work.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
This is death, sex and money from WNYC. I mean
a sale. By the time Adonnis Williams was thirty, he'd
gone through lots of jobs supermarket clerk, security guard, summer
youth counselor, and dental assistant. But money was tight. He
had two sons, one who lived with them. That's why
he bought his first van in two thousand. He needed
(18:48):
a car, and a Dodge Caravan from the mid nineties
was what he could afford.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
I had that van because that's the only thing that
they would give me on my credit.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
I see. So it's like I'm picturing like a mini van,
which is what like, you know, when you've got a
couple of kids in the back. But for you, it
was the car Loan. You could guess that's what I
could do.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
I started off in the front with the Dodge charger,
and then you know, I saw the Dodge pickups and
I started thinking of myself. I had my son with
me at the time, but they walked me way, way
way past all that stuff. So the back of the
yard with this this van with the leaves on it
opened it up and they say, this is what we
got for you. I took it. I took it.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Then September eleventh happened.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
The government was looking for people to look at the
X rays and stuff, and so I was able to
identify a lot of small stuff and they were impressed
with that, and the government hired me to train people
at the TSA to read X rays.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
He worked long hours at LaGuardia. One night after work,
he was taking the subway home and noticed the woman
with her two kids trash bags with their belongings. She
told them she'd been staying in a shelter because her
partner was abusive, but she'd had to leave the shelter
and that night she had nowhere to go, And so.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
I came back with the van and I got her in,
the two kids, and I got them pizza and Hawaiian
punch huh yeah, and took them to my house and
I gave them the bedroom and I used my living
room sofa bed, And that's when I realized that, you know,
in the shelter system, they don't really help you get
(20:33):
in or out.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
The next morning, he moved her and her kids and
their things back into the shelter. System after they'd reapplied
for a slot, and Adonnas decided he wanted to help
more victims of domestic violence move out of unsafe situations,
a service he still provides today. He placed an ad
on Craigslist and put the word out.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
I got some cards and then I went around and
put them to the shelters. Now that the shelters aren't
easy to find, and it meant that way, so the
abuses don't find the shelters. And for the first five years,
I didn't make any money. I didn't get any money
and I didn't accept any money for the first five
years of moving.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Oh, so it wasn't like a job, you know, it
was a service that you did.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
And I also have a Facebook page. Still call that
a Facebook page?
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Yeah, how much were you helping people move?
Speaker 3 (21:24):
I was only doing the job on the weekends Friday, Saturday,
and Sunday at the Department of Homeland Security. I had
ten hours shift, so I finished my forty hours and
four days. So I had Friday, Saturdays and Sundays off
and I would just I had the ad. If I
got the phone call, I would just move people. Now,
(21:46):
the type of move I was doing was a person
with bags of clothes. They even put dishes and forks
and spoons and bags of clothes, I mean in garbage bags. Yeah,
and they were like taking a mattress and maybe a TV,
you know, maybe a TV. But those are desperate people
trying to get out of a situation where either the
abuser was locked up, you know, or I'm at work,
(22:09):
you know, something like that. I rushed in just me
and my son. At the time. My son was only
nine years old, so it just me and him.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
I want to make sure I'm understanding the families who
are trying to get away from violence in the home.
Is it primarily do you encounter them when they're trying
to get to a shelter, we're moving between shelters, or
sometimes are you coming in when the abusers away, sneaking
(22:38):
in trying to get them out safely.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
Yeah, it varies, and now even sometimes the abuse are
still there. But when he but now you know, we're talking,
you know, twenty years later, and I have a crew now,
not just me and my nine year old son. So
now when they see like four or five big guys
come through the door, the guy's sitting here quiet and
he doesn't see anything, and we don't give him the
(23:02):
mean face, nothing like that.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
Is there anyone in your life, Adonnis, that like, before
you were moving survivors of domestic violence? Did you know
anyone was anyone in your life somebody who'd been through
a dangerous relationship.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
Well, my parents, my mom and my dad, you know,
used to go through that, you know. And you know
what the weird thing is when my mom and dad
were fighting and my mom would be bruised up, it
was no name for it. We got a beating from
my dad, My mom got a beating from dad, you
know what I mean. It was just the way it was.
(23:38):
And when the police came, they nobody got arrested. They
would say, take a walk around the block, you know,
or you got to cool off. They were veterans also,
and they understood what he was going through, so they
give him a break. But once my we got once
we got older. I would see between seventeen and twenty,
(24:03):
and we could, me and my older brother could challenge
my father. And because by that time we lived in Harlem,
in the Bronx, and we were kind of street hard.
