Testimony of one Jamaican - Chapter 3

My visits to Ms. Mattie’s yard (house) were not only frequent but extended. It was often the case that if Mom wanted to see me, she would have to go to Mattie to do so. This worked out fine for Mom, since she was a teacher in training and needed a lot of time to devote to her studies, i.e. if she was going to pass those exams that would make her a real (professional) teacher.

She taught at the high school during the days and studied at night by the light of a candle or kerosene lamp. Back then there was hardly a house that had light (Electricity). I guess this is what was meant by the expression of “burning the midnight oil.” With her husband gone most nights and her baby by Ms. Mattie, this was the best thing she could do with her nights.

Ms. Mattie was a stay-at-home Mom and a very good one. The experience she gained from raising her own 5 children, more than qualified her to take care of me. Of all her children I think she might have loved Dad the most, in my mind, this was the only explanation I could give, for the affection I was shown.

I was a very ambitious child even as a toddler; long before I had mastered the art of creeping I was trying to walk. Mattie said she would tell me over and over, “Yuh haffi creep before yuh can walk” But it seemed I would ignore her and hold on to everything that I could reach to enable my ambition of walking. She said I crept for a week then walked naturally after that.

Apart from the kitchen, there were two main buildings in Mattie’s yard. A one-room wooden structure and a three-room concrete structure. The kitchen was a scantily built free-standing structure that had four rough wooden posts for foundation and rotting zinc as its roof. There were three counters there that stored all the utensils needed for cooking. There was a counter built out of concrete in the center, on it was the coal stove. This was where the kitchen fire was built to cook all meals. If it should rain, and it did often in these parts, Mattie had to put on rain gear to cook.

I still remember sitting on the verandah of her cubby looking into the kitchen and seeing smoke rising from it as she prepared our meals. Each meal had a special taste since in addition to the heat which resonated from the fire, they were also marinated with the smoke that rose from the lit coals. As you can imagine kerosene was a very special commodity since it was used to start our meal fires.

The one -room was where Mr. George (Mattie’s husband) stayed and the other was Mattie’s house. Till this day I don’t know why they both slept in different quarters. I never thought anything of it at the time.

In the concrete structure, two of the rooms were transformed into bedrooms and the largest was the dining-room/living- room/1/2 kitchen. The largest room had a 2-burner kerosene oil stove to one side, and on the other side, just off to the right of the window, in the corner was a wooden table with two chairs. There was a long white plastic cloth over it, which acted as its cover. Although it was not obvious this was a three-legged table, and it needs to be in that corner so that it would not topple over.

There were only 3 items stored on this table. Her fruit basket filled with plastic fruits, the kerosene lamp and a couple of cookbooks, which looked like they had been with her for too many years.  Not too far from the table was a piece of furniture that up till this day I only know as the “buffet”. This was where Ms. Mattie kept all her important stuff papers and fancy crockery. There was also some paper that only Mattie could tell what was written on them. At my age, I thought this might have been some special inscription that Mattie had put on these papers, but I was wrong. I later found out that only she could read the papers because there was no one else in the yard that could.

In one of the two draws at the base were some of her extra special seasonings, she used these to bake at Christmas time. I’m not sure why these were not kept in the real kitchen outside. In the other draw was the cutlery- 2 forks, 1 dinner knife, and plenty of spoons which might have been ten now that I think about it. When you’re a toddler even 10 seems like plenty- Above the draws were two glass doors, which swung out when open. These doors were always kept locked to keep Ms. Mattie’s valuable crockery safe. Only Ms. Mattie knew where the key was at any given time.

There were 3 glass shelves in the buffet. On the top were the very, very special items. Like her first wine glass, her 4x6 framed wedding picture, and some other drinking glasses. On the second shelf were the special plates, these only came out when there was a visitor or any other special occasion. On the third shelf were some larger bowls, in my estimation, these were probably serving trays rather than bowls. I never saw them used so I did not know what they were for.

Our daily need for utensils was met by the enamel cups and plates stored in the red basin, which was kept on top of a small water drum, stored next to the buffet. The water from this drum met all our in-house water needs.

I know you’re thinking it, so let me answer. The bathroom was also outside. In the back of Mattie’s cubby, right next to the pit toilet was a 4-walled zinc structure that Mattie and Cinthy (her last daughter) used to bathe. As for the rest of us, we had to bathe by the standpipe which was in the open at the base of the yard.

I'll be posting the entire book to Amazon soon.