MY FIVE-YEAR NOTRE DAME JOURNEY, 1965 – 1969
This is the beginning of a six-part series from an article published in the 2019 Chicago anniversary brochure by the Notre Dame Alumni Association, North American Chapter
By Mr. Pius Adebayo Omodara
National President (Emeritus)
and 1969 Senior Prefect
PART 1: MY JOURNEY
My journey to Notre Dame started in September 1964 when pupils bubbling with life and hungry for Secondary Education from various parts of Ekiti land and beyond wrote the entrance examination to the school. The result was released the same day and we there and then had our interview.
The interview was very rigorous, as it entrained an all-round exercise like; oral, written and sports competition. I remember very vividly the poem we were taught that day. The poem was written for us on the blackboard. We were made to memorize it and thereafter we were taken to the sports field to ascertain our fitness. After the sports, we were taken back to the classroom for the written exercise. Meanwhile the poem had been wiped off the blackboard. We were now asked to reproduce in writing the poem we were taught before we went to the sports field. The poem goes thus: “Long, long ago, in a cozy wee house, there lived a funny old man living together with his wife. He would always say something funny everyday of his life”.
About thirty of us were successful at the interview and we were given letters of admission with the school prospectus. Admission deposit was five pounds (£5.00) equivalent of N10.00.
Late in January 1965 on a Sunday, about thirty of us resumed in the school to the waiting hands of the school prefects. This day was a memorable day in our life as we were leaving our parents for the first time for a boarding house.
We all had the impression that to avoid hunger arising from small food served in the dining hall, we all had loads of gaari, sugar (TATE), kulikuli, tinko (dried meat) brought to the hostel. Only a few children of the rich could afford beverages.
Before our resumption, we were already distributed into the school’s houses. There were so many first things we did that day: we had our first dinner in the school that day, eating at tables for the first time and we used cutlery set for the first time – we were using the cutlery set the wrong way but our seniors came to our rescue by teaching us how to use the set. That day was also the first time most of us slept on “iron beds” with mattresses.