And you know, even though I sound like I sound
like an easygoing mellow guy. I have never lost the
fight on the streets of Harlem or the Bronx, and
I dare anybody to say so, because I come see them,
(24:23):
you know. But yes, when I when I put up
my dukes, there was no walking away from that. The
person always ended up on the ground and people had
to pull me off from you know. So when me
and my brother, you know, my dad, you know, he
went in after my mom and then we we me
and my brother closed, got my mom autady and closed
(24:43):
the door when we came back out that day in
nineteen ninety two. Dad never did it again, and he
gave up the drinking and smoking and stuff like that
over the years. He's a great guy now. But yeah,
yeah he was. He was military training. It wasn't an
easy fight. I tell you that. The military I learned
that day trained them so just very very well. But
(25:04):
we had youth and stamina on our side, and we
prevailed ninety two.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
So you were you were in your early twenties.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
Yeah, I'm born in sixty nine, so eight nine, it's
like twenty two.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
It's interesting you remember the year. You remember when you.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
Remember the day you have to go up against the
most powerful man on the planet, because there's no kid
who doesn't think his dad is not the most powerful
person on the planet. There's not one kid out here.
I seen my pop beat up groom men in the street,
just beat him up, and you know, because you know,
that's the way it was in Harlem and Bronce. You
had a problem with somebody and you step out of
the bar, and you know, I seen him take on
(25:45):
two and three guys. Like what am I gonna I'm
ten years old. If my pop told me to do something,
I did it. I saw what the other guys got,
you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Yeah, have you and your dad talked about that?
Speaker 3 (25:58):
No, I've never talked to my dad about that. But
during a drive once, my dad had asked me about
why I never cursed. He asked me, Oh, he wanted
to know why I never cursed, and uh, he wants
to know why I never used drugs or smoked or anything.
(26:18):
And we had a conversation about that, and I explained
to him, and he wanted to know what did I
do when my mom kicked me out? Because when I
was uh, when I when I when I was twenty
four twenty five, my mom made me leave.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
And what did you do?
Speaker 3 (26:40):
I lived sometimes. I lived sometimes in the UH in
the same building where we where he put me out of,
but on the on the roof area, and I still
went to work from there until a friend of mine
had a studio apartment and he was getting married and
(27:01):
he gave me the studio apartment. And that was my
first apartment in Harlem.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
And why did your mom ask you to leave?
Speaker 3 (27:10):
She found out I had a kid that I didn't
tell her about, Yeah, my first son. She was upset
and she put me out.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
And what did you say when your dad asked you
about why you don't curse and why you didn't do drugs?
Speaker 3 (27:27):
Well, I told my dad I didn't do drugs because
I saw what it did to him. You know what
I mean. You know it's a cigarette smoking, the drinking
how to meet him? And I was afraid to become
that person. And I don't spink to this day. I
do not hit women, I do not hit children, and
(27:48):
I do not hit animals. Yeah, I never once gave
my kids a spanking. And I never had an argument
with a girl in a relationship and I never hit her.
And I don't hit animals. They can't defend themselves.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
That makes me understand, Adonis, when you describe, you know,
being on the subway and seeing a mom with her
kids struggling, It makes me understand maybe a little bit
about like the depth of feeling you might have to
want to want to help look out and help them
(28:26):
help a mom who needed help.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
A few years in, Adonna's realized he could make more
money moving than working airport security, and he started his business.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
In New York City. He can get nine hundred and
fifty bucks to twelve hundred just for the one move,
you know, and so that money started to look way
better than you know, waiting two weeks for a twelve
hundred dollars check when I can get that in one day.
So the math was pretty easy for me.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
Uh huh, uh huh. You mentioned your son who's now
who's now an adult? Are you a single man now, Adonna's.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
Yeah, I have I have two boys, you know, and
one it's twenty nine and when it is thirty three,
and I'm not married, but I'm not single. Yeah, well
there's not I got to have a girlfriend.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
You know, you're in a relationship.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
Yeah, I'm in a relationship. Yeah, yeah, I'm in a relationship. Yeah, yeah,
uh huh.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
Where did you meet your your current partner?
Speaker 3 (29:28):
I was doing a move and she just walked to
me on the street, looked for a job and toward
her a rap front. She was terrible at the job,
but a pretty girl. And I was like, you don't
have to work anymore. But you know, so that's the
way that happened. Yeah, I don't think. I I think,
you know, technically, even though we've been together like five years,
(29:49):
I think technically I can still get out of it
because I had never officially said I'm your boyfriend, and
just she just have to be around me when I'm
going to the movies and dinner.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Yeah, she just happens to be there.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
So you don't live together?
Speaker 3 (30:03):
No, no, no, I don't live together. I don't want
to live with anybody anymore. I have two separate moms.
So I've been through that before, and it's not a
good It's not good. The breakup isn't good. They know
too much about you when it's time to end, you.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
Know, uh huh huh. And I wonder a honest when
you come home to your place and you look around
at the things that you have. You know, when your
work is to see all the stuff that people have,
and you know, like you do you find that the
(30:39):
objects that you keep in your house, are there a
few things that you really treasure or do you find
that you're less attached to stuff?
