Narrator:<\/strong> Small island like this, you\u2019ll understand, is one that takes you all over the place because in small communities it\u2019s practically crime-free, and certainly Montserrat that was the case. We lived a sort of community-life, by that I mean the people in the community and in your immediate community looked after you, it wasn\u2019t all up to your parents to teach values and to see that you were protected, it was the entire community. And so, everybody they would know your parents so they\u2019ll know some member of your family. And if you were to step out of line, as we say, you know, they, they had the freedom, it was part of the culture, for them to pull you up…<\/p>\n Narrator:<\/strong> And it was a situation when you were encroaching on somebody else\u2019s property for instance; it was not like that, because, as I said, it was mostly in the wild. But in situations where you had like fruit trees in other people\u2019s gardens, or in their yards, which was a term we use, we will politely ask the permission of whoever was in the household. Sometimes it\u2019s a grandparent, it\u2019s an elderly person, you know, and you had to be polite of course, because if you weren\u2019t you knew you were gonna get a big: No! And not only that, you get a big chastising! And not only that, but they\u2019ll contact your parents and say, \u201cYou know you have a daughter, you have a son, and da da da da\u201d (indicates parents yelling at children). And you get what we call a \u201cwhooping\u201d in the American, to use the American term. \u201cHow dare you, da da da da da.\u201d You know? But that\u2019s how it was. So it was that kind of freedom, so you had the freedom to explore, you had the freedom to learn about things at close range, you know…<\/p>\n Narrator:<\/strong> And if this, both my paternal, well my paternal and maternal grandparents, they lived in a distant point of the country. The area known as Roche\u2019s area of the Soufriere Hills. That\u2019s where the Soufriere Hills Volcano is located. And it was a thriving community when I was a youngster, ok, and that\u2019s where my maternal and paternal grandparents lived. Now, my paternal grandmother died before I was aware, if you know what I mean. But my maternal grandmother, well she died, not, well, uh in the \u201880s, well in the \u201870s really, the \u201870s. Anyway, she lived in this particular neighborhood and it was in the mountains really, you know, in Roche\u2019s and that area is very rugged, it\u2019s very green, it\u2019s very lush, you know that sort of thing. But although it was a thriving community. So as a youngster, I would trek the hills, walk across the Soufriere Hills, and this was interesting and important. Walk across the Soufriere Hills, alone, a lot of times. On weekends, like after school I would go and spend the weekend with my grandmother.<\/p>\n DP:<\/strong> (Barely audible) Mmhmm.<\/p>\n Narrator:<\/strong> And I would cross those hills, and it\u2019s a long distance, eh? From the school I attended in the south of the island, in the area known as St. Patricks. Which is now, you know, gone. But anyway, I would walk across the hills to my grandmother\u2019s house all by myself. I would meet people coming from their plantations in the mountains. Coming down on their donkeys, you know, with their prar juice and everything and they say…\u201cYou\u2019re going to see your grandmother!\u201d You know, the usual thing. And you know, \u201cwatch how you walk,\u201d and, \u201cbe careful,\u201d like, \u201cWatch where you cross,\u201d the Soufriere Hills because you know, in the Soufriere Hills you had like a constant river flowing, and you had like fever rows with water bubbling, very hot and all that. It was, it was part of the Soufriere Hills, you know. But there was a particular area that you had to use to cross that. Almost like a bridge, but a natural bridge, nothing man-made or anything like that. So you had to step on the stones, you know, to avoid getting your feet wet and sometimes you would get your feet wet because the water was nice and warm, you know. And so we cross water, trek the hills, go down to my grandmother\u2019s place. And I always considered my grandmother\u2019s place as, I don\u2019t know if you know the, the, the fairy tale of \u201cHansel and Gretel\u201d or \u201cRed Riding Hood,\u201d you know in the forest and that sort of thing. And I always thought of my grandmother\u2019s house, in the, in the forest which it was, and she had all these banana trees and fruit trees around it. And as a youngster, I\u2019m talking about in primary school, you know which was like second, third grade sort of situation, that kind of age. Right? And, I was, \u201cOh I\u2019m going to my grandmother\u2019s house!\u201d And I\u2019d pretend I would be Gretel or like Red Riding Hood and the fox is going to be coming out of the woods for whatever, you know, it\u2019s all imaginary of course, and I\u2019d scoot down the road, you know, run as fast as you can to my grandmother\u2019s house, huffing and puffing and everything and my grandmother say, \u201cOh I keep telling you don\u2019t run so much, you\u2019re gonna fall down, hurt yourself, you\u2019ll bruise yourself.\u201d You know that sort of thing, but she never knew that I ran because I didn\u2019t want the wolf come and getting me (laughs)…<\/p>\nPage 3<\/h5>\n
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