WEBVTT - KERRI HARPER HOWIE - Mustard Up That Cheddar Dog 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:03.680 Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke. 0:00:03.880 --> 0:00:06.960 I'm your host, coleeen Witt, and today we have the 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:12.360 mc Legacies of all mick legacies. I just before I 0:00:12.400 --> 0:00:16.560 even introduce this amazingly special guest, I have to let 0:00:16.640 --> 0:00:19.720 you guys know that I have tried to get this 0:00:19.840 --> 0:00:23.040 interview for at least a year. Not because I've reached 0:00:23.040 --> 0:00:26.439 out and actually broke contact to this special guest, is 0:00:26.480 --> 0:00:29.880 because I've literally had to stalk research, watch so many interviews, 0:00:29.880 --> 0:00:32.120 and I try not to do this, but I am 0:00:32.240 --> 0:00:36.479 so impressed with this special guest right here. I've been 0:00:36.479 --> 0:00:39.560 telling my whole team and everyone who watches the show knows. 0:00:39.600 --> 0:00:44.600 I am absolutely more excited over entrepreneurs than celebrities. Unfortunately, 0:00:44.640 --> 0:00:49.080 sorry for my celebrities, but today we have special guests. 0:00:49.200 --> 0:00:53.440 Carrie Harper Howie is in the building. And not only 0:00:53.600 --> 0:00:56.640 is she, are you the largest McDonald's franchise owner in 0:00:56.680 --> 0:00:57.520 the state of California. 0:00:57.520 --> 0:00:58.560 I keep saying that I think you. 0:00:58.600 --> 0:01:00.800 Got in the state of California. African American. 0:01:00.920 --> 0:01:05.920 Yes, yes, yes, she's gonna wear that hat. 0:01:06.000 --> 0:01:10.680 She is twenty one man, twenty one twenty. 0:01:09.880 --> 0:01:15.760 One McDonald's restaurants are owned by Carrie Harper Howie and 0:01:15.959 --> 0:01:20.040 her family, her mother and her sister, three minority women. 0:01:20.400 --> 0:01:23.280 This was a huge feat in the timing and the 0:01:23.319 --> 0:01:26.240 whole structure. But the cool thing about Carrie here is 0:01:27.440 --> 0:01:31.600 her story is definitely untraditional. But she has released a 0:01:31.640 --> 0:01:34.360 book which led me to her, called The Family Secret. 0:01:34.920 --> 0:01:37.840 So if you guys are interested in hearing more, you 0:01:37.920 --> 0:01:41.280 can go ahead and look up The Family Secret online Google, Amazon, 0:01:41.319 --> 0:01:42.040 you can find it. 0:01:42.120 --> 0:01:43.600 That is how I found her. 0:01:44.880 --> 0:01:48.560 But so we are going to get into The Family 0:01:48.600 --> 0:01:52.600 Secret first, starting with the broke dish that y'all had 0:01:52.640 --> 0:01:55.240 before you had twenty one McDonald's. 0:01:55.760 --> 0:01:57.560 So what will you have me eat in today? 0:01:57.760 --> 0:01:58.240 Okay? 0:01:58.400 --> 0:02:00.640 So this is a dish that my my sister and 0:02:00.680 --> 0:02:04.120 I used to make back in the day eons ago, 0:02:04.160 --> 0:02:06.560 and as I shared with you, I don't remember the 0:02:06.640 --> 0:02:08.680 last time I made this, so I'm hoping that I 0:02:08.720 --> 0:02:11.639 can pull it off. But it was such a that 0:02:11.760 --> 0:02:14.680 meal that my sister and I would go to that 0:02:14.760 --> 0:02:17.520 we thought was so delicious and so cool. So today 0:02:17.560 --> 0:02:22.959 I'm gonna make for you mustardy cheddar hot dogs. And 0:02:23.080 --> 0:02:26.040 I asked for this bag these bags of chips because 0:02:26.040 --> 0:02:28.440 that was always the side we always had in our house. 0:02:28.480 --> 0:02:31.040 We were definitely not making fries. We weren't even baking 0:02:31.120 --> 0:02:34.400 frozen fries. We were not doing anything special. But we 0:02:34.440 --> 0:02:37.880 always had a backs of variety chips. So we're gonna 0:02:37.919 --> 0:03:02.640 do mustardy cheddar hot dogs and chips. 