Cedric's Story
photography by Sarah Fleming for the Juvenile Project
“Something just made me want to... I wanted to drive, and I seen the car running, so I got in it and started driving around. Then the police got behind us. Then I got locked up.”
When Cedric was charged with carjacking at the age of 17, his attorneys fought to keep him from being transferred to the adult system. He took a plea deal and was given 6-9 months in Wilder Youth Development Center in Somerville, Tennessee. He missed his senior year at his high school, but while he was at Wilder, he studied for his High School Equivalency Test, and passed. Upon release, he re-connected with a program called JIFF (Juvenile Intervention & Faith-based Follow-up), which provided him with a mentor and helped him get a job with a locally-owned company, Sweet LaLa’s, where he bakes cookies and packages them for delivery.
Interview with Cedric, conducted by Joann Self Selvidge for The Juvenile Project (TJP) on April 19, 2017 in Memphis, TN.
Joann: So tell me your name and how old you are.
Cedric: Cedric. I'm 17.
Joann: Tell me a little bit about the neighborhood where you grew up, and what it was like growing up, and where you went to school and stuff like that.
Cedric: I grew up in Greenlawn and I went to Callaway Elementary.
Joann: Then what happened?
Cedric: It was a fun place to grow up.
Joann: Yeah? Did you have lots of ... Did you live with your family, with your friends, neighbors?
Cedric: Family members.
Joann: Yeah? Okay. Can you tell me how old you were and tell me what happened the first time you got arrested. The first time you got in trouble really with the law.
Cedric: 13, I think. 13. I was jumping in pools.
Joann: That's it? Tell me what happened.
Cedric: We were going to go swim, but none of the public pools was open, so we went to a hotel pool. We was swimming up there and got in trouble.
Joann: So did the hotel people call the police and the police come? What happened?
Cedric: The police people came and they took us home.
Joann: They took you home to your house? So they didn't take you down to juvenile or any of that?
Cedric: Uh-uh (negative).
Joann: So what was the first time that you actually got ... where the police came and you actually got arrested?
Cedric: This time. July 28th.
Joann: Last year? When?
Cedric: Last year.
Joann: So tell me how old you were and what was happening.
Cedric: 17. What you mean what was happening?
Joann: So why did you get arrested?
Cedric: Oh, I was stealing cars.
Joann: The first time you actually got arrested was you were stealing cars. So tell me what was your take? What was like going on? What? Were you with some friends? Were you by yourself? Did you just decide, "I'm going to go out and steal some cars today?" Tell me what led up to that day.
Cedric: I just wanted to drive.
Sarah: [inaudible 00:02:35]
Joann: Hang on.
Cedric: Nobody let me drive.
Sarah: [inaudible 00:02:37] all that.
Joann: We're going to pause for a second. Hey.
Sarah: Hey.
Joann: Oh. I always do that. No, it's good. It's good. Okay, so tell me about that particular day. Tell me what happened that day.
Cedric: Something just made me want to ... I wanted to drive, and I seen the car running, so I got in it and started driving around. Then the police got behind us. Then I got locked up.
Joann: You said us. Who else was with you?
Cedric: Me and my friends.
Joann: Did everybody get in trouble or just you?
Cedric: Just me.
Joann: Okay. Well what happened when you ... You got pulled over, right? How did the police officer treat you? What happened in that interaction between you and the police officer when you got pulled over?
Cedric: Oh, nothing.
Joann: Well, something happened. You ended up going ...
Cedric: Oh, they put me in handcuffs and then I went to juvenile.
Joann: What happens when you go to juvenile?
Cedric: [inaudible 00:03:54]
Joann: Hmm?
Cedric: You've got to through the ... What's the name? The holding cell and stuff. You've got to go, it's like a doctor or something you've got to see before you can go upstairs. Then you go upstairs, put on your clothes, then you go to your room.
Joann: Did you know what your rights or did he read your rights, the police officer?
