Nah-Shun-All Treasures Galore!!

Ah was saddened dis week upon hearing of de passing in Canada of my dear family friend, Mrs Edna Little-De Nobriga. She lived to 101 years joining her late sister, Mrs Elsie Little-Cumberbatch another centenarian. Long life runs in dat Little family. She was matriarch and back-bone and partner of Fred De Nobriga’s Ltd.

Ah loving mother of beautiful daughters Hazel, June, Louann, sons- Gids and Carl. Fitz Huggins and Mickey’s mother-in-law and my wan-ah-be. As ah youth, when we had Salvation Army Sunday School trips to de country, Fred took us in his bus, and was highly rated by de elder members of de church as most reliable, sober (???) and polite (yes).

What ah really remember was De Nobriga I-scream and Fru-t aerated drinks, de factory dat originally operated next to Gospel Hall at Frenches Gate. Dey used de good old fashioned soft serve I-scream machine maker. We had no blender so everything was hand made using de good ole faithful grater. Even de flavours were made from local fruits: Guava, Sour Sop, Coconut, Mango. Chocolate. Drinks were made and bottled manually, and mother De Nobriga was all rounder: self made Chemist, Beverage specialist Blender/Mixologist, call her what yuh may…. Competition was stiff coming from Beach Combers, owned by ex-patriot ah Mr Snow-White, who imported world renowned Lyons I-scream from England, but thru-out SVG, no flavour tasted close to miss De Nobriga’s hand made I-scream.

As business improved, de family bought ah property wid an ole 2-storey building on Bay Street. Operations was moved to Bay Street. Soon de ole structure was replaced wid Kingstown’s first four storey building. De family upgraded de business by installing machines foh making Ice, I-scream, and de den famous Fru-t Soft Drink factory, presented stiff competition to de popular beverages Ju-c and O-so. Right dey in dat building mother De Nobriga made candies, and bottled pepper sauce and Coconut Oil on ah small scale was done. Dat was way Fred got de technology in soap making, ah bye-product of coconut.

De Fred and Edna combination blended and blossomed wid success. When de Go-venom-mint ice-making cold storage factory near de Kingstown Vegetable Market was up foh sale, De Nobriga purchased it. Finally, one of Fred and Edna’s last project was de coconut oil factory at Arnos Vale, now CK Greaves car park. De story is long, but he died and Edna, after trying she miracle fingers at just about everything, migrated to Canada to live with children an siblings. She’ll rest peacefully.

RALPHECOES

Ole people say sometimes when yuh set trap to catch teef, it does tun-back and catch yuh own pickney. Well dis ULP’s bright I-dare to burn-out and tire de Awe-positon by holding “round de clock” sitting of Par-liar-mint till 3:00 a.m during budge-it, back-fired. Wid de excep-shun of Senator Ben-ever Browne, Budge-it 2025 was ah lickle too much foh dem ULP Lady Senators to deal wid. Frankly, ah was very disappointed wid all three ladies, Bobb, Mor-gun and Peters! Bright young University Graduates wid Law Degree, failed miserably to bring anything of substance to Par-liar-mint. Ah had to rebuke Lie-Za from saying Ralphecos. Dey failed even to tell us bout de Pry-minister Newest Copy Book, “de Prime Ministerial Advisory Council on Youth”(ULP Youths), mek lie-za dey all over telling people how ULP Youths stole sorry, teef “ Searchlight’s Baby, “de Best of SVG Awards”.

Now ah want to congratulate Senator Browne, Min. of Urban Development, Energy, Seaports, Grenadines Affairs and Local Government for a one-dah-full presentation during Budge-it 2025. De Senator is only in her second year in po-lit-aches, and has inherited among de increasing number of failed ULP Projects; Solar NRG. She however, gave ah comprehensive explanation on de challenges, de plus’ and minus’ of solar NRG in SVG. She was de only hope foh ULP. Ah breath-ah-fresh air to de Near-shun .

Lie-za who remains buy-us, is encouraging Shove-on John, de young Garifuna Senator to be de next Garifuna Chieftess. Shove-on continues to give better representation to de Garifuna people’s cause dat Our-root Gomry. And wid dat is gone ah gone again.

One Love Bassy.

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