0:03:03.919 --> 0:03:05.200 Okay, so that makes sense. 0:03:05.280 --> 0:03:08.519 I threw a ketchup and I said, she must have 0:03:08.600 --> 0:03:12.519 forgot some ketchup up in here, but go ahead, it's okay. 0:03:12.639 --> 0:03:15.240 So since you had that surprise, I switched out your 0:03:15.280 --> 0:03:17.840 hot dogs for turkey hot dogs, just from you know, 0:03:18.200 --> 0:03:19.680 the sanity of my stomach. 0:03:19.800 --> 0:03:21.320 So surprise. 0:03:21.600 --> 0:03:26.560 Anyways, go ahead, make your mustard cheese hot dogs. I 0:03:26.680 --> 0:03:29.000 was sitting there looking at the recipe and the ingredient said, 0:03:29.040 --> 0:03:30.919 maybe she wants elvida, and I said, but. 0:03:30.960 --> 0:03:33.600 Usually people they want belvida cheese, say elvida. 0:03:33.680 --> 0:03:38.760 So we want to see what So so take me back, okay, 0:03:39.320 --> 0:03:42.920 take me all the way back to life when y'all 0:03:42.960 --> 0:03:45.280 you and your sister almost burnt down the house and 0:03:45.360 --> 0:03:46.280 these hot dogs. 0:03:46.440 --> 0:03:49.040 So my sister and I were born and raised in Englewood. 0:03:49.120 --> 0:03:51.600 My sister still lives in the house that we grew 0:03:51.760 --> 0:03:55.720 up in. Y'all ago, Yes, and. 0:03:55.400 --> 0:03:58.160 That's crazy to think twenty one McDonald's later. 0:03:58.840 --> 0:04:01.320 I mean, you know, we take a lot of pride 0:04:01.520 --> 0:04:06.800 in living and existing and moving and supporting the communities 0:04:06.840 --> 0:04:11.160 where we live. And so you know, if you got 0:04:11.160 --> 0:04:15.480 a perfectly good house that works fine and suit your purposes, 0:04:15.520 --> 0:04:17.520 there's no real reason for it not to still be 0:04:17.560 --> 0:04:18.120 in your family. 0:04:18.279 --> 0:04:20.720 And did you guys own it back then or were 0:04:20.800 --> 0:04:21.440 you renting it? 0:04:21.760 --> 0:04:25.599 I literally came home from the hospital to this house 0:04:26.440 --> 0:04:30.400 my parents before they became McDonald's franchisees. My dad was 0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:32.840 a cop and my mother was a social worker, so 0:04:32.880 --> 0:04:36.000 they both had good government jobs. Wow, and they were 0:04:36.000 --> 0:04:38.120 able to afford to buy this house on this very 0:04:38.120 --> 0:04:40.120 small street in Inglewood, California. 0:04:40.200 --> 0:04:42.919 I'm just curious, and you could share or not share, 0:04:43.680 --> 0:04:48.520 but you know Inglewood has gentrified, and is you know, 0:04:48.560 --> 0:04:50.280 buying a house over there as impossible. 0:04:50.400 --> 0:04:52.760 I am genuinely. 0:04:52.240 --> 0:04:55.560 Curious how much they bought a house for then and 0:04:55.600 --> 0:04:57.000 how much does it work today. 0:04:57.200 --> 0:05:01.720 So when I was growing up, my parent, my mom especially, 0:05:02.279 --> 0:05:04.479 was like kids know what kids know, and grown ups 0:05:04.480 --> 0:05:05.240 know what grown ups know. 0:05:05.839 --> 0:05:08.520 So I'm gonna be honest and say I honestly. 0:05:08.120 --> 0:05:11.400 And truly never knew what I can tell you, though, 0:05:11.520 --> 0:05:15.080 is we have lived there long enough and remodeled, renovated, 0:05:15.200 --> 0:05:18.480 change things, et cetera, that we have not completely paid 0:05:18.480 --> 0:05:18.800 it off. 0:05:19.279 --> 0:05:20.880 So we have pulled money out. 0:05:20.920 --> 0:05:23.960 Which is the beauty of real estate as an investment, 0:05:24.080 --> 0:05:27.240 right is you can use it in over time, you 0:05:27.320 --> 0:05:31.080 can allow yourself to reinvest in yourself to beautify the 0:05:31.080 --> 0:05:33.960 space that you're in through taking money out of your 0:05:33.960 --> 0:05:36.760 house and then paying for that mortgage. So it's not 0:05:36.920 --> 0:05:41.360 paid off even forty plus I'll say forty plus years later. 