Yuh know yuh seventy when

Ah few weeks ago, one ah my schoolmates, Leroy Rose phoned to inform me dat he’s having a Birthday Lunch, and he wanted de remnants ah dat bad bunch, de classes of 1954 & 1955 to be there.

We last met in 2005 and had promised to meet again in 2015 to celebrate our 60th Anniversary; but we have since said farewell to Fred Providence and Rodway Fraser.{{more}}

De rate at which our numbers dwindling, every day towards dat 2015 looks like ah year. So just getting to-gather is time to celebrate life, we do journey down Memory Lane ah lot when we meet.

Leroy used threatening language, telling me not to forget: “Walk wid yuh eulogy, ah want to hear what all yuh have to say bout me, while I am alive” he said.

Den he explained dat de reasons why he giving early notice, is because he was likely to forget.

Ah didn’t have to ask what milestone was on de calendar, de big 7-zero widout ah doubt. Seventy is de age at which yuh tend to forget everything, in fact it so bad wid some ah we, dat we write things down to remember, then forget where we left the note pad.

It gets ah lickle testing sometimes too, Maths was my best subject, until ah did all de Grade 4 Maths my grandson had foh Home Work, when he went to school next day, he got every problem wrong! Ken John, our former school’s cricket captain, is unable to touch his toes, his logical explanation is dat either his hands have gotten shorter or his legs longer.

Dat Dr Fraser says dat Ken’s stomach is also preventing him from seeing his toes. What ah bunch ah Columnists.

Sunday when I arrived at de Lunch ah was greeted wid live String Band Music. De Gang was dey, some ah lickle embarrassed because yuh had to be over 70 to be dey, and dem fellars didn’t want nobody know dey heading foh 80. Unfortunately ah got dey just after Leroy had delivered his own Eulogy. Dey told me he was quite funny, even though he gave only de usual fifty percent account of his wild and dangerous adventures in school.

Is ah PT his two main partners in crime, Jim Lockhart and Alph Browne were not present to counter him and punch him out. But those of us present remembered him as ah manish ‘saga-boy’ from country who fancied himself as Belmont’s sugar Plum , more like ah Plum-Rose he was! But he was pop-yu-law, always lively and upbeat, daring and adventurous, getting into de “Black Book” very often; nothing has changed, even today he’s de same.

Leroy would have spent most of his adult years in Europe, served in de Air Force, where he M & M, ‘mellowed and matured’.

He won de Grand Prize when he married his high school sweetheart, Yvette De Freitas, one beautiful, innocent Gospel Hall Sunday school girl, we all envied him and said de devil gets ah saint; a marriage of forty-six fruitful years, Leroy is ah good boy after all but Yvette deserves Diamond!

Ah number of his Vincy/UK friends and spouses turned up to identify wid de latest act Sept-u-age-nah-run. We had Nice food, two main courses: Beef, Pork, Mutton, Stuffed Jack Fish, Tri Tri, Conch, Bull-Jow. We didn’t sing “He’s ah Jolly good fellar,” because most ah de guys have forgotten de words, some swore dey never heard dat song in life, Wow! certainly ah terrible thing to be over “Three score and Ten!”

LEF HIM AND GO

Is two things ah can’t believe, one is dat ah boyfriend stabbed de mother of his two children not once, not twice but eighteen times. Dey were living to-get-her for four years, in ah relationship foh de last fourteen years. Maybe he needs de next fourteen years plus four in isolation to reflect. All ah my 70 plus years ah never hear nothing as gruesome happen hey. Dat got to go down in de SVG Gay-nest book ah records.

Ah don’t believe in Moses Law, but on reflection, it got nuff merit: “eye foh eye! Teeth foh tooth! Kill me pup ah kill yuh pup and de mother too” Let me say here dat woman abuse begins wid aggressive language, den de first slap, slap tun cuff and kick; she does nothing about it; so he increases de level ah punishment, stick, knife cutlass and finally gun!

My humble advice to all yuh ladies out dey is, from de first day yuh man start raising his Vice, start packing seriously, don’t wait foh him to raise his hand, “Lef him and go” and don’t go back. I am saying dat eighteen stab incident was not de beginning.

DE FIRST TAKE-OFF AT ARGYLE AIRPORT

And de second item on de ah-gender is de money dat disappeared at de Argyle Airport Project. Whether or not yuh like how Gone-soft I-sold-hate de NDP section ah de population in building his Argyle Airport; when it is finished it will open up ah great deal ah possibilities foh SVG.

In fact future generation will rate Gone-soft foh his Guts (mental and physical) and 4-Sight to have undertaken such ah project in d’s hard times.

3Den-sell Back-us de Jewels and gold man made ah shining $20,000.00 deposit on his $100,000. 00 pledge. Well done Den-sell. But ah can’t believe dat fellars start ah teef money $60,000. 00 out ah de Airport Project. How un-peer-tree-ah-tek! Dat corrupt act is ah crime against yuh country; daily it is becoming clear dat Corrupt-shun and victim-I-say-shun is becoming say-none-yuh-must wid dis Guv-ah-mint. And hear what Lie-Za saying, dat is de smoke! And in her usual miserable mood, she asking me why ah didn’t tell her dat Argyle Airport in full swing, how $ 60,000. 00 worth ah groceries “Took Off” like ah merry jet. Shameful! And wid dat, is gone ah gone again.

One Love Bassy.

Bassy Alexander is a land surveyor, folklorist and social commentator.