Memories

The Day I Received a Hot Slap from "Iya" (Mrs. Akinrinmade)!

Written by Tope Shittu

One of the days I would never forget in my life was the day I received a resounding slap from our former Principal, Mrs. Akinrinmade who we used to call “Iya” in those days.

I used to consider myself a gentle girl back then because I never got into trouble in school (not serious trouble anyways!). However, this very day, I got into Iya’s trouble, though through no fault of mine. We were preparing for our final exams so most of us used to attend extramoral classes at one Nursery School not far from our school (I’ve forgotten the name). This fateful day, I never had the premonition that trouble was lurking in the dark. I was at the extramoral classes as usual when a friend of mine came and I saw her off. On my way back, I jammed into Iya, “where is Jumoke?” She shouted. In my head I was asking myself, “who is Jumoke?” because I was totally confused and frightened. Who wouldn’t be frightened of Iya? Before I could utter a word, the next thing I heard was “kpaaa!!!” Chai, ki leleyi? Very terrible hot slap! I saw stars. My brain finally formatted and was reset, I then remembered who Jumoke was! I was like, I don’t know where she is ma. Another slap! I started crying (big girl like me o!) She didn’t believe me so she seized my scarf and belt and left, me that I had “ajankolokolo” on my head, I had no choice but to go home like that. I cried until I got home and narrated the whole ordeal to my Mum (mind you my Mum and Iya were acquaintances then). 

It was the next day I got to know the reason behind those horrible slaps.

That very day was Jumoke’s birthday and Kunle (omo Iya) bought her a birthday gift. Iya got to know about it and she came charging to the venue of the extramoral classes to look for them. Unfortunately she met me and I received those slaps on their behalf!

The next day in school, Iya sent for me, Jumoke’s uncle was already in her office. After series of questions and answers, she got to know I was innocent so I was left off the hook. As I was leaving her office, my Mum arrived and Iya told her everything had been resolved. 

It was the day I went to collect my testimonial that Iya released the seized items!

It was a terrible experience for me and till we passed out I never got to know why Kunle bought a birthday gift for Jumoke! 

Does anyone know???🤷🤷🤷🚶🚶🚶🚶🚶

***and Jumoke’s birthday every year has always been a sort of anniversary of that slap for me!

 

My memorable high school days

by ‘Yemisi Buki Alabi ( Malomo)

I can only wish I was able to give you a single answer about my experience in high school, but I can’t.

My secondary school life with my classmates has been so epic that it’s impossible to choose a single moment and deem it as the best one.

I would try really hard just to get some memorable moments down, because I have endless memories.

I made friends with almost all the girls in my year, even called older one’s aunties despite the fact that we were classmates. The thought of it now makes me laugh. I was friend with the boys too but never called anyone uncle(lol) We used to see each other everyday but now, we’re all scattered over the world.

I remembered our sport days especially Antonia week/ interhouse sport. I was in St Kizito’s house( Up Yellow house!!). Classes were suspended and we had the opportunity to participate in sports. I always opt for march past because it was easier and fun.

Our school shop was simply the best then, you could get nice snacks, my favourite first break snack was Sabella and doughnut and for second break I love onje Iya Jimoh. Our hangout was always under the tree (abe igi) it was later turned to hangouts for NFAs (No future ambitions) as it was popularly called then.

We had amazing English and French teachers and I would forever be grateful to them for such a solid foundation in languages – Mrs. Bamidele, Mrs. Gbegbaje, Mrs. Lambo, Mrs. Akinsanya, Mrs. Ayinmodu.

I gave so many nicknames to my classmates, this was a strategy I used to avoid being bullied by other students as I was one of the tiniest in class then. Guess what? It worked; a lot of the naughty ones avoided me because they didn’t want to be called names.

There were no cell phones to take pictures, anyone who wanted to get photographed had to go to a studio. Adams photo was our favourite then. We would organize with other classmates just to have a photo taken.

