Times of the Islands Fall 2023

SHUTTERSTOCK
Our fine house on Pine Cay in the early 1980s had
no electricity. Candles, sometimes half toppled over in
the late afternoon heat, lit the stage for dinner. Batteries
provided light for the kitchen and living room. The day’s
water was hand pumped every morning from the cistern
underneath the house to a container in the attic from
where it reached sinks by gravity. All laundry was washed
by hand and sun dried on a line over the flat roof. The
refrigerator ran on kerosene. The toilet was of the composting
variety.
The Cuban crows were of the raucous variety, right
outside the bedroom window. They began their loud discussions
before sunup day after day until I ran out one
morning waving arms and garbling in my best crow-ese.
They were duly terrified and never returned.
Fortunate we were, Toddler, husband, and I to be living
in this spacious home thanks to owner Chuck Hesse,
who decided we needed the house more than he did. We
had sailed to the Turks & Caicos from Miami in a 28-foot
sailboat—an at-times harrowing passage with small child
aboard for new mother me. Chuck relocated to his work
place, the dome, which was a five-minute walk away down
a narrow sandy path.
Immediately after moving into this expansive airy
house, I felt I could now expand my creative side with
a sewing machine. Did Singer still make treadle sewing
machines like the one I’d grown up with in the 1940s
and 1950s in Canada? A single call via VHF to Miami
unearthed a Singer company and yes, they still made treadles.
Very pleased, I placed an order. The treadle arrived
by air to Provo, by boat to Pine Cay, and by golf cart (no
gas vehicles were allowed on Pine Cay) to my door step,
no mishaps, no delays—it seemed both magical and completely
normal. We ripped off the cardboard and placed it
The Cuban crows outside Diane Taylor’s window were typically raucous garblers.
Kenneth Williams was a PRIDE technician who fabricated an “experimental”
fence for the fledgling conch farm out of Slinkies.
against the dividing wall between the kitchen and dining
room where it shone like a new member of the family—
shiny black metal feet and golden wood body topped with
its glistening black arm.
My treadle was the only sewing machine on Pine Cay.
As word got around that Dee (as I was known then) had
a treadle, people began appearing at the screen door
with requests. Bennett Gardiner from North Caicos, a
technician at PRIDE (Protection of Reefs and Islands from
Degradation and Exploitation) came with a pair of pants
over his arm and asked if I
could shorten them for him. Of
course! Then it was Kenneth
Williams from Bottle Creek,
another PRIDE technician,
also wanting pants shortened.
Sure, be ready tomorrow! At
the time, Kenneth was helping
fabricate and install an experimental
“fence” made of dozens
of Slinkies for the fledgling
conch farm. The Toddler also
needed pants, of the jumper
style, and soon he was running
around scaring the lizards and
DIANE TAYLOR
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