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Pedal to the metal, wind in your hair, the open road ahead - picture this as I journey alongside the Lady Unity Rydaz 757, an awe-inspiring female riding club. These ladies says Ms Cinnamon aren't just about the bike life; they're about sisterhood, community, and life's simple joy of giving back. From the inception of their mother chapter in 2004, to the unity and strength they embody today, their ride is full of inspiring hills and valleys.
In this episode, I sit down with these remarkable women to discuss the challenges, victories, and unforgettable experiences that come with being part of this close-knit community. Hear Ms Locke's story of overcoming the darkness of legal blindness, and uncover with Ms Spice the brave battles fought against Lupus. Learn about the profound impact of their shared experience on their mental health and the solace they find in their collective strength.
We wrap up with engaging chats with Ms Hypnotic, Ms Dime, and Ms Sensitive, the V.P. on how the club has become a beacon of hope in their community. From providing clothes and supplies to children in need, to organizing events that bring people together, the Lady Unity Rydaz 757's story is a testament to the power of unity, resilience, and the human spirit. Buckle up, because this is a ride you won't want to miss.
Welcome back to another episode of let's Just Talk About it podcast. I'm your host, chuck, and if you're here for the first time, this platform was created to give genuine people just like you an opportunity to share a portion of your life's journey. So, with that being said, I have Lady Unity Rydaz 757 on with me today. We had an amazing conversation outside in the park in the city of Norfolk, virginia, where they were having a community day back to school drive. So you hear motorcycles and children playing in the park and, most of all, a great conversation. As a matter of fact, do me a favor go and grab your husband, your wife, your children, or even call a friend and gather around to listen to my conversation with Lady Unity Rydaz or let's just talk about it podcast. Let's jump right in Today. I have Lady Unity Rydaz with me today and we are out here in Norfolk Virginia. They're putting on their own event to help give back to the kids going back to school. So how y'all doing, ladies?
Speaker 2:We're fine.
Speaker 1:We're fine. Hello, absolutely, absolutely. So I want to talk about how did y'all get started?
Speaker 2:Well, the mother chapter started a long time ago, back in 2004. Right, okay, and we've been going strong for all that time. But the way we got started our founder, she started the club. She just wanted to start a female riding club where we can come together and do community things and give back to the community and different stuff like that, and women look pretty on bikes.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so. We all side right now. They motorcycle riders right. Yes, wow, wow how did you learn how to ride a bike? Oh my God, you don't know how to ride a bike.
Speaker 2:Let me tell you, I brought a two wheel and I had that bike for one week and went down, so my knee is messed up. Now I'm on a three wheel. I just started riding on my own.
Speaker 1:What's your name? Cinnamon. Cinnamon. So you're the, what Other?
Speaker 2:group the VP of the mother chapter. One of the VP's are the mother chapter. We have two VP's are the mother chapter.
Speaker 1:Got you, got you. So you got started, and now you're all bike riders doing great things in the community right, right.
Speaker 2:Well, we have a social club too.
Speaker 1:So the social club they don't ride bikes.
Speaker 2:The MC's ride bikes, so we have more riders than we do. The social club.
Speaker 1:Got you. So, when you talk about the community, what are some things that you can help better the community in terms of doing y'all events?
Speaker 2:Trying to bring everybody together, like what they're doing out here now. You know, giving clothes and free school supplies back to kids that don't have it or whatever. You know they got clothes out here. You never know what somebody may need. Somebody might need something. I mean all of the clubs we try to come together and give back to the community. You'll see many of back to school drives and we do charity rides. We have one member with two members Our president and this young lady right here. They suffer from lupus. We just did a lupus ride back in June and raised money to give back for that sickness. So we have a member that has sicker cell. We have a member who kid has sicker cell. So we're always trying to do something, whether it's a blood drive or a walk or a ride, just to try to give back some kind of way. That's the goal.
Speaker 1:Got you. We try to get involved. They want to be a bike rider.
