It is important for Barbadians to remember our history. The pictures in the BU gallery were captured from the Facebook Timeline of Dolores Grandison. The pictures vividly demonstrate the progress we have made on many fronts. The struggle is how do we continue to advance change in our little country that is positive and respect the struggle of our forefathers.
Flashback to Old Barbados
84 responses to “Flashback to Old Barbados”
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@ David,
Those videos of Janet should be shown to every 5th form student in Barbados.
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forget 5th form child every builder what is with people building eaves on houses how soon they forget
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@Hants
The housing stock in 1955 was poor especially compared to today. However may are of the view- including Grenville Phillips the engineerengineer- our current housing stock would be severely tested if we were to suffer a CAT 2 or greater.
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Many of the old poor housing stock on props in the hills of St.Andrew survived,whereas then newer houses built with money sent back from the UK or Curacao in the same area with the new fangled idea of flatter roofs did not survive Janet……..we do not learn.
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@ David,
” Low income” housing built by Government should be Cat 2 resistant.
Poor people who build wooden “chattel” houses generally cannot afford to build a “wall house”. Unfortunately they are at risk during a hurricane.
However Barbados has been lucky not to have a direct hit.
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This is a very enlightening video. I was born and raised in Lodge Road, Christ Chur. I was 5 years at the time. All I remember is the howling of the wind. My mother and my sister who was 3 years at the time left our home after the roof was blown off. My mother was planning to go by a relative further up the street who owned a stone house along with a shop. We never reached there since the wind was so ferocious. We ended up at the next door neighbour. Her house was a four-roofed house with a very tall cellar. We stayed in the cellar. I think we stayed there for a few days. I am sure if my mother had perservered the three of us would be killed. I don’t remember where my father and my brothers were.
As I grew older I then heard about the loss of life that occured in Lodge Road, Christ Church where the Wesleyan Holiness church had collasped and a number of people killed. My mother’s relative house was a short distance from the Wesleyan Holiness church
From what I heard from my mother and aunts and others hurricane Janet left a lasting impact on the people. One day my father was talking about the hurricane and he said that a lady from Parish Land who left her house to go for shelter lost her infant girl when the wind blew her out of her mother’s hand and the child ended up in a pond.
Watching this video showed me that apart from the devastation of the housing stock, the after effects of disease was just as bad. I believe all Barbadians young and old should view this video.
There are some things that happened ten years ago and I cannot remember them, but that day when I was five is etched in my memory as my mother held my hand and lifted my sister in her arms. Every day I thank God for saving our lives. Fortunately none of my relatives were injured. I think we need to reflect on our lives and realise that an incident can occur that can change our lives for ever.
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@ David
Just to make a correction.
The photo of the yellow, green and red coloured bus, registration number H3312, subtitled “Old time bus,” is actually a “Creole Bus” owned by Grenada Helvellyn Tours.
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Thanks Artax, will make the correction.
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I was looking at some old photographs of Bridgetown and saw this BU blog about old Barbados.
The way how some bloggers does romanticize the old time days and make you feel that those were the best days, I was surprise that it only got 10 comments.
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I rode in one of those buses with my mother as a boy of 5 years old, and what I distinctively remember is when the rain fell the conductress, would rolled down the canvas that had been rolled up on the side of the bus with rope. Talk about air condition ….it was hot like pepper in the bus back then….
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“The way how some bloggers does romanticize the old time days and make you feel that those were the best days, I was surprise that it only got 10 comments.”🤣🤣😂😂😜
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Wura
They were not for some women because compliance from women were gained through the everyday beatings. So let us call it as it were back then …. men ruled with iron hands then, and I meant that in the literal sense of the word.
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I bet some so called men (spineless) miss those “good old days.” where women were the only human beings they could “rule with an iron fist.”..not much has changed, they still can’t rule anyone else, they are still cowards, now selling out to the highest bidder.
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Wura
In what sense are men weak because they fight all the wars, and caused all the mayhem and destruction on the earth?
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Wura
In the book of Genesis, it is said that the Serpent tempted the woman Eve because she was the weaker vessel, but that hypothesis falls flat on its face, when you start to examine the history of human behaviour as it relates to men.
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There are things about those good ole days that can be romancized in the mind
Children playing games outdoor in the villages
Day time or late evenings gatherings in the street
Children raised in a village where the words of its takes a village to raise a child were true and help in the development of a child character and moral values
Where retired teachers felt a need of urgency to provide after school classes in their homes for children which made sense of the words ” no child left behind
Where poverty did not stop or hinder a family from achieving
Where a community spirit was devoid of the word independent and selfishness
Where church was the staple that brought people near and far together with summer excursions
Where school was exemplified as a place parents wanted their children to attend
Today the romance is missing -
I’m referring to the first photo with the buses parked on one side and the ladies selling pottery on the other.
Does anyone on BU know the name of location?
It looks like Trafalgar Square or Probyn Street.
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@ angela cox May 13, 2021 6:24 PM
Excellent contribution.
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If there is one lesson that I can come away with from my childhood, and that is that it has thought me the principle of self-sufficiency and how to be self-reliant.
