St Andrew High School for Girls 1974/1976 Alumni Web Site: Newsletter Articles, Vol.1, 1

…….when one of our first lessons with Mrs. Titus was to make a pot of tea and scramble some eggs and there was even a lesson on how to spread a bed (1969 was the pre-fitted sheet era.) when Ruth, Sharon and Karen were the "babies" in the class (1A to 3A)images/—all born in December, right?
…..when we used to send Kathryn Riley to run after and apologize to Miss Anderson on behalf of the class. I also remember a day when Kathryn would not budge.
…..when Miss Bogle locked her door leaving Faith Gill, Valeri O, and me outside because we were late for class.
…..when Marcia Beadle's nick name was Witty Bee in third form.
…..when Marlene Vaughn introduced Sarita Cawston to JOS. Mrs Cawston was so shocked that Sarita had been taking the bus to Tropical Plaza she moved Sarita to Immaculate the end of third form.
……when Faith Davis announced in Sixth Form (1974-75)that 1990 was her deadline to get married. Of course 1990 sounded like something far, far away. (She got married long before that deadline).
……when Carol Chen announced she was not going to pursue studies beyond sixth form. She felt the Gold Street fire (when gunmen forced women and children into a fiery death) was so cruel and heartless it had to be a sign that we were in the last days.
……when Gina Smith was a key figure in the Tuck Shop Strike.
……when "people" used to say Lauraine Baille had everything in her handbag. Anything you wanted, she had it, even a bottle of tomato ketchup.
…..when Heather Lewars told a story of going to see "Lady Sings the Blues" at Carib Theatre and police did a weapon search of the patrons. (Must have been State of Emergency Days).
……when Heather climbed the mango tree, saw Saunders and asked someone to throw her a pair of scissors. Saunders was supposed to believe the story that she climbed the tree to get the scissors. The ripe mangoes in the tree must have given Heather away.
……When Greta Dyer and Mary Crosswell turned up in Mr. Holder's class wearing some "granny" wigs.
……when Mrs. Saunders used to make herself "crystal clear."
……when Christine Allison borrowed the postman's bicycle.
……Miserable Mrs Delgado, inquisitive Miss James, facety Mrs. White, and Miss Hines, the only Math Teacher who ever got an "A" out of me.
……when Denise Hutchinson came back from wherever (London?) with her skirts well below her knee. She started a fashion trend in Sixth form 1974.
……when you could not see one without the other - Colleen and Debbie, then later Ruth, Ann Walters and Monique Benghiat, then later Michelle Cawley, Janilee and Shawn Henry, Janet Anderson, Faith Johnson and Sandra.
……All these memories from the very person who searched down the whole place last night trying to find where I put my glasses.

I still have the autograph book that I made in Mrs. Klave Gooden's craft room at St. Andrew's in First Form, in 1969. Amazingly, it has survived moves from Jamaica to Miami, and all around. Wrapped in a Ziploc plastic bag, it even made it through Hurricane Andrew's wrath. Hurricane Andrew destroyed our home in 1992, but my little autograph book sits now, as I write, beside my keyboard. It's filled with memories of when people, maybe you, touched and wrote your words in ink on its hand-made pages. I designed the cover (not one of my best pieces of art) and glued the pieces together in the craft room under Mrs. Gooden's directions. It's packed full with notes, autographs, little poems and drawings of friends from St. Andrew's and, later, Priory. A few of the people whose writings look back at me from my little book - made with care, have long since died. Some, I haven't seen in "donkey's years". Others have been my life-long friends and blessings.

This little product of Klave Gooden's classroom has some of those traditional thingsimages/—silly, and seriousimages/—that you find in autograph books. There's a handwritten note by Faith Gill: "Silver and gold will vanish away, but a good education will never decay. "True. Very true. Thank you St. Andrews. "Best wishes-Fay E. Saunders, 6/7/73."I can still see her standing on the front steps and pointing a carload of guys back towards the front gate! "Kind thoughts always, Klave Gooden." A really wonderful teacher! Bless you, wherever you are.*

The autograph book has brief notes from Anne Shirley, Diana McHardy, Suzanne Williams, Colleen Wint, Debbie Searle, Camille Lee, Charmaine Rattray, Myrtle White (teacher) and others who probably don't even remember writing in my book. It has longer notes from Priscilla Campbell (with artwork!), Sarita Cawston, Angie Phillips, Maxine Williams, Carol Chen, Sharon Pyne and more.

Hopefully, Mrs. Gooden will get to read this and know that I have never forgotten her and will always remember her as one of my most inspiring, caring teachers. She was strict (like most teachers at St. Andrew's!) but she taught me how to make and weave baskets, tool leather wallets and make a leather handbag. She taught me how to cut out the pieces to make, and then to bind a book. For an artist "in the wings" and a writer-to-be, her class and her projects were not work, they were an adventure. They were fun. They made sense. They made sense in a way that algebra has never made sense or been useful. Her creativity and obvious love of teaching and sharing crafts inspired me to later realize my own deep love for art and designing and making things.

