Embracing the title of " Uncle Rickey"

Recently, my eldest niece Virgindlynn Teriana Brown, confessed to me that she had been seeing a young man for a little over 8 months. 
What she didn't know was that her mother had already told me about this young man 6 months prior.  I was just waiting for her to tell me that information about him on her own time. 
First of all, I should say that I am very impressed with her. She is doing well academically, and she is involved in not one, but two extra- curricular activities. 
She is a cheerleader for her high school football team and she is a member of her school JROTC program. 
I once asked her why she chose to be a cheerleader at the same time as being involved in JROTC. 
She replied, " I had to get out of my comfort zone. Isn't that what you told me to do, Uncle Rickey?" 
For the first time in my life, I did not have a comeback for her.
Now back to what I was saying at the beginning of this tale. 
I asked my niece about why she chose to delay telling me about her new boyfriend. 
She said something that really made me proud of her decision.
She said, " I didn't want to tell you because I wanted to make sure that it was going to work out. Relationships don't always work out the way that you plan for them to go." 
It took me several years and many relationships to understand something that she understood at the age of 15.
She went on to tell me that I would like this young man because he is smart and seems to be a gentleman just like me.
I am so glad that she takes the time to consult me about things that are happening in her life from time to time. 
As she gets older, I know that there will come a time where she will no longer seek my advice and begin to sort things out for herself. 
Until then, I will enjoy the magical moments of being the "Jiminy Cricket" of her life.

A Gift From My Grandmother Telitha Gulley

When I was 21, I had just bought my first car. 
My first long distance trip was to go and see my father's mother Telitha Gulley. 
Prior to this trip, I had not seen my grandmother since 1995. My grandmother at this point of her life had one of her legs cut off due to her battle with diabetes. The year was 1998.
It was on this trip that she gave me a backpack. She wanted me to go to college, because she had dropped out of school due to excessive partying. 
She really wanted me to go because she felt that I was her last hope of receiving a college graduate in the family due to the fact that neither of her children had chosen not to attend.
Even though I vowed to her that I would eventually go to school, at that point my life, I had no plans of going to school because I was in the military and I wanted to sew my wild oats.
Unfortunately, she lost her battle with diabetes a year later 1999.
In the fall of 2001, I happily became enrolled at the University of Central Arkansas with the backpack that was given to me by her. 
Each and every morning, I would get up and speak to that bag and say, " Okay grandma, it's time to go to class!"
Over time the backpack had lost one of its straps. 
Despite its ugly appearance I had managed to still make the daily journey to class with it.
It was not until my last year of college that I had finally decided to retire the backpack that I called "grandma" because the school lunch ladies felt bad for me and they chipped in to buy me a new and expensive Jansport backpack. 
On December 16, 2006, I received my Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Central Arkansas and finally completing my grandmother's wish for me to become a college graduate. 
I just wish that she would have been alive to have seen me do it. 
The moral of the story is this:
Always remember that no matter how long that it takes you to do it, it is never too late to become educated. Knowledge is power. Never forget this. 

My Paternal Grandfather

Up until I was 4 years old, I lived with parents in my dad's parent's home. 
My best friend and hero at the time was paternal grandfather Zebedee Gulley.
He always left home before the sun came up. He would return home just as the sun would begin to set for the evening.
He worked for International Paper's Paper Mill in Wheelen Springs, Arkansas. 
When he was away, I would serve as his eyes and ears when it came to finding out what had been going on at the house. 
I once told him about the time that my grandmother had put a dent in her 1978 Buick Regal by accident. 
As a reward for keeping him updated, he brought home a cap for me with his work emblem on it.
I kept that hat for years! 
Sadly, in 2003, I lost him to a battle with diabetes when I was in my 2nd year of college. 
He also died without me speaking to him because of a disagreement that I had with him for not giving me something that my grandmother had left to me in death. 
I wish that I had not been so petty to let something like that ruin our relationship, but what it is done is done. 
My prayer is that those of you that may be reading this will get the relationships that you have your relatives back on track before it is too late. 
Time is something that you can never get back. 
Remember that. 

