Second Installment of soon-to-be-published Football Biography
CHAPTER 2
HARBOUR VIEW 1960
The community of Harbour View located some six miles east of the capital Kingston- was quite remote in terms of transportation, utilities, facilities, and the like. Traveling beyond the Cement Company in a further easterly direction...the driver of the truck took the first left turn off the main road leading into the new established community… and in a low gear moved up the fairly steep hill that was Harbour Drive to a corner at the top where a down hill right hand turn was made. The road was called Tuna Avenue and the stop was made at number 41. The house was owned by one Ms Angus who proved to be both friend and foe in my mom's personal struggles. This would be my new home base until the legal wrangling that enveloped my mother's state of affairs would iron out itself; so I hoped.
EARLY 1961, no sooner than we had settled in at 41 Tuna Avenue that a slow, piece by piece moving began which took items across the old rickety 'dividing' bridge under which ran the Hope River that linked the developed western section of Harbour View with the undeveloped [no streets, lights, water, etc.] eastern section of the housing scheme where we settled [Moms, Grandma, and Brother] into our own home at Lot 1532 Mars Drive. Ownership truly is power. Even when there is neither electricity nor running water.
There were no schools as yet built in this community beyond Rockfort so I continued by busing it the Holy Rosary preparatory school. The daily drive along the Mineral Bath Cement Company road was always exhilarating… like leaving town and heading into the country and vice versa. The thrills of bumming a ride was ever adventurous and a necessary economic saver of often limited monetary resources.
INDEPENDENCE DAY
August 6 1962 saw Jamaica lower the Union Jack and raise the Black Green and Gold flag symbolizing Jamaica's move from political dependency on the Crown to self- government. It was the day that MVD headed out to the Palisadoes International Airport to ‘escape’ on a flight to Brooklyn USA.
After getting a few “readings” from Mother Hubbins, MVD was told that her future lies 'abroad' and making some timely borrowing from Miss Katie in Jones Town, et al ...MVD trudged on to the HV roundabout where a ride was ‘bummed’ to the airport...and unto Air Jamaica…to leave behind a “city” whose walls were closing in on her, her mother[my grandmother] and two sons. One week later on the 14th August, I would 'celebrate' my 8th birthday.
During my early years in the community of Harbour View I became engorged in a highly competitive sporting environment ...in a pioneering spirit of discovery and adventurism...original inhabitants of the Matalon - built housing scheme in east rural St. Andrew...driven by a hive of activities that included athletics, cricket, football, table tennis, swimming, gymnastics, music and entertainment. Besides always having a piano in my home, my inspiration for music and the keyboards were reinforced by my affiliation with Roland Alphanso, Club Parisienne, the Skatalites and my neighbor on Sirius Avenue in the figure of a young KC organist named Jackie Mittoo. It was only recently that I realized that I developed my ‘cross-over hand’ style of playing from the “Master” himself. However, Football was the dominant activity and sport and was a seven day a week life-style. Some times we played two or three times per day on the streets of Venus Avenue, Zenith Avenue, Mars Drive and eventually to a large tract of land on the other side of the St. Thomas Road and between / next to the Caribbean Sea.
In the immediate post Independent period, as youths we would be up before sunrise and head across the St. Thomas main road, just easterly beyond the Hope River Bridge. Adjacent to the community of East Harbour View was a broad expanse of woodland bordering on the Caribbean Sea. In an attempt to create space play, we spent weeks chopping out the bush land and moving wooden tree stumps with the objective in mind to create a football field with the correct international measurements. After cutting and clearing the swamp woodland, the bigger boys arranged for several trucks to dump up the field. Many mornings on our daily clearing we often met retreating sea water at least half the distance between the main road and the ocean. We know that the sea came in at nights and retreated by early morning. We collectively called our new grounds the 'Big Field'. This playfield embodied the pioneering spirit of political independence and triggered the formation of the first senior football club in Harbour View named the Eastern Thunderbolts FC. and marked the beginning of Harbour View's emergence on the Jamaican national football scene.
