Jamaican Memories

A Bit of Nostalgia About The Jamaica That Was




What are YOUR Jamaican memories? Time to reminisce about a Jamaica that will never be again? What are your memories of the Jamaica that was?  Are you a Jamaican, an ex-patriot who came here to work for a while, an occasional visitor to Jamaica, or one of those who came for a short visit, fell in love and never left.
Whover you are, why not indulge in a bit of nostalgia? Share YOUR  memories, or any of your experiences in Jamaica with our visitors.

A memory or two to start the ball rolling.

Our annual trip to Kingston from Whitehouse in Westmoreland was a 5-6 hour drive on a single lane gravel road. Even in those days nobody slowed down when passing, you just made a last minute swerve into the gutter and back out again.

Bamboo Avenue - same single lane gravel road. It was like entering a tunnel and you needed headlights to see. In widening and paving the road the bamboos were demolished and are now in danger of disappearing altogether. The Bamboo Avenue that we so proudly show off to tourists today is a shadow of what it used to be.

The Westmoreland Country Club - and it's delightful 9 hole golf course whose greens were surrounded by barbed wire to keep the cattle off. And the short 6th hole played across a cow pen. And the Sweet River flowing through the course.

Negril when Bloody Bay was deserted and Long Bay only had a few houses at the Southern end near to the river.

Downtown Kingston

  • The Myrtle Bank Hotel
  • Taking a Tramcar down King St
  • Shopping at Issas , Nathans and Times Store

Blue Mountain Inn - surely one of the best restaurants anywhere in its day.

A Delco or Lister Generator to generate your own electricity. Still a good idea to have one in case of power cuts.

When an evening out was a visit to Palisadoes Airport Waving Gallery, watching the planes come in, and maybe dining at Campbell's Restaurant.

Dunn River Falls when you were one of maybe ten people climbing and playing in the falls.

Your memories will be welcome ... please share them below.

Ned Blennerhassett shares some vivid memories of his days at DeCarteret Prep School (now DeCarteret College) in Mandeville, and then his days at Jamaica College in Kingston ... too many memories to fit in the submission form below. Brings back so many of my memories of Munro College at about the same time - in the early 50's.

Now It's Your Time to ...

Share your Jamaican Memories


Feeling a bit nostalgic?

Write a short story about the Jamaica that you remember. It will become YOUR page on our site.

But TWO IMPORTANT criteria for it to qualify.

First - Write 300 words or more.
Second - do not copy anything from another source and paste it here. This must be an original story.



See What Memories Others Have Shared

Click on any link below ...

It Must Be Thursday - Part 2 
The no-nonsense Mrs. Mendez had earned the reputation of being a disciplinarian, such that even Mrs. Donaldson seemed almost an angel by comparison. Her …

It Must Be Thursday - Part 1 
“Miss D burs’! Miss D burs’!” The spindly-legged boy shouted from his lookout post at the side of the school building, then started running towards the …

Making Impressions - Part 2 
The rural bus lines sported the familiar names of Magnet, Herolin, Romance, Stream in the Valley, Victor, Bugle Boy, Western Flyer, Clarendon Comet, Blue …

Making Impressions - Part 1 
“Cooya ‘G’, im de try fi ‘peak!” (“Look here, ‘G’, he is trying to speak properly!”) I would have found the remark amusing, if I had not been its subject. …

Head And Tales Of The Ambassador - Part 2 
As darkness fell, from every street in the community people would come streaming towards Thompson Street, on their way to enjoy the latest cinematic offering …

Heads And Tales Of The Ambassador - Part 1 
In the 1940s, Kingston’s moviegoers already had their pick of covered and open-air cinemas. In the first category were the prestigious Carib and Movies …

Getting The Boot 
My father’s younger brother, Charles (Uncle “P” - for "Pops"), returned home from England in 1946, having ‘won the war'. I lost no time in sharing with …

One Bad Turn Deserves Another 
My first bicycle was a present for Christmas the year I turned six. I had outgrown the pedal car that had replaced the tricycle of several years earlier. …

Teachers Great And Small 
My earliest recollections of ‘real’ school relate to my attendance at All Saints Infant School, on Matthew’s Lane (“Matches” Lane, the common mispronunciation), …

Mysteries Revealed 
One of the mysteries of my early life was the occasional dispatch of one of our ‘maids’ -- as household helpers were known then -- usually Ruby, to make …

Haircuts And A Close Shave 
I got a pedal car as a Christmas gift when I was about five years old. It was unlike any I had seen or have seen since, in that unlike most pedal cars, …

Len' Mi Yuh Fount'n Town 
Jones Town is an inner-city community in Kingston. It is situated to the south of Cross Roads and directly west of National Heroes Park (formerly Kingston …

A Vegetable By Any Other Name 
She could be heard every Sunday morning, rain or shine. From all the way down at Thompson Street, when she was barely audible, her call grew increasingly …

1964 ... First Ever Junior Miss Universe

SUMMER 1964
First Ever Little Miss Jamaica
Crowned First Ever Junior Miss Universe 
On the night of the first ever Little Miss Jamaica pageant at the Sheraton Kingston Hotel, Byron Lee and the Dragonaires are entertaining the sold out …

Magical Moments of Long-Ago Jamaica 
I remember with nostalgia my growing up years in Jamaica. No housework chores! My bicycle took me everywhere I needed to go! I mean everywhere, as during …

Half Way Tree 
When my grandmother was widowed in 1930s Jamaica, left with four children, her family in England rallied to help by buying the house she lived in and arranging …

Bill Lauries Steakhouse Mandeville 
As a young man just starting out in the working world, I had the good fortune to work for about a year or so in Mandeville. This lead to two very memorable …

"Hey White Bwoy" 
I guess I was (am?) a child on the dying edges of colonialism, no not the side of grandeur and reckless high life, but offspring of the missionaries, …

Our House for the Weekend

Many Visits To Jamaica 
My introduction to Jamaica was in 1964. I was doing an M Sc course in Agricultural Engineering at Newcastle-Upon-Tyne University in the North of England. …

Home is ... My Memories of Jamaica 
These are some memories of Jamaica taken from an unpublished essay I did for a competition when I was doing my degree in the '80's. Home is ... sitting …

San Michele "Island", Bluefields. 
Hi Chris, My Mum built this house, as she did two others in the area, and I believe you also owned it for a while. What you may NOT know is that …

Negril - No taxi past the Lighthouse! 
That's the way it was back in the 70's! Potholes large enough to swallow whole Ladas made the trip to the deep West End slow going if you could even …

Jamaican Winter in 1961 
My memories of Jamaica go back to 1961 when as an 18 year old Cuban-born I arrived in Kingston with a couple of younger friends of my family. We were …

Memories B.O.A.C. Stratocruiser

BOAC Boeing 377 Stratocruiser 
My first few flights to England from Jamaica in the mid to late 1950's took over 19 hours on a BOAC Boeing 377 Stratocruiser. It had 4 piston engines, …

Click here to write your own.

First Memories
Kingston, Rum and Cricket 
My first memories of Jamaica were Kingston Harbour, Port Royal, Myrtle Bank Hotel, seafood (the best), beautiful people, Melrose Hotel, the Daily Gleaner, …

Jamaica Snorkeling Memories 
Many years ago I lived, for a short while, in a house called Blue Water. It is in Culloden, near Whitehouse, and was originally the Blue Water Fishing …

First Memories About Jamaica 
I first arrived in Jamaica intransit from Southhampton to British Honduras (now Belize) in 1955 as a young lad aboard the SS Camito. The Camito was …

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