Island Memories

Whaa gwaan peoples
(What's going on peoples)

Well, today we woke up to another chilly one here in CT.  It seems to be getting colder and colder very very quick.  All this cold weather just seem to make me want to move back home.  I think just like about every other immigrant who comes to the United States, there are certain things which just send us into a flood of memories which make you say "I wanna go home now".  To everyone it's something different . It could be a certain smell, like driving by a summer BBQ and the smell takes you back to the roadside BBQ shacks back home where they sell hot and spicy Jerk chicken, or hot jerk pork on  a  green banana leaf serve with a cold Red Stripe beer or Heineken.  Well for me,  this morning it was the sound of  a truck downshifting as it pass by my house.

The sound of that truck took me right back to my childhood of living in Jamaica in a tenant yard and sitting on the veranda waiting for my mom to finish dinner and hearing the trucks and passenger buses pass by.  Just that one sound reminded me of the food she use to cook for dinner, which usually consist of almost the same thing every day, which I didn't mind.  That dinner was usually chicken (brown strew, curry, in a soup or fried jamdown style) serve with rice, boiled green banana, yam (yamie) or coco (yucca) with lots of gravy.  While mama was cooking dinner, I had to find some way to keep myself busy.  You see, TV was a luxury for some of us, I would play with the other picnies (kids) in the yard or from the neighborhood.  Games like sike(dodge ball) football(soccer) and cricket (form of baseball).  I know sometimes we look back and think how poor our lives were or even wish we had more and we say "I'm gonna give my kids more than what I had".  Well, some time its not what you have or had, but what you do with it. 

Those early childhood years back in Jamaica are so very very special to me, that they are something I would truly love for my children to experience.  I know that things change and most of those island are just as modernize as the rest of the world, but there are still parts of the islands that you can find those little things that are unique to just that part of the world.  That's what make those memories so special and wonderful for all of us. 

So what ever that little trigger is, whether it may be a sound, smell, taste or even something you may see that takes you back to those long gone, back home childhood memories, find them and enjoy the home going.  So till lata, nuff respect.