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The Skeet Reunion Miles Saltiel writes :
On Sunday 12 September 2004 the UK Saltiels held a reunion at Skeet Hill House, the former summer camp for the Brady Boys—now the Bradians—offering sporting and other facilities to Jewish kids from the East End in the first two thirds of the twentieth century. Flic and I arrived half an hour or so early and took the chance to walk round the grounds: unpicked damsons and blackberries aplenty, as well as an excellently equipped adventure playground for kids, an indoor pool and the like. After grim forecasts, the weather turned out clear skies and a great relief.
Stanley Arundel is a former Bradian and on the board of trustees for Skeet; it was his idea to use it as a home for Saltiel occasion, as well as possibly for other activities. He and his new partner, Patricia née Saltiel de Lazard of Mexico City—their whirlwind romance the fruit of the Montpellier Reunion—had busied themselves to provide heaping platters of salmon, salt beef, turkey (with Patricia’s signature walnut sauce from Mexico), salads and sweets: sufficient as one of the delighted guests commented, to feed the five thousand.
In the event some fifty or so turned up from much of the southern part of the UK: we included Stanley himself, from Wembley Middx, together with Patricia from Mexico; Paul and Margot Best of Harrow, with news of—among others—Suzanne Best who has recently moved to Tasmania; Sarah and David and their lively children, Callum, Louis and Holly; Nicola and Gary Cox and their equally animated kids from Maidenhead; Lisa & Alfredo Crostemo, and their children from St Johns Wood in London; Maureen Firmin, from Islington in London; Deborah & Adolfo Giannini, and their children from Kenton, Middx; Sharon Golob from Islington, with news of her sister Roz who is recovering from an untimely stroke; Jacky and Chris O’Callaghan from Newhaven, Sussex (Jackie tells me she plans to fill in the details on Becky Cole); Ruth Rosenberg from Chigwell, Essex; myself and the missus, that is Miles and Felicity Saltiel from London; my travelling companions on our expedition to Brazil a couple of years ago, Thomas, Paula and Nicholas Saltiel from London SW12; Rosa & Lionel Shell from Tunbridge Wells, who brought greetings from Sam Berman, the last of his generation of the family, who has just celebrated his ninetieth birthday; and Brenda & Roger Storer, from Maidenhead, and Peter Ulrich from West Harrow, who brought his mother, who exchanged telephone reminiscences with mine of East End schooldays.
Our guests of honour were the President of the Shealtiel Association, Philippe Saltiel, and his wife, Beatrice. The two of them came over from France for the occasion which they attended with their old friend Peggy, who was putting them up a few miles away.
Many were kind enough to ask after my parents, Ralph and Della Saltiel, who sent their apologies; my mother is recovering from a recent knee operation and remains too frail to travel. Ruth also spoke kindly of the note she got from my father on the death of her own father and my pop’s childhood playmate, Ralph Davis. There were also apologies from my brother, Adam and his family, and my cousin, Elaine, as well as from all of us to Rosa and Lionel, who turned up just in time to watch the rest of us push off, after attending another ninetieth birthday party. (I guess that means it’s true what they say about the waters in Tunbridge!)
After the scoffing and browsing, and while the kids were making the most of the pool, half an hour of so of serious business. Stanley is a great proponent of the use of Skeet as a summer resort for kids and their minders, as a way of building up relations across the local and international family for the next generation. After an opportunity for opinions to be heard, we agreed that Stanley should put forward proposals with a view to trying for something next year.
Then I made a fool of myself by challenging Philippe to join me in the adventure playground. There I contrived to hurt myself in a very sensitive spot, while Philippe—as might be expected—conducted himself with athletic dignity throughout! On my return I overheard Ruth swapping anecdotes of aerial adventures with Deborah, who has recently joined BMI. Then, time to go, giving Maureen a lift home and just in time—as I mentioned above—to see Rosa and Lionel turn up. The SatNav did a fine job getting us to Skeet, but by heck it made heavy weather of the way back. I think we ended up reaching the M25 from below!