ELISA (RIGHT) AND HER SISTER DANIELLE LEAVING FOR BARBADOS (1989) Back in the day (1989 to be exact) before cell phones, email and digital cameras, two young twenty-something sisters took a vacation to Barbados during the same week that the Royal British Navy was in port. These sisters were none other than me and Danielle, and what a fun trip it was! Before either of us were married, we were roommates for about ten years, as well as travel companions, which included an annual trip to the Caribbean every Fall. One of the first trips we ever went on together was to Barbados. There was really nothing special about this trip - our criteria was simple - cheap. However we did manage to find a great deal at the Hilton (nice hotel!) right on the beach - PERFECT!
HEY KIDS - REMEMBER THE OLD FASHIONED BOARDING PASSES!
ON THE PLANE RIDE TO BARBADOS Our days consisted of three things -- getting up and dressed -- hanging out at the beach -- eating. The times and order may have varied, but that was the extent of our activities. Of course, both of us were skinny, cute and silly at the time, so the possibilities for excitement were endless. We would get up relatively early, so we could secure a lounge chair and a "good location" on the beach; mark them with the universal "this chair is taken" indicator - a towel; and then go eat breakfast. Suited up with our cute swim suits, sun tan lotion (it wasn't called sun screen in those days), our respective walkman and tapes (c'mon, remember lugging a whole collection of cassette tapes before MP3 players!), we were set for the entire day.
ELISA ON THE BEACH CHATTING WITH ONE OF THE "BEACH VENDORS" IN BARBADOS The day usually consisted of an ongoing parade of locals walking by us as we lounged in the sun, trying to sell us something. Danielle and I would get a belly laugh for hours and days after, thinking about these beach "salesmen", each with their own distinguishing feature. Some of them would repeatedly call on us day after day, regardless of how many no's we would give them. Others would take the liberty of actually sitting at the base of one of our lounge chairs to start chatting about the merits of their wears - "How about a nice ankle bracelet mon?". I was famous for pretending to be asleep hiding behind my sunglasses while my poor sister was held captive by the sales pitch. And so our days went, until, we had to get showered and dressed for our big dinner - at the hotel of course. Then we would go to bed and start all over again the next day. We rarely ventured off the hotel grounds on these trips. Neither of us were drinkers so we survived on good, old fashioned laughter at old stories or new ones, at the expense of the people in our trip surroundings.
ONE OF OUR MANY BARBADOS DINNERS AT THE HILTON HOTEL RESTAURANT
One day, we decided to rent boogie boards so we could really spice up our day (sarcasm) and while we were jumping, screaming and laughing like two fools in the waves, we watched as a stream of wild, short-haired, well-built guys came running and diving into the ocean in varying locations around us. We were so oblivious, we just kept doing what we were doing. I'm guessing we probably had some interesting comments to each other about the loud mouthed guys, but as two Queens girls, that was par for the course. During one of our lulls from bouncing and getting hit by waves, our attention was drawn to the pool, which was straight ahead and completely visible from where we were floating in the ocean. We noticed a massive number of guys yelling, screaming and being rowdy not only around the pool, but also jumping off the room balconies into the pool. They were laughing and egging each other on. Danielle commented that she thought they were military, probably on leave while in port. As we turned on our extrasensory hearing, we could make out that they had British accents. We decided to casually walk over to the pool to check out the situation. I mean, the odds were in our favor to being noticed since there were LOTS of them and TWO of us. So, off we went - through the sand, towards the pool.
VIEW FROM THE POOL AT THE HILTON, BARBADOS
ELISA & ROYAL NAVY SAILORS OUT AT A CLUB IN GEORGETOWN, BARBADOS As we approached the pool area, there was no calming down to their adolescent behavior, in fact, now they had an audience. So, Danielle and I sat down on the edge of the pool, feet in, and were non-challantly talking to one another, while watching the antics. After a few minutes, Danielle (who always had more courage than me with the opposite sex) yelled out "Are you guys in the navy?" With that, a swarm of guys waded over towards us and one of them politely replied as any good smart ass does, "yeeea, wier in the navy." imitating Danielle's New York accent. At this point, we knew we were in good company. Without hesitation we were chatting back and forth and found out, just as Danielle had suspected, their ship was in port and they had the weekend free to roam about and relax. There was lots of conversation on our part about the Royal British Navy and their "boat" as me and Danielle referred to it; and the questions came right back at us regarding our lives in New York. The conversation started off with a friendly banter of the varying descriptive words used in British English and American English. For example, we thought it was hysterical that they called sweaters "wooly jumpers" and cookies "crumpets." Soon, however, we moved off of the varying meanings to the difference in pronunciation, with them thinking our accent was cute and us thinking their's was so proper. We digressed to each reciting a litany of profanities to see whose was more or less insulting sounding.
