Circular No 742

Newsletter for alumni of The Abbey School, Mt. St. Benedict, Trinidad and Tobago, W.I.

Caracas, 23 of January 2016 No. 742

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Friends,

Introducing Richard Arrindell

----------------------------------------

My name is Richard Arrindell and I am a Vietnam veteran.

I was a US Marine in Da Nang. 

I would say I’m from either Forest Reserve or San Fernando.

But I’m definitely a South boy.

I went to St Peter’s, Forrest Reserve and Pointe-a-Pierre, Mt St Benedict, RC Boys’ Catholic and St Benedict’s College, La Romaine.

In none of which I learned a bloody thing!

I listen to pretty much any type of music except Trinidadian music.

I think music lost its way after calypso.

But that could just be my age.

After my GCEs, my mother sent me to Los Angeles, where her brother lived.

I said, “I gotta do something!”

And that something was to join the Marine Corps.

I was a kid and had swallowed whole all the John Wayne propaganda out of Hollywood but going through boot camp made me aware of the other side of being a soldier.

I read a lot online, but mostly short essays, not a book or anything.

Either my attention span is shrinking or…actually, it has to be that.

In the seventh week of boot camp, I got an infected blister and spent two weeks in hospital, where I found out what trainees had to do, say, 1,000 pushups a day, 1,000 squat jumps, run three miles, whatever.

They had been telling us, “Everybody do 100 pushups as punishment for Arrindell f***ing up!” It wasn’t punishment.

We were supposed to do it anyway, but they made it punishment, to break our spirit.

To drive us into being soldiers.

At graduation, my drill instructor said, “Arrindell, you are the most disrespectful human being I’ve ever had to deal with!”

And I said to myself, “Thank God: I survived!”

I tried to avoid watching them but I’m pretty sure I’ve seen most of the Vietnam movies.

I couldn’t imagine them depicting it right.

I was in Vietnam for a year, the normal rotation, in Da Nang with the Third Marine Division, Third Battalion, Third Platoon.

I wasn’t given the option of being an infantryman or a mechanic and there was no choice there. Hey! I want to live! I became a mechanic.

My total experience of combat occurred when our engineering company took a lot of scrap lumber out to the village.

Everybody rushed the truck and a female with a baby in her arms got pushed aside.

Screaming, she grabbed her breast and squeezed this thick arc of milk 30 feet in the air. She sprayed an arc 50 feet wide.

Like all traumatic occasions, this one seemed to take place in slow motion.

Eyes popped open, mouths dropped, everybody stood still.

And she calmly walked up, chose what lumber she wanted, and left.

She did put her breast back, though.

I never met another Trinidadian in Vietnam.

There were quite a few in LA but I had decided to immerse myself in the American culture.

When I left Trinidad, if you wanted sex, you would have to be married.

In LA, it was the beginning of the Sexual Revolution.

One of the major attractions of America for me was that I was going to get laid.

I worked as a photographer in LA. The GI Bill took care of my living expenses and a Californian veteran scholarship my tuition for three years at Art Centre College of Design.

After graduation all of my peers were in positions to give me work.

So, for the next 15 years, I did very well.

When my connections started moving on, I decided not to beat my head against it, but to go sailing.

The idea was to get to Trinidad for Carnival.

The Rodney King episode made me want to get back to the freedom I remembered in Trinidad.

Whether it’s lawless freedom or not, it’s still freedom!

America may be the home of the brave but it ain’t the land of the free!

I was burglarised in LA and, because I had some parking tickets, when the police came to my house, they arrested me!

Instead of taking the information on the burglary, they took me to jail!

I was missing the green of Trinidad.

Everything was so brown and dry in LA!

Towards the end of my time there, I was thinking, “You know, I might stay, if it would only rain!”

A Trini is a person with a circle of friends of a hundred people. In LA, you know three or four people.

To me, Trinidad and Tobago means a lot of mountains and trees around me.

And freedom from a police state.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------.

Who The Firetruck Is BC Pires Anyway?

All human experience is circular and the extremes are sometimes indistinguishable: you laugh until you cry; you hate the one you love; even pain can feel good. BC Pires, practising newspaper columnist and qualified lawyer, lives at that nexus of human experience where a tilt of the head tells the difference between joy and despair.

Like most of us in the super-stressed modern world, Pires spends most days overwhelmed by something or the other: the divisive racial politics of his home, Trinidad; the filling out of income tax returns; the impeachment of President Clinton's genital; the collapse of the West Indies cricket team; or his baby daughter, the Banana. The difference between us and him, though, is that, twice a week, in one column called Thank God It's Friday (for the Trinidad Express) and another called Hell of a Weekend (for the Trinidad Weekend Independent), Pires confronts his (and our) terrors with words that make us scream with laughter and roar with pain.

Pires was born on 2 June 1958 and went to Catholic schools all his life, notably St Mary's College, Port of Spain, where he took five years to gain a single Ordinary Level GCE pass-a one, the highest grade, in English Language. It took much longer to break free of Catholic guilt. (He now holds ten O'levels, two A'levels, an LLB and an LEC and spends a good deal of time and space campaigning against the dehumanizing elements of organized religion.) He belongs to no clubs (other than the Law and Media Associations of Trinidad and Tobago, the Law Society of England and the Queen's Park Cricket Club) or political parties and plays no team sports. He also writes for the London Guardian and covered the West Indian games of the 1999 Cricket World Cup in England for them.

Some people spend their lives struggling with the major philosophical questions humanity has faced from the beginning of time; BC Pires has spent his life simply struggling - and it translates into belly-laughs and stomach turning for us every week. If you find that you like his stuff, you are certainly intelligent, probably well-read and may well spend far too much time watching rain fall when you could be doing something important.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------.

