Sunday, January 10, 2010

Entry #96

The Pitch Lake
by Herrad Ford


The pitch lake in Trinidad is a natural wonder; it oozes dark aromatic pitch which gets used to make roads all over the world

To me as a kid it was a marvellous place, that constantly changed, never still, never static, always in motion.

At first glance it did not look very exciting, nothing alluring about it, no interesting silhouettes.

Yet it was a much visited place, especially by tourists who had to have pictures of them on the pitch lake.

One time we were up at the pitch lake with some visitors and these Americans drove up in a big car and parked.

We tried to tell them; well my dad did that if they parked there they would not be able to drive away as the car would sink in the pitch.

Well they were very rude and patronising, and they knew better.

They did not want to listen and much to everyone’s satisfaction a couple of hours later there were shrieks and wails to be heard by the same Americans who could no longer drive home proudly in their Chevrolet.

It was well stuck in the Trinidad pitch lake.

I still recall this with ‘schadenfreude’ all these years later, must be well over forty, with much pleasure.

I remember we drove away some time later, looking out of our rear window with great delight at the glorious silhouette of the stuck erstwhile flash American car.

Oh well they had been very rude and patronising to us all.

21 comments:

Lena said...

I believe you have very well shown the feelings of people who were treated like they are no good. No wonder they took the mishappening of someone else as one of their happy moments.
Nicely done.

Preeti said...

That's lovely story telling.
Serves the Americans right!!!

Bernita said...

One can relate!

AM-C said...

There is nothing like a patronising, stuck-up tourist who ignorantly thinks that his foreign currency makes him superior to the locals/natives. You have written an extremely satisfying piece

JaneyV said...

Karma is such a pitch! (sorry!)

It costs nothing to be polite and arrogance is such an ugly thing. I was glad to see them get their comeuppance.

Aimee Laine said...

What a memory! I can picture all of it -- the rudeness, the waiting and the final outcome. :)

Aniket Thakkar said...

Well there are the good and the bad (and the ugly?!) in every part of the world. But then again, no one can deny that the seven sins constitute all the good things in life. :)

Craig said...

Karma strikes yet again.

Sarah Laurenson said...

Hah! Fun tale. Nicely done.

PJD said...

Oh, Janey. karma is a pitch? Any more of those, and you'll have to walk home.

Hard not to sympathize with the narrator.

Tessa said...

A lesson to us all! Well told, Herrad.

Scribblers Inc said...

well...sometimes you just need to tell a story, minus everything else...and thats the essence of it! I am glad some of us have actually got down to doin just that...much respect!

Mithun Mukherjee.

Kartik said...

A very well written vignette. Something you could relate to whatever part of the world you're from.

laughingwolf said...

they had it coming!

Laurel said...

Funny tale of justice! The ugly tourist is never the guy you want to be. Ever. Bet no one even offered them a ride back to their hotel.

austere said...

I can see where that's coming from.

DILLIGAF said...

hehehehe...you can't beat comeuppance eh?

Nicely done.

Sounds like it may be true?

james r. tomlinson said...

This reads like a memoir and those that know me know how sensitive I am. Bashing those Americans for their stupidity simply will not do. Just remember: THEY'RE DONATING THAT CAR TO THE GREAT MIXING BOWL OF THE WORLD. Buy American folks, and help our economy, or at least my poor cousins who lost their car in Pitch Lake. Nicely written. Peace.

Chris Eldin said...

Interesting take on the photo!

catvibe said...

I have to admit to having a hearty laugh with this one. Good one!

Anonymous said...

Dear Entrants #1-105,

I have read your pieces so that I can fairly participate in the Readers' Choice vote. (I read all of them through last week, before I started commenting.) I will be coming back around to offer my keep/tweak comment, but I didn't want anyone to snark.

Cheers,
Aerin (#236)

BTW, it's perfectly fine if you still want to snark, but this way you can choose a more appropriate subject, like the Golden Globes or those wretched Old Navy dummies.