VACATION

Wilmot Max Ramsay
Prof. John Brereton
Honors English 102
September 1989
UMass/Boston

               "Travel"

     Tuesday, July 25, 1989.  I woke early.  I guess that I was anxious, as it was to be my first visit to my native Jamaica since my arrival here in the United States of America, two years ago.

     The Yellow Cab arrived and within a few minutes I was en route to Boston's Logan International Airport.  I was about to bid the City of Boston "goodbye" for three weeks.

     At Logan, I processed my travel documents, cleared my baggage and waited for the boarding announcement.

     The thought of the golden sun towering majestically over the sea with its many sandy beaches surely warmed my heart.  Once again, within six hours, I would be viewing the mountains embedded in lush Jamaican vegetation.

     By 8:15 am the American Airline wide-body machine, like a rocket, made its way into the sky and leaving dear old Boston behind.  It was to be non-stop to Miami International Airport.

     I did see smiling faces.  They too must have been contemplating that which was to come.  From all indications, it was to be a wonderful summer vacation despite the declining [Jamaican] fiscal situation.

     I found solace, as I pondered economics, in the fact that tourism, Jamaica's prime foreign exchange earner was again being served.  Foreigners, and more so the Americans, have always proved to be great patrons.  As I looked round about me, I thought to myself that this trip to "the island in the Sun" was no exception.  A full plane load it was.

     I turned my "travel" elsewhere as I paged through a copy of that morning's Boston Herald, recounting the happenings of the previous day or two.  "Dukanomics in trouble" screamed a Page One story.  Well, I thought, even in a developed society there can be gross economic failure.

     The Miami stop-over lasted an hour and fifteen minutes.  Then, it was back in the air!

     En route, we passed over the Caribbean islands, with the exception of Cuba which we negotiated due to [Fidel] Castro's anti-American stance.

     Voila!  And there it was -- a re-encounter with Paradise -- fun, beach and Sun.