From: "Jerry Bain" <jerry.bain@sympatico.ca>

Date: Sat, 11 Jan 2003 18:21:53 -0500

Hi guys,

Well, what a lovely surprise to open my e-mail and find a picture of myself in your archives (Class of 1966, third on the right of Mr Tyrell, back row).

I'm Jerry Bain, # 80 (it would really be nice to know how many people remember their numbers).

My fondest memory of the Mount, was trying not to get a green soft drink after school, that special toast bread we had at breakfast, a teacher we called "Toots", the Serrano brothers, (Small World 1 & 2 ), remember " Box head" ?.

I think I had one of the best teachers of the time, Mr. Ernie Tyrell, you know, I can still sign his initials.

I also remember that mango tree that used to look like a Christmas tree at night from all the cigarette smokers in the tree.

And Joan who worked in the kitchen (smile), the "siphon" gang.

St. Francis short pants with a white long sleeve shirt, (collar had to be up, shirt open 3 buttons).

I've been living in Canada for the last 30 years now, married to Debbie, 2 daughters and a son.

As a matter of fact, those interested can check out my web site, just enter "Trinidad and Tobago in Canada" (preferably on Yahoo ) and there you'll get the rest of the story.

Anyone know the whereabouts of Herman Vercrissen #77 (Aruba), Cornel De Freitas, David Narine, Leon Alves or Bobby Wharton? Drop me a line if you're still out there guys.

Regards to all,

Jerry Bain.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

From the above I perceive that a good number of the guys mentioned were from Fatima but some were from MSB. I included this resume as I am sure that some of you must have been in the same class as Bain, either at MSB or at Fatima.

Please give me a line if you know Bain and those that he mentions.

I have enclosed a photo so that you may recognize him when in Canada!!!

<<<<<<COMMENCEMENT WEEK AT SCHOOL:

This was a rough week for all the new comers; remember that school year started in January in our times. (I believe that this was changed to September in 1963). We were given the books, notebooks etc. from the Bursar and the classroom assignment.

The first reunion was in the Study Hall, Form I classroom, where we were assigned our desks for the whole year. Form I was in front and then came Form II and so on to From V at the back. This is where we kept the books and all our study material, etc. Seating assignment was according to a list prepared by the authorities (knowledgeable priests) with the idea of controlling the kids.

But in our individual classrooms there was no pre assigned listing, so everyone stalked out the DESK!!! The window seat. The seat close to the door, the seat at the rear, until our teachers called for students to occupy the empty front row, which was usually empty during the first day of the class of the year. Those front seats being important to a special group, while the back seats belonged to the more leisure group that were not too keen to be in the sight of the teacher.  In the middle were the rest, or because there were no more back seats!!

Remember the meeting of old friends and finding out who were the new ones and those that did not make it (the whys and where they when) rumours, then the talk of the just passed holidays, trips, etc?

Of course, those that had to take an airplane to get to the school had a more agitated time not because of the trip but because you did not want to forget anything, clothe, sweets, presents, toys, new pens (Parker ball points).

God Bless

Ladislao

--------------------------------------------------------------------.

“The education of a Trini” – By Jerry Bain

It all started at Miss Smith's private School on Charles St. in Port of Spain at the tender age of four.

From then it was on to Miss Sylvester's in Diego Martin and then Mr. Roberts in Woodbrook.

Then I hit the big time, it was up to The Abbey School at Mt. St. Benedict with fellas like Robert Elias (Mighty Trini), Leon Alves, the Serrano Brothers (Small World 1 and 2) and the best track and field coach at the time, P.G. Wilson.

After four years at "The Prison on the Hill", as we called it,

I was transferred to Fatima College to finish my schooling.

Now, that was memories, liming by Mr. Williams' Parlour, fellas like Peter Geoffrey, Denis Niles, Garth Wills, Heyden Duprey (our goalie) and of course, that was the year we 'drafted' Everad Cummings to play "intercol" for us.

After completing three years at Fatima, I had to put in my "free labour" at the family owned business on Edward Street.

This is where I learnt what hard work is all about.

We had a great bunch of electricians there, Desmond St. Hill, Glen Loney to name a few.

Next door was Russ Archer Photo Studio.

Right across the road was Carl Baker, the tailor, and next door lived "the Taylors" who were bakers.... What a MIXED UP WORLD!

Anyway, the old man decided to send me off to Canada to study electronics, just about three months after becoming engaged (Surprise !!!) you could see that coming.

So it was two years at Radio College of Canada where I learnt how to repair television with tubes in it!

I'm still living in Canada now, still trying to figure what happened to all the tubes ?

                                'Special Memories'

The guys I used to race with at Wallerfield on Sundays... Pernell "Pee Wee" Welsh, Sidney Manhim, Silborn Clarke, Michael Munes, Ralph Thom, "Eggie" Gonzales, to name a few.

My liming buddies, Louis Hurdle, "Patches", Derick and Alan Viera, "Doodie" from Maracas. Ellingtonn "Jiggs" Griffith, Carlton Ahyee, Errol Rennie, Andre Penco.

If any of you guys are still out there, DROP ME A LINE !

SPECIAL THANKS to my wife, Debbie, my two beautiful daughters, Alannah and Jenna and my son Jason.

--------------------------------------------------------------

EDITED by Ladislao Kertesz

Send information to: 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:

Bandit p74x p75 The Early Times

16LK0001DMI, Daniel Michieli doctor from Puerto La Cruz

15LK0003RAR, Richard Arrindell

14BC6787BCPFAM, BC Pires Family