Newsletter for Alumni of The Abbey School Mt. St. Benedict , Trinidad and Tobago
Dear Friends,
This time we are going to read about the BLOG and a few interesting stories.
From: "Don Mitchell CBE, QC" idmitch@anguillanet.com
Date Fri, 10 Mar 2006 08:43:18 -0400
Hello David,
If you let me know which Circulars you are missing, I could send those I have.
I well remember Bro Vincent.
He is responsible to a large extent for my present character.
Well, perhaps heredity had a part to play as well.
At aged 10 I was sent to board at the Mount.
I had never played football or cricket before, far less seen a cricket or football field.
I was informed by Bro Vincent that I was attached to the Giants team in St Lawrence House and told to put on white pants and shirt and report to the sports field on one of my first Saturdays.
I duly attended.
I thought someone was going to explain to me what it was all about.
I was sent out onto a field with a group of boys who scattered to the far ends.
Someone told me where to stand.
I stood.
It was early afternoon and the September sun was overhead.
I stood there for hours.
People shouted at me whenever a ball went past.
I was not sure exactly what I was doing wrong.
No one explained.
At some point, for some unknown reason, I was told to leave the field.
Someone helped me to put pads on my feet, and a disgusting plastic shield down my crutch.
I was sent out on the field and told to try to hit the ball.
After one or two futile attempts I was told I had to leave the field.
No one explained why.
I never went on the field again.
No one ever explained to me what I was supposed to be doing there.
Bro Vincent told me that if I refused to go back on the field I would get licks from Bobo the following Monday.
I shrugged.
There was no way I would submit myself to that boring, meaningless, incomprehensible ritual again.
On Monday at 9:00am I reported to Bobofs office and joined the line of nervous boys.
I got 6 of his best on my backside.
It made me weep.
I had no idea what it was about.
I told Br Vincent that I had decided not to play football again.
Going out on the field reminded me of the pain.
He told me that I would be banned from the movies for a term.
I told him that I had decided not to play tennis again.
He told me that I was banned from the pool.
I was banned from the pool and from the movies.
I got licks every Monday morning for five years.
On reflection, the licks might have been for joining with a gang of boys of the same mind who built bows and arrows and hid behind the bushes and shot the arrows down onto the cricketers on the field every Saturday and Sunday.
As I got older, I learned that something called sex would be coming to my attention.
I only knew one word, penis.
There was an excellent Encyclopaedia Britannica in the school library.
By the age of 12 I was the assistant school librarian under Fr Augustine.
I had access.
I looked up penis.
There were transparencies showing the body in cut-out.
I wrote down all the cross references and looked them up one by one.
Each cross reference had its own cross references.
After about 2 years I had read nearly the entire encyclopaedia and realised that nearly all life had to do with sex.
If only Bro Vincent had introduced me to cricket in the same way I might have entered into the spirit of the game with the same enthusiasm that I ventured into sex in due course.
Anyway, I am living proof that corporal punishment does not work.
Every Monday for five years and no change in behaviour or attitude regarding cricket?
I still feel queasy whenever I see men in white on the field.
Keep well,
Don
PS: I am looking for Circulars 4, 17, 36-43, 80-81, 91, 95, 163, 186, 202-203, and 210. Can anyone help?
PPS: Give Bro Vincent my regards when you see him next.
I credit his early lessons on the unfairness of life for whatever little later success I eventually enjoyed.
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From: David E. Bratt
Sent: Friday, March 10, 2006 7:57 AM
No Don, I don't.
A former friend of ours, Lionel Roberts, aged 80 (!) was in my office yesterday, he's moved back to TT and I think will become more involved with the Old Boys.
Dave
From: Don Mitchell CBE, QC
To: Bratt, David
Sent: Thursday, March 09, 2006 10:25 PM
Hello David,
I am looking for Circulars 4, 17, and 36-43.
Do you have any of them?
Can I trouble you to forward any?
All the best,
Don
From: "Don Mitchell CBE, QC"
Date: Thu, 18 May 2006 13:24:54 -0400
Hello Paul and Nigel,
Good to hear from you.
Ladislao still diligently sends out the weekly Circulars that we all enjoy receiving.
What I am doing is trying to create a substitute for our old and now defunct school website.
I am also trying to collect in the few Circulars and their attachments that are missing from my collection.
Since I do not know how to create or to maintain a website, I have not been able to put a decent one in place.
No one else has volunteered.
What I have learned to do is to use GoogleGroups and Blogs.
So, as a rather pathetic substitute, in my opinion, for the missing website, what I am in the process of doing is uploading all the old Circulars sent by Ladislao over the past 6 years to six Blogs that I have created.
I have done 2001, 2005, and 2006.
I am slowly working on 2002, 2003, and 2004.
