I had asked Maureen Arneaud if she remembered what she did that day in 1962. She said she was a student at St. Joseph's Convent, Port of Spain. "I will write it for you". The email came at 1.04 a.m. I read it to where it ended with "It's late, I'm sleepy ... must go to bed ... nice memories ... Blessings ... Mo".
"There were rows and rows of school girls standing at the Queen’s Park Oval in the grass of the field, looking towards the stands ...the pavilion.
... I remember the rehearsals in the hot sun of the Oval. I liked that we had to be in the Oval. As a Woodbrook girl from Luis Street, the Oval is a comfy "home" place ...it is our backyard ... it is "ours" ... for those of us who lived in Luis St... The Oval and the sounds of Invaders on the wind ... home stuff for a Luis St. girl.
And from those rehearsals , I remember the songs ...the patriotic ones in English and the strange ones in patois ..."Mama moi" and what sounded like ... "ee bourie di ree doux ... we learned it phonetically not really unravelling the words per se ... to this day I have no clue as to what most of those strange sounds meant ...but the passionate interpretation of our teacher Beryl Mc Burnie left us in no doubt that it was a song full of indignation ... about Mama moi's unfairness as she prepared all sorts of treats for Sophie mais pas ba moi piece ... but I didn't ever get a piece, ... banana frit ... chocolat ... all sorts of lovely stuff mais pas ba moi piece ... and she taught us to frown and sing vehemently " Comment diable on vrais moi garde bien? repeated over and over that line was ... Miss Beryl whipped us up into a good heated frenzy of interpretation ... Then there was a more lyrical. less demanding one .. about "Lilit" who I took to be a girl who was growing up ...Phonetically it went something like "Depuis Lilit te ti maman, ..... something, something me apprends tailleur ... and it rounded off into a lilting "Ays enfants mi LiLit, mi Lilit, mi Lilit ... no stress in that one, just a more bemused, benign lilt ... we had to "do movements" of some sort all the while we sang the patois offerings ... but not for the patriotic songs ... those we delivered with pride and elan, that was all Miss Beryl asked of us for those ... Hot sun and a powerful Ms Beryl McBernie ...those are the main memories of those independence rehearsals ...
I also remember so clearly the advent of television into our lives. I remember that the government was giving us television as an independence "gift". You could rent it and it was to start on the night we would become independent. The first images were to be of the British dignitaries and the lowering of the British flag and the breathtaking raising of our own flag for the first time ... Our family planned to listen to it on the radio. Daddy told us we could not afford the TV rental ... But then around 4 pm a van pulled up outside our house on Luis St. We went to the gallery and excitement hit ... Daddy had fooled us ...he was surprising us with television for independence. Lord I remember that whole installation and the nervous disappointment when all that came on the screen was fuzzy, hissing "snow" ...but soon they tuned into a station signal and we set about waiting for midnight to roll around ... and suddenly there it was ...people and officials and Solomon Hochoy and Dr Eric Williams ...PEOPLE all on the screen- clear like in the cinema, but coming into our own drawing room ... TV/Independence/ Patriotic songs/our National Anthem by Pat Castagne whom I only knew from the Christmas songs "Kiss me for Christmas" .... all standing to attention in our house and all the houses on the street. First time I thought of huge and unifying thoughts ... we are ALL doing this ... all of us ...all at once ...everywhere , in every street ... first time we are ALL doing something together at the same time ... because it was now OUR country ... "All" had a new meaning for the first time that night. Independence ...
It's late, I'm sleepy ... must go to bed ... nice memories ... Blessings ... Mo"
Rest In Peace Mo.
Rest In Peace Mo.
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