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Remember
When....
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.
Go
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.
Remember.
. .
The
excitement 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 sugarapple and tying
up your mouth with lalay.
Climbing
trees,and skipping rope and eating a bucket of long mango.
Remember.
. .
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.
Remember.
. . .
Scratching
your mother's head.
Getting
a penney for every gray heair you pulled out of your father's hand
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 . . .
there
no sneakers, only watchekongs and you washed them every Saturday and whitened
them.
you
knew nothing of rotweillers or pit bulls; only pot hounds.
a
penny was a decent allowance, and another penny a huge bonus.
you'd
reach into a muddy gutter for a penny.
fashionable
young ladies wore crinoline and boleros.
your
mother wore stockings that came in two pieces and had garters..
all
of your male teachers wore ties and female teachers had buns.
you
had to be rich to have a car or a radio.
there
was no TV and you went to sleep at 7.00 o'clock.
there
was no designer water.
laundry
detergent had free glasses, dishes or towels hidden inside the box.
Remember
when . . .
any
parent could discipline any kid, or feed him or have him carry groceries,
and nobody, not even the kid, thought to complain of it.
it
was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner at a real restaurant
with your parents.
every
kitchen had a safe with wire mesh.
Milk
came in rum bottles and had to be boiled and the cream was agreat treat..
they
threatened to keep kids "down" if they failed...and they did!
your
mother used to say that your licks hurt her more than it hurt you.
adults
spoke in code so "little ears" wouldn't hear.
Remember
when . . .
Disapproval
of parents and grandparents, godparents,tanties... was a much bigger threat
than drive-by shootings, drugs, or gangs.!
If
you can remember any of these things, you must be my age!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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