Italian Cuisine and Life Lessons: An Inspiring Journey of Transformation

Would you turn down a big fat cash bonus after just a month on the job? Probably not! We bring you a heartfelt conversation about James's remarkable journey, beginning with his first job after prison at an Italian restaurant called Leonardo's. We explore how James's relationship with the owner, Big Tony, helped him navigate life and the pressures of making money. Hear about the unique bond they formed and the infectious energy that Tony brought to the restaurant.

Every journey comes with its own set of challenges. Can you imagine juggling between the Church and the demanding restaurant business? We'll share about James's life in Birmingham, the cultural differences he encountered, and the contrasting influences of Tony and Steve on his life. We also have a funny anecdote about how James was mistaken for Tony's Son, leading to some humorous moments at the restaurant.

Every story has a heart, and ours is no different. It's about Big Tony's generosity and his role as a father figure in James's life. From cash bonuses to Alabama games, Tony's profound impact on James is undeniable. Stick around as we reveal the poignant story of how James's mother came to live with him and how this experience brought them closer together. We wrap up our conversation reflecting on the valuable lessons learned from James's seven-year journey at Leonardo's, and the importance of recognizing the gift of the present. Get ready for a rollercoaster ride of emotions, laughter, and life lessons.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 5:03

Well, hey guys, thanks for tuning in to the Straight Out of Prison podcast. My name is James K Jones and this is my story.

Speaker 2: 5:10

And this is Hayley Jones, and this is his story that has now become a part of my story.

Speaker 1: 5:15

I love your story being part of my story. Thank you, babe. By the way, the last one I feel like the last one we did was was kind of rough. I went back and listened to it and I thought, man, at the end of that I was sure I was being negative. And it wasn't like that. I was trying to be negative. I was trying to put myself where I was in that season and just how hard it was and just all the things that I was dealing with.

Speaker 1: 5:38

But at the same time, you know all the people in that were part of my journey. I believe they're a place in my life for a time, and there's a quote by John Maxwell. He says that many people that start the journey with you won't stay on the journey with you. So I just don't want to like communicate that I'm trying to take anything away from any of the people that were in my life. That first you know, six months, eight months, year out, because they were very much a part of my life and you know many of them are still connected to me. So right.

Speaker 2: 6:11

Well, I mean, I've thought about that too, that and you were negative. But I also feel like it's very real and raw because that's the season you were in where things were hard and that's how you felt. I mean, I know for myself, and I feel like probably everyone can resonate with this, that you go through seasons that things are just hard and you do feel like you have a negative lens on everything.

Speaker 1: 6:36

Like it's just a struggle. Why is it so hard? Why is life so hard? Yeah?

Speaker 2: 6:41

I mean, you know, I can just so relate to that. So you were, but I do think that's just the season you are in and we've talked about this before with this podcast. It is crazy how you have said as you're recording and telling the story, you almost feel like you're back in that place and you're reliving it.

Speaker 1: 6:59

The hard parts kind of put me in a funk, but then the exciting parts actually just get me in a great place.

Speaker 2: 7:08

Invigorate you yeah.

Speaker 1: 7:10

There's something it's good to like analyze where you came from.

Speaker 2: 7:13

But I like what you said too just not taking away from even though that was a maybe struggle season or a little period there that the people that just helped you, even if it did turn bad in the end in the moment it was kind of an invaluable gift that you needed to keep moving forward.

Speaker 1: 7:34

And they will forever be a part of my journey.

Speaker 2: 7:36

Yeah, Absolutely, and I'm thankful for them too. I have to say Absolutely.

Speaker 1: 7:40

Because I got you to me, you got me.

Speaker 2: 7:42

Yeah, you know. So we ended with suddenly that season was ending, but you didn't know it and we don't know when these things are happening. Sometimes that can are totally shifting our season, so that was happening to you.

Speaker 1: 7:56

It was, it was a gift. I got a phone call from a lady that I worked with at Rossies that told me she had started a new job at a place called Leonardo's on Rocky Ridge Road and she was like James, I really feel like you would love this place. I mean, it's small, it's family owned, it's family oriented. And I got in my car. It was like 10 minutes from my house. I got in the car, wrote down there and looked at it and it was like it had been a Taco Bell that like went out of business and they like threw up some white stucco and, you know, had this big neon sign and turned it into an Italian restaurant. And when I first saw it I was like I don't say you can make money there, it just looks so little, like I mean you think of the size of a Taco Bell. Right, it is small, but then they had added on.

Speaker 2: 8:43

Like things coming. Small packages, oh yes.

Speaker 1: 8:46

I would totally change my thinking on that. But they had, right before I went for my first interview, they had added on like a foyer area and a bar, because that, you know, they didn't have room for a lot of stuff, but I was. I didn't know if that was what I needed to do, Like I went in and did, you know, fill out an application. They were open like from 1030 to 230 for, like, lunch and then they closed for a couple hours and they opened at five for dinner. So I went in the middle of the day when they were closed for lunch and I met the lady that ran the office.

Speaker 1: 9:25

Her name was Cosette but her nickname was Boo, but she brought Dana, tony's daughter, out and Dana was actually the first one that I met and it's so weird like thinking back on that now, like the first time I met her she would become like a sister to me. You know, later on it was weird, it's weird like reliving that. But when I went in and I interviewed with her, she was telling me, you know they'd only been in business for about a year and that they were doing a really good business. But you know they had, they had a lot of struggles like with the white staff and stuff, and she said the main problem is everybody that works here is my friends and she was the front front of the house manager at the time.

Speaker 2: 10:03

Let me just pause. So is this the first conversation you're having with her, like when she's interviewing you? So she's unloading all of this the first time you guys meet.

Speaker 1: 10:11

Yeah, well, I mean, I don't think she'd ever been in the restaurant business. Yeah, this was her dad's place. She was. She was a newlywed, she just got married and they started it out as a small like family business. Right, tony told me later he never expected it to be that successful. He was just wanting, like a small, you know, small scale, something to you know. Provide income and give him, you know, what he needed.

Speaker 2: 10:36

Right.

Speaker 1: 10:37

So it ended up like blowing up. But when she told me that her friends were, all of her friends were the white staff, so it was hard for her to like make them be to work on time and stuff like that, and she was like you know, you know, three or four of them were even in my wedding and you know she was only like six months out from being married and I just thought, you know, this is nice, but I don't want to get caught up in all that Like it didn't seem like. You know how I am, I'm all business, especially at work. You know I'm working.

Speaker 2: 11:05

It's no fun. We will get there on time and work while we're here.

Speaker 1: 11:09

Yeah, no, I just didn't see how that could work so I didn't. After I talked to her I didn't really want to pursue it and I didn't pursue it but I left my application. Just I told Doris I don't think that's the place for me. Like I, that just seems too unstable. You know, just walking into a place where everybody's friends and family and you know, you're Lucy goosey for you, yeah.

