The Author:Walking Back ... in theDays of Cayman Past
Walking in the past ~ Thosegood old days
The seniors of today, who experienced lifein the old Cayman usually speak of their enjoyment of life whilegrowing up. We still speak of the 'Good Old Days'. Sure enough,times were hard, and life was tough on a general survival basis.
One may begin to wonder how the housewives and mothers of yesteryearmanaged to keep up with the every day demands that challengedthem. There were no mechanical or automatic conveniences, suchas the mothers of today enjoy. Today, she puts her clothes inan automatic washer and goes her way to accomplish other tasks,if by any chance she doesn't have a helper to do everything forher. Housewives of the past knew no such luxury.
Let's take a brief look into the life of the old time. In thefirst place, it was not uncommon to have 10 or 12 children inthe family. She bore children as long as nature allowed her to,especially if dad was a land lubber, or worked as a local seamanon the fishing schooners. So mom awoke with the chickens in themorning to attend to her youngest baby's needs and then get herhusband's coffee and whatever he would eat before going abouthis daily routine, whatever that might be.
She then had to prepare the children's breakfast usuallysome kind of porridge. She was blessed if a couple of the olderchildren were at the helping age, and could at least assist withsome light laundry washing of their own clothes. There wasthe main meal of the day to prepare -- not a simple operationto be done on her old smoky caboose. The house, though not liketoday's fancy houses, had to be cleaned often.
The family laundry -- this was the task of the week -- usuallystarted on Monday and continued into Tuesday. This was done inan old wooden wash tub with a wash board as the agitator to removethe dirt. With no modern detergents to soften the dirt, a pieceof Jamaica brown soap was all that she had to help her. So, usuallythe pieces of clothes, and moreso, those that the men wore, weresoaped one day and left to soak overnight before being washed,rinsed, and hung in the sun to dry. Usually all of the water usedin the process of washing had to be carried from spring wells,located a distance away from home.
I hear you saying, cooking was easy; she didn't have anythingto cook in the first place. You are wrong. They had more to cookthan they had conveniences to cook with.
Don't forget that dear mom had to make every slice of bread thatthe family ate, as well as whatever other pastries they had. Heavycake on weekends was a family tradition over the islands. Allof this had to be done on an old smoky caboose, burning firewood.
Of course, grandfather liked his porridge in the morning, sweetenedwith cane juice, and richly with coconut milk. He even pouredcoconut milk over the stuff, as he liked to eat it cold and hard.
They talked about pap, rather than porridge. This could be madefrom arrowroot starch, bulrush, corn or green bottlers grated;but don't forget the old folks knew about argo corn starch, andthey liked it. That of course was as a luxury to them as a cakeor as porridge.
So then mom did have something to cook on her primitive fireplace.The big meal of the day was served in the afternoon when dad returnedhome from wherever he had been for the day. That was the regularrun down, the stuff that made them strong and vigorous.
It was usually made with fish, fresh or corned, cooked in coconutmilk and with all the home grown produce, finished with a thick,rich gravy. Boy, wasn't that delicious!
Sunday's meal was always different with turtle, pork, or chicken,or it could be that a piece of fresh beef was secured sometimes.Beef, of course, was usually reserved for Christmas.
The fathers were very productive, and sustained their large familiesoff the land and from the sea. Unlike today, there was plentyseafood for the taking, but there was no sale, because nearlyevery one fished for himself, or else lent his canoe to othersand received a share of the catch. Some of the old timers, though,chose to fish rather than farm and so exchanged their fish forproduce to make their dinners.
Shipwrecks came as a heaven-sent blessing to the settlers. A ladenship brought much joy to them; even if the ship went free, itusually had to be emptied of the cargo in order to be floated.They delighted specially in seeing a dry goods cargo ship.
Clothes were the greatest need among the oldies. There were hardlyany ready-made clothes in those early days, but almost every housewifelearn, before marriage to sew clothes for all of her expectedfamily when she would be married. When cargo had to be offloadedfrom the wreck to be reloaded on another ship, not even the flamingswords of Eden would have prevented those men from hustling somethings for themselves.
They were able to salvage household equipment as well as fooditems, much of which were luxuries.
The old folks lived primitively for sure, but they were not povertystricken. Never was it heard that any one died of hunger in anyof the three islands. They didn't have today's cancer and heartdisease-forming luxuries to feast on, but they filled up theirstomachs with the pure produce from a healthy soil. They didn'tknow about fertilizers, nor did they need to use them. The soilwas good and the seasons were great, with regular rainfall; theydidn't need to plant several acres of things to have enough food,and to spare.
The old and disabled ones could count on help from those who hadsomething. Love and affection were the prevailing factors in theold Cayman. Very sadly, though, those good old cultures and moralshave died a natural death with the bygone generations. I hearpeople saying it is Social Service's business to look after theneedy. God has set all of us, whom He has blessed with goods,to be social workers in helping the needy ones. Jesus said, "Inasmuchas you have done it to one of the least of these, you have doneit to me".
O, that we could return to the culture of the old Cayman, justto abide by the loving virtues of the fathers!
The Author:
Mr. Percival Jackson, known throughoutthe Cayman Islands as "Will" Jackson, is a born EastEnder. He is a man of many experiences: A Home Guard during WorldWar Two; A former policeman, a seaman for 22 years who sailedaround the world; and a retired businessman.
Mr. Will has been a Justice of the Peace for the past 20 yearsand a Marriage Officer, whose one greatest interest is preachingthe gospel.
He is the author of three books, one which will be published ina few weeks. Obviously, his pastime is in writing of life in theold days of Cayman, and he has written many local articles forthe local media.
The pride of his life is his wife, Miss Sybil Harris of GeorgeTown, whom he married 35 years ago. They are now retired, enjoyinglife together, living in East End, by the Sea.