Ronald “Beardie” Prescod and Irvine “Big Reds” Street never fail to create excitment in Queen’s Park on Christmas morning from the moment they arrive with other members of “The Queen’s Park Posse”.
The group of 12 men promenading, each one exquisitely dressed from head to toe, complete with cane, everything colour-coded and matching, are a focal point of attention for the scores of Park goers and a picturesque subject for the droves of photographers.
It was more than 20 years ago that Street, a sharp dresser even then, spotted the dapperly turned out Prescod strolling among the crowd in the Park one Christmas morning.
“I saw Beardie and I said this man looks like a champion. This man looks good,” Street said, recalling his first meeting with the bearded Prescod, whom he immediately decided had to be a part of his small group of dapperly dressed friends on Christmas morning.
Now, when the Royal Barbados Police Force Band strikes up Red Plastic Bag’s Maizie during the Christmas morning concert, there is a crush of Park goers around the bandstand, their eyes fixed approvingly on the dancing posse.
Friends, Irvine ‘Big Reds’ Street (left) and Ronald ‘Beardie’ Prescod clowning around near Street’s Gym at Bayville. (Picture by Gercine Carter.)
Both men say their dressing was not motivated by a need to look good and show off in the Park Christmas morning. Rather, it was an attempt to inspire young men to improve their dress, the two friends pointed out at Street’s Big Red’s Gym at Gully Field Avenue, Bayville, while discussing their reason for banding together and the mission they have set themselves.
Street said: “I saw these guys walking about with their pants low and disrespecting themselves and my country and I called my friend Beardie and I said, ‘My friend, this does not look good. Let us see if we can get these people back to church and do something for my country’.”
It was game-on for Prescod. “We got together, sat down, made a plan and decided we would form a posse. That was about 20 years ago, and it started out with about seven members.”
“It was really ridiculous. We tried to get the youngsters to pull up their pants,” Prescod concurred.
Their efforts are indeed paying off, evidenced by the number of young men approaching them asking to join the posse. They are also seeing an improvement in the dress of many of the young men who now include Queen’s Park in their Christmas Day plans.
It is a trend that is heartening to both men. Prescod, who turns 65 this year, recalled going to Queen’s Park as a ten-year-old dressed in short pants, “a tie with a little rubber band around the neck” to hold it in place and watching Captain Charles Raison dance while directing the Police Band.
Those days are long gone. Today he is dapperly turned out in expensive outfits specially ordered for the occasion. The jacket he wore last Christmas morning was a US$350 import. Like the other members of the posse, he spends over $1 000 on his Christmas morning outfit. (GC)
