Mr. de Castro, 80, has lived on Main Street in Road Town for most of his life, though he has also spent time working in the United States. The businessman now runs a convenience store off Main Street and hosts a radio show.
Growing up
I was born Sept. 18, 1935. I was the last child of my parents, Rufus Lambert de Castro and Frances Harrigan-de Castro. I was number 13 of 13. We were not always together: The older ones as they grew up went away. My eldest brother went sailing and trafficked a lot through the Caribbean; then the other brother went to school in Antigua. Some went to St. Kitts and St. Thomas. I went to school here: started at the Anglican school, then went to the government elementary school, and then the Virgin Islands Senior School, which then changed to the Virgin Islands Secondary School.
Heart of town
I grew up right in the heart of Road Town. I was born at the Cottage Hospital, which is now called Peebles Hospital at the old building. I’ve been living in this same [Main Street] building ever since. At that time we only had one street and that was Main Street; we had no waterfront. The market area was in the area where we now have the Olva Georges Plaza.
As kids we played all kinds of sports: cricket, batting ball, marbles. We did a lot of walking, swimming; we did a lot of fishing. Wickhams Cay was a cay by itself. You could sail right around Wickhams Cay. As a matter of fact, there were five cays around. There was Wickhams Cay, Horse Cay, Pelican’s Cay, Roy Cay and another one — I just can’t remember the name — where The Moorings is. There’s still one of those cays outside of Treasure Isle.
The Boy Scouts was strong in those days. I was a member then. In 1955, myself and another gentleman from Virgin Gorda by the name of Ottley Flax went to Niagara-on-the-Lake in Canada to a Boy Scout jamboree, and there were about 10,000 Boy Scouts. There were boys from all over the world.
No electricity
In the early days we had no electricity, we had no running water, and what we had for lights on the streets were kerosene lights on poles.
Government erected the lamps, and they had an employee go around as soon as it got dark from the Government House to the Methodist cemetery, lighting these kerosene lamps on the poles so we could have lights in the streets.
In the morning, if they didn’t burn out, they would blow them out.
School days
Going to school was fun. Most of what we were taught in school then was carpentry and gardening for the boys, and cooking and what they called needlework for the girls.
Today, they teach everything in school. We did a lot of reading too.
When I went to senior school, the headmaster at the time was a guy named Green. In those days, our exams had to go to England to be marked. The year that I sat the exams, I was the dumbest person in my class because everybody passed the exams except me. Everybody went to the next form, and I never went back to school. I just failed, and I came home and discussed it with my parents and one said go back to school and the other one said stay home, so I joined the one that said stay home.
Working
In 1956, I went to school in Puerto Rico and studied auto mechanics. When I came back here there was no work to do, so I went to St. Thomas to work. I had to have a work permit to work in St. Thomas. Immigration had a policy of giving you 29 days to stay there when you were visiting. People would go St. Thomas, get 29 days, then work illegally and come back, then spend a few weeks, then go back to St. Thomas and work illegally again for another 29 days. Those of us who had work permits, every time we wanted to come to Tortola, we had to go to our boss and get a letter from him stating that we were still working. We just couldn’t go out and come back to St. Thomas just like that like people do here on a work permit. You had to show this letter or else you couldn’t get back in.
I did auto mechanics in the early days [in St. Thomas], and I came back home after a year or two. In 1961, I ran for legislature.
Love
Everybody had a lot of love for each other. We didn’t have nowhere near the quantity of hate for each other like we have today.
Growing up, we had a lot more discipline. When you were disciplined in school and the news got home, you got disciplined again. In those days, whether they were your godparents or your parents or not, any adult could discipline you, and you dare not report to your parents, because you got disciplined again. You were to listen to adults.
Some of the children today need some good whipping, but unfortunately it can’t be done. Discipline was a master.
Interview conducted, condensed and edited by Ngovou Gyang.
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