If all of those choices were not affordable, or I had spent my lunch money buying “Mad Magazine” or a top-10 music 45-record like “CB-200”, or “Stop Spread Propoganda pon Di Dread Because Di Dread Nuh Have Nuh Forty-leg Inna Him Head”, then I could go to Cross-Country at Ardenne, near Land –Val, and pick up rotten ‘tambrins’ from off the ground and eat them for lunch.
One bright day I solicited Nadine Cheddar, an uptown girl from Norbrook, to accompany me, a midtown girl from Norman Gardens, across Cross-Country to stone tamarinds or pick them up off the ground. Well we got the tamarinds from off the ground and filled our uniform pockets with them. Some tamarinds had dried-out worms in them, so we discarded those. But when I looked down on my socks I exclaimed, “Lawd Nadine, bur tek mi. It deh all over mi socks.” Nadine, who was not allowed to speak patois in her home asked, “What is bore, Dahlia?” She asked twice because I could not understand that a Jamaican did not know what bur was. While picking off mine, and hurrying her up to pick off hers before the beginning of the next session, I answered, “Dem prickly something yah, Nadine.”
My greatest dilemma in those days was buying a soda and someone asking me for a ‘taste’. I am kind by nature, but I have always been scornful, and don’t like to share glasses, cups, bottles with anybody. I guess there’s a tablet for that, like Prozac or so, but I haven’t explored it yet. My worst nightmare when I reluctantly gave somebody a ‘taste’ from my soda bottle was to watch as their saliva rolled back down inside the bottle into my soda. I would automatically offer them the rest of the soda, with a smile. So for me, it was always best to guzzle down at least half of my soda or boxed drink as soon as I bought it, so that I could happily give away the rest of it if somebody asked for a taste.
Strict disciplinarians in those days included Rev. Archer, Mr. Ebanks, Mr. Winston Roberts and Ms. Wallace. Ardennites had some interesting aliases for Ms. Wallace (Miss G…. or Stocking-less). Ms. Wallace taught me As You Like It, in Literature in 9th grade.
Rev. Archer taught me Religious Knowledge in that year too. Rajesh Kumar and I got 100% on the final exams for R.K. and Glen Archer was pleased. Rev. Archer had a teaching style which encouraged me to swat everything. We had to do Reading Report in preparation for every RK class, to ensure that we had read material for the upcoming class. And woe be unto you if you hadn’t prepared a Reading Report! In those days I had a love-hate relationship with Rev. Archer. I had a student-teacher crush on him, but could not stand it when he shouted at me as a form of discipline for loitering outside my classroom during class times. I used to cry without ceasing. Today Rev. Archer is one of my best friends.
I.S.C.F. (Inter-School Christian Fellowship) was an important part of life at Ardenne. It cemented all the lessons we learned in Worship in Olson Hall on Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays. Those 15-minute sessions were a solemn, sacred legacy which most of us never really appreciated at that time. But those sessions helped to shape us and to make us who we are in 2008. My all-time favourite worship song was,
“Pass it On”.
“It only takes a spark to get a fire going,
And soon all those around can warm up in its glowing.
That’s how it is with God’s love,
Once you’ve experienced it,
you want to sing, it’s fresh like spring,
You want to pass it on.”
Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Next Previous
| |
Wicked song! Andrew Stone, Sharon Dewar and John Gordon were the key persons I can remember from ISCF at that time.
There was a guy named Wayne Kelly – short, glasses, and kinda handsome. He was a professed atheist who attended ISCF once and indicated that he was ready to surrender his life to Christ. The members there held hands with him, prayed with him and gave God thanks repeatedly for saving Wayne Kelly. Before the session was over word rang through the school that Wayne Kelly the atheist had received Christ as his personal Saviour. But when the session was over Wayne Kelly burst out laughing and told the ISCF group that he was playing a joke on them all……. May the Lord bless and keep Wayne Kelly. As my mother would say, “God is not mocked”.
I never played any sports because in first form I tried netball once and I ran with the ball. I was not forgiven for that blunder (it was my very first try, girls. Cut me some slack!), and I just never participated. In fact, Ardenne never did well in most sports in those days. We students used to walk to stadium after school, wid hungry deh kill wi, to cheer on our football team in Manning Cup Football. In the end it was always 3-love and more that we picked up. We would sing, “We nuh feel nuh way”, to the opposing team. The only way I felt in those times was hungry. I had spent off my lunch money on foolishness once again.
The year 1979 was different from the years before and after, when Ardenne met Camperdown High School in the Manning Cup Finals. Well, we were very proud of our team’s valiant performance, but the score after 90 minutes was……………..the same old, same old 3-0, in favour of Camperdown.
But for my entire time at Ardenne, if any netball team felt that we were a walk-over, they had to think again. Ardenne was the team to beat every single year, and oh how we enjoyed watching them play……….and win. The contenders were always Alpha Academy, Merl Grove High, and occasionally St. Andrew High School. But Ardenne bruk dem up; yes, Ardenne bruk dem up, thanks to Mrs. Margaret Beckford, the coach for our team.
I loved when those games were played at Ardenne. They would use rope to cordon off the court at the front of the school, and for most of the match we’d be shouting, “Reh……reh…..reh….reh, each time the ball was passed from one of our team members to another, then the crowd would just explode into loud applause when the reh’s ended in another goal.
Volleyball was another sport we mastered in those days, especially in my latter years at the school. Mr. Barton was the coach, and Marvin Reid was a member of the team. Mr. Barton also taught Music and Mathematics.
I remember cookery days with Ms. Forrest, and Agricultural Science with Mr. Haase (whom everybody nicknamed Mr. Horse). He was a very dark, pleasant guy, who had a loud voice (I think he was also a lay-preacher). Ms. Gardener taught Needlework.
|