The Eastern Thunderbolt FC became the first football club to represent Harbour View in the Kingston and St. Andrew Divisional League competition with the Big Field as our home field. The team had players such as Errol 'Flam' Smart, Leonard Edwards, Ludlow 'Luddy' Morrell (deceased), Trevor Bowlin, Barry Chin Fook, Roy Lee (deceased), Johnny 'Fowla' Beverley, Junior 'Jah Booka' Hines, the Meikel brothers, Philip and ‘Judge’, the Neil brothers, et al. Fortunately, I was personally able to watch and play alongside some of the island's best senior footballers at this time. This included Dr. Lascelles 'Muggy' Graham, Nigel 'Pummy' Goodison, Donald 'Billy' Perkins, and many top class schoolboy players who played and lived in the community.
Visioning The King
One afternoon while playing ball on Mars Drive in front of Smithy gates…I recall beating two players (Shula and Tony Hayes) with one body swerve…that left a very exhilarating feeling and for a few mystic moments / seconds I was in ‘nether-land’ and clearly saw myself ‘playing on the same field with the King’…in a distant land. I was ‘shocked by the vision’. And wondered how was that possible…how would I get to Brazil?
I stopped playing for a moment and wondered whether I should say anything or share my ‘vision’ with my friends…or would they begin to think that I was going ‘football crazy’. I soon regained my present disposition and mused on the possibility formed in my mind.
In 1964 during my final year at Holy Rosary Preparatory school, I selected KC as my first choice in the Common Entrance Examination and was successful. I spent many nights under the light studying on my front verandah in Harbour View. Every one knew that if you could play/represent Kingston College in the Manning Cup then your chances of playing for Jamaica would increase significantly.
At the time the main purpose for taking the Common Entrance Examination and selecting KC was to develop my football playing skills as KC was the top sporting school in Jamaica and perhaps the first sporting college producing many of the island's best athletes (runners, footballers, cricketers, etc.) and school boy football teams in the country.
I entered KC at Melbourne Park in 1965. KC’s Manning Cup teams of 1964 and 1965 have been acclaimed to be the ‘greatest schoolboy team’ ever with outstanding play against Brazil’s National Under 20 team.
My grandmother was not the most 'educated’ but held the home-fort while my mother [from herein to be called MVD] set her foundation in the USA.
By 1965, "dem tek weh wi fiel inna Harbour View an mek one up-scale housin scheme rite pon de sea". The demise of the ‘Big Field’ has repercussions that still resonate in the football culture in Harbour View. The moving of the football centre from East Harbour View to the Compound on the western side of Harbour View led to the subsequent demise of the Eastern Thunderbolt FC and the shifting of the football loci from east Harbour View to the western section where play was developed on the hazardous and stony Compound. Shortly afterwards a small triangular piece of land located on Aqua Avenue on the Western side of the community became another recognized play area.
ASIDE: When the Flora rains of 1966 swamped Jamaica, Caribbean Terrace experienced minimal damage but the first indication of potential danger was evident as the Hope River flooded out homes [in Harbour View] along the bank of the river [Riverside drive, Orion avenue, etc.] as well as threatened the back yards of the homes in Caribbean Terrace.
The field was 'captured' by very opportunistic and greedy investors who convinced upper middle class and affluent potential home owners of the 'exclusiveness' in purchasing a home in the newly proposed 'Caribbean Terrace’ to be built on the "buffer lands" between the Caribbean Sea and the St. Thomas main road.
Hurricane Ivan's message in 2005 apparently did not make it home. Forty five years later Hurricane Dean would reclaim the ‘Big Field’.
