Remembering the Good Old Days!

[Historian]

Sometimes it’s nice to reflect on the memorable days of our youth. What are some of the fondest memories that, today, still stand out in your mind?

For me, the fond memories (they are slowly coming back even as I sit here and type) include….

Christmas season memories of assisting my family in whitewashing every stone and tree at the front of our house….

As a high school boy, buying coco bread, patty, and a box drink (chocolate milk, orange drink or fruit punch) every lunch time at school -- without a single school day being excluded…..

Catching those green (were they green; it’s hard to remember right now?) JOS buses from Cross Roads to wherever with my relatives….

Riding one of those ancient buses in “country” and, as the bus sped crazily over narrow mountain roads, praying silently but fervently while wondering if the blasted idiot driver was stone drunk ….

Going to the parish library and borrowing “Hardy Boys” books….

Eating KFC for the first time and immediately becoming hooked….

Buying my first cream-filled “Hostess Cake” at the supermarket and becoming instantly hooked….

Waiting eagerly, as a little boy, for nightfall to watch “Bonanza” and “The Fugitive” and “The Untouchables” (Henry Fonda) and “The Addams Family” and “Teenage Dance Party” (TADP) in glorious black-and-white on JBC television….

Listening to RJR’s Allan Magnus one unforgettable morning trying desperately to read the news in an obviously highly intoxicated state, then after an unexpected advertisement break, hearing another voice take over the reading of the news…. Allan did not read the news for several weeks (or was it months?) after that….

Listening to Charlie Babcock’s (CB) and Dottie Dean and Tony Verity and Marie Garth and Neville Willoughby on RJR, and Jeff Dixon and Winston Williams on JBC radio….

Reading with impatience the debates during the early 1980s on the type of transmission that JBC should use for its soon-to-be color television broadcast….

Going with my mom to market on Friday nights for the weekly food and vegetable shopping….

As a tiny tot, standing at the train station with my family and watching the train carrying the flag-draped coffin of the late Sir Donald Sangster roll slowly by…. It was a couple of years later that I fully grasped what had happened….

As a little boy, seeing the Teen Time Singers (I think that was the name of that youth group) for the first time and watching their brilliant young drummer (Grub Cooper) in action! That is unforgettable....

Watching the immensely talented guitarist Lennox Gordon for the first time at a Rev. V.T. Williams outdoor religious service one night…. To this day Gordon is one of the most brilliant (technically and musically) guitarists I have ever encountered anywhere….

Going to my grandparents’ deep rural community home and getting up with grandpa early in the morning to tie out the goats….

Buying fresh cow’s milk from the truck as it passed my parents’ home in the early hours of the morning…..

Playing the Melodians’ “Sweet Sensation” and Toots and the Maytals’ “Country Road” and Judy Mowatt & the Gaylettes’ “Zippa De Do Da” and U-Roy’s “Wear You to the Ball” (featuring the Paragons) and Tomorrow’s Children’s “ABC Rocksteady” day after day on my turntable without getting tired of listening to those glorious 45 rpm records.….

Changing the radio station every time “Indian Talent On Parade” started….

Changing the radio station every time another Otis Wright or Claudelle Clarke gospel record was played….

Getting the Sunday Gleaner early every Sunday morning and reading John Hearne and Carl Stone and Morris Cargill’s columns….

Watching satellite dish movies for the first time in the early 1980s….

In the 1980s watching “Routes” (was that the name?) with host Roy Brown on JBC television.... Roy Brown’s distinct American accent certainly annoyed one or two middle class Jamaicans.

Eagerly opening The Star to the center spread to look at the bra-less foreign girls portrayed….

[Jangle]

My Memories.......

Listening to The Colgate Cavity Fighters Club on saturday mornings with Allan Magnus and Marie Garth

Can't wait to watch "Where It's At" on JBC

Being on Ring Ding with Miss Lou

Going to Tom Redcam library on a saturday morning to hang out.

Watching Dark Shadows, Six Million Dollar Man, Dallas (Who shot JR Ewing), Falcon Crest, Nashville Girl (back then, my first soft porn), Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Time Tunnel

Sitting up high in the mango tree with my friends eating some sweet East Indian mangoes during summer vacations. Riding my bicycle and just generally roaming Havendale (where I lived) during the days with my friends while my mother was at work.

Playing marbles

Licking the christmas cake batter out of the container

Being chased around the house by my big cousin so that my grandmother can give me some herb medicine so that I can get a "washout" before I go back to school.

Thinking that the world was coming to an end when the three sevens clash

Eating Sunday dinner then watching Sunday matinee on JBC

Listening to Disco Mania on a saturday night on Capital Stereo

[Islandman]

"Where Its At" was the real ting! Anytime I hear black Americans speak about Soul Train and thier memories of it from back in the day I realise that is what "Where its At" was for us.

