Circular No 511

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

Caracas, 20 August 2011 No.511

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Dear Friends, 

Can you help with John and Robert Llanos, are they alive??  Hopefully so but you must write us.

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

Caracas, 15 of June 2002. Circular No. 31

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Dear Friends, 

The following message was received from: Michael Dórnellas.

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Hello Ladislao, 

Thank you for your email and I am pleased you and many of the old boys enjoyed the pictures (season’s play). Thank you for acknowledging the source of the photos, however it was not important to do so. Therefore , there was no need for you to apologize.

I sent you an email some time ago with all my contact numbers, any way I will give you again. Home (868) 673-3452 Work ...(868) 673-3447.

As soon as I have I will photo copy the Mount Inside's that I have in my possession. First I have to find them... that's the big problem.

As I mentioned in a previous email.... I do not have any information on the scout photo I sent you. My memory is BLANK with that one. I will be visiting Fr. Cuthbert soon and I should get some info from him . If I do, I will put together an article for you. Actually, I visited the Mount on Easter Saturday in the hope of meeting Fr. Cuthbert. Unfortunately, I met no one. I may return to day.

Kurt Allen, better known as ' Puggy ', phoned me about two weeks ago. He is planning a OLD BOYS REUNION at the ABBEY SCHOOL some time this year. We will notify the old boys via phone, email, fax and the daily newspapers. As soon as I receive more details I will forward the information to you. Unfortunately, I do not have any contact numbers for Kurt. During our last phone conversation he promised to call me at home the same night ......... would you believe my phone went dead...... Kurt may have called ..... So now I have to wait until he calls me to get the contact info.

The first circular I received from you was circular # 9 and I have received everyone ever since. My favourite was the article on Fr. Benedict 'Voosh' by Nigel Boos. I enjoyed it immensely. Nigel captured Fr. Benedict perfectly.

When will the Abbey web site be completed? (it evolving every month)

I am going to be very busy with my work for about 3 more months. Once I have sometime to myself, I will assist with some articles and information.

I would like to personally thank you for all that you have done and continue to do to get your circulars out to us and for just keeping us all together.

I have to close now....  

Michael Dórnellas

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Please look at a recent photo of Michael and son.

I have included this belatedly message because I am trying to change the format a bit by letting you write your impressions on the circular, events form memory and your visits to the Mount, those that live in TT. I hope Michael does not mind my using his lines.

I have additional messages for you, alumnae, that I shall publish in the next few weeks. Meanwhile I am preparing something that you might like, on personal experiences.

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Continuing the Who is Where, thanks to Roger Henderson: 

20. Fr. Olliviere is in Trinidad. Went to one of his masses the other day 

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From: Nigel Boos [mailto:nigelboos@eagles-wings.ca]

Sent: Monday, July 18, 2011 8:24 AM 

Gentlemen,

Ladislao has now presented us with a photograph of Abbey School students, probably from 1973, but we have no idea who these boys might be.

So far as I've been able to determine, (and I may be wrong - if so, please correct me), you were students at MSB during the 1972-1974 period, and you just might know a few of these boys.

If so, would you kindly identify them for us and send me a return email response with the names you suggest.

Thank you.

Nigel Boos 

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Pre-OCPA Calypso in Toronto:  A Personal Memoir

Here is an axiom that Pythagoras and his mathematical colleagues could never have conceived:  “Wherever there are people of Trinidad and Tobago in the Diaspora, there will always be Calypso.” 

The History of Calypso in Toronto did not begin with the birth of OCPA in 1980, in the same way as the History of Canada did not begin with the arrival of Europeans to Canada in 1643.  The existence of several incarnations and manifestations of calypso in Toronto in the fifties and sixties may indeed have spawned the Organization of Calypso Performing Artistes.  The calypsonians in Toronto in the fifties and sixties were mainly calypso singers.  The majority of them sang songs composed and made popular by calypsonians in Trinidad and Tobago like the Mighty Sparrow, Lord Kitchener and Lord Melody.  Very few wrote and sang original songs before the advent of Dave Martins and the Tradewinds.  They performed at local nightclubs, West Indian dances and the odd Canadian event that wanted a Caribbean flavour.  There were also large shows featuring the Mighty Sparrow, and Harry Belafonte whom Canadians revered as the quintessential calypsonian. 

