Button Lakes Turning ‘Why Not Us’ Into a Mindset for Changing the Future. What’s Your Story?

Button Lakes shares how the Hometown Huddle football camp was born from his ‘Why Not Us’ mindset, inspired by the loss of his coach, Coach Lewis. Through that legacy, Button started a football camp to give back, always echoing Coach Lewis’s call to do what needs to be done for the next generation.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:33

Hey, welcome to another episode of What's Your Story? I'm Pedro Just Cat. I have a very special guest with me tonight. My boy, my mentor. You know what I'm saying? Even though he might be a little younger than me, but this guy has really been uh a blessing that in my life. I'm gonna let him introduce himself. What's your name, my brother? Um hey, how y'all doing? My name's Button Lakes. Button Lakes. Yes, sir. So, bud, let's get to it, baby. We call you Button. Mm-hmm. That's your nickname, right? Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

Question. How did you get the nickname Bud? Well, actually, I had a great aunt. She passed, and I had a great aunt, man. When I was born, she was watching an old Western Western show called Open Range, and there was a character on the name Bud. But I like to say I'm cute as a button, so I just go ride with it.

SPEAKER_01 1:20

Cute as a button. I guess what everybody needs a button in their life. Exactly, exactly. No matter what you do in life, you're gonna wear a button.

SPEAKER_00 1:27

Exactly. I'm everywhere at the same time.

SPEAKER_01 1:29

Yes, sir, yes, sir. You don't want to give your government name, do you? Nah, it's a certain level of clearance you gotta have to know. Okay, okay. All right, then my bad. Sorry about that, you know, top flights, secret service. Nah, it's all good. So, but man, let's let's get to it, my man. Let's do it. So, your mom and your grandmother both treat you like a baby, man.

unknown 1:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:49

Yeah, you spoiled, bro. You're right. Very I mean spoiled. Everybody know this.

SPEAKER_00 1:53

You're right.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

Yeah, so man, you've been spoiled by these people, man. Your grandmother, your ma. How have they raised you to be the young man you are today?

SPEAKER_00 2:05

Oh, man, I just want to give both of them ladies a big pat on the back, man. They it took a lot of whoopings. Honestly, it took a lot of whoopings to get me to be the man I am today. But they just, you know, they done play about a lot of stuff, man, like grades and you know how you was gonna act in public. Yes, sir, no, sir, yes, ma'am, no man. It's just a lot of those morals and principles that they set as a standard at a young age that just made me build on their respect.

SPEAKER_01 2:29

I like that.

SPEAKER_00 2:30

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01 2:30

Cause your grandma, dah, right? Yeah, Miss Doll.

SPEAKER_00 2:33

Not my grandma. If I hear if she hear me say this, this is my grandma, she's a dropkeeping. So yeah, doll.

SPEAKER_01 2:37

Dog. Miss Doll. Miss Doll give me the blues, so when I see her, oh shit. But it's she gives me the blues in love, though. I love Miss Dahl.

SPEAKER_00 2:46

This is where I get my personality from her and my mama, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:48

Really?

SPEAKER_00 2:50

I said joke of the plan, it comes from them, man. They'll do my play all day.

SPEAKER_01 2:53

Hey, for a long, long time, I said, man, I told him why I don't think Miss Doll likes me.

SPEAKER_00 2:56

Oh, yeah, she knows you. If she acts like she don't like it, then we should love you. I promise.

SPEAKER_01 3:01

I gotcha. But man, growing up in Houston, Mississippi, what are some of the values that shape you to the man you are today, man?

SPEAKER_00 3:08

Oh man, growing up in Houston, man, everybody knows everybody. So, I mean, one of the biggest values I got growing up from Houston is give back to who you know. You know, plant seeds where you want stuff to grow with. So just growing up in Houston, having my roots in Houston, it just built me to love Houston forever. Wow. And you very much so rooted in Houston, too, boy. Yeah, I ain't going nowhere. It's my city. I love my city.

