It was around 11 p.m. on a recent Friday when we attempted to enter the gates for the Pork Lime at Lime’s Upton Playing Field. The crowds were assembling peacefully at the gate undergoing security procedures as we watched the orderly process.On entering it became clear that this event was everything it purported to be. For sure there were scores of limers in groups everywhere. The pork was being consumed in various forms – spare ribs, pork chops, sliced baked pork, and pigtails.We were especially attracted to well-presented pork kebabs which were laid out on a grill attended to by Patrick Oliver, Rodney Reid and Leo Beckles of Next Step In Caterers. They said business was doing well.Patrick reiterated: “Tonight is a bright night.”These gentlemen are no strangers to Lime as they provide lunch for staff at Lime’s offices in Upton and Windsor Lodge on a daily basis. This year was their third successive year at the five-year Pork Lime Crop-Over activity.The cotton candy man was as conspicuous as ever with his cotton candies held about ten feet in the air.Kevin Taylor also known as The Whistler for his act of whistling to attract customers, an act which was however not required here, demonstrated his prowess at whistling for our attention. He was a performer in his own right as a member of Unity Calypso Tent for two years, he informed us. The outfitted Lime girls and the Contact Band male crew standing in their own group near to the stage were also quite prominent as Stabby The Guard on stage created a stir with his gyrations, humour, and lyrical content.Upstairs in the players’ pavilion at the back of the stage, a more placid atmosphere prevailed although the beverages of various potencies were being dispensed in those quarters. Among those we spotted there was Deputy Speaker of the House of Assembly, Kenneth Best. He told us he was a regular Pork Lime patron.“This is good entertainment and I am a Crop-Over enthusiast,” he quipped. Businessman Richard Arthur, one of Lime Contact Band members over the years, indicated that he and his two business associates – Claude Jackman and Andrew Layne – were Pork Lime regulars. They had come out to relax and seemed to prefer the comfort of the pavilion from which vantage point they could still see the activities below.Old schoolmates like Andrea Todd, Ingrid Brewster, and Wycliffe Worrell, alumni of the Co-operative High School, (now defunct) came out to have a ball. They seemed in a distinctly happy mood when we bounced into them in the crowd downstairs. The Parish Land, Christ Church party lovers also caught our eye as one of the ladies tried to engage us in a bump and wind.At one in the morning the crowd was still thick as we tried to move to the exit. We, however, made our way comfortably through. This was surely a crowd in search of a good time.