0:05:41.640 --> 0:05:44.440 So that's like basically saying that the house is gorgeous. 0:05:44.520 --> 0:05:44.599 Right. 0:05:45.160 --> 0:05:48.400 We think it is beautiful, it works beautiful, and you know, 0:05:48.560 --> 0:05:55.040 quite honestly, my mother has Alzheimer's, and so what that 0:05:55.240 --> 0:05:58.120 means is that we have been able to change the 0:05:58.240 --> 0:06:02.279 space to create a little mini apartment for her inside 0:06:02.279 --> 0:06:04.919 the house, in a place that's familiar to her. Because if, 0:06:05.080 --> 0:06:10.200 as you may know, with Alzheimer's patients, for them, everything 0:06:10.279 --> 0:06:13.320 familiar is better. So if they can really and truly 0:06:13.360 --> 0:06:15.479 be in a place where they know, hey, around this 0:06:15.560 --> 0:06:18.720 corner is my bedroom, then that. 0:06:18.760 --> 0:06:19.840 Is very helpful to them. 0:06:19.880 --> 0:06:23.040 That's another reason why I feel especially blessed that we've 0:06:23.040 --> 0:06:26.359 held on to the house because we didn't know that 0:06:26.440 --> 0:06:29.320 our mom was going to develop Alzheimer's. But I'm so 0:06:29.520 --> 0:06:31.920 glad that she's able to be in a space that's 0:06:31.920 --> 0:06:33.600 been familiar to her for so long. 0:06:34.040 --> 0:06:37.520 Yeah, and it kind of goes back to the naming 0:06:37.600 --> 0:06:40.520 of this episode, is gonna be mc legacy legacy because 0:06:40.560 --> 0:06:43.000 you guys definitely like even just saying that you kept 0:06:43.000 --> 0:06:47.279 this house shows that you guys value this family culture 0:06:47.320 --> 0:06:50.640 that you guys have. Kind of your parents kind of 0:06:51.040 --> 0:06:55.080 knew you guys as a whole built so you and 0:06:55.120 --> 0:06:58.960 your sister at the time. Are they when you're doing this? 0:06:59.000 --> 0:07:02.400 Are they cops? And and would your mom do social worker? 0:07:02.760 --> 0:07:03.440 Social worker? 0:07:04.720 --> 0:07:07.960 So my parents got involved in the early nineteen eighties, 0:07:08.000 --> 0:07:12.040 so this would have been even after we had McDonald's. 0:07:12.240 --> 0:07:15.080 But as you can imagine, if you're going from a 0:07:15.160 --> 0:07:19.200 career where you're used to catching criminals or helping families, 0:07:19.480 --> 0:07:22.000 you don't know anything about McDonald's or being your own 0:07:22.040 --> 0:07:24.800 business owner or anything like that. So they were a 0:07:24.800 --> 0:07:27.840 lot of times away from home. So my sister and 0:07:27.840 --> 0:07:29.560 I will be home by ourselves, and we had to 0:07:29.600 --> 0:07:32.440 figure out how we were going to eat because unlike 0:07:32.520 --> 0:07:35.360 my very coddle children who are left with meals and 0:07:35.440 --> 0:07:36.040 all the other. 0:07:35.920 --> 0:07:38.280 Kind of stuff. My mother was like, figure it out, 0:07:38.640 --> 0:07:39.400 and we did. 0:07:39.600 --> 0:07:41.440 And so this was one of the things that we 0:07:41.960 --> 0:07:44.000 knew that we could cook that would taste good. You know, 0:07:44.040 --> 0:07:46.360 we're not as you know, as a restaurant tour I know, 0:07:46.680 --> 0:07:47.960 I don't know that we were thinking about this, but 0:07:48.000 --> 0:07:52.280 there's no food safety issues, you can, I feel pretty sure, 0:07:52.280 --> 0:07:53.679 although I honestly don't remember. 