I had the privilege of celebrating Mother's Day by inviting the queen of my heart, my mother, onto the Black man Talking Emotions podcast for a tribute unlike any other. Our conversation is a tapestry woven with the threads of intimate revelations, laughter over shared musical soul-ties like Prince's "Adore," and the profound longing to connect with loved ones lost to time. It's a journey through the corridors of our past, revisiting the safety of childhood memories and the echoes of old traumas, all while playfully speculating about a future where time travel might just be on the itinerary.
The heart of our dialogue beats in sync with the pulsing desires and dreams that have shaped our lives. My mother's candid reflections on her aspirations, from envisioning a serene life as a stay-at-home grandma to the yearning for an odyssey across Europe's historical tapestries, draw you into the essence of her spirit. We muse on the seasonal charm of fall, the enchantment of the Green Tree Festival, and the cinematic escapes that bind us, from the nostalgic grip of a Thriller jacket to the escapades of "Independence Day." By pulling back the curtain on our emotions and aspirations, we hope to offer you a mirror reflecting the universal pursuit of joy, the enduring strength of dreams, and the unbreakable bonds of family love. Join us for this Mother's Day special, where emotions run deep and aspirations soar high.
I had the privilege of celebrating Mother's Day by inviting the queen of my heart, my mother, onto the Black man Talking Emotions podcast for a tribute unlike any other. Our conversation is a tapestry woven with the threads of intimate revelations, laughter over shared musical soul-ties like Prince's "Adore," and the profound longing to connect with loved ones lost to time. It's a journey through the corridors of our past, revisiting the safety of childhood memories and the echoes of old traumas, all while playfully speculating about a future where time travel might just be on the itinerary.
The heart of our dialogue beats in sync with the pulsing desires and dreams that have shaped our lives. My mother's candid reflections on her aspirations, from envisioning a serene life as a stay-at-home grandma to the yearning for an odyssey across Europe's historical tapestries, draw you into the essence of her spirit. We muse on the seasonal charm of fall, the enchantment of the Green Tree Festival, and the cinematic escapes that bind us, from the nostalgic grip of a Thriller jacket to the escapades of "Independence Day." By pulling back the curtain on our emotions and aspirations, we hope to offer you a mirror reflecting the universal pursuit of joy, the enduring strength of dreams, and the unbreakable bonds of family love. Join us for this Mother's Day special, where emotions run deep and aspirations soar high.
Ladies and gentlemen and anyone else who is here, my name is Dom L'Amour and you are listening to the Black man Talking Emotions podcast. Happy Mother's Day With that. On today's episode, I speak with my mother and we play the question game. My mother and we play the question game, question one.
Speaker 2:
If you could have, lunch with anyone living or deceased. Who would it be and why? Grandma and grandpa, so I can spend time with them, of course, because I miss them.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
Ask them questions that I didn't get to ask while they were here. I would like to think that they're looking down on us now, but I would also like to know what they think about how the family is doing now. I would like to share things that you guys have been doing, that I've been doing things that grandma wanted us to do so she could see that she has some homeowners.
Speaker 1:
I would love to let them get caught up and be proud of where we are right now. Yeah, could have guessed that one. I was going to try to see if I can guess a couple of these. What is your favorite song and what does it remind you of? Now, if you were like Dominique, what do you think my favorite song is? I would say Life Goes On by Tupac, but I don't know if that's true.
Speaker 2:
So what is your favorite song? That is not even my favorite Tupac song.
Speaker 1:
See, and that's crazy, that don't make sense to me. That doesn't make sense to me at all.
Speaker 2:
I love that song think about how, how.
Speaker 1:
I assume that's the one because you play it so much, but you're like, oh, that's not even my favorite Dupac song what no?
Speaker 2:
my favorite song in the whole wide world. It's a Prince song uh Adore.
Speaker 1:
Adore okay, okay, that was my second. Yeah, that was my second.
