Circular No 670

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

Caracas, 6 of September 2014 No. 670

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Dear Friends,

A video on Michael Agostini.  Was he an old boy??

http://speedendurance.com/2014/07/23/mike-agostini-the-forgotten-worlds-fastest-man/ 

Here is the detective work done by Attila Gyuris to decipher the Korda kids mystery.

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Attila GYURIS

Dec 27, 2013

Thanks, Andres:

The Carlos Hoefle I knew about was much older, and he had been at the Mount before our time.

He was older than both Pablo Kecskemeti and Gabor Hoefle on the pictures attached.

OK then I don't know, he could have been also a Carlos or a Miguel,  ......  anyway this kid's stepdad was Francisco Korda, of Korda Modas stores (they were a Hungarian family).  See pictures attached.

(The Checoslovakian brothers at the Mount you may be thinking about were the 3 Dvorak brothers.)

I attached two pictures of my very first day ever at the Mount, in Sept, 1964.   

First picture: The two young kids are: me (standing next to my dad) and the other kid is the ???  Korda we are talking about, and he is the one sitting on the banister in both photos playing with some kind of string in his hands.

Second picture the other one it is Francisco Korda, this kid's stepdad, sitting on the banister. 

The two older kids in the picture are, Gabor Hoefle and Pablo Kecskemeti. 

The third picture is me in front of the small chapel door that was rattling during the shaking I described: 

It is the white double doors behind and on my left side, in the third photo.

Cheers,

Attila Gyuris

Mount 1964-1969

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From: Andres Larsen andres_larsen@yahoo.com

Sent: Friday, December 27, 2013 7:47 AM

Subject: The only shaking I remember

The only shaking I remember was a powerful temblor one night when we were up in the dormitory on the top floor.

You could hear the roaring underground sound coming in from the hills to the north.

I panicked and was the first one downstairs, leaping down flights of stairs all the way down the three floors.

One of the other Venezuelans who was in the other ground level dormitory next to the chapel and above the natural sciences laboratories, panicked and practically tore off his ankle trying to do a karate kick against the handle of the locked dormitory door.

But this was later after the 1967 Caracas earthquake.

That other Venezuelan was from Caracas and still had the trauma of the earthquake.

I have no recollections anymore of who the other Venezuelan might was.

Maybe you can help there to fill out the blanks in my recollections.

As far as Hoefle and Korda are concerned, I only remember Carlos Hoefle who I understand died from cancer many years ago.

I also vaguely remember that he had something to do with or was related to the family that owned the Korda Modas store in El Silencio here in Caracas.

I think their parents emigrated from Czechoslovakia after the second world war.

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El jue, 26 dic 2013 18:35 AST

Attila GYURIS escribió:

Nigel:

I am sending a copy to Andres Larsen also, perhaps he remembers too, as he was also in our class group.

I did send copy to Rommel Rosero too, but his email apparently is not good anymore as it bounced back.

I will try to send it to him via Facebook, but he seldom checks it.

Attila

(I have tried to meet Rommel Rosero but with no luck,  EDITOR)

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From: Nigel Boos <nigelboos@yahoo.ca>

Sent: Thursday, December 26, 2013 8:05 AM

Subject: Fwd: - Chapter 14, The Saint & His Knights.

Attila,

I don't know whether you've sent this on to Pablo, Gabriel or Rommel, so I'm going to do the honours, just in case you hadn't already done so.

However, I can send a copy only to Pablo and Gabriel, as I have no email address for Rommel.

If you do have such an email address, please pass it on for me.

So now, I'll wait for a response from Pablo and / or Gabriel.

Merry Christmas.

Nigel

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From: gyuris <gyuris@yahoo.com>

Subject: Re: - Chapter 14, The Saint & His Knights.

Date: 25 December, 2013 1:00:21 AM EST

Now you got me wondering.

Maybe it was Carlos.  

Perhaps Pablo Kecskemeti or Gabriel Hoefle or Rommel Rosero could help out here.

They were there the first day and the entire school year when we arrived at the Mount. 

