December 23, 2025 • 28 mins
This holiday special skips the wrapping paper and goes straight for the heart.
In Part I of a two-part series, Jermine Alberty sits with his father, Jimmie Jones, for a raw, unvarnished father–son conversation about what we inherit, what we choose, and how faith and responsibility can rewrite the story. From 1960s Kansas City streets to a modern kitchen table, they explore temperament and trauma, the sting of denial, inherited anger, and the vow to never let children grow up as strangers.
Nature versus nurture comes alive—how a grandson mirrors a grandfather’s fire, how unexamined pain can shape behavior, and how prayer, presence, and community can interrupt old patterns. Mental health is named, not whispered—anxiety, depressive swings, and bipolar tendencies framed not as destiny, but as context for compassion and growth.
At the core is a simple dream: keep God first, gather the family, and build a legacy of belonging that stitches generations together. If you’ve ever wondered whether your past defines you—or how to break cycles without breaking yourself—this conversation offers candor, wisdom, and hope.
This is The SALT Talk with Jermine Alberty.
The SALT Talk with Jermine Alberty
Service. Affirmation. Love. Transformation.
Thank you for tuning in to The SALT Talk, where we inspire transformation through honest conversations about faith, healing, and purpose.
Be sure to subscribe, rate, and share this episode with someone who needs encouragement today.
To learn more about the SALT Initiative or to book Rev. Alberty for training or speaking engagements, visit www.jerminealberty.com.
Until next time, remember:
Serve with humility, affirm with compassion, love with courage, and live a life of transformation.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Welcome to the Stock Talk with Jermaine Albergini,
where service, affirmation,love, and transformation meet
real life.
As we approach this holidayseason when so much attention is
placed on gifts, I want to pauseand name something that we don't
talk about enough.
The gift of family.
(00:21):
Not that perfect version, notthe curated version, but the
real one.
The complicated, unfinished,honest version.
And what better way to honorthat gift than by doing what we
don't do enough?
Having honest conversations witheach other.
That's why this Top Talk episodeis so very special to me because
(00:47):
this is a special two-partseries rooted in family.
In part one, I sit down with myfather, Jimmy Jones, for a raw
conversation about temperament,trauma, faith, survival, and
legacy.
And what it means to take a lickand keep on ticking, and how
(01:08):
God, resilience, andresponsibility shape a man over
time.
In part two, I sit down with mybrother Jimmy Marks for an
equally vulnerable conversationabout shared rooms, unspoken
experiences, love,inconstitution, feelings, and
hope.
(01:29):
And we explore how two peoplecan grow up in the same family
and swimming with very differentlives.
And how faith with quiet loveand resilience can interrupt
cycles, selective terms, whichwe goodness.
Together, these conversations,the wrestle with nature versus
(01:49):
nurture, the power of childhoodexperiences, and the truth that
while our past informs us, itdoes not have to imprison us.
Mister is not about blame, it'sabout understanding, feeling,
and choosing connection.
So this is the holiday season.
My hope is simple that theseconversations remind us that
(02:10):
family, when met with honestyand grace, can still be one of
the greatest gifts we give andreceive.
Stay with us.
This is Jermaine Albert, andlisten to The Salt Talk.
Well, welcome to part one of ourseries.
I want to welcome my dad, JimmyJones, to the Salt Talk.
(02:32):
How are you doing?
SPEAKER_02 (02:33):
I am doing good.
So I want to begin with yourchildhood, and I want you to uh
tell me about a moment from yourchildhood that shaped the way
you see yourself today.
SPEAKER_01 (02:45):
As a child, you know, you don't put two and two
together until later in life asyou grow up.
What?
And as you learn things.
Okay.
Life lessons are taught for youto either learn or you're gonna
(03:07):
keep repeating them over andover.
My whole thing was I don't likerepeating things.
So my thing is to learn thelesson, to advance myself and
move on.
Well, I had that attitude.
(03:29):
I had that double standard wheredefending myself was more or
less a bad thing for me.
Because I'm supposed to walkaway.
(03:49):
I'm not I'm not supposed to getangry.
I'm not supposed to defendmyself, I'm supposed to be man
enough to walk away.
SPEAKER_02 (03:58):
So let me let me jump in here because this is the
whole thing about uh Freud hasthis theory nature versus
nurture, meaning that there'sjust some things that are
innately in us that we have nocontrol of.
Right.
Our DNA, our behaviors, right,and there's some things that we
are learned, we are taught.
But when it comes down to me andyour relationship growing up, of
(04:20):
course, we was always alwaysaround as a roundabout way,
always around, right?
But didn't directly like teachme anything like directly, like
Jermaine, this, this, this,indirectly.
Right.
But um, and of course withJeremiah, you you know, you been
around Jeremiah a little bit,right, but never taught him like
directly Jeremiah, this, this,this.
(04:40):
You had conversations.
But I find funny though isbecause I think Jeremiah is your
child.
Uh, because I want to say thatbecause he reminds me a lot of
like you.
Like, I know you didn't teachhim these things, but your DNA
like runs in him.
