REMEMBERING CAMBRIDGE SUMMER MONTHS
Hello fellow alumni and friends, welcome to our August 2021 edition of a walk down memory-lane as we attempt to remember how most of us spent our summers during our high school years. First of all, we did not refer to the five or six weeks away from school as a summer break, we simply called this period ‘no school’, because our beautiful country was and still is blessed with summer all year round, save for the occasional rains, therefore we had no need for meteorological distinctions. When there was no school, as Cambridge youngsters we looked forward to doing a few more activities that school time would normally hinder.
Rule number one was that our parents or guardians made sure that we put away our school books carefully and neatly. The same instruction applied to school clothes, uniforms, school shoes, and anything school related. In many households the long awaited opportunity to visit family in the country areas or townships had finally arrived, so we got to ‘go see’ and stay with our favorite cousins, aunties, uncles, and grandparents in Berbice or Essequibo or ‘in town’ for one to two weeks or even a longer period of time. It was fun, fun, and more fun, as we played cricket, football, roll roller, skip and jump rope in the sun or rain, with random disregard for time and those adults who loved us, spoiled us, and pretended to give us a little more latitude during the no-school period.
Because we were not going back to school until September, and because we were in our physically agile teens we reacquainted ourselves with nature every August, if only that meant boys (some girls) climbed up the neighbor’s trees in broad daylight, sat on a high branch, picked and ate their mangoes, tamarinds, jamun, guava, and star-apple fruits to our hearts content. Then came the summer nights, somewhere between ages 13 and 14 when we were still young enough to need the company of a responsible adult to go for a walk downtown Georgetown, which included Water street, window-shopping at Fogarty’s and Bookers, a treat of Brown Betty ice-cream and nuts, talking, laughter, and a bus ride back home.
Then came those summers when young Cambridgeites between the ages of 14 and 16 earned the unofficial rite-of-passage, when permission was grudgingly and conditionally granted to attend the birthday party of a friend your age who lived across the street or a few corners from your home; going to a matinee alone, bicycle riding with friends on Sea-wall road, and closely monitored sleep-overs for the young Cambridge ladies, were added to the fun list of summertime gratuities depending strictly on the location of the events, what time the activities started and ended, and the extent to which you did or did not behaved yourself during the no-school period. It was our introduction to socialization and its pesky rules.
As our high school years drew gradually to a close, and we embraced the adolescent years of 17 and 18, summer breaks took on a different and more sober meaning as College of Preceptors (CP) and GCE exams loomed, summer play time had to be converted to extra study time, and like-minded school mates started job hunting. I guess that was our first test of mental endurance and character building rolled into one. I remember my first summer job at 17 years old was riding on the back of a Wieting and Richter truck delivering soft drinks to homes, corner shops, and restaurants all day long, and some nights during those hot summer months of 1965, I devoted to preparing for my exams, but I still had fun. Hope your Cambridge summers were fun too.
Submitted by,
Dr. Aubrey F. Bentham, President CAAAI
