It might have been around 10 o'clock on August 6, 1962, when a pregnant Hermina Whyte was getting dressed to go watch a cricket match at the nearby playing field in Bottom Shrewsbury in Portland. However, she was forced to change her plans.

Margaret, who was to be her first child, and the first too for dad Robert Schroeter, apparently decided she wanted to be part of the historic celebrations and came into the world shortly after, becoming one of more than 220 Jamaicans on record to have been born that day.

"I don't know how much I weighed but I was fine (little) so they called me "Little Indy", Indy for Independence," Schroeter told The Gleaner.

Great memories

Her golden moment, however, was when then Prime Minister Sir Alexander Bustamante gave her a gold spoon as a congratulatory gesture for being born on Independence Day.

"I received a gold spoon from Sir Alexander Bustamante, with the coat of arms and my name printed on it. I got it from Busta himself! He visited us and gave it to my mother in a white box," Schroeter said.

And how was growing up in Portland in the late '60s in a young nation?

"It was a great joy. During Independence time, we would sing folk songs, dance dinki mini and maypole; we did the kumina, wrap wi head an jump to the beat of the kette drum.

"I remember dancing the ska at Independence time at Shrewsbury recreation ground. My mother always dressed me up nicely, put me in the best dress. She always want har daughter to look nice!"

The nostalgic moments continued to tumble from Schroeter's mouth, as she recalled the importance food had in communal living.

"We used to go to the river. Everybody have a breadfruit fi themself. We cook run dung, with the roast breadfruit; and roast plantain, we scrape it and eat it with custard.

"I remember mi grandmother did have a mortar to pound the chocolate. We always pick the chocolate off the tree and bruk it. Nice!"

- Carl Gilchrist