Cedric: Nope.
Joann: Do you know what your rights are now?
Cedric: Uh-huh (affirmative).
Joann: What are your rights?
Cedric: Are you talking about all of them?
Joann: Well ...
Cedric: I don't remember all of them.
Joann: What are the ones that are the most important ones to you?
Cedric: The rights to remain silent. If you can't afford an attorney one will be appointed for you.
Joann: Did those two things happen?
Cedric: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Joann: When was the first time that you got a chance to talk to your attorney?
Cedric: I think I got in there on a Friday. It was the Monday. That Monday.
Joann: Did the attorney come to you at juvenile?
Cedric: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Joann: Tell me what happened. Do you remember the attorney's name? Was it a woman?
Cedric: And a man. It was two people.
Joann: It was two people. What was it like when they came to you? Tell me what happened in that interaction?
Cedric: They asked me what happened, and then they were telling me what the possibilities can be.
Joann: Did they tell you anything about what the prosecutor's, what the ...
Cedric: Oh, yeah.
Joann: Tell me about that because I don't know that much about your case. You have to tell me about it.
Cedric: They was telling me if I don't take a plea deal I can go to 201 and get bounced over.
Joann: What does that mean?
Cedric: If I don't plead guilty they said I could go to 201 and the charges are going to be on my record.
Joann: What does it mean when you go to 201 versus going to juvenile?
Cedric: It's on your record. It'll be on your record.
Joann: 201 is the adult jail. Did you stay in juvenile? What'd you do? What was your decision?
Cedric: DCS for six to nine months.
Joann: Did you decide that or was that something ... How did that come about? How were you able to do that instead of having to go to the adult prison?
Cedric: Take a plea deal.
Joann: Did you understand how the plea deal worked? Did they have to explain it to you?
Cedric: At first, I didn't. Then they explained it to me. Then I knew what they were talking about.
Joann: Did you feel like you could ask your attorneys questions? Did you feel like you could trust them? This was the first you'd ever met them, right?
Cedric: I don't know.
Joann: You said there were two of them. Was it like good cop, bad cop? What were they like, the two different people? They were both attorneys helping you out. What did they do? In other words, it sounds like they were the ones who helped to get a plea deal for you so that you didn't just have to go to adult and get it on your record.
Cedric: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Joann: That's what I'm hearing you say. When you say six months DCS, what does that mean?
Cedric: You've got to do six to nine months, and it's a program.
Joann: Where was it?
Cedric: In Somerville.
Joann: In Somerville? Do you remember the name of the facility?
Cedric: Wilder.
Joann: I've never been there personally. Tell me about Wilder. What is it like there?
Cedric: It's heavy. Most of the people there got a lot of anger problems and stuff. We've got ART. We learn to control our anger and stuff. It's more open. You can walk around and stuff.
Joann: What does DCS stand for?
Cedric: Department Children Services.
Joann: All of the people that were there with you, were they all about your age or younger?
Cedric: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Joann: Tell me a little bit more about it. What were the people like there?
Cedric: Everybody was cool.
Joann: The people who were there who were the youth or the people who were there who were the ... Tell me a little bit about the people who were there who were kind of in charge and whatever? What kind of people were they?
Cedric: Some of them were good people and some of them they had their days.
Joann: What do you mean by that?
Cedric: One day they would be cool and then the next day they'd be mean until the next day.
Joann: Can you give me an example? You were there for how long?
Cedric: Eight months. Seven. Seven. Seven months.
Joann: That's a long time. That what would've been your junior year or your senior year. What year in high school?
Cedric: Senior.
Joann: Where had you been going to high school?
Cedric: Manassas.
Joann: What was that like for you? All the sudden you don't get to go to your senior year. You had to spend it at Wilder. What was that like for you?
Cedric: I probably ... I would [inaudible 00:10:19] because that school right there you've got to go. You've got to get up and go to school. Then we had a little program where if you're 17 or older then you continue to go to school when you get out or you can take your HiSET and get your GED, so I took my HiSET.
