Shawn James - “Through the Valley” (Live from the Old Church)

I realize that I don’t always share the story of the song but in this place and on that night, I felt comfortable to go all in. On my last post with the photo of a picture my wife got made for me, I mentioned that my family owned restaurants in the Chicago area where I grew up. A couple folks commented regarding “oh that’s how you made it, your family owned restaurants” or “yeah makes sense since it takes money to make money, I see how you got your start”. At first I was a bit offended but then I realized I haven’t shared a lot on how I grew up and how would they know…even if they’re presuming some things that aren’t true. My family owned one restaurant at a time. They worked their asses off, spent most of their time there and us kids also grew up with a vast amount of time in that environment. These weren’t the nicest places but also not the worst. It was a simple family owned local fast food place. The spot in Chicago was in a rougher neighborhood but we made it wor