Dem Old Time Things

 

I am not sure

Where I should start

But this implement was used

Mostly in the dark.

 

It’s not a searchlight,

Not by a long shot

But to my mind it looked like

An oversized teapot.

 

The reason for its name

I don’t really know

But I came along hearing

It was called a poe.

 

 

Why were some hats

Referred to as Panama?

For the answer to this one

Check your grandma.

 

 

And in this computer age

Hack is nothing new,

Back in the old-time days

It was used for the flu.

 

We had an outhouse,

Boy, wasn’t that the pits!

And when we saw that cock-lizard

It was time to quit.

 

 

There he was

On a yellow thing propped

And there was I

Urging my waste to drop.

 

Not good at all

If the wait was overly long,

At those uncompromising times

One was not too strong.

 

The community centre

Was the faithful standpipe,

Bringing of the water we hated

But the standpipe we liked.

 

 

It was the news point

And the gossip centre too

And there you could find out

What everybody knew.

 

Well, not really knew

But what “evuhbody” hear,

And while there was no telephone

Tell-a-woman was near.

 

Naked as I born

I bathed under a standpipe

But that was in St Andrew

Relatively out of sight.

 

Ba-lang! ba-lang! ba-lang!

Hear the school bell ring,

Wishing for a chance to ring it

Was my old-time thing.

 

 

That chance never came,

For I was never a prefect,

At least not at primary school

But still “nuff respect”.

 

Mr. Matthew Farley

Would have had a problem

For the length of girl’s uniforms

Was really not an item.

 

 

Some were very short

As this old-time photo shows

But then we didn’t know as much

As today’s children know.

 

No need to discuss this

And the matter of innocence,

I’m just having fun

No need to take offense.

 

Police commuted on horses

But a PM rode one too,

There is a photo showing this,

You can have a view.

 

  

I knew a race horse owner

A close friend of that PM,

Among the riders in that photo

He is likely one of them.

 

 

Here is also a photo

Of that PM cutting canes,

Kudos to those nation builders

Who did in heat and rain.

 

Old-time washing machines

Worked off elbow-grease,

Until those whites were lily white

Those elbows never ceased.

It was a woman’s chore

With tub and jooking-board

And since families were large

It was a heavy load.

 

 

Pan cart and box cart

Donkey-cart and bicycle,

All these means of moving loads

For a variety of people.

 

The coal-pot and wood-pile,

Blackened saucepans and pots:

The means of food preparation

For families and their lot.

 

 

When we got little better off

We cooked on a stove

And that same stove heated irons

To press our clothes.

 

Those were the days of cups:

Hiccups and enamel cups

 Or lesser, Ovaltine and Milo tots

If you couldn’t get a buck.

Enamel cups for everyone;

Sometimes battered and bruised,

Hot chocolate or cocoa tea

And a little salt infused.

 

Kadooment was better

As they wore more clothes,

Still conscious they were children

All along the roads.

 

10:00 AM at the Stadium

See the costume bands,

On the first Monday in July

People in the stand.

 

Waiting for the judges

To judge the costumes

And then to join the jump-up

Jostling for room.

 

Hearing the bands blaring

As the trucks pass,

Back in them old time days

There was more class.

 

 

Mr. Harding never died,

He came back every year,

Never mind how he was burnt

He always reappeared.

 

I am jumping around

As these things come to mind,

I will soon stop though,

Almost out of time.

 

Tray on top of head

With a container in the tray,

Faucet attached bearing mauby,

Mauby woman on her way.

 

 

See the one-pint glass

Mauby foaming to the brim,

So, expert was the mauby woman

Not a drop escaped the rim.

 

Hers is a balancing act;

Hands doing other jobs

And many glasses of refreshing mauby

Costing less than a bob.

 

This refreshing mauby

Now gone to my head,

I wouldn't mind having some now

With a Purity salt-bread.

Call the mauby woman

And call Purity

But you won't find that number

In the directory.

 

 

That's an old time thing too-

"No such number",

If you think of Elvis Presley

You might remember.

 

 

Yes, the old-time days

And the old-time things,

Bajan folk songs and calypsos

And the joy they still bring.

 

Stewart Russell © November 9, 2023