"THE LITTLE BOY IN THE "BIG-YARD".

2.

“THE LITTLE BOY THAT WAS EXPOSED TO LIFE IN THE ‘BIG-YARD’ LIVING WITH HIS GRANDMOTHER WHO WAS THE PROPRIETOR.”
L E FRANKLIN B F A Hon's.

“Looking from above through any window in our house
I saw into the lives of the tenants. As young, as I was
I saw the differences between our family and theirs.
The differences between those that had and those that had not.
It have remained with me and I am thankful to my loving parents.
Because of them, we the children are who we are.” L. Franklin B F A Hon's.

Granny became a soft and giving capitalist, who was sympathetic
towards the tenants that rented rooms or houses from her.
In my mind, she was not equipped with the necessary tools,
motivations and insights to deal with the business system because
of lack of training in the education system. That made her incapable
in the position that she held. Even today the education system does
not train some Caribbean people how to develop that determination
('gorilla mentality') needed to make it in the business world.
(Note: I loved her daily when she was alive. I am not putting her down because of her weak knowledge in the area of business; I attempting to show those women and most men during her time was not exposed to business ideas. It was not within the structure of thought during the Colonial era.)

Within a short time after the death of my Grandfather, we moved to the City of Georgetown but it did not happen until the tenants had moved from the house that my grandmother owned. At this time, the maid moved with us, this was a change in the family structure and again I was the only child for some time growing-up with two women in a home. This new situation was another cultural shock for me, living with adult women who had total control over my life.

Changes and fighting to adjust was the name of the game for me. Two to three years after my young sister came to live with us and it took some time for us to be close. There were many misunderstandings between us due to my separation from her at an early age and the different environment we grew up in. In some ways she was like a stranger to me, I never saw her much but knew she was my loving sister. Before we could have solved our problems and become a loving sister and brother, our two cousins (children of my Mother's brother) from the United States of America came to live with us. I did not spend much time with them because I was returned to live with my Mother, father and brother’s in the country.

Georgetown was full of bright lights, busy city streets and unfriendly people. People in the big city couldn’t be trusted as the people in the village we came from. The village was like a big family where people spoke to each other daily and also lived in a close and friendly environment. In the city, every body was in a hurry, did not know each other and was employed with the Government or other white owned business. Most of the people in the village were self employed and also owned their homes. On the other hand the city was divided into, people who travelled into the city either for work or school and those who relocated.

My Grandmother's house in the city was not as large as the three story building in B.V. It had two bedrooms, dining room, kitchen, drawing room, gallery, toilet and bathroom. Before I left the city, my Grandmother's bedroom had a new addition; the area was extended making it possible for a boy’s bedroom. There was more storage for our clothes, two beds and a bedroom sink. Now thinking about it, this happened before my cousins came from the U.S.A. There was no wall that separated our room from Granny's, guess it was for her to keep an eye on us. Our new home in the city was now equipped with electric lights that had switches at hand reach, fridge (no more iceboxes), radio and a phone that came later.

THE AREA AROUND LOT 42, ROBB & WELLINGTON STREETS, GEORGETOWN,
A cinema was across the street on the south side of the house; and further South from the cinema was Miss Chan bakery, a Chinese cook-shop, Ishmael Pawnshop that later became a clothing store which was to the corner of Wellington and another main street, Regent. At the corner of Regent and Wellington streets on the South /East was a large department store 'Kawalls' owned by Indian name that had one son Bobby. Walking backwards to Wellington and Robb Sts from Kawalls on the East was Lee's Photo Studio, A small house where P.P.P party started, Shaw's Printer, Cobin's Bicycle Shop and at the corner was the Delicatessen shop.

On the North side there did a large Portuguese family home own another large; it became a hotel years later. Further North was a lodge, drugs-store owned by an Indian name Beeharie, North Road and two more cinemas. At the corner of North road and Wellington Street at the North/ east, had Dutch brothers that own a De-Rick’s lemonade factory. They bottled their drink in earthenware bottles that had a round marble cover at the top. The marbles were put in place by gas and when bought a short wooden stick about 4 or 5 ins long was used to push the marble from the top. Another thing about the lemonade factory it always had bees 'flying-around'. Walking back wards South on the East side of Wellington St. to Robb St. there were two homes, a big yard and a Chinese shop across from our home at the North/ East corner.

