An Interview Through Time With Abby Frank and her Grandpa

00:01 My name is Abby, and I'm interviewing my grandpa, Rodney Bishop, who we call papa or pops. It's thanksgiving day, November 23, 2023, and we are interviewing in my grandpa's living room in Birmingham, Alabama. Hey, pops.

00:15 Hey, baby. How are you doing?

00:16 I'm good. How are you? Are you ready for the interview? Yeah, sounds good. Okay, so, first question. What was your childhood like?

00:23 Oh, well, I'm 82 years old, so back when I was a child, it was about as normal as it was for that period. There wasn't as many gadgets and cars and things on the road as they are these days. And not everybody even had a car back. No shade. But it was fun. It was fun.

00:49 That's nice. Did you get into any trouble? And what was the worst thing you did?

00:55 Yeah, I got in trouble. Of course I did. We skipped school and got caught and got suspended from school. My dad had to carry me back to the school, and he guaranteed them it wouldn't happen again. And it didn't happen. And dad. And we got in trouble for throwing rocks at mailboxes and stop signs were to back of a pickup truck one time. And I think somebody, I had a friend who was pretty wealthy, his father was pretty wealthy, and I think he helped us out with that. And he got. He owned a hardware store, and I think he gave all of new mailboxes. So. Lucky we come out of that. So just mischievous things that shouldn't be done. Shouldn't have done. And we wouldn't advise him to do it these days, but that's about it.

01:48 Yeah. That's nice. Well, next question. Who are your favorite relatives?

01:54 My favorite relatives? Well, I like all my cousins. And I had a favorite uncle, Gerald. Gerald Martin. He's actually a half brother. My mom and Gerald and the Martin family, there's a lot of them. My mom was a Martin, and there's a lot of them in Shelby county. And now still don't care about every one of them. Yeah.

02:25 Awesome. Great to hear. All right, so, next question. Do you remember any of the stories your grandparents used to tell you?

02:32 Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I had one sticks in my mind. That's kind of gross. My granddaddy told me a story one time that when he was a boy, which is a long time ago, the school that he attended, they couldn't keep a teacher, a schoolmaster. The boys that had a bunch of mean boys in school never run off every schoolmaster. And he said, finally one day they got a new schoolmaster. He come up on a mule, on a wagon. He gets off the wagon and takes a shotgun and shoots the mule and said, everybody straightened up from that time on.

03:20 Oh, my God.

03:21 He killed his own mule. So they figured they ran out and missed with him. Cause he's bad news. Oh, my gosh.

03:28 That's. Wow. That's a story for sure. Well, moving on to the next question. Who are your best friends and what were they like?

03:38 Well, my best friend was a guy named Donny Brown. And we were best friends for years and years and years from grade school alone. And we talked to each other probably every day up until the time, unfortunately, he died. And I had another best friend. Unfortunately he died, but he thought he was Elvis Presley. As a matter of fact, he looked like him a little bit. He tried to act like him. And we used to call him Elvis. And at his funeral, they played Elvis music at his funeral.

04:14 Oh, wow.

04:16 And I told someone before the funeral start, I said his name was Corey Austin. I said, it wouldn't surprise me if they didn't sing Elvis songs today. Well, they did. It was that and those two and just boys all over, good friends growing up. And there's two or three that I became men with, adults with.

04:41 That's good to hear. I know that you had mentioned about Donnie Brown just throughout, while you were. While he was still alive, that you would call him every day and you guys would talk. So can you elaborate on that, how that was important to you?

04:58 Well, we were friends for boys growing up being old men. And we almost knew what each other was thinking. And we talked just about every day about something. We check up on one another, and one of us got sick. We visit and stay in the hospital with them, et cetera, et cetera. And we were real close and probably closest to Donnie as anything other than a brother.

05:29 Wow.

05:30 Or a sister.

05:31 Wow. That's. Wow. Well, sad that he's gone now.

05:37 Oh, yeah, it is. I miss him.

05:40 Well, anyways, so going to the next question, what were major historical events that you were alive for, and how did they impact your life going forward?

05:50 Well, I guess the one that's pretty well known now for assassination of John F. Kennedy, the president of the United States. And I was live for that. And it kind of just shocked the world, especially our country. And everybody liked him, and I did. And then his brother was also assassinated, and he was running for president. And that kind of stayed with me for all my life. Really?

06:23 Really?

06:24 Yeah.

06:25 Wow. How did that impact you? Like, did it change your view on anything? Did it make you more aware?

06:34 Well, it made me more aware of surroundings and what's going on. I got more astute in politics, of course, I never ran for office or anything like that, but I kept up with politics at a very young age, and it was because of that, I'm not going to say it was a good experience. It was a horrible experience, but it awakened, actually, it woke up the nation, really, at that time.

07:07 All right, so next question. Tell me about your first job.

07:11 My first job was at a grocery store, at a supermarket. And myself and two of my buddies worked at the same store at the same shipping. And, man, that was hard work. It really was.

07:25 Really.

