Out of the ruins, mas history moves Some of

Pascal Ward is one of the few people walking around with a smile on his face in the wake of the destruction of D Nu Pub at cor Ariapita Avenue and French Street, Woodbrook, by fire on the morning of March 26.

Ward’s joy comes from the fact that nothing from the decades of mas history was touched by the fire which gutted the pub. His thousands of dollars in equipment, tools and moulds were untouched.

The genesis of the Mas Camp Pub was from the fact that it was on that very spot that the great Peter Minshall mas band was produced and moved off every Carnival.

The producers of the band felt they needed a “watering hole” and so the pub was born some 30 years ago.

That Woodbrook corner holds a big chunk of our cultural history when it comes to Carnival.

The Ward brothers were into mas as much as they were into calypso and both business ran simultaneously for years up until the fire.

Unfortunately Ward has to move the workshop since there is no electricity on the spot and it is not very safe any more. Since the fire he has been painstakingly moving his moulds and materials from the historic spot bit by bit.

A visit to the burnt-out venue saw Ward quietly cleaning some of his moulds; his mood very sombre but he was thanking God for saving not only the equipment and materials but for keeping the mas history alive in his mind.