Speaker 1: 11:30

I didn't think it would work. But then I was still working, you know, day shift at Tony Romo's, night shift at Justin's and the stuff that Justin's was getting worse because this Greek guy, he was mean and he was kind of shady Some of the stuff he did, he would like try to sell a whole fish and you know you try to serve somebody some fish where they tried to make it smell like it wasn't old, it was just bad, it was getting bad Gross. But I got a call at Justin's. It's crazy. I got a call at work and they said, james, there's someone on the phone for you.

Speaker 1: 12:00

And it was kind of weird. I mean, I had a home phone. I don't know why she called me at work, but it was Dana. And she said my dad wants you to come and work for us. And I said, whoa, I really haven't made up my mind. And she was like he wants you to start tonight or tomorrow. And I said, well, I can't just quit this job. I mean that's not. You know, there's no integrity in that. I have to put in a notice. And she, like, was just like hammering me and I said, well, let me think about it. And I went home and prayed about it and thought about it and I thought I hate this Justin's place and this Leonardo's place does seem neat but at the same time, you know, I was hesitant to get involved in that because you know friends and family. You know I'm not any, I don't know anybody.

Speaker 2: 12:49

Okay, so you were hesitant in all the things that you just said, but was there at that point, like when you went home after that shift at Justin's, like just a tinge of excitement. Could you feel that a little bit?

Speaker 1: 13:00

A little bit, but it scared me because I didn't want to get involved in like what I got involved in at Rossies again. Like I didn't want to be in that world.

Speaker 2: 13:07

And you had no idea what you were stepping into.

Speaker 1: 13:09

You just I didn't know anything about him, I mean at that time, you know. I would find out later that he had been in prison and all the things. I didn't know any of that at the time.

Speaker 1: 13:17

but I ended up feeling like I was this is what I was supposed to do. So I called her back and said I'm gonna put in a Tuik notice and then I'll start. And when I went back and put in my Tuik notice, the Justin guy like changed his mind. Like all of a sudden I was the sun rose and said on James K Jones and he was giving me all the shifts in the parties and I was just like too late, bro, you know. But I did work out my notice. And then when I started it was just a neat place. It was decorated like old Italy, like Tony and Mr Bruno had. They traveled a lot and they buy like art and he had a lot of art in there. He had a grand piano, shiny black grand piano, in the middle of the dining room. There was this huge mirror in the waiting area there that looked like it came out of the Vatican and it was just, I said, mirror.

Speaker 2: 14:12

You said mirror.

Speaker 1: 14:13

Mirror. I'm from city. It was a mirror, but it was no, it was like the side of a house size mirror, like they had to like.

Speaker 2: 14:25

I'm sorry. Let me say that I'm sorry.

Speaker 1: 14:26

No, they had to like take the trim off the door to get it in there to install it. Wow, and it was just neat. It was small and it was nice and it was fine dining, but not like too fancy fine dining, it was like-.

Speaker 2: 14:42

Relaxed, fine dining.

Speaker 1: 14:43

Yeah, casual Italian dining, and it would end up being, you know, everything I needed and loved. But so I bit the bullet. I started in November of 2000,. But then I kept my. They were saying that their lunch business was not that great because they weren't like in like a business district or you know downtown Birmingham, you know where people go to lunch. They were on Rocky Ridge Road in Vestavia, which is mostly residential. It was a little shopping center there, but you know there's not a lot of lunch traffic. So I figured, you know, I needed to keep my day job at Tony Romans because they were always busy so I could make some money. But I started working there and then working at Leonardo's at night. But where do we go from here?

Speaker 2: 15:30

Well, you decided to take the job, so let's talk about maybe the first shift, or I mean, there's a place you ended up talked about, that you ended up loving, and it was everything you needed. But what did that first shift look like?

Speaker 1: 15:42

Okay, the first shift I had, they told me that Raphael was gonna train me and so I had to. Dana was like you gotta follow him at least one shift and you can start waiting tables tomorrow. But you've got to know the menu. And the menu was similar to the one we had at Rossi's but there was like neat stuff on there that was like they did like a rolled eggplant Parmesan type of deal. There was just a lot of stuff on there that was new that I had to figure out what it was.

Speaker 1: 16:09

But that first night Raphael was. He was from Mexico and he was a hustler and he was like six feet tall and he was just, he was all about making his money. But he wouldn't really show me anything, he wouldn't train me anything, he was just like you follow, you follow. And I met, like all the people that worked there, big Tony. We called him Big Tony because he has a son named Tony. His name was actually Anthony Filetta, so Big Tony is Anthony Filetta III and Little Tony is Anthony Filetta IV. So I met him and then the lady that ran the office, boo, she was Tony's aunt and it's like a movie Boo.

Speaker 1: 16:51

Well, her name was Cosette, but they called her Boo, and she was Tony's aunt and she was family. And then in the kitchen-.

Speaker 2: 17:02

Was she a large woman? No, she was a little big, I just it's funny because I imagine, like the Italian Well, now we had At that time we had Mama Connie.

Speaker 1: 17:11

That was Tony's mom. She would come in and whip them into shape. She didn't work like eight, 10 hours a day, but she would come in almost every day and make sure they were doing the sauce right and she would holler at the kitchen guys, and tell them you ain't doing that right. It was all her recipes. Oh okay, yeah, it was neat and she was loving every minute of it.

Speaker 1: 17:32

But what happened was Tony had been an attorney, like a big time lawyer, and he got caught up in to some kind of scandal with some judge where he was under federal investigation and the judge committed suicide and they couldn't charge him. Oh my gosh, it was crazy. But they, like you know how there's one of the feds come after you, they're gonna find somebody. They're gonna do, they're gonna, like you know, if they wanna find something, they'll find something. So somehow, because Tony was in his courtroom, a lot like something came up where they decided to charge him and he was not guilty of whatever. I can't even remember what the charge was now, but he knew that he couldn't like make a deal because it would ruin his law, because if you're convicted you can never be a lawyer again and that was his life and that's what he did.

Speaker 1: 18:21

But he ended up going to trial and at his trial they found him you know how they put on those cases, that was like a witch hunt and they found him guilty and sentenced him to like four or five years in federal prison, holly. And so when he came out of prison, mr Bruno, which was his childhood friend, they got together and started Leonardo's to give him. You know something to do, but it was. I didn't find that out right away, but I found it out a little later and I think that was part of the bond between us because that connection. And then I also found out, you know he was a Cairo's man before he.

