Famous Barbadians

For information about all the people featured on Barbadian money and/or whose names identify local streets, I strongly recommend the rest of the Internet.

For information about  the most famous people we have encountered on our holiday, you need look no further.

I've already mentioned one fellow, the chap who mooched a smoke off Bruce, the gentleman named Justice, with whom and his ever-changing array of drinking partners we have amused ourselves by imagining names:

- Jasper and Casper
- Keith and Heath
- Edmund and Redmund
- Maurice and Boris
- Irvin and Mervyn
- Leon and Dion
- Gerry and Harry
- Cederic and Frederic
- Lenny and Denny
- Dennis and Ennis
- Mason and Jason
- Hilton and Milton
- Laurence and Torrence

... You get the idea.

Anyway, we were chatting with the friendly and knowledgeable driver, whose name was Roger, who took us to and from the Nature Reserve the other day, observing the heavy British occupation of our resort and mentioning Justice - but not his name - as a sort of archetype ....

"Justice!" said Roger, who knew exactly who we meant just by the description, "everyone knows Justice and he knows everyone else. He's been around that resort since forever."

And sure enough he had been, claiming, according to Roger, "to have hammered the first nail in the place."

Justice is the club fixture. He is always there. Always chatting someone up. To the extent to which I have observed him in his natural habitat, I can only conclude that he never stops talking. Roger surmised that Justice has a bottomless well of conversation and will talk about anything and everything. Unless he repeats himself a lot, and even if he does, Jutice must have a vast horde of lore  to regale the tourists.

Roger must also have a vast horde. He's a driver who's been around for twenty years. He's shepherded the likes of Peter C. Newman and many others. He was born in Barbados, but his family moved to Conneticut when he was 8 years old. He volunteered this information freely but I had already guessed something like that would have been the case when I heard him speak with the accent of an American radio announcer.

There are less than three hundred thousand Barbadians living on a volcanic extrusion less than 450 square kilometres in area. Everyone is famous to the extent that someone else - either Justice or Roger - can tell you a few things about them.

They can even tell you a thing or two about us.

Thanks for reading!

Karen