AS TOLD TO BC PIRES
My name is Reynolds “Rey Man” Williams and old-timer friends call me Fox because I could put a bite on you!
I'm a Newtown boy through and through. We moved to Woodford Street around 1978 and I lived there until my 20s, when my first child, my son Shayne, was born in 1990.
My parents moved out of Newtown in 2007.
I was born in London, the youngest of my parents’ three children.
In 1970 my parents migrated to my father’s homeland, Trinidad, before the Black Power uprisings. I’ve heard stories of my father hiding my (white Italian) mother in fear of her safety.
My father passed away in 2009 but my mum lives in Coral Gardens, Diamond Vale.
She says she's eaten cascadu and will die in Trinidad. In reality, she cannot deal with the cold.
Most of my mother’s family in Italy work in hospitality. Food has always been part of me.
Ours has never been the most close-knit of families. My eldest brother and I don't really have much to say to each other and I see my sister (only occasionally).
I love them though and would love to get together. Maybe for a meal out. Somewhere everyone can be themselves. My mum, my eldest brother and his partner, his daughters, me and my children and partners and my sister with her partner.
I married my current wife Catherine Cadiz (now Williams) on May 15, 2004. We met in the workplace.
Catherine was told she may have problems conceiving but on July 12, 2006, we were blessed with our daughter Robyn, my second child.
I live in Enfield, North London.
In April 2005 – a good spring and summer – my wife and I landed at Heathrow. We stayed with my brother in Greenwich briefly.
My wife got a job quick time. I eventually got one with a Mayfair digital printing company. After the 2008 financial crash, I had a decent (redundancy) payout and did something I always wanted to do: started a catering company, 61 Degrees West, 10 Degrees North (the co-ordinates of TT).
Growing up in Woodford Street was great. There were quite a few boys of similar ages and our house became Grand Central. We would cycle everywhere. To the St Ann’s springs. We went Tobago on bicycles and slept in the open air.
We even cycled to big people party!
I never liked school. One time my mum took me to a preschool to try to prepare me for primary school. I cried so much, they called her to come collect me.
I tried the same trick at Newtown Boys' School but it didn’t work. To this day I remember the proper beating with a belt a teacher gave me.
Newtown Boys' was renowned for corporal punishment. I’ve witnessed friends getting strokes anywhere on their bodies. I’m sure many of us suffer PTSD.
I always liked drawing. From a little lad of maybe four or five.
In standard three, I entered (an anti-litter) Keep Charlie Away poster competition at school. I must hav