Saturday, February 16, 2008

Reunion dinner

Last night I attended a reunion dinner. You must be wondering why we are having reunion dinner on Day 9 of Chinese New Year and not New Year’s Eve (除夕). It was actually the 40th Anniversary Grand Reunion Dinner for the 1968 batch of ACS (Anglo Chinese School) old boys and girls (because it included the Pre-U batch of 1970). It was held at the Traders Hotel.

The food was great: buffet-style; no sharks were harmed; and the atmosphere even better. We had a great time of nostalgia. The organizers put together an awesome slide show with many old photographs. Several of our ex-teachers were present including our principal Mr Lee Hah Ing who was already in his nineties. A big thank you to the organizing committee who worked so hard to put together this event. They even provided the music and doubled as photographers for the evening. And I heard they even put in their own money to cover some of the costs.

Below are some photos I took. As usual, my apologies for the lousy quality of the photos.

1) This is what I looked like 40 years ago.

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2) Me with some of my classmates. Everyone liked my ACS tie. I was the only one wearing one. It was not an ordinary ACS tie. This one is an “IB tie” which is only worn by boys attending the International Baccalaureate classes.

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3) Live music provided some guys from our cohort.


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4) They may have lost some hair, but certainly not the voices and musical talents.

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5) I sang The Water is Wide.

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6) Everybody sang the Auld Lang Syne and the ACS Anthem.

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By the way, whenever I attend my son’s inter-school canoeing competitions, I noticed that at the end of the prize presentation ceremony, the teams from ACSI and ACJC would get together and sing the ACS anthem. No other school seemed to do that. Says something about the ACS spirit doesn’t it?

2006 Inter-school Finals (21)

10 comments:

yg said...

hi chun see,

this practice of singing the school song at the end of a sports meet or game is not exclusive to acs & acjc. i have witnessed schools/colleges like vs, vjc, ri, rjc, hji and hcjs doing that.
we, as spectators, always felt very awkward when this was going on.

Victor said...

No sharks were harmed? So you finally managed to convince the organisers not to have this dish?

Yes, your tie does represent I.B. somewhat.("I bee". Haha.)

Gosh, I have already forgotten how my VS school song sounds like.

Anonymous said...

Well Chun See I may have missed your rendition of the Seekers'song but thanks for the You tube link and some opportunities to link to some vids of Judith Durham. What a lovely voice she had.

Unk Dicko said...

Hi Chun See,
As YG said singing the sch song by 2-3 schs at sports finals was always a big headache, not for the singers but the others, especially the G.O.H. I witnessed countless times that happened to Ministers who were G.O.H. He/She had to stand at attention out of respect also, 2-3 times consecutively!! It became so embarassing for the org com that eventually this practice was not permitted until after the VIPs had all left the venue.
And Hi...to Victor!
Didn't know you are a Victorian.
Were you ever in the ARROW scouts?
If you were you might know me.
I was a key member of the group from 1961 to 1972,last as ASSL.

Victor said...

Hi Uncle Dick. I didn't know you are from the same alma mater either.

Yes, I was a Patrol Leader of Arrow Scouts 1501! I was with them from 1969 to 1972 so I might just recognise you if we ever meet.

Sorry, I can't remember what ASSL stands for. Is it "Arrow Scouts Section Leader"?

Ok, I better stop here. If not, someone might tick me off for going off-topic.

Victor said...

Forgot to add - at that time, the teacher-in-charge of Arrow 1501 was a Mr Tay, I think.

Zen said...

From Chun See's reunion story and his photos I could sense that this occasion has brought great joy and enthusiasm to him when meeting his former class-mates and principal. It takes generations of principals, teachers and students true love, loyalty and dedication for the school to bring out this x-factor, which we simply called school spirit.

Lam Chun See said...

Victor. Off topic is no problem. Just don't 'sing' VS anthem. LOL.

Lam Chun See said...

Must clarify about the singing of ACS anthem at kayaking events. (1) It's done after everything is over and away from the public eye. (2) It's interesting becos ACJC and ACSI are actually competitors during the races.

KenBoi said...

not only at sports events tat schools sing their anthem.. i've attended st pat's and SAC band concerts.. they too sing their anthems after the whole performance.. so i guess it's quite common..