Class of 1931
"What no column for April?" Afraid I am up there with two strikes on me trying to answer that one, but I still have that big one (?) left. I regret that it was necessary to give April the go-by in this MAGAZINE of ours—regret it probably more than anyone else does—but as lowa's pride and joy Bob Feller is reminding the boys, "You can't steal first." I just didn't have enough news to lift up a high foul. In other words, what we had in the mail bag just meant one long string of goose eggs on the score board, and I didn't think you fellows would want such a showing chalked up against '31 any month in the season.
I guess all of you know my feeling for baseball—the spring air and dope from the Grape Fruit League only makes it worse. Imagine it is nice for all of you to come home from swivel chairs and pavement pounding and read that our representative in the big time, RED ROLFE, is doing so well in spring training. His .386 average for the Yankees' first eleven games down in Florida shows he is not going to be on a sit-down strike against the horsehide this year either The fellow he used to toss coins with for the upper berth on trips in '30-'31, LAURI MYLLYKANGAS, will again hurl for Montreal this year. Box scores show he has been effective in the four or five innings assigned him in the early spring exhibitions Can't help recalling that windy early April afternoon down in Lexington, Va., when MYLLY went out on the mound against V. M. I. about the third or fourth inning to work the kinks out of his arm for the first time in 1931—as you may remember it took only seven pitches to strike out the first two batters to face him, and then in attempting to whiff the entire side he started a midseason curve (so we thought), thereby straining his arm A clot formed on his elbow and proved brutally expensive, not only to our chances for a pennant in MYLLY'S last college season, but postponed by several years his appearance on the main firing line in professional ball. Know MYLLY doesn't want sympathy, but just a crack at the big leagues. I am sure all of us hope that the coming season under Rabbit Maranville in Montreal brings MYLLY that opportunity. Finishing up on the diamond, we hear that TOM EAGAN, one time peppery third sacker, is now showing the boys at New Hampton School (N. H.) how to tag base runners even when they come in with spikes flying a la BARBER (still the grunt-and-groan artist—only now he is getting paid for it by wrestling promoters).
Another of our crew that has broken into print recently is REX FALL—it is in the April Esquire, titled "In the Goat Room." .... REX, or that is Kingsley, knocks fraternities right out of the lot in his article—only hope most of you read it. Even the Phi Psi's, now that they have had nearly six years to put campus essentials in the proper focus, should enjoy most of it. For those that were looking at the cartoons over somebody's shoulders and might not find that issue handy, here is the autobiography about REX that was carried in "Backstage with Esquire" that month.
"I attended Dartmouth College where itwas not said that I showed literary promise, and was graduated in 1931 in the midstof the late depression, which proved ofincalculable value to my golf. The pastfour years have been spent on the Berkshire Evening Eagle in Pittsfteld, Mass., collecting news, a wife (very nice), fairly regularnews, and rejection slips."
Superfluous to say we are mighty glad to see REX join ABNER DEAN in Esquire.
From DAVE LARRABEE on the stationery of the Aldridge Hotel, McAlester, Okla.:
"Just a line to inform you and any JohnLaws who might be interested in mywhereabouts that I have left my position asassistant dean of men at the University ofIllinois to accept geological field work withthe Shell Petroleum Corporation. Will bein McAlester for at least six months, doingsome work in this general region. Thecountry is rolling-to-rough, interesting, barren except for heavily wooded ridges,sandy as hell, and dust storms are common—come down and comb some of it out ofyour teeth and eyes each night! Please givemy best to any of the gang whom you contact."
You scarcely could have made any bigger change in your type of work, DAVE—hope you find oil and like it. For a change of life that cinches our Pulitzer prize for this year.
E. T. MECUTCHEN sends in this thumbnail sketch of himself from 4916 North Mervine St., Philadelphia, Pa. (Telephone Michigan 0985):
"Occupation: secretary and clerk in thePhiladelphia Laboratory of the Philadelphia Plant of the Du Pont Fabrics & Finishes Division, 3500 Grays Ferry Road,Philadelphia.
"Marital Status: still have my fingerscrossed.
"Avocations: bridge, tennis, some golf,bowling, studying chemistry, (?)
"Alumni contacts: JIM FRAME, who triesto sell me insurance, PETE EVANS, who alsoworks in the Lab., and that's about all.
"And as I change jobs about once a year,my lack of vacations keeps me from doingmuch traveling, let alone visiting Hanover.However, still hope to get up after the newAlpha Sigma Phi house is built."
And now thanks to Ken Hill, secretary of class of '25, we learn of PAN KENT'S engagement to Miss Olga Helen Harris of North Andover, Mass. The clipping which appeared in the Boston Herald last week in March advises that PAN'S bride-to-be attended the Garrison Forest School in Baltimore and La Marjolaine School in Geneva, Switzerland. As you probably know, KENT went on through Harvard Business School, and up to the present time receives his mail somewhere in Newton, Mass. Right below this announcement in the same paper was recorded the engagement of BILL BATES to Miss Eleanor P. Blaney at a tea given by the bride's parents Mr. and Mrs. J. Edwin Blaney of Salem, Mass. We note that this will be another Smith-Dartmouth union, Eleanor's year having been 1933; then she continued her studies in Spain at the University of Madrid and the Centro de Estudios Historicos and the Peers School in Santander, Spain. The nuptials are scheduled for summer.
More jumping off the deep end: 808 BARKER .... again Smith College is favored, the date February 6, the girl Athalia Stearns Ogden, the site Elizabeth, N. J.—they are now at 15 Shaler Lane, Cambridge, Mass., where 808 is practicing medicine Then on Saturday morning, March 13, at the Little Church around the Corner, Vic ROCKHILL was married to Miss Elsie Wells of St. Albans. The announcement said that they left immediately after the ceremony for a trip through northern New York state and Canada, to which Vic added a postcript in his own inimitable handwriting stating that Hanover, Pinkham Notch, and Montreal were high spots of the trip, with skiing and skating among the diversions Vic has been doing right well with the Chase Bank ever since graduation (Statistical Department in the head office), and was for a while keeping up his hockey with the St. Nicholas team. Says he has given up the ice at nights now for 283 Highland Ave., Jamaica, N. Y.
Can't report any male additions to our growing family, but we do have two charming baby daughters since we last went to press—the first, Susan Elizabeth, was born February 24 to Mr. and Mrs. MORTON A. KLEIN JR Then March 15 brought a blessed adventure to Mr. and Mrs. SHERWOOD GUERNSEY of Schoharie, N. Y., in the person of little Carolyn Ainsworth.
I have the date of May 7 and 8 circled on the calendar—that's when the annual secretaries' meeting is to be held this year in Hanover—have my fingers crossed and hope to have my work here in shape to make the trip .... if it's not to be, I will see that someone is there representing us and giving us a report for the June column.
Secretary, 6201 Fifth Ave., Pittsburgh, Pa
