Page 60 - Kol Bogrei Habonim - October 19
P. 60
ANATOMY OF A REUNION
TH
IRGUN VATIKEI HABONIM UK'S 19 ANNUAL REUNION,
KING'S LYNN MAY 2019
BERNARD FRANKEL
“B Israel, I met her again at a big Habonim event in
ernard, I’m volunteering you.”
the Finchley Moadon. She was 23 and I was 29
Helen, my dear wife, forced my
arm upwards towards the ceiling.
Against my wishes, she held it there. Nick years old. We clicked and got married in 1968.
Ruth chose King’s Lynn as the venue for our
Collins was concluding his ‘State of the Reunion, based on previous experience. King’s
Movement’ talk at the end of last year’s Lynn was an historic Hanseatic Port-Town
Reunion. Nick, Denise, and Phil together with bristling with medieval credentials and situated
others had organized many successful previous on the Great River Ooze, where it enters the
Reunions but now they wanted out. We were an Wash. So early in the morning of Monday Sept
ageing group getting fewer in number and less 17th Ruth and I drove there. We had arranged to
mobile. “Let’s take a vote. We need 30 people to visit four hotels, sample the food, check the
make things viable.” About twenty people raised creature comforts, disability access, and whether
their hands. “And who’s going to organize it?’
there was a suitable conference room. At
Across the room, Ruth Markham (nee Baker) 12.30pm we arrived at our first appointment, just
had already raised her hand. I had first met her outside King’s Lynn. Good point was the rooms
65 years before as a vatik in the North London were all on the ground floor but they were very
Peleg at 2, Queensdown Road E5. In those years plain and functional-- nothing historical within
Alec Collins, helped by his future wife Edna walking-distance. We didn’t bother to sample
were running the bayit. We joined Garin Vav the food. The second hotel, which we reached at
together and ‘did time’ on Hachshara (1960/61). 1.30pm, was situated in the middle of a large
By 1962, we both made Aliyah to Kibbutz Bet industrial park. I walked 50 yards round a corner
HaEmek. At different times we returned to the to see a 5-storey relic of late Victorian
UK, where we separately married and raised our obsolescence. No historical ambiance resonated
families in London N14, keeping in contact over here. The rooms were adequate but chairs,
many years. That’s why I allowed Helen to keep cupboards, and wardrobes were rarities. We
my hand raised. dutifully tried dinner. The main course was
repellent and the dessert forgettable – just like
My wife Helen became the third team member.
But for Habonim, we would never have met. the hotel. After all, what meshugana has a
Place: Weekend camp, near Loughton in Essex. reunion inside an industrial estate?
Situation: Trying to play the ‘Wide Game’ in We didn’t reach our third choice, The Duke’s
bog-like conditions. First contact: two tents in Head Hotel, until 3.00pm. Situated in the Market
very close proximity, one for boys and one for Square of the Old Town, its early 19th century
girls, with very thin walls. She remembers the frontage and imposing staircase seemed to rule it
exact conversation I was having with someone in out for our disabled members. But just down the
my tent, about being in the London University corridor was the 5-storey modern extension with
Symphony Orchestra. I spoke to Helen six times 90 accessible and very comfortable rooms
in the next five years. After I returned from reached by lift. All our criteria were satisfied -
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