Newsletter for alumni of The
Abbey School, Mt. St. Benedict, Trinidad and Tobago, W.I.
Caracas, 19 of July 2014 No. 663
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Dear Friends,
I am inserting the Carnival
Short Story written by BRIAN GODDARD, enjoy.
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From:
Don Mitchell <idmitch@anguillanet.com>
Date: 3 March 2014 23:26
What a
wonderful story, Brian.
I am sure
it is entirely imaginary :-)
If it is
not too long, perhaps Ladislao with your permission can make a post out of
it?
You will
have to stop him before he acts!
Keep
well.
Don
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From:
brian goddard
Sent: Monday, March 3, 2014 11:07 PM
Don:
Thanks
for yr prompt response and for having re-sent my message to Jon and Nigel, to
whom I will be attaching the referred carnival short story which I had written
for a writers work shop which I attended in North Carolina in 2012, enjoy!
Buenas
noches & saludos to all,
Brian
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From:
idmitch@anguillanet.com
Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2014 21:41:29 -0400
Hello,
Brian,
So good
to hear from you. Just in case no one else did, I am copying this to Nigel and
Jon as you request.
I hope
you enjoy the Circulars that Ladislao has spent so many years, week after week,
putting together.
And, yes,
please let us have your stories of visits to Trinidad.
We are
collecting these stories.
You’all
come back again, now.
Don
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From:
brian goddard
Sent: Monday, March 3, 2014 3:15 PM
Great
circular Don and thanks for the opportunity of catching up with my past at the
mountain above Tunapuna ... jeje !! Although
I seldom respond to yr circulars, I have visited with the CCS Mt group, or try
to anyway, at least once a year; not so often as I would like but have made it
up to CCS several times in the past two decades. Ladislao is quite determined in inviting me
often but not living in CCS has made it difficult to get up there fm Valencia
where I live.
My fond
memories of MSB are still quite vivid of the developing stages of my Christian
upbringing at the Abby Mountain School, as I use to call it; although I didn´t
spend the same amount of time there as my brothers and most of you.
The
referred circular helped me regain memories that took me back to our very
enjoyable scouting trips to Maracas Valley road, the Chaguaramas Naval base, and
other beach area outings. Of course how
can we ever forget the magnificent Port of Spain Carnivals where my Caribbean
blood got the most of me; as I danced the time away to the calypso beat while
holding on to those hot Trinidadian girls.
I really
enjoyed reading John Golding´s story about our grand mutual friend Richard
"Mousy" Farah. By the way, during my trip to Trinidad last year on my
way back from Barbados, I had the opportunity of visiting with Mousy, still as
active and high spirited as ever. I also
finally went up the hill to check out the old school and the Abbey; thus again
remembering, that short period of my youth which I had not had the opportunity
to see, in over five decades.
Thanks
again all of you that make the Mt Boy Circular possible and I so now saying
farewell with a "ciao for now"
All the
best to all, Brian Goddard
PS: If
any of you would like to read my short story copy on a few grand and wonderful,
adventuresome carnival trips I made to Trinidad in the late 60´s and early
70´s, just let me know and I will be glad to e-mail you a copy, ok, and, by the
way, please re-send this message to Nigel and Jon Golding!
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From:
idmitch@anguillanet.com
Date: Sun, 2 Mar 2014 10:03:08 -0400
Hi,
Ladislao,
There, it
is published:
Not
enough people are visiting the site of the current Circulars. Only 90
visits for the year, which is very much fewer than normal
Maybe we
need to remind everyone that you are no longer circulating the emails but only
publishing them on the Blog.
It might
help if I copy this email reminder to everyone to replace the 2013 link to the
Circulars in their “favourites” in their browser with the link to the updated
2014 Circular.
Don
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Meet Brian E. Goddard, and his essay.
Caribbean Carnival Romance
My
yearning to return to my Caribbean, “Bajan” (Barbados) roots, had again
prompted my interest for another Caribbean carnival escapade to the tropical
island of Trinidad in 1972. At that
time, the Barbados “Crop-Over Festival” had been inactive since 1940 being
re-instated to its historical celebration values in 1974. The Barbados Crop-Over Festival has become
part of my future carnival agenda. My
early boyhood years spent in beautiful Barbados, where the joyful splendour of
its people, the island´s emerald blue sea and the abundance of white sandy
beaches, still continuously cater to my contagious dreams of settling in
Barbados for good.
