YOU COULD IMAGINE it is Christmas already?
Tomorrow is Christmas day and by this same time next week, we gine be looking in tuh a brand new year. I know dat I would have said this before but I have tuh say again because sometimes ya cahn believe how fast the days gine long.
When I was growing up, Christmas used tuh take fuh evah tuh come. Ya just couldn’t wait fuh dat day tuh make haste and come along and ya couldn’t understand how school holidays could come and guh ‘long suh fast and Christmas could stan’ suh long tuh get here. Duh like duh got more than one Christmas nowadays, from the time one gone, before ya catch ya’self good, another one does be there in ya face again.
Look, ya couldn’t wait fuh the day when ya mother or father would take down the ham, hanging from the ceiling, that was confusing ya nose fuh weeks and had the whole place smell up day and night. Ya couldn’t wait tuh hear the sweet Christmas carols pon the radio.
Ya couldn’t wait tuh feel the fresh cool Christmas breezes nor ya couldn’t wait tuh smell the fresh new linoleum or the colourful, plastic table cloth: oil skin, as the old people used tuh call it, when duh unwrap it and spread it down Christmas eve night.
Ya couldn’t wait tuh see dem fresh new curtains hang up at every window and flying in the breeze Christmas morning. Ya couldn’t wait fuh Christmas tuh come, fuh the great cake, the pudding; not what duh does call cake nowadays, the real real heavy pudding dat ya mother used tuh take she time and beat wid she hands and ya couldn’t wait fuh the sorrel and the sweet bread. It was like an eternity waiting fuh these things dat ya only used tuh see at Christmas.
Season of joy
This year all the hype was about the Independence celebrations and I ain’t know if it is only me but Christmas seems suh low-key. The truth is, I miss the lights all around the island and pray dat one day we will get back tuh dat sweet feeling dat Christmas once had.
Despite all dat happen this year, I hope and pray dat this Christmas will bring joy, laughter and happiness tuh the near and the dear ones, the old and the young; black, white, yellow or red…..every one, as we remember what this season is about. So have a very merry Christmas and let’s hope it’s a good one, without any fear.
• Mavis Beckles was born and raised in The Orleans. She has an opinion on everything.
