MEMOIRS OF THE DRY
RIVER
By Sharon Carew
Sunday Guardian
December 21, 1999
Page 12
|
The
Dry River, which divides Port of Spain into East and West, is a huge concrete
drain with a small egg-shaped drain running down the middle. It is really the St Ann's River, diverted
from its natural course through Port of Spain. From
its source in the Chancellor Ridge, it flows into the cool St Ann's Valley
and starts its winding course to the St Ann's Reservoir, then along the St
Ann's road to the Belmont Circular Road bridge. Before
it was diverted in 1787 the river flowed down Observatory Street, then
westward along what is now Park Street, across what is now Frederick Street,
diagonally through Woodford Square, down Chacon Street and across
Independence Square (Marine Square at the time) to the sea. The
Dry River was paved between 1930 and 1934 to eliminate the problems of
flooding, debris and silt deposits. |
Tony
Patino is in his sixties, but he wore a look of childlike pleasure as he slid
down the concrete incline under the Belmont Circular Road bridge towards the
Dry River, seated on the dry flower base of a palm tree. He hurtled down the slope at such speed; I thought
he would topple over at the bottom. He
didn't, of course: a mark of his old skill.
Patino,
the customer relations manager at Tru Valu Supermarket in Diamond Vale, doesn't
often indulge in this boyish sport; he was just demonstrating one of the many
games he played as a boy growing up in Belmont on the banks of the Dry
River. The river played such an
important part in his youth that he's writing a memoir called De Saga of de
Dry River. He has seven brothers
and six sisters, and things were tough for his parents. During the war, especially, supplying food
for such a large family was tricky.
Tony Patino now has two children and four grandchildren of his own and
lives in Diamond Vale.
The
book developed from a calypso "De Dry River", inspired by Kitchener's
"The Steelband", "The River" and "Mystery Band".
In
the course of a walk along its banks, Patino recalled that for the people who
lived nearby, the River was a recreation ground, a battleground, a short cut
and, for young boys, a place to find and create adventure. He refers to it as "the playground of
the less fortunate", and fondly remembers the games and activities he
participated in.
The
bed of the river easily became a cricket or football ground, or a track and
field arena, depending on the season.
When the river "came down", the debris that came with it from
up St Ann's was far too tempting to keep adventurous boys away from the
dangerous gush of water. All manner of
objects arrived, from live chickens and ducks (sometimes even whole chicken
coops) to balls and mattresses and other household items.
Gambling
was a popular pastime under the Cadiz Road bridge. On cool nights, people would lime on the banks of the River and
'enjoy the warmth of the concrete'.
Boys played hoop and the brave would venture into an underground ravine
known as "De Dark Hole". That
darkness is only punctuated by light filtering from the iron grids in the road
above, so it was considered quite a feat to walk all the way to Belmont Valley
Road.
Patino
recalls that a number of successful cricketers and footballers got their
grounding in the Dry River - Ansel "Coo Coot" Quamina and Joslyn
Lashley from Dynamos, Carlyle Heath from Sporting Club, Cheesy Griffith from
Summerville and Russel Greenidge from Malvern.
In cricket, there was Andy Ganteaume, from Maple and later Trinidad and
Tobago and West Indies opening batsman in 1948. Buntin Miles from Maple, Edward Patino from Belmont Dodgers,
Kenny Roberts from Harvard and Bryan Davis and Wayne Smart from Queen's Park,
learned to bat, bowl and field on the fast-paced concrete surface of the Dry
River.
He
is convinced that the football technique known as the "wall pass" was
invented and perfected in the Dry River.
The wall of the Dry River became a "teammate" as players bounced
passes off it, bypassed opposing players, then collected the ball on the
rebound. On a real football field,
another player, of course, plays the role of the wall. Tottenham Hotspurs won the Second Division
Football League in 1953 using the wall pass and were promoted into the First
Division the following year. He thinks
"some Englishman who came to the Shamrock club on the bank of the River
must have seen us using this pass - before 1950". Tony has maintained his interest in sports
and in 1976 founded a free keep-fit club with former national football team
trainer Ken Henry.
In
the 1940s and 50s steelband rivalry was literally gang warfare, and crossing
the River or walking in it could have serious consequences. Patino remembers that people from town would
never come up the river because of the tension between Rising Sun, Sunland of
Upper Belmont and Casablanca, Bar 20 and Renegades from lower down. Anyone who seemed to be a member of a
"town band" was sent scampering back to whence he came, with a hail
of bottles, stones and lead slugs from slingshots from the banks overlooking
the river bed. The same was true for
anyone from up the River who went down.
Patino
hopes to complete his memoir next month.