Circular No 1022

 

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

Caracas, 22 of June 2021 No.1022 June C

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Dear Friends,

From Jerry Bain, a nice essay on his Diego Martin whereabouts.

I have my first shot of the vaccine Sinopharma, and hope that I three weeks the number two shot is available

Do not forget to remit your financial help to keep the Circular going. I know your limitations.

At the end of this issue, you will find the instructions to send funds,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmmREwEuHEg

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MY DIEGO MARTIN IN THE 50’s.

By Jerry Bain.

I spent the first 18 years of my life growing up in the beautiful town of Diego Martin.

I was born at # 14 Ann Avenue (for some reason, it was also called Fairview Ave. although I never knew why) across from the way from Pouchet family and between the Prizgars (Len) and the Patience family who had 3 daughters.

At the top of the street on the main road were the Lashleys, then coming down the hill, the Guillens, the Mills, the Stanleys and the Cross families.

We also had friends who lived at the River Estate Plantation, the Ross family, and my father drove an old Ford ’jitney’ when he worked for Geo. F. Huggins.

Three houses away lived Dave and Delano de Castro.

Dave of course, formed the Calypso Bandit’s in his day.

We would later build our own home and move to Strathayes Ave. near the Boys Industrial School, as it was called in those days.

In the backyard there was a mound of stones for ‘bleaching’ the white clothes and a line for sun drying.

There was also mango, zaboca, guava, soursop, and lime trees, in the backyard.

In my day, when you pass Cocorite and got to the roundabout, go straight and you in Carenage, turn right and you at Four Roads junction.

One road to Diego Martin, one road to Petit Valley, one road to the San Diego chicken farm and St. Finbars Church, it was that simple.

Christmas was the most significant season of family togetherness, feasting and merriment.

The house had to be thoroughly cleaned.

The furniture had to be polished and floors had to be scrubbed or polished and shined manually.

We had glass louvers throughout the house, so guess who had the job of cleaning all the glass, and you couldn’t do it from outside, because every window had wrought iron, even the front door had wrought iron gates.

New curtains had to be sewn and hung.

Occasionally, an imported Christmas Tree, cut from a live tree, was purchased from Grell and Company.

The tree had the “Christmas smell” to the house.

Residents and visitors to the neighborhood extended “Merry Christmas” greetings to everyone, and not the recent “Happy Holidays” greetings as introduced in recent times.

Christmas was and continues to be about celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ.

We erected our creches at home and on Boxing day, it was our turn to have the whole family over to eat , drink and be merry.

On our street we had the Knowles family, the Gittens family, the Bournes and another clan of Pouchet family, all part of the special people who lived on that street and some of the nicest families one could ever hope to meet.

I also used to hang out in Petit Valley a lot too, the Pinards on Hibiscus Drive, the Geofroys (Peter) on Laburnam Avenue, the Rouses, Lousaings, Battoos, and the de Gannes family ( Rolf and Ferdi ) along with the Holders from New Street.

On Saturdays we were all at Eric Woon Sam’s place working on cars to go to Wallerfield on Sunday along with Ralph Thom, Sidney Manhin, Emmy Kong, Pernel ‘PeeWee’ Welsh, Silborn Clarke and Michael Nunes to name a few.

There was a guy called Rudy who was a mechanic of sorts and had an outdoor garage in the triangle at Sierra Leorne Rd. and the main road… there was a huge tree growing in the yard that he used as a winch to pull engines out of the cars he worked on.

My cousin and riding partner when we got our driving license was Dennis ‘Reds’ Grimshaw who lived on Thomas Drive near Majuba Cross Road.

We went to church at St. John the Evangelist or St. Anthony's depending where I had to serve Mass on Sunday morning.

There was Fr. English and Fr. Ward in Diego Martin and Fr. Cyril Ross and Fr.David Olivierri in Petit Valley.

I was taught to be an acolyte by Cecil Williams, now Bro. Marius of Mount St. Benedict, his brother Carl was also our barber up in Rich plain road.

At carnival time we hung out with either Valley Harps on the Morne Coco Road in Petit Valley, or Merrytones, a great steel orchestra located in the Green Hill Village of Diego Martin.

There was also another steelband side in La Puerta Ave. but the name escapes me.

"Coolie Block" in the early stages was a virtual squatting area where vegetables were cultivated by a number of Indian and Irish families.

The Irish came mostly from Barbados and St. Vincent and were regarded as 'poor whites'.

