Charcoal was much preferred to wood for cooking fires in Trinidad for most of the 19th and well into the latter half of the 20th century. It burnt with a bright, hot flame and produced little smoke. Few people could appreciate the labour needed to produce the fuel in the high woods of the colony. A significant percentage of the charcoal consumed by North Trinidad came from the virgin high woods of Valencia, Tamana and Cumuto. The burners lived lonely existences in the forest. First, they would have to hew down mighty trees, dig pits to hold them, set the tree alight and then cover it with layers of loose earth and burlap. This allowed the log to burn without flame. The heat of the fire was controlled by constantly wetting the sacking. A pit of charcoal could take up to eight days to produce. The fuel was put into sacks, the mouths of which were secured with dry lianas or jungle vines, and then carted to market.
A common sight on the Eastern Main Road of yesteryear would be long lines of coal carts trundling towards the capital in the twilight of early morning. Carters would snatch this opportunity to get some much needed sleep. A young prankster in the 1920s once decided that the best joke would be to turn the mules back in the opposite direction whilst the carters slept, so on that particular morning, Port-of-Spain was short of fuel for breakfast bakes and buljol. Some of the carters went directly to the old Borough Market on Charlotte St to await the five o’clock opening bell, whilst others would make their way to merchants in the city with whom they had a business relationship.
A 100-pound sack generally cost between 12 and 20 cents. Dishonest burners would use a large amount of soft and rotted wood, which produced a charcoal that was consumed faster than hardwood coals. They would fill the bags largely with balsa or soft coal and top it off with a layer of hard fuel, so that even customers who inspected the contents could be caught unawares. A facet of a bygone era was the city coal shop. This was often operated out of the yard of a private residence and consisted of a bin made out of galvanized sheets and wood shingles in which coal bags were deposited. The coal shops served an economic need for people who had no call for or could not afford an entire 100-lb bag of coals and thus needed to purchase quantities by the three cents’ worth. Coals were also sold in small quantities from the dozens of Chinese shops of yesteryear. The coming of bottled LPG gas and electric ranges in the 1950s spelled the end of an era for the coal trade, but as any good Trini will tell you, no food is as sweet as when cooked on a coal-pot.
Photo : Burning charcoal in a Trinidad forest circa 1910. The charcoal pit, covered in earth and sacking is seen emitting smoke. 
Source: - Angelo Bissessarsingh, September 2, 2012

While au­thor­i­ties have cor­doned off the Pi­paro Mud Vol­cano fol­low­ing an in­crease in ac­tiv­i­ty, one fam­i­ly may have to evac­u­ate as earth move­ment has start­ed to dam­age their home.
Large fis­sures from the vol­cano con­tin­ued to widen from Sat­ur­day night in­to yes­ter­day, with fresh mounds of mud pil­ing up near the mouth.
As scores of cu­ri­ous vis­i­tors and res­i­dents gath­ered, the machi­nat­ed sound could be heard and gas was re­leased every few min­utes.
Po­lice of­fi­cers were do­ing pa­trols, in case there was a need to ini­ti­ate an emer­gency ex­er­cise.
For Fedell Solomon, whose home is sit­u­at­ed close to the vol­cano, the mem­o­ries of the 1997 erup­tion that al­most flat­tened their com­mu­ni­ty rushed to mind.
Solomon was on­ly nine years old back then, but when the equip­ment room be­gan sep­a­rat­ing from the rest of his fam­i­ly home, they im­me­di­ate­ly be­gan pack­ing up im­por­tant doc­u­ments and clothes and putting it in their ve­hi­cle in case they need­ed to evac­u­ate.
“We were get­ting ready for bed and just heard some­thing like a hard gun­shot. We thought it was some­one try­ing to come in­to the prop­er­ty. We tried to fig­ure out what it was. We didn’t see any move­ments un­til the sec­ond sim­i­lar noise and then a piece of con­crete lift­ed off.
It was then the house start­ed mov­ing. All we could have done was to ob­serve it mov­ing. We tried to move what­ev­er we could safe­ly,” Solomon said.
In 1997 erup­tion, the house which has been there for the past 30 years, al­so sus­tained dam­age. He said it is fright­en­ing liv­ing close to the vol­cano and his fam­i­ly is hop­ing for the best. He said they are con­tem­plat­ing to evac­u­ate their home if the sit­u­a­tion wors­ens.
Se­nior geo­sci­en­tist Xavier Moo­nan ad­vised cit­i­zens not to ven­ture near the Pi­paro mud vol­cano since drone sur­veys in­di­cat­ed it was about to blow.
Moo­nan and his team toured the vol­cano yes­ter­day morn­ing, hours af­ter res­i­dents re­port­ed see­ing fis­sures and cracks around the area.
In an in­ter­view, Moo­nan said: “We just drone sur­veyed the mud vol­cano. We should ad­vise peo­ple to not ven­ture on­to it at least. It looks like it may blow very soon. We are see­ing up to two feet of mo­tion on some frac­tures.”
