Dear Editor,
I agree with Carl Veecock: Donald Drayton’s piece on Albouystown was indeed a “good write,” and my husband and I both enjoyed reading it, though we wondered whether some of the people named might be sensitive about their origins being mentioned. We both recognised some of the names, and I wondered whether Donald Drayton was the pleasant, well-mannered young man, who worked as a Class II clerk at the Georgetown Prisons in the early 1950s. I remember this chap.
In those days, the British class system was entrenched in the colonial territories and social origins were important; one took one’s social status from the male head of the family. In Guyana (then British Guiana), at job interviews, one of the first questions asked of youngsters would be what work their fathers did. Married women with professional husbands would be placed at the top of employers’ list. This was certainly the case with the largest group of companies operating in Guyana at the time. Most of us were aware that this was unfair but felt powerless to change the system. It should not be surprising that some of us still carry a hang-up from those days.
A large chunk of our history has been withheld from “the current generation.” I was very surprised to learn some years ago that few of the younger generation were aware of the political turmoil of the 1960s and what really happened. A young chap told me the textbooks he read never mentioned anything of certain incidents that took place during the long strike of the mid-’60s. A minibus conductor was shocked when he heard those same things – and more. When next I saw him, he told me he related the tale to a group of his friends and they too were left open-mouthed. Their parents never mentioned it and shied away from the subject when it was brought up.
Oh, about the Penny Bank, I remember the one run by our primary school. Those of us who joined were given a pale-brown, 2-page, ruled card/book, roughly 8˝ long. Every Monday morning we would hand over our pennies, with the book, to the headteacher, to be written up. Our savings were handed back to us the week before Christmas. Very handy.
Yes, there is a lot of sharing to do with our interested youngsters.
Yours faithfully,
Geralda Dennison
