School Reunions
 School
reunions are a way of keeping in touch, just once in a while, with the
people who you knew at school. How are they doing and what are they doing?
It is nice to simply get together again from time to time.
There are those
that say "I would never want to go to a school reunion - that is all
in the past". I certainly used to be one of those, but having
now organised several of them, I am a convert. I enjoy meeting
up with the people I knew at school once a year, to renew old
friendships, and of course we talk about the old days, but so what,
we also talk about today and future as well. I could never say
that school days were the happiest days of my life, because they
weren't, but I enjoy meeting the friends I knew then, and the
memories of the things that I hated about school, have long since
faded. If you want to see what went on at some of these
reunions, then use the links below. If you want to see what is
planned in the future, then click on "Future Reunions". If you
have not been to a reunion before, then I hope to see you at one
sometime soon. [Details
of Future Reunions] The Annual Trinity Tower Reunion
There have been a number of different
types of reunion held since the start of 2003. The best known
and most regular is the Annual Trinity Tower Reunion.
In addition, there have been the "Twenty Year Reunions"
for the Class of 1964, the Class of 76, the
Class of 70, the Class of 49, and so on.
You can access reports to all of these reunions from the links
below.
 The
Annual Trinity Tower Reunion started in 2003. In
fact, it all began slightly earlier at the end of 2002. I had
just signed up for Friends Reunited, having previously not been the
slightest bit interested in school days at all. Within a day
John Ingham had been in touch and a few days later
John Child also got involved. We met up for lunch
in March 2003 and one of the topics of conversation was the fact
that it would be 40 years in July that year since we left the fifth
form at Trinity. We decided to run a 40 year
anniversary reunion which would be open to anyone who had been at
the school in 1963. We used the Conservative Club on the
corner of Trinity Avenue and St Georges Ave as a venue, had a tour
of the old school, before they started knocking it down, and then
had a lot of quizzes, games and a buffet organised. We had to
turn people away, as the venue had a maximum limit of some 95
people. The day was a great success, and was completed by the
playing of the song Goodbyee, by Pete & Dud, that well
known tune that was played instead of the usual music as Buzzer and
the head girl walked towards the platform for the final morning
assembly on the last day of term in July 1963. It did not go
down well with Buzzer, but it made the rest of us laugh!
 Towards
the end of that first reunion Mary Evans (now Mary
Kelly), who had been on the Bud all day, kept bending my ear about
the need to do it again next year. I was adamant that it had
been hard work and that this was my one and only reunion. Of
course, with the power of Bud, she was even more persuasive than
normal, and I agreed to look into it, but only on the basis that
they must be simple to organise. What I needed was a venue that
could accommodate some 100 people, and yet could provide food on
demand without the need to pre-order and pay before the event, and
it needed to be free or maybe just a deposit, so that there was no
need to get people to pay in advance, a chore that is always
extremely painful. It also needed to be central so that those
that wanted to use public transport, to avoid the problems of
driving, were able to. Since I do not live in Northampton,
Bob Bierton offered to go and find a venue. He
eventually found the pub that later became known as the Old
Bank, and the second reunion was set up, and the range of
years widened to include anyone from the pre-comprehensive era.
The pub could handle food ordered at any time, and they only charged
me a deposit, which provided we spent enough money and did not wreck
the place, I got back. I always did!! At its peak we
have had almost 110 people at a reunion.
 In
2007 we had a 50 year anniversary celebration, for the opening of
the new Tower and the other school buildings in 1957. We had a
birthday cake and Mike Edmunds brought his fully
restored Northampton bus along for the second time, and took people
on the old number 14 route for a tour of the modern school.
In 2010 we moved to a new venue the Cordwainer,
with a new organiser Peter Austen. He is now
organising the reunion itself, and I handle the administration and
the publicity. It works well. After the re-launched
reunion in 2010, everyone was keen to have another, so there will be
one in 2011. The buttons below take you to the reports for
each of the past reunions.
Other Reunions
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