RE: BEEBOP

2013-Sep-16-0037Hrs

Hello Errol,

Have a good day.

Rodney

BEEBOP

We called each other “Beebop”. Like in beebop cap.

At MTC , we both chose Spanish as our Optional with the dynamic Cuff as our instructor. One day in class, we were having a good time recalling long time words describing caps. We both shouted out “Beebop”. At Reunion 2011 in New York, we both greeted each other with a hearty “Beebop!”  and a Havenite embrace.

Phillip Kendall was a dear friend. He gave Melvina, Marjorie, Mary? and me a ride back to Brooklyn in his SUV, after attending a fete in Long Island. The last time I saw him was at the picnic and the “We Limin” impromptu concert at Hofstra University. He was wearing a stingy brim straw hat and a moss green jersey.  He looked like ah ole time calypsonian but refused my invitation to render a kaiso or give ah joke. He just gave me his trademark flashing smile.

It was a pleasure knowing my brother, Phillip.

May you rest in peace my Havenite Brother.

By de way, as I read of the deaths of our brothers and sisters,  I recall an old school song, “ Ten Green Bottles”. The bottles kept falling off the wall, one at a time.

Mausican bottles are falling off the walls. What will be our legacy?

On my “Return To Mausica”, I saw the skeletal remains of Villa Nova, Wingate and Kirkendale. Gone were the common rooms where we played ping pong and “chess”. My cousin, Carlston Gray called “chess “Having a Midnight Snack”. Ah wonder wat he was eating?

On a more serious note, I believe that  the spirits of Mausica are appealing for a more decent, respectable closure. Therefore, I suggest that we return to Mausica in 2015 and give MTC a more ceremonial burial, one befitting its legacy. Enlist the support of the government because MTC was a government institution.

Fellow Mausicans, in 2015, let us return to our sixty-five acres and sing, dance, give thanks, pray, cry, laugh, reminisce and celebrate the Mausica Legacy. Let us rekindle the educationally sound vision of preservice teacher training. As Cousin Carlston suggests, our well-qualified graduates should partner with the government to design programs to make TNT proud of its education system.

As usual,

Rodney Foster.

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