For a long time, Britain and France fought over Grenada. The French left behind place names. Morne Rouge, Lance Aux Epines, and Petit Martinique are some of the locations in Grenada. They also left a French-African-English patois language that the locals speak.

The British left behind other cultural tidbits: schools where the boys and girls wear uniforms (pleated skirts, starched skirts, ties); red phone booths; driving on the left-hand side of the road, and a love of games like cricket and rugby. At any time you might drive by a field and see young men all decked out in cricket whites, bowling for the wicket, or whatever it is cricketers do. (I know nothing about how cricket works). Grenada is still actually a Commonwealth of the British Empire, and the Queen is on their money. Being a moderate anglophile (we spent our honeymoon in England), I really got a kick out of these little bits of English formality, especially when juxtaposed with the generally free-and-easy feeling of island life.

Grenadians also hold to a much more formal, British-type standard than we Americans do of what constitutes proper dress. Grenadians who are just hanging out dress in Western-style clothes like jeans and T-shirts. But Grenadians dress to the nines when they are going to work.

Everyone, even the checkers at the grocery stores, wears full-on business suits. Women wear knee-length skirts or slacks, buttoned-up jackets and high heels, with hair perfectly coiffed and nails nicely done. Also, most older women that I saw seemed to wear long skirts most of the time, not just to work. They sometimes wear dressy women's hats, too. But it was the working women who earned the highest respect from me. They go all-out in their clothes for what we here in the States would consider to be an unimportant job, one to which we would probably wear jeans and a polo shirt with the store logo.

Let me tell you, when you're a tourist walking along the street (or riding the reggae bus) roasting in your tank top and shorts, and you see a lady walking to work in a polyester suit, high heels and nylons--well, you just have to admire their dedication to appropriate business attire.