Christmas of yesteryear

Do you remember ‘the bamboo gun’?

By Ravena Gildarie
CHRISTMAS is a season of reflection, and though life changes, the memories remain. Whether happy or sad, good or bad, we somehow never forget our childhood Christmas festivities and traditions. Like in the Pomeroon where the sounds of bamboo guns once rapidly rippled through the tall mangrove trees that lined the riverbank, the echoes rung out for miles away across the cold, black water. It was an amusement for all, and a highly-anticipated practice all season through.

“My experience with the bamboo gun is one I remember vividly,” says 37-year-old Dwayne John, a civil engineer, who grew up at Siriki, Pomeroon. It would appear that the bamboo gun tradition is known predominantly in the riverine communities where bamboos grow. It has been and remains customary in communities throughout the Pomeroon, Moruca, Mabruma, Wakapoa, Akawini, Santa Mission/Aratac and along the Kamuni Creek. Though little is known of the origins or history of the tradition, the bamboo gun is also popular in some rural communities of Trinidad and Tobago too, again where bamboos are situated.

“I use to go into the bushes with my friends and uncles to cut the biggest diameters of bamboo,” John recalled, adding,“ we would design it to our likings at my father’s boathouse. While it was to be left to dry for two days before use, we defeated that procedure by mixing kerosene and gasoline 50:50.”
“We would arrange all in a boat as if fighting a war,” John chuckled, as he reminisced.
He continued: “then as the tide changes, we would begin to listen whose bamboo gun was the loudest. A flambeau in a drifting boat would be the setting.”

John grew up seeing the bamboo gun as a Christmas tradition, and when he was old enough, his friends taught him to make it. He hopes to someday pass the skill on to his son but is saddened that Christmas these days is no longer as exciting as it was when John was a child. Reflecting on the house parties where ginger beer, home-made bread, pepperpot and garlic pork were shared with families, neighbours and friends, John said the holiday was more of a “season” instead of just a one-day event, as it appears now.

This is also the view of Michael Patterson, 48, originally of Santa Aratac. He remembers a Christmas season during which the men of the village hunted and the women prepared festive delicacies such as tuma, which was shared on Christmas morning after families would have enjoyed a morning swim, then church service on Christmas day. He remembers a season of togetherness when his grandfather hosted almost the entire village at his home for breakfast. The children were treated to new clothes and ‘buck top’ and bamboo guns were plenty.

MAKING OF THE BAMBOO GUN
He explained the process of making the bamboo gun, which started by selecting a well-matured, thick and sturdy bamboo that could withstand the blast. “Young shoots would burst,” he cautioned, as he recalled paddling in a canoe for four to six hours to and from the bamboo patch that grew at the entrance of the Kamuni Creek.

Back home, a long stick was used to crack/break the joints inside the bamboo allowing for a hollow pole down to the last joint that would serve as the base. A gun is usually cut in length of about four to six feet.
A square cut is then made at the base of the last joint where the fuel would be placed.
“You also need to have your flambeau lit with a fine piece of stick that is soaked in the kerosene firstly, then ignite from the lamp then back into the gun. That fire into the gun chambers then create smoke to clear the barrel, getting it ready for the first shot,” Patterson sentimentally reflected.

“So the smoke passes from one joint to the next until it exits out at the tip of the gun,” he described, adding that: “the gun is only ready after a thick layer of dark smoke emerge from the chambers. Once the gun is ready, then it is just a tip into the fuel, onto the lamp, then into the chamber from which a loud blast is made.”

Patterson warned, “This can be dangerous if you don’t know how to use it.” Many persons who know about the bamboo gun, know of eyebrows burning out as well as some hair on the head. But yet it fetches great excitement for both males and females.
Mahalia Gouveia, 31, remembers even putting toads in front of the chambers of the bamboo gun before it is fired, as part of the mischievous fun during Christmas time while growing up at Jacklow, Pomeroon.

Imitiaz Barakat, who also grew up in Pomeroon, recalled the bamboo gun fun would start promptly at 18:00 hrs sharp, and went until the wee hours of the morning. “It was a race for the loudest sounding ones from neighbours, and the guns could be heard in almost every yard,” he said.

These days, the bamboo gun seems to have lost momentum in some communities as some villagers even find it ‘bothersome’ and ‘noisy’. The increased availability of firecrackers and squibs has also replaced the creativity of the amusement at Christmas. Though the younger of this and upcoming generation may never know the fun and thrill of the bamboo gun, those who used it as a child have memories to last a lifetime.