Page 23 - Kol Bogrei Habonim - October 19
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It wasn’t a case of ‘Do you remember?’ – You Museum will also all have happened by the time
didn’t even need to ask. you read this.
Everybody immediately knew the faces that Also, the second Kenwood Picnic was planned for
hadn’t been seen in many cases for over 40 years June, while the Sandys Row lunch is going to
– and just carried on talking as if we’d met become an annual event.
yesterday. The banter, the ribaldry and the same It will be a weekend ‘camp’ next if we’re not
football team rivalries were all still there – even if careful!
woefully anachronistic and misled – and sorely
missed in the intervening years. We are no longer, of course, students. Eminence
and achievement in a wide range of fields
Romances were even admitted, and unlikely emanates from many of those who come along –
relationships about which you hadn’t had the and is, as you would expect, totally ignored and
faintest idea were openly though somewhat unacknowledged!
guardedly discussed. (I still can’t quite believe
some of them!) Where will it lead? Nobody knows and frankly I
don’t think anybody cares or even thinks about it.
When Stan Tannen came over to London shortly
afterwards, it was the perfect excuse for a It’s gentle and it works. Indeed, the number of
’Reunion Reunion’ at Kenwood – and numbers events and people who come along are growing,
were further enhanced by many who either hadn’t and I often sense the sparkle in people’s eyes of
been able to get over to Mevo Chama or had heard just why, all those years ago, we weren’t prepared
just how fantastic it was. to accept the apparent norm.
Stan, much loved by everybody, was very We still hear crazy ideas – although I doubt
frustrated during the original reunion as his whether the eminent doctor who suggested that we
meticulously planned cricket match was hit by the should re-enact the accident when I ‘fell off’
bad weather – and yet the only reaction he got Mount Tamaro in Switzerland during Hagoshrim
then was, ‘shame, but it gave us all more time to in 1969 was entirely serious. Mind you, as a
talk’. result, my wife and I are going to spend a ‘50
years on’ weekend in Lugano. She has a lot to put
And from that and a discussion with Neal, the up with.
germ of an idea was born: ‘Kenwood Ken’ – a
simple, social vehicle for those who might want to Full of love and affection, with little open or
meet up occasionally and walk, talk or whatever. needed reference to the past, our existence is a
constant reminder of the chevra we were all
Indeed, our latest event, a visit to (and lunch at) fortunate enough to make, experience and now
Sandys Row Shul, where ‘El Presidente’, Harvey perhaps understand. But only a little.
Rifkind, gave a super spiel, was perfectly summed
up on Facebook by Richard Hyman: Finally, by popular demand, two dates for your
2020 diary:
‘It really was great fun… a little surreal… some
th
of the great Habo traditions intact… people Third Seder: Sunday, April 19
talking during Harvey’s presentation, not keeping Ideas, volunteers and inspiration welcome for this
together on the walking tour, turning left when already much anticipated event at Sandys Row
they should have turned right (surely some Shul.
political symbolism there??). We all loved it!! Summer Picnic: Sunday, June 28 th
An Indian meal, a stroll along Regents Canal and, ‘Bring Your Own’ food, drink, blankets and
possibly, a visit to the National Holocaust sunhats to Kenwood. Grandchildren and frisbees
also welcome!
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