Dear LPG readers,

My find has left me in an odd mood today, so I want to share my thoughts with your readers.

I was born in Jamaica, but like many UK now seventy-something pensioners of Jamaican origin, I emigrated with my parents in my teens, although I did not move quite as far away from home as the UK.  I ended up in Florida, but I have family in England. I visited a few years back when I noticed that while there are many differences between the ways of life in our two countries, there are also many similarities. 

Like most Jamaicans who have left the island, I have lots of family in some of the most far-flung parts of the world, and many of my holidays have been more about visiting some of them rather than looking for an idyllic spot in the sun to improve my tan, (I have all that at home already!)   Many members of my family’s English segment have visited me and vice versa, which is where I first learnt about your website. 

I often wonder what moving so far from home must have been like for my aunts and uncles, who did it in the 1950s.   Our family is quite large, and I have asked many members about it over the years.   I nearly always get told that life was hard, although the sentence that follows that initial observation varies from family member to family member.  Whenever I get an answer, every aunt or uncle who decided to become British nearly always mentions two big culture shocks. 

The first one is obvious.  I only visit occasionally, but even if I come in the middle of the British summer, no part of your country is consistently warm enough to compare with my Florida home.  The other thing that all my British family members agree on is that back in the 1950s and 1960s, there were no shops where they could get West Indian food, and while they expected to have to get used to a new diet, they missed being able to find the ingredients of the odd Jamaican meal.

Of course, things are different now. Many shops offer foods from other cultures and countries, but I feel lucky that my neighbourhood allows me to grow some of my own.
What I have learnt during my visits tells me that you Brits will likely produce yields of potatoes, tomatoes, marrowS, carrots, rhubarb, and other vegetables in your gardens.  

In Florida, the good comes with the bad. You are less likely to experience the annual hurricane season that we do, but it is cold if temperatures sink below 20°F at any time of year.

While I was in London last time I learned about ‘the luck of the Irish’. Someone told me that anyone who finds a four-leaf clover is thought to be lucky because it happens so rarely.  Today, the gardener in me discovered something pretty rare in my backyard.  One of the fruits from my tree yielded a ‘four-pod-ackee’, which I think most Jamaicans will agree is an equally rare find.  

So, by way of celebration, and all the way from Florida, I wish everyone in Britain (and everywhere else in the world) the luck of the Jamaicans!  

HW. Florida