A glimpse of Christmas Past was available to the public on Saturday December 12th, 2009. On display in the Lutheran Church yard in Cruz Bay was a collection of historical items, mostly from the 1930s through the 1950s, an era when St John residents, with quiet industry and self-sufficiency, hand-made
“There is no gift so small that it cannot be given.” This is the sentiment that rang out clearly from the Ladies’ Storytelling at the Society’s November 10th Membership meeting. I am very grateful to the articulate and engaging Storytellers; as we enter the holiday season (many of us with
Songs from “Hot Steel in Cruz Bay” by Charlie Prentice’s Hotshots played softly as guests and members lined up to partake of dishes prepared by many talented chefs. I’m pretty sure Rudolph ‘Pimpy’ Thomas knew all the words to ‘The Old Man and the Donkey,’ and at another table I
A handful of red Canavalia nitida seeds, rarely found in the V.I. and on right, a detailed drawing of the Locust tree (Hymanea courbaril). It is a multi–purpose tree—its pods are edible, the sap produces a natural medicine, and the wood makes admirable timber. There were a succession of inland
In December SJHS members joined Rudolph ‘Pimpy’ Thomas, Reggie Callwood, and Elroy Sprauve for on-site history lessons about two of our spiritual and architectural gems on St. John, the Bethany Moravian Church and the Nazareth Lutheran Church. BETHANY MORAVIAN CHURCH AND MISSION HOUSE According to The St John Drum in
It was front page news on December 21, 1937, the local Daily News in fact, when Peter and Elsa Dohm and family arrived in their 10 meter yawl, Rest More, after a three year voyage. When the voyage began, Anna was four months old. Thus begins a family album covering
On Saturday, March 8th, the “Sadie Sea” was loaded to her (legal) gills with a cargo of St. John Historical Society members and their provisions. We were crossing the tumultuous Windward Passage to Lovango Cay to see some old and some new real estate. Picturesque Smith Cottage Toni and Wally
Godparenting has a long history in the Caribbean. Karen Fog Olwig writes about the role of godparents in the 1800’s and early 1900’s in Cultural Adaptation & Resistance on St John – Three Centuries of Afro-Caribbean Life.* Childcare, she says, like provisions or cooked food and favors, was passed freely
They did not have a formal presentation, they began, but would tell stories of life experiences, or of things they had heard, or that they knew about, that have to do with St John. There was much good natured laughter as this distinguished panel emphasized that these are not stories
On Saturday February 16th, David Knight and Eleanor Gibney led a wonderful hike to one of St. John’s least documented 18th century sites. About thirty hikers got double-teamed– with historical, social and political information about Estate Retreat from David, and with the enriching view of history that Eleanor’s knowledge of
(By Robin Swank, with the assistance of several other unnamed ghoulish board members.) Halloween wasn’t observed in these islands until the U.S. influence began to strengthen in the 1960’s, but there has never been a lack of spirits or hauntings here, with traditions of fright that go back to both