Jamaican Till I Die!

Sometimes I read certain things that brings back flashes of my childhood and a smile on my face. Growing up we had a very tall and very big Blackie mango tree in my backyard. About half the tree grew over the back of the house and when mango season is in fill swing, all you can see on this tree is ripe mangoes. The trees position over the house acted like a mango alarm system for us kids and no matter where we were, or what you were doing, our mango radar was fine-tuned and set to maximum, allowing us to detect fallen mangoes. The first warning you get was the sound of the detached falling mango clearing the leaves of the tree. Followed by a solid buff, as the mango contacted the roof. After which the tumbling sound of the mango rolling off the roof and finally another solid buff, as the mango hits the ground, "The Eagle has landed" and we are off to the races. If you do not have a keen sense of hearing or you were not fast enough or tall enough then you were out of luck. Lu...

The first time I watched the Bruce Lee movie, Enter the Dragon. I went home and decided to make myself Nunchakus. It was then that I decided that our mop was expendable as I removed the mop stick leaving the mop dead on the floor. Daddy was not a happy camper on discovering that he only had a mop, minus the stick but I had plans. By the time he found out the stick was already cut in several equal parts. The mop stick was not the only thing to be sacrificed because the dog chain/leash was perfect to connect the ends of my Nunchaku sticks, much to the delight of the dog. The chain was connected to the sticks using a U-shaped nail, some tape, and strings, if I can remember correctly. I am not sure why I am still alive today, because over the next several weeks I suffered several concussion-like blows, one of which split my head open. I also suffered blows to the back, stomach and groin area trying to use the Nunchaku like Bruce Lee.  I used to practice on the trees, but my favorite t...

When I was a pickney, my friend Courtney, who lived couple gates down from me, started to keep Pigeons and I would spend a lot of time helping him to look after his 4 birds. I remember going home one day and the look on my face told my father that it was that time again where I bugged him till kingdom come for something until he gives in. I went up to him and declared my desire for a Coop and some pigeons of my own, to which his response was NO! Not going to happen! If you want another dog fine but no Pigeons! Heck I was already bored of the dogs, since it was my responsibility to make sure they were fed and watered. I cooked for them every night and some nights I would get pretty creative with the cooking. Taking out the best pieces of meat from the freezer to cook with their Turn-Corn-Meal (Polenta like). Back then in Jamaica no self-respecting person would go to the store and buy processed dog food… well I don’t even think that dog food was being sold in Jamaica at that tim...

As a child growing up, I spent most of my holidays from school running around Port Antonio, regardless of how long each holiday was. My Dear Aunt would pick us up from school on the last day or if we were lucky on the second to last day of school and off we go, Portie or bust, come rain or shine, hell or high water nothing could stop us. I used to suffer from the worst car sickness, it was just horrible and the winding country roads made the journey even worst. I tried many different tactics to ease my suffering, from turning my head before the car starts going around the corner, to looking up, down or close my eyes but nothing worked, eventually I grew out of it. I remember on one trip the car had that green peppers smell because we had pizza and being nauseous at the time meant that whenever I smell Green peppers I got nauseous for the next couple months. Even when I was not in a car but no matter what, nothing could stop me from heading to my Portie. One of the good things abo...