I used to be an in loco parentis for over 100 boys.
Those boys were the children of the relatively well-to-do.
They hardly lacked anything. It wasn’t so easy for most of their parents. However, they were ready to do anything to keep their wards in one of the best schools in Abeokuta, then.
When it came to the celebration of birthdays, the names of the week’s celebrants would have been announced in the school chapel on the Sunday preceding the celebration.
Of course, whenever it was my birthday, it would be announced.
The boys would be looking forward to the day. Well, to cater for over a hundred boys was no joke.
But then…
What made me remember the story?
Precisely 52 years ago, I celebrated my 10th birthday.
In those days, we normally celebrated our birthdays in school. We had the privilege of going to school in our party clothes.
We would take biscuits and fizzies to school and our mates and the class teacher would celebrate with us.
But on my tenth birthday, I just told my mom that I wanted a party.
Ah!
And presto, she just agreed!
So, after going to school to celebrate, we had a party at the front of 28B Musin Road, Itire.
I wouldn’t really know what magic was performed by my mom. But the single cockerel that was slaughtered went round all of us who attended the party.
What remains a mystery to me is the fact that a cockerel could go around every one of us.
I later realized my mother had discreetly added some beef so that everyone would have something to eat.
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