Then and Now

 

I remember when I taught

Especially around this time,

During the afternoon sessions

Independence was on the mind.

 

Rehearsals in poetry and song

In drama and miming too,

Barbados and its development

A look at the old and the new.

 

Comparing what we have now

With what used to be,

Bringing out the old utensils

For the young children then to see.

 

The old “jooking-board”

And the new washing machine,

The vintage icebox

And the refrigerator pristine.

 

 

The kerosene oil lamp

With the bottleneck chimney,

It was home sweet home

Though its light shone dimly.

 

Incandescent, florescent

And the light emitting diode,

Less wattage brighter lighting

With energy saving the goal.

 

 

From a muddy playing field

On that memorable night

To the stadium and gymnasium

With resplendent lights.

 

Shining like the day

With lofted bands of light

Facilitating cricket and football

In the day and the night.

 

Can you begin to imagine

Playing night cricket in the sixties?

With the inadequate lighting

There was no possibility.

 

A little under the streetlamp

But we had to kneel down

And we couldn’t hit the ball far

There was not much light around.

 

I remember the snowball

Sweeter than any snow cone

And the touched pork some Sundays

And even gnawing at a hambone.

 

Hitting apples in the ground

No thought of washing them

But getting sick more often now

Than we did back then.

 

 

Pitching marbles in the dust

And brewing a patch clean

So that a marble would run off

Like water in a stream.

 

“Tens and twenties” and “killer”

Marbles and pictures the quest,

The one with the most of either

Would be the undisputed best.

 

The major social scenes

Were the church and the standpipe:

The former to deal with the soul

The latter the occasional fight.

 

Don’t dare move my bucket

Unless you were ready to fight

And usually in those days

The loser would be put to flight.

 

I could go on and on

But I will give you just one more,

I remember the box in the corner

That brought news and fun galore.

 

I don’t mean the radiogram

And certainly not the television

The one with the little black knob

I mean the rediffusion.

 

 

It served us like a television

And it was like a flat screen too

And all that we heard on it

Shaped our opinions and views.

 

I use to think at one time

There were people in the box

But I have come to realize

I was more stupid than an ox.

 

Stewart Russell © November 2018