> >Subject: Trinbago Memories
> > > >
> > > > Close your eyes, and go back . . .
> > > >> Before the Internet or the MAC,
> > > >> Before Uzis and crack.
> > > >> Before Nike and Reebok, before the NBA.
> > > >> Before SEGA or Super Nintendo.
> > > >> Before burglar proofing and KFC.
> > > >> Before soca, dub and chutney
> > > >> Before children's rights and women's lib.
> > > >
> > > >> Way back...
> > > >> I'm talking about hide and seek at dusk.
> > > >> Looking through the window, sitting in the
> > > > gallery,
> > > >> Licking your lips over hops and condensed milk.
> > > >> Going to Saturday afternoon confession.
> > > >> Drinking Chocolate tea and cocoa tea and green
> > > > tea and shining bush tea.
> > > >> Carrying sandwiches in a brown paper bag to
> > > > school.>
> > > > Eating Chilibibi and Press with green and red
> > > > syrup, with or without milk.
> > > >> Bathing in cold water from a barrel with a
> > > > calabash.
> > > >> Hopscotch, butterscotch, hoop, Jacks, Police and
> > > > Thief, rounders !
> > > >> Pass-out Cricket in the road with a lime
> > > >> Lying on the floor reading Mandrake and
> > > > Katzenjammer Kids and Mutt and Jeff.
> > > >> Borrowing books from the library.
> > > >> Hula Hoops and Jawbreakers and kaiser balls.
> > > >> Bathing in the rain under the guttering.
> > > >> Going for walks on Sunday afternoon. Band
> > > > Concerts.
> > > >> Window shopping.
> > > >> Wearing old pants to the beach and collecting sea
> > > > shells and pretty stones.
> > > >> Wait. . .
> > > >> The excitemnt of catching candle flies in a jar
> > > > and batimamselles.
> > > >> Putting the ti-marie to sleep.
> > > >> Killing birds with sling shot and cooking and
> > > > eating them.
> > > >> Pitching Marbles and playing jockey in the canal.
> > > >> When a calypso on the radio in Lent would have
> > > > caused a scandal.
> > > >> When going to town was a major outing requiring
> > > > serious preparation.
> > > >> Spending holidays by your grandmother and aunts.
> > > >> Castor oil and senna pods at the end of August to
> > > > clean you out!
> > > >> Eating caimite and mammy seepote and downs and
> > > > sapodilla and sugar apple and tying up your mouth
> > > > with lalay.
> > > >> Climbing trees, skipping rope and eating a bucket
> > > > of long mango.
> > > >> Making a Christmas tree from a guava branch with
> > > > cotton for snow.
> > > >> You thought apples and grapes only grew at
> > > > Christmas time.
> > > >> Cops and Robbers, Cowboys and Indians, keeping an
> > > > eye out for soucoyant and la diablesse.
> > > >> Sliding down the bannister, jumping on the bed.
> > > > Pillow fights.
> > > >> Having a pet chicken, duck, rabbit or goat and
> > > > crying when it became a meal.
> > > >> Being tickled to death.
> > > >> Running till you were out of breath.
> > > >> Laughing so hard that your stomach hurt!
> > > >> Being tired from playing....remember that?
> > > >> Going to the Chinee shop for Trebor and a penny
> > > > sweet biscuit.
> > > >> There's more . . .
> > > >> Scratching your mother's head.
> > > >> Fighting for the bowl when your mother made a
> > > > cake.
> > > >> Churning coconut or custard ice cream on Sunday
> > > > and licking the palette.
> > > >> Peeling cane with your teeth.
> > > >> Remember when . . .
> > > >> When there no sneakers, only wachekongs and you
> > > > washed them every Saturday and whitened them.
> > > >> When you knew nothing of rotweillers or pit bulls
> > > > only pot hounds.
> > > >> When a penny was a decent allowance, and another
> > > > penny a huge bonus.
> > > >> When you'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny.
> > > > When fashionable young ladies wore crinoline and
> > > > boleros.
> > > >> When your mother wore stockings that came in two
> > > > pieces and had garters..
> > > >> When all of your male teachers wore ties and
> > > > female teachers had buns.
> > > >> When you had to be rich to have a car or a radio.
> > > >> When there was no TV and you went to sleep at
> > > > 7.00 o'clock.
> > > >> When there was no designer water.
> > > >> When laundry detergent had free glasses, dishes
> > > > or towels hidden inside the box.
> > > >> When any parent could discipline any chile or feed
> > > > him or use him to carry groceries, and nobody, not
> > > > even the kid, thought a thing of it.
> > > >> When it was considered a great privilege to be
> > > > taken out to dinner at a real restaurant with your
> > > > parents.
> > > >> When every kitchen had a safe with wire mesh.
> > > >> Milk came in rum bottles and had to be boiled and
> > > > the cream was a great treat..
> > > >> When they threatened to keep children "down" if they
> > > > failed...and they did!
> > > > When your mother used to say that your licks hurt
> > > > her more than it hurt you.
> > > >> When adults spoke in code so "little ears"
> > > > wouldn't hear.
> > > >> Basically, we were in fear for our lives but it
> > > > wasn't because of drive-by shootings, drugs, or
> > > > gangs.
> > > >> Disapproval of parents and grandparents,
> > > > godparents, tanties... was a much bigger threat!
> > > >> If you can remember any of these things,
> > > >> You must be my age!!!!!!!!!!!!!
> > > >
> >Dont forget Gru Gru bef and tolomb bum bum!!
> >or making kite with flour glue and cociea as a frame,
> >using zwill on the tail, using typewriter ribbon for a tail,
> >getting very upset when your kite goes HiOOH! down the street and
>trying to
> >climb the tree down the block to get it back!
> >Remember Guava Valley down by the National stadium??
> >How about fishing down slipway??
> >using a slingshot to shoot down a jap nest and run for your life!!!
> >
> >pelting stones at a full mango tree when you hungry so you dont have to
>go
> >home for lunch!
> >catching fowls in the backyard and cutting the head off and putting the
>
> >headless body under a bucket to stop it from running around!
> >helping the fishermen pull seine in Mayaro so you could get some free
>fish!
> >catching guabin up Pompeii river (infact I have some in California from
>
> >catching at Fatima River several years ago!!! he he he )
> >Having a marbles club and storing all your marbles in a 5lb KLIM tin.
> >Using a steel ball bearing as a "tor"
> >Attaching playing cards with clothes pins to the back wheel of your
>bicycle
> >so it sounds like a motorbike!
> >Playing with toy guns and not having to worry about the police shooting
>at
> >you!
> >putting sugar on your bread and butter,
> >Getting up early to go to the bread bakery for fresh hot hops bread!
> >cooking every part of the chicken except the head and eating it too
> >including sucking the bones!
> >Getting some nice hot Pow ( cha su bao) from a chinese restaurant.
> >sweeping the dirt backyard with a cociea broom!
> >getting your sunday coconut water and boil corn or roast corn by the
> >savannah,
> >Going to theathre to see an Audie Murphy Movie!
> >paying ten cents for a taxi!
> >lining up with the school kids to waive the Union Jack at Queen
>Elizabeth
> >when she visits!
> >Getting your butt whipped when you were bad and never thinking about child abuse!
> >buying blackpudding from the street vendor