My name is Vishnu Rampersad and I've been an instant shoe repairman for 20 years.
I born and grow in Petit Valley. Boy days in the Valley was very tough. Because I grow up without a father and being on the streets was very hard. I was on the streets from maybe about eight years old. My father died when I was about seven. But, as time goes on, life have to go on.
I'm a Hindu but I don't go to temple. But we light deyas for Divali. And we not vegetarian.
I remember going to Sunday school as a boy. Listen to whoever preach. Then come back home, eat, and lie down. Or sometime go up in the spring and bathe. It had a little spring Pear Gardens-side. A little waterfall something.
Right now, is five of us in the family, all boys. I have a family of my own, three kids and a wife. Nicholas, 16, Saleesha, 11, and Felicia Rampersad, 19, and my wife is Yasojah.
When my mother used to send me to school, I had was to leave school to go and see about what I could get for them to eat. I didn't stay in school for long. I left when I was maybe about nine. To be honest, I didn't really like school. I was just on the streets. At the age of 12, I start to fix shoes. I get a work in West Mall.
I started smoking cigarettes since I was 15 but cigarettes get expensive now. Some places sell cigarette for $30 a pack. For the day, I smoke about a pack. I could stop anytime, though. I know that. As time goes on, you start to breathe different. Short-breath. I smoking a long time without ever stopping once in all them years. But I still feel I could stop. Apart from smoking cigarette, my only relaxation is to stay at home. That is my rest. I bought a place in Diego.
When I was young, me and some friends used to go J'Ouvert and go knock about right through Carnival. Now, if the family want to go, we might go watch some mas. Either we go to the beach. But mas is only a setta bathing suit. I wouldn't consider that mas. Is better we go straight to the beach, if is the same bathing suit.
When I set up my cart, I don't leave it at all. Is not that anybody might thief anything. Customers is come. And, remember, is instant shoe repair.
Is a long time I'm out on the street with instant shoe repair. I used to fix shoes in a store but, the mall burn down and, from there, I went looking for jobs and I couldn't get no jobs. So my wife say, "Babes, go out there and see what you could do". I start off with a little sweet drink crate and, from there, I get my cart.
I got somebody to build the cart for me. But the woodwork, I did. I paint it, too, but I didn't do the lettering. I leave the cart inside by a store overnight. I get a little ease there.
Plenty people from Tobago telling me to come over there. I would go if I got the chance. It quiet and very clean.
I work nine-to-five. Saturdays, nine-to-two. People walk up with their shoes and I fix it one-time. It could be half-hour, if is a man's heels, or five minutes, if is a ladies' heels. If is whole-sole, could be an hour. They leave they shoe, go do what they have to do in town, come back, shoes done. Sometime, they's want to leave it but, as they start to go, I start to fix it, so they come back, they get they shoes, they go. Only sometime I's have to keep shoes overnight.
Recession is good for me. When things get rough, people is repair they shoe, not buy new one.The best part about the job is sometime people come with a bad shoes and say it gone through. And when I do bring it back, they say, "Wow!" The bad part is when you don't get customers. One day, you will get a nice crowd, the next day, you might get one or two. But still say, "Thank God for small pickings".
A Trini is a hard worker.
I am a proud citizen of Trinidad and Tobago. The crime bothers me, though.
Read a longer version of this feature at www.BCRaw.com