Little Acts of Kindness

Litte things can really make a big impact in our lives.

Recently my friend Camille and I took an Amtrak train from Hollywood, Florida to Sebring, Florida to visit friends. When we got there, we noticed that a sign on the door of the station declared that it had been temporarily closed by the fire department. When we saw it, the sign did not make an impact us, as our friend was there waiting on us so we did not need a rest room, water or an air conditioned place in which to escape the close to  90 degree weather outside.

However, on our return journey two days later, when we arrived at the station and checked the status of our train, we were informed that it was running an hour late. (Smart people check these things before going to the airport, railway station etc. so I suppose we do not fall into the category of smart)!😖

When you have the boiling midday sun to contend with, an airconditioned waiting room and water are big deals!

A good idea

It was therefore a wonderfully welcome surprise when an African American man in a back truck, started to walk around asking if anyone wanted cold water or cold drinks. My friend Camille got two ice cold bottles of water and on asking how much it was, the smiling reply was "its free."

That's the reason for this title, for I personally had never experienced such an unsolicited act of generosity from a stranger since moving to the USA some six years ago.

At first, I thought he was an Amtrak employee who had come to relieve our misery as the train was late and the waiting room closed. However, it turned out that he was just a kind gentleman who saw many passengers waiting in the sun at the station and decided to help.

He left shortly afterwards, after ensuring that whoever needed a thirst quencher had been supplied.

Amtrak was a disappointment in general.  

I love travelling on trains but the one we took up to Sebring on the 28th of May, 2022,  had a cafeteria that didn't work and at least one ticket agent who didn't care whether the information he gave out was correct or not.

 I didn't know such workers existed, and unfortunately, he was the one I sought to get information about the cafeteria from!

Instructions at the dog bathing station

When we asked him if it was open yet, he said it had opened long ago!                                                                                                                                                                      It never opened during the entire, almost three-hour trip, because of 'technical problems' according to an announcement.                                                                                                                                                                  Unfortunately, we again encountered that lousy ticket agent on the return trip. For we saw his at the door of the train going north which arrived before ours, going south, was due. When we asked how long our train was delayed for, instead of saying he didn't know or checking with his headquarters, he told us 'it was running about "ten minutes late." 

When we checked the Amtrak one eighthundred number, we were informed it was delayed for over an hour!

Amtrak really needs to hire ticket agents on their trains who care about the type of information they give to passengers or others who are more like the agent in their office in Hollywood who was so pleasant and helpful.

Anyway, since the scenery in Florida is so boring, I don't see myself ever again taking their train to go anywhere else in the state.

Despite Amtrak, we had a great time in Sebring with friends.

I even got the opportunity to revisit Lake Placid, aka the town of murals. It is so called, as all available walls in the tiny town seem to have great murals painted on them.

I had first visited the town a few years ago to attend the annual Caladium festival with my Meet Up hiking group. Joan, my views: Caladiums galore (joan-myviews.blogspot.com)

This time I went there with my hosts to bathe their dogs! 

Thats right, for at a farm store, there is a very convenient dog bathing facility which I found very unique.

I had never seen such a public facility in any other pet-loving town and was so impressed with it that I declared that if I were younger, I would set up some 24 hour stand alone stations like that in other cities!😏

So despite the lousy Amtrak experience , we all had a wonderful Memorial Weekend in Sebring in 2022.

I will admit though that although the train for the return trip was an hour late and the waiting room was closed so we had to sit outside, that trip was far more pleasant.

 To begin with, the cafeteria worked and there were agents calling out the upcoming stations and the time it would take to get to each, on this train. 

Nothing like that was done on the trip from Hollywood to Sebring. 

Amtrak Florida needs to not only overall its service, train its staff properly and have its waiting rooms available, but they also need to upgrade their stock. For I have travelled by train in other states, Canada and Europe and this was really the oldest, slowest and creakiest train that I have ever traveled on!

Thank heavens it couldn't spoil the weekend with friends for us though.

Jamaica 2021, what a blast!

 As much as I love the convenience of living in the USA, nothing can equal my annual visit to my homeland, Jamaica.

 To begin with, I always try to coordinate these visits with mango season, especially when East Indian mangoes are coming in, as that is my top favorite. Boy, did I ever get a whole heap this year. I was tempted to smuggle some in but luckily, I didn’t as I traveled through Miami airport and they dug up my luggage on my return.

Ass holes.

This year was extra special though, since it was the first time in years that my visit coincided with that of my daughter and granddaughter. Naturally my brother and sister-in-law were already there, so we all stayed with them at their home in  Silver Sands most of the time.

We had a wonderful time using Trelawny as our base. As usual going fishing was on the top of our list of activities and for the first time in my life, I caught a fish that was probably close to a pound!

We didn’t stray much from Silver Sands, as it has the best beach in the island, in my book. Before the younger ones arrived, my brother, sister in law and I journeyed over to the center of the island to the world famous mineral spa at Milk River, as some of us not so young ones were having some aches and pains. 

Milk River spa

We didn’t know it before we drove there, but it had just reopened after having been flooded a few days earlier when the country was inundated with rains. As a result, the water was not as hot as normal, but soothing none the less.

Milk River bath was established some 300 years ago, after a runaway slave who had been beaten half to death by his wicked slave master, found a stream in the hills, bathed his wounds and was miraculously healed. Subsequent tests revealed that the stream coming out of the hills, 

had one of the highest radioactivity levels of any mineral spring The water is promoted as being good for a long list of ailments and although the pool is closed, there are six private baths open for use. 

After leaving there, we headed along the South Coast highway (built in the 1970’s) which is almost impassable today, to visit the manatees, called sea cows locally.

