The Inaugural Hill School Reunion held Sydney 1 July 2000

(As seen through the eyes of one of the attendees – Mark Dale [1951-55])

I know you are agog to hear how my primary school reunion went.You will be pleased to hear it was a roaring success.A dozen of us plus assorted partners gathered in an upper room of a curry house on the Pacific Highway in North Sydney.

From left-right (top row):Keith Holder (49-54), Mike Barrett (44-48), Anthea Potts (Barbour) (53-60), Antony Williamson (51-52), Stephen Perrens (51-56)

(Middle row):Neils Langevad (55-60), Judy Houlton (Maughan) (50-54), Andy Vesey-Wells (50-56), Brian Turner (44-45), Mark Dale (51-55), George Chamberlain (Van Rooyen) (57-60)

(Front row):Ben Christie, (47-50), Dave Lichtenstein (50-56), Roy Cordell (52-55)

It was if the forty five years since we pushed dinky toys around the dusty playground in the long forgotten Kenya White Highlands was but yesterday. We relived the great school breakout when 5 boys did a bunk but became disoriented in the wattle plantations and eventually flagged down a car only to find it was the Headmaster. We recalled the pederast who made us all do cross country runs because he liked small sweaty bodies. We savoured again the sumptuous feasts possible on Saturday mornings when let loose in town with 35 cents.Swahili phrases flew back and forth until full of Tusker beer, tired and emotional, we wobbled out into the night.

Some of the people that I remembered from the Hill School and who also went onto the Duke of York School were:

	David Lichtenstein, of course, who was the impresario who made it all happen. He was resplendent in a smart black blazer with a Hill School badge.He provided us with the Tusker beer and a large cake resplendent with the school crest
A vintage Keith Holder who provided plenty of Hunter Valley wine.	Andy Vesey-Wells who looked just the same as when we knew him. As he sipped his umpteenth red wine he mournfully told me that he had some blood disorder that prevented him from drinking the stuff.	Stephen Perrens,changed from the skinny stripling in a Thomson [Duke of York School, House] tee shirt. now a hydrological consulting engineer was hardly changed from the skinny stripling in a Thomson [Duke of York School, House] tee shirt.

This is where Mark ran out of puff so the pictures tell the rest of the story.

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