Speaker 3 (30:47):
Yeah? I am very less attached to stuff. I don't
think I have anything in my house that I pay for,
not even my own bed. And I got a nice
comfy bed, of course, a lot of money that I
didn't pay for. I got a big screen TV. What
a nice curve TVs? I don't know what they cost,
maybe two thousand, five hundred these days. Well I got
it for free.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
How'd you get that nice TV for free?
Speaker 3 (31:08):
One of the clients they were upgraded or they're moving
it like they consolidate and they move and they got
married or you know, or in a relationship. They're moving
and they don't need two beds, they don't need two TVs,
you know what I mean. So I get a lot
of stuff all the time.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Oh that makes sense, because you're for people who are
just trying to be done with moving stuff, like you
taking that off their hands.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
Yeah, I used to. I used to try and sell it,
but it's just too much has to to sell it,
so I donated. I donate all the furniture to victims
of domestic violence. I still have my ad up. I
will take a picture of it and if it can
move out, I'll deliver it for free.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
When you think about the next five ten years, how
long do you think you'll be working on moving sites
and doing the moving yourself.
Speaker 3 (32:00):
I think I could go, based on my father, go
at least the seventy five.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Because years.
Speaker 3 (32:11):
Yeah, but I have I'm going to be the person
to point the finger to lift that up, probably in
the next five years, if not sooner. As opposed to
actually doing the work myself. I actually jump. It was
a four flight walk up. I take a flight myself
to this day. And when those guys complain about what
they're lifting and how heavy something is, I'll always go,
(32:33):
come on, I'm double your agent. I'm still doing I'm
not even sweating yet. But when I sit and I
hope they never hear this podcast, when I sit in
that truck, I'm going, why the hell did I do that?
Oh my god, why am I still doing it? But
then when I open that truck door, I'm like, let's
get back to work.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
That's Adonnis Williams, a mover in New York City who
now lives in Queens. Death Sex and Money is a
listener supported production of WNYC Studios in New York. This
episode was produced by Zoey Azula. The rest of our
(33:22):
team is Leliana, Maria Percy, Ruis, Amy Pearl, Lindsay Foster, Thomas,
and Andrew Dunn. Thank you to Jason Isaac for engineering health.
The Reverend John Delore and Steve Lewis wrote our theme music.
We're at Death Sex Money on Instagram and subscribe to
our weekly newsletter at Deathsexmoney dot org slash newsletter. Thank
(33:44):
you to Laurie mccaskell in Brooklyn, New York for being
a member of Death Sex and Money and supporting us
with a monthly donation. Join Christine and support what we
do here by going to Death Sexmoney dot org slash donate.
(34:06):
When Adonis does retire, he plans to move out of
New York City to the country to live close to
his parents.
Speaker 3 (34:12):
It's nothing like looking at the sky and listening to
the crickets and having your dog like they have two dogs,
but the dogs love me when I come by the
recognize me right away. They even jump up and down
like like little kids. You wouldn't believe these two dogs.
They didn't jump up and down. They get the wagon,
you know, and they love me, so I ain't get me.
Get me a dog and uh and live out my
(34:33):
days in a rocking chair.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
Where all like my dad, I'm in a sale and
this is death, sex and money. From w NYC
Hi everyone, Jonathan here Heavyweight. We'll be back with a
new episode next week, but in the meantime, we wanted
to share with you an episode of another show that
we really like. It's called Death, Sex and Money, and
it's hosted by Anna sal On the show, Anna interviews
her guests about the topics that we usually tend to
shy away from impolite conversation, things like the titular death,
(00:22):
Sex and Money. I recently sat down with Anna. As
I was sitting here, I was jotting down some last
minute questions, and the first one that I wrote down
was did you ask inappropriate questions as a child? Like
I'm imagining you approaching your dad's friends and asking them
how much they made for a living.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
I don't think I did that.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
I definitely wondered, or how much sex they have, or
when they were planning to die. Anna has a real
gift with people, whether it's talking to a TV weather
man about losing his job after a sex photo leak,
a new father about the surprising results of a paternity test,
or to actress Ellen Burston about the illegal abortion she
(01:05):
had at the age of eighteen. It's amazing what Anne
is able to pull from her subject.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
The concrete questions that other interviewers might find too crass
to ask. I just ask it. You know, all of
us deal with hard things and uncomfortable things, and rather
than retreat into our own feelings of shame around it,
let's create a little more conversation and connection.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Yeah, and I think that you're a very good listener.
