The Long Road Home Pt. 4

(For the record, never in my wildest dreams did I think that this post would be so long. I figured it would be just one post, but as you can see we’re up to chapter four … lol … I must really be long-winded. LOL )

So I had arrived in St. Thomas on the Thursday night and my sis, my niece, and I had flown home to St. Croix for the weekend – Friday to Monday. My mom decided at the last minute that she was not ready to return to St. Croix quite yet (much to the disappointment of family and friends) – a decision I’m sure she’ll get ragged on insessantly when she finally does go back. While it had been over half a decade since we’d left the islands (and my father died), quite a few people had obviously missed her and us, and expressed a sympathetic disappointment that she had not accompanied us. It was nice to know that so many people had missed us and especially her.

Big thanks go out to my good friend Lenny at Luncheria Restaurant in downtown Christiansted, for letting me crash at one of his apartments. He’s been working on turning two floors of his three bedroom house into rental properties and the first one is amazing. I have to admit though that, because of the general overgrowth of the island, his view overlooking Gallows Bay and Canegata Ball Park just wasn’t as impressive as it used to be. Thanks also go out to my aunty Gloria, Mancy (short for Armancia), and Dale for their hospitality – my sis and niece stayed with them in Estate Golden Rock just northwest of downtown Christiansted.

I also got a chance to catch up with two of my uncles on my father’s side – my uncle Mario the educator (and his wife Laverne) and my uncle Edwin the former librarian. We attempted to look up my uncle Juni the car dealer but were never able to connect with him. Word on the grapevine was that my uncle Morty the politician was off island having some kind of exploratory surgery, but apparently that fact was being kept very hush hush so no one really knew more than that. We stopped in to visit Flo and Dina and Mrs Samuel at the VI Lottery office where my father formerly worked; and my sisters friends and coworkers at RAVE where she used to work. Everybody was surprised to see us and it felt good to know that those connections were still strong.

Regrettably, I didn’t get to meet my best friend Kareem, as he was off island on vacation in San Diego. We did however bounce a few text messages back and forth and hopefully sometime in the future we’ll be able to get together and reconnect in person. Mikey was working 12′s at the refinery so we weren’t able to connect in person either but we did connect via text message. Roger wound up being the only one of my old crew that I was actually able to see – briefly in Sunny Isles Shopping Center and later on at the casino where he works.

Truth be told, most of our time was spent just driving around the island trying to see as much as possible. It was a kewl experience for my sis and I, but my niece was pretty bored being too young to remember much of the island. Seeing our old house, neighborhood, schools, and where we worked was interesting for us, but it just wasn’t of much interest to her. If she had her way, we’d have gotten back on that plane to St. Thomas so she could go back to Magen’s Bay and chase the fish in the surf … lol.

Saturday we spent driving down to Frederiksted on the western end of the island, then back to Christiansted for some mexican food at Luncheria and a little bit of art shopping – picking up a few prints by Leo Carty who is among the most famous cruzan artists. Then later we rode out east up to Cheeseburgers in Paradise for dinner and a calypso daquiri.

Sunday we stuffed ourselves full of Mancy’s barbecued chicken, ribs, and pork chops and later on drove up to the casino to throw away some money … lol. My sis came out ahead, Mancy came out behind, and I broke even – because I didn’t play … lol. I had budgeted myself to $50 with the intent of hanging out at the $5 black jack tables but those were swamped and the $10 tables were out of the question … lol. I had a good time though and that’s what was important.

Monday morning I packed everything up, walked down to Christiansted, and spent the remaining time strolling around Fort Christian taking pictures. I used to like to go up there and just sit by the canons and enjoy the view of Christiansted, the harbor, and the horizon. Ran into an old schoolmate, Benito Vegas, working with the park service and chatted with him for a bit about how things looked around the island before heading down to the seaplane ramp.

The last person I managed to connect with was Wallace Williams – whose name is synonymous with the Florence Williams Public Library in Christiansted. He’s doing well still keeping up his involvement with the library and the marathon community back home. It was a nice surprise running into him and reminiscing about those grade school years when I used to visit the library regularly after school (St. Mary’s School) let out – while waiting for my parents to get off work.

…. to be continued …

~ by macman4ever on August 9, 2007.