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Fishing at the pond is an experiences I hold the dearest to my heart; of all of the things I’ve done during my childhood .
This is an experience my children would probably never get to experience because moderation has all but destroyed the ecosystem and fragmented the biodiversity. -
Looking back one has to ask with all the material things we have today is our life really better?
Many of us pursue the material things in life with the hope it will make us happy, but in the end all it does it put several of us in unnecessary debt.
I remember when there was no TV and then CBC came along with channel 8. We had No Internet, no cell phones and no electronic distractions yet we survived. We talked read and socialised face to face, with something called a redifusion going in the background. If you were dating a young thing, you had to call on a rotary phone with 5 digits. If it was busy then call back, as dem was no call waiting or voice messages either! Plus you dam well not call at lunch time, dinner time or in the week after 7pm nor on a Sunday. Her parents would ask her if “he get raise in de gully.” LOL. Fast food meant cooking something quickly. Never locked a door or knew what wrought iron grills or burglar alarms were and people spent weekends with their families, as few businesses even opened on Saturday far less Sunday.
So the question is do we live a better quality of life today, or do we simply just own more material “things” to keep us entertained? Also how does one measure the quality of life, is it based on the car we own or the house we live in? Should we maybe value our life instead or the freedom we have to live it instead? In other words is the man that can take a day off in the week and go to Bath for a picnic with his family in a 7 year old Nissan, richer than the man who works 70 hours a week, but drives a BMW with a 7 year car loan he struggles to pay?
Just food for thought I guess.
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@ John A
I remember when the telephone numbers were four digits, for example, 3810. A zero (0) was subsequently added, 03810. The zero was replaced by 4 (43810) and a few years later 42 was added (424-3810).
I also remember people from my great-grand mother’s neighbourhood, peering through her front window to watch television. She never used to turn off the Rediffusion. I loved that radio station, it broadcasted a variety of programmes that catered to all listeners. I listened to its final sign-off broadcast by Alfred Pragnell and Olga Lopes-Seale, on Sunday, November 30, 1997.
Nowadays you can hear dub, rap, disco and calypso being played on Sundays on the radio stations, something that was frowned upon ‘back in the day.’ Sundays were highly respected in those days. The older folk would say they “don’t want nuh banja playing in de house.”
The things is, as time changes, people change with the times.
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John A
Some fifty or so years from now, when you and I are in the Great Beyond, our children will probably be saying the same thing to their children. so I don’t know if it is fair and well founded to compare today with yesterday?
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John A
Think about it, had we our own way we would probably be still studying under candle and lamp, so as I said again: I am not quite sure if we can make such a comparison, because that life we lift behind was for that time, so learn how to accept and appreciate what God has inspired man to created to make our human existence, a little more comfortable.
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John A
“Sundays were highly respected in those days”
Can you hazard an educated guess why it isn’t today?
The world is becoming more and more atheistic because Man thinks that he no long needs God, because he feels he can do it all by himself.
But I hear God said in Amos 8:11: that the days are coming, when I the Lord God will pour out a famine on the Earth, but not a famine of Bread and thirst of Water, but the hearing of the Word of God. -
@ Dompey
@ArtaxI will tell you when I was in my 40’s I thought it was good to have so much choice in life in terms of what we could buy. Thing is though as I got older I started looking at life differently.
So let’s say I had a chance on a gorgeous summer day, to work for a few extra dollars or go diving. My friend I gone diving! Five years prior to that I would never of passed up on the extra money so I could buy something I really didn’t need.
I think we just don’t take enough time to enjoy the outdoors and what is around us. Check the young ones now on a nice day where are they? Probable in front a computer or bolted to whatsapp. We all just too busy to do what we all enjoyed doing when we were younger and for what, so we could buy a 60 inch TV and not keep the 48 we got that working perfect?
I think for all the education we got that the old people didn’t, they were all smarter than us in many areas.
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John A
Each generation tries to out do the next, and the disrespect that the young people are showing the elders today, is unimaginable or rather inconceivable because just yesterday, my daughter asked me to go to the store to get her some head phones …actually the wireless ones, and she asked me if I knew what they were. And probably, I may have been a little too sensitive in my reaction to her comment, but I took that as an affront of my intelligence.
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@ Dompey
Don’t get me wrong I am not saying the developments like the Internet etc aren’t great and we shouldn’t enjoy them, my point is that too far north is south. Also what price do we place on having them?
Balance is the key to everything. We don’t want to go back to no Tv and cold water showers, but we also don’t want to sacrifice the quality time we enjoyed when we were younger with our families today. Plus look at where our consumption practices have led us as a people and a nation? High credit card debt, houses way bigger than we need and a day pass for Chefette drive thru.
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John A
I disagree because I believing in having balance life, such as making time for the kids and myself, the wife, Church, exercise, work and travel etc …. I consider these artifacts a life of equilibrium …or balance.
Also some people would argue that the simpler things of life that you have mentioned above, are worthless without a faith in God and the anticipation of the afterlife. -
@Dompey
I accept your opinion but 2 things I don’t discuss is politics and religion. Every body got their right to believe and by the same token the right not to believe, if that is their wish.
