Bequia in the ‘70s was happy and carefree. Life was simple, the Island was beautiful and I was content. There were no televisions, no computers, no social media, very few telephones, just day-to-day living with no frills attached.
Bequia had its share of eccentric people, locals as well as ex-pats. The expression “we’re all here because we’re not all there” was very applicable! The ex-pats on the Island were a mix – those who owned homes, those who didn’t own homes and those who lived on boats. The one thing they all had in common was a love for Bequia, and a longing for it to remain just as it was, simple and uncomplicated.
Strangers would ask me, “what do you do on the Island? Don’t you get bored?”, and it was hard to make them understand the allure of my new lifestyle. Bored? Never! Teaching at the high school filled my days and pot luck parties seemed to fill my nights!
The pot luck parties were a HOOT. Someone would catch a string of fish or decide to make a curry and the party was on. Everyone was expected to make a dish to carry and in most cases we ended up taking the same thing. We were at the mercy of what was available on the Island, so it wasn’t unusual to see 20 different breadfruit salads or 20 different macaroni salads. A really fancy salad might have tomato diced up in it, or some shredded carrot, but it really didn’t matter what our salads looked like, we were just happy to be a part of it all.
Mac decided to have a party one night, he was going to grill some fish and we all brought the usual offerings to go with it. Unfortunately Mac spread word about the party BEFORE he went fishing and had come back empty-handed. He salvaged the evening by providing a cooler with a spigot, into which he squeezed oranges, limes and grapefruits. As guests arrived they poured their rum into the cooler on top of the citrus fruit and a very potent rum punch was the result. Between the rum and the “pakaloulou” (weed) I doubt anyone even noticed there was no fish, and a good time was had by all.
I for sure noticed there was no fish, I had been looking forward to it!!