1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Do you remember the first person to tell you that you were good at something: February 7th, 10:25am

Episode Date: February 7, 2022

Skills we wish we hadFor DP it was his english teacher in high schoolFor Rico it was his track coach in high schoolAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

You're listening to one-on-one with D.P. Brought to you by Beatrice Bakery on 937 The Ticket and the Ticketfm.com. Welcome back. That was fun. That was fun. The Lincoln Continentals and the whatever for. Whatever for. It's a great name. That is a, there are a couple of things that I wish I could do well.

It's probably three. Three. Golfing? drawing by hand singing okay those three things when somebody can do those three things I am way more impressed

about it than anything else if you can do those three things I'm just like okay you're hero I wish I could sing and play the piano I used to could play the piano because I played several

instruments as a kid the only times I've ever been sent to the principal's office was from playing the piano because I played classical guitar so we would go we would get to class early and we would all we would shut the door because our teacher hated if we played popular songs on classical guitar so we would just close the door

and all crank out some Hendricks you know like or we would all learn some baseline from parliament and we would play it. And the teacher would walk in. There we are. And our bass guitar is just thumping and pluck it away. Be you know, so the moment you learned to slide your fingers on that one, of course.

You're a guitar hero in that. But what also happens is she would teach us by playing the piano. And it was kind of the same court structure. So we would warm up. So, of course, what would happen is some people would play whatever. we were going to play that day, whatever we, whatever homework had been assigned, we played on the piano. But then what would immediately happen is the most rocked out version of chopsticks that you could imagine with somebody playing on the piano doing chopsticks and then people playing behind them

on guitar. And none of that was allowed. So, Ms. Grant, I apologize. Even to this day, I'm sorry for being such a pain in your... I'm sorry for being cool, man. I was, look, look, it was, and I was the only black dude in the in the guitar class right so it's classical guitar type of class and I would every now and then I'd sneak in some you know boom boom boom boom boom boom boom and they're like Derek that was exactly what it would be said Derek and I got the full name and it was yes miss grant yeah miss grant and you know I I never liked her shoes you're so weird you know the teachers like some teachers like dressed well yeah and there were some teachers that dressed like they had no friends you're terrible I didn't say I wasn't she had plenty of friends she did we were her best friends I'm sure she had plenty of friends oh you never saw her outside of school you don't know her life I do know her life I do see her

lonely at the pizza hut she's a great person stop putting all her business out there sitting boots by herself and we would come in and it was like hello miss grant you don't say hello to your teachers outside of school you have to you have to it's the rule it's awkward it's the rule you're supposed to acknowledge them you can't don't look them in the eyes they don't exist outside of school that was the rule hello from from from elementary until until the beginning of high school you didn't see your you didn't see your teachers outside of school especially the ones that you you didn't like as much as the ones you like. The ones you like, you didn't have to because they would,

they would come find you. Like there are certain teachers. Miss Finlater, it was amazing. Miss Green, Ms. Jean's, Ms. James was the best storyteller I've ever been around as a teacher.

She's my high school English teacher. And she was amazing. She's my favorite teacher this day. But she would tell these wonderful little stories about her friends and her best friend, Annie Bowes. and Annie had a baby and the day that they had the baby

she took us through this entire nine months you know hey you know Annie six months and this is what's going on and seven months okay Annie's gonna have the baby next week and then she she filled us in she said Annie had a daughter and guess what she named her and I was like what

and she goes button Zan this child was named buttons and bows are you sure she wasn't telling you a story and she was the one that didn't have friends? Because I can see, that is more believable. The teacher that you thought didn't have friends was probably very popular outside of school. No, she had us to her house.

And the one that was telling you stories about buttons and bows. No, she had us at her house. She had us at her house. And playing with dolls in the dark. Buttons and bows was a doll she made. It just took her nine months. Buttons and bows. It was spectacular.

It was terrifying. That thing is haunted. It was so, and it was not, it was like, oh my goodness gracious, thanks. And then they showed us pictures of it. She was a cute little baby, but buttons and bows. And I just thought, Ms. Jeans, I appreciate you taking us on that little journey of yours. Okay, Blake it. Well, she went through.

And again, she was the first person to tell me I could write. Like, she said, Derek, you're a really good writer. And I was like, you're just telling me that get me to write. Like, I don't want to write. And she goes, no, I'm telling you because you're good. Whether you like it or not is none of my business. I was like, okay, Miss Jeans, sorry, let me get in line. I don't care what you like.

