Circular No 1059

 

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

Caracas, 1 July 2022. No. 1059

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Dear Friends,

This is the last issue on:  We thought they'd never end, we'd sing and dance our life away, ta ra ra ra

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Jan Koenraadt <jankoenraadt@casema.nl>

Sun, Jan 30 at 6:31 PM

Hello Attila, you are my good old friend too.

It is your name I saw on the internet somewhere in 2007 when I asked you "do you know me" and you replied "Yes" and from then on you introduced me to the Circulars.

I was probably a bit emotional replying to the topic of Donald Goddard that the place was more like "a jail on a mountain" and the remarks of humble and sincere Fr. Harold Imamshah.

Not to say if Mount indeed was a jail, but in the consideration of that thought I was trying to review how much it differed in regime of rules and way of life from other ordinary day schools or public school.

As I was put on such a public school after form IV with mixed boys and girls, I really experienced all those differences.

So many rules you could get punishment for at Mount didn't exist at all at the new school, that it left me considering the stupidity of so many of those rules.

And that brought me to the thought that the regime of rules was only meant to keep 110 boys under control with as little as three monks, two brothers and a few prefects.

That it was not meant to be formative for us or character building which would benefit us in our later life in a civilian society.

No, instead it was partially damaging that we were not competitive with equal students from other schools.

I don't know if other students could get along well in their new school after Mount, I only know about myself.

In my case I needed two more years to finish that school compared to other pupils of my age in Surinam.

As foreign student at Mount we were forbidden to speak our native language, in my case Dutch.

That was another rule. (There were maybe a thousand of those kinds of rules if you count all the rules the prefects made up on the spot. E.g. we were also forbidden to read the newspapers except form V).

It was a thing you could get punished for if you refused.

Back in Surinam it was to my disadvantage, I didn't know the correct Dutch words for English expressions.

I failed terribly in Dutch grammar and literature because I missed out on the grammar lessons from form I-IV.

This applies also too to all the Spanish speaking students.

I don't know about the troubles they encountered, are they able to manage all the grammar rules in Spanish at later life when they write stuff?

It's what I would like to address about the strangeness of the rules, like where I was able to drive through town in the evening on a motorbike with a girl on the back seat and nothing was wrong, while at the same time you would have been expelled from school if you had been caught with the scooter at the girls’ place.

It haunts you if you can't understand why it had to be like that.

But so much for that, I grew over it, now it is only the memories left.

If it was not a jail, it was something along that way.

You describe so well in detail this time how your adventure went with the Lambretta scooter from the monk.

It was a very bold thing to do!

The boy who showed it to me, I forgot his name, was an older boy.

He lived close by in Chaguanas where Jos Shoemaker's parents lived.

He was a bit funny and bold.

"You wanna see something? Jump up".

Something like that he said and off we went on the scooter.

Down the hill up to the main road to Port of Spain maybe a mile or three and then he turned and all the way back.

This was with lights on in the evening!

So the scooter is seen very well going uphill.

Up to the Abbey School where he parked the scooter back on its place and we walked away.

There I realised it was very easy.

I can't remember how often I did it, maybe three times, maybe four, I don't know.

I went maybe twice to the main road again.

Maybe it was the last time I took you with me.

Yes, I remember how we climbed down the rain pipe, pushing the scooter downhill until it was far enough away and then bump started it.

We took so many risks, what if the gas had run out, what if the police saw us, or if we were involved in a stupid accident.

Because those scooters came in and out at random, nobody at the monastery or school realised something was out of order.

This randomness, that's why we could do it.

So, it's so amazing you were able to duck away in time when father Cuthbert passed by in the VW van.

That he stopped is maybe because he thought a father was there and wanted to know why.

But when he didn't appear he went on?

The four years I was at Mount Fr. Cuthbert never gave me a punishment.

He never intervened either if I got punishments from someone else.

He was the good man, always meaning well.

If he had caught you, he must have felt obligations to take measurements probably.

I think Bobo would have expelled you, but if Fr. Cuthbert had to say it, he might have spared you in just write lines or so.

I don't know, just guessing.

But it would have been a major event, how could that be, boys stealing the scooters for joyriding.

You probably would not have told you was on route to visit Annette Polderman all the way to her school, otherwise that probably would have finished you off.

Just joyriding on the road on the hill was less bad.

Yeah, and who taught you to do it?

So my name would pop up, but they couldn't reach me in Surinam.

It would have changed your career and I would have been the cause of it.

I skipped that burden!

Good thinking too not to go back right away because he would still have been around.

Very bold to continue your journey to the girl.

