Blackie and Jonny

Mommy used to send me to 75 East Street....
at least once a week for a while.....it was right across from
Centrl Police Headquarters which was on
East Queens Street. The lock-up was a high-rise
which was right opposite Mama's gate at 75 East Street.

I grew to love Mama a lot. She was getting older and sickly.
I helped clean up, emptied the chimmy and did whatever else
needed to be done, like sometimes take clothes off the line etc.
The highlight of all these visits however, was going to the bakery
around the corner on East Queens Street. As I would come out the
gate, sometimes I would hear the prisoners yelling from behind the
prison bars of the lock-up high above the roadway.

Mama would give me money to buy bulla or sweetie from "daddyman"
(Lannamans Confectionary where daddy worked). I never knew Tazman.
....Mama spoke a lot about Tazman, he died of pneumonia, I think he was
mommy's brother.....I was scared to take baths because mommy said
Tazman got pneumonia because he took a bath or something like that....O the
simplicity of the childlike mind !!!!

By far Jonny was more talked about than Tazman...or so it seemed to me, after all, Tazman was dead; Jonny was alive ....in ENGLAND. It just seemed to me
that Mamma was a lot sad because she had done a lot for a lot of people and yet
she seemed to end up alone. Jonny went to law school and was now a lawyer.
I can't recall ever meeting Jonny. Mr Black.....I don't really know what happened to him; I know that he was very good with a pick axe.....in fact I think he did cut down some branches of the very tall breadfruit tree that hung over our house at Hampton Street. Uncle Harry (Harold Johnson) was mama's brother he had a son who was a lawyer also and Aunt U (Eugene Griffiths); she was mama's sister...she had ducks in her yard and a HUGE tamarind tree....the tamerind were sweet...some had worms. Baba was mamas other sister who lived in New Market in St Elizabeth. The one time mommy ever left us was when she went to visit Baba (Emma Coley). Mommy left us a whole pot of rice and peas for sunday dinner. It was mango time and the black mango tree in the frontyard was in full glory...the rice and peas was mostly ingored that weekend...black mango ruled!!!

Blackie / Mama eventually came to live in our new house at ANTRIM.

So what is the point of this story?.....apart from me loving to tell stories.....

Well, I did learn a very powerful lesson just from observation....I don't think
mommy or daddy ever actually said anything about this.

the lesson is captured in the following.
GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)"Be careful not to do your good works in public in order to attract attention. If you do, your Father in heaven will not reward you.

And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. Colossians 3:17