IT’S THE MONTH of November and the lights are on all over Bridgetown – in the Parliament Buildings, in Independence Square, on the Treasury Building, along the wharf, on the old NIS building, on Government Headquarters and so on.
Independence lights are also on, as usual, at the various roundabouts along the ABC Highway and other places, including Black Rock at the bottom of University Drive. I see that almost every night because I usually finish work (yes, I do still work) after the sun goes down, and my office is located on the Spring Garden Highway, while I live in St James.
I got to see the lights at some of the other roundabouts one night last week when the hose that takes water to make ice in the refrigerator sprang a leak and I drove to Sheraton Mall in search of a replacement. My first lights were those on that ugly, dangerous and threat-to-life roundabout at the Warrens junction.
Unfortunately, having to be on my full Ps and Qs in order to avoid hitting another motorist or having one hit me while navigating around that monstrosity blinded me from really seeing its lighting display.
I am not ashamed to say that although I know the names of the roundabouts, I am never very sure about which is which, except for the Emancipation and the Sir Garfield Sobers. So, as I drove from the Warrens to the next one not too far away, which motorists might soon start “massying” up, I realised that despite the lights, the highway looked unusually dark.
Was my windshield in need of cleaning? No. Water with several swishes of the wiper blades didn’t change how I was seeing. Did my glasses need cleaning? No. That was not the case either and caused me a little panic about if I was losing my eyesight.
I, however, was soon able to breathe a sigh of relief after passing that roundabout and heading along that long stretch towards the next one at the top of Waterford Bottom. As I did so, I saw that the reason for the darkness had nothing to do with my eyes but with that the fact that almost every other streetlight was missing.
If one wasn’t missing on this side, one was missing on the other side, and in many cases both were missing on the same pole.
To my surprise, this condition remained unchanged after I passed Waterford Bottom to head along the next stretch to the next roundabout and all the way along to the Sir Garfield Sobers Roundabout.
I saw so many street lights missing that on my return trip home from the mall I decided to drive as slowly in the left lane as traffic would allow and try to count how many were not burning.
Believe it or not, the number I counted was 103, give or take one or two.
I subsequently discovered the same situation between Sir Garfield Sobers and the so-called “Banks” roundabout, with none burning at all from there until the Top Rock came into view.
I hope this is not a warning of things to come with a possible return to the 1973 energy crisis situation when lights as well as electricity were turned off across Barbados on alternative nights, half tonight and the other half tomorrow night.
Oh what a night that would be.