Iris Toyer, was of Irish heritage and was born in "Coolie Block" and lived there all her life.

Her mother was a Redhead from Barbados and she came to Trinidad in search of better opportunities.

The name of the place was changed to Patna Village in 1958 by Dr Eric Williams, because he wanted the word "coolie" removed from the local vocabulary.

It was called Patna Village because most of the East Indians living there had roots in Patna, a town on the Ganges, and the capital of Bihar state in India.

The water wheel was located at the entrance to the village was used for crushing the sugar cane produced on the estate.

Blue Basin Waterfall remains as one of the major show pieces in the valley and the most accessible waterfall in Trinidad.

Diamond Estate has its own history, it was home to many East Indian families until the land was assigned for housing development.

Tola Ram, a former resident, once commented that the villagers were asked to move to Cumuto when government decided to convert Diamond Estate into a housing settlement, but they refused because Cumuto was too far, as many of the villagers had already established themselves in the valley, so they went to Patna Village.

In 1961 Homes International built 2,000 houses on 102.4 acres.

The project was the first of its kind in Trinidad, launched on April 5, 1961 and Diamond Estate became Diamond Vale.

In earlier times this area was occupied by native Amerindians.

Later it became home to African slaves, Irish and Scottish families, East Indian laborers, a small number of Jews, French Creole land owners, and a few Chinese butchers.

The slaves came from Sierra Leone and the Congo, the Irish and Scots from neighbouring Barbados, East Indians from Bihar, India, Jews from Israel and Chinese from Hong Kong.

Also arriving there was Grenada-born Roume de St Laurent, who after visiting many places in Trinidad, decided to settle temporarily in the valley along with his friend Maurice Lapeyrouse.

The valley now stretches from the north coast to Cocorite, with small villages scattered here and there.

Up in La Puerta Avenue, we hung out by the Aleongs, the Josephs and the Besson family and I remember the great Diego Martin flood that took out bridge near Four Roads.

It was eventually replaced by a one lane Bailey bridge that stood there for many years after.

Now I don’t know if anyone remembers, but down by where that bridge at Four roads, at Zev Ben Eliazer Ave., a friend of mine, Revel Sankar had a steelband right across the road from Gubby Metevier’s home.

Anyone remember the name of that pan side?

Further down the Diego main road was Louis Hurdle, the Alaha’s (Anton and Hayden) Ena and Una Arneaud (Tiny and Lupsie), the Diesel family, Ann Marie Noreiga, Judge Eman Anisette, the Wiley family, whose mother was my mom’s seamstress… her daughter was the love of my life before I was shipped off to Canada by my father, again, that’s another story.

Peter and I used to ride from Diego Martin to San Juan to lime with the Olivierri’s, Andy, Emily and Eddie at Campo and John Street.

Schooling started at Miss Smith’s private school on Charles St. in Cobo town, next door to my Grand Mother, Mama Bain and my cousins, the Hinkson family across from Chas. Mc Enerny on the corner, then on to Mount St. Benedict and finally Fatima College before having to serve active duty working in my father’s store.

After that, all hell broke loose when I was sent off to Canada to study, but that’s another story.

My Dad hung out in Belmont quite a lot by the Bordes on lower Pelham St. and I was always brought along for the ride.

We also visited the Thompson’s from Darceuil Lane who, as I remember, had 4 sons and they had a panside called Tropitones that practiced in their backyard.

I think these 4 guys all became pilots with BWIA later on.

My favourite aunts and uncles were Henry and Rita in Gallus St., we lived in their house in Woodford St. for a while when they were in England, Charlie and Doris, he was the family dentist and had his practice above the Arcade on Frederick Street, where ’Crazy’ Bob Arneaud and Sonny Bugoe used to hang out, they lived across from the Hospital on Charlotte Street.

Don and Joan lived on Irish Ave. in Glenco, he was the person who started me off in my record collection days, and there was also Georgie, Andy and Auntie Jeanette Hinkson, my father’s sister.

Going to school at Fatima was the happiest time of my life.

I used to stay at my aunts place at Warren and Ana Street, right across from Hi Hi which was famous for its chinese-style chicken.

Behind her house you could hear Starlift practicing at Carnival time.

It was also convenient for jouvert morning and other carnival times.

It was also across from St. Teresa’s convent.

