Karen described the 1980s Red Hills as very dry with a lot of red dirt and raw limestone jutting out along the mountain side. It was a place filled with lots of brown and red spaces. There were not a whole lot of housing developments and the houses that were present were smaller. The grounds were rampant with scorpions and "40 legs" that would come out of cracked rocks, and trees were very abundant - especially fruit trees.
According to Karen, Red Hills has seen much change in the past 40 years. There are no more of the aforementioned creatures (at least not that she has seen). The limestone that once protruded from the mountain is no longer visible - it has been covered by housing developments. The modern houses are huge in comparison to those built previously and the new houses tend not to have traditional awnings lining the verandahs (probably due to hurricane patterns). There is much less open land due to the amount of new homes being built and much less green space (although the remaining green spaces are very green). The red colour from the red dirt that gave the place its name is also less abundant. Finally, the view from Karen’s verandah has changed - the amount of cars visible has more than doubled and traffic conditions have worsened due to the lack of road improvements.
Activities that Karen used to do in Red Hills ranged from playing with the water hose to killing slugs that threatened her grandmother’s prized garden. She would go around at night with her grandmother and spear the slugs they found leaching on the plants they had taken the time to care for. She also recalled picking cherries from the trees outside and making cherry juice and sorbet with what she had reaped for the day.
Nowadays, Karen frequents Red Hills with her family to visit her father on weekdays or weekends for Sunday lunch. She describes the temperature as too hot to do anything outside. She also mentions that the gardens outside are not as majestic as they used to be, but she can still watch flowers open overnight on the huge cactus that sits outside the balcony window. She sometimes sits on the verandah at night and admires the city lights below and the potted plants her father grows.
Interviewer: Okay. So, thank you so much for agreeing to interview with me. Before we start, could you just tell me your name and maybe where you’re from?
Karen: Okay. My name is Karen Donaldson and I was born in Belize, but now live in Jamaica.
Interviewer: Okay. And how long have you been living there?
Karen: Definitely over 40 years.
Interviewer: Over 40 years. Okay. Very cool. Well, today I’m just gonna ask you a few questions about maybe a place that you know very well there and a bit about how it’s changed. Can you think of a place that made it special to you or that you know, let’s say better than another place in Jamaica?
Karen: Well, I would probably have to say the house that I spent a lot of my early years growing up, my father’s house in Red Hills…
Interviewer: Red Hills.
Karen: …up in the hills of Kingston, Jamaica.
Interviewer: Okay. Very cool. And can you describe for me how the place looked before and maybe 20 years ago?
Karen: Twenty-years ago. Well, one thing that stands out to my memory is, we were on the cliff on the mountainside overlooking the city and there were a lot of very visible dry limestone rocks all along the mountainside, with big cracks and crevices. And I remember always scorpions would emerge from these cracks, and 40 legs, and those sort of dangerous creatures. So, we would capture them, and put them in jars, and collect them. I remember also we were always surrounded by large expanses of fields usually quite brown, dry. The whole houses..not a lot of housing development at the time and the houses that were around us were quite small, like our homes, not very big. There were a lot of trees, lots of fruit trees, you know, mangoes, genips, cherries. We used to pick those and do all sorts of things with the fruit. And there was also an incredible view of the city of Kingston from our long veranda. And we would watch the cars go by from there.
Interviewer: Well, very cool. Sounds like a nice place to grow up. All right. Could you tell me maybe a bit about how the place has changed? What it looks like now.
Karen: Twenty-years later?
Interviewer: Yeah, or even…
Karen: No more scorpions. I haven’t seen scorpions for over 20 years in Jamaica, where those jugged limestone rocks are no longer visible, whether from construction, and building up, and being covered over with grass nowadays. When I look around, when I’m at that house, the houses around now are huge. I mean, they dwarf our house now. The style of building has changed. Not just huge, but much more modern style buildings, less concrete, and more sort of wooden accents in the houses. Much less land and open spaces of course, because of all the construction sites, much less fruit trees. The view of the city too from veranda is very different. We used to observe the cars going by and now so many more cars. I mean, there’s a terrible problem of congestion of cars because of course the roads have not been developed to meet the influx of cars that have come into Jamaica. So, the roads are at least three times as many cars with no improvement of the roads.
Much less red dirt too. It used to be…that’s why it was called Red Hills or Red Dirt from the back side. Maybe we don’t see it as much anymore because of all the construction, and the covering over, and the manmade changes.
Interviewer: Wow. Okay. Very cool.
Karen: And hot weather.
Interviewer: Pardon.
Karen: I feel like it’s a lot hotter now.
Interviewer: A lot hotter. Okay. Well, much like a lot of other places in the world, I’d presume.
Karen: [Inaudible 00:04:45].
Interviewer: Another question, what are some of the things that you used to do here?
Karen: Well, I have great memories of when my little nephews would come over us as toddlers and we would play with the water hose with them outside, shower them outdoors. Of course, now you can’t do that sort of thing because we have water restrictions. When the place was rampant with fruit trees, we would go outside and eat these. Eat the mangoes and, you know, the juice running down your arms, and we don’t do that anymore. Not even the little children are up because it just feels like it’s so hot, you know. We don’t spend as much time outdoors anymore. I suppose in the past, the gardens of the house were very well-kept by my grandmother. Have memories of going out at nights to spear the slugs that would come out with at those gardens, maybe it was because it was cooler in the afternoon. She would go out then. So, she would spear the slugs to protect her plants. Not much of that garden left now. And certainly because of the fruit trees, we used to make cherry juice and cherry sorbet, and pick and eat the genips, but those trees are not around anymore.
Interviewer: Okay. And maybe if you could describe for me what some of the things that you do here and now are…
Karen: Nowadays, well, my father is there and we go and visit with him. Very different sort of visits now since it’s indoors. And we still go and sit on the veranda and, you know, look out at the city of Kingston, especially at night when it appears to be so calm and peaceful. I find that the city is a lot noisier nowadays. Maybe culture of the people has changed or maybe I’m older. It seems much noisier, more indisciplined, a lot of blaring music, and things come up from the city. It used to be much more peaceful. Of course, the gardens are less beautiful as I said, not as manicured. Well, there’s even a little-potted ganja plant on my dad’s veranda now, which couldn’t have happened. I mean, only recently that became legal to have a small amount of ganja there. Of course, this is just for decoration. Yes, we go just to have Sunday lunch with him and spend a little time.
Interviewer: Wow. Well, this was lovely. Thank you so much for allowing me to interview you. It’s Karen Donaldson of Jamaica, and I look forward to maybe hearing from you in the future. Thank you.
Karen: Thank…