Once Upon an Easter Chapter 2 Ramdas

CHAPTER 2 RAMDAS

Its 5 am in the morning and Ramdas comes calling.  {You really had to know the guy. He woke me up by throwing tiny bean seeds at my bedroom window}.  I spring out of bed before he wakes up the whole house hold. It is also bird-catching season. The morning air is filled with different sounds of birds singing and chirping.  And just before sunrises you here the Cooks crowing around the neighborhood it is a festive time for all birds.  Ramdas and I plunge ourselves into the surrounding fields with high grass.  Ramdas already had a bird in a cage, attached to that cage was a mini cage with a trap door.  He also has some poles stuck with chewing gum remains. We wait as Ramada’s bird in the cage whistles away. We were hoping his singing would attract other birds like “Kiskadee” or a “Towa Towa”.  We were hoping to trap one or two in the little cage or on the gummy poles.
Most families are not up that early.  However because Ramada’s Father worked on the Sugar Estate he had to be up early. We headed to Ramdas bottom house.  His mother hadbrisk fireside going the air was filled with the aroma of hot Cocoa and Coffee brewing, and Roti being clapped by Ramada’s sister. On the next side of the fireside, his mother roasted some Eggplant “Bologna chocker”. Two plates were prepared we sat in a hammock and ate using our hands as the cool morning breeze blew.Once upon an Easter.

                                                      Attached two paintings Anancy and Sunflower which are fo sale. Also links to Once Upon an Easter eBook on barnes & Noble. com and my daughter's Magazine Spoken Black Girl.

https://www.spokenblackgirl.com/

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/rowan+abbensetts?_requestid=129485

 

Once Upon An Easter. Chapter 1 Easter vacation

School is on early Easter vacation.

The Campbellville Heroes as we fondly call ourselves were racing home on our bikes.  My bike “Yellow Bird” was an old model ladies bike fondly called a “Preggie”.  With a make, shift wooden bar.  On this wooden bar I towed my good friend Choe Chan.  Riding home, we made a screeching halt by the shave iceman for a snow cone with colorful sweet syrup.  This will cool us down from the hot sticky sun. We hoped to meet Ramdas and Suzie at the D. Y. C. playground.  Finally we got to the playground but the Subryanville Iguana’s had got there before us and had all intentions of {hawking} the field.  With nothing else to do but wait, we settled under the huge Guinep tree with its large branches and cool tropical breeze blowing. Ramdas however saved the day “would you believe it he had a flour bag full of mangoes”. We ate as much as we could.  Now it was barging time. We dealt the rest to the Iguana’s to get them off the cricket pitch. By the time we got home from cricket, Choe Chan’s mother had prepared for us some Chinese cake with some cold Sorrel drink.  We ate then left and went to the back of my home to start making our own cricket bats.  Sometimes, we made then out of old coconut branches that had fallen from the trees and at other times out old pieces of wood we found around our yard. The start of Easter holidays.

Once upon an Easter

Attached to blog is art Riverside which is now on sale for $65.00 shipping not included. Once Upon an Easter is also in eBook format at Barnes and Noble and on Lulu.com. Added link to Spoken black girl.

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Remember Christmas Chapter 7

         The school term is not yet over my part is still available.  One week before Christmas, I rehearsed my part.  The play opens on Christmas Eve.  There was a standing ovation for me before and after the play.  By then Sonia wanted to act with me she was in love with me all along and I did not know.  Oh! Boy! How I love this Christmas time of the Year.

I remember Christmas.

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Attached painting Soul which is on sale for $100.00. Illustration for books are not for sale. Links to Remember Christmas in eBook format can be found on Barnes and Noble. com.  Also attached link to my daughters magazine Spoken Black Girl.

Remember Christmas 6

 I had a part in a Nativity play I was Joseph, the leading actor.  Every boy in the school wanted to be near the girl that played the lead female part.  Deanna.  Deanna was Mary.  I had long since been in love with her, so of course I was devastated when I got ill and had to be hospitalized.  No end seemed in sight.  The doctors could not find out what ailed me.  I went through a battery of test and still no results and not feeling any better.  The Christmas season was fast approaching and I was feeling depressed.

         Sick and in hospital how miserable can that be?  Then I got a gift a pair of Cowboy guns and holster. My spirits perked up.  Still sick but in a much better mood.   Then one evening a man came visiting whom I had never seen before, and he took a picture of me, standing on my bed with my guns drawn. He promised to return a later with a copy of the photograph.   My mood changed miraculously and I began to feel better.  The spirit of Christmas was in the air again.          Oh! How I love this festive season of the year.  Soon come the day that I was to be discharged the man had not returned with the picture of me.  I was packed and ready and waiting for my parents to pick me up.  I sat on my bed feeling very sad and pensive. May be I would never see the man who took the picture of me again.  Then I would never see how I looked?  

