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Sunday, July 27, 2008

In Days of Yore

I heard our school Anthem had the same tune as the Canadian National Anthem but never checked it out until now to see if this was true. A google search found that the word phrasing appears similar, but the melody itself sounds different from a song called "The Maple Leaf Forever"

Anyone with additional insight into this matter would do us all a favor by sharing such knowledge.

April Fool's Day

The First Day of the month was when the school fees were collected and sent to the office.
One year, an announcement came in mid morning saying that no more coins would be accepted for school fees. It sounded pretty ugly. As a side note, the principal or vice-principal added "Poor Mr Anai has been counting 1c coins all morning".......

Why is this amusing? It is because this prank seems to appear not every year but through every generation of students. I only heard this once...... but the link to the ACS Class of 1979 website describes the same thing happening in 1977, and it sounds like they think the School Admin was surprised -- I doubt very much this was new to the teachers and principal/ vice-principal but it appears they good naturedly played along with this prank.........

check out this link to "Tall Stories" of Class of 1979

Forty Years On - from Wikipedia as of date of posting

Forty Years On (song)
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Forty Years On is a song written by Edward Ernest Bowen and John Farmer in 1872.
Forty Years On is a song about life at school and is meant to give pupils now an idea of what it will be like in forty years when they return to their old school, and to remind old boys about school life. It is the main school song of Harrow School, and is sung there at the end of any songs (this is an occasion when old boys of the school return to hear the schools songs being sung by current pupils, or an occasion within houses for singing the same songs at the end of each term), followed by Auld Lang Syne and the British National Anthem (God Save The Queen). Traditionally, verse three is sung by Old Harrovians in attendance at School Songs. The Churchill verse is only sung once a year at a special Churchill Songs. The penultimate Follow Up! in each chorus is sung unaccompanied by the School XII, which is made up of the best singers in the top year.
Contents[hide]
1 The Words:
2 The Starehe Boys' Centre and School Rendition
3 Parody
3.1 Other uses
//

[edit] The Words:
Forty years on, when afar and asunder
Parted are those who are singing today,
When you look back, and forgetfully wonder
What you were like in your work and your play,
Then, it may be, there will often come o’er you,
Glimpses of notes like the catch of a song –
Visions of boyhood shall float them before you,
Echoes of dreamland shall bear them along,
Follow up! Follow up! Follow up
Follow up! Follow up
Till the field ring again and again,
With the tramp of the twenty-two men.
Follow up! Follow up!
Routs and discomfitures, rushes and rallies,
Bases attempted, and rescued, and won,
Strife without anger and art without malice, –
How will it seem to you, forty years on?
Then, you will say, not a feverish minute
Strained the weak heart and the wavering knee,
Never the battle raged hottest, but in it.
Neither the last nor the faintest, were we!
Follow up! etc.
Oh the great days. in the distance enchanted,
Days of fresh air, in the rain and the sun,
How we rejoiced as we struggled and panted –
Hardly believable, forty years on!
How we discoursed of them, one with another,
Auguring triumph, or balancing fate,
Loved the ally with the heart of a brother,
Hated the foe with a playing at hate!
Follow up etc.
Forty years on, growing older and older,
Shorter in wind, as in memory long,
Feeble of foot, and rheumatic of shoulder,
What will it help you that once you were strong?
God give us bases to guard or beleaguer,
Games to play out, whether earnest or fun;
Fights for the fearless, and goals for the eager,
Twenty, and thirty, and forty years on!
Follow up etc.
Churchill Verse:
Blazoned in honour! For each generation
You kindled courage to stand and to stay;
You led our fathers to fight for the nation,
Called "Follow up" and yourself showed the way.
We who were born in the calm after thunder
Cherish our freedom to think and to do;
If in our turn we forgetfully wonder,
Yet we'll remember we owe it to you.
Follow up! etc.
The original Churchill verse, sung to him on 12th November 1954, was as follows:
Sixty years on--though in time growing older,
Younger at heart you return to the Hill:
You, who in days of defeat ever bolder,
Led us to Victory, serve Britain still.
Still there are bases to guard or beleaguer,
Still must the battle for Freedom be won:
Long may you fight, Sir, who fearless and eager
Look back to-day more than sixty years on

