Here I am…….
Good afternoon…and a rather hot one it is here. We had a bit of reprieve from the heat recently due to some nice afternoon rains. Today was quite overcast and very humid, but from the looks of things, I doubt that any rain will fall from the heavens today. So, having jus completed having dinner (late lunch really)….Jamaicans tend to do that on Sunday, I was sitting here contemplating what the backside that I could write about.
I was really at a loss still… local news did not impress me, Yahoo news naw seh nutten. So, I hopped around a few blog sites and read a post by Roberta, a Canadian who I exchange blog visits with occasionally. She visits my site from time to time as well. I must confess though, that in recent times I have become a bit selfish and seem to prefer to gravitiate towards blogs by Jamaican and other Caribbean authors. It is not because I don’t like to read others at all, and I apologize to those of who may feel I am cold shouldering you. I suppose it is a natural thing, people of a common culture tend to stick to each other…this is even more striking when you are in exile from your native land. When you are in the company of others who understand how you speak, enjoy similar foods to that which you eat, use the same four letter words (though many of ours have far more than four letters still) and so on, you feel as if you are ‘at home’. Nuh true?
Anyway, who said I haven’t got anything to write about? For some bloggers what I have already written would be the body of a post and I haven’t yet started what I was going to take on. But that is me, I tend to chat a lot at times and can be pretty verbose with the written word. Maybe I should have become a writer?? Doubt it though, somehow I think I would be stricken to the lowest ebb of poverty and have to use this blog as a means to beg for food….I’m sure that would make my hits plunge towards zero in no time.
So, why have I detained you so long to read what so far accounts to the mere rambling on of the mind of a man who clearly is bored to rass. I don’t know the answer to that really. Maybe its the company that I like.
Since I’m boring you, then perhaps you can suggest a post topic. Actually, Roberta wrote a humorous little post that got me thinking. Made me go back to my younger days….made me start to feel a bit nostalgic….. sad and happy all at the same time. That might come across as confusing nuh rahtid to you…but yes, human beings can experiece several emotions within a short period of time. Just think of how you can be travelling to work in your car, one song is played that makes you feel happy, another gets you into a party vibe, and then one that was the favourite of a close relative that has passed away is aired, and suddenly, your vision starts to get blurred as your eyes fill with tears….that sequence ever happen to any of you? Or am I a bit unusual?
Now, do you sometimes think back to the things about your childhood that you have fond memories of….or were you such a deprived child that you care not to remember those days? What were some of your favourite toys?
One of the earliest ones I can remember was a plastic rooster that had wheels and I used to pull it around by a string! Now, in retrospect I wonder what the rass I wanted a rooster on wheels for? Why not just get a toy car? Anyway…..
Then there was Christmas…a season that any child I knew looked forward to. Of course, I can’t remember a year that had passed when we did not have a tree. One year, I can remember the tree not going up until Christmas Eve (don’t ask me why so late) and Rufie (my sister) and I were eagerly helping to decorate it. (After all, we had to go to bed early or Santa would not deliver any gifts! Actually, we long found out who Santa really was, but we really didn’t care, as long as the presents were there.) There was one bulb on the tree that needed to be replaced, it was blown. So, I had screwed it out of its socket. Daddy then asked me to show him where the bulb was. So, being the intelligent future doctor (yeah right), I simply pushed my finger into the socket and did I see stars.
(Of course, if I was at the age I am now, nuff claat woulda cuss when the electric shock lick me….)…but being an innocent child at the time I was just frighten to rahtid. Anyway, I quickly pulled my finger out the socket. I suppose I learned at an early age to be careful when pushing one’s fingers (and other appendages) into small orifices!
So, yeah, I’m feeling a bit sad and happy at the same time today as my Mother is gone ahead of me, and my sister is in foreign, and daddy is out.
Then the phone rings! It is RUFIE!!! Mi likkle sistah! Calling from her new home in York, Pennsylvania. I am suddenly elated. So, am questioning her about the house and the neighbourhood. “Well, it is much more quiet than where we were in Baltimore….. Lots of critters……raccoons, hedgehogs, squirrels, wild hares….. I stop her. “So, have you moved from ultra urban to some sleepy hic town in the middle of nowhere? Do you have to drive 70 miles to see a movie!?
“Have they got a good supermarket or do you have to go to some cornerstore?” (Of course, I am being my bad self, and enjoying it at the same time.) She is then telling my Bro-In-Law, Marc Antony what I am saying and I hear him laughing in the background. Anyway, I suppose some of what I am getting across boils down to one thing……we are nuting without or family and our friends. Perhaps I should rope een a likkle crew later for some drinks at the yard. Me ent cooking anything still….likkle jerk pork and chicken or some Kenphuckery haffi gwaan buy if dem waan nyam. Share some of your pleasant family stories nuh. How you come so? Lata.
August 1st, 2004 at 10:25 pm Marc antony…isn’t he married to JLo? Hey, where are the smileys???????
