Thanks to everybody for posting their memories and fabulous pics, this is great stuff, really enjoying it!
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Thanks to everybody for posting their memories and fabulous pics, this is great stuff, really enjoying it!
Lovin' all these vintage pics!
When you say "in the garden", do you mean that the Mirage use to have some property across the road from their current cliffside location (e.g. garden side), or just that there was a garden area on the cliffside property? Obviously the property looks very different today, but I'm trying to place where the picture was taken.Quote:
Originally Posted by vivnyc
Most of the accommodations at Mirage were located across the road in a large garden that was beautifully kept. Lauro and Michela, originally from northern Italy, lived in a house relatively close to the road. There were several cottages at Mirage, each one with three rooms, all of them round in shape, beautifully constructed. Each cottage had two bedrooms and one main room located in between the two bedrooms. There was one conventional house on the cliff side, I believe it is still there. The first year 1977, there was no electricity. We used home sweet home lanterns to light the cottages. Lauro anticipated that one day there would be electricity, so the cottages were built with light fixtures and electrical outlets. There were bathroom, but the showers had limited hot water--the sun heated the pipes during the day. Life without electricity in Negril was very quiet.
I believe the pic with the 2 guys and girl is PeeWee's the original across from Mariner next to LaMirage.
Piggymon you still lurking?
Thanks for the history,vivnyc! We just returned from a week at Mirage (great place! - more on that later) and the hotel is much different today. It would've been great to stay there in those early days.Quote:
Originally Posted by vivnyc
Speaking of across the road - there is currently some construction happening across from Mirage. It is a nice looking two-story structure. Looks like it might be a small hotel or a large house/villa. Scrawled in spray paint on the corrugated metal fence that surrounded the property it said, "The Somerville".
Only 35 yrs ago
Dodds, Love I and me on Hobie race day. I'm the race committee
Attachment 33579
The race
Attachment 33578
Great picture's Capt.
42 years ago ... I first arrived in Negril October 1972 ... and thought I had died and gone to heaven, what a pristine paradise it was ... people were friendly and cash poor but quality-of-life rich, very friendly and generous ... the Old Jamaicans refer to that time as "When the Hippies Came!" ... and come we did, first as a trickle then a torrent ... the 7 mile beach had just a few isolated buildings, the cliffs were just as isolated, we could go anywhere we wanted and it was possible to pay $0.50 per night to camp on some friendly person's property who would toss in a meal ... where in the world today can such a place be found? The marvel was not how inexpensive Negril was, nor how unpopulated it was, but that the people had lived for so long without money that they placed more value on people and friendship than money, and because they had such few material possessions they had learned the value of sharing and they freely gave what little they had, albeit they were happy to receive some cash, which had ironically changed Negril forever; isn't that the way it is, eh! We find paradise and bring to it our values - cultural influences - and change comes in like a storm to wash away the shores never to return to its original state; I lament, I know, because I was 19 and found freedom and love, and during the time I lived there, Reggae music via Bob Marley came to fruition, creating an atmosphere of positive vibrations and goodwill everywhere - truly a magical time in Negril. I tried to capture that time period in a novel, a highly fictionalized account of experiences; if you don't want to shell out the cash to check out my creative attempt at capturing that era in storytelling on Amazon or CreateSpace, email me and I will send you a PDF of the novel: Island Odyssey, Francis Oliver Lynn franlynn36@gmail.com
Island Odyssey Ghetto Flowers in Paradise
PAPER BACK
https://www.createspace.com/4258190
E-BOOK
http://www.amazon.com/ISLAND-ODYSSEY.../dp/B005TVG54A
Thanks for the pictures and stories - they are precious!
Irie! Brothers and Sisters ...
Call some place paradise,kiss it good bye.....eagles
Is this the same book as "Island Boys"......Oliver James?
Yes - I had to change the name because of another book had the same title - Oliver James is the main character in the book, Francis Oliver Lynn is the author.
Thank You......am reading it as we spend our precious time in Negril, now.
