03/09/2024
"The Coin Divers"
As a young boy living off Wulff Rd. opposite Windsor Park, I had a good view of the inner city life of Nassau, some things good and bad, I was from a small family consisting of my father, mother and two big sisters, one that lived there with us both about 12 years older than I, the other sister lived in Andros and came to visit occassionally.
Life was exciting,and i had a lot of fun and made a lot of friends, I was kind of fresh, so I learned the difference between boys and girls at an early age when playing doll house and stuff like that, but it was a different kind of fun, than playing with the boys, flying kites on Windsor Park, spinning top, shooting marbles and playing ball etc.,to me boys had more fun, but I don't know.
My parents were not avid church goers, but they sent me and my sister to church every sunday at Zion Baptist Church, in my younger days I would catch a ride with my sister and her friends to church where she was very active and sang in the choir, her behavior was more constraint, I remember her reading her books all the time, Yvonne was a student of The Government High School in all it's glory days, when it was located on Thompson Blvd and Poincianna Drive.
As I got older, I would walk to church, all the way from Wulff Rd. to Shirley St. I had joined the "Life Boys Club" at church that were as junior members of The 14th Bahamas Boys Brigade, where there were many role models to look up to, such as Capt. Fernley Palmer, the Dorsette Brothers and Bruce Russell etc. This was a new experience for me, having the pride of wearing a uniform that made me feel like a military person, withe responsibility of keeping it clean, the smell of shoe polish that was applied to keep shoes shiny and the smell of brasso to polish the interlocking belt buckle and the 14 Bahamas brass numerals stuck on the cap had to be polished to it's finest lustre, these things made me glad to be a boy. instead of beads and ribbons and all that good stuff.
On the way to church, I always started out on the left side of East St. all the way to the top of the hill, where I would cross over on the other side when reaching Mortimer's Candy Kitchen, to buy red and white striped rock candy, and a snow ball before crossing back on the left side that would lead me to church, occasionally, I would end up on Woodes Rodgers Wharf to watch the bad boys dive over board to be the first to grab coins that were tossed over board into the sea by tourists who loved this competitive spectacle, I enjoyed it too, so much so, that after becoming an accomplished Designer, Photographer and Freelance Artist, I was able to photograph a scenery of these boys while coin diving one day before that activity has been phased out, and the beautiful aqua marine waters have been covered up, I was able to paint "The Coin Divers" that was preserved for other generations of Bahamians to see.
By Harry K. (like no other).
