Work Enduring, Play Alluring......
As I sit down to write about my memories at SPC at the invitation of the Old Peterites Batch
of Pre ‘70s, memories do come flooding so thick and fast, I’m afraid I might even miss the
recording of some.
Pre ’70s would make this the batch to which the oldest Petes belong but I am from the
youngest class of the lot having done my O’ Levels in 1969. The reason that this needed
clarification was because I might not be privy to some of the stories of the older generation
of Peterites who also belong to this group but I hope that I will be able to capture some of
their stories too, more importantly about some of the teachers and personalities that adorned
that era prior to mine.
My first day at school was not the day school opened that dim, distant year of 1959, but
about a month later. My delayed entry is another story in itself but that will have to be told in
another place, another time.
Two things that I recall vividly from my first day at school was the vastness of the play
ground and the noise in the canteen during the interval. What lay beyond the far boundary
of the ground was a mystery soon to be solved when we were taken to visit the farm.
It was much later that we learnt the names and personalities behind the running of these
facilities not available to many schools in that era. Personalities such as Nomis the ground
boy and Andiris from the canteen, and as I recall the ground was better kept those days by a
team of Tamil ladies and of course Nomis with his mechanical grass cutter which later gave
way to a tractor driven one.
Celestina the one who was most needed when one or two of the little ones soiled their
clothes, Mr. Cooray the Primary Office Clerk and Martin who has come a long way since he
was a helper in the office were some of the others helping to run the show in the Primary
section.
Much later we got to know the saintly Emmanuel the Sacristan of the chapel, Juse the van
driver of that beloved Volks Wagon, Hitler (so known because of his Hitlerian moustache –
Pemsiri to give his actual name) and Kajetan (there is a St. Kajetan’s Church at Ekala in Ja-
Ela), better known as Kaithan and Silva and Lesley of the Lab. Rumour was that Silva who
won the grand 1st prize of Rs.50,000/- in the National Lottery (worth about Rs.5 million now)
and left St. Peter’s to run his own business in his native village.
Coming back to the days in the primary section, the turf pitch came in the early 60s and how
proud Fr. Arthur Nicholas Fernando (Billa was not a very complementary nick name that he
was given), was at giving St. Peter’s cricketers a turf pitch and a dire warning for the likes of
us who played fun cricket that it was out of bounds. The “sight screens” made of white
canvas and put up only on match days billowed in the wind as if setting sail to carry SPC
Cricket to greater heights.
The canteen was famous for Andiris’ “seeni sambol paan” and at only 10 cts. Sponge cake,
a cup of tea or 2 toffees also cost only 10 cts. While a bigger piece of cake was 15 cts. How
Andiris and 1 or 2 assistants managed to feed that hungry lot during that short period of 15
minutes (short interval) with no calculators but without missing anyone and without being
cheated out of cent, is a mystery.
In fact I read somewhere in an old magazine that when St. Peter’s was established it was
meant to be a “garden school”. Not to be understood as one having classes under trees, but
rather having large and airy class rooms. This was reality then with all classes having large
openings and no windows with ventilation unobstructed by other buildings, but sadly now all
classrooms have lockable windows with fans to circulate stale and humid air and the little
available ventilation is also obstructed by other buildings, in most instances.
It was also said that the founding fathers believed that it should be as self sufficient as
possible and hence in those days St. Peter’s baked the best bread, produced popsicles, ran
a farm for eggs and chicken. In fact the bread and popsicles were supplied to surrounding
Catholic schools like the Holy Family Convents at Bambalapitiya and Dehiwela, St.
Lawrance’s, Wellawatte and St. Mary’s College in Dehiwela.
School hours, except for the LKG and UKG (Lower and Upper Kindergarten) were from 8.45
to 3.15 with a short interval of 15 minutes and a long interval or lunch interval of 1 hour. This
one hour’s lunch interval, I’m sure not only helped the students to exercise their limbs and
not be solely bookworms but also help build the long lasting relationships in school that
stood the test of time for many of us.
Coming back to the personalities that helped shape St. Peter’s and us, I cannot forget Fr.