Two years later, in Third form, I would sit through about three months of chemistry and come to realize that I really needed to be in art instead of chemistry. We had to choose. Remember? Chemistry was a good sensible subject, said my mom. You needed it to become a nurse. After three months in Chemistry, I realized my mind was wandering constantly to the art classes upstairs of what was then "the new wing". I knew then that I did not want to become a nurse. I had to take the boldest step, until then, in my quiet, shy life. To switch from chemistry to art, so far into the year, I was told I had to go in front of Mrs. Saunders, the Headmistress, and ask her permission. I was not enthusiastic about the prospect, but wasting my life away in Chemistry was a worse choice. So, I did it. I went to see her. I had to sit, with the Chemistry teacher on one side, and the art teacher on the other, in front of Mrs. Saunders and explain why I should be allowed to switch (and disrupt the schedule).

Thankfully, being an A student in both classes helped. Both teachers agreed that I would do well in either class. The first day I sat in that art class upstairs is a day I'll always remember. I have kept that first painting for all these years. It is a simple still-life of fruit, but it was liberation for me. I decided there and then that I would have to do something in the world of art and creativity throughout my life, and as work. At the same time, I was writing long essays in English class. Some things don't change that much.

I was at Andrew's from First through Fourth form. I was quiet and shy thenimages/—except when it came to standing up (or sitting up) in front of Mrs. Saunders to claim my need to be an artist. I suppose most people have their moments of revelation. This was one of my first. If you knew me at "Andrew's", you would probably say I was pretty quiet and studious. I was. I was also a "book worm" and loved to read. In retrospect, I was waiting for the one thing that I couldn't get at St. Andrew's. I wanted to work on a school newspaper.

I remember, as a Fourth former, going to one of the Sixth Formers at St. Andrew's and asking them if I could help with the yearbook. She told me I would have to wait until I was older. I didn't have to wait long, but it would be Priory that would give me that opportunity.

My parents moved me to Priory High School for Fifth and Sixth Form and Priory had the other missing link I needed - a student newspaper called Spirit. The combination of English, American and Jamaican educational systems wrapped into one unique school, co-ed and all, was a dramatic change from St. Andrew's Girls School. Thank goodness I had had four years of academic discipline at St. Andrew's.

I started off at Priory as a shy, Fifth Former, and soon became the Editor of the school newspaper. I drew cartoons, wrote stories and poetry and collected articles from the pre-K kids through to Sixth form. I wanted everyone to be able to have a chance to have their say in the newspaper, even the little kids.

At St. Andrew's, we learned that school was serious business. We learned that boysimages/—under the ever-watchful eyes of Mrs. Saunders as she stood on the front steps of the officeimages/—were a distraction that did not belong in school. We learned (without thinking about it) that religion and a government school could co-exist very nicely together for the benefit of everyone, without conflicts or disputes.

I never thought about that back then, but in the United States the separation of church and state causes so many conflicts. St. Andrew's and other Jamaican schools prove that God and education can go hand in hand. Then again, Jamaicans have a way of doing things and seeing life in ways that leave other people with big question marks hanging over their heads.

One of my favorite sayings in my hand-made autograph book is one added by Valerie Brown. It's inspired me over the years. It says, "The heights by great (wo)men reached, and kept, were not attained by sudden flight. For they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward through the night. Keep on being a hard worker, Michelle." Valerie, you have NOOOO idea how many times I have remembered your contribution to my little autograph book and it has kept me going (at 2 a.m., 4 a.m., 6 a.m.) when I've been working on research papers in university or free-lance art projects or working late on deadlines at newspapers or magazines. Thank you.

As we sit at our computers crossing time and countries with bits and bytes, perhaps one of the quotes added to my autograph book by Ms. Bogle captures the spirit of our "Digital reunion." It reads, "Women are only girls grown tall. Hearts don't change much after all."

We have grown older, wiser, and probably, wider. We carry with us tales through the years, and happiness, and tears. Some of our hearts are more, or less, damaged than others, but still, we go on. We have, as one St. Andrew's Old Girl said recently at an anniversary picnic here in South Florida, "An attitude about us. A confidence. "We have seen the world and we are probably glad that we were protected, when we were, by those women who were older and cared, and who could have told us their own stories back thenimages/—but, never did. In their eyes, we were children and we had our place, and our lessons to learn. They knew we would learn soon enough, and that our time to be sheltered and protected was then.

Now, we are adults: middle-aged women who, a hundred years ago, would have probably been happy knitting, cooking, cleaning house, waiting for our grandchildren, and waiting on our men. Today, we shoot messages across invisible boundaries that land on screens of light in distant countries. We use technology our grandmothers would never have believed. We raise our children in a troubled world, full of miracles, marvels and still, great intolerance, war and strife.

In retrospect, our classrooms at St. Andrew's were almost ideal havens of learning. We had no guns, no knives, no metal detectors, no drugs, no gangs, no police living on campus, no worries about what to wear to school besides our uniforms. We had God in our morning assembly and in our Scripture classes - regardless of our individual family's faith. We did not have all the bells and whistles of children today: No video games, no web sites to lure us, no fashions that changed every week.

We had our mountains and our rivers, our beaches and our land. We had our swim teams and our pride. We knew we were in the top two schools in the country. We had our families and our nation (before it began its own turmoil and identity crisis). We had security that gave us security, and inner strength. Thirty years ago, in a land called Jamaica, we had so much to be thankful for then, and now.

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