Veteran's Affairs Plus W/ David L. Washington

Wesley Knight 0:00
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Music 0:35
you can see

Music 0:42
what's going on. Good

Dave Washington 0:49
day Las Vegas, this adventures affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. I'm Dave Washington, your host, and I am pleased to be here. And Wes is keeping me on point. And I appreciate this young man so very much. He keeps me alive and well on the air. So with that, I want to very quickly say that again, we had a number of July birthdays, starting with Pamela Fountas, my sister in law. We had little David, who was actually now big David, my grandson, and then son, Ray Ray. Actual name is Vernon. We call him Ray Ray. His birthday was this month, and also a cousin, Dennis fountain, among many others that I've already announced. I want to express condolences to the family of my dear friend Dave Whittington, who passed away, most recently his services. And I want to again these condolences go out to his wife, Deb and son, Delbert. Services will be held on July 23 from three to 7pm at Palm Dave, we are viewing and the funeral services will be held from 11 till noon at wealthy place, ministries, 902, West Owens and Camilla will be same day at 1pm at Palms downtown. So once again, condolences to that family and those of us who knew Dale know he was a great guy, and always look out for the interest of others, and then on upbeat side, I want to very quickly say that we went down last week to San Diego State University, down in San Diego, our granddaughter, casar, will be attending there next month. So appreciate and thank God for the blessings that she was able to get there and get pretty much registered to go to school there. So good luck. Ca, we hope that you will do well down in San Diego State University. With that, I'd like to bring in our commander of post 10 American Legion, brother Jeff Jones, go ahead, Commander, tell us what's going on, sir.

Jeff Jones 2:48
Pretty good. Hey, you know, we got a lot of renovation going on right now. All needed. You know, the building is, is very old, but between some of our own resources that we have purchased and Home Depot giving us a decent grant, real grant and manpower, we're going to be able to put a new flooring throughout the building. Wood flooring. They doing the lights and some upgrading the ceiling fans to bigger civil bands that kind of help us put the cooling process as a main area, a canteen area, and some of the members, they've been down and doing, redoing the tables, and not the tables and the walls. Like I said, Is this like a big makeover, right? We got going down there, so we gotta have a big military feel when you come in the door now, so that way, if people come in, they're gonna know they in a military or veteran place. Correct those It's on every every table. But I want to thank my president, Miss Eileen Maurice and her husband, for the legwork and things they accomplish to get a lot of this stuff done. And there are some other members that over there volunteering, helping get everything else done, donations, like yourself. Our first vice, Jimmy Yeager, he's donating new TV. So we're gonna be looking good once we get open.

Dave Washington 4:24
We appreciate it any any general time frame that you can share, another week, two weeks a month,

Jeff Jones 4:30
I would say two weeks, because of Home Depot coming in on the 20th to do the seven fans and the lights the flooring is basically when they took that old flooring up, we found out some things under there that we had to fix and the flooring that we had purchased wouldn't work. So but everything else seems to be falling in place. Once the flooring is down, we can start moving stuff back in and dusting it off and All right,

Dave Washington 4:56
once again,

Jeff Jones 4:57
for the first August, we be open.

Dave Washington 4:59
Sure. You all right, Las Vegas, once again, this is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. That was an update by our great commander, Jeff Jones of American Legion, posting, thanks commander, and have safe travels for you, my friend. Appreciate you.

Jeff Jones 5:15
Thank you, and thank

Dave Washington 5:18
you. On the other side, we will have Fay Duncan, Daniel, she was going to give us an update on some things that she's working on down in Helena, Arkansas. So we appreciate Fay. This is a second time that she'll be back just to give us an update, because it's getting very close. A couple weeks from now, this big function that she is hosting will take place, and God willing, as they seen, the creek don't rise. I'll be in attendance, so I'm looking forward to that. So Fay will give us an update on the other side. So once again, this is Veterans Affairs plus on 91.5 jazz and

Dave Washington 5:57
good day. Once again, this is Veterans Affairs plus on 91.5 jazz and more. I'm Dave Washington, your host, and I'm so pleased to have my dear sister friend Faye Duncan Daniel, on the line. She's down in Helena, Arkansas. And Fay, would you give just a brief background on yourself? We got about 12 minutes, so we got lots of time. But for those who haven't heard about you or know you, please, just tell them a little bit about faith. Duncan, Daniel, please.

