Blog Schedule

I post on Monday with an occasional random blog thrown in for good measure. I do my best to answer all comments via email and visit around on the days I post.

Monday, August 1, 2011

Before and After - Cruz Bay

This is a picture of my grandmother, Erva Boulon, riding her horse into Cruz Bay. It was taken in 1945. Almost every day, she rode the twisting, turning two miles from her guest house at Trunk Bay, to pick up the mail and do whatever shopping she could.
The large building on the near point of land is called The Battery. It was built by the Danes and was a kind of small fort. There are protecting walls and places for cannon. And...there is a dungeon. If you look closely you can see there are actually two buildings. The long one in front of the larger two story building (with stairs and balcony) was the post office. Everyone picked up their mail there. WE had our own cardboard box on the floor into which all our mail was tossed.

The far point of land that sweeps away to the right is called Gallows Point. I don't know if anyone was ever actually hanged there. However, my best friend and I certainly had fun pretending the place was haunted by blood thirsty pirates who'd been hung from the old genip tree. Sometime in the early 1950s Duke Ellington and his wife Kay built several cottages there and a had bar where locals met after work. Duke was a mystery writer. You can read a little about him here. Duke was the older brother of Steve, of Steve and Nora fame who helped us out during the drought of 1960-61.


This picture was taken at least six years ago. The seven tiny cottages at Gallows Point are long gone, replaced with resort condos. That large ugly gouge in the hillside has been filled with an equally large and ugly condominium and/or apartment complex, I'm not sure which. The only thing that has remained the same is The Battery, the ocean and the sky.
Nothing stays the same, but sometimes I wish things wouldn't change so drastically. Are you facing a change you'd rather not deal with, but must?

6 comments:

  1. Ah, the relentless march of progress. What a great piece of history you have there though.

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  2. I'm with Sarah, great piece of history. I love stopping in, I'm always learning something new!!! Not to mention the pictures are sure to be gorgeous every time!

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  3. I've just recently had to face a major life-style change due to health issues. I spent about a week wallowing in self-pity, but then pulled myself together and dealt with it. And I discovered that not all changes are bad. Most of what I need to change are things I wanted to change anyway - healthier eating, more exercise - it's been much easier than I thought it would be.

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  4. I especially love the photo of your grandmother riding the horse. What a wonderful time that was. I have a couple of pictures of my grandmother riding across the plains of Kansas. Very peaceful.

    Of course, change is inevitable.

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  5. They certainly did change. But did they keep the dungeon? A dungeon might come in handy sometimes.


    Lee
    Tossing It Out

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  6. Very interesting, Bish. I love the photos. Change is always hard, I think, but there is no escaping it, is there?

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Your Random Thoughts are most welcome!