Uh, like it runs in me.
(05:02):
Right.
And uh one of the things istemperament, right?
You know, like that, like likehe he eat he's more or less like
a raging bull in his hint.
SPEAKER_01 (05:14):
He's calm, but once he's pushed, there's no limit to
it.
There's no limit.
There's no limit.
There's no way that you canspeak, yeah, talk, yeah, or even
uh uh act or react to the wayhe's feeling at that time.
(05:40):
And that's the whole thing.
SPEAKER_02 (05:43):
Where's that rage come from, though?
SPEAKER_01 (05:45):
But that's the whole thing, see, that's the thing in
my life that I had to take insequence.
Yeah.
Because when my mother told me Iwas like my uncle that's
supposed to kill some man withhis hand.
Yeah, this man I've never seen.
This man I don't know nothingabout.
(06:05):
My mother only spoke with me ina manner of that because of my
attitude and the way my angershowed.
SPEAKER_03 (06:15):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (06:16):
Because she whooped me with skillets, iron cords,
whips, and everything else.
When I was eight years old, shecame and whooped me, and I stood
there and looked at her.
And she looked at me, she said,You're not gonna cry.
I said, For what?
(06:37):
You just don't hit me more.
And I stood there while sheabout five minutes who walked on
me, and I just stood there.
I didn't jump, I didn't move, Ididn't bottle, I just stood
there.
Well, every time the lick hit,the sting went away.
So we should keep hitting thesting just goes away.
SPEAKER_02 (06:59):
At that point in time.
Wait a minute, mate.
You can't you listen, okay.
So there's a metaphor in therefor sure.
Right.
There's a metaphor in that, inthat as we live our life,
sometimes we get to that placewhere we take a lick and keep on
ticking.
You know what I'm saying?
Like life, life can hurt, lifecan be hard, but sometimes you
(07:20):
can be so hardened to the licksthe life come.
You're like, hey, it's justanother lick.
SPEAKER_01 (07:25):
It's more or less you learn that as they teach
you, life isn't fair.
SPEAKER_02 (07:32):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (07:33):
That's the scenario that we grew up in.
You learn, or you go to the hardrock.
School learning.
SPEAKER_02 (07:44):
So we're talking about so you know, you grew up
in the 60s.
Because you were born in 57.
So yeah, this you're talkingabout, if you're eight years
old, you're talking about 1965,somewhere in that area.
Right.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (07:56):
So, you know, we that was when Black Panthers,
SOS, uh, the um SOS, BlackPanthers.
We had uh all kind of streetgangs back then.
Um we had the Masons.
(08:20):
They was in the they was in thePros in the neighborhood between
Prospect, Walbash, Brooklyn,everything that was east of
Paseo.
SPEAKER_02 (08:32):
By the way, uh my listeners, my dad was born and
raised in Kansas, Missouri.
So this address these streetsthat are in Kansas, Missouri.
I I want to fast forward fromthe eight-year-old kid to the
18-year-old dude, a turn 18.
Okay.
So 17-year-old first child.
SPEAKER_01 (08:56):
Yeah, but see the thing about the thing that
failed me was that when I foundout my father denied me in court
as his child, I prayed to Godthat way.
(09:17):
However many children I had, Iwould never deny any of my
children.
And if they wasn't all born upunder one woman, they would
learn of one another because Iwouldn't want them interswinking
with one another without knowingwho the father is and who the
mother is.
That was just something that Ilooked at that made me hardened
(09:44):
against men that don't want totake care of their kids.
SPEAKER_02 (09:49):
So, so, okay.
That's why we're laughingsometimes because I have a thing
about men who shirk theirresponsibility.
Right.
I I was married for 27 years andI was determined, and maybe this
is something that was in me byby um by nurture or nature, but
I refused to abandon mychildren.
(10:09):
Right.
It didn't matter what was goingon with their mama and me.
I was I said, I'm gonna be in mychildren's life until they all
get grown.
Right.
And no matter what it means, forme, I'm gonna stay in their
lives.
And I and I honor that.
I honor that commitment.
SPEAKER_01 (10:24):
The thing was, when you was firstborn, my prayer to
God was that all my sins staywith me.
Not to go to my first son.
Because at that point in time Ihad hatred, I had anger, I had
(10:47):
rage, I was at the point ofknowing that I that entrepreneur
was rooted in me.
It didn't make I wouldn't letnothing stop me.
Uh-huh.
I didn't care what it was.
SPEAKER_02 (11:06):
So your prayer was none of your sins would hit me.
That's right.
God answered your prayer, didn'the?
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (11:14):
I thought it.
After we not love God to thisday, and I'm 68 years old.
I love God to the utmost.
That's the reason I prayed on adaily basis, and I love it
because he answered the prayerthat was more meaningful to me
(11:36):
than anything.
That I had a son that I wanted.
Nothing of my sins that touchhis soul.
That let all whatever I do,however I was, because of my
age, my rang, anger, my rage, mytemperament, everything.
(12:03):
At that point in time, I knewthe poison was there, but
controlling them or getting themunder hand was the problem.