Faye Duncan Daniel 6:25
Thank you, and thank you for the opportunity. I know this is a Veterans Affairs program, so I just want to start off and take a personal appoint, a personal privilege, to say thank you to all the veterans who have served and who are serving. Thank you. And then I was born at an I live in a place called Helena, Arkansas now, which is Phillips County. But I was actually born about 20 miles south of here. Actually it's about 30 miles south and in my little in my area that was a a massacre occurred in 1919, and and this is a very, very heart of the South. But the good news is, we are on the banks of the Mississippi River. So we have, yeah, so we have some in this area, some very, very valuable property, because this is where the first harbor below Memphis was built.

Dave Washington 7:24
Okay, good history, yeah,

Faye Duncan Daniel 7:27
so we are strategically on the river with a harbor. So in the last five years, due due to the to diminishment of the crops that normally can't come out of here, like cotton and corn and soybeans, they're no longer coming out of America. They're now starting to grow rice. So now, with the rice, they need a much larger storing capacity, and so that's where our little town is. Has its value, but, but our little town has a history of some of the most violent racial events in American history. But they are, they were small, so they didn't make the national headlines, except the Elaine massacre of 1919, okay, but I have to say, Oh, I'm sorry. Go

Dave Washington 8:15
ahead. No, I was gonna ask so Fay, how long have you because I know you lived in Las Vegas for a considerable amount of time. And when did you move back down to Helena, Arkansas,

Faye Duncan Daniel 8:25
in 2006 I retired from Clark County in 2006 and I moved back to Arkansas. Okay, great. All right, it's been 19 years.

Dave Washington 8:32
19 years. Our Time flies. Okay, go ahead. Fay, yes.

Faye Duncan Daniel 8:38
So in my little town, there's obviously a historical racial divide that that my group now. I am now with the group in our name is living waters, and we are a group that's dedicated to the preservation of the Mississippi River, because the Mississippi River is not valued in a way that it that it's that that that, that it should be valued. It plays so many major roles in American history, and especially in the history of African Americans, so they so now there's no and with this Trump administration, it's even worse, there's no the people. They dump all those chemicals in it up in St Louis and and then it floods and so but there's just, there's just not an appreciation for it. But let me just take this full circle. Our objective with living waters is to get people to start seeing the river as a resource for economic resource just because of the land is depleted and it's not growing at the rate that it that it needs to grow to sustain the community, right? So now will be the perfect time to start looking for a another. Economic resource and the rivers right there, we just have to, but the river at our stage is rather dangerous because it is that anything, because we're downhill and the banks are just just a natural wild bank. So we're trying to get the young folks here to get accustomed to going over there in safe spaces so they can see economic opportunities on the river,

Dave Washington 10:22
right? That makes sense, absolutely,

Faye Duncan Daniel 10:26
because that's where the next opportunities are going to come from, the lands depleted, and we don't own the land outside of the city, so you're limited in terms of how you can make a but this, this, this, I think Arkansas, this part of Arkansas, was designated as one of the poorest countries in the United counties, rather in the United States. Wow, but we're sitting on the river, but, but because of our historical fear of water and and it should be feared and revered, here, we've not learned to make a economic impact from the river,

Dave Washington 11:02
okay? So so much

Faye Duncan Daniel 11:05
in my in my estimation, if we do that, that levels the the racial imbalance we have here in terms of wealth,

Dave Washington 11:14
right? So you say that they are growing some the crop that they're growing, what little it may be is rice at this stage of Yes,

Faye Duncan Daniel 11:23
yes, rice, yeah, well, they're growing smaller crops of Cornish and soybeans, but every year the crops yield less. So you know that at some point those crops are not going to be sustainable, right? So we have to start looking at additional opportunities, economic opportunities. And we can't be behind. We can't let it be developed. And then here we are trying to get our share right. We have got to be in that planning and staging of

Dave Washington 11:50
it. That's right. That's equity, valid point. So this function, this is going to be, if I remember correctly, the second year of the gathering that you're putting together, you and your team.

Faye Duncan Daniel 12:03
Yes, we're putting together a gospel Fest on the river. We're doing that because art is is our common denominator. It doesn't matter who you are, you at some level, you have an appreciation for art. And so we are holding these events on the river first to bring folks over the river so they can lose the fear of it and begin to see economic possibilities. And the second one is the river is such a beautiful setting to have, and it's like a spiritual it's like God's gift to us. So do and then we have gospel music, right? Do

Dave Washington 12:38
you recall what you had as far as attendance last year? Any ballpark figures?

Faye Duncan Daniel 12:43
Oh, I would say about 75 people, okay?

