The front page of the 17 July 1975 edition of The Caymanian Compass carried an eye-catching photo of a Mosquito Research and Control airplane on its back in Governors Harbour. The pilot had to make a “precautionary landing” during inclement weather, but the aircraft ran into a deep puddle and turned over before the pilot, who was not injured, could stop the plane, which had been spraying the swamp in the South Sound area.
The Compass editorial contained two sections of note. First, the newspaper offered a respite from the usual bad news, saying, “It is easy enough to forget we have the highest per capita income in the Caribbean and the standard of living that implies.” It noted that Cayman had some of the “finest beaches and swimming in the world”, with “tip-top” diving, adding that tourists “can walk anywhere in Cayman without being assaulted by anything worse than a mosquito”. After listing other benefits to living in Cayman, readers were urged to “count your blessings. We have problems but others have worse. It’s good to be here.”
The editorial also took the library to task, noting, “Cayman must be one of the very few countries in the world with a public library that is closed to the public most lunch hours. This is clearly absurd.” It implored the library to open at lunchtime and also asked the government to consider the needs of the library when it “goes shopping for overseas aid”, to improve the collection of reading material which “can hardly be termed comprehensive”.
An ad on page 23 heralded the arrival of the Pacer by announcing, “The newest car on the American scene is now in Cayman,” adding that the vehicle had “Everything you’ve wanted in a small car.”
And, finally, the last page of the Compass had a story about four scouts representing Cayman at the World Jamboree in Norway, starting the end of July, which included spending eight days at a campsite in Lillehammer.
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Those were the days when we did have one of the finest beaches in the world, and had very little crime, and no traffic jams. It was a certainly very quiet but enjoyable life apart from the mosquitoes!. Now we lead a more modern life, but with a host of problems.