St. Thomas, US virgin Islands circa 1970
Posted by gerald in St. John USVI Stories: The Virgin Islands in the 1970s, tags: St Thomas USVI, St. Thomas, Virgin Islandsby 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.”
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As a more recent visitor to USVI, I’d love to see some photos from that time. Sounds like it was a bit more rugged but with much more caribbean character.
We’ve got some photos taken on St. John during the 1970s, but nothing from St. Thomas (yet) check out http://seestjohn.com/photo_gallery.html
Hi Jerry,Habiba,Fufi guy; The conch sex page is interesting and consistent with books read but if I see watermelon size seeds in the female conch during breeding season what it is? On occasion I will see a 50-100 yard diameter bed of 1 inch baby conch on a grass bed. How can they be floating at see for a month and then land in a perfect circle all at once where the conch have been breeding me son?
We used to come down from Cambridge in the late 60′s/early 70′s and always stayed at Up Chucks. Does anybody know what happened to that place or what it is now? Cheap rooms and in return the guests were expected to do their serious drinking at his bar.
Up Chuck’s is no more, neither Trader Dan’s or the Carousel all replaced by hundreds of jewelry stores. I did bump into Chuck Diamond in Miami, but that must have been some twenty years ago.
Thanks for the reply. I haven’t been back to St. Thomas in a long time and probably wouldn’t recognize the place. I don’t suppose people are still sleeping under beached boats along the east end of the harbor, along what is now Veteran’s Drive. By the way “Veteran’s Drive” sure doesn’t sound right….was it renamed? There used to be a laundromat farther west with only a roof and no walls….amazing to somebody from coming down from the Northeast!
Veterans Drive was built on fill in the 50s. Before that the the alleyways ended at the waterfront, each with it’s own dock serving the warehouses that are now the shops. The laundromat is long gone.
Hi again!
Do you know what street Up Chuck’s was on? I have a few old photos of the interior but none of the street outside.
Thanks again.
Next time I’m in Charlotte Amalie I’ll get the name and if I have a camera, I’ll take a photo. How about sharing some of your old photos?
G
I will dig out the photos (slides) and have digital copies made…..but possibly not right away as they are in storage! I’ll send them when I can get to it. Meanwhile thanks for the website!
My next walk down memory lane will be to find out whatever happened to Hilda Sewer and her guest house on St. John. Again, rock bottom prices but as usual with a slight catch. In this case the catch was listening to a “sermonette” over breakfast every morning! Wonderful woman in every other respect
Gerald: Well a friend (Jerry St. John) and I lived on Agnes Fancy from 1968-1969. I had a number of jobs one being bartender at Rocky’s waterfront saloon down the street from Trader Dan’s. I also worked for Eddie(Eddy’s Back Street), hung around at Morningstar and Maggen’s beaches. Upchucks where the band Abram Shoo (From PR) would play. In a rented house on Agnes Fancy I lived with a number of musicians from the Marc Pompe Trio. Marc would change sidemen on a regular basis and a number of them were from NY where I was born. The owner of Philmore East had a house on the island and different groups would take R&R there such as Jefferson Airplane. Yes, the Island was quite different then. The Gate Guest House had music on the weekends as did many other places. I also was cargo agent for Airlift Intl at the airport which was a cool job as everything had to be brought in by boat or plane. Sometimes car’s were brought in. I remember an MG that was in our cargo area over a weekend. Well I used it and was caught in town by the owner but she just laughed and hoped I had a good time.
Hello,
I was there at Charlotte Amalie many times as our Ship (The SS Nieuw Amsterdam) passengerliner from the Netherlands visited, the place. We (the crew)
were oft visiting The Pirates Pub that was situated in a small Alley near the Waterfront. There was a Girls Band playing called Foxy Ladies. They played Pop, Rock and Blues-covers. The Owner of the Pub (George) and his Wife (Ruth) were from Philladelphia. I was there regulary from December 1969 till june 1970
I WAS IN ST THOMAS ABOUT THAT TIME — STAYED AT THE GATE — REMEMBER IT AS A STRANGE BUILDING — LOW BUT MASSIVE — MADE OF CONCRETE OR STONE AND STUCCO — I REMEMBER A BAND EVERY NIGHT BUT COULD BE WRONG — STEEL BAND — HAD TO FALL ASLEEP BEFORE 12 OR IT KEPT ME UP — LATER LIVED IN A RENTED APARTMENT NEXT TO THE GOVENORS MANSION — UP A FLIGHT OF STEPS ABOUT 1/4 MILE LONG — WORKED FOR TOM QUAILEY A LOCAL CONTRATOR THAT LOOKED LIKE HUMREY BOGART IN AFRICAN QUEEN — HE HAD ABOUT 50 TO 75 GUYS ON HIS PAYROLE — WORKING ALL OVER THE PLACE — HE’D DRIVE AROUNG IN A VW BUG MORE OR LESS AT RANDOM — HE’D PASS ONE OF HIS BOYS AND CALL HIM OVER — GET A REPORT AND GIVE HIM ORDERS — WE’D PAAY EVERYBODY EVERY FRIDAY PM FROM INSIDE THE VW — ONE GUY AT EACH WINDOW — WHEN THE GUYS GOT MAD THEY’D SHAKE THE CAR…
I remember Tom Quailey fondly. During a time when my ex wife and I were living on a small mostly open boat, we had a long stretch of heavy rain and St. Thomas was getting flooded. Tom Quailey, seeing our rather uncomfortable situation, let us stay at his house until the rains subsided.
Ahhh… I was searching for some mention of The Gate! I just wanted to be sure I didn’t dream it up:-). I was pretty small (about
when my Mom moved us to St. Thomas. I went to All Saints Parish School and was a Brownie. Even marched in a parade! My mother was recently divorced and very beautiful. Friends from Boston would visit and she would take them to The Gate to dance and listen to the music. She dated a lot that winter;-). But the thing I remember is that she just took me along where ever she went. I never stayed home or had a baby sitter. She took me with her. I used to LOVE to dance and listen to the music and no one seemed to care that I was just a kid. Everyone sort of looked out for me. I just remember The Gate as being all open and kind of a dive but great music… real music. It wasn’t like what you hear today as in made for the tourists. I learned the songs and sang along. It was the place we went on our last night there before we moved back to Boston. That last 24 hours is etched in my mind forever. I so did not want to come back to Boston. We visited all our favorite places one last time and our favorite taxi driver came with us to The Gate one last time. He even brought his girlfriend:-). 45 years later I am still trying to figure out why we came back….