Class of 1931
Snap on your ear muffs, we're going into a jam session .... scene: back room of a honky-tonk down an unknown (till now) tin pan alley .... of course, no baton cutting 1-2-3 through the smog, so consider that the big noise is now moving under its own power .... if you find no "music," well just remember that requires notes (of which we have just 3 to work on) and—if there was a melody faintly discernible, then it wouldn't be "jamming." Now as to why our jam doesn't follow the modern trend for swing, but instead sachets back and forth carrying a heavy load of polka .... that stumps your unpopular colum- nist. Enough of this fluff, been backstage long time anyway, and maybe there won't be enough noise coming out of the instruments to compensate for this much tuning- UP........
The one dominant note comes (appropriately) from Hanover .... lot of important sounds out of the old place the past month—Carnival, belated arrival of snow there, a sales brochure (descriptive booklet, I guess, is what it's called) that certainly gets Eleazar's message across in streamlined fashion to high and prep school men and would start 10-yr.old customers like ourselves down the matriculation line again if we still had our hair and illusions, some fine skiing manuals by Charlie Dudley, a "come on" picture advt. from Ford and Peggy Sayre, telling all about the Hanover Inn's new ski hut with dining table to match, plus map of Dartmouth in Winter .... yes, all of these, but '31 doesn't need to take a back seat .... for we have PARKER SOULE as assistant editor of the Hanover Gazette and I'm going to let him spell me off at the keyboard (his letter landed only yesterday): "1. JOHN GOODWILLIE was married to Betty Kellogg of Chicago on January 25, 1937. He is now in an investment house, having concluded his connection with his father's box company.
"2. Quoted from a letter from Goodwillie to STECK—'JACK WEISERT is doing greatthings in the piano business, and is atlast beginning to cash in on four years ofvery hard work. He and his little familyseem to be living a very quiet life, and Isee them only occasionally."
"G. 808 RYAN is rumored as being connected with the WPA in Chicago.
"4. Mr. and Mrs. BILL STECK of Cleve- land are 'infanticipating' in July according to Winter Washell.
"5. BILL VAN DUSEN is reported to be working in one of the Kresge Stores in Detroit, and according to the mode of tongue in cheek 'selling ribbons, no doubt.'
"6. STERLING APTHORP and SPENCE CRAM live around the corner from the Stecks.
"7. 808 LEE—Marse Robert to you, siris in New York working for a company owned by Bob Taylor '33. (Scribe Monagan, please note—this can't by copy- righted.) .... They manufacture a gadget used in printing. Bob hasn't changed much—still the shrinking-violet type.
"8. BEANY and Mrs. THORN were in Hanover over Carnival week-end.
"9. As for me, after a long year and a half of illness I'm in Hanover working on limited hours for the Gazette as associate editor. This opportunity came up at just the right time, and I took it in preference to going back directly to my old job with the Boston Herald, as it seems important that I go not too hard into the resumption of activities. Cf. a daily newspaper and a weekly—No indeed I am not exactly annoyed to be back in Hanover to live. Helen (yes, my wife) and I expect to be here for several months—maybe longer if I'm not fired
P.S. Most of this is gathered from a recent letter I had from STECK."
Parker, our thanks for your letter, our hat's off for your splendid recovery and— smooth going from here on out.
Now to break an old unwritten rule of this press—you know, about mixing up the names-in-the-news—Geo. Louis(ville) Stevens is the cause of it ... . you can't keep him out, with his marriage reported last month thought sure we'd have silence until proper time next year at least I hadn't reckoned with the oft-mysterious workings of Mother Nature, darned if she didn't pick out his adopted city for her most complete and gruesome display of flood power .... ergo, you'll have to listen to what Geo. has to say about Louis- ville's now-famous "bridge of berps"—
"On my one trip downtown—which was made in order to get the law school building cleared out so federal troops could use it—l went across the famous pontoon bridge from the foot of the Highlands to the high spot in downtown L'ville. That bridge, built out of 2 by 4's and whiskey barrels, surely was a sight worth seeing. It was moored to the top of telephone poles to keep it from being carried away by the flood waters. Over 49,000 people crossed this bridge to the safety of the Highlands. Walking across the bridge, looking over the tops of buildings, down streets covered ten feet deep by rapidly flowing- waters, watching motor boats tearing along, handing out food to people sitting in second-story windows. It looked more like a dream—or perhaps a bit of Venice- than anything one could imagine.
