There were a few things Sam taught me voluntarily - like swimming, surfing and playing cricket, but most of the time there was a price to pay (as is usual with brothers). I'll never forget how ecstatic I was one Saturday afternoon when Sam told me he was taking me to the beach to teach me to swim. I should have known something was up when Sam went to this canoe on the beach and launched it into the water (this was our private beach and we did not own a canoe so Sam had planned this previously. I don't know whose canoe Sam had borrowed). I knew immediately I was in trouble but I wouldn't show Sam I was afraid. He paddled out about 75 yards to about 8 feet of water. Next thing I knew I was airborne and on the way down I distinctly remember Sam hollering "sink or swim". When I came up for air, Sam was nowhere in sight. How I made it to shore I’ll never know, but I was never afraid of the water again.

About this time Sam was old enough to be very helpful to dad (before and after school and on Saturdays) in the store and with cattle. He was also fond of riding our mare "Jesse" and could throw a loop on a cow as good as any cowboy. On average, dad kept about a dozen head of cattle and it was our job to move them from one pasture to another - from Botabanue to Mt. Pleasant to Long Ground to Upper-Land and we also had to take them to the dip once a year (to keep down tick infestation). That was great fun trying to keep our cows from co-mingling with our neighbors which were either coming or going on the same road to the dip.

Sam was West Bay's best cricket bowler and always captained the West Bay team against Georgetown. This was the position I inherited after Sam left for America and I can tell you it was a great honor and I continued the tradition of carrying the day against Georgetown. It was also my job to carry all the daily chores after Sam left as George was at Calabar School in Kingston, Jamaica.

Sam liked to give the impression he was a care-free fun-loving guy but he had a very serious side also. He was a very good student and was fairly meticulous in what he did. The public school system at that time consisted of a one-room school house for approximately 150 students of all grades. Hours were 9-3 Monday thru Friday with a one-hour break for lunch. Children went home for lunch. Attendance was mandatory from age 7 to 14 and the grades l through 6 excluding the first year primer. A student could go to age 16 by taking a study course for the Pupil-Teacher's Examination. I think Sam took this optional course as I did but he did not teach. I did, and received a stupendous salary of $7.50 a quarter ($2.50 per mo.).

At school, boys and girls sat in alternate and separate rows of seats for each grade. There was no mixing of gender. There were no written or specified rules of conduct but it was understood generally that boys would be gentlemen at all times and not embarrass the girls. A boy could say hello or discuss school work etc, but that was about it. But since boys and girls have always found ways of getting around restrictions, some of the prevailing customs here were humorous in retrospect. Here I was, about 8 or 9 and had a string of fully matured women (13-14 year olds) fawning over me; of course it was their way of letting Sam know they were "interested". One nice looking girl, slightly overweight, discovered I liked to read and she would bring me novels (mostly of American servicemen in France during WWI or of American Frontier heroes). We had a fairly good library in our home and I would exchange books with her. But she was not the one your grandfather fell for. I'll let your dad tell you about her if you wish since he has met her

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12/22/2003
10:21pm
End of Installment Two