Circular No 74

Newsletter for past alumni of The Abbey School, Mt. St. Benedict, Trinidad and Tobago, W.I.
Caracas, 05 of April 2003. Circular No. 74
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Dear Friends,

Here are some miscellaneous conversation with the O´Connors.
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From: Gillian O'Connor <gilleary@hotmail.com>
Date: Sat, 14 Dec 2002 10:46:24 +0800
Subject: Happy Christmas

Thanks for all the Mount News during the year. Keep up the good work.
Leary says that everyone in his year must be too old as there's no news of that era.
He does not help by not sending something but maybe in the New Year.
Leary & Gillian
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From: Gillian O'Connor <gilleary@hotmail.com
Date: Fri, 20 Dec 2002 16:01:35 +0800
Subject: The early years

Thanks for your email.
Yes, I know Arthur well and spent some time with him and his family in Darmouth a few years ago (before we were both grandparents). Although we have his residential address, we do not have an up-to-date email address (av_knaggs@hotmail.com ) for him so would be grateful if you will send this to us if you have it.

My records indicate that I was at Mount from May 45 to December 53. I was the youngest boy in the school when I got there but there was only one class. From your note Arthur says he was there from 44 to 49 but my brother Richard and I were there before Arthur hit the scene so either my Mount records are wrong or Arthur's dates are wrong. There was no way that Arthur (Scroongie) could have sneaked into the school without us noticing! I will sort out the dates when I contact Arthur. Phase 2 of someone's letter on your circulars describes the refectory scene of those early years but the writer's name was not attached and I must have missed part 1.

Richard and I were there before the Priory became an Abbey and before the construction of the College and Church and the school consisted of about 13 boys which gradually increased over time. Fr Indefonse started the Second Mount St Benedict Scout Troop. Athur was the Patrol Leader from the early days. That era holds many great memories for me. Many years later, Father Leo started the Third Mt St Benedict Air Scouts but I think that was towards the end of my time there and I was not involved.

I completed my School Certificate in December of 51 and stayed two more years to do Higher Certificate so finally left Mount in Dec 53. I went to work in the Oilfields and stayed in this industry throughout my working life both in Trinidad and in Australia. I married in 1959, had 5 children, emigrated to Australia in 1967 and now have 15 Aussi grandchildren. I retired in 1994 and have been busier than ever since.

Our last visit to Mount was in Jan 1999 and was fortunate to meet with Fr Indefonse who was then wheelchair bound. He did not recognize my name when told that I was there to visit him but as soon as he saw me he called me by my nickname, PeeWee. He died not too long after this. I enjoy reading all the comments from other past students. Keep up the good work. Hope Christmas goes well for and your present civil unrest will sort itself out soon. All the best for the New Year. God bless and a Happy Christmas to you and your
family.

Regards,
Leary O'Connor
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From: Gillian O'Connor <gilleary@hotmail.com>
Date: Fri, 20 Dec 2002 16:01:35 +0800
Subject: The early years

Just received your circular with the May letter I wrote to you, needless to say Richard and Leary do not seem to have progressed very much further with the names. For many years Arthur Knaggs used to write a newsletter for the Old Boys and it was always interesting with various annecdotes. He lives in Canada and his address is 2 Dubonnet Drive, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia B2X 2V3, phone no. (902) 435.0909. We used to have his email but recently the mail comes back so I'll not put that. Maybe someone might know his email address and he would probably be a fount of information for you.

The school and dormitory were built around 1944 while I was at school there. During the war the US commander of Wallerfield base had three sons called Tom, Dick and Harry who went to Mt. St. Benedict until the end of the war. The pictures of the new college building (at that time) were taken by the father in a small prop plane as one could not get normal level pictures because of the slopes and buildings being at the top of the hill. Many years later (around 1955/6) I worked in Venezuela and I was in Caracas having a drink in a bar and sat next to a guy who said he had been to Mt. St. Benedict and he was an American, so I asked him if he was Tom, Dick or Harry and he replied that he was Harry and that he was flying an executive jet for one of the oil companies.

That's all for now.
Richard
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From the above you can have a notion on the date the school opened and when the school was built. Only with e-mails like these we can enrich the archives that the Circulars may become for some future historian??? So please do not be stingy with your writing and collaborate so that other might enjoy your experience at Mount.

The mentioned Part 1 and Part 2 of a Circular were written by me. These I write because there seems to be very little in the way of articles and memory on the daily routines. These are taken for granted by many as we moved by the clock, some even as zombies.

I am sorry that our in-house literate, Wayne Vincent Brown, has not sent any more of his articles. I hope he is well and preparing a Scouting story or something on his Mount experiences.

For a look at our world's impressive night sight, get into this page,
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0011/earthlights_dmsp_big.jpg,
Thank you Michael Azar.

God Bless

Ladislao
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Listado: C74.xls
Photo: msba 6404 p02
St_ Benedict _01
Song. 145858-1-04
Column: wvb - No column has been received, sorry.
Column: dbratt -No column has been received
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Send information to: Ladislaokertesz@hotmail.com, if you would like to be in the circular's mailing list or any old boy that you would like to include. Telf. 0(212) 263.5346 Caracas.

Please note: you may have missed some of the circulars, if you have not received one every week, do not hesitate to ask for the missing number.

For those that would like to contact me here I include my telephones:
Telf.Office: 58 (212) 263.5346, 267.2416, From: 11:00GMT to 22:00GMT
FAX: 58 (212) 261.0829,
Home: 58 (212) 238.4084. From: 00:00 GMT to 04:00 GMT
Cellphone: 58 (0416) 612.5695
ICQ# 158597413
Remember that Venezuela's time is the same as Trinidad's, -04:00 GMT.
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ATTACHMENTS
Listado C74.xls

Names	Form V	Contact	nicknames	business address	business phone	e-mail	home address
Azar Michael			Big joe	Portland, Oregon		azargroup@myexcel.com
Azar Robert		lk	Baby joe	Ellerslie Plaza shop 11 Maraval	(868) 628 1350 / (868) 669 1575		no e-mail
Azar, Edmund		joe		TT
Azar, Jimmy	1966	joe	Little Joe
Baboolal, Laughton		roge		Dayboy
Bahadoorsingen, Sandy		boos					costa rica
Baichoo, Egan	1960
Bain, David		farcheg		maracaibo
Bain, Jerry				ca		jerry.bain@sympatico.ca,
Bain, Jerry	1966
Baptiste, Gabriel		glen		YV
Baralt, Pascal		cosca		TT
Barcant, Michael		jgioannetti			pager 625 lisa
Barcant, Richard		jgioannetti			twin		Swimming
Barwaithe, Pascal		jgioannetti