Weekend Report | The Freeport News | PDF Online Guide

Friday, July 3, 2009

Home National Sports Business Lifestyles Religion Arts & Culture Pulse Spice Editorial letters Opinion Foodie Sportscope Real Talks Weekend Report PDF's Classifieds Contact About Us Archive Weather

Friendships renewed By STAFF WRITER ~ Nassau Guardian: Friendships were renewed and the good ole' days remembered. For one weekend, the 1969 graduates of St. Augustine's College were encouraged to forget about their problems, their misfortunes and busy schedules and enjoy the company of old friends at the weekend of activities planned to celebrate the 40th year of their high school graduation. With a beach party and dance, a church service and farewell brunch, it was not a stodgy affair, as they proudly wore their SAC colors of red and white, and lay claim to the fact that the term "Big Red Machine" earned its meaning in the fields of sport, during their era, and when matching academic effort and achievement were expected and demanded. According to the graduates, there was in the long perspective of time perhaps not all that much to distinguish this year from the many that came before and after it, but its members enjoyed a unique spirit of shared pride and experience. They were a melting-pot of 125 Bahamians and expatriates — rich and poor — Whites, Blacks, Hispanics and Asians, Catholics and Protestants (and some non-Christians), Nassuvians and islanders, who all watched and in some measure helped shape profound change. During their tenure, the student body exploded from a couple hundred to well over 1,000 and were witnesses to the move from the hilltop monastery to the modern new campus in the valley — which many of the boys, in their hours of detention, physically helped to build. They were also a part of the experiment in boarding school accommodations — which began and ended with them. They enjoyed the switch from a single-sex campus to co-ed as the all-girls high school of Xavier's College was amalgamated into the all-male SAC. And rising black consciousness and pride were nurtured and promoted with the changing faces of the faculty and its leadership. Off campus, the '69ers were in the midst of social and cultural upheaval that cut into religious vocations and saw many priests and monks move from the cloisters back into the secular world, marking the beginning of the slow end of monastic life on the Fox Hill site. Economically, these students watched Bahamian money change from pounds and pence to dollars and cents. Politically, they witnessed the arrival of internal, responsible self-government and celebrated its transition to majority rule and, not long afterward, joined the rejection of colonialism and the constitutional dawn of independence. Some of the class of 1969 pursued higher education, and some did not. With or without college degrees, many have helped build lives, families and a nation. Their numbers, though lowered by a few deaths, and scattered throughout the country and the world, have included lawyers and teachers, deliverymen and doctors, writers and radio personalities, radicals and rastas, artists and activists, bankers and bureaucrats, churchmen and comedians — many of their names immediately recognizable and remembered with respect by their contemporaries and succeeding generations. As they departed from each other they were encouraged to keep everyone abreast of what's going on in their lives — whether good or bad — and to be there for each other. Tuesday June 9, 2009