Circular No 712

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

Caracas, 27 of June 2015 No. 712

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Dear Friends

Emails below.

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Goddard Brian

No problem Don,

My life is an open book with hardly any secrets to think of; plus Ladislao has met my girlfriend and partner on several occasions.

Donald is into sailing and scuba diving; so I hope he can decide to join me.

I will be copying him on this message.

Saludos, Brian

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From: idmitch@anguillanet.com

Date: Sun, 1 Feb 2015 18:26:09 -0400

Wonderful, Brian,

I am coping this thread on the mini-St Maarten Reunion to Ladislao for his interest and amusement. 

If it is too personal, please don’t hesitate to tell him not to publish it.

Keep well.

Don

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From: brian eaton goddard I.

Sent: Sunday, February 1, 2015 4:32 PM

Hola Don y tambien yo ... me too !!

I´m already tasting the steamed snapper.

By the way, I have invited my brothers, Don and Christian to spend a few days with me in SMX.

Christian has already declined, indicating that he cannot make it due to a trip he has planned to Mexico.

Donald may not be able to also, due to his present geophysical contracts in Texas.

Anyhow I can handle my island adventure on my own.

My girlfriend / partner (I´m a widower now on 13 years, after 30 years of being married) may join me on another trip next year.

I took her with me to Barbados last year.

I will also be keeping in touch by the end of this month via my gmail address:

bajanwriter99@gmail.com,

Take care, Brian

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From: idmitch@anguillanet.com

Date: Sun, 1 Feb 2015 15:41:09 -0400

I look forward to April !

Don

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From: brian eaton goddard I.

Sent: Sunday, February 1, 2015 2:23 PM

Hello Don

And as they say here in crazy Venezuela, "que vaina tan buena" ... what a great thing; as to your prompt and interesting response.

Yes Don, you´ll definitely enjoy yr 69th birthday.

I really did mine ... it´s like a mini break in Tennis, where we can still vision getting over the hill, in time to witness the good old days and expect to control the new days and years to come.

The rest is up to chance and our will to overcome adversity.

Some of us, God willing, are lucky enough to survive longer than others ... you know how that goes !?

Well boy, I´ve never been to Anguilla and by the way, this is my first trip to St. Maarten (SMX); so being so close, I´ll definitely have to go! My friend´s son (Marlon Halley) a dentist in SMX, whom I´ll be seeing, had mentioned that it was a wonderful sailing and /or ferry trip to your island but I hadn´t thought of going; so now I will !!

You will have to send me your tlf no. so that I can contact you fm Venezuela and / or when I get to SMX.

By the way, My younger brother Christian has in the past, done some competitive sailing excursions on regatta type sailing vessels in SMX.

He speaks of those adventures as being most fascinating !!

My planned dates leaving for St Maarten from Valencia and returning are: April 9th returning home fm SMX the 22nd.

I have booked 4 nights at the Simpson Bay Resort & Marina thru Monday April 13th, having thought of the possibility of maybe taking a side trip to Barbados, San Juan and now Anguilla, for 4-5 days or less, depending on the air travel.

Now that I know of the closeness in getting to Anguilla by boat, I believe that I prefer to enjoy these two new islands that I have never been to !!

Thanking you for this great opportunity of getting to know Anguilla, I´ll be looking forward to staying in touch and meeting with you in a couple of months.

I´ll be also looking forward to eating that steamed snapper !!!

All the best and Ciao for now ,

Saludos,

Brian

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From: idmitch@anguillanet.com

Date: Sun, 1 Feb 2015 13:38:05 -0400

Hi, Brian,

I am a youthful 68, so not in your class, though I’ll be 69 this year, and rapidly catching up with you :-)

Also, I am in Anguilla, a whole 10 miles away from St Maarten. 

It is a 15 minute ferry ride away. 

Why not stay in touch, and maybe we can do lunch or dinner in either Anguilla or St Maarten while you are up this way. 

We do a steamed whole snapper with fungi for lunch at a local restaurant that I would love to show you.

Don

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From: brian eaton goddard I.

Sent: Sunday, February 1, 2015 12:47 PM

Great circular to read, Don & Ladislao;

Especially the four letter word story which brought me good memories of the masterful "Ildefonse".

Also, reading Gionetti´s memory of brother Vincent was quite moving; since his wording of Vince´s friendly character, was sincerely written and the very same way that I remember him as well  !!

Best wishes to all for this new year and God Bless !!

Brian Goddard

PS: If any of you know of a Mt boy (young or old / I´m 72 ... jejeje!) who lives in St Maarten pls let me know. I´ll be travelling there for a two weeks vacation in early April to enjoy some good sailing !

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Thursday, August 13, 2009 10:22 AM

"Tony OBrien" <tony9411@yahoo.com>

I guess you are right.

The last time I saw Cornel it must have been 1965.so it was a big shock to see a photo of him.You know.

Anthony Obrien

Bogota.Colombia.