So, when I had you, I more orless stood on the ground that I
would never be a father like myfather.
SPEAKER_03 (12:24):
Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01 (12:25):
And I prayed no matter how many kids I have, no
matter how many women that I goto, all my kids gonna know one
another.
And no matter whether I'm withthem or not, I'm gonna stay in
contact with my kids regardless.
For whatever they might need.
If they whenever they need me,I'm coming.
(12:48):
I made that from the beginningwhen you came out, any of my
kids.
If I wasn't able to be with themother, or I know how I was at
that time, I knew I would beain't no kelp.
And the thing was just protectmy kids, and when needed, I will
(13:12):
protect them, no matter what.
SPEAKER_02 (13:14):
So I think it's important for folks to know that
I'm the oldest of seven kids.
My mother, my mother had sevenkids.
My dad has five kids, includingme, Jimmy, Jamar, Geronimo, and
a sister named Tiffany.
So those are the five kids thatmy dad has.
Um and one of the things thatJimmy and I was talking about
(13:36):
was this whole thing ofself-sabotage.
Kind of like, you know, whenyou're doing good and you trip
up and you fancy back there.
We were talking about kind oflike where that all comes from.
Like some of it is, of course,personal responsibility, you
know, for your own actions.
Right.
But then some of it's just likeit's stuff in you that you just
(13:58):
trip over and you don't knowwhere it comes come from.
SPEAKER_01 (14:00):
A lot of it, you a lot of it is when growing up and
learning yourself.
You actually not tell you, tellyou, like I told all of y'all.
If it's one thing in life, betrue to yourself.
Uh-huh.
Because if you're not true toyourself, you can't be true with
nobody else.
(14:21):
Uh-huh.
And that's the reason.
Old folks, when they taught me,and that's one thing that I
learned from older folks,because I never could hang
around.
People my age, or three yearsolder than me, could not teach
me a damn thing.
I learned from people 40, 50years older than me.
(14:42):
And I listened to them.
Like these kids today, theydon't listen.
Back in our days, it took avillage to raise a kid.
That means you listen to thewoman down the street, next
door, on the next block, threeblocks down.
She could be a mile away, but ifshe knew your mother, you better
be listening to her.
(15:04):
Yeah.
Because by the time you get homefrom what you did and she knows
your mother, you got anotherbutt whip and come when you got
home because she didn't callyour mother and let you know
what was up.
Yeah.
Nowadays, I mean, it's a wholedifferent lifestyle.
SPEAKER_02 (15:19):
But I've often said, though, uh Hillary Quentin wrote
a book called Takes a Village toRaise a Child.
And I've often said, nowadaysthe question is who raised the
village?
Okay.
I got a few more questions I'mgonna ask, and then I'm gonna
wrap up this interview.
All right.
So Forr said human beings areshaped by unresolved conflicts
(15:40):
from early stages of life.
Uh, do you think there werethings from your childhood or
young adulthood that you had toconfront as an adult?
Some things from your childhood,a young adulthood that that you
gotta confront as an adult.
So childhood, okay, childhood, ayoung adult that you got
everything.
SPEAKER_03 (16:01):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (16:03):
As I grew up and learn that you had to be grown
in order to be able to calculateand articulate the things that
went on as as as your childhood.
(16:25):
You had to reach an age ofmaturity or age of acceptance.
Uh your childhood is only a partof your growth as an adult.
Your childhood can eithercripple you, it can maim you, it
(16:49):
can drive you crazy.
Depending on where your mindsetis.
And the thing with me is Ilearned about my anger, I
learned about my rage, I learnedabout magic depressants, I
(17:13):
learned about anxiety, I learnedabout being bipolar as the
outcome of your demeanor as anadult.
Now you can say, okay, becauseof this and because of that,
it's the reason I'm like this.
I say I took the bad and turnedit to the good in my adulthood.
(17:42):
What happened to me in mychildhood through my through the
adults that I grew and that grewme up.
We was taught respect theelders, oldest, family, this,
that, and the other.
But me, if a duck came around, Iwas the most calm, collector,
(18:10):
politic bug.
I mean I was polished up, I wasshine like a dime around a duck.
SPEAKER_02 (18:19):
Tell me what's been one of your toughest challenges,
and how did you work your waythrough it?
SPEAKER_01 (18:24):
And just what the toughest challenges was the
reality that I had to be me.
Because my younger days theyspeak what I looked at and
looked up to.
(18:47):
I mean they ain't the best rolemodels in the world, but they
respected me and taught me themerry good of being a man.
And standing as a man.
Period.
Now you say what you want to sayabout paint robbers, these
(19:10):
robbers, pimps, uh working men,whatever.
I classify them all as a villagegrowing me up.
Because there's those inrobbery, bank robbery, killing,
(19:33):
dope, kneeling, working,pimping.
They all had they well, they allhad an emphasis in my life
because I was around them all.
And I learned from them.
And all of them looked at me as,hey, for a young man, you're
very intelligent.
(19:54):
Because you listen.
Uh-huh.
You're not like these otherknuckleheads out here getting
beat up.