Speaker 1: 18:56

Ooh, big Tony was yeah he was part of the Cairo's prison ministry. So, he had done a lot of those so that we connected over that. He got so excited when I told him about Cairo's but I didn't tell them right away that I'd been in prison because you know I had that thing, you know from that lady.

Speaker 2: 19:13

Oh, right that she was like nevermind, so I didn't tell them right away.

Speaker 1: 19:16

but at the same time I knew I you know, if I'm gonna stay here, I'm not gonna keep this a secret. So we connected over all that stuff. But the kitchen, the way the kitchen was ran the head chef. His name was Red. I can't even remember Red's name, that was his nickname, but he was from Inslee and he was one of Tony's clients back in the day.

Speaker 2: 19:41

Okay, so Inslee from people that aren't from Alabama or even the US.

Speaker 1: 19:44

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 19:45

Inslee Alabama.

Speaker 1: 19:46

It's outside of Birmingham, it's mostly, you know, african-american. It's pretty rough neighborhood. You know, what hadn't wasn't always rough but it, you know, at this time and even now it's like, you know, that's where there's a lot of gangs, a lot of mess, you know stuff going on. So he ran the kitchen and pretty much, you know, he brought the people he wanted with him to work. So all the people that did all the cooking were his people and then all the people that did the prep were Mexicans.

Speaker 1: 20:15

And the guy that did the rolls and all the bread and all the pizza and all the stuff his name was Antonio and he was from Mexico and had just came to the United States, was walking across the parking lot when they were remodeling and Tony asked him to help him, told him, could you help us like move this rug? I'll give you 10 bucks or something like that. And no, but he ended up working there for the next duration, you know. But he made all the rolls and he brought his wife, claudia, in and she did all the like the big prep stuff and then-.

Speaker 1: 20:49

That is so crazy, but it was so neat, like it was so. But we were like a family there. But in the beginning it was not that easy for me because I was just trying to make money. You know, I'm trying to get my money, I'm trying to get my money right, trying to get ahead, you know. So I was working dinner shifts there and I didn't like the atmosphere of. You know, I'm Dana's friend, I can get this. Or I'm Tony's cousin, I can get that. I hated that. Like it was like. You know, it's like-.

Speaker 2: 21:17

You still hate that kind of stuff today? No, I do.

Speaker 1: 21:19

I just, I mean, I understand, like relationships, like that makes things different.

Speaker 2: 21:24

Yeah, for sure you know.

Speaker 1: 21:25

I recently heard a thing where governor got in trouble for making sure that his family got the COVID tests back when it first started. And I was like who wouldn't make sure their family got the COVID tests? I mean, if they had the power to do that. But so it was kind of like that, but slowly over time, like he talked me into like James, I want you to work for me full time. I don't want you to just work at night, I want you to quit your job and you know, quit the other job and just work here. But I was kind of scared, I was hesitant and I didn't fully trust Dana, cause she made the schedule at the time and it just seemed like her friends got all the shifts that they wanted and then whatever was left came to me.

Speaker 2: 22:09

Well, you were the outsider, yeah, and you felt that and I did and I didn't like it.

Speaker 1: 22:13

So there was a lot of hesitancy, I guess, in that, but the food was amazing. It was off the charts.

Speaker 2: 22:21

Making me want some right now.

Speaker 1: 22:23

Oh, I can't even eat Italian anymore. I mean, you know that even that nice place you like to go, it's not. There's nothing like Leonardo's Tony ruined Italian for me at the restaurant.

Speaker 2: 22:36

Was it Mama Connie? Yes, she Coming in with the recipes and making sure everyone was doing it right. She was handling her business. Yeah, that's awesome.

Speaker 1: 22:43

But Tony cooked too. You know he stayed back there, but he was, he was just a character Like he was. There's nobody else like him. He was full of life, he was a storyteller, he liked to tell stories and you know, you know how you tease me about hyperbolizing and exaggerating. You say that he was like that times 10. Like everything was more. Wow, that's awesome he did. But he had a gift Like. He made people feel special, like the customers. He would go out and go around to every table and talk to him with his, with his apron on, and he loved it. He loved everything about the business. He loved making people feel special. He loved telling stories and he had this idea of the experience that we needed to provide for people coming in to eat. So he wanted live music at night and so we had like one night.

Speaker 1: 23:41

Every night. We had one night we had like an accordion player, wolfgang. He was so annoying, like cause he would get in your way. This was a small restaurant, he'd get in your way with the accordion. He wouldn't move cause he's trying to get tips and he drove me nuts. We had an older African-American man that played on Friday nights. I can't remember his name, but he was just my favorite, like he was just full of life.

Speaker 2: 24:03

What did he play?

Speaker 1: 24:03

The piano, okay, cause there was a grand piano there. And then on a Wednesday nights we had John Michael Ogletree, which he he's just amazing and he's actually like, does like albums and stuff.

Speaker 2: 24:16

Now, if you, look at him up. Did he play up the piano, the piano.

Speaker 1: 24:19

Yeah, but he was a, he was a dwarf, so he was only like three feet tall, but you would never know Like he didn't let his handicap like affect him in any kind of way. Only thing I ever saw, cause I was fascinated by him because he was full of life, full of you know doing my thing, but it's when he needed tea. He would have to ask one of us to give him tea because he couldn't reach the tea thing. And but other than that, like he drove his own car, they had a thing fixed up form where he did it. He was a hundred percent independent. But he was so talented Like he was amazing and he would. He had this thing that he would strap on around his, I guess his shoulders where he could play the piano and then play the harmonica at the same time. And it was amazing the stuff that he did. And then we had, you know, several that would come, come and go in between with. Those were the main ones that stayed.

Speaker 2: 25:16

But quick question. I'm talking about Tony. I'm just curious cause we've talked before. Do you think that big Tony was a seven on the Enneagram?

Speaker 1: 25:24

Oh, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 25:24

Because you have noted several times that, because you're a one or just the personalities sevens, just really sevens make me feel better make you feel better, more relaxed, more fun yeah.

Speaker 1: 25:37

I think he was a seven.

Speaker 2: 25:38

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 25:39

He was all about people and later on, as we, you know, I worked for him for seven years Like, sometimes, like at night, he couldn't stop talking to the people. You know we've been closed for two hours. Everybody was gone, but I didn't want him to be there by himself to close up, so I would wait on him.

Speaker 1: 25:57

Cause eventually I started you know well, let's don't get ahead of ourselves. But the back to the piano thing. One of the neatest things that he did was this was a digital grand piano and it had like where you manually play it, where these people, the musicians, would come in and they would play it. But when we didn't have a musician for a night, he wanted live music. So it had this thing. It was called a midi file and it was a little. You would put a floppy disk in and it would play whatever you put on it. So he was sitting in his office and and searched midi files and download them on a disk and he would go out and push the midi file into the piano and then he would sit there like he was playing and it was the funniest thing. But people really thought that he was playing the piano, like they really thought that Tony was playing piano.

