The main news item in the 29 March 1973 issue of the Cayman Compass, ‘NBC-TV Documents Cayman’, was about how “As many as 25 million people could be viewing the Cayman Islands on television”. News producer David Schmerler, along with a camera team, was in Cayman for a week, and had shot about 15,000 feet of film. Noting that most people talk about “these Islands as the ones time forgot”, Schmerler said, “We are trying to portray it as ‘The Islands time forgot and then remembered’.”
David Foster, profiled under ‘Businessmen in the News’, was described “a man on the go”. The general manager of Jacques Scott & Company, the then 30-year-old Foster was also involved with Foster Brothers Limited. During his spare time, he said, “I like to go swimming and fishing. I also really enjoy playing darts.” As for family, the story noted that David and his wife Chi Chi “were the proud parents of two boys, John Michael who is five and Woody who is three-and-a-half”.
The photo story, ‘Tickets Being Sold’, showed Dr. R. E. McTaggart, president of the first annual Cayman Festival of the Arts, discussing ticket sales with volunteer Debbie Calder at the booth specially set up on Albert Panton Street.
Also, in the paper was an article that must look like science fiction through the lens of 2023 readers: ‘Prices Continue to Rise’. The story pointed to costs going up on several different items. As an example, cheaper tins of cat and dog food selling “between 12 and 15 cents a few weeks ago are now priced between 16 and 18 cents each depending on the shopkeeper’s whim”. And a tin of pineapple chunks bought in the UK by a returning visitor “for 5½p – about 11 cents in Cayman currency” was selling in a George Town supermarket for 37 cents.
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