I don’t think I can forget St Anthony Secondary school Ilorin class of 90 set. If I have the opportunity to go back to high school, I will choose everyone again. Thanks to you all for enjoyable and memorable years together. We didn’t realize we were making memories; we just knew we were having fun!

My Cunning Classmate

Written by Tope Shittu
Another experience I had was already shared on the general platform but I’ll narrate it again. Please note that I will not mention the name of the lady involved even though she’s not yet on the platform. I will title it: My Cunny Classmate. 
 
During our school days then, Vivian used to bring delicious meals for break time and only 3 of us used to partake in the meal: Vivian Eze, Dayo Adewuyi and my humble self. The food was always delicious and in large quantity so I was always looking forward to it!  On this fateful day, one of our classmates approached me and told me not to eat out of the food that day. Naive me, I never asked her why, I just agreed! Break time came, Vivian called us to eat, I declined and thereafter went out to the school shop to get some snacks. When I entered the class, behold what I saw; that same girl that told me not to eat was there voraciously devouring Vivian’s delicious meal! I was like, what??? Of course I didn’t say anything. I just walked past them to my seat. And the funny part was the food would have been enough for us all because Vivian always brought it in a big cooler. However, that experience taught me a life lesson: never trust anybody! Till date, I’m always cautious of friends and that is why I don’t even keep friends. There’s no day my mind goes to that girl that I don’t remember that episode. Of course she would never remember she did such a thing, but I can never forget it. We were in JSS 3 then!

My Encounter with the Principal

By Toyin Ibitoye
My SASS story…#UnforgettableMoment.
The encounter with the Principal, Mr Sanni.
This was in my JSS 1 in 1984, I think.
I was very playful back then and always in the noise makers’ list. I think we had Kayode Oloruntoba as our ‘temporary’ class captain. My name would not just stay out of that notorious list. I was not rascally, I was just too playful.
This is an incident I will never forget. Our Bible Knowledge(BK) teacher, Sister Theresa, a Caucasian, came to class and told us she would not be staying beyond a few minutes because she had an assignment outside the school, so she told us to read our notes, gave us some work to do and appealed to us to be quiet as she left for her assignment.
Expectedly, after a few minutes, order gave way to disorderliness in the class. Everywhere was buzzing, almost everyone playing around freely and for sure, there was a good measure of noise. JSS 1 students with no cares in this world. We had forgotten that our principal, Mr Sanni’s office was just a few steps away.
He must have been wondering why there was so much noise from our class. He walked into our class through the door at the rear unnoticed and moved to the front of the class. Horror!
 
Suddenly, we all scampered to our seats. The class went from volume 100 to zero in less than a second. You could hear a pin drop.
Mr Sanni naturally scolded us for making noise and behaving like babies. We were the youngest set of students in the school but we are in a secondary school, not a nursery or a kindergarten. He then asked the whole class to name five of its most troublesome students.
My heart was beating fast as the names were being reeled out. It appeared all was going well until the class got stuck at number four….there was little silence and then I heard someone shout, “Toyin Ibitoye! You are always a noise maker”. I looked behind me and saw my classmate who mentioned my name and the very serious look of fright on her face. I felt betrayed. I thought for a minute that the ground would open up and swallow me. With the benefit of hindsight, she probably felt if the class didnt produce the five students the principal asked for, he would punish the whole class as he had threatened but why would Tope Awesu do this to me.
I joined the four other troublemakers and there we were, standing like condemned men being led to their final destinations.
We followed the principal to his office expecting the worst, wondering what kind of hard luck and bad breeze had blown our paths that day.
Alas, our fears were misplaced, the worst didn’t happen.
The principal only spoke to us as a father would to his children, drumming into our ears that he never wants to see any of us called a noise or trouble maker in school again.
No beating, no punishment, just words of warning and we were free to go.
Whao!
Five lucky birds. I walked back to class with the other four and behaved myself for the rest of the day. I had dodged a bullet….and guess what I was never friends with Tope Awesu all through my St Anthony’s Secondary School days. Now, almost 36 years later, I wish I could see Tope Awesu and laugh over that unforgettable experience.