Joann: What's HiSET stand for?
Cedric: I forgot. I forgot.
Joann: Is that a high school equivalency test?
Cedric: Uh-huh (affirmative).
Joann: Tell me about the HiSET. Did you do that?
Cedric: Mm-hmm (affirmative). It was really about everything you learn from 10th, 11th grade.
Joann: Was any of it hard or easy? What was easiest for you?
Cedric: Reading. Reading, I think. Yeah, reading. Reading.
Joann: What kind of stuff do you like to read?
Cedric: Anything, as long as it's interesting.
Joann: You got any books back in your room? What you read right now?
Cedric: I'm not reading nothing right now because I finished the last one. Well, I'm going to read some more, but I ain't got a chance to go to the library and get a book.
Joann: What is the hardest stuff for you to do in terms of your school? In terms of getting that test?
Cedric: The hardest part was science.
Joann: Really? Did they make you do ... Did you actually have classes and stuff when you were at Wilder?
Cedric: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Joann: What was hard about it?
Cedric: When somebody acting up the teacher going to stop working and we don't get nothing done. If you don't know then you ain't going to be able to get it because they're going to stop working. It's going to take about 30 minutes for everybody to calm down and then class is going to be over by then.
Joann: When there was a disruption, how did the people at Wilder deal with it?
Cedric: Everybody stop doing what they're doing. Then the guards come in and talk to people who were being disruptive.
Joann: Did they ever use force or get people out of situations? Did you see any fights and stuff when you were there?
Cedric: Yes, ma'am. Sometimes. Not all the time though.
Joann: I've got an interesting question. How does it compare? If you wanted to think about your experience at Manassas and your experience at Wilder, how were they alike and how were they different?
Cedric: At Manassas, some days you ain't got to go to school. You could try skip or something. In Wilder, you've got to go. All your classes it's like a square, so you can't miss no class, try to skip no class because you've got to walk around and your teacher going to see you, so you've got to go to class. The teachers at Wilder make it more fun to learn than they do in regular school.
Joann: Really? How do they do that?
Cedric: If they see it's boring to us we're going to stop working, but if they make it fun everybody going to want to participate and stuff. For our math we used to do three time multiplications and stuff like that, and if you get it wrong you've got to do pushups and stuff like that. We make it fun. Everybody used to do it. If you get it right you probably get some M&Ms or something, or some noodles or something. If you get it right then everybody used to try to get noodles and candy and stuff [inaudible 00:14:30] Everybody used to participate in it and they make it fun. Then you learn it faster like that.
Joann: Did you have your own room or did you have a roommate?
Cedric: Own room.
Joann: Well, that's nice. But you were there. You couldn't leave. Tell me about, did you get to talk to your family members very often? What was that like?
Cedric: You get phone calls two times out of the week. Mine was Wednesdays, and everybody get it ... we get a behavior phone call on Fridays.
Joann: What does a behavior phone call mean?
Cedric: If you be good, if you earn all your points for the whole week starting from Sunday to Friday, I think. Yeah, Sunday to Friday. If you earn all your points. You get points from school, your counselor, and your A rep. I forgot what it's called. It's the staff that's over ... The Corporal. The Corporal. You get it from your corporal, your counselor, and your A rep teacher.
Joann: Your what teach?
Cedric: A rep teacher.
Joann: Who?
Cedric: The teacher that's at dorms. For each dorm we had two teachers that's over the dorm to tell our counselor who we've been acting in school, how are grades looking. We used to get points by them. They go around and ask the teachers how we've been doing in school. You've got to get over 120 points in order to get a phone call.
Joann: Was that easy for you? No? Did you ever have a situation where you weren't getting enough points?
Cedric: Oh, yeah. If I get to fighting or if you be acting up you don't get no points.
Joann: Yeah? Tell me about that. What was the kind of stuff that you would do?
