Lets Just Talk About It Podcast with Chuck

(Ep.102) Eric Sims: A Testament to Faith and Perseverance

• Season 3 • Episode 102

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What happens when life throws you into the heart of a violent neighborhood, and you have to fight your way through to rise above the chaos? Meet Eric Sims from Deanwood, Northeast DC, whose journey from the tumultuous Lincoln Heights housing project is both inspiring and heart-wrenching. Raised by a tireless single mother in an environment plagued by gangs and predators, Mr. Sims shares how he navigated the harsh streets while helping care for his siblings. His mother's determination to provide a stable home shines through as a beacon of hope in his narrative.

Mr. Sims takes us deep into a confrontation that left him accused and imprisoned under dire conditions. He opens up about the satanic visions and suicidal thoughts that haunted him while confined, and how prayer became his lifeline. This gripping chapter of Eric's life underscores the mental and emotional toll of such an extreme ordeal and the power of faith in overcoming it.

Faith and resilience illuminate Eric's path as he rebuilds his life post-incarceration.  His story is a testament to unwavering dedication and the transformative power of serving others. Mr. Sims reflects on the challenges of managing employees, maintaining professionalism, and his deep commitment to his community and church. Join us as Mr. Sims shares poignant moments, lessons learned, and his unyielding faith in a conversation that promises to resonate with anyone facing life's toughest battles.

Chuck:

Hey, welcome back to another episode of let's Just Talk About it podcast. I'm your host, chuck, and if you're here for the first time, this platform was created to give genuine people just like you an opportunity to share a portion of your life's journey. So, with that being said, today on this episode, I have Mr Eric Sims, from Washington DC, where he shares his journey of how it was growing up in the northeast section of a place called Deanwood, and also who made him into the man he is today. So, hey, you don't want to miss this amazing conversation. As a matter of fact, do me a favor Go and grab your husband, your wife, your children, or even call a friend and gather around to listen to my conversation with Mr Sims on let's Just Talk About it podcast. Hey, let's jump right in. Thank you so much for tuning in to let's Just Talk About it podcast today. I have Mr Eric Sims on with me today. How's it going, mr Sims? I'm fine. Thank you, it's a pleasure to be here. Yeah, thank you for coming on.

Chuck:

Yes sir, yes sir, Mr Sims, I love to jump right into my interviews to have those genuine conversations with genuine people just like yourself, and I really believe that everybody has their own unique journey of how they grew up, situations they've been through that. I believe somebody's out there who's going through the same thing that you have been through that needs to hear your story. So the first question I'd love to jump in with and ask where are you from? Where did you grow?

Mr. Eric Sims:

up. I grew up in Washington DC in Northeast, in a section called Deanwood. Deanwood Wow, yes, sir.

Chuck:

How was that?

Mr. Eric Sims:

Well, we spent our time our early childhood in a place called Lincoln Heights. It was a housing project and I have to say it wasn't so nice Violence, predators and people being preyed on and all of the all of that gangs. It's just not a very pleasant place to grow up. Wow, you said Deanwood. Deanwood it was a section of Northeast and the project's called Lincoln Heights.

Chuck:

Got you, wow. So you grew up there. So you're growing up in Lincoln Heights. I mean not in Lincoln Heights, but you grew up in Deanwood. So was it a two-parent household? How was that?

Mr. Eric Sims:

No, sir, my father left my mother with five kids and he just took off. He woke up one day, one evening I guess. He got up and said I'm going to go out and go buy some cigarettes and he never came back. Never came back. Wow, Never came back.

Mr. Eric Sims:

And so she raised us the best she could. We lived in a series of basement apartments and eventually we got a place on a housing project, an apartment and a housing project, and I stayed there doing from elementary through but through junior high and um about first part of high school. But just before high school, yeah, we got a house and we moved out just outside the project. So in fact there's a few blocks from the projects, but it was our own house. But it was tough and my work two or three jobs to to keep things going. And, and I was the eldest of five children we had, um, four boys and one girl. My sister was the baby and um again, it was my responsibility to take care of them and look after them and make sure that they were okay. And in the projects it was rough. We had, you know, always been the new people in the neighborhood that people want to try you and see what you made of them, right, right, right.

Mr. Eric Sims:

So I had to deal with all of that and I think I was successful, because after a few weeks people got the message that you don't mess around. Yeah, you don't play, you don't play.

