WHILE CELEBRATING our independence we should endeavour to take stock of what we have accomplished over the period that we have been governing ourselves.

We also should remember that without a past there is no future because we learn lessons from the past. We have strayed quite a lot from the very kind and disciplined people we were when our independence began.

I remember vividly that in 'the good old days' when houses were being purchased, the criteria was the land space and the number of fruit trees on the land. In those days, before supermarkets and refrigerators, all housewives had a back garden and they reared chicken and had their own supply of eggs. Every household had an ice cream bucket and all the children had a chance to help turn the bucket on Sundays.

There were grocery shops, mainly operated by Chinese, and these operators extended credit to their customers. Each customer had a book and it was taken to the grocery shop each time goods were taken for the records to be kept by both the customer and the owner.

The good old days

On Saturdays, the head of the chicken would be lopped off and the chicken was then plunged into boiling water so that the feathers could be plucked. There was no microwave and most households either used a coal pot, a dover stove or a kerosene stove. You could bake on a coal stove by putting the mixture in the stove on some live coals and putting a cover on top and live coals were placed on this cover and out came the most delicious puddings and cakes.

I also remember the pharmacist who really acted as a doctor giving advice to all the people in the area, and most of these pharmacists were called doctors. If these pharmacists could not cope, they would advise that it was essential to go to the doctor. There was a sense of togetherness of all the people living on the road on which one lived and things grown in gardens were shared among all.

Looking back on those days, I have come to the conclusion that maybe we should revisit this period and, in doing this, we really would once again become our brothers' keepers. Just maybe this financial breakdown all over the world is a sign that we really should go back to basics.

I am, etc.,

Barbara Cover

Kingston 6