Speaker 2:
I would say I want y'all to play that at my funeral. But Nicole, be like. What about the sex part? So I'm just going to write a few lines in my obituary. But that song is beautiful. First of all, it's my favorite artist. I love the words until the end of time I'll be there for you. You are my heart and mind. I truly adore you, and those were the words that I would use in the obituary so that you all can remember how I feel about you guys. Even if he was struck blind, your beauty I'll still see. If you just listen to the words in that song, it is just a truly beautiful song. I love the music. I love his falsetto in it. It reminds me of when it came out. I was a child, you know, living in grandma and grandpa's house upstairs, but I still was a huge Prince fan and that song was hot back then and I remember trying to call into the radio stations to get them to play it.
Speaker 2:
I remember wearing that song out you know, I had my radio with the double cassettes and I would try to catch the radio so I could record it, because that's how we had to make our mixtapes back then. You know, it reminds me of a time where I feel like I had peace in my life, because anytime we live with grandma and grandpa, that was always my safe space. And that was a time when we were in a safe space and my favorite song in the world came out.
Speaker 1:
That's good stuff. I really do love that song too. What's your first thing that you remember from your childhood, like your first memory that you can remember still to this day? My first memory I remember being in mommy's house. I believe this is when she lived on Iowa, I think, but I remember it being like really early in the morning, the sun wasn't all the way up and I was watching her cross the street coming home from work. That's one of the first things I remember.
Speaker 2:
That sounds about right, because she would have worked an overnight shift and came home. Yeah, I think my very earliest remember memories Because she would have worked an overnight shift and came home yeah. I think my very earliest remember memories I would have been like three or four was when we lived in Topeka, kansas, when Mommy went up there with Butch. The crazy thing is is I don't really remember Timmy there, even though I know he had to be there.
Speaker 2:
He was like a baby, but I do remember Harold being a little baby in his crib. I remember stealing hot dogs and eating them raw out of the refrigerator. And I vaguely remember the day that I was sitting in daycare or wherever I was and some adults had to come get me and rush me. I don't know if that's the day I was sitting in jail with mommy because they had the big fight, but I do think it was the day that they left from Topeka to go back to St Louis.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, so there's another time that mommy got in a big fight and you went to jail with mommy. Is this what you're?
Speaker 2:
saying remember, yeah, I don't know if you remember this story, but you know I asked uncle rory, his side, because I've heard mommy's I not always thought it was exaggerated and come to find out it was not, it was, it was a real thing and I was a part of that. Yeah, and I vaguely remember it because I think it must have been traumatic for me, with all of these adults going crazy and I remember them rushing and coming to get me, to take me somewhere. So yeah, All right, all right, let's keep going.
Speaker 1:
Oh my God, if you could time travel, would you go back into history or would you go into the future, and why?
Speaker 2:
One thing about me which is weird is because sometimes I can't read a book or a movie without pausing to see what happens in the end. I really feel like I want to know what's going to happen and stuff. Is this worth watching, you know? Blah, blah, blah. Is it worth finish reading this book, should I?
Speaker 1:
read this book.
Speaker 2:
But and stuff, is this worth watching? You know blah, blah, blah. Is it worth finished reading this book? Should I read this book? But in real life I do not want to know the future. I want to be surprised. I even think about it in the angle of just going back to get some lottery numbers or something. I don't feel like I would do that. I would go back in the past. But going back in the past is tricky because you know I need some guarantees that I'm not gonna get lynched or you know whatever, because I would want to go back to an era where I could go see marvin gaye in concert yeah, yeah, that makes sense, and not in the 80s, I mean like the 60s, maybe 70s, but preferably the 60s, because maybe I could see marvin gaye and samke and.
Speaker 2:
Otis Redding, and all of those artists that I love so much because my, you know, besides the 90s, my favorite era of music is the 60s.
Speaker 1:
I always tell people the 60s is the greatest.