Speaker 2: 26:50

And I mean.

Speaker 1: 26:50

I had. I would be waiting on tables and people would say, um, Tony is just so talented.

Speaker 2: 26:56

I was like, yeah, so he let them believe that he was playing yeah. Which is funny for you, because we all knew You're just the opposite, though, like we have noted this, episode and last about how you hate like lying and let's be real and don't cover things up. And so you just let that go.

Speaker 1: 27:14

It was cute, it was funny and it was. It was kind of what, if you knew him, it made him him because he wasn't doing it, he wasn't trying to be deceptive, he just knew that people needed an experience and that was what made Leonardo special, and because there was going to be live music at night and it wasn't like deceptive, right.

Speaker 2: 27:34

Right. It was, it was if you knew him, I could just see you, though, when a customer would say are you so talented?

Speaker 1: 27:42

No, the funniest ones would be like um, dana would come out there and tell him she needed him in the back and he's like I'm playing the piano. And she's like, dad, you're not playing the piano. And he's like, get out of here, leave me alone. But it was just stuff like that. And then he, um, he bought a digital camera and I actually helped him with this. He started taking pictures of the customers, like at Leonardo's, and we started hanging them on the walls of the dining room and by the time I left there in 2007, we probably had 300 pictures. They went all around the dining room, around the top, and then we went into the bar and kept going with the pictures.

Speaker 2: 28:21

It's really brilliant as far as it likes from a business perspective, just creating, like you said, and that he knew that they needed an experience. But also personalized that with the pictures. It just makes people want to be a part of it.

Speaker 1: 28:38

Our customer base If your pictures hanging on the wall because people would bring their friends in and be like hang on the wall Stuff like that. He taught me so much about the restaurant business that I would take with me, and even what we're doing now with the team Jones, with the cooking arm of our business. It's like you know, go over the top, make people feel special, do what it takes. And but he also had, like he said, you have to have something that people come here for and for. For Leonardo's it was the rolls, because they were the big yeast rolls but they were different from like other ones because they would soak them in garlic butter and then sprinkle parmesan cheese on them.

Speaker 2: 29:16

My gosh.

Speaker 1: 29:18

Those were. I never got tired of the rolls, never got tired of lasagna. This is making me hungry, but nowadays there's nowhere. All the Italian places I've been to in Birmingham it's not. It don't even hold a candle. So if I want Italian, I cook it myself.

Speaker 2: 29:33

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 29:34

Because he taught me all his recipes every one of them. But he came up with like these crazy signature drinks and signature desserts. One was a. One of the drinks was a flaming Italian stallion. That's good to me, but it was basically it was like a one of them rum things you drink on the beach with pineapple and the cherry in it, like a my tie.

Speaker 1: 31:22

It was just like rum and fruit juice and fruit. That's all it was. But then he would have the bartender soak a sugar cube in pure grain alcohol and then put on a toothpick and hang it off the side, and then you would light it on the way out and then, as you walked across the dining room, your drink was on fire. So that's why I was caught a flaming Italian.

Speaker 1: 31:42

So I love that kind of stuff, and then he had a Sicilian margarita which he had put in those big fishbowl glasses and it was basically just a margarita with a Midori which is like a lime liqueur, and that those were our two like signature drinks. And you know he had a full wine and everything. You know he was big into, he's Italian and he's Catholic, so I mean they were into like we're going to have the good wine, we're going to have the good, you know, we're going to have fun.

Speaker 2: 32:09

All the good things we're going to drink up in here.

Speaker 1: 32:12

But that actually caused me conflict with Steve, you know, because by that time he had become a pastor and I started going to his church and I didn't I wasn't too, you remember, I wasn't crazy about his church. But then he was going through a transition where they were changing the name of it and they were like getting away from the midnight stuff more, it's like a non-denominational type and they bought an old restaurant in downtown Birmingham on the South side called Ollie's Barbecue, and this was a famous restaurant that had been there for like 50 years. It was round, you can see it from the highway. The barbecue apparently it was already closed when I got to Birmingham was amazing. Presidents have eaten there. Yeah, that's what.

Speaker 2: 32:56

I was going to say Presidents that eat in there because of the civil rights movement right In Birmingham.

Speaker 1: 33:01

No, the presidents had eaten there because the barbecue was good. Oh so Bill Clinton Bill Clinton ate there and a big Bush, George Bush, the one that came out to Reagan, he ate there. But Ollie's was famous because it was the landmark case in the civil rights movement back in the 60s, because they were segregated.

Speaker 2: 33:21

Okay, yeah.

Speaker 1: 33:22

And they had like African Americans working there, but African Americans couldn't eat there, so but no, but he would sell them Barbecue, but like out the back door. So it became a big, big deal Like, and it was the. It was the one that led to the federal government being able to come in and say you can't segregate, you can't have a business where you only serve a certain population, and so it was a famous case how we got that Well, you were saying that Steve's church.

Speaker 1: 33:54

They bought that building or rebranding he told me he saw it and he had a dream. He'd always wanted to have a church in the restaurant. And so I was like, well, maybe I could get on board with this, like if we're doing something different, like I ain't on be staying down in the basement of the task building and talking about dog biscuits and hanging out with happy, but if we're doing something different, I could, you know, I could be involved in that. So I really like threw myself into that and I love Steve. You know, he was like he was a father figure to me. But the way Steve's upbringing like they didn't do alcohol and stuff like that that was like I don't know. So I think it was a little bit of conflict between you know, because I had such a close relationship with Steven and then I had such a close relationship with Tony and they were polar opposites, right. So there was a little bit of that.

Speaker 2: 34:43

That's so fascinating to me because I have learned since moving to Gardendale that that is it's a Baptist.

Speaker 1: 34:48

Thing.

Speaker 2: 34:49

Well, it's a stigma that I didn't grow up with, and so I have, for the first time, moving here 10 years ago, whenever it was you've never seen that before, Well and realize what a big deal it is to some people and how much it affects, I don't say the culture of the area, and it's just been fascinating to me because I mean I grew up Christian, I'm doing air quotes, Christian and but that was never a stigma. My parents always drank, it was never a problem.

Speaker 1: 35:17

So coming here, your parents weren't alcoholics. No, no, no, no, that's what I'm saying.

Speaker 2: 35:22

It was never a problem culturally where we live, or you know, they weren't alcoholics. There was no issues there. But coming here there's definitely. I can see how people frown upon and like yeah it's super like judgey when it's not their belief or how they do things.

Speaker 1: 35:39

Yeah, and I mean, people are like that, about everything. Yeah, that's true, whether you're homeschool or not, homeschool, whether you do this or don't do that, you know right, okay, so there's a little conflict there.

