GREAT OLD DAYS

Who remembers this incident?  I am dating myself with the following memories.

The Munich Air Disaster took place on February 6th. 1958.  The Elizabethan Aircraft carrying The Manchester United Football team, Coaching Staff and Press Reporters crashed in Munich on takeoff,

Munich was a stopover, they were heading home to Manchester on a return
flight from Belgrade.

As a 11 year old I looked up to Victor Pereira and Romelino Durado as my Heroes, they started the MUFC Fan Club, at their request they asked allstudents to wear a  Black Armbands in support of this tragedy.

The Nuns who ran the SJCS were furious and suspended us, unless we took off the armbands.   Our Heroes refused to comply, so did we.... "littlefollowers".... I remember coming home very proud to wear the Black Armband, only to get wacked by my Dad and forced to remove it.

Before the refrigerator, stove and electric Iron, got to the Mendes Household..........

Here are some other things I remember:  The Meat Safe  .... Here's where the household stored their food and other things like sugar and condensed milk.
The legs of the meat safe were immersed in little tin cans with enough water to prevent ants from getting to the food........... Stored in there was powered milk for babies famous brands were Cow & Gate, and Ostermilk,........ Horlicks, Ovaltine for the seniors,....... Food that was cooked (No refrigerators then) I am dating myself now.

I remember sneaking mouthful of this powder milk or Ovaltine no mixing with Milk just in its powder form,.... another easy snack was the condensed milk on bread.  In this same meat safe was a bottle of Cod Liver Oil   Seven Seas Brand my mother made sure we had a spoonful of this every day, it tasted a
little better than the Castor Oil we were given once a quarter, then they changed it to Epsom Salts they both tasted awful. Wonder why they call it "Opening Dose" or was it "Opening Doors" to run to the washroom?

How we managed with just one washroom is beyond me........back then Six or more in the House with 1 Washroom ....now we have 4 Washrooms and just 2 per household.

Going from washrooms to food isn't the ideal Segway, but.......

My Grandmother who we called (Mamma) was an amazing cook,... every Sunday we'd be invited over for Lunch,   the menu was Pilau and Chicken curry, followed by fruit salad  that was our Sunday highlight,.... Chicken was a luxury as Beef and Fish were inexpensive.

Mamma had 2 Grinding Stones the standard one that looked like this  the other looked like a giant mortar and pestle it was 3 feet in diameter,  and 2 feet tall,  looked like an inverted pyramid.

God only knows how it got to the kitchen that had over 48 steps to get to from the entrance below.  The Sieve    was made from cane for squeezing the grated coconut and all the spices after they were ground up., to make the curries.

Mamma would use a Coal Chigri for cooking (No Image in Google) to explain what it looked like,   but hot coals were loaded on the lid of the Sufria
when cooking a Bibique, which leads me to the next reminder, the Goan custom was to make Christmas Sweets    and we were given what we felt was an embarrassing task of taking a tray over to the neighbors.

Pork was not readily available in Zanzibar, so just before Christmas, a Book used to go around to each household and they had to marked how many pounds of pork they required.

I guess from the total weight recorded, the size of the Pig would be determined. ........Order  pick up, was at the Greek store (Papa Constantinou) below the homes of Joe Pereira and Renato Martins 

Here's an image of the Coal Iron we used, the Dhobi's had it twice this size .....some of the Big sheets were sent to the Dhobi and I always wondered how they never mixed the shirts. They had a system with tiny markings inside the collar that would identify who the clothes belonged to. I remember ours were
two little dots ..

December 3rd. was a Big event for the Goan Community (Feast of St FrancisXavier) after the evening church service there used to be fireworks and alive band, I remember Mr. Zuzin with his violin and a bunch of othermusicians, singing and having a great time. This was the Tailors feast and
they knew how to party. I remember a few Tailors like Falero,.... TeacherHelen's father, ......Marcelin (Brazil's Father).....JJ DeSilva, (John Batist's Father)........ Olga, Anthony and Albertina's father Mr. Pereira  I think that was their surname,  his shop was besides, JJ DeSilva across from
Popat Moolji, then there was  Salu, near the Askarki controlling traffic........ Elias (Claude's Father)..... and Kistod on Sokomogo street, there were a couple more across from the post office who used to share the place with a shoemaker and if anyone can add to this list, it would be
great.

The Receptions for Weddings were held at the Parochial hall, this was above one of the 2 legion halls of St, Joseph's Church where the Priest had their Office and living quarters,

The wedding invite would state "To partake in the Reception of Cake and Wine at the Parochial hall"...... I remember Mr. Gonsalves (Jo's Dad) and his Team which included Mr. Furtado, Mr. Nazareth, Mr. Dominic would all wear white gloves, and arrange the Mission Boys to do the serving.

There was one wedding that the Parochial Hall could not host all the Guests, so chairs were placed around the grounds of Kungu side. 

Please feel free to correct any of the above,..........    as that my friends is what life was like then.

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Wow Alwyn

What a fantastic memory you have -remembering all these in such great detail - Truly you have God’s gift

I remember your Grandma (Mamma)

 I used to go to their house as your uncle, Albert was my home tutor - I think she always wore a sari at home - & your Grandpa used to wear a cream coloured suit & used to carry a walking stick

Thanks Alwyn for sharing these sweet memories