Crying on the Beach

As a Town Crier I get asked to cry in some pretty unusual places. It was exactly a year ago that my wife and I visited the Dominican Republic. I do enjoy foreign holidays and as an English Town Crier, I take every opportunity to do my bit to foster good international relations, as you can see below.

On the boat trip, we struck up a friendship with a lovely couple from the Midlands. During the course of conversation we learned that this very day was their fifth wedding anniversary! Here is a photo of the happy couple with my wife, June.

“Oh, how wonderful…… congratulations”, we exclaimed as we guzzled our way through our third “Santo Libre” (I think that’s what they called it) – a most pleasant concoction of Caribbean Rum and Sprite. Highly drinkable I might add. June also insisted that I should “do a cry” for them to mark the occasion, explaining to them that I am a Town Crier, who does a lot of this sort of thing……..

Kim and Phil thought it was a novel idea. Now how fortuitous is that – to have a Town Crier handy on your beach to announce your wedding anniversary. By this time I was well into my fourth Rum and Sprite and had completely lost any inhibitions.

So, without any regalia, no bell, scroll or tricorne, I stepped forward on a beautiful sandy beach, up to my knees in water wearing only shorts and perhaps, rather appropriately, one of my particularly LOUD shirts. My sun hat standing in for a tricorn. (I love my San Francisco Rain Forest Café sun hat!)

(video excerpt)

With a sharp intake of breath, I bellowed a hearty “OYEZ, OYEZ, OYEZ!” at the top of my voice, startling a good many sunbathers and swimmers, I might add!(video excerpt)

So there you have it……… an impromptu proclamation, in the blazing sun, on a sandy Caribbean beach, by the palm trees. It doesn’t get a lot better than this.

Incidentally, the video of the full cry is on my Facebook page……. if you haven’t fallen asleep yet. (see Photos>Albums>Videos).

It’s only the little backwards stagger at the end of the cry that shows you just how intoxicated I must have been!