R Carter [Heath 62–66]
I have just this day found the Heath Old Boys web site, and though not officially an Old Boy, I am an old boy who attended Heath from first to fourth forms departing in 1966 for Canada (just in time to escape the dreaded O Levels!).
My family emigrated in October 1966 and I have been in Canada ever since, returning to Halifax once in 1972 and again in the mid-nineties. I do declare my memories of Heath were a little shaken when I saw the black railings in the nineties but I will never forget my time spent under the brow of ‘King.’ I write mainly to see whether or not anyone remembers the grace that was said at the end of lunch, as I see that the grace on the site is (as I sometimes repeat at family Christmas dinners) just as I remember it. I shall attempt to reproduce the post-meal grace and beg forgiveness in advance as it has been more than fourty-five years since my ears were last blessed with any form of Latin verse. The following may be mainly phonetic but I trust it will suffice.
Pro his donis quibus fructi summus et omnia erga nos favori, laudatur et benedicatur sanctissimum dei nomen, in saeculo saeculorum, amen.
I can hear it as plain as day being read by my table head after we had pinched the card from the designated table and slipped it in front of him after a suitable silence had ensued after the scraping of chairs had subsided one lunch hour. I shall attempt to scan my school picture from the early sixties, which still hangs in my office, and forward it along.
I attended from 1962 to 1966, my older brother John Carter, from 1960 to 1966.
Now that I have the web site I shall certainly visit more often. I am planning a trip to London to visit my daughter and shall attempt to get my family up to Halifax. The town certainly looks a lot browner than I remember, it was almost all black when we left!
Sincerely,
R Carter