Willy And Saturday Night Movies

There are a few things that brightened up life in first form at least for me.

There was Willy Angawa. Deputy head of house Kirk and the only man I met who could inspire even a harassed rabble. He took a keen interest in everything and even noticed my interest in writing and publishing very early on in first form and encouraged me to pursue what he saw as a great talent. He would talk to us rabbles at length about the house spirit and how we should give our all to everything we did. It was not all talk because Willy was quite a character himself. Later I discovered that he was a key member of the legendary 1977 Eric Shirley rugby winning side where he thrived on taking on opposition that was more than two times his weight and much taller. He played wing forward. Willy was also the main brains behind our house play in 1978 a political satire (with a huge cast including yours truly who was part of the crowd) that swept the board in the inter-house
drama festival that year winning best play amongst other accolades.

It was whispered that Willy had missed being made head of house by a whisker. Over the years I went on to see many people in the same position who chose to “switch off” after they missed being made head of house or head of school, not Willy just like he was in the thick of every major move in the scrum he was also in the thick of everything that happened in Kirk. The real inspiration behind Kirk as a house, his influence was felt for many years after he left.

But it was NOT only inspiration that he imparted. There were times he dabbled in outright brainwashing. For instance he would get us to stand in a group as rabbles in Pree's comm and repeat for hours on end the simple line; “we shall not sneak because we are men.”

Still when all is said I owe Willy a lot including my great love for rugby and whatever leadership qualities I may have picked up. Hardly surprising that I later learnt that Willy is actually Welsh and you guys know that rugby is a religion in that country and not just a mere game.

Then there was Saturday night movies in the school hall. I have always loved movies even before I went to Lenana but at the school they took on a whole new meaning. For 90 minutes or so it was possible to escape (if it was a good movie) and forget all your troubles as a rabble and laugh or cry or get really excited with some characters on celluloid. It was something to look forward to the whole week. During my time they showed many great movies from horrors to the action genre covering golden oldies like the original James Bond 007. Whoever picked the movies knew what they were doing because we were very rarely bored.

Daniel Wilson Added;
Hey Chris, thanks for these retrospectives. Your memory is still good I can see. And well written too. RE: the movies, Saturday night was a night to look forward to (adding to the excitement the prospect of going home for a short but sweet visit the next day), and yes we did see some great movies. What was also amusing about Saturday nights was the number of students who risked their school careers by venturing into the school hall after a trip to 'across' or 'Dago'. The smell of Murat/Chum was a dead giveaway from those who couldn't contain themselves as the School Pre's patrolled the hall for miscreants/lawbreakers. Not to mention those that we found passed out on their beds when we returned to our dorms (who often also had deposited the contents of their stomachs all over the bathrooms). Speaking of horror movies, the most gripping movie I can remember was "The Omen", which scared the heck out of me and kept me up that Saturday night, wondering what the world was coming to. :)