Memoirs of Raising in the 5 G’s To Rising as a Graduate and a Guiser The Travails of a Jamaican Immigrant Book 3: The Guango Era

I am inviting readers into my personal space and sharing some of the “personal…traumas” I endured from a tender age, the relentless parental mobility, the “migrant loss,” and the reliving of “lingering wounds,” as I searched for “restorative possibilities” as well as the triumphs and successes I experienced later in life. Hopefully, by “collecting, telling, retelling [my] stories”, I will find the healing and redemption that I seek. The third installment describes my family when we moved away from the hustle and bustle of downtown Kingston to Lower St. Andrew (not Upper St. Andrew where the rich folks live). This era is called Guango Era, so named after the road we lived on. it covers my formal schooling years and many other ghetto’s that we lived in with my nomadic family. In Book 3 readers will find stories relating to hymns learned in school as we were not regular churchgoers. Instead, we learned about gambling, working as free laborers, and daring to fall in love with the boss's son. Becoming stoning martyrs, and getting caught up in the political front and fights between the two warring fractions - my father was a PNP supporter and my mother favored the JLP. The stories also crossed over to dangerous escapes from criminal minds of all kinds, causing an assailant to earn three lashes at hard labor in prison. American history dictated that people ventured west to digg not for gold, but our adventures led to digging for sweetie in drums of bees, to almost losing a leg, blowing culinary and scholarly bubbles leading to school failure, and desperately rallying for flowers – and failing miserably. Finally, I recovered and started a winning streak in the world of music where I collected great albums and found the love of my life – Jackie Robinson of the Pioneers Reggae Group. I hope that you will enjoy reading, not only this book but the entire seven-book series. I was sure to provide a background in each so that no reader, or child for that matter, is left behind.