Speaker 2: 35:48

There was tension there, yeah.

Speaker 1: 35:51

But you know I love Steve. I was connected to the church. It took me a long time to get to know people because I didn't really want to know them, but I took on like a task of, like I did all the landscaping and you know, trying to help because it took them like 18 months to renovate that building.

Speaker 2: 36:07

I kind of like how you were a part of. Now that you're like saying it, yeah, telling it like this, that you were a part of both of those worlds pretty intimately. Yeah, I mean, you're getting involved with the church and you're the people you were also getting very like ensconced in the business that you know was just a little bit different ways.

Speaker 1: 36:25

It wasn't just business for Tony. He became his family, became like my family. He was also Catholic, so he was on a mission to make me be Catholic. So I would tell him, like Tony, I'm not going to be Catholic, I'm not even going to be anything, I'm just following Jesus. But he would take me to church with him. I remember one time there was something at Easter called Stations of the Cross and he was telling me how amazing it was and it was like they would reenact, like the passion of Jesus, like the days leading up to it. And he took me. He took me. It was in the, it was like a, it was before dinner service started. But he took me and they like turned the lights down and I looked over there and he was fast asleep, like I was snoring because you know, he worked a lot.

Speaker 2: 37:08

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 37:09

And I was like this is funny, you bring me here trying to convert me into Catholicism and now you over there sleeping. But the pastor of that I can't remember. I think it was St Peter's, it was that. It was very close, they all ate there. He became one of my closest friends, betty Caracow. I had so many like regular, like customers, like sometimes three or four times a week, you know I'd wait on him, wow. But Tony was neat, he's a storyteller, he. I have dark skin, dark hair, you know, so I could pass for Italian.

Speaker 2: 37:40

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 37:41

But he would play on that and he would say this is my cousin James. He just got off. You know, he grew up in Sicily. He was afraid to fly on a plane, so he sailed over on a boat and I'll be patient with him. He understands English, but not that good.

Speaker 2: 37:58

Was he really serious trying to play off that story? It was a joke he played like that, it was just.

Speaker 1: 38:05

but then some people would believe it and they would believe it. And then I think I had been working for him for like five years when Miss Fuleta's mother passed away, that's his wife, so his mother and all passed away and Mama Josie and I met I mean, I was connected, I met all them. I had a good time. I used to wait on them when they came in but there was a customer that had been waiting on for them and I met a customer that I'd been waiting on for like five years. She pulled her, pulled out her hand and put on me. She said I'm so sorry to hear about your grandmother. And I said, excuse me, and she said I heard that your grandmother passed away.

Speaker 1: 38:47

And I was like, no, she didn't. And she then she said you know, mama Josie, and I said no, that's, that's Tony's, that's Miss Fuleta's mother. And she was like well, I know, but you're little Tony. And I said no, I'm James. And she said, well, I know you're James, but you're little Tony. I hear him say little Tony. And I was like, no, little Tony is little Tony, I'm, I'm James. But it was like people just had that, you know, they thought that.

Speaker 2: 39:17

Right.

Speaker 1: 39:18

So what ended up happening in the beginning? I guess we need to go back to the beginning. So the way it was being around was kind of a mess Like. It was like everything was all over the place and Dana was working there like running the front of the house, but I don't think she loved it. We had fun but she didn't love like this grueling to manage a dining room.

Speaker 2: 39:41

Yeah, I mean, I feel that I would not love that either.

Speaker 1: 39:43

So she decided she was going to do something different and they uh, one of Dana's best friends her name was Leah that she went to school with. She was Italian, you know, catholic, like in the family not family, but kind of in the family she was a server there and Tony made her the dining room manager and then she did it for like three or four months but she was like you want to talk about a seven or I personality Like she had no attention to details and it was uh, it was just she was out of, like a fish out of water and I guess she was just. She was struggling with it, you know, because you had to make the schedule. You had the wait staff. We had like 12 people you had to manage. There was so much to manage. Then we had bussers and food runners and just it was just a lot and hostesses and to go. We had a huge to go order business and bartenders and so if you were running the front house, you had to be in charge of all that.

Speaker 1: 40:36

So he came to me and he asked me. He said, james, I want you, you are a natural born leader, and not just that, but you're a hustler like me, like you're going to figure out a way to make your money and do all these things and I want you to take over the dining room. And so I said, uh, how much does that pay? And so he said, well, I'll pay you $10 an hour and you know you can eat whatever you want, drink whatever you want, and you know you can do whatever you want. You can just run this. And I said, tony, I know you don't, I know you don't like um, do like the financial part of you know, I know Boo does all that. But if you were to look at my checkouts, like every night, I'm probably making about $1,000, $1,500 a week in tips. So it'd be hard for me to like trade that in for $400 just to be a a, a, a, a good idea or a manager.

Speaker 2: 41:29

All right.

Speaker 1: 41:30

So he said well, you know, I can't pay more than that. And I was like, well, I don't know. You know, I don't know what to tell you. So he waited a few days. He came back and he said okay, I have a new idea.

Speaker 1: 41:42

And I said what's the new idea? He said I want to make you the captain of the dining room. And I was like what does that mean? And he said well, basically you can run the dining room, you run it all, Just take it and run it, but then you can still wait tables as long as you can do it. You can, you can do it. So I was like you mean, you can do both. Basically, it's not only to both. So when he said, and I'll pay you a separate salary and then you can have your tips, you can do, you make the schedule, do whatever you want, and I thought I hit the lottery because Leonardo's like the shifts, Like we made so much money, Like right, and plus I had already started like reorganizing things. You know I would come in early and do extra work and because you just can't help yourself.

Speaker 1: 42:24

Well, no, it was because I wanted to make money. Like if I came in, if I knew we were having a Friday night and I knew I could turn tables, then I was going to make more money than other people. So I didn't mind coming in early. I would come in and, do you know, get everything set up, and people come in and be like, why aren't you coming in and doing all that? I was like I'm just trying to set myself up for success. I'm trying to. You know, I'm trying to. I'm trying to get mine. And it was.

Speaker 1: 42:47

It was little things like the, the bus boys there. Nobody tipped them out, they didn't tip them. And I thought you're supposed to tip the bus boy, because that's what I learned Everywhere's else. And so my little guy gosh, I can't remember his name. He was a little, he was about five feet tall, so he was literally a little guy. He was, but he was older guy. He was older than me, a lot older than me, yeah, but the first night I worked, I gave him five bucks and you would have thought that I, you know, hung them on.

Speaker 2: 43:18

With just five bucks.