Right. And so I wrote this thing about my stepdad's car. My dad had a, it was kind of a golden deuce in a quarter, right? Deuce and a quarter. And so as I'm writing, and I had to describe this car in my writing, deuce and a quarter, gold deuce in a quarter. And so she said, I want to give you a hundred on this, but I don't know what you're talking about. And I was like, no, it's a deuce and a quarter. That's what the car is called.

And she goes, I've never heard of it. I'm like, deuce in a quarter. And she's like, take me a picture of your dad's car and then bring it in tomorrow. And I brought it in. And she goes, oh. Oh, it's an electric 225. And I was like, deuce in a quarter. That's where it came from.

And she's like, 100. This is spectacular. She goes, the whole point of writing is for you to describe a thing and make it real to me. And she goes, and the best part is you spoke in your own language. Like you spoke in your own vernacular. And that, that is what artists do. This is how you know. This is why you should write.

And I was like, oh, okay, lady. I just told you what I knew about it. I didn't. was bringing a picture of a car. You know, you know, man, it was spectacular. Chill. You know, it was spectacular. My goodness.

Just remember the first track coach that told you, hey, Rico, you got a shot. Mm-hmm. Right. How special those people are. Oh, yeah. Right? That who was your first coach that told you? You know what, Rico, you're pretty good.

Ah, my first coach. Because that's the one. Like, that's the one that gets you over the, over the hump for me was the first one that said, It was probably Coach Henry, who she ran for UNL, and she's still running to this day. She was in the Olympic trials for the 800 once during my high school years. She would always just give me crap because she was like, you know, you're really, if you're going to make it in anything, it's the 300. It's the intermediate, the long hurdles. I was like, coach, I don't, I'm a sprinter.

I don't do anything over 200 meters. She goes, no. If you are going to make it anything, it's these. And she would always, you know, 400 runners are running. She's like, all right, Alvarez, get over them. I'm like, I don't, coach, I'm a sprinter. I don't run. She goes, well, the 400 is sprint, so get over there.

And, you know, during time trials, she's like, all right, you got to run the 800. If you run under this time or if you come in dead last, you're running the 800 at a meet. So I'm like, fine. So I'm out there trying to try my best not to get last. And she's like, you can be really good. You just need to set your mind to it. And it took me until probably my senior year to finally do it. and then, you know, ended up getting a scholarship to Carney and got there,

and they actually took me out of the intermediate hurdles. They're like, thanks for getting here. Even though that summer, before I went, I was doing summer track, where it went, you know, 400 hurdles in the summer, and I was being an idiot, and I didn't make it to nationals because I had slowed down before the last hurdle at regionals, and one of my teammates passed me up. But I ran one of my best times, and if I ran that exact time in college,

college, I would have been a finalist in our conference. So it was one of those things where it's like, you could have got better and done so much, but you didn't. And it kind of, it kind of haunts me, but I'm over it. Have you ever said thank you? Oh, yeah. How did you do so? How did you do it? So there was this, this workout we had every Thursday, because Wednesday was pool day, every Thursday where she would take us to work out that she did a UNL, or she said she did a UNL, probably did, where we would run, it was you had a minute between each time you ran,

so it would go 100, 100, 100, 100. You had a minute, the faster you finish, the more time you have to rest. 100, 100, 100, 2 minute rest, 1-211, 1-2-2, 1-2, 2-2. 5-minute rest, go back down. every Thursday my senior year where she's like

all right get on the line we're like coach this workout sucks a lot like this is terrible you're just telling me about it sucks

and she goes it's not that bad and I go okay then run with us and it was the week before state I said run with us and she goes

are you sure she's like it's not that hard I was like do it she ran with us on the way back down the one two one one

she drops she's like she's breathing heavy and we finish it out on our own, and I come back to her, and I go, see? I told you it was hard. She goes, I don't apologize for anything. And I was like, well, thank you for getting me so much better,

you know, through these four years of high school. I'm going to go out here. I'm going to win a state championship for you. And unfortunately, I didn't. You let her down. I did. Josh Banderas. Oh, well, never mind.

