Amina Blackwood Meeks, Contributor
In the summertime
When the weather is fine
You can stretch right up and
touch the sky.
BY THE time you get around to reading this summer would have already officially began. In fact a little bit of research informs us that this year's summer solstice occurred on Saturday, June 21 at 3:10 P.M. (Eastern Daylight Time). Dat only mean seh tings getting very hot and in our case is not just the position of the sun causing it.
Summer, though, has always held a very special place in the lives of most peoples around the world from the beginning of time and the rituals commemorating summer are as varied as they are legendary. Have you checked your newspapers lately to see the number of activities being offered for young people: from computer camps to artistic development. Any young person who cannot find something to do this summer really not looking except dem looking for a summer job and then it might really be a long, hot summer.
SUMMER JOBS
You remember when the highlight of summer used to be the fact that you found no, rephrase that had your choice of summer jobs? Dem were the days when Parish Councils and Public Works Departments and the various Ministries made it a priority to employ high schools students during the holidays, if is only for two weeks so de ting could spread. For how could you have students at home for all of eight weeks doing nothing? Truth is that sometimes they I not in dat part did little more than nothing. But somebody somewhere seemed committed to giving young people a chance to breathe in the atmosphere of work environment and help them learn to feel responsible by contributing to their own school fees and not having to ask for pocket money. I did love dat part. For if I didn't find a summer job my mother was packing me off to summer camp in some distant places like Stewart Town and run by some long-forgotten, and in some cases, unknown entities like Youth Development Agency.
And never mind how the name suggests that the campers were going to be the beneficiaries of something wonderfully developmental, I think the parents used to benefit the most two weeks without any nengey-nengey inna dem aise.
YOUTH DEVELOPMENT CAMP
First lesson in this Youth Development Summer Camp jaunt was in learning the locations and not just the names of the train stations from Kingston to Montego Bay. And then, of course, there were the everlasting tunnels through which everyone screamed a blue-murder enjoyment of the darkness.
For various reasons we may speculate. Later on there might be a comparison or a showing off as to who went by train and who went by diesel.
The alternative to summer camp was to visit your aunt in Ferry, for some people had no relatives beyond the border separating St. Andrew from St. Catherine and therefore were deprived of a trek to the mango walk or discovery of the red coat plum tree or ketching janga in de river and mekking janga soup right dere on de river bank, later to suffer de fate of all craven pickney mek space for the meal your country relatives had so lovingly prepared and behave as if you really understood that decent children waited until they got home to eat.
Now if you only got as far as Ferry (I really had an aunt in Ferry), you and your cousins would chase mongoose chu canepiece till yu tiad and thirsty an jus bruk off a piece a cane right dere and satisfy both hunger and thirst. When you reach back home now an yu auntie ask "Yu hungry?" yu betta seh yes an find yuself at de table. Afta a proper bath, that is, for de likkle canal you splash up in while chasing mongoose only added to your filthy condition at least in your aunt's estimation. And one day when she was really in a good mood she would get up early and walk everybody down to the Arawak Museum. (That's what it was called then).
SUMMER TREAT
A real summer treat used to be a trip to anywhere that required a ride through Fern Gully. The real Fern Gully that used to be dark and wet and slippery and had so many ferns you could see not one trace of what they were growing on.
Plus Fern Gully was cold. You had to get out your sweater or somebody hug you up tight-tight for if the truth be told, Fern Gully used to scare you just a little for when you driving through, you couldn't even see the sky.
Is it just nostalgia, or were those summers just a little bit more or everything, catering to the total being and packaged as more fun than those enjoyed by our children today? Too many classroom based activities? Too little left of the natural outdoors that made summer light? Too many country people in Kingston so that Kingston people don't have any cousins to visit in the country? Too many children gone off to places up north coming back to report on how boring it was? And yes, too many bright high school students wid dem han pan dem jaw ah wander where else can they turn to find a summer job.
Summer used to be a time of renewal and inspiration. Even Shakespeare emerged from it with one of the greatest romantic comedies, or duppy stories if you wish, of all times, A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Whatever you do for yourself or with your children this summer, take a moment to reflect on some of the old traditions, why they survived or disappeared and maybe carve out something new that one day, your children might get nostalgic about