Speaker 1: 43:19

Yeah, wow. But I found out they didn't tip them out. And then so I started you know I'm going to tip you out every night. And then I started tipping out the food runner. And then you know, I was always first like in the service, like we're going to take care of James because James going to take care of us, and then you know you had to tip out the bartender, but it's like you gave him whatever you wanted but, I learned like just take care of people, they'll take care of you.

Speaker 1: 43:45

And I I did like. So I was kind of in the place where there was a part of me that thought, like the way the front of the house was being ran, like this can't go on, like we, this is a gold mine here. It can't keep. You know, I'm going to make no money while I can in case this doesn't work out. But when he came to me with that I was like this is crazy, like I can, but I can make one schedule I could give him on sections. I could, you know, do whatever I wanted.

Speaker 2: 44:13

So, real quick, what was the time period from when you started to when he proposed this? I started in.

Speaker 1: 44:19

November of 2000. It was sometime, probably the summer of 2001. He asked me to do it and I took it on and it was. Those were the like, the best years of my life. It was crazy, wow, okay.

Speaker 2: 44:33

But in the middle of, all that, let's talk about something happening in the middle of all that.

Speaker 1: 44:37

Okay, so that I went to work for him in November, um, when we were shutting down for Christmas. So I've been working there like a month or less. Um, he came up to me and he handed me an envelope full of cash and I was like what is this? And it was only a couple of hundred dollars. But he was like it's your Christmas bonus. And I said, but I just started working here and this is where I really knew him, yeah, Cause you were. You started November, so it was probably.

Speaker 1: 45:03

he said it's your Christmas bonus and I said I just started working here and he said, james, everybody needs a Christmas, something extra for Christmas, like it was just like what's the matter with you? But he was like that. And he was not just like that with his family, he was like that with people, he was just generous.

Speaker 1: 45:19

Yes, he's very generous but at the same time running the business, like he classed with Dain and little Tony, because they were, you know, like we ain't gonna be giving away the house, you know, like we had. You know there'll be people come in and say, you know, I don't want a lasagna, I want a kids lasagna. So it was like if you're 10 or under you can get a kids lasagna, because it was 6.95. But if they asked Tony, he would say, yeah, go ahead. So. But then we'd have to come back and be the bad guys. Well, at first it was Dana and Tony that would have to be the bad guys, but then later on it would be me. But it was just. He made me feel like I was apart even before I was Right.

Speaker 2: 45:56

I mean, I can even see it in your face now that that it's almost like you had never experienced someone being generous. Just to be generous, yeah, just to try to take care of you, just because I guess you're not, just because I guess, maybe expressing in that way that he valued you. Yeah, but he valued everybody Right, but for you, I mean, it's kind of seems like that was the first time you really experienced that.

Speaker 1: 46:23

Well, things, something happened with him. He became. He became like a father to me and I never thought he was my father. You know I never thought like, but he, he, he filled a role. You know, steve filled a big role, but then he filled a big like a daily role of the things that he just, but also I would do things with him that other people wouldn't do, like Dana and Tony and his older daughter, michelle. I didn't get to know her until later because she wasn't really part of the business. Then he would want to go do stuff like let's go to Bahama Breeze at 11 o'clock.

Speaker 2: 46:56

What's.

Speaker 1: 46:56

Bahama Breeze. It was a restaurant on two 80s. It was a big, like a Caribbean. I mean it's fun to go eat, you know this fish or chicken. You know it was like a, it was like Caribbean food. So he would want to do these things that you know, nobody wanted to do them with him. And so he would ask me and I would say yes, because I didn't. I wasn't like trying to suck up to him I really want to go. Let's go to Bahama.

Speaker 2: 47:21

Breeze, you're a straight out of prison.

Speaker 1: 47:23

You're like, yeah, let's go to Bahama Breeze. But he did so many things for me. He took me to my first Alabama game at Legion Field and I believe that was the last Alabama game that was ever played at Legion Field. He was so excited about Alabama football. He was a huge Alabama fan.

Speaker 2: 47:39

For our international listeners. Alabama is a college football team and they're the best in the country and have been for several years.

Speaker 1: 47:46

In the world, but he even went so far. I don't think I said this on his menu. Everything on the menu was named after something, so you had, like, the it was the seafood concerto would change every time we got a new coach. So it was seafood concerto, frenchoni, it was seafood concerto. Who came after that? Mike Price and then, you know, eventually we got the great Nick Saban. You know he changed that.

Speaker 1: 48:16

But they were like Italian family names. A lot of stuff was named after Dana and little Tony, miss Fuleta, viviano, just all the Italian names would be like shrimps, campy, russo or you know it was, just it was. But people would come in and be like that's the name after my family, like it was a big deal.

Speaker 2: 48:34

Is that where you got the idea to name things? Yes, at Kyros? Absolutely Okay, I didn't know that.

Speaker 1: 48:42

I did it just like him. But he he did. Like he took me on so many like firsts. Like he took me to my first Alabama game. He I say he bought me my first suit. But when I said that before somebody that that lady that went to World Victory Church was like I bought your first suit, but like he bought me the first suit I wanted. Like I still have a suit that he bought me. Like he taught me that you know, you don't have to have a suit that matches, you just buy a sport coat, you buy pants, you buy a shirt and different ties. Like you don't have to be all matchy match. Like he taught me how to dress.

Speaker 2: 49:10

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 49:12

But he was taking me to a wedding. The one of the Bruno's sons was getting married and he took me to the, to the way it was a big, like you know. It was like Prince Harry getting married, like it was. It was crazy and the Alabama world. Yeah, but he also, uh, he helped me buy my first house, you know how did he do that?

Speaker 1: 49:31

I was fresh out of prison. So the first uh time I tried to do anything, they were like your credits all messed up and there was all this stuff on. I was like I was in prison, you can't. But so he helped me clear all this stuff up. And then when my car broke down, I think it was like the beginning of 2001. I needed to get another car but I couldn't. I couldn't get one, like nobody would give me a loan. So my aunt Sue, my uncle Vernon, sign with me to buy my first uh truck, like I. Actually, I think their name was on the front of the loan, my name was on the back.

Speaker 1: 50:06

But then, like I saw he was, he taught me, like how you can rebuild your credit. You just got to go get some of those silly credit card or gas card or something you know figured out. And then, um, it came time I wanted to get. I wanted a house. Like I was tired of paying rent and I was actually tired of the house that I was living in and I couldn't get a mortgage because I didn't have enough credit and I didn't have enough history. And I was only like by that time you know it was 2003 when I moved in my house I was only three years out of prison, so he had a lady you know, this is another thing where, like, relationships come in.

