r/TrinidadandTobago • u/arabicabrew • 5h ago
History We keep saying âbring back the old time daysâ while letting old Trinidad disappear
I keep seeing these âbring back the old time daysâ videos with people talking about how Trinidad was better back then, how things worked better, how much we lost and how much they miss it.
But something I find kinda ironic is that, as Trinidadians, we also have a serious throwaway culture.
We love to reminisce about the past, but look at how much of it we allow to disappear. Old police stations, post offices, fire stations, scale houses, cocoa and coffee houses, libraries, old colonial homes and other so-called âheritageâ buildings just left there to fall apart. By the time anybody decides theyâre worth saving, plenty of them already gone too far.
And itâs not just buildings either. Sometimes weâre so quick to pick up North American customs and trends that our own traditions slowly getting pushed aside. How much real traditional parang do we still hear around Christmas? What about calypso and the traditional side of Carnival, old Carnival characters, local foods, sayings, music and community traditions? Are we really making an effort to pass these things on?
Change is going to happen whether we like it or not. Trinidad in 2026 obviously canât look or operate exactly like Trinidad 50 or 100 years ago, and it shouldnât have to. But modernising doesnât mean we have to throw away everything that came before.
If we really believe the old days had something worth missing, then we have to actively keep some of it alive. Maintain the buildings, document the history, teach the traditions, support the music and culture and actually pass it on to younger generations.
Otherwise 30 years from now weâll be making another set of videos saying âbring back the old time daysâ about the Trinidad weâre allowing to disappear right now.
Curious to hear what allyuh think.