EDITOR, The Tribune.

Kindly allow me space to share my reflections on a place near and dear to me… South Eleuthera, my home. Those were the days!

When South Eleuthera welcomed visitors from lands near and far.

When taxi drivers and shoeshine boys and luggage porters proudly served as a ambassadors of this pristine piece of Bahama land.

When native straw workers shared smiles and extended Bahamian hospitality as they marketed their wares in our hotel lobbies.

When entry level jobs in accounts, bookkeeping, drafting, electrical engineering and mechanics guaranteed school graduates a career launching pint.

When enterprising young men and women from South Eleuthera could set call on their own uncharted course and realise success far beyond their dreams, right here at home.

When rental cars lined the driveways of our bustling hotels and filled the parking lots of our nations owned restaurants and night clubs and rake and scrape filled the evening air.

Gone are those days here in South Eleuthera.

Gone are the tourists and the taxi drivers, luggage porters and the shoe shine boys.

Gone are the  straw workers and the smiles and the sounds of Bahamian music in the night air.

Gone are the entry level job opportunities that once greeted excited school graduates and the opportunities for brave young entrepreneurs to seize the day.

And now we say goodbye to a benchmark of the success story that South Eleuthera once was – our bank, The final straw, so to speak. Those were the days!

CHRIS CATES

Nassau,

April 14, 2015