Home 57-1-7573899

Cell. 57-3115531732

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From: Laci Kertesz kertesz14@yahoo.com

Sent: Wednesday, August 12, 2009 9:05:10 PM

Maybe you should ask him, I prefer not to be the one !!!

Ladislao

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From: Tony OBrien tony9411@yahoo.com

Date: Sunday, August 9, 2009, 11:33 AM

Do you have an email for Terrence.

And why did Cornel allow himself to become so over weight.

Tony OBrien

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Thursday, August 13, 2009 9:31 AM

"Tony OBrien" <tony9411@yahoo.com>

I have no idea about blog or how to use blog or were to get blog,

So thanks for the info.

Tony

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From: Laci Kertesz kertesz14@yahoo.com

Sent: Wednesday, August 12, 2009 9:04:11 PM

Dear Tony,

Good to hear from you.

To give you a fast run down and that you may contact your friends fast.

Please look into Don Mitchell´s BLOG page.

There you will find a wealth of information as to oldboys that have communicated with me since I started the Circular.

At the end of the Circular you will find the address.

Please include me in the CC for communications with your friends so that I may publish the happy reencounters and that your maybe not well remembered friend might find you.

Send a photo or two for the files.

Glad you wrote to me.

I work in the lighting business, WWW.KAVIACION.COM is the page,

Keep in contact

God Bless

LAdislao

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Sunday, August 9, 2009 7:46 PM

"Tony OBrien" <tony9411@yahoo.com>

Ladislao,

I would like to contact some of the old boys,

See how they are doing,

Were they live and how life in general has treated them.

I am Tony OBrien better known to the Mount boys as Inches.

That name given to me by Cheche and Peter Tang.

I now live in Bogota Colombia with my wife and two boys who are all Colombians.

One in studing Medicine in Bogota and the other finishing school in Canada.

Ever since leaving Mount I have been working in the oil Ind.

Drilling and have been all over the world, 7 years in Venezuela, Colombia, Equador, Chile, Brazil, Iran, Saudi, Far East, Mexico.

You name it I have probably worked there.

So if any of the old guys like Cornel, Terrence, Peter etc want to contact me please do.

We can chat.

Thanks.  INCHES

Anthony Obrien

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Photos:

Bandit p31 The Early Times

13LK6110JHEFACEBOOK, Jose Antonio Hernandez Lozada

13LK6643FBEOC, Eion O´connor

13LK0154FBBLE, Brian Lewis

Circular No 711

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

Caracas, 20 of June 2015 No. 711

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Dear Friends,

Our new in-house writer, Brian Goddard.

Give him a short email to encourage him to write.

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Hey guys:

As long as you all are telling stories, here's a true but funny one.

I enjoy resending (pass it on).

Brian forgets because he's an old man; but we were both at Mount from 1953 to 1958 (five very long years).

Brian might have fond memories but I couldn't stand that jail on the hill.

Christian and I were then sent to another Catholic boarding school in Tulsa Oklahoma which was a country club compared to Mount and with good food.

Enjoy.

Don Goddard.

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From: brian goddard bgcaribajan@live.com

Sent: Monday, March 3, 2014 1:15 PM

Great circular Don

Thanks for the opportunity of catching up with my past at the mountain above Tunapuna ... jeje !!

Although I seldom respond to your circulars, I have visited with the Caracas Mount group, or try to anyway, at least once a year; not so often as I would like but have made it up to Caracas several times in the past two decades.

Ladislao is quite determined in inviting me often but not living in Caracas has made it difficult to get up there fm Valencia where I live. 

My fond memories of MSB are still quite vivid of the developing stages of my Christian upbringing at the Abbey Mountain School, as I use to call it; although I didn´t spend the same amount of time there as my brothers and most of you. 

The referred circular helped me regain memories that took me back to our very enjoyable scouting trips to Maracas Valley road, the Chagaramas Naval base, and other beach area outings.

Of course how can we ever forget the magnificent Port of Spain Carnivals where my Caribbean blood got the most of me; as I danced the time away to the calypso beat while holding on to those hot Trinidadian girls.

I really enjoyed reading John Golding´s story about our grand mutual friend Richard "Mousy" Farah.

By the way during my trip to Trinidad last year on my way back fm Barbados, I had the opportunity of visiting with Mousy, still as active and high spirited as ever.

I also finally went up the hill to check out the old school and the abbey; thus again remembering, that short period of my youth which I had not had the opportunity to see, in over five decades. 

Thanks again all of you that make the Mt Boy Circular possible and so I now saying farewell with a "ciao for now" 

All the best to all,

Brian Goddard

PS: If any of you would like to read my short story copy on a few grand and wonderful, adventuresome carnival trips I made to Trinidad in the late 60´s and early 70´s, just let me know and I will be glad to e-mail you a copy, ok.  And by the way, pls re-send this message to Nigel and John Golding!

