Episode 1: Alive at 55

The Kickoff Pilot Episode: A Celebration of Jim Rico! 

Unedited. Unscripted.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

here we go. Here we go, welcome, welcome to the forecast. My name is jim rico and I am so happy, so blessed that you made it. I really am. Um, it feels good on this historic day. I'll tell you number one, because if you're listening to this and I'm just going to turn this down a little bit because we got a lot to talk about If you guys want to listen to music, turn this off and cut on your radio or other music listening to apparatuses. But this historic day, my goodness, if you're listening to this, like I said, this is the Alive at 55 broadcast. Happy birthday to me. Yay, god bless. God bless you all. He has truly blessed me.

Speaker 1: 1:01

This is the forecast. I am your host, jim, jim Rico, and I am just so happy and blessed to be here. I don't want to just stop and talk about how happy I am, but I do want to talk about what the purpose of this is the forecast. But before we talk about the purposes, I just want to tell you it is a blessing to be here y'all. It is a blessing to be here y'all. Two and a half years ago, I suffered a debilitating stroke which left me paralyzed on one side of my body, unable to walk, unable to control bodily functions. It was a dire situation. And yet here I sit, coming to you alive at 55, praise God. So we just want to give God some praise. We'll talk about him later, because he is in all of our lives, whether you want to admit it or not, but he is definitely all over this broadcast.

Speaker 1: 2:13

So this is the Alive at 55 series. Loving life series, loving life series. It's all that. It's all that. It's all that. Again, my name is Jim Rico and I'm so happy to be here to talk to you today, to talk about a little bit of everything that we normally don't talk about. You know, growing up and listening to radio and watching television, like most Americans, you get an idea of what life is supposed to go like, be like, how it's supposed to happen. And, um, as you get older, you kind of realize that there's a little bit more to life than just what television taught us, right? Yeah, there's a lot more to life than just what television taught us, right? Yeah, there's a lot more to life than what television taught us. But as you grow older, you have opportunities to rethink life every day. And on today, this day, right here, on this day, right here, we're going to reimagine thinking. All here. We're going to reimagine thinking. All right, we're going to reimagine thinking Again. This is the forecast.

Speaker 1: 3:31

I am your host, jim Rico, and I love the Lord. Let me go ahead and tell you that I am a grateful sinner. Grateful sinner, and we'll talk about my sin. We'll definitely talk about my sins later on, because, look, I'm still doing it. All right, not necessarily what I want to do, I mean, who wants to mess up or who wants to go against the grain or whatever, but sometimes it's just inevitable.

Speaker 1: 4:02

One thing I do want to tell you is that this broadcast is uncut, unscripted. Yeah, I do have some notes of some things I want to talk about, but I didn't want to bring you something that was fake. I didn't want to put a product out that I couldn't stand by, and I will promise you this that everything we talk about, everything that is discussed here, is coming from the heart. It's coming from love. It is coming from love because, in my opinion, there's not a lot of love going around. You know, there's just not a lot of love going around. You know, there's just not a lot of love going around Me. I'm a lover of God. I'm a lover of family. You know my family being my nuclear family mother, father, sisters, cousins that is my nuclear family. My extended family are my extended cousins, my black people. I am African American. My huge family involves those other than African Americans white Americans, latino Americans, asian Americans and the world itself. So this show is for my family. It's everyone and it's not limited to just African Americans. Now, while I do hold a place in my heart for my people, we all need help. We all need something different that makes a difference in our lives.

Speaker 1: 5:45

It just so happened yesterday evening I was able to attend a Hall of Fame induction for the local high school, north Mecklenburg High School's people that they were enshrining to their Sports Hall of Fame, one of them, which I grew up with her name, audra Stinson, the GOAT. I've known Audra since I was very small and have known her family, and just to be alive to see her go from wanting to play on the basketball court with the boys to starring at North Mecklenburg NC State, overseas and in the WNBA with the Charlotte Sting and finally getting her just due it, just it felt good to be there to watch that and that's the love that I'm talking about A little long. It took a little long for them to get it done, but they made up. They made up for it. So, coming fresh off of that and getting in the studio today, I definitely wanted to make some acknowledgement to that.