If you would like to see them, they can all be accessed at: http://abbeyschool2001circulars.blogspot.com/
This is actually the site for the eight 2001 Circulars.
But, once you get there, by clicking on the appropriate year in the top right-hand corner, you can navigate to all the others.
Keep well,
Don
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From: Nigel Boos
Sent: Thursday, May 18, 2006 10:09 AM
Paul,
You asked about the new MSB contact info.
I guess that Don Mitchell would be the best contact for you, as he appears to be running things at the moment.
Good luck, and have fun,
Nigel
From: "Don Mitchell CBE, QC"
Date: Thu, 18 May 2006 09:55:10 -0400
Hello Michael,
Good to hear from you.
I am well into retirement, and very much enjoying the freedom it gives me to pursue my hobbies.
This is one of them!
The biography belongs in Ladislao's Circular.
He will welcome it, so I shall not do anything with it myself.
As regards the photos, if you mailed them to me, I could scan them for you and return them to you.
Or, better still, safer for your photos, if you have a grandchild handy, he/she could do it for you. (One of my nephews taught me how several years ago.)
I am trying to get all the old Circulars up on a website together with all the attached photos so that those of us who never received them can see them. (Some of them had spreadsheet attachments, but I am not able to figure out yet how to put an Excel document onto a Blog!)
Keep well,
Don
From: "Don Mitchell CBE, QC"
Date: Tue, 16 May 2006 13:31:13 -0400
Hello Ladislao,
I have begun to put up on the site the Circulars from 2001 through to 2005.
I have not yet got them all up; I estimate it will take a couple more days to complete.
Also, I find that I am missing one or two of the Circulars, so I shall be bothering various persons to send copies to me.
There is no reason why you should not visit the sites and see the old Circulars.
I am putting each year on a different Blogger page for convenience.
Other than 2006, the only year that is complete is 2001, there were only 7 Circulars in that year!
You can see it, and all the other years, by clicking on the links in the top right-hand corner: http://abbeyschool2001circulars.blogspot.com/
In the event that Ladislao publishes this message in a Circular, please remember that the link I have given above does not work on a newsletter if you click on it; you have to copy and paste it to your browser.
All the best,
Don
From: "Don Mitchell CBE, QC"
Subject: Identifying the faces on old photos
Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2006 16:51:49 -0400
Hello Ladislao,
I am trying to get the faces in the old photos identified.
Persons who will want to help should go to http://groups.google.com/group/Abbey-School-Mount-St-Benedict.
If you join the group, you will be able to post replies directly.
My thanks to Ian De Verteuil and Christian Goddard who have already had a go at several of them.
If you prefer, you can email the information to me.
I will use the information to correct the captions to the photos in the albums at http://members27.clubphoto.com/don870261/guest-1.phtml
Thanks,
All the best,
Don
From:"Don Mitchell CBE, QC"
To: "Attila GYURIS"
Subject: Pacemaker
Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2006 21:25:06 -0400
Hi Attila,
That is a wonderful photo of your family.
I have proudly added it to the Recent Photo album.
It is up already.
I am in return attaching one taken a couple of years ago of me in my garden in Anguilla wearing my favourite French kepi.
How brave of you and Susy to have a little boy.
Maggie and I took the cowards way out, and decided to let our brothers and sisters have all of ours for us.
Whenever we were surrounded by children, we were always consoled by the thought that at the end of the day they went back to Mom and Dad!
Yes, gI died in 1997h .
Then, they made me bionic, and I have been living happily ever since.
My doctor tells me that I must be careful when I am around buses.
That is the only way I am going to die, when one runs me over!
Keep well.
Don
From: Attila GYURIS
Sent: Monday, April 10, 2006 6:02 PM
Subject: Pacemaker
Hi Don:
Wow, I didn't know you had a pacemaker.
I hope you are doing well and your battery lasts a long time!
I like your sense of humor.
Best of health to you,
Attila Gyuris
PS: attached is a recent picture for the online MSB photo album at:
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REMEMBER TO PAY YOUR DUE, 50 WORDS PER YEAR, OR SEND A CHECK preferably from any U.S. Bank, to my address,: sorry but under the new laws of Venezuela, I cannot receive or send foreign currency, if caught I can be placed in jail for 3 years on the first offence, so please sent it direct to the Bank of America account of Ladislao Kertesz 02181 09151, Santa Barbara, California, USA.
For those that prefer this way to cooperate with the Circular and the expense that this generates. It is 52 issues per year.
God Bless
Ladislao
Photo in this issue:
05UN0001DMIQC, Don Mitchell,
01UN0001CCAGRP, Cecil Camacho ???? Can anyonehelp with this ALUMNI??
05DM0001DMICBE, Don Mitchell receiving CBE
05DM0002DMICBE, Don Mitchell receiving CBE