Directly across the street from the house to the North /East was the Chinese grocery-shop on the street level. He owned the shop, lived above and owned the building that changed hands several times. He and his family kept to themselves.
Across from the Chinese shop at the South/ East corner was a large Delicatessen that sold any type of food you wanted to eat. East along Robb Street away from the restaurant had two big houses on a piece of land that was also owned by my family.

We lived in the upper section of the one flat house and the lower section was made in rooms that were rented. The two front sections towards the main street were occupied by businesspersons and the back rooms were living quarters. The front of the building had a shed or shelter that was built below the windows and was at a 45-degree angle over the sidewalk. The front stairs were enclosed with a framework of crossed wooden strips (lattice) and a fence. The house, the fence and the lattice was painted white in colour. It was built at the corner of two busy streets and centre of the downtown core.
The lower section on the corner of Robb and Wellington was rented to a family that ran a 'cake-shop' (concession). The tenant’s name was Mr. Roberson and he had living quarters in the back of the store where he, his woman/wife and children lived. The other section on Wellington St. was rented to four or five Tailors, Mr. Brown, Rufus, Mr. Blackman and Mr. Vigilance. Behind the Tailor Shop lived a couple that also rented a room, Mr. Smith and Miss. Maria (they lived common-law).

On the same parcel of land, there was another building owned by my Grandmother but her Uncle had 'life interest' in it. He lived in the upper section because his sister knew what her brother was like and made sure he had a house to live in and not on the streets. His sister left the house to him when she died and he did not ‘up-keep’ the building. Her aunt left four properties for her niece my Grandmother. Granny had control of the houses and did all the repairs for sometime. The lower sections, was rented to two or three families that paid rent to my Grandmother weekly.

My grandmother had owned two other properties on Robb Street. It was about five minutes away and in total view from our front window. The upper sections of the houses; were each rented to single families. Two tenants rented the lower front house sections of the front house; one section rented to Florence and after she died the maid took it over. A cycle-repair person took the other lower half. The lower section of the back house was rented as stables to different tenants. They also paid by weekly. Other people who where always around our house were Florence, Aunts, the boxer, Uncles, friends of Granny, friends of the maid and the people in the ‘Big Yard’ that will follow.

Lot 42, Robb and Wellington streets Lacytown was like a beehive day and night and
I was the little boy living with my grandmother in the city, in a big house, in a big yard. In the ‘Big-Yard’ and opposite my grandmother’s house was the other property. Below were two rooms side by side, facing our house and two at the back. The rooms had common walls, so there was no tenant was private. The tenants heard and knew each other business. For example, every one knew that the goldsmith’s sons were involved in ‘choke & rob’ night and day. They would rob people of their gold jewelry and return to the ‘Big-Yard’ running and as they entered, they would shout, “Melt-it.” Their father always had a fire and melting pot prepared.

Between the two houses was a common pathway about twenty feet and a pipe/tap for water at the north end of the yard. The yard-pipe was the usual meeting place for water and gossip. Those who had enemies in the ‘Big-Yard’, always discussed the events of the night before that they heard. If by chance you were a new tenant, you could learn about the neighbours by sitting by the pipe. You will ‘find-out’ who could be trusted and who could not in the yard. The tenants shared not only the tap in the yard but the bath and toilet. Meeting at the tap tenants can also erupt into disagreements with each other.

One morning a female tenant saw another tenant’s daughter washing a flask and ‘broke-it’ by accident. Instead of letting it go unnoticed, the adult said to the girl,

“I gon tell yo mother dat yo ‘break-it’.”

The girl replied,
“Yo ‘going-on’ as if yo never break anything fo yo mother. I don’t know why yo don’t mine yo business.”

