Circular No 55

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


Caracas, 30 of November 2002. Circular No. 55
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Dear Friends, now a few lines from Roland d'Abadie.
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Date: Tue, 15 Oct 2002 11:40:16 -0400

Ladislao:

Michael Howard, one of my many cousins who attended "The Abbey School", was good enough to recently send me some information about the Mount and now I must thank you for placing my name on the mailing list and bringing back many faded memories of days long past.

The Mount has many memories for me although I was only there for a few short years and left prior to graduation. My younger brother Bernard attended after I left, my sister worked with the addicts that used our old dorms after the school was closed and my Dad died at the old age home. The de Verteuils featured in the "recent photo's" are cousins and living here in Canada, and Richard and Randall Galt were also classmates of mine, just to name a few. The student list also reminded me of many names and memories that were tucked away in my memory bank.

While looking through the recent photo's, I also came across one of Pedro Castro, one of the three Castro brothers who were there during my day. Do you have any news of Timieno? He was a good friend and classmate. The last I heard, several years ago, was that he was living in Caracas.

I could go on forever but this is a starting point. Having left Trinidad in 1960 for Jamaica and then moving to Canada, trips to Trinidad have not been frequent and crossing paths with old friends, much too infrequent.

Unfortunately, I have no photo's to share of my days at the Mount but many pleasant memories. Playing soccer, cricket, volley ball, boy scouts "squirrel patrol" singing in the choir etc.

Thanks for the memories and yes I received circular No. 48 this morning.

All the best

Roland d'Abadie

Toronto, Canada

e-mail (roland@on.aibn.com)
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I would like to ask forgiveness from my collaborators regarding the date that their resume or story is published. I do not have a system that places articles in line, it is just my mismanagement keeps the order random.


I would like to ask Roland to keep his cousins informed of the web page and the circulars.

Also I would like to get the year of the would have graduated Form V date of all MSB boys that left early, as this way I can group the classmates together.


As you mentioned that your classmates were Richard and Randal, then you would have graduated in 1960, my graduation date. Your cousin Michael Howard
is 1960 also. Please confirm.


Those that sent emails inquiring about the circular, please do not worry, I had lots of work these two week. I promise, you are going to be informed the day I quit making these circulars.


God Bless


Ladislao

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Listado: C55.xls
Photo: pmy 1 150 10cm
msb Dont be cruel 72 8
Column: 021117 wvb: islands in the stream
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ATTACHMENTS

Listado C55.xls

Names	Form V	Contact	nicknames	business address	Phone,	e-mail
Pampellone, Gerald	1959	date		England
Partridge, Michael Todd
Patiño, Jose
Paul, Fr.	OSB, Teacher	lk		Holland
Pazos, Carlos		glen		YV
Peacock, Ian					980 24964
Pecquet, Jean Claude		glen		YV

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Circular No 54

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

Caracas, 23 of November 2002. Circular No. 54

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Dear Friends,

Here is the first scouting story written as such for our Circular by Nigel Boos.
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SCOUTING AT ABBEY SCHOOL

Maybe it’s because we grew up in the post WWII era, a time when uniformed soldiers were on every movie screen and were great role-models for us young ones. Maybe it’s because we loved to parade in our khakis, black and gold scarf toggled at the neck, badges there to show as proof of achievement. Or maybe we all simply enjoyed the challenge and the fun associated with scouting. 

But for sure, Scouting at the Abbey School was an unique experience. I believe it is true to say that we had more Queen Scouts than perhaps any other Scout Troop in the island. But what else would one expect than a fantastic record, with a Scout Master like Fr. Ildefonse in charge, a mighty man among men, followed after his resignation by the friendly, humble and caring Fr. Cuthbert, who had to learn everything about scouting from “scratch”, as the Canadians say.

Sunday morning band practice was something to which we looked forward, bringing with it, as it did, noise, music (of a type), discipline, and great efforts by our band to maintain a high quality of martial tempo. The trumpeters, who in my day included John Golding, Juan Marini, Pablo Figuera, Dennis Gurley, and others, led by Manuel Prada, set a wonderful, piercing tune, against the rat-tat-tat-tat, rat-tat-tat-tat, ah-rat, ah-rat, ah-rat-tat-tat-tat beating of the side drums, played by (fill in the blanks, fellas, I can’t even remember the names), and backed by the Big Base Drum which was my job. (Wasn’t Stephen Clerk my understudy? I know he was involved, but exactly in which capacity eludes me now.) Frankly, I had the easiest job, as all I had to do was to hit the thing hard and keep time with everyone else. We marched around the School a few times, much to the annoyance of the volleyballers who had to pause in their game as we ducked under the net, and it was a blessed relief to everyone when, finally, we set off down the hill and along the roadway to entertain / annoy the rest of Trinidad and the monks of MSB. It was always a highlight of the parade when Mike Howard was invited to step out in front of the band, with his silver baton (a thing with a heavy wooden ball at the top end). Tall as he was, Mike led the parade from the front and inspired us with his wonderful, fancy marching style and handling of his baton.