Attila

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Don Mitchell <idmitch@anguillanet.com>

05/11/2013

Hi, Ladislao,

I gave your No 624 some 24 hours to soak in. 

Now, after a suitable pause, I have published No 625: http://abbeyschoolmtstbenedict2013circulars.blogspot.com/

Hope all is well with you.  

I am back home from Grenada, where I met some long-lost cousins last week. 

I am off to Dominica next week.

This I expect will be my last visit to Dominica as a judge.

I have told my Chief Justice that this is a job for a younger person. 

December will see the end of my service on the Court of Appeal of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court. 

From January, I shall concentrate on my law lectures in the High School. 

I shall enjoy mixing with persons whose intellectual ability have not yet risen to the heights that they will overwhelm me. 

Did you know that the main advantage in teaching a High School class is that each year you can tell the same stories and jokes as the year before, and get a laugh each time? 

The students are new each year. 

There is no way any of them can say they heard it before? 

 It is wonderful.

Meanwhile, I attach two photos of Don in Iceland in September 2013. 

The first is at a waterfall in the intercontinental trench which separates the European/Asian plate from the American plate, the second is at the famous “Blue Lagoon”. 

It was so cold in September that Maggie and I have sworn we are not going back to Iceland again.

Keep well.

Don

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Glen Mckoy

Sep 6

Hola, Mi Hermano y Mi Amigo - Great Grand Knight Sir Manuel,

Muchas Gracias for this reply.  There was an indirect connection, see what ah say ha! ha!

We had all the sports you could want on the Mount, so many good athletes, from the beginning to the end.  I also ran the 100 meters and the mile, and would place, ha! ha! Then, I start to smoke, end of that story. I see you also ran hombre, Bullet Howard & Richard Galt, I know the names well.

Thank You Very Much Manuel, for all your support and the many encouraging emails over the years.

You are 200 % A Mount Boy.  Long Live Our Mount.  Cheers, Mis Amigos. Adios, Glen.

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Subject: Re: FW: Mike Agostini: The Forgotten World's Fastest Man [PODCAST]
From: manjosepra@hotmail.es
Date: Sat, 6 Sep 2014 17:18:32 +0000

Glen,

Mike Agostini as a result of Br. Vincent's diligence gave a brief lecture and handy tips to Bullet Howard, Richard Galt, - me and I don't recall who else - on how to make the best start in a 100 yds race.  The training session took place on the northern part of the sport field where the sprints usually were carried out! By the way he was the fourth fastest 100 meters runner in that Olympic year!

Regards

Manuel

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Glen Mckoy <mckoy43glen@hotmail.com>
Date: 6 September 2014 11:58

Hello, Great-Grand-Knights & Big Brothers, Sir Bandit, The Knight Of Calypso & Sir Nigel, The List Maker, The Knight Of The Light.

Now, Bandit, this was in 1954, you had already finish and left the prison ha! ha!

So you were a young man then, I was born in 56 ha! ha!  Now my question is, did Mike go to the Mount, his relatives, brothers or cousins?  I would ask Sir Gerald Agostini, a proud member of this fine Club, he may be able to shed some light on same, you know me, everything great that come out from Trinidad, I have to connect to the Mount or make it up too ha! ha! I see below the name Camacho, I remember the name from my 1st. year on the Mount, his last year there I think?

I really enjoyed this interview, the time period he is speaking about, a West-indian boy, that really went far running after an impossible dream.  I also understand why he ended up running for Canada.  Thank you for this one, an historical moment for sure, eh Trini?

Cheers Mis Amigos - Adios Glen McKoy.

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From: bandit

Subj: Fwd: Mike Agostini: The Forgotten World's Fastest Man [PODCAST]

A few years ago, Mike stayed at my house for a couple of days, during which time I was able to arrange a meeting between Mike and his former 100-meter foe, Dave Sime, who is a surgeon living on Key Biscayne.  Antonio Camacho did a video of the meeting. Both Mike and Dave commented, "It's nice when two has-beens are still being regarded."