"On my way back up town I crossed the bridge with JOE GATHRIGHT—Joe had been working for 24 hours, helping remove refugees via boat—and he looked plenty tired. Later Joe went back down to the City Hall and was one of Mayor Miller's right-hand men, day and night, during the rest of the emergency period. There's a classmate we can be proud of. JOE and I were both thinking at one time or another of the White River flood of our freshman year. I remember pitching hay out of barns, removing dead cows, etc.—well, fortunately, they have plenty of husky laborers to do that now. Not just old age, but lack of violent physical exercise for the last eight years kind of makes that sort of work a bit hard on the office man. Afraid you have something in that last point, Geo.—l wouldn't admit it myself until last fall when our boarding house gang thought three hours of touch football on a 100-yd. field would be duck soup.
"The postman is ringing twice (oftener on Sunday A.M.'s) at some new '31 dresses—our oilmen, particularly, seem to be on the move: BILL LYONS' home now IS at 120 Jefferson Ave., Woodlyn, Pa., but work sings on pleasantly at Sunoco s Marcus Hook 'teapot' .... for JOHN CHAMBERLIN it's not the Blue Arrow but the Flying Red Horse of Socony-Vacuum that he rides around Philadelphia
SHORTY BURR is cagey, just marks his card "Petroleum Sales, 923 Church St., Evanston, Ill," keeps his studs and collars at 7362 N. Hoyne Ave., Chicago .... that brings us right up against BILL ALTON'S note from Manhattan, written on Hotel Roosevelt stationery, telling us his new res. is at 46 Wright St., Westport, Conn.— they say Bill would have to "dry" out for a month now to make the 145 lb. limit; Bill says: "I have just returned East andhave started with Socony-Vacuum here inNew York—in the marketing end, yourbranch of the oil business, isn't it? (Ed. note: right.) Seems nice to get back to therush of the big city, except that 1 can nothelp feeling like a cliff dweller after thewide-open spaces of Texas." Bill has spent most of his years since college prospecting, roughnecking, geophysicking, drilling, fishing (for lost drills, mostly) etc., all through the Mid-continent and Texas fields.
On Friday, the fifteenth of January, Miss Mary Nicholson became Mrs. CHARLES AUGUSTUS BRIGGS—oI' Kaintuck finally taking the big jump with his eyes open in New York City, so now his work as counsel will include matrimony as well as investments NICK ROGERS has been made production manager of the Polaroid Corp. in Boston SAM DOTY keeps us in the dark about his work, but his new home address is 817 Lawrence Ave., Chicago—I wonder if that mark's still on the fireplace at old Choate House? (give you a clue, S. S., it was during one of Lew Stilwell's Cit. sessions) .... you can all make up your own gag line to fit under this announcement: "Dr. Perry S. Boynton Jr.,attending physician at Sloane Hospital forWomen, 620 W. 168th St., New York City."
. . . and, by the way, TED HARMS' law office since December has been in Keeseville, N. Y ......THAD SMITH'S mentioned last fall is at 10 Post Office Square, Boston, firm name Elliott and Smith.
STEW ROSE'S stop-over in Pittsburgh first of this month left me red-eyed and tonguetired—we went at it from 6 to 3 and needed help from only a few scotch-and-sodas. No doubt most of you know Stew has been doing a bang-up job putting over Loudon Packing Co.'s various sales campaigns— since last canning season he's been concentrating quite successfully on Tomato Juice in a new package. At this pt. all you —love-children probably need a glass.
Secretary, 6201 Fifth Ave., Pittsburgh, Pa
