'I could have been a scientist'
Published:Sunday | February 20, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Tyrone Reid, Sunday Gleaner Reporter
MINUS THE glitz, glamour and bright lights, Ramone Ellis, like the late Michael Jackson, is asking "Have you seen my childhood?"
He turns 20 in five months, but was denied the opportunity to enjoy his boyhood days. Like thousands of Jamaican children, Ellis worked to help support himself.
Child labour is prohibited by Jamaica's Child Care and Protection Act, but this has not deterred many parents who force their children to work.
Ellis started working at age five, selling toys on the streets, and gradually branched out selling a variety of goods, including bottled water.
In an interview with The Sunday Gleaner last week, Ellis said he started out by just accompanying his stepmother to do her selling and he liked the vibe and the company.
Early enjoyment
"At that time, I really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed the company with her," he recalled. Nobody told him to sell at that tender age, he just tagged along with his stepmom as she hustled to make ends meet.
But it was at age nine that his father told him to sell water on the Spanish Town Bypass. Because he attended McAuley Primary, a school with a shift system, Ellis would sell water in the mornings when he was on evening shift and in the evenings while on the morning shift.
"My father actually told me to do that. At that time, it was kind of fun, but when the fun leave out of it is when I wanted to go and play with my friends and my father would say 'Go on the highway and sell' because he didn't want me to miss the sales."
Etched in his memory is the teasing he endured from his friends. This has left him with emotional scars but "I will get over it," he said.
While on the streets of Spanish Town, the embarrassed student tried to hide from his schoolmates, but as a vendor he could not remain in the shadows.
Teased at school
"When mi reach a school di other morning a big joke a school for the whole week. You just have to put on a smile and don't make dem know that it hurt you. When dem gone, you sit back and think about it," he recalled.
Ellis fancies himself to be "a great footballer" but is saddened by the fact that he lost the opportunity to show his skills to the world. "I love it (football) ... . When I sit and think about it, it is really hurtful but I'll get over it because I am a strong young man," he said.
Nevertheless, Ellis loves his father, a former employee of Food For the Poor, whom he described as a loving disciplinarian. His father passed away when he was 12 years old, but Ellis did not stop working. In spite of it all, the young man said he is not angry with his father because working kept him out of the gangs that claimed the lives of so many youths in the Ellerslie Pen community in Spanish Town where he grew up.
Ellis thinks he could have been a scientist if he got the opportunity to really beat the books.
He was expelled from Clan Carthy High School in grade 10 at 16 years old, and has recently enrolled in the Ministry of Education's Career Advancement Programme at the Jonathan Grant High School. Ellis is still working a full-time job at a restaurant in Spanish Town.
His advice to parents: "Don't allow your financial problems to lead you to put your children on the road. At that time, you should be showing love towards that child ... . That's the greatest," he said.
'When mi reach a school di other morning a big joke a school for the whole week. You just have to put on a smile and don't make dem know that it hurt you.'