The Last Word

Cayman’s Lost History? Remembering all Cayman’s ancestors

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Reader comments:

• I saw your article while doing a web search on the West Indian Club. I vaguely remember the Paines from some of our last few visits to Grand Cayman. I first traveled to Grand Cayman in 1963 and stayed at the West Indian Club with my parents, my 2 brothers and my sister. We returned every year until 1973 when traveling with teenagers became too expensive. We would return around Christmas time every year, and would see the same people every year. There was a family from Canada named Armstrong, which included the father, and 2 sons, Jim and Charles. (Could these be the same Armstrongs that you mentioned?) There was Jim & Leah Carter from Indianapolis and their 2 children Jim and Courtney. Jim Carter would collect sea glass for a lamp he eventually made, and the kids would all play "I doubt It" on the deck while our parents would mix cocktails by the beach. I remember going to a shop that I think was called Dora Tee and she sold ceramics and souvenirs and I remember she had a Mynah Bird. We had a maid named June and she was our maid every year we returned. There was a couple that always stayed in the "turtle trap" - the smallest unit on the ground level but I cannot remember their name. The property was managed by Peggy Edwards and her husband who was killed in a car accident on the island. When my dad died last year, I found the receipts from the first trip we made to Grand Cayman in 1963. 
  
  Round trip flights from Boston, 10 days at the West Indian Club in a 2 bedroom unit with a maid for $610!! We went to the St. James Castle. I think it was a restaurant at the time and I marveled at the thickness of the walls. We would go out fishing with the Ebanks, and I have so many pictures of members of that family. I became a true animal and nature lover because of the Cayman Islands, and ALWAYS threw my fish back into the sea to the moans of my family and Mr. Ebanks. I remember lining that long driveway at the West Indian Club with luminary bags and lighting them because we were always down over the Christmas Holidays.
  
  I have wonderful memories of the beach and collecting pinecones and bringing them home to make earrings. There were only a handful of hotels on 7 mile beach when we made our final trip in 1973 and I have been in love with the Caribbean ever since and have made it to Antigua, Montserrat, Barbados, and have been to St. John and Tortola more than 40 times in the past 20 years.
  
  I have absolutely no idea if this information will prove at all useful to you, but it was great trip down memory lane for me. Thank you - Sheila FitzGerald

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