The 2005 Trinity "High" General Reunion

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]
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”.

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.

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

[Who Came]  [Reunion Photo Album] [Memories] [Financial Breakdown]