A Frenchman come to the restaurant one morning with his wife and small child. They ordered coffee, juice and baked goods and enjoyed a hearty breakfast. When it came time to pay they apologetically explained that they had not been to the bank, and would return with the money. This was not an unusual occurrence, there were no ATMs back then and credit cards were not common. I told them it was not a problem, to come and pay once they had been to the bank.
The family returned for an early dinner. The man explained that they lived on a boat and had not had a chance to get to the bank. They would pay me tomorrow if that was all right. They didn’t look like they had money to spare but looked honest enough, so once again I agreed.
The following day they arrived bright and early for breakfast carrying a box, which the man offered in exchange for food. Mac and I looked doubtfully at the machine inside the box, neither of us had ever seen or heard of a VCR but we agreed to the exchange, it looked like it was going to be that or nothing! The family happily ate a few more meals before sailing away, and we became the proud owners of Bequia’s first VCR.
We had an old black and white T.V. but it was never used because there was never anything to watch. The VCR was useless to us because there were no video tapes on the Island, the only movies were played at the funky local cinema on Saturdays. A sad state of affairs, but that’s the way it was on Bequia in 1980!
Our friend Melinda discovered that videos could be rented at the sports store over on the mainland, and arrived at our house one evening bearing a Bogart movie. The only videos the store rented were old Bogart movies, and they were watched over and over in our living room. I would come home from work late at night and find the same people watching the same movies. The living room was also our bedroom, so I would set my clock and crawl into bed without them even noticing I was there!
Word went out that Mac had a VCR and soon people started arriving on the Island bearing videos. It wasn’t long before we had an impressive selection, and our house became quite the gathering spot. Friends would arrive bearing food to be shared and would settle in for the evening to watch movies. I would go to sleep after work surrounded by people, and often they would still be there when I crept down to work at 3:45 A.M.
Mac and our friends had become movie addicts, and I found myself wishing that the Frenchman and his family had never dropped anchor in Admiralty Bay.