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From the Publisher

PublisherFrom the Publisher

This Monday morning I decided to visit the KREM Television studio in order to give a little moral support to Ya Ya Marin Coleman, who had been forced to substitute for host Mose Hyde on KREM’s WUB morning show. As president of the Christian Workers Union (CWU), Mose had major responsibilities this morning in the Supreme Court because of a dastardly challenge to the union by the Port of Belize, which is to say, by Vladimir Ashcroft. But yesterday morning, the practically indefatigable Ya Ya had missed her KREM Sunday Review show because of exhaustion. Hence, my “morale” visit.

I was stunned when I pushed the KREM TV door to see my contemporary Cliff Lewis, the television station’s technical guru, cleaning up in the bathroom, a classic case of beyond the call of duty. Like myself, Cliff is in his mid-seventies, and past what we normally consider retirement age. A lot of things went through my head.

The centerpiece of my thoughts was an organization of young people that emerged in Belize City in the early 1960s after the devastating Hurricane Hattie of late October 1961. The organization was called “The Righteous Crowd,” and gathered on weekends mostly at the North Front Street home of Kevurtis Andersen.

Some years ago, my son Mose and Norman Fairweather’s daughter, Imani, who are friends, got Norman and me together to discuss various things, principally for our children’s understanding and benefit.

A prominent and assertive leader of “The Righteous” was the late Cecil “Chubby” Reneau, but to me, as a sideline associate of The Righteous, the undoubted superstar was Norman Fairweather, who had been sent to school in Jamaica after Hattie and had become exposed to a more sophisticated level of socializing.

Let me bring in Cliff, whom I knew only by face back then in the early 1960s. Cliff was a modest and quiet guy. He and the late Ed “Junior” Yorke were dating two sisters, tall young ladies from the Myvett family, and both of these relationships were very stable.

Perhaps the only area where Tony Wright and I have a slight disagreement is this: Tony feels that we have lost things that we will never regain in the black community here. I agree, but I do not encourage myself in nostalgia, because I feel that all young generations will experience relationships and happenings that they will look back on with wonder when they age. This is because teenage hormones are so powerful, Jack, so powerful.

During my session with Norman as long as a decade ago, he said his children suggested he write a book. The Righteous was an unbelievable organization because it included Belizean teenagers across school, religion, and class barriers.

One of the reasons I was not a Righteous regular was because, as an SJC Sixth Form student, I rolled sometimes with parties that included young people like Sonny Meighan, Peter Young, Carlson Gough, Carlos Perdomo, Vance and Lennox Vernon, and so on. I think the hostesses of these parties were the Martinez sisters of Daly Street, and for sure Anne Longsworth from St. Hilda’s College was one of the female stars.

A few weeks ago, Norman and I were corresponding by e-mail, and he told me that Percy Mutrie, Steve Tillett, and Dick Lewis had all moved to Florida. I missed Dennis “Jazz” Henry, my basketball teammate from SJC.

Kent Bladon and Evan Evans have passed.

Everybody moved to America except Junior Yorke (deceased), Cliff, and me. That’s how it looks to me.

The Righteous Crowd — what an incredible sociological phenomenon. Nzinga Barkley-Waite was a part of that story. Cliff Lewis knows a lot of things. Talk to him sometime.

Power to the people, and blessings upon you.

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