[edit] The Starehe Boys' Centre and School Rendition
FORTY YEARS ON (adapted from the famous song of Harrow School, written in 1872)
Forty years on, when afar and asunder,
Parted are those who are singing today,
When we look back and forgetfully wonder
What we were like in out work and our play:
Brotherhood strong and teachers devoted,
Assembly, Chapel, the House where we grew,
Posho, Githeri, the Founders' Day dinner,
Talks in Baraza, the friendship we knew.
Lenga Juu! Lenga Juu! Lenga Juu! Lenga Juu!
Lenga Juu! Lenga Juu!
Give honour again and again,
To Starehe where we became men,
Lenga Juu! Lenga Juu!
O the great days in the distance enchanted,
Hours in the classroom and hours in the field,
In games and athletics we struggled and panted,
Learning to strive hard and never to yield,
Scouting, exploring, those long expeditions,
Fighting of fires, swimming and First Aid,
Playing of music, debating and drama,
Voluntary service – our first steps we made.
Lenga Juu! Lenga Juu! Etc.
Forty years on growing older and older,
Shorter in wind as in memory long,
Feeble of foot and rheumatic of shoulder,
What will it help us that once we were strong?
God gives us duty for us to discharge it,
Problems to face, struggle with and overcome,
Service to render and glory to covet,
Twenty and thirty and forty years on!
Lenga Juu! Lenga Juu!

[edit] Parody
Forty years on, when in a bar down-under
Farting are those who are drinking today,
When you look fat, and regretfully wonder
What you were like when you weren’t overweight,
Then, it may be, there will often come o’er you,
Glimpses of notes like the ning nang song,
Visions of hunger shall waft then before you,
Echoes of Burger King shall bear them along,
Follow up! Follow up! Follow up
Follow up! Follow up
Till the fields ring again and again,
With the flatulence of the thirty true men
Follow up! Follow up!
Forty years on, growing older and older,
Longer in wind, as in memory short,
Feeble of foot, flattened by a boulder,
What will it help you that once you were strong?
God give us goal lines to guard or beleaguer,
Games to play out, with swords or a gun;
Fights for the dickheads, and trees for the beavers,
Twenty, and thirty, and forty years on!

[edit] Other uses
Forty Years On is the school song of the prestigious Napier Boys' High School in Napier, New Zealand. The "tramp of the twenty-two men" line is altered and instead is "the tramp of the thirty true men" - in reference to Rugby Union which is the national sport. The same is also true for Wellington College in Wellington, the capital of NZ. Hamilton Boys' High School in NZ has also used it with the "thirty true men" since the 1950's. Nelson College, in Nelson, New Zealand, sings the first verse (and chorus - with the reference to the "thirty true men") at Senior Prizegiving
As well as this it is also sung at Melbourne High School's Speech Night (Graduation Night). Only the first and last verses (excluding the Winston Churchill verse) are sung. Rather than the "tramp of the twenty-two men", Melbourne High School replaces the line with the "tramp of the thirty-six men" in reference to Australian rules football being the dominant football code in Victoria.
In the United Kingdom: the school song of Netherthorpe School Colyton Grammar School, Woodford County High School in Essex, Beverley Grammar School in East Yorkshire, Bolton School, Manchester Grammar School, High Storrs Grammar School, Sheffield, the now defunct Salford Grammar School and Harrow School's affiliated school, The John Lyon School.
In the United States: sung at the Cranbrook Kingswood School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan (excluding the Winston Churchill verse) at the commencement ceremony.
In Kenya it is sung on Founders' Day at Starehe Boys' Centre and School
In South Africa: at Pretoria Boys High School, Pretoria sung at all School Valedictions and assemblies at which Old Boys are present, with certain minor adaptions. 22 good men is substituted by 30 good men. It is sung in Forty Years On, a play by Alan Bennett. It also sung at Westville Boys High School, Durban, when the matrics have their last assembly and ring the bell before departing the school.
In Thailand: at Vajiravudh College which is a boarding school built by King Rama VI (King Vajiravudh) in 1911, the "tramp of twenty two men" became "The Might of Thirty Best Men" in refernece to the school's supremacy in Rugby. There is also lyric in Thai which is sung each year before the King of Thailand at the Graduation Ceremony.
In Hong Kong, the melody is used by Queen's College as its school song, with its lyrics written by Headmaster Mr. William Kay (1920). The school song of Heep Yunn School is also adapted from this song. But its lyrics is in Chinese, rather than English which Queen's College uses.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forty_Years_On_%28song%29"
Categories: 1872 songs British songs

