ABSTRACT
In 1973, I spent a year in Trinidad and Tobago studying calypso humor (Jones & Liverpool, 1976). But the cultural expression that captured my attention and has persisted in my own research is the idea that, “Any Time is Trinidad time.” What does that mean? My initial assumption was that in Trinidad, like my experiences in the United States, things operated on “colored people’s time” (CPT). CPT I was familiar with. Events started when the principals arrived, not when the appointed hour was reached. They ended in similar fashion. If someone said she would met you at 7:00, you might inquire “Is that CPT time?” to know how to manage your own behavior. In essence, CPT is a variable, casual attitude about and value of time that has consequences for behavior.
