Bryan is a 51 year-old father, husband, and friend. He grew up in South L.A. and had lots of friends growing up. He had some fights, and misunderstandings, but overall, Bryan had a very good childhood growing up. Even through all this, He has also been through a lot of struggle.

Transcript:

Jacob Milton: Alright.. So, how was your day, or how is your day going so far? 

Bryan Milton: How has my day been going so far? Good so far! 

JM: That is good.

JM: Ok so, how are you doing? 

BM: I’m doing good! 

JM: That’s good um, what college did you go to? 

BM: I didn’t really attend a major college. I had went to community college for a few years.

JM: Oh, so you never really majored in anything? 

BM: Uhhh, I majored in broadcasting and then went into architecture. 

JM: Oh, that’s nice, that’s nice.

JM: What did you do- oh wait that’s um… What did you do for fun when you were my age? 

BM: When I was your age? 

JM: Yes.

BM: 13… I was outside playing! That was number one. Probably riding my bike around the city. 

JM: Where? Where like.. Where around the city? 

BM: I was near um… West LA. I guess you could say West LA. 

JM: Yea. 

BM: I lived near La Brea. So I just used to ride my bike there.. And uh.. I was outside playing with the kids on the block. 

JM: Did you have friends on the block or was you just meeting new people or…

BM: Yeah I had some friends on the block that I would always hang out with. They were my age and they lived on my block. 

JM: Were you and Brett [my uncle ] always together doing that or..

BM: Sometimes, well he’s a little bit older so… he was in high school while I was in junior high so, we kinda rode at different times.

JM: Um.. where did you- how did you and mom meet and, or where? 

BM: How did me and your mom meet? 

JM: Yeah.

BM: Well we met in LA.

JM: Mhm.

BM: At a swap meet. Uh, I was about to leave. Your mother pulled into a parking spot that was in front of me. And I watched her walk away and decided to leave a note on the car. 

JM: Was she with somebody?

BM: She was with your auntie Shelly. And uh, I didn’t know either one of them but, I put on the note who I was leaving the note for. I had put for the passenger of the car and she was on that side of the car, she wasn’t the driver. 

JM: Oh. 

BM: So I had told her who I was, and I had asked her to give me a call. 

JM: Yeah, so um. Where did you first work at or what was your first job? 

BM: My very first job? 

JM: Yeah.

BM: Well I used to work at the church. [Crenshaw Christian Center] the place your Grandma used to work. 

JM: What did you do up there? Like, did you clean or –

BM: Yeah I worked at the warehouse, so, wait no I actually worked in the mailroom first. I forgot about that. Then I had been placed into filling out tapes, for uh, CD’s, this is when DVD’s weren’t even out.

JM: Oh.

BM: I used to make tapes, cassette tapes [inaudible] 

JM: Uh, how old were you when you first started this job?

BM: I think I was 14 or 15. It was also a summer job.

JM: They didn’t pay you?

BM: They paid me. 

JM: Oh. 

BM: It was only for a couple of months. I worked at that time because I couldn’t work during summer time. But it was for a couple of years. 

JM: Oh, did you have a pet growing up?

BM: Yeah, I had a dog.

JM: You had a dog?!

BM: Yeah, I had a dog and a cat. I actually had two cats before I moved here. But uh, you had never seen the cat, the cat had died before you were even born. 

JM: Oh.

BM: The cat had been around for a while. I think he was around 13-14 years old? 

JM: I think you showed me one of them! It was a black cat? 

BM: Well that had been one of them-

JM: ONE OF THEM?!

BM: I think it was two of them.

JM: How many did you have? Oh two of them. Uh, which one was nicer or which one was more meaner? 

BM: The gray one was mean, she loved me but nobody else because I had raised her since she was a kitten. 

JM: And the black one? 

BM: The black one. He was okay, he was just iffy. You could pet him but just sometimes he didn’t want to be petted so he’d just bite you.

JM: Oh. 

BM: Yeah so you had to be kinda a little careful around him. 

JM: Back to where you first- um- back to where you worked uhm. Where did you first work? I know we talked about the church but what about your first, first job? 

BM: You mean other places I’ve worked at?

JM: Yeah. 

BM: Well I guess I had other jobs. I had this one job I worked at when I was in college, I had worked for a um, I had worked for a honey ham bakery, “Honey Baked Ham.” 

JM: Who?

BM: “Honey Baked Ham.”

JM: You were baking stuff? 

BM: No. Well they made ham, but they also made sandwiches, kinda just like Subway. 

JM: Oh. 

BM: So I had did that for a short minute. 

JM: Did you make sandwiches? 

