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By Will Johnson
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When the newly appointed Lt. Governor Jonathan Johnson had his welcome reception it was the talk of the town for weeks.
One of the big attractions at the reception was the local string band known as 'The Occasionals'.
The many prominent St.Maarten families who were there were amazed that Saba had such a traditional string band which is not well-known outside of Saba.
On September 5th after visiting the tax doctor I took a swing past the "Henry Carlyle Every "Home for the Aged.
Nurse Elizabeth 'Lizzy' Hassell was in the dining room entertaining herself while playing the harmonica which she told me she had bought in Curacao.
At the entrance was my friend Wilbourne Carlyle Granger (born December 30th 1932), better known as 'Pops'.
Carlyle and my brother Freddie were the greatest of friends since children. Freddie was a teacher in front of the class for thirty five years, something of which he was rightfully proud. Everyone, including Carlyle, called him 'Meneer", a polite Dutch form of addressing a male teacher. Once I heard Carlyle telling someone that if he saw 'Meneer' in a fight that he would jump in and help him to throw blows. Only after the battle was won he would ask 'Meneer' who had started the fight.
Carlyle's mother Nina Granger had Statia roots and lived just above us when we lived in the mountain above Windwardside. He and his sister Alicia ( now deceased but also a musical talent) were the children of Elisha Beaks Hassell ( a white man of Windwardside).
Since his father was married to the widow of Dr. Nicolas Anslijn, Carlyle was indirectly related to the Anslijns. His uncle John Herman Hassell raised him. Herman was a lifelong bachelor and a prominent businessman who was also the local Judge. When Spritzer and his partner Fuhrmann two Eastern European Jews were selling jewelry from door to door, Herman gave them a loan. The former well known firm of Spritzer & Fuhrmann Inc. got its start with that loan from Herman.
Carlyle was not a beneficiary of the small fortune which Herman left behind when he died. However he learned the principles of business from Herman and years later he started up his own successful grocery store. For over thirty years he also worked for the government as assistant to the legendary Josephus Lambert Hassell. Then when Lambert retired Carlyle took over from him as Chief of Public Works until he retired.
Meanwhile his family kept growing and growing and growing until the whole Saban community started calling him 'Pops'.
This roundabout way of my writing serves a purpose. Carlyle is also the father of the string band known the last years as 'The Occasionals'. The name suggests the informal nature of the band. As Carlyle told me, it was done for love. The music he played was never done for money.
Carlyle told me that he learned to play the guitar on his own when he was around twelve years old. "Lee Brothie", "Gabo's son" (Josephus Kock Johnson) who was here from Aruba on vacation, just after World War II, sold him an old mandolin. Carlyle learned how to tune the mandolin. It is tuned the same way as the violin and the banjo.
He said the first time they played as a band was when 'Willie" (John William Johnson) returned from Aruba. He was a bachelor then and held a party at his home. (Willie by the way was also musically inclined and could hold his own on the accordion quite well.).
Carlyle said he still remembers that party and that the late Kenneth Peterson was like a peacock on the dance floor that night.
Before Carlyle's band the 'white folk' used to hire an old black lady to pound on the wooden partition of the house accompanying someone playing the guitar and another person shaking up small stones in an old rusty can. People danced to tunes composed by "Wemely " Hassell ( married to Incum.Imagine!), and her sister. They were the daughters of the well known midwife 'Yeath" (Rosita Lynch-Hassell). Wemely composed such well known waltzes as 'The' Maisy' is mine, she can sail anytime,' and "If your daughter is cranky bring her to Lampe". Years later people here danced to imported songs such as "What a night Wathey had to the front." No! No! It was not Claude. It was his grandfather if I am not mistaken and the young gal from down street was the result of him being brought up-street in a sheet. Cause for making a song. The' Occasionals' can play that like it was made for them.
Carlyle said that the first leader of the band was actually Elmo Hughes. In the beginning Carlyle played the guitar. When Eugenius and Ronnie had the club they bought some instruments which included a banjo and he learned to play it. And play it well he did.
