The first house above, is the house where I was born. It's located in Estate Coble.
The house did not look like what is in the photo. It was more like the second house in the
photo. It did have a porch, which was over the cistern, and a staircase. I lived in the house
with Titi Guilla, my godmother, and her family. I can still remember the aroma of coffee she made in the morning. During the day, men riding horses would visit to pick up food and coffee. It turned out these men were relatives, one Ma's uncle, and worked in the Bethlehem Sugar Factory close by. Later, I was told that every time Ma visited, I would cry as she and the family left. Eventually, Ma took me to live in town with the family.
The pink house above is where I was told we first house we lived. It was on Prince Street.
I really can't remember the house. Prior to Hurricane Hugo, here stood a one-story wooden house. The house was subdivided into apartment. I think Mother said the house was owned by a Miss Henry. Mother called these homes "ranchones" or "cuarteles".
From Prince Street, we moved around the corner to Queens Cross Street,
the green house. (I have been told that before moving to Prince Street, we lived in an
apartment behind Johnny Belardo's store on Queen Street.)
Sometime in 1960, we moved to Ludvig E. Harrigan Court (Harrigan), the 4th photo above.
There we had indoor plumbing, 3 separate bedrooms, a kitchen/dining room, a living room, a bathroom and 2 porches. The lawns were well maintained and there were plants
throughout the area. We also had swings, a slide, and a basketball court.
My memories of Frederiksted began on Queen Cross Street. The green house is where we
lived. There were no bricks on the porch when we lived there. The house was a gray color,
the color of unpainted cement. We lived on the left half ad Carmen and Bucky lived in the right half. Carmen Bucky eventually moved to Puerto Rico, where she died. Bucky stayed on St. Croix and eventually became a policeman, who has also died.
On Queen Cross Street, we had no indoor plumbing. We had to fetch water from a communal faucet that was close to the corner of Queen Cross and Prince Streets.
The quarters on Queen Cross were tight. I remember the bedroom being filled with beds and a crib. There was also a "chiforoble", and armoire. In the living room, I remember there was furniture and at night a hammock being set up. Was it where Paco slept?
From Queen Cross, we moved to Ludvig Harrigan Court Project, a new development that
had been built by the government of low-income individuals. We had indoor plumbing and
the place was nice. The apartment had 3 bedrooms, kitchen, living room and two porches.
We were surrounded by beautiful lawns and many plants. We also had a basketball court, swings, slides, etc. I think we moved into Harrigan in the summer of 1960.
The town of Frederiksted was filled with excitement. Malls did not exist at the time. It was a time when we spent more time with family and friends. There were fewer cars.
The businesses were located throughout the street. On Queen Cross I remember
Don Domingo's, Don Tomas and the Tamarindo Bar. Some homes had no phone or TV.
Even with less, we had more fun. What happened to the good old days?
I attended St. Patrick School from Kindergarten to 8th grade. Before St. Joseph High School was built, it was Kindergarten to 12. The kindergarten was close to the convent, which was on the corner of Prince and Hill Streets. I attended St. Joe's from 9th to 12th grade. We walked to St. Pat's but had to take a bus to St. Joe's. Almost every classroom in St. Joe's leaked when it rained.
In the classrooms, we were only allowed to speak English unless it was a foreign language class. Mother preferred we speak only Spanish in the house. Though we were not happy, in retrospect, it was a great idea. We learned to maintain our fluency in English and Spanish. Ma knew very little Crucian/English. On the street we spoke English, Spanish and Crucian (pronounced Cru-shan.) It was fun switching from English to Spanish to the dialect. Most non-Spanish speaking friends thought we were talking about them when we switched to Spanish. That was rarely the case. It was just easier for us to say certain things in Spanish.
The most incredible incident that took place in St. Pat's was the note that was sent home
which my brother decided to answer. My teacher, a nun, wanted to know my full name.
It was Jorge Luis Rodriguez. My brother wrote on the note, "George Wash the Clothes".
Why clothes? Mother did laundry for a few families in the neighborhood. The nun was not amused. The teacher decided to speak with my brother. I don't know what happened.
Was he punished?
At one time, a group of friends from Frederiksted owned pigs. They were kept in pens on
New Street on the northern side of the cemetery. Eventually, the lot would become the "new" Catholic convent. One day Ma goes to feed her pig and it was gone. Someone had stolen the pig! How did she know? There was a 2x4 in the pen with blood on it. It looks like the pig had been bludgeoned to death. Strangely enough, someone later came by the house and gave Ma portions of meat from a pig. They claimed it was their pig that had just been slaughtered. Ma always felt that the cuts she received were from her pig!!