Speaker 2:They can contact us on Facebook. Ladyunityridersmcslashsc, you can contact us on Facebook. Somebody will reach out to you. Call one of the VPs or the president. And Miss Locke's here is our prospect coordinator as well. You can look her up as well and get back to you If you want to join. Hey, we taking new members.
Speaker 1:Got you. I want to talk to Miss Locke's because Miss Locke's told me if I don't get the name right, I feel threatened right now. So I want to hear from you. I want to talk to you because you're real serious about what you do in terms of out here representing the Unity riders, correct? Yes, talk about what you do.
Speaker 3:I have several hats. I'm the other VP for the mother chapter, I'm the prospect coordinator and the event coordinator, so I have a lot of hats that I wear, but I love all my job.
Speaker 1:Got you. Y'all have a lot of fun doing what you do, coming together to make things happen in terms of giving back. I love it. We got an issue out here with depression in our community, mental health is real serious. Can anybody speak about that and how can we do things? The better you know getting our minds right to handle life.
Speaker 3:It's a mind state, because a lot of people that don't know me I'm Legally blind, so and yes, I do ride bikes, but you have to find something within yourself to try to cope with what you're going through. So everybody goes through something, but you can help, but you got to help yourself first.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, so you sitting in front of me and you are legally blind, yes, sir, wow, never would have known. Never would have known it. Shout out to you miss locks. But if I'm serious, that takes a lot to be yourself and be legally blind and still be, I have a fun. I shout you out for real. We don't do enough of that, we don't do enough for appreciated.
Speaker 2:But yeah, shout out to you and just to kick it back off, she was saying yeah, dealing with depression, that's what a sister hood is all about. I love it, I love that's what we're trying to create. Love, a sister hood. Yeah whether it's through lady unity riders or any other, the female clubs out there. You know it's good for all of us to stick together, because I have my days, you know, and it's always one of my sisters to you know. You know pick up the phone and to bring me back around, or something like that. Yeah and that's that's the most important thing about it's sister hood.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's good to have that, because a lot of people don't have that. It helps you get through a lot of days. I bad days or different stuff like that. I just lost my father Less than a month ago Well, over a month ago. He died on June 30th, and these ladies here Well, they helped me gotten through that or whatever. So you know, I lost my mother five years ago but I feel like a orphan now. But with these women I have a family, another family. So, and I'm from Louisiana. So I don't have much family here.
Speaker 3:Yeah this is my family, yeah, but we all go through stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean each one of us.
Speaker 3:We have health issues, we have problems at home, but we know we argue, we fight. We are a dysfunctional family but at the end of the day, if anybody call, we're gonna be there regardless. So you know it's what? 43 of us altogether.
Speaker 1:That's amazing.
Speaker 7:And growing.
Speaker 3:Yes, and growing. So we all have different personalities, we might argue, we might have disagreements, but we still, at the end of the day, we still come together.
Speaker 1:Yeah, cause it's hard for a whole lot of ladies to be together and to say the same things for a long, long time. Everybody can talk.
Speaker 4:Everybody, all it is, All these different personalities emotions and all that stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and some of us got three and four personalities, all of them, all of them, all of them. But you know what was so amazing about it? Once we realized all of us messy, sometimes all of us got issues. We can better, you know, treat each other, cause there ain't nobody perfect, nobody's perfect. So, yeah, so we can talk to each other straight up, and I think that's what's missing amongst you know, relationships. We don't talk about real issues. If you depressed, you just having a bad day, and I think it's okay sometimes not to be okay, it's all right. You're healing, I'm just having a bad day. I don't feel like talking, that's it. You know, catch me tomorrow so hypnotic. You had mentioned that you want to talk about depression when I brought it up.
Speaker 4:Yeah, depression is a state of mind. There are days that are better than others and you tend to close yourself out. But being in a club, you never know who you can reach out to. Who's going to reach out to you Like, oh, I heard from you today, so you're notice, To be noticed even when you're having a bad day that is a great feeling. So you get part of and that helps you Like okay well, somebody notice me, let me know, it's my yeah, yeah, get. Me out of this fall. Yeah so yeah, that's how I try to cure my depression when I have those things and they get happy, they get happy but I'm noticed.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 4:And you know what I'm saying. That's all I got.