My first formal club joined was a youth club named Galaxy YC based at Stewart 'Stumbo' Daley's home on Jupiter Road. (From the Galaxy to the Cosmos) I played at the inside forward position (mimicking the King) for the Galaxy and was a swift and skilled youth who displayed good ability in athletics, football and versatility on the key boards. We played a few competitive matches outside of our community but the team soon dissolved after running up into a 'big-side' from August Town. I continued to be the only youth that could play with the big man dem on the Big Field. My football experiences took me beyond my eight biological years as I continued to gain deeper understanding of the beautiful game.
It would appear that my main motivation for going to school was to play football. My mother had left for the United States on Independence Day 6th August 1962. My father [ a policeman] lived in St. James and I lived with my grand mother Mame and older brother Tony aka Duhaney and/or Kitch.
There was a time in Harbour View when parties were a weekly affair. Oftentimes these ‘sessions’ would be ‘crashed’ by non-invited ‘youths’ of the community. The kitchen was usually the first place that Tony would raid when the parties were crashed into….thus the name ‘kitch’ , short for kitchen.
Life in general during this period was one of 'up and down'. Though we generally had clothes to wear, sometimes there was dinner and other times there was none. Tony had been a scholarship winner to KC but never put much into studies. After two years at KC he was expelled and relocated at Camperdown high. Tony instead chose to join the juvenile bad-boy culture of Dunkirk, (a community known for ‘violence’), cigarette and herb smoking, drinking, girls, etc.
In the meantime, Supreme Court proceedings at Sutton Street in Kingston lead to my father forced to pay child allowance to the tune of about six pounds per month. I remember attending one of the court hearings as the living proof that I was being well taken care of by my mother though the lawyer for my father objected to the amount determined by the judge as too high, the court ruled in favor of the said amount. Kitch being the older of the two children was charged with the responsibility of collecting funds from Court. Unfortunately, with little or no concern for Mame or myself, the money from the Courts often never reached home and was usually spent with his friends [Howie and Tawta] on excursions traveling around the island and eating to their hearts content leading to much financial dislocation and uncertainty on the home front.
I recall Kitch coming home about one week after picking up the money at Sutton Street with just about two pounds remaining. I continued my studies at the preparatory school oftentimes having to bum rides to and from school. Fortunately I had good and kind school mates, particularly Charles Lodenquai who became my best friend and help to support my school needs right on through to high school.
MELBOURNE PARK 1965 - 1967
I passed the government administered Common Entrance Examination and envisioned a career in sport with dreams of playing international football in the realm of the great King Pele.
My first two years at KC were spent at Melbourne Park, Elletson Road. All my hopes and aspirations were centered on playing football for KC in the Manning Cup. In my first term at KC I represented my class/form (1e )team at Form football, distinguished myself as a skilful dribbler and goal scorer and was rewarded by being named a member of the All First Form team. This was a highly motivating experience and I looked forward to my second year in high school. I continued to do well in my academic studies and set my sight on playing on KC's Junior Colts team.
In my second term at KC I was named to the Junior Colts (U14) Team and for the first time represented the 'Purples' against traditional name schools such as J.C., Wolmers, Decarteret, etc. and learning the ethics of schoolboy football. I was named to the All Second Form Team and thus maintained a level of consistency in personal performance.
My third year at KC proved to be quite an eventful one. To begin, moving from second to third form was accompanied by a move from Melbourne Park to the Cloverly Park Big Boy campus on North Street. The real center of the College where the spirit of 'Fortis cadere, cadere non potest', Bishop Gibson , Douglas Forrest and Jonathan Augustus Crick could be felt. Following on the trend of my first two years, I was named to the All Third Form Team and began to gain prominence as a young 'baller on the North Street campus. I suffered from what I interpreted as a major 'set-back' in my attempt to play on the school's Colts U16 Team. The coach at the time (I think it was Trevor Parchment) respected my speed and skill on the ball but felt that I was young, too skinny and had two more years of eligibility and perhaps a sure selection for the following year. Instead, I became sick and sad at not making the U16 Colts team. My disappointment was so far reaching that for the first time my grades became affected. I seem to have lost interest in school as well as in most subjects; leaving school at midday thru the hole in the fence and spending time back in Harbour View...so that by the end of the Christmas term of 1967, my academic future at KC looked dim, a request for my parent to pay the school a visit was imminent and the prospect of having to 'repeat' third form loomed ominously.