Some of the people that I remember from those Woodbrook days, Irvine Lee Pack, Steve Raghunanan, Albert ‘Philo’James, Reynold ‘Puddin’ Marcellin, Jeffrey ‘Rabbit’ Mahabir, David ‘Splav’ Waddell and Winston ‘Reds’ Mulligan.

And you can’t forget ‘Agarat’.

Some of the youth soccer teams that functioned during this period included Fallen Angels, Totspurs, and Rockerfellas.

But coming back to Diego Martin in the steelband days, there was La Creole Pan Groove from up in La Puerta Avenue, Merrytones who moved to Bagatelle Road, Panatics from up by the Water Wheel, Plain Phonics on Rick Plain Road and later, West Stars of Parakeet Avenue up by River Estate area.

Diego Martin’s claim to fame includes:

Her Imperial Majesty Empress Shebah ‘Ra – Queen Shebah lll was born in 1963 in Diego Martin, Trinidad, the 4th generation of migrated Nubian-Kushites of Nubia-Sheba Sudan, North-African Royals Ancestry. Queen Shebah III, as all of the family, lived a normal unassuming life in Trinidad, and attended the Diego Martin Girls Roman Catholic School, and later Providence Girls Convent in Belmont.

Shebah III was born on September 19th 1963 to Asere - Kasambu 'Ra lines descendants, H.R.M Prince Michael I and H.R.M Queen Meryre/Mary 'Ra VII, the daughter of the late Nubian Imperial Matriarch Iris Meryre II, in Trinidad and Tobago, holding in accordance to Imperial Kingdoms tradition at birth as future Matriarch, the title of Imperial Queen, Shebah lll. Shebah III is the Sovereign Imperial Empress of the African Nubian Nations’ Imperial Empire Kingdom of Sheba.

The Sheba Imperial Empire Kingdom is the Matriarchal Empire of Nubian Royal Kingdoms Nation throughout East, West, North, Southern and Central Africa Sheba/Nubia descendant Nations Lines of Africa`s over 350 Major Empire Kingdom Nations and several thousand Royal Kingdom and Chiefdoms Nations on the African Continent.

So now you know….

Doh mess wit we Diegonotaries.

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"Hi... I'm Jerry Bain the past President of the TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO SPORTS AND CULTURAL CLUB OF CAMBRIDGE.

I was born and grew up in Diego Martin, Trinidad, West Indies.

I emigrated to Canada in September, 1967.

I now reside in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada with my wife and three kids.

I love collecting VINTAGE CALYPSO and SOCA MUSIC with special emphasis on COMBO MUSIC.

I have established this site for friends, family and those Trinbagonians who have established roots in Canada, other countries and of course good old T & T."

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Top dormitory

Gerry Campbell: Tea time was memorable with dem special buns....hmmmm..always fresh and tasty...

Jerry Bain: I could still taste that lime green soft drink... Excel.

Gerry Campbell: Fellas, ah enjoying dis....don't stop...our years are different, but we share a common language...only mount boys could understand it

Jerry Bain: Yeah, I was up there too, bottom bunk, David Narine was up top. I think "Jinks" was our prefect.

Terrence Ferreira: Jerry Bain Yeah! It was a dorm of bunk beds. Both of the Serrao brothers slept there. How come you didn't notice Clements?

Jerry Bain: Is that Miguel "small world" Serrao

Attila Gyuris: Oh yeah.... the Excel soft drink... I had completely forgotten about that one. Tea time at 5 o'clock, soft drinks and buns, with jam inside!

Neil Charles: tea time was at 3 or 3:30pm. Dinner was at 6pm

Terrence Ferreira: Yes, tea for me was after class at 3pm .... showers at 5pm

Glen G. McKoy: we had cubicles, thank you for the photos amigo, cheers Glen.

Terrence Ferreira: Cubicles in all the dorms, We only had cubicles on the right, the volleyball court side on the third floor. The photograph is of the fourth floor.

Attila Gyuris: By the time I got in Form V (1968-1969), we all had cubicles in the east side of the 3rd floor dormitories. On both sides and the middle. Mine was on the north (mountain) side window. The other dorms of lower forms did not

Terrence Ferreira: Correct. I meant the entire third floor right/east side.

Attila Gyuris: When I first got there in 1964, the very top floor in the center of the main building ( I guess that would be the 4th floor?) was a dormitory for the older boys. This lasted a couple of years, then, after1966 onwards, that large hall became the General Study Hall, where every student had an assigned top opening wooden desk to keep the books, notebooks and supplies.