Princes Town MP Bar­ry Padarath, who viewed the ac­tiv­i­ty at the vol­cano be­lieves that res­i­dents should not take any chances and those liv­ing close­ly should evac­u­ate.
Re­call­ing that the 1997 erup­tion came like a “thief in the night” he said the new de­vel­op­ment has caused pan­ic in the com­mu­ni­ty and was wor­ried that none of the rel­e­vant au­thor­i­ties had shown up to as­sess the con­di­tions. Source: Guadian, Sept. 24, 2019

Dr Hol­lis Liv­er­pool al­so known as Chalk­dust has be­come the sec­ond ca­lyp­son­ian to re­ceive the coun­try’s high­est award in the na­tion’s his­to­ry.
The list of awardees was re­leased yes­ter­day and Dr Liv­er­pool is the on­ly re­cip­i­ent of the high­est award.
He said he plans to ac­cept his Or­der of the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go (ORTT) award with a sense of hu­mil­i­ty.
It is not his first award.
In 1976 he re­ceived the Hum­ming­bird Medal Sil­ver for his con­tri­bu­tion to ca­lyp­so.
“I feel very hap­py when I con­sid­er all what I have done, it’s a plea­sure to be award­ed for the work you have done and con­tributed es­pe­cial­ly in the role of Car­ni­val and Ca­lyp­so and ed­u­ca­tion.”
At the Na­tion­al Award cer­e­mo­ny this evening Chalk­dust will re­ceive the award for his work in ed­u­ca­tion, cul­ture and re­search.
Chalk­dust has been singing Ca­lyp­so since the 1960s and has won nine Ca­lyp­so Monarch ti­tles dur­ing his ca­reer. He is al­so a uni­ver­si­ty pro­fes­sor.
“So the teach­ing fra­ter­ni­ty and the ca­lyp­so fra­ter­ni­ty I want to ac­cept this on their be­half be­cause with­out them I couldn’t get this award.”
Dr Liv­er­pool told Guardian Me­dia that he is grate­ful he is re­ceiv­ing this ho­n­our while he is still alive and thanked all those who lob­bied on his be­half.
He hoped that this award can cre­ate pos­i­tive change go­ing for­ward for the art form.
“Many peo­ple do not see ca­lyp­so­ni­ans con­tribut­ing to so­ci­ety many peo­ple see ca­lyp­so­ni­ans on­ly con­tribut­ing to en­ter­tain­ment…I am hap­py to see they award­ing a ca­lyp­son­ian be­cause it means that in the fu­ture many per­sons who singing ca­lyp­so will try to sing good lyrics, will try to sing mean­ing­ful lyrics, will try to sing lyrics that can give peo­ple a sense of pur­pose and up­lift them, ”he said.
He added when­ev­er he sings he tries to give the coun­try a lift and to think crit­i­cal­ly.
The on­ly oth­er Ca­lyp­son­ian to re­ceive the ORTT was Mc­Cartha “Ca­lyp­so Rose” Lewis. Last year for­mer Min­is­ter of Fi­nance and Ath­lete, Wen­dell Mot­t­ley was the on­ly re­cip­i­ent of the na­tion’s high­est award.
The award cer­e­mo­ny starts at 6PM at the Na­tion­al Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts (NA­PA). Source: Guardian, Sept. 24, 2019

Saw this piece, written by a Mr. Samson Nanton.  Too funny not to share...
People you meet in public lines (in Trinidad):
​

1. The Loud Brawlish Greeter:
She usually comes into the line with a very loud greeting... "Morning everybody"...then she goes on to address those who ignored her..."Like some people in here have no manners boy."
She spots the security guard glancing at her because she's rather loud...."Morning Mr Officer...doh study me yuh know...I just come to pay mih light bill...they cut meh neighbour last night...ah did tell she pay she bill but she harden. But not me...aye aye...Mr Nanton dais you? But look how yuh skin smooth like mines...ah does watch yuh on de TV...." - (20 minutes later without stopping to take a breath) - "Mr Officer yuh married? Ah looking for a husband yuh know..."
2. The Know-It-All:
"Sir yuh have to take a number first!" (well who asked you?)
"Is a renewal yuh come for...well you here whole day. Yuh have to come here from 5 o'clock next time." (nobody asked you)
"If you didn't bring a passport picture you not getting through. The machine broke down last week so you will have to come back. (...asked no one)
"Sir is better you go and ask the woman over there for another appointment tomorrow because it have real people in front you waiting here. (riiggghhttt)
3. Misery Looking For Company:
Wants to start a not-too-polite shout at the tellers, but wants to feel out the crowd first, so speaks in a deep tone to the person next to him, seeking out a fellow grumbler.
"But like this line ain't moving! Is over half hour I here now."
Then the bachannal woman three persons down replies, "Is lazy they lazy in here! Always this kinda dotishness when yuh come here".
The man two persons down chips in softly-ish, "I take my lunch hour to come here yuh know. Dem ain't know people have work or what? I standing up here since 12."
Misery gets the company to legitimise a loud grumble, which is usually just thrown into the air, not at any one person, but loud enough for all to hear...."Alyuh moving too slow man. Come on nah man. People have work to go back to."