SPEAKER_01 3:30

I like that. Yeah, well, as a new cat in town, I just wanted to know that. I just always wanted to say that. Maybe ain't nothing over with that. But man, you played football in high school and college. When did you realize you had a purpose much bigger than just playing the game itself?

SPEAKER_00 3:47

Oh, I honestly feel like I felt like that when playing in high school. It came from like walking out right before the game, seeing all the little toppers, sticking their hands out, going by hitting them, and they just they're so excited about their whole experience. And like sometimes they will run out the tunnel with us and things like that. Just the look on their faces and how big they eyes get. I feel like I fiend for that right there. So I just try to find ways I could do that for kids and just build them up and make them feel like you know they got somebody in their corner.

SPEAKER_01 4:16

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 4:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:18

It is, and I so I'm glad you brought that up because I tell my little girl this, even when she was growing up, just say she was sixth, fifth or sixth grade, she always looked up to the older chill leaders. Now she's going into her senior year. I say, you remember when you was that little kid? When them kids were just, ah.

SPEAKER_00 4:37

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 4:38

Now she is a full circle, they looking up to her. And now it's not a kid, somebody, you vanity dad. And so it's actually made me feel pretty good to be, you know, someone uh famous or whatever. Exactly. Not really famous, but you know, a little hometown hero. Man, what made you transition from being a player to become someone who wants to pour into the young people as if to develop the next generation, man? Because, you know, you played a little college ball or whatever. Now you quit playing college, and now you had a point now like, you know what? It's bigger than just me.

SPEAKER_00 5:13

I just feel like I had, I've done, I've done all I could do playing. You know, everybody don't make it to the league, but I still love the sport enough that I want to make an impact using the sport that I love. So I just feel like me using my knowledge and everything that I learned while I had the opportunity to play and pouring this into the younger generation. If I've given them knowledge that I learned from college and stuff like that while they're young, the ceiling is gonna blow through the roof. Because if they're learning the stuff that I know now from at this young age already, and they already know that kind of stuff, they'll be ahead of a lot of people. They don't know that. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:48

Cause I you play baseball in high school too, then yeah, yes, sir. I'm just I this is not for debate or anything like that. I felt like you was a better baseball player than football. A lot of people might argue that.

SPEAKER_00 6:03

My mama, man, my mama, if she said that too, she won't let me lay that down, man. She wished I would have kept playing baseball. Baseball was actually my favorite sport. I just felt like baseball, I felt a sense of peace when I was playing baseball. I felt peace when I was playing football too. Don't get me wrong, but baseball, that was my first love, you know. So yeah, I never I never stopped loving baseball.

SPEAKER_01 6:23

Talking about baseball now. You coaching a team now.

SPEAKER_00 6:27

Yeah, yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01 6:28

Tell me a little bit about that, man. What's the age group?

SPEAKER_00 6:30

Oh, I'm coaching uh 11U, East Coast Sox. You know, them my boys, man. Yeah. I just inherited their team, actually, but them already my boys, man. I love Nid. They're my boy. East Coast Sox. Who's over that program? Oh, my guy, Coach Holiday, down there in auction, man. Coach Holiday, he's doing he's doing a great job with the East Coast Sox organization, man. I really appreciate him for the opportunity to let me coach them kids.

SPEAKER_01 6:52

Yeah, I heard a lot of great things about that organization, man. I'm glad you're a part of that, man. They need a button in their life. Yeah, appreciate that, man. They need a button. But man, listen, leading up to Father's Day, man, some fathers are absent by choice. But your father passed away.

SPEAKER_00 7:09

Right.

SPEAKER_01 7:10

And how did losing him shape you and how had that influenced you to be the man you are today, man?

SPEAKER_00 7:17

It gave me a sense of peace when I hear those kind of stories, because I didn't actually have the chance to build an actual bond and relationship with him. So hearing those stories, man, it made me it made me feel good. But I can just honestly say people like Eric Stovall, Coach Flowers, a lot of people like that, they really stepped in and became that father figure that I really needed that I could latch on to and just show me the way from a man's standpoint. Oh, Eric. Yeah, Eric Stovall.