0:07:54.000 --> 0:07:54.720 I think we would have. 0:07:54.800 --> 0:07:59.760 Probably cooked the hot dogs in the microwave. I don't 0:07:59.760 --> 0:08:02.360 know that we were necessarily using the stovetop. 0:08:01.920 --> 0:08:05.120 But you know, hey, in here there's no microwaves, so 0:08:05.560 --> 0:08:07.800 I like it no microwave, So making it work? 0:08:07.920 --> 0:08:09.200 And how hard was it? 0:08:09.320 --> 0:08:11.600 Do you know at least the history of like what 0:08:12.080 --> 0:08:14.880 it took for your parents to get a McDonald's and 0:08:14.920 --> 0:08:17.360 how did they stumble upon the opportunity. 0:08:17.880 --> 0:08:23.480 So at the time, my mother's only sister, her name 0:08:23.880 --> 0:08:28.200 or she's my auntie Jane, she was and her husband 0:08:28.280 --> 0:08:30.520 were a franchisees at the time. They were in the 0:08:30.520 --> 0:08:34.720 San Diego market and the and you know, they were 0:08:34.840 --> 0:08:38.680 enfranchising even longer than my mom, and so my parents 0:08:38.679 --> 0:08:40.559 were like, we have our good government job, so we're 0:08:40.600 --> 0:08:44.720 not tripping. And at some point in time, there was 0:08:44.720 --> 0:08:47.680 an African American regional manager who at the time was 0:08:47.720 --> 0:08:51.440 responsible for finding franchisees well. He as well as McDonald's 0:08:51.440 --> 0:08:54.360 as a corporation, they were looking to increase the number 0:08:54.360 --> 0:08:57.920 of black franchisees. So when he met my I mean, 0:08:58.040 --> 0:09:01.120 you know, my aunt became an approved operator, and I 0:09:01.160 --> 0:09:04.960 think he met my mother and thought and proposed the idea. 0:09:05.480 --> 0:09:09.400 They were kind of like, huh okay, And so they 0:09:09.440 --> 0:09:13.160 both cashed in the retirement at their good government jobs. 0:09:13.400 --> 0:09:15.520 And that your eyes just got big because it was 0:09:15.559 --> 0:09:16.120 a big deal. 0:09:16.200 --> 0:09:17.160 That's a high risk move. 0:09:17.440 --> 0:09:20.560 That's a very high risk move, right, They cashed in 0:09:20.600 --> 0:09:23.679 their retirements and bought their first restaurant. Now, my sister 0:09:23.760 --> 0:09:27.000 and I were young girls at the time, so it 0:09:27.040 --> 0:09:28.080 was really you know. 0:09:28.040 --> 0:09:31.079 It was a big deal. It was a big risk, 0:09:31.240 --> 0:09:33.559 but somehow they had the courage to do it. 0:09:34.120 --> 0:09:37.959 That's a lot did that Now, I don't want to 0:09:37.960 --> 0:09:43.080 skip forward, but I'm gonna So did that amount of 0:09:43.080 --> 0:09:47.520 pressure play a role in possible separation later on? 0:09:47.840 --> 0:09:52.839 No, So their separation was very specifically around my father 0:09:53.280 --> 0:09:56.160 being a gambling addict. And I do talk about this 0:09:56.280 --> 0:10:00.600 very openly in my book. My father was a gambler 0:10:00.760 --> 0:10:04.600 for years, and while my mom knew that he liked 0:10:04.640 --> 0:10:09.560 to go to the racetrack and you know, bid on horses, 0:10:10.559 --> 0:10:15.120 she never realized that it had developed into a habit 0:10:15.160 --> 0:10:17.960 that he couldn't control. And so, as you can imagine, 0:10:18.000 --> 0:10:20.120 you know, this day and age, we are very used 0:10:20.120 --> 0:10:22.679 to walking into a bank shoot at this point, right, 0:10:22.760 --> 0:10:25.840 we do apple pay or. People weren't using a lot 0:10:25.840 --> 0:10:28.160 of credit cards back in the early nineteen eighties. 