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
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------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
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------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, | |
| 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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