And getting befrauded, gettingthe man's hood taken and
everything else.
Well, I mean, I looked at itthat grown folks is what made me
a grown folks.
(20:16):
They helped me to become a grownfolks.
So with all that I learned, eventhough it was from all the
different fields, and a lot ofit I didn't understand.
But as I got older, as I grew uparound it, as I experience was
(20:37):
one of the things old folksalways taught me.
Experience is the best teacher.
So with all the experience thatI gathered and pulled in, it
helped me to separate anddislodge a lot of my problems in
as childhood, my problemsgrowing into adulthood, my
(21:03):
teenage years, and the yearsbefore becoming a full adult.
SPEAKER_02 (21:09):
So when you look at your adulthood so far, you're
68, we're 69 in January.
Right.
And then we're with hands uhfolded in prayer.
You're gonna hit 70, and then 70beyond.
Right.
So, but when you look at youradulthood so far, what would be
(21:30):
net what would be one of yourbiggest successes, you think?
SPEAKER_01 (21:33):
My my my biggest thing right now, keeping God
person in my life andremembering my downfalls, my
accomplishments, and what I cando to continue to keep praising
him prayers.
(21:54):
Because I'm only here throughhim.
I I I tell everybody, and I tellanybody, if you think you are
that in life, put yourself tosleep and wake yourself up.
Now, if you can do that, you canshow me you got some power.
(22:15):
But until then, ain't nothingyou can tell.
So your biggest success in lifeis your connection with God.
Okay.
That's my biggest thing.
Okay.
Uh I care what I do, how I do.
Lord knows before I did.
And as long as he keeps breathin my body, I'm gonna keep
(22:35):
praising, and I'm gonna keepdoing the best I can do for him
now.
Not for me.
I'm I I didn't party and play itout.
I'm through.
I'm through.
All I want to do is just keeppraising him.
Let him keep blessing me withthese days, keep giving me these
years, and hey, I'm a happycamper.
SPEAKER_02 (22:56):
So we're gonna wrap up with two questions.
The last question is I have twoquestions.
Uh, what is your dream for thenext chapter of your life?
I know you want to hit 70.
That's that's that's one.
So what's your dream for yournext chapter of life?
SPEAKER_01 (23:10):
The next two in the next two years, my whole
accomplishment is I'm gonna geta vehicle, have my own home, and
I want to get with my childrenand build a family reunion with
all my kids.
(23:31):
Because my mother, that's onething during childhood.
We always had family reunion.
We we got kin folks in uh WarrenSpurs, Heegan Bill, we had kin
folks in uh St.
Joe, uh Illinois.
Uh we had a couple of them upfrom Washington, but that was
(23:57):
our thing.
We would we would all gathertogether at my mother's house,
and we would pick a date, andfamily would come all together.
I mean, cousins, nephews,nieces, aunts, I mean, friends
that then grew up with us in theneighborhoods.
(24:18):
We all come together that onethat one time to enjoy family.
So my whole thing now is get mea vehicle, go get me a home, get
with all my kids, because mostof the friends that I had is
gone, so the new ones that I'mmaking, and we all come
(24:43):
together, pick a date, and makeit our family reunion.
And from that time on, hey, tryto keep committed year after
year after year, with grandkids,great-great grandkids, bring it
all together.
SPEAKER_02 (25:00):
That's interesting enough.
You have grandchildren andgreat-grandchildren.
So on this end, at least so letme ask these.
I say a couple more questions,and I would end with these two.
One is what do you want people,your children, your family, the
communities to say about youyears from now?
(25:24):
Jimmy was, Jimmy is.
What would you want them to sayabout you?
SPEAKER_01 (25:28):
Oh that people that truly know me know that I am a
good person, I am kind-hearted,just don't want to cross you.
That's it.
SPEAKER_02 (25:45):
So what do you hope people take away from your story
today?
SPEAKER_01 (25:50):
From this energy.
Be true to yourself.
True to yourself.
That's the bad.
I don't care what mama said,what daddy said, what auntie,
uncle, whoever.
Be cru to yourself.
Find out who you are.
(26:10):
It don't make no deal whatauntie says, what daddy says,
what mama say.
No, find out who you are in theLord, and you'll be all right
from that point on.
SPEAKER_02 (26:23):
Now I'm gonna go ahead and wrap up with this last
story here, because this is avery funny man.
You wonder where I get my humorfrom.
This man told me that when hedies to put an empty casket up
front, and then have people sayhe was late to his own funeral.
(26:44):
No, we're not doing that, we'renot doing that.
He was late to his own funeral.
We're not doing that, butanyhow, we're not doing that.
I would say this, you know,because you have children and
grandchildren andgreat-grandchildren who will
(27:04):
listen to this video, this isthis interview.
Uh, just tell me one thing youwould want them to be true to
yourself.
Anything else you would wantthem to know about their grandpa
or great-grandpa.
I'm gonna tell you this.
SPEAKER_01 (27:18):
Love family.
Don't never turn your back onyour family.
I don't care what you say, Idon't care what makes you mad, I
don't care who makes you mad.
