I Remember When: A Medley of Events from grade 7 thru 12
– A Medley of Events From Grades 7 Thru 12! –
By Alphie Bullard and Cecil Newry
“Look into the past and what do you see? In hindsight you may want to have done things differently; but as they say hindsight is twenty-twenty”—Alphie Bullard.Truly, I am indeed impressed with the vast amount of stories that fellow graduate Alphie Bullard is able to recant merely on a whim. In fact, it is very enchanting to say the least, to read his colorful chronicles about our blazing entrance into Saint Augustine’s College to our great and dynamic departure, beating out all the odds and outshining all the criticisms made by the then powers that be. In view of that, I must say that I was more than delighted to be able to join him in articulating his story, our story: the story and history of the Class of 1994.
It starts:
As you all know, it all started in September 1988, when Courtney Melody, Ninja Man and Whitney Houston had us rocking: music was our life and if you were able to chat or rap, you were a super star at SAC. Sound clashes by ‘the Apache Crew vs. ‘Chubb Rock’ couldn’t done in the locker rooms. In deed, the Class of 1994 had definitely arrived, and we made our presence felt quickly.
But music wasn’t the only thing that had heralded us into popularity; being dubbed ‘bad boys’ did that too. We grew up in the decline of Nassau’s gang wars, but somebody had forgotten to tell the bad boys of L.W. Young School and Fox Hill that the thug life was over, as often times we found ourselves being their victims. Nonetheless, our class was not like the classes that SAC had previously, we never liked being dictated to; consequently, everyone started to ornate themselves with a though exterior. We all pimped Clark Boutiques, Travel Foxes and Vikings, and if you weren’t wearing Lee or Levi, you were considered square; (amusingly we had a great number of squared persons amongst us). But, truly, like the song said, “bad boy a walk bout the place” and we lived by that song, having huge bawls in the locker rooms, preparing ourselves for whatever the nasty world had in stored for us.
We made such a splash during our first year, that Administration quickly dubbed us “The Worst Class That SAC Ever Had,” a title that followed us throughout our tenure at SAC.Grade eight
In grade eight, we started to simmer down. We gelled more and started to form into cliques. Mario Jarrett was still the smartest person we knew, Lakeisha Smith sold her lolly pops, Brock Thompson, Peter Knowles and Lenneth Brozozog still played ‘who can spit the farthest,’ (nasty)! Tresa Cambridge was every eight-grade boy’s fantasy; Cecil Newry and David Cartwright entertained everyone with stale jokes, (in fact, Cecil had his own dance which was a cross between the hammer and lion bounce). ‘Bee-bee’ and ‘Command’ were the games to play and we cannot forget the dreadful partition wars between 8A and 8B.
Grade nine
Grade nine went by quickly, the young women in our class were aggressive and were considered smarter, and the guys had to play catch up for a while, but everything was still cool. Grade nine was our formation years; it was during this time that such names as Fat Cat, Helmet, Kido, Cool J, David Rodigan, Air Roberts, Bimini, Auntie Mel and Lisa D came into existence. Sandwiches were known as “P’s” “C’s” or “LTOC’s” and saying sorry to, and kissing the grass when you cut cross it was the norm. Black Beauty was the most feared stick in our world and 9c stayed in trouble and knew the stick well, (remember the time that they shouted ‘burn that baldhead),’ making a teacher cry. Well, making teachers cry was a hobby for us apparently, for it continued throughout our tenure.
Grade ten
SAC changed for us or maybe it was us who had changed. We were now superstars, and were considered SAC’s finest; (a self proclaimed thought). Sean Knowles, whom everyone thought was forty years old, dethroned Mario as the smartest student, Aaron ‘G. String’ Roberts and Kareem ‘Storm’ Lilas were the hip-hop all-stars, Chima Johnson and Alphie Bullard had the art of reggae down pack and we played football in front of the science block every afternoon. This was the year we were dubbed ‘teacher firers,’ for we went thru so many so quickly. They all quit, frustrated. Oh well!
Grade eleven
We finally controlled Red Square. Francis ‘Stud B.’ Borrows lived in the Dean’s office, and the Student council was ran by Ean Maura with his ‘thumbs up’ campaign, along with Nadia Curry, Norad Morgan and Sean Knowles. There were cliques such as Rhondi and her crew, the Dog Pound and the Brotherhood and Chess was the game to play. Mark McCartney and Omar Williams were mischievously funny. Carol Dames shock the entire school at fun day wearing a black body suit, (Wow! Flash backs) and History Class was the class to be in.
Grade twelve
This was the most challenging year for us. Administration continuously threatened that we weren’t going to graduate and had canceled prom, so we had our own. Dyron Ferguson, Deshon Foxx, Tanya Wildgoose and Devaughan Munroe mashed up the tracks. David Cartwright and Ghandi Knowles pulverized swimming and the basketball court was run by the twelfth grade, in fact they even boycotted playing once. This was also the year of the silly, mandatory six-inch distance rule between male and female students at all time, which was put into effect by administration. Henrea Ferguson was accused of making duck quacking sounds when a certain principal waddled down campus. Francis Burrows and Vanessa Thompson led the cafeteria boycott. Daxton Thompson was considered a jinx, as every girl that he sat next to in class miraculously became pregnant. Tiffany Maycock wrote sexy romance novels, Omar Williams was the most talented artist that we knew and Antonio Lockhart held his own daily ‘church service’ before and after school. But, then it all came to an end: The last day of school for us ended in the same chaotic and legendary ways in which they had begun. The entire day was spent slacking off, singing songs and signing our class’ yearbooks.
The girls followed tradition by wearing their hairs in twos and threes, tied with bright ribbons. They even trimmed their uniforms to make mini skirts and played ring play in the middle of Red Square. Oh, remember there was torrential rain that day, subsequently, with the help of Mother Nature, the boys pulled off the biggest and grandest water fight possibly in SAC’s History! The event was complete with water balloons, ‘water cannons’ and huge new trash bins fill to the brim with rainwater. In fact, some of the ‘artistic’ boys decided to full their balloons with red paint and actually painted Red Square red. Paint was splattered everywhere, and you know the powers that be did not like that. But what could they have done, it was the last day of school and there was absolutely no time for last minute convocation.
Truly we were the envy of the entire school’s populace that day, as they all looked on at us in awe. We were indeed the princes and princesses of the campus and SAC was undoubtedly our kingdom. Those were the undoubtedly the good ole days with memories that should and will always be treasured, for we left our mark at SAC, and our class has been whispered about even today.
