Pirates Week continues to be one of Cayman’s biggest highlights of the year, just like Christmas.
Over 40 years ago, Cayman started this week-long celebration to attract tourists to the Islands. It was embraced and enjoyed by many Caymanians.
We were encourage to save things from the past, sharpen our skills on preparing traditional dishes such as turtle and conch stew, fish rundown, fry fish and fritters, baking heavy cakes and stirring up “swanky” tamarind drink. The elders were encourage to find those old work tools such as sewing machines and coal irons and show youngsters how sisal was made into slippers, thatch twisted into rope and how turtle nets were made.
These skills were put on display so that all who came could see first-hand how our forefathers developed the land for us to carry on the traditions and heritage. To make it more enjoyable, a re-enactment of pirates landing and Caymanians protecting our shores was done in a spirit of merriment to entertain guests and locals.
In those days everyone looked forward to the event because it was all about honouring, preserving and celebrating the town’s authentic Caymanian heritage with parade, singing, dancing, food, arts and crafts.
It also spurned a drive by participants for preserving artefacts and recordings of history to be saved and displayed to make the event a better and bigger display of cultural heritage.
In earlier years, residents prepared for the event months in advance. Meetings were held in secret to discuss the building of district floats and the final product kept under wraps so that committees in other districts would not get a whiff of what theme would portray the town’s heritage. However, residents did not miss out on getting a glimpse of the float as the crew made their way to the George Town harbour with horns blaring.
“Bodden Town was always the district with the best float and best activities because an effort was made to focus on how life was back in those days,” said Twyla Vargas who shared the title with her husband Halsey as district king and queen for 18 years.
She recalls no problem of getting people to help build the float or talk of Pirates Week as a bad thing.
“Everyone wanted to help and everyone wanted to take part in the parade. We depicted life as it happened back then, dressed as old timers with clothes borrowed from elderly folks in the district and searched the town and beaches for foliage to make hats, shoes and other traditional wear,” she said.
“I remember heading over to grandma’s house to borrow items like a mortar and pestle, dried corn, dried fish, iron pots, washboard and oil lamps to show off. The only persons who wore pirate suits were the king and queen of the parade; all others were dressed as common people. It was a time she enjoyed, especially the opportunity it gave families to get together in an atmosphere of fun and learning about Cayman heritage,” she said.
She recalls one special Pirates Week borrowing an old donkey to pull a buggy work cart they had constructed to be entered in the float parade. Stricknine, the donkey, was hitched to the buggy to give it a look of authenticity and off they went loaded with a bunch of school children dressed in traditional wear singing traditional songs. Arriving in George Town everyone wandered away to get a glimpse of other floats and when they returned, Stricknine had gotten loose and disappeared. Someone spotted him heading down Cardinal Avenue and decided to give chase but everyone thought this was a part of the show.
According to Ms Vargas, Stircknine ran through MacDonald Restaurant’s front door and out the back but was caught and eventually hitched back to the float named Miss Lilly Crabtree to win first prize. The donkey died some years later but still lives on in stories from Granny’s Back yard.
It would be wonderful to see again old wagons loaded with ladies and gentlemen dressed in Cayman’s finest traditional plaid and khaki being pulled by a donkey. Girls dressed in homemade flour sack cotton dresses, young boys swinging smoke pans or gathered watching the flickering embers of a bonfire.
A lot of traditional games are also missing from the event, which people enjoyed in those days. Men gathered in groups to discuss the latest fishing tales to the distant beat of quadrille music while children skipped with bean vine rope on the beach, played marbles, spun gigs, played hopscotch and other street games.
The population or our little town in those days were not as much as they are today, but during Pirates Week everyone participated in the exciting activities or watched from the sidelines.
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