Speaker 1: 6:47

Okay, all right, so let me just go ahead and set down some ground rules and parameters. All right, like I said, this show is unedited Okay and unscripted. I want everyone to understand. If you're listening to me, I want you to understand that there are limitations with those who have had debilitating medical situations or scenarios, such as myself. The stroke is what I'm referring to. You can ask Jamie Foxx. He'll tell you in a minute. You know I had a stroke, so I'm just gonna go ahead and put that out there. There may be some moments when the stroke does come up or the stroke happens and you might be able to say, huh, what he's talking about. But that is the reason why this thing is unedited, because I am not perfect and I don't want you to think that this is a perfect broadcast. I am here, by the grace of God, for today and only today is the day that I'm focused on, and that's to bring this show to you.

Speaker 1: 7:56

This is the pilot episode of what I hope will be a long string of episodes that will hopefully begin conversation and spark thought about issues in a way that people would be interested to talk to your neighbor about, or talk to your friends or to even talk to your family, because we don't talk enough. We don't talk enough. We listen and we got a lot to say, but we, we just don't say it because I don't know why we don't say I don't have a problem saying anything to anybody, pretty much but I think for this particular show, what we will focus on are the topics that don't get talked about a lot, topics that we need to talk about a lot, topics that we need to talk about a lot. And there are a lot of things that people have to share out there that, because they feel as though there isn't anyone to listen, they don't talk about them. So they carry this stuff around inside and they wake up every day and they go through their day and they go to bed at night with the same stuff on their minds. You know, not an outlet to talk about it. You know and you don't even know, and then next thing you hear someone went postal right. Is that the term? Yeah, that was the term. When I was growing up, someone went postal postal and what that term came through was back in the late 80s, early 90s, there were a lot of postal workers that would go to work and do some of the most horrible things to their coworkers shoot them, murder them, and you had to wonder back then what was going on at the post office that was putting these people in these positions. Well, it just wasn't the post office that started this. These people had things that were going on in their lives that were there already and because there was no outlet or place for them to share them. I mean, if we think about it, how many of you go to counseling on a regular basis? I mean real, serious counseling, where there's someone listening to you and asking you questions that provoke thought from within, because that's what counseling is. In our next show we're going to bring on a counselor, an actual educator of counseling. She counsels, she teaches the council. So that's going to be on our next show.

Speaker 1: 10:33

But this show here we're going to we're going to spread love. I hope that it will be received as that, because we're going to talk love. I hope that it will be received as that, because we're going to talk about some tough things. We're going to talk about a lot of tough issues that don't get talked about. I'm big on family, and so we're going to talk about family. We're going to dive deep into family. I'm big on kids. I love kids, so we're going to talk about kids. I'm going to dive deep into family. I'm big on kids, I love kids, so we're going to talk about kids. I'm going to dive deep into that.

Speaker 1: 11:08

We're going to talk about country, love of country. I love America. Okay, I love America. I was born here. I might be African American and my great-grandfather was a slave and my great-grandfather was a slave and my great-grandfather did have to go through tremendous things and those before him went through some of the most horrible, incredible things and the fact that that happened nearly that wasn't that long ago and we don't discuss it. You know that's something that could possibly hinder you. You know, in order to grow, you need sunlight, you need water and opportunity right, you need light to help. You see, you need water to quench your thirst and you need opportunity, room to grow. So hopefully this show will shed some light. Hopefully this show will create some room and hopefully this show will provide maybe not completely quench your thirst, but maybe clear up that dry mouth a little bit. Okay, this is the forecast. I'm Jim Rico. I'm going to take a quick little break and then we're going to come back.

Speaker 3: 12:39

Okay, I'm with this. I'm just going to sit here and lay back to this nice mellow beat, you know, and drop some smooth lyrics, because it's 88. Time to set it straight. You know what I'm saying and there ain't no half-stepping Whoa. It's 88. Time to set it straight. You know what I'm saying and there ain't no half stepping Word. I'm ready. Rappers stepping to me. They want to get some, but I'm the cane. So yo, you know the outcome. I'm not the victory. They can't get with me. So pick a PC date, because you're history, I'm the authentic poet to get lyrical.

Speaker 1: 13:25

All right, all right, big Daddy K. Oh, let me just go ahead and let you all know the disclaimer I do not own the rights to any of this bomb music that you will hear me play. I am a lover of music and I love all kinds of music.

