Does this bring back memories

​A little story of family life in the 1930’s, written by my father in 1988 - part of many memories he wrote about. He recalls the days when he and his brothers were the bread delivery boys, using their big brothers’ bikes. My dad Andrew was the tenth child in a family of 12, living in Richmond Street, Port of Spain. Their father died young, (my dad was not quite 9 years old), leaving their mother to raise them all. They lived in a large house, so she took in boarders to help out financially and the children also had to help out.
“Ten boarders, 6 cousins, 12 of us, Mama and “poor” little friends (usually 2), say 28-30 people to be fed each and every day, breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner. We all ate a lot of bread, so Ma employed Harris, Barbadian baker who had a problem with testicular hernia always getting in his way. Harris would arrive home and start baking between 3:30 and 4:00 a.m. He supplied us with 100 hops loaves, and 6 pan loaves, plus other sweet breads for tea. He also baked some 30 other pan loaves which had to be delivered to the customers before 7:00 a.m. These were friends of the family who lived the general neighbourhood. Ma had several bread bags made, some to hold one or two or more pan loaves. Each customer had a nail on the back or front porch to hold the stringed bread bag. The empty bag would be replaced by the full one. Each bag had the customer’s name. Problem – transportation. Andrew, Robert, George borrow Boysie’s, Bertie’s and John’s bicycles, surround the bicycles with bags of bread and make sure you return for the owners to get their bicycles to get to work. We “students” had to eat breakfast quickly and walk to school – and get there in time. Many times we failed as evidenced by the black and blues on our hands or backsides as administered by our school masters. But this was all part of life. We loved Mama and understood the situation.”
Source: Valerie van der Meulen-Sheppard from the Virtual Museum of TT, March 2021