It started in the 1980s. I had been in the grocery business for 21 years, 24-7. My business was Lines Food and Liquor Mart. And I hadn't had much spare time, but carpentry had always been a fancy of mine.

For my first few years in that business, I was working 84- or 88-hour weeks. It tapered off until I was working 70 hours a week and in 1987 I sold the business and then worked in the private sector for four years. Working a 40-hour week was like working part-time for me. I worked hard in the grocery business but it's paid handsome dividends ? I've been retired since 1991.

My mum got sick and died and my father was on his own in a huge house. So I decided to convert the garage here into an apartment for him. I ended up doing 80 per cent of the work myself.

I was schooled at Bermuda Technical Institute and picked up a lot of technical information. I had learned how to do a lot of things in carpentry but never had a chance to do them. But once I started working on the apartment, I got out of the workforce.

I concentrated on maintaining the property, the apartments and the garden. I have about an acre and a quarter here.

Yes. We had always had plenty of lights at Christmas. I wanted to take it further so I sent away for some plans and got into making yard decorations. I had always tried to add something to my display every Christmas.

Halloween has mushroomed and is pretty big too now. We have upwards of 150 kids coming to my garden to look at the yard decorations and maybe 40 or 50 parents too. We do up a minimum of 150 bags of candy. There's not even 25 kids in this neighbourhood. So kids are coming here from elsewhere.

I made a headless horseman out of plywood that's eight feet tall, Count Dracula coming out of his coffin, a few tombstones lurking about, witches, ghosts and spiders.

At Christmas, I have a Santa figure on the roof, reaching down to get the sack of presents from a reindeer, and a Nativity scene.

My wife Nancy is of American descent, so at Thanksgiving we have a big plywood turkey in the garden. I've even got a Cupid figure for Valentine's Day.

Everything folds up and goes flat, which makes it a lot easier to store and bring out the next year.

Yes and I think the parents get a kick out of it too. Some of the parents make a point of coming here every year just to see what I've put out this year. It's not uncommon to see two or three cars pull over at once and ten or 12 people get out who have all come together.I haven't yet, but I have been approached a couple of times. I might consider it, if I had time. That sounds strange coming from a retired person, but I have a pretty full plate. My other hobby is cedar work. I make a lot of pieces for the house from cedar, like frogs, a bike and various ornaments. I've never done anything large, like a table, but it's just a matter of getting the motivation. I also like to fish and to play golf with my wife.

This house was built in 1972. And Sinclair Caines, the man who built this house for me, I played cricket with for Warwick Workmen's Club. He inspired me to help in the building of my house and said whatever knowledge I gained would help me later on. So I worked as a labourer for the masons, as an assistant to the carpenter, and I retained a lot of knowledge.

My wife worked on the house too, often coming down here at 9.30 or 10 at night to paint window frames and sweep up rooms.

When I hire someone to do a job, I pay close attention to what he's doing in the hope that I won't need to hire him again.

I'm a bit of a talk show addict and, to quote Rodney Smith, who I've heard on the radio, he uses the term "sweat equity". And he is so right when he says that the more you put into your house yourself, the end result is less dollars coming out of your pocket to pay someone else to do it and you'll own your home a lot quicker.

: Donald Lines, my uncle, started the Lines Food & Liquor Mart in 1965. A that time he also owned Harrington Hundreds Groceries as well. When the MarketPlace at Collector's Hill became available he wanted to buy that. So after only a year or so of owning it, he offered me the opportunity to buy Lines Food & Liquor Mart. I think I took it over in 1966. I went to Bermuda Technical Institute and that was the first racially integrated school on the island. I found it to be no problem, I had respect for the guys I was with in school with and we participated in sports together.

I have seen a big decline in racial harmony. In the '60s and '70s and possibly into the early '80s, I thought this island was going to be a showcase for the rest of the world. I'm sad to say it's gone in the opposite direction.

The people I went to school with, we never pass each other without stopping to talk. It's the same with sport. I was the first white individual to play cricket in the Western Counties. I had no problem fitting in. It was the same with football.

I think the social aspect of people getting along has moved in the wrong direction.

It's hard to put a finger on it. The one thing that could have been done is that more efforts could have been made by all Governments to make sports more integrated. Sport is great gateway for people. And I think sport in Bermuda should always be demographically right. Not for whites to pull away from cricket and go into sailing, for example. You don't have soccer and cricket integrated like they used to be.

Sporting association opens up many of the harmonious groups we see on this island. When you have a sports team containing blacks and whites, there's no disharmony. They're all having a great time together.

What the solution is, I really can't say, but I believe in a more racially integrated approach to sport.

: Yes. There are many other sports now. And the television's a big distraction. A lot of people will sit and watch sport on TV, rather than play it. I would say there's no incentive for me to go and watch cricket now.

I played with some great players ? in my estimation ? who were gentlemen on and off the field. What I see happening in the soccer and cricket world today, it's not inspiring for me to leave my home to watch it.

And the violence the other day at Wellington Oval did not help the situation. That's just another nail in the coffin for the local sporting scene.

It didn't have anything to do with sport directly ? it wasn't the players who were fighting ? but unfortunately it's the atmosphere that's been keeping people away for years.

I've been a member of BAA for 48 years, but I don't want to go to a football match and hear a whole pile of language. Now you've go to worry about someone running around with a machete. You could get caught up in it and get injured, not through anything you've done.

I played both for BAA in my younger years and my younger years stopped when I was 22 or 23 and I stopped playing cricket. There was no such thing as a cricket helmet in those days and we were batting on concrete strips and the ball would often be flying around your head.

I had just taken on that business and I wasn't going to risk it by getting nailed. I was an opening batsman so I really stood a chance of getting injured.

I didn't play soccer long, but I did manage to play for the Bermuda Wanderers in England when I was only 16 years old.

: Yes a son, Christopher, who's a trader in the local business world, and a daughter, Wendy, who's a graphic artist with the Total Management Group.

Wendy's very artistic and I like to think the apple didn't fall too far from the tree in that respect. I've always been artistically inclined and I've always had a reputation for being a bit hasty.

We used to have a woodwork teacher called Mr. Castle. He said to me that as long as my back-side pointed to the ground, I would never make a carpenter, because I was in too much of a rush to get it done and in carpentry you have to take your time.

I've found that to be true. With so many things I get the experience of doing it twice, because I get it wrong first time! When you have the luxury of having some time, that's OK.

I would like to think that if Mr. Castle were still around, then I'd have a surprise for him with the things I've accomplished.