Kimbobwee,
Thank you ... I do think you will find it fascinating as it will take you on a journey back in time to Negril 70s style!
Francis Oliver Lynn
Does anyone know of Roy of Tear Drops Tours MoBay, in the early to mid 70's. He and his American wife Pat were friends of my parents. They brought us to Negril in 1973 and 1974. Spent lots of time with them at their home and his parents home in the mountains. Would love to reconnect if anyone remembers them or where they might be now?
Jamaica Forever,
Sorry, but I do not know Roy. On one of my recent trips to Negril I spent time searching for the people I had made friends with during the 70s, I found a few, but most had died; this is because the people I got to know the best were older and the younger ones are old like me and their lives had changed dramatically, a few still in Negril, and some had to move on to areas where tourism was not the economy base, having sold their land to developers and moved to the hills. Good luck with your search. I assume you asked your parents - if you were able to.
Irie! Fren-mon (Francis Oliver Lynn)
Yep!Quote:
Originally Posted by bigga
Quote:
Originally Posted by francis
I read the entire thing in one sitting and I must say that the book really captures the essence of the times.
Quote:
Originally Posted by captaind
Cap'n, thanks for the pictures. They bring back memories.
Not of a Hobe Cat, but my first time out on a little catamaran. I was hanging out on the beach one day, as was my wont, when I spotted three new girls setting up on some beach chairs. One of them in particular was quite cute, so naturally I lavished most of my attention on her. I came to find out that they were Canadians and had only been on the Island for a day or two. I chatted them up and eventually made a date to pick them up that evening to go out drinking and dancing to some reggae.
I took them up to the little club that was open in the shopping center near the roundabout. At that time, almost all of the people who frequented that club were native Jamaicans, which I loved, because the music and dancing were so real and sensual. I had spent a lot of time on the Island and it seemed like how to me, but the girls were put off by the admittedly rather strong body odor emanating from the crowd and all the black faces in a dark club, so I had to leave and take them to Hedonism instead.
We had some fun but I didn’t make much progress on the scoring front and in fact, despite a lot of trying, I never did make it with the girl who I was working on, although she kept me thinking I might at any minute, so I did not shift my attention to either of her two friends who were both more than willing to get up close and personal with me. Sort of like a cock blocker, only different. I ain’t sayin’ you treated me unkind. You could have done better but I don’t mind. You just kinda wasted my precious time. But don’t think twice, it’s all right.
In any case, after that first night of dancing, I went around the next day to see what I could see and the girls were again hanging out at the beach getting some sun. I noticed that up the beach a way there were some little catamarans for rent. I think there were called Sunfish, or something like that. So I asked the cutie if she wanted to go for a ride on the Sunfish with me and it turned out she did.
I had never done any sailing at all, but the fellow who rented the boat gave me some tips and it did not take long to get the feel for the use of the rudder and trimming the sail to get the little boat moving along at a pretty good clip in more or less the direction that I wanted it to go in.
We had a fine time, with the sun shining, the salty tang in the air, and the fresh breeze in our hair. She sure looked fine smiling and laughing as we kept getting further and further out to sea. The further out we got, the bigger the waves we encountered but the cat was steady and stable and we were in seemingly in no danger of capsizing.
What did happen, however, was that a large wave hit the rudder and knocked it out from its attachment points. The rudder was attached to the back of the boat by having two pins in the rudder being inserted through two metal hoops on back of the boat. When we rented the boat the boat guy had inserted the rudder pins into the hoops while standing a couple feet of water. The pins were retained in the hoops by two spring loaded balls that one compressed in order to insert or remove the rudder. I think that the Sunfish was designed to be used on lakes, not out in the open ocean, because it did not take that much force for a wave to knock the pins right out of the hoops, since the spring loaded locking device was not very strong.