Later on he bought a banjo on Curacao which he named "The World". In 1972 he ordered a banjo from Germany. Carlyle told me that he paid $500.-for that banjo. At the time he could have bought a much needed car on St.Maarten for that price, but he loved music so much that he decided to buy the banjo instead.
When the banjo arrived in a solid wooden case with KLM airfreight there was a celebration at his home on its arrival, and people after hearing the new banjo spontaneously named it "The Universe."
When Elmo Hughes left for Curacao in the early nineteen fifties Carlyle took over the band. He told me that the late Sylvester Hughes was always there. He was the maracas man in the band. Calvin Holm, a good singer, later joined the band and played the quarto, locally made by Alvin Adonis Caines.
He was later joined by the guitarist Eric Johnson, also an excellent singer who still plays in the band and sings in the Roman Catholic Church choir in Windwardside.
Next came Dolphie Johnson, who plays the Marimba. Roy Smith (Act.Lt. Governor) joined when he came from school in Curacao. He plays the guitar and is also an excellent singer. Also for a time teacher Godfred Hassell played the guitar and Maurits Hassell played the drum.
The last years others have joined the band including guitarist and singer Senator Ray Hassell and guitarist Police Office Siegfried Maria.
The band went to St. Maarten a few times. I remember once when I lived at Captain Hodge's Guesthouse the band came over in a very small boat accompanied by another small boat. The first boat arrived hours before and we started fearing the worst for the band. Finally we saw a small boat passing the bar. Great Bay Harbour was so quiet back then that from the shore we could hear them playing as they made their approach. The engine had broken down but somehow they had managed with the help of legendary mechanic Johnny Hassell, also the owner of the boat, to repair the engine at sea. From the time of arrival we all went to the Sea View Hotel and drew up the whole town who came out to enjoy the lovely music.Business was so good that Mr. Melford Hazel mistakenly decided that drinks for the band were on the house. Those boys had come to Sint Maarten with one thing in mind to play music and to drink. Not necessarily in that order.
Carlyle once told me that he had visited 23 countries in the Caribbean and 11 on the American continent. And yet, the only vacation he looked forward to was a vacation on St.Maarten. He said he never thought that he would live to see the day when one would be afraid of anything happening to them on St.Maarten.
The band also went to Santiago de Cuba in 2002 to participate in a cultural festival there.
They also accompanied the taxi-drivers on a Winair sponsored trip to St.Maarten and played at the Union Hall in Cole Bay.
After Carlyle got ill and had to have his leg amputated he moved to the Henry C.Every Home for the Aged, named after a cousin and a childhood friend.
Ronald L. Johnson ('Ronnie') took over the sponsorship of the band, bought new instruments and obviously enjoys what he is doing. Recently with assistance of the Prince Bernhard Fund a CD was released with music by 'The Occasionals", something to be treasured by our people.
Jerry Craig wrote; "We need to promote among our own citizens, a willingness to use local craft, to preserve our traditional architecture, to listen to our own songs. When this attitude to development becomes action, the rest will be rooted in an understanding and appreciation of our own culture.
For myself I must say that perhaps there are things you can only really know and appreciate in the place you are born into; the place 'where your navel string bury,' as we say in the West Indies.
To Carlyle we say do not despair. Find inspiration in the words of the great Robert Louis Stevenson;
"So long we love we serve;
So long as we are loved by others,
I should say that we are almost indispensable;
And no man is useless while he has a friend."
Carlyle was always very much about education for his children. Even while enjoying his music his main goal was to help his children get a good education.
As I was leaving the home, in the meantime, his daughter Raquel had joined him and was there chatting away, keeping him company. She recently returned to the island with a Masters in clinical psychology, proving his point that there is nothing like having a good education.
Thank you Carlyle for your years of entertaining our people and providing them with a unique cultural heritage in the form of "The Occasionals" band, and thanks also to Ronny and the other long serving members of the band for carrying on the tradition.
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