Go back to 1974 on “memory lane”

[johng]

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!!

[lane]

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.

[lane]

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.



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

[lane]

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.

[lane]

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.

[lane]

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.

[Rumlover]

Wow! Loving it.

[lane]

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]

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.

[johng]

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!!