Somehow in the process of getting knocked out of the pins, perhaps it happened while we were shifting our positions while tacking, and ducking under the swinging boom, the rudder ended up floating in the water a few feet from the boat. I dove in and swam to it and retrieved it. But when I turned around and started swimming back to the boat, I was horrified to see that with the rudder out and the sail still up, the girl and the boat were drifting away from me at about the same rate at which I could swim, but I was going to get tired of swimming before the boat stopped drifting out into the open ocean.
Terrified that the babe and boat were going to be carried out to sea, never to be seen again, I put my head down and swam as fast as I could, shoving the rudder ahead of me while doing so because I did not want to be on the boat without the rudder to steer it. I knew that even though we were several miles off shore that I would be able to swim back with little trouble, but I knew that I was responsible for the situation she was in and I needed to fix it.
Once I managed to get myself and the rudder to the boat, things were still hairy. Due to what I considered a design failure while I struggled trying to get the rudder back into place, it was almost impossible to put the rudder back into the hoops while in the water. I needed one hand to hang onto the boat, so I needed to put the rudder in place with only one hand. It could not be done from the boat itself, but had to be done while in the water. The major problem was that both pins were the same length, so both the top and bottom pin had to be inserted into each hoop at exactly the same time. This proved to be very difficult using only one hand in a rough sea. I could get one or the other pins in, but I could never get both in at the same time. The longer I worked on the problem, the more tired I became. The boat also kept drifting further out into the ocean. Finally, just when I was at the point of exhaustion and ready to wish Sweetie good luck and strike out towards the shore on my own, the pins shot home and the rudder was secured.
With the rudder in and care being taken to not submit it to any sudden forces that could potentially dislodge it again, we steadily made our way back to the beach and returned the catamaran. I told the rental man what happened and suggested that instead of just having the spring loaded balls to hold the pins in place that they should drill the pin and use cotter pins. Also, that one pin needed to be longer than the other so that one could get one pin started and then line up the second one. By his reaction I don’t think he paid any attention to my hard won advice.
A friend recently sent me a picture of me holding Steve and Erica's son, Jason. I have been told that while Steve and Erica have gone on, Jason is still around.
This picture is one of me standing in the doorway of the little shack that Bobby and I paid to be built behind Miss Ruby's Tip Top Cottages while it was still under construction.
Looking back on it, I cannot believe I was not concerned about secondhand smoke, but I guess few people were back then.
This is great...must have been a great place and time to be
They paved paradiseQuote:
Originally Posted by STRIPER
And put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique
And a swinging hot SPOT
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
‘Til it's gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
Joanie Mitchell
Piggymon, I just went out with Miss Rubys daughter a couple weeks ago and had afew cocktails. We had agood time and talked about the old days,do you remember a guy named Brock?
Great story - I bet the incident hurt your chances with the gals ... or did it?
Francis, all three of them acted like they wanted to make it with me, both before and after I almost lost one over the horizon.Quote:
Originally Posted by francis
The cutest one, the one I spent all my time chasing, led me on because she knew that the minute that she stopped acting like she was going to make it with me I would have immediately shifted all my time and attention to candidate #2 and candidate #2 was ready, willing, and able to get it on with me. The cutest girl had a boyfriend back in Toronto who she did not want to cheat on and she decided that candidate #2 was too young and innocent, so she was protecting the young girl by shining me on. No big deal, you win some and you lose some. I won more than my fair share, so I am not complaining.
When you can pull off wearing a speedo bathing suit, finding gals willing to get up close and personal is not a major problem. And when you have a one track mind and a prey drive that puts a pitbull to shame, good things happen.
I do remember a guy named Brock, but not well. Cooliemon, El Presidente, and Eddie I remember best.Quote:
Originally Posted by bigga
I started this thread hoping to find out what became of Steve Sharp, but I was talking to an old buddy of mine from back in the day and he said that he heard that Eddie died from being pushed through a glass window by a girlfriend and that Steve died from an infection in his ankle. I remember Steve getting road rash from a motorcycle accident and getting all cut up from falling over a wall and onto the coral at a house on the cliffs, but he recovered from both of those episodes. I wonder if Steve's death had anything to do with the time I took him down to Santa Cruz Bolivia?
