The "The Traffic Man" Story

My "sidewalk friends" waiting to usher me
towards the traffic round-a-bout.

It was an ordinary day.  Pulled the car to the side of the road and was ushered by about a dozen goats to the traffic circle so I could take a photo of  "The Traffic Man".  The bronze sculpture of a thin man with a safari hat upon his head, a coat with flowers hanging from the button holes and a whistle in his mouth stands in the Cole Bay roundabout on the island of Sint Maarten.  I have passed this site many times during the past few years, but never knew the history behind the man known as Osborne Kruythoff until recently.  So, when I made a visit back to the island, I just had to take a photo of the sculpture and write a story about it for my blog.  

Cole Bay round-a-bout featuring "The Traffic Man."

His story and lifetime make him a candidate to be one of the true ambass- adors to this island in the Caribbean.  Osborne grew up working the sugar cane fields in Dominica.  At some point in his life he made his way to the island of Sint Maarten where he was said to have a job cleaning the seaweed from the edge of the beach of Great Bay.  At the time the Dutch side of the island called Sint Maarten/St. Martin had only 83 motor vehicles.  When it grew to over 200 in the early 1960s, Osborne took it upon himself to direct the traffic in his off-time at the square in front of the Court House.  

Old online photo I found of Osborne
Kruythoff, The Traffic Man.

His outfit consisted of a brown khaki uniform, a white safari hat,  a machete which he used as a baton to help him along with his traffic whistle which no one know where he got it.  If someone wouldn't listen to his directions he would take the flat side of his machete and give the car a good planass (a hit with the broadside of a cutlass).  He eventually started putting flowers in his shirt buttons and on his hat, so much so that he had to push aside the flowers so he could get his whistle in his mouth.  He became a tourist attraction and would have requests to have his picture taken with them.  He then turned to directing traffic wherever he thought it was needed.  He became one of Sint Maarten's most recognized and lovable characters.  Only wish I had been a frequent visitor to the island during his reign as "The Traffic Man".  Would have loved to have met him.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.