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Said Abu Izzeddin ’64:
A Snake, a Baby Sparrow, and the Class of 6D
It must have been in 1964, four decades ago, in class 6D, that
my story starts. That class was definitely the greatest assort-
ment of unique individuals ever assembled.
We as a class (1964) believed in the value of real-life experi-
ences and not just textbook material. I had caught a water
snake while on summer vacation near my hometown of
Abadieh. I took the snake to our flat in Beirut, and then to 6D at I.C.
A baby sparrow had also found its way into the building from
the old brick roof of Bliss Hall after suffering an injury, and
was now in 6D.
These two new species (in addition to the 30 homo sapiens
already well established in class) made their way to the front
of our Arabic class, the snake slithering by the teacher, and the
jalbout (baby bird) bouncing up and down in an attempt to get
airborne.
At the appearance of these two creatures, a roar of laughter
broke the class silence and our Arabic poetry session came to
an abrupt end.
To this day I sit down under my favorite pine tree in the moun-
tains and just crack up laughing whenever I remember this story.
My IC Story
5
Sari Tamimi ’77:
A Torch Picture
It was 1976 and the war in Lebanon was raging. At that time
I was in 6B and we were all a bunch of "misfits," as we were
always playing hooky, spending much of our time playing
basketball. The class photographer came to take a group pic-
ture, but most of the class was on the basketball court, hence
the Torch ended up with two pictures instead of one. The first
was the photo of those who were in the class and the second
was of those of us who were playing basketball. Our photo
was just like a
sporting snapshot
of a successful bas-
ketball team!!!
We played basket-
ball, but all in the
photo are now suc-
cessful and decent
members of socie-
ty.
The moral of the
story: I'm glad we
were playing sports
rather than killing
and getting killed
during those horri-
ble times.
Class of 6th B, in the picture above are the students that
stayed in class, in the picture below are those that spent their
time on the basketball court. Circled below is Mr. Sami
Tamimi ‘77.
Class of 6D, circled above Mr. Said Abu Izzedin ‘64
One of the wildest scenarios that fed my imagination—
along with that of friends
Nicolas Sawan ’85, Ghassan Nasr
’85, Saad Al Abyad ’85, Bassel Saloukh ’85
and others—
was the existence of a bandit hiding in the trees (forest)
below Sage Hall. Many of these trees had hollow trunks,
and we created a scenario in which the bandit was hiding
inside these trunks. Each time we found junk in the forest—
a house knife, an old shoe, etc.—our imagination went into
overdrive, contriving a story around the newly found “evi-
dence.” We even assigned teams to keep watch, so that we
could see and hopefully catch this bandit (of course, we
never did). It took us a few years, till after 1st elementary,
to outgrow these stories.
Imad Ghandour ’85:
Bandit Scenario
I entered IC in
KG I in 1971,
and spent the
next 13 years in
and around the
Beirut campus.
For us as chil-
dren, the IC cam-
pus was an
immense land of
adventure. The
trees below Sage and Thomson Hall were more like the
Amazon forest, and the rocky hills around the Roman
Theatre were our Himalayas.
The “Amazon” forest.