Childhood Memories!

Memories!

At my age certain memories still cause me to smile, and some of my memories also include my dad, who In my mind was a bit of a character himself.

Today I had one such memory that I thought I might share it.

When I was a boy we moved from San Fernando to New Grant in the country to facilitate my dad who worked in the oil fields on a crew of men also referred to as “roughnecks “.
At Christmas it was common for these workers to visit each other’s homes, having fun celebrating the holidays, eating, drinking and talking.
Especially talking !
These drinkers would get especially loquacious.

The whole “Christmas moppers “ thing.
( Trinidadians would know what I mean, if you don’t check out the video as the Mighty Sparrow explains).

I don’t know if many of our younger people are aware, but in the 1950s quite a few people, especially of the East Indian community in rural areas resided in homes with thatched roofs.
These houses, constructed with palm (carat) leaves and also called “ajoupas” by the Indians, were erected in a way that made them pretty effective in the inclement tropical weather conditions.

Anyway, after a visit by the usual Christmas “moppers” – my dad’s coworkers, he couldn’t wait to share his humor with us.
Looking back I must say it was a sort of gallows humor , but at the time we thought it very funny when he quoted one of his coworkers , whose son was a friend and schoolmate saying,
-and this is the exact quote that struck with me all these years:
He said “As you know, the portals of my house is carat”(palm leaves ) “and I’ve caught two mapapi snakes in it already “.

Given the context and my father’s sense of humor , as we found that to be very funny .
But it was indeed gallows humor.

The mapapi or mapepire balsain is a venomous pit viper also known as the fer-de-lance and is the deadliest snake found in Trinidad!