Three hours after my arrival in Canada on a chilly night in September 1960, I went to a night-club in Montreal called The Venus de Milo.  There Eddie Edgehill and Dave De Castro were blurting out the lyrics of Jean and Dinah, Mae Mae, P.A.Y.E., and Benwood Dick to a packed audience of Trinbagonians, mainly students who were hungry for a taste of their homeland.  They were accompanied by their French-Canadian girlfriends.  Meanwhile in Toronto, there were groups like the “Latins” later called “The Debonairs” headed by Eric Minns from The Bahamas.  The Tradewinds was headed by Dave Martins from Guyana.  The Delmas and the Mahon Brothers had a band which played at the Little Trinidad Club on Yonge Street.  Charles Roach was an erstwhile calypso singer.  Sello Gomes and his band sang and played at the Calypso Club.  Bing Serrao and the Ramblers from Guyana were also part of the calypso scene.  Night-clubs such as the Tropics, WE Place, the WIF club used to be hopping with pulsating calypso sounds. In February of 1962, on Carnival Friday night, I went with a steel band to play at a dance at the Lions Club in Timmins, a city about 550 kilometres north of Toronto.  It was a snowy, freezing night.  In the midst of that arctic desert there were four young men called King Karib and the Calypso Bandits from Trinidad and Tobago belting out calypso lyrics.  I am sure Jean and Dinah never thought they would have made it so far north. Many of the bands mentioned above sang and played at the Caribana Festival in 1967. 

The first Calypso Competition was held in 1969 at the Maple Leaf Gardens.  It was a Caribana-sponsored event.  There were about 3000 people at the event, more than I have ever seen at any Calypso Competition in Toronto.  There was a “Dimanche Gras” atmosphere at the Gardens.  In the competition there were seven contestants.   Each contestant sang one song.  All the songs were original compositions.  The music band was led by Sello Gomes.  Contestant Number 5 was Dave De Castro with the sobriquet of “The Bandit”.  He came out dressed up in a bandit costume, with a decorated Mexican hat and two cap guns smoking.  He was totally inebriated, drunk like the fish he was going to play in the Caribana Parade the next day.  He sang a song that he composed himself.  It was titled “Caribana, The Big Fete”.  The Bandit literally “mash up de place”.  Even before the final two contestants performed, the large crowd was chanting in unison, “The Bandit win, the white fellow win”.  After the last contestant performed, the judges took a long time to make their decision.  The crowd was very restless, all the while chanting, “The Bandit win, the white boy win”.  Finally, the judges confirmed what the crowd was chanting.  The Bandit was crowned the first Calypso King in Toronto.  He was crowned with a gold silk crown made out of cardboard.  He was also awarded a prize of $250.  When I was leaving the Gardens I heard a guy say, “Ah never see nothing like dat in my life, a white fellow win Calypso King”. 

Throughout the seventies the calypso singers and other pretenders dominated the calypso scene in Toronto.  There were no more calypso competitions until the organization that is now known as OCPA was formed.  The organization was registered as the Calypso Association of Canada in 1982.  It was renamed and registered as OCPA in 1991.  In 1980 Lord Smokey was crowned the first Calypso King of the incipient organization.  Since that time many calypsonians were born, not just from Trinidad and Tobago, but from other Caribbean islands.  There is a vigorous, sustainable calypso industry in Toronto with excellent lyricists, musicians, arrangers and singers, both male and female, who have distinguished themselves here, in the United States, in the Caribbean and even in China and Japan.  The current list is voluminous.   Their compositions are original.  Many of them are producing high quality CDs.   The calypso tents are thriving.  There have been other groups promoting Calypso such as the Kaiso Breakfast Lime and the Calypso College.   Calypso is alive and well in Toronto. 

Lennox Borel

Toronto 2011. 

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Gerald Kenny some more information

Wednesday, May 11, 2011 9:54 PM

From: "Nigel Boos" <nigelboos@eagles-wings.ca> 

Dear Kevin, 

I have just heard from Eddie Lloyd that Gerald had passed away today. Please allow me to express my sincere sympathy with you and your family at his loss. I understand that he had been suffering for a long time, and I hope now that his suffering is at an end and that his soul will find rest and peace with Almighty God. I will always remember Gerald as a real friend and as someone who who loved life and brought a spirit of joy and happiness into any social setting in which he found himself. 

May God have mercy on his soul, and may you all be at peace now.

Sincerely,

Nigel Boos 

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From: Ed Lloyd <edwardlloyd@yahoo.co.uk>

Date: May 11, 2011 7:06:02 PM EDT 

Sad news, Gerald Kenny died today.

May he rest in peace.

Eddy 

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Ed Lloyd

Tel:- 01330 822930    Mobile:- 07900 616107 

Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase 

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From: Daphne Pasea <merrywid@tstt.net.tt>

Date: Thursday, 12 May, 2011, 0:44 

Dear Ed & Betty,

Just a short sad note to let you that Gerard Kenny passed away this morning at about 9.am.

Very sad but I would imagine a blessed relief for him.

Love Daphne 

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Ladislao Kertesz at kertesz11@yahoo.com,

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Photos:

Mount Inside 6404 p.07

73UN0002CLASS1976, Please check it out

74SC0201GRP, Renny Villafana visit to Cumana.

62TF0001RACEGRP, Sports Day.