Speaker 1: 13:41

But I don't own the rights to any. I just thought we'd fill in some of the breaks with the music. So, uh, we'll deal with that when we deal with it. You know everybody wants their money and right now we don't have any money, you know, to give you for your music. So we're just gonna play it and we're gonna let you know. Thank you, big daddy. Uh, I wonder if he's still living in dur. All right, okay. So the forecast? What is the forecast? The forecast is an idea. Okay, the forecast is an idea that has progressed to what you're listening to today.

Speaker 1: 14:20

Being from Charlotte, north Carolina. There's a street in Charlotte that I grew up on called Beatty's Ford Road, hence the Fordcast, and on Beatty's Ford Road, this street being about 14, I can't really gather I think it's 14 or 20 miles long from almost the center of Charlotte. It runs through Lake Norman and on Bates Ford Road, at the very beginning is a university, johnson C Smith University at HBCU, private black college, and at the end of Bates Ford Road is Lake Norman. And growing up in the 70s, you saw the gamut. You saw both ends of the spectrum of life in America, I would say, because you saw higher education for blacks, you saw poor blacks, you saw poor whites, you saw poor blacks, you saw poor whites. And then, as you got out to Lake Norman, you saw not so poor blacks and not so poor whites. And now today, you might as well go ahead and say it there are rich folk living in Lake Norman, multimillion-dollar homes. This is where everybody wants to be. It's the place to be. It's almost like you can't go out there and pull your grill out and barbecue on the lake anymore, like we used to do when I was growing up.

Speaker 1: 15:56

So growing up and everything in between, by the way, everything in between, this was a place where I learned a lot. My mother, who was a hairdresser, did hair out of a business on Bates Ford Road and being a shop baby shop baby is what we were called. Anybody who had a mother who was a hairdresser, go ahead and shouts out to you. But, being a shop baby, you spent a lot of time at her place of business. For me, I spent a lot of time around a lot of burnt hair, okay, and women, and I was able to hear some of those conversations and hear how some of those lives were going, and also had an opportunity to mingle with other shop babies. And although our lives were similar, they were very different. They were very different. My mother was a single mother. Different, my mother was a single mother. My father lived in the same town but he was across town. I saw him more so than a lot of my friends saw their fathers. I did not spend a lot of time with him but I was grateful for that time and luckily, before he passed, we were able to spend a lot of quality time together, so that in itself I was blessed for.

Speaker 1: 17:29

But back to the reason for the show. Once I left Charlotte and went away and did my little stint in colleges and living in the big city of Atlanta and living in other cities in North Carolina, stayed a bit in Raleigh, lived in Durham, lived in Greenville, of course, where I attended East Carolina University. But coming back home you began and getting older. Okay, that's the thing getting older. Every day that you wake up you are older than the day before that you wake up, you are older than the day before. So whatever you learned from the day before, if you have the blessing to be alive the next day, either you acknowledge that you learned something that previous day or you can not acknowledge it. You know, a lot of people walk around with blinders on and if that works for them, it works for them, you know, because if you're alive every day, you have another opportunity to learn something else that day. Okay, and we'll talk a little bit about that. But coming back to Charlotte and seeing my city growing, seeing how the Ford, as we call it affectionately, those from the area as we see the city changing and things changing around the city, there wasn't a lot of growth on the Ford. You know it almost coincided with the lack of growth for people that look like me. You know there hasn't or wasn't a lot of growth. You know. You think about it. This is 2025.

Speaker 1: 19:18

And just in 1964, civil rights legislation passed. 1964, civil rights legislation passed and anybody who was born in 1964 and after that is still alive. They have a life that is different than those who were born before. Because there was supposed to be a change, that was for the better, betterment of every American Okay, not just black Americans, not just women, not just gay and lesbian people, but for every American.

Speaker 1: 19:56

And, as we're seeing now, these subtle subtle I'm laughing because there's nothing subtle about what's happening but these attacks on civil rights that are happening right now. It's almost like it's a reverse, and are we trying to go back to where, you know, there was nothing but violence and bloodshed and and people looking cross-eyed at one another. For what reason? Because of the color of their skin, because of their religious choices? Because I? I mean, listen, this country itself is barely what, what? 300, 400 years old, okay, 1776, 18, 19, 20. I mean, we aren't even 300 years old, this country, we aren't even.

