Memory Lane 08

Another Anonymous Subscriber writes:

I live and work in the US most of the year and, although in occasional touch with a couple of my closest friends, had never reflected much on my time at St. Nicks; then about 10 years ago, a classmate/friend tracked me down and suggested a few of us meet. On a glorious 90F (no one knows Celsius here) day in August 2003 we met for lunch at a pub in an Oxfordshire village, adjourning to enjoy ice-cream and coffee in the garden of a nearby family home with a lovely view of the Chilterns. One of our number produced a heretofore secret diary from around '59-61 with addesses, phone numbers and random stuff such as results of a chess rivalry and the make of Mick's new transistor radio. A sort of test ensued and I learned that, although my short term memory is rubbish, there's a sort of creeky rolodex rotating in my bonce giving access to most of what got in before I was 18. I was as surprised as everyone else to be able to list 1960 addresses, phone numbers and birthdays of our circle of friends. I was asked about our class and found I could list it alphabetically as it was in 1959/60 (1A), mainly because I could recall a voice, I believe Mr Proudman, our form master calling the register each day. However the memory does play tricks and the overlay of subsequent form masters calling slighly different registers in later years may lead to the odd error.

[The names of these pupils are listed on a separate page to this page. Ed.]