Cedric: Talk about if I ... Oh, when I used to get mad? When everybody get mad we used to go on suicide watch. When we do that, the staff, they don't be liking it because they have to stay over sometimes. Then they get mad. If they do something petty to us, like they'll make us go in our room cause one person talked or something everybody was trying to go on suicide watch so they can stay over because we know they be wanting to go home. We used to try to make them stay on suicide watch so they could stay over and get on their nerves.
Joann: You did it on purpose?
Cedric: Yeah.
Joann: They just called it that, suicide watch? Were they actually scared that somebody was going to hurt themselves?
Cedric: If you go on suicide watch they got to report it because we would tell them that we had suicide thoughts. They got to report it because just in case something do happen. Everybody used to just play like that, but they still used to think ... Well, they had to do it.
Joann: What were your relationships like with the other people, with the other young men who were in there?
Cedric: I was cool with everybody.
Joann: Except when you got in fights.
Cedric: Yeah. It depends on the people I knew. If I knew them, it was five people or six people I knew since I was little, so if they fight I used to fight, or if I'd fight, they'd fight. Like that. I used to fight like that. It was just when I'd get mad or something. Then I would want to fight, but I learned how to control it in though.
Joann: Oh, really? What was it that they told you that helped?
Cedric: ART skills and then triggers and stuff. What sets us off and stuff like that, and what to do.
Joann: What was it that helped you the most?
Cedric: Go and listen to music. Go play basketball.
Joann: That sounds pretty good. You said you kind of helped your friends. You only fought when your friends were fighting? Were there different groups of people? You had some friends and people that you didn't like, and you were just kind of helping them? Was it more a matter of helping somebody else out to fight or was it a matter of, "This is some sort of diversion that we're doing just to pass the time?"
Cedric: Oh, no. It was they get into it. If they get into then ... It would be like if he fight then we fight. Everybody knew if one of them people I know fight I'm going fight with them even if they win or losing because that's how we do before we got locked up. We used to fight. Out here we used to fight. If he fight, I'm going to jump in like that.
Joann: Why are you going to jump in? To protect him or to ... What I'm trying to figure out is which side you were on.
Cedric: What you mean?
Joann: If you're fighting, you're fighting against somebody, so what would you be for the person you're fighting with, that's what I'm asking.
Cedric: I don't know. They be on it.
Joann: Like disrespect? Being arguing or whatever?
Cedric: Yeah.
Joann: Do you remember like a certain circumstance, what was the worst time you got into it and why? What was the fight over?
Cedric: I can't remember none of the stuff like that though.
Joann: That's okay. I was just curious. So, in terms of your interactions with police like you've described two circumstances. You described the one where you were in the pool, and you described one when you actually got arrested for taking the car. Do you have any other interactions with law enforcement? At school or anywhere else?
Cedric: I threw a firecracker in the hallway at school.
Joann: What happened?
Cedric: I forgot that it was in my pocket, and I wanted to get it out of my pocket. So I threw it.
Joann: How old were you?
Cedric: Sixteen I think. Or fifteen. Fifteen I think.
Joann: What was the reaction of the people at school?
Cedric: Everybody was just jumping around.
Joann: Did you have a police officer at the school?
Cedric: Four I think.
Joann: Four? Did they come and confront you because of the firecracker or did a teacher confront you?
Cedric: The security guards.
Joann: Did you actually get written up or anything?
Cedric: I got a juvenile summons.
Joann: You got a juvenile summons for that, so you actually had gone to juvenile before you were arrested for the car?
Cedric: No. I went to juvenile a couple of times. I ain't never just stayed. I was in [inaudible 00:22:14]. I used to go home from there.
Joann: You what now?
Cedric: I ain't never just stayed like I did this time. I ain't stayed.
Joann: So what does a juvenile summons mean?
Cedric: You gotta go to court.
Joann: Tell me about the court experience. Did you have an attorney for that or did you just show up?
Cedric: I had an attorney.
