REMEMBER! CELEBRATE! BELIEVE! - My Island Jamaica

A youngteacher’s taleJANUARY 1962, two months aftermy 18th birthday, I entered theformal working world when Iaccepted a job as a pre-trainedteacher at St Paul’s All-Age School, alittle one-room school in ruralManchester. There I met some wonderfulpeople and the principal, thelate Iris Scarlett, seeing how inexperiencedI was, took on a ‘motheringrole’.During the ensuing weeks, therewas a severe drought and I rememberhow difficult it was to get water andhow the farmers hoped for rain as thedays passed.GENERAL ELECTION CAMPAIGNI recall the excitement of the campaignfor the general election and thecrestfallen look on the faces of someof the staff and the residents on themorning after the elections. Soon,however, all got into the preparationsfor the lead-up to the firstIndependence celebrations.As soon as the music for thenational anthem reached the school,Mrs Scarlett got busy on the piano,teaching the children to sing theanthem. Many other activities relatingto the coming Independence alsotook place, increasing as the dayapproached.Independence eve saw thanksgivingservices all across Jamaicas butsince there was no television, wecouldn’t see what was happening inKingston. RJR and JBC radio stationswere our main contact withthe outside world. I saw a helicopterfor the first time that evening, Ibelieve it came from an Americannavy ship.Independence Day saw thechildren assembled at school to havethanksgiving service, fun activitiesand their buns and sodas.Immediately after the Independenceservice was the excitement of the 9thCentral American and Caribbeangames. That’s where I saw a footballmatch for the first time. I think it wasCuba vs Costa Rica.Having been successful in passingthe entrance test to the great MicoTeachers’ College, September of thatyear saw me packing my ‘dulcimina’to join the greatest batch of studentsever to enter that institution, theIndependence batch.Certainly, we were ragged by theseniors, but in all these were someof the finest set of persons thatJamaica produced. The influence ofgreat persons such as G.H. Owen,L.H. Facey, Olive Lewin, SydneyMorris, J.A. McMillan, to name afew, will remain positively embeddedin our lives forever. I cannotforget James Verity teaching us inthe sun to sing the national anthemcorrectly. Mico was a lot of workand fun.Kingston then was a lively cityteaming with tourists. It was relativelysafe to walk almost anywhereat any time. Murders were rareoccurrences and not many homelesspersons were about. Patronsdressed formally to attend Caribcinema. Some bars never seemed toclose. Factories were opening up.Export agriculture was booming.Where have we gone wrong since?T. SamuelsTasamuels@cwj.comSome members of the batch of students who studied at the Mico College in Kingston from 1962-1965. They were at a reunion held at the institution in August 2005.Scene from ‘Dark of the Moon’.Six beauty queensBeauty queens who held the Miss Jamaica title. From left:Marlene Murray (1962); Carol Merkens, née Crawford (1963);Yvonne Foster, née Walter (1966); Carol Gore, nee McFarlane(1965); Betty Ann Dais, née Lindo (1970) and Ava Gill (1971). MilestoneOn its wayElla Fraser, goalattack, sends theball into the netfor another goalfor the Englandtouring team asthey defeated theCombinedIntermediateLeague team 7-2in one of the twoopening games, inthe netball rally atMico.JAMAICA CELEBRATES | TUESDAY, AUGUST 4, 200923