SPEAKER_01 7:45

Oh, yeah. Hey, hey, he's Eric still he thinks he's still got it. Eric, I'm messing with you, bro. Don't don't don't don't get mad. I said, yeah, I get a little jealous of Eric when I look at him, man. I'm like, Eric look like he's still in high school. He still got it.

SPEAKER_00 8:03

He's still young at heart, man, trying to be a Facebook Facebook comedian. Oh my god, bro.

SPEAKER_01 8:07

He sometimes look at him, I'm like, come on, Eric, don't worry about him. Man, that's so funny. Despite that loss, man, you became a model young man. Appreciate that. And man, and so many people look up to you, man. Even I look up to you. Appreciate that, man. You you have no earthly idea how much I look up to you. Appreciate that. Even though I'm I'm much older, you know, probably can be your grandfather. Now it's a joke, bro. Who have been the people that stepped in to help you through all this, man?

SPEAKER_00 8:39

Man, first off, I wanna say my mama, man. My mama really, she really got my back. If it don't nobody got my back, my mama got my back. I can hear nobody laughing, nobody crying, nobody screaming, but my mama's gonna be right there with me when it's time to have those emotions in hand. If I need a shoulder, I always got my mama no matter what. And I can say, like I said, Eric, you know, he was there. Da was there, Coach Flowers. A lot of the coaches and people that I run into in my life, man, they just they was there. Regina Echo, she played a huge part. And Regina is people like that. I can't do nothing but thank her, man. My TT Diddy, Demetrius, she she, everybody, it's just take a village, they say. And my village just came, came together and made and molded a young man. And I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_01 9:22

Yeah, you are man. Like I said, you my hero.

SPEAKER_00 9:25

Appreciate that, man.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

And so you started an account, man, called Hometown Hero. Hometown Huddle. Yes, sir, Hometown Huddle. So, what made you, what inspired you you to start there, man? Who all the people that's involved in this?

SPEAKER_00 9:38

Um, first off, I want to say Hometown Huddle. What started this was Coach Lewis, actually, the white slogan, why not us? So why not us? It was basically about the stuff that normal people just sit around and complain about and waiting on somebody to do. Why not you go do it? So if I'm sitting around like, dang man, I didn't have nobody really to just throw no camp like that or throw an event that we can just go and work and get better. We had Reggie Buchanan, though. So he played a big part in, you know, molding us in that aspect. Shout out to him too. But we didn't have no just no organized, organized event that just we could just go to yearly. So I'm like, man, why not me do it? So I just took the initiative, you know, me and some of my friends. We got EJ, Will, Jordan, Red Parker, Jalen Washington, Jalen May. We got Alan Robinson coming this year to help. So people like that, man, they all from hometown homegrown people. So we just came together and said, hey, let's do it. So just shout out to my brothers right there for, you know, supporting my idea when it's time to support.

SPEAKER_01 10:42

Why not us?

SPEAKER_00 10:43

Exactly. Wow. Coach Lewis meant a lot to you. Yeah, I actually got why not us tattooed on me, man. It's gonna forever be with me because there's a lot of things in this world that had opportunity to be done, and everybody just sitting around waiting on it to be done. So why not you do what you're waiting on to be done?

SPEAKER_01 10:59

You're right. So I think Coach Lewis touched a lot of people, man. Yeah. And in just this short amount of time that he was here.

SPEAKER_00 11:09

Um okay, I'm gonna share a story. We was in we were in class, I want to say the day before prom, we had prom, you know, make it make it back on Monday. That was the little slogan or whatever. Make it back on, yeah. Okay, I like that. So please return on Monday, actually. That was the the little slogan for prom. Coach Lewis, he stood up in front of the class. I had him for history. He was like, guys, seriously, if y'all need me, call me. You know, you know how prom get prom like, get get too hectic. But if you need me, call me. And when he said those words, he actually like we everybody in that class felt like we could actually call Coach Lewis if we need him. He was just always that type of guy. If you need him, you can call him, man. Nah, I miss him dearly, man. He was a he was a great person to have around. Man, Coach Lewis, boy.