Speaker 1: 21:02

There are countries out there China, you know these other countries, spain, you know countries in Europe. They have been there for hundreds of years. We've only been around a couple of hundred years and the reason that we have risen to this, risen to this I'm using quotes to air quotes this great power is in large part and solely due to the enslavement of my ancestors and others. Okay, because it just wasn't. Black people were enslaved. There were also other immigrants that were enslaved. There were indentured slaves.

Speaker 1: 21:48

A lot of this is not being taught, because there are those who don't want their kids or grandkids to be ashamed of what they did or what their parents did. They don't want them to know the truth, because they aren't interested in facilitating the continuous change to a better America, because I do believe that it is possible for a better America. One of the reasons for the forecast to talk about those things, not just that we're not here to talk about racial issues although there are a lot of issues that are racial but we're here to talk about issues that affect all of us. Everyone has family. If you're alive, you know you have family. You may not know your family. It's another thing we're going to have to talk about. You know family that we don't know.

Speaker 1: 22:40

You know, and that's not a pun, but there are a lot of issues that affect us as Americans, and it's no wonder that we have this mental health crisis, because a lot of us have been educated to not educate ourselves. We have been raised under the guise that everything is okay and somebody else is looking out for us. Well, guess what? What happens when those who are looking out for us decide you know what they're not paying attention. So I'm going to do what's best for me and my people, or people who share my interest, and we as Americans, because we've been so spoiled with all this wealth that we've had to not be a third world country, you know, or not be a excuse me, shithole country, as some people might call it, because we've been so spoiled by our existence from beginning that we don't stop and really pay attention to how we got here, because it's all, it's all around us. It's all around us. So, anyway, I'm not going to go down that rabbit hole just yet.

Speaker 1: 24:11

I just want to kind of give you a little backdrop of why the show, because there's a lot that needs to be discussed. Um, I've got issues, you've got issues, our have had issues. If you're lucky for your parents to be alive, then guess what? Your parents have issues If you got great parents, and hats off to you. It's hard to be a good parent. It is hard to be a good parent, just like it's hard to be good. You know, I tell my kids. I used to tell them when they were growing up they're not kids anymore, they're grown. I used to tell them when they were very small. You know, it's easy to be bad. It is so easy to be bad. The hard part is trying to do good. The hard part is trying to do good Because there's so much out there that wants to pull you in different places when, at the end of the day, what's wrong with being good. What's wrong with showing genuine love and affection for those that don't look like you or those who are in need? And when we stop and say no, I'm not going to help that person because of what they look like or who they worship or where they go. You know who did that. You know who threw that in there. Ok, so I digress. This is the forecast with Jim Rico, and I love you. This is the Love and Life series, live at 55, and I am so glad that you guys are joining here for this broadcast. We're going to talk about some specific stuff, but you know, I just want to continue to kind of lay down some of the groundwork for you. I just want to lay down some of that groundwork and let you know that there's nothing taboo. There's nothing taboo. We're going to dig into it. We're going to dig into it, we're going to try and pull it apart and hopefully this will allow us to grow a little bit more. This is the Forecast with Jim Rico bit more this is the forecast with jim rico?

Speaker 3: 26:34

I'm music be thumping. Others say they're bad, but they're fucking. Let me show you something now about hip hop, about D-Nice Melody and Scott LaRocque. I get a pen, a pencil, a marker. Mainly what I write is for the average New Yorker. Some MCs be talking and talking, trying to show how black people are walking, but I don't walk this way to portray or reinforce stereotypes of the day. Like all my brothers, eat chicken and watermelon, talk broken English and drug selling.

Speaker 1: 27:21

All right, all right, we're back here. Boogie down productions. Yeah, all right, welcome back to the show. Yeah, all right, welcome back to the show. This is the Forecast. I am your host, jim Rico, and I am so glad that you're here for this kickoff episode, the pilot episode, the unedited, unscripted episode. So you're just going to have to bear with us. We're going to get better as we go along and hopefully we can get better together.

