It was hot, 90 degrees, with a heat index pushing to 104! The national advisory warned about the impurity of the air, and the need to stay hydrated.
But it was Carnival in Baltimore, once again: 15 bands in trucks, parading some three miles on hot asphalt, from 33rd street to Clifton Park.
This was the biggest carnival yet in Baltimore, combined with Washington DC, stretching for two days, Saturday and Sunday (July 15,16,2017)
Baltimore Maryland residents, who have never seen a Caribbean carnival, saw one this year. Playing “mass” is the term used, where nothing is outrageous. It is the one time of the year, where women can be almost naked, and not be afraid. “Everybody show me something”; “All hands in the Air”; “1,2,3,4,Jump”.
Those were calls for participants to exhibit their goods, where prodigious body parts almost make contact with earth, but the dexterity of such individuals, show defiance, and they rise to upright positions, much to the joy of onlookers. In America, they have modified this act, and renamed it twerking. In Caribbean parlance, it is “wine”; the attached video may help your comprehension.
As I walked around, and talked to the old heads who came to America in the 1960’s, some were proud to see the enthusiasm of the “fete” staying alive in their offspring.” Leave me alone I Ain’t Going Home”, is not only for those who party that way, back home.
Theculturepagedotcom 