Thank you? Did you? I mean just out of curiosity? Parenthetically,
did you have a schooling for that.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Listening school? No? My school I think was being in
a big family growing up. I was on the quiet
side and a loud family, So I think that trained
me for like it's like listening and be able to
take in a lot. But also I feel like I'm
(02:03):
kind of like a little maybe like a little bit
like a cougar. Like it was like waiting for that
opening and then I'm going to like, you know, strike.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Is very primal.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
It sounds like.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
I'm like, what's the metaphor someone who really wants a
bloody piece of meat.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
The episode we're about to play is about a professional
mover in New York City.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Our producer Zoe Azula was thinking about episodes where we
can catch people in a moment so it feels like
you're talking to them when something is happening. And she
sort of like movers are constantly doing that, They're showing
up when people are at that moment of joining together
coming apart. It's changed. And so she started to just
(02:50):
kind of look around at New York City movers and
she found this mover named Adonis. What I think is
really interesting about him. He's a professional mover, that's what
he does for work, and alongside that, he advertises his
services as being willing to show up and help survivors
of domestic violence get out of unsafe situations for free.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Well, I guess this is the part where I say,
let's listen to the episode and you can find Death,
Sex and Money wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Thank you. That was a very enthusiastic throw. I feel.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
It's as enthusiastic as I get, but I'll give it
another go. Let's listen to this episode of Death, Sex
and Money, which you can find wherever you get your podcasts.
Coming up right after the break, I am.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Yeah, I'm six for two and forty eight pounds. My
employees use the word a bralic a lot when they
see me pick up stuff like I literally just pick
a sofa up over my head while two of them
struggling with it, you know, and I'll just say I
got it, and I'll just pick up the sofa bed
over my head and start walking with it. And they go,
(04:06):
oh my god, he's so bralic.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
This is death, Sex and Money, the show from WNYC
about the things we think about a lot. I need
to talk about more. I maan a sale. Adonnas Williams
(04:34):
is a mover in New York City, a job he
started more than twenty years ago. When he saw a
woman crying on the subway. She had two kids with
her and all their stuff and trash bags, and.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Asked to what, you know, what was wrong? She explained
that she had to make a choice between leaving the
bags of clothes and carrying the kids.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Anas had a van, and he offered to move her
for free.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
I'm that way. Even on the way here, I stopped
to get me a cup of coffee, and it was
a mother with her daughter and Dunkin Donuts, true story,
and a little girl was crying because she wanted the
strawberry sprinkled donut and her mother was just going in
to get a coffee, you know, And I said, ma'am,
I'm going to pay for your coffee. I'm going to
(05:23):
pay for her donut. And that's just the way I am.
If I see you know, people are sad or crying,
you know. But I do have one rule. I don't
take care of the homeless in other states, like I
travel too much. But if somebody comes up to me
in a window in Texas or Tennessee, I don't give
any money. I know it's sad, but I just can't
(05:44):
take care of the world. But in New York City,
if you come up to my window, I'll give you
two dollars five dollars. And that's every day, all day anybody.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Adonnas is often in other states because a lot of
his moves are long distance, but they mostly start in
New York City.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
One two three lived a pull on that side.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
On a Saturday afternoon a few months ago, Adonnas was
moving the belongings of Miss Dixon. She had just retired
from her job as a home health aid and was
leaving the Bronx after many years. Producer Zoey Azule met
them at a storage unit where they were packing up
her stuff.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
What's the what's the moving plan today? Where are we going?
We're going down south North Carolina. What's there? Family?
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Mm hmm?
Speaker 3 (06:32):
And are you going to what are you going to
miss about New York? Much A means in the middle.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
From the storage unit they drove in Adonnas's truck. Miss
Dixon riding shotgun Zoe squeezed in the middle to pick
up the rest of Miss Dixon's things at her.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Apartment thirteen thirteen, twenty two. Gotcha.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Adonnas has lived in New York City his whole life.
He knows each neighborhood how to maneuver through them in
a big truck.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
Misticks, have you ate that Spanish restaurant right there? Why
you want right here? No? I guess you never hate here.
I think feel will back.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
When they got to the apartment, there was not much
left to pack up.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
I had seven bocks and only seven boxes. Over there
is a fan on the TV.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Oh, they already packed.
Speaker 4 (07:22):
Up anyway, Okay, make me feel guilty about taking your
money with such a small job, or on the other end,
I mean I have to give you some money. I
had to pay you for the exercise today.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Over his twenty years in the moving business, Adonnas has
seen people in all sorts of transitional moments, retiring, getting married,
being priced out. Sometimes a person is ready with their
stuff in boxes eager. Other times Adonnas and his team
have to help a person pack. It's a mover's job
(07:57):
to make this moment manageable, departmentalize, and help a person
move on. This is not a service a donna's had
growing up.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
Well. I remember moving as a child between Harlem and
the Bronx, and we never hired movers. I didn't even know,
you know. I would just come from school and we'd
be in a new place. My dad took care of everything,
and we just did it with pickup trucks, cars, you know,
whatever we could, you know, whatever relative could come by.
(08:27):
We never ever hired a moving truck.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
I talked to Adonnas after he'd gotten Miss Dixon's things
to North Carolina. He came into our New York studio
the morning before another move. It was still summer, a
Donnas's peak season when he does about a move a day.
He used to pack in three moves a day. That's
a lot of flights of stairs, tight corners, and long drives.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
I just did back to back, Florida, Texas, Tennessee, Schoosetts,
and now I have a Vermont coming up next week.
