Teeny

Posting this in 2018, 53 odd years after the event, I can't be 100% sure of all the detail. So there may be the odd mistake in my recollection.

This rather over the top looking scene was not the annual gathering of the Beach Camp Junior President's Club. It was almost certainly a unique birthday party for Andrew Bushe and his 13th birthday.

Andrew along with Ian Porter were the oldest boys in our circle and thus the first one to reach teenage status. For this milestone, we were treated to a dinner at their house and of course had to dress up for the event in proper English style and with appropriate dinner table setting. Out with the silverware and ivory boned cutlery.

I am pretty sure it was the Bushe's do as Andrew is sitting at the head and his younger brother, David at the foot. From the looks of the windows, it was one of the new modern concrete houses and they lived in one. In the background, my father filling up his plate with food and thus the parents were clearly also invited and were probably sitting at an improvised table or eating from trays.

This pompous colonial bit was not the norm for us children, nor for the adults, except on very special days, in fact, all I can think of were Christmas and New Year.

In terms of "racial" upbringing, I cannot recall a single event where any of the adults ever overtly displayed any sign of white racial superiority. The only time I got beaten by my father was when about age 7, I used the "N" word in some context at home. My father a very gentle person, scooped me up, put me over his knee and whacked me on the backside. I don't think there was any real pain but incredible shock. Even then I realised that for my father to take such measures, meant you didn't even joke about such things.

The two Porter brothers were to go on to be involved in working in "third world" countries, John a professor at London School of Tropical Medicine and a champion of universal health coverage. Ian has now retired from the World Bank having spent many years in Africa and Asia helping countries to get their economies on track.

The only other face I can recognise is Charles (?) Gibson.

Top left photo, left to right:
Andrew drinking, me with puffed cheeks, John (my best man in 1977)

Bottom right photo, left to right:
Me with the shorn hair, David, Charles, Ian

There are two missing faces and I can only recount two names of boys of our age - Jeremy de Nobriga and Graham Barber. 

I have put the map pin on the Bushe's house