Retirees miss the good old days in Barbados

by Marlon Madden

Growing up in the countryside was something Merline Olton enjoyed for many years before migrating to the United States where she spent about two decades before returning home to Barbados.

However, the retiree, who came home some 13 years ago, is wishing for the country to return to some of the good old days when people cared more for each other.

Olton was speaking to Barbados TODAY as she relaxed on the verandah of her Pot House, St John home on Thursday.

“All I would like to see is people just trying to be more loving and more caring. That is what we need.

If we don’t have that this place will be no better,” said Olton, as she outlined her main wish for the island.

Olton spent her early years in St Joseph before moving to her current St John location in 1970.

She told Asantewaa she recalled people in rural communities always looking out for each other and ensuring that the elderly in the community were taken care of.

However, she said as development continued and technology and modern equipment became more pervasive, the level of camaraderie and community spirit Barbados was once known for began to dwindle.

“People were living more happy, they were more loving, but now it is everybody thinking they are all that,” said Olton.

The elderly woman, who is affectionately known as Ann or Annie, told Barbados TODAY she found it somewhat surprising that as the years went by people became less interested in asking to offer assistance to the more senior people in communities in rural districts.

Olton is one of several elderly people living in Pot House, St John; a community with fewer than 100 people.

“I am here for example, and nobody ask ‘would you like something from the store’. No, there is none of that and I am not afraid to say it.

“This is not community business with residents it is not. I never grow up in this and to see it now, it is hard to see how people are behaving. I love my people and I love my nieghbours and everybody, but we need more communication and coming together,” she said.

Olton spent about 20 years in the US, where she did several jobs including child care, home help and work in a Laundromat, before returning home 13 years ago.

Prior to leaving Barbados, the mother of five worked in several jobs including dry clean, the hotel industry and the supermarket, which she quickly pointed out was her least favourite.

“I did a good few things because when you lose one job you can’t sit down, you got to pay rent and you have kids to support so you got to do what you got to do to survive,” said Olton.

Olton, who is in her 70s, said she was hoping that younger residents would reach out more to senior citizens on a regular basis and not wait until there is a pandemic or dire situations to do so.

“There are a lot of senior citizens who are suffering and need help and even like now the place is on lockdown they say stay home. But you stay home and you don’t have anybody to do anything for you,” she said.

The senior citizen, who now suffers from pains – due to an accident – as well as arthritis, said despite this shortcoming she was not afraid to get out and do what little she could.

In fact, Olton who said she was not allowing the global COVID-19 pandemic to drive fear into her, said she tried to keep active by cooking her own meals, playing with her dogs and doing her gardening.

“Even now I wish I could go and work because the little pension you get you can hardly survive off of it. The people in the estate, the money they are working for I never worked for, and if I could I would. I am a very independent person and like to know I am collecting my own little funds,” she quipped.

However, Olton said most days “I sit here and sometimes I put my oldies [music] on. I love my oldies music . . . I enjoy that”. The only challenge she faces now is going to the supermarket and travelling with all the items she needs in one go, due to the pain in her shoulders.

As such, Olton would sometimes make multiple trips or pay the extra to receive help.

“Other than that, I am comfortable. I am contented. But I just wish that people would be more loving,” she said.

Her nieghbour Valarie Gittens, who is currently wrapping up her lengthy vacation, told Barbados TODAY she too wanted to see people living more in harmony.

Gittens, 70, said she also wished Barbadians would obey the rules in place to help protect them from the COVID-19 virus.

“They are not listening. I sit here and if four people pass here only one got on mask. They are not wearing the masks.

They have to follow the rules in order for this thing to go away. That is what I would like to see,” she said.

The retired child care worker, who has been living in the US for the past 43 years, said she made it her point of duty to return to Bridgetown every year no matter what.

She said she was not prepared to let the COVID-19 pandemic stop her from keeping that tradition alive.

“I come and do what I have to do – I quarantined and all that. If this is what I have to do I will do because I was coming home every year. I like coming home every Christmas and I am still going to do the routine despite the COVID or not,” she insisted.

This was the longest Gittens had spent on a vacation, pointing out that she recently retired and wanted to enjoy every bit of it.

“The only thing is that you have to stay put, but it don’t really bother me because I stay home here in my verandah and watch people pass up and down the street.

“I come every year. This is my house so I come every year, but this time I stayed a little longer – I stay nearly three months,” she said.