Growing up on St. Croix was exciting. Where else would I have learned English, Spanish
and Crucian? Where else would I have been able to enjoy Puerto Rican and Crucian foods? The locals had kallaloo (a soup with spinach, okra, pork, meat, conch and land crabs. When done it looks like a green mush and most people get turned off by the color and slimy texture. However, it's delicious. The original kallaloo was made with leaves from a small bush that grew in the wild. We called it the kallaloo bush, but it is also known as papalulu or papalolo (Corchoros siliquosus). I doubt the bush can be found growing on the island. With all the "development" on St. Croix lots of local plants have been lost. People switched to using spinach. Some people call it callaloo, calaleu or calelu). There is also souse (a stew made from pig's head, pig's tail or pig feet), fungee (fungi, cornmeal), sweet peas soup (made with red kidney beans, sweet potatoes, meats, etc.), and a lot of other dishes. The best red peas soup was made by Ms. Isabelle Romero. At home, we had arroz con pollo (rice with chicken), pernil (pork), lechon (roast pig), stewed kidney beans, morcillas, pasteles, pastelillos (meat patties, empanadas), etc. [Strangely enough, in 2003, I found a kallaloo bush growing outside the house, #46, next to Cinderella (#45). I was so pleased finding it, I showed it to my niece Daisy.)
And then there were all the local fruits plus the ones imported from the US. We had guava (guayaba, Psidium guajava), jojo plum (aprin, Ziziphus mauritania), hog plum (the fruit from the Spondias mombin tree, jobo), genip (kenep or kennep, quenepa), mango (Mangifera indica), sour sop (guanabana, Annona muricata), sugar apple (anon, Annona squamosa), custard apple (corazón, Annona reticulata), mammi (mamey, marmee, Mammea americana), sea side grapes (Coccoloba uvifera), and a bunch of other great tasting fruits (gooseberry, mespel, coco plum, guavaberry, locust, etc). My mouth waters just writing about it.
During the holidays, we had pasteles (Puerto Rican)), arroz con dulce (PR), potato stuffing (Crucian), guavaberry (Cru),coquito (PR), etc.
Puerto Ricans are good at making various soups. These were not part of a 5-course meal but were usually the main meal. The soups had lots of meat(s) and vegetables. Most people served arepas (Johnny cakes) with the soup, especially the one containing spaghetti. Here are the various soups we ate: Asopao - could be made with lobster, pigeon peas, or chicken, etc., rice diced potatoes (optional) and spices (sofrito). Sofrito was made by sautéing in pot or pan a little cooking oil (aceite), recao, chopped onions (cebolla), pimiento, tomato sauce (salsa de tomate), and salt to taste. Once this is done, the other ingredients would be added. Guíso - chicken or beef, etc., and another other vegetable you wanted to add like tania, sweet potato, bollito (made from green banana and contained salt and very little flour), cabbage, yuca (casava), and dumplins (dumplines). Sopa - choice of meat, sofrito, potato and spaghetti. Strangely enough, my brother and I didn't care for the various soups. We felt they were not filling enough. Ma always made something else for us whenever she made soup. Usually, we were served rice, beans and a meat. Today, I enjoy eating soup.
And then there were all the teas made from plants. There was a bush tea for headaches, stomachaches, toothaches, insomnia, etc. We hardly had to go to the pharmacy to buy anything that was chemically prepared. some of the herbal treatments tasted nasty but they worked!!
Family was very important when I was growing up. Most weekends, we spent in Estate Whim,
in what we called La Granja. There, we'd visit Mama Lola and Papa Leo. Other relatives
would also visit. Sometimes, they'd be relatives visiting from off island. A big feast would be prepared when relatives from off island visited. At times, the men would kill and clean a pig and roast it. It was fun seeing the men at work. Other times whatever was butchered would be cut up in pieces. On some occasions, morcillas would be made. Making morcillas was like an assembly line.
On some weekends, we'd go to the beach. There was First and Second Target Walls,
Dorsch Beach, Prosperity Beach, Sandy Point and Cramer's Park to mention a few.
We walked to some of the beaches. When we needed a car, Pin (Pablo, cousin, one of
Titi Guilla's sons) would take us. He would use one of the vehicles he was repairing.
Some of us would be embarrassed to be seen in the back of a truck! In June, around
"El Dia de San Juan" in June, we would go to Ham's Bluff with Maria Monell and her
children. We'd walk to Ham's Bluff and spent the day there. We'd fish and ate what we
caught. Sometimes, we'd have whelks (wilks).
And when I was not in La Granja, Estate Coble or on the beach, I'd be with friends fishing
on the pier, hunting or looking for fruits. We'd walk to Annaly for mangoes in the summer.
There were many trees in Lawaetz property. As long as we wouldn't break a tree limb,
we were allowed to pick all the mangoes we wanted. Mesples we got from Clark's pasture.
Coco plums (icaco) were picked when we were at Sandy Point if it was the season. It was
said that eating too many could cause constipation.
Sometimes I would sit with a group of buddies on a bench in the park on Strand Street.
We'd watch the ships passing by. If a ship looked as if it as going to visit the island, we'd try to guess what type of ship it was. Some weekends, Navy ships visited the island. On Sunday, they'd have open house. We'd be able to visit the ship(s) and learn a little about how it operated, etc. The few cruise ships that visited also had open house. It was fun visiting the ships. (Was this when I became hooked to cruises?)
