Circular No 419

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

Caracas, 14 November 2009 No.419

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Friends, 

Here is some news from Cornel De Freitas, received in February.  Part II shall be sent in Circular No. 423. 

Unfortunately I have received this.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: corneldefreitas@hotmail.com

Subject: RE: There comes a point in your life when you realize....

Date: Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:27:38 -0400 

Hi Glen,

It's been awhile...but I 'religiously' read and enjoy everything you send to me!

See, I even went out of my way to make 'everything' look special... you might not know this; but you definitely help us get along from day to day with the time you put into what you do for us (The Old Boys). A Heart felt thank you.

This I would like to share with you, 'because' you Are that type of person.

I was recently diagnosed with a "Pulmonary embolism" (I hope I spelled it correctly), it's a (one or more) blood clot in the lungs.

The attending Doctor handed me some info he printed for me off of a Medical site. 

The first few lines say that this is 80% fatal. 

Needless to say it is certainly changing the way I look at the remainder of my life and I thank GOD for not taking me away from my two little Angels; Lorenzo (7) and Christian (6) - my two grandsons. 

They started treatment immediately. 

I had to endure two injections into my stomach for seven days- two because I am heavy and required the maximum dosage, and I am now on 'Coumadin' a blood thinner for at least six months.

I would like to encourage All of our brothers that are suffering in any way to share their 'pain' so that they in turn will realize that others do care.

If you don't mind >>>I just received your email about 12 poisonous .....<<<< Thanks!

Send me your tel.# so we could have a chat.

GOD bless you and your loved ones.

Cornel 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------.

From: Nigel P. Boos

Sent: Friday, February 20, 2009 12:09 AM 

Eion,

Thanks so much for the news you sent to Cornel about yourself.

Would you have any objection to my passing your bio on to Ladislao for general distribution among the OB's.?

 (No pressure. Just let me know, please.)

Keep well.

Nigel  

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------.

On 19-Feb-09, at 7:15 PM, Eion O'Connor wrote: 

Thanks. 

You have good info man! 

I forgot about Glen, don't know him well but have met him through a good trini friend (Wesley Paul) who was a contemporary of Glen's at SMU - they played in a student band together. 

Richard Lawrence I don't know. 

----- Original Message ------------------------------------------------------------

From: Nigel P. Boos

Sent: Wednesday, February 18, 2009 11:16 PM 

Eion,

Cornel passed your email to me. Thanks for all the details. 

I thought you'd like to know - there are 2 other MSB OB's living in NS. 

He is GLEN MC KOY, (Class of '74) of 80 Adelaide Ave., Halifax, NS. B3N 2N8 (Ph: 902 443-5437) 

Then, there's RICHARD LAWRENCE, Address unknown (CLASS OF 79)

Perhaps you might run into these guys one day.

Nigel Boos 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------.

On 18-Feb-09, at 10:00 PM, Cornel de Freitas wrote: 

Since you asked here's my bio

Spent 7 yrs at the mount - 61 to 68

Godalming, Surrey, England  - 68 to 69;  O and A levels. 

St Mary's Univ ,Halifax, NS - 69 -74 ; B.Comm, B.A - many mount boys from my time passed through SMU - Michael de Verteuil (Fr.); Alexandro Lew (Nazi); former Bro. Maurus (mutty); Jeffrey, Hamish  & Allan Harrera, Jacques DeVerteuil, Nylon and Stuart Henderson, Dennis (fives) and Christian Gurley, Harry Laughlin, Roger Ames (sausage), Peter Chandler, Frank, Michael (terror) and Roger Farah, Richard de Verteuil (B'dos).

Fell in love with arts student Ann Marie Gay 1971, married 1973

First child, daughter Emily born 1976

Worked at university until 1977

Returned to T&T '77 - 85

Worked McEnearney, San'do and then WA Barron for Christian Quesnel.

Two boys born T&T , Brendan 1979 and Sean 1982

Continued close friendships with several mount boys - Christian Gurley, Bernard Large, Phillip Laughlin

Split that scene, returned to NS Dec 85 to present

Last child Michael born Jan 1986 Canada

Live Waverley, NS just outside Halifax

VP sales & mktg for local HVAC manufacturing co. - travel Canada and some states. 