I've been to every state except for Seattle, Washington, and Oregon.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
And when you are driving these long haul moves, do
you go by yourself?
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Sometimes sometimes I do, or sometimes I pick up my
dad And yeah, my dad he comes in. He does
the driving. You know, at seventy years old, he's still
a hell of a driver and still moves furniture and
picks up boxes and stuff. He loves to go.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
And are they still living in New York City?
Speaker 3 (09:34):
No? No, No, My parents eight years ago moved to
North Carolina, and I moved them. And they said it's
because I gave them the cheapest price.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Not because they wanted the Patriots.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Because I said, you moved for free.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
He won the bid? Uh for free? Okay, got it?
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Yeah, I moved my parents out to North Carolina, and
I visit them. Anytime I do a move going like
I said, doing New York to Florida, or New York
to Georgia, or New York to South Carolina, I always
stop it and use my parents' places the hotel. But yeah,
my dad still goes. When I go up ninety five.
He's always happy to put on his fatigues because that's
(10:14):
what we were. He goes. Yeah. He likes the fact that
when he is wearing his Vietnam hat and his fatigues,
a lot of people will say thank you for your service,
you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Yeah, And it's nice you get to watch those interactions.
That's cool. You get to see that. I imagine when
you enter into a home where someone is moving out,
you know, it means something in their life is changing.
Can you tell the difference between a happy move and
a sad move?
Speaker 3 (10:45):
Oh? Absolutely absolutely. As a matter of fact, now I
get the email ADONISHU moved me, and let's say, let's
use the name Josh into the apartment. You know, five
years ago, we're now getting divorced, and I just want
to know if you are able to help me move,
so they'll know the kind of atmosphere I'm entering, Like,
(11:06):
I won't be like, hey, how's everything going, you know,
And it's a sad occasion for them because they're getting
a divorce, you know what I mean. And so I
you know, I go in there like neutral, not taking
any sides.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Yeah, uh huh. And do you find, like, how often
do you find that you need to sort of offer
some some reassurance or some comfort for somebody who's having
a sad move.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
Usually every time, every time you do the move, there
is some you know, they want to talk to you
about it. You become the bartender or the taxi driver
that they need to you know, event to or at
least tell their side because you know, everybody feels they oh,
I'm not the bad person. And you get some I
get some people guys, both guys and girls and say, Adonis,
(11:56):
I really messed up. I cheated on them and got busted.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Do you ever find yourself sharing any of your you know,
ups and downs with someone who's having a hard time.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Absolutely, you can't. You can't go in and just you know,
hear about their life and not have to share a
part of your life, you know, with them. And that
happens all the time. You know, I tell them about
my mistakes because at fifty four, I'm always older than
the person that I'm moving.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
You know, when you come into someone's home and they
are packing up all of their possessions, I imagine you
see a lot of private items. You know, you see
(12:46):
the way people actually live instead of how they present
on the street. What's like, does anything surprise you now
having done this for twenty years, what you come across
when you're packing up a bedroom for example.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
No, Now I have on my questionnaire when I send
them a list of tips of you know, moving tips.
The police check under the beds for anything personal. So
that because a lot of times the apartments are so small,
the rooms are so small that the bed takes up
most of them and you can't move the bed left
or right or nothing. It's just up against the wall.
(13:22):
And so I asked them to check under the bed
because usually whatever falls on the side of the bed
or under the bed, they can't get it until the
movers come and move the bed. So I moved an
Indian couple that I had moved before and was familiar
with them and everything. But this time the they were
(13:44):
having a baby and they needed a bigger space. So
when we moved the bed and a lot of the
Indians and Asians, parents come on both sides when they're
doing a move, you know, yes, they both come like
it's an event. Whatever. They come help do the packing
and maybe the mind the baby, you know, the small
(14:05):
children so the parents can do whatever they have to do. So,
you know, I got ready to take apart the bed,
took the mattress off and lifted it up, and they're
all talking to me, you know. And I moved the
bed and some used condoms were following the side of
the bed, and yeah, used, used, used, And the girl
(14:29):
was pregnant, which was the reason they were moving, and
so the husband had no reason to use condoms. And
so everybody stand in the room looking at each other
except me. I just put the better the side and
take it out. But there was a big argument in
their language, and it didn't't well. You know, she ended
(14:50):
up staying at the place and he ended up leaving,
and it was a big old argument. I said, oh man,
oh wow, yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Oh my goodness. And I wonder if I'm imagining for
your for your clients, you know, who find you and
reach out like you. You also have this very up
close view of how New York City neighborhoods are changing
because you're noticing who's coming in and who's coming out.
(15:22):
What what are you noticing right now in New York?
Is there anything different or is it the same kind
of march of uh? You know, expensive neighborhoods getting bigger,
and affordable neighborhoods getting smaller, and the racial makeup of
neighborhoods changing.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
You know that clips What I'm noticing is nobody, and
I mean nobody in New York City can live alone.