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INVENTING SINS CAN GET YOU INTO TROUBLE AT MOUNT

From: Donald Goddard

Sent: 7/15/2004

Dear Ladislao:

As I read your description of the daily mass we had to attend during our time as students at Mount Saint Benedict (1953-1958), I recall that going to mass didn't seem to bother me too much.

What I didn't enjoy was having to go to confession once a week and invent sins.

This is no joke!

I recall one time when I was probably nine or ten years old, I went to one of those weekly confessions and I began to speak with that lovely Trini accent with which we spoke in those days:

"Forgive me Fada for I have sinned. It does be one week since me las confession but I cyant recall anyting I did dat was bad".

The priest answers me. "Well son, let me try to help you out and refresh your memory. Did you fight with anyone? Did you disobey anyone? Did you take anything that did not belong to you and did you tell any lies? Now let me hear you my son".

With such great prompting, I decided to come up with some terrible sins.

"Yes Fada now I does remember wat I did dat was very bad. Two days ago I pelted Urbano wid one of Broda Joseph stale hops bread and he got one ugly black eye.

Yesterday I does stole some julie mangos dong de road and Broda Swa caught me and pulled me ear, and four days ago I disobeyed me fada and me muda.

But as far as I does recall I have not tole no lies."

What was my big surprise after I felt so good that I had told all my sins, when all of a sudden he shouts at me through that little screen in his perfect Dutch accent.

"You are nothing but a big liar."

I replied trembling. "Why Fada does you tink so." And again I heard this loud voice from behind the little screen.

"First of all I just saw Urbano and he doesn't have any black eye.

Also, brother Swa as you so disrespectfully call that lovely, smelly man, has taken leave for the last two weeks and is not here.

And finally your mother and father don't live here at Mount."

All I could say was; "Ok Fada, you does be right . For lying to you, instead of three Hail

Marys can I can say a whole rosary?"

Quite upset by now, he finally said to me, "I make the rules here, not you and you will say not one but two rosaries, and next week you had better come back with some real sins and not such silly lies."

Well to make this long story short, from that day on and after having to say two long rosaries, I became so scared of lying that I started committing real sins.

The following week I truly pelted Urbano and as many Mount boys as I could pelt with the hardest stale hops bread I could find.

Then I became the best mango thief at Mount and I ran so fast Brother Swa could never catch me. I even stole Juicy and honey from dem behives.

Then I tried my best to disobey every rule at Mount.

All of this, in keeping with the good Fada's advise to bring real sins to the confessional and not make up lies.

He was correct, and from then on for telling the truth and not making up sins, I only got three Hail Mary's and no long rosaries.

The moral of this true story is that you must commit as many sins as possible to keep our priests happy when you go to confession, but you must never lie. No, no, none of dat.

Well Ladislao, I'm quite sure that most Mount boys experienced similar situations when going to weekly confessions.

If any of you deny this you does be lying because I can name many mango thiefs and stale bread pelters like myself and you all know who you does be.

I won't name anyone out of respect.

Please pass this on to our group to see how many will admit to the TRUTH.

Best regards to all.

Donald Goddard

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3/314  don

Hello, Donald,

That is a great story. 

It will make Glen pant for more. 

You will be bound to be promoted to the highest level in his pantheon.

But, for Ladislao to include it in the Circular, and for me to be able to post it on the Blog when he does, can I beg for a copy to be sent to Ladislao in Word?  

We can post “.doc” and “.jpg”, but we have a problem posting “.pdf” files.

Keep well.

Don

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 21 june

A TODOS MIS ESTIMADOS AMIGOS:

Mis mejores deseos de felicidad a todos aquellos, quienes hemos tenido la bendicion, dicha y felicidad, de ser padres de las familias que hemos, con mucho orgullo, creado.

Mis mejopres deseos, no solo a los padres y madres de dichas familias sino tambien a los hijos y nietos tambien formados.

QUE DIOS BENDIGA A TODOS.

CARLOS DVORAK

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FW: REPLY TO LADISLAO FROM PHILLIP NASSIEF

Nathalie Sampson <sampsonn@CWDOM.DM>

Thursday, April 16, 2009 11:52:09 AM

To: 'nassiefp@cwdom.dm'

Dear Ladislao,

Thanks for your email of April 15. I have forwarded your email to Gregor.

Also, for any information on Dominica these are the following websites:

www.discoverdominica.com

www.fortyounghotel.com

I will try to put together my happy and treasured memories of my years at the Mount.

That period was one of my happiest and memorable days where I became a much better student and keen sportsman.

Some of my best friends to this day, at age 76, are the wonderful friends I made while attending the Mount.

My only regret was that chemistry and physics were not taught at the time and my father always wanted me to become a chemical engineer.

I finally decided to follow my Dad’s wishes but must admit that these first two years were rough – especially chemistry.

Regards and best wishes. (Seems you can extract 50 words)

Phillip

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Photos:

Bandit p30 The Early Times

05RO0002ROC Oconnor Richard

75WO4974WOCCAR, Wayne Oconnor,

12LK4538FBWO, Wayne Oconnor, Brisbane Queensland