"old Kingston Jamaica How It Used to Be"

Lower Kingston as it is called today is quite different from the Kingston of old.  This Kingston was a polite and orderly place the streets, were clean and there was very little aggression coming from anywhere.  

People used to walk with their head upright, and would recognise each other either with a good morning or a good evening.  There was no begging or swearing on the street, no drunken men hanging around on the street corners, only white ones from off the Ships.  

People cared about each other, and there was a lot of love, dignity and respect.  As young boys in our adolescence we were free to go anywhere, there was no part of Kingston which was out of bounds, both young girls and boys could leave their home and stroll along the streets to any distance they wished without any fear of violence or dis-respectable approach by anyone.  

Yes this was one of the most beautiful and orderly towns within the western hemisphere. 

It was thought the people of Jamaica were docile and would laugh at anything, even insulting words would be greeted with a slight grin or laughter, with the reply of Yes man, go on man go away, ‘no bother me  to use the Jamaican phase.   Then you would meet someone walking along the street who would greet you with the words, what happened man, how is things?  But only in Jamaican patios.  Many of the words I would like to use were spoken in the Jamaican dialect, the Creole language that is funny if you can understand and speak it.  Unfortunately for me I could understand it, but could not speak it, which is why I cannot write the actual words.  

If I could write it and you could understand it, you would realise our great sense of humour and the social and moral code which we lived by at that time. 

 It is a fact there was much poverty, high unemployment and little to do, which was the order of the time.  But somehow we seemed to have the inner strength and respect for ourselves as a people, to overcome all the obstacles which poverty brought without plundering or robbing our neighbour’s goods. 

As a people we were the true Christians who believed that no matter how bad things got there was a God, and their God would let no man suffer more than their share of the burden that they had to carry. 

To others, Jamaica was known as ‘THE ROCK’ symbolizing the toughness and endurance of its people.