Reflections on the Evening

After 20 years, my expectations of the evening were quite high. Would it be like "Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion"? Should Michael Ruddell and myself hire a Ferrari for the evening? Or should I go for a Madonna "Music" style Limousine with Mikey R driving and 2 rather buxom and leggy junior doctors I work with draped over me in the back seat. When I mentioned this idea to one of the girls, she was on for it and thought her friend would too, but unfortunately, it turned out to be a pupil only dinner! (Much to my wife's amusement!)
John Irvine, who organised things, kindly posted the e-mail addresses of some people who couldnt attend so I e-mailed 2 long lost friends; Robert Harvey and Stephen McBride before the dinner and within a couple of days had established contact with them again.
Ive since met up with Stephen who is now a C. of I. minister in Antrim with special responsibility for the weather at Golf Courses.
Anyway, on the fateful day, I drove down to Belfast and parked in the school quadrangle in my rather humble Rover 200 with Michael for company rather than 2 floosies.
The school dining hall looked completely unchanged. Walking through the door, I started looking around trying to spot some familiar faces and almost immediately saw Peter Russell and Mel Power. Peter certainly has benefited from the extra years and now looks rather like his namesake Kurt! A group of about 10 of us gathered round and after a few tentative introductions started to talk about old times.
I went off to get some drinks from the bar (certainly an improvement on school days!) and used the opportunity to have a good look around at the clusters of old schoolfriends catching up on the lost years. Some I could remember by name, some were vague memories: "rugby guy" or "nerd who always ate salad sandwiches at lunchtime" or "psycho serial killer in charge of the stamp club". A few teachers were there. Charlie Gault was completely unchanged in some sort of Dorian Grey timewarp. Tom Garrett, ex-headmaster, was there as well.
Name badges would have been good, but I was pleased to see that everyone used first names rather than surnames. I didnt hear any nicknames or Latin class names used at all. Black tie was a good idea since we were all in a sort of uniform again: no Armani suits, no Kenzo ties.
We all sat down according to a pre-arranged seating plan that had me sandwiched between Clive Harper and David Ritchie and sitting opposite Ken Pringle, Mark Mitchell and Colin McClure (sprouting a beard!). Clive and David immediately began a er...vigourous debate about exactly why we lost the School's cup in 1980. After a...heated discussion.. I began to feel it was in fact very lucky I was separating the two of them.
It was great to see Ken again after spending our early years at school sharing the same desk or laboratory bench together due to alphabetical necessity. We had gone our separate ways in the science/arts and literature split and I found I had severely missed his gentle sense of humour. Those sitting round me were keen to find out what Colin had finally settled on career wise and there was a communal satisfied grin when he announced he was a Minister. I was sad to hear that 3 of our number have died, but take it from me, thats not bad after 20 years!
I was interested to see representatives from the Old Boys' Associations of about 10 schools from around the Province at the top table. Even more interesting was the fact that the Catholic schools got cheered as each representative was introduced and only Campbell College (The Old Enemy from 1980) got some boos, taken in good part by their Rep. "Good old ecumenical Inst!" I thought.
The food was good, certainly better than 20 years ago. Between courses, I nipped around the 2 long tables of 1980 leavers and took as many "panoramic" shots as I could with my camera, the results, you can see on this website. A form was passed round to record everyone's name, address and e-mail address. An old junior school photo was passed around with all of us as long-haired, flaired young guns. If John Irvine sends me a copy of both, I'll get them posted on the website. Bob Harvey had sent a letter to wish us well since he couldnt make it himself, this was much appreciated.
After the meal, we had a variety of entertaining speakers, top marks go to Archbishop Eames, who coped with some good natured heckling rather well (I suspect he doesnt get much of that on a Sunday morning!). The current school Principal gave a brief speech and came across very well indeed. Pity I dont have any sons to carry on the Inst tradition! We raised a few glasses to toast the School and absent friends with some poignancy given the news about the deaths in our year. After the formal part of the evening, people shifted around the tables to meet up with others they had spotted across the room, but before long the evening was over. As I left, I bumped into Kevin Fredlander who shook hands with me and introduced himself as Johnny Bridges, but no Kevvy, Johnny was never that short!
I went back to Michael's house for a cup of coffee before driving home. Overall, we both felt that as our year approached 40, we all looked mature and wiser rather than decrepit! Some had lost hair and some (self included) were greyer but we were still recognisable and hadnt changed that much.
For me, the evening reaffirmed some of the ethos of Inst after 20 yrs; tolerance, good humour and an enthusiasm for all that life can throw at you.
I cant wait for the next 10 years to roll in!

This Guy: Purvis J.A., Form 1, Autumn term 1973.