Paula Lindo – Our histories, stories, present, future.

The launch of thespian Theresa Awai’s first book, Swing High, Iron Pot and other stories, took place on December 13. The book is a collection of stories highlighting Awai’s memories of growing up in St. James, as well as articles about icons of St. James.

Awai said she originally began writing the stories for her grandchildren. “I wrote the first five pieces or so with the intention of doing a do-it-yourself-book as a memoire for my grandchildren Mikael, Alysa-Marie, Luke and Seth. I wanted to share the simple pleasures we had by playing outdoors and making toys from discarded household items. I am sure most of us made our own phones by connecting two empty condensed milk cans with piece of string, or putting a piece of paper over a comb to make our mouth organ. The ladies would remember those bean bags that we made from tambran seeds to play catch, and in our quiet moments the girls did embroidery.”
She said she didn’t think she had it in her to write a whole book, but friends and family encouraged her to give it a try. “I put those five back on the shelf wondering if the other stories would emerge, and if they didn’t, well at least my progeny had five. So I started to think back to that time and bits and pieces began to trickle back. I saw situations and these led to stories like “Luck Strikes the First time” and “The Cows of Terre Brullee,” but what was interesting was, when the memories started to flow, one memory led to another, and another, and about a year or so later, I had what I thought was a decent amount of work for a book. My thanks goes out to the Industry Lane Bingo Association (ILBA), a group of us who get together to play bingo. They were the first to read these stories and urge me to publish. So my deepest thanks to Maria, Susan, Linda, Margaret, Benny, and Eric. Susan did double duty, in critiquing and proof reading and helping with some research, via email from Canada at times.”
During the launch, Awai thanked those who had had a hand in helping her get the book published, including the Almighty God. She praised editor Nasser Khan, who she had met while working at the Red Cross. She said “he took complete control of this project, advising, mentoring, giving me insights, and generally steering me in the right path to bring me to this point. He told me to get an ISBN number and a graphic artist, and gave me copious notes and comments on my work.”
She thanked Anthony Roy Alexander (now deceased) better known as Freddie, the founder of Freddie’s Bread Basket; Freddie’s son Jeff Alexander, and owner of Totally Local, and his sister Sandra for telling her about the birth of Freddie’s Bread Basket; Mannie Dookie’s daughter Pearl for providing copies of newspaper clippings of Mannie for the book; Mavis John and Margaret Gittens; Annilee Solis and Christopher Smith; her childhood friend Sandra; her daughter, Tracy and her granddaughter Alysa.
Special thanks went to former Port-of-Spain Mayor Rishi Lakhan for writing the foreword and the St James Community Improvement Committee, “for their permission to reproduce some of the articles from their magazines. I found these magazines to be so full of information on the ICONS of St James, that I thought it would be nice to include some of those stories since those icons also belonged to the period I wrote about.”
Awai and fellow thespians Susan Hannays-Abraham and Wendell Etienne read three stories from the book. Awai read Swing High, about the vagrant who lived in her neighbourhood and whom her mother would threaten would kidnap her if she was being ‘harden.’ Hannays-Abraham read Miss Mae, which told of the Baptist woman who would preach on a Saturday afternoon and give the children sweets afterward, and Etienne read about Pahtaick, the Syrian man who would come to her neighbourhood selling lengths of dress material from a suitcase. The stories were each a few pages long, and full of the colour and character of the persons being described.
The book is available at Horizon’s Framing on Mucurapo Road in St James and Paper Based Bookstore at the Normandie Hotel in St. Anns. Buyers can also check RIK and Ishmael Khan Bookstores in Port-of-Spain after December 20.