Rosemary,

Forgive me, please. I guess my age is showing, but I do so enjoy these reminiscing posts....

One thing that always stuck out in my mind back in those early days and early trips was you almost never saw the local ladies out and about in slacks or shorts but almost always in longer skirts, and it was very normal and typical to see them out and about with their hair in those big pink fluffy hair rollers and carrying their umbrella to use as a parosol to keep the sun off their heads. My, how times have changed.

And how did we ever find all these wonderful island offerings and options and locations without benefit of road maps, GPS, street signs and the internet? Exploring was a big part of the fun back in those days although my daughters and their friends didn’t always enjoy it nearly as much as we did.

Driving up the winding and narrow road to Paradise Peak the first time was an experience of a lifetime - I think it was our 1983 trip and the first time we brought our daughters to SXM. You can't imagine our concern at seeing the only other car on the road careening down it in the distance at a good clip and knowing you were ultimately going to have to pass each other on what was then little more than a one lane path. But we did it and survived to laugh over the ride. Yikes!

And after our initial surprise at finding it in the first place, I remember driving up the hill to L’Habitation for the first time and thinking out loud, “I don’t know where this came from or how they got it here, but it had better be good when we get to the top….” And it was. And speaking of hairy scary drives, how about approaching Dawn Beach from the back or French side of the island? The roads were all dirt and had ruts big enough to swallow whole cars. Oh Lesley, if you only knew where we took some of those Holiday Rental Cars back in the day.....you'd never rent from us today but honest, the roads are much better now and we don't wander too much off the well traveled roads these days. Yikes!

You can’t imagine our surprise in going to Marigot one day after a couple of year’s hiatus and seeing the area all filled in and the remains of the movie set still in place. Yet another island surprise – and so many of our old favorite restaurants which were once upon a time at waters edge were either gone altogether or now a block or two removed from the water.

And thinking of Marigot, the Saturday morning marketplace ‘back in the day’ before it became the tourist trap it is today was an absolutely amazing sight to see. No fancy stalls or vendors hawking their goodies.

The small fishing boats would come in early in the morning with their bellies full of all the beautiful colored fish to offer up to the local restaurants and residents alike, along with small boats of produce from other parts of the island or other near islands with better growing climates. These were all a sight to behold tied up at what was then the waters edge.

Occasionally, if you were really lucky, you might spot one or two of the local ladies walking away from the stalls with their baskets balanced on their heads while they carried off what was, just moments before, a live chicken and what we assumed was to be their Sunday dinner.

We once encountered a butcher stall – just a big old wooden table – where the proprietor was using a big old machete and had butchered an even bigger old pig and was lopping off hunks of meat to eager buyers, wrapping it in newsprint for want of anything better or more sanitary…..the head of the pig was still sitting on the table next to it and someone there told me that was a special delicacy but I didn’t believe it then and still don’t today.

Okay, so there are a few memories that weren’t so terrific, but they were interesting nonetheless. This was all long before they started with the tee shirt and souvenir stalls though you could find a few if you hunted around.

These were all great insights into things we otherwise wouldn’t have been able to comprehend through merely hearing or reading about them. So lucky were we to have had these experiences and today these wonderful memories.
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