"Son, you run with it."

That's what Mr. Scott told Ricky Parker in the Spring of 1989.
"You know what to do. I've been the best I can, and you can do better."
The Scotts took a liking to him when they spotted him working at Morgan's Service Station. Ricky was 14 years old.

for two years. They didn't have any children of their own.
"Mr. Scott used to check me out of school at 11:00 and return me at 1:00 every day, to help out during the lunch rush. I would work before and after school too. When I was a senior, he asked me point blank, "Do you want to earn a living,

"Mr Scott was a no nonsense old fashioned sort of man. He liked that I didn't grow my hair out long as was the style back then. He asked about me and found out I was working three jobs and going to school. He introduced himself and told me I now had only one job."
Ricky was a hard worker. That was obvious, something a barbeque man could easily spot.

or go to school." I told him I wanted to earn a living and I've been doing this ever since.
Ricky slow cooks whole hogs the old fashioned way. His pits are covered with many layers of corrugated cardboard. The smoke house has one large exhaust fan, that is overmatched. The low lying rafters and ceiling are covered in a greasy soot.

After all Early Scott started selling barbeque by the side of the road, with only $18 to his name. What wasn't so obvious was the terrible situation that awaited Rickey at home.
"On one particular night I came home and saw my father beating on my mother. I took a baseball bat to him. He threw me out of the house. Told me I didn't live there anymore. The Scott's adopted me the next day.
Ricky had already been working for the Scotts

"They won't insure me, but they can't shut me down neither. I'm grandfathered in."
Ricky's wife Tina is a nurse at the cardiac/cath unit of Jackson General. "I mees'em up, she fixes 'em up," Ricky tells between puffs from his Swisher Sweet.
"She helps out as do their four kids. I hope that some day I can throw one of them the keys."