Calling all God-fearing women! Join me on YouTube as we celebrate and uplift all our sisters out there on P-3-1! Remember you are of great value and worth sisters! This one is for you! Music credit to JTBS, original son written and performed by YOUR neighborhood hope dealer! youtube.com/watch
2 minutes of healing this evening from your neighborhood hope dealer. Everyone be encouraged.
Be encouraged with my new original song ”Get Ya Power Up!” Let’s Go! -Your neighborhood hope dealer!
Check out my newest song, ”You Can Overcome!” Positive, uplifting with a Pac-Man sample on the beat by JTBS! Visit my Youtube channel @vintageretroman or check out http://www.vintageretroman.com. Thanks! #rapzilla #Christianrap #hiphop #freemusic #nes #pacman #instagram #instagood #retro
Racism, police brutality, black on black crime, I believe Jesus is the answer. Check out this spoken word piece. 2020 has been tough, but there is hope. There is beauty in your struggle. Maybe God is using our struggles to restore us to Him..
This new song is just a reminder that you have been called to be victorious! I have combined the elements of Christian Hip-hop and Video Game music (The music is from Super Mario World) to make something positive, uplifting, and dance-worthy. I hope and pray that this is a blessing to someone that watches. Be safe everyone!
It is so rare to find true friends. If you were born in the ’70s, 80’s, or 90’s, think back to how many friends you had growing up. Now link that to today. What type of correlation do you see?
Truth be told, lifelong friends are a rare commodity. Our experience sends us through many twists and turns. The stresses of life can make people numb, and living in a very individualistic culture automatically disconnects us. What are we to do?
I have thought much on this subject. Today, I truly have one best friend I call my brother. From the days of 8th grade, I remember it like it was yesterday. The year was 1996, October to be exact. My parents had just moved across town and I left all of my friends behind at Mineral Springs Middle School and transferred to Wiley. As a 13-year-old boy, I was crushed. I had so many friends at MSM, and to leave in the 8th grade? What were my parents thinking?
I distinctly remember it being mid-October. There was a slight crisp coolness in the air. As I rode on the vintage style school bus, I was a new teenager surrounded by fresh faces, scared to death. As the bus stopped and I walked off reluctantly, I heard a kid yell the F… word out of the window. This is my first day at my new school, I thought? I’m going to hate it here!
As I walked in, the school setup was completely different. In the mind of an 8th grader in the 90’s, I hated seeing the hallway crowded with students at their ivory white half lockers! I was used to the safe whole blue lockers of MCM! I mean come on, I can’t even get a whole locker? Look how inflated my backpack is? Those were my thoughts.
As I headed to my classes on my first day, I surprisingly met a few nice people that I hung on for dear life. After all, this was middle school. My identity was partially wrapped up in my associations. Sure they were nerds, but I didn’t care. They were nice!
Then a transition happened after lunch. I was apparently being watched by a group of kids. The “cool” clique. The kids wearing the Boss, Phat Farm, and Enyce shirts and jeans at that time. These kids were so cool, they listened to 2pac, Puff Daddy and Nas on their Sony Walkman’s and could rap all of the lyrics! They knew all of the latest entertainment news, gossip, and what happened on the last episode of any 90’s sitcom!
Somewhere between Mrs. Cunningham’s history class and Mrs. Nail’s math class, a young lady from “the cool kids” walked up to me and asked, “why didn’t you sit with us at lunch?” I had no answer for her, so I just shuddered. She said, “Well, you are welcome to sit with us tomorrow.” 🙂
What a pleasant surprise! I was so excited. Her friend that walked over with her smiled at me and I fell in teenage love (or in other words, infatuation). It ended up being short-lived though because she had a so-called “boyfriend” that went to another middle school. I hated him from a distance.
Then in Mrs. Cunningham’s class, I met my best friend Brandon! Have you ever met someone you just instantly clicked with? As we sat and joked about Mrs. C’s “bulldog-like” jaws and how to mean she was, every day we left class laughing. All throughout High School, Brandon and I developed a brotherhood. Everyone called him B for short. I caught on. We were great students grade-wise, but our conduct and candor were questionable.
We talked to many females, and had our fair share of rejections. Yet simply by the law of numbers, we had plenty of success stories with girls too. I am happy to say that myself and many members of the clique were cool all through high school, college, and beyond. 🙂
As the years rolled by, life happened. People got married, some got divorced, some got both like I did. People having children, some getting multiple degrees. Some working, some moving, some living a second childhood doing the same exact things they were doing in the ’90s.
B and I remained brothers. Fast forward to 2018. He and his wife have a beautiful family and home, living in the lush green hills of the great state of West Virginia. Me, my wife, and our 4 beautiful children live out in a rural area of North Carolina. Though it all, the secret formula behind lifelong friendship is easy. Give each other space and grace!
Space- Understand that life happens. Don’t be so immature if weeks or months go by and you don’t talk much. I appreciate the small text messages and calls. Give your friend(s) space to grow as people.
Grace- Understand that your friend(s) are human just like you. They need love, acceptance, and forgiveness too. Never be bitter, be quick to forgive. Don’t be selfish. Be humble and help them.
This is my experience. I hope that this helped somebody. We are all human. We are all trying to just figure out this thing we call “life”. Thank you for reading! I can say I know my brother Brandon thanks you too! Why? As my reader, just know that he is my co-administrator on http://www.vintageretroman.com. 🙂
New generation! Je’well, our youngest, with Brandon’s daughter Brailyn.
Signing off for now,
Vintage Retroman
As we enter 2019, where are you mentally, emotionally, spiritually? Are you optimistic about a new year, or plagued by issues of your recent past that maybe didn’t quite work out. Let’s be honest for a second, 2018 was a rough year for many people. I think about how many people i know that struggled with what i call the 3 D’s: debt, death, and disease. I won’t get into my own situations, but let’s just say 2018 was a year of struggle and growth for me personally.