Speaker 2:
From front to back you have every type of music you can want and they used to dress so nice and just to be able to dress up and really dress up. We're not wearing blue jeans, we are going to a concert and we're going to be decked out to the nines, and I would love to just experience that in the community, too, that Black people had before we got to this era where we are now, where it's me against you and blah, blah, blah, where we had to be a community and we had to kind of stick together to make it through that time travel thing.
Speaker 1:
being black is so difficult yes I wouldn't, I wouldn't want to go back too far, but then again, like some of the things I'm more fascinated about is what it was like back when you had no type of technology like you know right everyone had fire and they were walking around and lighting the room with fire, or even grandpa talking about buying ice from the Iceman.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, and it being halfway melted before he got up the steps. You know, life is so different now and I really would like to see how they did it. And even though they survived you know, grandpa lived many- years. We could too, but it's hard to imagine because we didn't have to go through things like that. But my main reason for travel is music. Like I would love to see Marvin Gaye in real life.
Speaker 1:
I think, yeah, I agree with that. I think it would be really cool. I mean, see Jimi Hendrix live, like go to, oh my gosh, that'd be incredible. So like, yeah, I totally agree with you, that would be the route Going to the future for me. I mean, I think it'd be cool, but I'd be kind of upset because it's like this is a tease. You know I can't, I won't be a part of this, or, you know, I feel like we could legit go into Mad Max and the future could be horrible.
Speaker 2:
But anyway, Because, like I said the other day when you guys were home, like if the apocalypse, the super volcano, the zombies, whatever come, I'm out. I don't want to live like that. Understood I'm a YOLO and I'm out of here.
Speaker 1:
What subject did you like best in school? And what subject did you like less, I'll let you guess first.
Speaker 2:
I would say, english was your favorite.
Speaker 1:
You would be correct least favorite.
Speaker 2:
I don't know science no science was fine, specifically geometry geometry, okay, okay I like geometry. That's why I can't play golf, pool darts, anything with geometry I'm terrible with. I think that I look at the ball and it's supposed to go where I'm looking.
Speaker 1:
I don't know the angles yeah, I'm terrible with that what's the first vacation you ever took and where did you go?
Speaker 2:
I went to silver dollar city with your grandma, oh, okay that would have been my first vacation, okay that works, that works, that works yeah, because you know grandma loved branson well, silver dollar city specifically. You saw that I posted that it beat my first vacation. Okay, that works, that works. Yeah, because you know, grandma, I love Branson Well, silver Dollar City specifically.
Speaker 1:
You saw that I posted that it beat out Disney World for one of the best theme parks in the world, did you?
Speaker 2:
see that? Oh, I never got to go back there again in my life.
Speaker 1:
They're doing hikes around the country and I was like, oh yeah, you go to Branson, go to Silver Dollar City. I was like, oh yeah, you go to Branson, go to Silver Dollar City. They love Silver Dollar City down there for some reason. I feel like we should go back, I feel like we should make a trip. Adrian's never been there we can take. Adrian to Silver Dollar City and see what's popping I think I'm interested in that we'll.
Speaker 2:
We will plan that. That'll be a nice weekend when you plan a trip to silver dollar city, but then I get an airbnb yeah, but branson, because she has to enjoy branson as a whole, like it's so much to do and just branson.
Speaker 1:
Like yeah, I when we went.
Speaker 2:
Last time we went you weren't with us because that was the year I split vacations. I took you, Ryan and Brandon, to Ohio. We did Cedar Point and then Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But I took the little kids to Branson. We did not only just Branson and Silver Dollar City, but we actually went to the downtown area, to the river, and it was really nice and I would like to do some of those things with you and Adrian. It'd be a good trip.
Speaker 2:
I think it'd be a good time, and that's something Adrian has to do, like she's married to somebody from Missouri. She has to go to Branson all right, next one going on.
Speaker 1:
I think I know this one too. What's your biggest childhood fear? Is it birds?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I mean, it's just, it's just bird, that's when it started.
