Newsletter for alumni of The Abbey School,
Mt. St. Benedict, Trinidad and Tobago, W.I.
Caracas, 8 of
October 2016 No. 779
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Dear Friends,
This is how we started the first WEB page in
2001.
Now it is capable hands and is at least
updated once a year.
With Wikipedia coming on line by ANTONI MICKIEWICZ we shall have information as never before.
So here is the story:
This circular is about the new web page,
started by Anthony Johnson my class mate 1960.
I have been asked to inquire about the
status and the future of the Web page.
First of all, several oldboys, friends of
Anthony Johnson, have tried to contact him to inquire on the future of the web
page, but received no email answer.
A few even expressed worry on his health,
there was a time when his telephone line was suspended!
Next I got asked Michael Azar to call him or
locate him but again no luck, we have the name of the secretary and the office
where he works as an itinerary speaker giving Economic courses. Again no luck.
Look up “Anthony L.Johnson” CPA, in yahoo.com search. The result is (eDesignation.com,
GRI Sate Faculty member) There his timetable and workshop is depicted, this is
the closest I got.
So after all the effort without a reply, to
his friends, I believe that Anthony does not want to be disturbed. So what can
we do?, to save the Web page?
I understand the problem, especially after
having sent out 81 Circulars. This is an ungrateful work but it has been fun
and I am going to keep it until this year’s end. Of course if I have your help
then I shall look into further Circulars.
There is no need to express solidarity to
the Circulars, but better would be your support with article or commentaries.
I am extremely sorry that Arthur Knagg has
been silent on this effort, thus far we have been unable to get to the archives
where I am sure you would have been delighted with all the past anecdotes and
resumes. And above all, maybe have material for 100 circulars. Still I feel
lucky to be able to send you tidibits of information.
Another source that we have been counting on
is Jon Golding, who is now in TT, but his busy schedule has prevented him to
get first hand information.
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Recently, I received this article on one of
the activities of my classmate, Roger Henderson:
Gender equality takes another proud step
forward in our nation.
The Queen's Park Cricket Club is finally
allowing women into its halls, or that should be, onto its walls, as a Guardian
story (no link) explains.
The club has produced a pin-up calendar,
featuring some six female models.
According to calendar committee chairman
(how does one get that job, exactly?)
Roger Henderson, "It is a first for the
club, but there was no reason for it."
Judging by the expression on club president
Willie Rodriguez’s face, though, as he looks at the calendar in one of the
photos that accompanies the story, Henderson is sorely mistaken.
posted by Jonathan | 9:10 AM
(sorry to inform you
that Roger is not answering, editor)
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One of my classmates wrote in reply to a
question concerning the Class of 1959.
Ladislao,
First of all I am unable to open the
photograph file and secondly I do not know off the top of my head the
whereabouts let alone the email addresses of those you seek.
I would have to make a conscious effort and
devote some time to this project which I must confess cannot be listed as a top
priority at this time.
I will promise whatever relevant information
comes to hand or head I will pass on to you.
Best regards
(This is a typical answer of possible
collaborators, I wonder if the top of the head is too much to ask, EDITOR?)
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NOW NEWS ON THE WEB PAGE.
The web page has been stationary for nearly
a year, no updates, no replies to the inquiries to the webmaster from worried
old boys.
From emails that we have received, we have
concluded that there is no viability to the web page in the actual managerial
format.
It is too much work for one individual to
take care of incoming / outgoing mail and at the same time update the page.
Ideally the page should be done by a retired person if we do not want to go to
a commercial firm.
The commercial proposition cost money, and I
doubt that there is a charitable soul willing to take on the expense. This is
the feeling I have had over the time, especially after reading the emails that
I have been receiving since start the circulars.
So I shall open a forum on your thoughts.
What should we do?.
1. Forget the whole matter, let the web page
die.
2. Ask someone?, to take over the web page,
Anthony Johnson willing.
If you have answered, YES, on No. 1 then
your time at The Abbey School was only a dream.
If your answer is positive on No. 2, then:
a. Are you willing to take over the web
page?.
b. Do you know anyone willing to do so?
c. Are you willing to collaborate with the
finance?. To have a professional webmaster?
