Circular No 118

Newsletter for past alumni of The Abbey School, Mt. St. Benedict, Trinidad and Tobago, W.I.
Caracas, 7 of February 2004. Circular No. 118

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Dear Friends,
Here is an account of an old boy's odyssey with limited time. This has also happened to many others who did make the pilgrimage to MSB. I had the same experience except that I just did not accept that the Monastery´s wooden door would be a barrier to my visit, after 40 years. I got to the gift shop, the old gift shop that I remembered was longer and narrower, and the new one seems to have been adequated for the times, with the installation of a lockdoor between the customer, cashier and the merchandise. This is sign of times when there is a possibility of shopping without payment. The shopkeepers are very thoughtful but have very little information for an oldboy. There are no telephones or a means of communication with the inner part of the Monastery, so there is no possibility of contacting the clergy for the shop. The solution was to go around and enter the Monastery by the gate used to get to the old seminarians dormitories or bakery or car repair area. Once in that area you most likely meet Fr. Cuthbert or the Credit union helper who knows the schedule of the clergy. I am sure that Fr. Abbot is going to give precise instructions to the gift shop attendants, to make sure that an oldboy gets the information he is soliciting, and be able to communicate with one of the clergy.
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From: Richard de Verteuil <richard@deverteuil.co.uk>
Sent: Monday, January 19, 2004 4:48 AM
Subject: Trip to The Mount

Hi all,
I have just returned from Trinidad to the UK, where I have lived for the past 51 years, and while in Trinidad I was able to squeeze in a quick trip up to the Mount. My wife Gillian and I went with our daughter Claire, her daughter Ella (18 months old) and her fiancée, Andrew. We had tea at the Pax Guest House (Honey), and then went up to the Church. It is 53 years since I left Mount and my memory was playing tricks on me. I thought the Church was BIG, but in reality it is quite small, only about twice the size of the little chapel where we go to Church on some Sundays, and smaller than our Parish Church in Chatham. We had a look around the gift shop but I did not know we could go any further so that was as much as we did see. On the way up we passed the sports field which looked much smaller than I remembered it, and the path we used to travel is now almost unrecognisable. If you did not know where it was it would be difficult to find. What was a jungle wilderness a few yards away from the road is now developed with housing all the way up the valley road as far as the sportsfield area, and there are even houses hanging on to the hill near the guest house. Above the Guest House I could not see much detail, but did see the path leading down to the old seminary where I was standing when some kind and thoughtful boy threw a stone and split my head open, requiring our infirmary brother to sew it up two days later, without any painkiller!
That evening, on returning to our temporary home in West Moorings we had a session with my cousin Hugh remembering the days we were together at the Mount, and little foibles of the masters, like Mr Achong (board dusters and lines), Brother Drake (edge of ruler across the knuckles), Fr Ildefonse (frightening) and particularly with sadistic pleasure, Fr Chrysostom who was our dormitory master. Never mind, I forgive them all. Their treatment of us was particularly character building. We also remembered some of the more pleasurable episodes and those who have made it good since leaving the Mount. We remembered the scouts, camping at Arima and living on tins of condensed milk; and having the goodies brought by our parents 'taxed' in the dormitory on Sunday nights, looking for grey hairs at a marble, or was it a kee-ow (!) a time (a swift tap if you pulled out a black one), and running the gauntlet if you were still kneeling by the door of the refectory at the end of the meal! Oh those aching heads. Tops season, marbles under the cliff, and all those big boys we looked up to - those were the first students at the Mount when I was there.
Oh happy day! I saw a picture of the boys taken end of 1948, so I was not in it, and strangely I only recognised about three boys, including my cousins.
I could go on, but perhaps another time when I am feeling maudlin'! or is it boring you all? Lets hear more from the pioneers - or are you all past being able to operate PCs and cope with email?
Cheers for now,
Richard de Verteuil

