(A look at some of the stories that made the news ‘back-in-the-day’ with CLIFFORD STANLEY) 


The emotional ring
(The Guyana Chronicle: March 7, 1976)

This Ring allows you to see yourself in a new, colourful way.
Your mood will change the colour of the stone
to reveal your inner emotions.
Some moods revealed are: Dark Blue — very happy, love, passion and romance;
blue — at ease, calm;
black — tense, overworked.
Golden – Unsettled, and many more.
Being sold at Carnaby Boutique,
23-24 Main Street, Georgetown.

Guyanese girl cops 2nd  prize from among 100,000
(The Guyana Chronicle: March 18, 1976)

Ten-year-old Sonia Pancham , a pupil of Crabwood Creek Government school, placed second in the 1975 Platignum Handwriting Competition.
The first-place winner was 16-year-old Roxanne Springer, fifth form student of Springer Memorial School in Barbados.
She will receive as her prize a two-week stay in New York, all expenses paid, with a parent or guardian and  $50.
This is the second time that Guyana competed in the international competition.
In 1974, another student from Crabwood Creek Government School, Nirmala Sarju, placed third in the competition.
Sonia’s entry was among 100,000 entries from Australia, Barbados, Ghana, Kenya, New Zealand, Nigeria and Zaire.
The handwriting competition, sponsored by the Platignum Pen Company in collaboration with the Ministries of Education in the various countries, is aimed at encouraging good handwriting in schools.
The competition provides for five age groups: Division V, under 7 years of age; Division IV, 7-9 years of age; Division III, 9 to 11 years of age; Division II, 11 to 13 years of age; and Division I,13 to 16 years of age.
At the presentation of awards ceremony held at St. Rose’s High School for the prizewinner yesterday afternoon, Sonia, apart from her $120 prize money,  received an added $25 from Cde. L. Richards, Managing Director of C. L. Pitt and Company, regional representative of the Platignum Pen Company, who arrived in Guyana to take part in the ceremony.

It’s no one-woman show
(The Guyana Chronicle: March 7, 1976)

It’s the Love Show: ‘I can’t control my emotions’;  ‘Please think it over’ and many, many more. Wendy Alleyne,  backed by her eight-piece band, the Dynamics.  MCs: MATTHEW ALLEYNE and PANCHO CAREW. Wednesday March 10, GLOBE  Cinema; Thursday March 11, LYRICS CINEMA, Plaisance; Friday 12, Dance: $4.00 plus local artistes and Mischievous Guys.

St. John’s Ambulance Brigade stamps
(The Guyana Chronicle: March 11, 1976)

ON Monday March 29, 1976, the Post Office Department will offer for sale to the public a special issue of postage and revenue stamps to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the St. John’s Ambulance in Guyana.
The stamps, which are put up in denominations of 8 cents, 15 cents, 35 cents and 40 cents, will be on sale until May 25, 1976.
As is customary to do, the first-day issue service will be provided at the Philatelic Bureau of the General Post Office, as well as post offices at New Amsterdam, Kitty, Bourda, Mackenzie, Suddie and Bartica on Monday March 29, 1976.
Stamp bulletins are available free of cost from the Philatelic Bureau for mailing to friends and collectors overseas, a notice from Cde. L. H. Braithwaite, acting Post Master General says.

A Voice From Cuffy’s Grave
(Guyana Chronicle: March 14, 1976)

THERE ARE many poets on the Guyana scene who have established their works from time to time.
Ivan Forrester joins this rapidly growing band with the recent publication of his ‘A Voice from Cuffy’s Grave’.
What makes Forrester’s (known popularly as ‘Farro’) poems different from the usual is that they are set in the interior of Guyana.
Denis Williams writes in the introduction to the book:
“Faro is the most strange and incomprehensible figure in the coastal society;  a creature and poet of inner Guyana, which alone makes him unique in a country where few have had any direct experience of the interior.
“His mature experience has been acquired as a meteorological field assistant, wholly in inner Guyana; in its forests, on its tumultuous but noble rivers and amongst these unexpectedly visionary communities of Indians, gold miners and small farmers who most Guyanese smugly know as ‘bushmen’.”

Farro writes about Mazaruni:

‘My roar is that of a thousand
Jungles.
As from Pakaraimas’s lofty
Heights
I plunge and clothe myself
In mist and foam.
Winding
Winding
Dancing my dance of
death.
Gathering the gems
Willful gems
My Lure
Just to scatter them
Again.
His respect and fear for this awesome river show in these lines.
Was I ever vanquished?
Did I ever turn aside?
When did man ever mock me?
Remember oh remember
When they came to wrest
my fortune.
Did I not seek their lives?
Deaths unknelled…
Graves unknown…’

Writing about Forrester’s works, Cde. A. J. Seymour said:
“Ivan Forrester is the Guyanese who has made a special act of possession of the rivers, waterfalls and trees of the hinterland.”
In his poetry, we find a strong sense of imagery, which captures the struggle between nature and Guyanese pioneers in their mastery of the hinterland.

Golf at Lusignan
(The Guyana Chronicle: March 18, 1976)

TWO BIG golf tournaments are scheduled for next month at the Lusignan Golf Course.
On Saturday, April 3, the State Express 555 championships (for men) will be played off, and this will be followed by the Annual General Meeting of the Club at 6pm.
A colourful tournament takes place on Sunday, April 4 when the ladies make their appearance  in the mixed threesome for the State Express 555 trophy.
Meanwhile, a big week of golf is also planned for the 10th Independence Anniversary celebrations, starting May 16.
The Royal Bank of Canada Cup, Sprostons Mashramani Trophy, the Caddies Trophy and Esso Trophy will be at stake.
And in a move to encourage more people to play golf, the club intends organizing demonstrations at the National Park during the Independence celebrations.

(Clifford Stanley can be reached to discuss any of the foregoing articles at cliffantony@gmail.com or by telephone: 657-2043)