by Francis Quamina Farrier
THERE ARE those times when journalists write feature articles which are exclusively about their own personal experiences. This feature is one such example. In this feature, I am sharing my experiences of “Four Special Saturdays in my Life”. So, as the song in the musical “The Sound of Music” states, “Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.”

Saturday March 12, 1938; I was born at Broad Street, Charlestown, Georgetown in the then British Guiana. My father Franklyn, who was from Grenada in the Caribbean, came to British Guiana, where he met and marry my mother, Stella of the Baker clan on Broad Street, Charlestown. They were residing two blocks away from the principal Baker hub on Broad Street, where I was born. I was the second child of their matrimonial union. My understanding is that my maternal grandmother, Mary, who was temporarily in-residence during the run-up to my arrival, was taking special care of my mother – and me, yet unborn. The story is that my grandmother had slipped out to go to the grocery shop to make a few purchases when I arrived.

It was a Saturday, and it seems that I wanted to be ready for Sunday morning mass the next day, so by the time Grannie Mary returned from the shop, I was there to greet her with my screams. I suspect that those screams were heard all the way to the Government House (now State House), where Governor Sir Wilfred Francis Jackson was in office. I can’t say for certain whether I was given the name Francis because the governor of the day had that name. No one at that time had any idea that there would have been a Bishop Francis in Guyana, while at the very same time, there would have been a Pope Francis in Rome.

In school, I was taught English history which included the adventures of Admiral Sir Francis Drake who was a pirate and slave trader, and was knighted after successfully circumnavigating the globe. I was also taught of another well-known Englishman with that name; Viscount Francis Bacon, a philosopher and scientist. However, it would be more accurate to say that I was given the first name Francis, for the venerated Italian St. Francis of Assisi. So growing up, I was very proud of my first name, Francis.

Number Two: Unfortunately, I can’t recall the exact date of this special Saturday in my life, but it was in 1949, when I was eleven years old. I had entered and won the First Prize primary schools’ national essay-writing competition. It could have been for the first Traffic Safety Week. It is a pity that I do not have the fine details. However, I clearly recall that special Saturday. The result of the Essay-writing competition was announced at the St. Ann’s Anglican school, where I was a student, much to the joy of the teachers and the jubilation of the other students.

There was also jubilation, not only in the Farrier household, but the entire Villages of McDoom and Agricola. I lived in McDoom and next-yard Neighbours Rojan and her husband Bierwah, as well as Neighbour Nellie and her Bajan husband Archibald, all showered me with praise and congratulations. That was the first of a number of other prizes I have won in the ensuing years, including the First and Third Prizes at the official Independence Playwriting competition in 1966.

In those colonial years, all the back streets in McDoom village (now a part of Georgetown) were unpaved – mud streets. So, already well dressed, I had to wash my feet at the public standpipe on the public road, polish down my feet with coconut oil, and complete my special dressing. Then in company with my older brother, Michael, we headed down to the Town Hall (City Hall), where I was to receive my prize from the wife of Governor Sir Charles Woolley.

At that time, the City Hall building was one of the most picturesque and glorious structures in the “Garden City of the Caribbean”. It was a very special Saturday in the life of this pre-teen country boy. It was a very big deal for my name to be mentioned at the packed Town Hall, not only in the presence of Lady Wolley, the wife of Governor Sir Charles Wolley, but the privilege of shaking her hand and receiving my prize for winning the first prize in the Essay Writing competition. My prize was a state-of-the art toy car, which was the envy of all my peers. At that time, toy cars were wound up and let go, to go whichever way gravity took them. My prize car had an extension cord, which controlled the direction in which it goes. A big deal for sure.

Saturday Number Three; that was April 29, 1967 when got I married to the brilliant and beautiful Patricia Bernadette Blackmore of South Cummingsburg, Georgetown. She was a Civil Servant attached to the Deeds Registry, which is located on the ground floor of the High Court. I was a senior sales clerk at Wm. Fogarty’s, “Your Friendly Store” on Water Street, Georgetown. My wife Patricia and I first met at the Theatre Guild Playhouse. She was a member of the Georgetown Dramatic Club which had members such as Vibert Parvatan.

The club house was at the location of the Critchlow Labour College. The club had a special production and staged it at the TG Playhouse on Parade Street, Kingston. My function was Stage Manager, while Patricia Blackmore was at Front-of-House. Somehow, although functioning at two different areas of the Playhouse, destiny was already writing the script of our lives together as man and wife. We got engaged a year later and on Saturday April 29, 1967, we were joined together in Holy Matrimony at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Brickdam.

My wife Patricia, is ranked by me, as one of Guyana’s greatest secretaries – up in the league with great secretaries like the late Ms. Celina Harewood, who served as Confidential Secretary to Presidents Desmond Hoyte and Cheddi Jagan, as well as to Catholic Bishop Francis Alleyne, OSB.

Saturday Number Four; On Saturday April 29, 2017, my wife Patricia and I, had the first event of our planned year-long FIFTIETH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY celebration. This first event was attending Holy Mass and renewing our Marriage Vows. There were hundreds of Saturdays since my birth on Saturday March 12, 1938, but those four Saturdays related in this feature, have been the most special Saturdays in my entire life – so far.