celebrate, his three youngest daughters and granddaughter thought a trip to Florida would be ideal. He accepted our invitation this time.
Once a vibrant youth and efficient sugarcane cutter, he now struggles to climb the stairs due to the arthritis or(‘ afferitis’ as he calls it) in his knees – his salt and peppered hair and receding hairline signifying wisdom gained as they say, and indicating the loss of youth. He was in America again. But one thing remained unchanged – his memories of Belle Glade.
About a week into what we thought would’ ve been a six month stay, it was time to revisit old memories and create new ones.
“ Dada, would you like to go to Belle Glade to visit the sugarcane plantation?”
“ Along the canal was the hardest to harvest,” he remembered.“ And whoever worked there would get paid more money. Each person was given two rows of sugarcane to cut and was paid $ 50 per row. If you didn’ t finish your rows you didn’ t get all your money.”
And even though the place had changed quite a bit he recognized the routes and street names …
“ This area was called South Bay. Thieves often lurked there to rob unsuspecting migrant workers. But I never got robbed,” he said.“ We’ d go to the Royal Store and Consignment Store to buy clothes. Men’ s suits were $ 5 and work clothes $ 1. Lee jeans were $ 5 and Wrangler was $ 2.50.”
“ Awa,”( not really or no),” he responded.
Awa to Belle Glade?! A place that came up in every conversation and he didn’ t care to go?
But this was our house and what we say go, so we are going to Belle Glade( lol).
It was a Sunday morning, a bright and beautiful day in sunny Florida, perfect, just perfect for a road trip. We all jumped in that SUV and off we went to embark on the less than two hour expedition with our dad. The first hour into the journey was pretty quiet but that would soon change. Once we ventured into familiar territory and he saw sugarcane fields and recognized street names, he came alive!
Gazing out the window, pointing and lifting from his seat at times, James recounted life as a sugarcane cutter …