Bob Marley: I Knew Him; How I Remember Him

 

Bob Marley Is Revered Even Among Teens Around The World 

I was speaking to a group of young people in Charlotte, North Carolina about two months ago. When they realized that I had an accent, as they put it, they asked me which country I was from.  I told them I was from Jamaica, and one of them blurted out, “Jamaica mon!” performing a very poor mimic of the Jamaican accent. A boy sitting in the back of the room shouted, “Yeah, Bob Marley mon!” He then proceeded to ask, “Did you know Bob Marley?” I proudly confessed that I did, and they all stared at me in amazement; I mean, they really stared at me. They were utterly flabbergasted that someone standing in their very presence – in the exact same room in which they were seated - actually knew the great international reggae icon, Bob Marley.

A Girl seated near the front of the room, echoing the thoughts of her peers, yelled, “Wow, that’s pretty cool.” I could see that they were even more shocked when I told them that I did not just know Bob Marley by seeing him performing on stage, but that I actually knew him personally. When they heard that, it seemed like the entire group had an epiphany. There was a total transformation in their entire attitude toward me. It was as if they were suddenly in awe of me. A bubbly girl, sitting across from me to my right, seemed unable to contain her excitement. She Seemed disappointed that her friend, who was sitting next to her, was not as excited as she was; so she slapped her friend on the arm, and jumping up from her seat, pointed at me and yelled, “Oh, my, God; did you hear what he just said? He said he knew Bob Marley personally; Oh, my, God!” Now everybody was really staring at me! I felt as if I was suddenly becoming somewhat of a celebrity to these young people. I was taken completely off guard by their enthusiasm, and I now realized that I had no choice but to share my experience regarding the Bob Marley I knew with this excited group of young people.

 

Going To School With The Bob Marley Kids

The year must have been 1973 or 1974; I can’t be sure which it was. But I do know that I was living in Eleven Miles, Bull Bay, a poor community about 11 miles east of Kingston, Jamaica. I was attending Bull Bay All Age School at the time (an ‘all age school’ is like an elementary school and a middle school combined) and I must have been in the 5^th grade back then.

One of the most fascinating memories I have from those early years is seeing a Volkswagen bus (VW van, as we called it back then) driving onto the school grounds bringing some young kids to school. It was fascinating because in those days, everyone who came to my school either walked or took public transportation to school. Even the principal, assistant principal, and teachers were no exception to this ‘rule’. So, to see a few kids being dropped off at school by their parents was very novel, to say the least. I do remember that there was a lot of buzz regarding who the parents of the kids were, and that their dad was this famous person named Bob Marley. The picture, above illustrates my memory of what the kids looked like back then. The kids in the picture are Bob Marley’s and Rita Marley’s kids: Sharon and Cedella Marley (Ziggy Marley’s two older sisters), Ziggy Marley, and Stephen Marley (in the stroller). In the picture, I’m guessing that Stephen was about one or two years old. Since he was born in April 1972, this means that the picture was taken around 1973 or 1974.

 

The Marley Family Lived In Bull Bay

I know that in 1973 or 1974, the Marley couple had a home in Ten Miles Bull Bay. So my guess is that the house in the picture is the Marley's house in Ten Miles Bull Bay. While Rita Marley spent a lot of time in Bull Bay with the kids, Bob Marley mostly stayed at their Hope Road address in Kingston, Jamaica. Please copy and paste the following link (from the book: Bob Marley: The Untold Story by Chris Salewicz) into your browser to confirm this information: http://books.google.com/books?id=K6_cAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT255&lpg=PT255&dq=bob+marley+lived+in+bull+bay&source=bl&ots=mDgAlreS6F&sig=EBqnLN71wsjdT0ngrLHas8_eDqc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=DvCUU9ebOImdyATY3oDIDg&sqi=2&ved=0CDMQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=bob%20marley%20lived%20in%20bull%20bay&f=false

Below is a video showing the VW bus that Rita Marley, and sometimes Bob Marley, would use to take the kids to school.

 

 

 

Bob Marley not only had a home in Bull Bay, but he spent a lot of time on the beaches between Ten Miles and Eight Miles in Bull Bay. He also frequented and loved the Cane River Falls, located about 10 minutes in the northern hills outside of Nine Miles, Bull Bay in St Andrew, Jamaica. One of Bob Marley's Popular Songs, "Trench Town," begins with a hint of Bob's love for Cane River Falls:

“Up a Cane River to wash my dread (locks)

Upon a rock I rest my head

There I vision through the seas of oppression

Don’t make my life a prison

We come from Trench Town.”

 

One of these beaches, the Bob Marley Beach, located in Nine Miles, Bull Bay, Saint Andrew, has been named after the late reggae superstar. Today, both the Cane River Falls and Bob Marley beach serve as attractions for visitors to Jamaica.

 

                                                Cane River Falls, Nine Miles, Bull Bay

 

                                               Bob Marley Beach, Nine Miles, Bull Bay

 

                                         Tourist and Local Relaxing At Bob Marley Beach

 

How I Remember Bob Marley

The Marley kids were mostly dropped off at school by their mom, Rita Marley, while they attended the Bull Bay All Age School. Very seldom was Bob Marley ever with them; but whenever he was, I was always confused about why everyone, especially the female teachers at my school, seemed to treat him differently than they treated other parents. For instance, they would look at him with a sort of 'who does he think he is?' kind of attitude. Yet, others had an eerie kind of welcoming attitude toward him. They would go out of their way just to say hello to Bob. I recall thinking, "They don't treat other parents like that." The only thing that helped me to put this attitude in perspective was when someone would always say, "That's Bob Marley you know." Whoever the person was, and it could be almost anyone, they acted as if the gods had appointed them to educate the rest of us that a VIP was in our midst! Talk about people having an eerie welcoming attitude! So, I got the impression that Bob was a very important person. But I wondered, if he was as important as they were making him out to be, why does he dress the way he does? You see, up until that point in my life - remember, I was in the 5th grade - the only important persons I knew were my pastor, the principal of my school, and so on; and they all dressed like Mother Theresa. So when Bob came along in a tracksuit bottom, a pair of tennis shoes, and a 'sleeveless T-shirt', it was hard for me to appreciate people's claim that he was an important person. What I'm trying to say is, Bob Marley did not seem any different than the average person to me. 

The only thing that struck me as being different about Bob Marley was, I couldn't figure out if he was black or whether he was a white person. His hair seemed mostly like a black person's hair, but other than that, he seemed mostly like a white person to me. Also, I thought; if he was all that everyone claimed, why doesn't he comb his hair? At that time, Bob had just started to grow his dreadlocks, and his fledgling locks looked really awful to me. I can recall also thinking about the fact that he was smoking marijuana; and back then, I 'knew' that VIP's just did not smoke ganja (as we call it in Jamaica). So I made up my mind that Bob Marley could not be worth all the fuss that they were making about him. But remember, I was just in the 5th grade.

 

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