By James (JJ Rocks) Johnston

The other morning I woke very early to hear Dorothy saying something about going to the passport office because we are visiting her dad in Trinidad and I needed a passport. She started telling me about the new branch out west in Fredericksted that her sister Chandra told her about. Five minutes later we were out the door heading towards what Dorothy calls “A cool drive down the road”. And even though I had just finished painting the side of the house and looked like a mess with a few days growth on my face, I didn’t care because Dorothy said she was just going to run in and pick up the form for my passport and I could wait outside.

As soon as we reached out west we headed into town. It was a very quiet and sunny Caribbean day and the streets had only a few people walking along the historical sidewalks. It was so quiet that you could hear the seagulls playing on the rocks along the waterfront a block away. It was a usual weekday morning in Fredericksted. But we didn’t know where the new passport office was so we started to ask around. And to our surprise, no one knew where to find it. I said “Dorothy, I know this place is new, but you would think that somebody would know where it is”. So that was about the time that I decided to stop and get a cold one.

After I quickly downed a frosty Coors light, my thirst was quenched but my back was still sore from painting, so I grabbed another one for the road. And as we stood near the park wandering what to do next, I was checking out the hot dog vendor. That’s when Dorothy said “I’m going to walk over to the Virgin Island legislation building that we past on the way in”. When we got there Dorothy went inside to check while I cracked open the next cold one and leaned against one of those giant planter things outside. After that things got a little crazy.

Dorothy was only gone a few moments before she came back and said “I found the passport office and you won’t believe this! They got reporters and cameras…, and even the lieutenant governor of the Virgin Islands! It’s their grand opening! And guess what else? We are the first costumers and they want us to come and cut the ribbon!” Well, not only did I look like a construction worker on his lunch break, but I had to throw away a perfectly good half of bear. So I met her on the half and just chugged the beer down, and then we were on our way to being on the 8 o’ clock news.

So as we turned the corner of the building, we saw about 20 people all dressed up, a bunch of food, and cameras everywhere. The next thing you know the lieutenant governor is handing Dorothy a microphone, me pair of scissors with ribbons on it, and giving us a warm welcome and congratulations. It was like we instantly walked into another dimension and were adapting as quickly as we could. But it was great! Everyone was so, so, nice! We are so proud to live in St. Croix where unexpected surprises can be around any corner. – JJ Rocks

March, 2010