SPEAKER_01 11:57

Whew, man. All right, but boy, you about to man, me get choked up, man, just thinking about it. But it's all good. God be the glory, man. Hey, he was here for the appointed time, and we all gonna be here for an appointed time. We never know, man. But we must carry on his legacy, man. He got two young boys that they're gonna need us. Yeah. For real. And I think I feel like it's gonna, it's our job to, you know, step up. Step up. Right. Yeah, because he he instilled it in you.

SPEAKER_00 12:27

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 12:28

So all these setbacks that you don't have, man. How have you got to the point like it's always something, but you always seem to button your shirt back up and get back to it.

SPEAKER_00 12:38

Honestly, I'm back to my mama, man. My mama giving up wasn't an option. Pain and trauma and things like that gonna happen with life, but giving up was never optional. Anything I ever started, I finished. So she just gave me the ability to just, you know, deal with how life's gonna hit you and just keep moving on. Don't question God, just do what you do. Because if whatever happened to you, happen for a purpose, happen for a reason. So she just said that, instilled that in me, and I just rock with it every day. But losing them, it man, I mean, it hurt, you know. And it's gonna hurt for a long time, you know, because I love them people that I lost. But giving up wasn't an option that they won't want me to give up. And I know they, you know, they watching over me, you know. I still feel their presence every now and then. I catch a memory or something, like damn, my boy Will, or damn my boy, you know, Cole Lewis and things of that nature, but they still with me, so I mean man, you brought up Will, man.

SPEAKER_01 13:39

I f yeah, Will. Uh was it Jamarcus? Yeah. Man, I wow. That was they was just kids. Right.

SPEAKER_00 13:50

Well, y'all been through a lot. Yeah. We have. But then again, I did that goes to say about the community too. Like when we was going through this stuff, you know, at a young age, the community really wrapped their arms around us too. So it's they go back to why I love the city so much.

SPEAKER_01 14:06

Hell Houston. Yes, sir. That was up. I think it's a shirt out there, Call. Yeah, yeah. That was up. Well, I know you coach baseball, run the football camp, and you mentor young kids also. What do you want these kids to remember you by, man, in the years to come?

SPEAKER_00 14:22

Man, I just want these kids to know that they got somebody that care. And having somebody to care took you a long way. So they ain't never gotta say this or they ain't gotta say that. They nobody care. So if they need something, you can anybody can hit me up, train anything. I come, I come home, I'll do whatever. We can just go train because I care. And if you want to be better, I want you to be better. You just all it takes somebody to believe in you. It's got a limit. So I believe in it. Facts, facts. I see you had that old miss shirt on, man. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you go to old Miss, right? Yeah, I teen Ole Miss. You know, my senior coming up when you graduate, man.

SPEAKER_01 15:02

Hey, what's up? How had old Miss been to you, man?

SPEAKER_00 15:05

Old Miss been great, man. They they welcome me with open arms.

SPEAKER_01 15:08

You know, support, you know, Old Miss got Will up there, man. That's that's that's no doubt. I'm going to do that. Hey, even shout out to uh Mississippi State, man. I ain't I ain't knocking Mississippi State, man. I just mean I had the opportunity to interview him, man. And so I'm gonna support them too. But at the end of the day, hey, I'm a house that's divided. So it's all good. Kids graduate from my oldest two graduate from Mississippi State, and my wife graduated from Old Man. So I mean, I'm kind of stuck in the mill anyway. So it's all good. It's I'm I'm Edo. Exactly. Okay, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so I I know they say you can't be lukewarm, but hey, it is what it is, man. But yeah, when Will was coming out of high school, I really thought he was gonna go to state, uh state or Alabama. But when I they said old miss, I was like, what? But to be honest, man, probably the best decision he could ever make.

