Dr. Dexter Gordon, executive director of Yard Project at the main work site in Old Harbour Bay.
GETTING INVOLVED in community activities comes naturally to Dr. Dexter Gordon and his 15 brothers and sisters.
His father, Murrel Gordon, a fisherman, was well known in Old Harbour Bay and its environs for fathering 16 children (10 boys and six girls); his bountiful catches at sea; his sermons as a lay preacher at the Old Harbour Bay Baptist Church; and activities as a union delegate with the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU).
Dr. Gordon's mother, Eutedra, in addition to raising a large family, was a fish vendor, an active member of the parent- teacher association at Old Harbour Bay Primary School, and organised events like dances and fairs to benefit the community. When she died in 1970 at age 42, Murrel Gordon was left to raise 14 children. He subsequently remarried twice and fathered two other sons.
THE SEVENTH CHILD
Dexter Gordon, now a professor at the University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, Washington, and the seventh child in the Gordon clan, remembers that although the family was squeezed in a three bedroom house (sleeping three or four children to a bed), they were contented.
"Growing up with my brothers and sisters was very comforting and I just thought that this was the way life was supposed to be."
There was never a dull moment in the Gordon home because there was always something to do, he recalls one recent Friday afternoon on the construction site of Yard Project (which is helping local residents to rebuild after Hurricane Ivan). Dr. Gordon says he and his siblings would compete at everything -- dominoes, football, cricket, hopscotch or any game, for that matter. It was always a tug-of-war.
"Even if we were trapped indoors because it was raining we would still have fun. We would play swords in hands -- a Bible game. When we were bored with that, then we would come up with games like who can take their tongue and touch their nose."
Sunday was one of the most important days of the week for the family. This was the day that the children got a chance to dress-up in their 'Sunday Best' to attend church.
"While I was at home during the week, I had to wear my brother's hand-mi-down clothes but on Sundays I got to wear my own new clothes."
They would go to church from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and then again between 3:00 and 6:00 p.m. However, Dr. Gordon says he liked the afternoon session because it was filled with fun things to do. It was more of a social event and after church they got to hang out with their friends.
Growing up in a home with 13 siblings with parents who were community activists has impacted greatly on his life, says Dr. Gordon whose community involvement stretches back to the 1970s. Before establishing Yard Project last year, he co-founded the Old Harbour Bay football club in 1972 and before leaving Jamaica to study in the U.S. in 1989, he used to travel and preach across the island as head of Jamaica Youth for Christ. In annual visits home, he would walk around the community to see how it was being developed.
"I have realised that many of the expatriates of Old Harbour Bay are settling in Florida, but I would love to see this community as one where the people of the community can feel comfortable to come back and reside."
- Keisha Shakespeare
