1979
Bullets & Bandits
Graham and I were at school when the revolution started. We had no idea it was in the air. One of the other boys mothers came to the school in the middle of the day, in hysterics. She said that Gairy had been overthrown and the New Jewel movement had taken over. She gathered up her boy and scarpered towards the bus stop. Strangely enough my brother and I, eager to get home to our family, were allowed to leave the school and head back to St. Georges on our own. We caught one of the big buses with the wooden seats and open sides. There was an air of great excitement and the bus was full of shrill chatter. The sound of gunfire set our hearts pounding as we approached the market place in the centre of the capital. People were looting a few of the shops. My brother and I dodged though the back streets, we had to get home to the boat, all the way across town. Small bands of men flitted by, armed to the teeth, bursts of gun fire echoed across the town as rebels fought unseen battles around the town. Suddenly, the deeper thud-thud-thud of a heavy machine gun broke the constant volley of smaller arms. It was great! I was thrilled to bits to see a rebel carrying a lighter machine gun go running down one of the main streets. We didn't get home as quickly as we should have done. It was too exciting for a a couple of boys to pass up.
Meanwhile my sister was at the local college - trying to write an O-level exam. With so much shooting going on, they gave up and were sent home. Luckily the college was just up the hill from the yacht club so she didn't have far to go. She never did get her O-levels ....
Anyway, we all got back to the boat without any damage, in fact I couldn't wait to get ashore again but mum kept throwing me behind the cockpit coaming everytime a shot rang out. Mums do have a tendency to over re-act. It seemed like ages before I managed to get ashore again.
I found a few other boys and we sneaked towards the gunfire, up near my sister's college. We were commandos. Mad dashes from cover to cover, we closed in on the rebels. Suddenly, running full tilt around a corner, I came face to face with a huge black man with a molatov cocktail in one hand and a bloody great revolver in the other. I almost wet myself. My platoon deserted in all directions as the rebel angrily waved us away with his gun. Enough games for one day - I went home for a while.
What had really happened you may ask?
Well, The New Jewel movement had failed their previous coup attempt in 1974 and the Cubans had managed to put in their support in this attempt in 1979. They had trained the attack force and had been massing arms and equipment on the island for some time. Somehow Gairy had been alerted just prior to the take over and I believe he fled the country at that time. It was this Cuban backed revolutionary government that the americans invaded to take out several years later. Anyway ... this is not a history lesson.
The revolution was really pretty much a local matter, not much bloodshed, and no real animosity was shown to the foreign community at that time. However it became clear that the danger was not animosity but simply ignorant behavior by armed men and boys.
The sound of small arms fire was largely ignored as excited young rebels chasing mostly imaginary bad guys around the island, fired their rifles in the air. Sometimes a volley of shots rang out nearer than before, causing one to duck for cover. We didn't hear the sonic crack of shots coming close across the harbour as we had in 1974. But stray bullets still seemed the biggest danger.
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