by Colin Hyde

Somewhere between the Reds’ Sedi Elrington and the Blues’ Albert Vaughan is an archive of Belize’s best march music, from the Imperial Band. Love FM might have some of the music too, if it is true that the government gave all its archives to that group. Absolutely, Brother Tony Wright will have some Imperial Band marching music.

Brass band music came to the yard where I lived in Belize City when my aunt, Chrystel, married Roy Straughan. The story goes that the police recruited Uncle Roy just so they could put him in their band. Aunt Chrystel was Uncle Roy’s second wife, and according to the snippets I have, he had lived in a few places. I know he fought at the heavyweight level in Guatemala. He must have lived some years in the States, because he had the most brass instruments in Belize, including the biggest tuba.

Uncle Roy had his own band, and he also played for the Police Band. Hey, I’m writing from a child’s world, so I could be mixing up the Police Band and the Imperial Band. It could be they were one and the same. Hopefully someone who has the history will come forward.

When I was a child in the 60s, the biggest thing in the September celebrations was the Battle of the Bands. There were many bands in Belize, and they all put some shiny stuff on their uniforms when they performed. I don’t remember the name of Uncle Roy’s band, but I remember we had a great thrill one year when his band won. There was a runoff for the title, and we won with “My Boy Lollipop.”

I guess it is mostly Belize City that experienced the Imperial Band, but I bet a compilation of those sounds would touch the heart of everyone in our nation. A number of their march songs were from foreign, but Belizean bands have a distinct sound. I am like noh-noa-nada when it comes to all that goes into making and playing beautiful music, but I can tell you the nationality of the person blowing a horn if the categories are Belizean and foreigner. Our sound is as distinct as the Kriol language.

The guys who have these sounds have to come together and share what they have with the rest of us. It will make our celebrations experience so much sweeter.

But, but Senator Herrera will have to recuse himself

From the get go, this Senate Inquiry has a problem, because one of the senators charged with finding out things on our behalf is seriously compromised. Understandably, the senators will be sympathetic toward their colleague, and from what I have observed I think he is a wholesome brother, exemplary, but no man can fit all roles. What were the senators thinking? Are selected senators pro an elected senate, and their business is to embarrass the present process so we are nudged, have no choice, really, but, to make the leap?

I hate the idea of more positions for politicians, and it’s a possibility that we’ll have more elected representatives when this redistricting exercise is done. I bet we have more, or as many, elected political leaders and lawyers per capita than anyone in our part of the world, and fewer doctors, engineers and agricultural scientists. Go figure the development plan of Belize.

Yap, Senator Herrera seems a nice guy, a respectable guy, but he is in a major conflict of interest situation. His brother is in the embarrassing position of having proposed that we dump 6.5 million cubic meters of silt between English Caye and Turneffe; his brother is a head soldier of Waterloo, which is in a battle with a rival group, Portico. How can the Senate allow a man connected to a vendetta to be a part of the inquisition? Are we really that shaat a man, talent in our country?

Aunt Tensi would have starred on the Belikin calendar

Hortense DeShield, my mom’s cousin from the Gibson line, had some years on my mom’s children, so she was Aunt Tensi to us. I’ve written about her a few times in my column, and in my childhood memoir. Ah, I told you she told us that the reason why George Price never married was because he was afraid that he might talk out his dirty Guatemala secrets at night, and his wife would hear and report him. I told you that Aunt Tensi was a big NIP, that on the Tenth she would dress up in resplendent white — dress, gloves, and hat — that she’d put on red shoes, and that she carried the Union Jack at the head of the parade.

I think I told you too that she was a purser on the boat Bunny M, which ran weekend trips with city folk to St. George’s Caye, and on some of those voyages she took me along as boat boy. Ah, it is on St. George’s Caye where her “behavior” leads me to believe that in her young days she would have loved that Belikin calendar.

My paternal aunts, Grace and Chrystel, were brought up to have impeccable conduct as ladies. They were far from stuffy, but they lived in the straight and narrow lane. At Spanish Caye, where I spent every July and August until adulthood, the women and girls all wore the full bathing suit. I think the first girl to wear a bikini at Spanish Caye was Carolyn Cacho, who visited from the States one year with her family. Hmm, that gyal had a gud body. When the women and girls at Spanish Caye came out of the water, they all moved to their towels. I have noticed in a few movies, definitely the older ones, that some girls run for their towels too. Not every girl is as exhibitionist as a Kardashian.

There was no way under the sun you could have gotten one of my aunts to wear a bikini. But Aunt Tensi, according to my paternal aunts, thought it was designed for her. The Wikipedia says the bikini was around from the 1930s, but its official entrance to the show was in 1946, and another source said they became popular in the 1960s. There’s always been a strong connection between the US and us, and I bet the day the first bikini hit the market one of Aunt Tensi’s faamli over there said, Tensi wahn luk gud eena dat, or, Dis mek fu Tensi, and sent one in a barrel.

My paternal aunts said Aunt Tensi had a body to envy, and she knew it. They said Aunt Tensi used to put on her bikini and parade on every pier on St. George’s Caye.

Hey, I’m aware that the philosophy behind the Kremandala, despite their not being a very saintly set, is to discourage the exhibition. They are not going to convert me there. I would outlaw any under-16 girl doing dirty dancing in public and exposing themselves, but when it comes to adults, I deh wid Aunt Tensi. Gyal, if yu body gud an yu want to strut, goh deh.

But I will advise you that the boy you want to see you, won’t be the only one getting titillated. Yes, some old gentlemen, some rude sorts, and some pathological ones too, males you absolutely don’t want to be drooling over you, well, their tongues will be hanging out, doing the ogling thing. If it’s any consolation, it’s a good service for the ancianos. A little speeding up of the blood is recommended for older sorts, so it’s a healthy contribution.

Ouch, my ink is out for the Blue Economy

I have some comments on the minister vs attorney story, but bah, I’m out of space. Hmm, I hope my editors won’t think that if they give me an inch I will want to go for a yard. Por favor, just this time. They could reduce the fonts.

Okay, I was advised once to never present incomplete thoughts, and I didn’t heed and got savagely bashed for some bullet points. I did leave a note at the end of that piece which some took umbrage with, maybe because it was not clear enough that it was a story to be continued, to be expanded on. Aw heck, I will put my note at the fore of this one: this piece is definitely to be continued. Now, hopefully, I will escape being pounced on like a cat on a rat with the cheese.

There was a call for the Blue Economy minister to be suspended from duties. He preempted that attack by asking to be relieved from duties. This case, the smoke here doesn’t indicate a big fire, definitely no conflagration like we saw in the last government when it had been in office too long, way too long.

This one is also not as high-profile as the Rosado case. Someone will have to explain to me why Ambassador Rosado was charged when he was. If there is really something there, it should have waited until his work at The Hague was done. I bet if the DPP was a man, he would have said wait, not at this time. Confining ourselves to the salacious story now before us, bah, I didn’t like the hasty move by the minister in the crosshairs. For starters, we don’t want to put so much power into the hands of sexual partners.

Softball Nationals this weekend

Our best softball clubs converge this weekend at the storied Rogers Stadium in Belize City to decide who is number one this year; and even though the quality of play isn’t back to where it was pre- Covid-19, it’s good to check out the girls. They are struggling back, and they need our support, need encouragement so they can take the sport back to where it used to be, to the days of Isolene, Consuelo, Margaret, Pat, and Grace, to the days of Collet Gill and Raymond Lashley.