No one Christmas was like another, in those years so long ago; 'twas a time of youthful and carefree merriment; a time to laugh ; a time to celebrate; a time to partake in special treats; a time to feel a warmth of family and a time to cherish our wondrous blessings.
Sando : High street was littered with vendors selling apples and grapes; mangoes could not be found at this time.Stores overflowed with goods and jammed with a shopping crowd. Xmas songs blasted the airwaves back then; All carols which seduced us into thinking that we needed to dream of a 'white xmas' with snow and eskimos!!
We sang the carols of frosty and he snowmen and jolly saint Nick; we played the old crooners of winter wonderland. Yes I often wonder about that paradoxical and yet intoxicating time of a youthful ignorant fella running around looking at all the Santas on the roofs of stores and thinking how the arse that fat old man in ah red suit getting in we house; we eh have no chimney!!
The Christmas time played a blissful array of parang songs leading up to that eventful day. .Youthful anticipation of a Santa arriving in Skinner park in a helicopter or the sight of flipping reindeers in TNT. Singing of songs and dreaming of 'white xmas' when the soaking heat is burning down on your head. Looking for jingle bells and a sleigh in the tropical sky at the height of xmas wondering if you were naughty or nice. Leaving a cup of goat's milk and a hop's bread by the ornate tree covered with angel hair to look like snow ; in later years freshly sprayed in some white stuff to look like snow, hoping that Santa would feel like home and bring yuh a damn toy.
The days leading up to Christmas was the best. Mother would be busy putting up new curtains; the freshly painted house reeked of assorted aromas of xmas cooking: the ham in the pitchoil can; the sponge cakes; black pudding; granddad's piece of pig he just killed in the kitchen waiting to be cooked; endless baking.
December, was my time to celebrate. Bring out the cydrax, the peardrax; grapes and apples what a treat! Ham on white hops!! chow chow!!! The hustle and bustle around the house; the anticipation of family arriving.
Christmas eve was nerve racking.... I recalled one time hiding behind the couch which was located under the open window. Ah know that if Santa come through ah would catch the fat old man. I fell asleep and woke up to toys the next day. I missed that old man.
Always on Christmas night there was music. It was also a time when distant relatives came by as if from some far off land, the music of parang late at the door woke the still of the night. Bring out the rum, the cake, the ham the sorrel the pastels... singing men , bantering with melodious songs accompanied by the cuatro, the mandolin, the maracas, the base drum, coro coro belted above all. I remained in my youth a fascinated stranger to all this until I joined in with bottle and spoon.
As I grew older, some xmas eve was spent attending midnight mas just to see meh gyul friends and to sit in the back of the church in Les Effors Sando and belt out Hosanna in the highest after consuming a shared gallon of Charlie's cast wine with friends. The church bells made a merry tune on xmas day.
Oh a tropical xmas would not be forgotten: no snow; no frosty the snowman; no Rudolph red snotty nose reindeer ever came our way. Just one faked tree adorned with cards and ornaments and faked snow. The center piece of our humble abode. Xmas meant something back then. It was a special time. There was natural joy to the world!! people were meerier at that time and gifts were cherished. Special food was a treat only savoured at that time.
'Twas a time for family visits; to receive presents to see grand parents, uncles, aunts, and cousins ; all dressed in their best attire. the family clan in their groupings. The kids are off playing; the ladies busy cooking and the men drinking: rum , whiskey, punche cream; rum punch, anything which breath alcohol was consumed.
Ole St. Nick did not forget we in Trinidad. These were the days my friend I thought they would never end but for me it's just a memory ah have tuh pass on to the youths today.
so bring on your BEST memories to let the youths know of a time when yuh could leave the windows open all night long and walk the streets late after midnight mass and did not fear for yuh life.
An original reflection.....ah waiting to hear from others..come nah leh we talk of something that has meaning for all of us and for our family.