A Special Conversation With A Candidate

During the campaign season of 2018, I had the privilege of having lunch with Maureen Skinner, who was a person that was running for State Senator of my district.
One of the things that I wanted to know from her was how her family felt about her decision to run for office.
What a lot of people do not realize is that when you run for office, your family runs for office as well.
Muckraking was still real in 2018. When you are a public official, there is nothing in your life that becomes off limits for the media to talk about.
As much as we hate to admit it, dirt is what sells newspapers.
She told me that her family was fine with her decision and that they even participated in the door knocking and phone bank calling process that is necessary to reach out to the constituents.
My hat goes off to anyone that decides to step to the plate to represent their community. It is not an easy thing to do.
Whether you do a good job or not, your job is always on the line every 2 to 4 years. Let's not forget about those term limits as well.
Therefore, if serving the public is your calling get on up and do what you believe is right for your community. Just remember to be aware of the long nights and headaches that will come along with the territory.

A Word of Thanks From Sheila Clemons For All of the Birthday Wishes 8 18 18

My First Time Babysitting

The year was 2010. I had just decided to go over to visit with my friend Laurence and his family for a little bit. 
As soon as I had crossed the threshold, Laurence pulled me to the side and he said, " Hey Rick, I need for you to watch the kids for a little bit while me and the Mrs. go in the back to play for a while. 
As his devoted friend, I took the honor of granting his request. 
The kids had just rented the hit movie, " Marley and Me." 
The movie was going great until it ended with the dog dying. 
It was at that moment that the painful memory of losing my favorite dog Tyler that I had begun to cry uncontrollably in front of the two young boys. 
I totally did not see that coming. 
The boys looked at me with a sense of shock that I would be so emotional in front of them, yet they did not say a word. 
Around 10 minutes later, Laurence and his wife had returned to the den.
Laurence says to the boys, " Hey, did you all have fun hanging out with Uncle Rick?" 
The youngest one replied, 
" Yeah, but he was crying over a dog though!" 
We all had a good laugh about the situation at my expense. 
To this day, I think that Marley and Me is not a good movie for kids with pets to watch. 
In fact, I think that it should be outlawed!  
The moral of this story is this: 
Always take the time to preview a movie before you let your children see it. 
Therefore, you don't run the risk of running into some unpleasant surprises in front of them.

Pine Street High School Alumni Sing The School Alma Mater 6 30 2018

YKeedo First Interview with Rickey Gee TV 6 14 2018

My First Experience With Odd Women

When I was around 19, I had just completed Marine Combat Training and I was sent to my MOS School in Ft. Leonardwood, Missouri. 
It was around November of 1996, during my first weekend at school, that a group of Marines and I took a cab to the local Enlisted Men's Club to let off some steam. 
It was there that I met Jackie. She was a fair skinned young lady with jet black hair. She was absolutely gorgeous. In  high school, I would have never had the courage to step up and speak to her.
The Marine Corps gave me a sense of courage that I had never had before. It was at this moment that I chosen to try and see if this woman would give me her phone number. 
It was in the middle of our conversation that she said, " Hey baby, come closer. I want to tell you something." Several sexual thoughts began to race across my mind. Then she whispered something into my ear drums that would leave me dumbfounded.  She said, " I don't like men." 
Right about that time is when my little head descended and the head that was attached to my shoulders went off in rage by spewing several obscene words at her. And then I got up and left the bar.
Several minutes later, Tina walks over to me. 
Tina was Jackie's girlfriend. She says, " Hey dude. I saw that you were over there talking to that girl. I am a lesbian and I like to lick her here, here, and here." 
I looked at her and I said, " Really? I think that I might be a lesbian too, because I want to do that same thing to her !" 
She began to laugh hysterically. She gave me her phone number and then she said,"From now on, you are going to be our man!" 
From that day forth, I was indeed their man. 
Every weekend, until I left that duty station, they would come and pick me up and we would stroll around the town with one of them on each of my arms. 
They would fondle me and kiss me in public. At that point in my life, I had never felt so special when it came to women. 
They were the best wing women ever.  
I have not seen or even heard from them in over 20 years. I will forever be in their debt for making me look good to my peers at that time. 