However,
back in the early 70´s, while working in the eastern Venezuelan oil fields, is
where my carnival story begins, when the restless mood of my mid twenties, once
more thrived and prompted me to return to the most exiting carnival in the Caribbean
and probably in the whole world, the calypso carnival of Trinidad. My story doesn´t only begin with my frustrated
urge to once again feel the happy and exiting tropical moods of another
carnival and the island´s beautiful women but also that of those marvellous and
romantic moments spent with Jasmine. How
can I ever forget when I first held her with my hands around her exotic moving
waist and dancing to the calypso beat; as I encountered emotional romance
looking into her enchanting green eyes. So,
my story begins, with my enthusiastic, second adult carnival journey to the
wonderful tropical island of Trinidad and my love affair with Jasmine.
The
colourful and hypnotizing Caribbean sunset was barely hanging on to the bright
ocean horizon that Friday evening as I pulled up to my favourite beach front
posada (bed & breakfast inn) on the most easterly tip of Venezuela. I was soon parked and entering the old Posada
by the sea, from where I would catch my boat for the ocean crossing to Trinidad
when Carmen, the cute native receptionist greeted me:
“Hola
Musiu” (a Venezuelan slang for foreigner) and “bien venido”. Will you be staying with us for a few days on
business or will it be a pleasure trip to Trinidad for carnival this time!?”
“The
latter,” I responded. “A well deserved
pleasure trip to Trinidad. I´ve been
having the calypso jump-up itch for some time now and the moment has arrived
for my crossing. This “bajan-musiu” is
ready to jump-up to the carnival calypso rhythm once again. I´ll be leaving in the morning with “Chucho”
and returning around Wednesday of next week, so hasta luego Carmen. I must now get my things to my room and start
looking for Chucho.”
That
evening while sipping my whisky and coconut water aperitif in a local bar, I
enquired as to the where abouts of my skipper friend who would be taking me
early the next day to Trinidad. Chucho
had taken me several times during my previous business trips, to fish dolphin. Soon the Margarita fisherman and part time
tourist sea captain had arrived, jibber-jabbering as most fishermen do. After saying hello and inviting Chucho for a
drink, he responded in his normal jovial manner:
“Hola Sr.
Brian, It´s been a while since our last fishing excursion but from the rumours
around town, it seems that you´ll be preferring carnival to fishing on this
trip. Well I´m honoured to take you
there; so be ready for leaving the docks between 7:30 and 8:00 tomorrow
morning” and now having confirmed my departure time, I´m ready for that drink!”
“Sounds good
to me Chucho. I´ll be there by 8:00 AM
and by the way, how many other passengers will you be taking?” to which he
responded: “Sr. Brian, only three other passengers will be making the
trip with us tomorrow on my mighty “peñero” fishing boat. Don´t worry! They seem to be well polished, sailing
enthusiast that have made many voyages on small crafts to Margarita. If good weather prevails, we should have
smooth sailing to Port of Spain.” As the
evening went by, and tropical drinks kept flowing all around, Chucho
continuously kept insisting on changing the atmosphere to another part of town
where the juke boxes and the pretty “señoritas” would be livelier. However, it was best that I didn´t over do my
initial night´s partying with Chucho and his local friends. A sound night´s sleep would be required for my
next day´s early departure.
As I left
the friendly native bar for my Posada, I could see Captain Chucho with a silly
grin on his mischievous face while laughing and saying: “Well, musiu, from the
looks of things, you are ready to party! No doubt that you are looking forward to be in
a great carnival spirit for dancing to the calypso sounds with those lovely and
happy Trinidadian native señoritas.” And
I responded, “You hit the nail on the head this time Chucho. Who knows, you may even want to stay over as
well and enjoy the carnival, why not?”
My only
thought, as I went up to my room, was not only about the beautiful native women
that I would be meeting but about the memories of the pleasantness and
intriguing mixtures of the different native Afro-East Indian-Chinese and
Anglo-Spanish heritage of the Caribbean people in Trinidad, with whom I had the
pleasure of meeting in the past.
I caught
a glance of the night fishermen from my balcony; as they were preparing to
leave the docks for a hopeful and profitable night´s catch. At the same time I could barely see the far
off city lights of Port of Spain, Trinidad. I was now happily reminiscing and imagining
the delightful sounds of the calypso steel band music from a previous carnival
adventure, as I went into a sound night´s sleep.
The next
day, with an early calm sea breeze morning and after a delicious “criollo”
breakfast of shark meat “empanadas”, I proceeded down to the fishing docks to
wait for Chucho to arrive with his small peñero fishing boat that would be
taking us to Trinidad. While sitting at
the dock waiting, I could not help remembering the exciting carnival that I had
been to several years back. As the small
fishing vessel pushed off Guiria´s eastern fishing coast for my second carnival
adventure, those wonderful memories of my first carnival were still vividly on
my mind.
That
early Saturday morning, as the group of Venezuelan tourist, five of us in all,
including Chucho Rojas as Captain, the small “peñero” fishing boat lifted
anchor and set sail for the beautiful “island of the hummingbird”, as Trinidad
was then called.
