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+--- Thread: Negril Beach Vendors (/showthread.php?tid=100576)
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RE: Negril Beach Vendors - Allan - 09-24-2014
I had the interesting experience of attending a session of what I will call gigolo school, for lack of a better term. I had met a fellow on Hellshire Beach near Kingston, who was a whiz at making bracelets. He could make a bracelet with words you requested in about 5 minutes. I told him I was going to Negril the next day, and would he like to come along and sell his wares. He came along, and within a few minutes of hitting the beach at Risky Business, we were talking with a group of locals. They spoke about 'her', like the mythical tourist from Germany, Canada, or wherever, and how he should behave. He was to count only on his fingers, and not do anything that might suggest that he had a functioning brain. I have no idea if that was out of the Jamaican Gigolo Handbook, but I did find it fascinating.
RE: Negril Beach Vendors - oldtimer - 09-25-2014
and then what happened ?
RE: Negril Beach Vendors - Westenders - 09-25-2014
(09-24-2014, 08:39 PM)Allan Wrote: They spoke about 'her', like the mythical tourist from Germany, Canada, or wherever, and how he should behave. He was to count only on his fingers, and not do anything that might suggest that he had a functioning brain. I have no idea if that was out of the Jamaican Gigolo Handbook, but I did find it fascinating.
Oh how funny, think they need a new teacher. I would like my gig to have a brain, (joking) he must be cheap then if he is counting on his fingers lol..
I noticed over the last 18 months that there seems to be an influx of Russian tourists. I joked to my husband that the first jamaican gigolo on the beach I see speaking Russian I will buy him a drink myself. But I bet I see it!!
Allen what happened next?
RE: Negril Beach Vendors - Allan - 09-27-2014
Well, just to backtrack a little, he said he needed materials, and we stopped in Santa Cruz to get some. I purchased the thick cotton thread he picked out in the colours black, green, and gold, and red. I believe the thread is crochet thread. Happy to say, he did not go the gigolo route that I could tell. I think it was a smart move on his part, as gigolos seem to be a dime a dozen in Negril, and he had marketable skills. Got him a room at my aunt's place in Red Ground, and pretty much left him to do his thing while I took samples around and tried to drum up business. I did ask him for 10 per cent of his earnings, which I thought was more than fair. He readily agreed. Around the second night we are at Risky, and he spots a very attractive young lady who looked like she was a local. She was one of those ladies that arrive four or five to a car and appear to be doing the professional girlfriend to a tourist thing for a week or a night or whatever. I believe he had not figured that out yet. He offered to buy her a beer, and she sweetly accepted. The moment the Red Stripe is in her hand she turns away and completely ignores him. She just played the new arrival for a sucker. But not so fast. He snatches the beer from her hand and pours it on the ground in front of her, with the words 'wha you tink yu a do, gyal, me a hoodlum, yu know. See mi id cyard, a West Kingston mi come from.' From that day on I called him 'Hoodlum'.
RE: Negril Beach Vendors - Schuttzie - 09-28-2014
HaHa, great story!
RE: Negril Beach Vendors - Allan - 09-28-2014
I am with you on that, Westenders. Stupidity gets old pretty fast. Perhaps some Jamaicans watch Hollywood movies and 'Days of Our Lives' and are sure that they have the tourists figured out pretty good. In many ways, the beach people are formidable, like when a tourist gives the excuse that they cannot buy anything because they left all their money where they are staying, and the beach vendor shows up there.
RE: Negril Beach Vendors - Allan - 09-28-2014
To wrap up the story, the security guard where we are staying tells me he saw something on my business partner's bedroom table that looks like a small pile of ashes. Not being familiar with drug culture, I believe it is something like cocaine, but the description is a little too vague for me to be sure. I am driving around looking for business, and he is on foot. Our paths cross a couple times a day, and I believe he does not notice me as he is usually standing beside one Rastaman or another, hands a blur making another bracelet. I assume he is selling the bracelets to these middle men, and I feel pretty good because ten percent of that is coming my way. Tree House was very pleasant to deal with, but they tell me they have all the suppliers they can handle. I decide to try a place that is a bit off the beaten track, and make a trip to YS River Falls. Mrs. Brownie looks at the samples, and I tell her I can also supply bracelets with a more naughty message. She says she doesn't care for naughty messages, but will take ten dozen total of the standard 'one love', 'irie', 'Jamaica', 'no problem' ones. I thank her, and make my way back to Negril and find Hoodlum to give him the good news. He announces that he cannot accept the payment per unit that he told me, and wants more money. This is the price he gave me. Mrs. Brownie was OK with it and did not quibble. Did he expect me to drive back to St. Elizabeth and ask to renegotiate the deal I had agreed to? I could have cheerfully strangled him then and there, but instead I explained that a deal's a deal, and could we settle up and go our separate ways? He agrees, the tells me he only sold three bracelets all week. It would seem that he is a bad businessman, and he takes me for a fool. I revisit plan A, strangulation, but again I put it out of my mind, and leave in a huff. He packs up and leaves, and tells my aunt that I am a very bad man. And that is how the story ends. In the years since, I can't say that I have seen his style of bracelet around Negril. It is made by wrapping thread around a plastic strip usually cut from a bleach or pop bottle. No regrets though, I believe he lost more than I did.
RE: Negril Beach Vendors - goldilocks - 10-02-2014
I have a bracelet in that style with my name on it that was made by someone I met at the Negril Yacht Club. It's over 10 years old now. Wonder if it was him?
Why was the security guard in the bedroom observing "small pile of ashes?" shouldn't he be outside the room?
RE: Negril Beach Vendors - Allan - 10-02-2014
This was in 1996, Goldilocks. I assumed the security guard saw the 'ashes' through a window. He did not have access to the rooms.