The old talk in my barber shop Thursday morning was virtually non stop. It was about one subject: the T&T soccer victory over Mexico the night before.
Twice or three times it slipped for a split-second glance through the glass pane that let the sunlight in from across the street as a pulchritudinous figure came within sight.
But that was all and the hair-clipping continued unceasing as the names, Stern John (no kin), Dwight Yorke, Russell Latapy, Edwards and Hislop and others were tossed around the room.
My barber shop reminds me of "Gunther's" establishment in the Express comic strip "Curtis". The dialogues are to some extent matching even though in mine there is no Curtis complaining about school or Michelle holding him at bay on a leash. Nor are there signs that say "No IOUs" or "Tipping Highly Suggested".
Almost certainly in other business places last week Thursday morning the soccer match was the main conversation piece. Indeed there would be nothing else to win national attention until the following evening when some unscrupulous character placed the explosive device outside "Smokey and Bunty".
Soccer wasn't always this popular. Cricket at the regional and international level brought out the crowds filling the Queen's Park Oval especially when the MCC was on tour or Barbados came to play Trinidad. Guyana drew smaller crowds and Jamaicans never came at all until 1950 when Ramadhin and Valentine were discovered for that historic tour of England.
That season, too, I saw in action the great George Headley, Brian Lara's only competitor for the title the greatest West Indian batsman of all time.
I remember also the 1948 visit of India's first cricket team to the region. The Queen's Park Oval had a ring around it at 6 o'clock the morning of the first day of play against Trinidad, scheduled to start around 10 a.m. The grandsons and granddaughters of India had deserted their rural homes to come to town to see Vijay Hazare's team, sons of India, in action.
Soccer was with cricket on my calendar from the late 1930s when I walked from Wodbrook to the Savannah to see, not to play, club, regional and international matches.
We had visits from Guyana, Suriname, Haiti, the last-named starring the heroic Tassy, who had passed on by the time I visited that country in 1962.
Earlier we hosted the Venezuelan club teams, Deportivo and Dos Caminos. My memory suggests these matches with Trinidad. drew crowds of about 5,000 which compared to last week's 24,000 is peanuts.
One enduring memory is the Venezuelan forward, today's striker, Ramirez, who with back to the goalkeeper was an expert with what we called the "chalaca", an overhead kick past a stunned custodian.
International or regional soccer matches never made the front pages in the way that featured our victory over the Mexicans.
There wasn't even half that excitement when the first Jamaican soccer team to tour this country flew in during the 1947 season for a three-nation series that included Guyana.
It was a time when the Trinidad soccer team was No. 1 in the Anglophone Caribbean region. It was a period when we scored comparatively easy victories over Jamaica and Suriname and Haiti. Indeed, the Malvern Club, then the top team in North Trinidad, defeated Jamaica in a warm-up match with four first half goals to none. Then six Malvern players were picked for the two-nil Trinidad triumph over Guyana. For the record the six Malvern players were Phil Douglin, "Squeakie" Hinds, Fedo Blake, Potty Lewis, Lio Lynch and Vere Greer.
Trinidad footballers were all amateurs. No substitutes were allowed. For the Savannah competition matches, players left their work place at 4 o'clock, changed into club colours, then cycled or walked their way to the Savannah.
The game was structured into three or four leagues. The others were the Southern Association based in San Fernando and the Southern League in the oilfields area, plus the Arima League.
For the inter-league matches northerners bussed heir way to San Fernando or Ste Madeleine or Point Fortin. The southerners bussed it in the opposite direction for their away games.
The oilfields offered employment to footballers from North Trinidad. This custom gave rise to the legend that one guy approached a labour office asking if they had a job for a good left half. His approach was said to be successful; soon he was on the staff.
Football in those times was not a year-round activity. The cricket season stretched from January to June; soccer from July to December.
One other major difference separating then from now is that the clubs in Port of Spain failed to bridge the racial divisions.
It went like this. Casuals and Shamrock were the white power sides. Their players were the employees of banks and commercial houses where blacks were the porters and tea ladies.
Maple, Notre Dame, Sporting Club were the brown power clubs. Maple's members were Queen's Royal and St Mary's College old boys and civil servants. Sporting Club and later Notre Dame were for those who had their own social agenda which did not include Maple.
In the 1930s came the Everton Club, all black and mainly working class. They rose from an excellent record in the second division to win the northern championship three years in a row. They were then booted out of the league for what was termed unruly behaviour.
Alfred Charles, Everton's brilliant full back who was pushed into the forward line to score goals when his club was in trouble, eventually sailed off to England where he found a niche in Third Division soccer.
How have times changed!