Story and photos by Joanna Dhanraj
Home to approximately 250 people, Supply, East Bank Demerara is a beautiful, little multi-cultural village. Many of its residents are reserved people who simply enjoy the peacefulness and charm of their community.
The world beyond Georgetown was privileged to have met a lovely couple—Charles and Violet McKinnon who have been living at Supply for 49 of their 65 years of wedded bliss.
Now 92 and 90 years old respectively, Charles and Violet McKinnon are the oldest couple in the village and they’ve spent more than half of their lives there. The couple first met through Charles’s sister-in-law who had gone to Violet to have a dress made (Violet was a seamstress). A year later, they were married. At that time, Charles worked in Administration with the Local Government at Fort Wellington, West Coast Berbice and they lived in the neighbouring village of Hopetown. In 1966, Charles was transferred to Georgetown and they moved to Supply and have been there ever since.
Back in those days, they recalled, there was no tap water; they accessed their water from a well, until eventually stand pipes were set up along the roadway. Violet said they once had a flourishing farm that produced citrus and ground provisions in abundance, but they had to cease farming owing to the floods caused by clogged drains.
“We used to take our goods to Stabroek Market to sell. You got a bus in the morning and another until the afternoon. The bus was for the schoolchildren. It took them to school in the mornings and back home in the afternoons. If they missed it they were forced to walk. Most persons used boats as a mode of transportation,” Charles added.
Violet said although she still considers her village to be wonderful and peaceful, it could never be like the olden days again. “You couldn’t come home at six in the afternoon, you got a thrashing. The older generation had chores to do