07:26 Oh, yeah. And we, you had to be disciplined because you got to do your homework at a set time and be more disciplined. I think anything that taught me discipline my time and the way I thought, actually, because it wasn't hip, hip, hooray every day, come home and kick up your heels because we had jobs, and I think it's good for kids if they get a part time job somewhere while they're going to school. Mm hmm. And Hepson.

07:57 Good. All right. And then going off of this, what was the minimum wage when you started working?

08:03 Oh, gosh. It was, I think it was a dollar and 65. I think they played at the grocery store.

08:09 Wow.

08:10 And it was less than $2 an hour.

08:13 Okay.

08:13 I do know that. And, but there was, the hours wasn't really killing. And they took into that company, did take in consideration kids going to school and that their work came first, their academic work came first, which I think was very good on their part. I don't know how it is now for young kids working part time jobs, right?

08:45 Well, yeah, just comparing the minimum wage that you were talking about, less than $2 compared to now. It's definitely different through inflation, through the years, the worth of the money, the money worth now. So it's definitely changed the value of the dollar. So, yeah, you've been able to live through the changing of the money and see it. So how do you think, and like, even values of houses and all that stuff, just in terms of the money aspect throughout your life, how have you viewed it throughout its changing?

09:26 Well, it's houses. Back in those days when I was a teenager or just young, and you could buy a three bedroom, one bath. You didn't see three bedroom, two baths or three bedrooms and three baths or four bedrooms back in those days. If you did, if it is, they were, they were called personalized homes. Most of them were three bedrooms, one bath. And they had, I know most of the people say you don't need it in a bathroom. Well, some of us in that bathroom, we had two bathrooms. Well, just shut up, sit down while he gets out. And you go in that sort of thing. And as you get older and as time passed, the construction industry, as far as housing goes, I had an uncle who built houses, and people started getting more into more room, more rooms, roomier houses. And, you know, we had a bunch of kids. It helped. Things changed. And nowadays I still work in the real estate business, believe it or not. And nowadays houses are just that getting out of reach, really, for this. It's tough right now for the young homeowners.

10:49 Right? We've definitely learned about that in our economics class, about how owning a house now is super expensive. So what you've said definitely makes sense. Yeah. So going a little bit off of this. Would you have any financial advice to your younger self?

11:07 Work, save, saves money. I don't care how much it is, just 10% of your payday, whatever that comes to, save at least that you can, and save it. And don't be robbing your savings. Save it warm, and you'll get into a habit of earning and having, and allotting so much for, you know, go to ball games, whatever pleasure movies, whatever. You allot yourself times like that. I mean, four or four times like that. And it builds a pattern and you, it stays with you about putting so much aside. And you have something for a rainy day, and there will be rainy days, I guarantee you, unfortunately.

12:01 Well, awesome. Thank you. So, next question. If you could hold onto memories from your life forever, which would they be?

12:12 Well, family and friendship, of course. Is it. And that's what God intended it to be, I'm thinking. And develop friendships and honor friendships like you honor family. It will pay off for you. Always be able to try to help someone and pay attention to people, pay attention to their needs. If you can help someone do it, it'll come on to roost on you. You can make, you know, you'll benefit from being there to help people. And you can help him. You can help paint a house. You can paint a raise your yard, or whatever. You don't have to be necessarily monetary, especially when you're young, you're younger, like in high school, grade school, high school. But, you know, you can develop a pattern of living where you're always there to assist people. And that helps. It develops a mentality of being above a giver, being accessible for people to help them, and it pays off.

13:35 Awesome. All right, so next question. When did you first fall in love.

13:41 Oh, I probably fell in love three times a week when I was a kid. I mean, I don't when did I first fell in love? I fell in love with the person I ended up marrying. And I met her on a bethe that she wasn't kin to. Two guys I was friends with. She was their sister and a friend that we went all through high school together. And I didn't know that he had a sister. And I've been in his house.

14:21 Wow.

14:22 And I ended up graduation, me and three of the friends went off to be to the Navy. And my brother in law, future brother in law, was one of them. And all three of the guys, but three of the best guys I knew, all three went and became Navy SeALs. And one of them is kind of funny. Two of them met one another in 1980s in a bar in Tokyo, Japan. And they hadn't seen each other since high school in the 1960s. But they all went on and became very fruitful and served the country well, and they served themselves well and others. And so I felt, when I finally found out, this guy, I asked this girl, I went to college with her, and I found out that she was his brother, his sister, I didn't believe it. And I bet some money on it. So I think I bet some money on it. But anyhow, when I finally ran into the parking lot of schools, at the parking lot and I asked her, I said, are you kidding? These guys, she had two brothers. Yeah, they're my brothers. What? And then we started dating and ended up getting married. That's about three years later we got married. I. So I guess that's the level of my life.

15:50 Wow, that's good to hear. I never knew that you had my honor, so that's cool.

15:56 Yeah.

15:58 All right, so next question. What did you think your life would be like when you were older? How is it different from what you imagined?

16:05 Well, how different? I think it's better.

16:09 Okay.