Before long, both Danielle and I had jumped into the pool and were getting splashed and we were all having a jolly good time. At one point, Danielle who had been wearing a "squeeze clip" in her hair, took it out and was holding it in her hand. Trying to get her completely wet, one of our new friends did a cannonball jump into the pool and accidentally collided with Danielle's hand that had the clip in it and the points scraped his back. Danielle was unscathed, but, all of a sudden, this big, burly, tattooed navy guy shot up from under the water grabbing the back of his shoulder, screaming "What was that?! A damn peg in me back?!!" It was probably one of those instances that required being there, but with that, Danielle and I could not breath from laughing so hard. I mean, who uses the expression "peg"? We could not answer this poor guy until we calmed down, minutes later, at which point, we showed him "the peg." By this time, we were all laughing.
Before long, both Danielle and I had jumped into the pool and were getting splashed and we were all having a jolly good time. At one point, Danielle who had been wearing a "squeeze clip" in her hair, took it out and was holding it in her hand. Trying to get her completely wet, one of our new friends did a cannonball jump into the pool and accidentally collided with Danielle's hand that had the clip in it and the points scraped his back. Danielle was unscathed, but, all of a sudden, this big, burly, tattooed navy guy shot up from under the water grabbing the back of his shoulder, screaming "What was that?! A damn peg in me back?!!" It was probably one of those instances that required being there, but with that, Danielle and I could not breath from laughing so hard. I mean, who uses the expression "peg"? We could not answer this poor guy until we calmed down, minutes later, at which point, we showed him "the peg." By this time, we were all laughing.
DANIELLE DANCING IT UP IN GEORGETOWN, BARBADOS We hung out with our Navy friends at the pool until it was nearly dinnertime. Many of them had dispersed and our crowd had dwindled down to two very nice fellows and us, when they asked us if we would like to go to dinner together, perhaps dancing and see their ship in the downtown port area. We gladly accepted and they agreed to pick us up back at the hotel in an hour. Now, I know today, girls are dissuaded from ever accepting dates with foreign men in the Caribbean, but, it was a different time and era, and fortunately, these happened to be very nice guys & our judgement was good.
Our date was really quite nice and "Barry" and "Chris" were perfect gentlemen. They took us out to dinner and to a small local nightclub downtown, where a number of other Royal British navy blokes were hanging out. We had lots of laughs. They made good on their invite to bring us back on the Royal British Navy Battleship (which we kept calling a boat) to see how they live while at sea and to meet their superiors and the captain. This sounded so cool to us. What did we know from Navy ships! So, we took a short walk down the main street in Georgetown, where we were hanging out and made our way, with our Naval Escorts, to the ship. First of all, we had to walk up these narrow straight ladders, which was definitely a feat. The wind was pretty heavy once we got to the top and our hair was blowing all over. I'm guessing we looked pretty hurtin' by this point. In any case, we were given a royal tour throughout the entire interior of the ship. The cooking area, the bunks, and other areas. We were amazed at how narrow the beds were (which had seat belts) as well as their "closets" which were tiny bins under their cots. We were introduced to the Captain, who was very hospitable. It was rather interesting to see the looks on the other sailors on the ship, who were not on leave, to see two girls wandering through their navy ship. One must remember, this was pre 9-11 and people were more trusting. I cannot imagine such a visit would ever be possible today.
In any case, we really had a nice time and "our blokes" as we called them, took us back to our hotel later that evening, where we all exchanged information so we could write to each other. I had the bright idea to make them homemade "crumpets" and ship them in time for Christmas! Remember, this was pre-internet, so I had to do some research at the library on how to pack them so they would stay fresh. We received the warmest thank you letters from them, as they couldn't believe we actually took the time to bake for them! Our letter writing continued for close to six months and then kind of dwindled as Danielle and I fell back into our daily life and routine. We still laugh thinking about that trip and reminiscing with the photos. Ah, to be young and impetuous again!!
In any case, we really had a nice time and "our blokes" as we called them, took us back to our hotel later that evening, where we all exchanged information so we could write to each other. I had the bright idea to make them homemade "crumpets" and ship them in time for Christmas! Remember, this was pre-internet, so I had to do some research at the library on how to pack them so they would stay fresh. We received the warmest thank you letters from them, as they couldn't believe we actually took the time to bake for them! Our letter writing continued for close to six months and then kind of dwindled as Danielle and I fell back into our daily life and routine. We still laugh thinking about that trip and reminiscing with the photos. Ah, to be young and impetuous again!!
ELISA & DANIELLE BOARDING THEIR FLIGHT BACK TO NEW YORK FROM BARBADOS