THE NOSTALGIA OF BANANA DAIQIRIS

Sir Cliff Richard wrote in his foreword to Hotel Barbados, My Life of Discretion at the Ocean View the following:

How I wish I had been able to stay at Ocean View.

Of course, our world always changes and we have to move on and progress with those changes. Barbados has done that admirably and so have we who visit and live here. Personally, I have few complaints about today’s new world, but once in a while I get the feeling deep down that I maybe missed something very special and beautiful from those bygone days. I have a feeling that having read this book, you’ll know just what I mean.

In 1982, our Spring Break trip overlapped for one week with my Mom and Dad’s annual sojourn in Barbados. For many years, my Father had waxed poetic about the historic Ocean View Hotel (opened in 1898), …

 … its glorious architecture and funnily enough, its banana daiquiris.

Nothing would do, but we four were to meet Mom and Dad at the Ocean View for a visit to one of the oldest hotels in the Caribbean, daiquiris on the hotel veranda…

… and then lunch in the dining room. I will cut this story short by saying that when drinks were ordered, the waiter gave my Father the sad news that they had no bananas. Dad was crestfallen.

Cut to 1983. This year, I am convinced that my parents’ time in Barbados was deliberately coordinated to overlap with our week on the island just so my Dad could complete our daiquiri experience at the Ocean View. The waiter began again to sadly explain that, I am sorry, Sir, but … It was in that instant that I noticed the small paper bag discreetly sitting beside my Father’s chair. Before the waiter could complete his apology, my Father lifted his little paper bag from the floor announcing, Actually, you now DO have bananas. The drinks were awesome. You were right, Dad!

In was also on that day in 1983, that Jim and I wandered down for a peek into the Crystal Room with its view over the  Caribbean. The dining table was set in the full splendour of fine china, gleaming silver and sparkling crystal. Two liveried waiters informed Jim and I that we could not enter as the Prime Minister and his cabinet were due at any moment for their weekly Monday business luncheon.

That luncheon was not to happen. Beloved Prime Minister, Tom Adams, never made it to that meeting; he succumbed to a massive heart attack at his home, plunging Barbados into deep mourning.

My Father passed away in 1987, after which Jim and I were never able to bring ourselves to visit the Ocean View again. So much history! So many memories! In 1996 the hotel closed.

While in Barbados this year, we discovered that a book had just been published about the Ocean View. Eager to read more history about this grand old lady and to enjoy photos from her past, Jim wrote to the Bajan publishers. Our copy of this treasure arrived today.

It is at moments such as this I realize how enriched our lives have been, the history we have witnessed and the memories we have created in over forty years of travel to Barbados. I also cherish the fact that Barbados is now truly as much Jim’s island in the sun as mine.