Higglers !!

[hackwriter]

My husband (R.I.P.) and I went to Negril 12 times between 1987 and 2006. In those late 80s - early 90s days, the higgler scene was about guys walking down the beach with you for a while before giving you the pitch. My husband was always about finding good ganja, so we usually had a lot of interaction. It really wasn't until cocaine hit the scene that things got dicey, and I blame people who did coke at home and wanted to do it there. My husband knew his way around mind-altering substances of all kinds, and even he was baffled at why you'd want to do an "edgy" drug instead of a "mellow" one in Jamaica. We were recognized every year because he was six feet tall and I was under five feet tall, and I had a habit of walking down the beach wearing a T-shirt with this on it, which the Jamaicans found endlessly amusing:


Those of you who were around the area of the T-Water in those days in, say, July through November, may even have seen us. But once cocaine hit, the beach guys got edgier, grabbing hands and tying "reggae bracelets" on you as a "present", then demanding money and looking for you on the beach till you coughed up the money. Then the prostitutes became aggressive, and "How Stella Got Her Groove Back" came out and the rastitutes became aggressive. We got older, it stopped being "local color" and stopped being fun and started being annoying. So we started going to Bloody Bay (Couples and SATP) and finally to Club Ambiance in Runaway Bay. And when I came back last October to have my husband's ashes buried at sea, my sister, brother-in-law and I stayed at SATP.

I doubt I will ever go back. I am in my 60s now, none of my friends are interested in going, and frankly, I don't want to be hassled. No, I don't want my groove back, I don't take drugs, and I have plenty of souvenirs from 19 trips to Jamaica, 12 of them in Negril. I actually think one is safer in smaller hotels where I think they do better staff screening, but being intimidated, yelled at, and have my beach walk interrupted, is not what I want to spend my fixed income on. This makes me sad. I wish it were different. It would be a way to connect with those good times 20-30 years ago, but unless things change, I don't see myself returning. :-(

All that said, we really loved it in Negril until it got just too funky.