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My name is Pernell Blackburn, Jr. I’m 12 years old.
My name is Damani Brown. I’m 13 years old.
My name is Sekou Brown. I’m 10 years old.
We interviewed Curtis Brown on August 14, 2014.
I grew up in the Homewood area back in the 70s. While we had a lot of fun growing up some of the areas weren’t the best, so I’ll always strive to kind of do more. I mean, be more.
When I was a child, I wanted to go to Berkeley School of Music. I attended Crescent Elementary School. It’s located on Bennett St. in Homewood. Being out in front of the class, sometimes we had to get up and speak, and sometimes I didn’t like to do that. So that was one- definitely one of the struggles, this public speaking in grade school.
Lot of neighborhood kids, we had fun, we played football, we rode bikes and we stayed outside all day. I mean, it’s true, we did have to come home when the street lights were on, but we did enjoy ourselves. A lot of corner stores to go to, a lot of candy, a lot of freezy pops during the summer.
I am a business owner, so I’m an entrepreneur. I was looking for new opportunities. Currently, my company is called Gyro Mobile. We develop mobile applications and we provide companies and organizations with mobile interactivity for their business.
My role models affected my life by showing me how to stay focused and to not jump ahead. I learned how to play drums at an early age. One of my role models was a gentleman called Babe Forbreezy. That’s a fantastic drummer I learned off of and also Roger Humphries Senior, who was one of my percussion teachers as well. When I was a little younger and when I started playing drums, we had to practice on what’s called a practice pad. And each time I had to practice on the practice pad, I had to walk past the drum set. Now, as a kid, I just wanted to get on the drum set and play, but my teacher showed me that you have to get the basics down. You have to understand and learn the basics first before you can move on to the bigger things.
Some of my interesting experiences growing up would have been going to camp between the 3rd grade through 6th grade every year. My uncle would take us about a group of 50 to 75 kids to what’s called Laurel Hill State Park. We would go every year, stay about a week to 10 days and that taught us about nature. Growing up in Homewood, you saw some trees somewhere, but it wasn’t anywhere as near as the wonderful and beautiful forest we have here in the state of Pennsylvania, so I got to experience that camping, hiking, fishing, swimming, just being in the outdoors. I loved it. It was fun. I mean, you get homesick from time to time, but it was fun and the experiences were nice. You meet a lot of great people, a lot of great friends I met years ago, I’m still friends with today.
I’m satisfied with what I have in my life, but I do strive for more. There’s other goals I want to reach in business and family and serving the Lord. There’s other goals I want to reach. Going skydiving or bungee jumping, and to be honest, I would love to just be a race car driver for just one day. Get behind the fast car, go around the track a couple times. You know that’s one of the goals I have.
What I think it takes to be successful is definitely determination, and drive, and believing that you can achieve exactly what you’re shooting for. And it also takes an inner strength to know that whatever you want to achieve, you can achieve. There’s no force, there’s no group of people, or there’s no situation that can stop you. If you believe you can do it, you can achieve it. Stay focused on a set of goals, not just one goal, but at least three goals in regards to education, in regards to family, in regards to your financial goals. If you keep sight of those, I believe you can be successful.