Hartley NeitaTHE PARISHES of Kingston and St. Andrew were once communities, each with their distinctive character. For example, houses in Bournemouth Gardens in eastern Kingston had a different architectural style than those in Vineyard Town, St. Andrew, and different from the mansions on South Camp Road in Kingston and Hope Road in St. Andrew.
As in rural Jamaica, these residents in the city lived as family. In South Camp Road they were members of the Kingston Cricket Club and you could find them all playing or watching cricket at Sabina Park on Saturday afternoons and bridge and lawn tennis on Sundays after church at the Holy Trinity Cathedral on North Street, the East Queen Street Baptist Church, or the Kingston Parish Church at The Parade.
Residents living in Kingston Gardens attended the nearby St. Paul's Church, sent their children to either Kingston or St. George's colleges and watched cricket at either Sabina or Emmett Park. Further west, in the Lyndhurst district of Cross Roads, teenagers and young men and women in their early 20s, not yet married, were members of the Lyndhurst Methodist Church's Social Group even if they were Anglicans or Roman Catholics, and packed the church hall on Thursday nights to play table tennis, and listen to debates or amateur concerts. These same young people went in groups to the Carib cinema for the afternoon matinee shows on Saturdays the Morrisons, Walkers, Picarts, Shaws, Bairs, Kongs, and Searchwells.
NO INNER-CITY STIGMA
Like their rural counterparts, they were also family.
In that time, the principals lived beside the schools. Parents knew where to find them after school or during the holidays, and it was not to fight or cut them with knives; it was to discuss problems they were having with their children. Teachers and parents had a rapport.
Parson also lived in the manse beside the churches. There was no inner-city stigma then. Parson could be found at any hour of the day or night to visit homes to pray for the sick or comfort families after death. They were always available to give counsel to the troubled.
The sports clubs were also part of these communities. Newton Square residents were a part of Lucas Cricket Club. They were present at Nelson Oval every Saturday to see George Headley stroke another century and Ken 'Bam Bam' Weekes hit his many sixes in his many centuries.
NO IRON GRILLS
Residents in a community did not have to know the house number of the house in which their neighbours lived. In Vineyard Town, everyone knew that the Myers with five beautiful daughters lived four houses from the eastern junction of Grafton and Deanery Roads, the Dixons were two houses further on the road, the DaCostas Yvonne who became the prima donna of the National Dance Theatre Company, and Ossie, the singing pianist who whispered romantic songs at the El Grotto Club in Papine were also on Grafton Road. So, too, were the Services and the Munros.
There were no iron grills protecting verandahs and windows. Front doors were always open. You could knock on the door and shout your presence and be welcomed with a glass of lemonade.
Every morning in these communities, the bread carts and milk wagons stopped at door after door and placed bread and milk on the doorsteps. Some-times the front doors were open at these early hours and the
deliverymen shouted good
mornings to the householders. These men were like family, too.
Today, the head teachers live miles away from the schools. Members of churches rarely live close to the church they attend on Sundays, and the parson also lives far, far away. Members of the sports clubs in Kingston live as far away as Stony Hill and Gordon Town. Only football as a sport now keeps communities as friends.
Otherwise, neighbours in communities in Kingston and St. Andrew are no longer friends anymore.