Never turn your back on family.
Be always true with yourself tobe true with them.
(27:41):
It don't make no differencewhether you're a drug addict, an
alcoholic, whatever.
Bring it to the family, and Iguarantee real families don't
love you.
They ain't gonna disgrace you,they're not gonna put you down,
they're only gonna try to helpyou.
And my thing is, if I can't helpyou, I sure ain't gonna hurt
(28:06):
you.
SPEAKER_02 (28:07):
Well, folks, you heard it from the source.
Mr.
Jimmy Jones, and listen, this isJermaine Alberty, and you've
been listening to The Salt Talk.
Listen where we serve, affirm,love, and transform each other
uh and the world around us.
This is Jermaine Alberti, andyou're listening to The Salt
(28:28):
Talk.
Welcome to the Stock Talk with Jermaine Albergini,
where service, affirmation,love, and transformation meet
real life.
As we approach this holidayseason when so much attention is
placed on gifts, I want to pauseand name something that we don't
talk about enough.
The gift of family.
(00:21):
Not that perfect version, notthe curated version, but the
real one.
The complicated, unfinished,honest version.
And what better way to honorthat gift than by doing what we
don't do enough?
Having honest conversations witheach other.
That's why this Top Talk episodeis so very special to me because
(00:47):
this is a special two-partseries rooted in family.
In part one, I sit down with myfather, Jimmy Jones, for a raw
conversation about temperament,trauma, faith, survival, and
legacy.
And what it means to take a lickand keep on ticking, and how
(01:08):
God, resilience, andresponsibility shape a man over
time.
In part two, I sit down with mybrother Jimmy Marks for an
equally vulnerable conversationabout shared rooms, unspoken
experiences, love,inconstitution, feelings, and
hope.
(01:29):
And we explore how two peoplecan grow up in the same family
and swimming with very differentlives.
And how faith with quiet loveand resilience can interrupt
cycles, selective terms, whichwe goodness.
Together, these conversations,the wrestle with nature versus
(01:49):
nurture, the power of childhoodexperiences, and the truth that
while our past informs us, itdoes not have to imprison us.
Mister is not about blame, it'sabout understanding, feeling,
and choosing connection.
So this is the holiday season.
My hope is simple that theseconversations remind us that
(02:10):
family, when met with honestyand grace, can still be one of
the greatest gifts we give andreceive.
Stay with us.
This is Jermaine Albert, andlisten to The Salt Talk.
Well, welcome to part one of ourseries.
I want to welcome my dad, JimmyJones, to the Salt Talk.
(02:32):
How are you doing?
SPEAKER_02 (02:33):
I am doing good.
So I want to begin with yourchildhood, and I want you to uh
tell me about a moment from yourchildhood that shaped the way
you see yourself today.
SPEAKER_01 (02:45):
As a child, you know, you don't put two and two
together until later in life asyou grow up.
What?
And as you learn things.
Okay.
Life lessons are taught for youto either learn or you're gonna
(03:07):
keep repeating them over andover.
My whole thing was I don't likerepeating things.
So my thing is to learn thelesson, to advance myself and
move on.
Well, I had that attitude.
(03:29):
I had that double standard wheredefending myself was more or
less a bad thing for me.
Because I'm supposed to walkaway.
(03:49):
I'm not I'm not supposed to getangry.
I'm not supposed to defendmyself, I'm supposed to be man
enough to walk away.
SPEAKER_02 (03:58):
So let me let me jump in here because this is the
whole thing about uh Freud hasthis theory nature versus
nurture, meaning that there'sjust some things that are
innately in us that we have nocontrol of.
Right.
Our DNA, our behaviors, right,and there's some things that we
are learned, we are taught.
But when it comes down to me andyour relationship growing up, of
(04:20):
course, we was always alwaysaround as a roundabout way,
always around, right?
But didn't directly like teachme anything like directly, like
Jermaine, this, this, this,indirectly.
Right.
But um, and of course withJeremiah, you you know, you been
around Jeremiah a little bit,right, but never taught him like
directly Jeremiah, this, this,this.
(04:40):
You had conversations.
But I find funny though isbecause I think Jeremiah is your
child.
Uh, because I want to say thatbecause he reminds me a lot of
like you.
Like, I know you didn't teachhim these things, but your DNA
like runs in him.
Uh, like it runs in me.
(05:02):
Right.
And uh one of the things istemperament, right?
You know, like that, like likehe he eat he's more or less like
a raging bull in his hint.
SPEAKER_01 (05:14):
He's calm, but once he's pushed, there's no limit to
it.
There's no limit.
There's no limit.
There's no way that you canspeak, yeah, talk, yeah, or even
uh uh act or react to the wayhe's feeling at that time.
(05:40):
And that's the whole thing.
SPEAKER_02 (05:43):
Where's that rage come from, though?
SPEAKER_01 (05:45):
But that's the whole thing, see, that's the thing in
my life that I had to take insequence.
Yeah.
Because when my mother told me Iwas like my uncle that's
supposed to kill some man withhis hand.
Yeah, this man I've never seen.
