BELIZE BACK IN THE DAY

(the list was compiled with info from several similar emails received and some new I added. I think its fun to have the memories, reading them certainly took me back to another time & place in Belize)

Reminisce, Close your eyes and go back, before the Internet or the MAC,

before semi-automatics, grenade and crack,

before Hattieville Ramada, and all the problems with Guatemala, before Crips & Blood & Wifi;

before Musa plunge us into the dark ages;

before SEGA or Super Nintendo when life was simple and air conditioning was your open window.

Go way, way back to about 25 years ago.

• I'm talking 'bout playing hide and seek at dusk
• sitting on the veranda,
• eating hot Creole bread and butter and nothing tasted better.
• Seferino, Eustace Usher and Everall Waight on Radio Belize.
• When it took 5 mins for the transistor radio to warm up then you listened to championship fights with Cassius Clay not Mohamed Ali.
• Ramsay hauling freight in his mule & cart.
• Playing caparuche or gamma in the neighbour's yard,
• Hopscotch,
• marbles,
• ludo,
• snake and ladder,
• Jacks, cricket,
• Mother May I, Say, Say, Say
• Ring around the Roses.
• Hula Hoops
• racing bicycle rims
• playing sling-shot with rubber bands and orange peel to sting maclala
• playing cowboys & indians
• Playing cops & robbers
• Playing House
• climbing trees gathering berries, grapes & mango
• sliding down the rail of the steps catching a splinter in your ass
• jumping on the bed (if you had one) and pillow fights
• lime & spoon and sack race;
• greasey pole
• boys whistling on the fence as girls pass by
• when you would reach into a stinkin' drain for a penny
• a nude dip at barracks
• walking home late at night without fear of being mugged
• Scared of Policeman Tablada
• Laugh with Shirly & Rudy Belize's first drag queens at the Bellevue Hotel;
• Sunday morning matinee after church
• catching needle cases (real name for bug?) off the clothesline
• Ghost stories at bed time, being scared of tataduende
• laughing until your stomach hurt
• girls neither dated or kiss until late high school
• Bradley's lemonade (all flavors were lemonade)
• 2 panades for 5 cents
• Dit's meat pies (1 for 5)
• H.L's Burger on King St
• Happy Hour's cowfoot soup (only 35)
• Eating KLIM with sugar, Kawsham too
• a burger & coke from Shawmas store on Queen Street
• an ice cream cone from Malick, tutti-frutti, craboo, soursap, sugar-corn
• not Sugar Corn, the famous hooker
• lobster & fish plentyful
• Salidvar bread on Baymen went up 2 cents and everybody talked about it for weeks
• You got brawta from the grocery store regardless of how much you bought
• Black shoe polish on mustaches to get into Eden, Majestic, or Palace,
• The smell of the sun and lickin' salty lips
• making your own kites with kite paper from Angelus Press and flour paste for Baron Bliss regatta. Making sure roaches wouldn't eat your kite by putting kerosene in the paste.
• Remember when walking from New Road to New Market seemed far away?
• Going downtown on Albert Street seemed like going somewhere
• A million mosquito bites, flit, fish (for mosquitoes) and sleeping under nets.
• Kerosene lamps, gas lamps and candles. Etnas (one-holed kerosene stoves);
• chamber pots and the good old white bucket;
• Sneakers at Bata for girls and boys were called puss. And you were ashamed to wear them at school cause they only cost a dollar;
• Nearly everyone's Mom was at home when the kids got the there;
• Every kid owned some type of dog.And how you cried when they poisoned yours ;
• Five cents was a decent allowance, and 10 cents a miracle ;
• You lined up outside Jail at 5:00 AM for hot jail bread;
• Girls wore Guendolen to church every Sunday;
• Your clothes were always clean and pressed, even though you didn't have many;
• And 12 cents American cheese and a pack bread fed a family of 8;
• Laundry detergent had free glasses, dishes or towels hidden inside the box;
• Any parent could whap any kid and nobody, not even the kid, gave it any thought;
• Being sent to the principal's office and lashed with a ruler was nothing compared to the fate that awaited you at home;
• You wore two or more pairs of short pants under your long pants to ease the sting from that sash corn or tambran whip from one of your male teachers;
• We were in fear for our lives but it wasn't because of drive by shootings, drugs, gangs, etc;
• When our parents and grandparents were a much bigger threat;
• You didn't dare talk back to your parents, at least not to their face
• DO YOU REMEMBER????