It's very rare for me to move a place where,
let's see, even if it's a one bedroom where there's
just one person living there, just paying the rent, everybody
has to have help. Yeah, the rent is so expensive
(16:02):
and I don't care what kind of job I've moved
lawyers and doctors and people in advertisement. I once moved
a group of girls on Wall Street in a very
very expensive building, and it was seven of them. They
had so many walls put up split in this place,
so like going through a maze to get the stuff out.
Oh wow, So they could afford the rent. Yeah, And
(16:24):
we had gotten there early, and so there was still
a few of the people sleeping. There was actually a
girl who slept by the door. The little hallway that
leads to the door was a bedroom, so she had
to like frold up her bed and move it so
we could start, you know, you know, coming in and out.
I was like yeah, that's really really trying to pay
(16:45):
the rent with the seven girls in here.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Does it ever get you down, like seeing how hard
people are, how hard it is for people to to
find a comfortable place to live and to be able
to afford to stay there.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
No, no, you know, I never it never gets me
down or nothing like that. But it makes me realize
that I'm not the only one in that boat. Because
growing up, we were very very very very very and
if I could throw two more berries on there, very poor, yeah,
very poor. We always thought white people lived better than us,
(17:22):
you know what I mean. We lived in the projects,
and you know, they lived in the Tribeca and Gramercy
Park and you know all those places. But now that
I move people, you say to yourself, Wow, they're really
people in New York City, really really suffering their own way,
you know what I mean. They just put up a
(17:43):
good facade.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Coming up. How Adonnas got into the moving business and
why for the first five years charge for it.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
The frequency of the phone calls where I was trying
to do Friday, Saturdays and Sundays. The people that are
being abused can't wait for the weekend. So then I
found myself trying to take care of it in the
morning before I went to work.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
This is death, sex and money from WNYC. I mean
a sale. By the time Adonnis Williams was thirty, he'd
gone through lots of jobs supermarket clerk, security guard, summer
youth counselor, and dental assistant. But money was tight. He
had two sons, one who lived with them. That's why
he bought his first van in two thousand. He needed
(18:48):
a car, and a Dodge Caravan from the mid nineties
was what he could afford.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
I had that van because that's the only thing that
they would give me on my credit.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
I see. So it's like I'm picturing like a mini van,
which is what like, you know, when you've got a
couple of kids in the back. But for you, it
was the car Loan. You could guess that's what I
could do.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
I started off in the front with the Dodge charger,
and then you know, I saw the Dodge pickups and
I started thinking of myself. I had my son with
me at the time, but they walked me way, way
way past all that stuff. So the back of the
yard with this this van with the leaves on it
opened it up and they say, this is what we
got for you. I took it. I took it.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Then September eleventh happened.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
The government was looking for people to look at the
X rays and stuff, and so I was able to
identify a lot of small stuff and they were impressed
with that, and the government hired me to train people
at the TSA to read X rays.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
He worked long hours at LaGuardia. One night after work,
he was taking the subway home and noticed the woman
with her two kids trash bags with their belongings. She
told them she'd been staying in a shelter because her
partner was abusive, but she'd had to leave the shelter
and that night she had nowhere to go, And so.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
I came back with the van and I got her in,
the two kids, and I got them pizza and Hawaiian
punch huh yeah, and took them to my house and
I gave them the bedroom and I used my living
room sofa bed, And that's when I realized that, you know,
in the shelter system, they don't really help you get
(20:33):
in or out.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
The next morning, he moved her and her kids and
their things back into the shelter. System after they'd reapplied
for a slot, and Adonnas decided he wanted to help
more victims of domestic violence move out of unsafe situations,
a service he still provides today. He placed an ad
on Craigslist and put the word out.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
I got some cards and then I went around and
put them to the shelters. Now that the shelters aren't
easy to find, and it meant that way, so the
abuses don't find the shelters. And for the first five years,
I didn't make any money. I didn't get any money
and I didn't accept any money for the first five
years of moving.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Oh, so it wasn't like a job, you know, it
was a service that you did.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
And I also have a Facebook page. Still call that
a Facebook page?
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Yeah, how much were you helping people move?
Speaker 3 (21:24):
I was only doing the job on the weekends Friday, Saturday,
and Sunday at the Department of Homeland Security. I had
ten hours shift, so I finished my forty hours and
four days. So I had Friday, Saturdays and Sundays off
and I would just I had the ad. If I
got the phone call, I would just move people. Now,
(21:46):
the type of move I was doing was a person
with bags of clothes. They even put dishes and forks
and spoons and bags of clothes, I mean in garbage bags. Yeah,
and they were like taking a mattress and maybe a TV,
you know, maybe a TV. But those are desperate people
trying to get out of a situation where either the
abuser was locked up, you know, or I'm at work,
(22:09):
you know, something like that. I rushed in just me
and my son. At the time. My son was only
nine years old, so it just me and him.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
I want to make sure I'm understanding the families who
are trying to get away from violence in the home.
