Barbadian author’s memoir recounts life in the 1950s

By David Hinkson

 Barbadians are once again being encouraged to document their life experiences, and to form writing groups to facilitate the process.

The suggestion has come from the head of the Department of History at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Dr. Henderson Carter as he spoke during the virtual launch of Canada-based Barbadian writer, Pat Fitzpatrick Hardt’s memoir entitled “In the Crook of the Frangipani Tree”.

In noting that Hardt was part of a writer’s club, Dr. Carter said, “Every one of us has a story, and all these stories comprise learning experiences from which others can benefit. Now, there may be some who are afraid to tell their stories because they feel their language is not up to par, but a writing group can help them with that.”

Eighty-two-year-old Hardt, who has worked as a nurse and a counsellor at Concordia University in Montreal, spoke of what inspired her to write and explained the title of the book.

Dr. Carter noted that the book presents an interesting snapshot of life in Barbados in the 1940s and 1950s from a middle class and individual perspective.

“As a child growing up in Grand View in St. Thomas, we had a Frangipani tree at the front of our house, and I spent a lot of time in the crook of one of its branches watching planes flying back and forth and wondering whether I would get the chance to travel someday. My mother told us education was what we needed to get a leg to stand on in the world, and I embraced that and got many opportunities as a result.”

Dr. Carter noted that the book presents an interesting snapshot of life in Barbados in the 1940s and 1950s from a middle class and individual perspective. 

“Normally, when we look at the social history of Barbados, we do it from the rather impersonal perspective of statistics, but here we have an individual’s account of day-to-day activities. For example, she describes visiting Roebuck Street when it was a hive of commercial activity, and notes that many families kept kitchen gardens as a significant source of income, something which came back to the fore in the last two years of the COVID-19 pandemic where people were encouraged to keep kitchen gardens yet again.”

While this is her first published work, Hardt noted that, “I have been writing for decades. I have stories that I wrote in the 1970s and 1980s, but I never had the courage to publish them. However, since I got involved in my writers’ group, they gave me the incentive to get my work out to a wider audience. I would suggest that if such groups are set up in Barbados, there should be some catering to the elderly as well as younger people, particularly since younger people don’t read as often now as before. This would be a good way to get them back into reading.” (DH)