Two other mount boys live in NS  - Arthur Knaggs (a close friend) and Tommy Jardine. These two must be from the first graduating class of the mount (class of late 40's) along with my uncle Mike Darwent (Longwood, Florida). 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------.

Nigel P. Boos

Monday, February 16, 2009 11:54:48 PM 

Pablo,

Since Terry and Eion are talking about you, I thought you'd like to get into the discussion as well.

Over to you.

Nigel 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------.

From: QNOISE@aol.com

Date: February 16, 2009 10:46:40 PM GMT-05:00 

Hi Eion,

From behin' de seawall is correct.

It's a delight to hear from you and to know that you actually lived long enough to mature; boy you were a massive headache for them priest.

However I recall you and Father Cuthbert pulling it off quite well.

He is truly a great man, a man who could see and understand things.

You might feel better if you knew that I was a member of the first "One B" class.

Yes man, they invented that class for guys like you and I, and you are correct when you say that today we would have been labelled with some sort of crap and thereafter given a wash of little pills. 

Where do you reside?

I'm in New Jersey and would love to get reacquainted; I'm not sure how. 

Tonight you made me laugh.

You still wear your St Lawrence pants, and on Trinity Sunday?  

What, how so, as a hat? You weighed about 15 pounds back then.

All you do keep in touch man.

By the way, my younger brother Ronald was nicknamed Towsie, not I.

Nigel has me listed as towsie on the MOB web site so don't feel too bad eh.

Sincerely,

Terrence

 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------.

eion@accesswave.ca writes: 

Mistake, mistake!

It was Pablo deLabastide, not Charles who was my Form 1B demotee pardner.  

----- Original Message --------------------------------------------------------.-

From: Eion O'Connor

Sent: Monday, February 16, 2009 10:02 PM 

Well, well, well, if it isn’t that fine Demerara cricketer (all round natural sportsman) from behin' de seawall.

Towsie, never thought I’d hear from you again after all these years. 

Yup that was me, always looking for trouble.

Today they would have some kind of label for that... .ADD...ADHD....LMOH (let me outta here )???

In 1962 they called it immature - Charles deLabastide and I were the only mount boys I know of that were demoted because we were rabble rousers in class.

Didn't change a thing! 

Anyway, I think I finally matured in my mid-thirties, what a drag!

Your memory serves you well, I was in St.Lawrence; still have the green & white shorts.....wear them on Trinity Sunday every year.

Eion 

----- Original Message --------------------------------------------------------------------

From: QNOISE@aol.com

Sent: Sunday, February 15, 2009 3:47 AM 

Corneal,

You need to eat more fish boy.

Look, you better ask Nigel if next Friday he could swing a fish roti for you. 

How could you ever misplace the "Rab"? Eion in my time, although he was one of the smallest guys around, I suspect he might have been one of Mount's biggest and best rabble rouser.

[Eion you know you were, you were miserable man, always creating some sort of trouble.

If you weren't stealing mangoes you were troubling some one of us or tapping guys just for fun it seems.

I loved your spirit kid, and I think you were in St Lawrence to boot.]

Hopefully the attached Voosh will kindle fond memories.

Corneal how come you didn't join up for Scouts?

Regards,

Terrence   

From the right but in the foreground's back line consisting of parrot-toe Sabga, Eion is eight in line wearing the spectacles left of Norman Tang but right of Jerome DeBarry, Pin Head [Charles?], Austin, Narine and so on. [yuh got to eat fish.]     

(Can make the corrections a soon as I get the photo or the photo´s code number, ed) 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------.

From: corneldefreitas@hotmail.com

Date: Sun, 15 Feb 2009 01:32:34 -0500 

Dear Eion:

(It takes a few minutes to put the face to the name)

Many thanks for reaching out... no words could really express what an amazing feeling it is ... to finally be able to actually make contact ... like I said, there just aren't enough words to express my feelings about it!