Is it primarily do you encounter them when they're trying
to get to a shelter, we're moving between shelters, or
sometimes are you coming in when the abusers away, sneaking
(22:38):
in trying to get them out safely.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
Yeah, it varies, and now even sometimes the abuse are
still there. But when he but now you know, we're talking,
you know, twenty years later, and I have a crew now,
not just me and my nine year old son. So
now when they see like four or five big guys
come through the door, the guy's sitting here quiet and
he doesn't see anything, and we don't give him the
(23:02):
mean face, nothing like that.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
Is there anyone in your life, Adonnis, that like, before
you were moving survivors of domestic violence? Did you know
anyone was anyone in your life somebody who'd been through
a dangerous relationship.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
Well, my parents, my mom and my dad, you know,
used to go through that, you know. And you know
what the weird thing is when my mom and dad
were fighting and my mom would be bruised up, it
was no name for it. We got a beating from
my dad, My mom got a beating from dad, you
know what I mean. It was just the way it was.
(23:38):
And when the police came, they nobody got arrested. They
would say, take a walk around the block, you know,
or you got to cool off. They were veterans also,
and they understood what he was going through, so they
give him a break. But once my we got once
we got older. I would see between seventeen and twenty,
(24:03):
and we could, me and my older brother could challenge
my father. And because by that time we lived in Harlem,
in the Bronx, and we were kind of street hard.
And you know, even though I sound like I sound
like an easygoing mellow guy. I have never lost the
fight on the streets of Harlem or the Bronx, and
I dare anybody to say so, because I come see them,
(24:23):
you know. But yes, when I when I put up
my dukes, there was no walking away from that. The
person always ended up on the ground and people had
to pull me off from you know. So when me
and my brother, you know, my dad, you know, he
went in after my mom and then we we me
and my brother closed, got my mom autady and closed
(24:43):
the door when we came back out that day in
nineteen ninety two. Dad never did it again, and he
gave up the drinking and smoking and stuff like that
over the years. He's a great guy now. But yeah,
yeah he was. He was military training. It wasn't an
easy fight. I tell you that. The military I learned
that day trained them so just very very well. But
(25:04):
we had youth and stamina on our side, and we
prevailed ninety two.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
So you were you were in your early twenties.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
Yeah, I'm born in sixty nine, so eight nine, it's
like twenty two.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
It's interesting you remember the year. You remember when you.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
Remember the day you have to go up against the
most powerful man on the planet, because there's no kid
who doesn't think his dad is not the most powerful
person on the planet. There's not one kid out here.
I seen my pop beat up groom men in the street,
just beat him up, and you know, because you know,
that's the way it was in Harlem and Bronce. You
had a problem with somebody and you step out of
the bar, and you know, I seen him take on
(25:45):
two and three guys. Like what am I gonna I'm
ten years old. If my pop told me to do something,
I did it. I saw what the other guys got,
you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Yeah, have you and your dad talked about that?
Speaker 3 (25:58):
No, I've never talked to my dad about that. But
during a drive once, my dad had asked me about
why I never cursed. He asked me, Oh, he wanted
to know why I never cursed, and uh, he wants
to know why I never used drugs or smoked or anything.
(26:18):
And we had a conversation about that, and I explained
to him, and he wanted to know what did I
do when my mom kicked me out? Because when I
was uh, when I when I when I was twenty
four twenty five, my mom made me leave.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
And what did you do?
Speaker 3 (26:40):
I lived sometimes. I lived sometimes in the UH in
the same building where we where he put me out of,
but on the on the roof area, and I still
went to work from there until a friend of mine
had a studio apartment and he was getting married and
(27:01):
he gave me the studio apartment. And that was my
first apartment in Harlem.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
And why did your mom ask you to leave?
Speaker 3 (27:10):
She found out I had a kid that I didn't
tell her about, Yeah, my first son. She was upset
and she put me out.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
And what did you say when your dad asked you
about why you don't curse and why you didn't do drugs?
Speaker 3 (27:27):
Well, I told my dad I didn't do drugs because
I saw what it did to him. You know what
I mean. You know it's a cigarette smoking, the drinking
how to meet him? And I was afraid to become
that person. And I don't spink to this day. I
do not hit women, I do not hit children, and
(27:48):
I do not hit animals. Yeah, I never once gave
my kids a spanking. And I never had an argument
with a girl in a relationship and I never hit her.
And I don't hit animals. They can't defend themselves.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
That makes me understand, Adonis, when you describe, you know,
being on the subway and seeing a mom with her
kids struggling, It makes me understand maybe a little bit
about like the depth of feeling you might have to
want to want to help look out and help them
(28:26):
help a mom who needed help.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
A few years in, Adonna's realized he could make more
money moving than working airport security, and he started his business.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
In New York City. He can get nine hundred and
fifty bucks to twelve hundred just for the one move,
you know, and so that money started to look way
better than you know, waiting two weeks for a twelve
hundred dollars check when I can get that in one day.
