Go back to 1974 on “memory lane”

lane,
Yes funny how well we remember the details of our Negril trips especially the first ones!! I too fondly remember the Yacht Club and believe that there was a pay phone outside their gate?? The upstairs deck had a terrific view and the concrete slab that led to the water was a great place to catch rays and go snorkeling from. And yes in all the years that I visited I do not ever recall seeing a boat or yacht tied up there, maybe because the water was so shallow?? I never took a liking to the overproof but sure did like the Appleton Special!!

Jonhg, yes the pay phone on a pole I think, the only one in Negril, you must remember having to call the AJA 2 day before your departure to save your seat, and the line of people waiting to use it. I remember making a few trips to it before getting to use it, if you went to late in the day and no line the coin box was full and you could not make the call.
Yes Overproof was rocket fuel, had to go slow with that stuff like everything a lot of stuff you could get there.

We are sitting around on the porch having a cup of fresh instant Blue Mountain coffee from the jag, no coffee shop yet up here and we smell that sweet cloud as it comes down the road and it Gladstone, we talk and I as him if he is head to work and he said he was on holiday too but we was going up to his ranch today. Oh where is your ranch up the hill and pointed behind our, what's on your ranch about 200 plants mon, and he's off.
It must be Monday because we hear giggling come down the road and see a group of kid on their way to school.

https://i.postimg.cc/QdZxRKQS/937304...D-4-5005-c.jpg

This is something that has been lost with all the traffic up and down the road now.

We don't have any more USD for Daisy to change for us and she said we will have to go to the back in town to cash travelers checks, no problem, we get in the car and head down to the bank.
You old time may remember the bank line out the door, 20 or 30 people deep, this must be just the morning rush we will catch it later, well the line is longer now so we wait and wait and cook in the sun finial getting side and cash or checks for some JD's and are glad the had not run out of money
today.
This is the trip in town that we discover the Meat Patty, they were so good.
While walking around town eating our Meat Patties I could not get over how many men were walking around with long machete on their belts and the scars on their bodies,
working the cain fields was not easy of safe job.
We get in the little yellow car not knowing it would be our last ride up the hill.
The adventure of our trip is about to start.
See you in the morning.

I wake up to the sound of the ocean slapping the cliffs across the road, I mush have sleep good.
I get up to put my shorts on an do not see them, they are not were I dropped them last night. I walk around the place to try to fine them, they could not just walk off and I know I had them went to bed.
Any one see a pair of shorts anywhere? Nope!
Standing in the room scratching my head and look out the window and there are my shorts, no I didn’t disrobe in the yard. I get another pair of short on and go outside and get them.
They are what I had on the night before, but but my money is not with them!
Someone must have reached in through the window with something an grabbed them, I am hopping they didn’t walk in an take them.
Now what am I to do, tell Daisy yes, when I see her.
This is just the start of the morning, Johns girlfriend comes from going to the bathroom hysterical.
A little about her, this trip has been a bit more roughing it them she was thinking it would be so this is just pushed her over the cliffs edge. She just found crab running around on her, not a good seen.
We all say oh ****! And take a look at our selves we are all clean so we think, I found them on me when I got home.
She’s not happy at all and she has a credit card her and John move across the road to Tensing Pen,
Hoping it dosen’t Have the bugs.
I tell Daisy what has happen and what do you think she said “No Problem Mon,” and off she goes back to here house. Here she come right back with the money we gave her for the rent and said “Sorry Mon” what a great person. So we stayed the rest of the time there a small budget I my add. I mail her the money back to her when I get home.

Boy was Tensing Pen nice, stone hut with thatch roof and just a few steps to the cliffs edge,
we sunned and snorkel all day.

Everything comes in 3’s right!
The next morning I get in that little yellow Ford to go down to town and I push the clutch in to star her up and feel and hear a snap down by my feet as the clutch cable snap, there I sit you can start the motor with out that clutch in.
I walk across the street to tell John.

I wake up to the sound of the ocean slapping the cliffs across the road, I mush have sleep good.
I get up to put my shorts on an do not see them, they are not were I dropped them last night. I walk around the place to try to fine them, they could not just walk off and I know I had them went to bed.
Any one see a pair of shorts anywhere? Nope!
Standing in the room scratching my head and look out the window and there are my shorts, no I didn’t disrobe in the yard. I get another pair of short on and go outside and get them.
They are what I had on the night before, but but my money is not with them!
Someone must have reached in through the window with something an grabbed them, I am hopping they didn’t walk in an take them.
Now what am I to do, tell Daisy yes, when I see her.
This is just the start of the morning, Johns girlfriend comes from going to the bathroom hysterical.
A little about her, this trip has been a bit more roughing it them she was thinking it would be so this is just pushed her over the cliffs edge. She just found crab running around on her, not a good seen.
We all say oh ****! And take a at our self’s we are all clean so we think, I found them on me when I got home.
She’s not happy at all and she has a credit card and her and John move across the road to Tensing Pen,
Hoping it dosen’t Have the bugs.
I tell Daisy what has happen and what do you think she said “No Problem Mon,” and off she goes back to here house. Here she come right back with the money we gave her for the rent and said “Sorry Mon” what a great person. So we stayed the rest of the time there a small budget I my add.
Boy was Tensing Pen nice, stone hut with thatch roof and just a few steps to the cliffs edge,
we sunned and snorkel all day.