I have been getting quite a bit of mail and doing my best to respond directly, often copying to Nigel Boos and to Ladislao Kertesz; 

I am so very appreciative of these guys –

I love them both for what they are doing for us, as well as the others who are rethreading the fabric of friendship that has always tied us all together, some tears and also some rips, but I believe we have all grown up and matured, and come to realize what we all meant to each other.

If I could reach out to any brother that I may have hurt or ever offended and left without ever having the chance to make amends, to them, whomsoever "They" may be, my heartfelt "sorry" and please do not hesitate to reach out to me so I could finally express to them,

on a one on one basis how I feel, so that they would realize that I care about every single one of them as I do for any of my natural brothers and sisters.

Next time, could you please let me know what picture I could recognise you in, (the Circulars have a number of them)  your full name,, when you graduated and left the Mount and what you have been doing etc.etc...

I am so totally blown away that you remember all of that.

Believe me when I tell you, for the last 40-45 years,

I have often thought about the cabin we all worked so hard to build, it was a damn good one too. 

All the wood and galvanize we stole, even a mattress.

If I remember correctly, it was a two room- albeit small- but a lot of sweat went into the building of it.

I have such great memories of my life at the Mount with all of my 'brothers'. 

That's what they all mean to me, and I mean this sincerely. 

I know and realize that there were disagreements and misunderstandings, but then again, in any family of brothers and sisters, that happens.

But we all "grew up together" in close proximity, and as we moved forward and got a little older year after year the new younger 'brothers' would join us, and we would look out for them as any big brother would.

But I have always maintained that with all the ups and downs, good times and hard times, great times and even harsh or bad times, I am very proud to be a MOUNT boy!

I have two brothers and sisters, but because I was the eldest, and at the time they were a lot younger, their 'big' brother was away most of their lives, and did not grow up and 'bond' with them as most brothers and sisters do.

I was more or less a brother that would come home from away, spend some time and then leave again. 

Even when I left the Mount, I didn't stay in Aruba for very long, because I left for the United States (New York City) to study Electronics. 

I enrolled in the Delehanty Institute of Radio Television and Electronics and completed with a 4.0 average. 

After that I went on to take Computer Programming at E.C.P.I.  (The school was in the sub basement level of the Empire State Building).

I went back to Aruba, and my father used his influence to get me a job with an accounting firm, where I worked for a year to gain some experience while I applied for Immigrant status in Canada.

When my papers got approved, I took off for Canada, and I am now a Canadian Citizen for the last 39 years.

I have visited Trinidad and went up to the Mount.

The first time I went up, Cecil and a few of the boys were still there, of course, they were older and had moved forward a few grades, but It's been a long (very) long time since I've been back to Trinidad.

I believe this may have had a lot to do with my parents passing away and they always travelled to Trinidad to visit our family that live there and also on to St. Vincent where I was born and where my family originated from.

Sorry about the long history, but it helps shed some light on the story.

I believe it was my friend Jeremy du Barry that for some reason was told that I met my demise in, of all places, "Curacao".  

Even though Aruba and Curacao are sister islands along with Bonaire,  (these three are often referred to as the A B C islands) Aruban people did not care too much for Curacao, and even though I have visited/passed through a few times for connections to other islands etc., I had no real reason to visit often.

Aruba is now independent of the other 5 Dutch islands.

The other 3 were St. Martin, Saba and St. Eustatius. 

Saba is basically a mountain in the Caribbean sea.

For your information, Terence Ferreira, (do you know him?) is coming up for a visit in about a week.

Nigel and I plan to meet with him for a kind of mini reunion.

Write again and send some pictures if you have some from the 'old days at the MOUNT, I would love to see them.

You wouldn't happen to have one of the old "cabin" would you?

Take care, it was GREAT to hear from you, all the best to you and your loved ones for the new year.

GOD bless you and hope to hear from you soon again.

---By the way...Where do you live? 

Cornel de Freitas ... 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------.

Date: Sat, 14 Feb 2009 12:38:25 -0400

From: eion@accesswave.ca 

Is this the "el tigre" cornel?

I heard you were dead man! so its real nice to see you are still around - another witness to the 'back to jail we go' years.