Chuck:

Yeah, wow.

Mr. Eric Sims:

It took a little bit, but after a while it got to the point where they just plain left us alone. Wow, and it was always cool. You had to fight just about every day. Go to lunch my brother gave us lunch money and you had to fight just about every day. You know, go to lunch, go to. My brother gave us lunch money and you had to fight to keep your lunch money because I'm the kind of person that you know you're not going to take anything from me. So if I have to fight every day, I have to fight every day.

Mr. Eric Sims:

But you know, eventually it got to the point where they left us alone and we were okay, but it was a very nice environment and I taught a lot of the wrong lessons, you know. But we survived and my mom got a house, went back to school, became a nurse. I started at Freedman's Hospital and then Freedman's became Howard. It's on the same campus as Howard University. So Freedman's became Howard University Hospital and that's where she ultimately retired and that's when she ultimately retired. And about my freshman year of high school, she met and married the groundskeeper there, Cecil Pearson, and they married and he became my stepfather. Wow, and he's just about the best man I'd ever known. Wow, he's just a good guy.

Chuck:

So he raised you.

Mr. Eric Sims:

Well, by that time I was in high school.

Chuck:

So I guess he had a hand in kind of finishing me off.

Mr. Eric Sims:

Yeah, most of my childhood was behind me by then. You know, I got my first car in, let's see, junior year of high school Between junior and senior year, I got my first car. So you know, by then my childhood was behind me, but I still respected him and listened to him and I learned a lot from him.

Chuck:

Wow, Wow. You talk about trauma today. Did that really, you know, like your father not being there. Did that affect you mentally?

Mr. Eric Sims:

That's probably the most profound thing that happened in my life. I wrote a story one time for a college class called my Father and Me, and it felt like I was chasing a ghost because my father's people uncle and aunt, my godparents were actually. Well, his brother was my godfather and his wife was my godmother. And every time I go around and they say you look just W that was my father's name, jw and you look just like him, you talk like him, you walk like him, but I'd never seen him. I'd only seen him from an old black and white picture, right, and I would go around my mother's brothers and they would tell me the same thing how much I looked like him, never had anything to do with him, and I resented the fact that he left us like that because my head is tough and she worked two or three jobs just to keep things, keep a roof over our head and keep food in our belly.

Mr. Eric Sims:

And when we got to the project, she first thing she never said it, verbalized it, but everything she did implied that we were just passing through. She didn't want us to get comfortable in that environment. She would take us on back. Then they had streetcars and then buses and she would take us down to the museums downtown and places like that to expose us to the fact that our world was a lot bigger than those projects. Wow, I like that man. And then she eventually got a car and would take us to Ocean City and Coral Beach and even as far as Coney Island in New York, put us all in the car. And then my grandparents my mother was born in Spartanburg, south Carolina, and our grandparents still live there and she would take us down there and leave us in the summertime or put us on the bus or train and send us down and we just we were exposed to a lot of things that I'm not like, yeah, the other kids in my neighborhood didn't.

Mr. Eric Sims:

They, you know, they were very limited in the outlook and it got to the point where I graduated from. Just before I graduated from high school, the federal government, the Department of Commerce, came to recruit people because they built a new complex called the Bureau of National Bureau of Standards out in Gaithersburg, Maryland, about 35 miles outside of DC. And they came to recruit people from the from high school to work in their technician program. They wanted what they call inner city people to come out.

Mr. Eric Sims:

And I told people you know, I got a college education basically just for being black. So there was like 2,000 people on the campus and there wasn't a lot of us out there. I'll put it like that when we saw each other, we wore up to each other and hugged and kissed each other on both cheeks so few black people out there, but it helped me.

Mr. Eric Sims:

Wow, and going back to formative years, when I think about it, there's a passage in Mark and Matthew. It says how shall it profit a man if he gained the whole world and yet lose his soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? And because I grew up in the projects and grew up poor, I had the attitude that I wanted everything everybody else had. Everybody I saw on TV with houses and cars. I wanted it and that drove my whole life and it motivated me to want more, to want more, to want more. So when I left high school I got a job at the Bureau of Standards. Then I left the Bureau of Standards, joined the Air Force, came back from the Air Force to the Bureau of Standards and eventually went into private industry.