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'sesaons' of games

· 'sesaons' of games during childhood
· making 'glass on strings' to do kite fighting
· a walk down Desker Rd and the side / back lanes where one could get a lay for $5.60...
· school canteen ( tuckshop ) : fried noodles, soup noobles, mee siam, laksa, Indian rojakall at 20cents per order
· for 50cents one gets curry chicken or beef rice...
· bottle of plain or flavoured Cold Storage milk for 20c...done on a weekly order basis thro the teachers...then we get a daily coupon...i remember selling them off - even at discount to get cash for other things...
· we come back from recess all sweaty from playing catching & 'police & thieves'... got so many shirts torn playing these games that my mum went to school to enquire what's wrong we me...fights ending up with cuts, bruises & black eyes...had to bullshit about 'accidents'...
· we were probably 10 or 11 years old then... and if you're stupid enof to want to steal from an indian ! well, we were up this rambutan tree, busily plucking & stuffing our mouths full...when she discovered us .. oh oh !she was waiting at the bottom of the tree cursing us in Tamil...waiting won't understand if vulgarities were used... and she had her moments whacking us with a rubber slipper when we slided down and made a hasty retreat... can't remember the details, there were at least 2 of us... so she didn't zero on juz one...we probably had a fair share in taking the beatings ! we took note to stay well away from that particular hut ever since... hahahaha !
· another time, outside some junction near Mckenzie Rd... i was rammed by a motorbike... it was in those days when the gangsters were not wiped out yet...the guy fell, got up yelling in hokkien vulgarities... the main point was " " knn aye ning peh mng si hor larng lai aye ah ! " ( fu jian ) literally, " !@#* your father here is not a good person ah ! "i was in my early teens and was quite shaken up... can't remember if he was full of tattoos or not...but he certainly behaved the part, even if he was acting ! luckily, Eric Fong's house was nearby...i had to go borrow a few bucks to placate this self-acclaimed gangster ! i think it was $5...nevermind that i was merely riding a bicycle AND that he ran into me on a motorbike ! bloody 'ell...i guess we know when to roll & when to fold !!! sheesh...dam ! but we live to fight another day... hahahaha those were the days my friend...
· hantam bola on that small patch of grassey slope in front of the clock tower...
· we used to target the 'barisan socialis' with extra venom : yourself, Seow Pong, Poh Huat, i think maybe Hei Pin & Hwei Yin ( i think ) becoz your mandarin was better than ours ! hahahaha !
· and directly under the tower clock - inside... we played football with a ball made from paper and rubber bands. the 2 goal posts were the 2 alcoves on each end of the hall - on the same side, beside the main entrance... it was actually, foot brawl... often ending with frayed tempers and fights - whether ' chi kek' or punch outs... double recess usually spelt double trouble... those were the Sec 1 & 2 days... hahahaha !
· bought some Hacks the other day from the asian grocer wholesaler there's the original black cough drop the chief competitor to which was Hudsons later came the honey lemon one in a white & yellow wrapper i bought both cough drops / lozenges or to us as kids, simply sweets during teenage days, we ate it to :
o refresh our taste after smoking, in order to smoke some more or
o to camouflage the smell of our smoking - probably fooling only ourselves..
a sweet in one's mouth does bring back memories... memories of childood & adolecence long gone by...
- marbles x 2- kah seng- layang- catapult- catchin fish- catchin spiders- kacheng- kuti kuti- pic cards- cycling- wrestling- football- badminton- basketball- eels- frogs- worms- coconuts- rambutans. mangoes, chikus, sugar cane, guava, jumboo, durians, mangosteens- fighting- temples / festivals / wayangs- evening classes- tuition- hikes, poaching at reservoirs- buah cherry guns- sling shots from vines- bird traps- pets- free range chicken / eggs- chicken slaughtering- mediums- 4-D, samsu, 12 nos