TIME OUT IN TRINIDAD - 1950s - Pt. 23 - Farewell to Trinidad

All footage contributed by Sooty1312. This video is not to be copied without the consent of the operator of this channel. Sadly, this brings to an end the Time Out in Trinidad series. There will still be a few more videos coming as I cull the three hours of files to find anything I've missed. Also stay tuned for more exciting films as the Camito sails from Port of Spain, through the British West Indies, to Britain.
One cannot adequately describe the Expatriate in the Colonies. They were a migrant group of people from Britain who fanned out across the British Empire to engage in and contribute to her prosperity. Trinidad provided a wonderful life for these families with housing, medical services, provisioning and in some cases, vehicles provided by the companies that hired them. For most, as surely as they arrived, they would eventually leave. Some stayed for many, many years. Some even took up permanent residence. Most, however, returned home at the completion of their contracts.
Remember that these families had built a life for themselves in the colony and many grew very fond of that lovely island called Trinidad. Parting was sweet sorrow for them. More so, their departure also brought sadness, and in some cases, unemployment for the household staff these families hired. In many cases, the servants and yardboys grew very attached to their employers and their departure brought an uncertain future for them. In this film you can see a somewhat lost servant standing as this family bids their farewell to their friends, to T&TEC and to Trinidad.
The two boys in this film, David and Graham, still fondly remember the land where they spent three happy years at T&TEC. David returned to Trinidad in 1988 with his wife and two sons to find an independent Trinidad that bore little or no resemblance to the beautiful colony he once knew.
With its wealth of natural resources, Trinidad has struggled throughout the 1990s and the 2000s to curb its massive crime rate and rampant corruption. The roads in these films bear no resemblance at all to the traffic choked multi-lane motorways that exist today. The railways are gone. Oil production has moved offshore. The sugar industry has long since collapsed. The beautiful countryside cannot be enjoyed by tourists as robberies, murders and kidnappings continue to rise.
With the election of Kamla Persad Bissessar, hope has returned to Trinidad and only the years ahead will tell us how successful her government will be in solving some of Trinidad's problems. Everyone knows that one cannot return to Colonial days. The past is the past. But every Trinidadian living there today deserves a life that includes the peace and security evident in these films.

[@ipuketshirts]

Wow! Thank you for sharing. Thats my mum and dad at 0:17! Quite a surprise to see them - and I bet they've never seen this footage. Amazing to stumble across this while searching for the history of Penal Power Station where my father worked. So stoked!

[@G3XT01]

Thats so cool man

[@glentorry98]

Hi Mark I to was bought up in Shell camp Penal. Have many fond memories of growing up swimming in the Dam, driving the tractor on golf course. Dad John Torry worked for Shell until we left Trinidad in 1970 for Australia. I still love my birthplace sweet T&T.

[@Msunknown120]

Your mom is so pretty ❤

[@joancc]

Delightful ✨🍹💕 Thanks for sharing !

[@kennedywong9854]

God bless T&T and make it great again.

[@Sooty1312]

Hi Mark, Glad you found these clips...Sooty1312..David Sutcliffe..

[@oldtimecalypso]

@rinpoche256 When we left, my Dad arranged employment for our yard boy with another gentleman from the oilfields. When that fellow left Trinidad years later, he arranged for Lal to take employment with New Kendall Dairies in Palo Seco. Lal remained devoted to our family until he died in 2002.

[@avaiable100]

Hello

[@vk1126]

Very cool. Must have been a long journey. Love the videos!

[@3kneeboi]

I really enjoyed these videos. Trinidad used to be such a paradise, WTF happened to it ??

[@toppybossradio4518]

3kneeboi the politicians fucked it up

[@simonehenry4122]

Politics......

[@curtiss744]

You guys seemed like you had lots of fun in trinidad

[@douglashopping8267]

I left in 1963 and never recovered, I lurve t an t

[@oldtimecalypso]

@vk1126 Yes they are. With stops in Jamaica and other islands.

[@Raynneboe]

lol... i like how you say that we have hope with Kamla's government!

[@moses910]

Wow

[@vk1126]

Are they sailing home?

[@TMB-cv2bg]

You want to know what happened to T&T? The pnm happened.

[@stevewilliams2790]

And then the UNC came and made it worse.

[@TMB-cv2bg]

@@stevewilliams2790 😂😂 can't fool anyone with that bullshit, not everyone is a dunce pnm supporter voting on race.

[@assasin762]

@@TMB-cv2bg Your IGNORANCE AND MYOPIC state of UNDER DEVELOPMENT IS TYPICAL

[@TMB-cv2bg]

@@assasin762 Name one first world black nation. There isn't any, and there's a reason why.

[@stevewilliams2790]

@@TMB-cv2bg Really ??? But there is a lot of dunce UNC racist supporters only because Indians are desperate for power again so they could empty the treasury once more and a dunce Indian PM who only interested in flying in chopper and wasting tax payers money, among other things. Doh vex d blank man is PM again 😅 Never again Kamliar, NEVER again.

[@mrladnek5858]

The days when the local whites as we refer to them had all the money due to the weath their ancestors accumulated from slavery & indentureship. Nevertheless this is a nice video.❤️

[@bacilluscereus1299]

Why the government chose to strike a bargain and never redistribute this wealth in the country then.