1 minute read
Forgotten Facts
from 07162021 WEEKEND
by tribune242
A stroll down memory lane
Selling a house means moving out, then moving into somewhere else. It’s work, hard work, but I am finding it very interesting, because I get to touch and feel my collection of things Bahamian.
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The winter of 1925/26 was a cold one. My eldest brother was born in January and my parents bought a Perfection kerosenepowered space heater that kept me warm throughout my early years and is still in working condition today.
I’ve never seen an original of the books that my father wrote in the 1920s, mapping and describing each and every island/cay in the Exumas and in the Berry Islands. They were bibles for real estate agents and I’m happy to have a rather-faded copy that was a gift from Sir Harold Christie.
In 1926, the Imperial Government published an atlas called Maps of the Bahama Islands, one of which is in the Royal Geographic Society in London. It’s entertaining to compare the official 1926 names of some of the islands with what they are called today. I have my father’s copy, plus six others that I collected for my children.
In 1924, Sir Etienne Dupuch published The Tribune Handbook, from which I learned that the steps at Clifton were cut by/for Dr Ernest Williamson, who named them Jane Gale’s Cave.
My father’s copy of the 1926 Bahamas Handbook. He was annoyed with Mary Moseley for failing to credit him with his maps that she used.
The Memoirs of Capt. Pater Henry Bruce is a very important recounting of Bruce’s experience in the building of Fort Montagu, Nassau’s oldest structure. When he arrived, there were no wheeled vehicles on the island.
I almost forgot to remove from the wall in my study the plaque presented to me, on January 10, 1989. It was a splendid idea, but I outlived the organisation.
By next week, a lot of our stuff will have been moved to the new home. Meanwhile, I leave you to puff on the 7” cigar that Fidel Castro gave me on July 9, 1984.