Please take your time, but would like to get
an answer from you friends. EDITOR
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DAILY schedule at
school
I have tried to reconstruct the timetable
for Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.
The daily schedule was:
Wake up: 06:00
Morning Mass: 06:00 until 06:45 (until 1958
it was obligatory).
Breakfast: 07:00
Study: 08:00 in Form I classroom, which was
above Prep A and B.
Class: 09:00 to 12:00, Four classes of 45
minutes.
Lunch: 12:30
Study: 13:30 to 14:00
Class: 14:00 to 15:00
Tea and clothes change for sports: 15:00 to
17:00
Bathe and change clothes: 17:00 time that
the dormitory was opened.
Study: 18:00
Dinner: 19:00
Study for Form boys, Dormitory and sleep for
Prep boys: 20:00
Sleep: 21:00
On Saturdays and Wednesdays
The dormitory was opened after Lunch to
change to sport clothes.
And on Wednesday there was study time after
18:00
On Saturday movies at 19:00
On Sunday the Mass was postponed one
hour: 07:00
Breakfast at 08:00
Playtime till 10:00 when there was letter
writing time and study.
Playtime from 11:00 till lunch.
After lunch the time table was the same as
on Wednesday.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I would like your comment on the time table,
I presume that the schedule change through the years so I can vouch for years
1955 until 1960.
So turn your clock back and give me your
opinion!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------.
October Water Shock
BACK in the Abbey School, one of the
half-dozen or so secondary schools I went to and was expelled/suspended from, I
had a Canadian partner named Mark Newcombe. Predictably – given that we were
all aged 16 or 17 – in school, Mark Newcombe was called Stain Stalespunk; which
is reason enough to remember him but he comes to mind – so to speak – now
because of something he wrote for the school magazine.
Honesty forces me to admit the Abbey School
magazine was barely deserving of the name. It comprised about four cyclo-styled
legal-sized pages folded in half and stapled in approximately the middle; and
they were so badly blurred that to attempt to read more than three lines
without resting the eyes was to get a certain migraine headache and a possible
brain tumour; not unlike this shiretrit, come to think of it.
The Abbey School magazine was edited by
Llewellyn MacIntosh, the calypsonian Short Pants, if memory serves – though, of
course, this could be yet another instance where it double-faults - and Mackie
(as he was known before dropping his long name in favour of his short pants)
had asked Mark to write a 500-word piece on a foreigner’s impressions of
Trinidad. I can’t remember his other 480-odd words – this was 1975, mind, and a
lot of rum-and-water has flowed under this bridge since that time. but, as long
as we have weekends like the last one, I shall never forget Mark’s first
sentence:
“The Government of Trinidad and Tobago
has developed an admirable plan to remind its citizens of its past: its past
without electricity or pipe-borne water.”
BC Pires is as high as a pseudo kite. You
can email your zwill to him at bc@skettel.com
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From the above, you can imagine him in the
basketball court, running around with his friends just as we used to do, even
if we were a couple of years apart.
I have tried to contact him but no response,
maybe the message got lost in the internet.
The rest of the article is about TT in the
2000s, so I have left it out, but of course if he authorizes it I can include
it as a column in the future!.
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According to the list the following Oldboy
are not with us anymore.
The first number is the would graduate in
Form V
49
Hamel-Smith Niall
67
Harewood Guy
58
Henderson Wayne
64
Ho
Alan
65
Hoefle
Carlos
62
Howell
John
Hutton
Andrew
Hutton
Christopher
72 Isse /
Issay Daniel
?
Julien
Keith
62
Kenny
Gerald
49
King
Ronald
60
King
Michael
48
Knaggs
Jack
59
Koenraadt Thijs
65 Koon
How Lawrence
66
Korda
Carlos
49
Krogh
Christen
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EDITED by Ladislao Kertesz, kertesz11@yahoo.com, if you would like to be in the
circular’s mailing list or any old boy that you would like to include.
------------------------------------------------
Photos:
12LK5808FBGFAGRP,
Gabriel Faria, Jimmy Samaroo and Neil Charles
52UN0002FAV, Fr.
Abbot Adelbert van Duin
12WR0005WRA, Winston
Ramsahai
65MF0005MFA, Michael
Farah
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