Each time I pass through the Eagle Hall junction, I marvel at how the changes on every side of the streets there in the last two decades have all but obliterated what existed whenI grew up in the area 40 years ago.
On the Bank Hall side there is no longer the Roxy Cinema, where I spent several hours watching kung fu movies. Instead there is the Roxy Supermarket. The Texaco gas station is still next door, but gone is the ice cream parlour, where one could buy soft-cream cones and popsicles. On the opposite side f the road, the old Eagle Hall Market that used to house vendors all week was torn down and a visionary structure put there. The fact that few use this building even though several years have passed since its erection speaks volumes about what people really think of it.
Opposite the market is Mapp’s shop. In the old days it was a general grocery store and rum shop, but since Mapp’s death a young relative has made it the hip place to lime and get the best rotisserie chicken in Barbados. Next to Mapp’s was Searles’ gas station. It was owned by a diminutive “Bajan White”, who used to say plainly how much he loved money and seemed to work seven days a week. He died and the station closed.
On the same side as Mapp’s, in the direction of Black Rock, what used to be Grannum’s shop is now gone, though his son has erected a zinc-sheeting cook shop on the same spot. Just after that was Browne’s Pharmacy, where Audley Browne plied his trade for decades. He died, and some time later his pharmacy closed.
On the opposite side of the road across the paved Gills Gap – once a rocky, pot-holed pathway – stands a new blue building with parking beneath for its tenants. That building takes the place of what was once a home, Arthur’s supermarket, BudgBuy Minimart and the former Gill Memorial Church.
Opposite Gills Gap, the old Downes Funeral Home is now Downes and Wilson Funeral Home and its car park spans a couple of old properties. Just beyond that the tailor’s shop that replaced an upholstery shop is no more.
On the same side, just before the lights, was the two-storey building owned by the Smith sisters. That too disappeared without a trace after their demise.What I find phenomenal is that all of these changes took place in just a small area and in no more than 20 years. Yet the people I speak of, Messrs Searles, Browne, Grannum and the Smiths, worked tirelessly to build their businesses. They made Eagle Hall the hub it was back then.
Where am I going with this?
When I think about these things, I realise that after you’re gone or become infirm and can no longer influence anything, what you built can be pushed aside as if it is worth nothing. Because of this, I often wonder about the purpose of life. Why do we push ourselves the way we do when in the end very little of what we worked to achieve seems to stand rrthe test of time?
This is a question that haunts me, especially when I see people of my age dying. For a few hours they are remembered by colleagues and maybe longer by loved ones. But life goes on and their once respected stance on something becomes irrelevant. This can make some people throw up their hands in despair and ask, “Why bother do anything, if all that I do will not matter in the end?” Admittedly, I felt like that for many years.
I have however come to recognize that the value of life is about being decent, honest, loyal and doing your best at all times.
At least when you pass on, the worst anyone can truthfully say about you is that you worked hard and meant well.