Mr. Eric Sims:

But what got me in trouble was getting involved with a guy that was. He worked for the second largest private security company in Maryland and he was black. And he approached my wife and me and asked us if we would help him create a minority company, get set aside from the government. And we wrote the paperwork, business plan, all that stuff, and then we were going to be set, basically because I'm in the mindset that I want more, and that got me involved in that deal Because a good friend of mine introduced me to him, so I figured, the guy must be all right, because my friend introduced us and it turns out the guy was a crook.

Mr. Eric Sims:

So what he was doing, we created our company and what he did was take uniforms, money checks and all that and writing checks to people who were working for us and giving them uniforms and things. We had our own patches, but he would put our patches on their uniform and they were working for us at our sites, but he was paying them out of his company to get our company started. And when I found out he was doing all this stuff, I told him no thanks, you know you. You know you go your way, I'll go mine. But he, um he, that wasn't good enough for him. So he started harassing us and causing a whole bunch of stuff. And my wife kept telling me you know, just just be patient, you know, have your day in court. They didn't have, um uh, laws against harassment and things like that, because he didn't actually do anything to us?

Mr. Eric Sims:

yeah, he was just calling us and driving around the house and acting crazy, but but, um, he threatened my son one night, uh, and I and he, um, my son was 15 at the time and he threatened my son and one day my son didn't come home from school. So the kind of mindset that I was in after all this stress dealing with this guy, I thought he had my son. So I got some guys together and I got rented two cars and they went in one car and I was in another car and we went back and forth from the job, the office we had in Gatorsburg, to his house in Fairfax, back and forth, and we were talking by cell phone trying to figure out where he was, because wherever he was we were going to get him. Wow, because I just snapped and said this is it, I'm not living like this anymore. Right, I just snapped and said this is it, I'm not living like this anymore. So my wife kept saying leave it alone, let the law handle it. But I wasn't cut out.

Chuck:

I got to you by that time. You're from Dean Town. Go ahead.

Mr. Eric Sims:

One of the scenes in my life with Lamar Thomas was Neighborhood Bullying. Standing up to Lamar Thomas was a big deal and I was that way. You're not going to push me around, you might beat me, you might kill me, whatever. But I don't run Because in the projects, my attitude in the projects, if you run once you'll be, running for the rest of your life. So I don't run, I don't back down. He was a bully and again, the face I put on was Lamar Thomas and we're not having this Right.

Mr. Eric Sims:

So basically, long story short, we had a confrontation in Fairfax Parkway, out in Fairfax, and because I don't want to sound like I'm boasting now, this is all God's grace I got you. But because I'm a better shot and I'm ambidextrous, I'm even-handed. You're both hands Right, we're both hands and I'm even-handed, I can shoot right with both hands and I'm firing this guy from both sides of the car and basically I hit him. I thought I killed him. I actually honestly thought I killed him and he slumped over and he went off the road and I went on back home, bought some Chinese and went home and ate dinner like nothing happened.

Mr. Eric Sims:

And that's just how callous and indifferent I was about life, about anything. He was a threat to my existence, he was a threat to my way of life and I wasn't having it Right. So basically, he lied and told the police that I was the one that shot him. There's no way he could have seen me. It was dark and I wasn't driving my own. All my cars have been distinctive. You can spot a car that I drove a mile away. So I couldn't use my own car, so I rented a car. And so the thing is, he lied to the police and said that I was the one.

Mr. Eric Sims:

But they came and got me and arrested me and the Bureau of Alcohol, tobacco and Firearms took me from Gaithersburg, Maryland, where we were living, over to Baltimore and put me in an underground dungeon and there was no light. I mean there was lights, no clock, no windows, the cell, that when we get to the place there's a desk sergeant there and the two ATF agents had me handcuffed and standing in front of this desk and the desk sergeant said why are you bringing this man here? And he said well, we want to bring him here because we want him close to the court. And the man said well, there's a whole lot of places you could have taken them that are closer to court than this. Why are you bringing them here? So now my antenna is going up. You know if the man is running to jail, he's asking why they bring me here.

Chuck:

I'm kind of wondering what's going on.

Mr. Eric Sims:

So they take me in the cell and the cell had metal walls between the cell but there were bars in the front.

Mr. Eric Sims:

So, they put me in the cell had metal walls between the cells but there were bars in the front.