As I
settled down in my seat, my first words to Chucho were: “Listo capitan, vamonos
carajo, let´s go captain,” indicating that I was ready for my second Trinidad
carnival adventure as the small boat began its sailing course. We began sailing in relatively calm waters
with captain Chucho´s expected ETA to Port of Spain, Trinidad, to be around mid
day, a four to five hour crossing depending on the weather. Of course, with the calm ocean before the
storm, what initially seemed to be a smooth sailing journey, turned out to be a
forever long “upsy-downsy” sea fearing boat ride.
The first
few hours were spent over a fairly calm sea until sailing past the old bauxite
terminal of Puerto Hierro, a special port terminal for US bauxite cargo vessels
to discharge and load bauxite from Guyana to the US Gulf and South Eastern
Coast Ports, thru the late 60´s. Just as
we were passing Puerto Hierro, the waves began to swell, and I couldn´t help
shouting out:
“Coño
capitan, que pasa? Will the storm get
worse,” I asked and sure enough it did, as we passed Macuro, the oldest known
town in Venezuela, where Christopher Columbus had first landed, over five
hundred years ago. The vast and gloomy
ocean around us began to rock and roll. Although
I had worked and travelled on oil tankers in the late 50´s mid 60´s, I had not
seen such rough and turbulent waters in a long time, realizing what it felt to
be like a cork in the ocean. With huge
rolling five to seven feet waves around us, rocking the small fishing craft up,
down and sideways, the uncomfortable dizzy passengers and Chucho were gripping
themselves for a remaining rough ride.
The rest of the sea faring journey was an intense voyage for the giddy
carnival tourist until passing Boca del Dragon, about an hour or less before
entering Port of Spain bay.
“Coño,
land at last” I shouted as the Port of Spain Harbour came into sight, about
fifteen or more miles before docking. During
those next fifteen miles or so, of gentle sailing after such a terrible storm,
I couldn´t help remembering the terrible airline accident I had encountered
during my previous carnival trip to Trinidad, several years earlier.
On that
occasion, our happy go lucky, carnival group, had drunk many rum punches before
our charter flight´s departure. With our
seat belts fastened, we were all in happy carnival moods as we prepared for take
off at the Maturin international immigration airport. Just as the chartered flight was taking off,
the air-plane’s left turbo prop engine exploded, just as we were lifting off
the runway. The plane had barely gotten
off the ground when the terrifying explosion occurred. The plane´s left wing engine was in flames,
just next to the window where I was sitting. Within seconds, the friendly chatting mood
turned into a screaming, horrifying atmosphere. Facial expressions were all but joyful as we
all sensed the professional fire extinguishing capabilities of the flight
captain as he extinguished the flames caused by the engine´s explosion. Thank God, that the unexpected mechanical
engine failure was immediately and efficiently taken care of, as the captain
successfully achieved the required emergency landing after the end of the paved
runway where we finally landed and came to a stop on a rough terrain of gravel
and grass. Not an experience that we
would ever want to go through again!?
Maybe the
reason for my determined boat trip on this occasion, my second carnival
journey, was due to the result of that unfortunate flight experience on my
first Trinidad carnival extravaganza; even though, after arriving to Port of
Spain on that first carnival, the remaining days of that carnival adventure was
as fascinating and unforgettable as my second; only without such an intense
romance, as with Jasmine.
Finally,
just after mid day, Chucho and his dizzy passengers arrived at Port of Spain´s
small vessel dock terminal. What a sight
to behold, as the new carnival adventurers from Venezuela arrived and docked in
Port of Spain´s small craft docking area. As I and my fellow passengers disembarked from
our small fishing boat and onto the port docks, we couldn´t help but observing
several amazing huge cruise ships all around us in the special cruise ship
docking area. Those luxury leisure
cruises were in port for the festive carnival occasion. The five newly arrived and worn out ocean
looking specimens, were quite dizzy, to say the least. It took me, after getting off Chucho´s small
fishing vessel, and on to solid ground, about half an hour of weaving back and
forth, like a seaman of “the seven seas”, to get back my balance; plus again
acquiring my land motion capabilities.
We were
soon happily strolling towards Fredrick St, Port of Spain´s busy main street in
the down town business district. There I
would say adios to my sailing companions and catch a taxi to my favourite
Queens Park Hotel. From there I would
call my old childhood school friend, Richard, and prepare myself for the
calypso carnival atmosphere in the days to follow. As I drove off, I could again feel and observe
the carnival spirit around me, on the streets, at every corner and every angle
of that carnival island paradise! The
intense carnival spirit and the unique island smells of different Caribbean
cultural mixes, made me feel like an eager young kid under a tropical Christmas
tree. Carnival had definitely begun, and
my carnival mood was in high gear.