August 2nd, 2004 at 12:12 am well i have plenty of family memories! in case any of u out there haven’t realised, i’m the youngest of seven kids, MB being the next second youngest! Having such a large family made for loads of memories, and continues to do so! I have to say, big families are amazing! here are a couple of my favorite memories: when i started kindergarten, i went to the same small private school my older brother and sisters had attended, run by a short little dominatrix called Miss Holness! - the experiences there are a story unto themselves. Anyway, my parents will tell u that the first ever PTA they attended for me, my KINDERGARTEN teacher told them - “U r clockin’s parents???? Clockin??” (a terrrbile abuse of my maiden name) “Clockin is a horror!” Now that was one of my dad’s favorite stories. Kind of like the terrible lie Ciya told about on the Tower once (don’t know how to link stuff, sorry!) One of my absolute childhood faves is my very first day of school. I remember I was terrified!!!!! I left the house with my bro that morning and my MOM told MB to look after me. They gave him extra money to buy me lunch (I’m 3 yrs. younger than him). At lunch time, I distinctly remember he brought me a pack of potato chips and a soda. I remember that I did not speak at all the whole day, because I was so terrified of the teachers, the strange new kids, etc. After lunch, with all the excitement, I threw up my lunch. The teachers somehow got MB there, and he helped clean me up and took care of me - he has since. He’s my Dad’s child, for sure… My hero (insert blushing smiley) But he really does take after my dad, which is one of the greatest compliments u could ever give anyone in the whole wide world!!!! anyway, i have nuff memories of growing up with Dr. D too - my fourth brother!!! Thank God for family and truly good friends!
August 2nd, 2004 at 12:21 am make that the youngest of ’seven’ kids - hence the nickname ’seven’!!!
August 2nd, 2004 at 9:08 am yamfoot….when commenting on the extended part of the entry, the smilies don’t show….don’t ask me why. I am not into the technical side of the blog. But, you can learn de html code fe dem my girl. As dense as me be, me learn dem still!
August 2nd, 2004 at 11:07 am Well, one of the weirdest memories I have of growing up was when my cousin, Buzzrat, started going to the same prep school (Mona Prep) as me. I think I was in grade 5 or 6 when he started and the boy caused me nothing short of grief. Now at the time, Buzzrat was a really skinny little red thing that seemed to be running all the time (he’s about 6′2″ now and muscular cyaan done). Anyhow, we used to have a break time AND a lunch time at school. Buzzrat would eat off his lunch at break time and, come lunch time, he would find my classroom and hit me up for my lunch money–of couse, me being the noble benefactor that I am, would always go without my lunch money just to make sure this little fellow could eat. This practice went on for a while, until my grandmother found out and, bless her heart, she gave me a little extra cash to buy food for myself. Anyhow, my cousin also had a tendancy to run into inanimate objects. Like I said, the boy was so small and skinny and would just run everywhere like a road runner. Anyhow, he ran into a tree, got knocked out and had to spend the night in the hospital. Next, he ran into another kid [they were both running and not looking where they were going], another night in the hospital. He ran into a wall another time, and he even managed to run into the principal’s [parked] car! Poor me, everytime the boy ran into something I would get called to the infirmiry and it became a habit.. Classmate: “AngryDog, Buzzrat in the infirmiry” AngryDog: “What him run up into this time?”
August 2nd, 2004 at 2:45 pm BuzzRat sound like him love run into trouble Angry D. Him still a get up to dem sorta shyte deh?
August 2nd, 2004 at 8:17 pm Still running into trouble Doc, no hope for that boy!
August 3rd, 2004 at 1:57 am Oh gosh… school daze…I like AD was at Mona Prep - after mi bes fren BUSS mi head wid a rock!!! (her story was that she was playing “dandy shandy”….yeah, right!! And I think I know Buzzrat, but not sure - there were about 3 guys who used to run and constantly look behind them. Even in those days I reigned…had bad ‘heat rash’ - must have been excema aggravated by the sun - so I was the only student who did not do the dreadful “arms distnance apart” nonsense! Besides Daphne K (the principal) and the head boy and head girl, I stood on a balcony and surveyed the entire school population. Toys - my favorite was a bee on wheels - his wings turned as you pulled. When you are far away from home, it is such a comfort to be among those who really understand your experiences. Is anyone having the same experince that I am - my past seems to be converging on my future - I am now being linked with persons that I knew from age 5 to about 15. After they have been out of my life for 20 years!!
August 3rd, 2004 at 8:10 am My word….Princess, should you not have been getting your beauty sleep at the hour I notice that you were here posting a comment? Nevertheless, thanks for passing by, I’m sure crop over had you jumping. On a balcony eh? So you were indeed looking down at the masses from in those days. And, if it is a case of actinic (light induced) eczema that you have, might I suggest a broad rimmed hat and a sunscreen of at least SPF 15 for the sun exposed areas. Or better still, retire indoors between the hours of 11 and 3 in the afternoon, the rays can be a bit harsh on delicate skin at those times my sweetness!