SPEAKER_00 16:01

Them boys went on there and they made their own culture, man. They turned old miss into what they wanted to be. And they did, though. Yeah, why not us? Exactly. You should do that.

SPEAKER_01 16:10

I like that. I like that. Shout out to you too, Will, man. But anyway, man. Man, so if you if a young person comes to you, man, feeling overlooked, discouraged, or without a direction, what advice would you give them, man?

SPEAKER_00 16:24

Um, honestly, I would just tell them, keep going. It's light at the end of the tunnel. You ain't gonna know how long the tunnel is, how narrow it is, it's how short it is. It's light at the end. So just keep going. Just keep going.

SPEAKER_01 16:38

Keep going. No matter what. Exactly. And I'm always gonna say, why not us?

SPEAKER_00 16:43

Why not us? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:45

Man, I'm gonna get back on your mom, man. I got I got you, cuz Miss Tanya. Yeah, she she's the goat. Oh Tanya. Yeah. No, don't be calling her old man. O-O-L-E. Oh, okay. Chilla, chill out, chill out. Chilla. Man, your mom been at a whole way, step of the way, man. Right. She stepped in doing the camps. And man, she she let you do your own thing, man. She's been your she's a wonderful person. She's been your biggest supporter, man. Having that family support, man, giving back into the community, important to the, you know, to the youth, man. Tell us how that make your mom feel, man. How do you think that's making her feel in the inside, man?

SPEAKER_00 17:28

My mama's my biggest fan, man. I can really say that wholeheartedly. Well, he can't do no wrong with her eyes until he does wrong, you know, and she's gonna correct it. But to everybody else, that's buttons, but her baby. So my mama supporting me like that, man. You I can't ask for a better mother. I wouldn't buy another mother, I wouldn't trade mine in for nobody. I love my mama, man. She she really my backbone. And she tells me how proud I make her for the things that I do, but she don't let me get complacent with things. She wants me to do something else, do something better. It ain't this is good, it ain't good enough. Just keep working and keep scriving to do something better. That's what I forever love her. Shout out to you, mama.

SPEAKER_01 18:05

Ain't no woman alive that can take my mama's place. That's that too, Pop boy. But you know about that. You too young for that.

SPEAKER_00 18:11

You want even more when else coming out. Your mama was cracked fiend, but she was still a black queen. Shout out to my mama too, man. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:19

That was up, man. And yeah. Man, man. Oh boy. I think about my mom all the time, man. Shout out to you, Miss Tanya. Yeah. Uh, you too, Miss Dahl.

SPEAKER_00 18:30

Yeah, shout out doll.

SPEAKER_01 18:31

Can't forget Dahl. Button, everybody talking about success, man. You know, for you, Buddh. Not after, not as an athlete, not as a coach. But as a man.

SPEAKER_00 18:48

What does success look like to you? Success as a man, just being somebody that you can count on and depend on, man. And just having a deep-rooted faith in God and just being somebody, somebody wouldn't mind being stuck in the elevator. You don't want to be stuck in the elevator with a butthole or nothing like that, you know. So just being respectful, respecting who you gotta respect, can impact lives positively, you know? And just be overall a good person. So that's what success looks like to me. You know, it ain't all about the the money, the cars, and all that kind of stuff. It's about what's on the inside. So just building a good foundation within and you know, spreading your light. That just seems successful to me as a man.

SPEAKER_01 19:29

I like that, bud.

SPEAKER_00 19:30

Appreciate it, man.

SPEAKER_01 19:31

I like that. You don't want to be stuck in the elevator. Nah.

SPEAKER_00 19:35

You don't want to be stuck in the elevator with no butt hole, do you? No, I don't. Be somebody you want to be stuck, you would want to be stuck in the elevator with, not you know, with mine stuck in the elevator with.