16:10 Because we grew up after we were married, my wife, we were married 38 years, and we never could have children. And I met this dear girl on a missionary trip in 19. 91. 91 in Timishar, Romania. She was a translator for church services, that we were going there to support this church. And she was a translator, and she spoke English well. And I was so impressed by how well she spoke English. I said, wow, you speak English? He said, yeah, I'm going to translate this service. Tell your men to put their earphones on. And I knew right then that was the reason I was in Romania. Cause I didn't care anything about going. I didn't want to go, and my friends talked me into going. So that's something that turned my life completely around for the best and things people have. Everybody has a turning point in their life somehow, some way, if you have face and God, that's gonna be. God's gonna use you. If you wanna be used as a turning point in your life that you're gonna. Your destiny. Destiny will, for lack of a better word right now, is gonna turn on that for better or worse. Now, of course, that's my thinking. I don't believe it. Cause I experienced it.

18:02 Awesome.

18:02 Awesome.

18:03 Nowhere. All right, so, next question. How would you like to be remembered?

18:12 I'd like to be remembered as a God fearing person who loved people, who would help people, and sensitive to the needs of others.

18:27 Yeah, that's great. And you are all of those things, so. You are all of those things, so that's good. All right, next question. What are you proudest of?

18:42 Well, I'm proud, proudest of. I'm proudest, proudest of right now. Adopted Corina my daughter, and Corina has five wonderful children, which are my grandkids, and they're adopted, but they don't matter how long, just as much as they were born into biologically. But lock deals blows in its according, you come out, the way you react to setbacks in your life, you can let it destroy you, come out and be stronger with it. And having trusting God is a big help. If you get to know him early in life, it helps. It's helpful. Very helpful. You fight. You can create battles in your life that you don't have to have to fight. And as you grow older, you realize what they are. And of course, you want to stay out of trouble with the law and stay out of trouble with drugs and whatever. You know what you need to do. Everybody knows what they need to do. That's an instinct that's given to you. But just shoot straight, be straight with people, respect people, and you can navigate through this life pretty well.

20:17 Awesome. Okay, next question. Do you have any regrets?

20:23 Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I've made some wrong terms of life, and everybody has, everybody will. The situation is how you respond to it. A crisis in your life, your response to it, and your approach to getting out of it and correcting your life, correcting whatever it is that's causing you problems. And if it's bad stuff, stay away from it. My God. Yep. I'll tell you what, getting to know God early is a big help. I mean, you know, you're free to do what you want, but just stay clean and live a clean life and be open to others, be open to situations, then you'll do well.

21:29 Awesome. Thanks for that. So, next question. If you could talk to a younger version of yourself, what would you say?

21:36 Pay attention, Rodney. Pay attention. Just do your duty and mind your mom and dad, respect your siblings and continue on and avoid temptations. And that's one of the biggest things that happens to young folks. I don't care what generation it is, you're gonna be tempted to do things, you know, do what's right, you know what's right and what's wrong. It's easy to remember. Just don't do something that gets you messed up or mess up somebody else.

22:19 You're awesome. So now, going into some topics more towards me as we've gone through your life and just seen different things that you've experienced. So, for this question, what are your hopes for what the future holds for me?

22:36 For you? I swear to Abby yes. My hopes for you, that you will blossom and do what we've been talking about. Just make something out of your life, which you will, I think. And to stay the course, there'd be disappointments. But you gotta overcome disappointments. Everybody has disappointments. Think positive, really. And if you get down and get out, talk to somebody, stay away from drugs and of course, the booze and staying out there about. Stay out of all that. But you know. You know what's right and wrong. You have a relationship with Jesus. That'll help you a lot. That's all. It will help you. That's the thing, really. Stay the course. Decide what you want to be. Sometimes you change your mind about what you're going to do in life and all like that, but do what you want to do. You're going to be bricklayer. Be the best bricklayer. They are. By the way, we need bricklayers now. And if you're gonna be a nurse or if you're gonna be a doctor or whatever, pursue it to see the light and head toward it. Don't be distracted. If you get off course, correct it.

24:24 Thank you for that. That's sweet. I like that. Okay, so now, going into the last question, and similarly to the previous question, what are your hopes for my children?

24:36 Your children? My hopes for your children would be that they would love their parents, grow and develop, and they would have good parents, I'm sure. I know you would be a good parent. And my hopes for the children, that they would be fruitful and have something that they love to do and be, and be able to contribute something to society and to the families.

25:22 Yeah, that's sweet. I like that, too. I kind of, I haven't even thought about that for myself, but, like, hearing you say that and speak your mind, it kind of gets me thinking, as well. Yeah. Well, thanks so much for all of this and for doing the interview. For me, these questions kind of were really nice and helpful and navigated through just, like, your life and everything that you went through and kind of experiences that stood out.

25:54 So.

25:54 Yeah. Thanks so much.

25:56 You're welcome. Quite welcome.

25:59 And happy Thanksgiving. I'm excited to have a good meal now.

26:02 All right.

26:03 And. Yeah. Thank you so much.

26:06 Thank you. It's been a pleasure.