Denise Thomas and Eartha Thornhill are second generation residents of the Soesdyke-Linden Highway. They moved there with their parents: Denise, in 1976 at the age of 13 and Eartha in 1973 at the tender age of three. That was a time, they both say, when working-class parents living in inner city areas in the capital were taking advantage of offers being made by the Government of Guyana for people to settle on the Soesdyke-Linden Highway. Both their parents settled at Kuru Kururu.
Thornhill is nostalgic about her childhood days. Her mother planted pineapples; that was her first real taste of farming.
Thomas admits that she is less enthusiastic about the land. She is part of a community initiative that is seeking to whip up enthusiasm for expanding beyond simply growing food. She has a vision of a broader commercial culture that includes processing farm produce into value-added products for sale, both locally and abroad.
Thornhill recalls the days when pineapple was ‘king’ on the highway. In times of glut the community was forced to endure the nauseating smell of rotting pineapples. Thornhill believes there came a point in time when the pineapples simply overwhelmed the