Speaker 1: 27:54

I just want to say that throughout my travels in life, I have been to places where, when I left, my perception or perspective had been changed, and I'll just tell you a quick story, if I can and I don't tell quick stories, I'll just be honest with you, as I've been told, but I used to deliver medical supplies to in-home patients, and that's people who were in their homes, that were on dialysis, and I used to deliver these life-saving, life-sustaining supplies to them. And my travels took me throughout the southeast Alabama, mississippi, arkansas, of course, north Carolina, south Carolina, virginia, west Virginia, kentucky. I've visited some places, and one of the places that I would frequently deliver to would be the state of West Virginia and being from Charlotte and going into West Virginia, or the idea of driving to whole bunch of people in West Virginia that looked like me. I mean, I'm 6'6" and you know I'm a black man. You know I did not see a lot of black people when I went to West Virginia to make my deliveries, so I always had it in my mind to get in there and get out. Okay, get in, make my deliveries early during the sun was up. I was crossing the state line when that Sun, when the Sun rose, I was crossing the state line. So that meant I was leaving Charlotte like four o'clock in the morning maybe. So by the time I got into West Virginia there was sunlight. Give me plenty of time to get my deliveries off and get on back across the line before the Sun went down.

Speaker 1: 30:27

Because, if you're not aware, there are places that are still around that were even more prevalent in the past, that had signs that were posted that if you were black you didn't need to be caught in their town after the sun down. And even if the signs weren't posted, you knew it. You know back to that whole racial thing, right? So these are thoughts that I had as a grown man, as an entrepreneur. Now I'm doing my business, making my bones, trying to feed my family. But these are the thoughts that I would have, you know, in order to schedule my business.

Speaker 1: 31:11

So this one particular time I had a few deliveries in West Virginia and I left Charlotte early, got to West Virginia, started one stop, two stops, three stops and, of course, a lot of times I would go to these places. These people were just as surprised to see a black man as I was surprised to not to see any black people. Let me just say it like that Most of them were almost always friendly and cordial. There was one particular time I'm not going to blame this on West Virginia because it could have been Kentucky or Tennessee. I'm not going to blame this on West Virginia because it could have been Kentucky or Tennessee but as I was delivering on the side of a mountain, the mountain opened up and there was this two-story home, three-story home that had a Confederate banner flag, confederate flag hanging from the third floor of the house and it came to the ground. Flag hanging from the third floor of the house and it came to the ground. This was the largest flag I have ever in my life seen. I had ever in my life seen and, of course, when I saw the flag. I quickly understood what that meant and, of course, when the people saw me, the first thing out of their mouth was you can just leave it on the porch. I was more than happy to do so.

Speaker 1: 32:33

So that's just a little tidbit, but anyway, on this particular day I was getting my deliveries off and I realized that I was not going to be able to make all my deliveries and I was going to have to stay overnight. So I pulled up my phone. Don't remember if what we were doing there. I think I was even using MapQuest back then. For those of you use GPS now, mapquest was the thing back then and we actually used maps because the GPS would not work as well in the mountains.

Speaker 1: 33:08

But but when I realized I wasn't going to make my deliveries, I looked for a Holiday Inn, which was my hotel of choice back then for traveling. And I found a Holiday Inn. And as I was driving to the Holiday Inn, I was hungry because it had been a long day. Of course, remember I usually got there when the sun was up and I tried not to eat while I was working because it would make me have to stop and go to the bathroom. So I'm hungry at the end of the day, and as I'm driving to my hotel, lo and behold, do I see a Kentucky Fried Chicken KFC in West VA.

Speaker 1: 33:43

Now, the first thing I thought to myself I know I'm about to see some black people. I mean, there's no way that I'm going to go to a Kentucky Fried Chicken in any part of America and not see some black folk. You understand me, like I knew, because I hadn't seen any black people all day, literally, literally. And that was the regular. You know you hit West Virginia. You might see one or two driving throughout, and I drove throughout West Virginia making deliveries and most of the time I never saw one black person. If I did, it was a single one, you know.

Speaker 1: 34:20

So I'm expecting to pull up to the drive through and look in and see nothing but black people in here. And as I pull up to the drive-thru window, nope, nope, no, I looked. And here's the funny part I don't think I was used to seeing nothing but white folks working in a KFC, you know. So that was a thing that threw me off too. I was like, wow, no black people working in the KFC, nothing. But I mean when I tell you perspective is one thing. Reality is a whole nother.

Speaker 1: 34:59

So I got my food People were nice and I went and checked. I went to the hotel and as I got inside and had my bags, there was a line of folks checking in a little small line and of course, when I walk in, big 6'6 African-American male me heads turn. Now this is not something that's uncommon for me. I mean, I can walk in a room full of black people and people looks, but in West Virginia I'm pretty sure they were thinking the same thing that I was thinking Wow, I hadn't seen any black people all day. And I was like, wow, I hadn't seen any black person all day.

