When my family moved I was at the impressionable age of only 6 years old. My family was transferred to an island in the Caribbean called Trinidad.
No, my family was not in the military, but I was what I fondly call a 'refinery brat’, others might say I was a 'corporate brat’.
My dad worked overseas for most of his career, as a paleontologist, for a company called Texaco.
Robert Liska's Microfossil Collection, University College London
The majority of my childhood was spent growing up in Pointe-a-Pierre, Trinidad until the age of 17-18 before we were uprooted and permanently moved to the United States.
My childhood home in 1972 1 Bay Ave in 2018
My early childhood years were filled with many cherished memories. There was an abundance of creative and imaginative playing outdoors with the family Labrador Retrievers.
Our Labrador Retrievers - Macho and Kila
When we vacationed at Balandra beach, while the adults sat around and my older sisters would work on their tanning before going back to University, I would go exploring with our yellow labrador, Macho, which was absolutely amazing!
My absolute favorite place to vacation as a child.
In my younger years, I remember spending hours outdoors, climbing all the local mango, guava, sapadillo, almond, tamarind, and pomerac trees in our backyard. Often they would turn into imaginary vehicles where I would go and visit many distant lands. The days would fly by when my younger sister accompanied me on those imaginary explorations to the unknown.
Truly those years growing up on the P-A-P camp were truly amazing. We could walk around the whole camp without any worries like there are today.
Somewhere around the age of 11 years old, my entrepreneurial side came out. There was a lady who lived on the P-A-P camp and she bred parakeets. I remember visiting her house one day where I saw her birds and breeding cages, and I was immediately hooked. I must have pestered my parents about it because later that year on Christmas my dad surprised me with this magnificent breeding bird cage.
Sadly, it was shortly after moving to Trinidad that circumstances in our home and family life started to become more and more stressful, unpredictable, and intense. As my dad became more of a workaholic he simultaneously started drinking more too. As his drinking worsened it became more intrusive and after a few short years we became an alcoholic family. Dad's unjustified emotional and physical abuse took a huge toll on me, and unfortunately, my relationship with my younger sister too. I pray she will someday forgive me! My dad often unleashed his physical (and emotional) abuse on me and I, in turn, took it out on her. Gradually over the years, our family became less and less intact, and more and more disengaged. One of the tragedies of an alcoholic family is often the siblings will develop alliances, not friendships, and our family was no exception. To this day these toxic childhood survival patterns have had lasting consequences.
Praise God, I was quite athletic as a child. I played so many sports including tennis, badminton, squash, and field hockey, and I even tried a little golf.
As an excellent swimmer, I got to swim in many different island-sponsored competitions. I was also very active in the early P-A-P Lifeguarding Team where we got to do a lot of competitions up in Port of Spain. My fondest memories were of the competitions at Maracas Bay. Those open ocean races were quite challenging. Looking back all those sports and competitions were truly blessings in disguise. I can now see how they each provided healthy outlets for me to vent my internal frustrations. It wasn't the actual competitions I would say I necessarily enjoyed most, but it was more about getting to "lime" aka hang out, with my friends.
As I got older my adventures and explorations turned from climbing trees to exploring all the natural habitats, wildlife, and resources that a thriving island could provide.
I attended many local fetes, ate lots of great foods and local dishes, and participated in many fun traditions and festivals such as Carnival and Divali.
1972
God also provided us with the most awesome housekeeper!! During my turbulent teen years, she became my confidant and a lifeline. To this day I have a deep love for her that very few people will understand. I pray I will get to visit with her in person again someday very soon.
With the exception of a few older school-girl bullies, a very emotionally disturbed first ‘boyfriend’, and some hurtful unrequited crushes, I thoroughly enjoyed my school years at St. Peter's School. I really enjoyed field days with my classmates and competing against other in-house school teams. Go "Hawks"!! - lol. We had great teachers in high school that took us on some really fun field trips.
My BFFs
While my teen years might have been unpredictably stressful inside our home, my days at school as you can see provided so many great outlets. As I got older I had many good friends that gave me places to escape from having to be around my alcoholic family. These times of reprieve were greatly appreciated, especially after my older sisters left to go to college in the United States.
I spent many many hours swimming in this pool and "liming" at this club with my high school friends.
Then came the last year of high school. Sadly, Texaco was selling out and they decided that my class would be the last one to graduate. So after St. Peter's class of 1984, graduated the high school officially shut down. This also meant that after I completed my O-level exams, my family would have to permanently move back to the United States.
I will tell you more about that part of my story in the next post.
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I pray you found what you were needing today. Please leave a comment below, I would love to hear how this post might have been helpful for you.
Remember you are not alone! No matter what you’ve done or failed to do you are still loved unconditionally by a very merciful and just Lord and Savior!
May God Bless You,
Leslie
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