Found at: http://www.anguillaguide.com/article/articleprint/3113/-1/133/
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Decembers I Remember by Colville Petty
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We are now in December, the last month of the year. The thought came to me that I should write something about December. After further consideration I decided to write about Decembers I remember.
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Colville Petty
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I remember 5th December 1952 when children (10 years and over) from the island’s five primary schools traveled to The Valley to write the first examinations for entry into to The Valley Secondary School (VSS) which opened its doors on 25th September 1953. I rode there on my bicycle. I believe it was my first time in The Valley, thus my reason for being as frightened as a mouse. I would never forget the wooden ruler I took into the examination room. It was inscribed: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” I remember those words but I did not remember what to write on the examination papers so I failed.
I eventually reached the VSS some years later and cannot forget a day in December when I was on stage singing a calypso at an end-of-year school programme. I was singing the late Lord Melody’s Crazy Love, accompanied by my friend Rhona Richardson on the piano. I sang way faster than the piano and Clive Carty and the other boys went to the ground with laughter. Clive still reminds me of that occasion.
I remember 16th December 1968 when Mrs Livina Carty, of South Valley, gave birth to three boys all of whom died within two days. That was the first known case in Anguilla of a woman giving birth to triplets. I also remember 17th December 1976 when George Anderson Gumbs (Brother Judge), the well-respected Anguillian prophet, passed away at the age of 78.
There was further tragedy eleven days later (on 28th December 1976) when a Valley Air Service Piper Aztec aircraft, piloted by Lungsford Richardson, disappeared on a flight from Anguilla to St. Thomas. Lungsford and his four passengers perished. That was the first fatal plane crash in Anguilla’s aviation history and the whole island went in mourning. Back then Anguilla was a close-knit community so that what “hurt nose make eye run.”
Anguillians were in mourning again on 24th December 1977. Another Valley Air Service aircraft, piloted by Clayton Lloyd (the airline’s owner), caught fire and crashed in the sea west of St. Maarten Juliana Airport. All seven persons on board lost their lives. There was not one dry eye in Anguilla and Christmas was all but cancelled. So too were the Boxing Day activities.
December 1999 is being remembered for several sudden deaths. On the 12th, 14 year-old Leandre Vanterpool was burnt to death when her mother’s house at Welches caught fire. Then on the 21st Christopher Webster was found dead having hung himself from the roof of his house at Island Harbour. On the 26th, Calvin Davis was killed in a hit-and-run motorcar accident on the Farrington road.
Decembers in Anguilla have not been always sad. I remember that people all across the island rejoiced on 14th December 1958 when Joseph Hennis became the first Anguillian to be ordained to the Anglican priesthood. By the way, December seemed to be a favourite month for the ordination of Anguillians to the Anglican priesthood: Bishop Errol Brooks on 2nd December 1975, the late Rev Raphael Lake on 13th December 1977 and Rev Richard Fahie on 14th December 1980.
As an aside, December even seems a favourite month for J. W. Proctors and Sons in The Quarter. They had opened a new supermarket on 11th December 1987. And Tuesday13th December 2005 they opened a massive new complex which will definitely revolutionise the way supermarkets do business in Anguilla.
Having drifted into business activity, I remember that it was around December when some of the foundation pillars of our economy were laid: the Development Board Act, 1974, came into force on 28th December 1974 and now we are reaping the benefits of the Board’s contribution to our development. Its small business programme is working wonders. Ten years later, on 21st December 1984, the National Bank of Anguilla Ltd. (NBA) was formed for the purpose of buying the assets of the local branch of Bank of America. Today, NBA is Anguilla’s leading financial institution which is making a significant contribution to the island’s growth socially and economically. It was on 8th December 1986 that our House of Assembly passed the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank Agreement Ordinance, 1986. As a result Anguilla became a member of the ECCB and is now in a position to influence the sub-region’s monetary policy which has consequences for the health of our economy.
I also remember December, particularly the Christmas season, for the uniqueness of Anguilla’s politics. The season was used for mending political fences – for the healing of political wounds. For example, in attempting to explain how he and Ronald Webster had come to settle their political differences, Jeremiah Gumbs (Jerry) disclosed, at a public meeting at the Webster Park, the contents of a card which he said Webster sent him for Christmas 1978. The card read in part: “I have sinned against you in thought, word and deed, and am no longer worthy to be called thy friend. . . . I am asking you please to allow me to have my faults corrected. . . . Let us forget the past and press on in harmony from here onwards.”
Perhaps Webster was mindful of the words of the Christmas hymn, Hark the herald angels sing, which says:
Peace on earth, and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled.