SPEAKER_01 19:43

Well, I don't have to use that. That's a bar that's I like that. I like that. I like that a lot. But I'm gonna go back to the why not us, man. This next generation that you poured into, man. What who you want them to take from that why not us, the hometown huddle? What do you want them to take from all this?

SPEAKER_00 20:06

I feel like from a kid's standpoint, why not us it really just it opens up so many doors for you to be optimistic and think, what can I actually do? Or what it's nothing that I can't do, because why not me? Why I can't be the next person to go D1 or why I can't be the next person to be the president or anything like that. What's stopping me other than myself? Why not us just it limits all limitations, actually? So like it just gives you a different way of thinking about what you can do and how you go about life. So I just why not us I'm preaching that to the kids. Why not you? If you want some work for it, why not you? If you want to change something, go change it. Who stop you? Nobody in your way but you that's what I want them to see.

SPEAKER_01 20:51

Do you think things are different now since you know, think about when you was younger? Just say when you was 12 years old and these 12 years old now. You think it's a big difference?

SPEAKER_00 21:04

Man, way different. We wasn't six foot and no 12 years old, six one, these six free twelve years old. Crazy now. They building these kids in the lab, so yeah, it's different.

SPEAKER_01 21:14

I know you didn't say the lab.

SPEAKER_00 21:15

Yeah, they build them in the lab. These kids, there wasn't that much cornbread when I would come around.

SPEAKER_01 21:21

You think McDonald's did it to her?

SPEAKER_00 21:24

That was McDonald's meat. That ain't real meat, so yeah, they probably did it to all that process meat, making these kids crazy big, head big big, ears big, nose big, all this stuff. Oh man. You gotta stop eating that McDonald's.

SPEAKER_01 21:38

Wow. Yeah, okay. You know, we mean you both got goals. Yeah, we left that McDonald's alone. What's up? What's up? You know, you know, I like that big Mac with no with no letters. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 21:49

A little thousand dollars. Okay. Don't think about it too. Okay, I'm sorry. Get back, get back, get back. I'm a bacon McDowell kind of guy.

SPEAKER_01 21:58

Yeah, yeah. Sorry, McDonald's. We gotta leave you alone, man. We try to get right summer 28. Right, right. 28. Nah, nah. Cause I ain't gonna get 26.

unknown 22:07

I ain't gonna make it.

SPEAKER_00 22:08

27, then. Yeah, I'm gonna need a little more time. Why not cat? You know what? Why not go get them by the one in 27? All right, bet.

SPEAKER_01 22:17

You know what? Thank you. I appreciate it. I needed that.

SPEAKER_00 22:19

You didn't need somebody to like your book. I just said that one. Somebody believe. I believe in you, man. Somebody believe you. That's all you need. I believe in you.

SPEAKER_01 22:26

My boy. Appreciate that. But when it's all said and done, man, what you want your story to mean to people, man?

SPEAKER_00 22:37

Man, I just want to be able to touch a lot of people's lives positively, man. I really don't. A lot of people say you don't care what people think, but you do. You actually do. So I just want to be able to be thought of as a, you know, somebody that people can say, hey, I know that guy. Nobody, you know, will be the same side I know him or claim me as a friend, cousin, uncle, father one day, you know what I mean? So just being somebody that people wouldn't mind being around or, you know, conducting business with the things of that nature. Like, just be an overall good person, man. So I feel like that's that's on I'm on track to doing that because people in my life really had a good handle on me, man. It just mowed me into a man I am today.

SPEAKER_01 23:23

I like that. Good deal. Tell everybody how to register for your hometown hoodies. Because it's this Saturday.

SPEAKER_00 23:30

Yeah, it's actually this Saturday. You know, um, you can go on my page. I got it pinned to the top of my Facebook page. And if you see any flowers around, you just scan their QR code. It's this Saturday. And um, the t-shirt registration actually has closed, but we still accepting everybody, any kid that come out, gonna put them to work and have fun. And following the camp, we're gonna have a little community fan uh fun day. And anybody in the community just come out, you know, just have a good time. We're gonna have DJs, jumpers, water slides, things like that. We're just gonna bring the community together, have a little fun, man, like back in the day.

