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Reply to "Belvedere Inn, Berbice, Guyana"

skeldon_man posted:
Tola posted:
seignet posted:

Trying to remember a guy with a camera.

Do you know Baigan? 

I don't remember anyone name Beigan. Not too many freelancers were taking photos in the 1960s at Albion.  Even in the early 1970s, when I return for a visit with better cameras from Japan. I also noticed only studio did weddings in  areas surrounding Albion. I photographed a few at Nigg and Belvedere, including those from the 1960s.

Just thinking....Was Nigg named after the word NIGG**, similar to  part of most sugar estates ?  NIGG** yard.

Do you know the late Grub Jaimangal and John Gopaul  ?

John Gopaul the same as Dharmalall Gopaul, a school teacher in Guyana? A skinny guy who rode a motor cycle to work?

Holy shoot Skelly, thanks for reminding of John's  real name Dharmalall,  I knew that name well and forgot it. We used to tease  him as a kid, 'Mama ma want bobo'. Another time he had a cast on his arm, so we call him, 'John bruk han'. He used to get mad and chase us around. Because he was light skinned, when he get mad his face would turn red.

John also passed on from a disabling stroke in Minnesota, about two years ago.

I last saw him a few years ago after attending an Urbana conference in St. Louis and took the bus with some participants to Minnesota, where I stayed with  John, his wife Peggy, three sons and met other  Guyanese.

He was first married to a woman who had to leave Wismer and she also rode John's motorcycle. She crashed it once and was called  007, because the JB movies were showing at that time at Yollanda cinema.

John and myself grew up together at Old Albion in the logies, before we moved to Belvedere in 1959. His  grandma was an indenture labourer and worked in the weeding gang at Albion estate. Grass cutta.   His mother was a seamstress, who taught young women to sew.  Their logie was separated with a wall from ours and I would sometimes pass my school work book thru the cracks in the wall  to finish our home work.

I played a lot with John as children, we went through the school system together and remained good friends until his death. We talked on the phone almost weekly before his passing.

John's mother [Betty] lived near Jane and Finch in Toronto and also passed on.  His uncle Walter Rambeharry was the assistant personnel manager at Albion estate and a  good friend of my late  oldest brother Manna [Sydney], who passed on in Ocala.

John mother was a single parent. He once told me that his father was a lecturer at the University of the West Indies, whom he met twice.

Before his death he asked  me if I knew how my comic books went missing from our house. Because his family was very close to ours, he would go to our house and tell my father that I said to lend him my comic books, which he never return. He was a trusting guy to my parents and had free access to my room. Sometimes I would return from work at  Albion office and he would be fast asleep in my bed.  

I spent a week with John in Apple Valley, MN.. His mother was visiting from Toronto and she taught  John and myself how  to make special roti, that I photographed. We talked a lot with his mother about the logie  days, especially when we were both children and how manish we were. She said they would have to tie our leg with a rope  to a post near the house, so we don't crawl in the nearby concrete drain.

John worked for Wells Fargo in MN  and one day as he was standing in their kitchen,  he experienced  the stroke and was in bed until he passed on.

I rally enjoyed that week with him and it was the last time I would see him. This is hard Skelly, because most of the guys I grew up with are passing on, or disabled in bed like Mara.   

Yes, he was a teacher  with a motor cycle. At one time someone lent him a racing bike, that I almost crashed. He was smart and passed exams with ease, while we struggled.  He was light skinned and skinny, but he put on some wright later in life.

As teenagers we went to our farm with our donkey cart on weekends. He always wanted to ride the donkey, instead of sitting on the cart.

Skelly, writing about two best friends on the same day, sure brings back some emotional memories.

How did you know John ?  I knew he taught at JB Cropper school at Albion Front, but not aware of other schools, because I cam overseas around that time.          

Tola
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