Miss Jenny's Money

                                              Miss Jenny’s Money

Before I begin my story I must talk about two things. Straw and the Jamaican currency. Straw is a plant with a long stalk and contained several leaves, all tightly folded. It grows  in cool conditions in gullies or on the banks of rivers and springs. We had straw in our gully but it was never enough and so most Saturday mornings I went to Mr. Egbert Wood to buy straw from him. After that I would go to the bushes to cut firewood.

Most of the women and even some men, those days would make straw hats. My father could make hats, I tried but couldn’t. There were several stages to the finished product that I can’t remember now. There were several middlemen. In the latter part of my mother’s life I didn’t see her making any hats so I just assumed that this industry like quite a few others had a natural death. All of those hat merchants along with the platters are now dead, so maybe the industry has died with them.

 At the time of this story our currency had just changed from Sterling to dollars and cents.  Miss Jenny was a middle aged hat maker living in our village. She lived with her daughter, Hermine, also a hat maker. Miss Jenny had left her home that Saturday morning to buy materials to finish making her hats.

When I came from the bushes my mother told me that Miss Jenny had lost her two dollar note. She had made three trips already, retracing her steps and couldn’t find her money. The road was very steep so that sometimes cars would fail going up it and had to reverse down to the bottom, try to negotiate the hill in a lower gear or just reverse up it.

I and several persons started looking for Miss Jenny’s money.  I knew several of the boys looking for that money were not honest. I was determined to find that money before they did. I found Miss Jenny’s two dollars safely tucked away in a matches box by the side of the road. It was in the bushes, it seemed that somebody had kicked it to where it was. Miss Jenny was so glad she bought an aerated water (orange soda) for me. At that time those drinks were served in glass bottles. The End.