Sharon Millar: On Tobago, Mermen Come Calling

Sharon Millar in the garden at her home in St Ann’s
photo: Mark Lyndersay
(source: Trinidad and Tobago Guardian)
no copyright infringement intended

A friend of mine used to work for several years in Trinidad-Tobago and in Barbados. He was a flight engineer and by that time Romania had a contract with several Caribbean countries to operate its airplanes there. My friend is now retired, and he enjoys telling his Caribbean stories. He was very impressed that in Trinidad any kind of beverage was based on sugar, including the beer. I read in one of Joseph Mitchell's stories that any beverage in Trinidad is based on rice, but my friend certainly has a better knowledge in this matters. I would like to hear from him stories about some of his experiences with beauty queens from Barbados and around, but we always meet in the presence of our wives, so there is a reason for his discretion. Well, here is a description of what he met for sure in Tobago: jumbies, jabless, fairy maids, kingly mermen... It was published in NY Times and the author is Sharon Millar. You'll enjoy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/11/travel/tobago-caribbean-islands.html

(Sharon Millar)