They are endangered, and a family is kept at Alligator Hole but unfortunately, we never saw them as the keeper said they were up river.

Incidentally, Alligator Hole is in a swampy section of the Milk River and there are crocs in it but they don’t interfere with the gentle manatees. 

A correction though, for while the sign there says Alligator Hole, there are no alligators in Jamaica, only crocs!

From there we wended our way gingerly on the badly

 deteriorated South Coast highway over to Little Ochi where the food was great as usual.

A few days later, I jumped on the convenient Knutsford Express to visit friends and family in Kingston. 

Thanks to my knowledgeable cousin Dor, I was introduced to some marvelous improvements taking place in downtown Kingston.

These range from strategically placed info boards on many historic buildings to a sculpture of two important founders of our nation, Alexander Bustamante and Norman Manley  and the unbelievable transformation of Water Lane. 

For blocks intersecting with that street, outstanding Jamaican artists have given their skills to create murals depicting Jamaican life all around.

A dramatic and most welcome turn around in the entire area.

When the kids arrived, we visited the Puerto Seco beach and although it has been nicely upgraded and child-friendly, it’s just not as lovely as the good ole Silver Sands beach.

They being adventurous, visited Mystic Mountain, but because of my dislike of heights, I hung out with my friend Chris at her beach house nearby, until time to pick them up. 

They had a ball there and at Dunn’s River falls before joining us on the lyme by Chris.

Silver Sands beach

We separated for a few days as Michele and Maddy wanted to hang out in Kingston with the Williams clan who celebrated her recent milestone. That was her earning a PhD  after many years of dedicated study and sacrifice. While in Kingston they boated over to Lime Cay to swim before returning to the country to join me for a few days a Bahai Principe in Runaway Bay. It’s not a bad hotel but boy do they need a good chef or two!

While they were away, we journeyed to Seaford Town in the hills of Westmorland, a place I had always wanted to visit. This settlement is called locally, German Town as after the Abolition of Slavery (Aug. 1, 1834), many planters had a shortage of labor so imported indentured workers.

A section of Seaford Town

One was the establishment of a European settlement by Lord Seaford, then owner of Montpelier Estate and Shettlewood Pen which were located in St. James. Over one thousand Germans were brought to Jamaica with the promise of being granted accommodation, land, and employment. 

This township was entrenched on five hundred acres of land. However, over the years, through assimilation and migration mostly to Canada, (I understand they left in droves during the turbulent 70's when the communists tried to take over Jamaica), there are no more true blooded Germans there anymore and the use of any German language has virtually disappeared. 

When I asked a young lady at the gas station there where the Germans were, she pointed to the burial ground beside the Roman Catholic church there.  😅

A  visit to the cemetary and a cursory glance at the tombstones, definitely confirms that this area was once inhabited by Germans, due to their names. 

That is the only evidence that this rural middle-class village was ever populated by those nationals.

As usual, this visit home was as interesting and invigorating as expected and I cant wait for the next East Indian mango season.

 Talk Jamaican: Milk River - YouTube

Memorie

Milk River where the manatees are kept

Caladiums galore

Wow, I had no idea what these flowers were called for we have them growing almost wild in Jamaica and place little value on them.

Section of a caladium farm outside Lake Placid.

However, with my Meet Up group led by Jennifer Weis, we had a wonderful day in Lake Placid, dubbed the caladium capital of the world, where they take this plant seriously as it provides quite and income for them.

Lake Placid is a pleasant little town with a population of just over 2000, situated in Highland County (I learnt yesterday that Florida has 67 counties. I had no idea it had so many). It is quite some distance away (over 130 miles)  from Broward County in which I live but was worth the trip which took us through scenic farm country and charming little towns.

To get there, we traveled through Palm Beach, Martin and sections of Okeechobee counties.

We didn't just go "flowers looking" though as we stopped on the way at the Hickory Hammock park area to make sure we got our usual Saturday morning exercise, a trek of almost 3 miles.

Hickory Hammock is I understand, sometimes a hunting area for those who want to shoot deer and wild boar and we saw lots of evidence of the presence of wild boar, although none in the flesh. But they clearly were around as our fearless leader pointed to the huge holes in the ground where they furrow to get their protein, worms and bugs. 

Hickory Hammock is a pleasant place to walk during the hot summer days in Florida, because of the shade provided by the huge oak trees of various ages and sizes. It is also very rustic and scenic in its own right with lots of palm, blueberries and other flora. (We were able to find a few ripe blueberries to nibble on).

Nine of us started on the hike but when we returned to our vehicles, we found a late comer waiting to accompany us to the caladium fair.

It was about a half an hour drive from Hickory Hammock to Lake Placid.

Lake Placid as I said earlier, is a pleasant little town but it is made even more attractive by the proliferation of beautifully painted murals on almost every street in the section where the festival was held.

A lovely mural on one of the buildings

This was the 24th annual Caladium festival and I was really overawed by the variety and sizes of the flowers, both those laid out for sale and those used for attractive decoration all around where the festival was held.

At the fair, you could buy both plants and bulbs and as festivals are, there were booths offering all sorts of craft, foods and other items for sale. There was even a booth giving out water which had a sign saying "Free water for the body. Jesus provides water for the soul".

I guess this might mean Lake Placid is a fairly religious area, I don't know. Just assuming. (But what does assuming mean?

Making an ass of you and me lol.) 

It was a nice day but being Florida, it was interrupted by a downpour of rain, but it did not last long.

We took refuge at a craft store which appeared to be run by the community and we actually saw some students working on their craft skills in a classroom there.

After a tasty and pleasant lunch during which it rained again, it was time for the long, tiring drive home.

But it was surely a day well spent.