Over the years I have lost count of how many of my school mates or those in my year have since passed on and is another gentle reminder of how fragile life really is. Benjamin Franklin once stated you are guaranteed two things in life being death and taxes and you cannot argue with that.
What I found uplifting was my school year WhatsApp community reminisced of old stories about our classmate. This is a special bond that even though was many years ago 39 to be precise the stories still live on and seem like yesterday. These reminders of what we have all experienced as a group in the past are still being told today and have never been forgotten.
The funny thing about this story is the guys cheating the race popped out the bushes too soon and were now leading the cross country race after asking the leader of the race what position he was. This made them jump back into the bushes waiting for the rest of us to come running past so they could join and only run half the course.
Other stories emerged of some boarders having accounts at local restaurants which they would sneak out to at the weekend and the tab would be covered by their parents at the end of each month. The boarders were stuck at school for virtually 3 months at a time and their parents were often very wealthy being farmers or living in other countries with international businesses.
Times have definitely changed from the days we grew up compared to now and there seems to be less freedom available or the youngsters of today have less life experiences and are sheltered. Back in our days if you were caught smoking at school you would be severely punished with cuts which was a hiding with a stick/bat and could draw blood hence the name cuts. If caught smoking more than once you faced expulsion but that was highly unlikely and an exceptional case if you were a very bad student and not worth having in the school.
From what I have been told from our records out of 123 school boys from our final year we have a record of 82 still being around so we have lost 30% over the 39 years. I do not know if that is a good percentage or not, but one would expect as the years tick on with everyone getting older the numbers will slowly increase.
This kind of reminds me of the deadliest sport in the world and that is being lawn bowls which is played predominantly by those much older in life after retirement. The sport is not dangerous it is the age group that plays it being prone to dying from natural causes and who knows what else.
My class year has their 40th anniversary meet up next year and I am in two minds to skip it having attended the 30th reunion and barely recognized anyone. Those who i am close to being my real school friends I chat to regularly and I do not live nearby. The majority of my school year live within walking distance of school which I kind of find a little weird like they have never explored and experienced the world.
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