0:10:28.600 --> 0:10:30.160 They were using a lot of cash. 0:10:30.559 --> 0:10:36.040 And so my father, being a gambling addict, surrounded by cash, 0:10:36.360 --> 0:10:40.840 would literally take whole envelopes of money from the register 0:10:40.920 --> 0:10:45.040 that should go into the bank, right and being building 0:10:45.520 --> 0:10:46.600 McDonald's money. 0:10:46.520 --> 0:10:51.400 Which oh, no, Papa, no, Papa, yes, said yes. 0:10:51.840 --> 0:10:57.000 And so basically he gambled away a lot of money. 0:10:57.280 --> 0:10:59.640 It was, I'll say, to put it briefly, it was 0:10:59.679 --> 0:11:04.280 a very very large financial infidelity. I'm just gonna put 0:11:04.280 --> 0:11:08.800 that there, yeah, okay, yeah, And so my mom was 0:11:08.960 --> 0:11:13.160 not able to forgive that. She was not able to 0:11:14.600 --> 0:11:16.960 get past the fact that he had, you know, I 0:11:17.000 --> 0:11:21.000 think for her, honestly, I don't know if it was 0:11:21.040 --> 0:11:24.960 so much like the oh, he's been financially unfaithful to me, 0:11:25.200 --> 0:11:30.880 as how could you be so selfish as to ruin 0:11:31.320 --> 0:11:35.520 the potentially ruin the lives of your wife, but even 0:11:35.559 --> 0:11:38.600 more importantly, your daughters. We've done this, We've taken this 0:11:38.720 --> 0:11:41.319 risk so that your daughters could have something more than 0:11:41.320 --> 0:11:44.080 we ever thought we could have. And she just could 0:11:44.160 --> 0:11:47.720 not get past that, and so she didn't and then 0:11:48.480 --> 0:11:51.120 so then she decided to divorce him. Now, as you 0:11:51.200 --> 0:11:56.319 can imagine, their Black franchises, this is the mid nineteen nineties, 0:11:56.360 --> 0:11:59.880 mid to late nineteen nineties. And how long were they 0:12:00.160 --> 0:12:02.640 the franchise at that point, Somewhere in the range of 0:12:02.640 --> 0:12:05.599 seven or eight years. I don't know exactly, because I'll 0:12:05.640 --> 0:12:08.319 say this, I'm pretty sure I was in sixth grade. Okay, 0:12:08.480 --> 0:12:11.720 so somewhere in sixth grade, you're around ten or eleven. 0:12:12.120 --> 0:12:14.319 So around the mid to late eighties, they had been 0:12:14.320 --> 0:12:17.240 in around seven or so years, six or seven and 0:12:17.240 --> 0:12:18.200 they only owned one at. 0:12:18.120 --> 0:12:19.840 The time, or they owned two at the time. 0:12:19.920 --> 0:12:22.040 Yeah, that's high pressure. She's under two, ye. 0:12:22.200 --> 0:12:26.640 Right, you know, so she was, you know, appropriately unable 0:12:26.679 --> 0:12:28.080 to forgive that fine. 0:12:28.440 --> 0:12:33.520 So she was prepared to leave him. The issue. 0:12:35.559 --> 0:12:37.400 Is that she was the black woman in the nineteen 0:12:37.440 --> 0:12:40.680 eighties with two young daughters, and so she had to 0:12:40.720 --> 0:12:44.559 figure out one is McDonald's gonna let me even continue? 0:12:44.640 --> 0:12:47.600 Because the way that they all found out was we 0:12:47.600 --> 0:12:49.120 were on a vacation. We used to go to Lake 0:12:49.120 --> 0:12:51.319 Havasu with a bunch of other cops in their families. 0:12:51.720 --> 0:12:56.880 We were on vacation. They called her and said, your 0:12:56.880 --> 0:12:58.040 bills have not been paid. 0:12:59.080 --> 0:13:01.920 Oh heck no, ye see, so he's gambling. 0:13:02.679 --> 0:13:06.120 And if there's one thing any corporation like McDonald's is like, 0:13:06.320 --> 0:13:09.839 is gonna not go for They're not going for their 0:13:09.840 --> 0:13:10.920 bills not being paid. 0:13:11.400 --> 0:13:14.560 So so just to backtrack for everyone that doesn't know, 0:13:14.760 --> 0:13:18.080 can you do like a brief breakdown of McDonald's. I 0:13:18.080 --> 0:13:21.520 have an idea that what it is, but definitely not 0:13:21.760 --> 0:13:23.760 nearly as much knowledge as you do. So just do 0:13:23.800 --> 0:13:27.240 a snapshot so people understand why you guys would be 0:13:27.240 --> 0:13:29.120 paying McDonald's bills. 