Postby mark2.0 » November 21st, 2015, 9:13 am
Looking back, it’s amazing how fickle things like travelling in a bess maxi made secondary school life interesting. High on the list of memories is the fun we had travelling… if you were lucky enough to be allowed to find your way home via public transportation. See, not everyone had that freedom, in the 90s, and for those who never learned or weren’t allowed to travel until after they left secondary school, there was a whole other world in maxi land that they were missing.
Survivor I, II and III. Hysteria. Boyz N D Hood. Barry Bee. Damage. Rico. Super Max. Home Boys. Khaos. Night Train. Russeman. Red Fury. Power Station. Turbo. Artical. Punisher. Kinky. These were some of the big players on the East-West, red-band maxi route. I can imagine maxi owners, drivers and conductors, sitting at a table trying to come up with a great name, because having a no-name maxi was a no-no, and L-A-M-E. You, yes you, were also lame if you jumped into a boring bread van driven by an equally boring-looking driver, who played 97.1 FM.
Those were the days… when wasting time, liming on the Main Road, was the perfect way to end a school day… when short drop was $1.50, and it cost $3 from Port of Spain to Arima… and you couldn’t fathom the thought of having to take a PTSC blue bus. You’d lime in a properly shaded area, maybe buy a ‘Massive’ (remember when Cannings had Massive?), and chill, waiting for a popular maxi to pass by.
Yes. Those were the days… when holding a wad of cash and hanging halfway out of a maxi made a young fella feel like a celebrity (remember man like Toppin?). Touts who used to full maxi for $1 even got play.
There was no bigger pips than being able to get a space in a top maxi. There was nothing like feeling the waves of hard pong pierce your chest, and blast your eardrums. And if your backside was small, it made the ride that much enjoyable, as you’d squeeze up with friends, and strangers, or even sit on someone’s lap, for the commute on the Main Road and through back roads to beat the traffic. Overloading. It was a way of life. You think squeezing up with three people in a two-seater is squeeze up? Try four people in a two-seater. Almost every school got some representation. From St. Augustine (Senior Comprehensive), to El Do (Senior Comprehensive and Secondary), St. Joseph’s Convent, Bourg Mulatresse (San Juan Senior Sec), Tunapuna Secondary, and more.
Even though you’d reach home later than you needed to, because you’d waste time liming, you knew you had to be out the road by a certain time to get in a ‘good’ maxi. And if you missed your favourite maxi, you’d wait for it to make its route and catch it on its second passing. Ent? Doh lie and say no. If the conductor said, “We heading in town” (when City Gate didn’t exist) and you were in San Juan, you’d wait for it to pass back. Some of us had it easier. Maxis would come to pick you up by the school gate.
I remember my days at St. George’s College. We’d rush outside to get a seat in ‘Justice’. You’d pack your bag, five minutes before school was about to ‘over’, and rush outside to get a seat, and not just any seat. Backseat was the best seat ever. Especially when your whole crew was there. Getting back seat was a big deal… that’s if you weren’t a bad ting who wanted to get the front seat between the driver and conductor (but more on that later).
Justice’s pull didn’t last too long, as far as I remember. See, popularity was quick to come by, and easy to fade away. What determined just how popular a maxi was were things like a bess windscreen design, dark tint and cool upholstery. Back then, people took windscreen design seriously. The ‘H’ in “Hysteria” had to be just right. All caps and lowercase were seriously considered for impact. A spiderweb on the back screen vs. the front screen was also a matter for serious consideration.
Still, the HARD pong sealed the deal with the best dub tapes courtesy the likes of Dr. Hyde, Ear Traffic Control, Nyabinghi, Howie T, Star Child and Chinese Laundry. Those tapes helped cultivate our taste in dancehall and reggae. That’s where we heard Buju’s “Boom Bye Bye” and “Batty Rider”, Shaggy’s “Oh Carolina”, Mad Cobra’s “Flex”, Terror Fabulous’ “Yaga Yaga”, Cutty Ranks’ “Limb by Limb”, Louie Rankin’s “Tyepwriter”, Lady Shabba’s “Ram Ram”, Patra’s “Queen ah d Pack”, Red Fox’s “Oh Jessica”, many a Super Cat classic, and even our local Kiskidee Karavan music with Yard Fowl Crew’s “Dan it Up”, Kindred’s “Dis Trini could Flow”, General Grant’s “D Shot Call”, Supa Chile’s “Ambush”, Edu Rankin’s “Hand inna D Air”, and the list goes on.
Remember when they had skits on the tapes, and Dr. Hyde talked too much? Remember when you’d be so bummed that you had to travel in an old bread van that didn’t play 96.1 WEFM or 98.9? And maxis would have invites for almost every party and concert stuck on their roof.
Maxis taxis in the 90s. For some of us, they were just fun to travel in. For others, they put bread on the table, and babies in young arms. As one person says: “Good memories, but poor choices by some of the females. Conductors tracking Junior Sec and Compre girls. The maxi front seat was always reserved for the bad ting who used to share pom pom for the drivers and conductors and get free ride.”
Doh feel only Junior Sec or Compre girls were in that! Bishops girls, St. Joseph’s Convent girls, Holy Name Convent girls, St. Dominic’s girls, St. Charles girls… they were all in it. If maxi men ruled the world, there’d be no discrimination, because they gave each girl fair play, from prestige to Compre to pay school – as long as she was cute enough.
Nowadays, maxis don’t have the same kind of pull, and only a few are popular (dais what d teens tell me). Word is… it’s the taxi men who run tings now. As one person said, “Who want maxi conductor when you could get man wit’ car”, and since almost anyone can afford a B14, Tiida, NZE, Lancer,Almera etc.
Reminiscing about maxi culture, it’s obvious we had fun. Some of us had clean fun. Some of us had fun that stripped us of our innocence, and made us mommies and daddies way before we were ready for it. However, it’s obvious that maxi taxis had a key place in youth culture back in the 90s, and maybe, just maybe, that’s why I still have a hard pong in my car that can be heard from miles away.
We used to look for the oldest rust bucket "bread van" maxi (12 seater) to travel in. You were sure to:
