Blast From The Past!

Featuring noteworthy events and individuals in Spring Village’s Past

Trashie

Trashie also known as “Rest House” is one of the most notorious and intriguing figures from past years inside Spring Village. Trashie, as he is “somewhat affectionately” called is one of the many mentally ill individuals that have known to frequent the village from time to time. Spring Village as one knows is always at some point frequented by the mentally ill at some point or another. Whether it is characters like Old-Gyowe pronounced “Olo-Gyowe”, who used to shout “Back!!!” while violently flashing his hand behind him to hit the individual who was there (of course there was never anyone there that was visible to the average person) or the woman called Desso who often came to stay by the home of Uncle “D” Lawrence, the village has always had its share of the mentally ill either in resident or just passing through.

Although he has been long deceased since the mid 1980’s, Trashie remains one of the most notorious mad men to frequent Spring Village. It is not known where he is originally from but he probably got the name Rest House from living in the bushes above the village in a place known as Rest House. This is where he would probably make his trek to the village and back. He may have eventually gotten the name “Trashie” from the children in the village that sometimes taunted him and ran away. In general, children were scared of him as most children are when a mad person approached them. Their dread however, was probably due to their own personal fears and not necessarily the behavior of Trashie since he was never known to be violent or to have hurt anyone severely, including those who taunted him. He was always gentle and soft spoken and only seemed to get angry when the teasing got intense. His normal reaction would be to run off his oppressors with a few swear words but he would mostly walk away to the next shop or find the nearest resting place to sit for a while. Trashie could often be seen at the shops where he would usually go from shop to shop to sit and pass the time and ask for food from shop keepers. The shop keepers would sometimes give him something to eat or he would get food from various other villagers. In general most villagers were kind to him as they saw him as a usual part of village life. TRASHIE

If one tries to have a conversation with Trashie it would start of normal then head in an unpredictable direction. He had his good days and bad. There were days when one could hold a somewhat reasonable conversation with him and then there were days when he would not speak at all or very little. Such was the temperament of Trashie. He would always have a small bundle with him in which he carried his food. He was also fairly decently dressed for someone in his condition in that his shirt was also tucked in his pants and his belt (maybe a string) pulled tightly around his waist. His clothes were never usually deteriorated such that he was indecently exposed as is with the case of many of the mentally disabled in Jamaica.

Children often tell their own stories of various encounters with Trashie which is usually mixed with humor and some degree of fear. Whether they were true or not, the stories are always full of suspense which helps to make him seem like a legendary figure.

As mentioned above, in Spring Village, the mentally ill is always with us at some point. Today one of the residents is O’Neil also known as “Fine Art”. He got the name Fine Art since his figure resembles that of the trade mark character on the box of crayons normally used in schools. He too, like Trashie is soft-spoken and very much exudes a benevolent personality. He too gets his share of care from villagers, especially those who knew him when he was a productive and promising young man. He was once bright and ambitious but seemed to loose his mental faculties after his mother “Brooksie” died suddenly.

What does it feel like to be a normally functioning human being and then the next day to loose control of your mental faculties? Whether it is Trashie, Olo-Gyowe, Desso or Fine Art, one must agree that the mentally disabled around us should be treated with some degree of dignity as well as compassion. Jesus said “the poor is always among you”. Whether this applies to the mentally ill or not, it is a word of caution to us who are healthy.

Trashie, though no longer with us remains one of the infamous figures which when we think back reflects on us all as villagers in terms how we treated him when he was alive. Yesterday it was Trashie, today it is Fine Art.

FINE ART

Mad man joke

A mad man just wandered through the gates of Belleview only to run into a Motorist standing outside his car looking bewildered. The problem was that he had just lost one of the wheels of his car, as it came off while he was driving. The motorist held the wheel in one hand and stared with great dismay at the place where the wheel was once located. The bigger problem was that not only did he have the wheel dislocated but the four lugs were lost maybe a mile down the road. The mad man asked him what the problem was. He looked at the mad man thinking to himself that it was a waste of time mentioning the problem to him anyway. He somehow gave in since it would not hurt anymore than the way he was already feeling. The mad man looked at him and said “why don’t you just jack up the car then take one lug from each of the other three wheels and use it to secure the dislocated wheel? The motorist looked at him with shock mixed with delight. “That’s a great idea!” He exclaimed. “Maybe I should be the one inside and you on the outside.”

Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital

The Bellevue Hospital is the primary mental health facility in Jamaica. Click here to read about some of its activities.

Back to Main Page