Speaker 1:
We can move on. We can move on, all right. So that was yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:
We don't need to talk about it, just keep on moving.
Speaker 1:
If you could change your name, what would it be? This is one of those I've never had, ever. I've never had this thought ever. I've always liked my name.
Speaker 2:
I never thought to change my name either. Had a different name, something in the family, like Grace or Elizabeth, something along grandma's or her mom's name.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2:
Probably Grace.
Speaker 1:
Grace is nice. I like grace yeah but I like carla what's your favorite season of the year and why?
Speaker 2:
I'll let you guess. What do you think?
Speaker 1:
fall, that's when your birthday is too because it's the best season. Yeah fall is the best season period. I agree. Green tree festival every year. When that would start, you'd be like, okay, it's time, best time of the year.
Speaker 2:
It starts with fall and ends with Christmas. Like everything, from September through December is, like my favorite time of the year. Not only am I a fall baby, but I love the change. I love to watch the leaves change. I love the way it smells outside, the way it feels outside in fall time.
Speaker 1:
And of course Christmas is the favorite holiday. I don't even have to ask you that question, right?
Speaker 2:
I love Christmas and Black Santa.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, christmas is the best for all of us. I feel like we, just as a family, agree that we love Christmas more than every other holiday.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, because it's you know we're all together, you know we spend a lot of time together. I like to give and make people happy. That's the season for giving right. What was your first job? They would have a program in the summertime through the school and I would do whatever it was. I was a custodian one year. One year I worked for the city of Kirkwood, but the first job that I had to get outside of that program was at Crestwood Mall, really At a burger place. I can't even remember the name of it, but the burgers were cooked on a chargrill and I hated them. Is that why you?
Speaker 1:
hate them now, because you started there.
Speaker 2:
No, I just don't like the way they taste.
Speaker 1:
You didn't like them before that. You just never liked the way chargrill tasted. Really, no, why don't you like the chargrill? But you love barbecue.
Speaker 2:
I do love barbecue, but I don't know what it does to that ground beef. It's like I could tolerate it if John does it at home. What I think it is is I don't like anything that's overly fake smoky.
Speaker 1:
If you can go anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?
Speaker 2:
So many places I want to go.
Speaker 1:
Number one, like top of the list. This is the place.
Speaker 2:
So right now, the top of my list would be a tour of Europe. That includes Paris, london, rome maybe, but yeah, that'd be my first right now.
Speaker 1:
Why would you want to go to Europe. I love museums.
Speaker 2:
One because of the architecture. I want to see some of these really old buildings and experience the culture. I read a lot of books, so reading, being able to put my eyes on some of these things that I've read about in books Our trip this weekend is about me going to put my eyes on something that I read about in a book. I like to experience it, just like when I've taken you guys somewhere and then we see it on TV and you guys say, hey, we've been there. I like that, and now I'm starting to outgrow some of the things in the United States. There's still some places I want to go, but I really am getting old and I want to see some of those things in Europe while I can still get around.
Speaker 1:
What's the biggest unchecked box left on your bucket list?
Speaker 2:
What we're talking about now is this European travel. Close second is just being a stay at home. Grandma, yeah, being a stay-at-home grandma yeah, trying to figure out how I can be available and therefore my grandkids, like my grandma, was there for me.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, understood, understood, heard. What's one article of clothing you wish you still had?
Speaker 2:
So many clothes from the 80s, but mainly my Michael Jackson the Thriller jacket.
Speaker 1:
You had an actual Thriller jacket.
Speaker 2:
I did Jackson, the Thriller jacket. You had an actual Thriller jacket. I did have an actual Thriller jacket.
Speaker 1:
Oh, I wish there was pictures. I don't feel like I've ever seen a picture of you in this jacket.
Speaker 2:
You probably won't, but I did have it. And then we also have one. Harold had one with the reverse colors, like it was, one that was red is mainly red with the black. That was one I had, but then we I also had the one that was black with the red stripes oh my god, the 80s was so different.