Speaker 1: 50:41

He had a lady that did commercial mortgages, like big, like Million-dollar mortgages. He sent me to her and she said I'm gonna get you this mortgage but, uh, you probably ever make a payment because as soon as I put it through they'll sell it to somebody else. And I only had to put like 2,500 down. He gave me the 2,500 and was like you know, just figure out payment back and Literally like a father, like your dad would for you, he got me in my first house, wow, which was, which was still to this day, like it's amazing. And it wasn't, it was a, it was a great house, it was a townhouse, new, everything was new and nice and you know young professional people live there. You know a little yard.

Speaker 2: 51:24

It was was it in Hoover it?

Speaker 1: 51:26

was actually about five minutes from Leonardo's. It was off of old Rocky Ridge Road and it was Somehow got tucked in between, like Hoover was on one side of vestavia was on the other. So, okay, unincorporated Jefferson County.

Speaker 1: 51:39

Oh, wow, but it was, it was. It was amazing. Yeah, like a cherry on top to everything else. But he helped me do that. He took me on my first plane ride. I'd never been in the plane. He was like James, you gotta be in the plane, you know? He was just like tell me, you know you gotta do. You know we gotta. You gotta live life, you gotta do. Things Took me with his family to Las Vegas for my 30th birthday, which was amazing, like he stayed at the Mirage Hotel, you know oh yeah we get there, get off the plane.

Speaker 1: 52:09

You know I've never been around stuff like this and you know going there and I Would hang out with him. Though, like we, I enjoyed his company, enjoyed my company. We do stuff together.

Speaker 1: 52:18

I mean everybody else would run off, you know. So we run up, go up there to you know, check in. And he's like I got us a sweet. Now I got us a sweet and the lady was like well, because of something in your miles, we've upgraded you to the penthouse. And he was like penthouse, james, can you believe this like? And he was like what's your name, irene? I love you, irene, I Just he. He was my person, like, he loved me and I loved him. But I Guess so we don't get off the subject the Christmas of 2000, when I went home for Christmas, that was my I'd been out like a little over a year.

Speaker 2: 52:57

It was okay. So we're the quick Christmas of 2000, is that right after you started working there and he gave you the bonus?

Speaker 1: 53:03

Yeah, okay so I got to, I got to have a traveling pass to go see my granny, so that was very amazing to get to see my granny. And then I went to Phoenix City and you know my mom had been there over the summer and then I made her, made her go home with her husband I couldn't find where she was like and there's some some kind of like sketchy thing with him on the phone.

Speaker 1: 53:25

With who on the phone with her, my stepdad, or okay, they actually weren't married anymore. They'd been married, been divorced and they got back together. But I was going to get her for Christmas at man passies and when I picked her up he told me to meet him. It's like I can't explain where we live, I'm just gonna. I'm reach out the store. And so he met me like at a convenient store, and when I saw my mom, like she had like this, like I Don't know, like Scared, shocked, like looking her eyes, like I knew there's something was going on, and and she had a bag with her and her dog, which was a little winter dog named woody, and she jumped in the car and she said, yeah, he'll bring me, we'll just meet me back here. It was, you know, she made up something and when we got in the car she said I'm coming home with you and I was like what? And she was like I can't and she just Do us all for, like I need to stop.

Speaker 1: 54:25

It was, um, after she had to move out of her house that she'd lived in forever, and it was a weird deal was a man that we rented the house from Before I went to prison and we had fixed the house up and he loved mom, he loved me. Then I got in trouble and then he died. Well, he put in his will to let her live there as long as she wanted to, but then he didn't have kids. It was some kind of trust fund that got sold off and then the bank came in and said no, you know, you gotta move. Like you can't live here.

Speaker 1: 54:55

He didn't leave her the house, he just put in his will that she could live there as long as she wanted to. So she had been living there for like 10 years with Jeff and they didn't pay rent your aunt, you know anything. And it was already a bad situation, like what was going on with him, because I couldn't figure out yeah, like he wouldn't work, like he would Do like odd jobs and have yards. So it was just, it was bad. But while she was with me he like moved her out of the house and put all herself in storage and he moved with his son in the backwaters who was a drug. I mean, I've said before, like everybody knew he was a drug dealer.

Speaker 2: 55:29

What backwaters, I don't know.

Speaker 1: 55:31

I'm sorry. In Phoenix City and Columbus, georgia, the Chattanooga River runs in between Georgia and Alabama. The backwaters is like like lakes and stuff that, like inlets that come off of kind of like a bay where you're from. Yeah, but it creates lakes.

Speaker 1: 55:47

Okay so the backwaters in Phoenix City were like endless, like it was just woods and all stuff. So he had bought a trailer and put out there a Jeff son and then, according to mom, they like took a like some kind of a excavator and dug a hole and buried another trailer and they were making meth in there, basically, and so they had brought her there. Wow, she had been locked in the back bedroom for like two or three months, ever since she left me, but she was afraid to tell me because she was afraid if I came and got her, like they might do something to me. And she's coming home to live with me. You know she's broke down, her health was bad, everything it was bad.

Speaker 2: 56:34

Because this was so. She had the surgery, stayed with you for a while, and then you told her she had to go home.

Speaker 1: 56:39

Yeah, and this is what she went home to, and now, this is the Christmas after that, and it was only a few months later, I'm sure she jumped in the car.

Speaker 1: 56:48

I was like I'm coming home with you and I'm never coming back here and I it was like one of those things where you know I'm I'm struggling, I'm still trying to make it myself. You know, have somebody else to take care of. But I knew I didn't have a choice, like yeah, I had to, you know I had to do it, how to do, but I was just like Jesus. I know you say you won't put too much on my plate, but this is rough and it was the financial piece of it was the hardest for me.

Speaker 2: 57:14

And then like not having my house to myself and Well, because at this point we're kind of jumping, because at this point you didn't have the house that you bought yet, right? No, you were still on the duplex or in the apartment.

Speaker 1: 57:26

It was the duplex. I do planks, yeah very small duplex?

Speaker 2: 57:28

Yeah, because you talked about buying a house, but that hadn't happened quite yet when you when your mom jumped in your car.

Speaker 1: 57:33

So when she came home with me, it was a it was a bad situation. I mean, I worked all the time but it was like still, you want to come home, have peace, and then you have to like. She was like she would be waiting on the ledge for me to come home so she could talk she had anybody else to talk to you, right?

Speaker 1: 57:47

when she was still going through that thing where she wouldn't come out Of the house, like she was stuck, and I had to like Find a way to like we're gonna break through that, like it's not. So she started going to church with me and then it was kind of neat. You know, I've been praying for my mom for years, but one Sunday, after three, four months of going to church, there there was a girl sitting on the right of me that we were playing doing something and I felt like the, the Jesus, just spoke to me and say your mom's fixing to give it up and define give it up like, come to him you're coming to me yeah we're in burden.

