A man who came over from Jamaica in the 1950s and knew Bob Marley has just celebrated his 100th birthday with a bottle of rum and a song.
Reminiscing on the life he’s lived, Carl Berry, who was born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1924, recalls his 50 plus years he’s spent living in England. He recalls: “I didn’t come over with the Windrush – my ship was after that.
“I wanted to come to England after I saw a photo of a group of women drinking in a pub.” During the war, he said over in Jamaica they weren’t really involved.
“I remember when warplanes were coming over, we all used to turn all the lights off and hide – but we didn’t see the war like that,” he said. One of three brothers, his family ran a commercial print company in Jamaica.
He went on: “We were comfortable. I had a lovely life. I started working with my uncle on the printing machine when I was sixteen. I made more money than he did because every night my uncle went home, I used to print the labels for the cigar boxes.”
He continued: “I was the only guy in Jamaica doing it.” Remembering his youth, he said: “We call this ‘bend down rum’ in Jamaica.” Back then it was illegal to sell rum of a certain proof there, so it was kept behind the bar, “so the bartender had to bend down to get it.”
When he came to England he worked at a printer in Birmingham before settling in London, first in Paddington and then Peckham – where he’s been since 1977. When arrived in the UK he was printing menus whilst working at the Savoy Hotel. It was whilst living in London where he met his wife, Peggy, of 34 years (she sadly passed away in 1995).
“I still say ‘goodbye Peg’ every time I leave the house,” he said. Carl worked in printing until he was 82. Along with watching snooker, cricket and horse racing, singing is a great hobby of Carl’s that he still does every day.
On music, he recalls memories of the great Bob Marley. “I knew Bob – we weren’t friends like that, but I knew him from parties.” Carl said he remembers watching him perform in his hometown often. “He was always singing. Anywhere he and the Wailers sang was always packed,” he remembers.
“Bob used to play football barefoot near where we all were in Kingston. That’s how he hurt it (his foot) and that’s how he got blood poisoning.” In Peckham, Carl said he regularly meets his friends at the Prince Albert pub for a pint of bitters.
He also heads to the betting shop to put some money on the horses. 100-years-old, but feeling 65, Carl’s advice for staying young echoes that of Marley himself – “Don’t worry about anything.” He adding: “As soon as you worry, that’s when you get old.”