Joann: Did you talk to them before you saw them in court.
Cedric: Uh-huh (positive).
Joann: How were you able to do that?
Cedric: They just scheduled a meeting and we just talked before court and stuff. Like a couple days before court or something.
Joann: Do you remember who it ... was it the same attorney?
Cedric: Uh-uh (negative).
Joann: Somebody different? So what happened to that charge? Did you have to do any kind of community service or any kind of ... what'd you have to do?
Cedric: I went to JIFF.
Joann: Tell me about JIFF.
Cedric: It's a mentoring program. So you got [inaudible 00:23:21] and they used to help us like think of like better ways to do stuff and to think before you react.
Joann: Did you meet anybody there that made a difference to you?
Cedric: Oh yeah, my mentor. All them really. All the ground people that were there.
Joann: Did you have a particular mentor that stayed in touch with you? When you say mentor what does that mean? What did they do for you?
Cedric: They were helping me out. And mine was Mr. Troy.
Joann: So did ... this is when you're sixteen, so you actually were involved with JIFF for a little while before you had to ... before last summer. So tell me about how you ended up ... you got a job there right?
Cedric: Uh huh (positive).
Joann: Okay. Tell me about your job and what you do.
Cedric: We make cookies. Learn how to make cookies, cause I didn't know how to make them at first. But when I started working there, I learned how to make them. Now it's easy.
Joann: So how did that happen? How did you end up getting the job? I mean did it just ... did you just like one day you get out Wilder the next day you get the job? What happened? Did you have to-
Cedric: I was working there at first. When I first graduated from jail I was working there. Mr. Troy helped me get the job there. And Mr. Frazier and then I was working in there and then we stopped for a minute cause wasn't nobody ordering cookies so we stopped for a minute. And that's when I start ... when it didn't start back I done grabbed my friends and stuff and then just took the car. I got locked up. I got out and then Mr. Frazier came over. He was talking to me and stuff, so then he asked me about a lady named [inaudible 00:25:23] that's who helped me get the JIFF job. So he took me up there again. And then it was like two weeks ago he took me up there again and I was talking to her. And then I asked her can I have ... can I get the cookie job back? And then she ... we did an interview. And then that's when she told me I could start working. And then I started back working.
Joann: How long ago?
Cedric: Two weeks ago.
Joann: How long ago did you get out of Wilder?
Cedric: I got out of Wilder March 17. Within a month.
Joann: Okay. Today's April 19.
Cedric: Uh huh (positive).
Joann: So two-
Cedric: A month and two days.
Joann: Uh huh (positive). So when you were going to JIFF is that something that you had to like ... how did you get there?
Cedric: When I went to JIFF? They used to come pick us up.
Joann: So they have like a van that they come around and pick people up? You said Mr. Frazier came and checked on you. Did he just like come by one day?
Cedric: Uh huh (positive).
Joann: Uh huh (positive). Were you able to keep up with ... how did you keep up with Troy? Were you able to like call him whenever you needed to or did you just see him on certain days or?
Cedric: No. Whenever I needed ... he told me if I need anything I can call him and he'd answer. He gonna come by or whatever. I recommend JIFF ... thinking about it, cause it gonna help you. They gonna help you out. Cause they been through the same stuff, probably a bit worser, and when they tell they story ... they just listen, listen. They gonna get it.
Joann: They're gonna get what? They're gonna understand it?
Cedric: Yeah.
Joann: Cause a lot of those guys have been through the same thing too haven't they?
Cedric: Uh huh (positive).
Joann: You seem happy when you talk about JIFF.
Cedric: I like JIFF. I wish I could stay in there in that program.
Joann: Well it kind of sounds like you kind of are. You're close to it.
Cedric: Uh huh (positive).
Joann: Do you know what it stands for?
Cedric: Juvenile Intervention [and] Faith-based Follow-up.
Joann: So what's your status now? What are you ... in terms of your in charges and everything?
