When I was growing up in Junkanoo, drummers were in high demand. I don’t know what it was about drumming, whether it wasn’t as glamorous as other aspects of junkanoo, but there always seemed to be a shortage of good drummers. Those that were available were usually snapped up by the big organized groups.
In those days, my cousin Adrian and I were committed junkanoos who had little interest in rushing with the organized groups. Both of us were decent drummers, so we had little trouble finding a group to rush with. We just basically showed up at the parade – most of the time we would hook up with a small scrap band waiting to be let onto the parade, other times we would get the police officers to let us onto parade alone (it helped that we had lit sternos in our drums, that tended light a fire under people!). Now this was later on down the road when the Westerners had really petered out so that it was only Sue Moss, Uncle Johnny, Adrian and me left. The four of us would meet up at Sue’s house at four or so. Sometimes the four of us would leave around five, five-thirty and go down together, sometimes Adrian and I would go alone and they would watch a bit of the parade on TV and come down to Bay around 6. It’s amazing really, even after Sue and Uncle Johnny stopped going, Adrian and I (and anyone else who would join us) would still start out from Sue’s house. She would always be up to see us off, getting us tea or coffee or something stronger.
Although I didn’t really understand the importance of it at the time, we were tradition bearers in the true sense of the word. I mean, yes we understood, I understood or at least felt deeply that it was important to keep that tradition alive. But at the time it was more a personal or family tradition (I use the term “family” not in its biological sense, but rather in the Bahamian sense that people that grow up together in a community are considered and referred to as family: uncle, cousin, aunt etc).
I don’t think I understood that we were tradition bearers in a broader sense. You see as far as I can gather, by that time, the Westerners was the only surviving old-time junkanoo group, the only remaining link to another era. Adrian and I were the last active members of that group. I suspect that’s why Nico felt (and probably still feels) so strongly about me joining up with One Family. We were the only remaining links to the past, and when Adrian moved out to LA and spent a couple of Christmases over there, well, then there was one.
That was a heavy burden to bear, especially as to me, the tradition had already died for all intents and purposes. You see for me the big difference between scrap junkanoo and big group is who you’re doing it for. With scrap junkanoo you are rushing for yourselves, for each other – one big musical jam session – you’re listening to one another and playing for one another – true call and response. In organized junkanoo you are performing for the crowd (and for the judges) like an operatic company on stage. Now one is not better than the other – outside of junkanoo, I have performed in concerts on stage and in jam sessions with other musicians. I love them both. The focus is different, though.
What I’m getting at here, though is that for me, the scrap, the old-time junkanoo was a shared experience. When it was just me one going out – though I might continue with the aim of maintaining a long standing tradition – well that tradition was already dead. It was no longer the Westerners, it was just Eddie Bethel another scrap rusher going to Bay. Nothing wrong with that – I enjoyed and still enjoy rushing scrap from time to time. But I don’t believe in a group of one.
Mind you I still went for many years after joining One Family. In the beginning, I would rush one parade with One Family and one parade with Westerners. Especially if Adrian was going to be in Nassau for one of the parades, I felt that as long as it was the two of us, then we could keep it going. Even when I rushed with One Family, for me the parade started on Virginia St. That’s where I would park and get my costume and drum together then proceed on to Bay from there. For the one or two years when it was just me the only remaining Westerner starting out from Virginia St, I knew that the end was near …
(more to come)
That’s sad stuff man. I feel your pain from a true junkanoo in pain to another… I am missing home incredibly but I can’t figure out if it’s junkanoo or home I miss more. I came to the States (Florida) for college in ’97 and seemed to have been stuck here. I now have 2 sons (twin boys), a soon to be wife, and a whole situation which will probably delay me moving home for good for another 5 years or so; and tomorrow is promised to noone. I am a member of the Saxons (tenor saxophone player); haven’t rushed since the “Love” theme when we won that New Year’s parade so I now say just a “member”. Since being over here, I find myself sketching potential junkanoo pieces and coming up with little one or two liners for new songs that would sound good on Bay Street. I even approached Vola once and told him, “Man give me a call so I can sketch up something for you when you get the theme” but that didn’t do anything. I even come up with themes from time to time and have run a few by him also. Sometimes I dream about my make-believe themes to the point where they seem so real, I wake up disappointed because I thought it actually happened. I sometimes have dreams of working on one of these costumes I envisioned, as though the parade is just around the corner…then I wake up and come to realize there is no big parade coming…it’s just April or May. I just feel it in my soul and sometimes I am in real agony! I feel so far away even though it’s not far at all. I used to sit in my car from 1am til about 7am just in time to go to work on Boxing and New Year’s Day when I couldn’t make it home due to work just to try listen to the parades with all the static on ZNS AM. Just learned of this site called dabahamianting.com where I am told I can actually watch the parades just like ZNS/Cable. I nearly kicked myself when I heard about it. Is this natural for a junkanoo or do I just have a real problem dread?