George Jayasuriya, Principle of the primary section at the time I joined and Fr. Rufus
Benedict later and the kind lady teachers we had in the lower classes. Some I recall are Mrs.
Ida Samaranayake and Misses. Ekanayake and Noreen who were institutions at College in
those good old days. Mrs. Fernando in the LKG and Mrs. Martino in the UKG, Mrs
Nanayakkara, Lalitha Perera, Irene Fernando (hand work), Rita Fernando (singing), Barbra
(Piano), Trilby Fernando, Mrs. Arthur Fernando are some of those lady teachers whose
names I recall. Among the masters that taught us in the Primary section were Benjamin
Herath, Van Hoyson (who unfortunately committed suicide), H D Perera (the tall one) and
Almeida, Peiris and Pius all in the Sinhala stream and M/s. Salvador and Barry and Mrs. De
Mel are some I remember from the English stream.
Let me also try to recall some of the classmates I had in the 1 st year in College. My cousin
Michael Rodrigo (later called doctor not because he qualified as one but because at one Big
Match, carrying a stethoscope, he famously checked the 2 umpires chests in the middle of
the pitch at the Oval) Achintha Thilakawardena (a real doctor practising in Wales), Anil
Perera, Priyan Wijeratne, Sunimal Herath, Dilukshan Seneviratne (now doing well in
Australia) Nimal Jayamaha and his cousin George Jayasuriya (RIP), Andrew Liyanage (in
UK), Nandaratne Perera (of merry-go-round fame and sadly now departed), Gamini
Goonasena (who created a record of sorts by being President of the Colts Cricket Club for
25 years or more), Sriyan Wijeratne, Nalin Dias (of Hilarian’s Dehiwela),
Going into “College”, from Standard 6, was a special thing. It was a kind of special promotion
or a bigger step in one’s school career. The dread of having no female teachers in “College”
was real until in ‘67 or ’68 female teachers were introduced. But that was after 3 Familians
entered SPC to do their A’ Levels in 1966, a very special event at College and amusing to
the younger ones but welcome to the older students. That was truly a novelty and while I can
understand what it was for the boys, I still don’t know how the 3 girls felt about being only 3
female students in an all boys’ school.
Some of the most loved and respected masters I recall are (although nick names are given
there is no malice intended), M/s. Balasuriya (Bala), Soysa (Soyya), Arthur Fernando
(Pippiya), Abeygoonawardena (Nas Polla), Jayasekeras - Primson and Heracles (Polar
Bear), Basil Perera (Bassa), I M Weerasinghe (Charlie), Andrew Pathirana, Cooray, Austin
Fernando (Austiya), Sathurukulasingham (Half Soda), Ratnasabapathy, George Jayaweera,
Ranasinghe (who taught us Pali). There were also the Rev. Sisters from the Holy Angels
Convent and our own priests Frs. Mervin Weerakkody (better known as cheese ball), the
then Rector, Christy Abeyratne, Prefect of Games, Joe Wickremasinghe, Prefect of Studies
(later Rector of what we now call the golden era of St. Peter’s), Bernard Costa, Bursar (Aba
Costa who was cruelly murdered by suspected drug mudalalis). Of the masters from the
older generation of whom I was told by my committee colleagues, the unforgettable ones
had been M/s. Ambrose (Apple John), Sueter Peiris (the main organiser of the famous Fun
O Rama a carnival unparalleled in those days), W B de Alwis (known as Thaiyya) who had
taught history, K O P Jayawardena, Art Master (Bola Puka) and Cyril Ekanayake who was
not only a master but also the Cricket Coach in that era.
Talking of coaches the great Archibald Perera our rugby coach for many years can never be
forgotten and neither can we forget a long time coach of cricket, that great All Ceylon
cricketer and old Pete, Dr. H I K Fernando.
