27 July 2013

Circular No 612








Newsletter for alumni of The Abbey School, Mt. St. Benedict, Trinidad and Tobago, W.I.
Caracas, 27 July 2013 No. 612
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Friends,
A little music to brighten the reading.
Lord Relator - Kitchener Medley
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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. 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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
--------------------------------------------------------------------------.
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 
-------------------------------------------------------------------.
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>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------.
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 NÂș 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).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------.
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.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------,
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).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------.
Ladislao Kertesz at kertesz11@yahoo.com,
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Photos:
MSBAP03MOUNTINSIDE6512, front cover issue No.9
58WK0041GRP, winning team.
60AF0032AFRLAN, Language papers by Andres Freytez
60AF0033AFRLAN, Language papers by Andres Freytez





20 July 2013

Circular No 611






Newsletter for alumni of The Abbey School, Mt. St. Benedict, Trinidad and Tobago, W.I. 
Caracas, 20 July 2013 No. 611
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Friends, 
-------------------------------------------------------------------
RE: Club Top Dog/ Sir. Philip Nassief
Glen Mckoy <mckoy43glen@hotmail.com>
21 May
Hello Nigel,    (Attention- Sir Calypso Bandit)
I have been sending emails to Sir Philip, ever since I started sending emails.  
I did not know what year he went to the Mount.  
This is so good to know, Bandit better watch out. 
Any time he slip up from now on, ah getting a older and more mature brother to talk to him.  
As ah matter ah fact, Bandit, that position you held as Top Dog in the Club, I am sorry to inform you, you have just been demoted,
You will have to pay respect to Sir Philip, who is 80 years old.
The respect we all have shown you, you will have to show that same respect to Sir Philip. ha! ha! 
Ah hope this does not cause any friction in the Club. ha! ha!
Cheers Mis Amigos, have a nice day,
Adios Glen. (no hard feelings bandit).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------.
Don Mitchell <idmitch@anguillanet.com>
20 May
Hi, George,
Taking up consultancy work is good advice.  I retired from the practice of law in Anguilla in 1999 (13 years ago!).
After that, I helped out on the bench of the High Court, mainly in St Vincent and Antigua, for five years, but found it too exhausting and stressful doing it full time and so resigned.
After I stopped doing that, for the next six years I ran a free legal aid clinic three half days a week, and taught A-level law in the High School for another three half days.
Then, I agreed to help out once again on the bench two years ago. 
Since this was on the Court of Appeal, and it sits one week on and one week off, I figured it would be part-time work.
Also, as it involved travel every other week to one of our nine jurisdictions (Grenada, St Vincent, St Lucia, Dominica, Montserrat, Antigua, St Kitts-Nevis, Anguilla, and the BVI) I thought it would be more interesting.
Also, as we were well in to the current recession, and our spare cash had been used up, requiring a rapid new source of cash flow, and as the job paid well, I thought it would be financially rewarding.
However, after sticking at it for two years, due to failing physical and mental faculties, I now find it too exhausting to carry on.
I am not enjoying it any more.
I think I want to go back to my legal aid clinic and High School teaching. 
That is about up to my present maximum mental capacity. 
I can do that for a couple more years, perhaps. 
Then, I plan to depart for the great law library in the sky.
Keep well,
Don
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------.
Sent: Monday, May 20, 2013 8:06 AM
Hi Don.....
After I retired 7 years ago found that I needed to keep my brain engaged. 
I now spend about 25% of my time consulting; found it to be very healthy, interesting and rewarding.......
May God help you in your decision,
George
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------.
From: Glen Mckoy
Sent: Sunday, May 19, 2013 9:20 PM
My Dear Friend, Sir Don,  (Judge on The Knight Council)
Health is years, I am o.k. now, always room for improvements eh! ha! ha!
Anyhow, If you feel, you are not willing to continue beyond the end of summer.
Don't be to abrupt, you should work part time on a consulting role, more from home, but of course, I support your decision for change, it may be better for your Chi, in the garden and smelling the roses, we all deserve some serenity. 