Dave Washington 12:47
And the possibility of growth for this year coming up, or any indication,

Faye Duncan Daniel 12:53
you know, if, if we get 75 again, I'll be happy. But obviously, we do want, want a larger crowd, and the reason we don't want the crowd to be much larger than that is because of the inherent the safety issues over and since we're holding the event, that makes us somewhat liable for whatever happens. So in order to not assume that responsibility, we're trying to seriously limit the crowd and and where the crowd grows.

Dave Washington 13:19
Okay, excellent. Well, again, the second year of a function of this nature, and you call, what's the title of it again?

Faye Duncan Daniel 13:29
It's about living waters gospel. It's a gospel fashion catfish fry. All

Dave Washington 13:33
right, sounds good. I mean, there's a lot of work that go into any size of event. You say, expecting around 75 or so people with it. But even even with us, a small number, anytime you put on a function, there is work to be done. And believe it or not, in the things that I've been you know, Fay, you and I've been involved in doing a lot of things here in the Las Vegas area. And when it's over, it's not over, you still got to track different things. So yes, good work. I mean, I think it's something that, and you talked about driving the economy, I think it's something that ultimately could grow to include some, some level of sponsorship. These are, I'm just having some thoughts off the top of my head that ultimately, because growing a commerce in any any city, small town, is worth the while for someone to pursue that.

Faye Duncan Daniel 14:27
Well, I'm getting support, but so far, my my support has come from the from the arts community. I'm working with David. I managed to meet another, some three more beautiful young people, and they are talented and skilled and committed to the to the Delta area. So they're they're busy, right? They they're the grant writers, and they find the funds and the resources, and they do all the technical work for me to to be able to do this. And then I've connected. With another young man who lives like 30 miles south of me, who's a very hard worker, so he does all the frying the catfish him and his wife. So it's last year. It was a real fun and I mean, people ate that. They ate more catfish than they I think that then they heard gossip music, but it was so much fun, and it was the first time it had be done. So that's the other thing, is to make people aware of opportunities, right, to show them a different way of doing things by doing it. So I'm fortunate to have the folks around me that that have the vision that I can be a part of carrying out.

Dave Washington 15:35
So So I'm wondering, Faye, ultimately, will you guys, if you haven't, will you be guys? Will you guys be considering having some kind of website that people can go and learn about different things about the river, you know, be use it more of an education type of a process for folks who, who may not be able to get down and certainly, before we end our conversation, we want to get the the time and date of the function.

Faye Duncan Daniel 16:00
Okay, let me do that right now, because, you know, I'm a senior citizen. So the event is July 26 which is a Saturday afternoon at five o'clock at the Mississippi River Park. Oh, Arkansas, excellent faith. So bring your little outdoor chair and your appetite and your spirit that needs renewing, because when these folks get through singing, there's no way you will be a changed person.

Dave Washington 16:28
Absolutely will greatly appreciate it. And Wes just gave me the two minute sign, so it's perfect timing phase, so once again, get that information one more time. So people who are in the general area may want to stop by, give that give that information again, and hopefully one. If you guys don't have a website, you'll put one up soon.

Faye Duncan Daniel 16:50
Okay, well, thank you. Yes, July 26 at that's on a Saturday evening, at five o'clock, between five and eight for a catfish and Gospel Music Fest. Alright? So bring your chair, bring your appetite and your spirit for an evening of renewal. We guarantee you, if you bring your chair, you won't need it. All

Dave Washington 17:10
right. Well, once again, this is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. We just had my dear sister friend Faye Duncan, Daniel, formerly of Las Vegas, now a resident of Helena, Arkansas, down in an area where she was born. So Fay, we thank you so much, and hopefully we will have you will have great success. And again, as I said earlier, God willing in the creek don't rise, I'll be there to check out the function as well. So thank you, Fay, so much. Thank you,

Faye Duncan Daniel 17:39
and I'll be looking forward to seeing you all right, take care and thank you for this opportunity,

Dave Washington 17:43
sure, once again Las Vegas Veterans Affairs plus on 91.5 signing out.

Dave Washington 17:57
Once again, Las Vegas, good day. This is Veterans Affairs plus on 91.5 jazz and more. I'm Dave Washington, your host, and I have one of the owners along. He, along with his wife, brother, Rome, Harry of classic jewels, how you doing wrong?