Speaker 1: 35:34

So as I'm walking in to check in, I get the looks and I patiently wait to check in and get my key and I go up to my room and I put my bags down and as I'm settling on the bed to eat, cut the TV on, I turn on the local news, which is something I like to do whenever I did stay overnight, just to kind of see what was going on in the city. I was staying and you would not believe that the lead-off story on the news was guess what? Some type of criminal act that had happened. And guess who was the star of the show? Black people. All day long I had not seen any black people, but once I got to the hotel room and turned on the telly, there we were being represented and I quickly thought to myself wow, I haven't seen any black people all day. As soon as I turn on the TV, there they are.

Speaker 1: 36:36

Well, for these people up here who don't see black folk every day or no days at all, probably all they have to do is turn on the TV to see black people and depending upon what they're watching is going to dictate what black people they see. You understand that Whatever show or whatever broadcast they were watching, that featured black people. That is the education that they received about black people. Imagine this now. You grew up in west virginia your whole life. You don't have any black neighbors. You don't have any black classmates, right, you don't have any black leaders in your community. But every night you go home, you see black people on TV being arrested. You see black people on TV with their pants hanging down or committing crimes or in some of the most compromising positions that we see them on TV.

Speaker 1: 37:50

I mean, that's what you learn. That's what you learn. That is taught very early and as you grow older, your only thought processes of what you know is by what you've seen. Guys, I'm telling you, your perspective is one thing, reality is another. But this was my perspective and my reality hitting me at the same time as I'm watching this news broadcast.

Speaker 1: 38:18

So I turned the TV off after a while and I went to bed, woke up the next morning and started to finish off my deliveries morning and started to finish off my deliveries, and still with what I saw on TV heavy on my brain, I went to my very first delivery, and it was still morning time, believe it or not. And when I got to the home patient's house on the side of a mountain, no, no less, in the mouth of the holler Okay, I know what I'm talking about in the mouth of the holler. When I got there and got inside and was told to put it here and there as I was bringing the supplies in this was a process Whenever you brought these supplies, these were like 40, 30, 40-pound boxes that you usually would be bringing in, a minimum of probably 20 and a maximum of maybe 60. So you were working and as I was wheeling myself through the house. There was a gentleman, an elderly white gentleman, sitting in, a Lazy Boy with his feet kicked up and guess what he was watching. Guess what he was watching? Nope, not the news. Good times, good times.

Speaker 1: 39:41

None other than jimmy jj, big lip, all black, walker. Okay, the epitome of what all racial stereotypes are big with black lips and dumb, because that's who jj portrayed himself to be this big, big lip, dumb, black man. Right, and that's what this man was watching and it was so funny to him. He was having a good time. And so, right off, right off of my previous new education of remember what I said earlier, everything you learned yesterday you take to, and what I was seeing right now, that day with my eyes, I was seeing this man's and possibly his whole family's education about people like me, which is one of the reasons why, whenever I would speak to some people, I would get funny looks. You know, because I didn't speak jive or I didn't use certain languages, or you know, you know the whole thing, you know, but um, y'all it was.

Speaker 1: 40:58

It was incredible. It was incredible as I headed back down the road. That trip changed me. That trip changed me. It changed me. It changed me that 24 hours in my life changed me to where I was going to represent people that look like me as best as I could going forward in life. Not that I hadn't been doing it earlier.

Speaker 1: 41:39

I was raised and went to a Catholic school believe it or not, all-black Catholic school in Charlotte, north Carolina. We'll get into that and we had been taught to be a credit to your race and to your country. Be a credit to your race and to your country, to speak the king's English. We had black nuns who would make sure that you didn't speak the boogity boop at school. Don't come in here speaking that you speak the king's English. That's what we learned and, as you can imagine, as I grew up, there were a lot of black people that would ask me where are you from? You don't talk like you're from the south. Yeah, I'm from here, born and raised, yep, right here in Charlotte, north Carolina. But I definitely did.

Speaker 1: 42:29

From that moment on, it changed me and I knew that any of my children any children that I had going forward. They were going to have to do it different, because I did not want my kids to not understand what and how the influences around them can impact their thinking. Okay, all right, so anyway, that's just my little quick story. All of these things that have happened in life have made me who I am today, and we'll talk a little bit more about that. But I don't want to show it be about me. I want to show it to be about sharing. Okay, about opening minds, opening hearts and opening ears.

