The Level Heads met in April 2024 to review the recent reunion and to plan ahead for 2025. The following email was sent to the Class of 55 Mailing list

The winter break is (just about) receding into the past and with thoughts of enjoying the summer with memories of times past, the Level Heads met last week at the dreaded Raynes Park Hotel. Membership had expanded to include Messrs McDonagh, Barnett, and Bird (was that not the name of a comedy show on Channel 4), and almost included a Weston who was in the event unable to make it.

Over a diet of warm beer and the local interpretation of tapas dishes (correctly described on the menu as “small plates”), there was enough time to consider two things. Firstly, we hoped that a few more who live locally might be up for attending more regular lunchtime “mini reunions”. To that end, we felt that the “Hand in Hand” on Wimbledon Common would be a preferred meeting place and we are currently looking at a date in late July to test the concept. More anon on that topic.

The other topic concerned looking ahead to next year. The more numerate members of the group had computed that 2025 will be 70 years since we donned our short grey trousers and reported for education in Edge Hill. There is something about the span of 70 years that no one likes to address directly. The Psalm 90:10 referred to “three score years and ten”, and the good old French ran out of puff and words at 60 to mystify us all with “soixante-dix”. Mind you, they also went for irregular verbs and random allocation of sexuality to inanimate objects and nouns just to make the O level really tricky.

However it is described, September 2025 will be the month where virtually all of us will have passed eighty or quatre-vingts, or LXXX for those who didn’t discover science until later in life. So we felt that this would be the month to target for another full scale reunion. We also felt that a Friday might be the best day, and as Friday 12 is available, that was a possible choice.

So the real point of this diatribe is to alert one and all to the need to keep taking the tablets for at least another eighteen months, to see if there is broad support for the idea, and to hope that this is enough notice to try to get everyone available in that month. How say you all.

Very best regards

Jerry Stockbridge (for and on behalf of the Level Heads)