By Deborah Vernon

The first few years I lived in Placencia there was not much going on, to say the least! Our power came from the Co-op’s icehouse generator. Our water came from shallow wells dug into the land next to our homes. Phones were a luxury only a handful of people had. We had no T.V. The road was a narrow, dirt strip running down the backside of the village.

One of the most endearing memories I have of old Placencia was the post office run by Miss Janice down at the point. This multi-purpose building served as a bar, the post office, tourist information office and village phone. The building over-looked the harbor and was the hub of “downtown” Placencia

I lived at the “far” end of the village and I was often home alone, with my man off leading tours around the country. Most people gathered socially at bars. As someone who didn’t drink and not comfortable hanging out in a bar, the post office was my big social outing. I looked forward to the days I went to check mail.

A few times a week, I would walk down the sidewalk to Miss Janice’s place to look for any letters from home and post what I had written. Letters from home, which took about a month to reach, were precious. We had no e-mail, no faxes. We didn’t even have a phone in our home. Cell phones and computers were some futuristic gadgets we couldn’t have imagined here in Placencia.
The community phone was in a plastic bubble on the side of the open-air building. This was not a pay phone. Ms. Janice would call back the operator after each call to get the charges. Every couple weeks I’d make a call home. . Of course, nothing was private, the phone being inches away from a barstool! From this phone I would share all my adventures from living in Belize with my family. It was from this very phone I informed my parents I was getting married and staying in Belize!

I would collect my mail, phone family, drink a coke and chat with Miss Janice and whoever else was at the bar. Miss Janice seemed to have all the news you could need. If it was happening, she knew about it. I probably learned half of what I know about living in Placencia from sitting at the post office talking with her. She was post mistress, phone operator, bar tender, tourism information officer and general information bureau all rolled into one wooden shack on the waterfront. To top that off she was also a Justice of the Peace who officiated at my wedding! Miss Janice could truly multitask like no one else on earth. She was like our own Wizard of Oz running Placencia from behind the wooden counter!

I can’t even remember when that multi-purpose building gradually lost its purpose. I guess more and more residents had phones in their homes. The post office moved into it’s own building. The bar, however, it still stands and is still operated by Ms. Janice! J-Byrds. The building has changed over the years, but the location is the same.