Father Paul cant see! Andro used to take ah whole leaven bread and push it in his mouth. Then after two bites, the bread quickly disappeared. He then washed it down with ah Solo, Red Spot or Fanta sweet drink. Next, he took up the lard pan filled with pickin and placed it on his head. He then made it down the cobbled steps of Cooper Hill, balancing the pickin’ pan with considerable ease. He balanced it in the same manner as Miss Charles. She used to carry baskets of food on a tray placed on her head to feed the policemen stationed near Fort George. Miss Charles was a strong woman. The pickin’ was made up of all kinds of leftover foods. Pigs were never particular about what they ate, so green fig and dasheen skin and even rotten mangoes were thrown into the pickin’ pan. The pigs also ate bluggoe leaves and coconut husks. Cocoawood was unlike the pig. He cared about his diet, but dat ungrateful man used to make his wife ketch she royal tail. He hated breadfruit soup and every time he drank his grog and blew all the pesh in the rumshop, his wife got vexed and retaliated by putting breadfruit soup in his bowl. That was the signal for him to launch into a foul-mouth tirade. He cursed his wife, her mother, her father and everyone he could remember. He even cursed the deceased and the neighborhood dogs when he was angry. When he was drunk and walked up the hill people used to shout, Look out Castro coming! The name “Castro was a reference to Fidel Castro, the Cuban leader. Mr. Mickey was another character. He vowed never to eat lambie. He devoured callaloo soup, oildown, cook-up rice and he even put ah licking on the back and neck chicken his wife bought from the Cold Storage Store. He used to cut all kind ah style on the lambie. That was until his wife prepared a wonderful dish of stewed lambie with rice and peas She set a tempting plate before him and he immediately dived into it. In a few seconds the plate was as clean as ah bam bam. Mr. Mickey knew what he had eaten, loved it and wanted to ask for more, but he was too ashamed after cutting so much style over the years. The lingering taste tortured him. He could take no more: Woman! Yuh ha more ah dat blastid ting dey? Blastid ting? she replied. Wha happen? Yuh playing you cyan remember the name? Its lambie, Mickey, the name is lambie! Mickeys days of cutting style on lambie were over. Mooschs eating habits was similar to that of the pigs that Andro droged the pickin’ to feed. He ate anything. He loved to cook and eat the heads of animals. His friend Shorty from Woburn was always hesitant to eat at his house because he was never certain what kind of beast head Moosch would prepare. Moosch lived in Brooklyn for sometime and he was known to travel all the way to New Jersey to buy goat head and deer head. When he got drunk, he snatched anything and ate it. He sat in his house one day and bit into a Vienna bread packed with corned beef. He did not realize or seemed to care that he was also helping himself to the reds ants that were crawling around in the corn beef. He thought it strange, though, because he knew he did not purchase all that corn beef. That day he got a sober awaking when he felt the sting of the red ants on his lip. And now we tell the story of Big George. He loved his food, but the neighbors cat named Johnny loved his food even more. No matter how much care he took to secure his pot, the cat always found a way to uncover it and sink its teeth into his fried jacks, corn fish or stewed beef. Big George decided to end the cats tiefing ways once and for all. He set up one night and waited for the unwelcome intruder. As Johnny jumped on the stove, he grabbed it by the tail. He carried the animal all the way to the Fall Edge near Grand Anse and threw it over the precipice. He walked home a relieved man, sensing that his troubles with that cat were over. He placed his hands in his pockets and merrily whistled a Sparrow calypso tune as he walked up his gap. To his dismay, Johnny was sitting on his step peeping at him and licking its lips. Johnny was peeping like ah Grenadian. He had just devoured another big jack. Big George had only succeeded in depriving Johnny of one of its lives. It had eight more lives to steal his corned fish, fishcake, big jack and smoked herrings. Back then, Grenada had all kinds of interesting characters. George Beard, who pushed his bike from Belmont to True Blue during the time of Expo ’69, was a curious individual. He once said that the sun was so hot, he felt sorry for his bike, so he decided not to ride it in such blistering heat. That was the same George Beard who cut a branch off a tree while standing on the same branch. When he shouted, “Miss Margaret, look out, it’s coming down,” he was going down also. Daddy-O, that jovial individual, looked on and laughed. And when someone told George Beard his house was burning as he sat in the cinema, his reply was, How the hell me house could burn when ah have the key in me pocket? Walter Dunn was a man with more than a touch of intelligence and he proved how efficient a thinker he was when he was charged with walking around naked. He won his case because he convinced the judge that since he was wearing a tie he was not naked. I can still see him as he made his stately strides on the streets of St. Georges. Dummy James was a fearless individual. He was once charged with an offense and as he stood in court, the judge asked him if he was guilty or not. Dummy James calmly told the judge, Ah cyan talk now. Yuh doh see ah eating me Rock cake? I cannot forget Joe Bain. He claimed that the government stole his land and that was all he spoke about when you met him. I met him on Pandy Beach once, wearing his short blue pants and big waterboots. I never got to swim because by the time he was through talking about his land, it was time for me to go home. Many Grenadians will always remember Carriacou Sparrow. I see him still in his Bermuda shorts and over-sized straw hat as he sang and entertained the crowds in St. Georges. His favorite tunes were Banana Boat for England and The Lizard Jump Up. He was a lively and energetic individual who made all kinds of fancy moves as he sang the songs. Mushay, another eccentric individual, tried to convince people that he was a “damn millionaire.” He spoke in a serious tone about all the money he had in the World Bank. He really believed that, but school children only laughed. Another fella called “Now Now” used to ring a bell announcing the latest sale bargains in town. I must not fail to mention Father Paul. He was a priest who hailed from Malta and was noted for visiting women to pray with them just as they were taking their shower. Once while he entered a womans house, as she was changing her clothes, he placed his hand with the fingers ajar in front of his face and uttered the famous words, Father Paul cant see! He said the words as his eyes peered through his fingers. Anthony Wendell DeRiggs
Posted on: Fri, 18 Apr 2014 08:01:09 +0000
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