The only reason why a dance had not been held before was the low estimate of the number of possible partners. However, about half-way through the Summer Term, our late Head Boy. Ian McCulloch, decided that this obstacle could probably be overcome and approached the Headmaster to see if a dance could be arranged for the end of term. He willingly agreed to the idea and some of the, Staff's wives kindly offered to give us lessons twice a week as the majority of the Sixth Form were unable to dance. To start with we had about only eight partners for the lessons, and between twenty-five boys that is not very many, but towards the end of term the classes ceased to be lessons and became practising sessions to which a few girls were invited to sample our toe-crushing.
To hold a dance there were a number of things we were going to need; namely, someone to dance with, somewhere to dance, some music to dance to and, of course, some refreshments. Our partners for the actual dance began as a mere ten or so names, but by many and varied means the number steadily grew to the required amount. Victor Shreeve wrote out the invitations in his artistic hand, but these were sent to adults only. Other invitations were mainly by word of mouth to preserve as much informality as possible.
At first we had thought of hiring a band, but it was soon realised that the cost would be a great obstacle, especially as the dance was to be on a Saturday evening. The School jazz Club, however. soon provided the solution by agreeing to play for us - There was the leader of the group, Ray Simmons, on the trumpet, Trevor Head on. the piano, "Isa" Cummings at the drums, and "Erol" Fletcher on the flute, with Mr.Thomas looking very "gone" strumming away at his double bass.
There were many reasons why it was impossible to use the gymnasium for the dance, two of them being that it was to be used until 6.0 pm. for the Speech Day ceremony and concert and that the floor, although quite adequate for practising, was not very good for the real thing. Mr. Cobb offered us the use of his classroom, which, when adjoined to another by opening a sliding partition, which was in turn joined to Hansons' Common Room, made an ideal hall. The decorating was done mainly by Miss Williams, who completely altered the appearance f the room by means of varied types of vegetation. The only drawback of this room was that the roof leaked considerably when it rained, and, typical of an English summer, it did on the evening of the 20th, so we just had to do our best to steer our partners round the strategic parts of the floor.
I can only describe the refreshments as absolutely magnificent and highly professional. I believe the main organiser was Miss Johnston, who with a few helpers took over the School kitchen and spent most of Friday evening preparing the food. To tell the truth, I was rather annoyed that my partner did not wish to eat a reasonable amount of refreshments - statistical reasons I suppose.
Finally, on behalf of last year's Sixth Form, I would like to thank everybody who helped in any way with the organisation of the dance, and I am only sorry that they were too numerous to be mentioned by name. Geoff BROWN (U. VI)