When yuh got bad eye
Sorry folks but ah not able to comment on de 2015 Budget Session, dahâs because ah made ah resolution dat ah will not listen to par-liar-mint as long as me namesake, Licks-under is de Speaker. Lie-Za was watching de Debate on TV, when she couldnât tek de speaker no more, she phoned in vex-here-shun to ask me if ah get thru wid de Spy-null Replacement foh me namesake,how he and de Awe-position in confuse-shun in de House again. Den she tell me: âall ah yuh Licks-under buy-us!â {{more}}
So dis week ah sharing my experience on my visit to de Specialist foh ah Eye examination. My brother-in-law who lives in TânâT, recommended dat ah visit Dr Crichlow who comes up from TânâT and does ah clinic on Mondays. When he told me dat de Doc was married to ah Vincy, Karen Lockhart, ah pretend ah didnât know de lady. Kay as we uses to call her is my villager, she was de lickle baby-girl in de family dah was sheltered by big brothers Albert who is de Vincy Doctor dat co-produced de medicare-shun foh eyes made from Marie Warner. Jim who is skilled in everything including flying ah plane; and Ben who entered BGS ah year after me, double skipped, caught up and went pass me like ah bullet, den earned himself de one Island Schol dat was offered den. Now-ah-days de list foh scholarships goes to cabinet and when dey announce de recipients, students does be asking one another, how come such and such get ah school, and de answer is as always, s/he is dis or dat ministerâs daughter or son.
De Lockhart family was humble folks from Rose Hall, North Leeward. Kayâs dad, Ole man Lockhart, was an Agricultural Officer, de family lived on ah large parcel of land dat he planted food and also kept cows. Every morning ah went by dem foh fresh cowâs milk. Ah 26 ounce bottle dat today costs $ 6. 00 was six cents, my container was ah large Cidrax bottle, bigger dan 26 ounces, was always filled.
Mr Lockhart was de Cocoa Specialist, he didnât have no Degree but he had temperature and Cocoa as ah crop was hot! Back den too, over 60 years ago, we would ah bin ready foh de cocoa people, Armour Jah-Row. Back den we had an Agricultural Department, not todayâs Deskriculture Department, and Sin-vin-sin including de Grenadines produced de best Sea Island Cotton; Sugar and Rum, Gomryâs Our-Root and Cassava Starch; Bananas; de biggest single coconut field in de world and ah factory dat produced both coconut and cotton seed oils, soap and animal feed. Every week de vessels traded to Bo-bathe-us and Trinny-daddy Toe-big-oh wid sheep, goat, pigs, corn-fish and ground provision. Dah revisit down Memory Lane is foh de younger and brighter IT generation of todayâs Eddy-care-shun Rev-all-yo-shun, dey all Lapped-up wid high speed internet, and 4-G string, Broad Waste Band, Face book all wax-up in whatever. All dat is good but when it is time to eat, if nobody knows how fee plant and nobody knows how fee fish, crappau smoke arwe pipe!
Yes ah was telling yoh bout my visit to de Eye Specialist. From de time ah entered de office, ah recognized Kay whom ah ainât see over forty years, she is de spitting image of her mom, Mother Lockhart, dat kind and free-handed lady she was. Kay looked at me and her facial expression was curiously saying: â I know dis ole crook, I just canât bring his name.â When ah introduced me-self, she remembered me. Her face lit-up when ah men-shun my Grandmother, she said: âOh yes how can I not remember Miss Major.â She was just ah toddler but ah remember when it was time foh her to take any kind ah medicare-shun, de only person who could coax Kay and get her to tek dat Castor Oil was Miss Major.
But Monday it was her husbandâs time to return de courtesy and add-mini-star medicare-shun in me eye. Ah donât know way Doctor Crichlow get dat eye-drops from, but from de time he put one drop in me left eye, ah donât know if is because is de âBad-Eye,â but something strange happened when he told me to read from de ABC chart. Ah couldnât see de letters, all ah was seeing was de speaker ah de house ah par-liar-mint wid ah X-rear in he hand, telling de Pry-minister dat he was going to kick Senators Lewis out ah de House, because de senator bin secretly teking X-rear of his back, and dey making fun of it, de X-rear showing No Spine! No Guts! Now ah couldnât tell de Doctor what ah seeing, ah wipe me eye and is so ah got to read de chart.
He told me enough to put my mind at ease; dat ah must stick to de medicare-shun, and mek regular checks. Ah think he forgot to tell me nah watch nobody wid me Bad-Eye, nor give no girls no Sweet-Eye either. It was ah double appointment as he attended to my wife as well. When we came out, de other patients looked tired waiting and dey gave me Bad-Eye! But den again, is ah eye clinic way everybody got Bad Eye sorry, way everybody Eye Bad! And wid dat is gone ah gone again.
One Love Bassy
Bassy Alexander is a land surveyor, folklorist and social commentator.
Comments
