Reminiscing Christmas
George was our coordinator, leader, band manager and creative director. He was so good with his hands and people marvelled at his creativity in spite of the fact that he was a dunce academically.
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Every Christmas, George coordinated our group’s Christmas activities from gathering of palm fronds for the Christmas house, to the making of drums, Christmas hats, songs and other good and bad things.
This particular year, he decided, on the spur of the moment, to put up a one storey-building made up of palm fronds with tough wooden boards for the support.
We knew he could accomplish it because he had recently built an aeroplane that could move for a few metres on the part of fishing community cum railway workers quarters near the Takoradi Harbour. He was the cynosure of all eyes and people marvelled at why he repeated his class the previous year.
Another thing was that you could not come up against the wishes of George or you would be out of the team of young 10 to 15 year-old boys who had a band and played around during Christmas, singing, playing and collecting Christmas gifts such as piccadaily biscuits, fanta soft drink and chicken from well-wishers. Christmas was for sharing and giving and we lived it to the full and sometimes fell sick from overeating.
George’s family
George’s father was one of the few people in the community who owned a television set. Any of the boys who who did not regularly bring cassava and plantain peels for his father’s goats and sheep, whether a member of the team or not would not be allowed to watch television in his father’s sitting room.
This small black and white television box had just been introduced into that community and to be prevented from watching films like the Saint, High Chaparel and the Fury and the Prisoner and the birth of Jesus Christ was a double punishment.
By the 20th of December various schools had vacated to allow the children position themselves well to mark the birth of the Lord.
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We had already earmarked a place for the novelty building and headed deep into the dense thicket near the Shell oil installation for the palm fronds meant for the great building project.
Those days the harmmattan cold was all enveloping, biting and we had to be cajoled, plodded to take our bath before we set out early for the bush to gather our accoutrements
Four days to the day, we had started construction, had obtained some planks for the support and had completed the work.
A day earlier, we had gone to the tailor and had collected our Christmas dresses, hat and new sandals..That year, my Christmas dress was nice khaki knickers and white long sleeves that had been sown by Francis, the local tailor.
That 24th night we slept in our new Raffia House; thankfully our mothers, aware of the cold and the mosquitoes, had provided some clothing for our 24 the, night outdoor adventure.
On the day, that is 25th, we woke up very early,made our preparations, put on our new dresses and headed for the various places to entertain people and solicit our Christmas presents.
Xmas at Effia Kuma
Effia Kuma, a town two kilometres away, was our favourite first stop because whenever we visited Master Tando’s house, we were given fanta, sumptuous cooked rice with big cuts of chicken, biscuits and 30 pesewas. After satiating ourselves, we headed on, did some gigs at people’s houses for some money. I was the dancer and i could gyrate,shuffle and shake .
We perambulated around Effia Kuma, then back to New Takoradi where we went round playing our band, singing Christmas songs, receiving donations and drinking more fanta, which became abundant only during Christmas.
By the time we reached home we could not eat our Christmas food after the gorging in town. We always shared our pickings with our leader who took the lion’s share.
We normally stayed at home on the morning of 26th and ‘chopped’ our Christmas rice and chicken and watched the singing bands, masqueraders, church members and friends as they went round collecting their Christmas ‘things’
Our parents’ friends came visiting to take in some club beer, rice and akpeteshie.
Boxing Day
For me the highlight of the celebration was in the afternoon on boxing day when our various mothers sent us to their friends and relatives with various types of food,drinks and items.. My visit to my grandmother was special for me. After I had delivered her chritsmas presents,she took me into her bedroom, where she had laid a table for her ‘broni’, my good self.
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The table was filled with all the goodies a nine year boy could take in. Rice with chicken thighs ,ice cream, a new shirt and some pesewas which I used all on allewa tooffee before I got home in the evening, happy and satisfield with the world in spite of my mothers glare.
Those were the days. I had become my grandmother’s ‘broni’ by some circumstance. Some years back I had nearly stopped attending school, when one day my mother saw me wearing my christmas sandals in the company of of my friends. She removed it from under my feet with a warning never to wear my christmas and church sandals to school.
The teasings I endured from my friends made me to become a vagabond . Despite threats and beatings I refused to go back to school . It took my grandmother’s gentle intervention, a nice ‘Achimota’ sandals and a warning to my father not to beat me again to venture back to school.
Are those days the same as now?