Speaker 1: 43:25

So those two days or that 24 hours that I spent there really changed me, and you know what? I'll say this, and to all the good people in West Virginia after that, I felt so ashamed at how I had thought about the people of West Virginia, about the people of West Virginia, because, for whatever reasons I thought about that, a lot of it had nothing to do with them. A lot of it had nothing to do with them. A lot of it had to do what they were exposed to and all of it had to do with who was exposed to it. So, listen, if you're a parent out there, you got to know what your kids are watching and you need to monitor it and, most importantly, you need to pour into your kids what you really want to get out of them. This is the Forecast. My name is Jim Rico and I am so glad you're here. I'm glad you're here with us. We're going to take a quick break and we're going to come right back.

Speaker 3: 44:33

Okay, it's 88 in Third Ward and it's 90 right now at Magic 102 FM.

Speaker 1: 44:59

All right. All right, we're back here after that quick break. Listen. So again, this is the pilot episode, the Alive at 55, broadcast. If you're listening to this, then, hey, it is a blessing to be here. Like I said before today well, not today, but the day that you might be listening to this, or the day that this was actually uploaded, was a historic day for me, because I am a stroke survivor.

Speaker 1: 45:34

Praise God that I am here to talk about these things to you and going forward. That is what I would like to do. I would like to discuss things with you that hopefully, you can walk away and talk about them with your kids, your family, your neighbor, your neighbors OK, because we don't talk to our neighbors enough and your co-workers we don't talk to them enough and just strangers. You know there are so many things out there that are trying to separate us or keep us apart. You know there are so many devices out there that try to make us afraid of one another. You know I think about this election. Okay, because let me just go ahead and tell you this I'm a proud American, the greatest American.

Speaker 1: 46:32

Okay, I am one of the greatest Americans. Okay, because my ancestors helped build this country and helped bring it wealth. So I am proud to say that I love my country, and the blood, sweat and tears of my ancestors help make all these things possible, not just for me but for you and other people. And there are people who don't want that acknowledged. There are people who want you to think that people like me are dumb, that we steal, that we're lazy. There are lots of all these things and guess what, in this age and day of technology?

Speaker 1: 47:16

You have to know that these have all been untruths. You have to know that there's a movie called Mississippi Burning and they were interviewing. I don't know if you guys have seen it, I'm not going to tell you about it, but you should see it. But there was one clip in the movie where there was this woman, a Mississippian, who was describing black people and she was like they stink, they don't clean, they not like us. And you know, god bless her. That was her truth and that was what she knew to understand.

Speaker 1: 47:54

But here's the thing. That's false. That's false. We're all the same. You know, and believe it or not, as science would tell you, we all come from the same place. Why do you think that? Science all the? Why do you think that?

Speaker 1: 48:12

Okay, no, I'm not even about to get it to that. I'm about to get into education, but you know, what you educate yourself with is what you'll learn. That's all I'm going to say about that. However, you educate yourself, whether it's good education or bad education. That's what you're going to say about that. However, you educate yourself, whether it's good education or bad education. That's what you're going to learn, and what you learn is what you're going to teach. It all works together. What you learn is what you're going to teach. If you're not taught something different, there's no way you can teach something different. There's no way you can learn something different. There's no way you can learn something different.

Speaker 1: 48:44

That's why, every day that you have an opportunity to be alive, you have to cherish that day, because it's a learning opportunity, it's a growth opportunity, it's an opportunity to change your life and other lives, y'all. I'm telling you this thing is real and I know it. I've been on the ground laying there and thinking, wow, I really wanted to live a little bit longer. I've been there, and if you never had a life-altering situation, let me tell you I hope that you never do, because it is scary as shit. And, as a matter of fact, for me, as I was laying there on the floor and I had at times always said you know I've lived a great life. You know, I know I'm going to heaven, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, if God comes and takes me. You know, I know about when that time came, I was not ready to go, I wasn't kicking and screaming, I was crying, but I was going to accept it.

