Heavy Metal Girl



that's vince with my grandmother (his mother) hildred balbirsingh in cumberland, md.


One of the best things about my moving to Trinidad at the age of 11 from Brooklyn, was getting to meet my Uncle Vince. Uncle Vince was at that time, the only black kid listening to Heavy Metal in the Vale.
The Vale, or Diamond Vale, is this suburb of Port-of-Spain- a valley of concrete houses surrounded by the greenest of hills during the rainy season. Every street is named after a precious stone, and I lived on Emerald Drive. The Vale is divided into the old Vale and the new Vale - I lived in the old Vale. Once, a friend of mine, Robert Cyril- a beautiful green-eyed East Indian boy from the village of Patna (way up in the hills) referred to the Vale as concrete barracks. Barracks was where the workers on the fields were housed.
Through Uncle Vince I was introduced to Black Sabbath, Ozzy, AC/DC (We had the coolest black velvet AC/DC poster with silver lettering hanging up in our room), Metallica, Scorpions and a host of other bands I wouldn't have been privy to if I had stayed on Ocean Avenue.
So this post is dedicated to Uncle Vince - thanks for broadening my musical horizons!
farvel,
the lab

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