Newsletter
for alumni of The Abbey School, Mt. St. Benedict, Trinidad and Tobago, W.I.
Caracas, 7 of March 2020 No. 957
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Dear Friends,
More news from Esmond Lange
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idmitch@anguillanet.com <idmitch@anguillanet.com>
Jan 26 at 6:07 AM
Thanks for the response, Esmond.
Yes, I have put all of that behind me
now:
Do you ever see Trinidadian Tony
Greenidge from South Trinidad or his children?
Tony was married to my stepsister
Margaret Schliefer, who died some years after they emigrated to Western
Australia.
Her widowed, Jamaica-born father Roy
married my widowed mother Muriel in Trinidad many years ago.
They both died some years after
retirement and are buried in Anguilla.
I used to hear from Tony, usually at
Christmas, until a few years ago, and then he dropped off the grid.
I hope he and his children are
okay.
The Schliefer boys, Edward and Alan, I
believe also emigrated to Australia.
I also have first cousins whom I once
visited in Dorrigo, a small logging town west of Cofts Harbour.
Maggie and I were then at a law
conference in Aukland in I believe the late 1980s.
They were the children of my late
Kittitian uncle Lenny Owen, who became a logger there in the 1960s and
70s.
Uncle Lenny, his wife and children, even
came on holiday to Anguilla to visit us in Anguilla some years after.
Maggie and my Mum visited them back in
turn in about 1995 when I was at a Family Planning conference in Delhi.
I lost track of them after that.
I only remember the married name of one
of them, Debbie Young.
Please don’t put yourself out to locate
them.
I just wondered if they might by chance
be members of the Association known to you, and easy to locate.
Best,
Don
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From: Esmond Lange <esfran@poppie.com.au>
Sent: Sunday,
26 January 2020 02:00
Hi Don,
Yes, some interesting and challenging
points you raise which could be the basis for long debate.
As to our educational experience it just
raises the question; are we the product of what has happened to us during our
life or are we the result of how we have reacted and use those experiences to
make us who we are?
I certainly ascribe to the latter as I
firmly believe attitude is the single most important part of the outcome for
any person – as per the famous Epictetus quotation - “it is not so much what
happens to you but how you react to it that matters”…..
As for the other more sordid issues you
raise, yes they were far too many things practiced and accepted in past eras
that are totally unacceptable now. However, it is regrettable that far too many
now (especially the media) are all too eager to be victims and ascribe
responsibility to any and every one other than themselves and of course the
Churches are easy targets yet statically, they are really no established to be
any more guilty than other organisations or sectors of society.
Again, it is that question you raised
about expectations an opportunity; parents willingly gave over their children
because they trusted the clergy and religious orders, so how then could they
behave so corruptly and irresponsibly?
Apart from one year at Presentation I
only went to Benedictine colleges and can attest that the abuse of students was
not something I personally ever experienced or witnessed and in fact I have
discussed this exact issue with some friends who attended Douai with me and we
all overwhelmingly agree that whilst we never experienced or saw anything
untoward we could all identify individual boys who we felt could possibly have
been targets for any evil predator.
The Caribbean Australian Association was
founded by a small group led by Dr Trevor Blades (Barbados) my brother
Alastair, Jerry Quesnel (Trinidad) Gordon Neal (Jamaica) and a few others
including I believe Rev Basil Tonks who had lived in Trinidad previously.
Most of the inaugural members were
people who were themselves recent arrivals to Australia and the intent was to
provide an avenue of support and community for the increasing number of
immigrants from the Caribbean and Trevor was not only the inaugural President
but largely responsible for the growth and survival of the Club but he also
held the post for 25 years until succeeded by myself in 1995.
So, I guess the answer is yes, we meet
and run into many from the West Indies but alas not too many old boys from MSB.
David Johnson lives in the same neighbourhood and my two brothers in law
(O’Connor) are nearby but apart from that I cannot think of any other.
Hope this all helps.