Everything comes in 3’s right!
The next morning I get in that little yellow Ford to go down to town and I push the clutch in to star her up and feel and hear a snap down by my feet as the clutch cable snap, there I sit you can start the motor with out that clutch in.
I walk across the street to tell John.

Wow! Loving it.

John and I walk back over to the yard to see what can be done, remember no electricity and running water is a pipe laying on the ground. Hard to think we’re to start with this “yes problem” now we really need a big “No Problem Mon”.
Well John is a kind of a car guy, in high school on Friday nights when we all would go out cruising the Strip or Shone’s-Bigboy Driven looking for fun, he always have a rubber hose to siphon a few gal. of gas for the night, the taste did not bother him and gas was about 30 cents a gal. then.
We have the hood up and crawling under the car and under the dash, when Franklin walk over to see what is happening.
We tell him and here it comes “No Problem Mon” he knows a guy, comes back with some tools and where to go get the part. This did not happen quickly it was like soon come mon, late afternoon.
No time to get to Sav La Mar today.

John and I walk back over to the yard to see what can be done, remember no electricity and running water is a pipe laying on the ground. Hard to think we’re to start with this “yes problem” now we really need a big “No Problem Mon”.
Well John is a kind of a car guy, in high school on Friday nights when we all would go out cruising the Strip or Shone’s-Bigboy Driven looking for fun, he always have a rubber hose to siphon a few gal. of gas for the night, the taste did not bother him and gas was about 30 cents a gal. then.
We have the hood up and crawling under the car and under the dash, when Franklin walk over to see what is happening.
We tell him and here it comes “No Problem Mon” he knows a guy, comes back with some tools and where to go get the part. This did not happen quickly it was like soon come mon, late afternoon.
No time to get to Sav La Mar today.

lane,
What an awesome trip report!! Your memory is crystal clear!! It brings me back to the Negril I remember so fondly back in 75. It was such a great place, the Jamaicans so cool, No problem mon to anything that happened!! Always positive vibrations!! I never spent time on the West End but that doesn't matter your story rings so true in every aspect. Waiting to read the rest of the story.. Thanks so much for sharing your story!!

Johg, Sorry to ask but the memory is now all there, don’t recall what we had for meal just bits and pieces off it stand out.
I do not remember any jerk chicken back them, just fish.

lane,
I don't recall jerk chicken back then either. I ate most of my meals at the Wharf Club Restaurant on the corner of Red Ground Road and West End Road. Directly across the road from the Restaurant was the Wharf Club Store a dry goods store run by an old Chinese man. The restaurant was where I ate most of my meals. The menu had Chicken or fish dinners that came with rice and peas and a veggy like cole slaw or carrots. They were inexpensive something like $3.50. You placed your order and paid and then waited until they called out your number. Food was great portions big. I occasionally would order the fish when it was kingfish as there were few bones to deal with. There was a juke box there that was always blasting the latest 45 rpm hits, the songs that were on Jamaican radio stations at the time RJR was one station I believe. You mentioned the bakery that I remember being called the "The Bread Basket" a couple doors down from the bank and the supermarket in the Plaza on street level below what was know back then as "The Villa's Negril" perched on the hillside and overlooking town and Long Bay. I remember a lot of meat patties and CoCo Bread from the bakery. That's what I remember anyway!! Hope that helps!!

John, thanks glade I did not miss the Jerk Chicken back then, I would have remember that smell from a mile away. I do remember the bones in the fish. Sometimes more bone then meat, but could they fry it.
I did not fine King Fish until 1980 trip at Rockie Del’s more on that late. Grilled King Fish with Pick a Pepper is the best meat almost.

lane,
Did you always stay on the West End when you visited Negril?? I most always stayed on the beach about a mile north of town at Gloria's Sunset Cottages and later would stay at the Villa's Negril. I wonder if we ever crossed paths??

Johns, No I never stay on the beach both of my wild trips I stayed at Daisy’s and the trip a 10 years ago we stayed at Tensing Pen nice place to stay but, Negril was not my wife’s cup of tea.
And for me I pushed off the cliff on a raft and got about 25 Sea Urchin spines in my feet.
Needless to say, I was not very mobile for the rest of the trip, still had two large ones in my foot when I got home.

Hi lane yes Negril isn't for everybody!! I guess you either love it or you don't. The reason I ask about recent trip is that so much has changed since the early 70's. It is my understanding that Key West was the original Capital of casual and that hippies discovered Negril as their new place to go considering the Ganja and rum not to mention 7 mile beach. I made the mistake of getting a couple sea urchin spines in my foot too. I remember the old time advice to relieve the pain by pi**ing on it....

the old fisherman's remedy... you must "wee" on it. Ammonia is the secret ingredient.

Used for jellyfish stings as well. If that doesn’t work I was told over proof. Drinking it probably works better than pouring it on the sting.

