THE EDITOR, Madam:
AS I strolled down this familiar road, the once majestic houses with their proud fences are now barren and torn down. The happy voices of laughter that once filled these homes are now nothing but a distant echo lost in time.
Mrs. Green is still living at the house at the corner, she once knew all her tenants by name. Their children were her children. Now she is marooned in a small room in her four-bedroom house. She knows none of the people living in her home, their children mock and jeer her, and their parents abuse her. Her eyes are filled with tears as she walks past the huge sound boxes that will keep her awake all night again. It is such a long walk now from her small room to the shop to buy her daily piece of bread and some sugar.
Carol is now a mother of four children. They attend school sometimes, most of the time they are playing in an abandoned building next door. Robert the youngest at eight years old spends most of his time between Half Way Tree and Cross Roads wiping windscreens. He is no longer a child, but a man. His voice is coarse, his eyes red with anger and fear, his once childish laughter is now replaced with expletives and threats.
The twin brothers that were students at the High School on North Street are dead. Murdered by the gang up the road for a gun. Jack, the community artist, painted an impression of the brothers on the old bakery walls. Mr Smith the once owner of the bakery is now paralysed from the waist down. He was shot by either the police or the gunmen they were pursuing. There was no investigation. He is sitting by his daughter's room door waiting for her to come home. She sells books, merinos, and socks downtown. She is only 17 years old.
Alas, here is someone who is still the same, Teacher Gayle. She is still the principal for the basic school, she is not as quick on her feet anymore though. Part of the shed that once housed the entire basic school is now occupied by her grandson who does body repairs to cars there.
Life has changed so much and not for the better.
I am etc.,
F. A GREGORY
E-mail: kidwani@yahoo.com
PO Box 180. Kingston 5
Via Go-Jamaica