Speaker 1:I love it. Shout out to you I love it. I love it. Any other members who want to share?
Speaker 5:So I'm spiced and I do know what it feels like to deal with depression. So with me having Lucas, I do go through a lot of ups and downs and sometimes I want to isolate myself when I'm going through so much, because sometimes I feel like, you know, people may not even understand or they just may not. You know, everybody has their own thing going on. But I have learned that, being in this club, that if I don't, if I haven't texted a while, or none of the ladies have heard from me in a while, somebody wouldn't take the time out and reach out to me and just be like, hey, spice, are you okay? I love you I haven't heard from you in a while and because sometimes I get nervous about sharing things, those moments help me to open up and share and afterwards I feel a lot better about it and you know I was missing that a lot in life. I always kept going through things on my own. Even with seeing a therapist sometimes, you still don't always hit that coast bond and having a sisterhood, where you're going through so much in life, really does help in the time of need. So I tell people all the time don't be afraid to find someone who will be able to allow you to, even if it's just vint, and sometimes a listening ear can go along with. And I appreciate these ladies so much because sometimes I get depressed and I can't even show up to a event and sometimes I'd be ashamed to say, hey, I'm sick right now. I'm going to this because it's like sometimes it's always something. You don't want to be that person that. It's always something. Right, right, right so sometimes it's hard, but then they'll come and let me go like, hey, it's okay, we all have bucks and downs. I love it Know that you're going through Like don't be afraid to share these things with us, that's what we're here for and, at the end of the day, I feel better about it.
Speaker 1:And I thank them so much for being there for me. Yeah, yeah, shout out, shout out to you Real quick. Okay, lupus is a serious thing and I think people don't really talk about it unless they're going through Lupus. So you've experienced it. So can you talk about that? Because I always say on my podcast you never know who's listening yeah, right, and your story may help somebody else. Amen, get through a season who has lupus, but they're afraid to talk about it because they feel like they're alone. So can you speak about that whole thing about lupus, if you don't mind?
Speaker 5:So lupus is an autoimmune disease and it attacks your body. It attacks different functions of your body. For me personally, it attacks my organs, my bones and the blood that's supposed to be. My healthy residents are attacking my gut. So I do have a bone disease where my bones are dying, and my knees and my hips and it hurts a lot. I go through a lot of joint pain, a lot of muscle pain, Like the sun right now and the heat is affecting me. I have actually hurt right now. So trying to come out to outdoor events sometimes, is hard for you. Some days I deal with a lot of fatigue. Where I'm tired, I don't care how much rest I got, I'm still tired. Motorcycles, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we outside.
Speaker 5:So with lupus, sometimes you never know how it's going to be. Sometimes my face is clear. And then other times I'll have what we call a butterfly rash, where the rash will just come on. But it comes from a lot of heat exposure, a lot of sun. Our skin does not do well with heat and sun, so it'll start to open up my skin and it will just eat away at my skin and sometimes it gets so bad it will continue to spread all the way up into my scalp and it hurts and it will bleed and I'll have to wait in order for it to heal up. So on those times I have to literally avoid going outside as much as possible. Then I have a rheumatologist that I go to see all the time. I get infusion treatment Also with my infusion treatments. I get those twice a month and we just increase my infusion medicine because my body got immune to the doses that I was originally taking. So sometimes I take over 30 pills a day. Over 30 pills a day. Sometimes I pick and choose when I don't feel like taking one, just because I get so sick inside of taking medicine. That sometimes the side effects can be just as bad as what you're actually going through. I've had two strokes. I've had two heart attacks. I had stopped walking for up to eight months before I had lost my vision, my speech. I had to learn all of that back and it's not easy. We call lupus an invisible disease, because sometimes when you see me I look completely healthy. Sometimes you will never know what I'm going through. But then there'll be another time and you'll be like, oh my god, like she was just fine. I have been in and