Photo credit: Naomi
In those days, we all wanted one. They were markers of class and achievement and modernity. It was desperate, that need in us to be modern. Maybe it was just another thing we had inherited from England — even from the Victorians. Right after the Mother Country had introduced the locomotive train to the world, there was Jamaica first in line. Strange that such a small island with such a rugged terrain should be the second country in the world with a train line. But the trains wouldn’t last, nor would the bauxite factories belching out smoke and trying to diversify our economy away from banana. We were trying to prove that we were more than just tropical fruits. We could also provide the materials for ships and for flying things. But the trains stopped running...