My Troubled Life
From Trinidad and Tobago to the Virgin Islands and America
by
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Into the third week on the job, Fred and I were still coffee boys for the crew. It was okay for Fred, but I was doing it under protest. The fourth week the shit hit the fan. It was my day to get the coffee. I made a mistake with one order; the guy wanted tea and I brought him coffee My Union brother got very angry and started off on me. HE said: “Every morning you go for coffee, I always order tea; is that so hard to remember?” Then he said the following (which was what really pissed me off) “All you people can do is play basketball and football.” I felt that the remark was racist. I turned to Jack and told him I wanted an apology from the fitter. The fitter said: “Fuck you. I am not going to give you shit!” I told Jack the foreman that this was the last day that I was going to get coffee for any one. And meant it. I didn’t go down for coffee after that day. Fred continued going for the coffee for the crew. I went for my own. I read somewhere that A BLACK MAN HAS NO RIGHTS THAT A WHITE MAN IS BOUND TO RESPECT I proved that to be true on the Battery Park job. After that morning there, was a lot of tension. The white workers started giving me the cold shoulder. What was worse, Fred and I started arguing with each other. A white welder working next to us was making four to five welds a day. Fred was making fifteen. When it was my turn to weld, I would make no more than seven welds, though my welds were quality work. I started disliking Fred because he was bad mouthing me to some of the white workers. One of the white workers told me about it. I didn’t tell Fred about it because I didn’t want to reveal which one of the white workers told me what he was doing, but it created a lot of tension between us. Steam Fitters Local 638 worked seven hours a day. Ten four-inch welds a day was a lot of work. On this particular day, Fred made fifteen welds. I asked him to slow down. He told me I couldn’t tell him how to work. Then he went to the foreman and told him that I was lazy. The shit hit the fan on that day and we came close to fighting because I called him an Uncle Tom back stabbing motherfucker. After that day, I didn’t want to be Fred’s partner, but that situation could not change that easily. I had to leave work early on that day. Otherwise Fred and I would have gotten fired for fighting on the job. That is the worst thing that can happen to you on a construction site next to stealing. The next day we tried to make up, but I was sure I didn’t want to be Fred’s partner any more.
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About the Book
Voodoo and the Holy Ghost. Sin and The Immigrant Experience and Life in the Native Country. White Supremacists Against Black Nationalists. These are some of the powerful themes explored in this book by a man who lived and experienced both the best and the worst of both worlds. Haunted by a lurking fear of a ‘curse’ he was told he might have inherited from his father as the first born son, he sought to escape the ‘voodoo’ by emigrating first to St. Croix and the Virgin Islands and from there to the United States where he began to pursue the American Dream. It was s
About the Author
Both the author, Mervyn Vincent Patrick, and collaborator, Kofi Quaye, reside in Syracuse, NY, and share many things in common, not the least of which is the fact that they are both immigrants, and artists, of sorts. Kofi Quaye, originally from Ghana, is an internationally recognized author of several books of fiction and non-fiction. His books focus mostly on the ‘immigrant experience’ and include JOJO IN NEW YORK published by Macmillan Publishing Co., England, CRISIS IN THE FAMILY [HERITAGE BOOKS, NY,] FREE FROM DEATH ROAD, [HERITAGE BOOKS, NY] WHEN THE IMMIGRANT’S DREAM TURNS INTO A NIGHTMARE [IMPRINT BOOKS, NY]
To Kofi Quaye, collaborating in writing the book was an ‘exercise in nostalgia.’ It is a book which essentially reflects his own experiences in terms of growing up in a cultural ambience in Africa where belief in ancient religions, customs, rituals and traditions exists side by side with Christianity, to the confusion and bewilderment of men, women and youth who don’t know which one to accept or To Mervyn V. Patrick, writing the book was a labor of love; he wanted to tell his side of the story, to his children and others who want to know the real truth about his experiences as an immigrant, the challenges he faced, the obstacles he overcame and the ultimate prize he paid.