In the month of November, Barbadians celebrate all things Bajan! It is the month when we celebrate our Independence from Britain. That historic day was November 30, 1966. This year 2020, marked the 54th anniversary of Independence. So I will share images of Barbados of yesteryear.
First, greetings to the readers who visited the page over the last four weeks from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Nigeria and Romania! Hi there! 👋
Now, for new readers, you can view previous posts when I focused on our music or a few traditions. This year it's a pictorial display. I suspect only a few of my readers are more than four (4) decades old so here are images of my trip down memory lane...
This is before my time. It is a view of the southern end of Bridgetown, near the wharf and the bus terminal shown below. In the background of the image, there was construction on a Government building that was since vacated.
One of the most iconic images of Barbados is the policeman's uniform. Again, before my time, a policeman directed traffic in the city. Given the type of vehicles in the background, this was well before I was born!
As a child, I remember travelling on a similar type of bus to visit relatives "in the country" - that meant leaving the outskirts of the capital city of Bridgetown to visit a rural village. Yes there were rural villages in Barbados, though it's only 166 sq. miles. To be honest there still are. The eastern side of the island remains mostly rural as town-centres are located in the south and on the west coast.
Also, before I was born, ships docked at the Wharf to offload goods (this must be circa 1960s):
When the mini became fashionable in the late 1960s-early 1970s, this is what a girl's uniform looked like - I doctored the image so it no longer resembles a photograph. Note the straw-hats worn as part of the uniform - and these uniforms were handmade by parents or a seamstress. They were not ready-made as many are now.
Writing of school uniforms, here are examples of bus tickets. When I was going to school, those I used looked like the ones on the bottom right of the image.
Back in the day, you could use this to buy a bus transfer ticket for 60 cents and get back 40 cents change. Then the $1.00 dollar bills were discontinued.
Now there are only $1.00 coins and effective December 1, 2020, a specially-painted, glow-in-the-dark limited edition $1.00 coin goes into circulation, which were launched in tribute to the essential workers who continued to carry out their duties during this COVID-19 experience.
When I was growing up, music was played on record players. My father had a wonderful collection of Merrymen albums and "
God Bless Bim" (the first video on the page) remains a favourite at this time of year.
Of course, we used a rotary phone. There were no smartphones! This would be an antique to anyone born after 1990. To finish today's piece, I end with a wonderful video circulating on social media of images of Barbados over the years. It's a great historical snapshot. Enjoy the handiwork of Mul!
Old Barbados: Part I - Memories of Days Gone By [Credit: Mul]
Should anyone be curious about the informal language used in Barbados, check this out:
On that note: Here's to another Independence celebration!🥂
