Shirley's blog on her writing and on living in Egypt etc

On Friday night I met up with five 'old' school friends.

We had organised a reunion via The Friends Reunited web site. We had all met at Southgate Primary School in Crawley-were in the same class and then gone on to Thomas Bennett Comprehensive School. It was one of the first comprehensives built in the country and made the Guiness Book of Records for having the highest number of pupils-over one thousand.  No wonder I felt lost all the time and I never saw the Headmaster!

I hadn't seen four of my friends for thirty nine years! We met up at 'The Tilgate', in Crawley.

This pub used to be called 'The Grasshopper'.

Incidently, what is with people changing the pub names in Crawley? The Black Swan at Pease Pottage was changed a few years ago to The James King, but was recently changed back to The Black Swan. I think pub names should never be changed, they reflect a villlage or town's history. Anyway, I digress.

I hadn't been to 'The Tilgate' since my teenage years. There was a group playing called 'The Gas'. One of my friend's sons sings and plays guitar. They were very good. myspace.com/thegasband

The music was a bit loud for us girls to talk much, but we eventually drifted into the other bar where we sat and reminisced about our school days. This wasn't much quieter as there was some sort of poker game going on, which meant that every now and then some guy stood up and shouted out instructions.

 As well as finding out what my friends had been up to since our 'pig-tailed days' I found out that a teacher, who I thought was brilliant and really loved, was really disliked by one friend. I also heard that a couple of my old school pals have sadly died- both from breast cancer.

Anyway, it was a great evening, but next time we will try and meet up somewhere a bit quieter and get all the old photos out.

( In the photo above I am third from the right)

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