If I remember correctly, that was the way it was still when I left in 1969. 

Me and Kevan Torry used to spend hours throwing paper airplanes down the hill from those south facing windows.

Attila Gyuris: During my first three years there (1964 to 1967) the small boys dormitory was down in the adjacent small downhill building to the East, on the top floor, and just above the nurse's office and the chemistry & physics labs. The small chapel was also there on the south side exactly above the chemistry lab. Then, in Form IV, I got to go into the dorm in the West side of the third floor (the one nearest to the basketball court), then, in Form V (1968-1969), I finally got my cubicle in the East side of the third floor.

I remember the head prefect that school year was Paul Quesnel, and he got a cubicle that was a veritable "suite" compared to the rest, with a south facing bay window with a grand view of the Caroni plain.

Underneath of the chapel was the old theatre (1960), The Chemistry and Physics lab faced North, next to the infirmary, EDITOR

Terrence Ferreira: So Mount boarded less students? My brother Ronald and I went from the small dorm by the chapel to the top floor, and then skipping the basketball side on the third floor, we went straight to the prized cubicles. We had the first cubicle on the right as you went up the three or four steps. We were on the right just before the shoe rack and its toe jam. The top dorm, the 4th floor was all bunk beds and a prefect cubicle by the washbasins. The small guy at the bottom right of the photograph is Ronald.

Gerry Campbell: What colour were the lockers?....cream and green?

Terrence Ferreira: I recall the cream.

Gerry Campbell: Attila and Terrence, I really appreciate the .....history from 64to67....because, it gives me an idea of things before I appeared on the scene in 68..We are...mount boys, really fortunate to be part of this, It is truly amazing.

Gerry Campbell: I used to disappear down by the physics and biology labs, right outside the infirmary' door, on that concrete bench.....with a great view of the Caroni plains and Piarco airport.....to read, read and read. I was a......fanatic, but I enjoyed it 4 so!

Terrence Ferreira: During my time instead of Paul Que ... the senior dorm was run by Father Eugene who at the end of one term just up and left the priesthood. We figured he flew to England but I wished it was Mars. I disliked that man with a passion. It was perhaps around 1963 or early 1964 (not sure when) that Father Gregory/Duck, our Sports Master at that time and replacement for Brother Vincent/Roberts who also left Mount, occupied the cherished room at the far end of the dorm.

Sadly, although I understood the reasons for Brother Vincent's departure I never got over it. To me everyone else was second best. Also, he took our Sports Days with him ... a huge void in 1962, 63, 64 and even in 1965, the year I left.

Terrence Ferreira: No-no I'm incorrect, it was Father Bernard/Bobo sleeping in the cherished room. Eugene was running the dorm on the basketball side.

Attila Gyuris: During my first year in Prep A (1964-1965) I was in the small boys dorm in the small East building, and Bobo had the private room at the far end of our dorm.

During my senior year in Form V (1968-1969), if I remember correctly, Fr Duck had the private room in the back of the senior dorm with the cubicles.

Terrence Ferreira: When I arrived in 59 Bobo was running the small dorm. Perhaps around 60/61 he made way for Big Gianetti who then left and Jeff Herrera ran it until he left ...Attila Gyuris you have Bobo after Herrera. Gianetti shared out lines like crazy but we deserved them lol .... no talking the in dorm. What a thing ... that's my recollection.

Terrence Ferreira: Attila Gyuris what House were you in? I’m trying to place you.

Terrence Ferreira:... but wasn't there two special rooms in the Small Dorm? Thinking about it when my brother Ronald and I arrived in the Small Dorm both Gianetti and Bobo were in it. Gianetti in the front room left of the front door and Bobo down the way at the back. Now, was there a door back there to the Chapel? My memory isn't very clear on this stuff.

Terrence Ferreira: Duck came to the Senior dorm whilst we Ferreiras were there. I believe he was after Bobo, .... perhaps 1964. Roger Gianetti?

Terrence Ferreira: I'm attending a funeral in Toronto tomorrow, however when I return, I'll try to place you in one of our group photographs, almost the entire school, in 1965. Saint Anthony,  .. I assume Harry Laughlin was your first football star.

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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:

15LK4608FBFAB, Father Abbot Perreira

78UN0003CLASS1980, CLASS 1980

16LK1398FBNGO, Nigel Gopaul

18LK4138FBRGAFAM, Richard Galt and family