This man I don't know nothingabout.
(06:05):
My mother only spoke with me ina manner of that because of my
attitude and the way my angershowed.
SPEAKER_03 (06:15):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (06:16):
Because she whooped me with skillets, iron cords,
whips, and everything else.
When I was eight years old, shecame and whooped me, and I stood
there and looked at her.
And she looked at me, she said,You're not gonna cry.
I said, For what?
(06:37):
You just don't hit me more.
And I stood there while sheabout five minutes who walked on
me, and I just stood there.
I didn't jump, I didn't move, Ididn't bottle, I just stood
there.
Well, every time the lick hit,the sting went away.
So we should keep hitting thesting just goes away.
SPEAKER_02 (06:59):
At that point in time.
Wait a minute, mate.
You can't you listen, okay.
So there's a metaphor in therefor sure.
Right.
There's a metaphor in that, inthat as we live our life,
sometimes we get to that placewhere we take a lick and keep on
ticking.
You know what I'm saying?
Like life, life can hurt, lifecan be hard, but sometimes you
(07:20):
can be so hardened to the licksthe life come.
You're like, hey, it's justanother lick.
SPEAKER_01 (07:25):
It's more or less you learn that as they teach
you, life isn't fair.
SPEAKER_02 (07:32):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (07:33):
That's the scenario that we grew up in.
You learn, or you go to the hardrock.
School learning.
SPEAKER_02 (07:44):
So we're talking about so you know, you grew up
in the 60s.
Because you were born in 57.
So yeah, this you're talkingabout, if you're eight years
old, you're talking about 1965,somewhere in that area.
Right.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (07:56):
So, you know, we that was when Black Panthers,
SOS, uh, the um SOS, BlackPanthers.
We had uh all kind of streetgangs back then.
Um we had the Masons.
(08:20):
They was in the they was in thePros in the neighborhood between
Prospect, Walbash, Brooklyn,everything that was east of
Paseo.
SPEAKER_02 (08:32):
By the way, uh my listeners, my dad was born and
raised in Kansas, Missouri.
So this address these streetsthat are in Kansas, Missouri.
I I want to fast forward fromthe eight-year-old kid to the
18-year-old dude, a turn 18.
Okay.
So 17-year-old first child.
SPEAKER_01 (08:56):
Yeah, but see the thing about the thing that
failed me was that when I foundout my father denied me in court
as his child, I prayed to Godthat way.
(09:17):
However many children I had, Iwould never deny any of my
children.
And if they wasn't all born upunder one woman, they would
learn of one another because Iwouldn't want them interswinking
with one another without knowingwho the father is and who the
mother is.
That was just something that Ilooked at that made me hardened
(09:44):
against men that don't want totake care of their kids.
SPEAKER_02 (09:49):
So, so, okay.
That's why we're laughingsometimes because I have a thing
about men who shirk theirresponsibility.
Right.
I I was married for 27 years andI was determined, and maybe this
is something that was in me byby um by nurture or nature, but
I refused to abandon mychildren.
(10:09):
Right.
It didn't matter what was goingon with their mama and me.
I was I said, I'm gonna be in mychildren's life until they all
get grown.
Right.
And no matter what it means, forme, I'm gonna stay in their
lives.
And I and I honor that.
I honor that commitment.
SPEAKER_01 (10:24):
The thing was, when you was firstborn, my prayer to
God was that all my sins staywith me.
Not to go to my first son.
Because at that point in time Ihad hatred, I had anger, I had
(10:47):
rage, I was at the point ofknowing that I that entrepreneur
was rooted in me.
It didn't make I wouldn't letnothing stop me.
Uh-huh.
I didn't care what it was.
SPEAKER_02 (11:06):
So your prayer was none of your sins would hit me.
That's right.
God answered your prayer, didn'the?
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (11:14):
I thought it.
After we not love God to thisday, and I'm 68 years old.
I love God to the utmost.
That's the reason I prayed on adaily basis, and I love it
because he answered the prayerthat was more meaningful to me
(11:36):
than anything.
That I had a son that I wanted.
Nothing of my sins that touchhis soul.
That let all whatever I do,however I was, because of my
age, my rang, anger, my rage, mytemperament, everything.
(12:03):
At that point in time, I knewthe poison was there, but
controlling them or getting themunder hand was the problem.
So, when I had you, I more orless stood on the ground that I
would never be a father like myfather.
SPEAKER_03 (12:24):
Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01 (12:25):
And I prayed no matter how many kids I have, no
matter how many women that I goto, all my kids gonna know one
another.
And no matter whether I'm withthem or not, I'm gonna stay in
contact with my kids regardless.
For whatever they might need.
If they whenever they need me,I'm coming.
(12:48):
I made that from the beginningwhen you came out, any of my
kids.
If I wasn't able to be with themother, or I know how I was at
that time, I knew I would beain't no kelp.
And the thing was just protectmy kids, and when needed, I will
(13:12):
protect them, no matter what.
SPEAKER_02 (13:14):
So I think it's important for folks to know that
I'm the oldest of seven kids.