You truly have been extremely lucky.

But did Frank Malaver do the same after you?

You showed me pictures of your bikes and when you retired you started on a long journey along the coast of California from San Diego / Tijuana along the "Isle" of the Bay of California and then cross over and continue to South America where you live now.

I have good feelings your career hasn't been broken and instead you expanded on this scooter joyriding.

This was a formative and character-building thing I suppose :-).

I motorbiked for three years in Paramaribo every school day.

I think I must have driven on every road in town in those years.

Often, we had free hours so we went on a drive somewhere.

In hindsight I still find it strange, you would have been expelled while I was doing something similar (except it was my dad's bike) and nothing was wrong.

Sometimes there were school parties or some students’ birthday, then I would take a girl along on the motorbike in the evening.

As I said, truly, no supervision was needed, nothing went wrong because I still was like a monk :-) with no experience.

I only know of one case where it went wrong.

That was a boy from my class who was boarding in a house of a family and after a year the daughter of the tenant turned pregnant.

They went to the Netherlands and got married.

Summer 1969 at start of last schoolyear, me on my motorbike.

Enjoying freedom with no rules with cigarettes and a lighter in my pocket.

When I finished school prices of motorbikes had gone up.

My dad sold it for the same price he had bought it.

So, in fact all the riding was for free except gas.

As I remember, it was a Lambretta scooter about like these 1963 models.

Many regards too, be well.

Much greetings

Jan Koenraadt MSB '63-'67

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Father Harold Imamshah <frharold12@gmail.com>

Sun, Jan 30 at 8:15 PM

Hi Jan,

I enjoyed reading of your adventures on the Lambretta, scary but enjoyable.

I felt I was reading of the Famous Five or any of the escapades written by Enid Blyton.

Are you in Suriname?

One of my best monk friends in the Monastery was Fr. William Boeurs from Suriname. 

If it's any consolation, when I was a monk, I thought that I too lived in a prison and that somehow, we were encouraged to consider women and the world as the enemy.

By the way, I was invited by the current new Bishop of Paramaribo to give a Caribbean Church Music Workshop in 2018 & 2019 and we sang all that I taught for the Mass celebrating Independence and the renaming of the nearby Park after the previous Bishop.

The bishop has invited me again and I would love to meet you if you live in Suriname.

God bless you and all Abbey Alumni,

Fr Harold

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Remy <remyvanhaanen@casema.nl>

Mon, Jan 31 at 6:07 PM

Dear Fr. Harold,

Very nice to hear from you!

Yes, the Lambretta adventures were very naughty, so much could have gone wrong.

I can imagine the thoughts you must have had in your beginnings; I believe you had to get up at quarter pas four in the morning and say all the prayers.

My first year being 12 turning 13 at Mount we had to go to Holy Mass every morning before breakfast the whole year.

When I was away from home living on my own in the Netherlands, I did not go to church anymore.

A lot of people did the same at that time.

I did not stay in Surinam.

After school I went to Delft to study at the University.

I met my wife there and we got married and I stayed in the Netherlands.

There was a military coup in 1980 so we decided to wait until climate changed but it didn't.

It is only now in the last election the country is freed from Desi Bouterse in the lead, but near bankruptcy, or the other way around, they ruined the bank.

I knew the previous bishop Mgr. Zighem well when I was young.

But I don't know the present one.

Surinam needs it very much that the church thing is going on, bring the people together.

Very nice you were invited to give that Worksop and do the singing in the Mass and being invited again.

In this time Surinam can have anything it can get to raise the spirits.

Sincere greetings and all the best,

Jan Koenraadt

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Alan Date <alandate@gmail.com>

Thu, Feb 3 at 10:58 AM

Salah, They talkin' 'bout you, man!

And stay safe and bless'd,

Alan

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Editor:  Photo 34LK3456FBBRIDGE annexed is an early photo of the Bridge behind the Monastery of Mount St. Benedict.

The monks wore Black Habits in the early years, but eventually changed to White on account of the tropical heat.

The walkway was originally wooden.

The Bridge is in a state of disrepair and is in dire need of restoration.

We thank you for your support...

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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 Serrao 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.

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EDITED by Ladislao Kertesz,  kertesz11@yahoo.com,  if you would like to subscribe for a whole year and be in the circular’s mailing list or if you would like to mention any old boy that you would like to include, write to me.

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Photos:

Bridge photo

34LK3456FBBRIDGE,

18LK9616FBNSAGRP, Nathaniel Sampath

55HH0015ENGLISH

17LK5927FBAKNWFE, Arthur Knaggs and wife