A Raggae Fantasy

May 1986


2nd- Crystal’s sister Tina is married to Ed Shelton. He is head of housekeeping at Doctors Hospital in Coral Gables. Doctors Hospital has just bought Larkin Hospital in South Miami. He wonders if I would be interested in being the head house keeper at Larkin, effectively, being his assistant in charge there. I have been at All-Rite TV as a TV repairman for 13 years, and have had a lot of fun, but haven’t made any money and have never had any benefits. So we discuss it and I decide to try it. I’ve never done anything like this but I’m a quick learner and have never been afraid to do something different. So we drive to Key Largo and I give Butch, the owner of All-Rite TV, my notice. That part goes well and we part friends.

10th- About a year ago, my friend from Houston, Lowell Hahn, shows up again on my doorstep. He sleeps on the couch for a couple of weeks, then, finds a job in Ft. Lauderdale, working for Parker Electronics. They are involved in designing energy saving devices. To be able to build these devices, it is necessary to set up another company. So Lowell and a friend of his, Ken Tucker, put together a few people with money and start Brandy Technology (named after one of the investor’s poodle, Brandy). Ken Tucker is living in Montego Bay, Jamaica, and has a small manufacturing business, building a thing called a Load Tender, which protects appliances from high power surges and low power brown outs. In a third world country like Jamaica, these are very beneficial, since appliances cost a lot of money. The plan of Brandy Technology was to have all of the devices that they design to be built in Montego Bay. There was the Load Tender, and some larger 3 phase units, and a few still in the design phase. Now, Parker Electronics is owned by Dr Louis W Parker, a man who made millions by inventing the circuit that made sound possible in a television set. He had about 300 patents, and was backing a part of Brandy Technology. Lowell offers me the job of managing the manufacturing facility in Jamaica. After much discussion and thought, I decide to accept.

12th- I get together with Ed and explain why I feel the Jamaica job is more along the lines of my experience, and I’ll be passing on the hospital job. He has no problem with this, since he still has plenty of time to fill that position.

15th- Brandy Technology, Inc (BTI) flies me and Crystal and Lyz to Jamaica. Lowell and his wife and little girl are along, also. I’ll be meeting Ken Tucker and his wife Pat, and will see the place I’ll be working. We fly from Miami on Eastern, to Kingston, where we spend a couple of hours while they fix a hydraulic problem on the plane. Finally we fly over the mountains to Montego Bay. (MoBay). We are met by a taxi driver named Levi who is apparently the company driver. Ken Tucker and Peter Thiebart are also there. Peter is in charge of operations at the airport, so customs goes fast. It’s about 10:30 when we hit the road, and are driven to the Wexford Court Hotel, a nice place. We eat a late dinner, then, have a few drinks, then, go to bed.

16- After a very good native style brunch, salt cod and ackie, Lowell, Ken and I go to the Westgate Mall to see the place I’ll be working, building the motor controllers. The place is not very big, and has no air conditioner. That will change. After an hour or so, we drive to the Montego Bay Yacht Club. As part of the deal, I’ll be getting a membership here. It’s nice place to eat and drink, away from the rest of the city. We have lunch here, then walk across the street and visit a couple of tourist hotel for more drinking. Then we go to the other end of town for a few beers at the Holiday Inn, where we catch the last heat of the Crab Races.. I think I’m going to like this job. The next stop was not on the usual tourist trail. Peter Thiebart, who we met at the airport, has a little bar and restaurant, The Red Lion, just off the main runway at the airport. It’s on the ocean side. Ken takes me and Lowell past Peter’s place to a very strange run down bar on the water. Then he leaves us. We are approached by several men and women. Having ‘Grown Up’ partly on the waterfront in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, I quickly figured out that these were ‘working girls’. I was maneuvered out onto the deck, which was over the water, by a young lady and her ‘business agent’. We talked for little, I made my position clear, that although she was very pretty, I was here with my wife and wasn’t into other things. They took it well, especially after I bought a round of Red Stripe Beer for the house, about 8 beers at 50 cents each, American. As I was leaving to head up the hill to Peter’s place, I saw Lowell headed somewhere with another young lady. Oh well, I knew he was easily led astray. I just hoped it wouldn’t cause any business problems.

When I found Ken, he introduced me to the Jamaican national food, Jerked Pork. They take a bunch of wood from the pimiento tree and start a fire on the ground, then put a low grate over it, then throw on a bunch cut up pork that has been rubbed with jerked sauce and spices. They cut it into small pieces for serving. When you get a plate of jerked pork, it is accompanied by a jerk sauce on the side. The meat is very spicy, and the sauce turns it into fire. It is hot, but with a Red Stripe, the National Beer, it is manageable. Finally, Lowell drags in, and after more pork and beer, its back to the hotel. The ladies have been shown all around town by Ken’s wife, Pat. They didn’t care for the straw market too much. The natives were just a little too friendly.

After everyone was rested and refreshed, we went to dinner at a place called Richmond Hill. High on a hill overlooking the city and the bay, it is an estate house, called a great house that was formerly owned by the Dewar’s Scotch Estate. It is now owned by Stanley Chin, a friend of Kens. This is the best restaurant I have ever been to. It was 6 stars at least in atmosphere, food, view, live music, service, everything. We had lobster and escargot; what more could you want?

17th- Everyone is up for another full day. We have rented a large van, capable of holding us all. The driver is Mr Silver, who soon earns the nickname, ’Hi Ho Silver!’. First stop is Rose Hall, another Great House, and home to Annie, the White Witch of Rose Hall. She was a slave owner who abused everyone she was in contact with, until one of them killed her. They say her ghost is still around. From here, we head west, towards Negril, the western most point of Jamaica. We stop at an old sugar mill just outside of MoBay, where we are accosted by locals selling souvenirs and ganga. We buy a few of the former and pass on the latter. One of the tricks of the Jamaican Police is to have one of their undercover officers sell the tourist a little herb, and when the tourist heads down the road, the officer radios ahead, a road block is set up, and the tourist is busted and threatened with jail, unless he comes up with some money. They got one of my friends on a trip a year or so ago. It cost him $300, which was about all he had. We managed to get away from the sugar mill with a few wooden turtles and no weed. In about 30 minutes we stopped at a place called ‘The Lollipop’, for reasons unknown. Here we get some jerk pork, Red Stripe, and offers for more ganja. Next, we are going to head inland, into the real Jamaica, to visit Pat’s Aunt Sybil, a psychic who will tell us how BTI is going to fare. She lives in a big house in the middle of a sugar plantation. Just before we arrive, we stop at a little roadside grocery for some beer and sodas. We are immediately surrounded by little kids, 8 or 9 years old, trying to sell us more herb. I guess it’s a thing that is going to happen everywhere. Aunt Sybil offers nothing concrete for the future, so we head back towards Negril. Once in Negril, we hang out at Rick’s bar. Elizabeth and I do some low level cliff diving, 30’, as opposed to the 80’ people. Everyone else is at the bar, on a cliff over looking the ocean, watching the catamarans carrying the topless tourist girls by, so I join them. The sunset at Ricks is as good as the one in Key West, but it lacks the atmosphere of Mallory Square. Finally our kamikaze pilot, Hi Ho Silver, say’s its time to head back to MoBay. So Hi Ho, away we go. The ride back was worth the price of the trip.

18th- We spend the next morning at Doctors Cave Beach, where Ken introduces me to a lot of local characters that I’ll be dealing with. In the afternoon, Crystal, Lyz, Lowell and his family are going back to Miami, so we take them to the airport, head over to Peter’s place to watch the plane leave.

19th- Ken and I spend the next 2 days getting all of the paper work done that will enable me to get a work permit. When we’re not taking care of business, we’re somewhere that Ken can get a drink, a special concoction he designed, that he calls a ‘Slurpee’. It’s basically a Manhattan, with the ‘hattan’ minimized. It’s a real man’s drink. He also had a large pitcher of ‘Slurpees’ in the fridge at his house that he started the day with. I see the beginning of a problem here, but did not realize the magnitude of it.

20th- We fly back to Miami on Air Jamaica, 1st Class of course. I see the money being spent in ways that scare me a little, and I’ve not even started working yet. I’ll be working at Parker Electronics in Ft Lauderdale until the situation in Jamaica is clarified.

24- Crystal and I go to a party in FTL to meet some more of the people involved with BTI, Al and Nancy Majava. Everyone is enthused with the products and the prospects ahead for BTI. There is around $200,000 in the bank with more to come. Little did I know.