Rome Harry 18:14
Man, it's a wonderful day. Wonderful day. Man, good hearing your voice. Man, 91 always the station to go to to listen to. Love that station. Oh, real

Dave Washington 18:23
right on. Yeah, good, good. Jazz. Be popping around here. Well, there's some, right? Yeah, get a little rhythm and blues in there sometimes and other, but I listen to him frequently. Look, so tell us, man, how you been and what's going on with you. Oh, man,

Rome Harry 18:39
man. It's exciting times right now. 10 year anniversary this month, July. Had a birthday in July, and we made our 10 year anniversary bar lounge downtown, classic jewel. And, man, it's just been a excitement ride. Just, you know, having all the main DJs, promoters, all the celebrities, all the locals, all the commissioners, and all the people that you know, we cater to the locals. So, right, you know, right here downtown, 353, East Bonneville, classic jewel. And man, this 10 years went by pretty fast, Dave, and we've just been me and my family, you know, we started this. You know, 10 years ago, my wife, one of the top, you know, realtors in Vegas, Vegas living Realty, you know what I mean. And she said, One day, she said, the classic jewel at the jewel high rise downtown might be up for sale. And I said, we should think about getting it 10 years ago. And look at us now. We didn't had so many, so many, so many events, wedding receptions and just, just Horsford, Asha, you know, my staff, the just everybody you knows, you know that's been supporting this for the 10 years. Man, it just been a blessing. Absolutely.

Dave Washington 19:56
Look, let's go back a little bit, because I know you've been on. The show before, but give a little bit of background about who you are, who is wrong. Where you from?

Rome Harry 20:05
You are from? I'm from Los Angeles, California. Came out here in 2002 been with my wife going on 20 years now. And just you know, was in the music industry for quite a long time. Some one of my artists actually wrote a lot of Dr Dre's music, Royal Rashid, Howard nocturnal, and just, you know, been in the music scene for a long time, since the early 90s, and just to come out here to Las Vegas, not sure what I want to do at the time, but, you know, got into, you know, a little real estate property management with my wife, and, you know, then came down to the downtown around about 2008 and moved into the jewel high rise, and we had an opportunity to open up the bar downtown. And from there, you know, it's just, you know, with my music background and opening up a bar. So it was like I had, you know, a good ear for good music and a good ambiance and a good atmosphere. Of, you know, me and my wife do a lot of traveling, so we brought a little bit of everything into the lounge. And it's just, you know, then when it's a family business, the kids, you know, and that's, that was one of my main concerns, was, what can we leave our kids, you know, when we, you know, go to the next stage. And my thing is with my wife, you know, coaching and her experience in the real estate industry. And I was just like, You know what? Let's go ahead and buy this property, you know. So not only you know, usually, you know, everybody used to rent lease, but we actually own classic jewels. So at the end of the Yeah, man, so that's a big accomplishment within itself. So at the end of the day, just like what my wife, with her being a realtor, property manager, like, I tell my kids, if it's something that happened to me or your mom, put a sign on a window. Pit it for lease. If y'all don't want to, you know, take over the bar, hold on to the property. You know what I mean? And that's the, that's the goal, where I'm trying to tell everybody and coach everybody, you know, with the Raiders, with the WNBA, with the A's coming, with the train going to Vegas, it's like, man, we got to make that investment. Because what happens is, you, usually, you started renting, then the square footage gets so high, now you can't even rent that spot, because now you got to go back, you know, and that man, it's just been a blessing just to reach so many people and talk to so many people that come to the bar, and I'm able to, you know, Coach, and everybody asks me, you know about my background, and I like To, you know, let them know. It's like, it's hard work. It's a day to day operation, you know. It's not like you got to put the equity into it, you know what I mean? And it's like, you know, and that's where I like to be hands on. And that's, you know, it's just a good feeling to have comedy on Tuesdays, you know. Now we doing the karaoke on Friday, starting at the end of this month on the 25th and you know, in this you know, you got to always reinvent yourself to be open for 10 years. You can't just stay you just can't stay stagnant and just do the same thing. So I like to have live entertainment. I like to have comedy. I like to put when people go out and works all week, and they want to go out and have a good time and just, you know, forget about that day to day, and just get away from that and just come somewhere, enjoy it with your friends family, you know, and just have a good time. So creating that atmosphere, man, it's just, it's just, you know, 91.5 came in here and hosted three entertainers a couple months ago, you know, just having my doors open to be able to, you know, give people the experience of a good atmosphere. And it's not the strip, it's for the locals, you know what I mean. So I love to see that love, and I love to see people doing retirement parties, wedding receptions. And, you know, it's just, it's just been a blessing, man, and his

Dave Washington 24:00
blessing. Let me ask you this. So with this being the 10th Anniversary, is there any particular activities that you guys will be doing to celebrate that accomplishment?

