It was sobering, though the wine and beer flowed freely. It was inimitably ACS. It was stirring, especially when we sang the ACS Anthem, full throat. I saw only one person with the printed-out lyrics in his hand; and he wasn’t looking at it.

To think that one year after the formation of Malaysia which we were part of, and one year before the existence of independent Singapore, we first met in Primary One at Barker Road, in 1964. Our teachers were Mrs Meng Im Retnam; Mrs Lucy Chong; Mrs Gladys Wee; and Mrs Chew Beng Kim.

And now, 55 years later, we have reconvened. Sixty-seven of us, including 10 friends from ACPS, and 10 coming just for this event — from USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and Malaysia. In the annals of Class reunions at ACS, is a Primary One Reunion unprecedented?

How did this gathering begin? Sometime July 2018, Wong Meng Cheong asked Tan Peng Chin, Iqbal Jumabhoy, Tan See Nin if they could identify the pixie-faced boys in the four ACJS Primary One photos, circulated on WhatsApp. Undoubtedly, Jeffrey Seah’s graphic tagging of names to faces in the photographs made our history! Many responded to the queries, and there were some astonishing champion identifiers amongst us, including Eng Poh Tzan, Heeren Chatterji, and Kevin Boon in Canada. The WhatsApp group grew to 86 members.

A gathering was mooted, an Organising Committee of 13 formed, driven by Meng Cheong, nicknamed Chief Bangla. Tan Gee Shan was Treasurer. We also plan a second Reunion event, further out in the calendar,for our overseas friends to make it back : 24 November 2019.

 And so, on the Ides of March, we gathered. The mists of time lifted, and 55 years older, we ate, drank, watched the wondrous video loop which Jeffrey Seah went beyond the bounds of duty to prepare, caught up and of course, once more with feeling, sang our ACS Anthem.

The Rev Leslie Quahe said grace, remembering our departed brothers — ten no longer with us, but not forgotten. Meng Cheong recognised a venerable list of us in public service. But for many of us, we were happy to recognise in our great ACJS Class of 1964, two admirable boys who embodied incontrovertibly our emblems of grand endeavour, both of whom coincidentally carry the initials TS.

Wong Ting Sern, aka Polar Bear, Mountaineer, has scaled many of the world’s tallest peaks, including being Base Camp doctor for the Singapore Everest Expedition. A Nat Geo-quality photographer, audio recording maestro, and working at IBM as an Expert grade technical specialist — the only Expert Grade in Singapore, Ting Sern is all these despite cerebral palsy since six months old.

The other TS, Tharman Shanmugaratnam is our Deputy Prime Minister. His achievements and stature make us proud. More so, to see that he was happy to be just another schoolmate, no more and certainly no less. Well done, boys!

Chew Kheng Chuan