Dreaming of TT Christmas

THE EDITOR: I couldn’t sleep last night. I kept dreaming. Dreaming of Christmases in Trinidad. It’s four o’clock Friday morning and I am haunted by the exciting memories of Christmas in Trinidad, land of my birth. Yes, the parang singer was absolutely correct. Trini Christmas is de best. Aieeee! “Aye, Marj, ah feelin tu eat some stew pigeon peas. Peas that yuh pick straight from yuh garden. With cream from ah dry coconut dat yuh get from yuh next door neighbour. An pigtail dat yuh buy in San Juan Market. Add some fresh seasoning, ah green pepper an plenty TLC, Tender Loving Care, tuh de pot and you too would dream of yuh mother’s cooking.”

Whenever I dream of Christmas in sweet TT, an avalanche of tantalising scents and sights invade my head. On Christmas morning the air is filled with an abundance of sensory inputs: fresh bread and cakes, souse and black pudding, creole chocolate with bayleaf and cinnamon sticks, fresh local and foreign fruits, new linoleum and oilcloth, curtains and new clothes, and fresh paint. At lunch-time there is a smogarsboard of tasty dishes to attack: macaroni pie and callaloo, stew chicken, beef and pork, potato salad, fried rice, ground provision, watercress, lettuce and cucumbers, buttery avocado and sweet Trini plantain. Well, doh talk bout drinks.

Choose from sorrel, ginger beer, ponchacrema, rum punch, and soursop. Sounds of traditional Christmas carols, soca parang, calypso and ah rhythm section wid a doo-dup, guitar, some cuatro, chac-chac iron and ah flute assail you ears. Meh pardnahs from Mausica reach. Fete start...Yes, man, Trini Christmas is a wonderful, sensuous experience. Friends, as we celebrate this holy season, let’s pause to remember the reason for the season. Let us recommit our lives to adhere to His teachings. Happy holidays. May they be a blessed one for you.

RODNEY FOSTER
Stone Mountain, GA