Dear Editor,
I was stunned by Fritz McLean’s letter to Stabroek News of October 28, 2019 announcing the passing of my close friend and colleague Vybert Young Kong.
We knew each other as children, along with elder brother Lloyd. The Young Kong’s grocery store at the corner of Cummings and Third Streets, Cummingsburg, was one of several Chinese businesses in the neighbourhood. Theirs was a hive of friendly activity, for not only were they a remarkably handsome couple, but they charmed their neighbour customers with sharing their goods at times when the latter could not afford the purchases, which made them very warmly respected members of the Alberttown community. I lived just a block away.
So that when Vybert joined me at Blairmont Estate in 1962 we resumed our kinship. He was appointed Field Superintendent (Technical). I was Assistant Personnel Manager. Along with Leonard Khan, newly appointed Factory Engineer, we three bachelors would indulge in a nightly exercise of inebriation, ending with our smashing the empty glasses against the apartment walls, until of course we ran out of those that had been furnished by Bookers Sugar Estates as part of our conditions of employment then, which included fully furnished quarters.
There was the turbulent year of 1964 when an industry-wide strike also struck a rage of fires across the estates of the sugar industry. In the absence of workers, Blairmont senior staff members had to fight fires almost every night, as on other locations.
In the substantive confusion all transportation across the country was shut down. Like many other goods, there was no gasoline to be bought. Even the Prime Minister Burnham was seen riding a horse in Georgetown.
The coast-line was lit up by fires almost every night, and one could see from Blairmont the reddened sky along the East Coast of Demerara.
In the absence of any regular telephone connection, we each was anxious to see our parents in Georgetown. It took the initiative of a Factory Engineer to eke out daily pints of gasoline for the only car between us – a Wolseley, and a generous offer of gallons from an official from New Amsterdam, that finally allowed Vybert, Leonard and I to make that perilous journey to Georgetown.
As it turned out, we had to fill the gasoline tank with kerosene in order to get back to Blairmont – in a vehicle that had to be substantially repaired.
In that year, in addition to several thousands of acres of cane being burnt, along with dozens of houses of workers of both ethnicities, was the memorably tragic termination of one hundred and forty two lives.
1964 was a year of such hostility amongst ethnic communities, particularly around Uitvlugt Estate, that it caused Sydney King (Eusi Kwayana) to protest in a prolonged vigil in front of Government House.
I have never forgotten the epic return journey between Blairmont Estate and Georgetown – an experience which forged a special bond between myself, Leonard Khan and Vybert Young Kong.
Our careers in sugar grew contemporaneously, with Vybert and I becoming Directors of GuySuCo in our respective areas of Agriculture and Human Resources Management.
He is dearly missed and I will smash a glass in his memory.
Yours faithfully,
E B John