He punched me in the chest over the last hurdle. Never mind. Punch me in the chest over the last hurdle. Why was he not disqualified? He was so much bigger than me. Why was he not disqualify? Because he's the Husker commencement. He's going to play football for Nebraska.

Nobody cares. Not telling that to this day. Lost by 0.03. Oh, Rico, got punches in the chest. Going over, he, right in the chest, right in the middle of my chest, slows me down just enough.

And you haven't said thank you to her since then? I have. I have. She, her daughter is competing at Millard North. She plays basketball. She runs track. And, you know,

every time she does, I remember when she was very little. It's crazy to see her in high school right now. But, you know, I'll comment on those, and I've sent her a message thanking her for everything she did to me and got me through college. Do me a favor. Send her a thank you this week. Okay.

There's little stuff. I had some folks reach out this weekend and say thank you to me, and so I said thank you to some folks. And I want to thank the listeners because some folks sent some private messages. I do a Sunday blessing every week. And this week I mentioned because of the recent book that I was in, the events that led up to me being in the book. the actual topic of it was when I was in ICU and having to get through and the power of having really good people around you. And I had to stop coaching because of it like, I mean, one, you know, I've got steel rods and

pins in my spine, right? They took out a piece of my spine to fix a thing. And when they went in, they ruptured me and I had 20, 27 blood clots. Like, it's like, and I say that now. That's a lot. just remember him telling me and I kind of broke down. But the only way I could get through that, like not being able to walk, not being,

I couldn't go to the bathroom. Like I, like nothing. Like you had to relearn everything. And going through the process and there are several people, my wife being tops on that list of people. I mean, she slept in a chair in the ICU, um,

you know, trying to hold things down, which is not totally not my wife's space. But she did it for, for me. And then my brother, who's a minister, who called and simply told me what I needed to hear that day. And Griff, my buddy Griff, who called and said, man, you're already healed. You just don't know it yet. Right. And gave me that kind of trust. But then I had a friend who I had only seen once in 30 years. Like somebody that was really close in high school and college. But once we got past that, we, we stay connected, but we hadn't seen each other.

And a few months before that, she had stopped through Houston on a convention. And she was there. And we got together. And it was just like we had never. Like time hadn't passed. Yeah, you know, hadn't passed. And she's one of my favorite smiles. And when I was in ICU, she saw one of Becky's posts that, hey, D's in the hospital.

He's in ICU. Things are tough. And I really, I mean, just tell you, the chaplain was there. The chaplain was like four days of, hey. You know, don't look good. They don't look good. And to have this friend show up, and it was enough to make me get up out of bed

for the first time sent to all of this. And the nurses all came in to help me get from the bed, ICU bed to this chair so we could take a picture, and I could be like human around her. And the best part was that she sat there and talked to bed. who had just been sitting there and talking to doctors and nurses. So I spent the weekend saying thank you to folks who had reached out to me and helped me get through what was the toughest time there.

I'll challenge folks to do this if you don't, if you need something to do that will change your spirits. Just say thank you to somebody that helps you out when you needed it. Without being preachy, there's somebody that was there for you when you needed it. Just reach out, see them a text, write them an email, call, whatever way it was. just say thanks. Just say thanks.

We don't say thank you now. I hate to get preaching on a Monday, but that's where I was with it. The quartet just made me feel a certain kind of ways, and I've done this weekend. So just take a moment, say thank you to some folks.

And then tomorrow you'll have another opportunity through Beatrice's Bakery. We will give away a care package and make somebody smile. Another way of saying thanks. Go to Lincoln, Continentals.org and the code is KNTK and register for two songs in a box of chocolates on Valentine's Day. They will come wherever you are and sing and serenade or wherever they need to be.

We will give away one. They will give away one. They will just come to your office and sing. You can do that on Lincolncontinels.org and the code you'll need to use is K&TK and they'll pick somebody. So there's that. Anyway, I hope you're having a good Monday morning. All things aside, there are reasons to smile. Let's get in that.

We will close out one-on-one we come back. Arshaun Jackson will come in. Reggie Cooper, pie-line pancakes, I think. He's got his shows work. I got Coach Darlington tomorrow, I believe. So, you know, how we get down. It's going to be interesting. Yeah, just how we get down here on the ticket.

We'll be right back. on Facebook, YouTube, or Twitch. You're listening to One-on-One with DP on 937. The Ticket and The Ticketfm.com.