Five years after our ripper 50-year reunion, all roads are leading once more to The Chapel in the Greenwood Hotel at North Sydney, to raise a glass or several as we reminisce over the glory days at St Leo’s, up to 1969 – the year we torched our bloody boaters for good.

Our half-century golden anniversary went over so well that there just has to be one to mark 55 years – and hands up who knew that’s what you call an emerald anniversary?

More than 40 members (at some time) of the class that sat the HSC in ’69 – and a few of our favourite teachers – rocked up to make 2019 a great gig, a very happy event for all concerned. The feedback acclaimed “the venue was perfect” and the “mix and mingle, finger-food format worked extremely well”.

Plus, the Sixties soundtrack and TV programs playing throughout the night were a real treat, as we swapped yarns and caught up with former “school family” members, including Pat Lynch, John Nicholson, and our favourite librarian, Jan Mannix (nee Butler).

When you’re on a good thing, stick to it, so the format for 2024 will be the same as last time – music included. Relaxed and informal. A hapless emcee will (try to) keep it on the rails, and invite attendees to regale us with their special and not-so-special moments at what was, for some of us, our home for up to ten years, from grade three in 1960. All in the name of great fun, excellent food, and fine quaffing.  

Whatever reasons our parents had for making us traipse down and up Unwin Road all those years ago in the name of a decent education, we would have to agree they knew what they were doing. Within those 1960-69 classes, a special spirit of camaraderie and lasting interest in each other was generated and lives on as we go from young students to young-at-heart pensioners.

So bring it on for 2024!

The cost of the 2024 shindig will be finalised and notified soon, when we can get a firm handle on the attendance. We hope to keep it to around $70 a head, which covers venue hire and food. We buy our own drinks at the bar.

The more the merrier, so please feel free to bring partners, other family members, and anyone you think could cope with us. We’d love to see everyone as we turn 55.

(A list of all who attended the 2019 reunion is on the 2019 REUNION page, minus last-minute apologies from Gary Kay and Paul Bills. Also minus Pat Thompson, who passed away in 2022.)