Newsletter for alumni of The Abbey School,
Mt. St. Benedict, Trinidad and Tobago, W.I.
Caracas,
27 July 2013 No. 612
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Dear Friends,
A little music to brighten the reading.
Lord Relator - Kitchener Medley
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From:
mckoy43glen@hotmail.com
Date:
Mon, 17 Jun 2013 00:33:50 +0000
Dear Sir Neil,
Thank you for this. This is the full band
man.
I am sending this out to all for Father’s
Day.
Neil I lost your phone number, please send
me your number.
I know in life there are lots of ups and
downs. Let’s talk buddy, I am here.
Cheers, Mis Amigos. Adios, Glen.
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Re:
A winning team.
Thanks, guys.
Nice to get that one sorted out, eh?
(Altho' hardly anyone will care!!)
Happy New Year to y'all.
Nigel
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From:
Ed Lloyd <edwardlloyd@yahoo.co.uk>
Sent:
Tuesday, January 3, 2012 7:23 PM
Subject:
A winning team.
Nigel,
First off, aren't all the students from St
Lawrence?
Could this not be 60/61, just before David
left, as I was house captain in '61/62 and took over from him.
I think that you probably are looking at
some sort of "champions" for the respective "sports" that
St. Lawrence won that year?.
David - cricket
Edward - swimming
Eden - pole vault / high jump
Henry - basket ball?
Stuart - tennis/table tennis
Marini - ?
Can't remember the last student's name -
track & field?
Sorry, that's the best I can do.
All the best to all of you and your loved
ones for 2012.
Edward
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From:
Nigel Boos <nigelboos@yahoo.ca>
Subject:
A winning team.
Date:
Tuesday, 3 January, 2012, 21:53
OK, you guys, let's see how well your
memories are working still.
Would you mind telling us what this trophy
was for?
What sports were you involved with and
where did you win the trophy.
Better yet, what year was this picture
taken?
And last, but not least, what is the name
of the chap standing alongside Eden?
I'd like to compare your answers.
Nigel
<XXWK0041UNKNOWN s479.jpg>
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Re:
Re. Circular No. 358, The Abbey School MSB
From:
Roberto Lipavsky (jurislipavsky@cantv.net)
Sent:
Sat 11/29/08 5:11 PM
Dear Laszlo,
My answer to Circular Nº 358 is like a
scream of "BINGO", because with that circular, there is a picture of
two Mount Boys:
One is Robert Bodington and the other guy
"Unknown" will be known in the future as in the past as: Timothy Mew
(I am not sure of the spelling)
Both were with us in class l.958.
Timothy was from B.G. (Today Guyana) just
like our other partner Attorney Marcel Gomes.
As I always say thanks for being there for
the Mount Boys Association.
Once more Congratulations
Roberto Lipavsky (1958).
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From:
mckoy43glen@hotmail.com
Date:
Tue, 9 Jul 2013 18:54:56 +0000
Hello Sir Shaun.
Thank you for a Trinidad to remember, yes
I recall most of what I read,
I can remember the word chilibibi,
but I can't remember what it is? ha-ha.
Hello Sir Tony, The flood is in Ontario,
really downtown Toronto. Thanks for asking.
With regards to your email on engineering
problems, I work better, hands on.
Cheers Mis Amigos
Adios Glen.
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A Trinidad to remember
Some of you receiving this email may not
relate to some of the things written here, but there was a time when Trinidad
and Tobago had all these things in them.
And life was wonderful.
Remember when Trinidad and Tobago was like
this???
This brought a tender smile to my face.
It is truly a walk down memory
lane..............enjoy............
Close your eyes, and go back . . .
Before the Internet or the Mac,
Before guns and crack.
Before Nike and Reebok, before Maxi Taxi.
Before the Priority Bus route
Before burglar proofing and KFC.
Before soca, dub and chutney
Before children's rights and women's lib.
Ah takin yuh Way back...
I'm talking about hide and seek at
dusk.
Looking through the window, sitting in the
gallery,
Licking your lips over hops and condensed
milk.
Drinking cocoa tea green tea, lime bud and
orange peel tea and don’t forget fever grass, worm grass and shining bush tea,
when you didn’t feel well.
Carrying bake and butter in a brown paper
bag to school.
Eating chilibibi and press with yellow and
red syrup, with or without milk.
Bathing in cold water from a barrel with a
calabash, or going by the river to bathe and filling the bucket with water for
Mammy to wash wares.
When we used to hammer the edge of an
orange juice can to make a tin-cup that would make rain water taste cold
because we didn’t have a fridge.
When you used to iron your clothes with a
heater on the cold pot and wash your clothes on a river stone with your
partners from the neighbourhood.
Yuh remember hopping de train. and putting
sweetdrink cover on the track for the train to run over dem for yuh to make
yoyo.
What about Hopscotch, butterscotch, hoop,
Jacks, Police and Thief, Rounders !
Hundred hole for bokey and Rings, and when
you fats you have to go back to bonks.
Remember bumpaling and hallay cord and
three line jig.
Playing cricket in the road with a
lime.
Lying on the floor reading Mandrake and
Katzenjammer Kids, Mutt and Jeff and The Phantom on a Sunday morning.
Finishing your homework Sunday evening
because you could get licks on Monday for not doing it.
And you want to beat the boy who cut the
guava whip for Sir.
Hula Hoop and ice block, kazer ball and
paradise plum, biscuit cake, fudge and sugar cake..