Speaker 1: 58:22

And I was like, where did I come from? Because, you know, mama was like she would go to church, but she wasn't doing all that. She reached over there and she said I Think I'm supposed to go up there and pray, I'm supposed to give my heart to Jesus and start a new life, and so I was like, let me go with you. It was crazy, but she did. And then she got very involved in the grace and truth church. By that time we were in the Hollies building and everything was going, you know, rocking and rolling. But Steve's wife, lenora, decided to be her mentor and they became like best friends for a while. It was crazy, like to see my mom like come back to life. And she did. She came back to life, but then she was so like beat down because she was trying to get like social security or something and it was, you know, she was only in her in 40s. So I finally asked I think it was my birthday of that first year that she lived with me.

Speaker 2: 59:19

I knew she wanted to buy me a birthday present because you know, mom, she had been with you for about seven months at this point.

Speaker 1: 59:24

Yeah, so you know how mama and she wants to buy gifts Like she wants to buy like with our kids and you me, like she wants to buy on by you something. Right, show her love language just gives. But uh, I Knew that she wanted to buy me something for my birthday and I had a slot open on Monday nights was a hard slot to fill for the hostess and I was off on Mondays. So I was like if I could get her to work on Mondays I can have a house to myself and she could have a little spending like 50 bucks a week or something all about the strategy, yeah.

Speaker 1: 59:57

So I asked mr Flood and he was like sure, and so I told her you're gonna go to work one night a week and you're gonna go to Leonardo's and you're gonna be the hostess.

Speaker 1: 1:00:07

No, I made her do it. I made her do it, but Might have been two or three weeks. They hired her on full-time. They made her the daytime hostess and the nighttime hostess and she came back to life and Just, I think those ten years that she worked at Leonardo's were the best years of her life because she got to see people every day, she got to love on people, she, she became, she started becoming like it was weird Okay, so you got Servers that wait on tables where people are tipping, but mom would do the to-go orders where they were calling their order. She made more money most nights off of tips off to go orders than the servers made working a full shift.

Speaker 1: 1:00:50

It was crazy, that's crazy but everybody, all the Leonardo's customers, everybody loved Norma like she became Her best Well.

Speaker 2: 1:00:59

I'll do an add-in that your mom, at her core, is very much a people person. Oh, yeah, she loves so she yeah, she loves being around people and I can see how you know in her prime when in a In a situation where she's talking to people all the time, and now in out that she was very good at that.

Speaker 1: 1:01:18

Oh no, she came back to life and she loved mr Fuleta like he, you know. Thank you for the opportunity. But then her and boo became really good friends and you know it just just went from there. But she did. But she ended up living with me for, I guess, five years before Wow, yeah, and it when I started dating Later on we'll get to that but I had that, you know, like say, okay, we gotta do something different here. But uh, it was all part of that. I mean He'd let me do whatever I wanted to as far as stuff like that. He let me run his business, he let me. We're getting to the end of this, so he probably need to wrap it up. Maybe we'll talk about less next time. He let me start a catering business with his daughter, with Dana, and which ended up being like the foundation for what I did with chiro's.

Speaker 2: 1:02:08

Yeah, that's very cool. Well, this Everything we've talked about has been very energizing because it was. It's just sounds like everything was new, exciting, and it was Even, I would say you say, your mom came back to life. She did wouldn't you say that I was almost like you came back to life a little. Oh, I did.

Speaker 1: 1:02:29

No, I found my thing like this was even to this day. It's like that was my favorite as far as like a career. Mm-hmm, I loved it. I mean I was, you know, I ran the dining room, I ran the bar around the front of the house and then we started the catering business. I started running the catering business. Then we started doing events. I started running events. Then we started doing banquets in house. I started running the banquets but I had seven people that started with me when I started like leading that team in 2001. That stayed with me Till 2007 when I left, which was like seven years. Same team in the restaurant business is almost unheard of because the you know the turnover, so right for sure great.

Speaker 1: 1:03:10

But maybe we'll get into some of that in the next one.

Speaker 1: 1:03:13

I don't want to just stay on ours, but just mr Fuletta, miss Fuletta, you know, I don't know if I said that she became a really good friend to my mom, boo Tony. I think, mom, I love little Tony more than she loved me because he was. Well, no, he really like take up time with her where I was like impatient, like he was sitting, talk to her or show her. Sure, because I would have, I would have to train her how to do something new on the computer and she'd be like I'm gonna go get little Tony. I don't, you know she couldn't, but it was, um, it was amazing. And I think like it bothers me now that I didn't realize like what a gift that was when it started, or even in it, because I was always looking to the next thing. You know I want my own restaurant because you know Tony would let me do what I wanted, but within the Bubble of what he said, like this is what we're doing. Like if I went outside of that line he would say, james, we're not doing that.

Speaker 2: 1:04:07

Well, naturally, it was his and then.

Speaker 1: 1:04:09

But then I would say well, now let's do. And he say when you open your restaurant, you can do that. So, but that I was always like, well, I will.

Speaker 2: 1:04:18

Well, I think I mean we can end on this, but, like you just said, you wish you would appreciate her known the gift that you were in.

Speaker 1: 1:04:24

Yeah cuz.

Speaker 2: 1:04:24

Even as you're retelling it, you can tell it was like an exciting season and it was life. It I mean the finances part. It brought money, it brought relationships, it brought all those things. And I think number one is important to reflect and like to realize that and to know and Recognize it for what it was, because it really does, I feel, like bring hope.

Speaker 2: 1:04:45

Yeah but also, I think the second lesson in it is and I experienced this is Just looking where we're at right now and when we fast-forward five, ten, fifteen years, what are we experiencing, or what's happening right now that we're gonna think later Collie, that was such a gift that we're not seeing and that we get that the lens in the eyes to like recognize the gift that we're in right now.

Speaker 1: 1:05:12

It's painful Okay.

Speaker 2: 1:05:17

I want. Okay, all right, this has been awesome. Everyone, look for the gift. You're in right now. You might not see.

Speaker 1: 1:05:27

Thanks, guys, we love you. Bye, hey guys. Thanks so much for tuning in to the straight out of prison podcast. For more exclusive content, head over to our website, to Jonesco Podcasts.

Speaker 2: 1:05:39

Yes, you can subscribe by clicking on the become a patron button and that's gonna get you access to our for real.

Speaker 1: 1:05:46

Real, which is very different than the highlight real Some very juicy content there good stuff, or you can look us up on Facebook and Instagram Straight out of prison Podcasts.

Speaker 2: 1:05:58

Yes, that takes the story to a whole new level, where you can see some of the people that James talks about in his story and see some of the places that he's been. I've been loving it.

Speaker 1: 1:06:08

Prison recipes yeah, we'll see you soon guys.

Speaker 2: 1:06:13

Thanks, bye.