By Angel Nuñez
YOU KNOW YOU ARE AN OLD TIMER SANPEDRANO
In the past it used to be said that if you see someone walking barefooted, you could guarantee he was a Sanpedrano. Well while that might be true, one could argue that people from Sarteneja and perhaps some other village also did the same. But here are some other factors that guaranteed that you were not only a Sanpedrano, but an old timer as well.
YOU KNOW YOU ARE AN OLD TIMER SANPEDRANO IF
As a child you used to play cowboys and Indians. What else can you expect if for Christmas the most popular gifts children got were play guns and bow and arrows. And even though we did not have movies to watch the cowboys and Indians, we did have comic books like Roy Rogers and Hop Along Cassidy, Turok, and The Lone Ranger. Remember these? They were a world of fun. I think I learned to read English with these comic books. But back again to the main point. It is understandable that if boys and girls read these comic books, when it was playtime, it was natural that kids would imitate these stories. Most kids wanted to be cowboys because in most of the stories, the cowboys always won the fight against the poor Indians. However admittedly, a lot of us kids liked to be Indians because of the weird, shrill chanting and commotion they engaged at the time of the attack. I remember those loud arguments like this: “Hey, I shot you first and you did not drop dead.” And the Indian would argue: “No I hit you first with my arrow, but you did not hear it. You should have dropped dead.”
YOU KNOW YOU ARE AN OLD TIMER SANPEDRANO IF
You grew up using the ‘fogon’ or fire hearth as well as the one-hole kerosene stove. Oh yes, long before the coming of the butane stoves and electric cooking gadgets, the fire hearth was the main cooking source in San Pedro. Fueled up with some good dry firewood, dried coconut husks or simply some unwanted pieces of wood, you could get a good fire going that was suitable to cook up a good soup, a pot of stew beans, a stew, or even fry fish. With the fire hearth old timer Sanpedranos, especially the women, could bake delicious sweet buns or Johnny Cakes and flour tortillas, and get this, get this- bake a nice bread or sweet potato pudding. There is nothing that you can cook today that you could not cook up with a ‘fogon’. Good old timer ‘fogon’…I like them so much that I have built two of them at home, one in my backyard and one right on my swimming pool deck. The only thing is that I am the only one to use it. Imagine having to light up the ‘fogon’ in the morning to do some scramble eggs. No problem! The old timers used to always keep some charcoal ablaze in the ‘fogon’, ready to be ignited into a small fire for any cooking task, small or big.
NOW YOU KNOW YOU ARE A MODERN SANPEDRANO IF
You have no idea of how a ‘fogon’ works and you dislike smoke and you like the microwaves and Flavor Wave Ultra Red Ovens and butane gas powered barbecue grills.
Those were the games of the old timer Sanpedranos and the cooking means of them too. It is no wonder many of them (us) still enjoy cooking with a ‘fogon’ or fire hearth and when I see a movie of cowboys and Indians, I do pause a moment and enjoy that movie on television. You just can’t take away the customs and culture of an old timer anywhere in the world, much less San Pedro.
25 Years Ago Books Can Be Purchased At:
-Ambergris Today -Lala’s Store -Chico’s Meat Shop -Pampered Paws -Ambergris Jade -San Pedro BTB Office -Aquarius Salon (Kim) -S.P. Town Library -Di Bush –Richie’s Stationery -San Pedrano’s Stationery -Rum, Coffee & Cigar House
Contact the Author at: nunez_nest@yahoo.com
