by Gerald Singer www.SeeStJohn.com

Arriving from St. John at the Charlotte Amalie waterfront on the downtown ferry yesterday, I had an attack of nostalgia, remembering the town as it was when I first arrived.

Charlotte Amalie had real soul back then. Trader Dan’s, billed as the only saloon in the Caribbean, was the focal point and meeting place for American expats, local hustlers, pirates and serious drinkers. The New York Times had referred to St. Thomas “a sunny place for shady people,” and nowhere was that more obvious than in Trader Dans.

Around the corner was Up Chucks, guest house, frequented by artists and hippies and dropouts and rock stars like Janice Joplin and the Mommas and the Poppas. Up Chucks’ owner, Chuck, was one of a group of Miami boys who made St. Thomas their home away from home and rumored to have connections with the infamous “Murph the Surf.”

The Crazy Cow served food all day and all night and you could dance until dawn at Le Club down the strand.

Along the waterfront, colorful native sloops lay tied to the town bulkhead, bringing and sending cargo to the Leeward Islands to the east and Puerto Rico and Santo Domingo to the west. Other boats brought fish and fruit and ground provisions.

Kiosks were set up all along the sidewalk, selling coconuts, fresh fruits and vegetables and locally caught seafood. Domino games and West Indian Checkers were played in the shade of the kiosks. People bargained and talked and argued in a polyglot of languages, different varieties of West Indian English, Creole, Patois, Spanish and Popumento and the fragrances of perfumes, oils, fruits, fish changed constantly with the breeze coming in from the sea.

Back Street and Main Street were rife with local restaurants and popular night clubs with live music ranging from jazz to calypso, to rock and roll.

The town beach was Morningstar Beach, which had a gay area, a hippie area and a tourist area. On Sundays skydivers with brilliantly-colored parachutes decorated the skies and drifted down to land on the beach (sometimes).

Outside of town was “country.” That was it, “country.” No K Mart, no Cost’s U Less, no Pricemart or Tutu or Four Winds, just country. St. Thomas Dairy had real cows back, which you could see wandering through the grassy valleys.

The East End was dedicated to fishing centered around the Johnny Harms Marina,a sport fisherman’s Mecca.

In short, St. Thomas was a very cool place to be. Don’t get me wrong. It still has charm, but I preferred the island in “the good ol’ days.”