The author congratulates members of the Association of Teachers of Mathematics (ATM) on celebrating the 50th anniversary of their annual conference. These conferences have kept the spirit alive from the early years, especially the engagement in investigative, collaborative, and reasoning activities. In the 50th year as an association, the author shares how English initiatives influenced her as she developed a new curriculum. With the encouragement of Robert Burn, David Fielker, and Margaret Jones, she offers an insight into the experiences of a foreign guest entering the world of ATM and the wider mathematics community in the UK in the early 1970s.