Jerron Paxton
speaker
135 appearances
2 recordings
1 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard Dec 2024
Jerron Paxton’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
And Johnny was one of them that came in the 50s and came like everybody else looking for work and then ended up finding it as a musician, which is something he pretty much gave up because I got to see one of his business cards and there's nothing that mentions music. It said, Johnny St. Cyr, general workman, does general jobs.
Let me set this down here.
Oh no, not a bit. She's a mud cooker. Let's see.
Well, I'd had trouble with my peripheral vision my whole life. But then I had two different eye diseases that started to mess with my central vision. And once that started to happen, the problems with my peripheral vision got to be terrible. pretty unavoidable and, you know, in some places got to be a little bit hazardous, you know.
I don't know if you know, but people from South Central, especially during the day and time I grew up, we didn't move too much. And Los Angeles being a big driving culture, you sure didn't walk any place. You know, I left as an 18-year-old having, I think, maybe walked a mile in my neighborhood and could count the times I did that on one hand.
So, you know, things like curbs were a bit unfamiliar to me. So, you know, imagine a pretty healthy strapping boy just kind of bumbling and falling all over the place. That's what I was up to for a little while.
It's about the same. I still have big troubles with my peripheral vision, which stops me from driving. My central vision, I think it's better than what it was, but part of that is the technology has improved. I used to go around New York City with a little small telescope around my neck to see things like, you know, train signs and street signs and things like that now.
But now that, you know, now that I'm an iPhone user, which I never thought I would be, you know, I could zoom in on something 10 times and that's actually a lot more handy than this little telescope I was using. So things like that and Google Maps has made the Well, I think because of your eyesight, you had to reconsider what you wanted to do for work. Is that correct? Yeah, yeah.
I was going to drive trains and things like that. And, you know, I'd probably have done some of the other laboring jobs that most of the folks in my family have done. But when I say not being able to drive is just about the biggest disability I have, it's really true. You know, bumping into things and not being able to recognize people and is inconvenient and things like that.
But the one thing that kind of stopped me from doing exactly what I wanted in the world was not being able to drive. I couldn't be a plumber without a truck. I couldn't be a farmer without a truck. A lot of those jobs aren't available if you can't drive, especially in a place like Los Angeles.
So that's one of the reasons I moved to New York City was a place where not being able to drive wasn't really a disability. And it's one of the reasons I loved this city and stayed here for so long.
Oh, yeah, I think so. As much as people who like rural music tend to get stereotypes as loving songs about trains and mama, you can't help it, I don't think. But if I find a good train song, I'll sit and listen to it for a good while.
Oh, well, my favorite is probably the Pullman Passenger Train. which I can't do here. Let's see.
Oh, yeah. It's not sounding like I'm playing two different parts.
Fair enough. Let's see. Maybe I'll start off this way. Oh, that harmonica's been set on. Hold on. Oh, that one's been set on, too.
Thank you.
In the words of Fats Waller, it's easy to do when you know how.
Hey, there's a lot of different ways to skin a cat and entertain the audience.
You know, I got to the state to go to college in Poughkeepsie, New York, and one trip down kind of made that realization. So I didn't cross the country because I figured New York would be a good place to get along as a visually impaired person. But once I got to the other side of the country and took a trip down to New York City, it was like, oh, I didn't need a taxi cab or cell phone or anything.
I just, you know, ooh, you remember MapQuest, I bet. So I remember looking some directions up on MapQuest about how to get to the Jalopy Theater from Poughkeepsie, New York. And after that, I was like, all right, I guess I could be independent.
Showing 101–120 of 135 · page 6 of 7
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