Camping with the 1st Mount St. Benedict Scout Troop was an experience never to be forgotten. Fr. Ildefonse would choose his camping ground, after much consultation with the Scout Commissioner, local landowners, and I suppose, our Troop Leader, Gerard Pampellone, and plans would be made. Each Patrol Leader (mine was “Woodpeckers”) was responsible for ensuring that an adequate number of pots, pans, skillets, mugs, plates, cutlery, tents, poles, pegs, mallets, shovels, ropes, semaphore flags, etc. were packed into our “Patrol Boxes” and readied for departure. On the big day, we’d board the bus and accompanying cars in our uniforms and head out for a few days of glorious adventure. On site, the routine began, with unloading, unpacking, distributing, checking, choosing Patrol sites, pitching tents, cutting bamboo, building trestle tables, making gadgets, cooking, inspections, hiking, mealtimes, camp-fires, games and of course, sleeping. 

Each day began with a “Wake-Up” call, followed in short order by Holy Mass, from the back of Fr. Ildefonse’s / Fr. Cuthbert’s Volkswagen van. The back of the van was set up as an altar, and (these were pre-Vatican II days, so the priest had his back to us, facing into the van) we stood around respectfully as the holy sacrifice was offered, in Latin.

We camped at a number of memorable sites all over Trinidad and Tobago, and I vividly recall one camp in Tobago, in 1961. I think, when Mr. Bishop invited us to come to Tobago as guests of the Tobago Scout Association. The land chosen for us was a concave basin, and we were positioned at the very base of the basin. Mr. Bishop brought over the largest “grass-cutter” I’d ever seen (which he probably used to cut the bush between his coconut trees), a huge apparatus pulled behind his tractor. In no time at all, the area was cleared and we began to set up camp, pitching tents randomly around the inside of the basin. We cooked supper and were preparing for bed when the heavens opened up. Rain fell bucket a drop for the entire night and the water rose inch by inch inside of the tents. Everything was soaked, in fact, everything was underwater, and we were cold and miserable. An SOS call was sent out, presumably by Fr. Cuthbert, and in the middle of the night, cars began to arrive to extricate us from the bog which our campsite had become. We were taken to a local school-house and offered accommodation in a few of the classrooms, which thankfully were dry. We slept blissfully into the morning, all semblance of order having temporarily disappeared. But not for long.. . . . . . . as soon as we had woken up and cooked breakfast, back we went to the campsite to salvage everything, travelling back and forth in Mr. Bishop’s tractor-trailer unit to a new campsite chosen for us, a lovely spot right on the water’s edge, with a beautiful view of sea and sand as only those who know and love Tobago can understand. A very memorable camp indeed.

And so the years have flown. We graduated from Abbey School and moved on with our lives. Some of us went on to Form 6 at St. Mary’s, others attended Canadian, American, British and Venezuelan Universities, among others, and settled down, some with families, others not, but all retaining somewhere, in the backs of their minds, distant, lingering memories of those happy days of our youth, when we were ready to take on the world.

Ladislao Kertesz has been asking for someone to write something about Scouting at Mount, for the benefit of us all, and I have tried to fulfil his request. I knew that somewhere among my albums I still had a small collection of photographs which I had taken with my box camera and I’ve dug them up. Hopefully, some of you guys will recognize yourselves. Hopefully, these pictures will remind you of where we’ve been together. Perhaps some of you may feel inspired to write about your own memories of MSB and the Abbey School. At any rate, here they are, for your enjoyment. I recognize a number of the guys from these photos, but perhaps not everyone, so help me out, if you will:

Best regards,

Nigel

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Until my circular No. 55

God Bless

Ladislao

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Listado: C54 .xls

Photo: Jeffgransuallandh_11ba35 no Joeazarandhispatrol

Column: 010805 wvb The child of the sea

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ATTACHMENTS

Listado C54.xls

Names	Form V	Contact	Nickname	business address	Phone,	e-mail
OConnor, Leary				Booragoon, W.Australia		gilleary@hotmail.com,
OConnor, Richard				Booragoon, W.Australia		peth9@ca.com.au,
OConnor, Wayne		lk
Oliveros, Americo		glen		YV
Olivierre, David Fr.
Olliviere, Fr.		roger		TT
Ortega, Edgar		glen		YV
Ortega, Pedro		glen		YV