Mr. Eric Sims:

So they put me in the cell and I'm in this bare cell. There's a bare metal shelf that's supposed to be a bed, but there's no mattress on it, no bed linen, no clothes, no sheets to spread anything, no hygiene goods, no washcloth, anything. Just a sink commode combination and a bare shelf. And it was cold. So I had a choice I could keep my little tracksuit jacket on to keep warm or I could roll it up and make a pillow out of it to sleep on this bare shelf. So I'm doing this for a while.

Mr. Eric Sims:

The first two days there was a guy next to me and we were talking across the bars to each other. He was from Baltimore. We were talking back and forth and I was keeping it together like that because the only time you knew what time it was, when the guy brought the food around, you'd ask him what time it was and that was it. Otherwise the lights on all the time. You can't tell day from night. You don't know what time you're just there. So they're all the way over there. They emphasize we can keep you for three, and if we can't. If we're not satisfied, we can go before a judge and get you to stay in that cell. Stay here for longer than three days, but you're going to be here at least three days. So it kept emphasizing three days, right? So the first two days I'm okay, because the guys next to me, at least I got some company to talk to. But then on the end of the second day they took him out.

Mr. Eric Sims:

So I'm there by myself, so'm in this cell and and I keep having these visions satan is telling me to commit suicide, kill yourself, because, because the man got your son and you kill him and you're never going to get out of this situation, the only way you can get out of here is to kill yourself. So I'm in this cell by myself and the devil and I'm convinced it was the devil and and then he started focusing my attention on a piece of glass in the corner of the cell. Wow, and this maximum security cell where they take everything from you, including the little string that ties around your waist for the tracksuit. They even took the string in my shoestrings out of my sneakers, right, right. So this is a maximum security place, but yet there was about a two-inch Coke bottle, a piece of a Coke bottle or Pepsi, I couldn't tell which one, but it was a two-inch piece of glass in the cell.

Mr. Eric Sims:

And he kept fixating my attention on that cell, on that glass in that cell, and he kept saying kill yourself, kill yourself. And I started having these visions from above, myself in the cell and looking down on my dead body with a pool of blood all around me. Wow, he kept bombarding me with that image over and over and over again. So after a while I got to the point where I couldn't take it anymore. I turned to the back of the cell, raised my hands, crying out to the Lord, tears streaming down my face, and I just asked the Lord, please help me, save me, because only you can deliver me from this. So I'm crying and I'm all worked up and I had my hands in the air and then suddenly this giant hand grabbed my right hand. Wow, and I didn't. I never opened my eyes. I was afraid to open my eyes, really.

Chuck:

But you could feel it.

Mr. Eric Sims:

I could feel this. This big hand grabbed my hand and led me around to the bed and that metal shelf. Then I sat down and he sat down beside me and I leaned into his chest and perfect peace came over me, perfect peace. He never spoke, but he said. The feeling I got in my spirit was everything's gonna be okay, you're gonna be fine, and that's and that's when I've been here.

Mr. Eric Sims:

This is like something. Uh, it's early september's, um, memorial day, no labor day, which's the end of the summer, memorial Day, the first, second or third day of September, and it was a weekend. So I don't know which day it was, but it was the last day of that holiday weekend. What year was that? This was 1991. Wow. And so the next morning I woke those off to sleep and the next morning I hear all these cells opening and all this clanging and stuff and the ATF agents. They was all dressed in black tactical gear and face shields and all this stuff when they arrested me. Now they all in their nice suits with cologne and all that smelling good and walk up to the boss. Mr Sims, how was your weekend? I said my weekend was fine. How was yours you?

Chuck:

didn't expect them to go that way.

Mr. Eric Sims:

No, they looked back at each other like you wouldn't expect this, you know. So they take me over to the magistrate and the magistrate told me charges against me and all that. It was bad. It was really bad. And told me charges against me. But at the end I said your Honor, may I speak? He said, yes, sir, go ahead. And I told him they took me to this place and I described it no bed linen, no mattress, no hygiene products. I didn't have a chance to even wash up or take a shower or anything. And they held me there for three days like that. And I said your Honor, if I have to go back to jail, please don't let him send me back to that place. And he just went off. He said you shouldn't have taken him there. I'm commanding you right now to take this man up to Montgomery County Detention Center and do not take him back to that place. I never had figured out where that place was, but I always felt like Nelson Mandela one day was trying to figure out where it was.

Mr. Eric Sims:

Go back and take a look at it. But it was underground. Take a look at it.

