Hartley Neita, ContributorTIME WAS when Sunday was a holy day of rest. Voices in homes were softer than normal. The only loud sound was the ringing of the church bell calling the faithful to worship, and from all around families walked together to church. Every mother and daughter wore their hats. Some men also did, and these wore waistcoats.
In homes after church, children read books. All day, except for eating time. No child dared play snakes and ladders, for that was a gambling game; tee-taw-tow, however, was permitted. Cricket matches were never played on Sundays, and it took years of national debate before Senior Cup cricket was played and only when the public accepted the pro-Sunday-cricket argument that it would not interfere with church services as matches started after these prayers and hymns.
Time was, too, when stores and shops were closed on Sundays. Bars, also were closed, and the only places one could get alcoholic drinks were hotels. In my village, essential groceries could be obtained from the Chinese grocery at the side window of the shop, Later, stores and shops were allowed to be open on Sundays during the 30 days preceding Christmas. Now, these shops and supermarkets, and pharmacies are open on Sundays, and supermarkets sell rum, whisky, wines, beers and other alcoholic drinks to their customers on this holy day.
Children once walked for miles to and from school in sun and in rain. Parents did not have cars to take them and their only luck was a passing dray on which they would beg a ride. Lunch was a sugar bun and half a fritters for a penny.
Outside of Kingston and a few other urban centres, there were no telephones. Children were sent with messages to neighbours, and people walked to visit friends within the village. Street lights were few and far between and duppies and rolling calves lived in the shadows of the night.
Every village had a dressmaker with signs "Sewing and Embroidery Done Here" on the fence announcing these services. There were also tailors, some "Just from New York", and suits were washed, not dry-cleaned. There were also shoemakers and blacksmiths and tinsmiths; and barbers trimmed and shaved their customers under the shade of a tree.
Customers went to their banks and the Collectorates wearing shirts and ties, at least, and women did not go there with rollers in their hair and sandals flopping on their feet. And the tellers in the banks and the Tax Offices served their customers from cages.
Our parliamentary representatives - called Members of the Legislative Council - were not paid. Those who lived outside of Kingston enjoyed the privilege of travelling, complimentary, to Council meetings by train in the First Class compartment. Many of them walked from the railway terminus at Pechon Street in Kingston, to the Council Chambers on Duke Street.
Time was when stationery in offices included an item called carbon paper with which copies of documents were made. Desks had ink wells, one containing red ink and the other with black ink. Clerks were required to sign the time of their arrival in an Attendance Register, the times they left for and returned from lunch, and the time they left to go home. And they walked to and from work, or took a bus or the tram car. A few privileged secretaries working in firms like the Cement Company were provided with taxi transport, to and from home.
Only the managers in offices had a telephone on their desks. All others used a phone in a kiosk in the centre of the office, the doors of which were open so that the managers could hear if telephone calls were private or not.
Time was these and many other things. But what about what time will be?
Well, time will be when there will be horse racing on Good Fridays. From 3.00 p.m. and into the night under floodlights, after the scheduled time of Christ's death.