Warm regards,
Esmond Lange
Mobile:
0414711082
Home:
+61894579570
“We will
open a new book today and its pages are blank. We put words to it ourselves and
that is called “opportunity”! Today is our first chapter!” – Edith
Lovejoy Pierce
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From: <idmitch@anguillanet.com>
Date: Saturday,
25 January 2020 at 23:31
Hi, Esmond,
Thank you for bringing me up to date on
your career over the years.
You have achieved a great deal and
congratulations are due.
Life has been good to both of us, and
for that we must always be grateful.
I like to think that some of the
challenges I personally survived in later years were made more manageable by my
surviving the unspeakable cruelty of the monks to whom we boys were
subjected.
Kneeling for long periods in the hot sun
in the gravel outside of the classroom balancing a heavy book in each
outstretched hand as punishment for talking in class?
Tough love, I believe they call it now.
We must also be grateful that we were
male, and not pregnant Irish girls sent to the Magdalene laundries of the mid
to late twentieth century.
Catholic boys all around the world
generally seem to have had it so much easier than the girls did.
And, speaking about sex, we boys at
Mount were lucky not to be sexually abused, as appears to have been so
widespread in other parts of the Catholic world.
Of course, there is possibly a valid
point of view that brutality was the only sure way for the monks to discipline
the rabble of West Indian and South American hooligans that we were.
Otherwise, we would doubtless have
mercilessly exploited any weakness shown by our custodians.
Besides, to be fair, what other conduct
could be expected of the survivors of the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands
from which our teachers emerged?
Considering what horrors they and their
families had survived from the occupation, and the slave labour camps in the
Rhur Valley that some of them were sent to and described to us, they were
really well-adjusted.
It is only in recent years that the
negative consequences of corporal punishment of little children has come to be
understood and accepted.
I hope that the vast majority of our
schoolmates at Mount had the same positive outcomes in later life that we two
have enjoyed.
I know of one or two who didn’t.
The casualties of war, I suppose. Collateral damage ☹?
I am curious about your continuing
Caribbean association.
Did you ever meet any of your old
schoolmates in Australia in later years?
Best,
Don
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From: Esmond Lange <esfran@poppie.com.au>
Sent: Saturday,
25 January 2020 10:41
Hi Don,
Thanks for the detailed reply and so
glad to hear that your memory is much better than mine…..
To be honest I only have vague
recollections of my time in Trinidad prior to leaving in 1959 and maybe there
is some deep Freudian reason for this as in many ways I believe I only started
living as an individua when I went to Douai in England. Like you my time at MSB was not filled with
remarkable memories and truthfully, I only have vague recollections; e.g.
breaking my arm pole vaulting, Fr Chris not being that nice a person and the
food being very ordinary!
Prior to MSB I “served time” briefly at
each of St Joseph Convent, Walters and San Fernando Boys RC until I was
banished to Mount, probably because as a pre-teen I was quite insolent and
disagreeable though I am sure this was more to do with environment than my
personality as from England on I was always a very sociable and successful
person and especially with strong leadership qualities at work and in the
community.
On my return from England I had a good 6
years in T&T working for Texaco and continuing playing a lot of sport;
Tennis, Football, Cricket, Golf and especially Rugby at which I successfully
represented Trinidad until I left in 1970. In 1969 I had married Frances Ann Gray who I
quickly dragged on an adventurous International life consisting of living and
working in many countries (Libya, Argentina, Brazil, Brunei, Norway, Malaysia,
Ecuador and Singapore) until we finally ended up in Perth, Western Australia in
1995. My whole family (parents and four
siblings) had all emigrated here at different times between 1967 and 1974 while
Frances Ann’s family all emigrated to Vancouver in Canada in 1970.
As to your observation on work, yes I am
still “keeping busy”, though not full time and I attach a couple pdf files
which hopefully gives you a synopsis of my career and perhaps explains why I am
still working though the simple truth is because it is not work to me but
rather a joy and very fulfilling to pass on my experience and knowledge to
younger people.
I am also still active with sport and
play Tennis and Golf every week and interestingly FA is a keen gardener who
loves cultivating her Scotch Bonnets and making pepper sauce! I don’t know if you noticed but I am an
ex-President of the Caribbean Australian Association (founded 1977) and we
continue to be very active catering to about 200 families who mostly hailed
from some part of the WI, but Trinidad, Jamaica and Barbados.
