The Christmas I Will Never Forget - Tight shirt spoils Admiral Tibet's Christmas

Christmas time in rural Jamaica traditionally brings out the warmth and kindness of the people.

In 1975 or 1976, Admiral Tibet, as a teenager, was looking forward to another great season in his community of Oxford in St Mary.

He had hustled hard to raise some funds to treat himself and, having accomplished that task, he took a bus to the St Mary capital of Port Maria to buy himself some new clothes for the Christmas.

How it turned out has forever been etched in his mind.

"A Christmas I will never forget. I don't remember the year but a inna di '70s, maybe '75, '76. But mi did buy a shirt and a pants and the shirt was too tight and me couldn't get it fi change," Admiral Tibet, born Kenneth Allen, told THE STAR.

"So, mi Christmas did kinda mash up because of that. Mi never really get fi go out because a dat."

He continued: "A jus' di one shirt. Yuh dun know we nah come from a rich financial background, so mi do mi likkle Christmas hustling and buy mi likkle pants and shirt and the shirt too tight. That did hurtful."

Tibet said that in those days it wasn't all that easy to travel from Oxford to Port Maria.

"To leave from Oxford to Port Maria, as simple as it might look, sometime it hard fi find di fare," he said.

But he still sees the shirt green and with long sleeves - in his mind, he pointed out.

"I bought it in the market. A nice shirt man!," he said.

He does not remember what eventually became of the shirt, but he clearly remembers the disappointment.