Year 1976 operates on a five- yearly reunion cycle, when quite mysteriously, like palolo worms reacting to a certain phase of the moon, and usually around November, a crowd of dentists converge on one of Bristol’s hotels. This time however, global disruptions caused by someone, somewhere dropping a bat in the soup, meant that we would normally have had to wait for a period of ten years to elapse in order to put our reunions back on track, or adapt somehow. We chose to adapt rather than face the extra costs of having name badges made for the next reunion. Change was necessary, so we chose September and quite logically, Wedmore. This rural village may not seem like the hub of the universe we usually choose but it is possibly the hub of traditional cider production in the South-West.
The venue, Compton House, was discovered by Carol Robinson who also organised everything for us, and the warm weather meant that we were able to sit outside in a rambling garden setting and enjoy locally produced homemade food. Our traditional series of talks with slides was abandoned and replaced by an informal chat session with talks limited to five minutes each. For this, we took our wine glasses with us indoors and sat around a huge mahogany table, much like 10 Downing Street. The talks started off with an introduction by Carol in which she mentioned the the empty seats, those of Reg Andlaw, Robin Matthews and Graham Charlton. A suitably reflective moment then followed with a piece of classical guitar music played for us by Roger Robinson.
Talks were varied and included news from Chris Stephens and Ken Marshall. Most of us had something to report and the general atmosphere was relaxed and convivial. It was clear that this interim reunion was a welcome change enjoyed by everyone. Who knows, perhaps Root ‘76 might be on the verge of changing its reunion habits, especially since our next scheduled reunion will mark our 50th year of dentistry.
Geoffrey van Beek
Photograph, Root 76 dentists and partners. Dentists back row from left to right: Ken Marshall, Chris Stephens, Paul; Baines, Niel Mc Donald, Derek Fieldhouse, Frank Wood, Hugh Devlin, Peter Duke, Carol Robinson, Phil Key, Roger Robinson. Dentists front row from left to right: Geoffrey van Beek, Raman Bedi, Caroline Baines, Jacky Thackeray, Jane Wood, Anne Muirhead, Louise Sowden ,Bertie Jukes, Claire Foster