Circular No 53

Newsletter for past alumni of The Abbey School, Mt. St. Benedict, Trinidad and Tobago, W.I.
Caracas, 16 of November 2002. Circular No. 53
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Dear Friends,


Here is the second episode of my adventure at the Abbey School.
Again I am enclosing a letter for Fr. Cuthbert, this time one that was sent a year later.
From the letter we can see the end of the motorbike that Fr. Ildefonse used.
Reference to Michael Azar, who by the way lives in Portland Oregon.
Fr. Lee Sing, whom I remember for his peanut eating, every night while he was watching us trying to sleep in the small boys dormitory?
Fr. Bernard being the Abbot after Fr. Adelbert van Duin who went on loan to the Port of Spain.
I met Fr. Bernard while in wheel chair, luckily he was speaking by then.
Fr. Gerome, my English teacher in Form I.
Fr. Benedict, who is very well for his age.
Bro. Bruno, and the dogs?? How many took German Shepherds back to Venezuela??


PART II


Now back to my story: In those days the refectory was an old wooden building near the main church. This two-storey building had the kitchen on the first floor and we eat in the second. There was a centre corridor with tables on each side. The prefect sat at the wall end of the table and four kids sat on either side of the table. There was an elevator that brought up additional food from the kitchen when there was need, although the tables were set before we arrived at the main door.

The prefect’s pets sat to his left and right and the youngest or less liked kids sat next to the corridor, the furthest position from the prefect, they were the last to get food if any was left!. This is where I sat during a couple months. First, because I was new and second because I did not know English, the third there was an empty place at the table. My arrival was not welcomed as the food had to be rationed from 8 portions to 9. All the kids at the table tried to teach me the name of the edibles but without luck. So next the prefect tried the rough way, he told Wayne Vincent Brown to get English out of me or there was no food. I got bounced about but English was not easy. Finally I got upset and decided call WVB “Topo” which is not offensive in Spanish but for those that only knew English found it puzzling and annoying. It worked because when WVB got rough, I called out. The end of this episode I cannot remember but I did not die of hunger and was not hurt except for my pride!! They got tired I presume or I began to assimilate English.

But this is not the interesting part, what was really intriguing was the quantity and quality of food that left the elevator to go in an open cart to the Priest´s refectory that was next to ours, while we eat in silence and had time to see and smell the food in the cart. I could not figure it out why this food was being carted while we eat, and in front of our eyes and noses. I presume that the kitchen had to serve us first and then the Priests. This always caused lots of comments and the effort to steal some of the edibles.

The procedure to enter the refectory was to wait until the priest in charge arrived and at 7:00 am., 12.00 midday and 6:00 pm?? (some of you must correct the times if I am not correct) the door were opened and we had to walk slowly down the corridor to our table. We had to wait until we said prayer and sat down. The Prefect had first choice of each plate of food that was passed down, he had to make sure that everybody got part of the dish that was passed. There was no authorization to talk, one, because the fight for food would have been loud and second because some kids would only talk and not eat, third, we were next to the priest refectory and there was a lecture being read while the priest eat.


The third part shall come soon.
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Another oldboy wrote:


Date. 30 July 2002

Dear Mr Tony Johnson,

Just found out about the ABBEY SCHOOL web site. It is fantastic; as I browse thru it I had tears in my eyes, I leap back in time to the Mount.

My name is SALVADOR COSCARART.

I attended the Abbey School in 1967 to 1975. as well as my brother Pedro Coscarart.

I now reside in Bristol Louisiana U.S.A. My phone # (337) 668-4595

My e-mail addresses:

salborbolla@hotmail.com and Salco56 @cs.com. I have been wanting to know about what happened to the Abbey School, its faculty and students. I am originally from Cumana, Venezuela. I am now a citizen of the United States.Married to Gina Beaugh of Eunice louisiana, we have three children Jonathan 20, Lander 18, Ansley Nicole 17.

Best wishes Salvador

Coscarart.

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Sun, 22 Sep 2002 13:49:08 EDT

[Unable to display image] We would like to say hello to all of our classmates (1967-1975) and the staff of Mount Saint Benedict.

We love you all and God Bless.

Salvador & Pedro Coscarart.

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Date: Sat, 29 Jun 2002 13:01:32 -0500

Me da mucha alegría de haber tenido noticias del Abbey School.

