By Francis Quamina Farrier

REGENT Street in Georgetown is swiftly becoming more of a commercial street than it ever was. The evolution brings with it some four and five-storey concrete buildings, as well as the concomitant parking problems, also reckless and noisy traffic.

For example, the junction of Regent and Camp Streets is totally different from what it was at Independence 1966. The first traffic lights in Guyana were installed there and the former wooden buildings demolished and replaced with much taller concrete ones. The very first escalators installed in Guyana were at City Mall at that Regent and Camp Streets junction.

Where I once resided on Regent Road, is no longer an attractive two-storey wooden cottage. That building has been demolished and replaced with an awesome modern design three-storey business enterprise. Commerce is on the move on that east to west city street from Vlissengen Road to Water Street. Attractive trees which once lined both sides of the street are no longer there for the better part. City Hall,which was once a pride and joy to behold, is now literally falling apart and painful for most citizens to behold.

In preparing for this 52nd Independence Anniversary feature, I realised that the longest surviving family business on that street is the Rosalind October Creole ‘N’ Bar-Be, located at 116 Regent Street, on the northern side, mid-way between Alexander and Camp Streets. So I decided to feature that little family business survivor in today’s edition of the Pepperpot Magazine. The October family establishment is now 67 years and counting.

This unique family business enterprise started way back in the early 1950s and has out-lived many others of its kind from that era on Regent Street, including the well-known Piggott’s Drug Store, located one block further east at the corner of Regent and Bourda Streets.

The founder of CREOLE ‘N’ Bar-Be’ was the simple but very hard-working Ivor Prince October, who along with his equally hard-working wife, Rosalind, were the parents of 16 children. Every one of the October children was conditioned to make a contribution to the business, based on their age and abilities at any given time. The business commenced with ice trading.

The ice was purchased from Weiting and Richter on Water Street and sold to sea-going fishermen at the Kingston koker. The ice was stored in sawdust which was acquired from a sawmill that was located on the northern side of Robb Street between Camp and Wellington Streets. Ice was also sold to organisers of river excursions. Ivor also had a contract to supply ice to the Lot 12, Camp Street Prison. Business was booming, but it was hard work for man, wife and children, and everyone put their shoulders to the wheel.

Stories like those of Ivor Prince October, are those which should be told by our Guyanese social workers and pastors on Father’s Day, instead of the many horror stories of bad fathers which they seem hell bent on relating on such a special day, when there are over 360 other days in the year for (rightly) admonishing the bad fathers.

Here was a man, a father of 16 children, who worked not only at his ice trading business in Georgetown, but also did stints of hard work in the Guyana hinterland in order to acquire more income to keep his children well taken care of. “We even had a nanny who we called May-May”, Godfrey, the fourth child of the family, told me during an interview a few days ago. He also reminisced about a large water vat which was in what was then a “Range Yard”; also about Regent Street being a dirt road back in those early pre-Independence years. Godfrey also spoke of the midwife, Nurse Lucas, who lived across the street and who worked on the delivery of himself and most of his siblings.

Not a single one of the 16 deliveries ever ended in disaster with the competent Nurse Lucas in place. While Father Ivor has passed on, he is still remembered by his children as a great father and a man of purpose who never flinched from his fatherly duties. Mother Rosalind is well beloved and still alive and in her mid-90s.

As the years went by, the October business developed into a restaurant. “Long lines of customers used to be there to purchase our bread which was actually baked at the YHIP Bakery at the corner of Robb and Alexander Streets,” according to Godfrey, the fourth offspring. He also spoke of fish being one of the principal dishes the family enjoyed during those early years; fish which they procured from the very fishermen who purchased their ice.

There was always good food on the table to nourish their bodies, while the parents ensured that all their children received the best education which was available to them.
Hugh is the 10th child of the family and he spoke of the importance his father placed on education for his children and that education was also in the form of all the children being given chores to do every day. There was structure and order in the October family. Their day began at 04:00hrs when everyone went to the Georgetown seawall for a swim. Arriving back home, they all had specified chores to complete before setting off to school.

“My parents officially became entrepreneurs on September 24, 1956,” states a younger sibling, Rose October-Edun, who is based in New York. “They built the establishment from an icebox where my father sold ice and distributed to other businesses. My parents ran the business like a well-oiled machine, with my mother’s primary focus on food preparation,” Rose related.

So successful was the October family business at 116 Regent Street, that recently, manager Hugh October opened a branch on Orange Walk. The satisfied customers are from a wide range of citizens including Guyana’s Boxing Champion Lennox Blackmore and Leader of the Yoruba Band, Eze Rockliffe.
What is of special note is the patriotism of the October Family; the pavement in front of both the Regent Street and Orange Walk establishments, are painted with the National colours. From all observations, it is safe to say, that in spite of a number of challenges being faced, the October family establishments will be here for a long time to come.