JOHNSTOWN, Pa. (AP) -
Bruce Jordan still carries the values he was raised with in neighborhoods of Johnstown and has passed important lessons on to his children.
He says ideals he learned – respect for others and representing your family, dreaming big and being true to one’s self – are still the foundation for a successful life.
The Greater Johnstown head varsity football coach has two seniors in the district – Zorin and Mia – both high achievers who agreed that their parents’ lessons have hit home.
“We grew up in an environment with our grandparents who instilled a lot of the values that we talked about,” Jordan said during a meeting between The Tribune-Democrat and several Johnstown families.
He considers the principles he was taught a culmination of a “generational education” that has carried a strong message throughout the years.
Jordan’s son, Zorin, said one of the most important values he’s learned is to respect others and treat them the way he’d like to be treated. His sister said that “being comfortable with who you are and not ever letting yourself not dream big” were paramount.
“My dad always told me and my mom always told me that anything that I can put my mind to I can do,” Mia Jordan said. “I think that was a huge thing.”
‘Be a good neighbor’
Michael Cashaw and his wife Lori Hill raised their children with similar life lessons, as did Crystal Rose, they all said in the session held in the Greater Johnstown High School library.
“I think one of the things we’ve always kind of told the kids – half jokingly, half not jokingly – is to No. 1, be a good neighbor and pay your taxes,” Cashaw said.
His oldest son, Miles Hill-Cashaw – a student at Johnson and Wales University in Rhode Island – credits his father for his success and mother for teaching him compassion.
The couple’s younger son, Greater Johnstown sophomore Ravi Hill-Cashaw, said he was always taught to be himself and stand up for himself.
Rose noted that she has tried to keep her son, Teyvon Fields, grounded while teaching him right from wrong and to stay focused on his education.
“The person I am today is because of my mom and dad,” Fields said.
“All the stuff that they talked to me about and all the lessons they provided me with … is the main reason why I’d say I’m where I am in my life right now.”
Fields is a junior at Greater Johnstown and enrolled in both the Pennsylvania Highlands Community College associate degree track and the Summit Learning Program.
Tyshanna Nuness said she has aimed to raise her children to be productive members of society.
“I think family values are important to keep them from doing anything negative,” Nuness said.
‘One great big family’
Principles such as honesty, faith and education were an integral part of her youth and lessons she has passed down to her children, Nuness said.
The parents said the neighborhoods they were raised in were wider networks for the ideals learned at home.
Rose said the Prospect community where she grew up was “like one great big family” and keeping everyone together was important.
Jordan had a similar experience.
“The thing that I learned from my grandfather was we were in an extended community,” he said.
That ranged from greeting people on the sidewalk to how a person’s actions represented their family.
“If you did something that wasn’t good for your family, all of a sudden everyone in the neighborhood would say to you, ‘I know how you were raised. I know how your parents want to raise you. You don’t act like that, so you’re going to stop right now,’ ” Jordan said.
“We didn’t need the police.
“We didn’t need any outside influences, because the community would not allow you to do something along those lines.
“And when you got to school, the school was an extension of your parents and not the other way around.”
Nuness, who was raised in Hornerstown, believes the city has changed in the past 30 years and that when she was younger it was safer.
“It was a different community,” she said.
Despite not growing up in Johnstown, Cashaw thinks city neighborhoods are still an extension of Black families.
He gave the example of how he, his wife and children welcome new neighbors and try to help them feel welcome.
“Our street is a very close street,” Cashaw said.
‘Create friendships’
Safety is still important for neighborhoods, and those who live there look out for each other, Cashaw said.
His younger son, Ravi, said he doesn’t feel the same connection.
“Personally, I haven’t felt that community,” he said.
However, Hill-Cashaw said that may be because he lives further away from other Greater Johnstown students.
He and his parents reside in Prospect.
Mia Jordan proposed the idea that although the younger generation doesn’t have the same link to neighborhoods as their parents, the children have begun to create their own communities.
“I know with my friends in this building, even in this school, I started to create friendships and relationships that will last me – so that even if I move away, I’ll still have kids and I’ll be able to say ‘Oh, I knew your mom when I was younger – I knew your dad,’ ” she said.
“I see us starting to create those friendships and those bonds.”
‘Difficult conversation’
But parenting doesn’t always revolve around fun or easy subjects, the families said. Sometimes it’s about having difficult conversations, especially in the Black community.
The Black Lives Matter protests of last summer spurred several discussions among the parents and their children.
Bruce Jordan said his family had “a very difficult conversation” about the George Floyd killing in his home.
“It wasn’t difficult in the sense that we could not talk about it,” he said.
“It was difficult in the sense that we literally watched a man lose his life in front of our eyes, and there were folks that denied why he was killed.”
Watching that situation play out was also a struggle for Jordan, who said he realized he or his son could have been in Floyd’s place.
Jordan talked with his children about how to properly interact with police – not a comfortable discussion to have, but a necessary one.
“That is a terrible opportunity to have to talk to your kids about,” he said.
“To say, ‘Look, make sure your hands are at nine and three whenever you get pulled over.’
“Every time you answer the question, it’s ‘Yes sir. No sir.’ Be very, very polite. Don’t adjudicate whatever you’re getting pulled over for on the side of the road.
“That’s a difficult conversation to have with your children, but I’ve had to have it and I had to make sure that I had it.”
Michael Cashaw said political talks are commonplace in his household and his daughter, who lives in Washington, D.C., participated in some of the marches there.
‘To be the change’
Standing up for what they believe in is a concept Cashaw and his wife have passed down to their children.
“Being a good neighbor is being involved in things …,” he said. “If you want to see change, if you want to see things happen, you’ve got to get involved.”
Lori Hill shared the same call to participate.
“You have to be willing to be in those positions and take on those roles to be the change,” she said.
“You have to be the police chief, the fire chief, the superintendent of the school district.
“You have to be willing to do the education and get the experience, have the expertise to be able to have those positions so you can begin to change the mentality behind those situations that are occurring that aren’t good for our society and certainly aren’t good for our world.”
Jordan thinks issues related to stereotypes and misconceptions – such as assuming a Black person in a nice vehicle is a drug dealer, which Zorin brought up – and similar connotations might be healed by having difficult discussions.
“This is not an easy conversation, however it has to be had – not only with students and African American students,” Jordan said. “It’s got to be had with the local law enforcement, with federal law enforcement, with state law enforcement, – that when you see me, you should not be anymore intimidated than when you see someone else.”
Cashaw said he believes the children will fix many of these problems.
He attributes that to the instantaneous communication available across social media.
“I see my daughter and her friends, Miles and his friends, Ravi and his friends, they have a good group of people that they all hang out with,” he said.
“They seem to be solving it a lot more and a lot faster.”
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