Memories from my Childhood

[DarterBlue]

Renkers Corner/Southside/Kingston/Jamaica - it is where I spent the second half of my childhood from 10-20. At 55 seconds is a childhood friend and school mate, Bunny/Nookie/Oneie. The nickname is obvious;

 

[ohio]

4 hours ago, DarterBlue said:

Renkers Corner/Southside/Kingston/Jamaica - it is where I spent the second half of my childhood from 10-20. At 55 seconds is a childhood friend and school mate, Bunny/Nookie/Oneie. The nickname is obvious;

 

Must be nice to see your friend and the old neighborhood again.

Beautiful memories.

[DarterBlue]

2 hours ago, ohio said:

Must be nice to see your friend and the old neighborhood again.

Beautiful memories.

Bitter sweet memories. Nookie was a smart kid and a good person. Still is. But Jamaica is not especially kind to the poor particularly when you are handicapped. So, supporting himself has been a challenge. For most of his youth, he was the house for a small gambling operation (a crown and anchor board game). He upgraded his skills during that time and eventually got a job at a law firm first as a courier and later as security administration. 

Before going to live in Southside, I had lived first with mom and dad while they were still together and then for three years with dad after they were separated. Life during that time was lower midddle/working class but the neighborhoods were safe. Once they divorced, I went to live with mom in the hood. She ran a small business (bar and local cook shop) there.

Life changed dramatically for me when I went to live with mom. And   I quickly learned what it was like to assume grown up responsibilities. Unlike most of my peers in Southside, my first ten years had served me well. For while dad was a heavy drinker who had trouble holding down a job, he spent a lot of time reading to me when I was young and he certainly opened me up to the notion that world did not begin and end in my current circumstances whatever they happened to be. As such I was well prepared for the common entrance exams (11+ exams) which determined whether you got a high school, grammar education or not back then. I was one of a handful of kids from Southside to benefit from this.  

A majority of the kids (probably 60 to 70%) that I grew up with from Southside are now dead. Some of them violently. Perhaps one of the smartest individuals I have ever know in my entire life Harris Blake (Little) was one of my close friends. This kid had the potential to be literally anything he wanted from athlete to brain surgeon. Unfortunately, though he passed the 11+ exams, he did not benefit from a high school education as his mother did not see fit to pay for his uniforms and other costs the scholarship did not cover (to be fair to her, it would have been hard for her as she was very poor and had six kids). Thus his considerable potential was not realized as he made his living as a fisherman. As far as I know he is still alive, but suffered from the effects of a stroke about five years ago which limited his mobility.

Living there one encountered both a lot of love and a lot of hate. Many of my peers turned to crime which seemed to be a quick way to earn both fortune and fame. But others fought against the odds and some made quite a bit out of their lives. I am sure my life there has colored my view of the world and my politics more so than any other experience. The most notorious kid from my generation that grew up there was Delroy Edwards. In the USA he took the nickname UZI. And for good reason as he ran a drug operation from Queens to DC. Today Delroy is doing life at a Federal, Colorado facility. It is somewhat sad to me that he ended up that way, as I was close to his uncle and he was actually a relatively quiet kid growing up.  

[AztecPadre]

9 hours ago, DarterBlue said:

Renkers Corner/Southside/Kingston/Jamaica - it is where I spent the second half of my childhood from 10-20. At 55 seconds is a childhood friend and school mate, Bunny/Nookie/Oneie. The nickname is obvious;

 

Ever met Chris Coke or his pops?

[DarterBlue]

8 minutes ago, AztecPadre said:

Ever met Chris Coke or his pops?

The Cokes were from Tivoli Gardens about three miles to the west. Never met them, but the dad's predecessor, Claudius Massop, used to be a customer of my mother's establishment. He loved playing ping pong (table tennis) and we had a board in the back yard. You would have never known he was a gangster as he was also a very quiet person. Used to drink Guinness stout and sit in a corner with his back to the wall. 

He was eventually sold down the river by his patron, and former Jamaican Prime Minister, whose name I will not post. For his loyalty (or perhaps his perceived betrayal), he picked up 80+ bullets including about twenty under his arms showing that he was in a position of surrender when he was gunned down. 

[Troll]

4 hours ago, DarterBlue said:

Bitter sweet memories. Nookie was a smart kid and a good person. Still is. But Jamaica is not especially kind to the poor particularly when you are handicapped. So, supporting himself has been a challenge. 

Checked YouTube to see if they had any good clips on Paterson and found this one...

Don't know if you know Who Fetty Wap is ( had an album out a couple years back), but he is straight out of my hood. Long clip but thought you could relate...If you have not heard his music, you might check it out.

 

All the other clips of Paterson were just more 'typical'.....

 

[DarterBlue]

48 minutes ago, Troll said:

Don't know if you know Who Fetty Wap is ( he had a few hits the last couple years), but he is straight out of my hood. Long clip but thought you could relate...If you have not heard his music, you might want to check it out.

Kind of funny. I had heard some of his music without knowing who performed it. He has some talent, but his sound is not at the top of my preference. When it comes to rap, I prefer some of the "underground artists." 

But yeah, Patterson, in some respects, not all, is similar to Southside. One difference, at least when I was growing up, is that Southside probably had more communal bonds. Thus, although Joe (Uzi's uncle) could have been my father in terms of our ages, he was both a mentor and friend. He had a pickup truck and would often take 15 of us or so to football (soccer) games at the National Stadium. The man was also a legendary eater, and watching him eat whole fish was an experience as the fish would enter one side of his mouth and bones would exit the other all in one continuous motion. 

[Troll]

1 minute ago, DarterBlue said:

Kind of funny. I had heard some of his music without knowing who performed it. He has some talent, but his sound is not at the top of my preference. When it comes to rap, I prefer some of the "underground artists." 

But yeah, Patterson, in some respects, not all, is similar to Southside. One difference, at least when I was growing up, is that Southside probably had more communal bonds. Thus, although Joe (Uzi's uncle) could have been my father in terms of our ages, he was both a mentor and friend. He had a pickup truck and would often take 15 of us or so to football (soccer) games at the National Stadium. The man was also a legendary eater, and watching him eat whole fish was an experience as the fish would enter one side of his mouth and bones would exit the other all in one continuous motion. 

He had some 'issues' when you come back home to the hood, and everyone knows you have cash.  That, and everyone suing him for everything.  Think he is finally going to put a second album out. Got a great voice but the lifestyle lyrics are not what I usually put on if I get a chance to put on some music.  Even that blew up for him, as any 'political' good will he could have brought home was trashed when people went apeshit (and administrations fired) over how he managed to film one of his video's right in Eastside HS (with a teacher smoking from her 'bong apple' etc.).

I visited Jamaica a couple times when I was a kid...maybe similar, but definitely different lol.  Paterson was probably more like there 30-40 years ago from a community aspect, it's ALL screwed up now. It's everyone for themselves it seems these days.  I'm probably finally done with it after that long, depending on next month, and was actually feeling nostalgic about it before you posted the thread. Screwy coincidence huh LOL.