Dave Ward Drive Pedestrian Overpass Groundbreaking Ceremony 5-29-2018

Mrs Hattie Lee McKaskle-Hankins Celebrates 100 Years of Life 5 26 2018

Going to Church

It is no secret that I love going to church, whenever I have the strength enough to make it there on Sunday Morning.
Church for me became a place of refuge for me when I was around the age of 16. It was to the point that I would willingly walk across town to an upstart church, at that time, from the church that I had known about my whole life. I did so because I had to reach God on my own level.
My parents were cool with my decision to do so. They believed, as I do now, that it doesn't matter what building it is in which you choose to worship God.
What matters the most is the relationship that you are developing a relationship with Him.
It still amazes me how we as Christians still turn up our noses at others just because they don't see God from our perspective.
In reality. God sees us all the same way. We are his children.
When we learn to come together to help out our fellow man like has instructed us to do, the better off we will begin to be as a nation.
My prayer is that as I age that I will become stronger and wiser in the knowledge of his word.

How Does It Feel ?

A while back I had a random conversation about life in general with some young brothers in the barbershop. During the conversation, I let it slip that I had went to college and obtained a college degree.
One guy stopped me in the middle of speaking and he said, " Yo, man how does that feel to have one?'
And I replied, " It feels kinda good!"
He told me that he wanted to shake my hand so that some of that luck might rub off on him because he was in school and his financial aid was about to run out.
In that moment it really humbled me because I too remembered that hunger and the struggle that I went through to get it.
The moral of story is this: Never take your accomplishments for granted. Always remember that someone just like you is still fighting to get to where you are in life.
Never forget the bridges that have allowed you to cross over to the promised land.
Special thanks to all of those people that helped me to study/ cram for those exams in college. Most importantly I want to thank my friend that proofread my work and introduced me to those brilliant words and anecdotes that allowed me to fill up those long papers in college as well.
Without you I shudder to think if I would have ever made it out of college. The writing lab really paid off tremendously

Momma Knows Best

When I was 5 years old, my mother remarried. For a long time during my childhood, I thought that she was being unfair to me because she let her husband say cruel things to us as children. When I would complain to her she always would say," It's his house and whatever he says goes!" I didn't understand what those words meant until I became a man. I now know how hard her struggle was to keep the peace in our home. Playing the peacemaker role is never an easy job for someone to play in a household. I am now thankful for her struggle. It is amazing what lessons in life you will come to understand as you age. Thank you mom for your fight to raise me to the man that I am today!

Knowing is Half The Battle

When I was young I saw so many things that happened around my house that I just did not understand until I had the nerve to speak up and ask about them.
When I was around the age of 13, I noticed that my step-father J.C. used to receive 2 subscriptions from Publisher's Clearing House. He just knew that one day, that these people were going to show up at his doorstep with that big old check in their hand.
He used to read Popular Mechanics and Cosmopolitan. I could understand why he would like to read Popular Mechanics because he was a huge fan of the latest in technology.
However, his interest in the Cosmopolitan magazine struck me as being a bit odd because I knew that it was a magazine that was geared towards the interest of women.
One day, I asked him about it. I said, "Dad, why do you read a magazine for women?"
He looked at me with a devilish grin and he replied, " Son, sometimes it is just good to know what the other side is thinking from time to time."
At the time, I was too immature to understand what he had said to me. Years later, it quickly came back to me and I laughed really hard about it.
Sadly, in April of 2010, we lost him to a battle with lung cancer. Up until the time that he died he still read the Cosmopolitan Magazine.
From time to time, I find myself reading that magazine as well just to keep that family tradition going.

Never Let Her Toothbrush Hit The Bathroom Counter

Years ago, when I got my first car, I traveled to see my uncle Mickey Wayne, my father's brother.
My father's brother was an old man that seemed to always keep a new woman around him. 
I even noticed this at the age of 4. Anyways, after years of not seeing him I decided to pay him a visit when I was 21.
On this visit he shared with me some information that would prove to be very valuable in due time. 
He said, "Rickey, I know that right about now, you are really starting to discover your sexual prowess as a young man. You've got our genes. So I already know what you are out there doing.
Keep this in mind. While you are out there spending late nights with a woman are your home, remember that they need to be gone before the sun rises. Never let her toothbrush hit the bathroom counter. If you do, you will start to see other items show up, and before you know it, she will have moved in with you without paying rent !"
I laughed at it when I initially heard him say it. However, I never forgot this lesson. He also told me to invest into a twin mattress, because no woman in her right mind will want to share a bed like that with you for very long and she will have no choice but to retreat back home to her own bed to sleep comfortably. My uncle Mickey Wayne was a wild man in his prime. 
Years later, he would suffer from 2 strokes that would eventually have him end up in a nursing home that would be far away from his family and friends. It is sad for me to think about how he would spend his latter years. 
However, I will always remember the fun times and wild information that he once shared with me.

