Class of 67 - as we reach the big 60...

Happy birthday to us!...

So we all set off to ‘big school’ at the grand age of eleven

And we all recall the date – it was September 67

Most started at this time although some others started late

But we all remember walking through that daunting High School gate

(Its full blown official title with the curlicues and twirls

Was ‘Retford County High School’ - the school solely for the girls)

And so began our journey which we faced with trepidation

On the road towards our future - secondary education

Our uniforms were shop bought new, with beret on our head

Regulation skirt and blouse, dangling scarf in black and red

So proud we were to go to school so similarly dressed

With blazers bought a size too large and badge with High School crest

And to keep it all quite clean so we could really look the part

We had overalls for science, for home ec and even art

Big black knickers were PE wear, which we’d team with aertex shirt

Though for netball, rounders, hockey we would add a tiny skirt

So in suitable attire we began our high school years

The start of time together sharing hopes and dreams and fears

We gathered for assembly, in serried ranks we lined the hall

And we looked in awe at prefects, so aloof and proud and tall

We felt respect and fear for teachers perhaps both in equal measure

And we soon picked out the weak ones we could torture for our pleasure!

For good work we gained house points, bad work meant slips, detention

If you didn’t do your homework or failed Latin verb declension

Prefects, staff and pupils were fiercely loyal, proud and keen

Of their house teams named for forests – Arden, Sherwood, Charnwood, Dean

We learned grammar, foreign language, how to cook and clean and sew

Tackled slide rules, solved equations and made bunsen burners glow

Friendships blossomed, failed, rekindled just as they are wont to do

Teenage years – that tricky business fraught with problems old and new

Rites of passage – fervid crushes, spots, self doubt and puppy fat

Trying cigs and pubs and cider – we’ve all done a bit of that!

So in time we grew a little as the years so quickly passed

Spread our wings and went to folk club, discos, concerts – had a blast

And we morphed into those prefects we’d admired long ago

Our turn to be looked up to from the motley crew below

Wearing mufti, flouting rules, boundaries pushed far as we could

We thought that we were rebels (but we really were quite good!)

We swapped boyfriends, clothes and chit chat – we were innocent and free

We had high hopes for the future and said ‘what will be will be’

But at last our school years ended and we all went our separate ways

And the years flew by unheeded in a veritable haze

We were busy with our families, with our jobs and with careers

With little time to search out school friends in those intervening years

And communication means were not the easiest to hone

It was either write a letter or with luck a chat by phone

Technological advancements mean we can now chat with ease

We can Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp – we have mobiles if you please!

In an instant we put thoughts into our private Facebook bubble

Where only we can see it which means that we stay out of trouble

And we find as we grow older we have more time of our own

Now we can reap the benefits of all the seeds we’ve sown

It’s time to plan our trips again, enjoy them as before

(Though early nights are ‘de rigeur’ – no more milk train half past four!)

No more rowdy all night parties instead we knit and paint and sew

We talk recipes and ailments, how to make our lilies grow

We curse expanded waistlines, droopy boobs and bunioned feet

Then we quaff another wine and curse our menopausal heat

But in our heads and hearts we’re all still young girls in our teens

Standing on the cusp of life about to live our dreams

In our heads we’re naïve school girls and we’ve energy to spare

Our ageing bodies may not like it but our memories take us there

It’s the link we have in common that binds us all like glue

We’ve still got the older memories now it’s time to make some new!

So in our year of many birthdays as we reach the big six oh

We should look at our achievements since our school days years ago

We’ve got family and friends, had jobs, careers – well, enough said

So cheers to childhood chums - and to us all - good times ahead!