My mother, my mother had sevenkids.
My dad has five kids, includingme, Jimmy, Jamar, Geronimo, and
a sister named Tiffany.
So those are the five kids thatmy dad has.
Um and one of the things thatJimmy and I was talking about
(13:36):
was this whole thing ofself-sabotage.
Kind of like, you know, whenyou're doing good and you trip
up and you fancy back there.
We were talking about kind oflike where that all comes from.
Like some of it is, of course,personal responsibility, you
know, for your own actions.
Right.
But then some of it's just likeit's stuff in you that you just
(13:58):
trip over and you don't knowwhere it comes come from.
SPEAKER_01 (14:00):
A lot of it, you a lot of it is when growing up and
learning yourself.
You actually not tell you, tellyou, like I told all of y'all.
If it's one thing in life, betrue to yourself.
Uh-huh.
Because if you're not true toyourself, you can't be true with
nobody else.
(14:21):
Uh-huh.
And that's the reason.
Old folks, when they taught me,and that's one thing that I
learned from older folks,because I never could hang
around.
People my age, or three yearsolder than me, could not teach
me a damn thing.
I learned from people 40, 50years older than me.
(14:42):
And I listened to them.
Like these kids today, theydon't listen.
Back in our days, it took avillage to raise a kid.
That means you listen to thewoman down the street, next
door, on the next block, threeblocks down.
She could be a mile away, but ifshe knew your mother, you better
be listening to her.
(15:04):
Yeah.
Because by the time you get homefrom what you did and she knows
your mother, you got anotherbutt whip and come when you got
home because she didn't callyour mother and let you know
what was up.
Yeah.
Nowadays, I mean, it's a wholedifferent lifestyle.
SPEAKER_02 (15:19):
But I've often said, though, uh Hillary Quentin wrote
a book called Takes a Village toRaise a Child.
And I've often said, nowadaysthe question is who raised the
village?
Okay.
I got a few more questions I'mgonna ask, and then I'm gonna
wrap up this interview.
All right.
So Forr said human beings areshaped by unresolved conflicts
(15:40):
from early stages of life.
Uh, do you think there werethings from your childhood or
young adulthood that you had toconfront as an adult?
Some things from your childhood,a young adulthood that that you
gotta confront as an adult.
So childhood, okay, childhood, ayoung adult that you got
everything.
SPEAKER_03 (16:01):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (16:03):
As I grew up and learn that you had to be grown
in order to be able to calculateand articulate the things that
went on as as as your childhood.
(16:25):
You had to reach an age ofmaturity or age of acceptance.
Uh your childhood is only a partof your growth as an adult.
Your childhood can eithercripple you, it can maim you, it
(16:49):
can drive you crazy.
Depending on where your mindsetis.
And the thing with me is Ilearned about my anger, I
learned about my rage, I learnedabout magic depressants, I
(17:13):
learned about anxiety, I learnedabout being bipolar as the
outcome of your demeanor as anadult.
Now you can say, okay, becauseof this and because of that,
it's the reason I'm like this.
I say I took the bad and turnedit to the good in my adulthood.
(17:42):
What happened to me in mychildhood through my through the
adults that I grew and that grewme up.
We was taught respect theelders, oldest, family, this,
that, and the other.
But me, if a duck came around, Iwas the most calm, collector,
(18:10):
politic bug.
I mean I was polished up, I wasshine like a dime around a duck.
SPEAKER_02 (18:19):
Tell me what's been one of your toughest challenges,
and how did you work your waythrough it?
SPEAKER_01 (18:24):
And just what the toughest challenges was the
reality that I had to be me.
Because my younger days theyspeak what I looked at and
looked up to.
(18:47):
I mean they ain't the best rolemodels in the world, but they
respected me and taught me themerry good of being a man.
And standing as a man.
Period.
Now you say what you want to sayabout paint robbers, these
(19:10):
robbers, pimps, uh working men,whatever.
I classify them all as a villagegrowing me up.
Because there's those inrobbery, bank robbery, killing,
(19:33):
dope, kneeling, working,pimping.
They all had they well, they allhad an emphasis in my life
because I was around them all.
And I learned from them.
And all of them looked at me as,hey, for a young man, you're
very intelligent.
(19:54):
Because you listen.
Uh-huh.
You're not like these otherknuckleheads out here getting
beat up.
And getting befrauded, gettingthe man's hood taken and
everything else.
Well, I mean, I looked at itthat grown folks is what made me
a grown folks.
(20:16):
They helped me to become a grownfolks.
So with all that I learned, eventhough it was from all the
different fields, and a lot ofit I didn't understand.
But as I got older, as I grew uparound it, as I experience was
(20:37):
one of the things old folksalways taught me.
Experience is the best teacher.
So with all the experience thatI gathered and pulled in, it
helped me to separate anddislodge a lot of my problems in
as childhood, my problemsgrowing into adulthood, my
(21:03):
teenage years, and the yearsbefore becoming a full adult.
SPEAKER_02 (21:09):
So when you look at your adulthood so far, you're
68, we're 69 in January.
Right.
