Stredwick

The Syd Bethune Story by Austin Mitchell          Many of my readers might be thinking that my story, the Young Shoplifters might not be true. The reason is that there is no way a man could be fired and re-employed by the same bank and then be reassigned to the same branch. But it really happened and it was in the 1980s. I don’t think we had TRNs at that time. I first met Syd Bethune (not his real name) at the library when I was studying for an accounting examination. By that time he had lost his job at the first bank and was working at a government agency.   He expressed great disappointment with his present salary. He told us about his former employment and of the circumstances why he had to leave. He claimed that it was after a quarrel with a supervisor. This was about three years later and he decided to try his luck again. He wrote to other banks and his former bank too. Surprisingly only his former bank called him. I saw him...

                                              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 ...

              D eacon’s Disappearance a short story by+ Austin Mitchell           No, he wasn’t a deacon. Jack Deacon had no affiliation to any church. He was one of about four village tailors at a time when a man could still make a living from this profession. Jack drank a fair amount of alcohol and when he wasn’t tailoring he was in a bar, raising hell. Jack was in his late sixties, wasn’t married but lived with a woman about his age. He lived at a time when it wasn’t fashionable for men to marry a woman who had been cohabiting with them for years.             The distance from Deacon’s home to his shop was about a quarter of a mile. He would open his shop by eight o’clock every morning. His wife would bring him breakfast and lunch. He would stagger home in the late evenings after his customary round of ...

                                                      New PAYE Threshold to be introduced on April, 1, 2016   It seems that some persons are having a field day concerning the J.L.P’s PAYE proposal. They are saying that even the unemployed expect to get it come April 1, 2016. My understanding is that it was advertised that persons earning up to $M1.5 per annum would benefit   from it. The current   threshold is 592,800.00. If you are earning below this amount you will not benefit from the increase. The increase take home pay for a person with a basic pay of $M1.5 is calculated thus. Annual          Monthly 1,500,000       125,000 New Threshold - 592,800        -49,400 Old Threshold 907,200        ...

A Disappearing Desroy by A.G. Mitchell                     That Saturday evening Desroy followed us up to the village square. Then he disappeared, so that by eleven that night when we were ready to go home there was no sign of him. We knew that he smoked marijuana and had in fact seen him talking with some ganja smokers. We felt that if he was leaving the area, he should at least have told us as he was a stranger. We checked various marijuana sellers, but nobody knew where he had disappeared to.               We had reached part way when he sprang up out of some bushes. He showed us a gun, but we didn’t know anything about guns. Then two other guys came out of the bushes, they also had guns.             “We’re going on a little mission. Tell my mother and aunt that I’ll s...