Nov 8, 2019

Mine is a continuation of what I said earlier, you know. But after we got married, she was working in the university. I was working in the post office, and, you know, every thing was working out well and truly for us. And she said to me, as I can see you, you stop this running around. Let’s get together and buy a house. I was only twenty-eight. I was twenty-eight years old, all right?

And she said to me, so when we have the house then, we can have some kids and work on having… I went straight out, walked the street, looking at some estate agencies and every kind of thing like that. And I saw… I went to this guy, agent for some place in Barbados. So I said to him, I want to go back to Barbados, how can I go?

He said, look, I have a house down there. If you see it, you’re going to want it. He sent me toward this house, and I go, and I look in this house, and I said – I went back to her while she’s coming from the university – I say look, come let me show you this house. Well, the people were so nice, because I was only living in a room, and when I talked to her, she she says, come let’s go, and let’s make it right.

So when we got things together, and we got the deposit, and got everything together, It changed me. Me from being who I was into who I am now in a kind of way. You know, because you find people even though they are not too close to you as you would say, they have some influence on you. And their influence really pulled me out and changed me.

And then we started looking for children. I was unfortunate. I was offered a job in a game back in England, and I couldn’t do it, because I was in the house in 1966. And they offered me a job in May.

Well that was a heavy, that heart. Having children. My son… I have two daughters. And my two daughters were born within eleven months of each other. I wasn’t getting on… so I worked, I’d do my inside work.

So your wife is English?

No, she’s in Barbados. The kids are in Barbados. And they love Barbados. It’s a… Barbados has a very high educational system.

And, you know, and the kids go in there, one just got her PhD, the other one’s going law.

And they call me… my birthday was the fourth of this month. Yeah. Monday.

Oh, happy birthday.

And they call me up from England. They call me from Barbados, you know. And I was having such a wonderful time.

So that’s a full change… not full. It’s a lot more. That’s me changing from being a wild, do-anything person, into…And you know, but she insisted, you stop this. So let’s go get a house and then start getting kids.

Well my wife is from Guyana. I am from Barbados. But we got married in England. I was working in the post office one night And she was working at the university. So I said to them, let’s go to the coast. The people in Guyana have a few dollars. I had a few dollars, but my kids never liked it. I take them to Barbados, they love Barbados. In Barbados it’s nice, and sunny, and you know. And that’s the thing, you know. We went home, and my mum was very ill. And she was bedridden, right? …you know bedridden when you could hardly come out. And when we got there, she said, I never saw your kids. I saw all the other children’s kids. And when she saw my kids…

We went… They went to Guyana to bury one of her family. In ten days they come back to Barbados and find my mum was not bedridden. You understand? She would come out and sit on the table and talk to us and things… but you know.

So you see one thing converts into another. It’s definitely a beautiful circle, never ends. And always and always we always find a place. And she lives in Barbados, the kids live in Barbados. I have a son that lives here. He lives in New Jersey, but you know, that’s the life. And mine is so long and so ugly and has some good things and has some bad things…

You said your wife lives in Barbados?

Yeah. When she goes to Barbados on vacation… We went all over Europe. We went to Paris, we went to Brussels, we went to… nearly every place we’d go. She loves traveling.

Right. So why are you here in New York and not in Barbados?

No, I came here to look after my son. And while we were here… he was living in New Jersey… my wife and I couldn’t make it because she had a daughter from another marriage. And she used to give me a lot of trouble. And she was nine years old and she had more roar… she was more rude than her mum or anybody I know. You know what I had to do? Get out.

Oh yes. Now you’re a ten year old. You never know what they tell their mum. And then you’re mum, you believe everything they say. You have troubles. That’s why I come down… and I only came on a vacation. But now I have prostate cancer. I have diabetes. I have… a lot of things have fun down there. But I…

But I persist against it. I have a power to strength that my mum put in me, because my father died when I was only four and a half years old. And she brought us up like a person that think…well, she was like a brick on one side, and a diamond on the other side. You know, you behave well, you get everything nice. And you step out of line, and you get the wonk.

You know, it’s the kind of feeling that… because of that you move around and you move around and you get to the place where you want to get to. And I wanted my kids to go back to Barbados, because they would get a very good educational system. Right? Because I put them in the Catholic Church. Because in the normal church at school, they had a lot of disobedience and everything… You go to the Catholic, it’s direct. You can never be caught outside without uniform. You go home. And if you want to come out, you come out without uniform. But my kids, once they’re in the house, they know the house and what has been mandated. They’ve got the work to do, and all of that. So, you know, that was a rhythm that I could always be remembered by.