Yvonne Webb

Un­der tents lined up along the sixth form block, pots of fish broth, pelau, cur­ried duck, bar­be­cue pig­tail and geera pork bub­bled un­der the blis­ter­ing sun at Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege, and its aro­ma en­veloped the area around Carib Street, San Fer­nan­do, on June 12. Lash­ing man­go, pineap­ple and pom­me­cythere chow, cou­pled with a wide va­ri­ety of drinks, mixed with in­tox­i­cat­ing mu­sic from Ma­yaro D Band and En­tourage, helped to set the stage for a nos­tal­gic day, as school boys, old and young, fa­mous and in­fa­mous, gath­ered to rem­i­nisce at a one of a kind re­union-reP­RE­Sent-at Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege. Or­gan­ised by the Pre­sen­ta­tion Past Stu­dents As­so­ci­a­tion, the an­nu­al soiree at­tract­ed old boys like for­mer prime min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning, his class­mate and for­mer Petrotrin chair­man Mal­colm Jones, for­mer Cen­tral Bank Gov­er­nor Eu­ric Bobb, as well as some younger blood, like top so­ca artiste Machel Mon­tano and Kees Di­ef­fen­thaller.

Miss­ing in ac­tion this year, was an­oth­er reg­u­lar fix­ture at these func­tions, for­mer prime min­is­ter Bas­deo Pan­day. Over the years, the event, which has its gen­e­sis in 1983, has evolved in­to a sig­nif­i­cant, must at­tend, so­cial gath­er­ing on the Pres cal­en­dar. All who at­tend­ed last Sun­day's event, swore that this year's ac­tiv­i­ty far sur­passed pre­vi­ous years, as par­tic­i­pants had a full day of ac­tiv­i­ties, such as crick­et, foot­ball, with an un­der-40 ver­sus an over-40 team, chess, draught, all fours com­pe­ti­tion, as well as a cook-out by var­i­ous class­es, past and present, and a jam ses­sion in the mu­sic room, fa­cil­i­tat­ed by vet­er­an mu­si­cians An­tho­ny Lee Mack and his wife Cyn­thia Lee Mack. Prin­ci­pal Er­rol Jaik­er­ans­ingh al­so roused the au­di­ence, as in an im­promp­tu ses­sion, hand­ed out copies and led in the singing of the col­lege hymn, Oh La­dy of Pre­sen­ta­tion, and a song writ­ten by Fa­ther Clive Har­vey, Tell of My Love for the Is­land.

The Lee Macks, who to­geth­er served Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege for more than 60 years, and were in­stru­men­tal in shap­ing the ca­reers of Machel and Kees, were pre­sent­ed with an award by the two so­ca artistes for their ded­i­ca­tion and com­mit­ment. The as­so­ci­a­tion's pres­i­dent, Steve Sam­lals­ingh, said the school would for­ev­er re­main in­debt­ed to the mu­si­cal cou­ple, who have been an in­spi­ra­tion not on­ly to Pre­sen­ta­tion, but to oth­er schools in San Fer­nan­do. "You con­tin­ue to pro­vide first-class en­ter­tain­ment year in, year out. You have giv­en voice to many and launched many a ca­reer," Sam­lals­ingh said of the cou­ple. Machel-class of 1991, and Kees-class of 1997, were al­so ho­n­oured by their al­ma mater for their mu­si­cal ac­com­plish­ments on the lo­cal, re­gion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al scene. Machel copped both the 2011 Road March and Pow­er So­ca Monarch ti­tles, while Kees cap­tured the Groovy So­ca Monarch ti­tle. Mem­bers of Kees' Band, Ri­ad Boo­choon, Jon and Hans Di­ef­fen­thaller, were al­so recog­nised for their out­stand­ing work in the world of mu­sic.