Speaker 1:
That's incredible. What's one movie you can watch over and over?
Speaker 2:
the last dragon last dragon.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, that's. That's a good one, I was gonna say that or a marvel movie more than likely for you I'll probably watch infinity war no less than a hundred times.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, aliens is one of my favorite movies, one of my top 10 favorite movies. Silence of the lamb the mummy that?
Speaker 1:
how can you watch that over and over that?
Speaker 2:
The Silence of the Lambs yeah, over and over mama, oh no, literally over and over. The acting is phenomenal and Hannibal Lecter is like my favorite, like in that movie, he just does such a good job. The Mummy, you know, I love.
Speaker 1:
The Mummy, the Mummy, for sure for me.
Speaker 2:
That's currently a movie that I watch almost every night to fall asleep.
Speaker 1:
Independence Day is one that I watched a lot. I like a lot of science fiction. The Replacements was on TV the other day and that's one I was like ah. I would watch that if it came on TV I left the house to go do something and I brought my iPad with me to finish watching that movie. People love it so much.
Speaker 2:
Elf is one that I watch over and over again.
Speaker 1:
And the other guys you know Enter the Dragon, enter the Dragon. Okay, I said one movie. Okay, sorry, the Last Dragon. If you stranded on a desert island with only one book, what would that book be?
Speaker 2:
Probably the very first historical fiction romance book that I ever read which got me hooked on the genre which is called Once a Princess, Once a Princess. I could read that over and over again, and not necessarily because it's the best book in the world, but because it, like I said, it reminds me of when I was younger and I was probably too young to be reading these books, but I was anyway and when I switched from reading kid books to adult books.
Speaker 1:
Okay. So it was like a pivotal moment and it was like okay things are changing. Yeah, all right. Yeah, your favorite color is red. I don't even need to ask you that.
Speaker 2:
That's not my favorite color.
Speaker 1:
When did that change? It's never been my favorite color?
Speaker 2:
what is it? High pink, yes, okay, pink. Hot pink, hot pink family, yes, then red, then black okay, okay.
Speaker 1:
What's your favorite flower? Hydrangea. If you could play an instrument, what do you wish? It was piano course. Who's your favorite comedian of all time?
Speaker 2:
It's a toss-up Either Dave Chappelle or Redd Foxx.
Speaker 1:
Great choice. What's the most beautiful thing you've ever seen with your own?
Speaker 2:
eye my first baby boy when he was born.
Speaker 1:
Oh, stop it. Stop it. Absolutely ridiculous. I'm gonna. I was gonna make you answer that with something else, but we're gonna leave it with that. There, it is cool. What is your favorite word? Miscellaneous what is your least favorite word? Moist, okay. What turns you on?
Speaker 2:
money and power. No way power money, power, okay, power. Yeah. What turns you on? Money and power? No, what Power Money?
Speaker 1:
power, okay, power. What turns you off?
Speaker 2:
Cry baby.
Speaker 1:
What's your favorite curse word? F word, okay. What sound or noise do you love? The laughter of a baby. What sound or noise do you hate?
Speaker 2:
When people do that thing where they're trying to get the snot out.
Speaker 1:
Okay, what profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
Speaker 2:
I would love to be an attorney.
Speaker 1:
And what profession would you not like to do? Anything that involves cleaning. And lastly, if heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you appear at the pearly gates?
Speaker 2:
You made it Welcome, that's dope.
Speaker 1:
That's dope, all right. Well, thank you for being on the pod, love you and happy Mother's Day. Thank you, donnie.
Speaker 2:
Thank you.
Speaker 1:
I want to thank you for listening to the Black man Talking Emotions podcast and shout out to my mama for being on the pod. You can follow my mother at CarlaIsBest on Instagram. Please subscribe to the podcast and give us a good rating Five stars, please and thank you once again. Happy Mother's Day. I'm Dom L'Amour, much love.