CLIVE Beckford should have been a dead man if at least one woman’s prophecy had come true.

As a teen rude boy of the politically charged 1980s, an elder of his Cooreville Gardens community had a chilling message: “You will never live to see 20 years old.”

Beckford laughed at the woman’s words because, at that age, he thought he was invincible.

He will, however, admit today that he was indeed plunging into the dark hole of politically motivated crime and violence by doing the hard streets with other young men who were indoctrinated to believe their actions and purpose were part of creating a better environment for all.

He now knows that was all untrue.

But Beckford, now 55, says when he saw his close friends dying around him, it was time to reflect on the woman’s words of warning.

As scary as her pronouncement was, however, young Beckford continued in the way of the streets until something literally struck from the blue above — pigeons. Racing pigeons.

Beckford was instantly hypnotised by a flock of fast-moving pigeons flying in formation above the sea of roofs and towering trees of Cooreville Gardens.

He was a new man from that day.

“During the 80s when I came to the area to live, the community was on a high with politics. We used to have problems with guys from Sherlock Crescent in Duhaney Park who would come to Cooreville Gardens, and we used to have conflicts.

“It was at that point that a lady looked at me one day and said to me ‘You will not live to reach 20,’ and I thought she was talking foolishness but she saw the road that I was going down — but at the time I was blind to it,” recalled Beckford.

The carpenter by trade said he was friends with four other young men, three of whom who died violently. He said he and another pal are still alive today because they turned to breeding and racing pigeons, which allowed them to fly free from the prison of ‘gunmanship’.

“I got shook up when a few of my friends started to drop out [die]…there was a close group of us of about five and only two of us are still alive from that group — and the two of us who are still alive, it’s because of our love and involvement with pigeons.

“So getting involved with the pigeons took me and my other friend off the street. And by getting involved with pigeons we started to meet and interact with other people from different parts of the society who were also keeping birds, and friendships started to develop, and these were responsible people who would sit me down and try to steer me the other way,” Beckford told the Jamaica Observer.

“Interacting with these people from various parts of the society, I got deeper and deeper in the birds. And I can say it’s because of them why I am alive today because I was mixed up in things that not even my mother and siblings knew about at the time,” Beckford revealed.

He said his secret life on the streets was so well concealed from his family that his mother would often send him to the supermarket across Washington Boulevard not knowing that she was sending him into areas where armed men would wait to ambush their enemies.

But Beckford never ran those errands for his mother in fear for his life, instead he would find someone to do the deed.

“There was a time when my mother would send me to the supermarket, and I couldn’t go over there as I was afraid my enemies would get me…when we were moving around the community we had to take certain routes to avoid our enemies — that was how bad it was — but she [mother] didn’t know.

“It was so bad that my alias was ‘Clive Brookist’ because I used to roll with the Brook Valley men,” he said.

Brook Valley is an area inside Duhaney Park which is loyal to the People’s National Party, while Sherlock Crescent staunchly supports the Jamaica Labour Party.

Beckford, who is married with three children, said the man who owned the pigeon flocks which captivated him during his years of ‘doing’ the streets is worthy of special mention for his role in helping to turn his life around.

“There is a man who I must mention, named Leonard Griffiths, who I got the first pair of racing homers from. Back then, when I came home from school I used to see a lot of pigeons circling [flying around the loft] and I used to be fascinated by them, and one day I watched to see where they landed, and I went to the house. So when I got to know him well, after school I would spend the rest of the day in front of is loft just observing the birds, and that’s how I really got started with these brilliant pigeons,” he recalled.

Beckford, who is today considered a veteran of Jamaica’s pigeon racing landscape and a fierce competitor with his high-quality birds, has a word of advice for young men — and even young women — who might have strayed from the proverbial straight and narrow.

“What I would say to these youngsters is to ‘Make a turnaround. And if you find that you are going down the wrong road, stop and turn back.’

“I would say to them to get involved with something — it doesn’t necessarily have to be birds — but get involved with some form of animal because what it does, it teaches you to care and how to love,” said Beckford, who originated from the Liguanea area of St Andrew.

Breeding and racing homing pigeons teaches many lessons and Beckford stands as a testament to the life-changing impact of these sprint athletes of the sky.

“There is so much to learn from being involved in pigeon, and there was a time when I couldn’t read the watch but because I had to clock the birds when they come back from a toss or a race, I had to learn to read the clock.

“There are broad-based benefits, and it sure edifies as you must learn about the health of the birds — so if you don’t like to read, you now must start doing it to know about diseases and infections and how to treat them.

“So, for the young men going down the wrong road, find that part of it. I can tell you it has done a lot for me,” Beckford declared.

Beckford, who is a member of the Jamaica Racing Pigeon Federation, argues that people remain intrigued by the racing pigeon — a finely tuned bird that can fly home from hundreds of miles away from places it has never been before. How they do it is still an unsolved puzzle of the natural world.

As his club maps a strategy to raise the profile of the sport in Jamaica, Beckford has a few ideas that he believes can aid the process.

“Funny enough, people are always fascinated by the racing pigeon and its ability, and it does make sense to get the young people involved. In fact, I think we should try and get it into the schools. It is proven that students with behavioural problems in the classroom, once they get involved with the pigeons, their behaviour and grades improve,” he shared.

Beckford, who has some 35 years in the racing game and competes out of Beckford’s Loft, says he has known of instances where involvement with the birds has positively impacted the health of fanciers.

“Having the birds can offer health benefits as well as it offers so much peace and calm. In fact, I went to the doctor the other day and he took my blood pressure, and he told me that it is very rare for a man at my age to have such good blood pressure, and I put this down to the pigeons,” he noted.

Beckford, who keeps a range of bloodlines, thinks the quality of Jamaica’s racing pigeons can stand up to the best in the region, if not the world.

“We brought in a big collection of pedigree bloodlines and the birds we have today are descendants from those. I can safely say that there are high-quality, genuine bloodlines here in Jamaica. In fact, our birds have gone to Trinidad to compete and win and those fanciers there even came back for mor,” he shared.

Among the specimens of pedigree bloodlines that were imported during that time are various strains of Jan Aardens, Van Riel, Janssens, Staf van Reets and Meulemans. There is currently a ban in Jamaica on the import and export of birds.