What do you remember of GMS?
Why do you remember what you remember?
I find myself pondering these questions – is it an age thing, or do you do that too?
Memory is an interesting phenomenon – when it comes to names, I tend to remember up better than I can remember down – I remember a number of the names of the senior boys – those ‘Big Boys’, some of whom scared me – and the notorious ones, but I tend not to remember the names of the younger boys. It was a bit embarrassing at the reunion to look at someone just one year below and have no recollection and yet they would remember you. So, whom do you remember? Who were the ‘characters’ of your time?
One of my highlights of last week was to get an email from my friend and one of the ‘characters’ of my time – Richard Hayward (1954-1960). Keith, his brother, whom I also remember very well and who has contributed to this Blog, got in tough with me and I think it went from there… So, Richard sent me a delightful email spanning forty-eight years in as many lines – police force, his own security business – children, grandchildren and a 43 year marriage and as he put it ‘”still going strong”… So much to be so proud of…
Richard towered over us all – he was a clear head taller than the average and he was a big guy – a gentle giant. Rajah Banerjee and I were reminiscing not long ago and he recalled that Richard was never involved in any forms of bullying, in spite of his size - he always had a great sense of humour with a serious dose of the ‘rascal’.
There’s Richard at the back of the line and can you pick the others – Wickens, Sargent, Thapa, Kapoor, there’s Archie Scott and Tony Gleaves… And in the picture with the Great Tenzing, Richard is the tallest…
So, I replied to Richard’s email:
... amazing isn't it that we shared time all those years ago and if we met today, those links would still be there... I remember the Fete - We had a stall - 'Cheap Jacks' - We made this huge banner and I spelt Cheap incorrectly - 'Cheep' - We bought stuff ( I remember there was a Puck mouth organ) from Agarwal's in Kurseong Town ... Agarwal's is still there - it's now a large space with smaller shops run by the various members of the family...
He got back with a variation – and he was right…
Yes I recalled the Fete and our stall, I stand to be corrected but we called it Ritchies Cheep, as there was you, Richard Lyons and myself who ran it, don’t know how we managed to get all that credit from Agarwalla’s. I do remember the Puck mouth-organ, my cousin Hillary Tresham bought it. We made a profit of three rupees on it. Hillary played “Some where over the Rainbow” at the next School concert, what I can’t remember is where all the rest of the profits went to after we had paid off Agarwallas, must have gone towards the school funds...
Richard was notorious for his collection of reptiles… and I remember the bouts of arm wrestling (Punja, I recall) where two drawing pins were placed on either end, which left a lasting reminder on the back of the hand of the looser. I can’t remember Richard loosing and I do remember never being on the receiving end of one of those drawing pins … I was his friend … remember…
By the way, here’s what the GMS Almanac had for 1962 – Do you remember?
Unfortunately somewhat indistinct - I must work on improving that for May...
I notice the 'April Retreat' … What are your memories of those retreats? Do you remember making ‘everlasters’ – chalk as wick set is wax – amazing how we didn’t start a fire… toasting bread on the flame of the ‘everlasters’…
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