SPEAKER_01 24:02

All right, that's what we're saying, man. Well, bud, I'm gonna give you something, man. I I've never done this before. I mean, I have gave it to people, but it'll always be people I run into. Just a clothes pen. It might not mean, might, it might not mean much to you, but I think once I tell you what it's all about, you know what a cold pen represents, you hold on, right? So my mom used to tell me this when I was growing up, and which I don't I don't care anymore about saying she used to call me candy poo. Don't do that. Anyway, she said candy poo sometimes, baby, you just gotta hold on. So when mom passed back in 2017, you know, I was lost, bro. I ain't gonna lie, I was lost, mad at the world, you know, just like, come on, God, why you take my mom? Right. And about two weeks after she passed, I went back to her house for something. I seen a clothespin. And I grabbed that clothes pen and it instant like this, it said. It was just like my mama talking to her, catapulted, hold on. So what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna give you this clothespin, man. When things get hard, bro, hold on.

SPEAKER_00 25:18

Appreciate that, man.

SPEAKER_01 25:19

Please do.

SPEAKER_00 25:20

Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 25:20

Because this life ain't easy, brother.

SPEAKER_00 25:24

Right.

SPEAKER_01 25:25

It's not meant to be easy. It's you have a testimony, simple fact because you have tests you gotta pass. So, and people misunderstand and don't realize that, man. So, button, man, you you with all the things you done faced in life, and man, you and when I legit say tell you that, hey man, you are my role model, you my hero, like, bro, I get excited, hey, it's my boy Button Gall. Like, I can be on the phone with the wife, she was like, I call you that Button Gall. Right. You know, and I because I don't I don't have a son. I have three daughters, you know, and I yeah, I look at you as my son, but I also look at you as my friend too, as a mentor. Like, bro, like I I I glaze you sometimes. You see, you see how I'm supposed to when I grow up who I want to be like, you and we are both.

SPEAKER_00 26:15

You know, my dog.

SPEAKER_01 26:17

But y'all, y'all guys uh yeah, y'all just y'all have old souls, man. Y'all really do. And man, if I can rewrite the history books, man, man, I like, you know what, I'm gonna take a little bit of button out of it and put and put a little cat sauce on that. So, you know what I'm saying? But man, button, I'm proud of you, man. Keep doing what you're doing, man. And you'll keep pulling back and giving back, man. Because you really you will be rewarded for this, man. I promise you will. At the end of the day, man, you will be rewarded. And most, and I'm I'm not talking about being rewarded financially, man, anything like that, man. The man above gonna say, man, that button, that boy did his thing. Look at what and not and look what life had through at it. Right. Look, and you still, you always seem to bounce back. You always seem to button back up. Button that shirt back up. Y'all like that. But anyway, but bud, man, like I said, hold on. Keep doing what you're doing, man. I'm proud of you. And hey, you guys make sure y'all go to his Facebook page. And uh, man, if you have any kid, what's the age is, man? Um, from six to thirteen. Six to thirteen, man. You got a six to thirteen, man. Please bring these kids out, Sarah, man, and just be a part of something great, man. Because you'll never know who knows. You never know who might show up. Hey, I'm gonna be there, so you get to meet Jin's cat. So that's another thing. Yeah, I'm kind of fancy. No, I'm just joking with you. But you never know who's gonna be there. So y'all, please, please, please. If you have a young kid, I don't care, just please come. I can't beg you or not. Because this is this is bigger than just uh just a cam, man. It's just teaching kids how to be adults, man. The the challenges are life, man. Right. And thanks to you, bud, and you and your crew, man. Man, I appreciate you, man. Yeah, and I'm just so glad for you guys, man. Just keep doing what y'all are doing. But man, just conclude the the just cat podcast, man. You want to hit it? You want to end it out? We're gonna do it together, man. Come on. One, two, three, round.