| Date: |
Saturday, 15th October 2005 |
| Venue: |
The
Old Bank,
St Giles Square, Northampton,
|
|
Time: |
12:30 to 8pm.
|
|
Who Came: |
A full list of the people who came to the
reunion is available.
[look]
If you would like to contact any of them,
then please e-mail me and I will forward it on to them. I do not
publish
e-mail addresses. |
|
The Photos: |
The photos from the day are in the photo album. [album] |
This was the second “general”
reunion (must think of a better name for next year).
It was based on an original idea by Mary Evans
(Kelly) to have a simple reunion, requiring less
work to set up, where people could meet up every
year. This year's reunion was much better than
last year. There were perhaps a number of reasons
for this. For those that went to the Class of
63 or Class of 76 reunions in 2003, then the simple
format of the 2004 General Reunion, was perhaps an
anti-climax. 2004 saw a number of people turn
up to see old friends, who didn’t actually make it,
and there were less people there from a number of
years. This year, the later start of booking, and a
bit more pressure to cancel if you could not make
it, meant that there were fewer people missing.
There were also more people there from many school
years that had been under-represented in 2004,
thanks to the efforts of the volunteers and some
good publicity. Networking has also brought more
people along.
When I arrived at the venue
around 11:30am to set up for the reunion, it was
still covered in balloons, and other rubbish from
the previous night’s birthday party. The staff
soon arranged for the cleaner to come up and all was
ready for the first arrivals. Among the early
arrivals were Chris Timms (1962), John Child and
Nick Smith (1963). Chris and JC were there
early as they had to leave early, but Nick has been
early for the last two years, as he does not want to
miss any of it. Chris and JC had actually
arrived before it opened, and shortly after other
people started to arrive they disappeared!! JC
had come without any money and was beginning to get
embarrassed, so they went looking for a bank
machine. They were gone ages, and returned having
grabbed a sandwich, but then they had relived a
touch of childhood nostalgia. As they no
longer live in Northampton, they had been missing
their Galones, and came back having had a large
cornet each. Next in were some of the “63
girls", Mary Evans, Judith Merriman, Tina Lilley…..
Then they all started to arrive. Suddenly there was
a queue at the booking-in table. The numbers
steadily increased and by 1:30 the place was busy.
People then began pouring in,
with all of the usual suspects from both 1963, 1964
and 1973, but this year with a lot more people from
other years as well. The person who took the honour
of having been at school first was Richard Baker. He
was in the fifth in 1957, and although had been some
others who booked in from prior years, they had not
actually made it, so Richard took the honour. He had
started at the school in 1952, when it was housed at
the technical college.
The person who gets the honour
for coming the furthest distance this year has to be
Sharon Rose. Sharon lives in the USA and had
flown in from New York. She had intended to
fly overnight on Thursday night, landing early on
Friday morning, but she missed her flight, and
actually arrived at Heathrow at 6:30 on Saturday
morning. She then rented a car and managed to
get a puncture on the motorway. She still managed to
breeze in looking as fresh as a daisy, if a little
later than she had planned. Well done, for
sticking with it. You can read more about Sharon's
hectic trip [go].
The maximum number of people from
any one year, was for those in the fifth form in
1973, which included my brother Nick, who came this
year. Like last year, this was a lively group,
who seemed to enjoy themselves gathered up in the
corner near the bar. We from the Class of 63
gave them a close run for their money, but were a
few short.
Amazingly to me, a number of
people had suggested that last year’s reunion lacked
something, as there had been no speeches. So,
at 2pm, I made a short speech, and there was
complete silence for a few minutes. That was
probably the only quiet few minutes of the day, as
the rest of the time there was the loud hub-bub of
everyone talking at once, and I for one, found that
after I left, having been at the reunion for almost
8 hours, that I had a sore throat and a husky voice,
which did not fully recover until Monday.
In the speech, as well as
thanking everyone for coming and the volunteers for
managing to get more people along to the reunion
this year, the demolition of the old school was
highlighted and the funnier memories that people had
remembered. A short memory of
Peter Miller was
added, along with a mention of
Suzanne
Withington, and
Chris Cork. A
list of everyone’s memories is included
here.
The reunion lasts for 7.5 hours,
and quite a lot of people were there for almost the
whole time. This year there was some 40 or 50 people
still there at 8pm, when the reunion closed.
Many of the large 1973 group went on to have a meal
afterwards, while the 1964 group, who had popped out
around 6pm for a pizza and then come back, went on
to a pub, and Martin Verity “thinks” that they
rolled out of there at closing time, but he does not
really remember, “but it must have been late”.
|
Mary Evans' Account of
the Class of 63 Group |
Martin Verity's Account
of the Class of 64 Group |
| This was my 3rd reunion
and although we will never emulate the
first and the best to my mind, this one
had its memorable moments. I travel from
Ireland a few days before and stay with
my old school friend Judy Merriman and
on the day we get ready for the event
like a couple of 14 year olds - much
changing of clothes (by me), applying
and re-applying of make up (by me), and
plenty of giggling to go with it, so
that's the start. Always I want to be
one of the first to arrive due to my
extreme nosiness and wanting to
people-watch and pounce on the
unsuspecting. To date we have not beaten
Ian Dow - I think he stays overnight in
the bar.
