my old grammar school year had a reunion recently, forty
years since leaving. Now for me this is a pretty complicated story. I DID start
there the same year as the rest of them BUT I was made to re-sit my third year
there. After that my life there went from bad to worse. For a start I did not
blend in with the new class and I lost touch with the old class. I KNOW it was
the same school, but they were now a different year, the more senior side of
the school. Some of you already know that at least two of the teachers there
convinced me that I was stupid, so I just gave up trying. Some of the other
boys in the class tended to pick on me (I am not particularly tall) so I felt a
real outsider and kept very much to myself. This carried on for the next three
years.The most miserable three years of my life. It was not until I was in my
early 30s before I decided to prove those teachers wrong-and I did. Think
that’s why I have the “What if I had made an effort to prove those teachers
wrong back then?”
I only heard
about the reunion through a photo of the group in a local newspaper. I did not
recognise any of them until I came across a blog about the event (ah the power of the demons that are called Google and my curiosity) If it were not for the name tags I don’t think I would
have recognised 90% of them. Now a cousin of mine was there AND the woman who
organised the whole thing only lives down the road from me (I had to talk with her on the phone about something else
recently and she never commented on my not being there either). Even if I WAS invited I would have turned it down. They
dragged out some of the old teachers for the occasion, including one of the
aforementioned bad ones. So WHY am I moaning about this? I hear some of you
asked. It’s the whole Gerdy Principle thing. With my warped humour I might even
have gone and refused to remember anybody. I would even have excused myself
during the starter and just have left and gone home unannounced. Would have
avoided any photos too. I did put a comment on the blog page-nothing sarcastic
or degrading. I got a kind of apology and was told they are planning another
meet up later in year and are passing round all the email addresses –curious to
see if anybody remembers me. To be honest there is just one of them I would like to
hear from (believe it or not), he is now a parish priest over in Donegal.
Technically I am also eligible for my repeat year’s reunion too. I
really DO hope I get an invite to that one-only because it will give great joy
ticking the no box for that one. Mind you they’ll have trouble tracking me
down.
Thought just came into my head-there was
not that many happy faces in the group photo. Any ways I think even watching “Britain’s Got
Talent” or “Winning Streak” would have been better than an evening with either
of that lot.
And my “What if?” list-boys but I could
go on for an hour or two about that.
