Once in a while, I have a tendency to wax nostalgic about my days growing up in Cayman.
I wasn’t born here, but was only 5 years old when my parents brought our family to the Caribbean in August 1975. My siblings and I had a pretty idyllic childhood on the island. There was no TV, no iPads or iPhones… Internet and WiFi were nonexistent terms. We just spent most of our days playing on the beach and swimming in the sea, or climbing almond trees. That was back when I had energy… and flexible knees.
With all the development we now see around us, it’s sometimes easy to forget what the landscape looked like; what the atmosphere was like at local hangouts. Then, I saw the video of Swanky Kitchen Band playing on National Heroes Day for the Cardinall Avenue festivities, and it came back to me in a flood. Seeing people dance to the unique sounds of quadrille tunes reminded me of Radley Gourzong and the Happy Boys, who could get anyone up on their feet. The sound of the fiddle, the rhythm of the drum… they were like the Pied Piper – no one could resist the call of the music.
Bars and clubs were fairly few and far between back in the ‘70s and ‘80s, and those that were in existence offered a steady stream of live entertainment and everyone flocked to them. Galleon Beach Hotel, the legendary Holiday Inn… the dance floor would be packed in front of Barefoot Man and his band. Tourists and locals, young and old, would share the space and have a ball together. There were beach bars all along Seven Mile. You could just walk along, and when you started flagging, pop into the likes of Beach Club Colony for a cold one.
There weren’t just musicians performing on Cayman’s stages; it was also the time when a group of theatre enthusiasts got together to form the Cayman Drama Society – a fledgling company that started out with productions performed in the Town Hall (now the Peace Memorial Hall) and now, over 50 years later, operates in the Prospect Playhouse. My parents, who had met in the theatre in the UK, both (particularly my mother) happily trod the boards in the hall. I remember going to see Mum in ‘South Pacific’ when she had to wash her hair on stage (‘I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair’) then get it dry backstage before the next scene. Magic!
I was talking with Geoff Cresswell this week. A driving force behind the development of early local drama programmes in the schools, the Inn Theatre in the Royal Palms Hotel, and the Harquail Theatre, Geoff flew to Cayman this week to accept his well-deserved Heroes Day award for contributions to the arts. We were reminiscing about the heady days of musicals and plays, and how much people appreciated going out to watch talented actors and singers embrace the spotlight. I was pretty young, but I can still recall his productions of ‘Oliver!’ and ‘Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’ at the Cayman Islands High School, not to mention the Inn Theatre and subsequent Harquail shows featuring storied names like Frank McField, Wendy Daykin, Lana Cayasso, Betty Baraud, Charles Glidden, Daphne Orrett and Leroy Holness (who still performs with as much gusto as he did 40 year ago – the man does not age!).
In fact, ‘Oliver!’ – in 1978 – was the first result of the new drama curriculum introduced to the high school by educator Colin Ross. Teachers and students alike were in the cast, including Jacqueline Anderson, Derek Tyler, Sherrylyn Panton, Darren Daykin, Sarah Berry, William Conolly and Michael McLaughlin. The production showed what could be possible if teaching drama – and the nurturing of young talent – was really given a chance to grow in Cayman. For those of us who couldn’t wait to get on stage, it was a dream come true.
The great thing about those times was the sense of community when you went out for an evening. Apart from church, the cinema and the beach, this was the way you got to catch up with friends. At the age of 17, I was hanging out with all of my mates at the Holiday Inn at night. We’d dance to Barefoot and watch – I think it was – Harry(?) performing limbo to an appreciative crowd. You couldn’t text or WhatsApp, so you had each other’s complete attention.
My parents would go out for dinner – maybe somewhere swish like Grand Old House or the Lobster Pot – and the odds were high that they’d know everyone in the establishment that night, offering the perfect impromptu social.
It’s hard for me to explain exactly what it was like 50 years ago in Cayman, if you weren’t there, but watching that Heroes Day celebration on Cardinall Avenue really gave me a taste of the good old days. People dancing where they were standing; hands raised in the air out of pure joy; and smiles on everyone’s faces. Let’s do it again real soon.
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