0:13:29.240 --> 0:13:29.960 Yes, so. 0:13:31.800 --> 0:13:36.440 Enfranchising, you have to pay what's called a franchising fee 0:13:36.559 --> 0:13:37.320 or a royalty. 0:13:37.840 --> 0:13:40.600 Use this knife before you burn yours. 0:13:40.240 --> 0:13:44.480 Stabbing, thank you, So you have to pay a royalty 0:13:44.559 --> 0:13:48.800 in order to be in business, and so we were 0:13:48.880 --> 0:13:53.280 they were not paying he was not paying that royalty fee. 0:13:53.440 --> 0:13:57.040 All that cash, unfortunately, was going to support his gambling 0:13:57.040 --> 0:13:59.880 habit and so and you know, and of course there's 0:13:59.920 --> 0:14:00.960 a variety of other bills. 0:14:01.000 --> 0:14:01.920 So we have vendors. 0:14:02.200 --> 0:14:05.280 Some of those vendors might if McDonald's pays the vendors first, 0:14:05.280 --> 0:14:07.800 we will pay McDonald's back. Or the vendor is calling 0:14:07.880 --> 0:14:11.120 McDonald's saying, hey, we haven't gotten paid for food and 0:14:11.160 --> 0:14:12.960 in a certain amount of time, can you go to 0:14:13.080 --> 0:14:15.640 your owner operator and find out what's going on, because 0:14:15.679 --> 0:14:19.160 we are one of the biggest things that we're specifically 0:14:19.200 --> 0:14:22.640 held accountable to as franchisees. It's paying our bills on 0:14:22.680 --> 0:14:25.240 time like that is there are franchising standards. 0:14:25.280 --> 0:14:27.600 That's one of them. Pay your bills on time? 0:14:28.040 --> 0:14:28.800 And is this back? 0:14:28.880 --> 0:14:31.600 Did McDonald's have a McDonald's university back then? 0:14:31.800 --> 0:14:33.160 It's called Hamburger University? 0:14:33.440 --> 0:14:35.800 Sorry, yes, I did a little bit of research. 0:14:35.800 --> 0:14:39.920 Come on, all right, I'm a proud graduate of that's HU, right? 0:14:41.400 --> 0:14:44.640 And how many years is hu? 0:14:45.600 --> 0:14:46.320 HU is? A week? 0:14:46.680 --> 0:14:46.800 Oh? 0:14:46.840 --> 0:14:50.680 It's a week? Is it week? Two years? 0:14:50.840 --> 0:14:53.040 It's okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna give you details how 0:14:53.080 --> 0:14:53.720 that works out. 0:14:53.880 --> 0:14:58.040 Okay, so wait, wait, backtrack. So your mom is on vacation. 0:14:58.280 --> 0:15:00.800 Mom's on vacation, all of them were all on vacation. 0:15:00.880 --> 0:15:02.720 Okay, she gets a call, she gets the call. 0:15:03.960 --> 0:15:06.360 The call says, you have not been paying your bills, 0:15:07.800 --> 0:15:15.920 and she says, holy stuff, holy but Jolie, and she 0:15:16.200 --> 0:15:18.880 then you know, I don't think we left the trip, 0:15:18.920 --> 0:15:20.440 but I think it because it was kind of like, oh, 0:15:20.480 --> 0:15:23.040 surely this cannot be the case, Like, that's not. 0:15:23.040 --> 0:15:25.200 Would you like mustard on ketchup on yours? 0:15:26.040 --> 0:15:27.760 I'm gonna do it the way you do it first, Okay, 0:15:27.880 --> 0:15:29.440 I want to live the whole experience. 0:15:29.520 --> 0:15:33.000 Yes, so I don't have enough cheese. I'm gonna great 0:15:33.000 --> 0:15:33.600 a little more cheese. 