That
afternoon, a short nap would be necessary after such a long and bouncy boat
ride. Once settled into my hotel, I
completed the needed siesta to regain my carnival momentum. On awakening, I first called Richard to say
that I was in Port of Spain and eager to get into my carnival jump-up mood. Gregarious Richard showed up within the hour
in a most happy carnival attitude and giving me a big hug, says:
“Eh eh,
Brian, good to see you boy and how have you been man? How are things in Venezuela and how is that
crazy Latino life treating you? It´s
been several years since your last visit and we are glad to have you back for
carnival. It seems that you prefer to
choose a carnival holiday to enjoy your Trinidad visits.”
I
responded, “Well, Richard, you looking young, boy. I guess it´s that good island living and the
lovely native girls who keep feeding you right! Man, as well, I can´t complain since life has
been good to me. I´m really happy to be
here again and can´t think of a better time to visit. My dancing legs are ready for jumping up to
the steel band calypso rhythm.”
And so
off we went to enjoy dinner and our first rum punches. We just needed to catch up with some of our
new life issues of the last few years and possible future commitments with our
lives. Then, remembering the delicious
“calaloo” soup dish that I had tasted the carnival before, I asked Richard to
take me to a sea food restaurant where they served the delicious dish. We immediately set out to nourish ourselves
with the first, but not last, “calaloo” plate that we could find. The tasty and nourishing Caribbean dish
allowed us to be in excellent mental and physical condition for the fun and
enjoyable carnival masquerades to follow during the next three to four days.
After our
first few rum punches, my entertaining and curious mind was now only thinking
about the exciting carnival “fetes” (parties) to be enjoyed at the Queens Park
Hotel and Port of Spain´s popular clubs. The rhythmic steel band tunes could now
distantly be heard around the Queens Park Oval Savannah close to my hotel,
reminding me of the marvellous carnival episode that I had experienced and
enjoyed several years before. Carnival
was in the air and could be felt with every breath that I took.
“What way
to start off the carnival spirit”, I said to Richard
That
evening, the sound of the tropical calypso music became so embedded in my mind,
body and soul, I danced to the calypso steel band rhythm all night long and
into the early morning hours. I never
bated an eye or got tired from the calypso beat as I just kept holding on to a
lovely “Trini” native girl´s wiggly waist and thinking to myself: “If heaven is anything like this, dear Lord,
show me the way for I´m ready to go.”
As I
danced thru the night, I could only imagine desiring and wanting to be with a
sensuous Trinidadian girl, each one friendlier, more beautiful and more
exciting than the other. “What rhythm
and what a night”, I kept thinking, as I danced the night away to live steel
band and calypso music.
As much
as I was enthused with the carnival atmosphere all around me, with so many
exciting native girls to meet and enjoy, I would have preferred not to totally
commit myself to one girl but never the less, the unforeseen happened. A native Trinidadian girl caught my fancy and
in the midst of my exotic carnival environment, I temporarily fell in love with
Jasmine, a beautiful native girl of Caribbean Chinese and East Indian descent. Her sensuous and lingering expressions, the
way we held each other while looking into our eyes and her soft brown skin,
seemed to be the most wonderful moments of my life at the time. When she would step close to me and kiss my
lips in such an impulsive and generous way, kept me totally spell bound for
those three more exciting and amorous days. Her erotic and sensual personality and the way
she moved her body and waist to the calypso rhythm, completely enchanted my
carnival existence. When Jasmine, with
her soft melodious voice, would call me and say, “Darlen please hold me tight,”
put shivers through my spine. Those
wonderful and unforgettable, exuberating moments of romance and hypnotic
rhythm, kept me in a carnival calypso high, day and night, thru-out the entire
carnival. A carnival love affair I would
never forget.
My return
journey home after this intense carnival had similar mental lapses to my first
carnival return flight; in that, with my first, by airplane, as compared to my
second, unforgettable carnival visit by boat, would be hard to explain to my
friends on arrival; in that, in both carnival escapades, I can hardly remember
how I got back home in one piece. My
intense feelings of love for Jasmine and my over dose of jump-up fever with a
rum punch in one hand and Jasmine in the other, kept my unbalanced mind in
turmoil for months to follow. How I got
back to Venezuela will always be an un-answered dilemma. Maybe on both occasions, it was because of a
numb and boggled mind from excessive drinking, dancing and lack of sleep, that
caused me not to be aware of how or when I returned home. Without a doubt, love or infatuation, whichever,
might have had something to do with my clouded memories. However, the exotic native women during both
carnival escapades, specially, Jasmine, will be in my memory as long as I live.
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Photos:
6003 East St. George Sports Event p17
1957IF0019IFAGRP, Isaias Farcheg
09HG0001HGU, Harry Guilinder
06BG0001BGOVAL, Brian Goddard master swimmer
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