Chuck:

But it was on the ground.

Mr. Eric Sims:

Right, they were driving so fast and they took me on the ground. But the last thing I did before I left that cell was take that piece of glass and scratch the 23rd Psalm in that wall for memory. I grew up in church and I remember that and I tell people that's like breadcrumbs, because when I got lost I knew how to find my way back because of all those things I learned in Sunday school and church and my mother and my grandmother taught me and that's how I found the Lord and I've been his ever since. Wow.

Chuck:

So it's important to grow up around that, because if you find yourself in a position like you were in, you could find, like you said, your way back home. Find your way back home. There you go. I like that.

Mr. Eric Sims:

You know, I can't call myself the prodigal son in a sense, because I was raised in the church. I got you and I even went forward and accepted Christ and got baptized and promptly left the church for 20-something years. But the Lord, he's always there. He's always been there for me. I did my 10 years in prison.

Mr. Eric Sims:

It gave me 17 years, since I had to do 10 years of mandatory and that wasn't easy, but I got my associate's degree. While I was incarcerated, I met a lot of good brothers, including the one I'm talking to here. Yeah, shout out to you.

Chuck:

You know what, when I first met you, we was in Roanoke, virginia, camp 25. Camp 25, bata, tide, blue Ridge Mountains yes, sir, bata.

Mr. Eric Sims:

Tide, blue Ridge Mountains there you go yeah. Yeah, I remember those days well, wow, and the Lord is good. He was good to me throughout that whole thing, wow, and I can tell you some stories about during my time of incarceration.

Mr. Eric Sims:

But the bottom line is he was faithful to me all those 10 years and I was faithful to him and he was faithful to me and I ate that Bible. I had a Schofield reference Bible and that's my most precious possession. I wore that thing out. I'm scared to move it, take it anywhere now because it's all falling apart. But I wore it out and it kept me. It kept me and so when I came back out it was just like another day. I thought, lord, they let me go. What am I going to do now? I was an electronics technician, been off the street 10 years. I couldn't go back to that. But he opened doors for me when I first came home.

Mr. Eric Sims:

My cousin Charles got me working in a place that delivered newspapers and magazines and I was catching cash. It was cash and go. You know, they paid you. You know, by, by, at the end of the week, pay your cash, kind of thing. And um, so my pro-losser said you got to get a job where they give you a paycheck, a paycheck and a pay stub and all that. They take out taxes and stuff. Oh, you're going back. I said, well, I'm not going back. So they had, um a job, say. I came home to live in my mother's basement. I lost everything my wife, my house, my car, everything. I came back home with $75 and a bus ticket to Richmond and I had to pay the difference from Richmond to DC myself. And I got off that bus with nothing but the prison jumpsuit, the prison jeans, the shirt that I had and the money to get.

Mr. Eric Sims:

Not much you know. So adding the money to get you? Yeah, yeah, not much you know. So my mother offered me to live in her basement. So I got me a little spot in her basement and the Lord was good to me and she was about, and, miss Ember, was you the whole time. Okay, yeah, he was all Mom visited. I think if they had sent me to the moon, mom would have found a way to visit me, me on the move.

Mr. Eric Sims:

And one of the things she told me one time when I visited. They sent me to about half a dozen different institutions. Camp 25 was next to the last one. I was released from.

Mr. Eric Sims:

And she told me everywhere I go, when I visit you, the staff, even the assistant warden, calls you Mr Sims, and I said, really, ma? And she said, yeah, they always refer to you Mr Sims, not 2-1, bob, that's not me. What happened was God is using me and I'm working according to his will, doing what he wants me to do, and people see that and that's what they. It's not me, it's the Christ in me that they see and I'm living and eventually I end up writing a book about that.

Mr. Eric Sims:

But the bottom line is you can live an honorable life serving the Lord, even behind bars. And the thing of it all is, if you're serving him behind bars, when that day comes for you to leave you'll be just another day, and for me it was just another day. There you go. I don't know where I'm going, I don't know what's in front of me, but I have a savior who's already over there and already has it worked out, and that's what. That's what I, when I do jail and prison ministry and happy houses and stuff you still doing that.