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Date: 2002/09/19

Tuesday Guardian # 77

ASTHMA SEASON

It’s asthma season again. Come September every year, the schools and roads fill up with children and doctor’s offices fill up with children coughing. This lasts until Carnival when the schools fill up with calypsonians singing, the roads fill up with women wining and doctors offices with men complaining.

About ten to fifteen percent of Trinidadian children wheeze whenever they get a "cold". The renewal of classes means the renewal of contacts often with new children with new cold viruses. Since there are more than 200 cold viruses, it’s virtually impossible for an child between the ages of two to ten, in an overcrowded, dirty, dusty classroom, to avoid coming down with a cold.

Babies are being sent to understaffed day-care centres earlier than ever, so the pattern of wheezing has changed and you now see lots of wheezing in the under two’s. This is frightening because it’s much more serious and difficult to treat.

For practical purposes asthma in children is defined as recurrent wheezing or inflammation with spasm of the bronchial tubes, the air passages that extend from the windpipe into the lungs. This spasm can be relieved by drugs that gets rid of the inflammation and dilate the tubes. The inflammation is what people call congestion. Just as you can have your nose congested, you can have your bronchial tubes congested and full of mucus.

Years ago in T & T, asthma used to be called "wheezy bronchitis". That was a problem because the ending "itis" suggests infection. Infection to the Trini medical mind suggests antibiotics. Innumerable children were unnecessarily treated with antibiotics and ended up in hospital on drips and inside useless oxygen tents meant for huge adults. Nowadays the treatment is much simpler and effective. Same disease, different word, different treatment. It’s too bad we can’t do the same with our politicians.

It’s often said that asthma was uncommon four or five decades ago. Since it was not called asthma, that’s one possible reason. I am impressed however with what I call the "vest history". There is a whole generation of Trinimen who wear vests. They usually are the over 60’s. When you ask them why, they say it’s to protect their chests. If you press them, it turns out that they were susceptible to "bronchitis" as children and were advised by their doctors to stay away from cold, to always wear slippers and use a vest. This was supposed to prevent them from coming down with a chest infection, either acquired from a "draft’ or a "chill" from walking barefoot on the cold ground of a tropical island. No one ever told them to stop smoking, of course.

Children with asthma can present in a variety of ways. Only a minority end up in hospital in an oxygen tent, heaving and wheezing away the night. The majority of children have a cough alone. Some get "short-breath" when they sleep or play. Occasionally a wheezing sound is heard when they sleep but that sound is not specific enough to say that it’s asthma because children with nasal and adenoidal problems can also "wheeze".

It’s difficult for a parent of a new asthmatic to tell if the cough is due to asthma, or merely that of a common cold. A cough that gets worse at night usually is asthma. If the cough lasts longer than two weeks, it may also be asthma.

Unfortunately children with allergic runny noses or enlarged adenoids often have the same symptoms. The tipoff here is snoring. Snoring is so common that most Trinidadians think it is part of life. It is not. Snoring is abnormal. It means there is some sort of blockage in your nose. In children this is mostly due to an allergic congestion or to enlarged adenoids or both.

To confuse matters, children with asthma usually have allergic nasal congestion and enlarged adenoids. Teasing each component apart is difficult.

Some children with asthma do not cough much. All you may notice is that they don’t seem to be able to physically keep up with their friends. Or they become short-breath easily. Or they get coughing attacks whenever they play hard or exercise. These kids will need a special test, easily available in most paediatricians’ offices, to diagnose their asthma. These unfortunate children have no idea what’s wrong with themselves since they feel fine most of the time. Until they run. Then they find they have "no energy" to keep up with the others. They may then become computer potatoes and grow up to be incredibly rich. But they have never played as kids.

Do not waste your time worrying about dengue fever or AIDS. If your child has been coughing for more than two weeks or snores regularly or doesn’t have energy, take the child today to be checked out. Carnival is far away.

David E. Bratt MD

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Photos:

64AG0001AGYDAY, Attila Gyuris and father

64AG0012AGYGRP, Attlia Gyuris and Korda

64AG0002AGYCHAPEL, Front of the Chapel

08KA2035KABGRP, Kazim Abalasi and group