PS: Thanks for Mac Seheult's address - another long lost cousin!
PPS: For Rafael E - The Merrymen are still around but I do not think they still gig. However they still produce records and I believe they have a studio. Up to five years ago I used to visit Barbados regularly as my parents lived there, and have many of their recordings on tape. I well remember the calypso you quoted, RinTinTin ( a euphemism I believe!!)
(Richard, I need the picture of 1948, please have it scanned!!! Ed.)
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By the ed. Written in 2002 = You read last week an article by Anthony Milne on the "Abbey library needs help".
Now it is my time to get hold of your attention, get hold of your chair!!! I am going to rival the Trinidad Express´s journalist. Watch out Pulitzer!! An engineer is about to???
You might not believe me but I never saw this library, it has taken me 40+ years to find this out, can anyone help me to locate it???, Where was it in (1960) or is in (2002) the Library must be big??? Since there is only one computer at the Mount, then I presume that this is where it is located, because to track all the books, it is a big job. I wonder if Don Mitchell saw it in his last visit?
The only library that I knew for good or bad was on the first floor of the school, situated over the driveway. This library was below the washroom of the upper dorms. Why I say bad or good, notice that I changed the order!!! It was because when we reached Form I we were required to read one book per month, if not we were penalized. This was the bad part as many of us, strike out the bookworms, did not like to read and saw this as a punishment. At the beginning a lot of us just borrowed and returned the book, just formalism, until Fr.Bernard asked part of the contents, he always knew the contents of all the books of the library, so we were admonished and this time you had to start the reading and of course finish it or be prepared for a poor English mark. So you could not just borrow a book and return it at the end of the month, but you had to read it. I do not know if we invented speed reading, The Kennedys made it popular in the 1960s, but nobody mentioned us. The Guns of Navarone?? H.M.S.Ulysses?? Any one remembers??? Maybe I did not write the title as it should be, but at least I remember two of the books that I read, of course no memory of the author, H.M.S. Ulysses had a blue cover??? By the way, the Guns of Navarone was a good movie later on!!! Anthony Quinn and the lot. Was there a movie on the other book??? The good part was that it gave us the knowledge that we have used in reaching our objectives, thanks to Fr. Bernard´s and Fr.Gerome´s insistence, we became what we are as this helped our education. As a challenge I am going to make a trip to Trinidad and find this library, never is too late. Maybe I am going to ask Anthony Milne??? I am sure he did a lot of research on it!!
This trip is going to be around August, September, maybe two weeks before classes officially start at the island. I need your help with this trip, to be able to gather sufficient information for circular No. 40 and on!!!! Just look at the number on this circular and you can safely bet on No. 52 sometime in November.
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Anthony Viera 1 June 2002

ladislao,
I read your circular, nice piece but no award. Its my turn now, one of my not so fond memories of the Mount, was the teasing I got, especially from the Trinidadians about my naiveté about so many matters and I have to tell you, that I had lived such a sheltered life that my ignorance was profound, of course BoBo telling me that I will never amount to much did not help, does anyone remember that I got expelled for telling one of the cooks in the refectory that the boys don't mind the horse meat, but they objected to the saddle?
The best book in the library was "The Last Frontier" written by I think Dennis Weatley about the "Duc De Richleau", and "Reach For the Sky" about the British pilot during WW II who had no legs, the Germans are still trying to figure that one out, "The Great Escape" was also in there. All have been made into movies. the library was a 4ft by 8 ft operation [located where you said it was above the driveway and opposite the entrance to the big dorm] which was filled with Agata Christie, Dennis Weatley, St. Francis of Assisi, nursery rhymes etc, guess any book worth reading would have had the boys heading for the nearest toilet, anyone remember Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, etc, from those books? Reading a book per month is no big deal, reading that lot at the Mount was pure torture.
Of course my favourite Mount story is the showers, 16 boys at a time, 2 minutes to get wet [turn off] one minute to soap up [turn on] two minutes to wash off. The five minute pause that refreshed! Up to this day I don't spend more than 6 minutes in the shower.
Where is Leon Alves? I don't see him listed anywhere. That moron and my brother Joe Vieira pushed the entire pax honey bee hive installation down the hill into St. Agustine. We did not get our weekly movie for one month.
Hilderbrand Green who was the very tall priest and who became abbot is back in Guyana and has started a Benedictine order on the Essequibo river.
Tony
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Need help on Wayne Henderson, we have lost contact.
I am enclosing a photo that is said to be Class 1964 but it could be any year after that.
Who is going to take up the challenge to place names on the faces???
God Bless
Ladislao

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Photos: class 1964??? Can anyone confirm it???
ERROENI
Listado: C118.xls
Column: D Bratt Living Longer

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ATTACHMENTS

Listado c118.xls

Names	Form V	Contact	Nickname	business address	Phone	e-mail
Raeburn, Barry
Raeburn, John				usa	(908) 591 5918	johnrae1@hotmail.com johnrae1@yahoo.com
Raffensperger, Fransisco	1963	lk	hugi	YV
Ramlogant, W.	1974	moffie			Hotelier
Ramos, Miguel Becar		cosca		YV ccs
Ramsahai, Toddy		cosca
Ramsahai, Winston		cosca				ellersliecourtltd@hotmail.com, tntwaste101@hotmail.com
Raydan, Guillermo		glen		YV
Reid, Arthur (RIP)		roger	Fido
Rezende, Michael		roge		TT	Pilot
Rezende, Patrick		roge
Richards, Arthur		roger	Sambo
Rios, Juan Fransisco		glen		YV
Rivera, Guillermo		glen		YV
Rivero, Jose Fransisco		glen		YV

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