And then we're with hands uhfolded in prayer.
You're gonna hit 70, and then 70beyond.
Right.
So, but when you look at youradulthood so far, what would be
(21:30):
net what would be one of yourbiggest successes, you think?
SPEAKER_01 (21:33):
My my my biggest thing right now, keeping God
person in my life andremembering my downfalls, my
accomplishments, and what I cando to continue to keep praising
him prayers.
(21:54):
Because I'm only here throughhim.
I I I tell everybody, and I tellanybody, if you think you are
that in life, put yourself tosleep and wake yourself up.
Now, if you can do that, you canshow me you got some power.
(22:15):
But until then, ain't nothingyou can tell.
So your biggest success in lifeis your connection with God.
Okay.
That's my biggest thing.
Okay.
Uh I care what I do, how I do.
Lord knows before I did.
And as long as he keeps breathin my body, I'm gonna keep
(22:35):
praising, and I'm gonna keepdoing the best I can do for him
now.
Not for me.
I'm I I didn't party and play itout.
I'm through.
I'm through.
All I want to do is just keeppraising him.
Let him keep blessing me withthese days, keep giving me these
years, and hey, I'm a happycamper.
SPEAKER_02 (22:56):
So we're gonna wrap up with two questions.
The last question is I have twoquestions.
Uh, what is your dream for thenext chapter of your life?
I know you want to hit 70.
That's that's that's one.
So what's your dream for yournext chapter of life?
SPEAKER_01 (23:10):
The next two in the next two years, my whole
accomplishment is I'm gonna geta vehicle, have my own home, and
I want to get with my childrenand build a family reunion with
all my kids.
(23:31):
Because my mother, that's onething during childhood.
We always had family reunion.
We we got kin folks in uh WarrenSpurs, Heegan Bill, we had kin
folks in uh St.
Joe, uh Illinois.
Uh we had a couple of them upfrom Washington, but that was
(23:57):
our thing.
We would we would all gathertogether at my mother's house,
and we would pick a date, andfamily would come all together.
I mean, cousins, nephews,nieces, aunts, I mean, friends
that then grew up with us in theneighborhoods.
(24:18):
We all come together that onethat one time to enjoy family.
So my whole thing now is get mea vehicle, go get me a home, get
with all my kids, because mostof the friends that I had is
gone, so the new ones that I'mmaking, and we all come
(24:43):
together, pick a date, and makeit our family reunion.
And from that time on, hey, tryto keep committed year after
year after year, with grandkids,great-great grandkids, bring it
all together.
SPEAKER_02 (25:00):
That's interesting enough.
You have grandchildren andgreat-grandchildren.
So on this end, at least so letme ask these.
I say a couple more questions,and I would end with these two.
One is what do you want people,your children, your family, the
communities to say about youyears from now?
(25:24):
Jimmy was, Jimmy is.
What would you want them to sayabout you?
SPEAKER_01 (25:28):
Oh that people that truly know me know that I am a
good person, I am kind-hearted,just don't want to cross you.
That's it.
SPEAKER_02 (25:45):
So what do you hope people take away from your story
today?
SPEAKER_01 (25:50):
From this energy.
Be true to yourself.
True to yourself.
That's the bad.
I don't care what mama said,what daddy said, what auntie,
uncle, whoever.
Be cru to yourself.
Find out who you are.
(26:10):
It don't make no deal whatauntie says, what daddy says,
what mama say.
No, find out who you are in theLord, and you'll be all right
from that point on.
SPEAKER_02 (26:23):
Now I'm gonna go ahead and wrap up with this last
story here, because this is avery funny man.
You wonder where I get my humorfrom.
This man told me that when hedies to put an empty casket up
front, and then have people sayhe was late to his own funeral.
(26:44):
No, we're not doing that, we'renot doing that.
He was late to his own funeral.
We're not doing that, butanyhow, we're not doing that.
I would say this, you know,because you have children and
grandchildren andgreat-grandchildren who will
(27:04):
listen to this video, this isthis interview.
Uh, just tell me one thing youwould want them to be true to
yourself.
Anything else you would wantthem to know about their grandpa
or great-grandpa.
I'm gonna tell you this.
SPEAKER_01 (27:18):
Love family.
Don't never turn your back onyour family.
I don't care what you say, Idon't care what makes you mad, I
don't care who makes you mad.
Never turn your back on family.
Be always true with yourself tobe true with them.
(27:41):
It don't make no differencewhether you're a drug addict, an
alcoholic, whatever.
Bring it to the family, and Iguarantee real families don't
love you.
They ain't gonna disgrace you,they're not gonna put you down,
they're only gonna try to helpyou.
And my thing is, if I can't helpyou, I sure ain't gonna hurt
(28:06):
you.
SPEAKER_02 (28:07):
Well, folks, you heard it from the source.
Mr.
Jimmy Jones, and listen, this isJermaine Alberty, and you've
been listening to The Salt Talk.
Listen where we serve, affirm,love, and transform each other
uh and the world around us.
This is Jermaine Alberti, andyou're listening to The Salt
(28:28):
Talk.
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