I remember as a kid my father would come from work 'Christmas Eve' evening and started painting the living room with oil paint. My sisters would be sewing curtains, baking bread and cake. Ham would be boiling in a cooking oil pan (tin) on a wood fire between three stones in the backyard. We may be laying down new linoleum. A Parang band of some of the neighborhood dads would be making the rounds serenading the neighbors taking a drink and eating ham. Kids would be bursting carbide throughout the neighborhood (we would spit on the carbide and seal the can then put a fire stick to it, then ‘POW’).
A steel band can be heard in the distance coming down the main road and we would drop everything we were doing and follow the sound of the iron and ‘du dup’ beating until we reached the band, take a chip until we reached our area and then return to our chores.
We would work through the night decorating the house with new curtains, balloons until Christmas morning and then enjoy a breakfast of ham freshly baked bread and hot cocoa. Children growing up in Trinidad all had clothes that got paint because the oil paint would still be somewhat wet to the touch overnight. The funny thing is that every time I smell oil paint I remember those few Christmas times particularly well.
A steel band can be heard in the distance coming down the main road and we would drop everything we were doing and follow the sound of the iron and ‘du dup’ beating until we reached the band, take a chip until we reached our area and then return to our chores.
We would work through the night decorating the house with new curtains, balloons until Christmas morning and then enjoy a breakfast of ham freshly baked bread and hot cocoa. Children growing up in Trinidad all had clothes that got paint because the oil paint would still be somewhat wet to the touch overnight. The funny thing is that every time I smell oil paint I remember those few Christmas times particularly well.
Story submitted by: "California. Trini"