out of the hospital for the past 10 years now. I was in the hospital for six months straight for one time, and that's when things was really getting bad. So I tell people please go to the doctor, please get your check up, because I knew something was wrong with me as a child. When I was nine, all of a sudden I started getting sick. My grandmother didn't know what was going on. She kept taking me back and forth to doctors and for a while they didn't know what it was. Then, as time went on, I ended up on my death bed, and that's when they found out what it was and then also found out that I have a second autoimmune disease called hereditary angiordema and it causes my organs and stuff to swell. So one minute I'll look small and then the next minute I'll be big and people think it's weight, but it's clearly my body's swelling and it's painful. So I tell people, listen, I don't care if you went to one doctor and they said, oh, we don't know what it is, and brush it off, continue to keep searching until somebody takes you seriously, because you don't want to wait until it's too late, until they tell you that, oh, this doesn't shut down. That doesn't shut down because it went untreated for so long. My lungs, my heart, my kidneys all of those things are shutting down. My intestine is really shutting down. I'm only 37 years old. My body is shutting down and breaking down as if I'm an old lady. So I tell people don't play around with it, Go and find out, Get tested. Sometimes you can have the disease and not have the symptoms. Because it takes something to trigger it in your body to bring it to life. So I just try to tell people to please go and get tested, go to the doctor, don't be afraid to sit up there and ask your doctor, or find another doctor that will listen to you, because sometimes not all doctors listen. So I should be black women.
Speaker 6:Yes.
Speaker 5:Especially us as black women, as black people in general. Sometimes doctors don't always take us seriously.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 5:So it took me a couple of years to find a doctor that Sally took me seriously and did all of the research and blood and Sally found out what was going on with him.
Speaker 1:Man, as people say, when I saw you, you don't look like what you're going through For real. I never would have thought you were smiling. You were doing your thing out here. So shout out to you Once again yeah, I see the power behind ladies coming together, because situations like that is like a family. So did anybody else want to speak on the microphone about who you are and your position in the bike club? I'm loving this conversation. I appreciate you.
Speaker 6:Hello, I'm Dom L-U-R. I'm going to start with the breakdown of L-U-R. It's really important to me. L is for lady we share.
Speaker 2:We're our sisters.
Speaker 6:U is for unity, which represents the togetherness that we strive to display through strength and in numbers. Come on, Dad. Yeah, you are. I'm so happy to get on that. R is for riders, which is the link that brought us together. That's right.
Speaker 4:L-U-R.
Speaker 6:Good job, you know. I just want to explain the reason that I joined. Pretty much I see a good group of strong women and me being younger. It's not discriminate age or anything like that, yeah, she is the baby. And I have a two-year-old daughter, so it don't even stop with me. I just want to keep that going. This is a group of strong women.
Speaker 1:Amazing. I just love it here, You're riding bike too.
Speaker 6:I'm in the social club Okay support.
Speaker 1:I'm here, I'm a rider guy Shout out to you guys, that's my piece of the hill Got you Miss Lavonda, the one who I connected with to be able to make this happen.
Speaker 4:Don't cry sensitive.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's alright, I already know what I am, that's alright, this is what it's all about Coming together and sharing your story, because I always say you never know, who's listening?
Speaker 7:Alright, my name is sensitive and I'm the vice president of the LUR 757. My biggest thing is supporting the community. That's my thing giving back. You never know who needs the stuff, you never know who can help.
Speaker 1:Let me ask you this why do they call you Miss Sensitive? Because I cry at the drop?
Speaker 4:of a bell. I don't know the tips to crap about everything. You got a good heart.
Speaker 1:Yeah sincere Wow, your position is just doing what now?
Speaker 7:I'm the vice president, so I back my president up. I make sure we doing stuff like this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love it. I love it. I love it. So when I reached out to you, you responded. I saw you on the news one day. I saw all of your news.
Speaker 3:You cried like a baby. You cried like a baby.
Speaker 4:You cried like a baby.
