The promotion for this program was filled with questions as to why Rob’s family moved to Montserrat?  Why was this isle called the “Emerald Isle of the Caribbean?  Where is it? What is it?  What was it like to live there?

As Rob approached the podium to tell his story, he started speaking in a different dialect, sort of a British tone, but not really.  He told us that the natives string the words together in a sing song manner, making their language very hard to understand.  Then, he explained all the answers to the questions above and in plain English.

Montserrat is a British Overseas Territory located in the Caribbean.  His family was residing in Michigan, and his father could not find any work and he decided, he would never be rich so, if he could not work, then he preferred to live somewhere quite beautiful and sort of laid back.

This island, in the Lesser Antilles, in the West Indies is exactly that, ” beautiful.”  Montserrat is nicknamed “The Emerald Isle of the Caribbean” both for its resemblance to coastal Ireland and for the Irish ancestry of some of its inhabitants.

The  early colonists began to import African slaves for labor, as was common to most Caribbean islands.  The settlers built an economy based on the production of sugar, rum, arrowroot and Sea Island Cotton, cultivated on large plantations manned by slave labor.  Many Irish people were also transported to the island, to work as indentured servants or exiled prisoners; some were exiled by Oliver Cromwell.  The victims of Cromwellian transportation ranged from political and military prisoners to anyone who might burden the public purse: orphans, widows and the unemployed.

The island of Montserrat is located approximately 300 miles south-southeast of Puerto Rico and 30 miles southwest of Antigua.  The island is 11 miles long and seven miles wide.  Montserrat is very mountainous, with windy roads, and geysers.  Rob watched beautiful sunsets and never once saw a green flash.

The family first lived in Plymouth, the capital city and major port of Montserrat.  His father found work for a man who bought estate houses.  Everyone who came to Montserrat would stay at the hotel in the Garabaldi Hill in Isles Bay. Here you could have a view of the sea and of the town.

Their home, which Rob pointed out in the slides that he brought for us to see, had three bedrooms, no hot water.  It was a small house.  There was no power in 1963, so everyone cooked with charcoal and fire wood.

His parent’s office was downtown and he attended an one room school house.  It was a quaint little town with government warehouses.   The Methodist church was also pointed out in Rob’s slides. The population at that time was 11,000.

Market day was on Saturdays.  There was a carnival at Christmas.  Not like in Brazil with beautiful costumes.  You could wear anything.  There were steel guitars, flutes, drums and everyone had an awfully good time.

Did I like living there?  Is was a poor island, and today, it is still is a poor island.

The history of Montserrat is that in 1857, the British philanthropist Joseph Sturge bought a sugar estate to prove it was economically viable to employ labor rather than slaves.  His family were Quackers and they became the fabric of Montserrat.  They established the Montserrat Company Limited and planted lime trees.  Later, AIR Studios Montserrat opened.  The island attracted world-famous musicians, who came to record in the peaceful and lush tropical surroundings of Montserrat.

Everything seemed to be on the up side for this beautiful island.

In September, 1989, Hurricane Hugo, a category 4 storm, struck Montserrat with full force of 140 miles per hour.  It damaged more than 90 percent of the structures on the island.  AIR Studiios closed, and the tourist economy was wiped out.  The island somewhat recovered, but, in 1995, the Soufriere Hills volcano erupted and soon buried the island’s capital.  The southern part of the island was evacuated and still, to today, visits are restrcted.  Ash killed everything.

The island rebuilt in the northern hills.

Today, there is a new airport, in the lush and green area of Montserrat, and handles several flights daily operated by Fly Montserrat Airways.

His family made rum.  Rob reported “that it  was awful tasting.”

Rob said “I have some rum up here in front.  Different kinds.”   Rob ended his story of living in Montserrate, with a slide of a picture taken in 2009 of the Southern Cross.  He invited everyone to come up to the podium and try some rum…good rum.