They had fun! They really, really had fun; but now it was time to go home. To walk home to be exact. Funny thing was they didn’t discover how tired and sleepy they were until they were until they were told that is was time to go home. But boy they had fun!It was St. Anne’s annual fair day and they had done the rounds several times.
They had hooped at the hoop-la stalls that were set-up by the old church hall and bought cotton candy and candy apples at the candy stall. They bought cakes and drinks from the cake stall; especially one cake that was particularly the favorite. It was a yellow cake with white icing and the icing was liberally sprinkled with multi-colored pastel sprinkles. They played with school friends and Sunday school friends. There were lots of frilly dresses with big sashes and crisp crinoline slips. Life was good!
Now Gummy, their maternal great-grandmother, was holding Berry’s little sister’s hand and saying that it was time to go home.
Looking back wistfully at all she was leaving, Berry obediently took hold of her younger brother’s (Crock’s) hand, led the way out of the drive way that separated the church yard from the school yard, and started down that hill.
Gummy and Berry’s little sister walked close behind, Gummy admonishing them all to ‘walk in the bush’, though goodness knows there were harly any cars around then, this being Nassau at the end of the nineteen fifties.
As they turned out of creek corner (this being the corner where the road by St. Anne’s graveyard met the Eastern Road) they turned left and headed down the Eastern Road toward Johnson Road.
Now even in the day-time the Eastern road was a bit eerie, as far as Berry was concerned; and at night! Well, one could imagine.
There were certain areas where she could feel things, not knowing that when she got older she would learn that things were seen and experienced in those areas. One particularly flesh prickling instance that involved her.
As they passed Marshall’s rock wall and gate (Marshall’s is the house on the slope of the hill across from St. Anne’s graveyard and its yard was once a graveyard also. Its main gate opens onto the Eastern Road), she looked up through the leaves of the great, spreading almond tree to the street light. She loved those lights. She felt as though they were a firm part of her childhood. They were made of iron from the ground to the point where the light was attached. At the top was a frilly edged ‘tin pan’ to reflect the light, which was a lone light bulb that was screwed in to the ‘tin pan’.
There are still a few of these posts along the Eastern Road today, bravely standing near to their new counterparts, though they are minus tin pan and bulb.
Suddenly, she heard a voice shout gaily as though it was broad daylight,
“Hey dere, Netta (Gummy) ol’ gal, git up hyar and ride.”
It was Bill Ash, Bulla’s uncle, driving his horse and carriage. Berry and those called him Unca Will. He was as flamboyant and debonair as usual.
“Oh. Dis you eh, Bill?” Replied Gummy, while they ‘got up there’ with alacrity.
Berry felt safe. She could relax now and enjoy this ride. Sleep had left for the time being. Clip-clop, clip-clop, the horses hooves made a comfortable, homey sound and Unca Will and Gummy kept up their grown up talk whilst Berry looked from side-to-side, although she knew the road and scenery by heart.
There was Mr. Lee’s place, stretching along the hill from Marshall’s to Morton House. One mass of trees stretching up the hill broken only by a dark, gloomy and most mysterious looking drive that led up through the trees opposite ‘the-little-road-that-goes-down-to-the-sea,’ which in turn was next door to ‘Beware-Bad-Dog’ (Johnsons).
Just after Mr. Lee’s place was Morton house, a big blue and white rambling house where old Mrs. Morton lived. Over the wall from Morton house was Ahn (aunt) Touchy Cooper, Gra-ma’s friend: Leslie Higgs opposite Morton House.
Back on the left, Ahn Julia Newchurch and Mr. Castell Morrison and families lived through the lane next to Ahn Touchy. Through the lane you had to pass Ahn Julia’s little ‘four room’ to get to Mr. Castell’s sturdier old time stone house that had walls three inches thick. The house is still there, walls still sturdy, and homey looking.
Now they were passing Mr. Courtenay Edgecombe; then Ahn Lidey Morrison (Berry’s Aunt Hester’s god-mother), Albury’s place, a parcel of bush, then High Vista Road. There were no houses through there at the time.
Next Unca Will’s place; and as they neared the end of it, Berry glanced on the other side of the road at the scary, big almond trees that grew in the ‘hollow’ between the beach and the road, the hollow being almost as dark as night even in the day time.
Then, back to the south side, next to Unca Will’s, Deal’s Heights. Across from Deal’s Heights was Daiquiri. Coming down the next to Deal’s Heights, Brigadoon, a private estate at the time, then Bethel’s, a parcel of bush, then Johnson Road.
On the north side of the road next to Daiquiri (which by the way used to be the old hermitage) was Bally Crystal House and Holts Place. After Holts you came to ‘Wind Whistle’, New Moon and the new Hermitage.
The Eastern Road is not a very long road as distances go, but packed with a lot of living…and also…the dead?
