By OSWALD T. BROWN
WASHINGTON, D.C., December 7, 2022 — Responding to the article I wrote on the death of our first cousin Alphonso “Boogaloo” Elliott, my first cousin Norma Elliott, who lives in New York, sent me a collage of photos that I decided to share as in a Photo Essay. Norma and her brother Alfred grew up in Nassau with my late Aunt Maria Elliott Forbes after they were sent there by their father, my uncle Clarence Elliott, who had moved to New York in the 1940s. Before Aunt Maria died in 2019, both Norma and Alfred called her as “Mommie.”
When Aunt Maria returned to Nassau in 1956 after graduating from Bennett College in North Carolina in 1956, she installed indoor plumbing in the house that my Uncle Clarence Elliott had built through Paul Meeres Corner, now Fleming Street, and purchased our first television set. She also bought a 1956 Volkswagen that, in later years, Boogaloo and I used to push out of the yard to go to the Banana Boat.
Aunt Maria subsidized her income as a teacher in one of the government’s public schools by conducting after-school lessons for various students, one of whom was my current Facebook friend Patricia Thomas, whose affection both Boogaloo and I used to try and win, but she never paid any attention to either of us. I often tease Patricia about her rejection of my “genuine” teenage interest in her.
Aunt Maria later bought some property in Sands Subdivision, off Wulff Road, and built a three-bedroom home, and this is where my cousins Norma and Alfred grew up after they were sent from New York to The Bahamas by Uncle Clarence when they were children.
Boogaloo also moved to Sands Subdivision with Aunt Maria, but I was a rebellious young man during my late teenage years and Aunt Maria “put me out.” I was a young reporter at The Tribune at the time and was able to pay the rent charged for a section of the “back house” on the Fleming Street property.
Boogaloo stayed with Aunt Maria for several years, and the familial bond they forged was reflected in the fact that after Aunt Maria retired from teaching, she was employed by Boogaloo at Bahamas Welding & Fire, one of his companies, for many years.
I initially started this narrative as sort of “caption” for a Photo Essay using the photos of Boogaloo sent by Norma, but it extended beyond its original purpose into a brief article.
