Glenda Simms, Contributor

There are rare occasions when Miss Mattie, Mass George and Hottie Hottie are the only persons occupying the veranda of the one-stop shop in the district. Such occasions are more frequent in the morning hours during the month of December.

At these times the other old timers and the young men and women are unavailable. They are all busy moving the goats and cows to the areas that are not very accessible to the "two-foot puss" brigade; planting the vegetable seedlings in the small plots that are prepared in the morning hours; organising the children; washing the clothes; white-washing the tree trunks and the rocks around the fruit trees and flower patches and doing the general clean-up to prepare the district for the 2006 Christmas season.

Miss Mattie and her two sidekicks are the accepted sub-committee that is expected to pay attention to the details that will go into the planning of the traditional communal New Year's feast.

Wise elders

Both Miss Mattie and Maas George have earned their positions because they are seen as wise elders and no-nonsense persons, who do not put up with sloppy planning, poor cooking skills, the irresponsible behaviours displayed by some of the young people and the subtle attempts by the "modernists" to disrespect the traditions and values that have sustained in a positive mode, the unity of the community.

On the other hand, Hottie-Hottie earned the right to be in the three person inner circle because she consciously decided to wear her blonde synthetic wig and false finger nails at all times during her waking hours.

These two features of her "self" restrict her exposure to the glare of the sun and to the mundane activities of cooking for others, tying out goats, weeding, cleaning up and braiding the little girls' hair.

Hottie had informed everyone in the community that blondes are not to over expose themselves to the direct rays of the sun. Also, she knew that none of the men in the district will eat food prepared by any woman who wears false fingernails.

In a real sense, Hottie recognised the limitations of hands that are burdened with these talons. She had experienced the embarrassment of not being able to effectively pick her nose or braid her nieces' hair.

Accepting her self-imposed limitations, Hottie made the conscious decision that she would exercise her "picking choice" and pick Miss Mattie and Maas George as her friends.

Right choice

When all else fails, a woman has two choices, she can either pick her nose or her friends!

Hottie made the right choice. Every young girl deserves the friendship of two respected elders.

After the planning session, there were a number of task forces set up for sorrel picking, cake baking, goat slaughtering, coconut grating and the final food preparation and serving. Miss Mattie encouraged Maas George to go into all the neighbours' fields to inspect the state of maturity of each pod of early gungo peas. She was determined that on New Year's Eve, the gungo pickers would have the full intelligence regarding the location of every prospective pod of mature pea grains.

Maas George gleefully accepted this responsibility not only because he is an expert on early gungo peas, but because he was feeling a bit marginalised in the company of two outspoken and opinionated women. He prefers to be involved with the wider community grouping in which the other men can come to his rescue when he is in a tight spot of disagreement with either Miss Mattie or Hottie-Hottie.

Counterbalancing Maas George's gendered patriarchal concerns was the happiness of Hottie Hottie, who wanted to have an undistracted space in which she can question Miss Mattie about her link to the spirits of the ancestors.

This interaction was naturally facilitated when Miss Mattie invited Hottie to accompany her to the historical Anglican cemetery in the district. Of course, Hottie is deadly afraid of grave yards because she believes in the power of duppies and she would not like her grandmother's ghost to drag off her blonde wig to check her real pedigree.

This concern quickly disappeared when she noticed the alacrity with which Miss Mattie propelled her almost one-hundred-year-old body in the direction of the corner of the cemetery which had a number of rustic unmarked tombs.

These humble structures were in stark contrast to the marble monuments and sturdy tombstones of the offspring of the local aristocracy. These folks had a direct connection to the members of the plantocracy, who named all the districts of the mountain ridges.

It is with this set of "no-name" colonizers that place names such as St. Albans, Stanmore, Elgin, Malvern, Hampton, Roseberry, Leeds and other "made in Britain" place names survived the many voyages of plunder and capture of other people's lands.

After these profound historical interpretations that caused Hottie Hottie's mouth to drop open, Miss Mattie started to cry. In fact, the crying crescendoed into a bawling and Hottie was wondering what to do to console her best friend. Poor Hottie was tempted to put her arms around Miss Mattie, but she knew that hugging was not an acceptable form of endearment for this very circumspect lady.

With real concern in her voice, Hottie said softly, "Miss Mattie don't cry. Those indignities meted out to our ancestors happened a long time ago. We have moved far far away from those times. Today we are free and modern and can be whoever we want to be."

Taking a deep breath, Miss Mattie dried her tears, composed herself and stared directly into Hottie's eyes and said, "Yes my girl, you are free to be whoever you want to be. Is that why you chose to be the blondest black woman who profiled at Grand Market, in Santa Cruz, on Christmas Eve?"

Just as Hottie was dreaming up the most appropriate respectful retort to keep Miss Mattie in check, the elder decided to share a story with her young friend.

She told Hottie that she read an article which recently came out of Ghana. The writer of the story reported that Canada's Governor-General, Michaelle Jean wept during a visit to the Elmina Castle, in Ghana.

This castle was established by the Portuguese as a trading post which evolved into a place where our ancestors were bought and sold in the horrific Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.

Miss Mattie reminded Hottie that Madame Jean is a descendant of slave ancestors who landed in Haiti.

Broken the barriers

Today, she has broken through the barriers of poverty, racism, sexism and classicism to be Missis Queen's representative in Canada.

In spite of this remarkable achievement, the report out of Ghana described how Madame Jean placed a wreath in the 'room of no return', stared out to sea, gripped the gate and began weeping. Her entourage also broke into sobs.

After she composed herself, the Governor-General is reported to have said, "We shall never be chained again. We shall never be on our knees again. We shall never be humiliated again."

At this point, Hottie sat on one of the unmarked graves of her slave ancestors, grabbed Miss Mattie's hand and thanked her for sharing the pain and the strengths of our ancestral spirits.

Like Michaelle Jean, Hottie said a silent prayer before she followed behind Miss Mattie who couldn't wait to reach the veranda of the One-Stop Shop. On reaching her destination she ordered a "double white rum on the rocks and took two big gulps before she smiled broadly to Hottie Hottie.

In that brief moment, Hottie was convinced that she had established her link with the ancestors of those who now live in the districts nestled in the ridges of the Santa Cruz Mountains. She also knew that Miss Mattie would call up the ancestors to join the communal dinner. Miss Mattie learnt this practice from a long line of strong mountain female ancestors.

Glenda P. Simms is a gender expert and consultant.