BM: Yeah I made sandwiches. I was only there for maybe a couple of weeks.

JM: Oh, what happened? You got fired? 

BM: Nah. I didn’t like that job so I left and quit. 

JM: Oh.

BM: And then I worked for a um, a company that made cards like wedding cards and wedding invitations.

JM: I remember one time when we were on a ride, I don’t know why I don’t remember. You told me you worked at a store- I mean a pet store I think.

BM: Yeah I remember I worked there, for about five years 

JM: I remember you told me you had become the manager? Co-manager? 

BM: Yeah, yeah that was later on. I had worked for a pet supply company. I had became the manager there so I was working full-time. 

JM: Did you enjoy it? Did you enjoy your job? 

BM: It was fun, but then it started getting boring. There was too much they wanted us to do or too much to demand for like for how many hours they had wanted me to work. 

JM: Oh.

BM: So I started getting unhappy with the job. Especially when they had asked me to go, but uh, me and your mother got our first apartment when I was at that job. 

JM: Oh really? Where was it? 

BM: West LA. I think I drove you there one night. And showed you the apartment me and your mother lived in. 

JM: Oh yeah you did huh! I remember that. Um, have you ever broken a bone? 

BM: Yeah I have broken a bone, I broke my pinky. 

JM: Oh yeah that’s right, you can’t put your pinky straight. Does it hurt if you try to? 

BM: I would probably break it if I did. 

JM: Oh. 

BM: This is how far I can pull it [half way]. If I pull it any further I’ll break it. If I did it would probably hurt more than the first time, because I broke it with a basketball. 

JM: How did it break? Did it bounce on your hand or something? 

BM: Somebody made a move while I was trying to make a move and I guess I did something wrong. The basketball pushed my finger and broke it. 

JM: Oh. 

BM: I also broke my collarbone once in a fight. 

JM: A fight? How old were you?

BM: I think I was about 14 or 15. 

JM: I never heard about this. 

BM: It was a while ago. It was a kid on a block and we were playing ball. And uh, something happened and we kinda started dusting and fighting. 

JM: Like play fighting or actual fighting. 

BM: Actual. 

JM: What happened? 

BM: He had grabbed me around my neck, and hit me in my collar bone, and it broke. I didn’t know it broke at the time but when it broke I went down. 

JM: You lost?

BM: I guess you could say that. 

JM: How many fights have you been in? 

BM: two or three.

JM: Oh. 

BM: Most likely two not three. 

JM: Do you remember the kids you were fighting with or not?

BM: I fought with one kid on the block. 

JM: Oh. 

BM: We were cool at first but then he started acting like a bully, started acting funny. And he knew karate. 

JM: Uh-oh. 

BM: I knew he was gonna be beating up on me. When we got into it. 

BM: Well, I’d say he won but I got in my licks too. 

JM: Oh.

BM: I never really liked him after that either. 

JM: How many kids did you origi- originally want to have?

BM: No more than two but, things happen and I found out I was getting twins. I didn’t plan on twins but if we had twins that was going to be the case.  

JM: Was it hard raising us? Having to wake up at three in the morning hearing “ WAAA WAAAA”?

BM: Yeah it wasn’t easy, especially when you’re tired, you have to stay up for the rest of the night.

JM: For the rest of the night. 

BM: Yeah because you guys would cry an hour before the time we had to wake up, so there was no point in going back to sleep. 

JM: Oh. 

BM: We rarely got to sleep. Y’all always kept us up. 

JM: How many times a week do you think we would usually start crying. 

BM: You would cry every night when you were little babies. 

JM: Every night?

BM: Everyday. Y’all had to eat everyday so when you guys were hungry, you’d cry. We always knew when you would be hungry so we fed you. Especially in the middle of the night, like I said you’d wake us up because you were hungry. 

JM: Oh. Did we ever wake up Tyler and B.J.? [Our brothers] 

BM: No not really because you guys were in different rooms. They were in that room right there [points at the door]. 

JM: Um, did you enjoy this interview? 

BM: Yeah it was interesting. 

JM: Yeah? That’s nice. To hear! Were the questions easy to answer or were they kinda deep? 

BM: Nah, they were simple. 

JM: Yeah.

BM: I guess you could’ve put some thought into the uh, how could I say this. The subject. You could’ve asked a question then asked the subject about it. But the questions were easy. 

JM: Yeah, 

BM: How long is this supposed to go on? 

JM: Um, seven to fifteen minutes. I guess we could end it now. But thank you for letting me interview you, I appreciate it.

BM: You’re welcome, it was fun. 

JM: Yeah!