British Guiana: 1954 - 1956

Flight from New York

Exact dates have vanished in the haze of time, but this was late summer 1954. After the short stay in New York, we embarked at Idlewild airport on a Panam Clipper (DC-6) and in what seemed like all day island hopping, (probably Bermuda, St. Thomas, Trinidad) eventually landed at Atkinson Field (now known as Cheddi Jagan International Airport), the principal Guianese airport which served Georgetown and the rest of the country. The facility had been constructed by the U.S. military in 1941, and was turned over to the colonial government shortly after the end of the war. Dad was there to meet us, and loaded us, complete with our relatively meagre baggage, into his dark blue Ford Prefect, and drove us to our new home on the east bank of the Demerara River at Houston Sawmill, a few miles upstream from Georgetown along the east bank of the river.

Houston Sawmill

The sawmill he was hired to manage was reputed to be the largest in South America, and the compound it occupied was on the riverbank, with a ramp for receiving logs, and a substantial jetty for tying up seagoing vessels and tugs. The sawmill property was approximately square taking up the 500 metres or so between the east bank highway and the river, with a wharf north of the log ramp, and housing north of the wharf. The sawmill and property were owned by  B.G.Timbers, a subsidiary of the Colonial Development Corporation. Our house was a fairly large, of traditional tropical design, built on stilts, with the ground floor around 3 metres above grade and a large verandah on three sides. The rear of the house, on the north side, had a kitchen and servants' quarters, with parking under the main floor and three bedrooms on a second floor. It was built of greenheart lumber, the one of the principal products of the sawmill: very dense and durable - and a sinker in terms of buoyancy in seawater.

Georgetown

Since all amenities were fairly distant, trips into town were necessary for schools, services, entertainment, supplies and all varieties of activity, and since Dad was at work during the day, Mother - Eva - did a lot of driving, and was very competent navigating through traffic comprised of mostly slower traffic like donkey carts and bikes.