my first time also 1974. February i believe . also 2 dollar a night in Red Ground at the Mosely family Old Pal
Cottage,. drove from Atlanta to Miami . I'm kinda upset now cause my flight was 99 dollars .
wish i could live this soon to be 50 years of trips again
Nope, this was up closer to where Sandals is now. I made a mistake after thinking about it (62 is fun), it was the Sands Club. It was a bar that happened to build some rooms.Originally Posted by Irie John
I know the owners names, but I probably won't remember them until 3am or some such nonsense.
Negril.com - For the vacation that never ends!
Eleanor!!!
That was the Sands Club owner's name!
CaptainD put together a great video from 1983 at the Sands Club and thankfully he put Eleanor's name in the post so I was able to find it! Here is the link to his original post:
https://negril.com/forum/showthread....string-of-fish
Negril.com - For the vacation that never ends!
Thank Rob the brain is a little foggy.
Everyone is up and I take a little walk up the road and find a small stand selling fresh hand squeezed orange juice by the side of the road, well its not really what you would think of as a road side stand in the state but it was a board across 1 rock and a tree root with a hand paint sign. I did not have to ask the sales pitch for the young girl started before I even saw it behind the bush, I had not been in the sun yet a glowed a bright white. But orange juice was just what I wanted. How much $1 dollar ok, she gets to work on making it twisting and really working the orange over a piece of rock, remember this is 1974 and not need for modern appliances they still are living in the dark with no electricity yet.
she pours the first bit in a rum bottle and then gets another orange and repeats the process over and over until the bottle is full, that is fresh and good.
That little stand ground in to this enterprise by 1980 cases cold beer is not really cold but we won't worry about false advertising.
I walk back down to Georges house our cottage with the juice and we decide its time to head to the beach, we don't have any sun tanning oil.
I see Franklin out in the yard and ask him where we can get some and he howlers some the out and out come Daisy no problem mon, she disappear for a like while and come back with a you guessed it rum bottle full of a goldfish colored liquid in it the bottle still hade the over-proof label on it, she hands it to me and I take the cap off and put my nose to it and it is a smokey sweet coconut smell , how much you know it $1 us dollar, I love this place we will never run out of money.
We jump in the little yellow ford and down the road we go.
This is Franklin doing some yard work.
We go around the little roundabout and head out of town for the beach we just pull off the road by where a path has be worn down to the beach and park and start to walk and find our encounter with briers sticking us every where below the knees. but we limp and hope to the sand and pick the stickers out of our feet.
What a beautiful beach and clear blue water, we come form Va Beach and the ocean there is more green gray and not clear at all.
We see a few nuked white people laying out getting taner they have be here for a while from the lot there tans a a few people walking do the beach, mostly lady with load of something on there heads.
Be here is a couple walking together and she is topless and the guy walking toward them has his street shoes and white sock on and black rim glass, he looked like Buddy Holly,
I wish more of him showed ing the picture.
This was Negril back in the day.
The sail boat anchored outside the reef I saw in a earlier post on the old board and with its captain at the wheel sailing it, I think he is or was on the board he was a white guy.
The sail boat was a tan with brown trim.
We fry on the beach for for a while and then head to the store by the round-about on the way back up the hill.
We are good and pink now, it only takes one day.
lane,
In your second to last post you refer to " I saw in a earlier post on the old board and with its captain at the wheel sailing it. I think he is or was on the board he was a white guy"
I believe that you are referring to Captain Dave who was a long time and respected poster on this forum. Cap'n D passed away several months ago from cancer. It is my understanding that he had worked in Jamaica back in the 60's and 70's as a boat captain for Wray and Nephew who owned Appleton Estate. Cap'n D also was a fond resident in Negril where he established the one and only small sailboat rental business on Negril Beach ant at one time if I am not mistaken had two spots one up towards Rutland Point and one not far north from the Negril River in town. He also had a son named Linston who is a highly recommended driver for many on this board. Dave also established a home in Jamaica, whose name escapes me, about 30 minutes inland from Negril. Captain Dave was a go to guy for many on this board and his passing was very sad for many of us. Rest in Peace Dave!!!
Captaind's home here was called Zion Hill. Linston can still be contacted there as he is now running the property.
Negril.com - For the vacation that never ends!
John, Yes that was the person I thought it was and I did see a while back that a Capt. had pass but with out his boat was not sure, bless him and let him rest in peace.
I just found the photo a a woman with the basket on her head on the beach, todays visited could not be let how empty and still it was back them.
I guess al it took to change all of that was a few hippies spreading the word about good Ganga, Rum and Food when you could find back then.
But in the right state of mind everything was good and we all had that in common.
Heading back up the road from the round-about here is the from of the "Negril Yacht" with its long blue awning to welcome you but no yachts there I go with being hung up on advertising again.
But it did a have a large deck on the back that you had alt to your self.
We pull in the yard and park and see a stick with palm leaves tied to it to make a nice broom out against the front wall and Georgie on her hands and knee
with a half of a coconut shell rubbing the tile floor and she made them shine. That was all of the house keeping there was to be done.
She ask if everything was good and I said yes but we could do with less Mosquitos, with a big smile she said "ya Mon'' and that was it.
But that night Daisy did give use two extra coils light in the middle of the night, any thing to make out stay more enjoyable.
We put the hard cracker, caned cheese along with a can of pineapple juice for the bottles of Appletons Rum and Wray and Nephew OverProof on the little counter top with a jar of instant
Blue Mountain coffee. We grab the Red Strip and put a few more in the little gas refg.
Daisy walks over and I ask her if there I could find some ice, I not to the hot rum yet, no problem mon and goes back to get a small chunk of ice raped in a piece of burlap bag and tell me to put it in the refg.
We take cool showers and make drinks and have a smoke out back.
Not feeling the sun burn any more or at least not as much we go sit on the from porch and wait for some thing to go by, unlike now you have to wait to cross the road.
To give some of you an idea of where Georgie place is we are looking right across the road from the large white iron gate with Tensing Pen on it and the stone wall on either side.
It must cost more the $9 USA a night for 4, we will find out later.
Then this big cloud of Ganga smoke comes down the road and in it is the guy for yesterday walk in by. and he said "Hay mon you want a Spleaf" ya so we smoked with him and his name was Gladstone and he lived just up the road we talk a bit or he talked a lot and we listen. and then he walk on down the road.
We decided to walk up the road to see what was up that way and we came to this.
lane,
Great memories you bring to this thread!! Many I had forgotten especially the mosquitoes!! I remember one night at Gloria's Sunset Cottages I had a small room with a girl friend from Vermont and it was a very hot and humid night. The room has slatted windows but no screens on them. We were embraced in a rather romantic vibe and so to try and cool off a bit we opened the slats on the window. Very bad move!! We got eaten alive!! Funny how those memories are so clear!!
It looks like this thread has become a free Dementia test for all you old timers, just remember it the old memories to go last. Sitting in a chair starring out in space and have the picture of the good old in your head.
Last edited by lane; 12-05-2022 at 09:54 AM.
Rob, thanks for that slow and real the Negril way.