0:15:33.640 --> 0:15:36.040 But so yeah, So then we get back, we realize 0:15:36.560 --> 0:15:39.080 that the bills, in fact, she realized, because I didn't 0:15:39.120 --> 0:15:42.360 know anything, she realized at the time that in fact, 0:15:42.360 --> 0:15:45.800 the bills had not been paid and that McDonald's was 0:15:45.800 --> 0:15:50.000 mad about it. And so it becomes a question of, well, 0:15:50.000 --> 0:15:52.920 what happens do they just kick the whole family out. 0:15:53.560 --> 0:15:59.640 My mom, because she's amazing, was able to convince McDonald's 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:02.720 to let her stay in the business. And that it 0:16:02.880 --> 0:16:06.360 was my father who was the gambler who should be 0:16:06.440 --> 0:16:10.880 kicked out, and they agreed to that. And so, you know, 0:16:11.280 --> 0:16:13.760 people have a lot of things to say about McDonald's, 0:16:14.680 --> 0:16:15.960 and everybody has their. 0:16:15.880 --> 0:16:17.160 Own story experience. 0:16:17.880 --> 0:16:22.160 One of my biggest feelings about McDonald's is gratitude for 0:16:22.240 --> 0:16:25.480 giving my mother, a single woman at the time, a 0:16:25.680 --> 0:16:29.840 chance to prove that she was more than what her 0:16:29.920 --> 0:16:30.960 husband had done to her. 0:16:31.320 --> 0:16:32.680 Wow, and so. 0:16:33.480 --> 0:16:36.080 And the reason why that feels so palpable to me 0:16:36.320 --> 0:16:41.200 especially is because she did have to take steps to 0:16:41.240 --> 0:16:43.880 buy my father out because you know, he. 0:16:43.760 --> 0:16:46.160 Was a co owner, and then she toy that dead too. 0:16:46.680 --> 0:16:49.640 Well, she did not immediately because she couldn't. 0:16:50.040 --> 0:16:53.320 But she Your question is a good one. She had 0:16:53.360 --> 0:16:57.960 to get financing to be able, said as low as possible. 0:16:58.160 --> 0:17:01.040 She had to get financing to be able to buy 0:17:01.120 --> 0:17:03.920 him out and put herself in a position to repay 0:17:03.960 --> 0:17:04.400 this debt. 0:17:04.600 --> 0:17:06.560 So she had to even get into even more debt. 0:17:06.760 --> 0:17:07.800 Yes, geez. 0:17:07.840 --> 0:17:10.120 She had to really believe in herself too, right, she. 0:17:10.200 --> 0:17:12.520 I mean, and have the fortitude. 0:17:12.720 --> 0:17:17.479 And as you're grieving your marriage, yea grieving the vision 0:17:17.760 --> 0:17:20.360 that you had for your life, you're caring for your 0:17:20.440 --> 0:17:23.800 daughters who are so young and basically don't know anything 0:17:24.440 --> 0:17:26.960 you know, and so it's at the. 0:17:26.960 --> 0:17:30.560 Time, did you guys see her in any like emotional 0:17:30.600 --> 0:17:32.760 distress or was she like a gangster? 0:17:33.160 --> 0:17:36.240 She was an absolute gangster. I'm gonna tell you about 0:17:36.240 --> 0:17:39.560 that in a second. But what I want to get 0:17:39.760 --> 0:17:43.359 back to your question of the reason why I keep 0:17:43.400 --> 0:17:48.040 harping on black single woman is because my mom went 0:17:48.080 --> 0:17:51.679 to bank after bank trying to get the financing to 0:17:51.760 --> 0:17:55.040 dig herself out of this hole, and bank after bank 0:17:55.040 --> 0:17:58.240 after bank said no, they would not give her money. 0:17:58.359 --> 0:18:01.439 And in fact, one of them when she walked in 0:18:01.960 --> 0:18:05.480 said to her, where is your husband? And she said, 0:18:05.520 --> 0:18:08.200 I don't have one, And they were like, there's nothing 0:18:08.240 --> 0:18:08.959 we can do for you. 0:18:09.800 --> 0:18:10.119 Wow. 0:18:11.080 --> 0:18:15.159 Until one day she walked into the Culver City branch 0:18:16.200 --> 0:18:19.800 was even either Culver City or Baldwin Hills branch of Wells. 