Once again a small, but faithful group of stalwarts gathered at the home of Gordon & Gillian Ratcliff in St. Petersburg, Florida, for their annual sub-tropical bacchanalian get together.
In the first photo, clockwise from left rear: those worldly and well-travelled close relatives of Dorian Grey - Gordon Ratcliff (1951-57); David Dobbing (1952-58); Stewart Sumpton (1951-56); and Eric Davies (1951-58) are sporting their tans and revelling in the afterglow of a day watching World Cup Rugby, strolling beaches, and enjoying a Tampa Bay Buccaneers' Tail-gate Party - a typically American phenomenon, whereby people assemble at the sports stadium several hours before a match and, by eating and drinking copiously, attempt to reach that state of mellow bonhomie, whereby they are indifferent to the severe beating that their local (American) football team might have (and usually does have) inflicted upon it.
The group have met in St. Petersburg for many years and annually try to convince each other that none has aged or acquired any more grey hairs since the previous year.
They invite any Old Birkonians who might enjoy this shallow, insincere type of relaxation, and who might feel disposed to participate in the annual festival of narcissistic deception, to contact Gordon before next year. His e-mail address is cognati@mindspring.com.
All applications accompanied by a suitably-large cheque made out to The St. Petersburg Poor (Gordon's personal charity) will be seriously considered.
Accommodation, food and liquid sustenance are provided on a first-come-first-served basis, or in Dave Dobbing's case, the best room is given to him bringing the most duty-free Glen Morangie.
Those not attending this year, including David Burton (1952-59), were discussed and reviled for their lack of ability to escape the bonds and commitments of workaday life and be present to defend themselves.
As always, school life was remembered, revisited, embellished and toasted -
everyone agreeing after
the tenth or twelfth toast that all present were most fortunate in that they
attended the finest school with
the finest people on the planet.
In the second photograph, David Dobbing tries to comprehend and understand the vagaries of photography. He grabbed his 'instant' camera to photograph a magnificent osprey sitting on the dock at the foot of the garden. As you can see from his perplexed expression and the setting sun, he has been addressing this complex problem since early in the day and the osprey has long since departed the scene.
Being mindless creatures of habit, they all vowed to meet and do it again next year.
Gordon Ratcliff
