This is an I-Heart podcast.

And we return to our American stories.

Up next, we're going to hear from Richard Herzog, author of Haydirk. Through his childhood,

Richard always long for a role model, someone to look up to and help him navigate the

hardships he was facing in the home. But his inspiration ended up not being a person at all. It was

sports. Here's Richard with his story. I grew up in a small section of Grutna, right on the other side of the river from New Orleans,

and historically it's not much different from New Orleans per se as the culture goes.

We had one room with a large number of people living on top of each other.

In one bed, you had really, in the beginning, you had one bed, so maybe three or four boys were sleeping in that one bed,

and then eventually we got some bump beds, so you had one on the top, one on the bottom,

and then maybe two or three would land in the big bed. And then my sister would land on the couch in the living room you were always on the go too because you know you live by that rule you

just stay outside until it's time to eat so you're either you know you're either involved in

and games that you make up your own little world of climbing on trains, jumping trains to get to the

ballpark as they're moving. I mean, come on. You've got to try that once, right?

Swimming in the river and you could just get up on the barges and jump into the river. So that was fun. And it was kind of like

growing up like Tom Sawyer. And, you know, we didn't lack for anything because we didn't know what

it was like to have anything. The way I can describe growing up where I grew up, all you needed

was a pair of shorts and some underwear and you were good to go you know you didn't have to worry about shoes well you know in New Orleans uh

you're either going to a celebration or you're going to make one up there never a worry. You just go on to the next day or

the next thing and the next event. Now, New Orleans is not a part of this world as far as I'm concerned.

But for me, it affected me, seeing how it affected other people, the drug life, I've seen people die at an early age, friends who have lost to overdoses.

You know, fighting came early and often. And I was pretty good at it. So, you know, it's a hard environment to get out of.

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