I hope your decision, brings you the best results you have ever made in your life.
I am hoping more time for the Club, ha! ha!
Thank You Don, Let’s make it better. Cheers Mis Amigos –
Adios Glen.  
----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
From: idmitch@anguillanet.com
Date: Sun, 19 May 2013 20:39:20 -0400
But, you have the advantage of a few years on me!!!!  I am seriously considering telling my Chief Justice that I am not willing to continue beyond the end of Summer. 
Time for me to move into my garden and smell the roses.
Don
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------.
From: Glen Mckoy
Sent: Sunday, May 19, 2013 8:23 PM
Thank You, Sir Don, 
I will not give up as long as you don't ha! ha!
Cheers glen.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------.
From: idmitch@anguillanet.com
Subject: The Golden Circular. No 600.
Date: Sun, 19 May 2013 19:58:52 -0400
Hi, Glen,
Thank you for those words of encouragement for Ladislao. 
Like him, I am sure, you must wonder sometimes if all your effort is worth while.
I assure you it is. Don’t give up on us.
Keep well.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
A Mickiewicz, amickiew@att.net,
20 May
Wow, Don,
You certainly have been more busy post versus pre-retirement plus your great dedication to the youth by educating them. 
The extra money also helps to cover extra expenses plus the wife also plays a role in the decision.......
Wishing you the very best,
George
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------.
Subject: Contact with Philip Nassief
From: nigelboos@eagles-wings.ca
Date: Tue, 21 May 2013 07:29:11 -0400
I fully appreciate your concern, Don, and you're probably correct in making your decision. 
Actually, I would very much like to have a newer photograph of Philip, for the record, since the one I've posted on the dB is really of a much younger man, not aged 80.
Perhaps Philip might now have the time to supply one for us, because I certainly do not recall any but one, the only one of which I'm aware, and which I've since appropriated.
NB
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------.
20 May
Don,
I recently heard from Philip Nassief in Dominica.
He is one of the original Abbey School students and he has apparently, now retired from work, aged 80.
He expressed his delight at the work we've been putting out over the years on behalf of the ASAA OB.s, and explained that he's only now found time to contact me, although he had intended to do so a long time ago.
I asked him whether he knew you, and he said, "No".
However, I am of the impression that he would dearly enjoy meeting with you.
This note, however, is merely to suggest that you might like to contact Philip when next you're in Dominica.
Might do you both a world of good.
Philip's telephone ##:  In Dominica - 767-449-1141, and, in the U.S -  305-767-2259
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------.
On 2013-05-21, at 5:44 AM, Don Mitchell wrote:
Hello, Nigel,
Interestingly, last month while I was staying at the Fort Young Hotel in Dominica for the Court of Appeal sitting there, I met the lady general manager at the weekly hotel cocktail party for guests.
I inquired of her after the health of Philip, the owner of the hotel.
She told me that he was retired but keeping in good health.
When I told her of the High School connection, she offered to get a message to him for me.
However, I felt obliged to brush aside the offer.
I was constrained by a no doubt idiotic concern over the propriety of a Court of Appeal judge contacting a major businessman who, or one of whose companies or associates, might have a case coming up before me perhaps that very sitting of the court.
I very much regretted not being free to just pick up the telephone and say, “Hello, Philip!”
But, that is the way it is in this business!
Nevertheless, I was very pleased to hear that he was keeping well.
I only know him from the occasional photo that Ladislao has put in the Circulars the past dozen years.
Keep well.
Don
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------.
SECCION - 2014 REUNION Part 4
Special Activities:
Enrique Bonaparte, Has offered to help in setting up a communication means that appears in Minutes paragraph No. 6.
Joseph Habib, Has offered to help with the younger generation of old boys representative of the 1975-1980 and make contacts with the Sports Company of Trinidad and Tobago.
Michael D’Ornellas, Has offered to help out with the abbot on procuring the establishment of a museum by the 100th anniversary celebration?
Gary Matthews, Also on the Museum but I believe that he is also to be the new secretary?  if so then the Circular would like to hear from him, and has reserved a complete issue of the Circular, say number 618???
So, Santa´s helpers, please show your work on behalf of the brethren.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------.
Ladislao Kertesz at kertesz11@yahoo.com,
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Photos:
MSBAP02MOUNTINSIDE6512, front cover issue No.9
60AF0030AFRMATH, Quiz papers by Andres Freytez
60AF0031AFRMATH, Quiz papers by Andres Freytez
74SC0407SCOXXX, Salvador Coscarart.