I arrived at the Aztec Hotel at about 3pm on Friday 27th October with my younger brother Michael in tow. I checked in to my room leaving Michael to check out the bar and to do a recce.Joining him in the bar some time later, we surveyed the people around us speculating "are they Slimmers"?
Strolling along the corridor from reception and I spotted 2 dubious characters holding up the wall and sidling up to them, I whispered from the corner of my mouth "Phstt are you Slimmers?" I had come across John Anderson and Arnold Harris, and from this moment on it started!!!
We were soon joined by Ishbel Thorpe, then the trio of Ann Hall, Tina Brewer and Dale Warrener and somewhere in amongst all this was Katherine Hepburn. My head was now begining to swim trying to keep track of names & faces. And so it went for the rest of the afternoon. It was hard to believe that after an absence of 40 years, we all so easily slipped back into the old familiarity from those far flung years.
We had by then retired to the bar and as the original group grew, splinter groups began to break away, and the volume of noise increased as cries of joy erupted as old friends met up. By now it was close to 7 pm and thoughts turned to food and many Slimmers moved on to the pub next door to eat and drink some more!
Leaving the pub some time later, I met Ted Jones & Brian MacDdonald renewing their friendship. I hastened to tell them that the booze was cheaper in the pub, and they vanished at a high rate of knots to join the others there. Manfred Eccles and Gunther Thorweston had also arrived by then and were busy knocking back the pints, no doubt numbing their troubled nerves having been in the chaotic clutches of British Rail. The combination of rail crashes and weather had wreaked havoc on their journey from Germany. (I have since learned from them that it took 24 hours to get back to Germay after the re-union).
And so it continued until late into the night. Just before last orders, I decided to head for bed but on way back to the hotel I ran into Stuart & Pip Baker, Robin Harris and others. Needless to say bed was now out and we continued chatting til late into the night.
On the Saturday we breakfasted in our private dinning rooms and met up again at 11 am when the re-union was to officially kick off. During the morning Roger Marshallsay presented a slide show, and many others had brought pictures and momentos of their stay at Slim, and time was spent looking at the display material and reminiscing. And the Slimmers continued to arrive, mixing and exchanging stories of their school days. Next it was lunch and Robin Harris showed us some cine film which he had converted to video of sports day in Slim and much fun was had by all those who watched it (in time I hope to put this on the site).
As the excitement of the night before began to take its toll, a few of us decided to rest awhile to prepare for the evening bash.
On arriving at the bar at 7pm I was greeted by the sight of Slimmers dressed their evening wear. A great sight to behold. We trooped into dinner at about 7.30 pm and after a very short prayer we had dinner.
Dinner done, the evening was now free for dancing and mixing, and on it went until well into the early hours. I returned to my room at 2.30 am feeling thoroughly exhausted but elated at the wonderful week-end it had been, and thankful that the clocks were going back that night!
The week end was a glorious success, and we must not forget that it would not have been so if Gloria had not done such a wonderful job of organising it. I thank her for all the hard work, and also everyone else who helped to make the first ever Slim School reunion such a tremendous success.
If anyone wants to add their version of the week-end please send me your thoughts and I will put them on the site. As time goes by I will be adding photos etc to this page.
Hazel Parker who unfortunately was not able to attend the re-union due to a previous commitment has sent me her thoughts of her time at Slim and I think that it sums up the spirit of the school.
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