He got the clap while we were down there and he went to a hole in the wall clinic for a shot of antibiotic to cure the clap. I remember the needles soaking in some liquid in an open stainless steel pan. The shot cleared up the clap, but on our way home Steve started to feel sick and the whites of his eyes turned yellow and we figured out that he had hepatitis. I am not sure what type of hepatitis he had, but I know that Hepatitis C can be bad. Any type of hepatitis can be bad if you drink alcohol and Steve liked to drink.
A lot of old timers remember El Presidente. A couple of years ago his nephew Leonard (Tango) took me down to the water at the bottom of Porters Cave in Red Ground. Back in the day El Presidente was the only Jamaican that would venture down to the water.
http://www.negril.com/discus/message...41/276001.html
Regards,
Bob
do any of you old timers remember the" Morning Star" bus that would come up from the country in the early morning ???
Morning Star and Bluebird.Quote:
Originally Posted by suzengrace
Piggy-mon speedo photo ...
Tarzan of Negril! Where's Jane & Cheetah? The era of "when the hippies came" was remarkable - we were exceptionally fortunate to have experienced a taste of paradise, even though we were the initial influence that cost Negril its pristine nature and cultural virginity ... I think the real reason was you in your speedo!
francis....off the subject for a moment..but, where in present day was Millie & Charlie's property located? Also, Elijah & Norlina's? Thanx, only a couple of chapters left to go.
Kimbobwee,
Croton Grove - it is almost directly across from the Blue Cave Castle - Elijah's real name is Everton and he is the current owner of the property, and Millie (whose real name was Daisy) and Charlie are no longer alive. Norlina is a fictional character. Elkhannah the fishermen died just 3 days before my May 2011 visit (when I stayed at the Blue Cave Castle to write the final chapters that you are now reading); I visited all of the places mentioned in the novel to stimulate memory and imagination. Lord Joseph was dead and his sister, Auntie May, is now owner of his lovely cave (she keeps it under lock and key but will let you go in if you buy a Red Stripe from her and sit and chat for a while - she is quite eccentric - most Negril Jamaicans and tourist are).
Thank you for taking the time to read the novel, it was a labor of love and quite enjoyable to write.
Respect & Irie,
Fren-mon (Francis O. Lynn)
Attachment 34876
Can anyone recall where this photo was taken?
This could be one of a 100 places in Negril, maybe more depending on the year it was taken.
Francis, thanx so much....I know Everton. Have stayed at Croton Grove numerous times and BBC. Staying at Le Mirage right now for the first time...on nite #28 of 30, leave on Wednesday. Much Respect....Thanx again.
1977--perhaps Mariners? It was along the water, there was a bar, I think in the shape of a boat. It was near Mirage.
Glad to find this site---brings back a lot of memories. First time in Negril was in 1973. We stayed in a house in Red Ground. Don't remember the name, but they had the guys roll us a couple of spliffs. Went back and forth from 1973 to 1977/78. Stayed on the cliffs with Sammy Jackson. Then on the beach at the Sands Club. At the Sands Club they let me stay for free in a tree house on the property. Last time I was in Negril was when they were building the resort at the end of the beach. Haven't been back, not sure if it would be hard to see how much it's changed. Saw some recent photos from the beach---it was sad to see. Some of the resorts had roped off swimming areas. He also had some video of the area around where the Wharf Club had been--didn't look as peaceful as I remember. Has anyone that was there in the 70's returned after all those years? It was such a special, beautiful place, not sure seeing all the development and changes would make it difficult to be there.
I would gather that it does not resemble anything close to what you remember. However, it is indeed still a very special place.
Look familiar?
Attachment 38387
Great picture! Weekly (Wednesdays?) tours came in from Montego Bay. They had a buffet with lobster pizza. Eleanor and Hans owned it. Lovely people. Is the Sands Club still there? If not, what is?