Abdi Mohammed Mohamoud: Father, Basketball Coach, Mentor, Activist & Community Leader 2
Winston Ricketts: Writer, Poet, Spoken Word Artist, Pacifist, Tall Man
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- Where and when were you born
- What was it like growing up in St. Elizabeth
- When did you leave Jamaica to come to Canada
- How did you feel about coming to Canada
- When did you come to Lawrence Heights
Winston Ricketts: Writer, Poet, Spoken Word Artist, Pacifist, Tall ManWhat is the name you were born with? Winston Alexander Ricketts. Do you have a nickname?  Lots (laughs). Back home they call me Jumpy (laughs). Once there was a funeral in my district. I was about maybe 11 or 12 years old. It was a fireman, he died and all the fireman and his friends come. And I was counting all the cars and this guy say `shut up, why you always so jumpy, from today I’m gonna call you Jumpy” and it did stick. So when I go to Jamaica, they call me Jumpy. Up here they call me Tall Man. My pet name is Ramon. That’s what my family call me back home. They say my grandfather was living in Cuba so it’s a Spanish name.
Where and when were you born? I was born in St. Elizabeth Jamaica. January 15th 1956. Tell me about your family.
Winston Ricketts Ruth Daphne Ricketts and John Godfrey Ricketts. My dad was a politician and a preacher and my mother was a seamstress. My 2 older brother and sisters is Clive and Ivy and the younger ones are Rona, Joanne, Lorna, Christopher and Michael. My parents both died but all the brother and sisters are living. Only 3 are still in Jamaica, the rest are in the States. I’m the only one here. We had a sense of duty- like you had to do your duty. Some feed the pigs, some feed the chickens, and we always had our duties. My Dad was really strict. And he drinks a lot too before he went to the Church. My mother was very nice. The Dad was the rough one but she was very cool. But she died at 50 years old. They say she had a heart attack, I think she worry a lot. She was someone who didn’t really speak, she just sewing and sewing dresses for people. She bottle up too much things inside. What was it like growing up in St. Elizabeth? I used to roam the property, my Grandpa had a big property, a lot of acres of land. It was a farm property, lots of fruits and things. St. Elizabeth was a fruitful place, in the country. Mostly short crops come from St. Elizabeth, like melon, pumpkin, peanuts. I had a couple of mishaps. My mother died when I was 16 and I had to look after them, it was kind of hard but you struggle through. I got married and had 2 boys with my first baby mother, then we broke up and she had a little girl. Their names are Dwayne and Dwight and Alesa Ricketts. When did you leave Jamaica to come to Canada? I got married in Jamaica and came here after that when I was 33. My wife was already here in Toronto for 13 years, she came back to Jamaica and we got married in 1987. I came here in October 1988. The first place we lived in Toronto was Scarborough. How did you feel about coming to Canada? It was exciting for the first but then after that it started sinking in when I couldn’t see my kids back home. One year after I got here, exactly to the same day as I came here, I got kicked out by my wife. I’m on my own ever since. Never marry again! My brother in law got me a job at a sign company. It was call Wagner Signs. I was working in shipping. It was at Lawrence and Keele and I wanted to be closer to my work so I moved to Rogers and Dufferin. I was in that rooming house for 7 years. Then I moved to another rooming house on Lauder for 3 years, then I moved to Vaughan Road. At that place I got beaten up real bad. Cause I was friendly with all the people, not knowing some of them was real coots. So they told the police I’m the one putting all those things around and they came and gave me a real whooping. Then them searched and they find nothing. But I didn’t get a criminal charge for it. They guy just say I was used. That was 2 years before I came here. I been through some things here that really toughen me up and now I don`t mind much. I lost my job at the sign company, they fire me. And my unemployment run out and I try to go on the system and they say my wife sponsor me. So they gave me a paper to immigration. And they were giving me $520 a month and they took $100 for sponsorship and $300 for rent and I was left with $125 every month. And that`s how I lived for 6 years- 6 years! And when I told my sister she said `no ‘and I said ``yes``. And I never went to the Food Bank because I feel ashamed, I ain`t going to no Food Bank. And I did that for 6 years. So sometime I look back and say `hey look what you`ve been through and you survived``. And what`s to be will always be. When did you come to Lawrence Heights? I moved here in Lawrence Heights in April 2003, it was right when the SARS was happening, everybody was wearing a mask. I moved to 1 Old Meadow Lane for the past 13 years. 
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