Cedric: Like what?
Joann: Like do you have any kind of ... what kind of follow up do you have in terms of ... are you still on probation? Are you done?
Cedric: I think I'm off. We had a thirty day ... it's a thirty day and a sixty day I think. And that's when I ... after that they did our thing.
Joann: Yeah. Is she like a parole officer?
Cedric: A counselor.
Joann: Counselor? We talked about it at Wilder. You had counselors and you had teachers and then you had the corporal. So I'm guessing the corporal was like, kinda like a guard?
Cedric: Uh huh (positive).
Joann: So what did the counselors do?
Cedric: Oh the counselors used to check up on us and stuff. They used to tell us like what we need to. They're the ones that we used to talk to so they wouldn't go home ... try to go home. And we gotta do good and stuff like that. And they can help us out. If we doing good, they saying they can help us out and stuff like that if we're doing good. So everybody's trying to do good so they can go home.
Joann: Did you feel like the time that you got in Wilder was an appropriate response to your deciding that you wanted to drive when you got in the car and you started driving?
Cedric: I sleep good cause I'm glad I got off the hook cause it was ... Yeah I don't know. [inaudible 00:29:07]. I was happy though. Cause I could learn the other side.
Joann: What do you mean by that?
Cedric: Like what's been going on. Like I probably ... yeah that I can tell somebody else how juvenile works or something like that so they won't go and mess up.
Joann: So what would be your advice to somebody who wanted to be hanging around and just kind of goofing off and getting into trouble? Say younger people, what would be your advice to younger people?
Cedric: Little bit of charges, it ain't worth it. If you're gonna do ... like small charges, like there were people down in the pod for little bitty stuff that they're with DCS for three ... cause they really send everybody to DCS. So, if you do anything, you'll go to DCS.
Joann: So other than the charge being permanent, what do you think would have happened if you would have gone to 201 and not take the plea?
Cedric: It would have been on my record.
Joann: Do you know anybody with a permanent record? Uh huh (positive). Did they ever give you advice or suggestions or have you ever talked to them about their experiences in the criminal justice system?
Cedric: Oh yeah, they used to always tell us about it. Tell us what they used to do and stuff.
Joann: Yeah? Do you ever-
Cedric: Reason like ... everybody ... you're gonna get a lot of people attention like the jail people. You're gonna get a lot of people attention cause they gonna be wanting to know how it is now and stuff like that. You know in jail you got a story every day to tell and stuff like that. So everybody used to try to listen. Well we used to always listen to them and stuff when they got out. They used to tell us what happened and what they used to do and stuff.
Joann: Tell me about your ... you got ... you're one of four children. Tell me about your siblings.
Cedric: I got two brothers and one sister. One brother older than me, one younger. And my little sister younger than me.
Joann: Do you get along?
Cedric: Uh huh (positive).
Joann: Do you all live here together? Uh huh (positive). Well out of all the stuff that happened to you, what are the things that you think should be changed for other people? And what are the things you think should be the same? If other people had to go through this, you tell them like, "don't, I don't want you to go through this." It's not worth it?
Cedric: Oh yeah it wasn't worth it. I could have just waited or asked somebody can I drive your car.
Joann: Oh I see. Yeah. And you drive now? Do you have a license? No? You gonna work on that?
Cedric: Uh huh (positive).
Joann: How do you get back and forth to work?
Cedric: My grand mama.
Joann: Okay. Well Sarah do you have questions?
Sarah: Who was his lawyer?
Joann: Barbara was his lawyer for the Wilder charge, but he said that there were two of them. I don't know who the other one was. You don't remember?
Cedric: Uh Uh (negative).
Joann: Do you remember Mrs. Barbara? Barbara Deans? Or Mrs. Keva?
Cedric: Yeah, I remember Mrs. Keva.
Joann: What did Mrs. Keva do?
Cedric: She was a help too. She used to come see me at Wilder and stuff like that. And if I needed something, like some socks or something, she would send it up there. Try her best to send it up there.
