I lived in Singapore for a few years when I was younger, 1972-1974. I was there for my freshman year of high school.
We were a population of fairly transient ex-pats. Most did not stay in Singapore more than a year or two then there were others whose families made Singapore their home. Our dads worked in one of the following fields; oil, military, embassy, missionaries and the early days of computers with IBM. Some of the kids such as myself and my brother had lived in other countries, we lived in Mexico City for almost 3 years.
Due to the transient nature and people losing contact with each other we don't have class reunions like most schools do we have school reunions. They are held all over the world with the popular ones being Houston, Texas, Las Vegas and Florida.
Many of us for whatever reason have never been able to make it to these reunions and a few months ago I noticed that there were actually quite a few of us SASer's in the Midwest... the wheels got to turning and this past weekend we held our first Midwest Singapore American School Reunion.
Friday night we met at my house for satay, fried mee hoon, spring rolls and Tiger beer. Retired music teacher Mr. David Boyd brought some amazing slides from back in the days when Ulu Pandan school was newly built, sites that we all remembered including Holland Village. We poured over yearbooks and photographs as our spouses sat back and listened to what must have seemed like some pretty strange tales of our Interim Semester trips, chi chats crawling on the walls, drinking soda pop from plastic bags and our crazy antics at the American Club.
The following evening we once again met for dinner and the memories continued to flow. Including the introduction of American football to the area by a group of oilmen/dads, the junk boat rides to deserted islands for an afternoon with family and friends.... if the boat made it all the way to the island that is. All of the rules we thought were so crazy at the time such as no gum chewing. Riding the rickety old buses all over the island and the food.... oh that wonderful food from the stalls and the bicycle street vendors.
The funny thing about it was that even though none of us hung out together in school and years separated us as to when we attended SAS, we came together those two evenings as if we had known each other for years. I think it is because we have this common bond of sharing such an amazing experience in a foreign land, something that most people can only dream of.
We were small in numbers these two nights but big in memories and kinship.
For any SAS alumni who read this, we are already planning on another Midwest SAS reunion in 2010 around the same time, the middle of June. So please mark your calendar now and plan on attending. I will try to get some Anchor beer for the next one.... Tiger beer tastes pretty good though.
As a teenager I did not really see how exotic and amazing this beautiful part of Southeast Asia is but I am so glad that I now have another opportunity to forge friendships that will last a lifetime all because of this wonderful place.
As soon as I get the photos I will post a link to them.
No comments:
Post a Comment