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John A
I respect your position, but I do not see anything wrong with discussing Politics or Religion…..
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Artefacts??????????
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Donna
I am beginning to wonder lady, if whether or not you aren’t in the beginning stages of mental insufficiency because for an adult your behavior leaves must to be desired? Moreover, it is the highest level of psychotherapy, for someone to believe that a fallible human being isn’t capable of making a honest mistake.
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Donna
Act your age Lady ….. Oh sorry you are acting you age …..
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Says the man who nitpicked the use of “was” and “were” INCORRECTLY.
BOTTOM’S UP!
I mean Nick Bottom is up, of course. Ass head in place .Another performance for me to enjoy!
“The raging rocks
And shivering shocks
Shall break the locks of prison’s gates” -
Oops! I made a mistake, Bottom, in your lines! Let’s see if you can correct it!
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Donna
You sure you want to take on Dompey? Yah betta ask Bush Tea bout Dompey before yah decide to put yah foot en de hot wata gal friend… -
Donna
Gal yah all over Dompey sah early dis mornin …gal wat yah had fah breakfast … Bitch flakes?
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@ John A
I understand the points you’re making. I agree with you that people do not want to go back to the days of cold showers, no television, electricity and having to read with a lamp, cooking on ‘wood fire’ or ‘bringing water from de stand pipe’ or sleeping on grass beds.
But, as time changes, people change with the times.
That’s one of the reasons why each generation will seek to make life better for their off-spring and would embrace the changes in technology to achieve their objective.
From childhood I loved Friday, Saturday and Sunday. But, I have always preferred Sunday, from dawn to sunset……sunny, bright and breezy or rainy……. it’s my favourite day. The day’s beauty is enhanced as evening and dusk approaches. I can actually enjoy the day itself……. the breeze, sun, sky, clouds, how the day looks when the clouds cover the sun, trees, hills, valleys…… just enjoying the day and the fact you’re alive to experience its natural beauty.
I remember as a young boy, my father taking me with him and as we drove through any village, the scent of dry peas and rice, baked pork or chicken filled the air. Nowadays, Sunday lunch is Chefette or KFC.
I also remember Rediffusion used to play the type of music to suit the changing moods of early and mid morning, afternoon, evening, dusk and night.Unfortunately, in our quest to achieve material possessions, we distance ourselves from relatives and good friends. Or, we believe our achievements place us in a ‘higher bracket’ than our peers, so we look for ‘new friends’ who we deem to be compatible with our ‘new status.’
Forgetting the childhood days we spent growing up with our neighbourhood mates or at school with schoolmates, until we drift so far apart that only the sad occasions of funerals may reunite us.Sometimes we could take time out to plan some sort of event that would allow us to spend a day with relatives or good friends….. and let it be known how much we appreciate each other, because there will eventually come a time when we will be unable to do so.
It’s only when we become sick or acknowledge age has crept upon us and we’re in the ‘departure lounge’ that we realize ‘life is short.’
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Please, don’t take him on.
Have a great day, Barbados. -
There is good in being nostalgic sometimes. Good memories help to create a happy mind space as we continue with our everyday lifes.
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@ David
Yes, it does. We don’t have to ‘discuss’ politics on EVERY blog.
Unfortunately, the usual suspects will ‘say’ you’re attempting to distract from the political issues of the day.
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I think the memories of the way things used to be are woven into a period in our childhood, where we felt the love of family and friends, but more importantly, we were protected from the tension of life and dirt of reality. And moreover, some of us will spend our entire life trying to regain this elusive acadia because for many of us, these memories of childhood are woven into theory of life and a world of tranquility and innocence, which we once knew as kids.
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And I would further add that these cherished memories of childhood, are fossilized, idealized, eternalized in our collective mind, and protected from the processes of growth and becoming because this is way we find our mental solace, in a complex and disturbed human existence.
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@ Dompey
What exactly are you ‘talking’ about and how does it apply to the substantive topic?
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There are no Barbadians in Boogiewonderland
There are people of the sun from Africa
There are people of the ice from Europe
There are some people from Asia and Middle East
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbpIyn70t8c -
@Artax
The blogmaster has been at this long enough to understand the agendas. You may have picked up the blogmaster has been less motivated of late becauseâ¦
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Actually I love this!!
Takes me back to warm and fuzzy time when morals and respect took precedent
Oh how my mind long for those warm and fuzzy days
Neighbour’s helping each other (other than a neighbor bowl passed over the fence a warm friendly greeting was enough to suffice a verbal thank you
Oh what lovely memories which technology cannot reinvent in the mind
Hopscotch
Bat and ball
Rounders
Hiddy bitty
Games galore not costing a dime children happy and full of contentment to be involved in those aspects of life that called for great imagination and an ability to share without quarrels and noises
Yes parents did not spare the rod when things got out of control
Today society has (changed )moral values are frowned upon
Parents are no longer the head but have become the tail end of the headhoushold
Oh how I wish the days of moral values would return
The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.