Becoming George: From: The Chronicles of Bamboo Village Vol.1 No.6

By Rodney Prescod

Becoming George answers many of the taunting questions created by its precursor, "The Strangers". It takes a more intimate look at the influencers of the village and their interaction with one another. This journey evokes a roller coaster of emotions as a spirted rooster tests the beliefs norms and values of Bamboo Village.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jan 31, 2023
• ISBN: 9781365306631

Book preview

Digital Version

Copyright© 2022 Rodney Dac Prescod MBE

All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-365-306631

Foreword

Becoming George is the 6th short story of the first of five volumes of the collection entitled The Chronicles of Bamboo Village. These stories are set in a fictitious dynamic Barbadian village stemming from the fertile imagination of the author. They capture the essence of the transition and transformation of the life and culture of Barbados from the 1950s until the present. Volume 1 is reminiscent of the 1950s to 1970.

Have you ever asked yourself…

Why?

Why humiliate

Before Alleviate

Why hate?

Why incarcerate

Rather than Educate

Why hate

Why obliterate

Instead of Create

Why hate?

Why dominate

Aggravate

Dictate

Frustrate?

Why, Why… Why!

Propagate Love vanquish Hate!

For we are not too Late.

R. Prescod

Becoming George

Could you imagine a succulent meal becoming, not only, a cherished friend and beacon to an entire village, but a formidable unifying entity?

...

Well, this phenomenon began over ten years ago.

It was not the usual Saturday souse affair, actually it was Wednesday. This merriment was the after celebration of the: ‘Thanksgiving Service of the Life of the Late Gregory Cecil Griffith’, in other words a repass. Viola’s father, ‘George’, as he was affectionately called by all his patrons, friends, relatives, and well-wishers had passed away in his sleep, a week ago, after a valiant battle with cancer. He had fallen quite ill in January; it now being April, after out living the one month ‘death sentence’ the city doctor had placed on him twelve years prior. This had forced Viola to take over the full running of the shop, which was named after her grandmother, her namesake.

Food galore; ‘puddin n souse’ (of course), rice and peas, fish (especially flying fish) done every-which-way; fried, baked, grilled or steamed in a decadent margarine-based gravy (yyyuuuummmmm), that encircled the islands of coucou nested in the middle of the large enamel concave bottom plates, beef, pork, lamb; some baked, some bar-be-cued, fried chicken, baked chicken, pickled fowl’s feet, dainties such as: fish cakes, pumpkin fritters, spinach cakes, corned beef cakes, corned beef dowsed with hot pepper sauce and biscuits; the rum shop staple (ask Cuthbert), sweetbread, fudge and other confectionery and much, much more. Rum: brown and white; more white than brown though, flowed like an unstoppable river; food and drink for days, for the king is dead… long live the queen.

Cuthbert pushed back the chair, on which he sat at the conference table of the ‘Rumshop Quartet’; that was positioned just inside the main shop door, providing a panoramic view of outside, all cohorts were seated at the table. It