Urban Onramps

Time Flies

My friend Derek Perkins’ son, Mike Mike, had his picture in the paper this weekend. He’s playing high school football in Valparaiso, Indiana. He ran for 197 yards in just 7 carries. Here are two stories in the Valpo newspaper:

– October 4: Valpo finds plenty of ways to punish Pirates
– October 5: Valpo running backs sharing, winning

Here’s a great pic from the paper:

Mike’s a junior. He had a good season last year at St. Francis High here in SoCal. Derek, my friend and the former executive director at Harambee, is now on staff at First United Methodist Church in Valparaiso. The Perkins’ family moved in the summer time. In the first weekend of November, I’m going to be out there visiting them. I’ll be in town to speak at Wheaton Academy in the Chicago metro, and I think it’s just 60-90 minutes to Valpo. I’m taking my son, Samuel, with me. It will be great to visit Derek, Karyn, Mike Mike and Shelby.

Here are some more pictures of Mike when he was a kid:

Here’s Derek and Mike Mike crossing the Brooklyn Bridge. I think this was back in 1997 when a bunch of us Harambee men attended the big Promise Keepers Stand-in-the-Gap thingy on the Washington Mall. On that trip we had 6 men and 14 boys. We took a week out of school in October (I think it was October). We went to New York City, then to Philadelphia, then on to DC.

Here’s Mike with two of the young Harambee guys back in the 90s. I think this was a bit of a photo shoot for a Harambee newsletter.

Here’s Mike with my son, Samuel, back in 2000 or early 2001. The Perkins and the Carrasco shared a home for eight years, so this was shot in the house, the living room I think.

In the kitchen with Sam Sam, probably late 01 or early 02.

This is truly back in 2000. Sam was a little guy.

In the 90s, with his dad, Derek.

I think I like this one best. Here’s what I have to say to you, Mike: “Sports, football, it’s all good. But your mind will be spry and generative much longer than your body and muscles. Invest in your mind. Now. Today.”

posted Oct 6, 2008, 9:44pm by Rodolpho Carrasco