[Islandman]

Talking bout those country buses, where I lived in St Thomas as a youth there used to be 2 country buses that ran daily from Port Antonio to Morant Bay, named "North Star" and "Mail Bus", Even morning going to school was like being at NASCAR as these two buses would race each other along the country road.

The drivers did not like to stop to pick up, only slow down and you as a school youth had to jump on the bus step of your favourite bus while it was still in motion. What an exciting experience that was! And we didn't know any better. Its a miracle that we didn't have more tragic accidents.

[Jangle]

hehehe... yup "bail on" and "bail off". I used to love doing that and riding on the bus steps. Very dangerous but fun.

[Historian]

"Where Its At" was the real ting! Anytime I hear black Americans speak about Soul Train and thier memories of it from back in the day I realise that is what "Where its At" was for us.

Agreed, Islandman! Like you, “Where It’s At” was certainly more meaningful to me than Don Cornelius’ “Soul Train”, which I discovered later.

I’ll tell you this though, Jangle has certainly stirred some memories with his reply! And damn, that “Three Sevens Clash” thing sure caused some concern across the island! I, too, awaited July 7, 1977 with quite a bit of, let’s say, interest (lol). Although it was not as interesting to me as what we all much later wondered would happen on December 31, 1999, Garvey’s prophecy (immortalized in reggae form by Joseph Hill and Culture) was nevertheless a thought-provoking thing locally.

It’s interesting to know that Jangle was actually on Miss Lou’s “Ring Ding”! That was every Jamaican child (who had a television set at home) favorite weekend show!

Talking bout those country buses, where I lived in St Thomas as a youth there used to be 2 country buses that ran daily from Port Antonio to Morant Bay, named "North Star" and "Mail Bus", Even morning going to school was like being at NASCAR as these two buses would race each other along the country road.

The drivers did not like to stop to pick up, only slow down and you as a school youth had to jump on the bus step of your favourite bus while it was still in motion. What an exciting experience that was! And we didn't know any better. Its a miracle that we didn't have more tragic accidents.

Boy oh boy! Every country bus driver, it seemed, felt like they were working on NASCAR tracks! We’ve certainly come a long way as far as public transportation is concerned! Even before the infamous “middle passage” trips in Kingston during the free-for-all days of public transportation (before Peter Phillips cleaned things up), the country bus drivers had become infamously legendary! I recall one particular evening a driver taking out his anger on the female conductor not by cursing her, but rather, in his driving! For years afterwards I remembered the screams of several of the passengers as that bus leaned around steep corners!

[Jangle]

Here's another one.

I remember I used to save my collection money to buy Paradise Plum sweetie or Asham after church every sunday.

[MdmeX]

Heh - I'm better & badder than you boys! I used to "hop" my uncle's truck! Didn't know, or probably cared, what a dangerous feat that was!! Oh the age of childhood!

Musgrave Market was my rompin ground. Leaving my auntie's food on the side of the road, to engage in a game of "hop scotch" in the middle of the road, and running off and leaving the food when we saw her approaching!!

My daddy had the biggest sound system and I used to love the dances that he kept, especially after elections!

[Gamma]

all of that and ...henry stennet on the evening people show reading excerpts from "the prophet" by khalil gibran....henry stennet had the most soulful voice...listening to "voyage to atlantis" by the isley brothers on the same show for what seemed like months on end at approximately 6:47 p.m.

grand market

just generally gallivanting in the country wid mi bredrin dem, slingshot in tow and off to the river to swin and ketch perch, crayfish and a fee bullfrogs along the (which i would later deny despite di fact that mi foot dem did "white lacka farina")

waiting on a saturday for my mother to come from market with hostess spice bun

swearing up and down that the ants in a particular anthill were my pets because they didn't bite me, only to find out that ther were not biting ants

performing an involuntary wheelie on the front wheel of my bicycle because it only had front brakes and i was tearing down an incline....

watching the same episode of solid gold over and over again because it was in colour and listening to bertie higgins sing "key largo" on the jbc trial runs

becoming highly agitated because no one knew when the next ruff n reddy cartoon would be on and whether it would be played in sequence

finding out my neghbour worked for the cia in 1979....

[MdmeX]

So nobody remembers Ralston McKenzie on a Sunday evening! Man, oh man, I loved his voice! There was also this guy, Carlington Sinclair, think he came on after midnight!

[MdmeX]

Mi sure yuh stone yuh neighbor's mango tree too

[MdmeX]

Malted milk & hot dog at the Woolworth's counter!

[Gamma]

mi had mi owna mango tree inna mi yard...mi used to stone the 'tinkin' toe tree though....

[Jawge]

How did you find out that
your neighbours were working for that agency? I'm curious.

[TDowl]

I did not know they had reruns “Teenage Dance Party” (TADP) ehhe ehhhe LOL, you could have fool me LOL, how about Porta faces Life on radiofussion?