East End resident Bailey Penn is a retired electrician and spends most of his free time visiting friends around Road Town.
I was born on Feb. 24, 1949. I am 66 years old, and I am happy to be 66. I would not want to be 15 years old again to go to school again. It was tough growing up in East End.
We had a lot of chores to do: shift animals, bring wood on our heads for cooking outside. We didn’t have electricity. We had to do all that chores rain or shine and still had to be in school with our nails clean and hair combed for 9 o’clock — else we got whipped.
GROWING UP
I went to the East End Methodist School and then to a school in Parham Town before we moved to the Willard Wheatley school. I didn’t have a chance to go to high school. I passed the test in 1962. It was $7 a month to go to the secondary school, and my mother didn’t have the money.
I started working at hotels on Virgin Gorda at the age of 13. I helped to build the Little Dix Bay Hotel. I was so skinny and weak, my job was to fetch water to fill up a big garbage bag.
On Mondays, the workers used to drink a lot of water, because they partied and drank rum all weekend and were mostly thirsty for water on Mondays.
I was so skinny they called me Spaghetti up in Virgin Gorda. Now, I’ve gained a little bit of weight, so they call me Macaroni.
We were living in a camp for us to stay. We were getting good food. Since I was small and skinny, they didn’t charge me as much for food. I used to eat just as much as the other guys, but they charged me just $2 a week but charged the other guys $4 a
week.
When the building was finished, I worked as a houseboy, carrying ice to all the rooms and collecting the sheets and towels from the laundry. I feel happy that I worked there, because the hotel employs a lot of people. It was very nice.
RESPECT
When I was a young boy, the older people looked out for you, unlike today. When I was 12 years old, I had to play with 12- year-olds. I couldn’t play with 15-
year-olds. I couldn’t curse a 15-year-old boy either: He’d slap me on the side of my head. If a 15-year-old saw me playing marbles or games on the side of the road, he would ask me to pull on the side before I got ran over by a car.
We had a lot of respect, and everybody in the community looked out for you. If you didn’t tell somebody good morning, you could have gotten your butt whipped. If you go home and your mother heard about it, you’ll get a double whipping, because your mom knew no one would have done you anything wrong unless you did something wrong.
LESS STRESS
We didn’t have the money, but we were 10 times happier than we are today. In those
days, it didn’t cost any money when you died. The carpenter in the village would make a
coffin and the seamstress would make an outfit, all for free. We didn’t have any banks
then or anything. People lived longer. Nobody died at the age of 36 with cancer, because we used to eat natural things.
Stress is a bad thing. The children and the grandchildren
were well behaved, so there was no stress. I liked the old days better than now. We had a handful of expatriates but they were mostly from St. Kitts and Antigua. They used to mix with us so everybody was one. Things were a hundred times better than it is now.
LEARNING A TRADE
I also worked at Bellamy Cay. I’d carry out garbage; I worked as a waiter and a cook. I worked in Yacht Haven Hotel in St. Thomas as a waiter back in 1968. Between tips and my pay, in a week I used to make $128.
My big brother Junie Penn, a.k.a. The Devil, told me, “There is nothing wrong with being a waiter if you are going to own a hotel or restaurant, because you cannot be a waiter and when you’re old you are still serving people.” He told me the BVI was going to have a lot of construction and we don’t have
a lot of plumbers and electricians. So I went away in 1968 in
April for a six-month job corps for electricity in New Jersey. I went there and got a trade. I started to work for Leviton Manufacturing Company that makes switches and plugs.
Later, the military drafted me in 1969. They were drafting me to go to Vietnam in the
Army and I didn’t want to go in the Army. I joined the Navy instead of the Army, and I had three square meals and a nice bunk to sleep in and saw the world all over. I was in the Navy for two years and in the reserves for four years. While in the Navy,
I travelled to Spain, Portugal, Italy, Great Britain, Malta and Cuba. It was nice.
BATTLING CANCER
I had prostate cancer in 2000 and [the military took] care of it.
Every year I get the tests, the screening and the [prostate-specific antigen] done. But the PSA alone is not good. The doctor would need to touch the gland with a finger. If thegland is hard, it could be cancerous.
Couple of my ridiculous cousins who died from it said, “I don’t want no man putting no finger in my butt.” I said, “Idiot, go to a woman doctor then, but get it done. Go get the test done, because it will save your life.”
Don’t care how good a doctor or hospital is, if you go late they cannot help you.
Interview conducted, condensed and edited by Ngovou Gyang.
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