Joann: Yeah. Do you know what her job is? Do you know what she does? I mean like who she works for?
Cedric: I forgot.
Joann: Okay. She's a social worker at the public defender's office.
Cedric: Yeah. I remember the social worker.
Joann: Yeah. Do you remember how ... you said you remember Barbara Deans. She was the one who was your attorney. Do you remember? I think she was. Anyway ... I was just going to see if I could jog your memory, but I know you knew Keva cause that's how I got to know you.
Cedric: Uh huh (positive).
Joann: Is there anything else you want to add to this? I'm trying to think about anything. How do you think your mom feels about all of this? Pretend like she's not over there listening.
Cedric: I don't know.
Joann: Did you all talk about it?
Cedric: No. Not like that.
Joann: So what are your plans? What are your plans now? Now you're ... how old are you?
Cedric: Seventeen.
Joann: So what are your plans for the future?
Cedric: I'm supposed to be going to ... I'm going to a trade school. And I'm doing I think it's called ... I can't pronounce it. It's like when you learn how to fix cars, paint them, and repair them like that. Learn how to repair them. I'm supposed to be doing that probably this month or next month. I'm going to start on that. And then after that, I'm trying to ... I want to go back for trade school again to be an aircraft mechanic. I'd like to build my own airplane, so ... cause I ain't met nobody from where ... I don't know nobody that ever built their own airplane or just thinking about doing it, so I want to build my own airplane.
Joann: That's so cool. How did you get the idea? Is somebody helping you find the progams?
Cedric: I was watching the movie and it was a man he was building an airplane when he was twenty-two til he was forty and he made a huge big airplane. And he got, I think his whole family, they got on the plane and they were going to different places and stuff. And they didn't have to pay, because all of them ... all of them didn't have ... didn't nobody have no way or no money or nothing like that so he built his own airplane. Before it started off he was like a little kid and he would play with the airplane, and then when he was like a teenager he drove an airplane for the first time. He was watching everything work and then that's when I think he turned twenty I think. Twenty, thirty, I forgot. I don't remember. But I know he got older. He was grown then. He went to like a ... it was an old man showing him how he built an airplane. It was a little small airplane, so he was like he's gonna build a new one. And he was learning how to start making, building the small ones and then that's when he left. When the old man died he built a big airplane. He put his whole family on the airplane and they went to every ... they went a lot of places and stuff like that on the airplane.
Joann: If you were able to build an airplane and go somewhere, where would you go?
Cedric: Every continent. I want to stop by everywhere. [inaudible 00:36:43]. I want to go everywhere over past the United States. Somewhere far.
Joann: Would you take your family with you?
Cedric: Uh huh (Positive).
Joann: All of them?
Cedric: Yeah.
Joann: You'd have to build a big ole airplane. That's awesome. So the mechanic school, or is it mechanic body shop school?
Cedric: Uh huh (positive).
Joann: Is that something that you've already found and you're going to try to enroll in?
Cedric: Enroll in.
Joann: Cool. Cause I know they're ... I know that there's an aircraft mechanic school here too.
Cedric: Uh huh (positive).
Joann: Who's helping you with that?
Cedric: My FSW. He was my FSW when I was in Wilder. He was helping me ... and one of my teachers, Mrs. Grazier, at Wilder. She was over all of the school stuff so ... and I think she knew some people or something like that and then she was helping me. But only thing I gotta do is take that application up there and then I can sign up and I'll be in there.
Joann: That's really cool. That's a cool goal you say you're working towards that. FSW. It's a family social worker? Cool. So she's here, I'll let you talk to her. Oh one more? Oh, we gotta do pictures. Well thank you Cedric.
Cedric: You're welcome.
Joann: I love talking to you. I hope that you get to fulfill all your goals and dreams. I'm gonna come ... you better give me a ride on an airplane. Take care.
Cedric: Okay.