Speaker 1: 49:49

And when I woke up and I was still here, I knew then that I had been changed. I knew then that I had been changed and that I had been brought back from a different. I had been brought back to a new place of understanding. And every day that I wake up now I have that understanding in my physical limitations, in my mental limitations. I know so, you know. I hope that you don't have to have a life altering medical situation to change your perspective or your thoughts. But I hope that tomorrow, if you have the opportunity to wake up, that whatever you learn today, whatever you learn today, you will take that and you will move forward tomorrow and try to build on that and, if not for yourself, for the people that you're responsible for and, if you're not responsible for other people, then it it is essentially for yourself, because, even though you might not be responsible for others, your actions can change people's lives. Your behavior can alter people's perceptions. That's some, some true stuff, y'all. My name is Jim Rico. This is the Forecast, and we'll be right back.

Speaker 3: 51:16

I got my own kind blind brain trained on that devil level. You don't measure a man by what he got. It's what he does, what he's left and what he's taking care of. A brother like me adores him, but I'm cool G when I rap about him. It's poison. Everybody want to be Big Willie chasing down loot. Dolan Newt, who do you shoot? I'm figuring targets while you're figuring Figaro, figaro, so pop up for the Chug D, chug D and PE.

Speaker 1: 52:04

All right, we're back here. We're about to wrap this up, this historic broadcast, this historic first episode of the forecast with your host, jim Rico. That would be me. Hey, I want to end on not so much heavy stuff, but something kind of like I am a huge homer. For you who don't know what a homer is, I love everything about home. I love everything about Charlotte. I love everything about North Carolina. I love everything about the USA. I am a home boy, ok. I am a homer, ok, and I love the Carolina Panthers.

Speaker 1: 52:46

I am the number one Panther fan and if you want to challenge that, then you need to come here and we can sit and talk about it. But I am the number one Panther fan and we have been through so much through these past few years that y'all, it's going to change. Ok, it's going to change. I'm telling youall it's going to change. Okay, it's going to change. I'm telling you it's going to change. So I'm also a North Carolina fan. Okay, tar Heels, okay, tar Heel. Blue baby, we have had some rough years. Okay, we have had a rough last couple of years. So my sports ego has taken a huge hit over the last few years, but that's all about to change. That is all about to change. It has to change. It has to change. It has to change. So I'm looking forward to the offseason, I'm looking forward to the first preseason game. I'm looking forward to Lord willing, if I'm there our first game. I'm looking forward to seeing how Bryce has progressed. I am looking forward to all of that. I don't know if you're a football fan, nfl fan, but I love the Panthers. Okay, I do, and hopefully we're going to have some of them in here or some folks in here to talk about that. Again, I'm so happy to be here. I'm so happy to be here.

Speaker 1: 54:24

This is the Love and Life series. We're kicking off the forecast. We're going to talk about a lot of things going forward and I hope that some of those topics are able to touch you. And if there's something that you would like to hear, please reach out. You know something that you have on your mind that you want to talk about. Definitely let me know or hit me up. We don't have a phone number for you to call in. Ok, and that's on purpose, because it's not really about hearing yourself right now. I want to provoke you talking. Ok, that's what this show is about. We want people talking. We don't want you to keep listening. We want you to start talking, because once you start talking, you're able to figure these things out for yourself. You don't have to have someone come in the room and tell you how to think. We've been doing way too much of that. What I am going to tell you is that you better cheer for my Panthers this year. We are going to be on it, baby, jump on the bandwagon. I'm taking applications. This is Jim Rico. This is the forecast. Thank y'all, I appreciate y'all. Next week, we will have Dr Keisha Kearns on the show, a good friend of mine. She'll be talking to us about counseling, education and clinical mental health all that stuff.

Speaker 1: 56:01

Our country right now is going through a lot of changes, and you know change. Some people don't accept change. Well, you know Henceforth, project 2025, which was started right after the civil rights movement of 1964. There were people that didn't like these changes. So they began, they got together and they began to decide what they could do to undo these changes that were happening around them. You had a lot of people that felt as though they were losing out on life that they were losing their grip or their place in life. You know, what goes up must come down. History teaches us only the strong survive. Right Is what we've heard before. All right, and there are a lot of people who want to alter that, but the truth is the truth and you have to live your truth truly OK. Thank you all for being here. Thank you for joining me. I'll see you next week. My name is Jim Rico. Blessed to be here. Glad that you guys could take the time out and we're going to take it on out. Y'all take care Until next time. Thank you. Outro Music