A Millennial Memories of The Best Days in Trinidad!

The 80s

D Ole Days! = Convenience at your doorstep

Pling! Pling! I heard the sound of the bell from miles away and started pelting speed towards the road because the snow-cone man was passing!  I break abruptly and bawl out to my mom or anyone around, 'bring d mug d snow-cone man nearly reach!'.  I remember it like it was yesterday, long hot days, being barefooted on the ground with toasting toes, making you crave that cold chipped ice with syrup and milk on top.  

Snow Cone with Milk

Everything used to pass in front of your house then; the fisherman, snow-cone man, doubles-man (yes there used to be a mobile doubles man on a bicycle selling doubles costing fifty-cents for one bara), the gas truck man and people passing selling "dahee" which is curdled cow's milk.  Things were so different then as we used to play cricket on the road because wait for it....there was NO TRAFFIC! 

21st Century = Inconvenience and Traffic

Man what I wouldn't give up for the idea of no traffic! Now its just pollution in the atmosphere, raising people's stress levels and generally inconveniencing most of the population. Currently, everything is a hassle and the idea of getting anything delivered is unheard off.  Generations are becoming more dependent on others for things such as seasoning (shadow benny or bhandania and spanish thyme or pudina) and the idea of a home garden is nearly extinct!

Seasoning

Family

I was blessed to be born in the early '80s and was fortunate to enjoy a childhood that was heavily supervised by my community.   I lived on a street that was surrounded by family seeing as both my parent lived houses apart.  In total I had about 10 cousins around to play with, 2 aunts who are younger than me and uncles who were 5 years apart, especially seeing as my dad had 11 siblings.  Play day was everyday and what made it sweeter, my primary school was a dash away, I mean we were allowed to go home for lunch everyday with the expectation that we would return to school of course!  Crime was non-existent in my recollection, I mean the most you heard was that someone "thief a fowl or duck" and get a 'planass' from the owners.  Most prominent in my mind was my uncle getting his van stolen due to carelessness mainly, as he went for a drink in the 'rumshop' and forget the keys in the van. 

My dad left to go abroad when I was 5 years old so I grew up with my mom and brother.  Similarly, my maternal uncle went to Canada so my cousins and I looked to my other uncle as our father figure.  My uncle was an integral part of us growing up as he supported us with housing and utilities free of charge while our respective fathers tried to make a life abroad.  This presented a difficult situation but as time went by I tend to focus on the positives.  My uncle, we will call him X, introduced us to the concept of 'peeling' cane with your teeth, roasting cashew nuts, and the art of cutting a coconut.

The most impressionable aspect of growing up in the '80s and '90s was the community.  Everyone was your 'fadda, mudda, aunt, or uncle'.  If you did something bad such as 'cuss or get into a fight' you can bet your bottom dollar that an adult would have seen and immediately called your parents. 

Entertainment

In my opinion however our saving grace was the savannah! Many thanks and gratitude to my mother as she was the changing force in our daily activities as it was because of her we were introduced to sports.  She also made us known to the villagers who lived around the grounds as she has lived there since she was 8 years old.  The fact that most people, young and old knew our parents and grandparents was an added bonus as we felt a high sense of belonging.  The amount of time spent there was countless as it used to be the avenue to expel our boundless energies, have a 'lime' and general place to be during the week, weekend and holiday.  Growing up with some activity to do everyday I mean how many of the youths today can relate?  Activities like gun shooting, cricket, football, dolly-house, marble pitch, raiding your neighbours fruit trees, consuming bowls upon bowls of chow (mango, cashew, nearly any fruit in season we could have gotten our sticky fingers on) was candy-land for us.

Plum Chow

Mango Chow

The Art of Chow Making

Seeing as chow is one of my specialties I will elaborate a little on the history of chow making. What made a chow taste mouth wateringly delicious in those days I will have to say was the grinding stones or "seal" (pronounced sil) which is a small slab base and "lorha" which was a round stone that was used to grind 'seasoning'.  Seasoning was plentiful in these times and the purchasing of it in the market was unheard of as nearly everyone had a home garden and well if you did not you could always "borrow" from the neighbour. 

Sil and Lorha

Bazaars and celebrations

Other activities involved bazaars, religious celebration such as Divali celebration, Thanksgiving, Eid, and Christmas Parties which were thrown by neighbouring communities.  Bazaars seems non existent in today's society.   They usually involved activities where you had rings to thrown on a bottle to win, music, and people asking you to take chances but at the end of the day its main goal was providing an opportunity for different communities to come together and socialize.  The two main events in our childhood were the Phagwa and Divali celebrations.  With Phagwa it was all about the bright colours of abeer and special folk songs called Chowtal accompanied by the dholak (drum).  We used to start early in the morning and into the night and seeing as we all lived closed by we changed clothes a few times and ran back to join the fun and celebrations.  The event that brought together all races and cultures was Divali.  All villagers used to get together to cut the bamboo, split and ensure that mud was in place so that the deyas would stay on the bamboo.  A stage was usually set up on an empty lot and as soon as the prayer was finished all deyas were filled with oil and lit.  Divali celebrations were well attended and everyone was usually looking forward to seeing the crowning of the Divali Queen.

Divali - Deeyas lit

Phagwa celebrations with abeer