I can tell you the overproof was about as good as it got.
The girls at Tensing had a little bottle of something they put on them and with tweezers picked an pulled at them for over an hour until they say “sorry mon”.
I picked at them all day to no avail, I just limped around driving them further in my foot.

Back to the car problem, we are up early like alway laying around on hard bed was not adding to the Jamaica experience.
He are having our coffee on the porch and John walk across the the road he is alone his girl friend is in a softer bed in their hut and not ready to face the day yet.
We talk and John thinks he should walk to town catch a bus to Sav La Mar for the part we need. I am good with that because l saw a bus while in line at the banks the other day, it did not look like a joy ride to me.
Off he goes and Daisy walk over and we fill her in and I tell her we are going across the road to snorkel and swim some. She tells us not to ware any thing shine in the water because Barracuda are attracted to that, thanks Daisy just one more of her don’t t add to my list. It getting to be a long list but her has been spot on so far, just wish she had told me to sleep with my money, I had to learn that one on my own.
We head over to the cliff and sleeping beauty was up and about. We enjoy the water and never had any close encounters with the Barracudas.
John gets back with the part, food and a tale of travel to tell, let just say the bus ride was not a joy ride and finding the part was an adventure.

It’s a new day bright sunny and hot hot!
John and I are under in and all round the car trying to install the new clutch cable, Franklin is here to talking us through the operation, and on the ready to go get any other tools we may need. But it feels like we are not doing anything but sweating.
We get both end connected and are ready to try it. I push the clutch peddle in and not snap or pop,ok.
I am able to shift the gears, now I start the car and put it in gear ok, Franklin gives out his “no problem mon” with a smile.
We hope in the car for a test drive and Franklin said go up the road it will be easy to push it back down the road to the yard, he comes along too for extra man power it we need it, we go up the road and back it’s fixed.
We park it and think we should not use is until we had to drive back to Mobay. So yard art it is again.
The next day we do have to call JAL to save our sets, John said let’s drive because one one wanted to take a walk and we can go to the beach one more time ok.
There is a line at the phone booth not really a booth just a pay phone on a pole I thing, I get in line and thankfully it is not as long and slow as the bank line was earlier in the week, I make the call an get in the car we now have meat patty’s and beer and head for the beach.
We park the car and I look at the front tire and it has a bubble on the side wall not good the car is grounded for sure now, we hope it makes it to the airport with out a blow out.
We are sitting on the porch relaxing like you can do in Negril and I say we have not seen Gladstone lately.

The time has come to say our good bye to Franklin and Daisy and thank them for their kindness and help, we will be back I promise.
Down the road we go honking the horn often like the sticker on the dash board said and hopping we do not have a tire blowout on the way to the airport.
We need to stop on the way for a break and beer and I take a look at the tire and the bulge is getting bigger on hell, it’s not going to make it to the Mobay, oh s—- the back tire on the other side now has a bulge. We really can’t hit any more pot holes in the road here on out. I is slow going now trying to fine the smoothest pavement on that old road, you guys remember more holes then pavement.
We make it to the airport and it looks like army base soldier with guns everywhere.
We turn the little yellow Ford back in with just 1 good tire now, rental cars where not the way to good.
We don’t see Don running around chasing cars today.
One more lesion I learned this trip.
We check in at the counter and are told the flight is delayed, and I ask whats with all the soldiers around.
He tells us about the hijacking “Mon” here it comes “NO PROBLEM”.
We get in the long line and finally it our turn to be searched, I hope the TSA never get these guys to show them how it should be done, they were even trying to pry the soles off our shoes looking for some thing.
We get a rum punch and that helps and we make it to the plane and off we go.
I am sitting looking out the window as paradise disappears and think to myself our friend must have left some things out of their stories or they just has a vacation and not an adventure. I am good with adventure.
We are not done yet, we get to the car in Miami all is good we think.
Remember the oil embargo well the states have about 10 days worth of gas now.
We me to fill the tank to drive home and see long lines at every gas station we go by in Miami.
Then we see the sign at one of them that said even tag number on even days.
Well we are on a even day with a odd number tag.
I walk in the station and tell them we are from out of town and need to get on the road back home today and need gas. I am hopping for a no problem mon but get a come back tomorrow!
I will be back in 1980 with more memory lane.

lane,
Awesome man, NO PROBLEM all the way around!! People who didn't experience Negril and Jamaica like you did back then can only read your trip report and smile!! It was truly magic!! I too was there during those years and was in Negril the day of the 1980 Jamaican General Election. Amazing!!! Thank you so much for your contributions on this forum!!!

lane, thank you for sharing your great adventure! I will anxiously await your 1980 return report. I’m sure there were many changes 6 years later.

Johns, I returned first of March in 1980 for three week, I do not remember when the election was but know of the struggles that was going on between the Cuban backed guy and his guns. and the US backed guy with his guns, all reported by who else the Rolling Stone Magazine, the most true soured for news.
Going from the states everything was a little rough around the edge’s.
But hay they had Bob Marley back the and he could get the people together, I just hope they find another like him to help.

Rum lover, you will not want to miss 1980.
Thanks for staying with me on the trip.