Mr. Eric Sims:

Yes, sir, I've been doing that since 2005 or so. Wow, I got. I got what I call a get out of jail free pass. I got a jail ID that lets me go in and out of the jail. And people in the status blocks, you know, like segregated housing and all that kind of stuff, because they can't come out to the services, so I take the service to them. But the thing is and one of my things is, I tell them that the Lord allows us to get in these boxes, but he never puts the top on the box. You can always look up to him and you're not in that cell by yourself, and so this is an opposite, and I'm telling you this from experience. I met the Lord himself in that situation like that, and you can be introduced to him too, if you desire. You can go left and keep getting what you've been getting, or you can turn right and keep straight.

Chuck:

This is a choice. This is a choice.

Mr. Eric Sims:

This is a choice, so, so, so. So the thing is, when I got out I lived my mother's basement. Mom was about to lose her house because she she climbed the chair and broke her ankle and had to put pins in it so she couldn't work and she saw it falling behind in the mortgage. She's like three months behind in a mortgage by when got home, but she still, let me live with it. I got one decent job and then eventually I got a job as a contractor, driving a bus from Montgomery County as a contract bus driver, and I did that for three years and then I got a job with the county for two years.

Mr. Eric Sims:

And so, after 10 years in prison, we were looking around trying to figure out how to save the house, how to years. And so, after 10 years in prison, we were looking around trying to figure out how to save the house. How to save the house, the Lord sent me to a man named Ralph Patrick who was a mortgage banker with SunTrust Mortgage, and he said he's a Christian. And he said, mr and Mrs Sim, we're going to find a way to get you a mortgage. And he pulled out all the stuff, he did everything and he finally got us a mortgage and I have to say he's a white man, but he's a good guy and he did it. So I got the. I'm actually living in my mother's house, but the house is in my name and I still call it Ma's house because it's Ma's house. So we kept that house until Ma passed. Wow.

Chuck:

The.

Mr. Eric Sims:

Thing is that job. The contract job led to a full-time job as a county operator. I worked that job for two years as a bus operator. Then a job in customer service opened up and they gave me that job. Then that job led to a job as a supervisor. Then after that I worked as what they call an acting chief and then they made me chief.

Mr. Eric Sims:

Chief is the top job of the depot and when I left I tell people my first job I was making $6.25. I was making $6.25. When I retired as a chief, I was making six figures and I had a $42 million annual budget and 300 people reporting to me. And this is with a convicted felon, with a criminal conviction, and the Lord has a way of opening doors that no man can shut and he can shut doors that no man can open and I'm living proof that that's a fact. And the bottom line is I didn't go around with a sandwich board saying convicted criminal or I did this, that and the other, but the people who needed to know knew Our personnel department people like that knew.

Mr. Eric Sims:

But the rest of it, that's just between me and the Lord and I honored them with that position. I got a corner office where I parked my car in the spot that says chief, and I walk up three or four steps into my own office with three windows around and a window on the inside. Yeah, I actually had three windows because the other one was my little storage area, so I had three windows around it and I parked my car right out in front and I honored the Lord because I'm in a position to make decisions that my predecessor, the woman that I replaced, would not make. People have problems and things like that. Right, the first thing always when you're in that kind of a position, you tell them to go to your supervisor. If the supervisor can't work it out, then you come to me, because I can't spend all my days dealing with all those kind of things.

Mr. Eric Sims:

That's what I got supervisors for, if I had like 14 supervisors or whatever it was and the bus operator used to go to the supervisor, but sometimes the supervisor didn't get it right and they would come to me. My mother's died, my father's died in Africa and I got to go home for however many days, because when you spend money like that to go to Africa, it's expensive and they don't want to go and come right back. They want to stay for a while and I understand that and I would do that because I'm in a position to do that. See, the Lord wants me in that position because he wants me to do the right thing. You see, and we have rules and we understand that. We got policies. We understand that. But because of me in that position, I can do things within the policy to honor the person and do the right thing and still be consistent with the policy Absolutely. Instead of being mean and hard-hearted with people, I treat people right, absolutely. I never lock my car. I don't do that.

Chuck:

My predecessor, keep the blinds open and lock the car and all that.

Mr. Eric Sims:

But you see, I treat people right going up.

Chuck:

So if I have to, come back down.

Mr. Eric Sims:

I'm going to meet the same people.

Chuck:

I like that.

Mr. Eric Sims:

I had a guy one time I'm walking down, it's my wife and. I walking in Target together. And this guy said Coach, he came up and I greeted him. He spoke to me, shook hands and kept on walking. And my wife said he said that y'all fired him because he had a sick mother and father. And I said sweetheart, that's not real, that's really not what happened. Because I know better, I can't reveal his business to her but that's not what happened.

