Current Rock of Residence:
Grand Cayman
Island Girl Since:
The beginning.
Originally Hails From:
St. Thomas, USVI
Valerie is from many rocks – St. Thomas, St. John, Tortola, and now Grand Cayman. She spends her time researching and writing about life on the rock 50 to 100 years ago. With over 10 generations from the West Indies, she has a unique perspective and many vintage photographs to share.
Valerie loves digging through old newspapers to find clippings that shed light on her family’s photo collection of visiting dignitaries, beautiful ocean liners, and early explorers and aviators who passed through the Virgin Islands during the early 20th century. If you’d like to follow along and see what life was like on the rocks many years ago, check out her website, Vintage Virgin Islands.
Explore posts by this writer:
First World Island Problems with Basil and Zucchini
This year was my first year in Turks and Caicos during Christmas. And every Christmas I make "sort of" homemade lasagna. I also make a yummy zucchini/truffle salad to go with it. This year was different. We were now in Turks and Caicos away from the friends we usually...
Reflections of A Former Island Celebrity
When I was a child growing up in Maryland during the 1950’s and 1960’s, I had dreams of becoming a mega stage and screen star. Back then, Mom worked for a former dancer who opened a dance studio. So from the ages of 5-7, I trained as a ballerina. Then, seeing that...
THE COFFEE QUEST….
“ There is an awful lot of coffee in Brazil……”The Coffee Song of 1976" by Osibisa (YouTube) springs to mind as I am in the starting blocks of my latest story. Yes, after 2 wonderful, freshly brewed, cups of coffee. Beans from…..no, now I need to back up…. We, my...
Never Trust A Price
So, I had to buy a bottle of rum today. Not a rare occurrence, pretty typical actually. "Why is it $38 Theresa? It was $29.99 last week?" "Oh, Meez Vic, it's because itz de last bottle of dat rum on da shelf" "Are you planning on ordering more?" "Oh yez, Meez Vic"...
“SIMPLE JOYS OF POST STORM LIFE”
Seems as if recent climatic events and other disasters seen on TV news reports, have triggered a multitude of residual emotions in me which I thought I had gotten rid of during Irma/Maria Recovery. The following is an excerpt from my published Hurricane journal “TWO...
The Gift
When my husband and I decided to uproot our family from Kentucky- from the only place, people, and life we have ever known- and move to a tiny island in the Caribbean, it was of course met with so many remarks to the tune of "Oh My Gosh, THAT'S AMAZING!", "You are...
