Wais a Kaiserballl?

Monday, September 08, 2008 clivia 0 Comments

My blog name is Kaiserball.blogspot.com
I got an email this weekend asking me what it is..what inspired the name.

It's a combination of two things..

Sparrow wrote a song called Tobago Gal in 1980
Its a sweet song speaking about the visit of an old man to Tobago and why he wouldn't leave.

Woman..

Because it mentions places specific to Tobago...I, a Tobago gal had an instant affinity to the song. On an aside, He also wrote a song called Trinidad woman, so he wasn't biased..

The chorus goes:

"All them Tobago Gyal
Sweet sweet sweet like a Kaiserball
Burroughs you could call or Ring Interpol,
Me ain't going at all
First I love them sweet Tobago Gyal"

In his sweet crooning voice, Sparrow is singing a love song to us misunderstood,stereotyped Bago gals. He singled us out...haha..and I've loved the song ever since.

What is a Kaiserball though?

A Kaiserball  was a hard, rough, home made candy that existed in my parents time. It was pure syrup, sugar and water boiled down, and would take DAYS to eat if your teeth could stand up the saccharine sweet flavor, or you didn't crack a tooth on it in the process. You would find them in glass jars in road side parlors or made by your favorite Aunty and left for you when you came to visit.

You would be hard pressed to find any of those in this day and age. My last memory of having one [if it is in fact a real memory] is on a trip to visit relatives in the country as a little girl with my cousins and having one from the parlor at the bottom of the hill in Good Wood. That was our favorite stop off place. It was owned by Cousin Ralph and we would stop for Sweet drinks..haha Coca Cola in Bottles mind you, and whatever candied sundries the parents would allow us to have at that point.

The parlor for some reason was always open, dark and dusty, and in this day we would probably never step foot in there, but i always loved it and wished i could explore what was under the layers of dust and hodge podge of boxes. We would drive by sometimes without going in..but would shout greetings out the window and most times get a Hail back!

Anyways...when you're pressed for a unique identifier for the blog my brain came up with Kaiserball. Uniquely Trinbagonion, and personally associated to Tobago for me, it was an easy choice. To hear Sparrow's song and see the rest of the lyrics go here. Enjoy!

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