Mr. Eric Sims:

So the thing of it all is, even people that had the discipline knew that I was disciplining them because they deserve to be disciplined. You don't cuss people out. You don't fail to let the kneeler or the ramp out on the bus and have some senior citizen crawl up on the bus on their hands and knees because you're too stupid to hit the switch and let them down. You don't do those kinds of things. You don't mess with the cameras on the bus. The cameras are there for your security and the security of people on the bus. You cover up the camera. I got to discipline you. You don't take a 40-foot bus flying a 40-foot bus past a school bus with the stop sign on, with the lights flashing and the arm out because you could kill somebody's kid.

Mr. Eric Sims:

So I'm sorry, you know you get three days home for that. I'm sorry, you know, because I need to let you know you can't keep doing that kind of stuff. The the first time I'm willing to cut you some slack, but the second and third time I'm sorry. You got to go all the way, you know, and that's what I was. But again, I meet these people from time to time, you know. Like I say probably thousands of people have my phone number. I've never changed my phone number, so all these people that I deal with, they know that I had the discipline. Discipline is not my first choice.

Mr. Eric Sims:

My first choice is right. It's not. Discipline is not my first choice. My first choice is right is to talk to you and try to counsel with you and that kind of thing. But if you keep doing the same old thing and knowing that what you're doing is wrong, I'm sorry. You know you got to go the other way. You're not leaving me with a whole lot of choice here, because if you kill somebody's kid, first of all they're going to deal with you first. But right after they deal with you they're going to come to see me and I don't want to be in a position to have to defend something like that when everybody knows that you're going to stop for a school bus before the lights come on.

Mr. Eric Sims:

The process is the school bus slows down, turns on the yellow light and then stops and turns on the red light. So if you're smart, as soon as they turn on the yellow lights you'll stop. You won't try to beat them turning on the red lights. You'll stop for the yellow light because that's the safe thing to do. And again, you're being paid for every second that you're behind the wheel. So there's no rush. You know you don't have to. You're not really saving anything by flying by the school bus. It doesn't make any sense and that was my big issue right there the school bus and then people being rude and disrespectful to passengers. And I tell them all the time sometimes the best thing to say is nothing. You're under no obligation to go tit for tat with people. If people want to be rude and disrespectful and ugly and want to start arguing, just cut it off. Sir ma'am, please take a seat.

Mr. Eric Sims:

Have a good day, keep it moving you know this is just common sense to me, but a lot of people will get all caught up in it, you know. And then I think you've seen people get stabbed and stuff over the fare. You know People don't realize that 90% of the fare on a bus is already covered, either federal or state money. So the company you're paying for when they put that money in the box, the company's only getting like 10% of that money. So why are you going to make an issue of the fare? I tell them, you let them know and let it go, you inform and then forget it. Sir ma'am, the fare's whatever it is. If they refuse to pay, that's fine. Have a seat, take a seat and keep on going. But I've seen people go tit for tat with people. Next thing, you know, guy's coming up front with a knife to stab them, you know, and that kind of stuff. Or pull a gun out or wait for you.

Mr. Eric Sims:

Every day I explain to them that you're on a route, you're on a fixed route, on a fixed schedule. So every day at that same time, they know they're going to see you at that spot. So think about this for a second. If you know this, why would you want to provoke somebody to do you harm if you know if they don't get you today, they can wait till tomorrow or the next day or the next week. But they know you're going to be at that spot. So why would you do that to yourself? To yourself, not to the company, to yourself, why would you do that? But I have people that have to sit down and talk to them and explain to them how the world works, you know, and they just figure the world revolves around me and I'm sorry but it doesn't. You know it's a big's a big world. You can't make it about you. It's not about you, it's about the service. You know you represent a company and if you want to have your own bus company, you know it's my job to help you. You know, find that opportunity, gotcha, gotcha. And I would do that sometimes.

Mr. Eric Sims:

It wasn't my favorite thing to do. You know I don't like firing people. You know people gotta pay rent and keep a roof over their head and food in their stomach and take care of their family. I don't like seeing people out of a job. But if you just don't want to do it, then you know I don't have a choice. I can find somebody that can. I always have more people applying for a job than have positions to fill. So you know, if you don't want to do it, I can get somebody else to do it. You know I give you a try. You know I give you a shot. But you know we can't have you out there hurting people and being rude to people and causing accidents and all that kind of stuff. We just can't do it, we can't afford it. Wow. So, but the Lord gave me that kind of wisdom and I was.