Recalling some of their doings or their nick names will bring fond memories to many I’m
sure. Merril Balasuriya in trying to din the rudiments of maths to the not so bright among us
used to say “denawa tokkak peni londa eli bahinda”. Or trying to make calculations simple he
would ask if 10 wadais cost 50 cts. how much would one cost and the obvious answer would
come from even the so called backward ones and he would say “kana bane’ nam hondata
therenawa neda”.
Arthur Fernando, dressed always in white and never without his spectacles fancied himself
as the Sherlock Holms at College and tried to be involved whenever a boy complained of
some misdemeanour by another unknown boy. His detective skills however did not bring
results as the students got older and wiser in the ways of the world.
Andrew Pathirana who later was the Personnel Manager at the now defunct Asian Cotton
Mills was our Sinhala Master in grade 8 and was promptly nick named Kewattaya (from the
character of the Kewatta Bamuna in the Ummagga Jathaka story we had to study).
Paliya was the obvious nick name earned by Ranasinghe the ex-monk who taught us Pali
I also recall the art master in our grade 8 class, Mr. B P S Perera who in his anxiety to keep
the students silent and engaged in Art, once said “lamai nishabbdha wenna, Mr. Rector
enawa”, much to our amusement and louder guffaws.
Mr. Ratnasabapathy from the Bambalapitiya Parish was a devout Catholic who would come
round every first Thursday saying “Catholic boys go to Chapel for confession”. This was
because there was always Mass on first Friday. While there was no compulsion, some of us
did attend Mass on first Fridays.
Austin Fernando was the Master-in-charge of Cricket for as long as I recall and his popularity
obviously fluctuated depending on the level of success achieved by our 1 st XI team. I seem
to still hear Stanley Jayasinghe, a die-hard Peterite, shouting “Austin, pad up” whenever
SPC was losing a match in the 70s.
Chandra Fernando, our Chemistry master in grade 9 was baptized “Modaya” for his
penchant of calling anyone who did not behave in class as “modaya”, while U R Fernando
our Physics master was called Kalu Albert after the infamous convict in the Kalaththewa
murder case, not because of any involvement with the real Kalu Albert, but because he was
dark and not very tall.
Miss. Velupillai was a dear lady who lived next door to the then famous Polytechnic who
taught us English and she endeared herself to us so much that she was the only teacher
who received a valuable gift of a sari when we forced an invitation from her to visit her at the
end of the year.
Half Soda (and I don’t know how many would know him by his real name of
Sathurukulasingham) was famous because of his lack of height and there was a master
whom we nick named Veddha, but for the life of me I cannot recall his name nor do I know of
anyone who can. On one occasion when “Vedda” was acting for an absent master, our
monitor, now too famous for his identity to be revealed, was asked to keep the boys under
control kept urging the boys to make more noise while gesturing with his hands to be silent.
Poor “Vedda” who knew no Sinhala was at a loss to understand why the boys would not be
silent.
The stories and nick names are mentioned here with no malice towards anyone and as any
old boy from any school would testify, these teachers and masters are recalled with
fondness and gratitude for moulding our lives in the best of traditions. Whatever anyone says
about the effectiveness of modern methods of teaching I don’t think many can match the
dedication and love these old teachers had for their profession and their charges. In fact I
don’t think any of them considered teaching a profession but rather treated it as a vocation.
There will be many who will recall many more stories from the times they were at College,
memories so precious that they are etched in their minds and I wish more would contribute
to recalling these memories and penning them for posterity.
We spent 6 1⁄2 hours a day at College and it is no wonder then that we who had that privilege
of “full days’ of school” feel that they were good old days.
It has given me immense pleasure to put down these memories and I hope it will bring back
pleasant memories of your own at College.
And before I conclude I found among our committee members a master forger who I think,
has missed his vocation. His imitation of Fr. Arthur Fernando’s and Mr. Sueter Peiris’
signatures, are perfect as you can see below. Thankfully they are not alive today to
challenge him and more importantly our colleague is not willing to use his skill to forge the
signatures of existing Rectors or masters.
To St. Peter’s I say “Ad multos annos” and to all the dear Old Petes, “Keep the flag unfurled”.
Algi Wijewickrema
(from the O/L Science Class of 1969)
