Hartley Neita LAST WEEK, I heard that Maurice Foster and H.G. Helps celebrated the 41st anniversary of the capture of the British Empire lightweight boxing title at the National Stadium by our own Bunny Grant.
It was, I recall, a great night for Jamaica. There we were, on the eve of becoming an independent nation, exhibiting to the world that in addition to cricket, with world stars like George Headley and the late Collie Smith, and track and field with Herb McKenley, George Rhoden, Arthur Wint and Les Laing, we were also a name to reckon with in the field of boxing.
That victory won at 1.55 a.m., in the presence of over 200 journalists radio, newspapers, magazines, television heralded the success of several Jamaican world boxing champions such as Mike McCallum and Lennox Lewis.
SIGNIFICANT MONTH
In recalling that night, memory tells me that August has been a significant month where interesting and some tragic events have taken place in Jamaica.
Most significant, of course, was that we gained our independence on Monday, August 6, 1962, and with it the appointment of our first Jamaican-born head of government, Sir Alexander Bustamante.
This newspaper also recorded that the first Independence Day birth of a boy was Norman Anthony Alexander Allison of Clark's Town, Trelawny, and the first girl was Topaz Joy, born at the Savanna-la-Mar Hospital in Westmoreland.
August was also the month of Emancipation when, on the first day in 1838, the then Governor, Sir Lionel Smith, read a proclamation bringing slavery to an end in Jamaica.
I have always hoped that this ceremony which took place at the Governor's residence in Spanish Town (now Old King's House) would have been re-enacted every year with pomp and ceremony.
As far as I can recall this was only done once to mark the 150th anniversary. We do not yet seem to recognise that part of nation-building is to re-enact important events in our history and to, among other things, produce souvenirs of the event to remind us of our participation.
'OLD GROG'
Last Thursday was the 263rd anniversary of the date on which Admiral Vernon issued a decree from Flamstead in the Port Royal Mountains overlooking south east St. Andrew and part of the parish of Port Royal, forbidding raw rum to his Royal Navy sailors.
The decree reduced their daily allowance of half pint of raw rum by diluting it in a quart of water. The mixture became known as Grog, after Vernon's nickname, "Old Grog". It is now perpetuated at Devon House with the Old Grog Shop.
Then on August 14, 1971, the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation (KSAC) Council claimed that Jamaica's cricketers were being victimised by the West Indian selectors and passed a resolution calling on the powers that be to start a Jamaica Test cricket side.
It was also in August in 1962, that the KSAC approved plans for the construction of a city hall and a council chamber at the southern section of George VI Memorial Park. Nothing has come of that, as yet.
And because of inadequate funds, the Corporation subsequently abandoned a plan to purchase a 30,000 compactor which was to be used to crush derelict abandoned motor vehicles scattered on sidewalks and on empty lots in the Corporate Area. In the meanwhile thousands more of these cars crowd our capital city.
OTHER AUGUST EVENTS
It is also in August that television was first introduced to Jamaica. That was in 1963, and the picture was in black and white.
Another August event was Hurricane Charlie on August 17, 1951, which destroyed Port Royal, for the third time, and did extensive damage to St. Thomas, Kingston and St. Andrew.
It was also in an August in 1942 that Madame Rose Leon introduced a range of her own beauty products which proved as good and even more popular than similar foreign-produced
products.
Her "Leon's Beauty Bleach" was sold at one shilling three pence, two shillings three pence, and four shillings a jar; Leon's Deodorant Powder was sold at one shilling six pence a tin; and Leon's Vanishing Cream at one shilling three pence per jar.
And can you imagine the anger when Desnoes and Geddes increased the price of its Red Stripe beer by one penny, from 11 pence to one shilling per bottle?
And to wrap up with two other political official events Governor-General Sir Howard Cooke was sworn in as Jamaica's fourth Governor-General on August 1, 1991, and Norman Manley was appointed and sworn-in as Jamaica's first Premier on August 14, 1959.
