Richard Lupinacci, owner of The Hermitage Plantation Inn, tells Definitive Caribbean about his early days on Nevis.
In our earliest days Nevis had 12,000 population but only 400 cars (average age 8 years old and many of them mini-mokes), about 400 telephones and perhaps only 600 homes with electricity. That was when there was any current anyway. The 300kva island generator was a thirty year old, second hand from St Kitts. Bottled gas had to be hand carried from St Kitts and most of the cooking was done on charcoal or kerosene stoves. In fact we used to regularly roast whole legs of Nevis pork in our "Montserrat Oven" which was a wooden box about four foot tall with a coalpot in the bottom for heat and wet rags on top to keep it from burning up. In driving from Nisbet Plantation to Gingerland after dinner (ten miles/ 40 minutes on potholed roads) you rarely encountered another vehicle. And all you saw was the soft glow of oil lamps in a few of the little wooden houses along the way. Whoever was still up was reading their Bible. Most were asleep, though. They needed to be to be able to get up at the first light to go fishing, work the land or tend their livestock before going off to a job with public works or a government department or perhaps a professional office.
We would have days or weeks of shortages - no gasoline, no flour, no electricity - but everyone was prepared and there was little inconvenience. Trash and solid waste disposal was almost unnecessary since food was bought in bulk from local shops and nothing was wasted or thrown out. Everyone had a few yard fowls and a family pig and donkey. Church lasted for at least three hours on Sunday, there was two hours of Bible study on Wednesday and as many as three funerals a week where everyone gathered.
While my impression on my first visit in 1968 was that Nevis was pre World War 1, by the 1980s it had telescoped into the 20th century. It is no longer necessary for young Nevisians to emigrate to make a living and this is good. The average per capita income is now substantially higher and we are no longer a third world country. Many of the old values such as politeness, civility, friendliness and respect for property prevail, but I do slightly miss the oil lamps even if I wouldn’t like to give up my DVD movies and opera CDs for them. Anyway, being island folk we still have all the old things at the ready.
The years here have been full and happy because of the Nevis people but for also for the marvellous fact that so many of the world famous (and sometimes infamous) have come across our paths, something that was not very likely back home in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. From HM The Queen and Prince Philip, HRH Princess Margaret, Prince Charles (before divorce), Princess of Wales (after divorce) various aristocrats, landed gentry and a whole range of performing artists from rock, folk and the classics. Then there are literary talents, writers, actors (with assumed names and with their own names), cricket stars and seven foot athletes. We have seen so many and it remains one of the reasons we like to keep doing this.
