Eye On C’Bean Community
Maxine Hamilton
Alexander
Time-Out: Enjoy A Slice Of Summer

I’m still on the trails of things to do but this week I am thinking about ADVENTURE!

Summer is particularly ripe with lots of things to do. My spirit aches with anticipation as summer draws near for a yearly ritual that honors a part of my childhood — a weekend that is an invitation to joy and sheer fun. All work and practically no time for play makes us "irritable," "cranky," down right miserable and difficult to live with. Adding adventure to one’s life is an investment. Joyousness walks up to you and steps straight into your heart. Laughter travels from the core of your existence and bursts out of you with a gush. Ahhhhhhhhh! Work life, family life, social life and romance improve.

For the past six years, every August, a group of us pack up and head for the woods.

The woods! Yes, go camping. Camping? This trek transports me back to my days as a girl going to visit my Granny and Papa. Even the journey to our destination is a reminder of the Caribbean. Dead silence fell on me the first trip. We’d left the city late un-knowing that the roads were narrow and steep with hardly any street lights. It was dark like the moon had fallen out of the sky… and the road winding, falling away on one side into some gullies. Some parts are strewn with stones and boulders; the following year you know we were out of Brooklyn on time and up that mountainside before darkness fall.

From the minute we get to camp and set up our tents the fun begins. My tent always has a lakeside view and I go off to find wild flowers for the table nearby. We cook over a wood fire, roasting corns and sweet potatoes and yam and salt fish. A group of six people and three campsites the first year has grown into a 35-50 group and more than fifteen campsites. With every new family that joins us per year, they in turn invite newcomers the following year. This is how much fun there is to be had. And let me tell you that no trip is without its own drama, especially if Madam Yvette, our camp queen, is there. Madam Yvette’s tent has all the luxurious trappings a girl needs for her and her family in the woods. Her bed is elevated with a rug at the side to boot while the rest of us are in sleeping bags. Last year the campers left the pots and pans in Brooklyn… we had to improvise and I do not mean going into town to a restaurant. Two years in a row, the Malli Mobile, our official camp van, broke down leaving its passengers stranded at the side of the road for the next convoy coming over the hill. Thank goodness for the people dem who habitually leave Brooklyn late every year and get stuck in traffic.

Like the wood fire cooking and food isn’t enough reminder of rural life every night while we are here we sit at dusk near the fire side eating peanuts that we have to shell, swapping stories and sharing memories, playing cards and dominos by lantern light way into the night under star filled skies. During the day we hike, fish, find a spot to read, go to the lake to kayak, paddle or row a boat. Caribbean-American children play hop-scotch, hula-hoop, skip (jump rope) and chase each other; supervised. The teenagers join in a game of volley ball with the adults or ride around. Around 3-4 p.m. we return to the dining site to eat. We are so sophisticated now that we have curry chicken and rice dinner or escovitch fish and festival. Corn soup is a must Friday nights. The only thing we do not carry is a dog and our neighbor campers have a dog or two so we are set. What the dog do… it perfects the setting. Caution, do not expect to see a fat man wearing a battered straw hat with the roof missing, in over worn khaki at the knees, tattered shirt flapping in the wind, bruk the corner at the plateau carrying a cutlass (machete), sweat poring from his skin and his donkey heel and toe with a hamper stacked with green provisions. Nor will a country bus spitting up marl dust and giving off exhaust come flying down the hill like a missile.

All you country bumpkins like me or all who had a granny or a taunty living in rural Caribbean area can understand this along with the enamel plate and wood fire cooking business - Trinidad, Jamaica, Pan-ama, Haiti, Grenada. I also know that some of you could use a break away from the three and four jobs that you been working. Value isn’t just tangible things, it’s also intangible things that arise from personal concentrated connection to doing things that full you to the brim with joy. As the world turns, our lives become like a distinctive drumbeat signaling your presence. I am sure if you think a little, you remember the back porch or the veranda evenings when you huddled tightly together listening to Anansi or Big Boy stories…yeap. Caribbean life is packed

with flavor…simple pleasures. Do not worry, New York State Parks camping grounds have full service bathrooms with flush toilets and hot water showers….no latrines. So take time for an adventure. Maybe camping is not your shtick but think up something you enjoy doing. New York State, New York City, heck Brooklyn have nuff adventures to part take of and revel in. Anyway walk good ‘til the next time.

Reader Comments

No comments have been posted. Be the first!

Other Stories With Comments:
Article	Comments
Golden City: Bought, Burned, Bought Again	1