I remember as a 17-year old among the 200 boys from the ACS Class of 57 singing:

  Forty years on, when afar and asunder,
  Parted are those who are singing today,
  When we look back and forgetfully wonder,
  What we were like in our work and our play…

At that time, 40 years seemed an eternity. Hey, that’s almost two and a half times the years we’d lived. Yet on February 1 2017, which is 60 years on, 40 “boys” or 20 percent of our original number, gathered to celebrate our school’s Founder’s Day, albeit a month early.

Some did indeed come from “afar and asunder”. We had Albert Lee, ‘Mac’ Cheong Kun Lum, and myself from Australia, George Chia Chung Joo from Canada, Huang Chen Ya from Hong Kong, Jimmy Ho from UK and Winston Tan from US; some of whom made their travel arrangements well in advance in order to make the date. One notable feature of the group was the immense tonsorial diversity among us. Some fortunate few like Alan Peck, Yew Thiam and Gilbert Chua, to name a few, still amazingly sported thick dark thatches but he majority of us had grey or white thinning or virtually nonexistent hair. Regardless of what we displayed on top of our heads however, we all still had our marbles inside and even though some memories may have dimmed, we could, sometimes with a little difficulty, eventually make out our old long-lost mates to fondly reminisce over the good old days and also catch up on significant happenings over the intervening years.

As was to be expected, the event was a huge success. The creativity and tireless efforts of Jerry Choo, Winston Choo, David Tai, Norman Wee, Chee Yoong, and Peter Wong as organisers, left nothing to chance. We had a fabulous venue, excellent food, meaningful presentations and even the logistics of getting to Temasek Club were seen to. There were even valuable gifts for all and prizes from the always generous Gilbert.

I believe that our latest reunion was made possible because of our Class of 57 monthly lunches. These regular meetings are like having a stock pot on the simmer so that when it’s time to lay on a banquet, we just have to do some marketing, turn up the heat and cook up another storm. God willing, we’ll all be celebrating our 70th reunion in 2027.

John Lim