Speaker 1:You cried like a baby. Yeah, that was you. That's what stuck out to me, that's what really. I want to contact them, ladies. They seemed like they, you know, sincere, and I saw you cry.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 7:I'm all crazy for me.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I'm just gonna wrap up everything, everything.
Speaker 1:Everything, everything. But yeah, got you. So how could people like get in contact with the organization to donate to what you're doing?
Speaker 7:Our cash app is LUR757. You can donate Our mother's cash app is Lady Unity Rydaz MC slash FC. So you can support the Hampton Roads or the Richmond Shop.
Speaker 1:Got you Support. Both Got you Appreciate you. Ladies, anybody else wanna just share your name, your story or whatever so people can know who you are?
Speaker 4:I just wanna say as females, you know, and we have daughters coming in after us- Got you. We are our daughters first examples, and this club right here represents unity and love for the sisters. So you're also showing what your daughters can become.
Speaker 1:Can become.
Speaker 4:So this is why we do it.
Speaker 1:I love that. I love it.
Speaker 4:And we have brother chapters here, too. Okay, you know your sons come in here.
Speaker 1:Got you and it's for everybody. I always wanted to ride a bike. I always wanted to ride a motorcycle I don't know how.
Speaker 3:Maybe she needs a PC.
Speaker 4:She needs a PC. Okay.
Speaker 1:She's still talking trash. She's still talking trash. She's still talking trash, she's still talking trash. Yeah, yeah, you wanna share Wow.
Speaker 3:Y'all did a beautiful job.
Speaker 2:You had me crying over this Absolutely, my mom and I got lucid, absolutely.
Speaker 3:So the same thing happens to her.
Speaker 2:Okay, hey Pa, hey Pa, hey, I'm KK, bye.
Speaker 1:What's your name?
Speaker 2:I'm Quiet Storm.
Speaker 1:Quiet Storm. Why they call you that Quiet?
Speaker 2:Storm.
Speaker 1:I'll never buy it, never buy it.
Speaker 2:You want it Because I'm quiet before the storm Don't play with me.
Speaker 6:Calm before the storm.
Speaker 2:They say I'm the calm before the storm, calm before the storm. I don't like it. I don't know why she's so sizzling. One day I heard her get a little out of it. Who is that talking? That's Quiet Storm. Ooh, I'm Quiet Storm. I'm the Sergeant in Arms of the Mother Chapter.
Speaker 1:Got you. I appreciate you all being on and sharing your story, your journey and what you all up to. As women bike riders, I really look up to that. To see a woman on a bike actually going down the street. That's amazing to me. Big five save lives. Big five save lives.
Speaker 4:That's amazing to me.
Speaker 7:Big thighs save lives, Save lives. That's all about that. Thigh work, baby Got you.
Speaker 1:So to anybody before we go that you want to give a shout out to whoever it is, before we close out.
Speaker 2:I'm president. I'm president Because, if it weren't for her, we wouldn't be here.
Speaker 3:The glue to the stick Keeping it together.
Speaker 1:Yeah, keeping it together. Yeah, you do need somebody to keep things together, you know, because, yeah, people walk away, people get mad, like you say, all these women, all these emotions, yeah, I'm done with it. It's a lot of it when the president keep y'all together. So I really appreciate you once again. Once again, ladies, unity, ride us. Shout out to y'all Thank you so much. Talk to y'all soon. Wow, what an amazing conversation. Shout out to my friends, lady unity riders 757, for having this dialogue with me. You know I had a great time with these ladies as they shared their stories and all the things that they go through in life from day to day. But what really stuck out to me was when I walked up and saw how they were all working together with smiles on their faces as they were given back to help that community with supplies and clothes for the children, despite having their own issues. So, hey, shout out to you, lady unity rydaz 757, for all of your hard work. Oh, you are as always. Thank you so much for tuning into let's just talk about it podcast, and please check out my website, google let's just talk about it podcastcom, and then hit that subscribe button to receive all the new episodes every Friday. You can also find me on Facebook. Just type in Chuck L J T AI, which means let's just talk about it. So, as always, until next time, don't hold it in, but let's just talk about it. Talk to you soon.
