THE OTHER DAY I was in a store looking at some very beautiful appliances but couldn’t find the price on the one I loved, or nuhbody to tell me what it cost, as evahbody downsizing nowadays.
So finally when I got somebody’s attention, I asked dem jokingly, since it didn’t have a price on it, if I could assume dat it was free as they had a sale going on.
Well, the person just brek down laughing at me. He thought I was quite funny and allowed me tuh know dat nothing in life is free.
Well, ya know me, I couldn’t let dat one slip. I had tuh let him know dat it wasn’t true, dat the best things in life are still free. He turned and ask me, ‘What ya does get free nowadays?’ With dat I draw in a long breath o’ clean, fresh air and then tell him tuh look around and see how beautiful outside was wid the flamboyant trees now fully in bloom all over the place. Dat ain’t free? Ya ain’t gotta pay nothing fuh dat.
Ya know, a lot o’ we in Barbados doan realize how very blessed we are, hear? A lot o’ people ’bout here believe dat evahthing is money and money is evahthing. Some people does even go suh far as to think dat the key tuh happiness is money.
Dat is so sad when ya start tuh think like dat ’cause ya does stop doing the very things dat come naturally; and one o’ the things ya does stop doing is laughing, and dah ain’t cost ya nutten – it free.
Look, despite all the lot o’ the talk ’bout hard economic times, the downturn in the economy, the utility bills dat only seem tuh be climbing evah single month and the high supermarket prices, ya could still laugh.
We still got the beautiful breezes and relaxing beaches dat we could go and sit down by, something dat people from all ovah the world would and does pay through duh nose-holes tuh come and enjoy – we got it free.
I gine tell ya: wid all the talk, we still got a whole lot o’ nice friendly people in Barbados. How many places you know in this world where you could be standing up in a long line fuh any length o’ time and find ya’self getting into deep conversation wid total strangers, sharing your life story and listening tuh theirs? Sometimes, despite the frustrations, ya find ya’self laughing at ya very self and in two-twos the problems dat only a few minutes ago had you feeling like you had the whole world pon your shoulders, because of the sharing and interacting wid people in the same boat as you, you leave dat place with a smile on your face and a spring in your step; not only because you now feel better but by sharing, made another person or persons, total strangers happy.
People does talk ’bout heights and terraces, a few places in Barbados where ya doan know ya neighbours, the people who would toot duh horns when ya see dem passing by pon a morning or evening when duh coming from or going tuh work; but dat ain’t commonplace.
We still got villages, we still know we neighbours, who we does still share things like a breadfruit, soursop or a few limes ya might get off ya tree in the back yard wid. Up tuh yesterday my neighbour give me four lovely limes, some o’ the ones she got from her friend and she shared dem wid me.
The day in front, a friend o’ mine who got a breadfruit tree and who also got a neighbour wid a big breadfruit tree had a bag full o’ breadfruits and tell me tuh take what I want: I took a lovely big one fuh myself and another one fuh my next door neighbour.
She tell me dat when she cahn find nuhbody tuh give the breadfruits tuh, she does put dem in a big tray by her guard wall so dat whoevah pass the road and want one could take it. Ya doan pay nutten duh dat – duh free.
Look, we ain’t got the lot o’ bombings, hijacking, carjacking, child abducting and kidnappings ya does hear ’bout in other countries, bout here. Evahday I does watch li’l children coming from or going tuh school wid duh haversacks on pon duh backs, and not a soul doan bother dem, furthermore, people does be stopping tuh help dem cross the road or help dem on pon the bus.
How often you does hear bout a child who get lick down or carry way? Dem does be gine ’long free as a lark.
Morning and evening ya does see all kinds o’ people jogging or walking pon the roads, pon the beaches, ’round the Garrison, the Gymnasium, the Stadium, up there by the UWI, all ’bout the place and it doan cost dem a penny, it free!
And doan talk ’bout Sundays and bank holidays at all. Ya does cahn get a space pon the beaches up under the trees fuh the families and friends wid the pots o’ peas and rice, pans o’ macaroni pie and chicken and the big coolers wid drinks.
Ya ain’t got tuh pay fuh everything. Despite how hard duh say things are, people still living and enjoying the things that are free.
• Mavis Beckles was born and raised in The Orleans. She has an opinion on everything.