The great thing about the Reunion is
that everybody mixes even those who
would have been starting primary school
the year we left. There is a wonderful
sense of belonging and comradeship.
There is no one-upmanship - the talk is
mostly school - good and bad, but never
indifferent. It was wonderful to see
Tina Lilley - not seen her since we
queued for Beatles tickets outside the
ABC and also Mick Pepper turning up.
 |
|
Mary and Nick
Smith |
That was a bit of a result as last
year he misread the e-mails and turned
up at the Rat and Parrot at 11pm only to
find we had all disappeared for our
night time Horlicks. Nick Smith was his
usual suave self - I was longing to get
lipstick on his beautifully ironed white
shirt. Half way through the reunion,
Nick sadly announced that he would not
be able to be at next year’s reunion, as
he had already booked a celebration
cruise for him and his wife’s “big
anniversary”!
Of course the sad note was the fact
that Pete Miller had died. Ian gave him
a most wonderful tribute.
Long may the Reunions continue - I'll
be there as long as you will and for the
ones that aren't there, they don't know
what they're missing. Thanks for a great
day |
 A work friend of mine supports
Oxford United, so I was pleased to
discover that I could watch the Cobblers
play them on the Friday evening and even
more pleased that we won 1-0. I got into
(Castle) station at 7.25, then a taxi to
the hotel and a taxi to Sixfields: the
only place in the world where the term
"Cobblers" is a compliment.
On Saturday morning I had a nostalgic
stroll round the Racecourse, past St
Matthews Church, the "poets streets"
(Byron St., Shelley St. etc) and,
inevitably, down Trinity Avenue to see
what was left. I'm in the camp of
opinion that liked the building with its
red bricks, the stairways that you could
see into from the outside and the big
chimneys on top of the Tower block. To
an age where there isn't much 1950s
architecture left, I think it was well
designed and had facilities and
equipment which a modern school would
envy. Alas, just heaps of rubble now.
Then into town, and I checked out the
Wig and Pen in St Giles St., which used
to be the Black Lion. Different layout,
but the same atmosphere and music too.
At last, into the Old Bank to sign
the Register and meet my old chums Robin
(Buzz) Westley, Bob (Slog) Ashby, Terry
(Jacko) Jackson, Susan (Sharris) Harris
and Jenny Heard. Not to mention Chris
Pollard and Robin Douglas too. Soon we
were 16 again and swapping stories,
singing songs, reconstructing myths and
reminiscing. The booze flowed and before
we knew it (after about 4 hours), we
were round the corner for a pizza, then
back to the reunion where we refilled
our glasses, wondering how we would
react if Gunner stepped into the room
now and fixed us with a stare of
righteous disapproval. How quiet we
would be!
After a while the music downstairs
got so loud that we old codgers tottered
off to another pub - Shipman's at the
back of Drum Lane - where we could hear
each other talk of our plans for
retirement and pensions. Next time shall
I need a hearing aid? |
|
Sue
Lane's Account of the Class of 73 Group |
 Well, I counted 17
people from my year on the day and
although some of us have kept in touch
over the years it was especially nice to
see Sharon Rose who travelled from USA
(where she now lives) for the weekend
and Ian, Gwyneth, Lesley and Jane who
made a special journey from other parts
of the UK to see us.
Roz brought some old Tower magazines
and Jane New brought her scrap books
which kept us amused. We spent
hours laughing at the sports photos,
especially the sportswear!! We
also recalled who we fancied at the
time!!
It was nice to see how many ex pupils
we remembered from other years and
surprising to find that some of them
remembered us, although they couldn't
remember why they did! Some of us
remembered each other because we lived
near each other and travelled on the
same green buses to and from school.
Others went on the same school trip
together or were in the Gilbert and
Sullivan productions.
We thoroughly enjoyed the reunion
this year and look forward to next year. |
Judging by the number of e-mails
I have received, many people enjoyed the reunion. While people are
still enjoying it and
turn up then I will keep them going, and next year’s
event is already pencilled in for the 14th October.
Not all of the photos that have been included have yet been captioned. For those without a caption,
please send me names, etc for them.
[e-mail]
Thank you to everyone for the donations towards
the running costs. The boxes collected £96.57.
Thanks also to the "Class of 76 Reunion" committee
from 1963, who also donated their surplus £30
towards the running costs.
[Financial
Breakdown]
Ian Dow
October 2005
If you enjoyed this
years reunion, then please make a note in your diary now of
next year's date, so that you don't get double
booked - 14th October 2006
[Who
Came] [Reunion
Photo Album] [Memories] [Financial
Breakdown]
