Inserts From Books

Chasing the Dream

There once was a little kid who was just happy being alive, growing up as a child being raised by a single mom. He had no knowledge of the world outside of his family or the small town he lived in, so he had little to dream about. One day the family moved when his mother met a nice man from the city who promised to take care of her and her family. So now a youngster from a small town – so small it wasn’t even on the map – started to be exposed to some of the finer things in life, such as a car to ride in, food on the table, and the basics his mother once had to struggle to provide.

His stepfather was a good person who cared about people other than himself. He worked a good job, made good money, and carried himself well.

He was once from the same small town the young family was from, but had moved years earlier to make a better life for himself.

For the first time, the little boy, who was now 8, and had an idea of what it was like to have a father. The young boy started attending private school and meeting people from other walks of life. His stepfather took him to ball games, parks, skating rinks, and even boating. It opened up a whole new world to him and motivated him to want to do more himself. He developed an interest in sports – basketball, baseball, hockey, and soccer. Every sport he saw being played, he wanted to participate in. For the next four years, he developed in these sports, and by the time he was 11, he was so good in baseball that he was selected to play for Lou Brock’s Little Cardinals team, which was composed of the best young players in the city of St. Louis, where Brock was a star for the St. Louis Cardinals. That same year, he made the basketball team at his private school and became the city’s leading scorer in his team’s category.

So now the little boy from nowhere was starting to develop into a young man with a future. He was becoming a super star in everything from basketball to boxing.

Now 13, his mother was beginning to notice how much her son had changed since the family moved to St. Louis. Although she always thought her boy was special and she had provided for her children, she knew the influence of the young boy have a father figure was having a very positive affect on him. Besides setting a good example for the boy, the stepfather also seemed able to motivate him, assuring the boy the world was his to claim.

He made sure the youngster believed he could do anything he aspired to, as long as he believed in himself and was willing to work hard.

But the tragedy struck the family. The stepfather was planning a family vacation for July 4th. All week the boy was excited about the pending trip because he was going to visit his hometown and see his cousins, most of whom he hadn’t seen in years. On July 3, he hung with his stepfather. He has an early morning baseball game, which his team won, and on the way home, they stopped to pick up some clothes from the cleaners.

The boy waited in the car while his stepfather went in the cleaners. But something was different. The people seemed strange, and when his stepfather returned, he asked the boy to promise not to tell anyone where they had been. He didn’t understand, but agreed to keep the secret.

July 4 came and everyone was up early and getting ready for the family trip. The stepfather said he would be right back, but hours passed and he still didn’t return. After several hours, the doorbell rang and two policemen were standing outside, asking to speak to the boy’s mother. As the policemen spoke to her, she cried out and fell down the stairs. Suddenly, the boy knew his stepfather would never return. He had been shot a number of times in his car as he had driven up to his friend’s house. He was the only one killed, as his friend had run.

There was a lot of publicity, and to protect what was left of her family, the mother moved the family out of state. A teenager now, the boy was deeply hurt and didn’t understand what was going on. He didn’t want to move, but of course, and have to leave all of his friends behind. This most difficult thing for him to do was deal with, however, was the fact that the person who had changed his world for the better was gone forever.

And to make matters worse, no one seemed to know what happened to the stepfather the day he was brutally killed. There were lots of rumors. Some people believed he was killed because he was getting too big for his friends. Some said it was because he was having as affair, while others said it was drug-related. It didn’t matter to the forlorn teenager – all that mattered was that his best friend and hero was gone.

The mother knew she had to take more of a role now in her son’s life, even though she now had to work two jobs to make ends meet. She still found the time to attend al of his activities, something she had learned from her husband and the boy’s stepfather.

There was a time when she watched her son playa basketball game where his team was playing against an all-white team. The white team towered over the boy’s team, but he played his heart out, scoring all 28 points his team scored against the “giants” 114. The boy was proud, and learned more from his mother than anyone else, even though she had never graduated from college or even high school. She was always behind him 100 percent.

He carried that support into adulthood, and today he is a successful entrepreneur and businessman. He is Leroy McMath and this is the story of his path to success in a business often unkind and filled with corruption.