I am sure everyone who attended our reunion would agree that the evening was a great success, helped to a considerable extent by the excellent food and wine provided by the Breck Club in Poulton. It was lovely to meet up with old friends, some of whom we had last seen at the end of "O" level year - 1963! Although it was a bit of a shock to see girls we remembered as teenagers now fast forwarded nearly 40 years, it was amazing how soon we recognised each other. (Even if some of us did have to put our specs on to read the name badges thoughtfully provided by Norah!)

In true "Old Girls" tradition we started the evening by singing our school hymn -"Lift up your Hearts" (words and music provided by Liz and Noella). Although Miss Burns might not have found our rendition quite up to her high standards, nevertheless it brought back memories of Speech Days at the Winter Gardens.

It was interesting to see the photos and other items of memorabilia some of us had brought and to try on the "Pork Pie" school hat. Did we really wear one of those? We were indebted to Annette Anderson of the "Old Girls Association" for loaning us the Admissions and Leavers Records for our years at school, which also contained extracts from letters from Mrs Robinson to parents. Most of these referred to complaints from girls about school dinners and 'unseemly' out of school behaviour.

Of particular interest was a letter regarding one girl's attempt to wear what we now know as tights for school.

Thank you for your letter.

I agree that an 8" gap between stockings and knickers is horrible - but do not consider that the cure for that is black stockings-cum-knickers.

In the minds of the young, black is not unobtrusive, but is a colour worn in teen-age fashion for the very opposite purpose. (I am also informed that black and brown are a mark of the Beatles followers!)

I have nothing against the stockings-cum-knickers except their colour, for the reasons stated. Would you be good enough to deal with the matter? If your daughter wears black, I shall have other teenagers copying in their desire to be "with it".

The only complaint anyone had about the evening was that it passed so quickly. I for one regret that I was unable to spend as much time chatting to everyone as I would have liked. However, we are hoping to remedy this by making our reunions an annual event. No definite plans as yet for date and venue for next year - any suggestions will be welcome.

Hope to see you all (and more besides) next year.

Jen Mathison

Just to finish with a couple of memorable quotes from the evening :-

"The most surreal moment for me was standing next to Jen Woodward during the singing of 'Lift Up Your Hearts' and her saying 'Oh, bloody Hell' and me in fits of laughter exactly the same as all those years ago." - Wendy Threlfall

"Nobody had any wrinkles - just poorer eyesight!" - Norah Griffin to Jean Blinkhorn