Letgo

2/5.  Glacier National Park, Montana, USA.

(¼) “My parents were big in the hustling game. It wasn’t like it is now. Now it’s a bunch of kids on the corner trying to get sneakers. In the early eighties it was a group of older dudes— just some local cats who got together and decided: ‘This is how we’re going to eat.’ Nobody was coming to our house to buy a dime bag. Everyone who came over was buying weight. Those were the people who we’d see all the time as kids. They were like our family. They’d give us a hundred bucks to go to the store and tell us to keep the change. It was all very friendly and civil. There were even three police officers that would always come over and smoke– two white guys and a Spanish guy. They’d sit down in our living room at a big glass table, and my dad would come out from the back and hit them up with envelopes. Pops looked out for the whole block. He’d throw block parties. He’d organize bus trips for all the neighborhood kids. He’d take everyone to Great Adventures and pay for the whole thing. And at Christmastime, our doors would stay open. There would be a huge pile of presents and kids from the block would come inside and take whatever they wanted. It used to make me jealous because it seemed like they got more than we did.”

(2/4) “We didn’t really have any struggles. We had all the newest things: color television, Atari, those big ass cellphones. My dad had a limousine service that drove us to school. And we always went to private Catholic schools. I’d come back wearing my uniform and all my friends would make fun of me. I even had a horse on Long Island named Apples. Each of my siblings had a horse. Mine liked apples so I named him fucking Apples. That was our life. But then one day my parents decided to go legit. I was seventeen or eighteen at the time. They sat us down one Saturday afternoon at the big glass table in the living room. You know how Caucasian people do Sunday dinner? No disrespect, but that was Saturday afternoon for us. They sat us down and told us they were stopping everything. And they did. No more drinking, no more drugging. They sold all the businesses. Both of them worked regular jobs for the next 25 years. My dad became a train driver and my mom became a drug counselor. They told us they wanted to set an example for us. They told us they didn’t want us getting involved in drugs. But that was all we’d ever known.”

(4/4) “I applied for a maintenance job here at the Harlem Commonwealth Council. When I showed up for my interview, they sent me straight to the president’s office. His name was Dr. Tait. He’s a very business-oriented person but he’s also versatile. The whole time he had me feeling like I was talking to a real ‘OG.’ I told him everything. I just gave it to him raw. And at the end, he said to me: ‘I like your fucking style.’ I couldn’t believe it. The president said ‘fucking.’ He told me: ‘I know people make mistakes. But right now, the only thing that matters is who you want to become and how we can help you get there.’ Then he walked me out of his office and told the interviewer: ‘I like this guy.’ And that was it.”

Wonder, Amanda Cook (via sweethoneytothesoul)

Eltz Castle || Hannes Becker

Life of Walker & Marley // Instagram

Jewelry by jerseymaids