My Aunt FeFe

Everyone has that family member that is their personal cheerleader. My aunt Sophia Elaine Rogers Polk is mine. For as long as I can remember, she has always been on my team.
She was the one that took me to see my first movie. It was the movie Annie back in 1982.
She confessed to me years later that the real reason that she came to get me is because she really wanted to see it herself and she needed a kid to go with her so she would not feel out of place.
I forgave her, because I did that same thing to another family member when I wanted to see The Lion King back in 1994.
One of the real reasons why I love her so much is because she really stepped up to the plate for me when I entered my freshman year of college at the University of Central Arkansas.
During the first week of college, I called her up to see if she had any extra bed linen because I needed some for the twin mattress in my door room. She got so excited that she went out and bought me a brand new set. She told me years later that the reason that she had done so is because out of all of the grandchildren in our family, she had suspected that I would be the one to go off to college.
She said that if you really pay close attention to children when they are younger, you can pretty much tell how they are going to turn out to be. She told me that when I was younger, while the other kids went outside to play that I would spend hours at a time looking through the books that my grandmother had on her bookcase. I vaguely remember doing that.  I am glad that she remembered those special moments.
The last reason that I love her so much is because she gave the task of helping her name her only child. Ikina Shanea Kanu is her name. 
I was also present in the delivery room when her child was born in 1998.
She told the doctors that she wanted me to be there because might not ever have kids.
That was nearly 20 years ago. To this day, I still tell her that she may have cursed me by saying that.
Overall, I could not ask for a better supporter/ family ally. I will always be grateful to her for her love and support throughout the years of my young adult life.

Sydney Hopson receives the key to Conway Arkansas 3 19 2018

Jody Gets Caught Up

It is no secret to some people that know me that I served as "Jody" for many years in my early 20s. I was very popular back then in my area of the country. I figured why would I waste the time of find my own girlfriend when I could have more fun with another man's chick? Yes, I knew that it was wrong, but I was having so much fun at the time doing it. 
Moving on........ here is I got caught up. In the early 2000s, I was having an affair with this nurse off and on for nearly three years. 
What I did not know was that she was sharing our relationship with her Caucasian co-worker. Well after their relationship had dwindled, and she had moved out of the state to take another job, her co-worker found me and she wanted to see if I would be good at "snow blowing and plowing". 
This was an opportunity that I could not pass up. I had to see if I could do just that. As it turns out, this woman would eventually become the best lay that I had ever had at that point. She into all sorts of kinky toy shit. Her ass was as ripe as and apple and as soft as cotton. She was also the woman that introduced me to "The Bullet".
If you don't know what that is, you'd better ask somebody!
I messed around with her for at least a year before she slipped up and told someone about us.
In a drunk moment, she told her girlfriends about this wild black guy that she had met. Instead of being all happy for her, they pumped her for more information and then they came and found me. 
In fact, they came to my residence and confronted me about it on some old racist shit. In so many words, they talked to me about how disgusting that it was for her to be messing around with me and that I was breaking up a happy home. It was at this point that I had found out that this woman was indeed married. I told them that I didn't force their friend to do anything with me and that she was the one that actively sought me out. I also told them that if they didn't like what was going on over at their neighbor's house that they needed to close their damn blinds. After the conversation had ended, I called up this mistress and I told her that her situation was too much for me and that we had to end it.
And that very night, I truly repented to God and I vowed to never doing anything so reckless again. 
I learned some valuable lessons from all of this madness. I learned that nurses are vindictive and that you should learn to keep your mouth closed around them.
Finally, I learned that nothing fun and wild ever lasts for very long. There is always and endpoint to the fun times. 

Jordan Howard scored 43 points against Stephen F Austin at Univ of Cen...