Persuaded by Rachel, I spent the weekend on a nostalgia-fest in Solihull, with the first ever Tudor Grange School reunion – to mark the school’s first 50 years – on Satuday evening.
Carl drove us up to Rachel’s mum’s on Friday and on Saturday we called in at Rachel’s dad’s and then headed over to Jane and Dan’s to see (meet in my case!) Merlin, and for an impromptu lunch.
Went to the fair at the school in the afternoon, but it was more for current students and parents so we didn’t stay long and headed off into Solihull for some shopping instead.
Returned to TG in the evening all dressed up for the party, and met Fiona and Jenny in the queue, but there wasn’t really anyone else we recognised, or in our age range for that matter. Still, a few glasses of fizz later we were being taken on a tour of the school by one of the current students – a lovely girl about to go into the 5th year – who coped marvellously with our nostagia fest, and we did bump into some more people from our era: Kirsty Ogden and Claire Whitely (as were), and Neil Karet and (I think) Spencer Griffin. I’d expected more staff to be there.
The highlight was the Memorabilia Room where we found a collection of school registers, report and magazines from various years, reviving such memories as Tom’s woodwork prize, my magazine illustrations, Jane’s articles on pets…
Rachel’s mum collected us (and our helium balloons) c 11.30pm – by that stage it did feel just like being back at school, having parents doing the taxi service….