“Everyone was saying England is paved with gold… and all that sort of nonsense.”
Carlton Peets was born in St Kitts. His parents were sugarcane workers. He was 20 years old when he settled in Cardiff.
“It was a tough decision to come to the UK for a start… two of my sisters were here, my older sister. I had a choice, she was going to send for me or I could get a job down the health centre as the sanitary inspector… unfortunately, or fortunately, the money came first, and then I came to my sister.”
At the age of twenty, Carlton Peets remembers flying from St Kitts to Antigua then on to Trinidad where he caught a boat set for Southampton, UK.
“They were more or less dressed in black as well, and when you see them speaking you see like steam coming out of their mouths. I was telling my friend ‘look at them, steam coming out of their mouths’ and he said, ‘you too!’. I said, ‘you too!’. It was winter, February, I came. I was wearing a cardigan that I brought from home, but that was only
for a style really… so luckily, I walked with it. I think it was red, white and black.”
“I know that I was lucky in a sense, because we formed a cricket team. … a club named Combine… I joined… we get a few more Kittitians and the guys who formed it was more or less Kittitians… we called it Progressive and Progressive was a team from St Kitts. That’s why we give it that name.”
“The advice I would give my 20-year-old self, put it this way… I would have made sure I got a better education, educate myself a bit better and go into real house estate. That is the job I think I would have liked.”
“Roedd pawb yn dweud fod cyfoeth ar gornel pob stryd yn Lloegr... a phob math o ryw nonsens felly.”
Ganed Carlton Peets yn St Kitts. Gweithwyr câns siwgr oedd ei rieni. Ugain oed oedd Carlton pan setlodd yng Nghaerdydd.
“Roedd y penderfyniad i ddod i’r Deyrnas Unedig yn un anodd i ddechrau cychwyn... roedd dwy o fy chwiorydd yma, fy chwaer hŷn. Roedd gen i ddewis, naill ai roedd hi’n mynd i anfon amdanaf fi neu gallwn gael gwaith yn y ganolfan iechyd fel arolygydd glanweithdra... yn anffodus, neu’n ffodus efallai, arian oedd yn dod gyntaf, ac felly mi
ddois i at fy chwaer.”
Mae Carlton Peets yn cofio hedfan yn ddyn ifanc ugain oed, o St Kitts i Antigwa, ac yna ymlaen i Drinidad ble aeth ar gwch oedd yn hwylio i Southampton yn y Deyrnas Unedig.
“Roedden nhw’n gwisgo dillad duon hefyd fwy neu lai, ac wrth eu gwylio nhw’n siarad, fe welsoch chi stêm yn dod o’u cegau nhw. Roeddwn i’n dweud wrth fy ffrind ‘edrycha arnyn nhw, stêm yn dod o’u cegau’ ac meddai ef, ‘ti hefyd!’, a finnau’n ateb, ‘a thithau hefyd!’. Yn y gaeaf, ym mis Chwefror, ddois i yma. Roeddwn i’n gwisgo cardigan a ddaeth gyda fi o gartref, ond steil oedd pwrpas honno’n fwy na dim... felly, yn ffodus, fe gerddais i yn honno. Coch, gwyn a du oedd ei lliw, dwi’n meddwl.”
“Rwy’n gwybod ‘mod i’n lwcus mewn ffordd, oherwydd fe wnaethon ni ffurfio tîm criced... clwb o’r enw Combine... fe wnes i ymuno... ymunodd ambell un arall o’r Kittitians, a dyna hefyd oedd yr hogiau a’i ffurfiodd, fwy neu lai... Progressive oedd yr enw a roesom i’r tîm, sef enw tîm o St Kitts. Dyna pam gafodd o’r enw hwnnw gennyn ni.”
“Y cyngor fuaswn i’n ei roi i mi fy hun yn ddyn 20 oed, mi ddweda’ i fel hyn... mi fuaswn wedi gwneud yn siŵr ‘mod i’n cael gwell addysg, yn addysgu fy hun yn well a mynd i weithio fel gwerthwr tai. Dyna’r swydd rwy’n credu y buaswn i wedi’i mwynhau.”