Muchas gracias Ladislao. Yo me llamo Salvador Coscarart, naci en Cumana Edo.

Sucre. Atendí el ABBEY SCHOOL desde 1967 a 1975. Vivo en Bristol Louisiana

Estados Unidos, mi teléfono es (337) 668-4595.

Una pregunta si no es molestia, como supo de mi y quien le dio la

referencia, de mi parte le saluda. .Estoy lleno de mucha alegría al ver el

web del Abbey School. muchas gracias otras ves.

Saludos muy cordiales,

Salvador Coscarart ABBEY SCHOOL 1967-1975

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Continuing the Who is Where,


35. Alan Date is living in Korea, teaching English at a University there. His e-mail address is alandate@lycos.com. If you are lucky to get a reply from him, he can give you Paul's address. Paul is presently living in Victoria B.C.
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God Bless


Ladislao
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Listado: C53 .xls
Photos: Carta Fr. Cuthbert 07 feb 89 1
Carta Fr. Cuthbert 07 feb 89 2
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ATTACHMENTS

Listado C53.xls

Names	Form V	Contact	Nickname	business address	business phone	e-mail
Muro, Alvaro		glen		YV
Muro, Enrique		glen		YV
Murphy, Philip		farcheg
Nacimiento,
Naime, Michael F.		glen		YV
Nassief, Michael		roge
Nassief, Phillip				Dominica
Nuñez, Joaquin		glen	big	YV
Nuñez, Simon	1958		small	yv
Obrien, Anthony	1964	gioannetti	inches	TT		toni@trinidad.net

Circular No 52

Newsletter for past alumni of The Abbey School, Mt. St. Benedict, Trinidad and Tobago, W.I. Caracas, 9 of November 2002. Circular No. 52

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Dear Friends,

Here is the article that we got from Down Under some months ago, better late that never???
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27 may 2002.

Elspeth O'Connor

Richard and Leary have been working on the list for some time but we never seem to have time to complete what they do know about old boy's whereabouts.

In the meantime we have been getting the Circulars from Esmond Lange, Richard's brother-in-law.
Could you please send them direct to us and register Richard.

His address is 44 Aldridge Road, Booragoon, Western Australia, 6154.

He was at Mount from about 1942-50 so he must be an elder in the Community now!
We immigrated to Perth in 1967 with Leary and Gillian and their children.

We have lived in Booragoon since then and have multiplied. We now have four children and ten grand-children. Richard worked in Oil all his life and retired in 1992.

We now enjoy the family, lots of friends and travel regularly keeping in touch with friends and family all over the world. Our email address is as per this letter. He'd love to hear from anyone else who remembers him. When he went to Mount he says he was the thirteenth boarder.

In 1996 he returned to Mount for a visit and met Fr. Ildephonse and was very disappointed to find that the College had changed so much!
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So we now know the date that the Abbey School opened, January 1942, since the start of the year must have been in January as the year end was December until 1962??? when it was changed to July, and of course there must have been at least 50 kids to start the school. I wonder what propaganda was used to entice parents to send their kids to this new school???

The School closed in 1985 July. Well this gives 43 years, an unfortunately a sad ending.

I wonder who was student number 1 or at least the names of some to the other students, and if anyone knows other old very old boys. There have been a lot of questions as to the years before 1958. I believe that I have the names and graduation dates for only about 10, in that period. I cannot believe that the information era started in 1958.

I am after all the old boys in a list that I have been sending you in groups of ten.

There has been very little response to the listing, so I believe that either the list is incomplete or our memory is hazy, which would be natural, since the event has been over 50 years ago.

Additionally there are no photos taken before 1958, which makes it difficult to reconstruct the era.

I hope that Richard will send me the list of his classmates, so that we can start with the 1950 group.

I am sending a photo of a group of students that was given to me by Fr. Benedict, can anyone recognize someone??? There is no date given but it must be around 1967.

Thanks to Myron Lew I have recent photos of the Mount taken a few months ago. Here is the first one of the series.