There were more than one group I hung out with since not each friend was interested in the same activity. The group going to Annaly would not necessarily be the same group going fishing, etc.
On Strand Street, we had Jacaranda and Seven Flags. Seven Flags was for adults since it mostly a bar. Jacaranda was an all-in-one establishment. It was an ice cream parlor, a restaurant, a bar, a club with a big dance floor in the back, a place to hang out, etc.
The jukebox had great music. There was a photo taking machine in a booth that produces photos instantly. It was very popular. I think for a dime or quarter one would get 3 or 4
black and white photos. Some of these photos are on another page.
By the time I became interested in watching movies on a big screen, the theater on Market Street was closed. It was located in the Gardine's property. I did, however, go to Alexander Hamilton Theater in Christiansted. The first flick I saw there was a James Bond movie. I think it was James Bond's "Thunderball". One of Ma's friends took me. He bought me a fruit and nut chocolate bar and ate a portion while watching the movies. When I got home, I placed what left over in the freezer. In the morning, when I removed the wrapper, I noticed white things among the fruits. What were they? A fruit I didn't recognize? No. They white things were worms! Did I eat worms in the theater?
While living in Harrigan, some afternoons my friends and I would play games. Games like
hide-and-seek, touch the post (an expanded version of hide-and-seek). We used wooden
boxes and empty cans, etc., to make our own go cars. At other times, we played marbles
(we played a game called knox/nucks), cack (cahk, cock), bingo, checkers, etc. I will not describe the marble games.
Some evenings, we'd go "torching". We'd fill empty bottles with kerosene, place an old rag into the bottle and light it. We'd have a "torch". The light would startle the land crabs thus making it easier to catch them. It's a miracle we did not blow ourselves up or had any kind of accident! We also caught crabs during the day using other techniques. We mostly hunted for crabs in what we called James' Pasture (the area was owned by the James family). When it rained heavily, the gut that ran almost parallel to St. Patrick School would fill with water and to avoid getting drowned, the crabs would come to the surface. The gut emptied in the Caribbean Sea. The area was also called Pan (Pond) Bush. Figure it out.
Cahk/Cack/Cock was played using the seed of a locust fruit. The fruit will be shown under
one of the St. Croix pages. The fruit is not cherished by all. In Spanish, we call it
"miel en cajeta". Translation? Honey in a box. Not really. More like feces in a box. It's an acquired taste. Anyway, we'd bore a hole in the black seed, pass a piece of twine thought the hole and make a knot at the other end. The long twine we'd hold in our hand and repeatedly hit the opponent's cahk until we missed or broke it. The goal was to break the opponent's cahk. However, some players discovered that soaking the seed in kerosene made it soft and thus, harder to break.
Touch the post consisted of two teams. One team would hide and then the other team would look for the individuals hiding. Once found and touched, the person was no longer in the game. The team that was doing the searching had to keep 2 or 3 team members guarding the post, usually a light pole. If the pole was touched by an opponent, then that team would be able to hide again. If the team guarding the pole touched all members of the opposing team, then they would be able to hide. The winner would be the team that did not allow the post to be touched. What happened often was that someone would sneak home never to be found/touched and that would bring the gam to an end. We played this game at night.
There were two weird games we played, Stone War and Policeman. I will desribe the former but not the latter. Policeman was a disgusting game and one the word got out as how it was played and what was involved, no one cared to play it. My brother saved me from the disaster. Stone war was a war of stones. We'd have two teams and each would collect rocks/stones. They were placed at the opposing end of the street. I think the captain of each team would meet in the middle of the street then run to their pile of rocks. Rocks would be thrown at each other. What was the object of the game? God only knows. When did the game end? I suppose when one of the teams ran out of rocks or when someone got hit and began to bleed? An injury on the head was called "chap". Did we consider this fun? (I suppose today, the stones/rocks have been replaced with real weapons?)
After graduating for St. Joe's, I decided not to shave. Why? One day, I got off the bus.
The principal had a habit of standing guard and inspected how we were groomed, dressed, etc. I had a fuzz on my face that the principle did not like. It was very light hair, almost blond. When I got off the bus, he called me over. He told me to go home and shave. How did I get home? When I got home, did I buy a razor or was there one in the house? Shaving hurt. I didn't care for it. I would go 20 years to shave. Why did I shave? To surprise Mother. She wasn't too fond of my beard.
I moved to New York City in 1969 and have been here since. I attended St. Francis College
on Remsen Street in Brooklyn from 1969 to 1973. In July 1973, I began to work at the
Social Security Administration (SSA), which at the time was part of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). I began as a Grade 5 (GS-5) trainee and when I left in 1993, I was a GS-13. I also worked for a non-profit agency from 1998 to 2103. I have lived in Brooklyn, Washington Heights, Elmhurst and Corona. I have been living in LeFrak City since 1980.