The woman three persons down is the back-up, and she is louder: "Is so dey is. If I didn't have to pay this bill I was NEVER coming here!" (eh?? 🤷🏽‍♂️ That making sense to you? Nobody was coming here if they didn't have to pay a bill.)
Man two persons down, joins the fray, a lil more diplomatic but still loud enough for all to hear: "Yeah man, ah find this is a lil too much man. Ah go be late for work man. Alyuh have to do better than that."
At this point, the security who was busy watching the game on the TV monitor, starts actually focusing on the line, to which the woman three persons down jabs, "Watch he! People cyah talk they mind in here. Stueps. Not me and alyuh today nah!"
4. The Lonely Story-Teller:
Pity this one...usually an elderly woman who doesn't get around much. She tells you about her niece, who just passed for St Joseph's Convent, and her son who's supposed to be coming down from the States next week, where he's studying to become a doctor and how his wife ain't a nice person but she can't wait to see her grandson although her grandson bounced his toe on the table last week. And then she pulls out a phone and after some digging up, she shows you the grandson. Then she swipes the screen left and then right...and left again..."oh gosh, how yuh does do this again? Yes...look mih son here. His name is Nirmal...he coming back Wednesday yuh know. But is just he and meh grandson because the wife cyah come. I aint mind too much though. She not nice." For the tolerant ones, she's just a nice old woman sharing her story, but when you glance at woman three persons down, her face is twisted up rather sourly wondering why granny can't shut it.
5. The Prim and Proper:
This is the one who believes that even Mother Nature herself isn't as proper as her. She's usually someone with money, who is angry that she even has to be as other mere mortals and stand in line. She looks upon everyone with indignation and hugs her handbag across her belly, because clearly, somebody, maybe woman three persons down, might try to grab it. No one must even look upon her, and if you dare, you will be smitten with the look of doom by piercing eyes more devious than Hades. The only person who is allowed into her presence is the neatly dressed fair-skin worker who comes through the line asking everyone what transaction they came to do. But when she realises her transaction does not quite exonerate her from the line, she turns into the countenance of Death itself...and daring to watch her then, turns you into a pillar or stone.
6. The Schemer:
Always trying to get through faster than everyone because he parked his car right outside and the wrecker is circling. "Boss man ah could get a lil bligh or what? Ah just run in to pay a bill and ah watching meh car nah."
Woman three persons down done giving him the look of scorn mixed with a "buh aye aye...who is he" expression.
So you tell him with a smile, "I wish I could help you eh brother but people waiting here real long to be honest."
"Uhright brodda....respect eh!"
He goes back in the line for all of 30 seconds before he spots a person looking a lil more vulnerable and slithers over to whisper the same request. Woman three persons down gets vocal and throws into the air for all to hear, "Like some people feel dey could just skip de line?!" It's a warning enough to everybody else, "if alyuh think alyuh letting him through I will make real noise in here".
That mission failed, he slithers to a worker who is now coming back in from lunch to "inquire" about how to pay the bill. She asks one question and points him back to the line. He comes back with a hasty whisper, "Oh gosh boy, ah hope the wrecker ain't come nah." He stays in the line another two minutes and then leaves muttering, "Ah feel ah go have to do this tomorrow yes".
7. The Singer:
Oblivious to the fact that there are actually other people in the world, this youth is locked away in his earphones and phone listening to God knows what! Usually the music is some kind of annoying gangster rap. And he's singing louder than he knows.
"Moving to the Southside...woop woop...rolling in my 20s, feeding on my lentils...ratatatataaa".
You toy with the idea of slapping him back onto planet earth but then you spot woman three persons down and she's actually enjoying this one...first entertainment she got for the day. You wouldn't chance disrupting her lil joy.
Meanwhile, Prim and Proper is figgeting like an earthquake.
"Wesstttsideee...where my dogs at...whooop whooop...moving like a bobcat....ohhh, rolling through the citttttyyy!"
Mr Security Guard looks like he's doing an Add Maths test, just trying to figure out if to move in and stop the fella or if by doing so, he'd be overstepping his boundaries.
"Watch he," woman three persons down blurts out with a long 'stuuueeeepss', and the guard quickly retreats....Add Maths test is over....he ain't touching dat fella. Let the music play on.
8. The Solver of All Problems:
He reads the newspapers and he knows how to fix this country and cannot understand how all politicians, every single one, fails to see it.
"This country simple to fix yuh know. What yuh have to do is this...." (Oh lawd🤦🏾‍♂️)
"So hear meh. The Treasury have $60 billion right, ent dais what the budget is, right, $60 billion. And is how much people we have living here...ah million? What they need to do is take $3 billion and divide it up right..and give everybody a piece of dat, and people would now have more income and when yuh start to buy more things now, yuh generating more economic activity. Ah tell yuh dis ting easy yuh know. Is just dem in Parliament like tuh make de ting hard. How ah talk?"
"Dat making plenty sense," says, guess who...woman three persons down.
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How many of these have you encountered?
- p.s: I write prose for fun. If anyone is offended, I apologise.