No question, these are strange times in which we’re living.
The COVID pandemic has changed many lives in the past two years, and to say that nerves are frayed and patience is running thin would be an understatement. Here in Cayman, people have been restricted from travelling and the tourism industry has been ravaged. There is no doubt we’re looking to 2022 in the hope of brighter times.
Thinking about all of this made me recall our early days in the islands. Anyone who reads my columns (and hopefully there are more than two of you) will know that my family emigrated here from the UK, by way of Ireland, in 1975. Cayman looked a lot different back then, as you can imagine. Our first home was in a two-storey building of apartments right downtown. It is now a private residence, and what was Puritan Cleaners next door has become the GT Outpost at Rackams. Across the street, a movie theatre with no roof played Kung Fu movies.
The Burke family used to give us lifts to school, and a stop at Wholesome Bakery in town (now the location of Dairy Queen) for a milkshake and patty was a real treat. Miss Rose (Thompson) worked there and would always greet us with a big smile and ask us about how lessons had been that day.
My Dad became involved in the local rugby club and, being an avid sailor, got to know Caymanian seamen. He and Capt. Dalson ‘D’ Ebanks and George ‘Ed’ Bush crewed the 80-foot Pious Puffin from Cayman to Key West in December 1979. My mother was a teacher at the Cayman Islands High School and joined the congregation of the St. Ignatius Catholic Church. She could also often be found treading the boards with the Cayman Drama Society, which originally held shows in the Town Hall.
We kids climbed mango trees, caught land crabs, ran around the ironshore in bare feet, and played on the beach whenever we could. We attended the St. Ignatius Preparatory School, followed by the Cayman Islands Middle School (now the site of John Gray High School) and the Cayman Islands High School (where Cayman Islands Further Education Centre is presently located). Seems like a lifetime ago.
A couple of years back, I asked locals about their memories of Christmas in Cayman for an article I was writing. What I got back were wonderful stories of decorating yards, the thrill of hearing drummers in the early hours of the morning, and the unmistakable smell of oranges in the air – a fruit that was only available in the festive season.
This time, I asked people – local and expats – to tell me what they love about Cayman, what makes it such a special place and their fun memories. Here is just a small sample of what was said:
“So many memories! I used to LOVE the old heritage days as a child. They were so magical – people of all ages and walks of life – eating, socialising, enjoying fireworks and actual dancing in the streets. The old garden parties at Bodden Town United Church (now Webster Memorial) [are] also a fond memory – fashion shows, hat parades, cake walks, food as far as the eye [could] see and just so much creative, homemade fun happened there. The Anglican Church used to have the most amazing, fun-filled vacation Bible schools. We used to have so much fun there doing arts, crafts and getting up to all kinds of mischief! The best part was the wrap-up at the beach when we would have sand sculpture contests.”
– Faith Gealey
“When I was a little boy growing up, we only had a couple of government piers, one port dock, lots of ironshore and no shoes. Fishing has always been a big part of our lives; we knew the best place to fish for the kind of seafood we wanted to eat, and that meant that we had to [do it] from the ironshore [with] bare feet. Today, you can go to those places and find that the ironshore isn’t [as] sharp… where we didn’t fish [in our] bare feet, [because our] wompers* wore it down. One evening, me and a couple of my brothers went fishing… and a octopus came and started to suck on my foot. I ran up on the ironshore to get away from it.”
– Rone Ebanks
“As a child, I used to love fishing in John Bodden Bay and picking whelks off the ironshore. Another highlight was hitching rides into town with friends and often getting picked up by dump trucks which we thought was so cool. We used to sell fruit on the side of the road for next to nothing, and I would get in trouble for denting my mother’s roof of her Toyota Corolla [because I’d park it] under guinep, mango and tamarind trees so I could climb up and grab the fruit. So many great memories of grown-ups socialising and people always visiting one another’s homes unannounced.″
– Sean Collins
“A wonderful nurse in my first employment here taught me about green mangoes with vinegar and pepper. Kids in a park in West Bay taught me about guineps.”
– Andreea Sleahtenea
“Running across an open field of grass barefoot and picking out all the burrs from your feet. No problem! Then climbing up the sea grape tree; wrapping the green leaves into a cone; and filling them with ripe sea grapes to eat. Salt Beef Run Down: Such a sweet marriage of simple local meat kind and ‘food’ kind AND beef with pork cooked together with a piece of cassava cake infused therein. The latter is a Brac fave. That’s the first time I’d heard of – and tried – those two meats cooked together, but absolutely delicious! Needless to say, my stomach can no longer tolerate such richness of these two local dishes and I miss them so.”
– Deborah Musson
“Drinking fish tea with the fish head – including the eyes. (I dropped my first cup when the eye popped up, LOL.) Hand-line fishing; eating ‘raw’ conch; making the best fish fry and fritters with authentic, made in West Bay, coconut oil.”
– Juliette Gooding
“I moved to Grand Cayman in 1998, through to just before new years 2000. Worked at Eats Cafe and Hooks at Treasure Island Hotel. Many photos and memories. Loved my experience living in Cayman. [It’s a] life I would love to return to.”
– Kelly Redner
“When I moved there in ‘91, I was so blessed that [people] allowed me into their lives and homes, then showed and shared the real island life with me. I have so many incredible memories and some pretty infamous stories, (probably best left unprinted), but I thank everyone from that period for making it such an awesome time.”
– Ian Major
“To me, the iconic thing was crabbing. Every year, Grandpa Chung would take us out at night to catch crabs, flashlight on, as we cruised the road from Cayman Kai to North Side. Piling them into big bins, we would release the ones that were female and had eggs. Then, we would get [back] to their house and put them in the pen that Grandma Chung had built. There, she would feed them mango, coconut meat, guava and leftover greens. She swore this cleaned them out and made them sweeter to eat. [A few weeks later], we would all come over for a big crab boil. Oh those nights, we would nyam that crab and then swim in the water right by Rum Point to clean off the mess, what heaven. [I remember] being on the water all day long, from spearfishing at Smith Cove and by Eden Rock as kids, to renting tanks and diving every day in our tin can boat around George Town when we were teens.”
– Paul Tyler
“Having moved to Cayman from Bermuda, green mangoes were new to me. I’m not sure if Bermuda has mango trees – it might get a bit cold in winter there for them – but learning the joys of using green mangoes in a salad, or simply slicing one up, dousing it with apple cider vinegar and a bit of salt, pepper and hot sauce… oh YUM!”
– Tara Leslie
“My elders told me about ‘sanding’ the yard to prepare for Christmas. Using a basket to get fresh sand from the beach to freshen up the yard on Cayman Brac.”
– Marcia Meade
“I went to Cayman in 1999, originally for 6 months… ended up staying 8 years! Met hubby in Lone Star doing shots, survived Ivan and many other storms, and still friends with [people] I met there, even though we’re spread around the world. Awesome memories.”
– Lesley Howard
*What are wompers?
In this image, photographed in 1973 somewhere in East End or North Side, a farmer’s feet are shown sporting ‘wompers’. A clever and simple idea, an old car tire was cut to fit the foot size and strong thatch rope was used as straps. If you happen to see anyone wearing this footwear these days, it’s a rare moment.
From the book ‘The People Time Forgot’ by George Nowak, available at the National Museum.
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