So the math was pretty easy for me.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
Uh huh, uh huh. You mentioned your son who's now
who's now an adult? Are you a single man now, Adonna's.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
Yeah, I have I have two boys, you know, and
one it's twenty nine and when it is thirty three,
and I'm not married, but I'm not single. Yeah, well
there's not I got to have a girlfriend.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
You know, you're in a relationship.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
Yeah, I'm in a relationship. Yeah, yeah, I'm in a relationship. Yeah, yeah,
uh huh.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
Where did you meet your your current partner?
Speaker 3 (29:28):
I was doing a move and she just walked to
me on the street, looked for a job and toward
her a rap front. She was terrible at the job,
but a pretty girl. And I was like, you don't
have to work anymore. But you know, so that's the
way that happened. Yeah, I don't think. I I think,
you know, technically, even though we've been together like five years,
(29:49):
I think technically I can still get out of it
because I had never officially said I'm your boyfriend, and
just she just have to be around me when I'm
going to the movies and dinner.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Yeah, she just happens to be there.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
So you don't live together?
Speaker 3 (30:03):
No, no, no, I don't live together. I don't want
to live with anybody anymore. I have two separate moms.
So I've been through that before, and it's not a
good It's not good. The breakup isn't good. They know
too much about you when it's time to end, you.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
Know, uh huh huh. And I wonder a honest when
you come home to your place and you look around
at the things that you have. You know, when your
work is to see all the stuff that people have,
and you know, like you do you find that the
(30:39):
objects that you keep in your house, are there a
few things that you really treasure or do you find
that you're less attached to stuff?
Speaker 3 (30:47):
Yeah? I am very less attached to stuff. I don't
think I have anything in my house that I pay for,
not even my own bed. And I got a nice
comfy bed, of course, a lot of money that I
didn't pay for. I got a big screen TV. What
a nice curve TVs? I don't know what they cost,
maybe two thousand, five hundred these days. Well I got
it for free.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
How'd you get that nice TV for free?
Speaker 3 (31:08):
One of the clients they were upgraded or they're moving
it like they consolidate and they move and they got
married or you know, or in a relationship. They're moving
and they don't need two beds, they don't need two TVs,
you know what I mean. So I get a lot
of stuff all the time.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Oh that makes sense, because you're for people who are
just trying to be done with moving stuff, like you
taking that off their hands.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
Yeah, I used to. I used to try and sell it,
but it's just too much has to to sell it,
so I donated. I donate all the furniture to victims
of domestic violence. I still have my ad up. I
will take a picture of it and if it can
move out, I'll deliver it for free.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
When you think about the next five ten years, how
long do you think you'll be working on moving sites
and doing the moving yourself.
Speaker 3 (32:00):
I think I could go, based on my father, go
at least the seventy five.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Because years.
Speaker 3 (32:11):
Yeah, but I have I'm going to be the person
to point the finger to lift that up, probably in
the next five years, if not sooner. As opposed to
actually doing the work myself. I actually jump. It was
a four flight walk up. I take a flight myself
to this day. And when those guys complain about what
they're lifting and how heavy something is, I'll always go,
(32:33):
come on, I'm double your agent. I'm still doing I'm
not even sweating yet. But when I sit and I
hope they never hear this podcast, when I sit in
that truck, I'm going, why the hell did I do that?
Oh my god, why am I still doing it? But
then when I open that truck door, I'm like, let's
get back to work.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
That's Adonnis Williams, a mover in New York City who
now lives in Queens. Death Sex and Money is a
listener supported production of WNYC Studios in New York. This
episode was produced by Zoey Azula. The rest of our
(33:22):
team is Leliana, Maria Percy, Ruis, Amy Pearl, Lindsay Foster, Thomas,
and Andrew Dunn. Thank you to Jason Isaac for engineering health.
The Reverend John Delore and Steve Lewis wrote our theme music.
We're at Death Sex Money on Instagram and subscribe to
our weekly newsletter at Deathsexmoney dot org slash newsletter. Thank
(33:44):
you to Laurie mccaskell in Brooklyn, New York for being
a member of Death Sex and Money and supporting us
with a monthly donation. Join Christine and support what we
do here by going to Death Sexmoney dot org slash donate.
(34:06):
When Adonis does retire, he plans to move out of
New York City to the country to live close to
his parents.
Speaker 3 (34:12):
It's nothing like looking at the sky and listening to
the crickets and having your dog like they have two dogs,
but the dogs love me when I come by the
recognize me right away. They even jump up and down
like like little kids. You wouldn't believe these two dogs.
They didn't jump up and down. They get the wagon,
you know, and they love me, so I ain't get me.
Get me a dog and uh and live out my
(34:33):
days in a rocking chair.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
Where all like my dad, I'm in a sale and
this is death, sex and money. From w NYC
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