Rome Harry 24:09
We celebrating all month, and we just, you know, just every day, Monday through Saturday, it's just come on in, have a good time. And, you know, on Thursday, you know, we're doing something real big with one of our jazz friends that's coming out. You know, you know, just every day is just, you know, if you could, you catch us, and if our family and friends come, you know, come by the bar. And you know, we live, we live close, so it don't take us long to get there. We just want to, you know, people to just come out and celebrate, you know, just have a drink or suddenly eat, or, you know, support the, you know, the local business. And, man, we just want to say we appreciate everybody in, you know. And, and one thing I do want to start, and I just came up with this right now, top of my head, I would love to everybody to live. To 91.5 if you have any kind of music device and you got a playlist, I want to be open to people to come for 30 minutes and play they live is jazz music playlist, and my bartenders will put it on. And I would, I would say, anybody that's listening, if you feel like you got the best Jazz Playlist, and you listen to 91.5 and this is what we do. This is about the community. It's about the love, you know. So I want to just go ahead and just put that out there to Las Vegas locals. And this is the kind of spirit you have to have. You got to always be upbeat and just having fun with it, you know?

Dave Washington 25:41
So no, that's great to do something like that, and then to continue to brand yourself as a place for locals. I think that's outstanding. And I know it's a grind man, because one thing I've always admired, even though I did 33 years with the local government, man for a person to run a business and to maintain this level of success for 10 years was no drop in the bucket. I know there's a grind, man, and that's why I've always admired people who are in their own business, because it brings a lot to the economy, and also you're hiring people. That's why I always tell Frank man I love I always tell Frank carcass. I said, Man, you hiring a lot of people in the various businesses that you have, so, uh, kudos to you and your wife, Sheree. Man, I think you guys are doing a wonderful job. And we're gonna start getting getting out a little bit. You know, I've been going through my little medical issue, so I've been playing pretty low, but I'm on I'm on the hill. Man, thank goodness,

Rome Harry 26:38
most definitely, yeah. Man, we always praying for you, you know, and you always been good to us, and I appreciate anything that we could do to always support you in any kind of way, you know. I just want to let you know we, as we always here. Oh, you know what I mean? I know we're going back, just so lost you off, just to go back to, you know, the daily grind. It's not always every day is a good day, you know what I mean? And that's the sacrifices that you have to make, is being consistent and steady, driving, driving, driving, you know? And if you feel real, real good about your brand and what you're doing, it makes it a little bit more easier for you to make that push, to keep moving forward. But it's like, you know, you got to stay pushing. You can get complacent, and you got to stay moving. And that's the success of the longevity Great.

Dave Washington 27:25
Well, we got about a minute and a half now. So any closing remarks to include anything that you want the public to know about you, because I'm telling you, man, you're doing a great job, and we look forward to,

Rome Harry 27:38
I would say to all my locals and to all the visitors, family and friends that's come to Las Vegas. On the Tuesday of we got comedy on Wednesday, we got a little alternative music for, you know, the other, you know, people that want to listen to that kind of music. So we pretty much Friday Saturdays. We're going to be doing karaoke on Fridays, Saturdays, you know, we, you know, we always got something going on, right? So just coming in and just in having a happy hour with your friends. If you bring a deck of cards you want to play with your friends, if you want to bring some dominoes and play with your friends, it's just a good atmosphere to have our doors open for people that want to come in and just meet and have a meeting with your friends, or, you know, just to come by and just support us. We here, you know what I mean? So, and I love that, because I get to sit down with so many different people from all walks of life, and what comes out of that is friendship, and it's community, and that's what we all about,

Dave Washington 28:35
absolutely. Well, excellent. Las Vegas, we just had Rome Harry, he and his wife, Cherie, they own classic jewels downtown. They got a lot of activities as they celebrate their 10th anniversary. We want to congratulate them. And next week, last week, we're going to have EDI board members, Eugene Campbell and chief and that next hope, we're going to have them on our on our program. So once again, this is Veterans Affairs plus brother Rome. Thank you, man, we'll stop by and check you

Rome Harry 29:02
out. Thank you. 91.5 I love the way y'all rock baby. Hey,

Music 29:37
all the smoke in the air till they hate when they stare all the pain that we bear.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai