Painting Gateposts

The present spell of hot weather reminds me of our time in Jamaica - though today's 21C with a light, cooling breeze doesn't compare with the sticky heat of Kingston where the temperature on a typical July day will be in the upper 20s. The afternoons were particularly hot so we were fortunate that the 'school' we taught in, the government-paid section, finished at 1.30pm to make way for the private, fee-paying secondary school the head also ran.

The long afternoons were often spent in the deep shade of the mango trees in our garden, usually reading a book from the well-stocked Kingston library, but we were sometimes diverted by the activities of the School's art master, Rick, who lived with his family in No 3. Rick painted everything and anything that didn't move, including....

....the family fridge.

One day Rick appeared with a selection of wall paints and announced that he'd decided to paint the gateposts of the school's five staff cottages. I'm not sure that Rick had asked anyone's permission but we set to the task with a will. When we'd finished, all the gateposts had changed from boring, and somewhat dirty white to a range of individual colours. Our cottage....

....had blue posts and its number in gold while No 5, which had been converted into the school's pre-primary, had....

....very smart red posts.

There didn't seem to be any reaction from the 'authorities' so we presumed they approved - but perhaps by that time they were used to Rick's antics. Once, when the art department ran out of money to buy materials, Rick resorted to begging for paint from local hardware stores which his classes used to paint a mural on the end of the art department block.

Teaching and surviving in Kingston was hard work but it was people like Rick who helped us survive, for which we are eternally grateful.