COMMENTARY BY OSWALD T. BROWN
WASHINGTON, D.C., August 22, 2020 — As I noted in a recent commentary in BAHAMAS CHRONICLE, Nevar Smith, whom I got to know very well during my tenure as Editor of The Freeport News (2003 – 2009), appears to have a great future in politics in The Bahamas, specifically in Grand Bahama. In fact, as I predicted in that commentary, “Indeed, as the operators of CHANCES Webshop in Freeport can attest, I am a betting man, and I will bet my last dollar that Nevar Smith will be a candidate in the next general election in The Bahamas.”
That commentary was accompanied by a video of his THE BOTTOM LINE show, which airs on Saturdays from 12 Noon to 1 PM. According to Nevar, the show’s objectives are to: “Build a support system around budding entrepreneurs and community leaders…Provide encouragement, inspiration and information that can help us grow…Highlight a wide variety of leaders/innovators who are interested in winning while seeing others win as well…Lend our voice to the process of creating change where ever we see it’s needed.”
Given the lofty objectives of THE BOTTOM LINE, after watching the video, I made a commitment to follow it on a weekly basis, but I stayed up late last night – until the early hours of the morning, actually – watching my favourite television genre: old western movies. There’s a cable channel here in Washington, D.C., that airs all of the episodes of THE VIRGINIAN, a Western television series that aired on NBC from 1962–1971 for a total of 249 episodes. It’s an absolutely engrossing western television series, and last night I watched five episodes completely, before falling off to sleep midway during the episode that came on at 5 a.m.
Westerns became my most favourite movie genre because the very first movie I saw when my family moved from Stanyard Creek, Andros, to Nassau in 1952 was a JOHNNY MACK BROWN western. My family relocated to a homestead through what was then known as Paul Meeres Corner (now Fleming Street). On the corner of Market Street (Farm Road) and Paul Meeres Corner there was a an entertainment complex, Chez Paul Meeres, which was established by the internationally acclaimed Bahamian dancer Paul Meeres Jr.
The complex included the Paul Meeres Movie Theatre, and on my first night in Nassau after my family relocated from Andros, when the theatre opened at 3 p.m., I paid one shilling out of the four shillings I had to see my first movie. This is a true story. I was 10 years old at the time, and I was so enthralled by the “magic” being projected on the screen, I saw that movie over and over again, not even having an urge to go to the bathroom. Occasionally, I would peer down the corridor of the theatre from my front-row seat to see when it was getting dark, but it always looked as if it was still daylight.
We did not have the electric light at Stanyard Creek, and I was shocked when I entered the brightly lit lobby of the theatre to leave after the final showing of the movie ended at 11 p.m. to see that it as pitch dark outside. My grandmother, Mabel Elliott, had already reported me missing to the Southern Police Station, and when I sheepishly got home, the “cut behind” I got is still indelibly etched in my mind.
This narrative started as a brief introduction to Nevar Smith’s THE BOTTOM LINE show this week, but because I am currently working on my fact-based memoir, I routinely get carried away when I am writing anything about my past. I have reluctantly abandoned my plans, at least for now, to complete the follow-up to my novel, WOES OF LIFE, because sales have been very disappointing, although there was a degree of renewed interest in it after the COVID-19 quarantine mandates started. I presume this is because of the ongoing advertisement on it in my online publication BAHAMAS CHRONICLE.
But back to Nevar Smith’s THE BOTTOM LINE. Because I did not get out of bed until after 12 noon, I missed today’s show; however, Nevar posted it on his Facebook page, and his guests today were Ashleigh Sean Rolle and Steffon Grant.
THE BOTTOM LINE VIDEO: Ashleigh Sean Rolle and Steffon Grant were Nevar Smith’s guests on THE BOTTOM LINE on Saturday, August 22. https://www.facebook.com/nevarlsmith/videos/3733007923393733/?sfnsn=mo&extid=amVm7RCFr5x0SHEs&d=n&vh=e