Mr. Eric Sims:

I had fun doing it, I really did. It was the most stressful thing I've ever had, because my phone, you know, but if they have an accident or fatality or something, I'm the first call they make. You know I got to be there or I answer the call and tell them what to do. You know, make sure all the reports are done and the post-accident drug test and all that stuff gets done. But he put me there because he knew I could do the job and I appreciate it. I got my bachelor's degree. It's part of that process, you know. I had that bachelor's degree in order to get to apply for the job and I just trusted the lord and he got me that you know, my mother got sick and ended up passing away and I had to take tests and things like that during that time and I, I feel I think it was two classes, I feel because I was dealing with that and the lord had me take a move again and I passed with a. I ended with like a 3.5 or something overall GPA. And you know, I was on the honor roll twice and, like I say, the Lord opens doors and I just walked through the doors that he opened and that's been my life and I retired.

Mr. Eric Sims:

We had COVID. My wife and I got COVID in April 2020, and we were quarantined in the house. My wife and I got COVID in April 2020, and we were quarantined in-house my wife and me. My brother lives in our basement and my nephew, my brother's son, and we were all quarantined in-house all the month of April 2020. And that's as sick as I've ever been in my entire life. I honestly didn't think I was going to make it, but my wife nursed me back. She wasn't in that good shape herself, but she nursed me back. I couldn't even eat a spoonful of chicken noodle soup or a sip of water. I mean, I couldn't keep anything down. I couldn't breathe. I mean it was horrible, but the Lord brought us all out. All of us are still here and I've had COVID three times. The second two wasn't as bad as the first, but I've had it three times and every time it gets easier than these. So next time COVID rings the doorbell, we just tell her to go next door because we're done with it. You know, and church, you know we missed. That was the only time I missed church.

Mr. Eric Sims:

I'm on the audio video team in our church and I'm a trustee and a minister, and I do. You know I wear a lot of different hats, but it's all in service to the Lord. I'll do anything he wants me to do. Anytime he asks me, I'm about that, and so that's what we do. And you know, some people listen and some don't, but it's not my job to do that. I'm a seed sower. I just sow the seed and it's the Lord who decides what kind of seed, what kind of soil the seed ends up in. That's not my job. My job is just to sow the seed.

Mr. Eric Sims:

Got you and I love doing it. I love talking about him. He's my favorite subject.

Chuck:

Wow, I appreciate you sharing your journey, Mr Sims.

Mr. Eric Sims:

I really do, man. Thank you for doing that man.

Chuck:

Thank you for the opportunity, Absolutely as we close, and I appreciate you. As we close, tell the listening audience who is Mr Sims today. How would you describe yourself as we close, Mr Sims?

Mr. Eric Sims:

isa, christian man who loves the Lord, and I'm fully a part and fully involved in our community here in DC. And I'm definitely black and and fully involved in our community here in DC, and I'm definitely black and going to be black and don't have any choice in that and that's fine. But my attitude is, no matter what color you are, no matter where you're from, what your circle says Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life, and no man comes to the Father except through him. And that's my story and he's been good to me, he's been good to us, my wife and me and we're living the best life we've ever had before because of him. It was all because of him.

Chuck:

Amazing. Well, thank you, man, for being on and sharing your unique journey, your own unique story, and I'm quite sure somebody's out there going to hear this and going to be inspired by what you're saying through your journey. I really appreciate you. Mr Sims, thank you for being on, let's Just. Talk About it podcast. I really appreciate it again.

Mr. Eric Sims:

Yes, sir, and thank you for the opportunity. You be blessed you too.

Chuck:

Thank you.

Mr. Eric Sims:

All right, sir, bye-bye.

Chuck:

Wow, what an amazing conversation today. Shout out to you to you, mr Sims, for having this dialogue with me and for sharing your journey and wisdom with the world, and I want to thank everyone for always tuning in to let's just talk about it podcast and if you have any media needs, such as videography and photography, you can reach out to me and my partner Low Mills at MMB Media. So, as always, until next time, don't hold it in, but let's just talk about it. Talk to you soon, thank you, you.