A Steve Hillel Special
Steve was a friend from Minchenden Grammar School. I think he was in the party on at least one occasion, when we went to see some of the latest bands at the Regal Edmonton. I can remember seeing The Rolling Stones, The Animals, The Nashville Teens, Chuck Berry, Adam Faith and Joe Brown in a long gone venue, that is now a supermarket. He may have actually got the tickets, but it is now nearly fifty years ago.
But Steve’s other claim to fame, was that he was a rather eccentric right back in the school football team, with a penchant for scoring own goals.
Ipswich’s first goal today was one that was straight out of his manual. Sorry Steve, if you read this, but Adam Matthews’ own goal was one of the most spectacular I’ve seen. His header never gave the goalkeeper any chance.
The Anonymous Widower 
dum dum de dum de dum de dum dum dum – oy
As Michael Caine might say “not many people know that”. If Miss Amiot is still alive she must be 105!
Comment by John Wright | September 19, 2010 |
Sadly, Miss Amiot died of breast cancer some years ago!
Comment by AnonW | September 19, 2010 |
Randomly decided to Google Minchenden Grammar School in a bored moment and stumbled upon your blog! Must have been there at the same time as you. I don’t think I appreciated at the time what a good education I was getting. It only became apparent when I had a daughter of my own and was appalled at the standard of education being dished out at the local school. In fact she dropped out and was home educated. Didn’t stop her getting into uni though!
Comment by Carole Graham (nee Willis) | February 11, 2011 |
I would have been known as Graham Miller then. My year included such as David Dell, John Sissons and Peter Kellner.
One of my sons dropped out too. He’s now ne of London’s top lawyers in his field. Minchenden was a good but slightly unusual school. For instance, in my year, there seem to have only been a handful of divorces. I put that down to the school.
Comment by AnonW | February 12, 2011 |
Yes, you were in the same year. I remember John Sissons name – seem to remember he was one of the boys that all the pretty girls fancied on the quiet! Trying to remember some more of the boys – Martin Rose, Dave Parry, Alan Newark (he was brilliant at art from what I remember). Girls I was friendly with included Jennifer Crosby, Pat Rea, Susan Rawlinson, & Rosalind Bevan (bit of a music prodigy). I will always remember a girl called Stephanie Smolins – incredibly bright and talented but a walking disaster zone! She used to sit a couple of places up from me in the long line of desks they used to put in the hall in exam times. I will always remember her, crawling on her hands and knees in the aisle, trying to retrieve an orange in the middle of an exam!
Comment by Carole Graham (nee Willis) | February 12, 2011 |
Stephanie Smolins was in the year above me. One year I stumbled into a discussion of her part in the school play. Her hair had a mind of its own, and the English mistress (Miss Redman?) told her not to touch it before the play, because her character needed to look sluttish. Stephanie ran straight out to the hairdressers, where she got herself a gleaming, sleek urchin cut.
Did Rosalind Bevan have soft, auburn hair, and play the saxophone? She came to our music lesson (the year below), and played something fairly spiky. At a time when most of us couldn’t think beyond recorder and piano, it was a breath of fresh air. And Miss Amiot accompanied her.
Comment by Lesley Silver (was Davis) | September 26, 2015 |
I only remember Stephanie as someone in the class, although we did once had an amazing party on the lawn of her parents’ house.
The funniest thing I remember in an exam, was when a bra strap broke on the girl in front, It’s funny, but that never seems to happen these days! I suppose the fabric is so much better.
I don’t remember anything of Rosalind Bevan’s musical talent. I think partly, it was because I wasn’t friendly with many of the girls as I was very shy. In those days, I wasn’t a man, the girls fancied either.
But I did sustain a marriage for nearly forty years, so I must have something.
It was Miss Redman.
Comment by AnonW | September 26, 2015
I must be a contemporary of you guys but in a parallel history. I was musing the other day about class mates in Hazelwood Lane Junior School (Palmers Green) waay back in the ’50s and the name Stephanie Smolins emerged from the Stygian gloom between my ears. Inevitably my next port of call was the laptop but all that emerged was your blog and a page of lost alumni from Birmingham uni. (BA English 1968). I’m afraid I can’t add much other than to say I recall an interesting but idiosyncratic girl sipping water from the leaves of a hedge after a rainstorm and declaring it to be delicious!! Now whatever happened to………….
Comment by Warwick de Winter | April 23, 2016 |