Don’t have to dread to be Grassroot

Ah want to grant Connell de Grass Root Awe-ward for his contribution to Law’n Tennis. Grant-ed that Connell would have spent his early childhood on de plantation at Mount William Estate; plantation as in living in de manager’s house. His dad, Bob Connell, one heck of ah guy, was manager foh de Hadley’s. Bob was one ah dem militant, War Veteran, ah middle-class Grass Root himself, who in addition to Estate management, dedicated his life serving God’s people as an Anglican Deacon up until his passing.{{more}} His wife Clearly is now carrying on where he left off. If growing up on de estate, playing and mixing intimately wid de wuker’s kids didn’t instill in Grant any luv foh de Grass Roots, den his Dad’s constant pounding of de Beatitudes “Blessed are de Poor and de Pure in Spirit” should have. And if by chance his dad’s add-manish-shun went thru one ear and come out thru de other (as is de norm wid most preacher-man’s children) was no way Grant could ah get away from de many Sermons from “Uncle Bert”, Archbishop Woodroffe who is married to Grant’s aunty.

Up at Mount William de Connell kids would ah played bat’n’bawl wid de village kids. But Soccer was de game ah de people, and Law’n Tennis would ah belong to de booze-wars, and dat was how Grant got separated from his Grass Roots friends, dat Tennis. He might ah bin separated in de body yes, but not in de mind, Grant had plans to return to his Roots one day. Alas! dat day came last Sat-dey when de Grass Roots Tennis Academy was opened, courtesy Grant Connell.

Ah don’t have all his exploits on de Law’n Tennis Courts, reading in de press he seems to be doing quite well in de Law. Ah remember him ah lickle boy banging de tennis bawl on de same Grass Roots Court when it was de Murray Road’s. He was ah good player but ah poor looser, argue ah-lot. Whenever his pardnah J.J Frederick was about to win him, he would suddenly pull up wid muscle cramps. Arr Grant ah one-dah what part ah yuh cramping now! He would have represented SVG in de sports, and den when he completed his Law Degree he became President ah de SVG Law’n Tennis Association. His vision den was to have tennis played on every hard-court throughout SVG. Ah think he still got dat vision. But in order to save and preserve his sanity he left de Association.

Somehow de ole Law’n Tennis Grass Root-is-him got aroused, and he approached Silky Da Silva, de owner ah de court to allow him to try his ting. Ah can’t write bout Grass Root and not mention Silky (man from Mespo who had to milk cattle, tie out goat and cut Grass Root foh donkey before he go school. Quit teaching foh $6.00 ah month, came town, got ah wuk, de rest is now His-story. His friends say he got shares in Toyota in Japan, Cut ah long story short, Silky is ah millionaire. Was ah “Battle ah de Classes” when Silky bought out dat Tennis Court from Fred Hadley, de white folks who den owned Tennis in SVG objected, dey would have none of it, “darn out-ah-place black boy”. Is nuff ting foh talk but time nah dey. But Silky ain’t forget his Grass Roots days, so he partner wid Grant in dis most ambitious project. Just before Christmas ah met Grant by de Prison gate crying. Ah taught Sir Bruce or Tanty Grets had sent him round foh contempt, he not easy yuh know. He explained dat he had started fixing up de same ole Court, and he got de prisoners to assist wid de cleaning ah de compound; Julian saw dem and marched dem off de court back to prison. Would yuh believe dat Julian’s son is one ah dis country’s most promising and upcoming Law’n Tennis star. But all dat is like water under de Bridge.

Grant obviously couldn’t do dis all by himself, he got help, even though he has ah lucrative Law practice. De refurbished Law’n Tennis facility is finished, it looks superb, and already dozens ah six and seven year ole Grass Root kids, are up dey pon ah Sat-dey morning, learning to play de game, who knows another Arthur Ash might be among dem. And just like how we saying “Pan Against Crime” wid ah Steel Band in every Village; we could push foh another slogan, “Law’n Tennis Against Crime” wid ah lighted hard court in every Grass Root Village; Grant-did, yuh don’t have to Dread to be Grass Root!

SUE COU NAH BLOOD

Lie-Za say de race is off. Matthew and Junior pre-dick dat de PM go end up at Belisle and so de PM making sure if de pre-dick-shun is correct, he not going alone, he not going first and he making sure dat dey will spend more time dan he. So he Sue dem again, she say dat is about Sue number umteen foh de PM. She say de only ting she know love Sue like dat is ah Sue-cou-nah! Ah was telling her dat ah beg de PM to tell Blazer to Back off ah Anesia, and he say he can’t, dat will be obstruction. She say all dey trying to do is test Anesia to see if dey could mek she Bawl, but Ralph will have to Bawl first, and if and when Anesai Bawls, her’s will still be bigger dan Ralph’s. Dat Lie-Za is ah mess! And wid dat is gone I gone again.

One Love Bassy.

Bassy Alexander is a land surveyor, folklorist and social commentator.