Remember the den we built up behind the scout house; let's see, it was Raymond deVerteuil, Phillip Laughlin, pin head, Christian Gurley, Cecil, ... can't remember all. Perhaps also Bookie Deveau..

You would go to town on weekends and bring back all kinds of eats we were starving for at the mount, go to the den, eat, smoke cigarettes and talk shit.

You were one weird dude man.. ..

Do you ever see your country man Crofton Stroud?  He was a kind fella.

Eion O'Connor

(Rab - Flaco to the Venezuelans) 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------.

From Cornel de Freitas

Date 6 February 2009 03:17 

Hi Trevor:

Greetings from another "Old" MSB student.

Nigel, in his introduction, has proclaimed nice things about you, and yes, I too must say that I treasure the time I spent in The Abbey School "Jail" (affectionately of course).

Thank you Nigel, for your introduction to Trevor.

I have already related a number of stories of my time and experiences at Mount St. Benedict. 

But with all of the ups and downs at the Mount, The 'Ups' far outweigh the 'Downs'.

I do not know whether or not you knew Father Eugene (he was the Dean for the beginning of my years at MSB), But he was probably the most 'serious' of all the Monks.

I can't remember ever seeing him smile...

I am so looking forward to reaching out to as many of my 'Brothers' as I am able to, with the hope that they too feel the same way.

So many stories I've read about 'White Stones', never new there was 'treasure' buried up there, or that there was a secret organization associated to it - all very interesting - I love reading all that stuff to do with the Mount.

I picked up on a lot of the old Circulars, which I am still in the process of reading. (I was fortunate to have been 'discovered by Ladislao just before Christmas (2008)

I just wish that that there was a data base that could be accessed (how does that sound Kazim? - Food for thought?)

There don't seem to be too many photographs of the buildings of the earlier years.

Like some of the buildings Nigel speaks of, i.e.: the old refectory where they had their meals.

My memories of our refectory at the time when I started going to the Mount, was: you would go down the staircase near to the Prep Dorm, walk pass the old showers, through the door at the end of that corridor which led to a narrow path downward like a "Z", where the bottom of the letter " Z " as is related to the path, went by the workshop.

Does anybody remember that?

I also remember a 'foodfight' we had one night at dinner time, when father Augustine was supervising.

The lights went out and people were pelting buns all over the place, some even threw oranges.

The mess made as a result was...incredible... He was soooooo pissed off (I don't believe that word was invented yet.)   But what a MESS!!!

Were any of you attending the Abbey School at the time to witness this?  And, we used to get a Trini version of Spaghetti and meat sauce,

I still remember how good that meatsauce was - I make my own, but I wish I had the recipe for the one we ate at the Mount.

Like I said there are a thousand stories and then some.

Anyway, Take care all and GOD bless you all

Cornel de Freitas 

P. S. Sorry I forgot to "caption" the snapshots, Next time it is 2:18 am in Toronto, and I need to get some shut-eye, or I'll be useless in the AM

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------.

From: To: corneldefreitas@hotmail.com; tevelyn@rogers.com
Date: Thu, 5 Feb 2009 14:37:45 -0500 

Hi Trevor and Cornel,

In light of the fact that you both are always so enthusiastic and upbeat about anything related to MSB, and also, since you live rather more closely together than the distance from Etobicoke / Mississauga to Ajax, I thought it might be a good idea to introduce you to each other.

Trevor - meet Cornel de Freitas, grad 1965, lives in Etobicoke (Tel > 416-748-8805)>

Cornel - meet Trevor Evelyn, grad 1949, lives in Mississauga (Tel: > 905-275-7832) Perhaps you could plan a get together at a local Timmy's to meet.

Best wishes,

Nigel 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------.

Now to the photos 

Regards

Ladislao Kertesz, kertesz11@yahoo.com 

So now you have all the exchanges and photos.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

SCOUT PHOTOS 

95CF0001CDFFAM, Cornel with son Michael

99CF0001CDFFAM, Cornel de Freitas with Santa

73CF1973CDFTO, Cornel de Freitas in Toronto

08AG0010EDIMSB, Monastery taken from a helicopter by Attila Gyuris

08AG0010EDIMSB, Fr. Augustine´s room