Buying tooloom for a cent and you could
not put the whole thing in your mouth.
Bathing in the rain as it runs off the
galvanize roof and filling the barrel to save having to carry water.
Going for walks on Sunday afternoon.
School concerts for ten cents admission
and we thought it was too dare.
Your class treat at the end of the term
where every student gave five cents and you got sponge cake and ice cream and
that was really a treat.
Wearing old pants to the beach and
collecting sea shells and pretty stones.
Catching mamataytor in the river
Wait. . .
The excitement of catching candle flies in
a jar and batimamselles.
Putting ti-marie to sleep.
Hunting birds with a sling shot, cooking
and eating them.
Pitching marbles, running jockey in the
canal.
When a calypso on the radio in Lent would
have caused a scandal.
When going to town was a major outing,
requiring serious preparation.
Spending holidays by your grandmother and
aunts.
Castor oil, Epsom salts and senna pods at
the end of August to clean you out!
Eating caimite, mammy seepote and pomme
cethere, sapodilla and sugar apple and tying up your mouth with half ripe
cashew.
Climbing trees, and skipping rope and
eating a bucket of long mango.
Gru Gru Bef or Gri Gri.
Making a Christmas tree from a guava
branch with cotton for snow.
You thought apples and grapes only grew at
Christmas time.
Cowboys and Indians, keeping an eye out
for soucouyant and la diablesse.
Not going in the bush alone because you
are afraid of Douen.
Sliding down the bannister, jumping on the
bed.
Pillow fights.
Saving match boxes to make a train.
Having a pet chicken, duck, rabbit or goat
and crying when it became a meal.
Being tickled to death.
Running till you were out of breath.
Laughing so hard that your cheeks and
stomach hurt!
Stooping down to sip water straight from
the river.
Being tired from playing....remember
that?
Going to the parlour for Trebor and a
penny sweet biscuit, mauby and a rock cake.
On Saturday morning you had to cut the
broom to sweep the yard.
There's more . . .
Scratching your mother's head and pulling
out grey hair.
Fighting for the bowl when your mother
made a cake.
Churning coconut or sour-sop ice cream on
Sunday and licking the palette.
Peeling cane with your teeth and climbing
the pomerac tree to pick pomerac.
Mango chow and home-made bread.
Remember when . . .
When there were no sneakers, only
watchekongs and you washed them every Saturday and whitened them.
When you knew nothing of Rottweilers or
pit bulls, only pot hounds and rich people had Alsatians.
When a penny for recess was plenty, and
another penny a huge bonus.
When you'd reach into a muddy gutter for a
penny.
When fashionable young ladies wore white
socks and shoes and their dress fell under their knees.
When your mother wore stockings that came
in two pieces and had garters.
When all of your male teachers wore ties
and female teachers had buns.
When you had to be rich to have a car or a
radio.
When there was no TV and you went to sleep
at seven o'clock.
When there was no designer water.
When laundry detergent had free glasses,
or toys inside the box.
When any parent could discipline any kid,
or feed him or use him to carry groceries, and nobody, not even the kid,
thought a thing of it.
When every kitchen had a safe with wire
mesh where you kept the good wares.
Milk came in rum bottles.
When they threatened to keep kids
"down" if they failed...and they did!
When your mother used to say that your
licks hurt her more than it hurt you.
When adults spoke in code so "little
ears" wouldn't hear.
Basically, we were in fear for our lives
but it wasn't because of drive-by shootings, drugs, or gangs.
Disapproval of parents and grandparents,
godparents, tanties... was a much bigger threat!
If you can remember any or most of these
things,
Hear nah man,....... yuh ole no
arse...
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SECCION
- 2014 REUNION Part 5
No report have been forthcoming of any of
the above members since the last Board reunion on 21 of May 2012, so I presume
that there is nothing to report, but maybe there is news.
From what I know my inputs to the Minutes
have been forgotten so here they are to refreshen the memories.
A copy of the Minutes, by paragraph.
No.6 Ladislao Kertesz expressed some
measure of frustration in the operation of the Association and endorsed the
need to breathe new life into it. He felt that it was critical that the
Association should have a live web page where people could interact with each
other and the Association, and that there should be representatives of the different
age groups in order that the Association might be considered relevant to
all. He suggested that there should be a contact person for each
grouping, whether by age, nationality or otherwise.
No.7 Also of Ladislao Kertesz further
suggested that a Greetings/Reception Committee should be established and/or an
anchor person appointed to receive and welcome visiting alumni who would
otherwise be left on their own and experience difficulty in meeting old school
friends. Such a Committee or person
could keep the up-to-date contact details of the Trinidad old boys and have a
timetable of planned activities.
No.12 Ladislao Kertesz suggested that the
association habilitate a phone service (no specific idea as to how it can be
implemented) as there should be someone calling by the telephone book those old
boys that are out there and have never been contacted or have not been
contacted in a year’s time.
The object of this is to bring the folks
together as he was sure there is limited knowledge of the Association or need a
reminder for special occasions when there is something to celebrate (people
need a shepherd).
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Ladislao Kertesz at kertesz11@yahoo.com,
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Photos:
MSBAP03MOUNTINSIDE6512,
front cover issue No.9
58WK0041GRP,
winning team.
60AF0032AFRLAN,
Language papers by Andres Freytez
60AF0033AFRLAN,
Language papers by Andres Freytez
