Tales of a Public Well, Revisited
News from the Honduras Bay Islands and North Coast
17 December 2001
By Pierre Renaldo, The Coastwatcher©

Several months ago I related to you, in a three part series,( Mar 30, Apr. 7, & Apr. 14, 2001) a story of my own personal experience (and observations) that related to living on a high bluff that overlooks a public well at the beach in Sandy Bay West. You may access those issues in the achieves on this site.

Though the story centered around this gathering place of some notoriety, many of the characters were regular visitors to, or employees of sorts, at a noisy disco bar a short distance down the beach. This group were frequent visitors to the public well and after having lived there for some time I became familiar with the names of a few of the damsels of the evening, who were on the official entertainment committee at said disco bar.

I might add, so as to disclaim any notion of firsthand relationships with any of the aforementioned, that I never entered the noisy establishment, nor did I enjoy so much as a passing acquaintanceship with patrons or members of that elite sorority of sisters under the skin.

My wonderful neighbor Fred was the source of my information about names and other mystifying data to which I will not make reference in this week's commentary.

My good neighbor, Fred has long since moved off the island and I no longer live at Sandy Bay, but I have a friend, who has ties in my old community and that is how I became aware of the sad news to which I shall shortly make you aware.

My new source is like a geyser of information, especially when an already overactive tongue
is lubricated with a glass of wine or two at the end of the workday. "Lady T" (my housekeeper) of course would spring to most minds and you are right on target.

It seems that a "Mr. X", who had some interest in that old noisy disco years back, had managed to dive headfirst into the very same public well to which I have made note in those previous episodes. The exact circumstances of his demise remain unclear, but "Mr. X" somehow entered the well, voluntarily or otherwise, and was later found drowned.

Now comes the mystery. Why did "Mr. X" dive headfirst into the public well? Did "Mr. X" in fact dive headfirst into the public well? Or, did "Mr. X" have some form of assistance in his endeavor, voluntary or otherwise?

It seems "Mr. X" was not very popular among his neighbors, since it was he who allowed and or promoted that loud terrible music to be played over and over, day and night, week after week, down at the disco. Why? neighbors asked, would anyone want to listen to such bad noise, repeatedly, from very early in the morning to very early in the morning? They played recordings of the island's worst and most boring band from 6:30 A.M. 'til 3:00 A.M. every day. And the community was very tired of the music and very tired from lack of sleep. And "Mr. X" was the responsible party.

"Lady T" had a theory. She thinks "Mr. X" did away with himself after being threatened with a payback. He would be forced to listen to that racket at full volume for a full, uninterrupted week, and "Mr. X", who was rarely in attendance at the nightly celebrations at the disco because of the terrible music, took the easy way out.

"Lady T" observed that there were not many people at the funeral, according to an eye witness who did attend as a matter of common decency.

"Can you imagine having to listen to that commotion for a whole week without letup? I think I would have jumped in the well my own self. There was only one time that I can remember when they played some decent music down there. That Lone Ranger Song. Doancha remember? That time when the girls was all runnin' down the beach hollerin', 'Hi Jo Silber'?"

More next week
Question or comments
elouis@globalnet.hn

Ciao, Pierre

By Pierre Renaldo, Mountain Coastal S.A,. General Contractors, Construction Management and Construction Consultants.