THE BIG T&C REUNION, THE STEELES, AUGUST 8 2008

Reunions can be pretty daunting occasions - especially if you haven't seen or been in touch with any of the other people for 35 years! What would everyone now look like? Would we still recognise each other? Perhaps some of us would now have really radical views. Would old playground arguments be resurrected?

With these thoughts in mind I made the old familiar walk along Eton Avenue from Swiss Cottage tube station. Not much had changed in the area, many of the same old imposing Victorian houses and blocks of posh flats were still there.

So many memories came flooding back. Walking down this marvellous leafy avenue my thoughts drifted back to those uniform clad days of carrying briefcases and duffle bags for our sports gear, of noisy arguments over football games in the playground or anything else we could argue about, and of early romantic interludes walking a girl we fancied back to the station after school, perhaps for a stolen kiss before saying goodbye for the day.

Not much had changed in England's Lane but the old ABC bakery and sweet shop where some of us used to 'bunk off' to during break to smuggle back contraband sweets and cakes were gone.

As I turned the corner onto Haverstock Hill and made the short walk to the legendary Steeles pub on this warm August night I could already see Diana 'Duk' Krajkeman, Alfie Nathan, and Theo Lemos - all of them immediately recognisable.

Well I would have been pleased enough with just them but over the next 90 minutes we got a seemingly never ending procession of old T and C alumni with John Ker and John O'Sullivan being the next to arrive followed swiftly by the Pinsker sisters - Barbara, Sharon and Suzanne - then Alex Priest, Lindy Rapoport and last but not least Peter Nissen. An amazing 12 people in total.

We spent a good four hours reminiscing and it all went by so quickly. Star attraction of the night was Sharon Pinsker's amazing photo collection - about 40 pictures from the mists of time. I'm hoping that Sharon will scan them and send them over to Norman to put on the site. There are such a lot of great memories attached to them.

We're hoping to meet up again sooner rather than later - at least I hope we won't wait another 35 years before most of us see each other again! Other old friends who sadly couldn't make the reunion were Ann Connock nee Whiteman and Matthew Rees. We'll see you next time.

One idea that was discussed was organising a school disco type event with of course all the great music from those heady years. We have in our webmaster Norman a bona fide ex-Radio Caroline DJ!
Norman has mentioned that he might be able to get Hedgerley Wood for the event. Tents at the ready in that case. And of course toasting marshmallows and those famous midnight feasts would be the order of the day. But to make it worthwhile we need at least 40 T and Cers so it's over to you lot to help make it happen.

Mike

Meanwhile some photographs of the occasion can be seen below courtesy John Ker