The woman refused to leave it and said,
“I never break anything fo my mother.”

The girl replied,
“Yo break yo mother Skunt—when yo ‘come-out’.

The adult woman then told the girl,
“I got a ‘good-mind’ fo come an give yo a slap, yo too rude an can’t even wash yo fronts good.”

The girl replied,
“Yo know dat I can’t wash me fronts good but yo can’t keep no husband because yo puss got teeth.”

The woman got so 'up-set' at the answer and rushed to slap the girl but was stopped by Miss Maria. Miss Maria told the woman,

“Yo had no right fo follow-up de young girl, yo look fo dat. Yo should ave close yo eyes an go yo way. Adults got no business in young girls story these days, let she mother deal wid it when she find-out.”

The girl’s mother said,
“De old ‘beat-up’ oman dat got so much mileage pun she, had no-right fo follow-up me daughter. She can tek dat fo she fastness.”

To show what my exposure was from the position of living in a big house and looking out the window below, another incident in the ‘Big-Yard’ that needs mention. Mr. Mohammed’s son had a fight with another boy. The boy was beaten and his mother came to complain to Mr. Mohammed. After she was finished, Mr. Mohammed said,

“Me hear dat yo don’t give people satisfaction when yo son beat-up other people children, so get yo ass out de yard.”

The woman left the yard saying,
“No wonder yo wife tell people dat yo ‘nick-name’ is “Wuk at it.” Yo can’t satisfy she in bed, yo always drunk.”

Mr. Mohammed replied,
“Go on, yo ass so big dat if I sit pun it, yo can carry me fo a long ride.”

The woman,
“Dis ass is mine, it not artificial an yo can’t manage it, no matter how ard yo try. It gon kill yo.”
The incident left Mr. Mohammed forgetting the woman and fighting with his wife after the woman left the ‘Big-Yard.’

We had a cook that worked and lived with us in the same house for sometime. When she finished working in the afternoon, she would always go out. My grandmother would always ask her,
“Why is it that after work you leave and always return late at nighttime?”

She would never give an answer and my grandmother told her,
“One night, something is going to scare her as she reentered the yard in the early morning”.

The cook asked me grandmother,
“Mistress, a wha yo a say?”

She would also say to my grandmother,
“Me na friken nothing, mistress.”

However, one night she took a good friend to the airport to take ‘de iron bird fo Narth America’ and she came back about 2 am in the morning. As she was walking in the yard, she saw a police officer. She did not know him but stop to make ‘dutty-talk’ with him for a few minute.

When she was finish talking and left the police as she passing the toilet in the yard, she heard the toilet flush. In stead, going her way, ‘fastness-made’ her stop to see who was coming out of the toilet. To her surprise, she said that the toilet door opened and a big white dog ‘came-out’ of the toilet.

The maid start to scream at the top of her voice,
“O lard gad.” She started running from the toilet in the yard, up our ‘back-step’. As she ‘ran-up’ the steps, she ‘called-out’ to my grandmother,

“Mistress open de door fo me.”

The police heard the loud noise and ‘run-back’ into the yard to see what was happening. He ‘come-in’ the yard breathing out of breath and panting for air and he asked,

“Wha appen oman?”

She told him that a big white dog ‘come-out’ of the toilet and it was standing by his foot. The police ‘look-down’ at his feet and did not see the white dog. The police told her that he did not see any dog and he did not believe her. At the same time my grandmother open the door for she and everybody in the ‘Big Yard’ 'came-out' to see what was happening. The loud noise that she made in the yard woke all the people. No one in the yard saw the big white dog or believed her story about the big white dog. The next day we hear that the cook’s grandmother dead.

The people in the yard believed, it was the maid’s grandmother that died (around the same time of the incident), frighten her. They also said that the cook liked to walk ‘too- late’ at nights but that did not stop her. She still walks late on the road, until ‘day –clean’.
“LIL BOY NAH CLIMB LADDER FO TURN BIG MAN.”
Leyton Franklin B F A Hon's. November 2005. ©