In January 1968, my mother made her belated first return visit to Jamaica... since Independence Day 1962. Although I was left in the care of my grandmother[Mame], I had been psychologically responsible for myself from Independence day 1962...including my preparation for the dreaded Common Entrance and so had spent much time in the past six year in reflection and thought that shaped my early outlook and ambitions on life.
During MVD's visit she reviewed my last report card which I somehow forgot to mail (after sending for two years)to her and realized that something was not so kosher as my grades were in a steady decline along with a request for her presence. In a stream of consciousness she mentioned something about going or coming to live with her in Brooklyn. At first the idea was quite alarming as the City of New York seemed overwhelming. Soon I realized that this was the route out of my 'road-block situation' and that maybe my "football dream' could be resurrected in a 'foreign land'. Within a few days the machinery for travelling to the USA was set in motion. Within a couple of weeks I had secured a passport, medical certificate, police record and all the necessary travel documents. I never mentioned to anyone that I would be going to A Merry Ka until my flight was booked with ticket in hand. It was in the middle of the Easter term when all the pieces fell in place and the moment of exit was on cue.
At the time of my departure I told maybe just two of my close classmates as I felt as though I was making the best possible move at the moment and there was not much emotional detachment required to move on.
Sunday 7th April 1968
Four days after the assassination of the Reverend Martin Luther King in Memphis, Tennessee...at the relatively tender age of 13 IMAN/DonDavis boarded a British Overseas Airway Corporation (BOAC) aircraft heading for the United States of America.
At 9:oo pm BOAC flight 010 touched down at John F. Kennedy International Airport. The pilot of the airliner describes the outside weather condition as a "cool and clear 40 degrees Fahrenheit" and gave thanx for a safe journey. As the door of the aircraft opened there was a sudden and sharp drop in the temperature that sent a cold shrill up my spine. After spending my entire life in temperatures that ranged from 85 - 95 degrees yearly, the cool of 40 was enough to make numb my fingers and toes. The walk from the plane to the terminal building was far and long and I said to myself: so this is Amerika...bwoy it cold!My journey from the airport to my new home in the burrow of Brooklyn turned out to be quite an unusual experience as the driver became confused with the road signs and ended up driving through nearly all five burrows of New York. For me, this was an unexpected and unplanned 'sightseeing trip' and was utterly fantastic. The gigantic highways filled with speeding cars and trucks brought on memories of scenes seen in the movies with the bright lights of the tall face-less buildings dotting the night sky. My driver after asking a few bemused motorists finally got it right and managed to relocate the burrow of Brooklyn; entering through the Ghettos of Bedford Stuyvesant. The sight of garbage strewn in the streets, burnt out buildings, derelicts on the corners made me forget for a moment that I was actually in the fabulous NEW YORK, NEW YORK. You have to understand the adage of 'first impressions' to comprehend the effect of seeing sights that could only be associated with the depression of Jamaica's Shanty Towns. At a few minutes after midnight we finally arrived at my new 'gates' at 1000 Park Place ...situated at the corner of Brooklyn Avenue. The reality of 'foreign' was somewhat different from the "images" I had before leaving Jamaica and there were many more pictures that would have to be adjusted- in time. Entering my new home I wondered what would become of IMAN/DonD in foreign land called A Merry Ka. Would I find new friends, new school and most significantly...would I still be able to continue playing the game that I felt gifted to play... instead of busting my brains trying to answer these waves of questions that flooded my mind, I simply settled down to watching some late night television eagerly awaiting the crack of dawn....to be continued....
Excerpt taken from soon to be published Football Autobiography of Dr. DON DAVIS titled: From Harbour View To the New York COSMOS and BLAK : A Rendezvous with King PELE
World a Ball
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