Now, take a minute to reflect back in your mind. Close your eyes. Remember a time of the simple celebration of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness! I remember 1987, i was 4 years old. My pops use to throw these house parties with the best food. I was the youngest of 8 children, but i remember the fun we had celebrating New Years Eve! My dad had the vintage big tall wooden sub-woofers with the tunes of Frankie Beverly and Maze’s “Joy and Pain”. Oh when that baseline came on, the floor shook! Picture us with afro’s, half fro’s, and Jerri-curls! For my coming to America fans oh yes, we indeed let our “Soul-Glo”.
We didn’t have much money growing up in the hood of East Winston, but we would celebrate like we did. Yeah there was some smoke in the air at times. I said that was just a machine. I saw a bottle or two that look like root beer but was missing the word “root”. As we would get down all night dancing like the Jackson-8, my mom would let the smaller children hook up the Nintendo and we would play Super Mario Bro’s, Duck Hunt, Megaman, Contra and the other classics. I’m talking 8-bit and pixels!
Anyone from my generation knows what i am talking about, and don’t even start on that Tecmo Bowl! It was always Joe Montana and the 49ers vs Bo Jackson and the Raiders. Anyone else remember how Bo Jackson use to just have people bounce off his back on that game? It wasn’t even fair!
It’s hard to believe that was 32 years ago. It still feels like yesterday to me. To our youth, y’all wouldn’t believe how much of us we see in y’all as you grow. I love the excitement that you bring. Don’t get me wrong i love my old school music, but if you catch me on the right day, i might be listening to some Lecrae, Kendrick Lamar or J. Cole, I’m just saying. 🙂
I told this story because celebration is about much more than a party. For the Christian, celebration is the younger sibling of worship and praise. It is a direct response, not necessarily to a situation or circumstance, but to gratitude for God giving us just one more day. Even for the non-Christian, celebration releases endorphins of euphoria as we enjoy those we love and cherish, even if they are no longer physically with us.
See i believe in having a great time? You know why? Because God put us here to have life, and have it more abundantly! Why would our loving God make us in His image, put us here on His earth, and give us His grace and favor, just for us to be miserable? Think about that. In 2019, take that trip (if you can afford it), do that activity, love harder!
Also think about this, people have been celebrating for centuries! In my mind, before the fall, I’d like to believe that Adam and Eve celebrated frequently in the Garden of Eden! All of that good food! Adam had his woman, they were naked and unashamed! Plus the animals were there chilling! Adam could get a tiger ride anytime he wanted one! In my mind, Eve was like “You haven’t lived until you have rode a rhinoceros!” All of that, and they had full access to God! Just because they fell, doesn’t mean God didn’t intend for them to have His best! He intends the same for us, so celebrate! 🙂
What am i saying? I’m saying in 2019, as you strive for your complex goals, don’t forget the simple celebrations of daily life from the routine and the mundane. In the bible Paul said “In all things i have learned to be content.” Contentment in 2019 doesn’t mean to stop striving, definitely not! It simply means to be thankful for what God has already done in the process as you strive. I’ll close this message with an original poem I wrote entitled “Reset”. I hope that you can hold on to these words for encouragement as we enter into what will be the glorious year of 2019.
“Reset, by Vintage Retroman”
To celebrate this life is to celebrate a treasure/ Because everyday’s a gift so strive to make each day better/ Choose to live your best life, choose to let go of the past/ God’s already in the future, and His plan is so vast/
For your life, and for mine and really all of us should/ Remember that He causes all things to work together for Good/ so celebrate, don’t hesitate because He loves you/ and meditate, on the fact that He put no one above you/
He knows your struggles, pain and all of the things you deal with/ He cares, He wants you to know that He is still with/ You as you journey for your greater purpose grinding/ It will be worth it as you crush it, in 2019! Happy New Year everyone!
V.R
I’m just a pink puff/ looking to eat lot’s of random stuff/ such an unlikely hero, some people say i don’t look so tough/
But i say, you shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover/ because in Dreamland i promise you will never find another/
Hero/ My name is Kirby and i came on the scene/ in 1993 battling King Dededee on your screen/
So take a trip to Dreamland where there is no half steppin’/I eat my enemies like wack MC’s and then take their weapon/
It doesn’t matter if it’s Vegetable Valley or the Grape Gardens/ Or if that tree that i have to battle has all those apples falling/ You can be Paint Roller, Heavy Mole, or even Meta Knight/ I’m lit in Dreamland, i save the world, and then drop the mic……. (Crowd screams)
Written by Vintage Retroman
P.S.- Download the Free Fiver App below. It’s an awesome tool i use for services i need on demand. It is also a great way to make extra money by providing services on demand. V.R.
A retro reset, a rebranding of sorts. I truly believe that mentally, i am stuck somewhere between the early 80’s and late 90’s! I have now been blogging for about 9 months and i am loving it! Despite struggles and hardships in my personal life, i view my blogging as a source of intellectual refuge. I love touching people through originality! From “Pac-Man Poetry” to fiction short stories. From professional reviews to “Memory Lane Moments”, i love presenting people the option to escape the reality of the stresses in adulthood. My whole goal is simply to make you feel like a kid again!
In the spirit of creativity, originality, and content delivery i have decided to completely redesign my site! This is for you, my reader! I hope you find it more user-friendly, with content that is meaningful. Use the search bar to shop for retro items and apparel, all discounted! I hope you all continue to pursue your passions purpose on your individual pages! Remember my slogan: Never let life dictate how far you can make it! I hope you all will be blessed beyond measure! More content is on the way so stay tuned!😀👍
V.R.
Welcome 