God Bless

Ladislao
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Listado: C52 .xls
Photos: DSC00102 msb ML
Group 1967+1 no
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ATTACHMENTS

Listado C52.xls

Names	Form V	Contact	Nickname	business address	Phone,	e-mail
Moreno,		glen		YV
Moreno, Fernando		glen		YV
Morgan, Trevor
Morson-Gittens, Wayne			Hopalong
Morvay, Peter	1962	kenrick		Caracas	(269) 248 2268 (212) 267 3521	peter.demorvay@lasmo.com.ve
Moses, E
Mosquero, Juan		glen		YV
Most, Gerhard					(212) 202 3479	Gerhard.most@empresas-polar.com, gmost@empresas-polar.com,
Mt. St. Benedict Monastery					(868) 662 5286
Muller, Maxim		glen		YV

Circular No 51

Newsletter for past alumni of The Abbey School, Mt. St. Benedict, Trinidad and Tobago, W.I. Caracas, 2 of November 2002. Circular No. 51
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Dear Friends,


Some of you must be wondering about my correspondence with the priests at MSB through the years.
I have found an interesting letter that was written to me by Fr. Cuthbert years back.
The letter has interesting information on the date of the closure of the school, July 1985.
Effectively today the school does not look the same as when I was there.
I am going to write a short resume leading to my stay that started in 1955.
I went to the Abbey School because of concerns by my parents of the need to learn English. My father was a friend of Matias Fedak´s father who recommended the school. My father got my uncle interested and I was enrolled in their idea.
I was told of the impending trip in July 1955 after I finished primary school here in Caracas.
I remember starting to make a list of English words that I knew, they did not number more than 25 if my memory is right. No problem, I did not know that in TT people spoke only English with a few exceptions. And what a treat, an airplane flight of over an hour. I had never been on an airplane before. The airplane was a Viking, if I find a photo in the future I shall include it, specially for you pilots.
The day of the flight approached without a sweat, I had no way of knowing what the future had for me. I have tried to think of my bravery but I believe that the opportunity for a flight overwhelmed reason.
The trip was long enough at about 10000 feet, I could see people walking in the streets and vehicles on the road. Then suddenly the announcement that we were about to land. Here suddenly I got nervous, as my parents were not close, etc.
I disembarked the airplane and walked apprehensively towards the terminal building together with the rest of the passengers. I had in my hand a slip of paper with my future address, The Abbey School and the contact. Fr. Bernard,
Suddenly I saw a white robed person and three kids, I only remember that it was Bro. Vincent, Manuel Prada and two other kids. The emigration part was fast and off we went to the school, which was clearly seen at the distance, just as today, a monument.
I had arrived a week early, which was good as I met all the priest and the Venezuelan boys with whom friendship was obvious, only then I realized that there was a language problem.
The rest of the story shall be posted in a new circular. I believe in equal time.


Now for a couple of lines from Robert Lee.
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From: Robert Lee
Date: Tue, 15 Oct 2002 09:05:47 –0400
To: Michael Achim , Ladislao Kertesz

Michael,

Here's a summary of life up at Mount written by CHECHE. (Circular No. 48) It is not that much different from our era. Of course his time sort of overlapped with us. It does bring back a flood of memories. I am sure he did not include everything that they did for example the dreaded initiation of the "hedge", sampat, tying kids to a chair at the scout house and rolling them down the hill, throwing rocks at the bee hive when Brother ? was tending the hives. I wonder if those guys used to escape in the middle of the night when Fr.Augustine went to bed?

My birthday was very special, same as Raul Leoni. I enjoyed it when his dad would fly in the food and chefs. Plus it took the spotlight away from me. No Sampat!

What does CHECHE know about Kalaloo?

There are lot of names mentioned here that you have not heard of over the years. Didn't you and Raymond Maccartney not play on a mount band?

Robert Lee

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To: Ladislao

Can you put Michael Achim on your Circular mailing list? I am leaving for Sydney tomorrow. If anyone can come up with a way to contact Richard McCartney aka. MAD in Australia. I would appreciate if they could e-mail that info to me mailto: baseball_bob@yahoo.com

Robert Lee

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Continuing the Who is Where,


31. Maurice Lloyd is now living in Maple Ridge, British Columbia. I last saw him 4 years ago, and I nearly didn't recognize him. Maurice has aged terribly. Las, I will give you an e-mail address for his ex wife. You may want to try her to see if Maurice has an e-mail address. the address is
sherryl@sfu.ca.


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God Bless


Ladislao
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Listado: C51 .xls
Photos: letter of Fr. Cuthbert 24 Jan 87 150
16 oil refinery point a pierre
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ATTACHMENTS

Listado C51.xls

Names	Form V	Contact	Nickname	business address	Phone,	e-mail
Moffie, Edgar		glen		YV
Moffie, Eloy		glen		YV
Mohammed,		glen
Monplasir, Stuart		lk		St.Lucia		stumon@hotmail.com, stumon@yahoo.com,
Monterola, Miguel		glen		YV
Montiel, Alfredo		glen		YV
Montiel, Gonzalo		glen		YV
Mora, Stan
Morales, Daniel		glen		YV
Morales, Luis		glen		YV

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