But he definitely had his timing right because there is no better time to ask forgiveness than at Christmas. Jerry forgave him. The card had the desired effect. It had facilitated the creation of the Anguilla United Movement which formed the government, led by Webster, after the general elections in 1980.
It was in December 1980, the nineteenth day to be precise, that Anguilla was formally separated from the Associated State of St Kitts, Nevis and Anguilla. 19th December 1980 is a landmark in the history of the Anguillian people. It was an event which gave us some degree of autonomy which enabled us to become involved in the charting of our own destiny.
After that we began holding elections like mad. In addition to general elections in 1980 we had general elections in 1981 and 1984 – three general elections in a span of three years. And we had a by-election on 6th December 1985. It was held to fill the Valley South seat which became vacant following the sad passing of Albena Lake-Hodge on 22nd October 1985. The seat was won by Victor Banks (ADP) who defeated Alan Gumbs (Proper Government for Anguilla) and David Carty (ANA).
Like December 1985, the political temperature in Anguilla in December 1995 was high. Actually, it reached boiling point on the 18th when the Speaker of the House of Assembly, Leroy Rogers (Roy), refused to allow David Carty to take the oath of office as Second Nominated Member – to take his seat in the House – and then had him expelled. Thereupon Osbourne Fleming, the Leader of the Opposition (ANA), rose on a point of order and refused to sit down as instructed by the Speaker. The Speaker ordered him to leave the House. He refused and the Speaker directed the Sergeant at Arms to take him out. A brief struggle ensued between Osbourne and the Sergeant at Arms. Then the other Opposition members, Kenneth Harrigan and Eric Reid, joined the fray and held Osbourne to his seat. Eventually, they gave up the struggle and Osbourne was escorted out of the House. He was badly shaken.
I was always of the view that the treatment meted out to Osbourne was unwarranted. Hubert Hughes had long regarded him as “a piece of human trash” (1986) but he has since fallen in love with him. He told the House of Assembly on16th December 2002: “I love the Chief Minister (Fleming) and I think he loves me too.” But he seemed to have loved the late Alan Hoole, a former Governor, more. In his own words (2001): “I keep his (Alan’s) picture almost under my pillow. Everyday I look at it because to me he is like a lover of mine. The man was an angel.”
That aside, Osbourne’s expulsion was a most ugly scene which had no place in our politics. And the nasty side of our politics has no place in our Christmas. Truthfully, the Decembers that I really enjoy remembering are those of yesteryear when December meant Christmas – meant sharing, caring and merriment. I remember the nights, leading up to Christmas Day, when people went from house to house serenading or caroling and of others being awakened by the melodious singing and the playing of real sweet string band music. I remember their opening song:
Good night ladies and gents
We come for the compliments,
We coulda been here before
But we had somewhere else to go.
Christmas Day was a real thriller. A thriller in Anguilla, with the masqueraders and the moko jumbies going from village to village – house to house – spreading the season’s joys through their comedy, and through their many dances to the beat of the string band. There was strong community spirit, and show of love, as evidenced by people going from house to house visiting relatives, friends and neighbours. They feasted on various types of meats and green pigeon peas with rice, as well as on pound cake, coconut tart and potato pudding. They also partook of local drinks such as sorrel and guava-berry. The song Drink yer rum and yer guava-berry is still with us.
It is sad that those aspects of our culture are no more. That is why the Christmas festivities which the Valley Community Group has been organising in recent years are so important and deserving of our support and loud commendation. The Group’s Christmas festival is an important aspect of our cultural revival – of the revival of a culture which made us unique and special. Its revival is critical to the sustenance of our identity as an Anguillian people.
Incidentally, this revival was the aim of the Christarama Festival, in East End, which was started in December 1985 by the Young Adults of the St. Augustine’s Church. Christarama lasted for a few years until it fell by the wayside. It is the hope of many Anguillians that the annual festival being organised by the Valley Community does not suffer similar fate but instead grow from strength to strength.
This year’s festival is expected to be a real cultural feast and I look forward to partaking of it. This is the kind of feast that Anguilla needs if we are to hold on to the better aspects of our past which could instill pride in present and future generations. If efforts towards our cultural revival bear fruits, I will always remember the Decembers when the Valley Community Group was in the vanguard of the revival movement.
Also in the vanguard is the St Augustine’s Chorale with its annual Christmas cantata which I once described as a musical and spiritual earthquake. Under the directorship of the energetic Lennox Vanterpool, the cantatas are always robust exhibitions of rich singing and music – thrilling, sensational, rousing and electrifying. The next cantata is on Christmas Day. I will not miss it. It is an event when the spirit of Christmas fills the hearts of those who witness it – who hear it – with joy. Surely, the joy which Christmas brings, in its many forms, is a major reason why I remember many Decembers.