0:18:19.560 --> 0:18:22.480 Fargo Bank to Wells Fargo, there was. 0:18:22.440 --> 0:18:26.440 A black woman there named Mona Maze, and my mom 0:18:27.040 --> 0:18:29.480 laid it all on the line for Mona, and Mona 0:18:29.560 --> 0:18:33.160 said okay, and she was able to get my mom 0:18:33.200 --> 0:18:36.400 the financing that she need needed to move on by 0:18:36.400 --> 0:18:40.600 my dad out get herself right with McDonald's and plan 0:18:41.160 --> 0:18:43.560 for a future where she paid off the debt just 0:18:43.600 --> 0:18:44.359 like you said. 0:18:44.359 --> 0:18:47.560 Holy cow. So and she had to go through multiple 0:18:47.800 --> 0:18:49.480 multiple for that. 0:18:49.640 --> 0:18:52.200 I had read that and I was like I even 0:18:52.240 --> 0:18:54.520 called Wells trying to get your contact. 0:18:54.640 --> 0:18:56.200 It was like, girl, you don't get off my phone 0:18:56.240 --> 0:18:56.480 with this. 0:18:58.080 --> 0:19:01.840 But it's true, true, And that was in I mean, 0:19:02.480 --> 0:19:04.720 no disrespect to the banks, but that was hard time 0:19:04.760 --> 0:19:07.800 too as a black black woman, like she wasn't even white. 0:19:07.880 --> 0:19:11.000 She was definitely like the opposite of and McDonald's is 0:19:11.000 --> 0:19:13.879 almost like a forsurable you know when someone comes up 0:19:13.880 --> 0:19:17.040 with a McDonald's loan. I heard those are like yes, 0:19:17.280 --> 0:19:19.280 you know, so she had she had to go through 0:19:19.320 --> 0:19:23.680 all that into to still fight and press on. 0:19:23.800 --> 0:19:25.000 Yet she's pretty incredible. 0:19:25.080 --> 0:19:25.800 Yeah, I like that. 0:19:25.840 --> 0:19:28.040 You do rep the fact that she was a single mom. 0:19:28.359 --> 0:19:30.840 I just became a single mom and I just wore 0:19:30.960 --> 0:19:35.280 them days be hard, you know, especially handling it with grace, right, 0:19:35.400 --> 0:19:37.160 you know, because they love to like be out there 0:19:37.160 --> 0:19:38.960 like well she was a bitter or whatever, but like 0:19:39.000 --> 0:19:41.399 to handle it with grace in a situation where it 0:19:41.440 --> 0:19:42.960 was like to be honest, unfair. 0:19:43.160 --> 0:19:48.200 Yeah, and she I can say with total honesty. Never 0:19:48.280 --> 0:19:51.399 bad mouthed my dad did. We've only over the years 0:19:51.480 --> 0:19:54.360 kind of gotten details out of her about what happened. 0:19:54.720 --> 0:19:59.040 She wasn't trying to like harp on anything bad about him. 0:19:59.359 --> 0:20:02.919 She was just like, it's me now, and you know, 0:20:03.119 --> 0:20:05.600 we're rolling. And so we were lucky at the time 0:20:05.720 --> 0:20:10.240 we had a woman. She was our babysitter and babysitter 0:20:10.280 --> 0:20:13.000 to Minnie, and so we spent a lot of time 0:20:13.040 --> 0:20:14.800 in her house, like you know, at the end of 0:20:14.800 --> 0:20:17.520 the day, Like my mom had to really be physically 0:20:17.560 --> 0:20:20.440 present in those restaurants a lot. And I think that's 0:20:20.480 --> 0:20:23.000 really kind of where learning how to cook. 0:20:22.800 --> 0:20:24.160 Things like this came from. 0:20:24.680 --> 0:20:27.960 Wow, Oh my god, can the camera see that? 0:20:29.280 --> 0:20:31.880 I don't know they can see it. That is crazy. 0:20:33.359 --> 0:20:34.320 That's been a long time. 0:20:35.400 --> 0:20:39.240 Do you feel just sidebar, we have to name we 0:20:39.320 --> 0:20:40.320 have to name drop this. 0:20:40.800 --> 0:20:43.600 What was the can you just tell us like thirty 0:20:43.640 --> 0:20:45.960 seconds about this chop winning yeah situation. 0:20:46.000 --> 0:20:50.600 Okay, So I was in Washington, d C. 0:20:50.800 --> 0:20:54.720 At this amazing event called the Family Reunion, and there 0:20:54.960 --> 0:20:59.359 was a chopped style not chopped, but chopped style competition. 0:20:59.640 --> 0:21:04.760 Mister three baskets, three rounds, the whole nine and I 0:21:04.800 --> 0:21:06.760 was on a team with four people including my sister 0:21:06.840 --> 0:21:08.480