It was in 10th grade that I met Carolyn, Magali, Janet, Heather, and Jacqui - some hot girls. Pansy Cooper and Darlene Bailey were their friends too. Jasmine and I were still best friends. Carolyn and Magali were wired and had more energy than JPS. Magali’s mom would come to collect her in an aqua-blue VW bug every evening, after she had finished netball practice. Other hot girls of the day were Jacqui Thompson and her sister Judy. Marcia Doiley, Sharmin Dallas, Greta Dawkins, Juanita Fairweather, Cecile Biggs and her side-kick Geraldine King were fly-girls too.
As for the guys, the Tony-C hair cut was in once again, and every guy had it. Somehow, in those days it was as though the only guys in the school who were hot, were those who played sports. Gosh, I had a smash on Damion Troy Wise who was not shy to tell us about his after-school exploits. He was a freckle-faced guy who had bow legs, curly hair and an American accent. He was fine, and he was on the Manning Cup team. Most handsome of all was a guy named Howard Reid. He was tall and dark and had the cutest dimpled smile. There was Desmond (Deszi) Clarke who joined us in 4th form, who looked like a full grown man when he arrived. He was very tall, and had something hot going on about him. There was Edgar and another guy Clive Maxwell (Abdul) who were in higher grades. Yum, yum…….
Karl Richmond was a genuinely handsome guy with a fit body too. He was so mature, tall, dark, and handsome. Devon Chevannes had all the girls salivating. He was muscular and had broad shoulders, and walked with a confident bop. But the walk which had no competition was that of hottie- hottie Courtney French. He had the walk of a model, shoulders were back and straight. This walk would augur well for his future in dancing. Wayne Morris, Gerald Gallimore, Richard Gordon and Dave Taffe and Peter Mair were handsome fellas too, but I don’t believe they knew it at the time.
The co-educational experience did so much for me in my approach to guys in those days. Guys and girls were so cool with each other, and had genuine platonic friendships. Some had their first or second experience at puppy-love, and I guess some fell genuinely in love with each other. Others fell flat on their faces.
In 10th grade we had a singing competition at Ardenne where people from Jamaica Cultural Development Commission and the Ministry of Education came in as judges. The competition was between houses. We had specific criteria to follow regarding the choice of the songs. I only remember that members of Ardenne Choir like David Barrett were on our house team, along with people like Magali Bernard and I, who thought we could sing. The songs we sang as a team were Dionne Warwick’s “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again”, and a Jamaica folk song, “Dem Gal Wouldn’t Go for a Man, Unless Dem a Wear Uniform”. We rehearsed with the same music teacher (small bodied, slim, dark complexion) who rehearsed our graduation song with us. I believe our Cohen House team came second that year.
There were fundraising concerts at Ardenne on Fridays sometimes, when students and staff would show off their talent in singing, dancing and acting. We would pay like 50cents to get in and we had fun.
At the end of 10th grade my school report was not very impressive. I failed Physics miserably and I got 41% for Add. Maths. I scraped Chemistry and got fair enough grades for English, Spanish, Maths and Biology, subjects which I loved. Jasmine passed everything with A’s and a few B’s. Rajesh Kumar was up there too. Apart from our class outing to Ochi Jasmine and I went on our own private outing to St. Thomas (White Horses) in July of that summer, 1982. She was a brilliant swimmer, and I couldn’t even swim. We had so much fun on our little outing and laughed ourselves sick.
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She went off in August to spend the rest of the summer with her mom and brother in Balaclava, St. Elizabeth. She had lost her dad in the October of the previous year, at which point she kept telling me that, “Death is a friend”. On Monday August 16, 1982 Sharmin Dallas called me at home to tell me that Jasmine went swimming with friends in Williamsfield River, a tributary of Black River and went missing when the river took her away. “They can’t find her, Dahlia”, Sharmin said. She was missing for another 5 days, and I just knew that she had somehow walked away from that river and was hiding. They found ‘the body’ on Sunday, her long beautiful hair entangled in a tree root way down-stream, and had to have a quick funeral on Monday 23rd while ‘the body’ was in an acceptable state. Shock is a euphemism of the feelings I had on that day when Sharmin called.
I have never accepted Jasmine’s dying, and have always felt a vacuum in my heart for her. I never went into another river, beach, sea or swimming pool for the next 9 years, for fear of drowning.
Life at Ardenne without Jasmine was difficult at the beginning of 11th grade. I was 14 years old and my life was crumbling. Magali Bernard sensed that and when she joined our 11-4 class, she made an effort to befriend me. I will never forget her kindness. We became even closer when she begged me to follow her to North Street to the funeral of Paul Littlejohn, a former Ardennite and star footballer who had transferred to St. Georges College, and had drowned when the taxi in which he was travelling veered over Flat Bridge and into the deep waters. Magali was gutted to lose her friend and I tried to support her.
I spent the entire 11th grade year fretting about the CXC and GCE exams. I tried hard to ketch up misself with my schoolwork, but the work just got harder and harder. I remember that Antoinette Clemetson was involved in the school’s Debating Society, and Everton McFarlane (Wonder Pup) and Rajesh Kumar were on the School’s Challenge team. Mervin Chisholm was another scholar I remember.
11th graders had Careers Week, during which several professionals were invited to come to Olson Hall and tell us about their profession, and entice us to join. That’s when I became excited about Nursing, a profession which, as it turns out, I would never pursue. Aviation, law, medicine and accounting were other popular choices for my colleagues.
I started to move with a group of hot girls – Carolyn, Magali, Jacqui, Janet and Heather. These people were never down or depressed, never worried. They were my chill pill. We celebrated who we were – 11th graders who were trying a ting. With them my confidence soared. Allan Toppin and Richard Watt, an inseparable duo at that time, delighted in calling me “Lipps Incorporated”, the name of a popular band, to tease me about my beautiful, extra-large lips.
The girls group wasted a lot of time together, especially liming around by the Zoology Lab. We enjoyed using a pin, needle or our school badge to stick students in their bum. We found their reaction quite funny. We helped each other with schoolwork too, but that was on the back-burner. G.Q. Magazines, fashion, music and movies were much more important. Barrington Levy, June Carol (J.C.) Lodge, Tenor Saw, Yellowman, Boy George, Michael Jackson, Prince and the Revolution, Sheila-E, Irene Cara and the movie, “Flash-Dance” were the lick in those times.
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