B  E  L  A  I  R       D  A  Y  (Mandeville - SATURDAY, JULY 5)

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Memoirs of an attendee

The reunion convoy set out early from Montego Bay, along with the big, old dumper-trucks and crazy taxi-drivers, on the narrow, winding country road. We took in the slow pace of the rural Jamaican communities, with quaint houses, country shops and lush vegetation while traversing the hills . When we finally made it to the flatlands, in our excitement to get to the school, we flew past vendors holding out small plastic bags. But who can draw brakes and safely pull up in the gravel when they finally recognize the juicy hog plums while dodging potholes?

Eventually, we made a quick stop at a shrimp hut just outside of Bamboo Avenue. The menu painted on the wall read: Shimp soup, peppa shimp, curry shimp, jerk shimp, shimp any way you like it. The SHIMP soup was pretty good but time was going so we moved out.

The morning skies were overcast but by the time we got over Spur Tree, the rain was unyielding. On reaching the school we had a brief break from the rain and everyone rushed into the school building before the next cloudburst. As Stephen Cole, who left Belair after grade 5 in 1977, alighted from the bus he said, “Remember when they closed the school because it rained so much it flooded the classrooms?”  We all laughed as we recounted how, as prep schoolers in the 1970's, we ate our lunches from a metal lunch pan and a glass thermos.

The school was deserted and eerily quiet, but oh so familiar.  It was great to be back.

The General Manager of Alpart, Gene Miller, had come out to open our Sports Day but due to the rain he instead addressed our group which gathered in the corridor down by where the lockers used to be, across from where the tuck shop used to be in the late 1970's. He told us how Alpart has been and always will be a friend to Belair School even though Alpart is no longer financially responsible for running the school.  He urged the alumni and the BSAA to support the school as it strives to provide the excellent education to its students we have come to expect.  Also present was Mrs.Cheryl Hammond, member of the school board, who lauded Alpart's continuing support over the years and asked the BSAA to consider setting up an endowment fund for the school, especially to offer attractive pay packages to its teachers who are wooed away yearly by large corporations, and to help students of lesser means have the opportunity for the high standard of education available at Belair.

As it was still drizzling, we used the opportunity to take an informal tour of the school.  The group made its way around the quadrangle while past-students walked through the classrooms recounting stories of teachers, classmates and life at Belair.  By the time we got to the High School shower rooms behind the Prep School the rain had stopped so we descended onto the backfield, crossing the basketball court to the Prep School playground, where we took photos by the slide.  Soon it started to drizzle and we hightailed it back to the front driveway.

By then it was just after noon and a delivery of boxed lunches of BBQ chicken with rolls arrived.  They had been prepared by Mrs.Del Strudwick, a truly supportive member of the Belair family - Her children Dianne and Richard were prep and high school students, she was secretary in the high school principal's office during the '70's and '80's, was host mother to exchange students from Mexico in the early '70's and house mother to boarders from Montego Bay and Kingston in the '80s.

Our reunion tuckshop was set up on the front corridor and offered boxed lunches, patties, banana chips, grater cake, water, boxed orange juice and sodas.  We sat on the benches and ate while we watched the rain come down.

Many more schoolmates arrived during this time and squeals of surprise and laughter rang out. There was lots of jumping, hugging and people rushing down the hallway. We now had a larger cross-section of past-students coming together as alumni from across Jamaica joined in. Now there were past-students from 1968 through the 1990's in attendance.

As it was still pretty wet out, we had a chance to go through the yearbooks once more.  Man, did it get loud then!!!  The alumni rifled through the yearbooks, pointing out best friends, favourite teachers and bad haircuts.  Everyone knew where to find someone else and the chatter continued till the rain held up around 1:30pm.  Eager to get started on the races and fundraising challenges, the group moved to the front playfield.

The refreshments were taken down onto the field where the Wahdat music truck sat pumping out tunes from the 70's.  The attendees gathered slowing on the wall, hardly any of them braving the stony, gravel incline that leads to the field.  The announcement was made that the races would begin and in a flash there was a tremendous cloudburst and the attendees scattered, fleeing back to the school building for cover.  With the races and field events cancelled due to rain, donations were collected in lieu of pledge cards for the Challenges and Dare and Double-dare events.  Everyone was happy enough to just catch up with old friends while waiting out the rain.