Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - November 15, 1975, Winnipeg, Manitoba The system works does t it by Christie Blatchford photography by Pedro Rodriguez Herwin and Ransford and Stanley and Sylvester and Lancelot and Douglas and Lloyd and Anthony Are Back in Jamaica now thousands of Miles away from Blenheim Ontario and the seven months they spent there pruning and picking and packing fruit for a White called James Fitzgerald Mcquigan. They Are Home Back to warm wet nights and streets they know and people who Call them by their first names. The thrill of the plane trip from Toronto to Jamaica will probably have left them arid Stanley will have resorted to talking about How on the flight to Canada last april they were grounded in Chicago because of a snowstorm. Herwin will have found away As Only men with Long lashed Brown eyes can of equally dividing up the Bikini panties among his seven women and having each think she got the finest pair. Sylvester the Lay preacher will juice up a Sermon or two by telling of the Canadian Church Douglas will be familiar enough with his new stereo to treat it with friendliness and not kid gloved Awe. And All of them will by now be Blase about the Ontario experience and All of them will probably make it sound very Good to their friends. They will do it so often that they will forget about the loneliness of those seven months and forget How Mcquigan sometimes could t Tell them apart. After the Story is told Many times after the tricks of memory have been played so that Only the Good parts remain one of them will sit Down and write a letter to Mcguigan s Foreman. Dear it will read we miss Mcquigan himself will hear of the letter maybe even read it and its message will make him feel pretty Damn Good. Warm. Over dinner he will Tell Mona his wife that Tommy got a letter from one of the jamaicans which Shell ask. Mcquigan will Tell her will name a name which one was that dear which one is that asks Mona Mcquigan As she moves Bee like in her Kitchen lighting on the stove top and the counter and the fridge and occasionally As she has now on fragments of a conversation taking place in a nearby Den. Mcguigan has mentioned something about a and the word draws Mona for a moment. Says Mcquigan referring to Herwin Wint by his last name As he does with most of the Blacks he Calls my you know the one who seemed brighter than most of them Mona nods and returns to her dinner making. Tells me Wint seemed smarter. We were pretty impressed last year so we got him Back. But he uses it to get the others to do All the work. He ends up doing nothing. That s what happens one of them thinks he s the Leader and he ends up making everyone else do his Mcguigan like hundreds of other Canadian Farmers participates in the offshore farm labor program which began in 1968 and last year resulted in Caribbean workers coming to Canada for periods of six weeks to eight months. That Means Mcguigan is almost completely responsible for his workers while they Are out of their own countries. Continued f weekend Magazine nov. 15, 1975 ;