The 50th Anniversary of the Thundergun Lunch Club took place in June 2017, with 47 guests, Old Boys and partners in attendance.
The Thundergun Lunch Club started in 1967 and has become known as a gathering where Old Boys not only come together to have lunch once a month, but where they can acknowledge and celebrate the bond and camaraderie that exists between them because of the love, pride, the memories of and the passion they have for their old school, which is so dear to all of us. That is of course Pretoria Boys High School.
Included below is an extract from the speech delivered by Derek Brown at this very special occasion
“It’s our Golden Anniversary, which is rather special as John Golden was one of the founding fathers of this group. It had a very modest beginning in 1967. The story has often been told of how John Golden and Boet Mentz, being neighbours here in Northcliff, one day discovered that they were both Old Boys of Pretoria Boys High School. They arranged to have lunch together one day. They each brought a friend with them. Boet took his cousin; Martin Mentz (an Old Boy) and John took one of his old School House mates, “Houtie” Woodhead, along.
Unfortunately, we don’t know much about “Houtie”, not even his real name and no one knows what became of him. But we do know a little about the others.
Boet, who incidentally has a real name which is Hendryk, is the only one of the four to survive to see this day and he and his good lady Norma are there today looking hale and hearty. Well done Boet and we thank you for starting and keeping this fine tradition alive. Martin’s wife Pat and John’s wife Val are also both here. It’s great to have you with us today to celebrate what John, Martin, Boet and “Houtie” started so many years ago.
According to some of John’s notes, which he passed on to me, the club was originally simply known as “The Old Boys Northcliff Luncheons” and met once a month at various venues in and around Northcliff. Over the years they gradually collected some more Old Boys. Then, in about 2004 they found out that The Thunder Gun offered a discount for pensioners on Tuesdays and since then this has become our home. Over time we’ve become known as The Thunder Gun Old Boys – a name obviously from the Wild West and probably not totally in keeping with Boys High but it does have quite a nice ring to it for a bunch of old men!”
If you are interested in joining the Thundergun Lunch Club, please contact Derek Brown at ddbrown@wol.co.za for more information.