However, remember this is Christmas just as I remove my hands from my eyes the man came rushing in, waving my

picture over his head.  I love it! I look great! I was overjoyed. I remember Christmas.

Art sick and in hospital I copied from a photograph taken of me. The first illustration I sold to a collector. While painting a second rendition of this photograph I noticed my father’s hand writing what he wrote will always be in the fore front of my mind and my wish is that it will ever guide my actions. He wrote {why were you born.  All about water Baptism}.

Love

Rowan Abbensetts

Folk Incognito Blog Master

https://www.spokenblackgirl.com/

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/remember-christmas-rowan-abbensetts/1125158100?ean=9781365538780

Remember Christmas Chapter 5

Daddy loved Christmas.  During this time of the year, he took control of the kitchen.  Prepared the turkey, the Ham the Garlic Pork, boiling the pigs feet and ears to make souse. Boiling down the beef for the pepper pot and using all of the rich spices.  Not forgetting the rum punch and Punch a cream.  We stood by like nurses passing the different cooking utensils to him the surgeon who performing the different cuts on the turkey, ham and roast pork. 

         During all this cooking activity, loud calypso music was being played, With a Christmas festive flare.  Infusing our minds with the sounds of Christmas, we will never forget.  Mummy would peak every once a while. Concerned about the state of her kitchen, which was now taken over?  This was the only time of the year she did not interfere with activities in her kitchen.   Mummy got about decorating the living room area of the house.  When the food was in the oven, everyone gathered around to help her.  She was quite a boss, but we loved her all the same.  The Christmas tree had to be lifted in and placed into position.   We always had a very big natural Christmas tree.  Last year’s carton with all the Christmas decorations was brought down and old lights were tested and all broken bulbs discarded and new ones put in place.  Then came Christmas Eve night when we wrapped gifts and placed them under the tree.  Oh! How I loved Christmas. Now all tired, we try to stay up as long as our eyes would permit to see when Santa would come with all our gifts.  He only came after we drifted into a deep sleep. 

I Remember Christmas.

Attached art O Holy Night inspired to paint after hearing song by a beautiful woman one night on my way home from work on the Manhattan Subways. Attached links to Remember Christmas on Nook eBooks and links to my daughters Magazine Spoken Black Girl. All art shown on my blog are for sale except book illustrations.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/rowan+abbensetts?_requestid=105325

https://www.spokenblackgirl.com/

Remember Christmas 4

On Christmas Eve, we excitedly took a trip to the shopping district.  The roads were packed with shoppers and hawkers.  There were vendors on both sides of the street making it difficult to walk on the pavement.  Firecrackers went off “Bang! Bang!” Whistles and horns blaring in the esthetic Christmas air. They were tons of toys and lots of food for sale.

          Of course, one cannot leave out the masquerade dancers they were fun.  Accompanied by flute players and drummers making merry music. Joining them was the scary “Mad Bull with his horns and fearsome face.  Then there was the Granny long lady on stilts with her face painted white.  “Man is fun.”    The masquerade dancers and the flouncing musicians singing and chanting ‘Christmas comes but once a year so drinks your rum and tumble down, “Bato, Bato”!  Christmas comes but once a year so flounce if you flouncing “Bato, Bato”!  Christmas comes but once a year so wine and tumble down on the ground “Bato, Bato”!

         Up the road there steel pan players beating out sweet carols at a bouncy calypso beat. In addition, girls and boys, women and men dancing up a storm to the rhythm of Christmas calypso music. 

          Oh! Boy I love this Christmas season.  

I remember Christmas. 

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REMEMBER CHRISTMAS 3

In the sixties in Guyana was going through a period of political unrest.  There was protest, rioting looting and thousands of workers were on strike. There were food shortages and many houses and business were burnt to the ground.  These were frightening times for children. My aunt Yvonne whom we lived with then was also on strike.  My brother and I had gone to live with her while; our parents were away in Ghana West Africa.

          Therefore I will always remember the sad rainy day when the miracle of Christmas came rippling into our world.  Our aunt Yvonne came bursting into our bedroom dancing and flouncing.  Flouncing is a traditional dance step in Guyana, preformed mainly during the Christmas season.

          Suddenly while flouncing away with the majesty of Christmas Aunt Yvonne raised the hem of skirt and out flew a toy.  Then with one, more whirl and toss of the hem of her skirt out flew another toy.  To my brother and I these were the best of gifts of the season, nothing else mattered.  Our hearts were so content it would not have mattered if we received no new gifts.  We were completely satisfied.  Her dance of an angle flowing with joy and Peace lifted our hearts with promise and happiness.

          I remember Christmas. 

https://www.spokenblackgirl.com/

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/remember-christmas-rowan-abbensetts/1125158100?ean=9781365538780