Easy to Smile

Smiling at the Future and Thinking About the Past

Mr. Jason is quick to smile and easy to make a funny observation. His eyes have a shiny sparkle of energy, and his head is covered by curly gray hair. For over eight decades he has seen many things and knows practically every rock and every plant in his adopted home of Crawfish Rock.

Mr. Jason Thomas Bodden was born on September 19, 1940, in Coxen Hole. He is one of 13 children born to a popular Pentecostal preacher from Coxen Hole, Mr. Joe Bodden. He was born at seven months to Evelyn Dilbert from Politilly.

Crawfish Rock community grew almost everything they needed to eat.

When Mr. Jason was 12 his father passed away, and his mother moved the entire family to Crawfish Rock. The small village would become a place where Mr. Jason would come back to time and time again.

There were not many people living in Crawfish Rock in the 1950s and Mr. Jason remembers quite a few of them. There was Jesus Puerto, Uncle Lou, Bill Minzenh, and Cecil Bodden. On the hill above Crawfish Rock a retired American seaman, Jack Luzig, built a big house there, and started a family.

Back then the Crawfish Rock community grew almost everything they needed to eat. They had plenty of yucca and cocos, and the plentiful fish in the sea provided for a good diet. “Those times you used to live in a bush house made out of cohune leaves,” says Mr. Jason. While building a bush house wasn’t difficult, keeping it over one’s head in storms was another matter. Mr. Jason remembers hurricane Fifi, that in 1974 destroyed all but one house in Crawfish Rock.

While Mr. Jasons first and second wife passed away, he had six children from the first marriage. He began working on a shrimp boat as a cook. His first boat was the “Maru” that was based out of French Harbour. Thanks to his work he was able to see a bit of Honduras’ northern coast and other Bay Islands. He visited Utila, Guanaja and Puerto Castilla. After 17 years of working on fishing boats Mr. Jason had enough and settled back on dry land.

You used to live in a bush house made out of cohune leaves.

In the late 1990s an American doctor hired Mr. Jason to be a watchman for his house and property located just west of Crawfish Rock. Mr. Jason and his family took care of the property for 21 years until it sold. Now Mr. Jason is renting a space in a small house on the edge of Crawfish Village.