07-05-2014, 09:38 PM
I am choosing to start a new thread to respond to this because I did not think it fair to hijack LBB's thread any further with such pettiness.
I debated how I was going to address this ignorant comment AGAIN. **sigh** It seems that your "experience" in MY neighborhood amounts to a couple of meals at a local restaurant (how did you like the gates they lived behind, hmmm? Or maybe their "expat" neighbor across the street??? Oh, right! That's no expat... that's the home of Mrs. Tate, one of the original Negril families....!) and then creeping around in the bush and poking your nose in a private yard just to say...what? To make gross assumptions about the people that live there full time - hard working business people??? Whose homes you know NOTHING about beyond the gate you lurked at? How disrespectful - shame on you and the others that were with you that day.
Fact is folks, if you actually SPEND TIME in my West End neighborhood you'll find a tight knit community of Jamaicans and expats in homes both modest and as oppulent as you'll find in Jamaica - shop keepers and mechanics and gardeners along with retirees, business owners and vacationers just like myself. Our yards might have gates and fences...but our HEARTS do not. Go ahead, take a walk up Hylton Ave., or down West End Road south of the patty shop. Sit for a spell and have a beer with me and my neighbors on a cool December night, shooting the shit until its time to go home. We take all comers. ALL COMERS (hey Gerry, why not make a stop at the Bun Bun shop before you go over to Bantons?)
I guess what I'm getting at is that I personally am tired of having to "defend" the way I spend my time on my VACATION. I work too hard and too long hours to get to a point of spending a few months in a HUMBLE rented home to visit with my the friends I've loved for 2 decades. And I think anyone who needs to denegrate the way one chooses to live their lives in general has to be pretty darn miserable with theirs, or why bother? Does it creep me out that middle aged tourists run around with underage hookers and snort bad cocaine until the cows come home? You bet. But hey - if that's what THEIR good time is about far be it from me to do anything but to roll my eyes and thank the good lord for my own good life.
I "get it" For some reason Jitterbug you think you are "more Jamaica than I". That's fine; I don't live in your world so who am I to argue. From where I'm sitting right now, I'm very happy with "my" Jamaica, my time there and my friends. I hope this can be put to rest finally - I think we're more on the same page than we're not but even still....its about respect. Lets give that a try or we might all as well go back "over there".
PEACE OUT!
I debated how I was going to address this ignorant comment AGAIN. **sigh** It seems that your "experience" in MY neighborhood amounts to a couple of meals at a local restaurant (how did you like the gates they lived behind, hmmm? Or maybe their "expat" neighbor across the street??? Oh, right! That's no expat... that's the home of Mrs. Tate, one of the original Negril families....!) and then creeping around in the bush and poking your nose in a private yard just to say...what? To make gross assumptions about the people that live there full time - hard working business people??? Whose homes you know NOTHING about beyond the gate you lurked at? How disrespectful - shame on you and the others that were with you that day.
Fact is folks, if you actually SPEND TIME in my West End neighborhood you'll find a tight knit community of Jamaicans and expats in homes both modest and as oppulent as you'll find in Jamaica - shop keepers and mechanics and gardeners along with retirees, business owners and vacationers just like myself. Our yards might have gates and fences...but our HEARTS do not. Go ahead, take a walk up Hylton Ave., or down West End Road south of the patty shop. Sit for a spell and have a beer with me and my neighbors on a cool December night, shooting the shit until its time to go home. We take all comers. ALL COMERS (hey Gerry, why not make a stop at the Bun Bun shop before you go over to Bantons?)
I guess what I'm getting at is that I personally am tired of having to "defend" the way I spend my time on my VACATION. I work too hard and too long hours to get to a point of spending a few months in a HUMBLE rented home to visit with my the friends I've loved for 2 decades. And I think anyone who needs to denegrate the way one chooses to live their lives in general has to be pretty darn miserable with theirs, or why bother? Does it creep me out that middle aged tourists run around with underage hookers and snort bad cocaine until the cows come home? You bet. But hey - if that's what THEIR good time is about far be it from me to do anything but to roll my eyes and thank the good lord for my own good life.
I "get it" For some reason Jitterbug you think you are "more Jamaica than I". That's fine; I don't live in your world so who am I to argue. From where I'm sitting right now, I'm very happy with "my" Jamaica, my time there and my friends. I hope this can be put to rest finally - I think we're more on the same page than we're not but even still....its about respect. Lets give that a try or we might all as well go back "over there".
PEACE OUT!
"Once in a while you can get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right..."
www.westcountywestend.com