A Paralympian’s Oral History APRIL HOLMES 2004 Paralympic Games – Athens 2008 Paralympic Games – Beijing 2012 Paralympic Games – London 2016 Paralympic Games – Rio – Track and Field – Interviewed by: Alan Abrahamson and Wayne Wilson January 9, 2019 Los Angeles, California ©2019 LA84 Foundation All rights reserved This oral history may not, in whole or in part, be copied, photocopied, reproduced, translated, or converted to any electronic or machine-readable form without prior written consent of the LA84 Foundation www.LA84.org LA84 Foundation 2141 W. Adams Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90018 APRIL HOLMES Wayne Wilson Interviewer: Today is January 9, 2019. We are speaking with April Holmes, who is a Paralympian who competed in four Games beginning in 2004, in the long jump and in the sprints. She is a medalist at the Paralympic Games and also in the world championships. The interviewers today are Alan Abrahamson and Wayne Wilson. Alan Abrahamson Interviewer: I'm Alan Abrahamson and thank you, Wayne. Hi April. April Holmes: Hi Alan, Abrahamson: So, April it is traditional in these sorts of oral histories to start at the very beginning. So, I think that's a good idea to do just that. Let's talk about April as a very little girl. What do you remember? Tell us when and where you were born. Holmes: I was born in New Jersey. Abrahamson: I'm so, sorry. Holmes: I was born in southern New Jersey, close to the 3 or 4 exits, off the New Jersey Turnpike, close to Philadelphia. So, I'm a huge Sixers fan, Eagles fan, Phillies fan, Flyers fan, like all of those. Abrahamson: Springsteen fan? Holmes: I'm sorry? Abrahamson: Springsteen fan? Holmes: You cannot not be a be a Springsteen fan living in that area, definitely a Springsteen fan. But, that's what I remember as a kid, being in sports. Sports, whether it was outside playing around doing sports, whether it was some of my first couple of times at different track meets, going to different track meets and things like that, meeting other kids, having fun. My parents were always involved in sports, encouraging that lifestyle because it was something that they knew I was interested in. Abrahamson: Brothers and sisters? Holmes: I have two sisters. They are not the least bit interested in sports at all. I don't care. In fact, both of them, I think that if they had like a sweat on their brow, they’d probably like freak out. 1 Abrahamson: Number in the birth order are you? Holmes: I mean, I'm the middle child. They tell me I'm the spoiled child. I'm like, "How do you spoil them in the middle? It doesn't feel right." But, Abrahamson: What do numbers one and three do for a living? Holmes: One is. So, older sister Tonya, she's in nursing, and younger sister is, she's a speech pathologist but right now she's sitting at home raising two twin boys, which are quite a handful. Yeah, they're adorable children, but quite the handful. Abrahamson: Are they both back in New Jersey? Holmes: No. So, the younger one not long ago moved to Florida, not far from my house and older one is still New Jersey. Abrahamson: What kind of work did your parents do? Holmes: My father is a police officer. My mother is an insurance secretary kind of thing. She did that most of my life. Abrahamson: So, I grew up in the rural Midwest, where Midwestern values were a thing. Would you say that you got the New Jersey version of Midwestern values because your dad was a police officer. Holmes: The New Jersey portion of Midwest values? My mother was very – she was very strict. She believed in us being very obedient children. She believed in us having a great work ethic and she believed in us learning how to do things to take care of ourselves. And, she said this too many times, that as we did things around the house that either she or my dad taught us how to do, it was all about preparing us for life later in the event that something ever happened to either one of them and we had to go live somewhere else. She never wanted us to be a burden on someone else. So, she was always, always about teaching us how to survive. You know, from a young kid is like, "OK, you're cleaning this. You have these chores. You have this responsibility. You're expected to do this. You're expected to do that." It gave you a lot of room to be a kid, but also understanding what it was like to learn how to take care yourself to do things to overcome obstacles, like those type of things. And, being very respectful why you're doing them. In fact to this day people all the time are like, "Are you in the military? Have you ever been in the military, or are your parents and military?" I’m like, "No. Why, because I say, ‘Yes ma'am. No ma’am’ and ‘No sir. Yes, Sir?'" – like that kind of thing, just being respectful of people and just continuing that respect, continuing that work ethic that she instilled in us from a very young age. So, I don't know about the Midwest values. I'm going 2 to call them, "Regina Holmes values." Abrahamson: I got a, "Yes or no ma'am" treatment at home also, but the corollary to this is what happens if you were, if you complain and said, "I really don’t feel like doing that today?" Holmes: Oh, there was no complaining in Regina Holmes’ house. Listen, she would tell you quick she bought you in this world she could take you out. She had no problem with this. I mean, that’s just the way we were disciplined. That was a way discipline looked like in our family. If you were you were out of line, sometimes you got sent to your room, but – before you got to the room part there was a slap or beating or something like there was there was some force that you remembered the very next time you did. You definitely remembered the punishment long before you ever tried to do it again. Abrahamson: Are you close with your sisters? Holmes: Yes. Yes, I really am. My older sister she and I are closer in age. Growing up we were not very close. I’m into sports and she's into makeup. I’m doing sports, she's into makeup. I’m putting on tennis shoes and she's put on high heels kind of thing. So, we weren’t that close growing up. We were closer in age than we were closer together. And, my younger sister, she and I've gotten along a lot, now that we've moved, that we're older, more than we got along and we were younger. So, it's kind of I don't know the dance, I feel like siblings play all the time. Abrahamson: So, how would you say this version of house discipline has shaped your world view? Holmes: I always think about – my world view is always – the things that you do now, especially with social media, it's the things that you do now. How careful are you of the things that you do, the things that you put out into the world, because, you know, they're things that can't come back and things that you know ultimately in some way shape or form, may actually hurt your family, hurt your reputation, even just to the degree of not being able to say get a job, say not do different things. So, I always think about the discipline that I got and the shame I felt like, "OK, I don't want, I never want to – I never want a mom to have to feel the shame from something that I did wrong in the world." So, it's that constant reminder of, "No, don't do that because your mom's going to beat you. Don’t do that because you're going to get in trouble, or you're going get on punishment, or something like that." So, I was always that kid – whatever I had to do, let me do it. I don't want to be in trouble. I don't want to be on punishment. So, that's definitely shaped the way I still am to this day. I don't do too many things that think I'm going to get in trouble for, get on punishment for. Abrahamson: Your parents still alive? 3 Holmes: Yes, my mother, my mother’s still alive, and my biological father is still alive. But, I mean, they're a handful. They enjoy who I've become, the woman that they raised me to be. They’re happy about that. Abrahamson: So, moving forward to middle school and high school. Some point you're in sports, you know, had some talent and then you get on to Norfolk State. Tell us about your high school and college years. Holmes: High school was interesting because I started off high school in the area in which I lived. That was in the suburbs. I had been running a summer track for a number of years and the coach for my summer track club was actually the coach at the inner- city school. So, I started school in my area.