When I was a youngster getting out of high school and going to college, my mother didn’t know much about college. She was a stickler though about education even though she herself didn’t have one. I went to high school one day and came home with no books in my book bag. I had the type of mother that sent me back to the high school to go get my books out of the locker and bring them home to read to her. She said even though I told her I had no homework, according to her laws; I had homework every night of the week.
My brova, Jeronimo Spinx, Hollywood's best black actor
My mother never slacked on us and on me. She never let me fall through the cracks and take time off. When I played football in high school and college the coaches were always amazed at how disciplined I was. Each of my coaches always thought it was because I was well coached and they would always make mention of that. Little did they know, this discipline and standard of excellence was developed by a small, uneducated, black woman from the south.
My mother is old school. Her standards are unlike any black parent I have ever seen on her own without a man there. She had the standards of both a mother and a father. She never accepted any type of slacking and any type of poor grades. She handed out beat downs for bringing home average grades. Ask me how I know or ask Jeronimo Spinx. Ask Jeronimo Spinx how he has made it in Hollywood to be a star on CBS Criminal Minded and on the hit series 24 on FOX TV. This is because of a strong, solid as an oak, black woman who can’t read or write who came from the dirty south of Little Rock, Arkansas.
My mother can teach all of these young sisters who are misguided several things. She’s not as fiery as she was back in the day and is quite a beautiful softy now. She did her part though. She handled her business with her kids on her own. She didn’t come up with excuses for herself or her kids to be half rate, half baked success stories. She’s the fuel behind me and my famous brother Jeronimo Spinx. Without Mrs. Spinks, I dare to even be half the cat that I am today. It pays so much to have a rock solid parent like this. You don’t always need both. It’s nice if you do have both but I was blessed with the greatest gift of all: a solid black woman. Success lies in this accountability that she taught me. It lies in the responsibility that she taught me. It lies in the stick-to-it-tiveness that she drilled into us as kids. She didn’t let us skate through life. She helped me become The Underground Millionaire.
Gerard Spinks is the CEO of Spinks Industries.
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