Finally, both FA and I have always been
very involved and active with our parish church community, so I guess the many
years of monastic education (indoctrination 😀) did have an effect!!
Thanks very much for taking the time for
responding to my email and for filling me in on your news….
With fondest regards,
Esmond Lange
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From: <idmitch@anguillanet.com>
Date: Saturday,
25 January 2020 at 20:20
Hi, Esmond,
I am so sorry. I meant to respond long ago to yours of 23
January.
I guess that it got buried in an
avalanche of subsequent emails ☹
I remember you were with me in some of
my junior classes, probably Prep B and A, and Form 1.
Those were truly awful years for
me.
Mr Rais was our arithmetic teacher and
was responsible for giving me a terrible phobia towards numerals.
His little trick was to come up behind
me, and, if he noticed I had done a mistake in the assignment I was working on,
he would hit me over the back of my head with the wooden side of the
chalk-board duster.
I never got beyond 5 in learning my
tables.
To this day I multiply 8 by 8 by adding
5 times 8 to 3 times 8.
The phobia he gave me messed up O-Level
chemistry, physics and even biology which took on mathematical proportions by
Form 5.
My closest friends were other sports
haters like Joel Guy (Toby) Blandin, MJB Deverteuil and Tony Vieira.
I can’t remember what years they were in
my class.
In later years, I concentrated on the
library and did not develop existing friendships or make new ones.
I was terribly conflicted by the awful
religious myths that were pressed on our immature minds.
It was only later I realized how much
damage they did to us.
It was with great relief that I learned after
going to London to do my A-Levels and law school that Jesus was most probably
the code name for the hallucinogenic mushroom Muscaria Amantia consumed by the
Essene rebels fighting Roman occupation, a much improved myth I found 😊.
I never went to church again from the
age of 18 and have joyfully counted myself as a militant atheist ever since.
Maggie and I are now completely retired,
and I busy myself with gardening, planting varieties of hot peppers, and
suchlike harmless occupations.
It looks from your signature on your
emails like you are still gainfully employed.
However do you find the energy?
And, do you ever meet any West Indians
in Western Australia?
Best,
Don
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From: Esmond Lange <esmond@soundingboardaustralia.com.au>
Date: Thursday,
23 January 2020 at 12:59
Hi Don,
Just a quickie….. I have been perusing
the blog that you so kindly sent and got down to # 897 and found this dated
January 9th 2019!
While Br Vincent sent me to Bobo every
Monday morning for six of the best for refusing to participate in anything that
had to do with the sports field for my first few years (starting in 1955 aged
9), Rughead, as we affectionately knew him made me (around the age of 12) his
assistant librarian.
Now this tells me that (if I can count)
we are around the same age and we must have been at MSB at the same time though
to be honest I cannot remember you and I feel sure you also cannot remember me
either otherwise you would have mentioned it; am I right?
I seem to remember that I left MSB as a
junior in 1958 to attend Presentation College in San Fernando where I was
supposed to study French for one year before heading to England in 1959; I
would have just turned 14 when I got on that boat! – this is how things were
done in those days….
I certainly remember Rughead as he and I
were never best of friends though in retrospect who can blame him as I can be
best described at that age as “being quite difficult”!!
I also identify a great deal with
getting caned every week and always being in trouble though I was just the
opposite and only wanted to play sport rather than study (maybe why our paths
did not cross).
Just thought I would share this with you
as maybe you have a better memory of me, but to be perfectly honest MSB was not
a place I enjoyed that much, though boarding school in England was much better.
Warm regards,
Esmond J. Lange
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EDITED by
Ladislao Kertesz, kertesz11@yahoo.com, if
you would like to be in the circular’s mailing list or any old boy that you
would like to include.
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Photos:
14LK8428FBRFL, Richard
Fletcher
57CC0083BJOBBI, Bernard
Johnson and Brian Bishop
19MS0001MSO, Matthew
Sorzano
18LK0001FBDALGRP,
Damian Ali, Jimmy Samaroo and Winston Kerry
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