Good Cop Bad Cop

I was born Beverley Hall, on September 6, in Jamaica, West Indies. I spent my early years in Jamaica in a neat and easy-going town with four older siblings: Hyacinth, Sylvia, Richard and Errol, and younger brother, Carlton. My love of learning came at an early age when I followed my brother Richard to school and my mother was forced to enroll me at the tender age of three. Although I was young, I remember that I would carry a slate to school, which had beads for counting. My slate fell and broke one day, leaving the wooden frame with the beads attached. Mother could not afford to buy another one and I did not want to go to school fearing the other children would tease me. Mother recognized my desire to go to school and got me another slate that was made from some type of cardboard material. Other than that incident, I have always loved school. There were times when I would lose my slate pencil and mother did not have money to buy another one, but I learned that if I used a small stone to write, it would still make markings on the slate--so I used the stone to write.